Arizona

Baby conked out after traveling all day~ I didn't even have to rock her to sleep!

I layed her down so that I could pee and I came back out and she was asleep! Oh if only every time she went to sleep could be this easy!

So, in my spare time, I decided to take some pictures. I figured that since I was going to be changing my hair color, I should preserve the memory...


not too bad... we'll see what happens after we're done!

This week in our world was a good one. Sariah is getting on a somewhat regular sleeping schedule, but that doesn't mean she is sleeping at night. In fact, she doesn't really sleep at night. She takes one nap. BUT~ I'm not going to try to convince her that she's got her days and nights wrong. In fact, I'm hoping that she continues to stay up at night, at least for the next couple of weeks. We'll be heading to Germany soon, and so I'm just gonna keep her up and once we're there, she'll be in the right and we will both sleep through the night!

We took a mini vacation this week down to Austin. We walked all over the UT campus, and let me tell you, it is uphill both ways no matter which way you go. We walked from Campus over to the Capitol, and toured the building and underground annex's. We stayed with some of our friends, and they were kind enough to introduce us to the game Killer Bunnies. If you've never heard of Killer Bunnies, you are not alone. But after playing it once, let me tell you how bad I want to invest in this game! I found it on Amazon for a reasonable price, and the booster packs look pretty sweet. Just saying. I think the family might like this game, or at least my family will.

On our way back to Dallas, we stopped in Ft. Hood (hello armpit of TX) to get Sariah's and my military passports. Here are some pictures of Sariah as we were trying to get her 2x2 photo. They made me laugh.




I had a civilian passport. The picture was pretty decent too, better than the previous one (I was ten and had one eyebrow...) I thought that they would just take my forms and civilian passport, and since it was the state department who had to put it together, they would just use the picture that they had on file... it was only two months ago that we took that picture. I was wrong. Had I known they were going to take my picture, I would not have put my hair in pig tails. I would have put on a little more eyeliner and made sure the zit on my chin was properly covered. But it was not meant to be. So, I have pigtails and a pimple.. Think they're going to believe that I am old enough to travel halfway across the world?! Well, I'll do it anyways.

We met up with some friends just outside of Ft. Hood, and I'm glad that we decided to make that stop instead of rushing home. Chad had the opportunity to talk to a Sergeant First Class out of uniform about anything and everything he could think of over a six hour discussion. I know his wife, and she gave me the goods on how to get around some things and some advice that Steph has shared with me before, but I didn't understand until the paperwork issues I ran into yesterday regarding our travel. Thank goodness for military wives who have been there and done that. Steph, I will probably be harrassing you more than normal over the next couple months.


Chad's travel dates got pushed up and he will be leaving next Wednesday for Geissen, and will be there for about a week or two before being stationed at Hohenfeldt of Grafenwoehr. Dont worry, I can't pronounce it either. Once he is in Geissen, he'll start setting up our housing and travel itenerary. I'm very glad that we got all the information that we did from Ft. Hood, I'm not so happy with the lack of support that Ft. Leonard Wood gave us. Lazy military people. Now I know better and It's not gonna happen again. I'm wising up to you tactic's military!



Amanda, Chad, & Sariah

Babies Galore

This week has been another blessing in our world. Nicole had her baby and gave us another nephew to spoil and coo at. I find it amazing how different the three Nunes babies look. Granted, the other halves of their gene pools couldn't be farther apart in distance than our little bunch. Sariah is Haoli and Hawaiian, Jayden is Popolo and Hawaiian, and Kalika is Tongan and Hawaiian. Pretty interesting mix in our world! Kalika joined our family this Tuesday, weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 8 oz. So far, he is the biggest cousin. Jayden, although having two months on Kalika and one month on Sariah, has smaller hands and feet than the two of them. Sariah held the record for feet until this week, when Kalika made his appearance a full set of toes longer than hers. Each time there is a new baby, it beats out the previous one in weight and shoe size. I sure hope that this isn't a trend, I don't know if I can have that many kids with such large feet!

