The Willey Family

Gettin' our Garden on...in January?!

2010-01-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

Yep, ya heard me...our little family staked our claim to some volcanic-red good ol' Hawaiian dirt by the side of our house on New Year's Day last week. Not only did it feel weird to be outside on New Year's Day in flip-flops, but it was even weirder to be wielding a hoe, digging in the dirt.

We'd had a small garden before at our first house back home when Bubby was a baby and I made his baby food. Now that he's a genuine, bonafide wildman of a three-year-old (and we've moved across the continent & the ocean!) it's time to get serious about da veggies again. I used to think he was sooo, well, gifted since he ate EVERYTHING that I fed him. Including spinach, cauliflower & zucchini?! What baby eats zucchini? Mine did. As in past tense. Which brings us back to planting our garden in January. Enter my new favorite cookbook: Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

Yep, Seinfeld's wifey. She's apparantly more than his wife, she's a cooking-for-children genius. There's some debate over the origins of her ideas, but hey bottom line the cookbook rocks! The reason I love this book is that it takes fresh fruits & veggies, and sneaks them into kid-friendly recipes for the whole family to enjoy. Mom gets her satisfaction of having pulled one over their eyes, and the poor, unsuspecting kiddos are getting their veggies for the day ~ win, win, right? :)

Basically, we planted this garden in the hopes that it would yield some fresh veggies for our family to munch on, and for me to puree into some fabulous-ly yummy recipes for Noah to enjoy. Now of course when he gets a little older, we'll be the mean parents and do the "you must take x amount of bites before you leave the table!" My mom thinks I am such a mean mom for doing that ;) But for now, while he's in that all-important "I am independent, hear my toddler voice roar" phase, we'll settle for what we can get. So we hauled it down to the Home Depot to pick out some favorites. My mouth is watering over the thought of fresh tomatoes & spinach in just a matter of a few more weeks. As in before everyone at home is even planting theirs. Sorry, that was mean :) Just kidding ;)

We've got lettuce, spinach, peas, carrots, (insert Jenn-ay joke here. No really, go ahead. I've been dealing with that since the 7th grade. ;), watermelon, canteloupe, pumpkin, onions, and tuh-ma-toes. YUMMMM! I cannot wait to make a salad from my own garden, with fresh (& free!) healthy ingredients!

Here's Noah "helping" Daddy ~ how does he sit like that?!

Here's me doing my teacher-writing thang on some name plates so we can remember what we planted & where. Please don't judge my bad hair day or lack of makeup, it was a lazy holiday ;)

And here he is helping put name plate-thingys in the ground. Such concentration ;)

Yes I know our fence color is um, blah. That's the Army for you ~ they ran out of green & threw the rest of what they had on our house ;) But I'm working on making the inside cute! And yes that's a blob of spray paint on the grass, I'm always making over something out there with spray paint ;) The poor grass has been silver, red, blue, etc. What can I say, we're redneck imports to these here parts...anyways, here's a shot of our little plot-o-dirt "after all Katy-Scarlett, land's the only thing that lasts!" (Name that movie!) This is our family project, week one. Check it out, if you look closely you can see peas, carrots, lettuce & a few other teeny-tiny blooms. YAHOO! Yum...my hope for this project is that we'll all have some fun in the dirt first of all, and second to (fingers crossed) inspire Noah to want to reap what he has "sown." Hey, a momma can hope, right? :)

Check back soon, I promise to have some garden updates ~ it's even one of Noah's "chores" now to water the "punkin' patch" as he so affectionately calls it ~ but I love that it seems to be his favorite chore ;)

xo,
Jen

Project 365 - Week #1!

2010-01-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Can you believe it's January 9th already?! Yeah, me either...craziness. How are you guys doing with resolutions? I actually have stuck to mine ~ now that's craziness! ;)

One of my res-o-lutions that was very important to me is my very own Project 365, a picture for every day of the year. How cool will that be as a digital scrapbook at the end of the year? Or a daily shot of our lives across the ocean for family & friends? I'm already lovin' it, I've always been one who's like "where's the camera when you need it?!" And after just a week, I love how I can look back and remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we felt when the picture was taken. But enough rambling, it's picture time! :)

Day #1 ~ I WISH I'd had enough sense to wake up and take a picture of the very first sunrise of the year, but oh well. Maybe next year :( Instead, I captured my two favorite reasons for doing this project. I love them with all of my heart, and they are why I'm determined to stick with my resolutions, and become the wife & momma that I know I can be this year! Check them out here during a family naptime on a lazy day ;)

Day #2 ~ We drove up to North Shore to buy some Pottery Barn Kids shelves for Bubby that we scored on Craigslist ~ see, I remember all of that from a picture! :) We stopped & ate some lunch on Hukilau Beach, and I got picture-crazy. Kiki came with us (yeah, our dog is our baby :) and she was the subject of my camera-frenzy. This isn't the best picture, but I think it's the one that captures our sweet puppy's face the best!

