Sadly Thankful...

Kinda sounds funny I know but as I am sitting at home sadly missing my husband I haven't really seen the last few days, I can't help but to be so thankful. I have so many things....It is Christmas Eve and Jeremiah has been working at the Aloha Stadium the last few days, all day in Honolulu. The semester is finally done and gosh darn, he is working. But how thankful I am for such a hard working, goal oriented and motivated husband. This makes me REALLY thankful for the profession he is going into, Dentistry...all this time away will pay off! I am so happy for the opportunity to live in Paradise, nothing like the feel of sand between your toes and you can run every day year round! I have a beautiful and healthy little girl, I couldn't imagine life without her! My family who called many times today to make sure I was staying busy, love you guys! My wonderful neighbors, who brought goodies and invited us to the beach to enjoy the many rays of sunshine. To families like the Hannemann Family...the world needs more people like you guys, feeding the homeless, you guys make for such a great example to my family. I am so thankful for the friendship I have gained here, it is all around. The Hitz Clan...always having people over to share food, your beach and the laughs. It was nice to see those smiley faces tonight, you guys are wonderful! I am grateful tonight more than anything for my Heavenly Father and all he has done for me. One could not explain how happy and thankful I am for EVERYTHING in my life....wishing all my loved ones a very merry Christmas!!

Mommy and Kiddos

Ilove Mommy and kiddos beach day! While we are soakin' up the sun, we don't forget about our amazing husbands who are working hard at school. A few weeks ago a few friends and I went to Turtle Bay and had a sun filled day, lots of fun. Iuliana and her daughter Mikayla, Katie and her son Pattrick and then Ellah and I. Pattrick was our lifeguard making sure we stayed safe! Sadly these two wonderful families are leaving for the mainland and we wish them good luck and love them lots!!

SANTA....she now knows him!!

Last Saturday we had our Ward Christmas Party and Santa came for a visit too!! Since Ellah has been a very good girl this year, Santa was very nice and gave her a candy cane. She also sat on his lap with Maili, which is her best bud! You should see these two together, they can spot each other from across the room and they both get so excited. I love it!!

She is the both of us...

Life couldn't get any better...

Stef did some a fantastic job, we are so thankful for all that she did!

Just the 3 of Us

As I promised a few other pictures from our family photo shoot....

Where is a babysitter when we need one?

We had a photo shoot last week and we loved this shot!! I will post a few more later on but this one just says it all!!

Almost....

All Mommy and Daddy wants for Christmas is Ellah to walk. She is extremely close and we spend almost all day walking around but at 6'1" and 5'10" Mommy and Daddy are getting a little sore in the lower back area. Most people say, when they start walking, you will want them to go back...We are so ready! Michelle spends most of the day outside, running, walking, beach bummin' and riding bikes with Ellah. As you all know her, she doesn't really sit still much, bring it on Ellah!

Chubby The Long Lost Reindeer

Many of you know that Santa had 9 Reindeer but to a HUGE surprise, believe it or not, there are actually 10 reindeer pulling that jolly man's sleigh! Jeremiah and I found the reindeer at FoodLand munching on all the goodies in the sugar isle. So we snuggled her right up and took her home with us. Why she was told to stay back in the North Pole while Santa and the other 9 reindeer were delivering presents to all the good little boys and girls....

She weighed the sleigh down too much, Chubby the long lost reindeer stays and helps test the Christmas snacks and what a great job she does!!

Garage Sales with Grandma

When I was younger my Grandma and Grandpa would come and visit, Grandma would always take us girls to garage sales. I was never really into it as much, but over the years I have become more interested. Garage sales in Alaska or anywhere else usually last what 3 days, Friday through Sunday and they go from no earlier than 8am and no later than 5pm. Let me tell you about Hawaii and their garage sales...I think it is almost worse than the infamous Black Friday. We learned this very early on. We always find them on Craigslist ahead of time. One of our first encounters, the post said 6am - 11am, no early birds!! We thought, 6am is an early bird, we thought wrong!! Luckily Ellah woke early that morning and we all packed up and got to the sale early, or so we thought. It was packed and when asked about the items we were looking for, they said they were gone, as Miah looked down at his watch it read 6:01am. She actually told us she had people knocking on her door at 3am for the garage sale. CRAZY PEOPLE!! So we have turned garage sales into a competitive hobby and it is fun but crazy! They usually just last one day and only for a few hours. They are amazing prices because people are usually leaving the islands and HAVE to get rid of the items. But here it is not unheard of to have people knocking on your doors at night and that is why they say NO EARLY BIRDS!! I love finding treasures, our recent was Pyrex Baking dishes for $2 of all sizes, amazing. I guess garage sales with Grandma really payed off, thank you so much Grandma, Ellah even loves it!!

