All I Want for Christmas.....

is my two front teeth.......Nolan lost his other front tooth last night! He even pulled it out himself! I have to tell ya, that's one cute "toothless" grin!Our family took a big trip last weekend........a big post in a few days on that!

~CB~

My Peep was HOME

This past weekend, my peep Jana (that would be BFF) came HOME from Utah for a few days. Her grandfather unexpectedly passed away earlier in the week and she was home for his funeral. I was SO Excited to see her! It had been YEARS since I had seen her and even though we talk almost every day by email or Facebook, there's just something about seeing each other in person that is special!

We were able to get together on Friday night for some GIRL TIME! I took her to one of my favorite little spots, Carmella's, for some authentic Italian food. It is THE BEST! I do believe I have her hooked on this food!

Do ignore the half-eaten bowl of mariana sauce in this photo and look at that glorious, golden bread! YUM!

I ordered the Baked Ziti, which I always order, and it did not disappoint!

Jana ordered Steak something or other...I can't remember, but she said it was glorious! Look at all that sauce! How could it not be?

Because we're wild party girls, ha! And because we were without our husbands AND our kids, we hit the town at the local Wal-Mart for some early Christmas shopping in the clearance section. In our defense, we live in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing else to do. We were able to have just as much fun perusing the aisles of the local WallyWorld as we would have somewhere else! For us, it was about reconnecting and laughing!

I don't have a picture of our shopping cart from WallyWorld, but rest assured, it was full. If you want to see the picture, you can head to Jana's blog to see it!

We had a great time catching up and I'm so glad she came HOME for a few days!

~CB~

Tailgatin' Gators!!

I love some Florida GATORS football!! What I love even more than those well-toned, built boys in white tight pants, is a good TAILGATE!! And lawsie mercie if the people we tailgate with don't know how to do 'em up right!!!

Loud music, Great food, and Good friends make all the difference in the world!!! Our friends that we tailgate with come in early each Saturday morning and set up with their motor home. Nolan & Carter always enjoy going inside and pretending to drive it!
Here's the spread from this morning! YUM!

My kids thought so too!

Go figure that the two of them, out of ALL that food, wanted watermelon! ha!

Many times, Becky Burleigh, the soccer coach for UF will tailgate with us. She was there both last week and this week! I just think so highly of her--she is very down to earth and jumps right in with helping to set up and lots of times, she's the one running our music!

Nolan also loved the big Gator helmet (made from heavy-duty styrofoam) that our friends have set up!
One thing's for sure! This family.......

Loves the GATORS!!
~CB~

The little lost tooth

Last Friday, Nolan lost his 3rd tooth!

I have to admit...he's mighty cute with that little lost tooth!

Happy Weekend and Go Gators!

~CB~

Swimming – Like a Fish (Part II)

I posted on Monday about the boys swimming at UF.

No sooner had I posted than my friend, Annie, emailed me and asked where the pics of the boys were.  She never lets me get away with anything. ha!

So far, we’ve had 2 rounds of swimming and the boys LOVE it! 

 

Carter’s teacher actually swims for UF and he is so good with the group!  Here is Mr. J. helping Carter get his goggles on properly.

Nolan is in Level classes (pre-req to competitive swimming) so he is in the BIG pool adjacent to Carter’s pool.  Not to be outdone, here’s Nolan getting his goggles on the right way.

Carter is doing great……check out the pro!

Nolan just thinks he’s the business all up in the big pool.

Backstroke!

Because the boys have had ear problems (literally) since birth, they HATE to have their ears underwater.  For some reason, swimming under water doesn’t bother them at all, but if you tilt their head back and try to get them to float, it’s a struggle.  Carter, however, did MOST FABULOUS with this today!

 

WHEW!  Time’s up!  They love it, but also love coming back home!  And the best part is that they’re exhausted!!!

 

I’m secretly hoping this fella (Ryan Lochte, the #2 swimmer in the WORLD who is a GATOR) will show up unexpectedly one day.  When I’m there of course!  I used to have abs like that.  When I was about 6.

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GO GATORS!!

~CB~

Like A Fish

My boys love the water.  No, I mean they really LOVE the water.  We go to the beach every summer for 2 weeks, and my in-laws have a house on the Suwannee, so the boys are in the water at least 2 days every weekend almost every weekend!

I’m a HUGE proponent of kids learning how to swim both for safety reasons AND because it’s healthy!  I realize I’m not the healthiest person on earth, but swimming is so good for your joints and your muscles.  No comments about how I should go swimming please!  ha!

Although both my boys can swim, I wanted Carter to get some more instruction so he would be a better, stronger swimmer, and Nolan is thinking of doing competitive swimming, so he needed some endurance practice.  (if he had the endurance in swimming like he does in talking there would be no problem ha-ha-ha)

We swim for the…..

Nolan is doing very well—he needed to work on the endurance part and by the end of the first practice, he can swim half-way in an Olympic sized pool!  Carter swam a lap in the “little” pool!

GO GATORS!

Cousins

Monday night we had a fish fry "down the road" at Pop's house. YUM-O!! I love me some fried fish.

One would think, as evidenced in the picture below, that there were 9 million kids at this shindig. Nope, just 4. Reminds me of an old children's book where you say "How many bicycles do you see?".....ha-ha! Let's count. 4 BigWheels, 2 tricycles, 2 bicycles. Um. Yeah. I said only 4 kids.

After dinner, the kids needed to expend some energy (can I get an AMEN?) so they went outside to shoot some rocket thingy in Pop's backyard. Quite promptly, one of the rocket thingys was stuck in a tree. There's a big surprise.
Never fear. Aunt Kelly to the rescue.

Like any good southern woman, she sees a problem, and has a solution. See that pan in her hand? She put it to good use.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. We had to call in the big guns. While I realize we DO live in the south, I don't always refer to actual guns whenever I say the words "big guns". ha! In this particular instance, it meant the hubs. Big guns was able to get the rocket thingy out of the tree (without injury I might add) and all was right with the world again.

The kids played (hallelujah). No one broke any bones (amen and amen).

Great food and good times!

~CB~