Scotty, Kiley and Ellie Kai

6 months

2012-03-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

We thought Ellie had personality before but the 6 month mark has brought out even more sass in this girl. She may look like Scotty but Ellie is me. I am very stubborn and I like to do things my own way, being a parent to this type of person isn't always easy, sorry mom and dad! Ellie knows what she wants and is determined to get it and put it in her mouth. If you take something away from her she will do everything she can to get it back. I secretly love this about her but I'm dreading her teenage years. She now eats two meals of solid food a day and does a little excited dance when she sees her spoons come out. She has the most infectious laugh and spits constantly and will mimic almost every sound you make. She sits up perfectly on her own and is starting to lunge for toys and attempts to wiggle herself to them but I'm hoping it will be a while before she starts crawling. If she is fussy in the car, I turn on Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine and she stops instantly and hums along with the music. You may think I am crazy but I swear its true. Come take a ride with me and I'll prove it.

Happy Sunday

2012-02-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

This girl is just getting to be too much fun

Road Trip (Part 2)

2012-02-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

After a long drive we got to our hotel in Monterrey, we got some gluten free pizza for dinner and then had a very uncomfortable night. I don't know if Ellie got a little nervous sleeping so many different places each night but she would not sleep unless she was with us. She has always been a good sleeper but with so many changes lately shes a little thrown off and we decided that instead of ruin the other hotel guests' night by listening to a baby scream, we would just let her sleep in our bed. Ellie took up the whole center of the bed and we barely slept, so the next day we were pretty unmotivated to do anything. But we convinced ourselves to go to the aquarium and we loved it. Ellie loved staring at the big blue tanks and wouldn't take her eyes away from the "open sea" exhibit. The rest of the day we just relaxed in the park and watched the surfers. Walked around town and ate a terrible lunch. But everything was really pretty and we were lucky to get another beautiful day.

We got back into the car and drove up to right outside San Francisco. We had a really nice hotel suite with a living room and separate bedroom so Scotty and I actually got to stay up past 9pm after putting the girl to bed. In the morning we woke up to rain and spent most of our morning in San Francisco lost. This immediately put a damper on how Scotty felt about the city and decided he didn't like it there at all. But we finally found out where we were and walked in the rain to the wharf to get Scotty a bowl of clam chowder, he was a little happier after that and then the sun came out so our day just got better. We had the most amazing cupcakes and contemplated getting a sundae at ghirardelli square but thought we had had enough sweets already. Then we just had fun just seeing the sights and walking around.

By the afternoon we had had enough city, were definitely not city people! So we started the drive back down south. We stopped in Visalia to visit Scotty's sister Jen and her kids. Ellie was in heaven, she loved these kids. We had so much fun hanging out with the family, we hadn't seen any of them in over a year and it was so fun to see our niece in her play and get a two day break from driving.

Cant you tell they are all cousins! Sunday night we said our goodbyes and drove the 5 hours home. We got back at 11:30 and Ellie could not have been more happy to be back in a place where she recognized. We are so glad we got to go on this trip and make memories as a family. It was a great time but all that driving gets a little tiring. Now back to real life, Scotty starts work this week and hopefully Ellie and I can finally get back into a routine.

Road Trip (Part 1)

2012-02-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

Growing up on an island I haven't done many road trips in my life, but Scotty has such good memories of road trips growing up in California and it was something he really wanted to show me. So we figured right now was a perfect time to take a week and go up the coast. Our little car was packed to the brim full of the stroller, pack n play (which Ellie wouldn't even sleep in), hiking backpack and our bags. You don't realize how much stuff a baby needs until you travel! We really wanted to bring surfboards but quickly realized there was no way we would have room, so we were just spectators this trip and it was okay because I see many road trips in our future full of time to surf. We first drove up to Santa Barbara and I immediately fell in love with the feel of this town. It was a cloudy cold day so we mostly just walked up and down the streets shopping and stopping for lunch at the Habit which had the most amazing milkshakes and hamburgers. We walked the beach and the pier and of course stopped by the Al Merrick store and looked at hundreds of surfboards. The bonus of the day was getting the call that Scotty got a job as a recreation leader for the city of Poway, it is pretty much temporary until Scotty finds something better but at least we have some income for now!

The next day we drove up to Morro Bay, a sleepy fishing town that Scotty instantly fell in love with. Its pretty touristy but the town was dead and we didn't know why because it was a beautiful day and the waves were huge. We didn't plan to stay very long but ended up staying most of the day just walking around and talking to some of the friendliest people I have met. We met a guy who lives in a boat in the harbor and kept saying how much he loves being away from all the people down south. He talked surfing with us and told Scotty to yell at his boat if he ever comes back to surf and he'll go out with him. That guy is my husbands new idol.

Then we drove A LONG time. We drove up through Big Sur and loved it! This is where the coast got really beautiful. The waves were huge and the scenery was just awesome. Scotty almost crashed a couple times because he wanted to see everything. Our pictures just don't do it justice but hopefully you get the idea. We got to the hike we wanted to do later than planned so we had to do a shorter one but we still had fun and Ellie loved the hiking backpack, she just kept giggling and looking at me with a confused but happy face.

to be continued.....

5 months

2012-02-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, Ellie is already 5 months old. She is stubborn and sassy but ridiculously adorable. I always said if I had a daughter I hoped she would be a little fiesty and I definitely got my wish! She will fight us to take a nap, especially if there are people around. She refuses to roll over, even though she knows how, she would rather sit up and watch everything and everyone. She has two teeth and knows how to use them! If you have a cup of water, she will grab at it until she gets a sip. She has the best giggle and squeals when she really likes something. She prefers girls to boys but is obsessed with her dad and loves to cuddle with him in the early morning. She loves to eat solid food and still likes vegetables way more than fruit. Just when we think we have her figured out, she throws us a new face or sound that keeps us laughing all the time. We are loving this age, it is so fun to watch her discover every little thing and see her personality change. Thanks Ellie Kai for being the only entertainment we need.

California

2012-01-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

Its been almost two weeks since we made the big move to California. For the first week it just felt like vacation, we ate at the places we love, went shopping for all the cheap gluten free foods I am not used to having access to, and stayed out late every night catching up with friends. It still doesn't feel like we are here for good, but its starting to get a little more real. We realized quickly that we would have to learn how to have a baby in colder weather, it doesn't occur to us that Ellie's toes might be cold in the middle of the night or that she might need a jacket when we go outside. She looks at us so funny when we try to put shoes on her. She usually kicks off socks and shoes within minutes of getting them on. Our skin is dry, our feet our cold and we are getting whiter by the day but so far we are enjoying it. Scotty doesn't have a job yet but we have had a lot of good leads and meetings with potential employers so we are hopeful something will come up soon. For now we are enjoying new beaches and having Scotty around for a little longer.

Every post needs an Ellie update so let me fill you in on what she's been up to. She is growing like crazy. At 4 1/2 months she has one tooth and another one is about to break through any day now. She eats solid food once a day because she was over only eating milk and she grabs at any food or drink we have. She loves sweet potatoes and peas but hates pears and bananas?!? What kind of kid doesn't like bananas or pears? But hey if she likes veggies I am perfectly ok with that. She hates rolling over but she sits up all on her own and still loves to watch surf videos when she is upset. She has figured out how to take her arms out of her shirts, which is very helpful when undressing her and she can stand up on her dads hand. I don't know where this girl came from but she is 5 months going on 3 and we love watching her discover new tricks.

