Florida Part 2

We were up early Monday morning to get to Hollywood Studios, we had big plans to meet Buzz Lightyear and Woody that day! The boys were excited and we had no trouble waking them up early to get to breakfast and on the road again.




When we first arrived we got a fast pass for the Toy Story Midway ride and obviously everyone else had the same idea as our return time was scheduled for 4:30 that afternoon. Next we were off to watch the Disney Playhouse Live show. We don't get the Disney channel at home so the boys were a little unfamiliar with some of the characters, but Grandma had purchased a Disney Playhouse video and they watched it in the car on the way to Florida so they at least recognized the main Disney characters and the theme song. They were most excited when bubbles started falling from the ceiling and they would dance and participate along with the other kids. It was a fun show to watch and since then the boys are in love with their Disney Playhouse movie so we may need to pay for more channels soon :)


After the show we decided to make our way to Pizza Planet for lunch. We expected the place to be busy so we thought it was a good idea to go early and miss most of the other toy story fans at lunch, it was a good idea because just as we finished lunch the place was packed. After lunch Gavin stated with the boys and played in the arcade while my mom and I went to hold a spot in line to meet Woody and Buzz. Unfortunately while we were half way through the line we learned that Buzz would be returning in an hour and it would just be Woody. I had the idea of having my mom go line up again so that after the boys met Woody they could "skip" some of the line and the wait wouldn't be so long for Buzz. The timing was perfect, we really didn't have that long of a wait and they were first to meet Buzz!



The boys were most happy to meet Buzz Lightyear. Noah showed Buzz his Toy Story crocs and the kids hugged him and held his hand. Then after the picture Noah tried pressing the buttons on Buzz's costume - he was so cute!



After meeting their favourite characters we watched the Lights, Motors Action Stunt show. Owen can be sensitive to noise so I was prepared to have to leave with him but he surprised me and really enjoyed the show. The stunt show must have been one of his favourite things we did because he tells everyone about it.


Noah finally fell asleep in the stroller so Owen enjoyed some time in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play structure.




The boys met one of the Toy Story Army Men - Noah was a bit weary of this guy but Owen was fine.


Beauty and the Beast Show


We also watched the Pixar Pals fun parade and I think that might have been my favourite parade of the week. I was excited to see the kids reaction to seeing all of the characters from the Disney movies they watch. I'll post a video of all of the parades and shows later in the week -once it's finished! We left Hollywood Studios around 5pm but wished we could have stayed longer there was so much more to see and do! we had dinner reservations for 5:30 that night so we weren't able to stay the evening. Oh well, we had to save some things to do next time!

At 1:30 today I had my over 18 week ultrasound, we were really excited to get to see the baby again! I drank orange juice instead of water in hopes to get the baby moving around. The ultrasound tech we had was the same one I had with my first ultrasound with Noah and the first time around I didn't find her very pleasant, this time around was much different - she was actually very cheerful. Right away she asked if we would want to find out the gender and I told her we would want to know. Immediately she said the baby had it's hands between it's legs covering that part - so it must be a boy ;)

Moments later the baby moved and....





















We are really excited to find out we are expecting another boy - but it will take some time to get used to the idea of being totally outnumbered in the household! The ultrasound lasted much longer than my first one, probably close to an hour to measure everything. I'm guessing if there are any problems my O.B will have the results at my next appointment on Tuesday morning.
The ultrasound tech made sure we knew it was only a "guess" but she sounded confident and from what we could see there was definitely something boyish there :)

Below are the pictures from our ultrasound today








The baby kept opening his mouth like he wanted to say something or perhaps eat something :) maybe that's why I've been so hungry?


foot


hand


Our baby boy seems very active in there and moved non stop, he should fit right in with this family! We can't wait until August to meet our sweet boy!

Florida Part 1

We were on our way at 7am on Saturday March 5th for Florida! Owen was so excited it took him until midnight the night before to fall asleep. he kept asking if we were leaving for Disney in the morning and talking about how much fun we'd have there! We decided to leave as early as we could because we expected a wait at the border due to not having Owen's passport. I had spoken with the U.S Customs and Border patrol and was expecting a delay but we ended up being held at the border for two hours. We had our entire file folder of paperwork that proved Owen was ours including everything from our adoption dossier, photos, and a travel letter from Children's Birdge. They never checked our car they mostly just checked the process verbal paperwork. In fact they never even questioned us much, they just made us wait to speak with different people including immigration. Everyone was really friendly and kept telling us they'd get us on our way to Disney soon! such a relief to hear we didn't have to turn around and go home!

The rain really slowed down the drive and we ended up having to stop more often than we expected, we finally decided at 3am to stop at a rest stop and try to get a couple of hours sleep before starting again early in the morning. Owen was wide awake when we stopped and wouldn't stop talking, he kept us quite entertained but we would have preferred the sleep. I was feeling pretty sick because of lack of sleep so poor Gavin had most of the drive on the way down.



