This Makes Me Smile!!!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/2KAMpzjCPZ3sVJRloBhs

Have You Seen This???

This is an amazing tool......... my friend Summer had told me about it and then on my cruise my mom pulled one out of her bag. I was instantly in love with it. Their cheap and you can get them at Walgreens, CVS, or someplace like that.

Sharing The Gospel

Since living in Arizona I have made several new friends. One of these friends I have met through activities with the kids I nanny. She is a nanny as well for 2 little kids about the same ages as the girls I watch. The other day we had a little playdate and we started talking about the church. I was explaining to her the importance of the church in my life and the guidance it brings me. That through my faith I have been able to overcome many trials and continue to overcome them. I wanted her to know that regardless of things good or bad in my life that were going on, I knew I wasn't alone and that through faith everything would work out. I basically bore my testimony to her in the most simple way possible. She grew up with no religion in her life and has somewhat been searching for something. So I knew i had nothing to lose and told her that she was welcome to join me anytime at church. So she agreed to come this Sunday with me. I am excited for her to go and to feel the spirit. To feel what I feel every Sunday as I attend church. Lately I have been working very hard to feel the spirit in my life. To read my scriptures, say my morning and evening prayers, pay my tithing, attend all my meetings, keep the sabbath day holy, and to be a member missionary and share the gospel. All of these preparing me to go through the temple. I am so grateful that as I make these spiritual changes in my life I can feel a huge change taking place. That as I bear my testimony to friends I can realize just how important the church is in my life and just how much I love my Savior and the amazing gift of the Atonement.

Happy Thanksgiving

It was so nice to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family. It's been a few years since I have been able to be with family for this holiday. Last year however I was in New York City and the weather was amazing. We watched the Macy's Day Parade and then headed for Whole Foods got our turkey dinner to go and walked to Central Park where Shelley, Anne, and I had one of my favorite Thanksgivings of all time.



Shelley and I with the kids and my brother in laws parents before the turkey trot


Here we are stretching ..... getting ready for the big 1 mile family run/walk


Elle and Coop and I finishing the big race

Car and Jack finishing the race. He is 3 and ran the whole time pretty much


The kids with their medals and us 3 looking not so beautiful in the background

Elle and I

She is getting too old. She wanted a picture of herself b/c I flat ironed her hair and it was looking very long and she loved the flower in her hair.

Shelley and I helped with crafts.... turkey hats or any kind of hat really

Kids decorating cupcake turkeys

After Thanksgiving! Need I say more?

This year I was able to actually contribute. I made layered jello and some ham roll ups. My friend Shelley and I got to my sisters nice and early so we could join her for the Mesa Turkey Trot. We started at 8: 00 am with the 1 mile fun run for kids. So Shelley, my sister , and I each had one of her children and ran the 1 mile with them. Then the 3 of us stayed for the 9:00 10k. It was so nice to get in a run before eating all day. We then ran to her house which added another 1/2 mile or so. Altogether we ran almost 8 miles that morning. I haven't ran 8 miles in a while and my body is hurting a bit from it! : ) The rest of the day was spent lounging around and eating .

Day 7 : Fort Lauderdale

We woke up early Saturday morning and met our friends in the lounge to wait for our luggage tag color to be called so we could get off the ship. We waited for a good 2 hours or so. Luckily Ryan was more then entertaining for majority of the time. To sum it all up he told us he wants to be a jobless deadbeat (had to be there to get it! We all were staying in a hotel in Fort Lauderdale that night so we didn't have to rush to the airport til the next morning. We unboarded the ship and got a shuttle to our hotel close by. We got there a little early and our rooms weren't ready so we all took a walk to the grocery store to pick up snacks and waste some time. Got to the hotel and our rooms were ready. From about 12pm to 5pm Shelley and I stayed in bed watching movies in the room, napping, drinking soda,and eating snacks. My mom went to join our family friends around 3pm. It was a little rainy that day and the sun wasn't out so laying by the pool wasn't in the cards. Around 5 pm we went to explore the pool area and found the most amazing warm pool. Then we walked around and found everyone else we were with.. They were in their room watching all the cruise ships pull out from the port from the little deck. Too funny! We grabbed Ryan and grabbed some dinner next to the hotel. Then headed back to do some night swimming. My mom was watching Garrett so we got both the boys ready and Shells and I swam with them for a while. Such a great night!







