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.

Wreck-it Ralph

For a Christmas present, we took our nephews to see Wreck-it Ralph, a Disney movie about video games. It was awesome.  We went to Cici's Pizza first.  Justin thought the movie was great.  It was in 3D, hence the hipster glasses.

Don't let Nancy's open eyes fool you.  She fell asleep in the theater about halfway through the movie.

Happy 3rd Birthday Hazel!

We had Hazel's 3rd birthday party in conjunction with her cousin, whose birthday is in November.  It was at a nearby playground.  Aunt Laurel made great tu-tus, as seen in this picture.  We had a really good time playing outside with our friends and family.

Here, Hazel is wearing a new birthday hat from Aunt Deena.

Happy Birthday!

Ballet lessons came as a gift.

Out and About Town

Because our house was often a renovation nightmare, we liked to get out and window shop.

Here, Hazel is window shopping for this big cookie.

And then she tried to pull a fast one on us by getting in James' stroller.  No babies were squished in the taking of this picture.

Shopping can be exhausting, though.

But if you end the night in style by going out to eat in your tu-tu and firemen's hat, it all works out.

The Blessings of Extended Family

In college, Justin spent a lot of time with his Great Uncle and Aunt Pete & Deena in Ocala.  I'm so glad that I got to know them, because they have been such a warm, happy part of my life ever since.  

Not only are they great, but their daughter Karen and her husband Matt are so much fun and their kids are a blast.  They lived about half way between our house in South Florida and Jacksonville, so we got to visit them once or twice, especially when James the Car Screamer drove us crazy.

Here's one day trip we took.  They rule their cul-de-sac.

We're looking forward to spending time with them again soon!

Parks and Rec

Hazel has always loved parks.  This is a picture from the first park we found in South Florida when we were looking for a place to live.  These pictures, of course, are from much later, but we always liked to return to this park because it had a shaded canopy.  We had Hazel's second birthday here.

Hazel is really strong from all of the playing.

She loved putting her My Little Ponies from Aunt Jane down this slide.

And Baby James just liked to sleep.

Halloween 2012

Having a baby on October 10 didn't stop us from going trick or treating October 31!  We went to a nice neighborhood near our house with our friends.  Hazel went as a ballerina.  James went as a baby.

Not actually a Halloween picture, but Hazel did like to dress up.

Baby James Comes Home

With Hazel, we only stayed 1 day at the hospital.  We learned from that and stayed 2 days with James.  Once we got home, however, Hazel was so happy to see her baby brother.

She loves to hold him and pat his head.

James was dozing here, but he was and is an active boy.

Baby James

Nancy can feel free to come behind me and edit this post, but I think it is safe to say that James was an easier birth than Hazel.  We got to the hospital at about 9 p.m. on October 9, 2012.  Nancy wasn't quite dilated enough, but she was having regular contractions, so we walked around the Coral Springs hospital a bit.  I think we watched Full House in an empty wing of the hospital.  

Nancy's epidural worked this time, so she was pain free.  We watched a little bit of Dancing with the Stars once we got admitted, I listened to the Hunger Games books on tape, and we dozed until the morning time.

Nancy's midwife never showed up, even though they called her, so the worst part was that Nancy had to wait to push for about 40 minutes after she wanted.  It turns out it was in the middle of a shift change and the first doctor didn't want to come in, but the second one, a military doctor, came in and delivered James lickity-split.  

James was healthy and happy.  He even nursed, to our relief.  We moved to a private room, which we thought was going to be expensive but our good ol' federal insurance kicked in and paid for it.

Hazel, unfortunately, was still sick, so even though she came to visit her baby brother in the hospital, she wasn't able to stay long.

The Coming of Baby James

Baby James was a trooper in his mommy's tummy.  There sure was a lot of adventure and excitement around the house while Nancy was pregnant with all of the home remodeling.  But Nancy stayed in great spirits and felt much better overall during the pregnancy.

One soda is for Nancy and the other is for James.

 This was our last picture as a family before James was born.  We left right after this picture was taken to go to the hospital.  Thank goodness Granny and Papa came down to take care of Hazel.  She wound up getting really sick, so as soon as James was born, I came home and gave Hazel a priesthood blessing, took a shower to get rid of the germs, and then went back to the hospital.

Here is a profile before the baby came!

Arbor Day

One of my favorite memories of South Florida was going for walks around the defunct golf course we lived on.  On one occasion, Hazel found this tree shedding and tried to plant it.  

The Hazards of Renovations

The renovations in South Florida took from February 2012 until May 2013.  We made do, though.  Here, Hazel is pushing Elmo in my electrical fish-tape used to pull wire through the walls.

Fourth of July 2012

For the Fourth of July in 2012, we went to our ward's parade.  Hazel patriotically rode her tricycle.  Because she was asleep, we wound up watching fireworks from our driveway later that night.  We did not know at the time that driveway fireworks would become an annual tradition.