In One Month's Time

Well, I just may have found a new blog time... currently it is 12:24 a.m. Actually, I wish I were tired enough to be asleep, however; something I'm going to call "Restless Body Syndrome" has taken over my sleep it looks for the night! I told Aaron the other night that this happened, it's like I want to go walking around the neighborhood for about an hour and come back and try to go to sleep again. But, don't think I will be doing that... and so, I decided to blog about the EVER QUICK month of November we have just had.

The month started off with a bang on the 1st when I purchased our first Blu-ray, Beauty and the Beast. The ever so friendly Walmart associate said "someone has a treat", referring to the movie as she scanned it, assuming it was for Kenadie. My response "yes, we have an appointment tomorrow, just trying to make it go a tiny bit more smooth... What do I IMMEDIATELY hear/see??? Kenadie crying and saying "no, Mommy, I don't want to go to the doctor" :( And so, the following day we went to Jackson to see Kenadie's dermatologist. Can't say that the movie helped any... Leaving the clinic was actually what did the trick :)

Next up, Mistletoe Marketplace! Mom and I had a great time. We got lots of stuff, but mostly just enjoyed our day together, just us two girls :)

Next, throw in a few birthday parties and that leads us to me passing the glucose test via 28 jelly beans, following a tiny bout of the stomach virus :( Jelly beans you ask... the "fabulous orange drink" that you drink in a 5 minute span to check to see if you have gestational diabetes... well that made me feel so sick, faint, dizzy... with Kenadie that I mentioned it to my doctor and he said I could eat 28 tiny little jelly beans instead. And so, I ate my 28 jelly beans just before arriving at the clinic, didn't want anyone to see I was appearing to receive "special treatment" while others downed the horrible orange drink ya know... :) It worked and I passed!

On the 9th, we had a similar experience as on the 1st. I had to take Kenadie to the pediatric clinic for her second flu shot. On the way to the clinic I was talking to my dad and he asked what we were doing. I purposefully turned Kenadie's music to the back of the car so she couldn't hear me tell him "we were on our way to get some flu medicine." Again... who burst into tears when she SOMEHOW overheard "flu medicine?" And I didn't even say it that loudly and sure wasn't about to call it a shot! It got a little better though... we did the mist the second go round. She didn't like it a bit, but at least it didn't hurt like a shot.

After hosting Bunko on the 18th, Kenadie and I made these cute turkey cookies...

I think she's got talent! Could you spot her cookies?

On the 20th, Mom and I did our annual "Grocery Extravaganza", where we buy ALL groceries needed to prepare all of her Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas morning breakfast and Christmas lunch, as well as everything else we enjoy eating over the holidays in between! We both take a buggy, start out shopping leisurely together, and then when we've had enough, we split and she takes one side of the list and I take the other... Yes, you heard right, my mom has a "double-sided" list of ALL ingredients needed for our family's favorite holiday foods! I don't call her Super Mom for nothing :) After Grocery Extravaganza, she and I did as much of our Christmas shopping as we possibly could to avoid "Black Friday." If you are wondering about our cold items we just purchased... that's where my dad steps in and takes care of packing two large ice chest with ice so that we can ice down the cold stuff and continue shopping :) Needless to say, because we get to Walmart so early, we have a great parking spot, but no one wants to wait for our spot if they see us leaving because we have some MAJOR loading and icing down to do :) After this full day of shopping, we topped it off with Southern's last home football game! Whew, maybe I am getting a little tired now just reliving that day!

That brings us to this past week. Wes, Joy, Hayden & Henry arrived on the 20th! We sure have enjoyed our week with them!!! On Sunday, Hayden & Kenadie were "reunited" at our evening church service. Boy were they ever excited to see each other!!! Should have had my camera for that :) On Monday we celebrated Henry's 1st birthday and I celebrated seeing the dermatologist about a horrible rash I have had on my legs now going on for 13 weeks!!! I have tried EVERYTHING!!! Obviously pregnancy related... He gave me two more things to try... still waiting on those to take affect... So far the only thing I have found to temporarily work is by simply digging my nails into my skin as hard as I possibly can :) Oh well, I've only got about 9 weeks to go, I can make it :) With Kenadie, I had the pleasure of developing carpal tunnel around week 28. Let's just hope I don't get that lucky again :) All of these things are only temporary and so well worth it, just part of it I guess :)

On Tuesday, we got to see "new baby" via 4-D ultrasound :) By the way, "new baby" has a name of her own now... Berkley Elise. I called my mom after the appointment and she said "Does she look like Kenadie?" My response: "She doesn't look familiar." :) When I got home to better compare my new pictures to Kenadie's 4-D pictures, I have decided that maybe they do favor a little :) We shall see. Approximately 62 days to confirm that :) Berkley also now has an almost completed nursery. That makes you feel good :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving...

as well as Christmas...

