January in Review

January 2010 seemed like THE longest month on the face of the planet--I think part of it was going through "Grandparent Detox", as a friend aptly dubbed it. We had a snafu at work, and were busy with the usual suspects, and then some:

Garrett with his good friend Aiden @ Aiden's 4th Birthday Party

Circus with the Butterfly Co-Op:
Jakob, Garrett and Hazel (oh, the facial expressions!)

Summer was ENTHRALLED by it, I was so proud of how well she did!
Jonah, Liam (Another one of Garrett's good buddies), and Garrett enjoying the show.


Waiting for the people to be shot out of the canon--Garrett had been talking about this for WEEKS!Canons :-)

We met a long-lost-friend at the zoo for a playdate and had a blast. (Thanks to Leanne for the fab pictures, because I didn't have the energy to lug my camera!!)
Garrett and Ava (and a BIG bug!)

Summie likes to multi-task--eating AND walking :-)


Okay, note the pink crocs on Summer's feet as they watch the singing dogs in Australia!
Note the pink croc, torn to bits by the singing dogs. Summer lost it into the habitat!!

Is Leanne good or what?? :-)Garrett is getting the hang of swinging his legs like a "big boy"
What better way to end the day then to play in the splash park?? Ava and G having a good time. Summer wanted NOTHING to do with it!
We celebrated our good friend Hazel's 3rd birthday party in style at a Sleeping "Dooty" Party: (Thanks to Jamie for these pics--I've seriously slacked!)

Garrett and the birthday princess
Garrett got his face painted
And we even managed to get together to have a few playdates with our playgroup friends!! (Thanks Monica for this one!)--All aboard the Zoo Train!

My mom and Grandpa came down for a few days at the end of the month. Brad and I went out on a major date (rock climbing followed by the Melting Pot--YUM!), which was fantastic. We took a little field trip to the Everglades . . .
Now for my obligitory Everglades nature pics. Just can't go without doing it . . .
Cormorant. Check out the eyes!
So close, we could touch them!
Wood stork hunting for food. They are tactolocators--find their food through touch. Cool thing to see, hadn't seen them do this before.
I spy with my little eye baby anhingas in a nest!

4 Generations

All in all, January was complete and utter chaos. But then, what else is new.

December 2009

Better late than never, I suppose. Things have been insane here in the Compton household. Brad's birthday, my birthday, then we left for a 2 week trip to Missouri and Colorado. Brad had to work, we had a ton of snow, froze our butts off, came home to record low temperatures in South Florida, went back into the school-work-life routine full force, and are just now getting a chance to come up for air.

So, our December in pictures:

City of Homestead Christmas Tree Lighting: 12/10/09
Gotta love the kids wearing summer clothes. Garrett talked Santa's ear off, he loved it!

Opening Christmas presents at home: 12/12/09

Garrett and I went to a Christmas play later that night:



We did a Christmas Candy Workshop at Wendy's Chocolates with the kids school: 12/14/09

SUGAR. OVERLOAD.

5 days, 3000 miles later, we arrive in Kansas City. We drove through the night with 2 kids and 2 dogs. It was, ah-hem, interesting to say the least. All in all, everyone did as well as could be expected. Except Aspen. He howled every time we slowed down. Silly puppy!!
12/20/09 - We went to find and cut down a Christmas tree--this was so cool, I'd never done this before and Garrett LOVED it.
His personal choice:

Fun with snow. Had we only known what crazy coldness we were in for . . .

Drinking hot cocoa post tree hunt.


The winning tree:
Drinking hot cocoa with Aunt Stephie (they were watching Frosty)
Decorating the tree:

12/22/09 - we headed out of KC after just one day to go visit my dad for a few days.

My not so little brother . . .
Swettsville Zoo = cool stuff, especially when you are 3.5.

"Look Mom, its SNOOPY!!"

My Daddy and I with the kids. Advantage of losing 40lbs is you can put your 14 month old baby in your winter jacket :-)

12/23-The bottom dropped out and the snow started falling. Garrett had been asking since we started seeing snow on the ground when we would get snow on our car, so we had to take this for him. This was at 5am in the morning . . .



Garrett got to go sledding for the first time. He really had fun, but really didn't like the cold!

My "little" brother and I--I can't believe he's graduating from HS this year OR that he is so much taller than me!!!!

12/24--no pictures, but our drive from CO to MO was insane. The weather was terrible and we passed at least half a dozen overturned semis on the way. Brad is such a steady driver, he did a great job. We debated staying until the weather cleared, but had we done that, I think we would have gotten stuck in Colorado for a few days and wouldn't have been able to make it to Missouri anyway due to the horrible weather there (they got a foot plus, it was the first White Christmas in a long time for Kansas City!!! Once we arrived though, Garrett had a blast getting cookies ready for Santa.


12/25/09 - Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Compton's house!



Who cares if its Christmas, Summie was much more interested in her breakfast.
Garrett showing off his cool M&Ms fan to Sissy.

Open this, Grandma!!
It warms my heart when he shares with her!!
Riding the Grandpa Horsie . . . Grandpa is nuts. :-)
The rest of these pictures are from Aunt Stephie's Camera--the kids played with their grandparents a lot, the days were COLD and involved copious amounts of snow. I will never ever in a million years be able to move back to where it is that cold for that long. It was miserable being inside all the time!!

Summer playing with snow. She wanted nothing to do with it outside so we brought it in for her.

Garrett spent a lot of time in the garage with his Grandpa, working on his "Little 4 wheeler"


Her hair was looking a little ridiculous, so I decided to finally cut it. She's had her bangs trimmed, but nothing else . . . .


It was a ridiculous quantity of hair, and I cried after because it just means she's growing up.

We left on New Years Day, made fabulous time, and were shocked to find ourselves in Tampa and see that the thermometer had yet to break 40. But that is a story for another post. :-)