My Toy

Adyson's latest favorite words are "My Toy!" It is usually said every time that another kid is around and she has something(whether it really is hers or not) and she thinks she needs to let them know its hers and they are not going to share(whether they want to share or not). 

This morning Ady was riding her bike and the neighbors 9 mos old baby was crawling after her for fun.  Ady kept looking back at her and kept yelling at her "My toy, My Toy!" -- like the baby who can't even walk yet was going to come over and take her bike from her.  The baby just kept a crawling after her, and finally Adyson turned her bike around and rode to the side of the girl, mind you the whole time yelling "my toy" gradually getting louder each time.   Finally she leaned over close to the baby's face and yelled at the top of her lungs so hard her face turned red, "MY TOY!" and then rode away.   So I guess she is a little possessive?  Sharing lessons coming up for FHE.  

The pics are from her ToysRus outing.  She loves to play with the set they have in the store.  It's so nice cause it has a table they can walk around as they play.  As you can tell Ady is holding 3 trains in her arms and driving only one.  At least there are lots of other trains so other kids can play too!   She is also doing an amazing disappearing one leg trick for the camera...taking after the grandpa's.  

Overall buying a bike and train set has been a great investment for us.  Ady loves to play with them.  She also really likes her duplo lego's, and her books, but most of those were presents! There is one book that Ady loves to read-It's called Dr. Suess' book of Ridiculous Rhymes.  The first page asks "Did you ever have the feeling there's a zamp in the lamp?" and without fail she will always say "NO." Just on that page though, she won't answer any of the books other questions.  

 Ady also loves her movies.  She will watch anything with a penguin(Happy Feed, Surf's Up) or Kung Fu Panda.  She will walk around and stick out her leg and say "kick" after she watches "Nana"  (thats short for Panda).  She also gets very excited any time she sees a picture of a panda anywhere like in a book, or at Panda Express where she runs over to the picture on the wall and screams "Nana, Nana, Nana" over and over cause she is so excited about her find.  

One last thing I'll share about Ady is that she loves nursery.  The leaders say she is so active and fun to have there.  She is always dancing to the singing time music and always the first one up to do the actions for the songs.  The only problem is she doesn't want to leave with us and will continually wave and say "bye" to us when we come to pick her up! Ady is certainly one of a kind, and we love her.

 

Coloring Devil

So this morning I was working on some homework and thinking to myself how grateful I was that Ady was being quiet and actually letting me get something done. Often she just wants me to play with her and I don't get any homework done till after she goes to bed, or when Kasey comes home and I go to the library(also usually after both go to bed). Well I hadn't heard anything out of her for 15 or 20 minutes and thought I should check on her. This is what I found. If you can't see it look closely at her right arm.

Think she is such a cute little angel do you? Take a look at that face, the little devil. And yes, she used permanent markers so all those lines on the dresser won't come off. Trust me I've been scrubbing it.

She wants to make sure you know that she didn't just color the dresser or her arm, she colored her hands too. What are the neighbors gonna think, my kid is black and blue and I swear I didn't hit her.

Honolulu Zoo, Adyson's two.

Sorry for the picture overload, but this post is for the grandma's and grandpa's.  Last Saturday we took Ady to the Zoo.  We thought it would be a good way to celebrate her turning 2.  Turns out we were right.  It was so fun and Adyson was even funnier.  She kept saying "Hi" and "Bye" to all the animals in the only voice tone she has-LOUD.  Everyone around us thought it was pretty cute too.  We practically peeled her away from all the fences and glass cages to go to the next animal-which she loved just as much as the last!  

Ya know, as a kid going to the zoo was sort of fun for me.  Time went on, and as I got older it really wasn't at the top of my list.  But now I'm older and a mom and this zoo outing was great and even more fun than when i was little.   Kinda like how christmas starts losing its excitement the older you get, but then when you have kids it turns exciting again.  It's a different exciting, but I think i like it even better.  Watching Adyson be so excited about the little things in life is so fulfilling.  Its a good reminder that I should enjoy the small excitements of life too.

