Disney World Part 1

For the past six months I have been planning our family's first trip to Disney World.  Sara, with Cupcakes and Castles, was terrific to work with and helped pull off all that I hoped for in our magical Disney experience!  Last Saturday morning we woke the kids up and served them a big Mickey breakfast.  I honestly think they thought we were just having a Mickey themed breakfast.  Finally, Adam broke the news to them and they were beside themselves with excitement!  (A big "Thank You" to my friend Jennifer who let me borrow all the cute table decorations and Mickey waffle maker!)

We have not ever flown with all our kids before so this was a new experience for us all…and I must say they loved it and were good little travelers!

We had a bit of a layover in Atlanta so we watched planes while waiting for a table at P.F. Changs.

We arrived late afternoon so we got checked into Art of Animation, ate dinner and headed to the pool, the boys were super excited!

After a good nights sleep, we started bright and early on Monday morning at Animal Kingdom.  We took advantage of the picture opportunity with this gy-nor-mous Christmas tree at the front gate as we waited for our early breakfast reservation.

Tusker House is a safari themed character breakfast buffet with some African food items, it was really good.  The kids got to meet Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy.  The boys had a great time, Ava Jane was a little more reserved with the characters.

They got to help lead the parade through the restaurant, I think they had a big time (though Emerson was holding his ears because of how loud it was.)

As we started into the Animal Kingdom, you can't miss the huge Tree of Life, it was beautiful!

Our first FastPass was for the Jungle Safari ride.  It was awesome!  We saw some animals I'd never seen unclose such as an Opaki (a cross between a zebra and a giraffe), a hippo, crocodiles and flamingoes.  This ride was amazing!

We enjoyed the dinosaur area of the park.  It was super hot while we were there and we'd walked through a misting area (not on purpose) so Mom and I had some flat hair for sure.  While the bigs went with Dad and Adam, Mom and I took the littles to do some things that were more their speed.  The Dinosaur ride was a little bit scary!

Look at the size of those chompers!

The boys had fun on this spinning ride, no one else felt up for it, we didn't want to get sick!

Expedition Everest was a big hit for everyone!  Nothing like seeing the Himayalan Mountains too!

And of course Adam enjoyed his king size turkey leg!

Animal Kingdom closed early so we park hopped over to Epcot and strolled through the different countries, eating and drinking our way around the lake.  This was probably the most relaxing thing we did the entire trip.  Adam and I loved this evening because it was laid back and we could just take in the sights and sounds.  There were many choral groups performing Christmas carols which was so beautiful and truly magical with all the lights and Christmas decor that was everywhere.  We ended the evening by watching Illuminations, which is an over the top fireworks show that was stupendous!  It was the best fireworks display I've ever seen!

The kids enjoyed their ice-cream treats while we waited for the show to start.  Everyone loved the fireworks!  It was truly amazing to see!

It was a great start to our trip!  We literally walked over 35,000 steps this first day, averaging about 15 miles of walking.  So I must brag on my little people, everyone did great, thanks to my friend Carol who let me borrow her double stroller and to my loving husband who let Lawson give his traps a good burn as he rode on his shoulders much of the time.  So we may have been eating really great food, but I felt completely justified in doing so, since we only sat down for rides and meals during our 14 hour plus  days at the parks!

Start of the Christmas Season

Like I said in my last post, our holiday season has been fast and furious, with hardly time to come up for air, but it's all been things I enjoyed doing!

We got invited to attend CARTI's Festival of Trees with some friends, which was a really fun event. Some of the trees were spectacularly decorated and the survivors cancer stories were truly inspiring, what a great cause!

There's been normal bedtime routines with reading the Bible and remembering scripture.


Mom and Dad got tickets for us all to see the Rep's rendition of Little Mermaid. The costumes and set decorations were amazing.  I have to say The Rep did a great job with this show, the kids had a terrific time! (Pascha, we sure missed you, so sorry you were sick sweet girl!)

We have been looking for a boat for some time now and Adam finally found one that would allow us to ski and wakeboard while also taking another family along with us.  So Adam got an early Christmas present that we all will enjoy next summer!  We picked it up two weeks ago and drove it down to Hot Springs, the kids were beside themselves with excitement! We're looking forward to making more family memories!

Then there was the annual Santa brunch. The kids enjoyed the hot egg nog, candy canes and of course talking to Santa.


We had someone take a quick picture, its not the greatest, but we got it.

We enjoyed eating dinner with our friends Shana and Cache.  My boys love playing with Cache, chasing up and down the halls is a favorite past time!  This year we made reindeer ornaments together.  We love these two and are thankful for their friendship!

Our D-group from church had a tacky Christmas party, which is hard for me…I don't do tacky well. Adam convinced me that I needed to go "full out" and not just do an ugly Christmas sweater with jeans, so we went with these hideous Christmas pajamas. We started with dinner catered from Oceans. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a Godzilla sushi roll, it is my FAVORITE, if you've not gotten it, try it next time! Thanks to Keri, each couple had the opportunity to pick an ornament with a name of God on it and then go around and share what that name has meant to us this past year.  I really enjoyed this portion of the evening.  Our ornament was "Christ is Lord".  We shared about how thankful we are that Christ is Lord of our home.  Sometimes, with normal fleshly reactions and sin that so easily jumps out in the context of every day living, Adam and I are grateful that both of us have Christ as Lord, because without Him, it would be hard to forgive and offer forgiveness to one another.  Because we have both experienced God's forgiveness (over and over) we are more easily (but certainly not perfectly) able to offer that same forgiveness to each other, our kids and others we come in contact with each day.  And in this year where we have honestly been busier then ever before, we have found it so comforting to know that "Christ is Lord" when the going gets tough, when days are long, trials are never ceasing and conflicts arise.  Thankfully we have "Christ the Lord" to lean into and on when life is just hard with kids, their activities, school, work events, marriage and family.  I'm so thankful that Christ the Lord, our Savior, was born!

