Baby Luau in less than 48 hours!

Tomorrow my sweet Jacob Kainoa will be turning ONE!

Hip! Hip! Hooray!!

I'm super excited for him...as I'm sure he probably doesn't even know or care how important this day is for all of us. He has blessed our family so much with his sweet, cute and loving self -- we can't get enough of him! It just blows me away how a year has literally gone by!

So, when there's a first birthday to celebrate - there's a BIG BABY LUAU to plan. And boy, I have been planning!! It kinda bums me out that the weather is so up-and-down here in SC. For Evan's 1st baby luau, we had a big party in the back of our yard. But for Jacob, well -- the weather is just unpredictable. For better planning and less chaos, we decided to have Jacob's 1st baby luau at a different venue - NOT at our house! This is great news for me because its less pressure, meaning I don't have to have my house "party-ready". There are a few little things that are pressuring me, but its all personal. Like ONE - my sisters are unable to attend due to living so far away and TWO - I won't be serving the typical "local-style" foods that one would have at any luau if I was back home. So that kinda bums me out - but I'll get over it. :)

Wanna know the guest count? Forty-eight. It's really small considering this is a 1st baby luau, not being in Hawaii. If it WAS back home...200 minimal. There's a reason why us Hawaiians celebrate the first birthdays. Here's what I put on the invitation:

In ancient Hawaiian days with many sickness & diseases spreading, it was a blessing if your child lived to the age of ONE. We will carryout this Hawaiian tradition and hope you can join us as we celebrated Jacob's First Baby Luau with family and Friends who are apart of our lives.

So, its truly an important milestone and very meaningful for us. It's tradition to dance hula too - so I've been practicing a little. I know this party is going to go by fast. I just know that even though Jacob is just turning one and has no clue about it - he'll have a scrapbook of memories to look at when he gets older. :)

Already February!

How handsome is my little guy?

He's 11 months old,

soon-to-be ONE!

It's the 3rd day of February. You know what that means....Jacob's Baby Luau in 22 days! OMG...should I freak out now? Nah...not yet...to early. Must wait until the week of.

• Save the Date - sent!
• Location - yup!
• Favors - in the making!
• Invitations - just need to print them!

Need to worry about the cake, food and entertainment. Easy-peasy!

NOW- THIS IS WHAT I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT!

Ready for the NEW YEAR!

*

I want to come into the New Year with a KaPoW! HaaaaYah! BOOM! PfffssttttCHA! Yeeeehaw! That's right - making some noise for this coming new year! It'll be here shortly and I plan to make the best of it!


There are so many things to be blessed for and one of them is my family. Had a nice Christmas with my parents and older sister with her family. Of course there was family drama - who doesn't have drama, right? Anyhoo, it was great seeing them here from Germany. I believe how much my niece and nephew have grown! They were troopers with Evan. Mr. E was all up in their business every-single-time! It was mainly about his cousin Ivy. Boy, he loves him some Ivy. Ivy this, and Ivy that. I'm sure she was getting irritated, but it was only for a few days!!


Cy and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on December 21st. Can't believe how time has flown by and boom - 8 years already! Down the hall in our house, we have a wedding picture framed w/the white mat around with every one's well wishes written from our wedding day. I sometimes stop and read some of the things our loved ones have written, especially when I'm hanging outside of Jacob's door listening to his crys damper down. Some of them say, "Good Luck", "Best Wishing on a Happy Marriage", or "Good Luck Cy, now fix my truck" - I chuckle at that one almost every time I read it. And then there's the infamous signature of my then 9 year old nephew Jon-Thomas who so graciously wrote his name in BIG LETTERS right at the very top middle of the frame. Not so elegant lookin' but I always get a kick out it!


We celebrated our 8th at Myrtle Beach - The Dunes Resort. Although it was our anniversary, we spent it together at the indoor water park which was within the resort. Boy we all had a blast! It pays to get married in the month of December. Great beach discounts!!


Here's a few pics to share from our three day stay! AND - the Delacruz's joined us too...even though they spent most of their time shopping or chillin' in their room. Manuel and Christian spent a few minutes in the water park on the last day.

Cy, Evan & Jacob - indoor water park

Evan with cousin Christian

Uncle Manuel & Jacob

Jacob in his Pack n' Play

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

* The Early picture above is actually a picture of a mat given by Cy's sister, Michelle.

Is there such a thing?

Hello there CYBER MONDAY!

Can't believe Thanksgiving has passed and Christmas is well on its way. My last post was reminding everyone to turn their clocks back one-hour. Anyway, so much to blog, where shall I start? I'll have to split this blog since I do have a lot on my mind!

First things first - COLLARDS!

Is there such a thing like over-salted collards? A boot camp buddy was chatting about her food menu for Thanksgiving and she ranted about making collards. I chimed in telling her I saw a truck on the side of the rode selling mounds of collards that were in the bed of his truck. Looked kinda sketchy to me. As she talked about how she cooked collards, I felt challenged. Shoots...this Hawaiian/Japanese girl can try this...looks and sounds easy! Long story short - the buggah was so salty. I did everything she said, PLUS I used tips that were posted from my Facebook friends. And yet - it was still salty. Cy ended up doing something to it (basically watered it down) and I think it lost its bacon seasoning or somethin'. At least I can say I tried making collards. I'll probably NOT make it again. Eeek!

Cooking collards w/bacon

I neglected to say that I cooked the collards on Friday, not Thursday for Thanksgiving. No offense to those true Southerners, but there was no way I was going to bring it to my parents house for Thanksgiving lunch. When I told my mom what I was making, she gave me that stink-eye look. I knew already that pot was going to stay home!

