Florida Vacation

John's parents gave us there Time Share to use this year as a Christmas gift. So on December 16 at 10:30pm we started our long drive to Florida with 3 Adults and 5 Kids. What a terrific trip we had. The best part of the trip for me was that my Mom got to come with us. This is pretty much how our trip went.

Day One December 17th, Shenira and Gabe couldn't wait to take a bath in the big tub. With swim suits on they both hopped in and had a great time.After the bath each kid had one Christmas gift to open from John & I (their gift from us were tickets for the older kids to go to Island of Adventure with John and for Gabe it was a ticket to go to Sea World with Nana and Mommy).

After gifts were opened it was off to the pool. It was to cold if you ask me but Daddy said that it was okay so Mommy let him go in and swim with them and I took pictures while I was all bundled up!
Day Two: It rained all day today so we rented movies and decided to play Minute to Win It Games. This was so much fun. Dustin was able to get two of three golf balls to balance on top of each other and was the only one to do it out of all eight of us!
Day Three we headed to Michael's house in Port St. Lucie. It was so nice to hang out. Aunt Jean had a nice lunch ready for us when we got there. We had lunch sat around and talk for awhile and the kids had fun tossing the football around in the back yard.
On our way back to Orlando we stopped at Cocoa Beach to get some shells from the beach to take home. It was SO cold and we were NOT dressed to be out on the beach at all! But we got the shells we were looking for and got back into the car to warm up. We had to stop and buy Gabe a sweat shirt before we could even go down to the beach.

Daddy found a hermit crab on the beach that everyone had to check out. It was so cold that the poor thing was dead.

Day Four: Nana, Gabe and Mommy's first day at Sea World!!! Oh my word did we have so much fun. This was probably the best part of the trip for me. It was so nice to have my Mom all to myself and Gabe. Our first stop was to the Blue Horizon show it is the BEST and still my favorite show at Sea World.

After the Blue Horizon show we went over to feed the Dolphins. This was SO cool and so much better than the last time I had done this. We had a great spot and Dolphins were every where. Gabe loved petting them.

The under ground viewing for the dolphins.

Next it was time for the Clyde and Seamore show. This is one show that you don't ever want to show up late for but sure is fun if you show up early!

Mommy & Gabe checking out the SHARKS!!!!

Gabe, Mommy & Nana with the Manatee's

Amy I had to put this picture in here just for you! Right before this picture we had a group of young Chinese kids ask us if we would take there pictures and of course all of the boys were making the peace sign. So the very next picture I took of Gabe he had to do it too. Reminded me of Ty!

Mommy and Gabe on the Shamu roller coaster. I don't like roller coasters at all but this one was okay and Gabe loved it.

Last show of the night for us was Shamu. This was still cool, but not as cool now that the trainers don't swim with them.

Day Five: Back at Sea World for our second day. We went to several more shows today and stayed until the park closed. We watched the Winter Wonderland on Ice show tonight while we waiting for the fire works after such a long day Gabe fell asleep before the Ice show or the fire works started and sleep during both things. It was nice during the day but sure did cool off as soon as the sun went down.

Day Five: John also took the older kids to Island of Adventure. They were able to ride the new Harry Potter ride and many other things and all had a great time spending time with just their dad.

Day Six took us to Downtown Disney where we did our normal try on all of the funny hats that we could find. I think this is a great look for my husband!

Gabe was also able to see Santa in shorts again which I love. Not every Michigan kid can have his picture taken with Santa in Shorts!

Day Six also took us back to the Time Share to enjoy the sun and pool. It was a little chili because of the wind but very nice and sunny. A great time was had by all swimming.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
Dustin, Gabe and Shenira.

Sissy and Daddy

Gabe and Mommy

Day Seven: Our last day in Florida we started off to go and play around of Miniature Golf until we got there and found out that it was going to cost $76.00 for us to play. We quickly decided that was crazy and that we were NOT going to play. So we went to Shell World go more seashells and headed back to the Time Share to eat lunch and pack up to start our long drive back home. This is Gabe being silly in the car about an two hours before we got home. I have to tell you that this was the best car ride I've ever been on. Not once did our kids fight you almost didn't even know that we had kids in the car with us. We are so very blessed.

Thank you to Mom and Dad Fuller for the use of the time share and to my mom for coming with us. It truly was a great trip!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We got home from Florida on Christmas Eve. Gabe was so happy that we made it home early enough for him to put the reindeer food out. This has become a new tradition in the past couple of years.

One the reindeer were taken care of it was time to take care of the "Big Guy" Santa himself. Because we had just gotten home from vacation we didn't have any cookies to leave for him so we left him chocolate this year. It's my understanding that he likes chocolate better than cookies anyway!

Gabe was was proud of himself he poured the milk all by himself this year. This is our finished product with the special drawing that Gabe left for him.

Gabe with his gifts from Kelly & Santa.

