November(and into December) 2014: A whirlwind!

 Pretty sure I blinked and November was gone!  However - the memories from that month will last a lifetime!  I probably should have done about 5 different posts to share everything that happened in the month... but I jammed them in to one so sit back, relax and enjoy the blog :-)

 

Mid November I was named a finalist for a Business Executives award presented by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.  We had a fun night at the event -- Ronnie's parents attended as well as the B-Lynk crew.  It was held at the Tampa Theatre - the venue was so cool with a lot of history and character!

 

 

Ronnie/Katie Selfie!

Ron, Cathy me and Ronnie.

Me, Justin (one of our trainers) and Raquel - my right hand woman.

 

Ronnie and I also celebrated our 3yr anniversary in November.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share, but we went to the SandPearl where we got married and spent the night at the beach.  Ron and Cathy watched Drew for us so it was a mommy/daddy only weekend! 

 

Now....... let the madness begin!

 

On November 21st THE MERRILL INN officially opened for business!  Ben, Bri and Beau made a multi-stop trip to Florida.  They took Beau to Disney World, then I pick up the crew from Orlando and they spent the weekend with us! 

 

We had such a great time with Beau -- he is such a SWEET SWEET boy.  Him and Drew were buds and played so well together.   

 

They were actually holding hands.  It was the cutest thing ever.

HUGS!  This picture makes my heart melt.  Those are hugs of love for sure!

Bathtime with Beau! 

Movie time with 'Mic-Mow'

Wow Uncle Ben - this is a pretty comfy bench!

Love from Aunt Bri!

We were so thankful that Ben and Bri made it down to visit us.  It really meant a lot to us and we had such a great time just hanging out with them for a couple days.  Love you guys!

 

The day after The Butcher's left.... THE WEBERS ARRIVED!  They were here over Thanksgiving and it was SO much fun to be able to spend the holiday with them! 

 

I like reading stories with you, Aunt Wendy!

This next picture does not do justice at capturing the craziness that was happening at this time... the first night they were here we threw all the boys in the bath together, then after the bath it was like nothing I have ever seen.  They were doing laps in the hallway, chasing each other and laughing.  None of them had diapers/undies on it was hilarious.  If 21mo. babies can remember fun times - I'm sure this is one Drew will never forget. 

(sorry Ethan - this is the only pic I have of you the entire trip!!)

 

The next day we took a trip to Winter Haven, FL to check out LEGOLAND!  Pit stop at Wendy's for some lunch before the park. 

 

BTW -- Drew found some new things that he likes now since all the boys have visiting... Apple Juice being one of them!

French fries and apple juice = a happy Drew

 

How cute are these two????? 

 

Taking a ride on the 'choo-choo'!

Everything at LEGOLAND is made out of legos!  Luke found a Lego Pig!

Hey Drew - let's get on the lego pig!

This picture cracks me up - there were 3 little girls that were playing on this lego bench before Drew and Luke arrived.  I guess the fact that the boys were pulling the legos off the matt and CHUCKING them into the basket scared them off.  Hahaha.

'What a fun day, Daddy.  I'm exhausted.'

Drew was SO happy driving his very own BEEP BEEP!  These were the tractors (yes, the wrong color) and they boys rode (drove) them a couple times!

 

 

On Thanksgiving Day me, Wendy and Ronnie got up and ran the Wiregrass Wobble 5K!  It was a blast -- Wendy got 1st in our age group and I got second, and she also got 15th in women overall!  My sister is a speed demon!

 

Post race selfie... now time for some TURKEY!

After the race we got the boys and headed over to Ron and Cathy's.  I can't believe I only have 1 picture from the entire day!  I guess that means they were on the move and I couldn't catch them on camera. 

 

Steph and Jimmy, her fiancé were home for the holiday so it was a full house!  Ron even fired up the firepit that evening and the boys roasted marshmallows.  It was such a wonderful day with family.

 

I'm gonna miss you, bud. 

