Bliss Defined

In case you were wondering we are back from our week-long vacation. It was really hard for all of us to get back in to the swing of things this week. I let JJ stay home from school on Monday since we didn't get in until 3:30 am. The worst part of the whole trip was the drive home. I now know that my kids will not sleep in the car and trying to do the drive from Long Beach to Lehi in one day is just not a good idea. We also discovered that JJ inherited his Grandma Madigan's propensity for car/seasickness. All those things aside we had a fabulous time on the cruise with the Zellers. I can think of very little that comes close to the bliss of sitting on the beach, watching the kids play in the sand and ocean. Our ship the Carnival Splendor was pretty amazing too. A few minor irritations aside we really enjoyed our days at sea as well. We can't say enough about the kids program on the ship. Camp Carnival really made the trip for our kids. Even Asher enjoyed it! Here are slide shows broken up by the days of our trip. Hope you enjoy them!
There are video clips interspersed through out the slide shows. If you want to watch them you can click on the Picassa symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the image. It will take you to Picassa to view the video.

Day 2


Day 3


Day 4


Day 5


Day 6


Day 7


Day 8


Towel Animals

Countdown has begun!

We are almost packed and outta here. So if anyone see's a moving van at our house, call the cops!

So I saw this one in the paper, and just had to share. You can click on it for a large image...

KSL Cruise to Greek Island

So how is it fair that Sara is mad at me for winning a trip to China instead of this one? It wasn't like I told KSL to send Dick to Beijing first or anything ...

... and so no one accuses me of being a "prize hog" ... here is where you find your chance to win.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=240&sid=5566467

World's greatest klutzes

I think my kids could take that honor of the world's greatest klutzes. Okay so I am no great shakes in the balance department either. Hannah came home from a friend's birthday party with quite a shiner. Apparently she just tripped over something and knocked heads with one of her friends. It must have been quite a knock because she has a bruise covering the side of her cheek and a black eye. I was a little concerned with it when her eye lid swelled up a bit but I didn't think the doctor could do much besides tell me to just watch her. She has two huge bruises on her shins too from tripping up my mom's stairs multiple times on Sunday. Asher on the other hand decided to push the log swing hanging on my mom's walnut tree - just to have it come back and whack him in the face. Amidst all the discussion about Hannah and Asher, JJ decided he needed to put in his 2 cents worth. He excitedly told us that at recess his face had started to bleed. We asked him where and he showed us a tiny pin dot where he had scratched his face. We were suitably impressed. (not)

The count down begins . . .

