Blessed by Two

December Fun 2011

2011-12-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

Another month has come and gone and of course December brings lots of activities for us! We have been busy with ballet, piano, Christmas crafts and goodies and of course our Elfie has been very busy this month as well!
We have finally slowed down since school got out last week and are enjoying more down time. I have tried to plan something fun for the kids to do each day to keep them from being "bored", a favorite word here.

To start off, Paxton received the Presidential Fitness Award this month. He was one of 6 first grade boys to get it. Now we all know he doesn't get that athletic talent from his mom! We were super proud of him for this award!

Lorelei and Paxton with Lala, Pam and Von before Paxton's piano recital.

He played Pastorale and Deck the Halls. Of course he did an excellent job, even managed to scratch his head while playing, such talent!

Paxton has taught himself how to play Carol of the Bells and Gonna Shake Heaven from just sounding it out on the piano.

Here the kids are making their Christmas lists to take to Santa.

Lorelei did a great job writing her list and sounding out her words.

Paxton's work is more detailed.

Hey Santa, don't forget those batteries!

Me and my girl.

Lorelei and Jilly, her AG doll, dressed alike and ready to hit the mall to see Santa. I hear Jilly will be having a nice Christmas as well this year, at least from the looks of the list she will be getting quite a few things for herself!

The adorable but obligatory Christmas photos of 2011.

Daddy was making some kind of crazy faces behind me to get these laughs!

Gingerbread house this year.

It didn't make half the mess that our Christmas cookies made this weekend!

Love it! And this year we put Daddy on tight restriction, no picking candy off the Gingerbread house. He has done a good job of staying away!

Miss Lorelei and her friend Avery before their ballet recital.

Lorelei takes ballet at her school now and they dance to Christian songs. It was a very well done recital. All the girls did great. Lorelei was adorable with her little smile on her face the entire time!

Lorelei with Pam and Von.

The happy ballerina with her fans!

Gobble Gobble

2011-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

An early Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Or late if you are reading this after it. Not much new here, just crazy busy as always! Just wanted to post some quick shots of my kiddos this morning before church in their Thanksgiving attire.
We had fun last night get boxes together for the Good Samaritan project at church and the kids had a great time picking out gifts for their AGAPE kids yesterday too. They were so sweet by offering up their allowances as well to help pay for everything!

Also, here is my Harry Potter dressed up for book week this past week. He is currently almost finished with book 2, he gets to watch the movies after he reads the books! A funny on him from this morning: People were getting up in service and testifying about how God's grace had saved them and how we are all apart of God's family. Well one man got up and started by saying "By God's grace I haven't had a drink in 35 years." Paxton leaned over to me with big eyes and said "Really? He hasn't had anything to drink in 35 years?!!" Hahaha, too cute! Josh and I were cracking up! Hey, at least he was paying attention, gotta love those sermon notes they do every week!

Catching Up

2011-10-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, once again life has gotten in the way of blogging for me. I have been so busy being room mom and subbing and running to the soccer fields that blogging has gotten left behind. So here is a quick recap of what we've been up to the last few months!

Here is my Super Girl ready for trunk or treat! And boy let me tell you she is a Super Girl! She is loving kindergarten and reading on a end of a second grade level! Last week she ran a whole mile at the stadium for the fun run without stopping! Something that I can honestly say I never thought she would be able to do! Her daddy and I are so proud of her!!

Trunk or Treat with Maren

Lorelei, Belle and Katie. All three girlies go to the same school this year, different classes, but I look forward to seeing these close friends grow up together!

Trunk or Treat was a huge success this year! Way to go Campus! There must have been over 1500 people there!

SuperMan (Will) and SuperGirl (Lorelei)

Paxton was able to join us at Trunk or Treat at the end due to a soccer game. Good Friends!

Our good friends the Duncans moved to our neighborhood in the spring and we just had to get this picture. 2011 . . . . .

Plus 5 precious children!

Same place 2001- 10 years of Friendship!

Pumpkin Princess Sunday Morning.

Paxton has been playing Travel Academy soccer with the U9 team this year. He spends 4 days a week doing soccer. He is the youngest on the team and doing really well. It has definetly improved his game by playing up and so much, still more to learn but we are super proud of him. Anyway, this is how we spend most of our Saturdays and Sundays now.

Just a picture of my cutie!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Corn Maze Fun!

Handsome Pumpkin

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch!

First Day of School Pictures- yes that is how far behind I am!

Love this one! Granddaddy is so happy to have his grandkids at school with him! He even gets to take them to school some days- yeah for that too!

My Birthday boy Post VERY LATE

2011-09-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is my second attempt at this blog! And no I have not been really slacking either. New computer, new job, new routines, etc. have kept this blogger from not blogging!

Anyway, Paxton turned 7 last month and had a great swim birthday party. We had 10 energetic boys come over after school for some pool fun. They spend most of the time beating each other with swim noodles!

Paxton is loving first grade this year, he has an awesome teacher! He is also playing travel Academy Soccer this year with the U-9 team. He spends a lot of his time these day practicing or playing soccer games, but he loves it and is learning a lot!

Paxton on his birthday.

Excited for his Nerf Gun Wii Game!

Somebody was a wii bit jealous that day!

Birthday party with the fam!

Blowing out the candle on his cookie cake. And no I wasn't lazy in making his cake, he just didn't want anything on it, not an icing fan! He actually wanted to give everyone chocolate chip cookies but I convinced him a cookie cake might be better!

Let the craziness begin!

Boys will be boys!

Can't forget this cutie! What a great little swimmer she became this summer!

Some good food and fun!

Pizza, donuts and a pinata, need I say more?!

Paxton wanted a donut cake for this party, he also had donuts for his friends at school on his birthday too!

Blowing out the candle for year number 7!

A little Pinata fun!

Whew, that was some party! We were all exhausted when it was over, you should have seen that picture!

Where have I BEEN?!!!

2011-08-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where did July go? Well we spent most of July one the road! We have been all over the place! We had the most wonderful vacation to Washington DC, New York City and Philadelphia! Here are some preview pictures of our fabulous trip!

So the reason for the delay is when we returned home from our vacation, we found that our house had been struck by lightning. We lost our water, garage door opener, security system, TVs, phones, computers, WIFI, etc. So here I am typing on my husband's laptop, trying to update this blog. Oh and did I mention that last week our air conditioner leaked and sent water pouring into our family room. Yes, the handy man is here now redoing our busted and stained ceiling. Good times, you know.
I will try to update the blog with more pictures later but for now here are some quick highlights from our trip this summer to the Northeast.

The White House

Washington Monument

The Vietnam Memorial

Washington Monument

NYC, on top of the Empire State Building

Ahhhh, beach time!

2011-06-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a fabulous beach vacation with my parents in Gulf Shores. It was so relaxing and we had a blast doing the beach thing! My parents treated us to a wonderful week in the penthouse at the Beach Club and the view was worth it alone! We tasted some yummy seafood, played some mini golf, raced cars, did some shopping, hung out at the pool and more!

Of course we had our not so memorable occasions too! Paxton and Josh both got stung by jelly fish one day, ouch! Josh says it feels much worse than a bee sting, I am glad for him to know that and not me! My poor little Pax sure didn't care for it either. Not to be left out of the pain factor, Lorelei, who has just learned to swim (yeah and finally), decided to jump in the pool and then turn around at the same time. Thus smashing her chin onto the side of the pool and busting it open. No stitches since we were not really near a hospital but she could have probably used a couple. Ah, that is life with two active kiddos. Happy to say though, that both got back in the pool and or ocean after the incidents.

