Win a Blurb Book!

You can enter to win a FREE Blurb Book on Design Mom! Enter by Sunday March 30th! Just post a comment to that post for your chance to win!

I'm really starting to lean this direction with scrap booking. Leaning is as far as I've gotten though.

Puff the Cinnamon Dragon

Huh. It's already been a week since I've looked at my blog.

Here's a little video clip called Puff the Cinnamon Dragon to tide you over until I get it together, assuming that I do indeed get IT, as in my life, together (I have 7 loads or clean, dried, wrinkled laundry awaiting to be folded in my bedroom).

This was one of the highlights of our sailboat experience in the Bahamas - which I'd completely forgotten about until we got Kirby's photos. P.S. Kirby - thank you for the amazing photos!

Starring Kayla from Edmonton, Charlie our fabulous chef on the crew, and Jeff from Pittsburgh in a race to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon.

Can I live without junk mail?

I read this article on Unclutterer. It gives the website for opting out of JUNK MAIL!!!

I always complain about the mass amount of junk mail we receive... so what's my hang up? Is it that I'll never get any mail and my walks to the mailbox will be numbered? Think of all the trees that would be saved, my diminished carbon footprint! BUT - would I be contributing to the downfall of the United States Postal Service? BUT - less clutter... fewer papers to shred and haul to recycling...

Scuba videos

Here's a video of the shark feed that we did in the Bahamas. The sharks heard the boat pull up and knew it was lunch time. It's a little strange putting on your gear and seeing the sharks swarming the boat. "Really? We're supposed to jump in? Okay - you first! But I don't want to go last either..."

We dove down to 80 feet where our dive instructor, Dennis, lined us up with our backs to a wall. We could see the sharks swim by as we descended the line. But honestly, as soon as we were in the water with them you could see they really weren't interested in us. They were just slowing swimming all around just checking things out. When everyone was ready, Drew drove out in the dingy and threw in a nice big chumcicle that he'd made to feed the sharks. It was a feeding frenzy indeed. As soon as the food was gone - so were the sharks. And we were free to check out the rest of the site. Towards the end of the dive we did fine a very mellow 5-6ft nurse shark hanging out under a ledge.

The next video is of a sting ray. Our last dive was a 15 ft wreck dive called the Hesperus. There were millions of fish swimming around and TONS of string rays. They were in the sand everywhere. It was a little intimidating at times as they'd come up from the sand and start gliding around - but you're only 15 feet deep - not too many places to go to get out of the way, you know?

Underwater scuba photos coming soon...

This is one of my favorite photos from our shark dive.

"The really golden key"

We have a lot of fun just hanging out with the boys. They come up with the simplest and cutest games. Today while we were relaxing in our nice big bed Charlie and Jack crawled around pretending to search for and retrieve what Charlie called "the really golden key" or "the golden key of all" which in reality was actually a small Popsicle stick from his art kit.

They also took turns going on deep dives under the covers to the foot of the bed. They usually only found my feet, but sometimes it resulted in Jack changing into a cave kitty. Meow.

Better weather - FINALLY!

Not having any vacations to blog about has left me with nothing to post! We finally made it outside to shoot some hoops this week though.

The boys love being able to grab their jacket to go outside to play by themselves the the back yard. They found their first caterpillar today! I washed my car today and I can't wait for it to be just a little warmer so I can pull Greg's enormous shop vac out and rid it of all it's inside winter grime. And my living room windows.. I can't take it no more! Next week, I'm getting the ladder out! WINTER BE GONE! (please don't snow, please don't snow, please don't snow.....)

Greg's trip to CA.

Greg left on Thursday to go diving with his brother, Dave, in CA. They swam with sea lions and had great success lobster hunting. He said the sea lions are like a bunch of playful puppies.

They also had the chance to eat at two my my favorite places. In-n-out and Anthony's.

Artwork by Charlie

Entitled, "The Moon". Mixed media.

Fun pictures from last week.

We had fun last week! Here are some photos from hide 'n seek when Avalon came over to play.

Jack & Elie liked working together counting and searching.

Charlie fit very nicely in a laundry basket.

Avalon found a nice big pile of winter coats.

Katelyn got quite comfortable on the plant shelves behind the sofa.

And Jack picked his favorite place under the TV. The kids were getting really creative with their hiding spots and realized how fun it was to be really good hiders instead of popping up or yelling out whenever someone had trouble immediately finding them!

Charlie stood on top of the bathroom counter and watched the kids all come in one by one to do a quick sweep of the bathroom for about 15 minutes before I sent them all in there together and told them to look again.

Here are some photos from human letters. I really want to make a whole poster of the boys making human letters. I want to do different backgrounds... sidewalk, grass, sand...

The week started out a little cool but warmed up each day so that we were able to go on walks and trips to the park. Spring can't get here fast enough!

The boys, Katelyn & Elie, and I also went to the Bean Museum on Friday and had a pizza party that night with Shayna, Zoe, & Keegan and Michelle!!! Charlie and I also got to go out on a date together - we went to the BYU Basketball game Saturday night while Jack stayed with Uncle Al and Stephanie. The highlights of our week - but alas - no photos because SOMEONE took it with them on yet another dive trip to California! 2 things I have trouble functioning without - my digital camera and my cell phone.

Why we like scuba...

Cool gear...

Each time jack has tried on our scuba gear he ends up pinned to the floor.