still homeless

We were officially unsuccessful in our home search in Colorado. Not all was wasted; however, as we are now thoroughly aquainted with all the different area of the city, and have a much much better idea of what part of the city we will eventually try to find something.
anyway, we still had a very good trip.

I was literally DREADING the return trip because it was a direct flight from Denver to Honolulu right in the middle of the day. i thought it was going to be a disaster, but the girls were basically little angels. well, aside from 1 small breath holding spell with a brief passing-out episode. on the bright side, no seizure! :) really, though, there was probably less than 10 minutes combined total of crying out of the 7.5 hours of flying, which i think is pretty good! We had lots of fellow travelers comment on how well behaved the girls were, which of course made me so very proud of my little girls.

when we arrived home we had the photo CD from Jacquie Ryan Photographic (the pictures we had made back around Nova's first birthday). I will post some of them here for your viewing pleasure! I love these pics because they are so representative of the girls' personalities. They have a very different feel than the pics we had taken last year for Juneau's first birthday. It's funny to look back at the difference 7.5 months makes! There seem to be one million great ones of Juneau, she was just exceptionally photogenic that day. Nova doesn't have quite as many that turned out as good, but there are still plenty of adorable nova pics as well. this is just a little sampling of the group.

some pics of our trip

we still have 2 more days left in co springs, but i wanted to post some pics of our trip so far. we have been spending a lot of time in the car, driving around the city and looking at houses. for the most part the girls have been little angels. juneau has had a couple of breakdowns, mostly stemming from the fact the rental car doesn't have a dvd player. i hate to admit it, but our girl is addicted to shrek, shrek 2, and even the less enjoyable shrek 3. in fact, "donkey" and "cat" (puss in boots) were snuck in to her bedtime prayers last week.

colorado springs

we are visiting our new state of residence. we wanted to try to find a place to live before arriving in July. haven't had too much luck yet, but we still have 3 days to look.

the trip was super smooth. we had an overnight flight to california, and the girls both slept (rather fitfully in juneau's case) pretty much the whole trip. The trip home may be a little more challening, as we have a direct 8.5 hour flight from denver to colorado in the middle of the day. they are going to go insane!

anyway, our first day here was so cold i truly thought there was no way i could live here. The middle of may, and everyone was wearing coats around! Thankfully, we found out it was an exceptionally cold day for may, and today the weather turned around, and was quite sunny and warm.

it is beautiful here. i think we are going to really love it.

My Second Mother's Day

What an awesome day! Last year on mother's day, we had only been home from the hospital for a few days with nova. We were still waiting for Juneau to come home, and hadn't even gotten our travel approval yet.

Mother's Day 2008

This year, having both of my girls on mother's day was AWESOME! and to top it off, i got to have my mom here on mother's day too! Sadly, today was her last day in Hawaii. We tried to fill the day with lots of fun things before she had to board the plane for the trip home.
The day started at about 5 a.m. (our usual!) when juneau woke up and wanted to get in bed with us. we snuggled in bed until about 6, when nova woke up. Cris made a quick trip to Starbucks, while I enjoyed the beautiful roses he got me.

We all hung out around the house, and mom hemmed the little dress i had made for Juneau way back when we got her referral. She hadn't worn it yet because it was a little big, but it seems she has grown into it pretty well, and she looked sooooo cute and grown up with her hair in a real ponytail.

We then head down to the Hale Koa for Mother's Day Brunch. It was fantastic, and we had a really nice time.

We then drove over to the Pali Lookout, where we enjoyed some beautiful views. Notice Betsy had a wardrobe change after juneau had a little incident with some guava juce, and Bets had to replace her pants with the Baby Sling fashioned into a stylish skirt. This is the second time the sling has come in handy as a skirt to replace pants that were ruined by a little baby induced food accident.

my mom giving betsy a little mother's day hug

not quite sure what my mom is doing - but notice betsy's rockin' skirt

Finally, we took mom to the airport, which was so very very sad. The bright side is we know that in a couple of months we will be a whole lot closer to the whole family!
Then we came home, and i took the best nap of my life.
We finished the evening wtih our sunday night costco trip. Costco Pizza is Cris' favorite culinary treat (weird, i know), and we all love the Berry Sundae.
A truly perfect Second Mother's Day!

