Friday, December 30, 2011

"An older sister helps one remain half child, half woman"

Thank you Marle' for coming to visit us in Hawaii. Clark put together a short video of your time here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Love you!!


A sister is someone who is there and understands who you are. She will be there with you no matter what situation you have been through and going to hit in the future. A sister is your family, best friend, and your friend forever. She is the one you tell your deepest secret to.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day

Christmas morning. Opening presents. The Mr. did such a good job picking out the coolest diaper bag ever. Thank you to all our family and friends for the special gifts we have received. We love you guys!!



The day consisted of pancakes + fruit. beach time. snorkeling. secret service. family time. new friends. food. board games. more really good food. A Christmas to remember!



"Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you"


We knew we had a pretty good setup when Edward + President Barack Obama showed up.  

A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story.


It's been a wonderful Christmas weekend at our house. Probably the most laid back and relaxing holiday I have ever had (or will have in the future since little miss will be here next year). Clark and I decided to spend Christmas Eve alone with just the two of us. 
The day started with a skype date with my family. Great way to start the day!! After getting our fix with the lack of our family not being here we said our good-byes and went grocery shopping. Let me just say that the spirit of Aloha was everywhere to be found. Although there were more people in the stores than ever before the crowed didn't cease to disappoint with their good mood. This helped make our shopping trip quite successful.
I've been wanting to cook something different and special of Christmas Eve and found our duck at a incredible deal. Having never cooked anything this complicated before I didn't realize it would take about 4 hrs to complete. So, since we had to wait a while we decided to go to the movies. Once we got out of the movies I was pretty excited to go home and get ready for the candlelight service at Hope Church here in Kaneohe. Its been sort of a tradition my family has been doing since we are all older. The service was beautiful and I loved being outside surrounded by all the festive lights.  


mangoes, crispy duck & roasted potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy

Luckily, the food turned out great! Lots of fresh fruit was included. 
The night ended with us just sitting outside on our porch talking about our families + the precious gift we will be receiving in a few months. It will be the best gift period. This weekend we celebrated baby jesus birthday and can only imagine how amazing it will be celebrating our own baby's birthday!! 



Friday, December 16, 2011

Joy To The World.


24 Weeks: Our baby girl.

She has her daddy's cute pointy nose and a serious case of hiccups, which we are so glad for. This means she is a healthy girl. They were afraid she was skipping a heart beat, but it seemed to only be happening due to her hiccups. WHAT A SCARY MOMENT.
I love this little baby miracle already so much and can't imagine having received a better gift. We feel VERY BLESSED to be having her in our life and that she is okay.

Also, we are SO THANKFUL to have gotten to see her face this time around. And what a sweet thing she already is!! The doctor kept saying that she is laughing (which made us laugh) and we got to see her eat some of the ambiotic fluids.

The doctor was joking around and announced that she is saying/wishing us "Mele Kalikimaka". This made me think of how special this christmas will be. She will be our little hawaiian baby and part of this big adventure we took together.

My sister Marle' gave us the best christmas ornament. She always gives the best gifts!! This will most definitely be a christmas to remember.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Made of Sand


December has been very eventful thus far. We had the pleasure of having 2 guest come visit us at our new home. It's been a nice distraction giving me no tim to get home sick for the holidays. Thank you guys! 
Hawaii has sandmen instead of snowmen. Wish I came up with that. Anyway, they have some incredible unique and creative decoration here for christmas. We took both our guests to downtown honolulu to see the magical display of christmas lights. Everywhere was written "Mele Kalikimaka" which I so enjoyed bc nowadays big cities don't write the "Merry Christmas" out anymore. It's not just any holiday, its our Saviors birthday and needs to be celebrated accordingly. 
Clark's favorite decoration was the giant santa clause and mrs. clause. Santa was dressed in his hawaiian shirt open and shorts. He was also drinking a pina colada and they both had their toes dipped into the fountain that was surrounded with penguins.    
Who said you can't get in the christmas spirit without the cold. I am definitely getting used to this kind of weather all year round. 

Short, BUT Sweet...


This past weekend my sister came for a impromptu visit. It's as if christmas came early for me. 
My sisters are my best friends and I L O V E D spending this time with her. 

Valley of the Temple. (Kaneohe, HI)
Since it was a shot visit with not the best weather we didn't get to do much, but thats what I love about my big sis. It doesn't take much for us to have a good time. 

(Sad face) Lock the keys inside the trunk...

