The Elia Ohana

Jared's Third Birthday

2010-11-14T09:41:00.001-08:00

Jared isn't officially three yet (Monday), but we decided to have his Birthday party on Saturday in Jim & Kathie's garage (it was 49 degrees outside). The garage was a safer bet then inside the house because candy, kids and sticks don't mix for inside activities ;-P

Jared's friends Mason, Natalie, Simon and Trenton came over for his party. They played a whole bunch of games, decorated train and cupcake shaped cookies and hit a pinata shaped like a truck. After that everyone had pizza and then a piece of Jared's Thomas and Friends cake.

Jared has been so excited for his birthday party ever since his cousin Caden was out visiting this last summer and he had a birthday party at Popie and Nana's house. Since then he would list out all the things he wanted at his party; cake, ice cream, balloons, and he would name all his cousins that he wanted there too.

Laura did a great job organizing and getting everything together for the party and thanks again to everyone for coming. Jared loved his party and wish everyone could have been there.

Ok so we suck with this Blog thing lately

2009-11-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

So while we were not blogging, some of these things happened; Jared got his first haircut at Little Clippers where they play a movie for the little ones so they don't pay attention to whats going on. Highly suggest the place.

Jared was a Lion for Halloween and we loved it because he likes to roar like a lion too. Jared absolutely loved going trick o' treating of course with people handing him candy left and right whats not to love right?!

Jared was really excited to carve pumpkins, until I opened it up and it was time to clean out the insides...then it was "yucky, yucky, bowl, bowl" (Jared's way of saying get it away from me and put that junk in the bowl Daddy).

One of Jared's new favorite things, Daddy puts this blanket across his legs and Jared jumps in like a hammock and reads his books!

Laura turned 30!

We went camping at Silver Falls...that may be the last time for awhile, Jared for some reason would not sleep very long (ok to be fair it was freezing and even I was a bit cold) next time I'll buy a tent heater, or just use the new camping trailer :-)

Grandpa Elia came and visited Jared and was teaching him how to play a nose flute with out the nose flute. We had good times, come back soon Grandpa Elia!

Jared and Grandpa Elia spending some quality time. Jared loves stubble, he will rub his hands all over your face for 20 mins if you let him.

Well thats what we've been up to in the last few months and your all caught up now mostly, except last thing Laura is back to teaching she teaches half a day all week at Waluga Middle School in Lake Oswego. She loves it.

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-08-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Sunriver, its becoming a little bit of an Elia Family tradition. Jared loves the Pet Parade they have every year (people dress up their dogs, cats, ponies, horses, rabbits and goats or at least decorate a wagon and pull them in it). After the parade every one moves down to Drake Park and there is live music, arts and crafts booths, clothes, jewelry and food booths as well. This year Jim and Kathie came with us as well as Lynda, Todd and Terri Zenger. It was fun times. The highlight every year of course is at 10pm, there is this big cinder cone in the middle of Bend and they do a huge firework show from the very top so that you can see the fireworks basically from any point in Bend, and probably further away than that.

We go to this spot on the Deschutes river every time we're in Sunriver with Jared so he can feed the ducks and throw rocks in the water. This kid would throw a dump truck worth of rocks in the water if you let him!

Jim has had this cedar log swing in the garage at Sunriver for at least 10 years he said, we finally put it together on this trip. It is really nice and Jared loved swinging on it.

Jared's most recent battle scar, he jumped from a concrete pad that a big electrical box sits on onto the sidewalk and as you can see he didn't keep his balance. If you could see any closer you could see the distinct lines of the sidewalk in his scab. It looked like a mini version of a Ruffle potato chip.

Jamaica - finally a new post!

2009-06-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

We took a family vacation with my parents, sister and her family, and my brother and his family to Jamaica ya mon! It was fantastic and we had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Beaches Boscobel all inclusive resort in Ochos Rios. It was hard to want to leave the resort it was so beautiful as you can see by the pictures. The pools were great with a ton of water slides and all water activities were included. We were able to go snorkeling, banana boat rides, glass bottom boat rides, among other fun activities.

Most days we spent days relaxing by the pool drinking virgin Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris, going down the water slides or playing in the sand on the beach. We did take two day excursions which were a lot of fun. One day we went to Dunn River Fall's which is a cascading water fall that you can actually climb up to the top. You hold hands in a big long line and help each other up to the top of the falls, Ronald carried Jared all the way up the falls. It was a lot of fun and very refreshing. Our last day there we went to Dolphin Cove where we had a dolphin experience. We didn't get to swim with them, but we were able to touch them give them kisses. Jared loved it and gave the dolphin a huge kiss and hug. It was very cute we will have to post the video later.

An interesting Friday

2009-05-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Laura left last night with her parents to drive to Utah for Cindy Zenger's (her first cousin) wedding. Its the first time Laura has left Jared for more than an overnight. I was planning to take Jared to daycare and pick him up after work. However right after I had gotten Jared all dressed and ready for the day and I was just putting on my shirt, I catch a glimpse of Jared running full tilt out of the bathroom and just as he gets to the door way he stubs his shoe on the metal strip that separates the linoleum from the carpet and he takes a header into the foot of our bed.

