Random {aka life}

I have several pictures on this post of just random times over the last month or so. They are not in order either, but wanted to share them.

So here is Jonas dressed like a 'community helper' before school one day. Adorable, right?

And here is a sample of a valentine for one of his friends.....

Here is Reese working on hers....

Reese and I went to watch Kelsie's older brother at a swim meet one weekend. Here are the girls being silly, which is what they are best at doing.

I think this pic might have been during one of our snow storms. Her little tush plopped down in this sand pail was too cute not to capture.

Also during the snow storm, which might have been the same day. Kiddos playing on the couch posing for a picture. And I didn't pose them either. All on their own :)

Painting while snowed in.

Results. We put one foot and one handprint on the canvases.

Random picture of Jonas' taco. And that was all he ate. No wonder he's so stinkin' skinny.

Oh, loved this one. Reese had fed her baby some food.

Some shredded cheese along with plastic corn, a french fry, and apple ;) Presh!

The White's come to town!!!!

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." -Desmond Tutu

Back in January, some of Jason's family came to visit. His sister Laura, his other sister Jennifer, Jenn's daughter Brooklynn, and Daddy Gary. It was great to have them here as we don't see each other often :(. AND, we made the most of our visit. Even though I don't have many pictures, we stayed up late talking and reminiscing over our childhood....laughing really hard over stories of vacations, broken bones, surviving crazy times, old relationships, and just life. It was so nice to relax and enjoy each other with no obligations other than LOVE, EATING, and LAUGHING.

We went out to get Brooklynn's hair cut. This was her first haircut (she is 2yo) and we went to a spectacular place that is just for kids! She had a good time as you can tell.

Daddy Gary and Reese enjoying some TV time.

Reese and Brooklynn

We love you very much and missed Robert and Jamie Lee. Mama Dor, you need to come visit too!

So one of the reasons that Robert (jason's brother) and his wife Jamie Lee did not come, is because she was very far in her pregnancy with this special blessing.

We welcomed Olyvia Faith to our family on Feb 21.

"To witness the birth of a child is our best opportunity to experience the meaning of the word miracle." -Paul Carvel

As with every good and perfect gift, there seems to be valleys we walk through as well. Daddy Gary's new wife is Linda.... In the same week as Olyvia's birth, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Linda & Daddy Gary

As Christopher Reeve's put it, "Once you choose hope, anything's possible." We are praying for healing, mild symptoms from chemo, and a renewed strength that only comes from the Lord.

Disney Finale {of our magical adventure}

You know how difficult it is to bring home a newborn and those first few weeks are just about insanely miserable?? But then after a few months those crazy memories fade and you totally forget about all the hardships. WELL, that is kinda like Disney! Right when we got home, I could have been negative about it but after a few weeks, and reminiscing over our pics.... I don't recall as much negative. BUT, I made a list on my phone while we were there of tips, observations, advice, etc. I am going to list them for you and if you ever want to discuss the list or anything else in detail, just call. ;)



A few pics first..... and the parades and character greetings are by far worth your time!

The electrical parade at Magic Kingdom. It is not shown every night, so be mindful of that when planning out your vacation.

A different parade that was shown at 5pm at Magic Kingdom. So fun and the characters actually interacted with the guests. The kids LOVED this!

And the final few pics are from the daily 3pm parade at Magic Kingdom. These were taken just minutes after entering Disney for the very first time!

My list:

• Don't have expectations
• Be flexible
  
• It takes a long time to do ANYTHING
  
• You have to be patient with your children as well as other kids around you
  
• Make reservations for ALL your sit-down meals. Can do this 6 mths out.
  
• Learn about the newest attractions as their lines fill up the quickest
  
• And get your fast passes for those newest attractions first thing when you enter the park
• There are limited fast passes given for a particular ride/attraction
  
• Bring baby wipes with you into the parks
  
• Have an agenda, even if you don't follow it fully
  
• Go in off season (no matter how cold it is)
  
• The high was in the 40's one day we were there. Cold.
  
• Dining plan is plenty of food and easy to do. It's one less thing to worry about during your chaotic trip.
  
• Always a long wait to return back to our resort at night. And this is when you are most tired.
  
• We were a minority. And I mean US citizens.
  
• Umbrella stroller was PERFECT. It's a must for small children.
  
