Jagoda Family

All about Brooklyn!

2011-09-13T17:46:00.001-07:00

I have noticed that I don't have much about this cute little girl in our lives and I thought I'd share some great things with you.

-She has one of the best smiles in the world! She can light up the room. And she is one of the happiest babies you will ever meet. It's so fun to have someone that is happy and smiling around you.

-She loves to be in the middle of things.

-She loves to jump on the trampoline

-She loves her brother and sister. She watches and laughs at Jack all day long, and then when Savannah gets off the bus she reaches for her and gives her a big hug.

-She will let you know when she wants something! She will either give you a high pitch scream to let you know, or she chomps her gums when she wants your food or drink.

-She sits in her bumbo sometimes while I am cooking, not sure if she really likes it but tolerates it, and she has the most amazing reach in it. She can even scoot it across the counter, I definitly have to keept a better eye on her now! She gets into tons of stuff in that if I leave it too close and then will give me a sneaky look:) This is her getting into a jar of Nutella.

-She loves the water, whether it's her bath, the pool, the ocean. Whenever she hears the bath water running she crawls there as fast as she can and tries to climb in.

-She is such a sweet cuddler and she sleeps great as well.

-She has picked up the art of sword fighting and loves to sword fight or wrestle when everyone else is.

-She also loves Jack's batman toys, I guess that's what she gets when Savannah is gone all day:)

-At her 9 month check up she was 17lbs 6 oz. 25% and 26 3/4 in. 55%. But she still has some cute baby rolls!

Our summer vacation.

2011-08-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

This summer we decided to spend some time at a beach front resort and we had a blast. Here are some pictures of us relaxing and having a great time.

This was our first night there and we thought we'd go walk on the beach. We should have put the kids in swimsuits, how can they resist the waves!

Trying to get the sand before another wave hits.

Fighting the waves.

Brooklyn enjoying the beach as well.

The fam in front of our hotel.

Our huge bed the next morning was taken over!

We went to the beach the first morning and got to play in the fog as well. It was pretty cool.

My kids love the beach!

They also had a miniature golf coarse there and we had a blast playing. The kids are actually pretty good!

This was the kitchen/dining room area of our suite. It was so nice to have because the kids don't eat out well for every meal every day. We also had three bedrooms and three bathrooms so the kids loved playing hide and seek in it as well. Our kids almost had as much fun playing in the room as they did outside of it:)

The living room.

If you look close enough you can see Dan and Savannah right under the waterfall. This is the view from our room. It had a great pool area, with three pools, a lazy river, water slides and a few hot tubs! Tons of fun!

A Florida storm coming. If you know FL well enough you know that around 3 or 4 in the afternoon you get a good rain for a little bit and then it's bright blue skies again.

Dan and Savannah are down there running to the indoor pool.

They even provide horse back rides:)

More fun at the beach.

Bye beautiful ocean and hotel

And the nice thing is that it's only 35 minutes from our house!

First day of First Grade!

2011-08-23T10:20:00.001-07:00

Savannah was off yesterday to her very first day of first grade. She was so excited to go back to school and see everyone.

Dan's Business Trip to Europe

2011-07-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from a business trip around Europe. I went to Italy, Belgium and ended in Ireland. It was a whirlwind tour, but the business part was successful and the time that I had to see some of the sights was also a lot of fun. Even better, the food was great.

Our first stop was Milan, Italy. The area where Ferraris are manufactured is fairly near so they functioned as quite the tourist attraction. This was set out in front of the Ferrari Store for rent to drive around the large block for $150.

This is the center "duomo" or cathedral in Milan. It was pretty magnificent inside and just enormous. The most interesting thing was the preserved cardinals that are set out for all to see. Let's just say they weren't preserved perfectly.

Another shot in front of the Duomo

This is Lake Como - Bellagio is at the further end, where George Clooney has a house. It is a beautiful area. Definitely worth visiting instead of Milan in my opinion.
We had some time afterone of our audits and decided to drive through the countryside. Very small towns surrounded by rice fields. The interesting thing going through these small towns was that each had a very old and huge church in the middle. This is our rental car - Lancia Muso - don't ever rent it. Piece of junk.

In Beerse, Belgium Johnson & Johnson has a huge R&D campus. We went their to audit one of our own companies. While there we noticed that due to the size of the campus their are bicycles parked outside all the buildings that you can just pick up and ride to your next meeting if you want. We decided to pick them up and ride around the campus it being a beautiful day and all.

In Belgium we rented an awesome ride (after the disaster of the Lancia), Audi A1. Apparently they are not in the States, but man it was sure fun to drive.

We decided to stop right across the border to France for dinner. You see before you a pot of Muscles that I had with curry sauce. Not too bad actually.

Here is a salad with some sort of beef. It was good, but the meat was a little rare for me. You can see how decorated the dish was. King Godfrey of Buillon. This statue is in the center of Brussels. He was the Lord of the castle that we visited below.

You can see some of the tunnel ways inside the castle.
The view of the top of the castle and the surrounding area.

One of the halls deep inside the castle

This is a view from the front of the castle looking out on the valley

A view from the front.

You can see how steep the hill would have been for invaders. Though you can't them, there are slits throughout the front of the castle where archers could view the valley below and have clear shots on incoming invaders. Also highlighted were the areas where hot oil was dumped on those trying to scale the castle walls.

My Jack is Three!

2011-06-13T15:03:00.001-07:00

Jack is now a big three year old. He is so much fun now days and we love playing together. If you don't know, Jack is Batman, and he wears a batman costume pretty much all day, every day. He loves his sisters and loves to play with them! Here are a few pictures from his big day and his party.

His new squirt gun at the pool!

Breakfast in bed with Brooklyn.

Opening presents, trying on his new batman costume, thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Jagoda.

Blowing the candles out on his cake for the second time:)

Orlando Temple

2011-06-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

I love to take pictures of the kids at the temple, here are a few.

Savannah playing soccer

2011-05-08T18:32:00.001-07:00

Savannah has been playing soccer again this spring and is loving it. She has really improved and loves playing with the girls on her team, the Glitter Girls.

Brooklyn enjoys the games too.

Brooklyn

2011-05-08T17:46:00.001-07:00

My beautiful girls.

Things Brooklyn likes to do in the kitchen while mom is cooking.

Help mom get the knives.

Drink some water.

Listen to some tunes.

And the ever adorable sleeping picture.

What happens to Brooklyn's hair when Mom is not around and Dad is left in charge:)

Fun at Grandpa and Grandma's house!

2011-04-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

For spring break this year Dan was going to be traveling and so I decided to take the three kids and travel 9 hours to my parents house in VA. We had so much fun there and loved spending time with family! Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

Savannah climbing one of their trees, one of her favorite things to do there!

Jack playing hockey with Grandpa, one of his favorite things to do there!

Grandpa and Brooklyn

Yea! We see snow for the first time in a long time.And then we wake up the next morning to this!

Having a snowball fight.