We're excited to be spending some good quality time with our families before Chad takes off to Germany next week. I'm just waiting for one more piece of legal paperwork for Sariah, and for Chad to go and set up our housing, before we follow him and reunite as our smaller family unit.


Jayden and Kalika

Sariah and Kalika

hey everyone its chad. this is my first time on here. Life is going good and amazing . I leave for Germany on the 24 of Sept. I go to Geissen germany for the us army stay a couple of weeks and get in-processed then get shipped to grafenwoehr or someplace else. I m way stoked about it then amanda gets to come over and stay with me.

Sariah's Blessing

For years, my family has had a Labor Day BBQ with the same family. Their kids and our kids are pretty much all the same age, so everyone always had a friend to play with. The kids are growing up, and it's harder and harder to get together, but I got a wild hair in my hat on saturday, and i wanted to BBQ. So I emailed my mom's friend Kathi. Unfortunately, they had already made plans for Monday, and I was left without a large number of people to entertain. Well... It's Chad to the Rescue! He called his mom, and invited them over to the BBQ (he didn't know the other family couldn't come yet). And then he invited Uncle Lenny and family. And then he told his wife that he had extended extra invitations. At least I now had people to plan for! Love it!

Sunday came around and we met with our Bishop about blessing baby, and getting Chad's and Bishop's schedule to match up. Well, we had the perfect date, Sept. 20th marked on the calendar, until my mom said that we couldn't do that because she would be out of town on her sisters trip. So, we called up Chad's mom and asked her when a good day would be for all of the family to get together for Sariah's blessing, and she said that we should just do it at the BBQ. So, we made some quick calls to our family friends, and invited more to the BBQ and blessing so that they could stand in the circle. Seth and Ed (Chad's brothers from other mothers) came out, and so did the Olsen, Barker, and Bangerter families. (manda's Party tally just doubled!)

Monday morning was spent in frantic preparation. My Dad and Chad went out to make sure that the yards were suitable and the pool was blue. Aleah and I spent the morning making yummy deserts and mom made a couple of salads to complement the hamburgers, hotdogs, and bratwurst that the men folk would be grilling after the blessing. We cleaned and vacuumed the house, found extra chairs for the extra butts, and gave Sariah a bath for good measure (it was really a party for her after all!) We even kept her mostly naked just to make sure that any spit up didn't soak into her clothes and make her smelly before the big event. Four o'clock rolled around and all of our friends and family made their appearances.


Daddy blessed Sariah and gave her a beautiful name :) Sariah Poamaika'i Ahonui Nunes is a real person now (because according to the ladies at the store she was fake before ((I got asked twice if she was real or a doll that I was carrying around.. paaahleeease!))



There was so much food to commemorate her blessing and celebrate Labor Day. Lots of people swam in the blue pool, Eliana (belongs to uncle Lenny) and Rebecca Olsen made friends ("who can run around the fastest" was the favorite game, next to "share my chicken").


Everybody left after a couple of hours, and Chad and I decided that since Princess Sariah decided to sleep, we should do the same. And so we did.

Baby Baths

This week has brought some more firsts to our little family :) We officially gave Sariah her first bath, and discovered that even though she hates the getting naked part, she loves playing in the warm water. She is changing every day and we sure are enjoying watching it! Chad's been at the recruiters office this week and will be there again next week. It's been so nice having him back!

Chad's graduation, the St. Louis trip, and Welcome home party

It has been quite a week for us! Sariah flew on her first plane. She was so good~ she slept the whole time. At first, I was afraid we weren't going to be able to make it to Chad's graduation because the lady at the front desk didn't want to accept the doctors note for Sariah. Luckily though, she sent us to her supervisor, who saw that doctors note, and whisked us away to our airplane. We rented a car in St. Louis, and then we drove two hours to Ft. Leonard Wood. On Wednesday, we attended Family Day and watched a movie of all of the new MP's and the different training they have gone through in the last 20 weeks. Chad got his first glance at Sariah on Wednesday morning, and after the Family Day event was over, he was allowed to come off post and spend the day with us. He is such a proud Daddy!



