Birthday Rush

The 30 days of Doehne birthdays is officially over. Booo!!! That means no more cake and presents every weekend.... double boo!!! It was a great month...the March madness that is was.
You saw all about Jeff's birthday at Disney...so time to share about Grey's big NUMERO UNO! The Big 1!! I have to make it sounds grand, because it was anything but that! We kept it really quiet and low key for his birthday. No big birthday bash for this little one...as it is all part of that second child syndrome. (We better get on on the ball before he catches on!) We didn't have any family in town, so we just had our own little St. Patty's celebration in honor of Grey. We went to the Charlotte St. Patty's Day parade with our friends, the Schnabels....Grey loved all the action and the bagpipes. JodyG, our fab photographer, came over to capture Grey's milestone. Then we had some smash cake and some presents, and some dinner alfresco and that was it! Sounds like a perfect celebration to me!!




Grey had his 1 year doctor's appointment and here were his stats: 19 lbs 4 oz- 5%, 29 2/3 inches- 50%, and head 46 cm- 60%. Needless to say, we have a little peanut on our hands. He is a skinny little thing compared to his chunky monkey brother. We were also struggling with some tummy issues, which turned out to be the dairy monster again. I thought he had grown out of the dairy allergy....but he hadn't, so while I was pumping him full of milk and cheese and yogurt, his poor little system was on overload and couldn't handle it. We have figured everything out at this point and are working to find a solution....but we'll just have to see where it goes from here. Greyson is cruising and I am sure he will be off and running any day now. He loves anything his brother has....which drives his brother bananas. He is a good little eater and still loves his veggies!!

On to my big day...the big double digit of 3's. 33!! However if you asked Connor how old I was he said 51 or 24 and then I think I even heard an 80 in there somewhere. Hilarious! We were supposed to head to Tennessee to visit our friends, the Bedards, but because Grey was having his tummy issues, we stayed home. My day started off with getting to sleep in followed by presents and going to the mall to pick up my new macbook air and visit with the easter bunny! Daddy even remembered to have the boys write in my mommy book...which was just awesome!

With everyone's birthday passing by, Connor longed for his own birthday to arrive. He ask almost daily. Finally it came and it was the multiday celebration that he had dreamed about. Who wouldn't want 3+ straight days of cupcakes and presents! Not to mention Mimi and Papa in town, having his first real birthday party with friends at Discovery Place Kids, and a birthday showing of Elmo Live on stage (they just happened to be in town that day)! I think this boy had the best big 3 ever!!! Not sure how we will ever be able to top that one!!








A few of the boys' new gifts...

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH....Disney World!

