Bella was looking for something to do and was inspired by a book that she got at the library. She wanted to embroider a cupcake on a white t-shirt that she had, but I thought using wonder under and stitching it on would be easier. So that's what we did! Bella chose the fabrics and cut out the pattern. I ironed on the cupcake and stitched the edges. It turned out super cute we think!

All done!

Modeling her new cupcake shirt!

The past few years I have been volunteering at our local community centers Turkey Trot. I show up at 6:45 am and help register people for the race. I do it so I don't feel guilty joining in the run without paying the $40 registration fee. This year, I felt like Aidan was ready to join me and run the 5k. This picture is us at the finish line. He ran the race in 31 minutes. Not too shabby for his first road race, and his first time running over 2 miles at once!

The beginning of the race. I let Aidan set the pace and offered loads of encouragement the several times he wanted to stop and walk.

The Turkey trot has over 1,000 participants! This is the sea of people at the beginning of the race.

Aidan wanted to get a picture of the tree before...looks like he needed the flash.

Goofy Owen...but all three kids with their new ornaments. We have a yearly tradition of the kids getting new ornaments to hang on the tree. We write their initials and year they got the ornament and then store them separately. I remember my first Christmas as a newlywed and being worried about not having any ornaments to put on the tree. This way, the kids all have a nice collection and memories from the year they got them, when they are out on their own.

The kids new ornaments for 2009

Bella's black apple doll completed. Bella loves her button earrings!

Bella's new doll Molly

Bella and I spent some time Thanksgiving weekend being crafty. I found a super cute doll pattern on Martha Stewart called a black apple doll. I remember doing lots of crafty things when I was a kid, and I thought this would be a great thing for her to start with and learn to sew. She did the pattern, the fabric choices, the cutting, and the stuffing, I did the sewing.

It isn't often that we get all three kids doing something together and no one is throwing punches! I was reading a book to Owen at bedtime and the other two ended up joining us. It was a sweet little moment...thus, the need to capture it on film!

I recently did the Meeker Craft bazaar and while we were there, we were inspired to do some new crafts. Bella loves her new headbands and the felt flowers are so easy and can be worn as an accessory on your clothes, or on these headbands. Cuteness!

We started a tradition of buying these ears of corn at the local pumpkin patch at Halloween time. They are usually only 3 for $1 and make a great harvest time decoration. The great thing about them though is that once they dry out a bit, you can put them in the microwave and make popcorn with them. A super fun decoration and a super fun treat!

Then you put it in a brown paper bag

And you put it in the microwave

And viola...popcorn on the cob. It's not a perfect science so I might have burned it a little. I had to put the bag outside to cool off a bit because it was pretty steamy!

Steaming popcorn

How cool is that?!

The end result was some yummy popcorn on the cob

So, I think I am getting pretty good at this whole coupon grocery shopping thing. I always aspired to be one of those people who could pay pennies for their total but never thought I could do it in a state that didn't offer double coupons. I am finally feeling like I am playing the game and being smart about how I check out in the grocery line.

To be honest, this was my second transaction at Albertsons. I had another transaction with the bulk of my groceries (a 20 pound turkey, 6 boxes of chex cereal, 10 bags of shredded cheese, 3 boxes of cream cheese, two stalks of celery, 3 jars of peanut butter...the list goes on) with that total being $43 (saving $47). Albertsons stopped taking competitors coupons, which always saved me a lot of money but started doing a few random double coupons in the weekly paper (you can only use 3 and can only total up to $1-so doubled only $2 in savings). I had two sets of 3 double coupons paired with a few internet coupons and a special from the manufacturer and ended up MAKING money on my total bill. They paid me $.77 at the end of the transaction AND gave me a coupon for $2 off my next order (good for use on anything). Not too shabby!

We had a dance party one lazy Sunday evening and when Bella changed into her tutu, so did Owen. He cried buckets at first because we all laughed when he came downstairs in his get up, but once he got over being laughed at, he was all smiles.

Who doesn't love a twirly skirt?

We stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya in Riviera Maya (about a half an hour from Cancun's airport). Mike made all the arrangments from picking the location of our vacation to picking out our resort. Upon arrival we found that we were able to be upgraded to the oceanfront Emerald junior suite (not the swim up room on the lagoon like we had thought). It was an amazing room with an amazing bathroom.

http://www.valentinmaya.com/accomodations.htm To the left of the curtain are the toilets and bidet (!) and to the right is our marble encased shower with waterfall showerhead and our built in HUGE jucuzzi soaking tub.

It's hard to see just how massive this tub was but it was amazing. The tub was surrounded on three sides by the large floor to ceiling reflective windows that could be slide open upon themselves and give you an incredible view of the night sky. There was a patio door that led to our terrace. We would typically lay out in the sun all day, come in at dusk and fill up the hot tub for a soak before dinner. It was a lovely way to finish out the evening before dinner.

The first day was quite cloudy as the rain and tropical storm continued to pass. It didn't stop us from enjoying our first day on the beach though!

Self portrait before dinner

There were little geckos everywhere!

And crazy looking bugs. This guy looked like he had spikes on him, but really it was just a caterpiller with a mohawk!

I walked the beach several times before ever noticing these lovely iguanas that would venture out on their rocks from morning to afternoon. There were dozens of these guys (many almost 3 feet long!) that would perch themselves on the rocks and soak up the sun.

We got to watch two sunset weddings on the beach. What an amazing place to get married at!

Dinner with my man at the Japanese restaurant

We came home from dinner one night to find that a gecko had made our room, his new home. It creeped me out a little! Thankfully, my brave and very skilled husband was able to catch our new friend (we named him Geico) and set him free.

I found a few starfish on our walks. This guy was still alive so we took a picture and threw him back out to sea.

One of the mini tide pools in the rock that is home to zillions of snails and their shells

The beach was lined with large rocks (reefs?) and where there were breaks in the rocks, there were piles of shells that would wash up. It was amazing to see all of the little shells gathered in one spot.

An amazing sunset on our beach

More tide pools

Sunset on our last evening. This was the beach in front of the hotel. We weren't in an area where there were a lot of other hotels so this really is what the beach looked like most of the time. Our hotel even had this lovely gaurd (in the white shirt) on the beach from sunrise to sunset (boring!) to keep the local vendors away.

If you know me, you know that I love to crash other hotels when I am on vacation! This dock was at the only other hotel the you could walk to on the beach (The Grand Mayan) and had been closed because of the hurricane. The last day we were there, they had it reopened and we were able to enjoy a nice stroll down the dock to see the reef in the water below.

The amazing tide pools that made for a nice lounging spot on warm days.

Hard to believe, but we had an oceanfront room! This was taken off our back patio the afternoon we left the resort. The hotel is only a year old, so they may be hoping that the palm trees get bigger and one day the first floor will have a view of the ocean. For now, the privacy of the jungle is a nice feature.