Our Life Accounts

How We Were Blessed With Our Own Christmas Miracle

2012-05-31T13:43:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to type up this story and get it documented on the blog before little details are lost forever. So here you go, a little story for you all about how we found out about our special little Christmas miracle...

December 23rd I was off work and Brent had an appointment downtown that I decided to tag along to. As we were sprinting across a rather large intersection, I got sign numero uno that something was up when my body decided to go into full blown cramps for several minutes. THAT wasn't due yet for another week. Regardless, I brushed it aside, didn't say anything to Hubs and we went about kicking off an awesome Christmas holiday.

Christmas Eve and during the day on Christmas we enjoyed spending time with gobs of extended and immediate family. I had a very strong sneaking suspicion what was going on Christmas but decided to officially wait to confirm until after the holiday was done. There was no way either of us could have kept our mouth shut around all the family if we were bursting with news. And if it wasn't the news I was expecting (pun totally intended), then no need to mar the holiday. We finished out Christmas day together at home, snuggled up in bed watching our favorite Christmas movies: White Christmas and Polar Express, while munching on popcorn and Christmas goodies and sipping hot chocolate loaded with marshmallows. It was truly the perfect way to enjoy the holiday and end the day. Magical! :)

The next day, I happened to wake up before Hubs (this NEVER happens) so I slipped out of bed and decided to pee on a stick. That 3 minute wait they say to give? Yeah....I hadn't even finished peeing before it flashed pregnant. I always wondered how I'd react if I got a positive pregnancy test. Surprisingly, there was no screaming, no fainting, no nothing. When I looked at it, somehow it was just like I already knew what it was going to say:

I really wanted to tell Brent in a special way and I remembered a little minky baby stocking tucked away in one of the baby boxes that I had just moved from the attic to garage storage just a few days prior that he had never seen. It has pink and blue ribbons with bells tied on it and it was totally perfect to tuck the pregnancy stick inside along with a little tiny "twas the night before Christmas onesie". I wrapped it up, brought it back to bed and handed it to Brent and said "here, I have one last present for you."

To say he was shocked would be the understatement of the century. His exact response? "Are you serious?" ...wrong holiday Husband....we are not quite to April yet.

We announced to my immediate family later that day and announced to his immediate family the next day when we flew up to VT for our Winter Holiday with his family. We even captured the reaction on video! We surprised them with a super adorable little gap onesie that says "Best Gift Ever" with little red and green presents. :) It doesn't get more appropriate than that!

They were all ecstatic. :) In fact Brent's father's reaction was to-the-t the exact same response as Brent's. Bets were immediately placed on both sides on whether it was a girl or boy. I think family was pretty evenly split down the middle in the beginning.

The queasiness started to kick in a few days before we headed home. Thankfully it stayed manageable until about a few days after we got home. Once the greenish tint became my "glow" for the next many months, it made it a lot easier to "go dark" and not make any announcements until we were ready. Quite honestly, there wasn't much more planning until we got to Easter (not to say that family wasn't checking in constantly). Brent and I stayed squirreled away for the winter and he helped me battle out the nausea.

And there you have it! If I left out any details that you all are just dying to hear, just let me know!

Bump Update #5

2012-05-30T14:29:00.001-04:00

Our Memorial Day weekend was amazing. Relaxing and laid-back but somehow we still managed to get a ton of things done without it feeling like it. Friday we made a whole bunch of food to snack on throughout the weekend: homemade guac and bruschetta, grilled pizzas, my most favorite caprese pasta salad, healthy egg salad and a massive container of fruit salad. It was amazing and I'm kind of surprised I didn't gain a lot more weight! Monday and Tuesday were HOT and the reality of being pregnant in the summer was a fun slap in the face. So hot and humid that just being outside made me short of breath. I am so grateful for the deliciousness of AC!

Husband volunteered to snap this week's photo while I was lounging with him outside while he grilled last night's dinner. I think this was the most I wore all weekend!

How far along: late 20something weeks

Weight gain: 14 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Nope, summer dresses for the win.

Gender: Girl!

Name: it's a surprise!

Movement: All the time. She has definitely dropped in the last week and a half and that has made some of the movement quite uncomfortable. I am still at the point though where I love it all.

Cravings: Not really a result of the pregnancy but more because of the insane heat. Ice cream has totally been hitting the spot. Cookie crusted drumsticks and Toasted Almond bars plus my absolute favorite ice cream ever: Blue Bunny Homemade Vanilla Ice cream scooped on top of 3 fresh peaches. It's practically a meal! :)

Sleep: Pretty good actually. I think I've adjusted to the fading in and out plus my current pillow configuration is working out really nicely.

# of Days since m/s has hit: 0, totally got sick after eating the most delicious Wegmans bagel in the morning.

What I'm most looking forward to after the baby (besides the obvious): being able to breath in the heat.

Last baby items purchased: Hubs and I hit a gold mine of books over the weekend at Goodwill. Little Golden books, Berenstein Bears, Curious George (an entire hardback set of 10+ for mere pennies) and a mini Children's bible board book were just a few of our finds. We also picked up her lamp and frames for her room. All that's left now is a few small craft projects!

Other Craziness: Most people are shocked at my size when they hear I am in my third trimester, I don't think being told how small I look will ever get old. Certain co-workers have made it a point to let me know how big I am looking (so not true-even I know that I am carrying small right now) so I guess it all balances out. As long as baby girl is growing healthy, I don't care how "small" I look. Right now it feels like its a that sweet spot of just big enough but not too big.

Thursday Confessions

2012-05-24T08:08:00.000-04:00

We have a four-nearly-five day weekend coming up this weekend and I am so excited I can hardly stand it. My focus on important work stuff has taken a beating because of this. It will most likely be our last break before she gets here. Woah is that just crazy to think about.

This entire pregnancy has sort of felt unreal. I have to keep reminding myself that there is a baby coming at the end!

I have yet to read a pregnancy book. There I said it. First trimester, I didn't need the added anxiety. Second trimester I kind of just blinked and it was gone and now here we are. I have gone so far as to order a stack of books from Amazon which are sitting on my nightstand (I won't say how many weeks they've been sitting there!) but that's as far as I've gotten.

I also have not done a thing about birthing classes, per-registering at the hospital, birth plan, contacted our Doctor's office to discuss whether the Pediatricians there have visiting rights at our hospital or even discussed maternity leave with work. I really really really need to get cracking on all of this. I think at some point it will probably start keeping me up at night.