Eating at Guy Harveys at the Warf

You can probably guess who ALWAYS wins when we play this game. HINT: It's the person who does this for their job (or so he says : )

Grandaddy taking some swings

It was so fun just to hang out in the condo and relax, read, color and just take in God's beauty!

The view from our room, this makes it look a lot further away then it actually was.

Little Miss Beach girl.

Proud of her sand castle, complete with a bridge. The kids loves playing in the sand everyday. They were so entertained and Josh and I could relax under our tent and enjoy!

Paxton with his skimmer board.

This was pretty hard for him to do, he got a couple of times.

Our Penthouse at the very top left corner of the building on the left.

So I always see people getting their beach pictures done in their nice white clothes so I thought we would try a few. Of course we didn't want to spring for a professional photographer, so thanks Grandaddy for taking these for us!

Ahh, the ropes course. When Josh told me they were going to do it while we were waiting to eat, I didn't really notice exactly how scary it would be. This ropes course gave me a small heart attack, especially when my 6 year old was 3 stories high on a tight rope only being held up by a harness around him. I was begging Josh to bring him down but Josh thought it was grand fun and so did Paxton. He actually did awesome up there but I was not really happy about it!

Grandmama and Lorelei hanging out at Lulu's, waiting to eat.

Grandaddy and Paxton at Lulu's

The girls.

There was this guy that kept rowing by on his surfboard while we ate and Lulu's, Hang Ten!

A little race car action. The kids loved this place called The Track, lots of race cars and rides, bumper boats, etc. Unfortunately my camera died right after the first ride.

Josh and I celebrated our 12th anniversary while we were down there. We got a night out to ourselves and really had fun!

Hanging out in the penthouse, checking messages.

Grandaddy and Lorelei relaxing.

Grandmama and Paxton playing some hangman. They also read most of Prince Caspian, from the Narnia Chronicles, together while we were down there.

What a wonderful trip!

Graduation Girl!

2011-05-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is my Pre K graduation girl! Lorelei graduated from Pre-K a week or so a go and she was just so cute! The school did a great little program with songs and diplomas, the works! We are so proud of everything Lorelei has accomplished and we are super excited she will be in Kindergarten next year at the same school as her big brother!

Before the program begins, on stage!
Some brotherly love.

Waving to Grandmama!

Getting her diploma from her teacher Ms. Rachel.

They were the Sugarloaf Superstars!

Lorelei's Pre K class.

Silly kiddos

More brotherly love!

Ugh, she is just looking so much older lately!

My best girl!

Lorelei and Ms. Rachel

Lorelei and her other teacher, Ms. Julie.

The Duncans and Osbornes, no kids picture at Graduation. One or more of them was unhappy during picture time so no cute pictures of them all, but cute of us!

Superstars, Super busy!

2011-05-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been one busy month for this family! Paxton and Lorelei have been involved in many extra curricular activities and it seems they all have had the culminating events in the last two weeks. Starting off are a couple of pictures from Mother's Day, just had to throw those in there since they are so cute!

Paxton has just completed in his first year of piano, and will actually continue lessons through the summer. Paxton loves playing and has a great understanding of music. His teacher said he has never seen a child understand it and love it this much. Mr. Owens, his teacher, said he could easily go professional when he is a bit older too! Paxton is about to start his 4th set of books for the year, most make it through one and maybe part of another. If Paxton is inside the house, not playing a gadget, he is at the piano. We are so proud of his dedication and great talent! I must say he did not get it from me! I took 6 years of piano and he is already better than me!

Paxton at his piano recital this May.

He played two songs for this recital.

Some of the kids from the performances. There are tons of kids at his school who are in the School of Music. Thankfully they break them up into many different recitals, otherwise it would take hours and hours for everyone to play/and or sing!

Next up we have field day. I guess not an extra curricular activity but flows well with this blog. Paxton had a great day and did very well!

Look at that jump! If he had started at the right place he would have won. Unfortunately, 6 year old boys don't always follow and listen to directions!

Obstacle Course

Soccer Kick

Jump Rope the longest.

100 yard dash

3 legged race

Tug a war- teachers vs parents. Josh felt bad for the teachers though and joined their side, the teachers won!

Flag tag Champion! Paxton beat all the K6 boys and only 2 1st grade boys were left when he got out!

Both kids have been taking Gymnastics this semester as well. We told Paxton he could either sit every week and watch Lorelei for an hour or he could participate. He choose to participate and he has actually really enjoyed it and excelled at it. Of course Lorelei loves it and is also doing really well. She loves her teachers and takes class with her friend Aidyn.

This weekend they had a Gymnastics meet, not really a competition, but a time for them to show off their skills and get a trophy. Lorelei will be moving up to the kindergarten class this summer and Paxton will be moving up to the Novice 1 class.

Love this pose! This was the end of her floor routine, so cute!

Lorelei's first trophy!

Grandaddy helped entertain a tired Lorelei during Paxton's meet time.

Parallel Bars, I think that is what they call it?

High rings

Perfect landing!

Silly boy!

Floor routine, no music for the boys.

Trophy time!

To add to our fun, Lorelei had her ballet recital this weekend. She was in the performance of Alice in Wonderland. Her part was that of the white roses. She did such an awesome job! She really knew every party, as well as the part of others, and did great! Here are some pictures from dress rehearsal, which her hair is down in because we had Pre K graduation right after dress rehearsal. Also pictures from the actual performance.

Blowing kisses to Mama from the stage.

My little White Rose! Performance Day!

Kisses for Daddy!

Hugs for Big Brother!

Curtain call, look at that happy girl! Great job Lorelei!

Paxton has also just finished his season of soccer. He scored 8 goals at his last game of the year! He has really gotten very good this season! We are about to start up with our summer activities: lots of camps, gymnastics, piano, and Paxton is going to play on a summer baseball league too!

More pictures to come of Lorelei's Pre K graduation!

Lots of Festivities!

2011-05-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Just now catching up on my Easter blogging, thus the reason for the massive amount of pictures this time! I have to lump all the Easter together so I can get ready for some more blog posts soon! Both Paxton and Lorelei had several Easter Egg hunt parties to attend. Each had a school hunt, then the church hunt, Lorelei's friends' house hunt, and then our family Egg hunt! Whew, that's a lot of plastic Easter eggs! Fortunately for you, I didn't have my camera at every event!

The first hunt we attended was at Belle's house. Belle is a sweet friend from church, and soon to be school too next year, who throws some wonderful parties every year! Her mom is sooo talented in decorating and setting up the cutest parties for Belle and her friends. Lorelei had a great time and was super excited to find "THE" Golden egg! She got a big chocolate bunny and Easter bag as her prize and she almost every bite of that bunny!

Love that picture!

Lorelei and her sweet friend Maren.

Lorelei and Mr. Brian, Belle's daddy.

"I found the golden egg!!"

Mmmm, icing!

Next came Lorelei's school Easter Egg hunt. The kids decorate eggs, dyed eggs, made crafts, had a pizza party and of course had an Easter Egg hunt!

So, no pictures from the church Easter egg hunt because I got there with a dead battery. Paxton's school Easter Egg hunt was not for the parents, so here I have actual Easter Day pictures. Lorelei got a Rupunzel themed Easter basket while Paxton received a badminton set (he is really into playing this lately, Wipeout Wii-a very favorite show at our house, and a DVD).

