Grand Cayman: Day One

Trent and I were so lucky to spend almost a week in Grand Cayman at the end of April.  Trent's region did so well last year, that he won the Regional Manager of the year for 2012, so he won the trip!  The only thing better than an awesome vacation is a free awesome vacation.  Prepare for a ton of photos.

Day 1:

Picture from the airplane window just before landing.  We were so happy to finally get there.  We had left our house at 6:30 that morning, and after a layover in Houston, we made it to Grand Cayman by 4:30 in the afternoon.  (With the time change, we were only an hour ahead since they don't observe daylight savings in the Caymans.)

From the balcony off of our hotel room.

We didn't waste any time getting our suits on and heading straight for the beach.

We found Heather and some of our other friends that were on the trip with us while we were out on our walk along the beach.

That night, there was a welcome dinner for all of us.  Trent and Jonelle got in a quick steel drum lesson before dinner.

Last 4 photos by Jim the photographer

Heather, Trent and I.  We love Heather.  She is such a fun gal!

Birthday Girl!

Back in April, our sweet little Jillian turned 2!  We are so grateful for the day she came to join our family.  She brings so much joy and laughter into our home.

I didn't have to do any decorating for her birthday.  Vivian took care of everything in that department.  She made the streamers and everything!  On the left, she wrote some things about Jilly.  The signs read:

"Cute baby girl"

"So silly and loves Shaun the Sheep"

and, "Snuggles a lot with others"

She sure loves and knows her baby sister!  Vivi was especially glad for the day Jilly was born, after begging for a sister for years.

We had a homemade mac and cheese dinner and cake and ice cream over at grandma and grandpa Stock's house with everyone.

This was Jilly trying to blow the candle out.  She had her lips pursed tight and would try to blow through them.  I think a sibling ended up helping her out. ;)

Yay!  Wow, I forgot just how dirty her clothes were that day.  Ah well.

That's some serious static electricity!

Opening presents.

She thought her new dolly needed a taste of her lollipop.  Such a good sharer!

The balloon launch.  Jilly was so excited for the "doons", as she calls them.

Hooray!  Jilly kept saying, "Bye doons!"

The whole fam damily.  We were so happy that grandma Chapman was in town and could celebrate with us.  We were glad we were still in town too!  Our original move date had been April 8th.

A little fun in the back yard together.  We decided to ditch Jilly's clothes since they were so filthy.  She was much happier running around practically naked anyway.

Jilly is the most loved little girl I have ever known.  Her older siblings are always there loving on her, and they all help to take such good care of her.

So Jilly has had a few fetishes in her life.  Her first was her belly button.  She loved to dig in her belly button for the longest time!  If she had a onesie on, it drove her crazy because she couldn't get to her 'belly butt', as she called it.  Next was her nose.  She had her finger in her nose an awful lot for a while there.  Then it was her eyelashes.  She would, ever so softly, rub her fingertips along her eyelashes when she was tired.  Lately, it is her nipples.  The second you take her shirt off, that is right where her hands go.  I won't even tell you what she does when you change her diaper.

There she is again, hands to the chest.  This girl is a crack up!

Here are a few things about our little Lou:

She is so gross!  When Colson was in preschool, there was another mom I had gotten to know pretty well.  She had a daughter that was in Colson's class, and boy did she have some stories to tell about her little girl!  She had been dubbed with the nickname of Poocasso because she loved to make lovely art creations on the walls with her poop.  At the time, I remember thinking, “I’m so glad my kids don’t do gross stuff like that".  Eight years later, that thought has come back to bite me in the butt.  While Jillian hasn't resorted to drawing on the walls with her poop, she does like to dig around in her diaper.  I have just been lucky enough so far to have caught her in the act, and it has gotten no further than her hands.  I also had to buy a garbage can with a lid that locks, and not because she would throw everything away in it.  It was because she kept pulling things out of it to eat.  I think we have finally gotten through her toilet obsession.  On more than one occasion I have either found her playing in the toilet, or drinking out of it.  Ick!

She says “Hi mama” in the sweetest voice you have ever heard when she knows she is about to get in trouble.  And then guess what?  She doesn’t get in trouble.  Because it is so cute and so sweet, it melts my heart like butter, and there is nothing I can do except mug on her.

The other day she started saying, "Happy day!"  Except she says it like it's all one word.  "Happyday!" And now all of us go around saying, "Happyday!"

She has the best belly laugh ever.  I have several sound clips of it recorded, and if I'm having a down day, all I have to do is listen to that, and I can't help but smile and laugh.

She is very sweet, but she also has quite a bit of spunk and sass in her.  I’m telling you right now, you don’t’ want to cross her!  She has recently figured out how to stick her tongue out, and she does exactly that to anyone who is doing something she doesn't like.  Either that or she'll blow raspberries at you.  Little stinker!

She gives the best snuggles.

Her favorite thing to do at the park is swing.  The slides are a close second.

I love how she says please.  It's not just the word please.  It's, "Please, yeaaaaaah".  And she signs it as she says it too.  I hope she never stops saying it like that!