Here are the pics...hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed being there with Ady.

This is how Ady was nonstop...like she was glued to a TV Screen.  If she could have gone in she would have.  When we finally pulled her off, she'd make a monkey noise and put her hands on her shoulders.  She is pretty cute.Hanging with Dad and the Hippos
Leaning over the fence to get a closer look again!
So interesting.
Always pointing to the next animal
Look Mom!  It's the same guy off of Madagascar 2.
She didn't want to look at the camera to pose for a picture(taking after dad again!)...just wanting to see the "phant" as she calls them.  
Hug the glass more Ady...maybe you'll get closer. 
This is her favorite one...zebras giraffes and rhinoceros!
She didn't look back twice...
And there she goes!

Ady's Play Buddies

Here are some fun shots of Ady and some of her play buddies. The upper Pics are Ady and So-eul in their easter dresses. They were really cute walking home from church holding hands.

The other ones are Ady and her friend Vaia. (Sorry if I didn't spell that right) We got a DDR(Dance Dance Revolution) with Adams winnings from his business plan competition(it's a good workout too!) and it's a good thing we got 2 mats,-1 for us to share and 1 for Adyson. She loves to dance anytime, and she and Vaia were having pretty good time jumping up and down "dancing" to the music.

Celebrating Ady

Next Saturday is Ady's birthday. (She will turn 2). ToysRus is having a special Thomas the Train day tomorrow. It is free and Ady was sent an invitation via email. (Everyone on Oahu was invited, but we told Ady it was special just for her, don't tell her). They will have coloring activities, games and prizes. Ady loves her train set. It is not Thomas, it is Imaginarium-the cheaper brand of the same thing. So we thought we'd take her and let her play with other kids at the activity. She loves coloring, playing trains, and hanging out with other kids-so it should be fun for her. I will probably only last a little while with all that noise and chaos of other children and will probably have to run out of the store screaming at some point. No worries, there is a miniature golf course next door and maybe I will sneak off and let Kasey deal with all the noise. Anyway, since this is going on this week and Kasey and Ady have birthdays back to back we decided to just celebrate Ady's Tomorrow and Kasey's next weekend. So after we get done there, we're taking Ady to the zoo. Hopefully she has a great day and is so tired that she sleeps the whole way home when we are done. I can't believe Ady is already turning 2! She is getting pretty big. She was measured this week at 34 inches long! She is getting much better about talking and is already frustrating me at times. Her favorite way of being a nuisance is tilting her head and leaning forward just a bit while saying "what?" every time you say something. Caught me off guard the first time, but now I expect it. Then after I repeat what I said, she then asks "why?". Finally, usually she disagrees with the explanation and then says "no" and wanders off. Even so the increased communication has been nice.
Sometimes I am fairly surprised at what she knows. She seems to be a quick learner and since I just finished a semester I thought that we should give Ady a report card for her last semester also. Being that she is so young I figured A's, B's, and so forth weren't needed, just pass or fail. Ady passed math, health, science, history, yet failed art. For mathematics we've been focusing on numbers and their relationships to other things. She does okay. She knows that you count to three before you say go, get an underdog push on the swing or jump in the water. However, like any brilliant mind she has come up with her own theory. She no longer counts "1,2,3", instead she just says "one, three-go!" and takes off running. Pretty smart if you ask me, the one is for starting, the three is right before go and the two doesn't really serve a purpose so she skips it. As for health, Ady has learned that you should drink plenty of water, I taught her to get a drink every time you pass a drinking fountain. She understands this well and now gets really upset whenever we pass a drinking fountain. I was in grade school before I knew that darker colors absorb heat and lighter colors reflect heat. Ady has already learned this because she almost never wears shoes and she knows that the black asphalt is much hotter than the sidewalk. The only problem is that when she does wear shoes she loves to run in the road. As for history, Ady knows that roads and sidewalks aren't natural and that a sure fire way to become famous and attract attention is to explore unchartered territory. She definitely catches people's attention when I have to go chasing her through a set of bushes, into someone's yard, running into a classroom or office during a lecture or dashing into a women's bathroom and then laughing at me as I stand there in the doorway calling for her. She always loves going somewhere that she hasn't been. As for the art, well Ady has really started to enjoy coloring and all. We don't expect her stay within the lines or to have perfect color schemes. She'd have received a passing grade for art if it hadn't been for a little experience last week. Kasey had a coupon for a little restaurant and we went during a Jazz game. It is one of those places where they give kids a couple of crayons and a paper to color and play games on. I was watching the game intently with my back to Ady who was sitting next to me. I thought she was just rubbing my back and shoulder. Little did I know that she liked coloring my white t-shirt more than the paper. And of all the colors why purple?!

