Meet Bubblegum!

We decided to join in the frenzy this year and an Elf on the Shelf was delivered to our doorstep via the North Pole this afternoon. I think this is the cutest, most fun idea ever!!! Brayden and Sophia's elf had already joined their house when we sent to Savannah for Thanksgiving, so Maddie already knew all about it. She was so excited opening the package and Daddy read the book to the kiddos. They have named our elf.......Bubblegum!

The trick is going to be keeping the elf out of Turner's hands. The fun is going to be hiding it every night and discovering what mischief the elf has gotten into in the morning:) Pinterest has a ton of ideas and I am excited that Bubblegum will be with us the next 25 nights. I plan on posting about some of his mischief in the upcoming days. We shall see if this affects their behavior.....if so I am coming up with an Easter Bunny helper as well!!

Thanksgiving 2011!

We had a great Thanksgiving spending time with those we love! We were in Savannah for Thanksgiving where we visited with the WHOLE family. Nonna had a full house and my pictures will prove it:) We then went to my parents house Saturday night to eat with them. We have so much to be thankful and most of them are in these pictures!

Disclaimer-Turner did have on pants at my parents house originally. He also had on underwear which he pee'd in while hiding out in the dining room. One of these days......we will have that boy fully potty trained!!!

A Head Start!

Last weekend we decided to get a head start on decorating for Christmas. We knew we were heading to Savannah for Thanksgiving, so we pulled the tree down last Sunday. Kevin is in charge of getting it down and setting it up....then the kids and I take over. Or I should say Maddie and I took over. I think Turner put one ornament on the tree and then moved onto something else:) I love looking on pinterest and facebook and seeing everyone's beautiful tree. I don't know if I am just not creative enough or don't have the energy to make ours look magnificent. We have collected so many random ornaments since we have been married and started having kids, that our tree is just a hodge podge of different memories. It is also fun to just let Maddie put the ornaments wherever she likes and not worry about it. Maybe when the kids get older, I will get me a fancy tree, but for the next few years.....what you see is what you get!!! And I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!

The tree is all we have done and I hope to add the rest of the decorations over the next few days. We have been going strong for the past week and I hope to have some downtime. I did buy a 4 foot tree to put in the kids toy room and put that up Monday when they weren't home. Maddie liked it and Turner keeps bringing me the ornaments:)

Park 4-Hollywood Studios

I think this might have been my favorite park!!! There was actually only one ride for the kids to ride, but we were able to do so many other things. A few of them were:

-Toy Story Mania: a super fun ride that required us getting a fastpass as soon as we arrived. By eleven am the wait was over 2 hours!! Crazy!!!

-We watched the shows Beauty and the Beast, Muppet 3D, and the Little Mermaid. Both kids loved Beauty and the Beast and Disney Jr. was super cute. I felt like so much is devoted to princess and more girly themes, but this was a perfect show for my two year old boy!!

-Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground: the kids could have stayed there all day. There was a ton to do and it was really neat to see everything.

-We ate lunch at Hollywood and Vine which was a big hit with the kids. They met Agent Oso, Handy Mandy (Turner kept asking him about his tools:), Jake, and June from Little Einsteins. The kids got to go to the front of the restaurant and sing and dance with the characters several times while we were there. We really enjoyed this lunch!!

-For dinner we ate at Pizza planet (Toy Story) and the kids played some arcade games.

The biggest disappointment of this park was Fantasmic!! I was so excited to watch this show and we made sure it would be playing the day we went. Well........some BIG buy rented out the WHOLE park for that night, which made it close early. I can't imagine how much that cost, but it kept my family from enjoying the show:( Other than that though, we were able to do everything else that was on my itinerary for the week-plus a whole lot more!

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast, headed to Downtown Disney for a few hours, ate at Planet Hollywood and then headed to the airport. This was such a brief overview of our trip and all the fun we had and memories we made. I just know the holidays are around the corner and I am going to have a ton to post about. I didn't want to get behind by spending too long on this trip. I am in the process of having over 500 pictures printed that will go in a scrapbook. So, I think it is ok if they don't all make the blog:)

I do want to add how proud we were of the kiddo's last week. We had some super long days, didn't stop for naptime, and the kids were great. They were so thrilled and excited about everything!! I am so glad I was able to experience my first trip to Disney through my kids eyes as well. I am glad Nonna and Da were able to join us and share in the fun. It truly was a magical trip and I can't wait till we can go again:)

Park 3-Animal Kingdom!

