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.

Busy Ady

Ady has been very busy lately messing up her Dad's homework and playing tour guide for friends who have visited. Scott, my roommate from USU and his family are visiting right now and we have had some fun showing them around. This is a picture of Ady at the Byo-Do-In temple in Kaneohe.

Since Ady is too big to carry when we hike and not big enough to carry me yet we have her walk. She walks at a much slower pace than I do and stops to look at anything and everything. She was doing pretty well till she tripped on a root that she didn't see. And to think how mean her dad was that he didn't pick her up till after taking the picture!

Halloween Drama

I didn't have much time when I posted the last post about halloween so I thought we'd share some more of our fun night with everyone. Ady was so funny at the ward trunk or treat party. She wouldn't let anyone touch her pumpkin bucket. If you look at the picture you'll see her leg on the bucket, this is done so her hands can be free to eat candy but she can still hold on to the bucket. When we tried to look in the bucket she would scoot around so that her back was to you. We walked around to the other side and she promptly turned around again. I think it is cause she knew we wouldn't let her eat all that candy so she was hoping that we wouldn't know how much there was and maybe she had a chance at eating it all.

This is a picture of when we got back home. She had such a sugar high and was running around the house jabbering and sqealing. Now hold on there before any of you go and call child protective services, we only let her eat half a dozen pieces. I decided that she had had enough and took the bucket away from her. This is one of the many ways she will throw a tantrum. She puts her face on the couch and screams. She refuses to look at you and puts her weight on her torso and lifts up her feet. It looks pretty funny in person.

Happy Halloween

Adyson was much more interested in Halloween this year. She loved carrying her pumpkin around and then when she figured out that people were putting candy in it she was ecstatic. We found this ladybug costume at savers, it was only 4 dollars. Of course she didn't want to be a regular ladybug, she wanted to be a ferocious killer ladybug. As you can tell she was pretty scary!

The NBA season is finally here

Things about me--Tag

TV Shows I Love to Watch
1. Price is Right
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Jeopardy
4. Family Fued
5. Press Your Luck
6. Who Wants to be a Millionare
7. reality shows
8. Watching Disney TV with Ady

Things that Happened Today
1. Got Ready for Work
2. Worked on planning our Office Retreat(Office Fued-Thanks for the Idea Patrice!)
3. Ate Tortellini for Lunch
4. Made Appt for Ady's 18 month shots
5. Worked on BYU Hawaii's Inventory list that seems to be 50% unnaccounted for!
6. Found out Disney is building a Time Share Resort on Oahu
7. Put all of Ady's clothes that are too small in a box
8. Went to the Polynesian Culture Center's Haunted Lagoon(Halloween Canoe Ride)

Favorite Places to Eat
1. FireHouse
2. Costa Vida
3. Home
4. Korean
5. Italian
6. Anything available in Laie-McD's, Pizza Hut, L&L's, Taco Bell, Hukilau Cafe-and that's it.
7. Leatherbys
8. Mexican

Things I'm Looking Forward To
1. Adam Graduating
2. Living in Hawaii until he does
3. Going to the Temple on The Big Island while Laie's closes for 18 mos. renovation
4. Going to Utah for Christmas
5. Reading the Twilight Series
6. James Bond & Harry Potter Movies
7. Office Retreat
8. Moving Sales at the end of the semester

Things on My Wish List
1. Go to every theme park available
2. Nice big vehicle that doesn't guzzle gas
3. training for my job
4. be more selfless
5. be more creative
6. Microwave that's more than 700 watts
7. Win all the games I play
8. Longer Weekends

People I Tag
(If you've never been tagged before you just use the headings and answer them for yourself in a new posting - I'm looking forward to see what your answers are:)
1. Melanie
2. Jennifer
3. Mary Ann
4. Emma
5. Rachel
6. Natalie
7. Gaby
8. Maren

Fun times with Daniel and Whitney

Well it has been a bit since we had time to post anything so I thought since I don't have any homework this weekend I'd better take a moment and tell you what kind of trouble Adyson has found lately.  So today we spent all day(all day means that I was watching college football and every commercial and halftime break) cleaning the house.  We even took down the drapes and laundered them.  When we finally finished cleaning I went to Pizza Hut and got us a pizza.  I came in, set it on the table while I put the ice cream in the freezer and when I turned around this is what I saw.  If you didn't already know Adyson loves pizza.  Especially stuffed crust pineapple just like her dad.  If you look really close you will see that because Ady is so skinny and being stretched out her pants are sliding down.  The kid is already taking her first steps into turning into a hoodlum by sagging her pants.  Don't worry mom, as soon as I took the picture I pulled her pants back up.  

