December Activites...so far

Of course December has been a busy month so far...and the calendar shows it only getting busier, so here are a lot of pictures and activities in one post.

Santa paid the kids a visit at our ward Christmas party. It does seem as though Santa got a new pair of glasses this year, but it didn't seem to phase the kids.



We did M&M math. And for the first time, they actually got through the math part before they ate them!


We felt a week behind with our cruise since that is usually the weekend we put up the lights and decorations, but Jer managed to come through on our lights again. Now the kids are old enough to really put the pressure on.




On a different note, 2 weeks ago I got released from my church calling as 1st counselor in the primary. Although I have been in the primary presidency for close to 4 years, I am so sad to be done in there. I will miss being with my kids. Prentice was coming into primary in 3 weeks. I had the week off after they released me and was just thinking how weird it would be to finally go back to Relief Society. A place I have not been for about 7 years now, when the phone rang to come to the church. So before I will have the chance to attend Relief Society again, they put me back to work as the secretary in the Young Women's organization. If I can't be in primary, that's where I would want to be, so it will be great. We only have about 6 young women that come so it will be nice and relaxed and I feel like I will really get the chance to get to know they girls and hopefully have a positive impact in their lives. Sad to be leaving the primary kids behind, but excited for the new challenge. I will at least be in their with my little sister Monique and my mom who is an advisor.

Sickness and Work News

We finally got the bug around here. At least Truman did. Yesterday he laid down on my lap to read and story and told me he didn't feel well. I always know now that when Truman says that he is coming down with something no matter how much I try to second guess myself. I read them a couple Christmas stories and within half an hour he was asleep on the floor in front of the fire. Another thing that Truman never does. School was almost ready to start so I figured he would have to stay home for the day. He was so disappointed when he woke up that he was missing school, especially on the day he had P.E. He was tired and lovable for the rest of the day and didn't eat anything but had a fever. As I have said before I thought it was great and didn't mind loving and holding him all day. He perked up some last night and was in the mood to eat, but by this morning he was back to the couch. I kind of hope he feels better soon:)


On another note, Jer is home. And I mean home for good! He was offered a position back with his old company, Western Rock. I would try to explain what he will be doing, but do wives ever really know what their husbands do for work. I basically know that he will be the aggregate manager in charge of the plants from Cedar City to Page, Arizona. I'm sure it is much more involved, but you'll have to ask him for more details. We have been so grateful for the opportunity he has had with his job the last year and a half, but I would be lying if I said it hasn't been very difficult as well. He has learned so much and I am proud of all his hard work and dedication. I was so excited when he returned early last night from his last work trip and we made dinner together, spent time as a family, and I couldn't help but think that I had forgotten a little what it was like to all be home together. I told myself that I needed to remember to cherish the time we have together, because now I know how it is being apart for such long periods of time. His new time home will be just in time for the holidays and the new baby. I love you! You know I have missed you terribly the last year and a half and can't wait to have you home with us again.

The Tree is Up

We hurried and got our tree up in the day we had between our cruise and Jer's red eye for his work week in Detroit. Always a fun tradition. Brings back memories of my own childhood and holiday traditions are never better than through the eyes and thoughts of your kids.


If the kids wanted an ornament up higher on the tree, they would point for Jer to put it up for them. They actually did a pretty good job of getting them pretty spread out and not all in one spot this year. We don't have enough to fill the whole tree, so the back is empty, but from the front it looks great.

GiGi's Birthday

Aunt Monique's 15th Birthday was on December first and the kids wanted to make her cookies. We invited her down to our house because they wanted her to help decorate the sugar cookies. I felt like this is the first year that there was more decorating and less chaos. They were really pretty good at it. Don't know if they tasted the best with the amounts of frosting that was being put on, but it was a fun night.

Princess Cays

Our last day before we came home, we stopped at a private island owned by the princess cruise line. We all got off the ship and just hung out at the beach and enjoyed the nice weather and water.






We had a lot of fun, but were ready to get home to the kids. We were able to catch at earlier flight home because we got to the airport so early and were home to see them the next night. Right now as I type this I am wondering why I was so anxious to get home as I listen to the sound of my children fight with one another.

Cozmel, Mexico

This day we ventured out for a busy day with just our family. Jeremy and I loved visiting the Mayan ruins on our honey moon to Cancun, so we were anxious to return and see some more. We had already visited some of the others, so we decided to go to the Coba ruins. This one you are still able to climb to the top of one of the main temples.


I won't go into details, but once we got Monique out of the bathroom, we were ready to explore and hear about the Mayan culture.




This place was a very important part of all the Mayan cities. It is a place where they played and game where the captain of the winning team was privileged to be killed as a sacrifice to the gods.
They had to hit a rubber ball they made that was about as heavy as a bowling ball without using their hands or feet. Just the padded parts of their bodies.


Jeremy and Monique made it to the top of one of the tallest temples. These pictures don't do it justice, but it is so tall and steep, a lot of people just slide down on their bottoms to get back down. They cruised to the top and back down, but were sore the next day.

