Tye tries out the new toys 122909-123009

For Christmas we got the Wii from Santa. We also got Mario Kart and Tye just LOVES it! He isn't good at all but he has a blast playing it.

So here is Kevin and Oma Junior with his tongue sticking out. (They swear it works, but I'm not so sure! lol)
Yeah, I remember doing this same type of movement when we first got our Super Nintendo way back in 1980something! lol

This takes some serious concentration!

Also for Christmas I got from Kevin a gazelle! I am so excited! I tried it out at my friend Loretta's house several months ago and have been DYING to have one ever since. I love, in a weird way, how my legs feel all wobbly when I get off. I know I am working muscles in a different way than I normally do. So of course, something knew, so Tye had to try it out too.

He is just so darn cute, how can you not love the boy?! lol Sorry, no pics of me on it. Maybe some day so I can put it in my weight loss scrapbook.

So there are a few of our new toys from Christmas. :-)

Parties!!! 12/18 and 12/19

On Friday December 18th we had our annual Christmas party. This year we didn't play board games, but just sat around and chat and ate! lol Our food spread included Cuban Sandwiches (a food I had never had until I moved to FL and I LOVE them!), Chili Cheese Dip (which everyone wanted the recipe for and it is so super easy it is almost embarassing! lol Let me know if you want the recipe and I will make a post of it) with tortilla chips, Buffalo Chicken Dip with crackers, shrimp with cocktail sauce, popcorn chicken with BBQ sauce (I get rave reviews on this too, it is the Banquet popcorn chicken and it is cheaper than the walmart popcorn chicken for a larger bag!) and then I made chocolate zucchini bread, Peppermint Crunch cookies (see first picture), and Candy Cane Cookies (see second picture--sorry I had to take a picture of the last one tonight before it gets eaten tomorrow by Tye! lol). My friend Karina brought a Nutella Cheesecake....YUMMY! Everything was delicious and the party turned out great! I must say our house was packed, good thing I didn't invite too many more people, but it was so much fun to have so many people there enjoying themselves!

Here are the Peppermint Crunch cookies! Everyone loved these!

Here are the candy cane cookies, I really liked these!

Poor Devin the kids beat up on him all night long.

Jared and Sister Clayson--she says I always catch her with food in her mouth. At least it is good food!!! :-)

The Rhodes family...we helped them venture out of Brandon to the thriving metropolis of Valrico! lol

Karina and Amanda (holding Karina's baby--Amanda left her baby, West, home with her parents who were visiting for the weekend).

Jaclyn and Alexis the food guards! lol

Carolyn and Gordon

I was glad that when everyone left most of the food was gone (except those cookies! ARGH! lol) I had a wonderful time, I was beat but it is always worth it! Thanks everyone for coming and I am sad for those of you that missed it. Hopefully you can come next year!


Saturday December 19th, my friends Amanda and Devin, had their Christmas party. I had planned on taking pictures, but I guess I was too busy stuffing my face! lol They had ham sandwiches and cheeseballs with crackers and then for dessert they had fondue! YUUUUMMMM!!! I must say I think my favorite was the White Chocolate fondue, then the Chocolate Marshmallow and finally the Milk Chocolate. The others were good but those three were my favorites and I had a hard time staying out of them! lol Tye had a blast playing with his friends, especially Noah his other best friend who he never gets to see! lol He was eating his dinner when Noah came in and he went screaming to the door "NOAAAAHHHHH!" lol Dinner was over at that point! lol There were lots of people there and lots of fun chatting away. Thanks for a great party Amanda and Devin!

So two nights in a row we were partying hard and Tye was up WAAAAYYYYY past his bedtime, but it was so worth it!

Christmas Family Pictures and our Christmas Letter

Here is our Christmas letter. If I have your address yours will be arriving in the mail soon. If not, well this is what you get, or maybe an email!! lol If you want a paper one next year please provide me with your mailing address and I will include you on our list next year! :-)

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!! We hope this letter finds each of you healthy and happy and weathering the economy well.

