An open letter to my husband •

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Making Magic in Life on Maui, Thoughts from Jenn

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Dreams, family, first time mom, goals, growth, Happiness, Life, love, Marriage, married life, Maui

Dear Husband —

I SEE you over there.

Waiting, watching, wondering, where your wife went.

For 2 years you’ve loved me as I slowly gave myself away day after day, hour after hour, second after second. You supported every decision I made as you watched and cheered me on, helping every SINGLE step of the way. You supported me unconditionally and I have often times let you down.

I promised myself that I would always put our relationship first. That our foundation would always be my first priority and that everything else would ALWAYS come second. I’ve lost myself in Motherhood and found myself and lost myself, over and over again. Sometimes in the same day, others in the same minute. I tell myself on the daily that I’m going to do more, give more be better and day after day I fail, but there you are, loving me anyways, always helping me find my way back to you.

You love me so hard and so fierce and so unconditionally. You remind me who I am, who I want to be, and who I am working so hard to become. You continue to love me without limits or judgment or condition. You allow me to give myself to our son day after day, night after night, hour after hour without hesitation without resistance, without blame.

So my husband, my one true love, thank you. Thank you for loving me, thank you for accepting me and sticking with me. Thank for making me feel beautiful and loved and limitless. Thank you for waiting for me. For believing in me and for loving me anyways.

I SEE you. I miss you. I can’t wait to get back to me and you. You are (still) my best friend. You are (still) the one I have the most fun with. You are (still) the ONE.

I SEE you. I see us. I see all of our dreams coming true. I see our life being built. I see our son living a bright and happy future because of who we are. I see YOU.

You are my past, my present and my future. There is no me without you. There is no us, no dreams, no tomorrow. YOU are it today, tomorrow, forever.

I don’t tell you enough but I hope you never forget how proud I am of you. How proud I am to be your wife. How proud I am that you are Cash’s daddy. How proud I am for the selfless, hard working, funny, light hearted man that you are and who you are continuously trying to become for you, for me, for our son.

I hope you know that I am more IN LOVE with you today than yesterday and I know tomorrow will be even more than today until forever!

Do you even Blog anymore?

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Thoughts from Jenn

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Freedom, Happiness, Life, married life, self discovery

Was the question that came from my husband’s lips as we pulled up the drive from the gym at 6:30 a.m. and as his hazel green eyes stared at me waiting for an answer I couldn’t help but laugh. Looking confused he asked “well I mean I was just wondering because I thought you were going to start writing full time and get us free trips and cool stuff...” this sentence of course sent me into a fit of giggles, my husband he sure does make me laugh.

But all laughs aside his question did get me thinking and the short answer to his question is yes, I do still blog. The long answer is, not in the traditional way. I have been thinking about his question all day and it’s been bugging me because I really do LOVE writing, blogging, note booking or anything else that allows me to release some creative freedom. However, lately it seems I haven’t done a whole lot of it. As I continued to wonder why it suddenly hit me that the reason I wasn’t sitting down to blog about my life was because I have been too busy living it. I have actually been living so freely that instead of escaping to my blog I have been blogging out loud.

Rather than finding my freedom in blogging (as I have for the last year and a half) I have found my freedom in living. I have spent so much time doing the things that I love and have had less time to sit down and write about it. When I was working for corporate America the hour or two of freedom I got to myself per day I would spend blogging, I would come home or sit down on my lunch break and escape my reality. It was a time for me to connect with myself and the world and anyone else that wanted to listen because I didn’t have enough time to connect any other way. My blog in so many ways has been the only way I could slow down and reflect on everything that was spinning around me. It also allowed me to later go back and read about it from my own perspective and re-live it. I have spent many days and hours re-reading my blog from last year and re-living my wedding and all of the other countless adventures we have been on and I couldn’t be more thankful that I am able to do so.

Life recently has been simple. No drama, no bullshit, no doing things that don’t serve us, make us grow or make us happy. It has consisted of falling in love with each other again and again and living each day to fullest. We are living a life of gratitude and it seems to be blessing us daily. We have so much to be thankful for including our health, our job, our relationship, our love, our amazing family and best friends. We are building a brand new foundation as a married couple and it couldn’t be more exciting, which in turn reminds me, we have so much to be excited for but that’s for another day…

Sike …with Love

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Thoughts from Jenn

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Laughter, love, Marriage, married life, Maui, newlyweds

So some of you may or may not remember that last month on January 25th I posted on my Instagram and Facebook a picture of Colt & I wishing him a happy six month anniversary from when we got married. I was so overly excited and just couldn’t believe we were already married six months until ….sike we really weren’t! Last month only made five months! I guess I really was a little too EXCITED because I clearly can’t count (and neither can Colt) since he too was like “happy six months babe” hehe! The even better part was that all of our family and friends also went along with it …..until I got a text.

