Christmas Week

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. This is the first time I have actually been able to sit down at my computer for more than a few minutes.

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! Kate was one very lucky little girl!!! After waking up, Kate came out to find that Santa had left her a note by the cookies and a present under her little tree. And can you guess what it was??? FISH MOVIE! The one and only thing Kate asked Santa for Christmas: "Finding Nemo."




Then, after watching a few minutes of her new movie, it was off to the living room to see if there was anything under the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the whole room with the mound of presents, but that's partly because after seeing the train table, Kate's attention was mostly stuck on trains! As soon as she entered the room she yelled, "My train!" It was so cute! And although I didn't get very good pictures of Gabe, you can see in the background that Santa brought him the jumperoo!



After opening all the presents...and waiting for the rain to stop :( ........it was time for the biggest present of all....Kate, and oneday Gabe's, new playground! Kate was sooooo excited!!!!! She started running as soon as the backdoor was opened and she saw what was there!

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As we have done every year that I can remember, later that night we headed to Jacksonville for family Christmas dinner at my grandma's house.

Kate played with all the Christmas decorations while Gabe got to hang out with his cousin Hannah. It loks like he's saying, "Get me outa here!" :)

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The youngest family members.....Hannah, Kate, & Gabe.




The day after Christmas we packed the car to head to Orlando to spend a few days with Jon's family. This picture is of Kate hiding behing a tree in the neighbor's yard when we were trying to put her in the carseat. :)



The Dingman clan with Santa at Sea World! Kate is hidden behind Aunt Cindy...we bought their picture which shows everyone, but I didn't take the time to scan it, so you get to see mine, with the hidden Kate, instead.




SHAMU!!!!! Always a hit, the Shamu show! Kate & Gabe got to watch the show with WaWa & Packy!




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At the end of the night we went back to see Shamu again for "Shamu Rocks." This time Gabe sat with mommy & daddy while Kate sat in the splash zone with Jon's sisters, Myra & Tina, and cousins, Andrew & Carrie.




They did get splashed!!!!!

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Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Eve

Today was a very long, activity packed, day for us. It all began this morning with Kate baking cookies for Santa! She had to take a little bite of cookie dough out of each cookie, but hopefully Santa won't mind. ;)



We then headed to Mrs. Sheila's house to reveal secret Santa and got to feed the ducks too. Unfortunately, I don't have a single picture to post.....

Afterwards, we headed to Jacksonville for the Christmas Eve service at Access Church. It was awesome! The music, as always, was incredible!!! And, Kate got to celebrate in Waumba Land too with a Happy Birthday baby Jesus party!




Our friend Dave came along. And, I couldn't believe it, but today was the first time he has held Gabe!

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After the service, while everyone was in the lobby enjoying cookies and hot chocolate, they turned the lights back on for us so that we could get a picture of the kids. :)



Here is a little video of the music. The balls you see are the beach balls they threw into the crowd to make it a little more fun.

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This is actually last night. We drove to Callahan (Florida) to see one of those houses with the lights hooked up to music being played through a radio frequency. It was a pretty awesome display, despite the fact that I don't think my video does it justice.





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Back to tonight.... After church we drove to Kuhn Flowers where they had an incredible animated window display



Then it was finally time to head home for a special Christmas Eve dinner and the opening of our one present. We all got Christmas pjs. :)

Afterwards we headed outside to sprinkle food for the reindeer and set out the cookies and milk for Santa!!!

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Time for one quick picture and then off to bed to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

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Not-So-Silent Night

To all of our North Florida/South Georgia friends and family, we would like to invite all of you to join us tomorrow night for a very special Christmas Eve service at our church. If it's anything like what they did in Atlanta, it is certainly a service not to be missed!!! Let us know if you are interested in joining us!

Join Access Church for a different kind of Christmas Eve,
with a special message from Andy Stanley and some rockin' Christmas tunes!

Experience Not-So-Silent Night December 24, 5:00 or 6:30pm at the University of North Florida.

Picture Overload......sorry!

This is what happens when you don't post for a while but have lots of pictures to share.....picture post overload!!!!!



SESAME STREET LIVE!

We took Kate to Sesame Street Live....and even though this isn't one of her "top 10" shows, she had a blast dancing!!! She LOVED it!



Kate had just woken up right before walking in, and for those of you who know Kate well, you know it takes her a few minutes to wake up before she's "all smiles."

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The show was Super Grover...it was packed with songs, which for Kate means it's time to DANCE!






Kate started out by helping Gabe enjoy the show, but then her dancing feet started to tingle!

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Afterwards, we took pictures by the Christmas tree....

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GRAMMY'S HOUSE

After practicing with our big Gingerbread House, we got a smaller one for Kate & Grammy to decorate.



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Gabe had lots of fun watching!

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Before heading home, Kate just had to play hide-n-seek with her buddy. The 2nd picture is what I found hiding underneath. :-)

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CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK

The waterfront park we so often go to now was host to "Christmas in the Park," a day filled with games, food, crafts, the always-present train, and of course, Santa! And the best part....everything was free...including the food! Hopefully this will continue and become an annual event. But, maybe by next year they can work something out to get rid of the gnats!!!






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RADIO STAR

My parents like to get the kids started early.... :)





CHRISTMAS AT THE ROCK

Tuesday was The Rock Christmas celebration. Kate decided to be front and center as the group from the high school sang Christmas Carols.

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Gabe was making some funny faces....

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TEA PARTY

Kate has just recently really become fascinated with having tea parties. Here is one of our most recent ones....I'm not sure why she isn't wearing a shirt....I think maybe we were going to put on pjs when we had to stop for tea???