Disney Magic on Ice

The Friday before Halloween we went with our favorite girls Larken and Cali to see "Finding Nemo on Ice"!!! It was completely magical for both Bradley and Larken. The beginning of the show starts with an intro from Mickey, Minnie, and Goofey. Bradley was SO excited to see them! He was waving his little hand to get their attention, and yelling, "Hi Mickey!!". It made me want to rush home and book tickets to Disneyworld....that didn't quite happen, but it got me excited for those memories.

The costumes, music, and the entire show was just great for kids and adults. I am so glad that we went. From the top picture you can see that we let the kids pick one toy from the show. Of course there were cute nemo, turtle, and fish toys, but my son chooses the shark. Oh well, pick your battles! Bradley has been sleeping with his shark light sword for days. The pictures didn't turn out great, but I wanted to include them in the post for memory sake!

I love you sweet boy, and I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as Mommy loved going with you!!

Happy Halloween 2009!!

Well, with all of the celebrating last week, Halloween finally arrived! We didn't have the best weather conditions for trick or treating. The heavy rain held off for long enough to take some pictures and trick or treat for a few houses. This was so much fun to watch as a parent! Bradley was SO excited about the whole experience and really got into it. In the past few years I have often wanted him to grow up just a 'little bit more' so that we could really enjoy some of these wonderful holidays together. After all of that wishing him to grow up, I did get a little sad on Halloween. I feel like he has grown up so quickly, and is now a little boy! Maybe it is the pregnancy hormones too, but I just want to stop time and hold on to him just the way he is!!

Our first stop was at Gigi and Pop Pop's house for Round One of trick or treating. Bradley marched right up to the door and said, "trick or treat" like he has done this a million times.

Then we went over to Cali's neighborhood to hit a few more houses with our friends. Larken, Bradley and Amalie had a blast rushing from house to house. They did get quite a bucket full of candy. Larken was Cinderella and Amalie was a pumpkin....

Getting ready to hit the neighborhood...with the umbrella, just in case!

Baby Wally joined the crew too, and was a tigger for his first Halloween!

House #1: Running to the door like they own the place!

Wait for it....

Yes!!! This is the best holiday ever!

"Train Mister Conductor"

I haven't had a chance to blog since Monday, because our week has been jam packed with a ton of Halloween activities. Monday morning we got to go to a local play studio and dip our hands in lots of fun Halloween messes. Bradley was so excited to wear his "Train Mister Conductor" costume out of the house!!! For some reason this is his official title for his costume. At school today was another Halloween party. He marched into school and told his teachers that he was a 'train mister conductor.' Hilarious! When we got home on Monday I took a few pictures of him for his birthday invites. He was so adorable in the photos I wanted to share them with you. Couldn't you just eat this little boy up??!!

On Tuesday we went over to Larken's house for a little Halloween celebration. Cali made Halloween cookies for the kiddos and they did a great job decorating them. Of course we had to wear the train conductor outfit over there too!

Last week the boys carved and decorated a pumpkin. Bradley was much more entertained and interested in the carving process than last year. He told Chris where the eyes should be, and what the mouth should look like. He still wouldn't stick his hands inside the pumpking to clean it out. I tried to get him to help me find all of the pumpkin seeds to roast, but that wasn't going to fly either. Bradley kept saying, "it is too sticky, mommy." This boy is such a clean freak!

He loved lighting the candle and watching the pumpkin glow! I can't believe Halloween is in just a few days. I think this little boy is ready for some 'trick or treating!'

Marine Corp Marathon...Whooo Ra!! (Updated with New Funny Photo!)

My amazing and beautiful sister in law Kim completed the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday!!! She finished in 4 hrs 21 minutes!!

Chris and I really wanted to go and see her in the race, but we weren't sure about bringing Bradley. After getting up there we are so glad that he didn't make the trip. The crowds were really thick and scary through the metro. Chris and I even had a hard time staying together and finding Kim at the end of the race. Kim had NO idea we were coming up to watch her. So, we waited for her on the sideline and Chris jumped out in the race and ran a mile with her. She couldn't believe it!

Kim just sent me this photo of Chris and her running, how hilarious is Chris's face?!
Then Adam ran with her until the end of the race. I am so proud of this girl. She just decided she was going to run the marathon. She didn't do the training with a team or anything, she just trained on her own. She said it was worth it in the end, but she isn't sure that she will run in another one.

