just me and my boys

surprises are the best!!!

2012-01-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

my little sis surprised me, and it's not always easy to do that, and i LOVED it!!!! she came to visit us a few days before my parents were set to come, and i had no idea! i love surprises soooo much, and it doesn't get much better than family coming to visit your tropical life :)

it was quite the adventure for her to get to us too, and it involved me going to st. maarten to meet her and tipping a certain denzel $40 to get her and her luggage to me in time for our flight back to statia! haha love you denzel!!!

the boys were in love with having their kait around, and we went to the park and the beach and the stores and for walks, and just did what we do here with her. it was awesome!

she got to crack open a coconut and loved the nightly sunsets of course. doesn't get much more gorgeous than this people! (and i'm not talking about the sunset!)

she got a taste of dust's endonasal drain technique learned in chiro school when her ears got all plugged up, and she only gagged a little. i got to be the nurse and shine the flashlight :)

we had so much fun snorkeling and playing in the waves and building sandcastles and watching movies and killing spiders and eating chocolate chip cookie dough and popcorn and hiking and walking and chatting, and it was just pretty much amazing!!!!

she wasn't a fan of the hermit crabs that kept us company during our hike up the quill! we got her to pick one up and hold it long enough for a picture though! haha

since my little sis' bday was only a few days after she left, we made her a special pancake breakfast, and beckam was all about making her a 20! hard to believe my little kait is 20 already and soooo excited we got to be a little part of it with her :)

love this girl and loved every minute of her visit! the surprise awesome, and i was so sad to see her go and am ready for another surprise now any day (hint hint)! love you chickee and thanks for one of the best surprises ever and for being one of my bestest friends :)

granny

2012-01-19T17:26:00.000-08:00

one of my greatest fears in life is having someone close to me pass away, and that fear came true for me last week as my granny hill left this earth and went on to be with her kids and husband again. we knew it was coming. she was going downhill fast and was in so much pain during the last few weeks/months. it was so incredibly hard being so far away and not being there to hold her hand and try to give her some comfort and love.

she's been there my whole life - if not right across the street then just a few blocks away. she's been there every birthday which means every july 1st, every christmas morning, every new years day, every thanksgiving dinner, etc. i remember listening to her stories and playing hide n seek in her basement and helping her pick raspberries and shell peas. i remember playing in her trailer out back and having sleepovers with my cousins and playing connect 4. i remember watching old movies with her and watching her quilt and bake, and i remember countless winters full of chocolate making and song singing :) so many amazing memories with one of the most amazing women i know.

we were blessed to live right across the street from granny the last 10 or so years, and it was so fun. we spent lots of time visiting her, and we all had our assigned seats at her house (i was on the far corner of her couch). i drove her into lethbridge for pineapples and doc appts and peaches. we went on shopping trips to kalispel and always had fun on girls nights out to the movies or for dinner. we were her official hair appt chauffeurs, and she always called when she needed help getting something down off the top shelf. we always looked forward to dinners with gram cuz she always came with something home baked and to die for delicious. some of my favs were orange rolls, butter horns, caramel popcorn, tarts, and macadamia nut cookies - mmmmmmmm!

my boys knew her as grandma GG, and i'm so thankful that they got to know her a little bit. they loved her stories and her fruit snacks and her songs, and it was always a special moment for me to see my boys snuggled up with their great grandma riveted on her song or story. she was the best storyteller. she was also so super duper hip that she left her grand girls wishing they would have the style of granny one day :)

not only am i full of memories with this cute gal, but i'm also a better person because of her. she was the perfect example of perseverance and happiness and determination and kindness and love and support and friendship. she was someone i looked to for advice, and no matter what she said, i always left our conversations feeling supported, cared about, and loved. i loved her dedication to walking 3 miles every day, rain or shine, until she couldn't walk anymore, and i compared her to dory in my talk at her funeral because i can just see her encouraging those she loves to "just keep swimming" no matter what comes our way just like she did. she was our bestest friend and one of the most inspiring women i've ever known.

thankfully, i made it home for some family time and to attend her funeral. i got to say good-bye as i was blessed enough to be part of dressing her, and i was also blessed enough to spend some time reflecting on my memories with her as i prepared a little tribute for the funeral. my favorite moment of my happy/sad trip home was going to her house with kris, cars, and kait. we walked in and were immediately hit with her smell, and wow......smell is a powerful sense. it brought back every memory in that spic n span house of hers, and we all took our assigned seats and took an hour or so to just remember......remember her and our special relationships with her and how much we'd miss her but also how happy we were thinking of her up with her little keith and marlene and her sweetheart. we talked about what we'd miss most and what we learned from her, and we just sat there......saying good bye in a way but just etching our memories in stone so that we'd never forget and so that we can pass her legacy on to the next generation.

it was the most amazing weekend full of family, tears, laughs, hugs, reminiscing, and love. i'm going to miss my granny so much i can't even put it into words, but i'm just so thankful for the huge part she played in my life, and i'm so proud to be part of her family. i'm so proud to be her son's daughter and so thankful for the way she raised her kids and her faith and testimony that have strengthened and will continue to strengthen me throughout the rest of my life. love you granny, more than i was ever able to express, and every time i watch these beautiful waves rolling in, i'll think of you sitting beside me smiling that beautiful smile smelling all "blue" and know that you'll be there with me every step of the way til we meet again!
love you eleventy four!!!

EWWWW!!!!!

2012-01-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

please be warned that if you don't like ginormous hairy disgusting kill me now spiders, you may not want to read any further! kait came to visit us a few weeks ago, and as soon as she got here, she jinxed us. i'd never even seen a spider in our new house and was feeling pretty good about the bug situation around here, but her crazy fear of spiders must have summoned the troops. she saw one in our shower the 1st night and then this guy creeped in with her the 2nd night.......

she screamed one of those blood curdling i think i'm dying screams and yelled that there was a tarantula in our house. the hair on my arms went up right away, and of course.....dust was off night snorkeling, so we were on our own.

he was freakin HUGE! long story short, i killed him. i did it, yes me. of course, it took me 25 mins of freaking out with kait and discussing all of the killing options. it may have included a little mini i know i'm an idiot prayer and lots of pep talking, and i may have yelled at kait to stop freaking out so that i could try to calm myself down enough to figure out what to do. but i did it. i may have left it there for dust to clean up, but i did it.

this was definitely the biggest spider i've ever seen, and i got him good with my electric fly swatter. it was a life-altering and traumatizing night, and i'm officially scarred for life, and i know i sound like a complete fool but seriously........i don't understand why spiders this big have to exist, especially right outside my house! EWWW!!!!!!
ps - thanks to kait for being here with me even though she was a total freak show! haha love you k :)

christmas at the beach :)

2011-12-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

after all the hullabaloo of christmas morning (and yes....i just used the word hullabaloo and i loved it!) and some amazing christmas afternoon naps, we decided to hit up the beach just cuz we could :) we went out to zeelandia, and the boys rolled in the sand and found crabs to chase and jumped in the waves. we got some of the cutest pictures EVER and had so much fun soaking up the sun and playing together. not very often you get to spend christmas afternoon at the beach!

sand angels :)

seriously......the cutest little santa hat boys in the caribbean! happy holidays people :)

he came!!!

2011-12-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

christmas morning was so fun with a kid who understood that santa came and that there would be presents under the tree and who was so full of excitement and energy and pure happiness and anticipation!

sadly for him, he only got a peek at the loot and then had to watch how the grinch stole christmas with dad in bed while we waited for maddox to wake up! by 7am, he'd had enough though, so we woke him up and got the party started!

some of the favorite presents or at least best pictures taken with the boys and their presents :)

despite our promises not to get each other anything, we thought it would be good to teach beckam that it's fun to give too. so, we set a $5 limit, and beckam went shopping with each of us for the other one, and he was soooo excited to give us our presents! it was super cute :)

my attempt at making my mom's german pancakes for breakfast as per hill family tradition - not too shabby!

one of the most memorable and fun christmas mornings i've ever had with my cute little fam!

christmas dinner though??? quite a disappointment compared to the spread we usually have. pizza for dust and honey bunches of oats for me :) haha and popcorn for dessert of course!

it was an awesome christmas day, and it was pretty fun to end our day with this beauty of a sunset :)

merry christmas from the caribbean!

santa's coming!

2011-12-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

christmas eve is one of my most favorite days of the whole year! i love all the baking and eating and visiting and lights and anticipation that still causes me to have trouble sleeping. i just love all of it, and even though we were missing the big piece of family this year, we're thankful for our statia family that made our day so great!

i baked/cooked my butt off all day while dust took the boys to the beach, and then it was time to play! here are our shepherds on our way to the christmas eve party!!!

the host

the goodies :)

the kids

the cheese - mmmm!

like father, like son!

the nativity - so freakin cute!

little shepherd boy watching over baby Jesus :)

white elephant time!

the lights!

our caribbean santa - lol

santa's layout - cookies for him, carrots for the reindeer, milk to wash it all down, and a note making sure santa knows that we've been good :) oh and a picture proving that it's time for bed 2 hours ago! haha

and believe it or not, santa made it all the way to caribbean! yay :)

one of the best days of the year with my amazing little family. loved it!

keeping it real

2011-12-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

i kinda feel like we're doing even more christmas activities over here to make it feel like christmas since it doesn't really look like christmas outside or in our house, and we are loving it! christmas "wreaths" at the family center.....

put some spray foam in a cup wrapped in tin foil and stick branches and decorations into it and voila.....christmas wreaths!

thankfully, the family center has a little park in the back for the non-wreath making type, and if anyone has some good stain removing tips, i'm hoping to get some serious stains out of my play hard non-wreath maker can't sit still for longer than a minute little maddie boy!

we can't do christmas without gingerbread houses! we missed the $10 kits for sure and our poytress/lujan gingerbread crew for sures, but we made do just fine :)

beckam was in his element while dust took tips along the way....

and maddox, well he was just into the decorations themselves!

dust's "house" was more like a box in the end, but maddox didn't care as long as it was covered in icing and candy and put on his tray!

beckam was meticulous about his decorating and aggressive about his tasting - love it!

sadly.....our masterpiece didn't last :( 5 minutes after the finished product picture was taken, it looked like this.....

and i know have a new favorite picture thanks to the crashing gingerbread house! we were kinda sad it fell down.....

haha didn't really matter since the ants discovered and swarmed it a hour later, but making gingerbread houses with christmas music in the background with our little sun tanned caribbean family was pretty awesome :)

christmas cookies!

2011-12-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

we are cookie makers around here, and we are always looking for an excuse to do some baking :) there's no better excuse than christmas, that's for sure, and we always take advantage even over where you have to add a cup or two of flour and where you never really know what temperature your oven is set at and where you just don't ask where duggins gets their vanilla from! lol

thanks to the beckett's for inviting us over for some serious sugar cookie making, and thanks to emelia for blowing bubbles with maddie who was more into the eating than the making!

yummmmmmmmmyyyyy!

maddox knows how to tackle a sugar cookie.....skittles and icing first......

and then the cookie to finish off!

doesn't get much better than this people :)

next on the christmas cookie list.....gingersnaps! these didn't turn out quite as good as at home (what's new), but beckam loved the sugar action, and it isn't christmas without some gingersnaps :)

we also added a new cookie to the list this year......candy cane crinkle cookies, and they are soooooo yummy! i didn't take a picture, but give em a try people - you won't regret it. happy cookie making :)

http://www.laurenslatest.com/candy-cane-crinkles/

christmas is coming tra-la tra-la!