my little pony

So last week at church, Adyson was acting up during the sacrament. She was bored with her current toys she had, so with it being the sacrament and all, I asked Adam if he brought any of her books about Jesus, the Book of Mormon, or any of her Children Church books since he packed her bag that morning. He looked in the bag and said "no." I then asked if he brought anything Churchy. At that point Adam looked in the bag and said "yes." Then he proceeded to pull out Ady's pink happy meal My Little Pony...and says "Look Ady, Jesus rode a pony --I mean --a donkey to Jerusalem."

Its a good thing that our ward is so loud during the meeting or a lot more people would have heard me laughing in the middle of sacrament.

BYU Hawaii Graduation

Adam had to recently apply to graduate for this coming Decembers graduation.  BYUH only has graduation twice a year-June and Dec.  Usually a general authority apostle comes and speaks for the main speaker.  Adam just told me that if he doesn't walk we can save 23$ so he doesn't have to get a cap and gown.  He doesn't think he needs to walk.  

Now I never knew that graduation was such a big deal until we moved to Hawaii.  Graduation for me was just something you did that I thought was expected.  I was totally surprised at the party Morgan High School threw for the grads.  It was an all night party and was very fun with tons of prizes.  But the next day I just moved on to the next step-working and going to college.   I wasn't even going to walk for my bachelors degree cause I just didn't want to have to go to a long boring meeting to just walk across a stage and get a fake diploma cause the real one comes in the mail later anyway.  But it just so happened that I graduated the same semester as my brother and all my family was going to come and so I ended up going.   

But now I have seen graduation-Hawaiian Style.  Adam tried to warn me about it.   The first time I saw stands and stands of people selling lei's and other congratulatory things, Adam said, "Do you see what I mean now?"  I thought I did and then I saw the thousands of people and the 50 or so lei's that graduates had been given to wear around their necks and I then thought I understood.  I knew about the party after graduation cause I went to my own.  But once I heard about the personal party after that party for each individual that is thrown for the graduates here, I think I finally figured it out.  Parents here don't just save for their kids to go to college, they save for years so they can afford to have a party for their kid if they graduate high school.   And then they have an even better party if they graduate college.  Realizing that Hawaii hasn't been a state that long and the drop out rate is high, a lot of people over here are first to graduate in their family.  It is a big deal.  

Now you may think "wow" a little overboard there, but the more I see it the more I am agreeing with the way they treat graduation as such a big deal.  Think about it.  You just spent how many years of life studying, test taking and jumping thru hoops to get to this point. Why not party about it... take some time and relish in your accomplishment.  Celebrate what you have done!  I have to admit Hawaiians do know how to party-and the food is always enough to last for a week.  It is a big deal, and I agree-it should be.  

Looking back, I am glad that I was forced to walk at my graduation.  Even if the ceremony wasn't that fun. I am glad I have the pictures of me in my cap and gown.  It was a very big stepping stone of my life.  I wish I would've taken a graduation trip or something.   Oh well.

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone else thinks it would be foolish of Adam not to walk for his graduation?  I was totally looking forward to giving him a lei...who knows, it could have even been a money lei.  

