Orlando 2013

This week Scott took sometime off work and we took a short trip to Orlando.  We wanted to go one more time while we still lived "close" enough to drive. (6 hours/ felt much longer)
Anyways we got a great deal on a hotel and so we went to Sea World and did a LOT of swimming.

Sea World was fun and the kids had a blast watching the shows and going on rides.  Molly loved the Shamu roller-coaster so much that she went probably 10x.  Mitch loved the dolphins, turtles, and fish, but by far his favorite thing was seeing the Orcas.  Ethan liked feeding the seals.  We had a great time but were completely exhausted by the end of the day so we just spent the rest of the trip at the pool.  Which if you ask the kids, they will tell you that swimming was the best part anyways.
 

 

 

 

 

 

We did go to Downtown Disney on day, just to get our Disney fix.  The kids had fun playing at the Lego store and asking to buy EVERYTHING they saw.

 

Mitch loves the HULK and was pretty excited to see him at the Lego store.

 

 

love is in the air

Holidays are fun! Especially with kids.  Molly has been acting like it's Christmas around here since she has been so excited for today to finally arrive.  I've always thought of Valentines Day as kinda a silly holiday that I don't care much about, but I will take any excuse to make crafts and treats, so....  It's just too fun not to Celebrate! 
Last minuet I thought of making a candy-bar card for Scott.  I haven't made one of these in probably 15 years.  Wow, times have changed.  I can't believe how expensive candy is now!! I had to cut out half the intended candy.
    

Molly has been so excited for Valentines day.  She has been cutting, drawing, painting, gluing, stamping, and  glittering valentines everyday for the last two weeks.  It has been fun to watch her writing skills improve just in the last few day because of the amount of cards she has been making.
Mitch and Ethan were just excited to have pancakes for breakfast.   

I didn't get any pictures of Ethan this morning, he leaves too early in the morning for me to remember stuff like that.  But he did make a pretty awesome heart for me.  I love that kid :)  

Scott surprised Molly with flowers this morning.  She was so happy and then after thinking for a min she said...
 "Um Dad, these are nice but next time maybe you should just get me fake flowers.  Because they are still pretty and they don't die.  Then I could keep them forever."
 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

4-2= Big Girl

This last weekend the training wheels came off and this girl was a natural.  She was able to ride on 2 wheels her first try.  She still needs some work on turning, but she's got the balance part down.  So proud of her, and if you can't tell by the smile, she is pretty proud of herself too. 

The bike gang

 

January Recap

Usually January is a painful, cold month that seems to drag on forever....

But this year it has flown by and we are already halfway through February.  Since I haven't blogged since Christmas, I thought it was time for an update.

In January, Scott got to travel to Antigua Guatemala to work in the charity hospital there.  He got a lot of really great experience and had an amazing trip.  He is already talking about when he's going back.  Maybe next time I can go with him :)  

From the pictures it looks like such a beautiful place. 

 

This is the room he stayed in



I love this yellow



This is the outside of the hospital he worked at



 

He took A LOT of sunset pictures... this was one of my favorites.

Streets of Antigua

Thankfully January provided us with some amazing weather, and we spent most of our time enjoying the beach.  A few days were even nice enough to play in the water. (It was too cold for me, but my kids don't care about details like that)
 

If we're not at the beach than we are at the park.  There are SO many fun parks around that we like to go to, and they are so much more enjoyable when they are not infested with mosquitoes like in the summer.

At the end of the month Scott's 93 year old Grandmother, "Nana" passed away and we were fortunate enough to fly into Salt Lake for the funeral.  I am so thankful to all the amazing friends I have made here that were so willing to watch our kids so we could go.  It was so great to see family and meet nieces and nephews that I didn't know yet.  It was great to see all of Scott's siblings and their spouses together which hasn't happened for a long time. It was especially nice to be able to celebrate the life of his amazing grandma. 

 

Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cookies

My Favorite Holiday Tradition

A few months ago my electric hand-mixer broke and I still haven't gotten around to buying a new one.  It was such a pain to mix the cookie dough and frosting by hand, (especially the frosting) my forearms cramped up pretty bad, but for some reason I think it actually made a difference.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I think these are the best cookies I've ever made, they taste sooo good, and I think it was the old fashioned mixing by hand that did it.  So now I will have to decide next year, when I hopefully will have a new electric mixer, if it's worth it???

 

 

On thurs I got to help at Molly's class party and her teacher was nice enough to let Mitch tag a long.  He fit right in with all the 4-5 year olds. (he was even taller than a few of them)

like I said...

....we like to party.
Last night was our Ward Christmas party / Talent-show / Rock Concert.  It was awesome!!  Easily the best ward Christmas party I've ever been to.  It was so much fun, and I'm pretty sure we have the MOST talented ward out there, cause it was AWESOME!

Molly and Mitch had so much fun dancing with all their little friends. 

 

Ethan on the other hand was "too cool" to dance because none of his friends were dancing.  But if you know Ethan you will know that this was VERY VERY hard for him to not get up and bust a move.  (he is one of those kids that hears music and can't help but dance.)  He did throw out a few sweet moves from his knees, it was pretty funny watching him try so hard NOT to dance.  Scott tried to tell him to go and dance with the girls, and he got pretty embarrassed.  I sure Love that kid