Now the impact was cause for concern by itself, however as I go to pick a screaming Jared up off the floor I notice the corner of his left eye is already swelling and purple and he is bleeding down his cheek and into his eye as well. Now it may sound cruel but I had to leave him there so I could take off my dress shirt so he didn't get blood all over it but once I got it off I picked him up off the floor and tried taking a look at his eye.

He wasn't having any of it, he would barely hold still for me to look but I could see that he had split his skin next to his eye and that if weren't for the swelling he would be bleeding all over the place! At this point I am thinking to myself 'I can't believe Jared just did this, now Laura will never let me take care of him while she is gone :-) So I call Laura to let her know what happened, luckily she is still sleepy so she didn't freak out too much.

Jared took his header around 7:30 am and I know he needs to go to the Doctor to probably get some stitches because his eye is still bleeding and it was a pretty nasty cut. So I called the pediatricians office and they said the doctor would be in at 9am and we could come in then. We showed up at 9am and of course waited for a bit. While in the waiting room this lady made a comment about Jared getting his first black eye, I let her know that this was actually Jared's third black eye (and actually not even close to the worst one).

The nurse came out and took us back and she used some gauze to clean up Jared's eye. Jared was so brave, he just gave the nurse his leary look but he let her clean it up and he never cried or winced once. The Doctor came in a bit later and took and look and luckily she said it wasn't too bad after she took a look and said that she could just glue it shut instead of doing stitches. We had to switch to the procedure room and the nurse had to clean Jared's eye with beatadine and saline solution. We had to take off his shirt and wrap him in a blanket so we could keep control of him since he was squirming like a fish out of water and kicking me like a mule as well. Then the Doc came back in to glue his cut closed which took everything the nurse and I had to keep Jared still so the glue didn't get in his eye. He of course screamed during this whole time but when the Doc was doing gluing his eye and he was still screaming I sang Rock a Bye Baby too him and it calmed him right down but he looked so sad that Daddy felt so bad for my little guy.

When we were all done Jared got to pick a prize and he decided on a dinosaur. Later I told Laura that he got a dinosaur as a prize and she in her sleepy state says "did he get a real one" next thing out of my mouth and Kathie's of course is "yes Laura they gave him a 'real' dinosaur, a real live T-Rex!" Of course she meant a big one like he has at home but Kathie and I enjoyed teasing her about that one. So of course at this point its 10am and I just can't take him to daycare, I felt so bad for him so I stopped in at work since it was close to the doctors office to let them see that I didn't make it all up ;-) and then Jared and I went home to hang out the rest of the day.

Utah Trip

2009-04-26T15:17:00.001-07:00

Okay so it was back in March but hey its all good right...So we had good times, it snowed a ton on Saturday night and Sunday, don't miss the snow so much. We went to Utah for Michele and Jordan being sealed to Julie Beth and for Julie Beth and Kaisleigh's baby blessings. Good times seeing everyone and watching Julie Beth starting to walk, and falling down as well.

Of course we were all bummed Dad couldn't be there but happy that he is doing better :-)

Sunday

2009-03-22T18:22:00.001-07:00

Dad is doing good, he no longer has any IV's going, he only has oxygen when he sleeps because he has sleep apnea so his oxygen levels get a little low. Other than that he seems to be doing good, no doctors today since its Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow holds good news, but I go back to Oregon tonight. My Mom and I are exhausted since sleeping in a hospital room can only be so comfortable and the nurses come in and out all night but I am glad I came home to see my Dad.

Aging is a natural process but the medical stuff starts to catch up. Makes me want to move home but I know Laura would struggle with it but I'll eventually need to figure it out. So it seems that my Dad is doing much better, he just needs to take it easy and rest (while still getting some exercise) and actually manage his diabetes so his kidneys last longer:-)

We are all sad that Dad can't be in Utah this coming weekend for Juju B getting sealed to Michele and Jordan and for Juju B and Kaisleigh's baby blessing but that's okay. That is why I am glad we are an eternal family!

Once again thank you for all of your prayers on our Dad's behalf, and all that you do for our family. Its been a scary experience but its always nice to know how much Ohana one has in the islands and through out the world.

Love and Aloha,

Ronald

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

2009-03-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

Dad has been sleeping most of the morning since he did not sleep at all last night. Nothing like telling some one they can't move and of course mentally you feel that you have to! Needless to say he has been very vocal on how much he wants to move and how much being on his back has been really sore. Now that his leg is doing good and there is no hematoma (s/p) on the entry site in his femoral artery where they went in to do the stent he can now move around and not have to be on his back.

Funny thing though now that he is so tired and is sleeping he is in the exact same position from when he couldn't move and is sleeping comfortably. ;-) Nothing like the power of suggestion. During his napping though his sleep apnea started to kick in a bit and his oxygen level was in the 70's and it made some alarms go off, but since his nurse never showed up I just put him back on oxygen and he went right back to 100. When his nurse came back in I told her why he was back on oxygen and she was like oh it should have made the alarms go off. I said they did twice but when you didn't show up twice, I just silenced the alarm (I've been doing this for awhile on his monitors and his IV drip - they take forever to get in here and never have the new IV bag ready and the alarms are so obnoxious and loud) and put him on oxygen. She was like oh, okay.

As Caroline would say, "Good times."

