Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a difference a year makes! I can't believe how much she's grown in the last year. I thought she might freak out this year with Santa, but as you can see she did great again! She must love Christmas as much as her Mom and Grandmama. I can hardly believe that next year there will be two little people in the picture!

My Little Pumpkin

Flower Girl

In January Emma will be a flower girl in her Uncle Shawn & Aunt Tracy's wedding. Her dress came yesterday so we had a little photo shoot. It's adorable, but she looks too grown up!!

Sprinkler Fun

Gavin came by with his dad the other weekend and Emma was out playing in the sprinkler, so he joined her for some playtime. She's not outside for long before she's either covered in dirt, or completely soaked! I think they had fun, don't you?

My Little Cowgirl

There are still lots of older pictures I've been meaning to post, but I just had to show off my cowgirl in her new boots! Thomas called Mom the other day and told her they had just gotten in some new boots at AFL. He knew we had been in a month or two ago trying on boots with Emma but hadn't found any we liked. These are just adorable. At first she could barely walk in them, but now she's getting better. Her Pop Pop and Ohma were quite proud that she's turning into a cowgirl. They said now she has to have a pony, but we told them thanks but no thanks! We have enough animals on our hands for the time being.

Is Florida the Sunset State?

Our County Manager sent around this eye-opening article about the State of Florida published in Time Magazine in July. It paints a pretty grim picture of our future, but I must say it makes me proud to be a North Floridian and not a South Floridian. Still, it does suggest that we all need to be more responsible with our resources and pay attention to what the legislature is doing with our taxes, regardless of what part of the state we're in. One of my favorite quotes from the article is from Carl Hiassen: "You don't have to be a wacko enviro to want your kids to be able to swim in a lake or maybe see an animal that isn't in a cage or a seaquarium. And even people who don't give a rat's a-- about the panther will care when saltwater comes out of their faucets."

Family Beach Pics

I didn't get many pictures on our beach trip because I didn't take my camera with us much. I'll have to get some of the pictures off of Mom's camera and post those later. We had a great time. It was the closest thing to a real vacation we've had since our honeymoon!

Beach Scenes

2008 Pepsi 400

Cody and I were able to go to the Pepsi 400 again this year in Daytona. We had a blast!

GO JR!!!!!!

Pics from the River

Cody asked some people if they could pull him on their hydroslide. Next thing we know, there he is on their wakeboard. This is one of the few moments I actually caught him while he was up. It's a lot more exercise than he remembered, and there's a little more weight to pull up than there used to be! But he had fun while it lasted.

I love this shot. A serious moment while playing in the sand at the sandbar.

This one is from Memorial Day weekend. She and her Aunt Tracy were playing with bubbles.

More play with Sunny at the sandbar.

This was the end of Memorial Day weekend. The shot's not great, but I love the way her eyes look here!

Pop Pop & Oma

Pop Pop and Oma (Cody's Dad and Stepmom) came over to visit last weekend before they left for Oklahoma. The bought 80 acres in Adel, OK but are waiting on their house here to sell before they start building out there. Whenever they get around to moving, we'll have quite a road trip to look forward to (whenever it's NOT tornado season that is). Oma was kind enough to come and vaccinate our dogs and cats for us and saved us a lot of money, not to mention the hassle of getting the cats to the vet. I don't know what we would do without them!

Alachua County's 2008 Ag Tour

Part of my job is to work with the County's Rural Concerns Citizen Advisory Committee. Each year they organize a tour for local elected officials to educate them about agriculture in the area. This year's tour focused on IFAS. We had a fun day and the tour was a great success!

And so she goes......

Emma's Walking!!!

Many of you have continued to ask "Is she walking yet?" and now the answer is finally YES!!! After much testing of patience from the question, and calmly telling people, "We don't want to rush her, she'll learn soon enough," she decided today to take off and now apparently there is no stopping her. We just got back from Charlotte yesterday and my family there has decided to 'thump her on the head' (Carol) next time they see her since she waited until the day after getting home to begin her new skill. As for me, I'm thrilled but unfortunately I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it. My grandparents are keeping her today because my Mom is sick, and Cody is picking her up because I have a late meeting and won't be home until well after she's in bed. So I've given Cody a request to make a video of her (almost) first steps, and then I'll try to get something tomorrow and see if I can figure out how to post video clips. To borrow what I hear is Carson's favorite phrase, "YAY!"

My little Cutie

Way down upon the Suwannee River......

The future Mr. & Mrs. Shawn Banner (and Bobby Case keeping things interesting as usual). Emma's going to be a flower girl! Let's hope she learns to walk by then! Just kidding - the wedding's not until January.

Holden (Bobby's son) kept filling up this beer bottle with river water and drinking it - I had to get a shot - too funny! He's a trip to be around.

Emma and Daddy playing on the beach. It took her forever to quit being afraid of the sand, but once she finally warmed up to it, there was no stopping her.

There was a manatee at the sandbar just up from the cabin. We had never seen one there before until now. He kept coming up for air, and we finally got a good shot.

Emma finally zonked out and slept about a half hour on the boat at the sandbar. She was exhausted, but after her power nap she was up and ready to go again!

Itchetucknee Trip

One of the great things about the river being up so high lately is that we were able to take the boat up the Itchetucknee much farther than usual. We took Emma with my Mom and Dad and had a great day. Here are some of my favorite picks from the boat ride.

Happy Earth Day!

I didn't get around to posting this yesterday, but I hope everyone had a great Earth Day!

River Time!

Here are a few pics from our first family boat ride of the year. Many thanks to Thomas for letting us continue to borrow his extra boat! The weather was not the greatest, but Emma had a great time, and so did Sunny. Can't wait to go again!