 

But wait....it doesn't stop here!  On Friday night the 27th our doorbell rang at 11pm.  Ronnie reluctantly went to the door to find DAD AND CONNIE!  Dad couldn't stop laughing and I couldn't believe it.  They completely surprised us and showed up for the weekend! 

 

 

 

But wait - one more event!  Steph's bridal shower!  After we took the Webers to the airport in the morning, it was time to shower the bride to be.  It was held at Ron and Cathy's house and was such a beautiful shower.  Can't believe the wedding is just a little over two months away!

 

 

Ronnie, Drew and I are all in the wedding - it is going to be such a special day for Steph and Jimmy.  We can't wait to be a part of it!

 

 

Now, back to Grandpa Butcher.  He sure loves his sports and so does Drew... after the shower we had a good time at the club watching games and snacking on popcorn!

 

 

On Sunday we went into the city and took Drew to a fun park.  He had a great time playing with Connie and swinging with Grandpa!

 

Then Connie and I diverted for some shopping fun....

 

During all of these visits Drew learned how to say 'HUG' and starting giving out lots of hugs!  This is actually his new stall tactic before bedtime...

 

HUUUUG!

HUUUG!

 

Then we had a quick 4 days to get the house cleaned, sheets washed and groceries restocked before the next set of visitors:  GRANDMA LORI AND FRANK!

 

Grandma Lori LOVES the beach so we zoomed over there on Saturday to enjoy the Florida sunshine and 80 degree temps!  Drew hadn't been to the beach since August when it was actually too hot for him to really play in the sand.  So this trip was SO much fun for him.  He transferred sand from one bucket to the other, added water, dumped and did it again.  He also loved having the water rush up over his toes (a chilly 59 degrees)!

 

'I love you, Grandma.'

King of the sandcastle that Grandma made!

 

I had to get a picture of this.. it was in the lobby of the SandPearl and it's a REAL sand sculpture!  It was unbelievable.

 

On Sunday we did a little shopping while Daddy and Frank watched some football, then we watched the light show at Wiregrass.  Drew loved the Christmas music and all the lights. 

 

On Grandma's last day she got up and let Drew watch a movie and snuggled on the couch with him (and Sammy).  

This is the life!

We truly are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family that loves us so much.  Everyone made lots of sacrifices to come down and see us and we couldn't be more thankful.  It makes me so happy that we have a common interest in keeping the family so close, even though we are so far away from my family in Iowa. 

 Love you ALL so much and only two weeks until the Butcher/Merrill/Weber cousin madness continues!  XOXO

BOO!

BOO! Bet you weren't expecting this -- Halloween photos 3 weeks late!  HA! 

I swear I don't know where the time goes, seems like Halloween was just last week but it's been 3 weeks now! 

We had two costumes ready for Drew:  Elmo and a baseball player.  A few days before Halloween we tried on Elmo and he wasn't having it.  either he was scared of it or just HOT.  It was about 80 degrees a couple days before.

Sooooo we decided to go with the baseball player!  It was fun that Halloween was on a Friday because the parents could also get together and enjoy :-).  We went over to our neighborhood friend's house for a little "pre-trick or treating party".... The Merrills arrived as a baseball family!

Starting Pitcher:  Drew Merrill!  

getting suited up:

pre-game:  hanging out on the bench!

"Why are we leaving all this candy here???"

Mommy is the GM of the team!

And Daddy is the coach!

What's a Halloween Party without orange  Jell-O shots??!!  The adults have to have fun too :-). Off to the party!

Backward hats -- getting anxious to play ball!

Getting in the zone before the big game!

Oh - gotta eat some pizza with the ladies before we take off!  Got a cheerleader and a couple princesses --- drew is quite the ladies man!

finally - it's game time!

Drew loved going up to the door and transferring the candy from one bucket to another. Such a natural at trick or treating!

It was a fun Halloween with this little guy and our friends in Hunters Green!  Until next year my little ball player!  

Fall fun and new tricks!

