Kitt'ee Love

We have finally been dragged kicking and screaming from the fish bowls and thrown headlong into the life of a real family with furry pets. In our defense we ultimately succumbed to the three B's.....

B for Boredom......There's nothing to do, there's no one to play with....etc... we're just stuck here in this lame hammock with only sugar free Popsicles to entertain us, woe, woe woe.

B for Blackmail......Hand over the kitt eee ( Jora can only say kitty as two distinct words) nice and slow and nothing happens to your bed. We'll return it just like we took it. Think carefully now, about how it would be to reclaim your former territory......

B for Belligerence......We may be reasonable parents but enough is enough already. Let her torture a cat for a change and give us a break~

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So now running rampantly about our house are three, that's not a typo, three little scamps who love to chase, torture, scare and strangle the adorable little kitten's I found on Craigslist.

It's all in the name of love....Jora tells me several times a day that she loves her kitt ee and that her kitt ee loves Jora. The kids each picked their kitten and it is funny to see that now the kittens are choosing their kid and they are much better at choosing a good temperament match than the humans were. Ultimately the kitt ees will be outdoor cats but we are giving them a little leeway to get used to the house, yard and neighborhood.

Here is Jacob with Princess and Tiger. Jake is wearing the disturbing smirk that accompanies any win in his column.

Jacob has to have Tiger (formerly Tigger) because he was at school when we picked up the kitt ees and the girls had made their choices long before he got home.

Julia claimed Miss Fuzz as she is the only girl. She then renamed her on day two as Princess and today she and Jora have been calling her Cinderella. Julia loves having a kitten but not generally touching the kitten. She likes to pet her but not carry her around. We had to make her sit down for this picture and you can see she is thrilled.

Here is Jacob with Shadow. Shadow is Jora's kitt ee but since she is not fast enough or smart enough to catch him so she is always packing around Princess and sometimes Tiger. Shadow is so black that when he curled up on Julia's black backpack Jacob and I looked for him for twenty minutes before we realized we had walked right past him several times.

Jora's pictures need no explanations.

Dance Class

Here is Julia and Mayci in dance class.

Here we have Jacob, Max and Eli workin' it in the tap shoes.

Jake and Max and again.

Eli goes crazywith Max and Jacob in the background...they are so hyper after dance it is funny.

The end of our Christmas experiment...

Here are the last few pictures of vacation. I got sick on Wednesday and was flat out for the rest of the week.. Yes, I'm still really mad about that.

Aunt Gay and Uncle Dave really made the week for us. They just waited on everyone hand and foot and were awesome tour guides! Uncle David made us fruit smoothies and Aunt Gay cooked more food in a week than I've cooked in the last six months.. Aunt Gay also made these beautiful dresses for the girls and bowties for the boys then dressed everyone out in red and white. We took some great pictures at Magic Kingdom on New Years Eve.

Here is Aunt Gay and Jake and Julie waiting for the fireworks to start in Venice. Julia crashed right before they started and slept through them entirely, so did Jo.

These are the boys and girls outfits.

This one if for Aunt Gay! She had ears for the girls, hand made bracelets, ruffled socks and pantaloons and the whole thing. The dresses are just beautiful. Julie and Jo wore theirs to church this last Sunday and we got compliments right and left.

Here is Jacob and Julia getting on the Triceratops ride in Animal Kingdom.

A last couple of shots......Julia with Mickey.

Aunt Gay "babysitting" Adam, Mark and Jake while they read Calvin and Hobbes in their room at the condo. Yes, they are wearing their matching mickey pj's Aunt Gay made for all the kids.

Julia and the Castle.

Uncle Dave holding Jora while we all watch the show at the castle. You can just see Jason in front of Joey.

The family at Cinderella's Castle. Until next time.....................

Merry Christmas to all!

More fun at Christmas

Here are a couple more pictures from Daytona. You guessed it, on the beach again. Jake and Julie have never seen Hitchcock's "The Birds" and enjoyed tormenting seagulls for a bit. The night before, Allen took the kids to play a round of mini golf......after dark. It was probably the highlight of the entire trip for Jake and Julie.

We left Daytona around 1pm and headed for Orlando. It was Julia's birthday and that night at the condo we celebrated! Julia got to pick her cake this year too. She received a princess cash register (no cash included) and a princess tea set.

We met up with David and Gay and Spencer and Linda and their kids. Jacob was so excited to spend some time with his cousins. Here are the kids at one end of the condo's pool complex. Julie and Al, Jacob with Adam and Mark and Allen and the girls with Adam and Mark goofing in the background.

Here we are at Epcot.... it was Jacob's first ride in an amusement park (the ride inside the big golf ball). He sat with Aunt Gay and had a blast, Jacob did too. From there it was Finding Nemo and Julia's favorite, Soarin' the glider ride. (Uncle David's favorite too, too bad I don't have any pictures of it)

Above you see us in line for the Finding Nemo ride, below, still in line and under that we have after Nemo, Julia in the shark mouth after she got in line with Jacob, he got sidetracked and she cut in front of about 10 people, hence the self-satisfied smirk.

The really fun part of our Christmas.

Our plan was for this to be a Christmas to remember......It was and we still managed a TON of fun anyway! Our first night we spent at Hilton Head, SC. I have been there once before when I was a nanny. It isn't as cold as it looks, about 60 degrees and very foggy and misty. This was about 10:00 in the morning. Then the kids had to wash off their feet and put shoes and socks back on with Allen's help.

We arrived late the evening before and, in the morning, discovered we had an additional occupant in our room.....luckily they didn't charge us extra for him. Jacob was equal parts horrified and fascinated when he realized it had been in the room with us all night and that it changed color once it got off the wall and down on the floor. Then he grabbed the camera and we have a well documented gecko. Here is one of his captures.

We stayed at the Park Lane (we would highly recommend it), it was our favorite hotel that we stayed in. VERY nice. Here are the kids standing by the balcony and then outside checking out the moss covered trees. They hadn't seen anything like that before and Jake wondered why it "looked crreeepy". The mist and fog might have contributed to that.

We headed back on the road and hit the beach again at DAYTONA, FL. It was amazing to me how you come out of overcast and smelly Georgia and just a few miles into Florida you are pulling out the sunglasses and rolling down the windows wishing you had a convertable or at least a sunroof! Here is the view from our hotel in Daytona, the Acapulco and Julie and Jake on the balcony. I really love the Atlantic. The longer I spend in the East the more I love it.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening on the beach! Here you see we are still in the sand hole phase with Jo but we learned that Julia has moved from the "screaming terror of waves" to the "pleeeeaaase take me out to jump waves" phase. Jacob is still in the "can I just please get wet" also known as "how far our will they let me go before they come get me" phase.

Here is our "Baywatch Baby" and "Water Boy" and some pictures with Mom and Dad. I had on these yoga pants and the bottom got wet and they kept trying to fall down.

So, Daytona was a nice beach but we won't be going back... The cars driving on the beach was not too enjoyable, especially trying to keep three oblivious children from getting run over. (yes, even though the speed limit is 15mph) That combined with Jacob's fist view of a thong swimsuit has decided us to keep heading to more family friendly beaches.