Thank You

I forgot to mention on my previous post a HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!, to my sister in law Tracy for watching Malana so we could enjoy Mexico without having to worry about having a child with us!

MEXICO!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Travis’ parents we got to go on a fun filled trip to Mexico.  His parents, two brothers, sister and spouses along with six of the grandkids all came along.

 MEXICO – Day 1

We started out our trip to Mexico on the 15^th, arriving at the airport in Cancun at about 8:15 at night.  My first impression of Mexico was Jungle EVERYWHERE and how flat the land was.  My second impression of Mexico was the fact that their airport tower was a huge Corona advertisement and that the minute we stepped out of the airplane you could feel the mugginess and smell the cigarette smoke.  After a death defying trip from the airport to our resort, thanks to the cab driver “muy rapido” is now a bad word in my mind, we safely arrived at a clean and beautiful resort  where we could see the ocean a few steps out the back door.   That night we went to dinner and got settled into our room.  The resort was all inclusive, meaning there were five restaurants on sight all of which were included, and endless drinks (non-alcoholic of course ;)) from any of the four bars, AND included room service 24 hours a day.   

MEXICO – Day 2

The next day we hung out on the beach enjoying the relaxation and all of the free fruity drinks we could want.  They had free snorkeling equipment for rent, so we did that for a little while and then we took the short five minute walk to a dolphin encounter place that had free shows, with manatees, seals, dolphins etc…    It was a much needed break, and very, very relaxing!

MEXICO – Day 3

        The third day all fifteen of us went on an excursion to the ancient ruins of Tulum in the morning, and snorkeling at Akumal in the afternoon.  Tulum was my first true experience with a third world country, the toilets had no seats or rims, and the toilet paper goes in the trash (stinky!), try squatting that low while you pee without touching the toilet, that was an adventure in and of itself!  We had an LDS tour guide from Heleman tours, and it was really interesting to have him point out the similarities between King Solomon’s temple layout and Tulum.  As well as the many symbols of the descending God.  And even spaces on the main temple where there are three niches, in the three niches are carvings, one is the descending God, one is the descending God’s father and the third one is empty.  It is a beautiful ruin site right on the ocean, with spectacular views.  We ate at a restaurant at Tulum that had authentic Mexican food, it was to die for, and I could have eaten an entire bowl of beans by myself YUM!  Akumal is a snorkeling place that is known for its sea turtles and stingrays, we saw about four different turtles and a stingray as well as some beautiful tropical fish.  It was a very fun adventure.  

MEXICO – Day 4

On the fourth day we hung out at the beach again, and enjoyed the relaxing ocean, Travis and I tried out the free kayaks, and enjoyed just having the two of us around, that night we went restaurant hoping and stuffed ourselves to the brim.  We tried going to a show that night but the girls were less than appropriately dressed so we just went back to our room and played card games.

MEXICO – Day 5

On the fifth day we spent the morning on the beach and then in the afternoon we went to Playa Del Carmen, a city that is known for its tourist shops and night life.  It was quit the experience and not one I would choose to repeat.  Wall to wall people, loud music, and then in the middle of it all here would come an army truck full of men with guns, we even saw a guy getting arrested, lots and lots of drunk people, people running around in costumes, and drag queens, and then a church in the middle of it all were there was a wedding going on!  Wow, it was interesting, but definitely not my cup of tea; I am not a fan of chaos.  We made it back to the resort and I was ready for my own space in my own room and thanked my lucky stars that I live in a town of 943 people, naïve- maybe, happy with what I have – most definitely!

MEXICO – Day 6

    On the sixth day Travis and I, his parents, and his brother Ryan all went on another tour to one of the more famous ruins, Chichen-itza and then to a lesser known ruin called Ek’balam.  It was about a two hour car ride from our hotel to the ruins site, and we got a taste of how people live outside of the tourist belt.  Grass huts, and crumbling stone houses seemed to be the staple on the jungle road, and the living conditions seemed very poor.  Chichen-Itza was amazing, and such a huge place.  We had a tour guide from the same LDS tour guide service and he did an amazing job.  You could tell that he had a real passion for archeology and what he is doing; I would highly recommend him to anyone who goes there.  Anyway I was impressed with the size of the ball court, it was about the size of a football field, and I was also amazed with the death and destruction that took place.  There was a wall where they would put the head of their enemies and cover it in honey so the bugs would come and eat them, as well as human sacrifices because they had corrupted the belief of God wanting a broken heart and a contrite spirit, into thinking that they could kill someone else for THEIR broken heart.  The corruption was everywhere and truly disgusting, but their buildings where impressive.  

