Raising Beach Beauties

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Maya and I went up to Indiana for a very last minute trip to wish Grandpa a happy birthday earlier this month. I mean...very last minute. I think we bought our tickets on Tuesday and flew out on Friday. I couldn't have been happier to go. I have been craving some stateside time. I get rock fever quiet often, so the trip was definitely needed.

Maya got to go by default. Marley was the last kid to take a solo trip to Indy so it was Maya's turn. Plus, with Marley in school now, real school, not just pre-school or daycare, we didn't want her to miss any school days. Maya did a very good job travelling solo with mommy but she did cry when Stu left us at the airport. She didn't know why daddy and Marley couldn't come. A few tears and she quickly got over it.

Of course, the first thing I wanted to do in Indy was visit Target but Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Ray invited us to the Children's Museum the next day. It was a toss up...Target...Family Time...Target...Family Time...but I figured Target could wait.

The famous carosel at the museum:

Maya loved playing with her cousin Trey.

One of the highlights of the trip for me? Dinner at Pizza King. I love Pizza King pizza. Arni's and Pizza King are a tie for me when it comes to fabulous pizza.

It's not a Pizza King without a Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man

We took a long drive up north to see my grandmother. Passing through the Indiana windmills. So very Dutch.

We stopped at my Aunt Gloria's before picking grandma up for lunch. She had this awesome picture of my mom and her siblings...circa 1909? =)

Aunt Gloria's 9 month old Great Dane puppy tried to eat Maya.

When we moved to the islands, I couldn't get over how BIG the sky looked here. I think I forgot out big Indiana's sky is as well...

My grandma's farm:

Maya had an awesome time with her cousins (mainly Trey):

I didn't do so well on my resolutions in Indiana. No working out. I did "ok" on the food front (it's hard to eat healthy when there are so many options there not available here!) and the worst offense? My "no thinking of a new dog" went out the window while I was packing for our trip. I asked Stu, "would you kill me if I brought home a boxer puppy" and his surprising response was no. Boxers are the best and I love my parents dog Bruce:

I insanely drove to Noblesville, bought a 10 weeks old Bruce mini-me, told them I would be back the next day to pick her up and drove 1/2 way back to my parents house, turned around and hung my head in shame and told them I changed my mind. Just not ready yet. I called Stu on the way back to my parents and you could hear the sigh of relief from the other end as he told me he wasn't ready yet either and that he was so glad I had come to that conclusion myself. He didn't want to be the bad guy telling me we couldn't get another dog (he's kind of already put his foot down on the whole third kid thing). So we shall wait...and I'll try a little hard on my resolution.

Maya got to sleep with me every night. Well, me and PopBelly, who I still love to cuddle with whenever I'm home (I think his 30th birthday may be coming up soon...).

It was a great visit and I can't wait to go back again this summer...more family members in tow next time and welcoming a new member of the family when we get there...(my sister's baby, not a puppy...but maybe one or two of those too....)

I rock at Kindergarden.

My kids are going to do well in school with a mother that has some control issues.

Marley came home from school on Tuesday with an assignment. Each kid was to chose an animal and build a diorama. My first thought, YES!, this is my kind of project. Until I saw the due date. FRIDAY. That meant we had three days to build a diorama. WHAT? I told Stu, "you can't order something off etsy.com in three days!".

We had three weddings on Wednesday and I had an appointment from 9am to 1pm on Thursday at the hair salon. You may think my pony tail and no make-up beauty is effortless but no, it takes hours at the salon. By time I got home, did three hours of emails for work and then picked up the kids, it wasn't until 6pm last night that we remembered the diorama...due Friday. CRAP.

I have no idea where the plastic fish bowl came from but it was found in the garage. The little stuffed goldfish was something I got at Target for 47 cents on my recent trip to Indiana (it's filled with catnip) and I used a blue sharpie to add "water" to the bowl. I tried to show Marley how to cut out greenery for the fish to swim around in and when I cut out an example she said, "let's just use yours". Ok.  I found an old cupcake toy and drew a fish on it for fish food.

