major deal alert!

Shape magazine only $3.99 for a year subscription!

Go here: www.tanga.com

add SHAPE to cart & enter SHAPE promo code.

WIN.

found at mommysavers.com (yes i'm not a mommy but still love a good deal!)

xoxoxoxo

we're back!

after a lovely holiday on the mainland (san diego & paradise valley) its so nice to be home.

santa (ahem my parents & dan) was good to me this year & i'm posting pictures taken with my new canon rebel t1i. I LOVE IT so y'all can expect plenty of pictures to come.

if any of you have a canon rebel and have any suggestions as what to read for tips and tricks using this bad boy please let me know! i know absolutely nothing about photography but and excited to learn!

{my ever so artistic husband on our drive to sunny san diego}

{navy bowl game in san diego}

{picking up our niece at the airport!}

{our niece, baby linnea- absolutely precious & gave us major baby fever}

{before christmas eve service}

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!

xoxoxoxo

wedding bells!

my BFF megs just announced her wedding date- september 17th, 2011!

so very excited for her and her husband to be :)

even more exciting? she asked me to be the MOH! which means i've been busy brainstorming and planning :) they're absolutely perfect for each other and i am so happy to be included on their special day.

the happy couple at our wedding in june (just a few months before they got engaged!)

[sophomore year recruitment]

[vegas junior year]

[sophomore year]

[my rehearsal dinner]

i am over the moon excited for her- she was such a great help during my planning i want to make sure i definitely return the favor- which means if you need me i'll be on etsy browsing for shower ideas!

xoxoxoxo

what i'm reading...err kinda..

i take the bus to and from work because of the insane traffic that is honolulu. i've discovered the time really flies by with my ipod, for awhile i was obsessed with podcasts, but recently i've been listening to The Help by Kathryn Stockett and i cant get enough of it! if you haven't read this i definitely recommend it, also if your like me and cheat (aka don't really read...rather leisurely listen).

xoxoxoxo

Blurb Wedding Book

happy sunday!

i finally got around to taking picture of the wedding books we ordered for our parents. when i started planning the wedding i fell in love with the idea of using our engagement pictures for our guest book. that turned out great (its on our coffee table and i love looking through it every now and then).

for our parents we decided to use the same website (blurb.com) and give them a wedding book for Christmas. they turned out AWESOME. i snapped a few shots (i apologize for the poor picture quality!). they were really inexpensive too, about $150 for both. you can see i used the black background for this book, but our engagement book was white with plenty of empty pages for guests to sign. love blurb.com and definitely recommend them!

XOXOXO,

happy veterans day :)

happy veterans day to all those who have served/are serving our great country!

ESPECIALLY to the two men i hold closest to my heart.

to dan- my favorite sailor- its an honor to be your wife and i love you with all my heart.

to my dad (a 22 year army veteran)- you'll always be my hero and the first man i ever loved.

neat fact of the day: d is a 6th generation academy graduate.

xoxoxoxo

pumpkin bread & christmas music

Im sorry to announce out first haloween as a married couple wasn’t a memorable one :/

With work & our trip we didn’t get the chance to carve a pumpkin, dress up OR hand out candy to the cute little trick or treaters :(

to compensate, i'm made yummy pumpkin bread today. DELICIOUS.

d is on duty, so i've been baking & listening to the christmas pandora station all day. we're having dinner together tonight on the ship, i'm planning on making macaroni & cheese with this new recipe. it looks too good NOT to make. can you tell i've been on a cooking/baking kick?

happy sunday everyone!

xoxoxoxo,

so true :)

found this at our favorite bakery/sandwich shop on the north shore- Waialua Bakery.

SO GOOD & this is so true.

xoxoxoxo,

i have the cutest friends ever

:)

makes me miss colorado fall weather!

xoxoxoxo,

beauty product i'm loving...

1. Boscia Luminizing Black Mask

I first heard about this from Megan on twitter. It took me 2 weeks to track down this mask (one of the joys of living on an island) but once Sephora called and told me they had a new shipment i was all over it. LOVE this mask. its hands down the best peeling mask i've ever used. i have combination skin and this mask leaves me glowing.

a few tips: keep away from your hair/eyebrows, if the mask fully dries it will grab onto your hair and hurt when you try to peel it off :( also, don't be afraid to lay it on thick- the thicker you put it on the easier it is to peel off & i think the more effective it is.

the price is a little steep at $34 for 2.8 ounces, but worth it!

xoxoxoxo,

treasured moments of the week

D & i were talking this past weekend about our favorite times of the week- things we do every week that we look forward to & have become part of our routine.

