Another Catch Up

I can't believe there is only 16 days until Christmas. Time sure does fly when you're having fun! It has been an interesting couple of weeks around here. Thanksgiving was fun and Black Friday was interesting, as always. We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Poppy was sick and Uncle David and Maya didn't make it down so it was just Nate, myself, and the kids, Tj, Chelse, and Tylee, Lance and Erin, Nanny, and my mom. Hopefully next year we will have a couple of new additions around the table to be thankful for (hint Erin and Chelse)! We had a great day of eating way too much, watching football and cheering on our fantasy players, and just hanging out visiting! I love lazy days enjoying good company (and great food)! We left my mom's about 4:00 and headed to Lawrence to spend the night with Nate's aunt and uncle. Nanny took the girls home with her and Brax came with us. We got there about 6:30 and stayed up until after midnight visiting! That made our 3:00a.m. wake-up call seem extra early! We had a fun day though and found lots of bargains so it made it all worthwhile.

The week after that I started having some symptoms of another Urinary Tract Infection. I put off going to the doctor hoping it was nothing and finally couldn't stand it anymore. I called the clinic on a Friday and my doctor was out of town. They said to come in for a UA and they would send the results to the doctor on call. Five o'clock came and went and since I hadn't heard anything, I assumed everything was fine. Later that evening I started feeling a lot of pressure and became pretty uncomfortable so I called my cousin who is an ER nurse. She thought I needed to go have it checked out so we headed to the ER. The ER sent me to OB since I was over 20 weeks along. They hooked my up to monitors to check the heartrate and to see if I was contracting. The did another UA and also some other uncomfortable tests that I won't go into but if you have ever had a baby, you can probably imagine what they were! About 3 hours later, the doctor came in and said I had a really bad Urinary Tract Infection!!! Very frustrating since I had been at the clinic about 12 hours previous for that exact thing. The OB doctor on call happened to be the doctor who had been on-call at the clinic as well and said my results were filed incorrectly under my out-of-town doctor and so the results had never been seen. Although it was a bit annoying, we were glad that was all it was. A shot of Rosefen (which burnt like crazy!) and a prescription to fill on Saturday, and we were on our way!

The next evening I still wasn't feeling the greatest. My dad called and wanted us to come over and eat some fish. Nate and Brax went and the girls stayed home with me. We made some cookies and cupcakes. As I was mixing the cupcake batter, Brecca says to me, " Hey Mom, when you are done with that, can me and Braylee lick the bladder clean." I even asked, "The what?" "The bladder," she said.

Our Christmas shopping is pretty much complete. I ordered a few things this week and once get those and get them wrapped, we will be completely finished. We aren't buying as much this year because of the layoff but I feel like we have picked out some pretty thoughtful gifts! This weekend is Braylee's 5th birthday! I can't believe she is going to be 5. She is having a couple of girls over on Friday night to spend the night and is so excited! Look for a birthday post coming soon!

Sono pics

I have been meaning to post these for a week and haven't taken the time to do it yet. They are not the greatest but I thought they were cute! We are going to have a 4D Ultrasound in Wichita the last part of December so hopefully we can get some good shots then! We have had that done with all 3 of our kids and have always had pretty good luck. This time we are taking the whole family! I think the kids will enjoy seeing their new baby brother/sister and so will Mom and Dad! :)

The baby had it's legs crossed. She said we still could have found out the gender if we wanted to. It's legs were only crossed briefly during the scan. Nate turned his head anytime she moved near the area and at one point she even turned the screen away from both of us so we wouldn't accidentally see anything. The first picture is an overhead view of it's crossed legs. I think the picture is pretty neat. You can see it's little knees and everything.

The second picture is of the head, arms, and legs. It is a pretty clear shot of all three. It was pretty amazing really. We could see it opening it's mouth and closing it and moving it's arms up around it's face. I can feel lots of movement but haven't made it to the point yet where it is uncomfortable. Hopefully I still have a few good weeks left!