To really seal the deal on her A, we made a quick poster for it this morning:

The glitter on it wasn't even dry when we got her to school. She wasn't allowed to touch it as I drilled her on fun facts about goldfish to share with her class.

Report cards come out in a few weeks - can't wait to see how I did!

Chugging along...

I thought about titling this post "BUSY" but how overused is that word? Yeah, yeah, we're all busy. But you know what I wish I was right now? Crashed out like this:

My little peanut and I went to Indiana last week. Very last minute trip to celebrate Grandpa's 65th birthday. Pictures of that to come later.

When we returned to St. Thomas, we had a great visit with Grandma Kat & Papa Joel. Pictures of that to come later.

Stu has been slammed with working on the house. Renovations, upgrades. Pictures of that to come later.

I've been working away non-stop at the computer. Weddings, weddings, weddings. You don't even care to see pictures of that. (although if you do - check us out at www.islandblissweddings.blogspot.com - my other blog that gets neglected on a weekly basis).

Hoping to post some pictures tomorrow. Or the day after. Definitely not on Wednesday. Maybe Thursday.

Oh...and if you are friends with me on Facebook. No, I'm not moving to London. Crazyville...maybe.

New Year's Resolutions 2012

I'm only writing these down as they say your chances of success are much higher if you write down your goals. And making them public creates more pressure to stick to them. Last year, I really didn't have any resolutions. I didn't want to do the normal "eat healthier, lose some weight" cliches and I didn't really put a lot of thought into what I wanted to change in 2011. It felt kind of freeing not to have any pressure to do any certain thing. But this year, there are changes I want to make, in quite a few areas, so I decided this year would be a big year for resolutions.

And if you're not one to sit around and ready about resolutions...enjoy some pictures I took of the kids at the Yacht Haven Grande Old Year's Night celebration for families on Saturday.

1) Probably the most simple of my resolutions is to cut back on grocery bags. I have a good supply of the reusable grocery bags but they always get left at home or in the car. For the past two weeks, I've been making a concentrated effort to always keep them with me (I have two that fold down very small that I keep in my purse now at all times) and larger ones in the back of the car for groceries. I have forgotten them recently though and on those occasions, I was only purchasing one or two items, so I told the clerk to forget bagging the items and I threw them in my purse. Living so close to the ocean and paper never being an option at the stores down here, I want to do my small part for the environment.

2) My plans to go to Haiti have been put on a very back burner. Sad. But I have found a small way to help Haiti that I will announce hopefully before the end of the month. It's not a huge help but you know that any help is welcomed and needed. If you have the ability to positively change the life of one person, you would do that right? My involvement is not going to change Haiti, it won't make Haiti a better place, but it could make the lives of some Haitian people a little bit easier for a day, a week or a month. And I know everyone reading this will be happy to help, right? Right?? =)

3) Total New Year's Resolution Cliche Alert: Yes...one resolution is to eat healthier & exercise more. A group of friends and I are committed to supporting each other through grueling workouts. Exercise is something I have avoided for the last....10 years? Enough is enough. Time to get back into shape. My goal really isn't weight loss. If I stayed the same weight until the day I died, I'd be happy. But I want to be healthier and feel better. A better diet and exercise is the only way to do that. I've given it all a lot of thought, I have a plan of action for both. Yet one thing I have decided NOT to deny myself is carbs and chocolate. I am a total pain in the @ss without carbs. I love me my breads & pastas and will not deny myself them. And I don't go overboard with my chocolates and seeing that I don't, I see no reason to cut them out of my life. I'm not on a diet, I'm on a course for a lifestyle change. And I don't want a life without carbs & chocolate.

4) Second Total New Year's Resolution Cliche Alert: Save more, spend less. One goal I have set for myself is to not do ANY online shopping the entire month of January. My online shopping is borderlineout of control (ok...I'm in denial...it's out of control but if I say "borderline" it gives me hope that not all is lost). We have enough STUFF we don't need and that's all it really is. STUFF that eventually gets thrown out or donated. Spending less will allow for saving more, which a plan has been established to make saving an easy & mindless effort (thank you auto-debit).

5) Drink less. Stu and I are both committed to drinking less alcohol this year. A friend of his quit drinking 10 months ago and lost 70 pounds. 70 pounds! Again, for me, weight loss would just be a nice bonus, but a healthier liver and lifestyle is the goal.

