A trip to Tampa with friends

The first weekend of November we packed up with the Walsky's and Cruce's and left EARLY Saturday morning for a weekend in Tampa. Earlier in the year Busch Gardens opened up a new kiddo area - Sesame Street Safari and offered free preschool passes. Yeah, what a great marketing tool to get parents to come with their kids - free for kids but Busch Gardens gets the money from the parents' tickets. Well, we were the suckers - mostly the wives and the husbands just joined in.


We left about 5AM and headed straight to Busch Gardens for the day. We had watched the weather but some of us still weren't prepared - John and I had to buy gloves once we got inside thankfully they were only $5. Who would have thought it would have been so cold - hat & gloves cold.

All excited to be there and reading the map to tell us where we need to go next.

Our first stop was the Sesame Street Safari area which we were pretty sure we would be there for a few hours - so true!! The kids loved it and rode tons of rides and walked/ran through tons of playground areas. What a kids' dream.

Grover and Zoe

On the Grover roller coaster


Yes, I rode this along with Keith and John. It was a 90 degree drop which was a sure rush!! It was a great ride.

The kids were able to get so close to the kangaroos which was pretty cool - they could actually pet them.

Just some randomness

We seem to have the worst time trying to get Brody to look at the camera for a picture. He'll look at first but as soon as you snap the picture he looks away. So of course when Trevor isn't going to sit all day for a picture. You have a split second to get the shot and of course what happens - Brody looks away and then Trevor gets up and the opportunity is lost. You could say I get a little annoyed.

The last time this happened the boys were in matching pj's and it was a perfect picture moment. So, we had a picture taking class with Brody - I continued snapping making him look at the camera and smile. All in preparation for our upcoming Disney trip - you don't have all day to get the perfect picture.

Just a cute little cheese - Happy Halloween!!

Christmas Cards - To send or not to send??

Ever since Jason and I got married, I think I've sent out Christmas cards. However pre kids honestly they weren't all that exciting. Now with kids I send out picture Christmas cards which is so much more exciting. The only problem is that you need to have the picture which can be very difficult to obtain sometimes especially when you have 2 little boys who just want to run around and play.

Last year it was quite easy, we just pulled a bench to the front of our house and had Tara (Jason's sister) snap a few shots and wha la we had our Christmas picture, which is the one at the top of my blog. Yes, I still had to plan what we were to wear which I think turned out pretty good.

So once again I started planning for our pictures several weeks ago. Thankfully, my work gave us a gift certificate for Christmas almost 2 years ago for a photography session and we went for our appointment last week. I actually go today to view the pictures and hopefully there is at least one good one that we are all looking at the camera (Brody has problems with this) and no one has there fingers in their mouth - aka Trevor and we are all somewhat smiling. I'll keep you posted as to how they turned out.

Once we have that perfect picture on to Shutterfly I go to pick out that perfect Christmas card. Shutterfly has so many to choose from so I'm sure I'll have a hard time deciding. I'm really liking something like this:


Not that I would send this out, but it is quite funny.

I have been a big fan of Shutterfly for quite sometime - they store all of my pictures and I have ordered lots of items from them such as

These are some of my favorite gifts to give -I've also done several of these - These are great for grandparent gifts or just to remember a special trip you've taken.

If you are a blogger and are interested in your FREE cards, then click here and you'll be on your way to having your own Christmas cards at a great deal.

A golfer and a Space Ranger

I tried so hard to think of cool costumes for my boys this year (it was hard to beat last year's tennis player and tennis ball). Brody really wanted to be none other than Buzz Lightyear but I assume EVERYONE would be dressed up as Buzz so I tried to persuade him and "help" him come up with something else. Since we didn't really have any plans like a Fall Festival I however gave in and let him be Buzz Lightyear - I think it was the biggest smile I've seen on him when he saw the costume for the first time - he didn't want to take it off when he tried it on. Trevor was our little golfer.

We decided to head out to FBC Jax Beach's fall festival and first make a stop by Jason's moms house for a few trick or treaters. Well, we never made it to the fall festival because her gated community was perfect for Brody and Trevor. There were lots of houses decorated and people sitting out in their driveway passing out candy. Brody was a little nervous for the first couple of houses but he quickly got the hang of it and about 2 hours later we had a very FULL bag of candy. Trevor even enjoyed himself and started reaching his little hand into bowls for his favorites. So we had 2 bags full of candy.

Getting ready to get all of his candy.

Several houses people weren't home and just left a bowl of candy outside - quite clever.

Enjoying his first sucker with Nana.

All of his loot - he only had aka mama let him have 5 pieces.

This year I tried to be creative and make their treat bags. These aren't completely finished - they are missing their names and years but it's a start.

Even with just 5 pieces of candy, Brody stayed awake the entire ride home. Trevor on the other hand passed out pretty quickly.

First Pumpkin Carving & Decorating

For the past several years we have always gone to a pumpkin patch but never have bought a pumpkin - we go just for pictures. This year however, Jason thought we should buy a pumpkin and actually try our hand at carving. Sure why not!!

We picked out our BIG pumpkin and a couple of small pumpkins for Trevor and Brody to decorate. Since we carved the pumpkin so late in the month we didn't do much of a Halloween scene - just a smily face. Jason actually free handed it on the pumpkin - very impressive.

