Disney

Wayyyyyy back when, like beginning of January, me and the fam went to Disney. I came home so behind, with life, money, my blog updates (hello, still no Thanksgiving and it was JANUARY!) Life is good, we are lucky people. I just neglect my blog when I get busy. I'm also crazy enough, to feel like I can't blog about other stuff until I cover certain things. Like, I can't blog about Christmas, because I haven't blogged about Thanksgiving and so on. Its a vicious cycle of crazy.

So, anyway, back to Disney. I'm trying to do a video that I'll post on the blog that has way more pics. Otherwise, you could scroll for four days and not hit all the awesomeness that our trip entailed. Here are the highlights.

This vacay involved my side of the family, my mom and dad, sister Tammy and sister Angie and Angie's husband Clay and kids Zoe and Anthony.

Day 1: we left Little Rock and got to Orlando. We rented our cars (or, if you are van obsessed like Rob and I have become, you up it to a van, because you can) and found our rental house. All 6 bedrooms and four baths of it! It was amazing!!! We had our own pool and hot tub! LOVED IT!

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

It was still Christmas at Disney, which is why Goofy is dressed like Santa. It was crazy cold and I was ill prepared, which is why Rylan is wearing his 11 year old cousin's extra sweatshirt.  This moment pretty much cemented my theory that Max will one day work at Disney, possibly as Goofy. There is a certain love.

Rylan really isn't INTO Mickey, Minnie and such. He is into superhereoes and using his Visa gift card from Grandma and Grandpa to get his face painted!
Day 3: Epcot

Another amazing experience for Max, and just oooookkkkkaaaayyyyy for Rylan. I am with Max, I about peed myself everytime I saw a character and I'm pretty sure I forgot there was people in there.

Angie's fam having a moment at the Boneyard in Animal Kingdom


Day 4: Cocoa Beach

This is me and my friend Rose. Rose and I worked together at the hospital. We are very very different and there is probably a 20 year age difference between us, but it doesn't matter.  We found mutual ground and became friends. We've walked a half marathon together, worked our fingers to the bone together, she got me through two pregnancies and still wanted to be my friend, and her daughter babysat the boys. I love her so u. I miss her so much. In 2012, she lost her husband to cancer. She decided to start life over and packed up and moved to Cocoa Beach, FL. Did I mention I miss her??? I was within 2 hours of her and could not let that go without seeing her. It just happened to be unseasonably warm that day and we took the kids to the beach and had a great day. I got to see my friend, the kids got to swim in the ocean, the whole place was a sandbox, so that was awesome for Max. It was such a great day.


Day 5: Magic Kingdom

Is that a smile? He found his person. Stitch is kind of superhero/bad guy combo and this is Rylan's kind of guy.

Holy pretty Christmas lit castle!!!! So gorgeous!!!!

Day 6 Universal Studios

Does anybody remember Rylan's love of Buzz and Woody? I kind of miss it. Buzz and Woody are so much more awesome than the Hulk.

Day 7 Magic Kingdom part 2

It was awesome. We did everything we didn't hit the first day. Magic Kingdom was our little family's favorite. The rest of my clan did another day at Epcot this day, but we felt we still had a lot to do at Magic Kingdom. We were able to relax and do things like this awesome street parade where Max danced with Donald Duck until Donald practically had to get a restraining order.

Like I said, I have a million more pics.  I hope to do a video soon and very soon. We had a great time and I'm already ready to go back!!!

Ahhhhh! For two months almost, I have had tons of stuff to blog about, like a 30 minutes a day for 30 day workout challenge I'm in the middle of, the fact that a character on Sheriff Callie uses Forrest Gump's exact voice, and the Blueberry Cheesecake smoothie that is making my world a better place. Now that I have blogged about Disney I can go back to our regular blog adventures!

Christmas 2013

I don't care if it is February 3!!! Tardy to the party, still at the party!

Sorry about the quality of the next couple of pics, but they had to be included nonetheleass. Rylan was Joseph at our church's nativity play. It was all preshy presh until Joseph and Mary fought over the baby Jesus and then Joseph and a cow fought over the 3 Wisemen's gifts. Kids.

Max was a sheep. A sad sheep. Somber. At one point he pulled cotton off his outfit and wiped his nose. 

Jesus and Mary, very serious biz

Max and the other sheep got tired. The other one passed out on stage. 

Rob's mom and dad, sister and her family, niece and her husband and his aunt all met us at church to see this and then we went to our house to open gifts.

My mother in law speaks fluently in Hallmark ornaments. She found out I liked this one from the catelog and got it for me. It plays Holiday Road by Lyndsey Buckingham. Its my favorite.

