cOoKiEs

One day we were pretty bored so decided it would be fun to make cookies. Since I didn't bring any recipe books I pull up pinterest to search for a good cookie recipe to use that we have all the ingredients to. We finally found one but remembered we don't have a big enough bowl to mix everything in as well we didn't have a baking sheet. Brant went next door to borrow them from Joel and Kayleigh while I get all the ingredients out. (Ignore the messy table and please don't mind the hideous pictures of myself) Everything here needs to be in plastic bags once they are opened otherwise it will either get all soggy or you will have an infestation of ants or some other nasty bug in your house that you don't want. So we get out the ingredients and yet again realize we don't have any measuring cups or spoons. AHH.  Neither of us wanted to borrow yet again from our neighbors so I used Liam's sippy cup to measure everything with. The sippy cup is approximately 1 cup so I was able to sort of get the right measurements. Liam had so much fun pouring all the ingredients into the bowl with me and we had a mEsSy fun time. 

We have no room on our counters to make cookies so we decided the table would be the best place. Please don't mind how messy it is!! You can see my laptop propped up on one of the chairs with the recipe on there

 Eating the dough.... MY favorite part of making cookies.

 The dough seemed way too runny so I decided to add a bunch more flour. Once it was about right we stuck them in the oven and waited to see if they would actually turn out. And.....

They did!! Hurray! They were actually really yummy and I probably ate way too many cookies over he course of the next week or so.

 Liam diving into the cookies.

DELISH!! :)

So a couple weeks later a new girl moved to the island so we thought we would try making her these yummy cookies again. I had bought a measuring cup (for some reason I cannot find measuring cups here. They only had one big one that is probably about 4 cups which made measuring things a little trickier) and some measuring spoons from the store here so I thought I would try it with our new purchases. The cookies still tasted okay but everything about them were way different and in my opinion not as tasty. I was kinda sad but next time we might resort to using Liam's sippy cup again!

Laundry in Statia

Laundry in Statia is a bit different than back home and a lot more time consuming. We are actually lucky right now and we have a washer AND a dryer. There are only about 7 dryers on the whole island and 2 of them are at our apartment.

The washer has 2 parts to it. One section washes the clothes and the other section spins the clothes. So what I do is take a garden hose and fill up the washer with water and add my detergent. It washes for about 12 minutes and then I take the clothes and ring a bit of water out myself and stick them into the spinner. That is usually about 3 minutes. Then I add my 2nd load into the washer and wash some more clothes....same water. Then I spin those clothes and drain the water out of the washer. I add new water and rinse the clothes about 9 minutes and then they go back in the spinner for 3 minutes. Then I get to hang the clothes to dry. We try not to use our dryer too much since it can be quite expensive to run all the time. So this is what the balcony looks like on laundry day!

Little Caleb hanging out on the tile floor while I try to get all the laundry finished. Right now we are borrowing the drying rack from our neighbors cause we don't have one yet. And with not enough room I hang things off the balcony too. They dry quicker that way anyways. You just have to remember to take them off and fold them before it gets too late in the day (sunset) otherwise the humidity makes them damp again and I leave them up for the sun to re-dry them the next day.

Dive Statia

So we FINALLY went to the bEaCh here. The beach everyone goes to all the time is called Dive Statia. Instead of white sand there is actually  b l a c k  sand at this beach! Its usually this awesome great beach to swim at but since the last hurricane that came through things changed. The hurricane took the beach away. There are now huge  r o c k s  that are there and not as much sand. It also brought some jelly fish. While we were swimming the first day Brant got stung by a jellyfish. He thought something may have been on his back but when I looked there was nothing. But it was red. He said it just sorta felt like a bee sting. Luckily the pain didn't last too long!   

We don't have a car yet so we hadn't been able to get to the beach. It is such a far walk and we actually weren't really sure how to get there. I am sure we could have figured it out but we didn't really want to walk all the way there and then even worse, all the way back. With our 2  c r a z y  kids it wouldn't have been too much! So we were so excited when our neighbors Joel and Kayleigh invited us to go with them!! These pictures are of 2 days at the beach. We were lucky and got to go 2 days in a row!

