Disney World 2009

At long last, here are our picture's from our amazing trip to Disney World over Thanksgiving! Jay's dad and step-mom took the entire family to Orlando, FL to experience a week in a beautiful resort and 5 days at the one and only Walt Disney World! We had a blast to say the least. There were 16 of us total (17 with Baby GIRL Dillon!!) It is such a bummer that we all live in different cities so it was such a blessing to be able to all be together as family and have fun. Michael and Joshua loved it! The night we arrived in Orlando (after getting to spend our first night as a family in a hotel... yes we drove! And spending a really fun day and night in Jacksonville with Brian and Megan) our Joshua started throwing up in the car an hour or so before we got there. This needless to say is never a fun thing! Neither of our kids have ever experienced the stomach bug so this was a first for us. We pulled over at a rest stop and Joshua just kept getting sick. We had him in just a diaper in a horribly smelling car seat by the end of it and he continued to get sick until I put him to bed around 8 that night. Michael was sick all night the next night, Jay the entire day of his birthday, Brian and Jeff both caught it and so did Dad Dillon. No fun! Despite this crazy sickness, we really did have so much fun and made memories that will truly last a lifetime. Michael loved getting to spend so much time with his cousins and asks regularly when he can see them again. I feel so incredibly blessed to have this amazing family that I married into. I look so forward to many more fun trips together! So here are quite a few pictures (get ready!) in no particular order. I also have not had time to sit down and edit them so I'm sorry if some pictures are really off center :)

The Hayes family. Jay's step-brother Andy and his beautiful wife Susie with sweet Deanna and Nicole.

On the fairy on the way over to The Magic Kingdom

Minnie Mouse!

Garik "doing" my hair on Thanksgiving

Brian and Mara at Animal Kingdom

Jay's brother Brian and his beautiful wife Megan with little baby girl Dillon at Epcot

Papa and Mimi! Thank you guys for the most amazing trip!!I love this! It looks like Brian is wearing that hat! Standing in line for the Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios.

Getting ready to watch a 3D movie

Aunt Megan was amazing and helped so much with our buddies. Since she was pregnant and couldn't ride several rides, she would watch them while Jay and I rode. Thank you, Megan!!

So excited to meet Mickey Mouse!

Big hugs for Winnie the Pooh

Hollywood Studios after turning on their Christmas lights. It was so beautiful!

One of our first pictures. We are here!!

Right as we arrived a parade started to go by. It was the perfect timing. The kids were in total awe. It was awesome!

Michael being silly with his "leash." I did buy both kids these safety leashes to keep them close. They worked wonders! I would highly recommend these to any parent with two kids 2 and under daring enough to conquer Disney World :) That and a double stroller... lifesavers!

Joshua very excited to be there!

And very worn out in the stroller. So cute!

Loving the leash! (And not loving it at times)

Loving Papa's shoulders. Along with Aunt Megan, the entire family helped us out with the kids SO MUCH! Thank you guys! You saved our backs and our minds at times haha :)

Michael having his nap in the back of the stroller

Little cutie pie eating a pretzel

This was the morning after Michael had been up vomiting all night. He felt terrible and we brought him home shortly after this picture to sleep. This was also Jay's birthday and he was starting to feel sick right around this time. So sad :(

My attempts at keeping the kids hydrated after begin sick. It worried me so much that they were getting dehydrated. Sweet Jay went and got them popsicles and they loved them!

Dad cutting our Thanksgiving turkey! It was delicious!

Sweet Garik is so affectionate and going to be the most amazing daddy one day. He loved loving on our boys. Notice Joshua's very own Thanksgiving dinner :)

One half of our family

The other half!

Mama and her baby boy

Jay and Brian having fun with the kids

Jay with his birthday cake I made him! He couldn't eat anything on his actual birthday so this was one of our deserts on Thanksgiving, the day after. Happy Birthday my love!

The kids love playing with their Papa!

Michael slept next to us on a palate on the floor for the week. This is how I found him one night as Jay and I were going to sleep.

Totally underneath the bed! Hilarious!

Back to his palate :)

Very hard to get both kids to smile for a family picture but here we are on It's A Small World (a definite favorite for the kids!) They also suprisingly loved Pirates of The Carribean!

This was so cute! The baby elephant and it's mama at Animal Kingdom

Another family picture attempt... no good.

