November

Drew: learning Christmas songs at Sunday School and he's not a fan, but enjoys church; more 'friend' problems at school, but adults are intervening and it's getting better, lots of fun with games that he or Daddy create, lost 2 teeth this month, had our first playdate with school friends.

Drew got new shoes that tie and ended up having a memory foam type insole. Well, he loves this aspect and tells us it makes him run faster and jump better. So he was running down our entry hall and launching himself over the couch armrest and onto the couch...it was pretty hilarious to watch some of his landings!

Noah: loves going to Sunday School, but not a big fan of church; loves playing games with Daddy and Drew that aren't competitive, had lots of fun with marble run toys and building toys this month. Enjoys school, but asks to stay with Mommy lots - even said one time this month, "I want to go to Mommy's school".

Noah has been wanting to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed more and more for the last few months and then while in Florida, with all 5 of us sleeping in 1 room most of the time, he ended up being in bed with one of us every night. So coming back home and getting back to sleeping in his own room and bed was a SERIOUS challenge. I honestly love the snuggle time, but Noah is a SERIOUS snuggler in bed. We are talking, he shares the pillow with me and squeezes in TIGHT...and I have a really small pillow! So my sleep is horrible when he sleeps with me most of the time. I try to be firm and not let him stay when he comes down in the middle of the night, but it's so hard because it's the Middle of the NIGHT and I don't want to get out of bed to walk him back to his room. But we finally put our foot down and then bribed him! HA! To break the cycle, I promised him a movie night (me and him watching a movie in my bed) so we could get our snuggle time in, but then when the movie was over, he had to go sleep in his bed. But he had to stay in his bed the whole night for the week leading up to the movie night...it worked! We broke the cycle! He still filters in every now and then, but it's not near as bad as it was!!!

Kate...still really loves her Mommy! We are hard to separate...she doesn't even like it when I walk to another room without her...and she wants me to hold her, ALOT! She'll push her way to right in front of my legs and reach up and cry at any time - when I'm doing laundry, dishes, trying to clean something...oh goodness, it's alot!

She still loves being silly with her brothers. She loves to play with balls - kicking and chasing them around. We also have indoor snowballs (super soft balls that are totally safe to throw at each other and in the house!) and she gets a kick out of it all when we play with them! She also loves the boys' bean bag chairs and loves sitting in them - she looks like she's being swallowed up by the chair! :)

She finally has her first word - "Hi". I think we were harder on her to qualify her first word, because we needed to know she meant it every time she said it, versus with the boys, I think we were more lenient and anxious to cross off the "first word". But Hi it is - and that's just perfect because she's a social creature - always wants to be where the action is! But she communicates just fine - pointing, grunting, walking us over to the fridge or pantry or whatever toy she wants help with! She is blowing kisses more, and will sometimes blow kissed FOR us - putting her hand to our mouth and making the "mmmmaa" sound for us! She sometimes covers her mouth with her hands when she laughs, which just cracks me up. And she's definitely being influenced by her brothers...she burped pretty loud one night at dinner and just started laughing and then purposefully made a fake burp noise to keep the fun going - oh goodness!

We went to Florida for a week this month...that deserves a whole separate post to tell about and chronicle all the craziness! Both boys had the week of Thanksgiving off from school with Mommy. To be honest, after just being with them for a crazy week in Florida, Mommy wasn't exactly looking forward to all this time together. The first day was rough because Kate wasn't feeling so great, so all of Mommy's time and energy and patience went to Kate and had none left for the boys. Then the next 2 days Kate went to daycare so we were able to do more things and be more flexible - went to the park, did some science experiments (that the boys loved!) and able to play around more.

Check out Noah's "Indian" name he picked..."Walking Moose" kid cracks us up!

All the kids enjoyed watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then had a great time with the Palmer family over at Grandma and Papa's house.

We spent the rest of the week/end decorating the house for Christmas, which they all enjoyed the end result of, but were less than helpful. Kate LOVES the Christmas lights and all the dancing and singing toys - it will be a fun Christmas season for sure with her!

