Sweet Maddie girl's Birthday Party

Bretton and Paul's little girl, Maddie, turned 2 today!!! Her and Dylan have become good friends and Bretton and I have become good friends. We Love this little family! 

Coco and Dyaln enjoying a boat ride with Bretton, Maddie and Lavae

Maddie and her mommy, Bretton 

Maddie and her daddy, Paul

The boys enjoying some cupcakes and cake

Lots of friends from town 

Birthday girl 

Baby Stewart was Hilarious! Hiding while eating his cupcake

Alina, Maddie, Levae, Nicholee

Alina, babyStewart, Tyson, Conner, Dylan, Benjamin, Stephan, Jamie, Maddie, Levae, Nicholee

They were So sweet to invite us all to the bday party! The kids and us had a Great time!! Happy Birthday Maddie!! We Love You!! <3 div="" nbsp="">

Hurricane Matthew

And so it begins... Again.

The preparation for another hurricane.

Hurricane Matthew is on its way to us.
We've talked little about it, and then about 24 hours ago I got a text from Andrew saying they are recommending us/families to leave the island.
15 min later our flights are booked to leave Monday morning for Florida.

We've obviously started keeping a closer track on updates and the projection of the hurricane. It went from talking about it yesterday to a tropical storm, maybe a hurricane, category 1 to a cat. 2 and even going into a cat. 3. All families are being advised to leave the island.

This has never happened. To us. We've never been advised to book flights and leave. This is a first.

When Andrew first told me that he booked our flights, I was nervous to leave. This island, the island which has been our home for the last year and a half. This Beautiful place with luscious greenery everywhere. Bright blues and greens, a sort of turquoise ocean color you've never seen before. To leave our friends, the people on this island who won't or can't leave, who will be here to ride it out. And the people, they are some of the nicest and helpful people you'd meet. And happy. They don't have much, but they don't need much. They live within their means, cuz really that's all that they can afford.  They look after each other and take care of each other.  And I feel guilty leaving, leaving them behind in hopes that Hurricane Matthew doesn't ruin their homes and surroundings. Guilty because I Can afford to get off the island to some place that is safe and our family out of harms way, if this hurricane does in fact become something to fear.

I truly think everything will be alright, but it just puts things in perspective for me. How people live, it opens my eyes to a whole new level. My conversations have changed a little bit. I realize how much I don't "need" in life, and my priorities have also shifted a little. I know I won't live here forever, but I hope and pray the day that I leave, that I don't forget about Abaco, Bahamas, the people on Great Guana Cay. The humbleness I feel in every part of me, for living on this 7mile by not quite 2 mile island. It's Soo easy to slip back into those comfortable ways, to adjust to what you grew up with and around. Electricity everyday of every hour of your life. Walking outside and not being completely attacked by mosquitos and no-seums (mostly certain times of the day, hahaha). Water that doesn't come from the rain to support the way you live, what you drink, when to shower or use the laundry or even wash dishes. Fresh fruit and vegetables whenever you want. An inclosed car when it rains. (even though I laugh each time it happens, and I really actually Love it, it's still humbling) To not take things for granted. I don't want to do that. I want to forever remember this place and how it's changed a part of me.

Sorry, Really got monologuing there.
Anyway, this storm... as of last night it went up to about a Cat. 5 and this morning, it's back down to a Cat. 4.
It's slowing down but strengthening.
We are prepping our house and getting it ready for the hurricane. Putting all our pink shutters up over the windows, bringing in all the outside furniture, things that could damage the house if caught up in the hurricane. And in case we can't get off the island, making sure we have stuff in the house to eat and get us through it. Andrew is helping prepare the homes in Baker's as well. I'm really not too worried, this is just what goes on for the prep before a hurricane comes. Last year all the hurricanes that projected to come our way, never did, so it's also a little hard for me to believe this could actually happen, here, to us and our home.

As of right now, this is what it looks like...

Kind of crazy. 

This is the first time I actually feel like this is real and our preparations show it. Tomorrow we will finish getting everything together before we head out the following day. 

If I'm good about keeping up on this blog like I had hoped I would start to do, I'll be posting again when we get back. Half of our friends and people here have already left the island to a safer place, the rest of us will soon be following or staying. 

