Something to look forward to

See this pretty lady here holding a VERY chubby and quite younger Beckett?? (He was only 9 months old here!)

This is my sister, Alissa!!! :D

She is fun, and we talk ridiculously often, and we tell each other just about everything.

And she's coming to see me in May!!!

Hooray!

Can you tell I'm excited??

(and I better take some pictures while she's here, because that one is the most recent one I have of her, and it's almost 2 years old)

...and I inserted videos into a blog-post, too...

Whoa. I do not know what has gotten into me.

I am seriously venturing into new territory here, blog-wise.

I am 'linking up' to someone else's monthly blog theme, and I think that's actually called a 'meme' (though if someone could please explain to me where in the heck that word even comes from, I'd really appreciate it).

Here goes nothing...

Amy's 10 Things to Smile About for March :D

1-Getting to watch the 25th Anniversary concert of 'Les Miserables' on PBS. SPEC-TAC-U-LAR.

2-Starting a 6-week training program that includes lots of strength training, to get ready for this, and getting visible biceps from it. Pretty sweet...

3-Actually finding Paczkis in Texas for Fat Tuesday!!! (and discovering at the end of the month that they DO freeze and thaw again quite well)

4-Rediscovering my love for 'Gilmore Girls,' and maybe possibly wasting a few hours of one day watching 5 episodes on the internet ;)

5-Getting a new hair dryer, and avoiding death by fire when the old one shot sparks while in use.

6-Finally getting my books arranged just how I want them on my new FABULOUS bookshelves. :)


7-Registering Caleb for kindergarten! :*( And NOT bawling all over the paperwork! :)

8-Figuring out exactly what I need, ingredient by ingredient, to have a 3-month supply of food, and also getting water barrels, a rain barrel, and everything planted in the garden. Go provident living. :)

9-CATCHING UP THE BLOG!!!!

And finally...10th thing to smile about is... Caleb starting his swim lessons, and being SO cute in his rash guard and goggles, and being SO happy when he does things right.
Such a JOY to watch. :)


There! I did it! I think I'm almost a real blogger now. :D

Thanks, Em! Writing this helped me feel really good about my month!

(and p.s. I totally utilized facebook to even remember what went on this month. Who knew all those status updates could be so crazy useful??)

LINK UP!

Would you like to take a survey?

So I've been thinking lately about sharing pictures and things, and I've realized that the reason I don't post so often on the blog is because I've already posted things in Facebook. And then I started to wonder who even READS this blog that doesn't see or read what I post on Facebook.

So, if you, my lovely readers, would be so kind, will you please comment on this post if you are someone that reads this blog but doesn't follow Kenn or I on FB for whatever reason? I'm just curious if I even need the blog or not. I mean, I have to remind my own mother to look at it. And she's on FB now anyways.

So yah, comment if you please if this is your only source for North family news. :)

foodie confessional

Do you ever make something to eat that just ends up looking so delicious you feel the need to take a picture and share??

I do. :)

Yesterday's breakfast--spinach and cheese omelet, with sliced orange wedges.
mmmmmm. :)

And now I'm wishing I'd taken a picture of the salad I ate for lunch for today, because that looked spectacular, too. Green leaf lettuce, spinach, sliced tomato, carrot, cheese cubes, sunflower seeds, and craisins. mmmmmm. again. :)

Hockey Game #2!

I say number 2, because this is the second hockey game we've taken the boys to at the Cedar Park Center. But this one was even better, because I didn't have to pay for the tickets!

I shop at a grocery store called HEB, and they print out coupons for different things along with your receipt when you check out. Usually it's for something related to something you just bought, but one time, it was a coupon for 4 hockey tickets! There were only 2 specific dates you could go, but one of the days worked fine for us, so we did it. It was really fun, too. We all had more fun this time than we did in November.

And the camera batteries didn't die! But sadly, Kenn is the only one who will consistently look at me when I'm trying to take a picture...

This big burger balloon floats around above the crowd, dropping coupons or something. We just happened to be seated right below it's resting place.

Surprisingly good pic of Caleb and myself. :)

Oh Beckett...the kid just REFUSES to turn for the camera...

We're not Irish...

...but we had a yummy St. Patty's day dinner, and acted like we were. :)

Poached Salmon with irish butter-sauce, potato and cabbage skillet, and soda-bread biscuits.
Yum. :)

titles are over-rated, especially when your post is a hodge-podge of stuff

There has been so much going on here lately! I think there's tons going on all the time, but it seems like ever since we got back form the cruise, there have been a million different projects to finish and work on, and things to implement and changes to make. And that explains why I'm catching up on blogging just now. :)

Here's a new thing at our house--Caleb has been assigned dishwasher-unloading duty for the rest of his life in our home. It was kind of rough at first getting him to do it, because as much as he wanted to do when we wouldn't let him, now he doesn't want to. :)

I figured out, though, that if I give him a choice of 'when' he unloads it, it goes a lot better. And I'm sure Kenn has been enjoying the break, cause it was his job before.

