I Have not made good on my goal.....

The goal to update my blog every month that is. Wow, I cant believe how fast time is flying by and how busy I am. I thought once we moved into our house and got unpacked and settled things would slow down a bit but they have not so far. It has been a good busy though. We have had Caydens birthday, Ally's birthday and most recently my sweet husbands birthday! We have had 5th grade graduation and parties and awards and preschool parties and awards and violin recitals and baseball games and tournaments and trips to Ruidoso, Az and Albuquerque. Whew, makes me tired just repeating it all. It has been a great few months since we moved into our new HOME. We have enjoyed watching the owls that live in a tree just off our driveway, we may enjoy watching all the people who come to look at the owls even more, ha ha. We have LOVED LOVED LOVED having a pool. I am so glad my hubby was a "pool guy" when we got married and he knows how to take care of the pool and teach me what to do as well. Although, I much prefer watching him take care of it then doing it myself, what can I say I have a HOT husband. I have always loved swimming, from swimming on city teams as a  child to swimming in highschool to swimming in triathlons to swimming on the Masters team here (to prepare for triathlons), I have always loved it and was so excited to have one for our kids to enjoy all summer long. That being said, our little man Grady did not know how to swim. Every other house here does not have a pool like my home state Az did and the community pools here leave alot to be desired. They are nice and pretty new but whoever built it thought our city was about a quarter of the size it is, they are both tiny and ALWAYS crowded and not to mention PRICEY, so we haven't swam a whole lot since living here. So, I figured he needed to learn. I had all the confidence I could teach him but figured he would do better in a class setting and with his little friends so I sent the word out with his church friends and preschool friends and before I knew it I was booked solid (unless I wanted to spend my WHOLE day in the pool) which takes away the joys for my kids of having a pool. I was having to turn people away and I thought to myself, maybe I should have charged a little more, ha ha. So I am in the middle of Session 2 of lessons and LOVING it. Sure sometimes it is draining and exhausting and I get a headache when I have "criers" but it is worth it. I am teaching 18 kids right now and so many of them came to me with BIG fears of going under the water and HATED the first couple days of class and now are doing amazing and LOVE to swim, it is very rewarding. I have one child inparticular, whose name I won't mention, that has gone from totally freaking out when he had to put his face in the water to now telling me that one day he is going to be an "underwater swimmer" and jumping off the side by himself and having to remind him he has to tell me if he is going to swim out away from the steps. It is so great and Grady is also doing awesome. He still doesn't want to swim on his own out in the middle of the pool, although he can, he jumps off the side and gets to the step and he loves to swim around on the steps by himself and he floats really well too. I am really proud of him. I hope to have some pics of lessons soon and will post along with pics of birthdays and baseball and preschool and other fun things. I promise to post pics soon and infact was going to tonight but am too tired to walk downstairs and get my camera and come back up, pathetic I know :)

Finally some Cruise Pictures

I don't have that great of pictures, our camera was lost at the time so we used a disposable camera. My sis-in-law probably has some much better ones I will try and get. So....this is the tender boat that picked us up off our ship to take us to COCOCAY ISLAND, the tiny little beautiful island that Royal Carribean owns and we had all to ourselves (well and the other 3 thousand people on the cruiseship). There is alot of people on that tenderboat and it looks tiny, gives you an idea how huge our ship was. 

 On the ship, you can see COCOCAY back behind us. It was one mile by two miles and it was so peaceful and serene. Of all our stops this was by far EVERYONE'S Favorite and we wished we had 2 days there instead of one.

                                                  Love the wind making me look pregnant!

 At Cococay! It was seriously so Beautiful

 Soaking up some rays, and looking good while doing it :)

 On the tender boat

 Didn't turn out so well.

 Formal night, the only time we really got dressed and ready and out of our suits.

