Me and The Mouse...

Not just any mouse, THE Mouse...you know M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Growing up in Orlando, we (my family) called Disney, The Mouse...

If you remember, this is what we gave our kids for Christmas. We left on January 28, got to Orlando on the 29th, and had a week of much family fun...

There really was something special about bringing my kids back to a place I got to visit as a little girl. I was quite giddy on the trip going down! I took pictures as we entered Georgia and Florida...and I even took a picture of the sign to Gainesville (boo) for my nephew...(it was where Micah decided he needed to stop for lunch, and Caleb wondered aloud, "Why don't they sell Tennessee stuff here?" We are happy to have made it out alive.....I have signs for welcome centers, Disney, Magic Kingdom and our resort. Those were just a few of the 1,400 pictures I uploaded to my computer.

The afternoon we got there, it was 75 degrees! In January! It was then I understood why people spend the winter in Florida. While I would not choose Orlando, I told Mike I want a winter home by the beach...

We changed into shorts (yippee!)and began to explore the resort and Downtown Disney...where we saw the Lego Store and the most amazing Lego creations I have ever seen...not to mention the world's largest Disney Store...

We got to take a boat ride to Downtown Disney from our resort...

...and then back to the resort for dinner with my brother, who met Micah for the first time and who my kids love to be around (enter one single uncle with no kids who likes to get them riled up...)

The kicker here is, I forgot to take pictures of Casey with my kids...

At our restaurant, we had a sweet lady server who was from Taiwan. Every time we would thank her for something, she would say "Thank you." This became a game for my brother who was determined to get her to say "Your Welcome." He would say "Thank you very much." And she would say, "Thank you." And he would say, "Your Welcome." At the end of the meal she said "Thank you." and bowed to him...We are still texting each other many times a week just to say, Thank you.

End. Day one. In Orlando...tomorrow...Animal Kingdom...

And I would have blogged from Disney, even shared pictures along the way...but The Mouse...well, he charges $10 a day for internet...

Blessed...

What a life I have. Really. I have been blessed beyond measure.
January is my "birthday month" I really do like to celebrate. All. month. long.
I am a birthday person. I don't care if people know my age. I am still young. Right? I do like to be celebrated. I am sanguine in personality. I like to have fun. I like to be noticed. They say sanguines are like otters...they just want to play all day...that is me. And so, I like to be celebrated.
I am very fortunate that the people in my life know this about me!

And so, my birthday month started with my sister inviting us over the Sunday before my birthday to celebrate the "January" birthday's (there are 4 in our family)
The morning of my birthday, my little sweeties made me breakfast in bed...Caleb "cooked" (turkey bacon and toast), Rebekah made the card, and Elisa made me flowers out of tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and straws, and put them in a glass for my vase.

I had invited my parents to come cook for me (yes, I really asked them to do this) the night of my birthday. Mike had to work a night shift, and I was sad not to have him here, so Mom and Dad came over with chicken to fry for the kids and I. Or so I thought.
After they arrived, Mike woke up, (he had worked the night before) and gave me purple tulips and a card. Inside the card it said "get dressed and let's go get some sushi." (I wasn't sitting there naked, just had not done much with myself that day)
I looked at him and said, "but you have to leave for work in an hour." He said, "not tonight, I took the first 4 hours off so I could take you to dinner."
You see, after he heard that I had called my parents to come cook for me on my birthday, he called them and told them of his plans and asked if they would cook for the kids and babysit...
Oh, how I love this man. I am surprised very little, and he surprised me. I felt so loved...and the sushi was so awesome :)

Saturday after my birthday, Mike had a Feed You Faith men's conference. I got to spend part of the day with Sarah, Joy, Leigh, and Amy helping out. Sarah surprised me with an amazing gift. She had started a quilt for Micah before he was born and had finished it. She brought it into the church and I started to cry. The quilt is so beautiful and so special because she and Laurel worked, and worked, and worked on it together for my little boy. And I love it.

It is "tradition" among a group of my friends (4 of us to be exact) to take each other out on our birthday's. We started this the year we turned 31, I believe...Joy, Tamara and I are all the same age, though I get to be the one to turn 36 first...and Lydia, Joy's sister...is a few years older than us...
Anyway, they took me out last Friday. Tamara wanted to start a new tradition of writing down, and then telling the "birthday girl" three affirming things about her. I do have to say "Words of Affirmation" is my love language. So, to have three of my closest friends go around the table three times to tell me something affirming about me was the most amazing thing...my heart was full...I even forgot there were birthday gifts waiting for me!

This week will finish out my birthday month with a trip to Disney, and my baby turning 6 months....does it get any better than this?

New Year....

Goodbye 2009, you will be missed...

What a year it was! Last year was an amaing year for me....I saw my marriage strengthened, many prayers answered, my kids growing and healthy, a baby boy on an ultrasound, Caleb's baptism, another great school year together, and the birth of Micah, causing us to go from a party of five to a party of six!

I also saw Mike having to have surgery for a kidney stone that was no longer there, a kidney infection and pneumonia, Bekah lose 6 teeth (not that that was a bad thing..I am just waiting for them to come back in!) , our old van "die", a potential fire, a water leak,and Mike's Grandmother pass away.

Through the good and bad, I have seen God be faithful to our family. We are blessed beyond measure.



So...I have gone through last years blogs (not that there were too many...) and thought I would post the first sentence of the last blog of each month...(sometimes the last was the first!)