We've also been doing a lot of puzzles around here. The kids love them.

I hate how I look in this picture, but Beckett is so adorable I'm willing to make that sacrifice. :)

Another big change--Caleb is now taking swim lessons! He had his first one on St. Patrick's Day, and he has been doing great with it. I have so much fun watching him, because he gets SOOO excited when he does it right, and his teacher tells him good job. Makes a mama proud. :*)

before the first lesson

and after

And this is just my kids being random. I asked what they were doing, and Caleb said "We're just taking a rest under the table where it's comfy."

They are so weird. :)

New Bookshelves

Kenn built, from scratch, some fabulous floor to ceiling bookshelves. They are gorgeous, and we painted them and the wall behind, and got all the books on there, and I love it. It's like it was always there.

We put the pics on facebook, so go here to see them if you haven't already.

Heartsy Fartsy Valentines Day

I don't usually go all out for Valentine's Day, but I think I was still feeling guilty over being gone for a week on the cruise, and happy to be home with my boys, so I wanted to make it kind of festive.

So I made construction paper hearts.


And valentines for all my boys.






And colored the milk pink (and the soymilk, too, but it's not a see-through container).


And the boys got treats.


And I made pink, red-sprinkled cinnamon rolls.


Nothing too far out there, but it was fun. And yummy. :)

And my mama's birthday! Happy Birthday Mama!!! :)

But what did the BOYS do??

You might be asking this very question. What did Caleb and Beckett do while we were gone enjoying our cruise?

Well, the simpler question might be 'what DIDN'T they do?'

Kenn's mom, Rita, was here with them, and boy, they had fun.

Pictures to prove it!

The went to the playground...

...they made cookies...

...there were lots of puzzles...

...and trains...

...and it SNOWED! We had told Rita how nice and warm it would be here in Texas, compared to Utah, and while we were on the cruise we got word that there was ice and snow in Austin!
Luckily, the warmer jackets were pretty easy for Rita to find, and the kids got to go out and play.

I'm not sure if this face means Caleb liked it or not.

There was also building with blocks...

...and more playground.

There were also lots of walks, and finger painting, and lots of Grandma reading stories off her Nook (which the boys LOVED), and they were just spoiled. :)

We were happy knowing the kids were so happy while we were gone (we knew they would be), but poor Rita had a lot to deal with. The power went out at one point, and the alarm thingie downstairs kept beeping afterwards, and then the smoke alarm upstairs started dying, and there was snow everywhere. And poor Rita. :) But she handled it beautifully, and we'd have her come again in a heartbeat.

Thank you Rita!!! The boys LOVED having you here!!! :)

Cruise!--The End :(

Highlights!!!

-Kenn boarding the ship on Sunday with a FULL beard, having a picture of him like that pop up every time we got off and back on during the cruise, and him being actually beardless after Monday morning. Really threw off some of the ship employees. :)

-Getting elephants to add to my collection from Mexico, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica. I think that is something I'll do every time we go to a new country/region.

-Cold soups! Every night at dinner, there some type of 'cold soup' on the appetizer menu, and they were ALL delicious. Golden Delicious Apple, Raspberry with Mango sauce....mmmmm, I loved those.

-Shuffleboard! There wasn't ever another person around to take a picture for us, but Kenn and I played shuffleboard multiple times. And it is surprisingly fun (or maybe just for us, but that's ok, too).

-Finding out after we got there that Cozumel, the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica are kind of perverted in their touristy places. Apparently they assume everyone who goes there wants mugs of male and female body parts. It was nasty. :P Not really a 'high' light, but something we experienced nonetheless.

-FOOD FOOD FOOD, and MORE FOOD. Oh my goodness, LITERALLY, ALLLLLLL you can eat. It's insane how much food there was on that ship, and it was all included in the price you already paid, and you could eat anything and everything, as much, as often as you liked. It's a miracle that I only gained 3 pounds that week.

-Ear Infection. :P Again, not a 'high' light, but it happened. My ear started hurting on Wednesday or Thursday, and when I woke up Saturday morning it was BAD. Bad enough that before we went to dinner, I went to the on-board medical clinic, saw the doctor, and came out with antibiotics, ear drops, ibuprofen, and throat lozenges (drainage from the ear infection was giving me a sore throat, too). Not my favorite thing, but the whole morning and afternoon we spent in bed in our stateroom sure was relaxing.

-Movies on ALL the time on the ship cable channel. :) This cruise introduced Kenn to the final 'Shrek' movie (which we now own), and I got to watch The Young Victoria multiple times (which we also now own), and it was just nice. We do love our movies.