Happy Easter and Ady is a Copycat

Hi and Happy Easter from the Van Tassells. Ady loves to wave to everyone and say hi to anyone and anything she sees. Not only will she wave and say hi to strangers at the grocery store, but she says even says bye to the swings, the slide, the birds at the park, the mailbox, the car, you name it she will say hi and bye to it. She has her mouth closed and is not saying hi in the picture because she just bit through the top of the hard boiled egg she is supposed to be coloring and is trying to figure out if she should swallow the shell or spit it out. Don't worry she immediately dropped it in the coloring dye as soon as we were done with the picture. At our house we don't just dye the shell we end up with colored insides too!

These days Ady will try to do anything that I do. Sometimes she tries to copy her mom but usually just me. For instance, a few days ago while we were eating dinner I was talking to Kasey with my arms folded and I looked across the table at Ady and she had her arms crossed and was watching me. I realized I probably looked like I was about to pray and unfolded my arms. As soon as I did so, Ady did too. Noticing that Ady hadn't resumed eating I picked up my fork. Ady picked up hers. I put mine down, Ady put hers down. Then I put my hand on my head. Ady did the same. I opened my mouth, Ady copied. This went on for a minute or so. Mind you I hadn't cracked a smile during this whole thing and nor had Ady. Then I chuckled and Ady decided to outdo me and busted up laughing. We all laughed pretty hard. Seems harmless and playful right. Well not always. The other day I was carrying Ady cause we were in a hurry and her short legs may move really fast but the zigzaging back and forth weaving across the sidewalk takes forever to get anywhere. So I have her in my right arm and am being bothered by some phlegm in my throat. I look around, don't see anyone, hawk it up and spit in out on the grass. Ady not to be outdone makes some weird noise and spits. Problem was, she didn't spit on the grass, she spit all over me. A couple of nights ago all three of us were in the bathroom brushing our teeth and I noticed that the drain catch was getting plugged. So I reached down, pulled it our and cleaned it off. Looking down the drain a moment I noticed how dirty the first couple of inches of drain that could be seen were. After putting the catch back we left the bathroom. About 15 minutes later Kasey and I heard, "DAD, DAD, DAD" being screamed from the bathroom. There was no crying or any sign of danger, but we quickly moved into the bathroom. There we found Ady who had used the stepping stool to climb up into the sink and she was pointing at the drain. We moved closer and could see that she was holding the drain catch in one hand. She showed it to us with a smug confident look that said, "look I can take it out too". Then concern came back into her face and she pointed once again at the drain. Looking down the drain I could see her toothbrush and the remains of a bar of soap stuck several inches down the pipe. Not to worry, while we were looking, wondering what to do, she grabbed Kasey's toothbrush and made a move to stick it down the drain also. We stopped her and eventually I was able remove the lodged items. A final story for those of you who are still reading, we have come to the conclusion that Ady's copying of her Dad is seriously inhibiting our progress in the potty training. We have determined that she knows what her potty is for. And she knows what she is supposed to do. The problem lies in that when you get her in there and get her pants off, she stands next to it and pees. Her aim is absolutely atrocious and she gets pee all over the floor.
Happy Easter!

Lego Maniacs

Last week Adam finally decided it was time to get Ady her own Legos, so she will stop bugging him and trying to play with his-which are too small for her.  Now I live with 2 Lego maniacs.  Currently Adam is playing "make a new Lego castle" and Ady is napping while holding on to two stacks of her Legos so she can go right back to playing with them when she wakes up.  How could I be more lucky?  

Busy Times

This is a picture I took from the balcony of a hotel on the island on one of my field trips. Yup, that's right I go on field trips. Since I am studying tourism and the hospitality industry, and Hawaii is a major tourist destination we go on field trips to various hotels and such. This hotel here had a great view of the ocean and even had a lagoon with 6 dolphins! This Wednesday I am going to another hotel.

As many of you know it is March and in our family that means basketball. Not only did Kasey and I fill out our annual bracket but this year the BYU-Hawaii Seasiders not only qualified for the Division II tournament but they hosted the first three rounds. We went to a couple of the games and had a great time. This is Ady hanging out with her good friend Lauren. It was my first time going to a sweet sixteen game in any collegiate level. Our Seasiders lost by one point but we had a great time. The competition was very good and all the games were pretty intense.
Aside from field trips and basketball we have been very busy. Kasey has been working long hours and usually comes home just in time for me to go to work. This weekend however She worked late Friday and all day Saturday so we didn't even get to see much of each other then. Ady is finally really making an effort to talk intelligibly. She is now saying the "2" when she counts to 3 and now even calls me dad not mom. The last one has been really nice. Now I don't get all the weird looks when we are out in public.

