Disney, Pt. 1

Our family trip to Disney was planned months ago.  We had time share points to use before April 2012 and  January was a good down time to go.  We thought we'd be in our new home for a solid month before we left.  Ha.  Try 2 nights.  

But, in all of my time driving and waiting outside of Noah's school I had ample time to read and plan every detail of our trip.  

I was dead set against spending money on souvenirs.  So, I bought everything before we left.  Some items were on ebay, new with tags, others were from good will still in packaging, etc. The night before we left I filled these backpacks that I made with Mickey and Minnie coloring, stamps, crayons, etc. and put them in each of their carseats.  When they got in the car there was a note from Mickey and Minnie wishing them a good plane ride.  They were ecstatic!!  Noah later told me that he heard Minnie's high heels in the driveway during the middle of the night!

Noah was a rockstar the whole way.  Maeve had quite a bit of trouble sitting still and screamed for whatever parent was not sitting with her.  We made it through alive.

When we arrived it was sunny and wonderful!  We arrived at our amazing 4br, 4 bath penthouse and we were in heaven!!!! We were in an area called Bonnet Creek, which is a Wyndham property.  It is the only property within the Disney complex not owned by Disney.  It is located between the Carribbean resort and downtown Disney with a direct view of the Epcot Illuminations show.

I would HIGHLY recommend staying here to anyone looking to go to disney.

Our spacious living room and kitchen...

I also found great deals at the outlets on pajamas and the kids also received many items for Christmas for their trip.  It was awesome to have grandparents there to read stories and snuggle every night.

Happy New Year 2012!

We had originally planned to move New Year's Weekend but when that fell through one of our good friends invited us over.  The kids played wonderfully.  We ate sushi and drank good wine.  At 9PM we played last year's Apple Drop for the kids and sent them to bed (not so successfully).  But was a wonderful celebration nonetheless!!

Transitions -- Extended Stay America

So... there was a LOT of drama surrounding our new home. It was supposed to be done 12/20 and that was moved back to 12/28 which we adjusted to.  As it turned out that was mid Christmas week and lots of the construction staff had the week off, as well as many sub-contractors.  The way the calendar fell, people had 3 or 4 day weekends for Christmas week and New Year's Week.  This was terrible to do business with contractors, builders and banks.  

So, on the 28th, when there was still no carpet or countertops we agreed to move back until the 30th, but then the bank couldn't make it in time to do the appraisal.  And of course, they couldn't come over the holiday.  

In the meantime we needed some temporary housing and being that we hadn't really been alone as a family in months, we decided to turn down some generous offers from friends to stay with them and we stayed in a hotel for a week.  We could run wild and scream and jump on the beds and we actually made a great time of it.  I was amazed at how well the kids adjusted.  

Here they are doing a fashion show in our room... they had me in tears with their antics!!!

And, I was so engrossed in the Hunger Games at the time that Maeve tried to steal my book at every corner...

Christmas 2011

Christmas was hectic as usual, but we were blessed beyond measure as always!  

We expected to be in our home by Christmas and so we weren't really prepared to have Christmas at grandma's. house.  We went and bought a small white tree and put it up on Christmas Eve after church while the kids were sleeping.  We put their presents under it and went to bed.

In the morning we woke early and lit the candles on Baby Jesus' birthday cake and had our cake breakfast before heading to see our gifts.  The kids LOVED their new puppet theater, Maeve loved her doll pram and Noah loved his lego table.

The day took off from then as usual.

Nana, Mom Mom, PopPop and Uncle Eric came bearing LOTS of gifts and we also had presents from great grandma and great grandma.  We tried to space it out but to no avail!

Maeve got a Barbie dress up outfit which I was not too thrilled about but Great Grandma was on her toes and turned it into a salsa outfit and taught Maeve how to do a two step around the house...

Uncle Eric got Noah a 37 step Lego Firehouse and they set off to work on it at the dining room table...

In the afternoon we headed to Aunt Nina and Uncle Chris's house to celebrate together and the children received awesome Mickey and Minnie puppets and had a blast playing with the train under the tree!

The day after Christmas we headed to Tiara Yaz and Uncle Matt's house.  Noah got an awesome playmobil barn and Maeve got lots of owl goodies and an amazing homemade spanish/english book that Tiara Yaz made for her.

 Tiara Yaz is in love with Wonder Woman and I found the BEST snuggie for her!!!

The kids spent hours playing with their new presents.  While Maeve pushed one baby in the pram, Noah put another baby in the carrier!!