Fun with Mama Shirley and Daddy Jim

The kids got to go play with Mama Shirley and Daddy Jim this morning.  They always have lots of fun together, and today they made little marshmallow snowmen.  They were too cute not to show off.  We can't wait for dessert tonight!!  :)

Christmas in St Pete

We had a great Christmas in St Pete.  We got down on Friday and got to play for awhile before heading to our favorite Thai restaurant for dinner.  We had an extra guest with us.  Ryan (Jill's daughter) joined us for dinner.  We got to babysit her that night and had so much fun with our cousin.

Brian asleep with Abuelo

On Saturday morning, we took the kids to visit Grannie and Aunt Ola.  We were surprised to see some of Erik's cousins there.  We haven't seen them (the cousins) in years, so it was nice to catch up with them and visit with Grannie and Aunt Ola.  Of course Grannie had a delicious lunch for us.  We tried to get the kids to nap that afternoon before heading up to Jonathan and Chat's house for dinner that night.  Brian slept, but I think Kayleigh was too excited to sleep.
Dad made pork for our Noche Buena dinner, and Chat had black beans and rice to go with it.  After dinner the kids got to open their presents and play for awhile before we headed home. 
Brian did not want to sleep in his crib while we were there, so we decided to let him sleep wherever he would.  That means Saturday night he was in Kayleigh's room sleeping with Kayleigh and Erik.  I had been in there for a little while, but when I got up for something Brian took my space and so I went to another room to have a bed for myself!  :)

Cookies and milk for Santa

Everyone is asleep!  Time for Santa to come!

The kids were so excited to open their gifts Sunday morning.  Kayleigh's one item on her Christmas list was a guitar.  (She had wanted slippers before that, but got them from someone before Christmas and changed her list.)  I couldn't believe it when she went right to the guitars, which were in boxes and wrapped, and said that they were Brian's and her guitars!  I still made her wait to open that gift because I didn't want her to ignore everything else.  Sure enough, they opened the guitars toward the end, and then were finished opening gifts.  It worked out because we wanted to go to church, so we had plenty of time for breakfast and getting ready to go.  We finished opening presents after lunch.

Brian playing an "instrument"

Kayleigh with her headband made by Aunt Robyn

Everyone napped that afternoon before going to Barbara and Jack's house for dinner.  Dinner was delicious and there were even more cousins there for the kids to play with!!  Barbara and Jack gave the kids each a gift, and they played with them for a little bit before trying to watch Veggie Tales.  I don't think any of the kids watched the whole video before deciding that running in circles around the house would be fun. 

Waiting to open presents

Relaxing and watching TV

Worn out!

Bed #3 for Brian

We drove home on Monday with LOTS of other people clogging the road.  Thankfully there were no accidents and we got home safely.  My mom bought some new sheets for Kayleigh's bed, and before we left to go to St Pete, I snuck upstairs and put them on her bed.  I brought the camera upstairs with me to get a video of Kayleigh when she saw the sheets for the first time.  I have to say, her reaction was priceless.  Here's the link to the video.  I can't get it to embed.
http://youtu.be/SWuhXSlftiA

Christmas happenings

We are definitely in the Christmas season!  We've had lots going on with more fun stuff coming up in the next two weeks.  This last weekend, we decided to go look at Christmas lights.  There is a house in town that had 100,000 (you read that correctly!) lights and was set to dance with music.  It was really neat to see! 
Saturday morning, we went to church to have Breakfast in Bethlehem.  The kids always have fun with the crafts and getting to dress up and have their picture taken.  Breakfast was delicious, and it was nice having it in our renovated fellowship hall.

On Sunday evening, Erik's work had their annual kids Christmas party. Kayleigh said she was going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted. We didn't think that Brian would sit on Santa's lap because Kayleigh wouldn't get near him at that age! Kayleigh climbed right up on his lap, and Brian let him pull him up. We had a blast and the kids got

When we got home from the party, we found Tracy in her room covered with one of the pillows we keep in there.  She must have been cold!

Finally, I need to introduce you to our elf.  His name is Bobadoo Snitcharoo.  We LOVE the name Bob, so that had to be part of his name.  Erik liked the Snitcharoo part, because every night our elf flies to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids have been behaving that day.  It's fun because each morning when we wake up, he's in a different place!  The kids love to find him in the mornings.  He's been fun to have.  I know other people who have gotten elves in their houses, and I've wanted one but never got it.  Grammy (Jan) bought him for us this year.

