More Birthday Pics...

Celebrating at school
Everyone wanted to help Holt open his gifts this morning. Pierce had a bit of hard time with it not being his birthday today. However, he did tell us tonight that Holt told him he could put his presents in his cabinet so they would stay 'safe.'
Our breakfast at the pancake house. Holt ate ALL of these chocolate chip pancakes, my last pancake and then told me he was hungry when we got home and had a cereal bar. Only to be followed with pizza at Chuck E. Cheese and 5 tacos for dinner and then cake and icecream. The boy can eat!

Holt turns three today! Oh how we love this boy. He has become such a big boy lately. He dropped his paci, without even so much as a cry. This one took us by total shock, I thought it was going to be a long drawn out battle and he just did it and to my surprise is still taking naps! He also shocked me when we were doing Valentines for school and Pierce was writing out his friends names and his name on his and Holt says “Mommy, I want to write my name.” I was reluctant to hand over the pen thinking he might scribble over his friends names..and what does he do, he writes his name, I couldn’t even believe it. With Pierce I probably sat down with him and showed him how to do this but I have never even taught Holt. So where I use to think they really didn’t learn anything in preschool, not so true with a second child.
He also has started to love to snuggle with me and will randomly come up and hug and kiss me and say, “Love you mommy.” He never was a snuggler so this has melted my heart, I can’t get enough of hugs. He also comes up and says “rub noses mommy.”
His language seems to improve by the day. Even to the point of me wondering, are you really only three? As the other night I was getting our potatoes out of the oven and just about dropped the pan. I gasped and Holt asked what happened. So I tell him I almost dropped all the potatoes. And his response was, “That was not cool Mom.” He also has just about the sweetest and most convincing “Please Mom” I’ve ever heard when he wants something. And a “sorry mom” that can’t help me from forgiving him. And the one saying that cracks us up lately is “gotta go peep,” not pee peep or pee or number #1, but Peep!
When we decided to have a third and afterwards I always felt a little bad for Holt, thinking he would be a middle child and had to follow Pierce and then a sweet baby girl behind him. However, he has nothing to worry about, he has captured our hearts and everyone who meets him and is such a blessing to our family. We love you buddy!! Happy 3rd Birthday!

Look how much he has grown up in three years!
http://lattas.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-2nd-birthday-holt.html

Happy Birthday Holt!

We had a joint birthday party at Plaza Fiesta a few weekends back to celebrate Holt, Coleman, and Bennett's birthdays!

Coleman

Bennett

More Snow...

Here are some pictures from our second Saturday snowfall.

Holt reminded us a little bit of Randy from "A Christmas Story" when we got him all bundled up.

Camden was watching her brothers play out front.

Chef Mickey's

Minnie was trying to cheer Camden up when she was not feeling so hot.

In true Holt fashion he decided to show Mickey his belly.

One more cup cake for the birthday boy.

Here is a link to ALL the pictures from our trip...

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2041748002/a=18404324_18404324/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Day 4

Walking through Mickey's house


Sea World

Day 4:

We packed up and headed to Canyons at the Wilderness Lodge for breakfast. After breakfast Jason and my dad took the boys to Sea World and my mom and I stayed back to let Camden nap before check out. We met them at lunch time at Sea World and watched the Shamu show. AMAZING..is the only words to describe the show with the whales. The boys also saw a shark show and dolphin show, rode some rides, and saw the penguins, alligators, and petted the sting rays. By this time we were beyond tired and decided to call it a day. We went to the car about 3 and got ready for our drive home, pulling out about 3:30. They did great on the way home taking a nap till about 5 and then back down again at 8. We got home by midnight and left the unpacking for Friday.

Day 3

Hands up on the Barnstormer

Teacups

I was determined to get one picture of them in their Mickey hats after we bought them, this was the height of Camdens miserable day as you can see from the photo..


