St. Augustine in the winter...fabulous

We have a little tradition now and it's one that I could keep forever. Will's mom and dad, his sister and her children and us head down to St. Augustine, FL right after Christmas. We stay all the way through New Years and it's a blast. The weather was gorgeous this year. We did bathing suits and the pool everyday but 1 and I actually got sunburned one day. It was a very pleasant get-away and one I'll remember for a long, long time.

The photo above is the one day that it was pretty chilly. We went over to the beach but as you can see we had sweatshirts on. Also, each one of my family members are looking at the camera. Can I say this NEVER happens anymore, so I'm pretty proud of this photo. I decided to enlarge it to an 8x10, (shut up Merica).





I will start with all the shots of the pool activity, we stayed here all during the day until it was nap time. Usually we started early, about 10 am, at the playground. Then the pool. We stay at a place called World Golf Village in St. Augustine. It's a great place to take small children, lots of things for them to do.








This pool has a walk out so the twins stayed pretty much in that area. G&T did floaties this time really well, I was impressed. It should make it so much easier this summer. I have a goal, also, to get them potty trained before Amelia Island.









This pic cracks me up, you probably can't tell, but the boys are enjoying candy canes but poolside. This isn't normal in the parts that we live in so for them to be eating candy canes end of December is funny to me.











These are a few shots of just hanging out, relaxing together and just enjoying being away. This is Megan, Tucker and Ethan.
















Tucker is Will's favorite football watching partner. This is what he does, he just crawls up beside him and just lays with him. However, the "mine" or "bankie" is a must in order for him to be still. Again, props to our friend Steph for this blanket that has been so great for Tucker (although she made it for Brett, funny).





This is Will's dad a.k.a. Grand-daddy. He's trying to pretend Graham and Meg are asleep but it's really not happening. Although Meg is pulling it off for the camera.








Below are just some playground pictures. We went to a public park/merry go-around there and these are all from there.

This is aunt Cathy and Graham, aunt Cathy is also known as Graham's girlfriend. He loves Cathy and always wants to be with her.






Carousel-city, the kids loved it. The twins were too little last year but no way this year, they were all about it.



































Graham loved it so much that this was his reaction when he had to get off. Note the face, so unhappy.


Another thing World Golf has is putt-putt and we've never done it until this year. Grand-daddy, Will and Cathy decided to take all of the older ones (everyone but G&T) to play. These are photos from that adventure.

































NEW YEAR'S EVE

We have a few traditions in St. Augustine, as of this year. We like to grill out on the grills there and eat chocolate fondue for dessert on New Years Eve. Another tradition we have is to only watch Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve a few seconds at a time. Instead the channel stays locked in on this silly racing bike thing where this guy races his bike up a ramp and does this jump thing. Anyone else watch that mess? Will and Lee were glued to this and it was so boring to me. I would much rather watch the stars and freezing people up in NYC. But...whatever.




This is the scene of grilling out. Grand-daddy is pointing at a friendly possum that was out there watching them grill. They were hoping it would show its face but it never did. I never saw it but let's be honest, I don't need to see it to believe it.



















While the grilling was taking place, the kids took Twister outside and played until dinner was ready. Some adults played later, those pics will show up soon.








After dinner, onto fondue. We tried the dark chocolate this year and it was fabulous, it's a keeper for next year.




We had fresh fruit: kiwi, bananas, strawberries, pineapple. We also had marshmallows, graham crackers and pound cake. What a treat!!




















G&T enjoyed it too, we dipped for them and then let them eat. I believe it would've been way too messy for them to dip themselves; maybe next year. They went to bed about 10, I decided they'd be monstous to stay up to ring in 2009. Good decision.





When we got so tired and silly, Ethan and Blake thought it would be so fun for Cathy and me to play Twister with them. Man, I am not in shape enough to last very long at that game. We were all twisted and laughing so hard at ourselves.

This was towards the beginning when we were just getting started.

This was right at the end and when we're all about to crash onto each other. Fun times. I totally recommend this old game to any families up for a good laugh.


Below is how we rang in 2009. Blake didn't make it to midnight and Brett half-way made it there. The twinks were fast asleep in their bed. We're a blessed family and have high hopes for 2009 and what it holds.

As for St. Augustine, we'll see you next year!!

Christmas in Oak Ridge

We went to mom and dads house on the 26th to celebrate with them. It was pure chaos and we've vowed to do it different next year. All of the children, 6 of them, opening up things at the same time and no one knows who is getting what and who in the world its from. I hated that part, we had to go back through the lists of who got what after it was over just to keep it all straight. What a nightmare! My family out-did themselves this year though, I was surprised, massively. My mom has 3 sisters and a brother and their gifts were ridiculous this year. We got gift cards, cash money, clothing items, books, toy figures...etc. My mom surprised me with a new Coach purse this year too and I was totally shocked. She said she got a "wild hair" and I told her I love it when she gets "wild hairs."
It was great fun to be up there and we even got to see some old friends, Ms. Jan (Kennedy) right before we left to come home. Her son Brett and his girlfriend Mandi were also there. I like those folks.

