18 Month Old Malia Joy!

 I honestly can't get enough of this girl!  Right when I say she's at my "favorite age" she grows up a little bit more and I love it too!!  She is now a year and a half and while she is still my baby, she is getting so grown up!  I think she is going to be a good big sister since she is independent, confident, assertive, easy going, mature and ready to help.  She is also bossy which is a characteristic of a lot of older siblings, right?  With her blonde hair and green eyes, she is the cutest thing I have ever seen which makes me wonder, "Is Keely going to look this way too?" 

 Malia is a happy girl! She LOVES other kids and learning new things.  Her favorites right now are puzzles (really good at them!) artwork (coloring and painting), singing and dancing to her shows (she loves Elmo, Barney, Dora, and Choo Choo videos) and going to the park and "running."  Her running is more like a speed walk with a hop and when she is going "really fast" she'll put her arms behind her like they are getting pushed back from the wind- it's hilarious:)

 She has LOTS of teeth!  I feel like this month she has gotten a ton.  She has 4 molars, all her front teeth and her incisors just came in too.  With all those teeth you'd expect her to do a lot of eating, but she still doesn't like to eat much.  More like a bird if you ask me.  But doc says it's fine.

And this is sassy Malia in an outfit that she picked out herself.  She is obsessed with shoes (mostly mine, but hers too) and tutu skirts.  I think she feels pretty when she wears them:)  She is very opinionated about what she wants to wear now which makes getting dressed a struggle sometimes.  Oh, and she hates getting her diaper changed so we are working on the beginning stages of potty training.  Meaning, we have a potty for her (that she picked out) and she practices sitting on it (usually with all her clothes on).  No potty yet, but she likes it ok!

And then we had her 18 Month Check-up the other day and this is what the doctor said:

25 lbs. (50-75%)

35 inches tall (OFF THE CHARTS!)

And her head is on the larger side too.  It kills me that she is so crazy tall!  I'm only 5'7" and Kirk is 6 feet and Malia is this amazon woman!  People think she is at least 2 or 2 1/2 and when I tell her that she's only one and a half they all say the same thing: "she's so tall!"

We love you chatter box girl!  Thanks for being such a ray of sunshine in our lives! 

xoxo

The Happy Holidays!

 Merry belated Christmas everyone!  This year was grand!  Travis and Brooke were home (both were gone last year on their missions) and Malia was a little more keen to the idea of Christmas!  We kept it mellow, which was super nice.  I like how my family puts more emphasis on spending time together than spending money on presents and gifts.  I think I maybe unwrapped 3 things which was MORE than I even needed. I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday too!

 For Malia's 2nd Christmas she got coloring books, some new warm clothes, a kitchen from Santa, a radio flyer trike from mom and dad and helicopters and books!  All her favorites! 

 She is still learning how to unwrap the presents

 The best present Malia got?  This beautiful and amazing painting by her wonderful auntie Brooke.  Malia is so loved and I hope she understands one day how special she is to all of us!  Next year Keely will be joining the clan- won't that be fun!

 We baked and cooked more than usual this Christmas season, meaning I actually baked and cooked.  I am not much for those things..

One of the outtakes of our Christmas cards this year:)  I love our little family!

 This is Malia waiting patiently to sit on Santa's lap.  She didn't cry or scream at him this year, but at the same time wasn't excited to see him even though she loved seeing pictures of Santa.

 She looks like she might be ready to cry, but luckily, this Mission Viejo Santa presented a candy cane to her at the exact right moment.  Good job Santa!

 Happy!

 3 of us, soon to be 4!

 We live in a pretty place, huh?

 Mom and Keely:)

We look good, I know:)

Some Halvorsen time!

 We love spending time with the Halvorsens!  I sure wish they lived down here so we could see them ALL THE TIME!  We love you guys!  Here are some snap shots of us going to Zoomars with the kids.  We go there a lot since one of my sweetest girlfriends gave us a punch pass to go like a zillion times:)

 The ever pensive Malia studying the animals in their natural habitat.  Haha, yeah right.  More like trying to figure out why all of them look pregnant because they are so overfed!

 Cousins:)

 Sorry bunny.  You've been dealt a tough hand in life.  Maybe there will be some sort of special bunny heaven for troopers like you.

 And those guinea pigs, I'm sorry for you too. I mean, they are more like rodents so we shouldn't feel too bad when then kids manhandle them too much, right?

 Cute Sami and adorable Raegan!

 We've got 4 kids, soon to be 5 between us.  When I met Sami they had none and neither did we (uh no duh) and look what we've created!

And our super duper train lover for some reason didn't like the train that day.  Weird.  Well, I've learned that Malia does not like to do too many new things all at once.  And big groups of people that she doesn't know really upset her too.  She is a reserved, contented little girl that appreciates structure, routine and people she knows.  Well for not at least.

A Hawaiian Thanksgiving 2011

 Hawaii is the best!  Bumpa is the best! 

 Malia LOVED the water and swimming!  We have a fish on our hands!

 Malia was so happy on the trip and slept and ate good- what a relief!  Traveling with a toddler can be so scary!

 She loves her aunty and uncle:)  She would RACE down to the beach every morning!  While we stayed in Waikiki, it was nice to be so close to the beach.

My lovely Ohana after church

 Just landed and SO anxious to be in the warm Hawaii air!

 Sup.  Yeah, we did some relaxing and some tanning:)

 And lots of surfing

 And lots of being cute;)

 This turtle was the highlight of the trip and we were so sad we couldn't fit him to take him home:(  Keely loved the warm water too and enjoyed sunbathing via mom's tummy;)

We had a great time with my family going to Oahu and doing all those great Hawaiian things we love to do.  We hung out with family, went to be the beach, toured, site saw, ate, ate and played.  It was a great trip!  Brooke and Travis had just gotten home from their missions so we were all reunited!  Every time we are there Kirk and I talk about how we can move out there one day... Maybe one day;)