Our life in paradise...

So A LOT has changed since I last blogged... let me try and re-cap. In June we came to Canada for a family vacation and to go to Mike's brother's wedding. We had a great time and really loved seeing family, being outdoors in the fresh Canadian air and Bentley loved playing with his cousins. The wedding was truly beautiful. (I'll post picture to prove it!) So we say our goodbye's and are looking forward to going back to Hawaii ...BUT while we were in Vancouver everything changed. This is actually a long story but i'll try and sum it up. Mike's visa was denied at customs even though it was still valid until October. WE HAD TO MOVE HOME. Wow, it was so unreal, everything changed so quickly. He wasn't even allowed to fly back to help pack up. SO basically we ended up missing our(my) flight and got a hotel that night to figure out our new plans. I ended up flying with Jackson to Hawaii to pack up our place, finish working and move back to Canada. Mike took Bentley back to Edmonton. That was the longest month ever! Luckily 2 of Mike's sisters ended up coming to help me which was awesome. All of our amazing friends in Hawaii were so helpful too. We miss them so much (and the weather)!! So, basically that was our summer in a nutshell. Looking at my blog tittle I was thinking.. what am I going to call my blog now.. not that I really ever post much anyways ;) but I think I'll keep it the same.. we just live in a colder paradise now... :)

Red Rock Canyon


Bentley trying to feed the chipmunks rocks

Top of Bears Hump (you can see the town where my parents live in the background)

Bentley and I at Cameron Falls

Checking out a deer

Blurry, but I like this one.. Daddy and B going for a ride


Bentley at the wedding. Jon and Lindsey got married at the Cardston Temple
and their reception was at Echo Lake in Montana. So Beautiful!

Bentley's 3rd Birthday!!!

Benny and some of his buds!

His FAVORITE toy right now.. nice work Madilyn!



Swinging on some vines..

We had an Easter egg hunt at his Birthday party and it was so much fun... maybe too much fun for me hiding the eggs.. the tree's were perfect! It was a great afternoon with some of the greatest people!
We took him to Chuck-e-Cheeze.. he's been talking about this for months!
We started off the day going to the beach, Bentley's favorite thing to do. It's so funny, several times we've had tourists ask for pictures with him! Maybe he looked like a real Hawaiian kid
Mike's takes every chance to "teach" him how to surf. It has payed off because he is really a fish in the water and loves dunking himself and holding his breath!

Baby Jackson..

Suprise! Yes I'm still alive! We've just been without internet for a while so I kinda do feel outta the loop! Anyways, Jackson was born January 3rd and he is such a sweet baby. I'm really going to try harder and be better at blogging so that my family can see the boys more! So here are some pictures for now!

Coming January 11th, 2011...

We are really excited! It's going to be so fun for Bentley to be a big brother. He kisses my tummy and says Baby but I don't think he really get's it yet. I've been A LOT SICKER than with Bentley but finally starting to feel better. Something really odd that has happened it I have a phobia of the sun since being pregnant.. I just want to be in a thunderstom and were a hoodie. I hope it passess because I DO live in hawaii! It's kind of crazy, I'll look outside and it will be all sunny and I'll feel really nauseous! I've been craving five-a-live tropical and Olive garden salad and breadsticks.. hmmm yummm

Mike's Graduation & Bentley's 2nd Birthday!

Mike graduated April 10th, 2010!! So exciting! Although he still has one week left of spring term left. It was so great to have my parents here! They came for their spring break. It's a tradition in hawaii to give a lei when you graduate so their were some people with sooo many! It was a wonderful ceremony. Elder Clark spoke about the family and we ate at Lei Lei's that night (the restaurant at turtle bay), and I had the best fillet mignon ever! I'm pretty picky about meat, but it was hands down the best steak I've ever had!

We had a little pizza party at Kapiolani Park for Bentley's birthday! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here in hawaii. The kiddies had fun trying to get the soccer ball pinata, I think Mike ended up breaking it.. Here is the big birthday boy!

Back to work...

So it's been a while eh? A lot has changed around here. Let me start off in November where I left off. We went back to Canada and spent Christmas holidays with family! It was great. I went a few weeks before Mike and got to experience the -57 Celsius cold!! Which was so ridiculous! I wish I took a picture of what it looked like outside.. it truly looked like opening the door to a deep freeze, if that makes sense, but pretty frost. Mike had fun making a 6 foot high slide out of snow, a skating rink and an igloo. Watch the video on YouTube and you'll understand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqG5BfnDANw
I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids!

Bentley is doing well, he is talking a lot more and is still obsessed with getting our keys and trying to get in the drivers seat. He could stay in there for hours but we haven't been letting him since he is getting older but he doesn't seem to be forgetting about it! Also, he has been going potty, #1 and #2 quite often on the potty. I didn't really think of starting him this early but we found a brand new potty seat thing at a garage sale for $3 and he wanted to use it!

Mike is busy with school and trying to make plans for after he graduates in April. As for me, I've come to grips with having to go back to work to make ends meet. This week was my 1st week back and I'll be doing 50 hours. Usually I'll just do 3x 12 hour shifts a week. I really do feel to lucky to have such a great job especially considering unemployment is at it's highest now. So I just have to look at the good side. I really miss being home with Bentley but it works out that Mike will mostly be home to watch him.

Lastly, I've been really really grateful for EVERYTHING I have been blessed with recently. I don't know what it is but recently there have been so many people I know going through very difficult trials. I'm so lucky to have Bentley and such a wonderful husband. One of my best friends in Canada who is a nurse too just recently went to Haiti to help. She told me a really touching story, here is it. So they camped out at an orphanage and there was a little boy about 2-3 who came up to her and kept trying to ask or tell her something. He kept asking and asking and she just thought he was asking for candy and she said she didn't have any. Well she found a translator and all he was asking her for was to be HELD... isn't that so sad! I just cried when she told me that! It's so important to CHERISH our kids!

Well, to leave on a lighter note, you guys HAVE to check out this video! It is of Mike's really good friend here who went swimming with whales and dolphins, by himself, with just snorkel gear. He is a man vs wild kind of guy...the video is incredible! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwfmfT7IAZk

what we've been up to..

Here are some random pictures from recently. We've been to the zoo I don't know how many times, Bentley just loves it. Lots of birds for him to chase around and goats to harass... poor goats. Bentley and I will be going to Canada in a couple days and staying till new years eve! Believe it or not I'm really excited to be in some cold weather and were some jeans and a hoodie without sweating! Our A/C broke here so it's been uncomfortably warm. Mike will join us after his exams in December. Im going to work while I'm there and try to save some money for next semester.. I CAN"T wait for Mike to be done school!!! We still arn't really sure where or what we'll be doing afterwards. Isn't that exciting (in a sarcastic voice). I'm really looking forward to settling down somewhere and actually having an income!