After the procedure

2009-03-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Dad is back in the room, they put in a stent and he is doing good. The hardest part is that they are making him stay on his back laying down in his bed. He doesn't do that, he always sleeps in a Lazy Boy chair so its killing his back. So needless to say he isn't supposed to be moving his right leg but of course he is...to be continued.

Friday Update

2009-03-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

Dad is doing a ton better, yesterday he had more of an appetite and I was able to get him to eat some food and drink more fluids. His blood pressure has gone down to really good levels, his oxygen level in his blood has been staying at 100 and on his own without the oxygen in the 90's. His heart rate has leveled out around 100, earlier yesterday and on Wednesday he was only around the 60's and since putting in the external pace maker his heart has only needed it a couple of times to keep it from going too slow.

When the lady came in this morning to do his EKG his heart rate goes up a ton because he gets nervous or something. His heart rate yesterday was all over the place when she came in to do the EKG, this morning I tried getting him to be less nervous about it but his HR still went up to the 140 range and then crashing to the 40's and 50's. Don't be alarmed, it does this a couple of times a day and when his HR goes under 60 the pacemaker kicks in to keep it going at a faster rate.

So mostly besides helping out with going shishi and helping him adjust in bed so his okole doesn't hurt too much, feeding him and making him drink stuff is all I am doing. His creatin level has come down from 2.5 to 2.1 so that is why they are going forward with the angioplasty and putting in some stents (answer to every ones prayers -thank you).

So that is the update for now, once again we thank everyone for their prayers on Dad's behalf and on his doctors and nurses behalves as well and the out pouring of Love and Aloha to our Ohana, we are humbled and grateful for the blessing of being able to call everyone of you Family and Friends.

Aloha,

Ronald

Update on My Dad

2009-03-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

I flew to Honolulu on Wednesday to see my Dad who is in Queen's hospital because of a minor heart attack. He is doing okay, still having issues with his heart rate and rhythm. The doctors were going to do an angioplasty today but since my Dad has diabetes too, his cretin level was higher than the doctors wanted so they called it off to try and get his cretin closer to 2 down from 2.5 where it was at this morning. However because his heart stopped for a couple seconds here and there this morning they decided to attach an external pacemaker. That is making Dad a bit uncomfortable because they went in through his right jugular vein so that hurts a bit.

Well other than all that he is feeling good, his blood pressure has been pretty good 145/68, heart rate is 97 and pulse is in the 90's. Blood sugar has been the issue lately high 200's after eating but that's because of the dies they put in him for the catheter? s/p, to look at his heart is really hard on his kidney's. So they have been giving him diuretics s/p so he can pee more to get that crap out (read Ronald has to help him do this and it is just so much fun! not :-)) So I have figured out most of the machines, and am following the tests they are doing so its been a learning experience. Hopefully this learning experience ends soon and in a good way.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers on behalf of my Dad and his Doctors.

I will try to keep you updated,

Ronald

President's Day Weekend

2009-02-24T21:38:00.001-08:00

On President's Day we decided to go to Astoria and Seaside to take in the sights. Luckily as you can see it was an amazingly sunny day on the Coast, a rarity in February in Oregon to say the least!

We followed the Columbia river to Astoria and on the way got to see a Bald Eagle and a big herd of Elk on the side of the road in a field. When we got to Astoria we headed straight for the Astoria Column, boy it was an amazing view! The air was so clear and the sky was a bright blue and the river and ocean being a darker blue it was just so beautiful.

After the Astoria Column we headed over to Fort Stevens because Ronald had never been there before. A couple of cool things with Fort Stevens, it was actually shelled by a Japanese submarine during WWII but luckily no one was hurt. There was a bunch of cool WWII things on display there like different types of guns, uniforms, maps and photos of both US and Japanese Armies.

Seaside was the next stop on the tour, where Jared got to enjoy his first Carousel ride, elephant ear and ran up and down the promenade chasing dogs. This being Oregon just about everyone had a dog or two or three with them everywhere we went! Jared loves dogs so much that if he sees one he points at it then starts yelling "dok, dok" (he can't quite say dog yet). Its so cute until there are a hundred dogs everywhere and he is just running in circles yelling "dok, dok" and chasing these poor dogs everywhere. Luckily a few people stopped and let him pet their dogs and he just loved it. Ronald had to go crabbing since we were on the coast so we headed over to 12th Ave bridge in Seaside where you can crab off the bridge. We didn't catch anything but you could see them just wandering around in the river.

All in all we had a fun day, Jared slept every time we had to drive a long way so it worked out perfectly. Actually with Ronald driving we made it from Seaside to our door in just over an hour!

Its been awhile...

2009-02-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Hello there, we know its been a while! Well Jared is now a few days away from being 15 months old and we wanted to add some very recent pictures (bath ones are from tonight) and update everyone on our little family.

Jared has taken to doing a few new things. He is into Daddy's hats and always puts them on when he finds them, he is also into riding his caterpillar Edison, climbing into his toy basket and just sitting in there and throwing out his toys one at a time. He can stand up on his own, walks and runs around all the time, he seems to have an endless supply of energy these days. The other day at Church he totally threw his first temper tantrum! He was swinging his arms around and screaming it was kind of funny yet at the same time kind of scary.

