Two in one day, what???? :)

Two posts in one day?? That's pretty crazy coming from someone who's been bad at posting weekly, let alone daily. Perhaps I'll issue a daily challenge to myself in April. I always enjoy doing that and it usually inspires me to try more recipes and find more blog worthy subjects. Anyone else up for a daily April blogging challenge?

This is another tidbit style post...hope those don't get old but if they do, oh well. Sometimes it's the best way for me to organize my thoughts.

*I find that without a doubt, getting out of the house in the mornings makes for a MUCH more productive afternoon for me. I used to savor my lazy mornings simply because I didn't get many of them while I was working. But now they are abundant so it's good to get out. Yesterday we went to an indoor playground that's new in Hillsboro and Emersyn had a great time. I wished it was a little bigger but it was a perfect size for a toddler. After the playground we went to lunch with our friends, then to Petsmart to look at the fishies, birds, and rodents. It was great. Ems took a great nap that afternoon and I got some things done as well. Today I slept in a little and almost didn't make the effort to get to the library storytime like I'd planned but I decided to take a quick shower and go anyways. I'm glad I did. If I hadn't I wouldn't have the burning image in my eyeballs of the three year old lifting up his bra-less mother's shirt and going to town on her left breast Emersyn would have missed out on a fun morning of stories and a little art project afterwards. Now she's napping and I'm cleaning up in anticipation of my in-law's coming over for dinner tonight.

*I figured out why I was SO tired the first days after vacation other then the lack of sleep.....it was also a lack of caffeine. At our resort, you can purchase a cup and it's unlimited refills for the duration of your stay. You can fill it with coffee, tea, pop, etc. Since it was unlimited, I probably drank a lot more caffeine then I should have and I'm certain it contributed to my peppy-ness. Since I realized that, I've been drinking a cup of coffee in the morning and it's helping with my fatigue.

*I took a picture of this, in hopes of it being a "before" picture and if all goes well this weekend, I'll have an "after" picture. We are going to install some hooks in the closet and hope that cleans it up, along with organizing the shoes.

*My BFF in Boise started a fun Friday blog hop of sorts, although it doesn't currently have a linky. It's called Faith Building Friday. I would love to participate but sadly, I haven't done much faith building lately. LAME. I came off such a great women's retreat and was totally inspired but then we went on vacation and the mornings I dreamed of doing my bible study by the beach just never happened. Now that I'm out of the first trimester, I would like to start getting up a little earlier to try to squeeze in SOME quiet time before Emersyn wakes up but the first step to that will be getting to bed earlier, something I stink at. What can I say, I love spending time with my hubs at night. Head over to her blog for some inspiration as we head into the weekend.

*Hopefully on Sunday I'll have a "Emersyn slept through the first night in her big girl bed with no problems and woke up completely potty trained on her own and also doesn't want anything to do with her binky's anymore" post written for you.

Probably not though.

I'll just hope for the first part anyways, the potty training and binky's might be setting myself up for disappointment. :)

TGIF!!!!!!!!!

Fill in the Blank Friday!

This is one of my favorite blog hops. Lauren, the hostess, always has fun questions that aren't probing in regards to what kind of underwear I'm wearing or some other nonsense. :)

1. The best deal I've ever gotten is The first thing that comes to mind is Emersyn's Crocs (see pictures below). I got these Crocs for a total of $11 including shipping. She has worn the heck out of them, especially the blue/green ones. I almost didn't buy the blue/green ones because they seemed kinda boyish and they have Wall-E on them but now I'm so glad I did. She wore them every single day in Hawaii and almost every single day last summer. I got her some new ones for the upcoming summer, again two pairs for $10 this time, but I think they are going to be too big and we'll have to save them until NEXT summer when she's almost 4.

