Raleigh and her friends...

First of all, Raleigh did this with the magnets ALL BY HERSELF! Her E and I are mixed up, but still, she found all the letters out of the two alphabet sets we have on the fridge and arranged them in the right order to spell her name.

Raleigh met some of her friends at Busch Gardens last weekend. She was in a little bit of a weird mood, unfortunately, and wouldn't ride many rides. But, I think they all had a good time anyhow...
Raleigh, Haleigh, Christian, and Joseph in "Land of the Dragons"
Katie and Raleigh - immediately afterwards Raleigh screamed and demanded to get off this ride, so she never actually went for the "ride" portion. Poor Katie wasn't feeling well.

Raleigh and I on these flying dragons (above) and Haleigh and Kerri (below)...
When I get the pics from the other mom's I'll add to this.

Easter - at last.....

Daddy and Raleigh dyed more eggs the night before Easter...
Raleigh and Aiden found the eggs hidden by the Easter bunny...

Aiden slipped into a candy induced coma...
It was a great Easter. The kids really enjoyed it!

Another touching moment....

Ahhhhh, just a year ago I posted some crying pictures of Aiden. I assumed it was a phase that would pass. Clearly, I was mistaken. Here are some snapshots of a touching moment from our day today.


At least Raleigh is smiling! Who knew water bottles and ziplocks were such great toys???? To think of the money I wasted on Christmas presents.

Really, they are both great kids - Chris and I are so blessed.

Easter Eggs

Today we decorated Easter eggs...

Hard to imagine we didn't even make a mess. I was envisioning the biggest dye mess all over everything. She actually did very well...

One of the eggs broke, I ate it, Raleigh was very upset there was one missing and asked me several times why I had to eat it. Perhaps she has just a touch of OCD?! HAHA!
We bought a set of princess egg decorations - so six of the eggs got their own princess stand and crown.

Family is visiting!

We have family visiting from out of town. Yesterday we all went to Busch Gardens! Brooke and Raleigh had SUCH a great time! They really get along great!
Brandi, Brooke, Nonni, Poppy, Grandma Terry, Grammy, Grandpa, Chris, Raleigh, Aiden (and me of course) went to Busch Gardens...

Yep, he's with us....

Aiden is finally old enough to ride on some of the kiddie rides. He just LOVED this "choo choo"! He rode it twice in a row!

These HUGE puppets controlled by people on stilts are always a hit with the kids. Aiden even gave one a kiss on the nose.

Raleigh and Brooke got their faces painted. This was Raleigh's first face paint experience. She was as still as I have ever seen her. She cried when we had to wash her face last night and asked promptly this morning if we could go back and get her face painted again today. Silly girl!

At the end of the day we let the kids play in the sand box. Aiden escaped once and was lost for about 2 mins before we found him running back from across the play area. He was GONE from the sandbox, and I was in panic mode!

The "Experienced Helper"

Last weekend we worked out in the yard all day both Saturday and Sunday! We got at least two hard freezes this winter, very unusual for central Florida, and much of our already dwindling landscaping was killed. The new grass we planted in December seems to be bouncing back...the older grass is more like crunchy twigs and dirt. Guess we'll be putting down some additional sod in another month or so.
We also had some new edging done in December, which you can see in the pictures. Now we just need to mulch (this weekend before the weeds set in!). Here is what our flowerbeds look like now:

And Raleigh's new favorite thing is to help with the gardening and watering the flowers. She has declared that she is an "experienced helper!" I'm sure you can imagine the conversation...
Mom: Raleigh, NO! Don't dig up the flowers!
Raleigh: But MOM, I'm an EX-PEEEEEER-IENCED HELPER! It's ok!
Mom: Raleigh, you just squashed the new flower mommy planted!
Raleigh: It's OK mom. It's just an accident!

School Days

Raleigh is going to school 2 days a week (half days). At first, she wasn't so sure about it...but she seems to be enjoying it a little more. Her friend Haleigh also goes there - and she tells me all the time how much fun she has with Haleigh at school.

Here she is on the morning of her first day of school:

Circus Circus!

In January we took Raleigh to the Circus. Besides everything being totally OVERPRICED it was FABULOUS! She loved it! They had so many different animals and it was a nice long performance complete with fairies which Raleigh just adored!

Silly Girl

Ok, this picture is just too funny to leave out.

Ever wonder why your child NEEEEEEEEEDS their blanket? I've figured it out - apparently it also doubles as a hat in case their head gets cold. We came in to check on her and found her like this....silly girl.

Christmas 2008

Here are some pictures of our Christmas season this year:

Raleigh helping to decorate the tree. Any idea how many ornaments you can fit on one branch in one spot of a 7 foot tree? Ha!

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house. Great Mimi & Great Papa, Nonni & Poppy, Grammy & Grandpa plus the 4 of us! It was nice....

As you can see Santa barely brought anything... (ok, that's sarcasm, we barely had a square inch left to sit Christmas morning)....