Sweet 13!

My baby girl will be 13 tomorrow. Not to shabby to be able to celebrate here in sunny Florida! She and my now 3 year old niece, both have birthdays in January so tomorrow we are going to party hardy. We are taking her to get her ears pierced. She has been waiting for a while to do this and we always told her for her 13th birthday, and well, it is here. After the peircing, we are going to eat a nice dinner out and then come back to our vacation house and make sundaes. Sounds like a great time to me!

As hard as it is to believe Leah is 13, I think it might be even harder for me to grasp the concept that I have a teenager. It makes me feel a little bit old. In most areas though Leah is pretty mature and so in some ways it feels like her age is starting to match her personality. (The exception here would be her interactions with Logan, man, they know how to rub each other the wrong way).

I can remember so clearly (some things are fuzzy here in my old age) when we found out that our little Leah was on the way. And then when she was born, well, it was one of the best days of our lives. She was a big baby (almost 10 lbs) and she had bright red hair. She still has bright red hair and she is just a beautiful person. She is smart, driven and most importantly, she has a heart for God. I am so proud of her. Ryan and I are incredibly blessed to have been given the gift of Leah. I just love my girl. Happy Birthday Leah!

Birthday's aside, Florida is great. We have some sickies going on here in the house, which stinks (and seems to happen most years anymore), but everyone is still chugging right along. Our family (knock on wood) seems to be faring pretty ok so far. Ryan was sick a couple days before we even left and that continued a couple days into the trip. Asher got sick starting Friday and is still fighting something. The rest of the Ryan Cole kids are holding up pretty well. A few coughs here and there, but no anything that is really getting them down.

We have been to a Mickey Mouse character breakfast, to the beach and to Hollywood Studios so far (plus the guys have been golfing). The rest of the time has been spent here at the house just relaxing. We usually don't plan much on the weekend because all the Disney stuff is so busy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Next week we are heading to Magic Kingdom, the guys will golf again and we might go to either Sea World or Downtown Disney for our family day (this is the day set aside for individual families to do whatever they want). It will be a good week, but unfortunately it will be our last week here. Oh well, I guess all good things have to come to an end.

Julie