Our Vacation!!

A little more than a week ago we got back from our fabulous vacation!! We decided that we really wanted to go on a cruise (again) and do it without the kids. It was hard for me (I've never left them before), but it was worth it. We had a great time! We found a great last minute cruise deal for a little 4 night cruise out of L.A. We wanted to keep it low cost so we drove out and everything worked out really well! We drove out on Sunday and boarded the boat Monday afternoon. We had two stops and one day at sea. We got back Friday and spent the day at Disneyland and drove back on Saturday. We had so much fun. A huge THANK YOU to Isaac's mom, My Mom, and Arlen for taking care of our kids while we were gone. Here are some highlights...

We have arrived!

The top of the boat and the inside. This is a "smaller" ship, but it was still pretty amazing.

Our first stop was on Tues. morning at Catalina Island. This little Island was so charming!! We completely fell in love with it! This also where we did our first excursion... Parasailing!! It was so fun and the girl who had my camera took way to many pictures but here are a few....

After Parasailing, we had lunch on the balcony of our Cruise boat and then went back to the Island to explore the little town a bit more.

Later that evening we had our "Formal" night. I love this night, I feel like I'm at Prom! And this is also Lobster night!! It was soooo good!

The next morning was stop number 2 at Ensenada, Mexico! The Sea lions were litterally 20 feet from our cruise ship! The other picture is of the coast line, our excursion for this stop drove us way out to La Bufadora where we went...

KAYACKING!

And the excursion ended with some amazing fish tacos! After that we did some shopping in town. It was a really fun day!

Our last day we were at sea all day while the boat made it's way back to L.A. I forgot to take pictures that day, but it was a really relaxing day! We went to the gym, slept, ate, watched a movie, and laid out by the pool. Then on Friday morning we were back in L.A. got off the boat as quickly as we could and spent the entire day at Disneyland!! At first, I felt a little guilty about being at Disneyland without my kids, but it didn't last long! It was Isaac's first time at Disneyland and he was really able to enjoy it. We had a blast and were able to do just about everything we wanted to. It's amazing how fast you can move without kids. ;) And again, way to many pictures so here is another slide show....

Discovery Museum

Last Saturday Uncle Peter and Whitney came down for a visit! Whitney said that she wanted to take the kids to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. She had coupons and offered to pay for the kids. I have been wanting to take them so I was all for it! We had so much fun!!! And can't wait to go back!

The first thing we came to was this great ball sucking contraption. It had all these tubes and sucked the balls up and down and all around. This was by far the kids favorite area. We had a hard time getting them to move on, and we ended up going back and then ending there as well.

Next Abby found a "bird house." She loved it!! It was just her size!

Upstairs they had this great Helicopter! It was a real one!

Benjamin and Abby "flying" the helicopter

Also upstairs Abby got buried in these little foam bits while she "excavated." Then Uncle Pete helped them play with these great magnets!

And their other favorite area was a mini sized grocery store!

Benjamin especially liked the check out!

THANK YOU Whitney and Pete!! We had soo much fun!

Birthday Party Sneak Peak

So for those of you who don't know.... I am one of those Birthday Party Freak Mom's. What can I say, I love Birthday parties! So for Benjamin's 3rd year Birthday Party coming up next month he want's a Train Birthday Party. So again I am making the Piñata and Birthday cake and I have a bunch of other things planned. I wasn't going to go all out but I just can't help myself. Anyway, because I have so much planned I am starting now. So I just finished his Piñata and I was so pleased with my efforts that I had to show you all how it turned out! Here it is....

Abby

Here she is looking so cute in her Easter dress....

And here she is after eating a whole bowl of Spaghetti!.... (she loves it!)

He Did It!!

Benjamin is Potty Trained!!! Wahoo!!! (I've only been changing two sets of diapers for over a year now) So, after a failed attempt last January, I was planning on training him again in late April. But in late March he decided (on his own) that he wanted to Potty train. So we went for it! He mastered going Pee Pee in a couple of days (with only 1 or 2 accidents a day), and he stayed dry all night! I thought, this is great! But..... he refused to Poo in his Potty (don't even mention trying on the toilet). He would go and hide and do it in his undies! Yuck! I was devastated and ready to try ANYTHING. And I tried EVERYTHING you can think of! But finally it was my Mother's advice that did the trick. Thank heaven for Grandma's! I kept him buck naked all day! And when he couldn't hold it anymore, he desperately panicked and begged me for diapers, underwear, anything! But there was no other place to do it... he had to go on the Potty! He cried the whole time, but he did it! And after he did he was so shocked and couldn't believe that he had done it! He was so happy and I almost cried tears of joy!!!! It's not that he didn't want to, for some reason, he was terrified to try. But after that first time.... he has done it every time in the toilet! The next time he had to go, we were at my In-laws house on Easter and he had to go, but the only place there was, was the big toilet. He was scared but willing to try. And he did it! After that we got rid of the little Potty and he has done it ever since on the big toilet! Hallelujah! Since then.... not one accident! He is totally trained! And I am sooo Proud! Way to Go Benjamin! You did it! So he might hate me some day for these pictures but here he is (in all his glory)...

Abby was excited too!

And here he is sporting his favorite undies, Thomas the tank engine undies!

Easter Weekend

This past weekend we had a fun little Easter. There were no city Easter Egg hunts this year (at least not in our area) so all the Mom's from our little Pre-school decided to get together and have one at a park. Every mom brought some eggs and we did it in between Conference Sessions. The kids had a blast! Except for Abby, she was a little sick and just did not want to be there. But she did all right.

