Santa Came to Town

We celebrated Christmas earlier this week with Kari, Jason's younger sister. It was a great time. We had to reenact the story of Jesus' birth. Navie was of course Mary this year, except that she didn't actually want to have the baby come out of her tummy.

After the nativity, Navie got to open one present. She needed new pajamas so she got to have new pajamas for Christmas.

With baby brother coming, I wanted to get Navie a new baby doll so we could both have babies to care for. She didn't seem super stoked as she opened her stuff but I think she'll get into it. I think I was more excited but hopefully in the coming months, my excitement will rub off on her. Navie named her baby, Caroline (this is after the new American Girl Doll that she wants).

Jason got a new backpack for outdoor exploring. He was very happy. I got new clothes, just wait till you see them.

Kari got a new movie.

I made Navie some diapers and wipes too. I think those will be great for her. She is very interested in diaper changing (weird but whatever). She has to hold the shoes on because her baby's feet are much smaller than the shoes.

Santa brought Navie some new Legos and her and Daddy spent the morning putting them together. I hope this will be fun for her. This is what she asked Santa for. She also asked for Tiana dress up stuff. After opening all her presents, she was rather confused that Santa didn't bring her Tiana dress-ups. I told her that Santa wasn't doing princess stuff this year. I'm terrible! But how many dress-ups does one little girl need?

Pre-School Christmas Party

Navie learned some Christmas songs at school and then on Friday night, all the parents came to hear the kids sing. Navie was awesome! I would say she was belting it out but it was more like yelling. It was so fun to watch her sing without even an ounce of shyness. Her favorite song was Rudolph.

After the singing performance, everyone loaded up onto school buses to drive around a very festively decorated neighborhood. Every street was really "decked" (did you get my pun?) out and it was fun to see with friends and family.

I wanted to bring Navie's Santa hat but we left it at home so we had to take a picture with it when we got home.

Cousins at Disney World

My brother and his family plus extended family came to Disney for a vacation. Navie and I dropped in at the party for a few days.

We didn't see any princesses this time but we did experience some new rides. Don't you wish that you could be this cute with buggy 3-D glasses.

The castle looked AMAZING!! This picture does not do it justice. It was gorgeous.

We also got to experience what it is like to stay at a Disney Resort. We stayed at Art of Animation in the Cars area of the resort. It was really cool to walk down the sidewalk and feel like you were walking through the set of the movie.

I know this one is blurry but I love Mater and this will just show you how cold it was the last day we were there. You just never can tell what to expect from the weather. It can drop 10 degrees overnight.

The Big 5!

What a wonderful 5th birthday we had for Navie. Just beware, picture overload.

I spent hours making a delicious 6-layer rainbow cake. It was awesome! But after hours of work,

I watched it melt and collapse in minutes after being in the Florida humidity. Despite the cake's fall, it was still enjoyed by all.

We had some great friends come over for cake, ice cream, and presents.

After opening a few more presents from mom and dad, it was off to Build-A-Bear. Some how I thought we would be able to get through a whole birthday without any princesses but no, what dress did Navie pick for her bear...Rapunzel. It's cool though.

She named her sweet little bear Love-A-Lot and it has been a big hit so far. She wants to go back to the store again soon and buy a Cinderella dress for the bear with her birthday money from grandma and grandpa. We'll see.

It took 5 years (for me) to realize that this little one is not so little anymore. Navie can do pretty much everything by herself these days. Most of the time it is absolutely wonderful, every now and then things don't go so well. She is filled with a great imagination and she is very snuggly. She loves to give hugs and kisses to all her friends, parents and kids a like. She is excited to be a big sister. She loves going to school and she is "starting to read." She is afraid to go into her bedroom to get stuff by herself (but hopefully that will disappear soon). She has grown up to be such a great little kid. I can't wait to see what else is in store for her in the coming years.

Weekend Trip

As part of the vacation package that my older sister gave to us, we went up to Orlando for the weekend. We were able to jam pack the weekend with loads of stuff. Jason had an Orientation at the hospital in Davenport, we went to the OB/GYN on Friday, and Jason's best friend, Stephen got married on Saturday. As we drove to the reception for Stephen we drove past a Jeepny. You are probably thinking, "a what?" Jason used to ride on a Jeepny in the Philippines and this is exactly what they looked like, he says.

We got into a little car accident.