After that we went to Ek’Balam, they only discovered the ruins of Ek’balam fourteen years ago and opened it to tourists nine years ago.  It is still being excavated but the buildings that they do have uncovered are very impressive.  They still allow you to climb on the main temple, and there is a very impressively preserved tomb about half way up.  This site was built earlier in time, it isn’t as extravagant, but there is also no sign of human sacrifice, and felt like a very peaceful place.  The tomb has four statues that have very interesting hand placements if you have ever been through the temple.  This was by far Travis and I’s favorite part of the vacation, Ek’balam was beautiful and very peaceful.

MEXICO –Day 7

   Unfortunately this is the day that we went home.  The ride to the airport wasn’t nearly as scary, and we had such a great time we were wishing for one more day.  I was a little nervous about airport security, and I actually did get pulled aside for the full body scanner in Houston, but I just told them that I was pregnant and that I would rather have the pat down, they looked uncomfortable and ushered me through the regular metal detector.  We were excited to come home and see Malana, but work the next day for Travis was a bit of a slap back to reality.

blogging blues

I just haven't felt like blogging lately.  It may be due to the fact that I lost the battery charger to my camera and therefore have no pictures to put up.  It may also have to do with the fact that Travis always has the laptop, and I hate using our dinosaur computer, but here I am!  So here is a picture-less synopsis of the last few months!

1.  Malana really loves preschool and dance (and seeing cousin Andrew after dance :))
2.  Our Dryer has broke : $175, our dishwasher broke $? (neither of which have we fixed), the alignment in our car was off, ruining all four of our tires a year before they should have:  $500, Travis dropped his phone in the bathtub two months after getting it : $0 (thanks to a neighbor who was nice enough to give us their old phone),  the car battery in our other car died: $90.  All of this equals complete awesomeness the month before Christmas!
3.   We are going to Mexico in less than a week!  (Thanks to Travis' parent's!!!!)...... that is if Travis' passport gets here, yes, that's right we don't have it yet.  We both applied back in September.  I got mine and the next day Travis got his saying that there was insufficient evidence of his identity and that we had to send in a bunch of extra paper work, do you know how hard it is to find every address he has ever lived at including on his mission,  and the name and number for every work supervisor he has had in the past ten years, as well as five extra forms that have either his picture and name or name and signature on it? We called them last Monday and they said that they had finished processing it, it should be mailed and we should get it by Monday... we leave Tuesday, cross your fingers.
4.  Travis will for sure get the enhanced pat down ;)
5.  We had our first Dr. appointment the day before Halloween, the baby gave us quit the scare, they couldn't hear a heartbeat, so we had to wait a heart wrenching three hours to get an ultrasound, all was good!
6.  Had my fifteen week appointment, and all is well!  I have been feeling the baby move and it is becoming real!
7.We did two craft fairs to sell Travis' pottery that went quit well, but man are those things stressful and exhausting!
8.  Christmas shopping is done!
9.  My parents got their release date!!!!!!!! They will be home on March 16th... so excited!
10.  Our dog died on Thanksgiving Day, it was a sad day.
11.  I feel like I am getting to that stage where people look at you and go "well she is either gaining weight or she's pregnant"
12.  Travis and I both have some pretty awesome and supportive parents!

That's about what is happening around here!  Next time I update hopefully you will be seeing some pretty pictures of warm beaches!

catching up!

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time!  Travis has needed the laptop for work which means no blog posts.  Malana started preschool again, doesn't she look cute with her Irish leprechaun backpack?  

We celebrated Halloween by carving pumpkins and having mummy dogs.

 On Halloween Malana was a cupcake, the bottom of her costume was a lampshade that I painted brown and the headband/ candle was an actual working light.  The pictures don't do it justice she looked really cute.  We started off the night at Craigos pizza with Travis' family, then we went to our wards trunk or treat, and then we headed to Blackfoot so she could go door to door with cousins.  She had a great time!

What a loot!

Four pumpkins?

Did you notice that there are four pumpkins instead of three at the top of the page? 

 I wasn't going to post this yet, but Malana announced it in Joy School today, so I am sure that our whole ward will know before too long.

  I AM PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!! 

After three and a half years of trying we couldn't be more excited!  I am about six and a half weeks and my due date is May 27th.  I have my first Dr. appointment on the 29th, pray that everything goes well, I think that my heart would break in a Million pieces if I miscarried.  

Malana had a Birthday shout Hooray!!!

