Balloons Balloons Balloons

Waiting for cake, love those headbands with the balloon taped to it, eh? And Sarah is sporting feathers in her ponytails for the occasion.

The girls and their fancy headbands

Willie and the SHARK? Went downtown for some plain old balloons and came back with this! He screamed (happy screams) when he saw it!

Yes, there is a boy under that balloon. It was bigger than he was, heck, it was bigger than Izzy. It was great fun for everyone to play with, but William loved him most of all, jerking the sandbag up and down so the shark goes crazy really gets him going! And Senor Shark is still cruising around the family room...

The Cake

Playing with his new choo-choos

Opening a present

Eating birthday cake

William's teddy bear cake, concocted in about 15 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of cooking, and sixty seconds of frosting. All while on the phone to a potential clam buyer. "Hi, this is Caryn from Southern Cross, is Joe Schmo available? Thank you. Hi Joe, just wanted to get some feedback on the sample I sent you, great, yeah, ok, I'll call you next week." Now, if I could just get this frosting to look like a dadgum bear. Gotta love my life...

And by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If I left you inadvertently off my Christmas list, (meaning I don't have your address in the RolodeX!) don't feel bad, I'm just disorganized. I wouldn't want you to feel left out, so here is the little poem I cooked up, a la Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Twas 2000 and eight, and each day at our home,

There's diapers, and clam sales, and six heads to comb.

Month one was a time when William turned one.

He's funny and snuggly, and oh so much fun!

He's talking and walking and laughing with glee,

His favorite word is always Da-deeee!

Month two showed us coasters combined with a zoo,

Animal Kingdom was deemed totally cool.

For us, March and April were a blur as they passed,

Cold weather and FCAT were over at last.

Katy played softball in purple and gold,

Some days so hot and others so cold.

Socks up to her knees and cleats laced up tight,

She swung at the ball with all of her might.

A strike plus a strike, one more and she's done,

Then suddenly "Crack!" and her team gets a run!

In May we awaited school ending again,

Class work was done, and summer begins.

June brought recitals for our girls' ballet,

Sarah was thrilled, not so for Kay.

July we spent in the pool in our yard,

Swimming and splashing, staying cool was not hard.

Izzy and Katy had lessons to take,

Swimming for safety is a rule that we make.

August brought birthdays and presents galore,

Katy turned eight and Sarah one more.

To celebrate the arrival of warm summer's end,

We rented a water slide and brought all our friends.

September brought change, swift like a bird,

Sarah in fourth grade, Katy in third.

Izzy to Pre-K, leaving Momma at home,

Willie and I would go it alone.

October brought tales of witches and gore,

And costumes of frogs, cockroaches, and more.

Butterflies and princesses circles the streets,

Looking somewhat for tricks but mostly for treats.

One day a week to piano we go,

Learning forte and half notes and pianissimo.

November brought memories of wedding cheers,

The 14th we celebrated it's been ten years.

We went off to Sanibel, the first time alone,

Spending three days together, our kids safe at home.

December shows signs of more change indeed,

We'll close on a clam shop and hope we succeed.

Each month on its own, though aptly described,

Won't give the true tale of the times of our lives.

So call us or write us, or even e-mail,

Feel free to stop by for a lengthier tale.

A cheer for world peace and good family times,

We wish you the best in 2000 and NINE!

With love,

THE STEPHENSONS

Shawn, Caryn, Sarah, Katy, Isabelle, and William

Indian Rocks Beach Ahoy!

