Brody the Great

So many of you ask about our Great Dane, that I thought I'd let you take a look for yourselves! Pictures do say 1000 words, however I opted against posting pictures of the multitude of damage and destruction that the little cutie has caused along the way...we love him anyway! How could you not??

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was actually the first that we spent in Florida and it was quite different to have Christmas Eve on the lanai in 80 degree weather rather than being snowed in with no electricity!!! It was certainly a great time, but was bittersweet because Jason, Breann, and Myara made the trip North to visit with Breann's family. I'm happy that she got to see them, but it just wasn't the same without my little bro there. We also missed seeing Grandma Barb and Papa John, but will hopefully see them both very soon...
Christmas Eve started a bit dramatically, when I had the audacity to put curlers in Isabella's hair earlier in the day. She was fine with it until she saw herself in the mirror and was horrified. She threw a fit and begged me to take them out of her hair. She thought that she would have to keep them in for the party and said that she didn't want everyone to laugh at her. Awwww-it took a while to convince her that they would come out before anyone saw her (I told you she was a diva!) I actually shot a video of the fit, but promised her that I wouldn't show it to anyone. Her hair did turn out beautiful though, as you can see in the pics! The price we women pay for our beauty!!!! :)
Christmas morning began a bit sooner than we had hoped-Nate woke Izzy up at 2 a.m. and came to our room to wake us...needless to say, he was sent packing. Iz had no problem cuddling up with us and snoozing away, but Nate spent the rest of the evening watching the news in his room. We began our day at 6 a.m. and the kids were very thrilled with the haul for the year. Some of the favorites for Isabella were her bike, all of the many Barbies, and about 1,000 Littlest Pet Shop animals. Without a doubt, the top of the list for Nate was the Wii-his first game system ever. He also loved the rip stick and great tool box (filled) from Santa.
I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too...lots of love from all of us!!!
***Don't forget to scroll down and turn off the music before playing the video!!**

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Deck the Halls

Just a quick glimpse at us decorating for Christmas...Thanks to Carrie for yet another "gentle nudge" to get something new posted!! Love ya!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Everyday Hero!

Nate was recognized today as an "Everyday Hero" by Bay News 9! We had an exciting shoot at the Children's Home of Tampa where Nathan was able to give a donation of $530. The taping took about 2 hours and included an interview with Nathan, myself, and the Executive Director of The Children's Home. All who know me will not be surprised to know that I had a very hard time choking back tears as I talked about Nathan and about adoption in general. They also took footage of Nate playing with some of the kids who live at the home and of him actually presenting the money. All in all a VERY neat experience, however Nathan had a bit of a hard time leaving. He said he felt bad for the kids and wanted to take some home...oh my.
The story will air on December 15 every hour, so be sure to catch it. I will also give it my best shot to post it here as well for those of you not in Tampa (or without Brighthouse!). Thanks again to all of you who helped make this possible for my boy! Here are some pics that I was able to snap of the experience...

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful day at Gramma and Papa's house. The day would have been perfect if Aunt Lisa, Aunt Jenny, Grandma Barb, and Papa John could have been with us. We missed you all!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Huge Success!!

Nate's fundraising efforts really paid off! Thanks to his hard work and the kindness of soooo many people who made donations, he was able to raise $500 for The Children's Home of Tampa. He is now putting together a video of the experience that I'm sure I'll have to post! Thank you so much to everyone who helped him...Enjoy some pics of him in action.

A little taste of the past for you...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nate the Humanitarian

Nate does a service project for his Gifted Program every year. This year, he decided that he wanted to do something for kids in foster care. He is presently making himself available to be hired by neighbors to walk dogs, take out trash or do light yard work for donations to help The Children's Home of Tampa. He is also in charge of a garage sale we are having in two weeks, to earn more money to donate. He said in the letter that he is distributing to the neighborhood that, "My little sister and I are so lucky to have been adopted at birth. Some children aren't that lucky, and I want to help them." Wow-he never fails to make me proud!

Let me know if you'd like to make a donation to the Children's Home or if you have items for the sale...I'll pass it along to Nate.

Diva

Thought it would be fun to show you all the diva that I'm dealing with!! Meet future singing sensation...Isabella!!

Halloween Fun

It was fantastic to have all of the kids together for Halloween! We started the party a week early with a visit to the Halloween Festival at Honeymoon Island. We had lots of fun, but Myara was having NOTHING to do with the haunted house! On Halloween night, everyone came to our house for some pizza and trick-or-treating. Only Savannah decided that her costume from the week before was perfect...Nate, Izzy, and Myara all switched!! Fickle, Fickle kids!! BOO!