Riding the train around Animal Kingdom

The kids loved the petting zoo area there. Joshua brushing the sheep.

Uncle Jeff, Jay's brother, loving on his nephew

Daddy and his little buddy

Waving to Mickey and the rest of the characters in the parade.

More lights at Hollywood Studios

Michael "driving" a car

He loved his Mickey ears Jay got him!

The cousins having fun together

2 Attempted group pictures! I love it!

Jeff, his beautiful wife Cynthia and Garik and Mara in front of the castle

The Hayes in front of the castle

Michael cozying up with cousins Deanna and Mara in bed watching DVD's together. So cute!

Deanna and Nicole :)

Papa with Deanna and Garik

Mimi and Garik

I promise I am trying to get better at blogging! I love the idea of it but our lives have been so crazy the past few months. I will update with Christmas pictures, Michael's 3rd birthday pictures, a few Halloween pictures and even some fun summer vacation pictures soon!

Girl's Weekend in Charlotte!

In September my sweet mother in law hosted a girl's weekend at her beautiful home in Charlotte. It was a blast!! I have the most amazing mother and sister in laws! We relaxed and ate at some great restaurants, went shopping, were treated to pedicures, enjoyed the hot tub and had great conversation and laughter. Jay was incredible and kept the kids all weekend and I felt like a queen sleeping in a king sized bed and having no responsibility for the first time in a long time :) It was a weekend to remember and I hope we can make this an annual event!

Megan sharing with her mom the extremely exciting news that we all had just found out- she is pregnant!!! We are thrilled for her and my boys and I are loving praying for baby Dillon :)
Relaxing in our massage chairs during our manicure! It was heavenly! We missed you this day, Lauren!
Megan, Cynthia, myself, Lauren and my beautiful mother in law, Debbie!
Cynthia loving a huge piece of Mom's famous ice cream cake that she was served! Don't worry, I definitely finished off several pieces this size and bigger... yum yum!
Enjoying a fun picnic on the lake! Mom made this picnic gourmet with pannini sandwiches :)

Hot tub time!!
One of our delicious meals!!
All the sister in laws after church

My Sneaky Boy

Lately we have been having trouble keeping Michael in his room in the mornings. He wakes up and comes into our room wanting to snuggle in bed with us. This is no problem at all, in fact we love it, as long as it after 7 or so :) Around 2 am the night before last he woke up and thinking it was later and insisted on wanting to be in bed with us. I really don't want to make that a habit so, with Jay, we worked to get him back to sleep in his bed. So this morning, I think he was a little hesitant to not come into our room too early due to the last night's events (much crying and some firm insisting that it was still the middle of the night and he needed to stay in his room). He snuck into our room, grabbed my purse off of the floor (where I never should have left it!) and brought it out into the hall. Around 9 (yes, we are a family that does love to sleep in from time to time!) Jay and I woke up thinking Michael was being too quiet. We went out into the hall and he had my lipstick all around his mouth and told us that he had eaten the rest of my red gum and it was so good (about 1/3 a pack of Big Red!) So anyways, we got a good laugh out of that and warned him he may have a tummy ache. Lesson learned not to leave anything on the floor that I don't want Michael exploring through! This is such a fun age. Something hilarious is said or done every day by this inquisitive 2 year old and his baby brother is right behind him wanting to be like big brother! So cute :) I am so in love with my 3 boys...

One Year Bible

Right now I am going through the one year Bible with The Message version. I love it because it allows the scripture to come alive in a different way. I love the way it is written. I also love to follow along with it with my NIV and NKJV Bibles. I think I may start putting a few verses from the day that speak to me up here on the Blog :) The Word is such a powerful tool God gives us for walking this life out here on earth. Any answer to any problem can be found right in His Word! It is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. Amazing! Anyways, this is what really touched me today:

"Worship God in adoring embrace, celebrate in trembling awe, Kiss Messiah!"

-Psalm 2:10

I love how descriptive this is. We are to worship our God in adoring embrace (much like we love our husbands but MORE!) We are to celebrate Him in trembling awe. We are to offer up our praises like kisses to our Lord. I love it! Lord, help my worship to You be even more undignified than this!

And because it is hard for me to make a post without pictures, here are Michael and Joshua at the same age :) 16 months!

Our Joshua
Michael Caleb

Michael's Miracle

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

Isaiah 53:2-6 The Message

In August, Michael was diagnosed by our pediatrician with a cholesteatoma. This is basically a growth in the middle ear that if not surgically removed will continue to grow and can cause a lot of problems including hearing loss. He had a CT scan done to determine how deep the growth went into his head and the Dr. was unable to determine if what he saw was additional growth or just fluid. We prayed and had many prayer warriors lifting our boy up to the One who truly heals! We were so blessed to have my sister, Sara, and my parents come for the week to support us. We were also humbled by the many people who prayed for Michael and came up to the hospital to pray for him there, sit with us during surgery and come by and visit afterwards. He went in for surgery September 16th. He did great and afterwards our doctor came out and was marveled at what he had seen. On Friday when Michael had the CT scan, the growth had been attached securely to his eardrum. When he went in to operate, the growth had completely detached itself and was just sitting there in his inner ear. All the doctor had to do was take it out instead of the "drilling" he had warned us he was probably going to have to do to get it all out. We asked him if he had ever seen that happen before and he said that no he had not seen it in his entire career! He also said he had no explanation. We know we do!! Our great God protected our precious boy and did a miracle. We feel strongly that God has amazing things planned for both of our boys. This is the second miraculous healing God has done in our Michael. When I was pregnant with him, a very irregular heartbeat was detected and after Jay laid his hands on my very pregnant belly and we asked God for His healing touch, the irregular heart beat went away completely! In fact, we went and saw a pediatric cardiologist who did an echo cardiogram on Michael's heart around 34 weeks and she said he had a "perfect heart!" So please join with us in praising God for being our healer. He is so good and so powerful and loves us so deeply. It is just amazing! Here are some pictures from surgery week :)

Aunt Sara came to visit us Sunday night after work and we had so much fun together before surgery! We took her to some of our favorite places like World's Fair Park and Market Square for lunch.
Fun with Michael in the fountains


The night before surgery we got us a HUGE pizza from Snappy Tomato! Yum Yum!
My beautiful family :)
On the way to the hospital. Michael did not let go of his new suitcase from Ama and Papa and his "Maisy goes to the Hospital" library book

With Mommy and Daddy waiting before surgery


Snuggling with his "Bear." I will always treasure these pictures with his bear. It is his favorite comfort item.

After taking his Versed (sedative) he was starting to get sleepy. This was about when Pastor Jaime came to pray for him and he kept saying "Amen, Amen" in agreement all throughout the prayer. It was hilarious and so cute to see him so loopy. Our dear friend Paul Eakle also came to pray for him during this time and got to see this very rare loopy side of Michael Caleb.
And he is out :)
Right after surgery. I will never forget how he looked when they wheeled him back to us. He was sitting up in the bed with his eyes half open so out of it. It broke my heart!! He slept for a while before waking up very upset to discover his IV ("Take it out!!" He screamed about his "special juice tube") and his "headband."

Sips of juice from Daddy

Jay was getting tired of all the pictures here I think :)

Our little family (My sweet Dad stayed home all day to take care of Joshua. He is such an awesome grandpa and got to really bond with our little guy.)
Asleep with the Popsicle in his hand :)
Sleeping on the pull out couch for parents after he had thrown up all over his bed. Poor guy had a lot of trouble holding food and drinks down. After some IV Zofran and a couple of hours, we were able to go home at 10:00 PM.
Papa and his boys :)

A break from blogging ??

The kids playing at Chick-fil-A :) They have so much fun together. I have so many great pictures to post but am too tired tonight!
I have been taking a break lately from blogging. I am trying to find out what my blogging identity is I guess, haha! I love reading other people's blogs and hearing about what the Lord is teaching them, the fun things they do with their kids, looking at their sweet pictures, etc... Lately we have had so much going on I haven't really had much time to blog but I miss it and would love to possibly share more of our life in words through this blog. God has been doing so much and has recently done a great miracle in our Michael. Sometimes I wonder though if anybody even looks at this blog (haha) and if my time spent writing and putting pictures up is worth it. I can't decide. What should I do? If anyone is out there looking at our little family blog, I would love some feedback on if I should keep blogging or not. :) Thanks!

My two boys...

Both at almost 14 months! :) Do you think they look alike?

Joshua
Michael