Disney with friends, Limo Rides and Candy Houses....

I mentioned in my last post that we were heading down to meet up with my freshman roommate Jen and her family! So, early Friday morning we headed down to Disney. We had breakfast with Pooh and friends and then went to meet up with Jen, her husband Dave, kids- Alethea, Mikaela, Caleb and Sarah, also her parents and sister. It had been almost 8 years since I had seen Jen and Dave and even longer since I had seen her family! It was wonderful! Ellie loved having "big" girls to hang out with and Mason and I enjoyed having time to chat with the adults. Jen's kids are so sweet and well behaved and were so good to Ellie! Caleb was a real trooper hanging with the girls. We loved meeting Sarah who has the sweetest personality and is truly a fighter- check out her story. I loved that Sarah warmed right up to us and let me carry her around, feed her fish and ended the day with hugs and kisses for all of us! What an amazing little girl! Thanks Jen for letting us join your family for the day- we had a great time! See photos below:









Saturday night we were invited by Ellie's BFF Alex and family to join them for cooking making/decorating and then a night out on the town in a hummer limo to look at lights! What fun we had! The girls totally got in to the cutting of cookies, rolling the dough and especially the decorating! After that we let them play a little and then our chauffeur arrived to pick us up for the night. John (Alex's Dad) had packed a goodie box with delicious drinks made specially for the little girls and big kids! I think the girls had more fun being in a limo- climbing over seats moving from the front to the back, etc than they did looking at lights. Mason and I just enjoyed hanging out with Meggen and John! Rarely can we just sit and visit- so, that was a real treat!








Finally, I grew up making a Candy House each year with my family. My Dad would always build the house out of card board and then my Mom would make the icing and we would all help make the house. My Mom has been getting together with Maggie and Riley the last few years to make the house with them and this year they did it over Thanksgiving- but we couldn't join them. So, I decided we would try it ourselves. This was the first year that I built it and made the icing. Ellie only enjoyed round 1 of the making- you have to keep making more icing. She did however enjoy the eating of the candy! So, Mason and I ended up doing most of it- but it was fun and I think it was overall a success!

Christmas Fun!!!

I have been a little behind on posting- I apologize! So, we have had a few fun things going on....

The hunt for our Christmas tree. We didn't get one last year since we were going to be gone for so long and so we were excited to take Ellie out on this special adventure. It's a little weird getting excited when it is warm out, but we managed to go to a couple places and find the right tree! Ellie had a lot of fun and especially enjoyed the candy cane she was given as we left!





Friday night was the Christmas Lights Festival at North Florida. North Florida is our hospital and they have this great pond, park, grass area right next to it. Each year they have a festival to turn on the lights for the season. We invited Ellie's BFF to join us for the night and met up with some other friends while there. The girls had a blast running around and seeing Rudolph, Frosty and the Grinch. The one sad part of the night was the hot chocolate- as we each got our cup of hot chocolate...Mason and I were saying- it's hot, it's hot. Ellie took a huge swig of it, promptly spit it out all over the table where they were serving it and starting crying- upon my own test I learned it wasn't hot, it was scalding....so sad. This is an event for families and I'm not sure why they had it so hot. Alex took a small sip and burned the tip of her tongue. We felt really bad about this!






As we left the festival and grabbed dinner the girls were excitedly talking about seeing Rudolph, Frosty and the Grinch....but, we didn't see Santa cause the line was too long. They have told everyone about it and I'm sure we sounded like mean parents - but really, the line was crazy!

We have a few other fun things coming up- a trip to Disney to see my freshman roommate and friend- Jen- check out her blog. A few fun parties and of course- Christmas! I'll try to be better about staying up to date throughout the rest of the holiday season!