Update

I don't know what my problem has been lately.  I am finding myself at the end of the day wishing there were about 4 more hours in the day.  Unfortunately, my blog seems to be what keeps getting put on the back-burner during the shortage of time ;0) 

So by way of a quick update to get back on track of blogging our lives:

Erick is spending ALL of his time at the school.  He has his mini 2 Exam coming up a week from Monday.  When he is not at the school, he is playing b-ball with the guys from school.  

Bryn is at such a fun age right now.  She just lost

 her second tooth and is getting one in place of the first one she lost.  She is in the "What if" stage.  Everything she sees or hears she will say, "What if that tree fell on the car?"  or "What if I ate all my food and then went to bed."  About 90% of her sentences start this way.  It is so fun to see her mind working and thinking about so many things around her.  She is such a great helper around the house and is always helping me with Kyler.  She is mostly happy, but has her moments when a slight attitude creeps out.  Erick and I are still debating on where she gets it from!

Kyler is also at a fun stage, he is in the "pretend" stage.  I can't even count the times in a day that I hear him say, "Pretend that I was spiderman and you said; look, it's spiderman"  or something that includes pretend.  He is really into dressing up.  Between Batman and Spiderman we always have a superhero at our house.  He loves to play any sport and is really good at all of them.  We love Kyler and his energy and personality.  He keeps us on our toes.

I just got home from a surprise visit to Utah.  I went for Trent and McKenzie's wedding.  It was so fun to show up and surprise everyone.  The weekend went way to fast, we were so busy the whole time with everything going on, but I was ready to get home and see the kids!  The wedding was beautiful.  They make a perfect couple and compliment each other very well.  We are very excited to add McKenzie to our family.  The kids keep calling her their "NEW" aunt.  The other day Kyler asked if Trent was his new aunt as well.  After I quit laughing, I explained that Trent was his uncle, and has been since he was born.  I think it is still sinking in!  

The kids and I are staying very busy and having a lot of fun.  We don't have much time left on the island and we are all really going to miss it.  We have made some great friends and wonderful memories.  However, we are also excited to be back stateside and moving forward on this adventure.  

I have a friend who is teaching me everything she knows about photography.  She is an amazing wedding photographer.  We have taken pictures of my own personal, PERFECT model, Bryn.  We also have plans to take a bunch more, so I will be posting those here as I take them.  I am very excited about it and have had so much fun doing it.  Preview below.....

So, I am now officially back to regularly blogging and keeping everyone up to date on our life!

 

"I WON!!!!"

My kids all love the "traps" at the grocery store! You all know them, they are the coin machines that give you candy or the 25 cent rings or sticky hands. Basically the toys that break before you even get home from the store. Every time we go to the store, they both say, "If we are really good today, can we have a quarter?" Well recently Kyler has discovered the tattoo machine. Actually he found it about 3 months ago. The thing is, the tattoo machine costs 50 cents instead of the 25 cents. So now they ask for 50 cents if they are good. Kyler will ALWAYS go for the tattoos and Bryn will ALWAYS go for one quarter for candy and one quarter for the toy machine. It is so funny to watch!
As we all know, they display the "BEST" tattoos in the window of the machine and then never give you the ones you can see until yesterday, we went to the store and once again, the kids ask, "If we are really good can we have 50 cents?" Of course they were great the whole time and got their 50 cents. Erick and I was paying and loading the cart and all of a sudden Kyler started screaming, "I WON, I WON!!! I got Spiderman." It was so loud and he was so excited. It litterally sounded like he had won the lottery. And I actually think in "little boy world" that was what happened yeterday! He was so happy and excited. As we left the store (after all the workers saw what he had won!) he was walking with a strut and acting like he was the king of the world. It was so funny. So we came home and put them on. After I got them on he said, "Mom, now go get a knife and thread and sew this on me so it will NEVER, EVER, EVER come off, okay?" I don't know what we are going to do when it does wear off and we never win on that machine again.