Uncle Daniel and Aunt Whitney came and visited us a couple of weeks ago and we had all sorts of fun playing with them.  This is us at Haunama Bay.  We went snorkeling there one morning.  Ady loved it.  She didn't get to go and swim with the turtles and fish but she loves running around on the sand and playing in the water.  She was so excited that she wouldn't even turn around for the picture.

Just because we haven't updated the blog for a couple of weeks doesn't mean that Ady gotten into anything in that time. While Daniel and Whitney were here I was doing the dishes and I realized that it had been a few minutes since I had seen or heard Ady. So I go looking for her and this is how I found her. Apparently Whitney has an addiction to chocolate and always keeps a candy bar in her suitcase for emergencies. You know, when I was in high school we had this dog who could smell chocolate really well. In fact once during Christmas time we left him inside for a little while and he found all the packages with chocolate in them and tore them open to get at that chocolate. Ady is kinda like this. I guess she went right for this stash of Whitney's and found a little treasure. Doesn't she look cute and pleased with herself.

Ady and I took Daniel and Whitney hiking one day while Kasey was at work. Ady and I like hiking, and usually I just pack her along in the baby bjorn but this time she didn't fit the carrier and was way too heavy to carry the whole way. So I put her down which made her really happy. She climbed, and hiked on her own for a good chunk of the way.

Doesn't she look proud of herself. And yes she was filthy dirty when we got done.

Whitney wore crocs to hike in and due to the rain the trail was really muddy, so she had to have a stick cause she kept stumbling and almost fell a dozen times or so. Ady wanted a stick too. This is her stick. No worries that it is bigger than her!

We had fun taking Daniel and Whitney to many places including Waikiki. Daniel and Whitney were nice enough to watch Ady for a bit while Kasey and I went surfing. Kasey spent about an hour being frustrated and then we finally got her up on a wave. We had a lot of fun. This is all of us in front of the Duke Kahanamoku statue.

"Working Hard for a Living"

So Adyson has decided to help out with making a living.  The other day Ady and Dad came to pick Mom up from work at the end of the day like they often do.  While waiting for Mom to finish her work, Ady was outside running around and found the vending machine that she likes to push all of the buttons on.  Well, she was pushing in the door the drinks come out of and Adam noticed she was looking in at something.  Pretty soon she had her little hand down in there reaching for something back in the back under the change slot area.   And then all of a sudden she takes her hand out and she was holding a quarter, smiling and showing Dad.  Then she walked over to him and handed it over with the cutest "look what I got" face.  I guess she earned her diaper's worth that day!

A really cool birthday present

Adam's birthday just passed and I got him a couple of great presents.  A couple of months ago I bought him a Jazz hat and told him that would be his present.  But I found another present and I think I did great.  When it comes to giving presents to Adam, it's very straight forward. He would be happy to receive Legos, an old American coin, or a book. When it comes to giving me gifts I want something new and different everytime!
When it comes to getting gifts for the other...it is the exact opposite. I want to give Adam something surprising and different each time, and he would rather give me another board game everytime. This makes a bittersweet shopping experience for us. If I get what Adam wants...its not the new and different and thoughtful present from me. (but only to me...to him it is the best new lego set ever!!) Does anyone else have this dilemma, or something like it?
Even though this is just a minor dilemma for us...I think this time I found a great birthday gift this time that was new and different and it was something that Adam loves.

This is a book that I had made for Adam.  It is a collection of pictures he has taken.  For those of you who don't know, one of Adam's hobbies is photography.  These are just a couple of the pages out of the book.  There is a page for waterfalls, one for sunsets/sunrises, one for Southern Utah, a page with underwater pictures and so forth.  It is really cool.  He thought it was a great gift.  The only problem is now he shows off his pictures even more than he did before!

Fun in the Tub

Adyson loves taking baths and showers.  Her favorite toy recently has been the cup that we use to pour water on her and the plug.  She loves taking the plug out and then sticking it back in.  

Doesn't she look so happy when she's clean!  Usually bath or shower time is pretty uneventful and a not to difficult process.  However sometimes unexpected things occur. . . 
Yup, that's poop.  And yes, Ady is pointing at it.  All I know is that it was a calm Saturday morning, I was cooking breakfast, keeping an eye on a football game, and then all of the sudden I heard Kasey yell.  I knew from the tone of the yell that something was wrong.  I quickly crossed the room and threw open the bathroom door to see Ady proudly pointing at a pile of poop in the shower and Kasey looking mortified.  My only thought; good thing they were taking a shower and not a bath!