We just got back from a MAGICAL vacation in Orlando visiting all things DISNEY! We were there for a full week, staying in a large condo with the whole Doehne side of the family, even Jeff's sister, Stephanie, and her husband, Rob, made the trek from Chicago. My mom and sister came too...making it a full on family fun time at Disney!
We arrived on Saturday and the busyness of our trip began. The first thing we did was pick up our race bibs for the Disney Princess Half Marathon I was running bright and early Sunday morning with my sister!!! I was really excited, and had been training for it for a few months. I knew it was going to be an unforgettable experience....From getting up at 3am to crossing that finish line...it was all so awesome!!! There were 20,000 racers!!! You saw everything under the rainbow....people head to toe in costume to inspirational 70 year old runners out there pushing along the 13.1 mile course. All along the way there was entertainment....characters, djs, mile marker clocks, not to mention you run through the magic kingdom (and cinderella's castle) and epcot. Katie and I separated early on, but met up again right before running through the castle...which was somewhere around mile 5-ish. We stopped for a bunch of photo ops and stayed together until about mile 8. When I finished, I was overcome with joy...it was an emotional feeling to have accomplished going 13.1 miles. I never thought that in less than a year after giving birth (and with a bum knee), that I would ever have done that. I felt great afterwards and was so happy to see my family cheering for me at the finish line!!! I was very proud of my sister who finished and did well despite her lack of training! I hope to do another race soon. I am not sure about a full marathon....but I certainly will do another half again!!
Enough about that....now on to the real vacation! Sunday night we had a celebratory dinner at Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. We were kind of celebrating Greyson's 1st birthday since we weren't going to have our family in Charlotte on his birthday. It was a real feast, luau family style! There was some fun kids activities too....rolling coconuts through the dining room...however, Connor clearly was hungry and was having a tantrum at this point (as you will see in the pictures)! The food was delicious and Greyson attempted to eat his first cupcake.....it promptly ended up on the floor, like most of Greyson's food....so that was it! Maybe we will get some good cake pictures next time!
Monday morning we had a character breakfast at the Tusker House restaurant in Animal Kingdom. This was Connor's first Mickey sighting! It was a fun breakfast and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to do a character meal, as it was my favorite. We got to see Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy. They each came to our table while eating which seemed like a non threatening way of meeting the characters. Connor and Greyson were not intimidated or scared in the least and loved them all! We then spent the day in Animal Kingdom, getting through as much as we could before nap times. Later that night we went to the Magic Kingdom to see the electrical parade. This was another must see!!! They only do it a few nights during the week...but it is for sure not to be missed!!! It is held just after dusk and all the parade floats and costumes are lit up with tons of lights! I hate that I didn't take any pictures of it...because it was amazing!!
Tuesday we headed to the Magic Kingdom for a full day there. Connor had so much fun meeting more characters and riding rides. He did not like Pirates of the Caribbean, and we are lucky we didn't scar him for life by taking him on it. But we also did all the good ones for kids....its a small world, peter pan, pooh bear, carrousel, etc.
Tuesday night we went to our good friends, the McCully's house, for dinner. We always have a good time with them and little Emma is Connor's age and they just love to play together.
Wednesday we took a day off...spent time at the hotel pool, mommy and daddy got birthday massages (thanks to mimi and papa). Wednesday night we headed to downtown disney to visit with my good friend from college, Keith Holecek, and his mom. From there we had dinner at the cool T-Rex Cafe...which is just like Rainforest Cafe, only with dinosaurs! Since Connor is so into dinosaurs, we thought he would love it...it was a little overwhelming, as every 20 minutes the place rumbled and dinos roared, but once he got used to all the noise, I think he loved it!
Thursday was daddy's birthday!!!! We park hopped and went to both Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Connor's favorite was the Toy Story ride and meeting Woody and Buzz and Lightening McQueen and Tomater....both is fav!!!! We ended the birthday boy's day at Chef Mickeys in the contemporary resort, for a celebratory dinner...with characters!! This was the best for seeing the characters, because they all came around twice, we were there so long. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald...I think that was it. Thursday night we went to meet yet another college friend, my sorority sister, Jenni Williams, for a drink at a nearby bar. It was nice to catch up with her since it had been years since we had seen each other....and we ran into my friend Keith again too!
Friday we hit up Magic Kingdom again and our good friends Jenny and Josh Highlander, and their boys Colton and Teague met us there. It was fun chaos with our party of 8...but it was so fun!!! The boys got to meet more characters and ride rides. Colton and Connor are like long distance best buddies and always had so much fun when they are together! Baby Teague was just as good as he could be at 2 months old! Friday night was our last night, and we spent it with mimi and papa at dinner in mexico...in epcot, that is :)
A random side note....we had a celebrity sighting in our hotel...Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys QB, was staying on our floor and we rode the elevator with him! Nope we did not get a photo or an autograph....we are idiots for not asking...but it is a little surreal in the moment when you are trying to decide if it is really him or not ;) Jeff made a comment to him and he smiled and winked at us....so yep, it definitely was him!

All in all, it was a lot of action packed into 7 days....although, I would not have changed a thing (other than maybe staying a few more days). We were so happy to have spent the time with our family and friends. I know Connor had a blast when everyday he still talks about it!! A big THANK YOU to Mimi and Papa for all they did to make our trip possible.


OR

Disney 2012

Here is a video montage too:

Is he going to be a Soccer Player??

Connor has been enjoying his new Saturday morning class with Daddy....a soccer program called Little Kickers! It is at the Charlotte Sports Complex and is taught by, what look like, high school or college aged girls. They have so much fun! It is not just about soccer...and there are no games played, yet. They do work on some ball skills, but they also blow bubbles, play with a parachute, and play with the orange cones. This is Connor/Daddy bonding time. Grey and I come, occasionally, to watch and snap some pictures. Here are a few we wanted to share....

February ALREADY?

