Mardi Gras 2012

Since my mom moved down to Louisiana 9 years ago (8 for me), we've always made a big to-do out of Mardi Gras. So this year was no different, and was packed full of Mardi Gras madness! Shh, I think next year we're skipping town and going to find a nice quiet beach somewhere:)

My dad brought his girlfriend down from St. Louis for a long weekend, so we had a very nice visit with them.  Our plan had originally been to go to New Orleans for the day on Saturday, as we've always done in the past.  However, the weather forecast was terrible and we spent the good part of our time last year seeking cover from the monsoons.  Been there, done that, no desire to do it again.  So, we decided at the last minute to go Friday night instead since the weather was clear.

By the time we packed our overnight bags, found hotel rooms, and got Jackson situated with Pop, we didn't get on the road until the early evening.  When we got to the city, we dropped our bags at the hotel and caught the end of a parade on Canal.  Then we ate an amazing dinner at Domenica Restaurant before making the trip down Bourbon for ridiculous people watching.

Herme's Bar

Carousel Bar

After our late night, it was nice to sleep in on Saturday morning and not have Action Jackson's wake-up call, although I missed him terribly.  We took our time getting dressed and drinking our coffee until check-out and headed to Court of Two Sisters for brunch before heading back home.  And unfortunately, our brunch was so delicious that we were basically worthless for the rest of the day!

We were sad to see my dad and Sheree off on Sunday, as there visit quickly came to an end.  The downside of having family live 12 hours away...

There was little time to dwell though because a quick bed change later, Stephanie and her bunch were in from Dallas for actual Mardi Gras.  This has become our little tradition, so maybe we won't be able to skip town next year after all;)

Practicing for bead catchin'

melt.my.heart.

Young love:)

The kids had a great time playing and practicing their bead catching while the adults caught up and enjoyed good food, wine, and company.  It's always such a joy to have your lifelong best friend visit.  Even though we talk everyday, seeing each other in person is irreplaceable!

Best Friends of 20 years!

Mardi Gras day was an absolute blast.  We had our first day of sunshine is what seems like weeks, and we all got our first sunburn of the year! My parents belong to a Mardi Gras krewe, so we spend the day with quite a set-up.  Fun jumps, face painting, dancing, and all the food and beverages you could imagine.  The kids racked up on beads and had an impressive bag of throws by the end of the day!

Throw me something mister!

Loli & Jackson dancing away!

And just like that, the week of house guests and Mardi Gras came to an end.  The guests have left, the diet has started, decorations are back in the attic, and my house is being put back together as I type!

Until next year,  Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez (Let the Good Times Roll)!

Read more...

Disney Magic, Part 4: Animal Kingdom & Our Last Day

Oh my word, almost 2 months after the fact I am finally going to wrap up our Disney series. I'd like to say that I'm not sure where the time has gone, but to say we've been busy is an understatement. We just finished up having a week of house guests and Mardi Gras - and it's detox time at the Wilsons.

More about that in a bit, this post is about our last two days at Disney!

On our third full day at Disney, panic set in as this was our last full day and we were so not ready for the magic to be over.  Our bodies were beyond exhausted, but we felt like we still had so much to do and so much to take in!

The weather was the prettiest it had been the entire trip and it only got nicer as the week went on.  When we arrived it was crisp/cold and wet and by the time we left, we could have gone swimming!

We started our day just as we did every other, with coffee and muffins and made it out of the hotel around noon.  However, Mr. got up extra early to run over to Hollywood Studios to get FASTPASS for Buzz & Woody's Toy Story Mania.  At park opening, our returning time was at 6:45PM, which just shows how crazy packed the parks were!  We literally had to plan our day around that time.

So, our first stop for the day was Animal Kingdom, followed by our late lunch/early dinner reservations before our call time back at Buzz & Woody.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom and had a pretty awesome time, although It's Tough to be a Bug! totally freaked Jackson out:) We quickly changed gears, and headed to DinoLand where he was happy as can be! Jackson and Amelia even took a quick nap while the adults cooled off with some adult beverages and rides. 

Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the Animal Kingdom lodge for our dinner reservations at Boma inside the resort.  When we got to the lodge we were able to walk around and check out all of the amazing animals roaming around.  We considered staying there, so we wanted to see what the grounds had to offer.  I have to say that while it would have been pretty awesome to have giraffes outside our window each morning, we much preferred the location and convenience of the Swan.

Dinner was so much better than we expected it to be, we were all a little nervous about the African cuisine.  But, the only thing we didn't care for was the African beer (we had to stick with our around the world beer tour theme). 

After dinner our group parted ways and we headed back to Hollywood Studios to take Jackson on Toy Mania while the rest of the group went back to Animal Kingdom to ride Expedition Everest.  It was the first time that we had been just the three of us all week, so we enjoyed some quality family time! Toy Mania was a bit of a disappointment, but with our FASTPASS we were in and out of the park in no time and headed back to Magic Kingdom.

