Life's a beach...

Saturday was our first day at the beach this year. I don't think there has ever been such PERFECT weather. 80 degrees with that fabulous ocean breeze and lots of sunshine! There are definitely many reasons we'd like to be living in Arkansas rather than Florida right now - friends, family, etc... but the weather is not one of them. January, February, and March weather here has been awesome. Okay, okay, I'll stop raving about weather and get this cutie below...

Carson had a blast! He made a few friends while we were there and could have cared less about what we were doing. I think I'm starting to see a little friends-with-everyone-he-meets personality developing. If you know my baby brother or PaPaw, you know he comes by it honestly. Thankfully, I can't think of two better people to be like.

Sydney and Haley had fun just being goofballs, as usual.

Saturday night we went to our friends the Calvo's house. Carson and Elena played together while the girls did Just Dance 2. Of course, a fun evening is never complete without one of Carson's "terrified" fits. In case you're unaware, he is scared to death of squirrels, raccoons, and any other similar animal. No traumatic experience to explain it, just scared. A toy ball with a fake squirrels tail (I know you've all seen them in Cracker Barrel) surfaced in the toy box. We heard the all too familiar scream and knew it was Carson afraid of something. Cam was sitting outside with the guys when one said, "Uh oh. Sounds like someones hurt." Cam quickly informed them that was not the hurt cry, it's the terrified cry. While I'm making my son out to be quite the sissy, let me just add that the child would jump off the roof. No fear there, just small furry animals. Despite him begging me not to touch it, I got it out of the room and hidden. We have since answered a gazillion "why?" questions surrounding the squirrel toy.

How cute is this...

And here's those goofy girls again...

Great 4 day weekend!

Relieved...

I am so relieved to finally have the blog updated. My mom had been hounding me to get some new pictures up. I really don't know how working moms keep up with their blogs. Hopefully I'll do better, at least for a little while. ;) Here are a few random pics I thought I'd throw in.

I hope you've enjoyed the updates, Mom. I love you!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

ESPN the Weekend

We met some friends for a weekend in Orlando the beginning of March. It was ESPN the Weekend at Disney. A couple of them were running the 5K early Saturday morning so we decided to sign the kids up for the kid run. Carson was beyond excited and woke up that morning asking if it was time to race. It was so fun to watch him running so seriously. He was very excited about getting a medal from a cheerleader...made his daddy proud.

Carson and Gabriella ready for their race.

Showing off his medal and "refueling" after the race.

Syd seeing how she measures up to Dwight Howard. Got a little ways to go.

Her dream job! Look out Erin Andrews...

Cam and I got to watch a taping of Stump the Schwab with Jason Witten, Roddy White, and Ron Jaworski. It was pretty funny and Cam - the Cowboy fan - loved getting to see Jason Witten. Fun weekend!

February

The weather in February was gorgeous!! Most days were 70-75 degrees and sunny. Perfect! We had a lot going on this month. Sydney's dance team performed at the Florida State Fair. Yes, you read that right, fair in February - weird.

Sydney and Haley after their performance.

If your still thinking about how weird it is to have a fair in February, check this out...

That's a giraffe - at the FAIR!
I have never seen a giraffe anywhere but the zoo. Again, weird.

We also went to Plant City with friends for a humongous strawberry shortcake. You can't go to Parksdale Farms without a picture in the strawberry chair.

We picked up a few fresh fruits and veggies for the week, too. All this for only $20. Take my word for it, these huge strawberries were great when dipped in chocolate for Valentine's Day.

We had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen and hit up Build A Bear.

Sydney is an old pro at Build A Bear. Her Lolli spoiled her with more than her fair share of them when she was little. This was Carson's first time and he loved it!

He named his bear Yogi, very original huh?

We had a fun night with some other friends one weekend in February.

The big girls were great entrainment for the little ones. Sydney and Haley trying to teach them to play duck duck goose was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. They settled on choo-choo training around the house.

I just threw this next picture in because I love it!

My sweet little Sydney looks so beautiful and grown up. tear.

January 2011

We got home from Arkansas early afternoon of New Year's Eve. We decided to ring in the new year relaxing at home. We played some Wii and watched the ball drop in Times Square, then headed to bed shortly after. We were all pretty worn out from the trip home and needed a weekend of rest before getting back to school and work.

