Happy Easter!

Wait for it...

wait for it....

More tantrums... almost there...

Aannd here it is... Finally got an almost clear shot of mom and Brayden about to go out on an Easter egg hunt.  I had just styled his hair to get his double cowlick to lay down and then he did NOT want his picture taken.  It was rough. Don't worry we put pants on him.  But look how cute his bum is in big boy undies!

 Brayden got to participate in 4 Easter egg hunts this year and he loved everyone of them.  One at our apartment complex, another at the park, and then one at each grandparents house.  He really got into them this year, and loved the candy.

 On our way to Grandma and Grandpa Murdock's house, I forgot to take pictures there but we decorated eggs and then hid them in their back yard for Brayden to find.

Easter with the Hague cousins

We had a fun Easter week.  It was Melinda's families Spring break so they came into town.  We have had gorgeous weather so we played at the park and soaked up the sun.  One day we went to a circus that came to town!  Before the show started we got to go down and walk around the rings, they had activities for the kids and we got to have a close look at all the animals.  AND the kids got to ride on the cutest little ponies.  I'll have to track down a picture of Brayden on the pony.  He thought he was pretty cool.

Our cousins on the Murdock side

The Lloyd family went home and then we had fun with Easter egg hunts, eating too much candy, and having fun with grandparents and the Moody cousins.  

I actually had to give a talk in Church on Easter Sunday.  I was super intimidated to talk on Easter but it ended up being fine.  I learned some new things in preparation of my talk and it made Easter a little more meaningful for me this year.  We are so grateful for the Atonement and Resurrection.  Jesus Christ lives!  What a beautiful promise that is for us.

Republica Dominicana

Acabamos de volver de las vacaciones en la Republica Dominicana.  We had mucho funo.

Translation.

We just got home from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.  We had a lot of fun (and now i'm on a Spanish kick).

It was for a hearing aid conference that Andy's parents have been inviting us to since Andy started going to school to become an audiologist.  The company chooses a different location for every year, always in February though.

We decided that it was too long of a flight and to short of a trip to take Brayden with us so we left him with my sister in Portland.  I was pretty nervous to leave Brayden behind, but I knew he would be in good hands with my sister and her kids.  So we made the 4 hour drive to Portland Monday night, then Tuesday morning before everyone woke up we sneaked out to head to the airport.  From Portland we flew to Newark and had to overnight there.  We made the best of it and took a train to New York!  This was my first time in New York city and it was an incredible experience.  I felt mostly like a fish out of water.  We walked to Times Square, on our way we got some dinner at an Italian Restaurant.

Inside the Toys R Us store

We were only there for a few hours, but it was everything the movies make it out to be.  People everywhere, loud, high energy, and incredible.  I couldn't imagine living there though.  I'm pretty sure I would be broke in about 2 seconds. haha.  Everywhere I looked there was something that grabbed my attention and convinced me I needed it.  Luckily we were on a time crunch so I didn't buy anything.  One thing that I was not expecting was how stinky it was, haha.  We walked a good 20 blocks from the train station to Times square and back so we were fumigated by car exhaust, 2nd hand smoke, and super stinky sewers.

The next morning we flew to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic into the cutest airport ever.  It had a thatched roof and 3 foot walls.  Luckily we were with a huge group of audiologist so we basically just followed the crowd onto a big bus (they had 4 ready for all of us) that took us to the Hard Rock Resort where we stayed.

The rest of our trip consisted of sleeping in, ordering room service for breakfast (the resort was all inclusive), going to the beach and then consistently eating way too much. Andy had to go to a couple classes too.

The resort was soo big that we had to take a little tram to get to the beach.  This is us sitting and waiting for the tram.

Before a fancy dinner

The sand was so amazing there.  Even softer than the Florida beaches and it had specks of pink in it.

The resort grounds were so pretty

Most of the employee's of the Hard Rock didn't speak English, so we felt pretty cool saying Hola, Buenas Dias, donde estas el bano and la playa!  That's about all I remember from high school Spanish. 

