a glimpse of our three years together.

And in case you were wondering…

Our Wedding Story.

My sweet husband looking especially handsome in uniform while holding an icicle he got off the roof.

Our spunky Layla who loves to put her bum on the higher step and legs on the lower step when she races me up the stairs and waits for me to meet her.

And of course, the tiny avocado-sized baby in my belly.

These are the three earthly loves of my life.

I don’t know if it’s the photographer in me or what, but every so often I have the urge to drag Jimmy away from what he’s doing and take “updated” family photos of us. And it’s easy to do so with a nice view in our backyard, a tripod and remote! Sometimes these urges come very often, maybe too often (or maybe not because I firmly believe that you can never have too many photos with your family and people you love the most). But my husband does not share this belief. To be fair, the snow makes it a little harder to have the motivation to take photos. But even so, he is definitely not into getting his picture taken. I’ve always thought it ironic that he ended up marrying me since photography has been a passion of mine for years.

I do want to give him credit though, he knows how important it is to me and although some days he starts to get antsy to be done with it already (he says it takes a long time and I am indecisive…which I can’t argue with because it’s true ) He always does it. And more often than not, he keeps it positive and makes it fun for both of us. So now there are two reasons for this post. The more important reason being that I am thankful for my sweet husband who learns to have fun doing the things that are important to me…even if it’s not a big deal to him. Sometimes couples don’t have every hobby in common and I appreciate him so much for putting forth the effort for me!

Hope you all enjoy your Valentine’s Day! Ours will consist of snuggling up to a movie on the couch and possibly some chinese takeout. Keepin’ it mellow this year. Oh and a little pregnancy update…here is me and the orange-sized babe at 15 weeks! Feeling good and exciting to be sporting this new little bump

Happy Monday!

We watched episodes of Modern Family on the laptop and kept up the fort for a few days longer than planned. These were taken a few weeks ago, but I am foreseeing lots of fort-nights in the months to come, with the darkness and all. A perfect way to bundle up for the long Winter ahead of us and make the most of being indoors. By that time I am suspecting our fort making skills will be excellent

Well technically, to some of you, I didn’t. But as long as it’s the 17th here, it’s still my birthday. And I’m still milking it. (and also being the nerd that I am, was rushing to make this post before midnight so that it still counts)

Today was all in all, amazing. I am quite surprised that I didn’t crack and shed some tears over the fact that I’m in my mid twenties. I just simply enjoyed it. Got treated to a manicure by one of my besties here in Alaska, then came home to my sweet and selfless husband who is still recovering from his post wisdom teeth surgery and in a good amount of pain, who was determined to make sure my birthday was a memorable one. We went to a relaxing dinner, I got spoiled with some presents (a new lens that was used to take the pictures above and some home decor goodies) and came home to set up our new things. A great day indeed. I am thankful for my 25 years of life, my wonderful husband, the amazing friends I’ve made in our new state of residency, and most importantly, my God, who gave me life and well, everything.

So yes, today I turned 25.
But I still don’t look a day over Sixteen

This is the fourth birthday we’ve spent together. 2008, we went to the aquarium and he asked me to be his girlfriend. 2009, we had a picnic in the park (and were newlyweds). 2010, we went to Disneyland. 2011, we are in a whole different place and so much has changed. When I look back on all the birthdays, each one brought back wonderful memories and feelings. But on his birthday today, all I can think of is one word: Thankful.

Today I keep thinking about how thankful I am for him. Jimmy has done so much for me and us this past year. Well, ever since I’ve known him, actually. This year however, has been one of the harder ones. I am thankful for a husband that stood by me (and put up with me) during the months we spent apart. I am thankful for a husband who has a passion to serve our country and does so with pride. I am thankful for a husband who takes care of me and provides us with shelter and food. Aside from the obvious reasons, I can think of a ton of little reasons. And after all, it’s the little things that matter, right?

So because I know he’ll get around to reading this sometime…

Thank you for everything. For being you, for loving me, helping me see things clearly in a cloud of anxiety, never forgetting to kiss me before you leave for work, being the God-fearing man that you are, your kindness and not just towards me, your integrity (which makes you an amazing Airman), your selflessness, excitement over the little things, and so much more. Happy birthday to the best man I know. You are so wonderful, and I love you with all my heart.