OH yeah! 11 days until we leave for sun, sand and sea. I just checked the average temps right now for Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan - highs in the 90's and nothing lower than 63. Ahhh! Not that I want to rub it in or anything (um well maybe a little bit). If we didn't have this planned I don't know if I could endure another week of snowy weather. This week Lance attended his final Great Basin Leadership conference. He spent several days at Zion National Park where the scenery and weather were nice but the food stunk. I held down the fort here. Lance missed JJ's Dad's and Donuts day so Grandpa Jake was nice enough to attend in his place. I don't think it hurt Jake's feelings too much to have an excuse to eat donuts. I have done a flurry of research to prepare us for our trip. I wanted to get our shore excursions planned out as well as get all the info I could on cruising with kids. Not sure I realized what an undertaking this was going to be but I am really excited to experiance this with them. The kids really are pretty flexible and well behaved at this point so I think that we will have a great time especially since we are doing this with our close friends the Zellers. In case any of you are wondering what each of the kids are up to these days here is an update:
JJ has lost two bottom teeth, no other loose teeth at the moment, which is good because the tooth fairy is feeling pretty broke right now. He is really enjoying his early morning choir at the elementary. Honestly I have seen his attitude and self esteem really improve since starting the choir. He still has his moments, but then don't we all? The majority of time I feel confident in giving him extra responsiblity such as making his own lunch, getting Asher a drink, walking to church alone to save us a seat on Sunday, and watching Asher while he plays outside. JJ has become my right hand guy. He even cleans the car off for me on snow days. He keeps his room clean and bed made with out being asked and is generally pretty willing to help out when he is asked. He is still rowdy at times and extremely competitive. He is generally very loving to Hannah and Asher.
Hannah still loves all things girly but idolizes JJ so much that she insists she likes all the things he likes too. Hannah is coming very close to being able to read and write. Her hand writing is very nice for a 5 year old! She is completely "in love" with a little boy in her class - Nathan. Quite often she tells me out of the blue "I just love Nathan so much!". Needless to say me and her dad are a little worried that pineing for a boy should come so early in her life. She is very well liked in her class. Many of the kids consider her thier best friend. Unfortunatly - although she is nice to all of them - she only really cares about Nathan. She and I went to Missy's today and got our glitter toes done. After school all Hannah could talk about was how much Nathan liked her glitter toes! JJ of course told her they were ugly. At home Hannah is pretty happy to spend her time playing with her brothers. She doesn't crave playdates with friends the way that JJ does. She spends hours playing pretend with Asher during the day. They are the best of friends. Hannah has a gift for saying funny things like when I was discussing some bad behavior with JJ the other day, Hannah walked away throwing "Awkward" over her shoulder at us. She is always popping up with a funny pop culture phrase here and there - not quite sure where she get them from. I really doubt that Dora the explorer uses that specific turn of phrase.
Speaking of Dora - she has a fan in Asher right now. He has always been very specific in his tv and video viewing choices. He went for a while where all he wanted was Baby Einstein videos and then Blues Clues. Now he really likes Dora and Diego with a little Ni Hou Ki Lan (not sure I am spelling that right). I get a kick out of watching him interact with the tv and answer the questions they ask and try to say the word in chinese or spanish. He is still pretty difficult to understand. I understand him most of the time but there are still lots of times when I can not figure out what he is saying. However, he has been popping up with a very clear phrase here and there lately. He likes to say "what are you doing mom" or "where are you mom". We hear the words "me come" anytime anybody is going anywhere. Although the most common thing we hear coming out of his mouth is "NO WAY!" His inital reaction to anything is - no way and then after he thinks about it sometimes he will change his mind. Most days after I have dropped off Hannah at school he tell me "me go home". He is still very much a homebody but has also become my little shopping buddy. He likes to go shopping with me and is generally pretty good as long as he is fed and isn't really needing a nap. We are still stuck with the binky. We try not to let him have it unless he is going to lay down for a nap or bed time but sometimes he climbs into his crib and gets it and his blanky to cuddle with. When I try to take it away he says "me rock" meaning he wants me to rock him. I often oblige but sometimes I just have to say no. He loves playing guns and swords with JJ and spends lots of time playing by himself with his and JJ's cars. These wintery days are a killer for him because he really enjoys being out side. He rides his scooter and his car on the driveway or sidewalk. Some times when it is snowing or raining and he is dying to go out I let him just play with his car and scooter in the carport.
Well that was probably WAY more than anybody else wanted to know but this is my place to record the little things that I forget so quickly.
Some of you may want to know what I am up to these days besides dishes, diapers and laundry. Well I am still taking part in book club which I love because if forces me to read books I wouldn't normally pick up and because I love all the girls in the club. You can find me scrapbooking (traditionally) most Wednesdays at Missy's house with some girlfriends. I am trying to work on my China scrapbook (digitally) in my spare time. I am on facebook and this blog alot. Yes I waste way too much time on the computer. I like to play Wii Lego Star Wars with Lance after the kids go to bed and watch the movies we get through Netflix. I help out JJ's teacher every week for about an hour. When I am feeling ambitious I try new dinner recipes. But only ones that have fewer than 8 ingredients generally.
I will leave it to Lance to fill in here with the details of his life - I could hazard a guess but think it would be better coming from him!