A Very Busy and Messy Weekend!

This weekend, Lee took off Saturday to play in a Golf Tournament in Macon and I had plans to attend two baby showers for two different high school classmates. I was real excited about seeing lots of friends and catching up. Well, needless to say, it rained ALL WEEKEND LONG! Since it was just a steady downpour and no lightning, the golf tournament continued on and Lee came in soaking wet with wrinkly fingers - it was so funny. And, despite the bad weather, there were still big crowds at both showers and I had a blast catching up with old friends. The showers were both at Nichole's mother's house and I had been looking forward to meeting baby Briley for the first time and catching up with Nichole, but her husband got real sick and they were unable to come (they live in Missouri). Nichole, we really missed you and we will definitely have to make plans to catch up next time you are in town. Saturday night, the golf course put on a dinner and dance and that was a lot of fun as well and I saw a whole different set of people! We had fun dancing although Lee said it was a little hard to dance with a big, hard, round belly sticking out and a little girl "kicking" him because she was definitely dancing to the music! We also got to spend time with CC, Meggie, KK, Sloan and Molly and that was definitely a treat! It is rare that everyone is "home" all at the same time. We miss you guys and now are counting on you coming to visit us because as we near the arrival of our little girl, we will need to stay close to home!

Michele will welcome a baby boy, Jonathan ???, due on October 16th!

Addison and Camryn - Camryn is Nikki and Kellis Higginbotham's little girl. Isn't she gorgeous? She was 9 months old on August 5th and you wouldn't believe how this little girl is running all over the place - she took her first steps at 7.5 months and she has definitely mastered walking at an early age.

Nikki, me, Michele, Morgan, and Jessica - Morgan, you're falling behind, hope to have you a shower sometime next year (hint! hint!)

Jessica will welcome a baby girl, Lily Katherine, due November 2nd! We are also excited to welcome Wally and Jessica to the Madison area - they will be moving in a couple of weeks!

The 3 Preggos! Me due on Oct. 8th, Jessica due Nov. 2nd, and Michele due Oct 16th. Can't wait for our 10 year Reunion - we will have all sorts of little ones running around!

Playing with Sloan and Molly!

Enjoying some ice cream at Da'be's house - Mmmmm!

Be sure to keep scrolling because I added several posts tonight - I received lots of grief this weekend about not updating in a while!!! I will try to do better, but it sure helps my feelings that my hard work is appreciated and people actually read and keep up with us! Thank you!

Neighborhood Cookout!

Last Wednesday night, we had a neighborhood cookout and it was so much fun hanging out and catching up with everyone. It was great seeing everyone's kids - we have grown in number by leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. When we all get together, we tend to have a "girl's night out" or a "couple's game night" so we haven't had all of the little ones together in a looong time! We missed the Powers' family as well as the the rest of the Milner and Hutto clans (sorry Natalie that I left you out of my original post!) - hope to see you next time!

Lynleigh, Luke, Leighton, Addison, Macee, Hayes, and Bailey (up top)

Thanks to the Butler's for letting us invade their house!

Addison and Macee

Luke, Lee, and Addison

Meeting Mason!

We finally got to meet and hold Mason once he got out of NICU. Addison was so excited and loves him so much - they have been home now for 2 weeks and hopefully are adjusting well!

The Proud Parents!

Doctor's Appointment, New Class, Baby Name!!!

I had my 31 week checkup this morning and we had a sonogram! We were so glad to get to see the baby again; we were spoiled with Addison because we got to see her a lot before she was born. She's a flexible little thing - we could barely see her face because she had a her foot pulled up over her head and was holding onto her toes with her hand! She was measuring 11 days ahead of her original due date, her weight estimated at 4 lbs. 3 ozs., and her heartrate was 134. All in all, she appears to be a healthy, growing little girl and as Dr. Cole said I seem to just grow "big babies"! She will probably schedule delivery for October 8th (only 6 days before original due date), but she told us to think about it and check our calenders and we will discuss at the next appointment.

We are still trying to decide on a name for Baby Lindley. We would like to hear what you think and since family and friends are sometimes scared to voice their opinions, we have created a poll on the top right-hand corner of the blog with our narrowed down list. Please feel free to vote for your favorite anonymously! Although we may not choose to go with the majority, it will be neat to see the results. Also, the middle names are still questionable so if you have a suggestion, please let us know because we are really struggling since it is not used very often.

