cruise

Last week we went on a cruise. It was the first vacation Nathan and I have been on since we had Caleb, almost 4 years ago. We took a Royal Caribbean cruise from Galveston, Texas to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. We went with 6 other couples from both Tulsa and Corpus Christi.

The first stop was in Roatan, Honduras where Nathan and I got the chance to scuba dive with our good friends Ginger and Jared. It wasn't the best dive I have ever done but it did come pretty close. 

Next we went to Belize city, Belize where we did a zip line through the jungle and cave tubing excursion. 

Lastly we stopped in Cozumel where we took ATV's to Jade Caverns. The water in Cozumel was absolutely amazing. The color was beautiful and the visibility was at least a 100 feet. We defiantly want to plan a trip back to Cozumel.

In between our stops and excursions we were wined and dined with phenomenal food that came in abundance.  We ordered several entrees and deserts each night and they were brought to us by the greatest waiter. Our waiter was from the Philippines which turned out to be fun because for once Nathan could finally use the language he learned on his mission. Rey (our waiter) created an amazing dinner experience each night complete with magic tricks. I can't thank Rey enough for what an amazing job he did with our large group.  

I was a little nervous about having 3 full days at sea and wondered if I would be able to keep busy but the ship was full of things to do. We went swimming, surfing (on the flow rider), rock climbing, played lots of shuffle board, watched shows, listened to live music, played games, ordered lots and lots of frozen drinks, and caught up on sleep. 

Overall it was such a great experience with lots and lots of great memories. It's been a long time since I have laughed as much as I did on this cruise. We couldn't have asked for a better group to go with. 

This is just a photo dump, in no particular order of a few of the many pictures taken by all our friends.

Utah

Last weekend we flew (with 3 kids) to Utah to visit some of our friends and family. This is a little photo dump of our trip.

Waiting to board the plane.

The kids were great on the plane ride to Utah. Molly slept most of the way and Caleb and Ethan played with toys.

We stayed with our good friends the Vance's who used to live in Corpus but moved to Utah a few years ago. They have 3 little kids almost the exact ages of our 3. The kids had such a great time playing together.

The boys got to dye Easter Eggs for the first time.

We also had a little Easter Egg hunt at the Lynette's parents house.

Thanks to a good friends recent instagram post we enjoyed some late night entertainment with acroyoga.

We packed up our three kids, Tia and her girls and drove to Rexburg. We were able to take a tour of the school, meet up with Nathan's brother and his wife and we celebrate Molly's 1st birthday. 

We also were able to spend some time visiting temple square.

We were also able to visit with my brothers, go to the Sunday morning session of general conference, eat lots of really good food, shop, hang out and catch up with some of our best friends. We had a little bit of a rough patch when Molly and Ethan got pretty sick and spent the night and following day puking, but other then that everything was great. 

 

We love this girl. She brightens the mood of everyone she meets.

 

 

projects

We have been doing lots of projects around my Dad's house to get it ready to sell. The biggest project was replacing a lot of the old flooring with a new laminate/wood flooring. The boys have been helping, mostly with the cleaning and earning money in hopes to buy a Batman robot. They have a little ways to go but hopefully by the end of spring they will have saved enough.

11 months

11 months old!
wearing 9 month clothing
sleeps 12 hours at night and 3-4 during the day
loves people
loves food
is almost always happy
is really squirmy and can't sit still
feeds herself most foods
figured out how to get up the stairs but not down
standing but not walking
loves to be with her brothers
will go to anyone with food
loves her muslin blankets
hates being in her car seat
loves to head bump people
had her first little spell of sickness and handled it pretty well
hates having her diaper changed
loves to play with her brothers toys
is the easiest baby, we have been so spoiled by her

the circus

The last month it has been cold, wet, snowy and slightly miserable. We have all had a mild case of cabin fever so even though it was snowy we decided to head out to the circus. Lucky for us the YMCA had free tickets for kids so it ended up being pretty cheap since we only had to pay for the adults. Overall we had a great time and everyone enjoyed it. Caleb and Ethan were both pretty scared at the beginning because it was really loud in the arena. A few minutes into the circus acts they had an aerialist come out dressed as Spiderman and both boys were completely won over. After that everything was great and everyone was happy.   

 

lately

Life has been pretty slow lately. We have spent the last few weeks hanging out around the house, playing, going to the gym, driving out to our new house and helping my Dad with a few renovation projects on his house. 

It's not always like this but on occasion these kids play well together. I love to listen to their conversations from a distance. Molly also thinks she is one of the boys and refuses to be left behind.

10 months

17lbs
eats anything anyone will give her and LOVES food
crawls everywhere
pulls herself up
climbs stairs
loves to be held
thinks she is a big kid and refuses to stay in the baby area at the gym
wearing 6-9 month clothing
has the best smile and giggle
loves to great Nathan when he comes home from work
loves to play in the water
hates getting her diaper change
still loves her pacifier

9 months

This is a little late but this girl turned 9 months January 6th 2015.
16lbs 10ounces
2 bottom teeth
2 top teeth on the break through
pulls her self up into a standing position but can't get back down
hates her bottles
loves anything that isn't baby food
crawls everywhere
loves to be held
loves to be picked up
thinks she is a big kid and refuses to stay in the baby area at the gym child watch
almost always happy
sleeps well
crawls straight to her Daddy when she hears him come home after work
is an absolute joy