Eating snow, not sure if we like it:) And catching snowflakes on our tongue.

Snow angels and snowmen.

Warming up afterward. We tried our best to outfit these kids in warm clothes, but we just don't really own any:)

Savannah playing school with Grandma and Brooklyn.

We had so much fun there and loved being with Grandpa and Grandma. Thanks for the fun time. And the kids didn't even remember the long drive because the next week I asked Jack what he wanted to do that week and he said, "Go to Grandpa's house again!"

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2011-03-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

Savannah's Birthday

2011-03-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Valentines' Day

2011-02-15T11:49:00.001-08:00

Random Pictures

2011-02-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

got a new camera and I've been playing around with it a bit so here are some pictures I've taken of my cute kids:)

More Pictures

2011-01-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

I know I don't update often but here are some new pictures of our family. Brooklyn is almost two months old now, so I'll try and post her stats after her doctor's apt.:)

What we like to do in Florida when it's cooler outside, go swimming in our bathtub:) They had a blast!
Ok, so Michigan was supposed to win the bowl game we went to, but oh well, they don't know the difference:)

Time with Grandma Jagoda.

More Pictures

2010-12-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

Our Brooklyn is now 3 1/2 weeks old and a 10 pounder already! She is doing so well and growing well. She only wakes up once a night, rarely fuses and hardly every cries. She loves her brother and sister and doesn't seem to sleep as well unless they're around making noise for her to sleep:) We are so in love with her!

Our baby Brooklyn!

2010-12-08T12:51:00.001-08:00

Our family was finally blessed with our third little baby Brooklyn Mei Jagoda. She came on Sunday November 28th, her due date, at 10:16 pm. It was a very fast delivery as we arrived at the hospital at 8:15 pm. She is by far our biggest baby at 8lbs 14 oz. and 21 inches long. We all love her so much and can't get enough of her. She is such a good baby, hardly cries and sleeps so well. Last night she even slept for five hours. She definitely knows how crazy it is around here and is making herself as easy as possible, thankfully for me:) She is a sweet cuddler and makes some of the funniest faces. She loves everyone and is so patient with us. We just love her so much! Here are some pictures of her with everyone.

Happenings

2010-10-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted, but being 8 months pregnant, with two kids and now carpel tunnel syndrome, I don't get on the computer too much:) Here are a few pictures we've had over the last little bit.

Savannah is playing soccer and she's awesome. She's scored a few goals, but loves to play defense and is getting more aggressive every game.

We also went to the BYU, FSU game in Tallahassee. The kids were excited to meet Cosmo, but as you can see it was sooooooooo hot and the kids were exhausted and BYU didn't fair too well, but we did have a good time.

The last pics are from Sea World where we were last weekend. The kids were able to ride some rides and then Trick or Treat a little as well. They had a blast and it was a fun day!

First Day of School!

2010-08-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well we finally did it. Savannah had her first day or school and she loved it. Of coarse she has been waiting and ready for this day for years, but we just needed time to let her go:) She gets to go all day, have lunch and recess and do all sorts of other things that she is excited about. Here are a few pictures from her first day.

Savannah before getting on the bus.
Talking with some neighbor kids at the bus stop, aka the corner of our house.
Getting on the bus. (There are about 20 kids that get on at our stop and then two blocks down is another stop, and between the two stops we fill up the bus. I love how many kids are in our neighborhood!)
Peeking out the window.
Getting off the bus after her first day, and look at that smile, it says it all:)
Here's a cake I made for her first day of school, I love to be festive!

We're still here

2010-08-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

I've decided I'm not a very good blogger in general, but especially during the summer. We've been everywhere this summer and have a ton of fun pictures, but they are all on our laptop that just crashed, and so hopefully we have them backed up and I can get them on here soon. Other then all our travels this summer we've been sitting by the pool everyday enjoying a Florida summer. Savannah starts school in a couple of weeks and so we need to get ready for that and make sure she doesn't jump out of her shoes with excitement!

I also noticed that I never posted that we are expecting again! It's a girl and she will come around Thanksgiving this year. The kids are thrilled and have been calling her Mei Mei which in Chinese means little sister. I am happy to see what everyone has been up to and hope to get some pics up soon:)

Orlando

2010-06-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Last week Dan had a conference down in Orlando, so we decided to bum off of his resort and go play for the week. We had a great time swimming and we also went to Sea World for a day. I don't know how people can do amusement parks in the summer, but I don't think we'll be back there until the fall:)

Some of our pictures from Sea World didn't turn out because the humidity got to the cold lens and clouded it up, but I'm going to post them anyway.

First thing we saw was Shamu, which the kids didn't really get, but they wanted a picture with him anyway.

Then we saw flamingos walking through the park and we had to get a picture of that!

There was a dolphin show that we loved and the shamu show was great as well, but next time it's hot like this I think we are going to sit in the splash zone!

Here are a few rides. The one with all three of them, I was a little worried Jack wouldn't like it, I wasn't sure if he was very adventurous, and the little girl before him screamed the whole time, but he giggled the whole way through it and wanted to go on it again and again.

The rest of the time we were swimming. The kids were so tired out, but we had so much fun!

Savannah loved the water slide, and we all loved the lazy river around the pools.

Jack's birthday

2010-06-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

So our little boy is two! We even had him saying his age by the end of his birthday. We love him so much and he keeps us on our toes. He is so sweet, though all boy.

Here's his breakfast in bed, even though he didn't really eat it in bed:)

For his birthday he wanted to go to the park and play. We went as early as we could because it has been so hot here.

We couldn't ever get him to look at us while he was opening presents, so this is as good as it got.

Blowing out his candles, and yes he came close to getting burned, but he blew them out:)

Our little graduate!

2010-06-09T18:10:00.001-07:00

Today was Savannah's preschool graduation! She was so excited, but a little nervous to up on stage in front of a lot of people:) Here are a few pictures from that day.

Jack waiting for the show to start.

A few of her friends and teachers.

Dan's Birthday

2010-05-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from Dan's birthday. Here is everyone getting ready to open presents, of coarse, Jack had already opened one and I had to re-wrap it.

Here's the family ready for our first bike ride together now that Dan has a bike. We had a lot of fun.

Garage Sales are great!

2010-05-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to a few garage sales yesterday and we came out with one of our best finds!

Also, I took the kids to a Princess and Pirates party at Chik-fil-a. The kids loved it. They had face painting, balloon animals, nail painting and bounce houses as well as a treasure hunt. They were so good and especially loved their faces, and Jack loved his balloon sword.

The beach

2010-05-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a some pictures of our first trip to the beach this year. We are actually camping down in St. Augustine during this, but we didn't take any pictures of our campsite for some reason.

They have a little splash area at the beach which the kids loved to play at.

This is what happens when you cry at the beach, a mouth full of sand.

Going to Grandma's

2010-05-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Savannah and I drove down to my Grandma's house in southern FL for a visit. We loved the weekend and had such a fun time. Savannah loved the special time with Grandma and playing with her dog, Maggie.

