Hi!

Hi there!  Well, you can tell that reality sunk in again, due to my lack of blog posts!  Once we got back to school and work, all of my fun, "free" time was gone!!  We've been well - staying busy but today enjoying the day off!  We're heading to the zoo (probably along with the rest of the Tampa Bay area), but it will be fun.  We'll try to get there right as it opens, since we were conveniently up at 5:45 this morning.  Mr. Alarm  Clock, aka Bear Cub, wakes up even EARLIER when there is no school.  Does this make sense!?!?  He may be asleep by the time we leave for the zoo!!  :)  One cute picture from a trip to the aquarium...you can see his pure joy over the stuffed moray eel that he had bought with some Christmas money.  Oh my.  :)

Here's what we do in Florida after Christmas...

Just a few pics from the day after Christmas...it was WARM this year!!  Now we're into some chilly weather for a day or 2.  Bear Cub even swam in Mimi Bear's UN-heated pool a few days after Christmas...now that was just plain CRAZY to me.  My blood is not as thick as a Russian's apparently!  ;)  Enjoy!

Christmas 2011

Bear Cub had a great Christmas this year!  He continues to love his little creatures...anything from the "junk" department, as I like to say!  If it's rubbery or plastic, and some kind of critter...he will love it!  He was happy with his stocking stuffers of rubbery fun and also seemed pretty happy about his new scooter!  He has been into ocean animals here lately too, so he loves his new ocean books and bins full of ocean animals!  We have more animals around here than we can keep track of!  It was just the 3 of us (well 4, counting Zoe) on Christmas morning and into the afternoon.   Grandma & Grandpa, along with Aunt S, Uncle T and their girls, came over later in the day for a delicious Christmas dinner.  BC had fun with his cousins and they were SO cute opening their presents...talk about excitement!  It was another wonderful Christmas!  We are all so fortunate!!  :)

Christmas Eve

Wow...and so Christmas has come...and gone...once again!  We had a great holiday!  Here is round 1 of photos...these are from our Christmas Eve celebration with my side of the family.  Everyone came to our house, we enjoyed a delicious lasagna dinner (thanks again, Mimi Bear!) and had fun exchanging gifts and just hanging out.  It was an awesome way to start the big weekend!

 Present time!  Bear Cub's favorite time!

 Aunt J and 2 of her kiddos...good-looking group, aren't they??

 So happy to have M here from New Mexico!!

 Aunt and nephew...you can tell we belong to the same family, can't you?

 Outside with his awesome snake hook that Aunt J made for him! 

 Cousin H and BC...check out his "catch."  He called it a snake...really just a worm!

 New Christmas Eve jammies on and checking Santa's whereabouts online before bed!  Santa was just leaving Ireland when BC went to bed...perfect timing!  ;)

Getting things ready for Santa and the reindeer.  Poor reindeer...had to share 2 carrots amongst all 8 reindeer...hope they were ok with that!

Almost time for Santa to take flight!

Hi everyone!  Merry Christmas!!  Just wanted to share some pictures of Bear Cub from the last week or so.  He is excited for Christmas and KEEPS adding to his Santa list...Santa is D-O-N-E!  He's getting ready to take off tomorrow night, so I'm SURE he can't add anything else to BC's pile o' fun!

I'll be sure to post Christmas pictures soon...until then...from our family to yours...Have a Very Merry Christmas filled with lots of love and joy!

 Santa came to Bear Cub's school a couple of Fridays ago...he told Santa that he wanted, "1,000 long-tailed lizards..."  Oh my...I hope Santa explained that he can't always bring live critters on his sleigh!  The reindeer might freak out over that one... LOL!  Such a cute and happy pic of our lil guy though!

 BC's new friend, the zoo llama!  We had a great family day at the zoo last weekend!  One of BC's most favorite places!

 Just a LITTLE tired one afternoon last week!  He stayed like this for 2 hours!  Unusual for a boy that rarely naps!

 Oh, excitement!  Santa sent BC a TREASURE MAP!!  

 Off he goes!  On a mission to find his "treasure!"

 Still looking....

 Ooh!  Bingo!

 Just a few goodies...some gummies, a new Christmas book, and a snow globe.  :)

 Zoe Belle likes to get in on the action, too!

 Wish BC's eyes would've been open!  LOVE this one of Zoe...she looks like a little puppy here!  Sweet girl pup!

 Our tree...looking less lonely now with some presents!

 Camouflage and cookie decorating...what a combo!

 We had a fun visit to the Manatee Center with some friends this week...some manatees spotted, but the boys never did find the mangrove snake they (well, BC) was hoping to find!

 3 cuties pretending to be fish...

 Tonight we went to a place nearby called "Christmas Lane."  It's a house/strawberry farm that is all decked out for the holidays.  They sell t-shirts, cotton candy, hot chocolate, Santa is there, a ride-on train, and lights galore!  And the entrance is free!  It was a fun holiday outing!

 Ugh...claustrophobia alert!  Kids jammed into the caboose...BC is in there somewhere!  He enjoyed it though!

Merry, merry Christmas!!