The most amazing date with an incredible man :)

There is no way I can go without talking about our date. I have actually wanted to write about Ben in general. I love him...I really, really love him. We have been together for almost 12 years and married for almost 9! Remind you, I'm only 27. I barely remember a life without him. So many people said we would never make it. But here is why we do...why I love him so much.

EVERYTHING we do is as a team. We both raise our boys, we both clean the house and WE make decisions about what we do and want to try to do together. Ben has changed just as many diapers as I have, he does laundry, the dishes, I don't dust...he does. But this is just the start.

Ben continues to amaze me. I am a very emotionally needy person. I hate this about myself but it's true. I am insecure and get jealous very easily. While I feel like there are tons of reasons for this, it is still difficult to live with. He shows me how much he loves me. When I want to talk he does. Not saying we don't fight but we are open with eachother. We have both learned that the grass isn't greener on the other side. We are very compatible and really have a chance to be the happily ever after. Ben used to think that fairy tales were completely retarded. I think I have taught him that they can be real...you just have to know when to recognize them and fight with all you have to keep them.

With that said...on to our date. We have not left our boys since the Probowl. A night out was WAY past due. Ben first took me to the west coast. We went out on the rocks to sit and watch the sunset. It was so beautiful.

What made this even more amazing is that we got to watch a sea turtle swim around below us! The whole time we were there watching the sunset, a turtle kept popping up and swimming around. It was so fun to watch. Anytime one of us would get distracted, the other would spot him. I can't even begin to explain what those moments meant to me. The little booger was impossible to photograph though. We only had one of the small cameras of which has a LONG delay. So everytime we would try to take a picture he would dive back down. :(

This is the best picture we could get.

After the sunset we went to dinner at Roy's. It is located within the Ko'Olina Resort area. Very good! It is pricey but the food is awesome. I had the macadamia nut crusted swordfish. Mmmm. I'm not even a big seafood person. We had a wonderful dinner and then went and had a few drinks after. I love that after this long we can still sit for hours talking. It is so easy for me to imagine our future. One thing that has helped us along the way is that our dreams continue to be the same. So many young couple grow apart...but we grew together. We really want the same things out of life. I know that when we are 70 and 72, after a day of photography or painting for me and a day of fishing or golfing for him, we will sit on our front porch hand in hand.

For now we are making the most out of the time we have. Our family is precious and we are fully aware of that. Right now I have everything I ever dreamed of. My prince, 3 perfect boys and a life of opportunity. And it has just begun ;)

The nerve!

So I am beyond irritated! Quit frankly I am pissed! While Ben was at work last night some A**hole side swiped his trailblazer. What angers me so much is that they just left. No number left on the windsheild or anything! How do people do this?

Just a few weeks ago, while Ben's mom and Kenzie were here, we went to the North Shore. As I was parked outside a store, waiting on Linda, the car next to me backed up and hit the driver's side of my back bumper. She then pulled forward to readjust, put the car back into reverse. I then stepped out of my car. She saw me and then put the car into park. She was going to leave! She then tried to talk me out of calling the police for an accident report. The nerve of some people!

What happened to taking responsibilty for your actions? For treating others as you would like to be treated? How do you just leave someone to pay for your careless mistake? This is just one of the many examples of proof for how selfish people in this country are today.

If this was a vehicle that we were planning to keep for a long time, we wouldn't worry so much. But, this is a temporary vehicle. We are going to sell it before we leave the island. How are you going to sell a car with the entire driver's side scratched and the side mirror broken? So now we get to make ANOTHER claim to our insurance and pay the deductible...for something we DIDN'T do!

Ok...there is my rant. I'm finished now. On to better things.