Catch Up

This is going to be a long post with a lot of random information but I have a lot of catching up to do! I really need to get in the habit of posting more often. I get behind and then I don't know where to start so I just end up putting it off even longer!

I know most people who read this already know about the Ash Grove layoff. It was quite a suprise initially but we have had a couple of months to prepare for it so that did help some! Nate is officially laid-off as of yesterday. It is not a nice feeling to be pregnant with your 4th child and have an unemployed husband! Luckily the layoff is supposed to be temporary (we'll see about that!) and our insurance is still good so it isn't all bad. I have to say it is going to be nice having Nate home through the holidays although I am sure our checking account will take a serious hit!

We had a sonogram today (21 weeks) and everything looked great with the baby. We were strong and still didn't find out what we were having (Sorry Tave!). It weighed about 15 ounces and was right on track for it's gestation. The heartbeat was 147 so pretty much in the middle of the boy/girl range. I will say the girl's heartbeats were always in the 160's-170's and Brax's was always right around 140 - sometimes a little lower. I honestly don't have a clue what it is! One day I will lean toward boy and the next day I will be thinking girl, so at this point, I honestly don't have a clue! We are thankful for a healthy baby either way and are counting our blessings every day!

Brax seems certain he is getting a brother! He will not accept the possibility that it could be a girl. If you ask him what it is, his first reaction is, "It's a boy." No uncertainty there at all! We even ask him sometimes, " What if it comes out and it's a girl?" and he won't even entertain the thought! He always replies, "It's not, " very matter of factly and moves on with it. He won't even consider it! I asked him that question the other day and he informed me that if it's a girl, Nanny said she would take it. I explained to him that it is coming home with us either way - even if it is a girl! He got to go to the doctor with us last week and heard the heartbeat for the first time. He looked at Nate in amazement and said, "Is that the baby?" It was very sweet! That night he was telling Dave and Julia that he heard the heartbeat and they asked him what it sounded like. " A boy," he says. Not exactly what they were going for! :)

Brecca has started basketball again this year. She is much improved from last year! I think she has shot about 6 baskets (hasn't made one yet but is still trying!) and plays defense like crazy! She even has a couple steals! I am so impressed with her improvement and while I do have to say that she is far from the best player on the team, she has improved 100% from last year! I asked her yesterday what her favorite part of basketball was and she looked at me like I was an idiot. Finally, she said, " Duh, winning."

This evening Brecca had a hard time in the bathtub. She did something Nate had specifically asked her not to do and had to get out of the tub and go up to bed early. Of course she threw a big fit and cried and screamed for about 30 minutes before she finally gave it up. Braylee was sitting on my lap and leaned over and said, "Mom, when Brecca gets 9, do you think she is going to have a better attitude?"

I have been subbing as much as possible to hopefully make up for the lost income and also maybe get a little money saved before the new baby comes! I have been worn out but I will try to post more frequently! I know.... You'll believe it when you see it, right???? :)

Pumpkin Patch

We continued the tradition of a camping trip/pumpkin patch weekend with Nanny and Poppy last weekend (minus two special people - Chelse and Tylee). It was a pretty chilly weekend but that didn't stop us. We headed over to the lake Friday afternoon. Nate and Poppy got the camper set up and then Nanny and I headed to town to get some groceries for the weekend. We made it back and cooked some hotdogs over the fire. I should say Nate and Poppy cooked some hotdogs over the fire - it was too cold out for the rest of us. Nate had to work on Saturday so the two of us came home that night and then I got up and went back over Saturday morning.

The kids were ready to get out of the camper for the day so everybody got around and we headed to the pumpkin patch. The have a big stock tank filled with corn (known by our family as the "corn pool," not sure of the technical name) but I have to say, it is the definite highlight. They also have some farm animals, a little kiddie area with the corn pool, a little caterpillar train, a hayrack ride, a corn maze, and of course, the pumpkin patch. The kids and I went on the hayrack ride, Braylee and Brax rode the little caterpillar train, played in the kiddie area for a long time, and picked out some pumpkins. It was a fun day but it was only about 50 degrees outside so we cut the visit a little shorter than we normally would have. Rather than just heading back to the camper, we decided to go to Pittsburg and get something to eat at one of my favorite places - Freddys! It was delicious!!!