I had a hard time relaxing and letting go until I was able to talk to my sister and hear that Brayden was doing just time and actually having a blast without me and Andy around.  

So we spent 3 and a half days there and then had to fly back Sunday morning.  It was a long flight home, we luckily didn't have to overnight anywhere, but it made for a very long day on a plane.  It was hard coming home back to the cold weather but I was ready to have my baby boy back.  Now we get to look forward to Andy's graduation in Florida in May.

Christmas 2012

Christmas was nice and relaxing this year.  We didn't have to board a plane and fly across the country!  It was really nice to see family from out of town and participate in our beloved Christmas traditions.    Once again I was horrible with taking pictures... zero to be exact.  So I took some from Lori's blog.  So here are some of our Christmas traditions.

This is actually a new tradition for us.  We saw Santa and his reindeer at Beaver Bark.  Brayden really liked the reindeer, Eliza and Talia were pretty hesitant to get close.

We watched the Christmas Boat Parade on the Columbia River, which was freezing!  It was fun to see the boats lit up but maybe next year we will stay in our car or watch it from a warm restaurant.

We went to Burger Ranch to got peppermint shakes and drove around to see Christmas lights.

This year we had Christmas Eve dinner with the Hagues. We ate with Grandma and Grandpa Great, and Audrey and John.

Christmas morning was fun because it was Brayden's first year of being super excited about opening presents.  Santa came to our apartment, so we opened presents at home and then we went to Lori's house for brunch and opened presents with Andy's family. We got a white Christmas too!

We went home for a nap and then went to my parents house to open presents with Melinda and her family.  We spent the rest of the week playing with my sisters kids.  I will have to get some pictures of all of that from my parents and Melinda.

For New Years we went to Cocolalla with the Hagues.  There was game playing, sledding, skiing, and relaxing.  Andy and I got the stomach flu so we missed out on the skiing, but luckily no one else in the family got it.  Brayden was so funny in the snow. When we got out in it he wouldn't say a word.  He did not want to walk around in it, no smiles, no tears, just straight face.  We went sledding a couple of times but he didn't seem to like it and eventually he asked to go inside.  He is a Florida boy through and through.

Thanksgiving

This year for thanksgiving we went to my sisters house in Hillsboro!   It was the first time in a very long time that we have had Thanksgiving with family!  The past several years we have eaten with friends in our ward in Florida, while that was fun and really nice of our friends to invite us over, it was just so nice to be with family.

We didn't do a whole lot, it was pretty rainy, but we still had fun together, we did some swimming at the hotel my parents stayed at, went to an indoor playground by my sisters house and during a break in the rain we watched the kids ride their bikes outside. We had a fabulous thanksgiving dinner made by Melinda and Benj and stuffed ourselves immensely.  We did do some black friday shopping, or I should say Melinda and I attempted to go out Thursday night but didn't even get out of the car because we saw how crazy long the lines were and how packed the parking lots were.   Benj was the hard core shopper that got up at 4 in the morning and he got all everything he wanted and even got Melinda and I the kitchen aid that we had our eyes on!  So that was my Christmas present this year from Andy and my parents.

Halloween

At the library with our friend Cecily. She is a princess witch.

With cousins Talia and Eliza.  They are both Cinderella.

"CHEEEEEEESE!"

This year Brayden was a Pirate!  In the morning we went to the Pasco library for story time/crafts.  Then Lori invited us over for dinner and to their trunk or treat.  After that we went to see Grandpa Hague and then went to my parents house.  Brayden got to dig into some of this candy at my parents house and from the picture above you can tell he likes candy.  In fact to get him into his costume I had to bribe him with candy, but once he got it on he loved it and kept saying "aarg".  Just recently Brayden discovered that he is tall enough to reach the light switches and as we were leaving my parents house we noticed that almost all of their light switches had chocolate all over them!!!