A Very Merry Time

We spent Christmas in Idaho with my family this year. Kaity and Jackson had fun running around with their cousins. The adults had a fabulous time eating and playing a new game, 7 Wonders. Very fun. 

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year we went to church. It felt so appropriate to be there and listen to the choir sing and feel the Spirit. I felt so grateful.

 Before church we opened what Santa left in our stockings, and after we opened the rest. It was fun too see everyone open their presents one by one. But holy cow it took forever! Our family has grown, and is still growing. It was complete madness at times.

Oh the excitement! Kaity was really excited to get the movie Cars 2. She loves it, not sure why. Her favorites also include a CD player with a read along CD/book, play cash register, leapster games and cozy pink crocs.  Jackson loves his spaceship and "guys." He also loves his wooden train, car track and aqua-doodle mat. Markham's favorites include a pair of Ecco shoes he has been pining for, a CamelBak and a super warm sleeping bag for all those scout excursions.  My favorite gifts include a bulletin board where I can display all of Kaity's adorable art projects she brings home from school, a cozy Carnival robe just like the one I was loving on the cruise ship, and a beautiful white & fluffy down comforter.

The Carroll Gallery. I love it!

My mom made a yummy turkey dinner with all the fixings on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we enjoyed Raclette. It has become a tradition.

I did  a crappy job taking pictures, I was just so wrapped up in it all. I wish I had a group shot with us all, including grandma.  I'm so grateful for family and how close we are.  It was an awesome Christmas.

Mom's Sugar Cookies

Every year for as long as I can remember my mom has made sugar cookies for Christmas. They are one of the few things she makes from scratch so it's a pretty big deal. The tradition continues with my kiddos. They love to frost (and eat) cookies!

 what a pro!

Never too young to start!

Fun Day

This time of year is so busy, but so fun!  Saturday was an awesome day. I had a hair appointment! Love that! Later Kaitlyn had a Christmas Recital, aka "Winter Showcase." She was dang cute.

Her and her little BFF from across the street

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That night we had Raclette with Dylan & Ashley, Lindsey & Jake, and Lindsey & Brian.

Seriously good times and yummy food

We got serious this year and got an entire wheel of  Raclette! 13 lbs of cheese!! Thanks Jake!

What a little cutie, he preferred cheerios.

 All the kiddos love Uncle Dylan

 Roomates and best friends, 8 years later. Time flies!

Thanks for coming everyone! Love ya

Let the Festivities Begin!

We look forward to Markham's company Christmas party each December. The kiddos get their chance to see Santa and make those important requests. I love this. I get my free picture and then we can bypass mall Santa without regret.

 Jackson especially liked the enormous candy cane Santa gave him

 Daddy's girl

At our table, two wrapped gifts awaited Jackson and Kaitlyn. Whoever has this job is incredible. There were a ton of kids there! Each gift was age/gender appropriate and wrapped beautifully. Impressive.

.

 They were pretty excited

What a cute little man! He sported his Santa hat all night long!

7 days for 7 years...Our 1st Cruise!!!

We decided it was time we went on a cruise. So why not for our 7 year anniversary?! It seemed like a fantastic idea to us. We left from Miami and sailed the Western Carribean. We stopped in Cozumel, Belize and Roatan and had a fabulous time.

I dedicated a post for each port we visited. These are just some random ship pics.

 Here we are in the Amber Palace, after one of the shows

 Hot chocolate on tap 24 hours!

 I had a cup every night

 All you can eat ice cream whenever you want it, so awesome!! Markham was in heaven

He got pretty good, he even got a compliment on his cone skills

The towel animals were so fun

Paradise

Overlooking Roatan as we were leaving...while enjoying some ice cream, of course.

I think Markham had about 30 ice cream cones.

It was fun to come back to our room and see what creation our cabin boy had wrapped up.

  Miniature golf on deck

 

 Formal night

We had such an awesome time! We would totally do it again! Thanks so much to Markham's parents. and sister for taking care of our sweet kiddos for 9 days!

Port 1 - Cozumel

At the Cozumel port, we booked an excursion to visit the ancient Mayan Ruins of Tulum. After getting off the ship, we took a ferry that took us to mainland Mexico. We then got on a bus and traveled for about an hour and a half to Quintana Roo.  It was a perfect day, not too hot. Seeing the ruins was awesome.

This is one of  five entrances to the walled ancient port city. 

Inside the walls, there were so many different huge buildings! A lot more than I had thought there would be. It is pretty amazing that so much of it remains.

It was so awesome!

These people enjoyed a prime piece of real estate. It sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We took these steps down to the beach.

Markham enjoying the water.

We would have liked to spend more time exploring the ruins and relaxing at this beautiful beach, but the ship waits for no one!

Port 2- Belize!

We had to tender in on smaller boats because there was no place to park this gargantuan ship. Today we had booked a cave tube and zip line. We were super pumped.

 It was windy and the water was pretty rough. We were grateful we didn't get sea sick. 

 We met up with our tour guides and rode in a bus for about an hour. It was a bit scary. No speed limits and no seat belts. I shudder to think of what happens if you get into a accident in a 3rd world country. But we made it safe! 

  We waited here for our guides to blow up the tubes.

  One of our guides, DeMarco.

 Ready to go!

 We hiked for about 20 minutes across the river and through the forest while DeMarco told us about Belize.

 It was a serious adventure!

This is the entrance to the caves

 Our guides tied our tubes together and we floated through for about 20 minutes. It was so awesome!

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 After we got off our tubes, we got all harnessed up for the zip line.

  Heights keep me up at night so I was a little nervous... I was really hoping this guy was good at his job.

 Markham's turn

 All set

 Let's do it!

 It was so beautiful. We climbed and climbed to the top, there were 7 different zips we took down.

This first zip was pretty mild. After this one, we kept climbing up so the last few were insanely high and fast.

  I was having a bit of a panic attack at this point, stepping off was intense! 

It was such a RUSH!!! Totally awesome, beautiful, breathtaking (literally) and exhilarating!!