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

2010-03-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Many of you may not know that Brittany joined a 25 and older women's flag football team hosted by the recreation league this year. All of the players with exception of 1 were members of The Church, mostly from our ward. One of the counselors in the Bishopric asked Brittany upon our arriving to the ward if she played sports in high school, which we thought was a little odd at the time, but turns out he was the coach of the flag football team. Brittany had an amazing year! She was highly regarded by the QB and her teammates, and made some spectacular plays catching the ball as a receiver, and bouncing back and forth through defenders as a running back. Savannah, Jack and myself loved going to the games to root mommy on. She has been playing every Friday night since January.

We had a good team, but were going through some growing pains so lost several games. At the end of the year the 8 teams are split into an upper and lower bracket. In order to make the upper bracket we had to win our last game, and one of the other teams had to lose. As it happened we did win, and the other team lost, so we ended up as the number 4 seed in the upper bracket- set to play the number 1 team.

Last week we played the number 1 team, and Brittany was on fire. She caught two amazing over the shoulder passes in full stride and booked down field for TDs. It wasn't her highest TD night either (she scored 4 in one night- I know I am bragging, but she was awesome!) It was a close game though and we (the husbands) were nervous wrecks pacing on the sideline. They pulled out the win in a close game, but made the championship game.

Friday night they played the other 7-1 team (we were 5-3) that had beat us previously. We opened up with 4 straight touchdowns to their zilch! They came back and scored 2 TDs, but the game was over! The girls, I guess I should say women, were super excited, laughing and screaming. We went out to celebrate (as we had after all of the wins). We still don't know if the team gets anything, but it was certainly a fun time. Here are some pictures

Jack giving Mom a victory hug!

Brittany playing Cornerback- they were scared to throw her way!

Yes, she caught this ball! Diving in the air.

Here is Brittany and her teammates

Celebrating with teammate after the win

Here is Jack- He loved being around Mommy's football game. He kept me busy on the sideline

Family Pictures

2010-03-04T17:51:00.001-08:00

We had some family pictures taken and I just wanted to post some. There are a ton and so I'll post as many as I can right now while Jack is sleeping.

Savannah's Birthday

2010-02-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

We had a great time during Savannah's birthday this year. On the day of her birthday we had breakfast, letter pancakes of coarse:), and then I took cupcakes into her school that day, which she loved. Then we opened presents, and had pizza. The next day we had her party. We had it at our neighborhood playground and amenity center. We had about 15 kids, 38 total people show up. It was such a fun party with playing on the playground, games, a pinata, presents and cake. We had a great time celebrating our little girl in our life!

Breakfast in bed, Jack wanted to join her too:)

Her class singing Happy Birthday to her.

Enjoying her party.
Jack enjoying his cupcake too.
Talking to people on the phone, one of the many joys of the birthday girl.

The birthday cake, before the party.

A closer look, yea, it took me awhile, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Pictures of the festivities.

One of her presents that she wanted so bad:) She already rides it great too.

And, since she got a new one, Jack got the old one. Good thing a pink and purple Princess scooter is better than no scooter for a little boy:)

Aren't they just so cute:)

Christmas, one of many to come:)

2010-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous holiday season. It started early with decorating the house and cookies. We had our Christmas at our house early this year due to our trip to California. We had a great time fitting in our own little family traditions. Then we headed off to CA where we dropped the kids off with Grandpa and Grandma and Dan and I took off to Vegas! It's the first time I've been away from the kids ever, and it was needed:) We had a great couple of days there and fit in a ton before heading back to CA for Christmas. Most of Dan's family came and we had a great time. Here are some pics to highlight the adventure!

Here is Savannah "putting up lights" on the play house.

Jack and Uncle Wilson. Jack favors his Grandpas and Uncles, especially when the play football with him.

Christmas Eve dinner.

Dressing up for the nativity.

Opening presents

The aftermath!

Jack with Dan's cousins, Dave, Michael, and Danny.

Some of the Girls at Grandma Bea's.

Jack with Aunt Lindsey and Aunt Jennie

Savannah with Aunt Jennie and Janice

Savannah and Jack with Uncle Rich

Snow White

Everyone watching a 3D movie

Coming up next will be pictures from our snow adventure.

Friends in Utah

2009-11-29T16:05:00.001-08:00

Along with going to the wedding in Utah we were able to spend some time in Utah with friends.

These first few are from our BYU ward. The girls were all in the RS presidency, minus one, and the boys were in EQ or Bishopric. We had a blast seeing each other. We all had boys within 10 days of each other and so it was fun to see them all grown.

Then we stayed at a friend's house that night that Dan grew up with. Savannah had a blast dressing up with Camry and we had fun seeing everyone again.

The next day we stopped by BYU to revisit the olden days, and I was ready to leave soon after we got there when Dan said it made him want to go back to school again! It was beautiful though and it was nice to stock up on BYU gear again.

Oh, the memories in that library.

Look at the beautiful colors. We don't get that in FL.

Good old Rock Canyon:)

That night we were able to visit the friends that moved to Utah from FL. It was so great to see them and catch up on what they were doing.

Overall we had a great trip and loved seeing everyone.

The wedding

2009-11-18T10:52:00.001-08:00

We had a great time in Idaho for Blake's wedding. It was sooo nice to see family and to spend time with everyone and get to know Stacia and her family.

Here are the kids with their cousins Ellie and Kate. Notice how Jack is about the same size as Ellie but at least a year younger:) Savannah could not wait to see her cousins. That's all she could talk about and loved her time with them.

Here's the happy couple the night before at dinner.

Everyone waiting outside the temple. It was pretty cold, but we all snuggled close together.

Family pics outside the temple.

Blake with the kids.

Grandpa and Grandma with their grandkids at the reception.

And last, but not least here they are cutting their cake, which we practically had to force them to do :)

It was a wonderful experience and a beautiful wedding. And we even got some comedy relief when someone took Dan's shoes out of the temple:) Yes, he still doesn't have them, but he gets a new pair of shoes out of the deal!

Time with Grandpa and some funny pics.

2009-10-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Dan's dad came out the beginning of October to spend time with us and help us paint the outside of our house. It was so great to have him here and we all had a great time with him. We don't have too many pictures oh him while he was here, we were a little preoccupied, but we do have some.

Here's a tunnel that Grandpa brought for the kids. There's also a tent, and let me tell you, they are both still up and used on a daily basis. What a treat:)

Here's Dad painting the trim on the house. Poor guy, we sure did put him to work:)

Jack and Grandpa

Grandpa with the kids

Jack in a monkey costume. Jack is going to be Abu from Aladdin and I got this for him and then I was going to alter it some to make it look more like Abu, but we tried it on him and this is what we got. It was too short and so he had to tilt his head and it was padded in the bum and tummy area. The poor little boy looked like a little Ewok. We were rolling on the floor laughing, but he loved it so much he didn't want to take it off.

