The Zoo

It was Jeremy's birthday today so we went to the zoo. We first were going to go this this crocodile park but it closes at 5 p.m. and it's about an 1 hour drive and by the time we would have gotten there it would have been too late so we decided to go to the zoo. I have to say it's by far the best zoo that I have ever gone to in my entire life. It wasn't very big and didn't have too many animals but you actually got to touch and hold some of the animals. Something that you would never be able to do in a zoo back in the states. The first thing that we saw was this ugly looking bird. The thing looked nasty and sickly then they zoo guy told us it's a 90 year old cockatiel.

The next thing that we see is this huge boa constrictor. I told Stephanie to hold it just like Brittney Spears did and she did! After that we all wanted to hold the boa and I, yes my friends, held the snake. It was soo heavy and felt weird. I never thought that I would ever hold a snake but hey I'm in the Philippines gotta try something once right.

Brandon touching the boa

Stephanie holding the snake

Ciara trying the snake on

Jake

breathe in breathe out

ok starting to freak me out a bit

Look at me I'm holding a snake. Now hurry and take the stinkin picture!

Brandon making it look easy

Jeremy and Kelly's turn. Now there is a funny story about Jeremy and Kelly trying the snake on. I told Kelly I'll do it if you do it. So Jeremy wanted to have the both of them put it on and take a family picture. While they put the thing on them the snake started to pee all over Kelly! I have never ever seen a snake pee in my life and I have never seen so much pee come out of a reptile before. It was so gross. The pee got all over Kelly's leg and socks. Nasty but soo funny!

This is some of the workers putting water on Kelly's capris to wash off the pee. She did rub hand sanitizer on her leg.

The snake was only the beginning. We still had lots of other animals to see and we were all pretty excited how cool this zoo was. We got to hold a snake. Some got to hold a bird.

We got to pet a tiger and hold a turtle. Jon got in the cage with a crocodile. We got to hear a crocodile growl. My favorite was holding the monkey. This is the same kind of monkey that is on the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean. His name is Mike and he was pretty cute. He squirmed a lot and he bit a lot too, it didn't hurt though. He is also a pincher and he likes to pinch your bobbies. He pinched Jake's and it was funny. I didn't want him to pinch mine so he squirmed a lot. Mariah didn't want to hold or touch any of the animals but Jazmin held a turtle and she petted the tiger. This was a way fun zoo and although it didn't have much it is growing. I can only imagine how cool it will be once they get more animals. The guy that is the owner, I guess, he talked to us and told us all about the animals and told us what other animals he wants to get in there. I'm glad that we went and that the kids all enjoyed themselves. I'm also glad that Brandon had fun because it was hot, well humid, and we were all just sweating like crazy. Just something that we will have to get use to I guess.

Giving the tiger a belly rub.

Brock was a little afraid. I would be too little buddy.

This is a monitor lizard. It's the second largest lizard next to the Komodo dragon. It likes to eat fruit and snails no meat.

I was trying to figure out how to hold the stinkin thing.

Jazmin was so excited to hold the turtle.

Having fun at the Cebu City Zoo.

Fun in the Sun

This past week was the girls first week at dance. We had already missed a week of dance and we weren't to thrilled about having to make up on Saturday mornings. Saturdays are the days we spend time together as a family so the ballet studio decided that they would have the girls go an extra hour. So the girls go 3 days a week for 2 hours now. By Wednesday Mariah was complaining  how her toes hurt. I think 2 hours of ballet for the little ones is a little too much so we might just have the older girls go for 2 hours. Jazmin and Mariah liked it so that's good.

When Thursday came around I was excited that they didn't have to go to dance so we went to Brandon's office. Jazmin really misses one of her little friend's back at home so she gave her a call at the office and was way excited to talk to her.

