Our weekend project

We spent this weekend painting Erin's room! She's so excited! She got to pick out her own colors and she even helped out! We've been planning on doing this since we moved in, and are finally getting around to it.

First we had to move Colin into, and Erin out of Devin's room. (Because Colin's been such a bad sleeper and Devin wakes up in the night with nightmares, it's taken a while to get up the guts to move them in together.)

Erin picked the colors, we cleared out the room and then we went for it. The original plan was to paint the trim and doors white too, but we decided that the brown looked pretty good with the pink and blue. (That made the project so much easier!)

We're so excited to have Erin in her own room, and our computer room is ours once more.

Cancun

For our 10 year anniversary, John decided to do something really special for me. He took me to Cancun!

It was a nightmare getting there. First we drove home from Delta on Christmas night in a blizzard! We went 30m/h the whole way! What normally takes lest than 2 hours took over 4! Then we couldn't pull into our driveway, because we had snow 2 feet deep in our driveway, and only rear wheel drive! Long story short, we didn't get to bed until 2:00 am. Then we got up and drove in more snow to the airport, stood in long lines that weren't moving. We wouldn't have made it onto our flight if John hadn't told a Delta Airlines worker our sob story. It worked and we finally made it through security just in time to jump on the plane and leave. Wow!

When we got to Cancun, It had all been worth it! The weather was beautiful! It was all so relaxing and enjoyable. We stayed at a beautiful all inclusive resort that was right on the beach. It was an awesome hotel! We could go down to the beach (the water was perfect!) or sit at the pool and swim up to the in pool bar (only virgin drinks for us of course). We could eat what we wanted when we wanted. There was always a restaurant open and room service was included which was nice in the morning if we were pressed for time.

Our first full day there we went to Chitzen Itza. What an amazing place. It baffles me that structures built so long ago by a people almost extinct are still around. We took a tour and then had a bit of time to ourselves to explore.

We also went Snorkeling while we were in Cancun. It was my first time ever. It was really fun and quite amazing to swim with the fish and see that they're there with you. It takes

a bit of time to get used to the snorkel gear though. At first I had a hard time putting my face in the water and breathing at the same time. Once I got used to it, though, I couldn't get enough of it.

Our guide found a turtle, and we got it's picture! Pretty amazing!

All in all it was a very relaxing break and a great place to get away from all the snow and the stresses of life.

Christmas

This Christmas was great for us. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day at my Mom and Dad's in Delta. Christmas eve was our big dinner where we had Ham and Yummy Potatoes and our traditional Christmas salads. We even dressed the kids up as Mary and Joseph (Colin wasn't up to being held like a baby), and read from the scriptures. They both really enjoyed that. Christmas morning was great. Devin was so excited this year! Below I've included some of their favorite gifts.

Erin was so excited to finally get a pet. She's been asking for a pet, any pet for a long time now. We finally conceded and said she could have a hamster when she gets her own room. Now that she has her own room, Santa decided to help out by giving her a hamster cage and all the supplies she needs to get started including the money to buy her hamster, so that she could pick out the one she wants.

You know you hit the nail on the head when they gasp in excitement after opening a gift. Devin got so many wonderful things, but the one he got the most excited over was an inexpensive play dough set! He literally gasped! I couldn't be more thrilled that he loved it though. Turns out, Erin loves it just as much as he does!

Colin was pretty grumpy Christmas morning, cause we woke him up too early (7:30). He normally gets up around 9:00 or 10:00 if I let him. It took until the afternoon for him to really enjoy his presents. This bounce and spin Zebra has been especially fun for him (and Devin).

John, early on, asked for many big and expensive things for Christmas, but then when he planned our trip to Cancun for our Anniversary, he decided that he didn't want much. Boy was he surprised and excited then when he unwrapped his very own Ipod Nano. He stared downloading songs onto it as soon as he could!

As for me: I didn't want much, but I was very pleased with mine. What's really important to me is that everyone was happy and we got to spend the time with each other as a family.