We got back to the camper and did lots of puzzles, played Uno and Yahtzee multiple times, and colored more than anybody has ever colored in one weekend!!! It was a little crowded with 4 kids and 3 adults in a camper so the kids got a little restless at times. For the most part, they were wonderful! It would have been great had the weather been a little warmer for us but it was a great weekend regardless. I love that the kids have such a special relationship with not only their grandparents, but also their great grandparents!

Speaking of such great grandparents, my 78 year old grandpa (Sorry Poppy for disclosing your age!) would not let me sleep on the floor. He thought that since I was 16 weeks pregnant, sleeping on the floor would be uncomfortable for me and gave me the bed. Guess who slept on the floor instead???? You guessed it.... Poppy! Can you believe that!!! Not only did he sleep on the floor, he slept on the floor with Brax! :) I tried to protest but he was having no part of it. Thanks Poppy, it was greatly appreciated although completely not necessary! :)

Birthday Girl!

My little girl turned 7 years old at the end of September! 7 years old!!! I was ok with 6 but 7 just seems so old! I remember thinking last year how 6 wasn't old but that 7 seemed so grown up and dreading the day she turned 7. Well, the time has come!

She was so excited and had started a countdown in about July. She was having a sleepover for the first time. She only got to choose 4 friends so it was a small sleepover but she loved every minute of it. I have to admit that I kinda enjoyed it mysefl even. She was even a nice big sister and let Braylee stay too!

They had lots of fun and didn't stay up too late. We made shirts and then she opened her presents. She got a bracelet kit so that kept them entertained for quite awhile. We did cake and ice cream and then settled down to watch a movie. They were all asleep by 11:30 and didn't get up until about 8:00 the next morning. No one had to go home in the middle of the night so I considered it a big success! She had a blast though and can't wait until her next birthday sleepover!

We celebrated with family on the evening of her actual birthday. She got the Nintendo DS she had been wanting (along with some accessories) plus some other really neat stuff too. We had cake and ice cream. It is always fun to have all of your family together in one place so we enjoyed the company!

Once again, I can't believe my little girl is 7 years old! I just can't get over it. She is growing up, that's for sure. Happy Birthday sweet, sweet girl! We love you!

New friends

In case anybody may have noticed, Brecca had a birthday last week. I am going to do a post on it but it takes forever to upload pictures (I have hundreds to upload!) and I just haven't had the time! It should be coming in the (hopefully) near future! But until then....

Brax has two new friends, Jack and Jim. Jack and Jim are imaginary! It is so funny because both girls have great imaginations but have never had an imaginary friend. Yesterday, he was throwing a ball against the wall and fielding it (yes, we allow that!) and he kept saying, "Oh my gosh Jim!" Finally, I said, "Who's Jim?" and he informed me that Jim was hitting the ball and he was really good. They both play baseball for the Jayhawks. Jack and Jim spent the rest of the day, evening, night, and all day today with us. He plays with them and talks to them just like they are actually here with him. They even slept with him last night - one on each side! It will be interesting to see how long they are here for but so far it seems like they are staying awhile!

OB Appt - 13 weeks

I had my OB appointment last Thursday and got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! That is always an exciting moment. Especially when you have been throwing up for a good 7 weeks and yet you have no proof that you are really expecting! It makes the bad days worthwhile. :) Everything looked good and I have lost 17 lbs to date. Nothing really to be concerned about, considering I have 17 plus lbs to lose! Now if I weighed 110 or something I am sure he would be a little concerned but for me, it's all good! I did have a Urinary Tract Infection which is pretty typical of my pregnancies. He gave me an antibiotic for that and suggested I get some Miralax for constipation. I had tried Milk of Magnesia a couple of times with no success so it was time to try something different. Sorry if TMI but I want to document everything!