-The comedian on the ship. I can't for the life of me remember his name, but he was freakin' hilarious! He had all this involvement from the audience, and making fun of people, and it was just so funny. There was also this ventriloquist guy, Ronn Lucas, and he was hilarious, too. All in all, the entertainment was pretty good. Except for the singer who supposedly impersonates other singers. He was horrible, and we climbed over the back wall in the theater so we could leave.

-Old people. LOTS of them. And they are cute, and you can tell they love their cruises.

-Alchemy on the iPhone. This game saved us SOOO many times. When we were waiting for a show to start, when I couldn't sleep, when we had time to kill, when we were relaxing and wanted distraction....so fun. We only made 105 elements, but it was awesome.

And our final pictures of the trip...

Last night on board, formal night.

And my favorite picture of the whole trip.
We look awesome. :D

Our last towel friend.

And Kenn's stink-face that means it's time to go back home to reality.
I, at least, tried to pretend I was excited.
(I really was, though--I was missing our boys somethin' fierce by this point)

And just like that, it was over.

What did we learn??
Kenn needs a prescription next time for anti-motion sickness medicine;
we need a stateroom lower down on the ship;
the Ben & Jerry's is NOT free;
and we still don't like being out in the sun very much.

But we LOVED going on a cruise, and Kenn is already talking about going again.

I think next time we'll take the boys. :)

Cruise! Day 5-Jamaica, Mon!

I just couldn't help it. I had to put the 'Mon' in there. :)

Day 5-Thursday, Feb. 3rd

Jamaica was fantastic, and we were especially excited because we were going on a zipline tour there.

Jamaica!!!

We took a bus from the cruise terminal up into the rainforest-y mountain area where the zipline tour was. Our bus driver was called 'Buck,' and he was really cool. We talked to some of the people who were going on the tour with us, and there were a bunch of people from Texas, and even a Jehovah's Witness couple from SLC. We talked to them on the way back, and they were pretty cool. But the pictures! Have to get on with the pictures!

On the drive, after going through the city (I think we were in Montego Bay), and after seeing the policemen with the machine guns (I kid you not), we got into the foresty part.
So cool looking.

This tree with the red flowers is called African Tulip, or 'flame of the forest.' Apparently, these trees were planted on the borders of different plantations, kind of like fences. And now they're everywhere in Jamaica.

Lots of bamboo, too

Ready to go on the zipline!

See those green ropes? THAT'S the zipline!

I was getting kind of nervous while I waited my turn for the first one. So I made this face.

The chasms that we crossed on the ziplines all had different names.

Again, see the ropes? That one was pretty cool.

There was also some hiking involved, to get from one zipline to another, which was really good considering all the food we'd been eating all week on the ship.

It was VERY foresty, and very quiet, and very green

See the platform with the people on it? We went across a super short line to that, and we ALL had to fit on it. Thank goodness we were all carib-beanered to a rope.

It was a long ways down

Getting hooked up onto the ropes

Weeeeeee!!!! :D Seriously, SOOOOO fun.

The last zipline was really long, and if you didn't get a running start and hold your legs up to your chest then you wouldn't make it all the way across on your momentum alone. You'd have to pull yourself to the end backwards. Like Kenn did. ;)
I made it the whole way though, and it was fabulous!

Me with Kim, one of guides. She and Bobby were awesome. Although I don't think Bobby liked me, because I may or may not have kicked him a couple times coming in to land off a zipline.

These trees were crazy. The weaving one is called a Strangler Fig, and it literally latches on to other, larger trees, and strangles them. The larger tree eventually dies, and the strangler fig ends up hollow in the middle where the other tree was. Kind of creepy.

After the ziplining, we went to a little shopping district and got annoyed with people yelling at us to come in their stores and following us around saying "You like that?? I give it to you for 30% off." Seriously most annoying place on earth. But we got some cool souvenirs, for us and the kids and Kenn's mom, and then we we went to get some more jerk chicken.

We'd had some AT the zipline place, straight off the grill, and I don't know if we were really just starving or what, but that jerk chicken was ridiculously delicious. And I wanted more. :)

So, we walked from the annoying shops down to Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet's annoying restaurant, and we got some jerk chicken and red beans and rice (also fantastic, yum yum) to share.

And as if the place wasn't annoying enough, they had
THIS GUY
walking around, making balloon animals.
wow.

See the kitchiness with the trampolines on the water and stuff? BUT, if you click the picture and make it bigger, you'll see the mountains in the distance. THAT was gorgeous.

Back on the ship, we got cleaned up and dressed for dinner, and went to see the command center of the ship. Definitely cooler than the one in Titanic.

Jamaica at sunset

Kenn and Amy at sunset :D

Our only picture in the dining room, when the entire wait staff went up to the stairs and sang to us. In Italian.
Which is even funnier, cause our waiter and assistant water were from Panama and the Phillipines.

Confession: I got super excited when I saw this anteater, because from the door it looked like an elephant. So this is a fake smile. I wasn't that happy about it.