There are just some places in this world that are meant to be shared. Last year, I wrote our Christmas letter from such a place. This year, we made it a New Year's trip, ringing in 2009 with family and friends who might as well be family! I took the kids to their very favorite place on Earth, Indian Rocks Beach. It's a place they speak of weekly, if not daily, since our last visit. Our visit was at no expense to us, courtesy of our good friends, The Holloways. The beach house is known as the Zubrod-Holloway house, and since it was built in 1891, it is the oldest standing residence in Indian Rocks Beach. Mrs. Bette (Zubrod) Holloway lived there as a child with her siblings, their childhood handprints still in the sidewalk poured in 1943. Her father lived there from the early 20's until he passed away, maybe five or six years ago. Mrs. Holloway and Shawn's childhood friend, her son Mike, bought the house from Bette's siblings, redid the interior extensively, and rent it to lucky folks looking for a relaxing vacation. They have extremely high taxes so they are not likely to ever be out of the red in that department, but they can protect it from what has become of most of the other historic residences in the areas--condos. It isn't a fancy house, nor is it the most beautiful, but it is monumental in its own right. Childhood memories, both past and present, are being made there. The children who visit mark their height on the door in the bedroom, never to be erased. My children alone have grown over a foot collectively. And their appreciation for the little house on the beach, and mine, grows infinitely with each wonderful visit. As Katy said this past week, "Wow, Momma, it must have been magical to live here!" Thanks to the Holloways, we had our own little bit of magic.

In the back of the Zubrod-Holloway house (the front faces the beach of course!)
Clockwise from top: Karen Howard, Anne Stephenson, Shawn, Madison, Sarah, Isabelle, William, Katy, and Savannah Howard.

We were lucky enough to have Shawn's sister Anne and our niece Madison along for five days or so. Then we were doubly blessed to have Karen and Savannah Howard, our great friends here in Cedar Key, join us for the last four days! We had a full house, a great dinner out at Crabby Bill's, and plenty of children! It was a wonderful vacation!

Mr. Sweetness enjoys some goldfish crackers down at the beach.

Sarah and Savannah made sand "cakes". They cost only a couple of shells apiece!

Katy just in from another round of boogieboarding!

At The Beach

Maddie and Katy boogie board in on some afternoon Gulf waves

Katy and her new best friend, the boogie board.

Sarah doing what she loves best--FISHING! This time, it was on the Intercoastal Waterway. The beach house has, of course, the beach, and behind it is a dock on the Intercoastal. The best of both worlds!

Savannah and her big catch, a four ounce blowfish! They had a great time when it puffed up and they got to feel the little whiskery things on the bottom. We threw it back in, it deflated in an instant, and then it was gone! (They are good eating but Momma requires something to be left to eat when she's done cleaning it, so back it went!)

Isabelle Turns 5!

All of these are from Izzy's birthday--Nov 15th

Picked up early from school, SURPRISE! She gets her first present on the way to Olive Garden!

Enjoying going out to eat, Sarah and Katy, both smiling and AT THE SAME TIME and WITH THEIR ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER IN LOVE! I'd say save this one for posterity.

Yup, you can buy the whole black tie mousse cake from Olive Garden. With our four kids, it's cheaper to get the whole thing. (36 bucks versus 6 per piece--and there are twelve slices!)

Sarah and Kay had a friend over. They played dressup/modeling and took their own shots. It was quite entertaining. Except that if you click on the picture you will see that she looks 15. Yikes.

More Party Pictures

Duck Stamp Contest

Every year there is a Federal Duck Stamp Contest. While Shawn and I were in Sanibel, we went the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge and they had a display of all the kids work. It was incredible what they could do.

Storybook Character Parade

Each girl had to dress like their favorite storybook character for school

KK was Kit Kittredge, An American Girl

Sarah was Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatchers, a book about how Peter Pan got to be Peter Pan.

And Izzy was Pinkalicious, a girl who loves, what else, PINK!

And We're Back!

Sorry bout that delay. We've now got internet!

Sarah and Momma each caught a nice speckled sea trout one cold and windy day in early December. Really, it WAS windy, thus, the hair.
Sarah after the big catch

Checking out the camera

Ah, the classic orange peel in the mouth picture!

By The Way...

If you have tried and failed to access my Cracker Rose Cottage link, (brother Andrew and fiancee Ally's blog), you might give it a try now. I reckon I just might have the proper link on there now. You're welcome.

