cruise '11

At the end of May we headed down to Mobile, AL to go on a cruise with my family. This was a gift my parents gave to us last Christmas. We all were anxious for the big day!!!

It was a 5 night cruise with two stops. We went to Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. I was worried someone would get seasick, but thankfully that never happened.

The boat on the right is the one we were on....Carnival Elation.

One of the pool areas. The cruise had a camp for kids 2 and up that was free. They had all sorts of activities and the boys enjoyed it. I thought with their cousins there they wouldn't want to go, but they didn't mind. They really only went in the mornings for 2 hours. They made t-shirts, crafts, played video games on free play day (the boys loved this) and even watched a movie.

Claire was too young to go every day with them. On days of excursions she was allowed to go at the same time, but we would have had to pay for her and on days at sea she could go before 10. She went a couple of times. She was a little nervous at first, but did fine.

There was a lot to do on the ship and a lot of stuff going on in the evenings, but I usually called it a night early with Claire. My parent's had a room right next door so a few nights I'd sit in there and watch tv while she went to sleep. I had a video monitor so I felt okay leaving her.

We tried hard to get a decent family picture, but it wasn't easy!!!

Here's a picture of my lovely parent! Our first stop was Cozumel. Matt and I didn't get off the boat right away when we docked like EVERYONE else did. It was kind of nice. I felt like we had the whole boat to ourselves. Since that day we were docked all the kids could go to the camp at the same time. We sent them all and relaxed by the pool!! That afternoon Matt and I left the kids with my family and went to check out the shops. Our next stop was Playa del Carmen. This day we went out on an excursion with the boys while my parents and sister kept Claire. I have lots of pics from this day, but don't feel like uploading them. Anyway, we went to a fun beach area with my sister and her family.
The boys had fun in and out of the water...


and playing with Daddy.

I will say the best part of the trip....aside from the help from family and the BEAUTIFUL water...I definitely enjoyed not having to cook or clean for the week!!

We had a great time and enjoyed being with family. Hopefully it won't be too long before we go on another one!!!

milk thief

EVERY night after dinner Claire will get out of her chair and climb up in Blake's spot (he's usually the first to finish dinner) to finish off his strawberry milk. EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. It makes us laugh!

I wanted to document it because it's become a joke. Andrew will usually drink orange juice (I know...o.j. with dinner is gross) and she's tried it before and didn't like it.

She is such a mess!

(this picture was taken at the end of may...hence the long sleves!)

VBX

I feel so far behind on my blog these days. Life has just been crazy busy.

This past week we had VBX. I worked it so Blakers could go. We had been out of town the week before so we didn't make it for the first day of VBX, but we were there on Tuesday. I felt like I was there all week....it wore me out!!

I was in the 3's class and we really had a good class. Not sure why I was so exhausted! The boys got in the car the first day and talked about how much fun they had and said they were going home to take a nap! :) That didn't happen!! Claire had fun too, but she only went 3 days. She wasn't feeling well the first part of the week. I wish VBX would have been a little later in the summer so we could spread out our fun! Guess we'll just have to find other fun things to do!!

I'll try and catch my blog up soon!

big first grader to be!!!

My baby is growing up!!!

I can't believe he's already done with Kindergarten. It definitely was bittersweet to end the school year. I was SO glad because we've been SO busy, but it's sad that my boy is growing so fast!! He's so excited to go to first grade....he doesn't realize how much learning will be going on tho. :)

no, i didn't ask him to do the thumbs up.

He had a great year and we are so proud of him and his awesome work!! He was always so eager and happy to go to school and learn. I hope that never changes...but I'm sure it will. ha!

He also just lost his first tooth. I wanted to blog about it, but I haven't had a chance. go figure!!

big b

Today was Blake's last day of preschool.

I can't believe it! This year has flown by! I also can't believe how much he has grown this school year. Here's a picture of him on the first and last day of school. (the green shirt is the first day) He was so excited that first day, but so nervous. He has really enjoyed school, but says he's glad to be out for the summer. Ha!

Here he is with Mrs. Barb and Mrs. Kim.

We couldn't have asked for better teachers for him. They were so sweet, soft spoken and just really loved the kids. Every single day they both gave each student a hug before they would leave. They would tell me all the time how quiet and sweet Blake was and how they enjoyed him in their class. We definitely will miss them next year.

I had to add this picture. Claire had to get in with Blake....it's a little blurry of Claire, but it reminded me of Andrew on his first day of PK3....Blake had to get in with him. Gah! Looking back at that picture of Andrew (3) and Blake (16 months) makes me sad!! Time has really flown by!! Claire is going to need a little sibling in her shot when she goes to PK3!!!

