Weekend of Fun

Every year Grandma Anne goes out to Mississippi for our cousins spring break and this year they had a baseball tournament in Atlanta at the end of the week.  So Anne and Steve drove out with Russ's family and stayed with us through the weekend.  They arrived Friday and we met them at one of our favorite places, Papacitas for dinner.

Jett decided to come to our house that night for a sleepover and the rest of the cousins went to their hotel room located closer to the baseball fields.

Last time Jett was at our house he wanted to play dress up but his mom and dad weren't to big on the idea, but with just Grandma and me around his wish came true!  He really loved playing with this bow and arrow.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to watch 6 baseball games!  It was a busy day but so fun to see my 3 nephews play baseball.  This was the first time we have seen Quincy (age 5) play!

Hayden had a great time at the ball park and got spoiled with skittles, snow cones, cookies, and who knows what else!  At the end of every game she was very worried and asked if we got to go to another one, when I replied yes, she was so excited!  Reid was an awesome baby once again and just hung out with us all day long and took great naps!

Jett & Quincy were exhausted and fell asleep and slept for several hours like this, how crazy?  Hayden of course had no interest in a nap!

Sunday was suppose to be another day filled with the baseball, but all the games got rained out.  We were going to meet Russ's family to say goodbye but they decided they wanted to get on the road earlier.  So we spent the day just hanging out and playing.  It was a nice relaxing day.  I also started to learn a lot about oils, Anne got into them awhile back, so I ordered some, we'll see how it goes.

                                               

Monday morning came around and we had the morning to spend with Grandma Anne and Papa Steve they took us to lunch and then it was time to take them to the airport. There were lots of tears like normal, Hayden hates to say goodbye to special people. 

At Jim and Nicks Barbecue, it was so fun having Grandpa travel with Grandma again!  Reid loved being held by him.

Summer can't come soon enough so we can get out to Utah to visit all of our family

"I have to kite"

This is what Hayden told me all day last week.  She learned all about kites at preschool and then we happened to have a very windy day, so I brought out my old kite and Paul took her out when he got home from work.  She was "freaking out" as she likes to say.

Reid is 3 months old!

It must be because this is my 2nd time around and I am not a nervous first time mom, but I am just really enjoying being Reid's mom!  I love him so much and I think my love went to an even greater level when he started sleeping through the night!  His first night sleeping 9 hours was February 23rd and he has slept through the night every night since!  His longest stretch was 10 hours 20 minutes and his shortest stretch has been right at 8 hours.  I know some people say that babies either come as good or bad sleepers, but I really disagree. Everyone I know who has used Baby Wise has good sleepers, it just works!  I was getting really worried though because Hayden started sleeping longer stretches gradually, a bit longer each night until she was sleeping through the night around 8 weeks.  But Reid kept waking up around 3-4am each night and then one night he just didn't!  Anyway, hopefully once I get through my 2nd round of anti-biotics and start feeling better I'll finally feel rested.  Sinus infections are the worst.  

Reid is such a happy baby and smiles and giggles with us all the time.  Hayden loves spending time with her brother and always wants to know where he is when she gets home from preschool.  When we are out and he is covered in his car seat, she wants me to lift up the blanket so "everyone can see my brother."  She is so proud of him.   She loves running around him in circles and watching him try to track her.  He is always behind though, it is pretty funny to watch.

Reid is great at falling asleep all on his own, but struggles to take the 1 1/2 hour nap baby wise recommends.  He usually wakes up at the hour mark and sometimes will fall back asleep, but other times wants to eat now!  I swear he eats to much more than Hayden ever did!  He is one hungry boy and he is growing big.  Here is his first night in 6 month pajamas, oddly the same night he slept all night long.

Reid does take a pacifier, but by no means does he love it like Hayden did.  He uses it to soothe him to sleep and then he spits it out.  That's really the only time he will take it.  I wish he'd take it for 5 minutes when he's hungry and I'm racing to get home, but he is not fooled by it!  Reid is starting to chew/suck on his knuckles though so we'll see where this goes.

I think he favorite things to look at include lights, toys I hang from the fan in my bedroom, fans, and his absolute favorite is the mobile above his bed.  He loves that thing!  Well, maybe his favorite is looking at our faces :)

He still spits up A LOT all day long, so I am going to talk to the doctor about this at his 4 month check-up.

He also enjoys his baths in the tummy tub a lot now

And he LOVES to stretch, he stretches more than any baby I've ever seen

Reid turned 3 months old on March 5th and I tried to take some pictures on my own.  He smiles much better when I use my phone camera and he can see my face.  So I need to have Paul help me when I use the nice camera.  I'm not good at all, but at least I am capturing this time in his life!

