I can't hide it anymore!

I've noticed the stares I've been getting lately from friends and family so I'm letting you all in on the secret together....

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I'm Pregnant!!!!

I guess it's just because it's #3, but I am definitely showing!! I am only 9 weeks along but I feel huge! I was trying to be good and not tell too early, but it's just not possible anymore. We are very excited, Ethan especially. He's been talking about a baby sister forever. ( It better be a girl!) I've been more sick with this pregnancy than my others so maybe it's a sign! The boys love to kiss my tummy and blow raspberries too. They have been so sweet about it. We are thrilled to have a little souvenir from our trip to Mexico, so we are thinking Jose if it's a boy and Magdalena if it's a girl! What do you think?! ;)

Fall fun

We still are in 90 degree weather, and I'm dying for it to cool down. I love the fall when I can cook without sweating in my kitchen. I have decided that I don't want to miss out on the fun fall traditions, so I've been making an effort to do them anyway. So I've been making soup, and baking a ton. A week ago we made caramel apples with the boys for family night, and they loved it. They weren't the prettiest apples but they were good!

This morning I attempted to make the cookies my Grandmother used to make us every Halloween. She would make sugar cookies and use candy corns to make a pumpkin face. The kids loved being able to decorate their own.

Porter liked trying to sneak them in his mouth instead.

I let the boys split a cookie before their nap. After I tucked Ethan in for his nap he told me as I walked out the door, "when I wake up I am going to eat five cookies!" Keep dreamin' kid!!

Child for sale!!!

Ok, I know that sounds bad, but...He's at it again!!I thought Porter was napping this afternoon, when I heard him start calling for me. I opened the door to find him naked with poop everywhere. This is the second day in a row!! I thought we were over this "cute" little phase. I just don't know what to do! Don't worry I won't post a picture, it was just too gross. Any curious readers can refer to my former post on the subject. So I spent the last hour of my precious nap time scrubbing poo out of the carpet, off the closet doors, and of course off my little boy!! He's lucky he's so stinkin' cute, I might keep him after all.

I'm feelin' irie mon!

Every year Rob's company sends their top producers on a trip. Since being with the company Rob's earned one every year but this year. That's why we went on our cruise last month with the kids. Well two weeks ago (a week before the trip) someone dropped out and the boss offered us their spot!! An all-inclusive trip to Jamaica, I couldn't believe it!!!! I have never won anything in my life, but when Rob called me with the news I wanted to run around my house as if I was on the Price is Right! It was pretty crazy trying to get ready to go in a week, but we did it, and we were off!

We left Wednesday night and arrived in Jamaica early the next morning. Then we had to take a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to our resort. We were so tired that we planned on sleeping when we got to our room, but when we got there and and took a look out of our balcony we got a second wind and couldn't wait to check the place out.

The resort was amazing! It had it's own private white sand beaches, at least 5 pools, and a water slide. You could also go kayaking, snorkeling, sailing, and paddle boating. The food was included so you could eat at the buffet, the grill, or make reservations for one of their specialty restaurants. I think the only downside to Jamaica is that it is so humid there, it makes it impossible to have a good hair day! We decided to try snorkeling in the bay. I was surprised how much we saw so close to the beach. We didn't go very far and we saw a huge lobster, sea urchins, and a ton of fish. We even saw a puffer fish that Rob of course had to poke at to try to get him to puff up!

After snorkeling the sleep deprivation caught up to us and we decided we better take a nap. That alone was a treat; to take naps and sleep in! Rob was feeling pretty "irie" (good) and wanted to feel like a local...

We had dinner at the Ginger Lily, a Chinese restaurant. The food was great!

After dinner they had a "pirates and wenches" show on the beach.

