Disney Days

We've been to Disney a few times now and each time it's a different experience. We have the weekday annual passes, so we can only go when Dannie can take off work. It's really nice that we are an hour away though. The last few months we were able to go to see the fall decorations, Christmas, and even try some park hopping. The weather has been different each time which has been interesting. When we went in October it was shorts and tank tops, November we wore pants and t-shirts, and yesterday we had pants, jackets, gloves, and hats.

Disney during the Holidays is so much fun. I wish I would have taken more photos of the decorations, but I was trying to live in the moment. Unfortunately, we were not able to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, but the decorations they put up make it so magical! It will definitely get you in the Holiday spirit!!

We had a lot of first times on this trip. Olivia was finally tall enough to ride the Barnstormer! She loved it, but said she wouldn't ride it again because it scared her. She put her arms up on the climb up and it was so cute, but once it went down the first hill she was cuddled up next to her daddy. She wasn't that scared because she rode it on our next trip and said the same thing. We rode the ferry for the first time on our way into Magic Kingdom. We've actually rode it every time since because it's much faster than the monorail. Livi got to see Merida for the first time and loved her. She requested a bear afterwards and named him Harris, which is one of Merida's brothers.

YAY! We got our Holiday Magnet!

Fall Fun 2017

We really enjoy fall in this house. It's packed full of so many holidays that we love! The weather has been up and down. Since the leaves don't really change here, the cool weather is what we rely on to get us in the fall spirit. As soon as the temperatures drop, we break out our boots and sweaters, or at least that's what Olivia and I do. Olivia really enjoys decorating around the house, so we try and make it fun for her.

One of our favorite things to do is to go to the fall festival in McIntosh. It's turned into a family trip and we really enjoy going with others. We usually don't purchase much except food. This trip we got a pink tulle skirt with a hair bow for Olivia, a bag of kettle corn, and a bag of rocks to add to Livi's collection. Lemonade is always a favorite of ours and we stick to the cheap hot dogs that The Lions Club sells. By the time we got home, we were exhausted so we took a family nap. I'm pretty sure we ended our day at Cracker Barrel because we were too tired to make dinner. I really love the veggie/side plate there. It's soooo yummy!

Olivia requested to be Everest this year for Halloween. She let me paint her face, which I really enjoyed. We tried last year, but she was still too young and rubbed most of it off. She did pretty good this year, however, my face paint is another story. She would laugh every time I would scratch my nose and get paint everywhere. We decided to take her to a Trunk or Treat because it would be less walking for her. She had fun and that's all that matters. But, I think next year we will go house to house. The Trunk or Treat ended up being really unorganized and we waited in line for awhile.

The weather has been so nice in the evenings, which has allowed us to get some family time in outside. The time change has taken some getting used to since we were so accustomed to it getting dark later. But, now when Dannie gets home it's dark. Livi and I have made a few trips to Sholom Park. She found her first painted rock there and is now obsessed. We recently painted some and are going to hide them when we go back. She still doesn't 100% understand the concept of finding them and then re-hiding them for others, so we're going to practice a few times with friends.  It's so fun and really interesting when you find a rock that was painted a few states away. With fall coming to an end soon, we're definitely looking forward to Christmas and all of it's festivities. 

Usually, The Pickin Patch is something we try to go to as a family, but this year sickness struck. We didn't make it until the last day they were open. That meant missing out on the sunflowers, but since we went later the temps were cooler. I still call that a win! We don't purchase our pumpkins there because they are pretty expensive, but they have a corn maze and slides for the littles. I won't forget Poor little Peyton getting stuck in the kid corn maze because Livi wouldn't wait for her and Mallory and I trying to jump up on the hay bale. We did manage to record those, so we can look back and laugh later. 

We're still looking forward to Thanksgiving. It'll be the second time hosting it at our house. The plan is to switch things up this year and instead of cooking separately and then meeting up in the afternoon, we're going to cook and eat together this year! Hoping it's something we can continue to do each year after this. We only Black Friday shop from our couch, so no crazy crowds and line waiting for us. Can't wait to share Thanksgiving photos. 

What's Up With Us

Well, hello! It's been a long three and half months and it's been quiet on here. I need to get into the habit up updating at least once a month or when something really exciting happens. I could say that we've just been really busy, but that's not been the case. Life gets in the way and I have trouble finding time to sit down to type on here. 

