Day one

(NOTE: The pictures in the post are not in order of the typing because there is too much writing this time :) But they are from the first day of the cruise )Well this year my dad turns 50 and about eight months ago he started talking about what he wanted to do for his fiftieth. Around Christmas time he told us all that for his birthday he wanted to go on a cruise with just his kids. He said that he would pay for us all to go but that we would have to find someone to watch the kids while we went. Wait a minute dad, you want to pay for all of us to go on a cruise without our kids for five days for your birthday? We were all very excited to help him celebrate the way he wanted of course :) :) So we checked everyone's schedules and found a week that worked and booked it. Just my dad and Lisa, us four girls and Deke on a cruise without kids! Deke and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon and knew what to look forward to. Over the last six months all of us have been anxiously waiting talking about how excited we are and what a blast it was going to be. On Friday we headed to San Diego early afternoon headed to my mom's house. The whole way Avery kept squealing "we're going on acation" "we're going on acation." Saturday morning we woke up and went and ran some last minute errands then Deke and I went and did some work at the San Diego temple which was so neat. That night we stayed up way to late with Kimbre and Brenn watching Benjamin Button and finally fell into an excited sleep about 2:00 am. The next morning we got up and got everything packed and loaded. I have to say if there is anyone besides Deke that I would rather vacation with it would be my sisters, we have so much fun together they are seriously a blast to be with. As we literally are heading out the door my dad calls to tell us to make sure we have our birth certificates and my heart stops. Deke and I didn't have our birth certificates! Dad started checking with the check in agents and they all informed him that they would not take a faxed copy, or emailed copy. It had to be an orginal certificate or certified copy with seal or a passport or they would not let us on the ship. Now to preface the next part of this story I had been up for like four nights till all hours of the night scanning and inputting photos and arranging them to music making a DVD for my dad of pictures of each of us with him throughout of lives in chronological order with everyone choosing their own pictures and music. I being very overtired immediately got emotional as Deke got on the phone trying to come up with a solution. My dad continued talking to people down at the port even supervisors getting the same answer. I was ready to give up when Deke said, "MeKell we are going to get copies somehow and then we are going to show up at the port act like there is nothing wrong and they are going to let us on the ship." I was definitely lacking in faith as my dad told us to prepare that they would turn us away but to still try. Deke called his mom and she headed to Staples to fax us a copy of his certificate. I called aunt Lisa and asked her to head to our house. Of course we hadn't left an extra key with anyone and so we decided that if we had to we would have them break a small window to get in. When they got there one of our bedroom windows was unlocked and they were able to get into our house and get my certificate. We said goodbye to the kids which was emotional for me even though I was so excited to be going. We loaded in the car heading to the port me crying saying they weren't going to us on and Deke telling me to be positive. Lisa called us with a back up plan. The ship didn't sail until 5:00 pm and it was only 12:00. She said that if they wouldn't let us on the ship, she would catch the 2:00 flight out of Phoenix fly the forty minutes to San Diego with the birth certificates and we could pick her up at the airport which was literally five minutes from the port and then board still by 5:00. Overwhelmed by her willingness to help us in any way she could I immediately started preparing myself that this would be the option that we would probably have to go with. As we drove down Kimbre's favorite song came on the radio and we all started singing together. I know it sounds a little corny but it was actually really neat, then Deke talked for a minute about how much he loved the girls and how awesome our sister relationship was and then we were all bawling :) :) I had just gotten myself calmed down when we arrived at the port and saw Dad and as soon as I saw him I broked down again. I kept apologizing, I felt so bad that we might possibly mess up his birthday and this wonderful opportunity to be together. My dad kept saying, we are a big group and if we go in as if nothing is wrong they will be fine. All seven of us walked up to the counter and began talking to the woman. Dad started telling her that he was turning fifty and that these were all of his kids and talking about how excited we all were. When she asked for our stuff everyone was just talking to her and she quickly glanced at our certificates and let us pass. Then I cried again for joy because we were going to get on and because we have such a wonderful family that was willing to fly us our birth certificates to make sure we got on. I was so touched. Lonnie and Lisa you guys are amazing!!! Anyways we shortly after boarded the Elation and headed out to sea. Over the course of the five days I took something like just over 600 pictures. I am going to have to break up the days so I don't have one monsterous post. The first day we boarded did our life vest drill, immediately everyone was joking around and we were all laughing hard and I knew that this trip was going to be one we would never forget. We went to dinner and of course the food was so pretty and delicious. I love that there is food 24 hours a day whenever you are hungry and always something entertaining to do. Every day we had a huge card for my dad that was titled for example.. 50 reasons we love you or 50 reasons why your the hottest 50 year old. Every night at dinner we would give him one and he would have to read each one and guess who said it. It was really special and neat to watch him read them. The next day we were head to port at Catalina Island.....(to be continued)

