Because we thrive on craziness...

...yes indeedy our household will be growing by two feet around Sept. 10!!! :)

Yes, we are as shocked as you :)
No, we were not planning on this :)
Yes, we are thrilled :)
So, here's to Baby Stegs #4 (aka Final Baby Stegs!) :)
...so much for our plans on slowing down this year...obviously we were destined for chaos :)

Happy B-day, Poppy!

Well, if memory serves me correctly I do believe today is Kev's dad's birthday....and if my calendar is correct it's a BIG one too! I won't go saying how many candles are gonna be on his cake, but let's just say he's not 21 and that he's gonna need a BIG cake to fit them all on! :) Ok, so no more "old" jokes, especially to a guy who looks half his age. But, truly Happy B-day to the father of my wonderful hubby and the poppy to my sweet kids. If there is one thing I can say about my father-in-law it's that I married a mini replica of him...yes, Kev. I've seen how patienct and kind and wonderful Kev's dad is with his family...and I see those same amazing attributes in Kevin and it is those things that I love most about him and what swayed me in the first place to be his bride. I just love that peace about him (Kev) (and it's something I don't have myself and that I NEED!)...and it's something that I'm sure Kev's mom appreciates about Dad too. So, here's to you, Poppy...for being a wonderful husband, father, poppy, brother, son, etc...and for being a legacy in our family that we all want to model. We are proud to be in your family and thankful for all the love, generosity, and peace you exude. You deserve all the cake, gifts and love that this birthday can give you....congrats on another year of aging gracefully and here's to many more! Looking forward to celebrating with you soon :)

Finally...some WDW pics! :)

Ok....so here's the long awaited plethora of pics. Don't be surprised to find hundreds of them so enter this website at your own risk :) I wish I could have "explained" all the pics, but this program didn't really allow that nor am I silly enough to think you'd all want to read every word about our trip (well, Nina would but she knows all the scoop since she saw the good, bad and ugly firsthand :))....so without further ado...here is the link...it's all pretty self explanatory, I think...just click on the dates and then on the pics if you want to see anything...or paroose them quicky...it's up to you. Two weeks from today we were up and driving to the parks right now from So. Fla...and I must say...as crazy as that time was, the bad memories have faded and I'd do it all over again this week if I had the chance (and got some free tickets :)). Ok...enough said....Disney Rocks! :)

http://www.meerasea.com/pics/

Say it ain't so!

Here's the girl all smiles in her new cheer duds :) She does look pretty cutesy for a cheerleader :)

rah rah and a little attitude shot :) very typical of our 7 year old :)
ok, this pic below got thrown in here...Hailey made this belated b-day present for me yesterday while I napped :) Aww...so sweet :) I love that thoughtful girl :) And BTW...I look semi-tanned! I was happy to see this...that FL sun must have shown through on those super frigid days :)

a little view into the first cheer time....we sat too far away so even our super awesome new camera couldn't capture the happy moments of cheer-dom :)

Well, the cheerleader in our midst emerged this weekend :) And much to our chagrin (is that a word?)...she loved every minute of cheering for those b-ballers on the sidelines. I believe her response after the big game when I asked her if she liked cheerleading over b-ball was "Oh YES!" :) So, bah humbug...we have a cheerleading fool in the family :) But, it was really cute to see her so jazzed about something and looking quite snazzy in her cheer uniform too. So, that's pretty much all we had going on this weekend. I would like to say the weekend was gloriously non-stressful, but due to a horrible time taking Christmas stuff down and dealing with a VERY dead Christmas tree that had shed a good portion of it's needles over our entire home. I can have to admit that kinda put a downer on the weekend of rest :( I won't even tell you how long it took us on Saturday to get our tree undecorated and to heave ho and shove with all our might to get it out of the front door. It must have been a sight to any neighbors watching from their windows (luckily you were gone at this point, Jill :)). And during the whole process I swore off all real trees for good, muttering under my breath some obsenities about pine needles (which took me about 2 hours to pick up by hand cuz in the process of vacuuming them our vaccum broke :))....ok...so you get it...it was not a fun day and my hands full of pine needle marks proves that. There is definitely something to be said for getting those good ol' fake trees. We might be investing in one post-Christmas next year. Anyway...so that was how we spent our whole weekend. I knew it'd take a buttload of time to get that all done, but I really didn't think it'd take two whole days to put all the holiday stuff away. Yikes. I'm worn out. So, that was our weekend...cheer practice Fri., cheering for first game Sat., lots of holiday re-packing :(, and then more of the same....ugh...I'm tired....oh...which reminds me...I did get a nap in yesterday...glorious as I've not been sleeping well and I even slept through a new movie we tried to watch (Ocean's 13...I'm sure it was good :))....oh....and bummer on those Colts...that game was terrible! I guess you win some and lose some. Hailey was majorly bummed...her teacher is a big fan and it's always "homework" to watch the games :( Poor Indy :( Ok....and before I sign off I have some lil' tidbits of info to add since I've not been great about blogging lately due to holiday chaos and exhaustion....

