A Room With a View

This year we stayed at the Contemporary Resort. It was our 7th wedding anniversary and we wanted it to be special. Our first day there was also St. Patrick's Day. All the times I joke about "Murphy's Law" we sure did have the luck of the Irish on this day. You will see us below in a photo we took with the resort supervisor Ms. Judy (or as Lily affectionately called her, fairy Godmother). When we booked there were only two rooms left in all of Disney and let me tell you, they were not the best of rooms. Cheap? No way but when you are desperate you take what you can get.

Anyway, the lady in reservations assured us that even though we were out of luck getting a castle view room she would at least put us up high so we would not have to hear the monorail noise (that is the resort that the monorail passes strait through) and since it was our anniversary she would try really hard. We were very disappointed though when we got there and our room was not only on the lowest floor (5th, and monorail is on 4th) but also facing 24/7 construction. Buddy went down to see how he could sweet talk someone. He got lucky when he ran into:

"Fairy Godmother"!

We were only hoping for a room a little higher up. But, imagine our very pleasant surprise when we were given a room on the 10th floor with this fabulous view.....

The Castle at Magic Kingdom - Buddy took these from our balcony

Grand Floridian Resort and Spa -where we usually love to stay!

The Polynesian Resort

Monorail view - kids loved this..

We really enjoyed our room. The castle was so beautiful at night. I could hardly go to sleep from staring at it. It stayed lit up all night. I woke up a few times in the very early hours and would go look out at it just to see if it was still lit up. We were out late most nights but stayed in our room one night to see the fire works over the castle and it was wonderful. Lily sat on my lap on our balcony and told us it was the best night of her life. We could also see a nightly boat parade that came by in the Seven Seas Lagoon and that was pretty neat. We loved our room -Thank you again Fairy Godmother -AKA: Ms. Judy

I loved this.......

Power Rangers

We actually stood in the Power Ranger lines this year. I don't know how but we caught them pretty short. Everyone must have been over at the new Toy Story Mania ride. (more on that later) The kids were pumped. Sadly though we did not get blue ranger and the yellow one was a photopass and will be on our disk.

They were doing these hilarious and totally unprovoked poses in front of the car just before all the rangers got on and drove off. They had a blast here.....

Lily rides the "Tea Cups"

Lily was the only one who wanted to ride the "tea cup" ride. Sean though it was a baby ride and went on the Indy speedway with his daddy. I was stuck riding it with her and it was tough because things that spin tend to make me a little nauseous. I though I would take you back on the ride with her though because I did not realize I had gotten all these expressions as we rode. She loved it...

Please enjoy the Mad Tea Party with Lily

She's ready

getting started.......

lets go faster......

I'm getting a little dizzy.......

soooo much fun......

I'm done.........

Why I love Disney at Spring time - Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2009

WHAT... Mommy has not made a single Disney post yet?

Listen y'all! I know you have been waiting to see and hear all about Disney world and I promise it is all coming very soon. In fact it will be tonight I think. At least some of it. We got home Sunday night and woke up Monday morning for the weekly rat race of work and school and with two nights of church so far this week and an emergency visit to the doctor with Lily due to an injury we have not had much time.

I just uploaded all the pics from our two cameras and we let Sean use our old digital so you will get to see some of his work (which is pretty good by the way). We also have the Disney PhotoPass pictures on disk coming in the mail soon. But I can't show those until they get here.

We had a good time considering the rather large spring break crowds. I will say that we had some very interesting and adventurous moments this trip. some funny and some not so funny moments.

The kids got much more out of this trip then ever before. They were a great age this time. Sean loves all the big rides and is tall enough for all of them. He is my little partner because Buddy surely will have no part of any of it. My little daredevil did the Tower of Terror two times and the biggest, newest and most intense roller coaster there: Expedition Everest. We did it at night which made it a little more intense and I have to admit I was a lot afraid on that thing. He was laughing..... little stinker!

