Christmas in SeaWorld!

I'm pretty far behind in my blogging, I have a lot of things I have been wanting to blog but just haven't had the time, so my goal is to catch up with the blog sometime next week. (fingers crossed). But I wanted to hurry and do this post... so it will be quick, at least that's the plan...

So here in SeaWorld they have a lot of fun things going on for Christmas, most of it is on the weekends so we are planning on doing some of the activities with our good friends, the William's, tomorrow but today Dustin and I headed over there to take some pictures because it will be more busy tomorrow so we wanted to get it out of the way. :) 

They have a lot of fun and pretty decorations all over, so we tried to take a few family photos.

Also at SeaWorld they have this Polar Express exhibit, that I actually really love because I love the book and also in the exhibit they make it so Christmas-y and smells like Christmas and everything, so I love it since sometimes it's hard to think it's Christmas when there's no snow here in Orlando, so I head over there a lot with Thomas. So here are some pictures in front of the train.

When you go in, they have it all cute, they make it like you are in the North Pole, and they have this huge Christmas tree where the Beluga whales are. It's really cool because they have the Arctic animals in there so it helps with the illusion that you are at the North pole. The animals they have in the are the Beluga whales, Polar bears (which sleep most of the time but today he was moving all over!), the walrus (which I think is pretty cool).

Also in the North Pole they have Santa. And I think this picture is HILARIOUS! It's a classic, Thomas crying.... made me think of The Christmas Story. I'm really tempted to put it on our Christmas card, I'm probably an awful mom thinking this picture is that funny. 

Family Visit

Here are some pictures from the visit from my brother, Paul and his family that I mentioned earlier. They are kinda random order, but thanks to my sis-in-law we got some pictures since Dustin had the camera at his art convention.  So enjoy.

Thomas at Harry Potter World, he loved Butterbeer this trip, I couldn't feed it to him fast enough.

Paul and I after the big drop in the Jurassic Park ride, we got pretty wet. 

Inside Hogwarts, one of my favorite things to do.

Meeting Mickey before Thomas cries.

Worn out in Universal.

I love this picture of Thomas. Thanks Brie!

At Disney, I had to take a picture by Little Mermaid for my mom, because when I was little I watched that show so much that still today my mom can't stand that movie.

Thomas & I eating at Pinnochio's haus (I think that's what it's called.)

In Universal, heading to Harry Potter World, I still get way excited even though  I was just there the week before. 

BATH TIME!!! I love both of their faces! This is my niece Susanna.

Paul, Brie, and Susanna at Universal.

One of my favorite roller coasters in Orlando, this was right after Paul and I went on it. 

Cinderella's castle at Christmas, beautiful. 

Hanging out in our apartment.

Fun Pictures of the cousins!

I had so much fun with Paul and Brie! 

ONE BIG POST

Life has been busy the last couple of weeks that I haven't gotten a chance to blog, so here is a little, more like a big catch up post.

Family Visit:

Last week my brother Paul, Brie and Susanna came up for a visit for week. It was a lot of fun, and perfect timing because Dustin was gone that week at a caricature convention so I wasn't alone. Also that week I got to see my sister Jennifer for a couple days because she was here for work so we had a little family reunion and eat some yummy food.

While Dustin was having fun in St. Petersburg drawing with other artists everyday and doing workshops, Paul,Brie, Susanna, Thomas, and I hit all the major parks. We first hit SeaWorld, than Tuesday we went to Disney World and we went to Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. I was excited to go to Magic Kingdom because I had only seen it once and didn't get a chance to ride any the rides. We hit the parks the right time because most of our lines for all of the parks were only 5 minutes long so we hit almost every ride. In Magic Kingdom I got ride all the traditional rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a small World. It was a lot of fun and tiring at the same time.

Wednesday was relaxed day since we were tired from the two parks but we did go down to downtown disney at night, which is always fun.

Than Thursday we hit Universal Studios, and we were able to ride many rides there as well, and got to see Harry Potter World and drink butterbeer (my favorite part of course).

