A late Christmas post

The holidays have come and gone, and boy was it a flurry of activity!!  The kids hit jackpot as usual. This year we even had a phone call and letter from Santa along with a certificate for being on the nice list.  Although there were several times I expected the Nice List Certificate to burst into flames.  We took the North Pole Express to North Pole City even, which was the highlight of Eli's holidays.   Evi kept asking if we were really going to the North Pole.  She said it was too far away.  I asked "if there are fairies and magic, why can't there be a magic train?"  which you saw a light come on after that.  But once we were actually there, she was skeptical when it was still a balmy 80* with mosquitoes.  Oh well!Santa brought a Wii U, because that's just what we needed was another game station, but is has been a HUGE hit.  Along with many other gifts from some very loving family members! Thanks to all for making it such a great Christmas for our kids!

North Pole Express - in shorts

Eli has decided he prefers being a home body and would rather just stay home than go to school, dance, or pretty much anywhere else.  Why bother when you have train tracks spread across the living room and your bedroom, and a wii, kindle fire and 3ds at your disposal? I have created a monster!!!! He was recently reevaluated at school and did MUCH better this time around.  Evidently, all the preschoolers were pretty underrated on the first testing.  Which is good.  I was beginning to worry that I might actually have to figure out how to do homework again for him to even make it through kindergarten.  Good thing Evi knows what's going on, she'll be able to help him!
Evi officially has a front tooth!  The first one in 11 months!  But now she's lost both the small ones around the front ones, so she still has a LARGE gap and still can't enjoy corn on the cob.  The last one she lost without realizing it while eating breakfast.  Guess the tooth fairy might have to find that one in poop her own self!

winter beaching

One of the MANY things Evi received for Xmas was a tether ball set. (thanks Dude)  Had I known what a huge hit it would be, I would have gotten it myself for all the credit!!  We can't hardly get her in the house.  No matter the weather (seriously) that child is out there playing tether ball.  And all the other kids greatly enjoy it too.  Eli has realized that his height has got him at a distinct disadvantage and refuses to have anything to do with it.  It is pretty much his nemesis.  When the other kids are here to play it, they all say "I want to verse so-n-so" which drives Scott nuts.  He tried to get them to say "I want to 'play' so-n-so ", but they pretty much didn't care what he wanted, it's still 'verse'

wave jumping - Venice, FL

One of my goals this year is 'road trips'.  Instead of going to the theme parks all the time in order to get our money's worth out of them, I want to try to do day trips to see what Florida has to offer.  In January we made our first trip to Venice, Fl.  This area is known for shark teeth hunting.  What we didn't find out from ANY of the sites I looked at before we went was that you would need to stop and buy the mesh shovels at a Walmart BEFORE you got to the beach.  So we showed up with nothing, expecting to be able to get it there.  The kids were like scavengers, waiting for people to abandon their piles, then they would raid and come up with shark tooth scraps.  But they loved it, and we came home with some shark teeth.

Eli-isms:
E-venture = adventure
comote = remote