Bring on the big 2's

Look how cute this 2 year old is! This is a little late, but Meemaw sent pics from her visit, so we got some good shots of Zach's birthday. Zach was so excited to blow out his candle, he kept wanting to relight the candle so he could blow it out again (we should have gotten one of those ones you can't blow out). He wasn't that interested in the cupcake...although that can not be said at Gracie's party where his hand was in the cupcakes the whole night. I am so lucky to have a such a sweet little boy in my life. Zach loves to play and hug his sister, which usually turns into a wrestling match. He has discovered trains, cars and dinosaurs, so he is a boy in every way. He loves to growl and chase Gracie and her friends and never tires of playing outside. Bring on the terrible 2's, if I get to see this smiling face at least once a day then it will all be worth it.

Meemaw gave the kids pillow cases for their birthday's, so this is them loving their new pillows.

What is better then trucks and cake??

A princess birthday

My little girl has turned 4, I can't believe it. She is so funny and smart, I love watching her try new things and say new phrases. She is in dance class and loves telling us to stop whatever we are doing to watch her try a new move she just learned. Of course we took her to Disney World for her birthday and she got to wear a princess dress the whole day.

We were also very lucky to get into dinner with the princesses at Epcot. What a night for our girl, she got to meet 5 of her favorite princesses and have a little parade around the restaurant with them. What more could a princess in training want.

I also wanted to throw her a party this year since she has some good friends here and they play well at this age. We had a lot going on this week because my mom came into town and Stuart was out of town, so easier was better and we opted for Chuck E. Cheese. The kids all had a great time, and it was nice to sit and talk to the adults instead of running around being a host. Although I was visiting so much I forgot to take pictures with my camera so will have to wait for my Mom to send copies of her pictures. We may never do it again, but it was a great first kid's party for us all. Thanks to all that came and celebrated with us!

We started our long birthday marathon for the next few months, beginning with my birthday in January. It was so fun this year!! Stuart has had to work and be out of town for the past 5 birthdays, so the sweet man that he is made sure he was home for the whole weekend.

So we took full advantage of all the time together! My friends really surprised me with a party and as I came in and they were jumping out yelling I was so shocked I just stood there. I don't have any pictures of that since I thought I was just dropping off the kids to go out to the movies, but it was probably the best birthday party I've ever had. Stuart did a great job at keeping it a surprise and he said I did not make it easy. Then we went to Disney of course on my birthday so I could wear the button! It was as very fun day, but a little crowded since my birthday falls on the 3 day weekend every now and then. I never complained when I was in school though. And then to top off the perfect weekend Stuart and I were able to get away to San Ible island for a night with no kids. It was great and very beautiful. I'm glad that I finally was able to make it a little more south in Florida, to a very beautiful beach. We saw dolphins in the surf and lots of shells and ate some great seafood. What a weekend, I'm a lucky girl! It was so fun.

This has nothing to do with my birthday, I just like this picture. We went to visit Stuart while he was working in South Carolina and the kids got to ride a little train around the mall with Dad. It was a lot of driving but well worth spending the weekend with Dad when he is gone so much.

Texas Christmas

I bet you thought you were going to see Christmas morning pictures...well we forgot to take any and now have to sweet talk my mom into sending us copies of hers! We were having so much fun opening presents that I didn't even think about it (plus I knew my dad was snapping shots). We were lucky enough to spend the week in Texas with my family which is always such a treat for us, and while there we went to the Childrens museum. The kids had such a good time and since it was raining most of the time we were there, it was a great way to stay in for the day.

I love Zach's tongue sticking out while driving. He seems to do this a lot when he is concentrating. There were lots of cars to play with so he was one happy boy. And dress up for Gracie, so very fun.

Christmas was great. This kids are still young enough that they don't get up early so we didn't get started with presents until after 9am. Very good kids!! Both the kids got lots of fun new toys and it was a good thing we drove to take home all our new booty. My parents were so kind to find a sitter for my kids on 3 seperate occasions so we could go shooting, the temple and out for a night out. We are so spoiled. I just need to get better at taking out my camera to catch these special moments!

A few nights before Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Isn't Christmas great? I goes for over a month and there is so much to do we never have to be bored.

Good old Florida offers A LOT to do. Our neighbor had this lovely Santa pig that made me laugh every time I saw it. It even lit up at night. What more could you ask for? We went to downtown Disney a few times because they had very cute decorations and trees. Even some fake bubble snow (Gracie loved dancing in it).

Our kids did surprisingly well with Santa this year, but it really helps that Santa is in our ward, so they see him all year round. It is a good thing Gracie is not old enough to be at school telling kids that Santa goes to her church. And who would want to forget out visit with Santa cow, oh the things we do for our kids' amusement. Love it!!

Sea lions, tiger sharks and polar bears, oh my!

We LOVE Sea World! Every year they let active duty military into their parks for free one day. I had heard that they do a very fun Christmas time so we took full advantage of our free day there. The shows are so much fun and the kids really liked seeing the live animals.

They had a snow wall by the polar bears and walrus tanks, my kids first chance at touching ice!
Zach got a kick out of the manta rays petting tank. He really liked playing in the water, but getting flipped with a ray fin was exciting too. Gracie was too scared to pet them. They are so smooth and they were very friendly.

The merry-go-round is all sea animals, we had to ride it a couple of times so we could ride all the different fish.

They also had a Polar Express display, Zach could have stayed by the train all day. It was only for pictures though, but they did have a big boat the kids could play on and we spent a lot of time on that. They also had a huge net play structure that they kids just had to go on, so Stuart and I were crawling all around, I'm sure we looked pretty funny. The grown ups also took a time out to do the big roller coasters they have. Wow, they were really fun!! It was such a fun day and let me just say again that we are so lucky to live where there is so much to do! And I am so impressed with the Busch Gardens group for honoring the military, Stuart works so hard for our family and loves serving his country and it was so fun sharing this together as a family.

Thanksgiving

We had an uneventful Thanksgiving dinner, but we were lucky enough to have Stuart's family close enough to come share the day with us. We also took the kids to Tangled after dinner and they loved it! Even Zach sat thru the whole thing, although a bag of M&M's helped a little with that. But we highly recommend this movie!

It was so fun having Stuart home for 4 days straight so we took advantage of this time and took a little trip up to Blue Springs, Florida. It was a really nice day and the water stays at a constant temp of 73 degrees and we were planning on swimming. But we found out that it is the manatee migrating season so no one is allowed in the water for their protection, and to make matters worse we didn't even get to see any manatees. But it was still a very fun trip and the kids loved the wooden walking trails. We are so lucky to live somewhere that we can still travel and explore new places in November with nice weather.