As of late

2012-01-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

We have been crazy with the holidays and trying to get everything together to move. But Ellie has also kept us pretty busy these days. She's 4 months now and so much fun! She is very active and makes us laugh all day.

Christmas

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas. We went to church early that morning and then came home to eat a big breakfast and then open presents. Ellie got so spoiled. She definitely had a good first Christmas. It was more fun to open the presents for her than to open presents for ourselves. She got some warmer clothes for the move to California since she has never worn shoes and barely wears clothes, great grandma got her a bumbo which she loves now after she figured out what its for and lots of books and toys. This girl is spoiled by her grandparents. It was nice to relax the rest of the day and enjoy our presents, watch some christmas movies and eat a great dinner.

Scotty and I could not figure out what to get my parents for Christmas, they are so hard to buy for. We had made some end tables for our house a couple months ago and really liked building it together, so we decided to build something sentimental for them since we are leaving. My mom always talks about having a bench in the entry way when they move into a new house so Scotty built this bench, it looks simple but this thing is very solid. I whitewashed the wood and sealed it so it could either go outside or inside. Then we carved a tree onto the top and it says Bishops up the trunk. We were pretty proud of ourselves and my mom cried when she opened it so you know she liked it.

I am so grateful for the time we were able to spend as a family before we move away and for this time of year we have to focus on more important things. I say Ellie is spoiled but really we are all pretty spoiled. We got way too much but to be honest, this year I could have cared less about my presents, seeing everyone else so happy was what made this Christmas so good.

3 months

2011-12-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late, but better late than never. She is growing so fast I am trying to be good about documenting her milestones. Here's what Ellie can do now....
~She giggles all the time
~Makes lots of loud noises
~Rolls from side to side, almost can roll over
~She has already started teething and we all hate it
~She does leg lifts all day long and in her sleep
~Sleeps through the night
~Reaching and grabbing things, including mom's hair
~Sucks on anything and everything, thumbs are her favorite, anyone who holds her gets covered in slobber (except for Scotty's because they are too big for her mouth, instead she sucks on his shoulder)
Ellie makes us laugh everyday and her personality is definitely getting more and more distinct everyday.

Changes

2011-12-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

We have been going through lots of changes around here. Some good and some not so good. My normally very happy 3 month old has started teething, yep, at 3 months old! You can see two bottom teeth starting to form under her gums and Ellie does not enjoy the process. I feel so bad for her when she tries to give me a little smile in between her tears. This girl really doesn't like to cry and she has been doing a lot of it lately. We have been doing a lot of cuddling around here, which her dad loves, but I just miss my happy girl. Why does it have to be so painful for babies?! Its just not fair.

I mean really would you wanna see that girl cry??

The other big change is that we have decided to move to California. As most of you know we have been wrestling with the decision of whether to stay in Hawaii or move to California for almost a year now. We did not come to this decision lightly. There has been lots of long conversations, lots of praying and lots of emotion. Hawaii is my home and the only home Scotty and I have had together. We have been so excited about having a new adventure that I have been trying to avoid thinking about moving away. It didn't hit me how sad I would be until we were at a Christmas party with my family last night. Leaving my family will be one of many things that will make moving really hard. But it's time for us. It's time for something new, its what we need to do to progress and get to the goals we are hoping to achieve one day. So wish us luck, because we have a lot of uncertainty coming our way!

2011-12-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

I just love my little family. We have been trying to figure out our future and it is scary and stressful. But at the end of the day, I am happy just to spend some time with Scotty and Ellie, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Family photos

2011-11-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

We took our first photos as a family of three a couple of weeks ago. I had these amazing images made up in my head with all of us looking perfect and Ellie's bright smile stealing any eyes away from me and her dad. However, my normally happy baby was having a rough day, and it was hot and the sun was bright and she refused to smile. But it doesn't matter, I just wanted to document this time in our lives. And real life doesn't look like those perfect images in my head. But I do love my slightly less than perfect little family. (But Ellie is pretty close to perfect)

2011-11-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

I was trying to avoid this craze. Everyone I knew was obsessed and I thought it was a little ridiculous, I mean it could be that amazing right? Well I looked on pinterest one time and that was it. I am obsessed. It has sparked so many ideas and made me want to try so many recipes and projects. Now that I have a 2 month old who requires lots of attention, I am just busy all day. Doing what exactly, I can't really tell you, all of the sudden its 5pm and my arms are exhausted. So at the end of the day when Scotty comes home and plays with Ellie, I get out the computer and I go on pinterest. Sure, there are plenty of more productive things I could do with my "me" time but for now I like this obsession. Here are a few things I am in love with...

2 months

2011-11-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

Height: 23 1/4in Weight: 12.6lbs

Besties

2011-11-10T17:10:00.000-08:00

My friend Cari and I have gone through every big event in our lives within weeks of each other. We got engaged at the same time, planned our weddings during our classes together, got pregnant at the same time and had our babies three and a half weeks apart from each other. The whole time we were pregnant we talked about having play dates with our little girls. They are finally big enough to interact with each other and they are pretty hilarious together. Sometimes they just stare at each other curiously but other times Ellie pokes Roxi in the eye and pushes her pacifier out of her mouth. Ellie is already getting some sass! But don't worry Roxi can hold her own. Its just so fun to watch these girls. And aren't they so cute in their jeggings?!?

This past weekend

2011-11-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we had Ellie's blessing. She wore the same dress I wore at my blessing and was perfectly quiet the whole time. Scotty did such a good job and the blessing was beautiful. Ellie had both grandparents there and lots of uncles and aunties who love her. She is one lucky little girl.

Scotty's parents came to visit from San Diego for the blessing so we spent the weekend taking them around to some of our favorite spots. We were so glad they got to spend some time with Ellie and get to know her.

Ellie is 2 months old now and getting bigger every day. She has the best personality and is still such a good mellow baby, we got really lucky! Here's a few more pictures just to prove how cute she is!

Halloween

2011-11-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

I am not a very festive person. Holidays just have never been my thing, its something I am trying to change since I have a little girl that I want to give good childhood memories. Unfortunately I didn't start being festive with Halloween this year. We have been busy lately and Halloween just snuck up on us. Luckily for me I at least have good friends who like to do things for my little girl so she had two costumes this year.

First, little mermaid! I almost died when I put it on her. It was ridiculously cute. My friend Cari was creative enough to make this for her little girl Roxi and since she's a better holiday mom than me, she made one for Ellie too.


Second, Mexican chica. Carrie and Pat went to Mexico a while ago and brought Ellie back this awesome dress. It was perfect, all she needed was black hair and big hoop earrings! I kept her in this dress for a couple hours just because it was so funny to see her in it.

Our night was pretty mellow, but we did do some baking and had fun decorating this cake and watching Ellie dress up.