There MIGHT have been 3 boxes of wine and I MIGHT have had my first weekend

 off call in a long long time.

Our niece Marley trying out her hair markers on Rylan

Marley and Max nannering it

Rob had to work on Christmas Eve. Whomp Whomp Whomp. So, the boys and I went to the local elementary school. Until Max went down a slide that was damp and I thought he peed his pants. 

On Christmas day, things were kind of anti-climactic. We had already had Christmas with Rob's family and they had already left. We skimped on presents because we were about to go to Disney, so present opening took 4 seconds.
 My side of the family was doing Christmas on New Years Day, right before leaving for Disney.  The boys wanted to show Rob the playground from the day before so we went and took their bikes and ate whatever food we had left from the weekend of visitors. 

We cuddled on the couch and watched The Christmas Story so many times we got hungry for Chinese food! So we went to Fantastic China for our Christmas dinner. Fararara-ra ra ra ra

December in a nutshell

We had a great December.  School was closed a lot, there was a lot of ice and I got canceled at work a lot. So, we are poor but have great memories!

We love the new Children's Library in Little Rock. Has so much for the kids. This day we just simply wanted some Christmas books and stumbled on a class called Music and Movement. Lord knows a mommy loves it when other people get your kids laughing and dancing and expending pent up energy. We packed a lunch this days and ate out by their gardens. We've been back twice since and my kids expect a picnic. I set myself up for such failure.

We met Santa at MOPS and the kids were looking all kinds of dapper. Max asked Santa for a real donkey and Santa told him he could fit one in the sleigh. Um, Santa? A little help.

I decorated and Max fished off the porch.

Then the ice hit. And we were in the house for days on end. My friend Jacki needed to work to save lives at the hospital, so we took care of her littles.

Jilly

Jax

One day I took Max by himself to the Wonder Place. It was so fun. My kids are so very different. Rylan seeks playmates and wants someone watching him always. He is more into superheroes and stuff like that. Max could play alone forever. He loves stuff like cars and trains and animals. It was nice to be able to cater to one child for a day. I hope to do it soon with just Rylan.

And then we went to a very fun birthday/nursing school graduation party. Um, how can a hospital/Minion party NOT be fun? Megan just graduated from nursing school and her daughter, Jenson turned 3. We go to church with them and Max and Jenson go to school together. We are in the same Sunday school class as Megan and her husband: The Young Marrieds. Only problem? Rob and I are the old farts of the young marrieds. Like, by at least 10 years.

Megan went to town on some Pinterest

I mean, come the freak on, how cute is this?  Future reference, put a shiz load of bandaids out and have someone put bandaids on kids and you will be the best party host evah. Kids dig bandaids. My kids thought Megan's dad hung the moon.

Limbo!

A fun little 3 year old game where the kids had a timer and had to put on as many socks as they could in that timer. That's Jenson's dad/Megan's husband holding Max. Who put the socks on his hands and then got sad that he couldn't motor function more socks......sigh.....

Megan and Jenson.

Thanksgiving 2013

Bahahaha! December 11 I posted that I was back in the blogging game. And then I didn't blog for a month! Best laid plans. I kind of had a weird December where I ran constantly yet didn't get anything done. For serious.

One day, I'm going to be 99 and not remember what I did in life and I'll be thankful I kept this blog. So for that reason, I feel that its important to take this blog back to Thanksgiving. That's how I do. Sorry, not sorry.

We had Rob's parents here for Thanksgiving. My father in law loves coconut cream pie, so, obvs, I had to make that. Plus all the other must haves for Thanksgiving. I got all the necessary groceries, but didn't realize I was out of cornstarch, a must have for my Coconut Cream Pie. So, at 7am Thanksgiving morning, our neighbor got a knock on the door from us. Oopsie Whoopsie.

Ry helped me crush corn flakes

Max did some puzzles shirtless. 

And we had a fabulous dinner that I forgot to take a pic of. I made:

Turkey

Stuffing-I'm originally a Kansan, therefore I don't say "dressin"

Roasted broccoli

Buttered noodles with poppy seeds

Sweet Potato casserole

Coconut Cream Pie

and Mrs. Smith made the boys a Cherry Pie. She's so nice.

The day after Thanksgiving we went up to my parent's house for the weekend. My grandma Kathy got to come see us! I love her so great big and so do the kids. They were so excited to give her a birthday present that she barely got her coat off before she was instructed to open it!

The rest of the weekend was spent a lot like this. Drinking my dad's yummy Side Car concoctions and chatting on the porch watching the kiddos play. I had a great, relaxing weekend.

So did Max.

