The Big 2

Happy Birthday Jarom! We love you!!!


We have had a fun filled beginning of the birthday with going to speech, picking out a cookie at The Cake Lady and skyping with our cute Oregon cousins!

4 Years

The Saturday before Mother's Day 4 years ago we pulled into McPherson, Kansas to live in the Holiday Inn for an indefinite amount of time. Technically this weekend 4 years ago was next weekend, but since we are now the Saturday before Mother's Day we are celebrating (or not!) today. Four years was NEVER part of the Kansas plan. I was supposed to only have to endure Kansas for 3 years and then off to somewhere else, better than this (my ideal is Oregon). Well here we are, living in Kansas (although not all together courtesy of the new job, which we do love even though it has caused us to not live together) and we are not on our way to Oregon. My new somewhere better than Kansas has turned out to be Missouri, which from the handful of times I have been there, is basically Kansas with more trees... awesome! I am excited to move to Missouri, should that day ever come. Our house has been on the market for 4 months with very little hope in sight. We are, however, updating our counter tops this weekend, and I think we will soon be flooded with offers because nobody will be able to resist our new, beautiful counter tops! At least I can hope for that result.

What we have learned from living in Kansas for 4 years, and now living apart for 3 months is that life doesn't go according to plan sometimes... most times I might dare say. So we have had to adjust. In the grand scheme of things I think I love McPherson, Kansas (but you will never actually HEAR those words come out of my mouth!!) I definitely love my friends that I have made in Kansas. It is a safe, family friendly, put together town. BUT I am no small town girl. I flourish in the city, and where Liberty is far from being what I consider the "city" it will do! Hopefully we will be out of here before I have to write a post about living here for 5 years! :)

Just for me

My 29th birthday is next month and I'm already starting to have a panic attack about turning 30. I honestly can't understand how I can be almost 30 when I still feel like I should be 20. It has also made me start thinking about what I have accomplished in my life. So just for my own peace of mind and to prove I have not wasted 30 years of life here is my list of things I can take pride in.

Married in the temple
Have 2 great kids
Graduated from college
Started a small business (that I'm currently taking a break from because I hope I'm moving sometime soon)
Home owner
Traveled the world (including 5 cruises)
Changwon, South Korea
Bad Oyenhousen, Germany
The Netherlands
Ensenada, Cozumel, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Mexico
Vancouver, Canada
Vienna, Austria
Budapest, Hungry
Venice, Italy (FAVORITE! NEED to go back some day!!)
Bahamas
Jamaica
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Airports in foreign countries that I count
Tokyo, Japan
London, England
(and the kicker, Paisley has been to every single one of these places with me!!)

The list isn't too long, and I'm sure there are others, and smaller things I wouldn't really put on a list anyways. I now have a huge passion for travel, I love it so much, and look forward to a life time of more travel.

I never really thought about world travel in college, and I certainly didn't believe I would get the chance. The only travel goal I had then was to get to every state before I die (I have been to most, I can't find my map right now but I think I'm only missing around 10). If I knew then what I know now about my life I would have majored in travel and tourism.

Anyway, now when I start to panic about turning 30 and feeling like I haven't done anything with my life I can see I have done a few things in my lifetime. Hopefully the list will grow, and I can have new experiences. I'm also looking forward to adding some great new experiences to my kids lives as well. I love creating family memories!

Cute Things About Jarom

Jarom is such a cute kid! He does such cute things and so I can remember I want to make a list on here:

1. He ALWAYS says please, ALWAYS
2. He loves Elmo
3. Everyday he asks "Where's Daddy?"
4. He loves Paisley very much
5. If I don't understand what he is talking about then he will take me and show me what he is saying
6. He loves to snuggle with me every night before bed, in the rocking chair.
7. When I am holding him on my shoulder he will pat my back, rub my back and give me little squeezes.
8. He can climb into his crib on his own but he can't get out (YET!)
9. He knows the "Thingamagiger" song from Cat in the Hat.
10. He takes very good care of all our baby dolls.
11. When I whisper "I love you" to him he whispers it back.

He is a handful, but he is SO cute!! I love that kid!

Productivity

When we got home from out cruise and our house still hadn't sold we decided to was time to get to work... again. This weekend we got started on some projects that will take us a couple weeks to complete. We power washed the gazebo and back stairs preparing them to get stained.

The first coat of stain!

We also have an awesome plan for our kitchen counter tops but before we jump into that, we decided to practice on a desk in the garage. First we sanded and primed.

Then we painted a base color and spray painted some stone fleck to add some color and dimension.

Then you finish it off with an epoxy sort of mixture. This is the hard part of the process. It means constant babysitting for about 4 hours. Continually wiping edges and using a blow torch to get the bubbles out. Lots of watching and care.

After about 4 hours, it stops running and you can finally stop babysitting, although it still won't be dry for about another 4 hours. Here is the comparison of the finished side and the side we didn't touch. We only did half the desk in case we totally blew the first half and needed more practice. Luckily so far it looks like we aced it!

We think it looks gorgeous! It will make our counter tops look like a solid surface and perhaps get us on the road to a sale, and living together again in Missouri! (BTW pictures don't do it justice, it is just so pretty, but it doesn't seem to translate in the pictures)

Highlights

Here is just a small sample of our Caribbean cruise we took last week. We had a blast and LOVED spending 10 whole days with Jason! We haven't spent that much time with him in over 2 months! Here we are when we first got on the ship, of course we headed straight to the ice cream!

Our first formal night!

Many, many times Paisley would come back from camp Carnival with her face painted. Here she is a princess.

The recognizable tail of a carnival cruise ship.

Jason was a good sport during the camp carnival scavenger hunt and put ice cream all over his face to check off one of the items on the list.

Swimming in Jamaica! The water was really cold, but very beautiful. There weren't any waves and we all had a blast! Jason and I ended up getting sunburned on our shoulders, so that was a bummer for the rest of the trip, but it didn't slow us down!

In the Cayman Islands we went in a semi-submarine to see the coral reefs, ship wrecks and fish around the island. It was a lot of fun!

In Cozumel we had our biggest adventure. We took a long ferry ride across to mainland Mexico. Then we took a long drive down to Tulum so visit the Mayan ruins. Paisley and Jarom fell asleep on the car ride to and from the ruins.

The timing in Cozumel was short enough to make us nervous most of the day, so we were very happy it all turned out ok and we made it back to the ship in time!

The day before the cruise was over we stumbled across a "fun farewell" where the drinks were free, so we enjoyed some fruit punch!

Paisley loved the pizza on the cruise and had some almost every day. We also loved it when we got to sit by the window at dinner.

What a wonderful trip with wonderful people! We love cruising and it has been a long time since we have enjoyed such a great cruise! We can't wait to go again sometime!

Paisley

Here is our cute paisley with her new haircut on her new bike! She looks so grown up!!

And because Jarom is so cute here he is!!