Trevor and his magnets

Everyday I realize how different my 2 boys are.  Trevor has always been the child who can't sit still and always wants you sitting down with him to play.  In the past 4-6 months or so, we find him like this:

He is playing with MagnaTiles that Nana bought Brody a couple of years ago.  Brody enjoyed them as well but Trevor will sit for an hour or more and build stuff over and over again.  He loves to pretend they are a pizza and bring us a slice, ice cream, castles, ramps, church, and the list goes on and on.

Since he loves them so much and he seems to be more of a builder than Brody was, we thought he should ask Santa for some legos.  We'll see how he does with them.

A busy birthday weekend

Brody was pretty excited about his Transformer 5th birthday and has had it planned for awhile now.  He actually has each birthday planned out until either 8 or 9.  We try to explain to him that the theme of his party should be what he likes at the time.  He doesn't quite get it - it's all in his plan.  This birthday was supposed to be Iron Man, but thankfully I talked him out of it because he wasn't really into Iron Man but because he had decided about 9 months ago that Iron Man would be his 5th, he thought he had to stay with it - crazy kid.

Anyway, I found this idea on Pinterest (love it) to decorate their door/room for their birthday.  He was pretty excited to see it on Friday morning when he woke up.  He didn't want to tear any of it so he kept going under it. 

He had actually gotten the 24 hour stomach bug the Wednesday before his birthday (nothing like not believing your child that his stomach hurts and him proving to me that it does in the church parking lot), so thankfully he was able to make it to school for his birthday on Friday. 

To celebrate his day, I brought cupcakes for his class.  His class is so well behaved - I just love Ms. Cicero.  I was actually scared to say anything when I walked in and NO ONE said a word to me and wouldn't even look at me.  She has those kids trained.  You would expect them to all holler out "Hey Brody's mom", but nothing.  Impressive!!

Later that day Brody had tennis lessons and then when we arrived home he was greeted with a big surprise - a bouncy house.  It was delivered a day early for his party the next day.  Of course the boys bounced for a LONG time that night.

Happy Birthday Brody

Wow, I can't believe that Brody turned 5 on December 2nd.  He is growing up way too fast and I really need to savor every moment I have with him.  It is amazing to see what he is learning every day.   Here are some of the things about Brody that I love and some that I may not like too much:

• He loves going to school and the teacher says he knows most everything they go over
• He has a tender heart for others
• I love to hear when he tells us about Jesus - Bible stories he has learned and especially when he tells Trevor
• He is in love with costumes - Star Wars, Buzz, Transformers, Iron Man, etc - you never know when he will come out in the latest.
• To go with the costumes he loves Star Wars and Transformers toys
• He has started taking tennis lessons and really enjoys them.
• He is an excellent eater and will try almost anything.  His favorites are pasta and seafood
• He still takes naps - maybe because I make him, but he definitely needs a few a week or it can get ugly
• He plays pretty well with Trevor and can be an awesome big brother "at times" but then other times he gets so annoyed with Trevor that he loses his temper a little (we are working on that)
• He doesn't do well with meeting new people and shys a way - he doesn't like to be in the spotlight.
• He is extremely tall for his age which should be helpful for sports
• He loves to watch sports with his daddy and is beginning to know the teams.  Everytime there is sports on the tv, he asks whose playing.
• I think he has a little OCD because when he is in a mood everything must be in it's place and he is going to make sure that it gets there, which I guess falls right into place since he was born right on his due date (everything just right)

Wow, that's quite a list, right?  Well, it has been a wonderful and exciting 5 years.  I pray I don't take this time for granted I have with him while he is young.  I want to savor every minute I have.

The Christmas season has begun

Every year for who knows how long, my mom and I have headed out to brave the crowds on Black Friday - minus the one year I was in the Atlanta area.  This year the stores opened up MUCH earlier - some even at 10PM on Thanksgiving night.  This year my cousin Charleen came with us and we decided to leave at 5AM.  There really wasn't anything I needed to "fight" over at the stores so we decided more sleep was important.  It's just a great day of shopping with NO kids - my sweet husband takes the day off of work to stay home with the boys - love him!!

There was 1 item at Wal-Mart that I assumed would be gone but I thought I would give it a try - not that I was wanting to brave Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  To our surprise there was NO ONE in Wal-Mart - I hadn't seen the store that empty in awhile AND they still had the item I was looking for.  This was starting out to be a great day.  Off we went to Kohl's and once again NO ONE in the store, NO long lines - it was great.  I was kind of liking all the stores opening up so early because when we got there all the crowds were gone.

We continued on the mall for a few hours and it was finally off to eat lunch.  I ran into a couple of friends buying LOTS of clothes for needy kids for Syds Kids (an organization they started a few years ago named after their dad who passed away - he loved kids and Christmas and what better way to help remember him but by doing something like this).  This is the 2nd year I've run into them and it's such a hoot to see them in the back corner with clothes stacked about 4-5 feet tall.  They really do enjoy doing this and it will put smiles on a lot of kids faces this Christmas. 

Anyway, we ended up meeting them for lunch at Olive Garden.  We sat around and talked for about 2 hours - it was a great way to get reenergized. 

We continued shopping for quite some time and eventually made it home around 9:30PM.  Here was our vehicle at the end of the night.

Whew, I was tired but I got a lot accomplished and more importantly spent some great quality time with mom and Charleen.

