Happy Birthday, Aubrey

I can't believe that my baby is a year old. It seems impossible that a year has gone by since my little girl was born. Aubrey has grown into such a sweet, mischievous little imp. She smiles at the drop of a hat, she giggles and babbles whenever she's awake, and she gives the sweetest kisses ever, without even having to be asked. But in the next moment, she'll pull your hair and say "Ow!" and laugh, or she'll yank my glasses off of my nose with a laugh. She has a dramatic streak that cracks me up and makes me worry for the future. Aubrey is so curious, something she has carried from birth--when she was just a baby, her eyes would follow anything and everyone around the room, always moving and watching. Now, her head will whip around to watch something that catches her eye and she will quickly crawl over to investigate something new. I love to see her little personality emerge more and more each day. It breaks my heart to watch her grow so quickly, though.

Happy Birthday, my sweet princess. You are loved more than you can ever comprehend. I thank God daily for blessing me with such a sweet, loving, beautiful daughter, and I am so excited to see the woman you will one day grow into. I love you!

Aubrey's Modeling Debut

Here is Aubrey's 1st modeling job for JCPenney's. Thanks, Livy, for finding this and sending it to me! The print version of this ad should debut on Black Friday.

Disney World, Monday

For our final day in Florida, we packed up all of our suitcases (no easy feat) and sent them off to the airport, then took the shuttle over to Winter Summerland, one of the miniature golf courses on the Disney resort. Since our flight wasn't until late that day, we decided to fill our morning with some fun mini-golf.


The course is designed to resemble Santa's vacation home in both winter and summer. You can choose the summer or winter course--we had time, so we played both. The holes are all fun themed, in typical Disney fashion, and many of them had moving elements or fun challenges, such as ramps, characters that pop up when you shoot your ball beneath them, even some things that squirted you with water upon making your shot. We enjoyed our games and had a great time.


After, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, grabbed a quick lunch at the Express Cafe, then grabbed our carry-on bags and headed to the airport. Since Aubrey was so cranky and fussy, I dosed her with Benadryl just before our flight (I know, many would disapprove, but my pediatrician actually recommended it to me, so you can stop judging me now, thank you). She slept the entire flight, while Aiden watched movies and ate snacks. We stopped in Memphis, grabbing dinner during our layover, and then it was a short flight to Dallas. By the time we collected all of our luggage, took the shuttle to our car, and drove home, it was midnight, which made for quite a long day, but both kid were so great. It was a long trip, full of fun and great memories. So much work went into planning the trip, and it wasn't the most relaxing vacation I've been on, but Brad and I had more fun with our children and family and friends. It will be a trip we'll never forget.


Where are the pictures, you ask? I'm trying to sort through them all--we took HUNDREDS! I'll post a slideshow of the best ones soon, I promise!

Disney World, Sunday

Our last day at the parks was bittersweet. We wanted to cram so much in to that one day, and still enjoy our last day with the Foxes before we all had to go back home. We decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom to ride all of our favorites: Buzz Lightyear, Pooh, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountian Railroad, Splash Mountain (even Aiden rode again, though he wasn't thrilled), and Pirates of the Caribbean. Aiden and Stella rode almost everything side-by-side, Aiden even holding Stella's hand to protect her during Pirates of the Caribbean. The two were inseparable, alternating between fighting like cats and dogs one minute and telling each other "I love you!" the next. Those two--they are so cute together, but it is definitely a love-hate relationship at times! It was a bit of a chaotic day--Aubrey and Vivian both had diaper blow-outs, Aiden had his one and only "accident" of the week (on the one day I didn't pack extra clothes for either, so we were washing his out in the sink and Aubrey got a Disney onesie for a souvenir). And because we were short on time, we decided to forgo taking a nap break. Yikes! Both babies slept in their strollers, but there were some cranky moments, for sure.


