Callie's Christmas Program

Today was Callie's Christmas program at preschool. She was very happy that Rob could get off work and come see her. She sang very well with her class. After the program, we had a little party in her classroom.
Waiting with her class to sing

Singing "Ring the bell"

Callie and Brandon- Callie is always talking about Brandon and she insists that she only plays with him at school
Callie and her teacher Ms. AnnaMarie

Callie and her teacher Ms. Suzanne

8th Anniversary

Today is our 8th Anniversary. We celebrated on Saturday with breakfast out, running errands ALONE, and dinner out. Happy Anniversary Rob!

Blog Neglect

I am guilty of blog neglect. I can not believe that I have not posted in over 2 months and have missed two major holidays. I am really behind!!! I regularly blog in my head but then can not seem to find the time to sit down and type it out. I will try my best and catch up on these past few months.

Hudson turned 4 months and 5 months and started rice cereal.
4 months
5 months
First taste of cereal

Halloween
Our Halloween was much less hectic than other years. We did not get to the Ward party because we were all sick and only dressed up on Halloween night. I loved that Halloween was finally on a Friday so we did not have to worry about it being a school night and we were able to spend the night at my sister's house and go Trick or Treating with her family. It was also nice because for the first time it was cold(for Florida) on Halloween!
Hudson reused Jack's old skunk costume. He went out Trick or Treating with us but slept through most of it.

At the end of September, Jack insisted that he wanted to be a Blue Ghost for Halloween. I kept putting it off because I hoped he would change his mind since Blue Ghost costumes are not something you can just pick up at the store. As time passed, I had no luck changing Jack's mind. I tried to suggest other options and even told him the store ran out of all the Blue Ghost costumes but he was adamant. Grandma finally saved the day and cut up one of her blue bed sheets. So Jack was so happy he got to be a Blue Ghost and I bet he was the only child dressed as a Blue Ghost on Halloween.


Callie,who wants to do everything just like Jack, wanted to be a Pink Ghost. However, a few weeks before Halloween, I found a pink Power Ranger costume in her size at a garage sale for $1 and she was so excited about it that she forgot all about her Pink Ghost request.


Disney World
Rob's brother Rich's family was in town visiting Disney World from California. We were able to spend a day with them at the Magic Kingdom. It was fun catching up with them and getting the cousins together. We had not been to Disney in a year and Callie did not remember it at all so it was fun to watch her reactions to everything. It was a fun day and it made us miss having Season passes.

Hudson liked watching everything on "It's a Small World"

Callie was tall enough to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Jack and Callie had mixed feelings about both rides.


Thanksgiving
We hosted my family at our house for Thanksgiving. Everyone had so much fun and our family stayed at our house through Saturday.



We spent the next day at Lake Louisa State Park by our house. This is the third year in a row that we have gone there on the day after Thanksgiving and the kids loved walking around and exploring the nature trails.

Rob and my brother in law Jeff were planning on taking the kids camping at the State Park on Friday night but all the campsites were taken. Instead, they set up the tent in our backyard.
The kids loved sleeping in the tent outside and really didn't seem to care that they were only in the backyard.
Rob and Jeff even made a fire to roast marshmallows over.
Saturday, we took the kids to play at a local park.




Hudson had his first swing ride.

After our company went home, we were able to set up our tree and get out the Christmas decorations.


The kids were also excited about starting their chocolate advent calendars.

Our weekend
This past Saturday, we went to a free cooking event at the Young Chef's Academy.

The kids got to squeeze fruit into juice,
cut up fruit for a fruit salad,
roll and cut dough,
and decorate gingerbread men.

Afterwards, we went to Celebration where the town makes it "snow" every night. Even though it was fake, the kids had so much fun playing in it and I appreciated the experience without the cold weather.




On Sunday, we spent the day across town at my sister's for baby Carson's blessing. We were able to take a family picture after church.

Welcome Baby Carson!

My sister Katie had her baby girl early Wednesday morning, October 1st. They named her Carson Simone and she weighed 7lbs 11oz. Hudson and I were able to go to the hospital Thursday morning to meet her while Jack and Callie were in school. She is so cute and it also made me realize how fast Hudson has grown up in just 3 months. We are so excited to have a new addition to our extended family and for Hudson to have a cousin his age!

