disney, here we come!

well, we are officially headed to disney! the cookies are iced, the travel plans are ready, and now we just have to pack! (first things first, you know.) we are so so excited for the kids to see disney world. it was just two years ago that we went to disney without ethan and caroline... and a little over a year ago, the kids rode the monorail and saw downtown disney. they knew we would actually "go to disney" when they were older (but i don't think they really understood what "going to disney" meant).

thanks to major florida resident discounts, we can enjoy our days at disney without breaking the bank! we thought this year was a good time to go, so we started planning this vacation after christmas. we knew better than to tell the kids too early. we kept it a surprise for awhile, but i just couldn't take it anymore. i was the one who thought it'd be really fun to just wake them one morning and say, "we're going to disney today!" but i caved. big time. i mean, half the fun of a vacation is anticipating it, right!? (well, it is for this lil' travel planner!) anyway, so one saturday morning we brought the kids in the living room and announced that we had a surprise. we told them to close their eyes, and we cued up the disney planning dvd that we loved to watch in anticipation of our 2007 disney trip. the kids were trying so hard to keep their eyes closed while i got my act together with the dvd... well... at least ethan was....


at least she's honest, right!? i eventually got the dvd going, and we let the kids open their eyes. i expected them to go WILD when we told them, but ethan's unenthusiastic "yay" was as good as it got that day...


wasn't that pathetic?! :) we were kind of hoping for a reaction a little more like this....


but that was over a month ago... in the last 4 weeks, their excitement has exponentiated. we've watched rides on youtube and have sung "hakuna matata" and "be our guest" more times than i can count. we are ready for the Mouse! ethan helped me make a disney countdown, which i must say looks much more disney-ish than the last one! the kids have been 100% dedicated about moving the mouse to the next day. it's been a great tool for them to somewhat understand how much longer we have until our trip.


now our mouse has one more day to move, and then we are on our way! i cannot wait to watch their expressions and see their looks of amazement and surprise as we soak in all of disney together as a family. i missed them when brian and i went without them, and i know that every little detail will make for an exciting experience. everybody has their own opinion on when kids should go to disney, and i'll let you know what mine is when we return! but for now, on the eve of our disney packing day, we are all pretty giddy. and i'm loving it. see you when we get back!

she's gonna be an alto

if caroline were to write a book titled, big sister perks, chapter one would surely be called "always having someone to sing to". when amelia goes mobile in the months to come, i will not blame her for crawling away with all her might from "twinkle twinkle little star" being sung to her yet another time! :) but for now, she willingly (and happily) listens. last week, ethan stayed in bed a little longer after naptime, so i was able to record caroline singing with no interruptions. and she kept wanting to sing. and i just kept recording. :) i am refraining from posting all 6 videos here, but they are on my flickr account for your viewing pleasure.

caroline's first number is "zip a dee doo dah"... like she does with most longer songs, caroline gets stuck singing a portion of this song in a loop. i was actually surprised that she looked up at me as if to say, "mom, i know this song goes somewhere. help a girl out!"


one of caroline's favorite songs is "oh be careful little eyes". she loves to point to each body part as we sing about it, and mommy even added in little sound effects for more fun. :) the first 7 seconds of this video is evidence that amelia is an incredibly tolerant child.


well, i turned off the camera, and caroline wasn't finished singing. (i thought i could skip to the last verse and be done!) so here's one more verse of "be careful little eyes" followed by a little catechism practice. (wondering about catechism? read this! the third paragraph is especially helpful...)


caroline's sweet cousin karina already has a beautiful little voice and can carry a tune very well for an almost 3 year old (i'm not a bit biased!). and since caroline is well on her way to being an alto, i think we'll be hearing some duets for years to come!

leaaaaaaaaavin' on a jet plane...

all our bags are paaaaacked, we're ready to go...... that song has been playing through my head this morning.... i'm so excited!!! lori just called and she's on her way to target to get diapers for ethan and a pink neon sign for the airport... wow, we will feel so welcome! i have several things to do this morning before we go, so i've gotta make this short. i think i'll let ethan handle the goodbyes...



(that was "bye, i'm about to fly in my first airplane! hope you all have a great week!" in ethan sign language!)

dance, baby!

well here's our latest trick! ethan has learned to shake his head from side to side... it's pretty darn cute. rather than encouraging him to tell us "no" all the time (which, really, that's not what he's doing), nana came up with calling this "dancing"... so there we have it. now, in this video, i have to "dance" to get ethan to do it... so that's what all the motion is about... i'm not that horrible of a videographer!!

like front row at sea world...

after ethan's bath time, i always feel a bit like i've just seen shamu... yes, my child is a big baby, but that's not what i mean! i'm referring to the fact that he loves to make waves!!! brian noted tonite that more water was on our kitchen floor than in his tub... looks like ethan has already outgrown the beloved tummy tub. i didn't get the best splashes of the night on video (because i want to keep my camera!!), but here's a peek into our fun bathtimes!



i had to capture some tummy tub moments before we move on to the big tub. i'm planning on ordering one of those inflatable tubs for the big tub...that way he can play without worrying about him hitting his head on the hard tub. anyway, here's some shots from tonite's bath...

get a little closer, mommy!

what? splash you? no!

splash-mania!! (this picture really does not do it justice!)

let's do that again!

time to go dry off now... at least my kitchen floor is clean. :)

take me out to the ballgame...

ethan LOVES this new toy! the cowden's gave him this for christmas. it entertains him for at least 15 minutes at a time. now he has figured out how to get the ball to swing all the way around... he also loves to pull the whole thing towards him and eat the blinking stars on top. this toy has really motivated him to sit up!!

new year's party animal

after we came home from the schneider's on new year's eve, ethan was wide awake!! he had slept most of the night over there, so he thought it was time to play when we got home!! this video is just a CLIP from the first 30 minutes in his bed that night. sorry it's pretty dark, but i didn't want him to see me. i think the audio is enough. you can't see this, but he's having a dance party with his bumper pad. :)

happy ethan

these are for nana...

(ha! he kind of looks like a pirate with the play button over his eye!!) :)

ethan misses lydia & steven!

yay!!! a video of ethan worked!!!

please come home soon, sparks family! we miss you!! ethan really wants to see you guys...



i promise i picked him up and calmed him down after this video was over. :) no children were harmed or neglected in the making of this video. ha.

i will post some happy videos of ethan soon. :) he is usually 95% happy. :)

ps- ethan's hair is slicked b/c he has dry scalp, and we've been putting coconut oil on it to moisturize his lil head... a different look than the mohawk, huh?

just a test...

ok, i am dying to be able to post videos on here...youtube.com lets you do it.. but everytime i try to upload a video of darling ethan, the youtube server apparently stops responding... could just be my super slow computer that is running out of memory!!! so i finally was able to upload a silent movie of a snowball fight in memphis. i tried this one b/c it's a relatively small file compared to the ones i have of ethan. so... let's see if it works!



ok... i see it there. see if you can play it and lemme know. it's gonna be pretty pixelated ("boxy" for uncle tom)...but hopefully i can post some really good ones of ethan sometime soon.