blair and maisy

March 31, 2012

Orlando & Daytona: Why oh why are vacations so great?

Blair got an unexpected week off of work due to the people he was working for all needing to attend an out-of-state conference, so we hit the road and headed to Orlando!

Sea World

Disney World

Claire loved Minnie, & would not let go for about 5 minutes!

Magic Kingdom

This is a pose from Will, behind Cinderella's castle.

Can't forget the teacups.

Epcot

This is from the ride in the Epcot ball. It takes a picture of you and then you see it throughout the ride. Xander was laughing at my picture the whole time, so I took a picture of it so I could remember him laughing so hard.

Fish are friends, not food. At the Seas, Finding Nemo.

Blair chose to eat at this German restaurant in the world showcase of Epcot for his birthday. It was so fun! See that badge on him? It told everyone it was his birthday, so he got about 20 "Happy Birthday" wishes from random Disney workers.

The flower & garden festival was going on at Epcot, so there were beautiful things to admire all over.

Our vikings, in the Norway section.

Claire was cracking us up.

Animal Kingdom

Getting a close-up view on the animal safari. We were stopped for like 5 minutes while all sorts of animals crossed.

The "tree of life" at Animal Kingdom

Tusker House character buffet with a fun African twist on the food.

Claire loves Mickey waffles. She would hug it and then take a bite, then hug it again:

Claire, all ready to watch "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D

Hollywood Studios

This was seconds before Sulley accidently bumped Claire over with his hand, which made her scream & cry for about 10 minutes from being attacked by that monster.

She decided she liked Pooh though.

Who is Xander's favorite princess that we tease him about? Haha, the Beauty & the Beast production.

Back lot tour.

Happy St. Patty's!

Fantasmic show- really cool!

We stayed at the Port Orleans, French Quarter Disney resort so we could get all the perks of extra park hours and the free shuttles etc. We also got a nice pool where the kids sometimes would rather be than at DisneyWorld. Oops.

This is the 1st time we tried the dining plan, but it was fun to have a sit down meal, sometimes with the characters, each day. Blair got a signed card in this picture from all of the princesses in honor of his birthday that weekend, and we got a lot of pictures with them :)

Belle

Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

Little Mermaid

Snow White

SeaWorld

You always have to get a pic like this at SeaWorld right?

Will's favorite thing: petting the stingrays. He did it 3 separate times, and still wanted to go see them again.

Claire's favorite thing this trip: going on the carousel over and over!

Daytona Beach

On the way back, we wanted to stop by and see Daytona Beach to break up the drive. We stayed the night at a timeshare hotel thing that we have and then played at the beach and hotel the next morning until we had to check out at noon. It was so fun, I already want to go back!

Happy Birthday to us. Nothing like a trip to Disneyworld, and then a Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake to celebrate when we got back. Oh, and a present wrapped in a leftover Christmas bag from Blair to me. Yep, he does that a lot.

February 29, 2012

Mardis Gras & other shenanigans

It's Mardis Gras!

It's the real deal down here. Xander got days off of school and everything!

Here we are with my friend Lauren before one of the parades.

During...

Towards the end...

and, oh my goodness, the final loot!

I can't believe how many beads we got!

Doesn't this baby look like an absolute angel? I got this picture below done today. She's 21 months old, and has the cutest personality. She's sweet and she's feisty, she smiles and laughs a lot and jibber jabbers and speaks enough words to get her point across. I'll have to put a video of her counting, because it sounds something like "two, fwee, two, fwee, TWO!!!" and then I usually have to dive across the room to catch her from jumping off of something.

So my little angel, has learned how to climb out of her crib during naptime (yesterday and now today too), and pull out all the wipes or try on different shoes etc. Yesterday she was asleep right in front of the door with different shoes on, but today after pulling out the wipes and anything else she could get her hands on, she just yelled "mama" until I got her.

Tonight we went to the scout's Blue and Gold Banquet which I was helping run smoothly. It was time to transition to dessert and I thought Blair was watching her, and he thought I was watching her. Well she took advantage of the situation and made her way to the church's ladies room where she was found unrolling all the toilet paper, and taking her pants off. Some lady asked if anyone knew who's kid she was, and a lady in my ward took her and brought her to me with, oh yes, her diaper hanging around one ankle as she had gotten one side undone. Oh my sweet Claire, whom I pride myself in keeping an eye on so closely, utterly embarrassed her mother today. Maybe it's time for potty training?

At the Beau Rivage (Biloxi Casino)

Will's favorite jellos at the buffet. The last time we took Xander and Will, they ate 17 between the two of them.