Addison started a new class at daycare this morning and it is a "potty-training" class!!! We are so excited since she has shown interest in using the potty since February! We have been going pretty consistently before bedtime since then and only sporadically all other times. I just hope we can tackle this challenge before the baby gets here. She had a pretty good report today, but we will just have to wait and see.

Welcome Baby Mason!

Mason Thomas Cade

5 lbs. 11 ozs.

19.5 inches

August 4, 2008

2:29 PM

Congrats Auntie Em and Toto! We are so glad that Mason is here!

Vacation 2008 - Day 1 - Sea World!

We flew out Saturday morning at 8:30 headed to Orlando, FL!!! My mom had a conference at the Renaissance Hotel at Sea World so we jumped at the opportunity to join her. Addison was real excited about flying in an airplane and did really well although it was nice for it to be a fairly short flight. We landed around 11:30 and decided to hit Sea World that afternoon since it was right across the street from the hotel (within walking distance). Addison almost took a nap when we got to the hotel, but Da'be stopped by not knowing that we were there and that was the end of our nap. So, we headed out and she fell asleep on the 5 minute walk from the hotel...so Lee and I made a plan for the afternoon/night and enjoyed seeing a few of the exhibits that we could stroll through. Sea World has this awesome deal where before you leave the park you can get a voucher to return any day within the next 7 days for FREE!!! So, we traded in our tickets and went back the next morning to catch some of the shows/animal exhibits that we didn't make it to the first day! She loved watching the shows and would ask where the animals went when they disappeared under water - it was sooo cute. She loved the Shamu Rocks night show since it involved lots of fun dancing music and also the Elmo show, but when it came time to meet Elmo she had quite the grip on her daddy! We also saw an awesome boat/water ski show - those drivers and skiiers were very talented. We found this to be pretty amusing, but of all the many different animals at Sea World, Addison's favorite was the "horsie" - that is all she talked about and we had to go see them a couple of times while we were there! More to come on Mickey Mouse land!

Day 2 - Welcome to Epcot!

After a good nap from a morning at Sea World and Da'be finished up her classes for the day, we headed over to Epcot for the remainder of the afternoon and, of course, we stayed until closing - we're on vacation right! Lee says that we couldn't have done any more than any other family with a 2 year-old. What was he expecting - I'm only 7 months pregnant?!! I drug them all over the parks and told them that they better not let me out-troop any of them!!! By the time that we got to Epcot, the crowds weren't bad and we walked right on all of the rides that we could ride and wanted to. I really hate that we didn't get to ride Soarin' but Addison didn't meet the height requirement - I guess we will just have to go back!

I made the executive decision that we were better off to wait in line to meet all (or at least as many as we could) of the characters at Epcot than to try and battle the lines at the Magic Kingdom (definitely proved to be a good decision). It was only a 40-45 minute wait and we got to meet several all in one building (that was air-conditioned!). Addison made a friend while we were waiting in line and they definitely enjoyed keeping each other company! Addison was so much fun to watch the closer that she got and she could finally see Mickey Mouse (he was first). We already knew that she is not real fond of large characters and things that move and talk that don't really resemble real people so we were anxious to see her reaction. She was soooo excited anticipating getting to see everyone that she watches on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she would jump and smile and tell all of us to look and who was up there, but needless to say, when it came time to go up there and talk/touch one of the them she was back-paddling and putting a death-grip to mine or Lee's arms or legs! It was so funny! Excuse my dorky looking shoes with my dress, but I wore flip-flops to Sea World and started to feel tingling in my feet and decided I better start doing all that I could to prevent swelling! I am sure none of you have forgotten what my feet/legs/and everything else looked like from swelling with Addison!

Meet your pal - Mickey!

Next was Pluto!

Minnie Mouse - she was once again real excited to see Minnie as she waited for the girl in front of her to finish up!

By the time we reached Chip-n-Dale, she had gotten a little more comfortable, but I'm sure it helped that Lee and I were on either side of her!

Meet Goofy (or Goopy as Addison calls him!) - she had no interest in feeling his whiskers!

After traveling to space in the "giant ball", we played around in some of the exhibits. Above, Addison and Da'be make a little music and lights with their "dancing feet"! Below, we try to escape a "shark attack"!

After riding "Nemo"

After we rode everything that we wanted to and saw a couple of shows, we headed to the back to try and explore a few countries. We didn't leave ourselves enough time because once we got back there, it was a lot bigger and a lot farther around that lake than we thought and we didn't have enough time to eat, explore, and be back at the front gate before park closing. So we headed to Mexico and grabbed some supper and found a spot for the Illuminations show at dark which was a gorgeous display of lasers, lights, and fireworks.

