Ten year anniversary trip in Mexico!!! Part 1

Brian and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on August 16th, but we really "celebrated" it in May by going to Cancun.  We were there for a week and it was absolutely perfect!  We were completely spoiled and enjoyed every minute of it.  The weather was wonderful, the resort was great, and the food and drinks were delicious.  By the end of it, we missed our kids (definitely) and were ready to go home (kind of). :0)  We owe Brian's parents A TON for watching the kids for us while we were gone.  I think that's why we were able to enjoy ourselves so much...we knew our kids were being taken care of and were having a fun time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Here are the 1st half of pictures from our trip.  Oh, how I miss that warm water and just being able to sit back, relax, and read 5 books!! :0)

Our resort had several pools, but these were our favorites.

The infinity pool that looked right out at the ocean.

 We soon made our way out to the beach...

 and saw this ship out on the water.  We had to take a picture of it because we knew Austin would love seeing a "Pirate ship" on the ocean!

 See, Brian even cracked open a couple of books!!  I loved these cabanas!

 Our resort had 5 restaurants open for dinner and a couple places open for breakfast and lunch.  Our first night we went to the French restaurant.  It was quite yummy.  Especially the desserts!

 After dinner we waited in the lobby for the nightly entertainment to start. 

 That night's entertainment was a drumline and fire dancers.  It was pretty cool.  Paige and Austin couldn't believe that those circles and lines were actually fire. :0)

 The Mexican restaurant was by for the most entertaining.  We had the best server, Juan.  He was hilarious!  Our cheeks hurt by the end of the night because we were laughing and smiling so much.

 Nacho Libre anyone?

 Juan even made the rose we're holding from a napkin for Brian to give to me.  

 Here we are after snorkeling at the reef.  We saw baracudas, a lobster, a blue parrotfish, and lots of other fish.  It was beautiful.

 Here I am reading yet another book! :0)  When you don't have your kids there to chase after and take care of, you have LOTS of free time!

 Our resort had bicycle tours into the nearby fishing village and we decided to take advantage of it.  Besides the bikes being very uncomfortable because of the lack of padding on the seats and the stylish construction vests we had to wear while we were on the bikes, the tour was great!  We saw some pretty neat birds and a crocodile in the swamp area and fed tortillas to a little raccoon-like animal.  I can't remember what the name of it is, but it was so cute.  It was very shy, but he really wanted the tortillas we had, so he snuck up, grabbed the tortillas and he was gone.  I got a couple pictures of him, but this was the best one.  When we were in the village, we went to a few shops and found toys for the kids and a couple of dresses for the girls.  Brian loved the little doll and had to get it for Bryn.

 These were all taken that night.

Easter 2011

Wow, my kids look so young in these pictures.  That tells you how long it's been since I've blogged!!  

We had a couple Easter Egg hunts.  The first one was with a few cousins and the second one was with the neighbor kids and other friends.  The kids had so much fun.  I loved seeing how quickly Bryn picked up on the whole concept!  I realized, though, that Paige and Austin need bigger baskets (like Bryn's) because they ran out of room in their baskets pretty quick.

Our first annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt!  Even though it was FREEZING, we had a great turnout.  We're hoping it just keeps growing every year!!

The kiddos in their Easter Sunday best.  I made Paige's skirt.  I didn't use a pattern and just used the "trial and error" method.  I added the waistband last minute and I'm so glad I did.  It just added the finishing touch I had in mind!  I loved seeing Bryn in the dress that Paige had from my sister's wedding.  It's crazy to me that Paige used to be that small!!  Austin just looks so handsome.  His shirt and pants were soon retired, though.  He has had quite the growth spirt, let me tell ya.  (More on that later.)

Here I go again!!

This summer has been full of family reunions, swimming, projects and just enjoying the "dog days of summer".  I have so much to post about and it's going to take me a while to get caught up, so bear with me.  Now that Paige and Austin are both in school (yikes, I'm getting old!!), I should be able to get on the computer a little more and post some things.  

For those of you who are still waiting to be sent my "Handmade" item, don't worry, I haven't forgotten!!  It's not a good thing having a whole year to make and send off the items.  I'm a procrastinator and I need shorter deadlines, I've decided!! :0)  They will be out before the end of the year, I promise!  My goal is be Halloween at the latest!! :0)

Girls Trip/SLC 5k race

This last weekend, a group of us friends went to Salt Lake to run in a 5k.  There were eight of us who went and let me tell you, I love all 7 of these women.  They are AMAZING!!  Just on the way down to Utah, my cheeks hurt so bad from laughing so much and it just kept going!!  We seriously had so much fun.  We got there Friday night, picked up our packets and then went out to eat at Olive Garden.  Of course we had to go there, because we had no husbands with us to complain that it was a "chick's restaraunt"!!  Then we stayed up way too late talking and laughing some more!  We woke up bright and early at 5:45-6:00 am and got ready for our race that started at 7:10.  Funny story, we got on Trax close to our hotel and it was packed.  We started talking with some people next to us and they were saying things like, "Yeah, I can only run it in 1 1/2 hours."  "Wow, I wish I was as fast as you, this is my first so I'm just hoping to finish."  My friend Gwen and I looked at each other and realized we were on the wrong train.  We yelled to the rest of our friends to get off the train and proceeded to rush out before the train left for the next stop, all the while laughing hysterically and being "laughed with" (OK, laughed at) by those half- and full- marathoners!!  Yeah, stupid moment by us!!  At least we made it to the starting line in time and had no problems after that! :0)

I had 2 goals going into this race.  #1 Stay with Dana (she's awesome!) and #2 Don't stop to walk.  I met both of the goals, so I was very happy!  I was even happier when I found out the next day what my time was.  I ran it in 28:19 which is my fastest time by 2 minutes.  Also, in my age group, I was 13th out of 160 runners.  How cool is that.  For a person with a definite "sprinter's mentality", I was pretty proud of myself.  I just have to thank Dana for being my running partner and not letting me give up!