She loves her books.  Especially "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "Moo, Baa, La La La" by Sandra Boynton.

She has the cutest, biggest, bucky beaver teeth!  I love to see her smile!

Her favorite show is “Shaun the Sheep”.  This show is my saving grace.  It is the only way I can get things done some days.  You know, like taking a shower and maybe getting dressed.

I am so glad we had her.  There was a lot of debate whether we should have baby number five.  And Trent and I were never on the same page about it. Either I was ready and he wasn’t, or he was ready and I wasn’t.  Until one day, we were both ready and we both knew it had to be then, or never.  When we first told the kids we were going to have another baby, Trenton said, “Another one?”  He was less than thrilled.  But by the time we had her and he came to the hospital to visit us, he was a changed boy.  He sat down to hold her and said, “I wish I could hold her forever!”

I can’t imagine life without her.  She completes our family and has brought all of us closer together.  Every one of her older siblings dotes on her.  She brightens our world in a million different ways.

Destination Imagiantion

On Sat., April 13 was the Affiliate Destination Imagination tournament.  Colson and his team, otherwise known as The Sugar MOUSTACHES Playing Halo 4 While Eating Jelly Beans with Bilbo the Tiger! (longest team name ever) chose the science problem this year.  It was called Wind Visible.  They had to build a piece of kinetic art and it had to be set in motion by an Invisible Visitor using wind energy.  They had to do a lot of research on wind energy as part of the problem.  We even took a field trip up to ENREL back in December to help them with their research.  They had to create a performance that was 8 minutes or less involving these three key elements.  And the kids have to do it completely on their own.  They have to come up with the ideas for how to solve the problem, the script has to be written by them, and any props that are made have to made by them.  You name it, they have to do it.  And there can be no interference from parents, siblings, or anyone else or they could be disqualified.  These kids worked so hard and did such a good job.  I had the wonderful opportunity to be the co-manager for Colson's team this year.  It was a fabulous experience, and I hope he'll be willing to do DI again after we move to Georgia.  If he doesn't want to, I know Vivi does. :)

 Here they are at the staging area, all prepped and ready to go!

In the performance, they were all enchanted and lived in an enchanted garden.  Their magic flower that kept them all enchanted (which was the kinetic art piece) had stopped moving, and the enchantment on the garden was going to wear off unless they could get it moving again.

They did so great!

The tournament was up at Auraria Campus, and took ALL DAY!  We got there at 9:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 5:00.  Colson and I would have been there until close to midnight, but we opted not to go to the awards ceremony since Trent was only in town for one day and we needed to get him home to get packed and let him get a good nights rest.

Poor guy.  He was so exhausted after being away all week, he fell asleep on the concrete with just a backpack under his head for 45 minutes.  Reminds of when he was working midnights and going to school at the same time.  He took a lot of naps on that same campus just like this.  Lol!    He was such a good sport to take all the kids down to the tournament so that we could be together as a family all day.  I sure love him.

It was a fun day, and we are so proud of Colson and his team for all of their hard work and the wonderful job they did this year.  Way to go Sugar MOUSTACHES!

Should I Be Worried?

Photo taken by Preston himself. :o)

We were driving in the car the other day, Preston, Jillian and I.  Preston was really quiet and staring out of the window, when suddenly he said to me, "Mom, when I turn 20, I am going to get a BB gun so I can shoot a bear through the neck."  Not in the neck, through the neck.  Seriously, what goes on in this boy's mind?!  And I'm sure I don't even now the half of it.  I told him that I wasn't sure a BB gun would do much to hurt a bear, let alone be able to shoot it through the neck.  His reply: "Oh it will mom.  BB guns can hurt a bear really bad."  Probably a good thing we won't find out until he's 20.  Hopefully his dream of shooting a bear through the neck will have evaporated by then.  ;o)

Round 4 of House Hunting

The week after Spring Break found Trent and I back in Atlanta for another round of house hunting.  And this time, we had a little traveling buddy with us! 

Don't let her cuteness fool you.  She was a little a little she-devil on the plane ride over.  She was throwing temper tantrums left and right!  I packed an entire backpack full of stuff for her to do on the plane ride.  She blew through all of it within the first hour.  I had a whole bunch of movies downloaded onto my iPad, and I thought surely that would keep her occupied.  Well, she wasn't interested.  I should have listened to my husband's sage advice and spent the twenty bucks to download "Shaun the Sheep", which is her all-time favorite show in the whole universe.  I was feeling a little cheap though.  Let me tell you, one of the first things I did the next day was cough up the twenty dollars to download "Shaun the Sheep" on the iPad.  It was worth every penny.  And we have definitely gotten our moneys worth.