Than that night Brie and I went to midnight showing to Breaking Dawn with some ladies from my ward, yes I know, not the greatest movie but it's always fun to have a ladies night, but I did get lost finding the theater and that was quite an adventure, ha ha poor Brie seeing me all frustrated and saying, "I don't even like this movie, this is not worth it." I think I liked the movie, I think, I think the acting was better, but there were some grotesque scenes in there, so if you have a weak stomach don't watch it.

Than Friday was another relaxing day, and that night we watched the last Harry Potter movie. It was a lot of fun to see family.

SORRY no pics, hopefully I get some up soon

Our New Couch:

Till now all we have had were two chairs in our living room, but we had some good friends that moved and gave us some furniture so here's our living room, finally our apartment feels a little more like a home, so I did some decorating and made those canvas pictures in the back.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas:

This last week Dustin let me get a Christmas tree, and not only a tree, but a bigger tree than I expected. Since we don't know how long we are staying Florida, we have tried not get too many things because we don't want to pay to move it, and also most of our stuff is in Idaho, so I was surprised Dustin let me get a tree, but since we are not going anywhere for Christmas because Dustin will be working he said we could do something, I was so excited, but we wanted to keep our budget low because who knows what we will keep and what we will get rid of when we move so we went to the dollar store for decorations, so here is our tree, it looks better in life, I want to take a better picture of it sometime but I hurried and  took a picture before Thomas got to it,  because it didn't take long before he started pulling off the ornaments. 

Living in Florida it doesn't feel like the holidays it still feels like summer so I have been breaking my own rule and I have been listening and watching Christmas music and movies before Thanksgiving, trying to get into the mind-set, it's sort of working.

Instead of being Santa, I'm being Ollivander:

Another reason I have been super busy, is because I have been working on something for my mom that she's doing for the grandkids this year. She is getting them all wands from Harry Potter, so I've been going to Harry Potter world a few times, and I've studied all the types of wands so each grandkid gets one according to their birthday, I also wrote them a Hogwarts acceptance letter, along with a letter from Ollivander telling them what their wand is made of and it's powers it possesses. It probably sounds pretty nerdy, but when I was 10 my brother-in-law did something similar for me one year for Christmas, where he carved me a wand and gave me a Hogwarts letter and I loved it so much because I was reading the books at the time, and still today that stands out in my mind so I wanted the grandkids to have the same magical feel, so here are some pictures of us with the wands, that's 30 wands and $900 worth.

Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving was a little different this year because of many reasons. First Dustin had to work most of the day so it seemed pretty much like a regular day, and since Dustin had to work we stayed here so I had to make the Thanksgiving dinner, which made me appreciate all the years my mom has done Thanksgiving and wanted her there. But I thought my Thanksgiving meal was a success, not as good as my mom's of course, but we were pretty full afterwards so I count that as a success. I didn't take any pictures I didn't have it all fancy and stuff, I know that doesn't matter but I'm funny that way.

Eh?

Today we went to Thomas' 1 year check up and he's doing great, and developing good! For this last appointment I was nervous  because I felt like Thomas hasn't gained that much weight and I was afraid they were going to say he was under weight, but the little guy did gain some weight! He's still little but the doctor wasn't worried, he is now 18lbs 6oz and 31inches.
During the appointment the doctor asked if he said any words, and I told him he's still babbling, so no, but for those who have been around Thomas know he loves saying "eh" and loves when you say it back and forth with him, and he did that in the appointment and the Dr said that counts as a word, so I guess Thomas' first word is "eh?". Maybe the next one will be dada or mama, who knows?

Thomas' First Birthday!!

