Santa's Wonderland Express

On December 13th we went on Santa's Wonderland Express. You may remember we went on this train ride last year. We have decided to make it a family tradition. This year the kids really enjoyed it! Those in attendance were me, Patrick, Nana, Papa, MeeMaw, Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Laura, Uncle Troy, Tyler, Taylor, The Lieblers(Doug, Jen, Big Boy Ben), The Cushs(Christina, Mike, and Baby Mady), and the other Schmidts.

This clip is the beginning of our train ride. They were both just taking it all in.

Sydney was SOOOO excited to meet Santa!! She did not want to wait in line.

When the time arrived for her to sit on Santa's lap, she changed her mind real quick. Check out Parker appearing cool and calm. The thumb always goes in his mouth when he is unsure about something.

This is on the train ride back.

This years picture with Santa...

Parker and Sydney in action

Pictures don't show you just how entertaining these little monkeys are. Thought I would share some video clips from the last couple weeks. Sorry the lighting isn't the greatest. I will work on that next time.

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Here is some video of the kids getting down to Jack's Big Music Show.

Sydney rocking by the Christmas tree.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Talking. Too cute!

Parker and Sydney getting down with Santa here. Parker calls Sydney-Sissy or Sind. He couldn't say his name for awhile and would just say the P sound(you can see him pointing to himself here and saying the P sound). Now he says something that sounds more like Parker. Sydney calls Parker-something like Bupper or Popper. Will try to catch some video of that.

Hello?? Sydney loves any phone she can find. Typical girl!

Some more getting down with Jack's Big Music Show.

Lighting is a bit better.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We are so excited for Christmas this year.
It's funny how with kids your whole idea of Christmas changes. We have been talking about it for months.
I can't believe the time is upon us already.
In the last week or so we had been talking about Santa and reading some books about Santa too. We have been trying to prepare them for meeting Santa this year.
(don't worry we will also be teaching them the true meaning of Christmas)
Ask Parker and Sydney what Santa says and they say, "ho, ho, ho". It is so cute! I will try to find sometime to get a video of it on here.
So when Aunt Jan and GiGi were still here, we decided to decorate the tree. The kids had a great time decorating it. We learned quickly that although they know better than to touch the tree it was not a good idea to have the breakable ornaments on this year.
Parker is talking like crazy these days and he likes to tell us about his favorite part, the "yights, yights" aka lights.

**Here is a picture of Parker and Sydney helping put the Christmas tree together. Oh no, thats them hanging out in the Christmas tree box

**Sydney putting her first ornament on the tree

**Mommy helping P and S decorate the tree


**Parker putting his first ornament on

**and...taking it off again. hahahaha

**Can I put this one on too, Daddy?

**Mommy reading P and S a Christmas story

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was bitter sweet.
It was the first Thanksgiving without Grandpa.
Grandpa's favorite holiday was always Thanksgiving.
This year we decided to have the family over to our house for the first time.
It was a team effort.
On Wednesday night(Thanksgiving Eve), Aunt Jan and Grandma(newly named GiGi for Parker and Sydney)came from Sarasota. They stayed until Friday and it sure was a nice visit.

We have so much to be thankful for.
**Here is a picture of Parker and Sydney reading with Great Grandma(GiGi). They climbed on the couch and cuddled right next to her.
SOOOOOO cute!

**Here is a picture of some of the team effort. Ok ok so maybe some of us were just standing around.

**Is the bird done yet?


**Here is a picture of my mom and I.
**Here is a picture of GiGi, my mom(Nana) and Aunt Jan**Here is a picture of Uncle Troy and Syd

**Parker digging into his first real Thanksgiving feast!

**Look at Sydney shoveling it in with both hands

**It was great to actually sit and eat at our dining room table. It was a first!
** My honey and I after the feast
**Parker and Sydney playing with Chloe
**MeeMaw reading to Parker and Sydney

**Uncle Bill and Aunt Sabrina stopped by afterwards
Special thanks to everyone for helping to make this Thanksgiving a great one. The food was great and it wouldn't have been what it was without you all here.

Remington Park Fall Festival

On November 15, we attended our annual neighborhood Fall Festival. It is something we look forward to all year. Lots of fun, food, friends, and family!! This year we were joined by the Lieblers minus one. Thanks for joining us Jen and Ben! Jeremy and Krista also came!

**Here is a pic of Aunt Jen, Parker, and Ben.

**Here is a pic of me and Ben. He will be one on December 5th and is almost as big as Parker and Sydney!! Don't you just love the red hair!!

**Parker and Sydney were actaully big enough to join in the fun this year. They LOVED the bounce house and thankfully the older kids were very helpful with them.

Here is a pic of Sydney in the bounce house.

**Here is a picture of Parker in the bounce house.

**Here is a picture of me and Krista. We have known each other since 8th grade.

We lost touch over the years and recently got back in touch! So glad to be back together.

First Trip to Disney World's Magic Kingdom!!!!

It always takes me so long to get this updated when we do something. I think it is because we are always doing something ! HA!

Well, two weeks ago we were able to go to Magic Kingdom for free. Thanks, Kelly!

What a blessing our lives continue to be. God sure does take care of us.

Anyway, our journey included Nana, Aunt Laura, Taylor, Kelly, and Danny(Kelly's boyfriend).

