maui report #3 & a question answered.

we hit up big beach the other night & it pretty much rocked.  my socks.

{p-ray & sam}

{the boys waiting to catch the big wave}

{christie on the boogie board}

{p-ray & i}

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and now, a question answered from my "ask me anything" post. today's question is brought to you by mrs. s. she asks:

"What is your wedding/engagement ring look like? Did you pick it out or was it a complete surprise by Sam?"

ooooh, fun question.  this is what my ring looks like:

and i picked it out.  when sam proposed, he did it with a dozen roses & then told me we got to go ring shopping.  and i love it.

i am still in need of more questions to answer while i'm "vacationing" from blogging. feel free to leave questions in the comments here or email me at agoodlifeblog {at} gmail {dot} com. if you would like more info, check out the deets here. mahalo.


also? i love your votes. truly madly deeply.

weekday recap - {in iPhone pics} w.11

this week was spent vacationing in hawaii.  it began with the six hour flight to maui where parker slept, played on our laps, & read magazines with sam.  he did awesome.

tuesday was our first full day in maui.  christie, kim, & i laid out by the pool while the guys played with their snorkel gear like little boys.  we then went & got some hawaiian shave ice, which was amazing.  no seriously.  they put ice cream at the bottom & top it with a hawaiian sweet cream.  the sunset was awesome.  i'm not sure life gets any better.

we left the condo at 4:00 am wednesday morning to watch the sunrise at kaleakala crater.  totally worth the car sickness from the windy mountain switchbacks & the loss of sleep.  it was gorgeous.  we stopped in a small town on the way back for breakfast & browsed some surf shops.  i was pretty close to buying a big floppy hat but held out.  the rest of the day was spent hanging out & bbq-ing burgers.  no big deal.

thursday morning we found p-ray in his bed with his blanket up over his head.  crazy kid.  we lounged around the house most the day {apparently parker enjoyed lounging across kim's lap} & then drove an hour or so for a pretty sweet hike.  we finished the night off with some mexican food.  

and maybe i ate three baskets of chips & salsa.

sam, parker, & i got up early & went for a little family stroll down the main streets of kihei this morning & took time to stop & smell the hibiscus.  then christie & i played a pretty intense game of tennis against ryan & ben, who barely beat us.  they got lucky.  that afternoon we headed out to big beach & played in the water & watched the sun go down.  

maui, you complete me.

did you take your "week in camera phone" pictures? 
there's only one rule to linking up... your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it! you don't even have to have a picture for every day. got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week? link up!

grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog too. the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

grab the code here: 

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=72889" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:

maui report #2 & a question answered.

we hiked to some waterfalls & pools yesterday & since i was told we'd be walking through water, i brought the point & shoot rather than the dslr.  here are some pics.

it was beautiful & warm & so freaking fun.  

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and now, a question answered from my "ask me anything" post.  today's question is brought to you by summer.  she asks:

"since blogging has become so popular lately, do you ever feel overwhelmed to keep up with your blog?"

ummmm, hmm.  i wouldn't say i feel overwhelmed so much, but being a blogger definitely does add one more thing to my "to-do" list.  and i do often find myself wondering how much extra time i would have in my day if i bagged the whole thing.  so, i have promised to tell myself to never blog if i don't want to.  if i have nothing to post or am feeling just too overwhelmed, i won't do it.  but then i find myself, often times at 10 pm, with an idea in my head & something i want to post.  and i blog.  and?  it takes the place of other hobbies... it takes the place of a scrap book, a baby book, & a journal.  it serves as all three of those things.

short answer:  the day i feel too overwhelmed & find myself dreading my blog or feeling like it's interfering with my every day life, is the day i no longer blog.  or at least, the day i skip a post.

i am still in need of more questions to answer while i'm "vacationing" from blogging.  feel free to leave questions in the comments here or email me at agoodlifeblog {at} gmail {dot} com.  if you would like more info, check out the deets here.  mahalo.

nine months

parker turned nine months old yesterday & now he has officially been an outside baby longer than an inside one.  everyday he reminds me more & more of a little boy instead of the tiny newborn he used to be.  he uses me as his own personal jungle gym & loves to rough house & wrestle.  he gives wet kisses to the face by pressing his open slobbery mouth to your cheek & he gives the best hugs & snuggles.

here's my little baby all growed up to nine months.
{compare previous monthly pics here}

the thing parker has really mastered this month is the art of standing.  he crawls to where he wants to be & then pulls himself up to look around or grab whatever he had his eye on.  he hasn't quite figured out how to get himself down from standing, so a lot of my time is spent helping him down.  he will pull himself up, play a while, & then whine fearfully until he is rescued.  

he's back into solid foods.  particularly cheerios & yogurt snacks.  we feed him pieces of whatever we're eating, too.  so far he loves wheat bread, avocado, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, rice, & apples.  he does great with a sippy cup & guzzles water.  he takes steps while holding on to things {the couch, the coffee table, your hands} & his favorite game to play on his own is "push the toy around the room."  he sees something he likes, crawls to it, then pushes it a few feet away.  then, repeat.  while he's being held, he loves to flip backwards & hang upside down & be tickled.  you'll pull him back up rightside & he'll flip himself backwards to do it again.  he loves music & singing & will sing along to music he hears.  including when he's being sang to before naps or bedtime.  he has the cutest, softest, little sing-song baby voice.  he loves story time.  when he sees you pulling out his books he kicks his legs & shakes his arms & giggles.  he'll lay on his back & look up at the pages & pictures for about half an hour before he loses interest.

