Okay, okay... I've been hiding out a bit as I just expected that I'd get to give you some more good information about our journey to katiejoy before I wrote anything else- what's that dumb saying that I have always hated? Oh yeah- "don't count your chickens until they hatch"! No news on that front, so I think I will FINALLY wrap up 2009's end of the year events.
*** SINCE writing this and finally getting pictures on it- we do have news! KatieJoy has her I600! We are so excited... now on to the orginal post :) ***
Disneyland-Thanksgiving- November 2009-
Yep friends, we went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving- I thought it wouldn't be too crowded- I thought TERRIBLY wrong! Well, Thanksgiving Day wasn't so bad, but man, the day before was AWFUL! We knew we were in for it when we got a little flyer with our parking pass telling us that they expected it to be a "busy day" and this is how to make your day a little "better"! Yep- we knew we were in for it and boy were we, in more ways than one... Calen was SO excited to be going to Disneyland so it didn't even cross my mind that he would still be fearful of the rides, but he was. Year 2 at Disneyland with Calen was much the same as Year 1- lots of whining and scared faces when riding rides. It was pretty exhausting listening to a little one cry and say "don't like it!" every few minutes while dealing with a BAzillion people wandering around. The morning/afternoon was made much better because our friend Amy came to hang out and we hadn't been able to visit with one another since 4th of July up at Mission Springs. Thank God for amazing friends that make the time pass by in line at Disneyland :-) We made it thru the late afternoon with Calen (like 3 pm) and then took him to take a late nap- in which he cried and said in the parking lot "GO BACK TO DISNEYLAND!" The kid couldn't make up his mind! *rolling my eyes*
The 2nd day at Disneyland (Thanksgiving Day) was much like the first just with less people which made it more bearable. We didn't ride a whole lot of anything but saw lots of characters (which Calen LOVED- thank gosh!) and walked around a lot too. Calen looked like he had "died and gone to heaven" when he saw Jesse and Woody from Toy Story- those pic ops were most definitely the highlight of his time in The Happiest Place on Earth-ha! I still love Disneyland and have high hopes that Calen will learn to love it once KatieJoy is here but I'm very much looking forward to Senior High Gradnite more than our next family trip there- at least my seniors love the rides! :-)
Christmas 2009
Christmas with Calen was SO much fun this year! He is so good, at 2 he didn't open any presents before he was allowed to (when he was allowed to we got the sucking in of breath and "what's that!?!- so cute!) and didn't pull any of the ornaments off from our tree! I hope KatieJoy listens that well next Christmas but I don't know if lightening will strike twice on that one... He loved the lights and all that fun stuff and would "light" the candles (battery operated) himself when he felt like it- I thought that was very cute!
We knew we were going to have a very busy Christmas week with friends and family and old traditions/new traditions so we switched up our schedules a bit to formulate a new, happier (= easier) holiday for Calen. (Last year's was very overwhelming to him!) We got to meet up with lots of friends for meals, gift exchanges and cookie bakes and that was so much fun! Then on Christmas Eve I cooked dinner for my in-laws and my parents at our house. It was a LOT of work but it was good to not have to leave our house so that Calen had plenty of time to play with all his new things and his family that dotes WAAAY too much on him ;-) Can I just say that my house has exploded with train tracks and geotrax?!? Yep, KatieJoy won't need a single toy due to the fact that Calen has the house filled already-lol- don't worry friends, I don't really mean that! It was a good evening of conversation and this is officially our new Christmas Eve tradition!
Christmas morning started off with me getting up early (due to being pushed off of my bed by my 2 year old- lol!) and lighting all the lights and getting our "cake" ready to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. I love this tradition and Calen did too! When Calen woke up the first thing we did was walk him past all Santa's presents and our tree to the kitchen to sing to Jesus- he did great with it and I'm hoping by starting this tradition young that it will just be what happens FIRST on Christmas morning. Santa treated him way too well as did mommy and daddy- will someone remind me that 3-4 gifts & a stocking is perfectly fine for a child next year?!? If I remember correctly, just from us he had 5 gifts and from Santa he had 3 big ones PLUS his overly stuffed stocking! Why do I always go overboard? I've got to fight my gift-giving love language next year... really he doesn't need the stuff! Plus he gets so much from his grandparents and Aunt!
After we opened gifts at our house we went to my parents for breakfast and...wait for it... more gifts! My parents spoil our child like crazy (and us too!)... It was a beautiful day and we got to spend the late morning/early afternoon outside. It was so fun to swing Calen and just watch him run around :-) Once we got home, he was fried and had a massive melt down from the week's events... what a way to end a fabulous week right? I've gotta remember that little bodies stress out just as much as mine does... next year will be different! ;-)
New Year's Eve
Not much to report on this one. Hung out for a feast of appetizers at my parents, tried to play a game which Calen didn't let happen easily, fell asleep before midnight. Boring! Yep, we're squares and proud of it ;-)
And that, my friends, is the end of our 2009 year. It was a good year! Lots of things to be so very thankful for... finalizing Calen's adoption so he was Officially ours; some fun vacations; a new car (yes people, I still LOVE my Honda Odyssey!); awesome weddings for 3 of our best guy friends (& girl friends too!); and best of all- KatieJoy's referral (& birth)! Our blessings are so good...