Bradley got a special treat, and spent the night at Gigi and Pop Pop's house for the first time without us!! He did a great job and has been talking about them all day today. We took the time without him to do all of our birthday and Christmas shopping for Bradley. We are concerned if the house sells and trying to get everything done for the holidays and Bradley's birthday. I am going to try and wrap most of the presents this week and pack them away. His big birthday present is...

The new Leapfrog Zippity! I read a bunch of things online about this new leapfrog toy. It is supposed to be very interactive and fun. It comes with eight games by Disney, most of which have characters Bradley loves. I am excited to see if he likes it!

For Christmas we really splurged and got Bradley this entire Thomas Roundhouse Set. Bradley is just so in LOVE with all things trains, and especially Thomas. He won't need another Thomas train for ever! I can't wait to see his expression when this huge Thomas is under the tree! Whew, I am feeling better about Christmas coming around the corner!!

Another Contract?

Remember in March when I got really excited and posted this?? Then we hit some bumps in the road here? With the housing market being what it is, we have definitely tried to be patient about the house selling. So, for the entire rest of the summer and into the fall I have continued to keep the house clean and organized. I have been accommodating for all of our showings, and we might have found a match!! Our house went under contract on Monday AGAIN! We are a bit more encouraged about this prospect and are hoping that they are the new 'owners to be'...

BUT, we are keeping it very realistic and trying not to get ahead of ourselves. We still have a lot of things to make it through before moving day. We have begun to talk about where we will be living while we are building our new home. We are really looking for a short term lease situation which narrows our possibilities. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we will be moving in just a few short weeks, and begin planning and dreaming of our new home.

Chris built our home three and a half years ago. It is a beautiful floor plan on five+ acres of land. It is just a lot MORE house and land than we have the time or energy to take care of. With our family growing I would like to be more centrally located to our town, i.e., closer to good grocery stores, better schools, preschools etc. I feel like I spend a great deal of my time driving back and forth from town. The closest elementary school from our house is over 45 minutes away. That isn't even including bus time. I will miss this house and the land, but we are excited about being in a better school system with a neighborhood feel. We are really looking for a community that offers a lot of amenities and we have a few places in mind to start looking. Although I will be sad to be out of our house for the holidays, I know great things are in store for us! Maybe someday we will build another house like this away from town with lots of land and landscaping to keep us busy. When our kids are older and we can pay them to mow the law (lol). But, I am just interesting in having less and living MORE. I want to have time on the weekends to play together as a family, and not watch Chris mowing and trimming the law for 3+ hours.

Please be thinking of us in the upcoming weeks. The last contract really was hard on Chris and I. It was really devastating to unpack and pick up the pieces. We are hoping that this will be a great fit for everyone!

Now off to get ready for date night!! YAY!! We are headed out for dinner and to catch the new Vince Vaughn movie "Couples Retreat." Chris and I love him, and can't wait for some quality time!

Something to Rave About!

Now that I am finally getting my energy back, I am trying to blog a bit more. I finally got around to changing my header for Halloween. Bradley is a big fan, what do you think?

In other exciting news, I actually got a blog award from Houses, Couches and Babies. Thank you so much for giving me a blog award! It has been a while since I received any, and I know I haven't been blogging too much either. I am going to be a slacker with this one, and just say "Thank You" without passing it on. I know that isn't very fun, but I just have been barely keeping up with my same blogs and haven't been reading any new blogs lately. I hope you don't mind:)

I have been thinking about posting some of my favorite books for kids and for me to share with you. Bradley LOVES to read any and ALL books. I even recently uncovered a huge selection of non fiction books that he has requested every night. But some of our favorite fiction books are:

repetitive story line that is great for retelling.


All of Doreen Cronin's books are great. This is the beginning of a few that are all about Farmer Brown and his crazy animals, so fun!

a folk story that has a surprise ending

David Shannon is every kids favorite, and this is great for your imaginative children

Bradley just saw this picture, and screamed "The Spaghetti Book!"

A wonderful book for any age, with a great lesson to boot!

