Disney World

Our Disney World trip started on Wednesday (February 20th). Our flight didn't leave until 2:00 pm, so we had all morning to finish packing and get to the airport.

Corbyn was so excited to get going. We had been telling him for weeks that we were taking an airplane to see Mickey. He pulled his bag all through the airport and refused to ride in our new double stroller. (Luckily that wore off after a day or two and he decided it was ok to ride - most of the time.)



It was Peyton's first time flying and she was pretty good. The first flight was a short one to Denver where we met Grandma Lori and Papa George. (They flew out of Las Vegas.)



She was happy as a clam walking around during our layover with her goldfish snacks and grandma's phone.



The flight to Orlando was a lot longer. Peyton fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got on the plane, but because they had to de-ice the plane and that took awhile, she was awake for most of the actual flight. She was so done sitting still and wanted to walk the aisle and there was some crying - but it could have been a lot worse!

Corbyn was easy to entertain with a Toy Story sticker book and movies on the laptop. He was so excited to see a friendly face waiting to greet him in Orlando - Goofy!



We stayed at Disney's All Star Music Resort which was our second choice. We wanted to stay at the All Star Movies Resort because they have a giant Buzz and Woody, but that one was full. We planned to go over and at least see them, but we never made it over. Oh well!



It was so nice to be able to use Disney transportation to get wherever we wanted to go. Renting a car (especially one big enough for our group) would have been such a hassle!



We brought cereal with us and bought milk in the hotel gift shop, so we didn't have to buy breakfast every morning. The last morning we were there we decided to splurge and get Mickey waffles. Corbyn thought Mickey's ears were the perfect place for his grapes. (When we are at home we can't get him to eat apple slices or grapes, but he couldn't get enough of the ones that came with his kid's meals. Silly kid!)



We spent almost every waking moment at one of the 4 parks. (I'm going to do a separate post for each park because this would be the world's longest post if I tried to do them all together. This will just be an overview.)

We were pretty impressed with the new technology they have for tickets. Instead of stamping your hand, they use your finger print.

 It was more crowded than we thought it would be (probably because it was the Princess Half Marathon Weekend). But we still managed to fit in almost everything we wanted to do without waiting in too many awful lines. When we did have to wait in line, the kids did great!

Lots of shoulder rides...





Walking practice...



And just general cuteness going on.



Peyton was very popular and made friends with everyone in line.



And when she was in the stroller, she loved turning around to peek up at us. (That is, when she wasn't taking off her shoes and socks. It's a miracle we made it home with both shoes - she was constantly taking them off!)



Both kids tried on a lot of Mickey ears. We didn't buy any, but they made for fun pictures - especially with all the designs they have now.



It took us a few days, but we finally got a "First Visit" pin for Peyton.



There was no time for going back to the hotel for naps. I can't speak for Blake, but our kids got pretty good at taking stroller naps - even Corbyn (who only naps at home when he is sick) took one almost every day.



Is there anything cuter than a sleeping kid? I submit that there is not!



Peyton's naps were much shorter than at home, but that actually helped her sleep a whole lot better at night. She usually sleeps horribly in a pack n' play, but she did great - which was wonderful because that meant I actually got to sleep at night.



By the end of the day both kids were exhausted. Most nights bath time was not a pleasant experience - they just wanted to go to bed! (Child abuse anyone?!)



At our hotel we had two pools to choose from - one shaped like a guitar and one shaped like a piano. We went swimming a couple of times and the kids loved it.



I had to buy Peyton a swimsuit (and shorts and t-shirts) just for this trip. They will probably all be too small by the time it warms up here, but it was worth it for a nice break from the cold!



One night I was freezing after we got back from swimming, so I jumped in the bath with the kids. They probably thought it was pretty weird to take a bath with mom!



And one night Rog caught a frog outside our hotel!



We took a lot of pictures. This is just the tip of the iceberg, people! We were definitely glad we decided to get our nice camera before the trip. The difference in quality is unreal even though we have no idea what we're doing!



Our flight left Orlando bright and early (8:40 am) Wednesday (February 27th). We all got naps on the flight to Denver which made that flight much more enjoyable than the one coming to Orlando!



And that was our trip in a nutshell - I have much more detailed posts coming in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Five on Friday

1. I finished my Valentine's Day craft I started early last month. Even though I won't be able to display it until next year, I didn't want to put it away half finished. I kind of love how it turned out!



