CAN'T WAIT

juano and i went to another appointment today and doc jane checked my cervix again...two weeks ago she checked for the first time and i was 2 centimeters dilated....now i am 3 centimeters!! we are moving along folks!
she suggested that we go for a trial run to the hospital so we did. baby marcus will be born at the Moanalua Hospital in Honolulu which is super nice. we think they just renovated it- the halls are really wide and it is very clean and quiet. we will have a private labor room that is super nice and roomy. so hopefully pics will come soon of that....
our christmas was....okay. to be honest i got bummed out a bit. we both had to work christmas eve...juan got home at 1 am. we went to the beach tho- it was nice to get in the water and feel
weightless. these are our friends janelle and mike. juano and mikey had fun catching some waves- it was fun to watch them. but i'm sorry to say it- this is not how you should spend christmas. period.


we went to the temple last week. it has been so nice now that it is open. i never wrote about the open house and dedication- it was wonderful. President Monson came of course and there was an awesome spirit in Laie the whole time he was here. a storm was suppose to hit but enough prayers must have kept it at bay. the weather was calm and beautiful for the prophet. the temple looks so different inside- it is so beautiful. we live just one block away from the temple- we can almost see it from our bedroom window!! I love it

Maternity

My friend LeeYen took these shots of me and baby Marcus. I am a lot bigger now at nearly 35 weeks! the end is very close!!

just want to write...

our computer recently crashed and we are in the process of recovering the pictures so in the meantime...i'm just gonna write...
its thanksgiving day but for me it feels like thanksgiving eve. juan and i had to work today so we convinced our friends to celebrate tomorrow. i just pulled the rolls out of the oven (mom's famous potato rolls) and they look beautiful... a little plump tho- i guess i let them rise to long. i also have the cheese ball in the freezer...ready for its nutty coating- eeee! tomorrow i am going to make spinach artichoke dip and mashed potatoes- creamy. our friends janelle and mike are baking the turkey and stuffing, and their famous green bean casserole. janelle also made some pies. aushra and rene are going to bring a fruit salad, drinks and dulce de leche. it will be quiet a feast!!
baby marcus is doing very well. he likes to disfigure my belly every 20 or 30 minutes in the day...and night. he gets a little rough sometimes- imagine feeling bruised on the inside...i can feel it. i had a doc appointment yesterday and everything is going good- baby's got a 140 heart rate, i've gained another 5 pounds and my pee is still yellow. juan is bummed cuz that means we can't have another ultrasound. ah well...i am very grateful that baby is healthy.
i could complain about a lot of little things but that is only for my hubby to hear...and he takes good care of me. i get a foot massage and back rub almost every night. he picks things up off the floor for me and gets me whatever i ask for. he already has a good relationship with baby...he is the only one that can get him to move on command. baby marcus is shy with everyone else. he definitely recognizes his daddy's voice.
these are the things i am grateful for on this thanksgiving evening. as well as my loving family- tho very far away they are. we are all over the place: england, tennessee, arizona, utah, and hawaii. i miss thanksgivings with them- i love love love love love them to pieces.

What takes 6 hours to bake and 6 hours to puree?

why a real pumpkin of course! and don't ask me why but i just HAD to do it! so i did! call it a crazy pregnancy urge/craving- or maybe its because it might be the last time that i will actually have time to do such a thing. so here is the carnage....
so the 'how to' is on my recipe blog (click here). my husband wanted to ring my neck by the time i nearly finished puree-ing all of the pumpkin chunks- i kid you not- it took me 6 hours or more to de-skin it and blend it up. but let me tell you...the pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie have been worth the back ache. i have a pie baking as i type and the aroma alone is worth it. even though i will never do it again (maybe).

we gots a pumpkin!

yesterday we went to one of the only pumpkin patches in hawaii and whadayaknow- they grow excellent pumpkins on the island. there were hundreds of people there and plenty of 'em to go around. it was a very hard decision but made easier when we found one that balanced on juan's head. TA-DA! isn't it gorgeous?


