Christmas 2008

What an amazing Christmas we had. We had so many blessings this year. With the horrible economic state, we were still able to have a good Christmas with no stress. Thanks to Dave Ramsey... still the best thing I ever did!! Anyways, also Trever was able to have the whole day off. When he got hired at Chevron last year they told him to expect to work every Christmas, and well just about every Holiday for the first 10 years. So I was very excited he was able to be home with us. This was the first year Maddy was really excited for Christmas. Last year she kinda understood, but not really. This year we did the count down, with a Santa beard she made at preschool. Every day for 25 days we added a cotton ball to his beard, and every day she would count how many days were left til Christmas. She still has a hard time from 16 to 17 for some reason but the rest she can count. Christmas Eve we had dinner with the neighbors, then came home for our tradition of opening PJ's. Kennedy got her first pair of big girl PJ's, 2 piece!! Well, this takes me back to Xmas eve morning. The night before Trever and I stayed up putting together a doll house that Santa would be bringing to Maddy. I had to work the next morning, so I tell him "take the box outside, I'm going to bed" he says "OK" A simple task this was. Well he got busy on the computer and forgot to take the box outside. So Xmas eve morning I go to work, and Trever and Maddy head downstairs to hook up a TV we had gotten the day before. Maddy keeps telling Trever "Wow daddy this is so neat" and he responds with I know honey, this TV is so cool". Until he gets up and realizes shes looking at the box with the picture of the doll house on it. Dork. He quickly grabs the box and says "oh that was just an old box " she says "oh but dad didn't a toy come out of it" he says "nope, just an old box". He must have pulled it off, because Christmas morning she was so excited and mentioned nothing about the box.
I was grateful my mother joined us Christmas morning. We all got a lot of neat gifts, and as it should be Kennedy enjoyed the boxes more then any of the toys! Maddy's favorite toys were her doll house, and dress up doctor stuff.
By about 8 the snow was getting pretty bad. Everyone was canceling on breakfast at my moms, which has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. I was already feeling pretty bummed we would be missing my dad and grandpa this year. Then my brother said he wasnt coming. Luckily the the roads cleared up enough, and they ended up making it. We had a delious breakfast. Later Trevers Dad, Step mom, Ty and Sara came up to the house. Had nice visit and gift exchange with them, and then just a relaxing night with the family. It was a very nice Christmas, I am very grateful. I can only hope every Christmas is as good.

2007 was a pretty bad year, I said 2008 has to be a better year. 8am on Jan 1 I was at the emergency room, Maddy had stuck a bandaid up her nose so far I couldnt get it. The billing problems that followed made me, more then crazy. Im sure the pregnancy did not help in the craziness. I started what could have been called... stalking the doctor. Hey, I got the bill down to a reasonable amount!! Craziness does payoff, sometimes. So although it was a bit of a better year. Im really hoping for a great 2009!!!

Kennedy got her second tooth, a fang. Im not sure what is wrong with my children, but they get their fang teeth so early. Maddy looked like a vampire for 6 months until her other teeth grew in. Still not really crawling, she scoots to her destination. She can stand up on her own for couple seconds, and get to a standing position with only the help of somebodies fingers. Everybody is betting she will walk before she crawls. Im begining to think they might all be right. Maddy started crawling at about 10 months, and walked about 2 weeks later. Im guessing Kennedy will do the same.

Snow, Snow GO AWAY

Will the snow ever stop!!????!! We have had so much snow in the last couple days. Brings a whole new meaning to a "White Christmas". Christmas we got about 6 inches or so, but mostly just alot of drift snow. Our front door had 3 inches on the door, it was too heavy to open. I guess that was not enough, today we have gotten well over a foot. Im snowed in as I write this. There is no way I could make it out of our circle. And we wont see a plow for at least another week or so. We are the forgotten neighborhood. Trever barley made it out in 4 wheel drive to make it to work. The snow on my grass from shoveling is well taller then me. The dogs couldnt make it outside this morning the snow was so deep. We had to shovel them a path, and they are big boys! Im so ready for sunny WARM days!!!

Suzie Snowflake

Maddy started dance this year. She is one of the youngest in the class, but she has alot of fun. She takes it through Becky's school of dance, which has been around forever. She had her first dance recital a few days ago. They did a dance to Suzy Snowflake. We arrived at the time I was told, and was then told to leave her in the room and go sit down. I was thinking there is now way they can keep track of all those girls, but what do I know they have been doing this a long time. So I went and sat down. 19 preformaces later out came the Suzy Snowflakes. As Trever, Tyler, Sara, Grandma Mayne, Grandma and Grandpa Bill, and Granny all sat trying to figure out which one was Maddy. Then the lights come on, and no Maddy. So of course I assume the worst, she got out of the room and some weirdo took her. I go running to the room I had left her, and there she sat playing with stickers. I said Maddy why didnt you go dance, and she tells me the lady told me I couldnt. Well come to find out, there was another troup of girls in similar costumes. She was sitting near them coloring. It was not her teacher that gathered them to walk them down to the stage, so when Maddy jumped up to go with them the lady thought she was with the other troup and made her stay. Her teacher had her class preform twice so Maddy go to go up on stage with her class. She did a great job, and had alot of fun. After the preformace when I went to get her, she kept saying "did you see me up on that big stage". Our little lost snowflake princess

