December 28 - Magic

Happy holidays everyone! After a wonderful Christmas day, the kids are having a good time playing with their new toys and the adults are enjoying vacation. The weather has been gorgeous (except for today, it's cold and raining) so the kids have spent almost every day outside playing. If they aren't outside, they are having fun playing new video games or watching movies. Uncle Bryan has been introduced to the awesomeness known as 'Just Dance' for the WiiU and it's safe to say he's getting more exercise this trip than he bargained for! My wish came true this year-happy and healthy family. Thanks Santa!

Enjoy these photos everyone!

Christmas Eve snuggles

Christmas Eve - cookies and carrots

Luke was very excited about this stocking stuffer and tried to eat it at 7am in the morning!

Present time!

Merry Christmas with my furry baby

Luke's new car, they love it!

December 24 - New Traditions

It's Christmas Eve...JD and Julia are cooking in the kitchen, Bryan and Luke are playing a video game, the dogs are snoozing and Bing Crosby is singing in the background. I've already done an emergency Target run (it was busy but not too horrible) and the house smells wonderful. Life is good. 

Last night we had a holiday block party with our neighbors and had a great turnout. Everyone brought a dish to share and we had chicken, chili, stew, tons of sides and yummy desserts. The kids rode their bikes around the cul-de-sac for hours while the adults all caught up. The last time we had a neighborhood get together was 4 years ago (Luke was a teeny tiny baby) so we all decided to make this an annual affair going forward. After the party, we started a new tradition with the kids, Christmas tree campout. JD and Bryan built a tent fort and the kids snuggled up. They loved it!

Merry Christmas eve everyone!

Christmas Eve

December 20 - All I Want for Christmas

Julia's most recent holiday wishes...

"All I want for Christmas is a wiggly tooth. Do you think Santa can make that happen?" -Julia

"Hmm, I don't think Santa's magic can help with that." -Mommy

"All I want for Christmas is my own baby. Ideally, a one year old baby girl and I will name her Sparkles." - Julia

"Wow, interesting. Who would take care of the baby when you are in school?" -Mommy

"You." -Julia


Hmmm...these are two wishes that won't come true Christmas morning! 

December 15 - Picture Perfect

Last week we did a few photo shoots with the kids for our holiday cards. When I say 'photo shoot,' I mean I forced the kids to get dressed up and pose in a Santa and elf hat. Julia was totally on board and having a ball, while Luke had zero interest (ZERO) in sitting still for a photo. And forget any sort of natural smile out of him, I tried for 45min and this photo was the best I could do (and I had to bribe him with chocolate to get this). Even though we don't see their gorgeous dimples, I still love this picture. So imagine my display when I went to make the card and discovered the photo quality wasn't good enough for the card. Arg! So....the following night we repeated the whole process using JD's phone (which takes much better photos). It was another 45min of trying to get the kids to smile naturally and Luke to sit still. We never saw the dimples but there were some cute photos. I mailed our cards out today so hopefully you get yours soon.

Happy Monday!

December 8 - Penny the Penguin

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We bought our tree on Saturday (8' noble pine) and decorated the house this weekend. JD and the kids put the lights outside and we have a new addition to the yard, Penny the penguin. The kids and I bought Penny on Thursday after dance class and Luke has been obsessed. He moved Penny (his name choice) around the house at least 20 times on Friday and Saturday deflating her and then inflating her. JD and I are thrilled Penny is finally up outside on a timer so Mr. Dimples cannot play with her. 

Although it looks like Christmas in our neighborhood, it certainly doesn't feel like it (our house smells like the holidays though, I always have a candle burning!). It's been pretty warm and humid for the last few days and the kids have been having fun riding their bikes and scooter.

Amelia even had a play date yesterday with our neighbor's new puppy, Hank. Hank is 6 months old and he is already bigger than Amelia! They had fun except when he tried to swat Amelia in the face (trying to play, it wasn't aggressive) but the old lady wanted no part of that. She showed him who was boss!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just call her Punky Brewster 

December 5 - Cousins on the Farm

After a wonderful time in Tampa, we headed to Brian and Craig's new farm for Thanksgiving. Their farm is a 20 acre property complete with a house, barn (with enough stalls to house 20 horses) and several paddocks. Brian's horse Pearl is there was well as a Thoroughbred named Nandy. Pearl's new baby is being raised with another baby at another farm near by.  As a special treat for the kids, Brian's good friends brought up their pony for the kids to ride. Bob (the pony) was a HUGE hit.