 

 

This is us in the back of Joel and Kayleigh's car. Thanks guys for taking us to the beach! :) Also, there are really no rules here about car seats or seat belts or anything sooooo, we don't use them! Its pretty safe though. But I will talk more about it later!

Trying out his AMAZING  p u d d l e  j u m p e r. So I had heard that they were a must and that they were fabulous but until this day I didn't realize how fabulous they really are. People, they are FABULOUS! Get one! So if your bringing a little kid that cant swim.... these are a huge MUST. I love ours!

Testing out the water... not too sure yet... He did have a good time though! It will take a little getting used to for him because of the salt water. For me too even. Its a little of an unpleasant surprise when the wave catches you off guard and you  s w a l l o w  a bunch of salt water. He definitely wasn't a big fan of that. But I am hoping he starts loving it like the other little girls here. They just hop right in and swim away!!

Our little beach. Its still really nice even though there are rocks and stuff. If no one told me different thats just how I would have thought it was supposed to be. It felt so good to get in for the first time and to actually for once not be sweating to death! I was in heaven and wondered what took us so long to get here!! This will for sure become a regular ritual for us! Prepare yourself for more beach posts people!

Daddy with Caleb!

Getting a little further. We did go all the way out and swim with the waves but we just didnt get any pictures. We must get an  u n d e r w a t e r  camera so we can take one in the water with us.We were given an awesome floaty thing to use for Caleb and he just loved it. It was so relaxing for him and he was all smiles. But then again, when is he not?

Chillin!

Oh course Liam was all over the puppy!! He just chased him all over the beach and had a blast doing in!

So sleepy! It was so nice to have people around that wanted to hold and love Caleb and it gave me a nice little break! Thank you!

Playing in the sand. He loves the sand but he isn't too sure about it being on his hands. He just kinda holds his hands out in front of him and gives you that look like uh... now what?

Everyone hanging out at the beach. Of course the guys are just hanging around talking and they girls are right in the sand playing with the kids!

Looks like he found the basket full of toys. After a while he just has so much fun getting in there and playing and dIgGiNg in the sand!



Remy trying on big sandals. It was pretty cute!

Raking away! 

Joel took Brant out snorkeling too! It was pretty fun he said. Now I am gonna have to get Brant some flippers that don't hurt his feet. He has such long and narrow feet its hard for anything to fit properly! Joel has really nice ones so I might try to find some similar. Its amazing how much faster you can go with longer flippers!

Tuckered out. So I figured out a way to keep him outta the sun until we buy an umbrella. Not too shabby!

So of course we  l o v e  the beach and we look forward to many more beach days ahead. Come visit and we will go every day!! :)

Nap time

We LOVE nap time in this house. Since it is so hot as I mentioned in a previous post we seem to be tired all the time.  I'm pretty             l u c k y  cause my boys also seem to get tired and the best part.... at the SAME TIME!!! So lately we all take about a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoons. I could use that time to get stuff done around the house or whatever but I choose to nap with them. And I don't regret it either. :) It also makes for a happier momma too!!

Here are a ton of pictures of my boys  n a p p i n g. They are just so stinking cute when they are sleeping that I can't resist taking their picture! Also because its so hot my boys are usually in their diapers most of the time when we are at home.

Our totally awesome couch that is so tiny and SO uncomfortable. At least one of them looks comfy!!

Maxin and relaxin!

Soooo hot!

Thats his water bottle in between his legs. He is such a goof. 

Funny boy!! I'm sure his legs must have fallen asleep in that position.

Oh my goodness. Isn't he sooo sweet!!

So Liam was so excited because OSO was on TV after we ate lunch. The don't have Disney junior here, its just the Disney channel so in the afternoon its all big kid Disney shows. And the only shows it plays usually are Jake and the Neverland pirates, Mickey Mouse and Doc McStuffins. So I let him watch it and he was so tired he probably only saw the first 5 minutes.

 Getting to be quite a brown little boy!!

 

I just love my sleeping boys!! It has been so nice to take naps with them and that they always wake up so happy! Especially Caleb is so cute. He always wakes up  g u r g l i n g  and talking and its so fun!