look how cute the little baby one is too! now, would you say our pumpkin is medium, large or extra large? well procedure is you go pick your pumpkin in the field and then take it over to the tables not to be weighed but priced just by the looks of it. we didn't have a lot of cash so we just hoped that it would be considered a large (large pumpkins were $8-$10). so look closely at this picture:
juan (on the far left) and mike in the middle are both holding up pumpkins of similar girth- are they not? so get this- they both walk up to the table for pricing and they guy says to juan, "ten dollars" and then to mike, "for that one 15 dollars." hahaha! don't they look the same size? then to top it off- i ask "what about for this little one?" and he says "for you its free- cuz your expecting." sorry mikey, pregnant rights are just not in your favor.
my theory is the man was fooled by an optical illusion. put a juan-sized-man next to a large pumpkin and a mike-sized-man next to a pumpkin of the exact size and VIOLA! the pumpkin next to my husband looks smaller and therefore we save a little cash.
all i need now is to figure out other ways to take advantage of this happy happenstance.

found out today...

that i am anemic.
now what?
oh, that's right. iron pills. yay.
ah well. as long as i can have my 3 giant size cups of crushed ice at work everyday- i'm happy.

cravings

ahhhh....the wonderful things that make my mouth water...these would have to be the four major ones....
my first craving was chocolate milk. one night- i think it was just as i was getting over my morning sickness- i just HAD to have some chocolate milk. we went to the store and bought the 7 DOLLAR gallon of the dang stuff and i drank it in 2 days (well i drank about 3/4 of it- i couldn't stop juano from helping me)
2ND. when i was in utah as we were driving on the freeway there was a lot of construction going on so there were these massive piles of dirt. I HAD TO HAVE SOME!! the dirt looked so good- i drooled all over myself and yes...i did give into the craving a little...*shame*...i licked a rock. doesn't this look soooooo yummy? i only wish it tasted as good as it looks -_-
my THIRD craving has been ice. the ranch (where i work) has the best crushed ice in the world and i chomp on at least 3 giant sized cups of it a day while i am working. it is so irresistible. I knew it was a full-fledged craving today when i was so excited to get to work- on a monday, mind you- and the first thing i did was go and fill up a cup. it had been a long weekend without crushed ice. we just have the hard cubed kind at home. *GASP* i wish i were in roosevelt right now- the frontier grill has the best crushed ice IN THE WORLD!! wow- you see?
and last but not least and totally out of the ordinary: sour candy. weird. i never liked sour candy before...well maybe when i was a kid- just cuz kids like anything sweet. i might have eaten it but i never really liked it. i bought a bag of these succulent little gummy sours today at work and ate the whole bag in about an hour.
they. are. amazing.

so tell me- is there something irreversibly wrong with me? i know that i am a little iron- deficient and YES, i am taking my prenatals and reading labels to find the most iron packed food i can...
so lets hear it ladies...what was the weirdest thing you craved when you had a baby in the boiler?

Grandpa Mac

Its about time I write about my grandpa. I have the pictures that I want and I have had the chance to celebrate his life and mourn his loss.
I am so grateful that I was able to go home to funeral of my amazing Grandpa, Joseph Glen McAllister. It was great to reminisce with family and honor his life. He was nearly 95 years old when he died and about to celebrate his 70th wedding anniversary. WOW! that means if i want to live up to him i have to live 67 more years and stay married for another 68 1/2 more years (so i guess that would mean i need to live till I am 96)....anyway....
I love my Grandpa. I have such great memories with him. Look at me on grandpa's wood pile...

this is at grandpa's house in Gunlock, UT. that house was the greatest playground a kid could dream of. grandpa had a big back hard and even a river beyond the yard. he had tons of fruit and nut trees and a ditch to play in when they were irrigating. he spoiled us rotten when we went to visit. we had peaches and cream for breakfast and all the popcorn balls and roasted pinenuts we could ever dream of. this is only the beginning of the memories that i have. i will never forget playing cards with gramps- he was such a tease but always had a sweet smile on his face even though he kicked the crap out of you. i loved it when he would tease grandma until she swore at him and threw her cards down. hearing that sweet chuckle is priceless. Grandpa had a twinkle in his eye- yes a real twinkle that cameras cannot capture.

The funeral was very spiritual. i had the chance to share my memories with the family in the family devotional after the viewing. i shared my experience the night he passed away. i had just talked to mom and she said his condition was really bad. i was about to go to bed but was thinking about him so much i started to cry. my husband put his arm around me and i told him that i wanted my baby (who is in the womb) to meet my amazing grandpa. Juan comforted me with the thought that maybe my grandpa is holding our baby right now. i would not doubt it. in his funeral slide show there were many pictures of grandpa holding babies. i cried every time i saw one. i hope all my future children get to meet my grandpa before they come into our lives. it was so great to celebrate his life and know that he is not suffering anymore. he is 25 again and handsome as a devil!