The Traveling Circus: Florida

Ok, so I was super excited to go to Florida for my cousin Candi's wedding to Eddie - Hooray! So we know we are going...but how will we get there? Long story short, I find AMAZING prices to get our family there by plane - done! The only way that price was available was for Tuesday to Tuesday, so let's throw in a few days to Disney while we are there, why not?! We thought about going to Legoland one day and Disney one day, but decided that would be too much. So Disney it is, this is going to be awesome! Hindsight...well, I would have picked Legoland if I could do it all over again...you'll see why later...

So of course the flight is super early, everyone up at 5am, Kate screams half way to Dallas Love, no surprise there. But we made it through security with a good amount of time to play in the kid area, and the flight goes pretty smooth, hooray! Then we get to lug our 5 bags, 2 car seat bags, and 3 backpacks to the car rental - the boys are running wild at this point of course after being cooped up for hours. I enjoy installing 3 car seats in a car I'm not familiar with in the nice hot and humid parking garage in sunny Fort Lauderdale and Kate is asleep before we even make our way out of the airport property! We eat on the go to make the most of Kate sleeping, and she wakes up half way to Orlando, making that a long 3.5 hour drive! We get unloaded at Disney and make it just in time for our TRex dinner reservations at Downtown Disney/Disney Springs - which is a HUGE area! So much walking already, Noah running off here and there, weaving in the crowd. We all enjoy the dinner and fun of being surrounded by dinosaurs (it's Rainforest Cafe Dino style). Then off to the Lego store. Drew wants to buy everything in sight, we almost lose Noah again, and Kate wants to run all over. Feeling the stress of being outnumbered for sure. I was DONE and ready to get back to the hotel. Which we eventually do and besides a bit of enduring some crying from Kate and whining from the boys about wanting to play with their Lego sets, everyone slept pretty well considering we were all asleep in the same room!

So, we are off to Disney early the next AM, but Drew just wants to open his Lego set. We are thinking, once we get there, he'll get over it...NOPE! Heard about it almost ALL morning. You are kidding me, right?! He wants to play with his $6 Lego set instead of enjoy the magic of Disney? My kids are ridiculous! Noah wants to explore, going this way and that, and Kate is as happy as all get out, being carried by Mommy - because her brothers stroller-jacked her spot, whining about how much walking there was before we even got to Main St. Yup, that's my family, those are my kids, we are raising them, and have done nothing right it seems! Ugh, it was a CRAZY morning to say the least. Winnie the Pooh's line was crazy long, but we had Fastpasses, which was great...except this particular line has a play area in it that the boys really wanted to check out, so they were mad at us for not letting them play in it. Meanwhile, we are skipping all the people so we can ride the ride. Ugh! Noah also ran up to someone's stroller that they were sitting next to at lunch and just hit their Mickey balloon super hard - and they weren't amused, and I was so embarrassed. It just felt like our kids were super out of control and we were helpless. We just couldn't win! Drew was whiny because of Legos, Noah was whiny because he because he wanted to roam and couldn't and also wanted to go watch cartoons in our pirate hotel room and Kate was tired because it was nap time. It was hot and we were spent, so we all went back to the hotel to rest. Matthew and I got on the same game plan, because up to that point, I was the only one who knew anything about what we wanted to do. The afternoon and evening were much better, but still tiring to say the least. We were able to ride most of the rides we wanted to in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland that first day. They all really liked the Carousel, their favorite was Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lightyear, and Kate loved watching the PeopleMover ride around and around - I think she was more excited about watching it than the actual ride itself. We made the mistake of having the boys go through the Stitch ride - it was terrifying apparently! Noah was screaming "Get me out of here" the entire time, and it's a full experience show with things moving up your seat, etc and so even Matthew reaching his hand over for comfort scared Noah and he was slapping it away! We paid for that in nightmares once we got back home...sigh! I had to beg the boys to stay late with me while Kate went back with Matthew so we could see the fireworks. We had fun late at night, riding the Tea Cups, meeting some characters and they really liked the PhilharMagic show. However, this didn't leave us any time to get a good spot for the fireworks and I got a decent one but then moved to try to find a better one which was a mistake, and that Drew criticized me for several times...but we did see the fireworks and enjoyed them. But oh, the line to get back...took SO long! The boys were exhausted. Noah fell asleep in the stroller and then I couldn't wake him up to fold the stroller, so literally, I got him out and leaned him against the bus so I could get the stroller in and prayed he wouldn't weave too much and fall on his face! It was a long ride back, but we made it and felt so good to sleep!