However! On a positive note, Baby Girl's nursery is done as far as the big stuff goes. The only large piece of furniture we are waiting on is her glider which should arrive any day now. All that will be left after that is hanging up the art, filling the shelves, drawers and closet with all of her stuff as it trickles in and maybe a few craft decor projects.

I finished up the first of a couple of bow boards for her over the weekend and it came out pretty well. I'll try and post some pictures once we have a little more sun and better light.

Our shower is coming up and I need to stop messing with the registry and just leave it alone now for the guests. We opted to go with Amazon for the universal wish list option (and the fact that their prices are much cheaper!) and I'm hoping that the people don't have a problem with online shopping and end up deciding to just getting us a bunch of nonsense (a million picture frames, stuffed animals and 0-3m clothing that she will wear for 2 days if she's lucky!) that I will have to return in order to get the stuff we need. Are there any experienced moms out there that would like to critique the registry and tell me I have way too much crap on there and don't need half of it or tell me all the good stuff I am missing???

I have started doing the Shred again just because I could.not.stand. the flabbiness and lack of physical activity any more. No I did not ask my OB but I modified the cardio (no bouncing for me) and abs per "pregnancy approved" examples of physical activity and for the rest, I just intend to let my body and her tell me what I can handle. I will admit, push-ups at this point are laughable. I think I got maybe an inch or two down before my stomach was already hitting the ground?

I have finally completed a massive freezing spreadsheet that I am hoping to tackle before she comes. Meats, pastas, soups, sauces, sides, breakfast, breads and desserts. Details will require a separate post but hopefully she will cooperate and let me tackle this project

Bump Update #4

2012-05-23T13:33:00.000-04:00

I am almost done writing up the details of how we find out, etc so hopefully I'll get that posted soon. At some point I am also hoping to post details on how we told family/close friends what we were having (before the facebook, blog and other social media posts from Disney). We'll see how far I get, time is whizzing by and the reality of how soon she is going to be here is hitting full force!

How far along: 20something weeks

Weight gain: 13-14 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Still holding out...

Gender: Girl!

Name: it's a surprise!

Movement: Yep. She's moving in big ways and seems to find humor in how low she can go and bury and kick her feet. Fun fun times. The little stinker. It's just such a weird feeling.

Cravings: No real cravings, but I was explaining to someone how to make a grilled pizza today and decided Hubs and I will definitely need to take advantage of our long weekend coming up and make grilled pizzas and peaches.

Sleep: not too bad, I generally get up once at night, every now and then I can squeak by without.

# of Days since m/s has hit: haven't had any since I last updated, maybe I'm finally in the clear? I've been told it often comes back with 3rd trimester though so...who knows, I guess it could pop back at anytime now.

What I'm most looking forward to after the baby (besides the obvious): Not being looked at a piece of meat. This has got to be the WORST part of pregnancy, it can even come from Family! I am sick of people blatantly checking me out and gauging my stomach and boobs. Yes they are bigger. Get over it. If I have to accept the comments like "girl you've done popped oooouuutt" it's one thing. But I will not stand for people looking at me as a piece of meat. It was never acceptable before I was pregnant and it is certainly not acceptable now. This one irks me beyond belief! Even my husband has been astounded at this one.

Last baby items purchased:Well Zulily totally bombed on a recent order of mine and I am seriously *this close* to swearing off them completely. But in the meantime I had some credits I needed to use up so I picked up baby girl a cute little red and white polka dot suit.

Source: zulily.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Other Craziness: Our maternity shoot is in two weeks. TWO WEEKS. See also: I need to go shopping ASAP. I have no idea what the photographers have up their sleeves and I have no idea what we are going to wear. The fact that we can have as many outfits as we want isn't helping matters any. Particularly when my closet is so much limited these days! I could put together a million outfits from Jcrew but unfortunately, they require a waistline that I do not currently have. Has anyone seen anything cute lately that they love? Non-maternity is fine. I've been thinking maybe a maxi dresses, a knit dress, maxi skirt and tank, white jeans and a cute top, cropped jeans and a flowy top but apparently not much of this is in this season???? I seem to have lost my shopping mojo. Probably right around the same time I lost my waistline...

Bump Update #3

2012-05-17T11:03:00.001-04:00

I'm quite late on the bump update this week. Work has been cuhrazy and I have not had a second to think. Also, this weeks bump photo is quite awful, it was super dark and a torrential downpour all day when I took it. I might try and have Brent snap a quick shot tonight to at least add to the post later.

How far along: 20something weeks

Weight gain: 12ish pounds

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. Now that it's gotten warmer it's gotten substantially easier to find things to wear in what I already have. Pre-pregnancy I lived in dresses and tunics in the summer and a number of them are still quite workable with the baby bump.

Gender: Girl!

Name: it's a surprise!

Movement: All the time. It is crazy watching her hands and feet poke out from my stomach, she's actually startled a few people before with her craziness. :) I think this little girl is going to be a gymnast with the way she will flip and roll for hours! An email several weeks back said I'd notice sleep patterns but this girl seems to be constantly moving. I'm hoping she gets that out of her system before her arrival.

Cravings: We had grilled chicken bruschetta and guacamole last night and we made the guac and bruschetta fresh and it was pretty near orgasmic. I think I could live off of that right now! Also feeling the same way about ice cream and peaches, I look forward to my nightly bowl of that all day!

Sleep: It's gotten a lot better actually, mornings I still end up dozing on and off while I fight the siren call of the bathroom.

# of Days since m/s has hit: haven't had actually puked since the last time I updated! There have been a couple mornings of pretty close calls but I'm grateful stuff is staying down.

What I'm most looking forward to after the baby (besides the obvious): being able to go out for runs again...and in my teeny tiny sports attire. :-D

Last baby items purchased: we purchased a whole bunch of stuff for her nursery over the weekend, including paint, the glider and a bunch of supplies for some projects we are working on for her room. Tonight we have a hot date planned to pick up the rest of her furniture, can't wait!

Other Craziness: I put two and two together last night and the full realization of why this child is measuring so big kinda hit. All the pieces of knowledge were there but it finally hit home.

Every single one of my mom's eight babies would have most likely been 10+ pounds had they waited until their due date. 6 of her 8 kids were born either 3 weeks or 9 days early. The 3 week early ones still weighed in at a hefty 6lb12oz/6lb14oz size and the 9 day early babies all measured in the high 7s-high 8s. The one she got within 4 days of her due date with? 10lbs1oz. And she birthed that child naturally, in a birthing center. My grandmother also had pretty decent-sized babies and she also went early.