After hitting out favorites at Magic Kingdom, we headed over to EPCOT so the Foxes could ride Soarin'. Stella decided she needed to say goodbye to Mickey Mouse, so she headed for a character greeting spot, while Aiden went with Cathy and Wayne on Nemo, Brad ran to get Fast Passes, and I booked it over to pick-up a Kimmunicator for Aiden's Kim Possible Adventure. When we all met back up, we had to part ways with the Foxes and say our farewells--they were headed to a hotel next to the airport, since they had an extremely early flight home the next morning. That was definitely the low point of the day--we had such a wonderful time with our friends, we hated to say goodbye. Aiden and Stella gave each other a squeeze--Aiden was very sad to see his girlfriend go. And there were tears in my eyes as I hugged J and Emily goodbye--I think the Parker Pack will be making a trip out to Kentucky soon!


After we split up, our pack plus Cathy and Wayne headed over to the World Showcase to start Aiden's Kim Possible mission. If you aren't familiar with it, Kim Possible is a cartoon featuring a teen girl who is a secret agent. Aiden loves the cartoon, so I knew he would really enjoy the adventure. Basically, you sign up and are given a Kimmunicator, which is a fancy cell phone that has been tweaked to play movies and send you on a mission throughout the park. We started our mission in the UK, and our Kimmunicator sent us exploring the shops and streets of the UK section of the park. Throughout the mission, we would follow clues, and our Kimmunicator even triggered items in the park, like statues or display cases, to come to life, revealing more clues. It was so cool how it was created--seeming innocuous items in the park that most visitors would never even notice were all part of the adventure. Aiden had such a blast playing--we completed three of the 7 total missions that are loaded on the device, and had Aubrey not been so exhausted and cranky, we would have loved to have done them all.


While we explored the various countries of our mission, we also sampled food and snacked our way through a few countries. We enjoyed beers from Dublin and cider from the UK, Irish cheddar with brown bread and apple chutney, fish and chips from the UK, and pastries from France for dessert.

I even managed to squeeze in a little souvenir shopping while Cathy and Wayne took Aiden for a few last rides. Brad got a hat that said "I'm Grumpy because you're Dopey" and I got the cutest bag that had a damask pattern with hidden Mickey Mouse ears--unless you really look, you don't even notice that it is Mickey ears, just looks like a really cute bag. We also picked up a few items for friends and a Christmas ornament for our tree, then it was back to the hotel. It was a fun evening and a great finish to our days in the parks.

Disney World, Saturday. Happy Halloween!

We started off our day at Hollywood Studios, getting admitted early for extra magic hours, so we headed straight for the newest ride, "Toy Story Mania." What a fun ride! The entire queue area is themed like Andy's bedroom from Toy Story, and Mr. Potato Head even entertained you with an interactive comedy routine while you wait in line. The ride is 3D--you jump in a car, which takes you through a maze of movie screens that play a serious of 3D features that are basically arcade games. You have in front of you a little cannon that has a pull-string "trigger" that shoots virtual 3D balls, hoops, and darts at the 'games' on the screen. The game keeps score, with 2 people competing for the highest score in each car. It is so fun--Aiden loved it, and Brad and I had a blast, too. We waited about 15 minutes to ride when it first opened, and by the time we had ridden, the wait time was up to 50 minutes! We grabbed some Fast Passes and headed off to ride some other things while we waited for our ride time.

First stop, a return trip to Star Tours, one of Aiden's favorites. Afterwards, we caught the Jedi Training Academy show, where we watched as a Jedi taught us some moves and a few lucky kids got to try them out against a real Darth Vader. Then we headed to meet the Power Rangers. Aiden got 4 of the 5 Power Rangers' autographs and pictures with each before the headed off on a mission. While we were waiting to meet them, though, I noticed Aubrey had spiked a fever. She had been acting a little fussy all morning, and suddenly she was burning up. Scott and Livy offered to take her back to the hotel for some Motrin and a nap so Brad and I could stay with Aiden at the park, so we split up.