Noah LOSING his cool because Drew got to ride the race cars first...

The next day we were up and moving a little quicker and got to the park early enough to hit some rides without any wait times. We hit Adventureland and Frontierland this day. The boys really liked the Carpets of Aladdin ride (essentially just like Dumbo, but with a spitting camel!), not fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean (a little too scary, even Kate held tight on that one), but really enjoyed the Jungle Cruise. Drew didn't want anything to do with any rollercoaster, so Noah rode Big Thunder Mountain twice thanks to Fastpasses, and also liked Splash Mountain! All 3 kids really liked the Tiki Hut show, but sadly ran out of time and weren't able to make it to the Country Bear Jamboree. The only other rides we didn't get to do that we really would have liked was Peter Pan (the wait was always over an hour), Tom Sawyer Island, and the 7 Dwarf Mine Train, though Drew wouldn't have ridden it anyway, so it wasn't that big of a loss. We went back to Fantasyland and got on the Little Mermaid ride there, which was fun, except Drew wasn't paying attention when zig zagging through the line quickly and smacked right into a pole holding the chain for the line - uuff! It was rough! The kids were going crazy and driving us mad, but I made sure to get my Nutella delight before we headed back to repeat Buzz Lightyear and then back to the hotel for pizza delivery dinner. We were 'family of the night' and they brought lots of treats for the kids, including cookies and pirate prizes!

Look at those happy, smiling faces!

The next day, it took us forever, but we finally packed everything up, ate dinner at the hotel, though Noah just picked the chocolate chips out of his muffin while sitting mesmerized to the cartoons and we were able to nag Drew enough to eat his while also eyes glazed at the TV. Kate was climbing all over of course! Kate slept part of the way down to the Keys, but that stuck me in the back with her again to finish out the trip. But we were so excited to see the family! Mom, Dad, Kevin and Andrea were already there, as was the Martinez family of course! SO good to see them! We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in the pool with the fam and happily got the kids to bed at a decent time.

Saturday was the big day - WEDDING DAY! Candi and I got a nice walk in that morning, and we helped set up as much as we could. It was beautiful! The weather was a bit overcast and windy, but it was all so lovely and we were so happy to be there for Candi, Eddie and Tyler! The reception was a blast...lots of dancing, Noah was roaming all over until Nana got tired of keeping up with him and we gave him a phone to play with...which then he didn't take his eyes off of and we literally spooned food into his mouth to make him eat! Drew had a super fun time with Tyler and other kids, running all over with glow in the dark necklaces and just being kids! Then the downpour came! Oh, it rained SO hard! People ended up jumping in the pool, including Candi and Eddie! It was hilarious and awesome and night I won't soon forget!

Sunday, we stuck around to help clean up as much as we could...lots of others did the same which was so nice. We did as much as we could and then headed back to Miami to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We enjoyed our time with them and Grandma was sweet enough to host us as well as Ruth's family for dinner that night. The boys ended up sleeping with one of us, instead of together there...Drew with Matthew out on the sleeper couch and Noah with me. Silly boys - unfamiliar environment and they got spoiled this week, getting to sleep with Mommy and Daddy all week! Whatever it takes to get them to sleep!

Monday, we enjoyed spending the day with the grandparents - so rare that we get time just with them. We let the kids run around outside some in the morning to burn some energy and then went to a nearby park with Candi and Tyler in the afternoon. Kate LOVED Grandma's birds...so much so that she left Mommy's side to go outside with Candi to see the birds up close! She's had a fascination with birds ever since that trip! :) The whole Miami family came over for dinner Monday night, which was so fun to be with everyone again! Great times, great people, love them all so much!

Tuesday, we were up EARLY again for the flight back. We made it back ok, though we were all so tired already, and the flight was about an hour longer on the way back because of some storms they avoided, so it was much more difficult to keep Kate content. But we were so happy to be home! All 3 fell asleep on the way home, which meant no nap for Kate the rest of the afternoon, but we played outside and were so happy to be back in our own space, we did alright. That also meant early bedtime for everyone, which we ALL needed!

Wednesday, everyone went back to school and work, except for me...I spent the day getting laundry done and buying groceries to get us back to par...a crazy family of 5 that really shouldn't be allowed in public apparently! :)