Disney Vacation

Here are some of our photos from our fun-filled family vacation! We went on a Disney Cruise and then ended off with a few days in DisneyWorld. I am not sure about others, but with little kids and cousins the cruise was the best way to go. Long line-ups are not for me and my little ones. The cruise was great! They had their cousins to play with (I think that is the only way to do a cruise: if you have families to travel with) and the characters were the highlight for my kids. The ability to easily get back to our room and nap the kids was the highlight for me.


Here is Mark and the kids enjoying the ice cream bar while we wait to depart.


Jude and Mark relaxing.


One of the walls in the Cabana restaurant. I LOVED this wall! it is a mosaic not a painting, just in case you couldn't see the bits of glass.


Waiting to go to breakfast and swimming. Eve and Jude checking out our view.


Asher loved that he could climb up on the bunk beds...it took me to get him down though


Breakfast with everyone...except for Brad who kindly waited in the line to meet the princesses.


Eve and Asher running to see the princesses. The boat was very pretty too.


My kids were so thrilled to see all the Disney Characters so the cruise did not disappoint. Princesses galore. My two favorite photos were of Tiana and Ariel.



Peter Pan and the kids, Asher was very excited. However, you wouldn't know by looking at the photos that my kids were happy to have their pictures taken.


All the fun tuckered Asher out. He fell asleep watching tv just before dinner!



Castaway Cay, is Disney's private island. Really...? All I thought was how very 'manicured' it was and just like everything else disney, slightly unreal... It was nice and clean with no one bugging you for anything but to give you food.

The kids clinging to Mark, the water was a tad chilly


Jude slept! No sunburn though...


This one of Livvy was just too cute.


Asher was thrilled with all the pop, perhaps that was his favorite part.


'Yo Ho! A pirates life for ME!'
Pirate night! Who was the most excited? That was debatable...




Asher was very proud of his pirate sword ( a pen). He didn't want me to take a picture of him, just his pen.


Avery and Eve goofing off waiting for Tinker Bell


Tinker Bell was pretty fun! She would seriously skip everywhere and the last day she spent it with all the kids in 'Pixie Hallow' at the kids club. Eve was in HEAVEN! The kids clubs were pretty cool.


Eve given some love to Jude while he waits to compete in the 'diaper-dash'


The Olympic hopeful himself. Jude as pleased as punch after winning first place in the crawling competition know as the 'Diaper-Dash'. They had two heats and a final; Jude tore it up! It does help that the kid was 17 months before he walked and had been crawling for almost a year by the time he competed. Those little 10 monthers didn't stand a chance against our seasoned crawler. Look how happy he is that he won. I see a track and field medalist in the future...


The last day at Disney World Mark and Brad took the boys to Hollywood Studios. Asher couldn't stop talking about Buzz.

Unfortunately Asher was also introduced to Star Wars (it was only a matter of time), he now chases his sister around with his 'light-saver' as he calls it, and is training to become a Jedi Knight who turns to the dark side (Asher loves the bad guys).

That is it. Exhausted we returned to Pinkeye and colds, all part of the fun of traveling. We had a great time and are so glad Mark's sister invited us to try out a Disney Cruise.

A dresser reborn

About 4 months ago we bought a dresser from a lady for Eve's room. The lady had 'refinished' the dresser herself and it was AWFUL. We were paying for the style of the dresser not her horrible work. She didn't sand the dresser initially or ever. She didn't paint with the grain, she used a matt finish (looks awful) and then she didn't lacquer, but used a silver gloss to finish it (which she didn't paint with the grain either). If you are reading this and are not aware: when painting wood furniture sanding, painting with the grain and cleaning between each coat is crucial for a nice finish.






Here you can see her shotty work on the side, thick uneven horrible paint.



The handles she covered with some type of silver paint that isn't for metal. It rubbed off!


So, this is what we did.


Now, I will tell you it doesn't look as good as I had planned. I learned that I should have removed all of her horrible work instead of just sanding it smooth. This dresser should have been stripped of all paint and then I could have started fresh. Next time... Also, I should have used automobile spray paint for the handles (as was recommended to me) it would have adhered better.
Oh well, a lesson learned. At least the color is better and you can't see the bad paint brush marks as much. I don't think the dresser will be quite the keeper we were hoping for, but I do like it soooo much more than before.

Eve's Performances and our crafts

Eve had a few performances this holiday season. First she sang at her school, which was so cute. She is very shy in front of people and almost didn't go up. I am glad that she did, even though she was nervous the whole time, which you can tell by the following pictures.


I had made her dress for her birthday. I fell in love with the fabric and had found some antique buttons at the quilt show. I love old glass buttons. They are like treasures!



But at the end she was thrilled she had participated!


She also had her ballet recital for Christmas. I convinced one of the very talented moms to help me make these hair pieces for the evening's performance.


Eve being introduced at the beginning.



One more thing I made: I wish I had had one too, a diaper clutch/ change pad. I had a diaper clutch, I also had a change pad but not all in one. This was my favorite pattern I found online (the closet crafter??) Anyways, love it! It was for my dear sister who just had a baby.

Christmas

We had a great time for Christmas. Mark's mom came down for the Holidays and for Christmas Eve we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner and some presents.

Asher LOVING his Spidy Jammies!

We also let the kids open up some pjs and and one present each (Eve opened up the present Asher and Jude got her and they opened up the gifts from her) We found that made the gift a bit more special instead of getting lost in the group.


With Christmas being on a Sunday and our Church services starting at 9am, we opened up stockings before church then waited until after church to open up the rest. This worked wonderfully for our tiny kids. They actually would have been thrilled with only the stocking gifts...maybe we should have stopped there...

Our sweet buddy enjoying his sweets!




Some of the gifts Santa dropped off for the family...
I had to show Asher what to do with the Spiderman mask. He was pretty cute running around trying to scare people with it.

Eve with her special gift

Jude doesn't even know where to begin.


Mark's with his German Pyramid.


My favorite gift, my felted slippers. These are amazing. Made out of merino wool and cashmere they are soft and warm but breathable. I am in love with them! We found ladies on Etsy from Lithuania selling them.

Merry Christmas

Every year our church in the area has a nativity display. They have hundreds of nativities to look at and in one of the rooms families can dress up and have their picture taken. This is our little Nativity.

There was a bit of a discussion at the beginning on who would be who, but when Eve saw the sparkly angle dress...well...
Mark and Jude were shepherds, Eve the Angel, I got to be Mary and Asher was Joseph (just in case you couldn't tell).



It never says how old Joseph was, let's hope a bit older than our version.




"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them.."
The photographer couldn't get enough of Jude's cuteness, we got a few pictures of him. This one is just so sweet!