Jensen Cookie Bash

 One of my fave things to do around the holidays is decorating cookies.  It's not just Christmas season, I love to decorate cookies any holiday!  New Years, Valentine's day, St. Patricks day... You name a holiday I will bake and decorate cookies.  They aren't the nest cookies! lol but I have fun doing them with the kids.  So I've always wanted to do a cookie decorating party,  I find that Christmas is one of the best times to have one.

Last year I actually had a precursor to this cookie decorating extravaganza.  We had a big potluck for Christmas with our Oki fam and for dessert I brought cookies and decorating stuff.  It was nuts, we had about 15-20 kids {we have a big Oki fam} and no real adult supervision but myself .  The other adults were there but they were occupied with real dessert.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself!  I could tell the kids were loving it.  That's when I decided that we would do the real deal next Christmas .

Fast forward to Dec 2013.  This time we had a party at our house.  I baked about 60 cookies and bought all the fixins to make a mean Christmas cookie.  We had a bunch of kids and my table wasn't big enough for them to decorate all at the same time, so we did shifts.   It was super fun.  I know the kids were having a blast.  All the parents looked worried about sugar overdose! lol  The lil kids mainly were just eating all the decor.  Haha. The kids decorated 2 cookies each.  I did cutout sugar cookies of gingerbread men, snowmen, Santas, snowflakes, and just plain round cookies.  The kids were able to choose the shape of cookie.  Luckily we had enough of each shape and none of the kids were sad they didn't get a certain one.    I made all the kids wrap up their creations and take them home.  They didn't need anymore sugar.  So final verdict,  we will keep this as a family tradition.  It was so much fun and I love seeing the creative side of the kids.  I think next year I will add a hot cocoa bar :)

Elf on a Shelf

This was the first year that we used the elves.  The local exchanges don't sell THE elf on a shelf so we bought ours from someone else.  I was interested for a long time but thought Amelia was too young.  She is 4 now and I thought it would be the perfect time to start.   We got the elves, one boy for Nolan and one girl for Amelia.  We got the movie and watched it the night before they made their debut.   It was defiantly a challenge to set them up nightly.  MANY times we forgot and had to think of a quick placement .  I think she loved it though.  Every morning she would race around the house and look for them.  She even cried when she had to say bye.  So final verdict, we are keeping them as a family tradition.  It's fun and who doesn't love elves?

'Twas the Night before Christmas...

Another Christmas down.  Our third one in Oki.  I'm not sure what it was about this year, but I felt a little off.  Christmas wasn't as Christmas as usual?! I just didn't feel so spirited I guess.  I really feel like it just crept up so fast!  Like...I just put up the tree and BAM it's time to open gifts!   Well, this year I added two more traditions to our Christmas season, 1. Elf on a shelf and 2. Jensen cookie bash (cookie decorating party).

Elf on a Shelf

Jensen Cookie Bash

Growing up, Christmas Eve was always the bigger festive day.  We always had our parties on Christmas Eve.  We would go to midnight mass, then open gifts when we got home.  Christmas Day, we would eat all day and play with our new toys.  For my family now it's sorta the same.  We have a party or big dinner on Christmas Eve, then we open gifts after.  On Christmas morning we open gifts from Santa and our stockings.  Essentially we celebrate Christmas in 2 days.  Lol 

Christmas was the usual Oki festivity.  Our Oki fam got together on Christmas eve and had a big potluck in one of the tower rec rooms.  We had a grand old time.  I love getting dressed up and eating to my hearts content. Good thing I wore an outfit that was forgiving if I ate a lil too much.  For our party, each parent brought a gift for their kids from "Santa".The gifts were handed out and the kids went nuts. Lol. Keeps em' occupied for the rest of the evening.  Then the adults do our white elephant.  Always a lot of fun! It's funny to watch grown women fight over gifts. Haha Well no real fighting went on, there were some dirty gift steals tho.  It's all fun and games.

After the party we headed home.  Mills stayed up the whole way because she wanted to open her gifts.  I couldn't believe it!  This year was fun, Nolan got in on the present opening.  Last year he was more interested in the wrapping paper and bows.  Mills , of course, is a pro at opening gifts.  Good thing I decided to just record the present opening, because she just ripped right through them all .  It was so awesome to watch their lil faces light up with joy when the opened their gifts.  I especially loved the squeals from Nolan! We didn't end up sleeping till 2 am that morning.  Too much excitement.  It was a great day.  Now the countdown is on for Christmas 2014 lol

Our Christmas Cards!