6) Permission to stop fretting about a new dog. No one in the house seems to worry about this at all. But truthfully, I'm restless without a dog in house. I spend hours thinking "when, where, who?" When will we get a new dog? Will it be a puppy or full grown? Will we get it from the local humane society? A breeder? A stateside rescue service? What kind of dog will it be? A boy? A girl? I kid you not, I'm restless. Thing is, I'm not even ready for another dog. No one in the house is. But I'm a planner and I hate not knowing any of the answers. So I'm taking a year off from thinking about it. MAYBE we'll get one for the girls for Christmas next year. MAYBE. I'm just putting this disclaimer in because it's a possibility and not an indication that my resolution failed. Resolutions need exit clauses, right?

7) Let little things go. By nature, I can be argumentative. I'm keeping the wise-old marriage advice in mind going forward, "do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?". As I get older (and wiser) I realize that some of the things that I would argue about in the past is just "small stuff" and you're not supposed to sweat that stuff, right? I'm choosing to be happier.

And that's that...doing what I can to help locally & globally and taking better care of ourselves physically, mentally & financially. I'm excited for 2012, I think it's going to be a great year and I can't wait to see where we will be this time next year.

Aren't they so thoughtful?

Daddy helped the girls pick out the best possible Christmas present to give me. How they knew I have deeply wanted a Slip N Slide, I'll never know.

Have a fabulous (but safe) New Year's! See you in 2012...I'll be back Sunday or Monday with our NY Resolutions. The cliches will mesmerize you.

Christmas Day!

I didn't really take too many pictures on Christmas Day, just tried to soak in all the excitement from the kids and enjoy the moment. We had said goodbye to Roddle the night before.

But he left us a note on Christmas morning.

We had them both sit on the couch and open presents one by one...unless it was the same gift, then they could do it at the same time. I think one of the biggest hits this year was from Uncle Jason with the pillows that flip inside out to make a stuffed animal.

Another fave for Maya was her penguin. She looooves penguins.

One of Marley's favorites was her doctors outfit and police uniform dress up clothes (she kept arresting people all day for no apparent reason...we thought that more than qualifies her for the VIPD).

Breakfast was served on our new table. I tried to get them to look at me and say Merry Christmas but daddy had whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on their pancakes and it was taking a huge effort for them to listen to me.

After breakfast we headed to Bolongo Bay to thank Santa for all our goodies.

We ran into our friend Cornelius who had spelled out "Happy Holidays" in the sand....kinda. Stu pointed out his spelling error. Happy HOLLAdays!

When we got home, we spent the rest of the day playing with our toys, watching The Christmas Story on TBS (Marley liked the part where Flick gets his tongue stuck on the pole) and cuddling on the couch.

Maya's chef outfit from my friend Miranda (she and Layla also got Marley the doctor outfit) - big hit!

All the girlies in the family received a tech toy.

That kept us busy on the couch for awhile.

Mikayla stopped over to exchange gifts with the girls.

Marley and Mikayla exchanged BFF necklaces...so cute.

And that pretty much wrapped up our day. Sad to see Christmas 2011 go but looking forward to the upcoming new year.

Our Christmas Weekend

We were invited to the St. Thomas Yacht Club on Friday night...Santa was going to be there passing out early Christmas presents. Last year, I had the hardest time finding Santa. This year, he was everywhere. My girls got their fill of ol' Saint Nick.

Some of us were really excited about Santa.

Our babysitter told us that she got a puppy for Christmas and named it Maya. She said it's a gorgeous little thing, white with blue eyes and WON'T SIT STILL.

Santa came and sat in front of the tallest real Christmas tree I have ever seen on St. Thomas.

Fat man with a beard offering to give them presents? My kids are happy to sit on his lap.

It was craziness in there.

We came home and watched The Grinch.

And had hot cocoa.

Funny story about hot cocoa...last year, Maya called poop "coocoo". It was something she learned from her Montessori teacher. To this day, if you ask her if she wants hot cocoa, she says NO!! We didn't get it last year. So we'd say, do you want any warm cocoa? Cold cocoa? She finally yelled, "I don't want any coocoo - that's gross!". Hot chocolate...not a problem. Just don't call it cocoa.