We spent the rest of the day relaxing and letting Chad and Sariah get to know one another. She took to him right away, and he handled her like she was going to break, it was so cute! Mom and Dad Nunes got into town later that night, and we went out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. Chad had to return to the base for one last night of Army duties, and we watched as he mingled with the other MP's and lined up in formation.


Thursday morning was graduation. They played another movie of MP activities and then they released all the service members to their families. We picked up Chad's packet of orders and then went off to file paperwork for Sariah while Mom and Dad went to the MP museum there on base. Chad finally officially changed my name so that the insurance company would quit hating me, and added Sariah to our list of dependents. We fixed our passport papers to have the new date and duty station (It's no longer Mannheim, but not Geissen). We went out to lunch with Mom and Dad, and then we went back to the hotel for some much needed NAP Time!

Friday morning we left Ft. Leonard Wood and drove to St. Louis. We decided to do some sight seeing to kill time until our flight home that night, and ended up at the St. Louis arch. We walked through the park and then we went underground to the museum. We rode the tram (which should not be allowed to fit five people per box!) to the top, and took wonderful pictures of Illinois and St. Louis. We then went back down in the tram (down was ten times worse than up) and headed back to the airport to bring Chaddy home.


Saturday rolled around and we went to Uncle Lenny's house to celebrate. Chad's friends and family all came out to eat good food and catch up on the last five months. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family! The food was so good I'm positive no one left hungry.


We took Sariah to church for the first time on Sunday. She looks so pretty in her dress. She's quite the people pleaser, always look so dang cute and happy (or sleepy) whenever anyone else but her mom and dad are around. But we know the truth, all that cuteness hides a little girl with a temper! But thats why we love her so much! that and she tends to giggle in her sleep!

Chad will be working for our local recruiters office for the next two weeks, and then he's got a week off to play with me and Sariah. He's off to Germany before we are to set up our housing and make sure that things are set. Once Sariah's paperwork makes it through the system, we'll head off and start our life over there. Hopefully Chad will get to stay on post long enough where when the call him away, We'll let him go (temporarily), lets just pray they wait that long!

Sariah is here

Sariah Pomaika'i Ahonui Nunes: 6lbs 11oz, 19 inches long, 2:58AM, August 13th, 2009









Sariah is here. She came early Thursday morning after 18 hours of labor. She doesn't look a thing like me, but is definately a clone of her father. Silly man, claims he cant see the resemblence (insert eye roll and a pahlease!) She is definately a Nunes, has the Nunes lungs on her too. She's long and skinny. The clothes that I have labeled as "New Born" are too big, making it look like she is wearing a dress.

I'm wondering when this mom thing that is supposed to be part instictual is going to kick in. Luckily I'm staying with my mom and have his mom so close at hand to help me through the transition phase. Transition phase never ends past this point, does it? Auntie Machiko says that she has hoppa hair. I guess when Chad was a baby he had the same semi undistinguished light brown wavy hair. Unfortunately for Sariah, she has my hair line, which on a newborn looks kinda funky.

I learned today, well, as I type really, that i can multi-task. See, she's eating right now, and I'm still typing. But if i don't watch her, she gets mad and unlatches. So I'll spell check when I'm done. We're on day three of life, and her eyes are already changing color. She's going to have pretty green eyes, Just like Chad (me too, but I'm partial to his). She absolutely amazes me. I like just sitting here watching her.


She has my feet too, but I think that she has Grandma Nunes's hands. She didn't get long fingers from either of her parents.


















I just got spit up on. Amazing. I know, babies do that, but since it's my baby who did it, I'm fascinated. Her face made the cutest expression right before it happened, which some might attribute to the full diaper now sitting in my lap, but I think it's because she saw me and decided to smile at her momma.




