Showing off our Easter duds!

After church at the family celebration. Yes, that is Lorelei's 2 year old cousin, Micah, standing at tall as her, next to her!

Some Grandmama Lovin'!

Von, Nathan and Luke.

We also celebrated with our family Lorelei's birthday that day. Complete with presents and brownies a la mode!

Silly boys!

The cousins, minus Jude.

Lots of eggs, lots of candy and money!

Blowing out the "5" candle on her brownies, because you know the girl doesn't eat birthday cake!

Party All Weekend!

2011-04-25T14:03:00.001-07:00

Between Lorelei's birthday and Easter, we partied all weekend here! And boy are we tired today! Lorelei's birthday was on Good Friday, so there was no school and no ballet. A whole day to celebrate Lorelei turning 5!! We have been telling her for a while now that when she turned 5 she could pick out an American Girl Doll. She has been waiting a long time, studying the catalogs, visiting the store and Friday, her day finally came!!
Meet Jilly, that is Jill with a "y" as Lorelei declared earlier that morning that was what she would name her new American Girl doll. Jilly is a "look like me" doll, with blond hair, blue eyes, and pierced ears! Yes, we got the dolls ears pierced there too! Lorelei had a ball picking out Jilly and some clothes for her. Of course Jilly needed her own pet too, Praline the cat. I must document at this point that while Mommy was having a ball with this, the two boys of the family were not really enjoying themselves. One was grumbling and mumbling about how much this was going to cost him and the other one, was bored out of his mind in the AG store! Ha!
After we got Jilly all done up we headed over the American Girl Bistro for some dinner. I thought it was actually pretty good and Jilly even had her own "seat" that attached to the table. Lorelei got brownie lollipops for dessert along with a candle and a birthday song from the staff there. So much fun! Jilly has accompanied us just about everywhere since we got her. Lorelei is already planning the other things Jilly "needs" like pajamas and a bed! Oh my!

Bwahahaha! This face just about sums it up for both Paxton and Josh!

Our next birthday event was on Saturday. We hosted 16 girls at the Gymnastics place Lorelei goes to each week. I must say they did a wonderful job, I was uber impressed with the organization and fun they had planned! It was a lot of girls, all from either school, church or ballet, but we had a blast. I think the Gymnastics instructors wore the girls out pretty well too!

Lorelei wanted a Tangled cake, of course you know she doesn't eat cake, but nevertheless, her friends enjoyed it while she chowed down on some chocolate ice cream! Opening presents was fun, a bit overwhelming, and birthday girl had just about had it by the end!

Lexi, Lorelei and Bianca stretching out! Wish I could touch my toes that easily!

A little trampoline action!

Parallel Bars

Obstacle Course

Sack Race

Mmmmm, ice cream!

All of our party friends! (Paxton and the other boy were just brother onlookers!)

My baby is 5 TODAY!!! (boo hoo!)

2011-04-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Sweet sweet Lorelei! I can't believe you aren't a baby anymore! 5 years old, so grown up! We love you more and more with each passing day! She promises to always be my baby Princess! Happy 5th Princess!

Orlando!!!!

2011-04-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah! We got to go to Orlando for Spring Break and we had a blast as always! We just love that city, there is so much to do and such a great atmosphere there! This time we did a bit of everything, Sea World, Downtown Disney, Fantasia Put Put, Magic Kingdom and more! We aren't used to going with such major crowds and traffic was not pretty on the way down. On day 1 we got to swim at a very cool pool with a viper water slide and then we headed to Downtown Disney. We usually feel so rushed when we go there so we dedicated the whole afternoon and evening to really explore. My new favorite shop, besides the Goofy candy store is the Mickey Christmas Shop! So many wonderful goodies for Christmas in there, I will definetly be going back in September to buy some stuff for Christmas. Of course Paxton loves the Lego store and Lorelei loves the "Princess" store. We ate at the T Rex Cafe which was yummy! Pax was disappointed because they sat us in the "Water/aquarium" part and not near the mean dinosaurs. My bad, Pax, next time we will!

A little wind came through right at right moment!

Yummy, Extinction Dessert!

Riding the boat through Downtown Disney, so relaxing!

Day 2 we headed over to Sea World. Seriously wonderful. If you have never been you must take your kiddos! They have wonderful shows and a few rides for those thrill seekers! We got to feed fish to the stingrays and pet dolphins! But really the shows were very well done and it wasn't crazy crowded there either. We definitely want to go back sometime!

Shamu and Paxton and Lorelei

The birds kept stealing the fish we were trying to feed the stingrays.

Petting the dolphins

The Pirate Sea Lion show, very funny and cute! The kids were cracking up the whole time!

The Killer Whale show, quite amazing! We were in the soak zone but luckily we didn't get soaked this time!

Did I mention it was HOT that day?

The Dolphin/Bird show. Kind of a weird mix but they did a good job bringing the story together.

This was this crazy fat toad in the shark exhibit, not sure why he was there? But the kids thought he was hilarious and wanted to take a picture to remember him.

The underwater shark tunnel.

The kids and I checked out the aquarium while Josh hit the big roller coasters that Paxton was not tall enough for yet.

Always wanting to take a silly picture!

The next day was much Cooler! So we went to Fantasia Put Put next to Hollywood Studios. It was a great little course with all kinds of cute things in the course to amuse the kids with.

Lost a ball already!

The view of the Tower of Terror from the course.

That evening we went to Disney's Boardwalk/Beach Club area and resorts. I have always wanted to go over there but we always run out of time. Such a neat area and you can walk right into Epcot from it, we definetly want to stay there sometime!

We ate at Cat Cora's Kouzzina, a Greek restaruant. It was good but very different food.

Silly girl!

The last day we went to the Magic Kingdom and of course first thing we had to do was visit Rapunzel. Well, TWO hours later we got to see her and Flynn Rider! Josh and I took turns standing in the crazy long line while the other one took the kids on rides nearby. I must say it was worth the wait. The kids got to color and dance with Rapunzel and Flynn. Lorelei was so happy, sporting her Rapunzel outfit too!

Pax, still trying to get that sword out of the stone, every year!

Gotta have our Peter Pan too!

It was a great trip, so glad we got to spend some time hanging out and relaxing with the family!

A little Catch Up!

2011-03-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

Ha! I love this picture of the "pout"! We were trying some clothes on for the spring and this is the look she gave me. Maybe she has been watching too much of "America's Next Top Model." Just kidding!

Anyway, both kiddos have enjoyed being in gymnastics this spring. It is has been great for both of them and they are getting very strong from being there. They had awards day last week and so here are some pics along with our sweet friend Aidyn, who just moved here from Nashville. Sorry for the funky format, I messed up but am too lazy to fix it tonight!

Undefeated!!

2011-03-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Paxton just finished up his basketball season on the Buccaneers at the end of February. His team was undefeated, more than that they were awesome! Most games were 50+ points to about 4 for the other team. We just got lucky with great kids or maybe it was their awesome coach, right Josh? Anyway, we had a great time watching Paxton play! He scored about 6-10 points per game on average and was a great defensive player. Paxton enjoyed playing with one of his best friends from school, Colton. Of course having Josh as the coach made the experience fun as well. Paxton loved his trophy that he got at the end of the season party, adding to his collection of trophies! Love it!

