Christmas in Freeport

After leaving Perry, we headed west for Freeport! After some last minute Christmas preparations, we put the kids to bed so they wouldn't miss Santa Claus! Christmas started at 6:30 am and we ripped, shredded, videoed, photographed, cleaned up, ate and played all morning! Its a little crazy, but that's how we Hollingtons roll! By noon, we are napping, showered and refreshed for more visiting, eating and drinking! I love this family and enjoyed every minute at Tina's, Terry's and Granny's house! On the way home, we had the pleasure of taking Grandma Terry back with us! We stopped by Aunt Stacy's house for some cheery visiting and love! Sorry, no pictures of this! Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as much as we did! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve in Perry

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Grandpa Hoyt, Grandma Mona, Grandpa Dan and Bobaloo in Perry! We got in late Thursday night and woke up to drink some coffee with my folks before heading out to meet the newest member of the Kimble family-Bobaloo the donkey! He is such a friendly little burro and he let Wil ride him! We enjoyed getting to know our little "Jesus" donkey! "Jesus" donkeys have crosses down their back! (Donkey trivia!) Grandpa Hoyt looked good and had fun deviling the kids again! The Farmers stopped by for company and dinner and we just had a good old fashioned Christmas down on the farm!

Suwannee Christmas Lights

Jon and Jason had so much fun putting together the trampoline, we decided we would all take a ride over to the Suwannee River Christmas lights display! They do such a great job-you take a slow ride through all kinds of lights and scenes while you listen the Christmas music and the kids crawl all over you! At the end, we got out, walked around the camp store, sat on Santa's lap, snacked on cookies and cocoa and apple cider and warmed ourselves around campfires!

Christmas at our House

Santa came a week early to our house and brought us some pretty cool things! We let the kids open up a few early gifts and they haven't stopped playing with them/on them yet! Wil's favorite is hands down the Dinosaur Train! He sleeps with the engine and if we let him, he'd take it all over the house! Elsie enjoys mimicking me in her kitchen! I have to admit I keep a cleaner kitchen-we find cooking utensils everywhere! And we always sample her culinary creations! The trampoline was a big gift, but we are already enjoying it so much! Its a safe and fun way for us all to get out into the fresh air and burn off pounds or energy-whatever you need to burn off more! We forget how long we stay out there until the sun starts to set! A big thanks to Mr. Jon for helping us set up the trampoline! Jason and Jon set it up as I went for a Christmas light run with the kids and took in a Christmas movie marathon upstairs!

Kasey's 30th Birthday Fiesta!

Wes asked Tina, Stacy and I to help him plan a surprise 30th Birthday party for Kasey. We had so much fun putting it all together behind Kasey's back! We said "Adios" to her 20's by throwing a Mexican themed fiesta! Tina and Stacy catered the party with tostadas, enchiladas, chips and salsa. We toasted Kasey with old stories and pictures while we sipped on margaritas! When it came time for the pinata, it was no surprise that our birthday girl knocked the chili pepper off the stem on her first hit-that's how she rolls! After a little re-rigging, the pinata was back up for hits! Feliz Compleanos, Kasey!

Thanksgiving on Grandpa's farm

For Thanksgiving, all my family took off for Perry to stay at Grandpa Hoyt's for the weekend. We released a soft shell turtle into the creek before taking off and then it was off to Perry. We arranged for my cousin Quint to come over on Thanksgiving day to snap a few professional pictures of all of us. (Thanks again, Quint! Your so talented!!) We planned on everyone wearing fall colors and with careful planning and some last minute shuffling it all came together and we looked like a colorful family tree! After a delicious Thanksgiving lunch we all watched Luke dive into his belated birthday cake! Aunt Katie made Luke a Drumstick cake and he seemed to really like it! Then we took off on the buggy and go cart to go feed the cows.
We rode over to the pond to see what the gators were up to. The next day we took a few tractor rides and saw off the Kimbles, Baileys and the Pitts. The house got a little quieter and Mom and Dad were ready to watch the kids for us on Saturday for the Rivalry game (UF vs FSU.) After 7 years of Gator victories, our streak came to a close. We headed back to Perry, slept in the next day, took the kids for one more trip out to feed the cows hay and cookies and then headed home. Grandparents are the best babysitters and our kids loved the extra time on the farm with them! As we pulled into Gainesville, we trotted over to pick out a Christmas tree. Wil and Elsie wore their Santa hats while we picked out the prettiest tree. You should have seen how helpful they were on the way home. They held onto the twine that held the tree to the top giggling all the way home!