I have also been taking less and less of my Zofran. I think I have decided that it doesn't really affect the way that I feel. It does seem to help with the actual vomiting (lots of gagging and dry heaves instead of the vomiting) but I am not entirely sure that dry heaves are better than just vomiting in the first place. The only time I take it is if I am going to be subbing that day. A teacher throwing up in class???? I am sure I would never live that down!

I figured I would be over this by now but it is still hanging on! Nothing sounds good to eat and smells are hard to handle. Nate and the kids have been eating out a lot because I can't even stand for him to cook anything in the house! I am 13 weeks now though so I am expecting it to be completely gone within the next few weeks. I am hopeful it is already beginning to taper off a little bit! I guess we'll just have to wait and see....

I should be cleaning

I really should be cleaning my house! It is awful. And when I saw awful, it is an understatement. Last week I went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on cleaning supplies. I honestly hadn't been to Wal-Mart in about 6 weeks. Believe me, that is a long time! Especially when you have been sending your frugal husband who comes home with a 4 pack of Charmin to last a family of 5 for 2 whole weeks. I told him that I usually by the 12 pack and we barely make it. He was just trying to save money! I had to exlpain to him that now we would have to buy two more 4 packs which would total about $10 when we could have originallybought the 12 pack for $7! And we would have gotten 3 extra rolls. OK, enough about the TP! It's in the past!

By the time I made my trip to Wal-Mart for my supplies, I was too tired to use any of them. This 4th baby thing can really wear a girl out! So, today is my first free day since last Wednesday and I had big plans. Why am I sitting here blogging rather than cleaning? My problem is that I always just get so overwhelmed. I just don't know where to start. I threw in a load of laundry and then started the dishwasher. Oh, and I put Braylee on duty cleaning the back door with some Windex! And now, here I sit. My sisters strategy is to do one room at a time. Clean the kitchen and put everything that doesn't belong in the kitchen into the living room. When the kitchen is clean, move into the living room, cleaning as you go, and put everything that doesn't belong in the living room into the computer room. You get the idea! I just don't have the motivation! Brecca is having 5 first graders spend the night on Saturday night for her birthday sleepover so I better get busy. But then again, do 7 year olds really care if your house is messy????

Brecca's gonna kill me!

Someday Brecca is going to hate me for posting this but I definitely don't want to forget! Last night she came home from Youth Group at church and immediately pulled down her pants right in the middle of the living room. Here is our conversation.....

Me: Brec, what are you doing?

Brecca: Checking for poop stains.

I looked at her panties and said...

Me: Oh, nope, you look clean. There are no poop stains in there.

Brecca: Oh, well it certainly felt like there was!

Bad blogger

Ok, It's official! I am a terrible blogger. I have the best of intentions, I really do...

September is a busy month! Nate, Brecca, and I all celebrate birthdays in September. Last weekend we had a fish fry out at Nate's parents for his birthday. He and the kids had been catching fish all summer and saving them for the big birthday party. I have to admit, I am not a big fish fan but everybody else seemed to think it was delicious! Dave is a great cook so I am sure if he made it then it was great! Julia even brought her mom to town for a couple of hours. She turned 94 a few months ago and is still in great health. The kids enjoyed seeing her and I think she enjoyed the evening as well! The weather was beautiful and I think everybody enjoyed themsleves.

I survived my sub jobs the last couple of weeks and seem to be feeling a little bit better. I have some bad days but at least now I have a few good days mixed in. That is progress! The kids are so excited about the baby and Braylee's teacher told her at school that the baby can hear her talking to it so now all three of them have to talk to it everynight! I love to hear the things they say to it. We will definitely have to try to get it on camera at some point.

