Disney Cruise- Magical Moment

One of the best things that happens on Disney Cruises are the magical moments that seem to happen to a lot of the kids onboard. Spencer was able to have one of those magical moments.

The first night we were there we realized that we had no autograph book for the characters to sign, so we went to the gift shop on board and bought one for Spencer. We went up to the sales lady to buy the book and she nicely asks Spencer "An autograph book? Do you want my autograph?" Spencer looked at her then at me, to which I told him "Of course you do!" And he told her "Sure, but you will have to open it up." It was wrapped in some plastic stuff. So the saleslady said to Spencer "I'll let you open it up and then you can come back and get my autograph, how about that?" Spencer said, "Sure." Then asked, "Do you want my autograph?" The lady looked at him with a smile and said, "Yes!" Got a piece of paper and let Spencer sign his name on it. She said thank you and we told her we'd come back tomorrow night for her autograph. 

The next morning we were about to leave our room and then saw a bag hanging outside of our door with this inside:

She gave him a certificate and a Disney pin!!! Spencer felt so special. Sadly, we forgot the autograph book that night to take to Mary Beth, but we went and saw her. She showed Spencer that she still had his autographed paper in her pocket! Spencer was smiling from ear to ear. Mary Beth then told Spencer to come back Monday night, which was Pirate night, to have her autograph the book so she could see him all dressed up. 

We did finally get the autograph from her, and I think we went into the shop most nights to see if Mary Beth was there, and she was and whenever she saw Spencer she would always say "Hey Spencer!" He of course would say hi to her then tell her what fun things he was doing. I love Disney for these magical moments they have with our kids. 

Also, the last night we were on the boat we stopped by the shop to say goodbye to Mary Beth, and Spencer asked one last time "Do you still have my autograph in your pocket?" Guess what?? She did!!! 

Disney Cruise- Day 1

We knew we wanted to take a trip this year as a family, and decided that a Disney Cruise would be fantastic! Thankfully Santa brought us at Christmas time a Disney Cruise! The cruise we had at first was leaving from New York City and was in May, but then we found out that cruise lines don't like women to be over 24 weeks pregnant while on a cruise....and at the end of May I would be over 24 weeks. So we had to change the cruise, and since Spencer's Spring Break was last week then we thought that would be a perfect time even if we had to fly down to Florida. 

As the time grew closer we got really excited! It was even during Easter, so we knew Disney would do something fun, right? Thankfully the Easter Bunny knew we were going on a cruise and wouldn't be home on Easter morning so he dropped off treats the Friday morning we left for the cruise. 

Spencer finding his basket and seeing his big bunny.

Excited about the Mini Eggs he got!

After we checked out our candy we had to get ready for our trip. We had to wake up at 5am to catch our flight down to Florida. It wasn't too long of a flight down there, especially since we were upgraded to First Class (thank you skymiles rewards!!). At the airport we didn't even have to worry about getting our luggage, Disney would do it for us. We got in line for our bus to take us to the cruise ship and then were off. 

This is inside the cruise terminal, and yep Minnie was there to welcome us!! Along with a model of our ship, the Disney Magic.

 Once on the ship we could just explore. We didn't have our luggage yet, so we just walked around the top decks to see where things were. 

Spencer looking out the side of the boat, and wondering what everything was on it. Most things were covered up because it had just rained at the port. 

 This was the front of our ship, and we later found out that this was actually the crews area and pool. 

 What could we see from our cruise ship?? Well those white buildings in the background is Kennedy Space Station!!! Kinda where that crane line is, is where the shuttle takes off on flight. Pretty cool. 

 Soon we were on our way and the boat started to move. It was getting close to our dinner time, so we went to dinner and met our dinner mates. They were a great family and we got along really well during our dinnertimes with them. Spencer and their boys got along wonderfully and became really great friends. After dinner we went to the play in the theatre that the entertainment group put on called "All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin". It was fabulous and we all loved the music and acting they did. We were able to meet the Cruise Director, Darren, while at the show and then also saw a lot of characters. They did a show like this most nights, and I was really glad that Spencer enjoyed these shows. After the show we came back to our suite and guess what was waiting for us?!!? A swan!! 

We were tired from the day and decided to call it a night. The next day was going to be filled with activities! Every night they would give us a newsletter for the next day's activities, it was really good to have and take with us around the ship, because there was so much to choose from. Here are what the newsletters looked like. 

These were all the ones we got. 

The front.

Our activities!

ALL the activities for the day!!! CRAZY BUSY RIGHT?!?!

Information about certain activities. 

The back for times that restaurants are open and other things on the ship. 

Hot, hot, hot Chocolate!!

That title is suppose to be the song from The Polar Express.

Okay, so my sister and her family gave us a hot chocolate maker/mixer for Christmas and so we had to buy some of the best hot chocolate to try in it!! 

These are all the Stephen's hot chocolate flavors we got, so yummy!