Beach baby

2011-10-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

We are a beach family. Scotty and I have spent more time at the beach and in the ocean together than anywhere else. Its where we are most content. I spent most of my third trimester at the beach waiting for baby to get here and Scotty and I used to talk about raising our kids in the ocean. When we brought Ellie home from the hospital, we waited 5 days before we took her to the beach. (Don't worry, we didn't stay long) We just couldn't wait to introduce her to our favorite place. She has been several more times since then, but she usually falls asleep and stays in her car seat out of the sun. Well today she got her introduction to the water. Scotty sat with her on the beach and let me surf and get in the water for the first time in months, what a good husband right? When I came in, he begged to take her in the water. I thought it was a little chilly since the sun had just gone behind the clouds but I thought a quick dip wouldn't hurt. Every time he dipped her in she made a mad face but didn't cry. She was more confused than anything. After a few minutes we took her out of the water and quickly put her on dad's warm chest with a towel. Her bottom lip was chattering but then she got the biggest smile on her face. I know she is only 7 weeks, but you should have seen how happy Scotty was to have his little girl in the water with him.

Smiles

2011-10-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

How can you not love that smiling face??

Faces of Ellie

2011-10-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ellie is pure entertainment. She makes me laugh all day with her many facial expressions. We loved the newborn phase but its so exciting to watch her grow and start to be more aware of her surroundings. I am always trying to catch her smiles on camera but sometimes she likes to just pull the blanket up over her head and be left alone. Sorry E, as the first born you will have a camera in your face for the next 18 years!

One month

2011-10-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

My baby is one month old! I can't believe a month went by so fast. I am already getting sad that she is growing up so fast. I am going to risk jinxing myself and say that Ellie is such a good baby. She sleeps mostly through the night and only wakes up at 2:30 and 5:30 to eat. She wakes up in such a good mood and usually spends half an hour cooing and smiling at Scotty and me before we get out of bed. Even during the day she just hangs out and smiles at me from across the room. She is growing so much and is already too long for her newborn clothes, luckily she has tons of cute clothes just waiting to be worn. I don't know how we got so lucky to have such a mellow newborn, I have been able to recover from pregnancy and labor and the last month has really made the transition to parenthood relatively easy for us. Ellie has been such a blessing to us and she has me and her dad wrapped around her little finger.

Just a few photos

2011-09-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

We really like her

2011-09-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

We have ourselves a water baby. Ellie loves bath time, she gets so relaxed and comfortable, sometimes she will even fall asleep through the whole thing. Other times she will move her arms and legs around in the water and smile. Either way, she is so happy in the water. Obviously we love that she loves the water since she will probably be spending a lot of her time there. Getting out is a different story, she does not like getting out of the water. She is even cute when she cries.

Two Weeks

2011-09-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Well we survived the first two weeks. Honestly it feels like its been longer than that. I don't even remember what our lives were like before Ellie, it just seems like she was always here with us. She is such a good, happy baby. Everyone else is lucky if they get to see her awake with her eyes open, but when we are home, she is content and smiling all the time and showing us her big blue eyes. We are learning through a lot of trial and error how to be parents but Ellie has survived all of our rookie moves so I think we're gonna be okay.

Ellie's debut

2011-09-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

On September 4, 2011 at 4:41 pm our baby girl finally decided to make her debut. Ellie Kai is beautiful. We are completely obsessed with her and I can now officially say that all my struggles with pregnancy and labor were worth it.

I was getting very impatient waiting for my due date and was extremely disappointed when that day came and went without anything happening. I know its really common for women to go past their due date with their first child but I was just done with pregnancy, I had not felt like myself since December 2010 and I needed to have this baby. The day after I was due Scotty and I decided that for our own sanity we weren't going to talk about the baby or me going into labor. We were just going to try and have fun and forget my frustrations. So we met up with our good friends the Steeles and Owsleys for a day at the beach. We laid out, got tan, the boys surfed and we just had fun. I almost forgot that I was super pregnant. That night Scotty and I made dinner and laid down to relax, around 7:45 I got a really bad contraction. I stood up to walk it off and my water broke. Scotty immediately jumped up and started frantically getting the bags and everything together. I cleaned up as best I could and we jumped into the car. I could tell Scotty was a little nervous but I was weirdly calm and just excited to get this process started. When we got to the hospital they examined me and checked me in, unfortunately I was barely dilated and they told us we would have a long wait ahead of us. We got settled in our room and tried to sleep but once my contractions started there wasn't much sleeping for me. At 5am, I still hadn't progressed very much so my doctor gave me pitocin to speed things up. The rest of the day is kind of a blur for me. I had horrible back labor and got an epidural to deal with the pain and it was so helpful. I am very impressed by women who do this completely natural! After a few hours the epidural had worn off on one side and I was in a lot of pain again. They upped my dosage so I could get a few more hours of relief before starting to push. Then the nausea hit, I threw up a few times before they finally told me I was ready to start pushing. Even though I had just thrown up and I had a fever of 102 I put everything I had into those pushes. I wanted nothing more than to get that baby out. But almost two hours later there was still no baby and I had very little left in me to push. I was so tired and started to doubt if I could really do this. Scotty would go back and forth between putting a cold wash cloth on my head and giving me ice chips. He kept telling me that she was right there and I just needed to do it a little bit longer. My nurses were amazing and with their encouraging words and Scotty's excited look every time he would see her head I finally got in that last push. It was the best feeling ever. Scotty cut her cord and they put her on my chest. Ellie didn't make any noise, she just looked up at us with those big blue eyes and smiled. They took her to clean her up and I just laid back in complete exhaustion and happiness. My family came in shortly after and my mom and dad got immediately emotional and Scotty followed close behind them. My emotions hit me a few days later when I realized that we finally had our little girl. Having her here is amazing and even though being parents is a constant learning process we couldn't have asked for a better baby. She looks just like her daddy and has his mellow personality too. We are so lucky and I can't believe there is actually three of us now.

My wife is amazing

2011-09-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know how amazing my wife is. I know there are a lot of women who have babies, but Kiley is definitely special. She went through 9 months of a pretty miserable pregnancy and topped it off with a 20 labor of the most beautiful little girl. She felt like she was the worst pregnant woman ever throughout her pregnancy, but what i was able to see through the whole nine months was truly how strong and amazing she was. she is such a big strength to me and i know she is going to be the best mother in the world to little Ellie Kai Olson. I am so blessed to have her in my life. Im sure she wanted to do a post to show off her little baby girl, but she just pushed out a baby so i'll go ahead give you all a teaser and she'll tell the whole birth story later when she feels a little better.

38 weeks 5 days

2011-08-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

So next Friday is my official due date. I can't believe it's finally coming. The past nine months have literally been the longest months of our lives. We have been getting so anxious these last few weeks just waiting for Ellie to get here. Don't worry, we aren't being naive about having a newborn, we don't think for one second that it will be all easy and fun. But seriously, pregnancy has not been that fun for us and just having our little girl here will show us that it was all worth it. I am very sore and very uncomfortable and HUGE these days, but just having the end in sight is making everything a little more bearable. We're hoping she will come sooner than later, but I know better than to think Ellie will come when we want her to. This girl will come when she wants and how she wants so for now we're trying to be patient and enjoy our last days just the two of us.

For Ellie

2011-08-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Since we found out we were pregnant Scotty has talked about shaping a board for the baby. Surfing is something he can't wait to share with our kids and wanted them to be exposed to it from day one. And don't think that just because this board is for a baby or for decoration that he had low standards. He spent so much time making sure every aspect of it was perfect. I got to help a little but it was mostly a present from daddy.