It was difficult to keep up with the kids and stay on top of taking pictures but thanks to Kelly and Aunt Laura, we were able to walk away with some great picture memories.

Our journey started on the monorail, where Sydney, Parker, Patrick and I were named co-pilots for the monorail. We got to sit up front with the driver.

**This is a picture of our family with Chip and Dale. This was when we first walked into the park. (these were the only characters we waited in line to take pictures with)

**Parker was so happy to hang out with the chipmunks. Can you tell?

**A family pic in front of Cinderella's castle.

**First ride we went on was Snow White. We didn't think the kids knew "scary". Well, we find out that they do. Parker did not like it at all!

So we opted for a happier ride....Dumbo! Here is a pic of Daddy and Parker.

**Nana, Mommy, and Sydney on Dumbo

**Weeeeeee!!!!!

**Sydney, smiling for Aunt Laura!

**Parker catching a ride with Taylor.


**This is us waiting for the Spectro Magic Parade, definitely a highlight of the day. I think this was Sydney's favorite!

**This is Taylor sharing her popsicle with Sydney. Yummy!


Following the parade we watched the fireworks. I think this was Parker's favorite part. He kept saying, "Boom, boom!"

Finally we stopped by a gift shop, where Sydney got her very first stuffed Minnie Mouse and Parker got his very first stuffed Mickey Mouse(at a discount of course).

Overall it was a great day. The kids were much better than we anticipated. They never did take a nap so it was no surprise that 4 minutes after getting in the car, they were both fast asleep.

Visiting with Family

The week before Halloween was bitter sweet....
We said our goodbyes to Grandpa Jensen(my Grandpa and the kids Great Grandpa).
Instead of a sad goodbye, in honor of Grandpa(Vic), we had a "Vicnic". This was appropriately named by Aunt Jan. Vicnic was a cookout and gathering of friends and family at Oscar Scher park in Osprey, Fl. Oscar Scher was was one of Grandma and Grandpa's favorite places to go. Swimming, camping, canoeing, all the wonderful outdoor things that they loved so much and passed onto me. Anyway, we got a chance to see family we had not seen in a very long time and some we had never met. Like I said bitter sweet. This is a picture of Parker meeting his third cousin, Sarah, for the first time. He was smitten. And another picture of Sydney with Great Grandma and Aunt Bobbie.














After we left Oscar Scher, we went to Patrick's dad and stepmom's house(aka Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt)to stay the night. Grandma and Grandpa took Parker and Sydney for another trip to a pumpkin patch and then onto a park on a nature walk by the lake. These are pics walking to the pumpkin patch, Parker walking hand in hand with Grandpa, and all of us by the lake.

Halloween

Well, we went back and forth on whether or not we would even dress the kids up for Halloween this year. Would they really care??? We couldn't figure out what costumes to pick and we were also concerned about how hot they might be. Last year's cow costumes were adorable but they cooked in them. Well the weather turned cooler so we decided to get them dressed up.

Don't know how, when, or why, but Parker LOVES Elmo. Whereever we go, he always manages to find something with Elmo on it. You should have seen his face when we tried on this costume. He was so proud to be wearing it. He grinned from ear to ear. For the whole week before Halloween, he kept going into our closet to go get it. Sydney is not really into anything yet but I found this adorable Ladybug costume. She was not so sure when we first put it on but when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was sold!

On Halloween night, Nana joined us on our journey around the neighborhood. We thought we would wheel them door to door in the wagon but they showed us just how big they are and walked up to the door(well sometimes Sydney held Mommy's hand for moral support). The first one or two houses they weren't quite sure what was going on but by the third house they got the hang of it. We visited approximately 10 houses and then returned to our house to hand out candy.

I have included two short video clips of the kids in costume.
So glad we decided to dress them up. They really enjoyed it.

Twins

There's two to wash, there's two to dry,
There's two who argue, there's two who cry. One's in the mud having a ball,
The other holds a crayon, another marked wall.

Some days seem endless, my patience grows thin.

Why was I chosen to be a mother of twins?
The answer comes clear at the end of each day,

As I tuck them in bed and to myself say,
There's two to kiss, there's two to hug,
And best of all, there's two to love!

The Pumpkin Patch Pair

Well, it's been a year since Parker and Sydney's first visit to a pumpkin patch. This year was a little different. Last year was on a pumpkin farm off the side of an old country road in North Carolina. This year at a church on the side of a busy street in Orlando. Haha. As you can see from the pictures, last year they didn't care much, this year, we couldnt keep them still. They were running up and down the rows and rows of pumpkins. Each pumpkin they found was their favorite. I wanted to get a picture of them together, but I should have known better.

"Halfy Birthday"

September 21st

was

Parker and Sydney's

"Halfy Birthday".
Can't believe that they are actually 18 months old.
The kids received a couple of presents: Two "Look and Find" Books, a package of four new wood puzzles, and another book "The Wheels on the Bus" which happens to be one of their favorites songs to sing. The Look and Find books are exactly that, they are to look for certain items in the books. It is kind of like a Where is Waldo. They love them. Sydney's favorite are the puzzles. She is so good at putting them together and loves to cheer for herself.
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We made another trip to the beach the day before this and as you can see from one of the pictures..Parker made a new friend while he was there.