2011-12-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

the cinnamon's burning, the snow globes are shaking, and christmas is coming tra-la tra-la!

it may not feel as much like christmas around here with all of the sunshine and beach time, but the statia christmas party this last weekend was lots of fun, and some santa time made it seem more real :)

we thought it would be opposite of this with our mama's boy beckam resisting some santa love and our rough and tumble social butterful maddox livin it up, but beckam was so excited to get a present and meet santa while maddox took one look at that white beard and was done and done! haha

not only santa made an appearance at our little party. no, dora and boots and diego and blue and swiper and bob the builder came too - why not! haha they put on a little national friendship day program (cuz christmas and national friendship day normally celebrated in august go hand in hand i guess!), and beckam was in LOVE! he was so genuinely excited and kept clapping and yelling at swiper....."swiper, no swiping!!!" it was really cute!

it was a party of all parties complete with mardi gras masks and santa hats and kids willing to kill for the candy canes thrown out! we danced and clapped and gave dora and hug and sat on santa's lap and ate candy and played with friends and had a caribbean christmas blast :) ho ho ho from statia!

bad luck baby

2011-12-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

this is my bad luck baby.....

he fell over the back of our couch onto the nice hard tile floor the other day and holy goosebump! it's still there but won't last as long as his chipped little tooth - another incident with the tile floor but he fell from the bed this time! our little chippie :)

then, at church on sunday, we heard crying and saw our little friend jase hitting maddox's leg. when we got to him, his foot looked something like this.....

yeeeeeouch! he must have been playing near a stinging ant hill and holy hannah - they attacked him! poor little man :( thankfully, he recovers incredibly fast and continues on with his every day little life!

love my smiling tough little bad luck man sooooo much, and i'm really keeping my fingers crossed that the bad luck keeps within things that we can remedy at home! i love it here, but i have a feeling i wouldn't love the hospital here so much!

zeelandia

2011-12-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

just some pics from zeelandia beach that had to be shared! we went out for a nice sunday walk, but that turned into some serious wave fun for beckam while maddox just rocked the half open shirt and played with remy :) good times!

puddle jumping party!

2011-12-14T05:13:00.000-08:00

my little boy turned 3 last weekend, and here are the favorite pics (and there are a lot of them!) from the festivities :)

pin the heart on the grinch - awesome!

snowman and reindeer cookies cuz it really is december here even though it doesn't look like it!

mmmmm!

treasure hunt at the park.......run!!!!!!!

present time! beckam got spoiled by the bestest friends ever :)

not very often you get a rainbow at your birthday party at the park in december!

the rain was the biggest hit of all! we had some wet, dirty, very happy kids when all was said and done :)

me and my crazy birthday boy!

another round of presents at home and dad even made him a birthday boy ribbon! close your eyes.....here they come!

one of many presents was beckam's 1st book of mormon! grandma and grandpa moj even had his name put on the front, and it's come to church with us every week since!

maddox was very into watching and helping. he gladly took the toy that was finished being opened while beckam moved on to the next one!

spaghetti sunday birthday lunch with friends and "rice krispie cake" for dessert! blow out the candles!

he was so excited to be 3 just like pearl :)

to finish off his birthday day, beckam requested pancakes for dinner, so i put some special birthday sprinkles on his 3, and he was in love! never met a boy who loves pancakes quite like this one!

now..... i need to tell you a little bit about my 3 year old beckam boo!

he is the best big brother. he is constantly offering to share his blanket and his friends with maddie, and he's always quick to grab a soother or a toy to make maddox feel better when he's sad. he won't go to bed without his little bro, and he's so good at making mads laugh and giggle. they are becoming quite the bff's over here, and it's so cute! he wakes up between 5-5:30am every day and has for almost a year now, and he's so happy about it!

he loves to jump and throw and kick and bat and wrestle, and he LOVES his dad! he loves all animals and just held his 1st little hermit crab the other day. he kills spiders for me and is becoming quite the brave little island boy :)

he loves toy story and mickey mouse and loves to pack his backpack and pretend he's going to school. he LOVES to read books with mom and dad and has most of his favorites memorized, so he "reads" them to us every once in a while too! he's so smart and loves to learn new things. he loves to cook and bake with me, and he loves to paint and color, and he also loves to snuggle up with his blankie and watch a show every now and again too :)

this little stud is the apple of my eye (along with his little brother of course!), and i just love him to pieces! he makes me smile and makes me laugh and makes me a better person every day. he is the most loving little man, and i'll never be able to put in to words how blessed and lucky i am to be his mom! love you mister 3 year old man!!!!!

changing our lives....

2011-12-11T10:45:00.000-08:00

i heard about pinterest all over facebook and tried sign up a time or two but only recently actually found out what all the hype was about, and i have to say....it's changing our lives! haha well, it may not be changing our lives, but it's making our life here more fun and more yummy and more creative, and i love it! just fun to find a place where genius ideas like these can travel the world and make some little boys' day in the caribbean so much more fun :)

we've always had tape and cars in our house, but i never would have thought to put them together for a homemade race track all around the house! soooo fun!

we've also had sponges laying around the house for the cleaning in should be doing, but using them this way is wayyyyy more fun!

blankets, towers, race tracks, or just throwing them around the house. love it!

then, there's this cute little christmas tree made out of the toilet paper rolls that usually go straight to the garbage and.....

christmas tree pizzas! beckam had so much fun decorating his lunch, and it looks even yummier dressed up as a christmas tree!

then, there's my personal favorite and probably only because it's the most recent genius idea stolen from someone else on pinterest.....shaving cream paint all over the shower!

and each other of course!

a work of art and a good 45 mins of happy peace and quiet and fun for the mom :) awesome!!!

i'm sure many of you have thought of these creative little fun ideas on your own, but i owe them as well as tons of new yummy recipes i've been trying out to pinterest . THANK YOU to whoever created this ridiculous site with all of the pins and boards and followers and to all of you amazing people who post your ingenious creations there to keep us busy and having the time of our lives over here :) can't wait to try something new tomorrow!

the best of the best!

2011-12-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

here's another list of 10 and some of the best of the best pictures taken around here lately :) lots of beach time as you can see!

1. dust just finished his 2nd term of medical school - crazy! i still can't believe that he's going to be a doctor and that we're really living in the caribbean doing this right now - also crazy!

2. i can't turn my brain off lately. i'm up til all hours of the night planning what we're going to do on christmas eve and imagining us picking up my parents at the airport and thinking about christmas at home and how we're going to carry over a tradition or two to our sunny beachful christmas here.....fun to think about, but i wish i could do my thinking in the daytime and sleep at night!

3. i finally joined pinterest at my husband's request, and our lives haven't been the same since! holy best ideas ever!

4. i lost my toe ring of 15 years in the ocean the other day - soooooo sad :( my toe will be permanently indented, and i'm anxiously awaiting a replacement ring, and i'm on the look out every time we're at the beach for a little silver something buried in the sand!

5. i love seashells!!! one of my favorite things to do at the beach is search for new treasures to put in my shell jar at home :) the boys love searching too!

6. we're moving on saturday, and i can't wait! a new house and new set up and some new hand me down toys and a pest control guy who comes every month to spray for bugs - woohoo!

7. my boy is turning 3 on sunday, and i'm in denial! it just doesn't seem possible that i can have a 3 year old! we get to have his party at the park in the sun in december too - so fun!

8. i found out recently (from my amazing mother-in-law moj) that there is a national popcorn day! are you kidding me?!?!?! i seriously CANNOT wait for jan 19th to come around!

9. i've decided that my kids are some of the most influential people in my lives. i mean, i'm better because of them, and they teach me something new every day, and i want to be more like them. there's a scripture that says in order to fight off the natural man in us, we need to become more like children, and i couldn't agree more! love my kids more than life itself and so thankful for the lessons they teach me and the mom they're helping me to be :)

10. christmas is coming tra-la tra-la, and as much as i'm missing my family and snow and real christmas trees and such, i'm soooooo excited for christmas here with my boys :) 18 more sleeps!!!!!!

ladders, paper, and the real thing

2011-11-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

whether it's a ladder or poster board paper or the real cut it down yourself thing, christmas trees are one of my favorite things about this most wonderful time of the year :)

i don't remember decorating that ladder, but i've heard the story many times and love that picture so much! i know that our boys probably won't remember decorating their caribbean poster board christmas tree either, but hopefully it will be one of our fondest christmas memories ever so that we can share our little christmas in statia 2011 story over and over again as well :)

we had so much fun decorating our homemade paper ornaments and decorating our little tree the other day....

i may shed a tear or two about missing out on picking out a christmas tree with these fabulous amazing and totally tubularly awesome peeps, and i may miss the smell of the real thing, and i know i'll miss being with my family for all the christmas excitement.....

but we love our little tree and are super excited to make our own memories and enjoy our little beachful, sunny, statia christmas here :)

merry christmas tree decorating everyone!

quill time!

2011-11-20T15:58:00.001-08:00

after 6 months on this island, we finally decided to hike the volcano that sits outside our back door called the quill :)

i always thought of volcanoes as rocky, lava spewing, mountains, but the quill is like a tropical jungle, and we are lucky enough to walk out our front door and be at the start of the trail that takes you up to the top and even inside if you want!

we had lots of fun noticing all the little vines and swinging on the big ones, and the best part of course was taking breaks along the way and snacking with friends :)

we saw tons of crabs and a few geckos and 2 snakes too! ewww!

maddox is 3 years old in his mind, but sadly he had to be the 16 month old he really is and ride in the carrier, and he wasn't all that happy about it!

nothing that a little hermit crab to play with won't fix though :)

the vines were so cool!

oh how we'll miss this face in a few weeks when she heads back to normal life :) love you pearl!

trail markers! they were what kept beckam going and happy near the end......almost there!

we are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place, and we had so much fun exploring more of what our little island has to offer as a little family :) livin the island life!

