Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Please Vote For Emma!!!


My cousin Haylee McGuire is an amazing photographer. Many of you may have seen her website from my blog. She is starting a new website and is looking for the new face of HayleeBean Photography. It sounds like there were quite a few entries. Out of all of the entries she chose the top 7 and now is asking people to vote for who would be the best face for her website. My beautiful niece Emma happens to be one of the top 7. We are very excited about this. So I am asking everyone who happens to cross my blog to click here or the link on my blog to go to Haylee's website and vote for Emma. She is #7. I have the same picture on my blog that she has put up so it should be easy to find her. Please tell your friends and family to either come to my blog, Haylee's website or even if you would be kind enough put a link on your own blog to help us out. Thank you!!!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

In Case You Were Wondering...

This is what Jeff and I look like as M&Ms. Become an M&M here.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Cruising!


I know I'm lame because I haven't blogged since Christmas, but really I haven't had anything to blog about. So now I finally have something to talk about so here goes.

My amazing parents were kind enough to pay for our entire family to go on a cruise last week. It was an 8 day cruise, you can't ask for more! It was a Mexican Riviera cruise and was a blast. Here is what we did for the week.

Jeff and I flew out of Vegas at 7:30 am on Saturday morning and met the rest of our family at the Long Beach airport. We got on the ship that afternoon and spent a few days at sea. Saturday we just spent time getting use to the ship and taking naps. We were all exhausted from the early morning flights.

Sunday we were able to have Sacrament meeting, just the 17 of us. It was really nice. Even the nieces and nephews participated, it was so cute. We were at sea that day so we found some fun things to do on the ship since it was still kind of cool.

Monday we were again on the ship so we put our swimming suits on and spent some time outside. It was so nice to be in warm weather in the middle of January! We played card games outside and enjoying the sun. Of course we also ate lots of food. Everyday they had a hamburgers, hotdogs and french fries on the deck and let me tell you, the french fries were to die for!!!

Tuesday we made our first stop in Acapulco. My dad was nice enough to put together the whole day for us. We first went to the Hotel Los Flamingos which was owned by John Wayne. It is at the top of a cliff and the view from there was beautiful. After we went to the beach to enjoy the ocean. I like going to the beach, however I don't really enjoy salt water so I don't like going in the water much. Jeff could live at the beach so the second we were there he was in the water until just before we left. The drivers then took us to a place where we could view all of Acapulco. It was very pretty. Later that night we went to see the divers. These guys jump from 70 ft to 130 ft cliffs. It originally was a way for fishermen to dive deep enough to release the nets that were caught on rocks but quickly turned into a show. They have been doing it now for 70 years but not just anyone can do it, this is passed down from father to son. It is really dangerous because if the water isn't deep enough or if the tide comes in at the wrong time it could kill you. They are trained very well and during the 70 years of the show, nobody has died.

Tuesday we stopped in Ixtapa/Zihuatinejo. It was more like old Mexico and I loved it because it wasn't super busy. It was a fun place to shop because there were quite a few handmade items and they were for a good price. We just looked around a lot and went back to the ship. We really only had about 4 hours there.

Wednesday we were in Puerto Vallarta. We just walked along the streets looking in shops. A few of us went to the old cathedral there. It was beautiful but it was actually kind of creepy. Like my sister-in-law Erica said, I just seemed kind of dark.

Thursday we stopped in Cabo. We had plans to go to the beach that day because Cabo has great sand and there is a beach called Love Beach that we wanted to visit. However the day ended up being overcast and kind of cool. Some of the people went to the beach still but Jeff and I just looked around. We were trying to find Jeff some shoes that he wanted but were unable to. We went back to the ship for some lunch and actually after that the sun came out so we took a dip.

We loved going to the different places but really we just enjoyed the time on the ship. We got to see some wonderful shows with amazing singers and dancers. We also enjoyed the comedian that has been touring with the Norwegian Cruise Line, Bud Andersen. He was hilarious and Jeff and I always enjoy a good laugh! Dinner of course was amazing every night. Most nights we would try to eat early so we could make it to as many shows as possible. It was nice to not have to worry about cooking or cleaning for the week. (I've been having a hard time getting back into it!) We got to relax a lot that week and it was much needed. It was also just nice to spend so much time with our family. I miss them all. I hadn't seen Kenslee since the summer and she is getting so big. The two babies, Peter and Brody are also growing quickly and getting cuter every day. Little Miss Emma Kate was my twin for the trip. Every time we were together she was right by me and we had so much fun! Thanks Mom and Dad, it was an awesome vacation and we can't thank you enough!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Christmas came and went so quickly this year. Unfortunately because of work Jeff and I ended up staying in St. George this year and celebrating Christmas just the two of us. It was nice to just relax but truthfully it was quite boring. We watched a lot of movies and ate a lot of food. The second part is also unfortunate. I guess here comes the diet! We are looking forward to seeing all of our family as soon as possible. We sure missed everyone. There were very few things that I really wanted for Christmas this year but Jeff was able to give me one of them that he could actually buy, (most of my wishes couldn't be bought) a new blowdryer. Jeff got a video game. He works so hard all week it is nice to give him something that he enjoys and can do in his spare time. Of course we got a few movies, that we bought for ourselves on the day after Thanksgiving sales and some candy. It was a nice small Christmas and a good way to remind us what the season is all about, we are happy that we could be together. Here is a picture of Jeff and me from the 2003 while we were dating. It's crazy that this was our 5th Christmas together. I don't have any pictures of us this year, sorry!

This is a picture of Cede in her Christmas present. I'm not sure that she would have picked out this gift but because she is a Yorkie she needs coats in the winter to keep her warm, and it is cute.


We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Have a Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

A Night With Cruz!

Last night Jeff and I were able to babysit for some good friends of ours, the McCoys. They have the cutest little boy named Cruz. I know it is hard for Brittney to leave her little guy, she misses him but she also feels bad that he might cry or have a hard time and she doesn't want anyone to have to deal with that. I told her we were more than happy to watch him. We have enough nieces and nephews that we can handle the crying. So Uncle Jeff and Aunt Nat Nat got to have a fun night we Cruz. He really is such a good little guy. He didn't cry the whole time. We just played and laughed. It was so fun to see Jeff make him laugh and hear them talk to each other. Here is a picture of the two of them hanging out. Cede decided that she wanted to be part of the group too. In fact Cruz couldn't get enough of Cede, he thought she was so funny. Thanks Brandon and Brittney for letting us have a fun time and play parents for the night! We'll babysit any time.

Friday, December 7, 2007

We are so lucky!

I love being an aunt! It is so much fun to go see my nieces and nephews and hear them yell "AUNT NAT NAT" and come running. They always have a way of making you feel so happy. The smiles you get from the little ones just brighten your day. It is the best! I'm lucky to have 5 nieces and nephews on the McGuire side so far and 35 on the Erickson side. Jeff and I really are spoiled! Our eldest is 22 and the youngest is just a few months. They all bring so much joy to our lives. So this is a post to all of them to let them know how much we love and appreciate all of you. I don't have any pictures of the Erickson kids, (so if anyone from Jeff's family is reading this...please send me pictures) but I do have some from the McGuire side.

Jake is Spongebob.


Emma is a "scary" witch. Really she is just too beautiful! (Can you believe Kris made this costume!)


Peter is a Chili Pepper


Kenslee is a cowgirl. She just gets cuter each day!


Brody is a pirate!