After meeting the Power Rangers, we took Aiden on the Backlot Tour, where he was freaked out by the giant rush of water and exploding gas tanker truck, but impressed once he realized it was all pretend. On our way out, we noticed that Mike from Monsters, Inc. was out for pics and autographs, so Aiden headed over to meet him. We had just a little time left before our ride time for Toy Story Mania, so we went to grab some lunch, then it was back to playing arcade games with Buzz and Woody. We still had Gran and Gramps' fast passes, we we got to ride twice in a row. When we got off the ride, Aiden got to meet Buzz and Woody and add their autographs to his book, then it was time to head out to grab our shuttle back to the hotel.

Aiden grabbed a nap, Aubrey continued to sleep the afternoon away, and then it was time to get ready for trick-or-treating at Downtown Disney. Since it was too hot for Aubrey to wear her costume with her fever, we dressed her in her Halloween onesie, put Aiden in his ninja costume, and Brad and I donned our costumes as well: Brad a ninja, like Aiden, and I dressed as a ladybug. (I was supposed to match Aubrey, but that didn't work out!)

At Downtown Disney, we headed to T-Rex for dinner. Similar to the Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex is a restaurant where you dine among animatronic dinosaurs that come to life, roaring and grazing on grass. There's even a meteor shower every 15 minutes or so. Aunt Cathy and Uncle Wayne, who had a business conference in Orlando, joined us for dinner that night as well. Since we were such a large party, they split us into 2 tables: Aubrey, Vivian, Jason, Emily, Brad and I at one table; Cathy, Wayne, Stella, Aiden, Gran and Gramps one table over. Stella and Aiden entertained everyone--Stella sang her rendition of Ariel's "Part of that World" song from the movie, even combing her hair with a fork like Ariel. Gramps kept encouraging her, even joining in and singing along at one point. Cinderella and the ninja (a.k.a. Stella and Aiden) even slow-danced at one point, which prompted a chorus of "Awwwww!" from all of us. Stella insisted that Aiden was her prince and even made him help her with her slipper--too cute!

At our table, things weren't quite as lovely, however. Aubrey's fever returned and she was miserable. She fell asleep at one point--just in time for one of those meteor showers to wake her up! She started crying and whining, so Brad and I and Cathy and Wayne jumped on the shuttle and headed back to the hotel to get Aubrey in bed while Cathy and Wayne headed to a drug store in their rental car to replenish our dwindling supply of infant Motrin.

Emily, Jason, Gran and Gramps took Aiden and Stella trick-or-treating, or rather, they attempted to. The free candy had brought all of the crazies out, and they decided to get the kiddos back to the hotel once they saw the long lines at the candy stops that were filled with ultra-scary and highly inappropriate (read: slutty) costumes. Brad and I put Aubrey to bed, then packaged candy purchased from the hotel store into baggies and hid it around our floor of the hotel, so when the kiddos returned, they got to go on a candy hunt. It wasn't your traditional Halloween, but it was fun for those two--just getting to hang out together and run wild was enough to make them happy!

Disney World, Friday

Our third day at the parks, we headed somewhere new: Disney's Animal Kingdom. We arrived in time for park opening and quickly headed back to Kilimanjaro Safari's to ride before the animals got sleepy and the lines got too long. We had a great safari. We saw all sorts of animals: crocodiles, birds, impalas, giraffes, lions, hippos, rhinos, and elephants. The elephant section was quite educational: Aiden laughed hysterically when he saw daddy elephant poop, and there were a few giggles among the adults when we noticed that what made daddy elephant a 'daddy' was on display.

