Don't have anything for mom?

I'm not big on advertising for other companies, but MyPublisher is who I ordered my last photo book through and I had the best experience! They are now offering a last minute deal for mother's day. Go to their website and get 50% off photo book gift certificates. I can't imagine what a mom would love more and you get a fabulous deal...hurry it doesn't last long. And yes that picture is of my grandmother, my mom and my uncle...love it!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Meet Morgan! Isn't she adorable? This is my friend's daughter and she turned on this past weekend (if you didn't get that by the first pic). I had the joy of taking pictures at her birthday party. Afterwards we went out with the whole family and did some more portraits with a little less cake. These are just a few of my favorites, if you would like to see more please head over to my photography blog and take a look. Enjoy!

Better late than never...

It's a little over a year and a half since Robert and I were married and I finally ordered our Wedding Album...oops! I sat down many times with the intention of selecting all the photos and getting it all organized, but usually I got 20 minutes into, felt overwhelmed and quit. Once we got to Okinawa, I sat down and knocked it all out in one day! I got it in the mail a few days after Robert left...what perfect timing! I've looked through it about 10 times already.

Looking through this book brings back so many great memories. I'll be honest, I was a little cynical about my wedding being a perfect day, but it absolutely was! Don't get me wrong, we had some things that didn't go exactly as planned and there were people that I wish could've been there that couldn't make it, but at the end of the day I was Mrs. Robert White and that was perfection enough for me. Here are some of my favorite pages...

The getting ready pictures: I love Tasha's intense face, my lovely Becca who did my make-up and Ashlee and I putting on our eye liner in sync...love my besties!

My dad's face in this picture is priceless...if you know him, it's typical Phil :D

Robert and I before the wedding...he looks ready!

The votive candles...I think we had close to 200, not kidding. Mom and I spaced them out perfectly, there was a methodical plan to follow...if you know my mother that's vintage Kay...haha, love her! We tied those pew bows the Thursday before the wedding. Thank you Julie Wages for all your creativity, you made everything look beautiful. And of course the moms and grandmothers walking down the isle...love it...all the ladies in our lives!

When you look at this page of course you notice Robert's look and my big smile, but I always tease my dad that he looks a little too happy in this photo. The photo opposite of that is Chad tell about our first date, which he and several other's (including Robert's parents) were privileged to be apart of...oh memories!

The KISS! It was a bit long and we got some laughter from the crowd. What most people didn't notice was Robert's uniform getting tangled in my dress. It was a close call but nothing wripped...thank goodness! 

Our beautiful wedding party...so thankful for good friends! The knife and server we used for the cake was the one from my Memom and Daddy Jack's 50 Wedding Anniversary Celebration.

Cutting the cake we couldn't stop laughing cause with every move of the knife we knocked off more of the beautiful decorations, oh well it was scrumptious! I choked on the milk that we toasted to out of Mason Jars and ended up accidentally cutting the chocolate groom's cake instead of the yellow cake with chocolate icing...oops

There's so many things about this page that I love, I could talk about every single person on it, but I won't. On the first page on the bottom left is one of Robert's dear friends, "Murph" that was stationed with him in Hawaii. He and his lovely family surprised Robert and came to wedding. Right across from that one is all of my college roommates and our parents together...perfect picture...love you all! Top far right is my house party, what would I have done with out you?! So happy to be apart of their lives and even more thrilled that they're apart of mine. Right below that is a picture of Robert and I talking to his Uncle Mark. I'm especially thankful for this picture in light of recent events. Mark passed away this week, he had been battling Alzheimer's disease for quite sometime. I'm so thankful for the time that I got to know him and this precious picture.

I never gave much thought to catchy a bouquet. They always say whoever catches it is the next in line to be married. Well, who knew that would be the case! Danielle, a childhood friend, was married almost exactly a year after that photo was taken...so special. I love all the photos of us leaving, the limo was surprise...quite different from the Ford Focus we were expecting to see.

And finally our pictures out at my family's land. First, the limo left us here on accident and we had to call him to come back because I wasn't letting anyone from our family drive us to the hotel...haha! Second, the picture at the top left was taken right after Robert swept me off my feet. Literally, he picked me up and didn't realize that he was standing on my dress, all I hear was RRRRIPPPPP and then we both started laughing. Thank goodness all was said and done for the day. By the way it was just a little rip underneath the top layer. Thank you to the amazing Hailey Erickson for capturing our day...can't thank you enough friend!

All in all it was an absolutely lovely and perfect day!

