Disney World Day 2

Magic Kingdom. We couldn't get a fast pass for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride so the game plan was to go in on Extra Magic Hour day and bee line it for this ride. Only Vanessa and Jon could ride- my pregnant state excluded roller coasters, and the boys weren't tall enough- while they did that ride, we rode Dumbo, the Carousel, and Winnie the Pooh. Vanessa LOVED the Mine Train. Definitely worth bustin our butt to get there early. The line was always crazy after that and they had some

Mechanical problems a few times. The only character Vanessa really wanted to meet was Rapunzel. Rapunzel was also with Cinderella so you meet them both together. Benson gave Cinderella the sweetest little hug. It was so cute. If you've ever gotten a hug like this from Benson, you know that his fragile little arms basically just make you melt. 

My memory is already getting sketchy on the order from here but we rode It's a Small World. The kids enjoyed this one but not a favorite. Peter Pan's Flight, Brigham threw a holy fit getting on this ride. He did not want to do it. But he ended up loving it. 

This day was also the only day we had a reservation at a full service restaurant. We are at The Plaza. I ordered the strawberry chicken salad and it was delish. Jon had a turkey sandiwch that was also great. Vanessa had a hamburger and Benson had a turkey sandwich too. Brigham just shared with everyone. It was plenty to fill us up but you definitely pay a premium for food at DWorld. And this was supposedly the cheapest full service restaurant in Magic Kingdom.

After lunch the boys and I staked out a spot to watching the parade. Vanessa and Jon went to try to catch another ride on the Mine Train. Try ended up getting stuck in the line with mechanical problems and didn't make it back for the parade. Brigham was happy to get a nap with no ride interruptions so Benson and I enjoyed ourselves :)

After the parade we headed over to Tomorrowland and went to the Monster Inc Laugh Floor. The kids thought that was pretty great. At this point, everyone was getting pretty tired so we decided not to stick it out for fireworks and head back to the resort. At the resort, Brig went to bed and Jon took the other two swimming for an hour before the pool closed. Then it was off to bed. Until we woke up around 1am to Brigham with a raging fever. He was really roasting. We ended up calling the frontier Wal to try to find a thermometer, who ended up sending the resort Medics. A lot of work when you forget a thermometer! It was 102, so we just kept keeping him dosed on ibuprofen. We both felt so bad that he was so sick. But for being so sick, he was such a trooper!

Winter Weather

Our weather has been nuts. It didn't snow a flake until Feb and then it has been snowing but then warming up (a bit) and then snowing. So one of our warmer days we went to the park to try to wrestle out some cabin fever. And possibly induce labor but that definitely didn't happen. The geese at the park must have been hungry because they were ornery and bold. It actually made the kids pretty nervous.

And then here we are a week later, with six inches of snow.

Look at how cold this face looks! Brrrr!

We have also done a little of this because it takes longer to get the boys dressed than they generally want to be out. Benson loves the idea of playing in the snow but his lack of fat and lean muscle makes him get cold in about .25 seconds. We did this last year and it was actually Benson's idea to do it again. I was surprised he remembered!

Disney World Day 1

So it happened like this. Jon kept asking if we wanted to try to go somewhere for his week off in Jan and we hadn't made any decisions. So then we get a pamphlet in the mail talking about how January is the least expensive time to go to Disney. So we decided to look into it and ended up deciding to do it. We were all ready to book for Disney Land when I rechecked the flights and they had doubled over night! So, we ended up booking to Disney World. From booking day to leaving day was two weeks. I'd call it about as last minute as a Disney vacation can be. 