We got to celebrate Baby Peyton in June. She is just the cutest thing ever and has the prettiest blue eyes. We really enjoy getting to snuggle her and are so excited about Olivia being able to do some girlie things with her little cousin when she's older. Olivia also finished her swim classes for the month of June. She's still pretty fearless in the water, but I can't say that I was very impressed with the place we took her. We also celebrated Dannie getting his bachelor's degree. He will get to walk with his class in Orlando in February. He's spent a long two years studying and staying up late every night and it has finally paid off. We are super proud of him! :)

Dannie and I had tried to eat better and start exercising, but a stressful event happens and throws us off. I have gained about 15 pounds since last year and it's taken a toll on me. I've been taking daily probiotics lately because it seems anything I eat (usually not the healthiest) upsets my stomach. The probiotics have been helping, but I know I won't feel 100% better until we change what we're eating and are exercising. We didn't do anything for the 4th of July this year because Livi had a cold. But, we did make up for it with eating bomb pops pretty much the whole month of July. I think we watched the neighbors fireworks and Olivia thought they were too loud. Olivia discovered Zootopia in July and it quickly became her favorite movie. 

Olivia recently had a flare-up. She didn't have a cold or anything so it was a mystery at first as to how it all started. She just woke up one day with a fever and that escalated into a rash. Unfortunately, this happened on a Friday and her doctors are not in on the weekend. So, we either had to take her to the ER or wait it out to see if it got worse. After speaking to her doctor, they thought giving her two injections a day may help instead of bringing her to the hospital. It did actually help. We were able to take her in for a check-up and all of her labs were elevated. So, it was decided to go up on her injection dose to 1 full syringe once a day and also up her oral medication. We are still trying to work out all the kinks with the oral medication though. She seems to get itchy when we go up on the dose. 

September is one of the busier months for us. It is my parents anniversary, my sisters birthday, grandparents day, and we are adding a ice cream fundraiser to benefit the arthritis foundation this year. We are pretty excited to be helping out the arthritis foundation. It may just be a small fundraiser, but some our close friend's and family will be able to help out as well. 

It's been really hard keeping Olivia busy lately. We've been working on some small crafts I found on Pinterest, but it only keeps her attention for about 10 minutes. I can't wait until it starts cooling down outside so we can spend more time outside. I see lots of trips to the park in our future. I've been thinking about pulling some fall decorations out, but I'm really trying to control that urge because it doesn't feel fall-ish quite yet. A lot of our favorite shows came back this month so we've been keeping busy with those in the evenings. 

Lots to look forward to in the upcoming months with fall festivals, the pumpkin patch, and holiday time :)

Off to Dannie's graduation celebration.

Pickin Patch 2015

We recently took a trip to the pumpkin patch. The WHOLE family was able to make it!

The weather was p-e-r-f-e-c-t! It could have been about 10 degrees cooler, but other than that it was sunny skies. We took a ton of pictures. People probably thought we were crazy, but I can't wait to show Olivia pictures from our trips when she is older. There was a kid maze made out of hay. Her and Levi made it out before Gibson. We all enjoyed the tunnel made from gords because it was cooler in there. The kids LOVED the slide made from a big mountain of hay. Poor Olivia cried when we pulled her away.

Aren't the best photos candid ones? Olivia appears to be dancing, Gibson was on his way to sit next to her, and Levi was peeking at Granny & G-pa.

Three little munchkins! Haha. Check out Levi's scrunchy face in the bottom left photo. 

Sisters! <3

The sunflowers are always my favorite part, but there weren't too many left when we went. They are only usually bloom the first few weeks the pumpkin patch is open. 

I swear these two cuties have their own language. Olivia was standing next to him just babbling away about a little girl that walked up to her. 

Corn maze fun with my little mini me. How adorable are those boots and pumpkin hair bows? 

Silly girl! Yelling at the people walking by. 

Another family photo with everyone looking AND Gibson showing us his muscles.

My loves! We have a photo like this from last year. I think we will take one every year that we go ;)

This photo will have to be taken each year too so we can see how the babies have grown. The top photo is from last year. <3

Weekly recap

The past few days have flown by for me since we have been pretty busy. I like staying busy, so it doesn't phase me at all. We've actually done so much within the last week that I can't remember what we did on what day. I'll blame the mom brain.

Last week Livi dealt with a flare. I think we took her to the doctor on Tuesday and she was able to get IV steroids. She was feeling better by the time we got home and her rash was gone. Luckily, we didn't have to raise any of her home meds. We are currently waiting for the results of her c-diff test though. It would be awesome if she didn't have to be put back on antibiotics and results are negative. But, we have noticed a few of her previous symptoms that she had before with it.

