Yearly happenings

Once in a while, I will go on blogger and read friends' blogs but I have neglected my own blog for a few years now. I figured I'll keep up with tradition- write one blog, neglect it for a few years, then write another one with updates, and so forth. I'm due for that update!

All of you know we have a new addition to our family- Cole, or as we sometimes call him at home, Coco. Ben started calling him Coco shortly after we came home from the hospital in July of '13 and it's remained ever since. I am forever grateful for my boys- I love them so much and I cannot imagine life without them. Sometimes they drive me nuts and sometimes I want to lock myself in the bathroom but at the end of every night, when I check up on my sleeping boys, my heart fills with immense gratitude. Cole is 1 now and Ben will be 4 next month. He's already so excited for his birthday and discovered where I was hiding his birthday present so now he knows what he's getting. I told him he has to wait which makes him all that much more excited! It's funny to watch him get excited- it's like his body can't handle it. Ben starts preschool in a few weeks and I am stoked for him- it'll be great. He did at-home preschool last year with me and a few other moms. There were 6 kids, 6 of us moms, and we took turns teaching every week during the school year. Two days a week, monthly themes, and some field trips. So that prepared him for this preschool this year- he'll be going 3 days a week.

We've been busy this year! Randy started his graduate work last August and he finishes this December! We will be flying to Phoenix for graduation (from ASU, where he got his dual bachelors) and of course, for Christmas. He's been so busy but he's been amazing through it all- juggling full-time work, 25-35 hours of school each week, and family life as well as teaching Sunday School every other Sunday. My only rule is that he has to be available for dinners and he has. :) School has been a blessing overall because his work is paying for it- that's 35K right there- and Randy has learned so much; he's been able to apply a good amount of his education at work. Sometimes I feel like I'm a single mom but thankfully, I have good boys and Randy's been flexible with his school hours to help out at home when I need it but usually, I just suck it up. :)

Trips we've taken this year: Philadelphia a few times- we love Philly. We went to NY and NJ to visit family for a weekend and that was nice to be with family. Ben was in heaven with many cousins around to play with! We went to VA Beach for our annual trip to the Monster Trucks on the Beach weekend event. We took a day trip to Richmond and that was fun! Randy and I took a trip to COSTA RICA just two weeks ago! Just the two of us. My parents were so amazing to fly out here to DC and be with the boys for the 10 days we were gone. We missed our boys but it was so incredibly nice to just be together, the two of us, and completely focus on each other and our adventures. We saw lots of monkeys, sloths, various birds and insects, hermit crabs, and racoons. We swam in the ocean, talked to the locals and devoured the food, shopped, zip-lining, hot springs, hot tubs, jacuzzi tub on our balcony, adult-only pool, lots of hikes, movies, and reading. I read FOUR books on our trip. Some traveling too as we went from San Jose to Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna and back to San Jose. I think that's all the trips so far. The little boys and I are going to Detroit in Oct. to visit a good friend and her family then there's Phoenix at Christmas.

We are officially moving to TEXAS next year!! Next April, we will be packing up and going! We are excited but will miss DC/VA so much. I've made awesome friends and my boys were born here. We'll be flying out early next Spring to look at houses and buy. Whoo-hoo!

Some of these pictures show our trip in Costa Rica, some are a few months old, and some show some events, like the Circus we attended this year, the fountains in DC, and just some fun ones!

 You can't tell but I was breastfeeding Cole here. Go breastfeeding!

Benjamin

enjamin is growing up so quick! I love the little guy. Man oh man. He makes life so much fun and keeps us constantly on our toes! He is still very easy-going and is all boy. He loves balls, trucks, cars, dogs, birds, water, and still is quite the garbage disposal. He'll eat anything pretty much. He has his 18-month check up- he is on the small side for his weight/age but is on the tall side- he is in the 75th percentile for his height. He is very converstional and will look you in the eye and actually have conversations with you. You don't understand what he is saying most of the time but he is talking to you! haha. He says anywhere from 8-12 words clearly and everytime I ask him to say a word, he'll do his best to say it. My parents came out here 2 weeks for my cochlear implant surgery (more on that soon!) and it was so much fun! It was great for Ben to see my parents in person. He skypes with them but as far as I was concerned, Benjamin thought my parents didn't have bodies! Now that he's seen them in person, he knows they have bodies :)

 Ben woke up as Randy was getting ready for work and this is what I walked in to see. Silly boys. :)

 Nighttime brushing. Gotta brush those pearly whites!

