The girls have a nightly routine. Emma cleans up the playroom (and hollers at us to keep Anna out of the playroom so she can't mess it up), then we put our pajamas on, and when Jay is home they beg and plead for him to give them the "Helicopter! Helicopter!". He comes upstairs and proceeds to give the girls their most favorite part of each day. You can see what it looks like below:
Last week I decided to have the girls write a letter to Santa to tell him the one thing that they wanted most for Christmas. Macy's is donating money for every letter mailed to Santa in their store to the Make A Wish foundation, and since my girls love Santa and love to talk about all the presents they want, it was a good opportunity to mail our wish list for a good cause.
Although Anna needed me to write her letter to Santa, she didn't need any help deciding what she wanted. She is very consistent in wanting "Dora". If you mention the word Santa she will repeatedly say, "Dora, Dora, Dora!" I secretly wish she wanted a really cute Cabbage Patch Kid - I LOVED them as a little girl and they are still popular, but my little girl is dead set on an ugly Dora doll.
Emma, on the other hand, wrote her letter all by herself and really wants a new bike. This is a good thing because the girl has completely outgrown her old bike. Mom and dad really love gifts that they actually "need".
Here the girls are mailing their letters:
Does it get any cuter???
So I tell you guys all the time how much the girls love each other and are always playing together. They were watching a movie the other day and this is what I caught. Not only holding hands, but holding BOTH hands!! Pitter patter!!
I can't believe we actually have a picture of Jay and I to post! Here we are all dressed up for the ExxonMobil Christmas party in DC. We had a great time!
Here is a cute video of Anna riding her favorite horse named Crazy. She loves him and I love how cute she is with her ponytails flying all over the place:)
The last video isn't the best but it is Emma's small song in her school's Christmas pageant. She is the fourth person from the left:
Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! We have to go back to visit Santa again in person. We went to see him the day that we mailed our Macy's letters, but it just happened to be a "Sign with Santa" day for the hearing impaired. It was a really nice thing that they did for the local children that are hearing impaired but bad timing on our part. Take number 2 for Santa was supposed to be today, but Anna got sick yesterday and is still under the weather. She has a fever and I think some sort of sinus infection as her nose is running like a faucet. I am just happy that she was able to get through her 103 fever last night (her first sickness since coming off from her seizure meds) without having a seizure. Definitely some answered prayers for this momma because I was a nervous wreck and Jay is in New Jersey for work so he would not have been able to help at all. I was up all last night checking on her and making sure the poor girl was ok. Her fever was gone later in the day today and I feel much better about her being able to overcome this sickness. On a side note, we took Anna to her 6 month developmental specialist appointment in DC this week and she received rave reviews! Her speech is now up to a normal level for her age. The specialist thought that her fine motor coordination might be a bit lacking but gave us a few ideas on how to improve upon it. Jay and I continue to feel beyond blessed with her progress and development. There is a lot to celebrate and be thankful for this upcoming holiday season!
Hi all! We are still here and staying busy as ever! The weather here has been mild and gorgeous and we have been busy trying to check things off from our Virginia bucket list (for inquiring minds there is an actual list and it is getting smaller and smaller:). A month or so ago we went to Charlotesville to see Monticello, which was Thomas Jefferson's home, and to walk through the University of Virginia. The girls were less than impressed with Thomas Jefferson's home. Picture a two and a four year old being lead through an old home room by room with a tour guide and trying to keep them quiet despite their severe boredom AND no food is allowed so I couldn't even stick a sucker in their mouth to help. It was not much fun, although it was surrounded by gorgeous scenery and mountains which Jay and I love.
Posing with Thomas Jefferson
Monticello
View from Monticello
Awesome gardens at Monticello
Grandma came to visit us for Thanksgiving while Grandpa was at deer camp and we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Jay performed his normal task of taking care of the girls the next day so that we could do some shopping. Had lots of fun and even braved a bit of shopping Thursday night at Target! Yes the car just happened to find it's way to the parking lot and I got an awesome doorbuster that we had been wanting. No hints yet - I think Santa might bring it Christmas morning:) While my mom was here we also went to the Gaylord National (which is a fancy hotel) production of ICE. It is a fantastic ice sculpture show that is made with over 2 million pounds of ice and 40 artisans from around the world are brought in to carve it. The theme this year was Shrek the Halls. It is kept extremely cold inside the makeshift building to preserve the sculptures so they make you wear their weird blue coats on top of yours. At first it seems weird and a bit gross, but it is so cold inside that you are secretly happy that you have an extra coat! They had to be really long too because there were ice slides and they want the coat to cover your legs on the slide. Anna's coat was gigantic on her. It touched the ground and the arms were way too long but she didn't complain at all and both girls LOVED the ice slides. I could hear them scream with excitement the whole way down and at the bottom Anna couldn't move because her coat was just too hard to move in. She just layed at the bottom and kept saying "more, more!"
