100 days!

We celebrated 100 days of school this past Thursday!

We started off with "100" Pancakes. Then we headed to the park after lunch to enjoy the beautiful weather. (We were glad the temperatures were in the 70's and not the 100's!!)

Maddie and Sam were very proud of the fact that they had mastered this jungle gym since it had given them problems last summer. Megan was very proud that she could walk up this ramp...and she did it about 100 times.

When we got back to the house we worked on a special Valentine craft which will remain a secret ;-) On the first day of school I can remember looking ahead in the kids books and thinking "I don't know how they will be doing these things by the end of the year!" But they have worked hard. Sam is reading simple words and knows all of his numbers up to 14. Maddie is adding 2 digit numbers and read me "The Little Red Hen" this week. I'm amazed at how fast they learn! It was a good day and I for one am very excited 100 days are behind us!

Reading

After I put Megan to bed I came downstairs and found Maddie reading a book to Sam! She was helping him sound out some of the words.

They really can be sweet, when they want to be :-)

Big Girl

Who is this big girl doing puzzles.....Running around....And getting into everything? Oh! That's my baby Megan...

3 Day Weekend

We enjoyed having Daddy home for a three day weekend!

We made tents in the living room to have picnic's in and a camp out.We went to Pier park to shop and stopped to enjoy a Carousel ride.We enjoyed the lovely weather and pretended to be secret agents on an important mission.We let Megan ride the four wheeler for the first time and she LOVED it!And when it was all over and the rides stopped, we cried because the next day brought back the reality of school and work!

Sam said "I wish everyday was a holiday!" Oh what a life that would be ;-)

Prayers Answered

God answered two prayers for the kids while we were home.

1. We didn't get sick

2. It snowed!

First Hunt

Sam has been obsessed for the past few years with hunting. His uncles have fed this hunger at times by giving him various items such as "Monster Buck" DVD's, and Whitetail magazines. (where he has learned all sorts of hunting terms "The trajectory of my arrow isn't right momma- I need new feathers!" and "I wish you could take me to East Texas....that is where the big bucks are!") He loves to talk Huntin' with his Uncle Matt and even received a real bow and arrow set for his last birthday. He received some money for Christmas and headed straight to Wal-Mart with Papa to get some proper hunting clothes for the big squirrel hunt that Papa was hosting for the grandsons. He was very proud to head out into the woods with his Daddy in pursuit of his first kill. (Daddy of course had the gun) As it is with many hunts all they killed was time. But they made some good memories and now he is officially a hunter!

Holidays and Home

We had fun celebrating the Holiday's .

We got lots of love from our family here. We showed off our Gator Pride.We smiled huge because the big gift was for us!We got lots of hugs from our Grandma's and sang lots of songs on our Christmas Eve hay ride.We played games. We cooked and ate and cooked and ate!
We caught up with old friends and laughed till our sides hurt!

We played with our cousins.We made memories with our brothers.

And we hunted Easter Eggs on New Years day in a barn.

Precious memories to cherish forever!

Our Christmas

The kids had a blast celebrating Christmas at home....and so did Troy and I! It was nice and relaxing. Sam woke up first and ran straight to our room....he said "I didn't look under the tree, I want to wait on Maddie!" So sweet! He did check out the stockings and was excited to get a Florida Gator Santa hat he had been wanting from Hobby Lobby. Both the kids had outgrown their bikes and so they got new ones under the tree. Maddie had made homemade gifts for all of us and had lots of fun passing them out.Here is a look at the "after" mess....

Megan took it all in and enjoyed pulling new sippy cups, socks and a talking cell phone out of her stocking. (If Troy looks sick in this picture, he was!)

Maddie got a bath robe (just like Mimi!) and some fun gloves.

It was a fun time! After breakfast we took the kids over to Don and Mary's and took Daddy to the immediate care clinic for a bad cough and fever. We got him some meds and he was able to take the kids on their first bike ride on the road while Megan napped and Mommy cleaned up.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, watching new movies and playing new games. Can't believe how big they are getting!