Christmas was Merry & Bright

I'm dreadfully behind on blogging since the holidays and having so much fun with company in town. In an effort to catch up, I'm trying to post a bunch, but not in any particular order.

Christmas day was wonderful. It's so fun having children, especially during the holidays. George's brother, David and his wife Colleen, sent Sawyer and Jack a kid-friendly nativity scene the beginning of December. This was perfect because it gave us a whole month to play with it and teach Sawyer the story of why we celebrate Christmas. He definitely knows who baby Jesus is now.

Our tree had to be up on a table this year due to some little person's interest in the pretty lights and ornaments...Jack Jack!

I heard something early on Christmas morning (5 a.m.) and came out to the living room to see Sawyer riding his scooter around. You could say he was pretty thrilled with Christmas morning :)

Everyone got out of bed shortly thereafter and we had lots of oohs and ahhhs as everyone opened their presents. Santa was very generous this year, and so far almost all of the toys the boys received have been played with often - in my book that is a win.

I found a huge lot of hotwheels/matchbox cars on craigslist and then George built this track for the boys out of scrap wood. He painted it with chalkboard paint. A feature I love is the storage box underneath. The boys love it!

After the present party we ate banana waffles with sauces/syrups/toppings galore and fresh squeezed orange juice of course. After we had cleaned up breakfast I looked at the clock and it wasn't even 8 a.m., sheesh! That left a lot of time for us to be merry all day - much of which was spent outside in the sunshine. I'm sorry I didn't get around to mailing out cards this year, or even an email, but from our family to yours we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Gardening in December & January

Have you ever planted in December? How about in sand? We're trying lots of new things here in Florida!

 Shoveling technique...

Gardening here in Florida has been a bit daunting because I have no idea what I'm doing. We dug in to the Earth in our backyard and it was all sand. How grass grows, I'm not sure. We literally filled the boys' sand box from clearing an area for the garden. We're starting pretty small and will likely expand as we get a hang of gardening in Florida. I hear that bugs and mildew are the big problems here. Thanks to family (workers) and friends (loaning trucks/tools) our adventures of gardening in Florida are well on there way!

Sawyer happy to be on a mulch run with papa.

Sawyer got in on every single wheel barrow ride. That was his job, and he was good at it.

Getting a good nap in on the job.

Christ had the hard job (really!).

One smart thing we did was start a compost pile back in September...come early January there was already some great stuff to use in the garden! Here Alethea is being creative 'sifting' the compost so we can use the good stuff in the garden.

Work that ground!

This picture makes it look like I worked so hard, in reality it was mostly my sisters who did the work.

Alethea how is this the only picture I have of you working in the garden? Besides the ones in your swimsuit of course, haha. At least you stocked up on vitamin D now that you are back in negative temps! She was out there all the time. Can't stop the horticulture in that girl. 

Abbie & Sawyer playing in the sand that was cleared out of the garden area.

 These were the radish sprouts 8 days after we'd planted seeds. (They sprouted on Day 4).

Left row: rosemary, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, basil, peppers. Right row: red potatoes, dill, and cilantro.

 Radishes, swiss chard, carrots, beets, lettuce, broccoli, kale, peas, & beans.

Herb garden - rosemary, lavender, sage, cherry tomatoes, parsley, bell peppers, aloe, basil, & oregano.

There is NO way I could have accomplished this massive project without the help of Alethea, Abbie, and Chris (and George, Sawyer, and Jack of course :). Thank you so much for all your hard work, smarts, smiles, and for giving the gift that keeps on giving. We are so excited to start eating from the garden! And as per their instruction I'm going to THIN the garden.  It makes me so happy to look out my kitchen window and see my garden!

Kayaking (instead of ringing) in the New Year

We thought it would be great fun to take our visitors on a small kayak adventure on the Banana River for our January 1st celebration. We paddled with the dolphins and enjoyed a few hours of sunshine, water, and a little shore time on Ski Island.

As long as Jack wasn't wearing his life jacket and didn't have someone holding him he enjoyed kayaking.

Our silly Sawyer boy! (Yes that is a river behind Sawyer.) Florida is big time when it comes to water.

 The sisters - they towed me while I nursed Jack. They're awesome like that.

Water, weeHOO!

A couple of my handsome guys... 

 Sawyer explaining the physics of paddling a kayak through dihydrogen monoxide.

Wow Chris, looks like the perfect cast to me.

The sisters - taking on little man to give me a break. I got spoiled big time with all the help!

Are my photo comments as annoying as Chris' expression looks in this picture? 

No I did NOT put this on facebook Chris :)

 Jack finally gave up and snoozed the last half hour or so. I had a hard time looking at anything besides Jack. He's just so cute!

Thank you Abbie & Chris for cutting in line to pay, that was very generous.
It was a great way to bring in 2013!

Hahaha!

Dumpster Diving

A little 'dumpster diving' - Jack taking matters in to his own hands when he's hungry. Big smile because he scored some treats in there!