So, I know you are sick of Disney posts by now, but that's my fault. In a perfect world I would have them all posted back to back, but let's face it. I'm not perfect. (WHAT????? I know, I'm shocked too. But you get over it quickly.) Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot about this day, probably because we were on day 4 of our vacation and we were just trying to cram in and enjoy everything we could.

We took the kids to Animal Kingdom this day and it was the perfect day to go. It's a smaller park so we could get around to everything without feeling like we had to rush to hit everything. We started with the safari, which was lots of fun! The kids loved finding all the animals and trying to match them to the sign on the top of the "jeep" we rode in.

Later we took them to Dino-land and the kids went nuts. The parents relaxed, wait, I take that back. You could lose a kid in less than .05 seconds in this place. Scary!!! ONCE we had them contained in the digging area (it's tons and tons of tiny rocks) we could relax. I wanted to take my shoes off and walk around there barefoot b/c my feet hurt and it sounded like it would feel good, but there was an old man on guard and you were not allowed to do this.


This little guy just needed his digger and he would have parked it the entire day. He was in heaven.

And THAT my friends, is the end of our trip. Melissa has a much better post here about this day if you are interested.

Can I tell you just how funny Sophie is please? She is hilarious! Yes, she can drive us crazy sometimes and I am going to lose my hearing early thanks to the volume that she chooses to speak at, but I adore her. Sometimes it's really hard to get mad at her when she does something wrong b/c she is so funny! I tend to put the little funny things the kids do on Facebook b/c it's quick and easy, but I want to make sure I put them on here too so I have a record of it.

Let's start with Saturday night. We were at Baytowne Wharf and the kids were trick or treating at all the shops, but every time Christopher or his friend Landon would stop she would stick her arm out, move her hand back and forth and yell, "Keep going! Keep going! Don't stop! Keep going!" I was rolling b/c I was the only one who heard her. This is the first year that she got Halloween.

Next is Sunday night. We were trick or treating with the same family and after every... single... house she come running from the door yelling, "Me got so much candy in my bucket!!!" Every. Single. House. All the adults were laughing by now. She definitely has a sweet tooth and trying to contain it is tough.

Fast forward a little to Tuesday morning. Christopher goes to preschool and when I don't have MOPS, Sophie and I get to have a girls day together. Every morning the kids ask me where we are going that day and when I told her Target she started to squeal, jump up and down and shout "Can me get those monkey jommies?" (we were there Saturday and she picked a bunny pair over the monkey ones) and before I could say, "We'll see," she starts yelling, "Me be good. Me stay with you. Me not run away. Me no need to ride in the cart. Me be good. Then can me get monkey jommies?" Then she proceeded to go get herself dressed (not matching), fix herself breakfast, get her baby ready (who now goes EVERYWHERE with us), get the baby's bed and put it in the car and then continue to tell me to hurry so that we could go to Target. As soon as we drop Christopher off, we plop baby in his booster seat, throw on a seat belt and off we go. She was really good and waited patiently while I tried on one thing after another, something I never do because I hate trying stuff on, but I was determined to find skinny jeans and leggings with something to go with it. Then we finally made it to the monkey "jommies" and what did she pick? A pair without monkeys on it. Oh well!

I think I'm going to have to start wearing Depends because after having these two I have zero bladder control and they make me laugh (and want to pull out my hair) all the time!

Well, today I had to go to Destin because I was slam out of makeup and well, I look like I'm 14 again with the way I've been breaking out, so I had to go and it's my only day without children. Also, when I go to Destin without children (the only way I prefer to go if I'm the only adult) I have to stay until it's time to pick the kids up. Not good because it's all shopping. BUT, I did really well last month on saving money AND I've made some money from thirty-one, so I figured I could do a little bit of this. I hit up Forever 21 first. (Thankfully Brandon doesn't mind because he's excited about my new pants too.) I wandered and wandered and wandered forever. Tried on one thing after another and bought myself some things to go with my new pants and I'm very excited. It was POURING too, so it kind of took the fun out of spending the day at an outdoor mall, but I still enjoyed my quiet time.

Then I went to Gymboree. Does anyone else think that Gymboree thinks highly of themselves? I know lots of people that shop there, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I was going to get her another pair of socks like I bought (out of desperation) back at Easter, but forgot that I paid $10 for 2 pair. I must have REALLY been desperate because I wanted to throw them at the lady that worked there. But I did find some leggings to go with a top I bought Sophie months ago and thought I could find the leggings that match everywhere, but apparently everyone else in town wanted them too. I just need to swap the blue button on the top, but I probably won't. She never really stops moving long enough for to see if she really matches. They are also a little long, but you can't open them to see how big they are. Better than too small I say!

