goodbye 2012!

This year I am going full bore with the New Year's resolutions! I hardly ever make legit New Year's resolutions. But for 2013, I'm making them, and am sticking to them, darnit!

Learn to knit.
Read the Bible.
Read more in general.
Swim/bike/run my first triathlon, an olympic distance!
FINALLY get down to my pre-pregnancy weight.
Be a light.
Be more patient.
Pray more.
Surf more.

Ok, not TOO lofty, I suppose. But most importantly, I want to be the best mom to Christian I can be, and the best wife to Rob that I can be.

Looking back at 2012, I realize once again (although I remind myself everyday) how blessed I am. I live in Hawaii with the love of my life, and our son, the other love of my life! And being a stay-at-home-mom has been the most challenging and the most rewarding "job" I've ever had. I feel so blessed that I can be there to witness him growing into this little man. We also did a good bit of traveling - Japan, Korea, California (twice!), and Virginia (also twice)! We celebrated Christian's 1st birthday. What a miracle baby, that boy. And even through the sadness of losing a pregnancy, I have learned more and more to put all my trust in God's plan for our life. Having faith and trusting God takes a lot of stress off my shoulders. Hmmm, go figure. ;)

God bless you and yours, and may you have a fantastic year ahead!

Cheers!

life, lately and aloha friday!

Christmas is over, and our tree is gone. Yep. Hauled it out first thing the morning after. We bought a real tree earlier in December, and by Christmas it was mostly dead. Pine needles everywhere. You couldn't even look at it without pine needles dropping to the floor. 

The next two pictures should be part of a post called, "Christmas Part II" because Christmas evening we headed over to Mimi and Papa's for dinner and another present for Christian! We couldn't get him off/away from that truck. It is quite clever - you can ride it, or pull the "dump" portion down and have a perfect sized dump truck for a one year old. Also, how lovely was the dinner table? And the view? In between chasing Christian around, who apparently is too busy to be strapped into a highchair to eat these days, I feasted on lamb, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and of course dessert! Delish! 

The day after Christmas we headed to a very busy Kaimana Beach, near the end of Waikiki. This is our favorite beach because it's usually really mellow during non-holiday "seasons." But the day after Christmas, there were a lot of people. That was totally ok, because Christian made lots of new friends... and I think Papa became the designated "Beach Papa," helping a few kids fill up their (our) water buckets. 

^^^ that's Christian and Mars. Mars has a brother named Moon.^^^

^^^you won't find snowmen in Hawaii... but you'll find sandmen!^^^

^^^Christian's great-grandmother in Pennsylvania, G.G., sent us loads of cars. Do I even need to explain how excited he was about them? He hasn't stopped playing with them... or lining them up on the window sill.^^^

I really do feel we've entered some new galaxy with Christian. Who is this boy with all this independence??? Naps are becoming a struggle (I think we're close to one nap a day), mealtimes are most definitely a struggle. Trying new food is unfathomable. So I think it's time to do some reading on what makes a toddler tick, and how can we be the best parents to Christian. I ended up buying "Toddler 411" because I loved "Baby 411" so much, which was given to us by Rob's sister, Christen. Holla. It's just nice to have a quick reference-type book on hand to make sure I'm not completely failing my son in that specific moment. 

"Toddler Wise" really gets into the mind of a toddler. It delves into the fact that a toddler's life is controlled by heredity, environment, and personality. I am a huge believer that babies/toddlers need structure in their life. And this book gets into that too. I think toddlers like predictability because it offers them reassurance and comfort in this crazy world. And Christian definitely seems to thrive when there is some sort of routine. I'm not talking some military style thing here... just basic structure throughout the day.

^^^Even though our Christmas tree is gone, I have a feeling our "card wall" will be up for a while. I love it. Christian loves it. I think Rob loves it. ;) Christian loves looking at all the familiar faces as I name who they are.^^^

^^^And finally, in addition to those cars that G.G. sent to us, she sent us some old photographs that I just love. I am sad that I never got to meet Rob's grandfather, but his memory most certainly lives on, and we will make sure that never changes.^^^

Whew. Life lately has been a bit of a whirlwind with all the travel, holiday celebrations, shopping, on top of our normal things we like to do with Christian. I'm ready to get back in our groove. 

...And I'm ready to write my New Year's Resolutions post. Because, oh boy, do I have some. For the first time in a long time!

Aloha!

Merry Christmas!

Mele Kalikimaka!!!

Last night Rob and I went to a Christmas Eve service at First Prez and were so happy to be able to sit with our good friends, Jayme and Joel. There really is something wonderful and joyful about sharing your faith with friends.  Like, there's this connection you can really feel knowing that we are a part of something together that is bigger than ourselves.

It was a lovely service with singing, praising, hula dancing, and a beautiful testimony from a military family. The husband had gone on four tours in the past five years, two to Afghanistan and two to Iraq. Yeesh. Talk about a testimony of faith and trusting God.

