Hardest Photo Shoot Ever

Nan brought her camera on Thanksgiving, so we decided to try and take some pictures of the girls while they were dressed up in their cute dresses. After 40 mins of picture-taking, 5 adult helpers and over 300 shots, there were only a handful of good pictures. It is really hard to get two 3 year-olds to both smile and look in the same direction at the same time. While they were happy and smiling during much of the photo shoot, they almost never looked into the camera... Oh well, I hope next year gets a little easier.

Naomi in ivory, Eliza in brown

Lots of the pictures turned out like this...

or this...

Some Thanksgiving Fun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Land O Lakes! Even though it was totally strange to watch White Christmas in 80 degree weather, we had a fantastic time at Clearwater beach this weekend. I love Florida! Here are a few Thanksgiving pics:

Naomi and Eliza helped us make pies. They loved it.

Eliza in brown and Naomi in white

We made a kid table for Naomi and Eliza.

The grown-up table - I got to use my wedding crystal for the first time.

Table pic from Mom's camera

Table pic with food

We went to a tree-lighting ceremony in New Hyde Park in Tampa. They had hula-hoops, which the girls loved. Here is Naomi trying to be like her Auntie Chrissy (aka the hula-hoop champ of Woodbrook Elementary or maybe College Wood... I forget)

The girls also visited Santa or maybe it was Dumbledore - I'm not sure.

We had a gingerbread house competition. Naomi and Eliza were team captains. Na picked Uncle John Kelly, Nan, and Granddad. Eliza picked Auntie Lo, Auntie Liz, and me. David was the judge (mostly because he was watching a game on tv...) Eliza's team won! This is the front of her house.

Back of Eliza's house

Side of Naomi's house

Front of Naomi's house

Eliza on Clearwater Beach - it was so beautiful.

My cell camera isn't great at night shots, but here are the Christmas lights on our palm tree. Props to Granddad for climbing up on the roof twice to put up the Christmas lights, then fixing the strand that decided to stop working later that night.

Disney World

When I found out we were moving to Tampa, I admit I was bummed. I had my heart set on Boston - a big city with culture and history. I imagined taking/dragging Naomi and Eliza to the MFA and the Freedom Trail, etc etc.

Now that we are here I have found lots of things that are great about Florida... the weather (it's like 80 and sunny everyday), the people (our ward and neighbors are so amazing), and of course the cost of living (woohoo).

BUT THE GREATEST THING OF ALL...

DISNEY WORLD!!!

As Florida residents, we now get cheap seasonal passes to the happiest place on earth! It only takes us about 75 mins for our house to Mickey's house. We even made it home in 67 mins once. We have already been a few times. It is so much fun to wake up in your own bed, go for a spin in the tea cups, then come home. Here are some pictures from our recent trips.

Please come visit us. We would love the excuse to go to Disney again!!!

Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Part two...

This year I had a fabulous idea for the girls' Halloween costumes. Seriously it was amazing. I had been worried that this would be the year that the girls would start to have an opinion about their costumes. So far they didn't mind dressing up as whatever I thought was cute or funny. I keep imagining the year when Eliza insists on being a fairy-princess-cheerleader-kitten-ballerina doll or something equally heinous like Dora the Explorer. Fortunately the girls were totally on board with my fabulous idea. Last week, I decided to take the girls to Goodwill to find a part of the would-be costumes. This was my first mistake. While I was looking through all the costume possibilities, Naomi found the witches hat aisle... Within seconds, she and Eliza were both dressed up as witches, charming all the grandma-aged store attendants. They insisted on being witches again. I told them that if their costumes still fit, they could once again be the good witch and the bad witch.

Of course their costumes still fit... and in case you were wondering, they could have also been a bumblebee, a turtle, or a bunny. All of those still fit too. Well the turtle is more of a shirt costume now :)

Despite the recycled costumes, Halloween was great. Our neighborhood is Halloween crazy! Everyone had lights, spooky noises, tiki torches, and tables full of candy. I took the girls to a dozen or so houses until they filled their buckets with candy. We came back and sat in lawn chairs on our driveway (since that seemed to be the thing to do) and passed out candy. It was awesome! Unlike Indiana where you have to wear a coat over your costume or trudge through snow or rain puddles to trick-or-treat, we started our first Halloween in Florida in 74 degree weather. David kept saying how much fun he was having passing out candy. We had about 120 trick-or-treaters and met cute little playmates for Na and Z. The girls wished everyone, "Happy Halloween!!!" at the top of their lungs. We let them eat as many suckers as they wanted. They LOVED it!

Here are some pics of the fun. Two things to remember: 1) Naomi is the Wicked Witch of the West and Eliza is Glinda the Good Witch & 2) I am posting to blogger from my phone so the order may be scattered until I can fix it on the computer later.