Hubs wasn't exactly a small child baby himself, although I'm pretty sure he has never been classified as small. So yeah, I'm really curious to see what happens with this baby. I know she's healthy and is putting on whatever weight she needs to put on, I'm kinda hoping I either go early or don't need to birth a giant though!

A Friday Feature

2012-05-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

I received an email yesterday about the upcoming Ruche children's collection this summer and this picture had me swooning:

I love the little romper! Currently they have a small children's selection online and I must admit, I had no idea they had expanded to include children's items. I may have added this little tea set to the babies Christmas list. :)

I can't wait to see what they come out with in July!

Coming Soon...

2012-05-10T09:07:00.000-04:00

Most of you know of my great love for the brand Joyfolie. I have been a long-time customer & organizing Baby Girls shoe, clothing & accessories from Joyfolie in the nursery was pretty much the first thing I did once I knew I was having a girl. And Hubs already knows that I am pretty much just going to have to open up a line of credit with Joyfolie because with designs like these, why shop anywhere else?

But did you know that Joyfolie's long-awaited women's line is coming out next week?

Jessica has begun releasing teaser shots on facebook & her blog and I'm totally swooning:

Source: i337.photobucket.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

I don't know how successfully I'll be able to pull off the Alma platform wedge while pregnant but rest assured I am going to try! The flower clip is removable, making them incredibly versatile. And I looooooooooove the mustard yellow wedges. So perfect for the summer!

Jessica has also upped her youth sizes to size 5 which translates into a women's size 7. The above yellow flat is technically from her children's line but if you are a women's size 7 or smaller you're in luck! Also, the youth sizes do not have the strap around the ankle, this only comes on the toddler sizes.

Be sure to sign up for her newsletter to get the insider scoop on the release date plus there is going to be a special promotions offered to email subscribers only.

Some New Baby Discoveries

2012-05-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

It's been fun kicking off the shopping for this little one. I waited so long to shop for anything that I think when I finally gave myself permission, I didn't even know where to start! Etsy & Zulily to the rescue.

Some of you were kind of enough to share some of your favorites & I was able to dig up some old favorites that I've used for baby gifts in the past that are still open for business now.

So what packages have been heading into her nursery as of late?

A newly discovered favorite from Zulily, and a local business at that, Ollie and Bess:

Love the seersucker with crabs! Totally appropriate for this MD baby. :) The madras and gingham are adorable as well. And the boys shorts & shortalls are just as irresistible. They were offering a 30% off promo on their entire website, so after I bought a couple items through Zulily, I made my way over to their website & stocked up on some more items & hit up the fantastic outlet section they have. Love that everything can be monogrammed! Babe is gonna be styling next summer!

Next up is another brand I discovered on Zulily...after the event had already ended. I found So La Vita on Amazon after seeing the photos on the Zulily pinterest board and had a bunch of favorites saved in my cart but then Zulily conveniently brought them back and their prices beat the amazon prices. It was tough to narrow down but here are some of my favorites: :)

Another favorite I mentioned the other day is Offspring. I was super tempted to bite during the Saks 5th kids sale but I ended up finding them over on Amazon for less. Since I wanted to pick her up a couple pieces in smaller sizes, I super appreciate their 365 day return policy in case she doesn't get a chance to wear them. These are some of the girl options they have but all the boys stuff is super super cute, I was very tempted to stock up on some of that for later!

There have been a number of accessory and nursery purchases from etsy but this is lengthy enough so I'll save them for another post.

Bump Watch #2

2012-05-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

Well so much for blogging this past week! I had great intentions I assure you, just couldn't find the time and energy for the final push to sit down and get stuff posted! We had quite a busy week since I posted last week. Birthday celebrations, multiple doctors appointments, lots of projects and work.

We worked on sanding and refinishing furniture for the nursery over the weekend and I might have overdone it just a tad. Woke up in the middle of the night barely able to move my lower half and then spent all of yesterday groaning and hobbling around. It was a pretty sight. I felt like I'd done 5 million squats and back bends. It's crazy how your body changes when you are pregnant.

How far along: 5+ months, still not sure on the exact week.

Weight gain: Between 10-11 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Still hanging in there with regular clothes but really I feel its going to be any day now.

Gender: Girl!

Name: it's a surprise!

Movement: All the time. It's already feeling invasive-I love it and and occasionally grimace at the same time. :) My stomach dances all over the places, particularly when I'm driving or when I drink water.

Cravings: fruit salad filled with watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe and grapes. I've also been enjoying all the grilling we've been doing and lots of salad with grilled chicken. Occasional bite or two of ice cream from the freezer.

Sleep: Not too bad, I had been making up a lot on my back so I switched to a row of pillows on both sides of my body and that's helped quite a bit.

# of Days since m/s has hit: 2. I had to add this in since the nausea still rears its ugly head on occasion and I'd like to remember for next time.

What I'm most looking forward to after the baby (besides the obvious): this week its a full lung capacity.

Last baby items purchased: Some adorable Offspring clothes from Amazon. I was *this close* to biting on the Saks kids sale & happened to check over on amazon & they carried a much bigger selection & were offering a much better promo. Not to mention, 365 day returns if she doesn't end up wearing them. I also bit on the Madame Alexander dolls on zulily-these were actually a really great deal! If you stack on an additional discount code, it comes out to less than half the cost on amazon & a third the cost from other toy stores.

Other Craziness: I finally found a seller that can make 3-initial monogrammed bows for the babe, surprisingly this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I also bought a whole bunch of supplies over the weekend to start on a number of projects for her. Slowly but surely her nursery is going to start filling up! :)

First Bump Update

2012-05-01T13:49:00.001-04:00

I've had more than one person express surprise at how long Brent and I waited to share the news. Both in real life as well as through social media (facebook, twitter, blog etc). And there were a number of reasons. For starters, I was really sick and it took a lot out of both us to keep getting through everything that needed to be done (we both have full time & part time jobs, plus growing a kid is job numero 3 for me). Also the rate of miscarriage for us is was quite high and we weren't sure how much we'd want to talk about that with people in person or on facebook if something did go wrong. It just kind of happened in the beginning and the longer it carried on, the more it became this fun and special time as a couple, keeping the biggest shock of our lives squirreled away as a secret. :) Time that we'll never have back again!

Now that I am feeling more human & the secret is out though, it is a very different kind of fun! We no longer have to check ourselves before opening our mouths for starters. And holy mackerel do we have a lot to get done in not a lot of time!

So here are the stats as of today.

How far along: 5+ months (I believe somewhere between 23-25 wks). I need to hammer out my official due date with my OB next appointment, so this will just have to do for now.

Weight gain: 10ish pounds, its still normalizing since getting back from vacation. Several of those pounds can be directly contributed to items like these from Disney:

Mmmmmmmm, so good! These pictures don't do the size justice-those are large plates and that cinnamon roll was nearly the size of my head!

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. In fact, I invested in a couple of bellabands before we left for vacation in case all the amazing food made things a bit tight but a hair elastic a couple of times totally did the trick. It's coming though!

Gender: Girl! A total Princess. :)

Name: Been picked for years but it's a surprise!

Movement: She went from 0-60 a number of weeks back and it has only grown more constant. Three days after I knew I was feeling her for sure, Brent was able to feel her too. Little girl packs a whallop!

Cravings: After the word salad made me puke for the first 15ish weeks (the smell and sight were even worse), I'm back to enjoying my massive salads, in fact, for a few weeks that was just about the only thing that sounded good. Fruit salads with yogurt have also been ranking pretty high. And of course, ice cream. :)

Sleep: Decent, I actually slept better at Disney then I have been at home. I have a feeling this had more to do with the exhaustion at the end of every day though. The dreams interfere more with my sleep than anything else. That plus a bathroom break nearly every night and those are the only things messing with me for now.

What I'm most looking forward to after the baby (besides the obvious): Running & working out. Feeling strong. Putting on clothes and having them just slid right on. Being able to get up and move around without groaning.

Last baby item purchased: bookcase & mirror for her room.

Other Craziness: After buying and testing a ton of different samples, we have finalized the paint (YAY!). The goal for May is to get the room painted and the majority of the furniture sanded, painted, assembled and in the room. Last big decision is committing to the glider. We loved the Little Castle brand but the one we tested and loved doesn't come in the color we want. Now we need to track down the Monaco II to do a sit test.

Trying to Get my Groove Back

2012-04-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

It is definitely taking me a little while to get back on my feet and recover from our glorious vacation. Fun? Yes. Restful? Not exactly.

We got home Wednesday night and both worked Thursday and Friday. We could have taken those days off and enjoyed a four day weekend and really? We probably should have. But we both are jealously guarding our days off for once this Princess gets here so off to work we went. I am slowly working on some of the detail posts and I think I finally answered the last of your emails/comments, hopefully I didn't miss anyone-they were all appreciated!

Some Snippets until I finish up the other posts:

We got home from vacation and started to feel woefully behind, particularly preparing for this coming-incredibly-fast little bundle. Vacation was up in the air until quite literally the last minute. Vacation plans had been made months in advance but the final decision was made Tuesday and we left Thursday straight from work (with commitments Tuesday AND Wednesday night). This child seems to like keeping us on our toes. Life and decisions up until vacation had been so crazy time-consuming that a lot of other plans and decisions were kind of pushed off until after vacation. My agenda for May is looking quite lengthy.

And this past weekend? Well its no wonder I am still tired this morning...

The remaining two pieces of furniture were removed from the nursery; new furniture needed to handle the additional load for the rest of the house was set up & moved around; paint colors, bedding and the majority of the nursery furniture decisions were finalized (quite a bit of it purchased too!). Books and craft supplies were ordered, returns were done, vacation unpacking commenced, mega loads of laundry done and the last little bit of the gardening & landscaping was finished. Reading through the above list makes it clear why I have been groaning all day. One would think I forgot I was pregnant!

I have miraculously held off on 99.9% of shopping for this babe until after our vacation. The one time I caved was when one of the etsy artists we wanted some prints from ran a 50% off sale. At that point we knew she was a she and no way was I going to pass up that kind of sale! However since we've been back? Well...I have killed my phone battery anytime my computers been running reports. I have been getting quite the education on hair accessories. Korkers, puff bows, loopy bows, spikes, bitty bows, clippies of all sorts, endless varieties of headbands, monogrammed items and so much more. There is a lot out there! And it is all so dang cute!

Joyfolie has always been my go-to. My first love if you will. And knowing that I am having a girl? Yeah...I just need to open a line of credit with them because heaven knows my girl is going to be wearing it a lot! Their current spring line and upcoming summer line are both incredible, baby girl is going to have more shoes and accessories than her mama.

That being said, unless this child is running around naked save adorable shoes and hair clips, I might need to expand my horizons a bit. So please tell me all your favorite places to shop! I've been recently acquainted with Polka Dot Posies and Little Pea Bows (who is currently running 50% off their entire shop!). I've also heard of One Little Monkey, though her shop is temporarily closed right now. I would love to hear about your favorite children's stores as well as etsy/handmade shops!

Oh & does anyone have a favorite store that sells 3 monogram bows? I saw a little girl wearing an adorable one at Disney but they have proven tougher to track down then I thought!

Pregnancy updates & vacationing at Disney pregnant recaps up next!

It's a....

2012-04-22T12:52:00.001-04:00

So much to recap and tell. :) Most of the juicy deets will have to wait until we're back from vacation but I'll cover some of the basics quickly while I have my feet up and give the Babe a few minutes to wallop me.

1. Babe will most likely make her appearance sometime mid August or very early September but it's tough to say for sure at the moment. I couldn't even begin to guess at the "official" Doctor's date as this kid is an overachiever and doesn't seem to believe in percentiles or how she measures up against others. Regardless, I'm sure she's got her mind made up on what day she wants for a birthday!

2. I have maintaned a green tint since finding out about the little babe and honestly, the last thing I really felt like doing was talking about it. Didn't really want anyone inquiring how I was feeling, which would only serve to remind me how miserable I was. My height and long torso has made it a fairly easy topic to avoid up until the half way point and then some loose blousy tops has kept it from being obvious until we could facilitate an annoucement.

3. The number of people who say "I knew it!" when you do to tell them you are pregnant and who quite clearly had no idea are really annoying. Supremely annoying. No one likes a know-it-all. Why do some people think that is an acceptable response? Not that it's come from anyone reading this. I think next time I won't say a word to those people the whole time.

