Vacation Part II: Disney World

Tomorrow finally came! Part II of our vacation started with a drive over to Orlando. The kids did great in the backseat sleeping most of the way. My mom decided to take a two week trip to Orlando at the same time so we met up with her and my brothers. Our original plan was to go to Disney World all day Tuesday then fly out early on Wednesday. We ended up getting to Orlando early in the afternoon so we decided to take the whole gang to Disney World on Monday afternoon too. The park is open until 11:00pm during the summer and with the heat we figured one afternoon would be worth the money.

Day one at Disney was fun. Haley was super excited to see Cinderella and her castle. It was raining when we got there but it quickly passed. What came next was the sweltering heat! Wow, it was HOT. The lines for many rides were long so we stuck to the no line rides or shows.



Family shot #1 - Jackson was busy looking at Walt & Mickey behind us


Family photo #2




Our first stop was Fantasyland and Haley immediately spotted Cinderella's Carousel. Haley, Daddy and Grandma posed for a picture




We wondered around for awhile and decided to take a boat ride. Haley enjoyed looking at all the animals


Jackson had a prime seat on Grandma's lap. My mom had surgery on her foot so she was pushed around by my brothers in a wheelchair so she didn't have to walk to much.


Uncle Nathan, Jackson, Grandma and Uncle John checking out the scenery.


A very hot Jackson enjoyed the ride


To cool off we went shopping. Haley was in heaven. At first she was stuck on the Cinderella dress, wand and glass slippers. Then Daddy showed her the pirate's sword. She LOVES Barbie and the Three Musketeers and was pretending to be one with the sword. The pirate hat stayed but Grandma bought her the sword (which is already broken!).


Of course you can't leave Disney World without personalizes hats!


The castle looks beautiful at night.




The biggest excitement came with the electrical parade at night. I can't even describe how excited Haley was during the parade. Every float she would scream with excitement and say, "Daddy, Daddy... It's Cinderella..." etc. It was so precious. Jackson enjoyed the parade too. He was sitting on Grandma just watching everything go by in amazement. The kids had a great time and finally crashed around midnight!!

Day two at Disney was just Haley, Daddy and Me. My mom's foot was hurting so she stayed behind to watch Jackson for us. Jackson was pretty hot the first day and cannot go on many rides. We missed sharing the experience with Jackson but Haley was super excited to get back to Disney World with just her mom and dad.





At the entrance about to start day 2


Daddy and Haley

The first ride we ventured off to was Pirates of the Caribbean. Haley was a little scared at first but once I got her to look for the animals she thought it was fun.

We hit up a few more rides and then waited in line to meet the princesses. Our princess was in awe.

Haley and Sleeping Beauty

A big hug from Cinderella

Haley and Belle

The absolute best was dinner with Cinderella. Once we had decided to go to Disney I booked us a dinner with Cinderella. We kept telling Haley about it and she couldn't wait. She got all dressed up in her Snow White gown and off to our adventure we went.

The first guest was Cinderella when you walk in. Haley got her picture made with Cinderella and they gave us the copies during dinner.

During the course of dinner they introduce the princesses and they walk around to each table and meet everyone. We were one of the last tables they all visited so the anticipation and waiting was hard for Haley but she did GREAT. She was super excited to meet Snow White.

Haley was the only little girl dressed as Snow White. Snow White was comparing her dress to Haley's

Big smiles

And a big kiss from Snow White. This little Snow White was so happy

Next to come around was Sleeping Beauty

Ariel and Haley

Haley couldn't figure out why Belle wasn't in her princess dress? She loved her anyways!

The food was so so but we would do it again in a minute. I would highly recommend dinner with Cinderella to anyone going to Disney World! Haley had a blast. Afterwards we went over to the princess boutique and told Haley should could pick out two items. Lucky for us we got off pretty easy. She picked out a Sleeping Beauty mini doll set and her Cinderella glass slippers, of course!

We were all getting a little tired and hot so we took the train around the park a few times

Then we decided to do a little shopping and get a front row seat to the electrical parade. I couldn't believe people line up an hour before for this parade! Haley passed out in the stroller in her glass slippers so this gave her a chance to rest. She was so hot her glass slippers fogged up!

Haley woke up right before the parade and was just as excited as the night before.

As a parent there is no greater joy then watching your kids face light up with happiness. Disney World was a huge success and we can't wait to go back in a few years when Jackson is a little older to enjoy it as much as his sister. What a great trip!!

Once we returned from Disney, Grandma and Grandpa Vara came to watch the kids while Matt and I were off to Mexico. More on Part III of vacation later this week...

Vacation Part I: The Wedding

We're back! We had a wonderful vacation. The kids did great considering our journey. We flew from Houston to Tampa on a 7am flight, which meant we got up around 4am. We were worried about the kids being cranky by Haley was bright eyed and made Jackson smile too. The plane ride was uneventful, which is always nice and both kids passed out on the hour long car ride to where the wedding was held. The kids enjoyed the beach and playing with all the other kiddos.

Jackson liked chilling in the chair

Haley wasn't too sure of the waves

They were ok as long as they both sat on my lap or were held by Daddy

The evening prior to the wedding there was a nice BBQ on the beach. The weather was beautiful that night and Haley really enjoyed the sand.

Daddy and Haley helping Jackson walk

Haley off to explore

She found a seashell

Jackson getting a big squeeze from Mommy

Beautiful sunset

Haley made some new friends and had a great time with Daddy building sand castles

The weather was HOT! Jackson and Daddy took a snooze on a hammock

All dressed up for the wedding

Smile!

Princess Haley

Our best attempt at a family photo prior to the ceremony. Getting both kids to smile at the same time is a challenge.

The kids managed to make it through the wedding ceremony without any embarrassing fits. Jackson almost had a breakdown so Matt took him for a walk away from the ceremony. Haley ended up following so Matt had command of both kids. Haley was quite the dancer and Jackson ended up falling asleep in the stroller. We had a wonderful time at the wedding. Thanks to Jeff and Ryan for inviting us and Congratulations!!!!

The morning after the wedding we headed to Orlando and a trip to Disneyworld! More to come tomorrow on Part II: Disneyworld.....

Weeks full of laughs

We have been doing a lot of laughing at our house these past few weeks. Haley is quite the talker and can come up with some of the funniest things that just keep Matt and I laughing and laughing. Here's a few random stories from the past weeks:
I meet my mom half way to drop the kids off in the morning at a Kroger's. Now Haley thinks that is where I work but I try to correct that. Well, the other day we took Jackson to the dr (more below on the dr. trip). My mom came to Walgreen's to meet us since I was so late for work. We were in the parking lot waiting and I explained to Haley Grandma was going to meet us here. Her response, "How eber (ever) will Grandma find us?"

On the way home one day she tells me she wants to go swimming. It was looking like it was going to storm so I said, maybe we could go as it looks like it's going to rain. Hopefully it will hold off. Her response, "There's always hope". I asked her where she got that from and she told me her new Barbie movie in Grandma's car. I smiled and said she is right!

We went to church last Saturday night and were in the family viewing area. Haley said she had to go potty. So I take her and she does her business. As we are ready to leave she says in a very loud voice, "Mommy, you have a hairy butt!". What?? THIS IS NOT TRUE! I tried not to overreact or she would repeat it so I simply said, no, that is silly and went on. Good thing the bathroom was not full or I would have been mortified!!!

Bedtime is always fun. She picks out books before bedtime and one of her favorites is, "It's hard to be 5". It's about a boy turning 5. Don't worry, she knows she's only 2 "and I'll be 3 on my birthday. My birthday is in October. I'm having my party at Chuck E Cheese (or so she thinks...)". She also says her bedtime prayers and what she is thankful for. It's usually a long list and you never know what's going to pop out, like apple juice, my carpet, Mommy and Daddy's carpet, Grandma's hurt toe, etc. She is fascinated with our carpet since Buster had his accident. She likes to tell him every morning to "be good Buster and not poop on my carpet".

Potty training is going pretty good. She is trained as far as pee pee goes but sometimes has accidents still at nap time. Poopies is still a challenge to say the least. She asks to put on a diaper to go poopies. I'm trying to get her comfortable with going on the potty chair so the other day I told her ok but she had to sit on the potty with her diaper on to go poopies. She said ok and ran upstairs to use her bathroom. I asked if she needed help and she said no. Finally she calls us up for help. She was sitting on the potty alright, with the lid closed and on her knees playing with stuff on the counter :) The training continues.

