Marshmallows

About once or twice a year, we buy our girls kosher marshmallows.  They LOVE them, but we don't get them very often because they are super expensive, not exactly healthy, and giving them to the girls rarely keeps them special :)  This year we took pictures of the girls getting their surprise.

Do you think they were excited?  :)

Pregnancy Journal: 37 weeks

Yay!  I have now made it to 37 weeks in this pregnancy which means, I am now considered full term and I am now able to birth outside of a hospital.  Unfortunately, I found out a couple of weeks ago that my main midwife does not accept my insurance for homebirths (only birthing center) and it is unlikely that the other midwife will be on call when the event happens, so we are preparing for a birthing center birth instead.

If I make it to 41 weeks, I will have to see an OB for a non-stress test and another ultrasound and wait for the "ok" to be released back to the birthing center, so...I am hoping that the baby is born on her own before then.  I had my check-up today and I am nowhere near ready to deliver yet, which is okay since I have three weeks until my due date.  The midwife was somewhat concerned today because when she measured my belly, I only measured 33 weeks.  I tend to hide my big babies well.  At 32 weeks, I had an ultrasound.  At that point, the baby measured 5 lbs and according to the ultrasound, I was measuring two weeks ahead.  But, my midwife said that later ultrasounds are less reliable than earlier ultrasounds.

The only other concern at this time is my iron.  When it was checked last week, it was 33 which is the lowest it can go without me being referred to an OB for further instructions.  I have been doing some stuff to try to increase it and will be checked again next week.

Otherwise, all is going well.  I am getting super anxious to meet our baby girl!

Disney World

Yesterday, we took the girls on their 1st trip to Disney's Magic Kingdom.  We wanted to do something super special for them before the new baby is born.  Even though they've only seen a small handful of Disney movies, they have been asking for months to go to Disney World.  It took a long time to convince Andrew that it was a good idea and I'm pretty sure it'll take at least seven years to convince him to go back (it's expensive and crowded), but we sure did enjoy our day.  It's always so much fun to see the girls' faces light up as they try new things. 

So Excited

Almost There

The park was open from 9am until 9pm.  The day ended with a fireworks display near Cinderella's castle.  The fireworks were over about 9:20pm or so, but because of all the people leaving at the same time, we didn't get out of the park until 11pm!  Yes, LONG day!

The girls were both given "1st Visit" buttons, which they wore the whole day.

We were able to do almost everything that we wanted to do, despite the lines and also the late afternoon rain shower. 

Ella said the horses were her favorite thing about the day.

When I was three, we lived in Texas.  We went to Florida that year to observe the biblical Feast of Tabernacles.  After the Feast was over, my parents took us to the Magic Kingdom on our way back home to TX.  Dumbo was my favorite ride and my dad took me twice that day!  So, of course, I wanted my girls to experience the classic Dumbo ride too!  Arin rode with her daddy and Ella with me.  Ella loved this ride and asked to go a second time :)

Waiting in Lines = A Lesson in Patience :)

The girls were both excited to go on the Snow White ride, but both were scared during the ride.

Don't they look thrilled? lol

Getting Sleepy...

Snoozing!  And Arin is such a sweet sister that she fanned Ella (without being asked) while she slept.

 We took a ride on the steam ship.

 The girls loved the upper deck.

 Waiting for the parade to begin.

 Arin's favorite part of the parade was seeing Donald Duck and Cinderella!

By 4:00, I needed a break!  We went over to Tom Sawyer's Island.  Andrew and his brother, Todd, took the girls to explore the island for about thirty minutes, while I sat in the shade and rested :)

Arin said this Barrell Bridge was her favorite part of the day.  She also told me that I would have been scared on it :)

It's a Small World ride

Ella loved It's a Small World and asked to go a second time.

I wanted a picture of the girls in front of Cinderella's Castle.  They tried really hard to stand there for me to get a good picture, but there was a street parade happening at the same time and all Arin wanted to do was...

 DANCE!!!!

 We told the girls when we first got to the park that they could each pick out one treat of their choice after lunch.  We told them there'd be stuff to pick from like cotton candy, ice cream, pop corn, candy, etc.   Ella picked a five-pack of character shaped lollipops and Arin picked one big princess lollipop.  Smart girls, both picked multi-serving treats :)

Who knew there'd be ducks to feed at Disney?

Three goofy people on the PeopleMover.  This is the only ride we did twice.  The only reason we did this a second time was because it rained in the late afternoon.

Buzz Lightyear interactive ride

The day before we went to Disney, we stopped by the Dollar Tree and picked up some glo-sticks, which we gave the girls once it was dark outside.  They LOVED this special treat and it kept them entertained while Andrew and Todd went on Space Mountain.

Waiting for the Fireworks

Fireworks and Cinderella's Castle

Ella was asleep for the night before we got back to our car and Arin was asleep for the night almost as soon as we got in the car.  Both slept until 10:00 this morning!