Big Girl Bed

It might say May on the calendar but a cold front has come through and we are all about to freeze to death. Our warm March and April months spoiled us! I will be elated to have my sunny and 75 degree days back.

Jack boy is a teething bear these days. I know they hurt him and it just makes him cranky and emotional. I took Georgia Grace to dance and he stayed at Grandmomma's. He loves being outside but settled for a window view with Granddad. I'm hoping our window of teething is about to close!

We enjoyed some time outside playing before the temperatures dropped. Georgia has never been very comfortable on motorized vehicles. She built up the courage to drive it all the way down our driveway but requested her Daddy's hand while she did it :)

We do a lot of sidewalk chalk on the porch. It's a constant battle keeping the chalk out of Jack's mouth.

Happy to be outside and playing

I'm suppose to put makeup on this sweet face for her recital this weekend and it's killing me softly. I will be a terrible mom of teenagers. Please don't grow up too fast sister.

I don't take enough profile pictures of her. She has a perfect one according to her mama.

Saturday we attended our cousin Payton's graduation from Western Kentucky University. She received her Bachelor's degree in three years and graduated Summa Cum Laude. We are so proud of her!

I told her there are very few people I would wrangle two babies for 2 1/2 hours for but she is one of them :) She loves my babies so much and watches them for me every chance she gets. We were happy to celebrate the accomplishment with her!

He was skeptical but gave the graduation a thumbs up anyway :)

Nailed the family photo! At least we are all five in the picture :)

Jack recently decided he despises his high chair so I gave Georgia's booster seat a try and he was so much happier. Now they can both watch me cook and eat while I cook so they are not hungry for the meal. Happens every time.

This week has been a HUGE week for Georgia Grace. Sweet girl has been sleeping in her crib since she moved from a bassinet by the side of our bed at 12 weeks old. She has always been an excellent sleeper and has never tried to climb out of her crib or give us any reason to "change what's not broken". About a month ago (when we got back from Disney) she started talking about big girl beds. We knew then our crib days were coming to a close.

Her last night in her crib. This is where she rested for the first 3 1/2 years of her little life. She loved her crib. She felt safe and protected. Mommy and Daddy felt reassured that she was comfortable and secure. I have been sentimental about this as I have been every milestone we have hit. But it was time and I'm thankful we were able to ride the crib train as long as we did.

Here she was at 15 months old taking a 3 1/2 hour nap in her crib. I miss these days but wouldn't  trade preschool Georgia for anything.

And then this happened. It's probably my best piece of video footage I've captured of her. A little background on the bed-it was my mom's bedroom suite (there's also a dresser and mirror) from the 1960's that was passed down to me, then my sister and now Georgia Grace. We moved it to our house last weekend and Marcus came home yesterday afternoon and got everything set up so we could surprise her with it.

She was off the charts excited about her new big girl bed! We are one night in and she slept all night no problems. I pray the transition continues to be seamless for her. This milestone has made my heart swell. The nostalgia of it all is something special. 

I mean she was just the happiest. Sugar, honey, marshmallows, rainbows, ponies and puppies kind of happy. This night will be etched in my mind forever.

I tried to get a normal sleepy picture of her before I turned the light out but she couldn't stop smiling :) I like this one best.

All About Disney

Like I said before, this was our first time going to Disney World with the babes. We are not experts. But we had an amazing time and learned some tricks along the way that I'm sharing as future reference for myself and with any of my blog readers that might be planning a Disney trip. Georgia asks 2-3 times a week when we are going back and I usually echo her to Marcus :) We can't wait to go back.

Reservations

I started planning our Disney vacation last June while I was home with newborn Jack. I cherished my days at home soaking in all the newborn goodness but I also couldn't wait to travel again and do something really fun for our Georgia Grace. I did all the planning myself through lots of research and reading. I highly recommend The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with kids for planning your trip. It's the Disney bible. I also used wdwprepschool.com and blog posts linked to Pinterest (my Disney World 2016 board). You can start making character dining and Bibbidi Bobbodi Boutique reservations 180 days in advance. You can totally wing a Disney trip and I'm sure you would have the time of your life but if you want to do the "extra stuff", early planning is required. My Type A self relished in it.

