I want to go back to Disney World tomorrow!

So says our little William. Apparently he had a great time! We just are stepping back into the real world of work, holidays and family after spending 7 wonderful nights in sunny (but cold) Florida with Mickey. We enjoyed spending time with Alan's mom and our niece, Lindsey too.

We got to experience our first stay at Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members- Disney's version of a timeshare......our room was fabulous with 2 bathrooms, kitchen, full laundry (came in handy!). If only it was warm enough to enjoy the pool, but it wasn't meant to be.re are a few highlights of our great time! William can't wait to go back next October- just the three of us for some trick or treating with Mickey and friends.

On our first full day, we had the long awaited breakfast with Pooh Bear---Will LOVED the characters and gave Pooh a big hug and then got a free cupcake for his birthday too!

We found PUSH, the talking trash can too- PUSH moves around and talks to the kids. He even sang happy birthday to William after seeing his birthday button. As a trash can lover and expert, Will thought this was the coolest!We also participated in the Pick a Pearl at Japan in Epcot. Alan's mom, Lindsey and I all selected a clam which they opened amid great traditional drum beats and ceremony. I had the biggest pearl so far that day at 8.25. We had a great time doing this all together.
We got to catch the 'snow' again while enjoying the beautiful Osborne lights at the Hollywood Studios- another of Will's favorites!
We had a great last breakfast with Mickey and friends. Will had a blast seeing Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy!
Other highlights included Lindsey getting third place in the hula hoop contest at the DVC member merry mixer! Catching amazing fireworks at Epcot from our table at dinner with a great view from the window (in the nice warm inside, instead of freezing outside!). We had a great time at the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, rode a ton of rides and saw the Christmas parade with Santa! We also saw my old college program roommate perform in her new entertainment act at Epcot. She is a "ziti sister" in the Italy pavilion with multiple shows throughout the day. She was so much fun and Lindsey and Alan even got to participate in the show.

We also enjoyed the Candlelight Processional at Epcot and listening to Jodi Benson (the voice of the Little Mermaid) narrate the story of Christmas with a huge choir. Another big milestone, Will measured at 40", tall enough to ride some of the big rides, including Test Track, Soarin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain- which he participated in all and loved them. My boy has no fear!

In the end, a great time was had by all, depsite the freezing cold, record-breaking temperatures while we were there. So now we countdown until next year, when we visit Mickey again in October 2011!

Home Sweet Home- with the Mouse!

We are so excited to have only 2 more 'sleeps' until we meet up with our favorite mouse! We leave for Disney World on Saturday, 12/4 at the bright and early (okay, not so bright, but early!) at 4am. We will spend 7 lovely nights enjoying the magic at our new Disney Vacation Club (DVC) home- Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort!


We have a lakeview room, but hoping to get on the edge where we can see the lake and the Magic Kingdom!! It is a one bedroom with two baths and we can't wait to check out our new 'home'. We are taking along my mother in law and my 10yo niece, as well as of course William and Alan. So 3 adults, 2 kids. Should be fun!

We have some fun activities planned, including Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, a visit to the Bibbidi Bobbodi Boutique for my niece, the Candlelight Processional with Jodi Benson (of the Little Mermaid fame) and some fabulous meals, including one with Pooh and Mickey (per Will's request).

With William potty trained now (3 days at day care dry in big boy underwear!!!), we are going to know where every single bathroom in Disney is!! I am packing my patience for sure. Newly potty trained and on vacation. Should be interesting, but i know he can do it!

so here is my list of must do's for this trip, all new things for me- let's see post trip, how many we actually accomplish!

• Pick a Pearl in Japan (i purchased the cutest Cinderella carriage necklaces to hold the pearls)
• Try a fabulous cupcake at Starring Rolls bakery
• Meet up with some www.disboards.com MOMs friends at the MVMCP!
• See the 'taffy lady' in Japan
• Find my old WDW College Program roomie, Heather, working her new entertainment gig in Italy!
• Find PUSH, the talking trash can (remember Will is obsessed with trash!)
• Try the new La Hacienda restaurant in Mexico (reservations our first night)
• Try the new Via Napoli restaurant in Italy (our last night)
• Get character autographs and pics in Camp Minnie Mickey (we always skip this for some reason).
  

So those are a few must dos that are new for me, which is saying alot- although at disney, it is pertty easy to find new things to do- there is so much! So wish us luck and pixie dust for a fabulous time!

Potty Success!

So on Saturday, we really worked on the potty. After a 'bribe' of a little kitchen toy he really wanted, William finally peed on the potty! We've been practicing for months now- just sitting there, but he would never go. It just didn't 'click' for him until this weekend. I left the room for a minute and hear him saying ' i did it!' and i go in and there are two little drops of pee! So i ask him to pee some more for me and then we can get his present. So he did! yeah big boy!