I can't believe my little man is ONE! He turned one yesterday, and boy, did he get spoiled. Between grandparents, friends & family, and of course his parents, he got a lot of presents. We finished opening them this morning, to spread out the wealth a little!
We started the day by letting him open one of his presents, which was the walker, and he loves that thing a lot, he thinks it's the coolest to walk around without my help, he just needs to learn how to steer so he doesn't keep running into walls! Than later that day I took him to Seaworld because he LOVES it! When we went to the entrance he was talking out of excitement, it was pretty cute.  Than for dinner we had homemade pizza and cake!!! The cake didn't turned out how I wanted because I ran out of time, and also  Thomas was pretty fussy when I was making it, but it tasted good, so that's all that counts right?
The cake eating was probably my favorite, at first he wasn't sure what was going on because we sang Happy Birthday to him, than gave him this huge piece, but after a few bites he started chowing down. It was so funny and cute that I started laughing, and because I started laughing, he reacted to it and started laughing and being more crazy with the food (it reminded me of the scene in Christmas Story when the mom was trying to get her boy to eat his food so she said: "show me how a piggy eats" and they little boy went crazy and they both starting laughing and being silly). Afterwards he was a mess, so bath time, and bed. He was one happy camper by the end of the day.
I love my little boy, I've been having so much fun being his mom this past year and I'm looking forward to the next years.

Halloween!

This Halloween was a success! We had a lot of fun celebrating with our friends in Florida. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because I love Halloween decorations and of course I love dressing up.  I had a lot of funny dressing up this year, mainly because I have always wanted to have purple hair, and yesterday my wish came true, and it's made me want purple hair even more! (Don't worry mom, I won't die it purple). As you probably already know from my previous posts that I'm a big Harry Potter fan and it has increased since my Harry Potter World experience, so naturally we were going to dress up as Harry Potter characters, Dustin and I were Lupin and Tonks, and Thomas was Teddy, there son, he's a metamorphmagus (can change hair color and  some facial changing) like Tonks, so we tried to dye Thomas' hair but that didn't go over very well, so in the pictures you can kinda see pink in it. 

In Orlando, we aren't the only Harry Potter fans, that we had a big group that dressed up as the characters, we had McGonagall, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco,Rita Skeeter, Bellatrix, two death eaters, Dobby, and Winky as well. It was a lot of fun to hang out with our friends.

Brie did an awesome job at decorating her garage for the little trick or treaters, she did such a great job she won the best garage contest. She used the backdrop that Dustin, Adam, Brie, and I painted for several days, so here are some pictures of us working on it.

Good vs. Evil

And of course I used my scrapbook paper that my sister-in-law, Crystal designed.

Rexburg Visit

The last ten days I was able to go to Idaho and visit my family and friends, and had a blast! It was so good to come home to good old Rexburg water, Dustin teases me about it, but I think Rexburg has the best water. Seeing my parents was so good since it's been a while, so it was fun to hang out and talk like the good days when I was living in Rexburg. Surprisingly, I didn't freeze over there, but it is a lot colder than Florida.
While I was in Rexburg I got to see many good friends. I got to hang out with childhood friend Sara almost everyday, I felt like I was ten again going to her house and hanging out, it was so much fun. And this last Saturday I had lunch with more childhood friends, Sara, Michelle, and Kylie, I love how even though we don't to see each other for a long time we still can talk like we have never been apart.
I also got to hang out with Aubrey, and again, she is an awesome friend, it was so much fun talking to her and laughing our heads off. I also got to see some couple friends, {the Dyers and Christiansens}that Dustin and I used to hang out with when we were going to school.
Than this last weekend most of my sisters got to come up from and we hung out all day. I love my family, that's probably the hardest thing about living in Florida is we are not near to any family.
I had so much fun, and I was glad that Thomas got to have time with my parents! And now I'm home and life is going to be busy and crazy the next few months.

* Side note: I have been trying to be better about scrapbooking, so to hit two birds with one stone, I might start posting my pictures in a scrapbook format, this way I will hopefully get more pages done!!! I have been doing my scrapbooking digitally because it's so much easier, cheaper, cuter, and everything else. The paper I used for this page are from my sister-in-law, Crystal Wilkerson, who is AMAZING!!! I love her stuff, she designs the cutest scrapbook stuff, you should check out her website HERE. and her blog is HERE

It's getting to be the busy season!

Starting October things seem to get a little busy with our family between all the holidays, birthdays, traveling, and family visiting, that I have a lot to blog about just this week and I feel like it's going to be like that till Christmas, because we have a lot of fun things going on with our family. 

To start off, Dustin's birthday was this last Monday and he turned big 28!!! I married an old man, ha ha jk! 

I love this man to pieces! It's hard not to spoil him when it comes to his birthday. This year he didn't get a whole lot presents because he decided he wanted to go to a caricature convention next month for a week, but I did get him a caricature book from one of his favorite artists, the new X-men movie ( I let him open that early), and Cloudy with a Chance with Meatballs. After he worked we spend the rest of the night with our good friends the Williams and had Four Rivers BBQ for dinner, which was so good, and a pie from ColdStone. So I didn't have to make anything I just got to enjoy it! So this birthday was a success!

Also this week, Thomas and I got to go to Universal Studios again with the Williams which was also really fun. Brie & I got to ride a lot of fun roller-coasters like the Rock-N-Roll, and the Mummy, poor Adam was stuck watching all three kids while we did all the fun things. Than later that night Dustin, Thomas, & I went to Sea World's Spooktacular weekend. It's so much fun going trick or treating with your kid, especially when your kid is too young to eat the candy, so you are the one that gets it, and let's just say we scored with the candy at Sea World!

Our cute little monkey!

Dustin's nasty mustache ( I just need to wait till Halloween and it will be gone) Also love how Thomas is wearing half of his costume.

And some exciting things that are coming up in the next little while: Thomas and I are going to be in Idaho this Tuesday for ten days! Then of course Halloween, Thomas' first birthday is coming after that in November. Also in November Dustin will be going to the caricature convention, and my sister and brother and his family are coming up here in Orlando, so we will be hitting a lot of the major parks.

Eleven Months!

This past Friday Thomas turned 11 months!!! I will have a year old next month! I feel like I'm not old enough to have a kid in the first place, but a 1 year-old? He won't be a baby anymore!

So at eleven months Thomas is still doing his army crawl, he can crawl a little but the other way is faster so he sticks to it. He loves when Dustin and I copy him and make the same sounds as him. He loves to smack his lips, shake his head as if saying "no", he will give you a high five, and he's starting to wave hi, but only to Dustin and me right now. He's at that stage where he doesn't like if one of us ever leaves the apartment without him, and he only allows some people to hold him without crying. He also loves the rain, he doesn't mind getting wet at all as long as he is outside. And he has 7 teeth now!!!

He is  a great blessing in our lives!

Also he's getting harder and harder to photograph and take good pictures because he doesn't hold still anymore, he's always on the move!

Disney World

This last week we were able to go to Disney World and AGAIN we weren't able to take any pictures. The first time we went to Disney we both thought the other person brought the camera, and this time I got everything ready, the batteries, I emptied our memory card, BUT left it by our computer! I was so SAD, because we keep not getting pictures of Disney.
This last week we went to Epcot  (the park with the big golf ball) for their Food and Wine Festival with the Lindsey's, and don't worry we just tried the food not the wine ;) It was a lot of fun because they had a lot of different food from all different countries. We also tried different sodas from different countries, most of them tasted like coke, which isn't my favorite, but there was one that i really liked that tasted like a snow cone flavor. We were also able to ride some of the rides they had there, and most of them we could take Thomas. and overall he liked him, and first he wasn't sure, but in the end he liked it.
I was really glad that we got to go to Epcot because that was the only park I hadn't seen yet, so now that I've seen all the Disney parks I would have to say my favorite are Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios but I like them all in their own little way.
This November my brother and my sister-in-law are coming to visit, and I'm super excited! We are planning on taking them to all the major theme parks so when we go to Disney I will MAKE SURE to have a camera with a memory card!!!