Evie at 18 Months

It's hard to believe, but Evie is truly 18 months old!  This cute little doll face continues to bring so much happiness to our home.  She lights up our lives and it's a delight to watch her learn and grow.

I'll give you a little taste of our Evie girl.  What is she doing now?

• She's talking really well.  Just this past week she said a full sentence ("I see a moon.") and she's constantly picking up new phrases.  I stopped recording her new words because she'll pretty much attempt any word you ask her to try.  (She says phrases like, "Where is she/he/it?" and "There she/he/it is." and "Ready, Set, Go!" and more.)  
• Along with talking, she's starting to "read" her own books now.  She'll sit down with a book all by herself and flip the pages while she "reads."  She's usually saying gibberish phrases, but it's cute and very entertaining.  If there's a page where she can count objects, she'll stop to truly count them.
• With help, she can count to ten.  Without help, she'll say, "1, 2, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10."  We constantly count things at our house (blocks, toys, crackers, balls, etc.).
• She knows her A, B, C's.  For further clarification, she knows the A, B, C song and will fill in the holes as we sing it together.  She's particularly strong at saying the G, P, V, Z.  She'll also try to sing in the other letters, but the song still goes a little fast for her to catch it all.
• Along with the counting and A, B, C's, I should note that she knows the differences between numbers and letters when she sees them in written form.  I figured this out when she looked at her bottle one morning, saw the numbers on it, and then started counting while pointing at the numbers.  She also brings me grown-up books (books without pictures) and points to the pages filled with words and says, "A, B, C's."  
• She's starting to sing along to songs.  Most move too fast for her to sing every word, but she'll sing the last word in a phrase or a word that might be prominent in the song.  
• She says, "Num, Num" for anything that smells good or tastes good.  She'll also say it if she wants something to eat.
• She loves to say, "Ready, Set, Go!" And take off running.  While she is running she will say, "run, run, run."  (Needless to say, she wears us out in the process.)
• She jumps by only raising one leg off the ground (more like a front leg kick).  If I ask her to jump, this is what she'll do and she'll also say, "jump" while she does it.  
• She's mastered the stairs!  Yay!  Her mommy and daddy still get a little nervous while she plays on them, but she seems to have them down.  She absolutely loves going up and down any set of stairs.
• She loves to dip stuff.  She'll dip fries, bread, or anything that can possibly be dipped into ketchup, fry sauce, salad dressing, etc.  Usually when she dips stuff she'll lick the dip off of her item and then re-dip.  So, if you ever eat with this kid and have dip-like stuff around, you better be okay with double/triple dipping or give her her own dip.  :)
• She started going to nursery at church and loves it.  She loves playing with other children and having new toys to explore seems to be pretty exciting.
• She LOVES Shrek!  My, oh my!  She asks to watch "Shrek" daily!  I don't know what it is about that big, green, ogre, but Evie is completely smitten by him.  Her second favorite movie is, "Toy Story."  She also loves Elmo.  
• She still loves to play outside, play with Codee, be with the animals, and collect eggs.
• She's becoming more and more independent and WANTS to be independent.  She likes to try to do things herself.  
• She loves to climb.  She'll try to climb just about anything.  And, I must admit that she's rather good at it too!
• She just started throwing tantrums.  When she doesn't get what she wants, she'll lay right down on the floor and cry.  These tantrums can be brought on from us not letting her watch Shrek, not wanting her diaper changed, or just not being able to find the book she wants to read right at that moment.  This being said, her tantrums are few-and-far between and happen most when she's tired.  She's a fun, sweet girlie 90% of the time.  We only have our 10% moments from time-to-time, and luckily she bounces back fast.
• She's starting to hate being in the car.  She hates getting buckled in her car seat and doesn't seem to last long in the car anymore.  Thus, I know my limit with her is about two stops and then I'm just pushing my luck.  I really have to plan my errands out effectively now so that I can avoid a disgruntled toddler in my back seat.  I'm hoping this gets better when she reaches her second birthday and we can turn her car seat around and she can be forward facing.  Until then, we try to be super effective and super entertaining while going anywhere in the car. 
• She gives the best hugs and kisses.  (All of these hugs and kisses make up for all of those tantrums . . . and then some!)
• "Oh No!" is one of our favorite sayings of hers.  