It was Anu in a semi panic (she of course had something planned for us for our six month) so she had to clear up the obvious typo! As I re-read the text and re-counted the months I quickly realized she was right, oh my goodness what a dork I am! I quickly texted Colt in hysterical laughter. Only I would make such a silly mistake (and of course I felt like a total idiot) but the bright side? Two six month anniversary celebrations!

So today we celebrated our love (and our official six months)… again!

As I mentioned earlier Anu of course had something special up her sleeve! She made us these amazing snicker doodle (our absolute favorite) cupcakes in the shape of a six! She also got us these awesome sparklers! Thanks Anu & Joe you guys are always the best!

And of course it wouldn’t be a celebration if we didn’t have Thai!! Colt tried to talk me into all these fancy restaurants but I of course only had one thing on my mind, nom nom nothing beats Thai (well besides being in Thailand of course)

Sa-wat-dee Kah

Pretending like we might actually order something different when really we know the menu by heart and know exactly what we are going to order every time!

And the fest begins!

The same Thai waitress that always waits on us when we go in was so awesome and brought us out a coconut ice cream to share after our dinner. It was so thoughtful and sweet of her and reminded me so much of how we were treated while traveling in Thailand, kob kun kaa!

Once we got home we still had our snicker doodles and sparklers to light! We were stuffed to the brim but still made room for our favorite treat of course!

They were really awesome sparklers!

It couldn’t have been a better night just the two of us together celebrating our love.

Thank you Colt Olden for yesterday’s memories, today’s love, and tomorrow’s dreams…

Surprise! We (were) in Reno

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

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Tags

Explore, family, Happiness, Life, Marriage, married life, newlyweds, Travel, true love

Well I guess it is no longer a “surprise” that Colt and I spent our Christmas in Reno with our family. However, it was one BIG surprise when we showed up.

(Rewind to October)

We booked tickets back in October when I found a great deal online. It was Colt’s families year for Christmas so I just causally asked him one day if he would like to spend it in Reno. He just kind of looked at me with a “really” face and then excitingly said “Yes! Let’s do it!” I seriously couldn’t have been more excited, traveling for Christmas was like a dream come true for me. It just adds to the magic and nostalgia of an already magical holiday! We booked our tickets that night and decided we wouldn’t tell anyone (besides Ashley & Chad since they would be in Reno too). We giggled and laughed just thinking about how “surprised” they were going to be. We knew from my facebook stalking that Kellie (my mother in law) was hosting everyone at her house and that so much of Colt’s family would be there this year, it felt like real Christmas already and we were still a few months away.

(Fast forward, it’s December!)

When December 1st finally hit I was like a little kid in a candy store. I couldn’t believe we were only 20 days away from the surprise, I also couldn’t believe that it was still a surprise and that NOBODY knew that we were coming (just that sentence alone sends me into a fit of giggles, even after the fact) we were just days away from the best surprise EVER and on CHRISTMAS!

December of course flew by with work and holiday celebrations with family and trips to Oahu that before we could even say “Reno” we were on the plane. We flew out of Maui Friday December 21st on a overnight red eye to San Francisco. Our “plan” was to land in Reno at 9am on Saturday morning pick up our rental and spend the day with Colt’s family (word of advice there is no such thing as a “plan” when no one knows you are coming). We arrived in Reno a little over an hour late (we got delayed in San Francisco) just to find out from Colt’s mom’s facebook that she was snow plowing with Steve and Tristyn in Tahoe for the day! We couldn’t believe it! Here we are in RENO at 10am ready to surprise them and they were in TAHOE! (they didn’t end up coming home until after 8pm that night!)

What you will see below is a series of videos. I was so worried I wasn’t going to be able to remember every second of the experience to write about later so I decided to video blog every moment… ENJOY!

The Stake out Part I

http://youtu.be/5CPywZZey-c

The Stake out Part II

<;;;a title=”The Stew’s Take Reno”

The Stake out Part III

http://youtu.be/BTMM84SSAE4

The Stake out Part IIII

This was the last video of “the stake out” once we left the bar Kellie was home and we flew up her driveway like a mad man(woman). I (thought) I was taping the whole time but my phone died so I was only able to capture this…

http://youtu.be/UBguRS_qIQYb

..because both of our phones had died shortly after “the stake out” I unfortunately was not able to get Austin’s reaction either which was priceless (he looked like he saw the ghost of Colt, so sweet). However we were able to get Grandma’s reaction in her FULL shocked glory….

Since we weren’t able to get Kellie, Austin, and Tristyn’s reaction we later did a video interview with them asking what their “thoughts” were on the surprise…

http://youtu.be/DWpK25-Ccig

Since grandpa really had no idea what was going on during the “surprise” (he just heard grandma screaming and thought he won the Publishing Clearing house) we later asked him what he thought about the “surprise” to give him a little face time…

http://youtu.be/qF97U3SBbN4

and last but certainly not least we FINALLY got to pick up Ash and Chad (secret agents) that were “in” on the surprise…they of course got the FULL holiday mobile greeting from the Stews….