My Disney Experience

Once you have reserved your trip, create an account at mydisneyexperience.com and download the app. You can see all of your reservations, make dining reservations and select your Fast Pass reservations. You can also add other things to your account like the Memory Maker and Photo Pass options. I used the app while we were in the park often to check wait times and the quickest route to get from A to B. This is a must-have for your trip. One additional feature that will be a game changer is that it is now set up where once you use your three fast passes for the day you can request three more from the MDE app instead of going to a kiosk in the park. Just another convenience at your fingertips!

Magic Bands

Our favorite thing that had come about since our last Disney trip in January 2012 was the magic bands. If you stay at a Disney resort, you receive a magic band in the mail before you leave for your trip and the band acts as your park ticket, room key, fast passes and photo pass. You can customize your band on My Disney Experience. You can also link your credit card to it and use as payment at Disney restaurants and stores. I loved having everything programmed in one band and not juggling tickets and a room key. It's also waterproof so you can swim with it on at your resort.

Fast Pass Plus

You are able to pre-select your Fast Passes 60 days in advance (if you are staying at a Disney resort) and you can reserve up to three per day per person. Once you have used your fast passes for the day, you can reserve more. It's advantageous to get the passes as early as you can so you can reserve more. Selecting which rides to use fast passes for is important because some rides it is crucial and some rides it doesn't really make a difference.

I used this reference guide from wdwprepschool to help me with our selections. The guide book also noted which fast passes would be best for the preschool age group.

Memory Maker

I had heard so many good reviews about the photo pass option so I made sure there was room for it in our Disney budget. As much as I love candid photos, who doesn't want a posed family picture in front of Cinderella's castle taken with a DSLR camera? And who doesn't want to wag around your DSLR the whole trip? Me for both of those questions. I actually just left my DSLR at home and only used my iPhone camera for our candid shots and relied on the Disney photographers for the rest. For $149 you have unlimited access to the photos taken throughout your entire trip. Photographers are located everywhere and the photos are almost instantly downloaded to your My Disney Experience account (the photographer scans your magic band). No doubt we will use this service again in the future.

Transportation

If there was an achilles heel to our trip it would be the shuttle transportation. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for free shuttle service to and from the parks with nearly around the clock service but it comes with its frustrations. Wait times were sometimes long, shuttles were often crowded and disassembling the stroller to get on and off was not a good time. I envied the resorts that had access to the monorail and boats. We survived though and didn't have to worry about parking and getting in a hot car everyday. There is a silver lining :) Also, the Magical Express transportation to and from the Orlando International Airport was very convenient since we did not rent a car. Be sure you make advanced reservations for it.

Stroller

We brought our Baby Jogger City Select stroller from home and I can't rave about it enough. I loved the tandem design so I didn't have to navigate a huge side-by-side stroller in heavy traffic areas. We tried different positions but what ended up working best for us was the seats facing each other. Georgia rode in the stroller like a champ, Jack did well for a while but needed his breaks because he was an 11 month old that loved to be held. We could not have survived without our stroller. Another point to note-we brought ours from home because we wanted to be able to use it in the airport. You can rent a stroller but it isn't available until you arrive at your room.

Packing

I made four separate lists (Jack, Georgia, Mom and family; Marcus packed himself) using sample pack lists on Pinterest. It is endless all that you need for a week at Disney! We had mild-warm weather so we mostly packed shorts (with pockets, I know a lot of moms like wearing the workout gear but I enjoyed having pockets for my phone and miscellaneous items I wanted readily available) and tanks/short sleeves with a light jacket just in case. We all had rain ponchos I found at Mighty Dollar but thankfully we never had to use them. I bought all four of us new tennis shoes for the trip. As I mentioned, I packed food and drink from home to have in our room and for snacks in the park.