2. I had a birthday (shout hooray) on Tuesday. Rog tricked me to believe he was going to work and it would be a regular day. I woke up to find that he was actually taking the whole day off to celebrate. I had a great day! (More on this later.)



3. Because I have a lot of spare time (not), I decided to reorganize our coat closet turned extra pantry. It has been bugging me for a long time, so I finally just did it. One of the reasons I wanted to reorganize it was to make a shelf for all of Corbyn's activities. They've been spread out all over the house and it's going to be so nice to have them all in one place!



4. I got Elder Jar's St. Patrick's Day package sent out this week. I figured he was going to be getting a lot of birthday packages and some Easter packages, so I'd send him a St. Patrick's Day one.



5. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to do some letter crafts with Corbyn while Peyton naps. He's been doing great learning letters and their sounds thanks to this movie. We started with an A alien this week and he loved it!

President's Day Weekend

President's Day weekend was the weekend right before our trip. Rog had President's Day off, so we planned to go down to St. George to work on PJ's play kitchen. We knew it was kind of a crazy plan because that meant I only had Tuesday to get everything packed and ready for our trip and Rog would be at work, so I wouldn't have any help.

As the weekend approached, we deliberated long and hard about whether we should go or not. I was getting nervous about being able to get everything ready and my mom was sick with a cold (and we didn't want her to give it to the kids). Finally we decided to just go ahead with our plan and go.

The kids were up early Saturday morning, so we played with my new camera.



We think Peyton makes a pretty cute practice subject.



My mom stayed far away from our kids which meant we didn't have a babysitter to go to the temple. We decided to divide and conquer. I went first and it took forever! I only did initiatories, but I was there for almost 2 hours - I should have just done a session! Because it took me so long, we decided Rog would have to go another day.

We spent the afternoon with Rog's grandparents working on the play kitchen and then we went to dinner with them at Village Inn.

On Sunday after church we introduced Corbyn to Beauty and the Beast in preparation for our trip. We knew part of the New Fantasyland was Beauty and the Beast and we wanted him to recognize it.



Corbyn and Roger played outside for a good long time. The weather was beautiful! Rog would lift Corbyn up, so he could see in the kitchen where the rest of us were - he thought that was pretty funny.



Corbyn also played with some of my Littlest Pet Shop toys my mom saved. His favorite was a teeny tiny blow dryer. He would point it at us and make awesome blow dryer noises.

That afternoon Peyton mastered walking in her shoes and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I didn't spend $35 on baby shoes for nothing!

That night I made bows for all of Peyton's summer shirts I bought her specially for the trip. I was pretty proud of this Minnie bow.



On Monday we basically just packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed home. And then I was in full packing, laundry, last-minute errand mode until we left for our trip Wednesday morning!

It was a fun weekend and now that I know our kids didn't get sick from my mom, I can say I'm glad we went!

Day of Love

We got home from our wild and wonderful vacation to the Happiest Place on Earth - Disney World - on Wednesday and jumped right back into real life. Dinner group, work, Rog's Elder's Quorum Presidency meeting, unpacking, grocery shopping, laundry, trying a new recipe (most definitely a keeper), making cupcakes for a friend's birthday, getting Meg's rear brakes replaced, finding out that my hard drive managed to escape any damage from the great bubble spill of 2013 (WOOT!), dinner with the Petrosinos, a mild cold for the kids (we're just grateful they waited until after the trip!), adjusting back to Utah time, Toy Story marathons (because Corbyn got a weird virus that gave him a fever for a few days and then a rash and all he wanted to do was watch Toy Story), Peyton's 10 month photo shoot, crafting, and St. Patrick's Day package preparations for the Jar.

I have many pictures to go through and lots of blogging to catch up on. First up, a few blogs I meant to do before we left on vacation. It seems a little bit ridiculous now that it's March, but here's our Valentine's Day.

...................................................................

I woke up to find that Rog had left me cute little dry erase marker love notes on our bathroom mirror, microwave, oven door, and menu board. A fun little surprise!

Later in the day my early birthday present arrived. I had been planning on using all my birthday money to get a DSLR camera and we figured we might as well get it before Disney World, so we could use it there - so glad we did!



I had scheduled to give blood at 5:15 (a very romantic Valentine's Day activity). Before we left we made sure to leave Rog a little surprise to find when he got home. Sugar cookies and love notes complements of Our Best Bites.