Brandon and I went out on a date on Friday and it was really nice. I needed a break from Brock because he has been way to clingy to me lately. So we ate dinner and left the kids with LaBeth ( househelp) We went to a mall to get me a phone and we were going to go bowling but changed our mind and got a massage instead. The last time I got a massage here it felt good and this time it was soo  painful for me. The reason being, I was already sore from doing a workout video and running so my legs were sore. I always get knots around my shoulder blades so for the lady to get those knots out and her massaging my legs killed! It was soo painful that I could not relax and I knew she knew that because she covered my eyes with a rag to help me relax. So the next day I had bruises on my legs. Yup bruises! They aren't that bad but still that tells you how hard to rubbed me.

The next day we woke up bright and early so that we could head to the beach.  I was up at 5 a.m to get everything ready (swimsuits, towels, sunscreen etc.etc). The beach we went to was a 2 hour drive so we wanted to leave early. We left around 6 a.m. and got there a little after 8 a.m. The kids had a blast. Jazmin and Mariah were so excited that their dad got them a starfish but we had them throw them back in the ocean because they stink when they start to dry out. We had tonz of fun and by the end of the day we were all wiped out and sunburned. We applied sunscreen but I didn't reapply it on the kids so they got burned. It wasn't too bad so that's good. I'm  hoping that we will be able to go to more beaches on the weekends.

Brock waiting to go to the beach

This is Brock's cute little friend Sami

Here we are at the beach

Brock found this coconut on the ground. He was pretty pumped about it.

Jazmin and Mariah heading out to swim. The water is so clear and so warm. I am loving the asian ocean.

Brock and Sami. Sami decided to put red paint in her pretty blonde her the day before. That is the reasoning for her pink hair. It looked cute though.

Jazmin holding up her starfish that she caught. Actually Brandon got it for her and than she accidentally dropped it so she went back down and got it. She was soo pumped about finding starfishes.

Me and my little guy Brock.

 Daddy with his girls

 I thought this picture was so cute of Brock playing near the water all by himself. He loved the beach.

Yay Pictures

Brock's birthday. Cupcakes in the morning and later his favorite place, The Living Planet Aquarium

Jazmin's last dance competition in St. George. Here she is in her jazz costume

Easter Sunday. Brock was being a little shy. Mariah showing off what the Easter bunny brought her. Easter egg hunt at Grandma Pena's house. Look how awesome Brock did finding eggs.

 

our arrival to Cebu. Our friends here greeted us with this lovely banner. Excuse what we are wearing. I need to remind you that we had been flying for 15 hours so we look pretty crappy. After we headed to Jeremy's and Kelly's house and swam. It felt good.

So I have finally figured out how to post pictures up. A little different formatting on Brandon's laptop I guess. I will for sure be putting more pictures up of our little fun adventures.

A little help please

I decided to take Jazmin out yesterday so that we could have a little time alone. It worked. After she got home from ballet we got a taxi and went to the mall. We ate lunch, which only cost me $5 for the two of us, and we went and got her a pair of capri. That was only $5 dollars as well. Man I love the Philippines when it comes to how cheap I can get stuff. It was really nice that it was just me and her and she really enjoyed it. I know that I can't take her serious but it was just one of those days.

Anyways can anyone tell me how to put pictures on blogger. There use to be little picture icon when you post things but now it's not there anymore. So if anyone could tell me that would be awesome. I really need to put pictures up or I will be really behind.

Mother daughter

I love love my kiddos and I know that sometimes I am not the best mom. Actually, I feel like I am a horrible mom most of the time. I hate it when I get mad at my kids for dumb things. I am trying to work on being a little more compassionate but it's hard. I didn't have that when I was younger. Jazmin and I have little hard time getting a long sometimes. I love her to death but we just butt heads a lot. I feel bad and I want to be a better mommy. You know it hurts your feelings when your own child keeps saying that you are a mean mom and you actually start to cry about it. Why should I take it the wrong way she is after all 7, but I don't want her to hate me and resent me when she gets older. It's been a little hard right now cause we don't have our house yet, in May, and we are stuck in a house most of the time. I just need to set a day once a month where it's just her and I doing some mommy time. I always feel bad cause I leave Mariah out but I really need to spend some one on one time with Jazmin. She is growing up so fast and I want her to know that I love her. Being a mom is the hardest job I have ever had but I love it and I love my 3 little kiddos.

