Do you believe in MAGIC?

Here it is....the long-awaited Disney World post!

Are you ready for some pictures?! I'll break it down by day...

Day 1: we arrive, spend part of the evening at Epcot.

Reese is beyond ecstatic to see her cousins. Georgia and Mary Blake watch out for her in the crowd.


The daddies get conned into shoulder rides! Posing with the kids.


Bain makes faces on the monorail.


R and MB model the beautiful new dresses Poppy got them in "France" at Epcot, G joins in the fun in a pre-dinner pic.



Day 2: Magic Kingdom! We rode SO MANY fun rides this day, can't even list them all. I was extremely impressed that there were so many things for R to ride and do at MK--plenty of stuff for the 4 and under set. And also third trimester visitors.

Posing on Main St. in front of Cinderella's castle.


R & me in front of the mosaic murals inside the castle.


We rode the tea cups!




R met princesses! We got lots of pics of her with Cinderella, but none of her with Belle or Sleeping Beauty...will have to wait on the Disney professional pics on that one.



Sporting the Minnie ears! And the ridiculous Sleeping Beauty bling!


Preparing for It's a Small World, which turned out to be R's very favorite ride. Also, the world's most unflattering angle from which to shoot a photograph.


The girls, regrouping over lunch...


Gigi and Poppy, on the jungle boat ride.


Day 3: Hollywood Studios: we rode a few rides here but the highlights for us were some of the shows. Particularly, the Muppets 3D movie.

Reese tries out Minnie's footprints.


And meets Donald Duck!


That night, we got all dolled up for a big dinner with Prince Charming, Cinderella, and crew, then went off to Mickey's Not-So-Scary HW party.
G as a super cute kitty...


MB, too!


Bain, the tiger Jedi warrior. (Cousins had a really cool feline theme going on)


R, aka Sleeping Beauty, trying not to be late for the big dinner!


Making P-Charming's acquaintance.


A pic with the man of the hour.


And Cinderella, too.


The wicked-stepwomen made an appearance. First, the step-mother with the kids.


then, the guys. (Watch out, D--she's got her eyes on you!)


And one of the step-sisters with G. R refused not only their photograph, but also their autograph!


She seemed a little worried about them coming around to our table, frankly.


After dinner, back to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's par-tay! MK stayed open from 7pm til midnight just for the party. So we rode lots of rides, new ones and favorites. Plus, there was trick-or-treating at various points--lots of fun for the kiddos.
Reese and David rode the race cars--R drove and D worked the pedals--the car was on a track so there was little damage to be done!




R, D and B rode Dumbo's flying ride!


Day 4: Animal Kingdom (aka Mommy stayed at the hotel and got a massage): can't really report much since I wasn't there, just passing along a few cute pics

Daddy and Reese met Pocahontas--a real highlight, according to Daddy. Ahem. I'm surprised there wasn't a pic of the him with P on the camera....


On the safari ride with Gigi and Poppy.


Bain's excited!


The process of meeting Minnie....




Thoroughly Disney-fied....


And darn happy about it!


What a great trip! We had an amazing, fun, fabulous time--almost as much fun as R had! She keeps telling us, "I want to go back to Disney!" Some day, my dear...and last night at bedtime, she told me she was going to have dreams about Disney.
I feel like I'm leaving out so many details, but loading and sorting through those pics wore me out for now. We made so many wonderful memories and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly! The Disney experience sure is a wonderful one....

Cat burglar!

If you see anyone suspicious (probably HS kids...or some JERKHEAD somewhere) driving around with this cat, just let me know....

..because someone stole it from our front yard last night! We made such a production of putting it out yesterday. We had specifically ordered it after I saw one just like it over by my parents' house. It was awesome; its head turned and its eyes glowed at night. Then when D and R went to check on it this morning--poof! Gone! First night out. I am so mad!