While sometimes I wish she would just stay little forever and I have my moments when I look at her and wonder where  my chubby, round-faced baby went . . . I am still soooo happy with the here-and-now and look forward to every stinkin' day with this beautiful girlie.  I love being a stay-at-home mommy. Winnie the Pooh said, "Any day spent with you is my favorite day.  So, today is my new favorite day!"  This is how I feel every. single. day as I get to be with my Evie doll.

Aloha From the Hukilau

My parents have a timeshare in Hawaii on the island of Oahu where they get two weeks out of every year to stay in a beach house (called the Hukilau).  They tell us that we are always welcome to come stay with them, all we have to do is get ourselves there.  We don't go every year, but we decided to go this year because Evie's airplane ticket was free (since she's still under two years of age).

We just home from Paradise and can report that we had a great time overall.  We did plenty of relaxing with a little sight seeing.   (And, FYI . . . lots of pictures and a long post!  I couldn't decide what pics to share and not share, so there's lots!)

First off, it was Evie's first "big" vacation where we flew on an airplane.  We woke up kind of early, but she seemed excited to be hitting the road because it was obvious that we were doing something new and different.  Beau and I were a bit nervous about how the long trip was going to go down as we held this darling baby on our laps the whole way.  And. . . . we got off to a rough start.  Evie peed right through her diaper as soon as we got through security.  So, I took her to the bathroom to clean her up and Beau held her while I took care of her clothes.  We got some awesome stares while we had a semi-naked baby in the airport for a couple of minutes, but we also couldn't help but find the humor in it.

We got a onsie back on her and Beau
walked her to our gate.  So cute!

Regardless of our rough start, I am happy to report that Evie was the best trooper through our 14-hour trip.  Yep!  14-hours!  We totally got delayed, sat on the airplane for over an hour while we waited to take off, and because of that we missed our connecting flight to Honolulu.  It took some work to get us all on another flight that same day, but we eventually did (it was a miracle and took over two hours to do so).  We were completely frustrated and tired, but Evie just loved the adventure.  She loved flying and did incredibly well on the flights!  As usual, everyone around us LOVED her and couldn't believe how well she behaved.

She loved looking out the window.
She also loved when the plane
went fast as it took off.  

Grandma & Grandpa had fun
playing with Evie too.

We finally made it to Hawaii, got some rest and started our adventures.  Here's a quick round-up of our sight-seeing adventures while we were there.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC).  We thought Evie
would like this place, but turns out she didn't.  All she wanted to do was
chase the birds and ducks, swim in the river, and ride the boat (canoe).  Here
we are riding the "boat," but right before this she had a small meltdown
because we had to wait in line to get on the boat.  She wanted to get on
the boat right that second and was not happy that we had to wait in line.
Once we got on the boat, she was fine and this was the most pleasant
part of our time at the PCC.  Needless to say, we didn't stay long and we
cut our day VERY short.  

We stopped to see a giant turtle that had crawled up on the shore.
We learned quite a bit about this turtle and Evie loved looking at it.

We went to the Dole Plantation.

We mostly went there to enjoy the famous Dole Whip.
I only bought one for the three of us to share, but they are
so good that we just had to get one more on our way out.

Beau and Evie rode the "Pineapple Express" while we were there.
It's mostly an educational ride, but we thought Evie would love
being on a train.  She did love being on the train, but the 25 minutes
was a little long for her and she started to run out of steam towards the end.

We stopped to see some Banyan Trees.  Banyans
are characterized by their roots which grow into
thick woody trunks and with age, become
indistinguishable from the main trunk.  Here you
can see all those roots.  BTW - some of the
episodes of "Lost" were filmed here.

