So Much Has Happend

I have been so bad about updating our blog in the past few months and I apologize for that. I've been completely consumed with the responsiblities of having 3 children (with the youngest into everything and anything) and we have been traveling every weekend to this place and that place since the middle of June. Finally we are home and I can get organized again or as I say "reclaim my life".

A lot happend for our family in the months of March, April, and May and June, July.
Paul finished 2 beautiful homes, Nicole got her ears pierced, we had a new niece-Millie- (on my side-#5 of the grandchildren) and two new nephews-Justin and Ian (on Paul's side-#'s 28 and 29 of the grandchildren). Tison got his first 2 teeth in April and he is sitting and crawling (he has 6 teeth now and we will be celebrating his 1st Birthday next month), Nicole danced for the Mayor and finished Pre-K, the girls got their hair trimmed (Nicole got hers chopped off), Memorial Day in Rockledge with the Waters clan, Tison tried to color himself blue, we visited the Orlando Science Center, we went to a friends birthday party, we stayed on the beautiful Island of Marco down near Naples,FL with my family for two whole weeks, we went to family reunions in Statesboro, GA and Savannah, GA over 2 weekends with Paul's family. Life has been treating us well and we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful and fun children. They keep us smiling and laughing on a daily basis.

Paul finished building his 3rd and 4th homes and they turned out beautiful like always. Just a little note......the homes he builds take at least a year to complete. They are very large. Here are some pictures of house #3.

This is obviously the front of the house.

These are the built-ins in the den/library.

This is the ceiling detail in the master bath.

This is part of the master bath.

This is the fireplace in the great room.

This is the master bedroom and master closet.
Paul is thoroughly enjoying his job and will be completing house #5 in the next couple of months.

The following are pictures of all the events I listed over the last few months.

Nicole during her classes tap dance performance for the mayor

Our "little hams" after the tap performance

Nicole with her Pre-K teacher Ms. Copenhaver

Tison trying to color himself blue with blue tissue paper he got into in a matter of seconds. Everything seems to enter this boys mouth!

The girls just love their baby brother!

OLE!
Nicole's Before Pic

Nicole's After Pic (Did Shirley Temple enter the room? :) )

Michelle's Before Pic

Michelle's After Pic (Just a trim)

The 2 good lookin' men in my life!

Pool Fun at BamBam's birthday!

Memorial Day picture at Brian and Bridget's in Rockledge

Memorial Day munchin' with the cousins

What a bunch of CUTIES!

Nicole after her dance recital

Building castles in the sand with Dad

YUM, YUM, YUM.....Why don't they bottle this stuff Mama?
(Like I said, everything enters his mouth)

The kids had so much fun on Marco Island with their cousin Joseph

Napping after a full day in the sun!

Fun with "Mima" Lowry

The beautiful Gulf waters! One of our favorite places to be! When we arrived on the island the girls were asking us if we could please move. They said "We want to live by the ocean". Wouldn't we all?

We enjoyed magnificent sunsets...which I went CRAZY taking pictures of.

Well this is the end of a very lengthy post. Thank you for baring with me. I promise the others will not be so long.

The Bori Family

I am dedicating this post to the Bori Family. They are friends of ours who abandoned us here in Florida to go live in Utah. How CRAZY is that! Who would want to leave the Sunshine State? (Just Kidding) We miss you and our kids miss your kids........we are having Bori withdrawals. :)The good thing is that we know you all are doing well and loving life out west.

Boating with the Bori Family, May 2006-FUN TIMES!

Michelle was not so sure if she liked the tubing or not, but she was a real trooper. I was 6 months pregnant with Tison on this outing so you will not see pictures of me flying on the tube on the water (though I was wanting to be out there really bad).

George with Elianna, Michelle, Gabrielle, and Nicole. Look at the expressions on each of their faces, all so different (hilarious)

George and Veronica swimming around. Even though I didn't water ski or tube I did swim, but there were no pics taken.

The kids playing around in the boat. It started to rain on the way back so we put the cover on and the kids played under there.

Home Improvements

Paul July 2005 working in the kids bathroom. He is a hard worker!

One of his finished projects, the beautiful crown molding in the kids bathroom.

The latest news in our house are the projects that we have been tackling around here. I will be sending pictures in the near future (with some before and afters) of what we have done to the house. We have been having fun making each room the way we would like it.
I tackled a project this weekend with Paul's help. He taught me how to build casing around Tison's bedroom window and I had so much fun doing it. He built the sill (I helped some with that) and then I built the casing.
Our home is an on going project for us, but we will get it done just the way we would like eventually.

The Past 2 Years

So much has happened in the past 2 years for our family........Chris and Rachelle's Wedding (April 2005), Paul graduated from the University of Florida (May 2005) with a degree in Construction Management ( I have no clue why I don't have any graduation pictures of his on my computer. Hello Family--- If there are any floating around out there I would love copies :) ), Paul started his 1st job out of college with J. Richard Watson Construction building custom homes in Orlando (beginning May 2005), We bought our first home and moved to Orlando (end of May 2005), We visited Alaska on a cruise, toured Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia (WOW-what beautiful places)-(beginning May 2005), Tison came into our family (September 2006). We rented a large home in Big Canoe, Georgia with a portion of Paul's family (December 2006/January 2007) . Oh-and I can't forget...Nicole started Pre-K in January 2007 at one of the Elementary schools nearby. She is so excited about being in school and I miss having her at home (Michelle does too!) She will start kindergarten this fall. Following are pictures of some of the events listed above:

(Me, Rachelle, and Lacy)

Chris and Rachelle's Wedding, April 2005

My beautiful sisters-in-law!

Chris and Rachelle pictured with Rachelle's little cousin and our daughter Nicole

Our 1st home!

Me and Paul in Vancouver, BC, May 2005!

Nicole, Michelle, and Paul riding on the bus in Vancouver, BC

Lacy, Joe, Me, Paul, and Michelle on the cruise ship watching a night time show!

Seeing the sites and beautiful architecture in Victoria, British Columbia

Butchart Gardens (Victoria, BC)--what a beautiful place

(Dad, Nicole, Me, Mom, Michelle, and Paul)

One of our stops in Alaska posing for a cruise picture

The beautiful scenery of Alaska!-(picture courtesy of Rachelle)

January 2007, Tison with his big sister Michelle

Michelle and Nicole

Nicole's 1st day of Pre-K (our girls are growing up too fast!)

(Camille-4, Michelle-3, Audrey-4, and Nicole-5)

Cousins having fun on the porch swing in Big Canoe, Georgia

Can you believe that this is only half of the bunch of cousins? (From top to bottom and left to right--Jackson, Adam, Nicholas, Mitchell, Sadie, Taryn, Kyle, Nicole, Russell, Michelle, Seth, Camille, and Audrey)

They were all wearing their New Year's Day shirts they made!