BIG waves

2011-11-13T09:30:00.002-08:00

our nice usually calm beach looked like this the other day.....

for some reason, it was waverrific for about a week, and we didn't even dare go in the water on a couple of days. dust came this day though, so we braved it and rode with the waves and had tons of fun enjoying the big waves while they lasted. it was hilarious watching people get trashed when the big ones rolled in, but for some reason, i felt a little nervous watching this one form.

maybe it was that my little beckam boo was directly in its path!!! haha i love how you can see dust trying to cover beckam's head and protect him!

they survived!!!

my waved washed boy:) he recovered pretty fast and it was all about playing in the sand after that!

it was fun to have a different kind of beach day and big waves or small waves, a day at the beach never disappoints :)

mcqueen beatrix

2011-11-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

the queen of the netherlands came for a visit a few weeks ago, and it was a party around these parts as you can imagine. royalty doesn't visit this tiny island of ours every month or every year or even every decade for that matter!

the whole island was encouraged to meet down at the airport to welcome her in the morning, so that's just what we did!

beckam was so excited that "mcqueen" was coming to visit, and he didn't really understand why he (she) arrived in a big orange airplane! haha too cute :)

the boys were just happy to be with the big crowd of people clapping and cheering when the airplane landed and tried to catch a glimpse through the gates while they listened to the local kids sing her a welcoming song. it was really cute :)

queen beatrix and her son prince willem-alexander and his wife princess máxima came for the day, and we waved to them as they left the airport and when they passed us at the beach, and we enjoyed the flags and decorations for the day, and that was that! pretty cool to be a part of when you think about it though.

long live the queen!

halloween statia style :)

2011-11-11T17:12:00.000-08:00

a little late, but here are some highlights from our statia style halloween fun! we started the day out with pumpkin pancakes, and beckam was soooo excited!

then, we had mac n cheese for our halloween lunch and got some new halloween books from the library and then got ready for our little trunk or treat halloween party. i woke up sunday morning to dust painting beckam's costume on one of our water boxes. i guess he said he wanted to be a juice box, and dust made it happen!

too cute right! he was a little disheartened in this picture cuz we were at the party, he had his costume and had his bag, but there was no trick or treating happening! smiles came with candy of course :) we were thinking maddox could be a straw, but he's a crazy little man, so we kept it simple. hello crazy hair, tattooed, full of attitude baller boy!

sexy nurse, facebook, and snorkel dude - i think eric won for best costume!

we had a few trunks and a few doors for these cute little kids to do some damage on, and they did just that! yes, we missed the mini snickers and coffee crisps and skittles to snack on after the kids went to bed, but they didn't know the difference, and that's all that matters.

trick or treat!

our little halloween family!

in short, we loved our statia style halloween! we missed our families, but trick or treating with a beautiful sunset in the background definitely beat bundling up for possible flurries! happy halloween :)

tenner tuesday

2011-11-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

1. we are officially becoming beach bums over here. beckam could live there, and maddox could too if there was a built in water bottle and snack machine in the sand.

2. rice krispie squares - new favorite snack. seriously....i had 4 today.....trouble.

3. i wish that going from nothing to working out 5 days a week would make a little more of a difference, ya know?!? kinda makes me want to go back to doing nothing sometimes.

4. i want a thing. people sell scentsy or are super crafty or take amazing pictures or run marathons, and i'm just ready for a thing to fill the time and to fulfill the me that's not a wife or mom. i'm on the look out :)

5. i want to decorate for christmas, but it's kinda hard with all of this sunshine and heat. just doesn't feel right!

6. beckam has added an ipad to his christmas list since he used a coloring app on our friend's the other day. never thought my 2 year old would be asking santa for an ipad and sadly it's easier to come through on than his other 2 ideas - a new bed and a new puppy. come on buddy! santa's a little low on funds and resources this year!

7. dust just found out that a few fellow classmates have been cheating on exams. i know they can't cheat their way through rotations and residency but really people....you're going to be doctors. buck up!

8. not much tops a beautiful caribbean sunset, but a rainbow after a good rain is pretty freakin awesome!

9. a big old spider fell out of my swim suit as i was putting it on today. i'm used to the daddy long legs that live in every corner of my house, but i'll never be ok with or get used to spiders falling out of my clothes! ewwwww!!!!

10. i love popping zits. gross? weird? i say awesome!!!

happy tuesday!

he's mine?!?!

2011-11-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

do you ever have those moments where you feel like the same old you you've always been, but you look at your life and wonder how the heck you got here??? i had one of those the other day and just couldn't believe that i was a mom - me, geeky immature little lyndsey! beckam came out from his nap the other day, and i was just overwhelmed with the most excited, proud, happy feeling. i just felt sooo lucky and soooo incredibly blessed to call him mine and to be his mom!

i love this little man so so soooooo much, and he's done waking up in the middle of the night for 2 hours at a time, so i'm ready to tell you about how awesome and amazing he is!

he is the BEST big brother in the whole wide world! not one single thing changed for him when maddie was born except he had someone to play and snuggle and laugh and wrestle with, and he was in love just like we were. maddox is a handful sometimes, and beckam is so patient with him. he lets mads crawl all over him. he holds his hand while we walk. he sits by him in the car and makes him laugh when he's upset. he reads him books and races with him and is ALWAYS so excited when maddox wakes up in the morning or from a nap. he truly loves his little bro to pieces and, and i just love him for that!

he is also hilarious! dust claims that beckam gets that from him, and i won't argue with him. he talks jibberish and comes up with the funniest faces and sounds and songs. he is developing quite the imagination, and i love listening to him play with his friends or drive his car in my closet or just lay on the couch with his blanket. some of our favorite sayings lately.....

"dad, i gotta take a duke!"
"what the...."
"there's a freaking ant on the table!"

beckam also loves to learn. we're doing this little animal abc book thing, and he can tell you all about an alligator, bubble fish, and cheetah so far, and he just soaks up everything we try to teach him. he also memorized his first primary talk a few weeks ago, and it was the cutest thing e.v.e.r! he's such a smart little stud!

he is also the most loving little boy ever. he tells me over and over again every day how much he loves me, and he does the same with dust and maddie. he will grab my face and say "mom, i love you so much." it's pretty much priceless. he loves to snuggle up after naps and loves to cuddle and read books together, and nothing beats a hug and a kiss from beckam at the end of a long day :) he is so quick to forgive and has the biggest little heart, and i just can't get enough of him!

he is my sidekick all day every day, and i wouldn't have it any other way! he makes me smile and laugh. he makes me use my imagination. he drives me crazy at times, but he makes me a better person and teaches me so much every day. i treasure every day i get to be beckam's mom, and i'm so thankful that i was entrusted with his sweet little spirit. he's so special, and i just can't get over the fact that he's mine! love you magoo :)

some thoughts.....

2011-10-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

i read this on a friend's blog (thanks christal!), and it was so touching to me and exactly what i needed to hear.

Parents, remember that now is your opportunity; you may feel yourself harassed as you struggle through the days with an unruly child, but you are living the happiest and the most golden years of your life. As you tuck them into their beds at night, please be kind to them. Let them hear a kind voice amid all the angry, vile voices that they will hear throughout life. Let there be an anchor to which these little ones can turn when all else fails. The Lord help you so to do.
-Harold B. Lee

i thought of the blessing that it is to be able to tuck your children into their bed at nights and to be the one who can calm their racing heart and that feeling of them snuggling up with their head on your shoulder, and i was just overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessing of motherhood. i'm not always a kind mother. i sometimes lose my temper. i am short and impatient when there's no reason to be, and i'm so imperfect. today though, i'm going to be kinder and more patient and give one extra snuggle here and there, and i'm going to soak up my little ones while i can. i want to be that kind voice and that anchor for my boys, and i'm just so thankful for such wise words to live by :) now....to find a way to put them up on my fridge to remind me of my sacred responsibility every day.

one more story/thought from the same wise friend's blog......

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine
son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy
book.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had
passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words...PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?

LOVE this story and the reminder to search for blessings in our lives and to recognize them and to give gratitude for them. we are so blessed, and i'm just so thankful for our little life and all of the people in it! happy blessingful sunday everyone :)

just me

2011-10-24T16:29:00.001-07:00

sometimes, i just like blogging about something other than the amazing and cute and awesome boys in my life, and this 10 on tuesday fad gives me a great excuse to do just that, so here we go!

1. i could eat cereal for every meal of the day, especially if i had fresh blueberries, strawberries, and bananas to put on top. vector, honey bunches of oats, alpha-bets, cinnamo cheerios, mmmmm!

2. i think our landlord thinks that my garment top/tank top morning combo is an actual outfit. he's seen me hanging laundry and come to the door and seen me before i could run and get a shirt. oops! not sure if that's bad or not, but such is statia life!

3. i miss movies and movie popcorn. there is no theatre and no movie rental place here, but we still get all the trailers and hear the reviews! i guess it'll be fun to catch up one day.....

4. purple seems to be our family color. it's beckam's favorite color. dust picked it for our keyboard cover and it's the color of one of my favorite shirts of his, and it's my favorite toe nail polish color. maddox loves it by default :)

5. the next movie i'm going to watch when the tv goes out or when there's nothing else on is teenage mutant ninja turtles - the movie, and i can't wait! i remember being so excited when i got it for christmas years and years ago, and i just love it! haha

6. i'm dying for a good fall day - raking leaves, wearing jeans, carving pumpkins, making corn chowder and biscuits for dinner, etc. i love my island life, but i love my fall season too!

7. i kinda feel like i'm ready for baby #3, but i feel like i should be crazy to feel like that too. hmmmm......

8. why does time always feel like it's going soooo slow when you look ahead but seems to fly by when you look back?!?!

9. i was near tears the other day while i was watching a barney christmas movie with beckam. the songs were making me homesick for christmas, and i'm already sad that we won't be around our amazing families for that bestest time of year :( i'm also super excited about making our own statia christmas memories and starting our little tolman traditions though!

10. i feel kinda self-conscious doing a blog about me and my thoughts. weird how you just become mom and forget about the you before that. it's kinda nice to reminisce every once in a while though :)

"quiet time"

2011-10-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

transitioning from 3 naps to 2 or 2 naps to 1 wasn't my favorite thing to do. beckam was always tired and cranky while we tried to figure it out, but this 1 to none thing is kinda fun! beckam still needs sleep but is starting to think he's outgrown naps. for fun, we've called naps "quiet time" a few times, and i love going in to find this.....

movie still playing, drool down the side of his cheek, teddy graham crumbs on the bed, and right out of it! naps, quiet time - still the same thing around here, and i love it! nothing better than a sleeping baby :)

chicken day!

2011-10-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

statia has made me appreciate many things i took for granted at home, and one of the big ones is CHICKEN!!! most of the yummy meals i made at home seemed to center around chicken, so it's been interesting to take that aspect out of meal planning as you just never know about the meat around here! we were told early on that some stores turn the fridges/freezers off at night to save electricity, and even when you take a risk and get some "good" chicken, it's tough and just not the same.

this though........mmmmmmmmmm. on saturdays, there are some people who ship legitimate chicken over from st. maarten and bbq it up, and it's sooooo good! we call it chicken day, and it's pretty freakin awesome! the kids play at the park while.....

we get our chicken on! they also have johnny cakes, and it's just a pretty yummy happy chicken day when saturday rolls around!

moral of the story......enjoy and appreciate your chicken people :)

5-on-5

2011-10-21T05:28:00.001-07:00

I am going to be honest with you....I don't remember a lot about our big day back 5 years ago on October 21, 2006. I don't remember what we ate, what the decorations looked like or even what was really said in the course of the day. What I do remember and what will always remain with me is the first time I saw lynz in her wedding dress. I had just changed and the temple workers had asked me to sit and wait for my new bride. I sat and sat and sat and as Brad Paisley says "was waiting on a woman" but let me tell you....it was well worth it!!!!! She walked out in her amazing wedding dress and my jaw just dropped. She looked absolutely beautiful!!!!! I will never forget how I felt when I saw her and we grabbed hands and walked out as a Husband and Wife ready to begin a life full of memories and experiences that would continue the process of binding us together as an eternal family. How grateful I am for Lynz and for the past 5 years we have had together!!!

