Disney World

We got to go to Disney!  Collin and I took Ella and Braden to Disney World last week for the first time.  We were already in Orlando for a friends wedding, so we just stayed in Orlando for six more days and embraced all things Disney.  The trip was magical for all of us.  So many sweet memories for us as a family.

Here are some highlights...

Riding the Tea Cups with Dad

Maybe the greatest highlight of the whole trip was a special VIP meeting with four of the princesses.  Thanks to a special friend who happens to work at Disney (huge thank you to JW), she was able to sneak us into the castle and let Ella and Braden meet Snow White, Auroa, Belle, and Ariel!  Wow, not many girls get an opportunity like this and we felt so blessed.  The princesses are beautiful and so talented!  I really felt like I was with royalty!  We got to laugh, ask questions about all the princes, snow white whistled, and Ariel did an impression of Sebastian.  It was such a magical moment and a dream come true for Ella (and mom too)!

 Special time with Princess Aurora!

Riding the Astro Orbiter

 Getting ready for Beauty and the Beast musical

Meeting Mickey at Hollywood Studios

Super Moms!

Going on a safari at Animal Kingdom

Meeting Donald Duck

We ate a lot of ice cream.  Thank you Disney Dining Plan! 

Animal Kingdom 

Time with Mater and the guys from Cars

Getting ready for a day at Epcot

Meeting Mary Poppins

Ella loved everything!

The castle lit up at night.  Incredible!

Another highlight for me was watching the light and fireworks show at the Castle during our last night.  I looked down at one point and saw Ella and Braden with their arms around each other.  I teared up knowing this time with them was so special.   They are only 5 and 3 this one time and already getting big so fast!   

Fireworks!

It was truly magical...especially to re-live the whole experience through the eyes of a 5 year old and a 3 year old.  We were exhausted after it was all over, but so many sweet memories that will last forever!

I love Spring!

Spring is absolutely my favorite time of year!  I love watching everything come alive again, hearing the birds chirp, and having sunshine back!  Around here we have loved taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  We have tried to have a lot of picnics and be outside whenever we can.  We have the most beautiful pink dogwood right outside of our kitchen window that blooms every year at this time.   I love being able to look out my window at all of the gorgeous pink flowers.  The other day we decided to do some art projects outside underneath the dogwood.  Spring finger painting, how great is that!

Can you tell which child painted which side of this picture?  Ha!  Braden did the top part and Ella finger painted the forest of apple trees on the bottom part.  Her skills for drawing have improved so much this year.  I love to see her artwork and get a chance to see what the world looks like from her point of view.  

Becket even had fun outside.  Thank you Callie for letting us borrow this jumper!  It has been a life saver!

Bobble Head Beckett

I am obviously Beckett's mom so I think everything he does is super cute!  Here is his latest "trick" that I think is precious!  When you shake your head at him he mimics you.  It makes me laugh and then it makes him laugh.  I love it.  

Beckett Milestones

Beckett is 7 months and 4 weeks old.  I can't believe we are so close to 8 months!  We have had some milestones the past two weeks that I want to record.  The first one is that he can pretty much sit up on his own.  He still falls over sometimes, but he is almost got it.  There is a chance he might master crawling before sitting up, ha!  That leads me to the next milestone which is that he is pretty much crawling.  It is still a combination of a commando crawl, scooting and kind of lurching forward, but he is on the move.  Just last week I also spotted a 3rd tooth in his mouth.  He has had his two bottom teeth for awhile but he just got the first one on top.   

We are also working on sleeping through the night.  I waited with the other two kiddos until they were about 9 months to cut out that last feeding, but recently Beckett went two nights without nursing, so I thought now would be a good time to go for it (and I have been trying to get him to sleep through the night before Collin and I leave for vacation!).  Unfortunately, it has not been quite as easy as I thought.  He will sleep through a whole night and then the next night he wake up a few times and want to eat.   Every night has been different.  Often, I have to let him cry it out which is so heart wrenching for me.  He has always been so good, I never really had to let him cry anything out, or cry himself to sleep.  Hopefully he will get there soon!

Beckett starting to crawl

Leadership Weekend

Last weekend we had our whole leadership team in town for summer planning.   It was incredible to have everyone here together to play, plan, brainstorm, and start to become a team.  We laughed alot and got to talk through everything from staff training week to our parties at kamp. K-Kountry is blessed to have such a great team again this year.  I can hardly believe that Kamp is just right around the corner!

The Team

The Girl's Team

Smash Ball

Mohawks and Ice Cream

One a warm evening the other night we decided to eat ice cream outside and give Braden a much needed hair cut.  We thought a mohawk would be fun for summer.  It is hard to see the haircut in some of the pictures but Braden is so cute rockin a new hair do.  

Lunch Conversation

Braden:  "Ella where is God?"  "Where is Jesus?"
Ella:  "Well God and Jesus are the same thing and they are up in the sky."
Ella: "Mom, did you know that we are on the earth and the earth is spinning but we can't even feel it."
Mom:  "I know Ella isn't that neat."
Ella:  "Mom, stop moving!  See you can't even feel it spinning."
Mom:  "Wow, Ella."
Ella:  "Mom, do you know that pluto isn't a planet, it is not.  Some people say that it is a moon, or a planet, but it is not."

Mom:  "So Braden do you know where God is?
Braden:  "Yeah, he is flying.  He is flying in a bubble."
Mom:  "Ok, Braden."


I love that Braden is the one that asked a question about God, and that he asked Ella and not me.  I also love that Ella knows God and Jesus are the same person.  I don't really know if I have taught her that or if she just picked it up.   I want to remember this fun and crazy moments with kids that can go from teaching them about God to learning about planets!

Ella's Preschool Program

A few weeks ago Ella had her Preschool program.  The format is very simple.  The kids sing a couple of songs and then you get to go to her classroom to view some of the art work they have been making in school.  It is amazing how I can be so proud of her for just singing a song!  It is fun to see her up on stage because you can tell she feels like she is doing something special.  

Getting ready for the performance

All the classes together

Ella's is the vase with flowers

Can we say masterpiece!  It is a picture of the ocean, in case you can't tell already.

The artist!

Some of the kids from her class.

Mrs. Matthews her teacher.

We gave her flowers when she got home to celebrate what a great job she did!