Shakin' it up at VBS

I got to help with the 3-year-old class at VBS again this year. ME was in the class, which was fun for most of the time until some of the other kids wanted to sit in my lap, too. The theme this year was "Shake it Up" and it was all related to God's recipe for life. I don't know who had more fun...me or ME!

Each day began and ended with an assembly in the Worship Center. The kids loved dancing and singing! Yes, I said dancing at church...something totally new to this Baptist girl!

Each day the kids got to participate in an Art or Science activity. I think ME and Andrew really liked the Science day that they got to make homemade ice cream and eat it!

ME loved shakin' up the ice cream!

They couldn't get enough of it to eat with their spoons, so they eventually put their spoons aside and drank it.

They got to make chef's hats in Art class. ME couldn't wait to use it in her kitchen!

At the end of the week, friends and family were invited to see what went on during the week. LaLa and McKenzie came with me and the kids. McKenzie couldn't stop "shakin' it up" through all of the songs...she is a dancin' machine!

Benjamin spent his time in the nursery while I helped with the 3-year-olds. The nursery helpers said that he was great all week, but he just kept walking around pushing toys while repeatedly saying "Momma". So the last day of VBS, I took him to the closing assembly with me to sing songs with us. I think he enjoyed it waaayyyy more than ME did! He even tried to keep up with McKenzie's booty-shakin' at the family/friends night, too.

As you can see, ME was too cool for the dancing and siging that night. She already did it during the day. Ha! It's funny now, though, because we have to listen to all of the songs on the cd everyday now! I wonder how long we'll have to do that.

A truck!

Dandy pulled out his old Tonka trucks out of the attic when the kids spent the night with them a few nights ago. I can just imagine Benjamin's excitement when he saw them!

I'm sure it was "A truck! A truck! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (that's squealing high-pitched like a little girl).

Even ME had to get in on the action.

Benjamin is already a pro with these things.

And he still loves to ride on everything, no matter the size!

ME is such a good helper! She helped Dandy wash all the trucks.

Benjamin is finally 21...

months that is! Besides showing off his awesome, sweet dimples constantly, his pesonality has totally come through now.

As I was setting up for Benjamin's monthly "photo shoot", I was so impressed that he just went straight to the corner to sit by the bear and patiently wait for me to get out the blocks. Well, obviously, I was way too impressed and didn't even pay attention to which blocks I pulled out. Did you notice that the blocks spell out 22? Not 21?





Sadly, I didn't catch that until this morning! But Benjamin patienty waited again and struck several poses for me again. Could he be a future model?


• He's completely a fish! And he doesn't understand why I won't let him go in the water at the pool. Sadly, though, he won't let me put floaties on him.
• One of his new favorite phrases to say is "C'mon" while he even cups his arm in the air, motioning for you to go with him (Ex: our first day in the pool this summer, Drew and ME were in the deeper part of the pool, while Benjamin and I were in the shallow part. Benjamin spotted them across the pool, stood up, and yelled "Drew, c'mon!" as he waved his arm at him, too.)
• Drew and Uncle Bebo have been playing softball for our Sunday School class this summer and we've gone to watch them play a few times (OK, actually just twice). Of course, Benjamin is all about it, too! I mean what's not to love for a little boy at the ball park? Dirt, hills to slide down, and "off balls". Ever since we've been to the ball park now, he calls EVERY ball an "off ball". Gotta love it!
• He has learned about guns somewhere. ;(
• He calls Daddy "Drew". I think this is hilarious, but Drew, of course, isn't so thrilled about it. Ha!
• He still "clucks" or "clicks" his tongue instead of saying "LaLa". 
• He might not be talking full sentences yet, but he mimicks a lot of inflections for various phrases. The two that we hear most are "I got it" and "Thank you". It sounds like he's humming...it's just too cute! Sadly, every time I am about to say I got it, I want to sing it now. For "Good morning", he says "mory!" Even though he's not clearly talking, his little sing-song phrases are the sweetest noises.



Benjamin absolutely LOVES his "sish"! He wants to be whereever she is or do whatever she's doing. As you can see, the feeling is mutual. Ha! Mary Elizabeth was more into watching Dora than sibling love.






Benjamin loves Bath Time (or even just playing in the water) just as much as his sissy did when she was younger. It's hard to get him out of the tub even after the water is all gone. "More please!"






"Ok, if you don't give me more water in the tub, I guess I'll just take my 20 second power rest!"

