Christmas in Florida

In St. Augustine, they have set up an ice skating rink, reindeer homes, christmas games and beautiful lights. Lets just say that coming from the north, well, lets just say that we probably stayed for about 45 minutes. Actually, it was kind of neat because it was the coldest night that we had for about 2 weeks and so it set the mood.

The other Jill and Ryan with Grayson and Maren came too (Ryan's dad was in town, so he came too) he lives in Ohio... he thought is was funny too!

Afterwards we went to downtown St. Augustine and had pizza had a local diner!

Baby Maren

The Butlers at the Christmas lights

Christmas Playdate

Cameron and Scarlett eating their lunch!! I think Scarlett is interested in the bagel!!

Some of the kids piled on the table to eat!!

We had a great time trying to stack on the kids on the couch... we didn't quite get them all on but that was ok, we had a great day at Beckahs and the kids had a blast!! We exchanged books and Scarlett received a "nighttime story"book.

I thought i would add a few more shots of the behind the scenes photos!!

Then we tried to have Jeslyn take pictures of the mommy's!!!

Scarlett loved opening presents!!

Abby and Scarlett opening their books...they loved them!!

Ok... too funny! So a couple of kids including Scarlett went tinkles on the potty. SOOO, Trista (2 1/2) had to go too...she refused to get up until she went. Tara (who is due in about 3 weeks) was a little exhausted of sitting in the bathroom for a LONG time.

Giddy Up!!

The Ronks decorating the Gingerbread house!! Scarlett just loved it, she loved it so much that we felt that we needed one tooo... so we went and bought one and we plan on eating it on Christmas Day!!

Grayson and Jill very busy and focused.... G-man was actually eating A LOT of the candy!!

All of us together...decorating the gingerbread house!!

Beautiful baby maren!!

Scarlett in Maren's bedroom playin with her doll set. She is giving the bears a tea-party!!

For her birthday, Scarlett received Strawberry Shortcake, then she just got a bunch of bottles and the whole nine yards...she was pumped and was a very good little girl that night....she was BUSY!!

Christmas

We had our first Christmas today with the other Jill and Ryan. We thought since we really didn't have much other family in the area we would start a little tradition. (ok, we have no family in the area, so we pretend). Anyways, we ordered wings from Houligans (since that is where we met them) and we had lots of appetizers and yummy food. The best part was letting Grayson and Scarlett decorate the gingerbread house.

As for pictures: I don't plug my camera into my computer everyday to download (i know i am lazy) so pictures will probably appear on these posts days after!

Thoughts for the day:
- I have a Christmas Party on monday with all of my friends from Scarlett's playdate, and I miss them so much because since I am working in the morning at the preschool we dont' get to see them on a regular basis (although some of the work too).

- I have decided that i have about 2 more gifts for Ryan to get.

- Ryan is suppose to go to his welcome visit on monday to the dentist and just told me he is taking people out to eat...ahhh, this is the 3rd time i have had to cancel, they are going to kick us out of that office! (between me and you, and you know all of my teeth problems, i like to keep the teeth guys happy). I can't ever schedule an appointment because he is always travelling last minute and then i have to cancel and we won't keep rambling on.

- we miss our family, especially around this time!

We babysat for the other Jill and Ryan while they went to a Christmas party for the school. We have been bound and determined to have Scarlett love McDonalds food.... SO.... we took Grayson (baby Maren) and Scarlett to McDonalds to play! They loved the playground and they had so much fun. Scarlett ate half of her burger. She attempted to eat some fries but really just pretended to eat them as she dipped them into ketchup (which my dad taught her to like) and she licked the ketchup off.
Phase 1 McDonalds finished!!

At the house, they preceded to make a complete mess!! They worked very hard on their artwork until it was time for night-night!!

Shopping

I started and pretty much finished TODAY!! I dropped Jenna off at the airport in Jax, to go to Ohio. She is from Courthouse, Oh and we will miss her for the two weeks she will be up north.

As for me, I feel that I had much therapy done today. As my favorite thing to do is shop, it was quite interesting as I didn't buy one thing for me...ok, i almost broke down and bought a new Coach bag... BUT, i didn't.

We watched Grayson and Maren in the evening, while the other Jill and Ryan went to a work Christmas party. We all cashed out on the couch and watched Scarlett's favorite movie, Frosty the Snowman!!