Hello

Ok so we have now been in the Philippines for a week and things are going good. I have to admit that I did have a moment of I want to go home, I miss my home, my friends, my family, my car. It was really hard because I am in this totally new country and I have no idea how to get around. I don't know how to drive a stick and driving in this country is sooo hetic! It's high anxiety when it's rush hour because there are tonz and tonz of jeepneys aka taxis everywhere. So I'm in our friend's house and she is busy getting here kids to and from school and here I am stuck in the house with not a thing to do. It was times like that I wanted my van. I did got over it when the weekend came because Brandon took us to the mall and the mall had lots of things for the kids to do. The mall has a play place and a area where you can pick out a ceramic figurine and paint it. Mariah thought that looked pretty cool. Another thing why I was missing home is because I was soo annoyed that our luggage hadn't arrived yet. Our luggage finally arrived 2 days later and I was sooo excited to be able to put make up on and do my hair and have the kids put on their own clothes.

The girls are absoutly loving it here. They go swimming every single day and the cool thing is they didn't even know how to swim and now they do. It took them 3 or 4 days to finally learn how to swim on their own so that's a good thing. Brock is adjusting a little to time. He wakes up in the middle of the night but goes back to sleep with a sippy. He has finally been able to take his naps and they are a good 3 to 4 hour naps. It's been nice to be able to have a built in babysitter. Jeremy's and Kelly's yayay (maid) are awesome! They are way good cooks and they are soo nice to our kids. It's nice to be able to go to the store and not have to take them with me. They would rather stay home and swim.

The girls will be starting ballet lessons next week. The ballet place is super close to where we are staying and the teacher is really nice. The girls are going to learn proper ballet technique here. Kelly and I were pretty impressed with it. If you saw the teacher you would think that she is mean and strict but she is really nice. While Kelly and I were filling out their registration forms she was talking to the girls and telling them that she will teach them to do such and such. They will go 3 times a week so that will be good for them.

No pictures again. Sorry as soon as I get our house and connect our computer I will post them. For now enjoy reading about our journey here in the Philippines.

We are Here!

