Florida, Part II: The part where we go to Disney World

I'll be honest. I usually don't get too excited about theme parks. I would rather go to the beach. But when everything fell into place to take Ellie to Disney World for a day with her BFF cousin Kate, we couldn't pass it up. And I'm so glad we didn't. Let's just say all of Ellie's dreams came true.

This was my first time to Disney World and basically Disney anything aside from a hurried hour at Disneyland when I was on an acting tour 10 years ago, so I admit it was pretty fun for me too. When we walked into the park, every worker we passed greeted us as princesses and said, "Have a magical day." They really try to live up to their motto as the happiest place on earth. 

Because my sister is awesome, she treated the girls to Cinderella's Royal Table -- a breakfast inside the castle where all of the princesses visit each table. It was a great way to kick off the day. 

Our first ride: "It's a Small World." Had that song in my head all day. Ellie loved it and kept bringing my attention to everything she saw. 

Her favorite ride, by far, was Dumbo. 

The highlight of the day was watching Ellie meet her favorite character, Tinkerbell, and her sister, Periwinkle. Just to give you an idea of her love for all things fairy, her favorite movie is "Secret of the Wings," when she blew out her candles on her birthday she wished to be a real fairy, and all she wanted for Christmas was a fairy. 

As we were waiting in line to see Periwinkle Ellie asked, "Can I fly to her?" So she flapped her little arms all the way to her, and Periwinkle loved it. 

Aladdin's magic carpet ride 

Meeting Rapunzel was another huge highlight of the day. Ever since we told Ellie we were taking her to Disney World, she kept asking if "Tangled" was going to be there. I wasn't sure, so I kept saying "maybe" but we were so happy when we found out she was there. The girl who played her character was so genuine. Really liked her. 

 Love. 

Mickey was so cute. He was so playful and into his character. He was another one Ellie did not want to leave without seeing. Her souvenir of choice was a little Mickey stuffed animal. 

By 7:30, Ellie was all tuckered out and fell asleep in the stroller. As many of you know, I am usually super anti-waking-up-children-at-any-cost, but we hadn't seen the interactive story time with Belle in the new Fantasyland, so after a short nap, I took her into Belle's cottage and she woke up as she heard the characters talking. It was really cool. The wardrobe and Lumiere looked and talked just like the animated versions. When it was time to meet Belle, Ellie was still a little groggy, as you can see. Ha ha. 

 Kate, this picture is for you!
Ariel was the last princess we saw, and we were the last ones to see her that day. 

Ellie was obsessed with her fin. 

                     We hurried out of the park as the firework show was going. It was such a fun day. 

A little jaunt to Florida.

We were lucky enough to join Clay on a business trip to Orlando last week.

After we got the kiddos packed up and loaded in the car, we had a slow drive to the airport in the freezing rain, which was causing all kinds of accidents.

We made it to our plane just in time, but as we were walking on, the flight attendant said not to board because they had just closed to airport because of ice. After about four hours of chillin', we got on our plane and after they de-iced it, we were finally off.

When we got to our hotel, Ellie asked if we could stay there for 20 days. I wish. Eight days of sunshine was bliss.

 Our favorite baggage 

 NBD, just driving ON Daytona Beach. 

Beach writing by Ellie ("Mom," if you couldn't tell.) 

There was a splash pad at our hotel. I want to live there.

Because my sweet mama joined us on our trip, Clay and I were able to sneak out a few times. Here we are before going to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Bonefish Grill. (We happened upon it last year.)

My mom and my yummy boy

Next up . . . Disney World!  

Ellie's thoughts about her baby brother

I found this video of Ellie answering questions about her baby brother about a month before he was born. So cute.

My main squeeze

A few words to describe the little man in my life, who I have a major crush on. 

Happy. It is so easy to get this kid to smile and laugh. He has such an easygoing temperament, 

and I hope that sticks around.

Chunky. It makes me so happy to have a baby with fat rolls on his thighs. Don't even get me started on his squish-able bum. Poor kid gets squeezed and smothered with kisses about 90 times a day. 

Active. He rolls everywhere and gets up on his hands and feet, something Ellie didn't do for a long, long time (The girl crawled at 13 months). He tries to jump out of our arms and kicks like crazy. 

