A Visit from Santa

Santa came to see us on December 25, and was very good to Brianne.

Excited to start opening presents!


This was a very Princess themed Christmas. Brianne got a bunch of princess dresses, princess accessories, shoes, shirts and more.

Brianne opened about half her presents, and had to take a break. But not before she put on as much of it as she could. Here she is watching Rio on her new portable DVD player.

After the break, we went back to opening the rest of our presents. It was exhausting, and we still had 2 more stops to go! After Christmas morning at our house, we went to Aunt Casey's house to have breakfast with the family. Brianne got even more presents at Aunt Casey's house.

Then it was on to Grandma Mimi and Grandpa Monroe's house for even more presents. Whew, we were tired, but we pushed on. Brianne got a new desk and chair.

A bunch of new dolls and other toys.

But probably her favorite gift was a new doll house complete with furniture. The residents of the doll house are all the Disney Princesses, so it's kind of like a miniature sorority house. Later, we had Christmas Dinner at Mi Ma Debbie and Brad's house. We had a great Christmas with our family, though I don't know where we are going to put all these new toys!

Elf on the Shelf

Last Christmas, someone gave us the Elf on the Shelf, so this year, we were excited to bring it out. The way it works is, you put the little elf in a different place in your house every day and the child is supposed to find it. The elf watches the child's behavior and reports back to Santa if they are good or bad. The child is not supposed to touch the elf, otherwise it loses its powers.

Brianne was very interested in the Elf, and even named him. When asked what his name was, she said "Eddie!". We have no idea where she got this from, as we don't know anyone named Eddie. However, when it was time to put him on the shelf, Brianne didn't want to let Eddie go. I tried explaining the whole thing about him losing his powers, but she wasn't buying it.

When I finally got Eddie out of Brianne's grasp, I put him in a place for her to find the next day. But when she saw him, she threw a fit when she couldn't hold him. So we ended up putting Eddie away a little early. Maybe next year!

Jazz with Friends

The first Sunday of December found us back in Downtown Ft. Lauderale for Jazz on the New River. And this time, in addition to my dad and Janet, we had very special guests - our friends, the Schiffs! The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time hanging out and listening to music.

Brianne and I getting ready to eat some snacks.


Brianne had a blast hanging out with Tyler.


Tyler would make high pitch noises and Brianne would try to mimic him. It was hilarious!

Hanging with Dad!

Christmas Tree Time!

Right after Thanksgiving, we went to buy our Christmas tree! We were actually the first customer at our Publix to buy a tree. Brianne had a big hand in tree selection this year, and wanted the fattest tree they had.

Once we got it home and set up, Brianne wanted to help decorate. I went out and bought shatter proof ornaments, so letting Brianne help wasn't nearly as scary. She tried to put every ornament on the same branch and got frustrated when they all fell down.

Taking a break from tree decorating.

After hours of diligent tree decorating, here is the finished product. The tree was taller (or our ceiling was lower) than we thought so we couldn't fit a star on top. But it still looks nice :o)

What's a Christmas tree without a neighboring Village? This is the village we had when I was a little girl. Putting the village up each Christmas was one of my favorite holiday activities growing up, and I hope Brianne will love it as much as I do!

Last Days of the Cruise

The last days of our cruise were spent enjoying the pool and the many amenities onboard the ship. Brianne spent a few good hours in the H2O Zone. She slid down this little ledge at least 30 times.


Squirting Marty with the water cannon.


Exploring the mysteries of sprinklers with Bradley.

Hot tubbing (this jacuzzi was specially for the kids and was luke warm).

In between play time at the kids pool, Marty found time to take a spin on the FlowRider.


Later that night, we went to get our family pictures taken. We showed up to the photo area extra early so we would be first in line. Waiting for the real photographer, we decided to practice modeling.

Checking out the huge Christmas tree that was already set up on the Royal Promenade.

Chasing bubbles at the family puppet show, ImagineOcean.

Jammin in Jamaica

One morning during our cruise, we went to the DreamWorks character breakfast. Here is Brianne munching on some chocolate banana bread waiting for the characters to come out.



First up was Shrek! Brianne was a little shy.



Cute little pouty face :o)

After breakfast, we went into Falmouth, Jamaica. This is a relatively new port, so there wasn't too much to see. But we did meet some interesting people! Here we are meeting the tallest man in Jamaica! He made Brianne a very nice balloon poodle and a balloon flower for her hair.

They had a Pirate Cruise as one of the excursions, so the pirates were wondering around the visitor area randomly breaking out into play fights. But they took breaks to take pictures with us land lubbers. Brianne was a little scared of this pirate, but he was actually very nice.