So, what did we do all week? Well, Craig and JD cooked our delicious Thanksgiving meal-thanks guys! Grandpa relaxed in the house and Chris went antiquing.

The kids spent almost all their time outdoors. They helped feed the horses every morning and helped with barn chores. Luke and Andrew especially loved helping out at the barn and at one point, Brian had to make up stuff for them to do! And of course, riding Bob was super fun. The kids went almost every day. Brian also let them all drive the tractor (that the highlight of the trip for Luke). One night JD, Greg and Craig put together a bon fire for the kids and we made smores. It was really chilly out but we all had a blast!

Now-let's talk dogs. We're big dog people in this family and the dogs had quite an adventure as well. These are all the dogs in the house at one time or another during the week...We had the labs: Amelia, Lady (Grandpa's new chocolate lab) and Commander (Craig's sister's black lab).

We had the weimies: Lenya and Silver (Silver...also known as a dog that begs more than any dog I've ever seen in my life!). We had a corgi: Buck (Brian and Craig's tenant's dog, who does tricks...the kids loved it). And last but not least: we had a small mutt, Skeeter (Craig's mom's dog). It was a full house!! But the dogs all loved running free and trying to eat 'horse muffins.' Yes, you can probably guess what those are and it is gross. 

How do you greet a pony? Blow gently in their nose

Cleaning Bob's shoes before a ride

Helmet check

Little riders

Leading Bob

Mom, can I have my own pony?

Cousins and BFF

Barn helper

Selfie with grandpa!

Christine & Brian

Uncle Chris and the kids

The furry babies

and finally...Cousins on the Farm (by Greg):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6ntBhY6Gps&feature=youtu.be

December 2 - Tampa Fun

It's December people-only 23 days to Christmas. Are you ready? I know I'm not. We have a lot to do in the next few weeks. It will be hectic but fun! Also-today is a special day. It's my amazing sister-in-law Jill's birthday. Don't forget to wish her a fabulous day!

Okay, it's time to recap our fab Thanksgiving trip. I'll split it up over a few posts because I have a lot of photos. Let's dive in....

We left the Friday before Thanksgiving at 4pm and commenced our 3rd (and last) east coast trip of 2014. We hit bad traffic in Baton Rouge and arrived at our hotel in Mobile after 1am. Luckily the kids fell asleep in the car en route and quickly went to sleep once we got there. We hit a lot of rain the following day once we crossed the Florida border but there was no traffic. Yay! After a quick trip to Brian and Craig's new farm in Ocala to drop off Amelia, we arrived in Tampa in time for a delicious spaghetti and meatball dinner. 

We had an amazing time in Tampa visiting Grammie, Uncle Chad, Uncle Greg, Aunt Nicole and Leah. Let's not forget the cats, the kids LOVE Grammie's cats! On Sunday, we all went to Picnic Beach. The kids had fun on the playground and then playing in the water. They weren't in bathing suits but that didn't stop them from submerging themselves. At one point Leah was soaking wet and then started rolling in the sand. Trust me, they were all sandy messes!

The following day we took a cruise around Clearwater and saw lots of fish including wild dolphins, it was amazing. We also went to a little beach and the kids hunted for sea shells. The cruise was part of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a facility dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating sea animals. Have you seen Dolphin Tales 2? Winter the dolphin is at this facility and we saw a boat used in the movie. Pretty cool!

On Tuesday, we planned to go to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure but the weather didn't cooperate. So the kids and I went to the movies and saw Big Hero 6. It was really cute and the kids loved it!

Thanks for everything Grammie-we had a fabulous time!

Attempts at a group photo..tough when the girls are making a break for the water!

and...they are in the water

Yamo girls

My love

Looking for shells in Clearwater

Cold little man on the boat

Julia's new pose for photos...zombie

He loved this elf hat

cousins!

Grammie gave the kids glow sticks and they had a BLAST running around the yard at night with them

Mmmm....delicious ice cream

While we had fun in Tampa, Amelia was making a new friend at the farm-Pearl