Hungry. It took months for me to help him nurse every three hours instead of every hour and a half or less. He recently started freaking out whenever he saw one of us eat, and he literally would grab food from my hands and quickly shove it in his mouth. We are slowly introducing some basic foods (since he is allergy prone) and his favorite so far is a chard and banana smoothie. 

Ellie is pretty obsessed with her "little chunky monk" as she calls him, and she is having more fun with him now that he is getting more interactive every day. She helps me a lot by getting things for him and keeping him happy while I try and get something done. My favorite is when they have laughing attacks together. Is there a better sound than hearing your own kiddos laugh? 

2013

Happy New Year! 

I love the fresh-start feeling of January.

I love making goals. 

This year, I am especially excited about limiting refined sugar, doing Cross Fit at least three times a week and  taking some time every day to read and study by myself. 

I am also determined to have an unusually happy winter. My last one was rough — but having pregnancy insomnia had a lot to do with that.

I hope your holidays were dreamy and that your 2013 has started off well.
Here are a few of my favorite moments from 2012:

Went to New York City for the first time with my sisters and mom
Took Ellie on a trip to Park City before her brother was born
Ran 3 5Ks as a family of four (I was pregnant for all of them and Ellie was in the stroller)
Clay ran his second half marathon
Gave birth to my sweet baby boy after expecting a long labor but having a short,
unexpected home birth instead
A special blessing day for Camden — I'll never forget the happiness and peace I felt that day
Went to Hawaii with my family and wanted to stay there forever
Had a memorable Christmas with family 

A happy birthday

Ellie started talking about her third birthday when the sun set on her second one. She requested "a light blue and dark blue cake" early on and said that she wanted to invite her friends to her party. So, a few of her friends came to run around with her at the place where she takes gymnastics. They were all in heaven.

When I went to get Ellie from her room on her actual birthday the next day (Sunday), she could not contain her excitement. I brought her out to her toy room where I had set up her craft table with pink chocolate chip pancakes, juice and her dolls and animals to celebrate with her. She said, "Mom, this is the best breffdex I EVER seen."

 She was so excited when she saw her new birthday dress. 

She helped me make her special cake.

 I ran out of blue food coloring, but it was good enough for her. 

That night, we had a birthday dinner with our family. I made some homemade mac and cheese and her grandparents showered her with gifts. 

She was so excited about her box of dress-ups and her art easel.

A few tidbits about our three-year-old: 

-This girl is wise beyond her years. She understands so much and has asked questions lately like, "Mom, can you tell me where the snow comes from?" and "When is Jesus gonna come?" 

-Ellie feels things very deeply. She gets very excited and happy about things, and goes to the other extreme  if things don't pan out how she envisioned. We have a good old time riding that roller coaster several times every day. We think that means she is going to be a determined, sympathetic adult. :)

-She loves all things fairy and princess right now, and is fully in the playing pretend stage. She wants nothing more than for me or Clay to play pretend with her princess figurines all day long.

-She still loves animals and wants to pet every dog she sees. Every day, she talks about how she is going to have a real dog and cat  when she gets older.

-I love finding her in her room reading aloud to herself on her chair. She also likes me to hand her a few books then "give her privacy" while she goes to the bathroom. :)

(We used books as potty-training bribery and it stuck.)

-She is so sweet to Camden and loves to try and make him happy when he is crying. She still wants me to hold "just her" a lot of times, but she is getting better at being patient when I need to take care of Camden.

-She loves carrots, applesauce, steak, chicken alfredo, mac and cheese and Pirate's Booty. She is still pretty good at downing dad's green smoothies. 

-She thankfully still naps (most of the time) but if it isn't going to happen, she lets us know by singing yelling "Jingle Bells" at the top of her lungs until we come get her. 

-She lives for friends and is happiest when she is playing with them. If we are at a park or something and she sees a kid her age, she will look at me and say, "Mom, I found a friend for me!" then she will go introduce herself and run around with him/her. 

We love our Ellie! 

Kicking off the season

Here are a few ways we have been celebrating Christmas so far:
{click on the images to see them better}

Of course, one of our most important December activities was celebrating a special little girl's birthday. That's for the next post.