Liam is 3!

I can't even believe it has been three years since our family was blessed with Liam. He is such a joy and a delight. Mommy woke up not feeling well today and actually had a fever! Still, we tried to do a few things to make Liam's day special. We took him to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and let him play on the playground for a while. We got a small cake from Publix and sang "Happy Birthday." Liam had a cupcake. We have a party planned for this weekend so we'll give him his present then.

Merry Christmas!

We had yet another wonderful Christmas this year. It is all so magical when you have little kids in the house. We are also fortunate enough to have lots of family close by so we do a nice celebration with everyone.


On Christmas eve, we had a great time with the McDowell side. We had yummy dinner and dessert and opened gifts together.

Then, the kids helped make cookies for Santa:

While we were waiting for the cookies to bake, we checked the naughty/nice list and the Santa tracker. The kids were all on the nice list!

Finally, the girls poured a glass of milk for Santa and then it was off to bed!

Of course, Santa came and he delivered a LOT of presents:

In the morning, we were so impressed with the kids--even though Emily was up early (as usual--4:45 is not unheard of with her on Christmas or Easter), she lay quietly on the couch and waited for Mommy and Daddy to get up. Bailey slept until 7:15 and Liam slept until 7:30! We had a blast opening tons of gifts and seeing everyone's reactions.

Will had a crazy idea to go down to Disney for a while, so we hopped in the car and headed for EPCOT. When we got there, Magic Kingdom was closed because it was at capacity, and the EPCOT parking lot was the fullest I have ever seen it. We brought along the Hidden Mickeys book that Aunt Theresa and Uncle Matthew gave us, and we did a little hunting--but it was so crowded that we really couldn't get into it. We left after a short time, but I got a cute picture of the kids while we were there.

Later that evening, we headed over to Mimi and Grandpa's house to have Christmas with the Bloms. It was really fun. I can't believe how many gifts the kids got this year!!

Holiday Fun!!

We wanted to do some special things with the kids since Will had a nice, long holiday from work, so I'm going to group them together in this post and share some pictures.

n December 21, we took the kids to the park to play and then walked around downtown Sanford. It was all decorated for Christmas and we took some cute pictures in front of the tree.

On Dec. 22, we made indoor s'mores and watched the Chipmunk Christmas special on tv.

On the 23rd, we had Christmas with our friends the Kuhns and we did a Christmas tree craft together.

The girls had a blast covering the ice cream cones with frosting and adding candy decorations. Liam ate his whole cone before he even got any frosting or toppings! LOL. I think he still had fun, though.

Family Day

We took the kids to Magic Kingdom and had a super day. It was the very first time Liam was actually interested in and cooperative with the characters. We met Woody and Jessie and he ran right up to them, gave hugs and high fives, and posed for a picture! We capped off the day with lunch at Pizzeria Uno, where the girls had a blast making their own pizzas.

Meeting Santa!

This afternoon we took the kids down to UCF for the annual Light Up UCF festival. We heard that Santa was going to be at the Barnes and Noble down there so we wanted to try to meet him. I was a little concerned because Liam was very upset last year, but this year, he did a great job! Santa was so nice and really spent a lot of time talking to the kids. We were the only family in line so that was really awesome!

Emily's 8th birthday

Yesterday was Emily's 8th birthday. We can hardly believe it! She wanted to celebrate by spending the day at Animal Kingdom. We got there early, did some rides and shows, and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a cool, wet day but we still had fun.

Bailey's Thanksgiving Program

Today was Bailey's Thanksgiving Program at school. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was wrestling with Liam the whole time, but it was so cute. The kids sang lots of silly songs. Our favorite was "The Fat Little Turkey" which was to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey":

A fat little turkey
on Thanksgiving Day
decided that morning
that he'd run away.
He packed up his suitcase
and put on his shoes,
he snuck out the back door,
and left us no clues.
We knew he was missing
when we found his note.
It really surprised us (gasp!),
the things that he wrote.
"Concerning my feathers,
without them, I'm lost.
And I am allergic (AH-choo!)
to cranberry sauce.
I don't want a suntan
to make my skin brown.
With all of that gravy,
I'm certain to drown.
You see, I can't say here,
I might lose my head.
And so this Thanksgiving,
EAT PIZZA INSTEAD!"

Fall Fun

Last night we took the kids to a fair that was behind Emily and Bailey's school. The girls were dying to go to it because they'd watched it get set up all week. Of course, it wasn't that exciting (especially given the fact that we have Disney tickets right now) and it cost a fortune to do a couple rides, but they had a lot of fun. Liam desperately wanted to ride the bumper cars but he was too small--but he loved the train!

Helpful Liam

This just happened.

Me: “Liam, I need you to pick up these trains and put them away, okay?”
Liam: “OKAY, MOM! I HEAR YOU!”

 

A few minutes later…

Me: “Did you put the trains away?”
L: “YES!”

Me: “No, you didn’t! They are still on the floor. Pick them up and go put them with the rest of the trains.”

L: “OKAY!”

 

A minute or so later, here’s Liam, looking very proud of himself.

Me: “Did you put the trains away?”

Liam: “Yes! I feed dog!”

Sheesh.

My Silly Boy

This morning, as I was making the girls' lunches, Liam was playing around in the kitchen. When I opened the pantry door, this is what I found: