Giving Thanks

Today, I'm thankful for this holiday and the impending holidays, because even though other times throughout the year I may lose track of my priorities, it never fails that the holiday season beginning reminds to me to take a minute out of my busy schedule every day to remember how lucky I am.  To remind myself that sometimes I don't focus on what is really important.  To remind myself to reprioritize and never take any of the many blessings in my life for granted.  To remember that quality is much more important than quantity.

Big Families

Today I'm thankful that I have a big family.  I would have been so lonely without my 3 amazing siblings, my parents, my grandparents and all my aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as extended family which we are close too.  I could never have wished for more kind, loving, smart, funny and generally fun to be around people to grow up with in my life.

I promise, I'll be spending a lot of tomorrow (while everyone is watching football) editing photos (amid spending time with family) so that I can post a bunch of Hawaii recaps really easily without much effort or time required! :)

10 Months & 28 years

I'm not posting about Hawaii today because there is something much more important to celebrate- Kayla is 10 months old today!!  I literally cannot believe it.  I don't know how in the world we got here, but here we are.

But in all seriousness, today is my birthday.  I don't talk about it before like the day before because I don't like it.  I practically forgot it was even coming up at all.  It's not because I think I'm old, it's just that, I guess, it's too close to a busy family holiday for anyone to really remember without me reminding them.  So I choose not to say anything, and if people remember, awesome.  If not, it's no skin off my back.  This probably sounds really depressing but it's just how I feel.

I had to spend today at the clinic I work at only once a week (that I hate), and then I sat in traffic for an hour and a half on my way home.  But, today I'm thankful because how can it not be a great birthday when I come home to this:

1.  A smiley face cupcake (that I bought for myself)

2. This curious little monster:

Who has to have the sweetest smile on her face I've ever seen when I get home from work:

And who gives the best hugs:

So, I'm sorry my Hawaii posts have been so spread out.  I'm not even going to make an excuse. :)  I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming tomorrow (and hopefully a combo 9 mo/10 mo update this weekend!)

In photography news, as much as I love photoshop, I love even more when I take photos and they are already awesome SOOC (straight out of camera), like these photos today- hardly any editing! 

Kona, HI Day 4

I was contemplating just editing photos tonight and not writing a full post since I am uber busy at work this week and I am so tired (I think because Kayla's been teething and had her first fever over the weekend and I'm just worried about her so every little noise she makes wake me up at night) and I just didn't feel like posting.

Then I looked at my photos from Day 4 to find out if it would be a long or a short post.  Turns out we didn't do much but enjoy the scenery and the rental house on our 4th day in Kona.  Honestly, the house and view were so gorgeous it was nice to sit and enjoy it for at least one full day.  After this day, we were very busy with activities.

So we lounged.  And drank.  Soaked in the sunshine.  And generally enjoyed the amazing views...

I could stare at this all day.

The house is directly to my right from this point of view.

Look at this amazing house we got to stay in!

Neighbors

Our Honu (turtle) friend...do you see him?

Honu again

"Purple blobby thingys"

Kayla during our lunch break from the pool and sun.

Dad enjoying the bloody mary's and vodka tonics a bit too much. :)  (Vacation Dad is a little more fun.)

Today, I am thankful for my little sister.  Not sure why today in particular, but really, I'm thankful for her every day.  I'm so glad that we live closer to her now and Kayla can't wait to go visit her in Milwaukee and see her new apartment.

Kona,HI Day 3

Day 3 in Kona left us wandering around quaint little Kailua/Kona town.  Not sure what exactly prompted us to make the trip...it may have been trying to convince Brendan to buy some new sunglasses since his 5 dollar faux RayBans broke.  It's also not hard to convince Markowski women to go shopping (O'Neil genes.)  

So off we went, all of us packed in the rental suburban.  We shopped a little and stopped at one of the many restaurants to have lunch.  The town was so nice to drive through, especially at night, with all the little shops on street level and open air bars above and all around.  

Brendan and Justin at lunch.

Note: Broken sunglasses above right eye.

Kayla was, once again, a little angel for the most part while we shopped and ate and shopped again.

Little baby eyelashes.

And what is lunch or any meal in Hawaii without a drink?

Mai Tai in a pineapple anyone?

Girly Fruity drink

It's really hard to beat these views while shopping.

We arrived at the little shopping center and a few of us grabbed some ice cream.  Kayla was L-O-V-I-N-G it...and crying when we tried to stop giving her some. (Sorry these ones are blurry.)

I <3 this ice cream!

Shops.

While Justin and I stopped at the sunglass hut (because who can go to Hawaii and NOT buy a pair of expensive sunglasses?), Lauren and the gang saw a turkey near our parking spot.  Lauren took about 15 photos...I chose 2. :)

We got back to the house, and while Kayla took a quick nap, the adults all got ready for our big night out.  Dad's president and his wife were also staying on the island about 40 minutes north of us with some of their family.  Mom and Dad are always talking about them and they wanted to meet us to put names to faces.  We drove up to the Fairmont Orchid at Mauna Lani and ate at Brown's Beach House Restaurant.  If you are ever on the Big Island and have a good amount of money to spend on a great meal, I highly suggest this place! :)  I had the sustainable seafood trio. It was delicious. 

