525,600 minutes and counting...

18th of December marked our one year of marriage!  This time last year, we were at freezing cold Utah getting sealed for time and all eternity...the year has pretty much gone by so fast...like everyone always says...and it has been an AMAZING year full of fun memories, great time and more importantly, numerous blessings!

To celebrate, we decided to go big!!! but as poor students, funds are VERY low...so we had to be creative...

Here's what we got up to...

We exchanged presents on the 17th nighttime coz Maverick can never wait.  One year anniversary 'motif' thing is paper so we wanted to do something with paper...Mav got me a funny board game called Smart A** and a 2010 planner...and I got him a Dallas Cowboys tie (nothing to do with paper but oh wells), a Hawaiian marriage prayer poster and made him this poster.  

The 18th morning was graduation for Fall sem so we went to campus to take some pictures for my work...We werent in any hurry to leave the house so we just took our time to get ready for our actual celebration...which is CAMPING!!!

I know my parents are going  freak that I went camping in the woods when im 8 months pregnant but it was an opportunity that i just couldnt past.  As Kualoa Ranch employees, they have a privilege to camp at designated area on the ranch.  IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!! 

   

  
Roasting my marshmallows
  

Mav got me another green coconut

So we set up our tent, Maverick built a fire (we forgot to bring a lighter so he summoned Kap's spirit from the Samoan village and started a fire using coconut husk and the little car lighter), roasted marshmallows, had huli-huli chicken and sparkling apple cider for dinner, and frolicked with no one else but us two and nature!  When the Ranch closed at 4pm the whole 4,000 acres was left to us two (and the many animals that live there, including a lot of wild boars).

We only stayed for a night since my belly would probably be complaining more than it did if we stayed longer.  We got a perfect weather for the whole night.  No rain and nice and breezy!  It was a great night to remember.

  We woke up the next day and enjoyed the God's creation again over muffins and apple juice for breakfast.  

  And we found this little lady inside our tent...it was chillin with us the whole night

Then Kualoa Ranch employee benefits kick in again and we got to on the movie set tour and the ocean voyage tour for FREE!!! (normally it would cost $105 per person).  It was my first time on it so I had a lot of fun...Maverick go on these tours every single day for the past 8 months so he wasnt as excited as I was...Ill let the photos do the talking...

 

Inside our tour bus Inside a bunker used for a lot of movies like Pearl Harbour

The tree that they hid under in Jurassic Park

Where Adam Sandler tried to get Drew's attention numerous times...and Drew beat up Rob Schnider here too

The airport that Owen Wilson landed on

Our tour bus

These 4 photos were taken the day before the tour.  It was raining during our actual tour so we didnt get a chance to hop off the bus...good thing Mav took me here before we went camping.

 

This is Hurley's golf coarse...there are lots of other Lost sites around the ranch.

 

Jurassic Park footprints...they use to be 10ft deep.

 
Ocean Voyage tour

 

Kualoa Ridge and China Man's Hat behind us

  BEAUTIFUL!!!

  This is where we docked...same dock that Lost submarine goes into

  Mav with the Ranch HUGE pic, Wilbur...

After a long tiring day, we headed back home to clean up and take a little rest.  I was super super tired so I had a nice long nap.  To end the celebration, we took advantage of ANOTHER thing from Kualoa Ranch which was a $50 dinner voucher for Sheraton Hotel.  Maverick got it from their Christmas party about a week ago...so we had dinner at Sheraton Waikiki at a fancy shmancy restaurant called Rum Fire.  

  

  

Food was GREAT! we just wish we had more of it...since its a fancy touristy restaurant, the serving sizes where teeny! Were not complaining though since we only paid $10 for a 3 course meal.  

 
Mav had Kalua pork quesadilla and I had a carne asada. its not really a mexican food restaurant but we just ended up ordering mexican food. hehehe.

 

For dessert Mav had a red velvet cake with strawberry sauce (the menu said MINT coated red velvet cake with strawberry sauce...all the mint were those leaves that hes holding...we laughed!) and I had a chocolate haupia pie with mango sauce and chocolate coated peanuts

Maverick didnt get anywhere near full with the food from Rum Fire so we walked our way down the Waikiki strip to Burger King and got him a meal. hehehe.

 

Then we had a time to waste so we just chillaxed in busy Waikiki before heading home and calling it a night.

525,600 minutes down, eternity to go!  I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!

Turkey, shopping and 50 days

So I know this post is a little late for a Thanksgiving post but i say better late than never...

So this years Thanksgiving is our first ever married Thanksgiving together (we had Thanksgiving with his family in Idaho last year).  We thought we'd make a big deal out of it since we are starting "traditions".  This means cooking our first ever 16lbs turkey!

 Before After

Turned out really good! In fact, we are still pretty much relied on the turkey feeding us for a week n a half.