This is the actual costume we are going to use for him. I'll add a hat and a vest and hope it works out:)

We have Halloween pics to post. Hopefully we will get them in before we head to Idaho.

Disneyworld!

2009-10-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

We decided to take advantage of our season pass again now that the summer is supposed to be over. We went the last weekend in September thinking it would be a little cooler. Were we ever wrong. It was still in the 90s and so hot. Now we are so glad we didn't go all summer. We left Friday after lunch and went to Hollywood Studios first and did some of our favorites there, Tower of Terror, Stunt Show and American Idol. Then Saturday we hit Animal Kingdom to go on the Safari and the Rapids water ride, and it felt so good to get soaked! Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Here are the kids with Mickey. Jack was so excited to go and see him until we got to him and then a little hesitant. It was pretty funny.

Here is Jack waiting for Dad and Savannah at the Tower of Terror. Isn't he just so cute:)
(This picture kept deleting on me, so I'll try to remember to put it up tomorrow)

Dad and Savannah getting off Star Tours. She just loves that ride too.

Animal Kingdom, here we come! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Jagoda for the cute matching Hawaii clothes. They looked great in them:)

Safari ride

It took Jack a little bit to get used to the goats, but bonded with them and loved to pet them.

Here are Jack & Dan getting ready for a ride!

Savannah, she doesn't really like these types of rides very much, but endures them for Jack's sake because he can't go on the "fun" ones yet:)

Savannah and Minnie

What happens on the way home from Disney World.

I took the kids again just this last Friday when Savannah had the day off school and have a few pictures from that too.

So the whole reason I really wanted to go was to see it decorated for Halloween, and here's what it looked like.

I know kind of disappointing, but oh well:)

Here is Savannah with Jasmine and Aladdin. This is the first time we have met them and she was very excited. Needless to say, Jack was not and did not want to get very close to them:)

Savannah got to drive the boat in the Jungle Cruise. She was so excited!

Thankfully they have a little splash park while we wait to see Ariel.

The kids right before we see her and after a long wait:)

And Jack really wanted to see Ariel. He loved the glitter on her top and was enthralled with her for some reason, must take after his dad:)

And here's the gang on Small World. One of Jack's favorites of the day.

Swimming around

2009-10-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

This summer we have enjoyed, I should say LOVED, our pool. It was so nice to go when it was so warm here, or course that made our pool warm too, but who's going to complain about that:) Here are some pictures of us at our pool during the month of September. Jack now wears floaties and just jumps right in and starts kicking. He can get where he wants to go now and loves being more free. Savannah is an awesome swimmer and can do everything by herself now. Her favorite thing as of late is to dive down for the dive sticks, and she's really good at it!

I have a video I'm going to upload later when I get on our desktop, but for now this is it. It is a cute video though so check back later.

Savannah's first day of school

2009-08-31T06:50:00.001-07:00

Savannah started preschool last week and she absolutely loves it. Here in Florida the state pays for every four year old to go to preschool and since Savannah has been dying to go to school for at least a year now we decided to try it out. She goes everyday for three hours. It's been a good experience all around.

Happenings as of late.

2009-08-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, but it's summer and we're busy:) Dan was in Europe for a couple of weeks on business and so while he was out of the country the kids and I went to my parents house in Virginia. We had a blast and we were able to see everyone except Bob and Emily and we even got to meet Blake's new fiance, Stacia, who was wonderful. Savannah could not get enough of her and when we got home kept telling Dan how good she is at playing and building:) She'll fit in great though, very easy going and has a good sense of humor. Here are a few pictures from there, they are from my Dad because Dan had the camera with him, and then a few extra pictures of my adorable kids:)

This is Jack's favorite place to go, his little car:) He is such a boy.

My Dad bought a sprinkler thing that shot out balls, so of course Jack fell in love with it. It was so nice to cool off that way, and we played water whiffle ball with it too, it was fun.

And yes he found mud.

We also went to Jamestown and saw the sights there.

I also thought that I would update pictures of my garden, which has been growing so well. The funny thing is that I let Savannah plant some Marigold seeds because I had a few extra spaces and now they are overtaking the garden. They are on steroids or something. But she loves them and I have some room because summer is not the best growing season here.

Here is my tomatoes, corn,onions and chives. My corn I just planted a couple of weeks ago, but I see some hair coming out of one of the stalks! We'll see how it does.

Here is my watermelon and cantaloupe, which did well for awhile and then the heat got to them and they have dwindled fast.

Here is my broccoli, carrots and squash. The broccoli and squash are still growing, but we have picked some of the carrots and they are so sweet and good!

Here's Savannah's crazy marigolds:)

And here are our poor peppers getting squashed by the marigolds. We've had some good peppers too.

The fruits of our labors.

We'll have more posts to come:)

Fourth of July and Pinewood Derby

2009-07-12T04:53:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty low-key 4th of July in preparation for trips that we'll be taking later in the summer. Still, we had a great time. Our community had its own 4th of July parade that came right by our house and we saw plenty of good fireworks shows. For Jack it is a new experience that he seemed to enjoy. He reached right for the flame of the sparkler, but once we had that sorted out he had a good time with it. As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was really hot!

PINEWOOD DERBY- Ward Activity

Our ward had a pinewood derby for anyone that wanted to participate. We decided to join the competitors, but because this would be my first try at a car I was a little nervous. Not having the necessary tools I decided to take a couple swipes with the kitchen knife to see what kind of progress I could make (couldn't find my pocket knife). It didn't make the impact I was hoping it would so I was left to track down someone with tools. Where was Grandpa Jagoda when you need him? He did send a PDF file with an explanation on how to come up with a speedy car, but it was pretty complicated for my taste, so in the end we left it as it was and glued quarters to the bottom, hoping it would weigh somewhere close to the regulation requirement. We had our concept in mind, and it would be super cute (that's what we were going for), but would it be fast? Before leaving with our cute car, I told Savannah that I was glad that it looked really good, to which she responded, "Dad, I want to win." Here is the car:

What, was the result you ask? This picture should speak louder than words.

Savannah blew the doors off of the competition. She didn't loose a single race until they had her race against another category, the non-regulation category where they had cars twice as heavy as her own. But it was fun, everyone was rooting for the Sleeping Beauty car. They gave her a trophy for winning- She slept with it last night:)

Jack's Birthday

2009-06-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Jack is 1!!!

June 12th Jack made the transition from month old to year old. We had several changes occur in our house. Jack could eat cake and ice cream, Jack could drink cow's milk, and Jack got his car seat turned around. We had a fun day from pancakes in the morning to lots and lots of cake in the evening. Here is a picture diary of the events:

Just needed a little encouragement!:)

Here are some of us during the day:

Brittany did such an awesome job with Jack's Cake. That cake decorating class is paying off!!

Jack got a basketball hoop for his birthday. You can see that he is getting better.

Last couple of weeks

2009-06-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here is an update in pictures on what we have been up to lately.

These first ones are when my parents were here for Memorial Day weekend. The kids loved to have them here and we had a blast!

