TO MUCH TO DO

So much to do and so little time in a day! I am sorry for not keeping our little blog updated recently, I have tons of photos and stories to share, but I just can't seem to find the time. Don't worry that should change very soon!

Here is a little update on our life as it is right now.

I am playing the role of single mother, now don't go freaking out David hasn't really left us.... David has gone back to Las Vegas for work. He had an opportunity to make some good money an as fate would have it, it was at the perfect time since things at my job were slowing down.

So David left almost 2 weeks ago and I had learned how hard it is to be a single mom, but yet not single. I am lucky to have such a good support system out here in Florida.

I get the kids ready in the morning, then my mom an a friend of mine Chris take care of the kids till I get off work. Thank you Chris! Thank you Mom! Then it's dinner, play time, bath and bed and start the whole thing over again the next day! I haven't gotten to sleep in on the weekend since David left, man I am worn out all the time!

Anyway, here is the big news! We are heading back to Las Vegas... Yeah you read that right... We are moving away from this wonderful and amazing small town, saying good bye to all the wonderful friends we have made, away from all the family activities and beaches and moving back to Las Vegas. As you can tell I am just trilled with the idea of moving back!!! But we need to do what we have to, to be able to support our little family. Florida as wonderful as it is has not been kind to us, work is extremely had to come by, pay rates are low and the cost of living is high. By the way, I need to compose a little email to Marlene telling her she was right and I was wrong and thanks again for looking out for us!

So there you have it, we will be moving the end of May.

And I have decided I am going to make the best of this situation. We will be buying our first home in a few months and I am going to take my little chocolate, cupcake making hobby into something much bigger an profitable and thankfully I have my brother who is attending the Le Condon Bleu to teach me and I have signed up for some college classes in baking, cake design and chocolate making oh and just for fun a class on show pieces and spun sugar. David will also be doing some college classes in Creative writing.

I think this will be for the best and as long as I have my family I can live anyplace and be happy!

HAPPY EASTER 2012

Coloring eggs

DUNEDIN HARBOR

2 PLAY DATES IN 1 DAY

What a lucky boy Logan is, he got invited to 2 play dates for the same day.

In the Morning we went over to Logan's friend Miles house. Logan, Oliver and Miles played so great together and Lilly joined them for a little bit, but was pleased just entertaining herself with us by exploring her new surroundings. David and I had a great time as well, chatting and laughing with Chris and Joe. They even had us stay for Lunch, Joe BBQ'ed some hot dogs and Hamburgers!

3D MOVIE WITH LOGAN

Logan and I went to see The Lorax in 3D, great movie, wonderful 3D and the movies leaves you with a nice uncomfortable feeling that you are not doing enough to help the environment! LOL

PARTY HAT HEROS

Meet the Party Hat Hero's .... here to save your party!

Yeah, we are weird! LOL

UPDATE

Things have been a little crazy around here and I was just able to add some photos of what has gone on over the last few months.

Here is an update!

I got a job doing Book Keeping for a company here in Clearwater, the company is AWESOME!! So I am working full time and David is home with the kids.

MARDI GRAS

We headed to Dunedin to check out the locals version of Mardi Gras, it was great... I didn't take many photos (Sorry). They kids loved it and we had a great time.

V-DAY

MINI GOLF

FAMILY MINI GOLF DAY

Had a wonderful family day together, we went Mini Golfing. This was Lilly's first time and Logan's second. It was so much fun!!

THE BEACH IN JAN

Weather in Florida is strange, it was in the 80's on Christmas and now its January and we hit the beach, it was a nice day out and the water was just a little bit cold.

PAINTING

Logan and Lilly painting some nice pictures for us.

OUCH

Lilly was outside playing with Logan and the neighbors when she tripped and fell on the cobble stone driveway, poor thing landed right on her face and hurt her nose.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

OCEAN FISHING

Logan and I decided to try a little Ocean Fishing, we found a spot just down the road from our house, it was a perfect spot! We didnt catch anything, but sure enjoyed the time we spent together!

CHRISTMAS 2011

Merry Christmas!!!

Logan woke up nice and early ready to see if Santa came, we had to wake Lilly up .... she was still sleeping. It was a wonderful Christmas for all of us!

CHRISTMAS EVE 2011

Awe Christmas eve, typically we would be over at the Holloway's house celebrating Christmas eve with lots of good food, family, opening presents, playing then heading home to get the kids in bed.

TATTOO

You know kids are up to something when its quiet!

Logan decided that he needed to give Lilly and himself tattoos on their faces with a ball point pen!

It was pretty funny!

Logan in time out, Lilly joined him....

LOGAN'S CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Today was Logan's Christmas Concert!! David and I were so excited about this.... Logan has been practicing his songs all week!

Logan is in white shirt.... There will be video coming soon!

