Pre-Christmas fun!

We went out for some pre-Christmas fun!  We went to Dorothy B Oven park to look at the lights and then we went to go see Santa.  Here are the pictures:

This last picture is very special.  Last Christmas, Daniel was devastated with some news from the other side of his family.  So, I got him in the car and him and I drove around and talked and cried and looked at lights.  We came upon this house with a life sized Santa sitting in a green chair in the front yard.  So we pulled over on the side of the road and I asked him if I could take his picture with this Santa.  He thought we were "breaking into" these people's yards so he was all excited.  When we got close, I took the picture.  Then he got closer and unknown to us, it had a motion sensor.  It went off and started talking and singing and Daniel and I ran for our lives.  That Santa changed Daniel's night and my sad little boy was smiling again.  So, it is now a tradition.  We will go visit this Santa every year from now on.

Merry Christmas everyone!  Time to see the sparkles in the boys' eyes!

Family Portraits

We took our family portraits this yesr in October.  My friend, Betsy Booten (http://thebootenfamily.blogspot.com/p/betsy-booten-photography.html) took them again this year at Bradley's.  Coonor was not having it so it took almost the whole session and some creativity by Betsy to get him to smile.  Still, the pictures came out amazing and I am more than happy with them!

These are just some of them.  Hope you enjoy!

Thanksgiving Festivities

I know this comes a little late.  I apologize, I have been busy with the new job and working on buying our house.  So here we go!

My brother brought some of his friends into town for their first Florida State Football game the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Mom decided that we should go ahead and have our Thanksgiving dinner then and celebrate with him and his friends. 

Waiting on the turkey

Evidence



I just love these moments

 Danny and his Jacksonville firneds arrived in town about 8:30 p.m. and we ate and had a great time.  The next day was the football game.  We all went early and tailgated with a bunch of friends.  We had a great time. 



Danny, Cheri, Ashley, Dee, Jeremy, me, Allen and Leon on the bottom

These people are awesome and they make me want to move back to J-ville just to hang out with them more.  The football game was the football game.  We lost.  And they all swore that they would never come to another football game again.  We are going to change that plan.  We all went out to breakfast on Sunday before they left town.  I was so glad to get to spend time with my brother and show their friends what Tallahassee is like.

The next week was Thanksgiving.  We started out the day with Allen's family at his Aunt Rhonda's house.  After an awesome lunch, we headed out to my family's hunting camp.  We did not get any pictures at Allen's family's house, but we did at the hunting camp. 

The boardwalk to the river



me and my "baby" cousin

 We had a great time at both Thanksgivings.  I am so vert grateful that we are so blessed with such a big family. 

Sorry this is short... work is calling!

We are closing on our house on December 23... so it will be a Merry Christmas for us!

Up next, our family pictures!

The beach in the fall...

We took a family vacation to Daytona Beach over Veteran's Day weekend.  I love the beach in the fall and winter.  I reminds me of my grandparents when I was a little.  Every year, they rented a condo on the beach through the winter and we would go spend weekends with them.  Plus, this is what the beach looks like in the winter:

What is not to love about that?  Beautiful!

We left Friday afternoon and stopped in Jacksonville at my brother's work to suprise him.  They were slow, so he left work about 15 minutes before we got there.  Wah-wah-wahhhhhhh!  So, we continued on our way.  We arived at our timeshare a little after dark (which is 6 nowadays).  The first thing we did was jump on the bed.  What is a vacation without testing the limits of the bed? 

After unloading, we went to dinner and then to but some groceries.  When we got back, we explored a little.

It was a windy night, not too cold, just perfect for exploring!  Then, it was bedtime.  Bedtime on vacations with little ones is always interesting.  Connor slept with Allen and me and Daniel with my mom on the pull out.  Allen and I slept great... mom woke up on the opposite side of the bed.  I didn't bother to ask.

Saturday morning..... our home town woke up Saturday morning to temperatures in the 20s.  Thats cold for us Floridians.  We, however woke up to temperatures in the 50s.  So, we sat on our porch, in our pjs, coffee in hand, and watched the sunrise over the ocean.  (na-na-boo-boo) Perfect.  We then decided to go to the beach.  Nothing says vacation like walking on the beach in your pjs.

Daniel went swimming in his pjs.  That was not supposed to happen, but he "accidentally" fell into a wave.  There was no point in fighting it.... go for it kid. 

We made our way back to our room and it was bathtime.  And Connor decided it was a good time to do some entertaining. 

Stylin'! His brother's underwear and mommy's iritis sunglasses.  He is such a little hottie!

Daniel on the other hand was watching the beach from the porch.  If it were easy, I would move to the beach tomorrow.  Just for him.

We then ventured to the boardwalk.  It is a pretty typical boardwalk..... complete with carnival rides, arcades, food stands, etc.  We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  It was soooo good and a bunch of fun!  We went to an arcade and had some ice cream. 

That's my boat!

We headed back to the hotel room to watch the Noles STOMP the Hurricanes!  We took a break during halftime to watch the sunset... then back to the game! What a fun game to watch!

My brother arrived shortly after the game, and we headed down stairs to the hotel bar to get celebratory drinks.  The boys had dirty milkshakes, complete with worms and everything!

While the adults had "casmaritas"...

We had to check out Sunday morning.... but not without one more trip down to the beach!

We then had to pack up and leave the hotel.  Connor helped with that!

We were in no rush to get home, and since we had Danny with us, we wanted to use every minute we could for fun.  We started with mini golf at Pirate's Cove!

Then, we headed to the track..... What would a redneck family trip to Daytona be without visiting the "holy land?"  We were pleasently suprised to find out that they were racing older import cars while we were there.  My brother, Allen and Daniel, found a way to break into the track so they could see what was going on.  Then, my mom and I found a way to LEGALLY get into the track to watch the race.  Boys.  They had fun!

It was a little loud for Connor though.

Over all it was an AMAZING weekend.  I fall a little more in love with my family during this trip. 

We promised to spend more time at the beach next year.  There is nothing more peaceful than listening to the ocean and watching my boys laugh and play.