Oh the things to be thankful for

Everyday this past November, so many people on Facebook would put something they were thankful for.  I kept thinking I would join in but I kept getting busy doing other stuff.  However, when I read other people's thankful hearts it encouraged me to be thankful for everything God has blessed me with.  Here are just a few:

•  Jesus Christ who loves me no matter who I am or what I do
• loving and supportive husband who works hard everyday but doesn't let his work overtake his family
• 2 healthy boys who keep me on my toes and help me realize that God gave them to me to help mold them to be Godly men
• wonderful parents who are there to help us out anytime we need it - boy do I take that for granted way too many times
• an awesome church family
• a job that allows me to work just 3 days a week so I can be at home with my 2 boys

There are a ton more and I am so overwhelmed with how God has blessed me.

This year I decided to ask Brody and Trevor what they were thankful for and here are the answers:

And in celebration of Thanksgiving, here's how Brody comes out to greet me one day when I get home.

I guess someone learned about Indians at school.

Our actual Thanksgiving was pretty low key - lunch at mom and dad's so it was just the 6 of us.

Later that afternoon we headed out to Jason's moms for dinner with Bryan and Tara.  Trevor and Cale enjoying an after dinner snack.

I wanted to get home at a decent hour so I could get some sleep to get ready for a BUSY and LONG day of shopping on Black Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a surprise - Chef Mickey's

Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed over to the Contemporary hotel to dine at Chef Mickey's for breakfast.  The boys had no clue what was in store.  I have always wanted to take them to eat here but I wanted to make sure they were old enough to enjoy it since I was pretty sure it would be a one time thing - due to the cost!!

Let me just say this place was crazy - people and kids everywhere - but of course Disney had it all under control.  I didn't realize it was a buffet, but oh at the choices for food and it was SOOO good.  Brody was so funny as he carried his plate from choice to choice - he wanted a little of everything.  He is such my good little eater.  Trevor on the other hand not so much.  I didn't think he was going to eat anything and I was just praying that we didn't have to pay $16 for him to eat a piece of bacon and 1 mandarin orange (just a slice not a whole orange) - yeah a great appetite, huh?

We ate for about 15-20 minutes and were pretty stuffed and then out came the main event - the famous 5 - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy & Pluto.  I tried to get Brody & Trevor to continue eating but I quickly gave up.  All 5 of them made their way to every table for pictures and autographs.  Nothing like right before Donald comes to our table I smell something not so pretty coming from Trevor.  Oh yeah, thankfully there was a bathroom right behind us, but I didn't bring any wipes (I only had the Wet Wipes antibacterial ones in my purse).  I didn't think I would need them because he had already gone that morning.  I know TMI, right but oh well.  Thankfully, Donald understood and came back to us.

The boys had a great time and smiled for every picture really well.  When the bill arrived we definitely knew this was a one and done thing.  Hope they enjoyed it. 

Off we went to do a little shopping at Downtown Disney - legos, toys, you name it that place has it.  It is a kids dream.

Finally, we were headed home and the boys were asleep pretty fast and slept most of the way home which was very nice and quiet.

We had so much on this trip and Brody is already asking when can we go back - thankfully we bought a pass for this upcoming year.

Day 4 - 2 in a day

Friday we started out at Animal Kingdom. 

This isn't one of our favorite parks - we only go for a few things - Lion King show, ride Mt Everest and the playarea in DinoLand.  We started our visit at the Lion King show, which is one of the best things to see.  Jason actually got called to go up and represent our section as the elephants.  We were really hoping Brody would be our representative, but it was pretty funny that they chose Jason.  He gave a really great elephant call in the microphone - we were quite impressed and so was the guy (he wasn't so impressed with his first try which thankfully wasn't for everyone to hear).

We tried to visit the characters after the show, but the lines were very long so we headed to the safari.  The last time we rode it, we didn't see too many animals, but this time it was much better and the boys loved it. 

AK has a petting zoo area which you have to take Rafiki's train too.  We had never done this before so we thought we would give it a try.  The train was nice but the petting zoo was pretty sad - only a few pigs and lots of goats.  Inside the "Discovery building", were all kinds of bones, small creatures (always my favorite lol), touch animals and even picture opportunities.  I think my mom enjoyed this area the most being that she was a science teacher for a LONG time. 

Trevor's favorite animal - Rhino

 With Rafiki

With Jiminy Cricket

Some strange animal that I can't remember the name of

We really wanted to ride Mt. Everest and thought we could get Brody on it but he wasn't feeling too excited to ride it so we didn't push it.  Off we went to the Dino area for the one ride that they can ride and mostly for them to play in the play area.  They absolutely love this area.  Trevor was not a bit timid, he ran around everywhere and it took all we had to keep up with him.  Thankfully all 3 of us were in there. 

Before we left, one last stop to see a few friends.

We headed out to Epcot around 4:00.  I'm amazed at how long we stayed at AK seeing that we didn't do that much.  Well, on our way to Epcot, the boys took a little nap and thankfully they continued to sleep through the transport to the strollers.  Boy am I thankful that they can sleep anywhere.

We immediately went to grab fast passes to Soarin' but we just missed it so if we wanted to ride we would have to wait almost an hour - needless to say we never rode it.  However, we were able to grab the fast pass for Test Track which up to 6 people get in a convertible type car and it takes you through different conditions like bumpy roads, hairpin turns, breaks and then out in the open air to drive 60 mph around a track - what a rush!!  Brody loves it.

We got a little crazy while shopping.

Checked out Turtle Talk with Crush and a little play time with a shark.

Of course no visit to Disney is complete without a meeting with the fabulous 5.  Trevor was not scared AT ALL to go up and see the characters.  He was so excited and loved it.

Back in our hotel room and here's how housekeeping left Mickey.

Brody loves to ride the big golf ball, which I think is a little boring so I did a little shopping while they all rode it.  We were finally saying goodbye to the parks at around 9:15 that night.  Whew, what a day/week.  The boys were exhausted and definitely ready for bed and ready for the big surprise on Saturday morning.