Our Family Cruise

Well it all started mid November when I started to think about what I should get the kids for Christmas.  I was really hating the idea of buying anything really.  With our move we have worked so hard to de junk our home that I just really detested the thought of buying our kids more "stuff."  So we decided a better option would be to give them an experience and we had been wanting to take our kids on a cruise and to a beach for sometime now that we thought this might be a better use of our Christmas funds.  We brought the idea to the kids and proposed that instead of a lot of gifts we just go on a cruise.  Most of them loved the idea.  The only one hesitant was Brayden mostly because he was worried about our ship sinking or losing Emmitt overboard.  Fears which he fortuntately quickly overcome.  So we looked into it and booked our family on a Carnival cruise leaving out of Galveston on December 6.  We couldn't go during exam time at school and the prices were outrageous over actual Christmas time so we had an "early" Christmas present enjoying our cruise present before Christmas.  The cruise was made exponentially more fun when our friends the Thomases decided to come along.  Now it was a real party!

Day 1
We drove to Houston the night before and attended the Thomases ward Christmas party in the morning.  After a lovely Christmas breakfast we loaded up in our vans for Galveston.  The first picture is of our kids waiting at the port terminal while the dads parked the vans.  It was quite a sight to see that many kids lined up and we began to ask ourselves if we were crazy for doing this.  Then we got into line (see pic on the right) and waited for over 2 hours to check in and then we were no longer wondering if we were crazy- we knew that yes indeed we were crazy.  The bottom picture is the kids on the bridge to get onto the ship.  As we walked on Emmitt was chanting, "I'm so excited, I'm so excited"  So even though we knew we were crazy for doing it, we also knew it was going to be fun fun fun!

 Once on board we checked out the ship and headed to the buffet.  It was a bit chaotic figuring it all out.  Once we later on found our central spot, the buffet and mealtimes went a lot more smoothly.

Then it was time for the family dance party.  That was a hit with both young and old.  Afterwards the adults went to dinner in the dining room and the kids spent some time at kids club.

DAY 2
 This was a sea day so we decided to try out brunch in the dining room.  The kids loved having their own table and all the food was delicious!

 Then we filled the rest of the day with swimming, waterslides, kids club, Dr Seuss activities, and of course - ice cream.  They had 24 hour ice cream machines and the kids had free reign so needless to say they ate A LOT of ice cream.

 Then dinner was formal night, so Emmitt went to kids club (hooray for kids club) and the other kids got fancied up and joined us for a comedy show and fancy dinner in the dining room.  Brayden tried alligator and Makenna ordered lobster.  It was so fun to experience it all with the kids.

Day 3

Cozumel.  This day was incredible.  We taxied ourselves to a beach club called Playa Mia.   It was gorgeous and not crowded at all and perfect for the kids with a beautiful beach and pool and tons to do.  This was one of those days I wish I could live over and over again.

 So the inflatables in the ocean were a blast but there was a drawback.  In swimming to and from them, we all got a bit attacked by the jellyfish.  Here Makenna is showing off her wounds.

Brielle LOVES the beach- can you tell?

On the way back to the ship it started to rain- perfect timing!

jkj

DAY 3 Progresso Mexico

After the cruise when Emmitt was asked what his favorite part of the cruise was he always answered "the rooms."  Those small little hole like cabins were his favorite part.  I dont know if it was sleeping with his family or sleeping on the ship or what but he loved the rooms :)

First order of business upon arriving in Progresso was outfitting everyone with sunglasses so they (and by they I mean Brielle) would stop stealing mine :)

Then we joined a tour bus that drove us to a beach club which was a bit less kid friendly than our experience in cozumel.  It was more of an adult (want to get really drunk) crowd.  Hopefully our kids didnt see too much.  It was funny though when we boarded the bus and the tour guide was giving his shpeel he said "now we have A LOT of kids on our bus today"  But when I looked around the only kids were the ones in our group - which yes I guess was a lot :)

The beach was not nearly as beautiful as Cozumel but the kids loved that there was some waves they could ride and it was shallow really far out so they had a good time playing in the ocean there.

 There was a great pool area the kids enjoyed.  I think the highlight was cracking a few coconuts and drinking the coconut water.  Another fun experience to have with the kids.

And on the way back to the ship we fit in some souvenir shopping.

 And here they are- "A LOT of kids" (and two are missing from this picture)

 

Here is Emmitt when we picked him up from kids club.  They had a pirate party that night.  A few times they painted his face and he wouldnt let us wash it off so he was always quite a sight.

Day 4 At Sea

Filled with eating, mini golf, hot tubbing, basketball, towel folding, more comedy shows and fun fun fun!

