Happy Birthday, Hayley!

Today, we have a FOUR year old!! Hard to believe that it was just four years ago our adventures in parenting began. We've learned A LOT, thanks in part to our very thorough teacher, Hayley! She definitely kept us on our toes as a newborn and toddler, but has grown into SUCH a sweet, loving, little girl. She's still a VERY intense little girl. There is no in between for Hayley and her enthusiasm can only be rivaled by her frustrations. She's incredibly curious and can (and does) talk nonstop!

We took Hayley and Todd to Disney a week ago to celebrate her birthday a bit early. We'll celebrate a little more thoroughly this upcoming weekend and Hayley will celebrate with a party at school on Wednesday. Here are a few pics from our trip to Disney!

We spent our first day at Typhoon Lagoon where Hayley had a swell time until the very last wave of the day. Typhoon Lagoon has a huge wave pool which shoots out 6 foot waves. Even in the most shallow end of the pool, it's enough to knock you off your feet. Hayley LOVED the waves and by the end of the day I thought Hayley and I both had enough courage for her to try one wave without me clinging to her. Sure enough, the wave knocked my little light weight over and she scraped her knee, which, if you know Hayley, you know that boo boos are the absolute END of the world. Two weeks later and she still hasn't let me forget that the healing boo boo on her knee is because I didn't hold on tight enough to her. How's that for mommy guilt??!! We did make major progress this trip however because Brian and I were finally able to convince Hayley to wear a band-aid. Hayley has had a HUGE phobia of band-aids for her entire life. Just opening the wrapper was the enough to induce screams of pure terror. Yes, this is definitely a sign my little band-aid wearer is growing up!

The next day we headed to Magic Kingdom where Hayley met Alice in Wonderland and told her all about her mermaid Silly Band. She then did a pirouette which thoroughly impressed Alice.
Next we hit the race track, the merry-go-round, and It's a Small World. Todd was a big fan of the hula dancers in Hawaii.

After an afternoon nap at the condo, we headed back to Magic Kingdom to explore the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and take a ride on the Jungle Cruise. We ended the night watching the Wishes fireworks show which Hayley said was "AMAZING!" She ooed and awwwwed the entire show!


The next morning we headed off to Hollywood Studios.

There wasn't a whole lot to amuse the kids at Hollywood Studios, but the main purpose of our visit was so Hayley could get a picture with every little girl's favorite Disney character... Lightning McQueen. For those of you thinking she'd eventually grow into the princess preference stage... it certainly hasn't happened yet!


Hayley was happy to meet Goofy and Pluto... Todd seemed a bit suspicious of them.


And then we spent some time playing in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground before heading back to the condo to rest and cool off in the pool.


We spent our final evening at Downtown Disney, dining at Hayley's favorite restaurant, T-Rex.



She let everyone know she was turning FOUR!


She was overjoyed when the servers at T-Rex brought her a sundae and sang to her! And Todd was thrilled that his sister was willing to share her special treat!




We spent the last day of our trip at Blizzard Beach. It was a busy, but great trip to Disney!




Here's some video of Todd and Hayley rockin' out to the Disney Playhouse Show we went to at Hollywood Studios. They both LOVED this!

May Activities

The school year is winding down and the temps have finally been getting back to typical Florida lately! We've been enjoying lots of time outside and taking advantage of the return of weekends spent at the pool!

Hayley has been honing her golf skills.

She's "usually" pretty pleased with her caddy.

Todd has made the transition to a big boy bed! Although most nights, this is where we find him. We'll then carry him to his own bed where he sleeps the rest of the night!

Hayley invited me to "Muffins for Mothers" at her school last Friday! I enjoyed a nice story and song.

And then we dined on muffins that Hayley had made with her class. (Well okay, Todd and Hayley dined on muffins... Todd isn't much for sharing his food!!)

How we roll

It may be a Honda, but it's got swagger!! (And yes, this is what happens to your sense of humor when you become a minivan owner!)

A Pitiful Pity Party

I need sympathy in a bad way. No, scratch that. I DESERVE sympathy in a bad way. Mama has had her second tummy bug in the period of a month. To put it mildly, my stomach HATES me right now. After a happy Easter and weekend of celebrating Mr. Todd's 2nd birthday (see pics below), Hayley managed to come down with a sudden stomach flu over a week ago. Now, I just have to brag because my children sure do know how to share.

But this was a bad bug. I even have the proof.

Yep, Todd and Hayley were rendered completely immobile for about 2 days. It's taken a full week for them to get their stomachs back to normal to the point that they will eat. I'm still not to that point and Brian seems to be fighting a touch of all this as well. Not fun.

Luckily, before the plague we had some fun! We had a great weekend celebrating Todd's SECOND birthday! I can hardly believe my big boy is 2! I'm pretty sure he grew three inches the week of his birthday and I've had several people ask me if he's a three year old lately. He absolutely adores his big sister (most of the time) and is developing his own personality. His favorite things right now are cars, footballs, and cowboys (which are actually cows... he calls them cowboys).