 Another picture of Cococay

no pictures yet :(

I am sorry, no pictures yet. I have some befores on my camera and just need to upload them to the computer (I will jump right on that in all my spare time :)) and the after pictures are still a work in progress. Waiting for tile guys to finish (hopefully this week) so we can clean and move over. The house is not even close to being "done" and don't know if it ever will be but we did get most of the major things checked off the list. I am  not going to lie it has been a really hard 3 1/2 weeks. There is not one aspect of my life that has anything resembling "normal" in it. The house I live in is half packed, half furniture gone, a total disaster because it is hard to clean and put things "where they go" when they will not go there anymore very soon. The house I am moving into is a mess too. Family room full of stuff we have moved over and not yet put where it needs to be, projects half finished, fast food for dinner and late nights and the real kicker for me is I don't work out anymore. If you know me at all, that is a big deal, working out is my stress relief, my "thing", and it has been killing me to not go but I just can only do so much. The first two weeks we owned the house I spent all day over there working and then Travis would meet up with me over there after work and we would work late. This was so hard on my body, not so much at the time but I am paying now. Unfortunately, my body limits me and what I can do. I hate it and get so angry and frustrated and question but when all the dust settles and I am able to think clearly I have to remind myself that I have an auto-immune disease and in times of stress whether emotional or physical that kicks into high gear and my body turns on itself and I crash and I crash hard. It can be very frustrating to have something hold you back from doing all that you want to do but I do know that I need to listen to my body when it tells me to stop and slow down, something I am not very good at. Too bad I dont' have the luxury to just stop and relax, I HAVE to finish packing and I HAVE to move and I HAVE to feed my family, I HAVE to wash our clothes, I HAVE to take kids to violin and baseball practices and all these things I HAVE to do so I am trying to convince my body to hang on, don't totally crash yet, I need a few more weeks and then I can crash :) It is hard because I feel I have almost wasted the last eight months of hard work on getting myself healhty and doing everything the doctor asks just to have a major setback with all this craziness.It has not only been stressful for me and tiring but Travis has been SO SUPER busy with work that that by itself would have been stressful enough for any man then throw all this house stuff on top and he has been one big ball of stress and anxiety too. I feel so bad for him and wish that I could take on some of his stress for him. He is such a good man though and has been so good to get done what needs to be done and still provide for his family and make me laugh along the way. I love him so very much and am so excited to continue our journey through life together in our new home, if we could ever get there, ha ha!

Cruising, Funeral and Moving

Well this month has been crazy busy. Travis's sweet Grandma Rowley passed away about 3 weeks ago. She was the most AMAZING woman I know. I hope I can be like her when I grow up!

We also went on a cruise to the Bahamas stopping in Key West Florida and a privately owned island called Cococay! This was a work trip, meaning Travis had to sell X amount of cabinets in 2010 to earn this trip. He of course being the amazing man he is sold that plus some. I will do an entire post on the cruise once I get our pictures for it.

Lastly, and what this post is really about is that we are moving AGAIN! I feel like I just did this, oh wait I did, about a year ago.  We have been renting this last year not sure what our future plans were going to be. We were pretty sure they involved moving back "home" or to our home state. Turns out that is not part of the plan for us, at least not right now. Last October we walked through an open house for a home in a neighborhood we LOVE. Just downt the street from where we are renting. It was an amazing home with alot of potential. It is outdated in alot of ways, but nothing we cant fix. Most importantly it has everything we need/want. 5 bedrooms, beautiful brick home, with a POOL! Yes, finally my wish is coming true! We couldn't be happier except that this means we are NOT moving home, at least not now, and that does make us sad. We feel this is the right decision for our family and we do like it here alot its just not the same as living by your family but our little family is strong and relies on eachother and I love that. There is so much work we are doing at the "new house" that include new master bath, including making an entire new shower (the one there now is tiny), new master closet and my own whole little section with vaniy and cupboards and drawers, LOTS and LOTS of paint, flooring, drywall changing the entryway, a pool fence and lots more. So, needless to say there will be many pictures to come of before, during and afters.

Our Grady Boy!