Starting up the hot chocolate. I wasn't sure how much we would use this maker/mixer, but we really, during the winter, used it at least once a week, maybe twice a week. It just makes great hot chocolate to warm you up! 

My sister went one step further in the present giving and added a mug to my present that is PERFECT for myself. :) The boys will not touch this one. 

Thanks sister for the excellent gift!!!!

Visitors- 7

Tyler's brother's family came to visit us during February and we were so excited to have them come see where we live and be able to see them!! Layton and Ashley had everything planned out to what they wanted to see most, and where they wanted to eat. Both Tyler and I said that we think they were the visitors that got to the most places in such a short amount of time. It was lots of fun and very filling! 

The first day they were here we went over to Jersey to see the Cake Boss' bakery. I had never been there, but I'm glad I went with them because it was really easy to get over there, so now I know! This was where our boat taxi docked. 

The bakery stuff was amazing!! So many things to choose from, and Layton found out that Lobster Tails are little pieces of heaven (although I still think Ashley makes the best little pieces of heaven). It was fun to see all the variety and bring home lots to share with Tyler and Spencer. The line was long, but worth it.

This is their son who is sooo dang cute!!! He was happy with Spencer's toys of cars and trains, and whenever we were home he would just go right back to playing with them. Oh, and he also liked our dinosaur movies. It was just so cute when he would talk to us about it all. 

Another day we went to the Empire State Building, which we had never been to, but knew that we should go see at least once while living here. It was pretty cool, and we got there early enough that there was barely a line!!! 

 Look from the observation floor looking south towards where we live. Can you see our place?? It's amazing to me to see how much fits in this small city. 

Spencer and the view.

Another day we went out to dinner to the best Italian restaurant ever, and no it was not Olive Garden. It was Il Vagabondo, and it was DIVINE!! I went to their website before going so I could see what to eat, and Emeril Lagasse had a video from the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate and he talked about a dish at this restaurant...veal parmigiana. So, I decided if Emeril likes this...maybe I would, and I DID!! YUMMY!!!!

After dinner we took the subway home and started walking to our apartment, and noticed that lots of fire engines were passing by. We looked up ahead and saw at least 6 engines right on a street that is next to our apartment building!!!! I was so worried that something was going on at our apartment, but when we got closer we saw it was a building further down the street. 

 Kinda nerve-racking to see this while walking home. 

 We stayed outside and watched the firefighters for a while, but then started to wonder where the fire was, we could smell the smoke but could not see the fire anywhere. Going into our building we asked the doorman and he said it was a fire up on the roof of the apartment building across the way. We knew our living room window faced that way so we went upstairs opened the blinds and saw this:

There were at least 10 firefighters up there trying to get the blaze under control. Once or twice we saw big flames. It was crazy! The good part was that it was just on the roof garden of this building and did not go into any apartments. So that was some excitement for the night!! 

Could this face get any cuter?? I think not. 

 Cousins. 

We had a wonderful time with Layton and Ashley here with us, and their time here went by really fast. But no visit to Uncle Tyler is complete unless there is a wrestling session. Here are the boys wrestling together. 

One more thing, Spencer really got to know Layton and Ashley both more, but it seemed that wherever Layton was, Spencer was right next to him on the couch. It was really cute, and I thank Layton for being patient with Spencer. :) Thanks for the fun times family!!!!! 

Girl or Boy??

It's a BOY!! Which took us a bit by surprise, because we just felt like it was a girl the whole time, but alas it's a boy and we couldn't be more thrilled! As you could see, Spencer is QUITE excited by having a baby brother. He has already started to tell me which toys he is going to give to him, and which things he will teach him. It's so cute. I told Spencer last night while cuddling with him that the baby can hear him, and he should start telling him stories. So last night our little baby boy got his first story from his big brother. It was all about how Spencer found out we were having a baby and how he found out the baby was a boy. Spencer was excited to know that this little baby will listen to him for hours on end, I loved being in on the story last night, and can't wait to see what else Spencer tells baby brother. 


Here are some ultrasound pictures we got yesterday at the doctor's appointment. 


This first one is a 3D image one of the baby. Head at the top and kind of his arm coming to his chin, Tyler liked to think that this baby was already thinking of very complex things. 

This next one is the regular ultrasound, and it's the baby's profile. The big black dot is the eye socket. 

During the whole ultrasound this kid was moving EVERYWHERE! And whenever the technician would try to get a picture he would kick and the picture would be all blurry. It was kinda funny to me, but I could tell she was just wanting to get these pictures. It also seemed to me that he would "swim" away from her. So I guess he is already a stubborn little boy, or one that knows exactly what he wants. Even when I feel him kick (which is all day long, seriously, the most ACTIVE boy!), and I will put my hand on my tummy to feel it, he won't kick. Then once I take my hand away...oh then he starts to kick again. It's quite fun. We can't wait to meet this little man in just 20 weeks!!!! He is going to be the most loved baby ever, and will probably think we are crazy for how much we love him and how happy we are that he finally has come to our family. 

