Orlando

To celebrate Doug becoming an RN we went on a fabulous trip to Orlando Florida. It was Doug's first time and he loved it. We used Shane's (my brother in law) buddy passes to fly there and that was an adventure...Shane flew with us to help us get there quicker and he stayed and played at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

They had the most delicious butter beer you could imagine. After a hot day in lines and rides we stopped by the three broom sticks to sit and sip down the fantastic drink.

This is a crapy picture of a great story. They have a wand shop(Ollivanders) and they choose one person out of the crowd to come and pick out a wand just for them. After the first time we went in Doug and Shane were determined to be picked. So we got in line again with hopes that they could be the special person. I really could care less, but they were sure excited. We even made a bet that if one of did get picked then the other two had to buy them the wand that was picked for them. Well the trick was acting REALLY excited to be in the shop and that is just what I did. I played it up really well and guess who got picked? Yep, I sure did. Those two boys couldn't believe it. 

 The dueling brothers

Doug met a celebrity bird from Pirates of the Caribbean. 

 On Sunday after church and nice long nap we toured around a couple of the disney hotels. They were awesome and some day we will stay at them when we are billionaires :) We walked around a nice pier and roasted marshmallows on the beach. It was fabulous acting like we were staying at the hotel and getting all the perks.

These little worker birds were all over the disney pier and beach. Doug and I were talking about how nice the area was and not dirty at all. The birds were picking up little pieces of trash and flying off with them. I looked at these two and said, "Doug! That is amazing! These little birds work for Disney. They have little name tags! I am sure they are trained to clean up the area." I sure didn't think he would believe me, but he looked over quickly in amazement, searching for their name tags. Priceless! 

 Doug got picked to be in a few things around Universal Studios. First, he was in a stunt show type thing where they filmed you doing little skits and then put the clips into a bigger disaster clip. He was a scientist with rocks falling on him. The next thing that he got to do was be on fear factor.

 I sadly didn't get any pictures of him all suited up, but this was the set where they did their challenges. He had to try out 90 minutes before the show and he was one of 6 choosen. They took him in the back and suited him up in a spandex suit and harness. The first challenge was to hang high in the sky and the first two to fall were out. Sadly Doug was the second one to fall. He blames the blasted hot and humid Florida weather causing extra sweaty hands. It was so fun to see him in it. Defiantly one of my highlights from the trip.

 This poor girl had her brother spin a wheel and it said what creature was going to be put in the box. Doug really wanted me to do this part, but luckily I didn't have photo ID on me, so I was spared. One of the options on the wheel was a snake, so I'm extremely thankful I didn't have my ID.

 We spent a day at the fabulous Clearwater beach on the gulf of Mexico. Doug was slightly disappointed at the small waves coming in, but I loved it. We both got bad sunburns, but it was worth it.

 We loved animal kingdom park. They had a great safari ride and an awesome gorilla area with over 15 gorillas. They even had a little baby gorilla that was adorable.

 Do you see the man on the motorized scooter next to Doug? These scooter are EVERYWHERE in the parks. Next time we are totally renting them!

 And yes, those awesome sketches you see were drawn by Doug and myself. They had an animation tutorial and we were quite pleased with how ours turned out.

 Ecot had tons of characters made out of plants and the details were unreal. We saw a couple get engaged at Epcot and that was pretty exciting. I also saw two snakes there, which really put a damper on the Japan area.

We missed this little guy so much while we were gone. Our wonderful parents watched him while we were gone and I'm sure he was in heaven getting spoiled. We sure loved seeing him again after 8 days.

 We are back from our trip and had a great time. We sure did miss Beckham terribly though. We have amazing parents that watched him and spoiled him to death. I'm sure he's going through withdrawals being back at our house. I'll post some fun trip pictures a little later.  

 I love this picture because Beckham looks so disgusted/mad at me for dressing him for church. Speaking of church, only 3 more months until he is in nursery...which is crazy to believe. 

 I don't know if anyone else has husbands that LOVE to ride in the electric carts at stores, but Doug sure does and it embarrasses me beyond belief. In fact, the first fight I ever remembering us having was at Target while doing our wedding registry. He insisted on riding in the electric cart and kept backing up so it would beep really loud and I was so irritated. But I have now learned to just accept it I suppose.  Beckham sure enjoyed some Macey's ice cream while riding in the basket though. 

Our little man has learned how to open the oven door and I know find all sorts of things inside. I have to constantly remember to check inside before turning it on now. And don't judge my dirty oven...who ever likes cleaning an oven, especially when you are the only one that sees inside of it.

Warning...not for the weak ones!

Doug is finishing up a good part of his nursing degree this April. So this now means that all the little things he was taught in school he will have to actually do... on real people... not on dummies. This can be a little frightening because real people are scary to practice your newly found skills on. To help Doug and some of his fellow classmates we had an IV party at our house last week. 

 Doug has slowly been collecting IV's from work that are expired(who cares about expiration dates anyway, I mean it's only going inside your vein) and also collecting other supplies that the hospital couldn't use, but we sure could. 

 We gathered in our kitchen and started wrapping tourniquets and poking around. And I mean POKING around. It pained me to see how long some of the people would keep searching for a vein on their very patient fellow nursing student. I even let Doug try a poke on me and he got it perfectly. 

 Everyone had a good time and I am proud to say that everyone left our house with at least 1 successful IV start. There are some good nurses headed out into the medical world come April, lets just hope if you need an IV started you get one of Doug's friends that is a little more skilled after our get together. :)

Happy Birthday to You!

Well Doug and I did it! We have kept this little sweetheart alive and well for an entire year! We love Beckham and can't believe how lucky we are to be his parents. He turned one on Thursday so we had a little party for him. 

 I saw this cute idea on pinterest and thought it was a must. I love all of Beckham's little faces and I am so glad that I did it. It is now hanging in his room for me to enjoy daily!

 I made a little soccer smash-cake because I found some cute soccer cupcake cups for sale, so soccer it was. Also everyone always asks us if we named Beckham after the soccer player. The answer is always no, and I am especially happy that we didn't name him after David Beckham after seeing his super-bowl commercial. I don't want a man covered in tatoos and modeling underwear being the guy who we named our child after. 

 He loved eating his cake and didn't even get sick from all the cake and icing he consumed. That is most likely due to the fact that he gets a lot of sweets around our house and the grandparents house.

Happy Birthday Beckham! We love you!

I keep hearing that the weather around here is one month behind...so I am going to pretend that it is the middle of December and post all about Christmas! I must admit that I am not complaining about the weather...I have really enjoyed going on walks and being outside in January. 

 We went to the live nativity for our first time and had a great time. Beckham wasn't too thrilled to be placed in a corner hay bin for a picture...he really will appreciate all the great pictures we got of him when he is older. 

 We had a fun play date with some of Beckham's friends: Maggie and Zoe. It is so fun to see all the babies growing up and learning new things. 

 He HATED santa. I kept trying to get a good picture, but there was just something about that red suit or beard that he was terrified of.

 This is Beckham's little cousin Brian and he looked adorable Christmas morning with his little santa suit on. 

  On the other side of the family Beckham has two boy cousins pretty close in age. Isaac, Camden, and Beckham are going to be the best of friends... I hope! 

 It took a lot of effort to get all the boys to look at the camera. 

We had a really wonderful Christmas season this year. We loved spending time with our family and friends that were in town. Doug started school last week and is really excited for all his classes this semester. My sister Aly is having a baby any day now and Doug's sister Amanda is due next month so we are really excited to welcome two new girls into our family! Beckham is now taking a few steps and already has some bruises on his face to prove he is a walker!