Disney Family Vacation Sep 2011

M_I_C_K_E_Y MOUSE


Well life has taken over and I have put the blogging WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY on the back burner. I never even blogged our Disney trip!


I initially had said that I didn't want to take Carsyn to Disney until she was atleast 5 years old. For starters I wanted her to have a memory of her trip and also I knew the older she was the easier it would be. BUT then when we started thinking about having a baby this year I knew I wouldn't want to return until the baby was older which would end up making Carsyn wait longer. I myself had never been to Disney ever in my life so selfishly I wanted to experience it for myself also since I knew a new bundle of joy would result in more responsibility for myself. And there is no better way to me to experience Disney except through the eyes of a child. Carsyn is in such a fun stage where everything is so magical and real that Danny and I really wanted to watch her experience the Princesses. Sooo one day when Danny made this comment in response to a Disney TV commercial, "So when are we taking Carsyn?" I knew he would be on board so I better strike while the iron was hot! At first I was thinking a Nov trip would be fun but then when I got pregnant sooner than planned I moved it up to September. I had already experienced traveling during third trimester while preggo with C and I vowed NEVER to make that mistake again!


After reviewing airfare Danny and I decided we would make the 10 hr drive instead. I was EXTREMELY nervous about this because first of all I have only traveled as far as about 6 hrs with C and Danny had only traveled about 3 hours with her. But my fears were unwarranted because our trip was great and Carsyn rode fabulously. LOTS of DVDs and rotating parents in the backseat from time to time but we really preferred driving as opposed to the rat race of the airport.


When we finally arrived at our hotel we were greatly disappointed with our room. I had chosen a budget hotel since it was a very fast trip and really more of a "taste-test" of Disney so we would know what to do next time. Disney can be quite overwhelming when attempting to go for the first time and we DEFINITELY learned what NOT to do NEXT TIME. AND NEXT TIME we will NOT be staying at any All Star resort! We didn't even have a bathtub and not only that but no "real" shower either, just a curtain that shared the same floor as the toilet. Luckily we were not there for much time.


I had a slight nervous breakdown when I realized I had not factored in the time difference and in order to get to our reservation of Cinderella's castle the next morning I would have to get up at 5 (after going to bed at midnight). Why did we go to bed at midnight? Because we got lost trying to find our hotel room after dinner and we didn't have the number written down! The next morning of course we were running late and I started to panic that we would lose our reservations which had already been messsed up tremendously by Disney. BUT when we finally arrived and Carsyn curtsied to Cinderella and did a little twirl it was all worth it! Tears definitely rolled down this momma's face and Im pretty sure her daddy would have too if he were a crier! And then as they say the Magic of Disney took over and we had an amazing time! We definitely did not try to see everything and both of the days we were at the parks I took Carsyn back to the hotel to take a little nap and refresh before dinner.


We had purchased the Deluxe Dining Plan because I knew if I wanted a happy husband I had to keep him fed and Im not talking about a hotdog. However while we did utilize all of our meal tickets, I do not think we necessarily needed all of it. We did enjoy our sit down dinners, especially at the Grand Floridian cafe. This hotel is btw where Danny wants to stay next time. Yeah I better start saving NOW! Oh and the man who I was afraid would flip out with the crowds (and yes even during a slow season Disney is still packed!) is still talking about this trip 2 months later! He is ready to return as soon as Jeremiah is born, Im not kidding! I never would have thought the magic of Disney would win over this guy!



The Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios is UNBELIEVABLE and an absolute must see! Carsyn did get a little frightened by the "bad" guys but she still loved it. Of course fireworks at Cindrella's castle is breathtaking and to hear Carsyn "yell" hello to all of the characters was priceless. All in all the entire trip definitely met all of our expectations and now I can understand why people feel the need to return every year!


Im not even going to attempt to upload pictures from the trip because me and Blogger would tie up but they are on my Facebook if you are my friend.

Dear Jeremiah

Dear Jeremiah-

Sadly I have not documented your pregnancy voyage as accurately as I did your sister's. However so far it has been a joy carrying you these last 31 weeks. I have to say Im not sure if it is the second pregnancy, or my maturity level, or the pregnancy itself but it has been pretty easy so far. I am well aware that these last 8 weeks are going to be much more difficult as you continue to grow. I am preparing myself mentally for the discomfort I am about to face but thankfully you have continued to allow me to keep up with my gruling holiday season work!