A little family hug before getting back on the ship.

Later that night, it was Italian night in the dining room. All the waiters sang and the guests waved napkins around. Brianne wasn't 100% sure what was going on, but she was all over waving her napkin.

Our waiter came over and made Brianne a napkin hat, which she thought was the coolest thing.

Liberty, Freedom and Cruises for All

Last year, we spent Christmas cruising the Caribbean on the Allure of the Seas. While we had an incredible time, we missed being home for Christmas. So this year, we wanted to do a holiday cruise and opted for Thanksgiving. The thought of having someone else cooking and cleaning for this normally labor-intensive holiday sounded great.

So we set sail on the Liberty of the Seas out of Ft. Lauderdale for a 5-Night cruise. But we didn't want to go alone, so our good friends, the DiPaolo's, came with us. We left on Monday, November 21, and spent the first day wandering around the ship to check everything out.

Brianne didn't want to hold hands with Marty or I, but jumped at the chance to hold Bradley's hand. They were the cutest little tourist couple walking around the ship. They would take turns pointing stuff out to each other. Here they are taking a stroll over the rainbow bridge.


After taking a tour around the ship, we went back to our rooms to unpack and rest a bit before dinner. But there were a couple little monkeys who wanted to jump on the bed. I was exhausted just looking at them!


The next day, we stopped in CocoCay, which is Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas. Before we got off, we walked around the ship some more. Here we are checking out the FlowRider surf simulator.

Shooting some hoops.

We took a tender to the island. It was a gorgeous day! Here is the Liberty in the distance as we pulled into CocoCay.

The water was freezing, but Brianne wanted to swim!

On the island, they have a Power Wheels track. Brianne had a blast driving a pink jeep around.

After a few hours of fun in the sun, we made our way back to the ship. Brianne wanted to make a pit stop for some ice cream before going back to the room.

Tumbelina

A gymnastics studio opened up right around the corner from our house, so we went to see if they had classes for 2 year olds. Lo and behold, they have a 2-year-old class on Saturdays at 9:30am! So we signed Brianne up for a trial class to see how she liked it before committing to buying a package. As soon as we walked in for the first class, Brianne wanted to run right onto the floor. She didn't even look back to see if I was still there. I can't say I blame her. The place is awesome, very colorful with all kinds of equipment and other kids of all ages doing gymnastics.

For the first class, Brianne had some trouble following directions and just wanted to check everything out. But she quickly fell in line and started participating in the activities. The classes are great as there are 2 teachers for 6 girls, so they get more personalized attention.

I also really like that this class is more structured, and has the girls doing real gymnastics exercises. I thought it would just be them dancing around, but they did stretching, floor exercise, balance beam, parallel bars and more! Brianne's favorite was jumping on the trampoline.

Getting limbered up.


Walking together to the next exercise.


Working on the parallel bars.

Brianne did an assisted front flip over this bar!

Brianne loves gymnastics (which she calls 'nastics!"). The biggest problem is trying to get her to leave :o) Looking forward to seeing all the amazing things Brianne will be able to do!

Out of Africa (and Into Palm Beach)

Brianne is learning a lot of different animal names and the sounds they make, so we thought she would enjoy seeing some wild animals up close and personal. We are lucky that we have a very special zoo close by. Lion Country Safari is a zoo located just south of West Palm Beach, where the animals run around in their designated habitats. It is pretty awesome, as none of the animals are in cages and are just wandering around. So if you aren't watching, a water buffalo can come up and stare right into your car window.

As we pulled up, we drove by a big sign for the park, which has a lion on it. Brianne kept yelling "animals!" and "lion...rooooooaarr". Super cute! We get into the park and drive through the first few habitats, which have lots of different kinds of deer-like animals with names I can't spell. Right after that, we got to the lion area. It was pretty cool outside, so the lions were up and about.


Then we saw some water buffalo. They were as big as our Tahoe!


Then we drove in the zebra and rhino habitat. These zebras really didn't care much for traffic flow, and enjoyed stretching their legs by walking back and forth across the street. But we didn't mind, they were so cool to look at!

The drive through the park lasts about 45 minutes. Then they have a whole park you can walk through. Here we are having a quick photo op.

Drum solo!

Taking a stroll around the lake.

Brianne's favorite attraction, the carousel! She picked the zebra so it would match her outfit. She rode it twice, and then we had to pry her off.

There is a ton more to do, like Giraffe feeding, camel rides, an aviary where you can feed love birds, and more. But we had a diaper malfunction and had to cut our trip short. But we still had a great time and look forward to coming back soon!