All day long he wore underwear at home and continued to pee in the potty at least 8 more times- sometimes just a little, other times a lot. He seemed to get the hang of it completely! We are still working on the other part.....but at least we have pee pee down for now. We had to wear pull ups while running errands and probably will until after our disney trip. But then we will work on moving to big boy underwear only! Very proud of my big guy!

On Saturday night, my nephew Michael also came over and stayed the night for a sleepover! The boys had a lot of fun together, and stayed up pretty late! On sunday morning, i wake up and they are not in bed. they are both in the bathroom and Will had already gone potty all by himself!

Grand Opening of the New Disney Store!

In just two weeks, Alan, William and I will be sharing the magic we love so much with my mother in law and niece Lindsey! We leave on December 4th for Walt Disney World for 7 nights of holiday fun!

Fortunately, October has been super busy, between Will's birthday, hosting bunco, 2 work trips (Seattle and San Francisco), more birthdays, halloween etc etc. So time has flown!!!! Now I can't believe we are only 2 weeks away!

So to pass the time, we checked out the opening of the new disney store located in Northpark Mall in Dallas. It was super crowded, folks lined up at least 100 deep waiting for a photo with Mickey Mouse..........of course, we didn't wait, since we will see him with much shorter lines very soon! But we did explore the new interactive store.


They were only letting a set amount of people in at a time, to control the crowds in the store, since there are interactive experiences to check out. There are amazing trees with video screens on them that change- one second there are leaves falling on them, then presents, then candy canes etc. Pretty fun.
They also gave out free mouse ears, lollipops and a keychain, Will was happy about that. They had a DJ doing trivia and handing out prizes too. It was fun, but the store was not as big as I had anticipated. Besides the video trees, there was also a movie viewing area and a castle area for the girls to wave a wand in the mirror and see a princess appear and talk to them!

There was a small section for the Ridemakerz for the boys to build a remote control car, but it was a pretty tiny section.

There was also this little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that Will liked crawling through and pressing buttons for noise and lights. Overall a fun day to check out the new store and get in the disney spirit, but at least we won't have to contend with such heavy crowds on our trip hopefully!

Smile! School Pictures

So our little guy is well, not so little anymore! He is 38.75 inches tall according to the doc now, although we think he shot up even more in the last few weeks. We are hoping he is at 40 inches for our disney trip, guess we will see. He is still a ball of energy- loving to play. While he still loves school, he also asks to stay home sometimes and it breaks my heart i can't do that with him. But he does very well at school and just moved to the big boy class of 3 year olds! We are working on potty training, but still no success. He will sit on the potty, but has yet to actually go in it. He is starting to practice more on dressing himself, but it is taking some time. He is getting better at brushing his teeth too on his own and the kid loves washing his hands!
I don't know if it is the OCD or just the fact that he likes to play in the water!

He still loves books, puzzles and all his kitchen stuff. He is getting a big imagination and now I hear him talking upstairs in the playroom to all his stuffed animals as he serves them food or gives them a puzzle to play with, it's really cute. I also found him playing with the large Cinderella castle we have from WDW. He loves hos the little lights turn on in the bushes etc. He loves trains, but isn't into cars that much really. He is still in his toddler bed, but we've promised him a big boy, full size bed with new bedroom furniture and moving him to the bigger bedroom if he can be potty trained! We will see how long that takes.

He is into singing right now too- his favorites are twinkle twinkle, ABC and i also caught him trying to sing Baby Mine too- which I've sung to him since he was a baby - he calls it the baby song. The child still will not sit still long enough to watch a full 20 minutes of TV, much less a full disney movie- i can't wait until he does though, so i can share all my great disney DVDs! He is putting a sticker each day still on our WDW countdown calendar and loves doing it- so we will definitely do that for next year too!!

My little guy is growing up!

Scary Trashman!

Well as you know, our little man is obsessed with trash cans. He has a whole collection upstairs in his playroom and he likes to pretend to throw away stuff (toys) and bag it up and move it to another trash can. So we figured, what better for halloween, than to make him a trash can! I found some costume ideas online and came up with this. now I don't sew, so this ended up being pretty easy! duck tape to the rescue! We already had an oscar the grouch t-shirt (again, since he loves trash cans!), and it worked out perfectly under the costume!

He got tons of comments on his costume at his day care fall festival! he also enjoyed trick or treating in it, although it was hard to walk far or fast in it!

and here is our spooky front porch for the big day with two fog machines!

William liked handing out candy more than he liked getting it I think. In fact, he tried to hand out some of his own candy to the kids. We didn't have a ton of trick or treaters this year, so lots of leftovers for the office! Will isn't a big sweets eater- he likes M&Ms and a few other things, but he just isn't a candy nut (unlike me!)

done trick or treating- until next year! Happy Halloween!

Countdown to DISNEY!

Only 44 days until we leave for the Happiest Place on Earth- you got it- Disney World! We created this countdown calendar for William and he puts a sticker on each day to countdown until December 4th, when we leave! He loves it!