We have the winter season is Hawaii right now, which means a lot of rain. And the waves are either too big or to cold to go swimming. So, we took Marle' to a resort and enjoyed the hot tub. One of our favorite things to do over here. Makes me forget about real life and pretend like we are tourist for a day. The night only got better when we watched the sunset. An older gentleman gave us each a hibiscus flower and invited us to watch a traditional Polynesian fire dance performance by his sons. This is why I think hawaii is so amazing! 
The aloha spirit/kindness never ceases to amaze me. PLUS, they offer so much to do and see that is either free or very inexpensive.

The next day was a bit of a disaster. Nothing worked out as planed, and the weather had no intension of getting any better. The lesson I learned tho was that even when something goes wrong, there is always a  reason you had to go through it. I might not understand why things happen the way it does, but I know it can only get better, and makes me appreciate the good things that do happen. 

The list of things that started out BAD and ended up being something GOOD 
1 (-) Clark's job interview got cancelled (+) we get to spend more time with my sister.
2 (-) the rainy weather (+) beautiful rainbow.
3 (-) raining at the beach (+) run to shelter to get warm and ended up meeting a local that told us about a secret beach spot with sea turtles.
4 (-) lock our keys in the car (+) discover a new favorite place to eat.
5 (-) spending lots of $$ on a taxi [to go get our keys] (+) meeting new friends & job opportunity for Clark.
6 (-) no internet (+) free movie night with my sister and hubby in our cosy little home.


It was sad to see her go, but knowing that the next time I see her we will probably have our little girl makes me so excited. And I know it will go by real fast. I have learned so much from my big sister and have always looked up to her. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know, and I hope to teach my little girl the things she has inspired me to be. Marle' will be the best aunt this little girl could ever ask for bc she already is the best sister I could have asked for. Baie dankie my liewe sussie vir jou lekker keier!!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

North Shore Family V-Shoot...


I already blogged about this video earlier and posted some pics from their v-shoot, but the Mr. just completed the finishing touches and we wanted to share it with you. Beth Anne, Geoff and baby Grayson wanted a family video 'a day in the life'. What a sweet life it is! This family is awesome. They made it so easy to film them, and you can tell how happy and in love they are. Thanks guys for letting us be apart of your journey. 
Grayson is one cute kid!!


22 weeks


Okay, so it's starting to get a little uncomfortable in here... my belly is growing rapidly and I don't think I can stop it. I made it over the half way point and its really starting to sink in that we will be having a bebe in 124 DAYS!! 

My friend Anna has brought many goodies along with her visit. Our little beanette is already getting spoiled. 
Since my bestie arrived we have played hard. For her first day we captured the final surf competition at sunset beach. The weather was great, the waves were large,  the crowd was intense, and a local won the show. Perfect.


The second day continued with a stop at the local bakery in Kaneohe, in the middle of their Christmas parade. So many people and such good food. After that we headed to Waikiki and enjoyed the day at some of the resorts & beaches. We ended our night in town (Honolulu) watching their city lights parade (that included coconut m&m's),  and the festival. There was a giant santa, with his shirt open and dressed in his swim trunks. All I can say is "a very impressive show indeed". Video soon to come.


Thursday, December 1, 2011

FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS!

Today I was going to make a flower leis with *Needle and Dental Floss. It's supposed to be really strong to hold the beautiful orchid flowers together. My goal was to get this done before my bestie Anna gets here, but who would have guessed that it would be raining all day. This made searching for flowers a little hard. I ended up buying one instead, to welcome my penner... She will be here in a couple of hours. I can't imagine a better way to start the christmas countdown.

This year I wanted to make a new christmas music CD with a [Hawaiian/fun] theme.
These are the songs I have selected:
*Christmas Lights-Coldplay
*In the Morning-Jack Johnson & Angel(Holiday)-Jack
*Mistletoe-Justin Bieber
*Jingle Bells Rock-Rogue Wave
*Christmas Must Be Tonight-Bahamas
*Make Time-Mark Money
*Santa's Going South
*Wake Up, Wake Up-Matt Wetrz
*It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas-Michael Buble
& All I want for Christmas Is You
*Thankful-Josh Groban
*Joy To The World-Faith Hill
*What Child Is This-Sarah McLachlan
*Oh Santa!-Mariah Carey
*The Heart Of Christmas-Matthew West & Give This Christmas Away
*Someday At Christmas-Jack Johnson
*Silent Night-Zach Gill