Last week I had one of those days where nothing seems to go my way, and it started early. Trever and the girls were out Christmas shopping, I needed by work badge so he brought it to me and I got to see the girls. They stopped and bought me some roses, one from each all different colors. How sweet, my day was much better after that.
Im glad to say my xmas shopping is done. Now I can just enjoy the last few days before the big day. Maddy is so excited, all she wants is a doll house and most importantly dress up doctor stuff. Lucky for her, she will be getting both. Kennedy just likes playing with the paper, so Maddy will have alot of extra gifts to help her sister open.
Although it didnt start snowing until later into the season this year, it is catching up in volume. The last few storms have been horrible, and the one today is suppose to bring 4-8 inches in the valley. Because where our house sits we always get more then what the valleys get. Im glad I'm staying in the house all day today.
Maddys old babysitter was having her annual Christmas party during the last storm, so we were unable to make it since the roads had couple inches of snow on them. She was so bummed, then to top if off she was suppose to have a sleepover at my moms with Jackson. That too was canceled, as Jana was unable to get Jackson to my moms. Most of all though, she just wanted to see her buddy Gavin, she was walking around the house saying " I miss Gavin so much, I may never get to see him" I was pretty funny to watch her. Luckily, Gavin got to come over so they played all night. Then she got to have her sleepover with Grandma and Jackson on Saturday night. They made a ginger bread house, and cookies and did some arts and crafts.
We headed to the Millers for a Christmas party. It turned out to be an all right week, after all.

Dress

I'm not sure why I bought Kennedy a pretty little Christmas dress, but since I had it I was going to put it on her. So for Trever's family Christmas party she was going to wear the dress. When I start putting it on her I notice its not going over her arms very well, yup her arms were to chubby for the dress. Then as we were leaving I asked Trever to put the shoes on her, I come into the room and there are rolls hanging over the shoes. Her feet were too chubby for the shoes. There was no way those shoes were getting on her foot. She wore the dress for a few short minutes, and was back to what she likes best.... being naked.
Couple weeks ago she started smiling every time I show her a camera. Its so funny, she will be crying and if I get out the camera she will instantly smile. We will see how long that lasts, I have to bribe Maddy to get a smile.

Sledding

This past weekend we got about 4-5 inches of snow. So it was time for some sledding. We took Maddy and Gavin up to the park to go sledding. They had a great time. I took Kennedy, but she was not enjoying her self being freezing cold and all bundled up so I had to take her home only a few minutes in. I hope we can get a few more sledding trips in.

I took Kennedy in for her 6 month check up exactly one month late. So at 7 months she was 19 lbs 14 oz, that would be 92 percentile. She is average for height and head size. Because she is progressing well the doctor didn't see a need to see her in 2 months for her 9 month checkup, so we are off the hook until her 12 month. They have her both 6 and 9 months shots and her flu shot all at the same time. I thought for sure I would have a grumpy girl. But nope, she was just fine. Shots have never bothered either of the girls. Later that night we went to Trevers work party. It was at the top of Rice Eccles. They brought in a bunch of gambling tables (21, poker, roulette, craps ect) and dealers and gave us all the same amount of money to start out with. I was on a roll, and ended up with quite a bit of fake money. As a result, Trever and I won 5 DVDS and a Ipod shuffle.
Well the Utes got picked for the Sugar Bowl. I am very pleased with the annoucement, other then we will not be going. Im bummed about that. However, I was given the opportunity to go to Washington DC for the inaugrul, so I am very excited about that. Should be exciting, and a once in a lifetime opportunity.
We are offically in the christmas season, with all the parties starting. There are a few busy weeks ahead of us. I have just about all my shopping done, just the few odds and ends left. Only minutes ago I ordered our very own river tubes, so we dont have to keep paying the outragous fees to rent them every time. How sad, there has only been snow on the ground for 3 days and Im already ready for summer.
The hat Kennedy is sporting was a gift from Grandma Barbara at the festival of trees. When I asked Maddy what her favorite tree was, "all of them". She has been twice, and I still have never been. That will be my goal next year.
Merry Christmas to all

