Welcome to the Bahamas

We have arrived on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and it is beautiful. The time change was a little too much to become acclimated to, so we have stayed on Arizona Time and have the kids out until 11:00pm local time! However, I have become acclimated to Little Ax's schedule of a nap every three hours, that's a sign of a true vacation. The Cove at Atlantis has so many amenities for the kids and a water park for the adults - it is a great place for families!

We started the vacation with a shallow water interaction with the dolphins. Little Man and I were able to hug the dolphin and Little Man kissed Katie! I asked Little Man what Katie's skin felt like, he said "chicken salad".... hmmm that was a new one for the trainer.

Then off to the Aquarium and the Tunnel of Sharks! Here's what I thought was a huge Stingray... however, I was quickly corrected that it's a Manaray... I guess I will have to stay here longer to truly understand the difference!

For the celebrity watch, Miley Cyrus is arriving in the next few days for her concert here at the resort, we were in the elevator with a big name football player (I can't remember who) and the former Miss America is here. That's all for now, stay tuned for more celebrity news coming soon!

Little Ax is Growing Up!

Little Ax passed a few other milestones this week. The first was his first two word combination. In no time I will be taking orders from two small children.

This one cracks me up, Ax has discovered another body part. This trick will come in handy in High School

On another note, please pray that I start feeling better and my bronchitis and sinus infection icky virus do not spread to the rest of the family before we leave for our family vacation.

Big News

No, I am not pregnant, the big new is our Little Ax is officially walking. He was taking 2 or 3 consecutive steps for awhile and then all of a sudden decided to take off and take 12 steps! Our little infant is growing up and way too fast. He could not be happier to be on the go, now if we could work on the communicating in ways other than screeching!

Being that it is Spring Training Month, Papa Kenny and Miss Mary bought us tickets to go to the White Sox and Dodgers Spring Training game. We of course were in the grass section, which Little Man and Ax loved. However, we did have a couple seats behind the dugout for whoever wanted to see the game close-up. Little Man and I sat there for an inning before he got bored and couldn't understand why he couldn't play baseball and why the players wouldn't say hi to him. .

Then the White Sox first baseman came running to the dugout and threw Little Man a BALL! After that moment, Little Man was a huge fan of baseball


*** I must confess though it was the lady sitting beside us that told me to put Little Man on the dugout because I would not disobey the rules*****

Happy Birthday Ax

Little Ax turned one on Saturday, if you can believe it. He is not officially walking yet, but has taken his first steps. He had a great birthday and loved, loved, loved his cake. I have learned that he is not the shy type when it comes to food (he gets that from my gene pool), especially sweets. His hand was WIDE open when the cake was served and he was digging in... I tried to get a piece of Elmo, with no such luck.... maybe next year.

Happy Birthday, Alex. We love you so much and praise God for you. Here's a picture of Ax one short year ago....

Stay tuned for some more birthday pictures....they are right around the corner

Move Over Mater

It's not completely official, but it looks like Little Man may be growing out of the Cars phase and moving into a new one. He of course will still recite the Cars names and favorite sayings... you must ask him what DJ says. However, he has a new found love for non other than Kung Fu Panda.... check out these dance moves.

And Little Ax is slowly progressing to the walking stage, he will now stand up on his push bike and push it around the kitchen... How many weeks until you think he will be walking?

Little Man's First Soccer Game

Big Man decided to sign Little Man up for a soccer league. Now, the last soccer event we signed Little Man up for all he wanted to do was drink juice and watch from the sidelines. So signing him up for another soccer league was going to be interesting, I thought. However, to our surprise Little Man was excited to play with Tio Mike and have Big Man as the assistant coach. This is way you stop the ball and prepare for the pullback, Little Man tells me.

It may have helped that the entire team is related to Tio Mike.... it's like a family reuinion every game! Here's the assistant coach giving some game pointers before the clock starts.

I really love seeing the boys and girls in their jerseys - they are so cute, regardless if they are just watching their shadow, kicking the ball into the wrong goal, or worried about their nails :) It was so much fun watching them play!! Here's Little Man kicking the ball in, just in time for the big orange team to score a goal.....

And it's been awhile, but Little Ax is clapping at everything and trying to take steps! He is growing up way too fast! It's too bad he's not happy when he eats.... take a close look at 4 tooth Jackson!

A Trip to the Snow

It is hard to believe that the holidays have passed and it is already the middle of January. I have been a tardy blogger and Christmas pictures, along with New Year's pictures will surface sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I felt I should update you on our spontaneous family trip to the snow. It really is not in my nature to do things spontaneously, without detailed plans and spreadsheets, but I thought this would be worth it. Everyone has been talking about snow this season and I really wanted to take the boys up to the snow for some sledding and snowball fights. So we rented a small cabin in Flagstaff and headed north for a couple days. Snow was everywhere and our cabin was a few yards away from the sledding hill, aka driveway in the summer. Here's Little Man eating some oatmeal before his snow fun....

We forgot to pack Ax's winter coats, so I layered everything else I had to keep him warm. He was wearing a turtleneck onesie, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, and Little Man's jacket - along with two pairs of pants. He couldn't move and looked like the Michelin Man. At first he thought it was funny....
Then he fell face first in the snow, and didn't think it was funny...

Here's Little Man and Ax getting ready for the big hill.....
Here's Little Man sledding down the hill, he liked it, but eating the snow was his favorite part.

Eating the snow... he made himself breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. He didn't want to leave until he ate all the clean snow. The mind of a three year old!