They say it's my birthday!


It was a beautiful day to do what little boys do best, explore nature!

My cousins stopped by...


... and brought gifts!


Then I got to enjoy a big piece of Mama's Chocolate Beet Cake!

Easter Photos

Todd has decided that big boy beds are cool... most nights anyways!

Some photos from our Easter festivities!

We colored Easter eggs.

And attended the church Easter egg hunt.

Where Hayley got to do her first potato sack race

And Todd had a frightening encounter with the Easter Bunny. Yep, that bunny is PRETTY scary!!

Sniffle City

It's been a fairly hectic, yet uneventful two weeks here as we battled the sniffles. Hayley brought home her first cold of the year a week ago and was kind enough to share with her brother. I've been VERY grateful that a respiratory virus was our biggest problem since I've lived in fear of the "YACK" bug that has been going around here. All of my friends have had it and it's highly contagious which means it spread through each of their households like wildfire. The general consensus about the "YACK" bug is that you MUST lock yourself in the bathroom for approximately 8 hours. No thank you.

So, as sick as it sounds, I welcomed the common cold with open arms this year, grateful it wasn't the alternative. Hayley never got really sick, but this was Todd's first encounter with a fever type virus and he absolutely didn't handle it well. But seeing as how his Daddy, who has now been hit with the respiratory virus, is passed out on the couch... well, Todd and Daddy MUST have had a MUCH worse virus then Hayley and Mommy did. And I'm not surprised that Hayley brought a bug home in the first place. Just a week ago I found all the vitamins I'd been giving her for a month, stuffed under my couch!!!! Apparently Hayley is NOT a fan of Juice Plus' new formula!

I've been experimenting with my new toy, a digital SLR camera. To put it mildly, I know NOTHING about photography, other than the fact that I knew I wanted a SLR so I could quit missing those awesome shots of my little darlings. Since Brian spent two years of his life on a plane (thanks GE), we had SkyMiles that we had to use or lose. Since a romantic trip to Europe seems to be out of the question in the foreseeable future, we decided to squander our miles on the camera. Anyhow, when I have some free time (ha, ha), I'm hoping to find a photography class or at least spend some time researching the art of photography and learning about this camera.


Here's some pics from our last two weeks:

T-Rod is too cool for school.

Some time at the park.

We spent an afternoon flying our new kite!

And then took some laps around the baseball field. Hayley LOVES to run and already has her sights set on running Disney's Princess Half Marathon with Mommy. It's for "princesses" you know.

A sign that spring is here! The cranes have a new set of twins and have been making their daily trek through our yard each morning and night. Hayley has named them Mommy, Daddy, Hayley and Todd. Unique, don't you think?

Another muffin breakfast Saturday...

... another appearance by the Muffin Top Monster. The "Monster" is getting increasingly bold. This time he dug his grubby monster paws into THREE muffins while Daddy was out for a run and Mommy was at the computer.

But Hayley? Oh, she saw the Muffin Top Monster and was able to give us a full report again, only this time she was MUCH more confident in her story. Apparently she's realized that we're big enough suckers that there's no reason for her to hide. Should I be concerned about how easy this story is for her to tell?? I told her that we needed to call the police and she dutifully and enthusiastically agreed to tell the police officer exactly what happened and would also give him a full description of the hairy, pink perpetrator with sharp teeth. Is lying to the police a felony or a misdemeanor?

The Muffin Top Monster

We've got a monster. A muffin top monster to be exact. I'd never heard of a Muffin Top Monster before, but apparently Hayley knows all about them. In a nutshell, Muffin Top Monsters eat muffin tops... while their bakers are in another room... and then they hide when the Daddy baker tells the Mommy baker that "something" has nibbled the top of the muffin that was sitting on top of the counter. I suppose the fact that they hide is a good thing though. Because at least we know that Muffin Top Monsters are aware that they aren't supposed to be eating muffin tops from the counter. It's good to have a monster with a conscience.

New Kid

We've adopted. And I'm doing my best to not think of our new "baby" as a red headed stepchild. But it's oh, SO HARD when this new kid has completely robbed me of any remaining coolness points I had left after the birth of Todd and Hayley. Todd and Hayley on the other hand think the new family member is the best thing ever. But they are young and foolish and I'm sure in 10 years the new kid will embarrass them as much as it does me. Meet the new kid:


Mark my words, my next car will be a two-door Ferrari.

To put it lightly, this was an emotional experience for me. Particularly since I swore up and down that I'd NEVER drive a minivan. But really, what's one more meal in the seemingly endless dinners of crow that compose parenthood? And, I've been able to provide some entertainment for those around me. Just days after bringing home my new baby, my parents sent me this lovely package in the mail:Thanks Mom and Dad! It only took me an hour to dry my tears and remind myself that my next car would be a Ferrari. I seem to be sliding down a very slippery slope... please, someone come slap me if you catch me wearing "Mom jeans."

My next car will be a Ferrari. My next car will be a Ferrari. My next car will be a Ferrari. My next car....