Silly blue coats!
Shrek and donkey. Aren't they amazing!!
Fiona and her babies
Daddy and Anna on the slide. All smiles:)
Grammy and Anna - looking a bit cold here
The biggest news is that our sweet baby Anna is no longer in a crib! Sniff sniff:( I had been wanting to put her in a toddler bed for a while and finally got around to it while Grandma was here since I had an extra hand to watch the girls while I switched the railings (Yes - in our house I do all the handy fix it things. My husband refuses or I would wait until eternity for it to actually get done.) We really hyped up her "big girl" bed and she totally loves it! I was scared she would be a terror and keep trying to get out, but she only tried one time and has been awesome in it ever since. What a big girl!
She loves her big girl bed
Emma loves to play in it too!
This past weekend we took a day trip to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. It is a historic civil war battlefield grounds town with a lot of preserved buildings, cute restaurants and shops, and the Appalachian trail runs right through it. We did a bit of hiking and saw some gorgeous scenery where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet. We also went to Thomas Jefferson's rock - it is a rock with gorgeous views and Jefferson's favorite place. He said that the view from the rock was "worth the journey across the Atlantic itself." We also had lunch and ice cream (of course the girls favorite part of the day) and saw a bit of Civil War reenactments with a gun squad. Anna will tell you she saw "boom boom." The stuffed animal in the picture is Matthew Mouse who is Emma's classroom animal. Each child gets him for a weekend and then journal's all of the fun things that they did with him. He had to have his picture taken in Harper's Ferry!
View from our hike
We went on the Appalachian Trail
Jefferson's Rock
Daddy with the girls
View from Jefferson's Rock
Emma and Santa - see explanation below
While on a walk through the very small town, Santa himself passed us as he was driving his car. He stopped and rolled down the window and asked Emma what she wanted for Christmas. He saw that I had my camera and asked if he could get out to take a picture with Emma and she was thrilled. After the picture he got back in his car and drove away. Oh my goodness did my four year old have a million questions. First of all why was Santa driving a car??? Where were his reindeer??? Why wasn't he at the mall where he should be??? The list went on and on. I made up the best answers that I could and she seems ok with those answers for now. She is very inquisitive though and I know she will be every year with Santa and all the stories that surround him. I have to say I LOVE having children this time of year with the magic of Christmas and Santa. It is so sweet and pure and magical!
That's all for now. We have been busy decorating the house, fixing lights that have already gone out, enjoying the burst of warm weather, shopping, and soon I will start some holiday baking. It's the most wonderful time of the year!
The long awaited Disney pictures have finally arrived! Let me first warn all readers that this is one very long post. If you really want to read the entire thing you might first want to go and get a cup of coffee. I debated on splitting them up but frankly just kept rolling with my picture uploads. I will also say that although I have a LOT of pictures here, I have about one million more that I didn't post! I also realized after going back through my pictures how hard it is to take good ones at Disney. I was constantly adjusting my camera for going indoors and then to outdoors and towards the sun versus back to the sun. My photography friends can appreciate how hard it is to constantly change these settings and be able to do it fast for that one special moment! I did the best I could and those that aren't the best just give me reason to go back to Disney sooner than later to retry:)
We decided to surprise Emma with the trip. It was really a trip for her because of her love for all of the princesses and her constant asking to go to the "Castle." We told her that we were flying to Lake Buena Vista for a week of fun by the pool. It wasn't entirely a lie since that was the name of the condo where we stayed. She also didn't know that Grandma and Grandpa, who have been asking to go to Disney with us basically since the day Emma was born, were going to be there the entire time with us. We arrived at the Orlando airport only about 15 minutes before they did and after we got our bags we told Emma we had one more "special package" to get. Here is the video of her spotting Grandma and Grandpa at the airport. You can hear the surprise in her voice:)
When we got to the condo there just happened to be a special wrapped present for Emma and Anna from their two favorite princesses Ariel and Cinderella. Here is a video of Emma unwrapping her gift and Grandpa reading the special note that was inside. She was very surprised and excited to learn that she was going to meet the princesses, but I think there was no way for her to grasp what it exactly meant that she was going to Disney. She had no idea that there were 4 completely different parks full of princesses, movie characters, rides, parades, etc. It was fun to see her reaction though.
