Roller Coaster

This year has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride of emotions. In January Jason left. We have a few visits sprinkled throughout the year-long separation. Then last week he left again, anticipating a deployment to Iraq in early January. After arriving at Ft. Lewis he found out that he's actually leaving for Iraq in December. The upside to that? He gets to come home for Christmas!

There was no way we could afford the plane ticket so my awesome father used 50,000 of his frequent flier miles to secure one ticket from Seattle to Virginia. What an incredible blessing! We have already prepared the children and they know that Daddy would not be here for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any of next year's birthdays. So we've decided to keep this a big surprise. When Jason arrives on our doorstep next month they won't believe their eyes!

I feel like this roller coaster just won't stop. I want to get off already! We're up, we're down, then we're up again. Every time we see Jason again, in the back of my mind I know there's a good-bye looming just ahead. I hope I'm not causing irreparable damage to my children with all of this emotional turmoil. I just know that they will be overjoyed to spend Christmas with Daddy- our first Christmas at home in Virginia in 6 years. Seriously, I am just thrilled!

I don't know how I'm going to keep this secret for the next month. I hope I don't slip up and spoil everything! I'm going to have to watch myself when I'm on the phone running my big mouth.
(Look Mali, it's Snow White!) Is it just me or does Snow White look like Sarah in this picture?
This is what I feel like right now. Exhausted. The combination of this nasty cold I caught and the daily grind of caring for 6 kids are taking a toll on me. I could do just like Leila and fall asleep sitting up. Too bad you're only allowed to do that when you're three.
In case anyone wonders why there aren't as many Disney pictures of Matthew... this would be why. He spent a good deal of the trip pouting and grumpy. Not sure why, except that it is typical Matthew behavior. His moods are unpredictable and even the happiest place on earth can't make him smile if he's having a bad day.
Did I seriously wear pajama shorts to Disney World? Why, yes I did. You can do that when you have 6 kids. Actually, it's probably expected. And I have no shame so I'll even post the picture on my blog. (If Jason ever sees this he'll be embarrassed. He hates when I dress like this and thinks I'm frumpy.)
Again with the little Disney princess toys. They are carrying them everywhere!
Snow White posed for a picture in our rental house in Florida. That townhouse was perfect for us! There was plenty of space, it was cheap and clean, and it was decorated in true Disney fashion. There were mouse ears everywhere, even on the furniture. This is the bench in the foyer.
See? Even the kitchen cabinets had mouse ears! It was such a fun touch and we almost forgot that we weren't staying at a Disney resort.
The babies just liked that they could climb into the cabinets. They did this everyday and it never got old.
Nathan says, "I don't want to hear it!"

Rhino Rumps, Rabbits, and Really Big Cars

I'm sure that after this next post you'll all stop reading my blog because you just can't stand any more Disney pictures! But since I know my dad is reading my blog, I'm going to post more pictures. He's got to see his grandkids somehow, right?
See those princesses in Leila's hand? They haven't left her hand since we got home. They are still in her hand right now, as a matter of fact.
A highlight of the trip for my oldest son? A huge, muddy rhino rump. Yes, he was excited to see that this rhinoceros decided to stand just a few feet from where he was sitting. I was not so excited that our "safari" was delayed and I was trapped for 20 minutes inside our "Jeep" with one whining daughter and 2 crying sons. Jason and I had to tag team as I nursed the babies while we sat in "Africa." Good times. At least that quieted them down!
This girl just cracks me up. And makes me crazy. She is just a bundle of spunky, sneaky silliness. I hesitate to use the word strange, but I feel it applies. She has a sick fascination with messes. She's the one who drank out of the toilet bowl when she was two. She steals food and hides under the table to eat it. She pours water onto the couch cushions. She puts putty in her hair (thanks to my mother-in-law for that gift.) Oh, Sarah. My crazy girl!
Here is the group picture we took when we met Abby. Abby is having complications from her chemo right now so please lift her up in prayer. She is just the sweetest little girl. Joshua loved her right away and wanted to sit next to her on the rides. They're the same age. I can't imagine all that she and her family have gone through since her diagnosis. Please keep her in your thoughts!
What trip would be complete without a family picture with 2 ginormous rabbits?
Nathan was happy just to kick his feet up and relax while Mommy pushed over 150 lbs of kids in "The Beast." By the way, "The Beast" is the stroller for those of you wondering. (Do I need to add a picture of it on the sidebar? It feels like a member of our family.)
Matthew is obsessed with cars. He always has been, ever since he was a baby. Meeting the real Lightning McQueen and Mater was like a dream come true! He and Joshua were too scared to go up and meet them by themselves so Jason went too.
My Lilo and Stitch met the real Lilo and Stitch! Ok, so I haven't used those nicknames in a long time... but I used to call the girls that when they were babies.
Leila finally cracked a smile! And she hasn't stopped talking about meeting Ariel since we got home. She even told a lady in Target last night. Apparently the experience was life-changing for my Little Mermaid fan. I was a bit weirded out by Ariel's blindingly pale bare abdomen and perky purple seashell bra. But hey, she was pretty authentic!
Sometimes I like to sit and stare at my baby boys and their beautiful blonde hair and bright blue eyes. There is just no way those blondies came out of me. Will the real twin mama please stand up?

