St. Croix vacation

Last summer, Chris and I decided that we needed to take a vacation, just the two of us, to someplace warm this winter.  After researching various places to go, we booked our tickets and rented a condo in sunny St. Croix!!  Thank God for credit cards that allow you to earn airline miles, because that's the main way we were able to afford this.  Our parents are splitting the time staying at our house with Boo and the dogs while we've been gone and, so far, it sounds like they've had a great time together.  We are so thankful that they were able to arrange their schedules to help us out.  I will admit, it was H-A-R-D to leave our sweet boy, especially the day after he had his tooth pulled last week!  In the 20 months since he's been home, I have only been away from him for four nights total, and two of those nights, Chris was with him.  Talk about withdrawal!!  We have been looking at our own blog almost daily to see pictures of him as well as video that's on here...jeesh...do ya think we miss him much?!?!  (So if you've had a hit on your blog from the Virgin Islands, that was me.  :) )

Anyways, back to our trip.  After spending an entire day traveling to get down here, we picked up our rental car and found our condo...with only one wrong turn to get here.  Pretty good, considering it was dark, the roads are very curvy, we're driving up and down hills, and you have to drive on the left side of the road!  We've spent a lot of time just relaxing at a few beaches and the pool at our condo complex.  We have a great view of the Caribbean from our balcony and the beach is pretty much just out our front door...amazing!! (This was one of three places we looked at on-line to rent and are so glad we chose it.  We have driven or walked past the other two and definitely made the best choice as far as location, facilities, and up-keep of the place.)  Besides soaking up the sun, we've also taken a snorkel trip to Buck Island, driven to Point Udall which is the easternmost point of the United States, done some shopping, gone on a tour of the Cruzan Rum factory (with free taste testing afterwards...yum!), and Chris got to go SCUBA diving as well.  We haven't really taken all that many pictures, but here are a few of our good ones:

the view from our balcony

Chris relaxing on our first morning

at Point Udall (it's been pretty windy the entire time we've been here)

up close of the iguanas joining us at the pool

our two iguana friends

On our way to the snorkeling area at Buck Island, a school(?) of dolphins was swimming around the boat. The lady captain stopped and asked if anyone wanted to get in and swim with them...Chris was so excited, he couldn't get his gear on fast enough!  That was fun to watch.  And the crew got some underwater video of the dolphins that they said they would email us; if they do, I'll get it put up here to watch, I promise.

a beach we stopped at briefly before going on to the other side of Buck Island

boats...Chris loves boats. period.

Chris (in the yellow) going for his first of his two-tank dive at a place called "The Wall" off of Cane Bay Beach.  This is unique because instead of having to take a boat out, they just walk out from the beach and eventually get to a point where the sea floor drops away.  He really enjoyed it and got to see a few things he's never seen before: a frogfish, garden eels, and a reef shark, among other things.

an example of what they mean when they say you're "on island time" when you're here!!

Today is our last day here and, wouldn't you know, we woke up to cloudy skies and rain.  But after going through the rum factory tour and getting lunch, the sun came out and we are now enjoying our last afternoon at the pool before packing up our belongings and spending tomorrow traveling home.  I will say, on all our other vacations, it's been pretty hard having to leave.  But this time, there is an extra-special reason for looking forward to getting home...that little boy waiting there with his Grandma and who calls us "mama" and "dada."

See you soon, Boo...but not soon enough!!

Another 1st - the lost tooth

"99% of kids who chip their teeth, do just that, chip it.  The other 1% have it shear up the back.  That's what happened here."  

This is what the dentist said to me when I took Boo in on Monday after chipping his tooth at the sitter's last Friday.  He didn't complain about it much, but I still wanted to get it checked out.  I had felt a sharp point behind the chipped tooth near the gum that I could move (yes, this would be the part that sheared up the back...ewwww!) and, as much as I hate dealing with teeth (or maybe, because of that), knew we needed to get it looked at.  Good thing, too.  She sent us directly to the oral surgeon to have it pulled because she could see pulp and thought the sheared part was probably into his nerve root.  Ouch!  Poor kid.  Went from this:

(not a good picture, but you can see the chip really well),

to this:

He was such a brave kid at the dentist's office.  By the time we got to the surgeon's office, he knew something was probably up, but still let them look in his mouth (we were both in the chair by that time) and was really just kick-a$$ good.  Have I mentioned how stinkin' proud I am of him?!?!  And I told him so, over and over.

For various reasons, they were not able to put him out for this procedure, so they just had to papoose him, numb it, and pull it.  Due to that, I was not allowed to be with him, unfortunately, but they said he did great!  After they pulled it and brought him back out, he snuggled into my lap and told me "Mama, I need a kiss" while leaning towards me with an open mouth.  "I need a kiss in my mouf."  How.could. I. resist??  My baby pretty much got whatever he wanted the rest of the day!!

 and now:

My little prizefighter!

January Fun

Boo and I have been doing a lot of fun things over the past few weeks.  We were going to make cookies one day, but I didn't have all the ingredients, so we did the next best thing...we made play dough, used cookie cutters to cut out numbers, letters, and fun shapes and then baked them.  The following day, I got out the paints and he went to town.  What an artist!

He also helped me make cake pops to take to a girl's night out at a friend's house.  It was a messy process, but the results were oh, so yummy!  And kind of pretty too.  :)

Look at those chubby cheeks!!

It snowed last week and we were finally able to get the sled out this year!  We had a great time pulling him around the cul-de-sac, sliding down the neighbor's driveway, and building a snowman.  Boo loved it!