Before we say goodnight for the evening I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to some very VERY special people to us:

Grandma Nova - who has been such an influential figure to all of us! WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA! You are a true example of a Godly wife and mother, and have set the standard for us to live by.

Mom Stickley - Cris' mom is amazing, and is very very special to all of us, and particularly Juneau since she was there the minute Juneau became a Stickley girl.

Mom Saccenti - one of the most generous, considerate, and selfless women in the world! Thanks for spending mother's day in Hawaii!

Coral and Becky - our sisters, who are both the most amazing mother's to the most amazing kids we know. You guys rock!

Sonya - my brother's wonderful wife, and mom to the adorable Secily, and our newest baby cousin Micah! We love you Sonya - and happy birthday to Secily!

Nova Joelle Stickley - One Year Old

We can't believe it's been a whole year since our little baby Nova was born. Click Here to re-read about the awesome day.

Here is a collage i made with a picture for each month from the day she was born until she turned one.

I have officially been a mom for one full year. Our lives have changed in unbelievable ways since May 2008. There are certainly challenges with being a mom (like the fact that it has been one full year since i slept past 6 a.m.) However, It is impossible to describe how amazing this year has been. We are so blessed to get to be parents to little miss NovaJo. I want to try write down as much as I can about her so we can look back in the upcoming years to see what she was like at one year old.

Personality:

Nova is notoriously a sweetie pie. She has had this reputation since pretty much the day she was born. She adores mommy and daddy. and her face lights up the second we walk into the room. She loves Juneau, and gets her feelings hurt so easily if Juneau isn't being appropriately "sweet" to her. In the last couple of months she has started to develop a little spunkiness. She now knows what she wants, and if the sweet thing doesn't seem to be working, she will try the spunk.

Motor:

Nova took her first step just before she turned 10 months. She officially started walking just before she turned 11 months. She has been climbing on her Kangaroo climber since about 7 months. She watches Juneau's every move, and I think this is what has helped her motor development so much.

Verbal:

Nova is a little chatterbox. She spends the whole day making baby sounds and singing. She has several words the she says consistently "mama" "dada" "one more" "please" "dog" "bubbles" "flower" "bott-bott (bottle)" "thank you" "ice (for ice cream)". she knows what sound a dog makes, and what sound a chicken makes. She knows where her head and her tummy are, although she can't yet say "tummy". Other than mama and dada i think her first word was probably "flower". She is obsessed with flowers, and we can hardly walk down the street without stopping every few feet to look at the flowers.

Eating

Nova is certainly not a big eater. Until about a week ago she really didn't like to have anything with flavor in her mouth. She has started to like cheese pizza, and she really likes to eat a banana. The one thing she goes CRAZY for is Ice Cream. Overall she pretty much is still getting the majority of her nutrition from her bottle, but she is down to a 3 bottle/day schedule. We haven't really tried her on regular milk yet, as she still refuses to drink anything cold, or even room temperature. I know it is crazy, but we still carry around a thermos of hot water to make her bottles with when we are away from home.

Sleeping:

Nova has officially slept through the night for about 10 NIGHTS IN A ROW! We are in sleep heaven (At least as far as Nova is concerned, Juneau is a whole other story)

Favorite things:

*Cuddle blankets - Since the day she was born nova has been comforted by soft fleece blankets. any time she comes across a soft blanket she stops what she is doing, and rubs her face on the blanket. it is hilarious! She has to have a cuddle blanket to sleep with. We also have several "bitty cuddles" that we keep in the diaper bag and the car for emergencies

*Pacifiers - she only gets a paci for nap and bed, but she adores her paci

*Flowers

*Sherpa - nova LOVES kisses from sherpa, they crack her up!

