Us went on a cation

If you asked this little twirpy what we did over Memorial Day weekend, she would tell you, "Us went on a CATION!"

And although terribly grammatically incorrect, she is right! Due to Colby's crazy work schedule, we took our family Summer vacation a little early this year. We took advantage of the long holiday weekend and drove down to the Texas coast. It was a GREAT, well needed vacation. Here are the highlights:

Staying in a hotel:

Really, it doesn't matter where we choose to vacation. We could be a block away from home and the kids would have a blast just staying in a hotel.

And what's not to love?? From the continental breakfast with waffles shaped like the State of Texas,

To swimming in the hotel pool,

squishing three kids in a double size pull-out bed (while Mom & Dad have the KING size all to themselves hehehe).

and of course, watching cartoons.

The Beach:

The highlight of the trip was taking the kids to see the ocean for the first time. We drove out to Padre Island and found a great little beach with lots of sand and surf.

The boys (including Colby!) had a blast catching these little sand crabs,

and later, built a sand castle for them.

Abbi and I enjoyed some swimming and sun-tanning.

At the end of the day, it was sooo nice to get showered off and rid ourselves of the sand that we found in every little nook and cranny.

The Texas State Aquarium:

We were also able to spend a day at the Texas State Aquarium. The kids loved seeing the fish, dolphins, turtles, crocodiles, sea otters, sting rays, etc. etc.

It was so nice to take a break from our day to day responsibilities and spend some time together as a family.

I guess it's back to the daily grind for us now. The question is, What to do the rest of the Summer?

Tiny Dancer

Our sweet little Abbi has her first dance recital coming up on Saturday. Because there are no pictures or videos aloud at the performance (this is serious business!), we got to attend a dress rehersal yesterday to get photo documentation of our little munchkin.

If you ask me, I think she is the cutest little two and a half year old on the planet. (I'm not biased or anything).

IF you can believe it, she looked even cuter than usual in her leotard, tutu and ballet slippers with this GIANT bow on her head. I was a little worried that she would either refuse to get on stage, or get on stage and just stand there with a blank look on her face. We were sooo proud of our little girl, she loved performing and even remembered most of the moves.

Colby and the boys were good sports and came to cheer her on. She was so excited to have them in the audience.

And I love having a little girl!

Abbi listening very attentively to her teacher while on stage.

After the performance, we got a picture with all of her dance friends.

Abbi is the youngest one in the group (although definitley not the smallest!)

Here is a video of their performance; all one minute, 26 seconds of it!

Way to go Sis!

Untitled from Shauni Frost on Vimeo.

True Confessions

A couple of months ago, I read on my cousin Elizabeth's blog about her "true confessions." Since then, I've been thinking about some of my own. Here they are;

#1 I love to vacuum. It's almost relaxing for me and the house always looks so much cleaner after it's been vacuumed (you can really fool people into thinking your house is clean, when really the only thing that is clean is the floor). Here's the "true confession" part; I really love to vacuum when my kids are on my nerves. When they just won't stop talking, fighting or asking questions -I turn this bad boy on and they stop (or I just can't hear them). It's fabulous.

#2 Frequently, when I know Colby isn't going to make it home for dinner, I make pancakes. A couple of months ago when Colby was doing a particularly busy rotation, Ammon asked me if I was putting them on a "pancake diet." Ooops.

#3 I own (and use) onion goggles. They are just as awesome as they look. Just for the record, I had them before Phil Dumphey.

What are your true confessions?

Easter & Frogs

Easter:

And Frogs:

I have no logical explanation why this little peanut adores this frog,

but is terrified of this one..

and because she found this scary little plastic frog in an Easter egg at the playgroup hunt, she is now terrified of these:

It made for an interesting Easter this year. I had to give Abbi a BIG pep talk before the Scott & White employee Easter egg hunt telling her, "don't worry, there's just candy in these eggs- NO FROGS," and "there is nothing to be afraid of there are NO FROGS in these Easter eggs." Try as I might, I still couldn't get her to pick up ONE egg. (I picked up a couple for her.) All my begging and pleading was wasted when I opened a plastic egg to show her that there was not a frog inside of it and oops... seriously, what are the chances? There was a blue plastic frog in that Easter egg. Needless to say, she refused to participate in our family Easter egg hunt on Sunday. But, all of the kids were really into their Easter baskets,

Colby not so much.

