Ugly Sweater Party

Damien and I attended our first ugly sweater party and I didn't know what to expect....there were some people who looked fabulously tacky. It was hysterical.  I loved seeing the creativity.

Here are the Weavers...

Christmas Program and School Party

Damien and I were saying how we cannot believe that we have a school Christmas program to go to.  It's hard to believe that Dylan is getting so big that he's in a program. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital.  

For the Christmas program, Dylan had to learn 3 songs. We tried to work on them at home a lot, but he wasn't always so motivated. He would rather sing the Itsy Bitsy spider than We Wish You a Merry Christmas (or as he sang it, I miss you little Christmas).

All of the kids were their pajamas. Dylan has 5 boys in his class and 3 of them had the exact same Christmas pajamas, while Dylan and his best friend sported their favorite pajamas.  Dylan wanted to wear his dinosaurs.

Dylan was a little distracted once on stage.  The classes didn't get to do a full run through of their parts as school was cancelled that week because of the snow day.  I think that Dylan would have been distracted regardless if they had a run through or not, he's so active.  They had this projector thing on the stage that displayed something on the wall.  Well of course, Dylan ends up right in front of it, so I couldn't get any good pictures without the projector displaying on his face.  Oh well, the lighting wasn't that good either so either way, I probably wouldn't have got a "good picture"

The following day Dylan had his Christmas party at school.  The kids enjoyed pizza, carrots and applesauce.  They got to decorate sugar cookies....or lick the sprinkles, whatever way you look at it.

They got to exchange gifts too.  The boys and girls broke out into 2 groups and the teacher played music as they passed gifts around. It's really hard for a kid to pass a gift to the next kid without opening it.  Dylan ended up getting a spider man flashlight which he really liked.

I had to get a picture of Dylan and his best bud.

I hope that after Christmas break Dylan goes back to school without a hitch.

First Snow of the Winter

I cannot believe that it has already snowed and it's not even Christmas yet.  Dylan was so excited to see the snow, the first thing he said he wanted to do was make an angel.  I wanted to see if he knew how to make an angel, so we did a dry run in the house.  He proceeded to lay down on the carpet and that was it.  I showed him how to move his arms up and down and his legs in and out.  He was ready.  Dylan and I got all bundled up and headed outside to play.  Of course, the first thing he did was make an angel.  After his angel, he ran around in the snow for a little bit before it got too dark.  

 Of course, our little snow dog joined in on the action.

Opryland Lights

Every year for Christmas, we make it a point to go to Opryland to see the Christmas lights.  This year, we went with some good friends.  I will just say that the trip wasn't as pleasant as it could be.  First the weather was horrible, it had been raining all day.  The traffic getting off the interstate was hectic to say the least.  There were cops at every light directing traffic.  After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed across to the street to the hotel. Typically we park at the outlets and walk over to avoid paying $20 to park. This year, because of the weather, we splurged.  There were so many people. We didn't expect so many people to brave the weather and the threat of snow, but they did.  A huge company was having a Christmas party and I think there were a lot of curious people to see the hotel since it re-opened after the flood in May.  Then on top of that, it was really hard to navigate with a stroller. Last year when we went, I don't remember it being so difficult.  The lights....well I wasn't that impressed.  I think next year we will find a new place to see Christmas lights. If we make it back to Opryland, it will be to do Ice and that's it.  The one thing that I can say was that we enjoyed the company.

Scary Santa

It's the scariest time of the year, time for Santa.  I don't know why some kids are scared of him and some aren't, but Dylan falls into the scared category.  Don't you think?

I had to pry him out of my arms just to put him in the sleigh with Santa, and I said just take the picture with him screaming.  They often make the best pictures...

 The sweet family who hosted this little get together had Santa, the sleight, a photographer on hand and crafts for the kids.  Thanks for inviting us :)  We convinced all the kids to get together for a group shot.  I was surprised that Dylan got this close.

Dylan and a friend enjoyed their Christmas suckers.

Preparing for the Christmas program

It's come on so fast, Christmas that is and not to mention that Dylan is in school (mind you only 2 days a week for about 5 hours a day).  This month they are doing a Christmas program and his class is singing 3 songs.  We try and practice them at home as often as we can.  Here is a sampling....(let me say in the second clip, that's not how I taped it.  That's how youtube is displaying it on my blog)

Thanksgiving Holiday

For Thanksgiving, we usually travel to visit Damien's family whether it be in Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia. Since I am nearing the end of pregnancy, we thought it would be best to stay at home.  Instead, Damien's sister and her family came to visit us.  Dylan was looking forward to seeing his cousin Taylor.  While she was here, he was practically her shadow, but he really bonded with his cousin Taryn this time as well.  

I took on the task of cooking Thanksgiving dinner minus the turkey.  Damien got up at 3:30am to put the turkey on the big green egg to smoke it.  It was yummy (and yeah it's suppose to be black after it's been smoked. I questioned it)

Other items on the thanksgiving spread : green beans, corn casserole (big hit), loaded mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, raw veggies, stuffing, deviled eggs, rolls and chocolate chip pecan pie.  Yum!