Love this little outfit on him!  Need to try and take some better pictures of him in it!

Rachel Comes To Visit

We have had so many awesome visits from friends and family!  Rachel is a woman I met while Paul did his job training in Carmel, Indiana.  She was one of the only people to really befriend me and it was a much needed answer to prayers while we were there.  When we left she said she would make a trip down south to visit and she stuck to her promise.

After some miscommunication about her arrival time (She arrived at 2:30 and we didn't get there until 5pm, talk about being a horrible hostess) we finally picked her up on Sunday the 2nd of March and made her one of our favorite meals, Turkey Bolognese.  We just visited that night and made plans for the next few days.

Because it was rainy and cold we decided the Georgia Aquarium was our best option.  This is one of Hayden's favorite places to visit and despite the fact that she has seen the dolphin show about a dozen times, she still loves it.  She also had fun getting up close and personal with the penguins.

   

We enjoyed a nice lunch and then headed to the dolphin show (picture courtesy of Hayden)

That night we made chimichangas and talked the night away.  Rachel is a great conversationalist and enjoys talking about lots of different things.  She always asks me lots about therapy and my practice which makes me feel good, like I do know a thing or two about therapy! 

The next day Hayden had preschool and it was another overcast cold day so we decided to go to the grocery store to make some new things that I have not made.  She made us bread and cinnamon rolls, and then for dinner she taught me how to make spring rolls and pot stickers. YUM!  She is a great cook and it was nice of her to share her skills with us.  That night we decided she had to 1) see the BIG chicken (Atlanta Landmark) and 2) pick out dessert at the Marietta Diner.  So many options...but in the end she went with the German Chocolate Cake.  I got the Key Lime Pie, and Paul was good and just had a bight of mine.  

The next morning we had to take her back to the airport sadly.  Hayden had such a fun time with our visitor and Rachel even commented that Hayden should make a go at hospitality career field! 

 Thanks for the wonderful visit Rachel!

Disney World!!!

Every year Paul's company, Philips Healthcare, has a big Mega Meeting in Orlando.  Some years his team goes and sometimes they don't.  We always thought it would be a good time to make a family trip out of it, but I wasn't sure I'd be up for the trip with a newborn.  After meeting Reid and seeing how easy going he is we decided we could make it work!  It also happened to coincide with our friends the Heinholds cruise.  They drove to Orlando went to Disney on Friday and then left for their cruise.  So we got to meet up with them at Disney of Friday February the 7th.  One big bummer was that we got a free hotel stay only because we had to go to a timeshare presentation.  We did not know the timeshare part until it was too late, so that ate up 3 1/2 hours of our morning!!!  I was beyond irritated about it!  Anyway, we met up with them and sadly it was a rainy cold day.  I don't think it got out of the 50s and the rain made it so cold.  But we didn't let that stop us from having a good time!

They must make a killing on the ponchos!

It's a small world, Reid slept through it this time, but the next time we rode it he was wide awake and loving it!

Hayden & Savannah on the tea cups, boy did that make me dizzy!

It was so cold we even caved and bought Hayden this Minnie Mouse sweatshirt.  Here is Michael pushing the girls around for us. 

The light parade, Hayden loved seeing all the Disney characters and floats

 It was so fun going with our friends and their extended families.  Paul and I were able to ride space mountain and thunder mountain together while they watched the kiddos, so that was fun!  Decide the weather, Reid did so well in the ergo carrier snuggled next to me all day.

The next morning we had to switch hotels because our 2 free nights were up (and it was kind of a yucky hotel anyway, even though Hayden described it as beautiful).  So we packed up all our stuff and drove over to the new hotel.  This one was much nicer and had a kitchen and couch area and a separate bedroom.  Hayden was in love with the last hotel, when she saw this one she couldn't even believe her eyes, as she said!

It was another cold rainy day so instead of wasting our 4 day hopper pass on a cold day we decided to go outlet shopping and kind of hang out at the hotel.  We also spoiled ourselves with BJ's pizza!  I haven't seen one of these chain restaurants since my California days and I was so excited to eat there.

Sunday we finally saw some sun so we decided to go to Sea World.  I had just seen the documentary Blackfish and was hesitant to go support them, but with Paul's reserve card we all got in free so we decided to go.

Hayden and Paul in front on a baby dolphin pool

The penguin exhibit was FREEZING!!!  They keep it at about 20-30 degrees, so we were ready to get out of there!

