Paci's, Passed Out & a Package!

I had to post more pictures of Nikko's Birthday and random stuff.

Before my mom left, I asked her to get a couple more paci's for us. We came here with 6 and were down to 2. This little guy finds all sorts of places to put them. In our shoes, in drawers, cupboards, boxes. Behind the couch, pretty much any where that makes it hard for us to find. So she brought us a bunch and he is in paci HEAVEN!


One is never enough!

Four will do just fine! This wasn't posed for a picture. He really has to have more than 2 paci's in his crib. Just in case he gets bored with the one he has.


We took these two pictures the night after of his party. The night of his party was wild. He would NOT go to sleep or even settle down. The following night however was a bit different. He was pooped. We think he had consumed way too much sugar during the party. The night after was a lot easier to get him to sleep. He completely passed out.

Noni fed him and that was it for the rest of the night! SO exhausted.



OK- Rick and Lisa,

These are for you!


He was SO excited to see what was in the box.




He really opened the box on his own! It was really cute!



This was the expression caught once he got a peek inside!

Just what Nikko wanted! Some bath time wipes!

And a Twix!

The train was a HUGE hit! He LOVES it! Good job!





The Milkways are also a hit!

He really loves to tear paper apart so a wrapped present was a present alone!

Little Einsteins! He still loves that show!

Then a book! Not just any book, a Skippy Jon Jones Book! His favorite! What a SPOILED little guy! He is SO lucky! Seriously though, that was too much! He really is one loved boy! The package was GREAT! Jake was in Heaven with the beef jerky! So was Nikko, we let him have a piece and he went to town! You guys are awesome Grandparents! Thanks for being so good to our little man! And to us as well!

We love you guys!

Another Adventure!

Wednesday we decided to take a little road trip and took a tour around the island. It is MUCH bigger than we thought. We had planned to go around the entire island but half way through, we decided it would take about 6 hours to get home. So we cut through the middle of the island. The drive was amazing! We went from a big city to the country side. Four lane highways to tunnels that have been hand chiseled with room for only one car. One tiny European car! This island is gorgeous with so much diversity. In one day, we felt like we had been to Ireland, Oregon, San Diego, Hawaii and South America! Madeira really is such a unique island with so many different things to offer. We are so happy we were able to see all this while Noni is here!

This is the tunnel I had mentioned. It was TINY! The picture is bad but it was the only one that turned out. We were really lucky because there weren't any cars coming in the other direction!


You probably can't tell but those are little huts that you can stay in. It's like a hotel, they looked really cute!

We got lucky, someone was very tired and slept for the entire drive!

Hydrangeas just grow out here. They are SO beautiful and there are so many all over. Just growing like weeds!

The views were amazing.




These little huts were in the town of Santana. They were so cute!

Monday

These pictures were taken on Monday. We went for a nice walk and took some fun random pictures. We have been busy doing fun stuff but I just haven't been able to post them.

Can you tell Noni is here?

He now loves Pepsi!

The Palace

Nikko waking up from a long nap/walk.

This church is right around the corner from our apartment. It is SO cute. It's right in the middle of the city with big buildings surrounding it. You would think Snow White lives inside!

Too cute.

This is Noni leaning against the root of a tree. It is massive.

A castle on top of the hill.

A view of the Marina and our apartment.

Some dog baking at us.

Not a very good picture but it's a really pretty old castle.

Just going for a walk!

The Day I Nearly Ruined Nikko's Birthday Party!

I never really thought about the day that I would be throwing a birthday party for my one year old son. It just never crossed my mind. I have SO much respect for ALL mothers who do this EVERY YEAR. I must have been out of my mind. Since we are away from family, we had to invite the next closest thing. All the Missionaries! That means 10-12 missionaries to feed, plus whoever was going to show from Jake's team. That's a lot of hungry boys, and big boys at that. Now, I am the biggest procrastinator in the entire world. No lie. I figured I could throw a party together that day (what an idiot!). Then we went to church and found out from the 4 missionaries we invited that word had spread like fire that we were going to be feeding them. So all the missionaries wanted to come over. Like I'm going to say no to all those hungry boys! We went to the store and had my mom not been here, it would have been a disaster! Somehow, we were able to feed almost 20 people in our tiny apartment. We even had left overs.

Now my reason for another reason why I have so much respect for Mothers.

I should have worked harder on my domestic skills when I was younger. About 2 hours before the party was suppose to start, I got the cake ready to put in the oven. Yes, the oven. That's right. The cake wasn't even made and to top it off, I was trying to make 2! One for Nikko and one for the guests. One important thing to mention, I had never used our oven before. After the first cake had been in for 15 minutes, there was SMOKE coming out of the oven. We pulled the cake out and that is when the breakdown started. My mom was SO hopeful that we COULD salvage the burnt cake. I pulled the angry Emy attitude and put the next cake in and lowered the temperature. What do you think happened next? 10 minutes later, MORE smoke! Yep, I ruined BOTH cakes! The tops were totally burned and the center was still runny. With 1 hour before the party was suppose to start! All I can say is that I have the worlds best Mother and Husband. They saved the day and were able to cut all the burned tops and edges off AND were able to finish baking the cakes. I was a MESS. I was crying, thinking to myself, I SUCK at this. What was I thinking trying to pull this off. With them both by my side, I..... NO, WE were able to throw a party for the cutest little stinker in the entire world. Thanks to LOTS of frosting to cover up all the lumps in the uneven cake, no one ever knew I had ruined them!

It was 1 year ago today, almost to the hour that he was born. He is our everything. If we didn't have him, I would be SO lonely out here. He makes us both happier than we thought we could ever be. We love him so much and are so grateful he is all ours!

Here are a couple of pictures. I tried to upload all the best shots, (like messy cake face) but it wouldn't upload. I will do it another day!


We had about 10 missionaries there. All of them helped us sing Happy Birthday to Mr. Nikko and this is how it went.

At first, the song was fun and exciting!


Then for some reason, Nikko did NOT like the song. Or the cake. Notice how amazing that cake looks. Like some professional chef spent all day on it! This cake was made from the left over parts from the cakes we had salvaged. That is why it looks like a cinnamon bun.

Once he tasted the frosting, he was a happy camper!


I wasn't able to get the pictures of him eating and smashing it in his hair.

He had lots of happy moments, then sad moments. The presents were his happy moments, then he would get a little overwhelmed with all the people watching him.