4. #2 most annoying comment? "You can't even tell you're pregant." Hmph. If I had a penny for the number of times I've heard this I'd be a very rich person... Worst offenders are the people who say it and who see me every day. My stomach was TINY, my waist curved in It now curves out. Blatantly. Which is terrific cause I want this babe chubbing up but ugh. Brent has given me full permission to just smack the people that keep saying that because really? Not complimentary at this point.

5. Our princess has made it abundantly clear to Brent and I that she is a true PRINCESS and belongs exclusively at the center of our attention. She has been making sure we don't forget about her or relax for a second. Little girl seems to like causing drama and is already keeping us on our toes.

Alright, afternoon seista is coming to an end. If there's something specific you want to know, leave it in the comments and I'll do some detailed posts this week.

A Magical Post from a Magical Place

2012-04-21T09:13:00.000-04:00

We are going to redefine labor day this year...

Ketchup

2012-04-18T15:02:00.005-04:00

Can't believe its been a month since my last update. There has just been SO MUCH going on that I can't even keep it all straight! Honestly I have barely had a moment to even remember that I have a blog and maybe that I should keep it updated.

I will have more time to explain in detail in the next several days once work winds down (woot woot for another tax season being done). My second job has become increasingly time consuming on top of my already full full-time job and then my third job has completely dominated the first two. Phew, its just been a doozy of a time these last many months.

So many things to recap but its all sort of a blur. But perhaps some major bullets that jump out?

My sister was in a fairly major car accident Good Friday and had an airbag deploy in her face and her car completely totaled. Quite literally the front of her car is completely gone. In the end, she walked away with no broken bones, only abrasions, bruises and a great deal of soreness. Thank God for those guardian angels keeping her safe.

We hosted 30+ people at the fam estate for Easter. Such a gorgeous day! Absolutely perfect weather and incredible food. No one left hungry. We hid 160+ eggs around about 7 or so acres and that kept the kids (and kids-at-heart) busy for quite a while. ;)

A good friend of mine is moving out of state and just told me she is pregnant. I am super super excited for her but a teensy bit sad I won't get to cuddle the little bundle of cuteness quite as often. She better get that guest bedroom ready cause I am already mapping out when I can get out there and visit her.

The weather has been so crazy this year but Saturday when we hit upper 70s, we couldn't resist hitting up our favorite wholesale farm and loading up on lots of gorgeous flowers, vegetable plants and hanging baskets for the house. It was such a beautiful weekend for planting and I just love how pretty the outside of the house looks all decked out in color. Now if those tomato plants could start producing by the time we get back from vacation...

Speaking of which, in less than 24 hours we will be boarding a plane for a little spring getaway and while I am totally stoked and looking forward to sun, sand, lots of fruity drinks and afternoon siestas, I am also feeling quite behind. Packing is far from completed, the house needs to be cleaned before I will leave it and there is still quite a bit of work that needs to be wrapped up before departure. Ah well, can always sleep on the plane!

Spring Catch-up

2012-03-12T13:27:00.003-04:00

Well, I had no intention of taking a month off from blogging but life has been so full and busy! I also injured my hand and blogging one handed was just not happening.

Allow me catch this blog up...

February was a blur of work, endless hockey and squeezing in time together with the little leftover time we had left. We also started talks for some super exciting home renovations.

March has brought Spring and sunshine and glorious warm weather. As a result of the early blessing of spring, we have been able to kick off some major home interior renovation projects early! The past few weekends have been full of all sorts of fun stuff and left us waking up Monday exhausted and sore. We are also in talks about adding an addition and bigger deck this summer, once the home interior projects are complete. It's been quite a busy time!

In the midst of everything, I managed to very nearly cut off my thumb at the start of our home projects and it has been VERY slow going in the healing department. I made the brilliant decision to wrap it and just keep working with one hand the day it happened (the injured hand ended up sitting on top of my head as I tried all day to get the bleeding to stop). Well it was quite evident the next day, when it had still not stopped bleeding, that clotting was not going to happen and I might have to have it looked at (I avoid the ER like the plague). There was too much loss of skin for most of it to be stitched so they ended up just doing a wet dressing and soft cast.

The nature of the wound is such that use of that hand has been very limited as the scabs are so large that the slightest movement or stretching of my hand breaks them open. I will refrain from posting photos but let me just say that I will be very happy to have full use of both hands again!

We are just barely more than a month out from our spring getaway and Brent and I are quite literally counting down the days. We have quite a bit going on these next several weeks so our vacation has kind of become the end marker for everything wrapping up and settling down. Very exciting. :)

Disney Day 6

2012-02-13T07:25:00.000-05:00

Friday was our last day at the Parks and we enjoyed another hodgepodge day amidst the rain. In the morning we headed over to Hollywood Studies to meander the park, enjoy Toy Story a few last times and partake in the 50s Prime Time Cafe for lunch. We stopped to pick up an ornament cookie cutter at one of the shops and then made the trek over to Epcot.

The rain turned into a bit of a downpour by the time we got to Epcot so we enjoyed a number of the indoor shows including the Energy Show narrated by Ellen DeGeneres. It was nice to sit down for a bit while we watched the shows, the last 5 days of 15+ miles a day plus all the standing in lines had started to take a beating on our joints, I felt like I was limping like a pregnant woman!

We ducked into to a Character spot to take photos with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy and Chip & Dale.

(Goofy had to give me a kiss lol)

One of the chipmunks was a big flirt and gave me his phone number, hah! The actors fit the characters so well. :)

One of my teen brothers was particularly forlorn that he didn't get to go on the trip with us so we took some photos with the characters and the "insert Nathan here" text and sent them to him.

They also had tvs playing old black and white Disney cartoons that got Brent and I all nostalgic, we ended up picking up a number of Disney Treasures when we came home (which we love to pull out every now and then to reminisce).

After the Character signings we headed over to the World Showcase for one final tour. Of course we had to grab food which included churros in Mexico, Schoolbread in Norway, wraps & fries in America and cheese tarts and chocolate eclairs in France.

After dinner, we headed over to enjoy one final Magic Kingdom parade and fireworks display. We also stopped in Liberty Square at the Christmas shop to pick up some ornaments. Every trip we take, we always try and pick up an ornament or two to commemorate the trip. Hanging the ornaments every year is always so fun. :)

It was a happy but tired couple that headed back to the Contemporary that night. There is something about a trip to Disney World that truly feels magical. We found the whole experience quite romantic. Love love love.

