A Niceville Family Christmas

Oh, where to start, where to start? Let's just say Amelia's second Christmas and her baby cousin Jacob's first Christmas was exactly how you would imagine a Christmas with a 23-month old girl and 8-month old boy. Nobody slept a lot at night, (luckily, the naps were somewhat in sync) everybody ate too much good food, and there were PRESENTS. Boy, were there presents. That Santa dude can find ANYONE in the world!

Here are are some of the highlights of our holiday.

1) Amelia's new tricyle which she LOVES, even though her legs are just a little too short yet. She also likes to wear her helmet and kneedpads when she rides, or should I say when she gets pushed around on her bike. Either way, it was love at first sight. Thank you so much Meemaw and Grandpa Larry.

2) Hanging out with "Baby Jake," as Amelia calls Jacob. "Baby Jake" has a nice ring to it, which must be why Amelia likes to talk about him. They took baths together, went to see Santa together, rode in the backseat of the car togehter with their car seats facing each other, ate french fries together and sometimes played together. It was adorable. Jacob is the sweetest little boy, who is already walking! (Can you believe it?) As you can see, Jacob wasn't crazy about Santa but Amelia really grew to like the big guy in the red suit.

3) Going for a "choo choo train," ride. I'm not sure if the highlight was the train ride or the "nice lady," who gave Amelia a lollipop at the end of the ride. Amelia talked for days about that "nice lady," and on the trip home to Ocoee ate TWO WHOLE lollipops that Daddy supplied her with.

4) Did I mention the presents? There were so many that we had to stop in the middle of opening them to eat breakfast. That's a lot of presents. Even then, it was overwhelming for Amelia so we saved several for her birthday. She is a lucky girl to have had such a wonderful Christmas this year. And a big thank you to Auntie Stacey for documenting the holiday with these photos!

A Very, Merry Christmas

Merry, merry Christmas everyone! (I'm posting this a little early because tomorrow we're headed up to Niceville for a Lusk family Christmas.)

Tracy took these absolutely adorable Christmas photos of Amelia Marie a few weeks ago in nearby downtown Winter Garden, which has an excellent Christmas display. As you can see, Amelia LOVES having her picture taken by Tracy. She was not crazy about getting dressed up in her turtle neck and courdoroy Christmas dress on a warm Florida evening, though. She was sweating by the end of the photo shoot!

These photos say it all. Here's hoping that Christmas this year brings you as much joy and happiness as Amelia brings us every day. We can't imagine life without our little girl who has a smile as big as her heart.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Baby!

On Saturday we went to see Santa at the mall and we weren't exactly sure how this would go. Before the visit we knew that Amelia LOVED Santa in two dimensions - in books, on Christmas decorations, on lawn decorations - but we weren't quite sure how she would handle him IN PERSON. Of course, she was a champ. She had to sit on his lap for what seemed like forever while we waited for the guy to fiddle with his camera. She just sat there patiently like such a big girl while Santa talked to her and managed a small smile when it came time for the photo. Later, when I asked what Santa had talked to her about she said, "Elmo!" No wonder she smiled for the camera.

Ready for My Close-Up!

Dear Auntie Tracy,

Thank you for showing me this cute pose. I'm going to do it in all my pictures now! You photographers have such great ideas sometimes.

Love, Amelia

Baby, It's Cold Outside. Sort of.

The closest thing Amelia has gotten to snow in her short life is a little hill of crushed ice thanks to the folks at Barnes & Nobles and their annual "Snow Day." We went Saturday and it was "snow" much fun! We got there early before all the snow melted (I think it was actually in the 80s that day) and Amelia and Daddy went sledding. Once. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

We also saw Curious George, who have Amelia a hug huge. She was fascinated by him, calling out over and over: "Curious George the monkey! Curious George the monkey!" That morning, she had just read her Curious George book so she must have been thinking, "Wow! He's actually REAL!"

Happy Turkey Day!

Guess who loves pumpkin pie? Especially homemade pumpkin pie. You guessed it. Amelia.
She wasn't so crazy about the turkey or mashed potatoes. And once again, she dramatically threw her green beans on the floor. Had she tasted them, she would have loved them, I'm sure!

All this delicious home cooking was courtesy of Jason's parents, Meemaw Barbara and Grandpa Larry, who came to visit for Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful time and Grandpa Larry got to read SO MANY books to Amelia, which she LOVED. She also showed off her mad sliding skills at the park and celebrated Meemaw's birthday with a singing Elmo balloon and red velvet cake. Oh, and guess who loves red velvet cake? Yup. Our little sweetie pie.

We'll see them again at Christmas at their house in Niceville and something tells me their will be no shortage of holiday goodies there!

Hello, Mickey! (And Minnie and Donald and Goofy!)

It has been SUCH a busy, happy month for little Miss Amelia - full of adventures, celebrations and generally a good time. Thus, the lack of new entries on the blog.

Last month, we went to Disney's World Magic Kingdom with friends Maite and Cha Cha (who kindly invited us) Kristin and Ava and Julie and Haley. Amelia is at the age where she can finally enjoy a few hours with her Disney friends! We got to see Mickey Mouse and friends dance and sing in front of Cinderella's castle (or "big house" as Amelia calls it) and ride several rides.

Among Amelia's favorite rides were "It's a Small World," which actually has some dolls from Thailand - pictured here - and the Dumbo ride where she and I flew in an elephant. Amelia loves elephants and loves flying so of course she loved a flying elephant ride! (I took the photo here after we landed. Don't worry. She didn't go alone.)

All the girls were so patient waiting in the lines to get on the rides and walking around in the heat. They seemed to notice the characters, too, but we didn't get close enough to get any pictures with them.

To round out the day, on our way back to the car, we saw the space shuttle racing across the clear, blue sky. It had launched just seconds earlier from the Kennedy Space Center. It's so cool to see the shuttle when it goes up and was a perfect way to end our totally tourist day in Central Florida!