Staycation

A few months ago, we received two promotional fliers in the mail each for one free park hopper ticket to Universal Studios. At the time, we just had the baby so we were not sure if we were going to use them. Then, with the expiration coming up at the end of September, we deicided at the last minute to treat ourselves to mini vacation or "staycation" since we were vacationing in our area. Rob took a half day off last Thursday and we all picked up Jack from school and headed to the Hard Rock hotel--one of the Universal resorts. The florida resident rate for the resort was actually pretty reasonable and if you stay at the resort you automatically get a park express pass which means no waiting in lines and with three young kids that seemed like a necessity. When we arrived at the hotel Thursday afternoon, we headed straight to the hotel pool. Hudson and I relaxed in the shade and Rob and the kids swam and enjoyed the big water slide.





We stayed at the pool until it was almost dark and afterwards ate at one of the hotel restaurants and then went to bed. Overall, the hotel was really nice but loud. There was music playing everywhere you went and a very LOUD live band in the lobby. If we ever stayed there again, I may want to try one of the other resorts for a little bit more peaceful experience.

Jack and Callie loved staying in the hotel and even did great sharing the bed. They also loved their complimentary inflatable guitars that they received when we checked in.
On Friday morning, we woke up early and headed to the parks which was just a ferry ride away. We started at Universal and rode almost everything that the kids were tall enough to ride and took turns waiting with Hudson. Callie had to have a little boost to get to 40 inches which was the height requirement at several of the rides. But her Hello Kitty sandals gave her the extra half inch she needed so she was not left out.

Jack's favorite rides at Universal were Jaws and Men in Black.

He loved getting points shooting all the aliens and was excited that he beat Daddy.
Another favorite of both of them at Universal was the ball factory. A huge area where foam balls are flying everywhere and dropping from the ceiling. The kids loved collecting them and taking them to the second floor and shooting them out of the guns to down below.
Callie collecting balls and sucking them up with the giant vaccuum hose.

Jack with a full bag of balls he collected.

Shooting off the balls at everyone below.

After Universal, we walked next door to Islands of Adventure. First, the kids rode the spiderman ride and met the "real" spiderman which Callie says was her favorite part of the day.

By this time, it was late afternoon and everyone was tired and getting a little cranky. So instead of rushing around, we spent the remainder of the time in Suess land. There the kids got a chance to run around and play, ride the carousel at least a dozen times, and drag Rob on the fish ride where you get soaking wet over and over.


We ended up staying in that area until the park closed because the kids were having so much fun. Even Hudson had a fun day even though he didn't get to participate much.

It turned out that we could not have picked a much better day to be at the parks because it was actually during one of the first "cold" fronts to come through the area so the high was only in the mid 80s and the parks were not crowded at all.

As we were leaving, we still had not had dinner and were debating what to do. I had wanted to try one of the restaurants at a neighboring resort but we knew it was a nicer restaurant and wondered if it would be a place to bring the kids. Well, the hunger and the 12 hour day at the park must have clouded our judgement, because we decided to go. When we got there, we knew we were a tad more underdressed than most of the other diners and one of the handful of families with kids and the only ones brave enough to bring three kids but at that point we were too hungry to take the time and go somewhere else. Also, Rob and the kids were still a little damp from the fish ride. We felt like we were definitely being watched and everytime Jack or Callie would play with their silverware or move it at all, a waiter would come out of nowhere and move the silverware back to exactly perpendicular with the table. The kids actually did ok but were so tired and had a really hard time waiting for the food. Callie finally curled up in her chair and went to sleep. We knew that this was probably frowned upon
and sure enough our waiter found a way to entice Callie to sit up at the table again by constructing a napkin rose and waking her up to give it to her. Callie loved it and stayed sitting up in her chair the rest of the time.


Jack did so good and even ate all his food but he too finally gave into his exhaustion and put his head on the table and went to sleep.

We tried waking him up but had no luck. The sight of him asleep at the table did seem to amuse the other guests or maybe they were just talking about us. Who knows? We survived and it was definitely an experience. After dinner, we drove home and our short but needed vacation was over.