Mé-hee-ko... Parte Uno

The drawback to waiting too long to blog about something is that you never can quite remember all the great details! I actually started writing down things on some paper in our hotel room to help me remember things that I wanted to blog about but I accidentally left it in the room! Thank goodness I took pictures of just about everything so it helps to jog my memory! Oh well. You'll get the highlights and the highlights are pretty good!

I created this collage of random pictures that I'm going to describe from left to right. You can click on it to enlarge it if it is too small.

1. This is a picture of the bed in the room (no adult comments please!). I took pictures of every room in our ::ahem:: Jr. Suite because it was so beautiful! Unfortunately for you the reader, the pictures don't do it justice! So I only added this picture because it was the colors were so beautiful. Though I have to say, the bed wasn't really that comfortable.
2. This was the view from our balcony! The resort had a couple of really big swimming pools and this was the wave pool (in case you didn't like the real waves from the ocean that was less than 100 yards away). Geoff and I actually went and checked it out and it was pretty fun. The one thing I didn't like about it was that every hour from 10 AM to like 6 PM they would sound this REALLY loud siren to let you know that the waves were starting up! This wouldn't be too terribly annoying unless you were say... taking a nap mid-afternoon! Woke me up everytime!
3. This is Geoff posing dorkishly on the boardwalk out to the beach. Cute, huh?
4. Next is a photo of one of the other pools.
5. This animal is a relative to the raccoon called a coati. Here you see Geoff trying to pet it. I thought it was going to jump up and gnaw his hand off at any moment so I had the camera ready for that one. Geoff must have thought similarly because he was pretty hesitant and kept jerking his hand back! These things were all over the boardwalk each morning. Following is a video of a man feeding them Fruit Loops. They totally swarm him! My favorite part is the wife! She totally cracked me up!
6. More coatis
7. The next photo is of the inside of the central bar area. You really can't get a feel for the magnitude of this place by looking at this picture, but it was huge! I guess I should of put photo #8 first. This is the inside of the building that is in photo #8. Ginormous!
8. This is what you see when you pull up to the resort. The Entrance!
9. Here we are just kickin' it by the beach. Of course, slathered with sunscreen and sitting under a huge shade because I burn in like 5 minutes!! I didn't really want to ruin the rest of my vacation with a terrible sunburn so we stayed out of the sun as much as possible!!
10. Geoff kickin' it. He's pretty cute.
11. Our feet. Don't ask. I just thought it was fun. Maybe it wasn't.
12. The next photo is what we saw when we came out of our room: a beautifully manicured garden.
13. The first two days of housekeeping did not produce lovely towel sculptures which I was really bummed about because I had read so many reviews that talked about them. But on the third day we came back to our room and found this really beautiful swan with real rose petals scattered about. Once again the photo doesn't really do it justice. Take my word for it - it was lovely!
14. Where we stayed everything was included in your trip; ie. food, drinks, sun... Even though we don't drink we would order virgin frozen drinks. I'm sure the bartenders were pretty annoyed because we would order one or two drinks and they couldn't get us drunk so that we could order more!! (Therefore, leaving them a big tip!) The bartender took this picture of us as we waited for the shuttle to come and take us to the airport. We were leaving... we didn't care.
15. This snake head is connected to the huge, ginormous pillar in photo #7. Pretty crazy.
16. What a novel idea to put a single hammock seat on your balcony! I thought it was great for about the first 15 seconds that I sat in it. After that my legs were falling asleep and I was developing a huge indention along the back of my legs... Needless to say, not very comfortable. It would have been way better if I could have laid back in it!

Speaking of the hammock. We were in our room for just about 10 minutes and I was taking video of myself in the hammock when I was rudely interrupted by Geoff banging on the sliding glass door yelling that someone was at our door (it was the bellboy with our luggage)! You see he was using the bathroom and I couldn't hear the knocking so he had to come get me... not a pretty sight. This is the video that I was taking: (Notice the VERY end of the video. He scared me to death!)

I didn't add this picture to the collage because it cut off the top and bottom and I wanted you to see the whole thing. This walkway between the buildings was huge! So beautiful.

Below I have included a picture of something that had us boggled for a minute. I thought maybe it would be fun to find out all of your ideas on what it is! I did something like this in a previous post and didn't get a lot of response. This time I want you all to get out your thinking caps!! I'll think of something really cool to give you if you get it right!

