Happiest place on Earth

Last week we spent some time at the "Happiest Place on Earth". We had so much fun surprising the kids. They didn't even know we were going on a trip. As far as they knew we were headed out to dinner and we somehow ended at the airport. (They have food there too!) Riley was thrilled the next day when she realized that we were at Disney World. It took a while for reality to sink in though.
The Sorcer's hat at Disney Studios

A "Goofy" family
Riley with her favorite, Ariel......it only took an hour in line to meet her.

Tower of Terror

Oh no, it's broken?!

Toy Story Mania, a fun new 3-D game. You have to go get a fast pass as soon as you get there. Even then you are waiting a couple hours before you can use it. By 10:30 they are already passing out fast passes for 6pm! Crazy, but worth the wait. We all loved the ride. Riley was asking to go again and again.

Garrett could barley wait till the kids in front of us were done. He ran right up and gave Pluto and Goofy huge hugs. Riley of course was not nervous at all either!

Riley was excited to meet another favorite princess. We waited for a bit to meet Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Belle.

I don't think Garrett minded too much either. They were all goo goo over my little man.

What a face. He was covered with kisses!!!

Before going to meet the princesses, Scott and I took Riley on the Goofy roller coaster. She was so happy to be even taller than the required 35 inches. She loved the ride and it is apparent from her face. Enjoy!

I'm thirsty....

After a long day of getting ready for Christmas really works up a thirst apparently. We had just gotten home from shopping, and I went right to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Garrett went right up the stairs and disappeared. I kept calling his name but he never came and I couldn't hear a noise. After about 5 min of calling I went up to try and find him. I was about to go in the play room but saw Riley's bathroom light on. So I went there thinking he was probably loading the toilet with toilet paper. (a fun game actually) This is what I found instead!!! I had to turn and leave to go get the camera before I lost it. It was so hard to keep a straight face once he knew he was busted!!

Now from his point of view.....

"Oh, hi Mom....."

"Ummmm....hmmm"

"I'm cute right?!"

"See it was funny!"

Seriously how can you get made at a face like that!!!

Tommy's Tumble

While at Gpa and Gma Bawden's house for Christmas Tommy decided he wanted to go outside and play in the snow. He was dressed head to toe in hand-me-downs from his older brothers but we had no gloves for the little tike. I told him to keep his hands warm by putting them in his pockets. He is quite the obedient child and did just what I asked. He said that he wanted to try Sammy's snowboard... which he did twice. Both times he kept his hands in his pockets all the way down. Enjoy!

Sammy Snowboarding Gpas Rocks

The Saturday after Christmas the Shaun and Feesh Clan, Sam and Fam, and the Sharon and Tyson bunch got together at Gpa and Gma Bawdens for a Christmas feast. The Ham was superb and so was the fresh snow. After dinner the kids went outside to go sledding. Sammy brought his snowboard and dropped Gpas Rocks. GO LITTLE RIPPERS!

New Year, New Resolution

Okay so am giving the bawden blog another chance. I know that for me this is a great way to share with all of you what is going on in our life here in Texas. We are always wondering what is going on with all of you. PLEASE share your moments with us via pics and stories using this site. I have given it a much needed face lift to rejuvinate our blog. I even gave the header a new name (thanks Sam for the idea!). Please check it out and possibly share your Christmas pics and stories with us. I know that the kids will get a kick out of seeing pics of their cousins.
Love you all and Happy New Year

Great Wolf Lodge

Here we are at the Great Wolf Lodge just outside of Olympia in Chehalis, WA. (Sharon and Tyson if you make it up to Vancover WA, it is worth it!!) Anyway, we had a mini vacation last week with some friends from the boat. We spent 2 1/2 days there enjoying the indoor pools! An amazing thing to have a water park in Washington and not freeze. They had a great wave pool, kiddie area, water dump zone with 2 water slides and then of course the slides with tubes. The best was the tornado! It is a 4 person tube ride that you could just ride over and over again for the thrill of it. We found a Great Wolf Lodge outside of Dallas (Grapevine,TX) if anyone is interested in going somtime. (ie. vacation with us for a bit then head north on the way home) Anyway, just a thought and we hope you enjoy these small video clips.

home at last

With the final patrol finally at an end we are together at last. We are so happy that Scott is back and the kids are even more thrilled. Riley was heart broken the 1st 2 mornings she woke up and he was gone. She thought he had left again and was in tears or very close to it. Here are a couple pics to share the moment with you.

Sheesh

Weight loss

So i am so excited cause I am hoping to be under 200 next week!! I have lost 14 pounds, and hopefully it will keep coming. I am frustrated though cause I feel like I can let myself go a little more cause I am doing so well. I am trying not to think that way though. I went to the store and bought size large womens shorts to work out in. I was so excited!!! I have lost over 5 inches around my whole body. Anywho I just had to share. I am so glad that we are doing this. Not for the money, but it is motivating me to get my butt in gear for Steve to come home!