You know, I have to admit cooking the big feast wasn't that stressful maybe because I didn't have to do the turkey.  I can say that I am not a big fan of thanksgiving dinner but with how ours turned out, I loved it.  Dylan on the other hand wasn't happy about sitting down for dinner.  We had to leave the table and have a little talk.  

Of course he cheered up after lunch when he got to go outside to play.

That night, Damien's sister, Tracy, and I decided to hit up Toy$ R u$ for the opening at 10pm.  Big mistake, huge.  When we got there the line was wrapped around the building. Not to mention it was raining, on the verge of sleeting, and after we talked to one of the employees, we decided to leave.  They were only letting in 50 people at a time until they reached maximum occupancy, then after that, 50 people had to leave before 50 more could be let it.  There had to be at least 500 if not more people in line before us.  It wasn't worth it for us.  W@l-Mart's sale started at midnight, but we decided to pop over there to see if they had their stuff out yet since the store was already open.  Yep, they did.  We did some shopping and then got in line to wait for midnight to check out.  We were the first people in our lane to check out so we were back home by 12:30.  

I set my alarm for 4:30 as there were a few things I wanted to get the following day.  I was able to hit up 5 stores and make it home by 9:30am. I felt so productive.  I am not a huge black friday shopper but I will grab a few things without sacrificing my safety. 

Wordless Wednesday

Pregnancy week 28

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 27 pounds (I think)

Maternity Clothes: usually but sometimes I still get by wearing tops and jeans, thanks to the belly band

Best Moment this week: having our ultrasound and seeing the cyst on the brain was gone.

Gender: We are not finding out...let's hope I can hold out. I was tempted this week when my nurse said she could see it even though it had been marked through. I wanted to rifle through my chart to find it. 

Movement: Starting to feel more and more and I like it.

Food Craving: nothing really

What I miss: being able to run up stairs without huffing and puffing

Sleep: It's getting harder but I think I can attribute some of the issues to my allergies

What I am looking forward to: finalizing Dylan's big boy room and getting him moved out of the nursery
Belly Button: it's pretty much out

Disney - Epcot

This was our last day at the parks.  Our original plan was to actually use our park hopper passes for once, but when it was all said and done, we actually just spent the entire time at Epcot.  I have to be honest, Epcot is my least favorite park probably, but when I am pregnant, it's my favorite as it has one of the best rides I can actually ride, Soarin'.  I rode it two times.  Lovely.  

Once we got in the park, there were these performers. I guess you could call them kitchen performers.  They only used tools found in the kitchen to make music and they did parodies of actual songs.  I wish we could have seen the entire performance as we only caught a few songs.  The last one, they brought out a wok, and sang Aerosmith's song, but with the words Wok this way, Wok this way....then they held up a fish and sang just give me some fish.  Hilarious.

 Dylan enjoyed the Finding Nemo ride. Afterwards we checked out the aquariums.  Here he's watching a dolphin.

 Here he is intrigued by one of the scuba divers inside the tank.  The guy was so friendly with the kids, tapping the glass, doing flips, etc.

 Of course the day would not be complete with out character sightings.  While Jill and I rode soarin for the second time, the guys took the boys to go meet the characters.

 This was Dylan's first time seeing Donald.

 I think Goofy is Dylan's favorite (besides Pete who he constantly asked for, they really need a Pete).  Here he is telling goofy that he is 2.

I think the boys had their fill of Disney as did the adults.  We were ready to get home and rest our little tootsies.   I think we will try and go back in 3 years once little skittle is ready to go.  By then, I think Dylan will have a blast and really enjoy everything.

Disney - Hollywood Studios

On this day, I will admit, I was nervous. I am kind of a fanatic about getting things done that people tell me.  My friend who just got back from Disney right before we left, warned me that the Toy Story Mania ride at Hollywood Studios runs out of fast passes, fast.  She said that by 10:30, they were out of passes so their family had to wait 55 minutes to ride it.  The guy who met us at Disney was running late today as he had last minute training...ugh. It would be almost 10:00 before he could meet us. This meant we had to rush, rush to Toy Story Mania to guarantee some fast passes....but no worries, we got them, whew.  After we picked up our fast passes, we hit up some of the adult rides, like Tower of Terror. The boys and I ate snacks will we waited for them.  

I think Dylan's favorite part was seeing all the characters.  Another score on character sighting was this room were they had like 4 characters. It was a huge area and of course, air conditioned. We saw Mickey of course. I think Mickey must have been a girl this day. He noticed that I was pregnant, the choreographed the picture himself. Placing me in the back, Damien and Dylan's hand on my belly and then of course, his. 

Another character spotting, Lotso Bear from Toy Story 3. I don't think Dylan remembered that he was the bad guy. He was loving him some Lotso.

