The Oerman Family Heads to Disney!

We're here!

Disney World! Jarrod and I have been wanting to take our kids to Disney World for a long time, but obviously that kind of trip takes a good bit of moolah. We saved up and waited until the kids were old enough to actually enjoy it (Ryan was 4 and Everett 2 1/2). We were lucky enough to also score the Disney spring promotion and got a really great package price! Our package included accommodations, tickets, and dining plan. I highly suggest getting the dining plan. We saved a ton of money on food and it was nice to look at the menu and order anything you wanted because it was technically already paid for (and at a much cheaper price!). Not to mention every lunch and dinner included dessert! This girl was happy! And based solely on the amount of chocolate cake Jarrod consumed that week, I would say he was too :)

Snacks were pre-packed and ready to shut down any potential melt downs.

I had done some serious homework before heading out on our trip. I talked to Disney travel agents, read the mommy advice columns for Disney World, looked up all rides and restaurants in each park, made reservations, and basically asked everyone I knew for any tips they could give me. All that work paid off and our trip went a lot smoother than I thought it would have. The kids did awesome on the drive down. I put in some movies for them to watch and they were good to go! Once we arrived, we went to get all checked in at our Disney resort, Pop Century. The lady behind the counter was very helpful and explained everything to us newbies. Then something weird happened. She started talking about her tattoos. She told us (or actually more my husband) how many she had, what kind, and where they were. She even told us (or mainly Jarrod) that she had a garter tattoo. Really? Are you flirting with my husband right in front of me? We just kind of looked at each other and politely excused ourselves to our room.

I will say this, the room was....basic. I mean it was your standard double bed room. The sheets were average quality, the toilet paper was pretty much 1-ply, and it had the normal mini fridge and tv. Nothing spectacular, but clean, plus it was one of the value resorts so we kind of expected it. We put our stuff away (I have an obsession with completely unpacking all suitcases as soon as we get somewhere). We had about 45 minutes to kill before catching the bus to Downtown Disney and decided to walk around the resort and take pictures by all the HUGE animations on the grounds.

Once we arrived, we let the kids ride the carousel and walk around a massive toy store, then it was time for our dinner reservations at Rainforest Cafe. The food there was amazing! I got to have ribs, coconut shrimp, AND steak......not to mention the giant piece of chocolate cake and fruity drinks we all got. Seriously, the dining plan is amazing!

Everett was nice enough to share MY drink with me.

The next day we headed to Magic Kingdom, we got there early enough to see the opening ceremony and then headed straight towards Cinderella's castle. I thought Ryan's eyes were going to pop out of her head. She could not believe that she was actually at Cinderella's castle! Right after we walked through it we ran into Cinderella's evil stop-mother. She walked right up to us and told Everett that he was getting married at 6:00 that night. Not sure what that was about, but it was fun nonetheless (except for the fact that I didn't ask for a picture. Doh!)

In two days we rode Dumbo a few times (a fast favorite), Winnie the Pooh, Barnstormer Rollercoaster, Prince Charming's Carrousel, Journey of the Little Mermaid, Walt Disney Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan's Flight, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Jungle Cruise, "it's a smallworld," Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and Tomorrowland People Mover. All the rides were amazing! The detail that Disney has put into each one is absolutely unbelieveable.

As fun as the rides were, I was more blown away with the activities we did while killing time waiting for our fast pass ride to start. We had gotten a surprise fast pass for Mickey's PhilharMagic Show and had no idea what to expect, but it was so fun! It was a 3D show that whipped air and sprayed water at you. (I later found a few 3D shows that did this....Hollywood Studios'  Journey of a Little Mermaid, Muppets, 3D, and Animal Kingdom's It's Tough to be a Bug).

Rockin' our 3D shades!

 Other attractions I loved were Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, Tom Sawyer Island, Jungle Cruise, and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. If you've never seen any of these attractions, I don't want to ruin them for you by telling you what they are. I'll just say....check them out!