Our year has been filled with family and friends and lots of fun! We have been blessed to go on many trips and other activities around Florida. We visited PA this summer and went to Kennywood Park and the Children’s Museum and road two real trains (Tweetsie Railroad and Strausburg Railroad)! Then we went to Utah and visited family and friends there. We spent the Fourth of July in Idaho Falls watching their awesome fireworks show! Also this year we went to the Strawberry Festival (where Kevin and Tye went down the HUGE slide 16 times!) and Novemberfest (Tye even rode the Farris wheel with Michele!) like we do each year. They are some of the local fairs around here.

In January the company Kevin was working for lost a couple of their major contracts and ended up laying off most of the people. He found a part-time job with the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Tye calls it the “Squeak Squad”! In August he found a full-time job with a company called Vangent. They take Medicare calls for the government. He isn’t thrilled with it but at least it is a job.
Tye turned 5 and had a waterpark party! He thought that was fun playing with his friends. He graduated from Pre-K in June and then started Kindergarten in August! He loves it! Michele is the homeroom mom and volunteers at the school when she can. In November Tye started soccer. His first game will be next week. He loves it and wanted to stay the night after the first practice!

Michele still works part-time at the credit union. She also tends her friend’s baby boy twice a month on Thursday and Friday while she works. Michele has been doing lots of scrapbooking and is still trying to lose weight. She has been on a plateau for several months now, but has lost a total of 70 pounds since she started two years ago! She was training to do a 13k but it filled up prior to her signing up. So we will see what comes up next!

We hope that you are enjoying this year and that the holidays bring you great happiness. May God bless you and bring you peace this holiday season!

Love,
Kevin, Michele and Tye

Of course after I printed half of my Christmas cards I realized that I had forgotten to include anything about us celebrating our 10th Anniversary! lol Oh well, guess I will have to put it in there for sure when we hit our 20th or 25th! lol

Anyway, here are the family pictures we took. I had a hard time picking, as always. lol But I restrained myself and only got 4! lol

Isn't he just the cutest thing?! lol

Novemberfest 111409

Every year, usually the first weekend in November, the local Catholic church puts on Novemberfest. This is the 3rd largest fair in Florida. Well we were lucky enough that they had it the second weekend in November this time since last weekend we were in TN and would have missed it.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to have been one of the two top performers at work and so I got 30 minutes comp time and took it this day. So I got to leave at 1:30 instead of 2 and so Kevin and Tye met me at a local park and we walked down to the Novemberfest.

Tye and I got the wristbands. We would have just gotten one for Tye since he rides the majority of the rides, but since he LOVES the slide and is still just a bit to short he has to have an adult ride with him. This responsibility usually falls to Kevin, but since he had to go to work it fell to me this time. Which turned out great because I got to ride some of my favorite rides.

So here is our experience. Of course we hit the SUPER SLIDE first! lol We went down 2 times in a row. This year I was not out to break their record at the Strawberry Festival (which was 16 times)! lol

Then we went over to the train. He was being such a pill when he was riding it. He knew I wanted a picture and he would turn his head just as he got to me so I couldn't get a picture of his face! I got this picture before the ride started and he started his little trick! lol

After that we went to the race cars. He, of course, picked the Home Depot car. He always recognizes the Home Depot car when we turn on the Nascar races. He always notices Home Depot when we are driving down the road, he even notices it when those flat bed trucks that Home Depot rents are on the road! lol

These cars whip around at the end and the kids go flying to the edge of their car! lol He thinks it is hilarious!

Back to the slide before Kevin had to leave.

Then it was time for Kevin to leave so we went to the food tent and I told him he could pick 1 item to eat. What did he choose you ask?! No, not a hamburger, fries and a coke. lol But cotton candy! lol We all shared a little and then he took the rest with him. Then Tye got antsy and I was trying to see if one of the girls in my Sunday School class was dancing (they do these little performance things in the food tent). She danced last year and I thought she probably would again this year. But I didn't see her so we left and I thought I would check back later.

So off to the carousel. I am not sure why but it seems like he gives the BEST facial expressions when he is on the carousel! lol

Then he decided he really wanted to ride the rollar coaster. He has hated it every time before so I said, "are you sure?" And he said, YES! So I said, "okay". So here he is before it started.

