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.