*Peek-a-boo - playing peekaboo with nova induces the loudest, cutest belly laugh. she can be entertained even in the rottenest of moods by a quick game of peek-a-boo

*carrying and pushing heavy items - this is soooooo funny. Nothing makes nova happier than carrying around heavy items. Examples: 2 Liter bottles of pop/water; an entire sleeve of diapers (at least 48 diapers in the sleeve); several cans of pop at a time. She can push a completely full basket of laundry all the way across the living room. We need to talk to cousin Hope about maybe borrowing "heavy baby" (one of Hopie's favorite baby dolls who also happens to be quite heavy, hence the endearing name "heavy baby")

*pushing her little walking cart - this is a funny little toy someone gave us as a hand me down. Betsy tried for months to get Juneau to use it when she was learning to walk, but Juneau didn't want anything to do with it. Nova goes INSANE whenever she sees that little thing, and loves to push it up and down the driveway.

Here are a few of the photos we had taken last month for Nova's First Birthday.

Nova Jo,

Thank you for making our lives a million times better than they were one year ago. We hope we can always be the mama and dada you need to help you grow into the amazing little girl you are already becoming. You have changed our lives forever, and we have loved every second of it. Stay sweet forever, little girl. We love you!

Happy Birthday to Nova!

We had a ridiculously crazy/awesome weekend! I have at least 2 posts that i want to work on. This one, about the party of course, and also just a little post all about Nova's first year.

So, for now i have some pictures of the party. Just like last year (well, actually it was only 7.5 months ago) at Juneau's birthday bash, i found it very very difficult to actually take any photos at the party because i was so busy playing, stocking the food/drinks, and greeting the guests. I do have some photos though, but unfortunately hardly any of the birthday girl! Nova had a great time. She was slightly overwhelmed by the craziness of it all, but hung in like a little trooper.

We arrived at Foster's Poing on Hickam Air Force Base bright and early Sat a.m. to set up. Fortunately, we have The BEST friends ever, and Tracy, Jeremy, and Sally all crawled out of bed to come over and help us set up. The inflatables are rather heavy, so it was a bit of a challenge to get everything all set up. The circus theme was great. We had a Shave Ice machine, a popcorn machine, 1 million (actually it was only 175, but it seemed like 1 million) cupcakes, chili cheese dogs, nachos and cheese, a giant joust pit, a bouncehouse, and a huge waterslide. yes, it was definately as much work as it sounds like, but sooooo worth it.

This year i TOTALLY lucked out because my mom and her friend pam, and pam's granddaughter Ciara all flew to Hawaii for the festivities! This means i had lots and lots of help with babies, food, cleaning, and decorations. it was beyond awesome.

Anyway, by 2:00 the party was in full swing. I think we had around 100 guests. Practically every single one of Cris' students in the Athletic Training program came, as well as many of the faculty. We had a total blast with the crazy match-ups in the jousting pit.
So, finally the pictures. I can't believe i hardly have ANY pictures of the birthday girl! it is awful. It was just so crazy i could barely keep track of the girls, much less snap photos. Anyway, here are the pics i have.

The birthday girl napping during her party - maybe this is why there aren't many pictures of Nova!
Jbug after going down the very cold waterslide

Juneau and Cousin Melody jousting

2 of our very favorite party guests - our neighbors Kieran and Alyjah. Aren't they sooo incredibly adorable?!

Gramma and Nova Jo

Gracie ready for a challenge in the joust pit

Jermy trying to take down Tracy

Don't mess with Dr. Kimura when she has a Pugel Stick in her hand!

Dad playing the drums with Jbug, NovaJo, and cousin Melody

just a little tiny sampling of the 1 million cupcakes my mom, sister, pam and Ciara made

Cris' students

UH Athletic Training (and anatomy :) Dept

Ciara enjoying the party

The weather was PERFECT, and the water was turquoise. It was gorgeous

Betsy representing the UH Dance Dept in the Joust pit

waterslide fun

Sally and the girlies (That's nearly 50 pounds of baby that Sally lugs around on a daily basis)

It's kind of funny, because prior to moving to hawaii i could NEVER have imagined a first birthday bash involving all this craziness, but here in hawaii, this is rather typical first birthday celebration. We are looking forward to next year, when nova's birthday party will be a cupcake and a candle with a rousing chorus of "happy birthday to you" sung by dad, mom, and juneau. :)