Jack turns 9!

On April 8th, Jack turned 9.  Since Jack and Callie have birthdays two weeks apart, we decided to throw a joint party for them at the gym.  Jack was a little skeptical at first about sharing a party with his sister and it being at a gymnastics place but he and his friends had a great time and it was great for me to only have to plan one party.

Jack also chose to go to eat at Outback for his birthday dinner because he loves the cheese fries.  

A few weeks after Jack's birthday was take your child to work day.  This was Jack's second year being able to go.  This year one of the activities at Rob's work was that each kid got to create and eat their own steak with toppings.  Jack topped his steak with  potato chips, cheddar jack cheese and popcorn.  Ever since, he loves steak and now wants to order it every time we eat out.

At the end of April, Jack's baseball team made the playoffs and then made it all the way to the championship game.  In the final game, his team lost but it was a good season and Jack learned a lot being the youngest on the team.

Jack is curious, intelligent, competitive, and passionate.  His favorite thing to do is to play games--card, board and video games.  This year, he has become very interested in sports and often does not make his siblings happy when he wants to watch ESPN or sports on TV.  He is very talented on the piano and can play any song in the church hymn book or primary book although he hates to practice and begs to quit.  He loves learning and is constantly asking questions and always wants to try, do and see new things.  He also loves to talk--mostly about sports and money.  He challenges us and makes us laugh. We love you, Jack!

Happy 7th Birthday Callie!

On March 22nd, Callie turned 7. For dinner, she chose to go to Uno's where she can make her own pizza. We gave her some drawing supplies and an Easy Bake Oven. She has been asking for an oven for the last few years but the reviews online for these ovens are pretty bad. I did not want to pay a lot of money and have a bad experience so I found a nice, clean one at a garage sale. She loves it and you can use regular cake mixes and water to actually make pretty good cakes.

She loves her tumbling class so we had her birthday party with friends at a gymnastics gym. The kids had fun on the trampolines, ropes, beams, and inflatable obstacle course.






Callie is a very sweet and helpful girl. She is always thinking of others and goes out of her way to make others happy. She is very outgoing and friendly. She loves art and is always making crafts or drawing pictures. She is a great big sister and loves to help me with Hudson and Nola. We are so grateful that she is in our family!

18 Months old

Nola was born on the 31st and should have officially turned 18 months on February 31st but since February only had 29 days this year so.... sometime between February and March, Nola turned 18 months old. The biggest milestone at this age is that Nola started nursery.

Unfortunately, Nola decided she does not like nursery and ended up crying(more like screaming) the whole time. She is currently going through a stranger phase. She does not like any adults she doesn't know and even some she does. I can not leave her with a babysitter or with a friend and the few times we have, she has screamed the whole time. Callie had to put Nola to bed the last time we had a babysitter because she refused to let the babysitter near her. She even screams when we are with her and an adult tries to talk to her, looks at her, or comes close to her. So this is the problem with nursery, she is completely terrified by the nursery leaders. Even when I stay with her, she stays on my lap and won't even get off because she is afraid someone she does not know will come near her. So right now, Sundays are not fun. I actually prefered roaming the halls for two hours than sitting in nursery with her screaming.

Also, when Nola is upset about something, she is not easily distracted. She is very very stubborn and is fine crying for as long as it takes until she gets her way or a suitable alternative.

Nola is also very spunky and curious. She wants to do everything and anything that anyone else is doing. She is physically fearless and will try anything she sees any other kid do. She stays constantly busy and exploring. She loves being outside and is happiest when she has her freedom to roam.

She also loves baby dolls, books, and food. She has been our best eater and will try almost anything and likes almost everything she tries. However, as with everything, she likes variety so she wants a buffet or food and wants to eat a little of everything instead of a lot of one food.

She insists on doing most things herself so she usually leaves messes wherever she goes. She is still not much of a talker and only chooses to say a few words so far like uh-oh, mama, up, down, cheese, bye-bye, and a few others including most animal sounds.

She is definitely not an easy child but her energetic and fiery personality has captured our hearts and keeps us on our toes.

March 2012

At the beginning of March, Jack had his first pinewood derby.
Jack wanted to make his car a fire breathing dragon.
He enjoyed racing his dragon and came in third place.

Rob got Orlando Magic basketball tickets at work and he decided to take Jack

Jack and Rob had a really fun time in the company box and cheering on the Magic as they played the Nets.

We went to Busch Gardens for the first time while Rob's parents were visiting. We mainly wanted to go to this park because Hudson really loves Sesame Street characters and they have a whole Sesame Street land. Busch Gardens exceeded our expectations and was the perfect park for little kids and had several rides that were just for ours kids ages.

The Sesame Street show was so cute and Hudson loved meeting all characters.

February 2012

February started with Rob's birthday and Valentine's Day. We celebrated both with dinners out and lots of other food and dessert.

Rob and Callie attended her school Father-daughter dance.

A friend who works at Universal got us in to Islands of Adventure so we could finally go to Harry Potter World.

The kids loved it and we let them each get their own wand.
All the houses and shops were so charming and really brought the book to life. We ate at the Three Broomsticks and had Butterbeer and delicious fish and chips.

The castle was my favorite part. Although the ride was well done, it was a little too jerky for me. However, I loved all the details throughout the castle before you get on the ride. The interior is very authentic to the book right down to the moving paintings and floating candles.

The park itself was quite empty outside of the Harry Potter area and it was fun to have the park mostly to ourselves. A unexpected find in the park was an elaborate series of rope tunnels and bridges up in the trees. We spent over an hour running through them and exploring all the different pathways.

Miscellaneous

Rob has a new iPhone so he has started taking a lot of pictures with it. Here are a few from his phone that he took over the last month that show some snapshots of our life recently.
Jack has been working all year to get a perfect score on his Friday folder and we promised to take him for a treat if he did. He chose Outback because he wanted his very own cheese fries.

For MLK Jr. day, we went to Grandma's house in Tallahassee. It was very cold but the kids still loved spending most of the day outside.

Nola is our best eater. It amazes us when she will eat salad and almost anything else we give to her. She is the first kids of ours that has done this.

Hudson loves Santa and anytime we would see a Santa Claus he would get very excited and had to sit on his lap.

This is pretty much an everyday occurance. Nola loves playing with the wipes. She usually just pulls them all out one by one but recently she has started to find better ways to play with them.

Now, she likes to use the wipes to clean her baby dolls.

Santa Claus drives through all the neighborhoods in our town a few weeks before Christmas led by fire trucks and police cars throwing out candy.

I like this picture of Nola because one of my favorite things is babies in footed pajamas. They look so cozy and cuddly.

Callie's soccer coach gave each girl flowers after their last game of the season.

Les Miserables

Rob has been playing the music from Les Miserables over the past year for the kids and they really love it especially Jack. He has almost every song memorized. When we found out that Les Miserables was coming back to Orlando, Jack begged to go. This past Wednesday, was the show and it was a fun night and great to share the experience with Jack.