he goes to bed every night around 8:30 & sleeps til 8ish, waking up once to eat around five or six.  if you're laying on the floor, he'll crawl to you & tackle your face.  he wears size four diapers, his clothes are anywhere from six to eighteen months, & the cutest new thing he does this month?  waves to you when you wave to him.  it's adorable.

and he is still so dang cute.

and for good measure, a picture of p-ray in maui.  in his zip down swim shirt & swim trunks.

love this kid.


love votes too. really.

wordless wednesday - maui sunset & sunrise

and here are some cliche sunset & sunrise hawaii vacay pics.  why?  because they're purdy.

there wasn't a cloud in the sky last night, which made for an uneventful sunset.  but honestly?  there is really nothing uneventful about watching a sun disappear quickly before your eyes into the ocean from your balcony.  i could get used to that.

but ya wanna know what i'm not sure i could get used to?  getting up at 3:30 am to watch a sunrise.  however, it was definitely worth it once.

we drove up to the haleakala crater {the third tallest mountain in the world} & watched the sun rise.  it was windy & cold, and the two & a half hours it took to drive up the curvy mountain switchbacks was both stomach churning & nausea inducing.  but?  it was worth it.  it was beautiful.

linking up with pastor's girl's ponderings,  the paper mama babybabylemon, a little king & i, & a beautiful mess.

maui report #1 & a question answered.

aloha yo.  we made it!!  i'm comin at ya from maui & have time for a quick update.  everyone just went down to the beach when p-ray was in dire need of a nap, so i volunteered to stay back & let him sleep in peace.  don't feel sorry for me, i'm hanging out on the balcony sipping pog with a lap top & sunglasses listening to birds chirp & enjoying a cool breeze.  it's only 10:30 am here & i'll get the afternoon beach shift when it's actually prime laying-out conditions.  so it's all good.

here are a few pictures from our trip thus far.  which, by the way, has been absolutely-beyond-belief-amazing.

parker & sam watching planes taxi around at the airport.

the view up the aisle from our seats.  we had a row of three all to ourselves, which made the six hour flight comfortable & totally bearable.

parker was a champ on the flight.  he slept for two hours, played on our laps for two hours, & played buckled in his car seat for two hours.  no screaming occurred.  prayers answered.

we met up with our friends at the maui airport.  we are vacationing with ryan & christie {in pink}, & ben & kim {on the right}.  christie just found out her 18 week old baby bump is housing a boy!  hooray!! parker is so excited for a new best buddy.

me & p-ray upon arriving at the maui airport.  excited to be on solid, tropical, warm, sunny ground.

christie & ryan, enjoying some maui tacos.  i'm pretty sure i'll be living on their baja fish tacos while we're here.

the view from our balcony.  where i'm typing this up from, right now.  see?  i told you not to feel sorry for me while everyone else is at the beach.  i am juuuuuuuust fine.  {and am hoping parker takes a nice. long. nap.}

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and now, a question answered from my "ask me anything" post.  today's question is brought to you by sara.  she asks:

"are you done with Parker or do you want more gorgeous bundles?"

good question.  and it's one that is super easy to answer:  of course we want more!  and if they were all like parker, i'd want at least ten more.  but alas, it was hard for me to get pregnant the first time, so we'll take what we can get.  and honestly at this point i can't think past having just one more.  i'm going to take it one kid at a time.  we know we want at least one more & then we will re-evaluate the situation then.  

so, the short answer is this:  yes.  we want at least one more.  thanks for asking!

i am still in need of more questions to answer while i'm "vacationing" from blogging.  feel free to leave questions in the comments here or email me at agoodlifeblog {at} gmail {dot} com.  if you would like more info, check out the deets here.  mahalo.

and? thanks for voting.  your votes mean a lot to me.  even when i'm on vacation!

the toilet phone works.

so after about 40 hours of rice-bag-rehab, i turned my phone on last night to find that it works!  hal-le-freaking-lu-jah.  i mean, i had spent those 40 hours convincing myself i could totally live without my iPhone... but the truth is:  i can't.  ok well maybe i could, but life just wouldn't be the same.  so yeah.  it works & i'm pretty happy about it.

experience recap:  rice bags & blow dryers do wonders for toilet-water-soaked-phones, but it's best not to drop them in said toilet in the first place.  now we know.

today is travel day for us.  we have six hours on an airplane until we arrive in maui & i'm praying that parker decides his morning nap should coincidentally be six hours. however, i'm afraid the chances of that are slim so we're armed with books, toys, snacks, sippy cups, & movies.  that ought to get us through the first hour.

despite the nagging feeling like i'm forgetting something {i know i am, it's inevitable}  i think we're ready to do this.  i'm excited.