2. If I were hosting a dinner party and could invite people from my fantasy guest list it would include

hmm...these kinds of questions always stump me. I think it would be fun to have some young celebrtiry mom's over for dinner...pick their brains. Maybe Ali from the Biggest Loser and Candace Cameron Bure from Full House. I follow them both on Twitter and they seem like sweet gals.

3. Something that inspires me is vacations always make me ponder life and how I can live it more to the fullest. Also, hanging out with women that I admire and strive to be like.

4. If I could only choose to eat one flavor of food for the rest of eternity (sweet, salty, spicy, bitter....) I would have to go withwhat a random questions. I would have to go with salty. Sweet would get old and I don't like bitter.

5. I dream about nhaving a home large enough to entertain large groups of people and be able to bless people with the gift of hospitality. I also dream of a front and back yard that is big enough for my kids to run around and play in.

6. My weekend will be spent going to the mall with Brett and Ems to make a Build-a-bear and take something back to Nordstrom; cleaning up Emersyn's room and moving her crib out to introdcuce the big girl bed on Saturday night; having dinner with one of my favorite family's, the Polits'; going to church Sunday morning; getting a massage (hallelujah) on Sunday afternoon; and possibly going to church Sunday night. :)

7. If I could only watch one movie or TV show for the rest of my life, it would be Friends re-runs. :) They just never get old for some reason!!

Tuesday Tidbits

*I have a vacation recap post in the works but just haven't had the energy to finish it. I haven't had much energy at all really, it's so weird. I feel like I'm back in the first trimester again. I didn't take a single nap in Hawaii and had almost no nausea. A lot of my time in Hawaii was spent lounging by a pool though which is almost the equivalent to napping really. Coming back to the time zone change plus day light savings was a bit brutal. Yesterday was our first day back in reality and we had a coffee date at the mall which was wonderful. Ems had a tough time falling asleep and was up late so I decided to let her sleep in as long as she wanted and skip bible study if she didn't wake up in time for it. She slept until after 10am!!!!! I got to sleep too and it was wonderful. We got up, had breakfast and then I could barely keep my eyes open which was so weird considering I had gotten so much extra sleep. I put in "Up" for Emersyn to watch and slept for another two hours on the couch during the movie. I guess my body is just catching up on sleep. Hoping it gets better as the week goes on!!

*Yesterday I decided to bake Brett a special treat and they turned out SO good!! I had leftover puff pastry left from my brie at Christmas so I made apple turnovers. They were really easy and delicious. Brett couldn't stop going on and on about them and it made me happy. :) Here's the recipe if you're interested!

*The weather in Oregon STINKS. It's cold and rainy and we are just over it! Poor Ems gets cabin fever so easily and we love to go on walks but it's just not any fun in the pouring down rain. Oy.

*This weekend we are going to transition Ems to her big girl bed. We are going to attempt to take away her binkies simultaneously. We've really been pumping up the "big girl" aspect to her new bed and how big girls don't need binkies, etc. I have a Groupon for Build-A-Bear that we are going to use on Saturday as a new big girl toy for her to sleep. I think she'll like it, she's never made one before! I'll keep you posted on how all that goes. :) Wish us luck.

*Less then two weeks until our big gender ultrasound. I am so excited to find out what we are having...then the planning can really start. I found a quilt that I really like for Emersyn but I'm waiting to see if we are going to have to buy boy bedding first. If we have to buy two new sets of bedding, we'll have to explore some more affordable options. :)

Isn't this darling though? It's from Pottery Barn Kids....oh how I miss my 40% off discount.

*We rented "Life as we know it" this past weekend with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. It was really cute! I love a good chick flick.

Safe

Thank you everyone for your concerns. It was a long but thankfully uneventful night. God is faithful and protected us. Sure puts things into perspective though, ya know?

Now my heart aches for the people of Japan, particularly the mothers with children. I can't imagine not being able to keep my daughter safe because of a natural disaster. Lord be near them.

Tsunami Warning

After a lovely dinner with my parents, we came back to our hotel room and learned of the earthquake in Japan. I saw it on Twitter initially and then we turned on the news with concerns that this could generate a tsunami in Hawaii.

