Date Night

When I was pregnant with Jackson, Shane and I made a promise to one another that with all the craziness that was heading our way, that we would never forget to reconnect when necessary – this was important to us and crucial to our marriage.  When Jackson arrived, we were so lucky to have a date night almost EVERY Friday night (thanks Mom!).  Those date nights started fading away once Malia was born. I was too tired, Shane was too busy and my mom got a new job which made it harder for her to get away to watch both kids.

We have begun to realize that we really need to have a date night once a month –and we HAVE to make it a priority.  I was even inspired by Carolyn at The Kipper House, where this mom of 3 plans a date night once a month. I figure if she’s got 3 kids and ZERO family nearby to babysit them – I can make our date nights happen!

Our date night for the month of May fell on Cinco De Mayo –which also happened to be our 5-year engagement anniversary. My mom took both kids for a sleepover at her house and Shane and I spent the evening like we were dating again. It was so nice to hold hands, laugh, kiss, have in-depth talks without interruption and honestly, just reconnect and remember WHY we fell in love.

We started out using a Groupon I purchased at COA Mexican Eatery. We got a flight of 3 tequilas and 2 appetizers. The tequila was disgusting – but the food was pretty good. We then had plans to go see the Avengers at the Cinerama– but since it was opening weekend (poor planning on my part), the line was around the block – no thanks. So on a whim we went to Wasabi Bistro and had drinks (best Margarita of my life by the way – who knew a Sake Margarita would be it!?). We sat and talked and didn’t even eat sushi (what’s wrong with us!) for over 2 hours. At this point it was my bedtime, but we were trying so hard to make the most of our evening together – so we walked across the street to Ohana's. We felt right at home with our late night snack of Spam Musubi and a Primo Beer.

The night was perfect and I am so excited for date night in June!

Tequila Tasting with yummy appetizers….

Seriously BEST Margarita ever…at a Japanese Restaurant


Then things got silly at Ohana’s. But that’s okay, because we are serious so much during the week! Time to let loose!

Easter 2012

Yeah, I’m a month late – but better late than never.

Easter was SO great this year! I am really loving our new way of celebrating holidays with our families.  We used to cram both families in ON the actual holiday, leaving no time for our little family. We felt rushed and exhausted by the end of the day – which doesn’t make much of a celebration. For Easter – we took the whole weekend to celebrate and it worked out so nicely.

We spent Saturday evening with the Makanani’s – doing and Easter egg hunt in the backyard followed by a delicious dinner. On Sunday, we woke up and Jackson and I made pancakes together. We went on a long walk, just our little family of 4 and fed the ducks – it was PERFECT!

Sunday evening, we ended our weekend celebration with dinner with the Sogn’s (my family) and bubbles on the deck with Auntie Becky.  It was a wonderful weekend – even though Jackson HATES the Easter Bunny (see picture below).


This was a “throw my kid on the bunny’s lap and run” kind of a picture. Turned out nicely, I think ;)

 

Malia Crawling

So I’ve been absent for awhile and I feel awful. I’ve probably lost all of my followers (if I had any to begin with) due to my lack of blogging.  I’m not sure if anyone recalls, but one of my new years resolutions was to spend more time with my kids, and less time on the web. I have succeeded pretty well and although I’m sad I don’t get to blog as much, I’m pretty happy with the time I’ve spent with my kids.

I’m pretty late with this – but I didn’t want to forget to post about Malia’s first crawl. It was one week before her first birthday – and once she started – she was off. She is pretty proud of herself and wants to crawl ALL THE TIME.  Last week, she found the stairs, and now every chance she gets – she is attempting to climb them. She’s made it to the top twice all by herself!

Here are the videos of her first crawl on April 6, 2012. The last one is pretty funny of Jackson.

Malia crawling

Malia Crawling 2

Malia crawling and our family chaos