Happy Birthday Randy!!

I'm finally getting things settled down a bit from our family vacation...so here is the "low down" on the trip...as requested.
We took the Norwegian Star out of Los Angeles for a 7 day Mexican Rivieria Cruise in celebration of Randy's birthday and as an early christmas present. This time we took the kids...partly as a test to see what it would be like with kids...and partly because my mom watched the kids last January for us and we didn't want to be a burden on her again.

We drove instead of flying to make it a little more economical for us. The boys did fabulous! I guess the portable dvd players did help a little...

Overall, the trip was lots of fun. There are things that we liked better and not so much comparing it to Royal Caribbean. They had kid slides in the main pool area and a separate kid pool area which Royal Caribbean did not. So in some ways it was more kid friendly.
The boys really had lots of fun on the slides...

The beach was the highlight of the trip. Our favorite beach was at Cabo San Lucas. We also took a water taxi while there to see the arches close up.
While in Cabo, Randy found he was alot buffer than he thought. Check out those abs!

We discovered Pelicans everywhere!!! They must be like pigeons for us.

In Mazatlan, we took a open taxi tour of the city. There were bars on every window. We stopped at The Devil's Gate (a cave where they had to actually put a gate up to keep out the party crowd for their own saftey. One too many drunk people fell to their deaths in this cave.

Mazatlan was equally as beautiful as Cabo.

And this is where the boys got really dirty at the beach.

And a close-up of one of them...

We were not very happy with their kids program and how they ran it. (I hear Carnival is lots better)so we only ended up making it to one show and didn't make it to any dances.Bummer. We even lost a restaurant reservation because Kyler fell asleep right after we dropped him off once.

Some more highlights...Chocoholic Buffet...Kyler fell in love with the chocolate covered apples.


Connor loved the Teppanyaki. Here he is trying to catch the egg in his mouth after the chef tossed it to him.

He even mastered the chopsticks...well, these have a cheater band on them. But he did great!
We must of went to the wrong part of Puerto Vallerta, because it had rocks at the bottom instead of sand at their beaches. Not a favorite for us. Connor did wonderful...but if we take the kids again we will definitely wait til Kyler is older and get a much bigger room!

Merry Christmas To Everyone!!!

We hope our greeting has found you in good health and spirits. This year has flown by for us. We have been busy living and loving life. This past summer, we finished the fence and basement in hopes of selling our house quicker. While it still has not sold, we are enjoying our house even more now. :)

Randy is still working in construction with Waterproofing West. Even with the economic slowdown, they still have contracts secured for the next couple years. While we have hopes of selling our house so he can start working as a helicopter pilot, it is good to know his current job has steady work for him. Randy enjoys riding his motorcycle when he is not working (and it's not too cold).

My website has been continuing to grow in popularity and income. Over the last year the income has seen an increase of 3 times. It has actually getting so big I will be splitting it into 2 websites this coming year. I have ideas for several other websites that I might be launching this coming year. As with any work at home mom, juggling responsibilities is a constant struggle...but I just roll with the punches and try to balance everything as much as possible.



Connor is 4 1/2 years old. He has progressed so much this last year. We are so proud of him. He loves firetrucks and monster trucks. He just started working with a private speech therapist. We are excited to see his progress and hope that we might get him caught up with other children his age this next year. Connor is a joy to be around. He loves to laugh and be with others.



Kyler is 2 1/2. He is our superhero monster. He loves any superhero and pretends he is a monster most of the time. He is constantly growling at babies and kids his age at the grocery stores. Sometimes he even growls at adults...which is always entertaining. He is a momma's boy and is in constant distress when he doesn't see her.


In 2008, our travels have taken us to the Caribbean and Mexico. We have discovered the joy of cruising and just returned from a cruise with the boys to Mexico. We had lots of fun at the beach but if we take the boys again will definitely get a bigger room. :)




Merry Christmas...Feliz Navidad...And a Happy New Year! May this next year bring you prosperous blessings!

It's Christmas Time!!!

I love this time of year. The soft glow of lights on the christmas tree, the smell of cinnamon, the taste of hot cocoa. The first couple years of our marriage, Randy and I would leave the christmas tree up longer than the holiday season. We did not have much furniture and loved to plug the tree in at night. It became a contest to see how long we could leave the christmas tree up. One year we even left the tree up until May!!! I know it sounds crazy...but we didn't have kids yet to confuse and it was lots of fun. Here is a little of our christmas decorations this year...

Connor missed his school christmas party because of our vacation, but his teacher did send home a christmas stocking with him before we left.

Welcome Home!!

We went from the warm waters of Mexico...

To the frigid cold snow of Utah...

This picture was taken this morning. I just went out to get the mail and I would have to shovel the driveway and street to get my car out!! BRRRRR!!!!

Christmas Lights At Temple Square

Our adventures this weekend lead us to temple square to see christmas lights.
We hopped on the trax train at 1300 south. The train was packed with people.

We were lucky that a nice man gave his spot up so the boys could have somewhere to sit. Us adults were holding on to the handles for dear life as the train lurched forward at every stop! Both boys were very excited to be on the train. Kyler thought they were riding Thomas.

The lights were especially beautiful this year. They did something a little special with the pond infront of the temple. They had a nativity in the middle of the water of surrounded by floating clear balls with lights in them. It was very beautiful.