Back to Magic Kingdom. Brrrr….cold morning but once again got there when the park opened which is totally worth it because there are no lines. All Pierce wanted to ride was roller coasters, but we talked him into riding other ones too. We went back on all their favorites..Buzz Light Years, Tea Cups, Peter Pan, the Barnstormer..twice. We just happened to get to Toon Town when they had opened it up and were the first people walking down the street when we see Mickey Mouse at his house. We walk right in and the boys got to walk through the house with him and then meet Minnie at the end. The whole time I was thinking we were going to get charged $20 at the end because we got this personal tour but we didn’t we just happened to be first in line. They boys loved it. We also saw a Mickey 3-D show which was great. Holt had his hand up the entire show trying to grab the things that looked like they were coming at you. Then we took Holt on Thunder Road. He barely made it on with his height but had no problem riding it. Both of the boys had their hands up the entire ride and were begging to ride it again. They got a fast pass for later and then met Gran, Camden, and I for lunch. Did I mention all you do is eat if you get the meal plan? If you plan on doing any sit down meals its totally worth the price but you do get a lot of food in day, almost more than you can eat. After lunch we rode Pirates of Caribbean again and then watched a pirate show. After we watched the Celebrate Parade. We got a seat right in front of the castle and were there in time to see the whole thing. The boys loved it, they got to see about every character from Disney and we got to see our friends the Wynne’s again who were Grand Marshals in the parade. After the parade we headed to a store to pick out some goodies to take homes. Pierce got his wallet he had been wanting ever since Chase got back from Disney and Holt got a Buzz Light year man and we got them all Mickey ears and we got a Christmas ornament. My parents bought them treats too! We took the monorail to the Contemporary to eat dinner at Chef Mickey’s. Once again we had a great meal and all the characters came by our table for lots of pictures and autographs. Holt got a birthday pin to wear during our trip so at every meal he got a treat with a candle and sang Happy Birthday to. We said we will have to plan our next trip in November, Pierce was a good sport but definitely was wanting his Birthday pin and attention. After dinner Jason and I headed back with Camden and my parents took the boys to the Spectromagic parade at Magic Kingdom. When they came back we all headed to bed, well we tried but Camden had different plans then sleeping that night.

Disney: Day 2

The look on their faces in these two pictures gives just a glimpse into their amazement at everything they saw. This was when they were watching the Metorite shower at the T-Rex Cafe.
Sing-a-long and Campfire at Fort Wilderness..Chip and Dale showed up too!
Roasting Marshmellows

We took the ferry boat over to the park and arrived just in time for the opening..it was great. A train shows up with Mickey and Minnie and then we are sent in. We headed to straight to Fantasy Land and were off to the classics.. Dumbo, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, It’s a Small World, and Teacups. Then the boys rode their first roller coaster in Toon Town, the Barnstormer and loved it. Then we rode again. They also drove the cars and then we ran in to some friends, The Wynnes, from home which was fun, we had no idea they would be there. Next we headed to future land to do Buzz Light Years. This was one of Holt’s favorites. Next we were off to Pirates of the Caribbean. We had Mexican for lunch and then the rain had arrived. Holt and Camden headed back with my parents for naps and Jason and I got to have the afternoon with Pierce. The great thing about the rain at Disney is shorter lines and they have lots of inside options. Thank goodness it came on the warmest day. We rode Thunder Mountain with Pierce, his favorite, Space Mountain which I screamed on more than him, watched the Monsters Inc. Show which was hilarious and then headed to watch the parade. Pierce and I shared the best ice cream sandwich made with two gigantic toll house cookies and a hot chocolate. By the time the “rainy day” parade ended we were nice and wet and headed back to the cabin to dry off and get ready for dinner. Camden had come down with a fever so we made plans to take her in that night as I was pretty sure she had another ear infection as the night before had been pretty rough. Thank goodness we didn’t cancel our dinner reservation as it was amazing. We ate at the Polynesian hotel at Ohana’s. Oh my goodness, one of the best meals we’ve had. A guys dream, skewers of shrimp, steak, pork, chicken and so many other dishes served family style and finished off the most incredible bread pudding, my favorite! If you do to Disney and do the meal plan or if even if you don’t have the meal plan we highly recommend Ohana’s. After dinner Jason and I headed to urgent care with Camden and my parents took the boys on the monorail and then to see the fireworks. Camden did have an ear infection so we were thankful we took her in and were able to get some antibiotics. Off to bed we went.

