Activities

So the winter has forced me to get a little more creative with our activities, which is never a bad thing. Here's some of the things Tyler has really enjoyed.

Alphabet and Number fishing. I bought the numbers/letters at an education store for pretty cheap. They're not very sturdy so Bryn can't play with them, but I just stuck a paper clip on each one, we made a little fishing rod with magnets and he loves it. Helped him learn too.

A hopscotch game made with masking tape. He's got all his letters down, but still struggles identifying his numbers so this was to help with that.

You can never go wrong making music. Bryn caught the hang of it pretty quickly.

I pull his mattress off his bed and put it in the hallway. They love running up and down the hallway and jumping on it. When we get really crazy we get Bryn's mattress out too.

Another alphabet game. I started making this with the idea of a bingo game in my mind. But then I had Kenny remind me how you actually play bingo, and it wasn't working with what I wanted. So we improvised. Now it's just like a matching game, where he puts the blue squares on the poster board. He's holding up his favorite letter (I love this egocentric stage).

Painting has become even more fun since Kenny brought home this huge papers from his work. Now I don't have to tape a lot of normal sized ones together. Things have been less stressful for me since I finally wised up and made this old shirt of Kenny's his official "painting shirt". What little kid doesn't love to get really messy painting?

What are some things you do at your house to stay busy and happy?

What I Loved About Yesterday

Her sweet smile

His giggling while eating his favorite lunch, a grilled cheese sandwich.

The way these two maul their daddy every night when he comes home. And he loves it, too.

And the beautiful poetry I find when reading the words of the hymns. Especially this one:

"The wintry day, descending to its close,

Invites all wearied nature to repose,

And shades of night are falling dense and fast,

Like sable curtains closing o'er the past.

Pale through the gloom the newly fallen snow

Wraps in a shroud the silent earth below

As tho 'twere mercy's hand had spread the pall,

A symbol of forgiveness unto all."

Hymn No. 37 The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close

What gets you moving?

Attention all: Kenny and I have a race coming up and we are looking for some good songs to run to. Any suggestions? Here's some from my running playlist (so you can give me new songs):

Fireflies - Owl City
Halfway Gone - Lifehouse
Move Along - All American Rejects
Only One - Yellowcard
Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard (yes, it takes me back to high school :) )
The last song on the Glee soundtrack
Single Ladies - Beyonce
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson

And some more Kelly Clarkson, a few Avril Lavigne...I really need some new stuff. I don't listen to the radio much anymore so I'm clueless as to what's out there. That's why I need your help. Please?!

Wishing

Today I am wishing 2 things.

1. That we had TV. Just for a few weeks so I could watch the olympics. Even just to have it on in the background, not necessarily watch every single event. I just love the olympics.

2. That when I looked out my back window I would see this:

Hurry up, Spring.

(I love seeing Bryn's old baby clothes and blankets. Those long little sleepers were so cute!)

Funny Things

Tyler had eaten a warm chocolate chip cookie and had chocolate all over his hands. I told him to go wash them. A minute later he came over to me and I said, did you wash your hands? He said, "Yep, on my tongue!"

Ty is fascinated with grapes, but he refuses to try one. So he got one out of the fridge and brought it over for me to eat. He brings it over and says, "Do you like grapes? Try it, try it, and you may. Try it and you may I say!" hahaha. That's from Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham for those of you who are confused. He should take his own advice.

Tyler: Ooh mom, those (referring to my earrings) are pretty, can I touch them?
Me: Sure Ty, but be careful.
Tyler: OH NO MOM! HURRY AND TAKE THEM OUT! THEY'RE MAKING HOLES IN YOUR EARS!
Me: Tyler, it's okay. Calm down. Yes I do have holes in my ears, a lot of girls do so they can wear earrings.
Tyler: You have holes in your ears? Is it ouchies?
Me: No it's okay, it doesn't hurt.
He still just couldn't believe it. I guess it does sound like a very strange thing to do.

Brynlee is walking all over the place--improving by the day, and even hour it seems. (that's not really funny, just a current fact about Bryn) The only words she says (besides mama and dada) is "uh-oh" and "wow!" She loves to throw her food off her tray and say "uh-oh" like it was an accident. I taught her about her belly button and now she is lifting up her shirt all the time to find it. It is so cute!!

Quite The Gaggle

It's been a good week. Except for my migraine that hit Tuesday night, everything went well. It even started to warm up this weekend! On Thursday it got up to like 35 (maybe) and we went for a walk we were so excited! Friday it got even a few degrees warmer, so we went for a run! We hear and see ducks flying in V formations over our house all the time. We finally found their hang out spot! They're all on this one part of the lake. We ran to other parts of the lake and they weren't there. They must like this spot I guess. Anyway it was so neat I ran home, got the camera, and ran back just to take a picture of them.

