Fun time...dinner time!

Here's some pictures of fun time on the ship. Everything was amazing from the servers to the room to the entertainment. Let's start with fun...Matt and Chris did karaoke almost every night ( I did it once...not pretty) and even did karaike idol and won a medal! (see picture of Chris in a cowboy hat). Kaden had fun at Camp Carnival an awesome kid's program they had for every

child over two. They got to play games, do crafts, play in the play room, etc. Caleb got to go to camp carnival only with a parent twice during the whole time, but we had fun just running around the ship with him. I had fun working out on the gym and watching the ocean at the same time...can't beat that! We never saw Jeremy he was running around the boat with some friends he made, and mom and dad just seemed to enjoy being with their family and celebrating thier 29th wedding anniversary!

We all enjoyed the food and the service was amazing. These are some of the pictures of the formal dinner and our servers. Who were so sweet and we enjoyed getting to know them a little better each night. We always sat at the same table...imagine eating at a five star restaurant every night! So much fun and Kaden and Caleb did great sitting through it all...even if we did have to walk Caleb around some nights. The food pictures are from the midnight buffet they put on. The ice sculpture and the food presentation was just beatuiful...way more effort then I put into dinner!

Every night in our room the steward would turn down the beds and clean the room again (they did it twice a day) and every night they would make a different animal out of the towels. The elephant was so cute we had to take a picture!

And of course we didn't have our camera most of the time...so we missed alot of great photo opps, but hopefully this gives you some idea of the good time we had.

Progresso

One of the highlights for Matt was getting to go to the Mayan ruins (the ones you read about in your history book)! Dad and Chris went with Matt and Jeremy was off on a kayaking trip. Mom and I had the boys for the day. We did some shopping in Progresso...but it looked a whole lot like Acuna (the Mexican town five min. from our house). I did buy a dress and the boys got wooden snakes but that was about it. Still a fun day for everyone.

Views of Cozomel

Here's some coast pictures of Cosomel.

Cozomel

We actually went to Cozomel on day two but I got the order messed up. We spent the morning on the half-submarine boat watching the fishes in the coral reef and getting to see God's amazing unerwater world. It was awesome...and much easier then snorkling with two children! We went back for lunch on the boat and then to the beach! The water was an amazing blue...so blue it looked fake, almost turqouise in some places. Simply beautiful. It was so fun to swim far out in the ocean and still see the bottom! A huge plus for me, my dad found a lot of huge seashells...free decorations for the house! We had so much fun ...and Cozomel even had a Starbucks...sadly, the menu was in Spanish and the money was all exchanged in dineros...so I didn't try to order anything. Still a fun day!

Until next week...

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are leaving for a cruise! We are leaving tomorrow and will be back next Thursday. We're excited and I'm sure we'll have lots of picturse and stories to share when we get back! The plan is to leave out of Galvestan (near Huston) and sail down the coast of Mexico. We're going to stop at Cozamel and the Yucatan...so should be interesting. This has been Dad's desire and dream for a long time so my big prayer is that this is just a huge blessing for him. I guess that's the news for now, talk to you when we get back!

Fireman Kaden

I got my camera (and purse) back on Saturday, so we snapped some pictures of Kaden in his new fireman outfit. He is a great little fireman and runs around the house putting out fires and chopping down trees to rescue his kitty. This has also spurred some good fire safety discussions so that is a plus!

