¡Sorpresa!

On December 31st we took off to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (aka...a piece of heaven on earth!). We met up with my mom and her husband and my sister and her family. We excitedly planned for our older sister to arrive the next day so we could surprise her for her 50th birthday.

My family, thankfully, doesn't do anything without adding a little (or a lot of) flavor. We couldn't just have an "ordinary" surprise. We had to have a GRAND surprise! (As if Mexico was not grand enough!) We spent weeks discussing options.

We came up with this...

My husband (aka. Creeper) went over to my sister and her partner as they walked into the main plaza for lunch. Creeper went over to my sister's partner and said, "will you take my family's picture? " He hurried her over our direction. I could see the look on my sister's face. It said something like "who is this weirdo? " She hung back waiting for this "weird moment" to end. And as she looked our direction and saw this "weirdo family" all dressed in funny felt and wigs she recognized The Prairie Kid! And she was in SHOCK that this weirdo family was HER family! In Mexico! Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Oh my gosh, he's SO creepy! And SUCH a trooper!

I just don't know why she thought we were weird! Especially my step dad, in the platinum wig. Or my soon-to-be brother-in-law in the sandy blond mullet. Or my Creeper hubby. Or my son, the mad scientist. Weird? What???

From this point on we had a great week in Mexico enjoying each other, the beach, the food, tennis, the food, each other, and did I mention we enjoyed the food??? The weather wasn't the best but we still had a great time!

Our villa was the 2nd floor

The stairway view up to our patio

Inside the villa

There were these big rodents in the trees as we walked to the plaza called Sereque

Poolside Nap

My guys enjoying the water

One of my favorite beaches in the world!

Our last dinner out...

Anyone hungry for some fish?

I didn't want to leave my beloved Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. But I will be back! And I am thankful we were able to celebrate my dear sister together as a family in such a great place!

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas. We enjoyed Christmas Eve with dear friends but I don't have any pictures of it because I let my friend take all the pics with her camera and I haven't confiscated them from her yet. : )

Christmas morning was fun. We enjoyed our "tree" with lots of presents together. We went to church to celebrate Jesus' birthday and then to The Prairie Dad's parent's house to celebrate with the whole family.

These were found in The Prairie Kid's stocking...he was THRILLED! I'm so thankful he is so easy to please.

And he had never had spaghetti-o's before!


Checking out Dad's loot

This was the "grand finale"...the remote helicopter he REALLY wanted

What a fun morning!

Ready for church.

Patiently waiting to dive into the next round of presents at Grandma's house!

New Sight

Oh goodness! What happened? It's almost February and I haven't blogged since December 9th!

Well, let's get caught up!

In December, The Prairie Kid told us that he had to squint to see things far away. I took him bowling and noticed he was REALLY squinting. The next week we had an appointment for him and 2 days later he was in new glasses.

I felt bad that we didn't know he couldn't see! His vision was pretty bad! Thankfully we got on top of this and he can see again. : )

I was also really thankful that they let us bring home different glasses to decide which ones we wanted. We took these pictures:


It was NO contest for me! HANDS DOWN, 150% these pictures showed me THE pair that we were going to pick out. Thankfully, The Prairie Daddy agreed and The Prairie Kid accepted the choice.

And, in 30 seconds flat my 6 year-old turned into a 30 year-old business man (in pjs).

I thought I would have a really hard time adjusting to my "new son" but after a day or two I was over it and we're normalized again. Although, I do have to say those glasses REALLY get in the way when I am trying to kiss his face off.