Easter and Eleanor’s 4th Birthday

What an eventful couple of weeks we’ve had! After being visited by the Easter Bunny last Sunday, Eleanor’s birthday (last Wednesday) was followed by a party on Saturday and Disney on Ice last night. It seems like we’ve been in a whirlwind of celebration. Eleanor and June were both thrilled by all the friends/treats/attention/princess toys. And Jeff and I are thrilled to have survived…haha, just kidding. But no, really. There are a lot of princess toys.

Enjoy the photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefriscokid/sets/72157633193390005/

Eleanor’s party was graciously photographed by Miss Tasha Teague, who came all the way from Savannah to celebrate with us. It was so great to have her with us!

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Finally…some pictures

I’m really sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with the blog. Just trying to hang in there. Things are nuts. Nothing new to us really! I think that someone in our house has been sick every week since the new year … but right now every one of us is healthy (hallelujah!) and so here I am, posting photos of these beautiful girls who are growing so unbearably fast. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefriscokid/sets/72157632933476841/

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Blueberry Heart Pie

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Eleanor is a budding pastry chef!

Christmas Portrait Session with Jacqueline Childress

Christmas Portrait Session with Jacqueline Childress

An old friend (our photographer Jacqueline) + 3 1-year-olds + Eleanor = tons of …. fun. And lots of gorgeous pictures.

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Off to see The Nutcracker

Off to see The Nutcracker

What a sweet couple! It’s Daddy-Daughter date night, Jeff is taking Eleanor to the ballet — it’s becoming an annual tradition. She’s been looking forward to it all year, I can’t wait to hear her tell me all about it!

I’m a Little Snowman

Eleanor singing the song she learned at school, and performed tonight at their Christmas program. So CUTE!

As promised,

The news report from last night, where you can see the back of my head explaining the concept of the new St. Augustine identity mark.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/Mixed-reviews-for-new-St-Augustine-logo/oqDhQbCqPkG_VIonzbJ97A.cspx

At least my hair looks good!

A new mark for Saint Augustine

And the news article from the presentation last night:

http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-12-10/new-city-logo-name-introduced#.UMczFJPjmcw

…. Don’t read the comments section. Really, I wish I hadn’t.

The past 6 weeks have been thrilling and exciting and really intense. John (and Jeff) were both big parts of the finished mark, from concept to execution. The video is a little glitchy …. it wasn’t in the commission meeting last night, which went splendidly. And now, I can catch up on sleep.

Communicado

It’s so nice now that June can communicate more; there are fewer tears and a lot more fun. Here’s what little June is saying:

In Sign Language:

  • Milk (very popular)
  • Night-Night (or Sleepy)
  • Waving hi and bye
  • More
  • Food
  • Thank You (which looks like she’s blowing a kiss, SO adorable.)
  • All Done (which also serves as “get me out of here”)

And she’s also got a few words in English now, too! Here they are:

  • Dada (this was her first, she’s been saying that well for about a month)
  • Mama
  • Baby (she loves her baby dolls, and requests a “beh-beh” at every opportunity)
  • She’s said wa-wa (water) a time or two

And also, she’s picked up a few  words in … uh … animal. These are the most fun. I’ll try to get some video of this:

  • Hey June, what does a monkey say? “Ah-ah-ah!”
  • Hey June, what does a goat say? “Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh!”

There are a few more animals noises she will repeat if I tell them to her, but these are the only two she knows from memory.

In other news, we are enjoying a Christmas tree already and I put the lights up outside. We got a little blow-up teddy bear for out front that Eleanor loves. And, we are navigating the tricky territory of encouraging Eleanor’s faith in Santa while avoiding out-right deception. She’s suspicious and has informed me that Santa is “silly” but I’m not giving up quite yet. She’s three for crying out loud, and I thought I’d get a couple more years of good-behavior-motivation and over-exuberant-Christmas-anticipation out of this.

12 Years and Counting

Today marks twelve years since Jeff and I met–at a free student dance in Bruce Hall at the University of North Texas. He was teaching shag and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet “the famous Jeff Charette” as his roommate had teasingly put it in an email earlier that day. Since my house was overrun with 15-year-olds celebrating my brother Devan’s birthday, I decided I had nothing to lose. Who knew I’d gain the love of my life?! He liked my dance moves, and what can I say? I had a thing for teachers. We hit it off immediately, and never looked back.

We had made plans to celebrate this weekend and changed them several times due to childcare issues, other commitments, and weather…but we wound up spending a quiet family day at home before heading downtown to watch the city light up in millions of twinkle lights for the holidays. Eleanor was ecstatic with the Christmas spirit and June was very happy to be toddling around on the grass with lots of babies nearby to play with. Jeff and I even got to dance to the swing band that came out to entertain the revelers. Quiet is good, and I’m so glad we had these two beautiful girls to help us celebrate!

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