decorating

we decorated our Christmas tree today. the kids got in to the spirit.

thanks to the self timer, we even got a family picture.

our last day

a week after our vacation... i guess it's time i post about our last day in florida. we had a great time staying in san destin. it was warm enough to go to the beach every day, but not quite warm enough to get in the water.

as you can tell by laney's hair, it was very windy our last day there.

luke had fun chasing the sea gulls.

continuously chasing the sea gulls...

we visited the bass pro shop and had a quick visit with santa. luke rubbed his huge belt buckle the entire time. extremely funny! in this picture, sam is showing santa exactly what cars to get them for christmas. just like the ones on luke's shirt.

we went back to baytowne wharf that night for a nice seafood dinner.

then we told sam we'd let him go on the zip line. he was ecstatic.

shortly after that he became nervous.

i took a picture of him on the stairs. he was such a big boy! in case you want to see a better picture of it, check out my previous post 11/25. in the very last picture you'll see a tall tower. that's one side of the zip line. you ride across the water then get to ride back again. it's way up there!
thank you, philleys, for a great vacation.

11/25

Friday was Ron's birthday. We gave him a personalized turkey shirt with the kids' handprints for it's feathers. He shocked me and wore it all day...in public. He's a serious dad to do something like that. Love it!

He requested that we eat breakfast at "Another Broken Egg". Laney was posing for pictures.

Yesterday was also the first day that she has ever let me paint her nails. She chose OPI's "You Don't Know Jaques" as her first color. 5 minutes later she wanted hot pink. So she has hot pink on top of brown; it's lovely.

None of the kids napped yesterday. And they were tired of being in the condo. So I ventured off alone with them and we found "Baytowne Wharf". It was a quaint little area with a carousel, zip line, playground, shops, restaurants, and more. We're hoping to go back tonight after the Iron Bowl.

black friday shopping

christine and i went out about 10:30 thanksgiving night to hit wal mart before heading to kohl's for their midnight opening. here we are with our cups of coffee to keep us awake.

we didn't get pictures at wal mart. it was crazy. we got to kohl's around 11:40 and saw the line across the front of the store.

here we are taking a picture from where the line ended. after we turned the corner from the front of the store, the line continued down the side of the store then winded into the parking lot. crazy!
but, it was worth it. we got some awesome deals! i think i had enough fun to last me for a few years. so i'll probably avoid the next few black fridays.

vacation time

we made our way down to the beach this morning. it was luke and laney's first time to ever see a beach. shortly after we stepped on to the beach, laney was bending down to touch the sand.

it was so fun watching them experience it for the first time. it's pretty amazing! i'm not a beach person, but i appreciate the vastness of it.

i got a great picture of ron and the kids. a sweet lady took my camera and was about to take a family picture for us...

...but instead she took a picture of luke right after he fell into the water

laney has the most dainty little hands. i got a kick out of how she carried the sand in her hand so that she could throw it in the water.

we went back to the beach this afternoon and came across a gentleman finishing up an extravagant sandcastle.

laney fell in the water this afternoon. i guess that means tomorrow will be sam's turn. so after we stripped her down she enjoyed playing in the sand with only a diaper on.

sam dressed for the water, so he didn't mind getting a little wet.

we made it back to the resort, got baths, and laney got a little bit of snuggle time with pappy.

then the kids watched some of "america's funniest videos" before going to bed and cracked up! good stuff...

family pictures

My sister-in-law took some pics of us this past weekend for our Christmas cards. She just got her business license and is doing photography part-time. Check out her website if you need a good photographer but don't want to pay an enormous amount...

She took some great photos. After looking through close to 300, I decided which ones to use for our cards this year.

I just liked these pics enough to add them on to this post. This little girl cracks me up...

...and melts my heart.

making bird feeders

on our way over to the neighbor's house, laney decided to practice her balancing skills. i don't know why, i guess she was in the mood...

cannon and luke were on one side of the table

sam and ian were on the other

and laney had the end all to herself

we have three nice pinecone birdfeeders hanging outside our kitchen window. unfortunately they haven't attracted any birds yet. maybe soon...