WINTER WONDERLAND

My wonderful husband David volunteered to play Santa for 4 hours at Winter Wonderland, little did he know what he was in for! haa haa

It took both David and I to get him all dressed and looking good as Santa!

DUNEDIN CHRISTMAS

Dunedin put on a old fashion Christmas, they had a great Christmas Parade and then on Main Street there was snow and vendors and Christmas Songs.

LOGAN'S 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

 Logan's actual Birthday is not until the 20th of this month, but we decided to celebrate it early so all his school friends can be there.

This is Logan's Big 5th Birthday Party, we have always done small family and friends together to celebrate his Birthday, but this year we went all out since he is turning 5 years old! That's a pretty big deal for this little guy!

We invited our wonderful neighbors and all the kids on his school, in total we had 11 kids and 13 adults.

Logan chose to have a Mario Bros theme party.

Logan also decided that we would play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Musical Chairs!

MIRACLE ON CLEVELAND ST

Miracle of Cleveland Street is held in Downtown Clearwater, they had games, food, crafts and a Toboggan / Sled ride with tons of snow. It was a lot of fun and Logan got to ride the sled down the snow all by himself!

WINTER WONDERLAND

Winter Wonderland is put on by the Clearwater Community Volunteers that mom (grandma) is a member of. They have this huge Santa's Village with all kinds of activities. There will be more about this later this month as we were only able to make a quick stop. We will be going again next week and David will be playing Santa one afternoon!!! Too Exciting!! So for now just a quick look...

MAKING LOGAN's CAKE

As you all know I have a tradition of making the kids birthday cakes, each year I have tried to improve my skills and make the best cake possible. The kids get to pick what theme they want to have and I make a cake to match. This year Logan wanted a Mario Bros Birthday Party (his fav game). 

TIME TO DECORATE

We decided to decorate for Christmas early, we got a 9ft tree this year since we have such nice high ceilings. The kids had a great time, this was Lilly's first year helping with the decorations and now she likes to take the ornaments off and put them back on in different places. Logan got to put the Star on the tree, a fun task for him!

Our Tree

PREGNANT..... NOT ME!

For those of you that haven't heard the news.... Grace and Scott are pregnant with their first Baby!!!! YEAH!! Grace took 3 different pregnancy test over 3 days, she just couldn't believe it was really happening!

THANKSGIVING 2011

Normally every Thanksgiving we head over to my Sister-in-law Christine's place, she always pulls off a great Turkey day and I get to avoid cooking!

But this year since she is in NV and we are in FL I had to step up and do Thanksgiving, I would have gone with my family tradition of Pizza and movies, but my wonderful husband loves Thanksgiving with all the goodies, especially the Turkey.

MINI GOLF

Logan and I went Mini Golfing, a little one on one time for us. We had a really great time and the golf course was very cool.

Congo River Mini Golf

CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

I decided to take the kids outside and do some Christmas type photos to possibly use in as our Christmas Cards this year. The kids did great despite the fact that I put them in long sleeved shirts and it was in the 80's and humid (gotta love Florida). I let them be themselves and do what they wanted and just snapped away. The best part was when I took out some huge Lolly Pops that David and I found at Blockbuster for the kids to enjoy!

NEW BLOG LAYOUT

I have changed the blog around a little bit, now if you want to see more or read more about a post then you click the "Read More" button on the bottom leftside of each blog post. This allows me to add a lot of photos to a Post and you will be able to scroll through to whats new and click on it to view / read. Also its getting close to Christmas, so a Christmas theme was needed.

I hope everyone enjoys!!

SCHOOL PHOTOS

Logan's School had Picture day a few weeks ago and the even invited Lilly to have her photos take too. I think they turned out really cute!

PLAYING OUTSIDE

HALLOWEEN

Since our neighborhood is so new and hidden we were told by the neighbors that we wouldn't get any kids trick or treating and so we decided to drive over to Logan's School and trick or Treat there, its in Dunedin and surrounded by such amazing homes!

HIGHLAND PARK HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL

Highland Park in Dunedin put on a huge carnival for Halloween, it was so much fun, tons of games for kids to play, a Haunted House, Haunted Hayride and Boo in the Zoo for the really little kids!

Logan playing some games

MAIN STREET TRICK OR TREAT

Every Friday our little family, Grace, Scott and mom all go out to dinner and this Friday we had dinner at a nice place located on Main Street in Dunedin. I LOVE DUNEDIN and Main Street makes you feel like you are in a Norman Rockwell painting, its the perfect small town place! So Main Street had a Trick or Treat that night where you go to all the shops and restaurants and get candy and in the center of Main Street there was a Moving showing in the park, just grab a blanket an enjoy! What a great night....

Logan is SWAT man! Check out his Goody Bag made by Auntie Christine.

SCHOOL HALLOWEEN PARADE

At Logan's School they put on a Halloween parade for the parents to come and watch. The kids made their own masks. It was so cute!!

