Disney Review!

So, it has been almost 2 years since I checked in here...life has been crazy!  But good.  So good.  So many people have asked to hear about our Disney trip, so here ya go!  I will do the best I can to remember everything! 

We left on a Friday morning...at 1:17am, to be exact.  Chris is nuts.  the drive to Orlando was estimated to be around 20 hours, so we planned on driving through to Valdosta (17 hours) to spend the night, then finishing up the drive the next day.  The closer we got to Valdosta, the more Chris started talking about "what if we just went the whole way..." because the kids were doing so great.  We stopped for dinner near Valdosta, asked the kids if they were down to finish the drive that night, and they said they were, so we did!  Although the last 4 hours we were both contemplating jumping out of the car because the kids were regretting their decision and were being fools in the backseats!!  BUT we made it.  We stayed in a Holiday Inn near Disney that night...and then it was on to Disney in the morning! 

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside on Disney property.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  It is one of the "smaller" resorts (but really, NOTHING is small at Disney), and our Disney vacation planner had a great room in a great location reserved for us.  We were on the first floor, super close to a bus stop...it was perfect!  After we got checked in to the resort, we headed out to Epcot!  We debated on weather or not to go to epcot, but in the end, we are glad we did!  The Nemo Ride, Turtle Talk with Crush, Soarin', and more were a lot of fun to ride, and it was a great way to start our vacation before the madness of Magic Kingdom.  We ate lunch at a quick service restaurant in China (sooooooo good!) and for dinner we went to Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for dinner with Belle and other princesses.  The food is traditional Norwegian...it wasn't our favorite meal of the week, but the fact that liv got to meet 4 princesses in one evening was pretty great! 

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom.  It rained all. day. long.  And not just a "summer rain" rain...but a bone-drenching monsoon rain.  The plan that day was to ride rides, and eat lunch at Be Our Guest.  We went to BOG around 11:00 to eat, and there was a sign out that they were already full for lunch that day!  I was so disappointed!  I tried getting a fast pass for our last day there, but they were already gone.  So we wound up having hot dogs and fries for lunch.  Not the same!  :) Everyone was really tired and grouchy and wet and overstimulated...I will never forget chris and I pushing that double jogging stroller through the pouring rain, all 3 kids inside the stroller covered by the rain guard, Livy having a Toddlers In Tiaras-worthy temper tantrum while were going allllllllll the way across Magic Kingdom.  Talk about Walk of Shame!!  We had late dinner reservations that night for Ohana at the Polynesian.  That was the best meal of the week!  they had coconut bowling and racing for the kids, and the food was amazing!  so we ended day 2 on a high note! 

day 3 we went to Hollywood Studios.  we LOVED this park.  there was so much to do and see.  we started with breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with the Disney Jr characters.  the food was really really good, and they had coffee!!!!!!!!  wade did jedi training, owen rode rockin' roller coaster (wade was too short), they rode tower of terror, the star wars ride, the toy story ride, so much!!  we ate an early dinner at Mama Melrose and rode more rides, then went and watched Fantasmic in the VIP section...thanks to our vacation planner!  Fantasmic was fun! 

day 4 we started at Animal Kingdom.  We did Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House, and we HIGHLY recommend that!  The food was so good!   the boys rode everything they wanted to, and we were done there by lunch time.  we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios again so the kids could ride more rides (they LOVED that park!), then a few hours later we went back to epcot so they could ride a few more favorites, then we ate a quick service dinner at a little place in Morocco. 

Day 5 was our last day!  we spent 13 hours at magic kingdom, and I am happy to report that it went so well!  livy did the bibbidi bobbidi boutique and we almost died because it was so freaking cute!  on a whim, early in the day, we walked back to Be Our Guest (it was around 10:00) and the lady told us that we could get in line and wait for the place to open for lunch!  so we took turns...one of us would stand in line and the other would take the kids on rides.  :) when they finally opened for lunch, we waited for 5 minutes and got in!  it was SO COOL.  for those who don't know, BOG is in "The Beast's" castle from Beauty and the Beast.  The details in this place are amazing and we are so glad we got to go!!!  by the time we got in, the line was alllllll the way into Fantasyland.   The food was really good, the best quick service we had all week.  the desserts were even better...I had a cupcake topped with "the grey stuff" ('try the grey stuff it's delicious, don't believe me ask the dishes!') and it was really yummy!  for dinner that night, we went to Cinderella's Royal Table.  Chris died a little, spending $200+ for dinner (we were out of our meal plan credits...whoops!) but it was fun.  The restaurant is surprisingly small, which is probably why it is so difficult to get reservations.  We made these reservations 185 days before we ate there!  the food was....okay.  definitely not worth $200+. but we have eaten in the castle, liv got to meet princess jasmine (who she hadn't met yet!) and that is that.  if we go back to Disney...we won't eat at the castle again.  we rode rides all day, watched livy transform into a princess, wade become a knight, we got to see owen just be a kid!  it was so much fun! 

