Beauty School wannabe

We let Reagan know of a little secret.......there is something called "Beauty School". Her eyes opened wide and informed us that she would no longer go to preschool......only Beauty School. Here she is practicing on Taylor.

Hate to say, but not bad huh?

One night I told her I needed to go to the store and asked if she wanted to come along. She said "Yes!" I was gathering my returns and lists and then called her "Let's go Reagan!" I found her in my bathroom. She had changed into her church dress, dress shoes, and was putting on make-up. I asked her what she was doing? She said, "We're going out. I'm getting ready." Man, we're in trouble. WISH I would've taken a photo.

On the First Day of First Grade....

Even though Ryan has just started her 4th week of school (!), I had to post a few pictures of her 1st day of school. I can't even believe she's finished with kindergarten and she's now in 1st grade.
Her teacher, Mrs. Lawrence.

Right after this picture, she turned to us and told us we could go, waving her hand like she was shooing a bothersome fly.......
big girl now.

The Cruise!

A year ago, my in-laws surprised all of their children and spouses (that's me!) to go on week long Caribbean cruise this summer. I was excited (and freaked out cause I don't like boats or flying!). But it was a FABULOUS time! and I do love hanging out with all my brother and sister in laws.
So at the end of June, we flew out of Yuma (yikes! I hate those little planes!) to Phoenix. Then to Denver (which closed for an hour due to weather and we had to circle the airport in the air for an hour!). Then to Miami (which we waited on the tarmac for an hour because of mechanical issue....holy cow!). We also flew right by the Gulf of Mexico and we could see the fires burning from the oil spill. Pretty crazy to see that. We landed in Miami and let me tell you......HUMID! I would in a million years take our "dry heat" over the stickiness of Miami. How do they stand it??? So....we boarded our ship. It was HUGE!

*I usually don't include pictures of myself, but this time there are. Yes, I'm fat....no I'm not pregnant.



That dome area that is sticking out is a hot tub.



















Have you ever seen the ocean this blue?? Beautiful!


The Flow Rider! Chris got pretty good at it. (he's not pictured. sorry!)











The Royal Promenade. (shopping strip) See those windows above the stores? Those are rooms and our rooms were on the 2nd level of windows. Awesome!!!




















The adult only pool.



















The Kiddie pool













The Party Pool.









Chad in the belly flop contest, which he won!

After TWO straight days out to sea, we make our first stop in St. Maarten.

This is Orient Beach....the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand was Soft! The water was clear and perfect!



Most of us.

Next stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico. LOVED IT!! SO awesome!

We visited Fort San Cristobal

Another Fort and cemetery.

cool buildings

hands down.....the BEST food we ate all week!

Last Stop....Labadee Haiti.

Most of us zip lined down the Dragon's Breath Flight line.

It was Great!!!

View of the zip line from the beach

That's me.

Labadee Beach.

All of us hanging out on our last day out to sea.

Awww....the Family Picture

We had a great time. We missed the girls, but they were well taken care of by my family here at home. We ATE! We Played! We Danced! We ATE some more.

This ship was SO huge. It had restaurants, spa, pools, 5 hot tubs, ice skating, rock wall, mini golf, Flow rider, fitness center with boxing ring, dance clubs......I can't even name them all.

I would HIGHLY recommend Royal Caribbean. I've been on two cruises with them and I would do it again in a second.

Til next time.......

One of many....

Back in January we went on our annual trip to Disneyland. It almost got rained out, but the heavens opened and we were able to go. We got our tickets off ebay for super cheap and we were able to upgrade them to annual passes for $8 a piece! So we have gone 3 times so far this year. Now I can't tell which trip is which. But basically, they're all the same.
Reagan.....too scared to get on.

Ryan has a crush on Terrence. She was almost too shy to take the picture.

Disney Princess Breakfast is must.....but we can only do that once a year. Pricey, but good!

I didn't fit in the Dumbo ride with them.

My Mid-Life Crisis

Most men get a sports car....I wanted a Beetle. I have wanted a beetle since I had a dream about it back in Jr. high. I had a dream that Ericka and I were walking down the street and we see a car parked on the side of the road. I thought it was a cool looking car. A couple years later, I'm looking thru Popular Science magazine and I see an article where Volkswagen was going to release the New Beetle a couple years later. It was the car from my dream.....so it's my dream car. Once I had my first child and got a van, I told Chris "I'm having two kids and when the youngest turns 4, I'm getting a beetle." So the day Reagan turned 4, I put my car up for sale. It took about 3 weeks to sell and then we went up to Phoenix and bought this one. I only spent half of what I got from my car, in case in six months, I end up hating this car, but so far...I love it!

Thanksgiving Trip 2009

This past Thanksgiving we took a trip to Rocky Point for an entire week.....and let me tell you.....it was NICE! We took the girls with us and it was seriously the most enjoyable, not-at-all stressful week. This is the resort we stayed at. Very nice. People asked us what we did all day and I would respond "we laid around and drank." And we did. We would lay at the palapas all day and order virgin piña coladas and limeades during happy hour. They would bring our food to us. The ocean was a little too cold for me but the girls loved it.

This was the view from our room.

Ryan and Reagan had a great time with their cousin, Grace. It was nice hanging out with Chad and Stacy too! (uurreeaaa) -inside joke.....I still crack up with that one! Good one Chad.

Oh....how cute.

Why was Ryan chasing PELICANS??? Those things are mean and scary!

This guy was at the resort.....we thought he looked like Barack.

I didn't post pics, but Chris' parents came up during the last half of the week and we all had a nice time. Chris and his dad went golfing. We went swimming in the indoor heated pool. We watched Mexican TV....which is Weird....and I'm not talking about Univision. We ate dinner at the restaurant a couple of nights. One night, the theme was Mexican (go figure) and they had a couple dancing traditional Mexican dances. They then asked for volunteers from the audience to go up to....what I thought was to dance......so my family volunteered me. It turned out to be a drinking game! I quickly turned down the tequila and went back to my seat.

Now....if it was a virgin Piña Colada.....

She's 6.......

Ryan's birthday is today.

I had said a few times before that I would post pictures of what Ryan looked like when she was born. The above picture was the day after. She looked like her face had been burned. Later that afternoon the doctor told me that she had hemangiomas on her face and that they would keep growing and get so big that she would not be able to see and she would be blind. Not what a first-time mom wants to hear. Then another doctor came in and told me he didn't know what it was and that on our way home from the hospital we were to stop at a pediatric dermatologist to have her checked out and that they were waiting to examine her. After many family prayers and family fasts, the day came when we were released (c-section, four day stay) and the dermatologist took one look and said "they're not hemangiomas, so don't worry about that, but we need to find out what it is." The doctor said she was the 3rd child he had ever seen with this condition. Another doctor told me "well.....you see this in textbooks, but I'd never met a child with it." Few days later, after blood tests from Ryan and me, we found out it was a Lupus Rash. We took Ryan back to the hospital to have her heart checked. Everything came back completely normal! (although I found out I have Sjogrens which I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for Ryan being born). Ryan's rash got better and better every week and by the time she was a year, it was pretty all gone. It left spots on her skin that are thin and the skin behind her ears is so thin, she looks like she has bruises. So...if you see them....I'm not abusing her! :)

And now look at her! She's smart and so hilarious! She loves to sing and loves school.

Happy Birthday Ryan!!! I love you!