Even though I believe everything will be alright, please keep us all in your prayers, especially those who are staying here. I Love the people here and pray that they will be kept safe. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Dylan's Mickey Birthday

Happy Birthday Dylan!! 

Right now you LOVE Mickey Mouse, so we gave you a Mickey themed birthday!!  

9.13.16 

Our friends on the island and I cut out all these circles & Mickeys and I sewed them in a straight line for a backdrop. 

Then I attempted to make Mickey Mouse cookies. I made one, but realized it was going to take too long to make a bunch of these without a cookie cutter, so the only one went to you, which you were excited about! :)

I also made a Mickey cake, which ended up ALL over you!! And even dyed your hair just a shade darker after washing it all out.  Hahaha My friends and I were just talking and admiring your toe-head of hair.

All your friends came to wish you a Happy Birthday! 

JR smashed the cake in your face :) Don't worry he was gentle and he asked me permission first, which you thought was funny and delicious. 

You gave Abi a cake kiss on her cheek, which we thought was the Cutest thing!! 

AJ let you put cake in his hair which you and him both thought was pretty funny. Amyaha loved watching it all :) 

Prez brought over his and Aj's bday card, which had a 2 doallr bill in it! 

Chris decorated these cookies and stitched your name on the felt Mickey I made so I could sew it on to the back of your Mickey blanket I made for you :) 

Cassy, Beth & Cristen helped me cut out all the decorations, that would have taken me Forever without their help!! And the rest of the gang brought cards, gifts and candy!!!

Everyone Loves you Sooo much!!! 

Oh and I made you a Mickey matching game (which we can't find one of the matches) & a Mickey blanket, which you Loved!! Yay!! 

Dylan you most likely won't remember much about living here in the Bahamas, but I wanted you to know how much everyone here Loves you and wanted to be with you to celebrate your birthday!! 

Some of the things you might want to know when you're older: 

~ You LOVE Mickey!! 

It's really the only show you'll watch. You will stop dead in your tracks, to sit and watch it. It constantly distracts you from anything else you are doing.  You Love to dance to the music and sing the song that you are now starting to pick up on, ("Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...") which is the Cutest thing!! And when we say "Roll call!!" You will start naming the characters in the exact order they do on the beginning of the show, and I Love it!!! 

~ You Love to run around and be tickeled!

We run around the kitchen island with Tyson while mom tries to get you and tickle you. It's your favorite game! When Conner is not at school, he joins in on the fun! ;) 

~You JUST started putting yourself to bed!!

 I never thought that would happen. It just started one night when dad asked you if you wanted to go to bed. You hurried up the stairs and climbed into your pack n play and went to sleep. And you've been doing that ever since... so far, ;) which has been about 2 weeks now. Haha

~You are Happy!! 

You make everyone around feel loved, with hugs and kisses and snuggles! You blow kisses and say Hi and Bye to everyone as they come and go. 

~ You Love to play with your brothers. 

You will wrestle with them, dance with them, sit with them and give them Big hugs when you see them! They are your Best Friends :) 

~ You Love your Dad!!

You are the first to run and give dad a Hug and say Hi to him as he walks in through the door, or to let us know he is home so someone can unlock the door, to let him in. You Love to go paddle boarding with your dad as he takes you around the Sea and shows you fish and water all around. 

~You Love your Mom!! 

You Love to snuggle with mom!! If anyone else is around you would usually rather be with your mom! I Love it!! :) I get Big hugs and full run to me, from you, whenever I am not home and get back!! I get the Biggest Smiles! 

Daddy, Conner, Tyson and Mommy LOVE you Sooo much!! You make us happy and make us laugh all the time!! You are growing up Way too fast, but I am trying to take in as much as I can before you get too big!!  We are Soo excited to see & watch you this next year! It's such a fun age as you learn and talk more and discover new things!! 

We Love you Dylan!! Happy 2nd Birthday little Dude!! 

First Loose Tooth

Conner came and told me that his tooth is loose and then I noticed 2 teeth are already growing in behind his 2 bottom teeth and neither of these baby teeth are real loose. The one he said is loose, is just barely wiggling. So we are wiggling it everyday and trying to get ahold of it to pull it out, but the teeth coming in behind, make it more difficult to get a good grip on his "loose" tooth.

