FL Trip-The first few days...

After a very uneventful 18.5 hour drive we finally made it to Orlando. We timed it perfectly and after unpacking and some lunch it was nap time for all....just what we needed with a long overnight drive. I napped outside in the warm 80 degree sun! I just couldn't get enough! Then we headed down to Disney's Boardwalk for some dinner with John and Janet. Then we walked around a bit to enjoy the nice night! All Jackson wanted to do was ride the boats, unfortunately he never did get a chance to ride those boats and all Brayden wanted to do was walk.

The next day we headed over to Downtown Disney and strolled around. We finally made it over to their little splash area to have a picnic lunch and splash around. Our boys just love the water!

Right before the trip Jackson got into Toy Story. He is obsessed and loves Buzz Lightyear. He now jumps off everything with open arms saying, "to infinity and beyond!" He was thrilled to "meet" and hold Buzz Lightyear's hand.

Getting ready to splash around!

Brayden got shot in the face with water more than once (which he didn't mind that much) and Jackson lost his sunglasses down one of the Mickey shaped water holes but they played and played and could have stayed all day!

Soon John and Janet joined us and Jackson convinced Papa to take him on a train ride. What a great end to Jackson's day!

It was a great start to our trip! Lots of family time and warm weather (have I said that already?). We ended up getting our Disney passes that day too. We were planning on just paying for 2 days of Disney, but ended up getting residency and for only $11 more a ticket got their resident annual pass! It was a lifesaver for me, who could only take so much Disney. We did end up going to Disney a lot, BUT we would only go in the later afternoons for a few hours at a time when it wasn't that crowded. It was much more manageable than doing full Disney days. It was kinda perfect and would do it again. However, now Jonathan thinks we need to go back before our passes expire next February....shoot.

Our Two Week Florida Adventure

Our adventure, full of sunshine, warm weather, family, eating, cruising, beaches, and a lot of Disney magic, was all smashed between a whole bunch of sickness. We started our adventure with the Illinois stomach flu (Brayden and Jackson) and ended our trip with the Florida stomach flu (all of us!) along with some nasty colds and bronchitis for Brayden.

Right before we left for our two week Florida stay, Jackson and Brayden got sick. Luckily they were pretty much over it before we left for our long drive. I thought that was misserable until we all got the stomach flu with only a few days left of our trip. It was bad. Brayden got it first, on the cruise, then I got it the next day, then Jack the next day and finally Jonathan the day after that.

Despite the germs, we had some great moments and did so much in two weeks!

A little recap(more for my memory and record)...

Friday-Started our trek down to the sunny south

Saturday-Hello Sunny Florida! Disney's Boardwalk

Sunday- Downtown Disney and outlet mall

Monday-Magic Kingdom with John and Janet

Tuesday-Epcot with John and Janet

Wednesday-MGM

Thursday-Magic Kingdom

Friday-Animal Kingdom with the Thommes Family

Saturday-low key day and dinner at Cornado Springs for John's birthday

Sunday -Cruise

Monday- Freeport, Bahamas

Tuesday-Nassau, Bahamas

Wednesday-Cruise sea day (Brayden sick)

Thursday-Orlando (Jennifer sick)

Friday-Magic Kingdom with the Staniak family (Jackson sick) Decide to drive back to Illinois

Saturday- Still driving (Jonathan sick) Home around 2pm LONGEST DRIVE EVER!

Pictures and more stories to come!

11 Months!

Our little boy is 11 months today! Just one more little month till he is ONE! So crazy to think! He has really grown up this past month....starting with walking! He is a machine but still has to learn to get up in the middle of the room. Otherwise he is full on walking and loving every second of it.