After our race we HAD to do a little, or a lot, of shopping!  Before we could get started with that, though, we had to stop at Les Schwab to get a new battery for Steph's Excursion.  After about 2 hours, we were on our way.  Yeah, I said 2 hours.  With having to get a new alternator and having just a few mishaps with the Napa store less than a block away, we were there for 2 whole hours, but it wasn't that bad.  It just gave us more time to sit and talk.  We would have done the same thing no matter where we were.  The funny thing is that 2 of the girls have husbands who work for Les Schwab and Napa, so we had to laugh at the whole situation!

These pictures are from our last shopping stop of the day.  Tai Pan Trading.  How I love that store!  I came out very inspired!  Projects, here I come! ;0)  As you can see, Steph (our expert packer) was put to work to fit all of our stuff in the back.  Between stops at Hobby Lobby, several stores in the mall, Old Navy, Barnes and Noble, Target and Tai Pan, we were packed like sardines on the way home!  It was great!! :0)

Thanks, ladies, for a wonderful trip!!  And thank you to our sweet husbands for taking care of the kids while we were away.  We knew they were in the best of hands!!    Besides Brian and Paige getting sick, there weren't many incidents on the homefront, that we know of anyway, so it was great all around!

Silly kiddos

My kids always keep me on my toes and they always make me laugh.  Every day!  Here are a few pictures of them.

When my sister was at my house last, they needed a binkie for Dawson.  I had this one that had never been used, so we gave it to him for his nap.  Bryn found it when they left and she thinks it's the greatest toy ever.  She doesn't suck on it (she loves her thumb too much for that).  No, she just sticks it in her mouth and clamps down on it with her teeth.  She bites down on it so hard, I can't take it out of her mouth unless I want to pull teeth out with it.  Crazy girl!  She refused to take one when she was 2 months old and now she thinks it's a toy!

Here are a few "close-ups" of the kiddos.  Bryn started it and as the saying goes, "monkey see, monkey do"!  

Some more projects

You know me, I can't go more than a few days without making another craft or project.  Here are a few of my latest.  

I embellished this onesie for a friend's baby who just turned one.    I loved how the ribbon around the back neckline turned out!  The heart was made by sewing strips of fabric together at different angles and then cutting out the heart shape.  I then sewed it on to the onesie. The rosette at the shoulder was just the perfect finishing touch.

We're redecorating our master bath.  So far, we've painted the walls and the vanity, but we're needing to get a new countertop and sink to match.  When everything is done, I'll post before and after pics.  Right now you just get to see the shelf I put up and the boxes I made for it.  I got the shelf from Hollie from Vintage Farm Furniture.  So many cute things that she refinishes!!  Highly recommend getting things from her if you are in the area!  For the boxes, I just took a shoe box (on top) and mod podged paper onto it.  I then glued a strip of muslin around it and then added the fabric rosettes. I then found another cardboard box (on bottom) and covered  it with fabric (the same as the rosettes on the other box) and then made a fabric flower with the muslin and glued that on.  It was super easy and didn't cost me anything to make the boxes.  It was great!!

  

I found a tutorial for these Peeps Bunny Plushies on Dandelions and Lace.  When I saw them I knew I had to make them.  I think they turned out pretty well and the kids LOVE them.  They sleep with them almost every night.

Some of my friends and I went to Utah to run a 5k (more on that later), and of course we had to go shopping.  When we were at Old Navy, I saw the cutest Easter basket and I couldn't bring myself to buy it because I knew I could make it for free!  So, after the kids went to bed last night, I whipped this up for Bryn.  (Paige and Austin already had baskets, but poor Bryn didn't have one.)  It was so, so easy and so cute!  I loved being able to play around with some of the stitches on my new machine! :0)  I didn't have the stiff felt like the one at Old Navy, but I just put two pieces of felt together for the eggs and that worked well. 

Sensory Safari

Our library hosted a "Sensory Safari" a few weeks ago and we had to take the kids.  We went last year and loved it so much we had to go again.

Paige was trying to be a good helper and keep Bryn by the lions for the picture, but Bryn had other things to see.  She would not stay still for a minute because there were just too many animals to see.

The 2nd picture without Bryn. She was long gone.

I think this was Paige's favorite!

Austin touching the crocodile's teeth.  It has a gazelle in it's mouth.

Sorry this is such a bad picture.  Paige is touching the boa constrictor and it's posed to attack the world's smallest antelope.  I can't remember the name of it.

She held still long enough for a picture!!

Austin's favorite display!

Bryn was fascinated with this crocodile.  She finally got brave enough to touch it and then we could get her to leave it alone!

I think this was a water buffalo.  I just missed her touching it's leg.  It was pretty funny how quickly she pulled her hand away! :0)