And today, what a fantastic morning! Christian was a little confused when he woke up and Mimi and Papa were here. But he soon picked up on that today was different and special. He had a ball tearing open wrapping paper and then quickly moving onto the next thing. He got trucks, a skateboard, and a chair just his size. What more could a boy want? :) Mimi baked a french toast casserole. Do I even need to say how delicious it was?

I do hope all of my friends and family had a wonderful Christmas and have a new year filled with many blessings!

Happy Birthday, Jesus! :)

aloha friday!

Yeah, so this is what happens when you tell Christian to "make a face." I don't even know how this started, at all. Except there are quite a few pictures of myself floating around making the exact same face. (NO, not recent ones!) Maybe it's genetic?

Anyway! I am very very excited to see The Nutcracker tonight, courtesy of Rob's parents! How sweet, right?! I've never seen it, so I am seriously stoked. This also means that Rob's parents will be putting Christian to bed. The first time ever that anyone besides me has done that.  And yep, that also means Christian is officially weaned. I dropped our last nursing session a few nights ago... and I'm clearly the only one that is a little sad over it. 

Rob has a few back to back trips, but thankfully has four days off around Christmas. Sadly, he won't be home for New Year's Eve. Oh well. I doubt I could have stayed up until midnight anyway! 

Have a great weekend! :)

getting back to normal

We got back to Hawaii late Monday night after THE LONGEST flight ever. No, it wasn't longer than normal, but two back to back 5 hour flights with a 5 hour sit in between, makes for a long day. And Christian would hate to miss anything going on around him... meaning, who the heck would want to sleep on an airplane? He conked out on the way to Honolulu after about two hours and then pretty much slept until we got home... until he saw Baxter and had to express his undying love for the cat. But thankfully, he quickly went back to sleep in his crib... and slept until 4:45am. 

BUT... I'm happy to say we're slowly getting back into our routine. Although I'm feeling extremely unmotivated to do laundry, dishes, clean, exercise, or basically anything that needs to be done. I blame it on travel and the holiday season in general. And I'm 100% ok with all of this. 

Here's a few pictures from our trip to Virginia. More later! 

{at the Children's Museum with his cousin, Julianna, whom he LOVES}

{checking out his new kicks from Uncle Kyle}

our day in LA

It.was.AWESOME!

We spent the day in LA with friends celebrating the first birthday of their daughter, Kira. It was just so perfect, and it did actually make me miss living here, and obviously, our friends here. I will just say that the group of friends we saw today have a very special place in our hearts. We met (and reconnected with) them at a time in our lives when God knew we needed them. We were in this holding pattern (pun intended) in our lives, and I was very antsy to leave Los Angeles and move on with life ... and then we met them (and reconnected with another couple we had met several months prior). They reminded us that we were exactly where we needed to be. Not through words, or actions necessarily, but mostly just by being the amazing, awesome people that they are. They are an important part of our testimony as husband and wife to how great our God is, through all that we have been through.

So we most definitely wanted to be a part of Kira's Winter ONEderland birthday celebration!

Today we started our morning out with free hotel breakfast. First let me say, Christian loves everything about what is happening right now. I don't know how much he fully grasps, but he knows he's having a good time, and that Mama and Dada are excited. The hotel has a glass elevator that looks into the courtyard, need I say more? Christian is just taking it all in. He loves running around the hotel room, looking out our window at all the trucks and busses going down the street, and obviously, riding the elevator. Endless entertainment. 

Yes, that's him wielding the remote control. OF COURSE, I wiped it down and sanitized it as best I could. Because gross. 

After breakfast and other morning shenanigans, Duke picked us up and we headed to the birthday girl's house. New toys! New toys! New toys! And a tent from Ikea that we HAVE TO HAVE. Around noon we went to the park - the event of the birthday party. There was a playscape, swings, LOTS of kiddos, a hot chocolate bar, and yummy food... Christian had his first taste of a "brownie bite." I'm not sure exactly what he was thinking, but something along the lines of WHY HAVE THEY BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME? It was just a phenomenal afternoon catching up with friends, hearing about their new adventures, and meeting new babies! 

Christian totally pooped out ...at the party. 

And then woke up screaming about 30 minutes later with a leaking diaper. We hoofed it back to Duke and Liisa's house and threw his clothes in the dryer while he played with all of Kira's toys. Everyone returned the house shortly thereafter and relaxed until heading back out to visit their community's own Winter Wonderland. There was fake snow (which we figured out to be soap...?), a green screen photo op, dancing, food trucks, coffee, and lots more kiddos. 

{the dads}

{the moms. ps - Kira & her glasses kill me!}

{baby loves}

And yeah... that about sums up the rest of the evening. 

Wow. We had so much fun and will definitely be planning more trips to the west coast. And I do really wish we could have seen more friends, but our time was so limited here. But like I said, we'll definitely be back and we won't wait an entire year next time!