Happy Birthday Princess Caden

My sweet little baby is getting big way too fast. Caden turned 4 last week. Her actual birthday was on the 21st, but we had her party this past weekend. I didn't want to totally stiff her the day of her birthday so she opened a few from us and from her aunt Kara. Some of my family also came up from Texas for the weekend so we had a house full for the party.

Ever since Disney World Caden has been more than obsessed with Princesses - mainly Ariel (The Little Mermaid). So we decided to have a Little Mermaid party. There were some boys that she also wanted to invite so I had some pirate things too. As the kids arrived they had a craft. The girls decorated princess crowns and the boys decorated a pirate skull. I also gave the boys a bandanna, eye patch, and an earring to wear. They looked so cute - at least the ones who participated. One boy didn't want to wear the stuff and another boy wouldn't get in the picture. I then had them all stand in front of the REALLY COOL princess palace wall we created.

This thing was huge. I knew it was 8 feet tall, but I didn't realize how LONG it was. I thought it would fit on one wall. NOPE!!! I had to rearrange furniture in the red room to get it on 3 walls. (yes that is what we call it.) It is our 2nd living room but we have always called it that.

We also played the cheesy game of pin the crown on the princess and pin the patch on the pirate. After several kids went I realized I had put them too high on the wall so unless they cheated (which some did) they weren't going to get very close.

We had a little mermaid cake, which somehow is not in my pictures. Chris was video taping and I had the digital camera so I guess I didn't ask anyone to take a picture of it while I had the cake in my hands - oh well. I am sure we will just get a still picture from the video camera.

I also had a little "treasure" box for the kids to dig for a little surprise ( just some random little toys and stickers.) In the picture of Caden and the box you can see the BLING on her finger I gave all the kids to wear. They all loved the HUGE DIAMOND rings - even the boys!!! They wanted them too!

Caden had a lot of fun at her party. A few of her friends couldn't come but we all had a great time. Including some parents we had 27 people there. I think next time I need more than 3 days to plan a party. Everything was so crazy in the last few weeks. We were at Disney, then about 2 weeks later Caleb started school on the 20th which left me NO TIME to plan this. Hopefully it didn't appear like it was thrown together at the last minute.

I am leaving all the Little Mermaid and princess decorations up for one more week! Chris's parents are coming from Arkansas this weekend for a late birthday celebration. So we will get to enjoy all this princess stuff for a little longer.

YouTube videos of the kids and the limo

Hello again - my neighbor just sent me these two links. I guess someone from the station put these little video clips on YouTube. The first one is at our house when the limo first arrives (how embarrassing with our nasty yards under construction in the background) and the 2nd one is when they arrive at school. You can see Caden running up to Caleb and him pushing her away - AWE!!!
I DID NOT KNOW they were video taping or I wouldn't have gotten in the way. Also does my voice REALLY sound like that??? I didn't know I had such a southern accent.

KKNG Prairy Fairy takes the kids to school

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcndXL0Gfjw
AND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_yLYAHAY9I

First Day of School - LIMO RIDE!!!

That's right! Caleb got to ride in a limousine on his first day of 3rd grade. My next door neighbor Becca works in sales at a radio station. It was a promotional thing (for what - I really don't remember). Becca's son Connor and Caleb each picked 2 of their friends to come too. In the group photo in front of the limo, Caleb is on the left with his friends Jackson and Zach, then Connor and his friends Austin and Landon. The lady in the picture is NOT Becca - maybe she is one of the on air people (I forgot to ask her name). Anyway they had such a great time playing in the limo.
The limo and 2 radio station vans pulled into our cul-de-sac about 8:15 this morning. We took pictures for a while and the kids got to talk on the air. I only got to hear part of what the kids said on the air, but apparently Zach, who is such a ham, said some really cute things on the air.

About 8:40 we all headed up to the school to watch the boys get out of the limo. I was only able to get one shot as Caleb walked out. I tried to take another one of him in front of the school door, but he wasn't having any more of that. If it weren't for the limo I wouldn't have been allowed that close to him on the first day. Last year he said goodbye to me in the parking lot and wouldn't let me go with him! He is so independent!