Olivia and I made a trip to Target last week. I could seriously live there. I'm not sure what it is about that place that is so calming, but it's just a lovely place. I really TRY not to purchase anything either but we all know that's not possible.


We had an ice cream date Friday night. There is a Twistee Treat in town and we LOVE it! Olivia was napping when we got there, but we decided to wake her so we could share our ice cream. I got a banana split and Dannie got his usual, a mint chocolate chip milkshake.

The weather has been a tiny bit cooler in the evenin making bearable to do stuff outside. So, we were able to sit in the back of Dannie's truck and enjoy our ice cream. Olivia enjoyed it and that's all that matters!

Saturday we had a lazy day at home. I cleaned the house up a bit and we played with Livi. We were even able to get a bit of outside play time in. Woo hoo! I painted Olivia's nails and she loved that. If only she would hold still for me to get a picture of them though. She is so fun at this age!

Sunday was grandparents day. We met my parents at Lake Sumter Landing for dinner and to walk around. Dinner was delicious. Our eyes ended up being bigger than our stomachs though. Olivia played in some bubbles and ran around on the docks. The weather was once again awesome and there was a beautiful sunset!

Monday, Olivia had an eye appointment. We rushed out of the house because we needed to run a quick errand before and didn't eat, so we were starving. She hates seeing the eye doctor. She always cries and I have no clue how he sees anything, but he says he does. No inflammation in her eyes. Lunch afterwards which made us sleepy. So, it was nap time once we did got home. Tuesday, we went to visit my mom. Olivia always has fun over there and is exhausted once she gets home.

Last night we decided to load up and take Livi to Barnes and Noble. She yelled "Books and wow" the whole time. She enjoyed the train table and always loves the stuffed animals. There were a few books she was interested in, but she mainly enjoys being able to run around. This morning we were out of the house by 10 and went to the park for a bit. I was able to walk the whole park. I want to try and do that a few days out of the week. Again, nice weather and gorgeous flowers. Olivia spent her time in the stroller watching butterflies and birds. We stopped by Old Navy afterwards and then came home.

Grandparents Day 2015

Wearing her Curious George

Barnes and Noble fun

Yoga fun :)

A morning at the park

Outside fun :)

Fall Fun!

September means it's one month closer to F-A-L-L! Here in Florida it doesn't feel a lot like fall. The leaves don't change here like they do up north and it's still 90 degrees out when we're trying to enjoy our fall fun. Instead of wearing boots and hoodies when we go to the pumpkin patch, we are still rocking shorts and flip-flops.

September - January is pretty busy for our family. There are so many birthdays and holidays to celebrate as well as different things we all enjoy doing together. Usually around the end of September the Pickin Patch opens up in Dunnellon. It's usually only $3 to get in and if you save your wrist band you can go back for free. This has been one of my favorites since I was pregnant. Not only can you get awesome photos out there, it's just a fun adventure for everyone. Sometimes we purchase pumpkins, but they have a corn maze (which we got lost in before), and they have a beautiful sunflower field. The sunflowers might be my favorite part! 

There are two different Arts & Craft festivals we go to every year. I can't remember when we even started going. It was too long ago! One of them is usually the weekend of Halloween in a little town called McIntosh. Not only are there cute little stores and buildings throughout the town, but the trees there are beautiful! I love going and looking at all the local artwork, but we mainly go for the FOOD! Funnel cake, gyro's, lemonade, and corn dogs! Those are just a few of our favorites! The second festival we go to is in another town called Micanopy. This festival lasts two days unlike the McIntosh. Again, adorable town. But, sadly we go for the food.....and family time.

What else do I enjoy during this time? Decorating our house for fall, pumpkin pie, mums, and of course pumpkin spice lattes. I am human like everyone else so I have to enjoy one or two during this season. Eventually, the weather will get cooler. I love driving with my windows down and being able to open our back sliders during this time. 

This year we are looking forward to doing a lot with Olivia. She couldn't walk last year, so she'll be able to do more at the Pumpkin Patch this year. Minnetonka moccasins, pumpkin carving, introducing her to pumpkin pie, Coon Hollo, and maybe some fall family pictures. Also, LOTS of trips to the park! :)

What are your favorite fall things to do? :)

McIntosh festival :)

Our little pumpkin last year.