 Those 2 pictures above were taken some time ago. Now Ben loves to brush his teeth alone but I still have to help him to reach the back.

 Watching Elmo.

 In DC. We took the metro to the Library of Congress then the underground tunnel to the Capitol. We had lunch in the Capitol Cafeteria and then visited some of the museums, including the Indian Museum.

 We took Ben out of his stroller a few times so he can exercise his little legs. :)

 Playing with grandpa.

He loves our tablet that has some movies of his on it. I don't remember what he is watching here- maybe elmo or gigglebellies?

Oh em gee!

Last time I wrote was September 20! I really, really need to not to slack off on this blog- everytime I write, I'm always explaining why I didn't write!

Christmas was pretty low-key for us because we booked a cruise for just Randy and I last January! Yes, we went on a cruise and Benjamin stayed home! We were gone for 7 days and we went to Florida, Nassau, and Freeport (2 Bahamian islands). Natalie watched Ben and we are so grateful for her friendship. We trade babysitting and it works out so well. The cruise was amazing! It was cold for the first couple days since we had gone in January. Once we were away from Florida and towards the Bahamas, it got to be a bit warmer to the point where everyone was outside in the pools. One awesome thing we loved was going into the hot tub pretty much every night. We love the hot tubs. They also had a gym so I was able to continue my regime a few days that week. We went on Carnival. We probably won't do Carnival again because the food wasn't as good as we have been told and there weren't many couples activities on the ship. We were told by several seasoned cruisers that Carnival is definitely on the low-end of the cruise lines. I didn't want to hear that because hello, I'm on my first cruise with my husband without our baby- I want to have fun, not hear your complaints! Nevertheless, we plan on going on another cruise in 2014 with Princess or Norwegian. When we got back from the cruise, it took me a long time, mentally, to adjust to being back home. Probably a week and a half. The first night we were back, we didn't have much food in the fridge and it was Sunday (We try not to shop on Sundays) so we were snacking on whatever we had left and Randy was still a bit hungry. At 10pm, we were sitting on the couch talking and he said, "Man, I'm hungry. Let's order some room service." I looked at him like "Honey, we're not on the ship anymore." We both looked at each other and just laughed. I can't remember but I think Randy ran to the store to grab something for us both or we ate out of our food storage.

 I loved the towel animals. We attended a class on the ship on how to make these!

 We became very good friends with this couple. It's hard not to when you see them every night for dinner! This was at formal night.

 Florida beach. I was bummed out because I forgot my camera for most of the day. We went paddle boarding! I loved loved it and I was the only one, besides, our coach, who didn't fall! Poor Randy.

 Randy's Uncle Lynn lives in Florida with his family so we got to see them. We went out to lunch with him, his wife, and his 2 youngest kids. We were also fortunate enough to get a tour of his base! It was pretty neat. This was at the end of our day when he dropped us off at our ship.

 In Nassau- we took a tour of the city with some seafaring friends from our ship and it was pretty cool.

 We went on a wave runner! A wave runner is like a jet ski but for 2 people. It was a lot of fun and had it for a hour- you can do a lot in an hour!

 This is in Freeport, our last port. It was kind of disappointing because we had signed up to go swimming with the dolphins in the ocean and scuba diving but it was so windy, the ship canceled all water activities. We tried to check with anyone on shore who ran these activities themselves but they wouldn't do it due to the wind. In the picture above, you can see a small idea of how windy it was. We went shopping at some beach malls and it was actually pretty fun- not as easy to haggle like it is in Mexico but you can still haggle on prices. We just walked on the beach and took it easy. It was really quite nice.

 Formal night.

 Sunset on our last night.