HAPPY EASTER!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!! We had a lot of fun around these parts. It started on Saturday at the SO Easter party, there was egg dying, bouncy houses and an egg hunt. Then Sunday Morning Janey woke up to an egg hunt and her Easter Basket. I quickly noticed that Brandon had hid the easter eggs I made for Primary music time with the name of songs in them, for Janey. so Janey had to go back in the room so the Easter bunny could fix his mistake...

Church was great, Janey actually was pretty well behaved except for she does this new thing during church now, when there is any sort of silence (a prayer for example) Janey just starts screaming at the top of her lungs. Who taught her that?? it scared me everytime. and she also says "where daddy go" pretty much the whole time now that he doesn't sit with us anymore. She is getting better and better each sunday and was a champ in nursery so I hear.

We ended our wonderful day with an Easter BBQ at our friends house and ANOTHER egg hunt... Janey is a pro now. It was a ton of fun... a very successful Easter if I do say so myself.

 

 

 

 

My nephew Ben, the ARTIST!!

My Nephew Ben presented me with this wonderful portrait of Janey, a true masterpiece if I do say so myself. Ben if you are reading this, know that I am getting it framed for Janey's room. She points to it and says "Janey". We love it.

Quirky Jane

Happy Birthday JANE!!! welcome terrible 2

Happy birthday JANE!!! you're such a big girl now that you have officially hit the 2 year mark and your babiness has worn off, if this were another period in time we would be sending you out into the work force where your tiny little fingers could be put to work on the assembly line to make us some money.

Luckily we were able to have a combined suprise birthday party at our apartment for Jane (year 2) and Blair (year 27). It was a lot of fun with all our friends from church and my roommates from last term. The highlight for Jane were the home made donuts Ashley made special for the occasision.

For those of you who don't know Jane and Ashley went back home to Seattle to be there for her Dad this Wednesday. I feel so lucky that we were able to have a birthday party before they both left.

This last picture is just to let you know how much Janey liked her party, she was so hopped up on sugar from all her donut treats and icecream that she eventually just passed out with dino and let herm mommy and daddy get some much needed sleep.

Fort George

Last weekend we went to St. George's town and hiked up the hill to Fort George. There is a lot of history here. When the French colonized the island it was know as Fort Royal the British took Grenada back and renamed the fort to Fort George. In more recent history former Grenadian president Maurice Bishop and his cabinet were assassinated just feet away from where Janey is standing in the picture below and the bullet holes are still in the wall which have been up since the early 1700's (the day before I was born in fact Oct. 25, 1983) the US military invaded here in operation 'Urgent Fury' in response to the Cuban supported military coup and militarization of the tiny island nation.

There were Janey sized canons

Canons aimed at the cruise ships

Prayers for Dad.

Most of you probably already Know but my dad has been diagnosed with Lymphoma, and on top of it all they had to do emergancy surgery. He went into the hospital the day we flew out to Grenada, we literally stopped by the hospital on the way to the airport. Now I wished I would have stayed back, if I would have known it was going to be this serious I would. I feel terrible knowing how weak he is and having to undergo surgery. I don't have too many detials as everytime I call he is too weak to talk to long. But, I know he is still in the hospital recieving great care. I was told they will have to wait a month to start Chemo so his body can heal from surgery.

I love my dad so much and it is killing me that he is going through this, and more so that I am so far away, I feel helpless. I know Heavenly Father is watching over him.

Please keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers.

thanks bunches.

My day thus far.

Today was the craziest of days. I know what you are thinking it is only noon-thirty, sorry folks as far as I am concerned DAY OVER. I just climbed back into my Jammies put Jane down for a nap where I am about to follow suit, turn the AC on and hope for a better tomorrow.

My day really started last night as I waited until almost 1am for Brandon to come home from school. rediculous. Then as soon as I climbed into bed, Jane started to cry and say "mommy" and so it began....

so I gave in and brought her into bed which resulted in her hitting my head this morning at 6 in the am, asking for what other than cookies. what did I do you ask, I GAVE HER THE COOKIES....6am people. I immedietely started feeling sick and decided I was just going to watch Tangled with the girl and call it a day. But Janey kept bringing me my rainboots and putting hers on and saying OUTSIDE. We were homebound today waiting for someone to repair our broken deadbolt on our door. As soon as the repair man left, I decided maybe I can power through this junky day, and put on my gym clothes and packed Janey's school bag an we were off.

