Drawing with Chalk

Growing up

Christmas In Daytona

For Christmas this year we went to warm and mostly sunny Daytona Beach, FL! For a Christmas present my wonderful mother in law flew us and all of Jakes brothers and wives/girlfriends down to Florida. I doesnt happen very often for all of us to get together and I dont think it has ever happened that we all have spent so much time together. It was soo much fun. Our hotel was right on the beach so of course, first day we went and took Nelle to play in the ocean dispite the wind and 68 degree weather. The water was FREEZING but once you actually got in it wasnt to bad. I think the reason being that you were mostly frozen. :) None the less it was awesome for Nelle to play in the sand on the beach and play in the shallow part of the ocean. Nana, Nelle, Gabe and Grant all built sand castles...kinda..it was more like sand blobs and sand holes but thats not the point. We only ended up at the beach 2 days of our 6 day vacation but luckly the 2nd day was a warm and sunny 75 degree ish day. That day at the beach you could actually bare to get in to the water and Jake and I went boogie boarding. Soo much fun even though I got pretty beat up. We went and explored Daytona Beach and found a Krystals burgers which I remember from being a kid and it was YUMMY..and we also came across a cuban sandwich shop only after asking like 5 cab drivers.

Then for Christmas day, we went to Seaworld in Orlando. It was a little sprinkly that day but it didnt bother us, less people and we still know how to have fun in the rain. We saw Shamu and a dolphin show, which Nelle LOVED! During the Shamu show she kept pointing and laughing saying "Shamu Shamu." She saw sharks and penguins and alligators and even pet a sting ray.

Really tho probley the best part of the trip was getting to watch Nelle and her cousin Gabe play together. Even at the day care I work at she doenst get along with kids like that. Anytime they were apart she would be asking where Gabe was and when they were together they were inseperable. They held hands when we went places and she copied him and then sometimes it would switch and he would copy her. It was just adorable. Overall, Great Christmas and we cant wait for the next vacation!!

Santa Run 2009

Over Thanksgiving I planned to do my 1st 5K. Probley the best part of the whole thing was that my brother was gonna be visiting and wanted to do it with me. He ran the whole thing with me..even stayed by my side when I had to stop. We finished in at 30 minutes and 6 seconds!!! Not to shabby for my 1st 5k if I may say :) It was so much fun and so rewarding. Thank you everyone who was there to root us on!!

They had milk and cookie stops..of course Derrick is eating a cookie in this pic! LOL

Playing in the nose (or snow)

Nelle's word for snow is nose..hince the title to to this post. The other night we got quite a bit snow so we bundled Nelle up in her winter clothes and let her run and play outside. She loved it!!

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween I decided to have all of us dress up with a greek theme. I was a greek goddess, Jake was Hercules and Nelle was our greek princess. Mimi Eldredge and I made her costume and it turned out perfect, she looked so cute! We went out trick or treating at 7 around our neighborhood. Nelle didn't quite understand until after we had hit a few houses but then it was like she was a pro. She knew to walk up to every door and knock then grab a piece of candy out of the bowl and put it in her bag. She is a little hustler tho. At some houses the people would drop a piece in her bag then she would reach up and take another one. She came home with enough candy to keep her on a sugar high for a year!

GRRRRR