Crafting!

Lately, I have been crafting and packing. It's been a very busy couple weeks! I am throwing my friends Amanda and Tim a baby shower later in March so I am crafting to get ready for it :) I enjoy crafting so it's been fun! I do forget how time consuming the smallest thing can be though. I probably should have started a little earlier!

I'll post pictures of my completed projects after her shower so they can be somewhat of a surprise! But I have been sewing, cutting, gluing, wrapping, ribboning(if thats a word), pinning and more. Oh all while watching my toddler run away with something I need.

I know what you may be thinking, "I'm a stay at home mom, I have time to craft." Actually not the case, I have MAKE time to do just like anyone else. It's definitely easier to be with my toddler and teach her things and do our daily chores, but I am adding and WHOLE aspect to the day. So go away and throw that idea of "stay at home mom's have more time" idea. It's a complete fabrication and isn't true. Yes, I can make up my own schedule, to a point, but my whole day is revolved around my child and family. Anything I want to add to it, is exactly that, an addition to. Just like it is for those that work.

For example, I gave myself a goal of sewing a certain amount of "squares" a day. To meet that goal yesterday I had to wait till 930pm to even start the process of pinning and sewing.

Anyways, I LOVE doing it so I do. Plus I have to take advantage before I have 2 kids to watch and I am sure I won't even have time at 930pm to do anything besides being a milk farm and hoping for 5mins of uninterrupted sleep.

I have one picture for today(well yesterday since I am 21 weeks today!)

Gender Reveal - It's a boy!

So at our 13 week (12 for most but I was traveling) ultrasound, we found out the gender of our newest little addition! Of course it was still considered early so that's why I tried to not post it on the blog until recently. But the proof was pretty obvious and we love to share good news with our friends. I mean, thats what friends are for, right!? You share the exciting moments in your lives with them.

We found out on like a wednesday and "casually" invited everyone over for a get together dinner, which was actually going to be a surprise gender reveal party! We didn't want to tell everyone it would be gender reveal because then they likely would have guessed boy since I've heard it's easier to see a boy earlier than a girl on the ultrasound.

We got everything ready for those that could make it and I made cupcakes with blue frosting inside. Cole and I knew we were going to have a hard time keeping the news to ourselves throughout the whole dinner so once everyone got there, I pulled out the cupcakes and said "we're gonna do dessert first today". As a couple people grabbed cupcakes, I started to shake with excitement and said something along the lines of "so... we have some news. These are gender reveal cupcakes". I don't remember exactly what I said because this was almost 2 months ago.

My friends Erica and Stephanie bit into the cupcakes and saw the blue frosting :) It went exactly how I thought it would in my head and was really happy everyone was such a great sport about the whole thing :)

So as it turns out, we will have one of each! One girl(Elyse) and one boy!! We are super excited and can't wait to meet him. Here are a few pictures(some I've posted already, but go well with this theme) of how we wanted a "picture"gender reveal for everyone out there in cyberspace :)

Lent 2013 - End of VanCarthy Babymoon

  This year for lent, I have decided to give up facebook. I haven't gotten rid of my profile, I am just not checking it until Easter. I am also hoping that maybe, just maybe, I will get in the habit of not checking it as often anymore.

But of course, I still love to take pictures and update the interested parties about our lives. So I am going to blog and use instagram more often. I have definitely started my journey on instagram and am enjoying it so far. It's easy and just pictures. (and manipulating pictures, etc)

Here are few left over pictures from our last few days on our babymoon. If you follow me on instagram you will have seen some of these before. 

19weeks 2 days

Puzzle time!

My love and I on our last day

Feet in the water

Valentine's Day dinner at Roy's

Misoyaki Butterfish and seafood ravioli.. don't mind if I do!

Rare picture of all of us at Roys

Can't get enough of this view from the condo

Marriott Weather Station

Pregnancy Cartwheels

and in case you haven't heard......

Amanda and her no flavor shaved ice at Uncle's in Poipu 50cents!

Non-pregnancy cartwheels

Reunited family!

Big helper

On the way home!!!

Kayaking Adventure!

  Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today is our last full-day here on our babymoon. We have plans to relax, shop and then a nice dinner at Roy's in Poipu all together to top off the end of our trip. It's been a great trip with lots of fun memories and the creation of many inside jokes. (most at the expense of Amanda and myself of course:) )

Definitely one of the best trips we've had to Kauai :)

Yesterday we did our main activity while here. Kayaking, then hiking to the "secret waterfall". With Amanda and I both being pregnant, we were very limited on what we could do. We really wanted to take a sunset dinner cruise to the Na Pali coast but most boats would not take us, and the one that would was only available today. But we made our reservation at Roy's a couple weeks ago and didn't want to change it. So we decided the kayaking and hiking was still a nice alternative. Plus, who wants to drive all the way to port allen to get sea sick anyways, right!? HAHA next time I am sure I will :)

Well, the kayaking and hike went really well. (as you can see we rented a mini van.. good idea) We rented kayaks and went down the Wialua River. Cole and I had done this 2 years ago(also while I was pregannt) and it was really fun, but much much more muddy that time. Since we've been extremely lucky with the weather this trip is wasn't muddy almost at all. Also, when the guys when to pick up the kayaks, they told the locals we were pregnant and they told them a short route to the waterfall. Kayaking was a lot of fun and very exhusating. I am I still sore from the trip, but it was worth it. There was jumping fish and LOTS of roosters crowing along the way. 