1. Disney pics are almost ready to be displayed...Kev has them on our website, but since our last name is on that I want him to rename it so we'll be sending out a link to those tomorrow...yay! :)

2. Dylan finally opened all his Christmas presents yesterday! Thanks, Aunt Sue for the goodies...he loved them and is throwing the balls everywhere! He's also succeeded in breaking 2 of his gifts this week...go figure :( And it's now the countdown to b-day #2! It'll be here in just 2 1/2 weeks! Hard to believe my baby is almost two! :(

3. Happy b-day to Hailey's teacher from last year...Mrs. T! It's her big day today, I think!

4. I didn't get any cake yet for my b-day (and I'm not holding my breath!)...but I did get my free cold stone creation last week and boy was it yummy...some peanut butter chocolate concoctions...just heavenly! And I did get a lovely canvas artwork from my Hailey yesterday...she's such an artsy sweetie :)

5. New arrivals/expectations...well, I've been neglectful as far as this goes...I don't even think I mentioned last month on Dec. 14th (oh, it's actually one month today!) that our buds, Nate and Laura and big Sis Natalie welcomed Max(well) to their sweet home...congrats guys...he's adorable! And our old pals up north, Chad and Amanda, are expecting their first baby, a girl, in May...whohoo...welcome to the wild world of daughters, guys! :) Also, my old college bud and matron of honor in my wedding, Lori and her hubby, Chad (and big sis Nicole) are almost ready to welcome their second child, Dylan (what a coincidence on that name!) to their family...and then I just popped over to my bud, Amanda's blog and she is expecting her 5th baby! :) Whoa, mama! Add onto that that my friend, Christyn from nursing school just welcomed her 6th child (yes, you read that right!), Agnes Star on Dec. 17th....well, the world seems to be booming with babies lately. And that leaves me with my buddy, Ann....I know we've tried to connect lately....I hope your 2nd babe in the oven is doing well too! I'm still waiting to hear what "he/she" is! Ok....so that's all the baby talk....I just wanted to offer my congrats to all those people before another month went by.

6. Our basement...still leaking and no one can figure out why...we have guys upon guys out to look at it and they are baffled...not sure what we're gonna do about it...and all I can say is I'm not happy...same with the van...apparently it needs another new part after something went wrong while the shop had it...how does that work...we bring it in with one problem only to have it returned with another!? I'm not happy about that and we are still waiting for news on the cost of everything...Grrrrr....sometimes cars and house issues get to me!

7. Our trial "family time at home" has been going well....ok, so this weekend wasn't superb for the kids cuz we were doing Christmas takedown and they were not even allowed on the main floor due to hazards of pine needles....but Fridays are now mornings with mommy for Dylan and Shelby and we had a good ol' time of puzzles, books and learning. I am patting myself on the back cuz Shelby seemed to eat that time up...it was great....not sure if it will always be that way and Dylan was a bit "in the way" as far as learning goes...but it was still relaxing and fun...

And I'm sure I had some other pressing info to share, but for the life of my tired brain I can't think of it. Hope you all have a lovely, warm week.

Disney pics to pass the time...

Well, I won't even tell you how hard it was to even download these few pics...and these are not the ones I chose originally...but for some reason all my vertical pics (which are almost ALL my pics)...won't download upright :( So, you'll have to settle for this hodgepodge of pics that I could download until I figure out the problem...above is our group (minus photographer Nina) at Animal Kingdom on New Year's Day...on one of their many bridges...this one you can see the big snow mountain/Yeti coaster in the background.
Here's the girls all smiles at Magic Kingdom after their face painting experience...Shelby was a unicorn and Hailey was something called "wishes"?!
Our family of five right before we entered Animal Kingdom (obviously) :)
The first characters that Dylan and Shelby saw at Animal Kingdom...good ol' Goofy and Pluto...as you can see Dylan just wanted to give them five :)
A "happy" group shot in Cinderella's castle at MK after the big Princess breakfast (on my b-day) :)

Our whole group outside our lovely cabin at Ft. Wilderness :) And below is a funny shot at MGM of the gang with their 3D shades on (for the Muppet show)...sorry I don't have any Epcot pics or other good ones...I promise I'll work on that for next week....these sideways downloaded pics have me baffled and frustrated!

Well, I've realized this week that in order to post many of my Disney pics I'm gonna have to go about things a little differently. Due to the awesome quality of photos my snazzy new camera takes...plus the fact that we took like 1300 pics in FL, there is just too little space on my dear lil' ol' blog to fit anything at that capacity. So, I'm trying to figure that out...most like the answer will be a link returning you to our good old webpage from long ago, but I'll have to see what my wise computer geek hubby has to say about it all and if he can help me lest I go crazy from trying to figure out a solution. Now I'm not expecting most of you want to see every darn pic, but I know I am a Disney lover and Disney is a place many of us have been (or will go) so it's always fun to see pics from a place we can all relate to...so I'll see what I can do and be looking for those next week sometime. For now I'm just gonna pick a few pics of our southern adventure in the land of Mickey. Hope you all are having a fantasticly super day/week. Our week has not exactly gone as planned...our van that had some steering issues before Christmas and was in the shop for over a week while we were gone now has some new issues and needs to go back in...not to mention our basement that was leaking last year and took a lot of cash and time to fix...well, you guessed it...it's leaking again and no one can figure out why. Add onto that a boy that is getting more molars and a girl who is still trying to get back on her schedule and a mom who is despirately trying to get her house back in post-holiday/vacation order and still spend time with the kids while trying to get a load of PTO paperwork done...well, you get the picture...it's been a bumpy road this week. I can say that in all honestly cuz the one person in our house who NEVER loses it lost in the night he saw water in our basement. So, pray for no more house/car snafoos after this. This isn't how we planned to start out 2008. I will say that I am at peace with my decision to slow down this new year. I am opting out of few things that I normally dive into...namely church volunteering and Bible Study. Now that might sound a bit heathenistic of me to back out of those, but I feel our family needs a little more time at home and in order to do that we have to cut back on even the "holy" church things :) So, we'll see how it goes. I'm excited to have Fridays and Wednesdays at home now to bask in the love my children, though I know I will miss that quality time with church friends and diving into the Word with other moms/wives :) I have no high expectations as to how much quality time our family be spending together...but I'm gonna give it a whirl. So, until next time...hugs to everyone near and far :)

