Puppy Party!

Happy Birthday Steen! He celebrated his 3rd birthday with a doggie party.

He invited his buddies. They're all wearing sunglasses with doggie felt ears glued on. Some of them had their noses painted black with face paint.
His favorite color is green so we had green cupcakes with little dog candles in them.

They ate doggie treats including dog bone shaped cookies.

They played games including pin the tail on the doggie; Dog, Dog, Dog Cat; and doggie doggie where's your bone.
In this game they tossed doggie bones into a doggie dish.
Steen loved the batman cave from mom and dad...
BUT He REALLY LOVED the doggie shirt from grandma and exclaimed, "this is sooo cool" and immediately began to put it on!

And since Steen is now 3 years old...it's time to announce that he has a little baby sibling on the way. I'm expecting #4 on April 22nd.

Apple pickin'

Our neighbor invited us to her parent's apple orchard to pick as many apples as we wanted. The kids had a blast picking apples and Steen walked around eating them with two in his hand at a time. Afterwards we had carmel dipped apples and the kids got to ride on the cherry picker tractor. I forgot my camera, so no pics of the actual event, but afterwards, Steven and I canned 12 quarts of applesauce! Thanks Lori for letting us use your special applesauce maker (it separates the peels and seeds from the applesauce) to make it much easier.

Cornbelly's Kindergarten fieldtrip

Andrea's class went to cornbelly's for their kindergarten fieldtrip and had a blast. I went along as a parent helper and had fun riding the bus with Andrea. They each got to pick a pumpkin to take home from the pumpkin patch. I told the 5 kids in my group that nobody could take a pumpkin that was too big for them to carry...well Andrea chose a huge pumpkin and I ended up carrying it back to the bus most of the way. I guess I should have been better at enforcing with my own child, but she loves her pumpkin and can't wait to carve a jack o' lantern.

Family Pictures

My sister-in-law Rachel and her partner Crystal do awesome photography. If you want to check out more go to there blog at www.rcphotographyutah.blogspot.com.

Daddy's boy!

Our Curly Girly!

Sweet Michaela!

It's a miracle this pic ever got taken...Steen wanted to be back hanging on dad and interrupting our kissing session...just like real life!

Ten Year Anniversary Trip to Cozumel, Mexico Part 1

Ten Years ago, Steven and I made a list of all the fun dates we wanted to go on....and Cozumel, Mexico was on our list! For our ten year anniversary, we got our passports and went and spent a week there...with out the kids! It was an AMAZING vacation and I would recommend it to ALL. I think when our kids are all swimming age, we'll have to go back as a family!

We stayed at the Cozumeleno Hotel which was an all inclusive resort with amazing snorkeling right on their beach!

This was the view from our front door...it overlooked a golf course.

This was the view off our balcony. We were literally right on the Caribbean and the view was spectacular.

Our first night there...eating in the restaurant, sipping our pina coladas. Yum! The food was pretty good! They waited on you hand and foot and you could pretty much order what ever you wanted or get food from the buffet. There was food ready to eat any time of day! My favorite was they would make up fresh omelettes and smoothies for breakfast anyway you liked it! The fish was sooo fresh, I actually loved it, even though I'm not a fish person. Steven's favorite food night was the Spain night...he served his mission there and has been wanting me to try a rice dish called Paella...I have now tried it!

Paella with big shrimp and muscles in it. I think it had octopus and other things as well.


Steven's plate loaded with all his Spanish favorites! Steven had so much fun talking to the waiters in spanish...we both tried to speak Spanish whenever we could. We even went to church on Sunday and it was all in spanish. I was surprised at how much I still understand and we both even made comments in sunday school...yes, in spanish!!!They had entertainment each night...our favorite was Mexican night. They had a whole fiesta with amazing dancers and a mariachi band. I didn't post the picture but they had guys dancing blind folded with machetes...that was pretty amazing! The girls also danced with beer bottles on their heads, and I know they were full because at the end, one of them dropped one and it spilled everywhere.

Steven and I took a bike tour through our hotel down to the marina.

The best part was the snorkeling just right on the beach. I am throwing bread to the fish and they are swimming up to me in hordes!

Steven snorkeling with the fish. Our disposable underwater camera doesn't reflect how blue and clear the water was.