Good News Pours

Well, on Friday it didn't just rain-it poured good news.  First of all Adam won runner-up in his Business plan competition!  He will receive $5000 on top of his $1000 cash to be put towards business expenses.  We are very happy with the result.  He was told that if he didn't win 1st prize it would be because he is too ambitious.  He was definitely the largest scale business proposed.  He had some other good competition though, so we are very grateful for the place that Adam got, and we feel those funds will be enough to get us enough ahead for what is needed to help start a business and do an audit for the resort we are looking at.  

Next, we got a new nephew.  Rachel and Sam had their baby- a week early-(I'm so jealous) It was a boy and they named him Jett.  We are so happy for you three and for Ady to have another little cousin.

Then Natalie called and told us that she and Thayne won a trip to Hawaii.  They will be coming in October.  We are excited for that.  We haven't had visitors in a while and they are the first to tell us they are coming for sure this year!

And finally-the Jazz played on TV and we got to watch them win!  Actually I didn't get to watch the first half as I was still at work till 7:00, but Go Jazz!  They are doing so good right now!  

I am working a lot right now.  We have 2 weeks left till the Deloitte auditors come, and we have a lot left to do.  On Monday I received the data I've been waiting for and my boss said "You are authorized to work overtime until we are done with this project and closing the year."  So I'm working late nights and Saturdays till then.  The thing is, Adam has to go to work at 6-ish, so he will bring Ady to me to hang out in my office so I can get as much done as possible until she becomes to much and then we go home.   The top pics are of us hanging out in my office.  She thought she was pretty cool sitting in Moms chair.   Although work is a lot right now, I am enjoying it as it keeps me busy.  Also, I'm grateful for Adam being so flexible with my schedule and helping out with taking more than his turn of house chores, taking care of Ady at the same time as doing homework, and being alone.  Don't worry-just 2 more weeks and then hopefully we are back to normal! 

a "stop and smell the roses" kinda girl

So Ady loves the fact that we live in Hawaii and there are so many beautiful flowers! We usually walk by a plumeria tree on the way to the grocery store. Ady knows exactly where it is, and everytime we go by it she expects her dad to pick a flower for her to smell and then put above her ear. She even leans her head to the side and points right where she wants it. (it has to be on her right ear cause she is single, married girls wear the flower on the left) We think it's pretty cute when she does that. We walked to the temple(which has sadly closed for renovations for 18 months) grounds last sunday, and they have a lot of flowers, in fact they have hibiscus that edge all the way around the front walk way to the street. Ady decided as we were leaving that she needed to stop and smell each flower including the ones further in. She was going way out of the way to get to each and every flower no matter how much flower bed she walked on or how many branches she needed to move. Let's just say it was a looooong walk that didn't get too far. Even so it was so funny and we were really enjoying watching Ady smell the flowers. (actually the funnier part is that hibiscus don't smell, and Ady's smelling technique sometimes involves blowing out her nose and not sniffing in)
The last pictures are of Ady being a trickster on her bike. She was standing on the wheels and then jumping into the seat, then standing on the seat, then with no hands etc, etc. She sure does keep us entertained.
Also the Business Plan Competition is under way, and Adam has made it into the final round! To make it to the final round you had to be in the top 15. We were told that there were more than 80 entries. Each of the 15 finalists won $1000 cash. Yay. If he makes it to the top 5 the prize gets bigger. We'll see how it goes. He has to give a presentation next Wed to a panel of 8 judges. I am sure he will do great! I am very proud of him. He has spent a lot of time and put a lot of effort into it.
As for me the only somewhat exciting thing is that I ran a 5k run/walk put on by BYUH for faculty and staff the other morning. I thought I did well and finished the race jogging the entire time. As I got to the finish there was no line, no time, no nothing. If I'd have known they weren't going to time it, I would have timed it myself. Really, who doesn't time a 5k??? I guess that is what laid back "Hawaiian style" fun Run/Walks are like in Laie. Oh well, I did get some fruit and a free orange T-shirt! Great.