Scarlett's Christmas Show at school was such a hit!! We had so much fun. Incase you don't know which one she is... she is the farthest to the right! Steve (our next door neighbor has more and better pictures... Ryan was only able to take about 3 while using the video camera). More to come!!

Scarlett's Show

I will be posting pictures from Scarlett's Christmas Concert. I am so excited, she did so good and so did ALL of the other kids in her class (17 to be exact).

Ryan came home and it was so nice to have him back in town. We went over to Ruthie and Stevees...(as Scarlett calls them) we had a nice neighborhood christmas party. We love visiting with our neighbors, sometimes they are in and out for months, so its hard to stay up to date!!

bad day or good day... you decide

Great day!! Ryan is coming home tonight!

Bad day!! Scarlett would not stop fussing! (i think she knows that her Binky is going to be taken from her this weekend... she really only sleeps with it but it is killing me) I can't imagine putting her to sleep without it..so here it the plan.

Let her go to sleep with it... then, creep in later and take it out and then she will never miss it...right!! Well, i think it will work, i am just not sure about putting her in the crib and her magically falling asleep in 5 minutes... i think we are lazy, we will see!!

TO be continued...

Bad Day!! Scarlett would not stop fussing! Maybe its because we have heaping boxes at the door for Christmas (yes, thank you for spoiling us) and she wants to open them, because SOMEONE said oh, look it says your name and she points to it. hey, at least she can recognize her name (or at least the S)

To be continued...

Bad Day!! Scarlett would not stop fussing! I love to blame it on teething!!

Bad Day!! Scarlett would not stop fussing! She officially stands at the door and says dada and puts her hands up like seriously "where is he" (i don't think ryan reads this blog, so he wont know that actually his daughter thinks he has left us...lol...ok that is not funny) he really would be heart broken to know this..

Bad Day!! Scarlett would not stop fussing! All i wanted to do was take her to Target and the book store (since we just became with the times and have a Target within a 40 mile radius) to look around at the toys, maybe pick up a few things and just hang out at the bookstore... we may as well been kicked out of the bookstore! (i did get ryan a christmas present... believe it or not, in the 15 minutes that i was able to LOOK as Scarlett demolished the place. have you ever pretended that you weren't sure who made the mess, that was so not me tonight... i was like who took all those books off that shelf... needless to say the spanking in the car, didn't help as I went on to Target, well, we won't get into that, I should have just know, today was not a good day!!

Bad Day will turn better... it is 10:38 p.m.... Ryan should be home by 11:00... if his plane was on time!!

Diet Coke

I have now went from drinking 4 cans of diet coke to 8 small cans of diet coke. So coming next week, i am going to drop to 4 small cans of diet coke which equals 2 big cans of coke. But, don't worry, the advantage is I can spread out the love throughout the day instead of guzzling it down within 5 seconds. Actually as I am writing this post I am thinking it may as well be my New Year's Resolution.

I think I get it honestly....
My dad = Pepsi
my mom = water
my older sister Amy = Pepsi
my brother Doug... i am not sure what he is drinking... coffee or probably water
Jill = see that is the problem ...do you see the pattern
my sister Joy, well, she is pregnant, so she is drinking water
my brother Curt, well, I won't say what he is drinking but its probably water too (actually he has a water tower in his back seat) when my hubby saw Curt's back seat he wasn't sure what was going on.... he must recycle everyone's water bottle

So, you might ask, why am I not drinking water, well, I am having a hard time coming to the thoughts of it but I think right now I will work on the 4 small cans of diet coke first.

Thoughts of the day:
I seriously could have been sun bathing today...it was hot!
Rachel (our wonderful babysitter) came over and watched Scarlett while I tutored some kids.
Christmas is only 8 days away.
Jenna's birthday is on Thursday... so we are having a little party for her... SURPRISE.
I have my christmas cards ready but I forgot to print my labels before Ryan left this week, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to hook my laptop up to his printer..grr... maybe everyone will get them by valentines day!! I know I am lazy!!

Life in the middle of Dec.

I think I buy our dentist his Christmas Vacation every year, no matter where I am. I am not sure if its...
- the diet coke i drink non stop
- the fact that i brush my teeth all the time
- its christmas and the last thing i want is tooth pain
- ryan is gone all week and i really can't spend all week in the dentist
- scarlett's christmas concert is this week at school and if I miss it i will be bummed
- scarlett and i really need to go shopping for daddy and the dog
- oops i forgot ... don't have a dog yet!!