I am going to do another post about tips for Disney...but my brain is fried for now.  :)

so, it was a whirlwind week! 

first broken bone...check!

Well hello, blog!  I haven't seen you in almost 5 months.  We've just been busy selling our house, building a new one, MOVING WITH SMALL KIDS, busy portrait season, a daddy with crazyassinsane work hours as of late, and oh, ya know, broken bones.  My poor wadey.  if you follow me on facebook (which if you are reading this, you probably do!) you know that wade is a lover of all things crib.  he loves to sleep in his crib, he talks about how much he loves it, he likes to hang out in his crib, you get the picture.  When we were moving, we tried and tried to get him to want a big boy bed so that we could just give livy his crib instead of buying her a new one (poor 3rd baby was still sleeping in a pack and play at the old house, haha).  But he wasn't having ANY OF THAT NO THANK YOU.  a bit before we moved, we even tried turning his crib into a toddler bed, and that night when he ran to his crib (toddler bed) to go to bed he freaked his freak.  "ooooooooh nooooooo!  my crib BROKEN!!!!!" and had a massive meltdown until chris put the front crib piece back on, and he happily went to sleep.  anyways, i am rambling. 

last week, i went in his room to get him out of his crib in the morning, and he said "momma, i want break my crib!  i want a big boy bed!" and we were so excited!  so my inlaws brought the twin bed down that we had been storing at the farm (owen's old bed) and set it up that night.  He was very excited to sleep in it.  And I had seen a tip on Pinterest where you shove a pool noodle under the sheets, and that helps your child not fall out of bed.  We were excited because that meant that we weren't going to have to use the big-ass bed rail that we had in the basement.  It is such a pain to make beds with that thing on a bed!  so, pool noodle was placed, bedtime stories read, and wade was tucked in.

at 4:45am, i woke up to owen standing 2" from my face.  "mommy.  mommy.  MOMMA!  i want you to tuck me back in to bed."  (side note: omg isn't a good thing that even while we are woken up in the middle of a dream by someone standing thisclose to us, mommas brain's can determine in a fraction of an instant if that person is one of your littles or a person who you need to kick and punch?)  so i tucked him back in and went back to bed and was about to fall back asleep.  when i hear...

THUD. 

dang it.  i ran to wade's room, and he was in the middle of a silent "i am in so much pain in can not even make noise" scream.  I picked him up and then he started really screaming.  chris came running in and we were trying everything to get him calmed down, and after about 10-15 mins, he calmed down somewhat, so we laid him back in his bed and he freaked out once his back hit the pillow.  a few minutes later we knew he needed to be seen, so i got dressed and off he and i went to the er.  the dr at first didn't think he had broken anything, until he lifted his left arm and wade started screaming.  so the xray girl came in and took his xrays.  she told him it was her "big camera" and the little cheeseball was saying "cheeeeeeese" while she took his xrays, haha. 

after the dr came back in and said his collarbone was broken (and after he left the room) i said "baby i am so sorry you broke your collarbone!"  Which, i don't know what triggered this, but he started screaming "OH NO!!!!! I NOT HAS ANY LEGS?!?!?!"  he was, like, screaming.  who knows! 


so the treatment for a broken collarbone pretty much sucks because they don't cast collarbones.  basically he is in a sling or 6-8 weeks.  they can't cast it, so we just do our best to keep it still and not let him get too wild.  which should be easy because he is a 2 year old boy with a big brother and neighbor kids who he tries to keep up with.  at least he is working that sling!  this little guy is such a lovebug!!

PaPa PaPa Paparazzi

Every month, I take a picture of Livy with her "month" sticker to show how she changes over the year.  the boys absolutely love helping with this, so here is a behind the scenes look at our monthly session. 

 the boys get their cameras ready, and check their exposure, first and foremost.  ("checking exposure" on the kiddie cameras consists of turning the camera on, telling me the batteries are going to die, shaking the camera around, taking a test shot, and then declaring it "ready".)

 And while mommy gets her camera ready, the trio chill on the chair. 

 Wade takes the first shots of livy, he is a chimper, as you can see.  ;)

 Then Owen goes next. 

 Owen decides to get a different perspective

 Then they compete for Livy's eye contact. 

 Wade looks for a different perspective

And then goes back to old faithful. 

"How was your day" you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Today was a Monday, which usually means BLAH in our house, boring stuff likesuchas getting groceries, recooping from the weekend, etc.  Nothing awesome.  And today was pretty much the least awesome Monday (or any day for that matter) in, like, history.  What made it so sucky?  Let me tell you!  (Preface:  if you get grossed out by kid stuff, like STUFF, then read no more.  you're welcome)  (Preface 2: wade had been dealing with some "tummy trouble" aka "diarrhea" for the last two days)  (pretty sure "diarrhea" didn't need quotation marks, seeing as how I just came out and said it, so....okay. moving on.) Here was our Monday.