When we arrived at Janey's "school" I noticed everyone was outside playing, Jane was already holding onto her backpack for dear life, becuase she knows if i set the backpack down at school, it is all over. SO I go inside to put her bag away and sunscreen my whitey baby and in the process of doing so I scraped the inside of her ear which in turn started to bleed just an insey weensy bit, and then Janey went basurko. So I waited for Janey to forget about her ear wound and left to the sound of Janey screaming her head off.

I then went across the street to the gym to work out (why did I do this?) that was pretty much the beginning of the end, I started to feel yucky fast. So after just 30 minutes, I decided I was going home.

So I went to school to get Janey and called her name for like 5 minutes, but she didn't even notice I was there, she was content on her riding toy. I felt bad taking her away from such a good day she was having with her friends, but I did it anyway. Jane waved bye and said "Bye School" as she always does and we were off.

Now we are in Bed, one of us is sleeping and the other is getting there fast. I have already decided I am calling in sick tomorrow.

Signing off.

Animal Lover!

Ever since we got here Jane has fallen in love with our nieghbors Kitty-cat and doggy, she chases them around, but mostly she likes to just sit or lay by the cat and try to pet her while saying "soft touches". If she had it her way the kitty would sleep in her room I am sure...

 

 

 

 

MINE!!!

 

so Lately Janey has made a point of letting us know if something is hers... she grabs it, squeezes it tight and says "Janey's!". pretty funny. But today started a whole new level of this phase. It started when I asked Brandon to help me download a book on the Nook, she saw her daddy holding the nook and immediately grabbed it from him and said "mommy's!!" and then proceeded to hand it to me. So here is a list of items and who they belong to as decided by Jane:

MOMMY:

Nook
Pillows
clothespins
Janey
Brandon's big heavy Jacket
the netbook

Daddy:

xbox remotes
all money
the computer
the dustpan

Janey:

Dino
her Babies
cookies
her Dora Blanket


I would type more, but I am typing this on DADDY's COMPUTER and Janey Keeps telling me "daddy's!!! DON'T TOUCH IT!!"

View from Church

Brandon snapped these today before church started, from the parking area and in the hall. nice view huh.

 

 

 

 

GRENADA!!

WE ARE HERE!!! OK, so we have been here for two weeks now, but we have been a little busy trying to get all settled...

so a little bit about our new home:

Jane is excited about the warm weather which has triggered her naked tendancies once again. I have to arm wrestle her just to get a diaper on. But I NEVER have to fight her to wear shoes, because shoes mean she gets to go outside!! Jane's love for going outside is two fold, she loves the neighbor kids (kody and Allie) and she loves thier "kitty-cat". All she does all day is put her shoes on (clothing optional) and brings me my shoes and says "outside". repeat ten times and you have a typical day around here.

Jane has really taken to Alli, the cute little four year old that live below us. She cries for Allie all day long, some mornings she wakes up and the first thing she says is "allie". In fact the other day when I dropped her off at her playgroup she was crying... and who was she asking for you ask?? her mother who birthed her??? Nope, she wanted "Allie". Moving on to Janey's playgroup, here they have a program called GAP which is kind of like a daycare/preschool/playgroup. She goes two half days a week, she still cries when I drop her off, but she was fine when I picked her up on Wednesday, so I think it is getting better. I think it will be really good for her to have more time to socialize with kiddies her age, instead of kickin' it with mom all day.

Jane loves the beach, she is not scared at all of the water, which is good and bad I guess. Jane gets to go to the University club pool on Thursdays, but this thursday she discovered that the pool is on the Beach, so naturally she just wants to go down on the beach.

Also Janes new thing is gloves, she has to be wearing gloves whenever doing anything. She uses two sandwich baggies when playing with pots in the kitchen, she wears two socks on her hands when dealing with items in the bedroom, and recently she found a box of gloves in the laundry room which come in handy to play in the dirt.

Brandon and I have been doing great! Brandon has been pretty busy with school, he is pretty much there all day. But he has been wonderful with getting us settled. He found us a great car, and has made sure Janey and I are super comfortable here. We love our apartment and love living by such great people. We have been really lucky the the other students and their wives have been so wonderful in helping us get settled here, our Nieghbors Kensi and Rex where lifesavers in taking us to church and the store etc. we probably would have starved otherwise. I really like here so far, I have found a lot of similarities between here and Hawaii, but have also enjoyed learning new things about Grenada everyday. I am dying from the heat, and it doesn't help that I have been told that this is the cooler season here.... BLAH!! but other than that I am really enjoying myself, I do feel a little guilty that I am on this two year carribean vacation and Brandon has to go to class, but what can you do...

I am going to be a better blogger I promise, now that I have SOOO much more time on my hands!!!

These are pictures from last Friday of Brandon and Jane beachin' it up!!

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas