Thank you!

My friend Johannah gave over today to visit us and bring our new baby a sweet gift. I LOVE it! It's a blanket and a little lamb. I'm going to keep it out in the nursery so I can look at it everyday. She is pregnant with her first baby, a boy named Jack. As you can tell, she has excellent taste in names!

She also brought pumpkin bread for each of us. I LOVE pumpkin bread and the kids do too. They broke right into their bags as soon as they got them.

Thank you Johannah for your thoughtfulness. I really appreciate it and it helps me get even more excited about our new baby.

I've had 2 other friends bring dinner, Jessica and Elizabeth, and I can't tell you all how much it has meant to our entire family and how much it has helped me out.

I love you all!

Thoughts

I am sick. Really sick. This baby is making his/her presence known. It's OK because I am more than thankful for this new life. I was hoping though that my sickness would give me a hint about gender. With both girls, I actually GOT SICK, but then I'd be fine the rest of the day. With both boys, I FELT SICK all day long but rarely got sick. This time, I feel sick ALL day long but I'm GETTING SICK as well. So, I have no idea as to what I think we're having.
Also, I've never really had cravings before. Now I get them and then that's it! I don't want it ever again! For example, this weekend I had to have Krystal hamburgers. Ate them, it was good. Now never bring them to me again. I mean it. Then I had to have nachos from Moes. Once again, good, but now, never again. That is crazy.
Henry wants a brother. I didn't think he would care but he says he wants a brother every time it's discussed. The girls are convinced it's a girl. Kate says we've had 2 boys and so it's time for a girl. She is very "matter of fact" about it.
We are going to find out what we are having. It looks like it will be the first week in January so I can't wait. One reason is because Rick does not like to talk about/pick a name until we know for sure what we are having. I would like to pick it out before I'm pregnant. I think we actually do have it narrowed WAY down this time (down to about 2 names for girls and maybe already a boy's name) because there are only so many names out there and we've probably discussed a lot of them in past pregnancies. I'm still holding out hope that we'll have our names going into the ultrasound so when the tech says, "it's a ______", that I can think, "it's (baby's name)"! I know we have plenty of time though!

What's more exciting than Disney World???

THIS:

Disney - LAST DAY

On our last day, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. My parents and sister Sarah left early that morning so we were on our own. I was so glad they came with us. We had the best time with them.

We were sitting in front of the castle for a show. All of the princess danced and it was cute. I love this picture because everyone was still happy, even after 8 days of fun! They were tired but no bad attitudes which we were thankful for. We've been back for 16 days and I still am asked at least 5 times a day, "When can we go back to Disney World?" I hope we can go back in 2 or 3 years! We LOVED it!

OK, that all from Disney World! Stay tuned in the next few days (maybe Monday) for something even more exciting than Disney World! :)

Disney - Day 7

Are y'all getting sick of Disney yet? We weren't! This was our next to last day. We went back to Epcot! We got to ride some of our favorite rides again (boat rides in Mexico and Norway, Test Track, the big Earth ride) and ride a new one, Mission: Space. I only took a few pictures on this day so it was hard to find one to post. I decide to post this one so you could see that Kate loved pin trading. Claire and Henry never did it but Kate wore her necklace and was on the look out for new pins everyday. You wear this necklace and buy pins of characters, rides, hotels, etc. Most everyone who works at Disney also wears a necklace and if you see a pin you like, the worker will trade with you. Kate only wanted Princess pins. It was so cute and I think that was one of her favorite parts of the trip.

Disney - Day 6

We went back to the Magic Kingdom on Day 6! The girls LOVED Slash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. I think Thunder Mountain was their favorite ride. They rode it 9 times. Kate was tall enough to ride Space Mountain so we rode that on this day as well. The great thing about going in September is that there really are no lines. We walked right on most rides. We also went to Tom Sawyer's Island. I didn't think the kids would like it at all but they LOVED it! We played there for a long time. They loved all of the secret passage ways and the forts.

Disney - Day 5 - Epcot

We went to Epcot on Day 5. We had a princess breakfast in "Norway." It was great! We met Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Snow White. Kate said, "This is amazing!" about 4 time during our breakfast. I didn't think there would be much for the kids to do here but they all actually loved it! There are a couple of boat rides in Norway and Mexico, Soarin, and the Test Track were great! This is my favorite picture from Day 5. Kate thought this wig was the greatest thing ever. She was so proud of it and all of the princess mentioned how much they loved her "hair." It was so funny.

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

We went back to the Magic Kingdom on the 4th day. These 2 were happy all day and held hands as we walked through the park. Lately, these 2 have teamed up and do everything together.

As you can see, we all still having fun on day 4!

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

We went to Hollywood Studios on our third day. The Tower of Terror, the Rockin' Roller Coaster and the new Toy Story ride are all here. There were not many rides for the kids (expect for the Toy Story ride) but there were plenty of shows that the girls loved (Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid.) The highlight of the day for the kids was when Rick was in a show. It was on the Back lot Tour and he volunteered to be an actor. They were showing us how you can make a movie and it was so funny. The kids thought he was the hero and were so proud.

Disney - Day 2

On day 2, we went to Animal Kingdom. My favorite ride is there, Expedition Everest. It was so great! There was a ride called Dinosaur that was fun there as well.

We share a lot in our family. When we told Kate, she could have her OWN snack and didn't have to share, and that it could be the huge Mickey Mouse ice cream, the result was my favorite picture of the day:

Poor thing. It was hot (very hot) and this ice cream melted fast. First, it fell off the stick and into her hands. Then it just was dripping everywhere and she was trying her best to eat it as fast as she could. Finally, I told her it was time to give it up and we threw the rest away. She didn't even care. She was just so happy.

Disney - Day 1

We recently returned from Disney World! We had the best time and it was probably the best vacation I have ever had. The last time I went was 20 years ago and Rick had not been in about 15. The girls were the PERFECT age because they still were in awe at all of the princesses and characters but wanted to ride all of the rides. My parents and sister Sarah went with us which was wonderful. We had 8 days in the parks which was awesome! I was a little concerned that would be too many days but it certainly was not. I have decided just to post my favorite pictures from each day. I took about 200 so I'll spare you.

Here my favorite picture from Day 1 - Magic Kingdom:

This was the best picture I could get in front of the castle. We were having so much fun I never tried to get another one. I think this one is perfect though. They were a bit confused when we first got there anyway. They didn't really know what to expect or know what was going on. It took them about 34 seconds to get it and to LOVE it! This picture was taken on second 29.

Sabbatical

Rick works at a great company, Daxko! They give every employee a 4 week Sabbatical after every 7 years of employment. This is in addition to the 25 PTO days he has each year. We are half-way through his Sabbatical and I am LOVING it! We went to Disney World for the first 9 days (I'll post about that soon) and now we are just hanging out at home working on projects. I feel like I'm on a Sabbatical because I can go run all my errands by myself!!! We are really enjoying all of our family time and I get sad just thinking that he will have to go back to work soon.

MUCH more to come :)