Evan turns 3

Evan had a very Thomas-ey birthday. We celebrated at Nanna and Poppy's house with the cousins. He got lots of cool presents, including some Cars and Thomas stuff, his two favorite things.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream. J.Paul and I made a combined effort on the cake.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.

Happy Birthday big boy! I can't believe you're three!

Amzie turns 5

The Amzie girl had a great 5th birthday. On her actual birthday she wanted to invite Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Poppy and Mamaw over for dinner. She wanted broccoli soup with rolls and pink birthday cake. Nanna brought her a new outift and grandma a barbie and some barbie clothes. And we got her a bike. She was so excited.



A couple weeks later we had her fairy party. It was so much fun (and the best part was I didn't have to do anything)! The girls got to choose a dress up outfit, get make-up and nails done, make a craft, have story time, play pin the lips on the frog prince, dance, play games, open presents, and eat cake and ice cream. They had a great time, as you will see in the pictures.

(Evan was able to dress up as a pirate)It was her favorite birthday ever!!!

Diaper bag for Brady

My sister in law is Amber is having a baby. She has 3 girls and is now having a boy, this Friday to be exact. I decided to make her a diaper bag.

I love this bag! It's nice and roomy, has a divider and big pockets on the inside and two pockets on either side on the outside. And I made a matching changing pad, quilted with fabric on one side and a soft fleece on the other.

This is Amy Butler fabric, and also the pattern is an Amy Buttler from this book, which I love.

Day 4 - Hollywood Studios, and Day 5

We started out the day with breakfast at the Carribean beach resort. The kids were so cute with the characters. Minnie gave Amzie eskimo kisses. It was so, so cute.

I think I mentioned Evan's fear of most of the characters, except "Donald the Duck". He really loved him.

We headed to Hollywood Studios (the park formerly known as Epcot.) There were a lot of shows here for the kids, but not a lot of rides. The shows we caught were Beauty and the Beast, High School Musical, The Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney, Indiana Jones, and the Muppets. We loved the Block Party (kind of like a parade). We had a great spot.

Waiting for the block party to start...

Amzie got pulled up to dance with the characters, and surprisingly she was a little shy.

Evan and Daddy watching.

Of course Evan loved seeing Lightning McQueen and Mater.

We finally got to do the new Toy Story ride. It was awesome! We all loved it. Then we headed over to meet Buzz and Woody - another very long wait in line, but at least we got a lot of cute pictures out of it.

At last we got to meet Buzz and Woody, although Evan wouldn't touch them or even be near them without Grandma. But he did get Buzz to sign his hat, which he treasures.

Day 5

We went mini golfing in the morning, then headed back to Animal Kingdom. We did a few things, including the Nemo show, which I'm glad we got to do since we missed it the previous time. When we got out it was pouring down rain.

Amzie wanted a turkey leg for lunch. It was as big as her head.

We headed back to the hotel for a swim. Then got cleaned up and went to the Animal Kingdom for dinner at Boma. Mmmmmm. It was delicious.

It was exhausting but we had a great time!

Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

As I look through the pictures I realize we didn't get that many at Animal Kingdom, but we really enjoyed it, so much that we went back there on Friday.

We enjoyed our front row seats to watch the parade. Some other things we loved were the Lion King show, the Safari. The kids did not love the Bug's Life show.


Amzie's favorite ride in all of Disney World was the Kali River Rapids. This was her first time, but she ended up riding it three or four times. They all got soaked even though they were wearing panchos!

Cute kiddos. Evan LOVED his misty fan. He liked to turn it on and suck on it. As a result, he almost always had a soaking wet shirt. At least it kept him cool.

I don't think you can tell, but J.Paul is still soaking wet in this picture from the river rapids ride. When we left the animal kingdom G'ma and G'pa took the kids back to the hotel for a swim and J.Paul and I went to eat at Ohana. We loved it. We especially loved the view to the magic kingdom and that we could watch the fireworks show from the perfect view.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

We started off the day eating breakfast at the beautiful Grand Floridian. We met the Pooh characters, Alice and the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. Did I already mention that Amzie loved getting all their autographs? Evan sometimes liked the characters and sometimes didn't.

After we ate breakfast we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. No adults really wanted to go on the teacups because of all the spinning. As soon as the kiddos got in, they of course started to spin it. So J's solution was to have them raise their hands in the air and it worked. They didn't even know they were being tricked :)

Amzie got to meet Tink! This is the longest line we waited in all day, I think it was 45 min- 1 hr. to meet 3 fairies. I guess it was worth it for the girl to get her autograph book filled up!

This is on the classic "kids love/parents hate" Small World ride. Amz loved the dancing dolls! And you just can't help but go on this ride more than once cause there was no wait. Grandma and I didn't mind it, but I don't think the guys were big fans.

Waiting for Philharmagic. This was a favorite of us all. We especially loved the magic carpet ride. And could Amz look any more Disneyed out?


The kids met Donald in Frontierland. Donald was definitely Evan's favorite character that we met the whole time - he even posed with him! He called him Donald the duck. Amz didn't really "like his outfit".

We had a long, hot, great day at the Magic Kingdom and finished the night with the awesome fireworks show. We sat near the castle under the zip line where Tinkerbell flies. The kids loved it. When it was all over we loaded up the kids and headed out. Evan was asleep within 5 minutes. Exhausted and happy.

Disney World Day 1 - Epcot

Welcome to Epcot! While J.Paul and I were in line for tickets Grandpa and Grandma made sure the kids were in proper attire for Disney World, so they got Amzie a Minnie hat and Evan got Buzz. First we headed to the ride inside the ball. Amzie hid her head and cried the entire time. It wasn't even scary, just dark. Then we headed to Soarin, which we all loved and then over to Nemo.

"Aww, you made me ink!"

Marlin, Evan, and Nemo. Oh and Turtle Talk with Crush was one of our very favorite things in all of Disney World.

Grandma and Grandpa


Then we headed over to Norway to eat dinner with the princesses. Amzie was thrilled to be greeted by Belle and have her picture made with her.

As we ate we were greeted by every other princess - Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel. Sleeping Beauty is Amzie's favorite, and I think it's only because she wears pink.


This is Snow White trying to win over Evan.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around the countries and enjoying ourselves.