Party for li'l Mr. Mason and Momma too!

It's a BABY SHOWER!

Me and Amanda

This past weekend I was privileged enough to throw a baby shower for my wonderful friend and neighbor, Amanda. She is expecting an amazing little boy at the end of August and I for one can't wait to meet him.

I was very excited to try my hand at a baby shower spread filled with all kinds of yummy foods.

I hope it was to Amanda's liking.

Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches

Lemon-Blueberry Scones

Summer Salad

Mixed Fruit with Creamy Caramel Dip

Fresh Veggies and Thick Ranch

Deviled Eggs

I tried my hand at my first diaper cake. I think the creation turned out quite well. What do you think?

We played a few games. Quick, you have 30 seconds to memorize all the baby items on the tray. Think you could remember all of them. Jody, the winner, got 12 out 15 right.

We also played everyones favorite game. The dirty diaper game. We even had a few participants who hadn't played it before. It sure was fun trying to figure out what kind of melted candy bars were in each diaper. Eeewwwwwww!!!!!!!

We also decorated some onesies for the baby. This was a fun activity I had at one of my baby showers.

I think that they turned out pretty nice. He's going to be one stylin' little dud!

Finally it was time to open those gifts and check out all the good baby booty!

Li'l guy got his very first poopy suit. How cute!

Time for the long awaited dessert!

Kiwi-Berry Pavlova

Miss Adalyn had to get in a quick pic with her future momma-in-law. Hehe

Congratulations Amanda! You're going to be a fantastic Mom.

Fifteen Weeks

The girl is fifteen weeks old already and looking cuter by the day. Boy does time fly. We are getting pretty close to the four month mark!

Adalyn had some major milestones this past week. She had her first real giggle. That just may be the most wonderful sound I've ever heard. The second milestone she reached was on July 15th. She ROLLED OVER from her tummy to her back and I got to see it! Yay Adalyn.

Here is a picture of her right after the big event and you can tell that she is sure proud of her accomplishment.

I knew she had to be pretty close to rolling over because she had been having a lot of tummy time recently.

Adalyn loves the Hawaiian style alphabet baby quilt we got her. She really enjoys gazing at all the shapes and colors on the quilt.

After all that tummy time though lil' miss Adalyn does need some down time with her pink elephant.

Fourteen Weeks

Adalyn turned fourteen weeks this week. My oh my is she a growing girl.

She is barely fitting into her newborn clothes and and all her three month clothes are starting to fit her really well. Which is very exciting for me because she has a ton of cute three month outfits she got at her baby showers that I've been itching to get on her. She is sporting one of my favorite little dresses that she got at one of my showers in Washington.

Thanks everyone for all the cuteness!

Adalyn had a really great week. I was delighted to enjoy her first real giggle. We were sitting on the couch in the living room just talking and smiling when she just started to giggle. I think it might be one of the most wonderful sounds in the whole world. It just melted my heart.

Adalyn very much dislikes her tummy time. She usually just lays there and starts crying or just lays there and attempts to fit her entire fist into her mouth. Not this week though. Out of nowhere she decided she was going to go all pro and prop herself up high onto her elbows and look around, smile and coo. She was doing so well that she was almost able to roll over onto her back. I have a feeling that it may happen in the very near future.

Adalyn got her the first round of the polio vaccine this week and she did amazingly well. Just a couple tears, then some smiles, and then a nice long nap. The last time she had a vaccine it turned out that removing the band-aid proved to be much more painful for her than the actual shot so this time I removed it during her bath time.

Adalyn is getting so active these days that bath time has moved from the kitchen counter (easy for mom) to the bath tub because she was splashing around so much that the kitchen was getting a bath too. Now that she is sitting in her whale of tub bathtub inside of the bathtub she can really go to town splashing all around. She is a real water baby. I can't wait to get her in the ocean for a little play time when she gets a bit bigger. It won't be to much longer.

Unfortunately the Navy did what they always seem to do, and they took our Matthew away from us for three weeks. After saying our good byes at the pier we headed on over to the air force base near the mouth of the harbor to get one last glimpse of the ship before it sailed off into the ocean blue. Matt's ship will be participating in RIMPAC 2010. RIMPAC is the largest international maritime exercise held biannually. Fourteen countries are participating this year. Matt will be super duper busy while they're underway and won't be getting much sleep. He could really use everyone's prayers in the next few weeks.