We can't wait for Ellie Kai to get here and see her new board. Any day now!

Photo Shoot

2011-08-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that I did a maternity shoot with Amber a couple weeks ago. I had a specific idea about what I wanted from these pictures. All the maternity shoots I had seen before were the same, everyone does the same poses in the same type of outfits and I just didn't feel like it was me. I wanted it to be simple but different. Amber understood exactly what I wanted and did a great job. I love these pictures! No, I haven't loved being pregnant everyday but seeing my body change and grow a human has been pretty incredible and I wanted to show that. Since Scotty and I have an obvious love for the ocean and she has already spent a lot of time there, we didn't have to think too hard about where to take the pictures. Here's a few, well several of my favorites. Oh and I'm am showing little skin...just a heads up!

Anniversary

2011-07-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

First off, let me just say that I married an awesome guy. Our year wedding anniversary was on Sunday but since Scotty had to work on boards this weekend, he surprised me by taking off work on Friday and spending the whole day with me. He pretended to wake up and go to work then 45 minutes later he pulled back up to the house and told me we were going to have some fun. We got ready and headed downtown to spend the day at the zoo. Yep, me and my husband spend our wedding anniversary at the zoo. And we had so much fun! We had to take a lot of breaks since my giant belly makes my legs go numb and my back hurt but we had all day so we just took our time. After the zoo, we cooled off with some ice cream and did a little window shopping before heading to our dinner reservation at Duke's. Luckily we saved the gift certificate for something special because dinner was really good and our bank account wouldn't have allowed for such a fun day right now. Oh and I didn't get sick once so we actually got to enjoy a full day together with no worries! Our lives have been so consumed by pregnancy for the past 8 months, we have barely had one day of just pure fun. I think we both really needed a day like this.

These two were supposed to be mating but obviously she wasn't in the mood

Shrimp scampi and steak, we got to live large for one night

One Year

2011-07-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's our wedding anniversary tomorrow and let me tell you, it has been an adventure so far. I don't think either of us imagined we would be where we are at this point but I wouldn't change anything. Since we started dating two years ago everything about our relationship has just been easy. No matter what trials we go through or how many unpleasant changes we have had to figure out, we have always just been content to hang out together at the end of the day. Scotty has been amazing through my rough pregnancy and just putting up with me in general. I really could not have asked for a better husband. He works so hard to provide for us so I could stay home and handle being sick everyday. I know he has rough days but he always puts on a happy face for me. I love so many things about being married to him but more than anything I just love being around my best friend all the time and having fun doing the smallest things. I love you babe and I can't wait to see what crazy awesome adventures we go through while we try and figure out the rest of our lives.

Scotty surprised me yesterday and took off work so we could enjoy our anniversary all day. Pictures coming soon...

Someday

2011-07-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest things we talk about doing "someday" is buying a house and completely redoing it. We want to gut a house and start from scratch, and do everything (mostly everything) ourselves. We are obsessed with HGTV, design blogs and DIY network. We basically have the entire house planned out. Having our own house is something I can wait for, its obviously a lot of work and a lot of money so I'm okay with dreaming for now. But something I do wish we had right now is room for a nursery. We live in a tiny one bedroom house, which is fine for just the two of us, we have lived in smaller. But I could give E (name hint) such an awesome nursery! I love the colorful non traditional looks. Look how cute these rooms are!

For now E will get a small bassinet next to our bed, not that exciting but maybe someday she will get a cute room. Where that room will be is still up in the air. Scotty will be doing construction until at least December and then we will make some decisions. Whether we move to the mainland or stay in Hawaii, there will be a lot of changes for us in the next 5 months. It might not be for a while but one day we will have our life a little more figured out, and maybe I'll get to design a perfect nursery...?

Countdown

2011-07-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am 33 weeks and unfortunately I am already counting down the days until this baby comes out. It's not just that I am so uncomfortable and tired of being sick, but I am also just so ready to meet this little girl. Every mother keeps telling me to enjoy this time we have before the baby, but both of us are just so anxious, we watch her move around in my stomach all day and plan for her arrival and now all we can do it wait. I go to the doctor every two weeks now and so far, despite some abnormal blood work which will be figured out this week, everything seems to be going great. I had a great maternity photo shoot with the super talented Amber yesterday, those pictures will be coming soon, but for now here's a belly shot to hold you over. I'm getting huge!

4th of July

2011-07-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

We had such a good 4th of July. First of all, we both slept through the night and when we woke up there was no throwing up! This is a huge deal for us. Between my heartburn/nausea/uncomfortableness in the middle of the night and Scotty's carpal tunnel, we rarely get to sleep all night. So we were already happy with our day but on top of that the weather was perfect! We played at the beach with my family all day and got a front row seat to a paddle board race. We both got a little too much sun but I think it was totally worth it. After cooling down with some delicious sundaes we went to watch fireworks at Turtle Bay with our friends. We had a great seat for fireworks and even though we spent more time in traffic than we did actually watching fireworks, I think the day was pretty successful.

29 weeks

2011-06-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

I'm finally in the last trimester. She's growing a lot, which means I am getting bigger! I feel like everything inside my body is so smashed already I don't know how everything is going to fit when she gets even bigger over the next few months. Scotty lovingly calls me fatty, and most times I don't smack him because he actually loves it.

Three more months people, I think I can do it!!

Stir crazy

2011-06-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Both Scotty and I have been going a little crazy lately. Maybe not crazy, but a little....bored?? There's a few reasons why we feel this way...
~ The weather has been awful! All weekend was storming with lightning and thunder so that cut into our beloved beach time. The sun has only made a few guest appearances in the last few days and we are people who thrive on sun.
~ It's technically summer so the waves on our side of the island are minimal to nonexistent. Scotty hates not surfing for too long, surfing is how he gets through his week. I can see his bones getting antsy when he doesn't get to surf, its basically his rejuvenation period after a hard work week and he is not rejuvenated lately. Especially when he still has to come home from work and take care of his pregnant wife after 6 months!
~ I am not working right now. As most of you know my pregnancy has not been the easiest. After much discussion and running of the numbers we decided that I needed to take a break before the baby came. It's been good for me, I have been able to handle my sickness a little better without worrying about work everyday. I actually started gaining weight, so I finally got my doctor off my back! Everyday is different, some days I feel like I could handle working and I get pretty bored with nothing to do. But other days, like today, I am throwing up and stuck on the couch with a bottle of ginger ale. I really should just appreciate the time I have now to relax while my husband works super hard to support us but I am so used to working that I don't know what to do with so much free time.

I think we just need one nice day! A sunny day with some waves where we can be outside and enjoy one another without being sick or stressed and tired from work. Is that too much to ask??

25 weeks (6 months)

2011-05-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been pregnant forever, especially since I have been sick for over 6 months now. But time is going by pretty fast and I am starting to realize that little baby girl will be here before we know it. I bought my first pair of maternity pants, I waited as long as I could! I fit into my old pants up to this point but my belly has been pertruding more and more lately and I just couldn't put it off any longer. I am feeling a little better during the day but my morning sickness has turned into nighttime sickness so I am not free of nausea yet. I have a feeling I will be doing this until September which is fine, I don't even remember what life was like before I hated food and threw up all the time. Baby girl is still super active, we can hold the ipod up to my belly and watch her dance, but she is picky about her music and only moves to certain songs. Some people play classical music to their belly so their kids will be smart but me and Scotty play La Roux so our little girl will be a dancer just like her dad.

Heres a little clip of her favorite song, she knows just what she likes!

23 weeks

2011-05-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

I made it to the halfway point of my pregnancy! Ignoring the fact that I threw up 7 times yesterday morning things have gotten a little better. Most days I feel pretty good, normal even. But then I have days like yesterday when I can't believe I am still sick! This little girl is not making it super easy for me, but pregnancy is getting more fun everyday as she grows and moves around. The doctor told me the other day that it sounds like I am growing a race horse instead of a baby since her heartbeat is so fast. I am a little concerned about her being this active when she is born but of course Scotty couldn't be happier. My body is pretty sore these days, my back is all out of whack and my stomach muscles are painfully stretching. But at the end of the day we are getting more excited to have her and can't believe how fast nine months is going.

PS. I would have a baby bump photo but I dropped our computer and broke our screen so I can't upload any new photos, so be patient, they'll be up soon.

Mothers

2011-05-04T14:32:00.001-07:00

Mothers day is this week, I know I am a little early but I have been thinking a lot about parenting lately, mothers especially. I keep thinking about the kind of mother I want to be to our little girl and for some reason becoming a mom doesnt terrify me. I am positive that when we have our baby I will be scared out of my mind but I think I have had such good examples of mothers around me that I know exactly the kind of mom I want to be. My mom is awesome. She is outgoing, selfless and yes those who know her often describe her as loud. She can fill up a room with her stories, and even though we make fun of her sometimes it's something I absolutely love about her. I can talk to my Mom about anything, it's always been that way and growing up I was so grateful that we were friends. We are complete opposites, so even now we have our disagreements but my mom never tried to change who I was. She always encouraged me to be the person I wanted to be and that's something I can't thank her enough for. She always puts our family first, no matter her needs always came last and I wish as kids we would have noticed that more often and thanked her more. But I guess that's what my time now is for, to show my mom how much I appreciated what she did for me and what she taught me. Mom, I love you, you have been a great example of what a mother should be and I hope I can have the relationship we have with my daughter. Happy Mothers day!

Birthdays and sleepovers

2011-04-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our week was full of celebration. My birthday was on the 13th, and it couldn't have been better. The girls took me out for pedicures and shopping, I got to eat good Thai food with great friends, which was followed by gluten free brownies and ice cream. My husband gave me some pretty perfect gifts that I was very happy with. Oh and the day after my birthday my mom took me to get a prenatal massage, just what I needed! It was amazing. Thanks mother!

Then the 15th was Scotty's birthday. He got to surf and then we had a BBQ and pool party with good food and again, great friends. He got everyone to play marco polo which was probably the highlight of his night. At 26 he is still such a kid.

Oh and I just wanted to thank these two, Pat and Carrie. We had a week between moving out and moving into our new place and so we basically crashed their house. It was so much fun but they were so good to put up with us, all of our stuff and make sure we had great birthdays. The two of them and their bulldog Ham are always a good time. Thanks guys!

2011-04-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

It was a big week for us.

We graduated! Finally we are done with the stresses of school. Graduation was great, it was a little long for my pregnant body, standing so much and barely eating anything. But I survived and I can appreciate the whole graduation process more now since its over! Thanks for all our friends and family who showed up to support us and give us leis. And for the support of those who couldn't be there.

We had a lot of friends graduating with us so it was pretty fun to see everyone's families all proud. It was also pretty awesome to graduate with my husband and my best friend Jordan!

Oh and another thing happened this week..... We found out that we are having a GIRL!

I knew it all along. We are so excited to have a sassy little girl around here in September. She is healthy and VERY active, she wouldn't even hold still for the doctor to measure her, so I already know I like her. I'm positive she already has a very distinct personality!

We are moving into a new house in Hauula next weekend after a few days bouncing around in limbo until the old tenets move out. Should be fun!

Best, most horrible weekend

2011-03-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

So I woke up on Saturday morning feeling awful and throwing up, I didn't think much of it since I am still sick at least three to four times a week. But then I didn't stop. It was past two o'clock and I couldn't keep anything down. This continued ALL day, I left the house once to try and get some fresh air but then went back to bed. We were hoping I would wake up fine on Sunday but we weren't so lucky. I spent all day in bed or running to the bathroom. My awesome husband refused to leave me or do anything fun without me. He took such good care of me, he cleaned the house, tried to make me food I could keep down and rubbed my back while I was throwing up. If that's not love, I don't know what is! By Sunday night we were delirious from being inside for two days. It was weird but I kind of enjoyed this weekend. Don't get me wrong, it was awful, I hate throwing up! And it was the worst circumstances for us to spend time together, but we don't get to see each other much these days. Laying around watching movies and being together for two days straight was just kind of...nice. It would have been nicer without the crazy pregnancy sickness but that's what we deal with these days!

ALSO, we found a place to live!! We absolutely love it. It's perfect for us and for the baby. We were so nervous the landlords weren't going to pick us but they called yesterday and said they want us to live there until December! I can't tell you how happy I am to have that taken care of. I knew right when we saw it, that it was for us. Just finding out we have a house made our whole weekend better.

Hope everyone's weekend was filled with more exciting events than ours. It's Monday and my last full week of college!

2011-03-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Scotty has had a side business of repairing surfboards for while now. Recently though, it has turned into a booming success. There are more boards than my husband who already works about 11 hours a day doing construction can handle. Scotty is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to board repairs, so it's not uncommon that he redo his original work before giving it back to the owner, even though most people would never notice the tiny mistakes he does. I have been worried about him working too hard, especially since he has developed pretty bad carpal tunnel in his hands. But when I go with him to repair I realize that he doesn't just do it for the extra money that we obviously need, but he loves it. I'm a little jealous of him sometimes because his love for surfing can carry into other parts of his life like having this small business. There are a lot of things I love, but I am still searching for my niche, that one thing I am really good at. But I will find it, soon enough, maybe when school, work and pregnancy is not controlling my life. Until I do, I'll just keep bragging about my talented husband.

Count down

2011-03-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

The countdown to graduation has begun. Its still five weeks away, but that seems so close! I have actually really enjoyed my classes this semester and despite what I say, I do like school, but I am just burnt out of the routine I have right now. I am ready for something new, BYUH has pretty much given me all that it can. Since Scotty only has one class that is an independent study, he has basically been living the life of a college grad and it makes me even more ready to just be finished! There's a lot to figure out in the next five weeks. We need a place to live ASAP and its harder to find a place than I thought it would be. But even though it stresses me out and I am not looking forward to the hassle that will be caused by graduating I am still counting down!

Graduation is April 9th, your all invited!

Update

2011-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me just say pregnancy is HARD! Its been an interesting first three months. Here's an update of the first trimester....