Now it's on to soccer season, where our athlete scored 3 goals on Saturday and 7 goals on Sunday, nice! We are so proud of you buddy!

Love this shot!

The kids loved running through the sign each week as they announced their team. Sometimes they even had a smoke machine!

Paxton played on the Upward league, which is nationwide. They play at churches and always start and end with a prayer and devotional at half time. We were very impressed with their spiritual emphasis and organization.

Check out my b-ball skills and moves!

Half time devotional

The kids LOVED Coach Josh. Bless his heart, he coached soccer, straight to basketball and now he coaching soccer again, what a good Daddy!

Paxton and Colton taking their turn out.

Basketball Party at Cici's Pizza!

Great season, my man!

Lorelei Time

2011-02-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Last week was parent week at Lorelei's ballet so I got to go in and take lots of sweet pictures of little Miss Priss doing her thang! She loves ballet and Loves her teacher Ms. Bernie! I am so proud of how far she has advanced over the past two years in ballet, she really does a nice job!

Ballet has been so fun for both of us. We have been with the same group of girls for the past two years and every Friday after ballet we have play group with these girls. And there have been lots of birthday parties as well! It has been a special treat to have Lorelei home on Fridays from school so we can share this special day together every week!

Lorelei telling her friend Scarlett about her earrings!

Sorry for the bad pictures here, my camera battery died and I had to use my cell phone for those two pictures! Oops!

Ms. Bernie and the girls!

Lorelei likes to sit right next to the teacher. I think she would take over if Ms. Bernie let her.

Blowfish

Today was also a very special time for Lorelei. Today was the father/daughter dance at ballet. Lorelei has been looking forward to her special date with daddy for a while now! They were going to have a dance and a tea party at her ballet studio. Daddy was a little bit excited too, I love how happy they both look in these pics!

Lorelei in Wonderland

2011-01-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

Lorelei gets to have "fun week" on the last Friday of every month in her ballet/tap class. So here is Lorelei in Wonderland ready to tap it out for dance class!

Oops! Christmas Day!

2011-01-15T18:09:00.001-08:00

So I have nearly forgotten what happened on Christmas Day but I did remember that I haven't posted pictures of it. I have been camera lazy lately and not very good about taking lots of pictures anyway. Here are a few from Christmas Day. It was a different day for our family for many reasons that I won't get into, but we had fun.
The kids were super excited on Christmas morning, as you can see on their silly little faces! I think they were pleased with what Santa left them and of course he wrote back to them on the letters they left for him as well.

Lorelei's Stash

Paxton's stash

Love that face, it captures it all for the day!

He is very excited about Donkey Kong vs Mario Bro. DS game.

Lorelei was all about Rapunzel this Christmas season.

Christmas day love!

More Rapunzel love.

At Lorelei's school they have a Secret Santa shop, where the kids go and shop for their family members. Daddy loves his new flashlight that Lorelei picked out.

Nothing says joy like a Hello Kitty water bottle.

We got to spend Christmas Day with my sister and her family who came up from Florida. Here I am with my cute little nephew Junior. Isn't he just precious?

Lorelei loved playing with Junior and Veronica too!

Lorelei, Grandmama and Veronica, the only two girls out of 9 grandchildren!

Lorelei, Veronica and Anthony checking out Lorelei's leapster!

So yes, boo on me because these are the only pictures I took on Christmas Day 2010. Like I said, it was a different day for us, but no excuse, next year I shall return to my way too many picture taking skills!

Some late Fall Pictures

2011-01-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

We had these pictures done in late November but I was using some of them for our Christmas cards. Josh and I loved how these turned out. We knew Lorelei could give us the "look" but had no idea Paxton had it too! LOL!

Look, Paxton is levitating!

Elfie Giglio

2010-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Elfie Giglio. That the name the kids decided to give our Elf on the Shelf. He arrived the day after Thanksgiving in Daddy's car bearing presents! The kids were so excited and thought it was hilarious. We immediately read the book about how we could never touch him or he would lose his magic. We also read about how every night he flew to the North Pole to deliver his observations of the kids to Santa. Each morning he was in a new place!

The kids woke up every morning super excited to find him. One of the first mornings he was on sitting on the toilet in the kids bathroom, which freaked Lorelei out a little bit. She was a bit nervous to find him each morning after that but still really loved the thrill of the find. They seriously got the biggest kick out of it!!

Some of the place Elfie was each morning: On the ceiling fan in the the two story family room, in the stocking, on the Christmas tree, in the refrigerator, relaxing in the garland, in the pantry, in Lorelei's Barbie house hanging out with Santa Barbie, in Paxton's room, in our room, so many places. Occasionally Elfie got a little wild and did some crazy things like: decorate the kids Christmas tree with underwear, eat all the Christmas cookies, dye the toilets green and blue and toilet paper the kids rooms! He also was nice bringing gifts too: Christmas hair bows for Lorelei and hot wheels for Pax, a Gingerbread house for the kids to decorate, new cookies packages for the kids after eating all of theirs (Paxton was most unhappy when Elfie finished off the Chips Ahoy Cookies).

We really had a good time with Elfie and the kids were old enough to participate and understand how it all worked. So here are a few pictures that I remembered to take of our month with Elfie Giglio (yes his last name is from the pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church).

Pulling up in Daddy' car.
Bringing his book and 7 Christmas Classics DVDs to watch for the Christmas season

The kids dancing around while he hangs above the stockings.

The Underwear Tree!

Lorelei spotting him one morning in the kitchen.

Oops, someone had too many cookies last night!

The toilet papered bedrooms!

Last morning before Elfie flew back to the North Pole with Santa, see ya next year Elfie!

Letters to Santa

2010-12-24T12:13:00.001-08:00

These letters are for Santa on Christmas Eve. They will be set out next to the Christmas cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer.

I must say I think that for a 4 year old, this is a pretty good letter to Santa. Did I help? Only in helping her sound a few words out, not telling her the actual letters for the words. These are her thoughts and her spelling, so cute! By the way it says, "Dear Santa Give Rudolph two carrots and take care of your elf. Love Lorelei."

Santa Knows!

2010-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

We got to go see Santa last week and had a great evening of it! This Santa was awesome and knew all about the toys the kids were telling him that they wanted. He also knew all about our "Elf" at home (more to come on him later!). He was very genuine and the best part was no line!

Our Elfie brought a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate this weekend while we were at home with Paxton being so sick. We never go for "pretty" but more for the fun look. Josh always loves to make fun of my icing skills but hey, I think it turned out cute, in a fun sort of way!
At least I can put it together, right?

So I can't ice ok?

Paxton's side was very patterned and well organized.

Lorelei's side was very decorated!

Ta-dah!!

Christmas Performances!

2010-12-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

In between being really sick with asthma attacks and bronchitis, Paxton has been busy doing some awesome Christmas performances at school. First up was his class play on Wednesday. This year Paxton was the dad telling the "kids" the true reason and story of Christmas. He had two lines and did awesome! Really, I could not have asked for a better performance from him and the class- well done and so cute!

Little Miss Christmas before the show. Have to get there early for good seats at his school!

Grandmama and Lorelei looking over the program.

Signing so nicely!

He spoke clearly and didn't mess up at all!

Second set of lines.

Silent Night.

Thanks to Lala, Pam, Von, Grandmama, Lorelei, Daddy and Mommy, Paxton had a whole row to watch him!

Dr. Hensley, Paxton's awesome music teacher telling him how great he did!

