Cool kids!!!

Sydney was sitting on the potty the other day and instead of me reading to her, she said she wanted to read to me. That she did! I SOOOOOO enjoyed listening to my little girl "read" Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to me. She told the story to me page for page with such detail. It was amazing! By the way she read the story to me three times. :)
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Mee-Maw told Parker that he had 4 sleeps until Christmas.. His response, "I'm all done sleeping."
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Sydney and Parker got a pretend McDonalds drive-thru for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt. They take turns driving thru and working the drive-thru window. Yesterday Parker drove up and ordered a milkshake. Sydney's response, "Coming right up, Sir Parkerman."
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So Parker has learned to ride a tricycle. The funny thing is he only knows how to pedal on Sydney's pink tricycle. He doesn't make the effort at reaching the pedals on his because they are a little harder to reach but Sydney can ride both.

One of the many differences with the kids, Parker doesn't like to work hard at things. He is fortunate that many things come easy. Sydney on the other hand loves to work hard on things. She will practice over and over and over again until she has mastered it.

I love the differences in our kids. Makes everyday exciting. They are such cool kids!

Christmas Carols by Parker and Sydney

Funny stuff

A couple cute stories.....

Last Friday night, we went to the mall. While Sydney and I ran into a store, Patrick and Parker waited for us outside. When we came out, Parker grabbed my hand and said, "Mommy, I am taking you to see the 'real' Santa Claus."(remember he met Santa a Sea World already--uh oh)
So he we went to see the 'real' Santa where the kids were able to sit on Santa's lap-which they couldn't do at Sea World-and they told him what they wanted. What a wonderful Santa he was! The kids told him about their elf, Sydney told him the elf's name and Santa told her that he goes to the North Pole every night to report to him. Then Santa talked to them about some things they may want for Christmas. He knew exactly what to talk about and what the kids would like these days.
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So our Elf on a Shelf was sitting on a very high window sill in our house on Monday. When I was talking to the kids, I asked them how "Fitzy" got up way up there. Parker said that Nana put him up there. I told him that she couldn't have because she's too short. I said, "Maybe he flew up there." Parker then without hesitation replied, "He doesn't have wings". I then replied with, "You don't need wings when you have magic. How do you think he gets back and forth from the North Pole every night??" Sydney my little believer(thank goodness)says,"Yea, Parper, he flew up there."
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Yesterday morning, "Fitzy" was in the kids bathroom. He was sitting on a picture that hangs on the wall. As the kids were brushing their teeth, I spoke directly to Fitzy, "Hey, Fitzy, look at Parker and Sydney. They are doing such a great time brushing their teeth." Parker says, "Mommy, he's not talking to you because he's pretend." I said, "No, he's not pretend. He is real." My little cheerleader, Syd, jumped in and said, "Parper he's real!" She then left the bathroom and Parker stayed. I then asked Parker, "Why did you say that he is pretend?" He replied, "Because he has a tag, Mommy". My reply, "We all wear tags on our clothes, Parker." And i showed him the tag on my shirt!
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Can someone please tell me why our two and half year old questions everything magical???? Aaaaaa!!

Polar Express

Once again Sea World has done a great job of entertaining our family.

Our annual passports have really paid for themselves over and over and over again.

Ok so when I used to teach I had a favorite book to read this time of year..it was always The Polar Express. What a great story about believing....

So I was so excited when I found out Sea World had the Polar Express for the Christmas season. We prepped by letting the kids watch The Polar Express movie which they absolutely loved. Then the four of us along with Nana went to Sea World.

Here they are meeting the penguins. It's cool that neither of them are afraid of the characters anymore.

Here are they are with the snowman from The Polar Express. Look at Sydney pose.Here they are meeting Santa for the first time in their memory(first time Sydney didn't cry when seeing Santa). They are telling Santa what they want.

We bought a family picture with Santa but didn't get it scanned in yet.

After this we went to the Elmo Christmas show and then got to see an amazing ice skating show.Thanks to Patrick we had front row seats. I wasn't sure that it would hold the kidsattention but they couldn't take their eyes off the show. They even made it snow which Sydney loved.

Our Elf on the Shelf

This elf mysteriously showed up on our doorstep one day. He came with a book that tells his story. Here is a picture of our Elf on the Shelf. The kids named him Fitzy.

The book tells the story of an elf that Santa has sent to keep an eye on the children's behavior. Each night the elf uses his magic to go back the north pole and give a report, when he comes home each night he finds a new hiding place in the house. It is fun to watch the kids race around each morning to find his new location.

What they're doing....

