Cruisin' The Caribbean

A month ago Matt and I were able to go on a 7 day cruise with my Dad's extended family. There were about 54 people in our group and no kids under 8 were allowed. (Grandma & Grandpa rules) It was an unbelievable trip, especially having no responsibility and being completely carefree for a week. Oh the joy in being able to enjoy a meal in peace, and have complete freedom to do whatever we wanted. I am a HUGE cruise advocate!!! The best trip ever. We owe Matt's parents big time for watching our kids for the full week. I think the kids had just as much fun as we did being spoiled by Grandma & Grandpa! Anyhow, here's some pics from the vacation- Can't wait for the next one!!!



Married girls cousins

First formal night

Matt & Brooke with Nathan & Janelle

Chris Anderson Family

Room Service Party...17 plates of food ordered & eaten at 1 in the morning thanks to Nathan!!

Trunk Bay on St. Johns Island- Amazing!

Do you think he's ready for potty training???

I bought Carson a little toilet a few months ago hoping that it would somehow be so enticing that he couldn't resist the desire to become potty trained. Unfortunately that hasn't quite happened, instead, it's become a great stool for washing hands.
There's been few more signs that maybe he's getting closer to being ready, but the best was last week when Carson decided he would change Brynlee's diaper all by himself. He didn't even ask just ran to get a diaper and wipes and started the job as soon as I laid her on the floor after her feeding. It was the funniest thing ever. Notice Carson's frustration when Brynlee started turning over mid change... I had to laugh, but he didn't appreciate that either...and the final product speaks for itself:)

A week of unwinding

The kids are both down for a nap, so I'm singing Hallelujah and thought I'd send a quick little update on life. The last couple of days we've been playing catch up around the house because the 2 weeks before that Matt's sister Keri was in town with her 3 kids. We had soooo much fun with them, but I did have to take 2 naps, which is really really rare for me....i'm not a napper at all, but I was exhausted from all we did! Here are some highlights. First, Karen took the girls to see Wicked in L.A for our birthdays, and it was the BEST show ever. We had killer seats, and i've since downloaded the soundtrack and have been listening to it non-stop, and having dance parties with Carson. I'm already trying to figure out a way to go back with Matt. We also discovered the best open gymnastics gym at the YMCA for the kids to have free play on. It had all the real gymnastics equipment and then some. It fulfilled my ongoing dreams of being a gymnast- I played just as much as Carson. We also went swimming a couple times, barbequed, to the beach, the del mar fair, sea world, and Carson went to disneyland. We're always scheming on how we can get Keri to move back down here, cause it's always so fun when she's here and Carson LOVES his cousins. Matt's sister Alli also came down for the weekend and went to the beach with us. We don't see her enough, so it was tons of fun having her here too. Carson loved her, and has since been calling her on his "cell phone." Scary that a 2 year old is totally into his phone!

He's a few pictures from our adventures: (just kidding they posted at the top of the message) Still figuring out how things work in the world of blogging:)

Learning to Blog

Carson LOVES dad's socks!

I don't know what I'm doing, but apparently blogging is in, so I'm attempting to create one for our family. I feel both old and embarrassed to admit that I could probably hire a 2nd grader that would be much more efficient in posting a blog, so you'll have to bare with me.

We'll just keep it simple to start, because quite honestly I don't know who's going to read it anyway :) But it's a great way to document life since i've repeatedly failed at journal writing.

Here's some quick family updates:

Matt is starting work at a new company on Monday- exciting and a little scary.

Carson is almost 2 1/2 and the best big brother around. He has unlimited hugs and kisses for his sister and for anyone else that will play with him. He's a great helper and the latest favorite is cleaning dishes. Not sure filling up cups with water, scrubbing them, then dumping and repeating 100 times completely qualifies, but i've learned i can get quite a bit done if i turn the water on to a slight drip- he'd stand there for hours. It also works with brushing his teeth, you've never met a kid with cleaner teeth.

Brynlee is HUGE now. she's 4 1/2 months and just getting more and more fun. She's so smiley and laughs if you're lucky. One of the best sounds in the entire world. I love having my little girl!!! We actually went on a shopping outing all day today to the nordstroms sale- I'm training her early.

Hopefully I will be able to attach a couple recent photos of the kids....