The Trip To Texas and The Beach

On Wed. we woke up at 5:30am to leave for Texas. Our reasoning was 1-the kids will sleep for a few hours of the 7 hour drive and 2- we will get there mid-day and be able to enjoy a fun day. The decision we made was a good one. The kids slept for about 3 1/2 hours. We only made one stop for about 20 minutes. Cooper only screamed for 1 hour!!! We made it to Rockport in 6 1/2 hours! Great driving Chris!

Upon arrival, we met T.J.'s family (Chris' brother) and Nana and Pap at The Big Fisherman for a fresh seafood lunch. We both got seafood sampler tray with catfish, shrimp, crab, oysters and fries for like $7. Super yummy and fresh since it is a mile from the ocean! If we had been there on Tues/Thurs, we would have got the all-you-can-eat lunch for like $2.55!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After lunch, Cecy (Nana) showed the kids off to her co-workers and we played at T.J. and Janie's house. Cadence hit it off with her cousins Kaitlyn and Courtney. Instant friendship!!! She loved their "treehouse" with a slide coming off it and the swings.
Cooper enjoyed being out of a carseat and swinging with Grammy! The weather was nice and warm! No rain or snow!
We decided to go to the beach later on in the day. I brought Cadence's swimsuit, but she decided she had to wear her cousins' clothes/swimsuit while we were there. Aren't the three girls beautiful beach babes? She HAD to ride in their mini-van. Look at her chillin' in the back! She's so funny!
We drove to Mustang island off of Corpus Christi. To get to the island from Aransas Pass, we had to drive our cars onto a ferry. The girls thought it was cool that cars got to ride on boats!
The beach was quite windy!!! And there were lots of waves! Nobody went in the water past their shorts. The breeze and wet skin don't sound that great! We did have fun playing in the sand, jumping the waves (upto our shorts, gathering small seashells and just loving that it was warm!!! My white legs definitely were attractive and didn't the least bit stand out (yeah, right!)

Oh how I love the beach! Unfortunately for me, I threw up and left the beach a nice present! I didn't take a picture of it (I apologize!) When I woke up, I had that sour stomach taste/burps and I knew that it would be a day of not feeling well. I held in all the yuckiness until we were driving home from the beach. I threw up a total of 3 times this day and I won't go into details on the end:( I didn't let feeling sick spoil my day of vacation!

After the beach, we headed to Nana and Pap's house for a fresh shrimp boil!!! Look at that pot of shrimp. Can you find one much bigger? When Southerners do a boil, they mean business!!!
I refrained from eating due to my stomach which was such a disappointment to me. The shrimp were fresh from the ocean! They boiled them with their heads still on! Look at those plates! Once again, can they seriously get any bigger?

Our day was so fun (minus me feeling sick and a long drive) and tasty. We wish were closer so the girls could play together more than once every other year.

Flying to New Orleans

Chris talked me into going to see his family for Easter. We talked my mom, Grammy, into coming with us. Airline tickets are very reasonable right now - $277 for round trip (one of the main reasons we were able to go!) We left Salt Lake about 7am Tuesday morning. Cooper slept on most of the flight and Cadence behaved well. She fell asleep about 30 minutes before our layover in Houston!

After arriving in New Orleans around 3pm, Ron (Chris' older brother) and his wife, Dee, showed us a little bit of downtown. Grammy was asking question after question about Hurricane Katrina. Then they took us to the French Quarters. We walked along the Mississippi River admiring the large ships and nice weather!!! We then walked down the streets like all the other tourists. We stopped into some typical N.O. gift shops featuring Mardi Gras souvenirs. We had to try on hats and kiss alligators!!!

I've heard all about beignets (similar to scones) from different people and told Chris that I wanted to try them. We stopped at the famous Cafe Du Monte for some powder sugar treats! So yummy and messy! Notice the powder sugar all over my sweatshirt! Only $1.82 for 3 of them! What a steal in a tourist trap!

While we waited for our beignets, we listened to the street musicians play music. Cadence really liked looking at them. The music was beautiful!!! Thanks to Ron and Dee for showing us around.
After eating and getting all spotted, we walked in more little shops and looked at all the beautiful architecture. Cadence wanted to be held all the time by Dad. Chris put her on his shoulders as he walked around.
The little bit of new Orleans we saw was so much fun! We were thinking of adopting this girl, but decided it would be difficult to add her to our family and take her everywhere with us!

Around 7pm, we drove the 2.5 hours to Lafayette to visit with Chris' dad. We ended staying the night there. This was a LONG day! Woke up at 4:30am and went to bed at midnight - only to wake up at 5:30am the next morning!

Grammy's Easter Egg Hunt

The Sunday before Easter, Grammy had the family Easter Egg Hunt at her house. It was fun! Cadence and the cousins enjoyed hunting for candy. She looked high and low, and found lots of treats! With some assistance, Cooper even found some!




