MAYLIN2007

Cruise time began on the 21st. We sailed until the 29th. The first two days were spent at sea. The kids had a blast exploring the boat, playing with the friends they met and they met a bunch, swimming, water sliding etc. The favorite thing would have to be the unlimited supply of soft serve ice cream and the 24 hour pizzeria. I enjoyed the dress up nights. It was nice to get all fancy and see my family fancy too.   The first moments on the boat. San Diego is in the background.   Karaoke night! I even sang with Maylin. Our first night on the ship.   Deck fun! Maylin loved the pool! Austin loved the tanning! I loved reading on deck. McKenzie and I took a line dancing class. Fancy Night!   There was a Christmas performance! Alex met Santa and Santa's elf. Jason, our nephew, tried sushi. He liked it even. Jay and the kids all met Funship Freddie. The pictures of Austin/Jay throwing something was their attempt at the beanbag tournament. They got out the first round. Mayl...

The thing my family looked forward to the most on this trip was the beach. They love water, they get that from their dad. I am a little afraid of the whole water thing. Day 2 in San Diego was spent on the beaches. Yes, the water was cold, but they didn't care. First beach was all about body surfing, finding shells, burying each other and getting a tan. Second beach was about seeing the seals, looking in the tide pools, finding more shells and for the boys, watching the bikini model doing her shoot. I had pictures. I didn't take them mind you, but I deleted them from my camera. The boys were wearing out my camera battery looking at them. These pictures are at our first stop. I had Jay take a picture of me so I was in a least a few of them. I didn't want another trip...like our one to Texas...where I was in 1.5 pictures.         Here is a hat full of shells the kids found! They loved it. We also brought home some sand. Some collected in a bottle for keeps, some brou...

Haven't blogged in a while. It is because we were GONE for Christmas. We left the 18th and got back today. We had a great time. What did I like the best, you ask? The fact that my work-a-holic hubby couldn't use his phone! It rocked. Anyway, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We had a fantastic one. We spent 3 days in San Diego and then 8 days on a Mexican Riviera cruise. It was great. Here are some pictures of our time at Legoland. It was 77 degrees that day. We left 20 degree weather behind. Got to love it! The younger kids loved Legoland, the older ones thought it was so-so. Maylin liked it that there were so many things for her. We had to do a lot of prep work for this trip and still she was nervous and homesick for a few days, but once she got it she was a party girl!         Can't wait to catch up on all the blogs I follow! It will be great to see what you were all up to!

We just returned from an amazing Christmas program at my children's school. Michael Ballam sang along with the school's orchestra (they won best in state) and the school's chamber choir. It was wonderful! I have been so busy lately it was nice to sit and listen and feel the true spirit of Christmas. Maylin spends hours with our nativity. She knows it is the center of things, at least she is constantly moving the baby Jesus around or adding onlookers. I hope this Christmas season you are like one of the many onlookers in the below picture and you too are enjoying the birth of the Savior.  

For YW, we made time capsules out of #10 cans. The girls did a great job decorating them. Becky, my advisor found amazing stickers and decorations. On the inside they had letters of marriage advice from their grandparents and a special keepsake from them, a temple picture, a recommend holder, a list they made of qualities they wanted in their husbands, names of kids, wedding colors, honeymoon ideas and what temple they wanted to marry in. My advisor Lynn made each girl a bundle holder for their clothes. She even embroidered their names on it. They were great!!! We also had a gift certificate for a pair of temple slippers that they could mail back to one of us when they were engaged and we would by their temple slippers. It was a fun night. I just hope they learned something.    

That statement, "Austin is 17" sums it all up. Today, my baby boy turned the age that comes just one year before the age of independence. The age of being on his own. The age that depresses me. I don't want him to grow up so fast.   Pictures of Austin having his favorite dinner, banana splits (he doesn't like cake) and opening his presents. The little sign that says "Austin is 17" hangs on our porch. I made a dozen of them in differing colors and hung them all over the front of our house! Austin didn't want to spend much of his b-day with us. He was so worried about being with his girlfriend. He didn't want to eat out with us, we practically had to twist his arm. At dinner at the Olive Garden, he relaxed a bit, but kept checking the time so he could get back home to the girl. Makes me sad. I kept telling him all night, that I am the one that gave birth to him not her. I am the one that needed the time. I don't know if it was right to tell him or ...