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Is Disney World supposed to be the most magical place on earth? Well, it is if you're three years old! (Or 5 years old, or 6 years old... or even one year old!)
My little chipmunk cheeked boys loved meeting the big chipmunks. Chip and Dale loved them right back too.
All of the Magic Kingdom was decorated in true Disney style. There were Mickey-shaped pumpkins everywhere. You wouldn't think such little details would have such a big impact, but Matthew is still talking about it.
Leila and Sarah showed off their dance skills when we met Tinkerbell. Heck, they danced for just about every character they met. They love to dance. (They definitely didn't learn that from me!)
Did I mention that Jason hit on Tinkerbell? He did. It was the strangest conversation and it went something like this:

Tink: Wow! Two sets of twins? I'm seeing double double! That's a neat skill! Can you make two of me?

Me: Ummm, I don't know how to do it. You'd have to ask my husband.

Jason: Sure! I can make you have twins.


I really don't think that's what Tink meant... but oh well! Jason offered to knock up a Disney fairy!
I was just amazed at how truly magical it was for the girls to meet the Disney princesses. They were in awe and it was wonderful to watch. I have never seen them so happy before.
My little princesses met the "real" princess, Cinderella. This is so weird for me because I was (am?) a total tomboy. I was never into princesses and fairies and girly things. I liked playing outside in the dirt and making things out of sticks. These two girls came out of my body but I swear they are nothing like me! They're so sugary sweet that it hurts.
I think Sarah was sneezing in this picture but I had to keep it anyway. The wicked stepsisters actually looked just like the cartoon characters. It was eerie! And they sang off key and fought with each other too. My girls loved it. They call them the "mean girls."
Our whole gang stopped to watch one of the shows in front of Cinderella's castle and I had to capture the moment. Jason was leaning in close to whisper to Sarah about Snow White. That's her favorite princess. Leila's favorite is Ariel. And I obviously know entirely too much about Disney princesses. Scary.
The kids loved Pinnochio but his skinny girl legs in the pale tights just freaked me out. It brought back flashbacks from when I used to be a Power Ranger. Have I ever mentioned that I used to be a Power Ranger? Well, I did. It was in high school. And I drove a truck through a pharmacy store window when I was eight. I think I need to write a post full of random facts about me. Weird stuff just seems to happen to me. Anyway...
Disney was fun! And I'm still digging through the thousands of other pictures from our trip. In the meantime I have to go figure out how to find hardwood flooring to match the existing floors in our house in Georgia. Apparently the tenants called our property manager to tell her that the military movers destroyed part of the hardwood floors and they need to be replaced. I am so glad that I'm over 500 miles away. I think if I saw the damage I just might lose my mind. I am so not cut out to be a landlord. I have enough stress about the damage my own kids are probably doing in this house at this very moment!

Disney Tips for Frazzled Parents

I'm far from an expert on Disney, but I have learned a few things from our trip this week as well as our trip 2 years ago. Now, I'll share my magical tips for those of you contemplating a Disney vacation with one child, two children, twins, two sets of twins, or anything in between.

Budget: The key to our ability to visit Disney World has been sticking to our budget. When we visited in January 2008 we thought we were getting a great deal because we only had to pay for one child. Because we are a military family, we bought tickets through Shades of Green and got a small discount. In 2009, Disney generously offered free admission to military and discounted admission for their families. The discount was HUGE! We're talking $99 for a 5-day ticket. Big time savings. We set aside a little bit of money every month to pay for this vacation and we had almost a full year to save for it. Planning in advance really helped with that.

Another big factor for making our trip possible was that we are saving on both food and lodging. I'll cover that more below. Everyone is different, but this is just what worked best for us.

