Big girl

Ava is such a big girl. She has been so easy to potty train. After I told her the concept, she caught right on. She can even hold her potty longer than I can, lol! I am excited to see if she keeps it up. She has only had 2 accidents in a whole week. ever since she said, "Oh, that's a good idea, she hasn't had an accident." What a little smarty.

And she is so cute. We made a gingerbread house and she says it, "Danger bread house."

Good idea

I am attempting to potty train Ava and I told her it was time to go to the bathroom. She walked in there and starting going potty on the floor. I said, "Ava, please wait until you sit on the toilet to start going." She looked down at the floor and back up at me and said, "oh, that's a good idea."

pone and others

Ava says her "f" sound as a P. It cracks me up. I just love her. I typical day with Ava sounds like this.

Mom, can I talk on your pone.

Mom, I can pick stuff up with my pingers.

Mom, I pound my princess dress.

She also talks really careful making sure she gets every word out just right. She emphasizes funny words and everyone that listens to her always starts laughing because it is so funny and cute. I am going to video a conversation with her one of these days so that I can remember how much she makes me smile when she talks to me. Like when she put her little hands on my cheeks today and said, "Mom, can I kiss or (your) lips." I just laugh when she talks, it is so darn cute.

Santa visit

We took the kids to the new outlets at Traverse Mountain tonight. We didn't know that Santa would be there. And apparently neither did anyone else. There was no line. The kids sat on his lap and had a conversation. Ava told him she wanted princess stuff. Lily said she wanted a video camera (a fake plastic one) and a journal with a lock. Calvin said he wanted an art set.  He was very nice and told them he had a special surprise for each of them for Christmas morning, but for right now a little present would do and he gave them a small coloring book. Ava looked at the book and there was a picture of a cartoon Santa on the front and she looked up at Santa and hollered, "hey, that's you on dis book, Santa, it's you on da book, Santa, it's you. " He and just smiled at her.

Pie

I told Ava that we had to go to Costco to get pumpkin pie and she said, " princesses love to eat pumpkin pie."

Elder Bednar

We were so fortunate to have an apostle of the Lord come to our stake conference today. Elder David A. Bednar gave a compelling and whitty talk. He talked about doing interviews with the media about the church. He said most people don't realize that the Mormons and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints are the same thing. He said most people he talked to wanted to learn more about the church instead of continuing the interview questions. He bore a beautiful testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and told us he was a witness for the Savior. The spirit was strong and it was wonderful.

Castle

Calvin drew this castle during stake conference and he still managed to tell us what Elder Bednar said in his talk.

Halloween drawing

We have been packing to move and I found this picture that Calvin drew last Halloween and I really like it.

I took Ava to the mall on Saturday and she was running through the halls hollering "I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies."

Funny things Ava says

Ava calls Calvin "sweetie" lately. She must have picked up on this cause I call them sweetie sometimes. One day Calvin came running in from outside to go to the bathroom and Ava said "Sweetie is going pee." Lol. When she is sitting in the grocery cart and Calvin is by her she says "sweetie come here and give me a hug." she cracks me up.

Tonight at dinner Lily was helping Ava say the prayer. Ava was doing good repeating what Lily would say and then all of the sudden in the middle of the prayer she said "and enchanted gardens and slides." we were trying hard to hold the laughter in during the prayer.

Love

I love my kids and the way they make me smile everyday.

Lily is in Kindergarten

Lily was very excited to start kindergarten. She has wanted to go to Calvin's school for the whole last year. I wasn't as ready as she was. But so far she has loved it and she is happy and that makes me happy. It is kind of strange to just have Ava at home for a few hours a day but it gives me quality time with her which is great.

Calvin is in 2nd grade. He is loving his new teacher Mrs. Roberts.

Our 10 year anniversary August 6, 2012

Jon and I were married and sealed in the Mount Timpanogos temple 10 years ago. I can not even begin to tell you how fast this time has gone but at the same time how much stuff we have been through and accomplished and learned.

We decided we would celebrate by going on a cruise to the Bahamas. And we are so fortunate to have loving parents who offered to take care of our kids so that we could go on a trip. At the last minute Jon's sister and brother in law Alicia and Colby decided to come with us. Jon and I left a couple of days early so that we could go to Disney World. We went to the Epcot center and Downtown Disney and we loved it. It was really fun. Jon met someone in the Germany part of Epcot who was from a town in Germany that he served in while on his mission. That was cool. The fireworks were amazing. I had a little freak out on a ride where I got really claustrophobic. It was kind of funny now that we look back. 

The cruise was a lot of fun. We loved the warm weather and beaches. It was our first time on a Carnival cruise and I have to say it was not as classy as the Royal Carribean cruise we went on. We were not as impressed with the food and entertainment. But it was still a lot of fun.

 Some of the highlights:

Our first stop was Freeport.  Jon and I went on a German pirate ship excursion. He spoke German to the crew. And we got to drive the ship. It was super choppy and everyone on the excursion got seasick. When we got back to the port we took a taxi to the beach. The water was pretty but the sand was really dirty and filled with sticks and leaves. Jon was offered drugs and I am proud to say he declined. People at the beach were selling fresh coconuts and I wanted one but we had to go back to the ship soon. We thought we would get one at another stop but we never saw them again. 

Alicia was pregnant and she got morning/sea sick and threw up over the side of the cruise ship.

There was a girl on the boat named Howie-Alice and she performed in the talent show and she sang angry songs at her ex-boyfriend. The reason I bring this up is because Howie-Alice brought a friend and her friend was drunk all the time and she was so loud and hilarious that we will never forget Howie-Alice's friend.

Our next stop was Atlantis. We went to the famous Atlantis hotel. It was pretty but we decided to skip the aquarium and go hang out on the beach. We loved the beach, it was beautiful. Jon and Colby helped make Alicia and myself into sand mermaids. 

Every night at dinner they offered some exotic strange food and they called it the didya. Short for "Did you ever wanna try..." Jon and Colby tried several of the items including: frog legs, caviar, alligator. Every night for  dessert Jon ordered the chocolate melting cake, he loved it.

Jon surprised me on our anniversary. After dinner he took me to the top of the ship and gave me a diamond band ring to go on top of my wedding ring. We had talked about getting one for our ten year anniversary back when we got married and he remembered. We ended up switching it out for a curved band when we got home because it fit around my ring better. But that was really sweet of him.

Our third and final stop was Half Moon Cay. This is a private Island and it was absolutely amazing. They parked the ship in the middle of the ocean and shuttled us on to the beach in little boats. They had a big BBQ area on the beach where we had lunch.  I am not kidding when I say this beach looks like a picture from a calendar. It was so beautiful. The sand was so soft and fine and white. The water was really warm and so clear. We could see tropical fish swimming around our feet. I could have spent 3 days on that beach. I was so sad to leave. If you have the chance to go to Half Moon Cay you should go, it is wonderful, I have never seen anything like it.

The way back to Florida on the ship was pretty rocky. The ship swayed back and forth a lot and we were happy to be back on land. And then our plane ride home had a lot of turbulence. Those two items along with missing our 3 kiddos made us happy to be home. But I still dream about going back to that beautiful Island one day.