It's that time of year again...

The weather is heating up and we'll be spending a lot of our weekends and days off at the beach. Thankfully my little family loves the waves and sand as much as I do:

 The sandcastle experts.

Our Third Easter as a Family of Three

We had such a perfect weekend. We were able to color Easter eggs for the first time this year! I don't know who was more excited...the hubby, Jax, or me! Jackson had a blast but couldn't figure out how to gently place the eggs into the colored water. He was a fan of throwing the eggs into the dye, cracking them and splashing all of us in the process. We'll get it down pat next year.

And...this is the meltdown that ensued after we were done coloring our eggs.

Toddlerhood isn't for the faint of heart people.

I always love stuffing Jackson's Easter basket with fun things. We usually forgo the candy and opt for cool flip flops, pajamas, puzzles, books, bubbles, chalk and beach toys.

We had a perfect day with both sides of our families.

My lovely parents.

Our little family.

My brother and I.

My, how things have changed:

 Easter 2010, almost 4 months old.

Easter 2011, 15 months old.

 Easter 2012, 27 months old.

Jackson's First Trip to Disney

We spent the last weekend in March in Orlando at the Magic Kingdom. Even though the hubby and I have been half a dozen times or more, this was Jackson's very first trip and it was a blast. We got to the park early Saturday morning and spent half of the day soaking up every detail.

We went to Disney with our aunt and her boyfriend. It was nice to have extra people with us because we were able to ride all of our favorite rides and still enjoy everything with our little man. Here's a look at our mini vacation:

Jackson on Main Street, feeling a little overwhelmed.

First up on our agenda was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Splash Mountain, naturally.

Jackson doing his best "To Infinity and Beyond!"

We took in a couple of parades while eating our lunch in Tomorrowland.

After lunch, we waited in line for 45+ minutes to let Jax meet his idol, Buzz. I kept asking Jackson if he wanted to meet Buzz and he seemed really excited. When we finally got up to the huge character, Jackson FREAKED! He was definitely not a fan and this is the best "family picture" we could get:

Jax is less than enthused and would only let his uncle hold him with daddy close by and poor Buzz had to sneak in behind them, ha! We were hot, sweaty and tired and I was not going to leave the Gama Quadrant of Sector Four without some sort of picture!

After we walked all over Disney, we decided to head to our hotel to check in. As soon as our tram picked us up to take us to the parking lot, the sky opened up and the worst thunderstorm hit us head on. We were soaked! By the time we made it to our car, we were literally dripping wet and our feet were sloshing in our shoes. We couldn't help but laugh hysterically all the way to the hotel.

We stayed at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel & Spa near Downtown Disney. We were more than impressed with our accommodations. The hotel was beautiful and huge! We checked into our rooms, showered, dressed in our fluffy white bath robes and sipped on coffee to warm up.

The soggy hotel grounds.

Jackson was having a blast despite the weather.

After we changed, I dressed Jax in his Buzz Lightyear pajamas and Mickey Mouse Crocs and we headed to dinner at the sports bar inside of our hotel. We took the hotel shuttle back to Disney for the night.

If you've never been to Disney at night, I highly recommend it! There is an entirely different feeling throughout the park. There were literally half of the people and the rides had half the wait times. We watched two parades, watched a light show on the castle, rode rides, ate ice cream, shopped and walked the entire park twice until after midnight.

Jackson was such a trooper! He fell asleep in his stroller and slept from 8pm until we left for the night. I cuddled him up with his favorite pillowpet and a fluffy blanket and he was lost in peaceful Disney dreams.
We spent the next day at Downtown Disney. We shopped, ate lunch and took in all of the scenery. We rented a 21' pontoon boat later in the afternoon and drove it all around Downtown Disney and the Disney resorts.

My hubby and his best friend, our aunt's boyfriend.

We explored Orlando for a little while after Downtown Disney and grabbed dinner at a local steak house before heading home. We had a blast and we can't wait to go back! Our next family vacation will be in December to our favorite place in Tennessee.

Jackson, the Big Boy and other Rambles

We took the plunge and finally converted Jackson's crib into a big boy bed. He's pretty skinny so he could have fit into his crib for a lot longer but with his monkey-like tendencies and his habit of climbing on anything in sight, I thought it would be best to convert now. Here's a peek at our little man's bed:



The transition has been perfect. He loves his new bed and literally does not get out of his bed until I go into his room in the morning. He has a baby gate right outside of his door to keep him from wandering all over the house at night, just in case he ever tries.

We are leaving for our mini Disney vacation this weekend! I've been planning this trip since January and I'm excited that it's finally arrived! I can't wait to see Jackson's reaction to everything!

Speaking of trips, we also decided to head up to Tennessee again this winter. We'll be up there for a little over a week in December. I'm really excited to get out of hot weather and to head to a place that actually feels like Christmas and winter. Here is a pic of our little snow nugget on our last trip in 2010:


Since it's warming up here quick, fast, and in a hurry...I decided to make another wreath found on Pinterest. I headed to Hobby Lobby and bought a container of drink umbrellas and a medium sized straw wreath.
I left the wreath in the plastic and stuck the tiny umbrellas all over, covering any holes. I would have made it a lot easier on myself if I had used a foam wreath but I couldn't find that type of wreath in the size that I wanted. After a few splinters and broken umbrellas, I ended up with this:

Pretty cute and perfect for our patio. I love it.

Everything has been really busy around here. When we get back from Disney, we have Easter, I'll be starting classes again and I'm still working 3 days a week. I love my job and it has worked out perfectly. I feel like I get to be a stay at home mom 4 days out of the week and a working mom for three. It's the best of both worlds.

Jackson is 2 and almost 3 months old and growing and learning every day. We're heading out to the park today. I want to soak up some of this beautiful weather!