Also, we celebrated my birthday on October 25. The big 35. On the downhill slide to 40. Lawdy, lawdy. We wanted to take the kids somewhere fun, but cheap. What did we do? We went fishing, of course. Caught 5 too-small redfish, 8 zillion catfish, 6 decent whiting, 2 silver trout, and a beer, in a tree. (Just kidding about the beer part, of course. You'd have to be a Gill (or have a brother named Andrew who makes you listen to weird songs, thanks bro) to get the "beer, in a tree" part. Sorry, not everyone can be a Gill. The next day, guess who got to clean those fish? Oh, don't worry, my birthday was OVER I was informed. Yup, cleaned those puppies right on my granite countertops, fried them in vegetable oil, made homemade tartar sauce, and we ate every last piece. In fact, we were crying for more. Alas, there was none. We kept the occasion small, but De Grande (aka Laura) made a chocolate cake with two-inch thick icing, ok, at least one inch thick, I mean, it made my children (and myself) weep for joy. My present, and I use the singular form intentionally, was a king-size mattress that I picked out myself. And it is grand, and worth every bit of present-taking-up-ability for all of my 35 years. Love gettin' old, eh?

Our next venture will be, gasp, CHILD-FREE! Shawn and I are taking a well-deserved 10-year anniversary trip to some place. That's how it is with kids. We're just going SOME place. We don't even know yet. We've tossed around a lot of ideas but nothing has screamed GO THERE! Our official anniversary is Nov 14th, but Izzy's birthday is Nov 15th so we will have to come home on the actual anniversary. (Can you believe she will be FIVE!?) Anyway, if you have any suggestions, in Florida or within decent driving time, please let me know! We don't know if we can leave Willie for three or four days, (I dissolve into nothing without him you know) but we will try. Laura gets the grand and most entertaining job of 24-hour childcare while we're gone. Get em to school, dance, homework, reading night, etc etc. She's going to have a lovely time. And I'll be sure to bring her the shampoos from our place of stay as a nice "thank you" gift. I haven't been on a vacation without kids since our honeymoon to London and Paris. And we managed to come back with a Sarah Downing Stephenson. Hmmm, Shawn may not want to go when I remind him of that! Let's keep it to ourselves, shall we?

Sorry for the delay in blogging. My computer is doing weird things, physical memory dumps, freezing for hours on end, saying there is no internet when there is, etc. I happened to turn it on today to see if I could at least download my pictures onto an external hard drive and VOILA, the D&#* things works! So, here is a post of some Halloween pictures. I will try to get this thing working, but in the meantime, if you have anything to say to me, you better call me on the phone. Lord knows I had 118 e-mails to sort through and I was afraid to do too much with anything! Blogging is definitely priority! This might be my worst blogging month yet! Anyway, enjoy it while you can.

TRICK OR TREAT!

We had a great Halloween. Laura and Leify joined us and a bunch of our friends on a hay-filled trailer going around town for a variety of treats. Besides the usual candy, we got french fries, sodas, chicken nuggets, pencils, even toothpaste! It was a bit long for the little ones (and the backs of us grown-ups, hay isn't as comfortable as you might think!), but we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, our children were rotting their teeth out, what more could you ask for? Hmmm, a 49-10 Gators over Georgia game? DONE! Go Gators!

Sarah finally got to go trick-or-treating as a cockroach. She wanted to last year, but I wouldn't buy the costume because it was 60 bucks. After Halloween, I got it on clearance and waited for this year. Here she is in all her buggy splendor.

Her antennas were in the way a bit on the hayride, but she had a great time with everyone saying, "Are you a cockroach?!"

Butterflies and Grecian Princesses

Isabelle was adorable in her Monarch butterfly costume. Thanks, Tom Arma! (He makes rockin' toddler costumes, I've got my eye on the rhino one for Willie next year!) The only negative on this costume was that Momma could wear the hood, so Izzy kept having it slip off all night. I should've brought safety pins...

Here she is with her pumpkin sack, ready to go eat some SUGAR!

My Katy was a Grecian princess. We borrowed the costume--thanks, Kira! She used the golden bag my make-up came in as a treat bag. I thought that was very creative of her. She felt great all made-up and sparkly.

The color of that dress really made her eyes WOW blue!