Super C and Super K

Thanks to Layton Library's, "A Night of Superheros," Colby and Kara got to pretend they had super powers and participate in activities including decorating a cape and mask, listening to stories read by community superheros (the mayor, etc.), running through an obstacle course, and getting autographs from all kinds of famous superheros. And Kara even won a drawing in which she scored a spiderman placemat. Lucky Girl. Some darn good times were had that night.

Easter

Easter morning, admiring their Easter baskets

Friday night, Grandpa Richins picked Colby up and took him to his house for a sleep-over with Wesley and Connor (Colby's cousins). On top of taking care of 3 boys under the age of 5 for a day and night, Grandpa dyed dozens and dozens of eggs with them. Crazy Grandpa Richins.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandpa Richins'

Kara was very possessive of her Easter basket. If anyone got near it, she would scream, "Mine! No!" Her basket got so heavy with eggs, but she still refused to let go. Instead, she made me carry her, so she could carry the basket. Then she got a hold of someone else's and wouldn't let go of that either.


After the kids found all the eggs, Grandpa would sneak the eggs out of their basket and hide them again to make the hunt last longer.




Holding one of Grandpa's bunnies




Coloring Easter Eggs at play group

Saturday night, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Snows house for another Easter Egg hunt, a yard clean-up and a barbeque. All 15(?) grandkids searched for eggs full of candy and money. They were a big hit.

After nice Easter Sunday church meetings, we went to the Jackson's and had an indoor barbeque. We usually attempt an Easter picnic, but opted to stay indoors this year.

Thirty Flirty and Thriving

Sunday, I turned 30. And it wasn't nearly as traumatic as I expected. If I really think about it, I could get kinda sad and depressed But when I think about being 30 and if I'm where I want to be, I can sincerely answer yes. I know I whine and complain about things A LOT, but when it really comes down to it- there's nothing else I'd want to be doing, or any other age I'd like to be. So that's that. And if anyone is wondering, the saying on the sign is from a movie-one of my very favorites. I'll be impressed if you can name it. If you can, than you're invited over to my house for an 80's party. (Katrina is in charge of my publicity- she also provided my signage after having my babies). Thanks Trina!

I'd have to say, Cameron is pretty smooth. He managed to pull one over me and plan a surprise party at our house on Saturday night. It was a combination of Cameron's smoothness and my denseness that pulled it off. I was truly surprised and we all had a good time. I didn't take many pictures, but here is one of us eating Cameron's famous sweet pork. Mmmm. it was good.




And this a picture of the roses Cameron gave me. The red ones symbolize my years before I met Cameron, the white ones are the years married to Cameron and the pink ones are the years with the kids. I thought it was pretty sweet.

Here are a few gifts I received:

Gorgeous earrings from Cameron- They are so pretty, I love them!

And my mom gave me this and I love it! I'm not sure how I ever lived without one- I highly recommend it.

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes and for a great 30th- I truly had a wonderful birthday. Thanks especially to Cameron for putting in all the effort for me having a day I'll never forget.

The Cruise

The Carnival Imagination

I know it's over a month late, but I'm obviously a little behind on blogging. It's not near as exciting to blog about something that happened more than a month ago, but it'll help me relive some of the memories (good and bad).

Cameron and I are known for doing things last minute. Most of our "vacations" are little trips that we've decided to do a few days before either because of open flights or because Cameron has some random days off. Our cruise was no exception. We had talked about going on a cruise all winter but it wasn't until Cameron got his February schedule with 10 days in a row off that we decided to go for it. We booked it about a week before it's scheduled departure, February 7th.

Of course, most of the planning for any trip involves finding childcare. The kids ended up going to Karen's, Katrina's and then to Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's. Thanks everyone!

