A Better Ending

2011 was a crazy year for our family.  It was definitely one of those years that you are glad is over.  Honestly, the first half could have been ok, but then came April.  We were hit with things from every side.  And just when it seem to ease up, we were knocked back down.  It wasn’t until mid-November that we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

We didn’t let 2011 get the better of us, a matter of fact we saved the best for last.  We ended that crazy year with some wonderful family moments that we won’t forget.  The biggest was our family vacation to Walt Disney World. 

It was a whirlwind trip.  We spent 5 days on the Disney Resort and we visited every theme park.  The boy was just the right height to ride most of the rides and the perfect age to meet the characters. 

Unfortunately, he’s not a fan of the dark.  So, we had to talk him through several rides the first time…and I mean the tame ones.  Such as, Finding Nemo at Epcot.

Now, roller coasters that was a different story.  Two of his favorite all times rides were found at Magic Kingdom.  He rode Big Thunder Mountain Railway and Splash Mountain several times.  I unfortunately got stuck in the front and had to walk around like this all morning…

Good thing the weather was nice.

It was such a blessing to end 2011 with this family vacation.  I couldn’t have asked for a better ending.

If I learned anything last year, it is to count your blessings.  Hold on to the good.  It gets you through the rough patches.

My Crazy Life- Celebrations

Goodness, it has been a few months since I last wrote about the craziness that was taking place in my life last April & May.  The craziness that was keeping me from blog updates.  And even though my life hasn’t been as crazy, that spring season has really left me speechless.  Not knowing how to write the thoughts and emotions that at the time were running through me.  But, I want to finish it.  So, where did I leave off…

Ahh yes…

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It was the first week of May, and not only would I be celebrating my birthday and mother’s day, but my best friend from childhood was getting married! 

It was so exciting to be able to be apart of this celebration.  I just love this girl. We’ve been friends since we were 2!  And although we’ve had our ups and downs, as in any relationship, I am so glad that God has given me this lifetime friendship.

Since my friend and I don’t live in the same state any more, we had to travel a ways to go see her.  Fortunately, she lives close to some of my extended relatives, so my mom joined us as we headed out there. (Plus, my mom was going to be watching the boy, as my husband and I were tied up with the wedding.)

While, my husband and I attended rehearsals, my boy got to have a mini vacation.  He hung out with my mom, my aunt and my aunt’s son at the hotel.  They went swimming, played games and even watched a movie.

   

Then the next day before the wedding, they hit up a few touristic locations.  But they didn’t stop there, in between the wedding and the reception they headed to the Jelly Belly Candy Store.  You can imagine how much fun that would be for a little kid.  He ended up coming home with his own bag, plus a bag of peas and carrots (jelly bean style).

 

I think the best treat of the whole weekend though was when my husband, who is the best guy a girl could wish for, helped the two boys surprise us mothers with homemade cards.  Isn’t he so thoughtful?

 

We ended our mini break spending time with my extended relatives.  And yes, that is my son getting pulled by his second cousin on an electric wheel chair.  Fun times.

  

Little did I know, God was about to teach me a lesson.

My Crazy Life- The X-Rays

The craziness in my life started the week after Easter.  Routine dentist examines discovered a mass in my husband’s jaw line.  Unable to diagnose it, the dentist had the x-rays sent to an oral surgeon.  The oral surgeon had my husband come in for a CT Scan.  Then we had to wait.  Fortunately, I was easily distracted.

With my mom in town, we went to little league games…when it wasn’t raining.

 

Tried to catch some fish.

 

Got the boy a haircut.

 

We even went out for tea.  My mom is a big fan of tea.  This place provided all the costumes and accessorizes needed to make it an official tea party.

 

Fortunately, the oral surgeon called back with good news.  The mass was benign. We had nothing to worry about…just some scar tissue.  How it got there, no clue?

More of My Crazy Life to come.

My Crazy Life- A Visit from Meme

The craziness in my life, didn’t start off as crazy, but just busyness.   We were so excited to have my mom in town for a little over two weeks.  She arrived late Thursday evening, the day before Good Friday.  We hadn’t seen my mom for a couple of years and the last time was at her brother’s funeral.  So, you can imagine how excited we were to have her in town.

Here is what happened the first weekend of her visit.

Dying Easter Eggs- On Good Friday afternoon we had a Easter Egg dying fest!  We went with the traditional egg dye, however my sister’s kids wanted to tie-dye their eggs.  The tie-dying method was a little more involved and my sister ended up being the one doing all the tie-dying.  Her fingers were pretty stained at the end of it.  I don’t know if we will be going that route again next year.

 

Easter Sunday and Service- We actually went to Easter Service Saturday evening to make more room for visitors to our church on Sunday.  Every year we try to pose for an Easter picture, if not all of us then the boy for sure.  I just can’t believe that my baby boy looks so big.

 

Easter morning the boy woke up to a trail of plastic eggs.  It was so cute because he didn’t realize the night before that when he woke up it was going to be Easter.  When he saw the egg trail he said, “Daddy did you make a surprise for me?”  He probably would have been satisfied with just the eggs, but then he found his basket.  When we came out to the living room we found him looking at his new book, he could have cared less about what was in his actually basket.  We then had our traditional Easter breakfast…resurrection rolls. 

 

After breakfast we headed to my sister’s for Easter lunch and egg hunts.  Unfortunately, the weather was terrible the whole time my mom was in town.  It rained most of the time, including Easter Sunday.  We had to settle for an indoor egg hunt.  The kids still managed to have a lot of fun.

 

 

And of course, we had to finish off the afternoon with dress up.  Evidently it was bring your kid to work day.

 

Stay tuned to for more of My Crazy Life.

Wishing You A Very…

Here is a little video I found to help keep things in focus this holiday.

 

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Birthday Celebration

Oh, my goodness it has been a crazy week in our household with Christmas functions and colds, but I just had to get some of the boy’s birthday pictures up.  It was a great celebration and he was so into it this year. 

As I mentioned before, we decided to do a Toy Story themed party.  I ended up going with the alien cupcakes and they were a big hit with the kiddos.

 

To make it more fun, I found the perfect shirt for the boy to wear at Target. He already had the hat from his costume chest.

Since we were doing a Toy Story theme and had alien cupcakes we had to have pizza from “Pizza Planet.”  Of course, pizza made my life a lot easier!

 

To top it off, we got the boy his very own Woody “doll.”  Whenever we visited his friend Jack, he would always gravitate to the Woody and Buzz toys.  When he was opening his presents I actually got a little teary eyed.  I just loved seeing him so excited and happy. It was a perfect day with family.

 

We ended the festivities with kids watching Toy Story  (Lil’man got it for his birthday from his Meme.)  While they watched, the adults enjoyed a fun game of iMAgiNiff.

All in all, our lil’ family had a fun time celebrating the boy’s 3rd birthday.

How do you celebrate birthdays in your home?