Shoe fettish lifestyle

Well since I shared the addiction of one of my children, I might as well tell you about my other child. Avery has a major shoe addiction. Okay maybe it's just because I'm mom but I think this is adorable. :)
Ever since she learned to walk she would go around and try on different pairs of shoes around the house. She would wear Deke's shoes or my shoes or lots of different pairs of her shoes. She owns way too many pairs of shoes and can full on sprint in high heels. She will change her shoes at least ten to twelve times a day on a minimum. She wears shoes all day long and hates to go barefoot. It is the sweetest thing. I have such a hard time getting her to smile for the camera, let alone even look at it. Today when I took a handful of her shoes and dumped them on the bed for her to play with she was smiles galore. Shoes can but a smile on her face right away. I got her a pink wall plaque for her wall that says, "One Shoe Can Change Your Life."-Cinderella. It is such a cute little girly quirk that I love about her, heaven help us if she continues as she gets older trying to support her shoe fettish lifestyle :)

Easter

Well the kids were so excited to participate in a couple of Easter egg hunts this year. Our community had an Easter egg hunt at our community park. They had all the kids line up and had all the eggs on the field numbered one through seven. Each child was supposed to find an egg 1-7 then go back to the line until everyone was finished then they would have a free for all for the rest. They said go and the kids took off, Deke attempted to keep up with Hunter while I watched Avery. She was so funny, kids are scrambling and running all around her and she was just taking her time, slowly picking up the eggs and showing them to me then putting them in her basket. When she first picked one up she saw the number on it and said "Look Mom, it's my 2!" From that point on it didn't matter what I said she would not pick up any other egg with any other number on it. Instead she insisted on getting her 2's. It cracked me up and even though we weren't quite following the rules it was pretty cute and neat to watch her scan through the piles to find all the number 2's she could. The highlight of the event however for me was when it came time for the games. One of the games was gunny sack racing. Hunter had never done it before and it proved to be more than entertaining. Deke got a shot of them jumping and accidentally caught someone's crack..oooops. He started the race jumping and falling and then jumping again. About mid way the bottom of his bag jumped out and he would jump then run until we would yell, "Hunter jump no running!" He just wanted to win so bad and to watch all the kids jumping as fast as they could and falling over the majority of the time was so hilarious. On Easter we went over and dyed eggs with Grandpa and Grandma McWhorter, Alec and the girls. It was a lot of fun the kids hid eggs, jumped on the tramp, colored, ate and we visited. Grandma and Grandpa gave Avery a cute little purse for Easter filled with pretend makeup. She spent all afternoon pretending to paint everyone's nails including Grandpa's. She also loved the chapstick that the Easter bunny brought her and went through about half the tube in one day. All Hunter wanted to do was play with his new HotWheels and jump on the tramp with Alec. It was a blast, the kids love going to see Grandma and Grandpa, uncle Alec and the Aunties.

Any suggestions?

This is what we like Hunter's room to look like when we ask him to clean up.