This is the final cake that I decorated for my cake decorating class. The class was a lot of fun and I learned a ton of cool tricks. I'm going to wait a couple of months for the next one though, we were a little cake overloaded:)

Here are pictures of when we went to the zoo with our friends the Wardles. The girls have fun together and Jack is getting to the stage where he loves to see the animals. And there is a great splash park there which was great in the hot weather.

Last, but not least, this month we went to Epcot center to see the flower and garden festival and we had to meet Mulan. She is in the China part of Epcot and so we had to get to her too. We had so much fun, but it was very hot! I think this might be our last trip to Disney for a couple of months. We'll let the summer pass:)

And yes, Jack is walking. We just have him recorded on our video camera. We will try to remember to get it on our camera so that we can post it!

Jack's first haircut!

2009-05-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Jack's hair wasn't too long, but it was starting to get shaggy and really bothering me and so I decided to take him to a kids salon and have his hair cut. (I would have done it myself, but come on, who really wants to have to deal with a squirmy baby:) They did such a great job. They had him in a boat, watching a Baby Einstein, blowing bubbles with a ton of toys! It was a fun, and sad, moment:) Here are some before, during and after pics.

Before:

During:

After:

Here is a video of Jack's cut. You can see how good he did. He was awesome!

Fun Saturday

2009-05-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Our Saturday was filled with fun activities all day long. Savannah and I went on a date while Dad and Jack stayed home and worked in the yard and on the house. Savannah and I started out going to garage sales and then Toys R Us. We love to look around and play:) Then I took her to a kids hair salon and she got her nails done, sat in a train while they cut and styled her hair. Then they put a vanilla scent on her hair as well as glitter. She loved it! We finished it off with a trip to Coldstone where we traded ice cream because I had the better pick:)

Here is Savannah's hair after. I forgot to bring the camera to the place, maybe next time.

Dan put up a ceiling fan as well. Here is the help he got:)

The finished product.

Isn't he so cute:) Not too far from being one.

Oh, and here is a funny video of the kids.

Garden update!

2009-04-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted pictures of my garden every week like I said I would but oh well, life is busy:) Here is an update on my garden that I am so happy about.

Here is an overview of the whole thing.

This is a picture of our lettuce and beans. We have three kinds of lettuce and two kinds of beans. We have already had lettuce from the spinach plants and the romaine, but if you notice the lettuce in bottom left that is where Jack first reaches if you let him down in the backyard and turn your back. He goes straight for those ones and have dug up two, so I have had to replant seeds twice. I don't have bugs just babies:)

This one had three pepper plants, which have taken some time, our strawberry plant and rhubarb, which is taking a break right now but hopefully comes back:)

This one had broccoli on the left, carrots next to that, peas and then squash.

The last one has four watermelon plants and four cantaloupe.

We love our garden and really can't wait to get more from it soon:)

Easter

2009-04-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter. It's so nice to be able to celebrate holidays together with family and friends. Here are some of the pictures we took to remember the day.

Here is Savannah after she found her Easter basket, yes we hide our baskets.

Here are the pair before church. Savannah got a beautiful new Easter dress, wouldn't wear a hat though, and Jack didn't get anything. I did get in trouble for this and believe me this will be the last year Jack didn't get a new Easter outfit as well:)

The two kids with Mom

And with Dad.

And now it's time for the Easter egg hunt. We went over to our friends house and they hosted a lot of people, thanks Wardles! The kids had a blast finding the eggs and playing together.

Now it's the babies turn, their eggs were filled with cheerios and other snacks they could eat:)

Our Garden

2009-03-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

We have started a garden last weekend and I have decided to take pictures every week to track its progress, so I'll probably have pictures on here every now and again. The first couple are the day after we planted them and so all you will see are the strawberries and rhubarb because we bought those as plants. We had these square foot gardens already in place when we bought the house and with the help of a friend here we got started.

Here are the pictures that we have taken a week later. We have three different types of lettuce coming up, our bush beans, and our melon. Our strawberry is also getting redder and bigger! Ok, so you kind of have to look close, but they are really there.

These are pictures of our orange and lemon trees as well which are budding all over the place and I'm sure will be beautiful soon.

Random pictuers and movies

2009-03-15T13:40:00.001-07:00

Here are just a few things that we have been up to lately.

Dan played some golf at TPC Sawgrass, which I guess is a nice golf coarse here in FL, the pros are playing it in May, and he just wants to say that he landed the 17th green (for those of you who knows what that means).

And here is a video of Jack dancing. Anytime we play music now he starts moving to the beat. I'm so lucky that I have two kids that love to dance!

Savannah is 4!!!

2009-02-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

Crazy how time flies. We were just discussing how when we carry Savannah draped over our shoulder that her legs dangle down to at least our knees. Seems like yesterday when she was just a tiny little ball with knees tucked into her chest not even reaching our stomach. She was very excited for her birthday this year. It has been the center of her conversation with those she's met for at least the last month. I think everyone in our new neighborhood knew she was turning 4 on the 19th.

She is a wonderful little girl with quite the imagination and a goofy sense of humor. She is super outgoing and loves to just sit in front of the house on warm days and say hi to people passing by. Just this week there was a mother and daughter walking their dog passed our house. They had crossed the street away from us when Savannah yelled "What's your dog's name?" The people around here are great and as expected they turned around and talked with us for a moment before moving on. Just a to give a tidbit of her developing sense of humor. We were walking back from the park nearby with Savannah on her bike. Brittany was walking ahead of her and Savannah wanted to get by so yelled "Out of my way Old Lady!" She thought that was the funniest thing. Who knows where she learned it. Needless to say she was chased down and tickled by Mom.

Here are some pictures from her Birthday and afternoon party. She had a Princess Party.

Funny story. It was 6:45am, and as customary in the Jagoda household, Dad, Mom, and Jack entered Savannah's room singing "Happy Birthday to You" and bringing breakfast in bed with candles in the pancakes. Once we finished the song all we heard was heavy breathing. It wasn't until we were almost finished singing a second time that she got up. As you can see she was pretty excited for pancakes with whip cream!

Helping mom make treats for the party. You can see the cake that Brittany made below. It is a Cinderella Barbie with a 5 layered cake for a dress. I thought she did a great job for her first try.

Jack really was excited for Savannah's birthday as well. He really enjoyed helping her open presents.

One of the games that the girls played was "Pin the kiss on the Frog". The girls seemed to like it.

Savannah and the other Princesses opening presents.

Blow 'em out you are 4 years Old!

Jackson's Crawling!!!

2009-01-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

Ok so it looks like he is dragging a bum leg, but he's getting around. Check out this video:

The New House!

2009-01-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

Finally here are pictures of our new house. We officially move in on Saturday but we have been moving things in gradually all month, as well as painting Savannah's new room. Enjoy the pictures:)

Here is Savannah's room, yeah nice color:) This is why we have painted it.

Here is one of my favorite rooms, the laundry room.

One of Dan's favorite things, the garage!

