Surprise Party - Fighting for a cure!

February 20, 2009 – We had a surprise party for my Step Mom Bonnie. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery in November. Today was her last radiation treat. She still has five years of hormone therapy and frequent checkups but she is through the worst of it. Her friends and family celebrated with her as she completed this grueling treatment! Way to go Bonnie!!!!!! We all love you and support you! Please continue to keep her in your prayers!
MaKayla worked was so proud of her “Feel Better Card” that she made for Nana.

Here is a family picture at the celebration!

My sister Laura and her husband Joe had their first baby on January 17, 2007. Introducing Julia Rynee Wilmarth Tyna. This was might first time meeting my new niece and I have to say that she is a beauty!

Here is a picture of two of my sisters and I with our babies. Laura & Julia, Jen & Dylan, Noah & I. My sister Roxy is due with her daughter in April. That will make four new babies within one calendar year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14, 2009 – Happy Valentine’s Day! It was a fun day filled with candy, anything I could cut into the shape of a heart, a princess and a prince! Each of the kids got a gift bag with some fun things. The dollar section at Target has fun things for cheap! Here is our little princess with Daddy.

This is MaKayla’s princess pose. I have to find a princess shirt because she won't wear any of her shirts with the skirt.

Strike a pose!

Princess with her other princess hat.

Our little princess on his first Valentine’s Day!

Noah rolled himself up like a burrito.

What a cute little Valentine!

1st Trip to Appleton, WI

February 8, 2009 – The kids and I joined Andy for a trip to Appleton, WI for the first time. It was nice to see the area that we will be moving to. We spent the day driving around to all the little towns and deciding which towns we liked and which towns we definitely don’t want to move to. There are several paper mills along the river and we decided we didn’t want to be near them because of the smell. We did go through one house in Greenville, WI that was beautiful but a little out of our price range.
I was finally able to see where Andy works and see the products that Vande Hey Raleigh manufactures. This is the most challenging position that Andy has ever had but I know that he will success and do great!

Andy and the kids at his desk in his office.

Noah at Daddy's desk.

The kids were tired of being in the car so we went to Build-a-Bear in the mall. Andy and I built a bear for MaKayla before we were even pregnant with her. We never made it to Woodfield for Noah’s bear so we finally were able to complete his today. We carried on the tradition of writing a special note to him and putting it in his bear. MaKayla even added her own special touch to her brother's bear.

Here we are putting our note and heart in the bear.

MaKayla helped stuff "Hope" the bear.

Here is Noah with his "Hope" bear. There are many reasons why we named Noah’s bear “Hope”. We hoped to have another child. Noah gives us Hope. We Hope to be the best parents possible. We have Faith, Hope and Love!

Next, we took the kids to Chuckie Cheese. MaKayla had a blast! Most of the games were too big for her but they did have a section for smaller children.

To finish off the day, we went to the water park that was in the hotel. It was smaller but the perfect size for MaKayla. She had so much fun! She didn’t care that her teeth were chattering and that she was turning purple. We had to make her come out and give her a warm bath. Noah was not too trilled. I just dipped his toes in the water and he cried. I just wrapped him up in a towel and we sat and watched Andy and MaKayla play.

We had a very busy day and were all tired!

Learning, Playing & Growing!

February 6, 2009 – MaKayla created these Play-do creatures all by herself. She is learning things by leaps and bounds now. It is so amazing to watch and listen to her!

Daddy and his babies!

Noah and Ike are best pals

MaKayla dressed up with her Mr. Potato head.

February 5, 2009 – Noah is getting to be such a big boy! On this morning, he was sitting on my bed laughing at me while I was getting dressed.

January 21, 2009 – MaKayla gave me my first present all by herself. She wrapped up one of her bath toys in a wash cloth and said, “Happy Day to You Mommy a Present for You!” It was the sweetest thing! Of course, I loved it! This has now become a regular thing where we wrap up presents to each other with blankets and wash clothes.

January 18, 2009 – MaKayla’s hair is just starting to be long enough to put in to full piggy tails. Here she is checking out her new do.