And some video of us playing in the snow:

And, the weather being as fickle as it has been this entire winter, the snow was all gone within two days.

Huh.

Christmas Memories

We spent Christmas with Chris' family this year.  In the previous post, I told you that the three of us celebrated Christmas at home a couple days early; then we leisurely packed up and headed north to see his family so we could be there before my birthday on the 24th.  (Yep, Christmas Eve baby here.  I just wanted to be able to sleep in and not have to get packed, loaded up, and drive on my birthday.  Turned out great!)  We had multiple family dinners over the next few days, met some new friends of the family, and "shook our groove thang" to a new dance-off gaming program!  Chris, his older brother, and their mom even got into it, but I promised NO video of them dancing on the blog.  I gotta tell ya, though, we were all. cracking. up.  The boys, God love 'em, were at the back of the line when "rhythm" was being handed out...and I think I know where they got it (or, ahem, didn't get it) from!  But they all rocked it out and had a blast!!

Since we didn't have any cookies with us, we left some mini muffins and milk for Santa and his reindeer.  Boo knows who Santa Claus is and that he brings gifts, but other than that, really doesn't get Christmas yet.  So when he saw that the muffins had been eaten and the milk half-gone, he just got a kind of confused look on his face.  That is, until he saw the stuffed stocking sitting on the floor!  Then it was like, "great, he's been here.  Let's open presents!"

"Cars" tattoos and underwear!

(No, he's not potty-trained.  Yes, I'm hoping!)

silly straw glasses

told ya that's always where the bow goes!

straight to the head.

that's my sweet little package!!

Watching a new movie with Grandma.

more cuddle time with Grandma

playing with new camper toy with Grandma and Great-grandma

my big boy

I love this family picture!

Great-grandpa with Lexi.

He loves our little girl 'cause he had one just like her many years ago.

He is also the one man (besides Chris) that she goes right up to without acting scared.

Boo, Daddy, and great-grandparents

he loves being able to use his sleeping bag.

Lexi was quite comfortable with it too!

We had a great time and Boo came home with a lot of fun presents.  Good thing this only happens once, or twice, okay, maybe three times a year!!!

Our Family Christmas

With Christmas being on a weekend this year, we knew we were going to already be at Chris' family's house for the holiday itself, but still wanted to have our own family Christmas with Boo.  So Chris took off work the Friday before Christmas and we gave Boo his gifts from us that morning when he woke up.  So sweet to see the excitement in his eyes when he saw the wrapped packages under the tree!  He was hesitant at first, until he made sure the gifts were for him, and then he enjoyed ripping them open.  And he is getting to be a "ripper of the wrapping paper."  Yeah!  Mama has to learn to curb her impatience, though: I wanted him to open all his gifts and then choose which to play with, while he was content to open one and sit there playing with it while he still had other unopened gifts under the tree!

Every time he takes a bow off a package, it goes straight on his head!

Our little package:

He loved the "Cars" room decals we got him.

We had to go up and put them ALL up!

He even detailed his crib.

And the Sheriff watches over him when he sleeps.

Our first fur baby, Jinx.

Our younger fur baby, Lexi.

Taken on an (obviously) frosty cold morning.

I think this picture is pretty cool. (ha! get it??)

 These next few pictures are just me playing around with the camera, settings, and then color on the computer.  I love the macro pictures I see on other's blogs and thought I would try my hand at some.  Not sure how good they actually turned out in comparison, but I like them.

These flowers remind me of my wedding bouquet: beautiful orange roses.

Gorgeous.  Brought back some wonderful memories!

 Here, I fiddled around with the color or outlining or something in Ph*toshop and came up with this pretty neat picture!

And I will leave you with a message from our son:

Holiday catch-up: Thanksgiving

We've been so busy since Thanksgiving, that I am just now getting pictures downloaded to the computer!  It has been fun to go back through them and see how much fun Boo has had this year with our families.  Not saying he didn't have a good time last year, but this year, he really knows the rest of our family and understood who we were going to visit.  Plus, he is much better at ripping that wrapping paper; last year, I think I had to help him open most of his gifts because he was reluctant to rip the paper!  Sooo not the case this year.  He completely got the fact that gifts are to be opened, to the extent that we had to stop him from opening the ones that weren't for him!

Just a warning: this post is picture-heavy!

"cheese!!"

Grandpa with his two oldest grandsons

using Grandpa as a jungle gym

good work, Grandpa!

these two are a year apart; not much height difference!

Aunt B and cousin J

Hel-lo, beautiful brown eyes.

bathtime with the boys...it got a little wet!

some loving time with the newest cousin, Z.

all five boys

chillin' in the wagon on the way to the park

starting to climb...

uh, don't go too much farther!

"I'm stuck!"

I really like this picture of these two.

It looks like Boo is guarding his little cousin.

mesmerized by the movie "Cars."  

I think this was the quietest they were the entire weekend!

lounging on J coming back from a different playground

my godson!!

Is this a blast from the past, or what?!?!

For some reason, the guys spent a lot of time doing push-ups with the kids during the holiday.

It was pretty funny to watch them all pile on top of whoever was on the ground!

Here's one with Daddy...

...then Uncle J...

...and then C wanted to try it...what a strong 4-year-old!

We had a good time and enjoyed seeing all the boys playing together (both big and small!)  Thanks for hosting, sis.

Christmas pictures with the other side of the family to be coming, I promise.