Of course, we had to see Buzz and Woody. We hit that area just at the right time. When we got in line, we waited 5 minutes, maybe and it was Buzz. After we made it through, Buzz left then Woody came up.  We just hoped right back in line and went through it again.

Dylan waiting for the Toy Story Mania Ride. It's a 3-D ride, where you are shooting this gun like thing at different screens. The goal is to try and get as much points as possible.  It was really fun.

We got lucky on this day, the boys took a nap at the same time.  That meant I got to hang out with them while the adults ran over to the Rock n Roll Coaster....boo....I wish I could've ridden it. It's one of the rides I have never been on.

We stayed til the park closed.  Dylan was not happy about leaving.

No worries, though, he got a souvenir. Check out his fat lip that he got in the playground area.

Disney - Taking a Break

On Tuesday, we took a day off from Disney. Our resort had a fabulous pool area that had a zero entry part for the kids, water slides, water fountains and a lazy river.  The kids had a lot of fun playing.  The adults that it would be a good idea to rent floats for the day for the lazy river.  Bad Idea!  This was a pathetic lazy river unless we missed something. It was really short. Not only that, but a lazy river is suppose to be relaxing.  This lazy river had water shooting out at you from every bridge you went under. Dylan was scared to death. We had to get out of the float to try and avoid the pounding water.  It hurt.  Waste of money if you ask me and everyone else in our party.  Oh well. When we started to leave they turned the fountains on and the boys really enjoyed this.  

That night, we hit up my favorite restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes (yes I am a simple girl).  It did not disappoint, especially when Dylan gets to eat for free. We hate getting meals out because we feel like we waste our money...no money wasted here.  Afterwards we hit up downtown Disney to do some shopping and see the sights.  They had a really cool T-Rex restaurant that was very much like a Rain Forrest Cafe but with Dinosaurs all in it.  They had different dining areas like a cave, an ice fortress, etc. It was really cool. Whenever we make it back to Orlando we will definitely take Dylan to eat there.  We also saw some statue people. Dylan was not afraid to walk right up and get his picture taken with them.  It was just like any other character at Disney for him. 

And we got one group picture out of the entire trip.  

Disney - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is so different from all the other parks, but we knew that Dylan would really like it.  Me on the other hand, I knew that I wouldn't get to do anything at this park, not even the cool safari ride. There was a lot of waiting for me to do, but it was okay, I knew Dylan would enjoy it.  One thing that I got to do that no one else got to experience was get pooped on by a bird.  Seriously, right on the top of my head. Our friend Glenn tried to help me clean it out with a wipe, but he described it as "really seedy" and it was hard to get out.  We did the best we could given the circumstances but I wanted out of the aviary fast. The park closed at 5pm and even though we didn't have much downtime or long waits, we didn't get to see everything.  We missed one section where the kids could have seen animals up close and personal....oh well.   

At Animal Kingdom, we got to see a lot of different characters without waiting.  Here are a few that we got to see.

And Dylan's all time favorite I do believe, Tigger.  Ever since his cousin Taylor gave him her stuffed Tigger last time we visited, he has fallen in love with Tigger.

The only rain that we had the entire time came while waiting for the parade at Animal Kingdom. Lukily we were near a store with a covered porch area, so we pulled the boys back while the men held the spot. After the rain, it was really hot and steamy, but it was worth the wait. The boys loved the parade.

Now to go home and was this poop out of my hair.

Disney - Magic Kingdom

Our first park was the Magic Kingdom.  I mentioned in an earlier post that Dylan had been seeing the castle and the beginning of Disney movies and saying "disney world". I know he had no idea what to expect and I wish that he could really communicate what he thought of the park.  He said he had fun and he liked it, but other than that, I don't know what he thought.  To our surprise, we practically did everything in one day that we wanted to do.  Of course there were a few things we didn't get to do as the park closed at 7pm for the not so scary halloween party and we didn't buy tickets to stay.  

We started off the day with Peter Pan as that ride always seems to have a long wait later in the day.  I had never been on the ride and it was a lot darker than I expected.  Most of the rides, Dylan found himself crying and saying he wanted off, even on it's a small world.

After a while, he got the hang of it.  Some of the rides were probably a bad idea, but we forged on.  He really enjoyed the Dumbo ride, the carousel, Buzz Lightyear's ride and I think his favorite was the Jungle Cruise.  The first character he got to meet, no one other than Mickey.  We met him after touring his house and it was a nice, short wait in air conditioning with a cartoon.  Dylan ran right up to him and had no problem with him

Next we saw, Pirate Goofy after getting off the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  ( a ride that was probably not suitable for Dylan after all).  I think Goofy was one of his favorite characters.

He even tried pulling the sword out of the stone.

One ride that I think he would have enjoyed but fell asleep waiting in line for was the race cars.  I really wanted to take him back and ride it again as it was his friend Joseph's favorite ride at Disney. Oh well.

Time to rest up Animal Kingdom awaits us tomorrow.