Happy Anniversary My Love

Seven years ago today I married you, the most wonderful man on earth. Our love has endured some tests. It grew stronger. We faced some sorrow and loss together. It brought us closer. We patiently waited for the family we longed for and leaned on the faith of one another after each heartbreaking loss. We trusted in God and he gave us our desires. Two precious miracles, our children Sean and Lily. Thank you for loving me. You are a Godly man, loving husband and devoted father. Happy Anniversary. May the next seven years be even better..... I love you!

Look who's ready for Spring Break 2009

My Little Miss Sunshine....
We were busy all day packing and getting some last minute things done and ready to get away for our big spring break trip. We picked this cute little swim suit up last night at Sam's for Lily and of course she had to model it for us today. She actually thought she was modeling for Mrs. Julia of(Frogbelliesandblossoms), our fabulous children's clothing designer friend. She usually models for her and we had just finished doing a huge shoot for her a few days ago so I guess she was in that mode.
I thought this suit was precious though and could not resist taking a break today to snap her picture in it.

Yes, I still blog................

I'm back after hiding out for a bit. I've started an actual post several times. I've started a post in my head a million times.

We have had a crazy past few weeks. There are so many things I want to post about and I know I will never catch up. Cute things that I wanted to share but have forgotten now.

There are some things I would like to share but can't. I will just let you know that we are all fine. I have had a few med changes and have been trying to adjust. Buddy had a small procedure and is fine and Sean is recovering from his broken foot. He will finally get his cast off Friday.

We are taking a SPRING BREAK vacation to an undisclosed location. And although some of our closest friends do know I will let you in on the secret too. It's our seventh anniversary and we decided to go somewhere with the kids. We have hired a sitter where we are we will be for one of the evenings and have some pretty nice plans for just the two of us which we are both looking forward to.....

Here is a clue: A dream is a wish your heart makes! Figured it out yet?


And now this sweet story:


I had a lot on my mind yesterday. Way to much to stop and be bothered with my four year old. Her soft little voice nagged at me that she was worried about something. How could she be worried I though sarcastically. I selfishly though about all the important things I had on my mind and the things I had to get done.

And then I looked at her. I REALLY looked at her! She looked so worried. I was modeling her in some clothing for Julia. I set the camera down and we had a talk. It was the sweetest (and a little funny) conversation I have ever had with my daughter. I hope I can remember it all.

"Mommy, did God make the wind?" she asked me. I reminded her about the song she sings about the winds and the waves. "mommy, did he make the sunshine"? I told her yes! I was quite surprised when she told me she wished he had not. "Why"? I asked. She tells me it is shining in her eyes and that she can't see. I explained that God made the sun so that everything including her could grow. That was when she explained to me she was so worried. She was worried because she was not growing at all. "Sean's is growing mommy"! "He has been 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and now he is almost 6! I am sooooo tiny and just still 4". She was in tears and it was so real to her. There was just no amount of explaining I could do to her about birth order or the fact that she had a birthday and was 3 a few months ago that could make it all better. And then came her big plan.

"Mommy, I know! I could be God"!!! "No Lily"! I told her she could not be God.... "Yes I can, you can just make me a girl Jesus costume and I can be him" :-) She smiled and went along her sweet little way!

Soooo. I have one child who has such faith it God that he prays for the healing of any and everyone who walks through our front door and now our daughter wants wants to BE God. Lets just hope this is a theatrical thing. Maybe they are doing auditions in Sunday school for the Easter drama or something. :-)

Just like daddy.....

Today will be a very busy day for us. We had another Murphy Dog Hopeful interview this morning. This time it was with a Boston Terrier. I will have more on that later and we have an in-house visit this evening with "April". We have a party to attend in Ramer which we are super pumped about. But now for the reason for this post:

Out of the mouth of babes is truly fitting here:

Sean came into the den crying this morning. He was soaked on his pants and had gotten his cast and the boot wet. I asked what had happened and he told me it was from trying to get ice out of the fridge and water came out. What had happened was that like many times before, he puts water in the cup first and then adds ice..... The water all splashes out on him. I reminded him of how to do it. By this time he was a wreck and crying loudly while saying these words:

"Well I am just like my daddy, I can't remember anything you tell me"!
I am sorry but I just had to laugh. Even Buddy got a good laugh out of this one:-)

A kid "funny" worth sharing.....