After two hours at the doctor's office yesterday evening, pumping the poor kiddo full of medications to help him feel better, Paxton woke up full of energy this morning and ready for his piano recital (multiple doses of steroids will do that!). Paxton has been taking piano lessons this year at school and doing a fabulous job. His teacher says he has lots of talent for someone his age, he gets that from his daddy! Paxton played Away in a Manger and didn't mess up at all again, another amazing performance my man!

Santa was the emcee. This show was the first of three different performance from the School of Performing Arts/Music today.

I thought he was going to play on his knees like this but he did sit down to actually play. Don't know what happened with the picture quality of my camera in these few shots.

The 9:00 am performers today.

Paxton and his piano teacher, Mr. Owens.

Pink and Furry

2010-12-05T13:09:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to share come cute pictures of my pink and furry little girl! So thankful for her!!

Gobble! Gobble!

2010-11-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Lorelei says Gobble Gobble and we all say a Happy Thanksgiving to all! We had a wonderful day with our family this Thanksgiving day! It was so relaxing and nice to be near home this year. Lorelei wanted us to all go around the table and say what we were thankful for, she was thankful for "Mommy!" Ahh, my sweet little girl, just love her and my big boy so much! God has blessed my family and I am so grateful and thankful to Him!

The kiddos are headed back over to Grandmama and Grandaddy's house tonight for a little spend the night party. This mama and daddy are going to do some big time Black Friday shopping-woohoo! Now for some sleep before the big day!

My handsome men!

Look who's in the kitchen?! Grandaddy and Grandmama fixed a wonderful Thanksgiving Spread!

Just lovely!

Some after dinner cuddles with Lala.

Now for some Angry Birds game time!

Showing Lala how to play on the Ipad.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

This is HALLOWEEN!

2010-11-08T06:44:00.001-08:00

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! Ok, so you would have had to been at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party to get that one, but it still fits. This year I had a little Peacock and a scary Pirate! Lorelei has traditionally always been a Disney character but this year we found this Peacock costume and thought it was adorable! Paxton is ever so scary in as a Pirate this year. Like his beard? Daddy drew in on with my mascara, yeah, I wasn't the one who suggested that, thankfully the waterproof mascara came off his face nicely!
We had a full day on Halloween this year. We spend the afternoon at the neighborhood Halloween party then we headed to our church for some Trunk or Treat and then of course finished the night off Trick or Treating in the neighborhood. Yes, we have so much candy, we don't know what to do!
Trunk or Treat was fun but really hot this year since it was in the afternoon. We always have fun seeing all the kids' friends and fun costumes. Lorelei and Paxton got to trunk or treat with their bff's Maren and Beckham so we had a great time!

It's a Peacock, most people did pretty good guessing what she was this year.

What do you do with a scurvy Pirate?

Make him walk the Plank!

Nice beard!

I want candy!

What a great "Trunk."

They got goldfish in this "whale"

Love this! The Davis Family as the cast of Peter Pan

Lorelei and her girlfriends.

Maren's mom says that Lorelei and Maren are twins separated at birth, they are so much alike!

Some scary skeleton's and Pirates!

Day 5 and 6: A Princess and Pirate!

2010-10-30T09:59:00.001-07:00

The last two days of our trip we went back to the Magic Kingdom for some Princess and Pirate time! Lorelei got to go to the BBB and she chose to be Snow White this year. I just love how excited she gets every time we go. She was super excited to have Grandmama there to watch her get all dolled up too!
We ate at Cinderella's Royal Table after the BBB and we also got to celebrate Grandmama's 60th birthday. Paxton went to the Pirate's League and got sworn in as a Pirate, he was looking mighty fierce, a little too much so for some of us!
Lorelei got chosen for Jack Sparrow's show about becoming a pirate, funny how the Princess got chosen in a huge group of boys dressed like Pirates! I had a lot of explaining to do on that one to a certain little Pirate! She was super cute and did a great job in the show. Both kids later got to participate in the Pirate Parade and search for buried treasure. Lorelei some how got chosen to lead the parade (funny how that always turns out for her!) and Paxton also got to march in it. I will say Paxton did get chosen in the Monster Inc's Laugh Floor show to be one of the characters (something Lorelei has always been picked at "Boo" and was earlier that week too, so this time she had the jealousy thing going on!).

Paxton and Grandaddy killing some time sword fighting while Lorelei was in the BBB. Paxton ended up dueling with a cast member there and she gave him a certificate about him winning, he was quite proud!
So excited to be back at the Bibbity Bobbiddi Boutique

Love the Pucker!

First look at herself: Priceless!!!!

Making their wishes at Cinderella's Royal Table.

Pics with all the Princesses!

Arrgghh Matey!

Happy Birthday Grandmama!!

Lorelei and the Fairy Godmother!

Paxton ready to fight Peter Pan.

Paxton at the Pirate's League, spinning the wheel to determine his new Pirate name. Robert Pondwater.

Looking scary!

Where did my sweet little boy go?!!!

Making the Pirate's Pledge.

Lorelei on stage with Jack Sparrow, this guy looks just like Johnny Depp!

Teaching the Princess how to sword fight like a real Pirate.

All the boys and girls getting their official Pirate Certificate.

Getting ready to lead the Pirate Parade!

Scary Pirate skeleton!

The Pirate Parade!

The Pirate Parade kids.

Later that evening we got to eat at 1900 Park Fair with Prince Charming, Cinderella and Wicked Stepmother and Stepsisters- they were just too funny!

Lorelei and the Prince!

The Stepmother was not so excited to be near a Princess!

These pictures crack me up!

Grandaddy and Grandmama waiting for the Electrical Lights Parade to begin.

Fab Parade!

The next morning, Grandaddy and Grandmama left to go back home and we headed to Ohanas to eat with Lilo and Stitch and the gang-always fun to go there!

So FYI, Paxton's eyes look a little funny because we had the most horrible time getting that Pirate make up off around his eyes-bless his heart Mommy scrubbed a little to hard!

Stitch giving Lorelei lots of slurppy kisses!

Parading around Ohanas!

Miss Priss doing her thang!

Back at Hollywood Studios we ran into the army guys from Toy Story. We also got to see the Block Party, awesome parade at HS!

Waiting in line for Toy Story Mania- awesome ride- here's a tip, always run to get a fast pass for this ride- the wait without one is forever!!

Eating at the Sci Fi Dinner was so cool- it was like an inside Drive In Movie Theater. We got to eat in the cars and watch movies- really lots of fun, one of our favorite new places!

So as you can see my picture taking slowed way down the last two days, as we were all getting really tired! We spent the last night at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. This was our first time to go and we weren't so sure since you have to pay quite a bit extra to go to it, but we really had a wonderful time. I mean, how can you top trick or treating in the Magic Kingdom?!! So fun, meeting all the Disney Villans, riding the roller coasters at night and watching an amazing Halloween Parade and fireworks show- so much fun!!!

Love this shot of the Castle.

The Halloween Parade was great lead off by the Headless Horseman, somehow my picture didn't make it onto the blog but I got an awesome picture of him riding the horse- Paxton was fascinated!

Girlfriend dancing the night away and one of the many dance parties around the park. She got to dance with Goofy and Pluto while we were waiting for daddy and Pax to ride Space Mountain. So fun!

A little Photo Shoot Fun!