Gingerbread Houses

We started off the Christmas Season on Tuesday December 1st with making gingerbread houses. There was a big group of us, The Hannemann Family and The Hitz Family. I was super excited to get started because I had never made anything out of gingerbread before, Jeremiah was just as excited for me. We had gingerbread house kits, sleigh kits and of course making our own out of graham crackers....what a joy!! Of course Jeremiah taught the little guys some good ways to clean up the frosting, just lick the bag. Leaving the houses as one big community germ pool but they were still delicious! Ryan and Chandra Hitz were kind enough to let us start the season off at their beautiful beach house, thanks a ton guys!! We hope everyone is enjoying the start of their Christmas Season too.

Daddy dressed me...

I am not sure if Miah is going to be in charge of dressing Bells anymore. We were shopping the other day and Daddy found some clothes for Bells. I do have to say she would make a cute little boy too!

Ellah giving a helping hand

On Saturday mornings we go out to our Ward's Farm and help maintain it. Last Saturday was a lot of hard work, especially for the boys. Ellah was insisting on helping out, she is just too funny. She already want to help with everything and EAT everything. Did we mention she just crossed over to the size 5 diapers, my sister nicknamed her Elephant and it is really starting to fit.

Happy 1st Birthday Reef!

Thursday Reef turned one and we helped out his mom Jenni, with making a birthday cake for the party on Friday. Jeremiah and I had so much fun with this little project. We decided to go with the caterpillar from Baby Einstein and even made a bash cake so Reef can dig into his own. They turned out great and we had a blast at the birthday party!

3 Stages of Ellah

Stage 1- Going for a walk

Stage 2- Shoving her face after her vigorous walk

Stage 3- Falls asleep with a full tummy...what a life!!

Yabba Dabba Doo!!

Halloween was a ton of fun this year!! We had our Ward Party and for all you Twilight fans, Edward Cullen was even there, hahaha. Then we went trick-o-treating on Moana Street, the best in town. It is nice here, we don't have to wear snowpants under our costumes! Ellah started to wave that night, when people would give her candy, she would wave and give a big ole' grin. We went as the Flintstones and had such a good time. Check out the Oompa Loompas too!

Just Do It

"There are clubs you can't belong to, Neighborhoods you can't live in, Schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open. Just do it."

I grew up with that quote stuck in my mind and it hung above my bed on a poster that I loved dearly!! I have been thinking about it a lot lately, running that is. I love it so much and it is my serenity, if I am stressed or I can't relax, Jeremiah sends me to the road. I am completely relaxed and at ease while running. Nobody can touch me and I am not a mom nor a wife, not that I don't like being those but I am just me. You don't need anything but yourself, no matter where you are, you can always go running. That is one of the best things to me about going places or moving, I can't wait to get there and find "my trails". I swore to Jeremiah that when I went into labor I wanted to have my new pair of running shoes he got me for a present on, since I was unable to run throughout my whole pregnancy and my MP3 because I would of been totally relaxed then, hahaha. I usually hit any and every race I can get to, no matter what. Saturday I was given a test, yeppers. I have been sick for 2 weeks. I first had some kidney episodes again and that caused my immune system to hit the bottom and then I came down with a bad virus. I was so sick I didn't look at those pink Nike running shoes with so many miles on them I can't even count. Well my friend called and told me about the race, I was like heck yes!!! Then instantly I thought, no way, I have two people that need me to be healthy. Jeremiah has midterms he needs to study for and his focus needs to be on that and mine with Ellah. Those two people mean more to me than anything, I can't be selfish. I thought how much my life has changed since having our beautiful baby girl and how wonderful it is to be a parent!! The roads will always be there for me to run but right now it will have to wait...I two more important things.

Laundry, Eating, Hats and More

Last week was a rough one for us but we made it through! Jeremiah is pretty busy with school now and getting ready for midterms. He has now decided to minor in Psychology, which is a really good idea to go along with Denistry. My kidneys flared up on me again and this time is was pretty bad, leaving me laying down for the week but after my visit with my Nephrologist, it is pretty common and there is nothing that can be done. I was put on a shorter call every 2 month to monitor my kidneys. Ellah had Roseola and now has a cough and runny nose. All I have to say is I have one amazing husband, he has been wonderful through this all. Us two girls will keep him on his feet. Some recent pictures of Ellah eating, helping with laundry, playing with Daddy's hat and just being her normal cuteness.

