First day of School!

Is coming up. It is a first for me. The best i can do is a fun "craft" for Lucas...i hope you love it. He told me what to draw. I did my "school girl" best. Have a great school year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gatorland!!!!

Where to start...? I haven't been to Gatorland since I was probably 13. I have this wonderful lady that I work with whose Son in Law owns it, and she nicely gave me some tickets. We got there first thing in the morning, thank goodness cause it was 98 degrees when we left. We started off with a show...and who knew that I would be picked. Mind you, I have never been picked for anything like this. So, I ended up with a box in front of me with who knows what in it. Finally, they called me down to the "stage". Made me stand in the "safety circle" and close my eyes. I would have never thought that I would get a TARANTULA..yes a TARANTULA in my hand.

When they finally told me to open my eyes, I told them that I already looked and saw it. The guys were absolutely hilarious. They did that show and another, and we enjoyed every part of it. Rusty's parents went with us and we all had a great, great time.

It is part of Florida that not all see, a real park, with real people that actually loved what they do. I would recommend it to anyone that I talk to. Lucas and Brooke had a great time as well. Lucas had a dream about alligators the other night that scared him, so I was a little afraid that he was scared, but he loved it. When we asked him what the best part of the weekend was, he said Gatorland! Brooke, who is cutting 4 teeth did great as well. She was tired toward the end, but had a great time and enjoyed spending the day with Grandma and Papa. They also have a water park, but my memory card was full so I didn't get any pictures of that. It was a great weekend that none of us will forget soon, especially me..hopefully I won't have dreams of tarantulas!

Memorial Day 2009

First the day started off with fun in the pool. We bought Brooke the same suit that we had for Lucas, and now he swims like a fish, but she is a little more crazy the he is an can't sit still. So that has been a learning experience for us all over again. We hope that with time she will get used to it and love it like Lucas did!



Then it came to this! Who can resist two kids playing in the rain. I had to run to the store on with my good friend Vicki, and when I came home this is what I found...two kids, playing in the mud, covered from head to toe. How can you get mad at such a great picture moment. Mind you, we have had like 25 inches of rain, and my back yard is like a mushy mess...Kristin knows all about that! Love you Kristin!










All and all, after a good bubble bath, it was all better and the kids slept like rocks!

The Blue Crab Festival

We have been talking about going to the Blue Crab Festival in Palatka for years, and decided since we didn't have plans this Memorial Day Weekend, we would try it out. Rusty's parents followed us on our 2 hour drive. Greg came with us as well. It ended up being so much fun, besides the fact that so many people told me how redneck it was and I shouldn't be surprised if I didn't see many people with teeth, but it wasn't like that at all. It was packed, had a ton of Arts and Crafts, and a bunch of food vendors.


We also say a pig race..that was a little hillybilly, but I guess these people have been on Leno, David Letterman, and The Early show. We had a great time, and both Rusty and Lucas had fun too...it was so so hot, we were all sweating and wanted to go swimming. We had a great day.


With all the rain that we got the docks on the St. John's river are under water.

Yummy Spaghetti O's

I know for sure with Lucas I never gave him Spaghetti O's at 9 months old, but Brooke was really trying to get to Lucas's the other day and I figured why not...she loved them! It wasn't fun cleaning up after she was done, but nothing a little comet won't fix.

family time is so important...

We went to Tampa last weekend for a "family weekend". Since we have annual passes to the zoo, for the month of September we got into the MOSI Science Center and Aquarium for free. I booked hotel rooms at the Hyatt,of course, for three nights so we could enjoy all parks. This picture is from the first night at the hotel, we got a casita so we had a pretty good view of the water. The sunset was beautiful and dinner was great. Off to bed early to get up an move to the Hyatt Downtown...more to come.

A day on the lake

So I am not such a great Mommy, we went on the boat and I didn't take one single picture of the kids...but I got some great ones of Uncle Mike wake boarding. We had fun, he did a great job as you can see in the pictures. Lucas and Brooke had fun too, unfortunately Lucas got a little too much sun, but not too bad. Brooke had a great time playing in the water too.

Silly String

Last week I had a day off because I woke up with a flat tire and needed to go and get it fixed. Since I was only going to work 1/2 day anyway, I decided to take the whole day off. After Lucas, Brooke and I got the tire fixed we went on a hunt for a wallet for Lucas. I kept telling him and telling him that I would get him one and thought for sure that Walmart would have boy's wallets. Nothing. We searched a few other stores and still, nothing! So we settled for silly string instead, he had fun. It is hard for their little fingers to push down the tops of those, but we had fun, I had him covered at one point!

FOOD, yummy.

There is a reason that we call Brooke "porkchop". She is a little tank, and loves to eat. She was getting super hungry at the sitter's and eating every 2 hours and wanted more, so I knew it was time for food. I wasn't quite ready yet since Lucas didn't start til he was 6 months, but this just shows that all kids are different. We started with rice cereal and she did great, the girl can eat. I will hopefully do the same that I did with Lucas and make all of her food. She has sweet potatoes and will try avocado next. It is fun and she is doing much better at the sitter and not getting so hungry.