I thought it fitting that on our 5 year anniversary I would do a 5-0n-5. 5 things that I love, respect, adore, and admire about my friend. Here it goes:

1. She is the most strong-willed and determined woman I have ever known. When Lynz sets her mind to something she does it wholeheartedly. Recently she has been doing Zumba 2x/week and running in the mornings at 6am 3x/week. She has done awesome!!! I am inspired by her dedication and her will to do what she has said she would do. Not long ago when we were living in Portland, Lynz had told me she wanted to run a 10k. She began running on the treadmill at the complex where we were living and that continued for a good while. I came home from school one day and lynz was home and so excited to tell me about her day. The first thing she told me was that she had run 10k on the treadmill that day. I was so proud of her and impressed by her doing what she actually said she was going to do. That's why I love her today :)

2. She is an amazing mom and wife. I know that is the token answer of a lot of husbands when asked what they love about their wives but I feel like I have gotten a glimpse of a different side of Lynz as a mom and wife on this tiny island of Statia where we are living. A lot of people think....oh man they are living in Caribbean while Dust is in school, how hard can life be. Well, its fun living on a remote island for the first week as everything is new and exciting. After the honeymoon phase wears off the realization hits that...we do live on a island and my husband is in school 6 days a week for most of the day and there is very little to do besides the beach. Lynz has done an amazing job compensating for the lack of things to do by being creative with the boys in the things they do around the house and the I have seen an increase of patience and love towards them and me. She has an ability to turn any situation into the best it can possibly be and that rubs off on me and the boys. She definitely sets the tone in our home and I have realized that more and more as we have lived in Statia. That's why I love her today :)

3. The quote "don't pass judgement on someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes" can be applied perfectly to Lynz. We at times have difference of opinions and as she has taught me...that is a good thing in a marriage. When those moments do come up whether in a discussion we are having or in any number of situations, lynz tries to step back from the situation and stand in the other persons shoes. She tries to understand the other point of view. She doesn't rush to judgement or refuse to move from what she is saying. She considers everything and is one of the most compassionate and caring people I know. She honestly wants to understand someone else and you can see that and feel that when those moments come up. She is a "true" friend to me, the boys and so many others. This extends to the forgiving nature that she has. She has a pure heart, one that I truly believe sees the good in everyone and everything. She has a way of making you feel like you matter and that she loves you unconditionally no matter the circumstances. That's why I love her today :)

4. Freak....I wish I would have learned to play the piano!!! Every time I see Lynz play the piano I am jealous that she has that talent. I don't know if she knows this but I love instrumental piano music. I could listen to it for hours and hours. Her parents used to have a piano and I loved it when she would just sit down and start playing. One of the things I look forward to the most is one day having a piano in our home. I want her to teach the boys to play and who knows...maybe one day ME!!! Her favorite thing to play are hymns and I look forward to the day when on a Sunday morning she can sit down at the piano and play some hymns or the boys can. Music has an unbelievable way of changing the mood of a day or a moment and I am grateful that lynz has that talent. That's why I love her today :)

5. I don't know why I notice this but Lynz has great feet...Nice looking toes that are always painted some jazzy color. Not much more to say about this one....she has taught me to appreciate the small things....like painted toe-nails. that's why I love her today :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FRIEND!!!!!

A little shot of Statia:

half a decade

2011-10-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

this happened 5 years ago believe it or not, and i can safely say that i'm wrapping up the best 5 years of my life today and that i can't wait for the next eternity i get to spend with my dust!

we have had soooooo many good times together, and he really is my bestest friend in the whole wide world!

we've had so much fun eating out, snowboarding, bridge jumping, white water rafting, egg rolling, skeet shooting, sun burning, puddle jumping, and snorkeling together.

i am so thankful for my friend. when i think about the things i love and appreciate about him, the list seems endless. he is so so good to me and the most amazing dad, and he makes me want to be a better wife, friend, mom, and person.

he encourages me to ilghten up (which i need oh so badly sometimes) and finds the good in every situation. he is so positive and the hardest worker of anyone i know. he has such a strong testimony and such a special relationship with the Savior, and i'm so thankful for the priesthood he holds and the way he leads our family.

he is my rock in every situation, and i'm so proud of him. we have lived in 5 houses and 3 countries and we have the most awesome boys and can't wait to add to this crazy little family one day. sometimes, we joke about life before kids and how awesome it was, but we have loved every step of our adventures over the last 5 years, and we can't wait for the adventures that lay ahead! sometimes, it's a little scary to not know where we're going to end up or what's going to happen next, but we have each other and as cheesy as it sounds, that's really all that matters to me!

i love you more than ever friend, and just thank you for being you and choosing me! happy half a decade to you and love you forever and ever :)

perfect beach day!

2011-10-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

i know that this blog will see many a beach pictures over the next year or so, but we had the most perfect beach day the other day, and i actually brought my camera to prove it!

it took us a while, but we've got the beach down now. the boys love it and could stay for hours. maddox doesn't eat the sand anymore. beckam isn't scared of the water touching his toes. we bought some beach toys. i've learned to bring juice and snacks for the ride home to keep the peace. i've also learned to bring a bottle of water to rinse off our toes, and we just LOVE the beach!

beckam explores around with pearl and loves jumping in the waves. him and maddox still get rocked by a big one every now and again, but such is beach life!
ps - thank you to lianna for rescuing maddie here while i took pictures of him getting trashed by another big wave!

me and my beach bum girls :)

me and my beach bum boys!

i already feel sad that we only have 14 months left to enjoy this little beach life over here, and i can't wait for our families to come beach it up with us :) there is nothing better than a perfect beach day with my boys!

fhe fun

2011-10-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

we've really been trying to keep up with fhe lately, and beckam did his 1st lesson the other night. it was super cute, and i had so much fun planning it with him! we took the camera out and took some pics of things that he was thankful for, and then we showed dust a little slideshow and talked about why it's important to notice the little things that Jesus made for us and to say thank you for them :)

treat bracelets (as they're called in our house) cuz they're so yummy and spiders cuz they eat the little bugs and are kinda cool....sometimes)

a coconut tree in our yard cuz that's just kinda cool and lizards cuz they're cool too!

guavas and rocks

beautiful flowers and cars with a/c and fun music to dance to :)

bumblebees who make yummy honey and sunscreen to save us from sunburns

and.....sand! you can't really live in the caribbean and not be thankful for sand :)

kind of a boring post, but i thought the things he came up with were super cute, and it was really fun to talk about being thankful and to appreciate the little blessings in our lives with my boy :)

brother love

2011-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

it was really a dream come true to find out that maddox was a boy cuz every boy needs a brother, and being 19 months apart, we loved the idea of our boys being best friends and worst enemies and basketball teammates and missionaries together and everything else :) beckam has always loved maddox, but just recently, these brothers have become friends, and it's so fun!!!

maddox follows beckam everywhere and especially loves to sit on time outs with his big brother. beckam....not such a fan. lol

they do most everything together like it or not, and i just treasure every smile, giggle, and wrestle i get out of my boys!

just love these little friends of mine and can't wait to watch their friendship grow more and more every day!

goldilocks

2011-10-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

maddie got his 1st hair cut the other day, and you have to blog stuff like that for the 2nd child cuz it's already not fair that we have 2 million times more pictures and videos of the 1st child right?!?! haha what do you do when the 3rd comes around is my question!

anyway, licorice in hand, maddox was ready for his 1st hair cut and thank goodness cuz those curls were getting a little warm for this hotter than hot weather over here!

the only tears came when we took the licorice away after the cut was done to wash him up! he did great and what a little stud eh! (check out those rolls by the way! love it!)

this little man is working on all of his molars and 2 eye teeth right now, so he's a little whiny and clingy, but he's also learning to talk and dance and adventure around with his older brother, and the happy smiley cute times definitely outweigh the get this teething thing over with NOW times!

how can they not with these faces that make me smile all the day long :)

love you little maddie boy!

benji

2011-10-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

we have a little friend over here name benji, and he is this adorable little 50 year old turtle. every time we walked past his house, we would stop in for a visit, and he was usually sleeping in the shade but would every once in a while come when we called him and give the boys a little up close and personal visit!

isn't he so cute!?! i guess this lady found him a long time ago, and she feeds him scraps from her kitchen, and he lives in her yard, and she is on her death bed, but benji is still just chilin in the shade eating her leftovers :)

now that we have a car, we see much of benji anymore, but we stopped over yesterday for a little visit, and he's just our most favorite turtle friend on the island. love you benji boy!

the simple things

2011-10-03T11:24:00.001-07:00

my friend has this amazing blog with a weekly event called simple things sunday. people from all over the world post a simple picture from their past week to celebrate the simple things in life with their fellow bloggers. she's doing a giveaway this week, and it's inspired me to finally join in her little simple things sunday party :)

here is my simple things picture. there isn't a lot of chicken on this tiny little statia island, and if you are lucky enough to run into some at one of the little grocery stores, you never know if it will be good or if it's spent the day sitting on a truck out in the blazing sun before making it to the freezer section. thankfully, there is chicken day saturdays where these people ship in chicken from st. maarten and grill it up and sell it. mmmmmmm! never thought i'd be so thankful and so excited about chicken!

life changing teeko

2011-09-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

this is teeko.

as named by beckam, and we are in love!!!! this little kia rio has changed our little statia life, and we are loving every minute of it! it reminds us daily that "money is d motive," and on the front window it says "509 BOSS" (509 is the area code), and on the driver's window, it says "hot spitter." we are riding in style with our pimped out window tinted little teeko, and we have been driving wherever whenever we can!

one of our favorite places to drive to is the park. i can't tell you how many times beckam asked if we could go to the park while we've lived here, and we never could (or would) cuz it was such a long hot walk away. now though, we can go whenever we want, and my boys are park-a-holics!

our statia park comes equipped with swings, teeter totters, slides, monkey bars, and a merry-go-round. it's pretty much AMAZING!

a park trip is always followed by a shower here though, that's for sure! that's the fun of it though right?!?!

this was our 1st trip to the park, and it was so fun to have some friends to play with :)

yay for parks and cars!!!

may as well!

2011-09-22T03:02:00.000-07:00

so.....beckam started waking up around 5am back in january. not cool, but i thought it would be a phase like a lot of the not cool things are with babies/toddlers. sadly, it's just after 5:30 right now, and even though 5:30 is better than 5, this "phase" has lasted long enough! it's so frustrating, and yes, we've tried everything :( it doesn't help that he shares a room with mads or that he wakes up totally happy, and me getting frustrated also doesn't really help. so.....instead of going back to bed frustrated and tired, i decided to blog instead. may as well right! so, here are some of the goings on as of late around here.......

this is what happens when you put the wrong kid down for a nap first! haha too cute! maddie is also learning to feed himself, and i love it!

i love this one of maddie and the little crab. he was so intrigued and even held it for a minute, but once it started crawling on his hand, he threw it on the ground immediately. fun to look at from a distance though! and without carpet here, we spend (or at least the boys would love to spend) a lot of time on the 2 beds in this house wrestling, playing, and reading books. i never realized how much i take carpet for granted and how thankful i am for beds!

i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but i could eat popcorn for dinner every night of every week of every year. i love it, and i love that my boys love it too! we had a little movie afternoon last sunday, and the boys helped me make and then eat 2 big batches. mmmmmm :)

we get a lot of comments about who these boys look like, but it remains agreed by everyone that they have their differences! i think we've got 1 hill and 1 tolman for sure though :)

both of my boys are pretty good about sleeping when they're tired no matter where they are, and it comes in handy on sunday afternoons when dad needs a nap but there's only 2 beds and when you have to go to the store whether it's nap time or not!

i think most kids go through a shoe obsession stage, and maddie is there right now! he loves shoes and is constantly trying to put on and then walk around in anyone's shoes but his own! it's really cute but boy does he get frustrated when he can't figure it out! haha

haha they had a big1st term party last weekend, and the kids had so much fun dancing to the loud music. can't you see the excitement in beckam's face! i should say that the other kids had so much fun cuz this is what beckam did in the middle of the dance floor while everyone danced around him. i guess he's kinda shy......or just unimpressed by their dancing skills!

a glimpse into the future perhaps?!?!

it doesn't get much better than brothers! these 2 are pretty inseparable - due to maddie's obsession with his big brother for the most part - and i love it!

so, a few goings on in our little caribbean life from me to you :) we miss our families every day, but we're slowly but surely getting used to our little statia reality again and trying to love each and every day that we're blessed to be on this adventure together!

the 10 thing

2011-09-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

i know it's not tuesday, but i've been meaning to do this 10 random thing for a while, so i'll pretend it's tuesday cuz some of you are still asleep from tuesday night's sleep and give it a go!

