Crusin' to Cozumel

Unfortunately we did not bring our digital camera, so until we can remember to develop our film, you will have to use your imagination. Here are the cute Mexican dresses and the lizard shirt we brought back for the kids. We started off flying to Houston. We went to Galveston and left from there. The first day at sea was fun. They had a place to play basketball, volleyball, shuffleboard, an olympic sized track, etc. We explored the ship. The day at Cozumel we rented scooters and drove to the Mayan ruins. We saw many large lizards, thus the shirt for Braden. Then we drove to the ocean and snorkeled. Dave says he saw a Baracuda. I just saw lots of pretty fish. I think I could have done that all day. We went back to shop and found the cute clothes for the kids. The day back on the ship, we attended all the fun activities they had on board. We played name that tune, sea feud, and learned how to disco on stage. The dining was marvelous. I'm adventurous and tried calamari, duck, a fish I can't spell, and my all time favorite was the last night of pork chops. What can I say, I'm a pig person! Coca Cola also gave us open bar cards so we got to try all the virgin drinks we wanted. My favorite was Strawberry Banana Daquiri. We absolutely loved the free time where Dave was not attached to his cell phone, and I had both hands free. A gigantic thank you to our moms and sisters for helping out with the kiddles. We couldn't have gone without their help!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Hopefully pictures will come soon.

We've been "Tagged"

Not the Blogging way...We have a new addition to our family. Her name is Tag. She arrived the day we got back from our cruise. She is a gorgeous chocolate and tan dachsund. One from Steph's dog, Zoe. We love her already. Despite the numerous accidents on our carpet. I'm learning...hopefully this will help when it is Braden's turn. She is a great snuggler, mop in the kitchen, and fetch-er. She actually smiles when we rub her tummy! She had attacked Braden's diaper disposal, and Tina's tissues, but she is more mellow than our last dog, Bear, and she hasn't chewed up the important things yet. Brooklyn is not sure about her yet, but I'm sure that will come. We are all excited to try an indoor dog.

Sick of Snow!

Don't get me wrong I am grateful for the moisture, but can it fall on places other than the driveway?? Storms, Storms, Storms is all I hear on the news. I get pretty nervous driving so we have been cooped up in the house since the holidays. We have made the most of it and on Sunday we built a snow slide. We had a mini slide and packed the sides and top with snow and then put the sled on the top and had a ball. The snow sculpture we made was fun even though it toppled over once the wind picked up. The next day I shoveled a snow "castle" for the girls to play on. It a mini version of the wall of China :) It has been fun to play with the kids in it. Hopefully all this snow will make spring more meaningful!

On a happier note, our cruise is less than a week away! Yeah for Mexico being warm year round...I hope! In order for us to prepare our kids, we took them to build-a-bear and had them make a special friend while we will be away. They had a lot of fun, and we actually made it to Salt Lake and back without any big snow storms! Here are their new friends - Tina made Love, Braden made Dino, and Brooklyn made Missy May.

Overwhelmed!

At times I wonder if the piles of laundry or dishes in the sink will ever end. Then when I get caught up on that I look around the house and wonder what I did that day. I hope that I don't get too frustrated or distracted...I have a scripture on the fridge that I hope will inspire me about keeping a house of order, but now it is buried underneath wonderful artwork from creative children. I LOVE being a mother - especially where I can work at home. I just wish I could get excited about housework. If only I could beat down the walls of my pride and invite a mom to exchange work days so I can have someone to talk to while dejunking my house. I don't know if that would ever happen, so I guess I will resort to my 99.5 FM radio station. If any of you have organizing ideas- this is my cry for help! Thanks for listening (or reading) :)

January Fun

Now that January is over...I thought I could run through the fun things we did. I read a fun tradition in my Family fun magazine (my favorite) and it talked about having each family member pick a fun activity to do. Then they would do all of them in one day. Well, we decided to do that and I loved it! Tina chose to build a snowman -

and we thought we would make it colorful! We put food coloring into spray bottles. Dave cheated and got real spray paint for the mouth :) We were going for a teddy bear - snowman! Braden wanted to play Hungry Hungry Hippos and build a train track. Dave chose to get pizza and I chose McDonald's ice cream. That was a fun day!

On Mondays Tina's cousin Klaire comes over to play while Steph works in Brigham. We thought one of the days it would be fun to go sledding. We had a blast! I was surprised that the kids WANTED to go on the jump down the hill and there were a few times that they really caught some air!

They all fit so well in our little sled. And they each took turns going in front. It was so fun! They are so cute :)

Grandma Daines gave the kids matching clothes for Christmas, so one Sunday I thought it would be fun to try taking a picture...This is as close as I could get to everyone being picture perfect (2 out of 3 isn't bad!) We all loved the hat...I think we all tried it on.

Well that's our crazy January...Can't wait for Feb!