Disney World!

Disney World. As a parent these two small words can either conjure thoughts of magic and wonder, or start you hyperventilating with the onset of a panic attack. Funnily enough for my kids they have a parent on both sides of the spectrum. To me the thought of heading to Disney is pure elation. The world breaks into song ad the animals are dancing to the rhythm while I twirl in a magical ball gown amidst showers of glitter and stars and pixie dust...Oh, ahem, sorry for falling down the rabbit hole there! :) For my Husband it is more about ridiculous lines and crowds and waiting and frustration not to mention the fact that everything is incredibly over priced (in general he is not one to fret about pricing, but come on, a buffet meal for 4 that costs over $100? Ridiculous.). I don't know how I finally did it, but I convinced him that a trip to Disney would be the absolute perfect vacation this year. The "magical thinking" window is quickly closing for Ameryn and Rogan is totally in love with Toy Story at the moment. He agreed to try 3 days at the parks and I was hitting the Internet trying to plan everything out. Have you ever tried to plan a Disney vacation? Let me just tell you, nightmare. There are like 448,687,2048 different options to look at and you want to make sure that you get to do just enough to be fun, but not so much that the trip is exhausting. Luckily, we were given the name of this awesome lady who calls herself "Dizney Donna." She was an absolute Godsend and was able to do everything to get us ready to go. She even booked us character dining for each day we were there. I was afraid that we would be unable to do this since all of the travel books say that you need to book character dining (especially princess dining, which was a must) 6 months in advance. We started planning a month before the trip. Yeah. We were booked and ready to go in no time. We stayed in the All Star Movies resort in the Toy Story area. Rogan was in awe of the giant Woody and Buzz statues! It was nice that R.C. was right in front of our room and they could play in him.

Let me let the pictures do the talking for awhile... She was so excited to get to meet the princesses!

Her very favorite is Aurora, and she loved the fact they were matching.

Overall the trip was a huge success. No lines, getting to experience the magic and wonder of Disney from a whole new perspective, hearing my night terror child laughing in his sleep, and seeing him cry because he was going to miss all of his new "friends," getting to ride Space Mountain and the "yeti" over and over with my little dare devil, and best of all, hearing my husband saying that he had fun after all and would like to go back!

Planes, Trains, and Four Dancing Men

Let me start this post with a little fun fact :) . Before I had kids I worked in a daycare. The kids would occasionally come in with a video that they wanted to share with the class. That was how I was first introduced to The Wiggles, Bob the Builder, and such. I had seen other kids shows before, such as Barney and Thomas and Friends, and I was never that impressed. Barney was just down right annoying with the children's extreme overacting and songs about everything from using your inside voice to the different kinds of bread there are. I was not too impressed with Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder ...eh, and the Wiggles? The songs were catchy, but a bunch of grown men doing the "Shaky Shaky?" Seems a little off to me. I knew that I would never be playing these programs in my house! I would have to search out some Care Bears and Rainbow Bright before my kids came along. Then my sweet girl entered the world. Entered the world with an affinity for The Wiggles. I don't know how or when she saw them for the first time, but once she did it was over. She would jump up and dance like crazy whenever she heard them. And you know what? That was OK with me! Just to watch her having so much fun dancing along to the beat, singing every lyric, was enough to have me hooked on them as well. Looking back on it, I was a little harsh on Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff. They must be some pretty smart guys. With their bright clothing, silly songs, and lovable friends they were sure to be a hit with little kids. And boy are they with mine! With Rogan came the world of Thomas and Friends on the little island of Sodor. He loves them so much that I don't mind the fact that I can name every engine, or the fact that we have a CD of some rockin railway tunes that we listen to in the car (yes, I can sing all of the songs, and the kids and I sing them in English accents). Chris built Rogan his very own "Sodor" for his bedroom that Rogan plays with every day. I am not annoyed with kids shows anymore, in fact I kind of like them now. We are finally at the stage where Disney movies are becoming a hit. Rogan and I had to play "Princess and the Frog" for weeks after we went to see it. I got to be the princess and he would give me a kiss. It was a pretty fun game :) . I can sing along to just about every Disney song ever released (OK, I could do that before, but now I have an excuse) and love it when Ameryn and I are belting out "He's a Tramp" at the top of our lungs. It is funny how your perspective changes as a parent. If something makes my child happy, I am happy too. I just had to learn how to look at things. Before I was looking at them as an adult who couldn't really get past the goofiness of some programs. Now I am looking at them through the eyes of a child, my child, and I love what I see.