1. i eat a treat as soon as i get out of bed almost every morning. if there isn't something homemade, there is usually something boughten and hidden away for my early morning addiction. it's the best way to start a day!

2. i've peed my pants numerous times since getting pregnant the 1st time, and i just can't seem to hold it very good anymore. i know.....do my kegels blah blah blah. who really sits there and thinks to wink 4 times a day though?!?! not me!

3. i'm a pretty lame mom sometimes, and the fact that my boys whine and cry when dust leaves and are the happiest when he gets home only confirms that to me every days. creativity is not me, and i'm jealous of people who are blessed with that talent.

4. i hate ants. i also hate the word hate and hardly ever use it, so i hope you get the passion behind my extreme dislike for these creatures. they are EVERYWHERE at my house, and when i was told that you couldn't leave a scrap of food out or you'd be attacked by ants, they weren't kidding! dust obviously didn't get the memo and left a cheese slice wrapper on the counter the other night. holy army of ants!!!!! thank goodness for BOP (our toxic ant killer). one army down, thousands more to go!

5. i went to my 1st zumba class last night, and i totally got my groove on! haha ya right! i just wish i could shake it like our teacher shakes it. i can get the movement down, but i have zero shaking ability!

6. our teacher told us to just go home and stand in front of a mirror and practice when someone asked her how she was so good. i couldn't bring myself to do it while dust was home last night, but i might have a mirror date while the boys have a nap this afternoon!

7. i loved doing laundry at home, but something about filling a dirty old tub with a hose once to wash and then again to rinse and letting down a dirty gray house down in our "yard" to drown out the tarantulas and snakes and geckos and to drain my dirty old tub and then ringing out towels and blankets and our clothes by hand has turned me against the chore of laundry. it's just not as fun that way.

8. i miss my dvr. there are many a good shows coming on this fall, and some of the ones i want to watch overlap which means.....that i have to choose. boo! the things you learn to appreciate by living on an island are endless!

9. skype is the most amazing thing ever! i can't imagine being on this crazy little adventure without being able to talk to our families, and i'm soooooo thankful for technology and the crazy advances that it makes all the time even though my kids still aren't allowed to have a cell phone til they're 16, and their phone won't have a texting option.

10. time to go fill the washing machine again, but have i mentioned that even though i don't the laundry that comes along with being a mom, i truly feel blessed every day to be a mom and to be blessed with these 2 amazing boys! they're the best, and i love my life!!!

grandma gigi

2011-09-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

i was feeling strong and committed to catching up on our summer fun, and then i realized that i left all of my summer pics on my mom and dad's computer in canada :( looks like i'll have to catch up another time, and for now - my new favorite picture.

this is my grandma hill with 2 of her biggest fans! becks and mads love their grandma gigi, and i do too. she is the best orange roll maker i know. she is one of the most kind and loving people in the whole wide world, and i've learned so much from her about being a good wife, mom, grandma, and friend. she gives the most perfect advice is sooooo supportive in whatever i do. i know i can count on her for any and everything, and i just love her eleventy four! the boys miss you already grams - your stories, your fruit snacks and M&M's, your songs, and your hugs :) love you!

overwhelmed

2011-08-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

i'm so jealous of all of you who have kept up on your blog over the summer. i keep wanting to do a new post but where the crap do i start?!?! i'm so far behind and so very overwhelmed. dust says "who cares" and i kinda wish i could have that attitude, but i know i'll have to catch up eventually. sadly......it won't start today. here's a few favorite pics as of late though! happy blog slacking summer :)

cake smashing fun!

2011-07-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

this little man turned 1 the other day!

i know i'm a little late, but better late than never with the present opening, cake eating, bike riding, pool splashing pictures from the birthday party for my baby boy right?!?!

beckam "helped" open the presents while....

maddox ate the cards but it didn't matter cuz......

he still got the goods and loved everything he got!

my friend brandy made beckam's 1st birthday cake, but i had no brandy for maddie's 1st :( i had to take it upon myself this time, but considering that i have little to no creative or artistic talent, i was a little nervous to say the least! haha i knew it would be nothing great, and really, i just wanted it to look like what i meant it to look like! so......what do you think???? baseball right?!? success and mads loved it!

he didn't let us down with the cake smashing thing and covered his face and hands in baseball like we hoped! yummmmmmy!

we couldn't forget about dad back in statia, so thanks to skype he got in on some of the action :)

here's cute little emery with her special piece of cake. could she get any cuter?!?!

big brother had to get in on some cake action too, and he did it cake smashing style! love you becks!

we just had family join us for the big p.a.r.t.y, and here's the birthday boy with some of the grandparents. grandpa smith won him over with his funny noises, and he was a wiggly little worm once he got the grandma and grandpa moj! haha love you guys!!!

this happy little 1 year old man makes our family complete (for now at least!), and we just love him so so much! some of the things going on for him now that he's 1 you might wonder (but probably not cuz mostly just parents and grandparents wonder and know about these things. let's be honest, but here they are anyway).........

-started the 3-4 steps wobble walking at 10 months but started the real thing 1 week before his 1st birthday
-LOVES blueberries and watermelon and oatmeal and anything cold but especially freezies (like his dad)
-has recently decided that he's a "blanket" baby and went with the blue and yellow fleece duck one (not my 1st choice but whatever)
-adores his older brother and wants to do everything beckam does already - so cute!
-weighed in at 23.8lbs a few days after his birthday (only 4lbs less than his big brother)
-has the cutest smile EVER!!!!!
-loves peek-a-boo and covers his ears instead of his eyes
-isn't into tv at all.....yet (i'm still working on it though!)
-loves singing time before bed, especially his song
-new favorite toy - stairs
-has a few "words" - ball, bird, mama, dad, baba, cheers, juice
-is a screamer - when he wants something, when he's done eating, when he's tired, when he's getting dressed, when he's happy. you always know where maddox is, that's for sure, and if you don't.......be very very scared.
-loves stuffed animals and snuggling with his blanket and his mom and dad and pretty much whoever is holding him
-is a people person (unlike beckam). he will go to anyone and smile and snuggle and walk and talk and he loves it!
-sleeps through the night unless he poops - can't sleep with a poopy diaper.
-looks like his mama and has a sweet caribbean tan :)

he is so stinkin cute and happy, and he makes us all smile every day. thank you for waking up happy and helping me to wake up happy maddie boy. you are a powerful influence in our family already, and i can't wait to keep getting to know you as you grow up. we love you eleventy four and happy happy birthday mister boy :)

something missing

2011-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

dust informed me the other day that it's time for a new blog. he's apparently sick of looking at the same picture of us on the curb every time our homepage comes up, and because he's all alone in statia while we're here living up this amazing southern AB summer, i figured i could do him this small favor ;)

there is only 1 thing missing from my new favorite picture friend, and that's you! now, you can look at this picture every time our homepage comes up and imagine you next to mads in the next fort we build when you get here in just 25 more sleeps! we our dad soooo much and can't wait for aug 17th!

ps - i self-timered this picture to prove that i'm there when my kids are being cute and having fun, and i'm even part of the fun sometimes! go figure!

sandy faces

2011-06-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

i noticed that there were a few pictures that didn't really fit anywhere on the past few posts, so here are a few of my favorite things that haven't made the blog yet......

beach days with my boys and rides to the beach! i love when dust gets to come with us and when we luck out and get a ride to save us the hike - thanks eric and cara :)

MY BOYS!!!!! i've always wanted a little girl, and i still want a pig tailed painted nails sundressed little gal eventually, but i love my boys and boys in general! these 2 little men are my whole life, and i love being their mom so so sooooo much!

we love friends! beckam has so many little friends, and he sleeps with one or two or twenty every night :) i didn't know he strategically lined them up around his face before everyone drifted off to sleep though, and i love it!

i love our chariot stroller life. i know i may at times complain about how hard it is to push a 75lbs (kids included) stroller all around this hilly little island, but i love it. i love how beckam can jump in and out on our walks. i love the exercise i get. i love how it fits my groceries. i love how comfy it is for the kids too - as shown here by mads! haha

i love our little farm animal life and how beckam named our ROOSTER penny! haha he had fun feeding penny for a little while, but their friendship is over now after penny mistook beckam's finger for a cracker. oops! i also love this cute little truly excited about farm life face :)

lastly, i love happy sandy beach faces! sometimes, i'm anal and can't stand that maddox eats the sand and that beckam has it in his hair and ears and nose and everywhere else, but how cute are these little faces!

so.....if you're ever having "a day" with your little rascals (love that movie by the way), give them a bucket of sand, and let them go at it :) one of my favorite things!

snorkel date

2011-06-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

as many of you know, i'm not home in canada, and me and the boys will be here for about 2 months.....leaving dust in statia all alone :( we are missing him like crazy, but lucky for me, we got a little date in before i left!

dust asked cara (who i love forever and ever for giving us afternoon away - just us) to watch the boys and got our snorkel gear ready, and we had a little statia date for the afternoon! it was so fun! we ate at The Golden Era, and we were pleasantly surprised. we didn't ask about what the burgers were made of, but we knew that no one we knew of had gotten sick by eating there before, so burgers and fries it was! we were right by the ocean, and we watched the crawfish wandering around on the rocks below us. the food was good, and it was just so nice to be just the 2 of us again for a few hours :)

next, dust re-taught me how to snorkel, and it was AMAZING! i love snorkelling and love that we have the gear and the ocean at our fingertips. the water was perfect and clear and calm, and we had so much fun trying to find cool things to look at. dust dove down and got a starfish, and we saw lots of cool coral and fish on our little adventure. we collected some seashells for beckam's collections and just floated around and relaxed a little before hiking home. it was sooooo what we needed before being apart for so long and just a perfect afternoon on statia :)

p.s. i never thought i would go snorkelling on a date, and i'm just so thankful for and amazed at our little life over here. still hasn't sunken in that we live here and that this really is our little life!
p.p.s. i just realized that this is the 1st picture of just me and dust over here. guess we need more dates so we can take more pics!

movie night!

