Colyer Caravan (Part 4)

And onto Disney! We went into Downtown Disney after our day at the beach for dinner. These next three pictures crack me up because I can just see what Caleb was thinking.

 
 

Yeah, I suppose we need to discuss with our son that the money stays in the fountain and isn't there for the taking! (Obviously Jon was taking these pictures since no one was stopping him ;)

 

The big deciding factor to go to Orlando was because my Uncle works for Disney and can get us in for free. We just didn't know how many tickets we'd get until the day before. He pulled his resources together and had two other Disney employees meet us at the gate too so we all got in for free. I know, I know, I can feel your death glares through the computer. Its pretty much the best family connection ever and we were all so grateful. (We did reimburse them for their time and trouble since they all had to meet us at the park both days).

We got there before the park opened and went to Magic Kingdom first. Dawson didn't get the memo that he was at Disneyworld!!!

 

 
We got these shirts made for all the cousins before we left. (Note the bow on Minnie Mouse :) They were adorable in them and it made it way easier to keep track of all the red shirts. (Unfortunately this was the best shot we got from the back. Oh well. The fact that we got one at all is sort of a miracle).

 Cooling off:

The only grownup who can stomach the teacups. (Although Jenise would have too if she weren't pregnant):

I love these next pictures so much because Dawson was just so happy. He had a lot of rough moments that day but you can see the joy through his entire body when he met Tigger and Pooh!

 

My favorite shot of Kietlyn:

The benefit of having your grandparents along:  

Oh sure, you can have your treats! Just as soon as you smile for a picture: 

 

Good job. Here you go: 

Watching the parade:

These clouds look ominous but it barely even sprinkled that day. It was such a relief to have the cloud cover, it was just perfect weather.

 Desperate times call for pacis in public:

This little guy did great. I borrowed this carrier from my sister-in-law and it was very comfortable. He took all his naps in here:

We stayed at Magic Kingdom until dinner time and then headed over to Epcot for a couple hours. We were pooped by then and didn't do much at Epcot but it was still fun.

Heeeeere's Brucey!

 

It was a wonderfully exhausting day. Bennett got to ride Space Mountain twice so that was the highlight for him. That boy loves roller coasters. Dawson was devastated when he was too short for Splash Mountain but he did get to ride the Goofy roller coaster and loved it. Dawson's favorite from the day was the Haunted Mansion. (They're really into spooky stuff these days). I think the longest we waited in line that whole day was 20 minutes. There really is no better time of year to go!

 

Vacation Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3

Colyer Caravan (Part 3)

Aaaand....back to vacay. We drove over to Clearwater Beach on the Gulf Coast on our second full day and it was breathtakingly perfect. Of course we could have (and wanted) to stay there all day but with six kids in tow, you never really get to do exactly what you want to do, do ya?? So, we soaked up a few blissful hours in the sun and tried to freeze it all in our minds. (I still have a few grains of this powdery white sand left in our umbrella stroller and I can't bear to dump it out!)
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
(In case you happen to notice, the first four are a little grainy because we'd deleted a bunch from our camera we thought we didn't need but I wanted these on here so I copied and pasted them from Josh's facebook page)

 

 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 

Vacation Part 1 and Part 2

Happy Halloween!

And since we live in Iowa, we did our trick-or-treating last night. (The Midwest is weird like that...) Of course it was cold but lots of fun! Its cool being in the same spot a year later and thinking about how our kids have changed. Dawson and Sylvie were basically toddlers last year who couldn't even speak in full sentences and were little slowpokes all night! This year they were running with the pack. And Channing was much warmer last year in his cozy little womb.

From left to right: sweet butterfly (Quinn), stubborn butterfly (Piper), ornery Max (from Where the Wild Things Are), Turtle Man (Colin. No, none of us knew who that was either :), sweet little skeleton, a beast named Bennett, and Merida from Brave (Sylvie).
These nights always get rushed at the last minute when you're trying to get three little ones fed and dressed and face-painted (and re-face-painted when they accidentally rub it off) and photographed before six so we quickly threw them together for a picture and just took what we could get. Here's Max and a Wild Thing:

Judie made that Max costume for Bennett's 3rd birthday. I told myself when Bennett was a baby that I would never buy costumes. It seems like a crazy waste of money when kids only wear them once and I have so many friends I can borrow one from but I found that blue monster on clearance last year at PB Kids and I couldn't pass it up. Plus all three boys will wear it so I'll get my money's worth.

I stole this shot from my sister's tumblr so you could see their butterfly costumes better. They looked so adorable and I just love when siblings coordinate: 

 

8 months.

This little angel baby continues to melt my heart every day. He is just so darn sweet. I can see it in every part of him. And boy, oh boy, is he laid back. He finally figured out just this week how to roll from his back to his belly (he's been doing belly to back for 4 months!). He can easily scoot around in a circle and can go backwards a little bit but doesn't go forward at all. What more can you ask for in a third child than that?? :) The longer he stays put, the easier life is for me. I watched my nephew, Aben, last week for a half day. He's 5 weeks younger but is army crawling and rolling everywhere. Holy cow, that was nuts. I really forgot what it's like to have a crawler. Needless to say, I didn't get much done that day!

We've actually had a rough few days with this guy, which is so unusual. Bennett had some weird 12 hour fever that left him super tired and without an appetite. Channing came down with it the next day. On top of the fever and teething, he's also had a minor ear infection. I finally got him into the chiropractor yesterday and he's been much happier today. So I suppose I can't complain at all about the three or four rough days I've had with him over the course of his eight months of life!

 Not feeling so smiley for our photo shoot yesterday:

Let's see, what else is my little chubs up to? As you can see above, he sits up great on his own now. He's more adventurous with food but still hates green veggies and anything chunky. I still only give him solids once or twice a day (and he nurses four times). He has his bottom two teeth and I know several more are not far behind. He loves being in the tub (although he's not in there that often!). He's usually content when we're out and about but I can't push his naps too far back or he gets really fussy. He takes two naps during the day that are between 1 1/2 and 2 hours and most days still takes an evening nap too. If we're out somewhere, he can skip the evening one, no problem. He smiles for anyone and everyone and doesn't really show any separation anxiety yet. He laughs very easily now and a couple times I've heard him laugh to himself when he's playing with a toy.

I've never wanted to slow down time so much than with this little lump of love. I just cherish every day with him.