(The Contemporary Resort lite up at night)

The next morning our flights were scheduled to depart at noon. In order to use the Disney transportation service you have to check in 3-4 hours ahead of schedule. We were so tired we narrowly missed being able to have them check-in our luggage for us that morning and were told we would just need to check it ourselves when we got there. This ended up being a total Godsend because when we got to the airport, there was horrible weather in NY (we were scheduled for a layover there) and all flights had been scheduled. By the time we got to the airport all American Airline alternate flights had been booked both that day and Sunday and no rental cars or hotels were available. It was a mess. When we got to the front of the line we somehow got a super nice attendant who checked other airlines without us even having to ask and he managed to rebook us on another airline home at no cost to us! Meanwhile people on either side of us were having borderline screaming matches with other attendants who were not offering any assistance or alternate bookings. Total blessing!

The only catch was we head to get to the other side of the Orlando airport with all our baggage in 20 minutes to get it checked in and make it on our flight. Talk about booking it through the airport! We were literally running through the airport. We just barely squeaked in under the wire and got our bags checked.

It was a slightly stressful way to end the trip but thank goodness for that nice person at the check-in desk! And the fact that we didn't have time for Disney to check our luggage for us! If they had checked our luggage, AA would have had no way to retrieve our luggage for us in time for us to make the alternate flight. It's amazing how God even takes care of the little things! We were home by Saturday night and had a full day Sunday to unpack and get back into the groove before heading back to the work. It was perfect. There is no other way to describe it. I can't way to go back one day! Particularly when we had children of our own to share in all the magicalness. :)

Disney Day 5

2012-02-10T19:25:00.002-05:00

Our last two days were glorious hodgepodge days where we parked hopped all day, the timing worked out perfectly as our last two days we experienced rain on and off.

Thursday we kicked off the morning at Magic Kingdom. Mickey's Philharmonic Magic, Carousel of Progress, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Snow White and the Swiss Family Robinson Tree-house all took up most of our morning.

We also had to stop for a few photo-ops! :)

By 11:30 we were on our way over the Epcot where we enjoyed meandering around and enjoying the gorgeous statues completely composed of plants and flowers (the International Flower and Garden show was going on the entire time we were there).

This is just a small colletion from our stay!

Another photo-op or two. ;)

We stopped and did Mission Space and Honey I shrunk the audience before stopping for lunch at France.

We weren't overly impressed with the food at France for the cost. We both got the french onion soup and macaroni and cheese and both were so heavy that we couldn't finish either and we struggled to even enjoy dessert. Bit of a bummer but you win some you loose some. We stopped and did Figment Imagination on our way out and were done with Epcot by around 3:30/4ish.

From there we made the trek over the Hollywood studios for the express purpose of watching the incredible Fantasmic fireworks that only take place 2 times a week. We arrived with plenty of time to spare so we rode Toy Story a couple of times, took in the Narnia show next door and enjoyed dinner at the 50s Prime Time Cafe.

The Fantasmic show almost ended up being rained out but thankfully was only delayed for awhile. It was just as good if not better than everyone had told us! We were so happy we were able to see it. They shoot fireworks off from an island while boats and characters parade the moat and fight out a story on the Island. The fireworks and light effects combined with music are just spectacular. You really get spoiled at Disney with all the fireworks every night. The hardest decision each night is just picking which one to see!

Disney Day 4

2012-02-09T18:38:00.001-05:00

Wednesday we took a bus over to Hollywood Studies (formerly MGM studios) and arrived around 10AM. All the walking we were doing each day was starting to wear on our legs and getting up in the mornings was starting to be a bit slower some mornings. :)

We immediately grabbed fast passes for Tower of Terror and then headed over to ride the new Toy Story ride. This became an instant favorite and we rode this ride more than 10 times over the remaining days of our vacation.

After Toy Story, we grabbed fast passes for the Rock N Roller coaster before riding Tower of Terror.

There was a family that rode behind us, mom & dad and two little girls and the mother screamed like a banshee the entire time. The little girls were more terrified of their mother than the ride!

Rock N Roller Coaster was next (we had excellent fastpass times)

While our bodies returned to normal after riding the roller-coaster, we stopped to enjoy the Beauty and the Beast show. It was so well done, it really is like watching a Broadway show!

One final stop at The Great Movie Ride before we stopped for lunch at the 50s Prime Time Cafe.

We LOVED eating at the here! It has a great diner atmosphere and the waiters will yell at you to chew with your mouth closed or get your elbows off the table, it's hysterical! They have black and white tvs playing old shows scattered throughout the restaurant and it's all around just fun. We ended up eating here quite a few times.

After lunch we enjoyed the Muppet 3D show, Lights Motor Action, Indiana Jones, Toy Story (second time!), Little Mermaid show, Toy Story again (#3) and lastly we watched the American Idol performances for the evening. Winner gets a free pass to audition for the real American Idol. The winner this night did a dead on impression of the Little Mermaid Things song followed up by some good old Carrie Underwood (the songs are picked randomly for them).

We headed out around 7:45 and got to Epcot by 8pm for dinner at the World Showcase again. This time it was quesadillas in Mexico, chicken Caesar wrap and fries in America and Chocolate Eclairs from France while we watched the Illuminations show.

We were back to our room by 10 and happily crashed for the night.

Disney Day 3

2012-02-08T18:37:00.001-05:00

Tuesday my grandparents offered to drive us to a grocery store to pick up a few more snacks for the week before they headed out. Since we were still recovering from the stomach bug, we were happy to pick up some bagels, yogurt, granola bars, cheese and lots of fruit to tide us over for the rest of the week.

We had decided on Animal Kingdom for the day which was a nice short park for us. We took a bus over and got to the park around 12:30.

We kicked off the day with It's Tough To Be a Bug 3D located in The Tree of Life, then grabbed a Fastpass for Everest.

While waiting for our fastpass time we enjoyed the Finding Nemo show. Disney shows are seriously like watching Broadway shows, so incredibly well done. The show wrapped up at the perfect time for us to use our Everest Fast Passes.

Afterwords we did the Safari trail and Lion King Show before heading back to the hotel around 5pm (Animal Kingdom closes quite a bit earlier than the other parks).

After grabbing showers and relaxing for bit, we took the monorail out to Epcot and kicked off our "eating around the worldshowcase". A cheese tarte in France, Caesar chicken wrap and fries in America, massive soft pretzel in Germany capped off with Gelato from Italy while we watched the Illumination show from the perfect spot outside of Germany/Italy.