Day #3 ~ If you haven't already, check out the video of Noah climbing the fridge :) It's guaranteed to at least put a smile on your face, I hope. Anyways, I thought it worthy of a picture as well ~ so here he is with his prized "camy came." Haha! :)

Day #4 ~ Noah scored a Thomas "grooming set" for Christmas, complete with shaving cream & a razor ~ so here he is in the shower with Daddy "shaving." Oh my word, was it hilarious to see him, he loves to be just like Daddy, and I am so grateful that I have such a wonderful hubby for him to look up to and want to emulate. That's an everyday occurance, so it was only fitting for it to be the day's picture. There's also a rare shot of his hair flat ~ can you see the curls poking out the side though already? ;)

Day #5 ~ We went to the gym that day, it was the first time I ran 25 minutes (without stopping!) for our C25K training. (SO proud!) How do I remember that? Well, my picture of the day was taken at the gym ~ here's Bubby & two of his bestest buddies, Logan & London. They were sitting so cutely on the bench in front, and then Noah says "these are my friends, Mommy! This is Logan, and this is London!" Now, that might not seem like a huge deal to anyone else, but it was to me ~ I've been working HARD with Noah to say his sentences right, before he would've just said "mommy, my friends Wogan & Wondon." I know, I know but it's my inner teacher coming out :)

Day #6 ~ I got to go to the library by myself. If you're a momma, you know the meaning of the italics. Ahhh, it was lovely :) And on my way to said library (to print out activities for lil' man no less) I decided that the cool clouds that always hover over the valley that is Helemano Military Reservation would be sweet to share for my Project 365 that day. It's the middle of the afternoon, but sometimes the cloud cover is so dark that when it meets the sun it's very pretty. Or at least I think so. Until it's so cloudy that my "eco-friendly" solar-heating leaves me with a less than luke-warm shower. Grrr. :)

Day #7 ~ This one's for my Dad. I miss him, I love him, and I can't wait to hug him. (insert crying noises here.) :( All around the base lately we've seen TONS of cars all did up with their favorite team flags flying proudly out the backseat windows, and decals on the side. It is football season, ya'll. But I can honestly say I'd never noticed a Chicago Bears fan "proudly" displaying their goods. Until today. Sorry it's grainy, it was taken out the window, but this. picture. must. be. taken. That's what I told Bryan anyways as I made him turn around so I could take my shot. So Dad, here's to you and B and all the other crazies who still claim to love Da one & only Bears! :) xo

So whaddya think of Week #1? Please let me know! Is anyone else doing Project 365? How do you get your daily inspiration? I think I hear mine coming in the door from the store right now, I better head down & make my "boys" some breakfast :) Hope you all had a fabulous first week of Twenty-Ten! :)

xo,
Jen

Fridge Climbin'!

2010-01-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

Sooo, I caught Noah with a candy cane stick today in the hallway ~ the only thing is we keep those on top of the fridge!? After making sure he had all limbs intact & no contusions, I ran downstairs to figure out how he did it ~ I found a kitchen chair he must've pushed into the kitchen from the dining room up under the fridge. How could I be mad at that ingenuity?! I could not stop laughing, but you could tell by his face he knew he was in t.r.o.u.b.l.e. I still couldn't figure out how he could reach from there, so I asked him to "show me" how he did it. Here's what he said ;)

My Amazing Journey of 2009

2010-01-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

Remember the absolutely wonderful adventure my fabulous sister Tori created for me last year, complete with clues & prizes? If you need a refresher, or missed those posts in my um, rather inconsistent posting over the past year (sorry!) check them out here, here, here, and here. I completely left you hanging seven months ago (yee-ikes I know!) as to what happened with my next clue. Well, the clue if you remember said that my next one was at Lanakai Beach. However, Tori actually left it with her friend Eve for safekeeping, along with my very first prize! So late in May, after Eve's husband returned from deployment, I headed over to the windward side of the island to track down my next clue. Here it is!

Remember how mad you were
that they didn't have your size?
Well trust me, they have it
Trim the butt, abs & thighs.

I admire you
and all that you do
so I'm trying to help you
be the best you of you.

One message left now
one final surprise.
Back up Koko Crater
Give it another try.

The "they" she's referring to is a um, ah certain boutique that has a secret. We'll just leave it at that :) So enclosed in the envelope was a hefty gift certificate to said boutique. Yahoo! Which meant even more to me because at that time, my sis was in college with not a whole lot of moo-lah to spend on big ol' me. Anyways, back to the clue. At first, I was like are you kidding me?! Koko Crater?! Again?! She hates me. :) But then I felt challenged. Heck yeah I can do this again. After all, Tori only climbed it once. ;) How'd she leave two clues up there? That smarty-pants took two up with her and hid them both at the same time. Grrrrrrrrr ;) But have I climbed it again in all these past few months? I'm really, really ashamed to say no :(

A lot has happened in those seven months. We went home to visit. Twice. We flew our fur-baby out here. I was consistent going to the gym. I was inconsistent going to the gym. Homesick out the ying-yang. In between all of that I was helping raise the world's cutest lil' man and supporting my wonderful hubby in his crazy job. And before I knew it, it was Christmas. And we weren't going home. I'm not going to lie, the last two months full of holidays has been hard away from home; and I'm extremely grateful we had each other. But I'm tired of making excuses for myself. There really are none. Am I proud of the accomplishments I made last year? Heck yeah I am! I would have NEVER probably taken the initiative to better myself at all if it hadn't been for Tori's "quest." And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that sis! That was my once in a lifetime opportunity & eye opener that I needed. I love you, and I'm sorry I let you down. But here's what I have learned about myself:

I CAN climb mountains. Three times, in fact.
I CAN go down a pants size, and go right back up. (Boo!)
I CAN give up my beloved Mt. Dew. (RIP.)
I CAN get up in the morning and head to the gym.
I CAN run. No, seriously. I didn't think I'd ever like it, let alone do it.
I CAN train for a 5K. The program's called Couch to 5K, pretty appropriate.