Guitar Hero was the #1 gift at this Christmas and let me tell you it has been played with more than you can imagine.

Sadly enough this is the only photo I took of that whole chaotic event!

Christmas morning at our house

Well, it was so good to be home at our house on Christmas morning. This way we didn't end up lugging things to other places and then lugging them back home. We got home late on Christmas Eve though from Atlanta and then of course Santa's workshop was wide open until about 1 am. Maybe it was 1:30, who really knows. I was psyched up for it though and so we got it all done and ready and then went to bed. I can remember when I was little, Todd and I would wake up as early as we could, usually about 5 something and sometimes mom would make us go back to bed. Since getting home so late, the kids didn't wake up until about 7:30 almost 8 and that was totally awesome. The twins got more into it this year, opening the packages and getting excited about each gift.

Their gifts this year were "together" gifts, as usual. We won't be able to get away with that too much longer but it works for now. I mean who needs 2 shopping carts and 2 Tool Benches in their house that are exactly alike, right?
Blake got his DS that he's been wanting for awhile now. He got a few games to go with it. He also scored on a basketball goal for outside. We all went out to see it with the big red bow on it. I believe that was his most favorite gift and he's already been playing on it a lot. It does help that it is basketball season right now.
Brett was thrilled with a new toy puppy that has a real collar and leash. He named him Buddy and has carried him around since he got him.
Santa was good to us again this year, we are blessed!















This is Blake out shooting his first hoop of the morning when it was pretty freezing outside. But he had to test it out and make sure it works. It does. (P.S. Thank you Santa Robin and Stephanie)

Christmas with the Campbell's

Christmas with Will's family is always a zoo but its always so much fun. There are 17 of us when we're all together and we do not even think about drawing names. Everyone buys for everyone. And we also do the traditional each person opens one present at a time and we go in order, youngest to the oldest. I always take pride in being the first adult to go after the children (I only beat Will by about 2 months). We have a traditional meal we eat, which we call Chasagna, meaning lasagna made by the Chaffin family. Will is usually in charge of dessert but this year he passed it off to Cathy who made this ridiculous white chocolate bread pudding. After we eat we all sit together in the living room and the madness begins. I will post some pics of how it looks. No, I don't have a camera yet, I am using my mother in laws pics to post this.

G&T got new matching Leap Frog scooters that play music, have lights, a fan, a basket and lots of other features.

This is a typical scene of the opening of presents: paper, bows, bags, gifts and whatever else are just basically flying around the room. Its pure chaos but always a night to remember.

All the grandkids got remote control cars, some that do more tricks than others. They really enjoyed playing with them all together once they were all opened.

We tend to sit all together as a family, this way you can keep up with who gets what and who its from. There is so much going on its hard to keep up!!

This is Brett, Ethan, Graham, Alex, and Megan. These guys love hanging out together and being loud and playing.

Here's Will's 2 sisters, Laura and Cathy and myself. Also, this year Laura had this idea to make a box full of good cheer for Mema and Grand daddy. We all filled out these cards telling why we love M&G so much and put them into this chest box thing. I think they loved it, it was the present that took the most thought, that is for sure.

More Christmas posts to come....

Hangin out at Mema and Grand daddy's

We came down to Georgia early so we could finish up our shopping and also hang out with the fam. The kids love hanging out at Mema's house, they always have a lot of fun. Will and I were able to go and knock out the rest of our shopping while everyone was being fully entertained back at the house. Above is Will's mom and dad a.k.a. Mema and Grand daddy.

These are Will's sisters kids and this is a very cute photo of them. They are some of our favorite people to see when we come to town.

Fun with mardi gras beads.

Graham and Tucker just being their goofy little selves.

This picture is so funny. Blake was reading a book to Graham and Graham just decided to go to sleep sitting up right there as Blake read him a story. So cute! I think that means Graham was exhausted.


This is not flattering of B&B but I thought it was worth posting since its of several of the children together.

Anticipating Christmas Break

I'm not sure if anyone is anticipating this Christmas break more than us! Will has been counting down the days for weeks now, it seems. I have been so looking forward to a break as well. With our schedules so busy and always, always on the go, an extended break is just what the dr. ordered. No basketball games, no practices, no more parties, no more baking cupcakes at 10 at night or pigs in a blanket at 6 am. Today we start our loooooooong Christmas break thanks to being an employee of Lee University and the public school system.

So what are we going to do on this first day? Shop, ALL day long until we get all of our Christmas shopping done. Sounds relaxing? Not really but we'll have to do it eventually, so today seems like a good day. Also, the grandparents are willing to watch the munchkins today, so its a win-win situation.

The Home Team

The "home team" refers to the people who make the office I work in one of the best offices on campus. We get the cream of the crop when it comes to the students who work in the office. We enjoy the camaraderie that we share and we get along extremely well. We had our annual office Christmas gathering this year and these photos are from that night.