Where did January go?!! It's no secret that January is usually my least favorite month of the year. Usually I am having to go back to school after a nice winter break. Also coming down from the high of the holidays along with the bitter cold and long 31 days that barely seem to creep by, it is no wonder that my mood is rather glum during this first month of the year. However, this past January was unseasonably pleseant! The weather has been warm and wonderful....I think it was nearly 70 yesterday ;) and not being at school has helped too ;) So I declare January 2012, my most favorite January of all. Just being silly. But really...nothing new has been going on here in the Doehne home. We somehow stay busy and the time just flies. Between play dates, church, and Connor's new soccer class....we have more than enough to keep us busy!

Grey is now 10 months old. He has many sounds and is proficient at some baby sign language. He is crawling almost on all fours, but he realizes that he is much faster still army crawling versus slipping on the wood floors on his knees. He is eating lots of table food. His favorite seems to be peas! We got him a walker, which I never thought in a million years I would own with all of the safety issues surrounding them, but we needed another upright option for this child who has the most sensitive tummy. We needed something other than an excersaucer, to put him in so that he was upright after eating. So a walker was the solution. We like to call him twinkle toes, it is so cute how he cruises in it. Between him and Connor, you would think we have a drag strip through our downstairs. Greyson in the walker and Connor on his truck, they are always chasing each other back and forth.

Connor just amazes us everyday. He is spelling his name and Greyson's name. He will spell words when he looks at each letter. He loves puzzles and anything Cars related. We started him in a kids soccer league called Little Kickers. The class he is in is a parent/child class and focuses on all different kinds of skill building. I plan to take some pictures of that and post them soon. He is still enjoying school. The teachers tell us all the time how smart he is....just today they said that he recognizes both upper and lower case letters, and that is something that is apparently very advanced for his age. I try to remember that he is just 2...well, almost 3....but it is crazy how these little beings are such little sponges!!! Connor is also the police of the house....he makes sure Greyson doesn't get into anything he isn't supposed to get into...even if it is something that mommy and daddy says is okay. Like the dvds under the tv stand....Grey likes to take them all out, but Connor says that is a "no sir". Too funny!

Well that is all here....hugs to you, from all of us!! Here are just a few pictures from the last 31 days!

Christmas 2011 ReCap

Happy New Year friends!! WE are just getting ourselves together after 3 weeks worth of company at our home! WHEW!!! It was wonderful though...we enjoyed every minute, but we definitely were ready for some downtime. This was the 1st Christmas we have not been in FL...this was the 1st Christmas that we did not wake up at one of our parents homes....this was the 1st Christmas in our own home!!! I am sure you get what I am trying to say. But it was a big deal...I mean in the last 32 years, we have been at our parents house...so for us to do Christmas at our own home was huge!
My sister, Katelynn, was our first visitor arriving on Dec. 15th. She was a HUGE help and allowed me to get lots of things done having her extra pair of hands always ready to assist! She babysat for us so that we could attend JEff's company Christmas party. We bought running shoes and tried them out as we trained for our half marathon we are running together in Feb. We also took a day and did a sisters only visit to Old Salem where we met up with my good friend, Melissa. We toured the town and had a nice little day away from the babies. A week later, my mom arrived. She was here for almost a week, and spent Christmas here with us. We spent more time in the mall in the days leading up to and after Christmas than I care to share, but I guess that is what girls like to do best! We also had fun making Christmas treats and cookies. We went out to see Christmas lights in McAdenville, aka, Christmas town USA....however, the first night we sat in the traffic for 2 hours, only to have to go home because the lights were going off. So we tried again another night, and took advice of going a different route, and voila, we got to see the lights. Connor was enamored!!! He loved it!!!! We spent Christmas Eve at church which was amazing! I have not been to a Christmas Eve service in a long time, as we are usually in FL and are always having to be somewhere other than church...so this time God came first, and it was a great service. I loved the candle light and all the traditional Christmas songs that were sung!
Connor was excited to leave cookies for Santa...as he knew that Santa was going to be bringing him 3 presents. We chose 3....for the 3 wisemen so that we can try to keep the present giving under control ;). Christmas morning was magical!! It is so awesome to see Christmas though your children's eyes!! We were up early, as usual...and we went down to a tree surrounded by presents. We didn't keep presents around the tree all month long....so when he saw them, he was in awe. This is the first time he really enjoyed opening them up too!! Sorry, I have yet to mention Greyson...but you know, he is a baby and is not really into all this stuff just yet. He was a good boy though and loved the bows and his toys he got...as if he doesn't have enough already ;) We made an easy Christmas day meal.....a honeybaked ham and all the fixins...and then just enjoyed the day!
A few days later my mom and sister left, and then Jeff's parents (Mimi and Papa) arrived, straight from Chicago. We did our "Christmas" with them on New Years eve. Woke up again to presents under the tree....and again, Connor loved it! Some of his favorite gifts he received are a massive firetruck, add ons to his Thomas the train set, and Greyson's car....oh, and a few puzzles. Greyson loved his walking activity toy and his car that moved when you shake a rattle or spin the ball on the top of it. Mimi and Papa stayed with the boys and let us have a much needed, night out.....on New Years eve, and what do we do, the crazy party animals that we are? WE go to a movie. But it was a fun time...we went to the epicenter in downtown Charlotte where you can order food and drinks while in the movie. Mimi and Papa left a few days later.... and now our house is just unusually quiet. WE miss everyone, and had a wonderful Christmas! I think we will be spending it here for the next few years...it was nice to be home and establish our own traditions. I would say the only disappointing aspect was that it was unseasonably warm here....and it would have been nice to see a white Christmas (like it was last year when we were in FL).
Enjoy the MANY pics of our holiday memories....Connor keeps saying Christmas is over, as he looks for our Christmas trees....and he asks about George Wilson too (our Elf on a Shelf). I keep telling him, next year buddy.....

