Ryan and Casey plus 2

Gammy and Paps rented a house in Ft. Myers for the month of February and invited us to come down and visit.  We took them up on the offer and went down for a long weekend at the end of the month. It was in the 80s and sunny everyday.  We welcomed the sunshine and warmth with open arms!!  Poor Meredith was sick (we found out when we got home she actually had the flu/pneumonia) and didn't get to enjoy the beach and pool as  much as she would have liked.  BUT we still had a great time.  We spent time with some family members that live down there and just relaxed by the pool together! One day we drove to Barefoot beach in Bonita.  It was a beautiful day and we found SO many sand dollars!  It was such a cool experience, one I think we were lucky to have because I have never seen anything like it and I have been to the beach A LOT!! Whit had such a surprise when we boarded the plane to come home...the pilot invited her into the cockpit and ...

As I said before, we have had plenty of sickness but honestly have had a lot of fun too.  The girls are at such a fun age and we just love playing games together, coloring and dancing to music!  The girls have really been into crafts and writing in their journals. Meredith knows all of her letters and is really getting good at sounds.  She likes to trace words and asks us how to spell everything.  She can build her name in order with magnetic letters and recognizes many words like: Xavier, Skeldon, Mom, Dad, Whitney, Meredith, Lee  She has also taken to drawing.  For the longest time she wouldn't even join us when we would color but now she loves it!  Meredith is drawing people and loves to print out princess pages and color them.  Meredith is a mommy's girl and had not liked being away from me one bit.  She even cries when at gymnastics class when I am sitting ten feet away because she misses me too much.  I am hoping this is jus...

Those few months in the apartment were tough, not fun, cramped and blah but it was worth it!!!!!  We closed on our house November 30th and its been smooth sailing ever since.  The girls love their rooms, we all love the extra space and the fact that we dont need to be quiet or stop jumping due to downstairs neighbors!! The Skeldon's have found their forever home and don't plan on moving for a very very very long time:)  We have already met some great neighbors and the girls have kids THEIR AGE just down the street!!! Merry Christmas to us!!!

With moving and unpacking I wasn't really into the Christmas spirit as early as I usually am; but don't worry we caught up with everyone!  Not all of our decorations are out but we are loving celebrating the season with family and friends.   Our annual PJ party with Aunt Elaine and Uncle Jay always seems to kick everything off!  They looked adorable in their matching PJs. We hosted an early Christmas here before Mike left for the west coast, saw Cinderella with friends, visited Santa, saw Awaited and helped with Whitney's class party. Now Whitney is on break from school and we have big plans!!  We can't wait to decorate a gingerbread house and make cookies in the next few days too! Bring on the Christmas fun!

Winter has never been an easy time for the Skeldon clan with germs but this one has proven to be quite germy.  I think a lot of families deal with one sickness after another but sometimes I just want to wrap our house in a little bubble and stay inside until Spring! Meredith gets something then passes it to Whitney but before we can turn around someone else is sick with something else.  I read recently that the average kid gets 8-10 colds per year, one per month during the months of September-April.....I say we are on track for that unfortunately. One thing is for sure, we love taking care of each other and have lots of snuggle times during the winter!