Family Photos... Warning: Picture Overload!

Just wanted to remind you what our pics from last year looked like.

Just in case you forgot how cute my baby was in 2010.

Oh family pictures how I love you. I'm working to get to a place where I can have our pictures done more often. I would do them every month if I could but that would be a little rough on our budget right now so once a year will have to do. Farrah's birthday is in December so it just happens to work out to get our Christmas pictures/Farrah's birthday pictures done in one swoop. Probably one of the few advantages of having a December birthday :)

For reasons I don't really feel like getting into, I can't post these pictures on facebook and I'm super bummed because they turned out amazing and I want to proudly post them on my page and update my profile pic, but alas, my blog will have to do. Everyone that really matters anyways reads my blog right? ;)

So here they are in all their glory. A huge thank you to Gustavo Fernandez who took these pictures. He has an amazing talent and if you're in the bay area I would definitely recommend him. www.gustavofernandez.com

What's in a name?

2 years ago today, at 3:25pm Farrah Lynn came into the world and forever changed our lives. She has taught me about selflessness, patience, and what true joy is. I thank my lucky stars everyday that God chose us to be her parents. We are truly blessed.

I received a suggestion from my Mother-in-law that I blog about Farrah's name. It hadn't occurred to me that I never really explained how her name came about, and the significance behind it. And what better day to explain how Farrah became "Farrah" than on her birthday.

Soon after we found out I was having a girl, we were up late one night watching TV. On came a show that many of you may know on MTV.... 16 and pregnant. I know... classy, right? It was the first season and a new show and the episode that came on was following the story of a high schooler named Farrah. "Hmmm.... what do you think of the name Farrah?" I asked hubbs. He thought about it for a second and I thought he was going to say it was "Ok" which I knew was code for I hate it but instead he said, "I think I like it!" So we decided to put it on our list. But for some reason after that, no other name seemed to compare. I became drawn to that name. I knew I didn't want to name her something super popular so that she would go to school with 5 other girls with the same name. I also knew I didn't want to name her something totally made up or weird so Farrah seemed like the perfect compromise. Something unique, yet something people would know how to pronounce and have heard of before (although trust me people still manage to butcher it... not sure what rock they've been living under.)

So when I was about 6 months pregnant we decided that the baby that was cookin in my belly was undoubtedly Farrah. I looked up the meaning of the name and it was "ironsmith." First coincidence. It just so happens that Ironsmith is the translation of our last name which is an Armenian name. I've also always had a thing about horse shoes. I believe they bring me good luck so I have a couple horse shoe necklaces that I wear when I need extra luck, so now I think of Miss Farrah as my good luck charm.

Now to back track a little bit. Back in December of 2005 my maternal grandmother passed away. It had been a rough couple years for her and I hadn't seen her in about 2 years and we were very close. Her passing was very sudden and unexpected. She was in the horse business and went to horse shows and was a very successful trainer. She probably had hundreds of horses in her lifetime. So when I was about 8 months pregnant my aunt called and said she heard I was naming our girl Farrah. I said that we were and she said, "did you do that because of Grams? (my grandma)" I didn't know what she was referring to and she then explained that in my Grandma's life with all of her horses, her favorite one was named Farrah. I had never heard of this before so it took me by surprise but I know now that all of this was leading up to the biggest nudge from above when Farrah was born.

I was due November 29th. Farrah had other plans and decided to hold on until just the right moment. Farrah was born December 3rd, 2009. 4 years to the day from the day my Grandmother passed away. That day seemed like everything came full circle and I knew my grandma was there that day looking down with pride at her first great-grandchild.

As if there weren't enough coincidences, when Farrah was about a year old I was thumbing through an US magazine (again, classy I know) and there was an article about the girls from the show 16 and pregnant. They talked about the girl Farrah that started the whole thought process about the name. I had never heard her full name before.... I just knew her as Farrah. Turns our her full name is Farrah Abraham. Abraham is my husbands name.

So there's something special about this name.... about this girl. I know she's destined for great things. So people as all the time if I named her after Farrah Fawcett (who passed away right before she was born.) It's much more complex than that and I don't have time to go into it, so sometimes I say yes, sometimes I say it was someone else. I recently asked my husband, what if we had never seen that show? Or if it didn't exist? What would we have named our daughter. And he replied "Farrah." I think I agree. It just seems like she was destined to have this name.

So happy 2nd birthday my sweet Farrah. You are loved by so many people. Those who have passed on and those who are still with us.

Aloha (picture overload)

Oh Hawaii..... How I love thee. We have been back from our trip for 3 weeks. It was exactly what we needed. No jobs, no pets, no house, no kiddo... just us and some gorgeous scenery. Here's the view from our balcony of our hotel room.. amazingness!

Our first full day we did a spa day... I got a massage and facial from a middle aged guy from Brooklyn living in Hawaii.... it was as weird as it sounds.... not the best experience I've ever had but I don't know that it's possible to have a bad massage when you're in Hawaii.... well this one was pretty bad.... I was sore for days afterwards. But part of the package was a nice lunch on the water which happened to be the best part for both of us.

The salad was awesome and the view was absolutely gorgeous.