We made sure to stop and have the best shave ice from Matsumoto's!

We all loved the stuff, and Evie loved it so much she wouldn't even look up for a picture.

Well, maybe she would look up for one picture.  

We visited the Laie Temple.

We stopped at a Macadamia Nut Farm where we were able
to break open the nuts ourselves.

We also went to a really nice restaurant called Haleiwa Joe's
where they have beautiful gardens down below the actual
restaurant.  We are down below in the picture and you
can see the restaurant up high.  We sat at a table right on
the deck you can see up there.

I wish I could report and tell you that our dining experience at Haleiwa Joe's was awesome, but right after this picture was snapped, Evie started crying.  She struggled throughout dinner and then broke out in a fever that night.  She fevered for a couple of days and then her two bottom eye teeth poked through the gums.  She was back to normal after that, but we had a couple of rough days.

Beau and I felt so bad for this baby girl!  We would take turns cuddling her and feeding her ice and popsicles.  We were so happy that we were staying in a house and not a hotel.  Man, teething is the worst!  She's almost got them all now, so we should be over that hump.

More family eventually showed up to the Hukilau house and we played a lot with with the cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Here are some fun extended family shots.

Evie & Ethan playing on the iPad together.

Katie and Evie.  Katie is 1 year older than Evie Doll.

All the grandkids that made it to Hawaii. 

There was plenty of boogie-boarding fun to be had.

This was the family hanging out in the main room.  This was right
before we played our Swap Meet White Elephant game.

Ethan and Evie.

Several of the kids playing in the sand on the beach.

Oakley, Tim, and Sam

Mom and Dad chillin'.  Mom, Dad, Jeff, Beau, and myself
all read the Elizabeth Smart book on this trip.

Tyler and Jill's cute family just bobbing in the ocean.

Mom and dad out reading in the sun.

More boogie-boarding from Jax, Maddie, and Sam.

We also celebrated Halloween while we were in Hawaii this year!  All the kids brought their costumes for some Halloween fun, we went to a trunk-or-treat, and mom made us all chili and treat bags.

Evie was a little hula baby.  :)

Here are all the cousins in their costumes.  If you want to
know what a teething baby who is forced to take a picture
looks like . . . well, just look close at Evie.  She's SO
very pleased with being forced to get her picture taken.
Poor baby!

Here we are at the trunk-or-treat.  The Laie temple
is in the background.  It was quite the setting.
FAR from spooky.

Besides our teething days, we spent almost all of our time outside playing.  We loved the weather and the sunshine.  Here are some pics from just our little family while playing in the sun.

There was plenty of beach time.

Evie wasn't really a fan of the waves.  She's always loved
water and swimming, but the waves added a new
dimension that she was a little unsure about.

These two played so well together on the beach.

Evie has always, since she was a newborn, hated her hands
to be dirty.  So, the sand wasn't super awesome to her.
She loved running and walking in it, but she didn't love
sitting down and playing in it with her hands.  However,
if Beau would build stuff up for her, she would happily move
the sand around with the toy in her hand.
(The house we stayed in can be seen in the background.)

We had fun boogie-boarding.
Here's a shot of Beau catching a wave.

We took Evie out a ways in the water to "bob" with us.
Again,The waves left her a little uncomfortable
and we only lasted a few minutes.

Evie and I watched daddy boogie-board while
we sat on our own boogie board.

We gladly set up a kiddie pool in the backyard for Evie
to "swim" in during the days.  She liked this MUCH
more than the actual ocean.

During one of Evie's naps, Beau and I tried our
hand at kayaking.  

Unfortunately, we are TRUE rookies because
we only lasted about 10 minutes before
we had complications (we kind of started
to sink) and had to rush back to shore.  LOL!

This is the front yard of the house and Evie
loved to go out and run, run, run! 

That about sums up our trip!  We are happy to be home, but treasured the quality time we had to share with each other on this beautiful trip!