I {heart} Mustard

Okay, I know this sounds strange, but I am loving mustard right now! I'm not usually a big fan, just a little tiny bit on my sandwich or burger. But this pregnancy is throwing me off! I'm finding that I'm craving food with mustard all the time. Don't worry, I'm not eating it by the spoonful or anything, but I'm putting a lot more than normal on my food, like on my sandwiches. Oh, and I've been buying corn dogs just so that I can eat mustard with them! What? I know, it's a little strange, especially because I'm usually a big ketchup gal. But pregnancy cravings could be worse, right? What are some weird pregnancy cravings you've had?

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

Yesterday was my beautiful mom's birthday! It's a big milestone birthday, the big 6-0!!! Can you believe it? She definitely doesn't look 60. So since it is such a milestone, my sister and I decided to throw her a surprise party! And boy was she surprised! My dad invited a few of their friends and we had a great time eating a yummy dinner and homemade ice cream - yum yum! Homemade ice cream is a Hansen family tradition! Here are some highlights of the night:

Right after everyone yelled "Surprise!" She had no idea about the party!

My parent's friends, hiding. We got 60 balloons for the special occasion!

Papa and Grammy

The grandkids helping grammy blow out the candles

Emmy enjoying the delicious homemade ice cream!

Who needs a spoon when you can use your fingers?

Mother and two pregnant daughters! (Yes, my sister is pregnant, too! She is due 3 weeks before me. How fun is that? Notice the baby bumps?)

Happy Birthday, Grammy! We love you so much and are so lucky that we have you in our lives! We get to see your beautiful, smiling face everyday. Thank you for all you do for us!!! Here's to another 60 years . . . :)

My little Dancing Queen

Emmy and I had a dance party the other day. We had so much fun laughing, dancing and playing! She still loves to play dress up and likes to get in her dresses when we dance :)

Here are some cute things that I forgot to put in the last Emmy post:

- The other day, she put her hands on my cheeks and said "Cute, mommy, cute!"
- She absolutely LOVES her Papa (my dad). She follows him around everywhere, like a little puppy.
- She's started singing her ABC's
- She can count to ten
- She likes to take her clothes off and start singing "nakey nakey!" while shaking her hips

I tried downloading a cute little video of Emmy dancing, but it won't work! Hopefully I can get it to work later so that I can post it :)

Silly Santa!

A couple of weeks ago, while we were taking down our Christmas decorations, I found a . . . Christmas present that Santa forgot to give to Emmy! It wasn't even wrapped! What was Santa thinking, hiding a present in the back of my closet? Silly Santa!!! So, Emmy got to open her Princess art kit! The sad thing is, it was supposed to be one of her main presents. I remember thinking she should have something else when I was wrapping presents. It just got lost in the back of our closet (our closet is huge and wraps around to under the stairs). Santa is so silly sometimes!

Opening the belated Christmas present

Emmy Update

I've been in a little bit of a blogging rut lately. With the holidays and having family around, we were pretty busy, and now I'm just out of the habit, I guess! And I haven't really been taking many pictures lately.

So to get me out of this rut, I wanted to post about Emmy. She is growing up so much and just gets cuter everyday. Here is what she has been doing lately:

- She loves to sing and make up songs. She just sings about random things - cleaning, marshmallows, anything she can think of!

- She also loves to sing "Twinkle Twinkle" and "I am a child of God." The other day, after we put her down for a nap, we could hear her singing (loudly) a song from Pete's Dragon. And, of course, she loves to sing the songs from the Disney movies.

- The terrible two's are definitely hitting hard these days. She loves to throw a good tantrum when she doesn't get her way.

- Her favorite TV show is Max and Ruby. She asks to watch it ALL the time! We have been cutting back on TV time, so she doesn't get to watch it as often as she'd like (or as I'd like sometimes . . .)

- Her favorite foods are macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets, apples and fruit snacks. Her favorite drink is milk.

- She loves to make me "food" in her kitchen. It's usually eggs, strawberries and juice :)

- Everywhere we go, people just love Emmy! She's got such a spunky and outgoing personality, she makes friends wherever she goes.

