A New Puppy to Love...

On Thursday afternoon, Dan brought home a huge surprise for us...a new puppy! He is a three month old, shorty Jack Russell Terrier and has the same stocky build and coloring as our sweet Madison did.

He's so handsome and quite the stocky little guy! He's got super short legs and huge feet.

Piper seems to like having a new playmate around the house. Even though she is only two months older than the puppy, she is so much taller. The puppy can actually walk underneath her with no trouble at all! Their first night together they a friendly game of tug of war. It was fun to watch and so cute!

For now, the little guy has four names that we're testing out. They are Teagan, Tucker, Winston and Owen. Hopefully we'll settle on one of them in the next few days. If not, we're going to have one confused little guy! We'll let you know what we finally choose.

Sweet Dreams!

First Day of School

On August 24th, Emory and Ellie headed back to Mill Creek Elementary school. They had a long, fun summer but were both excited to head back to school and be with their friends. We are so lucky to have two children who love school so much!

They were all smiles as they headed out to take pictures before heading down to the bus stop.

Ellie has grown up so quickly! I can't believe that she is already in first grade. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking her to her first day of preschool and watching her through the window after I dropped her off.

Emory has really grown this summer too. Not any wider, but definitely taller! He's heading into fourth grade with the same teacher for the third year in a row! She loves this class so much that she has "looped up" with them for the second time.

Heading down to the bus stop together. While they probably wouldn't admit it, I know that they will miss each other during the day.

Here is Ellie with her teacher, Mrs. Ledford at the end of the first day. Mrs. Ledford is the mom of her friend Macy and Ellie was so excited to get her for a teacher. She also has lots of friends in her class from last year and from the neighborhood. It's going to be a great year for Ellie!

Our End of Summer Vacation

At the beginning of August this year we decided to head north to Virginia and Pennsylvania for vacation. We started off with a couple of nights in Richmond where we got to visit with "Baby Jack" again. Wow how he has grown since the last time we saw him! Now that he's 17 months old, he's definitely his own little person and so much fun. Jack and Emory enjoyed some time together playing with Emory's new Nintendo DSI. They spent quite a while on Ga's couch together and it was so cute! I'm not sure which one of them was having a better time!

Ellie and Jack had lots of fun together too. Ellie loved how big he was and that she could help teach him new things and play with toys that were once hers!

One of the things that the kids really wanted to do again while in Richmond was head down to the James River to jump on the rocks and play in the water. It's something that is uniquely Richmond to them and they loved it the first time that they got to do it while visiting Unlce Kenny & Auntie Leigh-Emma at their house near the River.

This year as we headed down the path to the river we came across a very large vine and the kids couldn't resist a quick swing.

Finally they get to jump...

We had a fun time visiting with all of the O'Donnells at Aunt Tammy and Uncle Dante's house. Uncle Dante even let Emory drive the Kubota tractor all by himself which might have been the highlight of the entire vacation. He drove it around and around and around the house until I thought that it might run out of gas.

Then Emory figured out how to use the frontloader and it was even MORE fun, if that is possible!

Dan had just celebrated his birthday the day before but it was great to have everyone together to sing Happy Birthday again and enjoy some birthday cake.

The next morning we got up early and headed north four hours to Pennsylvania. There we visited the towns of Lancaster and Hershey.

Our first stop of the afternoon once we arrived in Lancaster was at a pretzel factory where the kids got to learn how pretzels are made and even give it a try for themselves. They quickly figured out that it wasn't quite as easy to get the dough twisted perfectly as it looked!

Emory and Ellie were also amazed by all of the corn that is grown in Lancaster. When you look around in some spots you can see it for miles. We learned while we were there that there is so much of it because it is used to feed all of the dairly cattle. From the car the kids thought that they were taller than the corn but quickly changed their mind once we got out for a closer look.

We ALL loved Hershey's Chocolate World (but what's not to love?!). The whole town smells so yummy!

The kids got to try out working on a real Hershey's kiss line just like in a factory.

Emory was so excited to have his picture taken with a 5 lb Hershey's bar. Fortunately he let us leave this one back in Chocolate World and we only came home with a few Hershey's kisses!

Even while on vacation, Dan was able to squeeze in a few emails while sitting in traffic. Where would he be without his iPhone?

We were all excited to visit Hershey Park on our second day in Pennsylvania. It was a vacation that I remember taking as a child so it was fun to see what I remembered...

At the park there aren't the Princesses that we are used to taking pictures of the kids with at Disney but there were still fun candy characters walking around and the kids were happy to pose.

Emory and Ellie got to ride their first wooden roller coaster while at Hershey Park...and they both LOVED them! We've got a couple of daredevlis on our hands! Here are Dan and Emory on the racing roller coaster having a blast sitting in the front seat.

Hershey Park was a lot of fun and we had so much fun there with the kids now that they are old enough to really enjoy all of the different rides. It was great to share a place with them that I went to as a child. (Mom - maybe you can find some of our pictures from Hershey before we come up for Thanksgiving??? Of course I want to check them out before we share - haha!)

Our next day and a half was spent exploring Lancaster and the Amish country. It was so different from anything that the kids have ever seen and they were full of questions. Early one morning we toured Kreider Farms which is a huge commercial dairy farm. It was an extra special treat for Emory who can't stand anything smelly!

There were sooooo many cows! I know that they are "just cows" but it really was amazing.

Here are the cows on the "milking merry go round" where they come to get milked 3 times a day. This operation works around the clock!

Later after visiting the cows, we headed onto visit with Emory's next favorite farm animal -- the horse. We took a buggy ride through the Amish country where we stopped and had fresh homemade rootbeer and lemonade served by a young Amish girl.

Ellie accepted the offer to ride up front where she also got a chance to hold the reins and steer the horses. The countryside was absolutely beautiful!

Emory on the other hand decided to stay far, far in the back!

We returned to Richmond to rest for a day before heading back south to Florida. While there we were able to catch a Richmond Kickers soccer game. Emory was especially thrilled to get to watch it with Uncle Kenny since he played soccer growing up.

It was a great vacation and we loved seeing all of our family in Richmond and getting to go on our adventures in Pennsylvania. The kids are already asking to head back to Hershey Park next year where to hope to be tall enough to ride ALL of the roller coasters!

A Fun Day of Boating...

In early August our friends the Paulls invited us out for a day of fun on their boat. We packed up lots of food, the tube and headed up to Ft. George Island. We weren't in the boat for long before the kids were ready to blow up the tube and get into the water.

All smiles as we head out of the marina...

Here are Hayden, Gavin and Ellie in the tube. Ellie loved it and couldn't stop laughing the whole time she was in the tube. She was having so much fun that we had to keep reminding her to hold onto the handles so she didn't fly off into the into the water!

Emory, Gavin and Hayden also had a great time. Michael was driving the boat and whipping the boys around and they loved it! There were more than a couple of times that Dan and I thought that they were all three going to end up swimming! Everyone held on tight though and stayed on the tube for the entire ride.

Thanks for a great day Michael and Michelle!

In Memory of Kelsey

This morning around 5:30am Kelsey went to heaven to join Madison. We had 15 and a half wonderful years with her as our pet and we will miss her so much. We love you Kelsey!