6:00am- Chris wakes me up in a panic, because he can't find his keys.  he remembers seeing owen playing with them on saturday.  (Ummmm...hello!  didn't it occur to you to take them and put them away right then??  thank goodness chris is so good looking...)  he proceeds to tear the house apart (cushions off of the couches, toys out of the toybox, etc. it was a mess.)

7:30- he finds his spare key and is off to work. the house is a mess. 

8:30- wade wakes up with the big D and promptly gets a bath.  owen gets up, and they both eat breakfast.

9:00- the boys play (aka- make a huge mess that they will be too busy to clean up) while I try and pick the house up and livy naps.  wade has the big D about 8 times in the next 90 minutes.  which means he gets just as many baths because wipes hurt his raw bottom.  which means I clean out the tub just as many times.  in between trying to get the house picked up.  and play with the kids.

10:30- get the boys dressed to pick up groceries (thank GOODNESS for online shopping at hyvee!  i pull up and they load my order for me!)  feed livy. 

10:45- realtor calls asking us if we are up for having a showing today at 3:30.  I have to say "yes" even though my brain is saying "WTH are you EVEN thinking??  how are you going to get your house ready while you have a 2 year old who is D'ing every 20 minutes, a 4 year old who is apparently a monkey/child hyrbid and has decided the house is his personal jungle gym, and a 4.5 month old princess who likes to snuggle???"  load the kids in the car to get groceries.

11:15- heading back from hyvee, I hear sudden SCREAMS and choking sounds from the very back seat.  wade has puked EVERYWHERE. and i mean EVERYWHERE and he is FREAKING out about it.  owen proceeds to start puking because he is seeing wade puke.

11:25- get home, get owen out and sent inside to get cleaned up, get livy out and put her in the living room.  draw a bath for wade and then head to the car to survey the damage.  ZOMG, it is everywhere. seat, carseat, in his hair, clothes, owen's soccer bag, the back of livy's seat, etc.  imagine raegan from the exorcist, only with purple puke because he had blueberry yogurt.  (tmi?  sorry)  I manage to pull wade from the seat while trying not to puke myself.  get him in the bath, leave owen in charge with instructions to holler at me if wade goes under the 1.5" of water in the tub. (don't worry...I literally ran inside at least every 60 seconds, it was ridiculous)  i bring the groceries in and get cold stuff put away, then get wade cleaned up.

12:00- feed the boys lunch, my mother-in-law comes over, I take the carseat outside and spray it down, wrap it in a bag for the trash. 

12:30- put wade down for a nap (after another bath because of more D!!!) and put livy down for a nap and feverishly begin to scrub the house for our 3:30 showing.  (I had to be out by 3:00 though because I had a hair appt at 3:30 and had to drop the kids off at chris's parent's house) 

1:30- look out front and decide that the grass is a little tall, so I quickly mow the front lawn to get some extra curb appeal.  then I go back inside and finish vacuuming and mopping and scrubbing. 

2:45- have the kids dressed and ready to load in the car (not an easy feat with 3 tiny kids!!), the house looks great, we are running on time!  yay! wait, what was that?  my phone was ringing.  it was our realtor. the client got stuck in a meeting and had to cancel the showing.  are.you.freaking.kidding.me.  ARE.YOU.FREAKING.KIDDING.ME. 

so, ya!  that was our day!  thank goodness i had a hair appointment this afternoon and i got to just go and sit BY MYSELF for 2.5 hours.  I needed some recoup time!  tomorrow can only be better!

What's in a name?

While I was pregnant this last time, we had a million "what are you naming her" questions. And I always felt bad telling people we didn't know, because I am sure that they think we were lying. But we weren't!!! We didn't even have a LIST of potential names until like 2 days before Livy was born. And our list was pretty small, and pretty random. And after she was born, we still didn't know what we were naming her. When Chris called his parents to tell them the baby was here, and that he was on his way to pick up the boys, they asked what her name was. And he said "uhhhhh...we don't know yet." So we looked at our new baby, went through our list of names, and finally chose. Livy Noelle was a perfect name for her!

Welcome, Livy!

