Taylor Graduates From Elementary...

Where does the time go?? My baby will be in Middle School next year, sigh... Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital... Time flies. Well, actually time is a constant, but yeah...

 Getting ready to head to the school...

 My soon to be middle school-er...

 Taylor and her friend Quinlan...

Taylor and Sarah, Sarah has been up staying with us for the past two weeks...

Happy Mother's Day Carolyn!

That's About Right...

An update about once a month that is... sigh. I'd say I've been busy, but yeah, I rarely am these days, just the normal, work and life in general... Who knows, perhaps I won't wait a month until the next one! :)

Chance has been wanting to get a violin, so we finally got him one, so he starts lessons next week, he is super excited about it. Taylor is going to take lessons too, she cannot decide if she wants to take guitar or piano though, but since she has a guitar, and we do not yet have a piano, she might start with guitar... :)

Cory and Jessica came down for a few days, we had a good time while they were here, we basically just hung out, went to the beach, etc... They are getting married Oct 27th for those who did not know, which is likely no one who reads this... Congrats to them!!

Carolyn at Mickler's Landing Beach, yeah, the one that is about 2 and a half minutes from our house... 

Taylor had Carolyn take some pictures the other day, she is my princess and is beautiful! She is growing up though, they all are, yikes!!

Sunrise at Ponte Vedra Beach this AM, the sunrises are quite stunning, and of course my camera does not do them justice... Perhaps someday I will get a better camera...

And there you have it, a new post... On another note, we all started P90X on Monday, so we are on day six. We also started eating healthy, we basically threw everything in the fridge and pantry in the trash and started over, now when we go get groceries, if there are more than a few ingredients or if I don't know what an ingredient is, we don't get it. According to Tanner though, "This eating healthy stuff is quite a change." :) They are all getting used to it though, and for the most part are on board, it is a bit of a change though when a snack that used to consist of Doritos, a soda and a candy bar now consists of a granola bar, fruit and water... :)

Happy Easter!!

We were going to go to the sunrise service on the beach, but did not get up in time to make it by 6:30AM... So, we decided to color eggs instead, well, Taylor, Carolyn and I did, the boys were not interested in getting up to do it... :)

The eggs we decorated, first time we have ever done that with real eggs I think...

About to start the egg hunt, and yeah, this is probably our last one... :( The boys are not really all that interested anymore... Oh well, time for new traditions I guess, like off to the beach with a book, beer and a towel for the afternoon... :)

bunny ears... :)

Yikes!

Has it been that long?? I suppose it has... Lots going on... I met up with some of my old friends from the Marine Corps and they decided that we should meet up, so we did...

While Carolyn and I were in Las Vegas, Marci spoiled the kids rotten of course... :)

Some of my friends in Las Vegas, and yeah, we left our camera at home, sigh... We had a great time though...

After we got back, we went to the Great Atlantic Seafood and Music Festival, had a good time, but it wasn't all that... :)

This is why I moved down here! We moved down in November, so we are just now getting to enjoy it!! I will be the best beach bum ever!!!! :)

45... :)

These people make me happy!

Happy Valentine's Day Carolyn!!

Super Bowl XLVI...

A House Divided... :)

January...

I'll take it...

Taylor loves it too... :)

Genealogy...

Anyone else research their family tree? I find it so fascinating... Thus far though, I have only been able to go back to about the early 1600's... I don't spend a lot of time on it though, but would like to... This is as far back as I have been able to go thus far...

Tanner shooting

Chance shooting

Willie Nelson...

Taylor and I headed downtown today to get our tickets for the Willie Nelson concert, it is a beautiful little theatre, kind of reminds me of the Fox in Atlanta... We were hoping to go in and look around, but everyone was too busy setting up for a concert they were having this evening, but oh well, we got our Willie Nelson tickets, and I cannot wait until February 8th!

Taylor in front of the theatre...

Jacksonville Beach...

Have I mentioned how glad I am we moved down here?? Yeah, January 8th, shorts and flip-flops, it was warm enough to not even wear a shirt!! Of course I do realize that it is unseasonably warm in a lot of places, but hey, I'll take it!! :)

Carolyn, Taylor and I decided to head down to the Jacksonville Beach Pier, it was a gorgeous day out too!

Big bird of some sort we happened across... Yeah, that was about as close as I would get to it...

Bird or fowl of some sort again...

Taylor making the sea gulls fly...

Taylor and Carolyn with the bird...

So yeah, a nice lazy day of sorts, went and strolled down the Jacksonville Beach, went to the pier and checked out a few shops along the shore... Nice Day!

Downtown Jacksonville...

Andrew Jackson statue...

The Jacksonville Landing...

Downtown Jacksonville...

Winter?

I'll take it... :)

My camera doesn't really do any of these shots justice, but whatever, it's beautiful... :)

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Day...

Have I mentioned how much I love Christmas? Yeah, I do! I love the fact that my family is so excited about it, I love watching my children as it approaches, I absolutely love the "Christmas lists" my children give to me in the months prior to the actual day, so yeah, I LOVE the Christmas holiday!

Yeah, we also know the reason for the season, all of my children do, which is why we normally have a cake for Jesus... My children are getting older though, so the "surprise factor" is pretty much gone as we let them choose what they want, why waste money getting things they either don't want or don't need? Yeah... Anyway, we had a great day...

If you saw my previous post, yeah, I got up at 5:15AM and waited, and waited, no one got up... Carolyn finally got up around 8AM, but the kids did not get up until around 9AM, but I figured they had stayed up late, trying to "stay up all night" as they had told me they were going to, so I did not wake them, let them get their sleep I figured... :)

Me passing out the presents...

This is the kids first thing once they finally got out of bed...

Tanner and I putting his mountain bike together, and yeah, that is my "makeshift office" in the background... There was no room for it in the house, so I just took over the garage... ;)

Carolyn got a bike too! She wanted one to go riding on the beach while I am at work and the kids are at school... Now I just need to get Chance and I a bike, which I will, and we will all have one and can go tooling around...

So, our first Christmas in Ponte Vedra Beach, and it was great! We had a fabulous dinner, ribeyes of course, Chance's favorite... Now for the New Year and getting more settled in here in Florida. I am SO glad we moved down here, I cannot wait to see the things that unfold next year, looking forward with great anticipation for 2012!

Hope everyone had a great day! Merry Christmas! Live each day as if it were your last, because you never know... ;)

Merry Christmas!!

The kids had said they were going to stay up all night, but I see that was not the case... I got up around 5:15AM, and here it is 8:17AM and no one is stirring, but me... :) So yeah, already on the second pot of coffee, and just waiting on everyone to get up...

Merry Christmas!!

Tick Tock...

Two more days! Hopefully everyone gets as excited about Christmas as we do here! Although it does not seem like Christmas as it is in the high 70's and I suppose I'll be laying on the beach later in my swim trunks reading a book, but I would much rather be doing that than freezing! ;)

Now, off to get a few last minute items prior to settling in on the beach somewhere...