After the kids got home they loved opening their eggs and seeing what was inside. Especially Abby, every time she opened an egg she said "Wow!" and was fascinated that there was stuff inside. However, she had no interest in eating the candy. Benjamin didn't mind eating it for her!

Later that night after Abby was in bed we decorated Easter Eggs! Benjamin got a kick out of dying the eggs and then sticking Stickers on them.

Also this weekend we got to listen to our church leaders speak at our Semi-Annual General Conference. It seemed that many of the talks were focused on the family and several specifically were about motherhood and the importance of teaching our children and being there for them. It was very inspiring and made me feel good to know that I am doing the right thing. There were also several messages about the Savoir and his glorious Resurrection (After all it was Easter Sunday)! It was such a beautiful Conference and what a great way to Celebrate Easter! Remembering that we have this Holiday because Christ Rose again. He lives! He overcame death so that we might live again and have the opportunity to live with him if we but keep his commandments. I love this video and wanted to share it. Happy Easter everyone!

Cousin Lindy

Last weekend I got to babysit for Allan and Lexi. I was so excited because I hadn't seen their baby, Lindy since she was born and my kids and Isaac had never even met her. Also my mom came down for the weekend as well. So it was a lot of fun. She is such a cute easy going baby! Benjamin thought she was just fascinating and loved trying to make her smile. And Abby kept going up to her and gently touching her while repeating over and over "Baby, baby, Baby." It was so cute! Anyway, here are a few more pictures...

Benjamin got her to smile right as I was snapping the picture!

Benjamin holding Lindy

Benji, Grandma, & Lindy

My mom with all her Grandchildren

And the end of the night, Lindy did a great job putting Grandma to sleep. ;)

My Bog Book!

Well it's finally done! I've actually had it now for about a month, but it took me a while to do this Post. So I took all of last year's Blog posts and created a Blog Book! Blurb.com has this great free software and then you pay to have your book published! I love it because as much as I would like to believe that I am a scrapbooker.... I'm not. And I have always loved that my Blog is my Family Journal, now it really is! It's beautiful! I am so thrilled with it! And I just wanted to share it with all of you ....

Front and Back Cover

Abigail's 1 Year Pictures

These beautiful pictures taken by Kate show her in all her cuteness at 1 year old! Enjoy!

She loves Elmo!

Such cute feet!

The End

My Spiritual Well Being

In the church there are times when others sacrifice so that we may be edified and there are times when we must sacrifice so that others may be edified. For the past couple of years my little family has been asked to sacrifice so that others may be edified. For those of you who don't know, Isaac is a counselor in our Bishopric (he is one of the leaders of our church congregation). And because of his call, for the last few years I have sat by myself in the congregation and had to try to keep my children quite and in their seats. And as a result, I am lucky if I can get one thing out of the messages that are shared. All though most days it does feel like a sacrifice, I try not to think of it as one because I am happy to support my husband in any call he receives from the Lord.

Today, we had our Semi-annual Stake Conference. Last night there was an adult session and all though I wanted to go, I knew my husband had to translate for it and I would just end up in the kids room not being able to hear because the children would be to noisy. So I decided not to go. My husband had a great experience and loved the messages shared. So he decided that today he wanted to give me that same experience. He did not have any obligations today, so I was excited that he would be sitting with me and helping me with the children. But he had an even better idea. He told me to go sit up front with some friends of ours and he would take the kids into the kid room and watch the kids while listening to conference. I said, "really??? are you sure?" He assured me that he would be fine and so I took him up on it! (Afterward, he said... "I don't know how you do it every sunday!")

My experience.... wonderful, amazing, re-freshing, and so spiritual! I forgot how wonderful it is to just sit and listen to the messages. When you have nothing else to worry about except listening, it sinks in so much more, thoughts come to your mind about how you can apply the message in your life, and the spirit just FLOWS. And when the spirit is poured out like it was today and your are able to just take it in, it is amazing and I think I cried throughout most of the 2 hour meeting. And the best part was the music, because I was so close it just sounded amazing. And the last song that the choir sang was this beautiful rendition of "How Great thou Art."

(the last two verses really hit me)

And when I think, that God his son not sparing,

Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,

That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing

He bled and died, to take away my sin

Then Sings my sould my Savior God, to thee,

How great thou art!

How great thou art!

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation,

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow, in humble adoration

And there proclaim, "My God How Great though Art!"

And I sobbed and sobbed tears of joy as the Holy Spirit testified to me personally that he lives and he loves me. And that moment, made it all worth it. It was so profound I can hardly put it in words. But it made the last few years of "sacrifice" seem like nothing. It is those defining moments in our lives that reassure us that this is Christ's church on the earth and we can receive personal revelation and confirmation of that statement. This is his church. It is lead by a living Prophet. And I know it.

Thank you Isaac, my wonderful, wonderful husband for this beautiful gift today. I didn't realize how badly I needed to be re-energized. Thank you for being concerned for not only my physical and emotional well being, but my spiritual well being as well! That is why I married you! I love you!

Zumba Benjamin

O.k. so as most of you know Benjamin loves to dance. But recently I have discovered that he loves Zumba and apparently can pick up choreography very quickly. He has a gift. So for those of you who are not familiar. Zumba is working out (aerobics) to Latin music. Most of the time it is Latin, but sometimes they throw in a fun Indian, Hip hop, or even country song. Here is Benjamin doing Zumba to Boro Boro. He learned it after watching me do it only twice! I had to video it! Enjoy!