Thanksgiving in Sunny Florida

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Morgan in her home state of sunny Florida. We rented a vacation home for the week in Bradenton, about an hour from where Morgan lives. It was hot and humid the first couple days, then it rained, and the last few days were nice and cool... nothing like the typical California weather we have come to expect this time of year. The flights to and from Florida went as scheduled and event-free thankfully, but remind me never to fly with three little kids again... it was so much work! Barry's mom went with us and without her help, I don't know what we would have done! Fischer was supposed to go with us but he got the flu, so he stayed behind with Nana and Papa. This was the first time that Morgan got to meet her grandmother and her sisters. It was a very nice week together and we look forward to seeing Morgan again next summer here in California. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to spend with Morgan for the first time as an almost-complete family. Fischer was extremely missed, but he'll be able to meet her next time.

Here's a really cute picture of Morgan with Annie:


One of the park days with Grandma:

The view from our house at 4825 Bookelia Circle in Bradenton, FL: the backyard pool and spa, the pond behind the house, and the front yard. It's so green compared to Victorville, but also much more humid.

Gracie and I helped Morgan create her very first scrapbook. It was filled with pictures from our last trip in June when Barry and I came to visit her. She beamed with pride at the finished product. Next time, we'll do a scrapbook of this visit for her to keep,

Mary and Barry slaving away over Thanksgiving dinner. It was so yummy! Turkey, yams, stuffing, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry jello, rolls... did I forget anything? Oh yeah, the pumpkin and chocolate pies. Did you know the typical Thanksgiving meal has 5,000 calories!!!! We needed to do much more than walk a mile after dinner, but that was nice too :)

Chloe was riding Donkey (from Shrek) like a horse all over the house one day. It was so cute:

On a day trip, we drove by these massive sand creations. They were so amazing. Here are a couple of them:

Another stop on the day trip was to a museum. The girls had fun on this train engine.

I think this is the only picture we got of the whole family the entire week.

Barry with Annie at Coquina Beach in Bradenton, FL.

Another stop on the day trip was to see this sculpture of "Unconditional Surrender" created after the popular photograph by Seward Johnson. It is located in Sarasota, right on the bay. Check out the size of it compared to Morgan and the buildings and cars behind it. It was 25 feet tall!

A cute picture of all the girls together:

Barry with Morgan:

Morgan let me do her very first braid. She'd never had her hair braided at all, so I did a french braid the first night after her bath, and when she woke up I took out the braid so she could have wavy hair.

The girls had a blast at the park.

Walking... no RUNNING while holding hands to get to the park.


Gracie just loved getting to know her big sister. It was so neat to watch them together. I know she will miss her so much now that we're back home. Too bad we don't live closer.

The girls sticking their feet in at the spa in our backyard. The screened-in pool was a very nice touch to keep away bugs and some UV rays (and the gators we never saw). It was such a quiet community and a really nice, big house. I could sport living there :)

This was cute. First Morgan put her hands behind her head, then Chloe copied her, so I got Daddy to do it too for a funny picture.

Family Pictures

Our friend, Maria Miles, was so gracious to take some family pictures for us at a local park a few weeks ago. These are some of my favorites. It was so hard to get everyone to smile at the same time because one of the girls wanted to cry, yawn, or sleep! This is why we don't go to the portrait studios anymore. Thank you, Maria! You have a beautiful talent! All the pictures turned out wonderfully and I'm looking forward to scrapbooking them :)

Halloween season

I love Halloween. This is my favorite time of year! I get to celebrate my birthday four days before trick-or-treating every year and it's such a blast. This year we went pumpkin hunting two weeks before Halloween and then my sister and her family came to visit for the big night out. So these pictures capture the goings-on for the past few weeks.

Every year we go to Riley's Farm in Oak Glen to get our pumpkins. This year we took Barry's mom with us. The weather was nice and warm. After we got our pumpkins, we ate their yummy BBQ sandwiches and enjoyed the peaceful scenery for the afternoon.

For Halloween, Barry and I were a bride and groom. Gracie was Dorothy, Chloe was Minnie Mouse, Annie was a ladybug, and my niece Brooke was Little Red Riding Hood. Bobby and Sara didn't dress up, and Fischer was supposed to be a refrigerator, but he was at Nana and Papa's.