We spent the rest of the night with Jackson checking out the castle, touring the haunted mansion, carouseling through progress, and doing a little shopping on Main Street before the last parade of the night.  I don't think any of us wanted the night to end, but sadly Jackson got tired and it was time to get him to bed.  By the time we got back to the hotel, Loli & Pop had the bed all ready for him and it was time for our last sibling night out!

I'm pretty sure our feet never hurt so bad and we were craving our beds with every bone in our body, but even Mr. wanted to get in our last 2 hours at Disney:) So, fish and chips were washed down with cold beers and we made our way around the world at Epcot again and closed down the night at the Dance Hall and Jellyrolls, in our UGGs on the dance floor.  Have you ever tried to dance in UGGS?!? :)

The morning quickly came and it was time to pack up and load the cars to head home - but not without one last walk through Epcot to get more pictures for Loli & Mickey Mouse for Jackson!

So long Disney, hopefully we'll see you again soon (and with a couple more grand kids for Loli & Pop!)

Read more...

Happy Valenday's Day & Jackson's Shirts

Happy Valentine's Day lovely readers!

I hope that you and your loves have a wonderful day full of sweets and snuggles:)

Jackson ate a few too many suckers last night when we were putting together his treats the Valentine's day party at school today, so I let him come to bed with us and got double the snuggles from my boys!

Mr. and I had a Valentine's date on Friday night, so tonight will be low key at the Wilson's. I'm sure Mr. will cook a little something for us and we'll watch a movie on the couch:) Hopefully, little mister won't be on a sugar high again tonight!

Our sweet Aunt Stephanie sent Jackson the cutest Valentine's shirt to wear to school today. I just love it, and all of the shirts she makes for Jackson. She is so talented and spoils us rotten!

A few lovely readers have asked about all of Jackson's shirts because yes, he does have a shirt for just about every day of the week and holiday! But, they are so cute and a little monogram can turn a boring old tee into a cute little boy shirt.

With a little encouragement from her hubby and nagging best friend;), Stephanie has finally decided to open up a little business! So, hop on over to her Facebook page and help her reach 100 fans...and I promise you won't be disappointed! I'm working with her on some awesome giveaways, so go like, share, and spread the word:)

-xoxo-
Loves!

Read more...

HSG & Game plan

I am beyond thrilled to report that my HSG is over and done with! My tubes were clear, as we suspected they would be, and we finally have a game plan.

The anticipation of the test was far worse than the test itself, which I find to be true in most aspects of life. However, I am glad I decided to take 3 Tylenol {instead of just 2} an hour and a half before the test!

When Dr. S. walked into the room, I felt a little more at ease.  We seriously love this guy, and he is phenomenal at what he does.  It made me very sad that I didn't just wait to have an appointment with him in the first place {we're technically seeing his new partner, Dr. A.}.  I'm pretty sure he felt the HSG was just as unnecessary as I did, but it was worth the price and pain just to have his ear for a minute or two.

The HSG lasted all of about :30 seconds once they inserted the catheter and pushed the dye.  Had my tubes been blocked, he said the test would have taken longer.  Just when I reached the oh my gosh, this shit is really uncomfortable, I feel like I'm having a contraction point, it was over and that was it!

We asked if we could start a cycle now, hey a girl had to ask, but cycle day 8 is too late.

Mr. snapped a quick picture of me while we waited for Dr. S. 

A shot of my clear tubes:)

Dr. S. talked to us about cycling and our game plan once the HSG was complete.  He said that he would be monitoring me with Dr. A. and would tell her "the plan".

So on cycle day 14, this Sunday, I will start 10 days of progesterone to speed things up a bit.  My cycles have no rhyme or reason to them and range from 30 days, to most recently 50 days.  With the progesterone, I should start my next cycle around the beginning of March {cutting my cycle down to about 26 days}.

Then the fun will really start happening!

We will do the same treatment plan as we did with Jackson and go from there. So, in about 3 weeks I'll be popping pills and shooting myself full of baby making hormones!  The best part about the timing of everything is that my best friend, Stephanie, will likely be visiting us again during shot time.  She may have to help me shoot me up in a public bathroom again, you know for superstition sakes:) Besides, we totally know what we're doing this time around and will certainly not get so flustered as to leave my needles behind so that I look more like a drug addict then a crazy momma of 2 wanna be! Yes, this is a true story that I seemed to have forgotten to blog about the first time around:)

Read more...

Disney Magic, Part 3: Epcot & Magic Kingdom

In case you've missed the first couple of Disney posts, you can read them here and here.

On Wednesday, our second full day at Disney, the weather was beautiful so we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom.  When we got to the lobby of our hotel, they warned us that the 2 mile bus ride to Magic Kingdom was taking at least an hour.  Remember how I said this was the busiest week to come to Disney, well if you weren't staying at on property you couldn't even get into the park! Seriously, we had to show our room keys to enter the park. 

