Crazy year

In all honesty, I am excited for this year to come to an end. Its been a crazy one with A LOT of changes and A LOT of uncertainty. But I finally feel like we are in a place where we can breathe for a second and finally start moving towards the goals we want to accomplish in our future. Since I have been really bad about writing anything down lately, let me just clarify what our year looked like.
January: We left Hawaii, one of the hardest choices we had to make, and moved to San Diego with no job and no place to live
April: Scotty got a job as a manager for a construction company and we finally got to move into our own place in Encinitas, we fell in LOVE with our house and the city and felt at home for the first time in a long time
June: Scotty's job ended up being a disaster and he had to quit, leaving us unemployed again. We were really blessed and got lots and lots of side jobs for the next couple of months which kept us afloat
August: New job opportunity comes up at a digital marketing firm, totally different experience for the husband but he was learning so much and enjoying a new field, we thought this was it, this was the job he would be at for the next several years. Wrong again!
September: Ellie turns one and my whole life changes with a toddler!
November: Our friends from Encinitas move to Thousand Oaks, about three hours away from San Diego for a new job, about two weeks later Scotty gets call saying there is a job at the company that would be perfect for him. The pay was more, his schedule would be flexible and he could do something he loved. I laughed at first, and shrugged it off, no way was I moving again. But after another talk with our friend, Scotty was convinced this job was perfect for him. He called me from work and before he even said the words I knew we were moving. I started bawling right away. I love Encinitas, LOVE it. Next to Hawaii I couldn't think of a better place to live. I had never even been to Thousand Oaks and we were all the sudden moving in less than two weeks.
December: Here we are! In a new house, in a new place, with all new people. The ocean is 20-25 min away, we have never lived that far from the beach since we have been married. Ellie spent almost every day of her first year of life on the sand and in the water and she is like a little fish out of water here. I really like my new house, and I like being able to decorate and make it ours. I am not in love with Thousand Oaks, its been a hard adjustment but we are getting through it. The upside, Scotty loves his job. He is a construction superintendant for a real estate, restoration and management company. They buy houses, fix them up and rent them out. He is busy, the phone is always ringing and he is all over the place. But thats just what he likes, to keep moving! And Ellie and I are trying to figure out what it is that people do when they don't have the beach and how to find our way around a place that is so spread out!
It has been a crazy year, especially with a baby, but we learned a lot and we feel like every move we made led us up to this point and even though it might not be where we would have chosen, its where we are for now and we are trying to see it as an adventure. So heres to change! And heres to hoping we have a little less in 2013, though I am not planning on it!

First Birthday

I can't believe I have a one year old. The year feels like it went by so fast but at the same time I can't even remember what life was like before Ellie. Its like she has always been with us. She is exactly everything I ever could have wanted in a daughter and she makes us so happy everyday. Because my life revolves around her pretty much everyday I have been thinking about her birthday party for probably 3 months now. I wanted to have a cute theme and cute decorations and get the perfect pictures of her smashing her cake. Well, of course things never quite turn out the way you plan. I had built up this party so much in my head there was no way it was ever going to live up to my expectations. It was stressful planning and I was worrying about all the little details when I should have just been enjoying the fact that we made it through a year of parenthood without causing any serious damage to our child. The night before I was baking cupcakes and making treats until 11:30, the wonderful husband I have just let me go on and on about how things werent looking the right way and how the white chocolate covered popcorn wasn't dyed the right pink. The next morning we woke up early to go get the pavillion at the park. I was frantically throwing everything together, while scotty was running between the house and the park transporting everything and decorating. Ellie was tired and over the party before it began. Once we got everything set up and I had gotten over the fact the things didn't look the way I had imagined we waited and waited. Everyone was late, there was bad traffic and a few people didn't make it there until everything was over. When Ellie was starting to fall apart I decided we should just do the cake and she'll taste that icing and be happy. We started to sing Happy Birthday and she looked very worried and confused. Once the song was over everyone just stared at her waiting to do anything, cousins were in her face trying to get to to touch the cake and she wasn't loving it. Then Scotty took her hand and put it in the cake. Everyone laughed and Ellie lost it. She screamed and cried and wanted out of her chair immediately. I should have known she would have hated it. I told Scotty to remind me next time to just give our one year old a piece of cake at home and take some pictures. It just wasn't worth all the stress and work! But it was good to see friends and family and the rest of the day was spent at the beach with our best friends and it couldn't have been better. Ellie past out immediately, exhausted physically and emotionally I'm sure.Ellie, I hope you don't remember all the everyone staring at you pressuring you to preform, but I hope you do remember that lots of family and friends came from all over to spend the day with you and give you lots of cute presents. You are a very loved little girl and you are the cutest kid I have ever seen.