For the babes I used the ziplock bag packing method and it was a great time saver. A little work on the front end saved a lot of headache on the back end.

Taking Jack

Everyone as different opinions about taking a baby to Disney World and there are pros and cons to both no doubt about it. We love traveling with Georgia and Jack. Jack has already taken a week vacation to the beach (drove), Disney World and we are headed back to the beach for a week next month. He is such a mama's boy and I would have felt sorry for whoever we would have left him with ha! There is always the option to delay the trip until he is a little older but I knew this was a special age for Georgia Grace to enjoy all the magic and that had to take priority above convenience.

Overall, he did well to be an 11 month old at Disney World. He enjoyed the characters and any opportunity he had to get down and explore. They both slept wonderful in the resort room and were healthy the whole trip. Anything else above that is just gravy really :)

Naps

The Unofficial Guide to Disney book strongly recommended taking a break midday so we did that. We didn't necessarily use that time for naps everyday but it was a chance to regroup, rest our legs and grab something to eat. The babies napped whenever and wherever. Stroller and shuttle naps were common. We didn't have a set schedule since each day was different. I knew our limits so we didn't overdo it and respected our need for rest.

Crowd Level

I would consider the first week of April to be a moderate crowd level. You could tell the summer crowds hadn't rolled in yet but spring breakers were present. Since we were a pretty slow moving party we didn't get to as many rides as most families probably can so we really didn't wait in that many lines once we used our fast passes and took advantage of arriving at the parks early. Thankfully, a lot of the toddler favorite rides (Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo) had fun things to do and see while you waited.

Dining Plan

We chose to forgo the Disney Dining Plan and just buy our food as we went. I think for our needs it was the cheapest and most convenient. We always ate breakfast in our resort room (or on the shuttle) so we only ate two meals a day in the park/resort. We also packed some food and drinks from home so our snacks were pretty much covered. I'm sure it is nice to already have your meals paid for but with young kids and limited use of park/resort food we opted out.

I have all our Disney daily recaps in my April/May 2016 archives.

I can only speak to our experience but I’m happy to try to answer any questions you might have. I think this officially puts a close to our Disney 2016 trip. Until next time!

Mother's Day 2016

I am combining a recap of last week and Mother's Day celebrations into one post, I'm very close to being caught up and it feels so good. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to pull up an old photo and used the search engine on my blog to find it. This has saved me countless hours getting on my laptop and searching through all my pictures files. Blogging is a beautiful things when I don't neglect it :)

Georgia Grace attended her third session of playschool last week. We have been so proud of how she goes right in without hesitation. Her Gammy is a teacher at the school so she gets to go visit her once a day.

Playschool has forced her to get out of her comfort zone of friends and interact with other kids her age and older kids too. We have already taught her a few life lessons through the experience. It's been a good exposure for her and she is excited to graduate next week!

Jack's one year checkup was Tuesday and he received a clean bill of health! He had his finger stuck (not one tear and ripped the bandaid off) and three shots that only warranted about 15 seconds of crying. You were more upset I wouldn't let you waller all over the doctor's office floor and eat the sanitizer foam. Dr. Lee was proud of his stats, walking and sleeping. We need to work on decreasing his milk intake and increasing his food intake. He's growing up too fast.

After our appointment we met up with my dearest friend "Aunt Marian". She took me under her wing when I worked at the hospital and we have stayed in contact ever since. She loves babies and Jack loved her equally! She is retiring in the fall and I couldn't be happier for her. We love our Aunt Marian!

Our spring recital is just around the corner and we are having extra dance practices to prepare for the show. On our way home one evening I decided it was too perfect of a sunset to pass up so I turned on my flashers, pulled off the road in the grass and carried Georgia Grace out in a field to capture the moment in time. It was just a normal Thursday evening, driving home with my two babies thinking about what I could whip up for supper in 15 minutes. I never want to forget the mundane. I never want to forget this stage of life and just how beautiful it is.