We had a five day pass to Disney and we went full steam for five days! The first night that we got to Orlando we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping.
Fun to see all of their fall and Halloween decorations throughout the parks
We ate at Raglan Road House Irish Pub. They had great food and dancers that would come out every so often to do their little Irish Jig. They even invited Emma up on the stage with them and she kept up with every move:)
Dinosaur at T Rex Restaurant
Buzz and Woody are seriously made out of lego's!! Amazing!
The next day brought us to the Magic Kingdom for the entire day. We were there right after they opened and were excited to start our adventure. I was totally prepared with what rides would be the busiest and where to go first and my plan was immediately thrown out the window when we saw that the new expansion to Fantasyland that wasn't supposed to open until December was open for dress rehearsal. We were so excited!
We ran into Lady Tremaine and Cinderella's stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella immediately and that began Emma's fascination with meeting characters. She had an autograph book and although she loves rides, the girl was totally preoccupied with getting EVERY. SINGLE. AUTOGRAPH. POSSIBLE. By the end of the five days we were all sick of waiting for autographs (although I will say that most lines were no more than 10 minutes to meet characters, with the exception of Tinkerbell). She especially wanted all of the princesses. Our autograph book was full and some characters signed it twice. Did you know that the characters are trained on how to sign their name? I didn't and was surprised to see that two very different Ariel's had the same signature! This was the same for Minnie and a few others who signed the book twice.
The first place we went to in the new Fantasyland was Belle's castle. This was one of our very favorite things of the entire trip. We didn't know what to expect or if we would just be able to simply meet Belle. They let 30-40 people in at a time and in a nutshell most people played a part in a skit with Belle. It was like our own private party with her and it was so cool how they put it on! Anna was the fork and spoon, Emma was a picture frame, and Grandpa Big John played the part of the Armoire. Very cute!
Anna as the fork and spoon and meeting Belle
Grandpa enjoyed his part too!
Emma is in her glory with Belle!
After Belle's castle we were able to go on the Little Mermaid ride and meet Ariel in her Grotto
We were then able to explore more of Fantasyland and meet more characters.
Anna and mom on Dumbo
At the 3D movie. Anna was so adorable and kept reaching her hand up to try and "touch" the 3D figures that seemed to be coming out of the screen at her
One of Emma's favorites! Tinkerbell
She even got to meet Periwinkle, Tinkerbell's sister in the newly released movie
The second day brought us to Epcot bright and early. We quickly decided that we wanted to be at the parks when they opened every morning (despite how hard it was to get up and ready for the day so early). The lines were much shorter and we were so much more productive in the morning versus mid afternoon. We were able to go to the popular Nemo ride and see Turtle Talk with Crush (a fun, interactive movie with the turtle from Nemo) before we went to our princess breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.
Bruce is eating up the girls!
Ready for the princess breakfast in their Ariel and Cinderella dresses
We absolutely LOVED the princess breakfast. The food was decent and we were able to sit and enjoy the food for about 20 minutes before each princess came to our table one by one to sign our autograph book and pose for pictures. The princesses were so sweet and interactive. At one point Emma fell out of her chair as she was trying to get a better look at one of them. She landed face first on the ground (no surprise to Jay or I - the girl is clumsy) and Princess Aurora came to the rescue and saved the day. She gave Emma all sorts of extra hugs and immediately cheered her up.
Princess Aurora saved the day!
How adorable is this??? Anna is so excited to meet Cinderella, who truly is her favorite princess.
Our sweet Cinderella giving big hugs:)
We walked around the countries at Epcot for a bit, met Jasmine and Aladdin, went on a couple more rides and called it a morning. We went back to the condo for a rest before the big night at Magic Kingdom for the Electrical Parade and fireworks.
The electrical parade was amazing. We had awesome seats and the girls were both enthralled. Anna stayed awake until after the fireworks (10pm) and although we tried to give her a nap everyday she NEVER took one the entire week. She is a trooper and does not want to miss any of the action. Needless to say she slept a ton when we got home.
Tinkerbell in the front
Watching the fireworks
Seriously blurry picture, but I did capture Tinkerbell flying out of the Castle window at the beginning of the fireworks. Emma loved it!