I thought I would start a post to keep up with all the cute things they do and just dump them here and if/when there was a lot of cute things, I would actually publish the post to the blog. However with all the holiday stuff going on, I forget to get in here and put all the really cute things down.
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Here are a couple things I collected the last few weeks....guess I will just publish them to the blog when they happen. Even if it's just a short note.
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A few weeks ago, my mom called me at work and couldn't stop laughing. The kids were eating lunch and Parker looked at my mom and said, "I need to wet my whistle" and picked up his drink and took a sip. Sometimes I think he is a little old man trapped in a little toddler's body. hahaha
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My mom has a really great routine with the kids. She is AMAZING and we are so fortunate to have her with the kids.
With a little help from me, finding the ideas, she does crafts that revolve around their "letter of the week". They love it.
Sydney continues to be so good with her fine motor skills. She colors 'almost' in the lines. Lets's put it this way, she is very particular and deliberate about where and how she colors.
She also uses a glue stick all by herself and holds a crayon and/or pen like you are supposed to hold a pen.
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While we were on vacation, the kids had their little doodle boards. Parker wrote something and then said, "Look the letter 'p'". We looked and sure enough it looked like a letter 'P'(purely by accident we thought)so I said Patrick show him how to write a letter 'P'. Patrick showed him and then Parker wrote it again. he has been writing the letter "p' ever since. The other day he wrote the letter 'c' backwards and then I asked him to write an 'M'..which he wrote with three straight lines side by side..kind of like this....l l l.

Thanksgiving

This year we traveled to Lake Lure, NC for Thanksgiving. We met up with my Aunt Tana, cousin Michelle, her husband Krys and their son Ben. We all drove up on Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. We all pitched in for Thanksgiving dinner and it was a complete success.

The weather was perfect and the company was great!

Parker and Sydney got to meet their second cousin(??)Ben for the second time(first time in their memory).


Here is a pic of the kids table.

Here are the cousins in their new PJs. They were perfect for the cool weather and a big hit. Thank you Aunt Tana.

We spent our days outside and some Wii in the evenings. We rocked out with Guitar Hero and Rock Band and Wii bowled. We made Christmas cookies(thanks Michelle).

The day before we had to leave we went to a Christmas parade in Forest City, NC.

It was so nice to spend time with family we just dont get to see often enough.

It was sad to say goodbye.

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You will have to click on the November slide show on the right side of the blog to see all of our pics.

Aunt Krista and Uncle J's Wedding

Last year, thanks to Facebook, I was reunited with an old friend I had lost touch with over the years. Krista and I met in 1990 in middle school and were very very close friends for many years. Once reunited, it was like no time had ever passed. We were always that kind of friends
Krista and I actually knew each other before Patrick and I met.

This past weekend, we had the honor in sharing a very special day with Krista...her wedding day! She married an amazing man that has also become a very good friend, Jeremy.
Patrick was a groomsman and Sydney was the flower girl and Parker was her escort.

Here they are when we were getting them ready. Love these pictures. If they were only this sweet all the time.


Look how handsome.
Fake smile.

Making it down the aisle.So sweet.
Krista and I. What a beautiful bride...

My mom and I.

My handsome hubby and I.

A really cute video clip. I was keeping the kids busy as much as I could before the ceremony to ensure two happy kids during the ceremony. We were waiting for the bride to arrive at the church.

Car Show

One of PaPa's cars was chosen to be in the 8th Annual Concours d'Elegance in Winter Park. It is a pretty prestigious car show in Winter Park, FL.
We went out to show our support and also to spend a beautiful day in downtown Winter Park.

Here is Parker "driving PaPa's Corbette". That's how Parker says Corvette.



And here is Syd taking Parker for a ride.

Camping

This past weekend we went camping with our friends, the Lauvers: Kenny, Monique and their son Kristian. We went to Blue Springs. This was only our second camping trip with the kids. The last time we went with them was back in January of this year.
We had a great time! Good food and fun. We even got to see manatees.
It did get pretty cold(think when we woke up it was 49 degrees...brrrrr)that night. Parker woke up crying, "I'm told!!" Yes, "told" thats how he says cold.
We stuck him in between us for the rest of the night and he was fine.
Check back at the end of the month for all the November pictures in a slideshow.
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Just getting set up..

Time for smores...Parker preferred to eat all the ingredients seperately.

BRRRRRRR. Can't believe Patrick was wearing shorts and flops. You can't tell but Parker has double layers of PJS.

Gloves made it a little better....

Powdered donuts....a camping tradition.Coming back from seeing the manatees with Kenny and Daddy.

Bragging again....