Onto our #1 attraction we were focused on seeing....Tales with Bell! I waited to do this attraction on the morning we had the Mickey extra magic hour (aka, we got to go in the park and hour before the rest of the public). We headed straight there and waited less than 5 minutes. The experience was AMAZING!!! You get to spend a lot of time with Bell in a small group. Ryan was in complete awe and would not say a word to anyone. She was practically a statue and I had to tell her where to walk. However, as soon as we were done she said, "That was so cool!!!!" Well, I'm glad she liked it, because for a moment I kind of thought she didn't. Turns out she was just star struck :)

Unfortunately on our last day my extremely old, irritatingly bad 5 megapixel camera decided it had had enough and would no longer work so I don't have many picture from Animal Kingdom. I will say this though, I wish we had done a full day in Animal Kingdom and only a half day in Hollywood Studios. There were lots of things we didn't get to do in Animal Kingdom because we were heading back home and needed to leave by a certain time.

On the Kilomanjaro Safari

I highly suggest getting there as soon as the park opens and doing the Kilomanjaro Safari first thing. Not only do you beat the crowds, but more animals will be out in the morning than the rest of the day.

Nom! Nom!

Now let's talk food. When you go to Disney, you should just forget about dieting. I mean, really forget about it. There is no such thing. It does not exist.

Take for instance this cinnamon roll from Gaston's Tavern. It was bigger than Everett's head (hence why he was probably scared of it). Ryan, however, had no problem with it. In fact, I think I only got a total of 3 bites off of it.
We did two dinners that were buffet character dining (Cinderella, and Winnie the Pooh w/ friends). Jarrod preferred the buffets, I preferred the "order from the menu" dinners (Rainforest Cafe & Sci-Fi Drive-in).

Dinner at the Sci-Fi Drive-in @ Hollywood Studios

On the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play Area....this was actually what I was most looking forward to.

The entire trip was amazing! Everett only had 2 mini meltdown (that is a huge improvement people!), we waited 5 minutes or less for each ride, got in a nap everyday, ate our backs out, watched fireworks, danced with Woody in the parade, and returned home in one piece. We can't wait to go back, but not for another 3-4 years. It was exhausting!

They got to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends.

Tomorrowland's People Mover

Check out those guns!

Hollywood Studios (I'll stick to Magic & Animal Kingdom next time)

This dude scared me.

I regret not buying her this hat.

That dern sword would budge.

Dumbo was a definite favorite!

Prince Charming holding Ryan's hand :)

And finally the lady herself....Cinderella!

Little Nuggets

Does anyone else come up with completely ridiculous names to call their kids? No? Just me? It's almost as if once you become a parent you just automatically start calling your kids anything but their actual names. For some very odd reason I have always called my kids "nuggets." It just kind of came naturally. "Hey there nugget!" "Love you nugget!" "Want another nugget, nugget?" You get the point. Since I know think that my kids are the cutest kids in the world, I will now post lots of pictures showing all of their awesomeness. Enjoy :)

10 year high school reunion already?

Last weekend I went to my 10 year high school reunion (surprised right? Considering I don't look a day over 21...). Honestly I surprised myself by even going. I always said i wouldn't. I didn't really enjoy high school. I always felt awkward and that I didn't really fit into a group. I wasn't a nerd, jock, cheerleader, drama queen, sports star, goth lover, or an active participate in any kind of club. I was just, well...me. I had a few friends, but not many, and I haven't really kept in touch with many of them.

Facebook, however, has put me in contact with many of my fellow classmates and have actually began "facebook friendships" (you all know what I'm talking about). I hoped that we would all see each other at the reunion and just chat it up all night, but I was also a little nervous that people would instantly jump back into their old clicks and I would essentially be left in a corner showing my husband how 'popular' I really was in high school. So what exactly happened that night? Well, a little bit of everything. Since me and Jarrod are always such early birds (well, he is so I am by default) the 1st 20 minutes were a little awkward. You find yourself glancing around the room hoping to find someone to talk to. You give the nervous smile and hope they even recognize who you are.

After the 1st 20 minutes went by there were plenty of people to chit chat with. Even my husband found a few friends :) The room quickly filled up with people. All the old year books were laid out and my husband got to see just how photogenic I was back then . They had door prizes, to which we (and pretty much everyone else) won a free Bang, Bang Shrimp appetizer (my husband LOVED this!). They also had a fun photobooth set up with tons of props! We opted for a cheesy, framed kiss :)



All in all I'm really glad I went. Some people have changed and others have stayed the same. I'm excited to see what the 20th reunion will be like, and I now know that I will definitely be going to that one too.

