A Few More Pics

Hey everyone... just doing a bit of catch-up on the pictures. I won't bore you with chat.

Grace


Me and Abby out on the town!!


Mom and Dad on a kayak trip

Daddy having Thanksgiving lunch at school with Abby (mom was with Grace and had no camera)

Abby's first haircut

Not Gracie's first haircut

Almost Another Month Missed

I almost let another month go by without even getting on entry in the 'ole blog. That was a close one.

So this month has been rather nice. The weather has taken a turn for the cold and with that Abby and I got hooked up with some new clothes. As we seem to be growing like a weed, clothes shopping is always on the agenda. So, now we are going to school in style with our new fabulous wardrobe.

Abby is making some serious inroads in the whole talking thing. Matter of fact, she can pretty much say almost anything she wants, we just have a bit of a time understanding some of it. Regardless, she is doing awesome in that department. Where I wish she would gain some traction is in the potty department. She LOVES to wear underwear, loves it!!! but not so much a fan of pottying in the toilet. Is a fan of pottying in the living room. I just keep trying to tell her that the sooner that she gets out of the diapers, the sooner mom and dad can apply that money to something else... like fabulous clothes :o)

We just had the most wonderful Thanksgiving. My uncle Sean came down from Massachusetts to have dinner with us and it was so awesome. I can definitely say that this is the best meal I have ever eaten in my entire 4 years on this planet. We had deep fried turkey, praline sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry/sausage/apple stuffing (to die for), corn pudding and real cranberry sauce. Mom made every bit of it (except the turkey) and she should be awarded the best mom award just for dinner. We have been eating it for the last three days and I hope there is enough leftovers to last three more. Now, thank goodness we were not anticipating dinner to be before say.... seven, cause it wasn't. But I tell you, it was so worth the wait. I won't discuss dad's miserable attempt at a pumpkin loaf. Let's just say that it is nice that Walmart is across the street and open and carries ice cream cakes. That is all I am going to say.

So mom braved the crowds on Black Friday and managed to get some decent deals. From what I can tell, she came back with most of the sanity that she left with (not saying if she started with alot or a little, I am just sayin')

We did the Christmas decorations yesterday and today. Decorating the tree was the last thing on the agenda and I can proudly say that we are going to bed tonight with a fully Christmas'd up house. Now, I didn't tell you this, but when we decorate for Christmas, it really only involves the outside and the front of the house. You would never know it is Christmas time if you looked anywhere beyond the front living room. But to stand in there, you would think you were in a winter wonderland. Mom did a really nice job with everything. Abby and I love it.

So, that is pretty much it for now. We are looking forward to this holiday season. I think we get to go see our friends in Jacksonville sometime and maybe we will go look at the Christmas lights around town every now and then.

Abby and I hope you are all doing really good and have a super Merry Christmas.

Abby and Grace



Thanksgiving Dinner - YUMMEEEEEEEE!!!!

Disney Cruise - 2008

Holy guacamole!!! I can not believe how long it has been. This easily breaks any record I have had in posting delays. For all of my fans I am so sorry. I can't even really offer a good excuse. Dad has been into Facebook more these last couple months and does not let me get on the computer like days gone bye. Well, I decided enough was enough and showed dad that The Office was on TV and he took his eye off the computer and this is how you are getting this post.

So, what have we been up to:

For starters, we are both a year older. Abby and I had a birthday a couple months ago and last month mommy and daddy took us on a cruise. It was AWESOME!!! I have some pics at the bottom that you can look at.

I am in VPK and love it. I learn so much everyday. I have pretty much all of my letters down and am trying really hard to recognize words. I get some, but I still need to practice. My teacher says that I am never a problem, so that seems to make mom and dad happy.

Abby is in her new class and seemed to really like it from the start. She is not as chatty as me, but she is loads of fun. I just love it when she laughs when I am doing something silly. She seems to always be watching me. Guess I have to really behave so she does not learn bad things.

Hmmm.. I think I have already told you about us sleeping in the same room now, but just in case, yeah we sleep in the same room. We love it. I think mom and dad wonder what they were thinking when some nights we take a little longer than normal to go to sleep. They don't seem to understand the importance of having an impromptu fashion show. We also like to take the stools in the room and pretend they are a boat. Regardless of what we are doing, it does not seem to be so amusing to mom and dad after the 10th time of telling us to go to bed. I can't help but laugh, as it is really their fault.

Abby is working on potty training, but she is not really their yet. No worries, we still have diapers.

Mom and dad are great. Mom is working on her school and dad, well dad manages to stay pretty busy too.

So, not much else. I mean, we are always doing stuff but to try to capture it all here would be alot of typing and I also have some work to do in that department. So, check out the pics and enjoy. Again, sorry for the long pause. Not making any promises, but will try harder.
Grace and Abby (The Manchi and Meatball)

The Manchi (A Superhero Like No Other)

This is just a preemtive measure as I know that dad will use this sometime in the future against me. So, in my effort to take the high road here is me clearly disgusted or consumed with what I am about to eat.

I will have some more pictures from my weekend in Jacksonville over the July 4th holiday. We had a blast, but because it is really late I leave you only with the one pic.

