TOM's shoes

I am in what is called the business core this semester for school. We have to operate businesses for 6 weeks. My group is selling TOM's shoes. A lot of people haven't heard of them, but they sell shoes obviously, and for each pair that is bought a pair is donated to children in impoverished companies such as Argentina, South Africa, Ethiopia, and parts of the US hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters. You should check them out at www.tomsshoes.com. If you would like to purchase some (which EVERYONE should) make sure you use the promo code HAWAII when checking out. This will get you $5 off as well as track the sale to our business group. You also get free shipping!

Our baby is a genius

Last week at my second doctor's appointment the doctor tried to hear the baby's heartbeat for the second time. At 9 weeks we weren't able to hear it, so I went back at 12 weeks specifically for that. Well the doctor got her little doppler out and tried to hear it...and we couldn't. So I got an ultrasound! I was so exicted that I was able to get one and see the baby. It was amazing. The baby was kicking it's legs and we could see its heart beating out of its chest. At the beginning though the doctor kept saying "hmmmm....hmmmmm..." and I was like why the heck are you saying that!?!? It scared me, but then we were able to actually see the baby on the screen and not just some blurry object like she was seeing at first. So after the ultrasound she said I really want to hear the heartbeat so let's just try one more time. After about 30 seconds we were able to hear it! So I was really proud of the baby for hiding the first time so that we could get an ultrasound and actually see that there is something inside me. Here is a picture of it:
It is sucking its thumb in this picture (you can see it better if you click on it).

So clean

Todd and I have been disgusted by our tile ever since we moved into TVA. We had been talking about trying to get new tile for awhile, but we didn't really do anything about it until last week. Todd asked my friend and co-worker Emma if she would do something about it because I wouldn't (I just felt awkward). So she had our supervisor go over and look at it, and he said yup they should get new tile! Our tile was A) disgustingly dirty/probably 20 years old, B) there were gaps between the tiles so we had many ants as friends who would live in these cracks, and C) the caulking on the outside of the tiles had lots of holes and other crevices which equals even more ants.
Here are the before pictures:
Here are the after pictures:
It's so nice walking on the tile without it turning your feet black even though I had cleaned it three times in a row. It would just NEVER get clean before. We are so happy and excited that it's clean and shiny now!!

Todd's Uncle Kirk in Hawaii

Todd's Uncle was in Hawaii teaching a class for Learning Tree for a week. We were able to meet up with him 2 Thursdays ago and we headed to the Cheesecake Factory (thanks again Kirk!!). It was really nice being able to spend some time with him and catch up on everything that's happening with that side of Todd's family. We also learned all about Kirk's classes that he teaches and about the weddings and babies and other events that have been going on. It always is nice to have family in town, even if we are only able to catch up for a couple hours over dinner. We are grateful that Kirk wanted to meet up with us, and that he treated us to dinner. It was delicious!!

What we did when family was here:

When my whole family was out here we went to the beach a lot, and each night we rotated which couple would cook. We had some fantastic meals provided by everyone! It was a nice break to not have to cook every night. My parents stayed with us for 4 days as well and I loved it. Even with their annoying noise maker to help them sleep better (just kidding). I wish I could have skipped school the whole time everyone was out here! I will admit that I did skip some days, but not enough. We had some good times at Pounders, minus the blue bubble sting and injuries getting pounded into the sand.

We went and watched my cousin play football against UH on one Saturday. It was my first and probably last time ever seeing him play so I was excited that I had that opportunity. It was quite eventful with Weber State being ahead of UH for the entire first half. It rained some at the game so we kept running for cover. And my mom was sick so that wasn't too much fun for her.

Brooke and Breanna stayed with us for their last 4 or 5 days here, and it was so much fun. I think we were all worried how it would work out with Breanna in our small apartment without any separation, but we hung a sheet from the ceiling to make her own "room." She really warmed up to Todd and I and would point at our pictures when she woke up and she called us "Toddshell." She would laugh and scream and run to Todd when he would walk in the door and cry when he would leave for work. Brooke and I had fun hanging out especially during Breanna's nap time. We were able to watch some guilty pleasure shows (The Hills...) and girl movies. We also celebrated Brooke's birthday before they left by getting pizza and breadsticks from Pizza Hut and pie from Ted's.

There is a sale on Hawaiian Airlines tickets right now, so anyone who wants to come visit should!!

They are all gone now...

I had a whole post written out and it got erased :( So now I will start with pictures. Here are my grandparents and Dad with a statue.

My Dad & Breanna at the PCC. Todd and I got huge discounts from our friends that work there, so everyone was able to go to the villages, dinner buffet, and night show. Thanks to my parents for paying for everyone for the buffet! The pineapple especially was delicious...
Here are my parents and Breanna again at the PCC. Breanna got a pretty flower headband for her hair.
Here's my Dad and Breanna at the beach. We brought her to Pounders for her first time and she was not very excited to go into the waves that were pounding. By the end she loved going to the beach.
My parents playing DDR. My Dad was actually pretty good, and my Mom definitely improved :)
Here is Breanna pretending she was in jail and making a funny face.
Here we are eating chocolate haupia pie from Ted's. It was everyone's favorite. Here we are at Matsumoto's. Breanna, Brooke, & Rob came straight from the airport to meet us there. Breanna loved it.
I am so sad that everyone is gone!! I loved having my parents stay with us, and I loved having Brooke & Breanna stay with us too. I will post more later!!

