Sleeping Woes

It is a nightly ritual in our house for Brock to end up in our bed. No matter what we do or how much we try to keep him in his room or bed, it doesn't work. I'm told it is a phase, but this has been the longest "phase" ever! His reasons have become pretty clever lately.

We get....

I'm scared....
There's a monster in my room...
No people in my room, there are people here...meaning in mom and dad's room
Chair, chase me...

Then...this morning, around 7:00 a.m. he came in with the biggest smile on his face and said so certainly and proudly "I slept in my room all night, so proud"

I love you buddy. I guess it really is one day at a time. Now if we can only continue this excitment mom and dad could get some sleep.

30th Birthday

So I thought I'd be better at this blog update stuff, but guess I still don't have enough time to stay on top of it. My goal is to be better at posting regular updates, so here goes.

As most of you know, Travis surprised me at Christmas with the Disney cruise with the kids for my big 30th birthday. So as we were busy getting packed and ready for the big trip with the kids, it never dawned on me that there could be more to this birthday. Little did I know, Travis had been planning a big surprise party for me the weekend before. It was so much fun and a very nice surprise. All of our friends and their kiddies were there and we all had a great time. Thanks to all of you who came. I'd just wished someone would have given me the heads up to dry my hair and put on makeup, but I guess that would have given it away.

So...on to the trip. It was a very busy week for me at work right before we left, so as my neuotic self, I had many many lists of everything that had to be packed and done before we left. We were suppose to leave early Wednesday morning so the kids could sleep most of the way, but decided at the last minute to leave Tuesday night since we were ready to go. We bathed the kids, packed everything up and headed out around 8 p.m. We made it to Ocala, Fla. with no issues and spent the night in a lovely HoJo off the interstate. Thankfully, we only had 2 more hours to go in the morning. We stopped in Orlando on Wednesday to take Brock and Avery to Downtown Disney for lunch and to let Brock finally see Mickey and all his friends. He had a great time and was thrilled to be near Mickey. He loved playing in the fountain and we thought, why not, the weather was beautiful and you're only a kid once.

We spent Wednesday and early Thursday in Cocoa Beach and stayed right near the beach, which was nice. The kids experienced the beach for the first time and it was interesting. I don't know what to think of Avery - she ate lots of sand, but Brock loved it. Thursday we boarded the boat and that is where the real fun began. I'm always amazed at how Brock and Avery take in their surroundings and experiences, makes me realize that I don't appreciate my daily experiences as much as I should. First let me say that I think Disney Cruises are the VERY best way to experience Disney. It was top-notch all the way from the service to the food to the shows and characters.

Quickly - We spent Thursday on the boat, Friday we were in Nassau and Saturday we were in Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. There is so much to write, but I think I'll let our pictures do the talking for us.

Circus

Last weekend grandpa treated us all with tickets to the circus and we all had a blast. It was the first time for both Avery and Brock and they had a great time. Although we learned that Brock is not of fan of clowns, but then again who is? For the few days leading up to our adventure, he watched the video preview online and kept telling everyone Circus - tigers, elephants, clowns.

Avery of course enjoyed all the lights, etc. Thanks again Dad for the tickets, it was a great time.

That same night, Papa babysat both kids by himself and I have to say successfully feed and put both to bed. Travis and I enjoyed a night out at Cirque du Soleil, yes we did two circus events in less than eight hours. Thanks again Ken and Kat for the tickets, sorry that you had to miss it. We owe you one.

Crawling, Bouncing and more

It's amazing how much changes with the second child. I could tell you the exact day and place for all of Brock's "firsts" and milestones, but with Avery it is "well, I think it was this day..." With that said, Avery has been crawling for about 3 weeks now, although she was up on all four rocking back and forth since Christmas. I promise to better document all of her milestones...:)

Weekend Fun

The kids love being outside and since we've had a taste of some warm weather recently, we've taken advantage of it. Brock loves all sports - anything with a ball so we enjoyed some soccer at our neighborhood park while Avery sat and watched...

January Updates

I can't believe that January is over, where did it go? Here I thought having a blog would be easier to keep up with, but this is the first chance I've had to update it. I sit here and can't believe that Avery is already 8 months old and soon we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday and David's wedding. She learned to stand and crawl this month and that is all she wants to do, although she doesn't take to kindly to being knocked down out of nowhere by her brother on a regular basis. Brock talks nonstop and yesterday when I had a migrane, kept asking me "mommy - what happened, what's wrong?" you gotta love his sincerity sometimes. He continues to think that uncle Jeff lives in a box and makes sure to tell him so each time he talks to him. We've learned to pray for all those we love each night before we go to bed and he puts his hands to together and says "Dear God" and then continues to name each person he knows, sometimes if someone is lucky, he says their name twice - guess they need the extra prayer (that means you Jeff).

We continue to be hopefull that the economy will get better and a great job will open up for Travis, in the meantime, I think he's enjoying all the extra time with the kids. However, he's been sick more in the past 4 months than I can ever remember. We did get some good news this month, I was promoted, which was exciting and relieving at the same time.

Amy's Baby Shower

My passion for planning and throwing parties continues to grow. I, along with some girlfriends, had the pleasure of throwing our friend Amy her baby shower a few weeks ago. Check out the theme - bedtime stories...so cute and she loved it. Also, the cake and diaper cake were made in all my spare time, as you can tell, I don't ever sleep.