~Two IV's after entire days of throwing up
~No energy whatsoever
~ A complete hatred of ANY food
~Struggling to keep up with work and school
~Headaches from the medicine that helps the nausea (I would rather have the headaches)
~My stomach waking up at 4am but my body refusing to get out of bed (making me sick all morning)
~Realizing how dirty my bathroom is from spending so much time on the floor
~Refusal to eat anything sweet even chocolate (I have turned down some of my favorite deserts! Even gluten free cupcakes in San Diego)
~3 months of basically no cooking or dishes....I absolutely hate the smells

So it has been an adventure...a lot harder than I thought. And even though it has been some of the hardest three months of my life (I feel like a complete wimp saying that!) I could not be happier. If I could go back now and decide to wait to get pregnant, I wouldn't do it. I loved seeing Scotty's face when he saw our baby jump around the screen at our doctors appointment. I love the days when I feel good and I can actually get excited about a baby coming in 6 months.

Not our baby but just to give you an idea, its starting to be more human!

I am officially 13 weeks. One more week and its onto the second trimester! Wish me luck, I have been feeling better the past few days and I'm hoping that means the next three months will be more full of exercise and healthy eating, than puking and staying in bed all day.

Now an update of our life plan....
Scotty really likes his job doing construction, and building a house is something he has always wanted to learn. So he is going to keep working at Evans for at least the next year. Moving to Huntington Beach was always kind of the plan after graduation but we just haven't felt good about it lately. We feel like we need to stay here. It feels right for us right now. I might try and do grad school next year and we aren't ruling out all options yet so if an amazing job opportunity comes up for Scotty then we will take it. Obviously this plan can change but we are looking for houses in Laie and Hauula and hoping something affordable will come up and we can start the next step in our lives!

We love LOVE

2011-02-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

I am not a Valentines Day person, I have never been a romantic. But I do love my husband! It has been pretty crazy around here with Scotty's new job at Evans construction and my sometimes awful pregnancy, so we haven't had much time to really enjoy one another. But I want Scotty to know how much I appreciate everything he does for us. He works so hard to support us, I have missed a lot of work these past couple weeks being so sick and he makes sure we are surviving by working twice as much. He is patient in dealing with my abnormal eating habits and doesn't even get upset when he has to make three seperate dinners for me because they all make me want to vomit. (Im sure he does get upset but he never allows me to see it) Scotty will make me smile even when thats the last thing I want to do. All he wants to do in his life is help people and make others happy and I adore him for that. Scotty, I know I haven't been capable of doing much for you lately but I do love you so much and I will do everything I can do make sure that after years of marriage and kids that we are still as obssessed with each other as we are now. Happy Valentines Day!

6 years

2011-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

Its six years today since Jon Mozo, our very close friend passed away. I had never experienced the death of someone close to me before and it hit me pretty hard. I had the opportunity to work with Jon and learned so much from him. All of us teenagers idolized Jon and wanted to be just like him. He was the kind of person that made everyone his best friend, and would do anything for anyone. I don't think I will ever in my lifetime see a funeral that packed with people. A LOT has changed in six years, but Jon is still very missed. I love Nikki and the kids, they are my family and even though the kids have grown up and all of our busy lives make it harder to spend as much time together, I want them to know that I care about them all very much. They have helped to shape me into the person I am today.

We miss you Jon. I know your working hard up there.

BIG NEWS

2011-02-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

Yep, you saw that right. I am pregnant!!! Scotty and I will be having a baby September 2nd. We have talked about having kids since we were dating and cannot wait until we have our new addition. I have been extremely sick, which is never fun. But Scotty has been amazing helping me out, and getting me through these tough parts of pregnancy. The doctor said our baby is VERY active, I saw it moving around and heard the heartbeat going very fast. It was sooo exciting. Here is the first photo, its just a little bean right now, but we think its pretty cute!

Sunday morning stroll

2011-01-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

"Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you"

~John De Paola
At least we are hoping that's true for now

Plans

2011-01-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

I have someone ask me everyday, "what are your plans after graduation?" To be honest, we have no plans. We graduate in April and we have absolutely no idea where we are living, what jobs we will have or what we will be doing with our lives. And oddly enough, I'm okay with that. Everyone always looks at me as if they are slightly afraid for me when I answer that we don't have it all figured out yet. But who does? You make a plan, and then life happens and the plan is out the door. I have always prided myself on having a plan, from a young age I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life and then I met Scotty. Together we have seen that when we plan something, it never turns out the way we wanted but its always great in the end. So you don't need to worry about us, we may not have it all worked out yet. But eventually we will and when we do, I promise it will be awesome.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

We had a very busy and eventful year....

We surfed.....Scotty surfed ALOT

We danced......and Scotty took his shirt off ALOT

We got married, going on six months....feels like several years (in a good way)

We went to Mexico and Scotty held a tiger, the highlight of his year

We went to San Diego...three times

Scotty did an internship at Quiksilver, it was awesome and he loved it

And Kiley got foot surgery...a good end to a great summer (sorry about the blood)

We saw some great sunsets, had good times with great friends, worked hard and studied hard. School took up a lot of time and caused a lot of stress, but we managed to survive and are ready to tackle our last semester EVER at BYU Hawaii. We have no idea what we are going to do in 2011, there will be lots of new adventures and probably a lot of new challenges but we can't wait to see what comes.

Christmas

2010-12-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

I am not a huge Christmas person, its just never been my favorite holiday. I know that sounds awful and like a scrooge but I just think we all get so caught up in all the details of decorating and presents that we forget what Christmas is about. My family has always had a pretty simple Christmas but this year we went to Scotty's house and they love Christmas! All the siblings and their kids were in town and everyone spent the night Christmas Eve. All 22 people. It was a different Christmas for me, much louder than I am used to with my small family, but watching 11 kids open presents and put out cookies for Santa was so much fun. California was great, we played with cute nieces and nephews, ate lots of food and got to be a little cold for a change. I missed home a few times, there was new traditions and new family to share them with. But we get to make new holiday traditions. We had a great first married Christmas together, at the end of the day I don't care about the gifts or the traditions (even though Scotty did an awesome job with my gifts) all I care about is that I got to spend some quality time with Scotty and family. Hope everyone has a great new year!!

Almost there

2010-12-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

We are right in the middle of finals. Scotty and I are just so tired. We slept through three alarms this morning because we didn't want to get out of our warm bed and go back to the stress that is school. My house is a mess, there is a massive pile of dishes that I just can't get to and a bag of clean laundry sits at the end of my bed begging to be folded. ( I am usually very clean so a dirty house stresses me out as much as school) We are so close, but these next few days will be filled with nothing but writing, studying, more writing, late nights and very little time to eat food. After Wednesday I want to lay on the beach and do nothing but read gossip magazines with some good friends. Anyone want to join?

He did it!

2010-11-29T23:37:00.000-08:00

My dad is awesome. He just finished the Iron Man triathlon in Cozumel Mexico. For those of you who don't know how intense an Iron Man is let me tell you, first its a swim of 2.4 miles, then a bike ride of 112 miles finished off by a marathon of 26.2 miles. Not exactly my idea of fun but my dad lives for this kind of stuff. We kept track of him all day online and cheered for him from here. I know he could hear me pushing him to keep going. He finished in 14 hours and about 56 minutes, a very very long day. My dad an I used to run together when I was younger and whenever I would get tired he would talk about his fantasies of finishing the Iron Man and listening to the crowd and my mom cheer for him. We used to talk about being a father daughter team, obviously I don't do triathlons now or even run the way he does but he knows how proud I am of him for accomplishing his goal.

Mom and Dad at the half Iron Man in Kona

Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Its Thanksgiving tomorrow and here are the things I am most grateful for.......

