Who's looking?

So a little while ago I put this live feed gadget on the blog cause I was curious who was looking at our blog. I had a few odd people following the blog and just wanted to see if we needed to go private or not. Anyway, what I learned is that there are a lot of people checking it out, which means that I really should be updating it more. But what I found out that was more interesting than who was checking things out but what they were looking at. If you google the following phrase, '4-d ultrasound 32 weeks', check out what you find. Kind of odd but I guess there are a lot of people who are looking at our ultrasound pictures. Weird, cool, creepy, or flattering, who knows.

Eme names the new set of calf twins on the ranch

So here is the video of Eme giving us the names of the calf twins. So Papa - it is Purple & Purple 2. If Hoagy can come up with something better then you should probably use his names since he is a dog.

Happy Day - Homecoming Day

Monday was the day we have been waiting for 181 days since Nov 3rd:  Homecoming day for Brad's boat.  It was a long day but a very happy day too.  Brad boat came in late afternoon and we did not get home until late evening.  It was like Brad never left for both Eme and I.  Eme loved dancing at the pier to the Navy Band while we waited for the boat to arrive.  They had star klackers that she loved to play with too.  She spent most of the time waiting dancing and clacking her star.  As the boat finally pulled up to the pier she started calling out for Daddy.  She couldn't wait for the boat to get docked and wanted to go down and get Daddy on the boat.  They finally got out to the top and disembarked in rank order from most junior to the most senior, which meant that Brad was the 8th to last person off the boat.  We waved to Daddy when he finally got up topside and made our way over to the brow, which is the walkway from the boat to the pier.  Eme kicked her way out of my arms and ran down the brow into Brad's arms screaming Daddy.  Unfortunately, the picture man was no where to be found so we have no pictures of this but I tried to recreate it when Brad went back down to get all of his stuff.  It was a very happy day and Eme reacted better than ever expected.  Here are some pictures from the day. 

Eme and I waiting for the boat.

As the boat arrived in the harbor, all of the other boats in the port sounded their horns as they passed by.   Hearing this sound brought tears to my eyes and butterflies to my heart.

We made a lei for the boat out of plastic table cloths. It was huge.

Sorry for the sideways picture. These were the leis that we made for each sailor on the boat and the crafts that the MWR provided for the kiddos.

Eme playing with her klacker.

Seeing the boat up close and personal for the first time brought excitement and hugs. We practiced lots of big hugs and kisses for Daddy.

There is Brad topside third from the left.

Giving Daddy the Klacker to play with.

Our first family picture in 6 months.

Eme wanted to touch the lantern in the arch.

A family of cheese head smiles.  This is my favorite family picture to date! 

Eme and Daddy.

Here is the cup sign that the announced the homecoming.

Artistic pictures of the lei I made for Brad, his cover and the rose he gave me.

The banner that we put up at the house.

A magnet on the fridge that can go on the car too.

Halloween 2009

So Brad was around for Halloween this year so I made him rearrange the storage unit to find the costumes I had bought for Eme and the dogs last year. We Trick or Treated via Skype to family and then I took Eme to one house to visit. She got an orange as her treat cause there wasn't anything else that she could eat and Mary did not feel right about letting her leave with an empty bag. So here are some pictures of the three of them together. Enjoy!

I am pretty sure that I can pick this one up too!!

Ruby is sacked out, as we say, cause being a ladybug is really hard work. Rika is pretty done too. Our dogs are such good sports. It has been a very long while since they were dressed up so they have nothing to compain about.

Not a great picture but the best of all three of them together.

She is so big!!!

Enjoy!

Starting a new chapter

So we are going to ignore the fact that I have not blogged in forever. Sorry to those who looked her to keep up with us. I have been plain lazy about blogging and other things so there isn't an excuse. I am hoping to get better and I am going to move my computer back down stairs as that is when I fell off the blogging world. So we will see.

What has been going on??? Brad left on his deployment a few days ago so Eme and I are finding our groove so to speak. We have a routine that we found worked a few weeks ago when Brad left for a short underway.