The trip was amazing! And best of all, Steven and I got a whole week of alone time! Grandma stayed with the kids and they had a blast. Keep scrolling down for part 2 of our trip including our expeditions to Chichen Itza and more....

Ten Year Anniversary Trip to Cozumel Part 2

Steven and I took an all day excursion to see the ruins of Chichen Itza as well as Ik Kil which is a cenote or natural water hole. By all day, I mean that we traveled 40 minutes on a ferry to the main Yucutan peninsula and then for 3 hours in a very comfortable bus...and that was only 1 way. We left at 6:30 in the morning and did not get back until after 9pm. Needless to say we were exhausted!!! Here are some of the pics from that trip:

This is Ik Kil...see Steven swimming in the middle. The 120 foot deep swimming area is accessible by a staircase that meanders down into the amazing area. Ik Kil has majestic charectieristics where the sunlight from 85 feet above filters through holes in the ground and vegetation. Known as “the Sacred Blue Cenote”, the fresh water is an intriguing clear turquoise blue and hovers at a comfortable 78 degrees Fahrenheit. (OK...I didn't write that, I stole it off this website which has more information if you want: http://www.mexicovacationtravels.com/snorkeling/enjoy-the-mayan-beauty-at-cenote-ik-kil.html ) The water actually felt cold to me...but that is probably because I have my bath water somewhere around 94 degrees. It was really pretty with the vegetation hanging down and the sunlight streaming in. We both jumped in the water...but I didn't stay in long...someone had to take a picture of Steven, right?

Here's a picture at the top of the staircase looking down into the water hole.

This is Chichen Itza...the sacred Mayan ruins. They used to let you climb up the stairs, but not any more. It was very intriguing to learn about...I would like to even read some more, especially from an LDS Book of Mormon perspective. As for our thoughts on this day...it was VERY HOT!!! About 3pm in the afternoon with no shade. The tour guides offered us umbrellas and we turned them down...what were we thinking? It was cool to see, but I don't know if I'd go again...maybe it would be more interesting first thing in the morning and not after 4 hours of travel and being SOOOOOO HOT!

Most of the days we just hung out at our hotel. It was soooo fun. This is a picture taken from the pier of the backside of the hotel.

Our kids insisted we build a sand castle for them and take a picture. Here is our master piece. We also built Chichen Itza's Temple...but forgot to get a picture of it. Notice Steven's bending over pose. He didn't put sunscreen on his back and a small one inch strip was showing while we worked on the sand castle. He got burned pretty bad on that strip...like we're talking fluorescent RED! Ouch!

This is standing on the pier and just taking a picture from above of some angel fish. The water was amazingly clear and blue on our beach.

This is the view from where we ate each day! Aaaaahhhh! Isn't that water beautiful...I'm ready to go back!

End of the Year Craziness- The after school CELEBRATION!!!

So...if you scroll through the last 10 posts or so...you can see that we had a busy end of the school year!!!!! Talent Shows, Recitals, Dance Festivals, Graduation, Fieldtrips, etc! (****Please note that I finally figured out how to post video of Michaela and Andrea's talent shows and dance festival...I'd love for you to watch their talent shows since I worked so hard to figure out how to cut down the video in size so I could post!) All that craziness ended Friday and we had a little party to celebrate. I decided to have the party on Thursday and made a few calls. (I'm kind of last minute that way.) It was supposed to be for a couple of hours...but everyone was having so much fun it went well in to the afternoon. The kids had a blast!!!!! We'll have to do this again.

Here's a bunch of the girls in the jacuzzi.

The best part was this cool waterslide we borrowed from our neighbors. That is me going down the slide with Steen and Andrea. Way fun!

The boys hanging together....

Here is Steen and his buddy Luke going up the slide together

Cute Michaela!Friends eating popcicles.

Andrea in her cute new swimsuit with matching towel. Michaela has one too. (Lands End...shopping online...oh yeah!)

My friend Erika...

I ended up making homemade pizza...yum! Others brought chips and salad and stuff. All the moms came and hung out for at least part of it, so I got to celebrate with my friends as well. After all the end of the year craziness...this was a fun way to end. Summer laziness...here we come!