Christmas cards are all signed, sealed, and delivered! Phew... This year I was really late to the game.  I generally like to get our cards out by the first week of December.  Since we booked our photo session mid November and it took our photographer 3 weeks to get us our pics, needless to say, but the stars were not aligned in our favor.  I like to send pictures of the kids since we live so far away and many of our family and friends don't get to see them grow up.  Its also a time honored favorite of the grandparents.  I always send them a few extra shots of the kids in their Christmas packages.  Well, here is our Christmas Card!  This year we did 2 designs and 1 picture.  I can't believe its about a week away!  I can't wait!!!!

It's All About Tradition!!!

Every year while growing up my parents took us to the mall so we could go see Santa. We would get dressed in our Christmas dresses and wait in line to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas.  The mall that we went to was indoor, (there aren't many indoor malls in San Diego) so it was pretty awesome we didn't have the wait in the cold.

Now that I have my own family it is no different.  We don't have a mall here but we take our kids to see Santa.  The only thing that did change was Morgan refused to take our kids to see Santa within their first year.  He is in the medical field, more specifically infectious disease.  Since both of our kids were too young to get their flu shots around Christmas time, he didn't want to take that chance.  I think he has seen what the flu can do to someone, especially a young child so he doesn't want to take the risk.   There are so many kids that go through that line, also with all the people , there is just a lot of germs that could be spread.  (I know we probably sound crazy) Totally understandable, so we just took their pics by our tree.  After Amelia's first year, we have taken her ever since.  Since Nolan is now 1 and able to get his flu shot (both of our kids received their flu shots this year) this will be his first year.

This is the first year that we had both our kids in the picture.  The local USO had a Santa set up that you pay $10 per kid and you get the pictures, some of the fee would go towards the USO.  This was the first year Amelia didn't cry.  It was just so precious, the look in her eye when she saw Santa.  She really believed it was him.  Her innocence was just so adorable.  Nolan on the other hand, was screaming bloody murder.  I got to give all the Santas out their a hand, because having probably every other kid cry must be crazy!! Here's to all the Santas out there!!!

Parent Teacher Conference

Went to a parent - teacher conference for Amelia yesterday.  To be honest I was a lil afraid of what I was going to hear.  I know I have my ups and downs with her, I could only imagine what her teachers had to say.  Don't get me wrong, Mills is a very smart, sweet, funny, creative, and playful lil girl....when she wants to be.  She has days when she is down right NAUGHTY!  I mean, we all do, but its hard to hear it from someone else.  Especially a teacher.  This is the 2nd year that I have been to a conference for Mills.  She had one last year at Kuwaue Preschool.  So this is my first one at her new school, Early Learners International school.

I really don't know what I had to worry about.  Her teacher and the teacher assistant had nothing but great things to say about Mills. I immediately felt guilty for being worried... gosh I wanted to punch myself.  I felt like a terrible parent.  I'm glad I kept my thoughts to myself, but I shouldn't have thought that.  I should have kept positive thoughts.  {Kicking myself} She has only been there since October, but she has improved a lot.  They showed me work that she was doing in the beginning to where she is now and its crazy how much has changed.  They mentioned that she is awesome at crafts and she loves to do them.  I'm not much of a craft person, but I think I'll get into it now that I know she loves them.

All in all she is doing well.  I'm really happy to see that and hear that.  The school she is going to is new, so I had some speculation.  I see now that my daughter is learning and she is happy. They are preparing for their Holiday Program.  I cant wait to see :)

{on a side note}

I can't believe Christmas is 19 days!!!

Today Nolan had a complete melt down in the store, it was crazy and mortifying.

Morgan has duty tonight, lame

Thanksgiving 2013

I can't believe Thanksgiving has gone and past.  This year has just flown by.

This time of year when all the holidays start, always is hard for me.  It being the the 4th year in a row that we will be spending the holidays overseas. I wish we could be home in the states spending time with our families and friends.  I envy all the people out there who are home and spending time with their loved ones.  Thankfully we have made our own Oki family here and they are great friends that have turned into family.  We are lucky to have met them and have them in our lives.  {I digress} We really have a lot to be thankful for, not only on Thanksgiving but everyday.  God is good and has continued to bless our family.