Oh the Joys of Pregnancy

Well here I am only 22.5 weeks pregnant and I am starting to have some of the the same aches and pains that I did with my other pregnancies. However those aches, pains and other issues did not come about until well after 30 weeks. LUCKY ME!!! Not only did I start to feel pregnant months earlier than with the others I am having issues months earlier too! Wow, this is going to be a LONG 4 months ahead of me!

First off I have already been having pains down the right side of my body. I am guessing it is just the Sciatica Nerve. I have only had it once so far. (crossing my fingers). It was last Thursday and the pain was from the middle of my back all the way down my side to about my thigh. Good thing it only lasted a day though.

Second issue is I am already having lots of heartburn and what feels like acid reflux. Several nights in a row I had been waking up at 4 am and having to take some TUMS. Last night I had 2 before I went to bed, more as a preventative measure. I think it helped. I think I will continue to do that. Since I don't mind the taste of my fruit flavored TUMS, they have a permanent home beside my bed.

Lastly I am having sleeping issues. It is so hard to get comfy at night. I am either hurting in my back or my hips. MAN this makes me feel REALLY OLD!!!

I get asked almost daily how I am feeling and I always say wonderful, I have no problems. Well I am not really lying because at that moment I feel great. I usually don't feel bad until about 10:00pm. However since I am already not sleeping well it takes me forever to get out of bed in the morning. I hear the kids playing, yelling or whatever in the other room but I can usually doze back off until after 8:30 - I know I am so LAZY!! But all this will have to STOP! Starting tomorrow Caleb goes back to school! I have a 3rd grader! Now I really feel old!

MISSING

Name: Purple Monkey
DOB: (EASTER) April 2007
Sex: Male
Hair Color: Purple
Eye Color: Black
Race: Primate
Missing Date: August 2007
Age Now: 4 months
Height: 14 inches
Weight: 4 ounces
Birthmark/Identifiers: fresh wound (Missing tail)

Circumstances: Last known location is still uncertain. He was either last seen at the Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney World or in the Dollar Rent A Car Shuttle van on Aug 1, 2007. At this time the monkey's mother is unaware that he is actually missing. Monkey's grandmother first noticed him missing on Aug 4, 2007. Monkey's mother has mentioned him numerous times but grandmother was able to divert the attention elsewhere. Grandmother does not know how long she can hide this fact since the monkey's uncle is also aware that he is missing. If you know the whereabouts of purple monkey please contact us immediately - or if you know where we can get a replacement monkey that might fool a 3 year old. He was "adopted" from Target just before Easter and the grandmother is unaware of any siblings still living at the store.

GOOFBALL

My sweet little Caden is such a goofball. She loves that word and calls herself and the rest of us that quite often. Our whole family is always very weird and silly so the word gets used a lot. Well today the kiddos and I were at the mall sitting in that big open area outside of Macy's eating our Auntie Anne's pretzels. (Yes - that IS what I allowed us to eat for lunch.) A lady walked by with a very "interesting" hair style. Caden pointed to her and said "look, that lady is a goofball." Of course she heard it since Caden doesn't normally whisper and she DID NOT look amused. I was a little embarrassed.

Pregnancy Update 21 weeks

I had my 21 week appointment today. Everything is still going great. I did have a little scare while I was at Disney World. My doctor called me personally (never a good sign) to tell me they found something on my ultrasound. They found a Choroid plexus cyst on the baby's brain. Apparently it can be a marker for some chromosone issues. My doctor told me that everything else looked PERFECT on the ultrasound and she doubts anything is actually wrong, but they want to be sure. So the day after I got back I went to see a specialtist and had a level 2 ultrasound. The cyst must have shrunk (which I was told it might or even disappear) because it wasn't something the specialist gave any real concern. I was told again that they are definitly sure it is a girl. After I was told everything is fine (I was given a less than .5-1% chance that it could lead to something) I was able to enjoy the new ultrasound. The baby was yawning which I had never seen that before. She was also grabbing her toes with her fingers. I thought it was cute.

Today's appointment was uneventful. I guess they probably will be until I get towards the end. I am still measuring 1 week ahead. Nothing else to report. So I guess this was very boring to read people - sorry!

