October . . .

We've been in Hawaii for over a year now. We have made a lot of new friends and have gotten to do so many fun things this past year. 

James and I celebrated our birthdays, 26 and 25 now!

 

Date night on Waikiki, having drinks at Dukes

 The beautiful opal necklace James surprised me with for my birthday.

With the help of his friend he helped designed it.

I surprised James with a painting by an artist named Naoki. This isn't the exact painting but it's very similar. We had gone to a little art gallery several times and every time we went James always marveled over this painting. So I bought it, wrapped it up and then hid it in the spare bedroom closet. Because James likes to try to guess everything that I try to surprise him with, I wrapped a decoy present and left it on the table for him. He couldn't figure out what it was, when he opened the decoy gift he found a picture of the painting and told him to go look upstairs. He had no idea and was very surprised. The painting is done by Naoki inking the fish and then he lays rice paper on top of it, then he goes back over the paper to highlight the details. 

Cupcakes

 Cupcakes for the October bake sale.

Last ones for this unit, James will be moving to a new unit soon.

 From the top, is a chocolate cake with a salted caramel buttercream, 

right is a vanilla cake with a mango buttercream, 

bottom is a chocolate cake with an espresso buttercream topped w/ a chocolate covered coffee bean,

left is a vanilla cake with a Nutella buttercream

 Came home to a beautiful surprise,

I love how James will just surprise me with flowers out of the blue with a sweet little note.

 Pumpkin patch 

It just didn't feel right with the weather being 83 degrees

 We came home with 9 pumpkins and we baked lots of pumpkin seeds

Colt was a race horse for Halloween

 

He didn't even notice the jokey on his back.

 Shadow posing in the window for all the tricker treaters

 Our jack-o-laterns

We had some special tricker treaters,

Alyssa was Jessie and Ellie was a little gnomeo 

The ate tons of candy

September . . .

We did a lot of fun activities this month, can't believe that how fast this year has gone by. I am now back in the gym coaching gymnastics, it feels great.

Hanging out at the pool on Pearl Harbor

with Ellie

Stephen Siller 

Tunnel to Towers Run 2011

 For September 11th, we did the Tunnel to Towers run.

We didn't actually run but we rode the Harley and lined the bridge and cheered on the runners.

 

Watching the sun rise before the run starts

 

 

 

All the motorcycles lined up and ready

 Cheering on the unit

 Honolulu firefighters 

Date Night

 Gordon Biersch

 Being cheesy

 Love these trees, they look like they have been painted

 Found this little guy, can't believe how tiny he is

 James got a new car, it makes me miss my little Honda

April . . .

James is finally home and life is back to normal.


Now that we are in the new house, James was finally able to put together our bedroom set. It looks great and it has helped to make this house more of a home.

This month James and I volunteered at the Special Olympics, we helped out with track events. James was in charge of firing the starting pistol and I helped track times of the runners. We ended up being there for eleven hours and had horrible sunburns by the end of the day. But it was all worth it and had so much fun.

The YES foundation had their annual auction, and I was sad that I couldn't be apart of it. But I was able to make another baby afghan and donated it to the auction. 

The cupcakes I made for James' company bake sale. They were a big hit!

The ones on the left are chocolate with caramel frosting and the right is a cookie dough cupcake, with actual cookie dough inside sans the raw egg. James found the cookie dough cupcake recipe and insisted on me making them.

   

James company planned a dinner cruise. It was a lot of fun and we had a great night. 

(not the best picture, but the boat was a little rocky)

Went out with the girls to celebrate April's 25th birthday!

Our neighbor brought us over a plate of goodies!

April was a great month and filled with many activities.

February . . .

Ahhh... So this month flew by fast. I went home to be with my family and see my grandfather before he past away. While I was home James' grandfather past away, and the day that I was heading back to Hawaii, James was headed to Toledo for his grandfather's funeral. So February started off to be a rough month. So we spent two weeks apart with traveling home to be with our families.

James and I celebrated our one year anniversary! 

When we came to Hawaii in 2009 to get married, James talked about going to swim with the sharks. So we got up bright and early on the 24th, drove to the other side of the island. On our way out to the shark cage, which was about 3 to 4 miles offshore, we saw dozens of whale pods. It was amazing to look out across the water and see all the whales come to the surface and spout water.

James and I were the first ones to get into the cage, it was amazing. There was probably close to 20 sharks swimming around the cage. The sharks are attracted to the sound of the boats engine, because they associate the sound with the crab boats. When the crab boats go to pull up their pots, the sharks come up to eat the left over bait, so they just assume that that's what these boats are going to do.

It was such an amazing experience and a bit serial. They are such calm and gentle creatures. The only scary part was looking down and seeing little jellyfish swimming around us. And before James could pull me out of the way from them I got stung on the leg. As soon as our 10 minutes were up and we got out of the cage and back into the boat, two hump back whales past in front of the boat about 20 feet away.

