Christmas Trip...Part 1

I have to break up our Christmas trip into 3 parts because there are just too many pics and stories to share at one time. This is part one. The Saturday before Christmas we drove from Orlando to Mobile. As I have mentioned before, the girls are a nightmare in the car. They despise traveling. They scream and scream and scream from the minute we get in the car until we get out. You probably think I am exaggerating. I am not. Needless to say, the traveling part of our Christmas journey was no fun. However, once we arrived at our various destinations, we had a blast.

You are probably confused about the above picture...please allow me to explain...a while back Gabbie became insanely paranoid in the bath tub because for several days in a row, Jocelyn decided to poop in the tub. The poop scared Gabbie so badly that she would basically start hyperventilating. Well, it got so bad that we could barely get her in the bath tub to take a bath every night. She would start screaming before her feet even hit the water. She thought the shadows in the water were poop, a tiny piece of grass floating in the water was poop, a scratch on the bath tub floor was poop....it was awful. After several nights of this hysteria, I walked into the bathroom and saw the above taking place. Shane had become so desperate, that he thought if he actually got in the tub with her she would calm down. Obviously that didn't work...please notice his expression....priceless! The reason I put this picture on our Christmas trip post is because this poop phobia insanity continued on our entire trip...in every bath tub we used at our various locations....except, not only were things in the bath tub poop, but all things in life were poop...food on her highchair, dust on the end table, a grain of sand on the porch....it drove us crazy!! I will say that since we have been back, her phobia seems to be calming down a bit....HOPEFULLY!

We got to visit with some great friends while we were in Mobile. Here are Shane and the girls with our friends John, Jake, and new baby Blake Bennett (me and Ariel opted out of the pic). It was SO great to see you guys!!

Ms. Shropshire cooked us up some yummy soup and the girls got to play with Auntie Katie, too!!

The Rubles graciously opened up their home and allowed us to stay with them while we were in Mobile. I know they were so very thankful for the much added chaos that we brought to their normally peaceful lives. Thanks so much for putting up with us!
The girls had several things at the Rubles to keep them entertained...like throwing little balls under the bed and then trying to have go-go gadget arms to get them....

Banging on their VERY nice piano....

Playing dress-up with some of Elena's cool stuff...

Having a love/hate relationship with their dog, Sophie. One minute they would want to play with her and the very next second they would be screaming bloody murder as if she was viciously attacking them. That was LOTS of fun. Please notice the random yellow rubber chicken that Jocelyn is trying to pet Sophie with......hilarious.

The Lyle twins stopped by to see us. They were looking at the girls' first year book that I made on Shutterfly. I thought this pic was sweet....twin girls looking at my twin girls' book. Love you guys! Thanks for coming to see us!!

Our last night in Mobile we went with the Parks to Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights. The girls LOVED it. All they kept saying was "cooooool" and "wooooow" and "mo, mo, mo" (their version of "more")....too cute!

We saw many other great friends while we were in Mobile as well. It was hard to leave again :( We miss everyone so much!!

Jason & Colleen's Canadian Bash

A few weeks ago Shane and I flew to London, Ontario (well, we actually flew to Detroit and then drove the rest of the way) for Jason and Colleen's wedding (they are former students from South as well as fabulous friends of ours :). Gran and HayHay (that's what the girls call Hayward) graciously came down to keep the girls for us. (Thank You!) When we left Orlando it was 85 degrees. When we got to Canada it was 10 degrees with 40 mph north winds. I thought I literally was going to die of freezation. No joke.

Colleen and I at her bacherlorette party. Please notice she is wearing SHORT sleeves. Those Canadians are crazy!

One may ask how a Canadian got all the way down to South Alabama? Well, Colleen got a volleyball scholarship to USA. Her freshman year, she became a Christian and was involved with the ministry we worked with for the next several years. That's also how she met her now husband, Jason. It has been such a privilege to watch Colleen come to Christ and grow into such an amazing woman of God over the past several years. Your friendship is a treasure to me Colleen!!

Karrie, a dear friend of ours, also came to the wedding. Of course we had to get a pic in the snow...don't see much snow down in Orlando :)

Shane, me, Karrie, and Jade (another former USA vball player and great friend of ours!)

This is a really cool outdoor ice skating rink (even though you can hardly make it out b/c my camera was being so stupid!). We wanted to ice skate but then we got out of our car and immediately jumped back in due to freezation. It was just way too cold!!

Some volleyball and soccer players from South Alabama. It was awesome to catch up with all of them!

The Happy Couple!!

It was such a fun and unique wedding b/c it was truly two worlds colliding. Jason is from the DEEP SOUTH and obviously Colleen is from Canada. You can only imagine the differences! It was truly entertaining as well as absolutely beautiful. We had SO much fun! We love you guys! Congrats!

Minnahaha

Last week I took the girls to a playgroup at a Minnahaha Park here in Orlando. Isn't that a very random and interesting name? It also had turf instead of grass. Very cool. The play date was with the multiples group. It's still so funny to sit and watch a bunch of twins and triplets run around like crazy people (oh, wait... that is what the parents of multiples feel like :) Everyone brought bouncy balls to the park. It was nuts. There were balls going everywhere and kids fighting over balls....it was quite amusing.

Jocelyn is a little monkey...

