Packing Up

The house is close to being all packed. THANK YOU TOM for all your help!!! One more day and the movers will be here on Tues to take it all to 2 storage units in Orlando.

London Staging Area- Our bedroom is lined with suitcases. We get to take 10, with a 50 pound limit for each. Hope it all fits!!
Niki took these great photos with her new camera-



She's crawling!!! She's everywhere and loves to be able to move around. 6.5 months is a little early for me! Her sisters were crawling closer to 8 or 9 months. Does this mean she's going to walk sooner too???

Poor thing... fell asleep sitting.
Tomorrow we have to say goodbye to Daisy, Fate & Cheyanne. Tom is going to take care of our dog and cats for us. The cats are hating their collars. We'll all miss them.

Natalieism- "Why do you use a fancy 'a' when you email someone?" @

Christmas

We had a fabulous time visiting & celebrating Christmas with everyone in Sanford the past few days and I'll have to blog about it soon. But I wanted to share our Christmas morning with you all now.

As expected, we had a great morning! Here are the girls and Jason making Santa some chocolate chip cookies on Christmas Eve.


Ready and waiting for Santa to visit!


Listening to Granpa Tom read The Night Before Christmas.Valla woke up at 6:25am and was VERY excited to report to us that Santa had indeed visited. We tried to get her to lay with us a while to let Natalie get some more sleep. About 10 minutes later Val said she was going to go to her room to sleep...ha ha...she of course went to wake Natalie and Granpa Tom so we began opening around 6:45.

Christmas Natalieism- She looks under the tree and sees the piles of presents and says, "Wow...I guess I was good!"

The Aftermath!



L loves her Christmas Weeble Wobbles Santa brought her.

After an leisurely morning Jason and Valla worked on assembling her baking soda and vinegar powered rocket.

Natalie and her friend Olivia showing off her iron together bead creations.
1st Rocket Attempt

A few attempts later.....Success!

Unwelcome Visitor

The other night we had a visitor...

As I was getting into bed I was doing my regular check of the floor and along the wall for any creepy crawlies. On the side of my night stand where all the electrical wires are I noticed a new wire... look closely. You can click on any photo to enlarge it!



How did he get in our bedroom??!! Cats? Slithered 20 feet from doors that are kept closed?? I know it's Florida... but our bedroom...seriously?!

Busy Busy Week

Dress up outfits opened early from Granma Betty

Time is ticking away! Here's what we have in store for the next few weeks.

Dec 15- 19 Last week of school, hosting 2 kid parties here at the house, N's jazz class observation, Natalie is Mary in the school Christmas pagent!, Celebrate Jason's birthday on Thurs, Sign our house closing papers on Fri!!

Dec 19-24 Celebrate Christmas & visit with our families & friends in Sanford

Dec 24-25 Enjoy Christmas in Gville

Dec 26-29 Pack for London and then pack the rest of the house up

Dec 30 Movers come to move our things to a storage unit in Orlando

Dec 30- Jan 8 Hang out in Sanford and stay with family here and there... Oh and watch the Gators win their 3rd Nat'l Championship when they beat Oklahoma.

Jan 9th- Fly to London!

People have asked will I still blog in London- I hope too! Like much of our visit... our tech situation and internet availability are UNKNOWN!

Our days in Gville are numbered. It's sad to think it's really over, but I always viewed this home and town as temporary. We've tried to take advantage of the neat things about Gainesville-

• Attended UF Gator Volleyball, Gymnastics, Swimming & Diving, Baseball, Football, & Basketball events
• Tubed down the Ichnatucknee River (still can't pronounce it!)
• Saw a play at the Hippodrome Theatre
• Ate at Satchel's
• Ate at Leonardo's
• Visited the Butterfly Festival
• Went to the Fl Nat'l History Museum- lots of times...N & V love the cave!
• Went to the Harn Museum of Art- kids didn't like
  
• Watched a ballet at the Performing Arts Center
• Listened to the UF Choiral Christmas Concert- kids didn't like
• Ate dinner and went to free movie night at the Reitz Student Union
• Painted on the 34th Street Wall
• Went to the Downtown Art Festivals
• Felt way too old while dining on Archer Rd establishments!
• Watched thousands and thousands of bats fly over our heads from the UF bat house
• Regularly saw protesters, lots of dreadlocks & Hare Krishnas
  
• Went to UF Homecoming Parades
  

Natalieisms-

• "I know what the President does... he keeps the whole world healthy."

V- "With Daisy Girl Scouts we're going to sing at the 'Old Lady Place.'" Nursing Home- get it... nurses are usually ladies."

Every night L watches us eat dinner from her walker. Every night she watch us drink from the big red plastic cups. She finally got her hands on her own!

N's Masterpiece!

Our House at Night

V & Dad went fishing with Girl Scouts on a chilly morning. And look close... she lost a front tooth!!

Our very fashionable, hip, and chic kitty cat... Cheyanne!

Dec 5

We now have a place to live in London starting Jan 10th! Check out our house-http://www.foxtons.co.uk/SH/chpk0141718 It's about 5 miles or a 30 minute tube (subway) ride to central London.

Here's the girls and their friend Madison singing to the HSM karaoke Wii game.



Lauren is up on all fours now rocking and rollin'. She scoots backwards




For some reason, Daisy is really bothered by the song Sweet Escape. Take a look....



Natalieisms:

• She came into my room at 3:30am and as I was walking her back to her room I asked her why she'd gotten up and come in. She answered, "Because I want to be by you Mom."

• When N finds a coin on the ground she'll pick it up and say it's her lucky day. Natalie, "Grandma Betty has been really lucky." Me, "Why do you think she's been lucky?" Natalie, "Because she has so many pennies." (Grandma Betty, like most grandparents, has a big jar of coins at her house!)

• You know how candy canes come secured in a box? N asked, "Can I take the candy canes out of their stable?"

• I was sending out Jason's mother's birthday card and N asked, "Are you gonna give her cash?!"

• "Mom, did you know we're on TV right now?" "No, we're not Natalie." "Yes, Mom, we're on TV." "Then where is the camera taking our picture?" PAUSE "Oh, soooo we're not on TV right now?"

• Natalie was talking to her teacher and her teacher was saying how it was neat that Natalie has both a big sister and a little sister. Natalie replies, "Yep, I'm the medium one!"
  

Boffey Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

November's End

L loved sucking on a turkey bone while we finished getting dinner ready.

Vallarie dressed up her & Nat's American Girl dolls for Thanksgiving. Her and I made the cornecopia last week.


Natalie's class had a Thanksgiving parade. She had made a turkey hat!

Valla made a little bed in L's closet and brought her in there to camp out!


It's so funny what will make a baby laugh...

Natalieisms-

• "Mom, I want to wear that shirt that keeps my neck safe." ........ a turtleneck!

Anyone familiar with Gainesville is familiar with the 34th St Wall. It's a concrete wall that is constantly being painted by anyone who chooses to. Over the years we've seen memorials, artwork, marriage proposals, ads, & tons of other messages. Now we've made our mark on the wall!

The girls were so excited to paint what ever they wanted. Lauren slept in the car while we painted. Both V & N left their handprints and we are now forever part of the 34th St Wall!!

(ps- You might notice Jason has no shirt on. We forgot the paint shirts for the girls, so Valla wore a towel with a whole cut out and Nat wore Jason's shirt while they painted. He's usually not a shirtless painter!)