Caribbean Cruise

We are back! It has been such a long time since I blogged, but I have a very good reason why I was slacking... I was in the nice, hot, beautiful 90 degreee Caribbean :-) heehee
We had such a great time! We cruised out of Puerto Rico to Aruba, Curacaou, Dominica, and St Thomas. It was perfect with four days in ports and two days at sea doing nothing. In fact, I think I enjoyed the vacation a bit too much because I gained 6 pounds in a week! Oh well, those virgin pina-coladas and extra desserts were SOOOO worth it.
Here are some highlights from our trip....

Stupid Things We Did
-we almost missed our flight from Atlanta to San Juan because we FELL ASLEEP! Our flight out of Salt Lake was at midnight and we were so tired. We got to Atlanta and had a couple hours so we snuggled into our chairs. I woke to Sean poking me. I looked around at what had been a full terminal to see no one else around. We looked over at the boarding gate to see the sign flashing "Final Boarding" and the two Delta people watching us. Whoops!
-I fell asleep while laying out on the deck the first day. It wouldn't have been a bad thing except I had my big-honkin sunglasses on. Let's just say I had raccoon eyes for a couple days til I could even out the color.
-The tour in Curacou was horrible!! The tour guide barely spoke English and told us about Social Security for 20 minutes. Plus, we ended up at a liquor factory where everybody got completely drunk...
-Sean playing in the game "The Quest." I have been sworn to secrecy, but lets just say that on our last cruise he was hypnotized and did quite the Michael Jackson impersonation. Being hypnotized was NOTHING compared to "The Quest," but you'll have to ask him yourself because there are some images that as a wife you just want to forget...
-While snorkeling in Aruba, Sean used an SPF 50 spray. The spray did not mist like we thought. Instead it simply left crisscross lines acrossed his back. He has quite an interesting sunburn :-)

Fun Things We Did
-snorkeling in Aruba. The boat that we road to the snorkeling places was built in 1905. We got to snorkel over a sunken WWII German ship called the Antilla. And then we got to swing out over the ocean on ropes from the ship. It was so much fun but salt water is AWFUL! Bleh!
-Murder Mystery onboard the cruise ship. Some of the acting was pretty bad, but it was a lot of fun even though both of us got the murderer wrong. Oh well.
-Hato Caves in Curacao (this was the only good part of the HORRIBLE tour). Here are some pics.

Can you see the pirate face?

If I look a bit frenzied it is because there were a bunch of little bats (about the size of mice) flying around us. Yuck.

-River Rafting through the rainforest of Dominica. It was beautiful and SO much fun.

-Going through a little bit of Old San Juan. There was a fort that was built in the 1600s that I could have spent an entire day at. The old city had a European feeling to it with the cobbled roads and the colonial architecture. I will definitely be going back to San Juan!

-Laying out, listening to "The Hunger Games," drinking my virgin pina-colada :-)

Here are some random pics and when I find our other camera I will add in more pictures:-)

Sean and Paxton

Paxton is such a cutie! He is always laughing and smiling at everything and everybody. He spent the last week with my parents while Sean and I were on vacation. My mom said that she didn't even get a chance to hold him during church because all of the ladies wanted him. He just laughed and "talked" with everybody.
Here are some cute pics of Paxton and his daddy just playing. He is a little daddy's boy:-)

Happy Birthday Taylee (cont!)

I just found more pictures from Taylee's birthday and I had to add them in. She had so much fun.

Taylee

Taylee is definitely growing up...just not always in ways I'm ready for. At dinner yesterday we had chicken. In order for her to go outside and ride her scooter while Sean mowed the lawn she had to eat about three more pieces of her chicken. She got mad, she pouted, she cried. But I just kept cleaning up everything and ignored it (she's just getting over a cold so I really didn't want her going out anyway). I was playing on the floor with Paxton when she told me that she had eaten a piece. I looked at her plate and one of the pieces was gone. I told her good job and reminded her that she needed to finish the other two pieces. Smiling, she said "ok" and told me I could keep playing with Paxton and she would finish. After a few minutes she informed me that she had eaten her chicken. I gave her a hug when I saw that her plate was empty and sent her outside to play. Sounds good, right? Oh, just wait.
I started cleaning up the rest of the dinner table. Everything was cleared off and I pulled up the table cloth to find three pieces of chicken stuffed underneath it. I'm glad that she was outside because I started laughing. We have all hidden our food before. I would hide food in my drink cup or in my napkin. One time when I was sick my Mom brought me alka-seltzer. As soon as she left I dumped it down the side of my bed (I was NOT going to drink it). I just wasn't ready for my 5 year old to do it. Needless to say, I walked outside with the three pices of chicken, and without saying a word, I showed Taylee the plate and she sulked her way back to the table. After a big talk about honesty and her finishing her now cold chicken she was able to go back outside to play.
But seriously, what was up with that 1st bite and then telling me to go back and play with Paxton? Was it a test run to see if she could get away with it? I am going to have to be on my toes with that one. I love her, but what a little stinker:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Taylee

Happy Birthday Taylee! You are my little sweetheart! I love that you always make me laugh with the things that you do and say. You have so much spunk that you keep me on our toes, but you are so tenderhearted that I know I can always count on you to help. You are my extra hands that I sometimes need and you are always willing to grab a pacifier or a burp rag for me. Brynlee and Paxton absolutely adore you. Brynlee wants to do anything that "Tay-ee" does and Paxton is always watching you, waiting for you to come and make faces to make him laugh. You are your daddy's little girl, his golf-buddy and soccer star. He has you trained to cheer for the Phoenix Suns and Kansas JayHawks and you love it! We love you Taylee!!! I can't believe that you are 5!!!