We left Tuesday around 11am. We drove to Kansas City, then flew directly to Orlando (I love when there is no layover). As we were leaving, Jon mentioned he had that scratchy, I'm-getting-sick throat feeling. But, no worries, I had Doterra cough drops. All is well with the world. We got in to Orlando around 7:45pm. We used all Disney transportation and tookthe  Magical Express to our resort, Port Orleans. By now it's around 10. Jon is sick. Like fever and chills sick. Ugh. So, because the world is set for a family of four we had to book a family suite. We chose the least expensive family suite which happened to be in Downtown Disney and we weren't that stoked about te location. But, it was a significant savings. We specifically noted we needed wheelchair accessible. Well, they booked us on the second floor with no elevator. So they ended up putting us in a four person room anyway. I wish we had made a bigger fuss, or any fuss. It was pretty lame. But really, we just wanted to get to bed. 

I had packed the kids some jammies in our carry on so they immediately went to bed. But Magical Express was supposed to be bringing our bags for us. It said about three hours to get them to you. Well, it took 5. Poor Jon was so sick and didn't have any medicine in the carry on. The bags finally came around 1 am.

Day 1- Animal Kingdom

After a rough start, we got up early and headed out for our first adventure. We saw a 4D film called "Its Tough To Be a Bug." Vanessa loved it and the boys thought it was terrifying. We went on Triceratops top spin, went to Dino world, and went on a safari. Vanessa was the only one tall enough to ride Dinosaur. Jon took her and she ended up huddled in a ball crying. Oops. Too scary. I thought it was a roller coaster. Anyway, the highlight for Brigham was definitely the Lion King show. He told everyone about this show for weeks. It was a pretty cool performance. The highlight was definitely the guy that danced with the fire. Unfortunately for Brigham, he started to run a fever half way through this day. He wasn't super sick yet but definitely started acting tired and clingy. After we had gone on all the attractions we wanted, we jumped in line to meet Pocahontas. Vanessa talked with her and she was very cute. Benson hid from her and Brig refused to get out of the stroller. Poor guy was so tired. Neither Jon or I saw it but Pocahontas gave Benson a kiss on the cheek. It wasn't until we were leaving that I noticed the lipstick and asked Benson about it. He was so funny! He zipped away in his chair and wouldn't say anything and acted shy. But when I laughed and asked to take a picture, he very proudly held that cheek up! The park closed early, at 5:30pm and it was actually kind of nice to not feel like we needed to push the kids to stay up super late. We went back to the hotel, got some food, watched a few cartoons and went to bed.

Ice Skating Lessons

Vanessa started ice skating lessons. She is really enjoying them so far! Not the greatest pix but she's in the purple

Coat and gray pants.

I'm Still Pregnant

I always feel like a girl will want to know way more about what my pregnancy was like with them than boys will and I have completely failed at documenting things about this pregnancy.  So here goes, pregnancy with baby #4 up to 30 weeks.

The first tri I was nauseated but never puked.  Smells were harder for me this pregnancy than any others.  Particularly when we were dog sitting and this dog had the most awful poop in.the.world.  It was beyond belief. I didn't gain much weight this trimester.  Like maybe 5 pounds.  I was pretty stoked because I have always gained 10 or so. I thought this was going to be a low gain pregnancy. I didn't really have a favorite food this trimester but I felt like I was eating what the kids were eating.  Bland was my friend.  We made salsa and I barely ate any because it had too much flavor. 

I was definitely disappointed that the hospital here does not have certified nurse midwives.  Also disappointed that the birthing center is $6000 and our insurance won't reimburse.  It would be way cheaper for our insurance if we had the baby there, but cheaper for us to have the baby at the hospital.  So to the hospital we go... with an OB.  And, I even ended up picking a male because everyone kept saying he was the best.  He's been pretty chill so far but we'll see. 

Second tri came and went pretty darn quick.  I was feeling pretty good.  My joints and ligaments were feeling stretched like I was having a first baby all over again.  That was kind of weird.  I think having the first three so close together, nothing went back all the way so the "growing pains" weren't very bad with the boys.  My weight gain caught up to me this trimester (hello Christmas goodies) and I'm back on my regular climb.  So much for less this time. Sigh. My favorite food was definitely all the treats and eggs.  Specifically egg sandwiches.  I think I could have eaten them every day. 