I felt like the weekend was going to fast. We did have Thanksgiving with my folks, and then we ended up just hanging at home. Sometimes its good to be a homebody. It sure felt good to stay home...no where to go! BUT - what do we have at home?? PROJECTS!! That's right, Cy started on the window project in the kitchen. Dude, when you live in a 50 yrs. + house...there's ALWAYS going to be projects! Last year, we managed to snag a nice size window from the Habitat ReStore. Yippee...something that would actually fit! However, we had to spend a few more extra dollahs for the side windows. As you can see...it was challenging. So thankful for the new kitchen windows...we no longer feel a breeze coming through the windows when we sit down for dinner.

This blog is getting to long...I'll come back and blog more later!

Don't forget!

This is a reminder to turn your clocks back ONE HOUR BEHIND this Saturday evening before you hit the sack.

Falling into Fall...

Wilbarmar Beach House, Sullivan's Island

Yahoo! Loving this fall weather. It’s about time the weather changed here in “Famously Hot” Columbia! I like the fact that it’s in the 70’s throughout the whole day; don’t care for that sweaty icky feeling anymore.

I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend drowning in memories of Jacob’s birth and 2008 Christmas! Yep, I’m at it again – scrap booking! I spent the weekend on Sullivan’s Island with a bunch of girlfriends who also love to scrap! Besides the wonderful company, cozy beach house and delicious food and snacks – the very best time was spending some time with God while walking on the beach. While doing that, I had a few God Moments. I’ll share a little bit….Wendy needs to be more humble and let God do what He needs to do. Wendy also needs to trust Him with all her heart that everything she does, she does it for the glory of God. AND Wendy needs to focus on Him more! I just love how God puts me into my place. I also started my exercise routine of getting up early and jogging. Having my iPod was super handy, but what was even better was my own little "personal trainer" Whitnie. She encouraged me to keep going to the next sign, and then when we got there, she would say, oh - lets go to the next sign. I needed that push! Thanks Nutty Friend!

Well, while I was enjoying myself, Cy and Evan took off to Sumter for a Ranger Kids overnighter. And Baby Jacob spent some time with Grandma and Papas. It’s funny how our family of four split up for the weekend to do our own little activities. Cy and Evan had a great time, Jacob was good for Grandma and Papas and I scrapped memories of my family. Life is Good!

My good friend Julie and I enjoying our special lunch!

Life is getting even better since my days are getting shorter and shorter from breast feeding and pumping. Mr. Jacob is eating solid foods like there’s no tomorrow, and I tried this new organic formula, and he loves it! It's called Baby's Only Organic Formula. Ahh…the weaning process has begun! We mix bm with formula and it doesn’t really phase Jacob. I LOVE the organic formula since it’s less “processed stuff” and it has brown cane syrup instead of sugar. AND best of all, it doesn’t have that metal smell and it doesn’t smell bad. I’m not here to offend anyone; I can’t help myself when I get on my “formula soapbox”. God blessed me with two assets and I’ve used them well, and went as far as I could go.

Enough said!

Onto a new subject – SOCCER! We signed Evan up for soccer this year. He’s teamed up with a bunch of friends from his school. Therefore, they are called Harmony Dragons. Evan LOVES soccer. I knew he wasn’t ready last year, hence the grabbing the ball with his hands, but this year – he ROCKS! He is full of energy and loves being apart of his team. Aren’t they cute in their blue jerseys? Scroll down to the end to watch a little video taken at the end of their game.

Harmony Dragons

My Soccer Boy!

Jacob has his own little “stable” soccer game going. The boy can’t get enough of his Jump Johnny! He is a jumpin’ bean when we put him in there. We put him in there when we’re eating dinner. I put a little Christmas bell at the top and whenever he jumps, he jingles. It’s super cute! He also enjoys sitting up in his stroller. He loves looking around and always curious to know whats going on around him.

Jacob enjoying the Irmo Okra Strut Parade

** It's sideways at the beginning, but then I realized it and turned it upright!

Gone is August - HELLO September

Yes, August has come and past and boy did we have some activities going on in August. Here's a recap:

• Summer ended, but we still swim in our swimming pool
• Evan started Kindergarten at Harmony School
• Jacob's first vegetable was avocado - he loved it!
• Evan earned his ANTELOPE badge from Royal Rangers
• Jacob turned 6-months on the 25th and weighs 15 lbs. 11 oz. (bugga is getting big)
• Evan had his first sleepover at his friend's house - Cody, along with his other buddy Aidan (no one was hurt and everyone was on their best behavior)
• Birthday celebration for Cy - he is one year older than last year.
• Cy and I enjoyed a nice fancy dinner out using a gift certificate and then spent the night at a really nice hotel (for free!), while my mom watched Jacob (Evan was at Royal Ranger sleepover)
• Baby Dedication for Jacob at Seacoast was held on Sunday, Aug. 29th with the support of our family and friends (we had a small lunch for a few close friends - which my parent's hosted at their home)
• Jacob cut two bottom teeth - wow, much earlier than Evan's teeth
  

Now that September has arrived, we are looking forward to:

• Jacob sitting without support (he's almost there)
• A weekend of work down in Charleston (woo hoo!)
• Soccer Season - Evan's first game is Sept. 18th
• Birthday parties - Evan has three friend's birthday's this month, then celebrating my dad's and mine (wah)
• The fall weather, but not the falling leaves!

Happy Labor Day!

Enjoy the four-day weekend...I know I will!