So about two weeks ago Mark and I headed over to St. Pete for my cousin Matt and his fiance Jessie's wedding. However, I knew that having Chris along would be too much to handle, so we planned on having Mark's parents come to our house to stay with him. Since it had been way too long since we'd had any sort of vacation, especially without Chris, we took advantage of the free babysitting and left a day and a half early. Since Orlando was right on the way, and since we had free Sea World passes... we left Thursday morning and went to the park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't quite cooperate... it was FREEZING cold and POURING rain! But I seriously could have cared less! Just being together was so much fun! However, around lunch time I had to admit that I'd had enough of being cold and wet.. so we left the park. And, go figure, no sooner had we left than the sun came out! So we grabbed some lunch, checked in at the hotel, and then went back to the park so that Mark could ride the roller coaster :) After that we had an AMAZING dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse... I have NEVER eaten so much meat in my life! The waiters just walk around with skewers of different cuts of meat, and they will give you as much as you can eat. And it tastes incredible! The next day we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed over to St. Pete to begin the wedding festivities.
The night before we left, we took Mark's parents out to eat to celebrate their birthdays. I snapped this picture of Chris with my new point-and-shoot camera (Merry Christmas to me!). I love his silly face!
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This is my cousin Kate holding my neice Belle... she is a talker!
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Here's me with another cousin, Laura.
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The following weekend was another crazy couple of days! Thursday night we drove an hour down to Mark's parents house, spent the night and the next day, and then exchanged gifts with Mark's dad, who would be out of town for work on Christmas. While we were there we discovered that Chris had learned how to say "cheese!" for the camera! He only does it when he feels like it, though, but it is really really cute!
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I love this picture of Joy, one of my sister's twins.
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My sister has a great playroom at her house - but there's a catch: she keeps a baby gate up at the door so the babies don't escape. Chris HATES being gated in! So he usually stands at the gate and cries until I take pity on him and rescue him ;)
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The exchanging of presents! My stepmom Sherrie is on the left; my sister Jessica is next to her, my brother Luke is in front of Jessica, and the other five are all my sister's kiddos..
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Here's Luke handing out more gifts...
On Christmas Eve Mark's mom and sister came up, and then we all went to church. I really wanted a picture with Chris... but he wasn't so much interested. This is the best we could get!
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Doesn't this ornament just say it all?!
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Doesn't this ornament just say it all?!
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Christmas morning! Chris immediately saw the set we had gotten him, and of course right away he wanted the little train that was attached to the top. Once he had that he wasn't interested in opening anything else!
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Since he didn't quite get the concept yet of opening presents, I actually had to open them all for him. I did it one at a time, and let him play with them as we went. He was so excited! In this picture he is playing with three different toys!
He got a TON of new trucks.. and he couldn't have been happier.
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I made a book of pictures from the year for Mark's mom.
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More trucks!
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His favorite truck was the one that Mark's sister got him. It is a truck that holds a couple of cars in the back... he literally played with this truck ALL DAY. I am not kidding! He never left the living room all day! I had to force him to eat... and I didn't even dress him until about 5 that evening. He was just so engrossed in his trucks.
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Mark was the videographer :)
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However, for a short time his job changed, when I had him put together the train tracks we'd gotten him... Mental note: next year, put the toys together the night before! This turned out to be a more complicated set than we'd anticipated...
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But Chris was quite happy with the results!
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Since he didn't quite get the concept yet of opening presents, I actually had to open them all for him. I did it one at a time, and let him play with them as we went. He was so excited! In this picture he is playing with three different toys!
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I made a book of pictures from the year for Mark's mom.
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More trucks!
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His favorite truck was the one that Mark's sister got him. It is a truck that holds a couple of cars in the back... he literally played with this truck ALL DAY. I am not kidding! He never left the living room all day! I had to force him to eat... and I didn't even dress him until about 5 that evening. He was just so engrossed in his trucks.
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Mark was the videographer :)
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However, for a short time his job changed, when I had him put together the train tracks we'd gotten him... Mental note: next year, put the toys together the night before! This turned out to be a more complicated set than we'd anticipated...
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But Chris was quite happy with the results!
2 comments:
you better call me tomorrow! i want to know :-)
It just brings joy to my heart watching you & your family grow! It's a beautiful thing! Love the pic of Belle w/ Kate ... and the one of Joy! .. and you sure captured the spirit of a Weidner Christmas. Chris is such a cutie & so much fun!
Oh ... nice shirt!
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