I KNOW, I KNOW!!!! I have not been keeping up with my blog lately. I have so much to update you on and some really cute posts in the works. So many cute pictures to share....
However, I have been working extra hours and feeling a little tired lately. It may come a little later then sooner.

Now, this one is so cute.... Buddy was keeping the kids today and had to call me at work to share this with me. He heard the kids talking and thought it was so funny! It went a little something like this:

Lily comes in with a DVD that won't play and keeps skipping.

Sean looks at DVD and says "Oh my goodness, look at the fingerprints"! - (he shows it to daddy)

Daddy is saying at this point this is why the DVD will not play.

Sean: "My eyebrows are popping off! I might have to go to the hospital"!

Sean's first broken bone.....

I guess I should have included this under the weekend post as the "cherry on top" of our perfect weekend since it technically happened yesterday. Sean and buddy were playing around and wrestling on the floor like they always do and Sean flipped on his little foot. Anyway, he broke his foot!

We did not know it until today though. We though something was probably wrong and when he woke up this morning still crying out when he put pressure on it we made an appointment right away. He is getting used to the cast and is loving all the attention.

Daddy promised him a playstation game if it was broken and if he had to get a cast. I think he would have been heartbroken if the x-rays had come back clean. Needless to say, we went right away and got him the game he has been wanting. He will have to wear this cast for four weeks and then we will have some more x-rays.

"Where the vote people live"

We have not been out with the kids for a while. I mean just out somewhere for the fun of it. Saturday was a perfect opportunity. The weather was gorgeous and we were all rested and ready to go somewhere. We thought of the zoo but after we slept in a little to late and had our breakfast, we decided to try something the kids had never done before. We had a few things in mind, but first we went downtown to the Capitol.

First of all I think that the area around the Capitol is beautiful. There are so many nice places to take pictures. The kids wanted to eat at Chris's hot dogs but we decided to wait and see the capitol first . We had just gotten them out of the car when Sean announced that this was the place where the "vote" people lived. He said so sweetly, "Oh, I hope I get to see Obama". I thought that was to cute. I explained to him it was the State Capitol. We looked around and took some pictures....



After all that fun and tons of pictures we decided for some good ole fashioned BBQ for lunch instead of hot dogs. We had not been to Country's BBQ in a long time and it sounded perfect! We had a great lunch and talked about what to do next.

Everyone needed a haircut except me. So we we took a family trip to the salon. What fun. Listening to Sean talk to his stylist was the highlight of the day. He explained in great detail how we got to go to the "castle" (capitol)and that there were lots of statues there (Jefferson Davis) he took pictures with some of them. He told here that it was where the "vote people lived". He even had the had Lily's stylist cracking up.


It was what I would call a perfect day! Of course no day is perfect right? and we have something in this family called Murphy's Law. We got home and got everyone settled in for the evening and talked about what to do for dinner. But I was still feeling giddy from our wonderful day. I decided to go out one more time. I went to Movie Gallery to use the mailer certificate to Buy one get one free. Sean wanted to come with me to get a PlayStation game.

I am perfectly fine now and was only my pride and maybe poor Sean's that was hurt in the end. But, just before we entered the store, right in the parking lot, I fell! I mean I really fell hard. Busted, skinned knee and hand, twisted ankle, shoe flying off fell........Nice people came over. They helped me up. Sean rubbed my head and when they all walked away he sweetly said "mommy, I hope you're ok, but you embarrassed me a little". But even with my skinned up parts we still had a great day!!!!

Saturday Funnies

Here are some funny, cute and a few smart (ish) things the kids have been saying lately. They make me laugh so many times during the day. Many times I even mean to write things down in their baby books but then forget. These are some that stood out to me and I wanted to share.

Lily: Mommy what planet do we live on? Earth I say.

Lily: Do you think we could move to the planet Saturn since it has rings? Rings are so "fancy".


I was humming Fur Elise today when Sean walked in and heard me. He said: " Mommy, I love
Beethoven too"!