Food: We have opted not to eat in the parks whenever possible. We eat breakfast before we head out for the day so everyone starts off feeling good and full. I pack lunches the night before so we can just grab the lunch bag and go out the door. Then we try to leave the parks around dinner time and head back to the house to eat. Of course we don't always make it back in time and we have had to eat in the park before, plus it's nice to go out for special occasions (Matthew's birthday) so we plan for that one night. Every other night I cook dinner just like at home.

For lunches, I pack everything up in a soft Land's End insulated lunch bag. (I won mine from 5 Minutes for Mom!) It's small enough to fit under the stroller and has a carabiner clip to attach to the stroller if needed. Two of these bags are enough for our family of 8 to bring lunch and snacks each day. I freeze water in our Klean Kanteens the night before so we have cold water always available. In the lunch bags I make sandwiches for everyone (usually non-refrigerated stuff like Nutella or peanut butter and raisins.) I love to freeze grapes and the kids think it's some kind of special treat. I bring yogurt and other cold or frozen snacks in the lunch bags and then some munchy snacks (crackers, granola bars, etc.) in a separate bag. I usually have enough food to last the entire day and that's saying a lot when there are 8 mouths to feed. We save a ton of money by bringing our own food.



Lodging: We would love to stay in a Disney resort but it's just not in the cards for us. Those places are ridiculously expensive and even the military resort (Shades of Green) costs more than we can afford. Instead, we opted to rent a townhouse just outside of the Disney gates. It's got 3 bedrooms, a private backyard and pool, and my washer and dryer is inside the house. We have all the luxuries of home! And because we are vacationing during the off-season, we are paying less than $100 per night. I love the place we chose to stay and it has been fabulous so far. The trade-off has been that we have to pay for parking, but it's a small price to pay for such huge savings.

Transportation: Another key to our Disney trip has been having our own vehicle. Having 6 kids in carseats means we can't fly anywhere. At least not easily. As you know, I drive everywhere. We have our van, with our carseats, and we can easily get around to the parks without relying on public transportation. Having flown into Orlando before and rented a vehicle, I can tell you that it has been much, much easier this time.

Strollers: Along with having our own van, I have our own strollers. I know some people love the rental strollers in the parks, but we can't afford it. The rentals are around $30 per day for a double stroller. After 5 days, you've paid for the cost of a brand new double stroller! That's crazy! Besides, we needed a quad and they don't have those for rent. We opted to bring our Chicco double and 2 quad strollers, I bought a used Foundations Quad just before we left for the trip because I wasn't sure if "The Beast" would fit everywhere in the parks. After the first (miserable) day of pushing the Foundations quad around, I decided to ditch it and just use "The Beast." It really is so much easier to push! Needless to say, I'm going to sell the Foundations quad because that was a big waste. However, I am so glad that we have our strollers with us and it's been really easy to get around.

The Logistics: We have found that the hardest part of taking our kids to the theme parks is just the attention. We get stopped in every crowd and people are constantly taking photos of us. It's more than a bit unnerving. Otherwise, we have been doing ok! The babies nap in the stroller and we try to time it so that the big kids can ride on something or see a show while the babies nap. Jason and I are doing the whole parent-swap-thing so one of us rides with Matthew and then the other person rides with Joshua while the little kids rest in the stroller. It's working out really, really well!

Potty runs have been a minor issue since I usually carry a potty seat with us but didn't on the first day. Now I'm carrying the seat again and if we're far from a bathroom, Leila can duck behind a bush and use the little potty. Sometimes it's not possible to drag 6 kids across the park to find an accessible restroom.

Waiting in line has proven to be a big challenge for Matthew but we're working on that. Usually we don't have to wait for very long (30 minutes or less in most cases) and we just don't ride the rides that have longer lines. When we are all riding something together, we park the double stroller outside the ride and take the quad right up to the ride entrance where a cast member usually lets us leave it nearby. Obviously we are outnumbered by our offspring and I think most people are pretty understanding of that.

That's all I can think of at the moment... But if you have Disney questions, leave a comment and I'll answer them in a separate post. Just remember, I'm not an expert. But I do know about talking trash cans and erotic foliage.

Like father...
...like son.

I love this place!

When You're Little, Everything Is Big

When you're little, a doll hat can fit on your head.

When you're little, you can fit into a swing with your twin brother.

When you're little, making new friends is easy.

When you're little, the playground is enormous!

When you're little, every day is filled with new adventures and everything is big!