Anyway, it's been a great year for Blake and we can't wait to see how much he'll grow and what he'll learn next year!!

Happy Birthday to Blake!!!

Blake turned 4 on Tuesday of this week!!!

To say the boy was excited is an understatement!! He was ecstatic!! ALL day long he talked about how he could do anything on his own now because he's a big 4 year old!! He was even singing in WalMart about being 4. It was funny...and a little embarrassing. :)

We've had a week long celebration. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's with my parents when they came in last week. It was also my dad's birthday so that's REALLY what we were celebrating. ;) They were here Mon-Wed and we had a great visit!! Then we had Matt's parents in on Friday. We also celebrated Blake's birthday with them!! They left Monday morning and we enjoyed our visit with them too! See, lots of partying for little Blakers. I was beginning to wonder if he would be excited the day OF his actual birthday since we had already celebrated so much!!!

On his birthday he chose to go to McDonald's for dinner. We went to one with a play land. This was a BIG step for me! I HATE play areas....unless it's Chick-fil-A!!...and we don't have those up here! Then we came home and did cupcakes and ice cream!!

Then Wednesday afternoon we celebrated his birthday with his friends!! He had 11 little friends over and was SO excited!!

Everyone has been wanting to see my decorations...so here ya go!! I owe a HUGE thank you to Kristy and Nicole who helped me with the birthday banner!! Isn't it so cute!?!?!

They also made the scalloped circles for the cupcakes!!

I did the middle part of the cupcake toppers and I think they are pretty cute!!
This was before all the kiddos got here.

Then we enjoyed some pizza and fruit!

After lunch we made sun visors!!

And then we had cupcakes (which were AWESOME!) and ice cream!!

I wish I would have gotten a group picture, but it never happened!

The kids played downstairs with the Thomas tracks we had set up....and some other toys.

At the end everyone went outside and played. The kids were DYING to go outside. We had some rain early that morning, but thankfully it dried up enough for them to go play!!

Blake got lots of presents and said his favorite part of his birthday was ALL of it. Love that boy!!! It's hard to believe he's already four. :(

Well, I was going to do a post about the snow we got about 2 weeks ago....or maybe it was a week ago, but I deleted it because it's old news! The weather here lately has reminded me of our winters in Houston....70 one day 50 the next. I have to remind myself that it's April and not January tho!

Anyway, I don't have any other pics besides this one of Claire doing her FAVORITE thing these days. She LOVES to color. She will go get her coloring box out and just start coloring. It's funny, but she doesn't understand that she can't just walk around the house with her crayons!

I had been busy working on a consignment. It was VERY time consuming!! It's going on this weekend and so far I've made more than I expected!! That's always good! When I got it all finished I told Matt I would probably never do it again, but seeing what I've made so far...I probably will.

Andrew's spring break is coming up. It's late this year...or so I've been told. Matt is taking the boys camping!! Fun for me!! The boys are SO excited about it!!

I can't believe school is almost out and then Andrew will be starting 1st grade! This year has really flown by. I kinda wish it would slow down!!

Well, the kids are in bed and my floor needs to be cleaned! I swear my kids make such a mess when they eat!! Really it's Blake and Claire! I'm going to make them start eating outside! ;) Okay, gotta run before the computer sucks up all my energy and I get nothing done!

blake and his bud

Last Friday I let Blake have a friend (of his choice) come over to play. We've had playdates since we've been here, but I've always chosen the friend. ;) So, Blake picked a friend from school named E. Blake was SO excited!! Seriously, you would have thought it was Christmas! When he would wake up in the morning he'd ask how many more days until E would come over. They had a great time and got along really well. I like E's mom so we had a nice visit too. Blake has some really sweet kids in his class this year. We won't be going to school there next year, but I hope we keep in touch with some of those kids. I know we've all said we would, but life just gets busy!!!

crazy & sweet claire

This post is all about Claire. What can I say....she gives me a lot to work with!! :)

Claire loves to climb up on the kitchen chair. The problem is she can't get down. At the end of the video I finally caught her yelling at me to help her!!

I had folded some clothes and stuck them in the basket thinking Claire wouldn't mess with them. I was WRONG!And underwear becomes a hat! Thankfully it's clean!!

Matt bought this flower headband for Claire because he knows how much she loves to accessorize!! I'm pretty sure it doesn't go like this!When I go in her room in the morning her passies are always thrown on the floor. She only gets her passy in bed so she's trying to be smarter than her mommy!! Sometimes she'll get lucky and find one that rolled under her bed!She does love her babies!

She loves pushing them in her stroller, giving them a bottle and sometimes her cup, and giving them lots of hugs and kisses.

She is a sweet little girl who loves to give some BIG hugs to us all day long!She definitely keeps us laughing!