2011-06-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

i can't express the excitement i felt when i heard that the school was putting on a little movie night! 4pm "Rio" for the kids and 6pm "Pirates 18" or whatever for the big kids. movie night in statia includes refreshments in the form of cupcakes, pop, and microwave popcorn, and we weren't complaining at all!

the school also provides the comfiest cushiest most extravagant movie chairs ever ;) seriously......when is the last time you sat in one of these beauts!?!

beckam was so excited for popcorn and lasted about 45 mins before he was done with the pirated fuzzy projected on to dust's classroom wall version of rio, but it was so fun! lianna and pearl made sure to get front row seats :)

mads made it about 1/2 hour before he was whining enough to interrupt everyone's viewing pleasure, so the tolmans ducked out early for dinner, but we already can't wait for another statia movie night!

statia church life

2011-06-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

church was something we were very curious about moving to a tiny tropical island...how would it work, how many people would come, where would it be...??? what i can tell you now after attending our meetings every sunday with our little LDS group for the past 2 months is that church is one of our favorite things in statia!

here is the view as you walk into the erickson's home where we hold church every week. they turn their living room into our chapel for the day, and i'm always just so thankful that they open their house to us week after week. it's perfect!

it's also hot hot hot as everything else is on statia. here are the jensen's trying to cool off before sacrament starts!

here is the nursery room where we have 4 little ones that play together every week. pretty good considering we only have between 20-24 memebers in total every week!

here is our organist, tiffany, and she's also a primary and sunday school teacher along with the rest of us!

here is randal, brother cooper, our "group leader" with his cute little alivia :)

our little LDS group family!

we stick with the "pre-assigned seating" rule of thumb even in statia. here is our spot every week! haha

one of beckam's favorite part of church - patches and cocoa, the ward pets! only in statia!

we have to leave the front door open for air flow, but this requires some security measures to keep mads in the house instead of out playing with the rats and snakes and lizards. love it!

walking home from church like we do every sunday! i love our walks to and from church, and i love church on statia. where else can you wear shorts and flip flops and be done all your meetings after an hour and a half! love you my little LDS statia group :)

little nemo!

2011-06-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

swimming lessons saturdays are one of our favorite things in statia. beckam asks about the pool every day and has really progressed with his swimming if you can call it that! the school rents out the pool here, and then some of the students volunteer and teach the kids swim lessons. it's awesome :)

mads LOVES the water! he floats around in his floaty and plays with flutter boards and watches the kids swim and spalshes and is just a happy little camper! we still dunk him every once in a while too, and he loves it!

i love the next 3 succession pictures. beckam was so happy with dad carrying him around, totally not ok with being on his own, and completely unimpressed that his dad would ever do that to him. haha love it!

beckam has actually become quite the little nemo though. he went from keeping his legs around me with a death grip to swimming on his own completely! he started in maddox's baby floaty and now jumps in and swims back to the ladder with his puddle jumper wonder. it's awesome, and we're so proud of him! his favorite thing to do though is to sit on the side and kick and splash whoever is swimming by. thankfully, he can take some of his own medicine!

cara and lianna were practicing their synchronized swimming routine - you go girls! haha

my happy little swimmers! can't wait for many more swimming saturdays!!!

ward party - statia style!

2011-06-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

here are a few pics from our 1st "ward" (or LDS group as our small clan is called) party. we had it at our beach, and randal arranged to have a BBQ brought down, and it was probably the best meal i've had since we've been here! mmmm......burgers.....

cara and mad dog

me and the boys enjoying the grub!

jeremy bought all the kids popsicles for dessert, and they were in heaven! pearl and beckam were "cheers"ing it up, and the moms were on hand with paper towels trying to keep the stickiness to a minimal - good luck!

the kids enjoying their popsicles while playing in the ocean! it was a great ward party if you ask me!

the caribbean sun

2011-06-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

i know that we all share the same sun no matter where we live, but it is definitely hotter here! we made fast friends with the caribbean sun the other day, and here are the results......

we usually go to the beach after 3pm and rarely use sunscreen. we switched it up this time though and went at 10 which was just fine and dandy, but we neglected to remember the sunscreen yet again, and we learned our lesson! beckam's looks worse than it really was, but me and dust got it bad!!! i knew that vinegar was supposed to help as we sat around trying not to let our backs or shoulders touch anything, but we had none, and all the stores were closed. so, i googled home remedies and found out that mustard has high levels of vinegar! haha dust was in serious need of some relief, so much in fact that he let me rub our honey mustard all over his back - ewww!

it definitely helped, but he was still walking to school with his backpack on his front for a few days to come! i didn't think my burn was as bad to begin with, but when my shoulders were still itching as bad as i've ever itched 2 weeks later, i knew that my skin had some real damage! it's of course better now, and the peeling is over, but we will never hit up the beach without sunscreen again! lesson learned!

p.s. i'm catching up on blogs, so there's another new one below in case you just can't get enough of our statian adventure! enjoy ;)

the blue store

2011-06-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

every day, beckam asks if we can go to the blue store. it may be because it one of the only places on statia where you can get ice cream, or it may be that he just wants to get out of the house, and he knows it's the closest and easiest destination, but either way, we LOVE the blue store!

ice cream days are always a hit! oh and just in case you're wondering, the ice cream here isn't exactly the same as back home, but it tastes just as good on a hot day!

aren't these 2 just too cute together! haha i love how there's ice cream running down the cones and all over the place too. welcome to statia!

a sweet timer shot we got on our way home of the crew. yay for blue store runs!

i also had to include this picture. usually, mads it the one falling asleep, but beckam used his little brother's head as support this time - too cute! we love our walks here and love that cooper's lent us a stroller where our boys can sleep on the way to wherever we're going!

the good and the bad and ugly

2011-06-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

still catching up with some of our favorite sunset shots and then some of my not so favorite shots of the ugly part of the caribbean. enjoy the good ones first :)

this world is such a beautiful place, and we are so blessed to see these beautiful sights as we look out our front door while we're eating dinner every night. i'm so thankful for beautiful sunsets!!!

now....things that i don't love so much about this beautiful place. don't get my wrong, i love it here, but i do not love sharing here with these guys! i know that geckos/lizards (still don't really know which are which) are good creatures that eat bugs and are totally harmless, but they're just kinda creepy ya know?!?! there are some pretty looking ones, but i think they're kinda creepy ugly little guys for the most part.

this little guy was chillin on our front porch the other night. i think hermit crabs are pretty cool, but i think they're super cool in a tank at the zoo or an aquarium! haha

it's rainy season here which isn't so good for my jumpy arachnophobic bug hating self. this ginormous slug on the wall has been the least of my problems, but it's still gross!

this, on the other hand, is the death of me! dust got this guy while i stood on the couch doing the typical girlish cover your mouth to hold the screams and profanities in kinda thing - not cool!!!! i personally have now killed 2 guys at least this size since while dust enjoys the air conditioned student life, and it was not an easy feat!

i've decided that i have a serious case of arachnophobia, and i'm working on figuring out how to get into predator mode and just kill the ugly sons of guns, but i still find myself perched up on a chair of some sort with bug spray in one hand with goosebumps all over my body with the shakes terrified of these creepy crawly creatures! i can handle the little ones, but i still cannot handle the big ones. it's just part of living here, but it's not my favorite part, that's for sure!

i couldn't end a post with that ugly picture! so, here are a few from our latest beach trip on tuesday :) all packed up and ready to go!

can't get enough of my boys!!! love these boys more than words can say!

hot home life

2011-06-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

so.....it's kinda hot here in case i haven't mentioned that yet, and that means lots of beach time but also lots of time hiding from the scorching sun inside every once in a while too. here are some random pics of our statia home life and the things we come up with to keep us busy when it feels like it's 38 degrees outside :)

playing on the bed is an every day occurrence. our boys LOVE it, and we don't mind it either cuz the only air conditioners in our place are in the bedrooms! mads got bored of the usual routine the other day and switched it up with some toilet paper action. so fun!

we started a little boy band the other day - nothing like drummin on a cracker box to pass the time! i also just had to include this smiley one of mads cuz his smiles just keep getting cuter and cuter :) he practices every day!

dust has made an art of sleeping our super crazy tiny couches. not sure why he fell asleep with beckam's golf club or how someone could ever fall asleep like that, but it was worth a picture!

beckam's rescue mission to save his basketball with his golf club from the kitchen counter where he shot it. success!

yay for imovie! beckam LOVES watching "beckam movies" and now they can play over and over again for more side splitting entertainment!

you can't live in the caribbean and not have some fun with the fly swatter. there are all sorts of things to swat and kill, and our scared timid little beckam is a bug killing machine over here!

coloring........of course!

here is becks "driving his car." well, he kinda fell asleep at the wheel, but he pretends our closet is his car and goes in there to go for a drive to the zoo all the time. didn't make it this time though!

maddox spends all day collecting a nice little film of dirt and fluff and grossness under his neck and all over really every day. it's just part of being 11 months old and crawling around on tile floors every day. i swear i sweep like 3 times a day, but it's just part of statia home life. we love baths!!!

we line up apples and oranges at random and then practice our cheesiest smile, and we use the beach mat for some tub time in our yard when we've really exhausted resources inside and when the clouds cover the sun for a minute or two.

we fall asleep at 9:30 in the morning cuz we wake up at 5am, and we make sure every last part of our body is under the heavy blanket - cuz that's just what you do in the caribbean!

we feed roosters (beckam named this one penny) crackers and love every minute of it! beckam was sooo excited when he took the cracker and ran away, and i wasn't so excited when penny hung around outside our gate all day cock-a-doodle-dooing for more! haha

sometimes, we're just too tuckered out for more fun, and we have a nice shiny sweaty nap too. love this one of a little nap with my man, and even though i feel like doing this a lot of the time, i'm learning to be creative little by little and will keep trying to come up with fun things to do inside on a hot day - cuz that's every day!

p.s. any creative or not creative but things i wouldn't think of suggestions are welcome!

caribbean crazy ants

2011-06-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

these are caribbean crazy ants, and they are another "welcome to statia" thing that we are trying to get used to over here! thankfully, that isn't my hand or anyone's that i know, but i know those ants!