Here he is freaking out on the ride! Hold on!!!! lol

When he gets off he says, "that was scary!!!!" lol Guess he won't be going on it again, at least until next year! lol

Next up are the cool trucks! He was beeping the horn like crazy. Driving me a little crazy too! lol But he had fun, so I can't complain too much can I?! lol

Off to ride on the swings. So I helped him get in and buckled him up.

Although his face is a little funny in this picture he totally LOVED this ride. He went right back around and rode it again.

Now on to one of my favorite rides, the Farris Wheel. Now if you have read my blog, you might remember that when we went to the Tweetsie railroad this summer in North Carolina I got him to ride the Farris Wheel with me and while we were on the ride he told me, "this ride makes me ANGRY"! lol So unfortunately I thought for sure he would not let me ride it since Kevin had already left I was thinking I was going to have to skip it. Well, after he rode the swing twice he said, "I want to ride THAT!" and pointed to the Farris Wheel. I was like, "are you serious?!" I didn't say it but I thought it. So I said, "OKAY!" And we hopped on the ride. He totally loved it. Asked me if we could see the airport, our house, Daddy's work, etc. He was looking around and pointing out all sorts of things. Totally different experience than the last time and it hasn't even been 6 months since we did it the first time. Glad though that the change happened! Now I have a Farris Wheel partner that will allow the other person to stay on the ground! lol Here we are close to the top.

After this, we decided to go get our treat. We choose the Elephant Ear, my favorite! And took it into the food tent to sit and eat. Right after we sat down I hear them announce that my SS student was doing her solo!!! What timing! I couldn't get any pictures and could barely see her since we were at the back of the tent and there were so many people standing. I saw her do her solo and then her group dance. She did awesome and I was glad we got to see her!

Tye saw a fun house and went in but then turned around and said, "I can't do it, it has a wiggly floor". I wasn't allowed to go in with him so he didn't get to do it. But just a few moments later we found the mirror house and we went through it twice.

Back to the slide for one final time since the line was sooooooooooooooooooo long! And it was really time to leave. The last thing we did was Tye rode the motorcycles.

We had a great afternoon and were there about 4 hours! I am so glad that it was a week later than it usually is and I am very glad that Tye was a little more daring and actually liked most things this time. Thanks for a fun afternoon guys!

Our 10th Anniversary Getaway 110509-110809

So we have been talking about it for awhile about what we would do for our anniversary. We had talked about going on an Alaskan cruise, but knew we needed to do that probably in May/June timeframe to be really good. Since Kevin was without a job for awhile we thought about waiting but I really wanted to do SOMETHING for our anniversary. So we talked about it and I started looking into renting a cabin. After a lot of searching I found one in Pigeon Forge, TN that had an entire package included (I will get to the stuff included later) for what I think was a really great price. So we booked it.

On Thursday morning we dropped Tye off at school at 7:20am and headed down the road. It took us awhile to get through the traffic of Brandon, FL and everyone leaving for work. lol But it was all good. Then once we got on the highway we didn't go very far before there was a huge backup because of a wreck. Anyway, we finally got on our way and we felt we were making pretty good time. We stopped a couple of times along the way to get gas and lunch. Then as we were driving on one of the roads I saw a sign for some water falls. I said, "let's stop!" So we turned down one road and didn't see anything, so we turned around and went back and said oh well. Well when we got back on the road the next road had another sign so I said, "let's turn here!" lol So we did and we did find the falls, the original turn would have taken us there, we just needed to be a bit more patient. Anyway, it was called Tallulah Falls Gorge. There was a cute country store that had a viewing platform you could go out on. Kevin spied some old fashioned bottled soda and wanted to get one, but didn't find any cream soda so he couldn't convince me it was worth it to buy it! lol

Here is the view we actually saw, I am sad the colors of the trees didn't turn out quite as beautiful as they were, but I still think you can see it fairly well.

Here is the zoomed in version of the falls down in the gorge.
Kevin and I on the deck overlooking the falls.

After that we started winding through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. And that road was windy for sure! You could only go about 35 on the road. Oh and by then it was about 5:30pm so it was DARK through those mountains/trees!