Here is the wonderful open kitchen.

Here could be one of the best things, the big tub in our bathroom!

Here is our living room.

And here is our dining room/entry way, if you have any ideas on how to situate this room that would be great!

That's it for now, but we will have more to come as we move in and decorate it.

Christmas Pics!

2009-01-04T20:02:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas at my parents house. Here are some pictures of that with all of my family. Actually, Dan and I didn't take too many pictures and so these are also pictures that my family too as well, thanks guys:)

These first few are of Savannah and her cousins.

These ones are of Jack and family.

And here is most of the gang.

Sorry it's taken us so long to post, but we have been extremely busy. More to come soon with pictures of our house!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2008-12-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits of living in Jacksonville, Florida is that we are close to Orlando, Florida the home to Walt Disney World. Savannah is a huge Disney fan since our Christmas Disneyland trip last year with Grandma and Grandpa Jagoda. She loves Mickey and Minnie Mouse and frankly, life around our house would be much different without the influence of the Disney Princesses.

So, we decided to get Disney World season passes. We made our first 2 hour trip there this last weekend and had a blast. Savannah was so pumped. She was featured in the Monster's Inc Show and because she reached the 40" mark was able to go on rides such as the Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain.

Jack meanwhile, was not as enthusiastic. Disney World for him meant a lot of sitting in his stroller. The nice thing about going at Christmas is that they have decorated the park, so it is absolutely beautiful. The lights at night are something else. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Cinderella's castle and our own two Princesses

The castle decorated with Christmas Lights with Jack enjoying every moment

Speaking of Princesses- Savannah met a few!

I guess Minnie should count too (The pose was Minnie's idea)

And not to be outdone by his older sister the Princess, here is our little chubby Prince on the way into the Park

Update on Jack

2008-11-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Well we went in for Jack's appointment and got an update on our healthy baby:)

He is 17lbs. 6oz and 27 1/4 in long. Yep, he is a big baby! He's about the same size as Savannah was when she was 11 months and he's only 4 1/2:0 I have some serious muscles now though.

He is already getting dressed up by his big sister

Now you might be able to see why he is so big. After this happened we decided it was time to put him on cereal and of coarse he loves it.

Halloween Pics

2008-11-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks doing Halloween things. I didn't get any pictures of trick or treating, but at least I do have some in their costumes.

This is Dan and I going to his co-workers Halloween party. Doesn't he make a good Phantom!

Savannah & I are making cookies:)

Here we are at a pumpkin patch picking out pumpkins. Actually, we only got Savannah's pumpkin there, they were too much to get every one's there:)

Here's Jack balancing on the pumpkins there.

Here is Ariel and my best attempt at Flounder.

Here are all three, Ariel, Flounder and the handsome Prince Eric

Our van during the ward trunk or treat.

Here is Eric with a sleepy Flounder.

And yes, Flounder is still asleep:)

Some Birthday pics and more

2008-10-16T19:01:00.001-07:00

Here are just a few pictures from my birthday and a few extra. I'm just trying to keep up with my camera:)

Here is Savannah helping me blow out my candle in my amazing "B" pancake.

We went miniature golfing for my birthday and Savannah did beat me on a few holes. How embarrassing:)

It did not come with out it's incidents. Savannah kept trying to chase her ball and the fence got in the way:)

Dan carried Jack the whole way in the carrier and still did better then anyone. Maybe it really helped him!

Here's Savannah helping me blow out my candles on this awesome cake that Dan made. It was wonderful. I also realized that even though it's your birthday your kids still open all of the presents and blow out your candles:) Go figure!

Here is Savannah riding a pony at Chik fila. They had free pony rides and pumpkins for the kids. It was a lot of fun.

I know this is a random picture, but these are pants that we bought for Jack, 6-9 months, and they look like bermuda shorts for Savannah. That is our skinny girl and "healthy" boy:)

Pictures and Visitors

2008-10-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Here is just a brief update on some of the things we have been doing lately.

This is Savannah and her friend at the zoo here in Jacksonville. It is a very cute zoo with a great children's area. Lots of things to do here in Jacksonville!

Here Jack fell asleep in his swing with "Pumpkin Bear". He loves to hold on to something while he is going to sleep.

My Dad and Grandparents were able to stop by our house on the way down to their house in southern Florida. Here is Jack with my dad and grandpa.

Here is Savannah and Great Grandma B.

Here is Savannah and Jack sharing some love in the morning.

Family Home in the Evening

2008-09-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

We try to take advantage of time in the evenings and on weekends at home to enjoy one another's company. With exception of several months during my first year in graduate school, this is the most that I have been away from home on a consistent basis.

Savannah sure loves her brother! But he is getting big.

PEACE!!

Besides nursing, this is Jack's favorite position in the whole wide world. He loves to be perched on moms arm. He has one of his arms up around mom's neck and the other grasping her arm. And then he just swivels like a sprinkler head, back and forth checking out what's going on around him.

Look how broad chested this kid is; Just like dad (or maybe his clothes are too small)

Jack does not take kindly to "tummy time" although he does a good job keeping his head up. Savannah for some reason loves it when Jack is doing "tummy time" and constantly rolls him from his back to his stomach and in her best mommy voice says, "Jack you haven't done your tummy time yet today." Here you can see the chunkiness of our little Jack. Quite the opposite from Savannah.

OK, I'll admit it I am just like Savannah in the fact that I like to mess with Jack, but tell me those shorts don't look cute on his head. There is no give, like they are pure starch or something.
And yes that is Jack and I participating in a Tea Party (Hot Cocoa for your better parents out there). The attendees are from the left: Savannah, "Baby", "Hippo", "Doggy" and Jack and I. "Dolly" couldn't make it to this one.

Here is a little video of the little guy talking.

Sunny Days!

2008-09-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

You would think that in Florida the sun is always shining. That hasn't been the case for a lot of the summer. We had a stretch of weeks where it rained at least once a day and then when Hurricane Faye came through it rained even harder, and the wind blew a little too. Funny thing is that Hannah and Ike, which both passed us by, brought great weather to the state of Florida- well, Jacksonville at least. And so we have been out taking in the sun.

Savannah, an amphibian of sorts, keeps us at the pool whenever possible. She is catching on to the whole swimming thing as you can see here, her swimming all by herself (We'll have to zoom in a little closer next time):

You can't tell by his face, but Jack sort of likes to swim too.

Especially when Savannah helps him stay afloat.

Brittany found out about a Reading Day for kids or some thing at the downtown library. They had all kinds of activities and food and SWAG- the best thing for me was that it was -Free.

They also had face-painting which Savannah really liked. She told the lady that she wanted to be a tiger. She had a blast scaring dad when she got home (dad wasn't able to be there).

And speaking of tigers, well actually a lion. The reason dad was not at the thing at the library is because on some Saturdays he volunteers at a Wildlife Preserve where they have several, very large cats- tigers, lions, cougars, jaguars, and a lynx. I pick up poop, shovel dirt, and clean water tubs. Pretty much my childhood dream. Here I am holding their newest arrival Sarabi. And yes, that is sweat.