You can't tell super well in this pic, but there is another tooth coming in right next to the that other one 

Hopefully, we can get both of these teeth out soon, so they can make their way to the front.  Wish us luck!!  :)

Mom and Dad come to the Bahamas!!

After my Beautiful sister's wedding and Christmas my parents came home with me to the Bahamas for a relaxing vacation.

We booked our flight a few months in advanced and the airlines ended up changing it on us to a redeye flight.  We got through it and made it to the Bahamas, but we were all pretty exhausted from that.  Tyson and Dylan didn't do that great on the flight which also made for a long trip back.  

MONDAY:  my dad and Andrew got invited to go on a fishing boat adventure for the day, while my mom, me and the kids explored where we live.  We were still pretty tired so it was a low-key kind of day.  And apparently a few of the bugs missed me over the past few weeks.  Hahaha

They caught a Mahi-Mahi 

The fish is pretty vibrant in colors, until it's out of the water too long, then the colors start to fade :(

Later that day my dad spotted a different kind of fish in the water, from our dock.  We watched it as it walked along the ground slowly.  It had 4 legs. 2 bigger ones in the front that it used for walking or it stuck straight out in front of its body when it wanted to swim, and then 2 smaller ones in the back. Then it had a tail like a fish and fins on the either side of it like a normal fish.  Our first thought was that it was a frog or pollywog of some sort in the transformation period.

 I decided we needed to get the GoPro out and video it. When my dad and I came back to the dock dressed and ready, my mom said it did something unusual.  It fanned out its side fins and it turned bright blue.  I definitely wanted to get this thing on video!!

Kind of cool huh!!!

We did some research on this crazy, cool fish and it's called a Flying Gurnard.  (It doesn't actually fly though Hahaha) 

Here are some links I found on this rare fish:  

Pictures of other Flying Gurnards

Flying Gurnard Info

It was Really fun to see a new kind of fish and a rare one at that.  Soo glad my dad spotted it!! 

All in all it was a pretty Great first day here on Guana exploring!!  It's Soo fun having family out here!! Excited for tomorrow's adventures!! :)

UPDATE: I forgot to post the rest of the days, so here is a quick run down:

TUESDAY: Took Conner to the dock and went with him over to Marsh.  He got in his taxi, and off to school he went. We went to a yummy bakery called "Da Bes Yet", but unfortunately it was closed.  So we headed over to Maxwell's, the main grocery store, and stocked up in our insulated bags for the 30 min ferry ride back.

WEDNESDAY: Meg was Soo sweet to let come over and Snorkel off her dock.  That was fun!!  I called my neighbor, Cassy, to watch the boys for me last min.  We were all at the dock, but Dylan wasn't cooperating so off to Cassy's we went. It was Soo nice of her to watch them for me last min.

THURSDAY:  went to Hopetown island.  Walked through the lighthouse, ate lunch at Abaco Inn, took Lots of pictures.  Came back to Great Guana Cay, went and looked for sea glass at Sea Glass Beach, relaxed, nightly ritual of going to the dock and looking for fish.  Ate wings at Sunsetter's tonight.  Wanted to show my parents our favorite restaurant to eat at.

FRIDAY:  took a tour of Baker's Bay, where Andrew works. Played a game called Qwixx, that I've been obsessing over ever since Andrew bought it for me.  Hahaha

SATURDAY: It's always hard to say Goodbye.  My parents had to get on the 9am ferry to make their 1pm flight.  Ya, that's the only ferry going over before their flight took off, besides the noon and that's too close to their departure time.  Their flight ended up being delayed until 3pm, such a bummer!!  We all wish we knew that ahead of time, we could have put them on the noon ferry.  These are the things that are hard to live by while living here.  We took a few selfies before they went inside.  I miss them!

Fire on Guana Cay = Volunteer work

We decided to take the kids to a local basketball court in town so the kids could all run around and play.
On the way there we noticed smoke coming from behind the bushes off the main road.
We pulled over so Andrew could hop out and help.
We weren't sure what to expect.
We don't have much of a fire station.
It's a little shack of a house, with a little truck inside.
There are no fire hydrants so the water is just in a tank in the back of the truck.
The hose connected to the back tank of water and trying to extend it to the fire off the main road... I wasn't sure how this was going to pan out... but it did.