2010-10-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Had a little fun with the camera a couple of weekends ago! Lovin' this little girl and her cute poses! She says "Stylin and Profilin!"

Epcot, Day 4

2010-10-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of our trip started with breakfast at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. We always love eating with "Chef Mickey" and the gang and swinging our napkins in the air for a little party time!

We met up with Grandmama and Grandaddy at Epcot for a day of fun and lots of rain and walking! Paxton just loves Test Track and this year he got to ride Mission Space, I think he rode it a few times too! Lorelei enjoyed meeting the Princesses around the "world" at Epcot as well as the Princess Dinner in Norway.

We also had a special treat by eating at Le Cellier a Canadian restaurant that I have never been able to get reservations for until this year. It was a favorite among this crowd!

Chef Goofy
Chef Donald

Chef Pluto

Chef Minnie

We love this Nemo Under the Seas area. There's a cool ride, aquarium and an interactive show, Turtle Talk with Crush. "Mine, Mine!"

A little fun at Imagination and with Figment.

We found Princess Arora in France.

And here's a cute little Princess too!

We finally got to meet the Beast this year, what a treat! Lorelei was so excited and gave him a big hug! Don't you just love her Princess pose!?

This boy loves riding with his Grandaddy!

The next few pictures are from the Akershush Storybook Princess Dinner that we had in Norway.

Pumpkin Time!

2010-10-17T11:01:00.001-07:00

We had the chance to go to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend. It was beautiful weather for a day at the Pumpkin Patch. We went to a different one this year and we had so much fun! The kids got to ride the hayride and Daddy and Paxton got to go through the corn maze that was in the shape of the USA. It was a 2 mile corn maze and they made it through in about 30 minutes. The girls started out but we got tired and decided to let the boys ramble their way through it.

The kids had fun doing the apple sling shot, duck races and huge tunnel slide. This particular Pumpkin Patch had some massive Pumpkins that we were tempted to get but the prices were also massive so we stuck to two nice size ones. This Pumpkin Patch that we went to was also a working farm, so they had all kinds of other veggies and fruits growing on property. They had an awesome Farm store with lots of freshly picked vegetables and fruits along with some delicious homemade breads and pies. We had a great time visiting yesterday and we will most likely return here next year!

Getting ready for the hayride.

Paxton did great taking this picture of us.

Family Pumpkin Picture

Getting ready to go into the maze.

Our first attempt through, short lived as it was.

Little Boo waiting for the boys to finish the maze.

Horray! They made it!

The duck races.

Apple slingshot time!

A really long and dusty tunnel slide

I told you these pumpkins were BIG!

Lots O Pumpkins

This week Lorelei and I also got to go a Pumpkin Patch with her class from Pre-K. We did they hayride, story time, picnic with friends, feeding the goats and cows and a pumpkin hunt. Lorelei had a lot of fun seeing her friends and teachers outside of her school setting.

Lorelei and her good pal Damian.

Story Time at the Pumpkin Patch

Lorelei's class with the bright sun in their cute little faces!

My Lil' Punkin'

Feeding the goats.

Hurry up mama, I want to go play with my friends!

Lorelei's pumpkin that she found on the great pumpkin hunt!

So cute!

Animal Kingdom, Day 3

2010-10-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

We spent day 3 of our Disney Trip at the Animal Kingdom. We really enjoyed showing Grandmama and Grandaddy around, I think they enjoyed that too! We started the day by eating at the Tusker House for Donald's Breakfast Safari. Then we did our annual "get the kids faces painted" deal. The people here do an amazing job painting faces. We enjoyed the Safari and of course the Festival of the Lion King show. Paxton and Lorelei always love being chosen to participate in that show! Paxton got to ride Expedition Everest along with Mommy, Daddy and Grandaddy this year. It was a little to much for this girl, but the boys certainly enjoyed it!

We finished the day by eating at The Whispering Canyon inside the Wilderness Lodge. It was lots of good fun with the waiters and waitresses being so silly but making it fun for all.

All our favorite characters at The Tusker House

Lorelei wanted to have a Unicorn on her face this year.

She sat amazingly still.

Beautiful!

Paxton wanted to be Tiger!

GRRRRRR!

Pictures from our Safari.

Thumper and his friend (?)

Here are the kids getting chose for the Festival of the Lion King show! Last year Lorelei got scared and came back to sit with us but this year she was all for it! Fabulous show!!!

So after a full day of walking the parks, Josh was thirsty! So our waitress got tired of refilling his drink and brought him this of diet coke!

Too funny! And yes he drank most of that too!

Paxton and Lorelei got to ride wooden horses around the restaurant, nice entertainment when you have a long meal to sit through!

We all got to get up and do the Hokey Pokey, Josh is really into as you can see, so is Grandmama. I preferred to take pictures! Fun night!

Disney, baby!

2010-10-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

The second day at Disney my parents joined us and we went to Hollywood Studios. We had a great time there, tons of wonderful shows to see too! One of my favorite parts of Disney is to watch my kids faces light up when they see shows or characters! Lot of lit up faces on this day. We ate breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with the Disney Playhouse Characters and a mid day lunch at Mama Melrose- yummy Italian. We ended the evening watching Fantasmic- Josh and my favorite Disney evening show!

Up above, you can see Grandaddy Singing in the Rain! Love that picture!

Jo Jo the Clown

Getting down with Handy Manny

June from the Little Einsteins

There was some protest from Paxton about seeing the Beauty and Beast show but you can see he was still enjoying it!

Lights, Motor, Action Show

Sully from Monsters Inc.

Nothing Beats It!

2010-10-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

We are back! Back from another wonderful trip to Disney! I was hoping to have our pictures from the Disney Photo Pass ready to post, but it is taking a long time to edit and order those, so they will come later!

We were so lucky to have Grandaddy and Grandmama with us this year! The kids and us were so excited that they came this year!!! More on that later. The first day, we checked into the Wilderness Lodge early in the morning and then hit the Magic Kingdom. It was so good to be back in the World!

We got to meet some characters we haven't seen before like the step sister and wicked step mother from Cinderella and also the Princess and the Frog characters. Very exciting for Miss Lorelei. Paxton was very excited to get to ride Space Mountain for the first time, he just loved it-make Mommy a little woozy but my boy- the faster and scarier the better! We ate well that day with Tiger and Pooh in the morning, Tony's for Lunch and a fabulous dinner at the top of the Contemporary Resort overlooking the Magic Kingdom at firework time. It was so nice to get to enjoy the fireworks while eating a wonderful dinner-one of our favorites from the week! So these are just the pictures from the first day, you know me, tons more to come, but hey, that's what this blog is for right?

Standing inside the Wilderness Lodge
Wilderness Lodge Lobby- we enjoyed staying here, it was nice, but not our favorite Disney Resort.

Opening of the Magic Kingdom

Tiger

Pooh

Can he do it this year? The Sword in the Stone

Ok, seriously the funniest characters at Disney. They were so in character! We got to eat dinner with them later in the week too- just hilarious!

The White Rabbit- So my kids finally got around to watching Alice in Wonderland and now they know who these characters are!

The faster the better- notice I am NOT on this ride!

Buzz Lightyear ride

Our Princess Pictures- the first of many that week!

So this year Paxton was definitely not into getting his picture taken with the Princesses. Arora here convinced him to come over but he was not so pleased as you can see.

Mickey and Minnie? Always LOVE them!

Look at Lorelei looking at the Prince- oh my!

She said something to crack them up- who knows what?