1 tiny crumb on the floor or drip on the counter warrants the entire colony of ants to join the food party, and our little friends are also interestingly enough attracted to electrical equipment. they've been seen coming out of outlets, straightening irons, blow dryers, and computers. we had only heard about it until today. just about the "v" you can meet one of our little friends.....

sooooo annoying! nothing you can do to stop them, so we will now get used to little ants going in and coming out of the keys on our keyboard and hope they just go in and check things out and then leave. haha ya right! welcome to the caribbean - you think you've solved the ant problem in the kitchen, and they move to the desk!

oh and i love our little red dots at the bottom of our computer and that help us keep it in the hot zone where we pick up the best internet signal! haha welcome to statia - love it!

statia sights

2011-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

we walk most everywhere when it comes to statia so far, but we were lucky enough to tour around a bit when we 1st got here with the jensens who borrowed someone's car - if you can even call it a car! haha first stop was white rock (??? hope i got that right). it's a cool look out point, and you can see saba, st. kitts, and st. maarten in the distance. the waves were crashing up against the shore below us, and it was just one of the 1st moments that i was like.......we freakin live here!

white rock also marked the beginning of pearl's and beckam's friendship, and it has only bloomed since then! these 2 are soooo cute together :)

next was the botanical gardens, and it was way cool! there were passion fruit trees, mango trees, cashew trees, pineapple bushes, and tons of other beautiful flowers and cool looking plants and fruit.

the kids had a blast running around too. here's beckam with his passion fruit, doing his scared face by a big cactus, and cleaning off his feet of course. that has become a daily ritual around here. his feet have to stay clean, but they're always dirty!

there was also a little park there, and beckam led the way back and forth from slide to slide. dust and i were shocked at the lack of fear he had as he climbed over rocks and ran down trails and checked out bugs and lizards along the way. statia has really changed our little becks and for the better :)

mads is at a rough stage for island life. he's a crawling, eating machine which doesn't jive so well with all of the dirt and ant hills and sand and bugs here. he loved the rocking horse thing though and is ok watching his brother adventure around from our arms for now!

another......we live here?!?!? moment. pretty sunset over a tropical paradise that we call home. crazy!!!

i'm there sure are many more sights, and we will find them once we get a car. stay tuned :)

dive statia

2011-06-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

this is "our" beach. it's called dive statia, and we have spent lots of time here over the past month! there is lots of sand to play with and lots of waves to play in, and we love our beach days :)

this....is how we get to the beach!

it's a 25-30 minute walk to the beach for us, and it's almost all down hill. it's great going there but not so fun coming back. thankfully, the coopers lent us their chariot stroller, so both boys saddle up for a smooth ride while we (and by we, i mean dust) gear up for a serious work out to get home. the hardest part is the slave path as seen here. it's soooooo steep and such a hard surface to push a stroller on. i had to do it by myself the other day, and i nearly got run over by the stroller rolling back over me! it's brutal but some good exercise and totally worth it of course!

the 1st dip in the ocean felt great! beckam got to try out his new puddle jumper floaty thingy, and he did pretty good considering he's not a huge fan at all of water. he had a pretty tight grip on me, but we floated around and tried to keep the saltwater out of our mouths!

maddox was in HEAVEN! he loves the water loved his little floaty and just took in the whole ocean experience. the lull of the waves actually put our little man right to sleep! haha it was pretty cute!

after cooling off in the water, it was sand time! beckam was initially more scared of the sand than the water, but he's warmed up over time. he loves playing in the soft black stuff now, and mads was so curious about it to begin. like everything else these days, it quickly made its way to his mouth, and he had a little sand snack. mmmm!

just chillin on our beach in the caribbean :) so fun!

the move to statia

2011-05-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

i'm finally caught up on my blog enough to talk about our new little life! well, at least our adventure to the island. 7 bags with 2 weighing over 60lbs later, and we had everything ready to go!

my mom took us up to calgary to catch our 12:40am flight, and the boys slept the whole way there. they weren't overly happy to be wakened up by the lights of the airport, but thankfully, there was a little play place where they relaxed and played after we checked our whole life packed up in suitcases. we had the nicest lady helping us, and she marked suitcases as baby seats to save us some moola in the end :) thank you jodene, and thank you mom for seeing us off and holding back your tears so that i could hold back mine!

the boys slept pretty much the whole flight to toronto, and then we had some breakfast, explored around a little, and had some naps while we waited for our next flight to st. maarten. the boys both did so well sleeping on the floor as people hustled and bustled around them, and yes......that is a sound machine between them. i thought it would help, and if that makes me a freak or a nerd, i'm ok with it!

don't mind the double (or yes, maybe triple) chin i have going on here. i wanted a picture of all of us on the flight, but this is the best we could do! mads had a good 1/2 hour spell where absolutely nothing would calm him down, and we had lots of fidgety and cramped moments, but we made it to st. maarten in one piece! holy smokers was it hot getting off that plane! welcome to your new life!

we got all of our bags (or what we thought were all of our bags) and then had to re-check them for our separate flight to st. eustatius (statia). it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R, and mads couldn't take it anymore. they weren't quite as friendly as i thought they'd be, but beckam and maddox gave the locals some long hard looks too! haha they made friends quick though, and everyone's spirits lifted once the bags were checked and when we spotted dominos in the food court! yummm!!!

we had some time before our statia flight, so we explored a little and found lots of mice and lizards and ants and beautiful views outside the airport. the boys loved being outside, and i was just trying to accept the humidty and beauty of where we'd be living for the next 2 years!

the boys did so great on our 20 hour adventure over here. we had our moments, and i will forever dread and avoid security check time. talk about STRESS!!!! a stroller, 2 kids, 4 carry ons, blankets, snacks, juice (that you're "not allowed" to have), not a one friendly or helpful person in sight and ya........stressful times! we loved the dvd player though, and snacks saved us a time or two, and thankfully we have 2 kids and 2 parents cuz i can't imagine how we would have handled more!

from being done and done as seen above in st. maarten, we hopped this tiniest of tiny airplanes to statia. it was 8pm at night, and both boys were spent. we had 4 bags to carry on and a dominos pizza for lunch the next day, and i'm not kidding - you are shoulder to shoulder in this thing! beckam was freaking out, and mads was staring at this large caribbean woman next to us as she was hyperventilating about our flight. they both eventually fell asleep - how i have no idea cuz this was the loudest flight i could ever imagine. haha me and mads were smashed against the wall with this lady next to us, and she kept holding a cloth to her nose that smelled like vicks vapo-rub while praying to her Lord that we wouldn't crash. it was quite the experience to say the least!

i wish i was in a different frame of mind once we landed, but the camera was tucked away, and mads was still sleeping, and we had to get our bags and find our friends and do all of this in the pitch black, so no pics of our 1st steps on statia :( what i remember now though is that it was sooooo good to see friends and that it was sooooo hot and that we were all sooooo ready for food and bed and to be done traveling! we passed cows and goats on our way home, and we were welcomed to our new house by lots of spiders and ants and crickets and a gecko or two as well - yay! haha

it just felt so good to be home especially with our amazingly big and cushy and comfortable couches! haha admittedly, we had a moment or two after the boys were in bed and while we were sitting our new living room where we looked at each other and thought - what have we done!!!! haha what a crazy adventure though, and thankfully we're a month into it now, and we're still here minus a few of those spiders and ants and crickets, and we're loving every minute of it :)

mr. and mrs. hill

2011-05-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

my one and only brother got married on april 30th, and i gained a new sister - yay! we all met and got to know shelby over the christmas holidays, and we all had a sneaking suspicion that this day would come :)

they were so cute together and have so much in common, and she just fit in sooooo great with our crazy family! cars and shelbs were nice enough to plan their wedding for the weekend before we moved so that we could be there, and it was an awesome day.

getting married in april in southern AB has certain risks associated with it, and the weather was here, there, and everywhere for cars and shelbs. there may have been an umbrella in a picture or two, but they turned out great, and thank goodness for auntie patti and her tide to go pen. she saved shelby's gorgeous wedding dress!

the family dinner was great complete with the shoe game, yummy food, and some hilarious MC's (dustin and shelby's bro, steve).

there were also hershey kisses scattered on each of the tables - beckam and holly found the jackpot!

beckam sure loves his uncle carson and aunt shelby - racing, "looking for animals," hide and seek, basketball, taking the dogs for a walk - it's always fun with the aunts and uncles!

weddings always take me back to our wedding day, and i love the memories of oct 21st for us. being sealed for eternity is such an amazing blessing and so important, and i just love my forever friend a whole bunch!

next, i would love to post some amazing pics taken by mandy baker of the happy couple, but i can't figure out how to save and then upload them from facebook, so check em out if you want or just imagine the gorgeous couple on the happiest day of their lives! love you cars and shelbs!

sibs

2011-05-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

my parents always said over and over and over growing up - friends will come and go, but family will always be there. i'm not sure why it takes so long to come to appreciate and believe that for ourselves, but i'm so glad that all of us hill kids finally caught on. kris, cars, and kait really are my best friends, and i love them more than mosquitoes love beckam boo! (and that's a lot!) we all had a free night while we were all together for carson's wedding week, and we decided to take advantage and go on a huge group date with our sidekicks :)

there is no words for the geek potential that shines through in cars and dust when they get together. haha love it!

i think we both got a strike or something - yay!

funniest moment of the night goes to me and dust :) i got a strike, and we were so excited that we went for a chest bump. little did dust know that i've never really done a legit chest bump before, and i wasn't prepared for how much chest he put into it! haha i tumbled backwards over the bowling ball holder thing and had tears in my eyes cuz i was laughing so hard! oh my! haha

the 4 happy couples!

who knew that after 5 years, it's still exciting to pretend to look down a girl's shirt! haha

even though kait got the highest score for the night, tyson made up the difference and won the title for worst bowler of the night. practice makes perfect tys - maybe a little less time on the court and more on the lane will help!

our married and nearly married team won - yay!

it was such a fun night full of giggles and reminiscing and stories and food and fun, and i can't wait for many more like it! i love you kris, cars, and k, and i'm so proud of you and seriously couldn't ask for better forever friends!

yearly egg toss

2011-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

there really isn't too much to say with this post which is kinda nice. i know i'm crazy late on this, but here are some pics from our easter celebration :) beckam LOVED finding easter eggs and loved throwing them on the floor to open up the treats inside even more!

we love easter, and our favorite part is not just the decorating eggs but the rolling them. we always go out to the ridge and see who's egg can last the longest as we toss them down a steep hill. it's always windy, and we always have fun :)

along with easter egg rolling, we can be out on the ridge together and not bring a box of skeets and some guns :) we all had tons of fun taking turns trying to kill those clay pigeons dead!

i was a little worried about our little boys' ears with gun shots going off here and there, but dad's collection of ear plugs came in handy! haha too cute :)

if any of you know me, you know i'm not a big fan of risk taking when it comes to driving, but the ridge requires some crazy 4x4 driving, and i can accept that. i accept it with closed eyes and clenched fists though, and i made beckam join me in the fun!

happy easter everyone!

upgrade!

2011-05-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

after wanting a DSLR camera for a very very long time, i am happy to announce that we finally upgraded! it only took us moving to a tropical island to justify it, and we had few weeks to play around with it before we got here, and we LOVE it!!! i still have no idea how to use it to its fullest capacity (i leave it on auto all the time), but i'll figure it out eventually. mostly, we just love the point and click and how we can capture fun little moments with our kiddies with no blurry outcomes :) here are a few fun shots........you can guess what happened here!

haha

beckam's has a new concentrating face, and we love it :) climbing up the ladder at the park or.....

eating mac n cheese, there is no interrupting the task at hand!

maddox loved getting thrown in the love sac at home, and we loved his electric hair!

beckam got to make some easter cupcakes with dad while i went shopping the girls one day, and you can tell cuz i don't usually give him the bowl and the whisk and the spoon and the counter and think to get the camera! haha so much fun with dad :)

i was pretty impressed too - cutest little easter basket cupcakes around!

here is an easter shot or two too! beckam loved dying easter eggs this year, but the stickers were his favorite part.

there is just something magical about celebrating holidays with your kids, and i loved easter with my boys this year :) i know it's late, but happy easter, and i promise i'll get to island life soon!

My SWEETHEART ;)

2011-05-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my sweetheart, my love, my hunny, my dear, my beautiful, my dedicated, my inspiring, and my forever wife. I love and respect this girl so deeply and so much that she won't ever really understand how grateful I am that she chose me to be her forever husband. In the almost 5 years that we have been married I have learned more about myself and more about who I can be than I ever imagined I would. Right now, I am sitting in a classroom on a tiny island in the Caribbean studying to become a Doctor of Medicine. Did I ever imagine myself doing this let alone having a wife that would up and leave a comfortable life with only 1 year of schooling left for her husband to move to an island with lizards, heat, humidity, dirt, goats, ants, clothes lines and so much more we haven't even experienced yet? NO WAY!!!!! See, the thing is, I never ever thought I had the capacity to do what I am doing now....but Lynz did. She pushes me to reach for things that I only thought other people could do. She see's a potential in me that I somehow over look but that to her is always within reach.