I've been getting a few more sub jobs lately which has been nice. Ronald's work laid-off a couple guys but luckily not Ronald. I've been keeping busy with Young Women, last night was our New Beginnings program. Luckily we have a new girl coming in this year, she will be our only Beehive! Our ward doesn't have many Young Women at all but a lot more Young Men.

Well that's about it recently so hope everyone is doing well.

Sunriver

2009-01-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

Day 1: Okay so we forgot our camera so no pics for this trip so we'll just blog. So we got into town last night, the whole drive down I was reading test questions to Ronald (not too much fun but it helped Ronald out). It got down int he 20's last night but Ronald got a fire going and that was nice and toasty.
Today though was super sunny and actually kind of warm. It got into the 60's while we were in Redmond while Ronald was taking his test and it was so warm we ate outside at a burger joint called Jody's (we highly recommend Jody's if your ever in Redmond, the burgers were awesome and so were the onion rings!).
We caught up with Jessica & Alex Po in Bend and headed back to the house in Sunriver. After unpacking their car and Alex and Ronald chopping some wood and trying to chip the ice in the driveway we all went on a walk to go feed the ducks and geese in the pond by the Woodlands golf course. It was fun to watch the kids feeding the ducks, but the geese came right up to you and hissed so they kind of got scared because of that.
Now its time to get dinner ready and figure out what we are going to do tomorrow.

TP Time!

2009-01-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

Nope these are not old pictures from Halloween of Jared trying on a zombie costume! :^) This is Jared wearing almost a whole roll of toilet paper. If you ask me all babies eventually find the "fun" in unrolling the tp. I did get mad at Ronald for letting him do it (read lack of supervision here since he was supposed to be watching him). So after finding Jared playing with the tp Ronald wrapped him up like a mummy and Jared started busting out of the wraps and started traipsing around upstairs looking like a white zombie.

Christmas

2008-12-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

This year we enjoyed Christmas with our family. We went to Christmas Eve dinner at the Benson Hotel to their London Grill, mighty tasty (they no longer have Banana Foster but try their Pistachio Creme Brulee it was amazing).

Then on Christmas morning Kathie and Jim came over for breakfast at our place and we all opened our stockings together here, then loaded up the cars and went to their place to open presents. Jared had tons of fun just maneuvering and climbing all over and through the presents. Of course he just loved ripping up the tissue paper and climbing into the empty boxes. It was good times had by all. Of course we enjoyed Christmas dinner their as well, nothing like Prime Rib and Crab to celebrate the season (thanks again Kathie it was delicious!).

So now another Christmas has come and gone and we are grateful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving us the ability to be together forever as a family. We have had a blessed year and look forward to the New Year with hope and excitement for new things to come. We hope that this Holiday Season was joyous and bright for you and yours,

Love the Elia Ohana

More Snow!

2008-12-22T21:43:00.001-08:00

When it first started snowing, just 2-3 inches on this table on our patio.

After snowing off and on all week long, we measured the table this morning and it was 13 inches deep!

We got freezing rain early Sunday morning, and they cancelled Church for the second week in a row. There was a layer of ice about a 1/4 inch thick that would crack and shatter under foot when you walked on it.

Icicles above our neighbors door.

Jared is growing up so fast! He started walking on Saturday after much coaxing from his parents for months he just steps away from the couch and takes four steps away from the couch before sitting down. He started getting the hang of it now and can just stand there keeping his balance with no problem now. He can also walk across our whole house from sliding glass door to sliding glass door!

As for the snow, it has been going off and on almost constantly since last week Sunday. The freezing rain this past Sunday kept us home all day. Then we woke up Monday morning to really heavy snow and about another 6 inches or so of new snow. That's when we measured the little table on the back patio and there was 13 inches of snow on it. They cancelled Ronald's work so he stayed home with us. We tubed down this little hill in our neighborhood, Ronald took Jared on a run too! He didn't enjoy it as much as watching us from the truck. Later in the afternoon Ronald went to an impromptu service project at the Portland temple for a couple of hours to shovel the walks.

We are enjoying all the snow, it really makes it feel like Christmas.

Snow!!!

2008-12-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

"Mom, that?"

That's snow Jared, "now, now" (snow without the s), yup its cold!

So all week the weather men on TV have been saying that it was going to be really cold this weekend, and it may even snow. Well for once they were right! We woke up this morning and it was cold, but no snow. However after a few minutes it started and it hasn't stopped yet! We've gotten at least one inch of snow maybe two now and its not melting. Normally it melts instantly around here but its sticking around and it is getting colder so we should have snow on the ground tomorrow as well.

We all gotten bundled up and went outside and made a really small snowman for Jared. He has seen snow a couple of times but this is the first time he is actually recognizing what he is looking at is different from rain. Its too cute.

Decorating for Christmas

2008-12-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

Last week Saturday we took an early drive with my parents to go get our Christmas tree. We go to the same tree farm every year called Noble Star and pick out our own noble fir tree to cut down. Last year it snowed on us, this year it was sunny and about 4o dergrees. You have to love Oregon winters.

We got the tree home set it up and then we all went to Mt. Angel where they had a Christmas festival through out the town. It was okay, but the best part is there is this Bavarian restaurant called the Glockenspeil. They had some very tasty sausage and cheese fondue! It was delicious! Then Santa showed up on a firetruck and Jared had fun watching Santa and listening talk to all the kids there.