We have had a fun weekend this weekend! I hate to see weekends end. Friday night we went to the high school football game. We invited Poppy down to go with us. It was a good game and the home team ended up pulling through at the last minute and scoring the game-winning touchdown! It was pretty exciting! Poppy took Brax home for the night to surprise Nanny. She said it was the best surprise she has had in a long time! :) Saturday, Brecca went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. She rated it one of the best days of her life so I would say she enjoyed it. We had smores Saturday night out at Dave and Julia's. They were pretty tasty - I had to sample a couple to make sure they were good enough for the kids to eat! This morning we went to church and Brecca was presented with a Bible. She was very excited about it and even wanted me to help her look up the scripture when the time came! :) This afternoon we went to my moms and had a little early birthday party for me. My brother and his wife were in town and my sister came too. Nanny wasn't feeling well but Popster was there and of course my mom, Nate and the kids. They even got me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!!! It doesn't get much better than that.

A great weekend makes Mondays that much harder but I guess it makes us one day closer to next weekend!!!

4

After several months of very few postings, I finally decided to forget about catching up and to just move forward! I know that I will never go back and write about our entire summer so rather than just never blogging again, I figured I would just start from here and continue like I didn't skip three whole months. Let me just say we had a great, busy summer and it was one of the best summers yet! Brecca did a fantastic job on swim team this year and we were so proud! OK, Moving on!

We have some important news to share in our family! We will be welcoming baby #4 in April of 2010!!! We decided that there really couldn't be a better time for us than right now so we decided to go for it. I am about 10 weeks right now and am not feeling very well at all. Luckily my huband has been wonderful! He cooks dinner every night, bathes the kids, does homework, and puts them all 3 to bed, all while managing to keep the house fairly picked up!!! I really couldn't ask for more! I am sure he is just as ready as I am for me to start feeling better but he hasn't complained at all. Our families have alse been very helpful and have taken the kids for the last two weekends so I can rest up.

The kids were very excited when we told them the news. The girls keep saying they want a girl because they "don't want another ornery brother like Brax." Brax, of course, wants a brother. Nate and I really have no preference at all since we have both daughters and a son. We aren't going to find out what this one is so it will be a big suprise at the birth!

I haven't been doing much subbing this year just yet but I do have 8 days coming up out of the next 10. I took all of these jobs back at the first of August and I just knew I would be feeling better by now. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers the next few days as I try to survive the next week with a class full of 2nd graders!

Busy, Busy!

Catch Up

Wow, I have some serious catching up to do! A lot has been going on this summer plus I still need to finish up our Disney trip! The Disney trip is more for my info than anything but the blog is a great way to document everything we did. I better get busy soon cause things are starting to slip from my memory!

It seems like we have been so busy this summer. I had some major plans and they just haven't happened. We have only made it to the library one time this summer - can you believe it! We were going to do story time and arts and crafts and it just didn't happen! We have had a lot of fun though. The kids have done some serious swimming, lightning bug catching, toad chasing, fishing, swinging, t-ball playing, golfing, puppy caring.... The list could go on and on!

Speaking of puppies, they are partly to blame for my lack of blog posts. Our black Labradoodle, whom we gave to my in-laws last summer, had puppies the first part of June. She had 9 total. After a couple of days we noticed one didn't seem to be growing like the rest of them. It turned out she had a cleft palate and the vet recommended euthanizing her right away. That just didn't seem fair to me to not even give her a chance at life, so guess who brought her home and bottle fed her for 6 weeks??? Actually my mother-in-law kept her for the first two weeks so she could still be with her mom and then at about 2.5 weeks, we brought her home. She is now 10 weeks old and doing really well. We call her Tiny - although she is up to 5.6lbs now (compared to her littermates who are about 20lbs, she is Tiny!).

Here is a picture of her playing with her sister. Pretty big size difference!!

I offered to help my in-laws out with selling the puppies since I had just gone through the same process last summer. I started a puppy blog which took all of my energy and free time away from this blog! By the time I took puppy pictures, uploaded them, posted them on the blog, wrote about them, plus placed ads and answered phone calls and replied to e-mails, all of my free time was gone!!!