Festive Favorites Link-up

I'm back in the blogging game. I love a good linkup. and I love both the bloggers that are involved in this one.

• Favorite Christmas song.All I Want for Christmas Is You. I can't lie. I love it. It is the ONLY thing keeping Mariah Carey from being assassinated
• Christmas song you can’t stand. This one is hard for me, because I have three. I'm going to go in order of how bad they make me want to punch the song in the throat, number one being the worst.

1. Santa Baby-what? We're hitting on Santa now? What about Mrs. Claus and all their elf children?
2. Last Christmas-This song is like Hotel California and American Pie except not good. IT. Never. Ends.
3. Baby Its Cold Outside-total date rape song

• Favorite holiday movie. Elf. Hands down. I like smiling. Smilings my favorite.
• Real or artificial tree? Artificial. I can barely keep tiny humans and needy cockers alive!
• White or colored lights? I don't really have a favorite, I like white on a tree, colored on a house, if multicolored. I hate, double hate, triple hate, LOATHE icicle lights. I also DESPISE if you mix lights on the outdoor part of your house. Pick a light and go with it!!!!!!!!
• All matching ornaments or more random personal ornaments? Random personal. Someday I'll have a bigger house and have my shit together (read: someday I'll be a whole different person) and I will have multiple trees and do themes, like Razorback, kid ornaments, and pretty/fancy.
• Favorite ornament.- Its at my mom's house, I made it for her in preschool, its a framed pic of my face and I look like I'm trying to poop.
• Angel or star tree-topper? Currently we have a bow, but what I really really really want? A giant snowman hat!!! I saw it at a tour of homes and cannot stop thinking about it but I'm too lazy to do it!
• Does Santa wrap presents or leave them unwrapped? Santa's a wrapper. He's wiggity wiggity wiggity whack!
• Favorite childhood memory. I think getting the original Nintendo was my favorite gift ever. I think the year my dad fell out of the attic and nearly killed himself was the year I realized how thankful I am. That was our first year with Rylan and I was tired and frantic but I loved Christmas that year. Everybody was so very happy with dad being ok and the new baby.
• Coffee, hot chocolate, or eggnog? Yes please? Daily I like coffee, with mint chocolate creamer, so coffee and hot chocolate?
• Christmas morning at home or do you travel? Depends on the year, this year is actually our first year at home with no family here, just Rob and Sara Plus One plus One More!
• Traditional holiday meal or something unconventional? At my mom and dads we usually all bring a few appetizers and do an appetizer buffet. That got harder because it was A LOT of cream cheese overload and our kids got older and didn't want what we made and my kids can't have dairy. Last year we had prime rib and if was fan-freakin-tastic. It actually gave us a new quote from Rylan "I want to eat what smells". Yes, son, so do we.
• Personalized photo Christmas cards, store bought cards, e-cards, or “ain’t nobody got time for that”? Personalized photo Christmas cards and they make me crazy errrr damn year. One year caused a fight between Rob and I like nobodies bidness, one year they didn't get mailed to me until Christmas Eve, this year I don't even know if we've got it in us......

Rylan's birthday photo dump

I'm so OCD with blogging that I couldn't blog until I blogged about my son's birthday party which was November 16. Only problem was I got so crazy with the party that I took zilcho pics and needed to ask my mom. And I knew she was busy. And then I forgot. A lot. 

I remembered this week, so that counts.

I cannot believe Rylan is five. Every mom on God's green earth doesn't know where the time went. Count me in. His birth started this blog. He was the ORIGINAL plus one to the Rob and Sara pack. He is so loved for so many things. I look forward to the boy he is to become and am trying to savor the little boy that is still in there. He comes out for lap sits and hand holds and bedtime story times every now and then.

We had his party at the gym at our church. Not the fanciest of places, but it served as a perfect spot for running around and playing dressup. All Rylan wanted was to play dress up with his friends. So we took two boxes of dress up clothes (and borrowed some from sweet Michelle in the event that girls other than Lily showed up) and threw a bunch of balloons around, blew up the church's tiny bounce house, threw out a bunch of bikes and trikes and the like and let the kids do whatever they wanted. It was great. 

His sweet loot. 

These little gems get Rylan happy errrrr time

He wears this watch every day. Keeps it on his door knob at night. It is the one item he takes good care of. 

That little Spidey-lovin kiddo had the best day. Blue frosted cupcakes with superhero logos were there. Spiderman toys galore. He changed into 3-27 costumes. His besties from school came, his best girl, Lily, came, all his mature girlfriends (Rylan's crushes are all 30s-40s and married) all came, and all four grandparents and one aunt came. He is super loved.