Thursday, September 13, 2012

Art of Animation, Part 1

We have been looking forward to our first ever "real" family vacation!  We haven't done much vacationing, as we have had 3 babies in 3 years and are fans of Dave Ramsey...whew!  This is the summer we knew we could do it!  We had been so excited and looking forward to it for months!  We have a great new airline that flies from our home airport into Orlando for fairly cheap, so we decided to fly out to Orlando, rent a van, and head here, to the brand new Art of Animation Resort, before we drove down south to the beach.  More on that later.  I'm going to take my blog posts slowly because I want to document everything that we did!


Jordan had been getting pretty stressed with work, I was getting very stressed with all the goings-on of 3 little boys 4 and under at home and to be honest, we just really needed this time as a family.  It was 10 glorious days of nothing but being together, and it was such a blessing to us.  Jordan and I really needed it and I KNOW our boys needed to have that time with Jordan for that many days.  They were really great the whole trip and I know they were so happy to have solid daddy time for so long.  Now, it wasn't all stress-free as there was a hurricane thrown into the mix of all of this, but never the less, we had a BLAST!


Here we go!


We had been dying to go see the brand new Art of Animation Resort that Disney just opened.  We opted to stay in the Nemo Family suites.  We flew out on a Wednesday morning and by late afternoon we made it to our hotel.  Everything from the check in, to walking to your building was just awesome.  What can I say, it's Disney, they do things right!  It was raining but that didn't stop us, we explored our beautiful room and then changed and headed out to the precious splash pad/pool that was RIGHT outside our window!



We stopped off at the cute little playground first.  Let me tell you, those slides go FAST!



Then we walked over to the little Nemo splash pad.  It was all so stinkin' cute and the boys had a really fun time!




We got in the warm, heated pool for just a bit, then changed clothes and walked to the food court to eat.  This resort had a lot of good food to choose from.  This night I ate grilled shrimp with rice, butternut squash and naan bread and some Indian mixed vegetables. The boys mainly ate pizzas and mac n cheese and fruit and milk.


The boys outside of our building.  Our room was right by Crush's head.



We let them bring a little treat back after dinner...it was the first night of vacation, after all!



I loved that this family suite had a table for everyone to sit at.  The bed the boys slept on pulled out of this wall.  It was pretty neat!




Everyone enjoyed their Mickey cupcake!




It was a long day of travel, playing, and getting adjusted but they all did great.  Now Noah did not sleep well at ALL that night or the next, but I'm pretty sure he was getting his top teeth in while we were on vacation!


More to come!

Monday, September 3, 2012

A Trip to Tuscaloosa...Different Now With Kids!

When we made our visit back to Alabama in July, I was determined to get my boys down to Tuscaloosa.  It's not only our college town and the place where Jordan and I fell in love, but my grandparents live there too!  I really wanted to boys to be able to go down and visit them.  Like I mentioned before, I had been sick, then my Mom got it pretty bad, then JM and Matthew got it and then while we were down there Noah got sick.  It was a long, exhausting, tiresome trip.  We didn't really get to do much of what I had planned and I ended up taking Noah to a pediatrician down there and just cutting our trip short.


We felt it was in my grandmother's best interest not to be exposed to Noah since he currently had a fever, so I just JM and Matthew over and let them play and eat dinner over there one night.  She was heartbroken not to get to hold Noah, but we knew we couldn't expose her to that icky, crud we had all had!


The only "fun" thing we fit in between huge rain storms and sickness was a quick visit out to Papaw's "farm"!


 




The boys had fun throwing rocks and dirt!  It was neat to show them Papaw's land!






Of course, Matthew refuses to sit and have his picture made, but you can tell that JM and Grandmother were in a deep conversation about him being 4!  I hope we can get back to Tuscaloosa again soon!


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Paying Homage

One important part of our trip back to Alabama was going up to my aunt's house so that we could all get together and go through some of my Mamaw's personal posessions.  I never blogged about it, but my grandmother passed away last July, when Noah was about 4 weeks old.  It was a hard trip back home for the funeral with a 4 week old and I got mastitis along the way, but there was no way I was going to miss her funeral.  I got a chance to visit with Mamaw on a visit to Alabama in April (before I couldn't travel anymore when I was pregnant with Noah) and what she said pretty much sums her up:  Even in the nursing home she told me how she just sits in bed and thinks about her blessings.  She was in and out of being really clear, but what a testimony of her and her attitude.  She and my Papaw were kind, sweet, Godly people.  I'm so glad they were my grandparents.