Rog and the kids picked up our very fancy dinner for the night - a heart shaped pizza from 5 Buck Pizza - while I gave blood and ran a few errands.

After we put the kids to bed I decorated more sugar cookies and Rog changed Meg's oil (another very romantic Valentine's Day activity).





I also finally got Corbyn's valentines ready to take around to his friends the next day (A day late, but he didn't know and he loved it!). I let him pick them out earlier in the month. He had the choice of Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, and Toy Story. He surprised me by picking Mickey.



It wasn't the most romantic day, but we're not really in a romantic stage of our life right now. It was just fun to do a few things out of the norm to celebrate the Day of Love!

I'm so lucky to have 3 Valentines - my Rog and PJ.



And my free hugging Corby the Corbs! (Love this picture of him!)



I love them all to pieces and can't imagine my life without them!

Happy Birthday!

Dear Elder Jar,

We wanted to get together and celebrate your birthday and what better place than Disney World?! We wish you could be here with us, but we are so proud of the work you are doing in Sweden! We love you!

Love,
Your Family





P.S. Rog and Jason are here too. They were taking the pictures.

Six on Saturday

1. I finished my 1st book of the year - Matched by Ally Condie. I can't say loved it, but I did enjoy it. I will read the other 2 books in the series, but probably not immediately.

2. A big shout out to Elder Jar who was called to be an Assistant to his Mission President (AP). In his email home he said he never imagined serving as an Assistant, but it didn't come as a surprise to any of us. He's about as good a missionary as they come!

3. We have a big vacation coming up next week, so we tried to stay home as much as possible this week to keep the kids from getting sick. It turned out I wasn't very good at it. I tried to run my usual errands at night, but some just had to be done during the day. While we were home, Peyton started pushing her doll stroller around the house (cutest thing ever) and the humidifier was a big source of entertainment.



4. It was a big week for cooking. For Mardi Gras on Tuesday I made Jambalaya and Beignets. On Wednesday I took dinner to two families in our ward (in addition to making dinner for our family). I also made and decorated sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. By the time Valentine's Day dinner rolled around I was totally burnt out, so we had a heart-shaped pizza from Five Buck Pizza.

5. Unfortunately our neighbor wasn't able to get my data from my MacBook Air (probably because he was using a hard drive reader specific to the MacBook Pro). He suggested I take it to the Apple Store, so on Friday morning we headed up to Fashion Place. They don't actually do data recovery at the Apple Store, but they opened it up and surveyed the damage. The hard drive looks fine, so they told me to buy a hard drive reader specific to the MacBook Air. It was only $48, so I figured I'd give it a try. Crossing my fingers that when it comes (I had to order it online), it will work!

6. Because Peyton is walking, she needs to start wearing real shoes (especially with our vacation coming up next week). She has teeny tiny feet (like a size 2) and guess what, they don't make real shoes in that size. I went on a search this week and finally found the cutest little shoes for her in her size on Amazon. Right now she hates them - when we put them on her she whines and doesn't want to stand up or walk. Hopefully she'll come around to them soon!

Sick Girl Weekend

We had one sick little girl this last weekend. We debated all Saturday morning if we should take her to the doctor and finally we decided we should. I had a Super Saturday Relief Society activity, so Rog took her (and Corbyn tagged along). It was a good thing we decided to take her in - double ear infection and bronchiolitis. She's such a little trouper when she's sick. The one time Corbyn had an ear infection, he made it painfully obvious - screaming his head off. This girl is a silent sufferer.

She's been much better this time about taking her medicine although she still hates it... Or maybe we've gotten better at forcing it down her throat. Either way, she's feeling much better.



My Super Saturday Relief Society activity was all about Emergency Prep (72 hour kits, food storage, CPR, and the like). I left feeling like, "Oh man, if we ever have an emergency we're probably just going to die because how can we ever really be prepared?" But it was good. Now I just have to find time to do something about getting us more prepared!

After I got home from that we headed up to Salt Lake. My parents watched our sick girl and the Corb while we ate at the Cheesecake Factory for our Valentine's Day date.

On Sunday my mom turned her MacBook Pro over to me and we could hear the poor thing screaming, "No, don't leave me here! These people kill computers!" It is what it is. Sad, but true.

