All dressed up for Daddy/Daughter date night!

Enjoying Bathtime my little fish!

Throwing rocks at the end of our hike!

MJ the navigator!

Lilly reading her map!

January 2012....what a blurrrr!

We so enjoyed the warm January we had this year and tried to make the most of it. Did some hiking with the kids, where they got to read the maps (see above). Then we took LOTS of baths, in fact someday we took two! These kids are fish, so they LOVE the water. Which is great since we are leaving to visit uncle bobby in Hawaii next week (end of February). And on that note: we are so proud of our uncle bobby who was promoted while he was on deployment in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He's back now and I don't think he knows what he's in for during our week long visit out there.

In other news, we have registered Lilly for "big girl school" she will start full day 5 day a week Pre-K in the fall. It was a very hard decision as to whether she would do full days or not, but we finally make the leap to have her in a more structured program which hopefully will allow more fun time when she's not in school. Plus it will give me a chance to spend some real time with MJ. Lilly still loves her dance class, and is often stopping people to show off her moves. She's a free spirit for sure.

MJ is still not registered for anything yet. But hopefully he will go two half days this fall and will get to pick a new activity to try out. With the way he likes to hang upside down like a monkey, maybe gymnastics. He is learning new words by the minute; with his favorites being: "look-ah me" "i do it" "i did it" "lilly share" and the singing of "tinkle, tinkle little starrrr" "bring home bee....ouch" and "abcd...mnop...zzz....yeah!"

We are celebrating Fitz's 34 birthday this weekend with like 50 of our closest friends for a pig pickin'. For those of you who are not intune with a pig pickin'.....you light some charcoal, throw a pig on a grill, (yes a whole pig) and roast it for HOURS. Then everyone comes over with a side and or beer and enjoys eating pork right off the pig. We are really excited to see everyone without kids. It's amazing how many people you can talk too when you can finish a conversation. :) (those of you know with kids know what I'm talking about).

We are all looking forward to our up coming vacations: first hawaii with Eenie, Commadore, Lilly, MJ, and me (Fitz has to work-but at least he can sleep in). then we will come home with enough time to do laundry and leave for Florida to visit MJF Sr. (the one who started it all). Should be an exciting three weeks. Can't wait to post those stories!

It's christmas eve....and this angel is all smiles

working hard on her gingerbread house at church.

Nearly finished product!

You can see why they get along so well!

Where we started!

MJ getting cleaned up after "helping" with the gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve!

Eenie and Commadore got MJ roller blades!

Lilly and her American Girl Doll ("lilly"), in their matching dance outfits!

Singing Happy Birthday to Eenie with Fitz adding some music on Small guitar!

Silly MJ photo.....he was first playing with the water in the pot, and then was in the pot with the water! Silly boy! Guess it's good we live where we have some warm days all year long!

So we started planning vacations....and never stopped.

Since I got to go to Australia in May 2011, Fitz has wanted to take a trip. After some serious sorting of ideas (mardi gras, coasta rica, hawaii and many more), we decided on FRANCE.

For a few reasons: 1-we both want to watch the tour de france, 2-we have a friend who lives there currently, 3-we have done Paris, so we can now do the rest of the country, and 4-well they drive on our side of the road (BIG PLUS).

Since starting the planning of France (which currently includes: the Alps, Nice, the Tour, surfing on the west coast, and Versailles in the summer). We have also planned trips to Hawaii to help welcome my baby Bro home from his deployment, and a trip down to Florida to visit the original MJF and hit up disney for a day.

PHEW! and that only gets us to mid-July!

New Traditions:

We are spent the last 10+ years of our relationship traveling to the great white north for the winter holidays (and once or twice to somewhere warm). This was our FIRST year staying put, having a tree of our own, and forging some new traditions. I really and truly love all the holidays we have had, but it was wonderful to do somethings different (and yet the same).

On Christmas Eve morning we met some of our good friends for a serious track workout at the local track....now some of you might find that strange, BUT it's just our style. Then all the families and kids headed to our local breakfast joint for some "good country cooking at the right price," and filled our bellies while the kids run like wild animals and just had fun together.

We then blended an Italian tradition of "seven fishes" on Christmas eve with a classic "becky" twist: grouper, tuna, cobia, shrimp, Swedish fish, gummy fish, and fish food ice cream. Which will bring us luck into the new year!

We then got all pretty-ed up and heading to church for the children's service and let the kids join in the singing of come classic christmas carols. Lilly of course was more involved, until we ended up next to this wonderful older lady singing her heart out but a little off key. And poor Lilly kept looking over at her with a VERY perplexed look on her face :)

Home again and time to build gingerbread houses: this activity can take upwards of two hours in past years (the planning, building, decorating, fixing falling buildings, and such). We managed for nearly 35minutes to keep the kids attention. But most of that was MJ eating any candy handed to him for decorating and Lilly being the one handing candy to everyone. Priceless!

