my christmas present . . .

My husband actually having some time off to do projects!! My passion right now is getting my home all put together. I love it! I have so many things i want to do just never have the time. So I made my workaholic self take a few days off over the break and we got a lot done.

This was Erik's dresser he used before we got married and it is still really nice but the cherry wood just didnt match and instead of spending lots of money to buy a new dresser we decided to refinish it. I am glad Erik helped me cause it was a lot of work. Plus he is such a hard worker and if he starts something he has to finish it asap. He kept dragging me down to the basement to get it done. I love that about him!

Yeah! the first thing we've painted in our house, I love color, I think it adds so much!

Here is is all finished, I think it turned out really great!

So. . . my other bed that I refinished just wasn't cutting it! It was to squeaky and Erik couldn't fix it so we decided to just buy a new one and why not upgrade to a king? So we went and laid on a million mattresses and looked at a ton of different bed frames. I didn't find another white one I liked so we bought this dark brown sleigh bed and I actually really love it with the white night stands. We love our new mattress too way comfy!

This pic is just from my phone but I think it is a little more true to color

Way late Halloween

Happy Birthday Kel! We decorated cookies instead of cake and ice cream. So fun!

All the different cookies. I kept trying to put the crappy ones on their own special plate but the kids caught on and got their feelings hurt. :(

Witches Night Out. . . also for Kelsey birthday. We ate at the restaurant there and the food was amazing!

We all got ready at the salon before, gotta love the cape. My mom made them for us when we were little and it went perfect with her tiny hat!

Fun night! I wouldn't survive Erik being in school without my girls!

We went out to dinner again with the salon girls, we were the only ones dressed up there. A little awkward but still fun

My body really does look broken in this one, It freaks me out a little.

My brother Terry was in town from Vegas! So fun to see his cute kids all dressed up

Trick or treating in the rain with all my nieces and nephews, thanks for letting me tag along!

Addi and Lilly, best little cousins. They get along so well.

We finished the night with lots of yummy food, candy and games. . . what more could I ask for? Well besides Erik being there. He had to take an 8 hour test that day, what a lame day to do it. He was to tired to come down after and who could blame him. That would suck!

Cruise Pictures

MIAMI

Erik loves Florida ever since he served his mission there. He was so excited to wake up early and go walk along the beach before we went to the ship. He was in heaven when we found these I tried doing a pull up, but you don't want to see that pic!

THE CARNIVAL VALOR

Just leaving Miami! Wohoo

They had a harry chest competition on one of the days at sea. How weird is that guys white hair on the top of his chest and dark on the bottom? Rotten too might I add!

The slide was pretty fun until the end and you get ocean water up your nose. . . was not expecting that!

We had chocolate cake every day and then ordered it almost every night for room service. Along with an ice cream cone every time i walked by that stupid machine. And lots of other yummy food, it was fantastic! Definitely worth the 5 pounds I gained!

Check out the most jacked up fork ever that Erik got! Megan this one dominates all the ones you have ever gotten. Ha ha

Waiting for the comedy show to start

Amber and I had to wear pants and jackets every night cause they keep the ship so freezing! I couldn't even wear any of the cute clothes I brought :(

What a beautiful sunset!

"hum. . . should i get the melting chocolate cake again? Definitely! "

Dress up night! I love it but Erik couldn't wait to change.

GRAND CAYMAN

We rode on this boat to what it felt like the middle of the ocean to a sand bar. with tons of sting rays everywhere. It was unreal how shallow, clear and blue the water was! I was in heaven until the sting ray swam its nasty, slimy body through my legs! I screamed like a little girl, it was pretty funny everyone was staring at me! I thought they would be just like fish when you snorkel. . . swim away from you. But nope!

check out all the stingrays! You can really tell how clear the water is in this pic.

Our tour guide made us all kiss the sting ray for 7 years of good luck!

Check out the tour guides dreads. . . I swear they were past his butt!

Amber's first try kissing it! She totally got rejected, it whipped her in the face!

Much better!

I was so scared even holding it but I finally got over it!

Funniest pic, it looks like I am smelling it or something. . .Erik sucks at taking pics. I promise I really did kiss it!

How amazing is that water?!

After that we went to Seven Mile beach and just relaxed.

I had so much fun with my sister, except for when I made her cry! I was doing her hair one night and burnt her face with the curling iron. Really? you would think i knew how to use a curling iron.

ISLA, ROTAN

We got to this island and had nothing planed to do so we hired a driver for the day. We were a little sketched out at first but we didn't want to go through the cruise and pay double.

We rode around in this beaut that had hardly any AC. That is why our faces are so greasy in some of the pics

He took us first to the zip-lines. To get there we drove off the main road to this one way, dirt road. We were all a little nervous cause we didn't really trust the guy yet. Steve asked him, "um. . .where are you taking us?" He didn't hear him so he basically yelled at him, where are you taking us. The zip line was right in front of us by then and everything was totally legit. We were all a little scared but he ended up being really nice!

This was on thing I wanted to do so bad and it was so fun! I wasn't scared one bit and even went first! Amber on the other hand had to be persuaded a lot to do it. But that is pretty normal to be scared of this vs touching a harmless stingray. What is wrong with me?



I love this picture of Steve! It was so fun to go upside down, to bad there wasn't a pic of me doing it

Wohoo! So fun



Afterward we got to hold the cutest baby monkey

I think this was Amber's favorite part of the trip cause she missed her baby Luke so bad!

What a cute daddy?

I had to put this one in here cause it looks like he is trying to get a little milk! ha ha i had no idea he was doing that!





Then he took us to a few different gorgeous sights.

We ended the day at another beautiful beach!

BELIZEWe did the cave tubing adventure in Belize, so we rode 4 wheelers first through the jungle and then went to the caves!





Nice and muddy, ready to go wash it off in the river.

Look at the cave in the back, that is what we floated through! It was pitch black, so cool to look at everything with our headlamps.

We make these cheesy life vests look good!

At the end after we were so hot we jumped off this little rock, the cool water felt so good!



COZUMEL