Preschool Sledding Activity

We went sledding with Evie's preschool class.  We took Hyrum Banta with us...they are cute little friends.  They had so much fun!  I was surprised how brave Evie was, she didn't hesitate at all sliding down those slippery slopes.  I'm glad she ended up wearing her snow pants.  Evie will only wear skirts and dresses, so when "pants" were suggested by me to wear in the snow...she wanted nothing to do with it....until we got to the sledding hill and she saw that all of the other little girls were wearing snow PANTS too, she decided it was okay :) 

The Dance!

Haden and McKenna have been good friends for a long time, so this was a fun first date for Haden.  They went with a big group...all of the cheerleaders and their dates.  They had a blast!  Haden looked so handsome and I thought McKenna looked stunning!  Sometimes I can't believe Haden is 16 and dating.  It doesn't seem like that long ago, Troy asked my to Sweethearts our Senior year in High school.  Crazy!!

Sweethearts

Haden turned 16 and now it's time to bring on the High school dances.  Haden was asked to Sweethearts by McKenna Watts.  He came home from church to find this on the porch.  On the back of some of the candy hearts were letters to form a message.  Stratton and Evie helped Haden and Kaiden gather and de-code the message.  After all of the hearts had been turned over and the de-coding process began, it was quite clear that some of the letters were missing.  Stratton then admitted that him and Evie and eaten several hearts when they got home from church before Haden even got there...:)  But, it all worked out because there were enough letters to still figure it out...!

My New Bedroom

I have been wanting to re-decorate my bedroom for quite some time.  I finally found a bed that I love and found the perfect bedding for it.  I painted my old armoire white to match.  I hung the paintings of my Great Grandma Thompson's....that Grandma Buswell had framed for me many years ago...by each side of the bed.  It feels so cozy, I love it!!

Eastern Caribbean Cruise - January 2012

Our cruise was so much fun!  We met mom and Dad in Florida for an awesome reunion at the Hotel.  The next morning we boarded the ship.  The weather was stormy the first couple of days and the boat was rocking like crazy.  Dad and Mitch suffered a little sea sickness, but when the storms cleared it was smooth sailing from there!  I don't think I have ever eaten so much, laughed so hard, and relaxed so much!  We would sit and talk and laugh for hours.  There was great entertainment on the ship, always something to do, and always something to eat.  We enjoyed all of our ports and had some fun adventures.  Cruising with my family was a total blast!  So happy to have mom and dad back in the USA!

The Bahamas

The Bahamas was our first stop.  It was so nice to see the sun after a stormy start to our trip.  We relaxed on the beach and did a little shopping.  The water was quite cold on this Island, but that didn't stop Troy,who was either diving in the water or snorkling most of the day.  He gets the most out of vacation than anyone I know!  I prefer to stay dry and warm!

 I love this picture of mom and dad

St. Maarten

We started out our day on St. Maarten by trying out a popular beach, it ended up

being super crowded, but we tried to make the best of it until it started raining buckets,

and we ran for shelter.... so much for a beach day!  So we ended up taking a taxi back

to town and shopped in the rain, it was so cold!  But we had fun anyway and explored

the Island.  My favorite part of the day was finding this yummy coconut smoothie

stand, and indulging in some Island food, it was so delicious!!!

 We were lucky that we found shelter during the down pour.  Many people

were standing around the edges of this beach restaurant just trying to stay dry and we were

comfortably seated and enjoyed a delicious meal while the rain kept comin' down...

 Our Cruise ship "Princess Ruby" in the background.