Grady had his 4th birthday the beginning of the month and celebrated at Disneyland and then with a few friends decorating cookies. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell some of my favorite things about him at this stage of his life.

* I love that the first thing he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning is "snuggle" with his mommy.

* I love that he LOVES preschool and is learning so much

* I love the intensity in his eyes and face when he wrestles with Daisy

* I love when he asks for "wilt-meal" for breakfast (aka oatmeal)

* I love that he knows he is funny and loves to make us all laugh

* I love that he wants to know what letters are what and what words start/end with

* I love that when I have left for even an hour when I get home he runs to me and says "mommy" like I haven't seen him all day.

* I love that he always wants his daddy to "wrestle" him on the bed

* I love that he calls his favorite stuffed animal "Kefferson George" instead of Curious George, even though by now he probably actually knows the correct name.

*I love that he calls his blankets nee-nee's  and has to have all 3 of them when he goes to bed. ( I eventually made him a bigger blanket since his nee-nee's are recieving blankets and that was is now affectionately known as "big blanket", so he does know that his nee-nee's are blankets, ha ha)

* I love that when he thinks no-one is listening he will sit and talk to Daisy and say the cutest things like " Daisy, I love you so so much, you are my best friend, I love you so much, come snuggle with me"

* I love to watch him do the dancing game on the Wii, he is actually pretty stinkin good!

I could go on and on, this kid is so funny and I can't imagine my life without him and I do NOT want him to grow up. As I was cooking dinner tonight he wanted to help SO bad, I had had a LONG day and asked him to go play in the other room while I cooked. He came in a few minutes later and in the sweetest little voice said "Mom, could I give you a hand now?" What  4 year old says that? We all love you Grady boy and you fill our lives with such joy!

Legoland

This year for Christmas (2010) we surprised the kids with a trip to California to go to Legoland, Disneyland and California Adventure. We flew out of El Paso Wed. night (Jan. 5th) and arrived in San Diego about 8pm after transferring planes in Phx. Everything went smoothly until we realized as we are getting our baggage that one of our LARGE suitcases was missing. It had both Travis and Grady's clothes and things in it. We filled out a report and they assured us they would find it within 24 hours, which Travis was not sure he believed, and send it to our hotel.  We went on to the hotel and went to sleep to be ready for Legoland the following day. Travis got up early and went to Target and got him and Grady some "essentials". Legoland was great! It was not crowded at all and it was so amazing to see the incredible things made out of legos and there was a couple fun rides as well. Perfect for Grady's age kids and I think Cayden and Ally both had a great time. The park closed at 5pm and we were ready to go by then, great time but definately one day is enough. Here are some pics from our day there. Grady on his favorite ride there "the horsey ride" he went on in two times in a row while Travis took the older two on one he couldn't go on.

 Here is Grady at "driving school" it was so cute and funny to see all these 3-5 year olds out there driving cars by themselves. Grady did pretty dang good and earned his license, ha ha!

 Here we are on some ride that goes up and down and he thought it was fun to control that.

 All 3 kids on a giant slide, ha ha, this was funny! I thought for sure Grady was going to topple forward on his head and roll down but he managed just fine.

 Grady and Bob the Builder made out of Legos

 Ally and Grady with some pirate guy after a ride we went on.

 Darth Vader at the entrance to Legoland. I like that Ally is all snuggled up to him like he is a real person, and a nice one at that!

All in all we had a really good time at Legoland and about 3pm the airline called and said they "found" our luggage and we arranged to have it delivered to the hotel we had stayed at. Worked out pretty good, we left the park, went to Pei Wei's (one of our favorite places) and then swung by and picked up the suitcase and headed to Anaheim for our next adventure.

Disneyland and California Adventure-days 2&3!

