Fun With Samara

We got to watch Samara a couple times after Jayme had baby Liam. She loved playing with Charlie and Kenya and got to take a bath with both of them! They of course loved having her over too. She's so sweet and friendly to everyone, you can just tell by those smiles. Thanks for playing Samara!

Kenya's Photo Shoot

My sister Kelle came over and took these cute pictures of Kenya on Easter! There were so many that I liked these are only a few. She's such a happy baby and getting so big. It's so much fun to have a girl. She wore about 3 different Easter dresses for the weekends festivities because she had so many given and borrowed to her, it was fun to dress her up! Kelle did all these in about 10 minutes, we were rushing to get to Mark's mom's so I think she did a pretty great job. Thanks Kel!

Park Day!

With the nice weather lately we've been taking trips to the park. It's so nice to get outside, and especially nice that Charlie can get all of his energy out, ok not all, I don't know if that's possible, but most of it! Here's some pics at the park. Kenya's first swing ride, she loved it!

Happy Easter!

Here are the kids with their Easter baskets. Charlie was especially excited for his spider man scooter and spider man underwear while Kenya couldn't be more pleased with her new binkys and butt paste! :) This is the only picture I actually got on Easter because my camera battery died and my charger was in storage. :( We tried to use my dad's camera for a family picture and one of the kids but when I went back to look at the pictures they didn't turn out for some reason. Kelle got some pictures of Kenya later that day but by then I was too worn out to try and get Charlie back in his church clothes and get us to all look decent plus we were trying to rush off to Mark's family's dinner, so I'll post some of Kenya when I get those, she had about three Easter dresses and I didn't have to buy one! I did get their pictures taken at Kiddie Kandid in their Easter clothes so I guess I have that documented right!?! Oh the pressure of pictures!

We had a fun Easter. This is probably the first year that Charlie really understood what was going on. He got to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, which he was so excited about and he loved coloring eggs with his cousins Sailor and Kaia.

Moving Day!

Well we got back from our cruise and expected on having almost two weeks until we had to be out of our house. Turns out the people who bought our house wanted us to close a week early and have us out a week early which meant we pretty much had 3 days to pack up and move out! It was chaos on moving day! You never realize how much stuff you have until you move, so thanks to all of you who helped us on our chaotic moving day and thanks especially to my dad who is letting us stay with him while we build our house, I hope he can stand all the questions Charlie is constantly asking him and the mess that comes along with two small kids! Above is us on moving day and Charlie with friends Porter and Kelsi and Lauren, we miss you guys!

I Am a Mother

Yesterday I went to Deseret Book to find some Easter books for the kids, and I found something for me too, a book by Jane Clayson Johnson titled I Am a Mother. It has been just the pick me up that I've needed. Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful that my husband has provided for us so I can be a stay at home mom and raise my kids, and even though it's what I want to do it doesn't mean it's always easy, right? I mean when your three year old is having a tantrum screaming "I want my fruit snacks!" for a half hour and your baby is having all the signs of teething (and I mean all), you sometimes wonder if this is really all you dreamed it would be! All you mom's out there know what a difficult and huge responsibility being a mother is and it's so easy to loose focus on how important and rewarding the job is! Especially when you don't get a pat on the back and the recognition for everything you do for your kids, it usually goes unnoticed. But I've learned that there is one person who is always noticing, one person who has given us these precious children to nurture and care for and all the hard work will be rewarded. So I just wanted to share some encouraging thoughts that I've needed and let all the over tired, over worked, lost our patience moms out there know that you're not alone. We all need to be reminded of what a beautiful, important thing motherhood is, so if you're needing a little reminder read this book! :) Despite my complaints, I am so grateful to have these two little miracles in my life and for all the joys they bring me, they are so precious and I feel so blessed to be their mother.

Karaoke with Vitalli

Almost every night on the cruise we karaoked with Vitalli, the karaoke DJ! He had a great Russian accent and always encouraged the crowd to clap by clapping over his head during the performance, then following up with "go crazy, go wild." He was the highlight of our night and we found ourselves quoting him all the time. We all did some karaoke. I tried to imitate Britney Spears (unsuccessfully) while Paige, or should I say Peggy, was Madonna. The classics were Russell the love muscle's performance as Marvin Gaye and Mark the machine as Michael Jackson. Mark was able to create a fan base while cruising! :) Here are some clips...

Cruise Continued...

Okay, so this is the infamous "no scooters" sign that we tried every time we got on or off the boat to take a picture of. After trying the first time the guards told us "no pictures in security area." So we tried to come up with a plan of distraction every time and every time something would go wrong like Nate pressing the power button and turning off the camera instead. Or like this picture where Russ walked right in front of the camera. Finally on the last time loading the ship we had the perfect plan. Mark was going to walk in front of the security guard and distract him by holding up his bag in front of his face and saying "should I put this through sir?" As Lynette took the picture. We got the picture but Lynette had her camera on multi picture so it's like a slow video and I can't get it to upload, so I'll keep trying. We were laughing hysterically, I still laugh when I think about it.


Here we are in St. Maarten! We've got Nate, Lynette, Paige, Russ and me and Mark. This island had a gorgeous beach that we took a taxi to and hung out there for the day. We did some body surfing (or we all tried, I think Russ was the only truly successful one.) And tried to avoid the "nudies." :)

Every night we got to sit down for a great dinner, with Genaro from the Phillipines as our waiter. What a hard worker! He was excellent and the food was excellent. Mark is convinced that the cruise ship actually lost money on him with all the food he ate and all the drinks he didn't drink!:)
On the last night he ordered 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and dessert, and pretty much finished them all! Even Russ and Nate were amazed. These are pictures from our two formal nights.

St. Thomas

Our second stop was St. Thomas where we got to do our excursion- kayak, hike, and snorkel. Needless to say it wasn't as great as we imagined (are those excursions ever as great as they sound? We have yet to find one that lives up to all it says, anyone else have this problem on vacations? From now on I am buying an insiders book to wherever we go and get all the tips from them!) Anyway, it was still fun, kayaking was great, hike was more like a stroll along the beach but still fun and the snorkeling, well let's just say we've seen better. The best was the "snack" a whole mini twix bar just to ourselves! :) St. Thomas was gorgeous though and another great day!

Our Cruise!

We had been looking forward to this vacation for months, counting down the months, weeks, and days. We got to go on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with our great friends Nate and Lynette Hess and Paige and Russ Davis. With the help of our families we got to leave our kids at home! (Thank you family!) We had such a great time, our first stop was the Bahamas which we decided to rent scooters and drive along the coast of the island, so much fun! It was just like a scene from Dumb and Dumber, but we're cruising along the beach and not the Rockies. :) When we boarded the ship after our fun filled day we discovered a sign by security that basically said scooters were dangerous and they didn't recommend renting them! Woops! Definately worth the risk though!