The safari is such a neat attraction. The animals roam among the ride, seemingly without boundaries, but they are all safely enclosed using hidden barriers and some very creative landscaping. Many of the animals (like those in the cattle family and the impalas) were grazing just inches from the side of our vehicle. It was so neat to see them up close and personal. There is a plot to the ride--basically, we our off to chase away some pretend poachers, but Aiden really got into the story. Afterwards, Stella's Granna was holding him and cuddling him when he said, very soberly, "Granna, those poachers disobeyed God." "Granna, in her adorable southern accent, replied, "Yes they did, honey, yes they did!" and gave him an extra-big squeeze and assured him that the animals were safe.

After our safari, we parted ways with the Foxes and headed to our character breakfast at Tusker House. We were greeted by Donald Duck, who took a picture with us all, then ushered inside to enjoy a delicious buffet brunch (the food was SO GOOD!) while Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy each took turns coming by our table to greet Aiden, kiss Aubrey, and sign autographs. When we visited WDW when Aiden was 2, he enjoyed it, but didn't really "get it." This trip, though, Aiden really had a blast. Everything was so magical for him, and having the characters come to see him and sign his book made his day. He was so excited by all of the hoopla and would beam every time he hugged one of the characters. Aubrey was too busy stuffing her face with the food to notice much (that girl can eat!), but she did grab at Mickey's nose, try to eat Daisy's duck bill, and made her excited face when Goofy came by. Gramps even got her a rattle and took her to join in the "celebration parade" through the room, in which the kids galloped after Goofy with drums and noise-makers in a procession around the room. It was a great brunch--we all had such a fun time--and walked out absolutely stuffed with wonderful food.

After brunch, we headed to see "The Festival of the Lion King" show. It was a long show that took up a good chunk of our day, but it was really cool. There were acrobats and dancers, stilt-walkers and fire-dancers, and all of us really enjoyed it. After the show finished, we headed to grab Fast Passes for Dinosaur! While we waited for our ride time, Aiden rode Triceratop Spin and played some midway games while Aubrey napped in the stroller. Just before our ride time, I ran to grab Fast Passes for Everest, then we jumped onto Dinosaur. Dinosaur! is a pretty scary ride in which you travel back in time to ride in a truck past animatronic dinosaurs that try to eat you, all while trying to avoid getting hit by meteors. We warned Aiden beforehand what the ride was all about, told him it was a little scary, but he insisted he wanted to ride and see the dinosaurs, so we took him. He rode, wide-eyed, while I tried valiantly to warn him throughout the ride of all the upcoming surprises and scary parts. "Here comes a big dinosaur!" "A big one is about to pop out up ahead!" He didn't scream, didn't cry (although I think Brad screamed like a girl a couple of times), but he insisted that he did NOT want to ride that one again when we got off the ride.

We decided to take in the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show while waiting for our ride time for Everest. BIG MISTAKE! It is a 4D show featuring the characters from the movie Bug's Life. What's 4D you ask? In Disney terms, it is a 3D show that involves some extra tricks that coincide with the 3D effects. For example, when the stink bug blows a big one, they actually fill the air with the sulphur smell of rotten eggs. When the tarantula throws quills at you, they use air guns to shoot puffs of air at you. And when the wasps attack the humans, at Hopper's urging, giant animatronic spiders also fall from the ceiling above your heads. I kind of forgot about all of these things, and both Aiden and Aubrey were screaming and crying in terror by the end. Even Gran screamed at the end: just before they dismiss you from the show, they ask you to remain in your seats so all cockroaches, spiders and bugs and exit the theater--then they play the sound of scurrying legs under the seats and little rollers in the seat bottoms and backs move, making it feel like an army of bugs is crawling under your butt. It is quite a shock--and Livy screamed so loud when the seat poked her in the butt, Brad and I thought we were going to fall out of our seats laughing.

Since the kids were falling apart (a lack of sleep and a scary movie will do that to you), we decided to forgo Everest and catch an earlier shuttle back to the hotel. On the way out of the park, we surprised a family with 5 Fast Passes to the most popular ride in the park, making their day, then ran to catch our shuttle.