Another tip I forgot to mention in my earlier post is to download a couple of the park app's on your smart phone.  They tell you which parks are the busiest and wait times for all the lines, it was helpful to plan our days.  

Since the traffic was so bad getting over to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to take a boat ride from our hotel, across the lagoon to Epcot, and take the monorail over from there.  This worked out really well for us, as we were able to jump in non-existent lines to see Nemo, Crush and the Dinosaurs at Epcot! Jackson loved Nemo and Amelia got a nice little nap in during our dinosaur adventure, which Kiki (me) loved to pieces:)

Of course, we had to grab our mickey ears ice cream for lunch and then we hopped on the monorail and headed to the Magic Kingdom.  The monorail may have been Jackson's second favorite part about the trip, after meeting Buzz & Woody.  He seriously could have ridden on the monorail all day and been happy as a clam!

We finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom (with the rest of the world) and my heart could have burst with excitement.  The lines were insanely long, but we were all really just happy being there and taking it all in.  My siblings and I had already ridden all of the rides that we cared to ride on Monday night, so it really was just all about Jackson and Amelia. 

We took a few pictures, stood in line to see Pluto, got Jackson another balloon, and before we knew it, it was time to head to the Liberty Tree Tavern for the afternoon parade and early dinner.  Both the parade and dinner were equally enjoyable and perfect for us. 

The next few hours were spent standing in line for Pirates of the Caribbean and walking around just taking it all in.  Jackson loved the castle and was amazed every time we walked passed it! And since the lines were so ridiculous long for rides, we ended up on the carousel.  Yes, we came all the way to Disney and rode on a carnival ride, but Jackson knew no different:)

And no trip to Disney is complete without an ice cream cone from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor on main street, even in the freezing cold.  For as long as I can remember, we have always gotten our ice cream just in time to watch the Electric parade and firework show at the end of the day.  This trip was no different, except for the fact that just before we stood in line to meet Minnie & Mickey at the Town Square Theater! Oh the magic!

Next up, our last day at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom take 2!

Read more...

Disney Magic, Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Our first day of Disney magic was technically Monday evening, the day after Christmas. However, that included a stroll through Epcot with the whole family until the babies were worn out and ready for bed. At that point, my mom and step-dad took Jackson and Amelia back to the hotel for bed, and the rest of us went on to the Magic Kingdom until the wee hours of the morning.

With that said, we certainly were not early to rise the next morning. It was nice to have enjoyed a night full of rides and have that out of our system, since the kids were not going to ride Space and/or Splash Mountain!

Tuesday was a cool and rainy day, so we decided to go to Hollywood Studios. On our walk over to the park it started to pour down rain and lightening. We ended up seeking shelter at the ESPN Zone and waited for the rain to pass. Two beers and many arcade games later, we were finally on our way over to the park!

As we walked in, we caught the end of their afternoon parade aka the first Buzz and Woody sighting! Jackson started waving away and saying, "hi, friends, hi!". It was the sweetest thing to this momma's ears!

We made our way through the park and quickly learned that the week after Christmas is the busiest week for Disney. This information would have been good to know when we booked the trip, but we made do. Since we've all been to Disney so many time before, we were really happy just being there and walking the streets.

Since the lines were hours long for just about everything, we decided to check out the characters. To be honest, this is something we've never really done before. When we were little, the characters just walked around the parks. You didn't have to wait and stand in hour long lines for your picture or anything like it is now.

Pooh and Mickey were the characters of the hour, so my mom and sister took Jackson to Pooh (his line was much shorter) and I waited in line for Magical Mickey while the guys tried to get Fast Passes for Buzz & Woody's ride.

Side note: The Buzz & Woody ride was nearly impossible to get Fast Passes for. The last morning, Mr. walked over to the park at opening and ran for the pass. Our returning time was 7PM that night. And had I known that the ride was basically an arcade that Jackson was way too young for, we would have skipped it all together!

Luckily, the two character lines were close enough for me to see Jackson meet Pooh for the first time. I shed a tear. It was the sweetest thing ever to watch him run up and give Pooh the biggest hug. Pooh was my favorite character growing up, I had a slight obsession.

The magic and sweetness never wore off for any of us. Jackson loved meeting every single character. He hugged and kissed them all and called them friends. I don't think I'll ever forget that part of the trip, or the excitement of meeting Buzz Lightyear and Woody - that had us all crying.

Next up on the character list was Lightning McQueen and Mater.

And then, in true Disney magic, we saw the most spectacular Christmas light show and experienced our first "snow" of the week.

The sunset brought a crispness to the air and it was time to get the babies back to the warm hotel room and tucked into bed...and then it was round 2 of sibling fun as we headed to Epcot for our beer tour around the world.  Unfortunately, I have no photos of the sibling pyramid we build in front of the Epcot ball or any photos for that matter.  I guess what happens at Disney after hours, stays at Disney:)

Read more...