This past month Brayden:

• has learned to walk. He started taking more and more steps last month, but this month really perfected his walk. When we were in Florida he really took off. He can turn, stop, and stand still all while balancing. He loves to be upright like his brother and follows him around the house.
• has learned to do stairs and now is just understanding that he needs to turn around to get down them. I still don't feel comfortable letting him venture on them by himself but he is getting better daily.
• was almost done with bottles. He was a food machine and pretty much refused his bottles when we were in Florida but then he got sick and is now afraid of food and just will take his bottles at the moment. I have one more month to get him done with them. And milk, well...he's not the biggest fan but was starting to tolerate it a bit.
• loves food. His favorites being pretzels, cheese, breakfast sausage, eggs, hot dogs, any meat, yogurt and water.
• loves to clap and now loves to point. He points at everything that he is thinking about as if to tell us that he wants to know what that is.
• he says "mama" towards me and "da" to Jonathan. These are his first words but he "talks" to us all the time.
• he has gotten the stomach flu twice this month as well as Bronchitis and a nasty face rash that the dermatologist called Peri dermatitis. A rash that affects "Celtic" type people. I have a feeling we will be battling skin issues with this kid for a long time.
• went to Disney World and the Bahamas on a cruise. What a world traveler, though he hated the car rides.
• still has no hair.
• wears size 4 diapers and 12 months clothes.
• sleeps from 7-somewhere in the 5s and takes two naps that total 3 hrs.
• can jump on a trampoline.
• is starting to understand more. He responds to the words no (when he wants to), come here, bottle, where is "dada or mama," jump, dance, shake, and dog.
• is interested in toys and finally learned to push buttons. He also loves books now and his favorite is an animal board book when I name the animals and their sounds.
• loves to drive around cars and make the car sounds by blowing raspberries. It is so cute.
• loves to watch tv like his dad and brother.
• is getting his 7th and 8th tooth...bottom next to the middle two.
• is still a mama's boy and loves to be held by me. It is cute when I hold him because he will always grab my thumb and play with it.
• hates when he is in a room and someone leaves even if there are others still in there with him. He is getting better because he can now follow them but still gets frustrated because he is not as fast. He just loves being by everyone.
• now sleeps with a blanket.
• still loves water but is scared of ocean waves and showers.
• he loves to reach up and grab your hand and walk with you.
• he gives me kisses and sometimes gives me hugs.

One more month till this little guy is ONE. I still can't believe it! We love the boy he is turning in to.

New Baby, New Car

We have a new baby on the way and now we have a new car...a GMC Acadia! I am beyond thrilled because this has been my dream car since I had to start thinking about getting rid of my Mazda. I seriously can't believe it is sitting in my garage and want to go and drive it daily.

It is the perfect car for us. As much as some people want us to be mini van people, we just couldn't jump on that bandwagon. I just could never picture us driving a mini van and to tell you the truth (in my opinion anyway), the Acadia is pretty much a mini on the inside and a crossover on the outside. So I have the space and the comfort of a mini for our growing family on the inside but still get the non soccer mom feel on the outside. I love it! Really the only drawback is the trunk space but hey, it fits my double stroller and a good amount of groceries so what else do we need?

I was SO sad to see my Mazda go. It was my first official car and given to me as a present from my parents. I was in love with it and for awhile towards the end didn't drive it much because it badly needed an oil change and I pretty much refused to do it. I hate getting my oil changed so I pretty much boycott my car and drive Jonathan's until he gets frustrated that I'm driving his car and goes and changes my oil for me. But let me just tell you, once that oil was changed, I just couldn't have been happier! I loved driving it! I loved everything about it (well...maybe not the cloth seats but everything else). When we were negotiation the new car, Jonathan threw in a clause that we would only have a deal if I got to spend 20 more minutes with my Mazda. It was hard to leave it even if we did upgrade tremendously to the fanciest car I have ever had! It's crazy. I never thought I would get such a fancy car. And I say fancy because that is the exact word that Jackson used to describe our new car. He didn't want to leave the Mazda either. When we pulled into our driveway in our new car, the first words our of his mouth were, " I don't want to leave mommy's car." Precious. We will miss the Mazda but we are sure enjoying "fanciness" of our new ACADIA!

