Let's Cruise, Baby!

Warning:

This post has a million-ish pictures.

(But in my defense, I didn't even post a 10th of the pictures I took.) :) 

So in March we went on a Western Caribbean cruise with our friends Matt & Jerrica. 

We had a ball!

I love, love, LOVE our cruise partners and can't wait till round 2! Jerrica and I got to know each other pretty well just before she got put in YW with me and then we became even better friends after. We started talking about going on a vacation together and finally booked a cruise in January... And hoped that our hubbies would get along. Good thing that they did. We teased them that they were on a mancation or a Mattcation. 

So my mom was awesome enough to take Parker for us for the week, and Matt and I had the time of our lives... Although we REALLY missed little man. (I cried when we dropped him off.)

Well, here are a *few* pictures of our amazing week in paradise.

This is us just messing around on the ship waiting to be able to get into our cabins before we set sail.

 Our Cruise Partners: Jerrica and Matt

 Us @ dinner on the first night

Us with our cruise director, George

 Us @ our first port-of-call in Cozumel

 Matt getting ready to para sail 

 It's my turn!

 Aaaahhh! I want to go back!

Yummy!

Us having and 'unBELIZEable' time in Belize... We are getting ready to go cave-tubing.

 Me in one of the caves

 Matt in one of the caves

 My favorite port-of-call... Isla Roatan, Honduras

 All harnessed in and ready to go zip-lining!

Yikes!

 Matt and his new furry friend

 Us with our assistant waiter, Alexander... He was so dang cute!

 Our head waiter, Erika with Jerrica and Matt

 A view of our ship from Grand Cayman... The Carnival Glory

 Yay! We went swimming with Dolphins...

And sting-rays!

 Look out behind you!

 I love Ray!

 Aaawww! What a sweet kiss.

 Us @ dinner on one of the formal nights

 Hanging out in Miami waiting to fly home. 

I know! These pictures do NOT do our vacation justice! It is so hard to choose just one or two from each event to show your whole vacation.

Like I said, I can't wait to go again! 

Our first cruise was so much fun and so relaxing, but this cruise was fun in a different way. It was so fun to have friends there to eat dinner, go to shows, play games, and make awesome memories. Yay for having a good time!

Everyone who said they were going next time... You better start saving your pennies! I'm saving mine! ;)

Christmas... Um... Ya, I know it's June...

FINALLY!!!

I have been trying to update my blog since oh, ya know... January. But I could never get my pictures to upload and I kept getting way frustrated. Now I'm so far behind and so much has happened I feel like I will never catch up.

So.... Here's Christmas.

We went over to Matthew's parents house on Christmas Eve. Parker and Grammie made cupcakes for Santa together. Parker absolutely loves helping in the kitchen.

'Santa' hard @ work!

Parker's loot from Santa

 Parker and Daddy on Christmas Morning

 It took him awhile to notice he had a stocking

 Helping Daddy open gifts

 Toy Story 3!

 We are kind of boring parents... We got him a bed (and Buzz Lightyear sheets) for Christmas.

 This car was BY FAR his favorite gift. Grammie and Grandpa Jackson gave it to him.

 Nathan and Paige

 Brooke and Anthony

 Us!

Christmas wasn't too bad this year. (Matthew had to work that afternoon.) We stayed here in town and celebrated with Matt's family. Parker was so fun this year. I love that Christmas is magic with when there are little ones around. :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

It was so fun to decorate this year, mainly because Parker was so amazed by everything. When we put up the tree and plugged in the lights Parker whispered in absolute awe, "Christmas Tree." He loved everything as we put it all up. I set up two of our small trees and told him they were for him and gave him some ornaments to play with. I was hoping that he would play with them and leave the big tree alone. For the most part it has worked out great. Every now and then I catch him touching something on the tree, but he really has been pretty good about leaving the decorations alone and just looking at them.

Here is my table this year...

 And my Nativity... I LOVE my Nativity!

 'O Christmas Tree!

 I really liked how the tree turned out this year. I just wish I could find 'the perfect star' for it. I haven't seen any stars or angels that I love. (Oh, and hopefully we will be able to replace our nice 1980 couches this year.) Yay!

 My Grandma Jackson made these snowflakes. My mom brought one home for each of us after Grandpa J passed away. It made me happy to pull it out and put it on the tree this year.

 Parker with his trees.

 He has a really hard time leaving this decoration alone. The snowman has come up missing a few times and if I catch him with one of the ice cubes he tells me, 'Just looking, Mom.'

 GOOD NEWS!!! Santa was not a total creeper this year! He was actually very nice. Parker was a little nervous, but he sat on his lap and told him he would like 'Thomas.' Now hopefully the right one gets here before Christmas. The one he wants was at Costco. I went back to get it a few days later when he wasn't with me and they were completely sold out. Amazon said the delivery date was anywhere from December 16th-January 10th. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I can't believe that I am saying this, but I was actually a little bit sad to see all the snow melt. We had so much at Thanksgiving, and now it is all gone except for a small pile on each side of our driveway from shoveling. I am hoping to at least get a little so we can have a white Christmas. It just isn't right to have green grass in the front yard right now. 

Family

During our time together at Thanksgiving we took a few minutes and snapped a few family photos in front of one of Papa's barns. There were a few minor problems... It was FREEZING... Logan was very uncooperative (running into pictures, eating snow, peeing in the snow etc...) and it was FREEZING!!! But we got a few of us all together, so that was good. Also, I wish I would have taken off my glasses. They are glaring in every picture. :( I need to order new contacts or get glasses that are coated with the anti-glare stuff.

Anyways, here they are.

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving in Wyoming this year. Pokey had a lot of snow... But my parent's house had more! And it was soooo cold! With all the winter storms I was nervous to make the trip - you never know what to expect. Luckily the roads on the way weren't too bad. Going home was a different story, but we all made it in one piece! And we had a great time.

Here's the yummy feast that everyone spent hours preparing to sit and eat for 15 minutes. Haha!

 Rikki, Papa and I

 Grandma and I

A few shots of all of us around the table

It is my opinion that going to Wal-Mart any time after 10pm is risking your life... We braved their midnight Black Friday sale. :) Here are us girls getting ready to go out.

What a great blessing it was to be able to spend time together as a family. The last time we were all together was Christmas 2009... And if you'll recall we spent it all together puking (and pooping)... so this time was much more fun. ;)



Silly Little Boy

Little man comes up with the silliest things to say and do. He is (usually) so fun to be around. But sometimes I am totally mortified by the things that he says and does...

I had a salon meeting one morning and Matt was not home so I had to bring Parker to the salon with me. I had him in his stroller and he was eating some goldfish.

My coworker, Hailey, also had to bring her son with her. He is about a year younger than Parker and came over to inspect his snack. Parker was not okay with that.

He pushed him down, pointed his finger and said, "You go to your mamma!"

OH. MY. GOSH.

Where did he come up with that???

I was not impressed. I scooped poor little Jaxon up and gave him some goldfish to eat.

 But on a cuter note... Parker has become a little baker.

Anytime I am in the kitchen cooking he wants to help.

He loves to stir things together.

 He is also quite into reading these days.

He has quite a few books that he absolutely loves and will say the lines along with you as you read them. Sometimes he even 'reads' them all by himself. One morning I found him reading his 'Jesus Book' to Chief. 

 He also has a new love for shoes. I was cleaning out my closet and he stumbled around the house for quite awhile in my boots. He then asked me to take a picture of him, and of course I couldn't say no!

I love my little man!