Mommy, Daddy & Gabe went to see Yogi Bear on Christmas afternoon. I wasn't feeling very well but decided to go ahead and go to the movie anyway. Little did I know that the following Monday I would find out that I had Pneumonia. I ended up missing another week of work. John took very good care of me while I was sick and Kelly helped out a lot with Gabe which was wonderful.Gabe and Daddy decided to try out Gabe's new nerf guns one of the night while I was sick. I couldn't help but get the camera and take picture of my two crazy boys. I'm not sure which one liked them more Daddy or Gabe!New Year's Eve Dustin got on a charter bus and headed to New Orleans for his trip with his high school band "The Big Red Machine" to play at the Sugar Bowl. After many many months of fundraisers it was time to go. I had to stop by and get a couple of pictures of him leaving. They had a great time on the trip and just got back today (1/7/11). New Year's Eve found us at the M-66 bowling ally with John's family again this year. This has become a tradition that we love. I didn't get to bowl this year but enjoyed watching everyone else and doing what I do best....take pictures. This was a crazy freaky picture that I took of John goofing off while he was bowling. Some how in the picture half of his ball is missing????On New Year's Day Gabe and I met up with Mom and Dad Copas, my brother and sister and their families at Splash Universe Waterpark. Gabe love the lazy river and Haley loved the little slide. I still wasn't feel real great so we didn't stay very long but it was long enough for Gabe to have fun. January 2 was the Kempton Christmas at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Carl's house. As usual we had great food and a great time with family. I love it when we get together with all of my aunts, uncles & cousins but missed the ones that weren't able to make it. All in all it was once again a very busy few days with lots of things going on. Glad it's over but can't wait until next year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Semi Formal 2010

Last Saturday was Vicksburg Semi-Formal. We met Tony & Jordon and Tony's girlfriend Abby's house so that we could get pictures of them all dressed up and ready for a night out. Dustin also went this year but we weren't able to get pictures of him.Two of our handsome boys. If I do say so myself, these boys sure do clean up well!The beautiful Abby we have enjoyed having her be a part of our family so much. This was their fourth and final Semi-Formal. They are so cute together and it's been fun seeing them grow from Freshmen to Seniors.
BrothersFun TimesLast but not least our adopted son Josh. We have so much fun when Tony's friend Josh comes over to spend the night and I was so glad that he stopped by Abby's before the dance so that I could get some pictures of him too.

Shenira's Band Concert

Last Thursday was the Holiday Concert for Shenira's band. They did a great job and as always we loved watching her play. It's amazing to see how fast the kids learn how to play their instruments.

Fast As Fast Can Be You Can't Catch Me!

Friday was my day to help in Gabe's classroom. Oh how happy I was that it was my day to help on Gingerbread Man Day! We had SO much fun with the kids and I learned that my son likes gingerbread cookies.

The first thing I got to do was mix everything together.

Mrs. Frakes formed our Gingerbread "Boy"And then each child got to come back and add some yummy candy to the Gingerbread Boy. I was so glad that Gabe isn't a child that has to be a me first kind of kid. He waited until everyone else at his table had gone which left just him and I so I was able to get some shots of just him!I think he is happy with his selections and we are now ready to take him down to the oven. In the oven it goes.Cooking time is done. Time to go and pick him up.Oh NO! He isn't where I left him!!! Ladies did you check on him while he was cooking??? Oh no I forgot to tell them not to open the door until his was all finished cooking. Now we must go and find him. He left us some clues along the way they took us too....The Gym..but he was already gone,The Library but nope we were too late so we had to go to....The Music Room, still not fast enough we are off too....The computer lab but we STILL couldn't catch up to him.Finally that Gingerbread boy was caught running in the halls by the principle Mr. Szabla! We promised to take him back to our room and eat him all up so that he couldn't run away again!!!What a fun day!

Traditions

There are several traditions that we have so far this year we've done two of the main ones. First is my favorite putting up the trees. Yes you read that right I said trees, not tree. We have four trees in our house. Two of the four are pictured below. I have put a tree in Gabe's room since he was born and each year he gets new little ornaments to add to it. He loves it when the tree is in his room. The second tree is the "main" tree where the presents from Santa go(it is also pictured below) This tree has first Christmas ornaments on it and other special ornaments that we've gotten from family. The Third Tree is my "Snowman" tree and it only get ornaments of Snowmen on it and I put it in the Dinning Room and finally the last tree is on our landing going upstairs and this tree is "The Kid" tree. It has the ornaments that the kids have made at school or ornaments of their special interest

Another tradition that we done almost every year is attending the Marshall Christmas Parade. This Parade has always been my favorite and I love taking my son to it now. Each year we try to meet up or take new friends with us and this year we took Chelsey and Hector with us and met the Moody's there.

Gabe with the Moody Boys!

Daddy, Mommy & Gabe ready for the parade to start!

Hector, Chelsey & Gabe.

Kempton Thanksgiving

Family time with the Kempton's is always fun. This year we had Thanksgiving at my sister Jennifer's house. The Kempton crew keeps growing and it's so much fun when we are together. This year Gabe's teacher sent home a little "play" to do on Thanksgiving for fun. With the help of his cousins it was a big hit! The one thing I love most about this family is everyone is game. Most of these cousins are in their 20's but they were still willing to help little Gabe out with his show. They had us laughing so hard and this was for me the best part of Thanksgiving, well except for the deep fried Turkey that Uncle Dan made....OH MY WORD....To dye for!I'm not sure how it is in your house but in our Thanksgiving isn't complete until Papa falls asleep. This is for sure how to measure a great Thanksgiving Day!