I can't belive my little baby is five now! Here is a little trip down memory lane----

5 years ago from right now I was laying in the recovery room. I had been in labor for 33 hours and then had an emergency c-section. Taylee had been taken straight to NICU and I did not get to see her until early the next morning. I know this sounds horrible and it makes me sad when I think about it, but if anyone else has ever had a c-section where the baby is taken to NICU, you will understand that it is out of your hands.

****After a c-section you have to spend over an hour in a recovery room where you are CLOSELY monitored to ensure that the anesthesia is wearing off correctly and that no side effects occur. Usually you can see your baby right after this, but not if they are in NICU. You have to wait until you are on your feet, which is 4-6 hours after you are back from recovery.****

Taylee was born at 6:53pm. She was 5lbs 4oz and 19 3/4 inches long. I know this is really tiny, but she was almost 6 weeks early, so she would have been a HUGE full-term baby.

Picture of Taylee in the incubator. She was so tiny, but so cute! We fell in love with her at first site!

This was my first time feeding Taylee. She had such a hard time learning how to eat. She ended up being in NICU for 10 days because she had to be eating 55cc (I think) at each feeding before she could leave.

Picture of Taylee leaving the hospital. This pic in her car seat shows how tiny she really was.

I wanted to add in this pic because so many people are making fun of what a chunky baby Paxton is. Not only do Taylee and Paxton look a ton a like, but Taylee was just as big (this is Taylee at 6 months....so, Paxton in about 6 weeks). SOOOO cute!!

Love you Taylee! Hope you had a great birthday!

Simple Addition

3 Little Girls+New Makeup+Mother Busy with Crying Baby=

Birthday Party

Taylee had a great birthday party! She was able to invite her friends from the ward and neighborhood and was even able to have a couple of her cousins come, too. All of the little girls were so cute and we had so much fun having them over!

The Cinderella Cake that I made myself! Yes, I am very proud of myself (despite the areas where the frosting is obviously thin and you can see the chocolate cake underneath:-)!
My mom is AMAZING and made this costume so that she could play the part of the Fairy Godmother for the party. She played the part so well and all the girls were so excited to have her there! Thank-you Mom!

Brynlee, Brynlee, Brynlee

Taylee getting her picture taken with the Fairy Godmother. They are so cute together!

While the girls were decorating their "dresses" for the ball, we added some glitter into their hair and painted their faces. The girls were seriously SO cute and loved everything that we did.

Waiting to go to the ball...ok, I added this pic in not only because of how cute all of these girls are, but also because of how sweet Taylee is being! She is such a good big sister and Brynlee absolutely adores her!
This is after the "ball" when Taylee is opening her presents.

Blowing out her candles

Showing off her blue tongue...we got pics of EACH of the girls with a bright blue tongue which I will be giving to them with the thank-you cards. They were so excited to have blue tongues and a couple of the girls even wanted MORE cake in order to make their tongues more blue!

Taylee had such a great birthday party! She is so freak'n cute and I can't believe that she will be 5 on Monday! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to both grandmas and my wonderful sister Heather who helped out with the party. We couldn't have done it without you!!!

4 Months

Paxton had his 4-month-old appointment on Monday. He is doing great and developing perfectly! And he is HUGE! He was 17 lbs 11 oz and in the 90th percentile for weight, length, and in the 92nd for head. Yep, he is one big baby. But he is so much fun! I love that he knows me and is a little mamma's boy. I walk into the room and he smiles. I walk out of the room and he is sad. He hears my voice and he is looking for me. He laughs and giggles at everything (especially his big sisters) and loves everybody. He is such a sweetie!!

Miley Cyrus Concert

About six weeks ago I saw that Miley Cyrus was coming to Salt Lake City for a concert about the time of Taylee's birthday. She has been getting into Hannah Montana and really enjoyed the movie so I thought it would be a fun mother-daughter day. And it was! We had so much fun traveling to Salt Lake and just spending time together. She will always be my sweet, angelic, miracle baby. I can't believe that she is turning 5 though! I love how much she is maturing and I don't know what I would do without her sweet and helping spirit in our home, but the time passes too fast and I already miss all the stages that she has already passed....ok,ok enough of that. We had a great time in Salt Lake, though next time I will be more careful about picking a concert to take my 4(almost 5) year old to.

On the drive to Salt Lake. She was so excited to go and see Miley in concert. But, I think she was even more excited to see her cousin Aubree!

We went shopping and then out to dinner with my sister and her little girl, Aubree. Taylee and Aubree are only a year apart and they LOVE to see each other.

Taylee and me!

Taylee posing for me from our seats. I kept trying to take good pics of her but she was so excited and just wanted to see everything that was going on that she could hardly take her eyes away from it. Metro Station opened the concert (the only song I knew was "Shake It"). Taylee loved the music and was dancing and bouncing with the rest of the crowd.

Here is a pic of Miley Cyrus from our seats (center stairs with the white fur jacket). I have to admit that I was not that impressed with the concert. The costumes were so immodest that I was horrified that I had brought my 4 year old to it...seriously, this one in the pic was the best one. Everything she wore had either her chest or her rear end hanging out (and usually both!). Miley Cyrus was sick, so every few songs she needed to take a break for a couple minutes, and all-in-all it was just weird and not what I expected. Everything was more "grungy" and definitely geared for the high school crowd. Taylee's favorite part was when Miley flew all over the crowd during the "Fly on the Wall" song. Unfortunately, Taylee got sick about 9:30 and we missed the end of the concert...in case you can't tell, I didn't feel too bad about leaving early:-)

Warning! Blogging Overload!

I finished the last of the posts about our Oregon adventure last week. Sorry that there is so much (I think about 20 posts). We had a great time and can't wait to do it again!