Friday we decided to leave the resort and walk into the city to the market. We had a lot of people warn us that the Jamaicans were pretty aggressive selling stuff as soon as you walk out the gate. Most of the people we talked to didn't get too far before just turning back. We decided to go with a group of people from the company, and it wasn't too bad. The market was pretty crazy. Each vendor had a small space divided by plywood and covered with tarps. We managed to get out with only a couple souvenirs, and decided we needed some ice cream! We found a Baskin Robbins around the corner, and it was a life saver in that heat!

When we got back to the resort we hopped in the pool. Somehow we ended up in the pool with all the kids that were in the resort's kids club. They were a bunch of Jamaican kids that were so cute. We were quickly friends and hung out with them for some time. We went down the water slide with them, and attempted to race them in the pool only to find out that they couldn't swim! How funny is that?! They wanted me to teach them how to float, they just couldn't get it, and kept sinking as soon as I let go of them. I wish I would have had my camera with me, they were so adorable, and it was probably a highlight of the trip to spend time with these local kids.

That night we had dinner with the whole group from the company at La Diva, great Italian food. I had an incredible chocolate mousse for dessert...

After dinner we took a walk and noticed a storm in the distance. We sat and watched it for a while, it was cool to watch the lightning over the water.

We woke the next morning to a very loud crack of thunder. For a few seconds I forgot where I was and thought it was an earthquake coming! Luckily that was the last of the storm and it was a beautiful day. We booked a catamaran to take us to Dunn River Falls.

Half way there they stopped and let us snorkel. The water was so warm and so clear.

When we got to the falls our guides instructed us to hold hands and form a chain. (This place is no joke, and something that you definitely wouldn't see done in the states! ) So you hold hands and climb up 950 ft. to the top! There are 3 groups going at a time so it's pretty crowded.

In a few places on the way up the water forms little pools that you can sit in, but very cold!

This was quite the adventure and I would say it's something you have to do if you go, so cool! We didn't think to bring any food with us, so when we got back we headed strait for the grill, and then hung out until our dinner at the South Beach Grill. We were both excited to see steak on the menu, and it did not disappoint.

The next day was Sunday, and we were lucky enough to spot this as we were taking the bus to the resort...

We weren't sure if it was a church office or an actual meeting place because it was upstairs in a strip mall. We tried calling a few days before but didn't get through to anyone. We tried talking to the locals to see if they knew, and it seemed as though no one had even heard of the church. Someone told us that all the churches start at 10am so we planned on going then. They were right, the whole town was practically shut down. The streets were almost empty, quite the change from our previous experience. I was glad though since we were by ourselves this time. We didn't have to go to far, it was actually in the same building as the Baskin Robbins. I have never been to church in a foreign country, it was very eye opening. We got there a few minutes early and we were the only ones there besides the missionaries. They told us that they always start late, the Jamaicans are a little too laid back :) They told us that the church has only been in Jamaica for about 30 years, so there aren't too many members yet. When things got started there were probably about 20 people there, half of which were children. I stayed in the same room for all 3 hours. There was a man there that had taken in 11 kids to care for with his own 2. Truly amazing people!! Again the kids were so quick to be friends with you, we couldn't get these 2 little boys to go to primary, they just wanted to sit by us and talk. Rob said that it reminded him of his mission in Uruguay. It was something that I'll never forget. After church we spent most of our day reading our books by the pool. It started to rain so we found a nice covered area so we could enjoy it.

Monday we slept in and missed breakfast. We headed down for an early lunch and decided to try out the hobi. They had someone that took us out and he got it up on one side. We were so close to tipping over, I'm not sure how he got it back on the water. It was pretty fun.

We did a little more snorkeling and Rob found a conch shell. I was so excited to bring it home. I wrapped it in my towel while we hung out at the beach. We went to show it to some friends only to find out there was something living in it! There were some creepy skinny black tentacles moving around inside. I was really glad we noticed before I packed it in my suitcase! While I was hunting for some shells I could take home, Rob was hunting for hermit crabs with a little boy that was with our group. I went over to check out their findings, and they found a ton of them! Then I looked at my handful of shells and realized their were legs hanging out of one of the shells! So I did what any tough chick would do and screamed like a little girl and dropped all my shells in the water. Rob got quite a good laugh out of this, but was nice enough to help me find most of the shells I dropped.