 Malana turned four this month.  My little girl is growing up so fast!  I can't believe how fast time flies!
This year all that she wanted was zhu zhu pets and littlest pet shops, so that's what she got!  Although her favorite show is Scooby Doo and that was the requested cake this year.  We went from princess castle to Scooby Doo, cute!

I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to work on the cake this year (we had a women's retreat the same weekend) but it still turned out pretty cute.  The cake itself was pretty dry and somewhat like eating sawdust.  I don't know what happened I have used the recipe before and it was delicious.  Oh well, she liked it anyway.

some fun facts about Malana:

Favorite color:  blue and red
Favorite show: Scooby doo meets Batman and Robin (she is a bit of a tom boy :))
Favorite food:  bread with butter and jam
Favorite toy:  petshops
Favorite book:  Reading about princess'

Malana's little personality shines through a little more as she gets bigger,  she loves to play with cousins, grandma's house, other kids (as long as tehy are not trying to play with her toys), she likes to sing in primary, she loves watching shows, helping mommy,  she can be a bit shy at times, she is stubborn, independent, she will do anything for a piece of candy, has a temper, and SHE LOVES TO TALK!  As grandpa Leonard said after she rode with him to the dump : "she talked all the way there and all the way back, does she ever shut up?"  We love every bit of her good and not so great, we are so glad that she is a part of our family.

Book Review week two!

Book Review week 2:

This book was really good.  There was a good mix of action, story-telling and romance.  Normally I don’t like romance but this one had enough action in it that it kept my interest.  I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters especially Sarah and Jack.  When I read the description of the book, as a diary of a girl in the Arizona territories in the 1800’s my first thought was that it was going to be boring.  The author really keeps you on your toes wondering what is going to come next and turning the pages before you have read the last sentence on the previous page.

 This book represents one of my guilty pleasures, I like to put on a tough act, like I don’t like all of the girly romance type of stuff a.k.a chick flicks etc… but the truth of the matter is that I HATE books and movies where the entire plot is based on miscommunications and non-communications, which %95 percent of “chick flick” (and books) are.  I do like to read a novel or watch a movie with non-sluty romance in it, usually alone so that I  don’t have to put on the mask, I can let myself smile, let out a belly laugh or cry uninhibited for one of the characters.  This book made me do all of the above and I loved it.  

SPOILER!!!!!

I fell in love with Jack!!!  He is such a manly man, not like the whiney boys in books these day.  If you read the book I promise that you will fall in love with him too!  It made me so mad in the book when she married her first husband instead of Jack, but I was thrilled when they finally got together.  I was so sad when he dies at the end… but I was glad to learn that there is a second book!  I am in the process of reading it right now. 

END OF SPOILER!!!!!

If you are looking for a book that is easy and fast to read, I highly recommend this one.  Some of the parts can be depressing and even a little gruesome so be prepared for that, but overall the feeling of the book is happy!  

loss and floss!

Malana had her first trip to the dentist this week!  She did so amazingly awesome!  I was really impressed!  She tends to clam up and be shy in uncertain situations, so I was worried that she wouldn't even let them look in her mouth.  She hopped right up on the chair opened wide when they asked, let them clean, floss and give her fluoride without a peep of crying.  The only part where she was tentative was when they put the great big cameras next to her cheek to take x-rays but she did so, so good!  She was thrilled at the goody bag that they gave her as you can tell by the pictures.  She asked me today when she gets to go back to the dentist - success!

Unfortunately her next visit to the dentist is going to come sooner than I would like.  She chipped her front tooth about a year and a half ago, and it has slowly been deteriorating since.  The dentist said that the tooth was dead, but that the decay can affect the permanent tooth coming in, so it has to go! She is scheduled to have it pulled on the 16th, hopefully she will still like the dentist after that appointment. Although the dentist isn't very nice to my pocket book, $150 just for the cleaning and check-up and another $90 for the tooth to be pulled -yikes!  Did you know that they charge $30 to put that foamy fluoride on their teeth? I think I will be opting out of that next time, and go buy some fluoride toothpaste!

(she insisted on being in the picture!)

I'm somewhat embarrassed to be posting this, but I am proud of myself, so I am posting it anyway!  I have lost about 15 to 20 pounds in the last few months.  I've always put it off before because I was just going to get pregnant again.  Far to much of my life has been put on hold "waiting" to get pregnant again, I'm ready to take back control!  It is a work in progress, I still want to lose another five pounds, but mostly just the spare tire that won't leave my stomach area!  Next area that has been put on hold - being the mom I want to be, no more energy wasted on waiting for the next baby and more emphasis on playing with and making life fun with Malana!