Holdyn's Celebrity look alikes!

Ben's celebrity look alikes!

Celebrity Look-alikes?!

The Tri-Birthday Celebration!!

We celebrated these three little kiddo's birthday together since they all turn 1 within a month of each other. Holdyn, Mason Fenton, and Aubrey Brox. Destined to be great friends! Megan was gracious enough to host the party at her complex. Everyone had a blast in the pool and the birthday kids were spoiled!

Hillary made the dragon cake.... turned out SUPER CUTE!

The mommies with the birthday kids!

Holdyn and Aubrey got twinner swimming suits from Mason.

Here I am helping with the decorations. It turned out to be a super fun party! Thanks to all who came to help us celebrate!

Family Excitement!!

We've had some VERY exciting things happen in our families the past few days!! First of all our sweet little niece Madison made the decision to be baptized!!! She lives in TX, and she was baptized yesterday! We are soo proud of you Madison for making this decision! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! We love you!!!
Next, our great friend and cousin, Kandice, finally got her baby girl!!!! Congratulations on the new addition!! We are soo excited to see her next week!!! We love you Kandice and Dave and new baby Emmie!!!!
AND FINALLY........ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CRAZY GRANDMA!!! We love you and we sure hope your day today is an enjoyable one! We cannot wait to see you in a couple of weeks! We LOVE YOU!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLDYN!!!!

Family tradition on my side says we get our noses buttered just before we blow out the candles. Not sure how many generations back it started or even why it started, but we still do it :)

Holdyn is ONE!! What a year it has been! WE LOVE YOU HOLDY-LOCKS!!!

That's about it...

Lately Holdyn can't handle just watching mom and dad talk on the phone.... it doesn't matter where she is in the apt. As soon as one of us dial a number or the phone rings she is there wanting her turn to listen. Here she is listening to Auntie Mindy. She yells out until she gets the phone to her ear then she is just quiet, listens, and with a big GRIN. Since we are moving in a few weeks and Ben won't be able to walk the distance to the University... we just invested in an island scooter!! Check this thing out! I'll get some action shots with Ben driving it later... but here she is!!

Scooters are VERY popular here. People drive crazy on them! They go in and out of cars...you may not believe it but local guys even do wheelies down the road on their scooters... not motorcycles.... scooters!! It is quite hillarious actually!
On another note.... I've read a lot from some of you about the power going out in St. George. I definitely feel for you! We have poweroutages quite often... the longest one was almost 3 days..... It was AWFUL!! Here is Holdyns chest...eaten alive by misquito's from the hot humid night we had without power. Our latest adventure is with the water. It goes on and off all of the time! We didn't have water three different days this past week. Sadly, it isn't that surprising when the water OR power goes off. It is a good thing we have our water storage!!! This picture is the water whenever it comes back on.... would you bathe your baby in this or worse drink it!? I think NOT!! This is how it looks quite often coming out of our taps... YUCK!!

We've also got some distgusting bugs running around like... AHHH this nasty centipede! Luckily this isn't our house... but a fellow student was lucky enough to have this one IN HIS APT!!!! (thanks for the picture Nicole).

Here is a clump of nasty snails just outside of our apt. After it rains they all come out.... we have to walk through them "crunch crunch" to get to the car :)

So we're lucky enough to the Centipedes, snails, huge-flying cockroaches, a wild monkey, spoiled milk, power outages, water outages, and lots more fun things to make this island experience one to remember!!

This sounds like a lot of whining... but I just want to clarify.... many people think we just play and go to the beach and life is a vacation... NOT SO! We do enjoy the beautiful island beaches.... that is when Ben can afford to take an afternoon off... But living here and vacationing here are two VERY different things!

We do love it here, look at that beautiful view, and we will most definitely come back for vacation... but just so ya'll know... my patience and nerves are being tested with the creepy crawlies and power/water situation :) Good times on St. Maarten :)

Happy 4th of JULY!!!!!

We want to wish everyone a very Happy 4th of July! Living out of the country helps you appreciate the freedoms and rights that the United States of America provides! God Bless the USA!!!

Sister Wilson's Baby Shower

I was fortunate enough to go with Hillary Brox to a baby shower for

a woman in our branch. Sister Wilson! It was a lot of fun!

Here is Holdyn making friends :)

Sister Maccow and Sister Bell!

Holdyn with Debbie.

What a cheeser!

There is cute Sister Wilson!!

Some Yummy Curry chicken!

Hillary and I made this diaper cake for Sister Wilson!

Here is Denisha, Violet, and Holdyn.