10 Years Ago Today...

...the man of my dreams (yes, Kev :)) got down on his knee and asked me to be his wedded wife (though probably not in those exact words) :) I've gotta say that that day seems like it was a century ago, yet still the memory is so vivid. I don't remember the events of the day nor even what day of the week it was (maybe a Friday?)...but I remember going to his basement apartment that day and walking into his room and seeing the most beautiful red roses sitting up on his dresser (for me, of course) :) And then next to that was this beautiful crystal (I think it was a bear...isn't that awful I don't remember...I used to collect crystals back in the day when I didn't have kids around to break them!) :) Anyway...I don't remember exactly what the card on the roses said, but it was incredibly sweet and I'm sure if I would have read more into the card then I would have known what was in store for the night :) (the roses didn't clue me in cuz Kev used to buy them for me all the time...what a guy!) :) Anyway...so all I remember after that was going to Olive Garden (the one on 28th St. in GR near our college)....and all throughout dinner he kept handing me these fake metal rings in those little plastic egg containers...like the ones your kids always want to have a quarter for, so they can get them out of the machine. Well, he kept giving them to me while we were eating....and I'd laugh and think "what is up with this guy?" :) Ok...I'm sure I didn't think that....it was kind of an inside joke that he'd never propose to me and I think one time I said I'd have to buy my own ring out of a machine in order for him to propose :) So, with a sense of humor that he always has he decided to go with that joke :) Ok...so the ring thing continued for some time...I still have all the rings somewhere...and I'm sure there were like 10 of them. Anyway...finally he hands me another one of those cheapy ring containers, but I could tell the contents of this one were different...this "fake" ring sparkled much more than the others....and sure enough...he slid off his booth seat and got down on one knee and in some form or fashion he asked me to be his wife?! I really have no idea what was said as I was just looking at the ring and saying "Oh my gosh" over and over again :) I'm not even sure I ever said "yes"...but I think he got the ring out and put it on my finger and I guess that said it all :) It was a beautiful/special night...really....it was. I know Olive Garden sounds so "unromantic"...but it was the only way he could semi-surprise me by making the night semi-normal. I would not have fallen for a beach proposal or something else over-the-top. That would have been a dead give away. I mean who would really guess that their boyfriend would pop the question in the midst of people feeding their faces with Italian food?! :) But, I will say I knew that he was buying a ring. I didn't intend to be snoopy....but I always cleaned his apt and I ran across a ring receipt one day...it was a total accident, but that kind of clued me in that he indeed wanted to make our relationship permament (or that he wanted to marry someone else :)) Only thing was he had returned that ring, which I didn't know at the time, and he had driven all the way to Indy to get this new ring cuz when I had seen it on our trip to see his parents I told him I loved it...it was the most unique ring I'd ever seen...white and yellow gold with a thick, square band and a oval diamond in the middle with two smaller round diamonds on the side. Well, I know he liked the ring too so he took his best bud, Seth (I think)...and drove all the way down here (5 hours) to buy the ring. The funny thing is...he had it shipped to GR only to have it get "misplaced" in the house mailbox so when it came time for our trip to FL to see my parents for Christmas (where he had hoped to propose on my 21st b-day)....he didn't have the ring yet. So...needless to say he had to rework things (or at least that's what I remember happening...maybe Kev remembers it all differently??). I just remember coming home from dinner that evening and sharing the exciting news with my Calvin friends...and then calling my parents in FL to "break the news". I know my mom was a bit baffled at first and probably not too pleased that I was planning on getting married in the midst of my college career (but she warmed up to the idea and I know she too is glad that someone took her daughter to be their wife :)) So, Jan. 9, 1998 was the glorious day I became a "wife-to-be". And Jan. 9, 1999 it was gonna be...for our wedding date too...one year from the date we got engaged (I thought the date sounded cool 1/9/99)....But, that all had to be reworked due to my nursing interim class at Calvin (that I thought I didn't have to take when I got engaged). So, now you know that Aug. 14, 1998 was not our first wedding day choice. In fact it was not a choice at all...it is what we settled for since we had already booked our beautiful reception hall for Jan. 9, and Aug 14 was the only summer date they had available. It was not ideal...but it really ended up working out great. So much for my winter wedding that I had hoped for...I guess I was meant to be a summer bride :) But, I wouldn't have had it any other way. We got married 7 mos after he popped the question and saying "yes" that Jan. 9 day in chilly GR in the good ol' Italian restaurant with my handful of fake rings and my one beautiful one...well, it was the best decision of my life and I have been thankful every day since that God put me at Calvin where I could meet Kev and that somehow Kev thought enough of me in our 16 mos of dating to ask me to be his wife (I really had him fooled and I'm sure there are days now that he might want to trade me in for a "nicer model") :) I know we've had our ups and downs, but I wouldn't have wanted to go on this roller coaster of marriage with anyone else. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. So, here's to you, Kev....the best and most generous, loving, patience and kind man I know. Thanks for popping the question a decade ago...I am a grateful receiver of the gift of your love.

Bye Bye Magical World of Disney...it's Back to Reality :(

A double-take of the castle and our "happy/smiley" family :)...the daytime shot was a little difficult on our light-eyed family...those kids of ours could not keep their big ol' eyes open...so we opted for the night-time castle shot, which worked out better though the pic didn't really capture the pretty castle all lit up with Christmas lights...it was a lovely sight...have I mentioned Disney during the holiday is beautiful?! It is! :)