Jackson is pretty funny himself. He is starting to babble and can say da da. Matt usually gets him in the morning and feeds him a bottle. The other morning Jackson was up and started yelling da da da da as if to call Matt to come get him. Too cute! Jackson also is a pro at climbing the stairs, which he knows he shouldn't. The minute he starts he looks at you to see if you are watching. One morning I was taking Haley to the potty and Jackson was with Matt, or so I thought. I came out of the bedroom and asked Matt where Jackson was. Quickly we learned neither one of us had him. We called his name then I looked upstairs. He had a huge grin on his face as we crawled around the corner! Silly boy.

We took Jackson to the dr to have his ears checked out. He had sores on the back of them for awhile and started pulling on them making them bleed. I began to worry about an ear infection and wanted to have it checked out since we will be flying at the end of this week. Turns out his ears look perfect and he has eczema. The dr. warned it was going to be hard to treat in that spot but he already looks much better. Whew. We did get weighed and he's now 20.2 lbs. Even though we call him chubbs, he's only in the 50% percentile.

A few pics from our weeks...

Jackson laughing when when Daddy is wrestling


Haley in on the action too. Again Daddy...



Trying to get both of them together. This was two seconds before Haley went behind Jackson and put her shirt over his head, which then made him cry. He was already tired and that put him over the top.


While Haley likes to read books, Jackson likes to eat them. Best part is this was Haley's Hot Dog book. Guess he picked an appropriate one to eat!

Yum Yum Yum that was good.

The kids had a very special play date last week. Our old neighbors and good friends The Kirkham's were in town from Australia. The kids had a great time and it was great to see Laura again. I hope they move back soon. I've been scoping out a house on our street for them to move into. We miss you guys!! Haley especially liked the cookies Ben and Alex brought over and is still talking about them.

The kids also got a special treat from Grandma Vara this week. Grandma sent over money for them to pick out some new clothes. Haley picked out a few outfits but her favorite by far was her new boots. She saw them at the store and jumped out of the stroller to get them. She has yet to take them off!

Thanks Grandma!

Weekend trip

Oops, so I haven't been too good with my New Year's resolution, which was to take more pictures and update the blog more. I cannot believe how busy we are these days with two kids. I'm still trying to figure how our workload expanded 10 times when Jackson arrived?

The kids are doing great. Haley is quite the talker these days and she amazes Matt and I with what she come up with sometimes. The other day she was playing "the princess game" on my phone and I was being silly singing. She told me, "Calm down Mommy. I'm playing." Matt and I laughed and her matter of fact approach. And yesterday when I told her at nighttime, "I love you," her response was "I love you too, dear." Then asked what that dear meant. She cracks us up.

Jackson is keeping us busy, to say the least. He is quite the crawler these days, and boy that little boy can move fast. The other day I was emptying the dishwasher and he crawled inside it, sat up and looked at me with a huge smile on his face. It was too cute. Then I tried to let him figure out how to get down but he would have tumbled on the tile so I caught him. He has also found the stairs. Today I was watching him and wanted to see how high he would go. He kept going up and looking back at me with belly laughs. He is going to be a trouble maker!!! Guess it's finally time to invest in a baby gate?

Jackson is really growing too. I don't know his official weight yet but he feels about as heavy as Haley! And no wonder why, he eats everything, and lots of it....
like penguins...

and whistles...

and the alphabet blocks!

Everything goes into the mouth. Still no teeth but I seriously think any day.

Haley, on the other hand, is shrinking. Look at how small she is getting....

She was having fun in the rain with Daddy's big umbrella. The other day she was splashing in a puddle having a good ole time and Jackson was watching her laughing up a storm. So I let him get in it too. Those are the best moments!

This weekend we made a trip up to Ft. Worth for our good friend's little girl's birthday. Kourtney turned 3 and her and Haley have so much fun playing together. Kourtney had a bouncy house and a beautiful cake. Haley was so excited and had a great time this weekend.
Jackson was enjoying the attention as well

The girls checking out the bouncy before the party officially began

Let's do it again...

Ok, wheeeeeee!!!!!

I had to capture this look. I have a feeling I will see this again during the teenage years :)

Sack of potatoes with Daddy

Haley and Jackson

Jackson wanting in on the action with all the boys jumping

Jackson telling his stories with the guys

Haley was taking a little snoozer, recharging

You can always tell how humid it is by Haley's hair. As you can see, this day was REAL humid.

After a long day the girls had a snack and watched Dora before bed

Thanks Kourtney for the invite! We had a great time.