Almost our whole family came together to attend the funeral. Sarah's family and my husband were the only ones who couldn't make it. Its thanks to grandpa that we have the family that we do. His legacy will live on through my kids and many generations. I love you grandpa!!

Our baby boy likes hiking...

while baby keeps kicking, dancing, and tumbling in my rumbly i keep trying to be active and healthy as I can be. on saturday we did one of our favorite nature walks above the beaches of the windward side of oahu. yes, i live in hawaii but it only feels like it on the weekends when we get to go play and act like tourists. this hike is called hau'ula loop and meanders through a pine forest and up on a ridge with spectacular views yet it takes less than an hour. it was a beautiful day and it felt so good to rise above the heat and feel the cool hawaiian breeze.
oh...and baby liked it...at least the snacks that we ate.
on the way back down we saw a family with young kids. the daddy was sporting a baby backpack...i can't wait to hit the hills with my baby on my back (or front). so now you know what i will be asking for christmas :)



of course we ended the day with a cool dip in the big pool. it feels so good to be weightless ;)

baby's way of communicating

I started feeling movement a few weeks ago and it has been awesome. It's the coolest feeling. Yesterday, Juan got up to my stomach and started talking to baby. I hadn't felt any movement for a while but when he was talking right next to my belly she/he started moving. So he started asking, "Kick twice if you are a girl and once for a boy." nothing. so he tried,"kick mommy if you want your name to be Juan Carlos." nothing. Well, they always say that no answer IS and answer so we know now that baby doesn't want his daddy's name.
Whenever I put my pants on, if they are too tight baby kicks in the exact spot that the pants are as if to say, "Get that off me!!" I guess we will see if baby is the type that kicks off her clothes kinda like my sister, Sarah. One day she went outside without a shirt and my dad stopped her. When he scolded her she asked him, "Why can't girls run around with their shirts off like boys?"
We went to a concert on Friday and it was really loud. Juan was worried that we were sitting too close and it was too loud for baby but I didn't feel any movement. We got up and moved further away and that is when baby started kicking and moving around as if to say, "Hey! I was listening to that!" like a teenager.
Oh, and finally, I know baby likes dark chocolate cuz I get a lot of somersaults and kicks when I have a piece...just for the record.

ULTRASOUND IS TOMORROW!! HOPE BABY IS NOT CROSSING THE LEGS!

14 weeks!!

so...I should be entering that blessed second trimester and I hope I am not getting overly optimistic but....I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER!
I even did yoga today! Yay for yoga! do any of you have any pregnancy exercise tips? I do a lot of walking and occasional water aerobics workouts but I would really like to get into yoga and pilates. I'm taking suggestions now.
Lately, I have been feeling round ligament pain which is a doosy at times. I am getting used to it though- it really scared me at first. I guess that is what pregnancy is all about. You have this crazy symptom and your like "WHAT THE HECK!" and then you just gradually learn to live with it.
We are so excited to have our first baby. We learned a lot from our first miscarriage and were so grateful for that experience. We matured a lot and this time around we cherish every moment of my belly growing and doctors appointments and thinking about what we are going to name him/her. I know it sounds weird but I am grateful that I don't always feel awesome too cuz I know that I am doing it for a good cause. Its easy to say now when I don't feel as sick as I have felt.
Well...14 weeks and counting!

Dear Parasite,

I mean, I mean....
Dear Baby inside me,
I think your great. I mean, its great that you are soon going to be a part of our lives, I mean, you are going to change our lives. You are changing my life already.
...anyway. I guess you like to burp a lot because when you burp your little fetus burp, it slowly ascends to my esophagus where it stays for hours. I look forward to being able to breath after your little burps come out.
Is it true you don't like greasy or spicy food? Well, even if you don't, you didn't have to set my heart on fire because I fed you tonkatsu yesterday. I promise I won't feed you any greasy food again.
Oh, and what about the 7-dollar Kellogs Total that the doctor suggested I feed you that is loaded with vitamins and all the good stuff that you need? Why did you force it out of me like that? huh? You need to get your vitamins.
Speaking of vitamins- is one big pink pill really too much for you too handle. I guess so- it must be hard to handle a pill that is half your size. Sorry, I asked.
I guess I need to end on some good notes. I want to thank you. Thank you for enduring. Thank you for hanging on for 30 minutes for the next meal- don't worry, I will keep 'em coming. Thank you for not getting sick when I ate raw fish- I know I wasn't supposed to. Thank you for sticking your arm out and flexing your muscle for us during the ultra sound. Daddy and I are proud of our strong little psuedo-baby.
Thank you for doing all the exercise for the both of us. You are working so hard to grow fingers and toes, and elbows, and eyebrows, and earlobes that I don't have to exercise. Its nice to be able to sleep while you are working.
I can't wait to meet you someday.
Take care, I love you,
your future mama

i've missed you....

