Eric's special birthday surprise ;)

This post was written April 18, 2012. I have definitely made changes here and there because I was so emotional when I tried to type it out :) I was all over the place... as you are about to find out!

I just took a pregnancy test like 5 minutes ago.... I set the test down to let it "process" and asked myself if these stupid tests EVER show a second line? As soon as I finished thinking that question I looked at the test and a second line appeared! NO WAY! How is this possible? What does this mean?? (Ha ha, apparently I lose all brain power when I'm in shock!)
I snuck out of the bathroom (Eric was still sleeping) to grab my cameras and took pictures of the test. Gross, I know, but I had to :)  Then I think, is this real?? And then I start bawling, ha ha. I just want this to be real! I don't want my baby taken away, or for this to be a cruel joke. Eric and I want to be parents so badly!
Speaking of Eric... it's his birthday! BEST BIRTHDAY SURPRISE EVER :) If only I'd known about this sooner, I would have come up with a cute/creative way to tell him! Instead, I found a little cardboard box that is just the right size for the pregnancy test, threw it in and stuck a pink bow on top. If that doesn't give it away, I don't know what will :) I can't wait to give it to him!

There really are no words necessary for Eric's reaction. The pictures say it all!

  Ugly cardboard box, Courtney!

 Excited to see what's inside!

What the heck?

HA HA! You sooooo funny!

Wait, she's serious?

I'm going to be a dad.... happy tears!! :)

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I still tear up when I look at these pictures! Eric is going to be the best daddy!! He is so excited and has put up with me SO well! I'm almost 12 weeks (I just couldn't wait any longer to share the news, ha ha). I have been so lucky and I don't get sick unless I don't eat soon enough! I did experience a couple weeks of serious food aversions. Nothing sounded good ever, so I had a hard time putting food in my mouth. I totally stopped looking at Pinterest for a couple weeks and had a hard time looking at the pictures of food on Instagram :) But I am mostly over that! Remember how I was complaining about acne weeks ago? Well, I can officially blame that on my pregnancy hormones. No fun! Other than being extremely tired I have felt great! I'm hoping to get my energy back in the second trimester but I really can't complain much. Pregnancy has been great and we are just SO excited (and nervous) for what's to come!!

downtown Lahaina

Proud wifey right here.... gotta love him! ;) You better believe that we bought this shirt!

I'd heard that downtown Lahaina was a must see while we were in Maui and you know what? We loved it! Eric was sooo excited to eat at Bubba Gump! He loves the movie, Forest Gump! Me? Not so much. But that's beside the point.... we LOVED the restaurant! We had a gorgeous view of the ocean and food was delicious. 

My mom had heard about the Banyan tree and really wanted to see it. Of course we all teased her for being interested in seeing a "big" tree.... but it was actually really big. And pretty cool :) A quick description of the tree: This Banyan Tree was planted in April, 1873, and marked the 50th Anniversary of Christian missionary work in Lahaina. The tree was imported from India and was only 8 feet tall. It now stands over 60 feet high, has 12 major trunks in addition to a huge core. It stretches over a 200-foot area and shades 2/3 of an acre. 

(Sorry for the crappy pictures. I just couldn't figure out the lighting. I am far from understanding my dslr, ha ha! But I hope you get the gist of how huge the tree is!)

We had fun wandering through the shops and just hanging out! I tried my first Hawaiian snow cone and holy moly... it was amaaaaazing! I am kicking myself for only having ONE while we were on vacation because they were SO good. And I think baby wants more ;) But that could just be me!

Next time you find yourself in Maui, don't miss downtown Lahaina!

P.S. Thank you all for the love and excitement!! It made Eric and I SO happy to have so many of you excited about our baby :) I have the BEST bloggy friends!

I have a post coming with some details... can't wait to share it with you guys!

knocked up!

There's not much to see yet, but Eric and I are SO excited!!

sometimes life is hard. REAL hard.

