Big Announcement!

No, we are not having baby #3. No we aren't moving, again. No, we aren't getting another dog. Nothing, crazy like that, just a change for me....I'm going back to work, kind of.

I am very excited to announce that I have signed on with an affiliate to be a vacation concierge for all Disney destinations! You are probably wondering what the heck is that. Well, I can now plan and book all your Disney needs with NO charge to you. Yes, I said, No charge to you! How great is that?????

I am really excited about this journey. Charlie and I talked about me going back to work full time and I told him, I wasn't going back to an office job where I don't want to be. He told me to keep thinking and find something that would be the perfect fit. I can't think of a better fit for me, I get to work from home and I get to help people plan a memory making trip that will stay with them for a lifetime. You remember that feeling when you walked into Magic Kingdom or any Disney park, the first time, imagine now watching your children's faces light up when they walk in. How great a job is that, knowing I can provide that kind of magic.

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of Disney training. I am hoping to complete my training within the week or so and after that "I'm all Ears."

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Now, who wants to be my first booking?

Party, Party, Party

Partying is pretty much what we have been doing since December 31st. New Years Resolutions to eat better, drink more water and exercise never start until January 19th around here because we are too busy celebrating!

Let's go back to December 31st when we celebrated Henry's 6th Birthday! We had my family in town and of course my brother and sister in law made the cake for Henry's family party. He wanted a Skylanders portal and they pulled it off.

Here is a family picture of us from Henry's family party.

After the party we headed out to Clyde's to ring in the new year. Fun was had by all that night.

On Sunday, we had Henry's Birthday party with his friends. This time it was a Lego party at the house. If you have ever planned a Lego party, you will know that there is NOTHING out there and you really have to make everything. I just used yellow, blue, green and red to decorate. We also just used everything in the house...Lego head storage for a centerpiece and Henry's legos to decorate around the rest of the kitchen.

We came up with the idea to give each kid a small Lego City kit to build at the party and it also filled in as their favor. Thank you Target Clearance sale for allowing me to get them a bigger one because of the deal.

Henry's cupcakes came from Sam's Club. Seriously, they are the best cupcakes, they always taste delicious. I just added Lego's to the top to make them match the party theme.

All the kids had fun and Henry really enjoyed making Lego's with his friends. The party was easy to put together and I think it turned out great.

After that party finished, I went into Ariel mode for Mary's party. I had five days to get her 3rd Birthday party all put together.  I swear we didn't plan on having kids with Birthdays this close together, someone - we call her Mary - had her own plan, but it is what it is. Last year we didn't have a party for Mary and I think I felt a little guilty about that, so we decided to throw her a little something.

She is obsessed with princess anything so we picked her favorite. She approved and planning started back in December.

First up was her cake because I knew I wanted her to have a special cake. I knew exactly who I wanted because we had her cake back in October at a friends house. Her company is called Cake Me with You and she bakes out of her home in Ashburn. If you live by me, please find her on FB because I can't begin to tell you how good this cake was. I'm not even a cake person and I am obsessed with eating this cake. The bottom was strawberry and the top was vanilla, OMG.

After, I had the cake squared away, I looked on Etsy for Mary's shirt. I maybe ordered this shirt the last week in December, in hopes it would make it for her party and of course it did. The shop name on Etsy is SweetNSassyEmbroider.. The reason I was able to get it so quick is because she had the size I needed in stock. It is so cute and Mary of course, loved it. The best part, we will use it again when we go to Disney in March.

Now, it was time for favors and who doesn't love a cookie favor. A family friend started a business recently making cookies and I knew she would create the perfect cookie for Mary's party. I contacted Nicole at Coley's Confections and she was so sweet to work with and created the sweetest treat! Mary squealed when she saw them. Nicole is in Jacksonville, FL but ships anywhere. Please check her out on FB too, you will not be disappointed.