I got my rings back in the mail today! It is so weird. A diamond feel out of my wedding band so I sent them back with my mother-in-law to take them to Gordon's for me. So I have not worn them in almost a month. I have found myself staring at them just like I did after getting them the first time. I remember how much hope I had then. When we got married we couldn't afford the engagement ring. So we bought the band to go with the engagement ring that I knew I wanted to complete my set. In no way did I want another ring to wear until I could upgrade. I wanted to wear only one set of rings for the rest of my life. So after we got our bonuses from the army, Ben bought my engagement ring. About 13 months after we were married. Because he never really proposed, he did then. In our living room with candles lit, music playing. It was so sweet. We had just found out that I was pregnant with Blake a couple weeks earlier. this was our family's begining. :)

I have been praising Hunter a lot lately. I just can't stop. He is still being the hard headed, rule breaking, full of life boy. I even caught him trying to spray ant killer on Blake today. Ugh! But...his little brain has just amazed me lately. It is like all of the sudden a light bulb went off. He was really struggling to make some of the connections is needed to read. If I sounded out a word he could hear the word. But he couldn't sound it out himself and here it. In the last week he has figured out blending. He is so excited to read new words. He also has figured out what rhyming is. He constantly asks me, "Mommy, does rat and cat rhyme?" or "Does noodle and oodle rhyme?" I am so excited. He gets it!!!! Now he is just soaring. I don't want it to stop!!! He has also had a huge nonacademic accomplishment. The training wheels are gone!!!! Ben has been fighting him on this for months. He refused to ride without them. So Ben bend them back as far as possible, so they weren't really doing anything anyway. Ben finally talked him into letting him take ONE training wheel off. Hunter tried that once and then asked for the other to be taken off as well. He took off the first time!!! He has been riding nonstop ever since! My Hunter man is growing up!!! :)

Update on Parker: The blisters and spots are looking a lot better today. His running nose on the other hand is insane! Like his big brother, his mind is just exploding too! He has discovered books. :) Constantly, over and over he brings you books. He listens, looks at the pictures and then watches your mouth as you sound out words or make animal sounds. He is very fond of the cow and the cow amazing "MOOOOO"! ;) I love it. He is making so many more sounds. He can also point out your nose when asked. He is saying momma...just not when asked. Little stinker! He has develop an odd fascination for shoes. When hanging around the house, he is almost always wearing a, yes A, shoe. He even comes up to you saying "shoe, shoe, shoe" and holding one of his sandals. So cute!

Everyday my children amaze me. Everyday I feel lucky to have the life that I always dreamed of. Even with the a**holes of the world. :)

Poor Parker!

My sweet little boy has had such a rough week. Last Tuesday it all started. He woke up several time throughout the night just crying. I couldn't do anything to get him to stop. Wednesday he cried almost nonstop all day. He had a low grade temp and just acted really uncomfortable. Pretty much the only thing that would get him calm was a Popsicle! I knew it was his teeth. He was trying to cut 3 molars and his bottom 2nd tooth on the right. So 4 teeth all at once!!!

It didn't stop there. Thursday morning he woke up and had small, un-raised red spots on the palms of his hands. Later I started noticing them on the bottom of his feet. The fever was completely gone by this point. He acted more like himself. But what are these spots. We kept a really close eye on him all day. I REFUSE to be one of those moms who takes there kid to the doctor for every little thing. So we agreed that if it started to spread, the fever came back, or he acted differently that we would call the doctor. He was fine all day.

Friday morning we woke up with huge blisters on his fingers. I thought he was having a reaction to ant bites because he played in the yard the night before. But then I saw that the spots had spread up his legs. So I called the doctor. Poor guy was diagnosed with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. :/ We suspected it but I never knew it could blister like that! The doctor said that he was most prone to getting it most likely because of the teething stressing him out and affecting his immune systems. Blake and Hunter still play with him like crazy and neither have gotten it.