Source: Uploaded by user via Courtney on Pinterest

My hometown is reeling after such tragedy yesterday... 5 boys passed away. I didn't know any of these boys too personally, but it breaks my heart to know that their families and friends (including my little brother) are experiencing such deep pains from losing a loved one. My heart aches for them, but at the same time I feel comforted in the fact that these boys are in a much better place! I know that they are surrounded with love in Heaven right now.
It is in these times of tragedy that we can choose to question all that we thought we knew to be true- or we can choose to take comfort in what we know to be true. I have questioned everything I'd ever believed about life and death, and I came out with a stronger belief in everything I'd learned.
1. I believe that we were given the choice to come to earth and learn.... We were aware of the heart ache and trials that would accompany life on earth, and we still chose to come. It is the only way that we can learn and grow.
2. I believe that families are forever. Death is so tragic but it truly helps my sadness to know that death is not the end. Our loved ones that have passed on are in a happy place, surrounded by love, and we will be in their arms again! This knowledge brings me such comfort!
3. God is good. He is not cruel. Miracles are born everyday as babies come straight from Heaven! What a perfect reminder of how much God loves us as he sends us sweet spirits each day. We would not be able to fully experience the joy of life, without experiencing the tragedy of losing life. I wish it wasn't so, but the heartache teaches us to love harder and more deeply.
(I realize that not everyone will agree with what I'm saying, and that's ok! I have come to know in my heart that these things are true. I believe it all. But this knowledge is something that each of us must search and yearn for. We must figure it out for ourselves.)
I will be spending this Memorial Day holiday remembering those that have sacrificed for our country, I will remember to not take our freedom for granted, and I will be praying for those who need comfort and love during this sad time. I will also hold my husband a little closer, and tell my family how much I love them. I guess we need times like this to remember how precious life is, and to realize how truly blessed we are.

 I am so grateful for this guy and our life together. So blessed!

beach days

body surfin'

pure joy :)

The best part of our trip was parking my beach bum in the sand and enjoying the ocean! I relaxed while Eric got beat up by the waves :) But he enjoyed every second of it!

My client lent me her book that held the secrets of Maui and we found an amazing beach that the locals hangout on. (So bummed I can't remember the name of the beach. But it was in Wailea.) The beach was great, the waves were perfect, and there was awesome snorkeling! We saw more sea turtles. What an amazing experience!

We also spent a day at Big Beach, the last undeveloped beach in Maui. The sand is supposedly the best sand on the island. The waves were much bigger here so I didn't spend much time in the ocean but the boys enjoyed their boogie boarding :) Oh, we saw sea turtles at this beach, too!!

I am convinced that life would be much easier if I lived near the beach ;) ha ha! I love it!

intruder!

A couple nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night and dragged my tired body out of bed to go potty. Don't worry, I don't lay toilet paper down on the seats in my own house ;) Anyway, the layout of our bedroom/bathroom is like this: there is a door way with no door that goes straight from the bedroom to the double sinks. Keep walking straight and you'll find yourself in the area with the toilet and tub/shower. There is a door that separates the "bathroom" from the sinks. Make sense? But if you don't walk straight into the "bathroom" you can turn left and you find yourself in our closet. Again, there is no door separating the closet from the sinks or bedroom. And the closet curves to the right so you can't see our clothes from the mirror above the sinks. Make sense? :) So if either one of us get up in the middle of the night we don't turn on any lights until we close the door to the bathroom because the lights will shine right on the bed.
Back to my story.... I flush the toilet and turn off the light, then I open the door and go to wash my hands. All the sudden I hear a wrapper crinkling in the closet.... OH MY GOSH! I start freaking out because it is pitch black and Eric is dead asleep. INTRUDER! I start running for the light that is TWO sinks away from me (so far away when you're in a panic) and I slam my knee into the door way. Awesome. I flip on the light to find ERIC standing in our closet looking at me like I'm a crazy person. I am about to fall over from a heart attack when he asks me what the heck my problem is?? Ha ha (I laugh now, but I wasn't laughing then) I wanted to kill him! I told him that I thought a stranger was in our closet! Apparently he wasn't sleeping good that night so he was getting some ear plugs (I totally don't snore. Promise) to see if that would help him sleep better. Needless to say, the man got in big trouble for not turning on any lights and scaring the crap out of me! Actually, or I should say honestly, I started crying and told him he was so mean for trying to scare me on purpose.... then I crawled back into bed and fell asleep. I don't handle stressful situations well when I'm half asleep, ha ha! Please tell me this has happened to someone else??