Spencerisms

I read one of my friend's blogs today about how her daughter lost a tooth, and then found out the next morning that the tooth fairy never came to give her anything!! Her daughter was so sad, so my friend and her husband had to think quickly and come up with something, and then found out that the next night a note was left by their daughter to the tooth fairy hoping that she would come get her tooth that night. It was quite a sad story, but one in which my friend asked "Why is it so hard to lie to our children?" Anyway...that story reminded me that I had not posted about our little run in with Spencer losing a tooth and leaving his own note. 


Spencer has lost many teeth now, and he knows the drill of putting the tooth into a plastic baggie and then putting it under his pillow and then seeing what the tooth fairy brings the next morning. Well, he was not satisfied after losing all of these teeth that he only got one dollar for each tooth. So this was the note he left for the tooth fairy when he lost his last tooth:

No, "Dearest Tooth Fairy, you are so great. May I please have some more money for all of these teeth I have given to you??" Nope, just straight out "more money please". We were impressed that he added the please, but still we thought it was hilarious!! You can see the small little tooth he lost that night at the bottom of the baggie. 


So, what did he find under his pillow the next morning? TWO dollars. 

Pregnancy

I know that this blog is mostly for our adventures of each of the crazy places we live in, but it's also a journal of the things going on with us during this time. One of which at this time is this pregnancy. It definitely affects how much I can go and explore the city, which it makes me really happy that we had a ton of visitors at the beginning of living here, so I could see lots of things in the city then.

This pregnancy is completely different than what it was like almost 8 years ago with Spencer. I feel a lot of achy feelings, and tendons stretching a bit more. It could be because I did have an emergency c-section with Spencer, so the scar tissue could be doing that, and I don't know what is up with my tendons this time, but they ache. I am nauseous this time, just like with Spencer. Just feeling it all day long, but luckily haven't been losing anything after eating it. I am at 17 weeks 2 days today, and I still have some moments of nauseousness, but it's fading, which I'm happy about. One thing that is completely different from this pregnancy and Spencer's is that even with the aches and pains and not feeling good I'm loving it. I'm so concerned for this baby, and want it to keep growing to be strong and healthy.

I wanted to share our story of why this pregnancy is so thrilling for us. It started about 4 and a half years ago. We were living in Centerville, Virginia and getting ready to move to Africa (Congo to be exact). Things were stressful, and we decided to not start trying to have a child until after we moved and things settled down a bit. Side note: Back in the day I really REALLY did not deal with stress well, I'm much better today, surprisingly because of all the moves we've done I've relaxed A LOT. Anyway, so we thought with Spencer it took us around 4 months to get pregnant which is pretty quick I think. So that's what we thought would happen. Well it didn't...and being in Africa it's not like I have an OB/GYN there or fertility doctor to go to to find out what was going on. So we decided to be patient.

We prayed endlessly about what we should be doing, and it always seem to fall to the wayside (which yes, now I do think that was an answer to our prayer). The years kept going by, and we moved to Zimbabwe and things were not as tense as it was in Congo, so perhaps this would help my body to get pregnant. Um, nope. I started to get frustrated that we were not getting pregnant, and again just kept praying. The answer though that both Tyler and I continued to get was "Don't worry about it". Which is hard to do when you want to add more people to your family, and especially difficult when you have a son who keeps asking when he was going to get a little brother or little sister.

I know that our wait of four years is nothing compared to others who have had been wanting children for a lot longer, and don't even have one child yet. But to us, it was our own little trial that we had to go through. It makes this pregnancy so much sweeter. Spencer is absolutely thrilled to be a big brother, and is already showing how helpful he can be. The other morning he made his lunch for school and got himself ready for the day! We know we have been so blessed, and we are so grateful for this wonderful blessing.

I guess the moral of our story was that we listened to the answers to our prayers, even though we didn't understand it at the time. Now I look back and think, could I have actually been pregnant while in Africa?? And then fly over 30 hours being 34 weeks pregnant with a 6 yr. old?? And then fly back over 30 hours with a newborn and a 6 yr. old??? I'm not so sure that I would have survived with my sanity, so obviously the Lord knew more about me than I did. I'm so grateful that we have Heavenly Father there to guide us through our lives.

So that's our story of why this pregnancy was hard to achieve, and why it's a really special one to us.

Here's our little one!

At 10 weeks, first appointment, and we saw that little flutter of a heartbeat. I could not smile big enough! If you can't understand ultrasounds, the baby is in the black hole area, and it's back is curved on the top.

Here he/she is at 12 weeks. Growing so fast!!! This is a profile of the face. Can you see that little nose???  LOVE IT!

Another 12 week pic of the side profile of the whole baby. The back is at the bottom of the picture. It's legs are at the right.

One last one of a side profile of the face. 

Thanks for reading through this long essay of my feelings on this pregnancy. We are so excited to find out if this little one is a boy or girl and I love feeling it already nudge me here and there. Okay...next post will be about NYC. :)