swimming tricks

During the break, we spent a lot of time swimming!! Kyler has learned how to swim with out any floating device, thanks to his Dad who spent a lot of time with him! He learned how to actually take a breath when his head was out of the water. For a long time now, he would bring his head up, but he wouldn't take a breath. They are both diving really well and Bryn can do three different strokes. She REALLY wants to be on a swim team when we get back so she is working on her dives and strokes everyday. They love to swim in the ocean and the pool. I don't think they have a favorite, as long as it is water. Kyler loves to open his eyes in the water and it doesn't matter if it is the pool or ocean, so we are trying to keep his goggles on so he doesn't look like his eyes are blood shot all the time!! If we go anywhere in the evening, everyone want to know if he is okay and what happened to his eyes.

A little unexpected visitor

The apartments across the way have been renovated. Last week they covered the building with a huge tarp and fumigated the building. The first morning after they had the tarp on Kyler went down to the kitchen. Erick was in the front room, and Kyler yelled from the kitchen, "Dad, come see this." Erick went into the kitchen and this centipede was hanging from the edge of the shelves we have in the kitchen. Usually Centipedes are VERY fast and they hurt really bad if they bite you. However, this one was slow and kind of "drugged up" That is why I think it came from the apartments across the street. Erick got it outside and killed it. While he did that Kyler was yelling up the stairs, "Mom, come see this." And Erick was yelling, "No, don't come down here." Erick knew that I would become psycho about looking for them in the house. And I have to admit he is right. It freaks me out to think about finding one of them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICK!!!

May 5th was Erick's birthday. The kids were so excited to have a suprise for him. However, After Kyler told him ALL our plans it was more of a surprise for the kids than Erick. He went to the school that morning so we could decorate. We blew up balloons, made birthday cards, and a huge posted to hang on the wall. We also made a cake for him. When Erick came home they ran outside to yell surprise. He opened his present which was a new white shirt, a new swim suit, a littlest pet shop puppy (from Bryn) and cards. It was a great day. We went to the beach after and played all afternoon. Then we went out for dinner to a place called East. Erick had Sushi, and I actually tried one of the rolls (not my favorite). The kids inhaled the soybeans they bring out as apetizers. Bryn had shrimp and tempura vegtables. Kyler had some shrimp and vegtables as well, and he actually ate a lot of the fish from the outside of Erick's rolls, he wouldn't eat the whole roll, but he liked the fish!! I think it was a pretty good birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICK!!! We all love you so much.

Dolphin Encounter

The kids had so much fun swimming with the dolphins. They were both a little unsure at first, but warmed up quickly. After the two hours, they both wanted to go again. The two dolphins we swam with were brothers, but I can't remember their names :( They were about 450 pounds, and VERY friendly!!
It was so much fun to go and do. I don't think you can come to the Bahamas and not swim with the dolphins, so we were really excited we were able to go!
We all got kisses, but Bryn's picture was really blurry and Erick and Kyler's was taken from the back.

A day at the National Park

We went to the National Park with Erick, it was one of the things the kids really wanted to do during the break. The fires were burning really bad out that way and had burned one of the caves, so we just went to the beach side and played in the water, collected shells, and had a picnic. It was a really good day. On the way to the beach, the kids were looking over the railing at the fish. Bryn put her feet up on the rail and when when she pulled her foot back the rail pulled her shoe off. Of course it was at the highest point on the bridge where she was standing. I grabbed a picture real quick before I had to help in the rescue. Erick hung his body through the rail and then held Kyler by his feet to reach down and grab the shoe. I was holding Erick's feet and legs because he was holding Kyler with both hands. Bryn was looking over the rail crying! I am sure it was quite the sight to see!! You can't see very well in the picture, but there are A LOT of fish in there, so when we got the shoe back, Bryn wouldn't put it on becuuse she kept saying, "It has fish poop on it." It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing.
We made it to the beach and had a great time. Afterwards, we drove to the end of the island heading east. There wasn't much out that way, but it was fun to explore.