2 years

our first day in hawaii was our 2 year wedding anniversary. wow how the time has flown. it has been wonderful and absolutely more joyful then i ever expected

happy anniversary to my

uber-husband

my knight in

reef sandals

my hammer-wielding

security guard

my spider

assassin

here are a few shots from the big day-we were (and still are) so happy!

to celebrate we went to a tasty restaurant in waikiki called taormina. it was a sicilian cuisine and we had an absolutely divine four course meal. we started with beef carpaccio, which is pretty much really thin raw beef with thin sliced european cheese and onions-loved it! then we had scallop and shrimp ravioli in a basil pesto sauce. we also had some yummy basil bread. next we had tasanian salone, which is grilled salmon with a delectable sauce and grilled veggies. then we ended with three different gelatos-kiwi, mixed berry and lemon-mmmm! it was seriously one of the best meals i have had-loved it!

its always a bit of a trick to get a natural smile from chris, he's still cute though:)

chris gave me a really pretty locket with pictures of paisley and him in it, i love it! (I am wearing it in the picture) i gave chris new reef flip flops---i know, i know doesn't sound very exciting, but it is what he wanted and that is the guy that i married and love!

hula baby

we are still in gorgeous hawaii, just wanted to give you a little preview of whats in store:

paisley loves her auntie steph:)

don't take it for granted

well, it has been a hard week-a lot has happened and it is really weighing on my mind. since this is our family journal, i want to write about what has been going on. as most of you know my sweet mother had her leg amputated a few weeks ago. to make a really long story short, she had several strokes on tuesday of this week. the doctors believe that she has been having strokes for as long as the past few months. she has undergone many tests so far and they still aren't positive as to what is causing her to stroke. for me, that is one of the most frustrating parts that we don't have any answers which means we can't move forward fixing it. also, they have found that she has a systemic infection that is in her blood. because of my mother's series of health problems she has been on lots of antibiotics and her body has built up immunities to some of them so the doctors are trying to find one or a combination that will help get rid of the infection. today they are checking her heart to make sure that the infection is not there. since tuesday my mom has been un-able to communicate, she tries to speak and it just comes out letters and not words, she tries to write and again it is a bunch of letters and numbers and no words. she has made small improvements in the last few days by saying a few words. it is devastating for me to talk to my mom and hear her struggle just to speak. i am so used to talking to her several times a week or more, i miss her advice, her loving concern and her day to day chit chat. the infection means that her blood isn't able to do its job correctly, part of that being carrying oxygen to all the different parts of her brain. so it is possible that once the infection is cleared up some of those skills will return. it will be a long road, probably a longer road then most because it is my mom and that is always how it is for her.

i hate not being there. it is the thing that causes me the most grief, is not being there with my mother, i am her only daughter, she needs me and i am so far away that i can't just hop in a car and be there in a few hours-i hate that. i am supposed to be going to hawaii on monday, but it just feels wrong to be going on vacation when my mom is struggling so much. i am so tired of her medical struggles, i can not even imagine how tired she is of fighting and trying, i am so thankful that she continues the fight, but i know she must be tired. i am going to try to go out and see her once we get back from hawaii, i just want to hug her and tell her that i love her and that it will all be ok someday. it's not supposed to be like this, i am 25, i should have 20 more years before a parent has serious problems. i only have one little baby, i am going to have more and i want my mother to be there for all of them. i try and stay positive for the most part, but sometimes i just let the sadness come and let it out for the time being until it builds again.

please pray for my mother, i am trying to trust in Heavenly Father's plan for her, i wish she didn't have to suffer so much. it really hurts my heart. thank you in advance for your prayers and concern for my family. don't take for granted that you and your family can walk, talk, write, run, read, drive, do everyday things....many people can't and even though they are simple things they are a blessing to be able to do.

my husband is da bomb. word.

here is a shout out to the awesomeness that is my husband. he is so great and here are a very few of the reasons why. before paisley and i left town last week, chris wanted some chocolate chip cookies, i said i would love some too, but didn't have time to make them. so he made them. first he googled reasons why cookies are flat(a struggle i usually have when making cookies) and learned some new tricks he could use to make fluffier cookies. who does that?? my husband does-love it. they turned out great, seriously scrumptious!

when chris picked pailsey and i up from the airport here is what we were greeted with:

he also made various other signs for through out the house(he is so cute!) i am only showing some of them for fear of being too redundant, but they were literally in every room of the house.

and here are two super cute pictures of paisley and daddy. i just got paisley this swimsuit for our upcoming trip to hawaii(so stoked!!!) and just had to try it on her. needless to say, the girl is a stunner and looked super good. however, the suit must be returned(sigh) because is fits just perfect right now and i don't think it will last for long with her growth spurts. so sad, i love this suit and it was only available in that size at nordstrom rack-oh well!

last but not least, paisley had her 4 month well check this week(just a tad late because of our trip to oregon) so here are her new stats:

14 lbs. 14 oz (75th percentile)

head is 41 cm (50th percentile)

26 inches tall (97th percentile)

looks like we got a long one, like we expected anything different:)

visiting the homeland

paisley and i just got home from oregon, so here is a log of our travels. i am happy that i could see my family and be there for my mom. this was paisley's first trip and i think she did pretty dang good. we flew southwest(side note: i love southwest! no extra fees, 2 bags for free and paisley got a seat for free there and back-if they have an extra seat, they give it to you-so nice!) and got in monday night. during, and after the flight i got comments like these "wow, your baby is so good" or "what a cute baby, she is beautiful!" i even had a business man come up to me on the way to baggage claim to tell me how perfectly behaved he thought paisley was. good job princess!

paisley's window seat. she slept for part of the trip and played with her toys, then she ate a bottle and showed off her cuteness the entire time.

riley is getting so big! it was fun to get and see my only niece and 2 nephews-they are such cute kids, even if they gave me the stomach flu. yes, after 2 days of being in oregon, i came down with the stomach flu. it was MISERABLE! i have not felt so bad since the day i gave birth. horrible stomach, back and head ache...oddly enough i never threw up. being that sick and taking care of paisley was really hard, it was so bad that we looked at flights for chris to come out that night. after about 48 hours of misery, i was feeling better--my mom had to stay at a friends house instead of coming home after being away for 2 weeks because i was ill, i felt so bad!

here is my momma's new leg. she is doing pretty well, so many appointments! between dialysis 3 times a week and antibiotic drips almost everyday the woman is busy. she is just taking it one day at a time. she is so strong, she is my hero.

paisley loved seeing grandma and grandpa--she didn't get to be with them as much as we would have like, my mom was mostly too tired and my dad got the stomach flu shortly after me, except for he spent the entire night vomiting. it was a special week, but we made it. paisley had a slight cough and runny nose when we left and now she has a full blown "smoker" cough, runny nose, occasional fever and for about 48 hours diarrhea. i gave her the stomach flu--poor little thing had 2 or more virus's at once. it has been tough, there is no medication to give to a little baby and her coughing constantly wakes her up. so we continue the battle, but it is much easier to battle at home.

my brother's beautiful family, love them! the return flight went pretty smooth-we had a whole row to our self most of the time, so that was nice. it was great to see family, but other then that a pretty not fun trip, so we are glad to be home:)