In other news, yes, I will get the Disney post up soon. It will be a looooong one. We had a fabulous time--totally exhausting but an absolute blast! We have been going nonstop since we got back, so I can't promise exactly when the post will be completed--just that it will....
R is set to get her H1N1 vaccine next week--whew! Apparently, I will not be receiving one due to such limited supplies & where I am in the pregnancy (far enough along to deliver if need be), but we are able to get her one, so that is going to be such a HUGE relief to me. I will do a happy dance after she gets that shot!
We close on our casa tomorrow. We have a few repairs and things lined up and then we will be moving. We are enjoying the process of figuring out what goes where and what we need to get, but it will be so helpful to get back in the space and envision the furniture we have and have found in the actual house. I can't wait to be there and can't wait for R to see it!

Sorry for the catty post, just had to blow off some steam. I'm not the only angry one though. I'll leave you with D's hand crafted sign for the cat-napper:

A lesson from the animal kingdom...

...I should also add that I was crying by the end of this CBS news segment, but I've been doing that ALL. DAY. LONG. About everything. Damn hormones.
Especially at this point:


Sweet, sweet Bella and Tara....

Just a friendly reminder

Getting into the spirit of the weekend! Hook 'em horns!

Craziness, continued...

I am currently buried somewhere between living in a listed house (don't recommend it), trudging into the third trimester (yippee! and OMG really?!), getting through an option period (see responses for 3rd trimester), completely ignoring an impending move (whaaa?), and dealing with some really annoying students this semester (whine-gauge going off nonstop). Oh, and tackling gestational diabetes. I miss you desperately, carbs. And chocolate milkshakes. Sniff, sniff.
I just can't seem to keep up with the regular stuff right now, email and blogs and bills (just kidding on the last one). Mainly because of this pesky complete-and-total-lack-of-time thing that seems to be going on right now.
Oh, and guess what else is rocking my world at the moment? Utter and morbid fear of damn H1N1. WHERE OH WHERE are the *$^&*%^*& vaccinations??!!! The news about how the swine flu is affecting small children with respiratory issues and pregnant women is horrifying. And let's see...check and check, we've got both of those in this household.
I should actually be back on the blog with some fun pics next week. We've got a special trip planned! Details to follow!
In other crazy news, we took Reese to see an IMAX. She had no problem with the 3D aspect but a lot of issues with the underwater violence of large fish viciously attacking smaller fish and so on.

In an effort to spread crazy to other folks around town, a group of friends from last year's preschool class met up at Red Robin tonight for dinner. Oh yeah, the kids came too. :)
Reese "styles" Alaina's (already beautifully braided) hair, while Hailey doesn't veil her feelings toward the paparazzi.

Audrey, just being super cutie.

Leiton and Sadie waiting for dinner.

Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh, it's Red Robin himself! The girls "flocking" to the restaurant rock star.

Leiton takes the ladies for a spin....

I'm not sure the restaurant patrons will ever be the same, but it was tons of fun for the kids as well as the moms. Reese was pleased as punch to play with her buddies from Noah's Ark.

And now if someone could pass the sanitizer along with a little sanity, that would be much appreciated....xoxo

One wild & crazy week

Well, it's official. I don't learn from my mistakes. Because it was so much fun to move when I was 7+ months preggers with Reese, we've decided to do it again.
We weren't exactly actively looking for a house, but we do call on our good friend Cord from time to time to show us houses that interest us. As most of you know, we also own a lot on our neighborhood, and we were really starting to think about building a home. In a completely dragging our feet kind of way. Anyway, Cord emailed us on Monday with this house (went on the market that day):

It's around the corner from where we are now, but on a considerably less busy road. We've always admired the house from the outside so we decided to give it a look-see, and we fell in love immediately....and long story short, we're in the option period, inspection looked pretty good so it looks like we are moving forward, and if you know anyone interested in buying a house and/or lot in our neck of the woods, please feel free to send me a message. It's been an eventful week, to say the least.

We're fleeing the ACL insanity (we decided not to take part this year for various reasons) & heading to the beach. For those fest-goers, have a great festival! Say hello to BC for us! And see you on the flip side.