Decorating Updates

Now that the end is in sight, I have officially stopped doing any decorating projects for my janky government house. No point doing anything more now! A lot has changed since my last post about how I have decorated. But I figured I would share these pictures for the fun of it, because I love decorating. 

My living room now looks like this:

Random story. Somebody that came to my house a little while ago asked me, "so what's with the globes?" It was awkward being like, "ummmmm it's decoration?" It was a man. Of course. 

So, this was at the very beginning:

 And then this:

 I ended up buying a new couch for a really cheap price and totally opened up the "living room" by moving the two little arm chairs. I also moved the tv to the opposite wall because of the new couch, so it wasn't the very first thing you saw when you walked into the room, which I didn't like. So it went from this:

 To this:

I felt pretty handyman when I made this shelf over the couch.

The other side of the room is where I put the little Ikea chairs. Still debating if I should sell them? They're handy to have on hand for extra seating sometimes!

In the picture above you can see my new entryway, which used to look like this:

And now looks like this. 

It's been fun making this place feel homey, but I am excited to have a fresh start. I already have a new aesthetic in mind. Hoping for a more classic look and excited to actually have the resources in the States to pull it off. Options are waaaaay limited here for a west elm/pottery barn feel. And thrifting for furniture has been pretty frustrating so I'm excited. But I guess that's been kinda the fun part of decorating this house is seeing what I can do with limited options. 

Next Up in Okinawa Flower Season

SUNFLOWERS!

Sunflowers are my favorite. I have visited the sunflowers here every year and I never get sick of it. Such happy flowers! If only my husband could have joined us for our cheesy photo shoot, but alas, he was working all day (on a Saturday boo). Now I just have even more photos frolicking in flowers with my little motherboy baby doll ;) Thanks to Mickelle who takes these sweet photos for me!

After we took our pictures, we bought some cut sunflowers for less than a dollar a bunch, and now they brighten up my house and make me happy every time I come downstairs. I just love Okinawa sunflowers. Happy weekend!

Half a Year Old!

Happy six months, Sweet Baby J.

It's so strange it's been half a year. Time is a weird thing with a baby. This last month, this kid's personality has definitely started coming out. He has his opinions and he's much more vocal about them now. That means higher highs of pure baby bliss and lower lows of impatience and frustration for me. Even this little photo shoot wasn't as easy as the last ones I have done. We had to take a little nap break and resume. 

I love this wiggly sweetheart so much. All these different poses? Yeah, that's because he moves around ALL the time. 

^^his new little smile he likes to give.^^

 ^^fine J, we will take a break^^

^^his favorite toy^^

Love you, sweet boy!

forgotten moments

We had a memory card that we took all of Joseph's first pictures of, but my macbook wouldn't read it and our pc decided to crap out after we had loaded them on there. We finally got the pc fixed so I could access the photos and it was so wonderful seeing all these moments that feel like forever ago. Such happy days. 

Indulge me, because I never blogged these moments. Not just because I couldn't get to the photos, but because I was in that "I just had a baby and am trying to figure things out" stage. 

First real bath after his gross belly button thing fell off. How far we have come! He hated it. Now he loooves it. 

My chunky newborn. I look at regular 7 pound newborns with a sigh. My baby was never that small ha ha.

It's fun looking back and recognizing how he looks. I know that sounds weird, but newborns look different in every picture I feel like, so I like seeing these and being all, "yeah, looks like J!"

I just love these moments. Aaaaaand they're making me baby hungry. I never ever felt baby hungry until I actually had a baby. Now I feel it all the time. Crazy, because it's only been five months!

Anyway, thanks for indulging me. 

Sakura Sakura

We've been hosting our first visitor of 2015 this past week, our mission friend Alicia. We've had a great week showing her the best of the island. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom so we headed up north to check them out this weekend. Some of the trees were still a little sparse, but we still saw some beautiful blossoms and enjoyed perfect weather. Okinawa in January is heavenly. 

It makes me sad this is our third and final cherry blossom season in Okinawa. We are getting to all these lasts and it's bumming me out! I'm soaking it all up. 

 Beauty everywhere on this island. Love Okinawa flower season!
Hope you had a great weekend!

Last Year, This Year

I'm such a sentimental person. I've done posts like this many times. (see here and here) But I can't help myself! Look what's happened in a year!

I visited the cosmos field with friends the afternoon after we had our very first ultrasound. We saw this tiny thing, and got a cute little photo of him fist pumping.

 The cosmos are in bloom again, and now look!

He is an absolute joy. Joyful Joseph, I like to call him. I never imagined a year ago I would feel like this. 

I love him. And I just love Okinawa flower season.