Physce! When we left on Wednesday night we realized that one of our headlights was out. We had to drive with our brights on as much as possible to make it seem as though we had two working headlights. But before going back to Naples we had to fix the headlight. As some of you may remember, in order to get to the headlight, you have to take off the front bumper.

We all know Navie loves a fancy dress. So a wedding dress is like a dream come true for her. Navie just couldn't get enough of Stephen's bride. She was darling busting her moves at the reception.

Thanksgiving at the Lou

St. Louis that is. My wonderfully generous parents flew Jason, Navie, and I home to Missouri for Thanksgiving this year. We got to eat delicious food and be with my two sisters and my brother and their families. My mom and dad bought a Wii and we played Just Dance 4 at least once a day. We had hot dogs and s'mores roasted over the fire pit. We went swimming and shopping. Although I had wonderful self control and bought nothing. We also went to the Science Center. We got to see Carolyn's new baby and that was so, so much fun! As soon as all the other cousins went home, Navie was able to focus her attention on baby Parker. It was so adorable seeing her hold the tiny baby who somehow doesn't look so tiny when Navie holds her. Carolyn had her birthday the day after Thanksgiving and we went out to celebrate at Texas Roadhouse.

It was a fantastic Thanksgiving and helped me remind me that we have much to be thankful for this year!

Mini Golf

The weather here has been gorgeous! I don't know if I'd quite call it fall but for Florida I'm sure this is what fall means. The humidity has toned down way down and the highs have been in the mid 70's to low 80's. It's wonderful. This cooler weather makes my desire for the pool go down to about zero but my desire to play outside boosts to like a 10. So in order to have some outdoor time we headed out on Safari to mini-golf. I almost got like three holes-in-one but alas no luck! Jason shot one hole-in-one but no one was looking...so sad! Here are the pics...no actual golfing shots but lots of safari action. Enjoy.

See...we are wearing long pants, lovely weather.

It was as if she really was being eaten by a hippo, she was freakin' out that I put her in there. Ooops...I thought she would think it was fun.

I know this one is blurry but I liked it.

A Trip to the Zoo and....

Some friends have been asking to see the bump but rather it is lack of a bump. I promise I am pregnant. I heard the heartbeat and I saw the ultrasound. I went to the gym on Monday and thought I was looking particularly pregnant so I decided to snap a pic when I got home to document. And this is what I saw...

Pretty disappointing. So then I decided to "push it out" and this is what I got.

A little more impressive, isn't it? This is "my bump" at 15 weeks. I promise that is really me. Who would know right... I'll try to get one with my head in it someday. Well now for the zoo, probably what you really wanted to see.

The first Saturday of every month, the Naples Zoo is free for county residents. We didn't have anything going on...so Navie and I went to the zoo. I came home with about 7 pictures. The animals were mostly sleeping and they have a lot of glass to look through...not ideal for pictures or even seeing animals in the first place but anyway. We had a great time. We saw some snakes, gators, bears, and giraffes. There were more animals but these were the highlights.

This is the zoo keeper who actually feeds the alligators from her hand...yep she just tosses it in their mouths, after calling them by name and asking them to walk up onto the bank to get "their food." Pretty cool to watch but there is no way I could do it.

Halloween Sillibrations

As Halloween approached, I began to worry about trick or treating; seeing how as we live in an apartment complex, a rather grumpy apartment complex, I might add. Anyway, luckily we have great friends who live in a fabulous neighborhood with regular houses and kids. And they graciously invited us to trick or treat with them. I even got into the Halloween spirit and found myself a little costume.

Here are the pumpkins this year, complete with good old scented candles. Who knows where the pumpkin candles are. I asked Navie why she was bending over like this and she says "because it's like I'm getting a candy." She is filled with great ideas. Unfortunately only 3 suckers were taken when we got home or maybe fortunately, now I have some treats to eat.

Here is Navie all decked out and ready to hit the streets.

We went to a Halloween parade at the library on Monday. Pretty lack-luster but Navie still had fun dressing up.

We went to the ward Chili Cook Off and Halloween Carnival the Saturday before. Another good time.

I think Navie's favorite was her Fall Festival at school. Here she is with her teacher and her teacher's daughter. They dressed the same...pretty cute!

Don't forget the face painting.

I think she makes a cute little Izzy. I was very happy with the way the costume came together.

Rollin' with daddy. We had a glow in the dark pumpkin balloons...quite the hit. It was really fun!