Update

We haven't really been up to much lately. Trever has been working alot. I am going to start working only Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in January. That will give me the time I need with my girls, but also get me out of the house so I keep my sanity.
Maddy is still working on her reading, today we are working on a_e, trying to explain to her that the e makes the a say a not make the sound of a, but also makes the e silent.... well this one may take us a few days. her favorite car game is playing the spelling game. She spells a word and I have to tell her what it is, and then I spell a word and she tells me what the word is. But she does the same words every time, Eli, Gavin, Dog, bed, mark and now Bolt. Oh yeah, we were at Nya's (my nieces daughter) birthday party and I told her is she could spell Bolt we would go see it.. sure enough she figured out how to spell it all by herself. At first she said B A L T, but then realized she sounded it wrong and corrected herself with no help.
Thanksgiving was a nice day, other then very busy. We started out at Ty and Sara's for breakfast, I'm still not sure how Trever talked me into going. But it was tasty. Then we went home and put up the tree and Christmas decorations. Then we stopped by Granny's house to say hello, then it was off to my moms for a wonderful dinner. Dinner was very tasty, and after my mom, Jana, Trever, Kathy, and I played Tripoly. I'm proud to say I am a couple dollars richer! And congratulations Jana, you now know your straight flush was a playable hand :)
Kennedy is rolling everywhere to get to her destination. She will be 7 months old this week, time just flies by. We did make it to Madagascar 2, and then Bolt yesterday. Luckily Kennedy slept through the whole thing since it was just the girls and I. The 3D was pretty neat, made me jump a few times. I cant remember the last 3D film I saw in the theater, and well Trever dated himself by announcing Jaws was the last 3D film he had seen in the theater. Brandy and I went out with the crazies on Black Friday, but it actually wasn't all that busy and I still got some great deals. Trever will be 34 this week, and has to work on this birthday so not doing anything fun. Getting old is no fun :) Kennedy has some lung/chest congestion so I'm off to take her to the doctor.

Mountain West Champs

What a great year for the Utes, another undefeated year. We have had season tickets for several years now, and this was a very exciting year. We are very fortunate that our sister in law enjoys tailgating, but doesn't really enjoy the games. So we are able to take the girls tailgating with us all day (and night sometimes when its warm enough) and then when the game starts Trever and I go to the game and my sister in law takes the girls home. Maddy has been to a few games, they are fun to her but just not as fun as hanging out with her Aunt Malinda and cousin Ryan. We find out December 7th what bowl game the Utes will be in. I'm guessing it will be the sugar bowl, but fiesta bowl would be so much easier to make it to the game and well safer then New Orleans. We will see, may be spending our New Years in New Orleans. GO UTES!!!!

Trever decided it was time to become an author and illustrator. Maddy and he made this book the other day. And Maddy can read the whole 8 page book by herself, as long as she keeps her finger under the word she is reading. She likes to get ahead of herself, so the finger helps.

Election 2008

Overall I am very thrilled with the election results. I was at the Radisson with all the crazy fun Democrats when the news came in that Obama had won. What an amazing feeling, I was thrilled. I hope he can now start fixing the mess the Bush administration has caused over the last 8 years. On a local level, we had some great wins and a few loses. My mother won 66% to 32%. I had campaigned for Charles Henderson and Mike Lee both running for House seats, both lost. But overall the results were good. Im excited for the upcoming changes this country needs. But most of all, Im so glad its over. What an exhausting election year, we have been hearing Presidental debates for a year now. Im excited for the break.

Halloween Season

What a busy Halloween week. Grandma Barbara made the girls costumes, as she does every year. Maddy is a Fairy and Kennedy is a bunny. Both very well made costumes. The tutu part of Maddy's costume is huge, and what a chore it was lugging it around to so many parties. Kennedy was not to fond of her costume, whenever she saw it she would cry, but the little bunny tail was so dang cute. The craziness all began last Friday one week before Halloween. Maddy's friends across the street, Nicholas and Aurora invited Maddy to their Halloween party. She had a lot of fun, and it was the first party she went to without mom or dad. Trever and I took advantage of our time and played couple games of Monopoly. I kicked his butt, but he would say otherwise. Saturday we were off to an early start, walking door to door for my mom. It was nice to see how many of my friends came out to support my mom, I really do have great friends. Then the parties began. The first was at Vicky's. When we were on our way there Maddy was starting to fall asleep so Trever told her he would make her a bet, if she fell asleep she had to pay him a dollar if she stayed awake he would pay her a dollar. Maddy agreed to the bet, and it was on. About 15 minutes later Maddy says "dad guess why I'm not going to fall asleep", why Maddy, "because I don't have a dollar" it was as if she had been pondering this for 15 minutes... hmm I don't have a dollar to pay if I do fall asleep. Trever and I were laughing for a long time over that one. Our next destination was Kylies party. She turned 9. We had to cut out early to make it to Tyler and Sara's party, so Sara could parade her cute nieces to her friends. Barbara and BJ took the girls from their so they could have a sleep over. Sunday Trever was up at 3am to go Goose Hunting, and I was up just a few hours later to get the girls so we could make it to another party. This was Trever's family party at the West Valley accord center. Then on Tuesday was Maddy's dance Halloween party, then Thursday was her preschool party. Today is the last of Halloween, its been a fun week but so busy. Tonight is bitter sweet, Maddy is so excited to go trick or treating but Trever had to work he was pretty bummed to not be able to go with her. We are going trick or treating with Gavin, Kylie and Christian. Its odd that its so light still since we havent had day light savings yet. But even odder is how warm it is, it was 73 degrees today. I was worried about Maddy's costume and her getting cold. But nope, its perfect weather Im not even sure its cold enough to wear a hoodie
Oh yeah, Kennedy is rolling over. She made it just shy of 6 months! And holding her bottle by herself.