The Carnival Imagination Itinerary:

Departure city: Miami

First stop: Key West

Second stop: Cozumel

Day at Sea

Highlights (#1 being the favorite)

9. Shopping for Swimsuits

8. The midnight buffet

7. Ordering 2 appetizers for myself every single dinner (along with the salad, entree and dessert of course)

6. Our waiter, Evgeney

5. Watching people humiliate themselves doing Karaoke

4. A break from messes, whining and responsibility

3. 80 degree weather in Cozumel

2. The Dining room food.

1. Floating in the ocean at the beach in Cozumel

Lowlights:

5. Shopping for swimsuits (Cameron)

4. The Carnival Ship Mascot

3. The Imagination Dancers dancing in G-strings (during the "family show")

2. The awful smell in the corridor

1. Laying on the floor at the airport while waiting for an open flight because I had a fever, severe body aches, chest cold, and horrible headache

*****

Will we go again? Absolutely, probably not on Carnival and probably not flying standby, but another cruise is definitely in our future.

The dining room. The food was incredible. I ate probably the best salmon of my life.

Cameron hanging out on the sailboat we took for our Cozumel sail/snorkel/beach excursion

Just a tiny part of a special midnight buffet

One of the couples we met- Amber and ....I can't remember his name. Also with Evgeney our waiter from Russia. He was the best. We usually stuck around after dinner just to chat with him.

Formal night. I even got Cameron to go dancing with me at the night club. It was so much fun.

P.S. Sorry if this is hard to read- no matter how hard I try, blogger has a mind of it's own and won't let me space things out the way I want them.

Serenity Now

Please take the time to read the Colby quotes. Any parenting advice would be greatly appreciated right about now.

Ah, numero quatro

I've heard from many people that age 3 is harder than age 2 despite the term "the terrible two's." Well, I hated it when people told me that because Colby was very very tough for me at age 2. I often thought I wouldn't survive age 3 if it was indeed harder. At first, this theory wasn't holding true, thank goodness, as Colby appeared to be better behaved after turning 3. Now that 3 is almost over, I've determined that age 3 was just about as tough as age 2, but for different reasons. At age 2, Colby went through-we'll call them "naughty" phases, for long periods of time. At age 3, the phases seemed shorter, but were more frequent and packed a bigger punch.

So here is where I get to the point. For all of you who told me 3 is harder than 2, you are implying that age 4 is easier than both. So about when does the transformation take place? Does it happen on the eve of the fourth birthday? Or maybe the actual day of? Or perhaps the day after when he's actually had a little practice at being 4. I am highly anticipating this since Colby's fourth birthday is about 6 weeks away. I can tell you this transformation definitely doesn't take place 6 weeks before. I swear he has saved up all the times he wasn't naughty before and is giving us the smack-down in a big way right now. Maybe he's just preparing me for this wonderful transition so that I'll really appreciate the well- behaved age 4 that I am so much expecting. Ya, that must be it.

Despite the fact that my patience has been tried more than I ever could have imagined, Colby is still a very sweet boy and continues to melt my heart on a regular basis. My favorite thing he does is when he gives me a hug and tells me, "Mom, you're my best."

Hooked Up

After a few weeks of our computer being taken over by a frightening virus that threatened our life as we know it, we are functioning again and communicating with the outside world once more. It's good to be back. Thanks Kevin!!!

A lot has happened. Not really. But about 2 weeks ago I went from loving my jobless life to deciding to go back to work, in only a matter of minutes. Hmm, weird, isn't it- that I'd change my mind like that? And I guess I've also been known to be somewhat impulsive in the past. Well anyways, fortunately (for me) the school district needs SLPs really bad so they took me with few questions asked. It happened so fast I wasn't even sure I had properly thought over my impulsive request. Well, the decision had been made and I started yesterday. Just one day a week. Really, quite ideal actually. I really enjoyed doing therapy again and getting out of the house for a short time. I'm only doing this till the end of the school year since I don't want to commit to anything long term. However, chatting with the grossly overworked SLP, whom I'm helping out, re-affirmed my decision to quit in the first place. I need those re-affirmations every-once-in-a-while, ya know.