Day 1 in Paradise!

We got up at 3:45 a.m. to catch our 6:00 flight from SLC to LA, and then on to Maui. The flights were great and we ended up landing in Maui early, just before noon. After getting a quick bite to eat, we arrived at our hotel in Wailea, the Fairmont. They greeted us with a fresh leigh. It smells delicious!

Our rooms were not ready for us right away, so we changed into our suits and headed out to the beach. What a great place to wait. It was beautiful out there, and I loved lying in the sun.

Here is a picture of the view of the ocean from the hotel lobby:

My beach bag: I got this new bag at a store called Dancing Crane Imports that I just love! My bag contains the basic needs for the beach, candy, water, phone (to call the kids and check in) my book, and some sunscreen.

My feet in the sand. I am loving the sand between my toes, and I'm loving my silver toes. I also am loving my new silver nail polish. :)

This red flag indicated a high tide. Andy was happy to see this, because he LOVES to body surf. He went right out to the water and started playing. The waves were pretty big!
After lying on the beach for about an hour I decided to go walk around a little and take some pictures. I love the ocean. The sound of the waves roaring in the distance. The salt water pushing up the beach, sinking into the sand and then rushing back out to its body. The splashing against the jagged lava rocks that line the beach. It's such a surreal sound, and very beautiful to watch.
The palm trees in the distance tell me I am in paradise.

We went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Cafe O'Lei. The food was delectable! I haven't had such good food for a long time. I had a salad and Onion soup. Andy had garlic chicken pasta and a salad, and it was SO good! The rolls were the best I've ever had. It was the perfect way to end the day. Off to bed now for a very early morning. We are getting up at 3:30 a.m. for a sunrise bike ride. It should be beautiful!

When life gives you oranges...

I'm back into the swing of things after Christmas, mostly. I started getting Bountiful Baskets again and I am loving it! Look at all this produce I got for only $16.50! Simply amazing. We already ate some yummy roasted asparagus and I'm excited to make Chili Verde with those Anaheim peppers. Mmmmm!

I got a basket 2 weeks ago that gave us tons of oranges that we never went through. We still had a box of them left over from Christmas time, so I made a Target run and got a juicer! When life gives you oranges...
...make the best drink in the world! Not even Dr. Pepper can beat the taste of freshly squeezed orange juice. We got a whole pitcher full from all the oranges we had, and we drank the entire thing with dinner that same night. It was a hit! Kayman was my big helper!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Syd just finished up a Fable unit at school and got to take part in her first play ever. She loved it. She got to play the Hare in the fable The Tortoise and the Hare, and she did a great job! Doesn't she look cute?!

Sleep tight

Kayman is a very busy man. He goes and goes until he crashes, every day. The other night he didn't want to sleep in his bed, he just wanted to play with his puzzles and games, so we let him as long as he stayed in his room and was quiet. He stayed very quiet, and when I went to check on him about 20 minutes later, this is what I found.

The poor kid was too tired to even play his games. He's such a sweetheart. I love my little man!

My little artist

Syd's school is an art-based school and they do lots of art projects. She is getting very good! This is an oil pastel piece that was hanging in the hall of the school. She is quite the little artist!

New Year's Eve

We went to St. George for New Year's Eve. We LOVE to go to St. George as much as possible. We took a couple of families with us this time and had so much fun! St. George is such a beautiful city. Andy and I met there when we went to college back in 1998, right before he left on his mission. May parents have a beautiful home down there and are generous enough to share it with us when they are not using it. This beautiful picture below is the view from their window!

I love the contrast of the snow capped sandstone. Some if the most beautiful scenery in the world, in my opinion.

We did a lot of shopping and game playing. My friend Lisa planned a fun game for everyone to play New Year's Eve. Kayman fell asleep before we even started. He completely missed all the fun!