All is well in our house. We are fast approaching our birthday and with that comes new beds in a new room. More on the living arrangements later, but suffice to say that Abby and I will get much more time together in the next couple weeks.

Manchi out

A Break for Mom and Dad

So this weekend was a rare one indeed. Mom and dad went on a mini vacation and left us kids with Granny, Alex and Amber (Alex's friend). Now to say that we had a blast would be the understatement of the year. We did more in the last few days than we have done in our entire early childhood. Not and indictment mom and dad, but just the fact. So while we were at the beach, the pool, the mall and who know's where else, mom and dad rode on an airplane and went to Denver. Yeah, you heard me right, DENVER!!! During their whirlwind (30 hour) getaway, mom and dad went to an Alison Krauss / Robert Plant concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater (http://www.redrocksonline.com/) and went whitewater rafting at Clear Creek in Idaho Springs, CO (http://www.clearcreekrafting.com/). I have put a couple pictures to prove that they actually got to go and have a good time and not worry about us. Now, really I do care that they had a good time and am glad they got away, but in all honesty Abby and I got to the best deal. Unfortunately, I don't have as many pictures to prove it. We loved having granny come down and spoil us rotten. We went to the beach a few times, the pool a couple times, the mall a couple times. We also went to the zoo. All in all, it was the best week ever. Unfortunately they leave today and we go back to school tommorow. Oh and did I mention that granny cooks like a champ. I really hope mom and dad took copious notes.

Okay, check out the pictures all our adventures this past week.


Grace and Abby

Our Weekend

Another weekend has come to and end. This one was not all that bad when looked at as a whole. Let's see.... Abby and I went with mommy to Target and got some new nightgowns. Mine have seen better days and have become a bit more revealing as I get taller. Abby has taken ownership of all of my old ones, so that is pretty cool. After a nap (okay, after laying bed for two hours) we went my mommy's friend's house for a birthday party. This was awesome!!!! They had this inflatable water slide that I just could not get enough of. I must have gone down that thing like a hundred times (I hear that is a high number). Abby also went down it alot, but was more interested in hanging out with daddy in the pool. After the slide, I also got in the pool, but not for that long cause I had to get some birthday cake. It was really, really, really good and I think I had a bit of a sugar high when I finished. Maybe that would explain why I was a bit resistive to going home. I know that when I start to hear things like time out and spanking... well I have crossed the line. I just wish I could tell myself to stop, but it never fails, I seem to go far.

So today we went to church and then to Cracker Barrel. CB was good, but that took way too much time to bring mommy and daddy's food out, they actually told them to box it up cause Abby and I were done and we were not sitting still real well. Not that they were really mad at us, but I could tell that they just wanted to go. So we did and came home to take a nap. Again, I just laid in the bed for a couple hours until nap time was over. After nap time it was Kung Fu Panda time and boy was that awesome. Abby and I actually did pretty good in the movie theater. That movie was so funny, I laughed so hard. The panda was very silly and determined. At the beginning he could not do much right, but by the end he saved the day and used his belly to do it. I would give it two thumbs up, but I am sucking on one of them right now, so one it is. Abby thought it was pretty good to, but she got scared in a couple parts.

So that was our weekend. Daddy grilled some chicken and we had a wonderful dinner. It was starting to storm so we were listening to the thunder and the rain. Very nice ending to a very nice weekend.

I have put a couple pictures that we took over the last couple days. Nothing much, but something.

Hope everyone else had a good time this weekend.

The Manchi (and the Meatball)








While this picture is cute, I wish daddy would have got a picture of me when I had the glasses on the back of my head and I was using the ear pieces like they were a microphone. I kept pretending I was working in a drive-thru.

A Trip to a New Place

So Mommy and Daddy have finally found a place where Abby and I can play in the middle of the street and rob a bank and make a dinner and ride in a fire truck and work at McDonalds and go to the library and a whole bunch more. You see, there is this place called Kid City and it is part of the Lowery Park enterprise in Central Tampa that is home to the Lowery Park Zoo. You know how I know it was near the zoo... cause when you went outside it smelled like poopy and it was not Abby this time.

Anyway, this place is pretty cool. My favorite part was the firehouse (and not the restaurant, as that is daddy's favorite). I got to wear a fireman jacket and ride in the fire truck. It was way cool. Seems as though someone thought to miniaturize all the buildings so that it is just big enough for kids like me, and just small enough to cause daddy to bump his head a few times. Uh dad, they call it KID city!!!!

So that is what we did today. It was so much fun, or as I told mommy and daddy in the car, it was very, very wonderful. I have this way of using the word "very" as a qualifier to most compliments these days. The more "very's" the better.

After Kid City, mommy and daddy took us to Steak and Shake for some steak and shake. Okay, my steak looked alot like a chicken nugget, but daddy had a hamburger that I just was drooling over. Truth be told, not a big fan of the french fries, they were too tiny. But you know that we were not there for the food. I decided to keep it simple and order a strawberry shake and Abby followed my lead. Daddy went for Bannana and mommy went all out for the Cookies 'n Cream. That was the perfect end to a perfect afternoon.

So we are home and I have to take a nap, so I will spare the details on how Abby and I are growing nicely. Just know that we are doing wonderful and miss our friends and family very much.

Very, very, very sincerely
The Manchi and The Meatball