Lake Powell

We went to Lake Powell in July...yes, I know im behind on blogging. Nick and I decided that Miss Ella Jo was old enough to come with us this year. The kids practically live in their lifejackets the whole time were there, they only take them off to sleep.  Fortunately,  the kids don't seem to mind wearing them and it makes the adults feel better knowing they have them on.  We had a blast again this year, of course, and I loved having both of my kids with me...although Ella did have a blast last year at home with her Grandma Bonnie, and of course she got spoiled by her Grandma!
We played around on the waverunner's, rode on the boats, played on the beach, Nick had a blast surfing, and of course, we ate WAY TOO MUCH food! Lake Powell is one of my favorite places ever and having a nice houseboat to stay on makes it that much nicer! Thanks for the fun trip, Mom!

Mexico

Last week we were in Cabo! My dad took all of us there for a week, and it was a blast! We stayed in a beautiful hotel, and spent the week relaxing (as much as you can with two kids) and playing at the beach and in the pool. The kids didn't swim in the ocean because the waves in front of our hotel were too big, just ask Jax and Papa Kirk, they got taken down by one the first night. Needless to say, Jax wasn't very happy about it! The kids loved to watch the big waves and let them come up and get their feet wet. Their favorite thing was swimming in the pool. The were like little fish. We went parasailing one day, Jax and Gabe even did it and loved it! Another day we rented a catamaran (probably not spelled right) and went snorkeling. The kids weren't very into the snorkeling, but they loved the boat. I was hoping to see some dolphins while we were on the boat, but, no such luck. We did get to see some Manta Ray's jumping out of the water, I didn't get a good picture of them, but it was really cool to see. On the boat ride back, we saw seals "sunning themselves" on a rock. We also got to watch Nick "eat it" as he put it, when a wave took him down where we were snorkeling...actually, i think it was more than one wave, either that, or he is a bigger clutz than we thought. But, it was pretty funny to see Nick's long legs, with flippers on, fly up in the air when the wave came, and then see Jax take off as fast as he could up the beach to get away from the wave. Nick didn't think it was very funny at the time, but, trust me, it was!
Jax and Gabe loved jumping into the pool over and over again, and miss Ella figured out how to keep herself upright in the water with her lifejacket on, which she was pretty proud of. The kids loved waking up in the hotel room and going down to the breakfast buffet where they could eat as many pancakes, waffles, and french toast as they could. Then at lunch, they loved getting ice cream cones. Nick was pretty excited about the ice cream cones too! I however, refrained from the ice cream cones....instead, I piled my plate with every other dessert they had at the lunch buffet...and at dinner too, because who wants to come home with their clothes still fitting them??? Apparently not me! We had such a great vacation, and although it's nice to be home, I wanna go back!!

Karate kid

Jax started taking Karate a couple weeks ago, and he loves it! He is actually pretty good at it, too, of course, I am a little bit biased. He loves going and learning the karate moves, and he looks pretty cute in his outfit! After karate today, I was telling him that I was proud of him, and that he did really good today, he said "Mom, I feel like im da king of da world when I am at karate!" They were learnig a new move today, and the instructor told the class to do the move just like Jax was doing it, because he was doing it so well. Talk about a proud moment for mommy!

6th Birthday Boy!

Jax turned 6 on Wednesday, im still in shock that my baby is 6! I didn't say he could grow up this fast! On his actual birthday, he opened his presents from Mommy, Daddy and Ella, and then he got to do WHATEVER he wanted, he was the birthday king for the day, although he did say "Mom, STOP calling me Birthday Boy! Just call me Jaxson!" He requested macaroni and cheese for dinner that night, and strawberry and vanilla ice cream for dessert...with green sprinkles. We had a fun day at the house with Jax that day, and we put a candle in his ice cream that night and sang to him.

Today, he had a Star Wars party with his friends, they played games, made pizza, thanks to my BFF for making the dough, they got their own Darth Vader capes to wear and take home, and we even had Darth Vader show up! The look on the boys faces when they saw Darth standing at the door was priceless. Darth watched them make pizza and then played "Yoda says" with them while they were waiting for the pizzas to be done, Darth even danced a little bit for the boys...who knew he could dance?!? Then Darth...a.k.a my mom, had to go back to his planet...whatever planet that is. Then we opened presents, played a few more games, and had cupcakes and ice cream. They even got to take home a picture in a frame with Darth. Jax had such a fun party, and it was well worth all the work I put into it to see how much fun he was having! Thank you to my Mom and Dani for helping me today, I could not have pulled it off without their help. Tomorrow, we have a little party with some of our family...and then Mommy can rest!

Happy Birthday my sweet Jaxson! We are so proud of everything you do, you are such a good boy, and you amaze us everyday! Mommy, Daddy and Sister love you very much!!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. We spent the night at my mom's house on Christmas Eve, we woke up Christmas morning and opened all of our presents together. The kids got spoiled by Santa, and Soma (my mom) and even got a little spoiled by mommy and daddy. Then we came back to our house to open presents with Papa George and Grandma Bonnie and have breakfast. They were spoiled by Nick's parents too, of course. After we opened presents and ate, the kids played with their toys for a while. Then we went to my dad's house where, once again, they were spoiled. Our final stop for the day was to visit my Grandma Thomson. By the time the day was over, we were all exhausted, but we had such a great day!