Sea World

We managed to squeeze in a trip to Sea World before the end of the year. Yeah! I got annual passes for Brooke and I (Ali is still free, but not for long). The main reason we wanted to go was for the Polar Express Experience that they have there every winter. Brooke is really into that movie so we wanted her to be able to "experience it". Io was a little nervous though. I saw on their website that you have to be 42 inches to get on the ride. I didn't think she would make it but they had a "walking" version that you could take if you didn't want to do the simulator ride. So either way we would be okay. We got there and she measured 41 1/2"! No lie! The did not let her on.. :( She was okay with it though and we still got to go to the North Pole and see Santa. THEN, luckily for us, there was also am Elmo and Abby Cadabby (Ali's favorite) live show that we were able to see too. So we hit major highlights for both girls. It was super duper crowded there that day so we didn't do much other than that and wait in line 30+ minutes for lunch. But it was fun anyway and we're excited to go back when the tourists leave!

Brooke and You-Know-Who at the North Pole

Steve and his girls waiting for Abby Cadabby to take the stage..

Brooke used some Christmas money to buy Dolphin Trainer Barbie! We had to call Uncle Jeff right away and let him know!!

Flowrider

Steph, Steve and I got an unexpected gift from Santa this year. The FLOWRIDER! Apparently, mom and dad thought it would be great entertainment to put the three of us in a surfing simulator. I think we were all a bit nervous, but I know I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I have zero surfing experience. And after 30 minutes on the flowrider, I can tell you with 100% certainty that I will not be running off to Hawaii to chase a surfing dream. I did much better on my belly on the body board which was actually pretty fun. Steve was able to stay up the longest and was starting to get the hang of it when our time ran out. The most unusual aspect of the whole thing it trying not to think about all the people watching you. Did I mention that the flowrider is in the MALL??? When it was all said and done, it was a lot of fun and only mildly painful.

Our Brave Lizard Hunter!

Brooke is nuts about lizards! And frogs too! I think we have the Clines to thank for this. She's always loved nature, animals and being outdoors, but she has recently become OBSESSED with lizard and frog hunting. At night we get a few tree frogs stuck to the outside of our windows and she insists on going outside in the dark and catching them. Today when we got home she saw a lizard climbing o her playhouse and yelled "Mommy! Stop! I see a lizard!". She jumped out of the car and chased it until she caught it. I snapped this picture and you can just see the joy it brings her. This one got a way a few seconds later and was hiding under the car where she couldn't reach it. She insisted I reach around the back of the tire to grab it for her and I tried to talk her out of it, telling her I wasn't any good at catching lizards. Her reply, "Come on mommy! I know you can do it!" How does a mother say no to her daughter when she talks like that?? So, I got on my belly and shimmied under the car to catch that lizard. She was thrilled and proud of her mommy. But it wasn't long before she lost it again and was off to find the next one. Lizards today.. raccoons tomorrow.

Cruisin' down the river

A couple days after Christmas, we decided to take a family boat trip down the river. There's a restaurant/marina in Deland on the St John's River and we thought it would be fun to boat to it for their Sunday brunch. The trip there and back took quite a bit longer than we expected. The water level on the Wekiva is kind of low so we had to slow down for fallen trees and shallow water. The girls were patient though and we got there JUST in time for brunch. The food was good but the trip there and back was so cool. We saw a lot of wildlife including turtles, gators, and birds. The best part for me was watching how excited Steve was to take the adventure.

Here's Ali scoping out the gators...

Me and my cutie pie

Brooke loves having the front seat..

One of many chubby gators we saw that day..

Ali takes a nap on the floor of the boat on the way home. I couldn't believe my luck!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We really had a wonderful Christmas. I'll admit, I was missing some of the Christmas spirit leading up to Christmas. But it was my own fault for over-commiting myself to too many things and then putting off shopping until the weekend before Christmas. But once Christmas Eve arrived, I was stress-free! We had about 20 people over at our house after Church on Christmas Eve. It included the whole DeMoor gang, Mary Louise, and Tina (Steve's cousin) and her family. We ate a big dinner, then loaded up in the golf cart and the back of Steve's truck to go look at Christmas lights. Then we had dessert and presents and the kids had a blast opening their gifts. We concluded with a wrapping paper fight that was a lot of fun and sprinking reindeer food on the lawn.

Then Christmas morning the kids woke up were ready to hit the presents again. They scurried down the stairs and opened their presents from mom, dad and Santa. Brooke and Ali even got me presents! We were completely LAZY for the next few hours (which was wonderful) and they loaded up to head over to Mom and dad's. There we had yummy snacks, more gifts, a great dinner and desserts, and a fun game of charades. We feel truly blessed!

Pictures from Christmas Eve Service

This is us being normal...

This is Brooke being silly...

These are my girls "posing"...


And these girls are just plain beautiful!

The Clines are gone..

We had a really great time sharing our space with the Cline family. But three months and a ton of fun stories later, they finally found the perfect house they had been praying for. They closed and moved on Christmas eve. What an awesome Christmas present for them! Our kids has so much fun being together. I know it is going to be a big adjustment for Brooke, not having her permanent playmates around. Heather was packing up some of their stuff when she found her wedding veil and tried it on Ali!

