Milk-Friendly: {Fortuna Family Happenings}: Here I am at 27 Years Old

This past Wednesday the 11th, I celebrated my 27th birthday. Because I always dreamed of being a young mom with lots of children, my life plan was to get married by 22 (which I did) and have a baby when I was 23 (did that too.) Even though the past four years have been a serious whirlwind/roller coaster, it feels really amazing to look back at a few of the little moments that have made me into the woman that I am today. Sometimes you need to slow down, browse through some old pictures and just soak in and appreciate everyone and everything you have in your life at this very moment.

Here's a little photo series of my birthdays starting 4 years ago

A P R I L 2 0 0 8

7 months pregnant with Coral at my birthday brunch. Pictured with my cousin May and my sister May photobombing in the background. I felt very young, but (naively) confident of how motherhood would be. I felt empowered and confident in myself to have my first baby at home with a planned a homebirth which was completely amazing.

A P R I L 2 0 0 9

The first year of motherhood was probably the hardest year.of.my.life. Couldn't even find a picture of myself in the month of April. Coral is 10 months here and really, one of the cutest looking kids I ever did see. I guess he had to be extraordinarily cute to get me through that first year. Also, around this time, we started for baby #2. I

A P R I L 2 0 1 0

Second year of motherhood and we already had two beautiful boys. Coral is 22 months and Sky is a wee 3 1/2 months. Transitioning to two under two years old wasn't as hard as I thought and Sky was a much more mellow infant. I felt like I was just starting to grab hold of the old me and balance the new me as a mother of two.

A P R I L 2 0 1 1

This is the year Brian flew us up to San Francisco for my birthday. This trip was just perfect. Also, I literally just started Milk-Friendly (April Archive) and launched my own business Green Your Air. I can honestly say that not only was I getting a hang of this mother thing, but I was flourishing. Balancing a marriage, the children and being able to explore creative outlets and help others was HUGE for me. On this trip, we also found out I was pregnant with a baby that we lost at 6 weeks (I still need to share about that sometime soon.)

A P R I L 2 0 1 2

And here we are today. We moved to Oahu, are blessed with another baby boy and I am very happy and content with this life I have. The week before my actual birthday, Brian's parents were here visiting and my only birthday wish was to have time to shop all myself. Brian, MaMaw and PawPaw had the boys playing on the beaches of Waikiki, and I got to spend a solid 2, maybe 3 hours shopping at Forever 21, running across town to get my phone screen fixed, riding a taxi by myself and meeting up with the family I so dearly missed for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

This was a perfect day for me.

Then the day before my actual birthday, we went back into Honolulu, Brian dropped me in the Bike Shop to look for a possible new bday bike while the boys slept in the car. We enjoyed dinner at The Counter and got Whole Foods Groceries- woohoo.

That night, Sky struck a fever with what we've anticipated is due to his 2 year old molars making their debut. His fever lasted my whole birthday but for me, that meant extra cuddles and a great appreciation for the role that I am so lucky to have. We made it out for a sunset park session. I got to play with Coral while Sky passed out on Daddy and we had pizza and pasta for dinner.

Still, another great day.

THANK YOU

to everyone out there for all the birthday wishes

and especially for being a part of our lives.

HERE'S TO ANOTHER YEAR!

I also wanted to share a birthday card I got from my sister Amy. It was one of those cards that spoke so true to me and really brought a tear in my eye. I think every mom out there can appreciate it.

___

For You, Sister

It's great seeing you

at such a good place

in your life.

Your happiness

shows

in your smile, and your attitude.

So enjoy yourself--

because no one deserves

to be happy

more than you.