oddly enough we both said 'early saturday mornings' were a favorite, although we don't spend them together!

d: sleeps in (the saturday mornings he's off duty of course) he's up at the crack of dawn (ahem or earlier) every other day so this is his treasured sleepy man time. that is if navy isn't playing.

me: i however, am an early (freakishly early) riser.

every saturday its become a habit (that i LOVE) to go on an early morning 5-7 mile walk/run, pick up some coffee from a cafe by our house, come home & read the NYT online. all before 9am.

i LOVE getting up and out early. something about our town is so relaxing and quiet in the morning, its almost like stolen time because nobody else is out.

this was taken a few weeks ago on one of my early morning walks:

we both agree our other favorite times are the nights we make dinner, open a bottle of wine & turn on netflix :) recently we've been into dexter (dan is such a good sport he's seen every episode but he's watching them all again with me). this made us realize we're super homebodies. but i wouldn't have it any other way.

what are some of your favorite moments/rituals of your week?

xoxoxoxo,

Military Spouse Secret Santa

Attention all MilSpouses!

If you haven't signed up for the MilSpouse Secret Santa go here and do it now! Hopefully its not too late & you can still join in on the fun! Not only is it a fun lil gift exchange but also a great way to meet more military spouses/fiances/girlfriends.

I received my match on Sunday and she's so cute- I'm excited to start looking for her gifts!

xoxoxoxo

kona weekend (picture heavy)

happy monday ladies!

we're back from an amazing weekend on the island of Kona. it was my auntie's birthday and she REALLY wanted to go on the zip line near Hilo.

let me just say I'm not an adventurous/thrill seeking person. at all. i'm nervous/anxious/boring when it comes to danger & thrill-seeking activities. i always err on the side of caution and am basically no fun ;) thus, going on this zip line was definitely out of my safe zone. however, i'm glad i did it (um but wont be doing it again- a rope hit me in the face and i thought i broke my nose. of course.) because seeing hawaii from 160 feet in the air is breathtaking.

highlights from the trip:

visiting Kona Brewing Company and tasting LOTS of great beer. I recommend their Wailua Wheat & Oceanic Organic brews.

D took this from the zip line- a little scary, yeah?

with D (is it just me or does he look a little creeped out?!)

with my auntie visiting waipio valley (which means 'curved water' in hawaiian FYI!):

sunset in kailua-kona:

so now its back to the weekly grind!

xoxoxoxo

BAD BAD BLOGGER!

ok so i'm awful about this blogging thing.

life got in the way & i stopped blogging for awhile. sorry y'all :( thank you for the emails for those of you asking if i was alright- truth is everything

is FINE life just got busy for a little bit!

1. I GOT A JOB. full time 40 hour a week gig. let me tell you what a change that was from my 4 month vacation. i'm a serious grandma and in bed/getting drowsy by 8:30. i work downtown so i have a little bit of a commute, but love the job & the people i work with so i consider myself extremely lucky. today actually marks my 1 month anniversary there :)

2. i started running. yes you read correctly. RUNNING. this takes up about an hour or so of my time in the evenings after I get home from work. i've only been running for a month now but can notice huge changes in my body and my mental state. i'm still waiting for the bikram studio to open up here (yes one more thing to pile onto my schedule!)

3. dan is home. he's attending a school so i get to see A LOT more of him. i'm sure the other military bloggers will agree- when my husband is home he has my full attention.

ok so these are my excuses for my hiatus. but I'M BACK (even if it is 5:45 in the morning and I'm squeezing in my blog post before my day gets started!).

now...i need to go through my blogroll because I KNOW a few of y'all have had babies in the past few weeks...

xoxoxoxo

9/11

Never forget. Hard to believe its been 9 years. Thank you to all of our men/women in uniform. I love you D and am very proud of all that you do.

{newest addition to our house...D insisted we get an American flag for our tiny porch}

we're BBQing today and hanging

out at home. have a great weekend everyone!

{love my navy boys}

xoxoxoxo

I'm not dead I promise

Hey ladies! I apologize for my absence, my grandmother died this past week so I came home to spend time with my family & attend her funeral. Its been nice to come together as a family during this time and I've been super busy- hence my lack in posting.

I had to DL the wedding pictures to my moms computer, so I thought I'd share a few more with ya'll. Hope everyone is doing great! I've appreciated the emails!

with dad ready to walk down the aisle.

during the ceremony.

right after becoming man & wife :)

I head back home tomorrow and I can already tell I'm starting to get home sick. Its always hard leaving home.

xoxoxoxo