Christmas Party 2010

Justin sporting his gift.

Best gift of the night, a toasted English muffin!

The guys trying out one of the white elephant gifts - a blood glucose tester, haha!

This was at the end of the night and we were tired, but I had to include it since it was the only picture of us together of the whole night.

This year, we decided to change things up a bit, and go out for our annual Christmas party. It was SO much fun. We dressed up and went out to P. F. Changs downtown, then met back at our house for cheese cake, champagne, and a white elephant gift exchange.

Of course, I forgot my camera on our way out the door so I have no pictures of our dinner. Travis and Amber weren't able to make it for dessert, but did join us for dinner. It was so much fun catching up with them. I tried to make up for the lack of pictures when we got back to our house for dessert :)

Willow-Beano

Willow is SO my daughter. She loves jewelry and accessories. This was her ensemble for the day :)

This is her new "camera" smile. Reminds me of Aspen at about 2 years old.

Willow is at such a fun age right now. I love the 1 to 2 year age span. So much of their personality is emerging, and we are finally past teething and sleeping through the night. Speaking of that, at 16 months, Willow has all her teeth except her two year molars. I am SO happy to be done with the teething. She is so much easier and happier now that we are past that.

Willow is our little clown. She loves to find funny hats, buckets, bowls, whatever to put on her head and clown around to get as many laughs as possible. She loves to be in the middle of any action around the house, and especially loves to wrestle with Daddy. It's tougher for her to get Aspen and Journey to include her in their play, though. She wants to play with them, but they don't love playing with her at this point. Hopefully that will change as she gets a little older and less destructive :)

She's starting to say more words, and really wants to talk. Here are some of the words she knows right now:

Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, Bubba, cheese, all done, all gone, more, nana (banana), Nana, Papa, thank you, please

She "talks" so much, that I'm a little worried for my sanity once she is actually able speak. :)

And one other thing, she's been throwing a lot less fits in the last few weeks. Not sure if this is a permenant thing, but I'm thankful!

Journey has some high aspirations...

Aspen and Journey were having a conversation about what they want to do when they grow up.

Here's what Journey said: "When I grow up, I want to be a potty trainer!"

LOL. I'm so proud :)

Since this is my blog and I have a lot of pictures to post, I've decided to do a series of posts instead of a really, really long one. :)

This was our first time going to Cabo, and I have to say, it was way better than I was expecting. The beaches were clean, the sand was white, and it was just all around beautiful. I think December is the best time to get away. Nothing like going from rainy and cold to sunny and 80 degrees!

This was our first time leaving Willow. I was pretty nervous about it. She's a definite "mama's girl" still, but we couldn't pass up a super cheap trip (our airline miles paid for our plane tickets and hotel stay). With that in mind, we kept the trip short. Just 4 nights, 5 days, but it was amazing to get away and much needed and appreciated.

These pictures were of our resort. It was gorgous, and definitely lived up to the 5 star rating. I would love to go back with the kids.

Just arrived at our room. It was actually a one bedroom, 2 bath condo. So happy to be there!

Exploring the grounds on our way to dinner.

Mark's dream is to someday have his own boat moored in this marina.

It might be a little weird to put two bikini pictures in, but I've been working dang hard to get my body back in shape with P90X! This was after one month working out every other day. It was great having a trip to keep me motivated through the long, HARD workouts.

Our balcony and view from our room.

Cabo 2010 - Fishing

Here's the story behind our fishing day. Well, actually, the story of how Mark got me to go fishing...


Mark had planned our trip to Cabo with the sole intention of getting some winter fishing in. He asked around, and got the name of a good boat captain, and sent his down payment money in a week before we left. I, on the other hand, had planned on a day at the spa and soaking up some sun by the pool while he fished.


A day before the fishing trip, we checked in at the guide service to double check the reservation and details for the trip. We were surprised to find out that Mark had actually reserved a whole boat for himself, and that it would cost no more for me to go along....if I wanted to.



Hmmm, now I had a dilemma. I definitely wasn't going to give up my trip to the spa (although that doesn't take more than 2 or 3 hours), but was I ready to commit to a whole day on the ocean? In the end, I decided to go with Mark and see what the fishing thing was all about.

We met up the the captain around 6:30am. Early for vacation, but we got some coffee, and the energy on the docks was pretty fun.

Heading out!

We were not the only ones heading out for a day of fishing :)

No fish yet, but enjoying the sun.

Our captain getting the pole ready for some live bate fishing.

For a while, I didn't think we were going to catch any fish. Soooo, next best thing, getting a little sun! (Ignore the extra tummy skin. It drives me crazy, but hey, I've had 3 kids and this is the unfortunate reality!)

Mark's first catch of the day, a beautiful yellow fin tuna.

Things are definitely looking up!

There's a BIG one on the other end....

It took a good 20 minutes of fighting the fish to get him in.

What a great catch!

My yellow fin tuna. I was in the middle of saying, "No! Don't make me hold it!" It was slimy and dripping blood on me :)

It was a super fun day, it was fun to do it together, and Mark was really happy to have me out there to get pictures and video of the trip. I had scheduled my massage and facial at the spa for 4pm. We got back to the dock just in time for me to RUN all the way back to our hotel to make it for my appointment. A bit crazy, but a great way to end a fun day.

Cabo 2010

After our fishing day, we had just a day and a half left in Cabo. We spent it RELAXING. Coffee shop in the morning, pool side or on the beach the rest of the day. The trip was way too short, but we tried to enjoy every minute.

Yes, Mark is reading! I've never seen him read a book, and that's saying something considering how many years we've been together :)