So all in all, 2009 wasn't too bad. We moved across a continent AND an ocean, we traveled ALOT, and learned to become our own little family. I hope this doesn't sound corny, but I feel like last year was a necessary stepping stone in my journey to a better me. So here's to 2010, where one of my resolutions is to continue in my weight loss journey, especially before Linz's big day in July, woohoo! :) I am so thankful for friends & family who love me for me, and wouldn't change a thing about me. Love ya! Stay tuned for my very first week of photos for Project 365, I've got some pretty hilarious ones! ;)

OH P.S. ~ I'm hoping to start off the year right by heading back up the dreaded Koko Crate ASAP! Keep your fingers crossed that my final clue is still there! :)

Mele Kalikimaka!

2009-12-30T02:26:00.001-08:00

Alooooha! After a very busy month of wrapping presents, mailing said presents, and drying buckets-o-tears, our first Christmas away from home has come & gone. I don't want to wish our lives away, but I can honestly say I'm glad it's over. Luckily we have some fabulous friends who took us into their family for the holidays. On the beach no less. Yeah, ya heard me. Don't be hatin'. Hehe. Kinda like I was when everybody was posting on Facebook about how they were goin' to GG's for Christmas Eve dinner. Homemade potato salad, Mom's chili cheese dip & GG's homemade FUDGE, oh my! Yeah, I was jealous. But I still love you all. :) Here's some pics of lil' man & our casa getting ready for the holidays in our 80ish degree weather. I did have fun decorating our new house for the holidays, last year's holidays were hard to get into since we were getting ready to move. Most of my cheap-o holiday decorating inspiration came from Young House Love and Bower Power's amazing DIY websites. If you haven't checked them out & you're into decorating like I am, you got to head over their way asap! :)

Also, there's some pics of our beautiful island, as requested by one of my fav uncles, Uncle Steve. It was his suggestion to rub it in to all of my snow/sleet/ice-bound, er I mean lucky family & friends who "get" to live back home in good ol' Illinois. So here's to you Uncle Steve :)

This new year brings many changes & new beginnings to our little family ~ just one of my numerous resolutions is to keep this blog updated more, I'm always amazed & excited at who takes the time out of their busy day to check in on us! More posts coming later this week about my other resolutions, and a long-awaited update on my very own "Amazing Race" around Oahu, courtesy of my lil' sis :) Just to refresh your memory, check out my other updates from my "clues" that took me all around the island, right here, here, here, and here. Love you all & wishing you a very Happy New Year!

xo,
Jen

Noah-ablo Picasso

2009-12-09T02:01:00.000-08:00

I was brave a few weeks ago and let lil' man paint ~ I threw one of Daddy's old t's on him, he had a ball, and I tried not to care about the mess ;) Picasso he is not, but his paintings are priceless to me! They are even frame-worthy, and I always try to date each one with a note of what he was doing, or what he says it is ;) Enjoy some silly faces by Noah!

xo,
Jen

Best Buds

2009-12-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

Noah & Kiki are rarely, far apart ~ they've been best buddies since Bubby came home from the hospital, and our first "baby" loved her lil' brother on the spot :) Here they are hanging out in Noah's McQueen tent that he got from Aunt Tori & Scott last year for Christmas. Sorry for the blurry pictures, our camera was on the fritz & died on Bubby's birthday (of course it did! Grr.) So a new camera that can keep up with a certain now three year old is on our wish list this year from Santa :)

Nap time with blankie ~ can I just say that we totally have a Linus on our hands?! We call him a cross between Linus & Pigpen, since his curly locks totally "hover" around his head.

And here's a parting shot of my two men hammin' it up in the tent ~ sometimes I wonder who has more fun in that toy room, Daddy or Noah .... :)

Hiding out in ... Ft. Willey!

2009-12-06T00:59:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we started what has become somewhat of a tradition here at the Willey household ~ fort building! Oh yeah, baby we bust out the giant pillows on the back of the couch (I totally saw this coming when we bought them last year ;), all of our throw pillows, and a blanket or two. Oh, and popcorn. Who knew free fun was so much fun? :) Here's a few shots of our various adventures, via our own living room! :)

xo,
Jen

Family Beach Trip & Updates!

2009-11-21T12:48:00.001-08:00

Aloha everyone! I feel so bad for our, er my lack of dedication to this blog ~ I've had friends of friends of family members saying "hey, tell Jen to get going on that blog!" I love hearing that because it means people are actually interested in hearing about what's going on in our tropical, albeit boring lives here in 'Wahee, as Noah would so cutely say it ;)

