Beautification- Bug's 1st Haircut!

Every female is aware that part of the package that comes with being a girl is the process of "beautification"- And Ms. Bug is no exception! 

As you can see, she really likes to help out on her own sometimes. Doesn't the green marker just highlight her eyes so well! ;-)

She also got her first haircut recently!

Here's a before shot of her super mullet-

 Getting her hair cut by a friend in the ward out on the patio-

After shot!

Ms. Bug turns 2!!

Yes, it's true. My baby isn't a baby anymore- On New Years Eve our Ms. Bug turned 2.

It's amazing to think that this sweet bundle went from this...

Bug, just a few days old. 

to this- 

In just 2 extremely short years-

The day of her birthday all of her would-be birthday guests were out of town still (understandably- most of them are student families). So we had our own "fun" for the day. I even let her wear whatever she wanted! Which happened to be, well- Appropriately her "birthday suit"-

The hat was her own "post dressing" touch. LOL. 

For her "birthday dinner" we went to Chevy's where she ate all the chips, fruit, and fries she wanted.
The Chevy's crew then sang to her and gave her this sweet sombrero. 

 THEN, on Jan. 6th we had her "real" party-

The birthday princess!

Yes...I'm pretty much awesome. Well, Pinterest is pretty much awesome. These things were tasty! They are filled with whipped cream and mascarpone cheese. Mmmmm....She loves her strawberries!

Due to our camera being out of commission and only using Michael's iPhone we didn't get a whole lot of pictures, unfortunately. But it was a GREAT TIME! Pretty quiet little party with great friends (who sadly we didn't get ANY pictures of! Arg! Dadgum camera!). It was a princess themed party and the girls all got tiara's to decorate and they had pearls, etc.

Some great things about our Bug- 

1. Boy can she talk! She is by far one of THE most articulate toddlers I've ever known, aside from my own bias as her mother. She picks up and keeps words faster than her brother sometimes! Although she does have some funny "terms". For example, a dress is a "dance" and a skirt is a "dress". 

2. She has learned how to hold her own with her big brother and can show him how girls fight, lol. But she anticipates playing with him EVERY morning! "Where's my G...?!" Everybody is 'hers'. Silly girl. "Where's my grandma?" "Where's my daddy?" 

3. She LOVES to be read too- and pays attention!

4. She is my sweet bug that still wants to rock. 

5. She has moved into a big girl bed! She got one for her birthday and is doing AWESOME in it. No fights or anything. The few times she has woken up at night she'll come tap on our door with her empty sippy and say, "Momma! Water..." and then groggily go back to bed. 

6. She LOVES nursery and her little friends. She is very social and very loveable. 

7. She's still pretty shy, but is pre-mediated about it. For example, we were recently talking about going to my parents house and she said, "Oh, I be shy..." Stinker pants.

8. She will give a kiss to any of us on demand. Love that...

9. She is BEYOND 'all girl'. She adores her princess dolls, her doll house, dresses, will always go to the pink things first, and will freak out if you touch her "pony". 

10. She really is the best little girl, ever. If I could have a guarantee that the rest of my babies would be as simple as her, I'd have 10 more. LOL Ok...maybe like 5. Ha ha. 

We love you, Ms. Bug! 

Silly Kids on Christmas Day-

Christmas Day, 2011!

Santa came!! 

The kids were beyond excited, as you can see in this video we posted earlier: Christmas Morning!

Christmas Eve!

For Christmas Eve we went with some fellow PA students in the ward up to Mt. Charelston to sled in the snow. We all figured it was a fantastic way to spend the day and wear out the kids so they'd be more likely to fall asleep quickly that night. I must say, it was a GENIUS idea, and something we all really enjoyed!

Mr. G and Michael go down on their maiden sled-

Bug REALLY loved it, too- But that's no surprise, she's our adrenaline junky....

The two younger boys went down together, too-

We all set-up a little lunch picnic- We brought stuff for sandwiches...except half-way up the mountain we realized that we'd forgotten to pack bread. Kind of important in making sandwiches. LOL. 

The boys even made a snowman! 

Their stockings were hung by the chimney with care! Ready for bed in their new Christmas jammies!