Besides the turkey, we also had A LOT of other food.  Candied yams, mashed potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, cheesy beans, potato salad, stuffing, cranberry sauce, fruit cocktail, sparkling apple cider, jello and cinnamon rolls.   and most of them were handmade by either Mav or I...mostly him tho...

Before our feast, Maverick played Turkey Bowl with people from our ward.  Its a Thanksgiving tradition to play football the morning of Thanksgiving day.  Of coarse I couldnt join in the fun so I just sat there watching them play while talking stories with a new mother who was giving me some motherhood advice.  It was a great morning.

Look at my goofy husband...he insisted on wearing his high school football uniform and the ugly red shorts...but he still looked good!
 

After having A LOT of food, we took a nice long nap and woke up for more food.  Then we met up with Jacob and Janice to watch New Moon at the theaters.

The next day is Black Friday (which is when shops go crazy insane because of sales and people line up outside the big stores from like midnight to get good deals) I dunno why its called Black Friday though.  Anyways, we left the house at 6am with Jacob and Janice to head over to Target and other stores in the Pearl City area.  We were kinda disappointed coz none of the stuff that we wanted to get where discounted big, but we still had fun just driving around and experiencing the whole thing.  The best thing though was when we went to Babies r' Us and saw this...

 

It pretty much made our day...I didnt bring a camera so this was taken with a camera phone so it isnt such a good quality.  Janice and I posed under it but the picture wasnt good at all so I didnt bother putting it in...

To end my long overdue entry, 50 days means there are only 50 days till my due date!  We are pretty much ready with all the accessories and necessary things but i guess the 50 days is appreciated to further prepare ourselves.

Here's me at 32 weeks.

Alohaz!

Our Last Monthaversary...

November 18, 2009 marked our very last monthaversary.  So we decided to go to town for a different scene.  Its always nice to get out of Laie, even for a little bit, so we headed off to Mililani for dinner and MORE Christmas decoration shopping.  We figured wer going to go all out (with a pretty small budget) for Christmas decorations since wer staying here away from both sides of the family. 

Here are the things that we bought to complete our Christmassy house.

 Stockings

 Our Nativity scene

  Wall stickers...These are my favourite...only $2 or $4 from walmart...we also have one on our front door that says "we wish you a merry christmas"

  more lights

  ornaments for the tree

  Another Nativity thing

 We got this ornament from our honeymoon at Jackson Haul, Wyoming last year.  Im in the process of making our "parents-to-be" ornament.  A Christmas tradition that we want to do is to pick out an special ornament every year. And get our kid(s) to pick out theirs too.  So we only have a few right now because we figured it is going to multiply with the years.

 

and the all important star on top of the tree

We got home around 10:30pm and finished the decorations and got more warm fuzzy feelings!

So here's for our last monthaversary...wer going to only do Anniversaries from now on...hehehe...monthaversaries are expensive and hard to remember...

ALOHAZ!

Getting Poked...

I got my glucose tolerance test last wednesday and I guess they ran out of grown up bandaids...

Where did time go?

So I was sitting on the couch today thinking of the things that I need to do this coming week...FHE on mon, photography assignment due on tues, spanish test on wed and so on, when I realized that this coming week is my 30th week of pregnancy! How the heck am I at this stage already? 7 more weeks and I would be full term which means baby can come out anytime that he wants...7 short weeks! That's like a blink of an eye! CRAZZZYYY!!!!!!!!

I know I use to much exclamation marks, but when I want to emphasize 'freaking out' then i think it is necessary.  Technically, im not really freaking out but just anxious at what is coming in the next couple of months.  As of now, I cant really say that we are ready just yet.  We bought a stroller yesterday unexpectedly (because it was on a clearance sale) which was pretty exciting.  And its been assembled and all ready.  We just need an infant carseat to go along with it.  ]

Also, another exciting thing that happened yesterday was that we bought our first ever Christmas tree! Its a little skinny 6ft tree that we got for $25 at Target and it fits perfectly inside our little living room.  Originally, I just wanted a little 3fter but those cost like $18.  So Maverick convinced me to get a bigger once for a little bit more.  We were so excited that we assembled it as soon as we got home, even though Thanksgiving day isnt really done yet.  

We dont have a star on top yet coz we didnt see the perfect one at Target, so we are still in a lookout for it.  Instead, we have this fibre glass blinky light thing that we got from like Spring 08 Ball as a temporary tree topper.  

So anyways, heres me at 29 weeks.

Baby is definitely definitely in there causing a raucous.  I think that it is crazy how he manages to wake me up at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning by moving around.  I really cant describe the feeling of being poked/tickled from the inside.  It is still soooo weird to see my tummy moving like there is an alien inside, but I LOVE IT!  Just truly truly amazing!  I love feeling baby move coz then I know that he is okay.

Super excited to see his little face in 7-10 weeks!  