Here's Andrew in the blue shirt volunteering his help anywhere he could

After they finished we went back to our house so Andrew could take a quick shower.  

Poison wood is on this island and Andrew may have brushed up against it while he was out helping.  It does Not sound like something you want.  

Anyway, we headed back to the basketball court and let the kids play for a couple hours.  

They had Soo much fun!! 

2 Weeks into the Bahamian life

Hello!!! 

I'm not vey good at this, but I will try and give it my best shot!!  Hahaha 

It's been 2 weeks now since we've moved here to this Beautiful place called the Bahamas!!  Kind of crazy and still a little surreal at times to think this is really how we live.  

The first week was a little rough.  No oven, fridge broke, battery to my golf cart died and left me a little stranded, and worst of all flea infestation, among other things.  The power has only gone out on us once so far, I think that's pretty good.  It only lasts a couple of hours before it kicks back on. So the adjustment period was a little more difficult in a different way.  I'm happy to report we got most of those things taken care of. Hahaha :) 

This week we remembered to charge our golf carts so we are not stranded (Andrew also had a small taste of that as well. Lol) Got a temporary fridge until ours gets fixed or completely replaced, oven still doesn't work, and a bug guy came out and did 2 rounds of spray, first one to kill the fleas, the second to kill the eggs  And we are still waiting for our boxes to get here. :)

During the day I take the kids to the pool, the beach, or we play out on our dock.  Andrew has fished with the boys and they Really enjoy that.  They've caught Lots of fish!  It's not hard to do here. Maybe Conner and Tyson can teach Chad and Jacob a few tips ;)  Lol 

We went to Abaco, the other island-the main island, for groceries yesterday.  We had to get on the 9am ferry, rent a car, and went to 2 different groceries stores, which one is like a very small Costco, and the other is a normal grocery store that's pretty big. The car rental guy was nice and dropped us and all our stuff off at the dock for the 2pm ferry.  They have one "fast food" -KFC, (Not really fast), here and that's on this island, Abaco, we got that for on the way back, and ate it on the ferry.  

Last night I went to the gym and on the way back I saw a crab walking along side of the road.  Hahaha  Andrew had asked me if I had seen this yet, well, now I can say that I have.  I wanted to take a picture, but it was Soo dark.  Andrew said they come out during the day too, so hopefully, I'll get a picture to send soon.  

Our friends caught an eel yesterday for the first time.  Wish I could have seen that.  It sounded like it was decent size.  Their daughter was snorkeling and came face to face with it, with it's mouth wide open!!  Soo crazy and scary!!  Andrew saw a baby shark and got a picture of it.  

The kids enjoy the golf cart rides and not having to wear seat belts.  Hahaha  Dylan is crawling now all over the place and looks like he wants to start pulling himself up on things, just in the last week or two since we've been here.  Life is about to get crazier.  Lol

Church is at a house, at 10am.  We all take turns teaching the small primary kids and the youth kids.  The men take turns conducting sacrament and teaching sunday school for the adults.  We now have a bigger group of 11 Adults, 11 kids and 2 babies. It's actually really cool to know that the church can run any where you are, no matter what city, state, or country.  It's been a Really cool experience and today was testimony meeting, this was my first one, but there's obviously not that many people, so it's not very long and not every one gets up, it'll be interesting to see how this works each time.  We only give about 20 min for any of us to go up if we want instead of 45 min or so.

Here are some pictures :)  

We made it!

Home for the next 2 years

View from our porch :)

Trying to figure out why our fridge and oven aren't working

Our dock

This is how we ride around town 

Looking outside the window of the ferry

One of the Many Beautiful beaches here!

The shark Andrew saw

The boys Love fishing!

We Love our dock!! 

I literally mean it when I say this place is Beautiful!!!  I have to pinch myself a few times to make sure it's real!! Every picture is breath taking.  I Love getting to know all the Bahamians!!  They all wave to you as you pass them in your golf carts, Very friendly and nice people.  It's such an Amazing place!!  ;)