Last August Kevin and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. 10 years, how can that be? We told ourselves early on in our marriage that we would do a tropical all inclusive for our 10 year anniversary because we didn't for our honeymoon. Last year we were a little busy with 2 new little munchkins so we didn't make it on our trip, but we thought we could pull it off over spring break this year and if we didn't do it now we didn't know when we would do it. So in January we decided to go for it and we booked 4 nights at the Barcelo Maya resort in the Riviera Maya. It was heavenly! Our parents were gracious enough to take on the tribe, splitting the time between both of them. My parents had them the first couple nights and then Kevin's parents flew in and stayed with them the last couple nights. THANK YOU moms and dads. We could not have done it without you. We knew our kids were in great hands.
The ocean view from our beach.
Our travel agent told the resort that we were an anniversary couple so we had this sweet treat waiting for us when we arrived.
Dinner out one night.
Before dinner the last night. We enjoyed gorgeous weather the whole time (while it those at home enjoyed thunder, lightning and hail).
One of the pools and swim up bar.
My view for the first day. It was so great to sit and read and sleep. I read two books and averaged 2 naps a day. By the last day I was unable to take a nap. I think I finally caught up on sleep after 6 years:) We didn't do much, which was perfect, just what we wanted!
We did do a little bit of snorkeling. Right off the pier by our resort there were a lot of fish. Mostly because people would feed them there. This picture was taking shortly before Kevin got hit on the head by fish food that some ladies were throwing in. They found it quite hilarious and Kevin was wondering why there were so many fish around him.
The section of the beach where our half of the resort was. This is taken from the pier. The resort was huge and very nice, we did a lot of walking.
Another before dinner picture. We felt so blessed to be able to take the time to relax and connect without our kiddos around. We did think of them often though and decided that we'll have to go back in another 10 years and take them with us. We are so blessed to have each other and it was great to be reminded of what it was like when it was just us.
Happy Easter! Praise the Lord for his amazing gift of salvation through his son. Here are some Easter pics before church, as well as some from our Easter egg hunt with friends a couple weeks ago. The order got messed up somehow, but I don't feel like fixing it:)
All the kiddos present for the hunt. You can see how happy my little girl is. All these kids 5 and under! It was a little crazy, but super cute and fun.
Once Brooklyn learned what to do she was all about holding her basket and filling it up.
I think Hudson only put two eggs in his basket before he realized there was candy in the eggs, then all he wanted to do was eat it.
Happy girl Mo.
Ethan and his buddy Trey.
Morgan and her buddy Emmry.
All four kids, as good as it's gonna get.
Back to Easter morning. Matching outfits from Oma. I need to get them dressed again and take a picture standing up so you can see how cute the girls' dresses are. Thanks Oma!
Lest we forget the "older two", I thought I'd let you know what Ethan and Morgan have been up to this past week. Ethan had his first ever Open House and Music Program at school this past Tuesday night. It was fun for me to be on the mommy end of an Open House at school. Paying attention to only my child and not schmoozing with all the parents:) I was a lot more relaxed and a lot more proud.
Ethan was beaming like this all night. His teacher is also the music teacher. She does amazing work. It is incredible how she gets all those kids to sing and do super adorable motions. I have never seen Ethan sing like he did that night.
"Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluiah....Praise ye the Lord....."
All three Kindergarten classes totally into their song.
Morgan was beyond excited for her first haircut. My friend has been coming to our house to cut my hair and Hudson's hair for the last several months. It is so nice to not have to load everyone up and head out to a salon. This time I had her trim some of Morgan's dead ends off, with hopes of having Rapunzel hair soon:)
Ethan also had his first ever Grandparent's Day at school on Thursday. He was excited to have Nana and Papa come to see his room and watch him perform in a program.
We've also been to a few Easter egg hunts over the last couple weeks. Pictures to come soon of those and hopefully a nice Easter picture of the monkeys.
Since my favorite photographer up and moved to Dubai this past winter and the thought of getting these two monkeys to sit on a red dot at JCPenny's is enough to make me sweat, I decided to take Hudson and Brooklyn's 18 month (ok 19 1/2 month) pictures myself. Instead of setting myself up for a failure of a perfect photo shoot, I decided to just snap some pics of them playing before church last week. Not the most beautiful background, but they'll have to work. My angels....
Yesterday I decided to brave Savemart by myself with the 3 younger ones to do our weekly shopping. It actually went well. H and B are still shell shocked when they go to stores because they never get to go to stores, so they are usually very well behaved. As we were walking through the store Hudson started hugging Brooklyn saying, "uv oo" "uv oo". So sweet!
Another Hudson story: Yesterday afternoon he hurt himself when the kids were out playing in the garage, I took him in the house in hysterics and gave him Brooklyn's binki that happened to be sitting on the counter. Mid tears he takes it out of his mouth and says "Brooky, Brooky" He wouldn't suck on it because he knew it wasn't his. Smarty pants.
My intention was to post an update on Hudson and Brooklyn when they turned 18 months. That date has come and gone and here we are at 19 months already. I truly can't believe how fast time is going.
We are in the midst of some crazy times right now. This past week H and B dropped their morning naps. I tend to be a little abrupt in my schedule changes. I usually decide one day to drop a nap or a feeding and then just do it. I've realized though with 2 schedules to change I need to be a little less drastic. So they still have a nap 2-3 mornings a week, especially if we are home. It is amazing how much I miss that 1 hour break in the morning. It has been an exhausting change for me and the kids. I suppose it doesn't help that Kevin is in the middle of golf season, which gets him home at 5:30 2 days a week and after 6:00 the other two. I am totally spoiled that he is usually home around 4:00. I just wanted to share some pictures of Hudson and Brooklyn and give a little run down about each of them. (for our memory mostly) They are both so precious and sweet and exhausting all at the same time.