Eddie P. Mayne Kearns Senior Center

This morning my father was honored once again. The Kearns Senior Center was redidacated as the Eddie P. Mayne Kearns Senior Center. Several years ago my father felt the seniors on the west side deserved a place they could come together and spend time with one another. He did what he did best, and got the funding to build the Kearns Senior Center. With his passing, it only seemed fitting to name the center after my father. My mother gave a very heartfelt speech expressing her graditude for everybodys support over the last year. It is very unfortunate my grandfather couldnt be there, as he spent alot of time and effort helping my father get the center built. My grandmother was in attendance, so proud of her son.

First Cookie

Everyone should remember their first cookie! She made a mess, but really enjoyed her cookie.

La Caille

Friday night my mother treated Trever, Paul, Jana, and I do a great dinner at La Caille for our anniverserys. It's one of those places you always hear about but have never been. Well I finally got to go. It is such a beautiful place, the atmosphere is fantastic. The food was tasty, the service was great. Overall a fun experience everyone needs to have at least once. It was worth staying married to Trever for 8 years just to get the experience of La Caille. Love you babe, and Thank you mom!
Oh, by the way the flavored coffee they offer you at the end is $16 for a wine glass full. I was shocked, although I guess I shouldnt have been! Even though it tasted horrible, its the best cup of coffee I have ever had mom!

Duck Hunting

Trever took Maddy on her first duck hunting trip. They went out to Farmington bay. Trever and his friend Ryan shot 4 ducks. Maddy was pretty amazed when Bones went running into the water and then brought the duck to her. She kept yelling "Daddy what is going on, where is Bones going". On the way home Trever asked her if she was going to eat the duck, she said "No, I don't eat ducks Ill stick to peanut butter and jelly". I think the part she liked the best was getting to share donuts with Bones. They got her to hold all the ducks, she wasnt sure about holding a dead duck at first but after a few she got excited to get to hold them. My dad would be so proud!

Little of Everything

Kennedy will not roll over, she is almost 6 months old and just wont do it. It is kinda nice not having to be as alert once your child starts rolling over, but wow she is going to be the only 6 month old not rolling over. Maybe she is just going to skip rolling over. The doctor says since all her other motor skills are fine, and she can sit up on her own there is nothing to be worried about. Comforting.. I guess. Maybe its just hard to roll 18 pounds of cuteness. She is so full of smiles, today I had her and Maddy in the tub and she giggled at Maddy for a good 10 minutes straight. Cant help but be happy when a baby laughs. She is still a very happy baby, if she cries its for a reasonable reason and usually its she is hungry. She will play for hours by herself if I let her.
Maddy is doing well too. So talkative and social, she is not shy and will talk to anybody. Its nice to see the confidence she has in herself, but its a bit scary when she will talk to anybody out in public. Couple months before she turned 2 she came to me and said "I don't want to wear a diaper anymore", and that was the end of diapers for her. Within a day or two she was potty trained, I was a bit scared not sure if I was ready to have to run to the bathroom every time she needed to go. But I figured if she is ready, lets go. Just like that, she came to me couple weeks ago and said "mom lets do my reading cards", so that began her reading. We started the program my mom uses with her first graders (pictured). She is doing very well, she has most all 3-4 letter words down, as long as they don't have any long vowels or funky tricks. She really enjoys trying to read everything. Its hard to explain to her why she is having a hard time reading "St. Maarten" on my sweatshirt, sweetie little words first. As a ritual, we read 3 books before bed and as a joke I pointed to the word balloon and said what is that word, I'll be damned she sounded it out and yelled "balloon", I was a very proud mama. It looks like at only 3 years old, she is taking after her uncle Tyler and will be reading novels at 5.
The boys are doing great. Bones got to go duck hunting today, I really wondered if he still had it in him but he did great and had fun. Brody is still a nut case, just the way we like him.

I will be so happy when campaign 2008 is over. I'm so sick of watching Presidential/Vice Presidential debates, sifting through all the articles and having to find out what is true or a blanat lie. What a dirty election year, of course mostly on Mccain/Palin side but Obama/Biden haven't been angels either.
It will be nice to have my mother back, we haven't been to lunch in months, our Friday tradition. I know she will win, her heart belongs to this community and voters see that. Its been an exhausting couple of months, but well worth it I love having the competitive spirit, specially when somebody is messing with my mom. We haven't really had to campaign since my dad first ran in 1994 or was it 95? So it has been fun.
But most of all, I will just die if McCain/Palin win. I may very seriously consider moving to Canada, I still have some of their currency from when I was there 15 years ago. Think my couple dollars will get me started??
Well, I'm off to clean some baseboards. I know I know, this is what my life has become and really I love it. OK that was cheesy, but really I hate dirty baseboards specially when I see Kennedy trying to lick them. Must wash...
And lets not forget my wonderful husband Trever. Who has been hunting all day, and will continue to hunt all weekend, I mean all month. But the few moments in between he does what I need him to do. I had him dusting fans and behind TV's today! Love you babe!

