The Dominican Republic

These pictures ended up at the first, so Pete's trip is next. A last few pictures of my mom and the boys before we took her to the airport :( Miss ya mom! Come back soon... I'm thinking mothers day and if you want to bring Lisa and Indiya thats great too :)!!! Don't I have the cutest boys ever!! I'm one lucky mommy!

Okay so I'm going to let Pete take it from here, you're gonna wish you could have been in the

D. R. after you see these pictures!

These couple of pics are at Punta Cana a resort town on the east side of the island. This is our last morning there so I thought I'd better get up for the sun rise. pretty amazing!

Our resort was right on this beach. It was really rice. There was plenty of space to relax on the beach, play some volleyball, or shop at one of the little souvenir shops right on the beach. The resort was all inclusive so I took advantage of all the virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina colladas (?) that my body could handle.

Another view of the beautiful beach.

This was the path from the front office to the villa we stayed at.

This is the inner court of the villa. There were 12 villas I believe.

This is an LDS church we worked at for the 4th and 5th days. The church was really beautiful. We actually worked in the chapel which was also the cultural hall. The members were very organized, which made things run much smoother than at the schools we worked at. They wrote down the name, telephone number, and address of all the people who came so they could go and visit with them and share the gospel. They used this as a missionary opportunity. They had church videos playing in the relief society room where everyone was waiting.

This is future missionary. I can't recall his name. We were able to help fill out part of his mission papers by completing his dental work. I did about 14 filling on him. It was pretty cool.

This lady had a broken down tooth that we "built up". She was really happy. And thanks to JC and Haylee for the light.

These are some Dominican children at school. We worked at the school. They all wanted us to take their picture and they immediately wanted to see what the picture looked like.

This was the view from our hotel in Santo Domingo.

This is pretty typical of the housing where we worked in the city.

Below is a group of us on day one. From left to right: Dan Yates, me, Spencer B., Clayton Carpenter (front), Ryan Jones, and Courtney Johnson.

January's happenings!

So Jack turned 4 on the 16th, and celebrated with a Pirate party. Pete left for the Dominican Republic on the 15th and my mom came on the 14th, so we went to pizza at Deweys that night and opened presents before Pete left the next day. I cant find Jack pictures of that night but he got lots of goods, including nerf guns, camera, a game, a Leapster, Pete made him a book shelf, and other great stuff!! Then on his birthday my mom took him shopping and got him a couple games for the Leapster (from g and g Mecham). Pete was gone for 10 days and it was so great to have my mom here to keep me company. We had a blast! Then she stayed for a whole extra week and just left today. Its so hard when she leaves but she gets to come pretty often which is SO SO great!! Here is the Pirate party... it was pretty much chaos, but Jack loved it so that's what matters most! My mom went a little/a lot overboard to make it a great party, thanks so much mom I know Jack LOVED it!! So he had the party on the 23rd. We tried to play games but none of them worked so went to presents and then cake. Then they broke the pinata which was a hit!! I only put a few pictures up cause there were a lot and I'm tired of waiting to download. After that they went on a treasure hunt to find a chest full of loot bags. Then it was time to go! We were pooped!! I'm probably going to be like my mom was with us and just do parties every 4 years cause its a lot of work and can we just say how spoiled Jack was!! He doesn't need that every year... right?!!

Oh and they were supposed to come dressed like a pirate, so they were super cute!!

The pinata fell on the floor so a few took hits to it on the ground, love this one of Jack Heaton. He really got into it. Then we were able to get it hung back up for a few more hits. I finally broke it and the kids dove for the goods.

What a cute pirate!! His friend Finn was talking to me while I was putting a tattoo on Jack and Finn asked where Jack was. He totally didn't recognize Jack with the hat and wig. So cute!

Cute Pirate cake, but during the night it split right down the middle, oh well!

We also took cupcakes (muffcakes is what Jack calls them) into his preschool class. He loved that!