For Thanksgiving this year we got together with the Oki fam and had a huge potluck.  We had about 12 families and a handful of single marines and sailors.  This is the first time that we've joined the Oki fam on Thanksgiving, the potluck is something we do for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  However we don't usually go to Thanksgiving, we usually have a meal at our house for Morgan's single sailors.  Anyways, we volunteered to bring a turkey, mac n cheese, and 2 of my famous pumpkin cheesecakes. Thanksgiving was really nice.  All the other ladies/gentlemen who cooked pulled out all the stops, we had a ton of food.  We had a traditional Thanksgiving and had some Filipino dishes and desserts.  It was all so delish, I must of had 3 plates and 1 plate of dessert.  I purposely wore a flowy dress so I could eat to my hearts content.  Best idea ever!  Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Morgan decided to smoke the Turkey this year

Put a fork in it, Turkey is done *drool*

Prep for my famous Pumpkin cheesecake

One of my cheesecakes 

Thanksgiving Buffet 1

Thanksgiving Buffet 2

Thanksgiving Buffet 3

With all the Oki Mommies

All the kiddies

Day in the Life

Thought this meme was appropriate :) 

I have a 16 mo old (Nolan) and a 4 yr old (Amelia).  I tend to stay on a routine to keep my sanity AND so the kids know what to expect from day to day. Here is what a typical day looks like


6:00-    I like to get up before the kids and get some ME time.  I have my coffee and I browse my social media, news, gossip, and generally wake up

7:00-    16 mo old wakes up

7:45-    Get Amelia up and beds made

8:00-    Feed both kids breakfast, pack Amelia's lunch and her backpack

8:30-    Get both kids dressed and ready

8:40-    Take Amelia to pre-school (if it's a school day MWF)

9:00-    After we drop off Amelia we have play time, either in the play room our outside.  OR if we have errands I do them now.  I like to get stuff done in the morning, less people and no lines. On Wed Nolan and I have story time at the Library and Kinder Jam.  On Fridays we have Alligator Steps (mommy and me class).

11:00- We usually get home, I start up a movie for Nolan to watch and I prepare lunch

11:30- Lunch TIME

12:00- Nolan goes down for a nap

1:30-    Wake up him and give him a small snack

1:40-    We go and pick up Amelia

2:00-    Get home and feed Amelia a snack

2:30-4:30-play time

5:00-    Daddy comes home from work and I start to prepare dinner

5:30-    Dinner for everyone

6:30-    Clean up kitchen and living room

7:00-    Kids take a bath

7:30-    Bottle, brush teeth, bedtime story

8:30-    Lights out

The rest of the night is spent with the hubby, it's our down time.   We watch our fave shows, he plays video games, I read, I catch up on YouTube, he watches sports highlights, haha we just chill.  We usually go to bed around 9:30-10:30 and we do it all again the next day.

Saturday Night at the Movies

Movie: We're the Millers

Rating: ***(out of 5)

Comments:   This movie was good. Definitely not a movie to watch with the lil ones.  Lots of cursing and a crazy part with a spider and some male anatomy.  It was pretty funny.  I love Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, both super funny. I've loved Jennifer ever since FRIENDS.  She is just so pretty, why Brad left her I'll always wonder.  But back to the movie, it was funny.  My husband and I were chucking the whole time.  There were some scenes that were on the border of crazy.  All in all a good funny movie, good story and a funny concept.  I would watch it again.  I don't think we'll buy it.

Living Overseas

November is Military Family month so I thought I would talk about military life. 

Living Overseas

We’ve lived in Okinawa for 3 years and 2 months.  So it’s been awhile, well in military life it’s awhile.  When Morg first got orders here I cried my eyes out.  I didn’t want to go overseas.  We were stationed in Bremerton, Washington at the time and I still felt like it was far from family, now having to be across the globe…. that was terrifying. 

