the sumner family: February 2011

A Visit with Grammy

For the last week and a half, Luke has been in Haiti working with my dad and a team of volunteers alongside some Agape Flights missionaries. While he was gone, my mom flew down to stay with us.

It was beautiful almost every day. We enjoyed lots of time outdoors!

We visited the science museum in Sarasota:

And went to Busch Gardens:

The kids got lots of special attention from one of their very favorite people!

Julia has discovered the outdoors, and now I can barely keep her inside. She loves the little car!

We tried a new park -- I didn't know it had mulch (instead of sand), so we'll definitely be visiting there more often!

This is Abby saying "ta-da!!!"

Thank you all for checking in on our lives -- we are blessed by your love and interest! Love to you all!

Happy first birthday, Julia!

Julia celebrated her first birthday on January 21st. Wow! She has grown up so much in the last year. It's scary how quickly it happened!

It was a pretty low key affair, with just our family, and Grammy who flew in for a visit.

She loved her cupcake!

And of course, there were presents!

We had a wonderful start to 2011 -- first, we got to have lunch wit our dear friends, Aaron and Julie Fenton (miss you guys!) and then we had a week long visit from our sweet friends Tyler and Jamie. The kids still ask when they'll be back to play again!

Noah got Thomas the Train Uno cards for Christmas from Uncle Caleb and Aunt Lauren. The kids love to play this game -- and it's actually fun for Luke and I, too!

Abby is enrolled in gymnastics at the YMCA. She looks forward to this EVERY week! This is her favorite....

...jumping into the big foam pit from the trampoline!

Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas here in Florida this year. It was nice to not have to travel over the holidays, but we really missed being with our families! On Christmas Eve, we took the kids to Busch Gardens. We were given season passes as a gift, so it's a super-cheap-but-still-tons-of-fun day for us! The kids love to go!

Christmas morning is always exciting for the kids. This year we saved almost all the presents the kids got in the mail for them to open on the big day. The received gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends. So they had MOUNTAINS of gifts.

Happy first Christmas to our little Ju Ju!

Here are the kids all dressed up in the Christmas outfits. This is the best I could get. : )

December 2010

December was a fun month for us! The kids definitely have a better understanding of Christmas -- there was a lot of anticipation this year!

Here the kids are with their "Reindeer Dust".

Noah's train obsession continues.....

We have started having family movie nights every month. The kids get to cuddle up with their popcorn and we rent a movie from redbox. They LOVE this tradition!

Julia doesn't think it's too bad either.

Noah was soooooo looking forward to putting the star on top of the Christmas tree!

There have definitely been some adjustments as we moved from Ohio to Florida. One was the warm weather at Christmas time! It was definitely strange walking into the grocery store, seeing the decorations and hearing Christmas music while sweating. Don't get me wrong -- it's nice! Just very different.

We took the kids to the boat parade. This will be a fun tradition we look forward to every year! All the boats were decorated in lights and playing music while they motored up and down the canal.

Here are my kiddos, getting SO big!

November 2010

Ummm.....so apparently I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. I keep telling myself I'm going to stay caught up, but I never do. Thanks to all of you who remind me!

So here's what we did in November. (It's a good thing I have the pictures -- they help me remember!)

Luke grew a beard, which I didn't like at first, but now I'm definitely a fan. : )