SO what has been going on? Hmmm where to start...I started this blog as a journal to remember this crazy life by, so I'm going to do just that, including the good, the bad & the ugly. Clint Eastwood,right? My dad would be so proud :) I miss watching westerns with my daddy. Sniffle. :( Anyhoo, well after we arrived home in October, things kind of went haywire with Bryan's work. He is assigned to the 39th Military Police detachment, which was originally a unit created to only work the road, and to give soldiers with numerous deployments a break. With several units coming back, and several dozen soldiers needing that well-deserved break, they are again rearranging his unit. Which means in a nutshell that until they figure things out, the schedule stinks. Period. It's hard to say much around here because there are families with daddies gone for a whole year, and yes that is horrible and doesn't even compare. But with Bryan doing three years of recruiting where we rarely saw him, and now almost an entire year of this in HI where we see him even less, needless to say we are at the end of our rope. Well, I am. Bryan's a good soldier and does what the Army requires of him, but I know he misses us like crazy. We thought any assignment would be better than recruiting, but we were wrong! They say that the schedule should get better in January, but I'm not holding my breath. :) I keep reminding myself that God does have a plan for our family, and he has never let us down or led us astray, so I find comfort in that. And food. And my mom. I think I bug her oh, five times a day with some sob story, or funny Noah-ism, or venting about some toddler indiscretion. Thank you Mom for listening :) Love ya!

Noah and I have been keeping busy with our fabulous friends here, doing fun things and enjoying what HI has to offer. I may not be "happy" here, since I'm so homesick, but it sure does help when you have great friends who accept you for you and all your weird homesickness! :) We've been doing movies, playdates, parks, etc. Noah also just turned 3, and I put those pictures up on Facebook. I promise to do a post here for those of you without FB. What did we do before the internet and such? :) I'll leave you with some pics of a very rare family day this summer on the beach ~ yes it's been a few months since then but I've gotta catch up sometime, right? :) Thank you all for being so patient as we, I mean I slacked on this blog, just know we love and miss you all!

xo,
Jen

Catching up is hard to do :)

2009-10-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger ~ lots of craziness the last few weeks in the Willey household! Let's see, we jetted home in September for a few weeks to spend time with our family & friends, since we're not going to make it home for Christmas :( Darn plane tickets & Pacific Ocean! We had a fabulous time (thanks Mom & Dad, you're the best for putting up with us!) visiting family & friends ~ we ended up sending out a mass email last minute to meet up with everyone one night during our visit, and had a ball hanging out at Eureka Lake with everyone who came. Next time we'll plan it more in advance so everyone can hopefully come! :) Noah had a ball riding Papa's tractor as much as possible, swinging in his new swing, throwing sticks in the creek, and doing all his favorite farm things :)

We then headed to AZ for our dear friend Roza's wedding, where I was a bridesmaid & Noah was the ring bearer. Pictures of that to come, I promise! Noah did pretty well, except for restlessness during the wedding which thankfully everyone (hopefully!) thought was cute :) About halfway through, he was like "my pillow! I want my pillow! I the ring bear!" It's hard to control your laughter when you're in a beautiful wedding :) Anyways, we had a great time and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I have lots of pics from this summer/fall to add, so I promise I'll be back on here in the next few days! Lots of love and hope to hear from everyone soon!

xo,
Jen

What a difference a year makes!

2009-09-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I was looking at pictures today to upload for a new blog entry, and got carried away going down memory lane :) So I thought, why not blog about that? We file our pictures by date, and these pictures are almost exactly one year apart, all in the month of August! In 2007, Bubby was almost one, in 2008, he was almost two, and this past month our lil' man is pushing three! Where does the time go?! Anyways, more to come soon, I have a summer's worth of fun to blog about :) Love you all!

Jen
xo

2007, 10 months old ~ right about the time the now infamous curls began ;) See how red his hair was?!

2008, 22 months old being so silly with Daddy ~ they pulled a trick on me and purposely dressed in majorly un-matching outfits ;)

eating a yummy homemade popsicle at Nana & Papa's farm

Making cookies, Noah style

2009-08-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry we've been MIA for the past few weeks, we had some company from over the ocean over! :) Bryan's parents were here for about a week, and then my friends Jen & Erin flew in from FL last week ~ Hawaii was the only state these seasoned travelers haven't been to, so we were more than happy to oblige them ;) Now we're getting back in the swing of things and feeling lonely for home ~ anyone else want to come visit our lil' beach house? Anyone? :)

I've got some major catching up to do as far as this blog goes, so here's a little sample of what we've been up to these past weeks. I found these great *homemade* hehe chocolate chip cookie dough mixes in the commissary, so needless to say when I went shopping, Noah immediately saw these and started chanting "cookie! cookie! cooooooookie!" What's a mom to do but drop everything else she's got going and rev up the old KitchenAid mixer. Thanks Aunt Ruthie, Sarah and Lynn for that if you're reading this ~ we love it! :)

So we grabbed all the ingredients necessary for this production: one egg, a bag of mix, and a stick of butter. So complicated ;)

My teacher brain immediately thought "oh, learning opportunity here!" so in came the kitchen chair for lil' man to stand on. First order of business ~ adding the ingredients to the bowl. In their entirety. I said "we have to put in the egg" so he put in the egg :) I think I expect too much from a 2 year old :)

Next step ~ watch the mixer go 'round and 'round and 'round, with a confused and awestruck look on your face:

Pay absolutely NO attention to the mess behind him please :) So now what would any good blue-blooded all American boy do once the dough was mixed up into a "mess" as he called it? Why, snatch a bite of course! (or two, or three...I'm not really sure, I turned around for a second to get a spatula)

Oh my word, I literally could NOT get him to stop once he discovered that long-upstanding childhood tradition of cookie dough! It was game on! Mom vs. surprisingly strong toddler! Anyways, next step: spray the cookie sheet with Pam. And the counter, and the stove, and a chubby lil' hand...

