New Year's Eve (12/31/08)

What better way to ring in the new year than with your family. There's nothing more fun that Make Your Own Pizza Night, movies, Wii, Shirley Temples, funny hats & glasses and watching the ball drop at midnight!

Good times.

Delaney loses her first tooth

12/27/08
She couldn't be any happier.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 came with it's usual fun and excitement. Sydney planned another family party complete with a fancy meal and games.

All three girls were in the Christmas play at church again this year. Sadey reprised her role as a sheep while Delaney and Sydney swapped parts this year - Sydney was Mary and Delaney was an angel. It was another beautiful candlelight service.

We exchanged our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve which is always a huge hit with the kids. They love picking out gifts for each other and we think it's important that they focus on making other people happy so they don't get caught in the "gimme gimme" trap that is so prevalent this time of year.

Christmas morning came early - for the first time EVER! Usually we have to wake the girls up, but this year Sydney was up bright and early and full of excitement. We let them dig into their stockings while B & I tried to wake up a bit, then we passed out the gifts.

Delaney REALLY wanted the Swim to Me Puppy this year. I'm not sure WHY, but she loves it.

Sadey wanted a scooter like her big sister. I was nervous that she'd hurt herself, but she did great!

Sydney was ready for a "real" digital camera this year. She loves this one because it's PINK.

Even Lilley found something good under the tree this year!

The best thing about Christmas? Aside from it being the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, of course - was that it was WARM!

Christmas Parade (12/6/08)

Panama City's Christmas parade is HUGE. For my Indiana friends, it's like the 4th of July parade in LP. Only at night. In December. Last year it was in the 60s and fabulous. This year it was COLD! Only I didn't think about how cold it would be to sit outside for 3 hours, so I put the kids in light jackets and we headed out the door. Thank goodness we hadn't cleaned the van out in...ages...and I had some extra jackets in there!

Sadey wasn't completely thrilled with the lights and sounds of the Christmas parade. She wasn't happy, but at least she wasn't crying. Anymore.

Maybe next year she'll start to like these things.

Here's the Dairy Queen float.

In case you didn't know, DQ is kind of a new thing around here. When we first moved in, the nearest DQ was a 45 minute drive. I didn't think that was even legal! A month or so ago, a second store opened and it's only about a 30 minute drive. It's getting closer!

Here are some more floats.

The parade had the usual floats, high school bands and local celebrities and ended with the obligatory appearance of Mr. Claus.

Christmas Card Pics (11/22/08)

We love taking our Christmas picture at the beach. I promise you, we don't do it to rub salt in the wounds of all our northern family and friends. We just LOVE the beach so much that we have to take them there. We have to!

We aren't real photographers so a lot of the shots have "problems" and end up on the cutting room floor. But here are a few of the "throw aways" that I wanted to share.

Family visit

My mom, sister and niece (who all live in NW Indiana) came to visit the same night that we got back from camp. Unfortunately, I did not take many pictures while they were here! But I did get a shot of my kids trying to teach grandma how to play the Wii. She wasn't a huge fan, but she did pretty good at the runs on Wii Fit! (Please ignore the hideously ugly couch. It's finally GONE!)



And here's a shot of Beth showing off her new 'do. She and her mom snuck off for a few days and at some point they hit a salon for a spa day. Next time they visit I may have to sneak off with them.

The time went way too fast, as always, and we never did get to go to my favorite restaurant on the beach. Next time. Thanks for the visit and we look forward to seeing you guys when we head north this September. *smooches*

Camp of All Seasons (11/14 thru 11/16/08)

Just a couple of days after our first parade experience, Sydney, Delaney and I went CAMPING with the Girl Scouts at the camp outside Tallahassee. Our troop was "in charge" - which meant we had to arrive first, leave last and make sure all the meals and activities were planned for the weekend. As a reward for all that effort, we got to sleep in the lodge - which was air conditioned and bug free. Mostly.

I learned that if you ever want/need to entertain a large group of girls - just build a stage in your yard. Goofing around on that thing kept them busy and out of trouble for most of the weekend!


It was a busy weekend of scavenger hunts, camp fires, singing, crafts and your basic Girl Scouty-ness. We came home completely exhausted, but we had fun!

Veteran's Day Parade (11/11/08)

The girls marched in their first parade this year! And no Angie, I'm not counting the lame event that Sydney and Lauren did with the ballet class as a "parade." That was just sad. But I digress...
This was the big Veteran's Day Parade and it really was quite large! I think we were like the 115th group or something like that. Thankfully the weather was nice and the girls were all well-behaved and the whole event afforded a great opportunity to learn about veterans, service to our country and patriotism. Homeschool and Girl Scouts. A perfect marriage.

Awwwww. Aren't they cute?




Here's Delaney with her Daisy troop. They may be small in size, but they are HUGE on energy.

Here is most of the girls' troop posing with their leader (in the green shirt). Sydney (green vest, pig tails) and Delaney (front and center) had so much fun.


I promise that they were more organized when the parade actually began. Here they are trying to figure out where everyone is supposed to stand and practicing their Veteran's Day chant.

I don't have any pictures of Sadey, but she had the luxury of being pushed along the mile long route in her stroller while she and mommy passed out candy. Next year she'll be a Daisy and she WILL be marching :)

Tyndall Air Force Base field trip (11/13/08)

One of the coolest things about living where we do and being involved in the homeschool group we are in is that we are close to the Air Force base and actually know a few of the fighter pilots. One of them was nice (or crazy - you decide) enough, to get us onto the base so we could tour the hangers, check out the fighter jets, visit the control tower and "play" with the flight simulators. The kids had a BLAST!

Because it's an AFB, I couldn't take a lot of pictures, but I did snap a few.

Inside the cockpit of the F-22 Raptor

Delaney LOVED being inside the jets. I don't think I've ever seen her smile bigger. She says she wants to be a pilot when she grows up *eek*


This is a shot of the air field taken from the deck of the control tower. Here's your vision test...See that row of trees? Behind that is East Bay and behind THAT is another row of trees. We live just behind the other row of trees. Can you see our house? :) Seriously though, we do live just across the Bay from the AFB which means we get to see and hear a lot of jets. We LOVE it.

You can tell F-15s from F-22s by looking at the tails. I may be wrong, but I think it's the F-22s that lean while the F-15s stand up straight. I hope I got that right, but it might be the complete opposite!

Here's the family standing on the aforementioned deck of the control tower. Notice Sydney holding on to the bulding for dear life. She has developed her mother's love of high places *ugh* And look how happy B and Sadey are....

That's because Sadey hated nearly every minute of this field trip! She was so freaked out by the loud noises that she cried the whole time.

Thank goodness Dad came along so, between the two of us, we were able to keep her somewhat subdued. But poor B though! He took the day off work for the field trip under the promise of getting to try out the AF flight simulators. Sadly, we ran out of time right before it was his turn!!! He was a trooper though. No temper tantrums from Dad.