Time to be thankful...

 It's kind of easy to remember to be thankful when you are teaching your children to pray and to use manners.  But it also is pretty easy to get caught up in the everyday mundane and forget to thank God for your blessings.  So, here is my "short" list:

• I am so very thankful for my husband and best friend, the man I have called mine now for over 13 years.  He is my rock who loves me unconditionally and accepts me for ME.  
• I am thankful for my eldest, who made me a momma.  His joyous personality is contagious.
•  I am thankful for my youngest, who loves me to the moon and back and likes being right by my side.
• I am also super thankful for my parents who raised me in a Christian home, my awesome in-laws, my sister (who doubles as a best friend) and our extended family as well.
• We are blessed with a host of friends that have been with us through some sad times and a whole lot of happy ones.
• I am thankful for my church family and a place that my boys love to go to learn and grow in Christ.
• I am thankful for a Savior who is patient, righteous and ever-present.  I am thankful that He gives me a whole measure of grace that I most certainly need. 

A few scriptures to reflect on:

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving." Psalm 69:30

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be glory both now and forever. Amen!" 2 Peter 3:18

"Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Luke 6:38

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Disney: Day 4 Evening: {Christmas Party}

We decided to purchase tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!  Magic Kingdom closed early and you re-entered for the special party!
After rest time and dinner, we were ready to party!  The party included:
*Disney Christmas music *Snow on Main St. *Cookies & Hot Cocoa *Short wait times *Parade with Santa

Favorite of the Party:  Seeing the Seven "Dorfs" & Seeing Santa

Ready to go!

We rode 3 of Dylan's favorites before the parade: Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and Buzz Lightyear.  

Mommy and Dylan waited in line to meet these guys while Daddy got us a spot for the parade!

Apparently, meeting the Seven Dwarfs is huge!  They rarely make appearances, and when they do, their wait times can exceed 2 hours!  So excited we only waited about 25 minutes!

Parade:

Hands down one of my favorite videos of all time!

Disney: Day4: {Magic Kingdom}

On our second day at Magic Kingdom, we focused on Tomorrowland and the rest of Frontierland.

Favorite of the day: Splash Mountain

I have a picture of me in this spot when I was little.  So fun!

 Watching as the park opens!

 The characters come by on the train to welcome you to the park!  Like I said, MAGICAL!

In Tomorrowland,

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

 Astro Orbiter

 Tomorrowland Speedway

Then, we sprinted (not kidding) half a mile the width of the park so that we wouldn't miss our fast pass for:

Thunder Mountain Railroad

He laughed and squealed the whole time!  He loves roller coasters!

Splash Mountain was next!  Mommy got "splashed" in the face! 

Look at his face!  Joy!

Woody & Jessie

Jungle Cruise

He chose a Pirates of the Caribbean sword for his souvenir:

 Sweet blue eyed boy!

We finished up the morning with a visit to Neverland to see Peter Pan & Wendy!

Then it was lunch at Pecos Bills and back to the resort for swimming & rest time!

 Up in the next post: Our evening event: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Disney: Day 3: {Magic Kingdom}

We were up for our character breakfast at Chef Mickey's!  It did not disappoint.

Favorite of the Day: Meeting Ariel and going in her cave

We had a plan going into our first day at Magic Kingdom to not rush and take our time.  We did Fantasyland, Adventureland and part of Frontierland.  We knew we would be there for two days and we wanted to enjoy it, because it is the busiest park!

 

We watched the little show as the "park" opened.  I will admit, I had goosebumps as the fireworks went off at 9am to open the park.  Magic Kingdom is by far the most spectacular!
Dylan and I went straight to New Fantasyland to ride The Little Mermaid and meet Ariel in her grotto.
In all of the dark/black light rides he would say, "Look, my shoes glowed up!"

Dylan was not the "lucky" one to pull out the sword of the stone, but he sure tried!

 Daddy and Dylan rode the tea cups.  (Mama doesn't like to go in circles so I sat this one out.)

We met Cinderella & Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).  We laughed because he acted very shy around the pretty princesses!

 We rode it's a small world, what a classic ride at Disney!

We closed out the morning with Goofy's Barnstormer (Dylan's first roller coaster ride!) and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.  

Then we went back to the resort for naps.  Dylan was tired!  After a great rest, we were back to Magic Kingdom for a few hours!

Magic Carpets of Aladdin

Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride

Dancing with Goofy during the parade

Country Bear Jamboree

Shooting Range

Seeing Cinderella's Castle draped in Christmas lights

Dylan climbed through Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse to end our day.  (no picture) But he told us as we were leaving, "I wanna stay here for 20 days!"

Dylan was in bed and asleep again by 8:15pm!

Disney: Day 2: {Hollywood Studios}

We aren't ones to stay out "late" at Disney, especially with a 4 year old.  Dylan was asleep that first night by 8:15pm.  We were up and at 'em and at our first character breakfast at 8:05 the next morning!

Favorite of the day: Everything

Honorable mention: Voyage of the Little Mermaid show (he asked to watch it again so he could kiss Ariel)

Disney Junior Play -n- Dine at Hollywood & Vine!

{Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso, & June from Little Einsteins}

{Jake and the Neverland Pirates and ME!}

We felt a bit like novices this day.  We were using the new magic bands on our trip, which are basically your room key, park pass,  dining plan, fast pass, and credit card!  They are waterproof and Dylan loved wearing his, but not every spot in Disney has converted to this new technology.  So, after a bit of confusion, Jonathan went to guest relations back at the front of the park (he rocks) and got us more fast passes than are actually possible for the rest of our day!  Yippee for those "magical" Disney cast members!

We watched the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Disney Junior Live on Stage, Lights Camera Action Stunt Show!, and went on the Studio Backlot Tour.

Disney Junior Live!

The stunt show was super cool!

Jonathan and I took turns riding Aerosmith Rock'n Roller Coaster and Jonathan also did Tower of Terror.  Dylan was too small for these rides.
We enjoyed Toy Story Mania which is the most popular ride in the park.  Wait times were two hours in November!  Thankful for our fast pass on this one!

One of my favorite pictures!  He was READY to get his book signed!

I took one for the team several times and waited in line for Dylan to meet characters.  He loved meeting characters and wanted all of them to sign his book.  He would see them from the stroller (if you have a smaller child don't forget to TAKE YOUR OWN STROLLER!) and yell, " I want them to sign my book!"  We met:

 Sophia

 Mike & Sully

 Buzz & Woody
Told Woody: "We just rode your ride and I have cowboy boots like you!"

The Incredibles

His first Mickey ice cream treat!

We were headed to the backlot tour.  Everyone needed to rest their legs and have some sit down time!  This dude was tired!

 

We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Drive-in Theatre. Disney doesn't miss a beat! 

We ended our day with the early showing of Fantasmic. We didn't stay for the while show because of a tired 4 year old! 

Beauty & the Beast float at Fantasmic!

Oh, the ears!

He was asleep in less than 4 minutes!