Friday, February 29, 2008

Family Celebrations

Acapulco was a big birthday celebration but of course we had to celebrate with the family when we got home. It is tradition in our house to have a homemade birthday dinner, sing Happy Birthday, have cake and ice cream, and open presents with everyone!

The fam all together


Blowing out candles

Children love to celebrate!

We always do heavy, heavy hang over and have to make each other wishes after each gift. Avaree was bonking Jason on the head pretty hard.

They love the cake too! (ignore the mud patches in the background. Jason is in the process of touching up but of course our house is last priority)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The BIG 30!

Jason turned 30 on the 21st of February.


He is a great Dad, husband, and friend. He is SO unselfish and loves and cares for others more than anyone I've ever met. He works like a maniac. He can do anything he puts his mind too (that is no exaggeration). He is very smart. The knowledge he has is incredible... you can ask him anything about any subject and he will have an answer or info on the subject. He also has a great sense of humor and always keeps me smiling. I feel so blessed to have him as my husband. Not everyone could do what he has done and take on what he has for my family. I am so grateful (and I know my Mother is grateful too)! I love you Jason!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Shumway Fun!

It was a party everyday for my kids with the Shumways! Janet really knows how to have fun even with 5 little kids. Avaree always talks about the games of flashlight hide and go seek that they played everynight! Baylee and Griffin (and Jason's brother Wes) can't stop raving about the good food she cooked. She made homemade meals everynight! How did she do it all?? It's my turn now.

Look how much Weston and Baylee look alike...

Poor Weston didn't want to play in the snow but props to Janet for trying.


Janet is one AMAZING person and friend. I'm so grateful to have her in my life and another BIG thanks to her husband, Aaron, who let me have his family for a week.

THANKS JANET, WE ALL LOVE YOU!!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

SUNNY ACAPULCO

Jason and I spent a week in Acapulco, Mexico... just the two of us!! We had such a great time. We were due for some SUNSHINE and the weather was beautiful the whole time. We were basically in swimsuits all week... going to the beach, pools, and fishing! It was so relaxing. I felt so spoiled all week... drinking yummy drinks, eating at nice restaraunts, getting pedicures, getting my FIRST massage, staying in a nice hotel. The Mexican people were so nice and totally catered to us. It really was wonderful. A BIG thanks to my friend Janet for driving from Vegas with her 3 boys (ages 6 and under) to stay at my house and watch ALL my children ALL week! She had her hands full and I'm so GRATEFUL she would do that for me. I was truly able to relax because I knew my children were in good hands.

I had to collage my pictures because I had so many. (Sorry if you are offended by the guy in the thong. He was walking two poodles on the beach and it was hilarious. Jason HAD to take a picture!) We laugh every time we see it.

Acapulco was SO beautiful. Everywhere we went had AMAZING views. I just love the beach, and the ocean, and the SUN!

Jason getting a massage on the beach. $20 bucks for a whole hour! Martha did a great job too. Jason got a massage almost everyday. That man deserved it too. He works so hard, his body is falling apart!

My FAVORITE thing. I will go back to Mexico for this... the FRESH mangos on a stick were the absolute BEST!

Oh, we found the nicest mall and movie theatres. The movie theatre had reclining seats and they took your order from your chair. Jason and I spent a couple of evenings watching movies because you can NEVER do that with kids. We saw good movies too... 27 dresses and The Bucket List.

My other FAVORITE thing was this smoothie drink made with fresh fruit, another thing worth going back for!
Jason enjoying his drink too.
The Acapulco Cliffdivers
Have you ever heard of them?? It was crazy! A group of guys scale these huge cliffs, climb to the top, and dive in water only 9 feet deep. It was awesome to watch. I was so nervous for them. You could tell they were a little nervous too before they would jump. Supposedly, no one has ever gotten seriously injured doing it. Look closely and you can see one of the guys climbing.

Getting ready to jump. You can see most of them together but look at the very top and one guy ended the show by jumping from the VERY top. The pictures don't do it justice.

Can you see the guy jumping? He kind of blends in with the cliff but it was awesome! They say you can't go to Acapulco without watching the famous cliffdivers.

More fun pictures... 4 wheeling on the beach, getting massages at the spa in our hotel, deep sea fishing (although we didn't catch any fish)

One day we went to a beach where there was not a soul in sight. (you can see pictures of the beach in the collage) We walked down the beach a ways and came across this lagoon of water and a little village. We met this nice man, named Francisco, and he took us for a ride on his boat through the lagoon. Look at that village... it is crazy that people still live like that.