Last week we saw old friends, made new friends, and explored the town we called home for the last 4 years. We had a blast seeing families that we haven't seen in months, and we met up with a blog friend who we had never met before. (Audrey, your boys are adorable and we had so much fun with you!) We hit every park and playground in Augusta and had so much fun! Sarah even found her first love in the youngest son of my dear friend. Sarah was delighted to swing with him for half an hour as he kept his arm firmly wrapped around her and laughed at her fake burps. She found her perfect match.

On Saturday we headed south to Florida. Yesterday we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom and today we explored the Animal Kingdom. I have so many pictures and so much to write about! Today we met Abby and spent some time with her and some of her family. We are just so busy right now!

I'm working on big post with answers to all of your recent (and not-so-recent) questions and comments. I need to revisit the potty training topic. I still have posts about our trip to Colorado and my salivary gland stones. And apparently, I need to post a bit about our experiences with Aspergers Syndrome since it's been a long time since I've posted about it and many of you probably don't even know what I'm talking about. (Matthew is on the autism spectrum.) Now I'll have all of our Disney pictures to sort through as well.

We are having a blast and this place really is magical. I can't even describe how wonderful it has been to see our children so happy. It is a welcome distraction from what is to come when Jason leaves in just a few short weeks. For now, we are having the time of our lives!

Coming tomorrow... Disney tips. Because I'm an expert now, you know!

Proof That I Am Insane

Here I sit, in the living room of our cozy, little rental townhouse in Kissimmee, Florida. Here I sit, just minutes from the "most magical place on earth." Here I sit, wondering what possessed me to drag 6 children to Disney World...

Other thoughts running through my head right now include:

-Why does Sarah poop so much? Twice on the floor and we've only been here for 4 hours!

-How am I going to get the quad stroller from the parking lot into the park tomorrow?

-Is Matthew going to have a meltdown in the park? (Aspies are unpredictable in situations like that!)

-Will Jason and I survive the next two weeks?



Stay tuned to find out. Your guess is as good as mine!

Is It October Already?

All year I have been anticipating the arrival of October with a mixture of both excitement and dread. I love autumn, with the changing of the leaves and the cooler temperatures. The kids have been excited about seeing Daddy again and going to Disney World. But in the back of my mind I just want to hit the rewind button. Can we go back a few months? I'm not ready for Jason to go to Iraq. But I guess I won't ever be...

Last night I had my first dream about it. I dreamt that Jason's unit was attacked. In reality, I think the chances of that happening are very slim because he swears he's going to be in some windowless building somewhere doing his secret squirrel stuff. Still, I wonder. I pray. And I hope that the time flies and he's back home with us soon where he belongs.

Today is the beginning of a new journey. Jason is leaving Arizona today and driving to southern California. Tomorrow morning he'll drive up to Monterey, CA and spend the night where we used to live. Then on Thursday he'll arrive in Washington state-the place we will soon be living. Friday he flies from Tacoma to DC and we'll be reunited once again. It's only 3 days away!

As I've been looking back through photos from our summer in Arizona, I'm surprised at how much I miss it. I really liked it in the desert! I'm totally shocked because I thought I'd be miserable there and ended up not wanting to leave.

I know the kids all have fond memories of our summer too. We spent weekends with Daddy exploring the southwest. The kids fed these giraffes at the zoo in Tucson and they still talk about it. Hopefully they will think about that while he's gone. He's so worried they'll forget him. I'm not sure that's even possible.


My head is a big, jumbled mess right now. I'm busy unpacking (from moving) and packing (for our trip) and worrying about where my checkbook went and who needs a clean diaper and why, oh why, is there poop on Sarah's hand? My house looks like a bomb went off and my van looks like someone is living in it. Maybe we need to have a "dirtiest van" contest. I'd win.


Hello, October! Are you really half gone already? Where has the time gone?

Jason arrives on Friday and we leave for Georgia on Sunday. Then we head down to Disney World at the end of next week. What was I thinking? Taking 6 kids to Disney by ourselves? Are we insane???? I need my head checked for sure.

Yesterday I went and looked at a (very used) quad stroller that seats 2 in the front and 2 in the back. It actually collapses and folds and has 2 big storage baskets underneath. I think I'm going to get it just to use at Disney so we don't have to bring "the Beast." We will also be bringing the twin stroller for Matthew and Joshua since Joshua gets especially tired when walking all day. For those of you in similar situations, what have you done? I'm nervous about the logistics of carting 6 little kids around a theme park. Yeah, we are definitely crazy.