Wednesday we spent the day at Animal Kingdom. It didn't quite go as planned! Turner wasn't acting like himself that morning and as we were getting breakfast he threw up all over Kevin!!! I felt terrible for him and he and Daddy had to go back to the resort. Luckily a few hours and a bath later, they rejoined us. They didn't end up missing too much and Maddie was glad to have her autograph book back-Kevin had left with Turner's bag and it had both of their books in it. Maddie was devastated that she had to meet several character without getting their signatures! We were still able to get pictures though.

Some highlights of the day were:

-Seeing the Lion King show: it was great, we hated that Daddy and Turner had to miss it!

-Kilamanjaro Safari-we bought the kids binoculars before we went and they loved looking through them to see all the animals!

-Triceratop Spin

-The Boneyard: a playground where the kids digged for fossils and bones! They could have stayed there all day

-Having their faces painted. Maddie got a white unicorn and Turner had a Tiger's face-too cute!

-watching the afternoon parade

-seeing the Tree of Life

That night we had dinner at 'Ohanas. I thought this was a character meal with Lilo and Stitch. Unfortunately the characters are only at breakfast. At first I was disappointed, but it ended up being the best meal we had! It was all you could eat chicken, pork, shrimp, steak, salad, and noodles. It was delicious and they just kept bringing it to the table.

The kids had a coconut race, learned how to do the hula dance, and left with a Lei. It was a fun dinner and we hate that Da missed it! He was tired and hadn't been impressed with the food, so decided to stay at the room:(

Besides Turner getting sick, it was another great day at Disney World!!!

Park 2-Magic Kingdom!

Tuesday we were at Magic Kingdom from 9am to about 9:30pm. It was a long but very fun day!!! The highlight of the day for Maddie was when she met Peter Pan! She was so so excited! Turner's highlight was the Dumbo ride!! He loved it and wanted to ride it again and again. Here are few of the things we did that day:

-Dumbo

-Mickey's PhilharMagic

-It's a Small World

-Peter Pan's Flight

-The Magic Carpets of Aladdin

-Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger

-Dream Come True Parade

-Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table

-Mickey's Merry Christmas Party-the kids danced with Woody and Jesse and loved it!

Park 1-Epcot!!

Monday we spent the day at Epcot. It was open from 9 am-9 pm, and we were almost from open to close. I made an itenerary of everything that was a must see for the kids. I am happy to say we did everything on it-plus a whole lot more!!

Here are a few things we did that day:

-The seas with Nemo and Friends

-Image Works-the "What if" labs

-Soarin-Great ride!!!!

-Lion King-Circle of Life

-Test Track-we in no way thought Maddie would want to ride this. She insisted and loved it!! She is like her daddy and Nonna. There is no way I would get on it!!!

Maelstrom-this was another ride not on my list for Maddie to ride. Turner wasn't tall enough, but we took Maddie through it after we ate with the princesses. There was a troll in it that she didn't like, but besides that we enjoyed the ride!

We ate lunch at Electric Umbrella and had dinner at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall with the princesses! I will add that we loved everything about Disneyworld.....except the food!!! We really weren't impressed with any of it. We did a bunch of character meals, and I have heard you are paying for the characters. The food is an afterthought. The kids ate a LOT of mac n cheese last week:)

We also met several characters that day and Turner warmed up to them. He was ready to give everyone a hug!! It was a good day and introduction of what was to come!! (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were my fave!!)

A Magical Trip!!!!

We have gone and come back from Disney World!!! It was a whirlwind of a week, full of tons of smiles, excitement, and fun. I have no idea how to blog about everything that we have done this past week, so I don't think I am really going to try. I want to put some things in here so they will be included in my book though.

Last Sunday we woke up at 5am to get ready for Boo Boo to take us to the airport. It was the kids first time to fly and Maddie loved it. Turner was a little scared but once we got in the air he was fine. It was a quick flight and we got in line to board the Magical Express to our bus. (about a 45 minute wait to get in the front). Once we arrived to our resort-The Port Orleans French Quarters we were met by Da and Nonna and the fun began!!!

Sunday we headed to Downtown Disney so Maddie could have her hair done at Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique and looked around for a bit. Then we hopped a bus to go to the Contemporary Resort to eat at Chef Mickey's. I wish we hadn't eaten here first as it took Turner a day to adjust to the characters. He wanted nothing to do with them there, but by Monday was hugging everyone he saw!!

It was a good first day and we were excited to be there. I took 723 pictures while we were gone, so will just post a few from each day.