Of course, she then made this "Oops... hehe" face.
























She's also found her thumb, and although it gets in the way of real food, she'll at least be able to comfort herself! She's doing so good, the doctor actually released her from the hospital before they released me, and I had an "ideal" birth. Oh, I'm so glad that he's is finally here. I'm so glad that I'm not pregnant any more. Chad is fascinated when he calls and gets to here her squeak, she doesn't ever squawk when he's on the phone. It was funny, if I ever wanted her to calm down while i was carrying her, I just had to put him on speaker phone and she would stop wiggling and listen to his voice.

Chad will graduate in two weeks. We are going out to see him and bring him home with us before the big move to Germany. I'm very excited to introduce these two who look so much alike. We are going to spend an extra day out there as a family, and will probably see the St. Louis arch. It's time for him to be home!

Basic Training

Chad finished Basic training this week, and he has ten more weeks of Military Police training and then he will be able to come home and everything will be all honkey dorey... yeah. right. so here are the pictures that he sent me today with his new fancy beret.

The Nunes Ohana

Yay!! you looked at it! Congratulations~ I'm so excited to get this started. Facebook is great, but I can only see what's happening every once in a while. Blogger gives us a chance to write our own family history. It automatically archives once a month, and so when we have things to share, this is a great place to do it. Just for starters, I'll give you an update on what is happening with Chad:

Chad is currently going through his AIT program at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. For those of you who don't speak military, AIT stands for advanced individual training, and is pretty much the Military Police school as far as Chad is concerned. He gets to carry around guns, play war games, and learn survival skills that even the boy scouts can appreciate. He claims to be loving it, which brings a peace and comfort to my world. I got to speak to him for a whole 20 minutes tonight~ thats big time, lemme tell ya, normally I only get to talk to him for about three minutes on Sundays. It's hard to tell him that I'm selling his car and that his baby is so big that i can't breathe and how much I miss him.. etc all in three minutes. He really didn't take kindly to the whole selling his car tidbit.. but I persevered, found a good buyer, and convinced him of the benefits ;) he's still not overly happy, but told me what I could and couldn't accept for it (point 1 to Amanda!). I may even get a piano out of the deal! Woohoo~ music in our home.. when we get a home.. maybe.
He has ten more weeks of training, and will graduate on August 27th. His orders right now have him going to Manheimm Germany in the begining of October, but like my dad always says, the army makes the rules and the army breaks the rules. We'll know more for sure in the middle of August (but I'm crossing my fingers for Germany!!!) He likes to get letters, so if you would like to send him one, be sure that you get the address right;

PVT-1, Nunes, Chad, I.K.
A. Co. 795th MPBN, 3rd PLT
1301 Iowa Ave, Unit #15
Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo 65473

I'm sure that he would love hearing from all of you. He also loved to show pictures to his battle buddies, so be sure to send him some to put up on the "family" wall in his barraks. Who knows, maybe you younger girls will find a penpal ;)

As for me and baby Sariah, we are doing good and getting bigger daily. The doctor has moved her due date up to August 12, so unfortunately Chad wont be able to make it to the birth. It's ok, I can handle it... But he better be there for the next one! Hehe, we'll see.. I'm pretty settled on her name: Sariah Pomaika'i Ahonui Nunes, and look forward to being able to put pictures up for all of you to enjoy. I'm so excited to be a mom!

Here are some pictures that might make you laugh~

Chad's self portrait with army issued glasses (such a sexy nerd!)

Sariah and Amanda at 28 weeks pregnant

Now, go track down your family members and lets get our families all up to date. There are 13 cousins, three Nunes siblings and their spouses, and Grandma and Grandpa, I should see at least ten additional family members/groups join asap!! Love to you all, we'll keep you posted on our comings and goings! I'd love to see Aislinn and Nolan talk about their beautiful Peyton! Everyone else should write too, but babies are my current favorite subject (other than Chaddy...).

Amanda Nunes~~