- She always calls older women "grandma". It is so funny! We'll be in the grocery store and she'll just yell out, "Grandma!" Of course, the old ladies love it :)

Emmy is such a special little person for us to have in our home. She brings challenges and joys everyday. And I know she will be such a fun big sister!

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Days 4 to 7

These are pics of the second half of our cruise. We ported in Mazatlan and then Puerto Vallarta. Then we had two days at sea while we headed back to California. It was a great vacation, even though I missed Emmy like crazy!

We started day four off in Mazatlan. Luckily, Grant speaks spanish, so he was a big help finding our way around. All the Mexicans would start talking to Jake and he'd just say, "No hablo". Then they didn't believe him that he didn't speak spanish. They all thought he was Mexican! It was pretty funny. Every town we went to, it happened :)

The church in the center of mazatlan. It was really pretty.

None of the nativities in Mexico had the baby Jesus. They must wait until Christmas Eve or Christmas day to put him out . . . it was strange!

Eating at Bambu's in Mazatlan. It came recommended from our friend's Mike and Jess. It was delicioso!

On the Golden Mile beach at Mazatlan. I bought from a lot of beach vendors here. I can't say no!

Jake and Grant rented jet ski's in Mazatlan. It would have been fun to go, but I couldn't since I'm prego. That's ok, though, the boys had a ton of fun and I got to do a little sunbathing :) I like this pic of Jake. It looks like he's playing leap frog onto the jet ski.

The boys riding the waves

The fifth day was spent in Puerto Vallarta. This was our favorite city on the trip. We got to spend the whole day there instead of just a few hours. We walked around the old part of the city. It's a quaint and cute city. This is the Cathedral in town.

Out front of the Cathedral. Don't worry, Jake put his shirt on when we went inside :) I think being in Mexico takes him back to his roots. He liked walking around with his shirt off the whole time. And since we were in our swimsuits, he got to!

This is one of the "quaint" parts - I love all the flower pots hanging out of the window.

We ate lunch at Pipi's. They have yummy drinks! I ate there when my family went to Puerto Vallarta two years ago, and it was so good that we had to go back. The drinks are huge!

Also at Pipi's, they made fresh guacamole at our table. It was so delicious!!!

The big bowl of guac that we finished off in minutes!

We went to Mismaloya beach, about 25 minutes out of Puerto Vallarta. It was a nice and quiet little beach.

I got a wonderful 45 minute back massage here. The little shack was just to the left of what you can see in the pic above. It was right next to the beach and it was all open, so I could hear the water the whole time. It was so relaxing! And it was only $25!

A cute little boat in Puerto Vallarta

A sunset at sea seen from our balcony

We loved getting ice cream cones on the ship! We'd get at least one or two a day!

They had a game room on the ship. At least three nights, we played cards and Rumikub with Grant and Jodi while we sipped hot chocolate :)

The last night on the ship. This is in the Grand Atrium on the ship.

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Days 1 to 3

Well, since we've been back from our cruise for over two weeks, I guess it's time to post about it! We had such a great time! We drove all night on Friday night to California with our friends, the Corsers. We arrived around 5 am and slept until 9 am at Grant's grandpa's house. Then we had to get on the road again to get to the boat dock in LA. Needless to say, we were so tired by the time we got on the ship!

This is us looking tired in front of our ship :)

Our cruise was with Norwegian Cruise Line and we were on the Norwegian Star

Since we booked our cruise last minute, the only room left was a balcony room. We were so glad we got the balcony! It made our room feel so much bigger. And it was great to sit and read out on the balcony. We even left the door open at night so we could hear the water at night.

Jake got so sick the first night! He gets motion sickness really bad and the water was really choppy that first night. Luckily, he felt much better after that first night
.

Jake and Grant had a fun time playing shuffle board

We ate at a yummy steakhouse on the ship. There were so many desserts that looked good so we ordered three :)

I was the only one brave enough to get up and karaoke!

Going into Cabo, our first stop. The water was so beautiful!

The view of lovely Cabo from our balcony

On our way to Lover's Beach

There was a rock with a TON of sea lions! The one on the left was roaring or barking, whatever they do :)