After naps, Brad and I met up with Emily and Jason for a kid-free night out, while the grandparents all got a little one-on-one spoiling time with their respective grandkids. We originally had reservations at a restaurant, but we decided to skip those and go back to EPCOT to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival. At the Food and Wine Festival, there are booths in every country in the World Showcase where you can sample small plates of each country's cuisine, paired with a wine, beer, or cocktail native to that country. We started off in Argentina with some chimichurri steak skewers and empanadas, then decided we needed some cocktails. We walked over to Mexico and ordered some rather large frozen margaritas, which we all downed in the stifling heat. About 15 minutes later, we noticed Emily swaying and decided we better get some more food, quickly! We ate our way around the world, stopping in South Africa for a crab soup and beef tenderloin, then beer in Germany, then tangerine mimosas and falafel in Morocco, sushi in Japan, crab cakes and lobster rolls in New England, escargot and chocolate creme brulee and frozen cosmos in France, and then we hit the Rose and Crown pub, where Brad ordered a scotch flight, Jason and I had beers, and Emily held up the wall for us.

By this point in the evening, we were all laughing pretty loudly, especially at Brad, who was trying to flirt with the little Brittish tart, Vicki, one of the bartenders at the pub, and who was unable to pronounce 2-syllable words. We closed down the pub--at 9:30!! Then we stumbled our way to the monorail, grabbed our hotel shuttle, and laughed as Brad attempted to ride the standing-room-only shuttle. Even the ever-stoic Jason lost it once our shuttle driver repeated his corny "Shades of Purple" joke for the billionth time that week. "Shades of Purple, baby!" he yelled, we all giggled, and everyone else stared. A family with small children was particularly staring, so I told them, "Parents with small children on a rare night out without the kids--we get tipsy, act silly, and still get in bed by 10:30," which prompted them to laugh (and not judge us quite so harshly for our loud laughter!).

While we were out enjoying our rare night off, the kiddos were well cared for. Aubrey splashed in the pool with Gran for a bit, then headed up to play with her toys and go to be early. Aiden and Gramps headed over to the Magic Kingdom to see the parade and fireworks, meeting up with Stella and her grandparents, then came back and had a pizza party. At one point, Aiden was being a little rambunctious, and his Gramps scolded him. Aiden, who at this point had been living on a steady stream of sugar, adrenaline, and no sleep, looked over at him and said, "I've had about enough of you!" and then laughed--what a little toot! Reversing all of the spoiling once we get home is going to be quite a challenge!

Disney World, Thursday

For our second day in the parks, we decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom, since it had the most rides and attractions for little ones. The Parker Pack and the Fox Family decided to stick together that day, giving Aiden and Stella some time together in the park. We decided to start off the day in Adventureland, so we headed that way, with the plan to take a group picture in front of Cinderella castle along the way.


Well, I thought that was the plan, but it turned out that Brad had a surprise in store for me. When we arrived at the picture spot, Brad informed me that we weren't just there for a picture--we were there to renew our wedding vows. When Brad and I got married, we agreed to go somewhere every 5th anniversary and renew our vows someplace special, each of us taking turns planning the event. Since I had planned our wedding, Brad was up first. Well, on our 5-year anniversary, I had just gotten pregnant with Aubrey and was horribly sick with morning sickness. Also, I have this fear of flying in the first trimester, since I lost my first pregnancy right after flying (I know, they probably aren't related, but I can't shake the fear), so I didn't feel comfortable flying to Vegas, as we had planned. So we never renewed our vows that anniversary, but Brad decided that at Disney World, with friends and family there to witness it, would be a great time to correct that. He presented me with a lovely pair of bride "Minnie ears", donned his groom "Mickey ears," and after a prayer from Jason, who just happens to be a minister, we exchanged vows and a quick kiss. What a romantic surprise from my husband. I really do have the best hubby in the world.