The kids loved having the puppies and it was so nice for me this summer to get to play with them and help out when I wanted to but to not be the full time caregiver! Believe me, puppies are a lot of work! They are all gone now except for two - one should be going to his new home shortly and the other one is still looking for his new home. If you know anybody who may be interested, send them our direction!

What kind of mom takes pictures while her daughter is being attacked???

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays! Actually, I love all holidays but 4th of July is full of traditions for our family. I grew up going to the lake every year on the 4th. Our weekends were full of fireworks, pontoon rides, visits with family, time on the beach, and always some watermelon at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Humboldt always has their fireworks on the 3rd so it usually works out anyway for us to go to the Humboldt activities and then also make it to the lake. Nate's work schedule wasn't too accomodating this year and we didn't make it to the lake but we still had a great weekend with family. We spent the evening of the 3rd in Humboldt with Nanny and Poppy. Dave and Julia brought Kam and Larsen up and Patsy and Hilly were there as usual. We always eat cake and homeade ice cream at the Lutheran church before heading over to the golf course and waiting on the fireworks.

Larsen had to get every last drop!

They have some model airplanes that some guys fly every year and the kids are really impressed with that! We usually get there a couple of hours early but it is pretty entertaining and we all enjoy the company! The fireworks are always pretty impressive too!

Two buddies - Kam and Brax

I played golf on Saturday while Nate worked! Poor Nate! Matt, Kara, Dave, and I all played in a scramble out at Quarry Stone. It was a fun day although I am pretty sure I played the worst golf of my life. The kids were at Nanny and Poppy's so I came home, took a nap (yah!!!!), and then Nate and I headed to my moms at about 5:00. Nanny and Poppy brought the kids down and we ate about 6:00. We shot of some fireworks in the front yard. Braylee was the only one brave enough to light them herself. Well, technically, for some reason we didn't trust brax with a punk so he didn't have the option! :) about 8:00 headed out to Dave and Julia's to hang out and do some parachutes. We think we found some outfielders for our future softbal team. Brecca and Braylee both were about to track them and catch them out of the air! We were VERY impressed! At one point my mom discovered Brax was missing. The pool gates were locked so we weren't worried about that but we just couldn't figure out where he could have gone. Dave went to check in the house and found Brax sitting on top of the bar, eating an entire cake with a spatula straight out of the pan! I said, "Brax, what are you doing???" "Eating cake," he says. Duh Mom! He had eaten probably 1/4 the 9x13 cake in one sitting! :)

Brecca loved shooting smoke bombs!

We were worn out so we headed home about 11:00. The kids all three went home with Grandma Ann so I even got to sleep in a little this morning. A nap and sleeping in - all in the same 24 hours! I think that is a first!

We had a great 4th! Hope yours was safe and happy as well!

Disney Day 3 (but technically Sea World!)

Fishing

Nate took the kids fishing this afternoon. He caught a 4 lb bass. Braylee caught a little minnow but according to her it was about 6 inches long! They were all pretty excited though about Daddy's big fish. Brax kept saying, "He has a really dirty mouth," and couldn't get close enough! Brecca was even brave enough to hold it although she wasn't quite strong enough to lift it up. Braylee wasn't interested in holding it. I don't know if she was scared or just didn't really care!

Another Post that is not about Disney

I am still working on my next Disney post (which is actually Sea World - not Disney) but I needed to post about Brax and his potty training - or I guess I should say lack of potty training! We never had any issues with the girls and I know it isn't fair to compare kids but come on! This kid child has ABSOLUTELY no interest in using the potty! He will use it occasionally and sometimes out of the blue he will say he has to go and run in and use it with no problem but it is the other 98% of the time that is causing us some issues. Remember, this is the kid that turned 3 YRS OLD two months ago. I did mention it to his doctor who says some boys aren't pottytrained until they are 4 yrs old and that is completely normal. We haven't pushed up to this point. We figured he would start when he was ready but will that time ever come??? It seems like we have tried everything short of outright bribing him to use the potty.
- Praise
- Threats
- Big boy underwear
- Pull ups
- Cheerios to "shoot" at
- Going outside
- Taking him with us so he can witness it first hand

