My little 7 year old it is her very first sleepover right now with her friend Riley! It was a very exciting time for her to pack her bags and get all set to go. My emotions are very mixed about all of this. On one had I am excited that she has grown to an age were this is something she looks so forward to and on the other hand I am a bit sad that she dosen't need me as much anymore. I knwo its all a part of the process....and dont worry her little brother keeps me very busy!

This post is really more for me then anyone else. It is a reminder of all the little things in life that I tend to overlook in the middle of the chaos that is my life. Maybe some of these things are your little things too? Or maybe your list is different all together? Whatever your little things are I encourage you to write them down so that in these stressful moments you can look back on all the little things.

Thunderstorms
Flip-Flop Weather
Clean sheets
Super hot showers
Sunrises
Taking Long Walks
Freshly opened paper packs
Taking a deep breath
Kissing in the rain
Blogging about non-sense
Uncontrollable giggles
Capturing a non-duplicable moment through my lens
A clean house
Waking up to smiling faces
The smell of new crayons
Rainbows
Peony's right before they bloom
Afternoon naps
Newborn Babies
When a child has an Ah-ha moment
Completing a scrapbook project
Birds tweeting outside my window
The snooze button
Picnic's
The realization that life is what you make it
The moment you let the stress go
Painted toenails
Homemade lemonade
Silly family jokes
the smell of fabric softener
A quiet car ride
An empty laundry shoot
People watching
Dancing in an empty room
The use of the symbol @
A tear turned to a smile
Calla Lilly's
Smooth stones
Quirky sayings
Being OK with my poor spelling habits
A fully charged camera battery
Cobble stone roads
The glow of a pregnant woman
Old ladies laughing together
A blissful couple
Happy text messages
Letting go
Kids artwork
Listening to the rain
The imagination of a child
Walking into a Disney park

OK, I know this is a very proud moment for all of you blog readers. I Jessica Jane made a card!!!!! I don't normally do the card thing but a while back I tried out for the My Little Shoebox Design Team and it said you had to submit a card. I thought hold the phone Me, Jessica has to make a card? Well I did it and I actually like how it turned out and I hope you do too. :)

The final day of the Disney vacation!!!!! I cant handle this. I just want to keep going. It's a good thing I will be going back in January with the whole gang again. That's only 8 months until the next vacation.

Magic Kingdom was the park of the day.

We all started to feel a bit better on this final day of the trip. I wouldn't say we all were at 100% but at least well enough to hit the park before our flight. I will tell you that I get a little emotional on the last day of every vacation. I never want to leave no matter how long I have been there. This trip was no exception. Even though it had its share of bumps in the road it was still a vacation that I will always carry fond memories of.

This is my FAVORITE parade ever at Disney. The celebrate you parade is just so fun and interactive so it makes my day event hat much brighter and I wasn't sure that was possible at Disney. See how Q was so excited about it as he was waiting to get his haircut.
This may seem weird to you, but this was Gracie's first real haircut. I really cant count me cutting it in the bathroom as a haircut. So, she was able to get the royal treatment for her first haircut. She loved it.

Her my first haircut ears. :) By the way, to those of you who are Disney fanatics like me_ get your kids hair cut there. Its actually a very inexpensive thing. Its quit possibly the only thing in the 'world' that is cheaper then I would pay at home. Plus they are awesome at it so how can you go wrong!!!!
Q had his fist there last year but I will get one for them there every time we go because it is so fun for them.
Oh look at this! I can't get over how sweet this is. He is so happy even after a haircut. :)
I just love this picture of Q and Kayla riding the train. Q loves the train so much at Disney he would ride it all day long and never do anything else. Out of all the fabulous stimulating activities there are to do at Disney he loves the classic train.....gotta love it!
We took the train into toontown where we all had a little snack. Yes, Q is feeding the Mickey Mailbox some potato chips.
Gracie giving Mickey a little kiss.
A little bit of the celebrate you decorations. I of course having the new camera had to practice with stuff like this!
Melissa, myself and the kids got to ride in the front of the monorail. Q sat with Auntie M and Gracie sat in the very corner so that she could get the best view.