Your daddy is convinced you are going to be a big boy. Your sister was 7.15 and he just knows you will be bigger than that. From watching you on the outside of my belly I would have to say you entirely encompass the entire egg shape that it is. I can feel you move from one end to the other! I tried to videotape my belly the other night to show the ripples you can see but of course you stopped. Your movements do hurt a little more than Carsyn's did atleast as well as I can recollect. I think it is just becuase you don't have as much room.


Your sister is so excited to meet you and already pretends you are here some nights. She has had so much fun going through your clothes and blankets and dare I say she has of course tried to claim some of it as her own. You have to understand for 4 years she has been the ABSOLUTE center of her parent's and grandparent's world so she is going to be a little rocked by your arrival even though she asked for a little brother/sister! While I know you two will fight and at times even despise one another I will try to remind myself that every single morning as I drop her off for preschool she gives you a big kiss on my belly and says "love you Baby J."

Of course your daddy is ecstatic to have a male playmate and some testosterone in this house. Since the passing of your Pop almost a year ago he has been going through a tough year becoming the responsible male of the family. Seeing Pop's initials on your coming home outfit, will be a bittersweet arrival of your birth following so closely to the anniversary of his death. Personally I feel you are God's gift to the family for Pop's early departure. Don't worry we will fill you in on what an amazing person he was.


And while Daddy and Carsyn would love for you to be here right now I am content spending some more alone time with you on the inside. I know once you arrive life will forever more be changed....and my time stretched even more between caring for two demanding little people. I have to admit I am a bit scared at the adjustments we will all face but as we did with your sister we will figure out a way eventually.


It would be GREAT if you could sleep for longer than 2 to 3 hours at a time as I am interested to see how your awful sleeping sister will handle your wake ups. I expect to be awake with two children in the middle of the night.


So now we go to prepare for your arrival and get your nursery ready. Today we are taking our last family of 3 portraits and documenting you in my belly. This is the fun part of pregnancy!



I love you! Mama

And he shall be called......

We FINALLY have a name!!! Finally!!

For those who are unaware this has been a long process. I wanted to name our son something that had meaning. My husband, bless him, continued to come up with some crazy choices. Thousand and Thousands of names were rejected by my husband. And to be honest none of them really just hit home with me either.

So to begin my story, a few nights ago I woke up around 1:30 AM with some terrible pains. You really don't want to know the details so I will spare you but as I sat trying to figure out how to alleviate the pain I prayed "God please help me, please take this pain away, tell me what you want me to name this baby and I promise I will make sure he is given back to do your will." So a little while later the pain ceased.

Fast forward to tonight. After dinner I asked my husband what today was? He said "the 11th" I said "Well you have four more days to come up with a name or you lose all naming priviliges. I mean I NEED to monogram some stuff!" So he says " What about Jeremy?"

Now Jeremy is the name of one of my cousins who I have always been close with growing up. And I always said if I had a son I wanted him to be just like Jeremy.

So I said "Well we already have a Jeremy in the family? What about Jeremiah?"

"Yeah I like Jeremiah"

"Well I have to do the name tests...you know say whole name together Jeremiah Allan Smith"
Then put it with Danny, Amanda, Carsyn and Jeremiah
Look up its meaning : God will raise up

And my newest name test is to search on Facebook for any Jeremiah's locally to see how many pop up and what they look like, etc...So as I log on and the very first status on my newsfeed is this:

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations

I SWEAR to you I can NOT even make that up! I knew that bible verse but I was unaware which book it came from. Seriously, was God using Social Networking to speak to me? I mean I am a huge believer in signs and this was pretty crazy!! The FIRST status on my newsfeed!

So I am not going to argue with God and if he says Jeremiah is the name than I am going with the sign, however we received it! My husband is pretty excited because he will have the same initials as his father did, James Allan Smith (Jeremiah Allan Smith), and our new furntiure store is named J. Allan's. So there you have it!

When I told Carsyn what we thought the name of the baby would be she said "NO I want to name it SIMBA!" I said she could call him whatever she wanted but mommy and daddy were calling him Jeremiah.

It's A BOY!!!

Well after several glitches...the Gender Reveal Party was a huge success and a wonderfully fun way to find out the sex of Baby Smith!! I highly recommend everyone to discover the sex of their baby this way!!!

So here is how it went down...first off all I received a message from my UT that I was not on her schedule. Panic set in...called the office...yep no appointment on record even though I made it two months ago and double checked at my 16 week appointment. Called my BFF who's husband is my doctor's partner...turns out I did have an appointment just not the Ultrasound. He fixed it and we were back on track. THEN my UT tech told me that she had to switch days but she would inform the other tech what was to go down and she could text the answer.

