Christmas Greetings

December 26th may not be a holiday in the US but this Canadian girl is declaring it one in our house! I slept in 'til 8:30 this morning, am still in my pj's at 10:30 and have my morning coffee in hand as I begin to finally get caught up on the happenings of this past month. Hard to believe that another Christmas and another year has come and gone. As we reflected on the season and on the past year the overwhelming feeling has been one of incredible thankfulness. We feel so blessed for all that our God has done for us this past year with welcoming Reece safely home from Afghanistan in May to family visits this fall to preparing to welcome our baby girl into the world in the new year (DV). It was my first Christmas away from family but also my first Christmas spent with Reece after our 3 years together. Although we missed our crazy families, we were thrilled to finally share this special holiday together, rejoicing in the birth of our Saviour!

I was really bad and hardly took any photos of our actual Christmas but I'll at least give you a re-cap of all the fun and festivities leading up to it!

The Christmas tree lighting on the base.

Reece was thrilled to be there ;)

Sharon and Anthony joined us (Robert, her hubby, was away training on the Big Island)

Shave Ice on the North Shore

Some of our Christmas decor

  

Nathan and Malorie came out to visit from Washington! We had such a great time with these two!

Christmas party at our friend Brittany's place!

The delicious spread

 Reece and Nate ready to get their party on

Reece filling in as bartender for the evening

The atmosphere was great

Jessica, Brittany, Laura, Me and Natalie! (I could still squeeze into one of my formal dresses!)

Tyler, Melissa, Hannah & Lisa

During Nate and Mal's visit Reece had his Reenlistment ceremony

Looks like the Lodders are in it for another 4 years! 

Speech!

Out for dinner at one of our favorite spots, Haleiwa Joe's! Those are giant Mai Tai's they're sippin on.

We did some kayaking and stand up paddling on the bay.
There were a few good down pours to add to the adventure.
After Nate & Mal left we welcomed more friends, Jo & Kay, for another week of fun. Unfortunately I didn't
take out my camera once :( We had an awesome time with them though.

This month I had to say good bye to my little Ranger.
She served me well the last 20 months but since we cannot put a car seat in the back she had to go.

This is our new set of wheels. We'll only be driving this one for a short time since we'll have to sell it again
before we move back home to Washington in August.

The 'baby bump' at 25 weeks! Only 15 more to go (actually, 14 more as I write this).

 Since our Church here has a Christmas Eve service rather than one on Christmas morning we got to sleep in,
hang out in our pj's and enjoy a lazy morning and delicious breakfast.

The President and First Lady visited the base here on Christmas Day. Regardless of our political opinions it was
neat have the opportunity to meet them. We got our picture taken with them by the White House Photographer, but
we are still waiting to have that one e-mailed to us since personal cameras were not allowed in that area.

November (so far) in a nutshell.

On election night we headed over to my dear friend Brittany's house for a party. Well, it didn't turn out to be the
 party/celebration we had hoped for (as you can see in the pic) but we made the most of it.

About to take their "losing" shots. 

As you can see the "concoction" was pretty disgusting.

Then it was the Marine Corps Birthday week. This was taken at a pageant on base where they show off all the past and
 present Marine Corps uniforms and give a brief history of the corps.

 

Off to the Birthday Ball in Waikiki!

Some good friends of ours (Robert & Sharon) had their Birthday Ball the night following ours so we watched their
little guy, Anthony, for the afternoon/evening. We took him mini golfing (his first time ever). He didn't exactly follow
 the rules but he sure had a great time.

The next weekend was an extended long weekend for Veterans Day. This is a photo of the Pacific War Memorial on
 base.

We started our afternoon off with lunch at Teddy's Bigger Burgers in Kailua. Maybe not the healthiest, but SO
 delicious. We did share our meal though so I guess that helps a bit :) After that we headed to the theater to watch a
 matinee movie! 

That evening we stayed in and enjoyed a romantic dinner for two :)

And just for fun…here is the beginning stages of our nursery. Still have many things we need to add but thankfully
we still have almost 4 months left to do so. We're excited to have our first ultrasound next week where we'll see our
 little peanut and hopefully find out if baby Lodder is a he or she!

Family visits and vacations.

Things have been pretty busy here in the past couple months. I'll do my best to give you a quick summary of all that's gone on.

The second week of October we had the pleasure of hosting my entire family here on our beautiful island. Although we didn't have room for all 11 of them at our house we were able to have a few here and then also rented a lovely villa on base for the others. It was a fantastic week full of sightseeing and good company. I was SO sad to see them go (bawling actually…I'll blame that on pregnancy hormones).

Hanging out

Turtle beach! There were 3 of them relaxing on the shore that day.

Here is everyone on the beach (yay for tripods and camera timers!). Such a blessing that everyone could come out!

A little over a week after my family left we headed to Scottsdale, Arizona to hang out with the

 Lodder clan for a week. We were absolutely spoiled on this trip with the beautiful accommodations.

 This was my first time in Arizona and I loved it. The scenery, company and weather couldn't be 

better. Unfortunately the only pictures I have right now are from my phone so they'll have to do. 

You'll get the idea anyway :) 

Spent a day driving to the Grand Canyon. So worth it. Absolutely in awe of God's handiwork!

The boys rented ATV's one morning and burnt off some steam.

Tons of these huge cacti all over the place.

A little glimpse of the baby bump. 17.5 weeks when this photo was taken

Trip to Kauai

Since our trip home was very busy with all the visiting we had to get in a little vacation after the vacation. Kauai is an absolutely beautiful island and we enjoyed every minute of our time there. The five days flew by quickly but we managed to see lots and still get in some R&R.

We rented bikes one day and went biking along the 'Coconut Coast'. This is me before I totally biffed on my bike and ended up with two very bloody knees. I have the scars to prove it :) Was still awesome though.

Saw an endangered Monk Seal along the way

Stopped at a lookout on our way to Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon is nicknamed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific"

Loving the view!

Reece snapped a few pictures of me on the balcony before we headed off to dinner

The tree tunnel! So cool driving through

The caves

Beginning our walk up the Na Pali Coast

Beautiful views

Almost at the beach

Time to ditch our runners and go barefoot

The beach was beautiful! It was too bad we didn't wear our swimsuits on the hike.

View from our resort

The beach in front of our resort