We tried to let the kids run around and burn off some energy whenever we stopped. I can't believe how well they did in the car, they never once whined or complained. We were all so proud of them!



The weather finally started to warm up in South Carolina and it was great to finally see some sun!


After a 36 hour car trip we finally arrived at our resort All Star Movies at 8:30 pm on Sunday! I think my mom and I could have kissed the ground when we finally got out of that car!


More to follow soon!

18 Weeks

I think it's safe to say that my belly has officially "popped" it happened around the 17th week, last time I think I was closer to the 20 week mark before you could tell I was pregnant. I've been really busy the last couple of weeks with our trip to Disney and a few outings this week with lots of walking, so I've had some fairly bad hip pain in the evenings. I'm sure it looks like I'm full term the way I limp and waddle around some nights but the pain makes it difficult to walk properly. Also, on our drive home from Disney I had some cramping that was stronger than I'd experienced so far this pregnancy and I have to say I was a bit worried. I figured that once I got some rest it would go away and luckily that's what happened. I'm assuming the cramps were caused because of lack of rest and days of walking around Walt Disney World, I was thinking it was too early for braxton hicks but I'll ask my O.B about it at my appointment next tuesday.

This baby sure has been kicking lots lately, the little kicks feel like pokes and are more obvious this past week than the fluttering feeling before.

This friday we have our over 18 week ultrasound and we are looking forward to (hopefully) finding out if the baby is a boy or girl! Any guesses as to what we're having? Lately I've been feeling it's a girl but I was wrong last time around so I wouldn't trust my gut instincts. Either way we''re really excited about the new baby and are looking forward to meeting him or her!

Creepy moustache boy :)



This is Owen's interpretation of Noah

16 Weeks

Last week on February 22nd (14 weeks 6 days) I had my first O.B appointment and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat! My O.B's doppler doesn't record the actual number so I don't know what the heartbeat reading was but it is always a nice sound :) After reviewing my pregnancy and delivery records I had to laugh when the nurse wrote "uneventful pregnancy and birth" on my paperwork. I'll pray for another one of those this time around :) I will have monthly O.B appointments for the next while and my 2nd ultrasound is scheduled for March 18th hopefully we are able to find out the sex of the baby!

Tet Celebration

Happy Year of the Cat! (cat in Vietnam, rabbit in China)


This post is incredibly late I know, but I wanted to post about Mary's fabulous Tet party and post some pictures from the evening before it got too late to do so. We attended this year's Tet party on Saturday February 12th and it was such a great party! The planning and preparations for this celebration must take weeks and we are so thankful to those that put in the effort to host it every year. The Tet celebration is one of our favourite traditions and we enjoy celebrating with many other families similar to ours! We are so blessed to have met so many great friends through the adoption community :)

Owen and Noah are checking out some of the decorations


Owen's Buddy Ben















Owen wanted to be in the parade this year!

Noah's 2nd Birthday Party

We started Noah's Birthday party at Build-A-Bear and we had the best time! I highly recommend hosting a birthday party there, they were fantastic with the kids and everything ran smoothly! Both Noah and Owen chose the same dark brown bear so we decided to let them purchase outfits for their bear so we could tell them apart. Owen chose a soccer uniform for his bear and we helped Noah choose a birthday T-shirt for his. The kids were so well behaved and everyone had fun choosing, stuffing and washing their own teddy bear. Even the youngest of kids had a great time and participated as much as was expected :)

Here's Noah with his teddy waiting for it to be stuffed. Noah was quiet and shy for most of the time at build-a-bear, he preferred to hide behind mommy's legs and watch things from there.


Here's a videos of Noah getting his bear


Hannah with her bear




Owen stuffing his bear


Here's a video of Owen stuffing his bear :)


Almost everyone waiting patiently for their turn


Owen giving his bear a bath before he went home




All done and ready to take his loot home!


Kian on his way home with his bear

We were there for about an hour which was the perfect amount of time for the little ones. Afterwards, we headed back to our house for some pizza, cake and gifts.

Noah had mostly cheezies and chips for lunch, every time I looked for him he had his hand in the chip bowl, he even managed to score a juice box for lunch instead of water - apparently he was taking advantage of his special day :)


I'm not sure how the gift craziness started, all I know is that next year I'm handing the gifts to Noah one by one. Seriously in two minutes flat he and Owen had torn through every gift, it was total chaos before I even knew what was happening. In any case Noah really liked his gifts after we had the chance to check everything out once the party settled down. He even wore his new rain boots that Aunt Maegan and Uncle Bill bought from the time cake was served until he went to bed. The boy loves his boots!


Noah loves his new Rex - he can't get enough of anything Toy Story


Noah's Birthday Cake. I baked the cake thursday with the help of the daycare kids and then decorated it after my kids went to bed in the evening. I think the cake took about 3 hours to make including baking, making icing and decorating.


I think Noah enjoyed the ice cream more than his cake.


Thanks to everyone that helped us celebrate Noah's 2nd birthday! We had such a great time and I know that Noah enjoyed his day.