Grand Etang

After we left Annandale Falls we hit the road again and made our way to Grand Etang Forest Reserve.

Grand Etang is famous for it's Mona Monkey watching but we were out of luck today, we didn't see any monkeys.

Memphis even brought a banana from home to feed the monkeys with.

Grand Etang Forest Reserve is also famous for Grand Etang Lake which fills the crater of one of the island's extinct volcanoes.

The lake behind Memphis.

Leia getting ready for a nap.

 We were only at this look out point for ten minutes and within that amount of time it went from sunny to rainy. Above is a picture right after it started raining.

And in this picture you can't even see the lake anymore.

 Leia and I took refuge in the visitor's center.

The boys were on a quick hunt for a bathroom when the storm came and they got drenched.

The boys and Leia down at the lake.

 The boys feeding the Koi fish some crackers.

These fish were huge. At least 3 feet wide.

Then we finished off the day at Umbrellas one of our favorite hot spots. We grabbed the kids a quick bite to eat with a great view of the beach from the second floor.

 Then headed down to the beach for some play time until the sun went down.

It was a great day for everyone.

Annandale Falls

We piled the kids in the car today and made our way to this little beauty right here. This waterfall is called Annandale Falls and it is beautiful. 

 Our three little chipmunks ready for an adventure.

 A view of the capitol city, St. George, on our way out to the Falls.

 Everything is so green on this island.

 A closer view of the waterfall.

 Leia, 13 months, sitting by the waterfall.

 Memphis, 4, Leia 13 months.

Sean jumping off the edge and into the cold, fresh water.

 Us by the waterfall.

 Leia swimming.

 I tried these floaties on her arms right after her first birthday because she would not stay out of the water. Now she's a full fledged swimmer kicking her legs and moving her arms to push her in the direction she wants to go.

Sean and Merrick jumping off the cliff and into the waterfall.

Leia's 1st Birthday

What can I say about our FAVORITE girl, in the whole world, other than that WE ADORE HER!!! 

Dear Sweet Leia,

You are an amazing baby, truly a gift from our Heavenly Father. We feel blessed to know you, to have you be a part of our family and have the opportunity to raise you up as a child of God. Everyday we hug and kiss you and think that there could never be a more prettier or smarter 12 month old on this whole earth. You are the twinkle in your father's eye and the hands down favorite sister to your brothers. Merrick and Memphis love playing with you and reading books to you. They smother you to no end and although we ask them to stop bothering you every five seconds we really can't blame them because you are irresistible. You have the cutest chipmunk cheeks and the most adorable chubby thighs. Your smile lights up my day. I look forward to seeing you grow up and I pray that your life will be filled with love and kindness. Happy Birthday, "pretty girl", we couldn't have hand picked a better daughter had we been given the chance to try. Love you.

Mama, Daddy, Merrick & Memphis

Some of your grandest achievements to date:

You just learned how to walk and your on the move!

You like to swim with arm floaties and you are really good at it!

Your a little territorial (already)!

You love to dance and bob your head!

You're independent and like to do things your way!

You DON'T like your brothers crowding you and you don't like them pushing you away!

Your brothers call you "BIG BABY" with a deep yet funny voice!

You like to feed yourself, especially spaghetti!

We call you "Pretty Girl" with a sweet, endearing voice!

You like to be outside!

When we ask for kisses, you give us a kiss and then clap for yourself, it never fails to make us laugh!

Memphis turns 4

Leia stealing Merrick's ice cream, she's so sneaky.

Our little man is 4. He keeps checking his fingers when he puts four up just to make sure he's doing it right, I love this kid.

Parties start at 5:30 in the morning around here, but it's so fun to wake up to all the decorations.

Sweeeeeeeeet looking Spiderman cake!!!

Some fun things about this sweet boy of ours. Memphis LOVES tape. He loves any and all kinds of tape. If he's alone in a room with a roll of tape chances are he will use every last bit of it to tape something (anything) together. I'm constantly coming across toys wrapped in tape (Legos, cars, Transformers) and then thrown back into his toy box. One of my favorite things is when he takes a BLANK piece of paper wraps it another BLANK piece of paper about 9 times and then wraps the whole package in tape until every bit is covered in tape. Then he takes "the package" and gives it to one of his friends and says that it's a "present" for them making the said friend a poor victim to un-wrapping "the package" only to find 10 pieces of blank paper and losing 30 minutes of their life that they will never get back. I laugh every time. His friends get so excited and keep asking me what it is until finally they make it to the end and give me that look like you could've just told me this was NOT worth my time. I love it. So, of course, it would only be natural for us to buy him his own rolls of tape for his birthday. We got him green and blue painters tape and he was in Heaven. The other day he was asking Sean for some tape and Sean trying desperately to understand Memphis' fetish with tape says to him, "Why Memphis, why do you want the tape, what are you going to wrap with the tape?" and without even missing a beat Memphis just says, "well it's my tape." Hahahaa Sean gave him the tape and since Memphis didn't have any toys to wrap he just wrapped his arm, hand to elbow, in blue tape.

Memphis is still really into Super Heroes. He loves all Super Heroes and knows them by name.

He loves playing with Merrick and Leia. Sometimes the 3 of them just sit together with their Legos building things together. Leia tries to mimic her brothers but eventually gives up and just starts putting pieces in her mouth.

Memphis gives the best hugs and kisses and I hate to see him sad.

He loves to change his clothes. He goes through four outfits a day. I never know what's clean and what's dirty.

He loves to wash his hands. He could sit with a bottle of hand soap and running water for an hour. The last two bottles of hand soap were emptied out so that his toys could have bubble baths.

He's learning how to swim and is doing a great job holding his breath underwater.

We are so blessed to have this sweet spirit in our family. Memphis we love you so much.

Lots of Love,
Daddy, Mommy, Merrick and Leia

32

I turned 32 last month, can you believe it? The kids and Sean decorated a yummy cake for me, so sweet.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Who's ready for St. Patrick's Day?

Merrick is!

I love seeing Leia get into the mix of our holiday celebrations. These were all the treats the leprechaun left for us under his trap.

Lucky Charms and anything else I could find that was green at the grocery store.

Green milk for our cereal

The leprechaun got the boys again.

Memphis got a green mustache and goatee.

Leia-aka chipoholic

This girl loves her some chips. If she wasn't choking on them all the time I think she'd be in chip heaven. She was making a mess with the chips in this picture and was cramming them into her mouth but that smile is priceless so how could we take the chips away.