In Loving Memory...

Of Tootsie 7/1/00-12/24/12 No matter how much we emotionally and mentally prepared ourselves for this day it does not make it easy. We have known for the last year that today was coming I guess we just did not expect it to be Christmas Eve. Tootsie was born on my 17th birthday. She has been a huge part of our lives for over 12. We could not have asked for a sweeter dog. She survived a car hitting her, a fight with a bulldog, the loss of a toe and getting her face stuck on barbed wire. We believe she had a stroke yesterday that she could not recover from. She was a tough dog who loved us and our girls so much. We know that she is now enjoying God's endless pastures and ponds and nestling down into the coziest cloud she can find. We loved Tootsie, she was a part of our family. (even if her pooping all over my house drove me borderline insane! :) ) Have fun in doggie Heaven Toots and give Bella a kiss for us!

Classic

I love this picture! It is such a classic Santa picture. Addison has never feared Santa so this is our first Santa picture with tears. Ansley tried so hard to be brave and to hold back her tears and the result is priceless! We took all the grandkids to get a group picture for Guy & Reva and since Ansley was not directly touching Santa she was fine. Put her on Santa'a lap and....let the tears flow!

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. Hard to believe Christmas is only 3 days away. Sorry for the lack of updates...we have been busy with the hustle & bustle of the Christmas season! We are hosting Christmas dinner...our first...so I will let you know how that goes! Merry Merry!

Being Thankful

It is so easy to take things for granted. This Thanksgiving we have been reminded of that and have really taken a step back to look at everything in our lives we are so very grateful of. We have two beautiful daughters, we are surrounded by a loving family and great friends, we have a lovey home and Charles has a job he thoroughly enjoys. Monday, Charles received a call from his dear friend Danny who lives in Tampa. He informed Charles that his youngest daughter, Brittany was just diagnosed with stage 3 Hepatoblastoma (tumor in the liver). She is 15 months old and absolutely sweet as pie. This of course hit very close to home for Charles and I. We are so deeply saddened by this news and are praying with all of our being that Brittany fights with all she has to kick this cancer to the curb. Thinking of what they are going through and the long road ahead hurts my heart and brings tears to my eyes mutiple times a day. I am writing about this for two reasons. First, I am asking everyone I know to pray. Pray like crazy for this little bundle of love to fight! She can overcome this and she WILL. Second, is to make everyone stop and count your blessings. Brittany's mom, Vanessa, has started a "blog" that I am sharing so you remember to pray for them. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brittanybergin The Bergin's were a huge part of our support system in Tampa when Addison was sick. They visited often and Addison played with Brooke and Brianna multiple times a week. We wish were still in close proximity to them so we could do more to help. We hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We of course ate too much and enjoyed the company!

Fall Fun-Part 1

Can you believe Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving is already 3 weeks away? I recently got yelled at by the "blog police" (thanks Lynn) and rightfully so. Life in general has just kept us super busy. Charles continues to LOVE his job, his 1 yr anniversary was Oct 1st! I love that he loves his job but it takes him away from us girls a bit more than first anticipated but I feel we have finally adjusted to the new "norm" and are doing great. Addison has adjusted completely to going to school and I feel we have a done a good job making sure she realizes that this school thing is a priviledge for her to go so it makes her appreciate it and look forward to it. I am trying hard to avoid the negative school stigma in hopes that she will continue to look forward to school the older she gets. (wishful thinking I fear but I will ride this positive train as long as I can) The crafts she brings home make my heart swell with pride and love for that little sassy thing! Her biggest new accomplishment is she can write her own name, Addison not Addy, and count to 30! You go girl!!! Ansley is officially our climber. She is climbing up on anything and everything. She moves chairs halfway around the house just to see if she can make it on top of somthing. Here is a list of what I have found her on top of: kitchen counter, bathroom counters, kitchen table, coffee table, beds, her play kitchen and my all-time-favorite was her trying to climb the tower of Addison's princess castle. REALLY!? Her other new favorite thing is jumping off her play house to hang from a monkey bar. Needless to say there is no playing out back without an adult standing out there with my little acrobat. She is C-R-A-Z-Y!!! Who needs a boy when I have her? She loves catching lizards & frogs, picking her nose, tooting and climbing. Thank goodness she has beautiful blue eyes and a knock 'em dead smile or I would start to worry! Other than this fabulous climbing stage she is seriously the sweetest thing! We took the girls to SeaWorld a few weeks ago when Charles had a work thing in Orlando. The trip started off rocky so I should have been prepared for a disaster. Both girls had nasty runny noses, Ansley had begining stages of a stomach bug and they were cranky but we had our tickets purchased so no backing out. We get to SeaWorld at 11:45 not realizing Shamu was at 12 and if you didn't get there in time they locked the entrance once the show started...so we missed Shamu (OK blame mom for poor planning...I get it). We were not in the park more than 15 minutes when Ansley has a blow out. When I say blow out, I mean it! Poor thing couldn't even drink water without it going right through her. Her spirits were pretty good. Addison was perfectly happy petting and feeding the stingrays and walking through the aquarium. We did get to see one show. All in all, for the money, SeaWorld is not our favorite place. They did hit up the candy store on the way out for being very well behaved. We then go to dinner where Addison gets a Shirley-Temple with about a dozen cherries....candy, sugar, cherries, sprite, more sugar.....yes! she threw up all over her bed while sleeping. Gross I know, but she was a champ about it and that is only the 2nd time she has ever thrown up. So here we are in a hotel with one child with projectile diarrhea and the other puking. Nice!!! The rest of the weekend was enjoyable thanks to crackers and gatorade for both. My favorite line Addison said the whole weekend was on our drive home she was singing Carry Underwood "Blown Away" and she stops and says "Mommy, when am I going have a pretty voice like Carry's?" How sweet is that!!! Oh, and thank goodness she doesn't understand those lyrics! ....so much more to discuss like my amazingly beautiful perfect sweet niece Brooke, our Halloween party and trick or treating....this post long enough. Will continue later if that is OK with the "police"! :)

Summer Lovin....

Hi all. As you can see from the pictures we have had a super fun and busy summer. Our annual Keys trip was a HUGE success and Addison and Ansley both were little mermaids. We really felt comfortable this year letting her swim with us on the sidelines. She has gotten so good and strong she could even get her dive sticks off the bottom of the pool!!! Pretty impressive for a 3 year old (maybe the fact that she is the size of a 5/6 year old helps). I am happy to welcome Fall into our home and hopefully our weather very soon! Addison had her first day of school a few weeks ago and she did great. No tears on day 1...day 2 there were a few...day 3 we were all clear!!! We have a big girl who goes to school and LOVES it now! She is so cute with her book bag and sneakers on but the whole time (I mean WHOLE time) she is gone Ansley walks around the house saying "Sissy...Sissy...sissyyyyyy". It breaks my heart but also makes it sing that they are so close! The girls helped me decorate for Halloween and fall and it looks great! We are getting the itch for cool weather and will kick off the fall season with a camping trip this weekend and a trip to Sea World next weekend!!!! Will keep you posted on our first encounter with Shamu :)