Our Cruise

We left Monday, Oct 26th and returned on Halloween afternoon. We had such a great time - it was our first big trip by ourselves since our honeymoon in January 2002. I had a few moments where I really missed the boys, but all in all it was relaxing and refreshing. They stayed with my mom (who did a wonderful job with them) and we talked with them on Skype every evening on our laptop. We ate wonderful food, read books, slept, watched movies, hung out on the deck, watched some shows, went to some fun ports and just generally chilled out. I honestly did not know what to do with myself at times because there were no little mouths to feed or crying or whining or question asking for a WHOLE WEEK! There are A LOT of pictures so bear with me.

This was at dinner on our formal night. Who are these people? I don't remember the last time we dressed up so nicely. :-)


Our first stop was Progreso, where we had massages on the beach in a tent like this. They were $10 a piece for 45 minutes - can't beat that!


Here is the LONG pier that leads back to our boat:


There's not too many pictures of both of us. You know how it is when it's just the two of you and you constantly have to find people to take your picture.


We did some shopping for the boys and then ate at a cute little Mexican restaurant. I had also just gotten a temporary tattoo of a dolphin- it's supposed to last several weeks and is still there now.


The owner there was really fun and took our picture in these hats-


A couple of pictures of our boat, the Carnival Ecstasy:




The next stop was Cozumel - we went to this neat park called Chankanaab. It had beautiful gardens, beaches and sight-seeing. There were a lot of Mexican statues:










We could see our boat from the park:


And while there I got to fulfill a lifelong dream. Seriously, I have been wanting to do this since I was a child and have always had a fascination with dolphins. We have a few pictures on our water proof camera but this was the one they took for us there. It scanned in funny, so sorry about that. It was magical and I loved every second of it! Meet my dolphin friend, Lizzie...

She pulled us around by her fins, pushed us on boogy boards, gave us hugs, did jumps for us, kisses, handshakes, danced and sang with us. It was awesome! Jason had promised me he'd take me to swim with dolphins before our 10th anniversary and he pulled it off by our almost 8th. Way to go honey! :-)

After that we went downtown to Margaritaville and of course had a margarita! :-)


We jumped in the ocean and swam right off of this dock:




The biggest nacho appetizer I have ever seen. Between the two of us, we didn't finish it.






Right before we got back on the boat, we took some goofy pictures:




Every night, we had a towel formation on our bed. I thought they were hilarious - the baby was my favorite:


We played the penny slots on the boat a few times but never won anything. :-(


Some pictures of the inside of the boat:


The grand atrium:


The Lido deck:


Us on the back of the boat:


Our dinner table. We ate with them every night - they were both on their honeymoons. We had a great time getting to know them. I didn't think I'd enjoy sitting with total strangers at dinner but by the end of the cruise they were more like friends. From left: Conrad, Arlene, Jason, me, Diana and Jesus.


So that's it! I didn't include every single picture of course but I think you get the general idea. I have no idea when we'll be able to take another trip by ourselves but we sure did savor every moment and enjoy this one so much!

18 months and GORGEOUS

The eyes have it. I could just eat him up!

18 month stats from this morning:
Weight: 21 lbs 9 oz - 5th percentile (still tiny!)
Height: 32" - 40% percentile (this one went up this time!)
He loves bathtime, balls, cars, singing, dancing, having books read to him, his cozy & paci to snuggle and sleep with, school and his big brother. He can say: dog, ball, car, truck, mama, dada, yiya (elijah), nana, kaki, out, cow, fish, amen, the end, lala (for water), book, some animal sounds and will repeat almost anything you ask him to. He is a mama's boy but surprisingly very independent - at school for example, is very sweet and cuddly, knows what he wants and does not like being told what to do. We just love him so much and don't know what we would do without him!

More below...

Halloween 2009

We are back from our cruise and had a wonderful time! I will post about it in the next few days. Right now I am catching up with Halloween. These are all out of order but there are a ton...

Halloween morning Elijah had another soccer game. We got back that afternoon from our trip, but of course Nana got pictures for us - thanks Nana!










These are from our neighborhood Halloween party last weekend:




Ellie, Deacon, Elijah and Judah-


Pumpkin carving from last weekend as well:








Silly faces from Judah while trying to get his "mask" off last weekend:




The rest are from Halloween day. Daddy putting on the mask again:






Grangoat and "Robin"


"Batman" and Kaki


He has cool expandable wings - he got the mask and wings for his birthday. He had been asking for it for months. We thought we could kill two birds with one stone and also make it his Halloween costume. He was thankfully thrilled with that idea. :-)




We went to the Stockyards that evening. They had games, trick or treating, free hay rides and pumpkin decorating. It was our first time to go there for Halloween and it was fun!














Judah playing with his little guitar we brought him back from the cruise:

Sneak Peak

Aren't they cute??? More to come after we get back from our trip. We are leaving in about an hour to drive to Houston.

