Jack turns 2!!

Jack has been so excited for his birthday. It has been really cute. He celebrated it at day care on Friday (pictures to come) and all Friday night he was doing the happy dance. He woke up Saturday so excited to have all his little friends over to celebrate the big day. On a side note, I had no idea how much work birthday parties are! I was exhausted by the end of the party. I have a new respect for moms. Despite all the work, it was worth it all. For his little party our agenda went as follows: "put the car on the track," a truck pinata, opened presents, had pizza and cake and then played, played, played. I was not sure how the games would go considering the kids were 2-3 but they loved the games. They were so cute. Of course Jack was absoluetly spoiled by his grandparents, GG and friends. I can't believe my little guy is 2! I am soaking up all the fun two year olds are. We love little Jack and just can't seem to get enough of him!

I made him a truck cake. Thanks to my dear friend Marianne for pretty much decorating it all. It is so nice to have such great friends especially since we don't have family in Texas. She was out my house at 7:30am helping me out. What a good friend!
Everyone was so happy, I wonder why....
Jack chillin' in his new chair.
Jack enjoying his little table he got from his GG.
Jack was loving all the attention he was getting. He was seriously in heaven.
Clapping for himself.....
Of course we had to skype in GG. I will give credit to Shawn for that idea.

Gingerbread House

For FHE (family home evening) tonight we made a gingerbread house. I guess I should say Jack made it. He was so proud of the final product. Wouldn't you be too?....

Fresno

On Friday night we hopped on a plane to Fresno to be able to say goodbye to Shawn's mother (she is headed back to Dubai) and be their for our friends family sealing. It was so nice to see Shawn's mom for a couple of hours before she hopped on her airplane. Then on Saturday we were able to attend the family sealing of our friends whose adoption was just finalized. What a special event to witness. We love Co-co (Cohen) and are so happy that he will be with our friends forever! We are so grateful for temples and the opportunity we have to with our families forever. What a special day.

We were also able to spend some time with Jason and Chelsea which was fun. Then we came home Sunday morning. It was a short but very sweet trip.

We never took any pictures with Shawn's family oops....
The Sealing at the Temple


The Gang

The Boys


We said to the boys "give kisses goodbye" and they both went in for it!!

Jack getting ready to go to the library....

Man, I love this guy!

Acapulco Mexico

For Thanksgiving we looked up flights as to where we could go. The only place that was wide open with lots of seats was Acapulco Mexico (reasoning for lots of seats is that they just opened up a flight there and it had only been open for 2 weeks). We decided the night before to go. We knew that we could not get anywhere with family and since we don't have family in Texas we thought let's just go somewhere. Shawn has been working long hours and weekends and since I started working we needed a little get-away and this trip was absolutely perfect. To be honest we were nervous about going to Mexico but right when we landed we felt safe. We had an eventful experience getting on the flight but it would take me too long to write about it.

We arrived in beautiful Acapulco on Thursday afternoon. Acapulco is seriously so beautiful! Thursday we just lounged around at the beach and resort. On Friday we took a city tour. Our first stop (that we had no idea was part of it) was to a jewelry store (of course they always try to sneak one in..) Then, we went to the hotel where President Kennedy had his honey moon which is pretty ran down but has the most amazing view of the city. There we took pictures and enjoyed the scenery. Next we went to see the famous cliff divers. Acapulco is famous for this. The youngest diver is 9 and the oldest is 50. They jump into the water swim over to the cliff, climb up the cliff and dive off the cliff. They are amazing! Jack loved watching them. He could cheer for them and then say "more divers." I was scared for them and hoping no one would get hurt. Then we drove around Acapulco and then went back to our resort.

Saturday and Sunday we spent the whole day at the beach and the resort. We seriously had so much fun just relaxing, meeting new people and being together. It was a very nontraditional Thanksgiving for us and we missed being with family. But there was also something very special being with just of three of us. I LOVE my family and love being with my boys. The whole time I was just thinking how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. I love that I can have so much fun with them. They make me laugh all the time. I have to say that Jack was also so good. He slept the whole flight both there and back, was a good sleeper at the resort, played well at the beach. He even played by himself so I could read and Shawn could watch the football game which is unusual for him. He said "hola" to everyone he met, and off course made us laugh all the time. He let lots of people touch his hair, take pictures of him and gave hi-five and bones to everyone that would let him. Overall, for him he did amazingly well.

Now back to real life...ugh!

The resort. We were in a little bay which almost felt like a lake. The waves were tiny which was nice but still scared Jack. It was very quite and peaceful. There was a pool on each level but Jack just wanted to play at the beach. We had our own little private beach that was contained. It was nice because it prevented Jack from wondering off. It was perfect for us. The food was also really good but also really pricey.








The Beach








The City Tour




If you look closely the divers are on the cliff. There are about 8 of them with four being on the top.

Fort Worth Zoo

Jack and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo with our friends Gavin and Amy. Gavin and Jack took an instant liking to each other in nursery and lucky for me I adore his mother Amy. The Zoo is actually a really neat zoo. We have two big zoos (Fort Worth and Dallas) within about 30 mins from us. At the Fort Worth zoo they have this area where you can feed birds. I knew going into it that this would be hard for me but I didn't want Jack to be fearful of animals and birds so I put my fear aside and bought the seed to feed the birds. Right when we went inside about ten or more birds (not sure exactly how many too me it seemed like 50) flew on us to eat the seed. I totally freaked out, I mean screamed really loud, dropped the seed (luckily not Jack although I almost did) and ran out. So embarrassing but it was just instinct for me. I did not realize what I had done until I was almost out the door. This poor man witnessed the whole thing and picked up my seed and asked me if he could help Jack feed the birds. I happily obliged. Jack loved feeding the birds. The hilarious thing about this situation is that I grew up with a bird who would climb all over me. But as I have gotten older I just can't stand birds on me. Jack loved the zoo and he loved being with Gavin.