This year I am the Staff Appreciation Chairman at the boys school.  Since I really enjoy planning parties I thought this would be a fun job for me.  It was (and is) a lot to plan each month, but December had a lot going on.  I planned a luncheon for 100 teachers and staff, but it was great to give back to them for all they do for my kiddos!   We truly have a great school and I so appreciate all that they do to teach my children, keep them safe and watch over them each and every day of the week!  My friend Emily helped me do the mailbox treats for all the staff, then we set up for the monthly staff meeting and also pulled off a lovely staff luncheon all in one week!

Each Christmas, Adam enjoys helping to plan the Heart Hospitals Christmas party.  This year had a record attendance, I think there was over 500 people at the Embassy Suites. Vicky and her team do an awesome job of decorating and planning for the hospital wide party.  The past two years they've done an American Idol style talent competition.  From a Scottish bagpipe player to singers and dancers, the AHH team's got talent for sure.  There are many door prizes given throughout the evening from gift cards to an iPad mini, culminating in the winner of the competition receiving a ticket for a cruise.  This year there was a guest singer.  You may have heard of Sam Hunt, the Country R&B singer, well his talented "brother" made an appearance and gave a slammin' performance if I do say so myself, though I am slightly biased because I happen to be married to "Slam".  "Slam" wrote a song about Coby's Place, the new cafeteria at the Heart Hospital as well as all the different diet plans the cardiologists believe in.  The video of his performance is too long to upload to here with Flickr so you'll have to go watch it on my Facebook page.

I'm grateful for these two men who Adam gets to work along side each day, they're both hilariously funny and men of character, so thankful for their friendship to Adam.

So, as you can see, our start to the Christmas season has been packed with fun and memories and I'm  so thankful for each one!  I'm loving all the Christmas cards that keep pouring in each day!  It's one of my favorite things about Christmas time!

Thanksgiving 2015

The past three weeks have been a complete whirl wind for us.  This time of year is always busy but between our family's activities, which has been something every day and every night for twenty-one straight days, there has been absolutely NO time to blog.  So, now that it's Dec 19th, I'll try to get caught up from Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the holiday that is full of remembering our nations history, how God provided for the Pilgrims, but also a time for remembering all that God has done for us personally.  Years ago, my grandmother bought one of FamilyLife's Thanksgiving family activities and it's become a tradition for us to do each year.   It walks you through many of the stories that the Pilgrims went through and recounts the many miracles of God's provision for them as they traveled the long journey, began to make their new colony and as they established themselves in the New World.  I'm not a huge history buff, but I do enjoy reading, remembering and telling my kids about all that God has done not only in the past for others but for our own family as well.  Remembering and retelling all that God has done solidifies His goodness to us and marks "memorial stones" in our minds that we can call back to when times are trying or when things are hard.  Remembering God's goodness never gets old, or outdated…its always a good time to give thanks to the Lord!

This Thanksgiving as we went around the table each night sharing our "high/low" and what we were thankful for, it was fun to hear the kids share.  They said some of the "normal" things that they were thankful for, like our "warm house", "lots of food in the pantry" and "their cozy bed", but there was also some sincere Thanksgiving's too, like one who said he was thankful for his feet so that he could run and play, another said he was thankful for our family.  It's always a crap shoot sitting at the table with four children when you try to do something like this cause it could go incredibly well or just totally flop.  Some nights it flopped but a few times it really was meaningful.  Seeing the hearts of our kids growing as they begin to realize and understand all that God does for us on a daily basis really is awesome because in explaining to them all that He does for us each day, reinforces to myself, what He is in fact doing in and through us, which helps solidify the fact that He is not a far off God, but rather a very intimate and present One! I'm grateful for the Thanksgiving season and time to remember that our God is a good God who loves us and give us good gifts.

This years Thanksgiving day was a mix of sadness and thankfulness.   Adam's Aunt Gloria past away unexpectedly, just days before Thanksgiving.  It was a difficult time for our family, especially Adam's Dad.  Her service was uplifting as loved ones shared stories of her humor and fun loving side, we even got to hear a recording of her singing her own quirky rendition of Happy Birthday sung to Bill last year.  I loved what the pastor, Harry Li, shared.  He said, Gloria sees clearly now who our God is.  What an incredible thing to think about, Romans 14:11 says, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God" and that's what Gloria is doing now.

I am so grateful for family and for the fact that God placed me in a loving family so that I can experience a small taste of His great love for me.  Within our family I feel loved unconditionally similarly to how God shows me unconditional, undeserved favor and I look forward to the day when I get to see clearly who God is and how majestic, magnificent, glorious and sovereign He is.