November

Ok, so I'm horrible. I didn't update the blog for the entire month of November. This will be a summary post of everything that happened during the month.

The first weekend, we ventured out to the Honolulu Zoo. It's not as good as the Portland Zoo, but for being on an island, it's actually larger than I expected.

Here's a picture of me and Marcus in front of the Giraffes.

After the zoo, we watched the Beavers stomp the Cal Bears 31-14. Check out Marcus in his awesome Beaver gear.

The next weekend we went to the Waikiki Aquarium and the Arizona Memorial. Marcus slept through the aquarium, there wasn't much to see, and fussed his way through the Arizona. Here he is trying to blow a raspberry on the boat out to the memorial.

The next weekend, we headed to Hickam AFB, where Marcus slept the whole time and Eric and I got to try out paddleboarding together. This was my first time, and it was a blast.

Our sweet baby sleeping so we could enjoy the beach.

Me and Eric getting ready to hit the water. Here's a video of us coming back to shore.

For Thanksgiving, Eric had some guys over and we had a great meal. I tried something new this year and made the turkey in the crock-pot. It came out so moist and freed up my oven for all of the sides.

The next day we headed to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. Here's a picture of Marcus looking super cute in his surfing hat.

Saturday we hit Bellows AFS for some awesome boogie boarding. It was probably the best day of boogie boarding I've experienced since taking my first lesson at Bellows after Dan and Jen's wedding.

Marcus sure loves to sleep at the beach. I keep bringing his swim diaper out with us, but he never wakes up so that we can try it out. Here's a video of Me and Eric boogie boarding together.

On Sunday, we headed up to North Shore for the Haleiwa Farmer's Market. They were having a holiday fair and Santa was there for Marcus' first encounter. He handled it beautifully. From sleeping in his stroller, to a quick change into his Christmas outfit and placement on Santa's lap for pictures, and sleeping back in his carseat; I don't think he knew what happened.

And of course, when on North Shore, we had to stop at Matsumoto's for some shave ice on the way home.

And that was November for us. Next I'll try to tackle December so far. Maybe it won't take me so long to post it this time.

Pumpkin Hunting

Marcus, Cindy and I visited a pumpkin patch yesterday. This is the pumpkin that we found, but we didn't end up getting it because Marcus didn't approve. (Just kidding he was asleep.)

Marcus' first hike

Eric had Monday off before leaving for training on the Big Island, so we decided to head to Diamond Head for Marcus' first hike. He did great, he slept the whole way and woke up at the end ready for a meal.

This picture is of Eric and Marcus on the second to last (and very steep) staircase of the journey. It was scarier going down this staircase than up it.

A view of the crater from the top.

What an awesome view of Waikiki. This shot includes the entire strip from the Hilton Hawaiian Village to Kapiolani Park.

And yes, I was there too. A shot of all three of us at the top with Waikiki in the background. It was a great day for a hike.

2 week checkup

Marcus had his 2 week checkup today. He is doing well, and obviously eating enough as he now weighs 9.3 lbs and is 22 inches long. He's gotten on a pretty regular eating/sleeping schedule, so we're actually both getting quite a bit of sleep.

The picture above is for those of you that are complaining about the lack of pictures of me on the blog. It's hard to get a picture of me with Marcus as whenever I hold him he thinks it's time to eat. Hopefully he'll get over that soon.

Miss you all!

Marcus Logan and Kaena Pt.

On Saturday Christina's parents, Marshall and Karen, Christina and myself hiked to Kaena Point, the westernmost point on Oahu (the first 2 pictures are of the actual point). On Sunday, we took Kimber to a dog friendly beach so she could try swimming and she did a great job. I would get in the water and she would run toward me and start doggie paddling when it got deep enough and immediately swam back to shore because she got tired. She is still a little afraid of the waves crashing but hopefully when the wind dies down we can take her back to the same place so she can swim more.

Marcus Logan Sturzinger was born on September 21st, 2009 at 9:50 PM Hawaiian time. He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 in long. Christina and I woke up that morning to her having strong contractions and a few hours later headed to the hospital down in Honolulu. We were immediately admitted and after about 12 hours (including 3 1/2 hours of pushing) we had a baby. He had quite a bit of hair for a baby.