However upon Deke and I coming in to inspect the job he did cleaning Deke bent down to pick up a Lego out of the carpet and said, "MeKell look under the dresser." I looked and saw a brown pile underneath it and knew right away what it was. Any guesses, let's look a little closer...

Yes that would be a pile of wood: a combine of woodchips from preschool, sticks, bark and twigs.

So I reached underneath and pulled them out and look at the pile that he managed to compile under there. Ever since he turned two Hunter has loved sticks and wood. He collects sticks wherever he is. The last year however it has gotten significantly worse, he has started gathering and hiding.

At home we have found them in his socks and shoes, under his mattress, in his drawers, underneath his dresser, in my washer, in the bath tub and any other possible available crack, crevice, or hiding spot in his bedroom. We realized that he was trafficking them home from school when one of his teacher's caught him lining them underneath the sheet on his bed cot and in his cubby as well as filling his pockets and shoes to the brim. We have in no joke asked them to routinely do a sock/pocket check for wood or sticks before he comes inside from the playground. Admist all my trying to find all the hiding spots he finds more and I can't get rid of the piles of wood everywhere. Not only that but he has an emotional attachment to each one. If we try to weed some out it is always the discussion of "But Mom, this one is so cool because it is shaped like a hook , or this one has neat bumps on it." The other night Deke and I talked about it trying to figure out a solution and we are going to try to designate a spot outside just for him that he can create a "woodpile. I wonder what he is stockpiling up for but I am sure he has enough hidden to support us through an entire winter. I am handling this much better than Deke who as some of you know has very real OCD tendencies ;) :) :) I am trying to look at this as a cute little quirk of his but if any of those piles ever ends up bringing in any crawly critters than we will have to take it to another level. Any other suggestions??????

Spring break

First of all sorry that the pictures for this post are not in order of the text I was having issues and sorry about the quality of some of the pictures I definitely need to get some better ones of Hunter doing karate.We were very excited to have a week of no school for Deke. Even though we were still working we made sure to plan something fun everyday. One night we went to Ocean Blue which is the best frozen yogurt place since it is self serve and you can sample every kind. Another night we had a family game/movie night. One day we got off work at noon and took the kids to Golfland which was so much fun. Hunter actually did really well, better than me. :) Avery was very interested for the first three holes and then she just drug her club around behind her. It was so cute, she would get upset when the ball went into the hole, we tried to explain to her that that was the point of the game but she didn't get it and kept running over and trying to take the balls out. One of the holes had a small bridge that you had to hit your ball over and if it missed it went into the stream. Hunter refused to hit it because he didn't want it to go in the water. Deke finally convinced him after ten minutes or so and when Hunter finally agreed to hit it....of course it landing in the stream. Thank goodness they had a little guardrail at the bottom that caught it down below. It was a lot of fun. Hunter also started karate this week which was both adorable and hilarious. His exact comment to me on the way was "Mom, I don't think that they will teach me to chop metal in the first class, probably a little later." Upon further discussion with him about what he thought karate was going to be like I realized we needed to have a longer discussion with him because he may have had some unrealistic expectations :) Chopping metal being one of them. :) He did a great job and really enjoyed it, I can't wait for basketball and soccer to start. We also added a trip up to PV for the weekend with some of our favorite people in the whole world the Grants!! We went up and helped them move into their new house which has a very cool sunroom and is wonderful because they have so much more space. The kids played and played. We played games, unpacked, visited and laughed until all hours of the morning. I loved getting to mug on this little guy: so far every time they have a boy we have a girl and vice versa which means to things: our next baby has to be a girl for Logan and we will then increase our odds of having a set of our kids get married :)We just love Kerry and Erin and their family they are such wonderful people. Erin and I left the guys in charge and went and cleaned the old house and just visited for like three or four hours. I would have driven all the way just to go do that :) :) It was such a nice week we ran hard and packed the week with all sorts of fun family stuff and it was a blast.