Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We're very excited for Christmas this year! We'll be eating lots of yummy food, opening a million presents, and spending LOTS and LOTS of time with our families this year! I can hardly wait!

Here are some adorable (and horribly scanned) pictures of the girls from their visit with Santa earlier this week. This was the best Santa display we've seen in a while (the free picture may have helped sway my opinion...and maybe the tiny 3 minute wait in line)

Christmas Preperations

We've been getting ready for Christmas, slowly but surely this year. I'm pretty sure most of the presents have been purchased, the decorations are up, cookies have been baked and decorated, crafts have been completed, and lots of chocolate and treats have been eaten. Here are some pictures:

Getting ready for a Christmas Craft...concentration NEEDED

Watching very closely to make sure everything goes where it belongs

Working on the actual craft....serious serious business here

Finished!

Cookies cooling...waiting to be decorated and eaten (well, at least waiting for their icing to get licked off, we don't seem to actually EAT the cookies around here)

Decorating those same cookies...the ones that will get licked clean!

And that's it so far. We've been busy with our Advent calendar and all the activities it's provided us. We've also been very anxiously awaiting the return of some special cousins that were living in the Caribbean all last year. They came home yesterday and my kids (especially Hailey) were SO EXCITED!! Now we're just waiting for the rest of the 'sneezles' to leave our home so we can properly celebrate Christmas!

Working out with Mom

There are a few things that I want my children to grow up always knowing, things like:

Who they are, and where they came from

Their Heavenly Father loves them

Mom and Dad LOVE them no matter what

Santa only brings gifts to believers

and...

Working out is important!

I want them to grow up knowing that physical exercise is not only fun...but necessary. I don't care how skinny you naturally are...exercise is still IMPORTANT (especially when you eat as much junk food as I do)!!

I am by NO means a fitness expert or even fanatic, BUT on the odd days when I feel good (i.e. not completely exhausted from this pregnancy), we get all geared up (panties and tank tops for Hailey, onesie undershirts for Paige) and head on down to the basement to get in a good workout.

We do things like:

Yoga - downward dog (with my back acting as a ramp for anything and everything)



We do a little 'modified' Child's Pose


And we try to get in some abs too


Sometimes we get some stretching in too


It's pretty funny...you've got to see them doing jumping jacks. And Hailey's lunges and squats are HILARIOUS!!!

Anyway, I feel like I'm teaching them a good lesson. I hope they remember these times and learn to love fitness even more than me one day! And hopefully...just hopefully their form will improve:)

Mexico

So we went on another trip to Mexico...it seems to be our favourite destination. And why not? It's gorgeous! The Weather is perfect! The People are Great! And It's Gorgeous. Did I mention that it's gorgeous?

This trip we went back to Puerto Vallarta where I travelled two years ago with my girls (see This post). I had so much fun with My Mom and Brother, cousins and Aunts and Uncles, that when the opportunity came up to do it all over again, we JUMPED on it!! This time Ben came along, and this time we didn't bring our girls. Which honestly is a whole separate post. We wanted a chance to Holiday without kids, and it was wonderful; BUT I missed them sooooo much! Honestly, if we go again we'll for sure bring the kids! They make it so much more fun!

We did take full advantage of our 'freedom' and relaxed, played a LOT, and relaxed some more. Eating dinner at night was a DREAM! Sleeping in as long as I wanted was much needed. And spending some quality time with my hubby was perfection!

On this trip we:

We went shopping in Bucerias



Went swimming with the Dolphins (well Ben, my cousin's husband and their two sons)


We lounged on the Beach

Helloooo...model pose!

We ate breakfast on the Balcony with the crashing waves as our soundtrack

We Boogie Boarded a LOT

Helloooo preggo belly (23 weeks)
We went surfing (well Ben and my cousins husband did...the rest of watched)


We ate Tacos at little roadside stands and restaurants

We went on a sunset boat ride, landed on a candle lit beach, watched an amazing show (with crazy characters), and ate a delicious meal.

We went Whale watching and snorkeling....sorry I don't have pictures. I'll explain: I knew we were going on a tiny boat, I knew we were going to see Humpback whales (40+ feet long), and I knew that when my cousin went a few years ago the whale swam right under their boat and surfaced RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!! So I was worried that we were going to get tipped over and I didn't want my camera to get ruined (my life obviously wasn't as important). So I left it (the camera) back at the resort. My cousins have pictures which I'll have to bum off them, because it really was so exceptionally amazing!

Another thing 'we' did...that didn't include me was Zip lining! Ben and my cousin and her husband went and because I'm pregnant I wasn't allowed to. I can't even begin to describe how sad this was for me! Which means...I'll just have to go back to do it again when I'm not pregnant!



Anyway, the trip was so fun! I loved hanging out with a few of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles...getting to know them better. I loved going to church and having no clue what anyone was talking about. I loved sitting in the car while Ben did his best to fit in on the crazy Mexican roads. I loved the food...Pinadas, Pico de Gallo, Guacamole etc. I just LOVED it all. And best of all? I loved coming home to my sweet girls who were so wonderfully taken care of by their Aunt Sarah and Uncle Nick as well as their Aunt Lauren and Uncle Chris. We're so grateful to them for watching our girls!