They both liked eating/chewing on what was in their basket.

Cadence carried an egg bag and Cooper had a frog bag. Cooper and Cadence both loved swinging in Grammy's big swing. Cooper also enjoyed pulling up to the fence. He is pulling up to anything and everything.

Cadence loves her cousins and going to Grammy's house! How fun is it to have family around!!!

We have talked with Cadence about the real meaning of Easter this year. She knows that Easter is about Jesus and resurrection. Her description of resurrection is "Jesus died. And he came back from alive." I'm sure she doesn't get what that means yet, but hopefully if we keep teaching our kids the real meaning behind holidays and celebrations, they will grow up remembering the important things in life - not just the fairytales and made up versions.

Easy Canyon

After Cole's baptism, we went to East Canyon for my mom's timeshare. Many of the cousins came up for the day and Cole and Sid stayed overnight. The kids had so much fun playing and running around with the cousins. Cadence is in heaven when the cousins are around.After everyone left except Grammy, we had a nice, relaxing couple of days. It was so refreshing and good for me. Cadence is such a daddy's girl. When he comes home from work, she wants nothing to do with me. Since Cooper was born, our relationship has definitely changed. At East Canyon, Cadence loved me. Dad wasn't around and she played and allowed me to cuddle with her. Her meltdown were fewer and she allowed me to do her hair and get her dressed without as much resistance. She even took some naps! Cadence wanted to play "pretends" instead of watch TV. It was so good for me to see that part of her. I had a lot of fun playing "house" and being the daughter named Cadence while Cadence was the mom. She cooked a lot of pizza making sure to blow on it and cut in before I could pretend to eat it. She swept the floors, cleaned the windows, smashed many bugs and spiders and was a very protective mom. Cadence and Cooper loved the bunkbeds. Even though we didn't sleep in them, we played on the top bunk for hours. We watched the snow fall, played an interesting version of "Go Fish," played pretends, played with the blinds, etc. The bunks were a definite hit!


Cooper has been a bit clingy lately. He lets me know that loves me all day long. I don't know if it is just his age or if he still isn't feeling the best, but there were 2 days he did not want me to put him down. Towards the end, he would sit next to me or pull-up near me. He started to pull-up like crazy, roll around a ton more and started signing "EAT!" Wahoo! Cooper is very close to crawling:(
Some of his happiest moments were when he got a hold of my bag full of ribbons. Happiness is unraveling every roll of ribbon I had.

I even found a little bit of time to sew. I loved it!!! I wish I could find time like that more often.

It snowed most of the time we were there. I brought the snow clothes and we played on the playground, swung on the swings, went on a walk, kicked snow in the river and enjoyed a little bit of time outdoors. Mostly though, our time was indoors being creative. This was an amazing little vacation for us.

Cole's Baptism

Last Saturday was Cadence's cousin's baptism. She LOVES Cole. She talks about him all the time, prays for him, asks questions about where he is and what he is doing. He is such a cute kid! We told her at the beginning of the week that Cole was getting baptized on Saturday. She talked about "Cole is getting baptized on Saturday" all week. Cadence's way of explaining baptism is funny. She says something like, "You go in the water and die and come back alive." We've been attempting to teach her about Christ, Easter and resurrection and that is similar to the definition she uses for resurrection.Cole looked so handsome in his shirt and tie after he was baptized. We are grateful to have Cole in our lives!
After his baptism, the family got together at Jeff's house and played. Cadence and Cooper love their cousins!

Talent For SURE!!!

Yep! We did it again! We performed at the stake talent show and we were a hit! OK, actually Cadence was a hit! She is a great dancer! Watch the little video. There are a few seconds at the beginning where nothing is happening. Stay with it and watch the princess!!!

Don't you wish you were as talented as us?

Pets Please

One of our apartments just went up for rent a few weeks ago. The people who had signed a year lease told us they would be moving out after only 5 months. I'm actually glad they broke their lease for certain reasons. They burnt a hole in the carpet, smoked in the apt, put stickers on doors and knobs, and left the remains of a dart board that had been missed many times. I added no dart boards and stickers to the new contract and have bolded NO SMOKING!!! Anyway, we had to paint the living room, replace the carpet and clean. As I was posting the listing on KSL and Craigslist, I wrote "Pets based on references" because I have so many friends that have pets in their houses and I would never be able to tell. (They take good care of them.) At the open house we had, 9 people filled out applications and all 9 of them had pets. The funny thing is that all 9 are the kind of people to whom I would rent. They don't smoke and seem very nice and responsible. The quality of our applicants went up when we let pets be a possibility. So we have officially rented to a very nice young couple with a dachsund. They know we are taking a chance on them. I am excited because they will be better renters than most of the other people to whom we have rented. We had people offer to pay us more every month, a bigger deposit, etc if we would rent to them. What a change!!! I hope when these renters move out that I will advertise "Pets Please!"