Roatan, Honduras

Our second day off the ship was our day to be in charge of my Grandparents. Most everyone else went kayaking, but we went sailing and snorkeling because we thought that would be better for them. The first thing I noticed about this spot was how lush and green and beautiful it was.



Jer even got to help a little on the ship.


Aren't my grandparents cute. This is my Grandpa Ballam enjoying the sun and listening to stories from the captain. He can't see very much anymore, but he never complains and seems to enjoy most anything.

When we though as sailing being a good activity for my grandparents, we forgot about grandma's hair! She was not a fan of the slight wind and short drizzle. In fact, I think her exact words when we asked her how she like it at the end of the day were, "well...I hated it." Guess grandma isn't one for sailing and snorkeling.

It seems like this is how Monique spent a good portion of our cruise. If she wasn't doing something, she was catching some sleep.

We got to go on a sailboat with just our family and listen to the history and "stories" of the island. We decided some of them might have been a little exaggerated. Our captain was fun to listen to and one of my favorite parts of the day was just sailing along the shoreline looking at the docks and homes along the shore and listening to some facts about Roatan.

This is one of those places that is so beautiful, but makes you grateful for what you have and where you live. We appreciated the simplicity of the lifestyle and the city, but it makes you grateful for how lucky and "spoiled" we are. I left there thinking we are so lucky. Least of which is the fact that we don't have garbage piling up next to our house.

This is a picture of a plane in the distance that a drug smuggler crashed and then abandoned. We was a few of these wrecks along the shore.

Grand Caymen

Our first stop where we got to get off the ship was an island called Grand Caymen. We did an excursion with our entire extended family (36 people). There was a lot packed into the time we had off the ship.




We got to stop at a turtle "farm" where they breed turtles and then release them into the wild. There we tons of turtles. They even let us pick up some of the little ones.


We also visited "hell." I have heard of this place before and was excited to see what all the hopla was about, but to tell you the truth it seemed like a bit of a tourist trap. Tons of tourist stuff all about "hell." The actual spot is in the picture above. It was really neat with tons of black, sharp rock.
That night was our first formal night for dinner. It always amazes me that we can get sick of amazing food and all you can eat buffets.

I don't have any pictures yet...probably because I was clinging to Jer the whole time, but my most favorite and terrifying activity of the whole trip was when we swam with the stingrays! I was so scared, but loved every minute of it. We went out to the middle of the ocean and there was some sort of shallow sand bar that you could just stand on, surrounded by tons of stingrays. They told us we just had to keep our feet on the ground, but seeing how I'm a little short, my feet would sometimes lift when a swell would come. Hence, I hung onto Jer a lot. And when I say we swam with the rays, we didn't just stand and look at them, they would seriously swim and flap all over us. It was the craziest thing. You couldn't avoid them even if you wanted to. There were a lot of smiles and screams that day from all the Ballam girls.

Time Away

Jer left this morning for the longest time we will be apart since we've been together. I knew it was coming; I just hope the next 10 days go as fast. This weekend will be hard. I try not to think about it or talk about it because it just gets me emotional. Yesterday was a rough day. First they had me give a prayer in sacrament(one of my biggest fears). I would rather give a talk. I honestly couldn't even function the whole morning. I couldn't stop thinking about Jer leaving for so long, and our cruise is getting so close and although I'm excited, I get emotional every time I think about leaving my kids. Why do I always want a break from them, and then when that actually happens, I don't want to leave them? I think part of it is the fact that on the cruise I won't have much if any contact with them. And that they are old enough to know I'm leaving. I hate it when we talk about it and their little lips start to quiver because they are trying to hold back the tears as much as I am. Busy next few weeks, but I can do it...right? Love you Jer. I missed you even before you left. Thanks for putting up with my expectations, demands, "nagging"(although I rarely do it:), and emotional and anxiety filled moments. Thanks for letting me just talk and for taking care of me every step of the way. I'm starting to cry, so I guess I better be done. Love you!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was different this year, because the kids were actually old enough to help quite a bit. We didn't feel like we were doing all the labor while the kids were running around or making messes. They each got to do two pumpkins. One carved, and one with their plastic face pieces.


As usual for Prentice, she was a little turned off by the smell. She did a few scoops and then had to get away from the smell. Then she entertained us by dancing to the Halloween music for most of the rest of the time.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween! Truman got to go to the play, "Thriller" almost every night this week because his Aunt Monique was performing. I mention this because I think this may have been what inspired his costume as a werewolf. It turned out amazing and we got so many compliments. People would stop us and want to take their picture with him. I can brag because Jeremy was the brains behind it. He spent a good deal of time gluing hair extensions onto the clothes for a really hairy look. Homemade costumes turn out so good, but they are a lot of work! Prentice was of course our little princess and loved getting lathered and sprayed with glitter. I think it is funny to see the two extremes in their choices for costumes.




I had fun helping out in Truman's classroom for their Halloween parade and party. The kids were really into it and were so proud of their costumes.By the end of the weekend Jer and I were actually really ready for Halloween to be over. I think we dressed the kids up 4 different times. We struggled to fit everything in and still had to cut out a couple things. We were so ready to move on from Halloween that we already took down the decorations.