My FB shopping Reviews:)

Over the past year, I have bought the kids a lot of clothes through facebook. Truth be told, I go to several consignment sales each season and then most everything else is purchased online. I just thought I would share the ones I have bought from and my opinions of them. I am quite aggravated at the moment with one, which is what brought this post on:)

Sweet Baby Tutu: This is the first site I purchased from and bought Maddie a ton of cute summer clothes last January. I have bought her smocked dresses and several shirt or capri sets. I also had several dresses monogrammed for her. The prices here if you purchase offseason are incredible and the clothes are super cute. The only downside I have with them is it has taken a while to receive the clothes in the past. I think I bought Turner one smocked jon jon, but most everything ordered here was for Mo. Sweet Baby Tutu definately introduced me to shopping through facebook, but I have since found several others that I buy from more.

Jetterbugs Monogramming: A big thumbs down for me!!!! This is a local business that had great prices and I went way overboard before seeing anything in person. I ordered Maddie several dresses and Turner a bunch of Jon Jon's for the summer. I was completely disappointed and will never purchase anything from her again. None of Turner's jon jon's would stay buttoned! I even ordered a few in the next size thinking that was the problem-Nope, still wouldn't stay buttoned. Everytime we picked him up after church, it looked like he was wearing a dress!! Several of Maddie's dresses actually came with ink stains on the front of them!! I contacted her about it and she told me I could send it back and she would try to get it out for me! I would never purchase a dress from a consignment sale with an ink stain on it, much less pay full price for it!

She has switched manufacturers and hopefully the issues have been resolved, but I just had too many problems to do business with her again.

This and That for Kids: A great company. I haven't ordered much from them, but everything I have has been shipped super quick and been really adorable. Turner's monogrammed football shirt with the blue gingham pants came from here. I think I paid $25 for the outfit and had it within a week. I definately like doing business with this company!

Smocked Tots: This is the site that made me think of doing this post. I have gotten a few cute things from them. One of Maddie's outfits for disneyworld came from here and it is super cute. I did though have to beg her to send me an invoice so that I could pay for it! I ordered two appliqued Turkey shirts back in August for the kids to wear. 4 months ago and I still do not have these shirts. She has been given a ton of grief on her site lately because so many people are waiting on their clothes. These shirts have been shipping out for over a month according to her. I have emailed her several times and get no response and no tracking number has been sent either. I am now just trying to get my money back. Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away and we will be in Disney for a week of that time. Since then I have ordered two other thanksgiving sets for the kiddos and they have already come in. I will definately never purchase from her again and wouldn't recommend her to anyone!!

Freshly Picked: I think this is a smaller site compared to some of these others, but I have been very pleased! I have ordered several things-the preorders took a bit longer than they had originally said, but I still had plenty of time to let the kids to wear them. I will keep buying from them in the future.

Smockadot Kids: Oh my gosh, this is my favorite store for children's clothing!!!! They have sales every night during the week and I wish I could afford everything. The kids outfits in the picture above is smockadots. They are reasonable, the sizing is perfect for my two, and they have always shipped out when they say they will!!! I heart smockadot kids and will continue buying from them in the future.

OK, totally a boring post I know!! But I might appreciate having written all this down one day:)

Maddie Turned 5!

I can't believe that Maddie turned 5 years old on Wednesday!!! It is unbelievable to me that five years have already passed. She is our independant little firecracker!! Always full of energy and joy. We are so blessed to have her as our daughter and can't wait to see what this next year brings.

A few things about her that have changed in the past year:

-she prays much more specifically. Prayer time at meals are often lengthy, but so much more meaningful! She prays for her family, pastor, friends, and is so thankful for different things. She always thanks God for everyone's health!!

-she absolutely loved playing soccer this fall and can't wait till she plays again.

-she is enjoying gymnastics and was put in an advanced class after only a few weeks of taking.

-she is very determined! Once she sets her mind to something, she is going to do it. Most of the time this has been good, but can be bad as well!

-she is quite the bossy one!! Her teacher at school has told me this, and she demonstrates it at home with her brother-often! We are working on this. She is definately more of a leader than follower, but needs to do so in a kinder way.

-she is quite the sound sleeper. Now that I don't have to wake the kids up at the crack of dawn, she is quite content to sleep in. 90 percent of the time she get woken by her brother. Nobody needs to sleep after Turner decides to wake up:)

-she still colors all the time and loves doing projects. She likes writing her letters and has several journals and notebooks that she keeps.

Since her birthday was on Wednesday we sent donuts with her to school for her special treat. Once we got home, we let her open presents with us, Mimi and Boo Boo, and Megs. We went to church for dinner because she said she wanted a hot dog. I could not believe that was the first time I can remember them not having hot dogs for the kids:( Once church was over, we all headed to Baskin Robbins to end her birthday with a special treat. I think she had a great day and we just love her to pieces!!!