On the hike we saw a couple pigs on the other side of the river than us and some mice once we got to the waterfall. The water was chilly but not terrible. The guys got in, and I kind of got in.

Once we finished, we headed back to the timeshare and spent the rest of the day by the pool. The guys had a few beers, we laid out and eventually we all got in the pool to play from "volleyball" with a beach ball. 

The guys being funny with shadows and our bellies.

Cole showing off how he chaffed his nipples while boogie boarding.

My belly is lopsided!!!

Wiamea Canyon and Kekaha Beach

  Yesterday, we had an easy day. We got up and slowly ate breakfast and got ready. We decided to check out Wiamea Canyon, aka Grand Canyon of Hawaii. Its about an hour or more of a drive from the timeshare to the lookout point. Unfortunately it is a whindy road and easy to get sick on. But it's definitely a must see in Kauai so we made our way up. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and was a great view of the canyon!

There was fruit stand at the top as well and we were able to get from fruit and dried fruit. Yum!!

On the way to the look out there are a few nice stops such as the red dirt falls.

But once we got up there it was pretty nice. We took more photos on our cameras and not our phones so I will upload those later. I fell asleep on the way down to avoid car sickness and thankfully it worked!! Once we were back down in Wiamea we went to a beach called Kekaha Beach. It was very sunny but had a breeze so it was nice since there was no shade. We got plenty of sun there! Also had a little fun in the sand as well!

Here's a little collage Amanda made from our time in the sand :)

Aloha!

Elyse's California Adventure!

  While we are in Kauai, Elyse seems to be having a great time with family in Sacramento, California.

She has been getting to know her family outside of Cole and I and is able to open herself up to creating a relationship with her grandparents. Of course, it's easy for her to cling to our sides when we are around but with us no longer being the easy solution, she seems to be doing really well. Also, she is able to make her grandparents really happy by being comfortable around them. I can tell by their enthusiasum that they are just thrilled to have her around and watch her grow as we have. 

She has so far spent time with my parents, Cole's mom and grandparents and will be spending time with Cole's dad and step-mom at the end of the week. Thank goodness for technology since Cole and I have been able to get pictures and facetime with her almost everyday. Here are a few pictures from her adventures so far. 

Making a mess at Mimi's house

pedicure time with halmony!

At the office with Halmony and Grampa Bill

Grandpa Bill takes Elyse to the park!

Babymoon - Day 3

One thing I really like about visiting Hawaii is that being jet lagged, isn't a bad thing. You tend to start your day earlier and go to bed earlier and really use those daylight hours :) Also, when you're on the island of Kauai, there are roosters, EVERYWHERE. Particularly one comes around every morning right in front of our window and screams(or whatever it is that roosters do) right around 3am. So you don't need an alarm :)

But even better is, you tend to be awake for the sunrise :)

A nice cup o' joe, and my ipad and the lanai. Clearly, I am even finding the time to blog in the mornings! (things are very different when you don't have a 1.5 year old to tend to every waking moment of the day)

Yesterday was great! We went up to the north shore of Kauai. Cole and I started off going to one of those timeshare presentations so we could get discounts and a $100 amex card. (mama needs new sunglasses!) It was in the same spot we went to last time we were here, which was in Princeville. We were nice but able to chop the 90min presentation down to 45min by basically telling them "we're expecting our second baby, just bought a new house and a new car so we just aren't in the market to buy a timeshare. Plus, my (nice) mother lets us use hers for free every year, we fly over using miles and only pay for groceries once we get here... so spending $14k into your program just isn't in the cards". They totally understood and were nice enough to let us take off early, with our gifts of course.

Then we met with timanada at Hanalei bay and relaxed, had lunch, the guys boogie boarded, we shopped a little(being hurried along while cole whined about how it was making him tired) and then checked out the closed beaches(tunnels, and Ke'e). With all the years I have visited this island, I had never really stayed at Hanalei bay beach and I really liked it! There was a part that was swimmable. I definitely like to hit my favorite spots here, but I also like to try something new at times so I was pretty happy about that choice :)

At the end of the day, the rain came so we headed down to our side of the island(the east side) and cooked dinner.(Steak, potatoes, carrots and asparagus) It was pretty healthy except I HAD to have sour cream and cheese on everything!

We ended the night with the board game trouble and the start of a puzzle. It was a pretty good day :)

Today we plan to head to sunny poipu so hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures!!

We miss our little girl so so sooo much and can't wait to see her but are trying to soak in the time of childless adults while we can :)