4 Days Until Christmas

The count down is on....Christmas will be here in just a few days. Connor loves counting down the days on our advent calendar! We hadn't had a chance to post since Thanksgiving because of all of the holiday festivities...so here is a quick one. Enjoy the pictures of our December full of all things Christmas! We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Turkey Time

We had Thanksgiving here at our home again this year....and boy was it a busy busy weekend!!! We had both families here....Jeff's parents (mimi and papa), my mom (oma) and my sister, Katie. We were only missing Jeff's sister, Stephanie and her husband, Rob....which would have made us complete. We still had a full house, and a packed weekend agenda but it was wonderful!
Thursday was a full on cooking marathon...although I began in the days prior with the baking, prepping, etc. Mimi was in charge of the turkey. She makes the best turkeys and her gravy...lets just say that I could drink it ;) it is that good. My mom did her green bean casserole and Katie completed the mashed potatoes. Everything was homemade except for the rolls....we just had too many things needing to be in the oven (yes, I should have gotten that double oven option). So we made it work, and we sure did have a delicious spread of food!! Despite a few snafus...the oven magically shutting itself off and derailing our dinner time a tad...we ate and drank and enjoyed everything! We browsed the shopping ads that evening and planned our next day shopping adventure, while we ate our pie.
So, Friday came early....3am to be exact. Katie insisted we get up super early to snag the Black Friday deals. We shopped until lunch time. We all grabbed lots of good buys...no super terrific deals to mention...but it was still worth going out!
Saturday we went to pick out our Christmas tree. We headed to Latta Plantation and Equestrian center at the referral from a friend who said they do carriage rides, etc. So we thought that sounded like a fun christmas tree experience other than just going to a lot! Connor loved the horses and riding at the front of the carriage. I have to be honest and say that I was a little disappointed in the tree selection. None were small enough for a tiny boys tree and none were big enough for what I like in our living room (yes, I like them tall!)....so we had to settle but they turned out to be pretty little trees. The experience was worth it though...Connor had a ball with the horses! Saturday night we made a big pot of chili with all of the fixins and then Katie, Oma, and I snuck off to see the Twilight movie. (I was totally disappointed, and liked the others much better).
Sunday was another busy but very special day too. Greyson was baptized at First United Methodist Church of Charlotte, the same church Connor was baptized at as well. It was a lovely service. Greyson was on his best behavior despite skipping his morning nap in place of a catnap in the car on the way to the church. His Godparents, Drew and Jessica Bedard, came from Tennessee to share the special day with us too! Just a little explanation, because I found it interesting....Methodists justify infant baptism by the principle of 'prevenient grace', which is divine grace before a human's decision. Methodists believe that an infant baptism is God's promise to the infant that calls that infant to eventually believe in God's Word for salvation. The way our pastor put it....it signifies God’s initiative in the process of salvation, prevenient grace, is the grace that works in our lives before we are aware of it, bringing us to faith. Then when the individual believes in Jesus they will profess their faith before the church, often called confirmation. We are so thrilled to share this spiritual journey with our children!
So, that pretty much wraps up our Turkey weekend....as if it wasn't busy enough ;) It was memorable and unforgettable...here are lots of pics from the weekend....