We love you friends,
~Mandy~
*** SINCE writing this and finally getting pictures on it- we do have news! KatieJoy has her I600! We are so excited... now on to the orginal post :) ***
Disneyland-Thanksgiving- November 2009-
Yep friends, we went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving- I thought it wouldn't be too crowded- I thought TERRIBLY wrong! Well, Thanksgiving Day wasn't so bad, but man, the day before was AWFUL! We knew we were in for it when we got a little flyer with our parking pass telling us that they expected it to be a "busy day" and this is how to make your day a little "better"! Yep- we knew we were in for it and boy were we, in more ways than one... Calen was SO excited to be going to Disneyland so it didn't even cross my mind that he would still be fearful of the rides, but he was. Year 2 at Disneyland with Calen was much the same as Year 1- lots of whining and scared faces when riding rides. It was pretty exhausting listening to a little one cry and say "don't like it!" every few minutes while dealing with a BAzillion people wandering around. The morning/afternoon was made much better because our friend Amy came to hang out and we hadn't been able to visit with one another since 4th of July up at Mission Springs. Thank God for amazing friends that make the time pass by in line at Disneyland :-) We made it thru the late afternoon with Calen (like 3 pm) and then took him to take a late nap- in which he cried and said in the parking lot "GO BACK TO DISNEYLAND!" The kid couldn't make up his mind! *rolling my eyes*
The 2nd day at Disneyland (Thanksgiving Day) was much like the first just with less people which made it more bearable. We didn't ride a whole lot of anything but saw lots of characters (which Calen LOVED- thank gosh!) and walked around a lot too. Calen looked like he had "died and gone to heaven" when he saw Jesse and Woody from Toy Story- those pic ops were most definitely the highlight of his time in The Happiest Place on Earth-ha! I still love Disneyland and have high hopes that Calen will learn to love it once KatieJoy is here but I'm very much looking forward to Senior High Gradnite more than our next family trip there- at least my seniors love the rides! :-)
Christmas 2009
Christmas with Calen was SO much fun this year! He is so good, at 2 he didn't open any presents before he was allowed to (when he was allowed to we got the sucking in of breath and "what's that!?!- so cute!) and didn't pull any of the ornaments off from our tree! I hope KatieJoy listens that well next Christmas but I don't know if lightening will strike twice on that one... He loved the lights and all that fun stuff and would "light" the candles (battery operated) himself when he felt like it- I thought that was very cute!
We knew we were going to have a very busy Christmas week with friends and family and old traditions/new traditions so we switched up our schedules a bit to formulate a new, happier (= easier) holiday for Calen. (Last year's was very overwhelming to him!) We got to meet up with lots of friends for meals, gift exchanges and cookie bakes and that was so much fun! Then on Christmas Eve I cooked dinner for my in-laws and my parents at our house. It was a LOT of work but it was good to not have to leave our house so that Calen had plenty of time to play with all his new things and his family that dotes WAAAY too much on him ;-) Can I just say that my house has exploded with train tracks and geotrax?!? Yep, KatieJoy won't need a single toy due to the fact that Calen has the house filled already-lol- don't worry friends, I don't really mean that! It was a good evening of conversation and this is officially our new Christmas Eve tradition!
Christmas morning started off with me getting up early (due to being pushed off of my bed by my 2 year old- lol!) and lighting all the lights and getting our "cake" ready to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. I love this tradition and Calen did too! When Calen woke up the first thing we did was walk him past all Santa's presents and our tree to the kitchen to sing to Jesus- he did great with it and I'm hoping by starting this tradition young that it will just be what happens FIRST on Christmas morning. Santa treated him way too well as did mommy and daddy- will someone remind me that 3-4 gifts & a stocking is perfectly fine for a child next year?!? If I remember correctly, just from us he had 5 gifts and from Santa he had 3 big ones PLUS his overly stuffed stocking! Why do I always go overboard? I've got to fight my gift-giving love language next year... really he doesn't need the stuff! Plus he gets so much from his grandparents and Aunt!
After we opened gifts at our house we went to my parents for breakfast and...wait for it... more gifts! My parents spoil our child like crazy (and us too!)... It was a beautiful day and we got to spend the late morning/early afternoon outside. It was so fun to swing Calen and just watch him run around :-) Once we got home, he was fried and had a massive melt down from the week's events... what a way to end a fabulous week right? I've gotta remember that little bodies stress out just as much as mine does... next year will be different! ;-)
New Year's Eve
Not much to report on this one. Hung out for a feast of appetizers at my parents, tried to play a game which Calen didn't let happen easily, fell asleep before midnight. Boring! Yep, we're squares and proud of it ;-)
And that, my friends, is the end of our 2009 year. It was a good year! Lots of things to be so very thankful for... finalizing Calen's adoption so he was Officially ours; some fun vacations; a new car (yes people, I still LOVE my Honda Odyssey!); awesome weddings for 3 of our best guy friends (& girl friends too!); and best of all- KatieJoy's referral (& birth)! Our blessings are so good...
We love you friends,
~Mandy~
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