Lorelei and I got good spots for the afternoon Parade while Daddy and Paxton rode Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain

Parade Characters

The Wilderness Lodge

The Geyser erupting there

Lorelei waiting for the boat to take us to the Contemporary Resort

Handsome little man at the dock.

View from our sunset boat ride- very nice!

An Exciting Week!

2010-09-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

This was Paxton's face this week win he won his school's fundraiser! He was looking back at me when they announced his name! What a week of selling and prizes and craziness. We are now the proud owners of a big ole stuffed snake, dog and some other fun items. Thanks so much to our wonderful friends and family for supporting Paxton and his school! He had a blast and was super excited to win again this year!

Lorelei and her friend Wyatt liked to hang out this week during the prize ceremonies each afternoon! They get along so well and like playing with Wyatt's lizards!

Our new snake and dog friends wrapped around Paxton. Actually that is the smaller and second version of the bigger dog at home!

Another exciting event . . . Paxton's first tooth fell out! He has been wiggling that thing like crazy and I can't believe it has held on for so long. Tonight after dinner, Daddy got a wash cloth and popped that thing right out. Paxton didn't even wince! He is so excited to have a missing tooth and can't wait for the tooth fairy to visit tonight!

Please excuse the pizza sauce around his mouth, we had just had dinner and on our wait to shower time!

First Day of Pre K and some more birthday!

2010-09-03T13:19:00.001-07:00

This week held the first day of Pre-K for little Miss Lorelei. She has been so excited to go back to school this year, especially since Paxton started a few weeks ago. So this week we went in to meet her teachers and then Wednesday was her first day! I didn't get a chance to be too sad about it as I subbed every day at her school this week so I got to see her quite a bit! She says she loves it and her teachers seem to be really great. So here are some pics from her first day of Pre-K!

This is her matching doll which she named Jane, she is reading lots of Dick and Jane right now, hence the name I believe!

Sportin' her new backpack and matching lunch box!

Hopefully she grows into it!

Here we are, ready for the first day!

Outside the classroom picture

Her friends from last year that are in her class this year too.

Lorelei and her new teacher Ms. Rachel

Last week on Paxton's actual birthday we went up celebrate with him. We brought some McDonalds for him and had some cookies with his friends. He is eating in the big cafeteria this year! Lots more choices, people and noise too!

Enough already MOM!

A really BIG Post here!

2010-08-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, since I am falling further and further behind on blogging from this summer's vacation I decided to just throw it all into one big ole' Blog!! So sorry now, but this is picture heavy for sure!!

When we went to Orlando this summer we got to stay at the Gaylord Palms. It was so nice and we loved our view from our room of the interior of the hotel. The kids and I hung out at the Octopus pool during the day while Josh was at his conference. We also loved just walking around the hotel seeing the Alligator Pools and all the other vivid scenery at the Gaylord.

The view from our balcony.

Little Miss enjoyed looking out too!

Taking a scenic tour of the hotel during the day!

They had a wedding here while we were there.

Chompin' like the alligators behind them!

Cool boat inside the hotel!

The pool

One night we got to go the Animal Kingdom Lodge and eat at Saana, which was wonderful! Unfortunately for us, we were charging the battery camera and forgot to put it back in! The kids loved walking out to the Savannah and seeing all the cool animals hanging out there. We also enjoyed the authentic African food, very different but good!

We also headed out to Downtown Disney one night! We love it there! We ate at Wolfgang Puck's which is so yummy and then got to see all the DD attractions. Of course we always have to go the BIG Disney Toy store and the Lego store every time we go! This year Paxton was on a mission to find the store where you could build your own Light saber! So we found the store and Paxton and Daddy enjoyed putting together a really cool lights and sound light saber! We also found Goofy's our favorite treat place at DD! As you can see below, we all enjoyed our special desserts!

Two sweet Princesses!

Lego Man!

Lorelei enjoyed Lego building as well!

It's a race, who's Lego car is the fastest?

The Force is with you, buddy!

Goofy's

You know when I start taking pictures of the food that is must be looking good!

Paxton's M&M pretzel stick.

Lorelei's Nemo cookie.

Daddy's German Chocolate Cookie filled with icing!

Mama's Carrot Cake Cookie, mmmmm!

After leaving Orlando we went to Hilton Head but we made a fun stop on the way. We stopped at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine which we had visited a few years ago. It was really HOT but it was neat to see all the different alligators again and to see the feedings. The highlight was when the kids got to hold a baby alligator, so cute! Paxton wanted to hold the python but this mama, said no way!

This was one crazy worker getting in there with those hungry alligators!

Maybe I should buy them one of their own? Never!

You can't really tell from this picture but there were tons of birds in this tree, it was really cool!

The kids even got to feed the alligators!

The alligators were ready for us!

There were some other animals at the Alligator Farm as well. This was a prettier one, but the spiders, oh man! They were huge and loose around the farm, just hanging there, ugh!

After St. Augustine we went to Hilton Head! We really enjoyed it there. So much to do or so little to do, whatever you choose. Tons of good places to eat and shop too! We enjoyed the Lighthouse, miniature golf, shopping, eating, riding bikes all over the island and lots of swimming everyday! Oh such a fun vacation, wish I was there again!

Here are my sleeping babies after a long day of traveling!

The view from our room at the Westin in Hilton Head

Harbor Town in Hilton Head. We ran into Paxton's kindergarten teacher from last year just walking around down here! He was very excited to see her!

From the top of the lighthouse.

We had so much fun playing miniature golf a couple of nights! We even came back home and went too!

Future golf Pro!

Not a future golf pro!

Lil' Surfer Dude!

Love this picture!

Paxton really enjoyed trying to surf, he even stood a couple of times.

Lorelei liked it too!

Lil' surfer girl!

Kids and sand!

Attitude!

Much cuter!

Love him!

Kind of blurry, but looks cool!

So if you think I posted way too many pictures, I am sure I did, but believe me this is way narrowed down from all the whole!

SIX!

2010-08-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today my boy turns SIX!!! He is getting to be so old and so big! We did some big time celebrating over the weekend! First, we had a big LEGO party at the Lego store here! Super fun with 13 boys and tons of Legos! You can't have a Lego party there until you are 6 so we have been waiting a while to finally have it here! Paxton LOVES Legos and we love them too! He is quite good at them and can put those huge sets together with 800+ pieces together in no time.

Paxton had all the boys from his class come plus his two older boy cousins. The boys got to build their own Star Wars Lego man and then the party director took them to a table and dumped out about a billion Legos for them to create things and build. The boys had lots of fun building all kinds of Star Wars creations! It's amazing how long those six year old boys could attune to that one task. After building each boy got to fill a box of any kind of bricks (Lego pieces) that he wanted as his take home treat. Plus they each got their Lego man and a Lego magazine.

After a fun filled Lego hour or so we headed down to the food court for some pizza and Star Wars cake. The boys got a little wild after eating but I think it was a good wind down from a long week at school. Paxton took home his presents to open and was loving it all!

Let's all YELL "Happy Birthday Paxton" so the whole mall can here!

Building their Lego Men.

Danny and Paxton having fun building.

Grandmama and Grandaddy stopped by the party and helped us out a lot with transporting things!

Ok, now how CUTE are these two sweeties? Lorelei and Maren, two peas in a pod!

Entertaining themselves at the Lego party being ballerinas!

Not sure what this face is about but I thought it was too funny!