Spreading Holiday Cheer

This Christmas season was a welcome slowed down pace. After the insanity that was our travels the months prior to Christmas, we were looking forward to the quiet! :-) We were able to have visits from both of our parents, mine for Thanksgiving and Michael's for a weekend in December. 

We also were able to attend our ward's Christmas party, write letters to Santa see Christmas light displays, etc. The kids (both of them!) were very eager for Santa Clause to come- 

Thanks to my little sister Katie who was there at the time for the pic- We decorated the day after Thanksgiving-

She thought this was a much better cape instead of a tree skirt-

 When G'ma & G'pa Rogers came to visit they brought the kids some Christmas clothes, and this was them sporting their new threads-

Ward Christmas party- I'm pretty sure the whole waiting in line to see Santa was pure torture on these kids, but they enjoyed playing with one another, which helped the time go by much more quickly. 

Bug didn't have ANY hesitation about Santa Clause! I was actually quite surprised- She just trotted straight over and hopped on his lap!

To say that she has an obsession with all things "minty" would be an understatement!
She was eyeing that candy cane SOOO hard! "Hand over the peppermint, fat man!"

Mr. G was BEYOND excited for this. He'd been looking forward to this one moment for weeks and then when he got on his lap he told Santa he wanted spider man stuff, binoculars, and winter clothes...Silly boy.
Really? WINTER CLOTHES?!

Mr. G got to participate in his first nativity! He was loving it. He was a wise man with two older boys. I'm pretty sure that robe has been in at LEAST 10-15 different nativities. It was the same robe my dad had our whole "growing-up years". 

After the ward party we made our annual traditional trip to Macy's for the kids to mail off their letters to Santa- 

"Bye-Bye Letter!"

 We also discovered a new tradition of going to The District to watch their Christmas Tree display- It has a pretty intricate lighting system that coordinates with music over the loudspeakers- It was fun to just get some hot cocoa and watch the lights-

Michael starts clinicals!

I appreciate the self-portrait for me since we were in Puerto Rico at the time he started. 

It's a big deal! He'll no longer be in the classroom and now rotating practices every month and alternating specialities (ie. family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, etc.)

So far he's done two rotations, the only two 2-month-long rotations. Adult medicine and family medicine. From here on out the rotations will only be 1 month long. Who knows what will be next!! But he's really enjoying this career decision so far and is doing exceptionally well. We're so proud of him! Only 8 more rotations until graduation! 

Puerto RICO!!

**WARNING- HUGE POST! 91 Photos! It's my blog...so I can...***

Michael's sister and her family lived in Puerto Rico, and were getting ready to relocate back to the states. So the kids and I were offered the opportunity to fly over to Puerto Rico to watch her 5 kids while they came to the states to hunt for their home. We were there for 3 weeks, and had a FANTASTIC time! 

Getting ready for our red-eye flight from Vegas to JFK

Our flight from JFK to Puerto Rico. 

We made it!

Ms. Bug instantly felt excited to be around so many girls! Of their 5 kids, they have 4 girls, so she was covered in the estrogen department, LOL. There were always plenty of crowns, babies, barbies, and pink to go around. 

LOOK! REAL LIFE COCONUT TREE! This was just a random tree on their street- 

 We also had the opportunity to see a lot of the island. One of my favorite parts by far was Old San Juan. It's just so cultural feeling! I loved the cobblestone streets, and the tiny roads and the fun little shops everywhere. 

I just happened to catch this photo of a beggar in a "drive-by" shot. About broke my heart...

That big blue mansion at the end of the road is the Governor's Mansion-
Look at all that COLOR! I LOOOVE IT!

Getting ready to see one of the old military fots the Castillo San Cristobal. 

At the top(ish) of the Castillo-

He was channeling his inner karate kid...

So do you have a Puerto Rico quarter yet? This would be the coastal window that you see on the quarter, and on all the license plates, etc. The story is that it's haunted. They used to have guard duty every night in there and guards would just disappear and never be seen again. The windows in the thing are far too tiny for even a child to squeeze through- 

 So just as we were getting ready to go into the Castillo itself, and getting ready to go into the dungeon (after hearing the story about it being haunted) Mr. G was a bit freaked out. And as we were walking in Mr. G says, "I don't like the feelings in here. I want to get out..."