Then watch as Mom spoons the dough onto the VERY greasy cookie sheet (hey, it's his cookies, he can make it how he wants, right?) and check 'em out before we put them into the very hot oven.

Then make some very silly faces at yourself in the oven while the cookies take forever to bake:

Finally, be prepared to be amazed at our somewhat goofy looking cookies (our theory is too much Pam? Or maybe he's just taking after his momma in the cooking department? Hmmm...) Once we've blown about a thousand puffs on them because they're too hot, we sit down to a surprisingly very tasty afternoon snack. And that's chocolate chip cookies, Noah Scott style ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful week and hope to hear from you soon!

Love,
Jen

From Goodwill to goodie!

2009-07-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

So I'm still trying to put the finishing touches on our new Hawaiian home, and with a slew of visitors heading our way in the next few weeks my OCD-ness (as my husband calls it) is kicking into overdrive. This means details people! :) I'm sure our visitors won't care or maybe even not notice whether the chairs outside are black or espresso, but apparently it matters somewhere in my brain. ;)

Anyways, I found this little lantern a few weeks ago at the Goodwill ~ can I just say the pickings here are much, much slimmer than at home so a good find is a great find here! It reminded me of West Elm accents, which is my new favorite inspiration by the way. It seems the older I get ~oh my gosh, I sound so old! :( ~ my decorating tastes are changing. Remember my shabby-chic phase Mom? :) Anyways, I'm into contemporary-traditional now (I think!) But anyways, this lantern was cute, but not complete.

Pay no attention to the lil' buddha belly behind the scenes, or the fact that my shot was blurry because a certain K-9 was running around my feet, chasing down crumbs from the lil' buddha belly. Ahem. So when I got it home, I decided to yank out the orangy plexi-glass sides, which was no easy feat with all the little metal tabs holding it in. Grr. Anyways, one butter knife later and 16 little metal tabs later, here she is on an end table in our living room:

Ahh, a cheap, simple, and extremely easy makeover that cost a total of $2. The lantern was marked $4, but I snagged it 1/2 off and a 10% military discount. Hey, every penny counts, right? :) And I didn't need to paint it because black is an accent I've been using in picture frames and such. Now we enjoy her flickering glory at night while we watch our favorite flicks. One more "detail" marked off my never-ending, self-induced OCD list. Hope you all had a great 4th of July and hope to hear from you soon! :)

Love,
Jen

We're baaaack!

2009-07-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Remember us, Bryan, Jen, Noah and Kiki? Can you hear us waaaaay over here across the Pacific Ocean? :) I can't believe it's been two months since my last post, shame on me! :( My friend Sara gently reminded me the other day about my lack of love for the blog when she sent me a post on Facebook that read "update your blog woman!" :) And then this morning I was talking to my friend Jessica from home and she asked "are you taking a bunch of pictures of your adventures?" "Umm....not so much" was my very sad reply. :( So it's naptime, the computer's fired up from a webcam chat with Nana and Papa earlier, and the camera's downloading all 5 pictures I've taken in the last two months to share. Haha...

Let's see...what's happened since oh, April when I was last on here :) May 10th (Mother's Day!) Noah and I bravely boarded a 767 at Honolulu Airport by ourselves and headed home for a three week visit! We took the red eye, as any good mother would plan because that means your child will sleep the whole flight, right? W.R.O.N.G. Apparently it means that you and your curly headed son will be the ONLY people awake on the plane, besides the pilot that is. Including a couple stewardesses! I brought the DVD player, the toys, the snacks, you name it I had it. In fact, the poor tourists in the row behind us got quite the shock when Thomas the Train smacked one of them in the face. Whoops.

Anyways, we completely and utterly enjoyed our trip home. Noah was so darn cute when we finally (15 hours later) arrived in good ol' Peoria, IL ~ he recently added a penguin suitcase to his harem of cute things and was successfully strolling through the airport like the stud that he is when all the sudden....Nana was there! He immediately dropped the suitcase like a hot potato and bam! it was over from there ;) Momma was old news, and Nana & Papa were hot tamales ;) Ah, it was a relaxing vacation, in the green countryside of Secor ~ okay, better move on I'm getting choked up :( We saw tons of family and friends, and got reaquainted with our first baby Kiki, who was livin' it up on the farm! I didn't realize just how much I missed that mutt until I saw her big brown eyes :) Speaking of, after much deliberation and paperwork and more deliberation, she successfully passed the veterinarians' requirements for admittance into Hawaii, I successfully overnighted her payment and notarized paperwork to Hawaii, and she successfully made the loooong trek back to Hawaii. Darn Hawaii. :) Poor Kiki, she was in her kennel for a total of 19 hours by the time it was said and done! And both times our plane landed, you could hear her going absolutely nuts. People around me, who by that time knew just how worried I was for her, laughed and said see, she's fine! I think she was hoarse for about three days after that ;) Anyways, the bad news is now that she's here, the poor thing is allergic to Hawaii. How can that be, you say? Well, she was itching like crazy, so my first thought was fleas. Dirty, nasty, here year round because it's too warm to kill them off fleas. UGH. You know how clean I am so that meant immediate action was required ~ bombs went off, bedding went in the trash, etc. Except she didn't have fleas. So another trip to the vet later, we find out that apparently dogs who are brought here from the mainland are typically allergic to the volcanic dirt, the humidity, etc. So we're armed with Benadryl and antibiotics and we'll see. Poor lil' thing :(

Anyways, enough for today ~ that's the update in the Willey Family. I'll leave you with some pictures of Kiki's first trip to the beach ~ needless to say, she wasn't a huge fan :) I solemnly promise to update this blog more frequently ~ in fact, I have an exciting, however cruel development in my scavenger hunt from Tori! Stayed tuned!

xoxo

FINALLY! Koko Crater!