So, on this visit, we packed up for the day and headed to my aunt's house.  I love going to my Aunt's house!  We usually go for holidays and it's just a comforting place to go.  Luckily, my cousin was in town, so the boys got to play with their 2nd cousin, Madalyn!  She is a cutie pie and they had a TON of fun playing together!  I hate we don't get to see them more often.



My aunt made a fantastic, Southern lunch for us...what a treat!



These 4 kiddos were loud and messy, and had a great time playing together.  I've always thought Noah and Madalyn looked a lot alike for some reason.





We took some time out to go to Mamaw's house and go through her things.  Each granddaughter got to pick a ring of hers and it is so, so special to me.  We also went through lots of letters and poems.  I wish I lived closer so I could go and spent a whole weekend just reading through them, but there was very little time for that with kiddos running around.


One special thing we found was my grandfather's Army hat...



and we also found a fresh folded flag the VA sent after Papaw died.  Mamaw never opened the box.  What special things to discover.



It's never easy or normal going through things, but it makes you think about what kind of legacy you want to leave behind.  I'm now the proud owner of several of Mamaw's kitchen gadgets, towels that she stitched herself, a single glass I remember drinking out of at their house when I was little, Mamaw's Bible (with verses underlined and things written in it.....so precious to have) and some fun pieces of her jewelry.  I know I'll always remember Mamaw being quiet, happy, and more than anything, we all knew that no matter what, she was always so proud of her grandkids (oh yeah, and GREAT-grandsons as well!)

4th of July

 We took a 2 and a half week vacation back home to Alabama in July.  We usually go back "home" every July and we usually stay for at least 2 weeks so we get a good visit in with all of our family members.  This trip did not go so well.  Mom and Dad were up here visiting so we just drove back with them.  The week they were up here we had VBS so I was pretty busy with that, some appointments, and getting us all packed up for the big road trip back home so I think I just started to get run-down.  Halfway through the drive back I started getting sick, and then sicker, and sicker.  Long story short, we had to make the drive in 1 long day instead of 2.  I practically coughed up a lung the whole drive to Alabama.  To make a long story short, it was a hard, long trip full of lots of medicine, time in bed, and then multiple family members also catching this horrible crud.  I'm trying to erase it from my memory.


Either way, by 4th of July I was feeling human again due to lots of rest and medicine!




 






We grilled out....



had yummy homemade ice cream and a few dips to choose from...



and generally had a good time visiting and swimming together!







We didn't do sparklers or fireworks or anything, because the boys are just so little and they don't care as much.  Matthew was VERY afraid of the sounds of the fireworks  in the neighborhood this year.  Poor guy!  He had a hard time going to sleep.



We let them stay up late and watch the fireworks on TV.  We had a fun day filled with food, family, swimming, and celebrating the USA!



Have Your Cake


The most fun at a 1 year old's birthday party is watching them eat their cake!



It looks like Noah was ready for his cake!



He dove right in and started going to work





He loved it!  After we had cake we cleaned him up and then swam in the pool.  It was a wonderful first birthday!


Now that Noah's 1, here's what he's up to:


He started walking around 10 1/2 months.


Since I'm so behind on blogging, he is JUST now getting his 2 top teeth in.  He's a late teether!


He weighs about 26 pounds.


He loves to point at things and say "a-dab-is" and it cracks us up!


He's putting more and more sounds together; it sounded a BIT like he said "pancake" and "necklace" earlier today.


He loves to climb, run, sit on his brothers, and he loves to give a high five!


He loves to throw things, throw a ball pretty well, and he can do art pretty well too!  I give him a marker or crayon when we do art and he does a pretty good job scribbling!


Mainly, Noah is just a straight-up mess and a half!  We love him so much.  He adds so much to our crew.  He is funny, sweet, precious, and can throw a fit with the best of them if he doesn't get his way.  I think we've got a lot of work ahead of us in the next year or two with him!


It seems like just yesterday that we were surpirsed with our third precious boy:



and here we are a year later with a healthy, precious, beautiful boy.  I am so thankful for my family and for baby Noah!