We started decorating the tree when we got home, putting lights on it and trying not to over do it like we did on our last tree in Utah that was a beacon for Santa so he could land in Herriman (seriously the tree had so many lights you couldn't look at it directly for fear of going blind). It took us a couple day s to decorate the tree but we set up our North Pole Christmas village and Jared just loves pointing at it and saying "that, that" his favorite word.

My First Birthday Luau

2008-12-07T08:13:00.001-08:00

Part of the reason my Grandma and Grandpa came in to visit me was because they were throwing my a first birthday luau. It is a big tradition in Hawaii and so that is why all my Aunts, Uncles and Juju B came to Oregon to visit.

A bunch of my Moms family came, my Dad's friends from work as well as his family and a bunch of Mommy and Daddy's friends. Everyone loved the food and it sure was tasty.

I have to thank a bunch of people for a fun First Birthday Luau. My Grandma and Grandpa for all the party favors they brought from Hawaii and even made; macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts plus my Grandpa's homemade coconut candy that he and Grandma made just for my party. Also Grandpa made a ton of beautiful Hawai'ian crafts for my table decorations, and he even made a beautiful coconut ukulele for me (I like to pluck the strings) and a hawai'ian drum (I love to bang away on it). I want to thank my Grandma for cooking her sweet n' sour chicken that everyone raved about, Aunty Caroline for cooking the Kalua pig, Daddy for making the mac salad and cooking the Kalbi and all my Aunts and Uncles that helped with decorating for my luau and helping set up. Also I wanted to thank Uncle Paul for playing and singing the most beautiful music at my luau. That really made the luau!

I am glad everyone that came had a good time, and thank you for the presents, I am finishing up my thank you cards and getting them out real soon.

Grandma and Grandpa get to town!

2008-12-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

My Grandma & Grandpa Elia got to town and we went out to met them at the airport at 7:30am! Yikes it was early but I was really excited to see them! It took me a few minutes of staring at them but I slowly warmed up to my paternal grandparents.

I was having fun getting to know Grandma and Grandpa again and playing with them. I liked sitting on Grandpa's lap and us lounging in his Lazy boy chair. I was having a good time with them, they watched my on Monday when Mommy and Daddy both went to work. I was a good boy for them.

Then it was time for my Aunty Michele, Uncle Jordan and my cousin Juju B to get here as well. We really wanted to met Juju B and get to know her! They got here and then our house was pretty full. I had so much to do and look at, although I kind of pretended Juju B wasn't here at times because I felt that she was stealing my spotlight but I still love my cousin.

Then on Thanksgiving day Aunty Caroline and Uncle Paul finally got here too and then the partying could start!!! Of course Mommy was slaving away in the kitchen getting our Thanksgiving feast going and Grandma and my Aunts helped. I mostly terrorized the kitchen, got my Dad in trouble a lot for not keeping me out of the kitchen and was just so excited for all the extra attention I was getting from everyone! I like being the center of attention!

Jared's Big Day

2008-12-06T21:12:00.001-08:00

Okay so we took a break from updating our blog, what can we say its the Holidays!!!

On Saturday November 15th, Jared turned the big 01! We went out with Nannie and Poppie Jones to dinner at Claimjumper to celebrate Jared and Ronald's (Nov. 17th) birthdays. It was a fun night and after dinner we came back to our place and Jared opened his presents. Okay I helped open his presents and he played with the wrapping paper and bags. Jared then got a birthday cupcake but didn't really like it too much because some of the frosting got on his nose and basically screamed until we got it off.

Well it was a fun day, our little baby is quickly growing up and he is getting to be such a big boy. Love You Jared!

A Trip to the Zoo

2008-11-09T20:59:00.001-08:00

Our Ward did a trip to the Portland Zoo on Saturday and since Laura is on the Activities committee we went. I know you can see the rain coming down pretty hard, but after a ten minute down pour the rain stopped and on occasion the sun even came out. Jared has been to the Zoo before but this time he was actually aware of what was going on. He loved watching the Sea Lions which were by far his favorite. We all liked watching the Polar bears they were huge! The female bear was in the water playing with a pumpkin and it was really fun to watch her.

Over all it was a fun Saturday and we can't believe how big Jared it getting and how much more aware of the world around him he is getting to be, its really fun.

Jared's First Halloween

2008-10-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!! Last night we carved pumpkins and Jared got in the act. He helped clean out his little pumpkin but his favorite part was actually taking bites out of the tops of the pumpkins. I have no idea what that would taste like but he was just loving it.

For Halloween Jared was a green Dragon. We stopped by Nannie and Poppies for some Trick O' Treating and then went to our Ward's Trunk or Treat. To bad for Jared he doesn't get any candy!

Beach Day

2008-10-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks we've had some beautiful weather here in Oregon, so we decided to take a trip to the coast for some sun! On the way to the beach we stopped at the Nehalem river so Ronald could go fishing for some trout. He caught a few trout but got to see some really big Chinook salmon that are coming in from the ocean to spawn up river. He really enjoyed that, he has never seen them in a river like that!

The Coast was a bit windy but not a cloud in the sky. Ronald let Jared crawl on the rocks on a bit log (see picture) Jared unfortunately bent down to pick something up and fell over and hit his eye on a rock. No blood but he got a pretty sweet bruise that is turning an interesting color of yellow right now. Ronald got in some trouble for that one big time!!!