If you're local and want to see some adorable little girls in tutus and exaggerated headdresses, you should come! I will guarantee that you will be entertained.

It was derby weekend and my favorite pony picture of all time is Georgia at our cousin Marley's first birthday party on derby weekend two years ago. I've decided the horse cardigan is one I will hang on to for future granddaughters :)

In other news, we can FINALLY let this cat out of the bag!! She told us in Magic Kingdom on the Walt Disney Railroad. This child is so loved and prayed for already. Aunt Ash is having a baby!!

Friday we celebrated Derby at school and my school nutrition ladies were derby dandies! We served hot browns and derby brownies. They make work fun!

Friday night we went to Keagen's baseball game to support the PBI Bank "Loan Rangers". I'm sure not everyone finds it as funny as I do but I think their team name is hysterical. They won and Jack enjoyed his first baseball game. He really wanted to be on the other side of that fence though.

Told you. He would have been fine on the field or rolling down the hill to play with the other kids but going home he was NOT fine with.

Saturday was Derby, hanging out around the house, and working in the yard and landscape.

Mother's Day morning I woke up to homemade cards, painted MOMMY letters and a special breakfast. Special because they made it for me but it was just the same old stuff I eat every morning but they know that's just me and I would enjoy that more than anything else. Marcus thinks I'm crazy I'm sure.

The card from Georgia is blue and the card from Jack is yellow. He actually hand delivered the card to me when Daddy brought him downstairs from his crib and it just melted me. I love my babies will everything I have!

Mother's Day 2016

We went to church and then my sister hosted us for a Mother's Day lunch. She put a lot of time and thought into making it special and I was so proud of her. We gifted my mom a new mixer this year because the one she has was from when my grandfather was a milk man and he earned enough points to redeem one. She was always put us first. Happy Mother's Day! 

It was a Mother's Day weekend full of homemade cards, hydrangeas and time spent with my people all of my favorite things.

My rose bush I received last year for Mother's Day has exploded this year and I brought some stems in to enjoy. 

Mother's Day can be a day full of the highest of highs or the lowest of lows. My prayers are with those that don't have a mom to celebrate with or who long to be a mom and it hasn't happened yet. You aren't forgotten and He is with you. His yoke is easy and He wants us to cast our burdens upon Him. There is so much rescue and relief in those words.

Thank you to all the women in my life that have been mother figures to me. You all are such blessings to me.

Jack is twelve months old!

My dear Jack,

You are twelve months old! The last year has been the quickest year of our lives. We blinked and it was time to celebrate your first birthday. My emotions are mixed about your growing up so fast but I'm mostly grateful to be able to watch you develop in a little boy that makes me the proudest mom.

-You weigh 21 1/2 pounds (45th%), you're 31 1/2 inches long (92nd%) and you're in the 98th% head circumference. You are going to do big things with that noggin of yours someday :) You're larger than your sister at this age. You wear 12-18 month clothing, size 4 shoe and a size 3 diaper. 

-You have six teeth and are currently cutting a few more. You love chewing on your baby toothbrush to relieve your teeth pain. 

-You drink whole milk bottles now and handled the switch very well. I do put some karo syrup in your bottle to prevent constipation. Yes, I know karo syrup is just sugar but I would much rather give you a food product than to medicate. You LOVE your milk!

-You are eating everything these days and you like everything. Your favorites are strawberries, eggs, cheese, meat and corn. You eat three meals a day like we do and some snacks in between. You take 3-4 milk bottles a day. No wonder you have grown so much! I can already tell keeping you fed as a teenage boy will be a challenge. 

-You continue to be a true blue mama's boy. You go to other people and are happy as long as I'm not around but if you see me, you want me. You also want me to hold you all day. Even when we're eating supper or getting ready to go somewhere. You just really really love me :) I'm very flattered my son.

-Daddy is your rough housing buddy. He can make you laugh and cackle like no one else can. 