We were tired the next morning after our late night watching the fireworks but we got up early anyway to make it to Animal Kingdom in time for their opening. We went right to Kilimanjaro, which is an animal safari, and it did not disappoint. It was another of our very favorite events. Amazing how close we got to so many wild animals (also a bit nerve wracking!). At one point a big cattle stopped to graze right in front of our vehicle and we had to wait a few minutes for it to stop eating and move along so that we could keep moving.
We then went to the Lion King show and Finding Nemo show which were both amazing! We also went on a ride or two before heading back for afternoon naps. I loved Animal Kingdom.
Simba at the Lion King musical
That night took us to Chef Mickey's, which is an interactive dinner with the main characters of Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto. I have a lot of friends that loved this meal but we did not like it at all. Pluto was at our table before we even got Anna situated in her highchair. It was a buffet and we were constantly scared to go and get our food for fear that we might miss a character coming by the table. The girls barely ate because the characters were interrupting the meal versus the princess breakfast where we were able to eat first. Also, it wasn't as much fun to just take pictures with the characters when they can't talk versus talking with the princesses. I guess if we had boys we might feel obligated to do this meal, but with two girls who love princesses I would definitely stick to that meal next time. Don't get me wrong - the girls had fun - it was just a bit too chaotic for mom and dad.
They sure are cute in their matching Minnie outfits!
Day four brought us back to the Magic Kingdom for the entire day. Seth and Jenny brought Kole and Sydney for the day so that the girls could enjoy a day at the park with their cousins. They had so much fun together throughout the day. Emma and Kole held hands everywhere they went. Since they live an hour away and have season passes they were nice enough to go everywhere that we wanted to that day. We arrived early for the opening ceremony and headed to Fantasyland to get in the rides we missed the first day. We also explored more of the other areas of the park. I even forced Seth, Jenny, and Jay to ride Space Mountain with me to relive childhood memories while Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids. Thanks for going with me guys - it was fun!
The Mayor opening the park for the day
Emma learning how to shoot a bow and arrow while waiting to meet Princess Merida
Hugs from Princess Merida
Princess Tiana
Sweet cousins holding hands. We are going to torture them with these pictures when they get older. I have a ton of them holding hands:)
Dumbo again with Grandpa
Another crummy blurry pic but would have been super cute! The boys took Emma and Kole on the Barnstormer multiple times it was so much fun.
One of my favorite pictures!! Emma went on Big Thumder Mountain Railroad and loved every minute of it!
Anna all smiles on the carousel
Emma and Kole rode together
Emma trying to pull the Sword out of the Stone
We stayed at the park most of the day and then left and we all went out for a yummy Mexican dinner. The next morning brought us to Hollywood Studios. We saw the Beauty and the Beast show, Little Mermaid show, Disney character show, and rode the Toy Story ride which was a lot of fun. We only spent a half day here as it didn't have as many things for the kids. The shows were all amazing productions.
Belle and the Beast
That afternoon we made it to our pool for the first time! I thought we would be there every day but we were too busy in the parks making the most of our tickets. The pool at our condo was very cool with a big pirate ship and a zero entry with fun little water mushrooms for the girls.
That night we drove to Melbourne to spend a day and a half with Seth, Jenny, Kole and Sydney. The kids had a fun time playing outside together. They all get along so well and it is fun that they are so close in age.
Kole wanted his swim goggles on. How adorable!
Could there be 4 cuter kids?
Anna really wanted to play with the truck. We don't have any of those around our house:)
Once we hit Melbourne I think Jay was ready for a little time away from all of the excitement. He and his brother went to Cocoa Beach for the day and took surfing lessons. It was the first time for both of them. They said that they were able to get up by themselves a few times by the end of the lesson and had a great time.
We had a great fun filled, downright exhausting, week. It was so much fun to see how excited the girls were to meet all of the characters. Emma and Anna are not scared of any of them and they both LOVE rides. They both had an awesome time. Jay just kept repeating the whole time "It's all about making memories." If you know Jay, he likes to get a mantra and stick with it. Disney is not his favorite place and he is already trying to convince the girls that they won't let you back in the parks for 7 more years because there is a waiting list. They won't fall for that! Although he wasn't having the time of his life he didn't complain and dutifully stood in every single princess line and just kept saying "It's all bout making memories."
Emma made Grandma and Grandpa a thank you card when we returned home. She needed help with spelling but did it entirely on her own. Her writing is coming along:)
Whew! That's all for now. We had a great time and made some great memories. Not sure when we will go back but my bet is that the three ladies in the house outnumber dad and convince him to take us before 7 years:)