<;;a title=”Picking up Ash & Chad (secret agents)

We had so much fun with these video blogs and I couldn’t be more happy that I was able to capture every moment in its entirety! The Stew’s take Reno was a success!

I will post pictures of the rest of our amazing trip soon, until then keep laughing with one another…

The Happiest Place on Earth

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

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Tags

Dream, Explore, Happiness, married life, Travel

Is it weird that 90% of the time when I go to write a blog a song which resembles what I am about to write about instantly pops into my head? For example as soon as I sat down to write this…boom:

♪ There ain’t no rest for the wicked,

Money don’t grow on trees,

I got bills to pay

I got a mouth to feed

Ain’t nothing in this world for free.

I know I can’t slow down,

I can’t hold back

Though you know I wish I could

Oh no there ain’t no rest for the wicked ♪

Now the “wicked” part is debatable but the “no rest” part is a shoo-in because we honestly have not slowed down since the wedding/honeymoon. With Colt starting his new job we now have weekends off together and boy have we been making the most of them! We have done everything from family time, to photo shoots, to pumpkin picking, to pumpkin carving, to running 5k’s in honor and celebration of Auntie Jamie to going to Florida and planning & booking more trips. Every weekend since September has been filled with some kind of fun and or shenanigans and I am exhausted! Exhausted from LIFE and LIVING and I am loving it! I love that every moment we have that we are not working we are exploring a new space or place, making a new memory or just enjoying our love. I have to say getting married is the best thing I have ever done! There is just something about being able to experience life with your significant other who is also your best friend that is so exhilarating.

We just got home from Florida a week ago today. Colt has never been to the East coast (I know that statement is so crazy to me too) and I had a work conference in Orlando from Sunday to Friday so we decided it would be a great opportunity to fly him out. We quickly made plans with my two cousins who both live about two hours from Orlando and whom I haven’t seen in 5 years! During those 5 years Kelly & her husband Elton have had 2 beautiful baby girls and Chrissie & Omar also had a beautiful baby girl (I know I can’t believe it, 3 girls!) I was so excited to finally meet them and squeeze them but also have them all finally meet Colt! As if that wasn’t already amazing enough my bestest friend Kristen also decided to come down with her boyfriend Kevin so we decided to make the trip into a Disney World / Universal three day fun-filled family vacation! 5 parks, 3 days no biggie….or so we thought!

Colt got into Florida on Friday night right in time for my conference to end. I couldn’t have been more happy to see him (and in Florida none the less). I had missed him so much that week since this was my first trip without him since we became husband and wife. It was so exciting to be having our first real vacation as a “married” couple. Kristen and Kevin also got in later that evening so we went to dinner had some drinks then hit the sack. I of course had a strict itinerary planned for us over the next 3 days and there wasn’t much time for sleep.

Date: Saturday November 3, 2012

Location: Universal’s Island of Adventure & Downtown Disney

Begin Time: 6:00am

End Time: 11:00pm

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was by far one of the highlights of my trip (it also happened to be one of my bucket list items..check!)

the butter beer was to die for, I had two then thought I might barf.

These three look a little too natural with those magic wands..hmmm

the Harry Potter exclusive “hog’s head” beer (on tap of course) hit the spot after a long day of flying on broomsticks

After 7 hours at the park we were ready to get our feet back on the ground so we drove to downtown Disney to meet my amazing family for dinner. Talk about baby fever, whew…these sweet girls captured our hearts instantly.

Ellyana this is her “don’t you see I’m coloring Auntie” look. Love this sweet angel, she is so beautiful and such a wonderful big sister to Ellysa and cousin to Giana.

Baby Giana. ohh just look at that face! She is so beautiful and such a happy & sweet girl.

The newest addtion to our growing family Ellysa Grace! She is so sweet and cute as a button at just 8 weeks old.

I honestly still can’t believe these are my cousins babies! It is so crazy and amazing to see them as Mom’s with their own families. You are both amazing wives and mothers. Love you both so much.

My beautiful cousins Chrissie & Kelly.

Date: Sunday November 4, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Begin time: 7:00am

End time: 11:00pm

Good Morning Minni Mouse Diva’s & Best of Friends.

Rock and Roll Baby!

One of Colt, Kevin & I’s favorite ride…Kristen not so much.

our favorite park of the 4

best coaster of the bunch

Kilimanjaro African Safari got two thumbs up!

not much could compare to the Disney World dance party…just shaking our groove thing with the Goof!

Date: Monday November 5, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Hollywood Studios

Begin time: 8:00am

End time: 11:00pm

On Monday the parks were jam packed by 9am so instead of waiting in long lines we went over to Epcot for their food & wine festival which took us on a trip around the world and I must say Mickey’s Bar Crawl was a brilliant success!

…well until my best friend threw me in a rose bush!