Business Plan Competition

So for those of you who haven't talked to me or heard from me in a while, and may have noticed that Kasey has been doing all of the blogging, there is a reason. That is because I have been so busy and stressed that I haven't done much of anything besides school, work and work on my business plan. There is a competition in two weeks with a 15,000 dollar prize for first place. The competition is broken into sections a written plan and a presentation. In order to make it into the semi-finals and be able to present you have to have a good plan written. The deadline for submission of the written plan was today. Hence I have been very busy doing research and writing. Today is the first time in a couple of months that I'm not on the phone, or writing an email, or typing data into a spreadsheet, or trying to phrase an idea or theory so that someone who has no idea how the tourism industry in Minnesota works can understand what I am trying to do. Feels kinda nice to be done.
For those of you who don't know, we want to operate a family friendly outdoor recreation resort in Northern Minnesota. Since we are planning on buying a resort when we leave here I decided to write a plan and enter it in order to try and cover some of the cost of research and such. Hopefully I win enough money to pay for a trip to Minnesota to inspect a couple of properties and pay for a full feasibility analysis and audit of books for a resort or two. I have been busy putting a presentation together to pitch to possible investors/partners and am trying to raise a million dollars in capital. So we thought that this would be a good opportunity to help us prepare. I know, I know. A million dollars is a lot of money. Every time I say that people's eyes about jump out of their sockets. Now that I know how people will react I enjoy watching the eyes bug out. This is the logo that Kasey's mom made for us. We wanted something that sorta captured the essence of what we are trying to create. So if any of you know someone with a bunch of money who is looking for a good investment opportunity please let me know.

Sneaky Ady!

Ya know when kids are young enough to think they are being very smart by tricking thier parents, but it's really obvious what they are really doing?...well lately we've been letting Ady keep her binkis(one for her mouth and one to hold) while she uses the potty in the morning. Well the other day after using the potty, Adam put Ady up to the table for breakfast and then told her to give him the binki while he was making breakfast for her. She put one binki between her legs under the table and then proceeded to give him the other binki. So Adam pretended to walk away behind her, just in time to see her smile and pull out the other binki and put it in her mouth. And she thought she was so smart!

gifting fun

So, I got this from a friend. The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year.  When and what will be a surprise.  There's a small catch...You knew there wouldn't be didn't you?  Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me your in.  Fun, huh?  Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.  Let's see who looks at my blog!

more happenings

Yesterday Ady had a Dr. Appointment.  She didn't like it at all.  She cried everytime anyone tried to do anything, but despite all the crying and tantrums we did get her measurements and here they are:

Height: 2'11"  

Weight: 26 lbs

Head Circ: 19"

The Dr says she she is in the 96% for her height and 60% for the weight.  I guess that gives us hope that maybe she'll get lucky and get her Grandpa Haddocks tall genes, cause that is the only place that they could come from.   In all it was a very healthy visit.  We just get to make a couple adjustments:  feed Ady less juice(he said a half cup/day is enough) and brush her teeth more.  Oh ya, and Ady has decided that she only needs a nap every few days now.  Her parents don't agree, so if anyone has any ideas on getting kids to continue what used to be great nap habits....pleaase let us know!

   

Waves and a lil Utah State Aggies

A couple weekends ago the waves were going pretty good.  We took a trip around the north shore.  

Last weekend we went with Leslie and Brandon up to the Lighthouse on the east side of the island before the Utah State Basketball game.    Adyson pretty much walked the whole way up and she still didn't want to be carried!  We were hoping to see some whales, but only saw a turtle.  The lighthouse is a nice sight too.  That night the Aggies played in Honolulu vs. University of Hawaii.  We got some tickets for free again since Tai Wesley's mom is Adam's Advisor at BYUH.  This year was better though because they won!  Adyson even still fit into her Aggie Shirt!