The Natives are Restless

For those of you who are bugging the crap out of me patiently waiting for the Mexico recount - IT'S COMING! We got home on Thursday night and left to go to my dad's on Friday morning to pick-up my babies. We didn't get home until Sunday night late and it has been crazy ever since!! Laundry, Pioneer Woman, Dishes, Pioneer Woman, mopping, Pioneer Woman... I've been a busy girl! (More on this later.) Plus, I'm teaching a class tonight for my church's women's group (Enrichment Meeting) and was up till 3 AM fine tuning all of the material that I've been collecting for the last month. I PROMISE - I will get around to posting the most beautiful pictures you've ever seen and make you all really jealous!

Until then, I thought you might enjoy these photos:

Ainsley was playing with our dress-up clothes. Her two front teeth are still coming in so it kind of looks like 'pirate' teeth!

If you are really biting your nails wanting more go read some of my older posts many of which will bring you great joy!!

Adios!

By the time that most of you read this I will be on my happy way to Mexico with my sweet Geoff. I've had a little anxiety leaving my kiddos and my house is a wreck but I am determined to have fun! Hasta la vista!

Let's See...

Have I done laundry today? No.

Have I packed for Mexico? No. Why? Refer above.

Have I packed my kids' clothes?No. Once again, refer above.

Have I cleaned my house so I don't come home and feel overwhelmed? No.

At the time of this post I have 1 day, 18 hours, 42 minutes and 56 seconds until I board the plane.

Instead of doing all of the above I was doing this today:

I'm obsessed. I've decided that I need help. Do they have Scrapbookers Anonymous? I'm in so much trouble when Geoff gets home!

Fun on the Trampoline!

So much fun spending time with the kids on the trampoline!!! Everybody's hairs were standing straight up!

Stephen Fite Concert

A few weeks ago Asher's class went on a field trip to a Stephen Fite Concert in Ardmore, OK. Basically he sings a lot of songs that are suppose to be educational. I had never heard of the guy but obviously he's pretty popular because there wasn't an empty seat in that auditorium! Asher really liked it.

I've been playing around some with digital scrapbooking this is my first 'real' layout: It's kind of exciting and it was pretty easy!

Oh! Hold On! There's More...

I love this one because it shows how she can twist her tongue like her sister Ainsley!!

How Cute is She?!

 

I couldn't go to bed without at least posting this picture!! I love it! It captures exactly how she is! SO FUN!!

Belated Valentine's Day

I know that it's been 10 days since Valentine's Day but I wanted to post about it anyway - before I forget!

The night before the big day the girls helped me make these awesome treats for their class parties: Cookie Dough & Candy. They turned out so yummy! While we were making them the Young Women from the Church came and "Heart Attacked" us! For those who don't know what this is, the girls made a whole bunch of hearts out of paper and and wrote sweet notes on them for us and then taped them all over our front door! Technically, they like to do this on the sly so that we wouldn't know about it but Geoff was in the garage looking for something and he shouted at me that he thought someone had pulled into our driveway so I went to check it out and ran into a horde of teenage girls! It was really sweet. I even took a picture of our front door when they were done but it got accidently deleted from my camera!! ugh!! So, instead I found this random picture online of a 'heart-attacked' door for posterity's sake!

For dinner I made my traditional pink dinner! Pink pancakes, and pink milk! Usually, I make pink eggs but they're so stinkin' expensive right now that I couldn't bring my self to buy any! Here is a photo of the awesome pancakes that I made:

Aspen also had a sweet friend over for the afternoon and she ate dinner with us. Grandpa Gibson sent beautiful cards with a little money for each of the kiddos. The cards were really sweet. He reminded the kids how much their Grandma loved them. Aunt Karin, Sam and Hannah sent special valentines and games... so fun! Thank you! And Papa sent each of the girls a rose to the school. They loved getting something at school! I bought each of the kiddos (except Andyn) a balloon and tied it to a little bucket with a little bit of candy. I think they had a great day and it was fun to see all the LOVE floating around!

As for me and Geoff, we gave up trying to go to dinner on Valentine's Day long ago! It's really hard to find a babysitter and the restaurants are totally crowded unless you make reservations at a really expensive place! For those who really know us, the expensive restaurants are not that appealing to us anyway! So... we stayed home and after the kids went to bed we had a really yummy dessert and watched a movie! I got Geoff a card and he bought me a card and some inexpensive flowers that were beautiful. Geoff bought the dessert and he hit a home run with this one! It was so delish!! This was the only picture I could find of it: It was actually Edward's Peanut Butter Creme Pie w/ Reese's (individual serving) but the picture I think is Butterfinger. To wrap it up, this year was a really fun loving Valentine's Day!!

