My Sweet Kiddos

I am so blessed to be the mother of such sweet kids. Sure, they argue and disagree like any kids but they also make me feel so loved. Cambria was eating some garlic bread for dinner the other night. She ate the inside out, held up the crust, and told me that she had made a heart for me. It was so cute!

The kids were dressing up one day and Cambria wanted me to put a sticky mustache on her. She left it on for about 30 seconds and then took it off so I put it on and asked her how I looked. She told me, "not good". It made me laugh. I then asked Atreyu how I looked and he told me I still looked pretty. He's such a sweet kid and he constantly builds up my self esteem.

We were up at Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner on Sunday and the kids thought it would be fun to put on Grandma and Grandpa's boots. I turned around and saw Cambria and I thought it was so funny. These kids make me laugh. I am one lucky mama!

Cambria's Night Light

For the past few months Cambria has been waking up and coming in our room almost every night. Jesse and I decided that she probably needed a night light. I found this old, wooden birdcage at DI in Blackfoot a long time ago and I was wanting to hang it in her room and put some cute lights on it. I found a string of pink flower lights which we decided to use as her night light and she has been staying in bed ever since. It's been wonderful!

It turned out so cute. The picture doesn't do it justice. I really love it and so does Cambria.

First Snow of the Season

We got our first snow of the season a couple weeks ago and the kids were so excited! They wanted to go out and play first thing in the morning. I made sure they ate breakfast first and then they were out the door. It melted later that day but they had a great time that morning. I'm really hoping that we get a whole bunch of snow this winter. I love the change in seasons and I love the snow (when I don't have to drive in it).

Halloween 2015

Cam and Janell came up with their family for Halloween again this year. I think my kids have really enjoyed having their cousins here to go trick-or-treating with. We went all around Bern and the kids ended up with a lot of candy. Because we get such few trick-or-treaters everyone hands out multiple pieces of candy. Atreyu dressed up as Peter Quill or Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy and Cambria was Fawn the animal fairy. It was a good Halloween and the kids didn't even have to wear their jackets.

Halloween Party

Olivia Harper and I planned a Halloween party for the kids in our area. It was fun and we were grateful we had some older girls there who were willing to help out. We had a yummy lunch of skeleton ribs and skull, cemetery slime (our drink), and some cupcakes.

The kids did some monster bowling, threw darts at balloons, colored Halloween pictures, bobbed for apples, and then they got to hit the pinata that Olivia made. At the end Emily Harper and Kourtney Higley handed out awards for different costumes.

A Week With Asher

One weekend we went to Blackfoot to visit the Browers and I told Asher that he needed to come visit me sometime. To him, that meant that he needed to come home with me. As we were getting ready to leave he kept telling me and Annie that he was coming with us. We told him he needed to stay home because he would miss his mom but he was adamant about coming. We decided to let him come with us and he did awesome! My kids had so much fun playing with him and he wasn't any trouble at all. I love that boy!

While he was here, we went to a Halloween party at the library where Cambria was able to hold a sweet little kitty, as well as a party at the church that Olivia Harper and I planned. All the kids loved it and Annie came down that day to pick up Asher. One night that week Isabella Harper ate dinner with our family and I had to take a picture because, according to all the kids, our future family was sitting at the table. Atreyu and Isabella say they are going to get married and Cambria and Asher say the same thing. I am very happy with the arrangement and I feel like I need to make them all sign a contract or something.

Red Ribbon Week

A couple weeks ago was Red Ribbon Week at Atreyu's school. It is to celebrate being drug free. Each day there was a different theme and Atreyu had a blast dressing up. The first day was mustache day, followed by crazy hair/hat day. His favorite was fake injury day.

The last day they dressed up in their Halloween costumes and had a Halloween party. They did the parade where they march through the whole school in their costumes and Atreyu's teacher had the best costume.

I helped in the class during the party and I brought some Halloween sugar cookies. It was a lot of fun!

Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico

Our second port was Jamaica. I was pretty excited to go there. The excursion we decided to go on took us to the Green Grotto Caves and then to Dunns River Falls. Our guide in the caves was so funny and he was a wonderful story teller. Pirates had once lived in the caves and there were some other neat stories he told us. At one point, we went down a bunch of stairs to an underground lake. It was so amazing and beautiful.

The Dunns River Falls were so beautiful. We walked down to the beach and started our climb up the falls. I didn't have my camera since it's not waterproof and we got soaked. It was so fun to climb all the way up and have such a wonderful experience. I would like to go back again someday.

In Cozumel Jesse, Bernie, and I went snorkeling. We all love it so much and we had a great time. It actually started raining on us but while we were in the water we didn't even notice. After snorkeling Bernie and I did a little shopping. 

Labadee, Haiti

When we chose to go on this cruise we chose it for the ship and no other reason. We usually like to base our cruises on the places they go to but we didn't do that this time. Our first stop was Haiti which I wasn't that excited to go to. It was beautiful, however, and we had a great time swimming in the ocean and playing in the waves.

We decided to do the jet-ski excursion. I have been riding jet-skis my whole life so I was pretty excited to ride one on the ocean. Neither Eddie or Bernie had ever been on a jet-ski before but they ended up having a fun time. Jesse drove ours and at one point he was trying to make a sharp turn to follow our guide but we were going too fast so we were thrown off. After we got back on our guide was surprised that we hadn't been stung by jellyfish and, sure enough, when we looked in the water there were a bunch of small jellies swimming around. I guess we were lucky in that regard but I was bummed that I lost my favorite sunglasses.

It was such a fun day and I'm glad we had the opportunity to go to Haiti. I'm always humbled when we go to other countries that don't have all the luxuries we have. We are so blessed and I know I take that for granted quite often.

Oasis of the Seas

For a few years Eddie has been telling me and Jesse how awesome the big ship is. The Oasis of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships in the world. 

With our tax return Jesse and I decided we would go with Eddie and Bernie on the cruise since they were going again. We left the kids with Janell and Cameron and we flew to Ft. Lauderdale. When I first saw the ship I think it was just as big as I was imagining. It is a HUGE ship. There are many different restaurants to eat in, different shops, a carousel, and there is even an area called Central Park with trees and plants growing right there on the ship. It was beautiful and the little birds that lived there on the ship made it even more amazing. 

The first day we ran into the very end of a rainstorm. It poured pretty good for a few minutes and then stopped. It was so beautiful and we saw a rainbow over the ocean.

 The sunsets are always so beautiful on the ocean.

Bernie and I had fun on the ship playing in the kids swim area, swimming in this round current pool which made the water continuously move around and around the pool, posing in front of Johnny Rockets, and we even rode the carousel. She's so much fun to travel with.

On the ship we also had photo opportunities with different Dreamworks characters. We took a picture with Alex the lion from Madagascar and Puss in Boots from Shrek.

We had a balcony room that looked over the boardwalk. It was fun having a balcony but since it was located on the inside of the ship it was pretty hot out there and we didn't use it much.

One night on the ship they had a parade with all the Dreamworks characters. It was pretty fun and the whole time I kept thinking how much fun my kids would've had.

We enjoyed eating in the dining room almost every night. We had good food and wonderful service. I had to take a picture of the awesome United States made from each state's licence plate. There were a few of these hanging up around the dining room.

On our flight home we had a layover in Phoenix where we just waited on the plane. While we were waiting I decided to ask if I could see the cockpit and the pilot moved out of his seat and let me sit there. It was so cool! I felt like a little kid on Christmas. Jesse got a chance to sit in the pilot's seat too.