The following weekend we went to Disney again for our friend Gabriella's 4th birthday party. After the party we all ate at the Rainforest Cafe and watched Carson have a complete meltdown. He is very weird about loud noises (ex: auto flush and hand dryers in public restrooms freak him out) and did not like the fake thunderstorms. He was also terrified of the Gorillas sitting right behind us that moved and made noises every 15 minutes. No amount of reassuring him that they were not real would do. Needless to say we've had better dining out experiences. We spent the rest of the day at the Magic Kingdom with Bryan, Denise, and Gabriella. Here are a few pictures from our day...

Syd and Gabriella are big buddies. She loves being the cool, "big" girl.

Of course, we can't pass a Buzz Lightyear statue without a picture.

The rest of January was pretty uneventful. School and work kept us super busy, so our weekends were used for lots of relaxing.

December 2010

Sydney turned 10!! As I say every year, I can't believe she's that old! She has already caught me shoe size and will pass me any day now in height. She is such a sweet girl, and I'm so thankful God blessed me with her a decade ago.

We had a fun dinner at Cheesecake Factory with her friend Hayley, then spent the rest of the weekend at Disney. We also got to see the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights while we were there. It was FABULOUS!

Syd and Haley cheesin' for some cheesecake

The birthday girl!

Carson was obsessed with toy soldiers. He got a bag of them for Christmas, but most have since bit the dust by way of someone's shoe. I think I actually stepped on the last one this afternoon. Good thing we've moved on to new fascinations.

Waiting for our favorite ride, "Toy Story 3"

Meeting Lotso

Carson's preschool class had a fun Christmas party. They sang songs and exchanged gifts, and (as evident from the picture below) ate way too much sugar.

We spent the first Friday night and Saturday of our Christmas break driving HOME!! It was so nice to spend 2 weeks in Arkansas. It was the first time we'd been back since the move. The kids were fabulous in the car, but the trip was very l-o-n-g! I spent more time visiting than taking pictures but here are a couple of favs.

I was so glad these boys got to spend a lot of time together.

They had so much fun - including PaPaw!

Just loved this picture of two of my favorite guys!

*Sydney wasn't still enough for many pictures, as she was bouncing around from house to house spending time with everyone in De Queen, Nashville, and Little Rock.*

We enjoyed getting to go back to our old church - Parkway Place - and having lunch some great friends. We also got to meet Miss Aubrey and hang out with Jarrod, Anna Carol, and Mason. As for family, we spent most of our time bouncing around SW Arkansas to spend time with everyone and loved every minute of it. We love you guys! My friends Jessa and Lacey came by, too. I love having friends like them...we may not talk for months but when we finally do, it's like we never missed a day. We stayed one more night in LR before heading home and got to have dinner with Mark, Kristin, and Zoey. She had grown so much and it was great to catch up. We were also glad to have a little extra time at Ryan, Ashley, and Davo's house. Next time we see them I'll be an aunt again!

We miss you all and can't wait for the next visit home!

Mimi's Visit

We counted down the days for almost 2 months until Mimi came to visit!! Carson would ask every few days, "Are we going to the airport to get my grandma today?" I finally told him last Friday night that he only had to sleep one more time and his grandma would be here. He got up on Saturday morning, ran into our room, and said, "I took one more sleep, I didn't have a bad dream, and my grandma's coming today!" It was precious. When we saw her at the airport, he and Sydney were so excited!! We decided to spend the afternoon at Disney and had a great time. Mimi and the kids rode the tea cups, we saw all the Christmas decorations at the Magic Kingdom, and the kids got to meet Pluto...fun day!!

I can't believe how tall this girl has gotten!!

When they walked up to meet Pluto, Carson said, "Hey little guy!" I don't guess he noticed that Pluto was twice his size. You never know what that little booger will say. ;)

During Mom's visit, we also went to Ikea, Mazzaro's Italian Market (fabulous!!), and the outlet mall for a little Christmas shopping. Can't to see her and everyone else in Arkansas soon!!

Fabulous Find

Our neighborhood had a community garage sale a couple weekends ago. While Cam and Carson manned our stuff, Syd and I drove around looking for any bargains. I found some iron patio furniture for $20.00. It was pretty chipped but was well made so I snatched it up. Cameron sanded it and sprayed it with a couple coats of paint and...

it turned out great! I love garage sales!!