Gabbie likes to stay a little closer to the ground...

I thought this picture was cute...

They do things that just crack me up....like sticking their sippy cups into their snack cups to drink out of them. Hilarious. They thought this was by far the coolest thing that they had ever done. Gabbie is usually the one to come up with these very innovative ideas and then Jocelyn immediately copies her...

Half Marathon.......Check

I have always wanted to run a half marathon and a couple of weeks ago I finally was able to check it off my "bucket list" :) I definitely didn't want to train for one and run one by myself so Stacey (a friend down here) and I did our long runs every week together and then ran the race together. It was definitely the way to go. The race day was full of rain, but atleast it kept us cool :) The race was so fun and I actually didn't feel that terrible when it was over (however, the next day was pretty rough!). I would love to run one maybe once a year or something...we shall see....

Shane and the girls surprised me at the finish line (however they arrived about 5 minutes too late...but I appreciated the effort :)

The girls loved my really cool metal that I received for finishing the race :)

Thanksgiving Festivities!!

My entire family came down here and stayed with us for the week of Thanksgiving. My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and their two children stayed here at our house (the Summervilles got to go stay at the beach for a week which allowed extra space for my family....thanks guys!!) My sister, brother-in-law, and their daughter stayed with our great friends Josh and Stacey (thanks to you as well!!). I also had two sets of Aunts and Uncles and cousins come down as well. They stayed at Disney. My parents got here one day before the rest of my family so we took them to Seaworld. They had never been and we knew they would love it (we have been once before and it is definitely one of our favorite parks down here). We opted to get babysitters for the girls so we could actually enjoy our day at Seaworld :)

Here we are about to watch Shamu....we decided to sit really high in the stands so we wouldn't get drenched :)

Me & Momma; Shane & Daddy

Very cool Christmas tree

I even got my parents (and Shane) to ride Seaworld's newest roller coaster, the Manta. I need to mention that my parents have never ridden anything close to a ride like this. I was AMAZED that they got on it. I thought that all 3 of them were going to have heart-attacks before the ride even began! We did all survive, however, when it came to a stop, my dad looked slightly green. He then said that one more loop and everybody behind him on the ride would have been covered in throw-up. Glad he was able to hold it down! It was an AWESOME roller coaster by the way!

While all my family was visiting, my bestest friend ever came to visit us for a few hours. Kari and Abraham were heading down to South Florida for their family Thanksgiving and decided to fly into Orlando so they could come see us!! We haven't seen them since they got married back in April. It was SO GREAT to see you guys (but way too short!)

My family spent 3 days going to different Disney parks. It was their first Disney experience. It was also Thanksgiving week and everyone on the planet (at least 90% of the population) goes to Disney during Thanksgiving week. So, when you put those two facts together...let's just say...they had an interesting few days :) One day I kept my nephew, Landon, so that my brother and sister-in-law could have a little more "freedom" to enjoy Disney. He is so cute and so much more layed back than my two. The girls showed him the ropes pretty quickly. Here is Jocelyn and Gabbie showing him how to get into the pantry and the recycle bin and play with all the nasty containers that are in it :) The also showed him how to get into the spice rack, open the spices and pour all the spices on the floor (I wasn't in the mood to snap a pic of that :).....and they were able to show him all of this during the 2 minutes that I was going to the bathroom. They are good...

One night, I took the girls (Shane had clinic...nice) and drove to Downtown Disney and met my whole family (Aunts, Uncles and cousins included) at a restaurant called the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. It was like 30-something people....yes, I did call ahead and make reservations, thankfully. I got there early so I took the girls for a ride on the carousal. They actually loved it despite their (I'm not a big fan of this) faces on the above pic :)

The girls were trying to talk MawMaw and PawPaw into getting these enormous, severely overpriced rain frogs for them :)


About half of our clan....I couldn't get everyone in one picture

My sister, Emily, her husband, Josh and their daughter Kaylea

My brother, Uncle "D", with Gabbie

This was the first time that I have ever cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal (my mom did help me, thankfully :). It was ALOT of work. I am now way more thankful for all the people that usually cook Thanksgiving dinner while I sit around and do nothing!

It was SO great having all my family together down here for Thanksgiving. Here is a pic of my immediate family minus the girls. They were napping. (yay for naps!)

Me with my brother and sister

They all rented a minivan and drove down together. They were definitely packed like sardines :)

So glad all of you got to come!! We love ya'll!!

What have we been up to lately??

Fighting over who gets to play in the exersaucer (which we are both way too big for anyways...)

Sitting in one crib and eating cheese all at the same time...

Playing with stickers. We are OBSESSED with stickers. We LOVE them. We love to put them all over our tummies as well as on mommy and daddy's face and head :)

Squeezing daddy's nose.....

Playing in our new favorite toy....the minivan! We love pushing all the buttons and messing up all the settings on the stereo. We even figured out how to put the key in the ignition and turn it...but then mommy hurried up and took the keys away....we don't really understand why...we were having so much fun!

Piling into a single laundry basket full of already folded clothes...

Doing our daily chores....

Big Girls

Each week I take the girls to a playgroup with some other moms from our church. They so want to be like the big girls at playgroup. Here they are sitting at a big girl table eating lunch. I want to cry....they are growing up way too fast!!