Valentines

So I am going to try to back up and catch up a little. I wanted to post a few pictures of Valentines Day. Daniel and I got to go to the temple (even though I forgot my recommend, how embarrassing) and to a fancy resturaunt called Mitchells' Fish Market. It was fun to have some time alone but it seemed like most of our time around Valentines was spent getting the kids ready for their parties. With 3 girls and 2 parties each with an average 20 kids in each party that is 120 Valentine treats to get ready. This year I realized how much that really is. I thought it would be fun to make chocolate dipped pretzels with M&M's. I thought they were going to be super easy but it ended up being somewhat labor intensive.

 

We made four of these pans full. We didn't end up doing pretzels for all the Valentines, we broke down and bought candy for 2 classes.

 

Kyla made bookmarks for her church friends.

 

Daniel made the girls heart shaped pink pancakes and we let them sprinkle leftover M&M's on them with whipping cream.

 

I got chocolate roses at the $1 store, I thought the girls would enjoy them. I made them each a little card and Daniel gave them their tickets to the Daddy Daughter Dance.

 

Them were all very excited! It was a very fun Valentines, but next year I need to pay more attention to my honey (he is just so darn hard to shop for!).

Grandma J's in Phoenix and Eli's Birthday!

We scheduled our flight for the evening after we left Mexico so that we would be able to spend some time visiting Grandma J. We met her and Chris Thursday night at a mexican resturaunt in Mesa for dinner and then went back to her house for cake. We were able to celebrate 3 birthdays at once (Lise and Chris on the 11th, and Eli on the 12th). It was great to spend some time with Grandma J., because we had not visited her at her home home since before Nora was born.

 

Of course, the girls were excited about the chance to go swimming, so we spent some time in the clubhouse pool before we left. It was a great day for it and the girls really enjoyed the chance to practice their swimming skills.

 

Eli had fun being in the pool for a while too, but he mainly wanted to crawl around on the edge of the pool showing off his curly hair and new swimming suit.

 

Eli decided to pose for a baby sunscreen advertisement.

 

Of course we needed to get a picture of the kids with Grandma J. while we were there. It was great to be able to visit her, and the kids loved being there and seeing all of her neat collections.

 

This also gave us the chance to get a 4 generation picture with Grandma J. and the birthday boy. Thank you grandma for letting us stay at your house. It was great to be able to visit!

Eli's First Birthday

The last night in Mexico we celebrated Eli's birthday even though it was two days early. He was a little tired but still had fun with it.

 

At first he didn't know what we wanted him to do with this piece of cake sitting in front of him. Then I gave him a fork and he dug right in.

 

 

 

I think he ate a little but he mostly had a great time throwing it everywhere. He really likes throwing things right now. Looks like Daddy had a great time too!

 

The rest of us enjoyed an awesome fudge marble cake that Grandma made. I even got to blow out two books of matches stuck on top of my cake since my b-day was the next morning.

 

We did present time the next morning since Eli was pretty tired after the cake fun.

 

Hooray! Summer shirts from Grandma, plus shorts, swim trunks and sand trucks.

 

Next present, a fun stuffed Curious George from Mormor and shoes from Auntie Kirsten.

 

 

I am pretty sure he got some other stuff but my brain isn't working right now so we will call it good.

Mexico

We have been planning this trip to Mexico with my extended family for a year and a half. It was such a fun trip, but pretty tiring with 4 kids to take care of at the beach and traveling. We flew to Phoenix Saturday night and were so blessed to have Daniel's cousin welcome us into their home even though they had a housefull already. Thanks Jason and Debbie! Sunday we met up with the rest of the family at a Walmart in Phoenix, they had been driving since 5:00 in the morning. It was pretty cool and rained quite a bit in Phoenix that day, but by the time we reached Rocky Point it had cleared out. Both Daniel and I have been there a couple of times. The last time we went was when I was pregnant with Nora. The place actually hadn't changed as much as I was afraid it had. It helped, of course, that we went so early in the year so there were very few people around. The first day we got there we went exploring the rock pools down the beach.

 

This is Myka with the first critters that we found, tiny little sea snails that were easy to spot if you just stopped and looked.

 

Myka and Senna getting friendly with the water

 

Nora and Savannah being silly girls.

 

Kyla and Mommy

 

Spencer, Senna, Myka, Kyla, Mommy, Mormor, Kirsten, Grandpa Frank, Nora, and Savannah. There were so many creatures in these pools, but mostly hermit crabs. I decided the crabs must have a prettiest shell contest because it seemed like all the prettiest shellls were inhabited. Sometimes we found this out when they were trying to walk off our porch and back to the ocean. I am not sure how long my Dad knelt in front of that pool but he had fun watching conches, shrimp, fish, hermit crabs, etc. right in that one spot.