its been way to long since i posted something....so here's to catching up.....
We celebrated our 1st anniversary on April 18th!! We did a few fun things. I work at a ranch and juano has never been on any tours so I took him on the best tour that we offer- the two-hour ATV ride!!


we also went to kailua beach for a little kayaking...

and finally to town (aka- Honolulu) we stayed in a hotel for one night and went out to eat, to the aquarium and window shopping.




It was a lot of fun and nice to go and feel like we were on vacation for a little while. I love my sweetheart, Juano. He treats me like a queen! We have had a lot of great experiences our first year of marriage. We've had our ups and downs and we have come a long way. I love learning and growing with him and look forward to many more amazing years together! Te quiero, mi amor!

Castles

Riding waves at Castles has been awesome lately...

Juano's Birthday...

did happen...a month ago. that doesn't mean i can't blog about it.
so, it was kind of an ironic/pathetic day to be totally honest. we had made plans with friends to play volleyball but they flaked on us the night before leaving us with no plans. so we went up to turtle bay anyway to see if some random volleyballers were there.
no luck.
so we went to juano's favorite beach- Castles- to try to body board. but it was too flat for waves on that 20th day of february.
poop.
so we went home and just chilled. juano's family called him and my family called him with birthday wishes and i made a lasagna dinner complete with garlic bread and salad (and of course birthday cake- prom cake).
juano was a little disappointed about how his day turned out but i had a little surprise for him after dinner. a bunch of our friends stood at our window at precisely the time we finished our last bites. they belted out happy birthday through the window as juan shyly answered the door. we dragged him out of the house blind folded and handed him a stick.
PIŇATA!
we had a fun time taking turns whacking away at this cute little soccer ball.

Our friends from left to right: Jackeline, Jackeline Jr., David and Arielle Westman, Asala, Aissa, Baby Rayden, Yuka, Mike Parker (in front with the stick), me, juano, Miles Smith, Amber and Jason Poulter, Aushra and Rene Ledesma.

TSUNAMI

we survived a false alarm.
Saturday morning at 4 am-loud knock at the door. our elders quorum leader.
-_- sleep -_-
6 am- the sirens go off.
-_- sleep -_-
8 am- gather stuff together and prepare for the arrival of 3 feet of water in the house.
-_- sleep -_-
10 am- pack our stuff out of the house and climb the hill behind the temple.
-_- sleep -_-
12 pm- get word that all is well and pack our stuff back to the apartment.
-_- sleep -_-


it was quite an uneventful event. in the end we realized how much it would suck if we had to spend 3 days on that hill with our limited 72 hour kit. so lets just hope and pray that there won't be a next time and our lives will remain uneventful.

a whale of a whale watching time!

we went whale-watching this passed weekend up at kaena point. this is an aerial photo of the point (north-west tip of the island of oahu).

i love this hike...especially on a cloudy day. we encountered a bit of mud but made the most of it. can you see the airborne mud in juano's pic?

brynn and nate- do you remember this hike? i took you guys on it...around sunset...i hope you still don't hate me for that...

(first pic) allow me to introduce you to our good friends, Janelle and Mike. they were married around the same time that juan and i were and live just 4 doors down from us in the temple view apts. we get together often to play settlers of catan and have potlucks.
(next pic) now this is a hard one- guess who's legs belong to who.
(last two) the views were amazing out at the point. we saw a bunch of albatross birds too- you know, like the one from the rescuers- juan thought one was going to take his head off when it flew over us. i was just nervous that he would drop a giant crap on us.
well needless to say- we made it out minorly sunburndt and uncrapped-upon. oh- i am almost forgetting the reason for this post. here it is....

okay...fixed it...now i can post away!!

Happy New Year!! and boy did january fly by....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
coming soon....our hike to kaena point and witnessing whales breech...