4th

Tagged: Go to the 4th picture in your 4th picture folder, upload it, and tell about it. Then tag someone else.  Hmm...I choose Jessica.  This is actually a pretty good sunset picture that Adam took while we lived in Key West.  The ocean is so flat there compared to here.  We did get to go on a sailboat ride once while we were there.  It was pretty cool to see the crew work the sails and ended up being very fun.  

"Bye"

As most of you heard over Christmas, the most repeated, loudest, actual word that comes out of Ady's mouth, besides no, is "bye" It is really cute. Lately she is quite obstinate that she has to say "bye" to her dad whenever he leaves. The other day Adam left to go play ball with the guys without saying bye and Ady threw a fit crying and banging on the door. Finally I let her out and ran with her to the end of the building where she could see Adam was walking away with the guys and yells at the top of her lungs, "BYE." Adam turned around and then she waved. After that she was all content to go back home. Even the guys thought that was pretty cute.
The other exciting news is that Ady is 7 for 7. Nope, not basketball. We are talking about going potty on the toilet. It's just in the morning right now, but she wakes up and throws the binki's in the crib and then goes potty. She likes to read her books on the seat too now. As long as she keeps going on the toilet, I'm happy no matter what she is doing. It seems like it's gonna be an easy one for potty training. Lets hope it goes this well in the future. And I'm gonna attribute this too, as a reward for having had such a bad pregnancy.
The pics are of Ady and her cousin Carissa with Grandma on Christmas Eve.  Happy Grandma! We had a great trip and were very happy and blessed to be able to see the families.  Thanks for everyone's hospitality.   The next picture is of Ady playing with her Christmas Present.  Adam and I did a really good job picking this one out.  The first time she played with the train set she sat and played for a good 2 hours-nothing else.  That is amazing attention span for a 20 month old.  

One other note:  It is officially past BYUH's add/drop deadline, so we decided to stay to the original plan and have Adam graduate in December.  It gives us a little more time to figure some things out, and lets Adam take a couple more entrepreneurial classes.  That also means that for any of you that were still wanting to come to HI...better start making plans and book the "Van Tassell Open-Door Hotel". (we mean that literally too--the second bedroom doesn't have a door--but it comes free with just a few hours of babysitting!) Airplane tickets are under $500.00 Round trip from Utah now.  Hurry fast while gas prices are still low!  We love visitors!

Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka! Since Kasey was told not to come to work when it flooded and we were planning on meeting my Mission President in town for dinner, we took off in the afternoon and went Christmas shopping. Ady has been having problems fighting on the playground cause she always wants to ride everyones tricycles and junk with wheels. So we bought her a trike for Christmas. She was so excited in the store. Then when I carried it in she hung onto the box the whole way from the car. I set the box down once on the sidewalk and she was hugging the box and trying to open it. So I decided to just open it and put it together right then. I put the back wheels on and then she decided to climb on. I kept on having to move her out of my way in order to finish assembling the thing.

Then when I got the whole thing together this what Ady wants to do. She just wanted to play in the box. I just spent 40 dollars and a half hour in assembly and she wants to play in a box. I kept saying come on try out the trike and all she would do is climb in the box and wave through the hole! Oh well, she got tired of the box after a while and then I threw it away. Now she loves her trike.