Risky Business

This summer the kids have been going to daycare so we can keep their spots for this upcoming school year. I have to admit that neither Drew nor I were happy about this new policy when we first heard about it, but I soon turned that into a positive thing for me. I instantly thought about all of the projects that I could get accomplished while they're at school or do whatever I wanted for that little bit of time. Ha! It's amazing how fast time flies!!!

Well, the kid's daycare is doing a theme called "Summer Road Trip" and is focusing on a different state each week filled with fun activites everyday. This week, they went to California and today they were supposed to dress up as their favorite celebrity so they could walk on the red carpet at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. First of all, I didn't really want to buy anything for it. Secondly, I didn't want to send either of them as one of the famous tv characters that everyone else would be dressed as. So instead, I sent Benjamin as Tom Cruise's character from Risky Business. Am I terrible or what? But is just the cutest thing ever or what? All the teachers got a kick out of it after they realized why he didn't have pants or shoes on. :) ME, on the other hand, REFUSED to dress up as anything. So I finally talked her into wearing her Belle t-shirt that her Daddy got her when they went to see "Beauty and the Beast".

Never a dull moment...

As you can tell from the title, our lives are constantly filled with excitement. I'm not quite sure why either (yeah right)! The funny thing is that most of the pictures below are of Benjamin. Man, the saying that boys and girls are different is completely true. I guess I'll get to sit down in about 16 years when Benjamin goes off to college (sniff! sniff!).

Benjamin loves to play with anything associated with cars, even the keys. I love this look! It's like "Should I not be dong this? Is this wrong holding Daddy's keys while standing so close to the trash can?"

Benjamin carries his blanket everywhere in the house. And he still has to stop and take his 20-30 second rest no matter where he is. Will he continue this through his teen years? ;)

Never did I think we would have to put a lock on the toilet!

But never say never!

Mary Elizabeth is full of drama and style these days. She has an opinion on how I have to fix her hair most days and what she's going to wear. I'm just glad that I FINALLY got her to sit down for a few minutes for me to try to French Braid her hair. I was pretty proud of myself considering that it was my first time in a long time to do that and Benjamin was only inches away from us giving her "the look" (the one that says "I'm coming closer to you so I can pull your hair").

Oh, Mexico...

Drew and I finally got to take our trip to Mexico that we planned almost 4 years ago. But after having two kids since then and now having to pretend that we're grown ups, the trip was well worth the wait (although that meant me having to be away from my babies for a week)! We went to Riveria Maya and stayed at the cutest, most quaint resort that housed only 75 rooms. I was the most relaxed that I've been in a long time! I wish the beach was right in my backyard!

What a way to be welcomed at the airport! But were we really welcomed? Or were they just pretending since there were quotation marks around "Welcome"? Hmmm...

What a way for us to welcome the beach! We decided that we're going to start taking this flag on any of our scuba diving trips.

Our room was in one of the thatch roofed huts.

This was our daily morning hangout. This was our daily afternoon hangout with our friend Carlos that I'm talking to. Drew and Carlos became great friends by the end of the trip!

A breathtaking experience...

a massage. on the beach. at sunset. with live clarinet music being played behind me.

Ahhh!!! Can you believe that we spent an entire week together and never ran out of stuff to talk about?

We planned to go on a diving excursion from the resort on Thursday, but the water was too choppy. So we went to Play del Carmen to go shopping instead.

Lots of walking! And lots of stuff!

By the time we walked all the way down Playa, it started raining. But it was perfect timing since Senor Frogs just so happened to be right in front of us!

The week that Drew and I went was apparently peak season for blue crabs to be out. We literally saw them everywhere (the streets, the sidewalks, the pool, and restaurants)! This one was inside the Japanese steak house crawling right by our table. Every time we headed to town in a taxi, the poor cab driver had to stop almost every 5 seconds to let groups of 20 crabs move over...it got to be comical by the end of the week.

Since our scuba trip got cancelled for Thursday, we rescheduled it for Friday morning, only to find out that the water was too rough again. Luckily, we had already planned a dive trip in Cozumel for Saturday and I suggested that we call the dive shop to see if we could come over there a day early. So we took the ferry to Cozumel, checked in at the cutest little villa ever, and spent the afternoon building up my nerves for diving in the ocean that afternoon.

We stayed at the Villa Aldora while we were in Cozumel. If you are not into fancy hotel accommodations and just need a place to crash, Drew and I highly recommend this place.

Who wouldn't want this view first thing in the morning?

Or this view? Man, I want to go back right now!

This was our "welcome sign" posted next to our room. The numbers represented our breakfast order for the next morning (one was for the breakfast combo and the other is for your juice option brought in a water bottle). The villa manager calls in the order every night and a local delivers breakfast by bike every morning.

