Christmas Day

 Walker ran by too quickly for me to catch his first glimpse expression

 Figuring out that they got a Playstation and Madden 15

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

 Sweet brothers

 Sweet brothers laughing at a non compliant 1 year old who refused to sit still for me.

 He is kind of cute, though...even being non compliant.

 But this isn't cute.

Santa came!

Because the bowl game was played the day after Christmas, Tyson was tied up all day Christmas working.  We had a long discussion with the boys, and we decided to send Santa a letter explaining him the situation and asking him if he could come on Dec. 27th instead.  It was torture for the boys having to hear about and see that Santa had come to visit their friends and family, but they had to wait a few extra days.  They survived, though, and we had a nice family Christmas at home a few days late. :)

I mentioned in a previous post that I only let the boys ask Santa for 4 things - something you want, something you need, something you wear, something you read, and low and behold, Santa didn't stick to that list and brought way more than that!  I'll save that for the next post, though.  Merry belated Christmas!

Bitcoin St. Pete Bowl

 Here we are Christmas Eve heading to the Beach Bash.  Unfortunately, there was a torrential downpour shortly after arriving at the beach, so we had to cut the trip short.

 Sandcastles outside of our hotel.

 The boys with one of their favorite linebackers, Willie Mitchell.

 Coaches kids. :)

 Jake with Chris Robinson, Speedy, Willie Mitchell, and Troy Gray taking shelter during the monsoon.

 Christmas Day looked a lot like this- a lot of sitting around while mama had pink eye.

 The day of the game, we hung out in the game room with the GAs.

 The boys were in heaven- football coaches and playstation!

 Jake and Walker making a wish.

 Loading the bus for the game!

 Tailgating with our friends the Hendersons.

 Almost game time!!

 My eyes were so irritated and swollen that I could hardly see the field. :(

The third quarter was a little slow, so....

Our rivals guy got this shot of Tyson.  :)

Back tracking a bit, this is the team, coaches, and the coaches' wives all singing Christmas carols at the banquet on Christmas Eve.  Good times. :)


 We just got back from UCF's bowl game in St. Pete where our Knights lost 34-27 to NC State. It was a heartbreaking loss to say the least.

We had a pretty good time this past week in St. Pete; we left Orlando on the 23 and stayed until the 27th, so we did miss Christmas at home.  And my two little boys were both sick when we left Orlando (Walker had pink eye and a cough and Anderson had the crud), so it made for a low key week with lots of time spent in the hotel room. :( Luckily, Tyson's mom was able to come and help me, and thank goodness for that because I came down with a terrible case of pink eye on Christmas Eve.  I mean, my eyes were swollen (as well as my face), red as fire, oozing like crazy, and very painful.  It was AWFUL!!

Ok, so I'm trying to be positive, but let's be honest- between having pink eye, losing the game, having sick kids, having husband that had to work all week while we were there, and not being home for Christmas- this wasn't one of my favorite weeks ever.  I hate to sound that way because I'm very thankful that we got to go to a bowl, but I just wish we could've had a do-over on this past week.

Anyways, we got home yesterday and Santa came last night!  Pictures from that to come soon.

Light Up UCF

 Jake is quite the pro at ice skating...for a Floridian. ;)

 The oldest 3 Sperry kiddos came, too.

 Walker didn't want to ice skate, so he went sledding instead.  

 Look how the big kids are on the right watching him go down. :)

 It was in the high 70's outside and Jake is clearly sweating, but he insisted on wearing these toddler sized mittens while ice skating.

 The big kids on "The Blizzard."  Walker isn't into heights much, so he sat this one out.

 Sweet boy on the train.

 The big kids also got on the Ferris wheel.

 Those eyes!!!

 The whole crew.

 Jake, Nate, Bella, Anderson, Walker, and Jackson

 Bella is a little mama, for sure!