Disney Day 2

2012-02-07T18:36:00.000-05:00

Monday we were up bright and early for our first ride on the monorail. It is so nice to have the monorail go right through your resort. We just loved it. :) So convenient, particularly if it's raining.

We arrived at Epcot by 9am and sprinted over to grab a quick ride at Test Track and Spaceship Earth before meeting up with my grandparents (and before the line's got too long!).

Once my grandparents got into the park we meandered over to take the boat ride at The Land. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Sunshine Seasons. All the produce served there is grown right there in The Land and everything is so fresh and yummy, definite repeat spot.

After lunch we enjoyed the Circle of Life and then traveled over to Innoventions where we did the piggy bank exhibit, tested out some segways and designed and experienced our own roller coasters on Sum of All Thrills.

Our last stop in Future World was Soarin', a fairly new ride that provides a 4D experience of the the California coast.

We moved onto the World Showcase, stopping in Canada first to enjoy a movie and Celtic Canadian band "Off Kilter".

In England we enjoyed a quick break and chance to sit down while enjoying another band, "British Invasion". Of course, we also had to stop for a photo-op with Mary Poppins! :)

We enjoyed a movie in France and a stop at our all time favorite bakery. The cheese bread and chocolate eclairs in France are TDF, we frequented this bakery a ton over the course of the rest of the week.

Next was a quick stop in Morocco, followed by a celebrity performance "Voices of Liberty" in the US. We also stopped to watch the show "American Experience". We meandered through Italy and Germany and took a ton of pictures before stopping in China to grab dinner and enjoy a show.

Norway is one of the few countries that offers any sort of ride and it is actually a favorite of my families. There's a bit of trickery in it and you're never quite sure which way you're going to go or how wet you're going to get. :)

We enjoyed another introductory film and stopped for some dessert. Norway is another country that has an incredibly delicious bakery with amazing prices. I highly recommend picking up some cinnamon buns for the next day's breakfast. Delicious!

Our last stop in the World Showcase was Mexico where we enjoyed a quick ride and introductory film.

We had a bit of time to kill before the Illuminations show that night so we stopped at the pavilion where they had a number of GM cars on display. You could also get inside and test out the "feel" so we amused ourselves there for a bit before hightailing it back to get good seats for the show.

By 9pm the show was done and we bid good-bye to my grandparents before catching the monorail back to the resort.

Disney Day 1

2012-02-06T10:59:00.001-05:00

Sunday kicked off our first day in the parks. We used Touring Plans to check which days were the best to go to certain parks and loosely used that to plan the first couple full park days. We headed to Magic Kingdom the first day. Extra magic hours were being offered that day and the park stayed open till 1AM for Disney resort guests (other guests had to leave by 10 I think).

We were in the park by 9AM and right off the bat tackled Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear twice.

(in line waiting for our first ride!)

We then walked over and explored Toontown and took pictures before it got too crowded.

Stopped for pictures with Pooh and Tigger before riding the Winnie-the-Pooh ride.

Next up was Peter Pan, Small Small World, Haunted Mansion and lunch at Pecos Bill.

Our last ride was Splash Mountain before we headed back to the hotel around 1pm to nap, shower, grab some snacks and re-engerize for the late night to follow.

We were back in the park by 4:45. We decided to grab some homemade ice cream cones from Main Street and enjoy the gorgeous weather out on the River boat. While out on the riverboat we called and made plans to meet up and spend the day with my grandparents at Epcott the next day.

After the riverboat we toured the castle and took a bunch of pictures and picked out a good parade spot.

The parade and fireworks were incredible, I love how they use lighting to change the colors on the castle during the fireworks. Most of my pictures came out blurry but I still love looking at all of them. Next time we go I will probably take a tripod, plus we will also have the DSLR!

After fireworks, most of the families with young kids clear out. On a sidenote, some of the parents are crazy! They will ram anyone with their strollers without any concern for their kids or the people they are ramming! It was nuts!

Since we weren't required to leave, we went over to Cosmic Rays to grab a bite to eat while the park cleared out a bit. Then the after hours fun began! We went over and rode Thunder Mountain Railroad, it was so fun riding in the dark! Afterwords we went and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise (also very fun in the dark!). It was starting to cool down so we grabbed hot chocolate before making the hike over to enjoy Mike's Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear and Thunder Mountain Railroad again! We called it a night around midnight and made the quick walk back to crash at the resort.

Disney Planning

2012-02-03T10:10:00.003-05:00

I decided against backdating these posts but for those of you wondering, we actually took this trip in 2010. :) I wrote these quite a while ago but never finished the photo uploads and got around to posting them.

I want to try and capture as much of our Disney trip as I can remember and recreate from the snippet of notes I made during our trip. It was such a special trip, we dream of going back and doing it all again.

The whole trip idea started when we had $800 in airline vouchers leftover from our honeymoon that were getting ready to expire. We were trying to figure out where we wanted to go and I suggested to Brent he needed to experience Disney pre-kids because it is a totally different experience. We *thought* he had never been before as he didn't remember ever going. Turns out that when he was a kid, he had a baseball tournament down there and visited one or two of the parks with his family in his free time. The way we found this out? When we were visiting his family at Christmas time (after we had made all our reservations) and sorting through family photos. I found a picture of him standing with his younger brother in front of the castle. Caught! :) Haha, regardless, he had no recollection of the trip and we still wanted to experience it together.

I had previously visited for a few days a number of years ago with my family and grandparents. My grandparents had bought us the trip as a Christmas present. They are retired military and own a house in Florida so they were able to get all sorts of discounts. On the trip with my family, we were supposed to stay at the Disney military resort, Shades of Green, but it ended up being closed for renovations so the resort transferred our reservations to the Contemporary Resort (major upgrade!). Needless to say, after staying there as a kid, I was hooked and knew I would want to stay there on future trips.

Once we had established the idea we wanted to visit "pre-kids" and we wanted to spend our vouchers, everything sort of fell into place. Disney was offering a "buy 4-get 3 nights free" deal at the time (spectacular deal) and it applied to your room, park hoppers, everything. We had free airline passes, didn't need to rent a car. It fit our budget perfectly. I still can't believe how cheap the trip was, I don't think we'll ever be able to come close to the price we paid. We researched the best times to go and found a week in March that was right after the Princess marathon and right before Spring Break peak times.

We departed Saturday afternoon, had a quick stop in Miami and then arrived in Orlando by 8pm. I loved arriving in the evening and we hope to always do it this way. It was a great way to get in the night before and take our time getting settled before taking on the parks. I can't imagine arriving, trying to get settled and then rushing out to do the parks same day.