We were seriously at a loss so yesterday I bought some M&M's at Wal-Mart and we are going to reward him for using the potty by giving him M&M's each time he goes. I didn't want to reward him for something that he should do on his own ( I know a lot of people do... I just didn't want to!) but desperate times call for desperate measures! I can just picture him going to Kindergarten and me sending M&M's for his teacher to reward him with each time he uses the bathroom with the rest of the class.

I explained all of this to him at Wal-Mart as I was picking up the M&M's. He had to go right away! So, the three kids and I left our cart unattended while we went into the Family Restroom at Wal-Mart and Brax proceeded to do his business. M&M's right off the bat! Score! He earned some more right before bed last night. This morning he got up and the first thing I said to him was, " Brax, let's go use the potty! " He says, " I already did." Hmmm... When was this????? "At the store, " he said. Yesterday! Apparently it still hasn't clicked for him!

Ollie

I am working on a new post from Disney but I wanted to announce the arrival of our new kitten! Her name is Ollie (after Oliver from Oliver and Company). She has been getting a lot of love and I'm not entirely sure that she is enjoying it! :) Tolerating it may be a better way to put it! She is doing well though and is beginning to get used to all of the loud and crazy sounds that come from our house at pretty much all times!

Disney Day 2 - Warning: Lots of pictures!

We were up bright and early on Day 2 of our Disney trip. We had breakfast with the princesses scheduled for 8:25a.m.! Everybody was still a little worn out from the day before so we were a kinda slow getting around. Our breakfast was at Epcot and the park doesn't open until 9. It is so nice to be able to get in early and walk through an almost completely empty park to the restaurant. We did this same breakfast the last time and really enjoyed the princesses and the food. Bray had an exceptionally hard time waking up so she wasn't overjoyed to be there. In fact, any picture Braylee is in is because I specifically asked the princess to go stand next to her chair! Brax had also been talking about how he was going to kiss Cinderella but he was a lot of talk and not quite as much action!

Braylee was having the time of her life!

We had just a few things we wanted to do at Epcot and then were planning on spending the afternoon resting. We headed to the Nemo ride and then did a show called Turtle Talk with Crush. It is a cute interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo. Everybody enjoyed it. Nate, Julia, Ann, and Brecca headed off to ride Soarin and I stayed with Braylee and Brax to watch Turtle talk with Crush again. There is a part where Crush lets kids ask him questions and Braylee was really excited to ask him why there was a microphone is his tank (so the humans in the human tank could hear him talk) but he didn't call on her. She was raising her hand and waving it all around. Brax actually fell asleep and took about a 10 minute nap but then I had to carry him outside and find the stroller. My mom and Brecca were waiting on us. Soaring had a long line so they didn't ride it and Nate and Julia had gone to ride Test Track.
After we all met back up, we headed over to the Character Spot to meet some characters!

Brax got brave enough to kiss Minnie on the nose.

We had to stop for some photo opportunities on the way out!


We were all worn out by this point so we decided to head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. The kids and I took a nap in our room while Nate and both Grandma's swam in the pool. We were up for a fun night at Downtown Disney later in the evening so we needed to be rested up!

We parked on the wrong side of Downtown Disney so we took a water taxi to the Marketplace. It was a fun little ride and much better than walking! :) We stopped in at Goofy's Candy Company and got some Rice Krispy Treats. They are a snack credit on the dining plan and arguably the best bang for your buck! The kids enjoyed them!

The kids with their Grandmas!

Show us your muscles Braxy!

Check out that Rice Krispy Treat!

We ate a sandwich and then did a little window shopping. We stopped and watched a little show on our way out. Nothing too exciting but an enjoyable evening! Then it was back to the hotel for another good night's sleep!