DISNEY 24/7

So as some of you know we are headed to Disney World in 3 weeks. This is the first time for the girls and Rene & I haven't been since 2002. Let me just tell you that the anticipation is palpable. We are living and breathing Disney. Here's just some of the things we have done in the last few weeks to get ready...

1.) Have customized keepsake maps printed of all the places we want to go

2.) Make reservations for Two different Character meals

3.) Make reservations at the Bibbity Bobbity Botique for a princess makeover the first day we get there. (shhhh this one is a suprise for princess Isabella)

4.) Decorate visors and bookmarks with all things Disney

5.) By pin lanyards and pins on ebay for pin trading when we get there

6.) By Autograph book with pen on ebay for Autographs when we get there.

7.) Spend countless hours pouring over tips and advice on lots of different panels (there is some great stuff out there)

8.) Finding a grocer in Central Florida who will deliver grocery's to our hotel (baby stuff mostly) and making a favorites list so all I have to do before we go is hit add to cart and pay for it.

9.) Color the Luggage tags that Disney sent us to make them "special"

10.) Give Isabella a letter each day that she is good in her "suprise" (see number 3)

11.) Download all sorts of Disney songs to Isabella's MP3. Wayne Brady's remix of Tikki room is awesome!!

12.) Got Isabella new luggage that is already packed with her toiletries and ready to go!

Needless to say we may explode before we get to go, but it's only 3 weeks away now!!

Here's the Girls with the Visor's we made! Both of them have their names on the front and thier nicknames on the side. Ton's of fun.

2009 Another year of Chaos?

How many times have you muttered the words "When things slow down I'll...." ? Do things ever slow down? I've found myself muttering those words for the past 2 or 3 years! It's craziness! 2009 is showing no signs of being any different. That's why I've dedicated the month of January to getting things organized and cleaning out the mess. Even that is challenging. My hope is to make it so that we aren't spending all of our time off from work picking up the mess from the time that we did work. So far 8 large (39 gallon size) trash bags left out closet on their way to goodwill. Man did that feel good. On the slate for this weekend? Our master bathroom. I'm eating this elephant room by room. The game room is better, but I have a feeling it's not done yet. There's more to do here. Some of the big ones still to come are Isabella's room and our bedroom. I don't think there are enough days in January. We'll see.

Phew

Wow, The month of December absolutley FLEW by! It's amazing just how Chaotic it can get, but in the end we pulled everything out, had a nice holiday and are ready for the new year.
We began the month with the typical fare. Christmas Parties, Christmas programs, and Winter break from school kept us busy. Not to mention Rene and I work schedules around eachother to minimize the ammount of time the girls have to go to a sitter.

The week of the 15th, Chloe and I left Isabella and daddy and went to Colorado in hopes to meet our new niece and cousin Molly York Steele. We got to spend some great time with Cousin Amina, Grandmomom, Grandpa Steve, Sarah and Ben, but Molly proved stubborn and wasn't born until 7:59pm on Wednesday December 17th. Chloe and I hopped on a plane back to Texas the next morning. We did get to meet her though and it meant the World to me that I got to spend the day that Molly was born with Amina, hopefully making it a wonderful day for her. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and had a awesome time. They have a huge herd of Giraffes that we got to feed rye crisps too. Chloe wanted the craker, but the Giraffe thought otherwise. By about the 3rd cracker she wouldn't even hold it anymore!

I came home and worked for 2 days and then we were full on into Christmas. We did Christmas baking with Oma on Tuesday. After 12 hours of baking we had all of our Christmas goodies. I love baking the things for my girls that I had as a girl growing up. Russian tea cakes, Sugar Cookies, thumbprint cookies, Date nut pinwheels, and Even two apricot "Christams trees" were made that day. Along with some excellent Chicken and dumplings for dinner.
Needless to say we were more than ready for Christmas! We spent Christmas eve at Oma and Papo's house having traditional german fare for dinner and opening presents that Santa had dropped off since it was already Christmas day in Germany. Christmas day was spent with an absolutley rediculous ammount of toys and goodies. Dinner at our house was Prime Rib with horseradish cream sauce,Ham, potatoes, asparagus, and bread. For dessert we had some of the goodies we had baked earlier in the week. Everything about Christmas this year was amazing! Whirlwind, crazy, Chaotic, but in the end AMAZING!

I'm looking forward to 2009. My gut tells me this is going to be an awesome year for me and my family. I'm very optomistic. We have some really exciting traveling to do early this year and then some big projects for the house, so the rest of the year will be spent at home. We are headed to Disney world at the end of February with Grandmomom and Grandpa Steve and then Rene and Isabella are headed to Germany with Oma at the beginning of April. Both are going to be amazing trips.

Wow, I feel caught up now. And well I should. We are well into 2009. Isabella is back at school and our life has regained normal Controlled Chaotic levels compared to the super charged chaos we expirience around Christmas. So from our house to yours...