Today was the first day that the spots looked like they were starting to heal. But now the poor guy has the worst running nose EVER!!! I am wondering if the teeth are starting to move again. Only one of the molars and the bottom front tooth decided to actually pop out last week. So we may still be fighting those other 2 molars. :(

One up side, as much as I hate canceling plans, we now have some down days to let him recover. Maybe tomorrow I will finally scrub my toilets! ;)

2 side notes:

1. My wonderful other mother had a successful knee surgery today. We are wishing her the most speedy recovery!

2. I hate when Ben works nights!!!

Rewind....

It was so good to be a tourist for a couple weeks. We were able to do so many things that I kept putting off. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, USS Arizona Memorial, Swap Meet, Valley of the Temples, Turtle Bay, North Shore, Ko'Olina Lagoons, a couple different beaches, and went on a few hikes. I enjoyed everyday. There are a few that really stood out though.

The USS Arizona was a mixture of so many emotions. It is unreal to imagine this amazingly beautiful, peaceful place under attack. To think of the horror that was felt that day is heartbreaking. The think I found to be odd was that as I walked through the museums and memorial, I was angered seeing Japanese people there. It was a part of their history too but for some reason it made me angry. Is that horrible? They are now an ally of ours. They are now dealing with a tragedy of their own. But when you are there, looking at all those names of fallen soldiers, it really takes you back. I would give anything to bring my Grandpa back and be able to go there with him. I wish I could here his story...from him.

My all time favorite was our hike to Manoa Falls. The hike itself is beautiful. You hike through a bamboo forest. The trees are incredible. We even saw wild parrots. It is exactly what I pictured a hike in Hawaii being. The waterfall was so-so...but the hike was awesome.

I still can't believe that my baby is a year old. I don't want the rest of his life to go by as fast as this last year. I know that we are done having children...but I just don't feel like I'm old enough to be at that stage of my life. I look at the boys and it just amazes me how quickly the years have gone by. Blake is going to be 7 next month! How is that possible? I haven't updated about the older 2 in a while.

Blake continues to enjoy anything sport or outdoor related. He is so active. He is still my sweet, cuddly one. He adjusts so well to our military life. They have made so many friends on our street. He is doing really well with home school. His reading amazes me. I was never a strong reader, so I love that he has picked up on it so naturally. At first he seemed to struggle with math. Now he is doing really well, with the exception of addition facts. He has always impressed us with his memory. So why is it that it seems unable to memorize addition facts? So frustrating. He uses his fingers for EVERYTHING! He is really struggling with spelling. It drives me nuts because I know that if he would just slow down while he is writing that he could do better. It's a constant race for him though. Who is he racing? In the end, I think I am just too tough on him. I think my expectations are too high. We won't tell him that though. ;)

Hunter is just as silly as ever. I LOVE how he can make any situation he wants, a funny one. Everyday I see Ben in him. He is hard headed, full of life, impossible to deal with one second...and then makes you laugh the very next. Hunter can always make me smile. He started Kindergarten a couple weeks ago! He had finished all the pre-school curriculum and was so excited to start. So I figured there was no reason to wait. So far he is doing very well. If he tries hard throughout the day, he earns a sticker. When he has 10 stickers, we all go out for ice cream. We went today! :) So proud of him.

Blake and Hunter start flag football on the 23rd!!! I can't wait to be back in sports again. It has been so weird not running to games all the time. They are still going to Karate twice a week. We will see how the juggling of both goes. :)

Now that things are slowing down again, I am hoping to get back into a pretty steady schedule. The last couple days have been a little tough. Parker is cutting 4 teeth!!! 3 back teeth and 1 front one. He is a constant faucet and extremely whiny. I have to admit though...he is way more spoiled than he should be. Momma's baby :) What else can I say?