Oh my sweet Max! Cant believe he is 11 months. WOW is all I can say. He is amazing, so sweet and so stinkin cute! His hair is growing (kinda a mullet) and red red red, I LOVE IT!! He sleep like a dream and is almost always happy!! He was great with my mom, it took a couple days to really warm up to her. He is pretty much a daddy's boy. If Pete is around he wants to be with him, kinda sounds like Jack... where's my mama's boys? Oh Pete loves it!! Big news for Max... he broke is first two teeth on the 27th. The only day he was grouchy and I thought maybe he is finally teething and my mom stuck her finger in his mouth and was like " He's got two teeth!" Funny huh! At least he broke them both at the same time, he's a late bloomer with the teeth but that's okay I love that gummy smile!

My mom seeing if it was a good time for a photo shoot, and obviously Jack had other plans. We didn't get very many great ones but that's okay I'm just glad we got what we did. She bought them matching red sweaters and they look so cute in them even with Max's red hair. I was skeptical about the red but thinks its pretty cute.

I wanted to show that Max's hair can be curly, but really just when its wet. He LOVES his bath... of course most kids do. Here's some of the funny faces of Max.

Oh Jack got these super cute jammies from grandma for his birthday too.

Some sweet ones with gram.

Some crazy hair he has!! I probably should put my haircutting skills to work on him, but I cant bring myself to cut it! I know when I do I'll wonder why I didn't do it sooner, but until then I'll just love the craziness!

Christmas n' stuff...

Found Max here whining. It looks like he is happy but he sure wasn't and was even more ticked off when I left him there to get the camera. He was sure stuck... so funny!

Had to take a picture of this crazy hair he woke up with!!

The boys lounging watching a movie.

A friend of mine started a Christmas tradition to get a set of Christmas dishes every year. She now has four or five I think and they are all different but all Christmas. I loved the idea so we started this year and this is ours for the first year. Its great when you can get them after Christmas 50% off, plus a little Christmas money to pay for them! :)

So of course these all go backwards, but thats to be expected with me. Jack got lots of dress up clothes, so here he is as a motocross guy showing his muscles.

A transformer.

Oh shoot, this one is sideways... darn! Lisa made he and Max these cute superhero capes. Jack is a batman on one side and superman on the other. Max is Mr. Incredible and batman.

Jack's loot... boy did he make out!! Thanks to great families!!

Okay so I took quite a few pictures and Jacks face in ALL of them looked even worse then this one, not sure whats up :) Santa didn't bring much but he did get his movie UP.

Gotta love that chubby belly:)

Santa's gifts.

Gifts from families, thanks again everyone!!! The tree is looking sad after Max playing with it for a few weeks. He left it alone for a couple but then found if it was quite fun to play with.

Christmas eve we went to some friends and had such a fun time. Stacey read the night before Christmas and gave the boys reindeer food to put on the porch for the reindeer to eat. This was the mess left behind. :) Such a cute idea!

Decorating cookies for Santa.

Jack Heaton and Will Mortensen.

Little cuties!

The group. A lady from our ward came and had dinner and shared most of the night with us. She is so sweet. The boys opened pajamas and Myrtle got some too. It was a lot of fun to share the night with her too.

Kara and her sweet baby Eli. Oh I could kiss those cheeks off!

So cute all on the couch watching the Polar Express.

Doesn't the table look so great!

For my birthday Pete and Jack made me a candy poster ( well on the table). It was so cute and sweet of them! Thanks for a great birthday boys! Pete made dinner, a couple girls took me to lunch, and a few days earlier some friends took me to breakfast. I have the best friends out here... what would I do without them?! I really couldn't survive being here without them!! Thanks so much!! Pete and I also got to go to a movie while the kids snoozed in bed. Terrie (neighbor and friend) came and hung out while we went. It was great! Thanks mom, dad, mom and dad Mecham, and family for all the awesome birthday stuff. I have the best family and the BEST husband EVER!! Oh and the best boys ever... LOVE THEM!