Ohhh and my mum has booked her ticket to come here and help us out on Jan 22, so thats very relieving! Too bad my dad cant make it, wouldve been great for him to see his first grandbaby.

Ohhhhh and President Monson is coming here next Sunday (Nov 22) for our regional conference!  We are soooooo lucky that we are able to come and listen to his voice in person.  But im gonna leave that story till next time coz this entry is getting toooo long.

Much love and Alohaz!

7 months pregnant + 10 hours of traveling is NOT fun!

So I am in Austin, Texas right now for the 88th Annual National College Media Convention.  I got sent here with 3 other workmates for my work at the school newspaper and it is nothing like I expected.  This convention is huge!  It is located in the Hilton Hotel (which is also where we are staying) and throughout the three days, there are numerous workshops and lectures from professionals around the country about things concerning college campus news rooms.  So basically its for for writers, editors, graphic designers, photographers and other journalist related materials.  Its pretty cool!  There are thousands of college students roaming around the hotel right now from all over the country.  This must be one of the busiest times in this hotel cause people are just everywhere.  Our room is on the 24th floor and its such a long time to get down to the lobby cause the elevator literary stops at every single level. 

So about the traveling...NOT FUN AT ALL!!!!

I love love to travel! Long plane rides with small economy seats doesnt bother me that much either.  My trick is that I get myself so tired the night before so that I can sleep all through the flight and wake up just before landing.  So that's what I did.  As it turned out, this trick doesnt really agree with pregnancy.  Besides, baby had a different plan...he wanted to play and poke and kick and just not settle the whole dang time!  So I pretty much stayed up the whole of the flight.  Then we had a very short layover in Houston where we had to rush off to our next flight.  So pretty much jogging from one terminal to another because Houston airport is HUMANGUUUUSSSS!!!!! Then the most turbulencey (not a word but oh well) flight I have even been in.  Our plane from Houston to Austin was this little mini plane with 3 seats per row.  It was crazy small and we felt every little tug and every little drop!  It didnt help that we were going through rain clouds aswell.  Anyways, we got to Austin in prefect condition and our wonderful boss, Sis. Lambert, picked us up from the airport with her sister.  

So basically, if any of you pregnant people out there plans on getting on a plane for 10 hours. Prepare yourself for have a very very LONG day!  Its hard to get comfortable with all the baggage moving around your tummy.  

Oh and for the record, because it cost extra to take check in a baggage.  This is the first time that I have ever travelled with everything in my carry on baggage.  Cant exactly say that I am traveling light though because it still got pretty heavy. 

and im going to be boring and not put photos on this entry.  Ill do it when I get back in Hawaii...

Its been a while...

im not very good when it comes to creative blog title so that will do...

First of all, we are now down to double digits with the waiting game to see our baby boy.  We have a good amount of clothes already given by friends or found in the freebie bin.  We also ha

ve a swing and a bouncer then we are buying the car seat, stroller and crib during the thanksgiving sale.  All the other stuff well get i guess when we need...hehehe...

Anyways, since everyone (meaning my mother) wants frequent updates on how the pregnancy is going, im going to do a quick run down...i am now on my 26th week and this is how my belly looks like right now

which is a lot different from how i used to look like the day that we found out that I was pregnant.

So I am definitely DEFINITELY showing now.  Especially that this little boy is now 2 pounds and growing every day.  He is also making his presence know by making my tummy move.  Its really weird but also very cool to see and feel a foot kicking or a hand punching or sometimes both at the same time.  

Here's an ultra sound picture of his feet and hands

   

and here one of his profile

Last wednesday we had to go to a fetal diagnostics place to get a heart echo.  My sister died of a congenital heart defect when she was a baby so the doctor wanted to check my baby if there was anything to be alarmed off.  Luckily, everything was great! His heart seems to be beating great and all the arteries and tubes and stuff are all at the right place so we have nothing to worry about.  But because of the echo, we had the opportunity to see baby in 3d!  It was pretty cool coz he really looks like a baby now...hehehe...

Here are some of the scans.  He was hiding behind his hands most of the time and the doctor tried so hard to make him move.  

and now to end this blog entry, id like to tell the tale of the shallowing tummy button.  My belly button was super big and super deep.  Maverick always makes fun of it because you can stick like 2 fingers in it comfortably.  Regardless, I have come to accept it and appreciated it.  but now, its getting shallow!  I know im weird for sharing, but i think that one of the things that happen to tummies when they expand because of pregnancy is that it eventually turns inside out.  And i think that its pretty darn cool that it does that.  So heres a picture of my tummy button at present time.  I just think that its funny and im excited for it to pop out...hehehe...

And for my friends and family that are in New Zealand and other parts of the world, heres a few more pictures of how big the tummy is at 26 weeks.  Its getting heavy having to carry it around but I gotta do what I gotta do.  

MUCH LOVE AND ALOHAZ!!!