New jobs and new tricks

Our family has been in quite a transition period this summer. We spent a couple months unemployed after Scotty quit (yes quit, it just had to be done) his job as a construction manager, it was a stressful time but we were lucky enough to have steady side work that kept us afloat. Now that we have gotten through that rough patch, we can look back now and actually appreciate that we got to spend almost the whole summer together as a family which I'm sure will never happen again. In my husbands endless search for what he really wants to do with his life, he got an amazing opportunity at a digital marketing firm called Digitaria. His official title is Quality Assurance Associate, for those of you like me who have no idea what this means, basically he deals with websites, making sure everything is working properly. Right now he is working on some pretty big projects for Ironman and Ford. Its literally a whole new world for him. He doesn't have to wear a suit and tie but he does wear collared shirts and long pants which he rips off immediately after coming in the door. He is learning a ton but so far he likes it a lot and I think it will be a really good place for him. Scotty isn't the only one to have a new job. I have started working with Twigg Botanicals a floral company that does amazing weddings. Its something I never thought about doing but I really enjoy it. I have gotten the opportunity to work with top wedding planners in San Diego and learn a lot about flowers and design. Its been weird for me to be away from Ellie for the entire day, its been over a year since I have worked and my life has literally been all about her. Luckily its only a couple days a week so it works pretty well with our schedule and as much as I like getting to do something other than be mommy I do miss her the days I'm gone. Ellie has also been learning some new tricks the past couple weeks. She WALKS now, like a drunk but she walks. She was getting too impatient waiting to figure out her balance that she just decided one day that she was going to walk no matter how many times she falls. And she falls a lot! She has had a black eye, a busted lip and bruises all over just in the past week or two. I promise I watch her! She has her dad's determination and my impatience which makes for a deadly combo sometimes. She is turning one next week, I cannot believe it. This past year just flew by. And this whole transition to one has been so weird for me, she eats different, drinks out of a cup, tries to tell us what she wants, goes to sleep different. Its just weird that technically shes not a baby anymore. So yes we are all in transition right now and I had to write it down because I feel like things aren't going to slow down anytime soon and I'm going to forget all the little things that are so important. Like the excitement your baby gets from riding on a train for the first time.

It's been a while

We have had a crazy summer. We have had lots of visitors and lots of changes and because of all this I have had absolutely no time to blog. I promise I will write an amazing post in the next few days when I get a moment. But for the time being here is my most favorite picture of Ellie ever taken by far. She has been doing this "o" face since she was 2 months old. And it gets better each month. I don't know where this girl got so much personality but I cant even tell you how much I love it.

Where do the weeks go?

We have been busy lately and we just keep getting busier. It seems like our weeks just disappear and our weekends fly by even faster. Scotty has his regular job five days a week but on top of that he is doing an addition for our friends sister as a side job on the weekends and can't ever seem to say no to a board repair. Add all this onto the constant projects we have going on around the house and he is dead at the end of each day. Not to mention we barely ever see each other. We are in serious need of a date. I am busy being the mom of a ridiculously active 9 month old and working on projects for our new etsy shop. More on that later, it's a big work in progress! Somehow during all this I need to find the time to take a Spanish class and get my grant writing certification, it's something I have wanted to do for a long time. Ellie is more mobile than ever and is having so much fun discovering the world. She has mastered this whole crawling stage and has moved onto standing and jumping off things. Which means I am chasing her all day long making sure she won't kill herself. Right now is one of my few quiet moments, every couple of days she decides to take good naps, but most days I'm lucky if I get one nap out of her. I don't think she knows she's 9 months old. And this week my brother is coming to stay with us for a while before going on a mission to Sacramento. Three days later my mom is coming for eight days, it will be a tight fit in our tiny house but I am so excited to have these two here. I miss my family and Hawaii so much right now. Soo to sum up, our life is kind of crazy but we are realizing that it's not going to slow down any time soon. So I guess we better get used to it.

