Family Pictures

We took these two pictures when we were in Tampa. They show the whole family on both sides. It's rare that everyone is together and we wanted to document the occassion with pictures. Again, remember to click on the pictures so you can see everyone more closely. The first one is of Jeff's mom's side of the family. The second is his dad's side.

Cypress Gardens

We went to Cypress Gardens one day while we were in Tampa. Jeff's sister, Heather came with us. We had so much fun. It was a little warm, but not too bad. We had seen on a previous trip there that they had something called the Belle for a Day program where little girls could dress up like a Southern Belle (complete with a hoop skirt!) and walk around the park for a couple hours getting pictures and having fun. It sounded like something Kaylin and Annlee would love, so we let them do that. I have SO many pictures of them - it was really hard to pick out just a few to post here. (Did you know you can click on the pictures and see them really big? I only recently figures that out and it makes these look so beautiful!) Anyway, these are my favorites of the bunch. There are also some pictures of us riding the rides after they took the dresses off. Maryella even rode her first roller coaster and LOVED it! She kept saying, "I want more" when it was done. We rode it 3 times in a row. She would have gone all day, but we wanted to get in a few more rides before leaving.

Tampa Christmas

We just got back today from a wonderful week in Tampa. We went down the day after Christmas and we were supposed to stay through New Year's. However, Kaylin woke up with a nasty virus this morning, so we decided to drive back home before exposing any more people than necessary. But besides that, it was all a very fun week. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.

Kaylin plays dress up with some new dress up clothes.
Mema and Papa open their gift from us. (I'll post close ups of those pictures in the frame later.)
Maryella plays in a box while we open gifts. She drug that box all over the living room, then climbed in it and fell over backwards. She loved it!
The girls had lots of fun playing outside and I had fun playing with our new camera, lol.
Kaylin and her Aunt Heather
Mom and Papa show off the pictures we gave to them after the girls helped open them.
Maryella LOVED seeing her Papa! (That's marker all over her face)
Kaylin and her cousin, Madison. They are the same age and they love playing together when they see each other.


This morning on our way out. You can tell that Kaylin looks a little under the weather in this picture.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's Christmas, it's Christmas! Annlee woke up first this morning (6:30 - not too bad!) and immediately wanted to go into the living room - we had to convince her to wait on Kaylin and Maryella. Kaylin was up very soon, and we woke up Maryella (couldn't make the others wait any longer!) They wanted to go see their stockings first and got so excited looking at everything that they forgot there was more to see in the other living room! Maryella would have been happy eating the chocolate from her stocking all day. (Great breakfast, huh?)

They were so excited to see all the other stuff that Santa had brought. Kaylin and Annlee both got dolls that came with tents, sleeping bags, pets, outfits - lots of fun girly stuff! They were so excited over that! Kaylin's doll came with a baby sister and that was the first thing Maryella saw. She latched on to that and played with it for most of the morning - despite the fact that she had gotten her own baby doll. Here are a few pictures that show their Santa loot.

After they checked out all the goodies that Santa had brought, it was time to open the presents that we had gotten for each other. Maryella actually enjoyed unwrapping her gifts. But once she got the paper off, she was on to the next present. It was cute. Here are a few pictures of them showing off their things.

They had even picked out gifts for each other. They were so excited to see one another open the gifts they had chosen. Kaylin got a Littlest Pet Shop toy, Annlee got a fur real newborn kitty, and Maryella got a little car that zooms across the floor. Here's some pictures of those things...

After the gifts we all opened, it was time to start playing! The girls played while breakfast got put together (yes, we ate a real breakfast - not just chocolate!). Since then, Maryella has gone back down for a nap and is napping as I type. Hopefully she will make up for the sleep that she lost when she had to wake up early this morning. Poor kid. Kaylin and Annlee have been going from one toy to another and are in a wonderland. They can't decide which thing is their favorite. They love it all.

Just a note, we are leaving tomorrow morning to go to Tampa, so don't expect any more updates on us until after the New Year! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We will catch you in 2008!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the girls opened up an early Christmas present (because they were BEGGING!). We figured we'd let Kaylin and Annlee open up a doll making kit we had gotten them. It gave them something to do to pass the time on Christmas Eve. Maryella got a little cell phone that she has fallen in love with! She played with it all afternoon! Later, we went to two Christmas Eve services at the church. The first was a "family" service. It was so cute. The girls got to take part in it. We had about 45 minutes between that service and the next, so I ran and got the girls some McDonalds (yes, they ate McDonalds for their Christmas Eve meal!) and then the second service was the more traditional one. It was very nice. When we got home, the girls put on their new jammies they had opened earlier (they always get pjs on Christmas Eve), and left out cookies for Santa. It was a busy but fun day. Here are a few pictures...

More Pictures

Taking pictures is one of my favorite things to do. And that picture is one of my favorite that I've taken lately. Here are a few others that I've taken recently on our new camera! (I don't think I mentioned that we got a new camera - our old one died). Anyway, I LOVE this camera! And I LOVE these girls! They are being really good to humor me and pose for lots of pictures so I can practice using the new camera.

Party Time

We had two Christmas parties today - Kaylin's school party and Annlee's dance party. Both were fun and contained way too much sugar, haha. Here are pictures from both -

Kaylin's School Party:

With her teacher, Ms. Jennings.

Showing off her snowman cupcake. Gotta love that pizza face!

Opening her gift from Ms. Jennings.

And here is Annlee's Dance Party:

With two of her friends. I'm not sure of the name of the little girl in pigtails, but the other is Annlee's friend, Megan.

Here she is with her dance teacher, Mrs. Jennifer