Thanksgiving 2013

We spent Thanksgiving this year with our friends Erik and Kristin and their 4 sweet kids. They were excellent hosts, and we had a good time. We have been so blessed the entire time that we have lived away from family with the best friends! Times that could be lonely and sad turn into some of our favorite memories! We are Thankful!

Tanner Turns 2!

Tanner's birthday came and went so quickly! It is now actually 2 months later, and I'm still telling people "he just turned 2!" Time is flying by. We celebrated my sweet little boy with his "big" cousins Jaclyn and Tori, and had the traditional dinner, cupcakes and presents! Some of Tanner's favorites right now are:
Toys: trains and cars
Books: Thomas and Friends, Disney Cars
Movie/TV show: Thomas, Bob the Builder
Food: Cereal, Fruit, Chocolate Milk
Words- He talks a ton, and will copy just about anything we want him to say! But some of the cutest things he says are: Choo-Choo, a Gink (drink), Moke (chocolate milk), a Kindow (Kindle)

Tanner's personality is really coming through! We love watching him discover new things. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for this little cutie! Oh wait, yes I can! Slow down, time ;)

Walt Disney World 2013

 

We took our first trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando last week. Wow! It was impressive. We all had a really good time, and learned a lot about what we would do the same or differently in the future. First off, I won't ever refer to it as a "vacation," since that implies relaxation. This was not relaxing. It was super fun though!

 

 

Poor Tanner isn't at a very good age for theme parks, unfortunately. He's a little too old to want to hang out in his stroller all day, and it was too crowded for me to feel comfortable letting him get out. He didn't want anything to do with the bracelet/baby leash thing that I have, so that made for lots of tantrums. He did master the art of napping in the stroller though, so that was good! He did really enjoy the characters, and whenever we came to rides that he could go on, he loved them. All in all, he was really good. Would we go with a toddler in the future? Nope.

 

We were able to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Ivy was a Ballerina Princess, Porter was Darth Maul, and Tanner was Iron Man. They loved that they got to dress up. Honestly, other than that and the parade, I don't see the point in spending the extra money. I had read in some other blogs to skip the trick-or-treating and meet the characters instead, but the lines were insanely long to meet the characters so we opted out of that too. The only benefits of being there for us were shorter wait-times for some of the rides and seeing the other guests dressed up.

 

I loved meeting the characters! After meeting Ariel and Goofy, I realized that it would be a lot more fun to converse with them more, rather than just handing them our autograph books and snapping a quick picture. We learned from Cinderella that her stepsisters try to marry every "prince" they meet, and we learned from Mickey that he and Minnie aren't married, but that she is his one true love.

 

Ivy and Porter were SO good, the whole time. They loved WDW, and already want to go back. Ivy said she wants to live there! They never complained about the walking or the heat, and were very patient waiting in lines. They loved staying in a hotel, and absolutely loved all of the rides at the parks!

Ivy and Porter also had fun with their autograph books. We didn't get as many signatures as I had hoped we would be able to. I expected to see so many more characters walking around, but most of them are only in specific areas and there are long waits to see them.

 

I hope this post wasn't super negative! Other than the crowds and long waits for attractions, we really did have a fun time. We loved our hotel, and the Disney cast members were all so nice. I loved that they called Ivy "Princess", and Porter and Tanner were always "Prince." I loved the dining plan, and had fun taking a week off from cooking. It was fun to be able to try different foods every meal. We also loved the parades, Fantasmic, and the rides and attractions. I loved all of the shops, and would have loved to spend more time shopping! I'm sure John is glad we didn't.

So long, Walt Disney World! See ya real soon (ish). Or in like 10 + years.

Autumn Fun

This year, I decided to join a MOPS group. MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers, and we meet twice a month to have breakfast, learn from other mothers with young children, listen to speakers and commiserate with each other! One member of our group is one of the Kelsay's who own Kelsay farms here in Greenwood, and so our group were able to go spend the evening exploring the farm. We've been before, but it was so busy the other times! So it was really fun to be able to go on a night when there weren't very many people there! Porter loved the "corn pit" (like a ball pit, but with corn). Who wouldn't, right?! Ivy loved climbing up high on the hay and yelling "I'm the Queen of the Haystack!" Tanner thought the cows were very silly, Ivy and Porter thought they were stinky and we had to talk about how everybody poops, even cows. My favorite part was the kid-sized Corn Maze with the story of Spookly the Square Pumpkin throughout the maze. Ivy was so proud that she could read the pages to the rest of us. Here are a few fun pictures of the littles.