Adalyn was pretty sad that Dad had to leave (or maybe it was me) so we had to head over to the NEX to get her a cute new snuggle bunny. She is really loving her new pink elephant. Maybe it will be one of her favorites as she grows up.

A Felton Fourth

Adalyn is wishing everyone a very happy Fourth of July. She's excited because it's her first fourth, her three month old birthday, she's happy to be an American baby, and very pround that her dad serves in the US Navy

We had a big BBQ at our place for the fourth and we had a whole bunch of friends come celebrate with us. We treated them to a big spread of yummy, yummy food which required a big trip to the commissary. I took a pic of all the food I bought before I started baking/cooking it all up.

I forget to take some pictures of the whole spread, but I did remember to photograph our BBQ beer can chicken, it was deliciously juicy, and my lemon curd trifle with fresh berries. It was tasty!

Our menu included:

Appetizers

pickeled asparagus wrapped in ham and cream cheese, baked brie with raspberry sauce, and deviled eggs

Main Course

Honey mustard salmon, pulled pork sliders, beer can chicken, homemade baked beans, asian coleslaw, corn on the cob with chive butter, potato salad and sparkling italian basil lemonade to drink.

Dessert

Lemon curd trifle with fresh berries and reese's peanut butter bars.

Everything turned out super yummy and there were no leftovers.

Luke, Chris, Ben, and Lindsay snacking on some appetizers

I'm putting together the trifle. I can't wait to try it!

Matt's showing off his homemade amp to Joe and Luis

Amanda and Erika are getting some sun in the backyard

Stacey's thinking it's time to load up the water balloon time bomb and get someone a little wet

Stacey ended up being the one to get all wet

If you're gonna get wet, you might as well go all or nothing!

Luke's getting a little muddy while doing some slip-n-sliding.

Ben, Matthew, Luke, and Stacey had a ball on the slip-n-slide. The box said ages 5-12. That must only be a recommendation. Because it's clearly still fun when you're in your 20's and 30's.

These boys mean some serious business, fun business that is.

Let's break out some sparklers. Erika's posing with her sparkler.

Now everyone's got a sparkler!

Adalyn, Me, and Matthew are all geared up to go watch the fireworks,

Hot mama-to-be is all smiles while waiting for the show to start!

Thirteen Weeks

Thirteen Weeks!

Little Miss Adalyn celebrated her three month birthday on the Fourth of July. She is even sporting a cute Red, White and Blue themed outfit for the occasion.

Adalyn spent most of this week just being cute! Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen. I think she is.

She also worked on some tummy time. She doesn't care for it to much. Emma supervised.

Lindsay, one of the wonderful Navy wives I'm friends with here designed and painted these wonderful letters for Adalyn's room. The will always be a wonderful reminder of the time we spent in Hawaii and how luckily we've been to have such good friends here in the Hawaiian Islands.

Matthew and I attended a reception on one of the Aussie ships here in Hawaii for RIMPAC 2010. It was my first time to leave Adalyn for the evening to go out with Matt. It went pretty well, but I was very anxious to get back to that sweet little girl. Thanks to my super amazing neighbor Amanda for loving on Adalyn for a few hours, so we could get away just the two of us.

Adalyn started getting her vaccines this week. I've decided to have her get them all, but I'm feeling uncomfortable with her having so many all at one time. So we are separating them out a bit. She received her first does of Prevnar on Wednesday. She did so well. She only cried for a minute or so and then she was all smiles and started talking up a storm. She's such a happy go lucky baby!

Twelve Weeks

Adalyn is twelve weeks old.

I've been enjoying every minute I get to spend with her that I've started to forget to take pictures of her. I spend almost all of my day just watching her. She is so much more entertaining than the TV. She is such an unbelievably happy baby! She smiles, and coos most of the day. She enjoys looking around at her surroundings and gazing at her toys. I can almost see her learning. She is soooo wonderful!

We received a very special package in the mail this week. A beautiful handmade quilt from Adalyn's great grandma Ada and great grandpa Case. Isn't it gorgeous? It is so soft! I absolutely love it and I've been showing it off to everyone that comes over. Adalyn doesn't know how lucky she is to have this special gift. I'm sure she'll enjoy it for many years to come as she gets older and will cherish it for a long, long time. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!