When using a gift card we got for Christmas we decided to get Alyssa her first real game. It is uno barnyard. After playing it a few times she is getting the hang of it. Although when she has to draw she  looks for the piece that she needs and picks that one. It is pretty fun to watch her be able to play a game.

One of Alyssa's main gifts for Christmas was a toy kitchen. She has been asking for one forever. Ever time she saw one in the store or in a magazine she would say "I tell Santa, I want a kitchen."  I was so excited to see her face when she opened it. She loves playing in it and makes us lemonade, apple juice, soup and cupcakes. 

She is getting good at smiling for the camera.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. Alyssa was old enough to get excited for Christmas and ask Santa for what she wanted. When we woke up Christmas morning I said to Alyssa, "Guess what Santa came", she responded "lets go say Hi to him." I had to let her know that he came and left but left presents. Her main gift was a play kitchen. She has been asking for this forever and was very excited to get it. Russ was up till 2 am putting it together. She loves to play in it and makes me soup and cupcakes all the time.
Christmas eve we went to my aunts house and had a nice Christmas program centered around letting Christ into our lives. In the picture above Alyssa is tackling my cousins son Cohen. She had a blast playing with him that night.

 

Alyssa and her favorite person (my cousin Kelsey)

Aunt Noelle and Alyssa.

Alyssa gave great hugs every time she opened a present.

Christmas cookies

On Sunday we made we Christmas cookies with my sister and mom. Alyssa loved helping with the sprinkles and cutting out the cookies. Christmas cookies are so good, I look forward to them every year.

Gingerbread houses

Today Alyssa and I made gingerbread houses. We had a lot of fun.

Dominica, Grenada and St Thomas

On Dominica and Grenada we went on waterfall hikes. Dominica was more like a short walk to the waterfalls. The second one we went to we were actually able to get in and swim in. (we don't have pictures of this unfortunately).  Grenada was by far a better hike. We had to hike through inches of slippery mudd, up and down hills to get to the Seven Sisters Falls. Once we were there we could play in the waterfall and even jump off of it. I was jealous of those who could jump since I couldn't. Adam was brave enough to jump off the top of the second waterfall. Noelle and Russ climbed 1/2 way up the first waterfall and jumped in. It was beautiful and so worth the hike. Everyone else thought that we were crazy for bringing our 2 year old. But we didn't see that it was a problem at all.

The top waterfall.

Russ jumping in

Adam jumping from the second falls

Noelle getting ready to jump

Great form!

The last day we went to St. Thomas. We rented a catamaran with the whole family (15 of us) and sailed to St. John. We went snorkeling and played on the beach. The beach that we stopped at on St. John was the most beautiful beach I have ever been too. The sand was white and fine, the water was perfect. Alyssa had a blast playing in the waves. She even sat in her floaty while we snorkeled.  We saw some awesome fish, including a barracuda (which was scary), sea turtles and sting rays.

Kristy and David

Kelsey and Alyssa

Best Beach!

Our Catereman

Going Snorkeling

St Kitts

Our second port on the cruise was St. Kitts. Russ and I took a cab to one of the islands best beaches. We were a little disappointed in this beach since everyone kept saying it is the best beach here. It was still pretty and fun but just not as pristine as we had thought. Right when we got to the beach a lady came up to us and we agreed to get Alyssa hair braided. Alyssa was excited at first. About half way through she wanted to be done. I felt bad because she kept asking to go play in the sand and water. It took over an hour to get her hair done. WAY to long for a 2 year old. Needless to say we made it through and she looked like a little Caribbean girl the rest of the cruise. She liked to shake her hair and hear the beads. We also saw a star fish just sitting on the ocean floor where we were playing. We collected a lot of sea shells.

Before getting a taxi we let Alyssa hold a monkey that was in the main square. Of course we had to pay the guy $5 but it was worth it. She kept saying the monkey grabbed my swim suit. Notice the diaper on the monkey, kind of funny!

Cruise

We went on a cruise over Thanksgiving to the southern Caribbean. We went with my mom and siblings and a bunch of extended family on my mom's side. Basically my mom's side of the family are travelaholics and they heard we were going so they decided to come too. It was really fun having a bunch of people on the cruise with us. We started in Puerto Rico and went to St Croix, St Kitts, Dominica, Grenada and St Thomas. It was a wonderful 86 degrees and very humid. We did a lot of fun shore excursions. I will do a few different post of pictures since I have a lot. Alyssa was great. She loved doing all the shore excursions.  She loves the beach and they were perfect wave-less beaches for her to play in. She was a pill at the formal dinners so I usually took her to the buffet deck for dinner to avoid the hassle of a 2 hr long sit down dinner.  Here are a few pictures from the first 2 days.

Rain forest in PR

View from the top of the rain forest in PR

Beach in St Croix

view of our ship from the beach we played at

St Croix

80 degree caribbean ocean!! It was so nice being able to get in the water with out being freezing.

Our first port was St. Croix. My mom, sister and I went to the beach. Russ and my brother went scuba diving.