I also found her a Halloween costume for next year. I am very proud and hope that she wears it when the time comes. It was only $8.99 and I was not going to pass it up. It is made MUCH better than the cheap-o ones they sell in the stores everywhere else.


Not that you care about my shopping today, but I haven't done this in a while so it was fun. I actually had an hour to kill when I was done. I thought I'd walk around more and browse, but the pouring down rain sort of killed that plan. I went to pick up the kids and they had fun at school. I'm so glad that I have the chance to send them somewhere they love going to and know that they are taken care of in a loving, Christian environment. We are up there 4-5 days a week and will miss it when we move. Speaking of, we have to put in our official list of places we'd like to go next week!!! Yikes!!!!! We are hoping that we can finalize it Friday night when we get a date night. Which reminds me, I need to make sure our friends know that we are taking them up on their offer! Better get on that...

I'm going to try to make this quick (yeah, right!) because I have more laundry waiting for me. I have done 8 loads this weekend and that's not counting the week's laundry too. Not sure why we had so much, but we did. Anyway, our weekend did not start out as we had thought. Christopher started throwing up Friday afternoon and did until he went to bed about 8:00 that night. Brandon had a patient go into labor around 4:00 Friday afternoon and didn't get home until about 8:30 Saturday morning. She didn't deliver until 6:00 Saturday morning, so he was fried.

Christopher was supposed to play in his last basketball game Saturday morning, but well, he missed it. He was feeling better (woke up at 2:30 in the morning wanting water and to watch a movie), but I wasn't convinced yet. I sent Brandon to bed, loaded the kids in the van with the money they received as Halloween treats from family and took them to the BX to buy a toy. Then we headed to Target. Sophie lost her toy between the outside of the store and the carts at the entrance and I was so mad I told her too bad and threw the kids in the cart and off we went. Christopher was starting to look a little tired so I grabbed only 2 of the things we went to buy and grabbed a movie at the checkout counter. It was only $10 and I refuse to pay more than that for a movie, so I threw it in the cart. I had a feeling I was going to need it later that day.

We head out the door and off go the alarms. I turn around and head to the help section and the lady tells me not to worry about it and to go on. Suddenly the kids yell, "There's Sophie's toy!!" and I look up and there is a little Sleeping Beauty with only her top on. That's her toy alright, so we grab it and head out the door. Again.

We stop at AC Moore to buy some ribbon to finish Christopher's costume, which I'm just praying we actually get to use and head back home for lunch. We eat, put Sophie in bed with Brandon and Christopher and I lie on the couch to watch our new movie. Brandon gets up and sends me to bed (I only got a few hours b/c I couldn't go back to sleep after Christopher woke up), where I crash for 2 hours. (We had a really crazy week and it hit all of us.) We wake up and I finish Chrisotpher's costume and we decide to pass on our original plan for the evening and head to Baytowne Wharf instead. It was a good decision. Christopher's costume breaks before we get in so it rides on the stroller the rest of the evening. We trick or treat, eat pizza, watch fireworks and get to bed too late.

Sunday we head to church, get there late. Come home eat lunch, late. Put Sophie down for a nap, I finally fold all the laundry that has built up in one corner of the house and then we fix Christopher's costume and head to a friend's house to have some fun treats and then do the candy thing. We come home and crash and the kids slept until 7:30 this morning. It was great!

NOW, on to the costumes......

Christopher originally wanted to be the gray and blue Batman. Could only find it in toddler sizes. Was going to make it but knew that would be horrible so we decided to be a dump truck driver. Spray paint some boxes, add a little construction paper, draw with a little marker and voila! You've got a truck driver. Sophie was going to be Spiderman. Then she changed her mind when we borrowed a Minnie Mouse costume from our friend Ainsley. I know she's my kid, but I feel like she is the cutest Minnie Mouse I've ever seen. I think it's the curls. And the huge cheesy grin she flashes. They were very proud of their costumes.... and I was proud that we only spent around $10-12 on them.


We lost the truck about halfway through trick or treating. It was starting to hurt his neck. I don't blame him. Then he got tired of the hat. So eventually he just became a boy getting candy from strangers.

