December 29, 2018

Christmas with Grandpa


Of course Magnolia has the REAL Santa for pictures. Fox loved seeing and Santa and sat on his lap happily, Finn was hesitant and Sweden was obviously scared. Scared but it's still adorable!

Santa at church.

 Finn with his friends and his teacher, Mrs. Gallardo at school. He put on such a great Christmas show in his pjs with his class!


Our tradition is to give our kids their Christmas pajamas the night we decorate the tree. The boys were so excited for their glow in the dark pjs- dinos wearing Santa hats and space ships. 

My dad joined us for Christmas this year and I am so glad he did.  It would be his first Christmas without Mom and I wanted to make sure he had a wonderful time and felt her with us.  We put a stocking out for mom and put some of her favorite things like flowers and butterscotch in it, along with notes from each of her children saying something they remember about her.  It was special to read those Christmas morning and to feel her presence.  I was a little scared to have my dad come for Christmas, knowing it would be hard to see him without my mom, they have always been attached at the hip. However, I was able to have some good conversations with my dad and even read through some of her journal entries, for that I am grateful.

 

We took the family to Morgans Wonderland for ice skating, fake snow, rides and Christmas lights. It was such a fun evening and the perfect weather for pjs and snow hats. 













 The Fosters joined us for Christmas Eve, we reenacted the Nativity, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and exchanged presents. We gave our kids their yearly Christmas ornaments. Finn received a lego snowman inside a globe, Fox received a dinosaur, and Sweden received a shoe because she loves all of her shoes and moms shoes.
 
 






 


 

December 17, 2018

Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

 We celebrated our 10 years of marriage by taking off on a cruise with our friends, Christian and Jackie. It was the perfect getaway and as much as we loved spending time just us, having our friends there made the card games more competitive, dinner conversations more interesting, hot tub hang outs and all our excursions even more fun. 
Those handstands on the beach are in Grand Cayman, that stop was a bit dissapointing, i'm sure Ben would rather forget it... due to the rainy weather conditions we weren't able to port where we were supposed to which confused things and made it so we didn't get off the boat until it was way later than planned, leaving us not enough time to swim with the sting rays. Ben has talked about the time he swam with the sting rays here so many time and how he wants to take me, making this stop the. most important and anticipated stop.  When we found out we couldn't swim with the sting rays, we went to the beach instead and the sun came out just enough to really enjoy it.  Later, on our way back to the ship Ben left our brand new go pro in the taxi. AHH! What a day.



Our stop in Puerta Maya, Cozumel: we rented a jeep and took off to the beach where we drank virgin lime mojitos and sun bathed.

 Our stop in Honduras: zip lining through the jungle and laying out on the beach eating nachos.


 Ben and I were contestants on the Love and Marriage show and won!? That was a fun evening but definitely too much about our love life got out.

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