When we started looking for a new car we had a few "must haves" being....leather seats (hence hating the cloth in my Mazda), captain chairs, AWD and if possible a hitch and a DVD. The last two being ones that we could live without or add later if we found the perfect car without them. After looking at all the different crossovers at Carmax we narrowed our search down to the Chevy Traverse, the Acadia, and the Buick Enclave, which are all the same cars just pretty much different names. I have always wanted the Acadia so we settled on that. We started looking at used cars because, hey, we had till July till we actually needed a new car. We ended up finding a really good one at the GMC dealership on Elgin. But of course when we went to check it out, it was sold that morning. Great. So we ended up looking a few Acadias that they had but non had the "must haves" that we wanted. We talked some more to the salesmen and owners and decided to try out for 24 hour a FWD Acadia. After driving this car for 24 hours and talking to some friends about AWD vs FWD we decided that FWD would be enough for us, plus it's a little better on gas. We had to bring this car bad the next day and after some research done by Jonathan, we went in there with a number and decided that we would only buy this car (which had everything we wanted and more) if we could get this price. Long story short, we got it! We weren't looking for a car this early but we just couldn't pass up this good deal. So we drove home our new car that night! Crazy! AND the boys were with us the whole time! They probably just gave us that deal to get us out of there!

Bye my Mazda!

Hello my new Acadia!

The Acadia details:

Diamond white (I pretty much could care less about the color so this is what we ended up with and I'm pretty happy about it!)

Black leather (We originally wanted anything but black but the GMC people reminded us that we have kids and it would hid things better...good point)

DVD

Hitch

FWD

Power lift gate (This is probably my favorite thing about the car! I don't know why, but I'm so excited about just pushing a button and my trunk opening!)

Heated seats

Climate control

A backup camera in the review mirror

On star and Satellite radio (for a bit)

That new car smell

Captain chairs (sooo a must have and I love them! Easy access to the back!)

I'm probably missing something, but like I said Fancy! I'm still getting used to driving such a big car but slowly getting better. It's no fun having a car payment again but our loan is %0 for 72 months so you couldn't get a better loan than that! All in all, we are very happy with our purchase and excited to drive it all the way to Florida this Friday! YAY!

The big brother dance!

The boys are all smiles for the BIG news!

(Yes, this is Jackson's 'cheese' smile)

Doing a little dance....

And Brayden is even more excited to finally get the title of.....

BIG BROTHER!!!

Yes, we are adding one more baby to the Foley family! We are all beyond thrilled and can't wait to complete our family. We will finally be able to meet this little one at the end of July and so far the baby is doing just great!

I am just over 13 weeks and finally getting back to myself. It was a rough go for a while and it didn't help that those horrible weeks started just around Thanksgiving and ended just after New Years. It was SO fun. We have already had two ultrasounds of this little one and everything is looking good and right on schedule. This poor child is already dealing with the 'third child syndrome' because I just can't, for the life of me, find the ultrasound. I go back to the doctor after our trip to Florida at 17 weeks and then the next appointment is the BIG one! Crazy as it sounds, I'm kinda on the fence about finding out this time. The planner in me NEEDS to find out but as I have said, I would like to hold on to my girl dream as long as I can. It just seems like this one has to be a boy since that is what we do in the Foley family.

Baby Foley #3 @ 12 weeks

(Taken with my phone before I lost them)

I just am in awe on how baby-like our baby looks already. This is the first time I have gotten an ultrasound at 12 weeks and it is crazy to actually see the baby more on the screen but not actually feel anything. The baby was moving like crazy and even hiccuped a few times. I can't believe how well you can see the leg, the foot, and the little hand sticking out by the face.

Brayden=10 months!

This past month, Brayden...

• is starting to talk more. He has always been a loud whiny kid, but now we hear more and more LOUD talking as he is moving and playing. His favorite word is by far "dada" but not directed towards his dad.


• he dances to music and will dance when you say dance.


• has more and more facial expressions. He is one funny kid and does not like to have his picture taken. Will either turn away and act like he is busy or give me a squished face.


