Learning Something New

The delicious orange blossoms:

Happy birthday!

This is a time of learning. It seems we are always learning something new. When you are one you are learning how to walk. When you are three you are learning how to spell your name. And the older you get you just keep on learning: to make paper airplanes, what a fresh coconut tastes like (and the funny things you can do with the shell...), how to make slime, etc.

Enjoying a cuddle session.

Hello, hello, hello?

Walking is fun!

Mad science and mucky slime.

Now a Wolf!

Life in Paradise

What do we do in Florida? How do we spend out time? Well, here is a long post to show just what we spend our time doing. Sometimes we have exciting events to go to and do, other times we just go day to day doing tasks (which can be fun in its own way, like planting fruit trees).

Our Valencia Orange tree, and Mango is pictured in the background as well.

Teddy, enjoying the scene from our bench as the children play all around him.

Just what can you do with a Florida Room? We have made it into an extra play room. The children love playing out there. We also have story-time in the evening by the Christmas lights occasionally.

The school sent home information about "Saturday Night Lights" at the Equestrian Park because they were having a booth of a silent auction. They also gave everyone a free parking pass. We decided we would attend just to see what this was all about. Wow, was it fun! Everything was free and the children were able to feel like they were at a fair!

We were able to watch horse jumping.

David loved this rock wall!

Rebecca loved just hanging from the rope, and I think David like dropping the most as well.

They had two ponies giving rides to all the children. I think our children rode at least three times each!

They walked the horses around this large courtyard.

The smiles say it all!

This was not the first ride for Benjamin, and may I say his first reaction was the best! After he got off the horse the first time he was giggling with excitement that HE rode a horse all by himself!

There was even a reptile booth where the children could hold a Bearded Dragon.

It loved Rebecca the most, and even looked like it was going to sleep.

For Presidents Day we went on a "hike" to see the wilderness that is near us. We were on a mission to see how many alligators we could find. We ended up spotting six! It was eerie thinking of how quickly they disappeared under the water... We kept wondering whether there was one right next to us in the water and we just couldn't see it... We had heard that others had seen hundreds previously, so I am sure there were more that were unseen!

Spotting our first 'gator!
This one was farther away than the others in the water by the rode.

Bit by bit this life is turning into home, and we love it!

Baptism and Family

Our eldest son was just baptized, and it was such a wonderful experience. He is such a good boy and a good example to those around him. We were very thankful that both sets of grandparents were able to join us and cousins too! We felt so loved that even many of our friends came to support David as well.

One friend was so surprised that a father was able to baptize his own son. This never crossed my mind that it could be any other way, but now I am filled with gratitude that Heavenly Father has give all worthy men the opportunity to hold the priesthood which means that a father may baptize his own children and bless his own family.


On Sunday we had David confirmed a member of the church and he received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Another blessing of being baptized is having this gift of the companionship of the Holy Ghost always with us to help guide us through life.

I am afraid David wasn't feeling too happy here because he knew his cousins would be leaving soon.

Later, on Saturday, we took our family to play at the beach. For some it was the first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean! What a fun time they had, even with the stormy weather.

Two beautiful cousins getting to ride to the beach together!

Thanks to all those who were able to come, and to those who wanted to come but couldn't. We love you!

Two Hours

While some were playing in the snow (or stuck on snowy roads), we were basking at the beach! Here are some of our favorite pictures from today's beach fun:

Jumping for joy because low tide is so much fun!

Even baby waves like to be run away from sometimes.

"Here's lookin' at you, Kid!"

There are many shovel-ready projects at the beach.

Big hugs!

Big smiles! (and there's Rebecca off in the distance)

There's a lot of blue in this picture! Blue eyes, blue shirt, blue sky, blue ocean...

Rebecca was our water courier today--and she loved helping everyone be happy!

Digging deep (he loved that he found water down there).

-OR-

Every child is a civil engineer at the beach.

Buddies.

Bonkers for Bananas

For many months now we have kept a close eye on this plant. In fact, I think I have been watching it from the first time I set foot here! I anxiously waited for the bananas to look plump enough, and finally I could not wait any longer.

We went out and chopped off this bunch then chopped down the whole plant. I am so surprised to learn that each plant only produces bananas once. (although it may have a sprout growing nearby) Come to think of it, it seems I learned pineapples only produce one fruit as well, although I am not sure. (this is all so new to me)

We let the bananas sit in our kitchen for a couple weeks and now they are ready to be eaten and many to be frozen. They are the perfect size for little hands!

What is exciting is that we found that another of our plants is starting to grow a banana bunch as well. We will have fun watching this next one grow too!

Oh I Can't Wait

Today is David's eighth birthday! Here is how our dapper young man looked today:



And here's our soon-to-be-baptizee showing that he doesn't want any squinty pictures taken of him--thus providing a great squinty picture!

And here is a video that we made and may use at David's baptism.

New Years Morning

Happy New Year! Here are some pictures of our morning. The weather was so perfect. We took an early evening walk around our neighborhood and were dazzled by the beautiful night, the light was a just the right angle to make everything look beautifully green and then we had glimpses of the lake with the sun sparkling off the water.

Bird of Paradise

Sun through the palm.