Day 3 & 4 - Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!

We rolled out of bed early on the third day to make sure that we were at the front gate of the Magic Kingdom for the Grand Park Opening. Addison really enjoyed seeing all of the characters ride in on the train and sprinkle magic ferry dust on all of the guests waiting to get in. It is also the best way to ensure that you get to ride a few things before the lines get really bad; although I must say we chose a pretty decent week to go because the longest line we stood in was about 45 minutes and that was to see all of the characters! Addison spotted Daisy as soon as we got in the gate so we stopped to visit with her and then she started telling us that she needed to see Donald Duck! Funny how she knew that he was the only one on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that she had yet to see. We headed right down the middle of Main Street through Cinderella's Castle on to Fantasyland to start out our day. It was fun going down Main Street because all the store workers were dressed in old clothes and every one you met would greet her with, "Hey Princess!" We walked right on the tea cups, Dumbo, Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, the Carousel, and all the other rides back there - it was soooo nice. Da'be joined us a little after noon that day and Addison was ready to show her everything that she had done so far. We grabbed a bite to eat and Addison told us she was ready for a nap so while she napped, Lee & I rode the Haunted Mansion then we staked out a spot for the 3:00 Dreams Come True Parade - she woke up just in time. Lee ran and grabbed us a fastpass for the Jungle Cruise before the parade started so after it was over we were able to go straight to the front of the line! That is the way to go on the rides that offered the fastpass. We made our way through all of the other lands and caught the Spectromagic Parade (which was amazing) before calling it a night. We tried to go see all of the princesses earlier in the day, but the wait was 90 minutes and after waiting 40 minutes to see Donald Duck, I wasn't sure if we could contain Addison in a line that long (she was constantly wanting to swing on the bars between the lines - Lee said he was going to put her a couple of bars up in the background since that seemed to entertain her!) so we decided that we would come back first thing the next morning and be there when the line opened. It was well worth it! We got there at 9:00 again the next morning and headed to Toontown (little roadblock - it didn't open until 10:00) so we hopped in line and rode the tea cups again. Da'be had the whole day to spend with us since her conference was over so we rode on some of the rides she missed yesterday. Da'be, Addison, & I rode the tea cups then she wanted to ride again so she and Lee rode and while they were riding Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter snuck on so that was really neat! On to the princesses, we only waited about 15 minutes and now I know why the line was soooo long the day before. Addison loved the princesses (maybe because they looked like real people) and they took so much time talking to her. Who knows what all she was telling them, but it was precious! Belle was her favorite! She also rode her first roller coaster, Goofy's Barnstormer, and for anyone that doesn't know I love amusement parks and roller coasters and Lee is not very fond of them at all (but I'm working on him!) so it was really hard for me that I couldn't ride it with her and he got to be the one to enjoy her enthusiasm! He said that she was all smiles and giggles the entire time! Hopefully, I will have a little daredevil to enjoy my thrill rides with in the future. Ok, now that I have babbled on long enough (but I know we have family anxious to see and hear all about our trip), enjoy the pictures!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Day 4 - Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney!

After finishing up in the Magic Kingdom, we took the Disney bus over to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. Addison fell asleep right when we got there so we did the Backlot Stage Tour because we could stroll through it and once she woke up we watched Playhouse Disney Live on Stage, the Ariel show, and the Beauty and the Beast broadway production. Addison's favorite thing by far was Playhouse Disney Live on Stage - she loved it! We all had to sit on the floor and it was a very interactive show that highlighted Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Winnie the Pooh, and Little Einsteins. She was jumping and dancing the entire time! After doing all that we wanted to, we decided to call it an early afternoon and head over to Downtown Disney to look around (none of us had ever been) and get supper somewhere other than in the park! We were impressed with what we saw and learned that we could have waited on our souvenier shopping until then because they had everything you could have ever wanted. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood and then picked up dessert at Ghirardeli's - what is vacation without a little ice cream!!! Our flight didn't leave until 3:20 Wednesday afternoon so we all enjoyed sleeping in and taking our time getting to the airport. We had a blast and thank Da'be so much for inviting us to join her!

Welcome to Hollywood Studios!

Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage!

Dancing!!!

The Beauty and the Beast

Downtown Disney

Somebody is tired...

Packed up and ready to head to the airport!

Happy Birthday CC!!!

Happy Birthday CC - we miss you - hope to see you soon!