I always LOVE to do the matchy, matchy thing for holidays, and this year was no exception.

This is what Abbi did during the Easter egg hunt- stood in the doorway and watched. She didn't seem to mind that she missed out on all the "cannys and moneys."

Call me cruel, but I had to provide some video proof of her wierd plastic frog phobia. It's actually pretty entertaining.

Untitled from Shauni Frost on Vimeo.

And just so you don't think that our Easter was all about candy, eggs and frogs; we had a great FHE lesson on the resurection and watched a video online. I am so grateful for the Savior and the sacrifices that he made for us. Here is Abbi telling the Easter story in her own words:

Untitled from Shauni Frost on Vimeo.

Pinewood Derby

Another GREAT thing about being eight, is starting cub scouts. Ammon was lucky enough to start cub scouts right before the pinewood derby. I am going to say that is the reason why Colby and Ammon started working on his derby car on Friday night (the derby was on Saturday!) Ammon drew a design of what he wanted his car to look like, helped paint it and put on the decals. Colby was such a trooper~ even though he was already putting in late nights and early mornings at work, he made time early, early Friday to cut out the car and woke up early on Saturday to finish it. It turned out great! It was just the way Ammon wanted it to look- but was it fast?

We arrived at the church to find out. The cultural hall was decked out with pinewood derby decor,

they had popcorn and cookies for hungry spectators,

and a state of the art, electric track for nearly thirty cars to race on.

(this thing was sweet, it actually could tell what car won by a hundreth of a second)

Ammon's car is the green blur finishing in second place.

The boys waited anxiously to see how their cars would fare,

and Ammon's car ended up in the top four!

(it was number four to be exact- but he was thrilled to make it into the grand finals)

When all was said and done, Ammon ended up in third place, with a great trophy and a big smile on his face.

Way to go DRAGO!

Colby has already warned Ammon that he probably won't do as well next year. I guess he's a little unsure of his ability to duplicate a winning car. Way to go boys!

Eight is GREAT!

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Utah was being able to have Ammon's baptism while we were there. It was a beautiful day, made even better by having so many family members be able to attend. I feel blessed to be married to a worthy priesthood holder who was able to baptize Ammon. I am also so proud of Ammon for his decision to be baptized. The day of the baptism my heart was so full of gratitude. I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and for the knowledge that I have a Father in Heaven who is mindful of me and knows my joys and my sorrows. I am so grateful for my children and the happiness they bring into my life. I am so grateful for our families and for the love and support that they willingly give. I am also finding it hard to believe that we have an EIGHT year old.... I still feel like I'm 20. Even though it makes me feel OLD that I have a kid who's old enough to be baptized, I am really enjoying Ammon at this age and I am so glad we were able to celebrate this milestone with him.

Colby and Ammon

Colby, Ammon, Grandma and Grandpa Stewart and cousin Kalii

Dad, Mom and Ammon

Colby, Ammon and Grandma and Grandpa Frost

Our family (I think Ammon was getting tired of smiling for pictures!)

Our three, crazy, kids.

Trying to display a little more "Sunday appropriate" behavior.

After the baptism, we had a luncheon at the church. Thank you to everyone who made soup, salads and desserts. The food was almost as good as the company.

Taylor, Grandma, Colby, Dan, Logan and Marcie

Kalii and Carter

"Abbi-Cadabi" and Hazel

Great-Grandma Frost, Ammon, Great-Grandma Cisney and Aunt Carolann. We were so glad that Ammon's Great-Grandma's were able to make it to the baptism.

Aunt Carolann is always so sweet to remember the kids on their birthdays, Christmas or even "just because." She is such a fun aunt and the kids always look forward to seeing her.

Abbi, Mom, Great-Grandma Stewart, Carter, Ammon and Great-Grandpa Stewart. We were also so grateful that Great-Grandma and Grandpa Stewart were able to make the long trip up North for the baptism. A big "thank you" to Uncle Sam for spending the day driving Grandpa and Grandma. And a big "thank you" to everyone for your help and support.