Our new Ballerina!

2008-08-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

Yeah, Savannah is now in a dance class. She has her first class tomorrow and she is soooooooo excited. On Saturday we registered her and got her ballet shoes, tap shoes and tights and a leotard. She put them on when we got home and danced around the house for at least an hour until we made her take them off to eat. Here are those pictures and a video of her dancing. We'll be sure to send more as she becomes quite the dancer:)

Fun with Uncle Blake

2008-08-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

It was so much fun to have my brother here for a week with us. Savannah loved having him here and showing him all of her toys. Here are just a few pictures of our time with him.

Uncle Blake with Jack:)

Blake & Savannah having fun with the Xbox.

Blake & Savannah hitting the waves at the Beach.

Cute pictures

2008-08-10T13:27:00.001-07:00

Here is just a cute picture that we have of Jack and Savannah. Here are a few videos as well that are so heartwarming:)

Jack actually takes a bottle and Savannah loves to feed him. It is now her favorite thing to do, and everytime I'm about to feed him, Savannah asks if I have a bottle that she can feed him with.

Some Family Pics.

2008-07-27T17:30:00.001-07:00

It was so much fun to have my dad here and so much help. Savannah had a ton of fun playing princesses and barbies with my dad and he was such a great sport:) Here are some pictures that he took for us.

Fun in the Sun:)

2008-07-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

We've been having a lot of fun lately. We've had some family in town and have appreciated the help and time that they have given us. Here are just a bunch of pictures of our time here recently.

Here are pictures of the first time we went to the beach with Grandpa and Grandma Jagoda. We did get a little rained on, but it soon stopped and we had some pretty good waves.

Here are Grandpa and Savannah playing in the waves.

Grandma & Savannah found some pretty cool shells.

Here are Dad and I catching a big wave. Yes, he is just body surfing, while I need a board to catch a wave:)

Here is the lighthouse in St. Augustine. It was quite a climb to get to the top, but we all made it the sweltering heat!

While we were out doing other things Dan & Dad took a fishing trip on the inter-coastal water way with Captain Larry. It's a pretty small boat for the self-proclaimed captain:)

Here is a family picture on Sunday when Jack was blessed.

Another day at the beach with wave jumping and shell collecting.

Happy 4th! (a little late:)

2008-07-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July! As most of you know we have finally moved to Jacksonville and

we are doing great! We are still getting settled and unpacking very slowly:) but we are having a good time. We were able to go to the beach for the fourth and it was great! We all loved it and we spent at least three hours there, and yes Dan was the only one to get a great sun burn, while the rest of us just tan:) Then we went home for a swim in the pool only to make it back to the beach for the fireworks later that night where both of the kids fell asleep.

We like it here in Jacksonville so far. There are so many things around here and so much to do. The library has a lot of things going for kids and there are a lot kids in our ward as well. We have met a few and I think it will be a good ward to be in. We've had help since being here as well. My dad was here for part of this week and then Dan's parents are coming in a couple of days. Savannah is thrilled to have them and thinks they are coming to see just her, which is partially true:) She tells everyone we see that her grandparents are coming to see her, even people in the store we don't know. We are doing great and will send an email out soon of all of our info here.

Here are Dan and Savannah fishing in the ocean. There were these little fish that match the sand that were very hard to catch!

This is what Jack does at the beach.

Here is the gang getting ready to watch fireworks.

Savannah holding Jack, her favorite thing to do.

Update on the kids!

2008-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a fun two weeks of having two kids now! Savannah has loved having a little brother and helps out a ton. She is a little disappointed that he sleeps so much, but loves it when he is awake and loves to hold him. She is also so good at getting him to stop crying by shaking a rattle or singing to him. It's a sight that makes your heart melt. Savannah has also been busy playing with all of her friends, as we will be leaving soon. She is very sad to have to move aways from her friends but gets very excited about the fact to make new friends. We hope that she handles this move well, as I'm sure she will because she is very easy going and out going:)

Jack has been such a joy to have in our family. He is almost the exact opposite of Savannah when she was a baby. He loves to eat and eat and eat, and if he's not eating then he loves to sleep. He is also a nice cuddler. He loves to snuggle and his Mom and Dad love that! He is also beginning to have the potential to be a chuncker:) As you can see he loves to eat and he has already passed his birth weight by 7 oz, where most babies reach their birth weight at about this time. He is starting to smile and coo, and it's nice to have him awake a little more, although at night we would love it if he would sleep a little longer;)

Anyway, that's how the kids are doing and here are some more pictures just to add to the collection of our adorable children.

Here is Jack getting a bath at the hospital. This is another difference between Jack and Savannah. Savannah loves her baths and so far Jack doesn't:)

Another adorable Father's Day picture.

Jack and his Grandma Becker, Thank you so much for coming Mom!

Jack doing what he does best, sleep.

What a cute, peaceful boy!

Isn't this the best picture. Savannah put Jack to sleep in this picture. Jean, I have to figure out how to photo shop a different background than this, help:)

Yes, we had our baby:)

2008-06-17T18:01:00.001-07:00

So, this just goes to show how bad at blogging I really am. We had our baby boy five days ago. The whole labor was only three hours long and so I'm feeling pretty good about that! He has been wonderful and he loves to eat and sleep. He is already past his birth weight, which many babies don't hit again until they are two weeks. He's not a big boy, but he is growing:) I'll give the stats and I'll send some more pictures when I get a little more on the ball.

Jackson Daniel Jagoda

June 12, 2008

7 lbs 11 oz

21 1/2 in.

He has a head full of dark hair and is as cute as can be:)

Here is Savannah & Jackson. She loves this little boy and helps out a ton!

Here is Mom & Jack in the hospital

This is Jackson sleeping.

Dan, Savannah & Jack on Father's Day

Our Trip to Michigan

2008-05-17T14:41:00.001-07:00

We just got back a few days ago on our last big trip before the baby comes. Since Dan doesn't have school and isn't working yet we decided to take advantage of the time and go to Michigan to see my brother and sister-in-law and their daughter. It was quite a drive, but we had a wonderful time while we were there. Bob and Emily are such great hosts and we loved getting to spend some one on one time with them. Savannah loved playing with Ellie and always talks about what they did together. We got there at about 1:30 Friday morning and then later that day, in the afternoon, we traveled up north to my grandparents cottage on Lake Huron. We spent a few days there enjoying each other and the quiet, peacefulness of the lake. We then went back to Lansing and spent the next couple of days playing, going to parks, spending great times together. Here are some of the pictures, actually there are a lot, but I always say that pictures tell it the best.

This is Savannah feeding Ellie, she just loved to help out anyway she could:)

Savannah and I on a walk on the beach.

Dan and Bob hitting golf balls into the lake.

Savannah and Ellie in the "Mickey Room".

The whole gang.

Everyone at the splash park in Lansing.

Bath time.