and if p-ray does decide to be a fuss-bucket on the plane, i'm pretty sure we'll all be fine.  i mean, who could stay mad at this face?

wish us luck.  next time ya hear from me, we'll be coming at ya from maui.  aloha!!


how about a good luck vote?

ch-ch-ch-changes & winner winner chicken dinner.

you might be asking yourself what parker is so deep in thought over in this picture.  i'm pretty sure he's trying to decide whether or not he likes the changes to the blog.  can you tell what's different?  i'll give you some hints... header, buttons, columns.  to start with.  let me know what you think!

and i just realized i was a slacker in posting the Taylor Joelle giveaway winner!  it was random.org's pick number 26....

congrats brittani!

and you guys?  my iPhone is still sitting in a bed of rice drying off from last night's watery incident.  i haven't tried turning it on yet because i'm afraid if it doesn't turn on, all hope will be lost.  at least right now i have hope.  but the important thing is that i actually survived through the day without it!  i didn't know it was possible.

and now i'm off to pack for hawaii.  happy sunday!


sunday would be happier with your vote. i promise!

weekday recap - {in iPhone pics} w.10

how have we been doing this linky for ten weeks already?  cah-raziness.  here's our week:

parker now stands up when he wakes up from naps & waits for you to come get him.  it's kinda hilarious.  still haven't lowered that crib... hmmm. we really should do that.

monday night p-ray & sam played a game of "roll the b-ball back & forth."  it might sound boring to you & me, but they do it for the longest time & it makes parker giggle uncontrollably.  maybe it's the future NBA star in him.

later that night i was frustrated with parker's biting while nursing & contemplated cracking the lid of the formula sample we have kicking around the house.  more on this later in the week.

tuesday was my day in the office & i was quite productive, thankyouverymuch.  i was so proud of the pretty map i made for a report that i took a quick picture.  it was pretty, trust me.

when i got home i decided to pump & give parker a bottle rather than nurse.  the biting has taken quite a toll on my lady bits.  and you know what?  this was the first time i'd ever given parker a bottle... up until tuesday, it had always been sam.  mommy-milestone.

tuesday night we took a family field trip to target.  clearly parker was unimpressed.

on wednesday i felt the need to wear something other than a hoodie & sweats, & commemorated the occasion by lots of pictures.  it was a rare weekday moment brought on by reading too many fashion blogs... particularly this one {be prepared to throw up at how cute she is}.  also?  i kinda fell in love with that blogger's brown boots, so i ordered the same ones from famous footwear.  they can't come soon enough.

and then it happened.  i couldn't pump enough thursday morning to satisfy parker's hefty appetite, so i cracked open the formula can.  that picture above is parker experiencing his first taste of formula.  he really didn't seem to mind.  at all.  after he guzzled some formula, we headed to story time at the local library.  parker didn't quite understand that the rattle was meant to be shaken with the music rather than shoved down his mouth.  ah well.

friday was going great.  p-ray & i had a fun day of going to stroller strides, hanging out, making weird faces at the cute boy in the mirror {& parker likes to give him wet kisses in the mirror too}, doing fun hang-out-at-home things, then sam came home & we headed to costco & out to eat.  {sam is not posing in this picture... he is showing me the wifi-capable tv he wants.  parker digs it too.}

but then?  friday got awful.

BECAUSE I DROPPED MY iPHONE IN WATER.  yeah.  i don't want to talk about it.  let's just say it's sitting out in the living room with the blow dryer going on low before it goes to bed in its ziplock bag of rice.  my stomach is in knots as i type this.

so now i'm going to bed.  i hope you all had a better end to your week than i did... i hate to be this much of a downer but you guys?  i'm not too happy. 

did you take your "week in camera phone" pictures?
there's only one rule to linking up... your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it! you don't even have to have a picture for every day. got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week? link up!

grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog too. the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

grab the code here:

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=70973" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:

the part where you ask me stuff.

so i may or may not have mentioned that we were headed to hawaii soon.  cuz ummmmm, we are.  in like, three days.  AHHHH!!!  obviously i won't be doing blog posts per the ushe, but i don't want it to be all crickets in here either.

so here's my idea.  YOU:

that's right.  you guys... meaning, my friends, family, readers, & bloggity friends... yup.  all-y'all need to ask me stuff.  i will try to pick a question a day while we're on vacay & answer it on ze blog.  along with a hawaii picture.  mmmmk?

keyword:  try.  it's hawaii, people.

there is nothing off limits, but i do get to pick what is answered & what isn't.  & i will post who the question came from... unless you want to be anonymous.  that's fine too.

leave your questions either here in the comments or email me at:

in other news:

i think parker's nursing days are numbered.  we've been having biting issues {with those four sharp little teeth} which makes feedings stressful, painful, & traumatic.  because of this stress, i think my supply has tanked & is going away.  today was the first day parker had formula & it was waaaaaaayyy harder on me than i had anticipated.  he, however, guzzled his bottle & seemed satisfied to finally have a full meal.  

nine months of nursing is pretty good, right?  please leave your positive formula-feeding-feedback in the comments.  i thank you in advance.


and? i thank you in advance for your vote. thank you!