Happy Birthday Caitlin!

My baby - my bonus child - is 10! Double digits! So here are 10 things I LOVE about Caitlin!
1) Her smile can light up my day.
2) Her laugh makes me laugh.
3) She loves to read. I love peeking in her room and finding her all comfy on her bed reading a book.
4) She can be so nice to her brother and sister when she wants to be.
5) She loves to keep her room clean. :)
6) She loves church. She loves to go, she loves to pray, read her scriptures, ask questions, read church magazines. She also loves to bear her testimony at church. She doesn't always do it, but she's certainly done it more times than I have!
7) She's great with younger kids, especially her younger cousins. She's going to make a great babysitter someday!
8) She loves me. She loves to ask me questions about when I was a kid. She loves to ask lots of questions.....period!! Cracks me up.
9) She will (usually) do what I ask her to do with a positive attitude. I love it when I ask her to get my "sleep socks" (these are a really fuzzy, soft pair of socks that Caitlin gave me for Christmas) and she does, and then puts them on me. :)
10) She is such a special part of our family. She was certainly a surprise when we found out we were pregnant with her (hence the nickname "Bonus Child") and I know without a doubt that she was meant to be with us! She is my mini-me!!

She's smiled ever since she was born.

First birthday.

She used to do this all of the time!

She'll probably kill me for putting this one up, but it's one of my favorites.

Look at Caitlin's face in the picture. So cute. And she still sleeps with that bunny every night.

Do you think she's mad in this picture?

Another one of my favorites.

And another favorite. I love the way this turned out.

She was soooo into Tinkerbell

My absolute favorite picture of Caitlin. Can this girl take a picture or what??

Courtney took this picture of us. Caitlin used to sleep with it under her pillow.

Sisters!!

Her first snowman.

Love that smile!!

With Karlie.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!!!! I love you!

Day 3

This day, we woke up to snow. Not a lot, but it was definitely snowing. It was so pretty!!! We left the hotel and took the subway to the South Ferry to head out to the Statue of Liberty. There is more security here then there is at the airport!!! You get there, go through one security checkpoint, which means we had to take off our jackets, gloves, hats, scarves, and some of us had to take off our shoes. Got through that, then got in line to board the ferry. Once we got to Liberty Island, we had to go through ANOTHER security checkpoint! Again, off came our warm stuff, but we had to talk through this blower thing that puffed big amounts of air at us! It was to check for any explosive residue, or something like that. Crazy. Anyway, the boat ride over was SO COLD (cuz we went out on top of the boat for some AMAZING pictures). We spent a few hours on the island, hanging out with Lady Liberty. From there, we boarded the ferry again, and went to Ellis Island. Brenna & Cody are the only ones that got off here. Brenna knew some names of some ancestors that went through Ellis on their way to USA. The rest of us took the subway to Brooklyn to eat at Grimaldi's. The BEST pizza I have EVER had. (FYI...there is a Grimaldi's in Peoria at Park West. It's the same restaurant, and the pizza is DELICIOUS, however, it's just not quite as good as the Brooklyn Grimaldi's. There's just something about eating pizza in NYC!!!) Kort & Amy were really battling their colds at this point (both of them were sick the whole trip, poor babies) so they took the subway back to the hotel. But, Hugh & I and Bonnie & Kamon walked back to Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge. If you ever go to NYC, I HIGHLY recommend doing this. It's so cool!! (And it was so COLD! 32 degrees!!) Got to Manhattan, walked through some totally cool neighborhoods, and then took the subway way up to Central Park to go to the Met. Unfortunatly, we got here an hour before they closed. We were racing through there to see just a few things. The top of my list was the Temple of Dendur. So old and so cool. We saw a few more exhibits and then headed out. I wish we could have stayed there longer, but there wasn't time. One quick cab ride and we were back at the hotel. We met up with everyone else, and then headed to Grand Central. Didn't stay there too long. We walked back to Times Square, and after much deliberation of where to eat, we ended up at Olive Garden - Amy's favorite restaurant. While we were waiting for our table, us girls headed across the street to the Hershey's store. And, for $5 you can have something written on their scrolling marque outside! So, I paid my $5, and we had them put: "Hugh, Kort, Cody & Kamon are total babes!!" and this ran continuously for 15 minutes! Their names were up in lights in Times Square! How cool is that!?! At this point, he had started to snow again...and it didn't stop. We had heard rumors of flights cancelled, schools cancelled, and record snowfall. Not a good thing when you are trying to fly out the following day. Let's just say I remained a little worried for the rest of the night. I had to call my mom and get Plan B organized. After dinner, we went back to the hotel for another game of Catch Phrase (this is what we played each night back at the hotel - I recommend it) and then to bed to see what weather would greet us in the morning.....

Bonnie & Kamon with Manhattan in the background

On the boat, on the way to Liberty Island

Brenna doing a fashion show!

Work it! Work it!

This is a GREAT picture of Brenna.

Strike a pose!

Bye bye Manhattan!

Cody & his hot bride (and mom-to-be!!!)

Can you tell how cold we were??

The Lady

I took this with a zoom lens I borrowed from a friend. Isn't it awesome??

Kamon doing his "Happy Dance"

It was freezing!! Even Hugh & Kort were freezing. And I think they are wearwolves. They are abnormally HOT all of the time (which is why Kort was wearing shorts our first night there.) But even this weather made them break out the big jackets, gloves & even earmuffs.

Cody throwing a snowball at a picture-taking Kamon. It hit him right on the rear! Good shot Cody!

Cody running from Kamon.

Cody & .......Brenna?? I swear, I almost bought one of these masks just to keep my face warm!

All of us in front of the original torch.

Kort & Amy....look at her tummy growing!

Bonnie & Kamon

Brenna & Cody

Us! And another webkin...

Amy got to touch the toe! Well, not the actual toe....a replica....

Amy trying to soak up some of Kort's werewolf heat.

Crossing the bridge. Can you see that sign? (You might have to click on it.) It says 32*.

On our way back to the city....

B&K with Manhattan in the background

Our faces hurt from being so cold!

I love this picture.

Manhattan

This awesome little street on the Lower East Side. Look at the street lamps.

The Met

The Temple of Dendur (and Kamon)

the side of the temple

Buff Hugh in the temple

The back of a statue of a mermaid (I think it was a mermaid). I love how this picture came out. Way to go Hugh!

The Arms & Armor Exhibit

They have fresh flowers there everyday. I loved this arrangement.

Grand Central Station

Inside Grand Central

Boys in the snow in front of their message. You can't see the message though. But you can sure see the snow!!

Us at Olive Garden