Christmas with Daddy

it's Christmas!!! and look who made an appearance on the cruise...cheeky the elf!!! :) the kids were so happy that he found them. everyone got all dressed up for Christmas dinner. brooke was excited about her roy rogers coke. and scott was excited about wearing flip-flops with his reindeer outfit. haha! i love it! :)

Christmas Eve

after a day of fun in the sun, almost nothing can compare to a good dinner! here are the kiddos and tyler enjoying a Christmas Eve feast. looks delicious! the kiddos got some new necklaces while in the bahamas and they are wearing them in the pics. they were so excited about showing them off when they got home! :)

nassau

it's Christmas eve in the bahamas!!! tyler said that the atlantis resort was amazing and it looks like it according to the pics. brooke loved the lazy river and scott loved the waterslide. brooke told me that the waterslide gave her two heart attacks because it dropped and then dropped again (as you can see by the pic above). anyway, she obviously recovered from the trauma! :)

key west

as you can see, key west was filled with adventure. the one adventure that i hear about the most is the fact that brookie kissed an alligator! the alligator was two years old and even i have to admit that he is cute in the pics. :) having said that, there is no way i would kiss an alligator. scott is with me on that one....he refused to kiss it as well. :)

evening at sea

all dressed up with somewhere to go!!! here is the crew enjoying dinner...smiles all around. :)

day at sea

looks like a fun day at sea complete with lots of swimming and even some golf! i think the most exciting thing involved the tooth fairy. :) scott lost his first tooth!!! it just doesn't seem possible. he did receive 2 gold coins from the tooth fairy. he is so proud of those coins! :)

christmas cruise with daddy

tyler and the kiddos had a big time on their christmas cruise! he took brooke and scott to key west and nassau on the carnival cruise ship "fascination." brooke has not been on a cruise since she was two and scott has not been on one since he was in utero! :) so, it may as well have been their first cruise. i know that they all made many wonderful memories!!! there are so many photos that i am going to blog this like i did the disney trip. i am going to collage most of the pics. so, click on the collages to enlarge them. more to come....

attempting cousin pics...take 2!

the facial expressions above crack me up! if brooke and scott's expressions don't tell exactly how they are feeling, i don't know what does!!!

see grampi's head in the background? he was trying to help, but no such luck!

that was the best one we got...with all 4 of them smiling. :)

here's a cute one of brooke, scott and lainie

and i love this one of my two...even if santa is having some issues with his beard :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

attempting cousin pics...take 1

lainie is not fond of having her picture taken

in fact, she prefers timeout to having her picture taken! seriously! so here are 3 of the 4...

we got lainie back with the promise of a lollipop after pics were taken. emmie, however, perfers instant gratification.

here we go. emmie looks a little skeptical...like she thinks brooke or scott is going to steal her lollipop!

well, at least i got this one of my two...

the elves are here!

cheeky and eli are here...with gifts!!!

scott is so excited and brooke can't believe it...

apparently the excitement is too much for our drama queen...she's "passed out" against the doorframe

lainie and gramma come to see what all of the excitement is about

checking it all out...

cheeky has been visiting our house at christmas for a couple of years and now eli has adopted mere's family as her own. eli showed up for the first time this year to help keep santa informed of lainie and emmie's behavior. the kiddos were so excited to see what the elves had brought for them! i just love christmastime!!! it's so magical! :)

and yes...about brooke's hat. gramma bought that for her. brooke picked it out and refused to take it off. i will keep my opion of that hat to myself. all i can say is brookie has a style that is all her own. haha!

war eagle!

grampi assuming his position...

brookie all dressed up and ready...complete with lipstick

war eagle!!!

uncle michael, emmie and lainie cheering!

our lone alabama fan and the em-meister

we sure did have fun cheering on our auburn tigers! even though we lost, we played a great game against alabama. sorry bama, but if you play florida like you played us, you don't have a chance! that's just my opinion... anyway, war eagle!!! it's great to be an auburn tiger!!!

the fun we had...

a friendly game of "chicken" :)

checkers early in the morning...

working on the thanksgiving puzzle and watching a little football...

playing nintendo ds...with some fab bed-head

and emms with a little bedhead herself :)

thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving....

there was some "getting fancy"

and stuffing of the turkey...

peeling of potatoes....

playing of nintendo ds's

and even a little relaxin'....

it was a wonderful thanksgiving, indeed. mere, justin, lainie, emmie and michael met brooke, scott and me and gramma and grampi's. we had a great day with some delicious food and fabulous company. :) we are so blessed to have such a special family. i love my family so much!!! and i am so grateful to God for His abundance of blessings everyday. His mercy and love for me leave me speechless...

i am so thankful....

for days like this! sunday, we had a wonderful day. we relaxed and just spent time together. ahhh...how nice it is to just have a peaceful day! we went to church and brooke and scott had their turn with the "God box." each sunday, pastor bill gives someone the "God box" to take home and whoever gets it places something inside. pastor bill then relates that "something" to God in some way. well, brooke and scott proudly carried the box (together of course...so as to not be outdone by each other) up the aisle at children's church. scott placed his dog boomer inside and brooke put her pink reindeer inside. i did not fight them on what they chose, but did wonder how pastor bill would come up with something for that pink reindeer! i should never underestimate God, though. He had a plan, of course! pastor bill knew right away how he would tie these animals into God. the dog was good for herding sheep, of course. and that tied into the shepherds who heard the good news of Jesus's birth. that, of course, tied into the spirit of Christmas...enter the reindeer. and the reindeer was pink, which reminds us to pray for our friends who have cancer. and there you have it! :) pretty great, huh?!!!

once we got home, scott decided that he needed to build a home for boomer. so, we got a cardboard box and scott directed me on where to put the doors and windows. he wanted a ramp built inside the house. actually, he wanted stairs but i was able to convince him to settle for a cardboard ramp. whew! so, he wanted a ramp built to a door in the roof so that boomer could go out onto the rooftop and look around. he said that pops and curls have a door out onto their roof and he wanted boomer to have the same thing. i have not been to pops and curls's new house, so i just took his word for it. turns out he's right! tyler confirmed that there is indeed a door onto the roof at pops and curls's house. i was thinking to myself how smart he is and then this happened.....he wanted to be sure that his hat was on correctly and that the john deere symbol was front and center. he felt for it and asked, "where's my sign?" it reminded me of that country song that was out a few years ago. and the smart thoughts went out the window. haha!!! kidding! anyway, i put some pics of boomer's home up there in the collage for your viewing pleasure. :)

and to top it all off... mere, justin, lainie and emmie came for a quick visit on the way to gramma and grampi's. they had not seen my new house, so i was really excited to have them here to see it! we had a great time visiting. it was too short, but thankfully i get to see them over the thanksgiving holiday. i can't wait! we truly have so much to be thankful for and we are so blessed! happy thanksgiving everyone!!! :)

gillis hill farms

scott and his class went on a field trip to gillis hill farms. tyler was able to chaperone and they both had a great time! scott went to gillis hill farms last fall with his preschool class and i loved it! it's beautiful and they really do a fantastic job teaching the kiddos about living on a farm and the enormous amount of work that goes into it. i learned a lot when i went last year! i know that tyler really was impressed this year with all that they did for the kids. here are a few pics. based on those smiles, i'd say the field trip was a success!!! :)