Saturday, February 18, 2017

Photo Friday 2017 ~ Weeks 6 & 7

We have a dog!  I seriously never in a million years thought I would have a dog.  But years of relentless begging by my dog loving daughter and here I am.  Technically it's her dog, but she's already starting to feel like our dog.  The last couple of weeks have been busy around here trying to figure out how to do life with a dog.  Her name is Buffy.  I love her name!  It was originally gonna be Roxy, but Buffy won out and I'm glad it did.  I like how it's so girly, but then it has a tough connotation to it because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I let my girl watch Season 1 of that show recently so I think that's what sealed the deal.  

We got Buffy from a breeder in Orlando.  She's a 4 year old Golden Yorkie and they were retiring her.  She was living in a house with a fenced yard and another little Yorkie, so the first week here was hard for her with being on a leash for the first time and having to be taken outside and down the stairs to go potty.  Also, they spoke Spanish at her old house so we weren't even sure she understood any of our commands at first.  We are two weeks in now and she's doing pretty great though!  She's even liking her crate and she already has her spots where she likes to hang out during the day.  She's claimed the bean bag in my girl's room as her spot in that room and we refer to her as queen bee when she sits there because she's so little in it.  She has a little pillow that we put by our sliding glass door and she likes to hang out there when we are all in the living room.  She mostly just follows my girl wherever she goes.  She's definitely her person.  I'm second favorite and the boys she's not too sure of yet.  

My criteria for getting a dog were pretty ridiculous and I wasn't sure we'd ever get one because of it.  I wanted a Yorkie or a Maltese that was not a puppy, already house trained, and small enough to carry around and take places with us.  If it was a Yorkie it had to have stick up ears, and it needed to not be too old, not bark too much, and pretty much be the cutest, most perfect dog you've ever seen.  So, yeah, I was being difficult, but it turns out I got everything on my list.  Buffy is pretty much perfect!  We love her and although life was definitely easier and cheaper without her, we are getting used to it.  I've taken a ton of photos of her with my phone, she even already has her own Instagram account.  

Here are some photos I snapped of her with my good camera yesterday.  Confession...I tried to cut her hair myself and it was an epic fail.  So we will be taking her to the groomer soon for a cuter cut.   And the people we got her from had cut the hair right between her eyes before we got her so we have to wait for that to grow out too.  She's already cute as is, but she'll be even cuter soon!  
  


Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Surprise!

For my girl's 13th birthday her two best friends from Ohio flew down to surprise her!  We let her fly to Ohio last year to surprise one of them for a birthday (so fun!) and so they decided to do the same for her.  They had been planning it for months and I was so afraid that my girl would find out about it since there were so many opportunities for one of us to accidentally let it slip, but she had no idea.  I told my girl that I was meeting a friend for dinner to talk about the women's retreat at our church, but really I went to the airport to pick them up.  Then on the way home from the airport we were trying to figure out if we should all just walk into the house or what.  We decided to see if we could get her to come down to the car so I called her and told her I was coming home to pick up some paperwork from last year's retreat and I needed her to bring it down to the car for me.  The girls and their mom all hid behind other cars and when she got close to me they jumped out.  She was so shocked!  It was so fun to surprise her!  

They stayed for a whole week and we had such a fun time together.  They took a million selfies and bought matching pj's.  They entertained us with nightly dance performances and we went to the beach twice.  A trip to the mall and one to the Clearwater Aquarium were fun too.  We did lots of shopping at all the Clearwater beach shops, and stopped for milkshakes and had dinner at the cutest restaurant one night.  We also introduced them to Rita's and they got to go to youth group together.  It was such a busy week but I wouldn't change a thing.  It was so great for us moms to get to hang out too enjoying each other's company and watching our girls and all their silliness.  

We took them to the beach for a photo shoot one night and these are all photos from that night. I have a ton of iPhone photos too, but I already shared a bunch of those on Instagram so if you missed them, check them out here.  


These girls have known each other since birth and I love looking back at these old photos of them growing up together!  In this one they were 3, 4 and 5.

This was just 3 years ago when they were 9, 10 and 11!  

Now at 12, 13 and 14.  I can't wait to see what they look like in 3 more years!

They have way too much fun together.





My girl got this adorable ukulele for her birthday.  Her friend Julia just so happens to play and I had no idea.  She is so good and taught her so much in just the few days she was here!

