Outdoor Play

Have I made myself clear?  I love FL in January.  The weather is perfect.  We spend as much time outside as we can.

At a birthday party

One of my favorite photos.  Kite flying!

Could Austin and Olivia one day be an item?

Will and I attended the Mommy/Son Scavenger Hunt put on by his school.  We had a blast!

Will pushing Olivia on the swings

Scarlet Fever

There has been a lot of illness going around.  A terrible tummy bug that has everyone in our LIFE Group going down one by one.  Well, Will and Olivia both developed fevers.  They were sweet and in good spirits, but I just knew that the stomach bug was approaching.

There was a rumor going around that drinking a lot of grape juice would kill off the bugs in the tummy.  Being the puke-a-phobe that I am, I tried it.  I personally drank about a gallon of grape juice. Did not ever throw up, but that much sugar was pretty gross.

Playing sweetly, even with fevers

Austin and Ava made them "Get Well" cards

Olivia got over her fever pretty quickly.  But Will being Will, his fever lingered.  He missed almost an entire week of school.  No stomach bug.  But he did have a fever and a sore throat.  I checked in his mouth with a flashlight.  None of the tell-tale white splotches.

Finally decided to take him to the doctor.  Will was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever.  Sounds so scary.  It conjured memories of Beth from "Little Women" and the Velveteen Rabbit, of plagues and sending children away for fear of catching this dreaded disease.  Do you know what Scarlet Fever is?  I didn't.  Scarlet Fever = Strep Throat + a rash.  Huh.  Modern medicine is pretty incredible.

Will was prescribed an antibiotic and sent on his way.  After a couple of days on the antibiotic, he was back to himself.  We celebrated with donuts.  

So, no...we never got the stomach bug.  We just had an old world disease that I didn't think existed anymore.  Who knew?  Grateful for healing...and antibiotics.

Love/Hate January

January is one of the best months in Florida.  It is nice and mild out, even a little chilly at times.  It is a time when the humidity is down, the bugs are few and far between and you can spend hours and hours outside.

We decided to have friends over to enjoy some of our new toys.

In the first week of the year, we went to Green Meadows Farm....still one of my favorite places to take the kids.  The weather was spot on, perfect.

I convinced Steve to go to the Magic Kingdom.  Surprisingly, the Christmas decorations were still up.  They will probably go down in the next few days.  Will got really sad about this.

Speaking of which....there IS a necessary evil of January that cannot be avoided.

It was so bad, that we had to have Steve's parents come so we could take down all of the Christmas decorations.  It was like two people cleaning up a crime scene as we swept up glitter until the last second before they got back.

And just....here is some wonderful cuteness of these kiddos.  I wish I could just keep them young.  They are growing so fast and I cannot keep up.  I love them with all of my heart and I know these years are some of the most precious that will ever be.  I try so hard to hold on to it.  To cherish it.  Am I?  Am I cherishing it enough?  My heart could burst with how much I love these two.

Happy New Year 2017

I am an early bird.  Mama don't stay up late anymore.  I am lucky if I am up past 11, so this year when we were invited to Tom & Celine's house for New Year's, I was a little reluctant.

Tom was going to cook a 5 course meal and only a few people were invited.  The kids were welcome, so we figured, why not?

I did try foods I never thought I would: caviar, escargots, etc.  Yikes.  Not bad, but not my cup of tea.

But, I got to ring in the New Year with the 3 people I love most in the world.  My cup runneth over.

Excited to see what 2017 has in store for the Whittingtons