Now, that I had all the big things squared away, I had time to think about food and decorations. Mind you, it is now the week of the party. I can only plan and do one party at a time so these final items had to wait. I knew I would make a banner and then I decided to have poms all around the party area. We had some sea foam green and blue poms leftover so I used those in the kitchen. I bought Martha Stewart purple paper lanterns at Michael's and hung those from the fan in the family room and a friend gave me two pink pom strands and they looked perfect in the kitchen.

Apparently, that is the only picture I took of the decorations. I can't believe I didn't take one of the whole food area and all the decor. I'm really sad about this. I also bought beads and chocolate coins. Those candelabras are from Halloween, I just hung beads from them and every Ariel party needs a treasure chest. That was a last minute find.

Now, to my favorite part - the food! With a little help from some friends and Pinterest, I found these food ideas! The signs I made with my Silhouette Cameo and the signs are from Target Dollar Bins, They were made the day before the party and probably were my favorite part.

How much fun is all that food. The starfish were PBJ for the kids and the crabwiches were egg salad and tuna salad. It was a lunch party so these worked great. The Under the Sea Drink was just Hawaiian punch and I added sweedish fish into the container. Kids loved it.

We can't thank our family and friends enough for helping us celebrate these past few weeks. I had a blast planning all the parties and creating most of the decorations. A special thanks to Charlie for putting up with me and helping my visions come to reality. Some people might think I went a little over board but really it's my hobby. Some read books for enjoyment, I create parties for my kids. I enjoy seeing their faces light up as the party gets set up and I love the excitement they have at the party.

We still have one more Birthday to celebrate and that is MINE! No, I'm not planning a party for myself, I don't have the energy for that. My wonderful husband is taking me out Friday and then on Saturday my friends and I are headed to a winery. Much needed fun after a month of partying.

thyroglossal duct cyst

Can you even pronounce it? Wondering what it is? Intrigued to see where this post is going to go?

Thyroglossal duct cyst - It usually presents as a midline neck lump (in the region of the hyoid bone) that is usually painless, smooth and cystic, though if infected, pain can occur. 

That is just a snip of it, of the whole wikipedia definition, but it's something we are learning about week by week.

Let's go back three weeks and I am watching Henry talk and talk and talk. I'm now staring at him and his throat. I bring him upstairs to Charlie and have him look at it. Apparently, Charlie noticed it a couple days before and said he told me, but I must have missed that. We agree to call our pediatrician because something isn't right.

We get an appointment that day and they test for strep. If you don't know Henry, HE HATES, people touching his head or holding him down. Let's say the strep test took 3 nurses to hold him down to swab his throat. Once that came back negative, the doctor said, we should just monitor it and she was sure it was a swollen lymph node.

I wasn't comfortable with that answer and asked if there was anything else that can be done. I mean, my child has a lump sticking out of his throat, that is not his adam's apple and you want me to monitor it... Yeah, no. So, she agreed to send us for an ultrasound on his throat. Imagine my reaction after three nurses sitting on him for a strep test, that I now had to take him for an ultrasound.

He surprised me and did really well. He thought is was so cool to see inside his throat. (Disclaimer: he has no idea, what is going on). The radiologist came in and told us he has a thyroglossal duct cyst. Now, earlier that morning we had talked to Grandpa and he actually thought that is what it was, so it was confirmed.

Of course, we go home and google the shit out of this and the steps that need to be taken. That leads us to today, where we drove to Children's Hospital in Fairfax and met with the surgeon to see our next steps. Our next step...schedule a CT scan to see if his thyroid is working. Which means my child will need dye for the CT scan. A few paragraphs ago, I told you it took 3 nurses for a strep test, so this will probably need sedation and an entire staff to make this happen. We are hoping to schedule the test for sometime next week.