This is his "I'm freaked out and really scared I'm gonna see a ghost" face-

Inside the dungeon there are drawings of ships on the walls, drawn by a Spanish captain who was being retained there. 

I know...I'm a terrible parent. I made him take a picture inside of the dungeon with the door closed.  He was whispering to me, "I want to get out now...I don't like this..."

Our in the courtyard of the Castillo- He's much happier to be OUT of the dungeon, LOL.

ALL the kiddos. I love this pic- They all look good, but it's a great candid. 

My baby chickies posing on the canon balls. 

Mr. G showing the pathways to the lookout towers. 

So that little living area you see sandwiched between the two different forts is the ghetto. Not even the POLICE will go in there alone. Lots of people go in and don't come out. Lots of bad drugs, gangs, etc. Just this tiny little area, with some PRIME real estate! 

 We also got to go to the beach a few times-

Isn't it beautiful?!

G's first steps into the Caribbean ocean-

  While we were there we had the chance to celebrate Halloween- It was very cool to experience the holiday in a different place.

A few of the kids- We had an astronaut (Mr. G), the Little Mermaid bride, Rapunzel, my little watermelon, and Batman in the back.

Best. Costume. EVER. He was a honey-bear. His make-up was AMAZING!
His wife was a bee, and his little girl was a flower. It was SO cute. 

My watermelon checking out her loot. 

So...about this picture- I couldn't resist. No, he isn't fully naked. He couldn't locate the restroom in the unfamiliar church (where they were trunk-or-treating) and ended up wetting his pants. So he ended up just having to walk around in his underpants since I had to take it all off him and rinse it all out in the bathroom. He never even MENTIONED the need to "go"- So...Let's just say he learned a very valuable lesson on communicating one's needs that night. 

Apparently she was left unattended with the candy buckets...

For a fun Saturday activity we went and had a fun "Pirates of the Caribbean" photo-shoot with their kids. I mean, c'mon! You HAVE to do it- You really ARE in the Caribbean!

This was my all time favorite shot-

Making some cinnamon rolls waiting for the big kids to come home from school. 

 My kids finally got to experience a real down pour in warm rain. They had a BLAST!!

I'm  pretty sure she was pretending to be a chicken- She was saying 'bok-bok'. Silly monkey. I mean, er...chicken. 

She may have been teasing her Dad (who served his mission in Samoa) that she was experiencing a tropical rainstorm without him. 

THEN! Miraculously Michael ended up having the last 5 days of our time there off from his rotation! So let's just say some calls were made, some VERY generous donations made, and he was on his way to Puerto Rico to join us and bring us home- SOOO nice to have him there! Especially after being away for over 2 weeks and Mr. G ended up getting SUPER sick on the flight home- So I was BEYOND grateful he was there to assist me with that. 

His flight landed really early in the morning, so I went to get him before the kids woke up and he came and went back to sleep for a little while. The kids didn't know he'd already come and were SOO surprised he was there! He came downstairs and they RAN to him and Bug was so excited that she cried- LOL. I think she missed her daddy-

We took Michael back to Old San Juan so he could see it while the big kids were in school and this is the little plaza in front of a catholic church-

 EL YUNQUE! 

(the rainforest) -

This was also another big favorite. I wish we would have had more time to really explore it more, but for the amount of time and with the number of people we had, it was FANTASTIC!

Yes....that's my kid with the retarded pose...Trust me, you don't want to know what the OTHER poses looked like :-S

Best bridge EVER.

Posing on the bridge-

Playing in the water behind the bridge- Good times!

The bridge was a really cool dam/reservoir area.

I know- I'm a nerd...But you have to at least pretend to drink coconut milk while on a tropical island, right?

All the boys plus E decided to hike up to the bottom of the waterfall. 

The next day we went here- To the Camuy Caves. This is one of those underground caves. Think stalactites, stalagmites, etc.  