All in all it was a great time and a very Merry "Cruisemas" indeed.

Thanksgiving

This year Oma and Opa joined us for our Thanksgiving Feast.  We had a nice dinner early in the day so that the older two kids and Opa and Dad could go to the Dallas Cowboys football game.  Kevin had won the coveted tickets at work.  Later that evening Oma played games with the little kids while I snuck out to Target for just a short Black Friday (on Thursday) shop.  Then when we were all home together, we hit the hot tub.  All in all, it was a great day with yummy food, fabulous company and fun times.  We have so so very much to be thankful for!

ICE!

The Gaylord hotel here hosts an ICE exhibit every December and we heard it was quite a sight to behold.  We were lucky to have Oma here to join us and our friends the Schaaks as we checked out the 2 million pounds of hand carved Ice.  The theme was Frosty the Snowman and I think the highlight for the kids was the slides carved from ice that the kids could slide down.  I liked the hand carved nativity.  It was all pretty cool and we had a great time freezing our little bottoms off.  Ironically it was warmer outside than it was in there.  I guess that's Christmas in Texas!

My Soccer team

About half way through this soccer season, I could see Brielle's enthusiasm waning and her coach seemed not very invested in the team so I just politely offered to take over for him.  He was thrilled to give me the team and said it was an answer to prayer for him.  I have of course no soccer experience but I wanted Brielle to have a good experience so I gave it a try.  With a lot of help from the internet I learned drills and soccer techniques and we muddled our way through the rest of the season.  I started out stressed about it but ended up just loving it.  I loved the girls and the games and watching them improve and enjoy themselves.  It was a great experience.    I sure hope Brielle keeps up with soccer and maybe next season lands herself a coach who both loves the team and knows the game. 

GO DYNAMOS!

Home Decorating Projects

So I am having a lot of fun with some decorating projects around the house.  Yesterday I took on the piano bench.  I havent ever reupholstered anything before but this didnt look too difficult.  I basically just took apart the old cover and then used those pieces of fabric as templates to cut out my new fabric and then I just sewed them back together the same as I took them apart.  Of course it always sounds easier than it is.  It did still take several hours.  But it was really fun and I love how it turned out.  It ties in with my new drapes that I made and co ordinating pillow. 

One thing that I am terrible about is taking "before" pictures.  I just forget to do that before I get started.  So I found this one picture from our old house when we first were gifted the piano in February.  You cant really tell from the pictures but its a deep blue purple velvet.  If you scroll down to Emmitts birthday pictures you can see it in the background of the pinata pictures. Im sure in the right room it would've worked but it just wasnt working for me. 

BEFORE

AFTER:

And here are the pillows I sewed to co ordinate with:

 And here are the drapes I made for both the dining room and the piano room. 

Happy Birthday Emmitt!

Emmitt is 4!  We had a great time celebrating this big day in his life.

His choice for his birthday breakfast was donuts, sausage, and apple juice.  Then he opened his presents.  He got a variety of very boyish toys including a sword he had been eyeing at Target for some time now. 


As a humorous sidenote, later that day when inevitabley Emmitt was directing his sword toward Dallas  I told him that if he uses it to hurt the dog or anyone else then we will take it away, to which he replied "then why did you get this for me?"  (Clearly this kid is smarter than his parents ;)

For dinner, he chose to go to Culvers- no suprise there.


Then on Saturday we had his party.  I had one of my bigger mom mess ups that day.  About 10 minutes after the party was supposed to start, there still were no guests so I sent out a few texts and discovered that I had put the wrong date on the invitation.  OOOPS!!!  Luckily, I had only invited four kids (2 of whom were twin brothers) and the twins mom had fortunately misread the invitation and was on her way anyways.  Then one of the other boys was able to come last minute as well.  So for such a big mistake we lucked out with 3 of our 4 guests being able to make it.  Plus one of Braydens friends came to to hang out so we can say he had 4 guests after all.
Fewf...  I cant believe I did that. 

Anyways, the party was a hit, we played a few games, beat down a pinata, and ate cake.  I think a good time was had by all.

 yes- the train cake is back- for the third year in a row :)

Happy Happy Birthday Emmitt!!! I cant believe you are 4.  Where did my snuggly little baby go?  Love you much!

Kitchen Update

So our cabinets are finally done and I love how it turned out.  I wasnt going to post this yet because I still want to buy hardware and change out the pendant lights but that could take me forever to decide on so I'll post where we are at and keep you posted as I finish it all up.

Again- I am terrible at before pictures.  I had this one on my phone that doesnt even show the whole room.  Why oh why dont I ever remember to do good before pictures!