So, day 2 and 3 we spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. We had so much fun despite the fact that Cayden had a HORRIBLE cough and caught an eye infection while we were there and Ally had a bad sore throat. We managed well with medicine and had a great time anyway. We also celebrated Grady's 4th birthday on Friday Jan. 7th at Disneyland. It was fun because they gave him a Happy Birthday Button that he wore all day and so all the workers at the rides would wish him a Happy Birthday as we got on the rides. Disneyland was crowded but not as bad as we had expected. Using the "fast-passes" we were able to manage our time pretty well and I think the longest we waited in line was like 40 minutes and that was for the Toy Story Mania ride at California Adventure. Here are some pics of our fun! Grady walking down into the submarine for the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride,

 What would Disneyland be without seeing some of your favorite Characters. Grady was SO happy and excited to see Buzz, he is so obsessed with him and Woody right now. He was so funny, he said "I didn't know he was real" after he got to get up close and see him.

 It is hard to see but Grady is on stage fighting Darth Vader. They asked for volunteers to come up and get some jedi training. Grady surprised us all and raised his hand and was selected. After they get trained Darth Vader and Darth Mal show up and the new "jedi's" have to use their new skills to fight them. It was so stinkin cute!

 In this picture he is ducking as Darth Vader takes a swing at him. He of course wanted to buy his own "light saver" as he calls it after this.

 The 3 kids in Goofy's house in Toontown. This was especially cool for Grady to see where all the characters live.

 On the front steps to Mickey's House

    Meeting Mickey Mouse is always something special for anyone!

                                     Travis and Ally on the Jungle Cruise

                                                      The Treehouse!

                                    We got in line to see Woody and were told he was leaving in 5 minutes from the look of the line there was no way we would get to see him so we hung out over to the side where we assumed he would have to walk when he left hoping Grady could wave to him. It was even better, Woody walked right up to him and gave him a hug! What else could a 3 year old boy ask for!!!!!

 Not long after Woody had gone out came Jessie and of course he wanted to say hello to her too. I thought this picture Travis captured was so cute. He is peeking his head around the corner to catch a glimpse of her before it is his turn. So cute.

 Good ole Lightning McQueen. Grady wondered how come he didn't talk.

 Sad, but this is the only picture of the 2 of us the whole time. Apparently we were preoccupied in making sure our kids were having a BLAST and they were so I guess we succeeded and one picture will have to do!

 In front of the "Its a small world" castle. They had not taken all their Christmas lights and decor down from this ride and it looked amazing at night and was fun to go through and see their holiday version!

 Ok, I thought this was just so cute I had to capture it. We were at the airport waiting for our flight home and Grady was sitting over by the window watching the airplanes and then he came back and asked for his Mickey and Minnie Mouse guys he had gotten at Disneyland. The next thing I know he is over by the window showing the airplanes to them and talking to them explaining things. It was so sweet!

I am so glad we decided to do this this year. It was PERFECT. The kids were all at great ages to enjoy the magic and the excitement that Disneyland has to offer. Grady was an inch too short for some of the height requirements but being smart we went shopping the night before to find him some boots with a little bit of a wedge in the heel. We looked everywhere. Here in New Mexico you can find boots in any store, not so much in California. We went to probably 4 or 5 different stores and it was like 9 pm at night after being at Legoland all day and driving to Anaheim after that. We finally found a pair of rain boots at Ross that had a litle bit of height on them. They were about 2 sizes too big but it didn't matter because I shoved a sock in the heel of each one to add even more height and his feet didn't even go all the way in the shoe. We usually would carry him until the point where they would check his height since he walked kind of funny in these big sock stuffed boots, but he made it with room to spare on every ride (except the 46" rides). He surprised Travis and I and LOVED every ride, and I mean every ride. His favorite was Space Mountain and he kept wanting to go back to it and he would always ask ahead of time if it was fast like Space Mountain. If it wasn't he would ask "why" and say they should all be like space mountain. He was cracking us up. He even loved Tower of Terror and would scream in delight as we "fell" down the elevator. He never wanted us to hold onto him or touch him, he was pretty big stuff!  So much fun and so Glad we did it and So glad to be home :)