Ethan really does a great job with both Hudson and Brooklyn. He loves having a little brother to run around with and I know that will improve more and more as Hudson gets older. He still gets very frustrated when they cry and scream, but that is getting better.
Morgan is an amazing big sister. She does a great job as well. However, as Hudson and Brooklyn are getting older they are getting more opinionated about what they play with and do so they don't go along with all that Morgan wants as much as they used to. That leads Morgan to get more frustrated with them.
Brooklyn is our little sweetheart with quite the independent streak. She will give you sweet smiles and lots of cuddles, but if you dare take something away from her that she wants she will arch her back and scream. She does not like to share, but when she gives you something she (and Hudson too) says "bank you". Brooklyn is a girly, girl and loves to wear people's jewelry. She was our last walker. Finally 2 weeks shy of 18 months she decided to walk more than crawl. She is still quite a bit slower than Hudson, but she is doing great. Brooklyn tends to get distracted when she is walking, so since she is pretty light I end up carrying her a lot more than Hudson. Brooklyn loves to play with her sister. They both have the same tendencies to quietly find trouble, get covered in dirt in the sand box and find boxes and bags to fill with stuff. Her taste buds are a little less picky than Hudson's. Brooklyn loves to join in the after dinner family dance parties and she does most of the motions to the songs and rhymes at the library. She is still slower to smile than Hudson, but is pretty willing to go with anyone who wants to hold her.
Hudson is 110% boy. He loves his golf clubs, balls, being outside, food, trucks and people. He loves to say "Hi" and "Bye" to anyone he sees. Shooting noises come quite naturally for him. Hudson is inquisitive like his brother, but he lacks the caution that Ethan has. So that means I am constantly taking things away from him, moving things out of his reach and taking him off the kitchen table. Hudson gets quite frustrated when he doesn't get his way and dissolve into tears rather quickly. He is getting better about not standing on chairs, he now climbs up and says "sit, sit" and will actually sit for quite a while. Hudson runs most places and will take off down the sidewalk saying "bye" and walk right up to our neighbor's house. He loves to see their dog. Hudson's verbal skills are a little more developed than Brooklyn's at this point. Hudson loves to read books, especially ones about trucks and animals. While he exhausts me, he wins me and everyone else over with his charm. He has quite the little personality.
Both Hudson and Brooklyn have several words they can say and animal noises they can make. A few of their words are: mama, dada, Brookyn (Hudson), Eth (Brooklyn), MoMo, Papa, Nana, Opa, Oma, Auntie (Brooklyn), Rich (Hudson, Rich is our neighbor), sit (Hudson), ball, no, yes, "eese" (please), cheese (for pictures), "bank you", "ack" (Hudson for snack), sock, shoe, walk (Hudson), book, "yuv oo" (Brooklyn). Just to name the major ones. Hudson and Brooklyn will attempt most words we ask them to repeat. While this is a tiring stage, I love to listen to their language and Independence grow. They are both great at following directions and when one of them is crying the other will go to their bed and get their binky and bear to comfort them. The other day Hudson walked into the kitchen saying "Uh Oh". He grabbed a towel and walked to the hallway so I followed him and he was trying to clean up some water that he had spilled. It is just so fun watching them mimic us. They both love to help, especially emptying the dishwasher. This independence is fun to watch, but it also makes things very challenging. Both H and B have their own idea of what they want and they have some communication skills, but not enough to always convey their desires. We still have a lot of yelling and crying that happens especially at dinner time. Hudson is quite they yeller when he doesn't get what he wants. We're working on it and already see some improvement. Overall Hudson and Brooklyn are happy, content babies and we are so thankful for that.
Hudson and Brooklyn we love you so much. You bring so much joy and laughter to our house. Right now mama is pretty tired most days, but I can't imagine life with out you.
I'll leave you with a video I took the other day when I let them have some playtime in Hudson's crib.
A few weeks ago a family friend asked if Morgan would be in a bridal fashion show that was part of a fundraising tea. I was pretty sure she would love to, and of course when I asked she was all smiles. She was looking forward to the big day for a couple weeks. When she woke up last Saturday she said, "It's fashion show day!"
She got to go early and get make-up done with the big girls. She was in heaven! It helped that they were getting ready in a church nursery filled with "new" toys and her babysitter was also a part of the fashion show.
All dressed and ready to go!
Here she is with the other little flower girl and her buddy Mason who was the "escort" for the little ladies.
There were 5 other girls modeling wedding dresses from different decades. Morgan loved seeing all the pretty dresses.
The plan was for her to walk by herself, but as soon as she saw everyone out there she wouldn't budge. Thankfully her babysitter was willing to take the stroll with her! Mason met up with them half way through their "walk".
With our mild, dry winter we have spent some time almost every day playing outside. All four of the kids do a great job playing together, making up games, playing "house", digging in the sand and mud and just wandering around the yard. As I write this blog Ethan and Morgan have been outside for over an hour totally entertaining themselves. We always say that our backyard is like another room in our house. Having this outside space and nice winter has literally kept my sanity some days. Here are some pictures taken just 5 days apart.
March 9~A beautiful sunny day....
warm enough to dig a big hole and fill it with water and wear your bathing suit.
March 14~Rainy and cold, daddy finally took the kids outside for the first time that day to burn off some energy. Mommy doesn't do cold, rainy outside play.
The kids of course didn't notice the cold and had a great time splashing in puddles with daddy.