This morning we woke up to temps in the upper 40s. It's a harvest miracle! We have been in the mid 80s and humid like a rainforest for a week now and it's been miserable! We carved our pumpkin a few weeks ago and within a few days it smelled horrible. Now it truly is a scary pumpkin! Even Christopher said we need to toss it.... and it's HIS pumpkin!

Now, this is "wear" I need some help. (hahaha!) With the cooler temps finally here (and hopefully to stay) I want to add a few pieces to my wardrobe. Who doesn't when new seasons come around? On a fabulous note, we have a Forever 21 that opened up in the area and I have not made it in there yet, but I'm very exited to go inside and drool for a while. And the fact that it doesn't hurt our budget is the best part! I'm a late bloomer when it comes to fashion, so this year I feel like I'm finally ready for (close your eyes Casey!) skinny jeans and leggings. I've stayed away from them b/c I honestly did not know how to wear them and after having Sophie I've had a really hard time finding just a regular pair of jeans to fit, so going beyond that was not an option.

I see people wearing leggings all the time and they are really cute. I tried a top I thought would work while I was a Target, but I looked like I had pajamas on. Probably b/c the bottom of it was cut just like a night shirt I sleep in. So now that I feel comfortable wearing the more fitted pants, I desperately need help picking out the tops that go with them. Or the shoes. I'm a little clueless when it comes to fashionable things. I need help in the "pick it out for me" sense. And it needs to be on a Target, Old Navy, Forever 21 budget. We still need to buy the family Christmas presents after all!

Last thing I wanted to mention was we have a Papa Murphy's here now. I have never been there, never heard of it, totally new to it, but our friends that moved here from the rest of the country are very excited about this. Apparently they make pizzas and you pick them up and take them home to bake. And since we are insane about eating pizza this is huge for us!! We will try any and every pizza place we can find. When the kids are grown and we retire I dream of traveling the world trying all the best pizzas out there. I think I will be buried with my hot rod pizza cutter that we got when we got married. It's awesome!! Well, I'm off to get ready for our chilly day. We have plans to hang at the children's park and then head over for our first parent/teacher conference. Naps, then off to Papa Murphey's or Mellow Mushroom for dinner with Brandon. I'll take either..... or both please!!!

(Maybe I should rethink about buying skinny pants if I'm going to be eating all this pizza...)

Finally! Here are the photos from day three of our trip to Disney. By this day the kids were pretty tired, so we made it to Hollywood Studios in the morning. Rode on the Buzz Lightyear ride, took a photo with Buzz and Woody and then went home for lunch and naps. The park is loads of fun, but it's mostly shows and not really rides. We felt naps were much more important if we were going to try to make it for the fireworks that evening.

After much needed naps and some playtime for the bigger kids, we went back to Magic Kingdom for a few more rides, supper and then the fireworks. 


 

Today at the park Sophie was a model for Joia's newest addition to her Sugar and Spice line. Click here if you want to check it out. We had fun at Marler Park with the Newells and the Dooleys. I've realized that every Friday, for the last couple weeks, we have gone to a park to play. It's been awesome! We always meet different people there and it's always a different park, but it's always fun!

Notice her hair? It's actually pulled back. Christopher wanted a mohawk and she wanted one too. His stayed for the most part. I told her the best I could do was a ponytail on top of her head. It was one of those days I was just glad they had on clothes and the fact she wanted something in her hair was the cherry on top. It was definitely a dramatic morning at our house, but I think that naps and some alone time has helped us all.

Hope you have a great weekend and I promise I will finish the Disney post soon. I've been trying to sew again and learn how to line a bag and how to add a zipper. So far so good! Not perfect, but the kids don't notice the flaws.

See you soon!

Here are the pics from Brandon's camera on day two. (Breakfast with princesses and meeting Brandon's sister and her family at Epcot then back to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon.)

i'm so sleepy. wish that the rest of the disney photos would upload themselves.


I know, I know. I really need to put the rest of the photos from our trip on here. Problem is one week in our lives is insanely busy. The next week isn't. Then it's crazy again. Then it isn't. (are you picking up on the pattern yet?) I'm not exaggerating. Literally one week has some place to be every day and the next week I don't. Just the way it goes right now. But good news! This is a slow week and I'm not letting myself buy anything except bread and milk, so that means I am sitting at home tomorrow while the kids are at school and I can update the blog again.

Or sew.

Maybe both.

See you later!