Kayla was great throughout the dinner and was great entertainment for everyone on the beach since Justin and I ended up walking around a lot with her.  She was getting very tired and ended up falling asleep for good on my shoulder.  Have I mentioned this is my absolute favorite thing that babies/toddlers/kids do?  That awesome cuddling position where their head is in the nook of your neck...sigh. :)

Check out this sunset/view!  

And then we were off to bed after a (seemingly much shorter) ride back to the house.  Kayla slept the whole way.  

Speaking of which, today I'm thankful for a sleeping baby, even if she's been waking up earlier in the morning.  Seven straight hours of sleep is so different from 2 or 3 short stretches.  

More posts coming soon since I figured out how to get my photos to slowly upload to photobucket. :)

EEK!

So I edited 3 days worth of photos today and while I've been trying to upload them to my photobucket account so they aren't blurry, photobucket decided to suck the big one and just quit uploading my photos.

SOO, hopefully tomorrow things will be working a little more smoothly and I can post Days 3, 4 & 5 recaps tomorrow!  Until then, enjoy this photo (1 of 3) I took of Kayla and I at the southern most point in the USA with my iPhone.  I heart my iPhone.

Tylenol and Breastfeeding

Today, I'm thankful for Tylenol.  Kayla is getting all top four teeth at the same time currently, causing some poor sleeping and some SEVERE fussiness today.  I'm not gonna lie, I'd rather her be straight up crying because the fussing has to be the most annoying thing.

Although, I did love the extra cuddle time I got today, Kayla was pretty much attached to my hip all day.  She almost fell right asleep only an hour after she woke up from her first nap while we were dancing to Christmas music when we were home alone!  Poor little stinker....

Thank you, Tylenol, for easing my baby's fever today, the first inkling of a fever she has ever had.  Which reminds me, I'm also thankful for breastfeeding, which I honestly believe has helped keep Kayla healthy these last 10 months (minus the dreaded thrush.)

Tomorrow, I'll be back with maybe TWO Hawaii recaps (if you are lucky and if Kayla is feeling better). ;)

Toddle-r

So Kayla has been perfecting her walking for over a month now.  Yesterday I kept saying to my patients how I'm now understanding why everyone says early walkers are hard.  She gets into EVERYTHING now.  And today, I was thinking about the word "toddler" and when exactly your baby changes to a toddler...so I thought:

Well, you know that rule in the English language where you add -r/-er to the root verb to make a noun that means "one who does said verb?"  So I looked up "toddle" in the dictionary.  No, I'm not joking. :)

To toddle: 1. to walk with short, unsteady steps 2. to walk leisurely; stroll

So a toddler is one who walks with short, unsteady steps (or walks leisurely/strolls).  Well, I guess I've had a toddler for a while now.  Now gonna lie, I'm a little sad my baby is gone.  But...

Today, I'm thankful for my little walker.  Because there is absolutely nothing better than coming home from work, Kayla seeing me and when I squat down to her level and put my arms out for a hug, she toddles across the room, opens her arms and gives me the biggest hug, along with a smile (and a HUGE smile at that.)  

By the way, did you see how I used the word toddle...yeah I'm THAT good. :)

Enjoy:

Kona,HI Day 2

Kayla woke up four times the first night.  I wasn't too mad because she was sleeping in the pack n play in the living room on the third floor.  I should have taken a picture because we were literally in a house STEPS from the ocean with GIANT open air windows on all floors, so Kayla was snoozing to the sound of the ocean waves...and not the ones from a sound machine!  These were LOUD!  So cuddling my little stinker with the sound of the ocean in the background isn't too bad, right? :)

Dad and Brendan spent day 2 golfing mostly.  The rest of us spent the day working on our base tans.  It was glorious.  Kayla swam in the pool and napped like a champ.  Might I also point out that despite the 5 hour time difference, after the first night, she slept from 7:30 pm to around 6 am every night.  I'm honestly still amazed I have such an adaptable baby.  What did I do to deserve that?  (It might have been putting up with a crappy sleeper for 8 months, and teaching her how to fall asleep on her own...or just dumb and blind luck.)

It was a really great first day to just enjoy our wonderful little slice of paradise on the Big Island and think about what we might want to do the rest of the week.  Here are a few photos I snapped on Day 2.

View from the pool deck

Another view

The pool deck, chairs, hot tub

Every morning, there were people doing "sup" right outside the house (stand up paddle)

Another pretty view, how AWESOME is the lava rock everywhere?!?!

My little stinker...don't let her fool you...she LOVES the pool!

Yes, please put on my canopy...

Trying some new things with PS...not sure if I like this or not

Pretty flowers in the yard.

Party in the pool

I need to practice capturing "sun flare" but I still like this picture.

This may be one of the best pictures I've ever taken.  It looks like it could be on the cover of something. :)

Random shot...

We had our own personal guitar player while laying out.

Then Lauren made me take a photo of this large man trying to climb on the lava rocks...hilarious.

Sun setting

I'm running a little behind with editing photos because I'm trying to spend more time with Kayla as opposed to doing some other things I want to do, so I'm not going to be posting a day 3 post tomorrow most likely.  But I promise I'll make it up to you all this weekend with multiple posts!! :)

Also, today, I'm thankful for a really great group of mommas I met through a couple cloth diapering pages on facebook.  I love talking to them and really wish I could meet all of them in person (hopefully I'll get to meet a couple who live near me soon!)  Sometimes, I guess God gives you friends in the most unexpected places. :)