Eme is growing like a weed. She has gotten so big it is unreal. As some may know we have been going through some allergy and GI issues for a while now. I think that we have found the cause and know how to fix things. She is on a milk, soy and wheat/gluten free diet now. Well, we both are as I am not going to fix multiple things for her and I to eat. It is hard enough to cook for one and then another half meal for her. So we are getting away from processed foods and back to fresh fruit, veggies and meats. This also means that I am having to cook more. It has made the world of difference in her attitude and persona for lack of a better word. She is much happier, giggling, playing by herself and fun little girl. I had to put wheat back into her diet for the past week and a half so that we could get one last blood test run. We thankfully got that blood test yesterday so we are back to the diet now. Incidentally, I had my blood test results come back negative so we will see what that actually means. I don't really trust what this dr says as she did not want to order the test anyway. I am interested to see what Eme's numbers are going to come back as. I just hope that they have run the right test as I don't want to add gluten back in because there really is a difference in her personality.

So I today I am making pumpkin muffins. And for dinner we are going to have pork chops for dinner. I am not sure how I feel about the chops cause I am not a huge pork fan anymore. I will give it a good try though cause if Eme doesn't eat it I will have lots of left overs.

Here are a few pictures from the Pier at the boat BBQ before they left.

A friend of ours captured Eme running crazy on the pier. She kept wanting to run to the gang plank thingy that you board the boat on. It had stairs and Eme decided that she needs to climb all stairs no matter where they lead.

Here is the boat pushed away from the pier. It takes forever for this to happen once the sailors load the boat. Well, maybe not as long if the Supply Officer did not leave something somewhere and have to run to go get it. Anyway, I got a wicked sunburn for sitting out there for so long. Eme was a little pink but thankfully she has Brad's skin and did not burn. I will remember the sunscreen for homecoming!!

Here is the boat hitting the open channel out of Pearl Harbor. There wives all traveled from the pier to the point to see them leave. Counting down the days to see the boat going the opposite direction!!!

Here is Brad and I before he left. And you wonder where Eme gets her cheese face from right. Oh yeah, Brad decided that it would be a good idea to shave his head for the deployment to be able to keep a timeline in pictures, by the amount of hair on his head. So, I took the clippers and shaved his head, only after asking him 15 times if he was sure. Then he lathered up his head and shaved it clean. So maybe once he gets back I will post the pictures of his timeline and see how it worked out.

A day at the playground

So it has been a while and lots of things have happened since I last wrote.

Brad started his Engineering school so he is home during the week at a reasonable time and sometimes on the weekend too. It has been really nice having dinner as a family. He is getting some much needed bonding time so that makes my heart happy. It is going to be hard having him around right now then having to adjust real soon for his upcoming deployment. I am trying to savor every minute that we have him here until he has to go into the great blue yonder.

Last weekend we went to a playground at the elementary school down the street. Eme really enjoyed it and once she got going she did not want to go home. But a nap was calling her name so off we went.

Look Eme there is a giant hole to go through. Daddy shows her how to climb through.

Dad, you want me to go through this hole...

But why on earth would I do that when I can just as easily go around. See!!Look Mom, I did it like Daddy, right.Okay, I will do it like Daddy did but only if Mommy helps. Tada!!!Dad, I don't know about this slide thing but I LOVE STAIRS!!!

Guys, I really don't know about this...

Okay, that was fun!!!

Now Daddy goes down with me right... This is the big curly slide. It is really big!!!Yeah, that was so much fun!!!!! Daddy rubbed the skin of his toe but I had a great time.

This was probably the best time of the day for me. She wouldn't let go of Daddy's hand when it was time to go.

Man, I was parched!!! She is not a little baby any more. She is growing up so fast. She even has enough hair to put into pig tails now.

Upstairs bathroom

Here are some before and after pictures of the house. This is what the bathroom upstairs used to look like:
Here is a new shower curtain that I made and the painted walls and cabinet.
I made curtains for the doors since there were not any doors to begin with.

And here is the detail of the shower curtain, I made 12 button holes for the rings to pass through.

More to come later!!

Update

So we found out what the fussiness was from - a double ear infection, a sinus infection and a high narrow palate, along with the GI issues and a milk & soy allergy.

