Christmas in Florida

We had a great Christmas this year. My parents came for a very nice visit. While they were here, they let us have a two night getaway. David and Dad also built a sandbox for the girls, and Dad assembled a BBQ grill. The girls loved having their grandparents here. They played lots of games, made cookies, went to the park and really enjoyed one another. We sure miss them now that they're gone. What great parents!

The girls enjoyed decorating this gingerbread house during their time with Nana and Grandpa.

A was delighted by many of her Christmas presents, especially this tea set that she quickly set up in a neat row, matching all the cups, saucers and spoons as well.

David is planing the edges of the sandbox to make them round. Looks good so far!

M wanted the sandbox to be pink. David, Dad and M are hard at work painting it.

The finished sandbox--the girls love it!

Madeline enjoyed playing in the sandbox right after I dumped all the sand in.

We found an authentic Chinese retaurant, "Ming's Bistro," which we went to for my birthday. Yum! We sure miss the delicious Chinese food in Sugar Land.


We went to do some free stuff on the first night of our getaway. This huge Christmas tree adorned the lobby of the Wilderness lodge.. We sipped our hot chocolate on comfy couches while listening to a live brass ensemble playing Christmas carols.

We spent the second day of our getaway at Epcot. It is split in two halves, Future World and the World Showcase.

Our favorite part of Epcot was the World Showcase. David is standing in front of this replica of a Stave church from Norway. If you were at our wedding, you'd recognize the building--we were married at an exact replica of a Stave church.

Our favorite country to visit was China, of course. We enjoyed a Chinese acrobatic performance and enjoyed watching a short movie which took us on a tour of China, many places which we had been to personally.

We went to the "beach" (at the lake) at Moss Park, which is just a few miles from our home.

Going to the beach in December is definitely one of the highlights of living here!

Halloween

We went trick-or-treating for the first time ever this year. M thought it was the greatest thing ever. She especially liked it when the candy-givers just held out the bowl for her, not minding that she took fistfulls of their candy at a time. A was getting the hang of it by the end of the evening too. Although, she was most concerned about one yellow lollipop she had received early in the evening. She kept putting it back in her basket, but each time after she got new candy, she'd stop, set her basket down, and search for that one yellow lollipop, carrying it to the next house where the cycle would begin all over again.

Our girls enjoyed trick-or-treating with their three little kitten friends.

Welcome to our home!

Here are some pictures of our place. The walls were stark white when we moved in. We've just finished painting the main floor, except for the powder bath. If you opened the white door pictured above, you'd be walking into the powder bath. Just to the right of that white door are stairs which lead to the second floor where we all sleep. For those of you who have been to our home in CO, you should notice some striking similarities to our new place!

To the left of the kitchen, you see our family room. For now, this is the room that the girls can play in and put some of their larger toys. We also play the piano and store our books in this room.

I love my kitchen! I think it is my favorite part of the whole house.

This is the courtyard. To the right of the window is the back door which enters into our kitchen. The garage door is not pictured, but opens on the left side of the photo.

October

Well, we've been in our townhome for two months now. It was so fun to get all of our stuff back! (We had been living temporarily without many of our personal belongings for about 7 months.) As I unpacked our boxes, I kept telling David, "Wow, we have really nice stuff! Look at these beautiful dishes! I love all these colors and textures and patterns!" It is so fun to have our own home again and be able to paint colors on the walls, decorate, and have all the things that make our home feel like "home." What a blessing!

We really love our townhome. It is just the perfect size for our family. We even have a little courtyard that is fenced in, private and totally safe for the girls to play in. We really don't miss yardwork at all, something we never enjoyed very much. I am hoping to try my hand at some container gardening--maybe tomatoes and green onions. I've heard that fall is like Springtime "up North," so right now is a good time to plant a garden.

The girls have also been making friends. There are two other families who live just down the street with little girls too. Our girls really enjoy playing with them. They are a blessing to us. Just across the street from our front door, will be a great "open space" complete with a pool, playground, grassy area, and basketball court. Currently the playground is surrounded by dirt, so every time we go to play there, (which is not very often!) the girls come back looking like little chimney sweeps. It will be a great place to play once the sod is down.

Here are some pictures from the past few months, starting with the most recent ones.















We went to the "pumpkin patch" last weekend with some friends. I think the temperature reached a record high somewhere in the 90's. It was somewhat of a shock to be wearing summer clothes, and sweating while looking through a pile of exorbitantly priced pre-picked pumpkins .

Here's M at Lake Eola. It's a pretty lake with nice landscaping and a walking path around it. We hear it's a popular place to stroll around. We went there for A's birthday a few months ago.

Below: Lake Eola and Annalise on the new tricycle she got for her birthday, cheesy smile and all!

This is M on her first day of preschool. She was excited to wear her favorite whale dress--I think she wore it everyday for the first two weeks of class.

The girls

M and A are becoming great friends! They will often disappear into the bedroom to play Sesame Street on the computer together. Another of their new favorite games is to play "house" underneath our dining table. They get blankets and "sleep" in their new "house." (We like that game--it's very quiet.) A few weeks ago, when M attended Veggie Tales day camp all week, A frequently asked, "Where Ma-nee go?" She really missed her big sister.

A recently got a new haiirstyle--pigtails! Since she hasn't had a haircut yet, it helps her to be able to see without having to constantly

push the hair from out of her eyes. A turns two in just a few weeks! When we talk about her birthday party, she makes sure to remind us of a very important fact, "No like cake!" On her first birthday, she refused to even try a bite of the cake I made, and cried when she got frosting on her hands. She may be the girl who never gets a birthday cake! We're planning on a big cookie in lieu of a cake.

The photo to the left was taken in Galveston. It was the girls first trip to the ocean. Our family loves the water, and we spend lots of time at the swimming pool. The girls are so brown they are beginning to look like little natives. Thanks for visiting our blog. We'll try to keep it updated after we move to O-town!