1. This boy, he is beyond awesome

2. Somehow no matter how much little money we have, we manage to pay the rent, the bills and survive every month, but sometimes we have to skip on groceries ha.......don't worry mothers we went shopping

3. Our temple is finally open again and we get to see it every day

4. We get to live in a warm place, while the rest of the country is freezing

5. Our family is super cool

6. We have gotten a good education and will be college grads soon! (As much as this place makes us wanna scream sometimes, we love it)

Thanks to all our friends and family who make our life so good!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Go, go, go

2010-11-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

We have so little time in our week to enjoy ourselves that we have to get a break where we can. The other day I picked up Scotty from work and brought the camera. We got to see the most awesome sunset before going back to the reality of school. (Scotty took the second picture, not bad huh?? To be fair though, he has a good teacher!)

So on Saturday we made sure we had a couple hours to surf and get some sun before doing homework and a 3 1/2 hour econ midterm (it was awful fyi). Unfortunately, there was no waves, poor Scotty has not surfed in weeks and he just needs the water to function. Lucky for us good friends can make any day fun. Everyone just played on the ripples that would come in ever few minutes and swam around. I was just so happy to be outside for a little bit and spend some time with this stud!

2010-11-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

Photos from Scotty

Ki Ki's Pictures (of course they are better than mine)

2010-11-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

This is our friend John, he is one of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. He is in the hospital with head injuries from an awful incident that happened earlier this week. We are thinking about you John and praying for your full recovery.

Inky and Pac Man

2010-10-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

Don't act like your not impressed.

2010-10-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Carmel apples with pecans, pumpkin guts, roasted pumpkin seeds, good company and drills.....? Leave it to the husbands to find a way a make carving pumpkins even more of a mess.

Thanks for making me more of a patient person babe.

Happy Halloween

A pumpkin is only as strong as its stem

2010-10-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to go to the pumpkin patch for weeks. I don't even remember the last time I carved pumpkins and so it was absolutely necessary that we go.

There were pumpkins everywhere, I was actually surprised at how good they were, Hawaii is not known for their pumpkins ya know??

Scotty took a long time deciding which pumpkin was for him, going over every detail to pick out which one was the best. Checking the stem, the color and how perfect the grooves of the pumpkin were. I saw the one I wanted within minutes and liked it just because it was little and cute. You can tell which one of us is more patient!

The pumpkins were so cheap we got some for a friend and of course Scotty being the man he is offered to carry them all....and being the wife I am, took pictures instead of helped!

These are our final selections. Of course Scotty has to have the bigger one.

It was just a good day, we don't get much time together during the week so I love times like this when we can just have a little fun.

No Jobs

2010-10-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I went to the career fair at school today with my friend Cari. We got all dressed up, worked hard on new resumes and put our best serious worker faces on. We got there early signed in and started to walk around. We soon realized that there wasn't many businesses there that we could work for. Accounting firms, hotels, banks, police departments and government agencies. But the only problem is that we have no training in any of these fields! Not to mention we want nothing to do with these fields. Every booth we thought might have some potential turned out to only need technical computer people or mathematicians. Cari and I are both International Cultural Studies majors, emphasizing in communications, and so we are in the same boat when it comes to jobs. We know what we would like to do in the long run but right now, as recent grads we have no idea what we can do! We both kept looking at each other thinking, did we pick the wrong major??? I love ICS, alot! I have a lot of goals and plans for my career but where do I start?

Grad school is always on my mind, and Scotty and I both go back and forth about doing it. I figure after a nice break from school to get our lives more firmly situated we'll go to grad school. But for now........???? I guess we'll see what opportunities come up.

Maybe we'll just have kids right now and I'll just stay home. Right mom????

2010-10-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

I was in the library yesterday for almost 5 hours, I got a lot done and I wasn't even going crazy. But later that night when Scotty got home we went back to the library to do more homework. After about an hour I started to get a little stir crazy. I let my mind wander off my paper for a few minutes and one thing came to my mind, dolphins....

Five years ago this month my uncle Jon took me to Makua Valley on the other side of the island to swim with dolphins. I remember waking up really early to a rainy day, we rode the jet ski from the north side of the island around to the west. It took over an hour and it was not good weather. The rain hit my face like needles and I was just waiting for Jon to say it was time to turn back. But he never did. We kept going until we got there and as we got there the sun came up, it was beautiful. It was warm and the water was calm, after only a few minutes we saw them, hundreds of dolphins. We jumped in the water and started swimming with them. They welcomed us in the water, one of them kept bringing a plastic bag up to my face for me to throw to him. They swam around me and played with each other. I remember feeling so free, I couldn't think of anything else except for those dolphins. To this day I don't think my mind has ever been so clear. The sun light was perfect, Jon got amazing shots and I didn't want to get out of that water. Because on the way back I knew we would have to endure the storm once again. And we did. That feeling of peace and clarity didn't last long as we drove 40mph through the wind and rain but that memory popped into my head at just the right time cooped up in that library. I don't think Jon knew the effect that day would have on me and I didn't know he wouldn't be around just 4 months later but if he were here right now I would thank him again for giving me that experience before life started going so fast. I hadn't started college yet, I had my whole life in front of me and if I did it all again right now I don't think it would have the same effect.

2010-10-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

School has been kicking our butts lately! We are burning out fast and we aren't the only ones. Everyone has been walking around campus like drones and every conversation I have is about school work or projects. Our school has made some big changes in the last year, our schedule being one of them and teachers have not adjusted to shorter semesters, which gives all of us the same amount of work in less time. At some point late at night I make us go to bed so we will be able to function the next day but Scotty has been waking up at 4am to finish what we couldn't finish the night before. And our time together has been minimal, yesterday he came home from work kissed me and went straight to a meeting, I went to work and we met up again in bed at 11:30 both falling asleep immediately.

So last night we took a break, after work we got a small dinner and then made milkshakes and watched a movie. We knew we should probably do some homework but sometimes you just need some time together. And I can honestly say that today I am recharged to go back to the library and study ALL day before work. We do appreciate this time in our lives, we do have relatively little cares considering its just the two of us but I can't say I will be sad to graduate and get outta school!

Thank goodness its Friday

2010-10-09T02:06:00.000-07:00

We were talking today about how Friday nights used to be so exciting as teenagers and how it just gets less and less exciting as we get older. But today I was so glad it was Friday! After bad tests, lots of studying and more time at school than at home an evening surf was just what we needed to relax....at least for that hour and a half. This weekend will be filled with homework.....

Bad start to the week

2010-10-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

So I have been in bed all day sick. It always happens to me when the semester starts and ends. Ironically its a great day to be cozy in bed, its been rainy and cold all morning so I have enjoyed being warm in the blankets. I have a really bad immune system, and one day when I'm out of college I will fix that! When we can afford good vitamins, healthier food and not stay up so late and wake up so early. But for now I am just downing orange juice and getting some rest, even with all the other things I should be doing right now. Scotty is off work this week for fall break so he will be home to help me get better. I love having him home, we are so busy and usually our schedules overlap so we don't see each other till night time when we are both tired. I love Saturdays when we can wake up and spend the day together or go for a morning surf. I just love that boy, and even though a week off work will effect the paycheck, I love we'll be able to eat dinner together again! Hope you all are healthy and have a better start to your week than I am!

