She Smiles!

Elizabeth has been smiling (after much effort on our part to get her to) for a few days. She's still working on her technique, though, because she seriously goes a little cross-eyed every time she breaks into a big ol' grin.

Oh, and if you want to see her happy just hang around right before she eats. She definitely has a little milk eating grin when she knows she's going to get the good stuff.

A Sunny Sunday

It's a beautiful, sunny day here so Jack wanted to ride his bike. He got a new one for his birthday, but he's not quite tall enough for it yet so he's still speeding around on his Radio Flyer. It's hysterical when he really gets moving because his little legs move a million miles an hour. You can sort of get the idea from this video.

For some reason, he's walked around making this unfortuante face all day long. Seriously, what's up with that? January in Florida... 73 degrees and beautiful. Well, that's the weather today. Who knows what it will look like tomorrow.
Jack and Elizabeth.

Seaside

We took a little morning drive to Seaside a town about 40 minutes away that we'd heard a lot about but never visited. It was a little chilly today, but it was a beautiful sunny day. We took lots of pictures. Here are some of the favorites.

There was an awesome green lawn and pretty green Christmas tree in the central square.

Elizabeth was there, too, but she slept the entire time in the Baby Bjorn. Jack was a little more active.The non-demoninational community Chapel.There are lots of sculptures and pieces of art throughout the community. Jack liked this piece because it resembled a tunnel.

The water looked beautiful today.

Sweetness

Turns out our little Elizabeth likes to be naked. If she's crying and all else fails, just strip her down and she's all good. Jack used to hate having his diaper changed, but she seems to love it. So it's not surprising that she likes bath time (and before bath time when we're getting things ready and she chills in her diaper). To steal a line from my friend Kira, these pictures from last night's bath are "so sweet you'll need a dentist."

The Sophster

Jack and Sophia (4) had a great time hanging out together while the cousins were visiting. When they were getting along they were hysterical to watch together. Jack isn't exactly down with sharing his toys so they had their moments, but sometimes even those slightly unpleasant moments were a little comical.

They rode bikes together (in their pajamas, of course)...Jack kept pretending to be stuck in the grass so "Pheeea" would help him.

They took a bath together and particularly liked splashing each other with water. One night at dinner Sophia was totally cracking up Jack. I can't even remember what she was doing, but it looked something like this.
Jack was laughing hysterically (with spaghetti sauce on his face and wearing his new Buckeye Kids' Club t-shirt ).

Jack had a great time with both his cousins here and was sad on Monday morning when he woke up and they weren't here. He asked for "Beya and Pheeea" all day. We hope to see them again soon!

Lords at the Beach

Kevin's sister and her daughters are here! Jennifer, Isabella and Sophia arrived from New York Friday night and we've had a great weekend. It's been a blast seeing all four Lord cousins together.

Yesterday we went to the beach and couldn't believe that some people were actually swimming in the ocean. It's warm here (low 70s), but it was very windy and overcast yesterday and it's freaking December so swimming was out of the question for our crew. The kids had fun running around and we took tons of photos. Here are some highlights. (I admit they are mostly Jack, but he just looked so darn cute in his little blue shirt with his bare feet and his crazy blond curls blowing all over the place.)

We also tried to get some good family photos with mixed results.

Christmas Morning

Jack woke up bright and early Christmas morning. (Waking early... what else is new? But the saying bright and early isn't exactly true because it was still very dark outside.) But, we all drug ourselves out of bed to see if Santa Claus came to our house. He did. And he brought Jack a train table!

Jack was a little out of it in this first video, but he quickly warmed up and opened every present he got his little hands on without realizing (or caring) that one might actually be for someone else.

I love that Jack sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating. Trains are hard work.

Jack got a lot of other awesome toys, too. He likes hammering on his new tool bench. Nevermind that he uses the wrong end of the hammer.He was also very excited about a giant Cars activity book.Elizabeth had a good Christmas morning, too.She got lots of cute clothes and a super cuddly bear.Hope your Christmas morning was as special and fun as ours.