Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my mom's house again this year- it's much easier to go somewhere else when you have two small children running around! Tammy joined us with her husband, his daughter Haylie, and their son, Brody.

The kids made the leaves we used as part of the centerpiece at storytime at the museum earlier in the week. The brown one is Michaels.

The yellow one is Laurens.

Lauren and Haley playing a princess gem fishing game.

Lauren loves to take a "little" shower at my moms (the shower head comes off so she calls it little) Michael enjoyed joining her tonight!

What a LONG day!!!

After a LONG night of shopping and a VERY LONG day with the kids- the plan was for me to come home, my mom would be picking up Lauren for the day and I would get to sleep while John entertained Michael. That plan did NOT happen. I walked in the door as my mom arrived for Lauren. Shortly after my mom left with Lauren, John got a phone call and had to leave for work. This meant I had been up for well over 24 hours and was now left to care for my extremely active one year old... I knew this was NOT going to be good. I thought maybe I could sit on the couch and relax for a few minutes.. WRONG- I fell asleep right away- thankfully the phone rang and woke me up- I got up, packed up Michael and off were were to the park to meet up with my mom and Lauren. We spent some time there then went back to their house for lunch with Marc's daughter Michele and her family who were in town and visiting (this is the only good thing about getting no sleep... I really wanted to see her and the kids). After lunch I brought both kids home for naps and took a short (hour and a half) nap myself and then I was up again to take the kids to the Mizner Park Tree Lighting with John, my mom, Marc, Amanda, Jon, and their kids.

John dressed Michael for the occasion in his "Pop Pop shirt"

Lauren and Nams on the train ride (Michael didn't go on this year- after the experience on the hayride for Halloween we decided next year will be better)

Sand Art- you can see where she spilled the sand on her skirt!

Some help from Daddy.

Lauren is still not a fan of the fireworks.

Michael on the other hand had no problem with them!

John and I got to sit in on the picture with Santa since neither of the kids were fans of him.

Black Friday!

There is no way I could possibly let a good sale pass me by so out I went for black Friday shopping! Yes, I am one of those crazy people who was out on Thursday night and traveled from store to store until Friday morning. I left at 7:30pm Thursday right after the kids went to bed and arrived home at 9:30am Friday! I had a lot of fun with good friends and am already looking forward to next years adventure!

Miami Seaquarium

My mom got free tickets to the Miami Seaquarium from a charity event she attended and offered them to me and my friends- ofcourse we jumped on the opportunity since its normally almost $40 a ticket for anyone over 3. So, Amanda and I piled our four kids into her moms car and drove down and Courtney met us there with her 2 kids. I'm glad the tickets were free because it is definitely not worth the amount they charge for the tickets but it was worth it for free! The kids had a lot of fun. Michael was a total mess during all the shows- he did not want to sit still but besides that he was good too :)

Ready to go- Michael and Alex being younger got the middle so we could hand them stuff during the drive. Lauren and Nathan were given a snack and a sippy cup before we started driving and were left to entertain eachother which they had no problem doing.

Lauren and Nathan watching the dolphin show

Michael wanted in on standing on the railing too.

The whole group minus Michael who I'm sure was trying to run off somewhere when I took this picture. (From left to right: Alex, Lauren, Taylor, Hudson, and Nathan)

Enjoying the show

We let the kids play in the park before we left- we didn't bring bathing suits thinking we wouldn't need them but they didn't care.

Some of the boys at the play area had taken their shirts off and Lauren felt the need to join them.

Lauren's 1st Trip to the Circus

I took Lauren to the circus tonight for the first time. She LOVED it! John got one free adult ticket and a bunch of free kids tickets at work so I jumped on the opportunity for a free night out. We knew that Michael wouldnt last long and the show didnt start until 7pm which is his bedtime so John stayed home with him. We met my friend Ashley, her husband, their daughter Hannah who Lauren gets along great with, and her in-laws at there. I was surprised how well Lauren did with the whole thing considering we didnt get home until almost 10 pm but she was amazing the whole time!

On our way! (For some reason Lauren likes riding in Michael's carseat when he's not with us)

So excited.

Lauren kept looking at the ground- I told her to look up so I could take her picture and this is what I got!

Hannah and her Daddy.

She was getting cold so she put on my jacket.

She fell asleep as we pulled in the driveway!