Here's a picture of all the alumni together. If you look closely you can see my left eye. I got stuck behind one of the big boys and everytime they went to take a picture he would raise his arm and hoop and hollar. I finally had to yank his arm down on the last one they took so that I could maybe prove I was really there.

My Little Cookie Monster turns 1!

Well, it actually happened. Everett turned 1. No more babies in the Oerman household. I'm a little sad about that, but then I remember all the money we will be saving by not having to buy formula and that makes me very happy :) I'm a firm believer that bottles should be taken away after a child turns 1. I literally threw Everett's in the trash (Ryan had used these same bottles so they were beyond ready to be tossed!). I had whittled Everett from 3 bottles a days, to 2, then finally to 1. Two days before his birthday I scooped out that last bit of formula and almost did a happy dance! Now of course when the formula is gone, milk has to take its place (from a sippy cup....get rid of those bottles people!). We introduced Everett to whole milk a week before his birthday and let's just say....I've never seen him throw something that far. He didn't like it one bit. It looked as though he had tasted a lemon by the face he would make. I started to get a little worried because Ryan took to milk so easy, but I was determined to make him love it.

I kept giving him milk whenever he was hungry or thirsty. When the bottle was finally gone all he had was milk and I guess he finally figured out that he wasn't going to get anything else. He's now loving it and drinks it like a champ and I'm loving having my kitchen counter space back. Good-bye oversized bottle drying rack!

Now I have been planning Everett's party for a few months, but the week of the party I felt like I was in party planning over drive! Lucky for me, my meme came down to help me get things done. We made 42 dozen cookies, 15 tissue pom poms, coloring books, cookie crisp filled jars, and about a million other little things.

The day of the party I wanted to wake Everett up early so that he would take an earlier nap and be up and feeling good by his party at noon. Unfortunately a whole week of lack of sleep caught up to me and I didn't get out of bed until 8:30. Surprising however, Everett was ready for his nap by 9:45.....that never happens! Everything worked out perfect. My mom and meme arrived an hour before the party and I had them blow up balloons (note to self: never buy your own helium tank thinking you'll get the whole 30 balloons it promises, because you'll only get 18).

I was getting things accomplished and before I knew it it was time for the party...nooo!!! I needed at least 30 more minutes! Unfortunately this kept me from taking pre-party pictures of all the decorations with my nice camera and all I got were some quick (and crappy) snapshots. I even realized after the party that we didn't get any pictures of Jarrod...poor guys was stuck behind the video camera.

As soon as kids started to arrive I led them outside to the cookie decorating station. I think that was the biggest hit of the whole day! I've never seen kids scramble for icing and sprinkles so fast. I even asked a few kids if they wanted some more sprinkles to soak up some of their icing...it was literally oozing off the cookie.


After their faces were nice and covered in glittery, bright icing, we headed inside. The kids all pretty much went to Ryan's room and played dress-up while the adults took full advantage of the cookie bar. After lunch was served, Everett was given his 1st cupcake! I always do cupcakes for the kids' birthdays, it's a tradition I always wanted to start. I had made cookie monster cupcakes (hence the theme of the day), but Everett has a peanut allergy and I didn't want to take a chance with cocoNUT that was used for the fur. Silly, but that's my thinking process. Back to the birthday boy......so we all sang 'happy birthday' and Everett just kind of sat there looking at the cupcake. He had a cheeto in either hand and quickly shoved one into his mouth. I realized the only way I was going to get him to eat this cake was to remove all cheetos! He didn't like it when I took the last cheeto away, but I quickly scooped up some chocolate icing and shoved it in his mouth. "Hmmm....this is delicious!" was written all over his face and he quickly devoured the whole thing (or partially bathed in it).


After a mini bath in the sink, we sat down and started opening the huge pile of presents everyone had brought. Everett seemed to follow in his sisters footsteps and not really have any interest in actually unwrapping presents, so mommy was left to do the job (and I was totally okay with that! :) Once all the presents were opened Everett played non-stop. He loved every single thing he got! He played so hard he was passed out by 6 p.m. and slept until 9:30 a.m. the next morning. Now that some serious partying!


Thank you to everyone who came out for his party! We greatly appreciate it!

