ARUBA!

In November Curtis and I were able to get away for a 6 day trip to Aruba. I could spend lots of time using words like "wonderful" and "amazing" trying to describe what a perfect time we had, but words can NOT describe and I don't really have THAT much time, seeing that I'm already way behind on blogging. I do want to lay out what we did on our trip so I have somewhere to come when I need to feel nostalgic :)

Day 1: We arrived at the Westin Resort just in time for a late lunch at the Terrace Restaurant. After exploring the grounds, we suited up and went for our first dip in the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean. We walked on the beach, watched the sunset and then headed up to change. We finished the night by visiting the resort Casino, having dinner at Senor Frogs and then drinks at an open air bar near the resort.

Day 2: We woke up and walked to Salt & Pepper for Breakfast. This restaurant has THE BEST fresh squeezed orange juice I have ever tasted! After breakfast we rented a double wave runner and spent an hour out on the water. After that we got drinks and bummed it on the beach. We witnessed a wedding party straight off of the Jersey Shore taking their wedding photos. Complete with the bride in her tight, mini-wedding dress, the groom with slicked back hair, shades and a half buttoned shirt, and lots of tall hair and glitter in the mix. Hilarious! After spending the day on the beach, we had a delightful dinner at Pago-Pago. After dinner we walked next door to the Riu to play in their casino. After slot hopping a bit, I landed on a penny machine with a 6 cent credit still on the machine. After it wouldn't take my money, I realized it not only had 6 cents left on it, it also had a bonus round waiting to be played. The machine had been abandoned, so I played the bonus round. I won $63. BOOM! I cashed out and ran just to be safe :) After the casino, we grabbed a couple of more drinks, sat in a hammock and finished the night hanging by the shore.

Day 3: We started with breakfast at Salt & Pepper AGAIN. (Hey it was yummy!) After breakfast we rented a car and some snorkel equipment and drove to the south side of the island to Baby Beach. What a GORGEOUS beach! Snorkeling was sooooo much fun. We saw so many fish and lots of coral. After a couple of hours in the water, I was pretty sea sick so I sat on the shore for a bit. After we were finished there, we headed back to the hotel and cleaned up. We had dinner at Passions on the Beach at the Amsterdam Manor. That was THE.MOST.AMAZING.RESTAURANT.EVER. Beach front dining with live jazz musicians, white light wrapped pergolas.... HEAVEN!! I honestly can't imagine a more perfect place. After dinner, we decided to head back to the Casino next door and I won another $60. Score!

Day 4: Since we still had until lunch time with the snorkel equipment and car, we woke up early and drove north to snorkel at Arashi beach. Another gorgeous beach, but the water was cold and I was a little hungover from the night before, so I opted out of this one. I slept sat on the beach while Curtis snorkeled. We made it back to our hotel with a couple of hours before we had to return the snorkel equipment, so we decided to swim out to the bunch of rocks outside of our hotel. This was an EXCELLENT snorkel spot and nobody seemed to know about it. Again, rough waters had me back on land long before Curtis. Also, it had started to rain, so I headed back up to the room. We walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then had a few drinks on the beach. Curtis wanted to take some sunset photos, so we walked over to the jetty in front of the hotel next door and he took some great photos. After the sun set, we realized it was dark and we had no dinner plans. Adjacent to where we were standing was an open air beachfront restaurant called Pure Beach, and we decided to dine there. So yummy and a great atmosphere! After dinner, we decided to try it at the Casino one more time. Bad idea! I ended up losing $17, but Curtis won $20 so we still ended up ahead. We did decide that would be the end of our Casino run, though!

Day 5: We woke up early to walk to Moomba Beach for our Jolly Pirates Snorkel Cruise. It was sprinkling when we arrived, and upon checkout we were told that the ship usually holds 60 people, but this particular day was way under booked! With the sprinkling rain, some people didn't even show up, and we had a total count of 9 passengers on the trip. The small group along with the hilariously fun pirates made this excursion such a highlight! It continued to sprinkle as we pushed off into the water, and it was actually a little bit cold! But just as we pulled into the first stop, the sun came out and the crystal blue water shone all around us. The first snorkel spot was a WWII German shipwreck, The Antilla. I sat this one out, since "un-natural" formations in water totally freak me out. The next stop was Boca Catalina, and our third and final stop was Malmok Reef. The snorkeling was a blast, but hanging out on the boat was such a great time, too. The pirates were hilarious, they played great music and there was an open bar. When I approached the bar for my first drink, Jose the pirate said, "Do you want something fruity, (then he pointed to one of the other pirates) or something strong? (And then he flexed his muscles.) Haha! They also served lunch on board, and opened up the rope swing. Thankfully we had a small group, so we could do the swing as much as we wanted! I probably did it 25 times, not to mention the one time I rode on the pirates back and flipped. When we got back to shore, the "open bar" hit me and we walked back to the resort and I fell asleep on the beach. For dinner we went to the brazilian steakhouse, Amazonia, since I can't pass one up if I'm in the vicinity. We had a low key night in the room, hanging out and packing bags.