I should be better at posting the next month. Ben started nights tonight. I HATE nights. I avoid my bed because the thought of going there alone is depressing. I know it's not healthy to spend every waking second with someone...but I want as much time as possible. Even when he drives me crazy, I want him close. Anyway...I'll be talking to you soon. :)

What a week!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE living in Hawaii?!?!?! We have been so busy the last couple weeks and I love it. The busier I am, the better. :) We have had a couple of get togethers and meet-ups with the groups I joined. I am so glad that I found the meet-up website. It is such a great way to meet people. I am really excited to become more active with the Military Moms group. They have park, beach and in home play dates every week, along with other various activities. We went to the beach with them on Wednesday. It was at the Ko'Olina Lagoons. This is a great place for children. Very calm and shallow water so you don't have to worry as much about them being carried off by the waves. The boys loved it.

Thursday Maw Maw and Kenzie arrived!!! We have been counting down for this day during calender time. The first couple days weren't real exciting as far as showing them the island. Friday was completely focused on getting ready for Parker's birthday party. We kept it small and had burgers and cake at the house. Parker had a great time. Jenny came with Logan and Avery. Parker and Avery played on his new slide for most of the evening. Parker LOVED his cake and made sure to eat the whole piece!

Saturday we went to Hanaumu Bay. It is beautiful there. We snorkeled and just hung out of the beach. It is a nature preserve with a lot of coral, so the boys couldn't really ''play" in the water. Took Blake a little while but by the time we left he really liked snorkeling.

Then we went to the Halona Blowhole. Again...Beautiful!

After the Blowhole we went to Wakiki and walked through the shops. The weather was wonderful. We came across a pirate (at least that is what hunter called him) with 2 parrots. The boys held the parrots and the pirate continued to place them all over us. We were able to get some awesome pictures. :)

On the way home, our wonderful day was finished with an amazing rainbow.

Sunday we went to the Dole Plantation for lunch, and pineapple ice cream. ;) Then went up to the North Shore to Waimea Valley. We hiked up to the waterfall. Ben, Blake and I actually swam up under the waterfall. It was freezing! Talk about a good workout too. If you stopped swimming for a second the current would push you back out. I haven't loaded pictures from Waimea yet. :( It was a wonderful weekend! So much more fun to come. :)

Parker turned 1!

My sweet baby boy turned 1 on Friday, March 25. So here is to my Parker.

Oh my! Little Handsome, you are 1! You are a complete mess. You love to climb on anything and everything. So happy almost all the time. But you don't let us forget to feed you! And what is that baby food crap? You want absolutely nothing to do with it. You are a big boy with 8 teeth...so you need some real food! Or so you think. ;) Some of your favorites are bananas, nutra-grain bars, mandarin oranges and anything mommy is eating.

You LOVE your brothers. You like to play cars with them, cuddle with them and just about anything else with them. They adore you. Blake tells me all the time that you are getting too big and he just wants our Parker to stay little.

You are such a little stinker. You have said momma 3 times...thats it. You refuse to say it. When asked...you just wrinkle that little nose and smile. That is mommy's favorite face though, so it makes up for it. :) You really aren't much of a talker. You have your own Parker language that suits you just fine. You clap, wave bye-bye, stack 2 blocks (no more because you HAVE to knock them down), walk, run, climb up and down.

Some of your favorite things include cars, climbing, playing in the sand, and most of all...Gordon. You have to have Gordon. If you are sleepy or feeling under the weather, cuddling with Gordon makes everything better. You are also very much a momma's boy! You follow me around the house. Wherever I am, you are with me or close by playing. You love to help cook by emptying the cabinets.

All in all you are simply amazing. You make me smile over and over everyday. You are now 1 but even when you are 50...you will still be momma's baby. :) I love you Handsome.

Exciting week!