Third trimester has been a little rough so far.  I'm feeling huge and huge and huge.  The kids don't seem to grasp the concept of saving me from picking a million little things from the floor.  I try to look at it as constant squats since I never get to the gym. It's not really helping my legs though :) I'm not sure why I feel so ginormous this pregnancy.  I am measuring right on and my weight is typical.  Maybe I just forgot how big I really get.  Haha.

I am still doing lovenox (blood thinners) because of the clot I got while pregnant with Vanessa.  The swelling can get pretty bad if I do a lot of sitting.  Standing makes it kind of achy but sitting is the worst.  Church is hard on my leg.  Jon usually gives me the shots but we forgot a couple days in a row and I woke up with an elephant leg and it was pretty painful.  So I finally pulled out the strength to give myself a shot.  Benson was in the bath while I was talking myself into it and his commentary was hilarious.  "Mom, what are you doing?" "Mom, why haven't you done it yet? Are you scared?" "I'll do it Mom." "Uh, Mom, just DO it!" Yes, it took me a good 20 minutes but it did happen and I have even done it two other times!  I have also learned that spinach smoothies help a lot with the swelling since spinach is high in vitamin K and that helps thin the blood.

I have been starting to get nervous about the birth of this baby since I haven't delivered here.  I don't feel like my doctor will jump to medical interventions quickly but there are a million things in between.  And.... you can never pick your nurse, darn it! I had an awesome nurse with Benson but I could have wrung the nurse's neck with Brigham.  Jon and I also finally discussed the pushing situation.  It's tough for both of us. He agreed that we would try the Bradley method this time and if we need to, we'll hire a doula.  Obviously we have to figure that out beforehand, so hopefully we can find the time to do a little birth training! Might as well get it right the fourth time, right?!

I think that sums it all up.  We obviously don't have a name yet.  Vanessa helped me make this list.  She added Mia because she didn't like any of our names.  She also changed Evelyn to Evalee because she thought Evelyn was a boy name.  And, Violet is 100% her name.  She came up with that name and I am pretty sure she will call the baby that no matter what is on her birth certificate.

New Years

On Tuesday (Dec 30) we went ice skating. It was quite entertaining.

 

For New Years Eve, we had the Lundells and Durtschis over. We had pizza, chocolate fondue, and carrot cake. We played minute to win it games with the kids then turned on a movie for them.  This gave us adults a little time to play Five Crowns. 

Brigham also celebrated by chugging and dumping an entire gallon of almond milk.

On New Years Day we took the kids bowling. They all did better than me because I'm awesome at bowling. I'm blaming it on the big belly and not my skill level. 

Quotes to Remember

Summer 2014

At 3am, I was in the boys room after Benson woke up.  Brig woke up while I was in there, but didn't see me so he left and went to my room.  Brig came back a few minutes later, and said to me, "Mommy, Daddy is in your room and he's DIED!"

Summer 2014

Jon and Benson were talking about an aquarium we went to in Denver.

Benson: "Is it super far away?"

Jon: "Ya."

Benson: "is it super duper far away?"

Jon: "Ya."

Benson: "is it super duper luper far away?"

"Ya."

Benson: sigh. "We're never gonna go."

October 2014

Vanessa: "Mom, does this dress make me look thin?"

Me: "What do you mean by thin?"

Vanessa: "You know. What you say when you look like squished?"

Dec. 17, 2014

Benson: "Mom, does Jesus live in the sky?"

Me: "He lives in Heaven."

Benson: "Is that in the sky?"

Vanessa: "We don't know. But humans do know that Santa lives in the North Pole."

Dec 2014

Driving down the road, we're talking about how there are no real words that rhyme with orange.

Benson: "let's do blue, yellow, red, green- squirrel!!!"

He actually saw a squirrel run across the road but it was a total "Doug" moment.

December 28

Brigham: "Mom let's go get your baby out."

Me: "it's not time yet to get the baby out."