Ok, so I know I brag a lot but remember this is the only record I have of what the kids are doing at any particular time. And seeing how I can barely remember what happened a couple days ago..Anyway, you know what I am saying.

So I knew that the kids could identify many letters but I never really had them go thru the whole alphabet.
Well, this weekend I got them alone(without the other one shouting out the answer OR distracting.) We used the letter magnets on our fridge and went letter by letter. The letters are all mixed up om there so we did them all out of order.

Parker was able to identify 19 of the 26 letters:
A B C D H I J L M N O P Q R S T U X Y

Sydney was able to identify 17 of the 26 letters:
A B C D I J K L M N O P Q R S T X

I can't believe it!!!!

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween, Elmo made a another appearance but this year he was joined by his very good friend on Sesame Street, Abby Cadabby! I know it's silly to do the Elmo think again but last year he wore it because Mommy thought it was cute, this year he wore it because he wanted to be Elmo SO bad! By the end of the night we were all begging him to take off the costume because we wre so afraid he was headed for a heat stroke but he refused to take it off. Poor little guy was soooooo hot!

`

Here is our beautiful fairy, Abby Cadabby.

Here are the two of them..couldnt get them to smile together.

Here they are with Nana.

And a picture with Chloe(aka Sleeping Beauty).

A quick video...

Smarty Kids

Here is some video of the kids showing off some of the stuff they know. Its hard to catch it on tape but here is some cute stuff.

Pumpkin Carving

This week we carved our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. The kids had so much fun. Daddy and Sydney were a team and Mommy and Parker were a team. They helped draw the faces for their jack-o-lanterns and then scooped out the seeds. At first, Sydney thought it was yucky but then she decided she loved it!! Parker on the other hand pretended to like it(I think we got him so excited about doing it that he thought he needed to like it).

Here she is getting the hang of it.

After we were done with the jack-o-lanterns, we baked pumpkin seeds and ate them. YUMMY!

Here are the finished jack-o-lanterns. Sydney's is on the left and Parker's is on the right.

Our refinished pool

I totally forgot to share pics of our refinished pool. The pictures don't show just how pretty blue it is. Check out our turtles. One for each of us and the kids will tell you which one is each of ours. Daddy's is at the bottom leading the way, then Mommy, then Parker, and Sydney is on the top step.

Aunt Brandi's Birthday

We went to Ocala to ce;ebrate with Aunt Brandi for her birthday. I won't say what birthday it was....but if you look at the cake you will get your answer. As always, good times.
Uncle Johnny's surprise for Aunt Brandi was a dunk tank where he told her she had to be dunked one time for each year! Parker wanted to go in the dunk tank too.

In the Gladiator Ring....it's on!

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt came to visit this past Saturday from New Port Richey. Uncle Joe Joe, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Heather, and cousin Sadie came over too.
We had a great family dinner, a walk to the park, and the adults finished the night with some Wii fun!
Wish we took more pictures.
Grandpa dancing with Sydney.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch.
We met up with the Cushs and other Schmidts.
The pumpkin patch is actually a farm. The kids got to pet horses, goats, and bunnies. They got to bounce in a bounce house and swing on the tire swing shaped like a horse. We even enjoyed a picnic lunch. It was lots of fun.
We didn't buy a pumpkin here because they were way to pricey. I went to Aldi's afterward and picked up two for $3.29/piece.

Little Mommy

Sydney continues her "little mommy" ways.
She has started to help dress Parker. She likes to put his socks, shoes and jacket on for him.
When Parker fell down last week and skinned his knees, she said, "I brush you off Parker. You're all better now."
My mom told me today when she was laying the kids down for their nap, Sydney had to get her stool so that she could cover Parker up for his nap.

Sea World Spooktacular

So our Sea World passes continue to pay off.
We went to Sea World Spooktacular and had tons of fun. It doesn't count any more money and the kids get to Trick or Treat all over Sea World.


On this trip, we arrived early so we could eat Count Von Count, Elmo and some other Sesame Street characters.
If you remember, for the kids birthday present we took them to have Breakfast with Elmo. They enjoyed it then but boy did they enjoy it now. Nana came with us this time too.





My cutie-patootie





Realized after seeing this picture that Sydney needs a new Elmo shirt and some new shorts. Both are way too short!

Surprise got them both to look in the same pic.

He will not look at me when I take his picture!!!

Sydney and the Sea Princess.

Mady(Christina's little one) giving Sydney a hug.

Sydney couldn't wait to meet Abby Cadabby.

So we went to the Count's Spooktacular show. During the show, Elmo went backstage for a bit. Parker asked, "Where did Elmo go?" Then he answered his own question, "Elmo went to go peepee in the potty."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA