The Happiest Place on Earth

After almost 3 years of living an hour away from Disneyworld, we finally went! Matt had never been before and it had been a long time for me. We had a fantastic time. We had been hyping Mickey Mouse up to Sydney for a few weeks to get her ready. I think we maybe hyped it up too much. Whenever she saw Mickey Mouse, whether it be on someone's hat or on a bag, she would go nuts. We went to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. One park for one day. Her favorite ride was Finding Nemo. Matt's favorite ride was the safari ride at Animal Kingdom. It, surprising, wasn't all that crowded too. Her souvenir was an 18" Minnie Mouse stuffed toy. She loves it and takes it in the car when we go places.

In the other big news department, we pretty much have sold our home! We are currently under contract. It sold in just 3 weeks! What an answer to prayer!

Okay, back to our trip. If you like pictures, this is the post for you! : )

The Epcot Ball.

And of course Cinderella's Castle.

The obligatory picture in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Our first meeting with Mickey. Yes, we did see him twice. The line was so short the second time we couldn't pass it up. She would kiss all of the characters she met. It was so cute. And a high five for Goofy.

Nah, not that Goofy! : )

How Sydney rode through the parks.

Dancing with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy.





Animal Kingdom

How Matt and I spent our time - Matt video taping, me taking pictures!

And my favorite picture..."1 shake, 2 straws please!"

And our final picture with Mickey.

Post Holiday Wrap-up

Here is the ribbon holder with all the Christmas cards on it. I really like how it turned out. I think I need to have 5 ribbons next year. I ran out of space! Thanks everyone.

Here's a few more pictures of our Thanksgiving from my sister-in-law's camera. The first picture shows Karalyn sharing ALL of her toys with Sydney. She's so sweet.

Rolling the ball back and forth.

We played on the Wii a lot. I think Andy and Matt are playing tennis in this shot. My arm was so sore the next day from playing the Wii! The bowling game was my favorite, needless to say I really got into it.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt at 2 hours old. Matt and Jen.

In honor of my grandma

Here's my grandma on her wedding day, October 9, 1943.

Here's my grandma and grandpa.

My grandma did this memory book for me back in 1988. It has a lot of questions about growing up, dating, marriage, kids. I really treasure it now. For example, my grandma favorite flower was gardenia, movie was Gone with the Wind, and subject in school was band. She writes about dating my grandpa and their marriage, all the stuff you love and pass on.

More Felt Food

Just a quick post to show all of you the new felt food I have made. Most of this came from special requests from customers. It's all up in my Etsy Shop.

A Vacation!...well, sort of

Key West! We love this place. It's just fanastic. The water is so beautiful. We didn't plan a whole lot because we had Sydney. Last time we went we kayaked, snuba dived, and ate at really great restaurants. Key West isn't the most kid-friendly place but we found some stuff to do. But actually we went down to the Keys for a day and got the call that my grandmother had passed away. So we turned around the next day and headed back home so I could catch my flight to Milwaukee that night. It was kinda crazy to go from 80 degrees to 20 degrees in a matter of a day! So we had one day in Key West and we made the most of it. My favorite restaurant down there is Louie's Backyard. They have great food and the view from your table is the picture below!

The Key West Aquarium.

In front of the sharks.

This iguana was not shy.

Sydney chasing the roosters around town.

The beach.

Yea! A park right across from the beach.

After I got back, Martha was starving for attention she actually laid on Sydney who was laying on me!

The funeral for my grandmother was very special. She was loved and will be missed. I have some great pictures of her growing up that I will share in the next post.

Happy New Year!

Bald Eagles

Matt saw these bald eagles on the house across the street and got so excited. It is pretty neat. He definitely wanted them up on the blog.

Merry Christmas!

I really don't have any good pictures. Thankfully we video taped the event! Here is just a few pictures though. The annual picture of Dixie with antlers. Syd riding her new Winnie the Pooh train while eating breakfast. Finally, Sydney kissing Mickey.

We had a great Christmas. We had 8 friends and 3 babies for dinner last night. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We had a Honey Baked Ham, squash casserole, no-knead rolls, salad with dijon vinaigrette, an Italian pasta dish, cherry fruit salad, and potato latkes for an appetizer. For dessert, we had fudge, apple pie, and a devil's chocolate cake with mint ganache. Yes, it was a lot of food! : ) The best part was our friend, who is in the Army and has been in Afghanistan for a year, made it home in time for his baby's 1st Christmas!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Our Weekend

These are all from yesterday. We went to the zoo and had our picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Our zoo had all sorts of activities for the kids and Santa was just walking around the zoo and taking pictures with everyone. It was a lot of fun.

Hugs to the penguin.

I think these pictures are so funny. Sydney is definitely imitating me with the sunglasses and pushing the stroller. That is what I look like every afternoon when I go walking with my neighbor.

Also, if anyone has made something from the "12 Days of Christmas Crafts" I would love to hear about it. Or see pictures!