If you are still with me after this monstrous post, I applaud you :) I was trying to catch myself up here and just decided to throw it all together into one post! Yes, I realize this could have made for about 10 separate posts, but oh well. I'm off to attempt going to bed again. I'm now down to five hours before the alarm goes off to get ready for church :)

2:30 a.m. Ramblings

Yes, that's right... I am up at 2:30 a.m.... blogging, as well as watching probably about the first episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! Oh and yes, in only about 4.5 short hours, my precious angel will be waking up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to start her day full of "I want to do something fun, Mommy" :)

Why is it when you have a day that is JAM PACKED FULL, meaning you woke at 6:15 and didn't practically sit down until 11:00 p.m., that you can't sleep? Wouldn't it make more sense to be sooo tired that you slept wonderfully, didn't wake up at all during the night, and woke up in the morning feeling even more brighter eyed and bushy tailed than your energetic three year old? Anywho... hopefully this post will make some sort of sense, but keep in mind, it IS 2 a.m.!

One of Kenadie's latest things is taking toys outside. She's always very good about asking me if "said" toy can come outside. One day last week, she had taken some of her favorites outside. When she was done playing, I told her to make sure she brought everyone in. Quite a while after this conversation, I let Molly and Lily out and noticed that four of Kenadie's "best friends" must have been having too much fun to come in when Kenadie was rounding everyone up... I'm sure there was a great story to go along with this picture! Just wish I knew what it was :)

On our way to church this past Sunday morning, Aaron and I overheard Kenadie telling her Snow White doll "you have two choices..." ha! Wonder where she's heard that one :) That line sure gets used a lot in our house! It can be used for food choices, activity choices, but actually in our home, it is more commonly used in the "good choice versus bad choice" choice :) If I remember correctly, Snow White's choices were between Daddy taking her to Sunday school or Mommy taking her :)

Guess who had their first piece of bubble gum???And it lasted all of about 3 minutes before it was swallowed. She's been asking for gum for a while now, it just always seemed like we were in the car when she asked. Don't think I would try gum out for the first time in the car, and I don't really think she was that impressed with it either :) Fine by me... this is the child who we have only recently coaxed into trying fruit punch and lemonade. One would have thought we were trying to poison her by attempting to get her to try a beverage other than water, milk or apple juice. Don't get me wrong, I love her liking water, milk and severely watered down apple juice, but typically restaurants say they don't have milk, typically don't have apple juice and she just sometimes doesn't want water. So, if you want a most peaceful dining experience, well it's just a good thing she has decided she likes extremely watered down fruit punch and lemonade :) If you remember from my birthday post, she prefers liquids over just about any food item... enough said on the "peaceful dining experience" thing :)

Well, I've about rambled out and you are probably tired of reading my randomness by now. Hopefully I'm off to get about 3.5 hours of sleep...

Disney 2010, Top 10

We had the MOST wonderful time in Disney World! We came home exhausted, but had a GREAT time for sure! Aren't you supposed to come home from Disney World exhausted?!? We spent 5 park days in Disney and one at Sea World. We had never done Sea World. It was a lot of fun too! We will definitely go back there for sure!

Ok, so my one or two readers know how I am by now... after some MAJOR deleting, I still came home with 525 pictures!!! One would think we had never been to Disney World! This was Kenadie's second trip, but that didn't mean I could take any less pictures... Each trip is different, so I guess that's just how it has to be :) I decided for this post, and as a way to condense our trip, I would come up with our Top 10 memories/favorites from the trip. Most of these would pertain to Kenadie's favorites, as you will see :)

In no particular order:

10.) Food, food, and MORE food than any human could ever possibly eat! Kenadie's favorite place we ate at was Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, where we ate with Cinderella a.k.a. "Princarella", Snow White, Princess Aurora and Ariel. So glad Papa & Kay Kay could join us!!!

We ate there for breakfast. I would say the food was ok, you were definitely there more for the atmosphere. We did the dining plan, and with that everyone gets one sit down meal a day, one counter service with dessert and one snack per day. That equates to A LOT OF FOOD! Some other places we ate this trip were Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine, Donald's Safari Breakfast, 1900 Park Fare and O'Hanas Best Friends breakfast. We especially liked Donald's Safari breakfast food and the atmosphere/food at O'Hanas. If you do the dining plan, be prepared to bring home a couple more lbs. with you than when you left :)

9.) ANY playground a park had to offer... This was at Hollywood Studios, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. I even played on it as a child. It's not quite as big as it was back then, but Kenadie LOVED it, as well as any other park's playground. Epcot doesn't have a playground, but she loved their music area after you ride Figment. The slide pic above... I wish I had my video camera with me at the time. Mom and I were the only ones with her at the time, Papa and Aaron were "resting." She went down that slide no less than 30 times, seriously! The most adorable thing you have ever seen. She squealed with excitement or said "weeeeee...." EVERY single time she went down, as if it was the first time every time. The worker got the biggest kick out of her excitement! That's our Kenadie... FULL of life and ANIMATED! At one point, she had two imaginary friends going down with her on both sides of her :) My mom and I were just laughing sooo hard at her every time :) In the above pic, Kenadie is holding her two "friends" going down the slide as well as squealing with excitement!