Everyone knows it is coming. The blog about the Tsunami. :) I will start off by saying that I am not one that worries about weather or natural disasters. There is nothing you can do to control it, so just get ready and go with it. It was just as we were putting the boys to bed that we heard we were under a watch. Shortly after, it was changed to a warning. The sirens starting going off and they started evacuating the coast. They evacuated a 1/2 mile inward depending on where you are on the island. We are about 3 miles in so we stayed put. It was so odd to be preparing for something with no real warning. Storms don't start first or even wind. You are just waiting for this huge wave to wash everything away and then go back to being calm after the surges are over. With it being at night and not very many points through the ocean to monitor size, they had no idea how big the waves would be. I stayed up most of the night watching progress on the news. It fascinated me. I didn't know very much about tsunamis before so it was an exciting learning experience. Ben and that boys snoozed away! We were very lucky that it didn't amount to much. Oahu didn't suffer any damage at all. Just a lot of panicked residents and tourists and A LOT of tired people. My heart goes out to Japan.

Next big change...Parker. Oh my goodness, this child amazes and scares me. He won't be a year until later this month. the child already pulls himself up onto the couch and then continues to climb onto the back of it. Then to get down he falls back to the sitting part of the couch and then dives head first to the floor and flipping. CRAZY child! He will be the one that we find on top of the frig. Everyday he is doing something new and showing more personality. He loves to make you smile and laugh. He has also starting eating solid foods. Loves bananas, green beans and carrots. He still gets formula at night and first thing when he wakes up. Throughout the day we have started to introduce milk. Only 2 more weeks and my baby will be one!

I am starting to feel more at home here. Starting making some friends and found a couple activity groups. I have joined "Active Moms" and "Military Moms". Both groups just meet up for various activities for the kids with an occasional moms only activity. We have something planned Tuesday and the following Wednesday. I am so excited to start getting out and making friends. I took the boys to the beach Thursday with a friend and her little girl. We had a great time. She was the one who thought it was a good idea to torture me with spin class yesterday too. Ugh! This afternoon we are going to the beach with her and a group of her friends. The boys are so excited to hang out with her son.

Speaking of spin class, I am officially announcing my plan to get into shape! They say that the more people who know of your goals...the more likely you are to stick to it. So my goal is to shed 10-15 lbs and tone up. I am not a hardcore dieter but I am going to cut back on dessert, portions and soda, and drink more water. I will be exercising  a lot more. Spin yesterday and a run this morning. Off to a good start!

Less than 2 weeks and Linda and Kenzie will be here! And my kitty, Monster, too! :) Can't wait!

Day with Sarah and Parker's 1st haircut!

Thursday night we had some pretty crazy storms. There is only one road into Ewa Beach. Along the way in a tree feel onto the power lines. This started a ripple effect and snapped 1-15 poles. The whole town was out of power for almost 24 hours. Luckily we had a wonderful reason to be gone all day. Ben's cousin Sarah is on the island visiting a friend of hers. She is on the Kanoheo side, which happens to be one of my favorite areas. So pretty. We went over there and took her out for lunch and then hung out at the beach. I rained for the first 10 minutes we were there. This worked out in our favor though because everyone else left. We had the beach almost to our selves. :) Then we noticed down the beach there was a group with a bunch of lighting props. There was a guy directing people around the area so that no one would walked by the group. Nosey me finally went to talk to him to find out what was going on. They were filming Hawaii Five-0. I may have to start watching the show now. :)

It was great finally getting to meet Sarah. They live in Washington State, so Ben hadn't seen her since they were little. I met her Dad when Ben and I were dating but never had the chance to meet the rest of the family. Hopefully we get a chance to go to Washington soon.

My sweet baby Parker got his 1st haircut yesterday . :( This makes mommy really sad. My little man is growing up too fast. Just a few more weeks and I will never have a baby again. :'( He did so good! Never shed a tear and sat fairly still. Funny that after the baby crazy curls are gone, you wonder what took you so long to cut them! He looks so cute!

Some of the same...