There is so much to do there, we went on rides, Hayden played in a play area and we saw 3 different shows.  We saw a dolphin show, an otter show, and one with cats, dogs, chickens, etc (who knew they'd have that at Sea World!)

Paul was originally suppose to start his conference on Monday but that all changed and Monday was a free day so we got to spend it together again.  But first we had to yes, pack up once again, and move hotels!  I would not do 3 different hotels again, it was kind of annoying.  But anyway, we checked into the Dolphin which is a Disney resort hotel and where Paul's conference was.  You can see the fish on top of it in this picture.  

Once we got all that done and took a wrong route of transportation, we finally ended up back at the Magic Kingdom around noon.  This day at Disney was much more about meeting all the princesses and going on some rides again from Friday.  We also got to stay and watch the fireworks which was amazing.  Reid was jerking his head back and forth trying to see it all, it was pretty funny!

Once we got all that done and took a wrong route of transportation, we finally ended up back at the Magic Kingdom around noon.  This day at Disney was much more about meeting all the princesses and going on some rides again from Friday.  We also got to stay and watch the fireworks which was amazing.  Reid was jerking his head back and forth trying to see it all, it was pretty funny!

Hayden and I did splurge and try one of these Micky bars, boy were they delicious!  

 Hayden did get a little nervous to meet the princesses at first.  She was in such awe of them, it was pretty cute.  And I had no idea they would engage in conversation like they were actually princesses, it was pretty funny to hear their conversations with Hayden.  

Hayden couldn't believe Cinderella's glass slipper was here

Like I said Tuesday Paul's conference started and I was on my own all day and night.  He usually got back around 10 pm.  The resort was a little different than a regular hotel, they had restaurants inside (which were pretty pricey) and we had to part quite a ways a way from the entrance of the hotel.  On Tuesday I had to do laundry, go grocery shopping, keep the kids alive and entertained!  It was a bit nerve wracking I'll be honest.  I have terrible directional skills so finding my way around a massive hotel to find washing machines, the swimming pools and my car scared me a lot!  But we got through the day and had a fun time swimming. Hayden is great at making friends wherever she goes.  I was worried she'd be lonely or bored swimming since I couldn't get in with her, but she found kids and invited them to play with her toys both Tuesday and Wednesday!  I met lots of nice couples that kept me company with good conversation as well!

Lunch by the pool.  I had to drag her out to come and eat!

Reid taking naps and hanging out

Wednesday I was going to go to one of the parks but it was a beautiful day and Thursday was suppose to be cold again.  So Thursday we bundled up and took a bus to the Animal Kingdom.  I had gotten mixed reviews about this place but we had a great time.  I knew the day was going to be great when the first animal we saw was ant eaters!!!  My favorite childhood animal :)  We then headed off to see the Nemo musical show and it was AMAZING!  We also did the Safari ride and got to see all kinds of animals, our favorites were the hippos and alligators.  We also went to the show "It's Tough To Be A Bug" which was a big mistake.  It was scary and Reid did NOT appreciate the special effects.  We also got to meet a few more characters here. 

I probably should have ended the day right here and just eaten an overpriced dinner at the hotel but we had had such a fun day that I decided we should take the bus to Downtown Disney and eat dinner there.  We managed, but the bus ride took FOREVER and the lines at the restaurants were way long.  Not easy to do on my own with 2 kids, but there were nice people everywhere I went to help me out.  

Friday morning we decided to go to Epcot for a few hours before heading home.  We had heard that Anna and Elsa were there and we knew Hayden would die if she actually got to meet them.  We also met a lot of other princesses and it was fun to look around at all the different countries.  

Waiting for the boat to take us to Epcot.  It was Valentine's Day so Hayden is in her festive heart pants!

This is how Reid took a lot of his naps while we were out and about!

Waiting for autographs 

Reid was being so cute I had to snap a couple of pictures

Here we are waiting to meet Jasmine, there are no pictures of Jasmine because Aladdin made a surprise appearance and Hayden flipped out...she is so afraid of men that it is getting embarrassing.  I try to tell her she doesn't need to be afraid of strangers when I am with her and tell her someone is safe, but she won't listen to me!

So the line to meet these two was over 4 1/2 hours long!!!  Needless to say we did not wait.  But we did go into the gift shop and see them through an open doorway.

We then hit the road and said goodbye to Orlando!  What an adventure, but so glad we were able to let Hayden have this fun trip.  With military discounts and free lodging and free gas (Paul's work paid for transportation) we were able to go for about $600!  Not too bad.  Can't wait for Reid to be older to do it again someday.