Living in California

Well Jaime is deployed and Cruz and I moved to California. We have enjoyed spending time with our family but are really missing Jaime. Luckily we get to talk to him every day through FaceTime and Cruz loves giving Jaime phone kisses and saying, "Hi Dadda!" Its really cute to see him get so excited when Daddy is on the phone. We are counting down the days until Jaime gets to come home for R&R for 2 weeks.
Not much has happened in the last couple months, we have just been hanging around our family and trying to keep busy to make time fly while Jaime is gone.
We had a first birthday party for Cruz in January, because we wanted to share the special moment with all our family and friends out here. It was super fun! And Cruz got SPOILED!
Here are some pictures from his first birthday party here in California:












I will try and keep up with my posts to document all the fun we are having here in California!

Cruz's first birthday!

Cruz turned one today... and I cannot believe how fast a year flew by! He has grown into such an amazing little boy. Before his first birthday, Cruz has started walking on his own, giving kisses and hugs, and developed the most amazing personality!
Today we had his first birthday party in Hawaii and enjoyed spending Cruz's special day with all of our friends.
Here are some pictures from the day.


The Birthday Boy!!

Arriving to his party with Nani - She came to Hawaii early just for his birthday!

Our little family - just hanging out at Cruz's party

Cute boy!

Amazing cake made by our friend, Diana Higbee.

Mmmmm.... cake!

Someone sure does love balloons

Just enjoying the party

All these awesome presents!

Cruz got his first haircut

Well it was a sad day to cut those amazing locks of hair... but it was necessary. His hair was always in his eyes and was getting pretty scraggly. So we took him to the only child barber on the island and his hair turned out great! They even saved a lock of hair for me! :) (I know, I'm a crazy mom!! haha)
He was fine for the first 5 minutes, but then he started to get over it really fast and by the end of the haircut, he did not want the stylist ANYWHERE near him... poor guy! But once it was over and he was out of the airplane chair, he was happy as could be.

Getting into his airplane chair.

"Momma, what is she doing to me?"

He decided he was not happy with what she was doing... poor little guy!

The end result was a really cute haircut for my handsome boy.

Deployment Ceremony and Army Luau

Yesterday was Jaime's deployment ceremony, he doesn't leave for another month and a half or so, but with the holidays coming they had to do it now before people start going on leave. It was really neat to see all the units march in and see all of the Army rituals happen right before my eyes. I still cannot believe that my husband is in the Army, I guess it will feel more real when he deploys for a year. And it still gives me butterflies when I say the words, "My husband flies blackhawks," .... crazy but so awesome!
After the deployment ceremony, we went to Paradise Cove and had a private luau. It was really fun to hang out with all of our friends here in Hawaii.
I have attached a couple pictures from our adventures yesterday.

Cruz's first Halloween

So Halloween in Hawaii is not like most places. Since its so hot it feels like no one really wants to celebrate Halloween because it still seems like summer here. But I was on a mission to do some Halloween activities since its Cruz's first Halloween. We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and boy was that the saddest pumpkin patch you have ever seen! The pumpkins were all either rotted or on the verge or rotting and it was pretty much a dust storm the entire time we were there... not at all like the pumpkin patches I am used to. But we were still able to get some cute pictures.
Here we are at the patch in Kapolei!




Cruz got some super cute skeleton pj's from his Nani and I just had to add in a picture of him wearing them because he is just too adorable! Check out how he is waving to mommy too! He loves to wave at people, its so cute!


We decided a while back that we wanted to be the Rubble family for Halloween - Barney, Betty and Bam-Bam. I thought it was the perfect costume for Cruz! When my mom was out here, she helped make us these costumes in just a couple hours - she is sooo talented with the sewing machine! Then we just got some wigs and we were good to go!
Here's the Rubbles!

Cruz just hanging out in his Bam Bam costume - so cute!

Cruz is getting so big!

My little boy is growing up! In less than 2 months he will be a year old already!

He has started to walk with his walker now... And he gets faster every day. I think he will be walking on his own any day now! I took of video of him walking with it for the first time, here he is!


The just the other day he was really cracking me up, so I started filming him and it was seriously the funniest video I have ever seen! He loves to laugh and play during meal time...

Our new life in Hawaii

Well we made it to Hawaii and it has been a hectic 2 months or so! We lived in a hotel for about a month and then we were finally able to move into our little condo at the beach. Its about half the size of our place in Alabama, but we make it work for the three of us. We are about a 10 minute walk (or 5 minute bike ride) to the beach! Its pretty amazing! Cruz loves living here in Hawaii and he really enjoys swimming in the ocean. It is so adorable to watch him splash around in the water.
Since moving here, I started having some stomach troubles again (like I had back in college) - so I decided to go back to being vegan and VOOLA... I am feeling great again! I did a month and a half of juicing and smoothie drinking and am now feeling so much better. I will continue my vegan lifestyle and have really been enjoying all the fruits and veggies I am able to find out here in Hawaii. The produce here is INCREDIBLE compared to that of Alabama! We started going to farmers markets and enjoy shopping at the natural food stores. There are just so many options here in Hawaii.
Cruz is really growing into a big boy! He is so curious about everything. I LOVE IT! He is getting closer and closer to walking every day. Right now he loves to use me as a walker, he just holds on slightly to my knees and as I back up, he walks forward... it is the cutest! He makes me laugh every day and I feel so blessed to have such an incredible baby that has turned into a awesome little person.
Jaime joined a great unit out here and is really enjoying flying around the islands. He likes all the guys he works with and we feel really lucky to have been placed in the unit we got. Jaime has started to do some juicing with me too!! And he loves it! His favorite juice is the "Mean Green" which was from the movie "Fat, sick and Nearly dead". Everyone should watch that movie, it was really inspiring! I know it really made me feel good about juicing.
Overall, the Jarrin family is doing great in Hawaii. We go to the beach at least once a week and have been enjoying living here in Hawaii. And yes... even in October the temperature here is around 80 every single day! LOVE IT!

This is our humble abode for the time being here in Hawaii

Here is Cruz enjoying a beach day in Kailua (our favorite beach spot on island)


This is the beach we live at