The best part about our room, was our view right outside of our window...bees! Just kidding! Drew made me instantly shut the curtains.

Since we only stayed here for one night, we didn't get to enjoy the infinity pool, but check out that view! The dive boat would pick you up right below the deck.

Ok, so here's the scoop on scuba diving...

Drew and I went diving on our honeymoon in Nassau and I, for lack of a better word, hated it (I panicked, I cried, I didn't care for it). So for Father's Day, Drew got me to agree to take dive lessons at Lake Ouachita with him. That I truly did hate...you literally couldn't see anything in the lake further than 5 inches. But I did it and told Drew that it was a true sign of my love for him. Aren't I sweet? Fast forward to Mexico...

So a few weeks after we got certified, we made it to Riveria Maya with all of our new scuba gear (causing us to pay an overweight baggage fee, btw). I'm still very hesitant about the whole idea b/c I've heard that there are sharks in the water. Yikes! But I kept reminding myself that I'm doing this for Drew. Well, as mentioned earlier, we had to cancel our first dive trip twice due to choppy water, but luckily we had two dives planned in Cozymel. Drew was so pumped about it all week. We even borrowed D-dub's dive camera so we could take a pic of us under the water with our Razorback flag. Finally, 4:30 on Friday arrives and we got on the dive boat with everyone else that was staying at the Villa. As I talked to everyone that we're with, I found out that 4 of them had already been on at least 4 dives THAT DAY! Wow, I'm thinking I'm with some dive junkies and I have to just suck it up and be a big girl and I'll be back out of the water in about 30 minutes. Well, the experienced divers went in first (that's not me in case you were wondering), then they told me to jump in. After seeeeeveral deep breaths, I descend all the way to ocean floor (70 feet below). Well, I look up waiting to hold hands with Drew, and where do I see him? Still up at the top of the ocean! The dive instructor pulled out a Dora magna doodle that was strapped to her leg and wrote that her assistant will help him and told me to follow her. So, reluctantly, I did just that. Well, about 15 minutes go by and Drew is still not at the bottom of the ocean with me, and the dive master wrote that "Michael is back on the boat". I'm thinking "Great for Michael, but where is my husband Drew?" Then it hit me that she was talking about Drew. Ha! Ok, so he didn't get down on the ocean floor with me, so I decided that I had to take it all in for the both us. After I took a deep breath, I relaxed and finally enjoyed the wonders of the ocean. Wow! God has put some of the most beautiful pictures underneath! I saw the most beautiful coral and fish. I even saw a nerf shark (apparently they're the "nice" ones) about 15 feet below me and, oddly enough, I was very calm when I saw it! Well, after seeing some amazing things and having to share breathing regulators with the dive master twice, we finally made it back to the boat. When I got up there, Drew looked just like a kid that found out that Santa isn't real. Come to find out, he had a sinus infection and he couldn't equalize his ears past 15 feet. I felt so bad! Especially because I didn't take the camera with me for this first trip, he didn't get to see the coral, and we were about to go back down for the night dive. So I had to do that trip with the group and without him, too. But I'm glad I did it and I can check the night dive off my list! And I'm happy to say that I'm already to go on my next dive trip and with Drew! ;)

Since Drew couldn't go diving due to his ears, I suggested that we skip our dive that Saturday morning and just tour Cozumel since I've never been there. I'm glad we got a chance to see another part of Mexico. It's amazing to see how much STUFF they have to sell!!!

The ferry ride to and from Playa del Carmen was absolutely gorgeous! The water was so crystal, clear blue that you could see several feet below.

I was amazed at how everywhere you turned someone was trying to sell something! There were even singers on the ferry trying to sell cds and take tips.

When we got back to our resort in Riveria Maya, we had took a sunset cruise and had dinner on the beach.

Once again, even the mariachi men were trying to sell cds and take "tip's". A sunset cruise and a refreshing drink does a body good!!!

It gives you a lot to ponder, too! :)

We got to hear the clarinet music again while we ate dinner on the beach. The hut behind our "Kenny G" was where I got my massage a few nights before.

This was our sunset picture that was trying to be sold to us. Ha! We still got it anyway!

Have you ever seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Our resort had 2 of these giant chess sets. Drew wanted me to take a pic of him because he beat me after I beat him every time we played checkers on our honeymoon when it rained.

Our view from our balcony.

View #2 from our balcony. We took this just before we headed back to the airport. We're smiling because we knew we were going home to see our little loves.

This was even better than our "welcome" sign from the beginning of the week!