• Lots of walking. Wear comfortable kicks.
  
• Bring your own water bottle.
  
• Epcot and MGM had less to do for preschoolers, but I can see where school age kids would love it
  
• Epcot and MGM also had tons of character greetings that MK did not have
  
• Encourage you to stay in a resort where the main transportation is the monorail to and from parks.
  
• Avoid the shuttle buses. Nothing but a headache.
  
• Pools are heated :)
  
• My children were content staying in the hotel and playing with their new toys
  
• Do character dining each night. Totally worth it.
  
• Buffets were the main entree though. Some were good, some were not.
  
• Avoid going during any type of holidays. Even MLK weekend. Go Mon-Fri too.
• Remember this is a working "vacation" that takes a lot out of an adult
  
• Completely worth it for your children to meet their idols that they sleep with every night
  
• Jason, when are we going again???

Day 4 {Downtown Disney & Magic Kingdom}

Buzz statue at DD.

Cinderella and Reese

We made reservations at T-Rex for lunch. It's just like the Rainforest Cafe but dino themed. Very fun and the food was excellent. This meal was not covered on our dining plan because it's a chain restaurant.

Lego monster

Waiting to get on the shuttle..... which we did a lot of waiting. Reminder: you wait to get on the shuttles, wait to ride or see attractions, wait to eat, wait to meet characters, wait to use the bathroom. AND we went to Disney during the "slow" time of the year. Not every waiting time was long, but still annoying.

On the carousel. Jason and Jonas were riding too but were not near us.

Love this.

Oh yeah, waiting on the parades too ;)

Going to do another post on the parades! Those were fabulous and on the top 5 fav list.

Day 3 {Animal Kingdom & Epcot}

Here we are about to board the Safari ride.... My parents joined us at Disney but my dad was doing his own thing while this pic was taken.

Love this and have no idea what Jonas was thinking/doing..... there were quite a bit of dino stuff at this park so maybe he was imitating a dino???

This is Bree who lives in Orlando and met us for the day. She and I met at JCJC back in 1999 and was also a bridesmaid in our wedding. It was sooooo good to see her!

Jonas at a playground.

Bree, mom, and I snuck off to ride while Jason watched the kids on the playground. Here we are in the middle of the ride.

The Lion King show which is also a fav!

Something new for us to see was the Finding Nemo show. It was also a fav and probably the best attraction we did at Animal Kingdom. Took many pics, but here is a neat one.

SuSu and Reese on a dino ride!

And to end our time at Animal Kingdom, a little nap for the princess.

Animal Kingdom closes at 5 everyday so we headed to Epcot afterwards. We actually didn't do much at Epcot besides have dinner, ride the Lil Mermaid, and look at an amazing aquarium.

Day 2 {Hollywood Studios}

I really didn't want to do seperate days as posts, but it is so much easier. If you start at the bottom post of our Disney vaca, it will flow better and make more sense.

The next set of pics are not in order. Actually they are backwards.

We did character dining on night 2 at Chef Mickey's and we met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck. The way this works at character dining, is one character comes to your table at a time. Every table in the restaurant sees/meets each charcter. It works really well that way!

And even though Jonas is not smiling here, he LOVED mtg all of them. When choosing pics, they are small on my comp and I am not able to make out faces. I bet I took 50 pics in just this meal.

(Part of the Toy Story ride)

This might look like an ordinary Potato Head, but he talked and moved. I heart him. He was able to see us in line and would talk to us, make jokes, wave, etc. The kids were sooo fascinated! As so was I!!!! If he spoke to you and you didn't acknowledge him, he would say, "You in the red shirt" which I thought was so cool.

Remember those details I told you about.... well this is a Toy Story ride that is fairly new. We waited 80 minutes to ride it because all the fast passes were given out for the DAY. Yeah. But it was fine because the details of just waiting in line were VERY impressive. Of course I took more pics, but only shared a couple with you.

Meeting Woody and Buzz, which is Jonas' FAVORITE characters. He was all over this!!!!

Meeting Lightening McQueen and Tomater.

The grin is priceless.

The Incredibles. One of the first Disney movies we introduced to the kids.

This was in the playground, Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

And meeting Donald and Daisy (which was the first thing we did on this day). One good thing to say about Hollywood Studios, is there are MANY character greetings.