Savannah with Dr. Bob:)

Dan & Ellie, let's just say that she definitely liked Dan more then me, but I think he's pretty cute too so who can blame her;)

Graduation!!!

2008-05-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's finally done! Dan has graduated from school and we are moving on with the next chapter in our lives. The hooding ceremony was Thursday morning at the school. It was outside and it was nice and cool for the whole ceremony. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments. He was a great student, with only one B+ and the rest As!! Here are some pictures of that wonderful day:)

Dan walking up to the stage. Savannah was sure excited to see her Dad walk by!

Dan getting hooded.

Our family after the ceremony.

Savannah is very proud of her Daddy:)

Dan & Savannah in front of the Moore School.

Dan with two of his classmates that went to China with us.

Our fun time in Jacksonville

2008-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

We just got back from Jacksonville, FL a couple of days ago and had such a good time. We went down looking at houses and apartments and found some good options, still feeling good about renting for the first little bit to get a feel for the area before we buy. We were also able to swim at the pool and go to the beach as well. It is a nice area and we are pretty excited to move to an area that has so much to do. So, as always, here are some pictures of the fun times we had.

Dan and Savannah at a highly recommended Italian restaurant, that was delicious.

Savannah eating every one's pasta:)

No, that's not a beached whale with Savannah, just me. Isn't it a beautiful beach!

Dan and Savannah playing in the sand.

Savannah actually playing in the sand. She had a blast and it will definitely be a fun thing to do all together more often:)

Dan and Savannah swimming in the pool at our hotel.

Savannah and me in our hotel room.

Disney on Ice, Princess Wishes!

2008-04-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, we were able to see the Disney on Ice last week here in Columbia. It was such a wonderful night and such a nice thing for Savannah to experience. She loved seeing all of the princesses, as she thinks she is one and they are all her friends:) She was enthralled with the whole performance even though she was getting a little tired. Here are some pictures from that. It was very hard to get pictures while they were skating, but we tried:)

Here is Savannah and I in front of Jasmine's clothes, we got to see all of the princess dresses in this room.

Dan and Savannah before the show starts.

Even Mickey and Minnie were there, Savannah was in heaven.

Trying to get Savannah with "Under the Sea" going on behind her.

This was Savannah's favorite part. That is Maleficent as a dragon, and she really blew fire and lit the ice on fire. It was incredible.

Cinderella's carriage.

Everyone together.

Our New Car!

2008-04-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have finally graduated to the mini van and actually having two cars! I love it and it's nice not to have to coordinate our schedules as much. Here are some pictures!

Easter!

2008-04-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Easter and we were lucky enough to be able to spend if with my parents up in Virginia. Seeing as how we spent the last two Easters in China, this felt like Savannah's first real experience with Easter. We were able to color eggs and hunt eggs many times! I have a ton of pictures to put in, but the pictures say it all and are so cute.

These first ones are us dying Easter eggs. Savannah had a blast and would not let anyone crack them to eat them later on, we had to do that in secret:)

This is Savannah finding her Easter basket.

This next bunch is the Easter egg hunt in the backyard, which we probably did at least four times. She just loved finding the eggs.

Here is everyone with their basket and as you see the dog was feeling left out and so he was going for Dan's basket.

Savannah with her baskets.

Savannah in her Easter dress.

Savannah and Grandma and Grandpa Becker.

Family picture:)

Savannah going nose to nose with Grandpa.

Savannah is helping Grandma with the Easter cake.

Camping

2008-03-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Dan had spring break this last week, and Savannah has been dying to roast marshmallows, and so we took a few days and went camping. It has been so nice outside and so we just went to a state park about 10 minutes away. We were able to do a few things and just have a good time being together and outside. Savannah is a natural camper and loved camping. She had a hard time when the tent was coming down and wanted to continue camping. It's nice that she likes it and so we hope that we can go a few more times before the baby comes.

This first picture is Dan and Savannah on our canoe. We were able to go out on their small lake and canoe around looking for animals. Savannah wanted to see lions and kangaroos, but we told her that was probably not possible:) Thanks to Dan's good eyes we were able to see a beaver dam and baby turtles.

This is Savannah rowing by herself. She likes to do everything by herself, and she kept moving around the boat, which was scaring me because the canoe was a bit wobbly, and I didn't want to fall in.

Here is our lovely campsite. Savannah is playing in the tent and Dan is figuring out our lantern. It was not very busy and nice to have it so quite.

Here we are roasting marshmallows. Savannah loved it, but was somewhat wary to do it herself.

Here is the sticky girl herself. She had to have had eight or nine marshmallows at least and kept asking for more.

The next morning Dan and Savannah got out of the tent to make our warm fire. It was very nice during the day, but at night it got cold! It was so nice to have a roaring fire to come out to.

Breakfast.

We took a hike around the lake and surrounding woods. Here is a little waterfall that Dan and Savannah liked to put sticks and pine cones in to see if they went all the way down. She is definitely a little outdoors girl. We had so much fun and didn't really want to leave, but didn't want to spend another cold night out and so we did leave.

At the Zoo

2008-03-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

Dan took Savannah to the zoo here in Columbia near the end of February. The zoo here is so cute and nice and we love to go, especially Savannah! There is so much to do there and so many different animals to see and it doesn't take long to do it, it's wonderful. Here are a few pictures of them at the zoo.

The first picture is of Savannah and the Flamingos. They are an absolutely gorgeous color, but Savannah thinks that they smell very bad and so every time we go by she plugs her nose:)

This is of Savannah riding a pony that they have there. This ones name is Spooky. She loves to ride the ponies and feels like such a big girl! She is not afraid to do anything.

This one is hard to tell, but those are Savannah's hands. She loves to feed the giraffes and feel their sticky tongue. Of coarse she thinks it's gross, but still one of her favorite things to do at the zoo.

As you see there is so much to do here. She also feeds birds with Dad, but Mom will not go in the bird area with them! She is more hesitant about the birds, but will do in as long as Dad is close by.

Visiting Charleston!

2008-02-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Today we were able to go to Charleston, SC and visit one of Dan's old college roomates and his wife and family. We had a great time and love visiting Charleston. Here we are with Mitch and Lexi in front of a huge bridge in Charleston. We had a fun time walking along Market St. where the old slave market was and then having a nice lunch at Bubba Gump's. Then they took off to Fort Sumter and we went to the Battery, where the shots were fired from Ft. Sumter. Here is Dan ready to throw Savannah in the cold water!

Savannah's Birthday!

2008-02-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, can't believe that she's 3! We had a fun time with my parents here the weekend before her birthday and loved running Grandpa around the playground. We then had a wonderful birthday morning and then a party with her friends at McDonalds. Savannah loved it, and had a wonderful time. It's fun to see her get so big. We went to the doctor the next day for her and she is doing just great growing wise as well as loving to go to the doctors. We also went to the doctor today for me and found out that we are going to have a boy! We're all pretty excited, but Savannah still thinks that she is having a girl:) We've had a busy but very fun week.