Disney and back!

What a magical trip to Disney World we had! The kids woke up on Thanksgiving morning to yet another "Tink gift" which had mysteriously been appearing for the past week. This gift was a bit larger than the previous gifts. Inside cute Mickey Mouse boxes were pillowcase dresses for the girls (to wear to meet Cinderella and Prince Charming) and Mickey Star Wars shirts for Prince and Tink. It was Mickey holding a light saber for them to wear to Hollywood Studios. There were also a few other items I'd picked up for them. The kids still had no idea so we told them to close their eyes and we put their Mickey Mouse ears on them. When they opened we asked them where they thought they'd need these.  Tink sheepishly chimed in, "At Disney World!"...I think she was afraid to say it thinking it wasn't going to be true. But yes, we told them that the next morning we were going to Disney World. They were so excited.

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving Day with family and watching the Macy's parade and doing Minnie pedicures/manicures on all of the girls. This is a tradition I started last year on our first trip. It really makes us feel like the trip has really begun.

Prince got sick on the 8 hour trip from Montgomery to Orlando. We though it was just car sickness but he started running a fever that night as well. We were worried but after some Motrin and much prayer the next morning he was ready to go. That fever never reappeared!

We checked into the Port Orleans Riverside and our room was ready! I wasn't expecting it to be ready that early so this was a nice surprise. We were able to unload our bags and head to Epcot! This was our first time in the World Showcase and I'd really been looking forward to it. I knew there was so much to learn about different countries and since it was Christmas time there were different storytellers in each of the countries telling of some of their Christmas traditions. I was impressed that all of Disney was unashamedly full of CHRISTMAS and the true reason for Christmas! There were Angels on top of the trees (large ones!), the Voices of Liberty in the American Pavilion sang Christian hymns about the Messiah, there were nativity scenes, etc. I was proud that although most of the country takes Jesus and Christmas out of this time of year, Disney of all places has choses (at least for now) to make it obvious what the holiday is all about.

We had a wonderful trip and the Christmas decorations were so georgeous. We ate lots of food from different places including Africa, Polynesian, German, and Asian. I'll try to post some pics later but I have to upload them first.

Now we are back and settled in for our Christmas holiday. It's not quite as busy this year for us! I'm loving that! We can take time to enjoy each other and truly focus on the fact that this holiday is a celebration of the birth of our Savior! God bless and Merry Christmas!

We're getting close!

Well, we have just two more days until we leave for our Thanksgiving trip to Montgomery and our surprise trip to Disney World! I can't believe we've been able to keep it a secret this long. The kids have no idea. I'm still able to pack and everything b/c the kids know we're going to Montgomery, so that helps. Although, Tink did wonder why I was taking all kinds of snack foods, etc. to Nana and Pawpaw's! lol!

I decided on a way to tell them, I think! Starting yesterday morning I started leaving little "Tink gifts" on the kitchen table. I picked up some $1 Disney gifts at Michael's and that has worked perfect. Yesterday morning before the kids woke up I left a puzzle that you color in front of each child's seat. Princess got a Princess puzzle, Tink got Tink, and Prince got Toy Story. They were all excited but it drove Tink CRAZY all day! She kept bugging us and worrying about who gave her the gifts. We explained to her that she should just be grateful and thankful, and that she'd probably find out one day.

This morning I did the same thing. In front of each chair was a box with rolled up Princess, Tink, and Toy story posters to color in it. There was also a brand new box of Princess, Tink, and Toy story crayons. This morning they were even more thankful and grateful. They even each (well, the two oldest ones) wrote a thank-you note to whoever was leaving the gifts. Tink drew a fairy in the clouds and wrote thank-you. Prince colored a Christmas tree pic and had his sister write thank-you for him. How sweet is that!?

My plan is to leave two more mornings of "Tink gifts" on the table. That'll get us until Wed. Then on Thurs. morning (we'll be in Montgomery) we're going to leave a large Disney box that I bought for each of them. It'll be filled with some shirts I bought for them to wear, dresses for the girls with Princesses on them, the personalized pillowcases that I had made for the characters to sign, etc. That's when we'll tell them. This is our Christmas present for the kids so we wanted to make it special. I may even wrap the gift items if I have time.

We'll be gone from Fri. to Fri. We leave Montgomery the Fri after Thanksgiving and we'll stay somewhere off-property that night. Then we'll check in Sat morning and head to Epcot for day 1! We're excited, but I'm a little stressed right now. It's nerve wracking trying to pack for 5 people for 9 days! Ugh! I'll write more when we get back!

Pumpkin Time!

