Winter break continues.....

at the Atlanta Zoo!!!

Today we headed to the zoo with the Geraci girls......Olivia, Maia and Amelia, our good friends from preschool. We had the best day!!! The weather was gorgeous, there were no crowds and the girls just had the best time. This was Eliana's first time to the zoo where she could actually get out and walk around and see the animals and she just looved it. The top favorite animals were the otters, komodo dragon, panda bears and the house of reptiles.....meaning SNAKES!!! Yuck. It takes allll I can do to make myself walk in there everytime we go. Aubrey loves it though so I go! I am truly, deathly afraid of snakes. I get chilled to the bone!!! But we had a blast and are so happy to have fun friends to enjoy this break with!

(and of course continue to practice my photography with! :) Did I mention previously that I am taking a photography class and trying to better my photos and skills???? Thus the reason for all the pics. It's been fun!!!

Winter Break 2011

So Cobb Co. was kind enough to let us keep our winter break, even though we had a full extra week of snow days in January!!! I feel like we are alllways out of school!! But we decided to make the most of it and head on down to see Nana, Papa, Emmy, Jarrell and Austin in Brunswick, Ga. It was also everyone's birthdays down there (yep, 4 out of 5 in February!!) so we had to go do a little celebrating with them.

Our first day we headed over to St. Simons Island, which is an awesome 15 minutes away! It was absolutely beautiful.....the weather was right at 70 degrees and sunny. We ate some yummy seafood, sat outside and then headed down to the beach for a nice long walk. The kids searched for seashells and the rest of us tried our hardest to keep Eliana out of the water. She was determined to splash and play!! The beach is beautiful and the little town of St.Simons too. We shopped in all the cute little shops and stopped to get some ice cream. It is a great little spot and we can't wait to go back!

The next day we went to Jekyll Island which is also only 15 minutes away! My family hit the jackpot with this move I think.....sitting right in a perfect spot for so many fun and beautiful day trips. Jekyll is my favorite. It's quiet and beautiful and the kids can just run and be free and never worry about cars or too many people. The oak trees grow all the way down to the ground which make the perfect climbing trees and of course we hit all the cute shops and another ice cream store!!! We also looked for more seashells on a beach walk......although it was much, much cooler that day so our beach time was cut a little short. We brought our lunch, had a picnic and just had the best day ever. We even stopped at the stables to visit the horses before we left. Aubrey found out you only have to be 7 years old to ride the horses on the beach so she is already planning her big horseback riding trip for this fall when she turns 7. :)

It was a great weekend and we love our family sooo much. I tried my best to get in a photo shoot of the kids but of course they had no interest. So these are the best of what I was able to get out of them!! (still practicing my photography......)

My Valentine's......

I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband and the two sweetest, most beautiful girls on this Valentine's Day. I am the luckiest girl in the world!!!

Presents all around included "sock monkeys" and chocolates for the girls, and for me Jon got my "Twist" musical posters framed for my little office! I was so surprised. I've been wanting to frame them for months.....

Aubrey came home with a bag full of valentine's from school including one very special valentine from her first little "valentine"......his name is Baker. And he looooves her! And I'm pretty sure by the giggling and blushing that she does when we talk about him that she is smitten too. Ah, kindergarten love!!!

We had a great day....and of course it was such a treat just to all be here together.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Sassy haircut......

Aubrey could no longer stand the hassle of brushing her long, long, long hair every morning so she begged and begged me to take her to the salon to get her hair cut off!! I was hesitant but this girl has soooooo much hair it is nearly impossible to brush and fix it every morning. So I took her this past weekend to the salon and she smiled and posed as the hairdresser cut about 7 inches off her hair. She loooves it. She thinks it is so "sassy". I will admit that I love it and she looks so cute but I think it makes her look too grown up!!! When did she get so big????

First Race!

This past weekend I ran my first race! It was a 10K called the "Chattahoochee Challenge". It was so much fun!! I completed the race in 64 min. I must say I was pretty proud of myself! It was a beautiful place and a cold, but beautiful morning for a run. Now I'm training to do the half marathon here in Atlanta on March 20th. I think that one is going to be quite the challenge but I am up for it!!!

Just because.......

I looove this baby girl.

Girls weekend.....

Jon had to go out of town for a convention this weekend so Ellery came over to spend the night and have a little girls weekend with Aubrey and Eliana and I!

We had pizza, cake and movies on Friday night and then spent the day on Saturday playing, taking an outing to Yoforia, and then heading to the park to enjoy the first day of sunshine we've had in a week!!

We sure do miss the man in our house this weekend but we have definitely had a blast hangin with the girls!! (and of course Georgia has just fit right in.....)

Georgia on my mind......

Aubrey's wish has finally come true.......she's been asking for a cat ever since our cat Annie ran away a couple years ago and we have been promising her that when she's 7 years old we will get her a cat. Well, somehow she convinced her Daddy that 6 1/2 is old enough and lo and behold we are now the proud owners of the sweetest baby girl kitten ever. Aubrey and her Daddy named our kitten "Georgia". She truly is the sweetest little thing I've ever seen. She has endless patience with the girls......let's them tote her around, play with her, hold her, kiss her and chase her and she just loves them. She never bites or scratches and loves nothing more than to just be held and snuggled with for hours and hours. She's playful and fun and has just fit right into our home like a glove. We are so happy to have her!!! And Aubrey is of course on cloud nine. She doesn't want to go to school, the store, anywhere......just wants to stay home and play with Georgia allllll day.

We are hoping to have Georgia in our lives for the next 20 years!!! She's brought alot of smiles to our faces this week.......