On a side note, we both came down with a stomach flu right before leaving. In fact, Brent had it so bad that he had to stay home from work the day before we left (his first time ever calling in sick to work-it was that bad). The first couple of days we were definitely in recovery mode and a little wary of food but even that didn't put a damper on the trip!

We deplaned and headed off to the "Disney section" of the airport. Disney had already made arrangements to pick up our luggage (to be delivered to our room a few hours later) so we were able to skip carefree into line. I don't think we waited more than a few minutes before our Magical Express bus pulled up. We hopped onto the bus and the magic kicked off right away. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and other characters entertained us on the ride to the resort with an introduction to the parks and footage of all the different Disney resorts where you can stay. It was awesome and we totally felt like little kids. :)

We had chosen to stay at the Contemporary resort and it was a perfect choice. Frankly, we don't plan to ever stay anywhere else (except possibly the wilderness lodge once). I know that a lot of other people prefer to stay in homes with kitchens and laundry and like having a car to access the parks and drive themselves but neither of us had any desire to cook or do laundry on vacation. Plus, why drive when the monorail went right through our resort and could take us direct to most of the parks? They have an excellent bus system that covers the parks that the monorail doesn't go to and using Disney transportation completely eliminates having to wait in line for a long time getting in and out of the parks during peak hours. Plus, you often have to park so far away you still end up taking a tram to the park entrance.

(the bathrooms really show the "contemporary" feel of the resort"

The Contemporary is right next to Magic Kingdom, depending on your room, you can have a nice view of the park. The days we visited Magic Kingdom, it was a few minute jaunt over to the park in the mornings. Since we were there on our second honeymoon ;) Mickey and Minnie had a card and some treats waiting for us in our room when we checked in.

Spring Styles

2012-02-01T10:05:00.003-05:00

Toms officially released their woman's ballet flats today. I've been looking forward to them for quite a while as I find their shoes quite comfortable but often wish they looked a bit more feminine (particularly with shorts/skirts).

Well the wait is over! Below are some of my favorites, I definitely plan to pick out a style or two to test out for our spring vacation!

Source: toms.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Any other Toms fan out there? :)

Tuesday Randoms

2012-01-31T13:44:00.002-05:00

Just a bunch of random thoughts for today...

All this warm weather we keep getting has put me in the best mood! Today it is supposed to hit the 60s! Sunday night, we randomly got a snow storm. One minute there is a wind storm going on and no precipitation, the next minute we look up and the windows are totally covered in snow. Craziness! There was no precipitation called for in the forecast but thankfully that's the first (and hopefully last) of the freak storms this winter.

I am also grateful that most of the snow we've had this winter has been on the weekends so there's been minimal problems with having to be out on the roads and traveling for work. So so happy that I have yet to have to deal with that headache this year. Come on March! :)

After writing in my last post how I had never blogged about our previous trips, particularly Disney, I was going back through old drafts and I have 8 Disney recap posts! I loved reading through them and I think I am going to post them with their backdates so that I'll have them up on the blog. Those of you who follow in google reader will still see them pop up though.

I also found a whole bunch of recipe posts that either didn't get posted because I didn't have a chance to upload or a photo, or I had the photos but need to type the recipe up in the post. :) I will probably let those post with their backdates as well. Some of them were too good not to share!

Hubs and I got our last tax documentations needed for our taxes right before the weekend so we had a fun Sunday night date putting those together. Ironically, Sunday morning we decided on a crazy whim to book our spring vacation. It was rather funny seeing similar amounts of money that will eventually go out the door for vacation and eventually come back from the taxes. Always nice when it works out somewhat close like that.

I am very very very excited for our spring vacation. I am counting down the days already!

I have been obsessed with vanilla tootsie rolls for years and I recently discovered they had a special edition bag where you could buy just vanilla! Brilliant! This is like Starburst releasing a reds and pinks bag! It's nice when the candy manufacturers finally get around to releasing what I've thought they should do for years. Better late than never.

Valentines Day is coming up and I am thinking about asking for a Zoku Popsicle maker. Every time we're at the grocery store we always want to get some fun Popsicle and ice cream treats and even the fruit ones are filled with high fructose corn syrup crap plus they are all either sugar free or fat free. Gross. Just give me the real deal. Apparently, my only option is to make my own. Do you remember back in the day when Fudgsicles came in vanilla pudding, chocolate pudding and a vanilla chocolate swirl? I lived on these in college but no one seems to carry them anymore. I am determined to make them myself!

I also want to get some sort of slim p/s camera that still takes good crisp shots. Something that can be tossed into a purse or a pocket with ease for the times we are traveling or out and about and don't want to take the DSLR with us. Anyone invested in one recently or have any good recommendations?

Some Days

2012-01-27T14:31:00.002-05:00

There are some days where you wake up and you just feel blessed. Boy oh boy is today one of those days. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fact that it is currently 60 and sunny out right now at the end of January is certainly contributing but hey, I'll take it!

Hubs and I stayed up far too late last night reminiscing about college yester-years and favorite vacation memories and man there are a lot of them! I find it ironic that many of our favorites (Disney World, Saint Lucia & Atlantis) are the ones that never made it onto this blog. Maybe I felt like I couldn't do the memories justice?

Anyway, all this talk of vacations has got us both in the mood to travel and go on some crazy fun trips. The toughest part is narrowing down where! It's always so hard to pick between a new location and going back to revisit some of our all time favorite spots.

Of course, to make matters worse, friends of ours posted that they were at Magic Kingdom this morning after we'd stayed up until waaaay past our bedtime talking about just how fantastic and romantic and magical that very vacation was. It's hard to believe we are coming up on two years now!

We had been tossing around the idea of going last November and seeing Disney World all decked out for the Holidays but with work craziness and the Holidays we ended up tabling the discussion. Well, now it's back in full force. Do we want to do a last minute spring vacation there? Book something for the fall? Go next spring?

We have also been tossing around the idea maybe of a Caribbean cruise this spring. And I am dying to go tour the castles in Europe. So many incredible trips, so little time/money. :) Basically we just want to get up and go. Get away and make some memories.

In the meantime, it's date night tonight and Hubs and I plan to only further the Disney hankering by popping in some Disney treasure collections while munching on a big ole pizza with garlic butter dipping sauce. Mmmmm love me some date nights!