Florida Slideshow

Hello everyone! I have been getting several emails asking about more pictures. The slideshow below has pictures from the Disney World parks, the pool at our villa, Sea World and the beach. For some unknown reason we didn't get any pictures of our Disney Resort we stayed at for most of the trip. I have to worn you, there are still a lot of pictures on this slideshow. I was in the process of deleting some from it, but things kept messing up. I was also in the process of moving the order of some pics, but again, things were getting messed up. So I said screw it and I just finished the dumb thing. Can you tell I am still a little irritated?

DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY

WOW - what a trip that was! We left here Thurs evening after Chris got off work and drove down to my mom's house in Grand Prairie to spend the night. We flew out EARLY Friday morning to Orlando. As soon as we got on the plane I showed the kids how they could see in the cockpit (it was their first plane ride). Not only did the pilots let them look inside, they got out of their seats, let them both sit there, gave them their hats to wear and let me take a picture. I was really impressed.

Aren't they cute! Too bad Caleb was looking at the pilot behind me instead! I was kind of blocking traffic getting onto the plane so I was trying to be considerate so I only took one picture.

We were able to check into our resort 2 hours earlier than we were told so we dropped off a few things and headed out to Epcot for a half day visit. Saturday we spent a LONG day at Magic Kingdom. I was wore out!!! I don't think anyone, much less someone who is pregnant should spend 14+ hours there. I think I paid for that for days! But it was fun. Since we stayed late we were able to see the fireworks show. Most of the pictures didn't come out too well. But we loved this one.

When you have 2 kids 4 years apart you have to see everything!!! Caleb was all about the roller coasters at each park and could care less about the shows or anything having to do with a princess. He loved Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Test Track. I think his favorite ride was Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. Caden only wanted to see Ariel!

I wont bore you all (or maybe I am too lazy) and give you our day to day routine. I had a great schedule. I had a color coded itinerary - complete with each of the must see rides or attractions. Caleb's was in blue, Caden's in pink. I even had marked if Caden was tall enough but may not want to ride something. I also had made a note of which rides I couldn't ride. Don't laugh - it worked! I didn't want to be really scheduled and feel like I had to rush, but I didn't want to go in with no plan and just fly by the seat of my pants and miss something.

In total we spent 2 full days at Magic Kingdom, 1.5 at Epcot, 1 each at MGM and Animal Kingdom. Since we did almost EVERYTHING at the park the first day at Magic Kingdom our last day there was spent just doing the really fun things we all liked and taking more time out to take pictures of the castle, with the princesses for Caden and watch the Parade - which I didn't want to take time to do the first day.

Can I just say the FAST PASS is the way to go. I got really good at it and therefor got to do EVERYTHING and the only had to stand in 2 long lines for rides. We also LOVED the Disney Dining Plan too. We got to eat at some fun restaurants. Some of our favorites were Coral Reef at Epcot, the LUAU at the Polynesian Hotel, and the SCI-FI Dine in Theater at MGM. Here are a few from the SCI -FI Dine in Theater.

We checked out of our resort on Thurs morning and it POURED ALL DAY. So we used that day as our down day to relax at the villa we rented and just do nothing. It finally stopped raining later in the day so the kids played in the pool in the backyard. Caleb wanted me to take some of him while he was jumping. Here are a few of the kids.

Then Friday we went to Sea World. Our favorites were the BELIEVE show with Shamu and the nighttime SHAMU ROCKS show. It was really cool and we have those on video. On Saturday we went to the beach. Apparently the Florida sun is more intense than the Oklahoma sun. Even though we used sunscreen we all got really sunburned and are still a little sore days later. At first Caleb loved the water and we couldn't get him out so we could take some pictures. Then he got salt water in his mouth and he started to gag. Caden was leary at the waves at first but then she really enjoyed it. We all played in the water. Chris and Caden made a sandcastle. Caleb wanted to bury Chris in the sand and himself. Here are a few of the kids that I really like.

We had a great trip but are so happy we are finally home. 10 days is a long time to be gone. I am worn out!!! I wanted to share more pictures because we have a lot of really good ones, but we took over 600 pictures. Insane, I know. So I wont be doing that on here. I will put a little slide show together later of some of the good ones. Thanks for taking the time to read this.