whats been going on

We have been pretty busy the past few weeks, I have started back to school and I am taking four classes and that is a handful!!  Mike is in the busy season and works until about 7 or 8 and so we hardly see him during the week.  Taylor and Emma are registered to play soccer which will start in March and Allen is playing flag football, I really never wanted him to play this because I feel like he won't really learn how to play football but maybe I will be wrong and he might learn more because he won't be focused on the hitting part of it, and learn the basic techniques again. 

We have been doing some pretty cool things around here so I am going to put up some pictures to show what we have been doing.  These first set is Manatee Viewing Center it is a part of the Tampa Electric company.  They have a little inlet they keep warm for the manatees in the winter. We didnt really get to see any manatees up close because it was kindof warm outside anyway but we saw some sting rays and that was neat.  Allen went on a field trip a week later and it is a little bit cooler outside and he said they saw a lot of them and could see them really good!!

That was a pretty neat little place. 
Now, last weekend we went somewhere that was really cool, but a little too adult themed.  I guess I should have paid attention when one weekend was the kids Gasperilla festivities and the next was for the adults.  But, the news was talking about it so much I figured families would be going, I was somewhat wrong.  We got out of our car and I didn't see any children. We decided since we drove down we needed to see some pirates and we wouldn't stay very long.  We walked over to the Bay to see all the boats and the pirate ship that was shooting cannons, it was awesome!!

There were tons of boats around but I think there were hundreds of pirates on this ship and they all unboarded the ship right where we were standing.  The kids thought it was great!!

He was cool, you cant see it but the guy turned to the sides' face was painted like a skeleton.  They spotted the girls out of everyone waving and screaming for the beads and I think we ended up with about 15 lbs of beads!!

After we saw the ship and got our beads we decided it was time to go. 

This weekend is Taylor's birthday! She is 7 years old and she is the smarted little girl and such a sweetheart.  She is still dealing with her "issues" but she takes her meds every night like a big girl, she is so responsible about things, and really always has been.  So yesterday we gave them a choice, to either pick out a cool toy at the toy store or get season passes to Busch Gardens.  And when I say we I mean her and Allen because his birthday will be next week so we do there birthday stuff together.  Anyway-we gave them a choice and we figured one would want a toy and the other would want season passes, Allen would want a toy and Taylor would want the passes.  We sat them down and gave them the option and Taylor picked the passes and went about her business, we had to help Allen make up his mind a little bit.  So we went to Busch Gardens yesterday and it was a great day to go minus the rain. There were hardly any people there and we didnt have to wait on anything.  The girls are still a little small to ride some of the rides but Allen could and he loved it! But about an hour after we were there it started raining and he toughed it out for a little bit but after the log flume with Mike and Allen it was over, Mike was miserable and cold and so were Taylor and Emma.  Thankfully I didnt take my camera since it rained.  I didnt bring it because it is kindof big and bulky and didnt want to have to mess with it; so when we have some family down to go with us (hint, hint) I will be able to take it and get some good photos. 
Here are some pictures of Taylor and her horse cake.  We invited their friends down the street, since we are still a little new here she didn't want to invite her whole class to a birthday party, which is ok with me! Because we got to spend the whole day with her just making sure she enjoyed her day.

Alligator!!!!

Allen has a friend that lives down the street and his dad told Mike about the Alligator that is in one of the lakes in the subdivision.  It is right on the golf course but in woods, there are peoples houses really close to these woods also, I hope they keep their animals close by!!

I zoomed in pretty close, he is pretty far away from us. He is still too close for comfort though!
There are buzzards all over the place out here, when we walk around the lake they swarm the area, here are some pics of them and the trail where we ride our bikes.

This is such a pretty place to ride our bikes!

I started school yesterday so I will be busy, busy!! I am taking four classes so I will definitely have my hands full!! Mike is working lots of hours these days, because it is busy season in the tax world, blah!!  Allen is a little behind in school and I am pretty worried about it, Alabama schools are way behind Florida schools and he is having a hard time catching up, he is in a tutoring program two days a week after school so I hope this helps!  Taylor is doing great in school and making a lot of friends but, bless her heart she is on her 9th UTI, we have had ultrasounds and other tests that are clear but now on antibiotics and we have a Urologist appointment for the 19th so I hope they can find out why she can't stay clear of this, it seems if she is not constantly on an antibiotic she has a UTI, poor little girl, but you wouldn't know it, she neve complains about it.  Emma, well, Emma is Emma she is having a blast, but when I pick her up from school she tells me what a horrible day it has been I ask her to tell me about it and she says the teachers are so mean, and I ask how is that Emma? (We all know Emma, right?) So I ask her teacher if everything is ok with her and if she is doing what she is supposed to be doing, whatever> I did tell the teacher what Emma said and I asked her if she was getting in trouble because of her behavior and she says Emma is very good and behaves and does what she is told, but loves to talk, right??? In circle time they have had to tell her to hush, many times, they decided to move her but that doesn't stop the social butterfly she would talk to anyone!! Anyway-everyone is doing well just hope that Allen can get passed the third grade here and Taylor can be well from whatever is causing this and Emma, well I just hope she can have a quiet circle time!!

