Good luck Jessica!

We hosted a family baby shower for Steven's niece Jessica. She will be having a little girl sometime around Feb. 6th (nice date!...my b-da) I am excited to be a great aunt again! (Heck...I think I've always been great but this makes me officially great! ;-) Congratulations Jessica!

Steven helped by making cinnamon rolls for our brunch. They were amazing! He is sooo amazing!!!!! (But maybe that's because he's a "great" uncle.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Andrea had her kindergarten Thanksgiving feast. Here is her vest and hat she made. After I took her picture, she wanted Steen to be able to wear it too! ;-) I'm grateful for such a sweet family...most of the time ;-)

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....