We Are! Penn State!

My parents came to visit for Christmas as well as to attend the TaxSlayer (aka Gator) Bowl held here in Jax.  We got to go to the Pep Rally at the Landing along the St. Johns river in downtown.  We also saw a number of our Georgia friends at the game!

We rang in the New Year with dinner at my favorite place...Ocean 60.  Mom even had her first martini!  Afterwards we walked over to One Ocean for after dinner drinks then home to tuck the munchkins in one last time in 2015!

New Year's Day was the day of the pep rally.  We had fun even in the rain!

We got to cheer with the Roar.  See the Lion.  Hear the Blue Band and cheer with our cheerleaders.

We tailgated with the Jax alum chapter in the morning.  Everyone brought food to share and drinks.  It was chilly but we had a good time meeting new people and seeing familiar faces.  This was the shirt that Sis was determined to wear...She got to see her friend Raevyn's mom, grandma and sister at the game and wanted them to see her gymnastics shirt!  Stephanie wanted me to text a picture of Sis so she could send it to Raevyn who decided not to attend the game.

We had so much fun cheering on our favorite team in OUR town for a change!  It was so nice not to have to fly to see a game!

Dale Jr. made an appearance in his stock car!  He drove it out onto the field before the coin toss.

 The Blue Band did a short version of their pregame show.  They made sure to spell out Lions though!

 These two girls are very loyal to their teams and decided to wear their leos to practice!

Even though PSU lost, it was a great game in the second half.  The crowd got loud and all my Georgia fans told me over and over how polite and friendly the PSU fans were...They also loved our "thank you" and "you're welcome" part of our cheer as well as the variety of cheers the crowd participated in...Guess when your only cheer is to bark like a dog, we do sound better!  ;)

Best Present Ever!

The day after Christmas provided our kids with one more present...Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cara surprised the kids with a visit to Florida!  It took awhile for it to sink in that it was them and they were here to visit us.  In the kids' defense, it was about 2 hours past their bedtime so they were a little confused!

It was so much fun going on double dates at night! We had a blast showing them around and taking them to our favorite places.

We took them to Boneyard Beach.  Something you can't see in Utah for sure!

We also went to Fernadina Beach and just so happened to be in the area when the team arrived on Amelia Island!

While they were visiting, we ate at Poe's with my parents who came down to spend about 24 hours with Kevin & Cara.  While we were there, we found Jags QB, Blake Bortles.  He's such a nice guy.  He didn't even wait for Ra to ask for a picture, he just stood right up and happily smiled for the camera.  On his way out of Poe's he stopped by our table to say goodbye to Ra.  Needless to say, Ra was one happy boy!  I'm surprised it's taken us this long to run into Blake.  He lives in Jax Beach - ironically he bought Andy's boss' house!  Small world!

All of us were sad to see Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cara leave.  It was probably good they left while K was at practice so she'd have been a mess of tears.  Ra started tearing up and I had to tell him to stop or I'd start crying too!  It's so hard to say goodbye to them because they are so special to us.  I'm so thankful they were able to come visit.  The weather was awesome while they were here and Cara loved walking down to the beach to take in the sounds of the waves and the Vitamin Sea!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

This was the first year that I can ever remember not spending Christmas day with my family.  I really thought it was going to bother me, but surprisingly, it was wonderful!  We did what we wanted, when we wanted.  It was a gorgeous day and we spent it relaxing and enjoying with our little family.

These were the super cute cookies we picked up at Cinotti's for Santa...well, I picked up 2 Grinch cookies for the kids but Rudolph and Frosty were for Santa!

Andy and I were up first - that was a FIRST - so we enjoyed the calm before the storm!

Aftermath of the storm!

 This present brought tears to this guys eyes!  He knew just how challenging it was going to be to secure this present because they weren't available unless you went to the stadium and had them special made...Somehow Santa scored this for him.  His favorite Jag player (who is a PSU alum and youngest Jag to make the Pro Bowl)

We spent the afternoon on the beach.  It was so relaxing and a great way to enjoy Christmas.

After we got back, the kids decided to swim in the pool...It was a bit chilly, but not as cold as the ocean!

For dinner I prepared a ham supper including green beans, pineapple casserole, and mac and cheese.  It was so delicious and much easier than cooking a turkey dinner that takes all day to do!

You're A Mean One....Mr. Grinch!

A local church here has been putting on a musical production of the Grinch for at least the past 2 years.  We finally got a chance to see it this past weekend.  It was sooooo good.  Celebration Church has a great auditorium for this type of production.  They have wonderfully talented members of their congregation and we had a great time as a family.  All of us really enjoyed the show.

When you entered the auditorium, they had it lit up with green lights before the show started!

The music was incredible!

The Grinch played his part so well, I almost thought it was the real Jim Carrey!

Afterwards, we went in to meet the Grinch and found our friends Tay Tay and Annah!

The family had so much fun.  Beforehand Andy took us to a new favorite NY styled pizza place.  It was good, but Ra and I still prefer Al's to Tony D's.  Thankfully Al's is MUCH closer!  :)  Afterwards we headed over to One Ocean to check out their life size gingerbread display.  It was amazing and smelled sooooo delicious!

Just Bouncin' Around

A new trampoline place opened up here in Jax!  This one is most like the one we went to in Utah.  The other one here, my kids don't like because it's very limited on what they allow you to do while you're there.  This NEW place is called Velocity and it's AWESOME!!!

 We went with a group of friends and both kids had a blast.  They enjoyed the trampolines, the pits and the obstacle course!

These are 4 gymnastics buddies.  Emma and Kendall also go to school together and all 4 girls attend church together.  

Emma and Faith have an older brother who is friends with Ra and their mutual friend Bobby joined us too.  It was a great time.  I didn't get many pics of the boys because they kept themselves on the  move more than the girls did.  These 4 were content to practice flips into the pits or aerials on the tumble track tramps!

A Day Filled with Parties!

Last week was filled with PARTIES!  Sissy had her class party at school.  They had fun centers where they built gingerbread man traps, found area and diameter with candies, and created cute ornaments.  

The class had a Christmas sock exchange.  This was such a cute idea!

She ended up with the cutest socks!  

They also decorated cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  The cupcakes were chocolate to represent sin.  White icing to represent our sins being forgiven.  Green sprinkles to represent eternal life and red sprinkles to represent Jesus blood.  Such a great idea and a lot of thought put into each part of the cupcake.

 One of Sissy's friends had a birthday party at Painting with a Twist.

She had a great time and really enjoyed creating her work of art!

 These are such sweet girls and I'm so thankful she has wonderful friends!

PS - Not to be outdone with fun parties and outings, Ra had a surprise Christmas party at school the Friday before semester exams started and his best buddy took him to see the Premier of Star Wars on Thursday night before it opened.  He had a blast and came home and spoiled the movie for me...Oh well.  I'll still probably go see it!  ;)