In other food news, I finally joined Pinterest last week.

So what did I try make in the last week after joining Pinterest?

Cinnamon Rolls, twice

Homemade pizza, twice

Meatloaf

Mashed potatoes

Corn chowder

Bruschetta

Nutella shakes

Sloppy joes
Grilled vegetables
Homemade fettucini and ravioli
Crispy southwest burritos
Snickerdoodles
Beef stew
Corn bean salsa
Bread

Emphasis on the word "tried," as anything with yeast has not exactly worked out yet. I know I need to practice to get better, but what do I do with all the testing materials that don't work out while I'm getting better? Luckily the boys still eat the hard cinnamon rolls, and say they like them better than dad's (which are the store Pillsbury ones haha). But I think I prefer dad's. I guess I could go feed some ducks or something. Anyway, this is good because I can't remember the last time I actually felt like cooking dinner. We'll see if the excitement wears off.

The funnies

Will 12/14 " Mom can you please pour the milk for me because it’s almost full, and there’s a 65% chance that I’ll spill it."

11/14 Me: Why did you dump out all the toys?

Claire: Because I was trying to find something to play with

Me: What did you find?

Claire: The glow in the dark dinosaur

Me: Then why didn’t you put the other toys back?

Claire: Because I had to use the bathroom, so I just runned.

Claire 11/14 "Mom I can’t find any of my jammies, so should I bring you the sew kit so you can sew me some?"

Claire 11/14 "What do these constructions say?"

11/14 Claire: Mom Can I have this?

Me: Sure

Claire: Yes!!! Mom, thanks for asking me!

Claire 11/14 "Oh my Geez"

Claire 11/14 "I had a great dream last night. I got to see Dixie, and eat shrimp!"

Claire 11/14 "Our scarecrow fell over, but we’ll still be able to find our house because you know the numbers!"

Will 11/14 "The only good thing that happened to me today, was that Kord gave me a penny. But then I lost it."

Claire 9/13 "I love polka-dot butterflies."

Claire 9/13 " This pencil needs to get sharpt. Can I sharpt this pencil in myself?"

Claire 9/13 after pulling a piece of tape off of something successfully, "I am a great job."

Claire 8/13 "One time a dog pooped on the grass."

Me, "Why are you telling me that?"

Claire, "Because it was weally gross, PU!"

Claire 8/13 I walked in and exclaimed what a mess it was. "I didn't got that out," said Claire pointing at one little thing.

Claire 10/12 "Ehhhhh he he, ehhh he he."

Gaurd at the Airforce gate, "That sounds like a fake cry."

Me, "Yep."

Claire, "Ehhh he he, ehhh he he. It NOT a fake cwy."

Will 10/12 "Mom, could I miss school on Wednesday, because they're going to learn something really hard like minus?"

Me, "Well what would you do the next day when they were still learning more about that?"

Will, "No mom, we don't have to make up the homework when we miss."

Claire 10/12 "You not funny Will."

Claire 10/12 (almost in tears with the saddest little voice because she wanted all of the toys) "Mommy, brothers not sharing a me."

Claire 10/12 chasing her brothers around slowly with her arms outstretched says, "Bwains, bwains, bwains!" just like a real zombie.

Will 10/12 "Xander is white, and I'm white, and mom's white and Claire is white and dad's a little white."

Will 3/12 "Dad and I are getting gooder at disc golf."

Xander 3/12 seeing frozen peas in his drink that had spilled into the icebox, "Mom, there are green cotton balls in my drink."

Will 12/11 "I know something that's not a word: spit-buggar."

Claire 12/11 "Ha ha, fuh-ee (funny)"

Will 12/11 after he broke a plastic fork, "I would like to put it in recycling because that saves the world."

Will 11/11 as he rubs the carpet, "I like this house because it's hairier than the other one."

Will 9/11 "Mom, could you call my nickname 'shark' please?"

Will 9/11 in a prayer while Blair was away for a month, "Bless that we would ever see dad again, and if we drive there it wouldn't be too long."

Will 3/11 after I asked him how primary was, he said, "I was the 1st kid in class. I thought I was going to have to taught myself."

Will 3/11 "Mom, is today fast Sunday."

Me "What is fast Sunday Will?"

Will, "When we eat really fast."

Will 3/11 "Xander is saying mean things, like that I'm not the leader."

Blair told Will to go to the bathroom with him while we were out somewhere and he was doing the potty dance 3/11, "Hey I had to go to the bathroom too!"