Lyndsey has to be one of the most forgiving people I have ever meet in my life. She has an ability to put herself in the other person's shoes and to try and understand from their perspective what they must be feeling, thinking, or experiencing. Her heart is pure and her love is unconditional. I'm not perfect nor do I pretend to be but to Lynz I know that is alright. I know that when mistakes are made or when poor choices are choosen she will not turn away and pretend that nothing has happened. She she will take those choices and mistakes and the person that made them and love them and make you feel like your more important than the choice or mistake and help you be so much better than you were 1 minute before.

Lynz has a faith that is unshakeable. She knows how to trust in her Heavenly Father...to really trust in Him. I thought I knew what it was to be faithful, unquestioning, unwavering, and firm in knowing that He knows what is happening. She does. I can think of a million times when I have wanted things to work out right now or happen right but I can't think of a time when Lynz hasn't just left it up to the Lord. I hear her say all the time, "We know it's where we are supposed to be or what we are supposed to be doing so it will workout." No complaining, no worrying, just believing and trusting and in the end she is always right.

Beckam and Maddox could not have a better example and teacher in their lives than their mom. After being somewhat of a stay-at-home dad over the last 2 1/2 months I have gained a greater appreciation and a greater respect of what she does with our boys. It is a 24 hour job and she does it better than anyone I know. She has patience, love, creativity, humor, discipline, and a relationship with these boys that I will never have and I'm more than ok with that. They are her boys and she would do anything for them.

I had one of those goosebump moments the other day when I had some time to sit and think. I feel like I got a glimpse and a feeling of what an eternal family is all about. I thought about how she is mine and I am hers FOREVER. I think this crosses our minds every now and then but have we ever really taken the time to think about that. These relationships are forever. Everything we put into or fail to put into these relationships with our spouse and kids is carving out a path that we will walk with them on into and throughout the eternities. I feel like lynz is always a few steps in front of me making sure our path is straight, clear of any boulders or pebbles, helping me and the boys enjoy the journey of getting there to our heavenly home that will be ours, together, forever.

I love you friend!!!!

mamas!

2011-05-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! to all of you moms out there, i hope you are getting spoiled rotten and told over and over again how great and amazing and selfless and hard-working and energetic and creative and patient and awesome you are :) moms are just the best, and that's that, so here's a little post to the moms in our lives!

grandma moj - we love the songs you sing, the poses you strike, the food you make, the dogs you have, the red water in your kitchen sink, the saying on your wall, the positive outlook on life you have, the dedication you have to your calling and to your testimony, the wisdom you have and share with us, the "say something nice to the birthday person" tradition you started, the hershey kiss and golden girls and little house on the prairie obsessions you have, and just the zest for life that you have and pass on to everyone around you :) we love and miss you soooooo much and hope you're having an amazing day!

grandma tolman - we love your talent for organization, your example of faith and commitment, your love for babies and all of your grand-babies especially, your always pretty and painted nails, your banana bars, your fruit salad, your blueberry banana cheesecake, your homemade oreos (pretty much everything you make in the kitchen! haha), your amazing patience, your love for shopping, your true friendship and genuine interest in what's happening in our lives, your dedication to your calling and the church in general - what would they do without you!, and just your awesomely amazing example of being the best mom, wife, and friend you can be. thank you, and we love and miss you sooooo much!

nana - we love your crazy dance moves, your ability to fall asleep on the couch no matter what's going on around you, your "gardening gear" and love for water fights and being outside, your walks with the dogs, your dedication to working out and to your calling and to your family, your silly sense of humor and naive calgary stampede and oranjutan comments, your early morning happy face, your support no matter what, your optimistic outlook, your wedding scribbler, your active lifestyle, your hamburgers and fruit salad, your steak and mushrooms, your love for waterton, your buns (both kinds), your love for your grand-babies, your cute sense of style, and just everything that makes you who you are! you are the bestest mom a girl could ask for (and i can say that cuz i'm one of your girls!) i want to be like you in so many ways, and i look up to you more than you know! i miss you and love you and am soooooo proud to be your daughter! oh and your boys miss you too :)

thank you to all of our moms and moms-in-law! you are so incredibly important to us, and we wouldn't be where we are (and it's pretty sweet here) without you! thank you for EVERYTHING you do for us and to be the bestest moms around. we love you to the moon and back!!!

oh and i guess i should also say something about me being a mom :) I STINKIN LOVE IT!!! i'm so proud of my boys and feel so incredibly blessed to have the title of mom, mama, and mommy. it doesn't get much better than cuddling with my boys or teaching them new things or hearing them call my name. i love them more than words can say, and even on the long days, i'm so thankful to be a mom!

viva las vegas!

2011-04-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

ahhh! i'm so behind on my blog, it's not even funny! i feel a tad overwhelmed and un-motivated cuz i have so much to catch up on, but you gotta start somewhere right?!? may as well start with vegas and may as well keep it short and sweet! so....

we went to vegas, and it was windy and cold.

the castle-esque hotels were so ginormous and amazing, and we loved it!

we got free tickets to phantom by going to an RCI presentation - totally worth it!!!

we also got a free gambling card from that presentation, and dust thought he'd use a buck or two. he used $10 and never once had a clue what he was doing!

we had soooo much fun just the two of us for a few days :)

we ate at this cool brazilian bbq place where they come to your table and cut off the most tender delicious meat and fresh grilled pineapple - so yummy!

dust planned the trip and surprised me with garth brooks tickets! ahhhhh! i've only wanted to see him for my entire life!

it was him, a stool with 2 water bottles, and his guitar for over 2 hours, and it was awesome! he was absolutely hilarious. he played all of the best songs and took requests, and trisha even came out for a little duet and her "she's in love with the boy."

it was fabulous and a once in a lifetime experience, and it was just the best concert ever! love you garth :)

on the last day, we walked the entire strip from one end to the other - long and ouchy feet but so fun!

the luxor was pretty cool.

the new york new york was our favorite - too bad the roller coaster costs an arm and a leg!

the m&m shop was pretty cool too. every possible souvenir you can think of was there decked out in the colors of m&m.

and you could get any color or kind of m&m known to man!

can't go to vegas without checking out the bellagio water show, and it didn't disappoint!

a statue of liberty made of jelly bellies - yummy!

we were pooped by the end of the strip, but dust was especially exhausted!

and last but not least, vegas wouldn't be vegas without the guys handing out porn cards at every corner! haha don't look down!

viva las vegas!

my lacey girl

2011-04-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

someone once asked lacey who her best friend was, and she got curious as to my answer to that same question. without any hesitation, we both answered each other of course! i know we're family and everything, but we're also bestest friends, and i would love nothing more than to be in portland making her scones for her birthday breakfast tomorrow morning :)

this gal is amazing, and there will never be anyone who can fill my lacey void. she is not only the bestest friend and sister-in-law but also the bestest mom and aunt (along with all of the other bestest aunts in our lives of course!).

she has dance parties and makes the best cookies and forts. she is the queen of cuddles and snugs and is the life of the party wherever she goes :)

we share our love of popcorn and chick flicks and gilmore girls and lost and new recipes and the zoo and our boys and just life, and we were inseperable in portland! we went everywhere together, and i know that i can't remember a once that i wanted it any other way!

sadly, i had to hunt through my thousands of pictures to find these few of me and my lacey girl, but i love her so so much and wish her the happiest bestest birthday in the whole wide world! i'll make a taco for lunch and pretend i'm there with you at bajio's, and i'd make your lasagna for you if i was there! i miss you being just a few steps away. i miss your cookies. i miss your squeaky breaks. i miss your talking phone. i miss our daily errands and our nightly plans. i miss our birthday planning and our monday nights. i miss our tuesday dinners and sunday feasts. i miss our mail runs and our hot tub parties. i just miss you, and i love you, and i'm thinking of you all day today :) happy birthday lacey girl!!

asparagus pee

2011-04-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

does your pee stink after you eat asparagus??? cuz mine sure does! dust complains every time he sees me eating this divine vegetable, not only cuz he thinks it looks and smells disgusting but cuz he knows he's got a day or two of asparagus pee coming his way!

it was always so confusing to me, so i've decided to look up the answer to my question of why does asparagus pee stink so bad for all of you devoted tolman blog readers tonight. (if i knew how to spell the sound of a drum, i would!) they say....

Studies conducted on the "asparagus urine" phenomenon (aren't you glad you didn't volunteer!) indicate that roughly 40 to 50 percent of those tested developed the distinctive odor. Surprisingly enough, there is also a segment of the population who cannot smell the sulphurous fumes of asparagus-laced urine. It is believed that both the generation of the odoriferous urine and the ability to smell it are based on genetics. Only those with a certain gene can break down the chemicals inside the asparagus into their smelly components, and only those with the proper gene can smell the results of that chemical breakdown.

so, there you have it! sadly, i've got the stinky asparagus pee gene as well as the gene that allows me to smell it - yay! what about you? does your asparagus pee stink too?!?!

i had to add a few pics too, so enjoy some more of my little cuties! aren't those blue eyes to die for!

we like to stay clean around here - beckam can't use a dish without putting it straight into the dishwasher when he's done (and yes, i will be reminding him of this when he gets older), and maddox needs daily lint rolls to keep him dog hair free!

no wonder we're constantly rolling the hair off him!

maddox has also developed a love of pepperoni and ice cream - mmmm!
p.s. i'm aware that he's eating ice cream and isn't 1 yet, and i don't really care!

happy asparagus everyone!

bath boys

2011-04-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

everyone loves a good bath, but they're even better when you have a brother to have fun with!

such different looking little brothers to me - different coloring and different hair and face shape and smiles. similar turned up little noses like their mom though and equally as cute!

we use maddox as an example of how to get your hair properly washed for beckam all the time. he freaks out if a drop of water drops below his eyebrows, and maddox could care less as beckam shows you here!

it's always more fun to pour water on someone else :)

gotta love the bubbly bath time mohawks! we love bath time around our house!

woody wannabe

2011-04-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

beckam was a little weary of carson's new addition to the family at 1st, but he's warmed up to our shelby quite nicely, especially after he learned she had horses!

beckam got a ride on shelby's dakota last week, and he was in heaven! beckam loves woody, and the day was complete with lots of giddy-ups and yee-haws :)

he loved riding with carson but had to have some time on his own too. i mean....woody doesn't have to double up with buzz right!

there's a snake in my boot!

big boys!

2011-04-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

our boys are growing up too fast! maddox is 9 months in just a few days, and he is more and more fun every day! he does this shy thing lately where he tilts his head to one side and gets this sheepish little grin. it's too cute and so is how he just wants to stand and walk and eat and ride cars like his big brother. love you maddie!

beckam is almost 2 1/2 as crazy as that is, and he too is more and more fun every day! he is absolutely hilarious and just so much fun to play with, and the things he says and does amaze me every day. he's growing up so fast!

cutest little boy ever! love you bubs!

sometimes, i miss my babies, but i love my little boys and how much fun we have together :) boys really are the best!