Wednesday, December 31, 2008

It's almost time for surgery...

Ethan and doggie, all tagged and ready to go in the boat bed/cart.

These things are coming out today...

The last picture (and technically the first as well) of Ethan's tonsils. He is having his tonsils and adenoids removed today. He will also get ear tubes for the second time.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Back to Bop's

We went back to Bop's today to have lunch with Wanda during her lunch break.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Night Movie

Gina and I are going to see Marley & Me with Jon and Paula.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Time to eat some Bop's

Today we ate at Bop's for the first time. I had the BBQ sandwich and a Pralines and Cream shake. We also received the grand tour, saw Bug Juice for sno-cones, drove through the world's longest drive thru and saw the dry erase door. The kids had their pictures taken for possible future use and were given their own Bop's t-shirts.

2008 Christmas Letter


Merry Christmas! We hope this note finds you all well. We have had a year full of sports.

In the spring Ashlyn played T-ball/Softball for the first time. She really enjoyed playing. Ashlyn has been in gymnastics for 4 years but at the end of the summer with encouragement from her mom, she took a break until next summer. This helped with our schedule since Ashlyn wanted to play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball next spring.

This fall both kids played soccer. Ashlyn has really started enjoying soccer more and looked forward to every game day. Ethan was excited about playing but every game needed some encouragement to get him going.

Gina and the kids are still involved in AWANA at church. Ashlyn is enjoying 1st grade and is a great reader and loves to help her teacher whenever she gets a chance. Ethan is learning a lot in Pre-K. He has a very good friend in his class and they enjoy playing together on the playground. Gina stays busy volunteering in Ashlyn's class once a week and helping with events in both kids' classes.

Mark continues to play basketball 5 or 6 times a week, sometimes at 5:30 am. He also played softball for the first time in 4 years this fall.

Baseball was a major theme for us this year. Beside Mark and Ashlyn playing softball, we went to a lot of baseball games. In March, Mark took a week long trip with a friend throughout Florida for baseball spring training. That was actually the inspiration for his blog...to document the trip. During the summer we attended a number of Jacksonville Suns baseball games and brought home a lot of bobbleheads and other giveaways. Gina and the kids took a trip to Omaha, Nebraska in June to visit two of Gina's sisters and to attend her niece's wedding. We had a great time visiting with family.

In July we took a day trip to Daytona Beach and watched the Daytona Cubs baseball team play. In August we took an extended weekend trip to Tampa/St. Petersburg. While there we saw a couple of Tampa Bay Rays baseball games. We also spent some time at the beach and the zoo. For Labor Day weekend, we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and...you guessed it...we watched the minor league Myrtle Beach Pelicans baseball team. We also spent quite a bit of time at the beach and went to a barbeque festival.

We've had a busy and fun year. We hope you've had an enjoyable year also. Our prayer for you is that this Christmas season you may know Jesus as not only the baby born in a manger but also as the Savior of the World.

Love,
Mark, Gina, Ashlyn and Ethan

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Lunch in Tallahassee

On our way to Biloxi we had lunch at Jim & Milt's in Tallahassee with Martin and Andy & family. We plan on having dinner at Big Time Diner in Mobile. We also drove the kids by our old house on Arvah Branch Blvd in Tallahassee.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Jacksonville Jaguars vs Green Bay Packers

Enjoying a little NFL action in person today...and from the suite.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas Parade

We went downtown and saw Santa in the parade. The kids also made bird seed pine cones with peanut butter and played in the "snow."