Oh, Miss Livy. She surprised (shocked) us by arriving 2 weeks early. I had my regular weekly OB appointment on Tuesday, 12-20 at 4:00, and when she checked my cervix, she said, "Yep, still the same as last week, dilated to a 3....oh wait, no, you are dilated to a 4, and 50% effaced. Don't go having this baby over Christmas, I am not on call!" And then we laughed, because we had already set up an induction for 12-28, which I was bummed about because although I would be getting my fabulous OB for delivery, my favorite nurse who I had with both boys wasn't going to be working. SAD! So, I drove home and made dinner. Then at 6:00, the contractions started. But they were all over the place...3 mins apart, 7 mins apart, 2 mins apart, etc. So we called Labor and Delivery, and the charge nurse said that since I was already so dilated and this is my 3rd baby in less than 4 years, I needed to drink a ton of water, lay down for an hour and time the contractions to see what they do. As soon as I did that, the contractions went to 7 mins apart, 1 minute long every time. So then we were confused...were they slowing down, or becoming more regular?! I called back to L&D and my dr (who was THANKFULLY on call!) told us to get to the hospital. So we called Chris's mom, and she came to sit with the boys who were already in bed. I was apologizing all over the place, assuring everyone that I was probably going to just get sent back home, but in the back of my mind, I knew this was "it." And then I got sad, in typically Jen-mommy fashion, because I had just rocked Wadey to sleep as the baby for the last time, and I was worried that the boys would be sad in the morning when I wasn't there.

So we got to the hospital, and the contrax were getting pretty bad, this was at 11:00pm. They took me upstairs, got me changed and hooked up to the monitors. And I told Chris to go to sleep because they would probably send us home in a few hours and he would have to go to work. Then the nurse came and started an IV for fluids because the baby's heart wasn't having decels like it was supposed to, and the fluids were supposed to help. While Chris was sleeping, I went walking the halls, trying to get labor to kick into high gear. At 2 am, the nurse checked me again, and I was 5 cm, so my dr said there was absolutely no way she was sending me home because 3+ babies typically come super fast. So Chris got up, started pounding back the coffee, and we started walking the halls together. At 6:30 Dr. Saunders broke my water to get things going, and at 7am I was SO HAPPY because my favorite nurse walked in my room! She just happened to be working that day, and I got her!!! What luck?! They started pitocin at around 8, because I wasn't progressing very quickly. That sucked, but what do you do? ;) I labored by walking, rocking in the room, bouncing on a ball, etc. Then at 2:00ish, I asked for an epidural. It was the most painful one I have been given, but also the best! I could still feel contractions, but no pain. Awesome! Then at 3:30, I started feeling tons of pressure, so my nurse checked me, I was dilated to a 10 FINALLY, and baby was coming down. So my dr came in the room at 3:45, I pushed through 3 contractions and Miss Livy Noelle was born!

Chris, me, my OB and my nurse all said, "She is so tiny!!!!!" when she came out, almost a full pound smaller than her big brothers. But she was also 2 weeks early. ;) Thank goodness.

Sweet girl (and the best nurse!)





The epidural took a bit to wear off, so by the time I was finally moved upstairs to the mommy/baby rooms it was after 6:00. So Chris went and picked up the boys (and McD's for them!) and brought them up. They were soooooo excited to see baby girl. They have adjusted amazingly well so far.

And nothing can make your 19-month-old look more like a giant than a brand new baby! Geez! Wade seems huge now! We are so blessed to have added such an amazing little baby girl to our family. She is so laid back so far, and we rarely hear her cry, unless she is naked or hungry or tired. We are all in love!

The best chicken and noodles. ever. make this soon.

I love love love love fall and winter for the sole reason that I get to prepare soups! Hate the cold/weather of these seasons, love the soups. Here is one of my favorites, do yourself a favor and make this soon! (or, have a baby or surgery or something, and i will make it for you!)

Chicken and Noodles

1 lb chicken breast

1ish cups of diced carrots

3/4ish cups of diced celery

1 small white onion, small diced

8-9 cups of water

3-5 TBSP of chicken boullion granuals, depending on how strong/salty/chickeny you like it (I use 4ish)

1/4 cup melted butter (unsalted)

1/2 tsp black pepper (more to taste)

salt to taste, depending on how much boullion you used!

1 big bag of Reames frozen noodles (omg, i die for these noodles)

1/2-1 cup of heavy cream (this is optional...but I recommend using it! I tend to lean more toward the 1 cup of cream side, shocking, i know)

Way before you are going to start making the soup, place your chicken in a crockpot and pour a can of low sodium chicken broth and cook it on low all day, until it shreds easily. Remove the chicken at that time, and shred it. In a LARGE stockpot, add the water, diced carrots, diced celery, diced onion, chicken boullion, chicken, melted butter, salt and pepper. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce and simmer (you want it to still bubble, but not BOIL, if that makes sense) for 25-35 minutes, until the veggies are nice and tender, be sure to TASTE the soup at this point, and decide if you want to add more boullion. Remember, you can always add more...you can never take it away. Then add the bag of frozen noodles, and give it a big stir. Add your desired amount of heavy cream, and then let the mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the noodles are tender, hot and cooked. Then, ENJOY the best chicken and noodles you have ever had!