Happy Birthday to ME!

For my birthday, Matt & I took a date night to Disney with our passes. We went to Animal Kingdom to ride Expedition Everest and have dinner at the Rainforest Café, then went to Magic Kingdom for the night show. Its fun to go to Disney with the Maxonator, but its nice to go with no kids and ride everything together!

 

Goodbyes are hard to do

Thursday January 24 marked the end of a chapter for me. For 6 years, 2 months and 3 days, I worked with County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, District 4. While working with him, I got married, bought a house, had a baby and grew up. Thinking back on my beginnings with Al, I realize how much I've grown mentally, professionally, emotionally, etc. 

My amazing coworker, Eli, coordinated the aides of all the commissioners to take a group photo with me. Also included are awesome staff who support the BOCC and have been there my entire time at the County. 

The day was really hard. I cried several times and I felt like I was leaving my family. Al has been such a mentor and guide that sometimes I feel like he is a second father. As I move onto different challenges, I will always look back at the County and Al with great fondness.

January 22, 2013

Today I took Maxon to Magic Kingdom again. He has been begging to go to "Mickey Mouse Park" and so today we went. 

He was so happy to see Mickey Mouse as soon as we got there. 

 After months of trying to get him to wear the Mickey ears, he was so excited to get it today.

I even got his name embroidered.

We stumbled upon the Move It! Dance Party. He loved watching it but did not want to go into the road to dance. Whenever the characters he didnt know, like King Louie or Blue, would get close to him, he would back into me. When Mr. Incredible tried to high five him, he started crying and hid in his stroller.

 I bought him this Mickey keychain, which he held on to until bedtime.

He was so tired that he fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot. 

January 19, 2013

Today Matt and I decided to take Maxon to Busch Gardens. It was so fun. We went to Sesame Street where Matt chased Maxon around to get some energy out. Then we walked over to the tiger exhibit, where we saw two tigers fighting over a spot in the sun. From there we walked to the Edge of Africa, where we saw the hippo swim around and the lion sunbathing.

Maxon saw the lion and said, "Daddy, I want you to throw me to the lion." We explained that the lion would think Maxon was steak and that wasn't a good idea.

January 17, 2013

Matt thought he was going in to wake Maxon up, but this is what we found. Maxon said "I put my hand in my diaper and I put poop on my legs."
yay potty training for making him aware that something fun is in his diaper. He got time out and was lectured that poop is not for play.

January 12

Today we decided to "pick strawberries in the garden," as Maxon says. Michele, Mandi, Matt and I took all 8 kids to pick strawberries at a u-pick hydroponic farm. The strawberries are grown in the pillars with no pesticides so they are bigger and beautiful. The kids enjoyed trying to find the biggest, ugliest, reddest, etc.

Each adult had 2 kids to walk around with. These were my two.

January 11, 2013

Today, Mom, Liz and I woke up WAY TOO EARLY to run the 5K at Disney World. We grumbled the whole way there about how cold it was and how early it was and why we were so stupid to do this. Two hours later- so fun! 

It was an untimed race but we finished in just under an hour from the time we started. It began in a parking lot by Epcot, went through some back service roads, cut through in Mexico, around the World Showcase and by the ball and ended back in the parking lot. 

In Mexico, we took photos with Daisy Duck (who Mom called Minnie Mouse). Then in America, we waited to take a photo with Colonial Goofy. From there, we were worried about our time so we hustled through. 

The last little stretch, we said "TO THE OUTLET MALL!" and ran to the finish line. 

Here we are with our finisher's medals

January 7, 2013

Today I was off work and took Maxon to Magic Kingdom. The big boy wanted to ride the new Ariel ride in the New Fantasyland. After we got our fast pass to go back later, we walked over to see the dance party by the castle. Maxon  was jumping and dancing in his stroller but did not want to dance with the characters when we got close. After that, we saw Woody and Maxon showed him the Mickey shaped confetti he got at the dance party. After Woody we rode Ariel and visited with Mickey Mouse. After that, Maxon was ready for a nap.

Things he said:

When driving up to pay for parking, he said "Mommy you get your fast pass?"
When taking a photo with Mickey, he said "Mommy you come on too!"

January 5, 2013

One of my childhood friends got married today. I love seeing her beautiful wedding and visiting with old friends. It's an interesting transition to go from talking about boys as a love interest to talking about boys and potty training, day care, etc.

Me, Brittany and Hilary

Mrs. Lauren B.

January 4, 2013

I love this painting. My awesome future sister in law is painting a canvas for my bedroom so I'm trying to give her examples of my style.

January 3, 2013

I want this book

To Infinity & Beyond

For Christmas this year, Mimi & Sopchoppy gave Maxon the coolest gifts. They know of his love for all things Toy Story so they got him Buzz Lightyear pajamas and boots. He was so excited to take a bath and put them on tonight. 

Merry Christmas 2012... in 2013.

We celebrated our sibling Christmas on New Year's Eve this year. At ten to midnight, we stopped opening presents to celebrate the new year and shoot fireworks. When we came back in, my parents finished their gifts. 

This is my mom's reaction when she realized my dad bought her a new tablet/laptop. She had been wishing for it for a while but never dreamed he'd get it for her. 

Project 365... again

In 2010, I tried to do Project 365. Then I stopped after less than a week. This year, with a 2 year old in tow, I'm going to try again.

As the Little Engine said, 

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.”