First Snow

We woke up this morning to falling snow. Tralee was super excited! She immediately wanted her coat on, so we all bundled up and headed outside. After we were sufficiently chilled we came back inside, unwrapped ourselves, and made some hot chocolate. Unfortunately, the snow didn't last long. By the time our breakfast was in our bellies the snow stopped falling. Later in the day Tralee looked out the window and wondered, "Where did winter go?" We told her winter went away but it will come back soon. In fact, we're sure of it!

Cute Kids

Here are some Tralee-isms I don't want to forget:

When we give Tralee a high-five she "pounds it." When we pound it, she gives us a high five. Jim or I will say, "Hey! That's the opposite!" To which Tralee responds, "No, that's green beans!" We have no idea where she came up with "green beans."

Here are a few samples of Tralee's knock-knock jokes:

Knock Knock

Who's there

Tralee

Tralee who?

Something you love.

Knock Knock

Who's there

Sandwich

Sandwich who?

Something you eat.

The other day Jim and I were pretend bickering. He came over to give me a kiss, and I was ready to pound on him a little bit when Tralee (who was watching our exchange) said, "OHHHH!!! TRUE love!" Jim and I laughed so hard we cried.

Tralee is currently in the "why?" stage. She wants to know what everything means, and then continues to ask, "why?" after each answer we give. Sometimes the whys can last several minutes and I run out of answers.

Tralee also likes to say, "I have some good news and bad news." She likes to give us the good news first, and then the bad. She also says, "I have some pink news and blue news." The pink news is always good, and the bad news is always blue. She LOVES pink.

So, I weaned Hunter about a month ago (yes, I'm one of those moms who nurses past a year. Got a problem? Take it up with the la leche league). Anywho, I was running errands as Jim was watching the kids at home when he heard Tralee whine, "Oh no!" Jim asked, "What's wrong?" Tralee said, as she was looking down at her shirt, "Oh no! It's happening! I'm running out of milk just like mommy!" I got a text from Jim telling me this story and I just about died from laughter right in the middle of Joanns fabric store.

Now for some fun Hunter-isms:

I like the way Hunter says necklace. It sounds like "awkwice."

Hunter has been hitting lately. I'm not a fan. He hits to get a reaction. He hits when he's mad. He hits when he's happy and wants to play. We're trying to work on it. The bad thing is, Tralee and Hunter will get into hitting matches now when they're playing and wrestling around. The hit is accompanied by the made-up word, "Koomoose." I have no idea which kid came up with that one. I hope that the koomoose game expires soon.

The other night I went to a movie with my friend Audie, and left Jim in charge of the babes. Jim said he was SURE Hunter had fallen asleep next to him in bed so Jim "let one rip" (his words, not mine). Hunter sat straight up in bed, looked at Jim and said, "FART," then gave Jim another kiss goodnight, and drifted back off to sleep.

Hunter likes to climb up on the arms of the couch and jump down onto the couch. Gives me a heart attack almost every time.

When I take Hunter into his closet he likes to point to different clothing and say, "That one!" as if he's picking out what he wants to wear. The thing is, he says, "That one!" to almost every clothing item in his closet. That one sounds like "Wah One!"

Hunter is getting really good at his shapes. He knows circle, triangle, and square really well.

So, to sum it up, I have the cutest kids ever! :)

Halloween

We flew into SLC early Saturday afternoon. We were all pretty beat after our airplane adventures, and the thought of traveling another five hours by car was less than appealing. So, Jim and I made the executive decision to stop in Logan, UT for the night. Not only would it give us a chance to rest, but we thought it might be fun to visit some of our old haunts from from the kid-free era of our marriage. We actually took a house tour of all the places we lived in the Logan area. Very sentimental, but I'm getting off point.

So. . . there we were in Logan, Utah on Saturday night and we realized that everyone who was anyone was trick-or-treating. I didn't want our kids to miss out on trick-or-treating this year, so while Jim stayed at the hotel with our little ones, I went to Wally World to see if I could find some costumes. Before I left I asked Tralee what she wanted to be for Halloween (talk about last minute). She answered, "A kitty cat!" So, lucky for me I found a $5 kitty cat costume as well as a $5 cowboy costume for Hunty-Dizzle. There was a knife-through-your-head headband for Jim, and a pink wig for me. I got it all.