I have to brag and say that my son was the only one that scored a goal in the soccer game yesterday, making us win 1-0. I was SO proud. :-)

Happy 18 month birthday to my baby boy - I can't believe how big you are!

Have a great week while we're soaking up the sun and waves!

Pumpkin Patch & Bon Voyage

Pumpkins of the Past:
October 2004 - Elijah, 5 months


October 2005: Elijah, 17 months


October 2006: Elijah, 2 1/2 years


October 2007: Elijah, 3 1/2 years


October 2008: Judah, 6 months & Elijah, 4 1/2 years


October 2009: Elijah, 5 1/2 years & Judah, almost 18 months


So, we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch on Sunday. It was INSANELY crowded, so do you know what we did? We went right next door to the OTHER less famous pumpkin patch that had hardly any people at it but everything was just as great. Free bounce houses, free hay rides and lots of photo opportunities. It was much less stressful there - I think we'll do that every time from now on. The boys had a blast - Elijah always looks forward to this every year. I took a ton of pictures of course but had trouble getting ONE good one of both boys together. Oh well. :-)













The only family photo we got:


DONE. He was just done with pictures at this point. :)


















Judah was very fascinated with the horses.








We leave on Sunday afternoon for Galveston, and then our cruise leaves on Monday. I am excited and also nervous. I have never left the boys for that long before and we don't have phone access unless we want to pay an arm and a leg. We are going to hopefully talk with them on Skype each afternoon and pay a one time internet fee. Please pray for us as we are separated from them that we'll all adjust for the week and for my mom as she cares for them. So this is probably the last post from me until we get back, which is on Halloween morning. I'm sure the next post will have GOBS of pictures from the cruise and Halloween. We will be back to take them trick or treating that night. This weekend before we leave, we are going to our neighborhood Halloween park party and Elijah's school's fall festival. If you think of us next week, don't be jealous as you picture us on the beach! :-)

One last thing for your viewing pleasure. A video of my boys performing. You'll notice a few things in this video: 1. Elijah is in a silly mood, 2. Judah thinks the paddle (aka "the monster in the closet") is a guitar, 3. Judah does NOT like his brother taking things from him right now and 4. He is really trying to sing something to me from school but I can't figure it out.

Please ignore the fact that this background says "Happy Thanksgiving" on it because I think it's adorable. :-) It'll be accurate soon enough.

Face Plant & a little band called U2

UPDATED at bottom

Judah tripped down our front porch steps on Saturday afternoon and scraped up the side of his eye. By Sunday morning it looked like this as we were on our way to church:


Then on Monday the swelling went down and we were just left with a big scrape.


Poor guy, it was his first really big fall (shocking I know).

He sure is cute. He has been nursing once a day up to this point, but on Sunday I started weaning him before we go on our cruise. That is always very emotional for me - he's not missed a beat, of course! :-) He's such a big boy!
--------------------------------------------------------

Six months ago we bought U2 tickets with our friends, Bill & Chrissy. Last night was FINALLY the night - we had been waiting a long time!!!




It was at the new Cowboy's Stadium - the setup for the concert was insane. It looked like a large green spider with orange spots but ended up being a spaceship. It was massive.


I don't have the best camera for these sorts of things but had to get some pictures. You can see that the large "spider" had lots of special effects!






You can see real live Bono on the runway on the right side of the picture in the black jacket.


The concert was out of this world. There are hardly words to describe it. It was by far the best concert I've been to - my mouth was hanging open through most of it I was in such awe of the talent & performance. If you get a chance to see them, don't pass it up. It was fun, inspiring and at times very spiritual. Bono is a Jesus-follower and if you don't know about his ONE campaign to end world poverty, you should check it out: http://www.one.org/us/.

Here are a couple videos from the concert last night, click HERE and HERE - this one started with Amazing Grace but I couldn't find one that captured that too.

Welcome Savannah Ruth

My very close friend Ashley delivered her baby girl, Savannah Ruth, on Tuesday evening. She weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 19 1/2" long. Ashley had a very quick labor & delivery and they are both doing great. She and I have known each other since infancy and have been close friends the entire time. I am so happy for her and Brandon.

Funny story about her delivery day...I had planned in advance to bring Ashley lunch that day since she was on bed rest for high blood pressure. I called her that morning to see what she would like to eat and she told me she wasn't feeling too great. She said she'd been cramping on and off since the middle of night and a couple of times had fluid running down her leg. I said, girl you're in labor and it sounds like your water broke!!! I headed over there to check on her and encouraged her to call the doctor - they said to come on in. So after eating a quick lunch and packing the rest of her things for the hospital "just in case" I took her to her doctor's appt at 1pm where Brandon met us. They confirmed she was in labor with a broken water bag and sent her over to the hospital - Savannah was born at 7:58pm. It was so much fun to play a part in their big day and I was thrilled to be at the hospital when she born and get to hold her very shortly after.

She told me later that night, "Thanks for making me call the doctor. " Ha ha...you're welcome. :-)