Christmas 2012

The holiday weekend started off with some baking in the kitchen with Natalie.  We made some chocolate fudge (as you are seeing her stir here, below), some chocolate mint cookies, and a sour cream coffee cake.  I used to make peanut butter fudge, but since the little guy is allergic, chocolate is where it's at.

 Two days before Christmas, Todd and Natalie decided they wanted to put up some Christmas lights on the outside steps and just as they were finishing up, Natalie fell down the steps and flat on her face, scraping up here nose real bad.  There was a LOT of blood, but at least it wasn't broken.  You'll see more of that in some of the pictures below.

After Christmas Eve mass, we always toss reindeer dust on the ground so that it will sparkle in the moonlight and the reindeer will find our house!  Then we ate Chinese food!

And of course, after bath time, daddy read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas!

You can definitely see her nose in this picture.  Ironically, it made her look like Rudolph so at least it was timely.  She drew a picture for Santa, and we left carrots for the Reindeer and a cookie for Santa.

 Grant is eyeballing the cookie.  Hmmm, I wonder if they'll notice if I eat that cookie!?!

 This is what it all looked like after Santa had been to our house.  Too many presents!

 In the morning, both kids really tore into their gifts.  For the next several days, Grant kept saying, "Can we open more presents?"  Santa brought him a lot of trucks, but apparently it was not enough! 

  More presents, it's starting to get messy in here!  After we opened presents, we went down to Plymouth for the night.

Here's Todd taking a family dinner self portrait.  With his mouth full.

Both kids got Dream Lites this year- Natalie got hers from Santa, and Grant got his from Grammi and Bean!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving Trip to Florida - Part III

 And we conclude our three-part series with the last few days of our Thanksgiving Trip to Florida.  

We are making it a tradition to go out in the boat and go to Frenchy's for lunch.  The kids did well this year- remember last year, Grant didn't go because he refused to put on his life vest?  Well, he put it on this year.  He whined a bit on the boat when Pop Pop went fast, but he did pretty good other than that.

Natalie loved every minute of it and sat up front with Daddy for the trip.

Grant was very excited to drive the boat with Pop Pop, even though he couldn't see over the steering wheel!!!

Silly faces with the turtle at Frenchy's!  It was so nice to sit in the open air restaurant - we certainly couldn't do this (comfortably!) in Massachusetts!

Nana and Pop Pop so graciously watched the kids for a night while Todd and I got a sweet deal at the new Hyatt on Clearwater Beach.  It was really, really nice!  They even gave us a cup of champagne when we got there!  

We went to the pool for a bit, had another beverage, and then read a little bit.  Then we came back to watch the sunset from our balcony!

After a beautiful sunset, Todd and I went out to dinner at Island Way Grill before going to Frenchy's on the beach and playing a little pool.  It was Monday night, so we were the only people in there!  

It was a great trip, and as usual, over too soon.  Hopefully we'll be able to get to Florida at some point over the summer, because this was our last year going there for Thanksgiving.  We had to take Natalie out of school for too many days in order for us to be able to afford the airfare.  So we'll have to start a new summer tradition!

Thanksgiving Trip to Florida - Part II

You know I always love to do these as a three-part series!

We took a bunch of pictures on the dock, but took most of the good ones with my dad's camera.  Here was a pretty decent one of the four of us.  Another beautiful Florida day!

With another beautiful Florida sunset to go with it!  I love my hometown!

And of course, a trip to Florida wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach.  Please notice I have a sweatshirt on.  

 And please note that we are the only people on the beach.  You may also notice that Natalie is playing in the water!  Water temps were in the 60s, but that didn't stop her!

 We collected shells, played in the sand, and little girl and daddy got in the water.  There were lots of waves on this particular day. 

And of course, dribble castles are a must!  At this point, Grant had put his jacket on.  Mommy and Grant are always cold, and Daddy and Natalie are always warm!  

Pop Pop and Natalie also did a little fishing off the dock.  Natalie actually caught her first fish ever!  A pin fish! Mommy caught her first fish (also a pin fish) in this very spot on the dock!

 Natalie, Pop Pop and her prize fish!

Thanksgiving Trip to Florida, Part I

Part I of the series begins with the 2012 Turkey Trot.  I, Colleen Bailey, being of sound mind and body... or not... decided this year to run my first ever 10K!

 I finished in 1:02:44.  And that was good for me.  About a 10 minute mile.  I'm okay with that.  I finished, and I only had a few water break stops.  I felt like I was crushing it.  Meanwhile, Brie finished with a 5 minute PR in 53 minutes.  And Uncle Rob finished in 48 minutes!  What?  A girl can dream.

Meanwhile, CoCo pushed Grant in the stroller for the Gobbler 1 miler.  Todd and Natalie walked, although by the end of the mile, Natalie was on Todd's shoulder.  1 mile ain't no joke.  

Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to hit up the 36th annual Thanksgiving dinner table.  What, what?!?!  And no... it's not paleo.  And that's okay.  There's corn.  And turkey.  And some noodles. 

Natalie, of course, enjoyed the rolls the most.  But I really took this picture to capture the essence of Nana's pretty Thanksgiving dinner table.  

 The day after Thanksgiving, Todd, Cory, Brie and I took the kids to Lowery Park Zoo.  My kids rarely take cute pictures together, but this one was pretty awesome.  CoCo Brie got Grant this little truck and he wouldn't leave it at home- he loved it!

