Florida

We've been at the beach for a week. We got here Christmas night and we are leaving New Years Evening. We didn't really do anything, just walked the beach and watched movies. It's been really nice. We discovered we have a roach infestation so I got an exterminator to come out. He's going to come back on Monday before our renters come and do multiple "baiting" until he's got these nasty German roaches gone.

It was 62 outside and the pool was 52 so Don and Sean decided to jump in.

 

Christmas

We left for Florida Christmas morning so we had everyone over on the 23rd for dinner. All of AJ's kids have been sick so Alika and David and there families came over first and then when Birdie had left AJ and his kids came over. There is really bad RSV this season so we are trying to keep Birdie from catching anything.

Connor has removed all the ornaments he can reach from his tree at home but he hasn't taken any of mine down he just looks at them.

Holly is in to everything

 

Birthdays

I haven't done a great job of taking pictures this month. We've had a lot of snow so far this year.

It was really snowy on my birthday so we went to Texas Roadhouse so no one had to drive far.

All my pictures are of the dog!!

 

Holly Jolly Christmas

I'd been thinking about getting a small dog for awhile and last month when I was watching AJ's dogs I decided I wanted a yorkie. I bought myself an early birthday/Christmas present. Little Holly Jolly! The breeder we bought her from said there were 4 types of people who bought his dogs. People who wanted to resell them and make money, people who want to breed the, people with little kids and "old, I mean retired people" he said. Hmm, wonder which one he thought I was.

Catherine said I'm going to become one of those ladies carrying her dog around in a purse or pushing it in a stroller. Yep, that's me.

She loves children and babies. She really likes to chase Connor and knock him over. Connor likes to run from her but when she catches him and knocks him over he gets mad and starts smacking her which she thinks is fun. They seriously get into a toddler smack down fight. She kind of looks like a little police dog taking someone down. Only the police dog is 3 pounds and the person she's chasing is 25.

She likes snuggling up to Birdie too.

She ate two library books which I now own.

 

I took her to Margaret's sister who is now her vet.

Ginger is not doing well and on the way from picking the puppy up we had to run over to Ginger's house so she got an early meet and greet.

Strange teenagers

Sean and his plethora of friends decided they were going to buzz their heads. No other parent was willing to let 10+ teenagers in their house with clippers so they came to our house. They had an entire bag of hair. It reminded me of Alex and his friends dyeing their hair blonde in the night.

Very silly teenagers

 

Skating in Vegas

 

Skating is HARD and Even the best skaters have off days. Khloe is a rock star who practices for hours and hours to be a champion skater. The Vegas competition was the first time she’s fallen during a performance since she was 4. She had a block and forgot the program she has spent at least 100 hours practicing but she stayed with it and did all her required skills and still placed third. She was so disappointed that she forgot something she has done perfectly a hundred times. She was standing next to Don quietly crying and a teenage skater that none of us knew came over and gave her the sweetest pep talk. I’m so proud of these girls and the kindness of the other skaters. Vally didn’t skate in Vegas and Connor did not play the slots.

While she was standing next to Don being sad a lady came over and asked if she was Khloe and said "come with me." She then told Khloe she had placed third and she felt better. The girl who got first was amazing, I don't know who placed second. I know the last girl who skated had to have placed 6th. These girls are amazing with how much time and energy they put into skating.

Since we were driving to Vegas for a 2 minute performance we decided to leave a day early and spend the night at Brians Head. Don and Sean had never skied there. They skied in the morning and then we drove the rest of the way to Vegas that afternoon.

Little Baby Bird and a bunch of Big Kids

 

How cute is this little bird.

Kylie and Brie showed up at 10 pm on Friday night for an impromptu sleepover. They both have their drivers license. Again, how did this happen? They are all grown up. Kylie will be a senior next year.

Sean is 15

How can this be? How is time going so fast and Sean is almost grown up! 

Sean hung out with his plethora of friends on his birthday but he did make time to have dinner and a cake with us.

Shoe situation when Sean's friends are here. Literally he has so many new friends I can't keep track of them. He still has the same old friends but he has a dozen new ones as well.

Halloween

 

Last Halloween in Tallahassee seems like a long time ago. The kids were pretty darn cute.

Connor loves bananas so instead of a candy I gave him a banana. Cutest baby shark ever.

 

We took Connor up to trunk or treat the other night and we saw this cute ghost car.

Sean and his friends had no plans for Halloween. They decided to go to Farmington Station and work out at the gym there. Then they came back to the house after for pizza. At 7 they decided they wanted to dress up. They had no costumes so Don took them over to the McBrides where Angela dug out a bunch of costumes and off they went. About 9 they showed up again and then watched movies. Teenagers can be so silly.