Grand Cayman Island

This photo was taken on a boat from our ship to the island. It would have been the perfect photo if you could see the whole sign Gavin is sitting in front of, which says, "Welcome to the Cayman Islands" (with sharks, just like the swim trunks he's wearing).

Can you believe that water!

Arabella snoozing on a lounge chair in the shade of an umbrella. Every beach we visited we had to make a shady spot for the baby.

These photos were taken during our visit to the Grand Cayman Island. It was our favorite island because it was beautiful and comfortable. The sand and water were gorgeous (no reef/rocks to maneuver around while in the water like in the Bahamas). It's obviously a very wealthy island (unlike Jamaica), which I have to be honest is so much more appealing. We definitely want to go back soon! Loved it!

Our Caribbean Cruise!

The Emerald Princess!

Tony & Gavin playing in one of the 4 pools on the ship.

Grandpa Don, Caitlin & Ashley (my nieces) playing in the pool. Typical Dad fashion... giving the "hang loose" sign.

Tony & Arabella all dressed up for dinner on one of the dressy nights on the ship. Some people get very dressed up (tuxes & gowns). That's not our style.

Me & Tony sitting at our nightly spot in the dining room. They fed us very well. I'm now accustomed to having my own appetizer and desert with my meal every night. Now that I'm home I've gotta get back to eating healthy and light.

We had an amazing time on the Pyne family reunion 2010! The whole family set sail on board the Emerald Princess to the western Caribbean for 7 days. We visited the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel. Pictures from each island are coming...

Dinotrax

This is one more cool thing to do while in St. George. These are actual dinosaur tracks and bones that were discovered at this location. I believe the 2ND pic is a T-Rex print and the 3rd is an allosaurus scull. It was very interesting.

Animal Party

Sonya the cockatoo

Big Red, the Boa Constrictor

Sting, the scorpion

Nanuk, the ferret

Bitty, the Sugar Glider

Grandma & Arabella

Gavin picked a "How to Train Your Dragon" cake.

To celebrate Gavin's 5th birthday we had an animal party at the park. We hired a local company to bring some exotic animals (Gavin got to choose which animals he wanted). They taught the kids about each animal and let them touch/handle them. It was very cool.

Gavin is 5 today!

My darling Gavin is 5 today! It's a little hard to believe. We had a great birthday party for him yesterday. I'll be posting pictures of that soon.

Spring Sing

Gavin's daycare/preschool has a "Spring Sing" every year in the spring (hence, the name). All the children sing really cute songs that involve lots of movements and expression and the older kids get to recite poems and stuff. This was the 3rd year he has participated. However, this year was special because he is in the 4 year old preschool, which means he had a speaking part; quite a large speaking part at that. His poem was entitled "There Was An Old Lady Who Lived In A Zoo". Warning- This video footage is extremely raw. It may make you a little queasy. Please bare in mind that I was holding a very wiggly baby on my lap while I was videotaping with my little digital camera. But it is worth it because it's darn CUTE. I know the grandmas (& grandpas) will appreciate it.

My Mom

Happy Mother's day, Mom. I'm so happy that we get to celebrate this mother's day together. You have always been such an incredible mother. Because of you (& dad) my childhood was completely blissful. You were, and are, an excellent example of what a mother should be... very loving, involved and supportive. I think I'm a pretty great mom too, mostly because I learned from you. You are so beautiful, stylish and fun to be around. You give excellent advice on pretty much everything. You are a wonderful grandma too. If only we lived closer:( I love you.

Arabella's 1st Birthday!

I love this picture of my little birthday girl! I just wish the picture wasn't so grainy.

Posing for a pic in front of the lilac bush in our backyard.

Arabella loves getting pushed in the swing by her big bro.

Here is Arabella with 3 of her 4 Pyne cousins.

Here she is eating her vanilla cupcake with pink buttercream frosting that I made. She loved the frosting! We were so mean because we scraped the frosting off after she had a little taste because we didn't think she needed all that sugar.

She got some really fun gifts (incl. a dollhouse that we gave her)!

HAUTELOOK

There are a lot of members only discount internet shopping sites out there. I subscribe to a few of them... Gilt group, shopittome, btrendie, but the best by far is HAUTELOOK. This is the only one that I've made multiple purchases on and I've gotten incredible deals on designer clothes and shoes for me and both of my kids. I highly recommend it to all you stylish gals out there. You have to be invited, so click here for your official invitation from me. Happy shopping:)

The Kindle

I've been wanting a Kindle since it came out a couple of years ago. I finally got one for my birthday last month (thanks mom & dad) and I love it! Basically a Kindle is a little computer where you can download books in seconds at reduced prices (usu. under $10 or FREE). You can also download newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc. It doesn't need to be plugged in and there's no need for wi-fi. You can read your books on the Kindle screen. It reads like paper without a glare (even in bright sunlight). You can highlight and look up the meaning of a word instantly, have the Kindle read your book to you and all kinds of other amazing things that I'm still figuring out. It's about as thin as a magazine and it holds up to 1500 books! I am very excited that I won't be clogging up shelf space with all the books I buy and no more carrying around a big heavy hardback. It's so ideal for traveling. I love it!