Ryan
I was teaching Ryan how to play chicken

Garrett

My mom took all the other pictures but after they took the boys in to go to bed Shelley and I wanted a picture by the waterfall so she was trying to set her timer. She would hit the button, jump in the water, then have to swim across the pool. It was funny to see how fast she was trying to move. So this was our best picture .... lol


The next morning my mom and all our family friends caught the shuttle nice and early around 4:15 am to catch their 6 am flight to Portland, Oregon. Shelley and I caught a taxi around 5:30 to catch our 7am flight to Phoenix. Got home around 10am and had the day to unpack and relax before Monday came and it was back to work! Thanks Tim and Trish for a great cruise as always!

Day 6: Princess Cays, Bahamas

Our day in the Bahamas was by far my favorite. Princess Cruise Line owns their own little island in the Bahamas. So when you get off the ship the white beaches are lined with lounge chairs and there is lots to do. You can snorkel, rent paddle boats, jet skis, cabanas, bungalow, water bikes, said boats, etc. The waiters from the ship are on shore to take drink orders, they serve you a bbq lunch at their kitchen . The weather was beautiful and it was relaxing to lay on the beach and look out into the gorgeous ocean surrounding us. Just mom , Shelley , Ryan, and I enjoyed the beach in the Bahamas. Everyone else stayed on the ship!




Pictures taken by cruise ship as we got off the boat for the day!

My smile is a little weird but I like the coloring in the picture

Love this pic of Shelley. The sky and the water are so pretty

Another one of me on the balcony of our room with a more normal smile. : )


Mom, Ryan, and I scouting out the perfect spot for the day

No idea what I'm doing

Pina Coladas on a nice, warm, humid day............delicious

There is deep meaning behind this picture of me with my Coke. The first day we got on the ship I bought a soda sticker meaning I get unlimited soda the whole cruise on the ship. You just show them your card and voila a soda. It was $25.00 and well worth it b/c I could use it to get Shelley and my mom soda too. A can of soda on the ship is 2.00 plus 15 % gratuity so the sticker for soda is a good idea. Anyways, the first day I get the card i realize their giving us fountain soda which is not my favorite anyways. I like my Coke from a 12 oz can. It tastes the best. So... I realize it tastes horrible. Shelley had gotten a diet soda and said the same thing. My mom tasted it and said it tasted like Pepsi. Ugh! So .... I got a refund on my soda card. Then I tried to just buy a can of soda on the ship..... same thing. So we read the back of the can and realize they have brought the soda from Europe. The ship had just come to Florida from there. Europe uses different ingredients to sweeten their soda we find out. Here in the US we use the real healthy stuff ... High Fructose Corn Syrup....! Not sure exactly what they use but it sucks. So when Shelley and I got off in Mexico the search began for a can of soda made in either Mexico or the US. We were successful and each got a can. Then a few days later we were in Grand Cayman and saw canned soda and the can actually said Diet Coke. On the ship it's called Coke Light so we knew right away the soda was from the good ole USA. It was an exciting day and an even better day when we popped open those cans and tasted the sweet amazingness that was all too familiar... an amazing glass of Coca - Cola for me and an amazing glass of Diet Coca - Cola for Shells bottled in Atlanta, Ga. Then when we got off the ship in the Bahamas I picked up a can and once again saw it was made in the USA. So of course we ordered soda right away. I don't drink a lot of soda but when I do ..... i'm pretty particular about it! For those of you who know me ...... The more ice the better! : 0

This is the life....
He is the funniest kid..... love his dirty cupcake face

He was so excited to float in the ocean. The salt water is much easier to float in then the pool. He figured that out real quick.




My mom and I . Too bad I look ghostly white next to her! Sad part is... she gets even more tan then this!
Ryan and I swimming in the ocean. Yes.... I actually got in the ocean. It was so hot out and the water was so warm. I couldn't pass it up. Plus he's pretty fun to play with.


I really do hate going under the water. When I come up my eyes are burning and my mouth has a gross salt taste in it! I like to complain .... I know!


This is my favorite picture of Ryan. His friend is playing in the ocean and he is just standing there looking at the little wave. It's hilarious. I wish I knew what was going on in my head here.


Love that little smile. Ryan is one of the funniest kids I know. Shelley and I enjoyed all our time spent with him. You never know what he is going to say.


My beautiful mom

Mom and I chillin at the end of the day! Finally put on a hat to protect my face that had gotten enough sun the day before.

Ice Cream, delicious topping, fresh made waffles to go with it! Could it get any better? Nope
Got back on the ship from the Bahamas just in time for free ice cream and waffles. Absolutely delicious. Not a bite was left


Shelley looks like she is enjoying every bite!

My mom getting ready ... usually at this time she was showered and almost ready and Shelley and I were on the beds falling asleep.