Bad Week

What a horrible week this has been. It started out with me having to work 40 hours, yes 40 hours. I have not had to work 40 hours since before Maddy was born. Then Trever finds out his grandmother is going back East to visit some family and is unlikely to come home, as her health is failing. He takes the girls down to Elmo to spend some time with her before she takes off. So, I'm left home alone with no family. I was actually thinking I was going to get some good sleep, nope the opposite. I could not sleep, and to make it worse the dogs were freaking out that the girls were gone. Brody kept running from room to room, finally about 3 am I had to go sit in each of their rooms with him and explain they would be home in a few days and they were fine. STEVE at his finest. Trever and the girls made it home after a nice visit with Grandma Betty, Grandma Vi, and Grandma Elmo. I started to feel a little better when I had my family home. But I was back to work before I knew it (remember the 40 hour thing), and wanting nothing more then to be home with my family. Then I find out my grandfather passed away. He was in alot of pain, so it was time. But it still hurts, my heart is sad. He was a wonderful man, that lived the most amazing life. He wrote an autobiography and I cant wait to read it. Its going to be a hard couple of days, it seems like I'm living 10 months ago all over again. Keep strong, that's what we have to do.
On a lighter note, the Treehouse museum was amazing. We are going back soon to do the normal admission, what we did last week was a special thing they do for Halloween. It was really cute, they do it every Friday during October. The kids start out trying to help find 5 dragons and along the way they run into characters such has Little Miss Muffet, Cinderella, Alice and the rabbit, Knights etc. eventually they find the main dragon and have to learn the magic word to make him a nice dragon. Very cute program, and the kids had to walk from place to place so they didn't get antsy and stayed interested. Before all this, Maddy went to the Dentist, I had debated on going to regular vs. petatric dentist. Im happy I decided to go with the petatric, they made it a great experience. She has no cavities and everything looks great. However her adult teeth do have the crown edges like mine do, it was pretty neat seeing her adult teeth from the X-rays. And Maddy thought it was cool that she got to put "stickers" in her mouth and bite down on them and hold really still while the lady took a picute. She still says "that was so silly, putting stickers in my mouth"
Today we went up to the park by Mountain Dell golf course up East Canyon. So pretty, not everything is changing colors yet but it was still gorgeous. Maddy was excited to get to hang with her old daycare friends from Vicky's. Kennedy thinks she needs to eat again, how else is she going to make it to 18 pounds :)

Pancreatic Pirates

Friday night Maddy danced at half time at the Granger High football game. It was a very cute dance; she did a great job for a 3 year old! Most importantly she had fun doing it. Saturday morning, we were off to an early start. We were at the “This is the Place” monument by 8:30 am for the Diabetes walk. Our team, lead by my friend Angela were the Pancreatic Pirates. We all wore patches, including Kennedy. It was very crowded, so other then being herded like cattle it was a nice walk for a good cause. Then it was off to the Zoo, first stop the train of course. After an exhausting trip around the zoo, we were off to the Utes game. As you can see in the picture, Maddy is a die hard Ute fan! It was a very long eventful day.

This Friday we are going to the Tree house in Ogden, they are doing a Halloween party. Maddy is very excited, and I have wanted to get up there to check it out. I have good things about it.

Jumble O Thoughts

Lately it seems my life is just flying by. My mind seems like an ocean of half thoughts, unfinished projects, and well at the end of the day feeling like I accomplished nothing. Several months ago I decided I needed to change; I needed to add some sort of order to my life. Around the same time, I was thinking of putting together a chore chart for Maddy. So I was searching “3 year old chore chart” and came across a great blog. simplemom.net, she is an American mom living overseas, and her blog is about making life simple. She really has some great ideas. So back to my ocean of half thoughts, this week her blog entry “Get stuff done at home, by getting stuff off the brain” is just what I needed. So Im taking her suggestion and Im writing everything down in a notepad. I mean everything. I have only been doing it 2 days, but so far so good. My mind already seems clearer. She has several other ideas, which I have also implemented.

By far the best home tip that I have started is “15 minutes”. I still do a deep clean once a week. But every day, no matter how tired, busy, or lazy we are, Trever and I do whatever we can get done in 15 minutes. Really it’s surprising what can get done in 15 minutes. The house is always at minimum tidy, which I need. Clutter and messes drive me nuts. Maddy has a chore chart, and putting her toys away twice a day is part of her chores. Works for me because her doll laying on the floor doesn’t drive me nuts, knowing in 2 short hours it will be toy clean up time.