Pictures you should be seeing

I would be posting pictures of Caleb's first highschool football game that we went to on Thursday! So much fun and our team won 21-20 in the last seconds! BUT even though I did remember to bring the camera, I did not bring batteries, and of course the camera was completely out of juice. So we borrowed one of the teens cameras but I'll have to wait until she sends me the pictures so I can put them up. Caleb was a bit scared at first of all the noise and cheering but by the end of the night, he was the one doing all the cheering and clapping. He loved it!
And I would be posting pictures of Kaden in his new fireman outfit that we bought so he could wear to the fall fun festival...BUT I left my purse with the camera in it in Bracketville (where the football game was)! Fortunately, some friends picked it up for us, but I have to wait until we can meet up to get it back....so until then you'll have to use your imagination! :)
Have a great weekend

Caleb's new words

Well, I didn't think it would happen to us since we don't have cable and are generally unaware of what is going on in main stream media...but we borrowed a Dora video from the library and Caleb has found his first true love. He LOVES Dora! Evidenced by the fact that he will run over to the TV grab the DVD case and run up to me going, "Dora, Dora, Dora" and then when we do put it on he starts screaming for joy. Now we don't watch it but maybe every other day, but last night while Kaden was at Cubbies we let him watch one...We got to the part in the show where Dora says, "Who do we ask for help when we need something" (or something like that) And all the sudden behind us we hear this little voice say, "Backpack!" Matt and I were astonished but he has said it several times senes then so he definitly knows what he is saying. So Caleb can now say Dora and Backpack much better then he says mom or even bye bye! Oh well...it'll be a story to tell his girlfriends someday! :)

Just saying hello

Not much going on today. We just stayed home, played with toys, played in the pool, and had lunch with Uncle Jeremy. I wanted to put up this picture that my friend Amanda retouched, I thought it was just so cute in black and white.

Yard work

Well we got our yard work done and got some cute pictures and precious memories to boot! While Matt trimmed the tree the boys and I hauled the branches to the street. Kaden was being such a big help and then I turned around and saw Caleb dragging his little branch behind him. He marched right up to the street and tossed it onto the pile...so I immediatly ran for the camera and video camera cause it was just so cute.

The boys eventually got bored of dragging the sticks to the curb and started playing on their own. I found the boys on the back hill having a deep discussion. I overheard Kaden explaining to Caleb the importance of sharing! :)

Then we picked some wildflowers to show Caleb. He was just so happy with his flowers...although he did eventually pull the petals off! :) What a fun way to spend the first day of fall! Happy Fall Everyone!

Just like Daddy

I heard Kaden from the other side of the house saying, "Mom, Caleb's trying to get into the pirate stuff...MOM!!!" I wasn't sure what pirate stuff he was referring to until he came around the corner dressed in daddy's pilot stuff. Pirate and pilot sound an awful lot a like when yelled across the house!

Sorry some of the pictures are hard to see but the sun was at a weird angle no matter where I went. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Ours has been enjoyable. We had a 5k race on Saturday that was fun and the rest of the day was just at home, today was church and now we're headed out to do have some family fun time doing yard work! :)

A typical day...

My cousin Joanie left today so life is setteling back into its normal routine. I almost forgot how fun it is to clean the house! :) Just kidding. Acutally, it was very nice to have a break for a while.

I snapped these pictures of the boys playing together in Kaden's room. It cracks me up how they like to sit in small places and play when they have the entire floor, but whatever makes them happy. They also love to cover themselves in stuffed animals...and wear their brother's dirty underwear on their head! :) I found Caleb in the closet playing in Kaden's dirty clothes...didn't think much of it cause he usually just takes them out and then puts them back in. But when I looked up he'd managed to pull Kaden's underwear onto his head and couldn't get his face back out. By the time I grabbed the camera he'd figrued out how to get them off. But it was so funny that I got him to put the uderwear back on so I could take a picture...yes parents are very very weird!

Family day at the lake

We took Jo out to the lake to show her the local beauty and to watch Chris do insane things like jump off 60 ft cliffs into the water...fortunatley, we all returned safe and sound! We snapped some family pictures while we were out there...again it's so difficult to get everyone looking in the same direction at the same time!

Haircut

These are pictures of Kaden's haircut...cut short to avoid having to have yet another haircut experience anytime in the near future. I think he looks so cute. These pictures are also showing off Matt's very own lego invention. (It's a Firebird...an actual bird...not a car!)

