it's an Allie Day: December 2013

Tuesday, December 31

Happy New Years!

Can you believe tomorrow will be 2014? Seems crazy right? 2013 has been an amazing year but we are certainly getting excited for 2014!

In 2013... we welcomed Will home from his almost year long deployment to Afghanistan (ha well he actually got home a little over a week at the end of 2012), took so much needed family R and R time in Maui, took two trips back to the mainland, enjoyed some wonderful visitors (Hi Rem/Bobo!), experienced a terrible miscarriage and then just months later were overjoyed to discover we were having a healthy baby boy, celebrated a second birthday with our sweet girl, and so much more!! It has been quite a year and we feel very blessed.

Tonight we celebrated ringing in 2014 with...

(Champagne for Daddy and Sparking Cider for the Girls)

(and some delicious Pizza/Chocolate Fondue... perfect winning combo)

and here are just some of my favorite photos the week!

Will and I were lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful Hawaii hike date with this growing 28 week belly.

and we have been enjoying the beautiful December Hawaii weather everyday!

What are your New Year's Resolutions? Will and I have a couple of goals/resolutions! Always exciting to see what the New Year will bring.

xoxo,

allie

Friday, December 27

Christmas Day 2013

The morning started out like this....

(doesn't this picture say it all!)

I guess H lady was a good girl this year. Santa brought H tons of different things. Just to name a few- she got a Harper chair (in the next size up), baby accessories/high chair, play food, puzzles, a Little People Barn (a fav already), and lots of Minnie accessories. And she was very spoiled by her grandparents. Needless to say, she has been playing non stop.

And the big surprise of the day....

Meet "Racecar Cow"! Can you even believe this? Uncle Greg handcrafted this beautiful, incredible, amazing rocking cow! H has been riding it non stop and loving every moment. We can't even thank Greg enough for this incredible gift. We know it will be something our kids love forever!

We ended Christmas with a delicious dinner. I cooked up a storm (including an overcooked turkey ha) but overall it was delicious. I highly recommend this recipe - http://greatideas.people.com/2013/11/25/corn-pudding-classic-thanksgiving-side-dish-recipe-cheese/ . We were lucky enough to share it with Greg's parents Stan and Lynette!

It was a very Merry Christmas!

xoxo,

allie

Christmas Eve 2013

It is always a bit strange for us "Northerners" to celebrate Christmas in Hawaii... because it is 80 degrees. Ha but when in Rome, do what the Romans do... right? We had a wonderful Hawaiian Christmas Eve in the beautiful Hawaiian Sunshine.

Uncle Greg's parents were in town, so it was the perfect excuse to go to a Luau. There are several Luau's available all over the island (some more "local", some "fancier", some more touristy, etc.) We had heard fabulous things about Paradise Cove and thought like it seemed like a great idea to go before we have another newborn in the house! So on December 22nd we tried it out... Overall it was good but I think I still recommend the Polynesian Cultural Center Luau over this one... (although there are quite a few that I have not seen). H, on the other hand, adored it! She was so into the dancers and was lucky enough to go up on stage. It was a perfect Hawaii Christmas event.

Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for Santa. We made sure to decorate plenty of cookies for him.

(and this is how a toddler decorates with sprinkles....)

Will and I grew up going to Christmas Eve Church- it is a super important tradition to both of us and we feel so lucky to be able to continue it with our babies. Since we moved to Hawaii we have been going to the Main Post Chapel on post and love it... the Christmas Eve candle light service did not disappoint!

(baby William is really starting to show... good old 3rd trimester :)

xoxo,

allie

Sunday, December 22

Santa Claus!

This year our little girl was SO excited to go see Santa Claus (I can only imagine what next year will be like!)- What a fun age! Will and I decided to make it extra special and bring her out to dinner afterwards.... I know, seems like no big deal, right? Ha, well we rarely go out to dinner since cook almost every night (and the nights we do are usually date nights) so this was an extra special treat. We told her after she woke up from her nap. She was so excited to go out on a "big girl" date.

I love this photo! That is her kitty purse that she got all ready for the big occasion.

and just for fun....

(3 Months)

(15 Months)

(Two!)

H asked Santa for "Elmo stuff", "Baby stuff", "Candy" (ha), "Book-ys", "Shoes" (I am not sure where she got this one!) and "Little People"... We shall see :)

Can you believe next year we will have two kids on Santa's lap!

xoxox,

allie

Thursday, December 19

H's Teacher Christmas Gifts

I love Christmas... and it is a busy season of giving! Since H goes to school, just a couple hours a week, this was a our first year for teacher gifts; I feel more passionate about appreciating teachers since one of my younger (and cooler) sisters is an elementary teacher. I see how much time and effort goes into teaching. Although H is just in preschool once a week, those lovely ladies must have lots of patience taking care of those sweet 8 toddlers. I just think a small token of your appreciation, as a parent, during the Christmas season, goes a long way. This year H and I decided to give nail polish- it seems odd but who doesn't love some nice nail polish in fun colors? Since she has all female teachers it was an easy fun gift!

We also made Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce for all of our neighbors. Since we live on post and a little cul-de-sac, we have lots of close friends on our street! This recipe was seriously easy and so delicious. I recommend very dark chocolate and the mason jars were the perfect container. I had to triple the recipe for 6 mason jars.

Makes about 2 cups
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup or golden syrup
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, ideally dark
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or level 1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, or to taste

xoxo,
allie

Wednesday, December 18

20 Days of Christmas

This year we are doing the "20" days of Christmas for our Advent Celebration/Calendar. We cut it short from the normal 25 days because we were busy traveling for Thanksgiving (I need to do a huge blog post on our mainland adventures) but since Christmas is less than a week away, I thought I would share some of our recent activities!!!

Since H lady is a HUGE fan of books.... I wrapped up 20 books/crafts/cookie cutters/activities to make Christmas a bit more fun.

Harps has been LOVING it. And it is a wonderful day to do some Christmas reading... The only issue is she insists on reading each book before bed (needless to say, we had to make story time earlier!).

We have also been busy...

Baking Cookies...