Glucose Test/Pregnancy Jitters

Today I had the lovely glucose test. I stayed away from sugar and carbs for two days and it was TORTURE but I don't want to suffer through the three hour glucose test like I did with Ian. Please, please, please let the results come back low enough that I'll be in the clear.
I have 2 days left of enjoying the second trimester. Sunday begins the third and extremely uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. I've been enjoying the second trimester as much as possible, knowing that this third one was on the horizon. Technically, if I look at my delivery history, I'm on my 10 week countdown! I had Ayden at 38 weeks and Ian at 37. I hope I can keep up that trend. We'll see.
We have a lot of work to do on our third bedroom. It has always been our trashed out computer room. You know, the black hole where things that you will get to later never get gotten! (I know that's not proper English, but it sounded fun). We somehow have to transform this mess into a cute little girl haven. I have images of Pottery Barn Kids dancing in my head all day and night. We'll see what happens.
Little Aftie is getting a lot stronger lately. She's stirring around and I can tell she's getting more cramped, because when I fold my arms she pushes/kicks me away. She's hearing well too. Ian was being loud on my lap the other day and startled her! I'm excited for this little one to join our madness. She has so much love coming her way.

Feeling the Magic!

The beginning of our Disney adventure: Magic Kingdom!
This is just before we took the genuine steam engine train ride to Toon Town.

Exploring Mickey's House. Look how focused Ayden is on every detail.

Pluto's house. Watch out for poop!

That's our hostess with the mostest, cousin Peyton, on the left.

Watching the parade.

Ian was the only one who got to rest.

We were all feeling that way, but there was still so much to do!

We got in our room at around 5pm to drop off our bags and ran out again for dinner.
We ate at Animal Kingdom Lodge's "Boma" restaurant. YUM!!

Andrew and Meredith requested their friend's table, and he brought this out for dessert!

The kids needed the sugar so they could make it through the rest of the night.

Another treat for dessert!

Our comical attempt to get a picture in front of the Mickey garden.

Waiting for Tinkerbell to start the fireworks display.
(Finally a picture of Meredith & Andrew!)

Watching the fireworks with daddy.

We had NO WAIT!! to see Mickey & Minnie. (It was right before their bedtime)

Day two: We headed to Animal Kingdom. This is the tree of life. There are animals carved all over the trunk. It's amazing. I have SO MANY pictures already, so I won't be sharing any more. I urge you to look it up. WOW!

Again, NO WAIT to see the Pooh characters.
Ayden really enjoyed meeting and hugging all of them.

Eeyore is my favorite!

Pooh bear getting some Hutch boy lovin'.

All Ayden wanted the whole trip was a lollipop. He finally got one! We also got them the Mickey ears ice cream bar. WHAT A MESS!!

There you have it! Our two day Disney adventure. We left Thursday, drove to Tallahassee and got a hotel room. Friday around lunchtime we made it to Meredith & Andrew's (they live a little north of Orlando). We hung out and stayed at their house, then Saturday morning we went to Magic Kingdom & stayed in the Disney resort that night. Sunday was Animal Kingdom, then back to hang out with Meredith & Andrew (Peyton too, of course). Monday morning we went outlet shopping with Mert and Peypey, then we drove ALL DAY, ALL THE WAY HOME. We were not crying wee-wee-wee. It was WHAAA-WHAA-WHAA. It was worth it to drive that long though and sleep in our bed and have a full day to recover before Ayden had to go back to school. We had an excellent time visiting family and Mickey. See you real soon...

Who's That Kid In Our House?

Last night Ian went through an intense witness protection program. Step one: identity change. Seriously, I keep forgetting that I cut his hair, and for a split second I wonder who's at my house before I realize it's my own child. He looks so blonde now, too! I'll get a picture in better lighting later, when we're touring around DISNEY WORLD!! We leave on Thursday. We're taking advantage of the Mardi Gras weekend.

Happy Second Birthday, Ian!!

Birthday party Round one:
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme with his friends from nursery, our neighborhood, and our baby sitting swap group. Celebrated on Valentine's Day.

He got a LOT of Mickey toys! HOT DOG!!

We had a kid friendly pull string pinata...

The moms made Mickey and Minnie Bags to hold all of the candy.

With a lot of help from our friends (you know who you are!)-we had fun shaped snacks.

