Easter!

Easter1These probably need no explanation. There was basket hunting. (Does everyone not do this? I always did this growing up… You have to find your basket!)

Easter2Fun treats from Mimi like the hatching dinosaur and the wierdo marshmallow rabbits. Because my family is really weird, these bunnies may have had a cameo during our Skyping. Along with Dove rabbits… The marshmallow rabbit tragically met it’s end in the microwave. Wow this sounds really demented as I type it out, but it entertained us all!

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Full disclosure… the egg hunting and dying took place on Monday, the day after Easter! I know! What a holiday fail! But the kids were happy and we just ran out of time during the weekend! Also, I just filled the eggs with candy they received ON Easter. But they REALLY did not need anymore candy!Easter3That picture in the lower left corner, she was just cheesing and had NO clue the egg was right next to her head. Walked past it TWO more times after that!

We had my awesome friend Cat over for dinner with her three darling kiddos who we just love!

Easter5I was making a big dinner anyways, I cannot cut my holiday meals down in size!

Also my wonderful friend brought me the bestest hostess gift! (Please ignore my goofy face and grainy ipod photo!)

photo (13)I have a new favorite wine. Seriously. Yum.

Wonderful Easter Sunday with some pretty great people!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Christmas!

Surprise! We spent Christmas Day the exact same way as everyone else, but I am going to throw some pictures up here anyways!

stockingsChristmas morning, kids were up at 7am (two hours earlier than they have been up all Christmas break!) We do things a little crazy here… Stockings are at the breakfast table and the kids sit and open stockings and we eat breakfast before diving into the present opening. This makes sure mommy has coffee, we aren’t starving and we can relax and enjoy the gift opening. Bowser even got a stocking this year and was very happy with it!

We then had a bunch of this action:

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Gift opening is such a traditional family thing. I’ve been talking to some friends this year and it’s really amazing all the different ways that families open their gifts on Christmas morning! I keep all of the gifts hidden, including the ones sent from family, the only gifts under the tree before Christmas were some I had received. Then on Christmas morning there is the big surprise reveal with a mass of gifts all mixed together. Then everyone opens one at a time so we can all ooh and aah over each gift. It can take awhile, especially when we have a big group of our family together. One Christmas it was my mom and dad, two brothers, my sister, my aunt and her two boys, and the four of us. You couldn’t see the floor in my moms living room and we were opening presents for HOURS. But I love it. We get to relax and it isn’t a mad rush of tearing through the gifts in 10 minutes.

Anyways, all of this eventually led up to my gift that Omar had sent me that I was saving for last. I really thought it was a pair of shoes because the box was just the right size:

cameraNope, it’s my new baby girl! I was SO surprised and wish he was here to give it to me in person! I am in LOVE with this camera. Although I am still such a sentimental baby that I can’t give up my Canon quite yet. I have had that camera for FIVE years, we have been, literally, all over the world together! It’s like an extension of my hand! Switching from Canon to Nikon is a little crazy, got to figure this new one out but so far I am having a blast!

We spent some time the rest of the day doing some cookie business, well the kids did anyways while I made a big ol’ dinner just for us.

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Dinner was great, well that mac and cheese could have been better. Mckenna got all dressed up and put on some of her new makeup courtesy of Mimi! I got a huge kick out of this dumb little Lego figure I had picked up for Omar’s stocking. You didn’t know which one it was going to be and it ended up being good ol’ Hamlet with poor Yorick. Perfectly suited for a five year old, right? I, however, love it!

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We had a really good day with just the three of us. We were missing daddy BIG time though. Glad that this is one more big holiday over and done with and we can cross it off the list! Just counting down the days!

 

 

Making Our House a Home…

Kinda.

Trying to anyways.

So I was bored as heck yesterday, no friends to hang out with, and complaining to my husband about how bored I was and he said, go plant some flowers. So I did.

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I forgot how much I really do enjoy gardening. That bed was just a mess of weeds and snails before and it looks SO much better now. Plus I got a ton of plants from the clearance section at the Garden Shop. Yay for 75% off plants! I buy them and tell myself “I can rebuild them” like they are the 6 Million Man. Got lots of fun stuff and can’t wait until it all fills in.  Now just need to get some seating up on the porch and it will look great out front!

Also, found the drill! Got to hang some pictures.

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I have a TON more stuff to hang but I don’t know where I want to put it! Plus I have a mirror that needs two people to hang. Where is my sister! I need her to come do this, she is the designer!

But anyways, I am finally starting to get this house together, it’s been hard feeling like this is home without my honey here. But I want him to come home to a real home.

 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

 

Some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect fall day to get married. Really can’t believe that was eleven years ago. So happy to have the rest of our lives together. I love you baby.

 

We have a house!

So we moved into our house this week, it has been WONDERFUL to get out of a hotel room. Everyone needed a door to close to get away from everyone else. I love my children but I am really, really glad that I can send them upstairs to play, or to the park right behind our house.

We have some hideous awesome temporary furniture that we get to use until our stuff gets delivered. But really, it’s nice to have beds, a couch and a table and chairs. The same day we moved in we had our temp furniture delivered, our express shipment delivered and had satellite tv hooked up.  So we at least have enough stuff to cook and get through the next month. It’s been great to be able to cook dinner again. It’s going to be a long time until we eat fast food!

There is a LOT that I want to do to this house. I really want to paint some walls but we have to get approval first… Also our (tiny) yard is pretty much just red dirt. So I am really looking forward to getting some grass seed in there and doing some gardening. I have a little papaya tree in my front yard and I am hoping I can actually get it to produce some big ol’ papaya.

Oh, and one of the perks of living in Hawaii? I found a roach today in my kitchen. Since we have hardly any food it must have already been here. Needless to say I was throwing up in my mouth, I have NEVER had to deal with roaches before! First thing tomorrow I am calling maintenance to have them come spray the crap outta my house. I can deal with ants and spiders but roaches are a deal breaker.

Need to take some pictures to show, but we’ve been so crazy running around getting errands done. Really looking forward to relaxing and settling in!