Disney World 2014

Summary of first two days:

Philip got an awesome deal through Hilton for a three night stay in Orlando for $199 + $200 for a future hilton stay and 10,000 honors pts (yes we had to go listen to time share propaganda Friday morning, but it was well worth it)!  So we decided since we would already be in Orlando for CFA Seminar that we would fly the kids and his mom and sister out for a two day Dinsey trip as well! 

We stayed at Buena Vista Palace; it was in the middle of a renovation.  The hotel was decent, but it's location was great as we could walk to Downtown Disney in just a few minutes.  We met Cindy, Melissa, and the kids at the Orlando airport Wednesday afternoon.  It was Cameron's first flight and they tell us he did great and slept all but about 20 minutes of the flight.  

Wednesday we checked into our hotel and ate at Paradiso 37 in downtown Disney, not exactly a kid friendly place, but the food was delicious! 

I rented this stroller online from Orlando stroller rentals before we left for our vacation and it was waiting for us at our hotel when we arrived. I would highly recommend renting a large jogging stroller! We didn't have to worry about lugging one around the airport and it provided rain cover for the kids, storage for our snack bag and other goodies, and an awesome napping spot for Cameron while we were at Magic Kingdom!

Our first stop early Thursday morning, after Starbucks and a picture in front of Cinderella's castle, was Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride.  

It was colder than we expected so I bought Cameron this cute Mickey Mouse sweatshirt with ears and all.  Cameron was able to ride with us on nearly every ride and he really enjoyed the sights and sounds.  Here he is on 'it's a small world' with Grammee.  

Princess Raegan met Cinderella and Aurora and showed them her Princess Sofia shirt.  

Thursday night after watching the electric parade we rushed out of the park to get to our dinner reservation at Fulton's Crab House in downtown Disney. 

Fulton's was great; our server did magic tricks and played with the kids.  The calamari, shrimp, and filets were also great!

Cameron at 15 months

This handsome little cutie is 15 months old.  At his most recent dr appt he weighed 21lbs and 7 oz and was 30 inches tall.  

He has lots of fun playing peek-a-boo, having play dates with friends, making messes with his food, learning new sign language words, chasing after his sister, climbing up on our dining room table, and dancing.  

He's started drinking some milk usually almond milk.  He eats just about anything! He is not enjoying the process of getting in his top two one yr old molars.

He'll do just about anything for an applause which has been awesome for potty training even though we weren't intending to start this early! 

Thankfully he still usually takes two naps each day.  He also has fooled the Sunday school volunteers who didn't know he could walk yet even though he's been walking well since November.  He's trained them to hold him from 9:30-noon every Sunday, and with him being such a sweet snuggler they willingly oblige.

  

Raegan recently

Miss Raegan is nearly five and I'm soaking up every last moment of her still being a little girl!  She sings a song that goes "everyday, I'm growing up, a little bit a little bit more!" 

Here she is playing bingo where she rolls a ball out and then places it in the correct space, I'm glad she can easily entertain herself!

She's a wonderful big sister! When we were at a hotel in KS visiting family, she helped feed Cameron yogurt at the table.  She also lets me know anytime he's doing something he's not suppose to or when he has a stinky diaper!  She sticks up for him around bigger kids as well and shows him off to her friends when we go eat lunch with her at school!

When learning that Q and U go together (are married) Rogan and Raegan got married in class.  He still calls her his wife ;)

In the tub the other night she held up these letters and asked, "is this a consonant and a vowel?" 

Raegan dressed up as a 101 yr old for the 101th day of school afterwards we took the rollers out of her hair and her shawl off and left her cane in the car for her dentist appt.  She did good and even let them take X-rays of her teeth! No cavities!

Raegan is definitely a daddy's girl and they share a love for fishing in the river!  Nearly every one of her prayers includes, "and please help us catch some fish tomorrow."

We are currently planning her princess themed birthday party! Pics to come!

Pics with Santa 2013

Santa brought his sleigh to Chick-fil-A

14 months already

Hey look it's January 16th, which means this blog post is right on time! I don't think this has happened in months!  But I'm just sitting here this morning watching GMA and nursing this sweet 14 month old who I believe just fell asleep in my lap.  He's such a sweetheart!

All about Cameron:

He'll eat pretty much anything you put in front of him

He loves hide and go seek and chasing after his sister

He's learned his sister's scream

He blows kisses and makes the kissing sound when he wants to give someone a kiss

We've been practicing learning body parts and he knows where his ears are

He's currently getting his 7th tooth in and  warning his teeth are very sharp!

He loves climbing and riding his wooden rocking horse

He still wears 12-18 month clothes and size 3 diapers

He is truly a blessing to our family and I'm so glad I get to enjoy these days with him! 

SAHM

Yesterday was my first official day as a stay at home mom (SAHM)!  I turned in my EY laptop, badges, etc on Friday afternoon.  It was such a great way to start this new year!

I've worked for EY since January 2008, and during those years there were many, many, many things/ideas/trips that I had put on a back burner thinking to myself if I wasn't working I could _____ (fill in the blank) or I would have time to _______.  So now that, the day has finally come I'm overwhelmed by all the possibilities and opportunities to spend my time!  

Seriously all weekend I was anxious about all these ideas and how and when I could get them all done/started.  So I decided to make a list (type A for sure)! I took a spiral notebook with easy year out pages and then cut the pages into thirds approximately.  The top section is for my daily to do lists, at the end of each day I can tear off that section of paper and write down anything that didn't get done on the next days paper underneath it.  The middle section if for my weekly to do list. The bottom is a monthly to do list, more like larger goals that are still visible to me everyday.  Anyways it's working great so far except there is a lot on those lists so I probably need to start writing smaller!

Some things on my lists are simple like laundry or dishes, some things on my weekly list may be appointments or organizing projects, and my monthly list has things such as sewing a pillowcase (my mom bought me a sewing machine for Christmas!).

This stay at home mom stuff will definitely take some practice! Yesterday I burned the bacon I was going to use for bacon bit toppings on the crockpot potato soup I was making for dinner (easy dinner recipe thanks to Pinterest). Usually I bake bacon in the oven as it's way less messy and just generally easier than frying it, but for some reason I didn't yesterday. Then when I went to pour the grease out of the skillet into a glass jar (usually I keep pickle jars on hand for this) I couldn't find a glass jar, so I used the next best thing a red solo cup, bad idea!  That cup sizzled and frizzled up so fast, it was actually pretty cool to watch, but I don't recommend trying it at home ;). 

Anyways the baked potato soup turned out delicious and thanks to Pinterest tonight we are having chicken and fried rice, I already made the yum yum sauce. I'm pretty sure it's called that because the two main ingredients were mayonnaise and butter =)

Happy new year!

Maternity shoot for my sis

My lil sis is expecting a baby boy May 2014! I took these photos for her on Christmas Day.