2009-04-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's....me! Climbing Koko Crater! :) I FINALLY am reporting in on my climb up Koko Crater last weekend! :) I know, nothing like keeping you hangin' huh? I am proud to say....I...made...it! All in one piece too, and that's nothin' to snooze at! ;)

My friend Sara (the one I've been working out with) and I headed up there at about noon last Saturday, with our trusty cameras and water bottles in hand. When we finally found the path leading up to the crater, we took a deep breath, thought this ain't so bad, and headed up. Here we are, safe and sound and NOT sweaty at the bottom:

Here we go, right up this flight of stairs:

Here's a shot of the view about 1/4 of the way up:

and here's the oh-so-scary bridge over a ravine about halfway up that Tori did warn me about ~ but until you see it for yourself, you can't appreciate the scariness of it :) Thank goodness it's only about 30ish feet long ~ only VERY old railroad ties separate you from dangerous peril ;) Sara and I did kindof a crabwalk/hop up it ~ it was hilarious to see how other people wrangled their way up it. This was also where we stopped to take a loooong break ;)

So after MUCH huffing and puffing and almost going back down, we finally, repeat finally (and very sweatily!) hit the top!!! Go us! :)

Holy moly, I thought my thighs were going to give out, they were shaking so bad.
Here's some views from the top:

on the other side of this little piece of land is Makapuu, where my last two clues were, remember? And I thought that climb was high...see the difference? :) Here's another view:

Now, if you remember, Tori's last clue ended by saying "to the left of the top step by 3 rocks is what you seek." Now do you think that once I could catch my breath and looked for my long-awaited clue I could find it? Ohhhh no :) So I get out my handy-dandy trusty Sprint phone (customer service stinks, but the phone service rocks!) and call my sissy. Do you think she answered? Ooohhh no. Grrr. Eight tries later, I caught her. Phone was on vibrate. I was on the verge of a breakdown ;) Just kidding, but since this was by far the hardest hike to a clue, I was absolutely bound and determined I wasn't going down empty-handed. (Actually more like I'm not coming up here again! Haha!) So Tori directs us around the corner from the top, as in not where we're really supposed to go, and under some more rail-road ties. Around the bend from an old concrete lookout and to a plateau on the edge of a cliff we went. That's right folks, another cliff. Do you think she's trying to send me a message? Hmm...haha ;) Here's a picture of us with all the jungle of railroad ties and concrete lookout behind us, as we ventured off the beaten path.

Anyways, when we got to this cliff we were supposed to look for a painted poem. For a moment, I thought she actually painted my clue on this cliff! But it was somebody else's poem from a few years ago. Anyways, she had me read it to her to make sure that I was actually at the top and didn't send Sara up there to get it! Oh, the nerve! :) Anyways, once she was satisfied that I was indeed up on top of the crater, she said look under a big pile of cloth and it should be there. Guess what?! It was! She should've majored in clue-hiding instead of finance ;) My fifth double-bagged clue was safe and sound, just waiting for me. And it was sooo fun to have Sara there to share my excited, jumping up and down with glee, clue-finding moment with me. Now I have a witness! :) Here I am, in all my sweaty, clue-finding glory ~ see the green painted poem, on a plateau, on the cliff?

I won't make you sit in suspense any longer :) Here's what it said:

Congrats darling sis!
I'm so proud of you
this is hard enough
for anyone to do!

It must have been tough
it muse have been long,
I have a present for you
to keep you moving along.

Keep shedding your weight
keep showing your beauty,
or you won't enjoy this gift
because you didn't do your duty.

Sadly enough, your gift isn't here
Lanakai Beach ~ I'm very sincere.

That's where it is,
months and months of motivation.
And there lies directions
to one final destination.

What can I say? My sissy rocks! I am SO beyond motivated, and to date have lost 8 pounds, enjoy working out, and continue having fun incorporating my healthy choices into my everyday lifestyle. I love you sissy and promise not to let you down! :) Now I'm off to Tori's friends' house (who lives by the beach) to find my next clue...wonder what my gift is?! You never know...only one way to find out! Stay tuned to my adventures! :)

Love,
Jen (the explorer) Haha!

Easter fun!

2009-04-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter! Ours was very fun :) We got to talk to our families Easter morning, it's so funny how we're just getting up and ready for church and everyone at home was settling in for a relaxing afternoon after a belly full of ham :) The day would've been much more bittersweet if we didn't have the friends we do here! We have met some awesome people and are so thankful to have them as part of our military "ohana" (which if you've ever seen Lilo and Stitch you know means family ;)

Anyways, Bubby slept in until about 9 a.m. (he had a very busy social calendar this weekend ;) so we dyed eggs on the fly while he was eating breakfast. I think we were more excited about it than he was! He kindof tossed one egg into a color and then went back to his granola bar and banana ;)

Remember how I previously said that I was working on being thrifty and creative? Here's Bubby's very thrifted Easter basket ~ I even used his stuffed animal basket instead of buying another one :) It was complete with not one, not two, but THREE Little People getups from Jenny's garage sale! They are like brand new and now Noah gets to enjoy them for oh, a fraction of the cost ;) He also scored a box set of Curious George episodes, building blocks, wooden train set and an Easter Bunny Pez.