P.S. Scotty did his first post yesterday, everyone encourage him so he will help me update sometimes haha

School, Yoga, Homework, Work, Surfing Nothing better (Besides the Homework Part)

2010-10-04T00:54:00.000-07:00

So, this week was a pretty normal/awesome week as usual. We both felt a bit overwhelmed from homework and other stuff at the beginning of the week, but we got through it all. Ki did a photo shoot during the week because she's pretty much a Yoga master, and a friend needed some photos for a study she's doing, so of course she chose my wife. I had a lot of school work, but i still met my goal to surf four times throughout the week, don't worry i still have my priorities in order (surfing first). Besides that we are just in love and stoked to be alive. If anyone has a microwave they don't want we'll be happy to take it off your hands. Love the Olsons.

My Gorgeous Wife doing an awesome Yoga pose. She is AWESOME!!!

Hot model shot

Some Kook in the water!

Short Break from da water

RIPPING!

Rob Throwing buckets o water!

A little bit of Mozo in the mix is always a good time.

2010-09-27T00:41:00.000-07:00

We had a good weekend and I hope you did too. I am pretty sure that if it weren't for days like this, I would not get through the stress that is currently our lives. But we can't complain because a good sunny day with each other makes up for all the hours of homework, class and work we do during the week. Hope you enjoy the sunshine!

Makapu'u

2010-09-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

Our good friends the Harmons got back to the island this past week and we were very happy. We have been waiting for them all summer! We are both newlyweds and love to double date. So this weekend we went over the Makapu'u to hike to the lighthouse as our first date back in Hawaii . The hike was so fun, it was a beautiful day, we had our new camera and took lots of pictures. It was the longest I have walked since my surgery and it was hard, but felt really good to move so much. After a good hike we went to the beach and ate some snacks. It was just a good time. Well I was all excited to put my pictures on the computer and while they were uploading my computer freaked out and deleted all the pictures on my memory card. Luckily most of the pictures had already been uploaded but I was very upset about all our pictures disappearing! I threw a little hissy fit, I threw our card reader on the ground and shattered it (don't worry, it was obviously already broken) and Scotty just laughed at how ridiculous I was being. I just hate loosing memories like that! After I calmed down, Kelley and Rob came over and I realized that I will have many more opportunities to take photos of our adventures.

Kelley and Rob, I hope you remember how pretty the water was yesterday and how much fun it was! And for everyone else, just imagine sunshine, turquoise, blue and green water and four good looking people!!

I promise the next adventure will be put up!

We're here till April!

2010-09-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

So after the first two days of school, Scotty and I saw how awful and hard our semester was going to be if we graduated in December. We thought we could handle a lot of credits and if we had nothing else to do besides school, we probably could. Unfortunately/fortunately, we were already stressing about the work we would be doing and we thought that probably wasn't a good sign on the second day of school. So we decided we would graduate in April instead. It took a lot of convincing for both of us, first of all because we have been planning on graduating in December for over a year and to suddenly be pushed back is a little depressing and second of all because that changed all our plans with Scotty's job offer and possibly moving in December. BUT plans never stick anyway and since we made the decision to stay until April we have felt so good about it. I am secretly really happy since now I can stay in Hawaii a little bit longer. Thank you BYUH for helping us solve our Hawaii or California dilemma. At least for now!

Click click

2010-09-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

I have recently renewed my love of photography and today I wanted to have a little photo shoot with my best friend. She fought about being my model but I think she is beautiful and knew once we got started she would get into it. I was right. She had so much fun and so did I! Heres just a few of my favorites.

Hawaii vs. California

2010-09-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is a topic that we go back and forth with everyday. Literally, one day we think we're for sure moving to California, and the next we think we could never leave Hawaii. There are pros and cons to both of course and lately I have been thinking California is probably the best option, especially since there is a job waiting for Scotty in Huntington Beach. But then I have days when it occurs to me that if we move it will be in less than 3 months. 3 months left in my beautiful home. California is beautiful too but obviously in different ways. Hawaii is such a part of who I am, who me and Scotty are as a couple. I know in this economy it would be ridiculous to pass up a good job but who wants to leave this....

We do have a little time to make a decision, but we graduate in December and we will need to have some things figured out before then. Our lives seem to be going in fast forward all of the sudden and once school starts next week it will go even faster. What to do??

You signed up for this

2010-08-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

Our first big purchase since we got married was a new Nikon D90 camera. It was probably not the most responsible purchase, we really don't have that much money! But what's the fun in being responsible?!? I grew up loving photography but when our house got robbed a year ago, every camera I owned was stolen so I kind of gave up my passion. Scotty knew how important is was for me to pick it back up one day and he bought it as a surprise. I cried when I found out. So we have had so much fun playing with our new toy. BUT last night Scotty came home and we decided to go take some pictures at sunset. We took some pictures at one beach and then decided to go to Hauula bowls to end our photo session. We were in the jeep and pretty close to the sand, long story short Scotty put way to much trust into the jeep thinking it was four wheel drive and could handle sand. Well....it couldn't. We got stuck, bad. I tried to drive while Scotty dug in the sand, he pushed and dug and pushed and dug and nothing happened. Luckily our friends live close by so we walked down the road and got their truck to pull us out. BUT that didn't work either, the jeep managed to get so deep in the sand there was little hope of pulling it out. I was not very happy at this point and Scotty was loving it, so were the other guys, you know how boys get about problem solving and using their trucks. Several attempts, two trucks, lots of sand and lots of help from the drinkers of Hauula we finally got out! Driving home Scotty just laughed at me while I sat with a grouchy look on my face, "You signed up for this!" he said, "you knew what I was when you married me!" I had to laugh and agree, these stories are always fun to look back on. Its an adventure everyday!!

New blog!

2010-08-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

I promised that I wouldn't start a blog just because I got married, since that tends to be the trend lately. But last night I came across all our friends blogs and they were so fun and cute and I loved reading everyones little stories that you never hear about. So I gave in and thought it might be nice to document our adventures as newlyweds and of course I knew our parents would like to be updated on our lives. So here it is....get ready to experience this crazy, fun and sometimes ridiculous life of ours.

Scotty, Kiley and Ellie Kai

6 months

Happy Sunday

Road Trip (Part 2)

Road Trip (Part 1)

5 months

California

As of late

Christmas

3 months

Changes

Family photos

Pinterest

2 months

Besties

This past weekend

Halloween

Beach baby

Smiles

Faces of Ellie

One month

Just a few photos

Two Weeks

Ellie's debut

My wife is amazing

38 weeks 5 days

For Ellie

Photo Shoot

Anniversary

One Year

Someday

Countdown

4th of July

29 weeks

Stir crazy

25 weeks (6 months)

23 weeks

Mothers

Birthdays and sleepovers

Best, most horrible weekend

Count down

Update

We love LOVE

6 years

BIG NEWS

Sunday morning stroll

Plans

Happy New Year

Christmas

Almost there

He did it!

Thanksgiving

Go, go, go

Inky and Pac Man

A pumpkin is only as strong as its stem

No Jobs

Thank goodness its Friday

Bad start to the week

School, Yoga, Homework, Work, Surfing Nothing better (Besides the Homework Part)

Makapu'u

We're here till April!

Click click

Hawaii vs. California

You signed up for this

New blog!