More gingerbread house party pictures..

Gingerbread House Party

Well as many of you know, mom has a tradition of throwing a cookie baking party every year for the kids in her life. I decided to start my own twist this year and threw a gingerbread house party. We had 27 kids come for the fun. Luckily the weather was nice enough to allow us to have the mess outside. My back porch looked like candy land! The kids had a blast and got all sugared up just in time to go home!

St Johns River Boat Parade

One unexpected treat this season was getting to participate in the St Johns River Boat Parade. Mom and Dad look forward to this every year. They usually watch from their boat on the river. But the marina where they keep their boat offered up a free houseboat for the weekend if we were willing to decorate it for the parade. So we adopted a patriotic Christmas theme. Mom made stars, dad made a flag, Steph made fireworks, and I brought lighted deer and sparklers for the kids. It was a really neat night. People were lined up on shore and clapped and cheered as we floated by. The girls were so cute with their "princess parade waves".

Decorating our tree

This is our very first Christmas in our new house, so we were faced with the challenges of trying to figure out where to put the tree and how big of a tree to get. But we found a happy little 6-footer at Home Depot and brought it home for a late night of decorating. The gits had fun unpacking all the ornaments, especially Brooke who must have a million photo ornaments of herself.

Santa's Festival

Every year, Brooke's preschool has a Christmas festival the first week of December. It's a small, yet cute way for the school to earn some money. Santa was there of course and Brooke was eager to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted. Ali on the other hand really want nothing to do with Santa. Even months ago she brought be a packet of hot cocoa with Santa on it and she said "Mommy, I don't like this guy". We tried to convince her that Santa was likable since he would bring her presents, but she would say, "I don't like Santa. I don't want any presents." Well, I thought I had convinced her to sit on his lap today but as soon as I leaned in to hand her over, she gave me the death grip and wouldn't let go. Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she shyly said, Abby Cadabby. So Santa quickly replied, "Well if Santa gets you Abby Cadabby this year, them maybe you won't be scared of him next year." So I guess Santa's given me some homework.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the first half of the day at our house, as guests to Jeremiah and Heather's Thanksgiving. They has a large group over to celebrate and a lot of yummy food. Then we loaded up our girls and headed over to mom and dad's for a Fogle Thanksgiving. We had a large crowd there too.. including Jeff and Laura which was nice, and especially special since Jeff has to work in the keys on Christmas day.

Horsey rides in the airport

While we were in the airport waiting to board our plane flight for home, the girls got a little nutty. They had been buckled into the car for 2-hours on the way to the airport and needed to let loose. I knew they were going to have to sit still for another 2 hours on the plane so I was trying to let them get their wiggles out (by the way, a 2-year old never runs out of wiggles). Brooke started giving Ali horsey rides and it was cracking me up. Usually their too busy pulling each others hair out to realize they can actually enjoy each others company. They had a lot of fun, but eventually Brooke took a nose dive for the floor and we ended up in tears. Well, it was fun while it lasted! :)

Leavin' on a jet plane.. don't know when I'll be back again!

The girls and mom and I flew to Illinois for a quick visit this past weekend. Steve was up there hunting, and it gave us a chance to visit with Grandma Simmens and Sara and her family. The girls were amazing on the plane. Ali has some volume control issues sometimes, but sitting in the noisy back-end of the plane seemed to muffle her. :)

Brooke got to go hunting with Steve one afternoon and Steve and I got to go out and celebrate our 10th anniversary on Friday night!

Messy Ali

I love this picture of Ali. It is a perfect reflection of my silly, messy, fun-loving little girl. We were at Mom's for Steph's birthday party and Ali went a little nuts with the ice cream cake.

Halloween for the Grown Ups

Steve and I got to go out for some grown-up Halloween fun on Saturday night. My friend Katy had a Halloween party at her house so we tried to scrounge up some costumes. We hit the after-Halloween sales but didn't find much. So at the last minute (literally) we threw together a cowgirl outfit for me and Steve went as Brett Michaels (complete with MANdana and GUYliner). His costume was really pretty good and quite appropriate since Steve is stuck in the 80's anyway.

Halloween FUN!

We had a busy Halloween this year. I wouldn't have it any other way though. The kids love wearing their costumes and we always have a good time. The night before Halloween we went to a Trunk or Treat put on my my moms group from church. We set up in the parking lot of a Chick fil A and had a firetruck, a fun bus, and then all the cars lined up for Trunk or Treating. This year Brooke dressed up as Rapunzel and Ali was a cat (our Ali-cat of course).

Then on Halloween night we joined the Shelleys for some trick or treating. We had a big crowd with the Clines and Stewarts joining us as well. Ali had a blast and could not get enough of the whole trick or treating concept. Brooke had a rough night unfortunately. She tripped a couple of times on her dress and wore out pretty quick. Luckily, Uncle Joe was following us around the neighborhood with his ATV and a trailer full of hay so we could relax on the way back to the house.