Day 6: We started the day by heading out to Rancho Notorious for a beachfront Horseback ride and it was amazing! Just as our horses approached the shore, we looked out onto the water and there was a full rainbow stretching all the way across the sky. It was the perfect way to end our trip. We returned to the resort and it was time to pack up and head to the airport after having a quick lunch at the Terrace restaurant. On the flight home, we got a first class upgrade and drank mimosas and had an awesome sub-par airplane meal in our oversized seats. We were so happy to be home to our boys, but will never forget the (perfect? awesome? etc etc etc) trip we had in aruba.

Now I'm glad this blog post is complete because I have been working on it for a few weeks. I don't have a whole lot of time to sit at the computer these days! :)

Halloween!

Catching up again! Only a month behind! This year for Halloween, we went trick or treating with Emery the pig at Beth and Adam's neighborhood in Homewood. Hayden went as Optimus Prime and Garrett was a baby monster. Hayden was dead set on being a transformer and he found an Optimus Prime costume that was nothing more than a graphic - infused unitard, but what can you do? He thought it was the coolest thing ever. I actually picked out Garrett's costume before he was even born! I saw it in a magazine when I was pregnant and decided right then I would buy it right after the season when it went on sale. But I didn't have to! One of my friends on facebook posted a picture of her little boy wearing the costume (last year) and I traded her a couple of monogrammed shirts for it. Deal! I waited a long time to put this costume on him, and, well, lets just say it was worth the wait!

Pumpkin Patch.... and more!!

Fall is upon us and we took our traditional trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We went with the Meachams, Alli and Phil, and The Bowles joined us later! We started with a trip to Cracker Barrel and then off to Old Baker Farm! We had a blast and poor little Garrett got FILTHY! It was hilarious. He had a blast though! Such a dirt kid, that boy. We spent all day enjoying eachother's company and finding the perfect pumpkins! (Although, the patch was a bit over picked this year as we went fairly late in the season!)

(This was hilarious! Hayden insisted on wearing the backpack around for about an hour, and then he said for us to put Garrett in it. Garrett thought it was the greatest moment of his life, and Hayden lasted about 2 minutes before he said "enough!" He then said "Ok, the backpack can be yours now, Mom!")

On to other updates... life has kept me away from the blog, unfortunately! I have to remind myself that the whole purpose of this blog is to have something to look back on years from now. I would rather have these random, scattered posts to look back on than nothing at all! Scattered and all over the place definitely defines our lives right now anyways! My new business, Monogram Font Store is going AWESOME!!! I also have another "huge" business idea in the works and I'm thrilled about it. Curtis has been travelling like nobody's business and my reward for not complaining comes in 2 weeks! A 5 night trip to ARUUUUUBA!!! I'm so anxious and excited and terrified about leaving the boys! But they will be in great hands and I am soooo looking forward to some uniterrupted time with the hubs.

The kids are great! Garrett is 11 months old and I can NOT believe that I am already planning his first birthday! He loves his big brother, has 8 full teeth and has completely adopted walking upright on 2 legs! He took his first step on October 9th and never looked back. It makes me really sad - I tried to persuade him to crawl a little longer since crawling babies are so cute, but he was ready to roll!! He is also playing around with the words "Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye (with a wave!), Hayden, Uh-Oh, Thank you, and Truck!" He has developed a pretty strong preference for trucks and things with wheels, just like Hayden did at the same age!

Hayden is fully entrenched in Kindergarten... reading, writing and everything in between. He is GIRL CRAZY!! Every day he talks about his chronicles to find a wife and it is hilarious. Curtis and I try to convince him that he has plenty of time to find a wife, and he should focus on other things, but he isn't listening! He also started taking karate and he loves it. It is adorable.

No pics to add to this randomness -- kids are demanding attention and I can't believe I have been able to sit at the computer THIS long! Pics on facebook, videos on youtube. I can always go back there and see :)

Curtis is 30!

Curtis turned 30 (over a month ago - ha!) and we celebrated with a surprise party! I started planning it loooooong before his birthday, and knowing that he only turns 30 once, I knew I wanted it to be special. He does so much for us and I wanted to pull out all the stops to show him that he is loved. After lots of venue shopping and visiting, I decided on Avondale Brewing Company, the brewery that his cousin Chris is a part-owner in. It was PERFECT!! I had Curtis convinced that we were going on a special date, and I told him that there would be multiple locations and he would have to be blindfolded in between each one so he didn't know where we were going. That was my plan for getting him in completely unsuspecting. Of course, as we grew closer to that night, he caught on to the fact that there "may" be a party planned, but he still had no idea where. Several people couldn't make it for various reasons, but it turned out PERFECT! I couldn't have dreamed of a better outcome. He had a blast and was thrilled about the whole thing.

I had my sister make a very eclectic cake! Curtis doesn't like cake, so we designed a mixture of all of his favorite treats! Brownies, sugar cookies and rice crispie treats - cake batter flavored (he loooves cake batter!)

Love!

Catching up...

Ok, so "catch up" blog posts are far too common for me. But its better than not blogging at all, right? *Busy* and *Scatterbrained* are 2 words that come to mind when trying to come up with an excuse. Anyways, here goes.