No big adventures lately :( Ben has been working a lot. On his days off it has been nice to just relax. We have started Mommy and Daddy days. Every month, Blake and Hunter will get an afternoon out with just Daddy and another afternoon our with just Mommy. I felt this was important especially for Hunter. In fact, the idea came to me when I was talking to Hunter after he had gotten into trouble. It dawned on me that the only time I spend just talking to him is for school or when he is being scolded. He needs some more positive face time with mom. :) Saturday I let Hunter decide what to do. We ended up going to the park. We played soccer, football, raced up the slides and just had a grand time. He actually decided he was hot, tired and hungry before I did! He then picked our eating place...Taco Bell. Yum! After we had lunch we tried out the Orange Groove. It is a frozen yogurt place that I know highly recommend. It was a great afternoon. He is such an amazing little ball of personality. My entertainer.

Home schooling is going great. We have a routine going now. Parker is starting to get the hang of it as well. He was pretty whiny at first when he wasn't getting the attention that he thought he needed.

I discovered a book that I want to recommend to all my teacher and parent friends. It is called "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" I was really worried about how little my boys seemed to pay attention to others and their feelings. I started searching for ideas and ways to make them more aware that there are other people in this world, not just them. And, that their actions can impact how a person feels. This book uses the idea of bucket filling to explain just that. When you do or say something nice to someone, you fill their bucket. When you are mean, you dip into their bucket and empty it. The more full our buckets are, the happier we are. The boys really liked the book. Everyday we are talking about ways that we helped fill others' buckets and how we may have dipped some too. I have been able to point out a few times that others at the store helped fill my bucket. A nice man took my cart back for me at Costco, so that I didn't have to walk away from my children in the van. Very sweet. It is only $9.98 on Amazon. Buy it!!! :)

We have entered Parker's birth month. Makes me soooooo sad. I don't want my baby to turn one. I know, I know...it has to happen. I am using this perfect moment to research and read up on photography. I have found a lighting and backdrop kit that I am going to order next week. I have some awesome ideas for Parker's 1st birthday pictures. And if they don't turn out...we will just have to take him somewhere.

Parker has been so funny lately. He personality AND temper have really sprouted. He LOVES to climb and will not stay off the couch. scares me!!! Just when I think this house is baby proofed, he learns a new trick. He just pushes he train, or anything else over to the couch and climbs right on. He also loves to just take off in a full run and bounce off the couch. He will laugh and laugh at himself. Momma is finally in his vocabulary...he just chooses to not say it often.

The social part of me is starting to go crazy. Without working it has been harder for me to meet new friends. I really miss all my friends and girls' nights. BUT, we have our first library and park play date later today. It is with one of the boys that takes Karate with Blake and Hunter.  Hopefully it goes well and we can start meeting up more often.

I have rambled a lot today so I will close for now. Last exciting news though...first visitors are due in 21 days!!! Linda, aka Maw maw, and Kenzie are coming on the 24th. The boys and I are so excited!

Here are a few recent pics:

Just Another Week in Paradise :)

This past weekend we took a trip to the North Shore and then drove down the East coast. We stopped and ate at a little cafe called "Grass Skirt Grill". It was really good. It was so neat to just drive right next to the ocean for miles. :) There were so many gorgeous views. Here are some pictures that were taken a long the way.

We were going to swim on the North Shore but as soon as we got out to do so it started raining. So, we drove down the East coast and stopped in Kaneohe at a beautiful beach.

Home schooling gets better every week. It has been really frustrating because I feel like Blake has lost a lot of info. Things that I know he knew months ago and now he is clueless. So we will be playing catch up for a bit. I have a plan though and hopefully we figure it all out. He is starting to work better for me. His writing is improving a lot. Math is my biggest struggle right now. He is just being lazy with it.

We went to the library today and the boys loved it. It is huge and they couldn't believe all the books. The entire 1st floor is for children and young adults! I think the children's section is bigger than the entire Huntsville library..lol.

We are trying to let the boys have more freedom. Ben hates when I am the over protective mother. This neighborhood is so great for them. So many kids out playing. They are now allowed to ride down to the dead end and to the stop sign the other way. They are still in sight but they love it! Parker is just eager to be able to go with them! poor guy!

He has fun anyway :)