Lee's Farm

2008-10-15T18:31:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we went to the Lee's Family Farm Fall Festival. They had kiddie rides like a mini ferris wheel, burlap bag slides, pony rides, tractor rides and tons of pumpkins already picked and ready to go in huge piles. You just picked out your pumpkins and they loaded them in your car for you! We got three pumpkins, a big, medium and small one to represent our Ohana. Lee's Farm is also a Christmas tree farm where you can pick out your own tree, but the special treat was the fresh cooked Apple Cider and Pumpkin donuts that were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Needless to say it was a very tasty weekend!!!

Hood River Weekend

2008-10-02T20:18:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we took a trip up the Columbia River Gorge to a little town called Hood River located at the foot of Mt. Hood. It is a very popular spot for windsurfing on the Columbia river because the Gorge narrows quite a bit and funnels the wind through this spot of the river. However when you go towards Mt. Hood you enter into a beautiful valley that is surrounded by hills and the volcanic soil was found to be extremely fertile and the tempratures just right to grow apples and pears among many other fruits.

Laura and I went there last year about this time and we had a ton of fun so we wanted to do it again. We first went to Rasmussen's Farm where they sell all kinds of apples and pears, some great fruit jellies and some tasty Onion mustards as well. The nice part is that you can sample everything and they cook ebelskevers and let you sample them as much as you like. They also have a cute pumpkin patch and a corn maze that we didn't have time to go through but we did it last year.

Then we went to this other fruit farm that also sells the best cookies, we all love their chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. After the cookie stop we went to the Apple Valley Country store for BBQ ribs and pulled pork sandwiches! Yummy!!! Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without topping it off with a tasty Marion berry milkshake!

All in all it was an awesome time had by all.

Jared Sleeping

2008-09-27T11:36:00.001-07:00

We just thought we had better take a picture of the way Jared sometimes sleeps, he sure does look relaxed though doesn't he?

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

This was a great Labor Day weekend! On Saturday we drove out to Girabaldi, Oregon which is about five miles north of Tillamook on the Oregon Coast. Girabaldi is a little town situated right on Tillamook bay and they have a public crabbing dock. Ronald really wanted to go crabbing for some dungeness crab! We got there around 11am and finally left around 4pm, and only caught two crabs over the 5 3/4 inch minimum width. Don't get me wrong, Ronald pulled up tons of crabs, and about four female crabs each over 6 inches, but it is illegal to keep female crabs. So we threw tons of them back into the water, but at least it was lots of fun...for Ronald :-) The crabs were really tasty when we got home though!!!

On Sunday we went out to Shady Dell park out close to Mollala, Oregon. Its a little private park ran by a train club. They have the cutest little trains and since my brother Paul Jones and his family is down here for the week from Montana we all wanted to go out there so Wyatt my nephew could ride the rails! It rained a bit but it was still fun, we forgot our camera but we went not too long ago when my sister Karrie was visiting from Colorado. Good times.

On Monday we went across the bridge to Vancouver and worked our way up the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side to Bonneville Dam. The Washington side of the Dam has a cool fish ladder and since the Chinook and Silvers are running (the Chinook run on Sunday was over 13,000 fish) we wanted to take a look (read Ronald there). It was cool and there were some really big fish going by. We took the Bridge of the Gods back over to the Oregon side and had lunch in Cascade Locks at a place called Char Burger. It wasn't half bad, plus it had an awesome view of the Columbia River right outside the windows.

Overall we enjoyed our Labor Day weekend, and Ronald can't wait to go crabbing again. Shout out to Brother Ditty who hooked Ronald up with a couple of crab rings so we didn't have to rent anything.

Picnic at Cook Park

2008-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

The last week of August was a sunny week with highs only in the mid 70's, so it was a perfect time for a picnic in the park. Ronald hurried home from work and we just went down the street to this really big city park. They have a couple of play structures and swings for babies and toddlers so it was perfect for Jared. We roasted up some Cheddarwurst and had a good time! The fresh Northwest peaches were tasty, Jared loved them!!!

Jared's First Bike Ride

2008-07-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

For the holiday we went to Sunriver, Oregon where my parents have a house. The weather was great and it was fun to relax and enjoy being in the outdoors. Jared went on his first bike ride which he really enjoyed, except he wasn't a huge fan of the helmet he wore that was about as big as he was! We made him really comfortable with pillows and he slept half of the time in the bike trailer. We also enjoyed feeding the ducks and geese, going on walks, and sitting outside on the patio reading.

4th of July

2008-07-10T21:09:00.001-07:00

Pictures feeding the ducks, or Jared feeding himself instead! A view of the Deschuttes River, and some of the fireworks we watched.

At last...

2008-06-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well now that we are in our new place and we finally have our internet hooked up it was about time to update our blog. Its only been 3 months. So we've gone to Utah for Michele's Graduation, then to Hawaii for a couple weeks to see Grandma and Grandpa Elia on Molokai. We came home on Friday and started signing paperwork for our townhouse. Also during the last three months Jared has started doing a ton of things. He started rolling over around 4months, but while we were in Hawaii he started going back to stomach and even sleeping on his stomach which he never did until he could flip over and do it on his own. He got his first tooth when he was 6 months old, he actually got both of his front bottom ones at the same time and never even cried or acted like he was teething.

