Disney with the Princess

We took Little Princess to Disney for her birthday. We went to Epcot because I heard they have a great dining with the princesses event in Norway. So we rode some rides in the morning and then headed to Norway for lunch. After a photo op with Belle, we were seated and ate lunch and then the princess came around to each table one by one to give hugs, take photos, and talk to the kids. It was cute. After that the big kids and I rode some of the faster rides, which Olivia was so excited to do. Chase needed some pressure to ride them but in the end loved them too.  Olivia is already planning her next birthday.

Our Little Princess Turns 4

We celebrated Olivia's 4th birthday this month. She is such a sweet angel. This is the dress her Mimi made her for her best friends princess tea party last month. My mom made her dress and her BFF's dress to coordinate- hehehe.

Pow Wow

Both Chase and Olivia had Thanksgiving Pow Wow Shows this year, thankfully not on the same day. They were very cute. Chase had 2 lines in the Thanksgiving story, which he had been practicing and performed very well- "The first Thanksgiving was held in 1621" and "When the corn was ripe the pilgrims put food away for winter" hehehe
Olivia's school has a really cute feast with lots of traditional food and then a show.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL

Olivia is finally old enough to play soccer for our soccer league. She has really enjoyed it. She is very spunky and full of it at home but on the field has been more cautious and reserved, which is quite different than the Olivia we know ;) Now it is little William waiting on the sideline for his turn.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is always a big hit in our house. Chase loves to dress up and Olivia loves candy. Chase wanted to be a police officer this year. We got his costume about a month early and he has been wearing it all around. He has dressed up for everyone who has come over for a playdate or visit and several times has worn it out on our afternoon walks to "make sure the kids outside are behaving". The down side of all of this play is that all the accessories (ie club and cuffs) were broken before Halloween but maybe we were better off that way, don't want any neighborhood kids getting hurt.

Olivia was Rapunzel. She wore a sweet little dress and a long hair wig. She has been obsessed with the candy bucket and wakes up asking when she can eat some candy. William wore a couple of Chase's old costumes. He was the lion for a Halloween party and the little golfer for trick-or-treating. He loved following the big kids and went right up to get his candy too.

Introducing Benjamin Ryan Cortner

My brother-in- law and sister-in-law, Randy and Jeannie, just had their first baby. We are so excited for them to join us on this wild journey of parenthood. Jeannie went into labor about midday on Friday the 21st. I was hoping he would drag his feet a bit so he could be born on Saturday which is Ryan's birthday, not that I wanted Jeannie to have a long labor :( . But labor did take about 12 hours and Benjamin decided to make his appearance on Saturday, October 22nd. I guess he is forever bonded to his uncle with the name sake and sharing their birthday, so sweet.
The kids weren't allowed into the hospital room so we went down last week for them to meet Benjamin. It was interesting because William (who has no experience with babies) was totally fascinated with him and Chase (who has been around lots of babies) was relatively uninterested- "Yeah, Yeah, another baby, whoopty do. Where do you keep your office supplies?"
Benjamin is so sweet and snuggly. I even got to give him a bath!
We are looking forward to loving on that sweet baby boy!

Gator in Training

We have started planting the "Gator" seed in the hearts of little ones, as we would love them to attend UF someday hehehe.
Ryan was able to take Chase to the season opener this year. Ryan has been anxious to have a football buddy and it seems this year he does since Chase is old enough to sit for most of the game.
They made a big day of it, heading up early to check out the university and have dinner at The Swamp!!
They went into the stadium early to watch the players get warmed up and then watched the game until half-time, when they headed home.
Chase had a great time. He thought that football was much better than baseball (he has been to a few Rays games). And was very happy that the cotton candy man sells huge bags of cotton candy.

First Day of Kindergarten and PK-3

Toady was a BIG day! Chase started kindergarten!! Today was also Olivia's first day in PK-3. Yesterday we went and met both of their teachers, who were so nice. Chase's elementary allows parents to make teacher requests and we got our first choice! I was very excited because I heard she was the sweetest teacher, very nurturing. Olivia's teacher was also very sweet and told us she likes to sing around the room- perfect!

Everything went very smoothly today. Chase was totally calm and confident. He was excited to explore his room. He went right in and didn't hesitate when we said goodbye. I picked him up and he said everything went fine. He was wiped out so I didn't get many details about the day.

Olivia was very excited. She ran right into school, all smiles.

Overall, a successful day. It was so quiet and clean around my house. It will certainly take some getting used to.

Bye Bye Baby Teeth ;(

Chase lost his first tooth this week. We had noticed it was wiggly on Wednesday at dinner but thought it would be a couple of days. Then on Thursday, we had gone to the beach with some friends and all of the sudden Chase came running over to me and said, "Mom, I was chewing my gum and then all of a sudden it had a rock in it, so I spit it out." As soon as he started talking I knew instantly what had happened (judging from the bloody hole that had developed in his mouth). My girlfriend, Kim, and I searched the area he was playing and easily found the gum and tooth, Yeah! He was so excited. He went around and told all of his friends and showed off his new smile.

He couldn't wait to get his money from the tooth fairy but was upset at the idea of her taking his tooth. So he wrote her a note asking if she would please leave the tooth behind, which she did. On Saturday, Ryan took him to open his open savings account to put his money in. He has been carrying his "checkbook" around with him all weekend.

Between the tooth and the checkbook, I think we can safely say my baby is now a big boy. Don't even get me started on kindergarten...boohooohoo.

Little Livi

Here are just a few faces Olivia makes everyday. She is a drama queen! Although she has the most gorgeous hair and receives many compliments every week on how adorable it is, she has already begun wishing she had straight hair. I knew it would happen someday- because you always want what you don't have- but didn't expect it quite so soon. So now every morning she wets her hair and combs it down straight and declares that she is "straightening" her hair. After her morning ritual today her hair had dried a bit and curled right up and when she looked in the mirror she was irritated that it was curly again :( She is so sweet and I know she will come to love her curly hair someday!