Anchors Aweigh!

I said farewell to Robert early Tuesday morning. He's off to sail the high seas for the next 3-4 months. This is a fabulous opportunity for him, he's the team lead for the Combat Camera section on ship!

We had a fabulous last weekend together. We went to one of my favorite shopping areas here in Oki and on the way I had to take a picture of the 100 Yen Plaza, it's Japan's version of the US Dollar Store except they actually have some really cool stuff!

Driving in Okinawa traffic, there were protests going on Saturday, but luckily we missed most of the commotion. :D

Found these awesome mugs in Grace. We got quite a few funny looks and I think one lady took a picture of us with her cell phone...crazy Americans!

Yes we set the timer on the picture above...why not?!

Some of my favorite thing in Grace: Sushi Lunch Box, Chopstick Section, and Cow Coffee Maker

All that shopping made us hungry! Charmy's is basically like a snow cone but it's made from frozen milk instead of ice and topped with chocolate...hmmmmm!

Inside TodayOk! it's very similar to Ikea so much great stuff.

That's my new office chair from TodayOk! and my inventive husband, pretty sure a couple took his pic with their camera phone too...crazy Americans!

Lovely view while driving home from shopping.

We had dinner at Arin Karin before he left...he'd been dying to try it since we've moved here. This is the outside of the building...I'll be honest at first I didn't get the connection between the art on the wall and garlic and was slightly offended at first glance...ooops! I see it now :D

Dinner was fabulous! Garlic is AMAZING...we'll be taking all our visitors here for sure!

After dinner it was time for ice cream at Big Dip! They have the cut outs everywhere...I just love it!

This ice cream spurred on many "yo mama" jokes and no I didn't try it.

What's an ice cream parlor with out a creepy Marine officer with a Staff Sgt's rank?!

Leaving church on Sunday...love our church here and our Sunday School and Small group Bible Study, such a blessing!

Robert's last day here we went to lunch at one of our favorite little restaurants right outside base...yummm!

Thanks so much for all the phone calls, emails, facebook messages and prayers...they are greatly appreciated! I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses from Anchors Aweigh:

Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh.

Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay.

Through our last night on shore, drink to the foam,

Until we meet once more. Here's wishing you a happy voyage home.

Ella's Onesies

The picture above is what went in the scrap paper box from last week! I had so much fun making these for my friend's little girl's first birthday party! I just looked at pictures on Facebook of her party and it was incredible...her mom did a fabulous job of decorating and making treats, I've never seen anything so adorable.

This was a really easy project. I used tshirts, scrap fabric and buttons for everything. All the flowers and ruffles were made from 1-2'' circles of the tshirt material and I just folded them over twice, arranged them how I wanted and stitched them in to place.

Each one didn't take more than 30 minutes...small price to pay for such a cute result. I used heat 'n bond to secure the lace to the onesies. Everything else was stitched. You could use so many different combinations to make these.

All in all, this was a fun project that doesn't break the bank. Great for birthdays, any occasion or no occasion at all! :D

Enjoy!

Dr Fish...not your average doctor

I can honestly say I would never in a million years guessed that one day I would be married to a US Marine, stationed in Okinawa Japan, and sticking my feet into a pool of fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. But this week I did the unthinkable...actually it wasn't that bad! Don't get me wrong, it tickled like crazy but other than that it was painless. The video above is filmed and narrated by the lovely Stephanie with a few inadvertent giggles added by me...it tickled! Today I went with my friend GraceAnna to get a pedicure at a local spa. They are famous for their nail art in Japan...I'll have to post photos later. But I won't be posting anything else until next week. It looks like Robert will be going on an exercise for the next three months and he's most likely leaving on Wednesday, so I'll be enjoying every minute of my last weekend with him! I'm so proud of him and slightly jealous...he'll be going to a lot of places that I want to travel to on his "summer cruise." I'm sure I'll post some pics from him along the way. Have a great weekend!

I was featured!

If you read my blog through Google Reader, Facebook or some other RSS feed, you may not have noticed my newest addition. It's the Idea Room button on the right hand side of my blog. I was featured in one of her recent posts. She featured ten of her readers out of over a hundred that submitted, I can honestly say I was shocked! The picture above is the project that she featured, Chalkboard Bliss. I felt like a girl scout putting a badge on my sash while uploading my new button to my blog. You need to check out Idea Room if you've never seen it. I'm thankful for blogs like that...they have such great success and want to help out other bloggers. Thanks! You made my day!