This is still in Grand Cayman.

Ben, Hallie, and uncle Brett

Ben and Hallie building a sand castle.

My parents laying out at the beach.

This is one of my dads firefighter buddies that also went on the cruise. He was a stranger to Hallie but when he offered her ice cream she went with him without even looking back. I guess we know what we need to work on for talking or dealing with strangers… EVEN IF THEY OFFER YOU ICE CREAM!!! After this incident all the grandparent firefighters that were also on the ship kept coming and taking Hallie to get ice cream. 🙂

Ben and Hallie on the Tender boat as we road back to the ship.

Memories:

• All of us together on the beach with warm weather at last!
• Snorkeling!! It was the highlight of the trip. We saw beautiful fish and a string ray.
• Hallie loving the water again! She’s such a little fish. My dad taught her how to kick her feet and swim.
• Getting a tan line finally!
• Going to the town of Hell and buying a post card.

DAY: 6: ALL DAY AT SEA

No pictures.

Memories:

• Hallie finally having a huge chess set to play with.
• Just hanging out
• Parents taking Hallie again so Ben and I could eat dinner in peace and relax.

DAY 7: GOING HOME

Our little family waiting to go through customs.

Hallie in the airport eating trail mix.

Ben set up Hallie’s bed and she took a little nap. I was surprised at how well she slept-normally she can’t sleep with any noise.  We were very grateful.

While waiting the five hours at the airport we met a hispanic woman who was kind enough to let Hallie love on her little grand baby. Hallie was so happy and giggly.  She thinks she’s ready to be a big sister.

Memories:

• Being sad to say goodbye to my parents. We miss them terribly!!!
• Offering to take the next flight to D.C. in the morning because Southwest over booked our flight. We ended lucking out because 2 people didn’t show up.  We got to go on our same flight plus we got almost $700 in flight vouchers. YAY we really have been blessed. This will pay for us to go to Ben’s brother’s wedding in May.
• Coming home to snow and cold!

RANDOM:

Here is our room. I loved room service!!! Every time we left our room they came in and cleaned it. They always left a little towel animal. The one in the picture is a monkey hanging from our ceiling.

We had a great end to our 2009 year thanks to our friends the Hardings. They had a wonderful party that we just couldn’t pull ourselves from. I had originally thought that we would last until around 10 pm and then we would go home (pregnancy has been making me sleep A LOT lately). However, we stayed and celebrated the New Year. Hallie even got to enjoy most of the night. She stayed up and played until 10 pm and then we put her to sleep in an extra room. It is so nice to have a little girl old enough to play on her own and not have to watch her every move. Ahhh it was wonderful not having to chase her and worry. She’s old enough to play with all the big kids now. 🙂

Hallie was already asleep by midnight when we took this picture.

Guess who went on a date?! If you guessed me you are right! It was so much fun to go out to eat and socialize (thanks to our neighbor Eula who gave us a gift card).

Here I am getting ready

Hallie loves to help with EVERYTHING! I love her chesser in the top picture.

The happy couple!

P.S. I just wanted to brag that I got a love letter for Christmas from the handsome man pictured above! He’s so WONDERFUL!

The week before Christmas we got a HUGE storm. It snowed and snowed and snowed. In the three total years I have lived in DC we have never got this much! The area seriously does not know how to react to this much snow. Everything shut down including church.  I LOVED it!!

Ben helping a neighbor get his car in his spot.  Don’t ask why he pulled it out of his spot just to put it back in! NO one knows how to drive in the snow out here. Ben was getting so frustrated with this guy who just kept spinning his wheels.

We played outside for a while but Hallie only has the cotton gloves that don’t work well in the snow. She played until her hands hurt then I took her inside. As you can tell she wanted desperately to be back outside.

Christmas morning breakfast! I asked Hallie to smile and this is what I got. Silly girl!

I didn’t have any presents under the tree until Christmas morning. (I knew Hallie would try and open them.) She was really excited!

Opening her first present. I think the wrapping paper was the highlight of her day. 🙂

And another one. At first she would tear off little pieces at a time. It only took a few presents before she got faster and much more efficient.

One of her presents was a softball glove. We had to teach her how to use it because first thing she did with it was put it on her head and call it a hat. haha

We were able to skype with both of our families on Christmas. Hallie decided, without any encouragement, to give kisses. It was hilarious!!!

At our ward Christmas party the primary children acted out a little nativity scene. Hallie insisted on going on the stage so I gave her an angel’s halo and up she went. Let me just tell you she stole the show! She walked along the front until she placed herself perfectly. Then she looked out across the crowd and gave them the biggest cheeser grins (the picture doesn’t capture it fully). She knew she was cute and that everyone was looking at her. lol I was drying I was laughing so hard. Don’t ask me where she gets it from!

Beautiful Hallie in her Christmas dress. Thanks Nanna Romrell!

When you are sick and don’t feel like doing much you will try anything to entertain a toddler.

For example:  I made jello pudding and let Hallie play with it in the tub. She loved it and it entertained her for a good 30 min while I just sat there and watched. HAHA  Well, and took tons of pictures of course.

Just getting started and a little unsure.

First taste test.

Evidence that it tasted good.

Getting a little more into it.

Really into it now. P.S. I had a little fun writing on her.

More eating was involved.

The final result=good times and fairly easy cleanup.

You can consider this an announcement!!

Coming July 9th, 2010

It snowed in Virginia!!!!! I was so excited. We pulled the blinds up in all the windows and just stared at the beautiful snow flakes. It made me feel like I was home (Utah).

We took Hallie sledding. She is so funny! At first she seemed really nervous but then she finally started to smile. Silly girl!

We had another wonderful Virginia Thanksgiving this year. We were blessed to join Ben’s second cousins the Stoker’s for their feast. Boy was it good. Carol really goes the extra mile and makes everything from scratch. I mean even the stuffing came from homemade bread. We were spoiled to say the least!!!

Here are some pictures of our meal

I’m kicking myself now because I didn’t get any pictures of us!! DUH

That same Thanksgiving weekend we went up to the Shenandoah mountains where the Stokers were camping for the weekend. We only stayed for one day but we had so much fun. I seriously LOVE camping. Hallie really enjoyed herself as well and she even did great in the car (which considering her history is a HUGE deal!). YAY, thanks for inviting us once again Randal, Carol and Rachel.

Hallie riding in the wagon on our walk.

After awhile Hallie decided she wanted to help dad pull the wagon.

So beautiful!!!

I did it!!

As I went around and checked out different blogs a few months ago I ran across The Mother Load. I read about the no spend challenge and knew that I needed to do it. I know our family isn’t the only one who has to watch what we spend and I know I’m not the only one who loves to buy, buy, buy. I’m a shopper what can I say. I LOVE clothes and I LOVE crafts. Joann’s craft store takes a significant amount of money from me every month. haha

I decided that November would be my NO SPEND MONTH. Of course I still bought groceries (but even that bill shrunk) and we even had a date night (which rarely happens). However, I never went out to eat with my friends for lunch, and I never bought anything at Joann’s or the mall or even the thrift store. It was so HARDDDDDD. I wanted to go to Joann’s a million times.

Now that the month is over and I can look over our monthly budget and smile because I can see the money we saved it was all worth it. YAY!!

You should try it!! I DARE you!