We have a house!

We've been house hunting via the internet for a few months now and happened on the perfect house for us this past week!  

its 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, huge kitchen, screened-in portch, large fenced-in back yard and it's 2.5 times larger than what we live in now!  it's also in a culdesac and about 5 minutes from chick-fil-a and walmart.  oh be still my heart.   

we are getting excited!

Fro -Yo at Orange Grove

This pregnancy has been laced with heartburn--and it's been awful, i think the majority of my nausea is caused from the intense heartburn and not just from normal preggo hormones.  I've found one of the best things to help with the burn is ice cream/yogurt.  The cold thickness going down is like heaven.  

My family is also really enjoying my need for ice cream.  Saturday we took an impromptu trip to the local fro-yo place right before dinner...smart, i know.  but the kids didn't seem to mind!

A New Do and a Fortune

last saturday we finally took HRB in for a haircut.  it was getting a little rowdy in the back!

we splurged and went to the cool kids salon...pigtails and crewcuts...there are lots of toys, movies and cool "rides" for them, in order to distract a kid from the actual haircut taking place.  Now HRB would have been fine getting his haircut anywhere, and it certainly would have been cheaper...but it was good entertainment for both kids and we had a fun morning even though we waited FOREVER for our turn!

playing trains with daddy

learning how to drive the taxi

watching Madagascar..hardly even noticed the lady messing with his head

Nora riding the plane while waiting on brother

good drivers

looking better!

after the haircut we walked over to Panda Express for some lunch.  the kids love the noodles and lately with my strange appetite, the noodles are one of the only things i'll eat too.  I did also order shrimp that day (the second time of this pregnancy) and sparing you any details, i believe after some research i am officially (at least for the next 7 months or so) allergic to shrimp.  wonder if baby will be? 

NGB and HRB at sharing a window table

Nora's fortune.  I thought it was pretty funny and appropriate. 

a glimpse into the life of a military wife

So most of the time when reading a blog post, if the writer asks me to "click here" and "read this article", i don't do it.  no reason really.  i just move on to something else.  So if you'r like me, maybe  you'll just pass on this--that's cool.  UNLESS you are a military wife, or have ever been a part of a military family--in that case you really should read this.  AND if you name is Hillary, Carrie or Kim--READ IT--it reminds me of too many conversations we have had over the years and i just had to laugh.

Article is HERE:  It's entitled Dating tips for Military Spouses. and it's not what you're thinking.

the article begins with "Dating for love is hard.  Dating for a best friend is harder....It's a tall order to find one person like that in your lifetime, much less a new one every two to three years."

I'd Say.  Like Nearly Impossible.  Our first tour after getting married and moving away from home was to HI--almost exactly 6 years ago.  And it was like Magic.  I immediately met 3 very best friends and life was good.  Too bad when the 3 of them left after our 1st 3 year tour was over here, meeting new best friends didn't come that easily again.  Talk about a let down.  now don't think i've been around the past 3 years friendless...i've actually made some great friends.  But almost ALL of these tactics listed in the article came into play when developing these relationships.  It's exhausting!

I don't know if it just becomes harder to make friends as we get older, maybe kids and family get in the way--maybe we just don't open up the way we did when we were young.  i don't know.  I just know making friends is one thing--but making a "best friend" is a whole separate issue--and let me just say that it sucks being thousands of miles from someone who you can lay your head on and get a head rub without begging, cry to even when you know you're being ridiculous, and hang out with your most crappy clothes and no make-up and are CERTAIN they aren't judging you--heck they still think you're gorgeous.

so anyway.  read the article.  basically every bit of it is true.  and kind of hilarious.

my favorite part is about not being "scary".  admittedly i have to remind myself of this EVERY TIME i meet a potential new friend.  heck, if i'm being honest i'm pretty sure i may have even scared a few people off that way.  eh.  i'm learning.  but i'm also pretty certain, if some person was destined to be my best friend, they wouldn't scare away when i asked them to hang out with me 30 minutes after i met them, they would squeal and immediately agree and we would have  a great time. ;)

okay.  enough silliness i guess.

just wanna shout out to my Magical Hawaii Besties--i'm so lucky to have had you for 3 years--but boy did we set the bar high!

two pink lines

 what this mommy does when she first gets the news....