Since this was our first time we really had no idea on what the best approach was so Jason just dug in. It was pretty gross of course and then I wanted to try to bake the seeds which turned out good - a little salty.

For Brody and Trevor, I brought out the Sharpie's. Yes, they were CLOSELY monitored because I surely didn't need some extra color on the walls.

Check out my multi tasker - decorating his pumpkin and watching the tv - can't miss the latest Diego or KaiLan.

Well, I thought it was best for Trevor to have just a pen, but he still wasn't very interested.

After about only a week outside, the big pumpkin collapsed and started attracting some bugs so it was time to toss it away. This was the only picture I was able to get of it outside. I sure wasn't expecting it to collapse so fast.

It's an Orange and Blue party - with a little Red and Black mixed in

We continued with our Florida/Georgia annual tradition - Cruce's and the Walsky's came over for the big game!! The Cruce's are the only Georgia fans but it's all good fun.

Of course we had LOTS of food and the playroom was a disaster after 4 kids taking everything out but they had a blast. The game was a tight one but It's Great to Be A Florida Gator!!!

In the past years, we have had a Fall Festival to take the kids to so we would pause the game and go at half time. However, this year we didn't have one to go to so on Friday night, Jason thought we could take the kids on a small hayride around our road. Nothing like the last minute - but thankfully he was trying. So Saturday morning he headed out to get a few bales of hay and try to figure out if we could hook up my dad's trailer to the lawn mower - yes I know really red neck but we do we have to. Even with my dad's help we couldn't get it hooked up to the lawn mower so we hooked it up to my dad's truck and off we went around the "spooky" woods.Getting ready for the hayride.

Baylie definitely wasn't so sure about the spooky woods and Brody was on the fence but Bradyn was loving it. He is our dare devil. It was lots of fun and definitely a memory. I think my dad is already trying to plan for next year's hayride :)

2 concerts in 1 week- whew!!

A couple of weeks ago (yes, it always seems that I am posting so in the past), Jason and I went to the Carrie Underwood concert on Tuesday night and then to the A Night With the Chapmans on Friday night. It was a VERY busy week, but oh so worth it.

We had purchased Carrie tickets several months ago when they first went on sale. I am not much of a Country music fan but I am a Carrie fan. Yes, I did my share of voting for her on AI, so I like to say I helped her become what she is today :)

Our seats were great, but unfortunately didn't take my camera in so I only have the no so great cell phone camera - this will teach me to not leave home without my camera anymore. Let me just say that this girl can sing and she did for a little over 2 hours straight with about 5 wardrobe changes. One of the coolest things was that she came out "riding" in a blue truck flying around the arena. Yes, I know the pictures aren't so great.

When she sang "Jesus Take the Wheel" she ended it with "How Great Thou Art" - WOW!! I felt like we were in a church service - tears were flowing. You should You Tube it and take a listen.

So, if 1 concert in the week wasn't enough we decided on Friday to go to the A Night With the Chapmans and I'm so glad we went. I knew if Jason and I drove all the way down and back to Ft Lauderdale to hear him and Michael W Smith in concert, I definitely needed to go 25 minutes to hear his whole family.

We were on the 6th row and felt like we were just in someone's house listening to him. His oldest son's band, Caleb opened for him which was pretty cool to see his son following in his footsteps. Then Steven came out and sang for about 2 hours - since he's been singing since his mullet days, he has so many songs it is so hard to get everyone's favorite in, but he did a good job.

Caleb on the left with his dad singing beside him.

One of my favorite parts was his wife, Mary Beth coming out to speak. Do you know her maiden name was Chapman as well - pretty neat, huh? She spoke on how they met and the difficult time their family has gone through since the tragic death of their little girl. Another concert with no dry eyes. Her talk encouraged me so much to trust God through all of our circumstances and even though we may go through difficult times, God has a reason and purpose. The Chapmans with the help of so many have been able to open up a huge facility in China to assist with special needs children. Wow, it was so encouraging to hear of all the work being done.

Whew, what a busy week but oh so much fun. This was only the beginning of this busy season that is here, which means lots of blogging left to do.

Red and Gold - Callahan Style

Since I am blessed to be able to work part time - off on Wednesdays and Fridays, this gives me to opportunity to do things with the boys. The Friday before Halloween was Homecoming in our home town which means Homecoming Parade. I knew Brody would enjoy it but not sure how I was going to be able to handle Mr. Mover - aka Trevor.

This is only the 2nd Homecoming parade I've been to since I graduated high school almost 17 years ago - wow that makes me sound old. Anyway, we arrived about 30 minutes early because you have to have a decent spot to watch the parade. Baylie and Tracy eventually joined us as well.

Check out Trevor's droopy eyes - can't you tell he's about to be gone.

About 20 minutes before the parade started, Trevor fell asleep - thank goodness. However, I didn't want him to have his whole nap in the stroller (mama needs some peace and quiet at home during nap time) so I woke him up when the parade started and they all 3 seemed to have fun.

Nothing like a few of the girls/guys in the homecoming court riding on the back of big pickup trucks - only in Callahan do you see something like this. Gone are the days when the kids work until all hours of the night shoving tissue paper into chicken wire for a float for the Homecoming court to ride on - now they just ride on the back of trucks.