Belated Valentine's Day Adendum

I'm not sure how but I forgot to add a couple of things! Maybe it has to do with being super distracted by 4 hooligans while working on this post ALL day!!!

This is a picture of the flowers that Geoff bought me with the girls' roses added in.

And my dad bought me these: They're all beautiful aren't they?!

And, last but not least , here is a collage of pictures of Ainsley's valentine box that she made all by her self and photos of the finished valentines that I made for the kids' classmates... now I think I've covered everything!

Mexico, Here We Come!!!

Back in October I posted about how I had one a trip to Mexico. Here are the links if you need to freshen your memory or haven't read it yet: Viva Mexico! and Trip To Mexico.

Well we've made the plans to go next week!!! I can hardly believe it! I'm so happy! I've added a little countdown counter to the left so you can all countdown the days with me!

I'm so blessed to have friends and family that love us enough to keep our kids for us! When you have 4 kids sometimes it can be difficult to find people to keep them for extended amounts of time! My mom, sister, and dad have agreed to taking turns helping out with Andyn & Asher while my dear friend Roxie is going to keep Aspen & Ainsley here in our hometown so that they can still go to school! Thank you guys so much! I'm looking forward to some quality time with Geoff that we rarely get. After 10 years of marriage I think this will be a welcome break!

Here's hoping that we can all stay healthy the next couple of weeks so that we can ALL enjoy this trip!!

PS If any of you have any good advice for our trip it will be accepted gladly!!

Purse Contents - This is Ridiculous!

My friend Carissa tagged me with this little game. The idea is to empty my purse and take a picture so that the entire blog world can see what a slob I am! First, I must say that I have never liked big purses but in recent years have given in to carrying them so I wouldn't have to carry a diaper bag also! This is why I don't like big purses: Do you see how much junk is in that thing!!!

• black coin purse - empty
• wallet (love that thing!!)
• disposable camera with like 5 pictures left on it from Christmas time (did I mention that I hate disposable cameras!)
• granola bar
• check book
• blue mini purse with unmentionables
• 25 tubes of toothpaste - what?
• best sunglasses in the world - paid $3 at Dollar General
• WIC vouchers
• Albertson's store ad from 2 weeks ago
• stack of receipts
• coupon for Kohl's with credit card attached and never plan on using (only got it to get a discount)
• wallet size family and kid pics from 2 years ago
• business card from a manager at McD's good for a value meal because they screwed up royally on my order and I kind of threw a stink (I hardly ever go there but every time I do they screw up my order!)
• a half used napkin and empty Extra gum package (and other various pieces of trash)
• pack of Trident chewing gum
• cough drops
• library cards for the whole family (those red square things)
• cheapy lip balm from $ Tree and really yummy hot cocoa lip balm from Old Navy!
• hand lotion bought on clearance at walmart
• tube of lipstick.... not really. it's my "Kiss Off" pepper spray. Clever, huh?
• 2 ink pens

So, there you have it! At least now my purse is cleaned out! By the way, if you can guess why I had 25 tubes of toothpaste in my purse I'll send you a special gift. If you were present when I acquired them (or I told you) please refrain from "guessing". I think it will be fun to see some of your ideas! Shelley, babe, I tag you! Roxie you're it too!!

Booka, Booka!

Andyn's vocabulary is noticeably increasing. For a couple of weeks now she has been calling books: Booka Booka. It's so cute. This was my attempt to catch it on video: Extra bonus there with the cute faces!!

...now, it is almost the end of the month, and you brothers really need to get your home teaching done...

Home teaching...the topic that inspires more guilt and less action for men in the LDS Church. Well, I haven't done my home teaching in a long time. And even when I was trying to do it, it was usually out of guilt, and a feeling that I "should" do it. Well, I got tired of doing things based on guilt, so I quit doing things that I didn't feel like doing..and time passed. I enjoyed the freedom of not being "guilted" by others or by myself into doing things I didn't really want to do. I believe that although the Lord inspires us to do good, I don't believe that guilt itself comes from God. At any rate, over the past several weeks, I found myself wanting to serve others, and to do God's will as I understand it. For these reasons, and with no guilt involved whatsoever, I went to my Elder's Quorum President today and asked to participate in home teaching. I look forward to reaching out to people and serving in a guilt-free way.

Does guilt come from God? Maybe, but it seems like guilt usually just leads to avoidance (classical conditioning: the bad feelings become associated with what we are faced with). That seems like it just discourages people, or might just have them do what may be the right thing but for the wrong reason. That's not good either. Although at times God has definitely used fear and the threat of destruction to motivate people, something tells me that this is not what the Gospel is really all about...so I am just going to go with the good desires I have to help and love others, as well as a desire to follow counsel from living prophets. Wish me luck!