Molokini

One of our favorite excursions of the trip was going out to Molokini. We highly recommend this to anyone visiting Maui! We started out with breakfast on the boat and then we were on our way! Just a few minutes into the ride we spotted a humpback whale and her baby! It was very late in the season for the whales to still be in Hawaii so we were pretty lucky. That's my first time ever seeing a whale in the wild, in real life! Amazing!

I was dying not having my dslr with me on this excursion! I didn't get very good pictures but oh well. This was the mama whale. I wasn't able to snap any pictures of the baby.

Once we arrived to our destination we were in total awe. Molokini is a partially sunken volcanic crater, and the water in the crater is crystal clear! I've never been able to see so far... it was amazing! It was also freezing cold :) We made a mistake not renting a wet suit! I also made the mistake of not renting one of their underwater cameras. I totally forgot to pack mine and was so bummed because it was so amazing and beautiful in the water!

This is a really bad picture :) The crater is in the background.

You could see 150-180 feet in every direction underneath this water!

I forgot to take a close up picture of Molokini, but here's a shot from far away :)

After snorkeling at Molokini we headed to a spot they call Turtle Town. The water was barely warmer here so I was totally hesitant to get in. I finally jumped in with just a few minutes left to snorkel. I started swimming to find Eric when I saw a shark swimming towards the surface of the water! Ha ha, I freaked out until I realized it was actually a turtle :) Everyone crowded around the turtle so it swam right at ME to come up for air! I was a little nervous because you get a big, fat $10,000 fine if you touch a turtle! But it was so cool to be so close to the turtle. It paid off to wait so long to get into the water :)

After Turtle Town we ate some lunch, and then they took us for a ride along the coast of Maui. We were hoping to see dolphins but no dice. We did see more turtles though!

Acne is so cute.

Can you spot the turtle here?

And here? Sorry again for the crappy pictures! No dslr :(

It really was an amazing day filled with gorgeous underwater life and great weather! Of course the perfect way to end the day was having a flat tire on the rental :) Good thing I married a handy man! We may have dropped the fudge bomb a time or two..... A Christmas Story anyone??

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack... unfortunately

Don't ask me why.... but we came back from Maui. Crazy, I know! I wish I could live there and be on vacation full time, ha ha! But I'm happy to say that we had the best week! We've been planning this family trip for over 2 years and there were only 2 downsides. The first, Trevor and Alycia weren't able to make it :( We missed you guys! Having adult responsibilities is the worst, ha. And the second, we weren't thinking when we booked the trip and we only got 1 rental car. Eric and I definitely needed our own car, but you live and learn!
We stayed at a beach front hotel and loved every second of it. It was amazing to walk down the path and be on the beach! We explored a lot and spent more than enough time at the beach. I'm STILL finding sand in odd places, ha ha. The worst part of the trip was definitely the red eye flight home. I thought I'd be tired enough from playing that I'd sleep the whole way but NOPE! There is just no possible way to get comfortable on those awful planes. If only I could afford first class :) I was so dang tired after our flight that I curled up on the nasty LAX floor and took a nap during our lay over. Speaking of lay overs... those suck pretty bad. The airlines changed our flight plan just a couple weeks before the trip and added 4 hour lay overs in LA both ways. We are not happy customers. But enough complaining from me! I can't wait to share our experiences.... but until then here are a couple pictures of heaven!

The view from our balcony. Waking up each morning and eating breakfast was the BEST! So beautiful.

One stretch of our beach. We played on the stretch that wasn't rocky :)

The island across the ocean from our beach, but I don't know which island it is :)

The path leading from our hotel to our beach. I wanna go back!

