Our Break From Reality: 5 Year Anniversary Trip to the Maldives

May 9th-20th, 2013

So you could definitely call this our dream trip. The place we have longed to travel to...that is ever since we had the privilege of visiting Bora Bora on our honeymoon! I guess you could say that wet my husband's appetite for tropical destinations, because anyone who knows him knows he already had a love for traveling!

This trip had been at the back of our minds for a while wondering if we would truly every go...if we could ever justify it, leave our kids for that long, or spend that kind of money to go so far. There's no quick way to explain it all but here is a brief synopsis of our wonderful 5-year anniversary trip of a lifetime and how it all transpired =)
1. Accumulated lots of HHonors and Starwood points!
2. Checked flights for a solid 8 months and found an incredible deal on airfare on a random night in January!
3. Depended on wonderful grandparents to love our girls well while we were gone for 12 days!
4. Benefited greatly from HHGold perks such as free breakfast buffet every morning, fresh fruit on arrival, and plenty of other nice touches!
5. Enjoyed an amazing, ultra relaxing trip as a couple. We were spoiled, but our "reality" is a wonderful thing to come home to- we have been blessed immensely!

The truth is that it is going to be more than impossible to put into words just how incredible this trip was and just how breathtakingly beautiful the Maldives were! Truly..we have never laid eyes on somewhere more beautiful here on Earth. We will just let the pictures speak for themselves. And on a side note, NO it was not in OUR plans to travel to the other side of the world at 14 weeks pregnant with baby number 3 on the way, but sometimes we realize that OUR plans are not HIS plans...thankful to have such sweet time with the perfect man for me before our life becomes a tad bit more wild than it already is!

 

 

 

 

I also can't say enough just how blessed of a woman I am to be married to this man! Such a tangible picture to me of God's grace on a daily basis. I don't know where I would be without his leadership, his wisdom, his love for me and our girls, his selflessness, his graciousness towards others, his forgiveness...he has so many endearing qualities that only help my love and affection grow stronger with each passing day. Thank you Lord for the earthly blessing of a Godly husband! He helps usher me into a deeper relationship with you and for that I will always be eternally grateful!

 

 

 

And just to survive the trip home, we planned a quick stop-over in Qatar! Broke the LONG, LONG journey home up nicely and we had such a fun time together unwinding from an already relaxing vacation =)

Baby #3 Makes Five

Well Praise the Lord! Even if this wasn't exactly what Kendall and I had pictured as far as timing goes, we trust that His timing is always right and always perfect. We will cling to that =) We are thrilled now that we have had some time to adjust to the shock of adding baby number three to the family! Some days, we're still not sure if reality has set in but we know in due time, the Lord will prepare our hearts to love this little one just as much as we do our other two precious ones! To say we will be busy will be an understatement! This little nugget is set to arrive November 4th which will put the girls right around 2 1/2 years old! =) Three under two and a half is no biggie right?!? 

We are confident this is God's perfect plan for our family and we know He will extend just the right amount of grace and mercy and strength for each day He graciously gives us!

We're excited to meet the newest member of our family this fall and are humbled that He is entrusting us with the care of shepherding another little heart towards Him!

25 Months-Can't Stop the Monthly Updates!

I'm not certain I will ever go back and read through these (although I have a few times on the newborn ones!) but just for the sake of documenting their lives, I find myself still recording new things they do! =)

25th MONTH STATS:

Mak-26lbs; MG-29lbs; roughly 32inches tall (MG still a tad taller)

Diapers: both in size 4

Clothes: Mak- 18mo MG- 24mo/2T

Shoes: Mak: size 4; MG: size 5

Teeth count: Mak: 12 with 1 on the way; MG: 16 

What new things you girls have done this month!? (from 24-25mo)

-Talking up a storm! Communicating often very clearly what they want and will keep talking until you figure out what they are trying to say

-have begun putting colors in front of objects such as white cows, blue shoes, etc.

-they each had their potty moment: Mak went pee pee in potty on fri 4/12 and sat am 4/13; MG went poo poo in the potty on 4/21!! Still not attempting to potty train yet though!

-now have an opinion on what pjs to wear-prefer monkey pjs J

-no longer love watching Mickey or Word World-have moved onto enjoying Dora the Explorer

-enjoy sidewalk chalk outside!

-Makenzie will now ask Sissy to come play something with her-LOVE!!

-will request to go “home” now when we are in the car

-MG loves to run and hide whenever we are trying to leave the house and make mommy come find her

-Ask for Eskimo Kisses at night J

-one more one more is a pretty common phrase around our house these days

-they want to pull up a chair and watch their food cook in the toaster or microwave

-as soon as they hear the garbage truck, they will run to the window saying, “I hear it! I hear it!” as it pulls down our street and go over to watch it!

-into saying mommy silly, that’s silly-notice funny things now

-like hodling things all by themselves such as mommy’s drink

-have started taking off their diapers! L and clothes too!

-will now play independently together in their room-might look like a tornado when they are done, but they are in there and they are content!

-at the park, when going down the slide, will say “Daddy, catch YOU!”- just precious J

-now will communicate that they want us to play too by saying “mommy play cars” “papa play” “daddy Play”

-LOVE playing in our cars and garage-love to roam in the car from the front seats all the way to the trunk area!