Saturday morning we worked on Christmas crafts and stayed in our jammies most of the day.

Or you know...a ballet outfit if you're Maya. Or a Christmas skirt worn as a top if you are Marley.

This was the best craft project ever. All you need is markers. Easy.

Maya's:

Marley's:

Mommy's:

Daddy's:

The next project was pretty easy as well. But not everyone choose to participate fully. I'll give you a clue.

Most of us had fun with the project and were really proud of our work.

The rest of us eventually came around.

Daddy did Christmas cookies with the girls.

And the most anticipated crafts by the girls was a bust. I think they thought the little beads were candy. Regardless, Shrinky Dinks are even hard for a 27 year old like myself (it's Christmas, let me be).

That night we had our traditional Christmas Eve tacos.

For 50 cents, the girls let me get some pictures of them in front of the tree.

The one above wasn't happy with her two quarters so I gave her 10 pennies which thrilled her.

They have never gone to bed so easily as last night, knowing that it was their last effort to be good little girls for Santa. Marley couldn't wait to go to sleep because she knew going to sleep was going to be the fastest way to wake up and it would then be CHRISTMAS.

 

Happy Christmas Eve....

My December folder for pictures is always brimming to the top. Today alone I believe I have already taken 100 photos. It's only 12:25pm. We have 2 out of 3 Christmas projects completed, Maya & I went out and finished up her Christmas shopping (she is so last minute) and we still have cookies to bake later and we need to check the mail one last time to see if there are any last minute Christmas packages & cards. I'm sure the blog will be full of Christmas photos next week. Today, I wanted to share our Christmas card photos. I did them myself this year and I don't think I'll be doing that again. Nobody was happy by the end of the shoot and I nearly broke my ankle and could have spent the rest of the day in the ER. My ankle, a month later, is still a bit swollen and I still wake up in the middle of the night with pain in it. Next year, I'll let a pro break their neck for my kids. I'm done.

This was the photo used on the card.

Here is it in color.

And these two images on the back.

It may have looked from the above pictures that it was a "picture perfect" day with the girls being all smiley but noooooo....this was the photo shoot from hell. I had picked out two different color blues for the balloons, thinking they would be pretty mixed together but the girls wanted their own colors. I knew they wouldn't edit well this way but whatever, I let them each hold their own colors. I was willing to compromise and be a good sport. But asking a certain taller than the other sister to smile was like asking her to walk the tight rope at the circus. The temper tantrum that followed was EPIC. Screaming and crying like we were pulling out her toe nails kind of bad. Of course, the shorter of the sisters realizes that her sister is being a huge pain in the you know what, so she decides to be an angel.

The whole time, Stu is trying to calm Marley down, but also chirping in my ear "our cards last year were from the driveway, are you sure you want to do the driveway again this year? How about taking them down to the beach or something?" - which over course really means, can you do this somewhere else so I can get some peace & quiet? I realized though, in order to get Marley to snap out of it, a change of scenery would be the best call. So I threw them in the car and headed out to a secluded part of Peterborg, a peninsula off of Magen's Bay. Great rocks, great views...and it totally worked. Marley snapped right out of it.

 

But Maya? No, she wasn't in a bad mood...but she scared poopless out there. There are a lot of rocks, you're surrounded by ocean...there are some cliffs, yes, but OMG girl, get over it! So I had to haul around my camera, lens bag and three year old that wouldscream whenever I tried to put her down. I, being a genius, decided to take the kids even further into the rough terrain to get the best shot possible...and get Maya more acclimated to the surroundings. Now, on Peterborg point, there is a small area to park your car, but you have to walk the rest.

