Disney Cruise...Nothing But Good Times

At the end of February, the four of us packed up and headed to Miami, where we took a Disney Cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel.  All of us had a lovely time!  The cruise was packed with all sorts of fun things to do.  3 pools, food everywhere, characters to meet everywhere you turned, live shows at night, a movie theater, and a ton of other fun things.  We were busy from the moment our plane landed in Miami, to the time we got back to KC.  A wonderful time was had by all!

 Here are some (well, let's be honest, a ton) of pictures from our trip!

Checking out the planes before we took off from KCI

Checking out the ocean in Miami.

Watching a movie together that night in our hotel in Miami

Meeting our man Mickey before we got on board the ship.

Family pic with the Head Honcho

The kids hit the pool first thing on the ship.  Here is Ellie on the water slide.

Tommy in the splash pool.

Breakfast shot

Who doesn't love this buddy?

 

Our princess looking out the window from the LONG line (45 minutes) to meet and greet the princesses.

This is what a Disney Princess Meet and Greet looks like.

Meeting Princess #1...Ariel

 

She is pretty excited.

Meeting Belle from Beauty and the Beast.



Snow White giving Ellie her autograph.

Posing with Snow White.

Cinderella taught Ellie how to pose while holding her dress up.  A move you will see Ellie replicate later.

Getting Cinderella's autograph.

Talking to Princess Tiana while Tiana signs.

Final princess pose.  For those of you asking where Tommy was, he was right there as well, but didn't want to touch the princesses.  He much preferred blowing them kisses, which they loved.

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  They hosted a dance party with the characters in a big lobby space.  There were about 12 of them there, and you could go up to each one and dance.  Here is Ellie checking out Goofy.

She got bolder after that and insisted each character take her hands and spin her around.  Here she is with Mikey.

Reaching for Pluto's hands

Dancing with Donald.  This was one fun party! You may ask where Tommy was...he was napping, and as soon as it was over, Ellie said "That was so much fun.  I am sad that Tommy missed it" 

Handsome boy in plaid at dinner.

Blizzard Fun

We got a huge dumping of snow in late February, over a foot!  We had a lovely snow day at home, culminated by some snow fun in the front yard with neighbors and friends when it was over.  Tommy is just now enjoying being out in the snow, and Ellie is getting really fearless on a sled.  Winter Olympics, watch out!




Prepping to head out.



Going fast down the driveway

Deep snow!

He truly loved just rolling around in the snow.

A Valetine's Cupcake Date

I had a morning with Ellie all to myself on Valentine's Day, so I took her over to our local bakery where we had a cupcake date.  Ellie is getting so grown up, its hard for me to keep up with her.  This day I will always remember how pretty her eyes were, and how sweet she was while we were eating some good treats together.

Fun with Peek a Boo

We were recently at a Super Bowl party, and Tommy and his friend Miles had a blast playing peek a boo with their friend Harper.  They were thrilled at hiding and jumping out from behind a chair and saying boo.

Addding a Boy to the Burgess Family

We found out in February that we are adding a boy to our family.  Most of us were excited about this news, and very happy that he was healthy in his ultrasound scan.  Ellie, however, had her sights set on a girl and was pretty disappointed when we opened the news at home.  It was the first time I have seen her genuinely heartbroken.  She cried and cried saying sweet things like "I wanted someone to wear my princess dresses with me" and "Who will wear my old red cowboy boots now?  I thought I would give them to my sister".

To coax her out of her despair, we immediately went on a toy shopping trip to Target, where Ellie very sweetly insisted on picking out a toy for her new baby brother before she picked out her own toy.  Since then, she has perked up about having a little brother.  The countdown to July 2 is on!

Beautiful Day with My Buddy

One of my favorite things to do on a nice morning is go to our local Starbucks and enjoy a coffee outside.  We had a random 70 degree day in February, so I took one of my favorite coffee dates out for a latte and some milk.

Big Fun at the Globetrotters

Mikey, Ellie and the Kilroy boys went to see the Harlem Globetrotters when they were in town.  Here is a pic of the crew before the activities started.

