Fun in the sun

Chris and I were able to go on a cruise with 4 of our dear friends right before Thanksgiving. We had such a marvelous time and it's hard to even imagine summing up the trip. Needless to say, we would do it again in a heartbeat!

The girls hamming it up in Honduras.

The boys checking out the female stingray.

While he's not a huge fan, Chris did a wonderful job with Neil Diamond's "America" for karaoke. He actually had the whole room singing and laughing-definitley a success.

Visiting the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico. Super interesting and I loved seeing the huge iguanas lazing around in the sun.

We stopped at an island of Honduras and this was one of the few times it wasn't raining. We braved it for a bit, but then headed back to the ship for the hot tub and ice cream.

We had so much fun. Sitting here in the snow, it's hard to believe that we were ever there!

Out of character

Anyone who knows me even remotely well, knows that I despise running. It is amazing that I married Chris with his insane running ability. I enjoy exercising daily, but until this summer that NEVER included running. I started running and while I still don't enjoy it, I can endure it. My friend Amy convinced me to run the Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago this Saturday and we actually had a lot of fun. Maybe I'll even do it again. :)

Juliann, me, Kori, and Amy. Juliann and Amy ran the 15K.

Halloween 2010

Another year with too much candy. Andrew decided to be Mario again which I loved since I didn't have to do anything.

Carter isn't big on dressing up so we came up with the idea of being Percy Jackson. Easy-Camp Half Blood t-shirt, jeans, sword...done. I would have done a little more, but for him it was perfect.

At Goodwill, Hailey found a pretty Cleopatra dress which I was quick to accept since it was inexpensive. Little did I know...she asked me all about Cleopatra and I looked her up online. Wow. How do you explain to a 6 year old about a woman who married both of her brothers, and slept with several other men only to kill herself in the end?? I left out a lot of details.

Alyssa surprised me by keeping her hat on the whole time.

Costume Confusion

Grant had a hard time committing to a costume, which worked out OK since we have several lying around the house. We bought the Woody costume which he wore to a party, but then chose Spider Man for school and trunk or treat. I thought that it was girls who always changed their minds...

She's 1!

I can't believe that it's already been a year, but Alyssa turned one this week. She is such a sweet child and we love having her in our family.

Peek-a-boo

All parents think that their child is the cutest thing that they've seen, which is great. Every child should be adored by their parents. Even so, I just have to say that I think that MY children are the cutest. Alyssa just learned to play peek-a-boo and hasn't totally figured out covering her eyes yet. I think she's adorable.

Conference Tents

Our Home Teacher had a great suggestion for conference. He taught us about the Nephites gathering to hear King Benjamin in their tents and suggested that we build tents for our kids to watch General Conference. GREAT IDEA! They each had their own tent where they took notes, ate popcorn, played quietly, and hopefully heard some of the messages. They didn't talk to each other, fight, or get wound up. Why didn't we do this before???