Dozens and dozens of geese, and some ducks. Tyler loved it! Friday night I also had piano again, and straight from there I went with some friends to go see "When in Rome". I loved it, it was a super cute show, and pretty clean too! Of course it's predictable, all chic flicks are, but I still liked it.

Saturday morning Kenny went to the temple with the Elders Quorum Presidency. It wasn't supposed to just be him and them, but nobody else showed up. Saturday was the best weather of all, it got up to 47 degrees!! I had Kenny drive me out 4 miles and then I ran home. I love running outside; just me, my music, country roads and open fields. It was wonderful. Then Kenny had to show me up and ran a 10K loop, and now he has a huge blister on his foot :(. Time for new shoes I guess.

I went to the grocery store with just Tyler which was different. That little boy is so much fun to be with. We stopped at the flea market on the way home because I hadn't been in months. I found a quilt rack for 15 bucks! I love it. I also got my material in the mail for the spring table runner I'm going to make. It's even cuter in real life (as opposed to online) and I can't wait to get started.

Last night we had the Porter's over to watch a movie while our kids played. We had fruit pizza and pina coladas and it was delicious! We love having them over, but probably won't try watching a movie with kids anymore. It doesn't work.

I got a new calling as secretary in Relief Society and I'm very excited about it. I know I will learn so much from these women. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute something as well.

It's a cold, rainy Sunday and I'm glad we can stay warm and cozy inside the rest of the day.

While we were gone... edited

Here's some fun pics of our kids at Grandpa and Grandma Andersen's house while we were gone!

I absolutely love this one of my dad making silly faces with his grandkids :).

Leighton, Brynlee, Eva, Tyler

Brynlee also mastered going up AND DOWN stairs!! They have a big flight of stairs, and we don't have any (except 3 tile stairs that we rarely use). So I was worried about her because when we got there, going up the stairs was her favorite thing to do. But now she can handle them without a worry.

Thanks mom and dad for watching them all week! We sure owe you guys!

p.s. I forgot to mention in the cruise posts how Kenny and I got asked if we were on our honeymoon multiple times! I didn't want to tell them we already have 2 kids. :) People think we must have had them in high school!

**Edited: I mentioned that people thought we were on our honeymoon more as an embarrassment to us, not because we were "so in love and gushy all over each other". We weren't like that. We are just really young, and we look really really young. That's the only reason I brought that up haha. I just wonder how many more years until people think I look old enough to be a mom, or think I AM old enough to be a mother. How many children will I have by then?

CRUISE day 5

ATTENTION: I have put up a ton of pictures and details about this cruise. Don't feel like you have to care and read it all. I do it for my own personal/family record.

Another day of not getting off the ship. By now I was getting pretty anxious to see my babies. It's so hard to go from knowing everything they are doing every second, of every day, to nothing. No contact at all. I wasn't worried about them, I knew they'd be fine; I just missed them and wasn't used to not knowing what was going on. It was a a day full of card playing, eating, shows, and fun!

Everyone at our table was pretty nice.

What's this? Oh yeah, another round of strawberry daiquiris!! These were way better than the first ones too.

Basically, we ate soft-serve ice cream like our lives depended on it. We each got a few cones a day probably. But Kennard and Bourne were the most intense. They would have daily competitions to see whose was the highest/prettiest, etc. Pretty gross huh.

We didn't get off the ship until Saturday a.m. around 8:30. We drove back to my parents' house and picked up our kids. Tyler and Bryn were both sick, but mostly Ty. I was so glad we hadn't called during the week because I wouldn't have been able to enjoy myself. I have never been so anxious to change diapers and get up at night with sick kids. I was just so glad to be back safe with them. It was a wonderful vacation!

Special thanks to Cami for letting me borrow a ton of your clothes for the cruise! It was much appreciated and needed. I especially loved your brown sandals, although I don't think you can see my feet when I am wearing them in any of these pictures. I'll send them back to you soon!

CRUISE day 4-- Cozumel and my birthday!!

This was definitely the best day of the whole cruise, and not just because it was my 23rd birthday!! We got off the boat around 8 and took a taxi into the shopping center of Cozumel. We bought some fun stuff. Then we took another taxi out to Paradise Beach. It had a ton of huge floating, inflatable things that we could play on (for a price, of course). A "rock-climbing" wall, a slide, trampolines, etc. That was SOO much fun. After a while, Steph and I went and laid out to soak up the sun, the boys kept playing. Another reason why it's good to go with another couple. Girls sometimes like to do different things than guys!





We all shared some chips w/ guac, and a plate of nachos. Steph and I got virgin strawberry daiquiris, for my birthday of course :)

That's Bourne showing off again :). He could go down the whole slide standing up

Do you see Kenny? He's got his arms stretched out in front, still above the water, in front of the slide.