A Good Teacher

Ellie really is a fantastic big sister.  She is usually incredibly nice and patient with Tommy and loves to "teach" him things she knows.  They were playing quietly together one day, and I caught her teaching him his ABCs from these flashcards.  Too cute not to take a pic.

Valentines Day fun

Perhaps more than the average joe, I do like to indulge in some sweets.  Baking my own is a favorite pastime and one that the kids love to join in on.   This is sometimes a lovely activity to do together and sometimes a total nightmare than ends in a complete mess.  A few weeks before Valentine's Day, we took on some sugar cookies together, and this particular cooking session went wonderfully.  Here is a picture of my cooking partners.  Please note Maddy lurking in the background hoping for anything to drop.

First day at a new preschool

Ellie kicked off 2013 with a new preschool.  She is now a student at Ward Parkway Preschool, where her father is an illustrious alumni, circa 1979/1980.  She had a great first day, and her teachers said she adjusted beautifully.  Here is a pic from a special stop for ice cream after her first day.

Its been too long

I am embarrassed at how long it took to update the blog.  Take pity on me; its been a big couple of months.  We juggled finding out that we are having baby #3, me stopping work and staying home with the kids full-time, the holidays, two new schools and a bunch of fun in between.  Plus we bought a new home computer, that I can't seem to upload pictures from our camera at home to.  Since the majority of our holidays are on that camera, I had to get out of my own Type A way and just post an update with pictures snapped from our phone.

Here is a quick look at some of the fun we had along the way.

On set at John's show Ben and Kate

The view from our hotel in Santa Barbara

Wine tasting in Santa Barbara

Enjoying the wine

Night out at a Country Line Dancing Bar

On the way to dinner in Hermosa

Great Sunset

Then came Halloween, where Ariel the Mermaid and Sebastain the Crab got tons of candy!

Face Painting is Ellie's #1 favorite activity.

The only good picture we have of both of them.

 

Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened was that our niece Isabel was born!  We are so happy and luck to have her as a part of our family.  Ellie was especially excited about Isabel, claiming that she was now only asking for a baby in her family for Christmas.  She loves holding Isabel, and thinks Isabel holding her finger is about the best thing ever.  Tommy likes Isabel as well, saying in a super high voice "Hi Isabel" and my favorite "Love You Baby".

Ellie meeting Isabel for the first time.

 

Me and Ellie cuddling Isabel.

A sweet shot of Grandma and Grandpa Burgess reading to the kids.

Another big event at the end of 2012 was Tommy's 2nd birthday.  Wow - 2 years with Tommy have gone by.  He is still such a sweet, sweet boy.  He has a huge smile, and gives us smiles all day long.  He is starting to grow more and more into a boy.  And by that I mean that he is chasing the dogs, pulling on their tales, yelling "Hi Yah!" and karate chopping things.  I have found him standing in our toilet, floating his stuffed animals in our toilets, drawing in ballpoint pen on our couch cushions, along with other shenanigans.  He loves trains, cars, to read, and most of all to play with Ellie.  He calls Sadie "my girl", and loves to run and play outside.  We are so luck to have Tommy in our family!

 

Our big 2 year old!!

For his birthday, we hosted a Dinosaur hunt in our yard.

Everyone got in on the action.

There were some tricky hiding spots.

Love this shot, Ellie kissing him as I deliver his birthday cupcake.

Enjoying some birthday cake!

Frosting face.

Tommy was a little scared of Santa this year, so I had to hold him as he asked for a choo choo train.  Ellie asked for a LeapFrog pad.

One pose with Santa.  Ellie was excited, Tommy was not. "Too scary Mama, too scary"

We took them to Union Station to see the Christmas Trains.  Love this shot of our two best friends holding hands.

Ellie also went ice skating for the first time.  She needed a little help from Dad.

Mikey did some heavy lifting, but she had a blast.

First snow of the year.

A trip to Lego land.

Posing with strange Lego creature.

Tommy made himself comfortable while we were there.

We followed lunch with a trip to Fritz's to see the trains.



Uncle John came along for the ride.



John, Tommy and Ellie in the best picture we could get of the three of them.

3D Movie over the holiday break.

This buddy was kicked back and relaxed.