 

yep.  might be true ;)

a few random cuties

obviously i've been slack taking pictures lately, but here a a few cute ones i found on my phone. 

Mike took the kids to Farrells Ice Cream Parlor one night while i ate dinner with a friend.  i'm not really sure if they ate dinner at all, or if they just ate this house-sized banana split...

 love wearing Daddy's shoes

 giving Poppy stickers on Skype.  great placement, yes?

Bump Ahead

here's the rest of the pictures, and maybe they'll answer a few questions for you.  they were taken last week by my friend Rina on the North Shore.    

Nora wasn't really in a picture taking mood.  of course.  we can never get them both to be in a good mood on picture day.  still, holden did a nice job--totally rocking his purple shirt and new haircut!

 

she says "baby brodder"....we think its a boy, haha.  not that we know anything

she especially likes to carry the ultrasound pic around.  we gave her one that she takes pretty good care of actually. 

my fav :)

Movie Monday

Funny Interaction at Restaurant Table while out with Daddy
 Singing in the Car--excuse the horrible video, i couldn't see what i was doing!
 Holden helping Nora down from the bench...because she's a fraidycat
 
 prior to this video, Holden stacked all 10 of his blocks perfectly counting from 1-10. of course he didn't do it again for the camera, but you can hear them trying to count--as well as singing their versions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...the song i hear ALL DAY LONG, EVERYDAY. ;)

yep. it's correct.

Valentines Day with Lots of People I Love!

I haven't even mentioned Auntie Jenn came to visit!  it has really been a whirlwind of a week that i'll get around to explaining later, maybe.  and geez, i'm just now telling you Jenn came to visit after she's already been gone for 2 days.  oops.  

anyway she came, we had a great time.  we decided again that we should live closer.  thankfully i'll be helping that situation out soon ;) 

we really didn't take too many pictures though.  but here are our ones from Valentines Day. 

we started out at Koa Pancake House for a big yummy breakfast

then we went to the lagoons to catch some rays and splash around

 

next on the agenda was a shave ice from Ewa Seed...and would you believe this is the only pic jenn and i have with each other.  oops.

when daddy came home from work we opened vday presents.  daddy went out and got us all something special and surprised us.  such a sweet daddy.  we love him!

undies!

daddy's card

bracelet for mommy

car for Holden

purse and jewelry for Norabird...picked out by daddy!

can't wait to play with it!

my sweet sweet family!

Valentine Painting

Hope everyone is having a good Valentines Day.  We're waiting for Daddy to get home to celebrate, but here's some pictures from yesterday while the kids were making valentines.  We were a little late on getting them made so grandparents, be looking for your valentine in the mail--just a little late!

Sarah's Baby Shower

My friend Jenn and I threw our fellow friend, Sarah a baby shower this weekend.  Her Nursery is themed with Peter Rabbit, so we followed that through with a garden themed foods and a little Peter here and there.  

here's the invitation

this pic is rough--i'm currently without a camera--and only have my phone.  all of the others have been borrowed from friends. 

`We actually made some super cute banners out of a classic peter rabbit book that turned out great.  I didn't get a picture of them but here's pretty much what it looked like, and where we got the idea ;) 

 

cupcakes from our favorite shop!  Lemon, Red Velvet and Banana Caramel...mmm

decorating onesies

i love this one!  very creative and original!  (the baby daddy is a doctor ;) )

that's mine on the bottom right--Chicka Chicka Boom Boom--i can't take credit for the idea, but it turned out cute yes? 

 

Pot Pies and Walnut-Gorgonzola Salad for lunch

presents!

Sarah's mom even mailed presents in from VA

my diaper cake

the loot

Peter

Hosts and Mom to Be

the belly--37 weeks

friends ;)

Sherri, Jenn, Sarah and Me--we have a similar picture from our Redeployment Ball--although this one is much cuter i think ;)

see? 

and then another fun one...tickets to the gun show...yeah yeah