I also submitted some pictures of our disney memories to the disney web site for their new campaign- "Let the Memories Begin"........it features real guests photos and videos which are being used in commercials, online and will even be projected on the castle in the near future each night!!! I submitted 3 pictures and here is a link to at least one that is featured on the disney web site!
http://memories.disneyparks.disney.go.com/#/detail/2727

My little neat freak!

Well William definitely takes after his mommy.........the kid loves to help clean. Really, if you give him a 'chore', he tends to behave better and not get into trouble. He is obsessed with trash cans and trash still- he loves to take it out and put in a 'new bag' as he says. He always has to look at the vacuums when we go to the store too. Don't ask me why- he even preferred to buy a mini trash can over a toy!

William also likes to help with the laundry- with his shades on of course!

Coming Soon.........Baby Brynley

So our family is very excited to welcome a new family member on December 17th! My baby sister, Mandy is having a girl! My mom, my other sister Wendy and Mandy's best friend, Kristina and I all threw her a baby shower in September. It was a lot of fun! We decorated with just some of the cute clothes we have for her! This child won't be spoiled at all, huh? This is Jeff and Mandy's first and the 4th grandchild for my parents- now they will have two girls and two boys!

William calls her baby 'ben-ley'.

Crawl Through Fall

Fall is always a busy time for us- filled with birthdays (including Will's), halloween parties, the State Fair etc. This year, throw in 2 work trips in October, a baby shower for my sister (that I helped host) and you can say it has been downright crazy. We are just barely crawling to the finish line. Come on November!
So i had to fly out to San Francisco in early October for a work meeting for 2 nights and then a week later, I flew out to SEattle for a tradeshow- again for just two nights. Those are LONG flights from DFW - about 3.5 hours. So talk about being exhausted and off schedule. At least I did get to see the famous public market!
We also attended our first halloween party of the season at my brother in law's on 10/16. Had a ball- i was half angel, half devil, can't make up my mind, ya know! Here is my gorgeous sister in law and I at the party!
And my mother in law and two of her boys!


We've also been busy decorating the house for the holiday too! Of course we have to sprinkle a little Mickey in the mix!

So October, we love you, but ready for November and some rest!

Fried Food Haven

We had a great time at the Texas State Fair, home to the 'fried anything'. this year's popular choices were fried beer, fried margarita, fried s'mores and fried frito pie. Nothing like your favorite 'bad for you' treat, deep fried for double the artery clogging goodness.

We started the day in horrible traffic due to the Tech vs. Baylor game at the Cotton Bowl. We headed first to the petting zoo where Will fed a ton of animals and saw a baby giraffe!

Next up, some rides. the kid has zero fear and wanted to ride the roller coasters.

then time for some fuel- the fried frito pie. Pretty good, but it was so darn hot outside (90) that i just couldn't eat more than a few bites.

Roller coaster with Daddy

Playing a game- basically we pay $5 for him to pick a duck to get a guaranteed $3 little stuffed animal. carnies.

A visit to big TEX

Sharing a classic Fletcher's corny dog with Daddy!

All in all a great time had by all!

Whoops I did it again.

I did it again- applied for the Walt Disney World Moms panel. Third time is a charm right? I've never made it to round 2, but considering the huge amounts of applicants they deal with (20,000), the odds aren't that good. But it is fun to apply and give it the old college try regardless. Wish me luck!

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

A few weeks back, they had 'fairy tale' week at day care. I remember being a little appalled when he came home on that friday with his drawings from the week. There was one of little red riding hood and then just a page with two big scary, sharp wolf claws. No wolf, but just the actual hands/claws. And not friendly looking ones, scary looking ones. I, for the life of me couldn't figure out why they would give a 2yo a scary wolf claw picture to color? LOL..........well fairy tale week I guess was still fresh on his mind. Last night as I put him to bed, he says there is a baby in the closet. Then he says the big bad wolf is in the closet. I thought he might be scared. Then he said the big bad wolf was in his bedroom. Keep in mind, also, Will hasn't been the most verbal kid and slightly slow on developing his language, so this was actually the first time i heard him say 'closet' or 'bedroom', so i was happy! But then the whole big bad wolf thing? lol. He did ask to keep his bedroom door open, which we usually close, since his room is at the top of the stairs. I guess he was a little scared, but 5 minutes later he ended up saying he wanted the big bad wolf in his bed. And he did let me shut the door. This morning I asked if the big bad wolf slept in his bed and he said yes and smiled. Crazy kid.

Mustard or Ketchup?

So while at the store the other day with my mom and sister, I needed something to occupy Will in the cart while we shopped. to the rescue..........a plastic ketchup and mustard bottle set for $3. He played with it the whole time. And now that we are home, he is having a ball with these simple bottles. They were a huge hit in the bath tub too- fill them up, empty them, pour them into each other and of course, SQUIRT!