That night we hung out in the jacuzzi, and met a really nice British couple. We had a lot of good laughs comparing countries and "accents". It seemed like half of the people there were European, I definitely saw more speedos than I ever care to see. Luckily our friend in the hot tub was not one of them.

We spent Tuesday morning reading by the pool and got ourselves a bit sunburned. I was actually surprised that we hadn't until then. We had another excursion booked that afternoon to go tubing down White River. We were picked up in one of these...

It was a 45 min ride to get to the river. It was nice to see more of the city on the way. This was a fruit stand on the side of the road.


Then we saw this man walking with this bucket on his head.

The kids would all wave as we drove by...

Once we got through the city we drove on a one lane, very bumpy road surrounded by dense vegetation. It was so beautiful. When we got there our river guide got us geared up and ready to go.

The tubing was pretty mellow most of the time, with 3 spots that had some rapids to go through. I almost tipped over on the last one, but somehow recovered. We didn't have a camera while on the river, we didn't want to spend another 25 bucks at the gift shop for a waterproof! So you'll have to use your imagination!

At the end of the ride they had a great place to hang out and take pictures.

Wednesday came too soon, and it was time to go. We were missing our boys though and couldn't wait to see them. They had a great time with their grandparents and uncle Trevor. Here they are giving Grandma last hugs before we took them home. I'm not sure what's up with their silly zoolander faces!

Thanks for taking such good care of our boys!

Our little Padawan

A long time ago(Friday), in a galaxy far, far away(Disneyland), our little Ethan was chosen to train as a Jedi!! I have loved this show, but always wondered if it would be to scary for him. He recently started watching Star Wars with his dad, and really liked it, so we gave it a try. Not everyone gets picked so we were pretty excited. He was given his light saber and couldn't figure out how it worked....

We were there with my sister and her family, and her son Spencer was picked too! They even placed them right next to each other, so it made for easy picture taking!!


Even though Ethan was right next to the instructing Jedi, he would always turn to see what Spencer was doing, and follow him.


Can you see why I was worried?! They look like they are right out of the movie!!

Ethan was so brave, and really gave it to Darth Vader!! Here he is in action...

Props to my Mom!

My mom is queen of making things by scratch. If there is one thing my mom is famous for, it's her cinnamon rolls. Anyone that knows my mom can back me up on this. She made these rolls all the time and for any occasion. She even figured out how to make them into candy canes and wreaths at Christmas time to give to our neighbors and friends. Last night I was going through some family recipe cards and came across this recipe. I think I went to bed dreaming about them because when I woke up it was the first thought in my head. I had to have them!! Now, I have only attempted to make these once before and failed miserably, but today was a new day and I was determined to do it right. I must say they turned out pretty good, and I was pretty proud of myself! Ethan sure liked them; he ate five! Eating these are definitely a fond childhood memory of mine and I hope I can create my own family memories with these...

Maybe there's hope for me yet to become maybe half as good as a cook as my mom. Next thing to tackle...Mom's homemade bread...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I love you Mom!!

We miss Aunt Shawna!!

It was such a treat to have Shawna come visit. The kids were so excited that she got to sleep at our house a few nights. We miss her whole family, and can't wait to be able to see them all again.

Ethan especially misses his "best friend" Aiden. He wrote a letter to him to send with Shawna that went like this:

Dear Aiden,

I love you. I miss you. I love your silly faces. I love your brothers and sister and your mom and dad.

Love, Ethan

I think there was more to it, maybe Shawna can fill in the rest...it was pretty cute. This pic is old, but one of my favorites of them together. I found them playing in the dog food outside. They were filthy, but having a great time!