This weekend we got to drive to Idaho to see my family. We always have a family Christmas party each December. There are 37 of us in the family. Depending on where we live, what is going on etc, a different group is there each year. This year we had 26 in attendance. We missed those who could not come. Usually my mom makes prime rib! YUM! This year we thought we would try something different and go Mexican. My brother works in our church with those from Mexico. He is good friends with a man from Acapulco who now teaches Spanish at a local high school. He came and catered our dinner! So delicious. We had rice water, a cactus salad, Mexican ribs, tamales, rice, beans, flan, a dessert taco etc. We also had our traditional fishy-fishy game. This is where my parents wear Santa hats and get behind their bar. Each grandchild or great-grand child gets to come up with a red Christmas pole and flip it over the bar and then they have to say "fishy-fishy". Then they get a gift on their p...

I follow several blogs. I am amazed at all the good moms out there that plan activities, crafts, cooking experiments, advent LEGO calendars and fantastic lunches made with shapes and other creative things. You all know who you are!!! It blows my mind. I feel brain dead in that area. Sometimes I feel sorry for Maylin that she doesn't get that kind of activity. She has a brain dead mom. So the other day the guilt got to me and I thought I would try an activity. So we made edible finger paint out of vanilla pudding and colored with food coloring. I took the opportunity to teach her how to mix the yellow and red to make orange and the blue and red to make purple. I know, what a stretch. We then painted with it, enjoying the finger licking the whole time! Here are some of our masterpieces. Thanks to all you moms who motivated me. I am going to try to set a goal to do this once a month.        

This Saturday was packed full of holiday fun. The day started at 6:15 a.m. when I had to get up to put in the Breakfast Morning Casserole and Cinnamon rolls in the oven. By 7 I was leaving my house to kidnap the girls I work with at church. The two other leaders, Becky and Lynn went out too. We met back at the house by 7:30 with 12 girls in tow. It was so funny watching them be surprised when we were waking them up so early. We called their parents in advance so they were in on it, but they all were so good to not spill the beans. Some girls were easier to wake than others. One girl, in particular, never woke up for the whole thing. I think she slept walked through it. The girls had fun and were good sports. We ate good food, played great games and read a great Christmas story. Later, Alex had a basketball game (at noon). He did incredible. His best game ever! Woot Woot!!! Then at 5, Austin and his date, plus his double date arrived at our house for dinner. After dinner they left and w...

So, my family wants a dog. Every single one of them, except me. I hate dogs. It is fine for other people to have them, but they better not come over by me and you know they do. Every dog has to come over and smell you and smell you somewhere specifically too. I hate that. I am not mean to dogs. I just tolerate them and if they touch me, I do not have a problem brushing them away....firmly. Enough about me. Maylin is the BIGGEST dog lover in the fam. She plays with stuffed dogs all the time. She baths them, feeds them, pushes them around in strollers and tucks them in. She does more for them than her dolls.She is in love with every dog she meets. While in Texas she loved my MIL dogs. She had two.They were pugs. One named Sugar Bear and the other Smudge. She spent more time with them than the humans. The whole family used this darling relationship between Maylin and the dogs to work me. "Come on mom. Maylin loves them." "Look how cute she is with a dog." "Maylin,...

We have been in Texas for Thanksgiving. We haven't been there for a few years due to Aus' health. It was fun to see everyone and Jay and his nephew enjoyed their time at home. The kids enjoyed the acres. They loved the pet quails, the motor bikes, the frogs, the pond and cousins. Alex loved his little pet frog...he is pictured on Alex's head. Austin learned to ride the motorcycle very quickly! He got it on his second try! Jay loved being on a bike again. Even though I knew he was an accident waiting to happen. There were only two pictures of me from the whole trip. The one below and the last one, that only shows the bottom half of my head. I guess that is what happens to moms. We had Thanksgiving in a cool barn. We had time with cool cousins and we ate lots of great pie. I got eaten alive, and continue to be so, by chiggers. I hate those things. Apparently they love me. I have covered them all with finger nail polish and washed them with bleach. I hear this helps kill them....