After a few group pictures, we dried our misty eyes and headed over to Adventureland. We hopped onto Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Aiden's first big roller coaster. Once again, he tried to chicken out in line, but I carried him, talked him off of the ledge, and plunked him in the ride, which he ended up loving. Then we headed over to Splash Mountain next door. Once again, he tried to chicken out, but I pushed him onto the ride. Oh. My. Lord. Talk about drama. Splash Mountain is basically a log ride, where you float on a little river past a bunch of singing, animatronic characters from the old movie, Song of the South. Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox all sing, dance, and get into some silly situations. Then at the end, you go down one big hill to get splashed--no biggie, right? Wrong. Something about this ride set Aiden off. He cried, he screamed in terror--at a bunch of furry animals singing. We had survived Haunted Mansion without a tear or single quiver of fear--but singing, whistling forest animals filled him with terror. About 2/3 of the way through the ride, he finally calmed down and realized the ride wasn't so scary, but he still begged not to ride it ever again once we got off, which baffled me.


After his big freak out, we headed to ride Jungle Cruise, then Pirates of the Caribbean, which Aiden loved. After, we headed indoors to watch the show in the Enchanted Tiki Room, which Aubrey adored (all those singing, dancing, brightly-colored birds had her clapping and dancing). Then we parted ways with the Foxes, who headed off to do some "girly" things, while we went back to Buzz Lightyear to ride once more. While in Tomorrowland, we took in the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor show, which was hilarious. Basically, it is an animated show, but the animated characters interact with the audience members. This time, Aubrey and Gramps, the "two-headed human" were chosen to join in on the fun. Aubrey kept trying to eat the microphone, and her belly-button was showing, so the monsters made up a song about her belly button that had us all laughing. Aubrey kept making her excited "baby bird" face--mouth open, eyes wide, hands outstretched and opening and closing in excitement--which had the audience laughing. Brad and I even got a little screen-time: the monsters called us newlyweds, since we were wearing our bride and groom ears, but we probably confused the heck out of everyone, since we had 2 kids sitting on our laps! After the show, we took Aiden to drive a car on the Tomorrowland Speedway. We decided to head back to the hotel to grab lunch and get the kiddos down for a nap, and caught the street party parade on the way out, with Aiden delighted to see some of his favorites: The Incredibles, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, and all his favorite Disney characters.


After naps, we headed over to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM). We went straight for Tower of Terror, since the lines were short. Even Aiden and Stella rode the "fast elevator." Stella giggled with glee the entire ride, but Aiden clutched Brad and I, eyes-wide, as we flew up and down, his feet flying up into the air as we free-fell down the tower. When we got off, Aiden seriously told us, "I don't like that ride, Mommy. I don't want to ride again." We respected his wishes, but his reaction had us laughing. He wasn't acting scared--just stoic and very serious about his desire to avoid the Tower in the future!

Emily and all the other gals took the kiddos to watch Beauty and the Beast, the musical show, while the men plus me headed over to Aerosmith's Rockin' Coaster. (What can I say, I'm a tomboy--I love roller coasters!) Afterwards, we all joined up and went on The Great Movie Ride. Aiden loved the shoot-out scenes, and all of us cheered when they played the "Stella!" scene from A Streetcar Named Desire during the show. We walked over to Star Tours for a quick trip to Endor with a droid that needed driving lessons. Aiden LOVED Star Tours! He pretended to shoot the enemies with lasers, and would yell "Got 'em!" whenever one of the enemy ships blew up. When we returned to Earth, we ran over to the Muppets 3D show for our last activity of the night. It was just a few minutes before closing, so we had the theater to ourselves and got to sit right on the front row. Aiden and Stella kept trying to catch all of the 3D stuff, whacking at the air and acting silly. They laughed and had a great time. When the show ended, we all ran to the entrance to catch our shuttle back to the hotel, then the Foxes headed to their rooms to order room service while the Parker Pack headed to the Garden Gallery restaurant to eat a quick buffet dinner before heading to bed.