An Overdue Update

Wow, I'm a little embarassed that my last post about my family was last November, yikes! A lot has happened since then, several milestones. Jarrod finished his Bachelor degree last month and it's been a huge relief to both of us. With Jarrod working overtime and being in school, basically every house/yard project you can imagine was put on hold....but I have a rather long list waiting for him :) We're finally finding time to actually spend together without feeling so stressed. We've been starting to talk a lot more about our 'future home' and what area we want to finally settle in. We won't announce anything until it's official so stay tuned!



Everett is now 8 months old and seriously one of the sweetest babies you will ever meet, even though (bless his heart) he is a bit lazy. He just recently starting rolling around on the floor and still can't quite sit up on his own (poor thing always topples over to one side). Even though he might be a little bit behind in those areas, he's definitely making up for it at the dinner table. Biter biscuits, cereal, puffies, stage 2 jar food, you name it, the boy will eat it! He's still a little clumsy with his finger coordination, but he's getting better with it each day. He's been holding his own bottle and juice cup for a couple months now and that's a huge help to me when I'm in the middle of doing a million other things and he's ready to eat. He's only said 1 word so far but I am happy to announce that it was "MAMA!" That's right people, he's a 100% mama's boy! We don't have a visual on any little toophies coming in yet, but I'm enjoying every second of his big gummy grin. That boys whole face lights up when he smiles and this mama always gets the biggest ones :)



Ryan is now 2 1/2 and makes sure you know she's in the room. She's my little chatterbox and I love sitting and just listening to her babble on and on and absolutely anything and everything. Everytime Ryan sees me on the phone she has to talk to whomever I'm talking to....they may not understand everything she says, but she sure does have enthusiasm! She loves playing her little instruments and 'rocking out' (as she likes to say). She sings to the top of her lungs and you can probably recognize the melody of the song she sings before you can understand the words. She loves going to school (Mother's Day Out) and squeals with excitement everytime I drop her off and pick her up. She loves clothes and shoes and insists on trying every new piece of clothing on. Flip flops are her favorite and I'm a little embarassed to say that she already has 9 pair for the summer. Ryan doesn't exactly know musicians, but when we tell her to sing Bieber she says "Baby, Oooh! I liiiike it!" (ok, ok, so she combines Justin Beiber and Enrique Iglesias, that just shows how talented she is....she's my little rock star!)



As for me, I'm still in school (going on the 20th year, right?), still juggling to meet my kids' and husbands needs while making sure the house stays clean, the menu gets planned, the groceries get bought, the laundry gets folded, and the dinner gets cooked. Jarrod and I recently started running and will be doing our first 5K this Saturday (slow and steady may not win the race but our goal is just to finish!) This run will be my baseline run and I plan on doing at least 1 more 5K in the fall, hopefully I will shave a lot of time off of my 1st run.

Baby Ryan turns 2!

Ryan loves the carousel.....loves it! So when it was time to think about where to have her party the obvious choice was Adventure Crossing since they're the only place in town that has one. The party package price wasn't too bad and I was able to get the day I wanted and the time (trying to work around Ryan's nap time). After having the invitations made, addressing them, and sealing them, I got a call that Adventure Crossing was unable to host Ryan's birthday party at the time we had designated (11:00 a.m.). The only available time was going to be 3 p.m. on the same day. Considering that's right in the middle of Ryan's nap time I wasn't a very happy camper, but there was nothing else I could do. They offered to take $50 off the package price in hopes of making me a little happier....I took it but I still wasn't too thrilled.

I've known for a while that I was going to do these Dora the Explorer cupcakes I had seen featured on Nick Jr. They definitely did not look easy, but they were too cute to resist. The day before Ryan's party we were having all the carpets in the house cleaned so I took Ryan and Everett to their great-grandparents house so that they would not be in the way. This gave me time to do the cupcakes. It took me a good 3 1/2 hours to get those little boogers done but I finally finished and was extremely happy with the results. I put them in aluminum containers and left them on the counter so they were ready for the party the next day. Later in the evening after Jarrod and the kids got home I went to the kitchen and glanced at the cupcakes....only to find their faces were melting off!!! I didn't even know what to do....cry? scream? laugh at the sheer thought that I had worked so hard and now they were ruined? Jarrod came in there and being the supportive husband that he is (and knowing how hard I had worked) he busted out laughing, started taking pictures of the now-melted cupcakes, and said 'Dora was committing suicide.' Isn't he the best?