Ho Hum. Well, my friends, we have indeed arrived back from our little magical fantasy world in FL :( And as I always say after fun vacations...it's just the pits being home and being forced back into every day life. And this time it's especially hard cuz we've looked forward to this vacation for pretty much 4 years when good ol' Pops promised Hailey we'd go back when "the baby in mommy's belly" (Shelby) was her age. And now it's all said and done and all we have are the memories (and over 1000 pictures :)). It's pretty much impossible to put into one blog post all the "fun" we had, but I will say this...our 2 days in Ft. Laud. with my family/friends and then the 4 days we had in O-Town at Dismal World...well, they went by quicker than the blink of an eye and I can't even really tell you how surreal it is to be sitting here typing about a trip that was such a whirlwind for us all. You know I want to tell you every last detail of the trip, but I am simply wiped out from our long drive and the crazy times at Disney that I can't even process everything yet...not to mention I haven't been able to look at all our pics so I know when I do that it'll jog my memory as to all the good (and bad) times :)

But, I do want to say a few things in bullet form before I sign off...

• Yes, we did finally make it to my good ol' hometown of Ft. Laud (a day late and with much more driving than anticipated). The drive was simply horrendous...the kids were actually pretty good (which was surprising), but it poured pretty much the entire drive down which was stressful for me who was just sitting in the passenger seat...Kev kept his cool and never complained though)...traffic was absolutely horrendous too....so a trip that normally should take like 19 hours took us like 23....not cool especially since we were just coming off of a crappy Christmas with Dylan being so sick. It would have been better to leave the day we had hoped to avoid weekend travel. But, we were just glad to show up in the nick of time for our Gritz Family Christmas...they had dinner all ready for us that Sat. night....yumm!! Note to self for future travel: Need to charter an airplane and have one of the many pilots in our family fly us down for all vacations :) We are just not the driving kind of family...it was the pits getting down there :(



• Good times were had in So. Fla. with my family celebrating Christmas and just hanging out...the kids had a ball with my cousins and enjoyed the pool and warm weather and I got an awesome shopping spree with my mom at my fav. outlet mall where I went birsirk in Gap! Thanks to my two wonderful aunts for their amazing and VERY generous Christmas/b-day gifts that allowed me to shop til I dropped! :) It was good to see my ol' buddy Lein and her wonderful guy...sadly she was the only ol' pal I was able to see this trip down south since it was a short one :( I miss all you other southerners :( We had an eventful/short trip to the FLL beach so Dylan could experience the sun, sand and surf...he really liked it...he sat by the water and threw sand at Shelby (much to her dismay, of course) and all the other passerbys for like an hour :) It was fun to watch. And that was pretty much our time in FLL...very short, but still sweet :) New Year's Eve was spent packing and going to bed pretty early only to be awoken by some VERY noisy firework displays...how dare others celebrate the New Year with a bang when some of us have to get up very early to start our magical Disney vacation!? The nerve! :) New Year's Day we were up early and off to good ol' Orlando.....and that's where the "fun" started :)



• Jan 1-Jan 5 spent in the "magical" world of Disney! I've decided that there needs to be a warning sign outside the gate that says "Enter at your own risk if bringing a 3 year old"...or maybe more specifically "don't bring a 3 year old named Shelby who likes to stick to her routine and acts like a crazy screaming loonatic if she's forced out of that routine". Ok...so there ya' have it...my honest opinion of our magical (not so much) trip to Dismal World (which is how it seemed at those low points where Shelby was having her (long) moments). I don't even know what to say about all this, but that we definitely had a time of it with our lil' Shelba and even Kevin who has the patience of no one I know was pushed to the limit. The tantrums were too many to count and the nastiness on her part was the worst it's ever been (truly)...and the spankings...well they were numorous as well. Shelby was just out of sorts...there was no way of getting her back on track. You'd think that all the fun and fantasy of Disney would snap her out of it, but it seemed to make it worse. And now, of course, today she's a perfect darling again...go figure. I definitely think Shelby had her moments of fun...but I think the bad outweighed the good for her this time around (or maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but I have to be honest and say she did put a bit of a damper on the whole happy experience)....now we know...and next time she'll be Hailey's age if we go again, which hopefully will be better!



• Dylan, on the otherhand, he was a trooper. For being under 2 and also dearly missing his routine...he was great. He was mostly happy if mommy was holding him and if he was eating some of Nina's bag of treats (kudos to Nina for bringing bags upon bags of cookies and candy!). And thank goodness for those double strollers at Disney...we rented one almost every day and all three of our kids (plus all our crap and bags) fit on them nicely! It was worth the money for sure!