Beds, games, ducks and broken bones!

Here is a little compilation of a football game, basketball game, after-church duck feeding and Wil's first broken bone! We decided it was time to move Wil's bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Somehow on the third night in his new bed, Wil fell out of the bed. He complained about his right shoulder so we took him to the pediatrician who sent us to get an x-ray and sure enough, he suffered a green stick fracture on his right clavicle. The orthopedist says it will be fully healed in about 2 weeks and that we are doing right by trying to keep it immobilized. Wil acts as crazy as ever and shows no signs that this has slowed him down one bit! He is expected to heal 100%. Thanks for everyone's prayers and thoughts.

Wil & Elsie's first road game

We took a long weekend getaway to Nashville to take the kids to their first away game when the Gators played Vanderbuilt. Because Jon had similar plans as ours-he just wasn't traveling with a potty-training 2 year old!-we were able to hook up with him and got to experience some pretty cool things together! Jon was so sweet to hold a kid, hold the diaper bag, take a picture! By the end of the trip, Wil and Elsie were all over him! I think he may be their tallest new friend! We left Thursday night and made it a little past Atlanta. We beat Jon to Chattanooga so we made a brief stop at the Chattanooga Choo Choo and explored our railroad history! It is a real cool place with retired sleep cars that have been converted into hotel rooms and the train depot is now an upscale hotel lobby and nice restaurant. I loved the rose garden between the sleeper cars! Somebody really takes a lot of time maintaining it and I don't think they would have liked knowing that the hedge was so thick, it supported Elsie! When Jon called, we headed up the street to the Incline Railway to catch a ride to the top of Lookout Mountain! It was pretty steep and Wil serenaded the whold car with a round of "Old McDonald!" At the top we took in the sights and walked around an old civil war battle site converted into a park. Then it was down the mountain, back to the car and up the mountain again to Ruby Falls. All 5 of us were wowed by the rock formations underground in the cave system. But the climax was Ruby Falls with the color changing water fall! Gorgeous! The game was a lot of fun (because we won!) We put the kids down for a nap at Jon's hotel room (Thanks again, Jon!) and then went cruising in the double stroller downtown Nashville. The neon lights and live bands were awesome and we especially were taken in with the Bluegrass Inn. Thats where the bouncer let us stand in the doorway with the kids and watch the Brandon Giles band. It was a small band with 2 guitarists, a drummer and a very talented pianist who looked and performed like Jerry Lee Lewis! The drummer, Thumper was a real sweet guys and he gave Wil a signed drumstick and let him play around on his drumset! Wil was very proud of his drumstick-showed it off to everyone on the street and slept with it! On Sunday we headed back early enough to stop and "See Rock City!" It was so pretty with all the changing leaves and tiny gnomes and fairies! We wore the kids out and it was a good trip back home!

Halloween for a pig and dinosaur!

This year Halloween was too cool! It started with a victorious win at the Florida/Georgia game and continued on to Sunday. We invited Neil, Sabrina, Tanner and Eric over for lunch and then to our church's "Creepy Crawly Carnival!" I attempted to make some fun Halloween food. Let's just say that I am thankful food was available at church! But the Witch's Brew and Booger Juice was good! Tanner got to make a necklace with our beads and we all had our fill of french fries and salad! The carnival had so many cool things like bounce houses, hay rides pulled with antique tractors, fun activities for the kids, a fire engine, helicopter and best of all-free hot air balloon rides! You had to wait about 45 minutes for a 2 minute ride up and then down, but it was still awesome! We loved seeing the heat rise into the huge balloon and take us higher. The Hollingtons went first while the Spigelmans took pictures and then we watched and photographed the Spiegelmans. After our rides, we headed home for some trick-or-treating. We had never trick-or-treated in our neighborhood so we really enjoyed seeing all the neighbors (and got extra candy from a few of them!) Tanner and Eric did a good job teaching Wil and Elsie how it was done! All 4 kids were excited, mannered and just plain cute! Now what do we do with all this candy?

Home is where the heart is!

Just a few photos of us at home! Some cute playtime shots, dinner shots and sleepy shots! And one of Jason's miniature Dolphin helmets fits great on Rider the cat!

Sweet Home Perry!