Every family had to bring 20 items per person for this game. We labeled each item, and then everyone took turns drawing a number, searching for their item, and that was their prize! There were a lot of fun prizes, some snacks, some random old toys. It was fun to see what you got, and everyone seemed to have a ton of fun. Here is what the table full of prizes looked like.
Syd's prized possession was a hair straightener! She is loving it. Syd is big into fixing her hair, and her friends' hair, so this was the perfect prize for her. Now I just need to teach her how to use it so she doesn't burn her hair!
Once the kids went to bed we played Just Dance on the Wii. It was the funnest game ever! Everyone stayed up until about 1:30 a.m. except Velvet and me, we stayed up until 4:30 talking. She is the greatest friend in the world and I can talk to her about anything for hours on end. She's the one on the left.
Here are us girls taking a calm break long enough to get this picture taken. We were all a bit wild and having fun!
Andy and I on New Year's! What a great night we had! Happy New Year babe! I love you!
So, here's to a new year. Hopefully this year will be at least as good at 2010 was. We had a great year together, and hope for an even better one in the 0-1-1!

Christmas Day!

Santa came! After a fairly long nights' sleep, we got up at 7 a.m. to see what Santa brought to us! Jess was very excited to receive a Leapster 2!

Syd was excited to see that she got a new bike! Her old one was falling apart. Dad had to put the chain on time and time again, and it was way too small for her. This new bike is the perfect size for her and she loves the hand brakes!
Mom and dad got a new computer! Yay! A MacBook Pro, my new favorite thing. It is very well used. We love it!
Kayman is a mad man on his new bike. He rode in circles around Grammy and Grandpa's kitchen all morning. He couldn't be happier!
My brother Brad and his son Gabriel. He got a stuffed English Bulldog that looks just like their real one! Gabe loved it. He kept giving it kisses, ok he was trying to eat it. Whatever. He loved it.

We headed to Andy's parents house around noon to spend the rest of the day with the Selcho family. I don't know how I managed to forget to take pictures, but I did. We had a truly meaningful and loving Christmas. We are so grateful for the love of Christ and for the opportunities of service we had this Christmas season. We had a lot of service done for us also. It is a magical time of year!

Christmas Eve

We spent most of the day home on Christmas Eve, but went to Selcho's house for dinner with the family. We had some family in town from Texas that we usually only get to see once a year. Andy's brother had a business meeting in Salt Lake and it just worked out that they were able to stay a little longer and spend Christmas here too! We had a delicious dinner and some good times together before we headed to my parents house.

My dad was ready to party it up! When we got there he was cooking fondu and had tons of treats ready for us. It was so good! My family and my sister and her husband stayed the night at my parents house Christmas Eve. After eating WAY too much food we headed out to the family room to listen to some beautiful music played by my sister, Jaycie.

She is a wonderful musician and loves to play and sing for us. She has written some beautiful music and has an incredible voice. We all love to listen to her play. My dad then read the Christmas story from Luke. The kids were very good and got a good understanding of the true meaning of Christmas. They got to put on their new Christmas pajamas (not Christmassy this year, I know) and just as they were going to head upstairs for bed...
a special visitor came! Santa showed up unexpectedly (not even my parents were expecting this) and the kids were somewhat less than amused. I thought they may get nervous that he would not come back since he came while they were still awake. Or that they would be ecstatic to see Santa one last time. I think they had just seen him too many times just didn't care anymore. Maybe it's that we had just read the Christmas story from the Bible and they knew that Christmas isn't really about Santa. Whatever the reason, they were not too thrilled to see him, though we did get them to pose for a picture.
The girls left some carrots for Rudolph!
Then it was off to bed. I wonder what Santa will bring??!?!!!?!?

Jingle Bells

The girls had their dance performance tonight, and they did so great! They had these very cute scarves to go with their class outfit they wear to dance. Each class had a different accessory, and I love the green scarves with the bright pink tops.

They are in the same class this year and they did a very cute tap dance to Jingle Bells. They are getting so good! It's fun to watch them learn new things and improve. Both of them are constantly doing cartwheels and handstands around the house, and I mean CONSTANTLY! I can't tell you have many pieces of furniture, walls, and body parts have been kicked by a flying foot...but, they are getting very good!
The girls were partners in the dance and they were so dang cute! Just look at them! :) Love these girls to death!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

...??? gave to me (4 calling birds)

Tonight we received some "calling" birds, aka toy cell phones for the kids! They love them! They were so excited to have a new toy, so thank you elves! Very clever! :)

On the first day of Christmas...(and 2nd and 3rd)

...??? gave to me: (a partridge in a pear tree)
A big bowl full of pears! I was so surprized to see this at our door Monday night and at first I thought for sure it was a mistake. I knew some friends were doing this for a neighbor and I figured they just got the wrong house. I didn't dare open it because I thought there was no way if was really for us. The next day I talked to my friend and she assured me that she got the right house when they delivered their 1st day gift, and it was not a bowl of pears. So this really was for us. I was so touched. I've had a hard time getting into the Spirit of Christmas this year, it just didn't feel like Christmas yet, but now it does. The service I see all around me has really softened my heart and am so full of love!
The second day of Christmas, ??? gave to me: (2 Turtle Doves)

2 bars of Dove soap and a box of Turtle chocolates! So yummy!