• Taking 3 kids to Disney is downright nuts...ok, let me rephrase...taking 2 kids who are under 4 years old is crazy. It's hard enough to juggle the crowds with one kid or just a couple of adults...but to push a stroller and keep your eye on 3 kids...well, it was exhausting...and we had a good ratio of adults to kids (4:3) :) Note to self: Those kiddie dog leash things are now very appealing to me :)

• Have I told you I'm exhausted from our trip to Disney...see last bullet point for details on that. Note to self: Would be nice to go to Disney with just Kev one time....or to go when the kids are older. Anyone going to Disney with a child must prepare themselves to be exhausted :) The early mornings and late nights were rough...do I sound old or what!? Well, at 31 I guess I am! :) But, I know I'm not alone in that thinking...I think we wore my parents out with all the speed walking to rides and holding kids in the long lines :) I definitely think I gained some guns (muscles) though this trip :) My biceps are bulging :)

• Ok....my one complaint about the weather.....what is up with it being 30 degrees the one day we go to Magic Kingdom, which also happened to be my 31st birthday! Now I'm not one to usually complain about weather...but I do believe it was colder in Orlando that day that it was back here in Bloomy. And that's just downright WRONG! You should have seen us that second day at Disney....all bundled up in our winter best and shaking like leaves from the brutal cold and wind that made it feel like it was below zero. I kid you not people....it actually snowed in northern FL this day and that is basically unheard of. Just our luck. That was definitely a rough day. The whole trip was pretty cold....then of course the day we leave (Saturday)...it was glorious and warm :) GRRR :( Weather was not our friend this time around...or maybe I should say "warmth was not our friend"....on a happy note it never rained (or snowed)...so I'm trying to focus on the good things for now :)

• We did indeed visit each of the 4 Disney parks...Due to the above bullet point I have to say that Magic Kingdom was my least fav. this time around...which was sad considering I love that place...but due to the nasty temps and the HUGE crowds...and the bad morning at the princess breakfast with Shelby...well, it just wasn't the best of days. I'm not sure on my fav. park. I've always loved Epcot and I really liked MGM (now called Hollywood Studios)...both of those were great. And even Animal Kingdom has come around lately...they actually have some good rides and great shows (and I had to laugh cuz we ran into people from church at Animal Kingdom...what a small world, huh?!).

• My fav. part of the parks were the shows. There were so many good ones...I liked the new Nemo show and also the Beauty and Beast. Best roller coaster was the Rockin' Aerosmith one (which I was happy to finally go on since I was pg last time around) it was crazy fast and very fun....I also liked the Soarin' ride too. I think Kev said his fav. thing was Space Mountain. I was watching the little ones during that ride so I missed out....another bummer of bringing little kids to the parks...you miss a lot of the good rides :( Though we owe our debt and gratitude to Nina who sat with the kids numerous times so we could ride rides.

• Hailey....well, I am most impressed with her thrill seeking attitude! She loved all the coasters and rides. Her favs. were the Yeti coaster, Space Mountain and the Tower of Terror. You go girl! She even said Mission Space was a good one...she must have the stomach of her daddy :)

• Shelby had her own thrill seeking times. She made it through a scary adventure on Snow White's ride, saw Jack Sparrow on the Pirate boat and even sat through a very scary Stitch ride. To each she'd whisper to us "I don't like this one...it's scary". But, she braved it as best she could and made it through. Her fav. thing at Disney was "the Peter Pan ride" (which comes as no surprise as she LOVES Tinker Bell :)). Shelby really lucked out that she hit the 40 inch mark and could go on most rides.


• Hailey's fav. part of Disney was the Princess Breakfast in Cinderella's castle....and you'll laugh at this...she liked it cuz they had the "BEST french toast sticks" :) LOL! She did add that she liked meeting all the princesses too....but she really made a point of saying that food was GOOD! Or maybe she was doing that to make us feel better for spending a buttload of money on that whole experience. An experience that semi went down the drains thanks to the brutal cold and our late arrival due to transportation issues and the fact that Shelby had a horrendous tantrum filled morning that day....which resulted in a spanking in Cinderella's bathroom :( Not the magical day we had hoped :( But, the girls did love seeing those pretty princesses up close and getting their autographs :) Hailey also enjoyed the HSM2 float and performance at MGM...that was really neat.