Here We Go Again...

Here we go again...potty training. I potty trained Rogan directly after he turned two. We had a rough few days, where I seriously considered letting go back to diapers for life, but then things got better and better each day! He is completely trained during the day, but let that boy go to sleep and all bets are off. I have been waiting and waiting for his little body to show me that he is ready to attempt nap and night training, but he is still waking up with a wet pull up! he will be three in two months, so Chris and I have decided to just go ahead and try it. We will have to restrict drinks a few hours before bed and set the alarm so we can take him in the middle of the night. I know that things might get a little messy, but I hope that his body will respond well to this and start waking up on its own! If you have any tips, or have been through something similar let me know! :)

Wish him (and me:) luck!

Best Friends

Ameryn and Kaley, they are so many things! Let me show you what just a few of them are!
They are first make overs, drama and all! They are adventurers in freshly fallen leaves. Watch out for the natives!They are fashion models. They are "pick me up, and then I will pick you up!"They are first slumber parties,
and silly faces.
They are "Let's have fun with the kids," and "Take a picture of this!" But more than anything else, they are Best Friends!!

Boys Will Be Boys

Awww...Look at that sweet little man-child!

But don't let those beautiful blue eyes fool you, he is a wild man at heart! For this boy asking him for a "smacker" (which to Ameryn means a sweet kiss) will get you a smack in the face! This is the boy who while I was changing him out of his pajamas got the two play nails he was holding stuck in his shirt and cried out "Oh, No! My weapons!" This is also the little man who loves to pee in unusual places (excuse my bluntness). Once while we were in a park where the bathrooms were locked we had no choice but to let him use what was available to him. In this case it was a nice secluded tree. To him that has apparently made all trees within the realm of "OK places to pee" because he recently used a couple of trees on Sodor to relieve himself instead of having to stop playing to use the toilet!
Do you see the two trees by the helipad on the right? Yeah, those are the ones. But what can I say, boys will be boys, and I love mine to death!

Holiday Flashback II

Christmas was so fun this year! This was Rogan's first year to really understand what was going on, and the first year that he did not burst into tears on Santa's lap. They were both really into the lights and decorations, and we are lucky enough to live directly across the street from some of the most exuberant decorators ever! Chris worked really hard on Rogan's gift this year. He made him "Sodor", the Island where Thomas the train lives. He made it to where it can be easily lifted off of the train table so that Rogan still has a place to play cars when the mood hits him :) . Ameryn got a beautiful Lee Middleton doll, whom she named "Alice." We spent Christmas eve with Chris' side of the family. Rogan was very excited at the sight of all the gifts around the tree! Ameryn was so happy to get to show off her Christmas dress (that she bought with her own money:).

I was able to sneak some good shots of Sonny, Chris' Grandfather on his Dad's side.

"Pease can I open pwesents Kay?"

That's a heavy one!

Ameryn loves jewelry!

Uncle John is helping her out with her Barbie :)

Pop and Sonny (Pop is Chris' Mom's Dad).

Rogan was so worn out that he fell asleep on the way home. And stayed asleep through getting him out of the car, into the house,...

and getting his jammies on! Ameryn set out brownies (that's how we roll) and milk for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer before jumping into bed. While visions of sugar plums danced in there heads,

Santa dropped by and left them some great things!

Their favorites; however, came from Chris and me!

This is Ameryn's Lee Middleton doll she named "Alice,"

and here is Rogan's awesome "Island of Sodor"
complete with a sound board for real train noises and Sodor theme songs! Altogether we had such a wonderful Christmas this year, full of friends, family, and fun! I hope that your Christmas was as great as ours was!