Dinosaur World

Memaw got the kids passes to Dinosaur World; the kids have so many toys and really do not need anything else so Memaw (mikes mom) always likes to buy us passes to neat places close to our house.  She bought Alabama Adventure passes when we lived in Vance and Zoo passes too, they are the best!!! ANyway-here are some pictures we went the day after Christmas, it was pretty cold that day but the kids really liked it, I am thinking maybe Allen's birthday at this place, if he is not too cool (old) for that now!

Sitting at the entrance on a T-rex foot!

Funny Emma!!!

I love this picture of Taylor telling Emma about the dinosaur.

This was a really neat place to take the kids, it is right off theinterstate close to our house.  Of course Allen has always loved Dinosaurs so how could this not be perfect!!!

Christmas!!

Ok better late than never!!  Christmas was not quite the same, we didn't have family parties to go to or family coming over to see what the kids got for Christmas so that was a little sad.  The kids had a really good Christmas, trust me Mike will make sure his kids get whatever they ask for, almost Taylor hasn't gotten her horse yet but if it is on the list Mike will do whatever he can to put it under the tree. I will just put some pics up from Christmas since it was so long ago and I have forgotten a lot of details.

That picture of Emma is so funny, she did not like Ken!! Taylor wrote a letter to Santa letting him know how much she loved the elf coming to visit, it is such a sweet little note!

Christmas Break

Not much is going on we have just sat around the house during Christmas break.  The boys play outside all day long (by the boys I mean Allen and his three friends down the street).  They will come get Allen around 9 am and come in for lunch then play until it gets dark. He has so much fun.  Something funny he told Mike the other day-he asked Mike "Dad, why aren't there any presents for us this Christmas in your closet like there are all the other Chrsitmas'?" Isn't that funny!! Mike told him that his Christmas this year was moving to Florida and having a house. He will be so surpirised! I will post after Christmas what all the kids got. 

One of the many things I love about being down here are the produce stands-I really hate feeding my kids junk foods and they love fruit and even vegetables so we make a trip about twice a week, and hardly spend anything.  And there are no taxes on groceries in Florida!

Also-I love them eating on the back porch!

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Pizza Party!

Yesterday was the kids; last day of school before there Christmas break.  Emma had a pajama party at school and watched the Polar Express and swapped book presents; she brought Tangled to give to someone.  Taylor had her Christmas party and made gingerbread houses.

Allen had a party and they didn't swap any presents.  They made their teachers chocolate chip cookies and fudge and gave them dry erase markers with it.  It was a practical present but they were excited to give the teachers something.  I didn't get to go to any of their parties to take pictures because I had to take advantage of free time, two days three hours each, thats all I had for Christmas shopping.

Friday nights are our pizza and a movie night and before I went to the store I talked to Jenny for a bit, and remembered Allen always talked about making his own pizza at her house so I thought we would do it.  We made the pizza's, they were huge and after the first slice the kids were stuffed.  We watched Disney's A Christmas Carol and The last Airbender.

 

 They had so much fun making their own pizza and watching the movie. 

Mike really likes his job, he does think it is boring but he says he is "big time" now haha! Last night he was walking down the street in Tampa and carrying our Alabama flag that we put up every game day; he was taking it to a diversity thing they had at his company (KPMG).  He said when he walked down the street people were gator chomping him, one (smart) person yelled out a Roll Tide to him but mainly he was heckled by the Florida fans! He thought that was hilarious.

It is going to be sad not seeing everyone during Christmas this year, I think the saddest part will not be able to see Mandi and Bo's sweet little Trey and Finley when they are born.  I know they are so excited about having those two sweet little babies.  What an awesome Christmas present!

Everybody have a safe and happy Christmas! 

Christmas in Florida

It has been so crazy the past two weeks it has taken us a while to get our tree so thats what we did Friday.  I heard about the Christmas stroll in the historic downtown area of Plant City so we took the kids and walked around the town.  It was so neat.  There were carolers singing, it looked just like a Norman Rockwell picture or something, I have never seen real live carolers walking around singing like that. 

The kids loved the lights, the middle of the town is a park and sitting area and it was decorated with tons of lights, it was really pretty.  We left there and went to get the tree and went home to decorate it.  People in our neighborhood probably thought we didn't celebrated, because this place has been lit up practically since we moved in, everyone has lights outside or some kind of decoration. 

Last night, Saturday, we went to Celebration, Florida.  It was a really awesome little town.  They had ice skating, horse carriage, train rides and a concert with some disney bands.  We walked around the place and took pictures and listened to the music. We went in to a cute little kids boutique and got the kids all lollipops.  It was a great night, too bad we had to miss the Taylor family Christmas party, we thought of everyone and miss everybody so much!