P.S. No sunburns for me... woo hoo!

a peek into our home

I want to post a couple pictures of our home and talk about it for the sake of journaling.... but I feel no attachment to this house. It just doesn't feel like "home". I mean, the house is very nice and SO big for just the two of us, but it definitely feels like a rental. I've only hung 3 pictures on the wall, ha ha. Maybe if I host a little blogger party at my house it will make me decorate and have this place looking like it's "ours"? Except Eric would KILL me if I tried that :)

Our living room is really big, but it's an odd shape. If I could have my Christmas tree up all year then that spot in front of the bay windows would be perfect. But for now it's just an awkward, empty space. And yes, that is totally a huge teddy bear sitting in the chair in the corner :) We brought it out for our friends kids to play with and never put it away, ha ha!

I need to decorate above the cabinets!

I promise we have a 6th chair :) Eric was using it in the other room.

Our messy closet :) But it's huge! (Do you like our cheap "drawers"? We aren't buying a nice set until we buy a house so that they won't get scratched and ruined during moves.)

Eric loves his wall of hats (he has a billion more not pictured). In case you can't tell... he's a red sox lover :)

I have pictures lining the walls on the floor.... someday they'll go up?

Our house has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a 2 car garage. Nice and big :) It's been really nice to live in a house versus an apartment so that we can get an idea of what we like, and what we don't like for when we buy a home! I am so grateful to be living in such a nice house!  And who knows, maybe by the time we move out it will finally feel like home? :)

the last time I was in Hawaii...

- I was 15 years old.

- We spent a week in Oahu.

- Our taxi was a limo. That's the only time I've ridden in a limo :)

- My older brother, Trevor, wanted to be sure he went home with a tan so he didn't wear any sunscreen our first day there. My parents decided not to fight him on it since he was 18.... he'd learn his lesson real fast :) Trevor burned so bad that his skin was blue. I'm thinking the rest of the week wasn't very pleasant for him!

- I learned to surf along with my brothers and my dad.

- I was out surfing for too long and didn't reapply my sunscreen soon enough so the back of my legs fried. My skin was purple (we were a colorful family that week). My little brother, Derrick, couldn't resist telling me I looked like I "had a stick up my butt" anytime we walked somewhere. My skin was so fried that I could barely bend my knees! Random strangers would stop me and ask me if I was aware that my legs were burned pretty badly. As if the pain didn't clue me in on that fact....

- We enjoyed the best shrimp I've ever had!

- We did not do one hike that whole week. No hiking to waterfalls, and no hiking up a volcano!

- I met a boy, crushed on him, and got a kiss at the end of the trip :)


This time when I'm in Hawaii....

-We'll be in Maui.

- I plan on swimming in sunscreen. No sunburns this time, please!

- I probably won't be surfing. Eric definitely doesn't want to learn to surf.

- We're planning on hiking to some waterfalls and doing a bike ride down a volcano. Gotta make up for missing out on the last trip!

- I hope to drink my weight in Pina Coladas. The virgin kind, of course :)

- I will take TONS of pictures of the scenery... I really didn't take any on my last trip.

- We probably won't eat enough food, we have to pay the tabs this time. Being an adult is such a bummer sometimes, ha ha ha!

- I plan on kissing a boy, a lot. His name is Eric in case you were wondering....

little letters {to our mother's}

Dear Mom, all I can say is thank you for not killing me when I was a teenager :) I'm sorry I put you through those bratty times, I guess it's a good thing I was the only girl? Ha ha. But seriously, thank you for teaching me right from wrong, and everything in between (besides how to sew... but that's just not a talent we were meant to have). I am extremely grateful for all that you have done for me, and continue to do for me and Eric! Happy Mother's Day, we love you!

Dear Mom B, I am so lucky and so happy that I am apart of your family! I truly feel blessed to have you in my life! I just want to thank you for raising Eric to be the man that he is today. He is so dedicated, so loyal, so hard working, and so faithful and it's because of his parents! He could not have had better examples to learn from! Thank you for loving us and always being there for us! Happy Mother's Day, we love you!
P.S. We didn't get a picture together on the wedding day :( If I could go back and do pictures again I would have a lot more taken of me and Eric with EACH of our parents. Darn it. But look how cute this picture is :)