Beautiful Weather

The Saturday before Halloween was beautiful down here! We decided to take advantage of the weather and let the kids run around at the beach for a little while, then had seafood at our favorite place across the street. Sydney loves crab legs and is finally figuring out how to crack them herself. :)

It cracks me up that every time Sydney squats down to be near Carson for a picture, he does too!

They had so much fun pretending to be birds to chase the real ones away...

and playing hide and seek in the tall grass.

Carson kept wanting to yell, "Boo!" when I took their picture, so Sydney played along.

Magic vs. Heat

Back in July we bought tickets to take the kids to watch the Magic vs. Heat in a preseason game. They were playing at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. Sydney was so excited!! October 22nd finally came and we headed to the game...Syd with her Lebron James shirt and all.

We didn't get sat down good until this announcement was displayed and read over the loud speaker...

Apparently there was a problem with the floor and the game had to be cancelled. The kids were so disappointed - me too since I had just paid $15.00 to park! Hopefully we can catch a game in Orlando later this year.

ALDS Game 5

Cameron's boss gave him 2 tickets to game 5 of the American League Divisional Series last night, and we had a great time. Luckily, I was able to find a baby-sitter who was willing to hang out at our house (on a week night) until midnight. And even better, they loved her!

It was nice to have a little time with just the two of us, not to mention we both love baseball. Our seats were fabulous...11 rows behind the Rangers dugout. Tropicana Field was packed!

Thankfully we aren't die hard Rays fans. Don't get me wrong, we would have loved to watch them win since they're now our "home team," but were silently rooting for Cliff Lee-the Arkansas boy. I also think Josh Hamilton has a great story and was glad see him win.

Here are a few pics from the game...

Evan Longoria
Cliff Lee

Josh Hamilton

I thought it was awesome that the Rangers celebrated with Ginger Ale instead of Champagne after their win so that Josh Hamilton could join them without being around alcohol. Hope they can upset the Yankees in this next series!

Kitchen Renovations

I'm kicking myself for not taking more "before" pictures of our kitchen. (I know Lolli, you said to be sure and take pictures before we started making changes). I do have a picture of the kitchen from the house listing before we had anything done. We didn't do a ton...just new appliances, backsplash, and hardware on the cabinets. We really don't like the cabinets at all, but it's such a big expense-they'll work. We love how it turned out and are really enjoying the house and neighborhood.

BEFORE

AFTER

Florida Gators

I can hear Cameron in the living room watching the Florida Gators get destroyed by Alabama (boo!), and it reminded me that I forgot to add pictures of the alligators at Busch Gardens. They were HUGE!! Scary because they are everywhere down here. I'm sure we'll be seeing more and more of them as the weather cools off. Hopefully the ones we see won't be quite this big. There was a baby gator that lived in the pond by the townhouse we rented when we first moved down. That's more my size! :)

Check these guys (or girls) out. The pictures really don't do them justice.

Yikes!

Busch Gardens

We've been so jealous of all the fabulous weather comments from Arkansas lately. Of course we miss our family and friends back home, but we're also missing Fall. Luckily, it's beginning to cool off a little in Florida. I'm not sure if it's really that much cooler or just less humid...much nicer either way. We decided to take advantage of a gorgeous day with no Razorback football to have a heart attack over and took the kids to Busch Gardens. We had a great time!

I love how close these two are. Don't get me wrong...they can fight with the best of 'em. I remember lots of fights with my brothers and I love them tons (yes Ryan, you included). Sydney is so sweet to him, and Carson wants nothing more than to be just like her. I love it!
Sydney and I loved all the animal shrubs. I think we took her picture in front of all of them. We thought this kangaroo was especially cute with the baby in its pouch.
As you've seen from previous posts, Carson is obsessed with Spider-man. He had his face painted today and loved looking like his favorite superhero. I was amazed that he sat still enough for the lady to paint it. He almost feel asleep!

Carson was "terrified"(if you know him very well I'm sure you can hear him saying, "I was terrified!") of Big Bird. He did want to meet Burt and Ernie, but only with his sissy. She's a trooper because I know she could have cared less about the Sesame Street characters.

Carson and his daddy waiting on the train.

Sydney "monkey-ing" around.

The animals were fabulous! We took a train ride around the park and saw everything from giraffes to flamingos. They were so close, and there were several of each animal. Carson's preschool class has been studying about animals from around the world the last couple of weeks so he loved this. He's been telling us if the animals live in hot or cold places, how they walk, what colors they are, and what they sound like. He's a sponge at school!

I hope you all had a great Saturday, too!