Blame my brother

Matt bought these matching T-shirts for the boys a while ago and I finally got them in them on the same day. Getting them to stand still for a good pictures proved to be harder! These are also Kaden's pre-haircut pictures...yet another not so fun experience for Kaden and all those involved...so this time we cut his hair short! See haircut pictures!

Just to let you know

Just wanted everyone to know that I'm still alive and everything is fine. My cousin came in on Monday and is here until next Wednesday so I've kind of dropped off for a while, but soon will be back to "normal". Hope you all are doing well too! Jesus loves you.

Stuck!

This is one of those cruel parent moments when I ran to get the camera before helping my son...but it was just to funny to miss...I should have got the video camera because it's actually much funnier in movement. Caleb and Kaden were playing under the table while I cleaned up from lunch. Next thing I know, Caleb is yelping. He somehow managed to get himself stuck under the chair and between the top and bottom rung so he couldn't pull himself back out. Everytime he moved he pulled the whole chair with him so he looked like a giant chair turtle moving across the floor. As soon as I took the pictures, I helped him out and he was off playing again! :)

Pirates

These are pictures of Kaden after his pirate party Saturday night. This family went all out, and all the kids got patches, swords, flags, pirate treasure bags that they filled with treasure after the treasure hunt, pirate suckers, and a steering wheel cookie sucker ( ok I'm sure on a ship it's not called a steering wheel, but you all know what I mean)! The birthday cake was a Leviathen...or Octupus looking thing...very cool. Needless to say, Kaden had a blast...Aarrgh!

Weekend

No pictures from this weekend...not yet anyway...I just need to start carrying my camera around like Julie does so I can snap cute pictures...anways, just a quiet weekend here at home. Tomorrow maybe not so quiet. We're going to have Anthony and Caitlyn spending the night...so we'll see how playtime, supper, and bed time go with four children in the house...not to mention the next day! Oh well, the more the merrier! :) Tonight, Kaden has a birthday party to go to, and we're all going to that as well...come to think of it, what kind of social life did we have before children?!? :)

Sleep over

Well, Kaden had his second sleep over last night and had a blast...and actually Anthony is coming over to sleep over again on Sunday night too! I only caught them arguing one time and the rest of the time they were great...maybe a little annoyed that Caleb kept wanting to play with the big boys, but for the most part they let him play. After supper they did manage to make a huge mess in Kaden's room and when I walked in I noticed that both boys had put stamps in the middle of their foreheads and Anthony had put them up and down his arms and legs. :) Note to self, don't leave two unattended boys with a stamp...after a bath they were ready for bed and I thought thery were so cute in their Lightening McQueen pjs. However, I've decided that it's much more fun being the kid having the sleep over versus being the grown up! :)

And I'm done...

Thanks so so much for the prayers...they were definitly needed!It was good and really bade and only by God's strength was I able to finsih (makes me wonder how 26 will go, but that's a worry for another day!) by I completed 14.2 miles in just about 2 hours and 13 min. I figured out that's around a 9.3-9.6 min mile which is way faster then I'm used to running! The run was good cause I ran with people that new a whole lot more about running then I do, like you should be eating energy gel every hour (hmmm...might come in handy!) and they had cool water belts and watches that told them their time, pace, heart rate, mileage, etc...yeah, I felt kind of dorky with my water bottle and little watch taht just tells the time...but oh well. At least I learned alot. I kept pace with girls for the first seven miles, which was amazing cause they are super fast...then when we turned around I had to slow it down. That was the bad part. I ran the last seven miles by myself. A great time for praying...things like help me! :) What was really cool was one of the girls husbands met us at like mile 10 with some gatorade and water...how sweet! :) The best part was at the end when I was running slower then I could walk and I was praying for some encouragement and then my brother drove by and waved and honked at me. It just made me smile and helped me to finish. God does answer prayer! All in all, a good run, but I'm looking forward to next week cause it's "only" 10. Now that the boys are down for their nap I'm taking this sore body to bed for a rest! Thanks for praying...and caring, it means so much.