SMILE! NICHOLAS LOST ONE TOOTH OVER CHRISTMAS VACATION AND THE OTHER ONE RIGHT AFTER WE GOT BAK FROM FLORIDA.

The Tooth Fairy was very generous the first time around, leaving Nicholas $5 for his first tooth. The second time around, She was just caught off guard and didn't have anything smaller than a $5 to leave! Needless to say, Nicholas has made out pretty well so far with his teeth!

He also won a football pool for the Superbowl on a square that my mother bought for him. Add those winnings, and the kid has more cash than I do!

I wanted to let everyone know that I did pick up my pictures from vacation and I even managed to download the discs onto my hard drive. It' s just that right now, I can't figure our how to copy or paste them anywhere else. I'll keep working on it and you'll see postings with the pics as soon as I figure it out!

Take care all...

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

THIS IS THE WAY 2007 HAS BEEN!!

The beginning of winter this year was mild, with record highs in December. January and February have far made up for that! This is what we came back to after our trip to Florida. THe kids had no problem adjusting to the difference...who cares that they were in shorts and a sundress with sunscreen on the day before? They couldn't wait to get their snow gear on and play in the snow!

Of course, since then, it has been BITTER cold. One day last week, they actually cancelled school because of the windchills. I don't know what the exact temperature was, but state law says that school must be cancelled if it is below -12 out so I know it was at least that!

Now they are calling for another storm tonight into tomorrow, with up to a foot of snow or more in this area. Add to that the single digit temperatures and we've had a very cold and snowy 2007!

Check out Nicholas in my next posting...

I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF EMILY...
These are a couple more pictures from our day at the Magic Kingdom. In the one, there's almost enough of us to say that we all went on vacation together!! Poor Emily...she didn't get in too many pictures!
Stay tuned next week...

THESE ARE SOME PICS FROM THE MAGIC KINGDOM THAT MY FRIEND SHARON TOOK...
The "unknown" girl in the pictures is Sharon and Steve's daughter, Emily. She is 4, and both Nicholas and Alyssa had a riot playing with her! The first 2 pictures are from Pooh's Adventureland (or something like that). The kids really had a good time in there, playing in the sprinklers and climbing all over everything.
The last picture is the double stroller that Sharon rented. All three kids managed to fit in it, and lucky Steve got to push it around!
SInce I can only get a few pictures at a time on this blog, I will post again immediately after this with a couple more pics from Disney. My film will be in on Friday, so by early next week, with any luck, I should be able to complete the blogging about our wonderful Disney experience!
Stay tuned...

WE WENT TO FLORIDA ON VACATION IN JANUARY!
We went to Naples to visit my aunt Barbara for the first half of the week. The kids loved the beach and swimming in the Gulf! Alyssa made herself right at home, playing in the sand, digging for shells and playing in the water. Nicholas got right into the sand - literally - when Daddy buried him! He liked the water, too, but he did NOT like the taste of it!
The kids got to see a Starfish that someone had caught. It was missing a leg, but was still alive. The lady who caught it said that the leg would grow back once it was living back in the salt water so she released it back into the water. We also got to see a bunch of dolphins swimming in the distance. John got two of them on video one day, although I'm not sure how good the video came out because of the distance. The second day - you know, when we didn't bring the video camera!! - there was about 5 or 6 of them swimming together, jumping in and out of the water. What an amazing sight that was!
After Naples, we went to Orlando for the rest of the week. John and I were able to visit some old friends that we worked with at Disney World a lifetime ago. It was nice to visit. The construction in the Orlando area is amazing. Granted, it's been 9 years since we left, but the new development and construction is truly outstanding. Even the highway exit numbers were completely different because of all the new exits they added.
Luckily, we still have some contacts down there, and we got free tickets to both Universal Studios and The Magic Kingdom! The kids were still a little young for Universal, although Nicholas said that E.T. was his favorite ride! We spent about 4-5 hours walking around there on Friday, and we had a good time!
On Saturday, we met up with old friends (no pun intended!!) and went to the Magic Kingdom. Nicholas and Alyssa met a new friend - Emily Moran - and we all had a great time playing, catching up on old times and riding the rides. Of course, my digital camera was just about full from all the pictures at the beach, so I had to use the old standby...a disposable one which hasn't been developed yet! There are a few pictures of the kids at Downtown Disney and when I get the other ones developed, I'll add them to the site as well. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out how to download the pictures that Sharon took to this site, so check back in a day or two!!!

CHRISTMAS WAS A BLAST AT OUR HOUSE THIS YEAR!!! SANTA REALLY OUTDID HIMSELF!
We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house - for the second year running! We had a lot of extra leftover food, but other than that, everything went well! The kids got dressed up in their "Christmas Outfits" for our party - you can see them there in front of our tree!
John is the biggest kid of all ~ he woke us all up on Christmas morning! The kids were excited to see what Santa had brought them and to open their many gifts from Mom and Dad. Alyssa got a balance beam from Santa and Nicholas got the Star Wars Imperial Shuttle. They all got a clubhouse that they can help put together and take down...over and over again! Right now, that is at Nonnie's!!
After we opened our gifts, Nonnie came over with another load of presents. Alyssa gave up and fell asleep for a little while. Poor thing was too tired to even finish opening her gifts! She did manage to say the cutest things when she opened some of her gifts, though. Like when she opened one of her fleece blankets, she told Lauren it was "exactly what I always wanted!"
Anyways, when we finished our gifts with Nonnie, we went to Aunt Pat's for Brunch and - you guessed it - more gifts! Aunt Pat is always a winner with the gifts she buys. She got Alyssa the Dora Magical Castle, and she plays with it EVERY day. As a matter of fact, she had all of the pieces out before we even left Pat's house!
As you can tell, Christmas was great this year! The kids really got into it and Santa went above and beyond his call of duty. Of course, this means next year, Santa will have to do even more...We'll see about that!!
Stay tuned for pics from our recent vacation!