• Dylan's fav. part?! I think he liked meeting the characters. He stared and stared at the princesses....he really liked Cinderella...she keep calling him "little prince" and he was eating it up :) But, he really liked meeting Mickey....he kept giving him high fives. He took a liking to Minnie too...he kept lifting up her dress....I'm not sure she liked it, but Dylan thought it was funny :)

• The girls loved getting their faces painted in MK....this was a highlight for Hailey back in 2003 and again this time around. Shelby loved it...it was the one time I really saw her smile big :) You'll have to see the pics and smiles to believe it :)

• Least Fav. ride for me...Mission Space....almost blew chunks on that one. I knew right away when it kept repeating "if you have issues with motion sickness you should exit now"....I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough it was one of those nasty flight simulators and it was all I could do to keep my breakfast in check. I grabbed a barf bag on the way out and kept it in my bag all day long. Luckily I never needed it, but my stomach is still not the same :( You'd think I'd learn esp. after the fair experience this summer and the spinning strawberries that made me want to hurl :(

• I was bummed to figure out on our ride home that we only saw about 9 of the 38 things at Magic Kingdom...that was not a good ratio :( Note to self: Next time around we won't be doing a princess breakfast....that took about 2 hours of our Magic Kingdom time. Not to mention next time we need to take our kids out of school and not go during a national holiday time...the crowds were atrocious and we read we were actually only there on a 7 out of 10 day...meaning...the park gets MUCH more crowded...I'd hate to see those 10 days! :(

• Fast passes are AWESOME! We finally figured them out halfway through our trip...next time I'm gonna have it all planned out. We got on most of the good rides with little or no wait. Which was awesome considering the big rides were a wait of 120 minutes (yes, that's TWO flippin' hours!)

• Photopass...this too was a neat, new Disney thing, and next time we go I hope to utilize it more. They have photographers all over the park who take your picture and then give you cards where you can look at your pics online and order them if you want. I just looked at ours...they are cute...though I think I got all the same ones on my fabulous new camera so I don't need to order their pricey ones :)

• Things I'm sorry I didn't do this time around: Would have really liked to go to the parks for one more day...ok, specifically Magic Kingdom...we missed so much there and could have used 1-2 more days. Also...note to self: go on all the rides at night when everyone is gone already....we waited forever for It's a Small World only to have it be empty as we were waiting in line for Peter Pan...you live and learn! Ok...other things I wish I'd done when we were there....had the girls "done up" at the Bippity Boppety Boutique. I knew it was there, but didn't want to spend the money....but they would have loved it...though the day we would have gone would have been a bad day due to "tantrum/cold weather"...but it still would have been fun. Next time we go Hailey will be too old probably, though Shelby might enjoy it :( Would have liked to do more shopping at Disney. I love looking in their stores, but we just didn't have time....I regretted that...would have liked to have bought an ornament or two to remember it all by. And wished we would have had time to see my good bud, Sulu, and her fam. since we were in her neck of the woods :( Sorry that didn't work out...too many late nights and crabby kids just didn't allow it :(

• Hailey's fav. gift at Disney....her lanyard and pins. I had no idea what a hot selling/collecting items these things are...but Hailey noticed right away and got her heart set on this purple Tinker Bell lanyard (like a necklace for your pins) and then she bought more pins to go on it and then she noticed you could trade your pins with any Disney cast member....it was really neat. She had so much fun trading and getting new pins and now her lanyard is full of great memorabilia.

• Shelby's fav. Disney gift...her new Tinker Bell pj's :)

• Dylan's fav. Disney goodie....though he hasn't opened it yet :) These neat balloon-type balls that are covered with a soft material and imprinted with Disney pictures. It's hard to explain...but very neat. He's gonna love it if I can ever find it the masses of our luggage :) (thanks to our friends, Max and Debbie, Sharon and Nina and Pops for the cash/Disney bucks to buy the goodies...it was most appreciated!!) :)

• Fort Wilderness Campground Cabin: It was our home away from home for the 4-5 days at Disney. We stayed there 4 years ago on our first family Disney adventure and it was definitely fun to stay there again. We were at maximum capacity for the cabin though...you should have seen our family of 5 crammed in the bedroom...Dylan in the corner in his portocrib and the girls in the bunkbed (or on the floor) and Kev and I in our quant bed. And Nina and Pops in the pop-out-of-the-wall murphy bed in the living room. Not to mention our hallway lined with all our luggage and clothes...it was a sight to see :) But, it was great place to eat breakfast and lay our heads after a long day. Next time we might try one of the other resorts with easier transportation....