Hanging of the Green

Every year our church has a service where we get into the Christmas spirit by singing carols and decorating the sanctuary. This is the first year that we participated because Kayleigh got to sing in the program. After the singing, they had all of the kids make a Nativity scene. I think Kayleigh didn't get the point of it, so she hung out in the background. It was really neat, and I'm glad we got to participate this year

 Singing her song

The angels at the Nativity scene

Final Nativity scene

Here is a link to Kayleigh singing.  I couldn't get the video on the blog.  Sorry!

http://youtu.be/T6tnLGiU4aM

And, on a totally random note, when we got home from dinner the other night, I saw a possum in our front yard.  Yuck!  Then, the possum ran up our tree!!  We couldn't believe it!  Of course, I had to run inside to get the camer and take pictures.  Thankfully the possum didn't want to get closer for better pictures!

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Playing catch up

Okay, so we have actually been doing things around here.  Because it's easier for me, I'm going to start with the oldest activities and then go to the new.  So, here we go!

A couple of weekends ago, Erik got tickets to the FSU football game.  The kids had a fabulous time and did not want to leave.  We stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter and figured we should get out so we could get some dinner and beat the rush.  I was a little nervous about having kids at the stadium at the end of a college football game.  I know they students can be a little nuts-o after a win.  I think the only part Kayleigh didn't like was the fireworks at the beginning of the game.  I think she likes fireworks, but she DOESN'T like the noise!

Doing the Seminole Chop

Kayleigh and me



Brian and Erik

Kayleigh covering her ears from the noise.

Last weekend I headed out to California with Valerie and a couple of other friends for a wedding.  We had a blast together--as always--but it was a super quick trip with really only one day of being together and 2 days of travel.  On the plus side, Valerie and I were able to get on an earlier flight home and so got home at 6:40 rather than 7:40.  We flew into Jacksonville, so I was happy to be getting back home an hour earlier.

Silly girls! 

All of us at the wedding.

Monday was Halloween. Kayleigh had decided she wanted to be a super hero and would not change her mind. So, she wore her cape that she made at a cousin's birthday party. She was happy with herself, so I guess that's all that matters. I made Brian "Lightning McQueen" by dressing him in black pants, a red shirt, and his Lightning McQueen hat. Kayleigh had a little party at school that we went to. She was happy to see us and they let Brian participate in the activities, which was nice. We went to see Grammy before dinner and then after we ate we walked around our neighborhood. The kids got PLENTY of candy and had a really good time!

Super Kayleigh!

Halloween Parade

Decorating pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch 2011

I took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday with Valerie, Matt, and Robbie. We had fun checking out the pumpkins. The kids wanted to go on a pony ride, so we waited the 20 minutes (UGH!) or so for that ride, and then they got their faces painted before we came home. The others were ready to go, so they came back here to the house and we met them for lunch. We will pick out a pumpkin next weekend when Erik can be with us. I'm sure the kids will have fun going back, and maybe I can get some better pictures.

 We have to take our picture here every year

 Robbie checking out the pumpkins

Hay stack picture

 Robbie and Kayleigh

 Brian on his horse

 Kayleigh on her horse

Brian pointing to his pumpkin that he had painted on his face.

Kayleigh with her turtle.  (She told the girls she wanted a turtle, a lizard, or a frog.  All green animals!)

Catching Up

A few weeks ago, we bought ourselves a kite at one of the consignment stores. We took it out to the park last weekend to see it fly. It actually did better than I thought it would, but ended up breaking after one too many crash landings. The kids had fun with it, so I think we'll be getting another one sometime.

 

I read online or in a magazine, I can't remember which, about painting a glass jar orange with some tape on it to look like a pumpkin.  I didn't have the correct paint, so I thought I would end up storing in my brain for future use.  Then, this week, one of the girls who works with Erik sent him home with a whole supply of acrylic paint--just what I needed!  I bought a little glass and taped some eyes and mouth on it, and put Kayleigh to work making a pumpkin.  It's not perfect by any means, but isn't it cute??

Then I found this idea online for some nice fall decorations. We already had the wine glasses, and I bought the little pumpkins at Walmart when I bought the glass for Kayleigh to paint.  In the picture online, it has the pumpkins in the bottom and candles on top.  I figure this works just as well.  This is pretty much the extent of our fall decorating.  We'll bring some more stuff out for Christmas, but that's really the only time we go big.



Brian's birthday party

It was finally Brian's turn to turn two yesterday. He's been saying that he's two for about a month, so now he's not lying anymore. :) We had the family over for pizza and dessert last night. Brian got a bunch of fun gifts from everyone, and he had so much fun playing with his cousins and friends!

Birthday cake

Blowing out his candle

 Checking out his new bike!

 Playing with his lawn mower.  Okay, this picture was taken the other day.  We let Brian open it a few days early when Erik was mowing the lawn.