Our Spontaneous Christmas Day Adventure!!!

We usually spend Christmas in California every year at my In-laws place. This year I had told Barry that I would rather save the money and just stay home. So we had a really enjoyable Christmas morning except for the fact that Tommy was in Texas :( We always miss him so much when he is gone! 

Our house was quite the disaster for the rest of the day... who wants to clean on Christmas??

Well, the weather that day was freezing and blizzarding (is that a word?) Barry especially hates the cold. So he came up with a brilliant idea! "Lets drive to California and get out of this crap. NOW!" After talking me into it and calling the border because I couldn't find my passport, we decided to go!

I had a roast in that was done so we pulled it out and threw it into the freezer (we would later get hot dogs for Christmas dinner on the way! haha) We packed in an hour. Took the Christmas gifts upstairs, left the garbage and loads of Christmas candy all over the house and walked out the door!

The weather was pretty bad when we got into Utah! But we made a stop at one of my favorite restaraunts Cafe Rio to see some of my family! 

I love them and don't' see them near enough! They wanted us to stay the night but honestly, I just wanted to get out of the weather! We saw so many cars spun out on the highway!! We were happy when at around 1 am we arrived at our hotel for the night! 

You can imagine my joy when I woke up in St. George, Utah to a blue sky, warm air and NO SNOW!!! I love St. George and spent a lot of time here as a kid. 

Our first stop was VEGAS!! I think it was even more amazing because it was WARM! 

 Vegas is so exciting! So much to do and so many fun things to see!

 Street Performers!

 And of course the kids LOVED M&M world!

 These are Ice pillars at one of the malls

 The Venetian Hotel is gorgeous!!

 We had to stop at another one of our favorite restaurants Grand Lux!!

 Then it was off to Palm Springs, one of our favorite places to be!

 We did lots of relaxing!

 We had to build our Christmas break puzzle!

Played games

 Went to see the house that my father in law is building to flip.

 Had warm walks in the sun!

 Bought loads of Trader Joes Salsa!

 Played in the pool, rested in the sun and read!

and of course visited our favorite restaurants... AGAIN. A common these right!

 Then it was time to head home again!

I'm so glad that Barry suggested this trip! Fun, Spontaneous and well worth it!

Some joy in the mundane!

My poor neglected blog... I don't actually feel to bad about it! If you know me, you know winter is NOT my season! I wish I was that person to get out and enjoy every season, but lets face it... I was meant to be plopped on a sunny beach somewhere; clear turquoise waters and warm balmy air! When asked recently what my dream job would be, if nothing else stood in the way, I said, "To run a tropical surf/scuba/adventure shop on the beach in some tropical location with as little commercialism as possible!

I write this as I stare at the grey sky out the window... blah!

Well, lucky for me, I will soon be rescued from this mundane weather. For the first time ever I will be going away on my anniversary! Yes, at the coaxing of my in laws. They obviously love me and know that my husband works ALL THE TIME! Well, they talked him into booking us a cruise to the eastern Caribbean! I absolutely love cruising... best way to see the world in my opinion! We will be going on Royal Caribbeans Allure of the Seas - the largest cruise ship in the world holding 5,400 passengers. Which is about double any other ship. So in 3.5 weeks I will be enjoy 10 whole days with my husband, alone! In a tropical location. It is safe to say I am in heaven!

I will say though, we have had some great times this winter. Namely birthdays. We all have our birthdays in the winter (Dec, Jan, Feb, March) The last being Tommy's! I can't believe he is 10!!

With every passing year I become more and more afraid of the teen years and the choices he will make, but Barry always reminds me of what a great kid he is now and why will that change? It is so true.

Tommy is a gem! So sweet, makes good choices and tries really hard to be a great friend and brother! I couldn't ask for a better kid! I would say his life is a bit more stressful that a lot of kids with him traveling back and forth to Texas to visit his dad. But I will tell ya, the kid always leaves with a smile and returns with a smile! I think he is starting to see the benefits of it in his life. 2 Christmas's, 2 birthdays, Vacations to Texas multiple times a year as well as the fact that he LOVES to tell people how independent he is because he flies alone so much.

For his birthday he got a really great basketball hoop and as of this very moment he is out there with his best bud, shooting hoops! Lets say he is in love with it! Though, he is an easy kid to please! Happy Birthday Tommy. We love you so much!!!

Ramblings, Goals and a little eye candy!

Every saturday morning I think I'll get the chance to sleep in. I get all excited on friday night just thinking about those precious extra hours of nothingness! Than saturday morning comes and along with it comes what I like to call, "My life is not my own!" The nagging of a hungry and TV wanting 4 yr old. The chatter from the crib in the room next door and the gut wrenching guilt that I should probably go get her. Because deep down, I have a hard time letting Macy suffer, at all! Lets also not forget the husband, bless his heart, who is hoping for some saturday morning attention. See, like I said, My life is not my own! Thanks to my really independent and helpful 9 yr old, I can quickly get them settled with him and head back for at least a few more moments of dreamland.

I hope no one takes this as complaining... I assume most of us feel this way at times! And really, do I want my life to be my own?? Not really, that would be quite a lonely and boring existance!

I realized yesterday that I hadn't written down my goals for 2012.

Like most people, I have a lot of things I would like to improve on such as; more consistant prayer and scripture study, taking more pictures of my family, since quantity isn't available... more quality time with friends, and spending less and spoiling less!

But, I have decided on a few larger goals for 2012.

1. I want an need to become more organized. With my house, Macy's medical documents, and my time. I'll gladly accept any tips and tricks!

2. I want to set up a budget. I am the mom who buys on a whim and I want to stop doing that. I want to keep better track of spending and make better choices about what we NEED and dont need. Though I told my husband that he isn't allowed to do the budget with me... funny I know. But when we budget together I get crazy anxiety.

3. The last thing is going to be hard for me but a good challange. I want to do more little things for people around me; friends, neighbors etc. Last year we donated so much to charities and did fundraisers. But I think you can make HUGE changes in peoples lives with a homemade batch of cookies. I am not the best about taking meals to new mothers or taking treats to neighbors, but I want to improve on that. I want to do this because it is the people closest to me that directly bless my life and I need to show my appreciation! My hope is to do one per week!

Okay, with that said, on to the rest of the vacation pictures. I have to say, I regret that I have no pictures of Tommy on our trip. He was at his dad's the majority of the time. But I am going to get some good ones of him up on this blog soon.

 If you notice in the pool picture, Kyla is holding onto Macy's float. Protective or controlling? You decide!

 We put on some Justin Beiber music and I'll admit, we are big fans! Especially Kyla. Her and Sadie were having a major dance party on the side of the hot tub! Not quite sure yet where Kyla got her hip thrusting and rotating moves... I'll have to keep an eye on her!

 

Again, we ended up going to Disnelyland. But just for one day this time and the park was extremely busy, but we did get on a few rides with the girls. And of course, within the first hour of being in the park, Barry had to buy Cotton Candy for them!

At least we believe in a wholesome breakfast!

The only ride at Disneyland that Kyla really wanted to go on was (in her words) "The horses that go around and around.!

 I am thinking that we have done Disney enough for a few years! So maybe next year we will do Universal, Sea World or Lego Land! Any Suggestions?