"The good looking Dora's"


"The melted Dora's"


I put them in the fridge and decided I would work on the in the morning....I just couldn't look at them anymore. The next day I took them out and one by one I tried to fix their faces. All the mouths had come off and one Dora had even lost an eye (she became a pirate!). I was able to salvage them but they didn't look quite as good as the night before. Oh well....by this time all I could do was laugh.





Mommy and the Party Girl





Daddy and the Party Girl







That morning we woke Ryan up extra early so that she would go down for her nap a couple hours earlier and it seemed to work pretty well. When we arrived at the party place there were a lot of people hanging around outside...the place looked closed. I got up to the door and there was a sign posted that they were having a "closed event but would reopen at 3 p.m." Okay so why did they tell me to get there 15 minutes early?? We finally were let in and the arcade area just looked really dim. I had not really been there since the place had changed over from Funsville to Adventure Crossing and I can definitely say it looked like they took the "fun" right out of it. All the crazy neon lights had been taken down and it was dark and a bit gloomy. I headed to our designated party room and started setting up the cupcakes (there was no attendent waiting for us). People were starting to trickle in and I wasn't sure what we were suppose to do first so I went to find someone to help. Our attendent finally arrived s-l-o-w-l-y but surely. She didn't seem to really know how to 'guide' a birthday party so I kind of had to take charge. I told her there were going to be 5 extra kids (15 total) and that we would have them eat first, then do cupcakes, then open presents.



After about 10-15 minutes I had all the kids sit at the table and the attendant brought in the pizza and just looked at me. I was thinking to myself 'so, am I suppose to serve this or are you?' I finally asked her what would we serve the pizza with (such as a spatula, etc.) and she said "We got gloves." Okay so we're going to serve this piping hot pizza with gloves? Okay then. Next we needed to cut up the pizza for several of the kids and she had only given us spoons. This attendant was obviously not the brightest crayon in the box. Finally the pizza was eaten, the cupcakes were served and I got Ryan started on open the ginormous pile of presents. She opened 2 presents and then simply told me "I done" and walked off. Okay then....we'll open presents at home!



By this time most of the party was starting to get anxious and wanting the tickets and tokens. I went to search for the attendant (again) and told her we were ready for the tickets and tokens. She looked blankly at me and said "You have to close out your party first." Okay, I take it you mean pay, so I went and got my purse. I finished paying and the girl simply said "I don't know why those tickets ain't comin' out." I stood there for TEN minutes and finally she said they would bring the tickets and tokens to party room as soon as they got them ready. Hmm....wouldn't it be wise to already have all that ready prior to the party?? I went back to the party room and told all the kids we were still 'waiting' (not something easy to do!)

Finally the attendant brought the bags of tickets and tokens. I noticed there were all the tickets, but each bag only had 1 token. I asked her about it and she said that you have to put that token in a machine and it'll then give you your 10 tokens. THAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I HAVE EVER HEARD OF! So basically everytime I handed out a ticket bag I had to explain to the child or parent what to do with the single token.

By this time my sister-in-law had already taken Ryan outside to get on the carousel because I was being held up with party matters. On the way out I went to put my single token in the machine and guess what happened? The MAINTENANCE light came on! Are you serious?? I was pretty much disgusted with that whole place by that point.



Luckily as soon as I walked outside I saw Ryan on the carousel and her whole face was lit up....that moment right there made everything worth it! She was enjoying herself so much!





After the carousel, Ryan and her cousin Claire rode the airplane ride (with Aunt Courtney also since she is almost just as small as they are!).



Right when they got off Ryan wanted to ride the 'horsey' (aka the carousel). I seriously lost count how many times she rode, but she was having the time of her life so I was going to let her ride as many times as she wanted! She tried to ride the hot air balloon ride but immediately had the look of terror/nausea on her face and they stopped the ride to let her off. Back to the good ol' carousel she went!

The next morning Jarrod and I put all of Ryan's gifts in the living room and let her open them....it looked like Christmas had exploded in there! Ryan was excited about every single gift she opened and we're very thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives that love her just as much as we do. Although I did have quite a few cupcake and party headaches, seeing my little girl have fun was worth every single bit of it.

Here are a few pictures of Ryan opening her presents and trying everything out!



With my matching apron and chef's hat, I'm ready to get cooking!














The girl loves dress-up!















New Dora Guitar













Opening her interactive Dora