Halloween in Hawaii

Most years Halloween would consist of fun costumes, chocolate and beer.  But this Halloween...it consisted of lots of working for Justin and abstaining from the chocolate (gestational diabetes) and beer (for obvious reasons) for Trish :(

But we did try to get into the holiday spirit a little bit by dressing Maiyah up as Grandma and me as Little Red Riding Hood.  Thanks to my mom for the idea and supplying the costumes :)

More pregnancy photos

It's been about 5 or 6 weeks since I've had Justin take photos of the growing belly.  Here are a few from yesterday.

 31 weeks side view

 31 weeks

 Front view 31 weeks

Maiyah wanting to get in on the action :)

Hawaiian Baby Shower

I had a wonderful time today at my Hawaiian baby shower.  Sara, Kim and Justin's mom (Susan) really worked hard planning this special event.  It was great to see all of the girls' group and a few coworkers at today's party.  We had a very nice breakfast at Hapa Grill in Kapolei.  The girls kept everything in an ocean animals theme...which is what we are planning on doing for the nursery.  There were fun baby games like Guess the Celebrity Baby/Parents slideshow, measuring the belly and mystery baby boxes.  Everyone was very generous and we received many adorable gifts for the baby...can't wait until he is here to use them :)

We are very fortunate to have also had a baby shower in PA while I was home for a short visit this summer.  I am usually terrible at remembering to take pictures so I will have to wait to get them from my parents before I can share those.   Here are some from today.

 Sea Babies diaper cake

 The room before the party

 Sara, Kim and I

 Personalized water bottles for the event

 Justin's mom, Susan, and I

 The whole group at the end of the shower

 Centerpieces with sea animal cookie bags/cookie cutter favors

 This will probably be Justin's favorite of all the presents...thanks, Heidi!

The yummy cake!

Introducing our new "puppy", Maiyah!

We have been wanting to get a dog for a long time.  We are both animal lovers but our last house didn't allow pets.  We were fortunate that our landlord at the new place does allow pets but we still hadn't found the "right" dog.  She found us!  Justin happened to be talking with a patron at the bar that had an 8 month old all black German Shepherd puppy that she wasn't able to care for anymore and was looking for a new home for her with owners whose schedules weren't so busy.  We met her and immediately fell in love.  We arranged to pick her up about 2 weeks ago.  We changed her named from Freya to Maiyah.  She is a big "puppy"!  She weighs 70 pounds already!
We have been enjoying getting to know our new pup! She has a great personality and is very smart...she is picking on new tricks quickly.  We are working with her on walking close to us when we go for long walks...she likes to lead and at 70 pounds she can be a little difficult to persuade away from whatever it is she is wanting to smell! We are very hopeful that we will get her into a good routine before the baby arrives and we add a stroller to the mix :)

 Maiyah's first day at our house

 Sleepy puppy!

 She loved playing in the sprinklers...she is definitely a water lover!

She does this "dopey" expression a lot...how can you take her seriously!

Pregnancy photos

Okay, so now that I have officially started figuring this whole blog thing out...I am going to attempt inserting some pregnancy photos. I am 30 weeks pregnant right now and the latest photo I have is of the belly at 25 weeks so I will work on getting a more current photo this week!

                                                                          5 weeks

                                                                        15 weeks

                                                                           25 weeks

New at this!

Aloha everyone!
So I finally broke down and started creating my blog.  Several of my Hawaii friends have been doing this for a while to help keep family and friends (near and far) updated on the recent events in their lives.  I am very new at this so....it may take a while for my page to come together.  Hopefully I will have the swing of it before Baby Sturgeon arrives in December :)