Logan in the Green Mask and Green shirt talking to his friend Serenity.

PUMPKIN CARVING

This is Lilly's first year of participating in Pumpkin Carving! We all went out and picked up some nice Pumpkins, Logan was a really big help in pumpkin selections and now we are ready to carve!

Logan and Lilly are ready!

FISHING DAY

David, the kids and I all went to Crest Lake park to have a picnic and do some fishing. It was such a wonderful day, the weather was perfect...
 a bit windy, but so nice. Logan caught a Fish and a Turtle!

David and Logan getting Logan's fishing pole set up and Lilly and I setting up the picnic.

WATER PARK

GLAZER CHILDRENS MUSEUM

AT THE PARK

FASHIONS WITH FLAIR

Logan was my date for the 9th Annual Fashions with Flair Silent Auction & Fashion Show and we had a wonderful time!!

THE BEACH

At pier 60 on Clearwater Beach there was a large sand sculpture built that David and I wanted to take the kids to see, while we were there we decided that we should all play in the water for a bit! Lots of Fun!!

PEDIPED CASTING

Pediped is having a Casting Call and just for the fun of it we decided to enter in the kids. Below are some of the photos that I took for the kids to enter in.

By the way, y'all will be able to vote as well! So be prepared for me to put it on my blog and email you as well as put it on face book, LOL! Voting wont be until Sept 21, 2011.

SCHOOL ROCKS

Logan thinks School Rocks and is loving every second he gets to be there. He has been learning a lot and is very proud to show y'all some of what he has learned.

This is the Sign for the letter A

CUTIES!!

BABY SIGNS

When Logan was just a little guy I purchased a "How To" on Baby Sign Language. Logan and I had a lot of fun with it and he still remembers almost all of the signs he learned. I started teaching Lilly Baby signs when she was around 5 months old, she is really great at it and loves that we get what she is trying to tell us, Logan also love to show / teach her signs that he already knows.

This week Lilly picked up another sign, this one is a bit difficult for little hands, but she makes it work and its so cute.

Below is the sign for more

Here is a video of Lilly showing the more sign

RANDOM

LOGAN LOVES SCHOOL

Logan has enjoyed his first week of school, every morning this week he has woken up excited to go to school and learn new things. There have been no more tears at drop off, he just hangs up his back pack and waves good bye to us and heads into class.

He has made some friends and has introduced me to his new girlfriend; Logan explained to me that she caught a lizard for him... LOL ahhh young love!

He likes both his teachers Miss Laura and Miss Yvonne, but Miss Yvonne is his favorite teacher, I think she is pretty awesome too.

Logan has already been learning so much!

This week he worked on the letter A and B. Below I scanned in some of his amazing work!

 

Logan explains "This is a Bear and starts with B, I got to use big boy Scissors and cut him out then I colored him and wrote my name"

Logan is practicing writing the letter B

LOGAN'S FIRST DAY OF PRE-K

For Logan this day couldn't have come any sooner, his first day of school. From the moment he woke up this morning till we finally got in the car he asked us over and over when would we leave to take him to school.

We arrived at the school Logan started to get a little nervous, but we made it to his class and checked everything out. Then it was time for David and I to leave Logan started telling me that he wanted to go home and he didn't want to stay. David and I told him that we would be back before lunch time to pick him up. That's when the tears started.... it broke my heart!

David and I hung out in the hallway to make sure Logan was ok with us leaving, we chatted with the schools director for a few minutes then she snuck into Logan's class room to check on him, he was doing just fine... no tears and he was watching what all the kids were up too. So since Logan was all settled in, David and I headed home, I called the school about an hour and a half later to see how Logan was doing, the school director told me that he was smiling and chatting with the teacher and have a great time. That made me so happy!!

Logan all ready to go to School!

Big smiles from my handsome boy!

  

back pack on and ready to leave....

this boy is excited!

Logan showing off his backpack

Looking good

He is about to explode, Mommy only wanted one more photo and he wants to leave for school

We have arrived at school...

Walking Logan into the school grounds

Bye Bye

Doors to Logan's classroom! Pre-K here we come!

Logan hanging up his backpack...

Right after I took this photo Logan told me "enough with the photos!"

So I took another one! LOL

Here is Logan's little desk and chair, this made me almost cry!

David and I picked up Logan after school, we were so excited to hear how his day went. When we go to school he saw us and smiled and waved, it was so cute! When the teacher said he could go he ran to us and gave us hugs and then started telling us all about his day. He said that he only cried for 6 minutes and then he listened to story time and played and he really likes his Teacher Miss Yvonne and he loves school and cant wait to go back tomorrow! I was so happy to hear all of that!!!

We then told Logan we were taking him out for lunch to celebrate his first day at school and he gets to pick where.... he chose McDonald's.

At McDonald's sitting on a train.

Checking out what toy he might get in his Happy Meal.

Happy with the toy he got!

Yummy french fries....