Jacob turns 8 !

The day after we got back from the cruise was our little Jacobie's 8th birthday! Last year Jacob asked for breakfast in bed, and he remembered that request for this year. So, we delivered and it was a great start to his day.

After church we had a nice dinner and then some yummy chocolate cake. Jacob opened his present from us which was a spiderman web shooter. He was very excited about it and he and Nathan decided to get dressed up in their spy clothes. Jacob is the bad spy and Nathan is the good spy? Unfortunately Nathan's spy clothes are Jacob's size. lol

The following Sunday was Jacob's big baptism day! He had his interview on his birthday and the bishop mentioned that Jacob was very smart and very funny. And that is sooo true. His baptism was right after church on Sunday and Grandma and Grandpa Allred were able to be here to be a part of it. It was a very nice baptism with Grandpa giving the talk on baptism, the Hughes boys sang "I am a Child of God" and then I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. And of course the most important part was that Steve was able to baptize and confirm Jacob. That is such an important time with Steve and the boys.

A bad picture of the group from right after the baptism. 

 

 Jacob also got to open his baptism presents. He got scriptures from Steve and I, and nice fuzzy blanket from Grandma and Grandpa. 

We are so very grateful that Jacob is a part of our family.

He is quite a character. More so than any of his brothers. He loves to be funny and put on a show, but in such a different way than Nathan. Nathan's show is just loud, but Jacob's is either dancing or funny facial expressions, or talking like a gangsta. :-) I don't know it is just different and very Jacob.

Jacob is also VERY short for some reason. He and Nathan are 15 months apart and a head difference in height. Jacob and Brandon are 3 years apart and are just inches apart. It is really strange to me, and it really bothers Jacob. He hates that he is the shortest in his grade, and he couldn't even go on the water slide on the cruise because he didn't reach the line. I am hoping that this is his growth spurt year.

Jacob has such a hard time making up his mind. You will think that a decision has been made by him but almost without fail he will second and third guess if what he choose was what he should do.

He is still my BIGGEST helper with Alex. He loves to take Alex on walks with him or jump on the trampoline with him, or play peek-a-boo at Walmart with him to keep Alex from whining.

He is excited to go into 3rd grade, and is sure he is going to get the same teacher as Nathan since he has for the past two years.

For some reason Jacob loves to sleep on the floor. I send him to bed and he starts out on the bed, but when I go to check on him he is almost always on the floor. Weird.

He is a wonderful addition to our family and we are so happy that he was able to be baptized this year.

Cruisin 2012

As a graduation present to our graduate, and to the rest of the family who had to endure a missing piece of our family, we decided to take the boys out of school for a week and take the family on a cruise!! We left Tampa on a Monday after an early morning and a 5 hour drive. The first night was interesting. We were trying to get situated not sure of where we should be, all having differing opinions of what we thought we should be doing and tired. Brandon had been complaining of an earache as we were getting on board, and was in tears by that evening. Then when we went to dinner the food did not taste good to me, and I got a little nervous. We were on this boat like it or not for the next 5 days with all the kids. Yikes!

Well...... we went to bed that night and by the next morning things were much better! We all slept great, Alex was easy, no seasickness and Brandon's ear problem was gone, so we headed up to a delicious breakfast right on the water. The  boys favorite thing to get at the buffet restaurant was hot chocolate. They probably had 30 cups each over the 6 days. Crazy!

 

 

After breakfast we took the boys off to Camp Carnival.{This is right outside the door to the camp}

They were separated by age, and the 3 oldest were together, and Brandon was off by himself. Surprisingly, he didn't care at all! And he enjoyed camp the most. {Brandon dancing at camp}

 The down side was that Alexander was too young to go to a babysitter. That sweet little bundle of joy was with Mom and Dad the whole time. I would suggest to anyone thinking about it, to not take a baby under the age of 2 on your cruise with you. After dropping the boys off, Steve and I sat by the water and had a nice chat and then headed to the cabin to put Alex down for his nap. It was a very relaxing day with the boys occupied while we slept.

 

 

The next day we arrived on Grand Cayman Island around 11am. We headed off the ship in our swimming suits with our snorkel gear in tow. Steve took the older boys snorkeling for a while and Brandon, Alex and I went shopping. Later we switched so I could check out the snorkeling. It was very cool. I loved it. Then we had some ice cream and headed back to the boat by 7pm.

 

 Next was Cozumel Mexico. Steve was so excited to take us to Mexico. He knows the language of course, and knows a lot about the culture. We spent this day shopping! We gave each of the boys an allotment of money and we found a great market where we could spend it. We got some really neat things. Steve enjoyed speaking with the natives and using his Spanish. Our only downfall was the restaurant we found for lunch. We were excited for some authentic mexican tacos and the place we ended up was over priced and had OK food. But, we know how to make Mexican food pretty good ourselves so we didn't feel too cheated.

The next day we were back on the boat headed home, and relaxing while the boys played with their friends at Camp. One of our favorite things about the boat was the formal dinner that was available every night. We had a table reserved for our family at 6pm in a nice restaurant with a window looking out to the water. The food was wonderful and I just loved being there eating, and walking away when we were done without paying a hefty bill. It was great.

 

 

{This was THE most delicious cake that I had every night. It was called melting chocolate cake. YUM!}

 I also thought it was amazing to go out to the side of the ship and see nothing but dark blue water as far as you could see. It makes you feel pretty small, but was beautiful.

 All in all I LOVED the cruise. Where else can you get room and board, all the food you can eat anytime you want it, transportation to new places, and babysitting for that kind of money. What a fantastic way to travel.  There were some down sides. It is hard to travel with 5 kids of course. There are a lot of opinions of who wants to do what. Just to share a little of what we heard hourly over the week, I filmed a moment during our mini golf tournament. 

But, I am so glad we went and were able to spend this time together. It was a memorable week.

Mother's Day 2012

 

I LOVE Mother's Day! Have you read the book "The five love languages" ? If so, you will know what I mean when I say that service is MY love language. Any time someone helps me out it makes me so happy and feel their love. On Mother's and Father's day Steve and I don't exchange gifts. We just try to ease the others burden of our usual duties. Steve does a great job of taking over my job on Mother's day and letting me relax and take a long nap, and then enjoy his home cooked meal.


This year we had an even better celebration because Steve's lovely Mother was here with us. It worked out perfect for them to come to the graduation and be here for Mother's day. Going back to the service comment above, Fran was so wonderful to want to do something nice for me on Mother's Day and she cleaned the house and folded the laundry! I couldn't have asked for a better gift. I loved it! and I am so grateful to her for helping me out. It was Awesome.

I am so happy that my life has gone the way I had dreamed and I get to be home every day with my children. It is wonderful and I wouldn't have it any other way. The boys are good and kind and I love watching them learn and grow every day.