February

February was a very exciting month for us.  The first full week in February Monty and I went on a cruise and Mia spent half the week with my parents and the other half of the week with Monty's parents.  Sadly I don't have the pictures from Mia's week without us yet, but I do have pictures from our cruise.

We sailed on the Norwegian Dawn out of Tampa Florida.

Our first day, Monday, we spent at sea and just hung out on the boat and soaked up some sun.  Our first port was Roatan, Honduras on Tuesday.  We went to Victor Boden's Monkey park and hung out with some animal friends.

It was awesome!  After the monkey park we headed to Bananarama Resort.  I have some friends who manage the resort so we went and had lunch with them and then hung out on their beach and did some swimming.

Wednesday we were in port in Belize City, Belize.  In Belize we first went 4 wheeling through the jungle.

 It was very muddy but great fun.

After 4 wheeling we went cave tubing.

 We hiked up into the jungle and then floated down the river through a massive cave system.  It was awesome.

 

 On Thursday we were in Costa Maya, Mexico.  We went to the Chacchoben ruins.  There is an ancient pyramid and two ancient temples.

There was also a bunch of foundations left from an ancient neighborhood of houses.

 Friday we were in Cozumel, Mexico.  We went on  dune buggy tour of the island and went snorkeling.

 Self portrait!

 We saw lots of fish, a sea turtle, and a sting ray.

 We visited a lighthouse with gorgeous views of the ocean.

 A dune buggy was a great way to see the island

 We stopped to see a bunch of crocodiles too.

 Saturday we were at sea again and enjoyed soaking up a few more rays of sun before we headed back to Utah.

 The sunsets were beautiful.  This was our very last one.

Shortly after we got back from the cruise cousin Khloe and Aunt Nicky were in town and we got to meet them for breakfast one morning. 

 It was really fun to see them.  Mia enjoyed giving hugs.

Trina has enjoyed teaching Mia how to make funny faces.

 A groggy eyed Sunday morning...but what a cute new dress.

 Lately the goal at our house has been to build the tallest tower possible with Lego's. 
Daddy had a good running....

 But I think Mommy's tower won.

Until next month.:-)

 

January

 I'm getting to this post pretty late this month. February has been a very bsuy month but we will get to that next month. January was a pretty low key month for us. We started the month out with a sick kiddo and a sick mommy. We spent lots of time just laying on the couch and watched a lot of Sesame Street and Veggie Tales.

 Being stuck inside we've spent a lot more time playing with toys.  We finally decided the the Potato Heads were safe from being chewed up and pulled them out for something new to play with.  Mia likes playing with the mommy and daddy Potato Heads the best.

 Since it was a quite chill month we decided to tackle potty training again.  This time with SUCCESS!!!!  We still have the occasional accidents and she wears pull ups at night but no more diapers!! HOORAY!

 Monty celebrated his 32nd birthday.  He had his traditional ice cream cake.  Notice Mia in the background...the child does not want to give up Christmas.

 Monty got a new Utah State hat (which we have to exchange for a smaller size) and a Utah State flag to put on the flag pole for game days.

 Mia has become quite the little helper around the kitchen.  She pushes the chairs and bar stools all around the kitchen to be right where I am and lending a hand...even when I'd rather she didn't. LOL
(I promise she does wear pants now, we just didn't the first week of potty training). 

 For some reason this month Mia got into a kick of dressing up in her blankets.  She'd bring them to me and ask me to make them a dress.  After the first one or two it was a challenge to get more tied on.

 I don't know if it happened in January or more the end of December, but Aunt Trina who lives with us is more often friend than foe anymore.  Poor Trina never knew coming up the stairs each day if Mia is going to like her or not.  Lucky for everyone it's not really a question anymore.  We love Aunt Trina.

Stay tuned for the February update.  I'm telling you February 2013 is a great month!

December

I'm getting to this post a little late this time.  December was a fun and busy month for us.  It was filled with lots of family and Christmas activities.  This year Mia was starting to understand Christmas a little more.  Whenever we passed a nativity scene she would get really excited and say "Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus."  She had her Santa hat that she loved to run around wearing and would tell you that Santa Claus was going to come.  Of course we had to take her to see Santa.  She was really excited about it until it came time to sit on his lap.  Then she decided Santa was scary.

 A large amount of my mom's family lives in Utah now so we get together and have a Christmas party now.  My parents came down from Idaho and we had a fun filled day at my uncle's house.  We hung out, ate lots of food, and enjoyed each other's company.

 Mia wasn't quite a fan of having to sit down to eat.

 The day after my mom's family Christmas party we drove up to Idaho for my dad's family Christmas party.  It had been a few years since we'd been able to make it and my Grandpa is getting pretty old so we made the 2 hour trip each way all in one day.  I told you Mia loves her Santa hat.

 While we were there we got a 4 generation picture.  My grandpa is now 96 years old.

 Keeping with tradition we bundled up Mia one evening and went to the Christmas Village in Ogden.

 Mia loved all the pretty lights.

 In mid December we ordered some new furnace filters.  Mia thought the box was the greatest toy in the world.

 No December would be complete without a trip to see the lights at Temple Square.

 Once again Mia loved all the "Pretty Lights."

 Mia also got to see all kinds of baby Jesus too.

 Shortly before Christmas we got Mia's hair cut for the first time.  She did great.  We didn't get any pictures during her haircut because she had to sit on my lap but we got a great one with her and our friend her cut her hair after we were all done.

 We had a get together with Mia's birth mom's family.  Her birth mom, birth mom's parents, and 2 brothers all came over for a night of pizza, fun, and gift exchanges.  Mia got her first chocolate ball that night and loved it...even if it looked disgusting.

 Mia got an adorable hat and some really cute clothes for this summer from her birth mom for Christmas.

Every year on Christmas Eve Mia gets to open one present.  It's a new pair of PJ's to wear to bed that night.

 Our house Christmas morning after Santa came.

 Mia had a great time opening presents.

 We enjoyed Christmas morning at home.

 Of course Mia ended up spoiled.

 After opening presents we went to Monty's parent's house for brunch, opened more presents, and spent the day with his family.  Sadly I somehow didn't get any pictures from there but of course once again Mia was spoiled.
Three days after Christmas I took Mia sledding for the first time with some friends of ours.  Mia had a blast and wasn't scared at all and it was a pretty good sized hill.  She enjoyed going down with her friend Eli the most.

 I managed to get her to make a couple runs down the hill with me.

 The hill was next to a school and Mia eventually found the playground.  She wouldn't let a little snow (8 inches or so) stop her from playing in the tubes and on the slides.

 The end of December Mia also took her new crayons and tried her hand at wall coloring.  Needless to say she ended up in her room while I scrubbed the walls clean...Thank goodness for washable crayons!