So we will see how the writing everything down goes in the next couple weeks. My goal is for a clear mind to think about the things that want to think about

Cruise

My family had been planning to go on a cruise for a couple years, when my father got sick it was delayed. Then I got pregnant, so the cruise was delayed even further. I would not leave until Kennedy was at least 3 months old, which was still way to young to be leaving her.
So back in March the plan was set, My mother, brother Paul, sister-in-law Jana, Trever and I would be traveling on the Liberty of the Seas to the Eastern Caribbean Aug 30-Sept 6, only 5 days after my 29th birthday. It was a very hard decision to leave my girls, specially with Kennedy being so young, but it was a once in a life time opportunity, so off to the Carribean is where I would be going. Luckily I have wonderful people in life that I could trust with my children for 8 days. So here is a break down of the days.

Friday-
Very long day of traveling, finally made it into Ft. Lauderdale around midnight.

Saturday-
Back to the airport to catch our bus that would take us to the Miami Port. Around 2pm we are finally on the boat. What an amazing feeling, after months of planning. Now I had heard the boat was huge, but wow it really is like a city. So we spent a few hours touring the boat. Then we were off to our first dinner at our assigned table. We met, who would become our waiter for the remaining 6 nights, Arun. His sole job was to make sure we we ate in luxury, that is exactally how we were treated all 6 nights.
Our itenary was changed due to the many hurricanes going on around us. At this point in the trip our biggest concern was Gustavo. Due to the change, Sunday was a full day of cruising.

Sunday-
Very relaxing day. Alot of laying around, swimming, and eating. This was the first day we tried the flow rider. Harder then it looks! Trever contuined doing it daily until the end of the cruise, Im not real sure he ever got better. Sunday night was the first "formal" dinner. Again, it was a very nice dinner. We went to a show afterwards, Everafter. It was basically a modern version of all the fairytales, pretty good for an hour of entertainment. We did some gambling after, I stayed about even, Trever won, Paul and my mom lost. This gambling trend would remain through the end of the trip.

Monday-
Today we would port into Labadee, Haiti. We didnt have any excursions scheduled so we were excited to get some snorkeling in. A hurricane had hit the island only days before, so the weather was still stormy. They closed all the water activites. We tried to snorkel, we saw a few fish but nothing too exciting. We ate a mass produced lunch on the island, by far the worst food of the week. Then it was off to the flea markets, that is an experience all in itself. Defiantly a test of self control. Due to the weather, we decided to head back to the boat. After dinner, we went to the Promenade (the shopping area) for the 70's style "Dancin' in the Street". We all had a blast, it was fun to just let loose and giggle with the family. It was very windy night, after the party we went on deck 11 where the pools are, to see just how windy it was. According to our boat information channel, 50 mph winds. I was sure we were all going to fly away.

Tuesday-
Today we ported San Juan, Puerto Rico. We did the Tiki Hut zip lines. We were taken about 40 minutes up a very windy long road. We then zip lined to 8 platforms. It was alot of fun, during the 10 seconds we were on the zip lines, but waiting 20 minutes to get unhooked and hooked on to the next zip line was a long process. Overall, a fun excursion. We then ate at a Puerto Rican restaurant. Not food I would want to eat all the time, but it seemed appropriate. Trever, Paul and I did some shopping afterwards, but then headed back to the boat. It was a very dirty place, and it smelled rotten. When we got back to the boat, and cleaned up. We went to the Ice Skating show, Encore. Very well done show, I was impressed. There was a special appearance from a lady that skated around while hula hooping 20 hoops. Pretty amazing. I wonder if my brother got a picure of that????

Wednesday-
Bright and Early we port in Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Even though our snorkeling excursion was canceled, this was the best port by far. We took a cab to a beach, and did our own snorkeling. We saw quite a few tropical fish, it was just what I wanted. Snorkeling is one of my favorite things to do. I even got my mom to give it a try, it only lasted a few minutes but she did great for those few minutes. The weather turned rainy after a few hours, so after enjoying a tasty crab sandwich and beer on the beach we headed to downtown for some shopping.
Later that night, after an interesting dinner (Lamb has a very odd texture) , I watched the show "In the Air". This was a very cool show, alot of acrobats. Amazing.
I think around this time we were dodging, Hurricane Hannah. The top decks were closed for the night, as the winds were too high.

Thursday-
By morning, the weather was perfect. We sat around the pool all day. The belly flop competition was a nice entertainment piece. No, Trever did not enter he just wasn't feeling up to it. Later that night was our last formal dinner. It was very tasty Lobster. By this time Arun had a full on man crush on Trever aka The Captain. He also had begun singing "We are family" to us nightly. He was a funny man, when you could understand him. However, he did feed us well. There were several nights Trev and Paul ate 3 plates each. Another gambling night followed dinner, as I mentioned before I stayed even, Trever won, Paul and Mom lost. By this time Paul was convinced blackjack is fixed on boats, and had even researched it to back up his theory. But for some reason, he just kept playing.. and losing. That ended quickly, so Trever and I headed to one of the bars for a game of beyond balderdash. The 3 characters were hilarious. I laughed for one straight hour.
So without looking it up, what is Vagitus?