Oh well thats it for now, we know you'd rather just have pictures of the little guy.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

Jared's first Easter...his first Easter basket...his first Easter egg...and his first Easter outfit to go to Church in. I know you can see Laura's hand but his smile was just to cute in this picture. As mentioned previously Jared had his 4 month shots on Wednesday and he is feeling a ton better, back to his usual chipper self. He has been waking up at night but only to eat. He has been taking any where from 6 to 8 oz before going to sleep but its not holding him over until morning. He takes about another 4 oz and usually goes back to sleep. Those darn shots messed everything up...he was sleeping from 8:30pm to 7:30am for a couple of weeks and then the shots set him back to waking up at night. Oh well. Lately Jared has taken to 'singing' or 'talking', which ever one you want to go with. He just lays or sits there and lets you know what he is thinking etc... Its way cute except for the high pitch squeals every once in awhile, those in the ear I could do without!) Other than that we are just doing fine and dandy, we are starting to look for houses and all the fun that goes with that. So hopefully we find something to move in to by June or so.

I'm Four Months Old!!!

2008-03-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

On March 15th I turned 4 months old. On March 19th I got my four month old shots and then I thought to myself...'getting older is overrated'. I've decided that since my Mommy and Daddy put me through the pain of getting my shots I would get them back! I had been sleeping through the night consistently now for about a month, but after my shots I decided it was time for some pay back so I have been waking up screaming at about 2:30am every morning since my shots. This was something I've never done before...waking up screaming that is so the first time I did it I think it scared my Mom and Dad. I've done it a couple time since then but its getting old now so I just wake up and let them know I want to eat now. Other than that my life has been pretty good recently. I've started grabbing my toes finally when I am on my changing table, that's been kind of fun. All this time I was wondering what those little things were at the tip of my feet but I really never paid any attention to them...its kind of fun now to pull on them, especially my big toe. I haven't figured out how to get them into my mouth like most other things but soon enough. Its embarrassing to admit but I have been drooling a ton more lately. I can't tell though if its just my teeth trying to come out or its just that time in my development that I do it. Oh yeah, there is one thing that I've been doing a lot of lately and I like it too, I hold my Mommy's fingers when I am laying down and then she helps me stand up (fine she does most of the work, but I do have to hang on pretty tight). I can stay standing on my own pretty good with just a little help from someone holding my hips. Besides that I am figuring out how to scoot around a bit more, just the other day I made a full circle around my tummy pad without any help. Well that's enough about me for now, its time for a bottle and a nap. Well Love you all and hope to talk to you all soon.

Love Jared

Sunriver Trip

2008-03-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

We went down to Sunriver for a week to see all the snow that they were getting down there. It sure was beautiful! We were kind of bummed that it didn't snow while we were there, but we really couldn't complain because the whole time we were there it was Sunny everyday without a cloud in the sky. Next time we go in the Winter we will have to plan a little better. The huge woodpile in back was covered in about 2-3 feet of snow and wet. So we went to the store to buy real wood, fake fire logs just don't cut it! So need less to say we enjoyed roaring fires every evening! Laura finally got to go skiing after 6-7 years...she mentioned that to some of the people she road the lifts up with and they then made comments such as...'I could tell, your gear is a little out dated'...so rude!) Any ways we all had lots of fun just hanging out together and playing in the snow with our little guy.

Smiles

2008-02-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

He is about 12.5 lbs these days, smiling a lot more giggling and holding up his head on his own. He slept through the night the other day from 9:30pm until 7:30am! Needless to say Mommy is loving it. Dad has been coming home for lunch a bunch more these days to see his Baby and his Babies Momma.

Ready For The Circus

2008-01-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

Jared and I had the unfortunate opportunity to experience thrush on top of all the other problems we had with feeding. Not the most fun I have had, but he did look pretty funny with his purple face and mouth. If you can see his mouth you can only imagine how it got there and what I looked like as well! We were both quite the site! Pretty in purple.

Jared Meets the Family

2008-01-16T15:09:00.000-08:00

After Christmas Ronald and I had the fun opportunity to have both of our families come into town to attend Jared's baby blessing. It was a bit chaotic with that many people here, but we all had a fun time together. The house was a bit out of control with two toddler boys, one girl who is walking, and two baby boys. My parents had the right idea to give up their bedroom and go and stay in a hotel! Ronald's sisters flew in from Provo and his parents were able to come and stay for two weeks from Hawaii.

Cafe Rio Fiesta

2008-01-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

On December 15th, the Bonfiglio, Poe and Elia families got together to attempt to recreate the Cafe Rio experience! Since we all lived in Utah for a bit, especially the Poe's and the Elia's, we all really miss Cafe Rio so we attempted to do their Barbacoa pork and Tomatillo Ranch dressing. The pork ended up being okay but the tomatillo dressing was really good (thanks to Jessica getting the recipe!). A fun time was had by all and lots of burritos and salads were eaten.

Christmas tree time

2007-12-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Lions, Tigers & Bears oh my! Getting his first Christmas tree in the snow. Jared's all bundled up because it was really, really cold. He was warm, warm, warm in his little bear outfit with about 3 layers underneath so he was nice and toasty.