At first it the news said we were on tsunami warning and now it is officially a tsunami watch. Kinda scary to be honest. We are right on the Kalapaki bay.....this is the view from our room.
Friends, I already suffer from some major irrational fears. Hearing that a tsunami IS headed our way, just the magnitude is unknown is about enough to give me a panic attack. I'm taking some deep breaths though and knowing that my God is mighty to save. I pray that the news is making a huge hype over it and that it won't be a big deal at all.

In the meantime I am praying for Japan and it's residents. I am so thankful for the faith I have in my Savior; without it I don't think I would have the courage to get out of bed each day or bring another child into this world. Kind of a downer ending to our vacation huh? We are supposed to leave on Saturday and my parents are supposed to fly out tomorrow night. I think that most of my bloggie friends are probably fast asleep as I type this but if you happen to read this now, please say a prayer for us. Hopefully by the time you read this, the warning is long gone and I'm back to lounging at the pool. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Thursday Tidbits- Hawaiian Style :)

Hanging out with my mama!

Aloha!!

It's been awhile since I blogged so I thought I would take this rainy Kauai morning to post a bit of an update!

*Last weekend I went on an incredible women's retreat that deserves a whole other post of it's own. More to come on that later!

*On Monday I accomplished more in one day then I have probably in my entire pregnancy. I cleaned, packed, shopped, cleaned some more, packed some more.....it was exhausting but also I knew that it would all be worth it.

*Tuesday travel day. Woke up at 6:30am, needed to leave by 7:30. I took a shower the night before and all we needed to do was toss last minute toiletries into the suitcase and get Ems up and ready. At 7 I was mostly ready to go so I decided to check us into our flight which I know was ridiculously late but sometimes I think online check in is kind of pointless. Plus, we were going to wait to print our boarding passes at the airport. I got onto my email to get the confirmation code and saw that the airline had sent out the confirmation flight email the day before. I looked at the itinerary and it said our flight left at 8:00am. 8:00am!?!?! Immediately I start to panic and scream for Brett. At this point it's like 7:15 and we feel absolutely helpless. I get on the phone and call Hawaiian Airlines to figure out what we can do and while I'm on the phone I look and see that a couple hours following the confirmation email, Hawaiian had sent out a "my bad" email saying that the previous email was incorrect. UGH!!!!!! It was totally stressful and I seriously was so relieved that it had been an error. However, it was a good lesson regarding the importance of checking on your flight the day before. My incredible friend Caitlin took us to the airport, despite the fact that she had sliced the tip of her thumb off the night before and spent two hours in the ER and her daughter was sick. If there was a test of friendship, she passed. :)

*Emersyn initially was TERRIFIED of the pool. We got her a darling swim suit, hat, life vest, pool floaty, pool toys, etc. She was NOT interested. The first day we went in she screamed on the side of the pool saying she would go to bed, she wanted to cuddle with my mom on the side of the pool, any sort of excuse. It only took about ten minutes of her gently clinging to us for dear life for her to relax and she's LOVED it ever since. There is a pretty big pool at our resort and there's a kiddie pool too. Only we're not allowed to call it the kiddie pool because Emersyn refused to go in it because according to her, she didn't want to swim with "kitty's". Now we call it the little girl pool. :) It's so fun to see her enjoying the water!



Here are some other random pics....gotta love taking pics on the iPhone!

Every morning at 9am the resort feeds the MASSIVE pond full of koi fish! It's incredible sight to see, literally hundreds of fish swarming to eat.

One the fish guy feeds the fish, he brings out a tray of food for the people watching to hand out. Brett puts the food in his hand and can feel the fish sucking it out of his palm. Eeeeek, I couldn't do it! Ems LOVED feeding the fish...here is a pic of her feeding them last time we were here...

That's it for now. More to come later I'm sure. :)