2009 ABC Supply Co. Cruise

January 10-17, 2009 – Andy and I went on a much needed cruise. It was a company paid cruise for customers and managers who qualified. Andy had two customers quality for the trip so we went to make sure they had a good time. Let me tell you that is a tough job =). It was nice to have some time alone with my husband again. This is the first vacation that we have been on since our honeymoon in 2004.
January 12, 2009 – Our first stop was Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. We spent most of the time scuba diving. We took a refresher course and then went out on a dive to a beautiful reef wall. We had a wonderful time and it was such a great experience. Here is a picture of Andy with our ship behind him.

Here is a picture of our ship from the beach as we walked to our boat to go scuba diving.

I just like this picture, I don't know why.

January 13, 2009 – Our second stop was Roadtown, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. It was a beautiful place. We were hoping to go scuba diving but those plans fell through so we just went sight seeing and enjoyed our day relaxing, shopping, sitting in a dark pub after the lights went out and saving a baby chicken. Here is a picture of me as the boat is coming in through the channel to dock.

This is a picture of a marine cove that we went by. It was beautiful!

I have to tell this story. We were walking along and I kept hearing this little chirping. On the island, they have open drainage ditches next to the side walks. I look down and found a little baby chicken that was running around calling for its Mommy. I didn’t see any chickens around or a way for this little one to get out of the ditch on its own. I couldn’t just leave it. I was trying to help in while all these cars and people were going by staring at me. Andy was embarrassed and ready to leave me. After watching me struggle and making fun of me for quite some time Andy finally decided to save the chicken for me. Here are some of the pictures that I took. Thank you honey for saving the baby chicken for me! Here are three pictures of the saving.

January 14, 2009 – The third stop was at Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. There is a lot of shopping for the jewelry lovers on this island. I did spend a little time looking but for the most part we spent most of the day being rocked back and forth on a small broken down boat in the ocean and sea sick. We went on our second scuba diving adventure that we both regret. The diving conditions were less than desirable with high waves and low visibility. The diving equipment was not any better. I had a couple of panic attacks because I had a hard time breathing out of the mouth piece. You had to suck really hard to get oxygen. One of the dive masters ended up being a guy I went to high school with and was really nice and followed me down to the ocean floor of 85 feet. As soon as he found Andy and paired me back up with him I had a panic attack and felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was able to control myself and get back under control. When we got back to the surface and on the boat it was discovered that the boat wouldn’t start. We never ended up making our second dive. Everyone was just happy to get back to dry land after waiting for over two hours for another boat to come and get us and take us to shore.

After our bad diving experience, we quick showered and spent the last hour shopping on the island. Here is a lady hand rolling a Cuban filled cigar.

January 15, 2009 – We spent the day at sea and enjoying the boat. There was a lot of fun entertainment with the ABC Supply Co. karaoke being the highlight. Here is a picture of us at dinner with some of the customers.

Every night there was a new towel animal in our room waiting to greet us. My favorite was the monkey.

January 16, 2009 – Our last island of the trip was Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. It is a private island paradise in the Caribbean. It has a beautiful white sand beach and unspoiled wild life preserve. This was the only day of the trip that was a little chilly and windy though which was unfortunate. We still did decide to go swimming with the sting rays. The water was warm but when we got out we were both cold. It was worth the little bit of cold. They are amazing creatures!

Here is a picture of me up against a boat in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

Here is a picture of us enjoying some time together on our last night

On our last evening on the ship, Andy took me to the back of the ship to show me the power and the beauty of the water and it churned up from behind the boat. We tried to imagine what it was like on that terrible night that the Titanic sank. We shared a special time talking. Then, he pulled out a glass that we both kissed and threw into the ocean to symbolize our love for each other. Some where at the bottom of the ocean is our glass. It is kind of neat to think about.

We couldn’t wait to get home and see our two babies! They were both so excited when we walked in the door. It is such an awesome feeling when you see your children’s eyes light up when they see you. MaKayla is helping Daddy unpack from the trip. She found his mask and snorkel and knew exactly what to do with it.

Here is a picture of the kids with their stuffed animals that we brought back for them.

Noah and Mommy spending some bonding time together.

Mr. Noah was all smiles! He learned some new tricks while we were away. He has started to squish up his nose and do this fast breathing thing. It was too cute to see when we returned home.