I walked back into the room with the wig on. The kids weren't too sure about it. Tralee kept taking it off. When Jim put the headband on Tralee's eyes got all big and she said, "Oh no!!" Jim took it off to show her it wasn't real when it looked like she was about to cry. Silly, cute, beautiful, sensitive little girl.

It was a cold night. I think we made it around two blocks before we called it a night. I felt like I fulfilled my motherly duty, the kids were happy with their loot, and Jim and I were ready to get back to the hotel and rest up before the next day.

It was a fun night. Hooray!

I Don't Recommend Red Eye Flights

Last Day at Disney: Magic Kingdom

Tralee, Hunter, and Haylee planning out their day at Magic Kingdom on the bus ride over.

Our last full day at Disney we went back to Magic Kingdom.

Highlights of the day:

1. Watching Tralee watch the show right outside the castle. Magical.

2. Taking Tralee on Dumbo. Before we left for Disney, I would ask her, "What do you want to do at Disney World?" The first thing she said was, "Ride the Dumbo ride!" We finally got to do it! We also hit up all the other kiddie rides with our littles. It was fun to watch them experience the magic.

3. Hunter fell in a puddle right outside a store and got soaked! We took off his shirt so it could dry, and a nice cast member that worked in the store came up and asked us to pick out a shirt for Hunter for free! Jim went in and picked out a Phineas and Ferb shirt for Hunty. Phineas and Ferb is Jim's favorite Disney show, so that's what Hunty got, even if it was a bit large. He'll grow into it. Also, Hunter was being REALLY cute while we were waiting for his new shirt to be picked out by Daddy. I kept snapping pictures, and couldn't decide which one is my favorite, so I posted all the cutest ones!

4. Riding on Splash Mountain again with Haylee. This is her favorite. She's so fun to ride with! Screaming and all.

5. Big Thunder Mountain was ALL the kids favorite. Tralee loved this one, and still says she wants to ride on the "train ride" at Disney World again and again. I think the picture of Tralee and me riding on it, is one of my favorites from the trip.

6. I saw Jim Bruer while Hunter and I were waiting for the rest of the gang to ride on Splash Mountain. I SWEAR it was him with his family. I mean, a face like Goat Boy's is pretty recognizable! I'm like 95% sure it was him. Unfortunately I wasn't fast with my camera, so no picture to prove it.

7. Tralee and Haylee looked cute in their princess skirts I made for them. Tralee's was a Snow White inspired one, and Haylee's was a Princess Giselle inspired one.

8. At the end of the day we went to Artist Point, a signature restaurant at The Wilderness Lodge Resort. It's one of my family's favorites, and we weren't disappointed. I mean, I ate fresh Alaskan salmon that had been flown in that very day with shaved white truffles on top of it. FANCY! And oh-so-delish!!

After dinner, we left for our hotel, packed up, and left for home bright and early the next morning. Our week in Disney was unforgettable, and I'm so grateful my parents treated us to this experience! Thanks Mom and Dad!!! Love you!!

Disney Day Five: Epcot

Day five we went to Epcot.

Highlights and pictures (in no particular order -- can you tell I'm getting lazy with these Disney posts?):

1. Soarin. Tralee LOVED it! Both times I rode it with her I heard, "Mommy! Look! Look!" as she pointed to various things. It was awesome!

2. The Cool Spot, or whatever it's called where you can go sample all the different sodas from around the world . . . FOR FREE! Yahoo! Brady liked the Italian bitter one that everyone else hated. Funny kid. Haylee, and most of us, really liked the Japanese drink.

3. Tralee LOVED the Nemo ride, and looking at all the fish tanks after it too. She couldn't get enough.

4. Brady playing in the jumping fountains. He had a blast, it was fun to watch him get soaked!

5. Staring in our own video games. Tralee liked this activity so much, she wanted to do it again. Now we can go online and play them if we want to. Jim and Tralee's is so funny!

6. All the kids LOVED Fast Track. I think they all rode it at least five times.

I took a picture of the fast track poster because I thought the woman on the left kind of looked like my mom, and the little girl in the middle kind of looked like Haylee.

7. Jim's favorite is always the Norway ride. Tralee liked it too. Hunter slept through all the excitement.

8. We ate at the spinning restaurant in The Land area. At this point Tralee warmed up to the characters, and we got some cute pictures of her with them. The food was also good.