My dad is a retired Navy officer, but we never moved around.  Well, at least when I could remember.  Early in his career he was stationed on the east coast, Guam, and Japan.  I was non- existent or too young.   After he got stationed in San Diego he hasn’t moved since.  As for Morgan, his family was a whole different story.  They moved around a lot.  His father too is a retired Navy Officer.  They were also stationed overseas in Japan and Puerto Rico.  He grew up moving around and he’s had experiences living abroad so I don’t think it was that big of a blow for him. 

Everywhere we have moved, I’ve hated it!!! I compare everywhere to San Diego.  I missed my city that I loved so much.  Okinawa was no different.  I think I hated it more since it was a foreign country;  the time difference from home, the distance from home, and it was just so unfamiliar.  After some time, probably a year or so…. I ended up loving it.  Even now I talk it up to my fellow military spouses. 

There are definitely lots of pros and cons about being overseas.  Being away from everything you know is a very exciting and scary thought.

My 5 pros about living in Okinawa

1)  The experience about living in a foreign country, learning about its people, culture, traditions and foods.  The people here are the nicest people I’ve ever met.  It’s just so crazy how nice they are.  Maybe I’m jaded by growing up in the states, but if all people were as nice as they are here it would be a better world.

2) It is so safe here!  I never hear about crimes happening.  No murders, no burglaries, no kidnappings.  People here leave their doors unlocked and their kids can play outside safely, even at night.  One time I left my yen wallet (I keep 1 for yen and one for dollars) at a restaurant.  There was probably 5000 yen (roughly $50) left in there.  I didn’t notice until the next morning and I called the restaurant as soon as I found out and they had it waiting for me.  ALL the monies were still there.  If that were the states, I doubt I would get ALL my money back.   

3) Being overseas has a whole different vibe.  The military community really comes together.  Here we’ve made friends that have become family.  People that we love and love us.  It’s great being able to connect with people who are going through the exact same things as you.

4)  Travel.  We love ASIA!  Being here we’ve been able to take some great vacations.  I mean we live on a tropical island!  So we don’t have to go far for beautiful beaches.  Now that we’re staying longer we plan on taking more trips around Asia.

5) Food.  I know I touched on it for #1, but the food here is just too good.  The Japanese snacks, drinks (especially coffee), food, desserts………it’s all so good.  If we could afford it I would eat out every day.  The food is delicious, the servers at the restaurants are so friendly and you don’t even have to tip!  I prefer going to the Japanese grocery stores because their snacks, produce, bread, and drinks are so good.  There is never shortage of where to eat here.  Also my kids love eating here!  It’s not like the states where on every kids menu is chicken and french fries! Lol  My kids eat yakisoba, sushi, udon, curry, ramen, edamame,  and etc.   The kids menu rivals the adult menu. Haha

My 5 cons about living in Okinawa

1) It costs an arm and a leg to get back to the states!! Now we are lucky because our families live on the west coast.  People who are from Hawaii are even luckier.  But generally its 2 flights to get back to CA.  Average cost per person is $1200, now multiply that by 4 and that’s $4800.00.  We are a one income family, so to just shell out $4800.00 takes some planning and saving.   When we go back to visit, we usually take about a month there because it costs so much to get there and the travel time is about 14hours.  Most recently we went back to the states on short notice and the tickets for all four of us was almost $9000.00.  Then the money we used just being on vacation there.  It was a costly vacation for sure.

2)  Being away from family.  I’m sad that my kids don’t get to grow up by their grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins.  Lots of my family was located in southern CA so we got to see them often growing up.  My grandparents used to watch us while my parents were at work.  We don’t get that here.  I wish I could just drop the kids off at my parents’ house and have a date night.  I wish I could invite my kids’ cousins to their B-day parties.  I wish we could have a huge Christmas with our families.  I wish our families didn’t have to watch our kids grow up via Facetime, Facebook, and Skype.  Luckily we’ve been able to make the trip back to the states yearly, but I know lots of families that aren’t able to.

3)  Island fever.  Being here can get old.  I mean the island is about 463.72 sq miles.  It’s small.  Everyone knows everyone.  I miss the stores in the states; like Target, Walmart, Costco, and etc.  Mainly we have the Exchange and the Commissary.   I go to both weekly.  The deals aren’t that great, the brands that they carry aren’t that great, and they run out of stuff constantly.