After we were done with eggs, we headed to Lanakila Baptist Church Sunday morning for service. Want to hear a funny story? The couple we bought Bryan's new car from (more on that later) invited us to go! So we got new friends, a new car, AND possibly a church out of the deal! ;) We've tried it out a few times now and we just seem to fit in ~ well, so far at least! :) There's several young military families just like us there, and they welcomed us with very open arms. That was greatly appreciated!

After church, we headed over to Jenny & Matt's house so that Bubby could do an egg hunt with his buddies Adam and Alex, who just turned 3! :) They had quite a good time, finding some real eggs as well as some plastic ones full of money! Ooohhh...here's Bubby pointing out eggs to Daddy...

And here's our handsome lil' man, looking so grown up! :(

Then we headed over to our friends Sara, Manuel, London and Logan's house. The kiddos had a great time hunting eggs and chowin' down some awesome ham! Manuel let me in on some of his cooking secrets ;) Sara even made Noah his own cute lil' Easter Basket, complete with Chocolate Bunny! :) Here's the kiddos at the "kid table" during dinner...

All in all, it was an awesome day to celebrate our Lord's resurrection with some wonderful friends!

Noah's new toy...

2009-04-13T16:06:00.001-07:00

So I've been wanting to get Noah a play tunnel to crawl through ~ another fun way to burn off his boundless energy ;) I've searched high and low to no avail. But my friend Jenny found one at Target (gotta love Tar-jay!) and was sweet enough to bring it home for Bubby's enjoyment. Only when I went in there the other night, this was what I found...

Bubby giggling his head off at something...

...that something was the tunnel, only it was standing!?

Oh, silly Daddy! Tunnels are for kids! :)

Happenings!

2009-04-05T21:25:00.001-07:00

I know it's been about four weeks since I posted about my Amazing Race my sissy set up for me ~ that's because I've been hard at work, training for the next leg! My friend Sara and I have been working out 4-5 days a week at our YMCA. I cannot believe I'm going to say this, but I'm in love with working out! :) I look forward to it every day. Oh, and I've been Mountain Dew free for 3 weeks! 3 WEEKS! Woohoo me! :) I do indulge in coffee (my new-found love) or an occasional Coke Zero. But if you know me at all, you know Mt. Dew was my refuge :) Haha!

We've been doing several classes a week, including Yoga and Pilates. I am sore when I leave but know that that means it's working and I'm doing it right! :) Bring on bikinis! Yeah, right....maybe next year ;) And then we usually follow up with either the treadmill, elliptical, or stair-stepper, and some weights. We affectionately call the weight room "the man room" since there seems to always be men in there ;) So next time you need a big laugh, just think of my crazy self doing the Downward Dog and ohmmmm-ing it on Wednesday mornings :)

So to refresh your memory, here's what my last clue I found up on Makapuu said:

Up the second time
now don't hate me
after all it's true,
repetition is the key.

Walk a mile, then two
three three and then four.
Til you carve yourself,
and you start wanting more.

It's all to get ready
for Koko Crater Peak
to the left of the top step
by 3 rocks is what you seek.

Koko Crater, according to Tori, is a bunch of steps. A WHOLE bunch of steps. She's been um, "encouraging" me to use the stairstepper to prepare. ;) Check it out ~

Hmmmmm, looks high :)

Here's an aerial view ~ you can see Hanauma Bay as well!

So whaddya think? Think I can do it? Check this view out before you answer ;)

It's obviously not safe for Noah to go, so I have to wait until Bryan is home on a weekend. Next weekend is pretty full ~ Noah's been invited to a birthday party for two of his new buddies! So stay tuned, it might be one of the next two Sundays... Yikes! :)

Noah's First Date

2009-04-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Noah and I went on a Mommy/Son date last Friday night ~ I remember a long time ago seeing a Daddy and a Daughter out on a "date" and I thought someday I'm going to do that! :) I know it's a bit early, but Bryan had to go to Wheeler to be an escort for a platoon that was returning from Iraq ~ welcome home guys! Anyways, I was dying to go to Target ~ it's only been open for three weeks and I'm SO in looove ;) So we decided to make a date of it ~ Noah even wore his new Mom tattoo shirt! He's so darn handsome! :)

I just love that grin! :)

This one looks like one of those football player pictures to me! Actually, it looks more like Bryan's famous "enough-with-the-pictures" look ;)

So we got all dressed, had a scrumptuous dinner of Mac 'n Cheese, and headed out!

Ah, Target a la island style ;) A sight to behold...

We had a great time ~ we picked up some odds and ends for the house, and then topped it off with Starbucks! Well, an organic apple juice box for lil' man and a Grande White Chocolate Mocha with Peppermint Syrup for Momma ;) Yum yum! He's a pretty cheap date! Haha! We also worked on saying Please and Thank You to the cute salesgirl that rang us up. You know how Target associates wear red? Yeah, well here in Hawaii not only do they wear red, they wear red Aloha shirts! Very cute. :)

What did you all do this weekend? Anything fun? Hope it was great and hope to hear from all of you soon! Love and miss you!

