Happy First Birthday James!

The Minivan

Tired of sharing one car in South Florida, once I (Justin) got my job in Jacksonville, we bought a minivan.  It's a 2012 Nissan Quest. We LOVE it.  It's very comfortable inside, runs smoothly, and all the seats fold flat down.

I had a sheet of plywood plus a bunch of 2x4's back here with no real problem.

Easter 2013

James first started crawling at Easter time in 2013.  Here he's managed to back himself under a couch.

You can fill in the blanks on this picture.

Hazel loves Easter Egg hunting as much as I (Justin) did.

I think Hazel did a great job decorating her eggs this year!

Nana and Grandpa

Our kids love their grandparents.  Hazel in particular goes crazy for Nana, Justin's mom.  She plays and plays with Hazel the whole time we are there.

James and Grandpa are inseparable.  James woke up at 4:00 in the morning and Grandpa came out and sat on the couch with us and held him while we tried to wind him down.  That was after James woke up around 10:00 p.m. at night and wouldn't go back to sleep.  We watched Jimmy Kimmel Live until we all fell asleep.

Grandmommie 2013

In early 2013, we visited Grandmommie's house.  James was just 3 months old, and he rolled over for the first time.

Hazel wound up getting a fever, so Grandmommie took good care of her just like she took care of me.

Cute Kids

There's no real theme to this post, other than to say we love our kids and think they are wonderful.

We had a wedding night one night.  Nancy put on her wedding dress and I put on the suit, we gave Hazel a basket with flowers, and I put on the Wedding March song.  Afterwards, Hazel got to play dress up in the dress.

Here's James at model of our house just being a doggie.

They have so much fun together. Today, James took hold of a rope and Hazel led him all around the house pretending he was either a fish or a dog.

Pinewood Derby

I (Justin) was the Cubmaster in South Florida, and was asked to be the Cubmaster again once we moved to Jacksonville.  I loved it.  I wanted to make sure the boys had a pinewood derby experience because the rain gutter regatta in South Florida was so much fun.

Nancy, Hazel and I all made cars.

Hazel named her own car.  She was a little bit disappointed that I used baby food lids for her wheels that didn't really spin. I regret that now, because she was so sad that her car didn't get to race in the derby.  I'll do that differently next time.

The entire ward participated in "Cubscouts versus the Ward."  We had so many cars that I couldn't race my own car in the race because the tournament slots were all filled.

We love the Scouting program and have so much fun with it.

Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel's are ubiquitous.  I (Justin) had written them off as out-of-date and none-too-tasty.  The other day, we decided to take the kids to the mall so Hazel could see a real candy store and play on the playground.  Once we got there, we realized that the candy store had closed down and the playground had been ripped out for construction.

Still wanting to give Hazel the candy store experience, the next best thought was Cracker Barrel.  We had a really good time looking through the shop and playing checkers.  Dinner was amazingly good and really affordable.  Afterwards, Hazel sat in a rocking chair with her big ol' lollypop.  James' good looks made him a new girlfriend in the waitress.

Weekend with the Giles

This weekend we spent the weekend with Justin's cousin Karen, Matt, Isabella, and Benjamin.  It was a Blast!  First, we went to the zoo and hit the kids splash park before it got to crowded and hot.  James is like a fish.  He loves to play in the water!

What is a trip to the zoo without a ride on the train (or trolly, as Hazel would call it)? Hazel and Benjamin rode in a seat all by themselves.  She was so proud of herself, and Justin and I were pretty proud of her too.

They also had this great crab trap that the kids could pull up.  Hazel really used her muscles to get it out of the water.

                                   

Guess who's having lobster tonight???

One of the last stops at the zoo was the aviary.  Hazel didn't want to feed them the food that they had so I ended up with the little cup of necter.  I am cool to feed them but freaked out when they started jumping on me.  I managed to play it cool for one picture, but man oh man I was ready to get out of there.

After the zoo we headed back to the house to chill and get cleaned up.  We went to church, had a pizza party on the back porch and then Justin went on a bike ride with the cousins.  Hazel and James were toast after a long and fun day so they stayed home with me to get baths and ready for bed.

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast then headed to the pool.  We witnessed lots of races, and water fights.  We ended our trip with a delicious lunch at River Docks, which was right on the Indian River.

Merry Christmas 2012!

We had a really nice Christmas in South Florida with baby James and Hazel.  We put up a Christmas tree, put out our Christmas houses, and hung our Advent calendar.  Everyone pitched in.

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This house has an amazing setup of lights.  Special thanks to our friends Jeremy and Lauren for showing it to us.

Hazel was really into dance around Christmas time.  We bought tickets to see the Nutcracker.  It was so much fun!

During intermission, we went to the back of the theater.  Hazel showed off her moves.

Nancy was a quick learner, too.

James, on the other hand, was just exhausted from all the festivities.

Hazel also got to play Mary in a nativity.  Here she is calling Hotels.com for better lodgings.

Hazel was a very good Santa Claus, giving James the present she bought for him at the Dollar Store (AKA Toy Store).

Grandmom gave Hazel lots of nice things for her dollhouse.  The dollhouse came from an incredibly generous family we befriended in South Florida.  Every time we tried to do something nice for them, like bring them Christmas presents, they wound up doing something nicer in return (like giving us bigger, better presents).  You can see that Hazel put her new doll to sleep on a tomato, then covered her up in her blanket.

And finally, for Christmas, I made Nancy this bench from leftover pallet that came with our tiles.  This alligator was cut out of plywood removed from our kitchen soffit during renovations.