Day of appointment came and Danny and I entered a standing room only waiting room at 8:45!! Needless to say it was 2 hours before we even got to the ultrasound! This is not the norm but it was a highly busy day! When I entered the ultrasound room and said

"Hey I am Amanda- Shari told you about me? Im having the gender party, so DON"T tell me what it is?!?" Confused look on UT face. "Umm no fill me in?"

So after I filled her in she said she faintly recalled seeing a text about this scenario... great!

Ultrasound began and she said she would refer to the baby as a HE for general purpposes. The baby was measuring right on track and looked to be perfectly healthy. He was not moving a ton but definitely stretching out his legs often. Then she told us to cover our eyes to check a leg in the event we could see something. She started referring to it as a SHE and Danny and I both had thought she might have slipped. Then we covered our eyes again to check the sex and I peeked at Danny to make sure he wasn't peeking. And she quickly found it. I went to my doctor's office and said "Make sure not to tell me what it is" " I was pretty sure it was a boy but now Im confused because the tech called it a SHE." My doctor aked why I thought that and with that I was completly confused!

I stayed busy with Carsyn and preparing my house for guests the rest of the afternoon. Carsyn and I decided to kill some more time we would go get Big Sister pedicures!

I was so lucky to have my baker make my cake the SAME day so we didn't have to wait. We waited until close to party time so there would be no time for peeking! Although since I had made it this far I was excited to wait another hour! In fact when our family arrived I decided we should eat dinner BEFORE cutting the cake just to make the anticipation last a little longer!

And FINALLY we cut it and it was the smurfiest blue I have ever seen! No mistaking! My OB is my Facebook friend so I messaged her and said "It is a boy right?!?!" And she said YES!

So while I have needed to concentrate on work last week I haven't been able to stop shopping and planning his nursery decor! I have already purchased his fabric since the party that we will have the crib bedding made from. Unfortunately Baby Smith still does not have a name and we are nowhere close to deciding on one!

Baby Smith

So we have reached the big week in Pregnancy....Gender Reveal ultrasound!! After watching several of my friends host their own Gender Reveal parties I thought it would be a unique way to incorporate Carsyn into the fun. This is how it will go down...so I hope!





One of the benefits of living in a small town is that my ultrasound tech is a friend and knows my cake baker who is a friend. The UT will text the answer to the baker so I will not have any written way to sneak a peek. Also this will allow the baker to have the answer to begin on my cake since she is making it for me the same day! No way was I waiting until the weekend to find out, so this entire party has been scheduled around the baker's day off from her regular job!





Fingers crossed baby Smith cooperates and at 6:30 Carsyn will cut the cake to determine what this little bambino will be. Also hoping this ultrasound shows a healthy little tike, but Im trying not to think negative thoughts.





So I am 19 weeks this week I made sure to wait the alotted time so we would have a nice and larger baby to check on. Last week I did get to feel the first butterflies of it moving, but sadly I have not felt anything in a few days? I believe the baby was breech the other day as I had lots and lots of pressure and felt as though the baby was about to fall out! I had never experienced this with Carsyn. Also one day the "kicks" felt like little hiccups in my "way down low region?!?!" Also another never before experience. Thankfully I have a good friend who has birthed 3 children who also happens to be married to an OBGYN so she gets to hear all of my concerns and wonders! It will be a long 5 more months for her!





I am not sure whether it is my positive attitude or my lack of time to notice but this pregnancy has been very easy thus far. I know it will only get worse so I am trying to pace myself much like when I ran track in high school! A few ailments that I have noticed that are completely different than when I was pregnant with Carsyn are; increased freckles/ruddiness in cheeks (If this is pregnancy "glow" I am not happy about it!), increased spider veins and even veins that come to surface on my legs (can be extremely painful/itchy and have caused me to panic about blood clots), and much much larger breasts!! So far no leg cramps or sciatic nerve pain which was the culprit of much pain while pregnant with Carsyn.





I am still exercising with my kettlebell group although very modified and lower weights. As of right now I have not gained any weight since my 12 week appointment. Guess that is a good thing?





Carsyn told me this morning at the grocery store while wanting to do something I was not allowing her to do...."MAMA I can do it ALL BY MYSELF...I am THE BIG SISTER!!!!"





So now we wait three more days!

Summer comes to an end...

Where do I begin....time is racing by. I hear my funny belle saying so many funny things and I think "OH I need to go blog that so I don't forget!" But alas time slips by and I ultimately forget.

We are DEFINITELY over summer in this household and ready to return to our schedules. Not to mention this unbearable heat index, UGH!!!

Carsyn still has a month until preschool starts but she has started back to Ms. Jan @ Mother"s Morning Out for the next few weeks. She was like a kid on Christmas morning when she got to go last week. Carsyn is definitely a socialite who prefers to be with a group than at home with me! Also last week she started dance class. Seeing a group of 3 year olds in tu-tus might be the cutest scene you could ever see! Carsyn has been asking to go to dance class for well over a year so once the day arrived she was over the moon! Its amazing how much better behaved she is when she activities to look foward to.

One of Carsyn's favorite games is I Spy. I don't even know who taught it to her but even when I don't want to play, when I hear her say " I spy wif my wittle eyes sumpin" I always play. I wish I could record her saying this to listen to over and over again when she is driving me crazy as a teenager.

Carsyn already is ready to be "BIG," according to her when she is FIVE she will be able to do whatever she wants!! She constantly tells everyone she is almost FOUR. A trait I know she received from me is she absolutely HATES to be told what to do by anyone. And she definitely has started becoming quite the little bossy girl lately. I feel sorry for her sibling! :) HOWEVER for the most part she is very well behaved in public or for other grown-ups.

Speaking of Carsyn's sibling I had my 16 week check-up last week. All went well, of course, nothing can be really be determined until the next appointment which will include the ultrasound to determine the sex. Atleast the nurse found the heartbeat a little faster this time but she only listened to it for a nanosecond. I wanted to say "HEY I waited 4 weeks to hear that sound- leave it on for atleast a minute!" We are all very anxious for our gender reveal party however I can't help feeling nervous that the ultrasound will determine anything negative. I definitely can't complain about the way I have been feeling. In fact, on most days if I didn't have this big belly I really wouldn't know I was pregnant. So now we pray and wait and get ready for our next visit in 18 days! :)

WHAT A DAY

Even though I DID get to go to NYC this summer, and visit my friends in Mobile, if I were to say this has been a fantastic summer would be a bit of a fib. In all honesty ever since school let out for Carsyn I have been in a slight state of chaos. Frist off I was totally unprepared for Carsyn this summer. Her attention span and desire to learn caught me completely off-guard. In June she typically goes to Mrs. Jan's two days a week for playtime but since our swimming lessons interferred with that time we were unable to attend. I think this is where the downward slope started. Add in that this is my first summer to photograph several weddings consecutively in addition to my regular photog schedule and it equals to I just down right have done a poor job of time management. Oh yeah and that little butterbean inside me has not given me much motivation either. And to be completely honest the thought of my summer next year being even more chaotic down right scares the dickens out of me! So I am preparing NOW!

Also Carsyn's sleep schedule has been changing so she usually goes to bed around 9:30 (and I am close behind) and is up before or right after me! Then she only takes about an hour nap(I can tell it is slowly dwindling but she can't yet go without one completey). So I have not had any alone time in A WHILE. Today I was determined to find something to entertain her so I could get some work done!

Today I took her to a local jumpy gym that has summer drop offs. I was a little leary because in Carsyn's words "I am big but not real big, I am still little too!" so I worried she wasn't old enough but I was desperate. She ended up having a great time and I got a great deal of work accomplished. HOWEVER, when I returned home Danny was waking up with a violent stomach virus...GREAT! I made it all 12 weeks with no morning sickness and now I might catch this!!! Also today was my scheduled 12 week check up and Carsyn was supposed to stay with him. My babysitter was out of town, my mother and mil were out of town, so Carsyn ended up coming with me to the dr!

THAT was definitely a learning experince for her! She was appalled by the urine specimen..."Mommy what you doing...MOMMY DON'T PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN THERE!" And then I had to give blood Me "Carsyn can mommy hold your hand? " C - "NO" Me- "Can I hold Mr. Cow?" C- "NO, here you can hold my babydoll instead." "Oh mommy does it hurt?!"

She really did great with the almost 2 hour visit. THEN we went into the examing room and I told her she would get to hear her baby's heartbeat. The nurse came in and started trying to locate it...after five minutes my heart started to drop when she couldn't locate it. " OMG I knew I was feeeling to good, what am I going to tell Carsyn I started to think" BUT THANK GOD my dr. walked in and took it from the nurse and immediately found it. Talk about giving someone a heart attack! So afterwards, Carsyn and I scurried home to nurse daddy.....from a distance.

Pray we make it without getting his bug!