1st Tball game, and so it begins :)

I have played ball for about as long as I can remember, so getting Ryan ready for his very first game was an amazing experience to say the least! Angel is assistant coaching the team, seeing my boys out on the field together is something special for me, beyond words :) It was soooo hot, but we just slapped on the sunblock, grabbed our gatorade and headed out!

It is so cool to see how close these two are, I didn't even tell them to hold hands :) Oh, and yes that is a #8 that Ryan is sporting, a legacy around here!!

His first hit of the season, he even ran around the bases in the right direction!! Something funny though, a little boy on the other team hit the ball, then proceeded to field it himself! Good times!!

"Ready" position!!

The "not ready" position, LOL....hey it was hot okay!?

Tball

Ryan is a St Louis Cardinal!! Only fitting that his t-ball team is named after the World Champs :) We've had a total of 3 practices so far, and he is loving it!! Opening day is March 3rd....more to come!!

Fireworks!!

Angel and Ryan went out while Jaina was taking a nap to stock up on fireworks to celebrate the new year! Ryan was sooooo excited, I think the spray fountains were his favorite....all show, no sound :) Jaina on the other hand was not as impressed, she totally flipped out when she saw the sparkler Ryan was holding. I think we have come to the realization that she is terrified of fire, because she had a similar reaction when we did a fire bowl a couple of weeks back! She didn't care too much for the popping sounds of the fireworks either. So we stayed inside while the guys handled the arsenal! After that we headed over to a friends house to ring in the new year at 10:00...surprised the kids made it that long. even more surprised that they still woke up at "o-dark-thirty"!! Here's to a great 2012!!

Spending Time off with Daddy

I am so grateful that Angel has a job that allows him to take time off at the holidays :) We spent most of the time hanging out around the house being bums, the boys played Mario Galaxy ALOT, we went to the playgrounds around the house, and the zoo :) We all had a great time while he was off, it was really hard to send him back to work!!

Walk through Bethlehem

It really is so easy to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas, sometimes the real "reason for the season" is forgotten. I was so excited to see this awesome, free event to put things back in perspective. A little church in Satellite Beach put on this "walk through Bethlehem", complete with donkeys, sheep and cows :) The people acting in the walk were all very authentic in their look and their speech. There were even shepards reenacting the story of the Christmas star, and the angel messengers, it was a very cool experience!

Ryan and Daddy signing their name at the Census table

Potters

The kids outside of the market

Basket Weavers

Trying out their own carpentry skills!

The manger animals!

Oh Christmas Tree

One of the Christmas traditions that we have started with the kids is that we take them to Hallmark every year to pick out a keepsake ornament. Its really neat to take them out every year and reminisce :) Then when the get older, much older, and move away from home they will have lots of ornaments to start their own family Christmas tree! This year Ryan got a Rudolph, much to our surprise we were sure he was going to pick the Phineas and Ferb, or the Alvin Chipmunk! Jaina got a Mickey/Minnie ornament!

We've always had the tree up the day after thanksgiving, but this year got postponed due to our camping trip. And then it got postponed some more due to light malfunctions :( Angel went through every single light and found the problem, viola...good as new! We cranked up the holiday tunes and trimmed, trimmed, trimmed!!

thanksgiving 2011~Bluesprings

We did something different for Thanksgiving this year, we went tent camping. Reservations for this particular campground get booked out months in advance so we were lucky that there was one spot available! This was our first time here, but have had lots of people tell us how great it is, they were right!

Who knew that there are bears in Florida, not me!
Here's the little flyer that they gave us at check in!

It looks like Jaina is deep in thought, but really she's scratching a mosquito bite! Poor thing, she has no luck with those pesky insects!

Setting up the tent with daddy while I take the pictures....I think I had the easy job!

Ryan and Jaina entertained themselves in the tent for quite a while, it was great! One thing that wasn't so great was the train that passed every couple of hours during the night blowing its whistle! Surprisingly the kids slept right through it

I never knew there was water like this in the middle of Florida, you can actually see to the bottom. Jaina and Alicia are looking for manatees on our first night

Angel enjoying some fishing time while we played on a nearby playground

Hot Dogs for Thanksgiving, awesome!

Staying warm by the campfire!

You're not allowed in the spring while the manatees are there, from Nov-March. We're going to have to go back in the Springtime to go swimming, tubing, canoeing, etc :)