January: (I had to post the last sentence from this one, it was too funny)

Elisa says, " Yes, Daddy, Mommy is the queen, Bekah and I are the princesses, and Caleb is the servant!."



February:

Yippee! tomorrow is the last day of February. It has become my least favorite month of the year.



March:

Today I became an Aunt for the 9th time...and my sister became a mommy for the 6th, giving birth to her second daughter, Cecelia Grace....



April:

Last year when we moved in to our new house, my mom took me around the yard to tell me which plants were which, and which flowers were which...I am not good at that.



May:

A week ago I had a list made for Mike and I of things I wanted to accomplish by this weekend so we could have my (favorite) Aunt and Uncle stay with us, while other company was in staying at my parents.



June:

So, I have never had "maternity" pictures taken before...I always thought I don't want to remember how big I actually get when I am pregnant!!



July:

For the past five and a half years, we have been a party of five...I thought I was so clever to name my blog and email address by the same name...I love my little party of five...One amazing husband and three kids who I think the world of.



August:

Our precious boy, Micah James, entered the world on Thursday, July 30 at 2:47 p.m.



September:

Thank you, Sarah...for reminding me to not only think of three beautiful things today, but to post them...



October:

Yesterday afternoon I started going through the seven totes of clothes I have of winter clothes for the girls. (we are very blessed to have people hand down clothes to us and we have an abundance.)



November:

I blog...I do...it is just blogging in my head lately.



December:

This past weekend I was able to get out all my Christmas totes and start decorating for Christmas.

5 months...

Why is it when you have 5 months left in your pregnancy it seems to take forever, but get those little people here, and it flies by.

My little Micah is now 5 months old! He has given me 5 months of joy, smiles, giggles, love, hugs, and kisses...but you already know that, since I don't seem to hide my feelings for him.

So, I wanted to do a brother comparison, since I found the outfit Caleb was wearing just after he turned 5 months. I do have to say, the following picture is my favorite of him, and well, just about the cutest thing ever. I can't believe he was sitting up (very well) on his own and that I just snapped this at the right time...so perfectly. I say that because trying to recreate this with Micah led to Pooh Bear in his mouth most of the time!

My 2000 baby boy...

My 2009 baby boy...

Christmas Scavenger hunt....

For Christmas this year, Mike and I decided to do something different. My kids have toys upon toys and clothes upon clothes...and truth be told, they were stripped of all of their toys earlier in the Fall because of poor attitudes...

So, with Christmas coming up we decided we didn't want to just give them a whole new batch of "things." A friend of mine, who had a baby a month after me, told me how they were going to Disney in February. After my initial "are you nuts? with a baby?" reaction, I realized taking them now would be a pretty good idea becuase once Micah starts walking, and wanting out of a stroller, it might be more challenging...that and Caleb is an "adult" by Disney standards after March.

And so, the idea was born for a Christmas morning scavenger hunt. (thanks to Lydia) And I will say that yes, they did get gifts under the tree, mostly from the Disney Store...but not quite like they are used to....and Elisa pointed that out when she came to get me Christmas morning...

"Good morning, Mommy, Merry Christmas. Our tree isn't very full this year, but at least my stocking is."

Mike is the one who came up with the scavenger hunt since I wasn't feeling so great Christmas Eve...and I am so glad he did because it was so much better than what I had in my mind...and the kids loved it...

Clue#1 :
(picture of Cinderella's castle)
A beautiful princess has a wonderful home.
Bekah, take your family to this castle in our house.

#2:
(pic. of map of Florida)

Way down south there is a state where Mommy grew up.
Elisa, take your family to a place in the house that has a map of this location

#3:
(pic of monorail)

You may get tired walking all day. It might help if you ride on a train.
Caleb, take your family to a place in the house that used to have a lot of trains.

#4:
(pic of glass slipper)

I sure wouldn't want to lose this shoe if I wanted to marry my prince.
Bekah, take your family to a place that would be a good place to keep shoes.


#5:
(pic of Pirates of Carribean)

We love to "ride" with Pirates of the Carribean.
Caleb, take your family to a film that was inspired by this idea.


#6:
(pic of Snow White)

I sure would like to eat breakfast with you, but you must be dressed right.
Elisa, take your family to a dress that would be suitable to wear to breakfast with Snow White.


#7:
(photo montage of Disney movies)
Lots of wonderful movies put out on the "big screen" over the years!
To figure out the reason for this hunt, politely find a seat in front of our "big screen"

At this point, Mike turned on our Disney planning dvd and we watched their faces. I am crying because I am so excited and they just watch the show...so we finally said, "Does anyone know what your gift is?" And they looked at one another and then us and finally Elisa said, "Are we going to Disney?!" (yes, they can be taught!) And then shreiking and screaming commenced!

I really think they were scared to ask for fear that was NOT what the gift was!
It made for a great morning for us and we actually ended up watching the whole dvd and got excited as a family for this trip, one month from today!

I love...

I love this...

Precious

Chubby cheeked

Happy

Upside down

Curious

Giggling

Thumbsucking

Baby boy

Snow!!

Last Saturday the girls ran into my room to wake me up announcing "We have snow!" We haven't had much snow in the last three or four years, and certainly not this early, so this was a fun surprise...

And so before heading out to our church's Happy Birthday Jesus party, the kids ran out to play for a little bit...

and then back out for sledding after the party...

Why Rebekah decided it was ok to go out without a coat, I don't know...

Micah enjoyed watching the snow fall...but as far as actually being out in it...

...not so much...