Disney World Trip

What a trip!  We spent 6 fun filled days in Orlando, Florida during mid October on a family vacation to Disney World!!!

This was a first time trip to Disney for everyone except me and my husband.  Derek's parents, my cousin Kristen, and the four of us all went on this trip together.  I must say, Disney World parks are super crowded and yet at the same time the smoothest experience EVER visiting an amusement park.  We thought October would be less crowded than the summer months, and boy were we wrong!  With the Halloween celebrations at Magic Kingdom and the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, we still had to fight the crowds and wait in long lines.

Four of our six day vacation were spent visiting the Disney parks!  We had found a GREAT deal on a 3-bedroom condo only 5 minutes from the parks, which turned out to be sooo nice for our big group!

Out of all the rides and roller coasters we went on, we thought that the Rock-n-Roller Coaster was by far the BEST ride out of them all!!

Here are some pictures of our trip.  Enjoy!

Summer 2010

Has it really been 4 months since my last post??

We had a very busy summer this year, and I am finally catching up on our blog!  To recap some of the highlights from our summer, we celebrated birthday month in June, had some of our family visit us from Philadelphia, and took the kids to Kings Island for a fun filled day!!  Many more fun times in between, however, I will not try to list them all.

Here is a fun photo of Derek blowing out his birthday candles this year!  The kids were both ready to help him.  :)

Papa and Nanny Santan came to visit from Philly for Derek and Logan's birthdays!  We loved having them here!!

Logan had his 8th birthday this year and we celebrated it with a Super Mario themed pool party!  He had some school and church friends, along with several family members, join him to celebrate his birthday!  He received some great gifts, but his absolute favorite present was his iPod touch!!!

Derek's sister Wendy, her husband Chris, and daughter Avery (and little baby boy in her belly) came to visit us from Philly over the 4th of July weekend!  We went to watch the Dublin parade, and the kids had tons of fun playing in the water at the splash park!!  The cousins got along great and had so much fun playing together!

Another fun day this past summer was the day we took the family to Kings Island!!!  Logan loved all the roller coasters so much (even the huge hills and upside down ones), and Derek conquered his fear of them!  And little Elise just loved to see Snoopy!  The kids rides and play area all were a Snoopy theme, and we also went to the Snoopy Rocks on Ice show!  She just loved it all!!!

There were many fun memories this summer, in which I cannot even begin to name them all, and we are now on to the new school year again.  Logan has started 3rd grade this year!  Next month Elise is getting ready to move up to the next class at daycare, she will be 18 months already!

Looking forward, we have a fun family vacation planned to Disney World next month!  Yea!!!  We are SO excited!  Look for a blog post on our Disney trip soon!

One & Tutu Cute!

Elise is ONE!!!

Wow!  I can't believe a year has passed already.  It feels like yesterday when I was bringing her home from the hospital.  Here is her newborn picture so that you can see how much she has changed!

For her birthday party, we dressed her in a cute little pink and purple tutu that I had made for the occasion!  The party was at our house and kept very simple since she would not participate in very many activities at this age.

Elise absolutely LOVED opening all her presents!  I was very impressed with her as she had so much excitement opening every present, and did not get tired at all like she had during her Christmas presents.

My other favorite part of the day was watching Elise eat her birthday cake!  She didn't know what to do with the candle when we lit it...Daddy ended up blowing the candle out for her.  With her dainty little touches and grabs, she ate the icing off the top of the cake and barely made it to the actual cake itself.  She did not like having the sticky icing all over her fingers, so she had to lick it all off her fingers before digging into the cake for the next bite.  :)

Since my last post at 9 months old, she has grown so much in many ways!  These are some of the milestones she's had since the last update, plus some of my favorite memories:

• Started taking steps while holding on to our hands (but still not crawling, standing, or walking on her own yet).
• Had three new teeth come in -- now has six total.
• Her hair is growing in, curly I might add, and I can now pull her hair up in pig tails!
• She scoots and turns around in a circle when sitting.
• Learned to drink from a straw.
• Slept on her stomach for the first time.
• Had her ears pierced for her 1st Birthday!
• Favorite song is "Patty Cake"
• Loves to clap and dance!
• Has a BIG sweet tooth -- her favorite by far is ice cream!
• Loves watching Daddy play hockey in the driveway!
• Throws her food on the ground for Bella to eat and says "Uh oh!"
• Does a very cute little whine that is one of my favorite sounds!!
• Drinks from a sippy cup, and eats table food almost every meal.
• I started calling Elise's sunglasses her "cool dudes" and it's funny that she knows what we're talking about!  :)
• We have many fun baby talk conversations almost every day! 
• She LOVES her big brother Logan...he entertains her all the time.
• Bath time is one of her favorites -- she enjoys splashing in the water and playing with her rubber ducky!

I am enjoying all the great memories we are having as a family of four!  Elise is such a joy and she brings a smile to all of our faces each and every day!  God has blessed me and my family so much, and I wouldn't trade any of them for the world!

We have Elise's 1 year doctor's appointment this week, so we will find out how much she's grown in the past 3 months!

Next up...Derek and Logan's birthdays!  Stay tuned...