We were lucky because once the whales came most of the sharks dispersed. On our way back into the marina, a pod of Spinner dolphins swam along side the boat. It was such an amazing way to spend our one year anniversary.

The next day we went para-sailing, which I was more anxious about than going swimming with the sharks. It was incredible to be able to be so high up in the air and look down on everything. 

The month of February started out to pretty tough for James and I, but it ended with the celebration of our one year anniversary.  

January . . .

Ahhh... it's January already! Wow 2010 went by fast despite having to wait six of those months for James to come home. Once James got home time just seemed to fly by. Well I'm excited that it's 2011 and I can't wait to see what it has in store. So the beginning of January started with lots of rain, thunderstorms and power outages.


James and I had a day night, we went and saw True Grit. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it at first, but James really wanted to go see it. I was surprised how good it was, I thought it was going to be really serious but it was really funny. The young girl in the movie was a really good actress, I can't believe she was only 14 when they shot the movie.

So James and I went to check out the gym at the community center in our housing. When we got there I noticed they had a really nice pool, but I was very disappointed to find that they close the pool from October to May for the off season. I couldn't believe it, we live in Hawaii where pretty much all the time it's summer weather, except for a few days where it's a little rainy. I thought that was pretty ridiculous.

James and I have a beautiful new niece, her name in Avah May. Born to James' sister Jessica and her husband Michael.

Avah May

1/12/2011

8 lbs 9 oz 21 in long

We went and played poker at our friend's house with a few other couples, and James won the pot. Since James has been talking about going to check out Chinatown, we woke up the next morning and went down there to have some Dim Sum for breakfast. It was good, but not as good as the Dim Sum in Seattle. It was fun, we walked around and looked at all the little shops and bought some fruit.

After Chinatown we went to the beach, the waves have been so big lately. So I've been staying out of the water, but the boys love it.

So to get into nursing school in Hawaii I have to take a pre-nursing exam. When I registered for my test in December, the only spots open were all the way on Maui. My mom bought me a plane ticket so I could fly over and take it. So I get the day off and fly to Maui, and due to all the rain, they were having problems with their Internet connection. So we moved out of one computer lab and into another, by then an hour and a half has gone by. So in this other room they were still having problems with the Internet, so they tell us that they are going to have to reschedule the test for another day. So almost 20 people who flew to Maui are now screwed out of the money that they paid to fly there. I wait in the room while everyone leaves and end up being able to get on to take the test. I flew all the way over so I was determined to take this test. The test has 3 parts to it, so I take the first and second part, but then realize that if I start the third part that I will probably miss my flight home. So I call to change my flight and right when I'm about to pay I find out that they have to close the building and I wont be able to finish the last portion. I just broke into tears, I was so upset because I just spent 2 hours working on this test and I was so close to finishing. I make it to the airport about 20 minutes before my flight was to board, I'm just glad I didn't miss my flight along with all the other trouble I had. I was finally able to take my test back on Oahu, but I had to find someone who could cover my shift for me. But I think I did really good, now I just have to wait 3 weeks to find out my results.

James and I have another new beautiful niece, Cora Belle.

Born to my brother Charles and his wife Faye.

Cora Belle

1/29/2011

7 lbs 15.4 oz 18 in long 

I finished crocheting the baby blankets!

Avah May's blanket

Cora Belle's blanket

2010 Recap!

So here is the top 10 events from 2010! Wow that went by fast . . .

1. Recieved the best Valentine's Day gift ever!

So by great odds James made it home for R&R on Valentine's Day. What a great gift to have him home, he got home and it felt like everything seemed to pick up right where we left off, like he had never even been gone. I'm a lucky lucky girl!

2. We got Engaged!

James took me to dinner at our favorite spot and then we went for a walk at Alki, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. So excited he surprised me big time!

3. We got Married!

Barefoot on the beach at sunset. It was so romantic and such a perfect way to get married. I wouldn't of changed a thing about it.

4. James is Home!

 It finally came, it felt like it would take forever, but looking back the year went by pretty fast. I am so happy to have my husband home and safe. Biggest highlight of the year hands down.

5. Had a second Honeymoon!

Got to spend an amazing weekend together!

6. James bought a Harley!

After much talk about wanting to get one he finally found the one for him. He bought a really nice bike. He looks so hot riding it. So happy that one of his goals of getting a bike came true.

7. Our big move to Hawaii!

So we are back in Hawaii, this time for the next 3 years. Excited about starting our lives together!

8. We finally have a house!

It's nothing too fancy and for right now it is just temporay, but it is our first house together. It's an old officer house, 4 bedrooms, very big and lots of space. (Picture isn't the exact house but it looks similar)

9. We have a new edition to our family!

We rescued this little guy from the pound. His name is Colt and he sure is a handful!

10. Our First Christmas together!

Finally our first Christmas together!

(The first year together James went home to see his family and the second one he was deployed to Afganastan.)