It was so cool when after just a couple of minutes of looking for a tree it started to snow. It was perfect. We stopped off in Newburg on the way home at a Starbucks to get a Carmel Apple Spice drink. They are so good (ask for extra caramel)!

Jared meets the Big Guy

2007-12-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

We went to Macy's downtown last night to check out the new Santaland. It was a lot smaller than what Miere and Frank used to do but still cute. The best part though was that there was no line to take a picture with Santa at 7:30 pm on a Saturday night! So Jared was able to get some really cute pictures with Santa. You can check out the slide show of all his pictures on the right.

Now we just need to get our tree so Santa has somewhere to leave the presents!

2007-12-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Aunties Caroline & Michele.

2007-12-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Da luau feet!

He's a little cutie!

2007-12-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

So Jared's two week appointment went well on Thursday, he is up to 6 lbs 9 oz and is still 19.5 inches long. He eats about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day and sleeps in about 4 hour blocks at night before waking mommy up to eat.

He loves to just stare at you when he is awake and makes the cutest little lip puckering face when he is working on a good blow out!!!

We are enjoying being parents, with the sleep deprivation and going to the store to buy diapers like its going out of style! We wouldn't change it for the world.

Hooray!!!

2007-11-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

Jared's bilirubin is finally under control! He is down two points to 14 as of today, from his 16 points on Friday. The Doctors are very happy about that and after only 10 days he is back to his birth weigh of 6.5 lbs, almost 6.6 lbs!

Needless to say his mother is ecstatic because it was really hard for her to watch the poor little guy getting poked on his feet almost daily for blood for the tests.

Well other than all the Doctor stuff, Jared has had a very busy weekend going to the mall with his parents on Saturday to do some minor shopping and looking around. He pretty much just sleeps so that works out really well.

Good news at last...

2007-11-23T11:27:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately for Jared he had to get more blood taken out for one more bilirubin test but at least this time there was good news! Jared's bilirubin count is down to 16 which is really good, and he is one ounce away from his birth weight of 6.5 lbs! Yeah!!!

One last test Sunday morning hopefully and today should be his last day on the lights so we are so excited for him.

Not out of the woods yet...

2007-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

As you can see Jared isn't happy in the above photo. The reason is because he has been lanced on his poor little feet at least 8-10 times since being born! He is still having issues with his bilirubin levels and because of that we had to go to the hospital to get another bilirubin test done plus a ABC blood count test. However it was better news since he went down from 20 to 18.2? or something like that.

He still looks yellow, especially under certain lighting. He is still eating like a champ and is saving up all his pee for a one time release so his mom and dad can keep having to wash his bassinet sheets everyday. In fact today he tagged mom and dad's sheets.

Well he is doing better and that's what we really care about, he is back up to 6 lbs as of Wednesday so that is awesome news. Thanks for all of your prayers on Jared's behalf, we love and appreciate all of you.

We're home finally!!!

2007-11-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

Not that we didn't enjoy our stay at the hospital, the nurses were awesome, the doctors where too, its just nice to sleep in ones own bed instead of say a couch.

So Jared has gained back a couple of ounces and was at 5.13 lbs by the time we left the hospital this morning around 11:30am. We were excited to go home with our little guy finally and use all the cute stuff everyone bought for him.

The only bummer is that he has to be on one of those light machines to help with his jaundice stuff. His belly reuben count was around 18%, so his Pediatrician wanted Jared to be on the light to help get that number down. It also helps Jared out that he is finally having the yellowy mustard looking poops now so that should help get his count down as well.

Other than that baby Jared & Laura are both doing great, except the lack of sleep and the sharp pain if Laura twists a little too much.

Update on our Jared

2007-11-18T21:49:00.000-08:00

Jared went from 6.5 lbs down to 5.13 lbs, then even further down to 5.11 lbs. However, good news he just gained an ounce today so he is now at 5.12 lbs. According to his mother though, she doesn't see how he could have gained weight because her breasts are very tender and full since he tends to do one breast and quits. We are trying less time on each one and more frequent feedings (every 2 hours) to see if that helps him gain weight, and mom to lose weight ;^).

However dad thinks they are kind of cool looking but knows it would be instant death if he touched the "twins" because they are so tender.

Mommy and Me

2007-11-18T15:15:00.000-08:00

Eat, sleep and make poopy diapers! Jared wanted to eat right out of the chute! Most people told us that he would be sleepy for most of the day, but just like his Daddy all he wanted to do was eat!!! He's my boy!!!

Mom and Jared are doing well. Jared has just about lost 10% of his body weight (most of it in his diaper if you ask me) but now that Mom's milk is in he should come back strong. We are trying to feed him at least every 2 1/2 hours so he can pack on the ounces once again.

Newest Member of our Ohana

2007-11-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

On November 15th we became three...Jared Allen Kaipokeaunoholani Elia was born at 12:33pm PST. He weighted in at 6.5 lbs, and 19.5 inches long. Barely within legal slot limits but keeper range none the less!

Welcome to our blog

2007-11-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

By popular demand...read peer pressure, we have finally caved in and decided it is about time we create our own blog. So as we get the hang of this etc...we will add pictures and blog our family onto the world wide web.