Sea Turtle Rescue

Roger & Sharon truly have a passion for nature and wildlife... and it showed when they drove out to Merritt Island two days in a row during Central Florida's coldest days to help rescue over 2000 sea turtles. They are an inspiration!

On the Court

It's hard to get good pictures (on my camera anyway) of the boys' basketball games, but here are a few shots of them on the court.

Princess Breakfast with Addison

Carly was invited to her best friend Addison's birthday princess breakfast at Norway in Epcot. The girls were so happy to be together, dining on Mickey waffles, fresh fruit, muffins and orange juice. They were a little apprehensive when the princesses came around to greet them, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Addison was enamored with Ariel and I think Carly's favorite was Belle. I personally like Snow White's dress the best. Thanks Kristen & Jimmy for including us in her special morning!

Winter in Florida

We've had some record cold temperatures this winter in central Florida, with a few of our overnight temperatures bottoming out in the upper 20s. Gosh, that's actually freezing! That being said, if we know the temperature is going to dip below 32, we set the sprinklers to go off in the night so our kids can play with icicles in the morning. They also put out cups & pans of water the night before to see if they'll freeze. What fun for Florida kids!

Brrrr, 28 degrees when we woke up!

Icicles from the sprinklers

Chase with a tiny icicle

Justin & Owen with ice from the alley

Justin with a big sheet of ice from the alley

Carly & Daddy with their sheet of ice

Cutie Carly with her new hat & gloves

Honor Roll and the Dean's List

I know I'm trying to catch up on my blog posts, but I have to interject this current post before returning to early January...

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Justin for making Honor Roll again (straight A's this time), to Chase for getting the 1st grade equivalent of straight A's and to Blake for making the Dean's List at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine at UCF. You guys rock and we are so proud of you all!

Upward Basketball, Here We Come!

The boys are both playing Upward Basketball, a Christian Sports League hosted by Celebrate Church, for the first time. They were really excited when they got their reversible uniforms that they put them on every day after school! Here they are in Justin's favorite "orange" and Chase's favorite "blue", with Carly wearing Roger's coach shirt. She yelled at them "hustle" as they dribbled up and down our hallway :)

New Year's Eve

I think I will always remember this past New Year's Eve, not for how exciting it was, but for how I dragged the Erickson & us on a walking/biking tour of Celebration to visit friends at 10 pm and then made them stay awake until the midnight hour. Everyone was a good sport!

Carly fell asleep around 11:30 pm on the couch

The men after our walk/bike ride, but before fireworks

We did some fireworks, thanks to "Uncle John"

Erin & I shortly before they left to walk the few blocks home

Backyard camping

I told the boys they could each have a friend spend the night (Owen & Grant) and then proceeded to go out with my friends to the movies and left Roger "in charge". When I came home shortly after midnight, they were all still awake (except Carly) and watching a movie on the flat screen in the tent in the backyard. Dad is so cool! Here's what it looked like out there...

Christmas Day

This past Christmas was one of the most relaxing for me - free of stress, hurriedness and worry and full of joy, happiness and peace. Not exactly sure why, but I'm going to chalk it up to the Holy Spirit! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few from our day hanging out at home.

Dad & Chase checking out the new ant farm

Nami & Popi with the kids after opening gifts

Carly snuggling up with her gift from Santa at the table

Us (minus Popi) at the "Christmas dinner" table

Me & Nami wearing our casual Christmas outfits - not planned!

Christmas Eve

Here are a few photos from Christmas Eve. We went to church, had dinner on the patio of the Imperium downtown while the "snow" fell and then went to watch the choreographed Christmas lights at what our family affectionately calls the "dun, dun, duh" house.

Us after the candelight service, which of course is the boys' favorite part!

Dad messing around at dinner

The kids hanging out the car window watching the Christmas lights

Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights

Hollywood Studios Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights was the first thing we went to see at Disney since we sprung for annual passes as a family Christmas gift this year. I think they are up to over 4 million lights now, which all do a "dance" to holiday music every 10 minutes. Pretty fun & festive!

Cookie Exchange

It feels kind of silly to be posting pictures of a pre-Christmas cookie exchange in February, but it was such a nice, relaxing evening and we all look so pretty in festive Christmas colors that I had to post at least one. Thanks for hosting Kristin!!!