This is Christina and me before the hard part.

This is Marcus a few minutes after birth.

CHECK OUT THESE VIDEOS:

Video 1 Click Here

Video 2 Click Here - Sleeping

Video 3 - The joys of parenthood

These three were taken the next day. In Christina's defense, she was a little tired.

This is him as soon as we got home. He likes his rocker, trying to throw gang signs at me in the second picture.

No Baby Yet

Sorry there is no baby yet in case you are wondering, so we will post pictures and stuff after he is born. Probably will be born some time on Friday, 9/18.

EIB Ceremony

Eric spent last week training for his Expert Infantryman's Badge and the testing was held this week. This meant two weeks of early mornings and late nights. The testing included an Army PFT, Land Navigation, a 12-mile ruck march in 3 hours or less, and infantry specific knowledge tests. The final event was the 12-mile march this morning, for which Eric had to get up at 3 am. The rest of us got to sleep in and attend the award ceremony at 9:30. While Eric will downplay the effort involved in earning this badge, out of 480 soldiers attempting to earn it, only 106 completed the requirements.

Hanauma Bay

So on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, Eric and I finally went to Hanauma Bay. For those of you that have not been to Hawaii, Hanauma Bay is THE tourist destination for snorkeling. They have a good assortment of fish to see, but they also have a very large assortment of people. Recently, they have started limiting the number of people that can visit per day because it was getting out of control. We left our house before 7 am in order to get there before all of the tourists. When we arrived, there were hardly any people on the beach and we got our fill of snorkeling before it got too packed. Here are a few pictures:

Eric at the top of the hill overlooking the bay.

Christina relaxing on the beach before we got in the water.

Eric enjoying the water after finishing snorkeling.

The two of us right before we left the bay.

Really? A day off?

Eric had the day off today, so we went to the beach. We decided to head down to Hickam AFB as I have never been there and Eric said it was a great beach. This first picture is the panoramic view of the beach from where we were sitting. It was a beautiful day and the water was crystal clear and very refreshing.

One more belly shot, as people have been complaining about the lack of pictures of me on this blog.

One thing we noticed while driving through Hickam, you can definitely tell the difference between an Army base and an Air Force base. Hickam is extremely better looking than our base. We were definitely jealous; Eric because of the running trails everywhere, myself because of the beautiful houses.

Baby Sturzinger at 35 weeks

I was a little worried about not having gained any weight during my pregnancy, so my provider was kind enough to schedule a growth scan today. The baby is doing well, coming in at 5 lbs. 13 ozs. which puts him in the 47th percentile. He’s right on track for his due date of September 15. The best part of this ultrasound was being able to see him almost fully developed.

Here’s a picture of his pouty lips and cute button nose.

And a picture of his whole face.

The ultrasound technician also verified for us that he hasn’t changed sexes in the last 15 weeks.

All’s going well. We almost have everything we need for his arrival. The last big thing we need to get is the car seat/stroller combo and then we’ll be ready for the hospital.

The baby's room

We got a crib this week and got it put together today, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the almost finished baby room. The only thing left is to put up some wall decorations which are in the mail. I should have them next week.

This first picture is looking into the room from the doorway. At the bottom of the picture is a dresser with the baby book on it. Eric's cross-stitch birth announcement is on the dresser too waiting for me to find mine so that I can hang them up on that wall together with our baby's birth announcement. In the center of the picture is our bookshelf full of stuffed animals. There are even more stuffed animals/dolls hanging above the bookcase.

These two chairs and end table are just to the left of the bookcase. We're not sure yet if the leather recliner will stay in this room or get moved out to the living room.

Kimber's already found her favorite spot in the baby room, right on top of the monkey rug. She fits perfectly from ear to ear.

Here's the finished crib with the baby's quilt and the changing table behind me. And for those of you complaining about not having seen my belly, the first belly shot. I certainly don't look 8 months pregnant, but I feel it.

And a close up, just in case my belly's not big enough for you.

I also put the bassinet together last week and it's in our bedroom ready for the baby. It's a gorgeous German piece that was lent to us by my neighbors back in Oregon.

Next I'll post pictures of the finished back lanai/guest room. The house is almost done, I just need to hang pictures on the walls and remove all of the extra boxes.