A kiss goodbye for Disney. This was all her idea by the way!!! Then she said "Bye my favorite place on earth, we will see you again next year!"

That's it people! No more Disney Vacation recaps coming your way for another 8 months. Can you handle it?

Caterpillar in the tree
How you wonder who you'll be
Can't go far but you can always dream

Wish you may and wish you might
Don't you worry, hold on tight
I promise you there will come a day
Butterfly fly away

Soak it up my little girl. Soak up all that life has to offer. :)

Recent Scrapbook Projects

On another note.....why on earth can't I sleep??? These days I seem to fall asleep just fine and then a few hours in my body decides that it is time to get up. Then I fall back asleep again...then AGAIN I am awake! Hence it's 4:45am and I am blogging.....who does that. Oh yeah I do! It is driving me a little crazy, not to mention functioning during the day is getting a bit challenging.

Well, at least I can finish packing for my trip to Iowa.....yeah you read that right Iowa! We are heading to Emmetsberg Iowa to visit with family. It is a very cute little town with one stop light. Although I know I could never be a small town girl (Gotta have a Target within 15 minutes of me or i may just go into withdrawals) it is fun to see how the other half lives. First of all they can't just run out to the store to get stuff....that takes planning. The nearest town with shopping is 45 minutes away. They of course have the basics in town......but we all know my life does not fit in with the basics so that wouldn't work out well for me. Everyone knows everyone there....literally you cant hide form anything. I often wonder how that works out for high schoolers? The cool part about it is that while I am there my stress level seems to fall greatly. I don't know if its the fact that I am forced to remain still due to a lack of choices or if it's that I am there to visit with family I adore?

Well, any who I will fill you in on all the juicy Emmetsberg Gossip when I get back. :)

OK we are now onto day 8 of the vacation. Today we went to Animal Kingdom. I really enjoy the Animal Kingdom a lot and find it especially relaxing as well as my children love it because of the animals. So of course they were sporting their safari giraffe print outfits today. All day everyone kept stopping us an telling us how cute they were.

Yes this is how every day starts with asthma.......so not fun for my poor little guy but he is so good about it!
We started out with my favorite of all Disney shows. Finding Nemo The Musical totally rocks!!!! I find that people pass this one by far to often! If you have never gotten a chance to see this one you are really missing out. Even if you are not a fan of theatrics it is pretty cool. I have known many people that don't like musicals at all and LOVED this one. We own the soundtrack so of course we can all sing along to the entire performance....don't worry we don't sing along loud enough for anyone to really hear us.

Poor Q he feel asleep right during his favorite part of the whole show....oh well there is always next year.
After we hit up Nemo those of us that are into the roller coasters went on Expedition Everest. So basically that o mots my Mom and my kids. They went to Dino Land and played a few games. Gracie of course beat Nana and got these two cute friends. She was so proud of herself! The coolest part as a Mom was the fact that she made sure that she kept 2 stuffed animals instead of trading them in for a bigger one. This way she could share with her little brother. What a Sweet Pea.


Then we sat for a bit and just enjoyed the scenery. I also began to feel a little ill and thought it was no big deal, I will just sit here and I will feel better later.
On to the safari. We love this!!!! Its a great way to get some great animal shots for the kids. Q was even pretty engaged int he whole thing....until close to the end. Then he decided he was going to turn around and attempt to come over the seat....little stinker.



Before we headed out I took some great pictures of the kids. :)
Everyone else hit Downtown Disney but I was too sick....then everyone else was the next day as well. So that is why there are no vacation pictures for day 9. We were all super sick and didnt really leave the hotel room.

The "Bored" Book

My latest project for Genuinely Jane. This is my favorite mini I have ever made! It was so fun to make! I also gave it to Gracie for her 7th birthday on Saturday. We have plans to go on a road trip this summer so I gave it to her so that she could use it for the trip. She is pretty anxious to use it so it will be hard for her to look at it up on the shelf for the next 2 months. Who can blame her...shes only 7 after all. The pouch holds all the extra pieces like magnets, extra chalk and extra tic-tac-toe velcro circles.







Hope you like it. :)