I can't believe later this year they will all be teenagers!  They will be seeing each other at camp this summer for more shenanigans.  We can't wait!  I'm so glad they were able to come visit!  I hope they can come again soon!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

A Florida Christmas

This year was the first time in my entire life that we weren't with extended family on Christmas.  We decided not to travel and just have a quiet Christmas with the four of us.  My brother was at Disney World and my mom was in Ohio with my sisters.  I really did miss seeing all the kids, but we still had fun celebrating with just our little family.  One awesome thing about being in Florida for Christmas is the amazing weather.  We were able to go see lights and go to Busch Gardens for Christmas Town and all of it without freezing!  On Christmas Eve we went to the candle light service at our church, which I always love, and for dinner afterwards we were going to go to Skyline to make us feel like we were having a bit of Ohio, but it ended up being closed so we ended up at Rumba which is one of my favorites.  They have a great patio and it was so weird to think that we were eating Christmas Eve dinner outside with palm trees!  We let the kids open a bunch of gifts from family when we got home. 

Christmas morning came early and didn't disappoint.  My boy was so excited to get Cozmo, the little robot he'd been wanting.  He was running around the house screaming from excitement.  His reactions to gifts are the best.  You can always tell if he likes something or not.  My girl got all new bedding and pillows to re-do her room.  She'd been wanting a more grown up style for a while and I knew that's what I wanted to get her and my husband kept questioning it since he really didn't get that bedding was a fun gift for a girl.  She loved it though and her new room looks beautiful!  She also got converse shoes, a Hollister hoodie and an Echo dot.  Yep, she's officially not a kid anymore with no toys for Christmas.
  
A couple days after Christmas my brother came to town after their "year of Disney" as we took to calling it, was over.  It was so fun to have them here and we got some beach time in and lots of sleepovers with the kids and fishing for the guys.  I hope they can come back next Christmas too!

Here are some of the many pics I took over the season!

We loved Busch Gardens at Christmas!  The lights were awesome and they had a really awesome show with the wise men telling the true story of Christmas.  That's fake snow in the top right pic.


Opening gifts.


Our tree had so many lights out this year and we added strands when we first put it up and then more went out so we just left it.  I still love our tree though and don't want a new one so we'll have to see if we can figure something out for next year.  So much for having a pre-lit tree.   Oh, and I just thought it was funny when I walked by our advent calendar one day after Christmas and noticed that one of my children had done an OCD version this year.


Horrible photo quality on all of these, but had to include them anyway.  Love my boy's face when he saw Cozmo.  We have a video too and it's so cute!


Love her new bedding!  It's so pretty!


I'm not usually one for robot type toys since they are usually forgotten about after the first few days, but Cozmo is really cute and he still plays with him.


I had to include these photos because they both make me laugh.  My boy wearing his Christmas socks he got from co-op with his flip flops and shorts in true Florida style. And my nephew posing with his emoji twin that his little sister bought him. We now call it the Ben emoji.  I love it!  :)


We got to see Grammy for a couple days before Christmas when she unexpectedly helped my brother drive to Disney because my sister-in-law threw out her back.  Grammy flew back to Ohio a couple days later but I'm glad we got to see her and find that fun beach sandman one day.  The other pics are from after Christmas when the cousins were in town.  My girl made that dog face out of seaweed.  She's so creative.


More beach shots.  My boy loves going to the beach when he has his cousin/bestie to play with there.


Gorgeous sunset.  Sometimes I still can't believe we live here!

Friday, February 3, 2017

Photo Friday 2017 ~ Weeks 4 & 5

It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here which is why I never got around to posting Photo Friday last week.  We have a teenager in the house now!!  My girl had her birthday and her two besties from Ohio flew down to surprise her for a week.  In case you didn't know, their mom is my bestie, and she came too and we all had such a fun, but exhausting week!  I will share more and do a separate post about our week of fun, but for now here are my favorite photos I took one day at sunset at the beach. 

I think I was adjusting my camera settings during this.  I can't tell you how many good shots I get when people think I'm not paying attention and just messing with my camera.
  
I love how this is out of focus.  It just makes it perfect in my opinion.

Another candid I love.

I love these girls together!  They have so much fun.  I love that even when they go months between seeing each other they can just pick up right where they left off.  Just like their mamas!

Oh, and just a teaser for those of you that read all the way to the bottom...we are hopefully getting our dog tomorrow!  

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