Magic Kingdom

The day before my half marathon, we took the boys to the Magic Kingdom to have some fun and ride the new Little Mermaid ride! You could definitely tell it was race weekend, everyone was wearing their running gear and pins, you could definitely feel all the runner support! First up, the monorail!

 

We rode the carousel too! 

We got a fast pass for the new Little Mermaid ride since the line was so long, and walked around to see the new Beauty and the Beast castle, Gaston's pub, and other new areas! 

We grabbed some lunch in front of the castle... 

Then it was time for the ride! 

The boys were SO excited!!! 

Ariel... 

 

The ride was so awesome and we had a great time! After the ride we walked passed the new Princess ride coming soon.  

The castle I'd be running through in less than 24 hours on my half marathon run!

Our last ride was the jungle cruise. The boys love the elephants! 

We had a great day at the Magic Kingdom! 

We always end our fun Disney visits with popsicles!  

Disney's Art of Animation Resort

We had a BLAST at Disney's new Art of Animation Resort. Thankfully, we are able to do such fun things at Disney because of Matt's wonderful parents getting us into the parks and getting us discounts on all of the fun hotels! We were super excited to stay at one we've never been to before!

We stayed in The Little Mermaid building! We invited Hannah and Aunt Mamie out with us on Friday night since Hannah loves The Little Mermaid! 

The giant Ursula!

And King Triton too!

Our room was super cute! The decor was adorable and the kids thought it was so cool!

Prince Eric on the wall...

The best feature in our room was the bathroom, haha! The shower tiles were of Ariel's undersea treasures, complete with an Ariel shower curtain. Carson instantly fell in love with the bathtub!

Our sweet little boys all cuddled up in their "bubbles" bed. They did so good sleeping in the same room and we were so glad to actually get sleep! Sometimes you never know what you're going to get when a family of 4 sleeps in 1 room!

 
The Art of Animation has 4 different parts. They have The Little Mermaid section, which we stayed in. The second section is a Finding Nemo theme where the main pool is at. Here is the super cute playground...

The main pool...

Splash pad for kids, oh so cute!! 

And Crush the sea turtle is even hanging off the side of one of the buildings! 

There are giant jellyfish that drip water in the pool too!

The third section of the resort is a Cars theme. The boys would have LOVED to stay in this section, but they are family suites (over 2 bedrooms) only! It was still so fun to walk around and look at all the Cars.

Hanging out with their favorite, Lightning McQueen... 

Attention!

 And Mater too of course!!

The final section is The Lion King (another favorite in our house). Here's Carson with Rafiki... 

All I could do everytime we passed this was sing "Hakuna Matata!"

Oh no! Scary Scar! 

The hyenas and the elephant graveyard. This was actually a little playground too... 

We thoroughly enjoyed our pool time! The boys love to swim and we were so glad we had 3 different opportunities to have some swimming fun while we were there.

Playing in the splash pad...

Think he's having fun?!?!

BIG jump!

Swimming and giggling with Daddy... 

My little fishies... 

We couldn't have asked for a better stay at the Art of Animation! We can't wait to go back!

Dear God...

I love my boys, I love their hearts, and I love that at only ages 4 and 2, they know what it means to pray. I don't want to forget all the sweet prayers and prayer time we have with them so I wanted to "jot" down my top few just this week. Carson has recently been telling me he loves me all the way to Mars, or all the way to the moon and back. I asked him this morning if he knew how much God loved him, and he said, "Wait, let me ask....Dear God, how much do you love me?" "He didn't say it very loudly Mommy but I know He loves me all the way to Mars too!" Last night Tanner cried out in the middle of the night, and I went in to his bedroom at 2am to check on him. He had lost his blankies somewhere in his bed and couldn't find them. After Mommy found his blankies, I tucked him back in, and started his lullabies over. Before I walked out of his bedroom, he sleepily said, "Mommy we need to do prayers" so at 2am TT and I had a sweet little prayer time. The day after my half marathon, my ankle was a bit hurt. It didn't hurt the day of my race, but decided to hurt the following day. I had the boys watching a movie while I laid on the couch to ice it for a little while, and Carson turned from his movie and asked what I was doing. I told him I had hurt my ankle and was just putting some ice on it. He immediately responded, "I'll pray for you, Dear God, please help Mommy's ankle to feel better." And the best prayer story yet is re-reading the story of Samson and Delilah (this past Sunday school lesson) with Carson last night. Our church is going through a series called "The Story" where adults and kids are all learning about the Bible in chronological order. We have the book for the little ones and re-read the stories throughout the week so they really sink in. This story was how Delilah cut Samson's hair so that Samson wouldn't be strong anymore, but then Samson asked God to make him strong again so he could destroy the temple. While hopping into bed, Carson started his prayers, and asked God to help him grow long hair so he could knock over our house! Oh my, I just love him! Carson may just be our little future pastor. He specifically asked his Bible Study teacher this morning where the main teacher, Mrs. Armested was, and the assistant teacher replied to him that she had been sick and would probably not be back for awhile. He looked right at her and said "I will pray for her to get better!" She then went on to tell me what a joy he is in class and how much he's into learning the lessons. Carson's been praying for his sweet friend Mac at school who just had his tonsils removed, and asks about him everyday. Love my little compassionate boys!

Teddy Bear Tea Party

Carson's class had a Teddy Bear Tea Party on Tuesday and the kids got to bring their favorite teddy bear. Carson immediately thought of his very first teddy bear that he was given by Nana and Papa when he was just a few months old. 

Here's a picture of our baby Carson sleeping with this teddy bear at 4 months old, and next to it is our big 4 year old taking it to preschool for a tea party! 

First game of the season!

After a few weeks of practices, we were super excited about our first game of the season! Cardinals are #1!!!!

Mommy with her little t-ball player... 

Since I'm Team Mom, I took on the role of dugout duty for the first game. Let's just say, it's very high paced! 10 cute 4 year olds to control and keep in order! 

My handy Cricut came in handy to keep the kids organized and in their batting order... 

Carson's little cubby... 

Both team coaches lined up the kids and announced each player since it was the first game. 

Carson is ready to bat! 

 

He smacked the ball off the tee and off he went to first base! 

Running to 2nd base... 

Watching and being apart of this game was better than a day at Disney! It was seriously SO much fun! Carson got the very first out of the game! He got the ball, and ran to 1st base... 

He touched first base with the ball in his hand to get the player out! 

He was so proud!!! 

So were Mommy and Daddy, and the rest of his cheering squad that was at the game! TT, Carson's biggest fan, he claps and yells for his big brother!!

Sweet Hadley decked out in her Cardinals gear (and headband too!) 

Both teams lined up at the end of the game to "high five" and say "good game!" 

We are SO glad we signed Carson up for t-ball and Carson LOVES it! We can't wait for all of our games!