Bourne and Kennard

We did a little more shopping in the port shops before getting back on the ship. No, we didn't buy these. Although I'm sure Kenny would have loved it :)

We got a little sunburned this day and I loved it. We are SO white!! We got back on the boat and showered again, then went and had some sushi and played cards. It was mine and Kenny's first time trying sushi. He likes everything, but I didn't like it. After that we went to dinner. A few of the waiters made a scene by singing happy birthday to me, and put a candle in my melting chocolate cake. Steph got sick during dinner so she left and ended up throwing up everything from the day. So they were done for the evening obviously. Kenny and I went to the juggling/comedy show they had. Then we had fun watching people gamble in the casino. We didn't do it, but I loved watching it haha. Not the slot machines, just the games like Russian roulettes and 21, and others I don't know the names of.

After that we went outside on the upper decks of the ship and enjoyed the beautiful stars, the waves and the warm night air. This was also a very special day because Kenny proposed to me 4 years ago on this day! I just loved being with him on this trip. I loved having all his attention, and no stresses of life, and no other obligations and responsibilities to attend to. Obviously you can't live your life like that, but sometimes it's nice to get away from everything and just enjoy each other. Everywhere we walked he'd hold my hand, or put his hand on my back, or around my waist. At home, we're each carrying a child, and diaper bags, and whatever else. So I really just tried to soak him up.

It was pretty much a perfect day.

CRUISE day 3--Mayan Ruins in Progresso

Okay beware there's lots of pictures and details here. We got up early, had breakfast, got off the boat and onto a bus. Our first excursion and I was so glad to get off the ship for a little while! It was a 2 hour bus ride out to Chichen Itza, which is where the Mayan ruins were (some of them anyway).









Our little souvenir. Kenny was such a sucker for all the Mexicans that were out there selling all their stuff. I was getting so frustrated at him because he would make eye contact and talk to all of them, and try to barter them down, even if he didn't want it. I just ignore them all, or say no thank you and leave. He would like bring them all to us! So now we have something to remember it by :)

Their beautiful pyramid. We weren't allowed to go on it or touch it. I guess they stopped that 7 years ago because people would take rocks and it was just getting more ruined. (haha, ruins getting ruined) but it sure was cool. I will spare you all the many many facts they told us about it. But everything about this pyramid is sympolic, and represents something about their time. Days, weeks, months, seasons, years, etc. are all represented in different steps, levels, sides, etc. They were pretty into their calendars.

If you've ever seen Emporer's New Groove, this is like that game they play. Our tour guide says he thinks they put the hoops up too high, and that they should be halfway up the wall. You're not allowed to use your hands in the game, you can hit the ball with everything but your hands.

Some of the players were sacrificed after each game (they don't know if it was the winners or the losers). They carved heads here on this huge wall to represent each person sacrificed.

The little thing in the middle at the top of the stairs is their kind of altar where they made offerings. They were all over.

The temple of the thousand warriors. The Toltecs came and invaded/conquered the Mayans. They were a very ferocious and violent people. It was a huge honor to be a Toltec warrior and each pillar represents one warrior/soldier.

The coolest part about all of the ruins is that they were all built by hand. They didn't have any burden animals (is that what they're called?) to help them pull loads of rocks or anything. They just carried each stone. They were heavy. But not too heavy for our husbands! They totally could've been Mayans :). (And they probably shouldn't have been moving the rocks...)

By the way the whole week we called Kenny, Kennard (said like Leonard) and we called Andrew, Bourne. (Like Jason Bourne) We got such a kick out of it!

Hooray for the Mayans and their cool ruins!!

We really wish we could have had more time there, it was so neat! But we were with a group so we got back on the bus to eat a gross brown-bagged lunch they gave us. I was so hungry though I didn't mind. We took the 2 hour bus ride back to the ship. We all brought books so we read and napped. We were so glad to finally see the sun this day! We put our swim suits on and headed up to the Lido deck where the buffet and pool are. Steph and I wore our robes because they were like giant towels, and it was still really windy, and somewhat chilly outside when you're in just a swim suit. Too bad our camera decided to stop flashing randomly.

Kenny and Andrew were the only ones brave enough to get into the cold pool. We all got in the hot tub though! Then we went on the huge water slide that they had on the ship. It was awesome, except for when we went down another one of them and decided to race. The boys raced, then the girls. Andrew pointed his feet and his toes went through the metal grate thing at the end. It looked so so painful and bloody. Good thing he's Bourne! That ended our swimming for the day.

Then we showered, played more cards, went to dinner, then went to the newlywed/marriage game show which was really funny. After that was the talent show, then a Mexican buffet that started at 11 p.m.!! Did I mention you are constantly eating on cruises? It was fabulous :)