New York City

We just got back from a packed trip to New York. We went to the Empire State bldg., Ground Zero, Macy's, Harold's Square, Wall St., Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, SoHo, Littly Italy, Greenwich Village, Trinity Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockerfeller Center and I am sure more places that I forgot about. Oh, we also made a trip to Queens!! Living so far away from home we are always expected to visit family so we decided while in Alabama we were going to go somewhere we wanted to vacation...NEW YORK!! It was a short trip but well worth it, one of Mike's friends from college lives in Queens so we were able to visit his family as well.

We also had PJ dedicated a couple of Sunday's ago but I only have a DVD of it!!

Amy Nichols Photography

We had some pictures made with Amy about a month ago and I love them. She really did a great job of capturing Parker's personality, and he just adored her.

Mother's Day

I couldn't have asked for a better first Mother's Day, I have the sweetest Husband and Son in the world!!

Easter

PJ's first easter!

Alabama

We were so excited when we got to Alabama and were able to share Parker with our families.

Valentine's Day

What a great Valentine's Day!! We spent the day out and about in Mililani at Just Tacos, Starbucks, The movies (He's just not that into you), and I got a mani/pedi.

We also bought our ticket to come home and I am excited to say we will be back March 2nd!!!

Ace of Cakes, June and Mike's Work

Ok, so I have been really busy this past week and haven't had a chance to do any blogging. What have we been doing you ask? Well Mike's auntie June came to visit for the week and we really enjoyed having her meet Parker, I mostly enjoyed taking a shower that lasted longer than 5 minutes.
We went to the airfield where Mike works to look at the helicopters and pose for some pictures with the aircraft.
For my birthday on the 30th we went to our favorite Italian restaurant, Assaggio's to eat and June made me a birthday cake. Mike bought me a beautiful necklace with three turtles to represent our new family of three...pics to soon follow.

June, Parker and myself had the honor of meeting the Ace of Cakes crew last Thursday at the Tropics on post. They were on the Island making a cake for Lost and visited the military base to make a Blackhawk cake for the Army. We met Duff and the crew when we got autographs and pictures, we also got to eat some of the cake.

Parreco Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

Tagged

I have been tagged by Christi and Lynn to answer the hubby questions going around, so here goes!

1. What is his name? Michael Parreco

2. Who eats more? It depends on what we are eating

3. Who said, "I love you" first? I know it is sad but I don't really remember

4. Who is taller? Mike

5. Who is more sensitive? Me

6. Who does the laundry? Whoever sees that it needs to be done

7. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I always sleep on the side with the nightstand

8. Who pays the bills? I do

9. Who cooks more? Mike

10. Who is more stubborn? Probably me

11. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Mike, I just said I am more stubborn

12. Who has more siblings? Mike has 3 brothers and I am an only child

13. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We share the pants

14. What do you like to do together? Watch movies, hang out with friends

15. Who eats more sweets? We both likes sweets equally

16. Guilty pleasures? mine-chocolate and starbucks, mike's-golfing

17. How did you meet? mutual friend, we didn't like each other when we first met

18. Who asked whom out first? Mike asked me

20. Who proposed? Mike

21. His best features and qualities? features-eyes, qualities-Loving and caring husband and father.

22. Tag, you're it. Who do you tag? Jeannie, Lily, Kaitlin, Ashley

Birthday Party

My wonderful friend Jeannie and my darling husband Mike (mostly Jeannie) threw me and Danny (Jeannie's husband) a birthday party last weekend. Jeannie had decorated her house with pictures of me and Danny all over and we all played Rock Band and Partini.

Thank you guys, you rock!!

I love you!

Anniversary

Our anniversary was the 7th of January and we celebrated with a low key, relaxing night at home. I must say it was pretty romantic, well as romantic as it could be with a 6 week old in the house. Mike brought home roses and a balloon for me and we had dinner while watching top chef. For those of you who don't know Mike will be leaving for Iraq in September and will therefore miss our next anniversary. I try to not think about all of the holidays we won't celebrate together while he is gone but focus on him being with us now. I find that it is really hard to just enjoy each special occasion and not think about that he won't be here next year for it. I feel as if sometimes I get so caught up in the fact that he will be gone that I end up not fully enjoying the time we have together; so, my question is do we ever really just enjoy each day and live it to its fullest, or are we constantly living in the past or focusing on what the future brings?

A Journal for Jordan

The Reading Wahines, my book club chose to read A Journal for Jordan this month. The book is a true story about a soldier in Iraq who keeps a journal for his son. We had posted about us reading the book on our blog http://thereadingwahinesbookclub.blogspot.com/ and the author Dana Canedy made a comment wanting us to let her know what we thought of the book. I couldn't believe that she actually found us and took the time to comment and post on her blog about us. You can find out more about the book and read about us on her blog at http://www.ajournalforjordan.com/blog . I encourage all of you to read the book, it gives such a true account of what we all sacrifice for freedom.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Neat websites to check out for next year

Well I know Christmas is over but I just found a website that I thought those of you with kids might be interested in for next year. The site allows you to upload a picture of your Christmas tree and insert a picture of Santa putting presents under the tree. I think this is a great idea to show your kids that Santa is real and really put the presents under the tree. It also says they plan on launching a website for the tooth fairy and Easter bunny, so keep a watch out for those.

http://capturethemagic.com/

This is another site where you can order a personal phone call from Santa.

http://santaspeaking.com/

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Hawaii. I must say it was a little hard being away from home this year but luckily my mother was here to celebrate with us and having PJ made it all worth it. I missed our annual trips to Colorado, Alabama and Missouri and all the cold weather that goes with visiting during December. However, it was a lot less stressful on us and Mike and I were able to exchange our gifts on Christmas morning rather than before we left for the mainland like all the previous years. We have certainly had a blessed 2008 and can't wait to see what 2009 has in store!! Oh, I forgot to mention my wonderful husband gave me an awesome new camera to take pictures of PJ with and a coach purse for Christmas. We hope all of you had a great Christmas and we wish you all the happiness in 2009!!

Christmas Party

We went to a Christmas party last night at our friends Donny and Angela's house, I have attached a picture of all the good looking guys dressed up.

Blackhawk spouse flights and Christmas Party

I had the opportunity to take my first ride in a Blackhawk helicopter last week. It is a really big deal because no other battalion in the Army still does spouse flights due to the cost to operate a helicopter and for liability reasons. I really enjoyed the flight and know why Mike loves his job so much. It was really scary to begin with because they leave the doors open during the flight and I happened to be in the outside seat. After the spouse flights we went to Mike's work Christmas party where PJ had his first picture made with santa in front of the blackhawk, he was a really good boy for santa.

Getting ready for Christmas

We are so excited about having a little one to celebrate Christmas with this year, we know that it will only get more exciting with every year. We put up our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving and helped PJ hang his first ornament on the tree, it is a honu aka a turtle to represent his birth in Hawaii. We also hung up our ornament together that marks our wedding date. Last weekend we spent the afternoon making pizzelles, pizzelles are an Italian cookie that is traditionally made for special occasions such as Christmas. This was our first time making pizzelles and I must say they tasted wonderful.

Pictures