See how far away from my car I am in this photo? Times that by forty. My cell phone was in the car. You know because that's what people do when they are in a secluded area rarely visited by other humans. Hiking out to the point with Maya on one hip and camera on the other, that's when I went down. I could have sworn my ankle cracked in two. It was one of those pains where your stomach hurts and you loose your hearing for awhile because your ears fill up with cotton. Maya's fear of being on the point only multiplied and she started to wail. Both girls learned a few four letter words that I'm pretty sure they did not previously know (Merry Christmas kids, take those to school & be sure to share). As I laid on the dirt, writhing in pain, I had no idea how I was going to get both kids and myself back to the car. Maybe it was a Christmas miracle, but I was eventually able to pull myself together, hobble back to the car and grab one last shot of the kids smiling for the camera.

Hope you enjoyed our freakin' Christmas card.

Our One Room School House

Marley goes to the Monroe campus of the Sibilly School for kindergarten. It is literally a one room school house tucked away on the west end of the island. At first we weren't too thrilled with her going to this campus because its much further away from our house than the main campus but we couldn't be happier she is there now. It is the cutest little schoolhouse and her teacher is really the best. Stu and I went out there yesterday to have lunch with her & her classmates for their holiday party.

She was so excited when we showed up, she couldn't stay in her seat.

Handsome daddy. This is Stu's "oh good...she brought her camera" face.

Enjoying lunch with daddy.

All through lunch, we were referred to as "Marley's Dad" or "Marley's Mom". Stu is totally the kind of dad that picks up random kids, swings them around, tickles them, chases after them yelling like a monster:

I absolutely love this fact about my husband. The kids love him. Know what I don't like? The fact that whenever these kids see me, they run and jump all over me. I always have to remind them, "It's Marley's Dad that is the fun one, not me!" as they jump all around, expecting me to toss them up in the air.

Here's a look inside the classroom.

And outside - all the kids came to yell/scream at Marley & Marley's Dad as we were leaving.

He even came back for an encore.

Today is Marley's last day until the new year. They got to celebrate by wearing jeans with either a red or green shirt. The school is a bit strict on these types of things and there couldn't be a pattern or picture on the shirt. I didn't have enough notice to order anything online, so I stopped at the mall the other day and bought a cheap red dress that she would be able to wear over her jeans. It came with a big black belt - she looks a bit like Santa Claus! Maya got to wear red & green today too.

She is becoming annoyingly more opinionated on her clothing lately. This dress was Marley's from two years ago. I had to tell her this is what ballerina's wear when they perform Christmas ballets to get it on her. She still wasn't buying it but a small bribe with a piece of peppermint candy worked.

I actually got her all kinds of hopped up on sugar and then dropped her off at school. Merry Christmas teachers!!

See the new table in chairs behind her? That's our family Christmas present this year. We've been eating dinner out there every night and doing their homework at the table. They love it, we love it, best Christmas gift to ourselves ever.

I'm sure I'll be getting a note home with this one about how the shirt was supposed to be tucked in. Oh well.

I know I posted at Thanksgiving about how I love how flexible my job is and that I can go to school events for my kids. In the case of the Christmas lunch, totally true. But the day before, I got a last minute booking and my assistant was already up in the mainland enjoying the holidays with her family and my back-up assistant had gone along with her. So that left me to coordinate and I missed out on her school play. One of the moms texted me this photo:

She said they were only up there all of five minutes and I didn't miss much. But I did and I hate missing things like this. What's worse is Marley's questions, "why didn't you come to see me?". I'm going to have to make it up to her with lots of holiday cheer this weekend.

Breakfast with the big man.

The Rotary Club hosted breakfast with Santa again this year. I learned my lesson from last year...do not get there when it starts. We waited 1.5 hours last year to see Santa. So this year we got there at 9:30 and Santa was already seated, taking requests when we showed up. Perfect.

We started off with pancakes and coloring.

Sucking on oranges.

Then the big moment...

They are getting so big. No crying on Santa's lap. After giving Santa their requests, they were allowed to pick out a toy from the table nearby. Maya grabbed a toy and ran off without a second thought. Marley...she took her sweet time, making sure to look over EVERYTHING before deciding on a light up bouncy ball - which she exhanged for something else after it bounced up and hit her in the chin.

Marley has her Christmas lunch at school today and then both girls will be in school tomorrow while I finish up wrapping presents and preparing for a three day weekend with them both home...lots of Christmas crafts and cookies to be made! Excitment is in the air...