Cake Boss!!

Jeremiah and I have a new favorite past time and it is great because we work as a team so well. We love cake decorating, ya know the fancy kind. We have gradually started to get things here and there, all those special tools. This is our first cake, not too fancy but we were very happy. It is so much fun. We have so many ideas and can't wait to get started. Poor guy, I hate cake and chocolate and so this leaves Jeremiah with lots of cake. We do have lots of people over to help eat it though. We made this one for the Ward BBQ after conference.

Thanks Grandma and Papa!!

Ellah loves her crib so much!! We put a few jungle stuffed animals in with her and she thinks she is the coolest baby on the Island. She wanted to tell Papa and Grandma thanks for her crib and of course Grandma for making her whole crib set and wall hangings!! Thanks bunches from the Three of Us!!

Ellah and her helmet!!

Giving me the thumbs up to let me know she likes it too!! Ellah finally fits her helmet and she looks sooo stinkin' cute!! We found the helmet when we bought the bikes and it was just too big but we knew she would need it soon. Well that day came Saturday when we were headed to the beach with our Ward to clean it up. It is the coolest helmet ever, it comes with 3 different covers- frog, bumble bee and a fish. They just velcro right on. Did I mention we pierced her ears when we first got here? Yet, people still call her a boy. I think that is because she only wears a diaper. I am asked very often if she is Polynesian because she is VERY tan and also due to her size!! A comment just made me laugh the other day. We were out walking and some people walked past and after doing so, I heard "Did you see that fat boy?" What can ya do but laugh it off? She is our little (big) princess and we love every fat roll on her body!!

School Started!!

Well we are finally off to a long road...school officially started yesterday and Jeremiah was so excited. We made sure his lunch was packed, he got the no talking to strangers talk and to look both ways before crossing the street (as he rides his bike to school). My mom even called and made sure he was all ready for his first day, hahaha. Ellah got her first tooth, well half-way in at least. She did really good, no fussing or anything. We have seriously been blessed with a wonderful and easy going child. She is just about days away from crawling, she wants to so bad but just isn't there yet. So because of it being Jeremiah's big day yesterday...this picture is for him!! I love my plumbers oh sooo much!! Hmmm, maybe we should find a nude beach to help out with the tan lines!!

Settled!!

Sorry we have not updated lately...our internet connection went crazy. But we are doing great. We are finally getting our own little groove. The people here are fabulous. The whole atmosphere is just great, so relax, way different than back home. Ellah is a little person now, one night I tucked her into bed and then she woke up a little person....it is crazy!! We got her a walker and she loves it. She thinks she is the coolest kid on the Island, hahaha. We do a lot of walks, bike rides, snorkeling and hiking trips. Jeremiah starts school here in a few weeks, he is looking forward to that. I cut my hair off, not because of the heat or because I am a mom now, just a little change, nothing too bad but it is fun. Hope everyone is doing well.

Bike Ride with Mommy

This is how we get around through town...Ellah loves riding the bike with Mommy and Daddy!!

Washington and Hawaii

We are finally in Hawaii, actually we have been here for almost 2 weeks. We love it, we have been really busy trying to get settled in. We got a car and bikes, just fantastic. It is really starting to feel like home now...I'd love to say we miss it in Alaska but we really don't, just the people. I will get better at keeping this updated now that we are finally settled....love you guys!!

Ellah's First Race

As everyone knows, I love to run and I couldn't wait to get Ellah into her first race. So when the Kenai River Run came around, I signed us up. It was a blast and Ellah and Mommy both wore our Nike running clothes, of course. Good thing I had a jogger and that Ellah goes running often because most of the course was on a dirt road, all I could think of was "Never Shake a Baby"....she was fine and she won her age division, she also got her name in the paper. I was so proud.

I finally had to go to Anchorage for the Kidney Biopsy and right now, I am pretty sore. The procedure went really well, thanks to Diazepam but the recovery hasn't been so much fun. But because of the most amazing husband ( in my eyes) he has been helping me out with everything. The worst thing, I can't even lift my own daughter, mostly because she is too heavy, hahaha. I actually am so proud of that. Besides everything...we are living life and loving every minute of being a family.