As we have taught the boys about christmas, I've tried to focus more on baby jesus than santa claus. Santa claus is a great example of selfless love, charity and spreading joy. But I am most thankful for Christ who has given the ultimate sacrifice of love for us.

A Major Breakthrough!!!

This probably isn't very exciting for everyone to hear...but I have been waiting for this moment the last 6 months...well 2 years ago also would of been nice. Connor finally told me he had to go #2, I took him to the toliet and he went!!! I was so proud of him. He was a late potty trainer. Conquered #1 at 4 years old and finally at 4 1/2 he is about done with #2. I think what finally did it was a combination of a fire truck toy that is sitting on the fridge waiting for him to fill the jar with balls to keep it and not letting him wear his underwear while he is at home. For some reason it became a crutch if he wore it but if he didn't he would go on the toliet. Yeah!!! Well, at least we will have one child who is able to be allowed in the pool area for our vacation next week. Kyler is halfway there with #1 but probably won't be finished until a couple more months.

I guess it takes being a mom to understand how exciting it can be for kids to be potty trained. I'm glad I didn't know what I was getting into before having kids. I probably would of ran in the other direction!!

Dancing, Potty Training and Stomach Flu

Our household has been a little busy the last month or so, trying to get everything ready for a family trip coming up in December. Silly me, I did not ask the question before booking it on whether children are allowed in the swim areas unless they are "FULLY POTTY TRAINED". Most pools allow swim diapers or swim diapers with a plastic covering so smaller children could be allowed in...but nope. They have to be fully potty trained to be allowed anywhere near the pool areas. Bummer for us if I can't get the boys up to speed in the next couple of weeks. We've got the #1 down because boys stand, but the #2 (which is the most important for their rule) is a little hard with them not sitting down at all for #1. Urgh! I have been on patrol to try to catch it and get them to the toilet on time but have only had a little success with it.

We've taken up a ballroom dance class this last month. Which we've had a blast at and yes...Randy can dance! Much to his surprise. (But I knew he had rhythm the whole time).

We've been learning the samba and swing and having lots of fun getting ready for our dancing debut!

This last week, our family has been hit with some kind of stomach flu. Kyler threw up thursday and then seemed fine on friday. Friday both Randy and Connor got it. I think they are about over it but then last night Kyler was throwing up again.

As if that wasn't bad enough...saturday morning I got a call for a house showing and had to hurry to carpet clean the BRIGHT ORANGE throwup in Connor's room the night before. If you didn't already know this tidbit of info. Don't give doritos to ANYONE if sickness is passing through the family. It can be really hard to get out of the carpet!!!

Good thing it happened this week and not over the thanksgiving holidays. I'm the only one that hasn't been hit with it so I am crossing my fingers that my immune system does it's job to keep it away!

Firetrucks and Monster Trucks

Our boys are all about trucks these days!! His favorite dvd to watch is all about monster trucks. Connor got home from school yesterday and noticed the firemen practicing with their water hose in the church parking lot across from the house. He came in all excited and hurried to put on his fireman costume from halloween. He wanted to go out and play with the firemen. By the time we got outside to walk over, they had already left. Luckily, the firestation is a street over from where we lived. Connor knew exactly where they went and wanted to see the fire trucks.

You should of seen the smiles on those firemen's faces when they saw us coming their way! They loved that Connor was dressed up to see them! They walked him around and showed off all of the firetrucks. They even let him spray the waterhose. He loved it! Too bad I didn't get a picture of it. I really need to set up an appointment for a full on tour.

Family Pictures

We finally got our family pictures in! We took them in October but due to the busy schedule of our photographer we just barely got the prints from it. Our scanner is on its way out so the scan job is not very good.

We tried to get a colorful leaves picture but missed the color change by about a week...it is so hard to catch it right on. The yellow tree pictures we took was with the only tree in the park that had some color in it!!!

The boys fell asleep on the way to the park where we took the pictures. So they were not in the mood for pictures at all! They would not cooperate for single pictures so we ended up getting a few couple pictures of Randy and I.

We Love When UPS Comes!

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween!!

This year Connor was a Fireman and Kyler was Spiderman for Halloween. Both costumes were very fitting to them. Connor is obsessed with firetrucks and police cars and Kyler loves any type of superhero or scary monsters. We started the day with the Elementary School's Costume Parade.
Then we headed out to a trunk or treat at a local car dealership.

This unfortunately was the only picture I got of Kyler. He feel asleep in the car and missed most of the trick or treating fun.
On the way, we noticed firemen and a firetruck on the side of the road handing out candy. We just had to stop and ask them for pictures. Connor was so excited!


By the time we got home most of the neighborhood trick or treating was over. So by default, we have lots and lots of chocolate in our freezer!

Marvelous Mondays

We were in a Halloween mood yesterday so we made caramel apples for family home evening. The boys helped dip their apples in caramel and then we decorated them with chocolate chips, walnuts and yes...more caramel. These might take a few days for them to finish off.


By the end of the evening, everyone was sticky and had a sugar coated glaze to their eyes. Now that we've made it once I think next time we will experiment with other toppings for it!

Pumpkin Patch

The boys and I visited a local pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins to carve for halloween. They had a corn maze, animal alley and lots of things for them to climb on.

They were not in the mood for pictures at the end. We found 2 good sized pumpkins to carve later in the week. Should be lots of fun for them!