Lily: "Mommy, can you take me to China? They have rivers there and I want to see a river"!



Lily has been on an antibiotic. We usually don't have any problem getting her to take it since they are usually pink and taste like bubble gum. This one however is a different . It is thick, white and does not taste good. Twice a day we go through a pleading and begging then it ends by asking her if she is going to take it the hard way or the easy way. The hard meaning we hold her down and the easy way meaning she takes it on her own then drinks "good juice" real fast to make it better. She opted for the "easy way" each time after much pleading. That was working well until yesterday when she outsmarted me. I asked her the same question as she held her had over her mouth .

Me: "Lily, do you want to take this the hard way or the easy way"?

Lily: "I want to take it the none way"! - She thought she could outsmart us huh?

Not Me Monday

This blog carnival was created by mckmamma. It's fun and therapeutic so just join in the fun.
Go over to her site and to see how it's done.

My Not Me's were on time but I accidentally hit save instead of post before going to bed last night so they are a little late: Is that allowed? :-)

I did not forget my regular set of keys when I went out today thus locking me and the kids out of the house tonight.

I did not get dinner on the table after 8:30 pm and get so busy cleaning up afterward that I forgot to read the bedtime story I promised to my precious four year old daughter. Oh, and she did not fall asleep while waiting for me and end up sleeping with spaghetti on her face - what mother would ever let that happen?

I have not put off writing thank you cards another week. I would never do something like that. I would be such bad etiquette.

I did not bring a 5 pound bag of peanut m&ms to work and put my name on it.

I am not engaged in a silly and desperate attempt with my husband to gain more facebook friends therefore searching out and being accepted by people like Hota Kotb. - Not Me!

I did not forget to fold laundry.

I really, really did not fix lunch boxes for the kids for tomorrow! But that is because we are picking them up early and going to have lunch with dear friends whom we have not seen in a long time. Hopefully I will have pics to post. YAY!

What have you NOT ben doing this week?

Update on Arianna's RSV

Edit to earlier post:

The last I heard I think the baby is getting to go home. Thanks for prayers.... She will go home with neb. treatments and some antibiotics. This was tremendous improvement because I know how bad RSV can be especially when complicated with Pneumonia.

Posted earlier:

I have not been able to be around her still due to the kids and I being sick but I spoke with Sabrina (her mom) this morning. I forgot to mention that she has pneumonia. However, Sabrina said she had a better night last night and seems to be getting better. She was waiting for the Doctor to come in and talk to her.

Daddy's Birthday

I forgot to post this last week! Buddy had a birthday. I won't tell which one :-) The kids picked out everything so it was not fancy. But, everyone was happy and daddy loved that his kids picked him out a Spongebob cake. It made him feel quite youthful I am sure. I made him a very nice dinner. Of course, I don't have any pictures to share. It was a wonderful day.

Praying For Arianna

This is our sweet niece Arianna, my brother's newest daughter. She has been sick with RSV this week. Today she was at a hospital in Prattville, but has just been taken by ambulance to another hospital. Please pray for her. She is very sick and only 4 months old. I know RSV has really been ugly this season as some of my Friend's kids have already had it. A few other relatives have had it as well. We have had many on the prayer list. Please add sweet Arianna. Thank You!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not lay on the sofa the entire weekend in the same clothes and not
do one bit of laundry for myself even though I have nothing to wear once again at the start of a work week.

I am embarrassed to say that I did not do any dishes. But, I have been sick so does that count?

I did not put off going to the grocery store. We are out of milk and everything that matters. I did however scrape up some stuff to make up a nice casserole even though I felt bad and I got kudos from my husband.

I have not put off sending Christmas Thank You cards ....

I Did not fall asleep on the sofa early leaving my kids unattended and wake up in the AM hours finding my 5 year old playing on his playstation.

Well, I'm sure there are tons more I did not do today especially since I was not feeling well and laying on the sofa a good bit of the day. But, that will have to do for my very first

Not Me Monday!

Still here...