Funny story about the hotel.  Our plane got in at about 10:30 that night.  After picking up the rental car, we got Jillian a fresh, clean diaper, and put her pajamas on.  I didn't want to have to wake her up to change her once we got to the hotel.  By the time we got the car, changed Jilly, and drove to the hotel, it was after midnight, and Trent and I were completely exhausted.  There was a ton of traffic (yes, at 12:00 at night) because the Final Four was going on the weekend we flew into Atlanta.  We couldn't wait to rest our weary bodies on a nice soft Marriott mattress.  (They have the best beds!)  We pulled up to the hotel and Trent went inside to check us in while I waited in the car with Jillian.  About ten minutes later he came back out to the car to let me know that there was no reservation for us.  Anyway, being that it was the Final Four that weekend, there were exactly zero rooms available.  So Trent pulled out his handy dandy iPad and found another Marriott close by and booked a room.  We got to that hotel, Trent went inside to check us in, and they have no reservation for him.  He booked it for the next day!  Argh!  Well, it just so happens that this hotel had only one room available right then.  The lady at the front desk told Trent that she had had a feeling she needed to keep one room available in case of an emergency.  Well, it turns out we were the emergency!  It's amazing how the Lord took care of us in our hour of need.  Talk about tender mercies.  Because I was not looking forward to living out of our rental car for any period of time.  Especially with a toddler in tow.

 The next day Trent, Jilly and I did some driving around to check out a few areas.  We were there at a time when everything was starting to bloom.  The dogwoods and azaleas were all out in full force.  Talk about beautiful!

I went out with our realtor three days in a row and looked at about 45 houses while I was there.  And Jilly was with me the whole time.  After the plane ride experience we had, I was really worried she was going to be a little turkey during our trip.  But she changed her tune.  She was a complete angel the whole time we were there.  Even with all of the getting in and out of the car constantly.  And we spent tons of time in the car.  She was such a trooper.

 We did take a break in-between looking at houses the second day and went back for a rest at the hotel, and Jillian watched a little bit of her favorite show.  I have to admit, I quite like "Shaun the Sheep" myself.

 On the third day of house hunting, we had another break between appointments, so Jilly and I took a little jaunt over to the temple.  

The flowers were in full bloom, and Jilly had to touch every one of them.  She was really good not to pick them though, which surprised me.

 A little cheese action.

 Not sure what this was all about, but every time we went inside the hotel, Jillian would hug all of the pillars and make this kind of kitten mewling sound.  It cracked me up!

Anyway, after looking at houses for three days straight, I narrowed the list down to five for Trent to come and look at with me.  And there was also a plot of land that we had gone and looked at and really liked.  After looking at the five houses together, we decided on one and put an offer in that night.  Well, so did four other people!  We were pretty confident with our offer, but as a back up, we went to meet with the builder who owned the lot that we really liked.  Well, turns out, the sellers of the home we put an offer on liked someone else's offer better, so we decided to sign a contract with David (the builder) and wait for our house to be built.

Which means that now we have to find a place to rent in the meantime.  I tell you what, I just can't wait to feel settled somewhere again.  I feel like we have been in limbo ever since we sold our house last year.  But, it could be so much worse.  So really, I can't complain.  We have a roof over our heads, we have food to eat, Trent has a job, I get to stay home with the kids, and all our needs are met.  So I guess there is nothing left to do except be grateful for our many blessings.  And that's just what I'm going to do.

While we were gone, the grandmas were so nice to take care of our four older kids.  Trenton and Colson stayed with Janet, and Vivi and Preston stayed with my mom.

 Vivi had some sewing lessons while at grandma's and made herself a new apron.  Didn't it turn out so cute?!

 Buds and Vivi had a little grandpa/grandma pants moment.  (That's what my kids call it when you pull your pants up past your belly button.  Something they learned from their grandpa Stock. Lol!)

 The day Jilly and I left to fly back home, we left for the airport at 5 in the morning.  I was a little nervous about our return flight home considering how she had been on the flight over, especially since I wouldn't have Trent's help this time.  He had to stay in Atlanta for a few more days of training.  I got Jilly and I all checked in and through security then found a place we could get some breakfast.  I grabbed us a fruit and yogurt parfait, and a cup of fruit from a snack stand, then we made our way to the gate.  After getting there, I broke open the food.  Jilly was about 10 bites in when she started choking.  The poor girl turned blue and went completely limp in my arms.  I screamed for help then started doing the Heimlich on her.  It took a few pounds on the back, but luckily it came up.  A blueberry was the culprit.  Any tiredness I had felt at that point from having to get up at four in the morning had completely vanished.  I was wide awake!  And had adrenaline coursing through every vein in my body.  That is the second time I have had to give Jillian the Heimlich, and I hope I never have to again.  Scared me to death!  And her too.  It sure made me grateful for the CPR classes I had taken, even if they were forever ago.  The rest of our airport/plane adventure went much smoother.  Jillian and I got settled on the plane and I turned "Shaun the Sheep" on for her.  And that was that.  She didn't make a peep the entire plane ride.  She even fell asleep for the last 45 minutes.  She didn't wake up until I went to put her in her stroller once we got out into the jetway.

Jilly was so happy to see her brothers and sister when they got home from school that day.

 And they were thrilled to see her!  It was an eventful trip, and we were all so glad to be back home together.

So, here is the lot we signed a contract on.  It is almost an acre and as you can see, there are a ton of trees!  And it is at the and of a cul-de-sac.  Can't wait until the house is done so we can move in!