Back in July, we took a day trip up to Huntsville to visit the Space and Rocket Museum. Hayden is so into stuff like that, and we had a blast. We are already dreaming about the day that he is old enough to go to Space Camp!! Sue, the largest T-Rex ever discovered, was also on display there and it was really spectacular to see in real life.

Hayden's first day of School came and went without a hitch, and we couldn't be more thankful or satisfied with our decision to send him to the Wee Center again this year. His teacher is wonderful and he is learning so much scripture (and academics, of course!) He is having a little bit of trouble focusing and finishing his work, so we have decided to sign him up for Karate in hopes that martial arts will help him to learn to control that busy mind a little bit. He starts this week and we are very hopeful!

In August, we took a family trip down to the beach. I was a little skeptical about going down without any reinforcements to help with Garrett, but it went wonderfully! The weather was amazing and we had a really, REALLY great time swimming, hanging out and playing with each other.

Hayden obviously wanted to have nothing to do with taking pictures. Five is such an awkward age!

And for some general updates... Garrett is 10 months old now. He has been standing unassisted for a month now, and I'm sure he would be walking by now if it weren't for the fact that I am strongly discouraging it. What?! Yes, it's true. I am not ready for him to walk. I love his little crawling self scootching around the house. This is most likely the last time I will ever have a crawler in my house, so I am soaking up every minute of it, because I am all too familiar with the fact that these moments are fleeting! I am trying to enjoy every minute and steal as many cuddles as I can with these boys, because I know they are growing up so fast. He has found his voice and I love to hear his little babbles. I need to do a post with just videos... I have so many cute clips. He is small for his age, but very healthy and we are so thankful! Hayden is so grown up and sounds so sophisticated with some of the things he says. He is really into all things "Transformers" these days, and his favorite shows right now are Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb. I have been super busy with my latest (and greatest!) business venture, www.monogramfontstore.com .... Ok, that is all I can fit into this post! Whew!

So Bittersweet....

I have to go ahead and get this blog post out of the way. Even though it is 11 days away, I will be far too misty eyed and emotional to write this on August 15th. Hayden's first day of Kindergarten. It's sounds so cliche, but "I can't believe my baby is big enough for real school." I just can't. I sit here and shake my head in disbelief. I wish I could just freeze time... have him at home with me a little longer. But the time has come... And I can't help but think how InCrEdIbLy blessed I have been to have him home with me for 5 years! That is so much more than many moms get. Every single second I have had with that kid has been a blessing. I still remember when I discovered I was pregnant with him... we were terrified! We had only been married a little over a year, and both of us were nearing the end of our college careers. At the time, we couldn't help but question God's timing in giving us a child. But wow. Of course He knew what He was doing, and being Hayden's Mom has brought me more joy than I knew I could possess.

To Hayden - we are SO proud to be your parents. As you start this chapter in your life, we will be with you every step of the way and we can't wait to watch you grow and learn more and more every day. You never cease to amaze us with your quick wit and intellect. Your kind heart and loving nature will serve you well with your peers. We hope you can share the love of God with all you meet. We love you more than words can express and we know that you will conquer the world one day. Love, Mom and Dad

Here are just a few (ok - almost 100) of my favorite pictures of Hayden:

Last week, Curtis and Hayden decided to make a batch of brownie mix and eat the entire bowl. That was the plan... "Lets be men! Eat a whole bowl of brownie mix and get sick! Ye-uh!" They left out the raw eggs, got spoons and sat on the kitchen floor and started to go to town. Garrett found his way into the kitchen and well... the video and pictures can speak for themselves :)

Hayden Graduates from Pre-School

I can NOT believe that my little boy has graduated from pre-school. I honestly can't think about it too much or it makes me cry. I am not ready for him to start big school yet. Just not ready!!

As of now, we have him registered to attend 5 year old Kindergarten at the same school he attended pre-school. A small, private kindergarten we think is ideal, and I like the fact that it doesn't quite feel like big school :) We are still trying to sell our house, so on the seemingly off chance that occurs anytime soon, we will most likely have to pull him from private kindergarten and put him in public school where we move, which we have -officially- decided will be Trussville. Whenever the time is right. (Right, God?)

Here are just a few pictures from his graduation. Curtis likes to mess with the camera settings, and I completely forgot he had done that when it came time to snap him hugging his teacher. So the pics aren't great, but they will still help serve as a memory of this sweet event:

And it begins...

I captured this little sequence a couple of weeks ago on June 6th... it was pretty much at this very moment that I began to see that this boy is going to tRoUbLe! He is keeping me on my toes! He started scooting pretty fast on the same day (June 6th) and below is a video from that day. (He has since adopted a traditional "chest off floor" crawl):

Some of his new favorite activities include (but are not limited to!):

Opening cabinets:

Surfing the Web:

Getting into bags:

Chatting with himself:

Climbing onto the fireplace (and pulling off the bumpers):

Sticking out his tongue (Seriously, he does this all the time!)

Climbing Stairs: (Yes, these are now gated off)

Terrorizing animal life:

And just today, he started (and seemingly mastered!) ...

Pulling Up!!