-You don't like to be alone, changing clothes, taking baths (I've learned from your sister it's a short phase but right now you HATE bathtime) and sitting in your highchair. Your patience is short and your temper is quick :)

-You were such a big fan of your wubbanub paci that we feared it would be difficult to take away but you surprised us with how easy you transitioned. You fussed a few minutes a couple nights and that was it. I am so proud of you!

-You sleep like a champ. Normal bedtime is 7-7:30pm and you sleep until 7am! In the last few weeks you've even decided by 6-6:30pm you were ready for bed because you were so tired from playing outside and walking. You also take either one long nap or two short naps a day. Your pediatrician Dr. Lee wants to know my secret for having two excellent sleeping babies :) 

-You are walking! You really took off last week after taking your first steps several weeks ago and then just being content to speed crawl everywhere. Now you are practically running. 

-You are very vocal and have about ten words you use regularly. You also will repeat words and names that you here us say. When it is bedtime you tell us, "bye bye". It's the sweetest thing.

-You love riding in your cozy coupe and trike, playing with a ball, climbing, and being outside. You keep us on our toes with some of your wild boy shenanigans. 

-You think Georgia Grace hung the moon and stars. You watch everything she does in amazement and you want to do big things just like she does. You are blessed to have a built in best friend and sidekick for life.

Our love for you is immeasurable. We didn't realize how much we longed for a son until you came along. Now, I can't imagine my life without he title "boy mom". We love you forever and ever and always!

Love,

Mom

Hello May

I have taken a mini break from writing and picture taking, not sure why but I've just kind of gave myself a rest. It could be because I have zero energy for anything but keeping everyone fed and alive. But summer is around the corner and the laid back days with slower schedules and mornings at the pool are almost here!

We are wearing this boy out playing outside. His new bedtime is 6pm. My new bedtime is midnight because I'm up treating all his clothes with oxiclean.

(I posted this on IG and my friend Alex recommend hydrogen peroxide and shout mixed together and it worked on a blood stain from a nose bleed! The stain had been there for two days, I thought it was hopeless but was so happy about the new remedy!)

She has an ability to make even the gloomy days cheerful. She isn't wearing pants because we had a slow, easy Saturday morning that didn't require them :)

This was our birthday gift to Jack and he's a big fan! Saturday it rained on and off all day but we were outdoors in between the showers.

My Dad took us to Shogun this weekend for a late birthday dinner for me. The last time Jack went to Shogun I was a thousand weeks pregnant and he came five days later :) I have never seen him so still for so long. This was right after he was thrown a shrimp to catch in his mouth LOL! The chef did it for everyone at the table and when Jack realized he was going to be left out he started hollering at him! It was hilarious.

Our baby girl had her half birthday this weekend. There's a full post coming once I get everything caught up but let's just say I was emotional about this. I feel like her third birthday party was yesterday and here we are half a year later. I really need some scientist to figure out the whole slowing down time concoction. I can't let my mind go to how I will feel when she turns 5, 10, 13, 16, 18. My love for her grows exponentially each and every day. 

Sunday afternoon we attended our cousin Marley's Sofia the First Princess birthday party. It was such a fun party with lots of things to do and princess accessories galore.

Everyone dressed like royalty and it was neat to see such a variety. Georgia surprised me and picked Tinkerbell to of her princess closet. 

Georgia always brings us a craft she has made from children's church on Sunday's and this was this week's reward. It makes me so happy to see her learning about Jesus and understanding that prayer should be a part of her daily life. I try to pray with her through the day, not just bedtime. We pray in the mornings on the way to preschool, before meals and when she isn't acting nice and needs to ask for forgiveness. 

We went for a little drive Sunday afternoon, she wanted her window down :)

A ride before bed makes us a sleepyhead. Also, two of his favorite things: 1. Being outside, 2. Being naked.

Georgia girl helped Grandmommma make the rolls for our Monday night dinner. We always eat dinner on Monday nights at their house and she loves to help get it ready. 

Tomorrow is Jack's one year checkup and Georgia's last day of playschool. Maybe I will find some energy to take some pictures of those events :)