I had my friend, Cathi, make the cake/cupcakes and another friend, Jessica, sent me the CUTE cupcake toppers all the way from Omaha! Thanks to both of you.

Mommy and little E. It was a great party, even though we got rained IN.
The kids all played in the living room or Ayden & Ian's room while the adults all hung out.

We were SO exhausted from the week of preparing our house and the actual day of the excitement. What am I saying...We're STILL exhausted! This was the boys crashing on our drive to Round TWO: Party with family in Slidell Sunday afternoon after church.

Love those cheeks!

Crazy Cousins! That's Laney, the Minnie Mouse Princess. No Kota. We missed him:(

We celebrated (from left) Nana's birthday and Becca's birthday and house warming along with Ian's birthday. Lots of reasons to celebrate!

I can't believe that Ian is two years old already. He has been such a joy in our lives. He has added his own little bit of spice to our family. He is very independent, but also loves to get his snuggles in when he can. He'll hug us and say "I wuh woo!" It'll melt your heart. Unlike Ayden, he is very shy with people he's not used to. He'll hide his face or pretend he's sleeping whenever people smile at him in public. He's very smart and loves to make us laugh, which we do pretty much all day. He loves his big brother, Ayden and copies everything he does. He's still hanging on to his chub-even though the kid hardly eats anything-and is so fun to squish. He growls when he doesn't get his way and slowly lies down on the floor and sucks his thumb until he gets over it. He loves rescue/work vehicles and can spot them before any of us. Fire trucks are called "the man", tractors are "dah-doo", ambulances-"amance", any car-"ride", any truck, pick-up or semi-"bee-tah", mail truck-"mail box or mailman", motorcycles-"bike". He's a sweety and we adore that little fella.

Ayden's Mind

*picture pending*

Josh found a Jesus figurine at the dollar store and gave it to Ayden today. This morning, as they were driving to school, Ayden had the toy with him and asked Josh, "Daddy, can I play with Jesus in the tub? Because he can walk on water!" Josh immediately called me because it was such a classic moment!!!
You know, those 2-4 minute Family Home Evening lessons are sinking in! Remember that night, Doug and Amy? I remember Tristan getting so frustrated because none of us could draw him a picture exactly the way he wanted it:)

Birthday Party Preparations

The eye sore has been cleared out. This "fort" was here when we bought the house. It was fun at first. Ugly, but fun. Ayden is a great climber, so it was fun for a while for him. He only fell once, because he was trying to climb up the ladder with a big dump truck toy in one hand. Nothing traumatic, he fell flat on his back. The wind wasn't even knocked out of him. HOWEVER... Ian is our clumsy little boy. He just barely mastered climbing onto our kitchen chairs. Every time the boys play in the back yard, I become paranoid that he will try to climb up that thing. I also get a little worried when Ayden has friends over, because I don't want any of them to fall from that height. So, I convinced Josh to chop it down. He borrowed a chainsaw from our friend, Jimbo and had some fun playing demolition derby. Our backyard looks SO MUCH BETTER!!! Now we're on a search for a good swingset/slide deally. Our garbage men pick up trash piles on Thursdays, so they better not let us down! We have a heap of wood to be picked up, and I hope it's gone before Ian's big day this Saturday. Let me translate for Ian in the video. He said, "Daddy make house".

Good People Still Exist!

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Today I took Ian with me to the OBGYN. We took our old stroller out of the attic because I won't need the double stroller for a while and we had to retire the umbrella stroller. Ian loves having this "new" stroller. It has a bug screen which makes him feel like he's in a fort. He stayed in there throughout the entire visit! He had fun smashing his face on the screen, playing peek-a boo, and I kept handing him toys to keep him busy. His hair was all over the place from the static, so I had a good laugh from that, too. Baby Afton is doing well, by the way.

Now on to my "good people" story. This morning I stopped at Hi-Nabor (a small locally owned grocery store) to get breakfast. After the food was prepared and I brought it to the front registers, I realized that I didn't have my wallet. I had no cash either. The cashier lady got out her debit card, walked around the counter and payed for my meal! I couldn't believe it! I told her I would come back to pay her back, but she said not to worry about it. I've been feeling all warm and fuzzy all morning because of her, and I'm sure she has many blessings coming her way for being such a sweetheart. Cheers to you, Ginger!