All 4 of us went on the carousel and had a cute family photo.  And no Cory, my sunglasses aren't on crooked.

Next up was the train, which Grant was so excited to ride.  You can see Todd rode with Grant and Brie rode with Natalie.  When the conductor came by, he was giving high fives and he looked at Todd and Brie and said something to the effect of, "Hey mom and dad!"  which for some reason, I got the BIGGEST kick out of.  

And of course, you can't go to Lowery Park Zoo without going on the Tiger roller coaster, as Grant calls it! Above, you can see Todd holding on to Grant on the roller coaster.  This was his first roller coaster ride ever!  I like that Grant has his fingers in his ears, as if that was going to make it less scary.  And I particularly like CoCo-Nat in this one too.   Look ma, no hands!

BOO!   My best Gene Simmons impersonation.

They shared a moment in the middle of Gulf Boulevard once.  Now, it was a special moment with the rhinos.

At the end of the day, as we were about to leave, we stopped by the log flume ride.  Cory, Nat and I decided to take it for a whirl, and boy did we get drenched!  We took our best, "We are fierce and unafraid" picture afterward!   Natalie loved this ride... I think if she were just a *wee bit* taller, we'd totally be going to Busch Gardens!  She just loves crazy rides!

And of course, it's not a true LPZ experience without a closing bag of cotton candy!  It's so cute that she has like a partial cotton candy mustache going on here... but even funnier that I apparently have some on my face and I didn't even know it! 

Happy 7th Anniversary!

November 12 was our 7th anniversary, so I thought I would try to see if all of this CrossFit stuff is working (you know, after 2 and a half years of doing it) and try on my wedding dress.  

Well whaddaya know!  It still fits!  I mean, barely, but it barely fit on my wedding day so this isn't really a surprise!

Meanwhile, it does not fit Natalie yet, but isn't she so cute trying on my dress?  Someday kiddo!

Happy anniversary Todd!  I love you and I love our life!

Watercolors on a Warm Autumn Day

The day we came home from Plymouth after Grant's birthday party just happened to be a really warm day, so the kids took their paint sets outside to do some painting.  Grant got a new Lightning McQueen paint set from Nauni and he really wanted to use it just like Sissy does.  

Sky came out to keep Grant company while he was painting.

Natalie looks like a true artist here with her paint pallet and smock.  She painted the Disney Princesses with grass, sky, sun and birds.  Such a little artiste!

Grant's birthday weekend in Plymouth

Since Big Boy just started preschool, we thought a quiet birthday celebration in Plymouth with the family would probably be best for Grant's third birthday.  Just a couple of weeks after his birthday, we had a three day weekend for Veteran's Day (which just so happens to be the day before our anniversary, and the observed holiday this year WAS on our anniversary!) so we went down to Plymouth for a little party.  We had it on Sunday, and open presents during the Patriots game. Since it was our anniversary weekend, we even got some free babysitting and went out to dinner at the Rye Tavern, which was really good.  It was crazy getting there though- the road is a VERY bumpy dirt road and you half wonder whether wild animals or feral children are going to jump out of the woods that surround the road.  Kind of creepy, but the food was so good, that I hope we go back!

Grantie got lots of presents.  Nauni, LuLu, the four of us, Grammi, Bean, Seth and Aunt Betty were all there to celebrate.  KK went on a cruise with her friend Lynne, so we didn't get to see her but we know she had a drink for all of us!

Grant ripping open his brand new Big Wheels, just like Mommy and Daddy had when they were little.  OK, well, CoCo had a Big Wheels, but Mommy rode it too!  I didn't realize how big these things were.  There isn't even wrapping paper big enough to go around it!

How many generations of Bailey's does it take to put together a  Big Wheels?  Answer:  3!  Meanwhile, Grant was playing with a really cool Humvee that CoCoBrie got him that you can take apart and put back together using a toy (but really working) drill! 

Meanwhile, Nauni and Seth helped Grant open some NEW Lightning McQueen jammies and bath soaps!  He later ran out in them and said, "Look at my new jammies!" 

 

Aunt Betty got Grant a really cool firetruck puzzle that makes firetruck noises when you put the whole thing together!  He still needs a little help with this, but he really liked the sound of the firetrucks.  And of course, some books- we can never have too many of those!  Our favorite thing to do before bed is read a book (although Grant is getting good at the art of delaying bedtime by asking for two or sometimes three books!)

I ordered Grant's cake from the same place I ordered Natalie's birthday cake this year- at Bagel Bistro in Westborough.  Love the dump truck with the colored sprinkles coming out of the back of it!  He thought this was pretty awesome!

Here's Big Boy with his Godmother as he eats an ice cream cone with cookies and cream ice cream.  He devoured that one!

Here's Grant with Mommy and Daddy and his very cool birthday cake.  He's making his silly smile face, it's so cute when he does this!  It was a very successful birthday party!

Our Frogs

For Natalie's birthday back in June, Nana and Pop Pop got her some tadpoles, which we have grown into 5 little water frogs.  These guys are pretty cute.  For some reason, they remind me of Kermit.  When we came back from our Thanksgiving trip, our neighbors Steve and Jean had bought the kids a filtered tank (their Christmas present).  Holy cow, does it make these little guys easier to take care of!

Here is a pic of them in their old tank: