June Goals

Because there is nothing like waiting until the middle of the month to post these!

Here is how May went:

- Potty Train Felicity- Thanks to a princess potty and my amazing mother this is done!!! We still have accidents but no more diapers. 

Yes, I posted a potty on the blog!

Stay tuned to see how we used this to potty train! 

- Change her crib to big girl bed - she cried huge tears and demanded that I put her bed back together but she got over that. She still waits on us to come and get her out of bed - I don't know who's child she is or how I am blessed to have such a good sleeper. 

-Build new dresser that we have had for over a month and sell the old one (need one??) - Well we build the dresser moved it upstairs and brought the old one down but haven't even tried to sell it yet. 
  
- Send a letter to each of my Grandmothers - I have been saving pictures for them and meaning to write these since December! - didn't do this but did get to see one Mamaw while I was at a conference in Nashville for work. 

- Replace my iphone screen - done! I have made the move to the iphone5S and I am pretty happy. 

- Get my passport for our CRUISE! - DONE!! and it's already here. 

- Finish my MBA application essay - So here is the big news, I am not doing my MBA. When I sat down to write this essay I could think of no real valid reason for a Masters in Business Administration except I am a nerd and I love school and it would look cool on my business cards - not good reasons to sacrifice your family. So Jesse and I talked and I cancelled my application and I happy with that decision. I want my Master's I just want it in something I truly love. 

- hit up Disney a few more times before its so hot we can't breathe. - Yes and some in the last couple of days. 

Here's what I want to do with the rest of this month:

- Send a letter to each of my Mamaws
- Take pictures of my clothes for Instagram sale -keep it eye out @Homeof theRudolphs on InstaGram for new to you things!  
- I am currently going thru Tone It Up's 28 day book (not an affiliated link) I want to keep at it
- blog at least 2 times per week 

Lets see how this goes! 

Weekend Update on a Wednesday

You know it has been a week when it's Wednesday and you are just getting around to blogging. The students are on Spring Break so I thought I would have time to get a lot done but work has been stressful with no one there and issues popping up. Add that to runny noses and coughs and late nights and it's Wednesday! But we had a great weekend and I want to share it.

Aiden and I started Friday was yummy treats from the bakery down the street - we were so good we only ate half of each. That was just enough sugar to convince him to go to Goodwill and we did a little damage there before heading home for dinner and playing outside in the extended sunlight.

Saturday we headed to church for family fun day and Felicity and I did a great job supervising all the fun relays! Aiden loved it and was so excited.

We figured since we were already sweaty we might as well give my car a much needed bath and a good vacuum and then reward ourselves with Sonic!

We came home for showers and put the finishing touches on a dinner for friends in our core group who have a new snuggly baby at home.

Peanut Butter Cookies

After we dropped dinner off we headed to Target for our weekly trip.

I taught a wild sweet room of 3 & 4 year olds about Jesus at church on Sunday and then we headed home.

Grandpa & Grandma came and picked up Aiden and Felicity for a fun day at the pool while Jesse and I headed out for a Disney date. It was a wonderful day and the park wasn't too full. We had some disappointing moments but over all it was good - the mine ride was down, which was the whole reason we went :( . We then headed to Downtown Disney for dinner nachos and a movie with my best friend and her hubs.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! 

Weekend Update & a Disney Adventure

Friday was Rodeo day here in Osceola county and I was at the ABHE Annual Meeting so Aiden got a Mimi day. By the time I got home it was bedtime. 

Saturday: We all slept in and then enjoyed the warmer weather outside. 

Then we loaded up and headed to Oviedo for a co-ed baby shower for Jesse's brother and sister-in-law. We are pretty excited for Baby Emma to make her debut.

Jesse won 3rd place (copper bottle) in the bottle chug challenge! He was pretty proud - excuse my side pictures I was competing with the big cameras and I only had my iphone :( 

My kids know how to party. 

She loves her Uncle Jake! It must be a red head thing. 

Sunday we headed to church. 

Someone picked out her hair bows, socks, and shoes by herself. It was a little over kill but she was happy.

We headed home for lunch and changed and headed to Animal Kingdom for some afternoon fun.

But first Starbucks!

The Festival of the Lion King was our first stop. This is one of our favorite shows. 

So excited to see our favorite characters. 

Then we headed to the Safari. 

Clearly they are really excited!

The animals were pretty active. The safari can be hit or miss but this was probably one of the best ones we have been on. 

Here's my Disney tip of the week - Each park has a baby care center - inside the baby center they have nursing rooms, changing tables, and a room with seating and a disney movie or show on and it's air conditioned!! We stopped in to fill up our water bottles - they also have water dispenser and ended up staying for a quick snack and A/C break.

We headed home and got the kiddos in bed by 8 - I am so glad they can't tell time yet! Then Ellie came over and hung out with the sleeping kids (aka - watched our Netflix) while Jesse and I had a grown-ups only grocery trip to Target. {ps - Yoga pants are $10 this week!!}

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Weekend Update

Valentine's Weekend was a great weekend. 

 We spent Friday night per normal - pizza and a movie - we picked up Alexander and terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day - it was so funny both the kids liked it and we all shared some great laughs. 

Yummy heart pancakes for breakfast. 

Lots of playing and a Chick-fli-a lunch with our little valentines before they headed off to Grandpa and Grandma's for a sleepover. 

Jesse and I make a quick stop to Ikea - thinking about a new dresser for our room. 

Then we made our way to the AMC Dine -in theater at Downtown Disney. We saw Jupiter Ascending -enough sci-fi for Jesse and enough flirting for me. 

A little sleeping in for us and we headed to church and then a parents only trip to Target which was wonderful! Then our sleeping children came home and stayed sleeping! Holy cow the things I got done! 

Once those sweet kiddos woke up we headed to a fun night at the fair (it's so nice we just walk across the street.) We stayed up too late and ate too much junk food but it was wonderful. 

Felicity spent the first 20 minutes like this

but once the animals were introduced she was totally on board. 

They did a little 4-wheeling. 

I love that these college kids just love my kids-Felicity stuck to sweet Macie like glue and would call for her. They were playing fish and it just melted my heart. 

We came home and fell into bed. 

This sweet man sent me flowers at work and I heard a rumor that a new Alex & Ani was ordered - he sure is a keeper

Here's to a great week ahead! 

Weekend Update

I know I just posted one of these but it's what I got!

Friday: We had a big day on Friday with Aiden eating everything in his lunchbox! It was a huge success in mommy world - its been about 5 months of him barely touching his lunch so we were pretty excited. We had a celebratory dinner at Cracker Barrel (chicken and dumplings!!!) 

An empty lunch box!

Aiden found this card at Cracker Barrel and thought it was hilarious.

Saturday: This is probably one of Aiden's favorite days of the year as we headed to Monster Jam! We set up our tailgate with Grandma & Grandpa right next to the bathrooms, which was very convenient and amusing at times. I think we could've sold toilet paper for $3 a sheet. Aiden and Felicity really enjoyed the Pit and meeting the drivers, I enjoyed sitting and people watching. It was a pretty chilly day here in sunny Florida so we bundled up and headed into the Citrus Bowl. Aiden was in absolute heaven and Feiclity was so terrified from the fireworks at the begining she took a nap on Jesse's shoulder until almost intermission, but once she was up she was loving it. We had a great time minus the cold.

Sunday: Just a typical Sunday: Church, Goodwill, Chipotle and Target. Can someone tell me when Goodwill started charging more the name brand products? Usually you pay more for the Target stuff but it's new items not used items. Yesterday I noticed if it has a big company name (AE, Gap, Gymboree) they are charging more for it them, even if they are from the 80's. I am not sure if it's just the Goodwill's here or what but I was a little bummed. Also MIMI is here!! The kids are beyond thrilled to have her stay with us for the week. She is going to babysit while Jesse and I have a much needed date night and day! Then we are taking her to Disney on Saturday for her birthday!

Love our Chipolte kid's meal!

Have a wonderful week!

Disney Days

We headed to our favorite place on Earth a few days ago for some family time before we headed back to school and work...Disney.

If you haven't picked up on it - I love all things Disney and we happen to be annual pass-holders (they have proven to be a great escape from campus.) I loaded up some fastpasses, which you can do ahead of time with your tickets and the my Disney experience app and we headed out to Hollywood Studios (which I still call MGM!)

We did our usual stops at the Disney Jr. show - if you kiddos are into Jake, Sofia, Doc, and Mickey like mine you will thank me plus it's air conditioned and while you have to sit on the floor, you get to sit! Then over to Toy Story Mania, the boys always win but we still have a good time. We happen to catch the last night of the Osbourne Festival of Lights - I totally recommend this if you are into Christmas lights like we are. Aiden had fun trying to find all the hidden Mickey's. We then made our way to our last fast pass of the night - For the First Time in Forever: Frozen Sing-a-Long (but not before stopping at The Writer's Shop for coffee and a carrot cake cookie - YUM!) Disney is clearly milking the Frozen success for all it is worth right now BUT our kids still love it and we didn't get a chance to see the sing-a-long show in the summer, yay for them keeping it! We waited a few minutes before the doors open and then we were ushered into the auditorium.

It's a very cute show. The story tellers really have a great time with it and Jesse and I laughed quite a few times. The sing along parts are just like the sing along movie on the screen so pretty basic. Elsa makes a grand entrance towards the end and it snows! The kids really loved it. Felicity will probably want to see it each time we are there! Sorry no appearances by Olaf.

* I am in no way affiliated with Disney expect as a regular paying annual pass-member. I love sharing our days there so you can see what new and exciting.

Weekend Update

Here's what we were up to this weekend:

 Friday nights are pizza and movie nights at our house. Aiden surprised us by eating 3 pieces of pizza - this is huge deal for him.  It's pretty low key and Jesse and I usually catch up on our weekly shows once they are down.

Saturday was a busy one for us! My mom was hosting a birthday party for my nephew on HER birthday, so I baked a cake and we headed over to Melbourne early because if we are going there you can bet a stop at our favorite Target will take place and we scored some great deals! We celebrated Henry and the kids played with all of Mimi's toys which are always more fun than the ones we have at home. Then we headed to Thai-Thai for our favorite meal! We got back home pretty late, with 2 kids completely asleep.

Sunday is usually our catch up day. We headed to church and then lucky for me, Jesse was on board for a trip to Chipolte for lunch. Aiden was unsure but as soon as he saw them making Felicity's kids tray he was on board too and ate like a champ with no anxiety. I love their kid trays and some times get them for myself! We then headed home for afternoon naps, lego playing and clean up.

 

I did meal planning and hunted some coupons. I use target.com and coupons.com mostly but when I was really coupon crazy I would get 2 papers and use countless websites for coupons. Hip2save.com has a great coupon database that I still use sometimes.

We then headed our to Target for our weekly grocery trip.

 I was in Target heaven this weekend.

Just when I thought we were all settled in for the night little red woke up quite congested so we finished our weekend with a breathing treatment and extra snuggles from mommy and daddy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope you had a very merry Christmas and are having a start to a wonderful New Year.  We had a very crazy December with mommy working a crazy week, everyone getting sick, parties and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

We are ready for this new year but I leave you with our "Christmas" cards that have yet to be mailed!

Thanksgiving Day Traditions

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The morning of Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. I get so excited for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I know it's awful lip syncing and promotions but I love it. I even record it so I can go back and watch the parts I miss while I am baking or when we switch to the Disney channel because the kids are over it. In fact I am watching it now! Another confession: I almost always cry when the parade starts and when that guy in the red suit show up at the end.

When I was in high school I discovered sweet potato casserole and it is know "my" dish. I love making it and it usually makes an appearance at Christmas too! I don't use a recipe, I just mix in the butter and brown sugar till it's good and I do a pecan topping. Think I will warm some up.

The newspaper, it's always dad's (aka Jesse) job to run out and acquire a coveted newspaper. I know most of the black Friday ads are on the internet now but there is just something about holding them in your hand. We snuggle up the on couch or sit at the table with coffee and flip through the ads marking things that might be worth it.

When we were young and kid-less we would head to the movies on Thanksgiving night. This year Jesse picked up a movie while we were at Target (yes, we stopped for a few things on Thanksgiving!, since my brother works for the company and he needs that extra time and half pay I am all for supporting and well let's be honest I am addicted to the store!) I am not going to name the movie because it's not worth it. But I am making this a revised tradition, where we watch a new movie that night.

We had such a good and busy Thanksgiving that the 2 pictures I took are a blurry mess but we enjoyed our time together. I hope you had a fabulous day and enjoyed all your traditions.

Also ROLL TIDE ROLL!!