The Willeys

Play Room!

2009-04-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a few days since I last posted ~ we've been busy feathering Casa de la Willey. :) It's been fun, exhausting, but also rewarding! It's hard buying things for your house when you're an Army family. Not only do you have to convince the hubby that it's necessary, but you have to fast foward three years and think, hmm will this work in our next house? Haha! :) Every house has different size windows of course...Oh the joys....I'm really trying to make an effort to be even more frugal and thrifty these days, as is everyone else. You all know how I love my garage sales, Goodwill, and now the Salvation Army Thrift Store! It's the thrill of the hunt ;) I've also spent some time looking at this blog: wearethatfamily.com That's exactly how I want to live ~ frugally and simply, but amazingly! Is that even a word? :)

Anyways, here's a few shots of Bubby's playroom! And no, it's not always this clean. ;) It's not finished yet, but I wanted to get these up and see if any of you had any suggestions. I think we're doing a bamboo shade over the window and I found a few pictures at Land Of Nod that I wanted to hang up. So much wall space, too small a budget ;) Here's his bookshelf ~

Here's a shot of his toy chest ~ aka my old hope chest! It's getting a coat of blue this weekend..stay tuned!

Here's the other side, right under the kitchen half wall, and a shot of Bubby still in his jammies ~

He absolutely loves having all that space to himself ~ you can find him coloring on his chalkboard, building with his MegaBlocks, or most often driving his Matchbox cars ALL over. And I do mean ALL over. Apparantly, to a 2 year old, even the walls are his racetrack. In fact, I think I'm going to change the name of my blog. Have you seen the hilarious blog Rocks In My Dryer? Yah, well I'm going to title this one "Matchbox Cars In My Couch." Seriously, have you ever sat on one of those? Ouch! :) Maybe Noah thinks that's their garage.... ;)

I'll leave you with this funny parting shot ~ Noah is 100% boy, but he hates having his hands dirty. His new thing is "hands! Momma hands! Waaaashhhh hand!" I think he gets that from me ;) Love you all!

Idea Boards!

2009-03-30T02:45:00.000-07:00

Aloha everyone! Wow, another week has flown by ~ it seems like time stands still here one minute, then the next thing I know it's been an entire week! We are slowly but surely settling into Casa de la Willey :) There are times when I look around and think how blessed we are with our big house, the beautiful mountains, stretches of beaches and the cultural experiences we're getting here ~ i.e. getting kissed by a Hawaiian today when we went to look at his car :) Anyways, then there are times (especially when Bryan's at work and Noah's sleeping) that I wonder how I can feel so absolutely lonesome when I'm on a tiny island full of millions of people. Anybody know? There are people everywhere I turn, but they're not my family, my friends, my familiar surroundings. It's a wide range of emotions my heart goes through, but we are trying to make the most of what beautiful Hawaii has to offer us! So many things to do, three whole years to do them. :)

I watch a couple blogs, usually decorating ones, and one in particular always caught my eye ~ brynalexandra.blogspot.com. I love checking out her latest outfits (she thrifts like me!) and especially her latest design idea boards. She only charges $25 dollars for a large idea board, which is waaay less than she should in my opinion :) I decided when we were in the hotel to check in with her when we finally got our house. So last week I emailed her, we chatted about the stuff we already had and the designs I liked and voila! She worked her amazing magic and sent me three absolutely awesome idea boards! I've never met her in person, but she absolutely was spot on with my style. I am still swooning over all the ideas :) If you know me well, you know how my spastic head goes on and on with all kinds of creative ideas ~ and now that Bryn has pointed me in the right direction, the rainbow-riddled Hawaiian sky is the limit! :)

Here's the Living Room/Dining Room board:

Isn't it just awesome?! I would have never gone for the cobalt blue before, but now I'm in love! Totally beachy, without being themey. Make sense? :) This is the first room I'm attacking, now that Bubby's room and playroom are done. I've picked up some blue pillows, plates, a blue/white jute rug (1/2 price at Pier 1! Go me!) and some sweet lamps (1/2 off as well!) I solemnly promise to put pics up this week! :)

Here's the next board she sent me for our bedroom. I wanted a relaxing retreat to suit both Bryan and I ~ once again, Bryn outdid herself. She is so thoughtful in her designs, thinking of both of us and both our tastes. She based this board on the sand that surrounds us, and even worked in some Etsy finds, which is a website for all things handmade (which I love!) I can get my quirky accents that nobody else has and support a small business/crafter/artists at the same time! Everybody wins :) Here it is:

I am eyeing a new dresser right now that's posted on our local craigslist, and I'm on the hunt in all the furniture stores for a beautiful upholstered bed like that ~ boo that Overstock can't ship it :( I tried my best, but it weighs too much they said to ship to Hawaii :( But I think the rest I should be able to get online, woohoo!

Last, but certainly not least, is our office/scrapbook room. This one is probably my favorite only because Bryn really took to heart that Bryan is in the Army, and she incorporated his awards and plaques. I love that! And I love green ~ so right on, Bryn :)

So there's the latest happenings in the Willey household this week ~ let me know what you guys think! I highly recommend you check out her website if you get a chance or if you also need some outside inspiration for some project/room you've been waiting to tackle or change up. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and hope to hear from you soon! We love and miss you all!

xo,
Jenny