• is moving around like crazy. He is gaining confidence daily and will take steps between furniture and people. He has even been know to walk across a room until I think he realizes that he is not holding on to something and will just slowly lower himself down to the ground. His balance is also improving and he stands unassisted all the time now.


• he will go up a few stairs and back down but he is no where near doing them all.


• he is usually happy with most people after he warms up to the situation. He will not even hesistate to crawl up to someone and use them to stand and walk around.
  


• he is getting more and more interested in toys. Before toys were for throwing onto the ground but now he actually investigates them. He loves to crawl into our ball pit and push cars around on our wood floor. Legos are another favorite, but he seems to just throw those around. By far, anything that he can push is what he usually goes for or anything that Jackson is playing with.

• Brayden wears 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers (just because we need to use them up). He pees out of his diaper every night and I had high hopes for last night because we put him in 4s overnight diapers but it still happened. My kids seem to just have this problem!


• is understanding the world more and more everyday. He seems more content with the world and how it works. I think he understands more of what I am saying. On the top of my head I know he understands... No (but doesn't always listen), dance, rock, jump, hi, finished, come here, mommy, daddy, Jackson, eat, bottle, and push.


• Brayden is getting more content on laps, especially when he is tired. He even sat on my lap for over an hour watching the train movie at the Science and Industry museum.

• has a horrible rash on his face. It started by one eye and one side of his nose, spread across his nose and now it seems to be a little under his eyes but mostly under his mouth. The doctor said it is dry skin so we are trying to treat it with Aquafor but it doesn't seem to work. We are limiting baths and wiping his face and now we are limiting the pacifier since I think it traps in his drool and irritates the rash. Now Brayden only gets his pacifier at naps and bed and in the car. He seems to be doing pretty well with this.


• as you can see, Brayden loves the bath and splashes all the time. It's his new thing. Too bad he doesn't get baths as much anymore!

• Brayden now sleeps with a blanket in his bed and he does pretty well with it. He still sleeps from 7pm to somewhere in the 5s. His naps are getting longer but still two a day.


• still 6 teeth and it doesn't seem like any will be coming in soon.


• he still loves his brother and gets very mad if Jack leaves a room without him. Brayden will follow Jackson everywhere and wants to always play with him. He often gets abused by Jackson yet he still seems to admire him. He loves to giggle at Jack in the car and reach for his hand.


• Brayden still loves to be on the more and exploring new places. He is very independent when we are out and will just go where he pleases let it be play places or open gyms or at someones house.

• Brayden is still a great eater. He can eat pretty much anything and likes pretty much everything especially snack foods. He even likes popcorn! He loves meat by far...sausage, chicken, fish, ground meat and his carbs. He is a little more picky with is veggies (not a big fan of carrots) and fruit (it depends on the day). He loves to drink water out of his sippy and loves all dairy products.


• He drinks 3-6 oz bottles, has three meals, and eats one snack a day. He gets water all day long.


• we are now done with the highchair! I love, love, love it! No more washing trays! He now sits at the breakfast bar in his booster seat and he thinks he is so cool to be sitting like his big brother! The only problem is now he likes to feed the dogs his food. If we tell him no he usually listens but he just loves to share!


• another funny thing about Brayden and eating is that when he eats he constantly moans like he is eating the best food ever.

That's our Brady in a nutshell. He is getting happier and happier every day and loving life more and more. We love our Brayden James!

Snowman

Jackson always wants to be outside. I am usually too much of a chicken to brave the cold but the other day we had a really nice day and there was still some very slushy snow on the ground so it was Jack's lucky day! We took a walk with the dogs and then built our very first snow man.

While we rolled and built, Brayden got a little brave and did a little snow investigation. I always say this but Jack and Brady are SO different. At this age, Jack could have cared less when put in the snow but Brady is not so sure and seems to always whine his way over to me.
Our finished product! Jackson was so proud!

I don't think I've really ever made a snowman and this one is by far not perfect...a little grassy.... but man, those snowballs are heavy. I had to call Jonathan out to help me lift the middle one!