Checking in to say:
Just a little under the weather (or under the covers I should say). I just wanted to let you know that we are all fine and being lazy around the house. Getting absolutely nothing done and enjoying the extra long weekend off. I have literally been laying on the couch since Friday evening. Buddy had a small procedure done Friday morning and is fine. I just seemed to have a terrible head cold. It is getting better but now seems to be draining down into my lungs and I am a little nervous. So, to the Dr I will be headed this week to get myself on some meds.

I've Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Kristi

Go to the 4th folder, pull up the 4th picture and post it, describing it.

Here I am on my wedding day with three very special little boys. My two nephews Spencer and Benjamin and my Great Nephew Everett. I remember the day so clearly and how funny they were. Each of them added their own little flair to the wedding and made everyone laugh. Spencer was so serious, Everett was swinging the pillow during the ceremony and Ben was instructing the Flower girl how to drop the petals in great detail. That was seven years ago and these boys are almost grown but I still laugh when I see this picture.

I'm tagging:

Heather

Teresa

Amy

Leigh

A saturday Full of Birthday Partys

a late post......

Saturday we had five birthday party invitations all for around the same time. Three of them were for 12:00 to 2:00 and the other two were 11:30 to 1:30 I knew there was no way to do them all. One was our niece Abby and that one we were absolutely going to. But there were two others that were very important to us and we wanted to use a little creative planning and try to make it to a little of each of them.

So I called a mommy (Lily's friend Ainslee was turning 4!)to see if we could come over before the party started and spend a little time and bring the gift by. I had called the night before and found out that she would be heartbroken that Lily could not come. And Lily would also be heartbroken if she found out about the party and could not go So I did not tell her. When I realized I could arrange it. I surprised her that morning when we went for a bit.

After that, we ran to the Zoo where Abby was having her party. We had fun riding the train and seeing all the animals. It looked like it was going to rain any minute and was pretty windy but the rain held off and it was nice enough for us to have a great time. When that party was over we called our good friends the Mann's who were celebrating the first birthday of their beautiful triplet daughters. We had also called them earlier and explained our dilemma and decided that we could just drop by late. It actually worked out better because everyone was gone by then and we all got to spend some time together and catch up after not seeing other for a while. In the end, It was an exhausting but very special and fun day!

Here is Sean , Lily, Amy & big brother Seth with the sweet birthday girls!

Triplets: Taylor (in Lily's lap), Dakota (in Amy's lap) & Piper (in Sean's lap)

Cousins: Sean & Sophie with their zoo faces

Lily, Sophie, Sean and Rowan.

Sean with the sweet birthday girl Abby 3 year old....

Sean's new smile

Sean had to go to the dentist today to have a repair of a filling on his front teeth. For the second time since Christmas his filling came off. We decided to and agreed with the dentist that because Sean would be loosing those teeth soon anyway, and that one was week and loose anyway, to go ahead and extract both of the teeth. So what began as a simple procedure today ended with our big boy losing his first teeth. Not quite the way we hoped he would loose them but he is fine. He was not sure what had happened to him and we had to tell him later. He slept a good bit of the afternoon and seemed to perk up later in the evening.

Not sure what just happened and a little medicated in this picture.

Sean showing off his new smile.... We all love it....

Silly Lily had to have her picture taken spaghetti face and all :)

Sean's new room

Indiana Jones room - still border to be added and a few things to be finished -



reading his Indiana Jones book

dressed up as Indy, showing off his new whip

deciding where his next adventure will be......

holding the crystal skull.

We still have some ideas for this room. Maybe painting a bottom wall border of grass and creating two bolder type rocks or beanbags chairs maybe covered in gray fabric made to look like boulders to sit on either side of the dormer window that he has up there. Also maybe a fake tree plant and a large type elephant or zebra or some type animal hiding in the corner to make it look African/safari. At the dormer I am also thinking of putting some netting coming halfway across as a sort of hideaway for him. We put the pictures up today and they really made the room some alive some more. We have a "movie set" looking chair that has been in our family for a few years and it matches so it sits in the corner with the hat and a satchel I made for him.

Thanks for letting me bore you with the details of my boys room. He loves it.........:)