A little bit of Awesome!

I have so much to be grateful for today...

1.Jared woke me up this morning after getting home and we snuggled till little girls jumped in wrestling!
2.My kids didn't whine so much today!
3.I saw Elle give me the biggest smile over chasing her around the house!
4.Paige didn't have any accidents in her pants!
5.The sun was shining!
6.Both girls crammed on the big swing at the park and we looked up at the clouds!
7.I have the bestest friend in the world who sent me a very inspirational book to read! Thanks!
8.Supper went so smooth!
9.The peaceful look on both the girls faces as they sleep!
10.My kid enjoy eating healthy food!
11.Jared is sending me to Edmonton to be with my sister as a break this weekend!
12.My flowers in my garden are coming up!

I am so blessed! Life is AWESOME!

Mom!

Motherhood. What a priviledge it is to be called a mother. It was a fabulous day. I love my mom and the things that she taught me- it has made a huge difference in the way that I am a mother to my own children. Thanks Mom!! I love you.
I look up to so many mothers- my own, my grandma, my mother-in-law, my sisters, my friends. What an amazing adventure it is to be a mother! So to all those mothers out there- Happy Mothers Day!

"Few of us will reach our potential without the nurturing of both the mother who bore us and the mothers who bear with us" -Sheri L. Dew

I think dreams really do come true...

It was an amazing day.The weather was beautiful.

The girls looked adorable.

The food was incredible.

I got spoiled!!! I LOVE my birthday...I LOVE my new bike!!!
Thanks Jared, Elle, and Paige for making my day amazing.
I love you Jared for remembering my dream to have a new bike.

Here's some pictures of the other Easter things we did this weekend:

Just a short little thank you to the Easter Bunny- thanks for bringing WAY too much candy and allowing us all to now be in a sugar coma! See you next year...we can't wait.

Mexico we miss you!

Other memories that we are missing while being home:
-the food just being ready when your hungry (that coconut ice-cream has found it's way into my dreams more than once this week)
-the asian al a carte desserts (we went almost every night for appies & fried ice-cream and bananas)
-the mexican salespeople on the beach
-snorkling for seashells and the shelves in the ocean
-climbing the rock covered with baby crabs
-Jared dancing with me on the balcony (My Milk Shake Brings All The Boys To The Yard)
-boogie board races
-winning both RIFAS (bingo) games - scored the girls some sweet piggy banks
-face timing the girls and showing them the ocean, pool
-our romantic curtains blowing into our room, the ocean waves crashing, and the sun shining thru
-Usiel (our Mexican buddy/mop boy)
-all the drinks I could think of served to me by the pool/beach
We missed the girls are were excited to see them! What a fun vacation- we'll miss you Mexico!

Mexico Part II

The girls- I love these girls!!! What a fun weekend we had enjoying the sunshine together!The boys- these guys are crazy and played hard in the waves ALL day long!
Right before the kayaking adventures!
We LOVED the pinada's!!! They were delicious and available anytime of the day! Some of the other drinks we had were: mojitos, mango tangy, & miami vice.

This thing was moving in my hands...ahhh! But they are just so beautiful.
We watched 2 Mexican boys get oysters right out of the ocean and then they were selling them with fresh limes and hot sauce on the beach...I still can't believe that Bryan and Linds LOVED these!!
We went into La Crucecita to do some shopping (it was so helpful having Bryan know fluent Spanish) and then enjoyed an authentic Mexican dinner in the cutest little restaurant that our taxi driver referred us to.
Some of the things that I want to remember from this vacation are:
-how hot we felt when we got off the airplane- there were a few times I was ready to rip my clothes off haha.
-Dr. Stacie helping everyone through their ailments (heat stroke, nausea, diarrhea, head aches)
-the earthquake we woke up to one morning (the lights and beds were shaking)
-having a wave smash us into a road over and over again while trying to get to a private beach with our kayake (we found the coolest white shells there)- I got a bruise on my arm from Jared's paddle and the boat
-late night card games and room service (which room was served the best? worst?)
-the bathroom in the flee market--> lets just say I almost barfed and then used hand sanitizer all over my body to get clean again
-Facetime is the best invention ever!!
-having drinks served to us anywhere on the resort, ALL day long! I miss that service while home. haha
-huge waves...trying body surfing with Lindsey and my top coming off without me knowing (I was only concentrating on getting my breath back! Good thing Jared saved me "tits, tits"! haha so embarrasing)
-sleeping in (does 8:30am count?)
-the feel of the sun on our faces after a long, long winter

Huatulco Mexico April 2011 Part I

We planned a very last minute trip to Mexico and 3 other couples got work off to join us...we were so excited to be surprised by Joostens at the airport! We were so excited for some sunshine.
We had never left the girls for longer than a couple days...this picture is of us after we cried about leaving the girls for a week! haha. We were going to miss them.
This is the resort we stayed at "Dreams Huatulco". It was amazing. Everything was so close...it took us 45 sec to get to the beach from our room, there were 6 pools (3 inifinity) that were all within 5 minutes of each other, 5 al a carte restaurantes, 2 buffets...we had a blast!!!
It was fun to dress up at night and go on dates with Jared...the food was delicious!
We LOVED the ocean...body surfing, boogie boarding, swimming, snorkling, collecting sea shells! The weather was so HOT- at least 35c with 90% humidity everyday!!!

What can you do with an old shirt???

While getting ready for this Mexico trip...I was thinking I needed a little beach bag/purse to carry some essentials; sunscreen, lotion, lip chap, camera, ect. I didn't want to have to buy one and came across this tutorial. I have a lot of old clothes that I've been hanging onto trying to be brave enough to refashion something with them. I think it turned out pretty cute!I also wanted to spruce up a plain old t-shirt. I used this tutorial. I LOVE it! I used an old brown tank top as the material to make the ruffle flowers.
Last, I needed a modest dress for the "night life" in Mexico....but also something that I could wear that was summery and bright for the markets. I am shocked that this turned out so well. Jared really likes this dress and my favorite part is the pockets salvaged from the previous short dress. I loved using 2 pieces of clothing that I wasn't using- to make a cute little number that makes me smile!