More You Tube videos posted

I tried uploading 10 more videos of Millie's younger months, but for some reason, I could only get 3 on there. Well, click here if you want to see them.

Millie's First Christmases

Millie woke up for her First Christmas at Mia and Granddaddy's house in Columbia, SC. Granddaddy got a new camcorder and caught Christmas morning on tape. You can catch it here on youtube.com. She got lots of fun presents and really liked hanging out in her walker. She even figured out how to move over the rug and everywhere.

Next we headed back to Fayetteville to celebrate with lots more family. Everyone wanted to spend Millie's first Christmas with her and we couldn't deny that now, could we?

Disney, Final Days

We're home recovering from vacation! Isn't that funny? No, really, though... we had a fantastic time. On day 5 we went back to Epcot for their Candlelight Processional featuring a talented string orchestra, magical choir and Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine as the Jesus Story-teller. All this Christmas stuff got me thinking that Disney is really PRO-CHRISTMAS. You don't see much of that these days. Everyone saying "Happy Holidays." I say "Merry Christmas" always. You really have to stick up for Jesus these days. Folks have really lost the meaning of Christmas and celebrate is as just a gift-giving holiday. But anyways, Disney puked Christmas and it was awesome!

Ok, on day 6 we went to the Wilderness Lodge for breakfast and headed home, err, to Tampa rather, for a little holiday celebration with my Dad, Pat, Lauren, Luis and my Uncle Joseph. This was a great introduction to opening presents and how it's all done. It's instinctive for her to tear paper so she did a pretty good job tearing up the wrapping paper after Aunt Lauren got her started. She got lots of fun presents and we managed to get them all home on the plane. Hooray!

This morning we got up at the wee hour of 3:30 am to catch a plane home to Fayetteville! Surprisingly, after a shower, I'm feeling pretty good :)

Disney Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Again, I am whooped so excuse me if this post has some grammatical and/or spelling errors or just really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Today we went to Animal Kingdom, a park I've never been before. It rocked! We met with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Luis for another fun-filled adventure.

There was this little area called DinoLand where Millie got to ride the dinosaur thingamajig.

The Tree of Life was pretty incredible and gigantic! The artistry is amazing. I especially enjoyed Nemo the Musical and thought it was so Broadwayesque, if that's even a word. The jungle safari was cool too! We saw lots of animals I'd never heard of before like the Kutu and Bangteng. We had lunch at the Rainforest's Cafe and stayed until the park closed.
Oh and Millie was so good up until the time she tasted her first bite of ice cream--Mickey's ice cream bar to be more specific. She liked it so much, she didn't want to give it up. Once I said enough is enough is when she got all adamant and ornery on me. She got over that one pretty quickly though as there were so many other things to distract her. Matt and I weren't about to let her eat the whole thing especially the chocolate. That can't be good for a nine month old. But now I know, she's not lactose intolerant like her momma. She's a fan of cheese and ice cream-- really though, what girl isn't?
Now everyone is out at dinner while Millie went to bed and I stayed behind to cool down a little. My shins hurt... I know I walk our neighborhood just about every day but man, am I beat!
Hakuna Matata everyone!
Here are the girls on the Expedition Everest ride in the very back car!

Disney Days 2 and 3: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade and the rest of Magic Kingdom (Day 3)

For those who know me, I am strict with bedtime. I feel it is one of the most important times of the day for a baby. But... for Mickey Mouse and all his friends... it was worth breaking the rules... last night we stayed out until midnight WITH Millie. She got to ride It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan. She even got to meet the real Peter Pan and Wendy, and they got a kick out of her "flying" power. Peter Pan said that she must have lots of happy thoughts for being able to fly so high. For those who haven't seen her flying power, refer to this post.

We picked a spot to watch the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade. Before the parade started Santa caught our eyes in front of the humongous Christmas tree that greeted us at the park entrance. The line was so short because everyone was waiting for the parade to begin that it was perfect time to visit with Santa. She was very mesmerized by his beard especially as she kept yanking it. Intermittently she did get some snooze time in the Baby Bjorn, which I highly recommend, and went right to sleep without a fight (go figure!) when we got back to the house.
Today, we revisited Magic Kingdom and here are some photos from our day today. Millie especially loved the Tiki Room with talking birds. And I have so much more to say but I'm too whooped to write it so I'll let the photos talk to for themselves. Oh, but I will say that we ate dinner at the Boma Buffet in the Animal Kingdom lodge and it was fabulous! Lots of food and not enough stomach room and Millie enjoyed a lime. Good times!

Disney Day 1 and the first half of day 2

We arrived at Disney World yesterday evening after a morning of plane rides. We're staying in this amazing house only a couple of miles from the parks. Meg did a fantastic job of creating a fun-filled itinerary with some breaks in between. Last night we joined up with the fam at MGM for the Dancing Lights Processional. Millie loved the lights and music and SNOW that came shooting from the rooftops.


Today we went to Epcot! We enjoyed some baby-friendly attractions like Finding Nemo (we even got to talk to Crush the sea turtle), a boat ride, and Spaceship Earth. Millie loved it all and even napped in Uncle Leo's arms for a bit. She is having such a great time and really taking it all in, surprisingly.

The highlight of the day was lunch in Norway with the Disney Princesses. Although, she slept through most of it,we'll have some great memories. Each princess came to our table and sat with us for a minute. Can't wait to do it again when Millie's got her little book in hand collecting their autographs.
Tonight we're headed to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas!!