Celebrating Family -- December 2019

What a great month!!!

I have been so excited to have my family come and have Christmas at our house in Florida. Having us all together (minus my brother and his family and Jennifer’s oldest son, Jacob - who is living in Spain) during our first holiday without my Mom will make it special. Not much was planned other then spending quality time together.

Bella LOVES having her cousins town.

2 of my GURLS.

   

We got to played a lot of tennis… show casing our talents and those without.

A LOT of laughs and special moments.

Bill and Logan were all stars… as was Pop Pop

LOVE this smile

Had some fun crazy moments riding around town with my crew…

It was nice to have the wind in my ears so I couldn’t hear my Dad side car driving.

My greatest pleasure in life is my family. My heart is full when I have these people by my side.

Dad struggled with the phone — so this is the best shot we got with our families together.

We played flag football and ultimate freebie one afternoon. More then one of us were concerned for breaking a hip. My Dad was the MVP!! Hard to believe that he had his hip replaced 8 months ago — you would never have known it on the field. Some minor contact injuries were had... but nothing a margarita didn’t cure later on.

Chris and I were lucky to get to share the holiday with both sides of the family.

The Carey Boys (minus Ben & Garrett)

  

It was a real treat for me to celebrate with all of my favorite people.

  

Christmas was good for this fella… He FINALLY got his pick up truck. This was the best gift ever for all of us. Chris works SO hard and he has been driving a 2005 Lexus we admiringly call “The Grey Ghost” since we repatriated from China in 2014. He deserves every bit of this trucks bells and whistles!

And he looks HOT driving it!

Once our families left, we took our family and celebrated New Years Eve at Top Golf. What a fun afternoon!!!!

I love having this boy home!!! He has grown up and I truly believe he is finding his true self.

Garrett is learning to play golf and it was nice to see him implement what he has learned from his lessons. It can be frustrating to learn a new sport… I am happy to see him enjoy this process.

  

I am so lucky to have these girls by my side!

My true happy place!

We nailed the golfing and a few other things… so grateful for the nets!

November Update... first holiday in the new house!

When we moved to Parkland, we knew we wanted to live near Pine Trails Park. It is a huge park with several turf, grass, baseball diamond, basket courts and football fields. It is an athlete dream for a back yard! Never did I realize we would buy a house where it is a 120 yards from my backyard. It has made soccer practices and referring jobs so convenient.

Jordan spent a lot of time studying and completing her referring certification and spends her free time off her own playing field and onto another reffing. A great way to make money doing something she enjoys.

We have company coming in for both holidays and well I have the perfect guard dog for the tree.

The VERY best part of this holiday is that Garrett is flying home for the first time to celebrate Thanksgiving with us!!!! We cannot wait and we all went to greet him at the airport.

Love having our family whole again!

Made some great appetizers for the Thanksgiving… this is Pinterest's version of a vegetable platter.

This was our version… NAILED IT!

  

It’s been a long LONG time since we have been able to have Thanksgiving dinner outside.

Love having my Dad as a part of our celebration!!

It is a hard holiday season without my Mom. I pulled off a lot of her traditions at the Thanksgiving meal.

  

We were also happy to have Gram and Coach join us for the holiday to make it complete.

And the entire cast of characters… Grandparents and Aunt Gail and Uncle Kevin!

We can’t have a visit home with Garrett without hitting the beach.

  

  

Having my family all together was the best gift ever!

Happy Thanksgiving!

October 2019

I started off October by meeting my sister at my parents house to visit my Dad and help go through some of my mothers things. I wonder if it will every not feel weird being there and not seeing my mom at her seat at the kitchen table or in her favorite chair in the family room. I traveled with Bella because… well I always do and because I believe that dogs have the ability to give you exactly what you need when you need it. Jennifer obviously felt the same.

I had to post this one of Scout, my sisters dog. She refers to her as her rescue dog and I agree they both rescued each other. Plus I don’t look as much like a crazy dog lady when I am around her. I swear though, this dog is human and acts like a model. She looks you in the eye and will keeps you honest.

We spent a few days going through drawers and closets … laughing and crying, taking LONG bike rides and enjoying meals together. We went to the beach for sun set and spent a lot of time talking about my Mom and the memories we have growing up.

I have a great set of friends that are really creative with their theme parties. This year we did a harvest craft night. I do not have one ounce of creativity, but my friend Kathy is the master and totally hooked me up!!!! I had no idea how crafty my friends were!

Our final presentation!

  

We dug through our decorations and our web/bug followed us all the way from MA.

First photo of Garrett at Camden Academy.

I have never seen his room this clean!

First homecoming dance and Ayden is doing the make up on Jordan. I love that they have each other. This reminds me so much of Jennifer and I! (Just in reverse.)

First Homecoming

Stoneman Douglas High School

It was heart warming for me to see how much Ayden wanted to help Jordan get ready. These girls are very different in so many ways but I love how they come together to support each other.

It is so nice to see these girls all dressed up when they are usually wearing cleats and shin guards!

Ok Bella was pretty excited for her as well!

Bella messing around on her walk… this is her “I am not taking one more step” act.

Halloween shenanigans with the Carr’s!