By this point in the trip, I'm sick to my stomach every time I think of my girls, so I am trying to just not think about them. I miss them more then words can describe. But I'm also enjoying one of the best trips of my life!

Friday-
Another full day around the pool. I got a minor sunburn, nothing to complain about it quickly turned into a tan. After our last dinner, we headed to the Farwell variey show. It was good, I wrapped up the week long experience well. Trever and I wondered around the boat for another hour or so, then we were off to bed.

Saturday-
So bitter sweet. This cruise was an amazing experience. But I was so excited to get home, I missed my girls and dogs desperately. We were off the boat by 8am, and to the airport by 9 am. Our flight did not leave until 3pm, and the airline did not show up until after noon to take our luggage. So we sat, and sat, and sat, and sat at the airport for 6 hours!!! Followed by a 5 hour flight to Denver, and another hour flight into SLC. We arrived at 7:30pm. And we missed the first home Utah game! At least they won! One very long day of traveling. I couldn't understand why Trever was not running red lights on the way home from my moms, I needed to see the girls right then. After we had our reunion with the girls, and every settled I had my first bitter-sweet moment. My experience was over and I had spent the last days wanting nothing more then to get home. Again, this was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful I got the opportunity to go. Thanks mom!! Even though we were all a little on edge by the end, it was a awesome experience and Im happy I got to spend it with my family.

I started the book, Breaking Dawn on the first day of the trip. I finished all 700+ pages throughout the trip. Good book, but it could have been condensed down to about 500 pages and still gotten the story told effectively. Well, maybe not, I guess that is why I'm not a writer.

While I was gone Maddy started Preschool and Dance. She loves them both. She goes to "pretend" preschool every day that is not a real preschool day, and we officially got the shuffle ball chang down. I think she likes the noise the tap shoes make more then the actual dancing :)
Kennedy is not rolling over yet, but she is so close. It will happen at any moment. I started her on cereal, she likes it. We will start some bananas and other fruits soon. She can pull her self up to a sitting position. She has always been a strong little girl. Still not sitting all that well once she gets herself sitting though.

Things are going to get crazy in the next few weeks. Saturday I have a fund raiser for my mom at the union hall, Tuesday another at Oyster bar, Friday at the Hunter game they are doing the official naming of the Hunter High football stadium after my father, Ute games. So life is going to be crazy for a little while. Ill try and keep updated.
See photos of the trip at Flickr, link is on the left side. Also see my brothers Flickr, he has some different pictures posted.

Wow, I just wrote a novel. I'm impressed with anybody who read the whole post

BASEMENT COMPLETE

Even as I type these words, I cant believe the basement is finally done. It seems like a lifetime ago, we started it. We had our first party on Saturday using the new found space in our house for my birthday, it held alot of people very comfortably. There was room for the poker table, people playing foos ball, people chillin on the couches, and those who choose to stand and chat in the kitchen area, and everybody had own personal space. It was a very trying 9 months (specially with me being pregnant for 6 of those months), but I'm so happy we kept going forward and got it done! We had been swimming the day I took the pictures and didn't realize until after there were water spots on the lens. Ill post a better picture later.

VOTE KAREN MAYNE

Another step along the campaign trail, we were in the Kearns parade on Saturday. I have been going to this parade for as long as I can remember my grandmother use to live on 5400 s, so as a little kid I can remember getting to her house because we always had a prime seat for the parade. My aunt Shauna drove my mother in her 1980 Corvette. While Paul and I walked along side throwing candy, my in laws Tyler and Sara passed out literature along the way. My mother has so much support in this community, the whole way through the parade there was non stop yelling “Go Karen” “We love you Karen”, and even all the kids she has taught at South Kearns Elementary through the years yelling in excitement. My brave sister in law Jana, had all the kids watching the parade. I let Maddy get on my shoulders and throw some candy; she thought that was pretty cool. We then went to the Fire, Water and Ice at the Kearns Recreation center with my neighbors. Swimming was fun, but there were so many people. But Trever got to join us for swimming, so that was nice to get to spend some time with him before he was back to work. Later that night, I was invited to play poker. I took first, that’s always a nice ending to a long eventful day J

Lagoon!

This past weekend we took our second trip to Lagoon of the season. The first time was in June, we went with my brother and his family. Saturday, we traded Kennedy for my neighbor Kylie who is 8. Of course Maddy was fearless, wanting to ride all the rides. She was pretty bummed she couldn’t ride the “big kid” rides, but she sure loved the ones she could ride. We rode Tidal Wave 4 times. The girls got their picture taken in Pioneer Village, I told Maddy to give a “mad” look. Im think we need to get her into acting, what a look J. Ice cream followed the pictures, and then it was back to the rides. It was a hot 102 degrees, but I think it actually kept people home as the lines were pretty short. The kid rides had no lines, I walked right on the roller coaster, and we only waited about 15 minutes for Rattlesnake rapids. All in all, it was a very fun day.