8.) We love all the shows at Disney, but Kenadie's favorite was Beauty and the Beast. She especially liked the Beast! That's where her tender hearted side comes out... she didn't like seeing him hurt :) and as far as she is concerned, it's actually called "Belle and the Beast." It does make perfect sense...

7.) 3 words: Characters and Autographs!Mary Poppins was one of our favorites and the first character Kenadie met who can talk to you. She was so sweet to Kenadie :) I wondered what Kenadie would start telling the characters who talked to her... "We have two dogs at home, Molly and Lily." That was her famous line that she pulled out just about every time she was with a talking character :)

6.) Where's Kenadie?
This picture isn't even half as good as the one I missed getting from the night before. Disney just really knows how to do you in. Kenadie was all over the place while she slept. The night before, I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to "help, help, get me out of here." Where was she calling for help from you ask? She was under our bed, horizontally flush with the wall with her eyes closed and calling for help! I would love to know how long she had been there. Every night she started out in her sleeping bag on top of a little roll out mattress. You just never knew where she would end up :) Don't think I've ever been able to laugh that hard at 2:30 a.m.!

5.) The countless Mickey ice creams...before...and after!

4.) Splash Mountain! Yes, Kenadie was technically two at the time of our trip and I put her on Splash Mountain! Why, you ask? Well, she met the height requirement by one inch, and I guess you could say "I got caught up in all the magic." :) Before the trip, I said no way could she ride, even if she was tall enough. Day 6 of our trip rolls around and I just knew how much she would like it! Let me rephrase that... I knew how much she would like the ride part... wasn't too sure about the drop part... So, I send she, Aaron and my parents on their merry way to ride Splash Mountain. I told Aaron to text me with the wait time and to hold on to her for dear life for the drop. In no time I get a text that says 5 minutes. It was at that point that I started thinking "I am a horrible mother!" "What am I thinking putting my two year old on this ride?" I can just see her falling out or something, but remember, I DID tell Aaron to hold on to her for dear life... check out this pic! I think he was just having a good time himself and forgot the whole "HOLD ON TO HER FOR DEAR LIFE!!!" He said she liked the ride, not so much the drop, but by the time she got back to me she LOVED it!!! :)See, she's all smiles :) She liked it!

3.) The WONDERFUL naps! Daily, at some point, Kenadie would fall SOUND asleep and have to be woken two hours later. I knew that that would give her enough of a rest to keep going. We had places to go and more characters to see :)

2.) I will just call them "towel creations."Kenadie had a new animal/doll from the cleaning ladies every night when we would come in from a park. She would get so excited for us to open the door and see what they left her :) Most days, we had to take the newest towel critter with us to a park. We are now the proud owners of six of these cute creations :)

1.) When asked what her favorite ride was... If she wasn't saying "they're all my favorites" then it was Small World, Dumbo and Peter Pan :)

We can't wait to go back!!! See ya real soon, Mickey :)

Who's The Fairest of Them All?

Kenadie was Snow White this year for Halloween. It was our first year to not dress as a member of the bug family :) We had quite a full day on Saturday! We got in late the night before from Disney World, were up early and headed to Southern's game at 11:00 on Saturday, and thank goodness Kenadie spent two and a half hours of the game like this...because I was kinda wondering where our nap was going to fit in with trick-or-treating and lest we forget, Saturday was Snow White's actual birthday, so we couldn't not celebrate :) Boy do I have a child who gets into FULL character mode when she is dressed up like someone other than herself :) While she was in her costume, if you ever called her "Kenadie", she was sure to tell you "No Mommy, I'm not Kenadie, I'm Snow White." Only does she return to Kenadie when the costume comes off--ha!

And we even managed to get our pumpkin carved when we got home from the game...To our surprise, this was as close as she wanted to get to the "goo."Papa stayed behind to pass out our candy. By 6:30, Kenadie was over the whole trick-or-treat thing and by about 7:00 we had about 10 pieces of candy left, so we closed down shop so that we could celebrate Kay Kay and Kenadie's birthdays! Kay Kay's birthday is November 3rd. We enjoyed some delicious seafood for dinner and then back to our house for cake and ice cream.Happy Birthday Kay Kay & Kenadie!!! No comment on the cake's appearance... we'll just leave it at that :) It tasted good, and that's really all that matters... sorta :)