Well what's Christmas without carolers? Kasey thought this was pretty cool, she said that she had never seen carolers without coats, playing ukeleles and wearing leis. Ady really liked the singing and she started dancing to the tune of Joy to the World. We are getting really excited for Christmas and Kasey especially is way excited. We're looking forward to going to Utah and seeing famliy. I finished finals and am ready for a break. I barely survived this semester. I had a pretty big argument last week with a professor. I was ill one day and emailed the professor before class started and she emailed me back telling me that there have been several students sick with the flu. She told me not to worry about it, stay home, don't bring it to class. Gratefully I stayed home. Then last week I found out that she docked me heavily for the absence. Took enough points away that it lowered my grade. So I was in her office and it kinda went like this.
Me: "What did you mean by 'don't worry about it, don't bring it to class and get everyone else sick?'"
Her: "Well Adam I meant what I said, it would be wrong of you to get others sick and it would be wrong of me to require you to come when you are ill."
Me:"Well then why am I losing points for not being there?"
Her: "You aren't losing points for not being there, you're losing points for not having done the assignment that we did in class."
Me: "Well I came to your office later that same day when I was feeling better and asked if there was anything I needed to do, you said no."
Her: "Yeah, that's right, that was an in class assignment and you weren't in class. You know the school policy states that I don't have to allow you to make up missed work unless you went to the doctor. Did you go to the doctor?"
Me: "No, I don't need a doctor to tell that due to the puking, fever, and other symptoms they have determined that I am ill, need to stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids and get some rest. Then they'd charge me for telling me what I already know."
Her: "Well that was a choice that you made and there is nothing now that can be done about it. But don't worry I think you made the right decision by not coming to class and risking a classmate or myself from catching whatever you had."
Me: "Well that isn't the message that you are sending. You're sending me the message that I should've come to class and puked all over."
Her: "Don't be ridiculous, we both know that wouldn't have been the best thing to do. You made the right decision, it's just too bad that it coincided with this assignment."
Me, having decided that I would show her what being ridiculous was all about: "You know what, that is stupid and next time I get sick, I'm coming to your class and puking. All over you."
Then I left. Kasey just shook her head and told me I was stupid when I told her.

the lake in front of our house

It's been about a year since Adam and I have heard thunder or seen lightning, not because it doesn't rain here, it just doesnt' lightning or thunder--usually. Last night however, we woke up to it and a bunch of rain. And now I am not at work(hallelujah!) because this is what the front of our apartment looks like. My boss said the road into work was a river and not even to try going. In my case, I walk to work, but as you can see in the picture, its up past my ankles here. It has been raining non-stop since early this morning, at about the pace of 4 inches per hour for several hours. Several of the apartment buildings in our complex have already flooded. It is supposed to stop this afternoon and we hope so because if it raises 2-3 more inches it will reach our front door. We are lucky we are on higher ground than some, but we are still on the bottom floor. There is a couple of feet of water where the roads are, and people are kayaking instead of driving down them. Adam was out helping some people this morning and said that there are cars under water. This morning Adam was helping in some houses that were waist deep in water inside their house. Lots of things have been ruined. I should mention it's not just water, here once things get flooded it backs up the sewage too. I added another picture of the wall of our building. see all the black spots? Those are bugs trying to escape too!

Grandparents, Thanksgiving and Potty Training

Grandpa and Grandma Haddock and Blake came to visit Ady for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun playing with them. This is them at Laie point. For Thanksgiving we cooked our turkey in the ground in an imu and after the turkey bowl we went to pounders beach and went boogie boarding. By the way, I have found out that I might be graduating in June, so if you want to come see us might want to come before then.

Ady is pretty fun about sleeping. She still has to have a binky when she falls asleep. We don't let her have it except when she is in her bed so she makes up for the missed time by holding as many as she can. Look in her hands and you'll see that she is holding 3 binkies and sucking on another one. By the way we have started trying to potty train Adyson. She has been coming to us for a couple of weeks now and grabbing her diaper when she goes to the bathroom. So the other day Kasey stuck her on the toilet and Ady went pooped. Grandma haddock even went and bought her her own potty. This morning we decided to use it and as soon as I got Ady out of bed I stuck her on it. Sure enough about 30 seconds later Ady peed in the potty. We were very pleased and thinking to ourselves that this is gonna be way easier than everyone says. Ady stood up, we clapped, gave her five, I wiped her bum and walked into the other room to get a diaper. Ady followed me and then when I turned around with the diaper there she was squatting in the middle of the room with a big turd on the carpet. I yelled and Kasey came running into the room, saw what was happening and went to grab Ady. Ady got a bit excited over all the commotion and immediately jumped up, stepped in the poop and took off running. Basically our great victory wasn't so great as I found myself cleaning poop out of the carpet.