Mom and Dad lovingly volunteered again to watched the nippers for us so we could head up to the LSU/Auburn game in Auburn Alabama. We left Thursday night so we could spend half the day Friday in Perry. After we left, the pros went to work! Some activities we squeezed in: Tractor rides to put down hay, buggy rides to feed cows (twice!) Wil helped Grandpa work a few of Grandpa's screws loose! We visited the alligators and the soft shell turtle-that's when we discovered a cow that had drowned in Grandpa's pond when it become stuck in the mud. We all chipped in to move that poor stinky mudcow. I threw some beads on Grandpa Hoyt (Oh yeah, I promised him I wouldn't put the picture of him wearing Orange and Blue beads on the internet!) And we helped put together Camden's tractor costume! You know it is an awesome costume if Wil was jealous! Good work Grandpa, Jason, Kevin and Becky!

Homecoming Game

The tailgating before the Homecoming game proved to be more fun than the actual game! We hung out at our favorite spot-the Struekens tent! My girl Debbie watched the kids, Jon picked us up and we sat around and discussed the season together! Olivia was excited and little Madeline was in a pretty good mood too! Uncle David and James stopped in and it was a good homecoming for everyone!

Brief visit from the Hollingtons

Friday night Uncle Wes, Aunt Kasey, Zac, Gracie and Wyatt arrived for a quick visit. We ate Tacos, had a few drinks and watched Ghostbusters. Early Saturday morning, Kasey and I woke up to take an invigorating run and then we had coffee and breakfast before seeing them off to Gracie's gymnastics meet!

Homecoming Parade

We took in the Homecoming Parade with the Struekens! It was Madeline's first parade and she behaved beautifully! Olivia, Wil and Elsie yelled out Gator cheers to the cheerleaders, Albert and Alberta and the bands! Michelle got the kids cotton candy and then we all got sticky! Hot Sauce stopped by and we high fived him and we headed home to get ready for Uncle Wes and Aunt Kasey!

eady for Uncle Wes and Aunt Kasey and cousins!

Wyatt's 2nd Birthday Party!

Kasey and Wes threw Wyatt a Halloween themed birthday party complete with candy apples and a spider birthday cake! Every candy apple dropped on the ground made its way to Sassy the pig-she seemed to enjoy them! All the cousins enjoyed playing together / aggravating each other! We got Grandma and Pepa snuggles, Gracie showed off her gymnastics, Wil found a lizard, Wyatt tried to grab his lit birthday candles, we played with and on tractors and Elsie got a candy apple stuck to her dress!

Bob Dylan Concert

If you would have told me that we could take a 1yr old and a 2 yr old to a Bob Dylan concert and enjoy it, I would have called you crazy until we took Wil and Elsie and had the best time! I had my share of doubts, but as Jason always says, "We'll just find a way to make it work!" It helped that we let them run wild before the concert started to burn off some energy! When the lights went down and Bob came out on stage, the kids heads shifted to the right and they were into it! We brought along the harmonica to blow on and we popped Elsie some popcorn to munch on! (She appreciated that, seeing as how she was trying to eat it off the floor at Sesame Street Live!) I even got a chance once the kids were settled to lean my head on Jason's shoulders for a minute! Bob is definately getting on up there in years, but we enjoyed seeing the rock icon and singing along to every song!

Pumpkin Pandamonium!!

This post is a compilation of 3 photoshoots. Wil and Elsie asked to write up this one, so here goes...
Hey Guys! This is Wil and I am writing on Elsie's behalf. Have you ever been given the task of picking out a perfect pumpkin and then carving a face in it to make a Jack-O-Lantern? Well, Elsie and I had the opportunity to pick out 2 pumpkins at our church's pumpkin patch. We took them both home to show Mom-she was having dinner with her girlfriends after work. About a week later, Mom picked out some good lookin' church clothes and we had an awesome day at church and then headed back to the pumpkin patch so she could take some pictures. I found a huge spider and an orange tractor to play on! Elsie ran aroung the pumpkins until she fell asleep on the way home! Dad and I watched the Dolphin game as Mom drew "Jed's" face on the pumpkin. Mom and Dad have had Jed in the family since 2000-same familiar and creepy face! We put a candle in him and he lit up the bedroom while we watched "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "Garfield." Too bad this hot weather has made Jed grow nose hair and stink! But I think this is the start of a fun Halloween!