Spring Break

This spring break we headed south to sunny St. George. And I was so happy to have my good friend, June, and her family join us. We tried to make the most of our vacation so we did lots of hiking and exercising. We spent a day hiking in Zion National Park. This was Arabella's 1st experience hiking with us in a back pack and she loved it. Also a 1st for her was playing in sand... We hiked up to some big sand dunes in Snow Canyon and she got to play in the sand (picture above of her and Hudson, June's youngest). When I wasn't looking she ate some sand, which she immediately threw up. Hopefully, she's learned her lesson. Tony did lots of mountain biking and Jon (June's hubby) joined him for a ride. Tony taught Gavin how to fish. June and I even got to indulge in a little spa action in the form of mani-pedis. It was a wonderful getaway.

Sephora is coming!

I just found out that my all time favorite beauty supply store is finally coming to Utah! Sephora is coming to the Fashion Place Mall in June. Now I won't have to order all of my must have beauty products online anymore. If you have never been to Sephora you must go. My favorite thing about Sephora, besides the fact that it has an enormous selection of all the best beauty products, is that you can try out all the makeup yourself. There are people there to help you if you need it, but I love that I can play around with the products myself instead of having someone try stuff on me, me pretend to like it and then feel obligated to purchase something from them. I think it opens on June 4th. I can't wait!

Food Revolution

Have you heard of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? (Jamie Oliver is a chef from the UK who cooks healthy, fresh food.) He's on a mission to change the way America eats (Lord knows we need it). His new TV show shows how he tries to teach people in America's "unhealthiest city", Huntington, West Virginia how to eat fresh, healthy food. He focuses on school lunches and you won't believe the crap that they are serving their kids (i.e. pizza for breakfast). Thankfully, our schools, here in Utah aren't quite as bad, but they're still bad. As a teacher who works in a public school, I know that the quality of food is not good. It certainly isn't up to my standards (processed foods, high sodium, high fat). I've tried it a handful of times in the 10 years I've been teaching and after doing so I would rather starve for a few hours than eat school lunch. The bottom line for me is that it tastes terrible. And I certainly wouldn't allow my kids to eat it. You can bet that I'll be making their school lunches for them every day. So, I fully support Jamie Oliver's efforts to try and improve the quality of food served in our schools. To find out more and to sign the petition that he's taking to the White House, click here.

* Apparently, Gweneth Paltrow is a big fan of Jamie Oliver and his food revolution too because her latest post (on 4/1/10) on her blog "GOOP" was devoted to him as well:-)

Ciao Bella!

"Hello beautiful!" It's been a while since I've posted pics of Arabella and she's growing and changing so much. She got her 1st haircut today! This post is dedicated to my mom who is really missing her grandkids. They miss you too (and so do I). By the way... I wish I knew how to put these pictures side by side. Can anybody tell me how to do that?

Peekaboo!

Arabella loves to pull down her crib bumper and play peekaboo. And since she can't quite pull herself up to look over the rail of her crib this is usually what I see when I walk through the door to get her up from a nap. I find her peeking through the crib looking to see when someone is coming to get her.

1st Ski Pass

Gavin is holding his first ski pass (to Snowbird).

FOOD, INC.

I just saw the film Food, Inc. (heard about it on Oprah). It was very enlightening. Basically, it traces the food we buy at the grocery store (in particular, meat) back to it's origin. It's appalling to learn of how "industrial food is making us sicker, fatter and poorer". The American meat industry is basically run by 5 major companies who control about 80% of the meat consumption in our country and how they engineer meat to make the animal grow bigger faster and the conditions in which the animals are raised and butchered are filthy, grotesque and inhumane. This film's main goal is not to promote vegetarianism, but to encourage consumers to purchase meat free of antibiotics and growth hormones. Even better... only purchase chickens that are cage free and beef that is grass fed instead of corn fed. Of course, that kind of meat is more expensive but here's how I think of it... I'm saving money in the long run in medical costs. There is so much more that this movie covers. I highly recommend it to everyone. I take my job of feeding my family very seriously. What I feed my kids now will help determine what foods they choose to eat later, as adults, and ultimately whether they will develop health issues like heart disease or diabetes (I realize genetics plays a role too). To learn more about the film Food, Inc. click here.

Mommy Earns a Sticker!

Today while cleaning the kitchen and hangin' with my kiddos I was listening to some music (quite loud I might add) and I was singing and dancing along. Gavin commanded that I turn it off and I simply told him "No." I explained that my beloved reggae music reminds me of the beach and it makes me happy to listen to it. I figured he'd understand because he loves the beach to. However, this answer was not satisfactory for him so our conversation continued as follows...

G: "PLEASE turn that off!"

Me: "If you don't like it you can go downstairs."

G: "I asked you very nicely to turn it off. If you don't turn it off I will."

Me thinking... This sounds awfully familiar. I'm a little perturbed that my 4 year old is talking to me this way, but I'm curious where this conversation will go.

pause

G: "If you turn the music off you can have a sticker!"

Me: Now he's really got my attention. This kid is using parenting techniques on ME. Mm, I wonder where he's heard that before. I want to see where he goes with this. "What kind of sticker?"

G: "You'll just have to turn the music off to find out."

I turn the music off

G: He brings me some stickers to choose from and I pick one. I place it on my shirt and ask him to take a picture (above).

Making the Bed

The other day Gavin spontaneously decided to make his bed (I usually do it). Quite frankly, it didn't even occur to me to ask my 4 1/2 year old to start making his bed. I was so delighted that he decided to help me out all on his own. Can you tell which one Gavin made and which one I made?