Cuteness

I just wanted to share a few photos of the kids playing around the house recently. They are enjoying all of the wonderful Christmas presents they received! Ethan and his train set have now taken over my entire family room floor and Jillian is all about dress up and "pretty pretty princess" game! Ethan was very proud of the rocket he made and his had the best month ever at school studying space! Jillian was just bumped up 2 classes at her preschool and is doing great with more of a challenge! We hope your new year is starting as great as ours and I will have lots more photos in the next week or so from some very fun things we have been doing and have coming up!

Happy New Year

The kids spent New Year's Eve with their dad and enjoyed a big fireworks display in St. Pete! We then rang in our new year with a trip to visit our friends from Chicago at the Beach. The pool was heated and all 4 kids enjoyed a dip in December-only in Florida! Before heading out we took a quick run on the beach and the kids had a blast as usual even fully clothed Love pics of them enjoying the beach. Myrtle should be awesome this summer!

Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise

After Christmas Mia arranged for us to ride on a pirate ship at Clearwater Beach. The kids and adults all had so much fun! There were structured activities for the kids, including a treasure hunt, water gun fight, face painting, dancing and more! We had an amazing experience when about 14 dolphins decided to swim and play all around us! Afterwards we had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach and the kids ran around and played in the sand. Definitely a great memory we will have for years to come.

Christmas in Palm Harbor

The day after Christmas the rest of our family arrived and we spent a wonderful day at Mia and Poppy's house visiting and celebrating the holidays! First on the list, the kids enjoyed the new bounce house that I bought for Ethan and Jillian for Christmas. The cousins bounced for hours and I plan to get many miles out of this gift! We ate some wonderful food and too much of it, picked oranges off the tree, played games and Poppy's trains, took a walk with awesome glow jewelry and opened presents! It was a magical holiday for me with the kids this year and so glad to share it with the family we love!

Santa Came to Our House

We had a really nice visit on Christmas Eve at our house with Aunt Paulette, Uncle Carl, Aunt Elyse, Mia and Poppy. Afterwards the kids got into the Christmas pjs without a fight knowing Santa would not come until they were fast asleep! And when they awoke they remembered instantly and ran out to the tree with excitement! I have a few photos below and took a lot of amazing video. Ethan's big hits were his Thomas the Train set, McQueen walkie Talkies, Toy Story 3 board game, race cars, McQueen alarm clock and Geotrax pieces! Jillian's favorite were the Tangled Vanity, hair styling accessories, makeup, princess board game, wall decals and figurines and a princess movie. They loved the little things in their stockings too! Piper enjoyed her Angry Birds toy too. We had an amazing morning playing and laughing.