Trever’s Grandpa Jennings died last week, so we headed down to Price on Tuesday for the funeral. It was a very nice memorial. We left at 5am to get down there in time, what a long day. But I was glad we made it down there for his grandma.

ELMO DAYS!

This past weekend we headed down to Carbon County for the annual Elmo Days in the city of Elmo, where Trever’s mother and step father live. We started out at the wave pool in Price. Very fun place, the waves get pretty high. I got my butt kicked a few times by the large waves. Maddy’s tube got flipped several times, she would do back flips. Most little girls would cry and not want to be in the pool, not Maddy. She loved it. She would get out and rest in between the waves, as soon as they were back on she was running back into the pool. Kennedy enjoyed chilling in the water until the waves started, she was just too little and the waves would go right over her, so she had to get out of the pool during the waves. Saturday kicked off with the town breakfast at the park. It’s not the best, but it’s free and edible. It is followed by the parade, which anybody can be in. My nephew walked the parade dressed up as Darth Vader, turned out to be a bad idea. Even though the parade is at 10 am, he ended up with heat stroke from wearing all that black. This is the strangest parade, and never ceases to amaze me. Several years ago somebody was throwing pocket knives, we have been thrown free oil changes, backpacks and this year somebody threw licorice right on to the road. Strange. Maddy got thrown a cheer leader doll, and when the stomach is pressed its sings “We’re number one, cant be number 2 because we are going to beat the whoopee out of you, whoopee out of you”. We have all been singing this annoying song for days now. After the parade, we had a family duel. Our family won free dinner. Then there are games in the park for the kids, it was my in law’s turn to run the games this year so I ran the game where kids race to pick up as many marbles with their feet in a pool of ice as they can in one minute. This is a very strange town, but Elmo days always ends up being very fun. The kids really enjoy it. Most all of Trever’s family including step family come down, and everybody puts up tents in the yard. This year his mother had 9 tents in her yard. Minus the bug bites, heat exhaustion and driving 250 miles it was a fun weekend.

Camping!

Last summer our trucks engine blew up, and the trailer we had was not really what we wanted. So we sold the truck and trailer. With the baby being born this year, and having no truck or trailer we really didn’t think we would make it camping this year. We did purchase a new truck a couple weeks ago, but still not trailer. However with the generosity of my sister(Deana) and brother(Jay) in law (they just purchased a 40 foot trailer, that has a “garage” in the back of it, that worked out just perfect for my family) we were able to make it out this year. We went to Morgan and camped along the golf course and river, since we were in a golf tournament on Saturday. Im horrible at golf, luckily it’s a scramble and best ball! The girls and I went up Thursday night, and Trever joined us Friday morning with Jeff and Renee Miller some friends of ours. Maddy got to have sleepovers with her cousin Kaycee on the top bunk which she thought was pretty cool. This was Kennedy’s first camping trip, other then only sleeping about 8 hours a night she did great! Saturday night Trever and I and some other friends went tubing down the Weber River. I think I am going to take this on as a new hobby, it so much fun and what a rush when you make it through some rapids, or falls. Last year at this same camping location, I got some really odd bug bites. After two doctor trips and one pharmacist I am still unsure what kind of bugs I was bitten by. I have to believe it was chiggers, but they are not too common in Utah and well the thought alone makes me itchy. This year I only got a few of the weird bites, but Maddy ended up with more then her fair share. Poor girl looks like she has the chicken poxes. She is doing a great job at not itching them, and doesn’t even flinch when I clean them out with peroxide. Hoping to make it camping again this season, but not so sure that will happen. So Im very grateful we made it out this weekend.

My mother was in Alaska over the weekend, and I could have gone with her. But I didn’t want to leave Kennedy for over a week twice in the first 4 months of her life, so I opted to not go. So it was nice to get to do something fun with the girls.

4th of July!

This year was no expectation, another successful firework party! Jeff and the other guys did a wonderful firework show. It was cut back to about 45 minutes this year, with only a few illegal fireworks, it worked out great. The kids all enjoyed themselves. We had a swimming pool for the kids, lots of water toys, they all had a blast. I bought 100 hamburgers and 36 hot dogs, with only about 10 hamburgers left over we had just the right about of food. No cops this year, which was a goal of mine! Spending the day with all my family, and friends it was a great day! Happy birthday America!

Kennedy turns 2 months old!

Today we had Kennedy's 2 month check up. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 4 oz and 23 inches long. Doc says she is doing great, and has remarkable neck control. I was convinced she would be way over weight since all she does is eat. It seems like I'm feeding her nonstop. But her weight is right where it should be. He was a little taken back when I mentioned she goes extremly pale when she sleeps. But said to just keep a watchful eye, so that is what I will do.
I took Maddy bowling last night, she had a blast and it got me out of the house. Trever is on 10 straight grave yard shifts, so we are not getting much time with him. What little time we did have together today we painted closet doors. But hey it was bonding time :) Cant wait until this basement is complete.