Pax and his Daddy!

Paxton and his boys!

Lego-maniac!

Star Wars Cake!

Don't you love the little hand in the background, ready to dig in!

Back at home ready to dive into the presents!

Oh how I wish I had his initial expression when he opened this gift. His very very favorite gift from Grandmama and Grandaddy, a Chess Set! Paxton loves Chess right now, talks about it constantly, wants to play it on the computer constantly and now, his very OWN set. This is a picture of true happiness!

Quite a stack!

He has even begun teaching Lorelei how to play, next on his list to teach, his Mama!

So Sunday afternoon we had a family party. It was supposed to be at our house but unfortunately the air decided to go out just before the party so we took our sweaty selves up to Grandmama and Grandaddy's house for his party. We have such a large extended family it's hard to really celebrate with all the friends around (I have tried that in the past and it doesn't work too well!).

Showing off his Tinker Toys creation that he had made earlier that week.

The LPV, Von, Lala and Pam (with Micah)

Cutie!

Micah and Pam

Nathan

Oh Yeah!

Grandaddy, baby Jude and Lorelei

Oh, Daddy is so proud!

Yummy!

My big six year old boy. Paxton we are so proud of you and who you are becoming! Keep working hard and always do your best. Mama and Daddy love you always! Trust in God, HE is always there!

A Great First Week!

2010-08-14T17:23:00.001-07:00

My big man started K6 this week (for those that don't know K6 is after K5-kindergarten, and before first grade, for those that another year). Anywho, Paxton loves it! He just does so well in school and thrives on the routine and structure of it all! He loves his new teacher and he has a couple of kids from last year in his class as well. I miss having him home with us but it is so good for him. His school ROCKS! We are so blessed to have him there! Here's looking forward to another awesome year!

Outside his school on the first day!

He was NOT happy about having to take another picture! Especially with his sister. I think we embarrassed him with all the pictures. He said "Why do you have to keep taking pictures, and why did you have to bring the camera in the class?" HA!

Happy for me to be leaving, and the fun to begin!

Vacation Time!

2010-08-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Finally! The computer problem has been resolved (they sent us a new one-yeah!) and I can finally post about our wonderful vacation a few weeks ago. We were gone for 2 weeks! The longest vacation we ever have had, and we had so much fun! We started off in Orlando and stayed at the Gaylord Palms, which was fabulous! First day in Orlando, we hit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was quite a task to get tickets to this place but after getting scammed and someone have mercy on us, we got to go in!

Let me just say that this place is right up Paxton's alley! It is all about bigger, faster and scarier! Tons of roller coasters, some that he wasn't quite tall enough to ride, and tons of adventure! He loved the Jurassic Park T-Rex ride, Men In Black ride, Spider Man ride, Jaws, I could go on and on! Lorelei did love the E.T. ride because E.T. said her name during the ride!

It was hotter than hot but they had a nice child swap area in each ride where one of us could sit with Lorelei and wait and then ride it again with Paxton when the other parent got off, cool deal! It wasn't Disney or anything but we had a great time. Josh and I really enjoyed riding some of the mega roller coasters and of course the Harry Potter world was very impressive. The ride inside Hogwarts castle made me quite nauseas but it was still pretty cool. So here are the pictures from day 1 and day 5 of our trip to Universal and Islands of Adventure. Many more vacations pictures to come!

You can see their hot little faces and we had only been in the park 30 minutes at this point!

Superheros Everywhere!

Lorelei was a GREAT sport hanging out and waiting for the majority of the rides that she wasn't tall enough for yet!

This guy was uber excited to be here!

I am melting!

The Pteredon Flyers, a great ride which only allowed children between 36-52 inches to ride with a parent. If you were taller and not riding with a child in this height range you could not get on. It was actually a pretty adventurous ride, but very short!

So the flip side of not getting to ride, you get your picture taken ALOT by the parent left with the camera!

The end of the T-REX ride!

Yes, that was me and Paxton getting soaked in that picture and here we are to prove it!

Harry Potter World

The Hogsworth Castle.

Seuss Landing was a lot of fun for both kiddos but Lorelei especially loved it!

After all those rides, I couldn't even get on the Seuss Go Round, but Lorelei enjoyed it.

Not a fan of the Grinch here.

Who is this guy again?

Thing 1 and Thing 2

The Cat in the Hat, a very cute ride as well!

The Dr. Seuss playground

After Islands of Adventure we headed over to Universal Studios

First we stopped for a yummy meal at the Hard Rock Cafe!

I would not dare ride this but Josh did, look at that straight up, too much for this old gal'! However Josh said it was awesome but not as good as the Incredible Hulk roller coaster, which I DID ride and had a massive headache afterwards, but it was awesome!

JAWS!

Scooby Doo and Shaggy!

A really awesome stunt show with bicycles, motor bikes, roller blades, etc. Unfortunately Paxton and Josh were standing in line for another ride and missed this but Lorelei and I sure enjoyed it. Overall it was fun to go and there is so much more that I have not mentioned. I think it will be a great place to go back to in a few years when the kids are bigger and older!

Struck!!

2010-08-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

So while we were away on our most lovely vacation for two weeks, our new and not so wonderful computer got struck by lightning!! AHHH! This computer has had almost as many problems as our Honda Odyssey! So while my poor husband spends another few hours on the phone trying to figure out what to do, I thought I would log in from his computer to let my little blogging world know that pictures will come soon, but who know when (his computer does not have photo editing so unless you want to look at all the pictures upside down, crooked, etc. then it won't be happening). We did have a total blast on our vacation, glad to be home though!

Some Fun with Good Friends!

2010-07-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I got to spend some awesome time with my girlies from college. It was our 10th annual girls get together! I can't believe it's been that long and we were so excited to have everybody there (even though in picture we are missing Nichele and Ashely). We had fun reminiscing, watching old college videos and just hanging out! Christie and Ashely are both expecting so we got to give them a mini baby shower too! Thanks to Christie for hosting us even though she's pregnant and was going out of town the day we all left! I know we all had a wonderful time and I can't wait till next year! I didn't take many pictures because our photographer Emily took the majority, hopefully she will have more to share with us soon!
Meanwhile, the kids and Josh also came to Nashville to stay with our dear friends Jeremy and Marsha. They were super sweet to let my family crash with them, especially when Josh had to leave for a day for a work event back home! I know my kiddos had a blast with Spencer, Aidyn and Preston! I got to hang out with the whole crew Saturday night for Josh' birthday as well. Lots of fun and now we need lots of rest!

If you know Harding, you know this word! Ashley brought this cake for us all to share, too funny!

Christy, Christie and Lyndsay

Ashley and Christie's baby shower

Lyndsay and Christy hanging out!

Marsha and Jeremy were so sweet to make Josh his favorite kind of cake for his birthday, German Chocolate, YUM!

Lorelei and Paxton having fun with new and different toys!

Preston is such a cutie and little ball of energy!

Happy to see Mama after being gone all weekend.

Everyone enjoyed throwing those little pop firecrackers, well not everybody. Lorelei and Preston were headed for the hills when they heard those things popping!

Hanging out in the Hammock! Marsha and Jeremy!

Some backyard fun with Aidyn and Spencer!

Jeremy mocking me, I won't show you the picture Josh took of me right before this!

Yes, I got a little tickled at something, we won't mention what!

Thanks J & M for being awesome hosts and for watching our kiddos, we all had a blast!!