Long night...

My parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle got here last night, so Todd and I went over there after church was done. I had so much fun seeing everyone and it made me extremely excited for this week. A little too excited...I am having trouble sleeping because I just want to go over there right now (3 in the morning). We are going to go to the beach today and Matsumoto's, I hope, and it is my day to make the big meal for everyone. Alright, I am going to go back to rolling around trying to sleep...

What am I looking forward to on Sunday and Tuesday??

MY FAMILY IS COMING! I am SOOO excited to see everyone it is ridiculous. I just want to hang out with them all day everyday. And I think I will secretly try to get them to miss their flights so that they have to stay longer!

Down in Waikiki

Since I have been in Hawaii they have been doing construction in Waikiki. Well around the place we like to go (Cheesecake Factory) it is pretty much done and I LOVE how they have decorated everything. I want to decorate like this in and outside of my house. Cool hanging lights: They are huge as you can tell from these two pics. We also really like how they built around the trees instead of getting rid of them.
Cool seating area. I really like the colors together and I love the style of these.

Todd lounging on the lounger. I would absolutely love to have these around my future pool in my backyard :)

Todd looking weird, but they had huge containers like this all over.
We went up on the roof because it was unlocked and before we were going down too men started coming at us from both sides like trapping us and told us we had to get down. I didn't say it to them, but I said it loudly enough for them to hear that if they don't want people going there then they should lock the gate!
Another cool seating area.
Whoever their decorator is did a great job. They paid attention to every single detail to make the shopping area a luxurious place. I want to hire them (but not really...I just want them to volunteer their service for free).

My birthday...finally

I am such a slacker. I haven't even been busy lately (except for one week training for my new job), but I have completely slacked on blogging. I am really going to try to do better I swear! So my birthday was on July 27th, but I have yet to blog about it. I turned 21 and it was fun. We had some friends over for Costco cake. The day before my birthday Todd said I could choose what we did that day (because my bday was on a Sunday), but I was REALLY not in the mood to drive anywhere so we just stayed at home and relaxed. Lately every time I want to go and do something I just get mad that we have to drive so far away to do it! I am looking forward to the days where if I want to go to a store that doesn't rip you off, I will just have to drive around the corner to it. When I was home that was one of the things I loved, and my house isn't even that close to the stores. It's funny how I used to think that I lived SO far away from everything, but I guess living in Laie puts it into perspective. Anyways, we also went last weekend to the Cheesecake Factory thanks to Todd's parents gift to me. My mom and dad were awesome and sent me more birthday presents then I thought I would get (because I thought I had gotten all of them when I was at home to visit). So that was my birthday! Not as eventful as a lot of people's 21st, but it was perfect for me.Yes I ordered them to put "You are awesome" on my cake. Todd said not to, but I wanted to anyways. And no, no one actually ate those frosting balloons...they were just too much frosting!!
We didn't get many pictures, but that was the party!

Todd Graduates!

Next week on Wednesday is Todd's last day of his undergraduate degree!! He will be completely done with everything. I am really jealous of him. I am not jealous that he will have a full time job. If anyone would like to come to his graduation it is.....in December. We only have two commencement ceremonies, one in June & one in December, and Todd didn't do the one in June. So the big date is December 13th I believe. Everyone should come for a week and hang out with us!

Lazy week

Last week was so nice because I was only allowed to work 19 hours! I loved being able to sleep in and just choose a couple of hours each day to go in. On Wednesday I went downtown to take an Excel certification and I passed. After I was done I went shopping by myself and it was lovely! Todd normally is with me and as soon as he walks into a store with me he starts yawning and gets really tired and says that he is going to go find somewhere to sit down. So I got to spend an hour and a half in ONE store without having to worry about tired Todd. Anyways, I am dreading going back to 40 hours this week at work. I don't think I am cut out for a job...at least one that I don't do anything at. I just never feel busy at my job so the day drags on forever! Well, I will post more tomorrow at work to give me something to do :)

Cousins with their ice cream

I saw on Alyssa's blog the pictures that she edited using photoshop, so I decided to try it too. It's really cool looking and really easy actually!

Funny Faces on the Slide

My sister Monica has a kid heaven for a backyard and we went over there for a BBQ and water slide party one day. The slide was really fun until I kept going through the "barrier" and flew off onto the ground. It all happened so fast I didn't know what was going on! It actually didn't hurt at all, I was just surprised that it happened and that's what scared me...but I did keep going on it. When I wasn't, I was taking pictures of people on it and my family makes some pretty funny faces going down slides.

These two are from a different day and month and year, obviously, but just thought I would throw these in so almost the whole family can showcase their funny face talent.