Bye, Bye Binky!!!!

Well, we finally did it!!! We buckled down and coaxed Jessie to put her binkies into a "Princess Bear". She has done great!! We have been dreading this process for months. For those of you who did not know, Jessie was GREATLY attached to all of her binkies. To the point, where she would have a binky in her mouth and then place her hand over her mouth so we could not take it away. She would even try to hide herself in the couch cushions thinking we would not see her with them. It was really quite funny. This was a sad day, but she handled it beautifully. Thanks to the folks at "Build a Bear" they helped us treat Jessie like this was her big day of "Becoming a Big Girl". She has only asked for them a couple of times and thus far has been easily distracted. This is has been such a miracle. PTL!!! No more binkies for us (Josh has never been a fan).

Christmas Pics at Home

Beads Anyone???

Mid-December we attended the Downtown Pensacola Christmas Parade. Now, it was no Chesapeake Christmas Parade, but it came close. The parade was full of lights, beads, floats, beads, candy, beads, Santa Claus, beads, stuffed animals and more beads. I think our family caught around 125 bead necklaces. We caught so many stuffed animals that our kids got to enjoy giving them away to other children. I think they enjoyed giving them away as much as they did catching them for themselves. Yeah team!!!!

Our Christmas card attempt... and failure

What a morning in December to remember!!! I had it all planned out. I found matching shirts for the boys and red sweaters for the girls. We walked down the street to a small private beach with tripod in hand ready to take our Christmas family photo for 2008. Let's just say... things did not go as the way we planned. Josh cried almost the entire time and Will and Jessie were more interested in chasing honey through the sand than having their picture taken. I am just thankful we had different family pics to choose from for our Christmas card. I am sure many of you with big families can completely relate. What a memory!!!!