The Big Sur

I just let you all know that we are doing really good here in California, but we sure miss you all. At least we have a nice weather here. It is really beautiful. Spencer has a lot to study but we are trying to be together every free time he has. Love you all. Amanda

Well we finally have the offical good word from Exxon and will be joing the ranks in Houston TX this coming summer. We are sure excited about the new chapter in our life and to see what life outside the Navy is like. I want you all to know that you are more than welcome to come down South for a visit. It is a longer drive than it was to the beautiful NW but I am hoping that the draw of childhood memories will bring you all down. We are also planning on coming to Ut. at the end of the month and will be bouncing between UT and AZ. So I am hoping to see all of you in the time I am there. Riley is super excited to see all of her many cousins. I am looking forward to being re-energized by being with all of you. Well I should run. I have a 3 year old trying to sneak into my room (it is 10pm and my door is locked!)
I love you all
Sheesh

Hey everyone! Well, this ought to be a fun little competition. I have started over and I'm trying to recover from the holidays. The only thing that saved me this season was the fact that I am training for a marathon. I burned a lot of calories but I also consumed a lot of calories. I even ran 12 miles yesterday and my long run this week is 13 miles. Hello, that is the furthest I have ever run at one time. And actually I didn't even run the whole time in the past. I didn't walk during my 12 mile run so hopefully as I slowly build the miles I won't have to! You would think training for a marathon would help me lose weight but it has actually been a lot harder. I am much hungrier now so it is hard to control how much I eat. I am also much more tired so I don't know about anyone else but I always want to eat when I'm tired. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to try to step it up a bit this next week and see how it goes. Until then...good luck everyone!

Biggest Loser

We are officially into week one. Good luck ladies. I think this will be a lot of fun and I am excited to see how we all end up in 12 weeks. We are all winners no matter what!!! This past week was an okay one. I was not feeling well the first 2 days and completely useless to the kids and myself. I had to make up for it in the second half of the week. I am trying to stick to weight watchers again. I hope that I can 100%. I do good for a couple weeks then get over confidante and think I can do it on my own in a sense and then I don't do well. I am going to try and really do it right this time. Keep us posted on how you are all doing.
Sheesh

Our R&R

I hope you enjoy the pictures. We had a great time even if it did rain. We kayaked up the Wailua river then hiked into Secret Falls (very muddy hike do to rain) then swam in the pond below the falls it was great. The rooster is typical of the chickens running all over the island. I thought Sheesh would like that is her kitchen. The trip up the Na'a Pali coast was the first one they had run in two weeks because of the high surf and wind. Unfortunately it was not good for Dad, he spent the four hours at the back of the boat chumming. We had a lot of fun and wished we could have done more. Maybe next time.
Love
Mom, Grandma

Family Christmas Card

This is just in case you don't get your cards by Christmas. Also to those that we have gifts for I apologize for not getting your gifts out in time. Sharon I need your address.

Sheesh

the future holds.........

Well that is the question. We received one job offer from Exxon the other did not pan out as we had hoped. I do feel however that the Development dept. is possibly where we are meant to be. It is the part of the company that Scott already has experience in. We are making a decision very soon seeing as Scott will be gone very soon. Please keep us in your prayers. We love you all and again Congrats Sam and Tris!!
Sheesh

Mcfly- Lonley.

I am sick of being lonely!!!

Excited!!!

I want just let you all know that Spencer is coming back home for Christmas, he will be back on the 21st. We are so excited to have him back. We will be moving just after that. We are excited for that too. I hope see you guys soon.
Love
Amanda

Our Fun Weekend!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to show you some pictures of our fun weekend. We went to Island Park to my parent's cabin with a few of our friends. It was really fun. We went sledding on a way fun hill. Isaac loved it so much but then his feet got cold so it wasn't fun for him anymore. The other kids had a blast too. I hope everyone is having a fun Christmas season. We got some tickets to the Rexburg temple open house for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day so if anyone is coming for the New Year's party we would like you to be able to go if we have enough tickets. Please let us know. Well, have a great night!

Bloggers Wanted!

Hey everyone! I have noticed this pattern with this particular Blog. Shaliece and I are the only ones who ever post anything to this Blog. That gets a little boring. So if you need help figuring out how to blog, let me or Shaliece know. Its's really pretty easy. And it's fun to see how everyone is doing, even just on a day to day basis. Shaun and I are going to my parent's cabin this weekend with a few friends. Apparently there is enough snow to go sledding so the kids are way excited! It should be fun. Speaking of the cabin- are we still planning a family reunion for next year at the cabin? Just let me know if that weekend is still ok for everyon (Memorial Day). Hope everyone is doing well! Keep in touch!

Happy Birthday Riley! Sorry we forgot to call! Duh! Sounds like a really fun party. I can't blieve she is 3! Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are having our New Year's party again this year on Mon. Dec. 31st at Apple. I know everyone is fr away but everyone is invied. It is really fun and I don't think any of you have had the pleasure of joining us. It is just $5 dollars a family and you get to swim and play games,tons of food, basketball, volleyball, raquetball, golf and tons of other stuff. Just tink about it! We would love to have you! We don;t get many visitors up our way! Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone! Have a great night or day (whenever you are reading this).