As soon as Jimmy left for BMT, my sis-in-law had been saying that she wanted to take photos of us with him in uniform. So when we were home on leave before we moved to Alaska, we were pretty busy. So busy that we almost didn’t get to…but the day before we left, after we had gotten packing and errands done, she quickly styled and prettied me up (I can’t take credit for how awesome my hair looks) and we went out right before sunset and there you have it. When I arrived back to California a couple days ago, she gave me the images and I’m in love with how they came out. They are so accurate to mine and Jimmy’s personalities and how we act together, which is my favorite part. So a big thank you to Jhen! Enjoy

I’m having so much fun here, but these photos are definitely making me miss my husband like no other.

Today I’m off to have lunch with my mother-in-law, and then have dinner and karaoke with my best friend and a couple girls for her birthday Have a happy Wednesday!

What started out as an unintentional hiatus from the blogging world slowly became intentional. Both mine and Jimmy’s worlds were turned upside down as soon as I came back home. But before I make it sound like I’m throwing us a pity party, I’ll share a little bit of our trip with you all. I took way too many photos to post in one entry so you’ll be seeing some more in the future…

As soon as I got there, he wanted to run a couple errands around the base so I tagged along while he did that, then we had dinner, and back to the hotel to relax. We took a million and a half pictures

We went on walks almost every day and talked for hours,

I DID get a little bored when he had to work…

(only posting this because seeing our toothbrushes together again makes me VERY happy)

And on one of my last days there we sat outside on a picnic bench and enjoyed Swedish fish and coffee, and mainly talked about the week and how great it was to be together again, even if just for a week.

He always has food in his mouth when I take pictures of him.

I think I beat my record on most pictures posted in an entry. Sorry, but I had to!

The trip out there was simply, amazing. There are no other words. We were like newlyweds all over again. When I first pulled up in the backseat of the cab and saw him standing outside waiting for me, I began to feel nervous, weak in the knees at the sight of him, and those fluttery feelings in my tummy that are all too familiar came back, full force. I’m so glad that I lugged around my camera because looking through the photos of us has helped me deal with the pain of going back home without him.

Getting back into the swing of things when we said goodbye was much harder than we thought it would be. We knew saying goodbye would be difficult, but neither of us were expecting it to be THIS difficult, since we had done it before. I found myself not wanting to get out of bed every single morning and asking God if I could just sleep and hibernate until he comes home. Meanwhile, Jimmy was getting more and more responsibilities thrown on him and his 8 hour work days slowly turned into 12, then 16 and so on. With both of us being overwhelmed at how quickly things changed and the sadness of having to be apart yet again, things got really, well…painful. But after some long talks and tears, we are both slowly starting to feel better and trying to make the best of our situation.

We also got some news a few days ago that was hard for us to swallow. The Air Force base in Alaska that we were assigned to go to pretty much got tired of waiting and without sparing you all the boring technical details, told us that we will not be sent there after all. So Alaska will no longer be our home for the next few years. Since February we had been dreaming of what our lives would be like there, so yes…that was indeed sad news. But, we are picking ourselves back up, detaching ourselves from Alaska, and in the midst of all this confusion and uncertainty, trusting that God will put us where we are needed and that there is a reason for all of this.

So maybe you didn’t see this post going in that direction. I hope it wasn’t too Debbie Downer-ish. But really, we’re doing okay now! We were left with amazing memories to hold us over a little bit longer until he returns home for good. And who knows where we will end up? But that is something else for us to look forward to…a whole new life, in a whole new place and a whole new adventure to look forward to! Here’s to knowing what we signed up for, tackling the many more curveballs that will get thrown at us and handling them with grace, and to growing as a Military family. And don’t worry, I’ll be keeping you posted whenever we find anything out

We are reunited! For now. To clarify, no, he is not home. But when we found out last Wednesday that he won’t be home for another few weeks we decided, why should we wait longer? Whats stopping me from visiting him? And the rest is history. I hopped on a plane to Virginia on Friday and have been here since, and we are having such an amazing time together! Please excuse the cheesiness of my next statement, but being together again makes me wonder how in the world I was able to get through these months without him. I feel different now. More cheerful, happier, basically any positive word that you can think of. Thats how I feel. And not only that, but…I just feel whole again. My heart is so full and although we’ve been waiting on pins and needles every day and each day getting no news on when he can come home and when we are moving, the fact that we are together again is something to be excited about, even if it’s just for a short while. Anyway, I’m still here. In light of the news that hit the world this weekend, we decided to extend my stay to avoid the craziness of the airports. Which I don’t mind doing at all! So while this is just a post to explain, I will be absent for a little bit longer. But I’ll be back soon with so many pictures and things to share!