On the 3rd day of Christmas, ??? gave to me: (3 French Hens)

So today I got a text that said dinner was coming at 5:30 from our special elves. Can you imagine my joy! I didn't have to cook dinner tonight, it was being delivered to my door! What is better than that for a busy mom?! Not much, I can tell you that!

French bread (super yummy) and homemade Chicken Noodle Soup! Oh my, it was SO yummy! It really hit the spot on this cold winter day.

I have never heard of a 12 days of Christmas going all out like this! It's not just simple little things, they have really put a lot of thought and energy into this. I am so appreciative of this. It came at the perfect time for me, I really needed the boost this has given me. Thank you whoever you are! I love you! My family is grateful for you and your service!!!

What wonderful friends we have. So much to be grateful for!

Ho Ho Ho!

Every Christmas we get together with Andy's buddies from High School and their families. We have had this Christmas party for about 7 years and it has been so fun to see everyone's families grow. We were the first with a kid, and this year there were 11 kids, all under the age of 7. It was quite the party! The annual Rowbotham Christmas party continues to grow every year, and this year the kids got a special visitor! Santa came and had each of the kids got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted him to bring them for Christmas.

Syd told Santa she wanted dress-ups. She kind of froze. She doesn't like to dress up, and what she really wants is for Santa to bring her one of his reindeer. I told her she is welcome to ask for whatever she wants, but Santa decides what to bring. I hope she is not disappointed when she doesn't get a reindeer...

Jessica has been asking for a reindeer too, but when she sat on his lap she said she wants a skateboard. She was very nervous, as you can see in the picture. She does not and never has liked people looking at her. Back when she was 2 and my parents took her to the State Fair they went to see the sheep. She was about eye level with them and she got all upset when they were looking at her. She said, "I don't want them looking at me." She doesn't like to be the center of attention. She wouldn't look Santa in the eye, but she gladly accepted the gift he gave her. Each of the kids got a stamp set.
Kayman is very sure he wants a skateboard. That's where Jess got the idea from. About 2 weeks ago we went to a friends house and Kayman saw a boy outside on a skateboard and he just fell in love with the idea. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. So, new that's what he wants. He's just a little small for a skateboard, we don't need any broken bones. We'll see what Santa comes up with.
Syd was sure this was not the real Santa. I asked her why she thought so and she said that he had pillows in his belly. This girl is so observant. I am not sure how long the magic of Santa will last for her. We shall see. For now, we are loving the fun that comes from the excitement of Santa and the thrill in the kids eyes when they see him!

Must Be Santa (clap)

The girls did their Christmas Program at school this week. It was fun to watch them perform with their classes and hear them sing the songs I have been hearing around the house for the last few weeks. They both got to be in the front row, but we didn't get good pictures of that though because I didn't think to take my zoom lense. I keep forgetting that the parents at Providence Hall get to the functions very early. We got there 10 minutes early and the seats were all taken. It was so crowded!

Here are the girls after the program. They were excited to wear their Christmas dresses. I didn't bother buying any this year since they already had some things that will work just fine.

Jessica's favorite song was "Must be Santa" and they taught them to clap after each "must be Santa." Jess still has a hard time saying her r's (they sound like l's) so when she sang "Must be santa (clap) Must be santa (clap) Must be santa, santa clause." It sounded like she was saying "Must be Santa (crap)" and Andy had fun with that one. He kept asking her why she was saying "crap." She didn't see the humor, but the rest of us thought it was funny.