Best wishes to all,

Geoff

Mom, She's Sorrry About That

After picking Asher up at school today, a lady pretty much ran a stop sign and almost slammed right into us. I slammed on my brakes and managed to avoid a really bad scenario! I turned to look at Asher to see if he was upset... he wasn't. I said to him, "That lady almost hit us with her car. I'm glad you are wearing your seat belt. You could have been hurt." (Not that he doesn't usually wear it but I thought it would be good to re-iterate the importance of wearing our seat belts!) Asher said, "Mom, she's sorry about that." How cute! I said, "Your right, Buddy. She probably didn't mean to."

In honor of Asher's cuteness I thought I would share this picture with you:

Special Christmas Things

I started this post a really long time ago! I think that I just got busy and forgot about it!

Here are just a couple of things that made this Christmas a little more meaningful. Aspen really got into making things for everybody. She made everyone in the family are card similar to this one that she made for me:

They were stapled together and put in each person's stockings. So very sweet. She also made each family member a special shape out of pipe cleaners. Mine was a flower:

She did this on her own with out looking at a book or anything. She made a sun, a football, a butterfly, and one more that I can't remember. I thought they were great!

Then Asher made his sisters these really nice bulb 'forcers' (one for each of his sisters):

They're just rocks with flower bulbs and a little bit of water. It's suppose to force the flowers to grow then you plant them in the ground.

As I mentioned before, we stopped at Silver Dollar City in Branson on our way home from Michigan for Christmas. I also mentioned that I lost my camera somewhere in Michigan only to find it AFTER Christmas when we were at my dad's! Well, while we were at SDC I decided to purchase a disposable camera so I could get some shots of us there. I paid TEN DOLLARS for this piece of crap!!! Rip off! Especially, because I then had to pay like 6 bucks to develop them AND get a cd of the pics so I could post them on my blog! SO EXPENSIVE!! It's hard to believe that this was just the way of life for most of us just a few years ago!! Now it's so cheap to take pictures! Anyway... The BEST part ::sarcastic:: was when I go the pictures back from that camera. I thought I would share a couple with you just so you could see:

Nice, huh? I was really mad. But there must have been something wrong with the camera! I even took this really nice picture of Aspen & Andyn and was so disappointed that it didn't really turn out! This wouldn't have happened with my digital camera!! Who knows, maybe I can figure out a way to fix it with my new photo software!! I hope!

I'm Having So Much Fun With This!

I've really been experimenting with my creative side lately. When I say 'creative' what I mean is that when I see a really cute idea someone else has come up with - I steal borrow it! (ie.... the valentines and job charts.) So I wanted to show off a couple of things I've done! I found this really cute 'brag book' but it's for wallet sized scrapbook pages that you put in little plastic badge ID holders (I found a package of 12 at Wally World for less than $2). Here is a link to the page where I got the idea. And here is a picture of theirs so you get the idea:

These are the 'pages' that I've created so far. I'm working on one of Andyn and one of all of us.

Then there are the desktop calendars that I've been creating:

February's is REALLY cute but I can't find the saved version on my computer with the kids' pictures in it. Here is what it looks like without the pics:

So that's what I've been working on!

I Love You, Geoff

I love this guy. Happy Valentine's Day, Honey.

This picture was taken by a good friend of mine named Robert Stinson. It was our engagement photo. Scrapbooking layout is from See Jane Scrapbook created by Natalie Malan

Pretty Cute (If I Do Say So Myself)

I never come up with these ideas myself but I like to take advantage of them when I see them. I saw this idea on this blog. So, I used my handy-dandy new software and created some for my kiddos. I also made Superman ones for the girls for the boys in their class. The idea is to punch 2 holes on the side and slip a sucker into them. I'm having them printed at Walmart tomorrow. I'll take pictures of the final product. Credits: Brooke's Superman Valentine, "Grungy Valentine" by Mandy McQuillis, "Foxy Lady" from Peppermint Creative

Marionette Moshing

Several years ago a good friend of my dad's gave me a Wal-mart bag full of puppets. I think that we've only gotten them out one other time but when we went to Silver Dollar City right before Christmas the kids played with some at a vendor booth. They were begging for one and I remembered that we had these at home (thank goodness). So Geoff got them out last night and let the kids play with them. My favorite part is when Geoff says "mosh pit!"