The baby is no longer a baby...Julianna turns 4!!!

Sally(as she is affectionately called) turned 4 on March 30!! Wow, wow, wow! We have been blessed to have her in our family bringing joy and laughter for 4 years. She is fun, affectionate and a little sassy. We had a great day celebrating her life.

the birthday girl... up bright and early to open presents before Daddy goes to work

beach toys

thrilled with her iPod shuffle and baby clothes
I know, what 4 year old gets a shuffle?
A spoiled one, whose older siblings each have one!

Julianna and her great friend Gracie

took the kids to the Children's Museum~
playing store here

Arianna checking them out

being firemen

Mommy and the birthday girl, and the cake

beautiful hat from Gracie

Arianna turns 10!!

Our sweet Arianna turned double digits on March 9!! Where, oh where has the time gone? 10 more years and she could be off to college~YIKES! But for now we are enjoying having her, watching her develop her interests and talents and watching her mature. She is a joy to have as a daughter. Love you sweetie. She invited her friends over for a party. I took them all swimming for a while and we had pizza and coke floats and enjoyed the birthday cupcakes. The girls had a blast together.

making party favors~ bath salts

Arianna excited with her present...a camera

a towel she has been wanting for a while~
bought it with her money from Oma

we went out for lunch with Daddy to the Hibachi grill

Arianna and Asher

Daddy and the birthday girl!

mommy and Julianna

Arianna opening her presents from her friends...
can't have too many Webkinz!

Arianna and her friends

Cor-Boy turns 35!!

On March 3rd Cor turned 35!! We celebrated a day early since our friends were visiting.

the birthday boy with his favorite cake~
Black Forest Cake covered with whipping cream

we are all having fun!

watching Cor make Coke floats
I remember my mom treating us to these when I was young, everyone loved them!

Cor enjoying his present~Guitar Hero!!
a very captive audience watches

and we saved one gift for the morning
a Gator coozie!!

We enjoyed celebrating Cor's birthday!

Visiting friends in Orlando

Last weekend we visited our friends from Canada in Orlando! It was so much fun to see John & Wendy and their 3 kids again. It had been 4 years since we saw each other. I was 8 months pregnant with Julianna. Time is a funny thing, especially with friends. It dissolves, immediately we were catching each other up on different things, and carrying on where we left off 4 years ago. It didn't take long...20 minutes for Julianna and Caleb to be friends. I hope she is a little more discerning later in life!:)

I really think John set Cor up for this!
Cor knows I'm not a fan of his silliness, but now I humor him and take his picture!

nothing better than water

looks like Caleb he's stirring the pot, and wondering where his little girlfriend went

our 2 families
Lauren(16), Caleb (4) Julianna (3) Asher(7)
Arianna (9) and Karissa (13)

someone commented that our children were really well behaved in the restaurant
I thanked Cor for "showing me proud"!

my precious, precious kids
the time is ticking, their getting so big

OTHER FUN:

Julianna and Gracie at Gracie's 4th birthday

sisters,
the older Arianna gets the more 'mothering' she is to Julianna
it's really quite a sweet thing to see

at a great park in St. Augustine, it's surrounded by great oak trees which is great in the summer but very cold in the winter...I was very, very cold

Uncle Cor with the triplets
twin nephews and a niece

The floors are finished...

The floor were finished just before Christmas. We haven't done any more home improvements since. We plan to put tile in all the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room, and new baseboards through out the house. Lots of work and a some cash, so it will all take time. If you haven't heard the news yet...Cor's helper is pregnant, so who knows when all this will get done. Thankfully, the hardwood is done!

hallway to the kids bathroom and bedrooms

front foyer looking into the dining room

from the front foyer looking into the family/great room

living room

hallway into the master bedroom

dining room

hallway into the guest room off of the great room

great room

It was a lot of work, more work than I ever thought, but so worth it. Sorry for the redundancy in some of the pictures, I don't have the energy to sort through them. (We did buy some area rugs which were not purchased before the pictures were taken)

Christmas Holidays

We headed North for Christmas...North Carolina. We arrived on Christmas morning and left again at noon on Saturday. Quick, fun trip.
Some of the highlights of the holiday season included:

- gorgeous weather on Christmas Day,
- a competitive game of Bocce Ball with the family
- candle light dinner
- playing card games
- hanging around with no agenda or time schedule
- seeing Leigh Beth again (my nephew's girlfriend)
- playing around with makeup with my nieces
- watching the kids having a blast with their cousins
- shopping with Wilma
- Starbucks runs
- the long trip home, traffic was horrible
- the joy of being with family
- skeet shooting/deer hunting
- eating bear...a cute little black bear
- chocolate letters and dropjes from Oma
- exchanging gifts with Cor and kids
- visit with Bob & Jenette, playing poker to the late hours of the evening
- having Bernie and Patricia over for a night

teaching Asher

being tickled by Caeser...Greg & Corrie's lovebird

I bought Cor the magazine Car & Driver for Christmas...he was pleased to say the least!

Fun Christmas Preparations

kids setting up the tree, the kids decorate the tree this year. I just rearranged some of the ornaments at were hitting the ground :)

so darn cute

making/decorating sugar cookies

Asher decorating the eyes and nose on the gingerbread men

Arianna decorating the buttons

Cor putting in the hardwood

our three cuties