4) Being lonely.  During Morgan’s first tour here he was gone a lot.  He would get deployed here and there for weeks, sometimes months.  Being a stay at home mom isn’t always fun and easy.  The days are much longer then the nights.  Most of my friends work or have older kids, so a lot of the times it’s just me and the kids. 

5)  Driving.  Here they drive on the opposite side.  That isn’t really the problem.  There are just so many things going on when driving here.  The opposite side, motorcycles,  scooters,  bikes,  pedestrians, really really narrow roads, and slow drivers.  This island is really small, so you would think that it doesn’t take long to get anywhere.  WRONG!  It takes super long.  The speed limits here are very slow.  I think on the freeway the max speed is 49 mph!!  That is the freeway!  So you could imagine the regular streets.  For instance, Amelia’s school is probably 5 miles way, it takes me 20 minutes to get her there!  Maybe its because I’m from CA and we drive crazy fast there.  I don’t know, I know I’m not the only one who isn’t a fan of the driving conditions here.  

I got 9...

#selfie

There is a FB status chain going around and I got 9.  So here goes 9 things you may not know about me....


1) When I'm really cold I start to gag!

2) When I was younger (like in high school) I was a big fan of the WWF/WWE! lol

3) At home it takes me forever to drink a cup of coffee, I microwave it at least 2 times

4) I've always wanted to go to cosmetology school

5) I REALLY love grocery shopping,  even more then shopping for clothes, purses, and shoes

6) I'm a list whore! I make lists for everything, makes me feel organized and more accomplished.

7) I play hopscotch with Amelia almost every morning during the week.

8) In high school I used to get kicked out of class a lot for talking too much.

9) I love writing.  Whenever I'm stressed or troubled I write.
 I use a pen and paper, something about handwriting feels more meaningful.

Churaumi Aquarium & Pizza in the Sky

What a busy weekend we had!  I really had nothing planned for this weekend; there were baskets of laundry, messy rooms, and an unorganized kitchen calling my name. None of that got done! Usually I would freak out at that notion, but we had a good weekend exploring Okinawa.  Much of the time our weekends are spent doing the usual, so its nice to go out and do explore.

Saturday we went to the aquarium.  Third largest aquarium in the world after Dubai and Georgia.  We've been before, but this was the first time with Nolan.  It was a weekend day but it actually wasn't too packed.  My fave part is seeing the whale sharks.  The tank that they are in is gigantic!  It's just so unreal to see them so close and just swimming about.  The kids were mesmerized by them.  Their little faces just looked so curious.  It was so adorable.  In every single tank Mills looked for Nemo or Dori.  Haha  She successfully found Nemo 4 times.

For an early dinner we headed to Pizza in the Sky.  We have never been there before but heard great reviews.  Pizza in Japan is definitely different. Its delicious, but I know many people who don't really like it.  Anyways, we heard that the view is to die for, the pizza is delish, but the wait is a monster.  So we prepared ourselves for a long wait.  When we got there we got seated right away and after ordering our food it took about 5 min. Maybe we were lucky, maybe we came at the right time, either way this place got 5 starts from us.  We ordered a pepperoni pizza for the kids and a "mix" pizza for Morgan and I, oh and a salad.
 
All in all great and fun filled Saturday!

Halloween Recap

Halloween was pretty calm this year.  Amelia didn't have school that day so we made sure to have some fun that day and night!

I dressed them in skeleton shirts for the day.  Amelia was really confused and fought me on wearing her shirt.  She really wanted to wear her costume all day.  It was raining that day and didn't want to risk her costume getting dirty.  {She has a thing about stains and if she sees one on her clothing she will immediately want to change}

For lunch I opted for a kid friendly place.  We went to one of our faves Blue Seal!  Their ice cream is the BEST!  They have a ton of flavors and lots of local /exotic flavors.  The food their is ok; they have hamburgers, hot dogs, and pasta. It's their ice cream that keeps us coming back.  I know the kids love it there so it was a good choice.

At night we decided to go trick or treating with our friends at the towers.  It was a rainy and windy night so it was best to stay indoors.  We only went to two towers, my kids are still young and can't go all night.  We met up with friends.  It was a good night and the kids got a decent amount of candy.  Nolan went to two houses before he started asking for stuff in his Halloween basket.  Haha Couldn't say no to him, he was such a cute monkey.