Some of you may read my sister's blog often and she is an avid reader. She is always posting about her favorite books and what is on her bookshelf. I thought I would copy the idea and tell you about some of my recent RAVES and misses in the book world. I LOVE to read, and will drive Chris crazy by staying up entirely too late to read a book. Then I will feel terrible the next day. Why do we do that to ourselves? One book that recently kept me awake at night, and ignoring my family on the weekend was:

Pat Conroy's South of Broad. This book creates such an amazing set of characters and friendships that you are instantly hooked by the first chapter. It is based in Charleston, which I love and follows this group through 20 years of friendship. From desegregation to the AIDs epidemic in the 80s. It has a little bit of everything. Captivating, and I would highly recommend it !

I finished this book while I was at the beach a few months ago. A quick and easy and fun read. Keeps you turning the pages like all of Emily Griffin's books, but I still loved Something Borrowed and Something Blue the best of her writing.

I got this book at the beach, and it was OK. I was about three quarters of the way through when I decided that I didn't like it, but I felt compelled to finish it. I did, but I already gave it away on the paperback swap. It was interesting about the culture in India, but just didn't do it for me.

I just started this book. It is good so far, any recommendations out there?

Cravings and Pregnancy Must Haves

I can't believe I am 16 weeks pregnant! This pregnancy has been a breeze by many standards. My friend from high school, Laura from The Land of Syd is pregnant too! We are due a few weeks apart from each other! She has been doing really cute posts about her first trimester (which was much more trying than mine). But I thought it was a great idea to jot down some of the funny and not so funny things about being pregnant with baby #2! (So, Laura I hope you don't mind me copying you on this one:)

As I mentioned before my first trimester was pretty smooth. I was mostly just VERY tired and EXTREMELY hungry. So hungry that I would eat breakfast and need a four course meal about two hours later. I was also SO hungry but NOTHING tastes good. Don't you hate that? I would fix the most fabulous meal, and then look at it and wonder what I was thinking. I know Chris's Mom will gag when she reads this but I've really craved .....

EGGS!!!! And I mean eggs cooked ANY way you could think of....scrambled, omelets, egg biscuits, egg fritatas, egg salads, and especially the egg and cheese everything bagel from Bodo's. Bodos is the most delicious bagel place in town, with great soups and salads for cheap!

The egg obsession hasn't completely ended. I am still obsessing over eggs, and I just made huge batch of egg salad the other day. My Dad called me just as I had finished carefully peeling and chopping up my beloved eggs for my salad. While I was on the phone I realized I was out of mayo!!!! We live too far away to hop over to the grocery store and I was seriously distraught. My Dad asked, "Clare, is that really the worst thing that has happened today??!" I guess it has been a while since he has been around a pregnant woman craving food. I actually took poor Bradley across the street looking for mayo (they didn't have any). Oh, the stress!!

On to the carrots....oh I am in LOVE with carrots this pregnancy. I have had carrots at least three times a week with dinner. I was buying smaller bundles of carrots and would get annoyed with Chris and Bradley for eating them. So, I decided to buy the enormous bunches of carrots! I will cook a ton of them with butter and a bit of brown sugar, and I am in heaven!

Don't worry I have also been craving some horrible things like....

Nutella!! Oh this little friend is evil, but so good. I will cut up strawberries or apples and spread a bit of nutella on the slices. Yummm! I sat down after dinner and ate an entire bowl of strawberries, while dipping them in nutella. Chris just stared at me like I had lost my mind. I think men just stay out of our way, and make no comments when the pregnancy hormones have kicked in:)

The most recent obsession has been skittles. I have finished two bags in the past two weeks. I will fill up a small bag after dinner and munch away. This poor little baby must be getting a sugar high each night. I am hoping this obsession will end soon, it isn't a good one!

Although I have made it through my first trimester, I will say I still don't feel 100%. I have been suffering from afternoon headaches that will leave me needing a nap or some serious couch time. I don't remember having such horrible headaches with Bradley. This week they seem to be lightening up, but my back has been killing me. I will have shooting pains when I get out of the car or move a certain way. I am hoping that it is just where the baby is positioned right now, and will soon pass. Last but definitely not least has been the full on baby indigestion. I had this so BADLY with Bradley, but not until much later in my pregnancy. It has hit me early and hit me hard this time. Mylanta is already my new best friend. Anything and everything seems to set it off, and it is just the worst. I felt like an 80 year old women this weekend between my back aches and my indigestion.

Poor Chris has been amazing and put up with me, all of my aches and pains, and my serious egg eating. I just feel so blessed to be going through all of this, I know it is so worth it in the end. And it is fun to just laugh at what we do and eat while pregnant!