Seriously... its teeth... it rates right up with labor pains.

This weekend, we have a neighborhood dinner at Ruth and Steves... Scarlett loves ruthie and steve, she waves to them every morning before school ( i tell her that they are sleeping) so she waves and then says shhhhh... (if she only knew)... we are having a nice little party with everyone that has supported us so much in the past year or so that we have been here...then on saturday we are going to St. Augustine to check out the SNOW... yep i said snow... see they have this indoor theater that produces fake snow (at least i think so...lol) anyways, we are going to spend some time sled riding, roasting marshmellows and so on.

My Masters

I have left some great people and best friends in Ohio. I have moved to Florida and decided I need to make the best of life since I am living here for a while. I really have the best of both worlds. The girls here in the state of Florida really surprised me when I walked in to have sushi the other night and was greeted with an encore of girls singing, as I walked the platform graduating in my pink high heel shoes that I was suppose to wear to Ashland University. I officially have my masters in adminstration. Someday I plan to use it... i will tell you about my hubby's gift later. Anyways, above is a picture of me walking the runway.

Picture Of my PINK SHOES that one of my bestest friends(aka Trick POny... aka Nicki) bought for me to walk in graduation in!! I just love them and the girls got a kick out of them.

A dear friend, Melissa (a teacher) made this dipolma for me with pink heels and it even said Ashland...how they remembered??? (the other Jill was behind this all)

Of course, i had to post the girls!! They are all so wonderful and I am honored to have met each of them!! Thank you for a wonderful memory!!!

OH, about my gift from my hubby. As most of you know someday I would like to open my own preschool. It has been my dream (unless Obama makes it become part of our public school systems) anyways, I want to run a top of the line, awesome authentic education center where students can express many different ways of learning. So in the past few weeks we have discussed purchasing the old schoolhouse (located in Ohio) on the corner of 585 and benner. Anyways, we have went in on the purchase and now own it, along with my brother, my dad and grandpa! It has a house and an awesome schoolhouse on it. However, and I say However, if its not the best interest in the future to open a preschool then we will make that decision then. Until then, my hubby is still wondering where his simple flatscreen tv is (it has been put behind my awesome kitchen table, my kirby sweeper, our schoolhouse, and i am thinking a pool heater (especially in dec( would be nice) OH, and i forgot, I am getting a new SUV. Poor Ryan..

Rockin around the tree

So we officially have three trees in our little house. Scarlett has her own in her room and she has attempted to decorate it herself. We have had so much fun. She loves trees, presents, snow and especially Frosty the snowman.

Scarlett's Party

Scarlett had pizza and cupcakes at school with all of her little friends for her birthday!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Scarlett!!

love mommy and daddy

December

Getting back into the swing of things can sometimes be hard... especially when you are unpacking after about 3 weeks of traveling...aka Ryan. First, he took Scarlett up to Ohio in the middle of November, then I met him for the week and half of Thanksgiving and then directly from Ohio he flew to well... where ever he went.

Anyways, needless to say 4-5 suitcases later, by the 15th of December I am finally half way caught up and he is gone for the week again. Oh, well... Smuckers does treat him well, actually really well, besides all the traveling.. I guess Scarlett and I could go with him, but i want her on some type of routine. She really does love planes and hears them quicker then any of us.

The first week back was busy, as Scarlett and I were back to school. We had a playdate on Thursday with Landon (Candy came too... it was just girls)... her hubby is gone too..lol... except just a skip away at the hospital doing surgeries.

We had a party for Scarlett at school for her birthday and then we had a low key little birthday her at the house...just the three of us. We figured one party was good enough.

Happy Birthday to Dylan and Hayley... as they were born the same time as Scarlett, in the same hospital, by the best of friends.

Chuck E Cheese

Well, we took Scarlett to Chuck E Cheese when picking daddy up from the airport!! We had so much fun watching Scarlett carry her little cup with her tokens in it. She didn't want to spend them. I am trying to upload a video, but i may just attach a link to youtube.

Not sure if i already blogged this but found this picture (scarlett)... it is pretty bad when your two year old throws a tantrum at the gate check because she wants to take off her shoes. Ryan thought she was mad because one show was off, but actually she took one off and couldn't get the other off...she was furious... because she is a big girl now and thinks she knows what she is doing!!