Christmas time is here again...

I thought I would grab some pictures of the house during the holidays.

First, I want to share my collection of Department 56 homes. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to create a village. They came to life in my imagination as a child, and I promised myself I would have one when I "grew up." I started collecting them the year Jeff and I were married, and now it's become quite the collection.

My Dad built a table last holiday season, and we re-built it for this one. I can probably sneak in a few more houses, but then we're going to have to go to plan B.

Down the "street" one direction. Note the church in the very back. It's one of my favorites.
Down the "street" the other direction.

The Christmas tree lot.

I love this little nativity that lights up. Stockings, but no fireplace.
The new centerpiece I made this year.
Bells and the lighted garland in the background.
The tree, so much more brilliant at night.
The Christmas toy collection. I buy the kids one or two new pieces every year. Then we bring out the old stuff to. The kids love playing with their "new" toys each year. The funny thing is...I bought Janna these Peekablocks before JR was even born. This year, JR discovered them and spent 30 minutes looking inside and studying. I would have thought they were too juvenile and "boring." Shows you what I know!

St, Augustine Night of Lights.

Night of Lights is an annual event in St Augustine the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Basically, at a given time, with much fanfare, the light up downtown St. Augustine. We tried to grab a few pictures.

The kids and their Mommy....Note what I get....And Jeff gets perfect smiles and a nearly frame worthy photo. Family picture try one...everyone is weird, except for JR.


Family Photo number two...everyone looks great.....except for JR.
Me and my boys.

Christmas Card Preview.

And then it all fell apart...

The anniversary tradition continues...

6 years November 2nd.

Happy Halloween!

I'll tell you what - as someone who is a self-described Halloween hater, we sure did it up this year.

A week before Halloween, there was a trunk or treat at our church. For those unfamiliar with this type of activity, it's where people decorate their trunks and welcome trick or treaters in a safe environment.

Jeff by our trunk.

The cute fireman I live with. Also the one who wouldn't stand still to get a picture for anything. Pretty, pretty princess. I think I did a good re-creation of the hair (I paid attention at the Bippity Boppity Boutique.)

The fun part - trick or treating. This is actually our pastors wife and daughter, Olivia. Olivia sits for us sometimes, and the kids just LOVE her. We also found out that Daddy sucks at pie-eating contests. Real bad. I'm not surprised. Wait until you see the Pumpkin carving. Sometime later, we did pumpkin carvings and caramel apples. Yum! The caramel apples actually didn't turn out. But the kids had fun unwrapping the caramels!
I LOVE this picture. The look of utter disdain on Jeff's face is priceless. He hated the "guts" part.
The kids were more interested in the tape we used for the templates than the actual carving.
Jeff's pumpkin.
My pumpkin.
Okay, now we're actually to Halloween.

The kids, namely JR, were CRANKY as all get out. We were supposed to go see a friend, but that didn't so much work out. The kids were nutty, and I just didn't think they would last. And, JR pretty much didn't. After a jaunt at our local Publix (they put on a great in-store program for trick or treaters), we went out in our neighborhood. We only had to stop a dozen times for JR who didn't totally understand the point of trick or treating. Whatever. Hopefully next year will go better. On a good note, Janna showed that she could be exceptionally patient for her younger brother - who was probably making her a little nutty.

Swimming Lessons

Down below, there is a video of Janna's swimming lessons. Months later, I finally get around to posting pictures of the same day.

Swimming on her water noodle.
Near her classmate. The blondie in the middle is our Janna. The little boy in view is Tommy, a friend from school.
I love this picture. It looks like he's contemplating world domination. Or, maybe just the kiddie pool.
Swimming lessons are done until the weather gets warmer. We had the option of extending them four more lessons (we wrapped up in early November) - but skin and bones can't take the colder temperatures. What on EARTH is she going to do when we move to Portland?