Jason on the boat, Francisco driving us.

Cruising through the lagoon... we saw lots of cool birds and villagers fishing with nets.

This was the view from our hotel room. We had a private balcony and it overlooked these clay tennis courts. They were really cool but unfortunately Jason and I ran out of time and we never got the chance to play on them!

Our hotel was really classic, private, and secluded. It was a big hotel back in the day for stars and Presidents to hide out. They had signs and pictures all around of the famous people who have stayed there. Some of the people were... Elizabeth Taylor (she had one of her many weddings there), Michael Jackson, Liza Minelli, Frank Sinatra, Richard Nixon, Luis Miguel (who now owns a HUGE house in Acapulco that we drove by) and Julio Ingelsias used to own a house right next to the hotels' property. Anyway it was kind of fun to read about and see pictures!

Jason and I... gotta love holding out the camera and taking pictures of yourselves. I usually have Baylee and Griffin around to snap a picture when I need it.

More pics of beaches, the hotel, and the pool. Again, sorry about the statue. She was at the entrance of our hotel... heck, it's MEXICO!

One funny story... everyday we went to the beach the same guy would come up and try to sell Jason drugs. Jason saw him coming one day and thought I better hide my wallet so he threw it down by me and I didn't know and set my magazine down on it. After the guy approached us, Jason asked, "Where is my wallet?" I searched my bag and all around and we couldn't find it. So Jason RAN down the beach after this small, Mexican man. He was probably scared to death of BIG Jason running at him. He asked the man if he stole his wallet and the man said, "No." Jason didn't believe him so he totally searched the guy up and down but he didn't have it. We were both relieved when we found his wallet, later, under my magazine. Before we left the beach, the guy came up to us and said, "I wouldn't steal your wallet. I make an HONEST living selling drugs."

Hiking on some steep rocks to get from one beach to another.


I was afraid Jason would get sick of me because we haven't done something like this with just the two of us... since our honeymoon? It was great. I had so much fun spending my week with just him! No kids. No work. No cleaning. No stress. It really was a dream. I am truly grateful to have Jason as my BEST friend!

Good bye Sunny Acapulco... home to kiddos! (after a week, I could NOT wait!)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy "V" Day!

It has been one crazy day! First of all, yesterday was the craziest snow storm of the year. 64 kids were stranded at the elementary school and had to spend the night! Fortunately the Jr High kids got out an hour early and made it home safe. So school was cancelled today, my Mother-in-law came in town, I've been doing laundry like a mad woman to get ready for our trip, and we got another leak in our roof but I was determined to do something fun with Avaree for Valentine's, so we made sugar cookies and Valentine cards for everyone in our family. It was fun but ended up being a big mess! I'm so grateful I had Baylee and Griffin's help to clean it up. Jason and I have not had a chance to celebrate but I'm not worried because we have a whole week coming up.


Look at that concentration

She is a baker at heart!

Gotta love that... standing on the countertop, showing plumbers crack like her Dad.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Baylee's Basketball Season

Baylee's basketball season has come to an end. They ended their season with 17 wins and 7 losses. They took 6th in the tournament. Kind of crazy... they ended up playing Jason's sister, Sarah, for 5th place. It was an exciting, close game but they lost by 4 points. Here are some pictures of Baylee in action... (not the best pictures because they are hard to take in motion)

Baylee is #20

I get to brag for a second... It has been so fun to watch these games. Baylee starts and rarely sits out. The last 5 games or so she played the whole game and she plays hard the whole time. This girl plays her heart out. She is the point guard, she is so fast, and her defense is incredible! She averaged 8 steals a game. I'm so proud to be her sister. She is such a great team player. Everyone on her team loves her!

They were Home team...


Tough D


She was sad to see her season end but now it is time for softball!

Monday, February 11, 2008

I'm A Big Girl Now!

I'm actually late in posting this but Avaree is FINALLY potty trained! We tried for 4 months and then took a couple months off and tried again at the New Year and she did it! I took her to the dollar store and let her pick some toys and treats and it worked this time! We only had one accident. It's been great. I learned that children need to be ready themselves and if they are fighting it... wait, don't force it. The hard part is knowing when they are ready? It was a frusterating process... now we just have to work on being night trained!

Jason put a cute mini flushing toilet in Avaree and Weston's bathroom. It is the smallest toilet I have ever seen. There is something so cute about seeing her sit on the toilet. I love to see her concentrate.

I was only going to post one of these pictures but I couldn't decide. They were all so cute and funny!

Push!

You can kiss diapers good bye!