Time for an Internet check of where Santa is. This one is so cool to me......you can see where he is going and video of some of the big cities he's been in. Lilly LOVED watching this. And as we watched Santa flying over the Atlantic....we saw a flashing red light in our back yard. Lilly shrieked and ran straight to be and covered her head proclaiming that Rudolph was in our backyard.

Time to Christmas to begin......Lilly slept until 7am and eagerly woke everyone in the house and started tearing through her gifts. She was wide eyed and ready to play. MJ was more reserved as he still has two or so gifts to open (and it's nearly 1:30pm). He would open one and play with it. Then move on to the next one, and play!

Our house is now full of so much more.....Lilly and her matching American Girl Doll-in matching pajama's, books, bike seat for said doll, dresses, makeup, and more. MJ with all things boy-trucks, trains, scooter, roller blades. Fitz will be trying out his new grind rail, and down jacket. And I will be happily sporting my new boots, and rain jacket!

There are still a few more hours of Christmas Day, and we are currently heating up the oil to fry a turkey, and then in the nearly 60 degree weather we will head to the beach to visit with great friends! Hope your christmas was FULL of traditions new and old and more then anything LOVE. Hoping to post some photos and videos before the day is done!

Phew, is it really NO-vember?

It seems like just yesterday we celebrated the kids 1st and 3rd birthday and now it's been over 6 months. Quick update: Becky went on a trip to Australia and met Bobby for a 10+ day trip during his mid-deployment R&R, Becky turned 30 and fished in the women's big rock fishing tourney (and caught the only fish), kids keep growing, Fitz and Becky celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary (8-8-11), Lilly started preschool and dance, kids had their 1/2 birthdays, MJ started school and kindermusik, and now it's November. Phew! See photos for what's been the happenings!

What happens when you combine an egg hunt, two bounce houses, and a whole mess of kids?

A Fitzula birthday party of course!

We got to celebrate Lilly turning 3 and MJ turning 1 with only the best of parties. There were two bounce houses for the kids (and adults) to play in along with a candy filled egg hunt!

Lilly filled her basket quickly with some of the 500 eggs that were hidden, and left them at my feet to gather up more!

Then it was time to sing "happy birthday" first around Lilly's purple princess cake.

Then around MJ's #1 car cake.

Although, I would love to take credit for their beautiful cakes, they were bought from a local baker....Christy Harrell owner of Beach Bakery here in MHC....look her up if you need a cake.

Then we opened some gifts, of which we slyly packed some away so we can pull them out on a rainy day. Lilly's current favorites are her Logan Dress, princess sing along, and DVD of Snow white. I'm sure others will quickly make her list when we allow her to have them.

Then it was time for more jumping, sliding, and having a grand ole' time. We managed to have NO injuries, and the kids LOVED every minute of it! Hurray for birthday parties!

Happy Birthday to my babies!!

We have the joy of celebrating our kids birthday on the same day...what a great thing...Fitz loves it since he only has to remember one day! The day started with gifts for the kids; Lilly got her princess dress for us, and a set of magnetic building things (magnaforms) from MJ. MJ got a a lifetime fishing liscence from us, and a toy telephone from Lilly. Since their party is not for a few weeks, the only other gifts they got to open were for close friends who came by for some cupcakes.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL, so we started with breakfast outside. Lilly was on to outfit #2 by this time, and she just HAD to weather her Cinderella Dress! MJ loved eating outside and watching all of the birds in the sky.

After we made our birthday shirts (3 for Lilly and 1 for MJ). It was time to do some swinging. And if you know my kids at all, it was not a surprise that they ended up nudie! It was so nice to be able to enjoy the outside! During this time, Dada was tilling the would be garden so we could plant. Lilly wanted to plant flowers for her birthday, so our next stop was to pick up some flowers, veggies at the Newport Garden Center.

Later on in the day, we had some of Lilly's good buddies over for a cookout. The girls gathered around the table for some burgers and dogs. They had to finish before we could move on to cake!

YAY for cake!!!

The night ended with some baths, hats and hugs! We are looking forward to the big party with weekend, and having all of Lilly and MJ's friends over for food, fun, and an egg hunt! It's so nice to have a "theme" already build in to birthday parties! If only it was not such a pain to fill the eggs...at least they are already done....all 500 of them!

April Fool's Day

It's 8:45am and our family has already been going strong for 2 or more hours. We have slipped back into cooler then normal weather for this time of year and I think it is putting everyone in less then happy moods. I think we are in desperate need of some warm weather and time outside. In the mean time, we have been staying busy....Lilly has become quite the actress and LOVES to dress up and play the "watch me" game. You know..."hey (blank), watch me do this"..then said adult had to "ohh and ahhh" over whatever it is that she did. We are really looking forward to her birthday since she will get yet another dress up dress. MJ is practcing walking but has not taken his first steps yet. maybe soon?!

Tomorrow Lilly will "run" her first road race. It's a mile fun run....I will hopefully, be able to take lots of photos!