Well - it's been a typical Florida fall so far, highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s so you won't see any pictures in the post with leaves and fall jackets! 

Somehow the month of October has just FLOWN by!  Drew is getting to be such a big boy - so independent, saying lots of new words and suprising us every day with his new little talents.

One of his latest loves is getting behind the wheel!  (He may have got this from his mom...I recall a story from when I was a kid... maybe 5 or 6 yrs old and I took Wendy for a drive in Ronda's car, down a big hill at the farm... oh, and then a repeat offence when I was 14 on my school permit - driving my friends to the neighboring town!)  Drew referres to anything with a steering wheel as a 'BEEP BEEP'

With the weather being so beautiful and Ronnie around more - we have been able to spend some time enjoying the Hunter's Green Golf Club.  Whenever we go there to eat, Drew heads straight out the back looking for balls on the putting green and a BEEP BEEP to jump in!

He even figured out how to press the revers button... look out!

There are some pictures below from a pumpkin patch - and I have to share the story here... so a few weekends ago we decided it would be fun to take Drew to a local pumpking patch.  Last year Aunt Melissa and Kelby were here and we went to THE SMALLEST PUMPKING PATCH EVER... it was such a joke!  I thought surely there must be some better ones in Florida!  So....I heard that there was a really nice one Ruskin, FL.  I told Ronnie to look it up online  - I was sure of the name or the exact address (please note:  Lesson number one, never let your husband search the internet for these sorts of things).  So away we went..................into a very bad part of town...............with very weird people working there...................with about 20 more pumpkins than the patch we were at last year.

HA!  Needsless to say, we didn't drive up to this magical pumpkin land with hot apple cider, games for the kids and hayrides like I had imagined.  It was off of busy highway in a bad part of town.  Go figure!  Maybe 3rd time is a charm and we'll find that fairy tale pumpkin patch next year :-)

Drew and daddy picking out a pumpkin!

Of course he had to pull the wagon around...it was almost like a 'BEEP BEEP'

Hey mom - don't get the background of this place in the picture....

We of course made the best of this interesting place!  However - we did end up taking a bale of hay home!  After I tried telling Ronnie that it would be a huge mess and it's not a good idea - we ended up with one in the trunk (our compromise was that he wanted to buy 2 and I insited on just 1). 


It's sitting by our front door with a few pumpkins on it - so it actually looks really festive!  What we are going to do with it after Thanksgiving/Fall season... I'm not sure???!!!!

Yes - this is Ronnie trying to be an Iowa guy in Florida.

That same weekend we decided it was time to take Drew to the zoo!  The weather was perfect and we hit up the petting zoo, the safari, saw penguins and big turtles!  Drew loved it -- his thing all day was 'WHOOOOOAAA' -- he would say that everytime he saw a new animal. ....'WHHHOOOAAA.'  So cute.

WHOOAAAA

WHOOAAAAA

October is also the month that mommy takes her big work trip out to Arizona.  In preparation for the trip - Drew thought he would help me get my business cards organized.  What a little helper!

Of course he tried to sit cross legged on the step.  So comfortable?!

Another new talent, aside from driving the golf carts is Drew's golf game!  Ronnie played in a tournament a few weeks ago and at the end they did a championship drive so we followed all the golfers around.  In between shots - Drew got out of the cart and hit his ball!  He learned how to say golf club that weekend.. it sounds more like 'glot glug' -- haha!

Hangin' with mommy!  (notice his coozie -- gotta keep that wa-wa cold!)

Last week we had a special treat with a visit from Ra-Ra and Harry!  We had such a great time with them!  It happened to be the night of the Halloween Extravaganza at the club so we went to that then of course Drew showed off his golfing skills at the putting green!  This child is obsessed with balls!

Ronda and Drew were having a little chat by the pool --  Sammy was trying to get in there to hear the story too :-)

Such a busy and very fun month so far!

Drew - we love you and your new little talents SO much!  You keep us smiling and laughing every day!