 

Myka was excited for the opportunity to cover herself in mud.

 

Right in front of our houses was this sand bar that appeared when the tide went out. It was a lot of fun to wade across and comb the beach. We found a lot of sand dollars out there.

 

Kyla found this dead seahorse. Isn't it awesome! O.K. more slimy and nasty but we decided to see what happened if we let it dry. It dried nicely and now she has a great souvenir.

 

Daniel found this cool conch shell that was inhabited with quite an aggressive critter. It kept reaching out with it's foot? and trying to get Daniel to let it go.

 

On Tuesday we went in town to go shopping and see the local culture. Myka went and found this hat by herself and tried it.

 

We decided that Nora looked good in blue, so she decided to try on all the blue things she could find.

 

Daniel, Eli, Kyla, Mom, LeAira, Nora, Spencer, Myka, Kirsten, Matt, Savannah, Mormor, Grandpa, and Alis (everyone else was eating ice cream). There was a nice area by the edge of the ocean that had a nice look out, boardwalk, and sculptures.

 

This shrimp riding seaman was one of the great statues. Kyla, Eli, Nora, Savannah, Myka, & Senna.

 

Another statue - Spencer, Senna, Savannah, Nora, Kyla, and Myka.

 

Our own little beach bum. Eli with his crazy hair had fun sitting on the architecture. Do you see the silhouette of a person on the edge of this picture, with the hat and glasses. That is Grandma Cynthia. We were so lucky to have her come with us on this trip. She was such an amazing help. She did all of our shopping for us the day before and helped out so much making the meals, watching kids, cleaning up, etc, etc, etc. Thanks for coming with us Grandma. I wish I had more pictures of you on the beach though! Seems like she was always scouring the beach somewhere when we took shots of everyone.

 

I don't think that we got the best picture of this but it was cool how they had the balls on top and then the statue of the seagulls below that were right on the horizon.

Mexico Cont.

 

Eli really enjoyed being in the sand and water. He sat out here with his shovel and bucket for a long time. Then he discoverd the water and headed down to check it out.

 

I set him right at the edge where the waves would just barely reach him. He thought it was a bit shocking but fun.

 

Building sand castles - Daniel, Nora, Savannah, Spencer, LeAira, Laina, Kai, Kami, and Temara.

 

Our castle! It had a starfish on top and tons of neat shells around.

 

Two Mommas on the beach, me wearing my purchases from town the day before- a hat, sunglasses, and wrap(I can't remember what the guy called them).

 

Myka was so excited when she realized how fun it was to write in the wet sand the tide had left. Daniel helped her write lots of names.

 

She was very proud.

 

The three sisters having their "alone" time, Thora, Alis, and Ivy. They were all wearing these white mexican dresses.

 

The sand bar in front of our houses with a flock of pelicans taking a break. This time at Rocky Point we saw a lot fewer live creatures than before, I don't know if it was early in the year or what. We only saw the dolphins one day and previously we had seen them a couple times every day. We didn't see any rock crabs or sand crabs and only one big crab that gave a big fright to Senna. It seemed like before we had to watch out for the rays when walking out into the water on the sand, this time we didn't see them at all (although we weren't in the water much). But since it was so early in the year, I think the shell gathering was even better. I don't remember finding sand dollars or starfish before and we found some of the most unique shells. The beach was just covered with them wherever you went.

 

Another picture of the sand bar, this time with Savannah, Matt, and Myka in the distance.

 

The second time we ventured out to the rock pools Myka found this live starfish. She was pretty excited about it. I was a little bit sad that it was alive so we couldn't take it home, but at least we have this cute picture to remember it by. We also found a couple dead sea cucumbers.

 

Nora is holding a shell with a critter in it. We called the shells tiger conches because they were black and white striped. Here she is holding it so you can see the conch. They were very difficult to pry off the rocks.

 

This shows how big the shell was and all the spikes.

 

I was so loving the sunsets out there. We don't see sunsets here in Michigan, pretty much ever. We kind of saw one when we were waiting at the airport. I got upset when people wanted to be inside eating when such a spectacular thing was happening outside.

 

I was trying to get someone in my sunset but it was going fast.

 

The cousins singing and dancing show! Nora emmceed, Kyla and Senna played the instruments (racket and bucket), while Savannah and Kaira danced their puppets, and Laina was just cute.

Pictures I wish I had taken-three girls digging their trench, our house inside and out, the desert and nothingness on the other side of the houses, our family on the beach, more pictures with Grandma, masked dancing men with Myka. If you have any of these pictures will you send them to me, or any others that you think I might like, thanks.