I must admit that Halloween is my least favorite time of year. I love the weather and I love watching the kids dress up and go Trick-Or-Treating but other than that I really would rather skip this day. Tink (dd7) asked the other day if I would celebrate this "holiday" if I didn't have kids. I told her, "No, honey, the kids make it o.k. but other than that it's just a holiday for Satan." Obviously Man-Man (ds5) was listening because when we went to Wal-Mart to get a pumpkin he loudly proclaimed across the store, "Mom, I though we didn't celebrate Halloween because it was for Satan!" I had to laugh. It's true, but nonetheless the kids wanted to carve a pumpkin. So we made it happen.

We host a group of college students from our church every Tuesday night and I seized the opportunity to have the college students assist my children in this task. Everyone had a wonderful time! It started out as a selfish request on my part but turned into a wonderful night full of memories.

We started out the night by eating and celebrating one of our student's birthdays. Then we had all of the "kids" (ours and the college kids) draw a picture of what they would like the Jack-o-lantern to look like. Tink was the judge of the contest and the top two designs were then drawn onto the pumpkins. To help our kids feel more a part we let them color in the face with markers before we carved it. This was a great idea because Princess (dd2) had her own baby pumpkin to color the entire night.

Above are pictures of the finished products. What a wonderful night and a fun way to get the pumpkin carving done.

Jill

Double Fun, Double Trouble!

It was a wonderful day full of cake, friends, and fun when we recently celebrated Prince's 5th and Princess's 2nd birthday parties! Happy Birthday Angels!

Mississippi Livin'

MISSISSIPPI LIVIN'

It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.
"Jawl-P?" means, "Did y'all go to the bathroom?"
"Fixinto" is one word.
The word "jeet" is actually a phrase meaning for "Did you eat?"
You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH 'em.
You know what a "Dawg" is.
You carry jumper cables in your car – for your own car.
You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Tony Chachere's, Tabasco , and ketchup.
We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. . . if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

Too true, too true!
Jill

Princess!

I have to tell you my little girl is so grown up all of a sudden! I mean, she speaks as well as my 5 year old so I forget sometimes that she's just now two. She's so prissy and dainty, yet at the same time rough and rowdy! I love watching her play pretend. I honestly don't remember Tink playing pretend this early. Tonight as we were getting ready to settle down for bed I had Prince and Tink clean up their rooms. Princess usually joins them (and makes a mess while doing it!). Tonight she found these two little bitty babies from somewhere in Tink's closet. The babies were maybe an inch long. One boy, and one girl. They had a little bottle as well. A blue bottle for the boy and a pink bottle for the girl. Well, as we were getting ready to say "goodnight" I started looking for Princess. Anytime she's quiet I get scared, she's usually up to no good!;) I found her sitting at one of the kids folding tables in the schoolroom. She had three chairs around it. At one chair she had that little bitty pink baby, with the pink bottle, and a plate of play food from the play kitchen for the baby. The blue baby, with the blue bottle was sitting at another chair with another plate of food by him. And Princess was sitting at the third chair with her milk cup (that she went and got out of the refrigerator) and her own plate of play food. She was so proud of herself when I walked into the room. She said, "babies are hungry". I called Tink and Prince in to see what she'd done. We were so proud of her. When I said it was time to go to bed she started to get upset. I quickly pulled two baby beds out of the doll house box (one blue and one pink...yet these weren't the babies from this doll house)and told her that the babies could go to bed with her. This satisfied her and she kissed Prince, Tink, and Lucy (the dog) and went to get in bed. She wouldn't let me put the babies on the dresser or the bench by her bed. They had to be in the bed with her. And before I turned out the lights she gave each baby a little drink from their bottle and then she fed them pretend food from her hand. I am still amazed! She turned two less than a week ago and she's already so grown up...playing pretend by herself?? Wow! Maybe our entire two year old year will be so wonderful! ;)

Happy Birthday Princess!!

My baby girl is two years old! I'm still having a hard time with this fact! Oh, she's amazing. She talks 90-nothing and has a vocabulary out of this world. I love to hear her and listen to the things that come out of that sweet mouth. One thing is for sure...she loves her Bruh-boo (her word for brother) and Sissy. She looks up to them so much and now that she's older she's really able to play with them and understand what they're doing and join in. I love watching her with her sister and brother. She does whatever they do yet she's not afraid to step out on her own and do her own thing. She's also not afraid to tell them what to do. She's already a born leader. With her birthday upon me, I'm now realizing that it's time to begin potty training. She's shown a lot of interest over the past few weeks and to be honest, I just haven't been ready. But Dr. Joe (her pediatrician) says she'll be potty trained by Christmas since her vocabulary is so high. I guess because she's able to tell us what she wants and understand our directions on what she needs to do. It's funny, because Prince was nearly three before he was ready. She's such a big girl and I've got to get used to this! I'm so excited to see what this next year holds for this precious angel of mine.