Happy New Year!!

So my baby turned three years old today. We figured that we have spent around $85 a month on diapers for the last five years! That is about $5100 .00 and a lot of diapers!! And the light at the end of the tunnel is almost here. Kaden and Sage were both potty trained around three so Torin's time is almost here... Torin has been planning his birthday for a while now. He woke up bright and early making sure everyone knew it was his birthday..This whole week he told us he wanted a train cake,a train to play with, and that he was turning 3 years old.... We all drove up to Orlando to stay with Amanda and Donny for New Years and since Donny and Amanda have not been to chuck E cheese and the kids love it .. That is where we headed with three very excited kids( and of course some excited adults:) It was a blast.. It was not as crowded as we thought it would be on New years eve.. which you parents of kids who have tackled the insane herds of children at that place will appreciate. It was actually pretty relaxing. I could not believe when we got to the parking lot they were running a Thomas the Train ride for the kids. Torin went crazy with excitement as if he could get any more excited..hahaha

I would give Torin a couple of tokens and let him run wild and he would always come back with one or two ticket in his hand . It was so funny , I couldn't figure out how he was able to play the games and come back with tickets.. I mean he is only three years old he couldn't possibly read the directions and then actually win a game .. could he?


We found the greatest Chuck E Cheese game ever !! It was Deal or No Deal for tickets!! You put in only 2 tokens and you have the chance to win 80 tickets .. It works the same way as the game show. You choose a case and then the bank offers you different amounts of tickets to take if you would like to make a deal. So Owen and I play a few times and another couple that was standing next to us play a few times ... we get 14 tickets, 6 tickets , 1 ticket and then Donny comes over and decides he wants to give it a try.... He is not even sure how to play the game and starts picking numbers , keeps pushing No Deal... Then it comes down to open his case and he has the 80 tickets!! It was crazy... everyone was screaming and yelling .. You would have thought someone won the million dollar jackpot.. It takes little to amuse us..haha



We ended up have around 783 tickets which bought us a few lollipops and stickers and Donny picked out a paper pirate eye patch.. haha .. at least we all had fun and the fact we spent $30 on lollipops and eye patches is no big deal:-)





After Chuck E Cheese we went back to Amanda's house for cake and presents.



Donny and Amanda got Torin a red Thomas the Train robe .. And he also got a small portable train and track to play with..
Since Torin out of the three kids loves sleeping with a plush animal .. I got him a big soft puppy that he carries around.

After all the birthday fun and we put the kids to bed it was the adults time to have a party. We cooked fun foods and watched the Dick Clark New Year's Eve show.


Donny and owen made a run to wal-mart to get the ingredients for their homemade (very hot!!) salsa..




About 11:45p we decided to make a ton of food. Amanda made a yummy veggies dip and I made a meatball appetizer and fruit smoothies. And of course Donny and Owen made their nasty HOT salsa:-)

Owen telling me that there is no comparison to the Great salsa he makes to the other store salsas....




We were so full by the time we ate all the goodies and the clock stroke midnight that we were all ready to crash for the night. Though we all had a great time together bringing in the New Year. So to all of our freinds and family ...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Internet problems

It has been a few days since I posted .. We have been having Internet problems.. I won't go into the sordid details but it has been very frustrating.. We no longer have our Internet card so we have been going to the local Starbucks to use the computer. Hopefully soon we will be able to access a wireless connection from the condo again.. So hopefully by Thursday something will fixed:)
Yesterday I tried my first attempt on a real 9 foot surf board.. and all I can say is WOW! I really thought I was going to die and be dragged under the ocean never to be found again.....I have a new respect for surfers out there.. It is not as easy as it looks and is pretty dangerous. I never did make it to the standing position so I can just imagine how much more crazy it is when you are standing up.. The waves push you so fast then flips the board right out from under neath you and then drags you under for a bit till the wave passes over you .... Of course you have the safety strap around your ankle so that you don't loose your board but that also means you go where your board goes ... shooting at an insane speed across the ocean..hahah it was defiantly an experience.. Yes I will probably be out there again because I am crazy like that...haha or i am just asking for a death wish...haha... Donny and Owen took the boards out for about 3 hours and they are beat up... We realize now that all surfers must be in incredible shape.. now that I think about it you don't see surfers caring around alot of extra junk in the trunk..heehee... So our new goal now is to get in a little more shape so we can least survive a few hours out there with the big boys.. Hopefully the Internet will be up and running soon .. I'll keep everyone posted.....

Christmas Day

The kids must have this inner clock that tells them it is Christmas day and they must get up at the break of dawn and play with every toy they got the day before. I think I heard them up way before 7am today.. way too early for anyone to be up and about!! Amanda and Donny cooked a nice Christmas morning breakfast ..eggs, sausage, and biscuits. Then we let the kids open there stockings and then headed to the ICE show.





The ICE show was a huge dome of ice sculptures and ice slides that you walk through.. It was 9 degrees in the building so we had to come up with some warm clothes for the kids.. Which was not an easy task. When Wal-mart is closed you know your going to have problems finding anything open. No one had pants for the kids so we found some tall men's tube socks to put on them at the local Walgreen's with mix matched gloves and hats .





All the following pictures are from inside the ICE show. Everything in it was made out of ice.. They had 24,000 pounds of ice brought in and it took them over 2 months to carve the ice sculptures.

They had 4 slides set up for people to go down made of all ice.

Torin was so excited to go down he went down a couple times . Every time he went down he would flap his arms like a bird..I'm not sure but I think he thought he would go faster....

Sage was so tired .. I think here she was asking to go home and telling us that she was toooo cold for the hundredth time:-)

It was a lot of fun to see all the ice and to have ONE day to experience the freezing temperatures that you all up north are experiencing everyday. But tomorrow is another day and we are headed to the beach to get out the surf boards again:-)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve... A time of food, gifts and family... It was a great evening....Amanda had to work till 3pm today so I began the cooking. It was the first time attempting to cook a turkey. It actually wasn't so bad:) A few of the items on the menu tonight were:

A nice green Spinach salad with, cranberries,almonds and walnuts

Some spinach and cheese appetizers
Rolls
Homemade cranberry-orange walnut sauce
Garlic mashed potatoes Sauteed Garlic and almond green beans

and Owen's favorite ..A glass of Sparkling Grape Juice

I also made Homemade stuffing and of course the turkey ( sorry none of my pictures turned out for the turkey.. but it was good)

After dinner we all went to open the loot..... the kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Gus even got into all the excitement ... He was in paper heaven!!.. he got a few pieces stuck in his teeth during all the wrestling....haha

May the force be with you.......

(Said in the best star wars voice:-)

Owen was pretty excited about his Rubix cube.. he already had the laptop out and googled all the tricks and info on how to solve it.... hahaha.. I know big *sigh*....So typical:-)

Thanks to the Townsends , Grandma & Grandpa Smith, and Grandma Sandy for all the special gifts !!

There was only one thing left to do..to end the night.. a nice back rub for the chef..heehee..
And a slice of Red velvet Cake topped with a creamy vanilla icing..yum yum!!!
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!!!