We got into Pigeon Forge, TN about 7pm and decided to go to dinner and then hit Walmart to get the propane tank we supposedly needed for the cabin (instead of driving back out after we got to the cabin and unpacked....glad we did as the cabin was about 10 miles out of town--which meant 30 mins on those windy roads.)

We ate dinner at Pop's Catfish. We wanted a local place, that wasn't an all you can eat buffet (or let me clarify that, I didn't want an all you can eat buffet). So in we went, I debated and finally decided on the crab stuff flounder and Kevin got the all you can eat catfish and chicken. The flounder was really pretty good, slightly more fishy than I would have liked, but the crab stuffing was DELISH! The sides were wonderful, the hushpuppies and cornbread. YUM!

Then we ran to walmart and got the propane tank. And then off to the cabin we went. Like I said it was already dark, but thank heavens at least one of us have a cell phone we had to use it as a flashlight to get into our cabin! lol They had not left the porch light on so we couldn't see the buttons to push to unlock the door! lol

Once we got in this is what we found.

One dozen roses with a gorgeous arrangement! (Part of that package I mentioned.) These flowers stayed lovely for over a week and really are just now totally dead two weeks after they were bought! Aren't they pretty?? And they smelled so yummy! lol

Another part of the package...2 dozen chocolate covered strawberries! These were soooo yummy! The strawberries were good and the chocolate was heavenly! Also to be included was supposed to be wine glasses, but they forgot them and since we aren't wine drinkers I didn't put up much of a stink.

Here is the view of the living room from the loft/bedroom.

This is the awesome bed! I would LOVE to have a bed like this if I had a cabin! lol And man oh man was it ever comfy! I meant to check out what kind of matress it was but I forgot! lol I want one!!! lol

Here is our cabin. The picture of course is from the next day since it was dark when we got there. It's kindof hard to see because the "front" is really the side of the cabin and the "side" is really the front. So to take it we had to go to another driveway and take the picture otherwise you would get a lovely picture of the electric meter on the side of the cabin! lol

I gave Kevin a scrapbook I made about the last 10 years. If you want to see what the pages look like they are posted on my scrapbook blog! Kevin was so suprised and we had a great time reminiscing over all the cool things we have done since we got married. Some of the vacations we have taken, buying/building our house, Tye's adoption, etc. Kevin really tries to be thoughtful for Anniversary gifts but he always struggles. I am so hard to buy for on anniversaries. I don't wear jewelry so that is a waste of money. I don't wear perfume so that is a no go. I am not really a girly girl with all that stuff. So he tried by getting me a foot spa. It was a great thought, but something I would never use (well I guess I MIGHT use it on the days I work the elections but hello that is only twice every two years! so more something to take up space than something that will be used). lol He is still trying to find a replacement gift, I don't mind, I really am just glad we were able to spend time together on our getaway.

So later we walked down (and I really do mean DOWN) the road on Friday to the main road. I asked Kevin how far we were going to go down and he said, "only as far as we are willing to walk back up!" lol The trees were beautiful! The colors were gorgeous, once again I don't feel the pictures do it justice.

At the bottom of the road and across the main road was a cool river/creek (not sure what they call it). There was even a little waterfall on it. Neat to listen to. We walked along it for about 1/4 mile. (The morning we left it was all foggy over it, so neat looking). Then we hiked back up the hill. I felt pretty good, a bit winded at times, but I totally did it and was beating Kevin!!! We stopped twice because of him being out of breath, not me this time!! This really was a huge hill, even our car struggled to go up it (made some weird engine sounds like it was really good worked over! lol), so it was a great accomplishment!!!!

We played pool a couple of times that day. We each won 2 games.

Then we headed into town. Kevin wanted to check out the bookstores (his "tradition" when he goes some place is to look at their chess books, why chess books I don't know, yes, I know he likes it, but why is that the thing he has to do when he goes on vacation?! I mean isn't chess everywhere, can't he buy these books at any Barnes and Noble?! lol). So anyway we went on our book hunt. I guess the good thing about his little book hunt is I found 2 Christmas gifts!