We are finally here in Cebu and let me tell you the flight wasn't enjoyable at all! You all are thinking it's the kids that didn't make it enjoyable, think again. Let's begin with our journey that all started in SLC on Monday April 5. My parents take us to the airport and we are seeing warnings that there is a statewide winter storm warning from 5p.m-9 a.m. Tuesday. I'm thinking ok, we are totally missing that storm because it's clear as can be heading to Salt Lake other than the rain that we got. We decided to use the skycap because we had 13 bags and we needed some help. We said goodbye to my parents and totally lost it. Tears were just flowing down my face. After all I am saying goodbye to my parents and I'm not going to be able to see them as much as I use too. We check in and go through security and security with kids is sooo stressful. Brandon and I are use to going through security just the two of us but now we have 3 little ones and we are trying to rush them to take off their shoes, sweaters,backpacks stressful but they did awesome! We get to the gate and the kids play in the play area and all of a sudden it's snowing and snowing hard! This was the winter storm warning and I'm starting to think they are going to cancel our flight and then we are screwed! We are just sitting and waiting and I'm making some last minute phone calls to say goodbye. We hear that our plane is arriving late so now we are like 15 to 20 minutes late. We board our plane late and we are settled in. Brock sits by me, Brandon and Mariah sit together and Jazmin sat across from Brandon, but by a stranger. She was sooo mad and she pouted for awhile about it too. We then hear that we can't fly because of the snow and we need to wait until it lets up so it's going to be 30 minutes! 30 minutes sitting on the stinking plane are you kidding me! We figured ok well we have a 4 to5 hr layover in San Fran so if we can avoid being in San Fran for that long no biggie right-wrong! Our 30 minute delay ended up being 4 hrs on the stinking tarmac! We had to wait for the deicer and then we had to wait for our turn because they are other planes ahead of us and to make it even worse Brock had to be in his seatbelt so he was screaming for awhile. I was sooo annoyed and sooo hungry. I would ask Brandon if we are going to make our connecting flight and he said he hoped so. He told the flight attendant that we had an international flight in San Fran and she said we would make it so I was like ok. Well we finally leave Salt Lake and arrive in San Fran at 12 a.m. and our flight for Taipei was at 1:20 a.m but we had to still check in and it was on the other side of the airport because it's an international flight. We got off the plane and seriously booked it through that airport. It reminded me of Home Alone when they are trying to get their flight. We check in and Brandon tells the guy we need to sit together because we have 3 kids. We check in and now need to go through security. Security was closed and the attendant told us that but we ran with us over to security so that they would let us in. We get in and they were really nice. They complemented us on how our kids were doing really good for being 1 a.m. They were being good and cooperating so I was really proud of them even Brock. We get through and get to our gate and they are starting to board. Brandon talks to the agents and we told them we have 3 kids we need to sit together. At first I think they were like sorry but then they saw how young our kids were and so they made it happen. They asked people who were traveling alone if they could switch and so we were able to sit close to each other. It was 3 and 2 so that was fine. The kids did awesome on the long flight. They seriously slept through the majority of the flight. I wasn't too impressed with China Air it was crappy service and the food was crappy so that's my complaint on the airline. We arrive in Taipei and we are an hour late so yet again we get off and have to hurry to check in and go through security yet again. We board the plane to go to Manila, which is only a 2 hr. flight so that was good and the plane wasn't full and it had your own screen to watch movies so the girls were entertained with watching the Princess and the Frog. We get to Manila and get our bags and a lady from the baggage claims tells me that some of the luggage didn't make it so I gave her our baggage claim ticket and we had 6 bags that didn't make it. We fill out a claim and they told us that they would send it to Cebu for us and call us when they got their. Well there were 2 others from Utah that were on our flight and they didn't get their luggage either so I'm thinking luggage didn't make it on from Utah to San Fran which meant that we wouldn't get our baggage until the following day. When we finally got to Cebu we got a warm welcoming. It was nice and we got a car too so now Brandon doesn't have to take taxis all the time. I'm not sure I want to drive here because a)I don't know how to drive stick and b)driving here is a little crazy. When we got to Jeremy and Kelly's house (we are staying with them until our house is ready) I was curious to see what we had in our luggage that we got and it was all of my clothes and their toys. We didn't get the bag with the kids clothes, our computer, make up, toiletries, and other stuff. So the girls are just wearing Lucy and Gracie's clothes and Brock is wearing shirts with no shorts cause I had a few of his shirts in my bag. It is now Friday here and we still have now bags. Brandon the airport yesterday and they hadn't arrived. Soooo, I am going to the mall to get Brock some sandals and some shorts and a couple of other things that I may need. So that is why our flight wasn't too fun because of what we had to go through, other than that the kids are enjoying themselves. They went swimming a lot yesterday and I think they are loving the idea of having a maid, but we are going to have to talk to them about abusing that. I don't want to tell them to bring them stuff to their room or have them do things they are perfectly capable of doing. It is hot here but I would take that over the cold snow! We got our house all worked out so that is exciting. It's a pretty sweet house too! Now I've just got to get the girls situated in school and get them signed up for dance or something. I will post pictures of the house because need to get the kiddos something to eat. So I was going to put up a picture of our little warm greeting we received from the airport but for some reason blogger isn't letting me put up pictures. So I will figure how to do that later. Sorry this is a long post with no pictures.

Off we go

So today is finally here! Today is the day that my little family start our little adventure in the Philippines. I can't believe that it's finally here. The stress of moving and packing is now gone, and thank goodness. I will post about the moving ordeal that lead me into tears. Goodbye and stay in touch everyone.