I hope that she isn't a picky eater, it is nice that Lucas will almost eat anything. In the mean time Lucas decided that he would try a banana pepper the we grew in the back yard, he tried them a couple of times, I think he finally learned his lesson.

Elect Kelley

4th of July

There was nothing better than spending the 4th with the family and friends. We had a great time in the little town of Astor. We went with our friends Todd and Vicki and Rusty's Brother Michael and girlfriend Nikki. We bought Lucas his first fishing pole, it is a cool one that you don't have to cast, just push a button, a big hit! He was the only one there to catch a fish with a fishing pole, Uncle Mike caught several with a cast net, but Lucas was very special. Granted, it wasn't a keeper by any means, but it was precious.
The house that we rented was great, right on a canal that led to the St. John's River. It was 4 bedrooms and had a great kitched with anything that was needed. Lucas also loved his room which included nothing but a twin bed, closet and built in dresser (where he put away his clothes, so cute) and the highlight was the eletric fish take that lit up. He was so happy
We went to the Silver Glen which is a spring off Lake George. It was COLD, but fun. Lucas like to play in the sand with the other kids and Rusty, Todd and Michael had fun snorkling.

I got lucky and my friend Vicki that went bought all the food and we split it three ways. I did a lot of cooking but that is what I love so I can't complain! We have all agreed to go back and rent the same house by the end of the summer. It was a perfect get away and long weekend. As you can see, Lucas was totally exhausted.

Basketball..mommy's dream come true

Early last week Rusty and I were talking about finding a sport for Lucas to participate in. Well, yesterday I called the YMCA in Kissimmee and found out that Basketball started Saturday for 3-5 year olds. I was in my heaven. We were there at 8:45 ready to start. Lucas and I went to the store the night before to get shoes, and found some Sketchers that he loved so much he SLEPT with them on. Yes, you heard me right, would not let me take them off. So learning how to dribble, shoot and "share" with the other boys was amazing! He did good for my little guy who I have never even played Basketball with. I have never even tried to teach him to dribble, pass, or shoot for that matter...and it showed! He did good though. I know in the next three months he will learn a lot, so will we as parents. Brooke loved to watch her brother at the beginning, but just wanted to sleep in the end. Oh, and Lucas was on the Dolphin team...thought he was a star, and is an always will be one in my eyes. All he could say was he was ready to get on the "court" like Emmy says in Dragon Tales!

Story Time

It has been a long time since we have been able to go to story time at the library. We went when Brooke was 2 weeks old and continued throughout the time that I was on maternity leave. I think beside being home with the kids this was my most cherished time with Lucas and I. It was wonderful to see him interact with 5 year olds and sing and dance. He isn't around kids during the day, but he loves to be with them. I will never forget this time that I spent with Lucas, ever in my life. He still talks about it, yesterday his mobile that we made the last day broke and he wondered if the teacher would be upset if we thru it away. I can't believe how sweet and thoughtful of a kids he is!

Spiderman

I never knew how much boys thrive on superheros until Lucas asked for something Spiderman. He watched Free Willy (might I add I had to buy it but luckily I got the three pack "collectors addition" at Walmart for $14.97) and knew he could snorkel and wanted flippers to try. I remembered seeing some fun fins at BJ's and when we went to look, he fell in love with the Spiderman ones. He feel in love with them. There was another option that was a shark, but who could pass up spiderman? He had to try on the whole get up, including fins, goggles and fun glove type thingys that of course, shot spider webs! He played in the pool forever with the whole get up on, then just decided it was easiest with the mask. So much easier on the eyes since kids love to swim the whole time with their eyes open. I don't allow Lucas to climb on the furniture, a little of my sister in me, but when he came in he was literally crawling on the back of the couch, cause of course, he was spiderman. After that he continued to climb on one of Brooke's diaper boxes that I hadn't put away yet and was standing on it being "spiderman". For the next few days we were riding in the car to the sitters with full spiderman attire and I am sure that all cars passing had a great chuckle to their morning!, if anything Mommy cherished it for the rest my my day!

Denny Jr's 2nd Birthday

This is a week old, but could be left alone. We had a wonderful time last weekend at Dennis and Adriana's house for their little boy's 2nd birthday. I haven't been out too much at night with Brooke, that is her time and isn't always an angel, but we had a wonderful time. I know that Adriana wants a little girl someday, and we think that Denny has an eye for Brooke already, so she loved to hold my little girl. As most of you know, your home changes with kids. We "had" a dining room which is now a play/computer room, and the Winky's did the same thing. They had a great pool table room, with beer signs and lights, but now that Denny is two, the also have too many toys for the living room and decided it was time for a Play room instead of a Mans room. It just amazes me how much these little people change our lives. Anyway, it is always so much fun to spent time with the Deems. They are such a close knit family and they make us feel like we are family as well. The last time that Denny was over he loved Lucas's lawn mower, so we got him one just like Lucas's. And because of that Lucas had to bring his with. The two of them ran around the back yard mowing the lawn, it was awesome. Dennis and Adriana also got Denny a bounce house that Lucas had a blast with, now the only thing that we hear is that we should buy one too!