Disney!

Pierce outside our cabin the first day. Yes, that is his pajama shirt with his bathing suit, he still had pj's on from the car ride.

Dinner at T-Rex Cafe

These next three pictures sum up the weather while we were there. 1st Day , sunny and 70 degrees.

2nd Day we had a dry morning and rainy afternoon. Ponchos were key!

3rd day was a a bit chilly up until lunch time

We just returned from 4 amazing days in Florida. I am not one to use the word magic or believe in magic but there really is not many other ways to describe going to Disney with your children other than ‘magical.’ Jason and I had the chance to go in college and it was amazing then after not going since a kid but to go with kids who have no idea what they are about to experience and to watch there awe and wonder was such an experience. I’ve never seen a place done so well in so many ways from the rides, the food, the parades and shows, the lodging, the people who bend over backwards to be nice and help you to the grandness of it all. I know a lot of people thought we were crazy to take three small children to Disney but we wouldn’t of traded the time there for the world. Yes, we were beyond exhausted when we returned and we also could not of done it without my parents but the exhaustion was well worth the joy of it all. I had good intentions of journaling while we were there so I wouldn’t have to bore all with it all my blog but time did not allow for barely a shower there much less time to journal so here it goes the highlights and little things that made it special that we won’t ever want to forget.

Day 1:
We awoke at 4 am to drive down. The boys were excited but mostly because they thought they were going to see pirates. Not quite sure where this came from other than daddy does some kind of pretend nighttime drama with them every night and they had talked about pirates at Disney one night. They also were disappointed to miss their valentines party at school this week since we were missing a week of school..yet after Disney never even remembered this. They did great in the car and Camden had a good car trip again too. Some of my favorite memories from the trip down were dancing in the bathroom with Holt as we waited for Pierce who decided it would be a good time to do his daily #2..which is never fast for him, at a gas station. Another favorite was listening to Pierce laugh from his belly while watching Peter Pan…he has this great innocent real laugh that he can’t contain..love it. Last highlight was Holt’s art project in the car..when we arrived I went to check in and left Jason with the kids in the car. When I came back he told me Holt had done some coloring..oh yes he had colored the ceiling of the car with brint blue crayon above his seat.
We arrived shortly after noon and headed to our cabin. We stayed at Fort Wilderness Cabins..LOVED them!! Highly recommend. After the boys got out all there pent up energy from the car and excitement over the bunk beds they got to sleep in we put Holt and Camden down and I headed to the pool with Pierce.
Once my parents arrived and everyone was up we went to eat at the T-Rex Café. This was the only time I saw Holt scared. These dinosaurs were the closest thing I’ve seen to real. Once he realized they weren’t they loved the place and enjoying digging for fossils after dinner. We then walked around Downtown Disney and spent a good hour in the lego store. We headed back to Fort Wilderness and daddy took the boys to the campfire and sing along and I met them afterwards to watch the fireworks from Magic Kingdom at the beach on Fort Wilderness. Then we called it a night.

Snow!

We didn't get a ton of snow but it was perfect for the Radio Flyer that's been sitting in our garage waiting for snow on our hilly driveway!

The boys loved eating the snow. I caught Holt eating snow coming out of preschool on Thursday, 5 days after it had fallen, been stepped on and who knows what else. Does it really taste that good?

Catching Up...

I finally downloaded some pictures from the past month...


We went to the beach in January for a long weekend.

Camden played in the sand for the first time.

Showing off my two teeth!

Camden's first time in the buggy.