Happy Holidays!!!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've written anything! That just shows how crazy we are this time of year! I'll do my best to sum up the events of the past few weeks starting with Thanksgiving.

We headed up to Ocala to celebrate with Brian's family. We ended up staying at his parent's house the entire weekend. We had planned to take a short camping trip after the holiday, but had to cancel since the temperatures were going into the 40s at night! However, it was almost like camping at his mom's house since she lives on a dead end street and is surrounded by trees. Hallie had a blast playing with her cousins all weekend. I'm sure she was happier there. Thanksgiving was nice - as usual, there was plenty of delicious foods and all of Brian's immediate family was there along with Uncle Jim's family. The trip also gave Brian a chance to say goodbye to his grandfather who passed away only a few weeks later.

Back in Fort Lauderdale, Hallie and I had three short weeks of school before our Christmas vacation. Brian was able to take the kids to see the play "A Christmas Carol" at the Broward Center. Aiden still laughs if you say, "bah humbug" to him! He sat on Brian's lap the entire time watching intently. He LOVES the theater!

I spent a day with the children at my Aunt Cindi's house making Christmas cookies. The favorite was the S'more cookies that took me almost the whole day to make and were a huge mess, but definitely worth the effort!!!

The best news we have to share is that my parents have semi-retired and moved to Port St Lucie, Fl, which is only a little over an hour away from us! This has actually inspired Brian and I to start looking at houses in this area since they are so inexpensive. We put an offer on a 4 bedroom with an office that we loved - so please say a quick prayer that it gets accepted! It was a short sale, so if we don't hear anything in a few weeks we have two other houses that interested us that we can consider.

It was very exciting for us to be able to spend Christmas with my parents and not have to get on an airplane to see them. We'll be heading back to Port St Lucie tomorrow to visit with my brother who is on his way driving down with his wife as a write this. I will probably stay at my parents with the kids through New Year's and then head home and go back to work Monday :(

That's how are holidays have been in a nutshell! Hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year!

Trick-Or-Treat!

Happy Halloween! Both my kids absolutely love Halloween and we had a whole week of festivities for them to enjoy! The first was a Halloween story time at Barnes and Nobles the week before Halloween. Thursday, Hallie's ballet studio had a Halloween party for the kids to enjoy. After snacking on pizza, candy, and treats each girl had the chance to perform a dance in their costume. The night before Halloween I downloaded the theme song for Strawberry Shortcake for Hallie to dance to. Hallie has been listening to it non-stop every since. Straw-straw-strawberry shortcake! She loves to perform and being in the spotlight and did a great job dancing for her classmates!

Friday night Brian and I took Aiden, Hallie, and her friends Ashley to downtown Hollywood for some early trick-or-treating. They had the opportunity to walk around and get candy from the local businesses and then play in the bounce house afterwards. The two girls had a fabulous time and Aiden was the cutest baby by far!

Saturday was Halloween and we got to enjoy a special "Scary Story Time" at the local library. After listening to a Halloween story, Hallie was able to paint and decorate her own pumpkin. After the story time we went to the Town Center mall for more trick-or-treating there. Hallie was already tired from all of the activities and kept asking to sit down to "rest". We didn't stay long since she needed a break. When we got home, she sat out front with me handing candy out to the trick-or-treaters. I think she had more fun handing out candy than getting it herself. She is such a giver!

Luckily, the weather was gorgeous for Halloween weekend. I got a chance to relax at the beach on Sunday. I forgot how nice the beach is this time of year and plan to make a trip there every weekend!

Hallie's Glory Night Video

Fall is Upon Us . . .

I always find tons of things to do once the holidays start approaching. The first is always Halloween. We always start off the fall season by visiting our favorite pumpkin patch and taking tons of pictures. This year was no exception. We also picked pumpkins for each member of our family which we will probably carve later this week. This past weekend I took the kids to a special Halloween story time at Barnes and Noble. They got to dress up in their costumes, listen to a story, make a craft, and trick-or-treat around the store. Hallie dressed as Strawberry Shortcake and looked absolutely adorable! Aiden is going to be an elephant again (since the costume actually fits him this year). He's now officially walking and was incredibly cute running around all the kids in his elephant costume!!!

Brian surprised Hallie's teacher and bought little pumpkins for each kid in her class. Today they were able to paint them. However, instead of making faces on the pumpkins, the kids decided to mix all the paints together and just paint their pumpkins green. Very interesting. At least they had fun doing it!

Hallie's preschool had their annual fall festival this past weekend, Glory Night. The preschoolers get a chance to go up on stage and sing all the songs they've been practicing all year long. When Hallie was 2, she was too shy to actually sing at Glory Night. This year, Hallie not only sang, but did all the hand motions - and some of her own! I'll be uploading the video here shortly. She had a blast after her show running in and out of the bounce houses with her favorite school friends.

Clink, Clink - It's a tooth!

As Aiden grows, and becomes such a great eater, I find myself constantly sharing my dinner with him. This week he was eating tuna steak and broccoli right off my plate! I still can't get Hallie to try broccoli! Anyway, for two days I kept hearing a "clink" sound every time I put my metal fork in his mouth. I reached in and felt his bottom gums, but there was nothing there. Friday night he's sharing my ice cream with me and I hear it again. I'm sitting on the couch with Brian and told him that there has to be something in his mouth to make that sound. This time I feel his top gums and feel his sharp tooth! I'm so happy because I thought Aiden was going to be toothless forever! (Well not really) So finally at 12 months old AIden gets his first tooth - he's getting so big :)

Busy Weekends!

The last few weekends I have been so busy with the kids I feel like I haven't had any time to blog! Weekdays are impossible too since I've been running home from work and taking Hallie to ballet, or letting her have a friend come over to play. 2 weeks ago, I was very brave and took Hallie, her friend Ashley, and Aiden to Wannado City for the day. The girls had a blast! We had gone a year ago and Hallie wasn't quite old enough to really experience everything. This year she was at the perfect age. The girls were able to "be" firemen, archaeologists, veterinarians, candy shop workers, Pepsi workers, and their favorite . . . . models. There were also a few rides they went on (with Aiden too!). It was a long, exhausting day, but definitely worth it!

Last Saturday, we had tickets to see Disney on Ice with most of the kids from Hallie's ballet class. As a special treat, Hallie brought her friend Madeline with her. These things always seem like more fun when you do it with a friend. These two loved the show, and then went back to our house to play for the rest of the day. Even Aiden had fun at the show! He stood up (on my lap) watching all the pretty costumes and special effects, and clapped with the rest of the audience. It was so cute! Unfortunately, he was a little tired toward the end and fell asleep in my lap and missed the end. Sunday we went to visit Aunt Cindi and swam in her pool. Hallie is finally able to swim on her own. My dad came over for dinner since he was up in Port St. Lucie looking at houses.

Today we're taking advantage of the Smithsonian free museum day and the family is going to visit Miami Metro Zoo, and next week we have tickets to see Elmo Live! Looks like our weekends are going to stay busy for a while :)