Jessica's teacher Mrs. Sheffield is incredible. She has helped Jess so much and got her very excited about learning.
Miss Rodgers is Syd's teacher and she is so great with her. Syd is a bit of a talker and her teacher handles it very well. Syd is learning a ton and loves school.
Syd and her new "boyfriend" Conner. Nevermind the fact that she is about 4 inches taller than him, and everyone else in her class...
Jess in her classroom working on a card for her friend.
They are excited about Christmas and the new songs they have learned this year at school.

toys, toys, and more toys

Jess and I tackled a huge task today: cleaning out her toys.
She wasn't too happy about having to clean her room, so I told her I was happy to clean out her toys for her, but I would get rid of what I didn't think she used or needed anymore. Jess opted to help me because she knew that if I did it myself she would be missing a lot of toys when I got done.

One of the bins I dumped out had a bunch of these in it:

I couldn't figure out why Jess would have Lite Brite peices in with her Barbies and Polly Pockets. I asked her why they were in there and she looked at me and said, "They are the Polly Pockets' crayons" as though I should have thought of it myself. I never would have thought of it. I have very little imagination, I see things for what they are and have a hard time creating different uses for things. Jess, on the other hand, is a master at this. She is extremely creative. I love this about her. So, now I know. Lite Brite peices have an alternative use...I wish I'd known that before I vacuumed the rest of them up. They fall in the same category as Polly Pocket shoes - if they are on the floor when I vacuum, I'm not bothering to pick them up. They dissappear.

I only filled one small garbage bag with broken toys/junk, and we have a few to donate, and the room is cute again! Yay! One down, two to go...

Happy Birthday Little Man!

He's 3. I can't believe he's 3. Little Man has been such a spit fire from the day he was born. He is full of energy and loads of fun. Kayman has his own wild imagination and loves to make people laugh. I love spending so much time with him while the girls are at school. He cuddles with me, plays games with me, watches movies with me, lets me read to him, sings and dances to Michael Jackson with me, does beads with me, exercises with me...he is my little buddy!

We had a small birthday party for him at our house tonight with our family and Andy's parents. He loved his cake and blowing out the candles!
And eating the chocolate off the candles, that's not a joint.
Andy and I were more practical this year. After strolling through Costco and realizing that we have EVERY toy there, in one version or another, I decided that Kayman probably has enough toys. We got him some shoes, socks, Toy Story underwear and pullups, and a few Toy Story action figures. I know it sounds boring, but I am trying to get him excited to potty train. He is finally interested, so I hope that not getting Woody or Buzz wet will be motivation enough for him! We'll see.
The girls are such wonderful big sisters. They went through their stuff and came up with meaningful gifts for their brother. They drew him pictures, found toys they knew he would like, an old wallet (since Kayman is 3 he will now be getting allowance, I'll post about that and how it works in our home later), some M&M's and Syd even gave him some of her money! They wrote cards for him and wrapped the gifts all by themselves. Kayman loved their gifts and played with the stuff they dug out of the toy box for him as though he had never seen any of it before. Such sweet girls to go to so much effort to make sure he had a fun birthday!
He loved his gift from Nana and Papa! Cars and a track that makes loud noises. What more could a boy want? He also got a Cowboys jersey from them! Kayman is a Dallas Cowboys fan by default...his dad has been a fan since he was a kid.

A little more about my boy:

Kayman had a rough start when he was born. He was hooked up to oxygen machines and IV's for the first 24 hours until he was able to function on his own. Then he cried and cried until he was 9 months old. He was very frustrated all the time. Thankfully, he is now a very content little boy. He's intense, but happy. He is independent and will continue on one activity for hours at a time. He is very smart and learning very quickly. He picks up a ton from the girls, some good and some bad.

Kayman loves to play with trains and cars, throw bouncy balls, put together puzzles, shoot his cap gun, watch Mickey Mouse, and his new favorite thing to do at night is choose which sisters room he is going to sleep in. He has had a lot of nightmares in the night, so he doesn't like to sleep in his own room anymore. It's great because the girls love to comfort him if he wakes up and I don't have to get up anymore! It's good for everyone. The girls always have something to bribe him with to get him to choose them.

Kayman is such a sweet child and I love him dearly! I am so grateful for him and all the laughter he brings into our home! Love you buddy!

Jealous

Syd has the most amazing hair. I have always wanted thick hair, so I am glad she got it and I get to play with hers. She loves to take care of it and some day wants to donate it to Locks of Love. I just had to post this picture of how beautiful it looked today for church. This picture does not do it justice at all, it was gorgeous! Lucky girl!