After that we stopped to pick up some groceries and in the time it took for ust to go in and come out of the store it started pouring like I've never seen. We had to run from the store to our rental car and then from our car to our hotel room, which considering it was our first day we didn't quite know how to get from the parking lot to our room so we took the long way and got soaked. So soaked that our paper shopping bags ripped and our groceries fell. We were both laughing so hard and I couldn't help but remember the early days of Abe and Krista.... young and carefree... sigh :)

Fair warning you will see lots of pictures of me with a drink in my hands.... As Rihanna would say "I'll drink to that." We foolishly bought some rum and POG (pineapple orange guava juice) from costco thinking we'd drink that and splurge on a few drinks while we were out. But when the boss is paying, it's not necessary to be so cheap so we ended up leaving behind an entire gallon of POG and half a bottle of rum and told the girl who checked us out that the staff was free to have a party in our room with all the stuff we had to leave behind.

Anyhoo here's me drinking

Had to have sushi in Hawaii. Abe was in heaven!

At the sushi restaurant we saw on the menu Molokai sweet potato cheesecake.... sounds yummy right? Well this is what arrived at our table so we asked the waitress if she made a mistake and brought out blueberry cheesecake and she looked at us all weird and said no, sweet potatoes from Molokai are purple. Oh I'm sorry, totally should have known they were a totally different color and taste like blueberries. Can't complain though because it was delish!

And yes, my non-drinking husband even had a few drinks on our trip... aparently I make him want to drink... hmmmm funny how that works :) I kid, I kid.

Next day we went for a walk along Kaanapali beach. We saw this guy standing there with hands in a prayer position. Assumed he was meditating... right on. But when we were on our way back and passed the same spot about 20 mins later he was still there.... hadn't moved. Next morning we went for our walk and same guy same place!!! I assume he had to have taken a break but who knows. Had to get a pic though.

We were up early the next day for a packed day. First stop... Helicopter ride! More on that later, but did I mention we got a mustang convertable as our rental car?! So fun! At least it was fun when you're riding along the beach but it just confirmed that I wouldn't want one of those cars. Too low to the ground and completely impractical for us but fun for the moment!

On to the helicopter ride. Now I must preface this with saying I'm sure there are many people who have taken helicopter rides and really enjoyed them. I, however, can honestly say it was my least favorite part of the trip. It was awful. I had to close my eyes the whole time so I didn't lose my breakfast. I didn't know at the time, probably because my eyes were closed, but Abe was feeling the same way. When we got off the helicopter and got a good look at him, he was so pale I thought he might pass out. As he so eloquently put it "If I ever want to pay $500 to get sick I now know what to do." I warn any would-be helicopter riders that if you even get remotely sick on a windy road, a boat, anything DON'T DO IT! Both of us said that if we would have been on that helicopter even 10 minutes more we probably would have had to be one of the "very few people that ever has to use those air sick bags" as our pilot said. Yeah right so few people and yet 1/3 of your passengers had them in hand ready to go. We did get some pretty good pictures from the Iphone.

This is my "sweet Jesus I'm so happy to be done with this" face. I know we're both pretty white on a daily basis, but this is the whitest I've seen us and we were in Hawaii of all places.

When we were walking back inside the building afterwards one of the ladies that was with us in the helicopter started talking to the people in the line to go on after us and when asked if she got dizzy she said that she didn't at all and it kind of felt like riding in an elevator. Really lady? An elevator? I've never vomitted in an elevator but maybe it's just me.

After this we had scheduled a zipline. After this fiasco I was thinking "oh hell no." But we laid down for a while on some benches then grabbed a bite to eat and started to feel better an hour or so later. So we decided to go ahead and do it. I'm so glad we did. It was so fun!



Had to get a cheesy shot of us holding hands :)


The next day was a lazy day. And rightly so after the packed day of adventure before. Plus we turned on the news and saw that there were flash flood warnings on Kaanapali beach and to get to high ground. We figured several stories up in a hotel was considered high ground. We did go see a magic show that night in Lahaina that was recommended to us by someone and turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The package included dinner for 2, 2 drinks a piece and then a magic/comdey show with 2 acts. The food was awesome, the drinks were amazing and the show was surprisingly good. I thought a magic show would be kind of lame in Hawaii, it's not exactly a Vegas atmosphere but it was pretty darn funny. If you're ever in Maui check out Warren & Annabelle's magic show in Lahaina. Here I am drinking again.

The next day we rented some snorkeling gear and went out near black rock. I have a fear of dark water where I can't see far in front of me... that and sharks so I wasn't too keen on this idea but we got so close to some sea turtles that were just hanging out right next to shore. One of the highlights of the trip for sure. We rented an underwater camera too. I forgot to mention that I ruined my brand new digital camera on the first day of this trip so most of the pics with the exception of the underwater camera are from Abe's Iphone. I won't go into the details but it involved the camera, my purse and a waterbottle that emptied itself out in my purse thanks to a loose cap.

Couldn't pass up a luau while we were there. Although honestly we were a little dissapointed with it. Kind of a cheesy MC and it didn't help that the creepy guy sitting next to us (see guy in the hat next to Abe) waited until Abe got up to get food to tell me I "had really pretty eyes.... but don't tell your husband I said that." Ummmm... check please!

Our last full night in Hawaii. Had to end it with a sunset.

The trip of a lifetime that's for sure. I look forward to a lifetime of getaways, vacations and adventures together, but for now I'm happy making memories with our daughter and with our other children in the future. This trip taught me that as much as I think I need to get away from time to time, the things I think I need to get away from are the things I miss the most when I'm gone. I have a pretty amazing life. Until next time Hawaii... Aloha!