After dinner we visited with our family friends and hung out a while. Then decided to go to the library on the ship and get a scrabble board game. Earlier in the cruise we discovered the library had like 6 boards of scrabble and every other game you can think of. So we had played one night earlier in the weeke with my mom. So we headed to the library and discovered they also had the bigger version that spun. And..... And..... guess what else? A scrabble dictionary. Shelley and I couldn't believe we had not seen this earlier in the week. What a shame! So we grabbed a board game and the dictionary and headed to the lounge where they were having a show in an hour or so. We wanted good seats so we decided to play this addictive game in the meanwhile and save our front row seats. We cheated the whole time. We would use to dictionary to make words. SO our game was very long but I learned a lot of words for all the hard big scoring letters. LOL. So... here is Shelley cheating on her turn!

I am a nerd and absolutely love Scrabble. I love games in general but scrabble has my Heart right now!

My mom met up with us right before the show started and we all ordered our last round of Pina Coladas! They were huge... but delicious of course! The rim was coated in fresh coconut!

Shels and I before the Princess Pop- Stars Finale Show

Day 5 : At Sea

This is the only picture I have of our day at sea. So as you can tell it wasn't that exciting. We spent our day laying out by the pool to sum the day up. Well... and I'm sure it was filled with eating lots of yummy food as well. : ) It was another Formal night on the ship and we had been asked to babysit so all the Adults could go to dinner together. We didn't mind at all b/c we really had no desire to get all dressed up. Although I do have to say I am mad I don't have a picture of my mom this night because she looked so great in her tuxedo pant outfit. I want the same outfit for myself. We dropped Ryan (6 year old) off at kids club and had dinner with Garrett (10 years old) at the pizza shop. Then we headed back to their suite and Garrett watched his movies while Shelley and I played Scrabble (my new obsession). As we were getting ready to go get Ryan Garrett was jumping on the bed ... he fell off and hit his mouth on the ladder to the bunk bed. He was mad and when he stood up all we saw was blood flowing from his lip. Shelley tried to put pressure on it to get it to stop and to get him to lie down. As we looked around I had blood on my white dress , Shelley had blood on her white shirt, the carpet had blood on it , and the duvet covered that was a nice off white color looked like somebody had been stabbed. Garrett had blood on his hands and had wiped it all over the bed. Needless to say I spent a little bit of time scrubbing blood out of everything around him. Poor guy! Babysitters of the year aware definitely don't go to Shelley and I this night! I do have to say he looked fine the next day. : ) After babysitting we headed up on deck for the movie of the night..... "Dark Night". Such a great movie! A great relaxing day as well!

Day 4 : Ocho Rios, Jamaica

I can't get this picture to turn. However .... this is our official getting off the ship pic. Once again too cheap to buy it .... !

Jamaica
My mom and I just off the ship in Jamaica


Shels and I

Our room is on the second deck up from the bottom. The families we were with were also on the same floor. So between our rooms is a huge cement slab thing. We are on the right of it and the other 2 families with us are on the right of it. So we had them unlock all the doors on the deck so we could walk across to each others rooms. Kind of weird at night in the middle of the ocean.
Cute little village to shop in with lots of fun stores

I call my mom Miss Animal Planet for a reason. Yes... she's feeding the duck a piece of a zone bar she has in her purse. We've concluded the duck is now probably dead b/c of the chocolate she fed it.

This is our friend the peanut guy. He was selling delicious roasted peanuts. We each got a bag hoping to save them for our movie that night but later devoured them after our work out. So delicious






The dancing girls.... click on the photo to see their great colorful outfits

Check out there chains!



Finally back on the ship... enjoying Pina Coladas... and watching movies all day! Could it get any better? My mom, Shelley, and I

As the sun was setting Jamaica was so pretty all lit up. We always timed it just right with finishing our workouts. We'd be back in the room just in time to see the sun go down. : )




We all thought it would be fun to go to the country night dance party. Turns out we got there and it was beyond lame. We ended up leaving after 20 minutes.

Good thing was they were showing the movie " Mamma Mia" at 3 different times that night on the big screen. We decided to hit the 11pm showing. This time they had covered the lounge chairs that are arranged in stadium seating with covers that read "movies under the stars". Then they had placed blankets folded nicely on the end of every chair. Servers from the ship walked around handing out popcorn to everyone. With the nice breeze from the ocean it was near perfect. Maybe the only thing that would have made it nicer would have been someone to cuddle with. : ) Maybe someday! I am obsessed with this soundtrack after seeing the movie months ago. My niece and both my nephews know the words to the whole soundtrack pretty much b/c my sister listens to it so much. Got Shelley and I both hooked. Not to mention my mother LOVES Abba. So as she tried to bail out of the late night showing on the ship we quickly convinced her it would be well worth the Late Night. She agreed whole heartedly after the show.