• My one complaint about Fort Wilderness....confusing transportation. We almost missed our Princess breakfast due to bus/boat confusion. Seems odd to me that you have to take a boat on a 30 degree day with no option to take a warm bus. I can't tell you the number of times we took the wrong bus or were baffled by where we were going and what mode of transportation to take. And that was with 4 adults...you'd think 4 of us could figure it out...and we did by the time we left :)

• Shelby had a great lil' pony ride on our last day at Ft. Wilderness. Poor Hailey...she was the one person that had asked for days when she'd get to ride the pony and she was so excited to hop on one only to hear the stable guy tell her she was TOO tall :( And too small to ride a real horse...now is that crazy or what?! She held back the tears, but I know she was bummed out :( But, Shelby enjoyed riding Satin (I think that was her name?)...she was a beautiful, white horse, whom we heard was actually one of Cinderella's carriage horses at Magic Kingdom...cool!

• And just like that our vacation was over and we were making the long trek back home (one that I might add was filled to the brim with poop from the rear of Dylan :)....ok, so that painted a lovely picture...but truly...we came home with 7 sealed bags of poop clothes from his overly regular poopfest on the way home...what is up with that?! It made for one stinky ride home). But, aside from the somewhat normal poop issues....the highlight to the ride back was welcoming my brother home from Qatar :) He arrived home on our last day in Disney and we were so thankful to see him and hug him in person. He looked great and I know Candy is happy to have him by her side again. They made us a great steak dinner at their house and we were glad for some good food at all the Disney junk of the past week :) Our girls were excited to meet Candy's nieces (and fellow flower girls/junior bridemaids)...they were all like best friends immediately :) I think Jeff and Candy have now decided they'd like 6 kids after the craziness of having all ours and her sister's running around their usually quiet home :) Thanks, Bro and Candy...for good food, good times and shelter over our heads for two nights! We love you guys and can't wait for the big wedding in 2 months! :)

• And I just want to end my bullet points with a GREAT, BIG, SUPER DUPER shout-out of THANKS to my awesome and wonderful parents....I could list all the wonderful and generous things they did for us on this trip, but it would be much too long to read. Just know we appreciate you guys for everything...for the hospitality, food and gifts in Ft. Laud. and for the whole magical fun trip, food, gifts at Disney...it was all "over the top" and very much appreciated and just a real treat for each of us. I know there were some loud, stressful times with Shelby, but all in all we did have an AWESOME time and we look forward to doing it again down the road...only this time the noisy, crazy kids can be Candy and Jeff's! :) Thanks for all your patience, love and generosity, Nina and Pops!!! And thanks to Kev's parents too who lent us their Yukon while our crapper van was in the shop getting fixed yet again. We truly have the best, most selfless parents around. You're the best!

Well, I certainly didn't mean to babble on and on like this and goodness knows I've got about 300 emails I need to read and mounds of mail and laundry than need to be sifted though. Thanks to all of you who sent b-day wishes/cards/emails my way on my big day...I truly have the best and most thoughtful friends and family :) And special thanks to my #1 "Sis" (Hol) who actually tracked our room down at Ft. Wilderness and left me a lovely message on my big day. That was extra special :) I think from now on I'd like to spend my b-day in the real world and not amidst the crowds (and tantrums) at Magic Kingdom on a 30 degree day...but it was still a good day (though I must say for the second year in a row I got no cake...what is up with that? I'm a girl that loves cake so I missed that sweet treat...boohoo :() And I'm not big on focusing on myself anyway...especially as I age...so it was all good even in the moments of mayhem where I thought I was losing my mind that day :) And now it's back to reality :( I'm none-too-thrilled about it, but it's a way of life and I need to snap myself out of this post-vacation slump and get to work here in this slum of a house we live in :) Hope you all had a glorious New Year and that 2008 is treating you well so far. I promise I'll post pics of the big Disney adventure later this week! Love ya'll!