9. The firework show was fun. I was surprised my kids lasted that long. Yahoo!

Needless to say, we were all pretty tired at the end of the day

Stay tuned for our final day at Disney!

Date Night

I forgot about Jim and my date night. When we got back to the hotel after our day at Hollywood Studios Jim asked me to go on a date with him.

I'll be honest, I felt like Steve Carell and Tina Fey in the movie Date Night. I thought, "Really? But I'm sooo tired!" I think Jim could sense my lack of enthusiasm and encouraged me to take advantage of our built in babysitter, Grammy Char Char. I knew he was right, and I'm glad I listened because it was nice to get out with my baby.

Jim and I took a bus to Downtown Disney. This was our first stop on our Honeymoon, so it was fun to go and see the same things we did almost nine years ago. We stopped in a little magic shop and watched a worker there do some magic. We also took a boat ride, and enjoyed each other's company.

At one point I dared Jim to dance to the music that was playing like he was a crazy guy for at least twenty seconds. He did it, and I laughed. Then I knew my dare was coming, so he told me to do the same thing underneath a big spotlight thing. I'm never one to turn down a dare (as long as it's reasonable) so I started my crazy dance. I stopped when I saw Jim pull out his camera phone. I'm all for becoming the next big deal on youtube, but as long as it's for something AWESOME, not something CRAZY where I look stupid!!

I'm a pretty cheap date, Jim kept asking if I wanted something to eat or drink. I wasn't really hungry or thirsty, but we finally settled on splitting a smoothy. Delish.

So, we didn't have all the excitement that was in the movie Date Night, but I'm sure glad we went out together. It was nice to spend a little time with my hunky hubby and share a few laughs.

Disney Day Four: Hollywood Studios

Day four at Disney World was Hollywood Studios.

Today I'm combining highlights with pictures.

The highlights of the day were:

* Watching Tralee dance at our lunch reservation. We ate lunch with the Playhouse Disney peeps. Every so often they would have a dance party in the middle of the restaurant and encourage kids to come join them. Tralee would get up and play along. It was SOOOO dang cute to watch her!

* Taking Tralee on the Tower of Terror. I laughed so hard watching Tralee's expression. Seriously, she's THREE and she went on Tower of Terror! When we went up to the line Jim asked the cast member, "How tall do you have to be to ride this?" The requirement was 40 inches. Little Miss Tralee had that beat by two whole inches so Jim turned to me and said, "She's riding!" I watched Tralee the whole time we were on this ride, and her scared face was priceless. Her bottom jaw stuck out and her eyes got REALLY wide. Poor thing. Are we horrible parents for putting her though that? Please don't call child protective services on us. One thing is for sure, Tralee DID NOT want to ride that one again. She was usually gung ho to ride just about anything twice, but not the Tower of Terror. Actually, she was pretty sceptical of any ride after this one. Whenever we would sit down to ride something, she would take the adult's arm that was sitting next to her, wrap in around herself, and hang on for dear life. She even did this on The Great Movie Ride. Poor little dear, Jim bought her a bubble gun to make up for it later that day. Which brings me to my next highlight of the day. . .

* Jim purchased a bubble gun that lit up and EVERYTHING for Tralee. She LOVED the thing! She was so cute playing with it that lots of people stopped to watch her twirl, spin, and play with the bubbles and her bubble gun.

* Going to the Playhouse Disney puppet show. Tralee LOVED this. I LOVED watching her little face light up when she recognized the songs/characters.

* Hanging out with Brady and Hunter while the rest of the crew rode on The Great Movie Ride. Brady is REALLY good at adding and subtracting, I couldn't believe it! :)

* Tralee's highlight was doing absolutely EVERYTHING with her "best friend" Haylee. One day Tralee refused to use the bathroom (even though I KNEW she had to go), then she saw Haylee walk into a stall so Tralee hopped right onto the potty and took care of business. Silly girl. They sure looked cute in their matching skirts.

* Taking Brady on the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Brady's a brave little dude! While we were waiting in line Jim jokingly told Brady, "I'm so scared, I hope I don't poop my pants!" Brady, who's seven, turned and asked quite seriously, "Why would you poop you pants?" Jim responded, "Cause, that's what happens sometimes when you're really scared." I can't remember Brady's response to this but I was laughing right out load listening to Jim and Brady work this conversation out.

* The 3d interactive Toy Story ride/game. It was just really cool!

That's day four. Day five: Epcot!