Just outside the entrance to the park was this monster sized Coqui frog statue. I was showing Bug how to kiss the frog to see if it would turn into a handsome prince. I totally unintentionally toppled forward and really did kiss it. That sucker was HOT!! It totally burned my lips! That's what I get for being such a retard....

So, to get down into the cave you ride this little tram- We were all sporting our audio tour headsets, I'm pretty sure Mr. G was NEVER on the right track for the right part of the tour. Oh well- He had fun playing with the buttons still...

Getting ready to hike down into the cave-

A tree growing upside down!

Looking up and out from inside the cave- GORGEOUS!

The other end of the cave.

At the end of the cave, before getting ready to make the loop back to the entrance. That walkway was SLICK!!

Ok- Best shadow, EVER! Do you see Washington on his laptop?!

I'm pretty proud of this shot that I got once we got back to the entrance and finished our tour. 

 We then went up to Lares in the mountain area- They took us to this cool ice cream shop that had THE craziest flavors of ice cream. Garlic, carrot, soup, rice and beans, sweet potato, etc. They did also have the usual chocolate, pistachio, vanilla, etc.

We slowly made our way back towards San Juan through the "scenic route" in the mountains. The country side was beautiful-

Aren't those some cool colors for bushes!

 I think it's safe to say we wore him out! 

(Yes, he had his seat belt on...He just contorted himself such that you wouldn't know it.)

On our way back we stopped at another "hidden" cave that not a lot of people know about that our Brother-in-law had heard about. 

In case you were wondering, it's not generally a good idea to carry your kids this way in a highly forest dense area...Because then you might get...

 This...

 She was ok, just a little wack on the top of her head. Poor girl-Michael felt SO bad. 

A side view of the cave- You can get in through there, but we knew it wasn't the smartest way to go-

The main entrance- It was definitely an adventure doing this with so many young kids!

 We finally made it to the end of the cave! We were lucky enough to run into another couple who had visited the cave a few times before, so he had an extra light. Which we were SO grateful for because it was PITCH DARK in there! It was a little nerve wracking going through there with so little light- and it wasn't in any way paved or anything. 

It was a strange hike to get to the end, but the view made it all worth it!!

And then there were the sounds of the cave...then we get a light onto the ceiling and find these...Which wasn't that hard to imagine since we were walking in...well, let's just say it was "mud" (with a heavy emphasis on the quotations around the word :-S).  We knew they wouldn't hurt or bite, but just knowing they were just hanging out over your head was nerve wracking!

Heading out of the cave before it got too dark-

Mmmm..."mud"....

Mr. G and Michael had a boys day out and went to see the Arecibo Observatory. Michael has always wanted to see it since he saw it on an episode of reading rainbow as a kid. 

Rough first rotation, hu?

She spent most of the beach time on my shoulder like this- She wasn't feeling good. 

Getting in some good sand and sun before heading back to Nevada the next day. 

These are a bit out of order- But they're from Michael's iPhone: 

Mr. G taking his dad into the infamous haunted dungeons. Can you tell he's so excited to have his dad there?

Close-ups of the ship sketches on the dungeon walls
(woah!! totally apologize for the crazy typo! Good catch, Heather! Glad it gave you a chuckle!)

A look-out point in the castillo-

 We all started to venture out from the Castillo into Old San Juan when it started to POOR! It stopped for a second and Michael snapped this shot with his girl-

ALL SOAKED!!

SUCCESS!!! One of Michael's MUST DO's in Puerto Rico was to find a breadfruit- He FINALLY found some at a roadside stand and cooked it up the next morning before taking off to the airport. He was SOO excited. 

Michael's sister was gracious enough to take care of our kids while he and I went out on a "hot date" to the Bioluminescent Bay- SO AMAZING! You go at night, and as you move your ores in the water, the little bioluminescent micro-organisms glow when agitated. It was soooo trippy! It was almost like when you break a glow stick all over, but they would wiggle all over in the water. So hard to describe- But definitely an adventure to ad to any good bucket list-

Puerto Rico was an AMAZING adventure. But it was great to come home, too. We were gone for a long time- So it was like walking into our home all over again. It took some time to re-adjust, but it was well worth the time for the memories and once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Thank you to all who made it happen!