Pumpkin Patch

I love my little pumpkin face!

uhhh stupid blogspot... please help!

I'm getting so frustrated with blogspot! I have a great preview page of how I want my post to look like when published, and as soon as I hit 'publish post' everything is thrown into disarray... can anyone help or suggest another free blogging site?

Slacker... again...

This is getting bad... this is now the second month that I've not routinely updated the cyberworld with something interesting/relevant... Why have I been slacking; I don't really know. I've been telling myself it's because we have been so busy that I haven't had time to actually sit down and write about everything that has been going on, but let's be serious, it's because I have an 11 month old who consumes my everything!

Here is a picture of the three of us departing from Richmond to Chicago. Malia was a champ on all of our flights. She really enjoyed ripping out pages from the Skymall magazine... sorry United!

Gig Harbor/Seattle, WASHINGTON

So, in the past month, we have gone cross country! The end of September, Keoni, Malia and I travelled to the West Coast. My brother Jack and his wife Julie moved out to Gig Harbor, WA in April. Gig Harbor is a beautiful place to live, and Jack and Julie did a great job showing us around town. Everything is in walking distance from their town home. There is a great little coffee shop just a block down where they make the best pumpkin cream cheese muffin. Across the street was a organic grocery store with at least 10 different apple varieties. Keoni actually found one of our favorites at the grocery store yesterday!

We spent some time in the big city doing the typical tourist attractions- Space Needle, Pike's Place Market, First Starbucks. And of all things, we were able to see a good friend and groomsman from our wedding Tony! The pictures below don't give Tony much credibility, but Malia did warm up to our Mountaineer buddy!

We also were able to have Jack show us around Fort Lewis. This is one of the bases that we have on our list of possible locations, so it was really helpful to see the surrounding communities to help us determine if we could see ourselves living surrounding area.

Below are just a few pictures of our trip to Washington:

Beautiful picture of Gig Harbor. Jack and Julie live about 10 minutes from the Harbor. Could you imagine waking up to this view every morning?

Pike Place Market. The Market officially opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest operated public farmers' markets in the country. Here you can get fish, flowers, veggies, baked goods, artwork, jewelry, etc. We had a fabulous lunch at Jack's Fish Spot

Here is a picture of one of the fish stands. I was shocked at the 'show' these men put on when someone orders from their stand.

This picture is really disgusting, but crazy at the same time. Right under the alley under the big Public Market sign is this wall of gum. It is LITERALLY covered in gum of all shapes, sizes and presumably, flavors.

The First Starbucks! Malia, Julie and I are waiting in line for our drinks in the first starbucks. I was surprised how small the coffee shop was in comparison to all the other millions of stores across the country. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I did get a vanilla bean frappuccino!

Malia and our dear friend Tony! I promise as the lunch hour progressed, Malia became more delightful and less scared of Tony.

Oh the Space Needle... call me cheap, but we did not want to spend $17 a person to go to the top of the needle. They did have an awesome gift shop though. Malia got a cute pink shirt with a silhouette of the needle made out of crayons.

Check back for the next post on the second half of our trip to Oregon!

SLACKER

This is horrible... it's been over a month since I posted absolutely ANYTHING! Things have been a little crazy that past few weeks.

Keoni is officially done with school and studying for the bar! He has been relaxing the past few weeks. Malia is really loving the extra time she gets with her daddy during the day. Just last week the two of them went to the Children's Museum. I try not to get jealous of all the fun activities since I'm still working, and realize that my time is right around the corner!

Shortly after the bar, we MOVED! We moved back to my hometown and we are literally 1 mile from my parents. It has allowed us to spend more time together than in the car. My commute to work is now 15 minutes! Being closer to my parents will also be beneficial when Keoni is in the Army.

Malia is getting into all sorts of trouble. Her 9 month check up was last month and she is starting to grow taller! Our little chunker is almost 18 lbs. Malia is crawling all over the place. She loves it when you chase her down the hallway. She is also pulling up on everything. Keoni and I agree that she will be walking by her birthday (which is in 2 months, holy mokes)! We also have a little technology worm who wants to constantly play with daddy's ipod touch or mommy's cell phone, and don't you dare take them away while she is playing with them... you might see her head spin. I think we are going to have to get unlimited texting when she eventually gets a phone :)

I am really behind on posting pictures as well. Keoni has been transferring most of the pictures onto our external hard drive, and it takes me a while to find them. I promise to post pictures of Malia's first summer!

I will leave you with one little picture of our chunkie monkey- Grandma Medici LOVED Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We happened to be in Richmond on Broad street and decided to stop in for a little treat. I know Grandma Medici was smiling down on us as Malia had her first bite of doughnut!

Thanks for contitunting to read about our little family!

Crossing the finish line and Thoughtless Thursday!

We've MADE it!! Keoni is done with school and done with studying for the bar! He took the bar yesterday and arrived safely home from Roanoke.We are so thankful for all the loving words of encouragement. Malia and I couldn't be more excited to have Keoni around again. We are planning on taking a 3 day weekend to the beach. This will be Malia's first trip to the ocean. Hopefully we have wonderful weather.

Here are some pictures for our "Thoughtless Thursday"

Thoughtless Thursday

Every Wednesday, a sorority sister of mine titles her blog post, Wordless Wednesday, and just shares picture of her adorable little daughter. I have decided instead of Wordless Wednesday, to do Thoughtless Thursday...enjoy!

All gums

We were at the pool today ( I need to blog about Malia's first time at the pool) and met a neighbor who's daughter was born 4 days before Malia. The mother I were chatting it up about having daughters who were 8 1/2 months old. Then, out of no where, she said that Malia didn't look like she was 8 months old. It kinda bothered me, but I let it go... Often times I find myself not wanting Malia to grow up, and then comments like that drive me crazy. I just laughed and said it was because Malia was short and still doesn't have ANY teeth.

This past week has been a crazy one. Sunday Malia wasn't nursing well, and I was worried that she was trying to ween herself off the boob. I did HOURS of reading (felt like I was studying for the bar) and came up with two conclusions: 1- Malia is trying to become more independent and weening herself off, or 2- she is teething... Throughout the course of the week, she was eating better and is now back to her normal nursing self. She even slept 11 hours last night. So what was the cause of this abnormal nursing moment, no idea, but here is a picture of my precious toothless 8 1/2 month old who I adore!