Brigham: "We need cereal to get your baby out."

Christmas Festivities

The Christmas festivities started on Thanksgiving with setting up Christmas decor and continue to be a thrill for the kids. Our elf stopped by the first day of December. This year we have a girl elf, although she looks just like the boy, and her name is Dandy. We attended a fun Christmas activity at the library. They had a Santa visit and had a little store kids could shop at full of kid-affordable gifts. They assigned a shopper to help the kids so they could get something for their parents. It was very fun for them. Brigham also made best friends with Santa and went back for a third, fourth, I have no idea how many visits.

We also stopped by Bass Pro for their Santa workshop activities and our yearly Santa picture. My parents came to visit and the kids opened all their Christmas presents from grandma and grandpa. They were very spoiled. The boys got their first Lego sets and Grandpa helped put them together.  We also got a late delivery package just the other day that contained Super Hero Lego Men only.  Brigham has been loving them.  I swear I can never guess what toys that boy will like.  Other gifts included stamps, Leapfrog Explorer, house with keys, trash pack dump truck, magnetic alphabet letters, puzzles, polly pocket, littlest pet shop, Magic School Bus science experiments, and Christmas jammies.  We also had to make a stop at Andy's ice cream and check out the Christmas lights around town.

Our ward had a Christmas party with authentic middle eastern food and Christmas carols. I wasn't too sure about the food but it ended up being pretty good. It wasn't the most kid-friendly program so we ended up leaving early. We can only tell the kids to be quiet and stop running on a Saturday night so many times before it's exhausting.

I randomly found a gingerbread train at the store and grabbed it to put together.  The kids loved doing it.  They just love doing that sort of thing and I have been meaning to go get another house to decorate to add to the train.  Hopefully it happens before Christmas.

 

We made ornaments for the kids mini tree. The idea was that they would decorate their own tree and leave the big tree alone. It didn't work and most of their ornaments ended up disappearing.

We tried making ornaments out of homemade Clay but it didn't work. Apparently the blog we read skipped a crucial step- you have to cook the mixture. We'll get that next time.

Benson and Vanessa also made this cute Christmas tree. We used the bottle caps Jon has been bringing home from work. They look just like buttons.

We did a little science experiment with food coloring and flowers. We did red and green to be festive. Vanessa knew exactly what would happen but it was still neat to watch. We also switched some of the flowers to see if the color would mix in the petals. But it didn't. They just had streaks of red and green.

On Christmas Eve, we made and decorated sugar cookies.  Vanessa said we needed to make sugar cookies because those are Santa's favorite (same as hers). 

We had minestrone soup for dinner, read the Christmas story from the Bible, did a treasure hunt to find one present, and then The Night Before Christmas.  The kids were in bed by 8 and Jon and I were able to watch a movie!  They also slept in until about 6:30 which was great.  We all got up and went to open presents together.  I have zero pictures of first thing Christmas morning and just a few before breakfast.

On Christmas morning, Jon just wanted bacon and eggs. Easy peasy. But I wanted something fun for the kids so we made snowmen and reindeer. I tried to do santas with strawberries and cream but it was a fail. We just had strawberries and cream. 

In the afternoon we went to a movie at the theater. We saw Penguins of Madagascar. I forgot to get a picture inside but here we are heading home with our ginormous popcorn refill.

 

Jon completely spoiled me this year.  He basically gave me anything I could ever want for the kitchen. I used most of it to make dinner and I loved it.  We had a honey baked ham, steamed broccoli (the steamer was from Shauna), mashed potatoes, green beans, and strawberries.

Jon got a drill press and a blu ray player (for all three blu ray discs we own).

 

Grandma Brady sent the kids a gift card to pick out their own toy. Benson picked a bird that sings. Vanessa picked some ponies. And Brigham threw a tantrum and didn't pick anything. So I ordered him some ninja turtle Legos from ebay (that's what the tantrum was about because they didn't have any ninja turtles left). She also sent them Christmas church clothes.