I took a power nap when Peyton went down for her afternoon nap. When I got up, I found Rog and Corbyn making cookies together. They actually turned out better than I thought they would. (I did have to help them a little with the amount of butter to use, but the rest was all them.)

And that was our weekend.

Five on Friday

1. Peyton has started wearing her 9-12 month clothes which means I've been making lots of bows to match her new outfits. When I finished making this bow Corbyn said, "Oooh, I love it!"



2. We've had another round of sickness at our house this week. (Just the kids this time. Rog and I seem to have missed this one.) You know Corbyn is sick when you turn on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he's asleep before it gets to the opening song!



3. Our new sink (the right one this time) came on Tuesday. Rog chose to stay up and install it that very night because he knew he wouldn't have time this weekend. He told me it is the best Christmas/birthday present he's ever gotten. (He does most of the dishes in our home.) It is quite a huge improvement from our old sink!



4. On Wednesday Corbyn spilled bubbles on my MacBook Air. I have to take most of the blame because who leaves an open bottle of bubbles next to a laptop with a 2 1/2 year old around? It makes me sick every time I think about it. My mom jumped at the opportunity to get a new laptop for herself and sell me the one she's been using. And one of our neighbors thinks he should be able to get the data I didn't have backed up off my hard drive, so it's looking like this tragic story will have a happy ending after all.

5. Despite being sick, Peyton has been walking more and more every day. We counted 20 steps in a row Thursday night!



#2 combined with #4 made this week pretty crappy. Here's to a better weekend!

The Good

Let's forget about the not so good from this weekend (an expensive water heater repair, a coughing Corbyn, early mornings with our PJ).

This weekend was good for...

First Steps. We thought PJ would walk early, but we were still seriously blown away how quickly she picked it up.

Charlotte's Baby Blessing. Bill and Mariah chose to bless her Saturday afternoon instead of during Sacrament meeting. We were happy to be able to be there to see that sweet baby blessed. She is a modern miracle and such a blessing to their family.

{I stole this picture from Mariah's Facebook page because I was lame and didn't take any pictures of my own... Hope you don't mind Mariah!}



Lost Cities.  After we put the kids to bed and cleaned up Saturday night, we made time to do something together as opposed to just being in the same room doing our own things. I won, but Rog put up a good fight.

The Super Bowl. We were officially cheering for the 49ers because Rog was a fan growing up, but we were happy to see Pitta (who played for BYU a few years ago) do well and get a ring.

A Valentine's Day Craft. I got to spend some time working on my latest craft although it's currently still a work in progress.

Baby Steps

She's not going to be running a marathon anytime soon, but sure enough at 9 months and 8 days (almost exactly a full 2 months sooner than Corbyn), Peyton took her first unassisted steps today.

That's our mover!

{Not exactly the best video, but it'll have to do for now.}

Five on Friday

1. On Tuesday I took the kids on a "sleigh ride." We made a few stops to visit Mariah, Charlotte, and Cinnamon (their dog that Corbyn loves), drop off some snowmen cake pops, and get the mail. Peyton let Corbyn hold her for most of it until she decided she was done sitting still and tried crawling in the snow at which point I carried her and had Corbyn pull the sled with the mail (mostly ads and junk) in it. It was a fun little adventure.



2. Peyton loves climbing on our dishwasher door. (What baby doesn't?!) We were worried she would break it off, so we were constantly stopping her from crawling up there. That is until we figured out Corbyn's stool is the perfect height to go under there and support it. This picture is a little out of focus, but I just love her face. She loves it!



3. On Thursday we went up to Provo to have lunch with Rog at Tucanos to use his free birthday meal (on the very last day of the month). While we were up there we did a few errands at the mall. Corbyn threw all the pennies I had in the fountain and then I let them play until it was time to feed Peyton. I felt bad making them leave because they were having such a great time!



4. Our sink arrived yesterday. Rog was so excited to open it, but unfortunately when he did we discovered they sent the wrong one! We ordered the 10 inch deep sink, but they sent the 8 inch deep one. So it was back to Home Depot for another return. Hopefully this time they'll send the right one and we'll finally be able to install our new sink!

5. When Rog went to change the air filter on our furnace yesterday he found that our water heater has been leaking (for who knows how long). Fortunately it looks like it's a small repair compared to having to replace the whole thing. (We'll find out for sure tomorrow when the water heater repairman comes.) In the meantime, Rog rigged up a system to catch the water and drain it. The joys of home ownership!