We were going to make hamburgers on the grill at the cabin that night for dinner, but it was getting late after our chess book hunt so he wanted to just eat in town. I was all looking forward to a hamburger so we decided to find a local hamburger place. And we found one in Mel's Diner! Yep, Mel's Diner. Here we are! lol I even got a chocolate MALT! I haven't had one of those since I graduated from High School (which was 1994 and we used to get them at the Country Diner where I worked in High School). YUM and of course HUGE, Kevin shared with me.

The outside of Mel's Diner. Isn't it cute?!

The next morning we went into town again to do some tourist shopping! I had to find my thimble and we wanted to get something for Tye but not a shirt! lol JK! This was just inside the 3 Bears Country Store. Too cute, all the town was already decorated for Christmas. This was the store I found a new thing called Pumpkin butter! I really wanted to buy it but felt bad paying $6.99 for a pint! Not to mention what if I got this whole pint for seven dollars and then end up hating it! So I decided against it. But thought about it all day long! lol We found Tye a little black bear with a scarf on it that says, "Great Smokey Mountains". He is into stuffed animals right now (especially at night, he likes sleeping with them) so it was perfect for him!

Then it was lunch time. So we wanted to have a southern style country lunch! lol So we saw this "Old Mill Restaurant" and decided to go there. The wait was 25 mins so we decided to wander the stores nearby. We went into the Old Mill Gift shop and guess what they had?! Pumpkin Butter!!! But they had it in a smaller size. So I told Kevin after we got done eating we needed to go back in there and get it.

So we ate our lunch, I had fried chicken, mashed potatos, green beans, biscuits and fritters. OH MY I have never had fritters before (at least not that I know of), oh they were good and I wanted more oh so bad! lol Guess it is probably a good thing she didn't bring me more or I probably would have been sick! lol

But we did hit the gift shop after and got the pumpkin butter and guess what?! Fritter mix! Oh yeah!!! lol Oh and for your information, the pumpkin butter--DELISH!!!! I am now ticked I didn't buy the bigger one! So good on this multi grain bread we buy some times. OH YUM! I will definitely be buying it again if we ever get up there!

After that we checked out some more tourist shops and FINALLY was going to meet up with my friend Jane. Jane used to live here and we were really close. I was so sad when she moved away, but she moved up to Nashville, TN. So it was about a 4 hour drive for them to get to Pigeon Forge. I was sooooo excited when we finally got together (there was way too much traffic and it took them WAY too long to get through town to where we were! lol). She couldn't believe how I looked! lol

So after they ate lunch and Kevin and I had a piece of pie (since we had already eaten lunch), we went to the Christmas Place. Oh my, this place was HUGE and it had sooo much Christmas stuff! So neat. I think we were there for probably 2 hours and I think we only saw 1/2 of it (if that). I found a school bus ornament for Tye for Christmas, it is soooo cute! And then I found a graduation cap ornament for Kevin because the year he graduated from ITT we wanted that to be our ornament for the year and could never find one so we actually don't have an ornament for that year until now!

Here is Jane and her boyfriend, Pat. He was a funny guy we had a lot of fun with him!

Kevin and I in front of the Christmas Place.

After that we had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I had prime rib, YUM! My Favorite steak! Kevin had the NY Strip (I think! lol)

Then we headed up to the cabin for the night. They were quite impressed with the actual cabin. I think it is a cute one myself! lol My only complaint was we couldn't figure out how to get the DVD player in the living room to work and there was only a VCR in the bedroom and we only took DVDs. There was also a hot tub and we really wanted to go in it, but it was around the side so it was going to be MIGHTY cold to get out and go into the cabin so we skipped it! I think next time we would get in it during the day when it isn't quite so cold! lol

Here is Kevin and I on the front porch of our cabin!

Another picture of the gorgeous trees with their changing leaves.

What a great getaway! We are so blessed to have been able to go and enjoy ourselves. (Thank you to Oma and Opa for watching Tye while we were gone. We could have never done it without you guys!)

I can't believe it has already been 10 years since we have been married! Some days I think both of us wonder how we ever made it past one year! lol

I love you honey! Thanks for taking this journey through life with me!