Once those results are in, we will be told the next step. Surgery will be coming, unless for some reason the cyst is acting as his thyroid. The doctor did not think that is the case but she needs to be sure. So, if it is the cyst and no thyroid issue, he will have surgery on his throat and they will remove the cyst and any bone fragments. Most likely, this will be an overnight stay at Children's in DC but we will get to that hurdle when it is time.

We are  telling him nothing and will wait to see what happens at the CT scan. He hears us talking about it and heard the doctor talking about surgery but he really has no idea what is going on. He's happy and excited to get a new Skylander after each appointment. We really don't need him to know because he would worry the entire time and we are doing enough worrying for everyone.

So, for now we wait.

2014 In Review

I can't believe it is already January 5th and I am just getting to my 2014, year in review. It's been a busy 2015 already and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Let's take a look back, shall we.

January 2014
Mary celebrated her 2nd Birthday. We didn't have a party and I probably have Mommy guilt about that so this year we are. Mary also decided last January that she was done with her crib and moved herself to a big girl bed. I too celebrated my 37th Birthday....

February:

We saw a lot of snow last February so we had lots of time outside.  Apparently, this was a slow month for us. We also hosted the Super Bowl party one last time in the old house.

March:

It was like the winter that would NEVER end. We had some record cold temps this month. We put our old house on the market and I lost my job. Not too things you really want to go together, but it happened and we made it work. While the house was on the market the kids and I went to SC and we didn't return until the house was under contract......12 days later, we came back.

April:

We closed on the old house and moved into an apartment Easter weekend. It was an interesting move but we made it happen. We also scored tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll. The kids had a blast and I am glad we can say we did it. Cousin Scott got married in Charleston and it was Henry's first ring bearer experience. We had a blast in a city we love with our family. Charlie and I celebrated our 8 year Anniversary on the 29th.

May:

May was again a busy month for us. Henry started up with tball again, we celebrated Mother's Day and we went to a Nationals game with Henry's Little League. At the end of the month we headed to New Jersey to see family and also took the kids to NYC for the first time.

June:

We celebrated Henry's graduation from PreSchool and Melissa and Abdul's wedding. Both the kids and myself were in the wedding. It was a gorgeous day for an amazing couple. The kids and I also headed back to South Carolina for a little beach vacation.

July:

Of course we had our annual trip to New Jersey for the lake picnic. . The end of the month had us closing on our new house and moving again. Everyone was ready to get out of the apartment and live in Willowsford.

August:

This month after only being in the new house for two weeks we were off to Florida to take a cruise with my family. There are way too many photos so here are just one or two. We swam with dolphins in Cozumel, I zip lined in Routan and we enjoyed family and late night snacks.

September:

Henry started KINDERGARTEN at Creighton Corner Elementary and Mary started preschool at Open Arms in Ashburn. Two big days in our house. Grandma was here to see Henry off on his first day. Charlie turned 35 in September and we headed to Vegas to celebrate. Not only did we celebrate in Vegas, Charlie bought a Jeep. It was a total splurge but we loved it. 

October:

Are you exhausted yet, because I am. Of course October brought us Halloween. The kids had a blast in the new neighborhood and we threw our first big party at the house. It was an 80's themed Halloween party and everyone had AMAZING costumes. We also said our good byes to Charlie's Nanny this month. Great woman with a great celebration of her life.

November:

Mary got her first hair cut this month. For Thanksgiving we went to Atlanta. We had a great time with Aunt Deanie, Uncle Steve, Julia, Alexa and Grandma.

December:

We saw Santa at the mall, we rode the train with Santa and we had Santa come to Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve. It was an exciting month for kids big and small! Charlie and I also hosted our neighbors for an amazing Christmas party at the house. Each couple chipped in and we had a chef come and cook for us. We also did a White Elephant gift exchange. I hope we can make this an annual event. Can't forget that we celebrated our first Christmas in the new house!

Finally, we closed out December with Henry's 6th Birthday and our 5th Annual NYE at Clyde's.

Wow, what a year of memories. Can't wait to see what 2015 brings!