Movie Review: "Man of Steel"

 

Tonight, I went to see Man of Steel with my husband, John, a Superman aficionado. Let me just start off by stating that we have 3 Rubbermaid containers in our closet full of comic books – mostly Superman ones – from when he was younger. Every time we move I ask if it’s time to sell the comic books, but I don’t think he’ll ever cave. He really likes his comic books. So, of course we had to buy the tickets for the early Wal-Mart preview of Man of Steel. I love that we got to see the movie at 7:00 pm, rather than having to stay up for the midnight showing!

I went into the movie expecting to enjoy it, since I have enjoyed quite a few of the superhero movies that have come out lately. I didn’t really think I would love it as much as I did! Here are some of the things I loved.

1.       The Actors and Actresses. They were all fantastic. There wasn’t one that I ever thought, “He/She could have been better cast.” Really, they were all great. Also, rest assured that there were no singing parts for Russell Crowe. He definitely redeemed himself from Les Miserables. (We love Russell Crowe, by the way. He’s one of our favorites.)

2.       Action/Love story balance. Actually, it was a little heavy on the action. The action scenes were fast-moving, and since Kryptonians are fast-moving, that was appropriate. They were also loud and intense. John was in heaven. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the love story to develop, and it did! Amy Adams was the perfect Lois Lane, even though I wouldn’t have originally pictured her playing the part.

3.       Back Story. Since I haven’t read though those Rubbermaids full of Superman comic books, I don’t know that much about the history of Superman, the comic book character. I feel like Man of Steel taught me a lot about where Superman came from. I felt for his Mother, choosing to send her new baby away from their soon-to-be-destroyed planet! I really liked how Clark Kent was portrayed before he knew where he was from. He really went through a lot of soul searching:  standing down to bullies as a kid, and taking odd jobs as an adult, before he developed a sense of what he should do with his gifts.

4.       The villains. They were totally loath-able.  And very evil. Just what a good villain should be.

5.       The family-friendly factor. John and I were both keeping track of swear-words so we could judge whether or not this would be an appropriate movie to watch with our young kids. As far as language goes, there were 2 or 3 mild swear words. No “F” word. Pretty good.  There were a few scenes that might be a little scary or intense for young children. I think we will probably let our 5 and 6-year- olds see it once it’s out of theaters.

If there’s anything I didn’t like, if might be that they replaced Jimmy with Jenny. If they wanted to replace a male character with a female character in order to make it more modern and politically correct for the 21^st century, they should have had a female General. Not a wimpy newspaper employee. That’s all I can think of. Not too shabby!

So all in all, we loved Man of Steel. We loved the overall look and personality of the show. And as for me, it wasn’t too difficult to have to sit and watch Henry Cavill on the3D big screen for a couple of hours. I’m just saying. Good thing John looks just like Clark Kent. Lucky me!

Teacher Appreciaton 2013

This year, I was in charge of Teacher Appreciation week for our elementary school's PTO. I had fun doing some nice things for the teachers! They each got a Starbuck's Gift Card, snacks in the Teacher's Lounge each day, a catered lunch, and this cute little print-out that I made. I was pretty proud of myself for learning how to do this! How did people learn how to do things before you-tube existed? This could be the start of a great love for digital scrapbooking- I hope!

Porter turns 5

 

 

I always LOVE posting about my kids birthdays. I feel like it gives me a chance to think back about how much they have grown and changed over the last year. And if any kid has experienced a lot of growth in a year, it's this one! Porter is such a smart, funny, full-of-life little boy. I think everything that crosses his mind is focused on "fun". A few short weeks ago, I was worried about him starting school in the fall. Not because I don't think he is smart enough or knows enough (he definitely does), but because he just loves to play, and I was afraid that he would have a hard time learning to focus and follow directions. However, he has grown up so much recently. I know he is going to do great, and we're planning on having an adventurous summer before he has to start going to the "big kids school."

Here are some of the things Porter likes at 5:

 

Movie: Bolt

Food: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Oranges, Old McDonald's happy meals, "Hulk" smoothies (Green)

Best Friend: Cal

Favorite color: Green

Things to do: loves playing computer/wii/ipod games, reading stories, playing matching games, Hot Potato and Hungry Hungry Hippos

He is my "Early to bed, early to rise" kid.

Porter loves his family, and always wants to be around Mom, Dad, Ivy and Tanner. He is very sweet to share toys with his brother, and loves to make Tanner laugh. Porter always has something silly to say or do.

Oh Porter, we love you! Thanks for joining our family 5 years ago, you sweet, handsome boy.