This poor kiddo has a right to be fussy and screeching and all the rest. I feel so bad that I did not see the signs that pointed to the ear infections, very wobbly (attributed to learning how to walk), jaw clicking, drooling and chewing (attributed to teething), and the outbursts (attributed to normal toddler Independence) but she did not have a fever like the last time. Anyway, we got her medicated and waited to see if she did better. We went back to the dr a few days later, as she was not doing better and got some ear drops that numb her ear to help with the pain. I took her back to the dr to get her ears checked once the antibiotics ran out, well one side had cleared up and the other was still infected. So another round of antibiotics and ear drops. She is still wobbly but seems to be getting better, the tantrums and outbursts have turned in the the occasional and not the daily/hourly occurrence. So she is doing much better and is back to our happy baby again. On the GI issues, I have removed all dairy and soy from her diet, put her back on a prescription formula and increased her medicines. I am hoping to try to reduce her meds once she is healthy or at least trial them again.

Since I have been dealing with all of this by myself, I had a surprise last minute visitor come out. My dad made a special trip out to help me with Eme and specifically to help out with the long to do list for the house. Well, after 10 days here, and am very happy to say that we are done with home improvements for a very long time. There are 3 things left to be painted and a few boxes left to be packed up. This is a very different house than before. We have made changes to every room but the kitchen since we moved in. Well, we have made a few minor changes in the kitchen but nothing that is as noticeable as the other rooms. I tell you this, I was so busy, as I needed to be, I did not have a bit of down time. When Eme was asleep, I was working, when Eme was awake, I was working, when Eme was at day care, I was working, when Eme was playing with Grandpa, I was working. Once my dad left I crashed so hard that I am just now recovering. I think I still have paint on places that I can't see to get off. Once I get back into my groove, I will post pictures to show before and after of what we did. We did manage to go to the zoo and headed out to the west side of the island to explore.

Dad -
Thank you so very much, I can't express my appreciation and gratitude for your willingness to come out and help me with anything that I needed. I could not have done it without you!!!

Crazy fussiness

Hey there, sorry I have been MIA. There has been a lot going on and Eme has been super fussy. We have had to go back to the dr and the GI to see what is up and how to help her. It is amazing how a screeching baby all day long can drain the life out of you. I have had very little energy to get up and blog so I have not posted anything. I do have some pictures and video that I need to get uploaded so I am hoping to get that done soon so I can share. We did finally set up the web cam and Skype so we can chat with people. It is pretty cool and amazingly simple. If you have not tried it, you should.

Anyway, I am off to bed to rejuvenate for another day. But here are some April Photogs for you.

Simple toys for Eme, a really big box... event he dogs got in this one with her.
A wooden spoon, some Tupperware and yes, even a roll of toilet paper. She carried it around every where. The spoon is really her princess scepter, she turns the dogs into goons pretty regularly.

While we were cleaning out the downstairs closet, we found Brad's old soccer ball. It is very deflated and probably doesn't hold air any more but I decided to give it to Eme as she is getting more agile and I thought she might like it. Yes, she loves it. Problem is that she would not let go of it for anything. I just asked her if she wanted to put her ball down so I could change her diaper. Answer - how about no mom. And no we don't let her run around naked, but this day she was naked as a jay bird.

She would not even put the ball down when I changed her diaper.

See mom, you can change my diaper with me holding on to my ball and laughing!!! I love my ball.

Off to bed now. Love and aloha!!

Happy Easter!!

We got all dressed up and headed over to the Marine Corp base for an Easter Egg hunt only to find out that it was yesterday. Oh well, not that Eme really would have know what was going on anyway. We still have a boat Easter party to go to so she will get to hunt eggs there. So instead we headed over to Pinky's, our favorite pupu bar and grill, to eat a yummy breakfast buffet. It was really good. Brad and I had mimosas, eggs Benedict with crab cakes and spinach, salmon with lobster and crab in a yummy cream sauce, fruit, prime rib, and the typical breakfast foods. It was very good. Eme had some french toast which was a first for her. She loved it. She was getting tired so we made it a quick breakfast and headed home for a nap for all. Here are some pictures from this morning.

Eme reading the Easter book to Daddy

Eme excited that she got a cute little Easter bunny basket from our friends next door.

Happy Easter all dressed up, head to toe navy and pink

Eme was toast since it was close to nap time. She was a trooper and made it through the meal with out too much fussing. She decided that she was done and ready for her nap so she used her new bunny lovey as a pillow on the table. Thanks Grandma! That is her new sippy cup with a straw that she loves.

Here is Brad's boat coming home yesterday.