Christmas indeed!

After some playground time and a game of chess, we had an early dinner and settled in for Christmas Eve!

I am pleased to report with the help of our elf, Elfin, Santa was able to find us on the14th floor of Tower 5 in Orlando. He must have known about our close quarters as he wisely chose small sized gifs for the children, the highlight being iPod touch. Oh no! Definitely will be establishing rules so we don't loose them to technology! 

After a very early morning (thank you Vera) and presents, we ventured to Ice! at Gaylord Palms. The hotel itself was a mini city and beautifully decorated. The displays were amazing!

The theme of the ice sculptures was Frosty. It was very well done but the highlight was the ice slides! And a very intricate nativity scene. It was nice being cold (7 degrees!!) on Christmas. Although, I have to say getting out of there felt good too as we headed to the 75 degree weather and pool outdoors! We grilled for dinner and all enjoyed a quiet early night after a very long day!

This brought us to our last day and the kids chose to go back to Epcot. We managed to get in a few big rides before lunch in Mexico and of course spent the evening at the pool. It was great week and although I am sad to see it go, I am ready to get "home" and start building this house! Merry Christmas to us! Thank you God for all of our blessings but mostly your son! Happy Birthday!

Christmas?

Well, we decided when the house went under contract to do Christmas a little different this year. So, we planned a trip to Disneyworld. We managed to do all four parks in four straight days and are all utterly exhausted, in a good way, as we settle in for Christmas Eve. Mark and Ginny joined us for the first two days of fun at the Magic and Animal Kingdoms. Remley conquered Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Everest and Rhett chose more of a conservative route. Each day was very busy with non stop fun. We saw the Christmas story come to life with the Candleight Processional and saw the real Mr and Mrs Claus. We capped each late night off with trips to the pool and repeated for four days. Pretty sure this is an easy recipe for getting the kids to an early bedtime on Christmas Eve!!! We shall see if Santa finds us here!!!

Our BABY is ONE

I am ONE!

Birthday Girl

This has been one amazing year! Our family has been so blessed with the addition of little Vera. She is such a sweet girl and loves to be held, clinging like a little monkey. She happily toddles up to you and will wring your neck and hang on, giving hugs. Her favorite thing to say is BBBBBAAAAALLLL, so this was my inspiration for her cake this year, a ball - ornament - cake. She also can say Mama, Dada, woof woof and meow. She loves to clap and to wave "bye bye" to her big sis and bro as they head off to school. She has her two bottom teeth and her top two are peeking through. She is such a pleasant baby and truly a joy each morning, waking with a huge smile. We love you Vera Leigh!

Vera Leigh

Yippee!

Ball Cake

Ornament Cupcakes

Sisters

Me and Mikey

Cousin Hug

ONE

Yeah!

Cake

2013 Thanksgiving

Well, well, its seems that it has been awhile since I have last blogged. This is because we have been so busy! Since we had a contract on our house, we waited patiently for our buyers to list theirs. And when they finally did, it sold the same day! SOOO we have been busy packing, moving, sorting, etc. for literally the last six weeks. It is truly amazing how much stuff we have! Somehow we managed to get it all in our temporary house and are now "all settled in." It sure was an undertaking though!

Thanksgiving we spent with the Johnson family in the newly cleared mountains. Mimi and Mikey have a fabulous view and it was great to spend time with everyone including cousins Cally and Cannon, John John and LaLa, Uncles Bill, Jim, Eric, and Aunts Jamie and Kim.
The table was set beautifully and the turkey was divine!
We also had a great time ice skating outside in Greenville and even ran into Santa parked in his sleigh!

Our Fav Cousins!

Cheese

Reading with Mimi

Blue Eyes all around!

Cutie Pie

This is their punishment for fighting with each other!!

Pretty girls!

Sitting with Mikey

Cheetah Gals

Playing in the Mountains

Carving the Bird

Happy Thanksgiving!

Family

Kids Table

Ice Skating in Greenville

We found Santa!

And we found the local winery!!