8 months

8 months

~Three more teeth are pushing their way through, two on top, one more on bottom. That will make a total of 5!

~She loves the beach, she will play for hours rolling around in the sand

~She is right on the brink of crawling but for now she pushes her head against the floor and wiggles herself to where to wants to be, her own technique

~She loves to play pat-a-cake 

~Wants to play with ANYTHING that isn't a toy (phones, cords, paper, spatulas, pens....)

~Pulls herself up in her crib 

~She is very selective about who holds her at what time

~She literally never stops moving, her arms are always shaking like shes trying to fly

~She bites! Hard. She bites our shoulders, necks, hands and even our toes!

~She is a terrible napper, most days were lucky if we get two good naps (its rough on mom)

~She has the best giggle and laughs constantly, at dad especially

 

Sunny weekend

When we moved from Hawaii it was the middle of winter on the mainland and I was excited. I wanted to wear all the cute sweaters and boots and cuddle up in blankets. I really didn't mind the cold because I knew it would only be a couple months before California would warm up again. Well after a couple months I was craving the sun again. My tan lines disappeared and I was ready for winter to end. There have been nice sunny days here and there but the wind at the beach is pretty chilly and we usually end up keeping our clothes on. But this past Saturday, ahh, it was pure bliss. You have never seen someone so happy to get a sunburn. Ellie played in the sand all day and cried when we picked her up to go home. Yep, shes our baby. It's Tuesday and its been cloudy and windy the past three days. Come back sun!!

Hello Again

We have been through a whirlwind of change the past couple weeks. My husband decided to go back to construction and started a new job with a custom deck and patio company. This job will give him the opportunity to not only work with his hands but do some of the business side too, work with clients, make bids, that kind of thing. He has been loving it so far and has been learning lots of Spanish with his new coworkers! Then we moved out of Scotty's parents' house and into our own tiny home in Encinitas. It all happened pretty quick after our friend told us about the house and since we sold everything when we left Hawaii we were literally starting from scratch. Luckily my in laws were nice enough to give us a lot of their old furniture so we at least had somewhat of a start. We have been living here for three weeks now and its finally starting to look like a home, we even have a couch now after sitting on the floor for two weeks. We are loving Encinitas, since we moved to California we knew that this was where we wanted to live. We're back by the ocean just in time for summer. It's the first time in a long time that we feel like we are exactly where we need to be. I have been busy with a 7 month old that is learning to crawl and suddenly requires constant attention. Ellie is growing so fast and is so eager to discover everything and put it in her mouth. She makes me laugh everyday with the new tricks and noises she figures out. She finally has her own room. I was a little worried about her being in a room all by herself, but she loves it. It's been a lot of change at once but we are so happy with our lives right now. I know its April but since we moved in January and have been so unorganized the past couple months, I feel like our year is just now starting. We are so excited for what is coming next, we feel like its going to be our year.

 Ill post pictures of our house soon.

Lately

Time has just flown by lately. We have  been in California for two months now but we are just barely beginning to get the details of our life here figured out. Its been frustrating at times but now that things are falling into place we are feeling more and more like this is where we are supposed to be right now. We miss Hawaii and family all the time but we are having fun and we're happy and being here has really forced us to think about what we want. Besides dealing with the fun decisions about our future we have been busy with visitors and of course our growing little girl.

 My best friend Jordan came for a short visit

My little brother (not so little next to me) came to stay with us for a week, it was so much fun. Ellie loved him right away, I am convinced she remembered him. The weather was great and we got to do some really fun things. He is leaving on a mission for two years soon so we were glad we got to spend some quality time with him.

 Then Ellie met her great aunt and great grandma for the first time. They just had a layover in San Diego for one day before flying to Hawaii so we couldn't do much but I am glad they got to finally meet her and catch up with us since we don't see them very often.

And just some recent favorites of the girl.

6 months

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

This girl is just getting to be too much fun

Road Trip (Part 2)

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)

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.....