Disney World

Wow.  Planning for Disney is one of the craziest things ever!  During my county's Fall Break this year we decided that we were going to take the plunge and go to Disney World.  Going into this, we knew that this was not going to be a yearly thing, or even an every other year thing so we wanted to make the most of this trip. 

During the time we were going to be there Disney has their free meal plan available, which is what we were planning on doing.  Through talking to family and so on it turns out we're going to be going with all of Adam's family---fun times!  We went back and forth debating costs and perks and ended up going with staying in a condo that is a part of the AFVC.  For essentially the same cost we could stay an extra 3 days and get the park hopper option on the park tickets. 

So now that that's decided we get into the meals.  Absolutely insane.  You have to make your reservations 180 days in advance; 6 months.  That means you have to have things planned out before that.  So I spent almost almost a month if not longer pricing things, determining what character was at what  meal and so on.  What we ended up deciding is that we wanted the most out of our trip, and we didn't want to wait in line and be drug down by trying to see all the different characters.  So I chose the  meals that we would see our favorite ones, got Adam to approve them and timed it out so I could make the reservations! 

Making the reservations was one of the easiest things I've done!  Also on their website you can see all current menus, some have pricing-some don't; so that helped when trying to figure out places to eat.  There were quite a few places that for the experience we wanted to try, then looked at the menu and realized that we would not like the food so we quickly dismissed it :-)  I made some customized maps through Disney.com and they are already out of date since Rapunzel won't be at her play and greet, it will be the new Irish Princess (whose name escapes me). 

Rapunzel and Ariel and the only princesses that we won't see at a meal; Belle is a maybe but I know where we can find her.  I've got the other two on my list as well :-) 

So that is part one....start early and figure out what kind of experience you want?  If you are going to go every year then I wouldn't worry about a lot.  We are not; it will probably be 2+ years before we go again so we are making the most of it :-) 

Stay tuned for planners, papers, and attire :-)

Easter 2012

This is an update on Easter through pictures.  We took some pictures early for Easter Cards, then the others are from Easter Weekend.  The girls did an Easter Egg Hunt at Cassidy UMC, then we made some Resurrection Rolls.  Those are SO good, and if you've never made them before you should really try them!  I would just go to pinterest and search for the recipe.  Finally, we took pictures with the family after Church.  The family photo was pretty good--my sis took it.  I think she took the other too, but I can't remember; anyways we took a slew of other pictures but those two were the best.  I wish the picture of the 4 generations had turned out better, I don't have a good one of us all since Kathryn arrived almost two years ago!

 

 

UT Women's Basketball

So as you probably know, our blood runs orange here in the Hoffman Household :-)  So when I found out the weekend that my parents and grandparents were going to make their annual basketball game I asked if we could come along!  The girls wore their outfits from All Tied Up gifts (find them on facebook) and we were off!  It was so much fun!  As it turns out Adam hadn't been to a game at all during his tenure at UT so it was a lot of fun taking him as well!  I tried to get a couple of the actual game but it was more fun taking pics of my family!

 

Megan's Wedding

So right after Valentine's Day was my cousin's wedding!  So much fun!  I just love getting together with family, especially extended family!  Megan was like a second sister growing up and so many memories usually involve her :-)  As much as we love Matt and welcome him into our family; we are selfishly glad that he moved to TN instead of Megan moving to Texas!  Below are some pics of the event. One of the decor and the others are of Adam and I, Megan and Uncle Bud, and then the Bride and Groom. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day 2012

So remember how I told you I got food poisoning?  It was awful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone!  Because of that I was only able to get pictures of the decorations that I did and not any of the girls or us.  I got a lot ideas using pinterest which you can link up to on the right.  So fun!  

Where have you been?

Well.....it would appear that I didn't post at all in March!  I guess I have a lot of posts to write this month, get ready to be overloaded :-)  In my defense I did get sick (again), and the girls were out of town so I had to spend a majority of that week getting them packed to be gone for so long. 

Some posts you can be looking forward to are:

• Megan's Wedding
• UT Basketball Game
• Valentine's Day (did I ever post?)
• St. Patrick's Day
• Easter pics with Leverton Photography
• Pennsylvania (maybe broken down into days)
• Easter
• Disney Vacation planning
• Random updates here and there

Well one major thing I should probably share with you has been working it's way on me this past month.  Have you read the Bailey Flanigan series by Karen Kingsbury?  If you haven't I encourage you to start at the beginning with the Redemption series, but I digress.  There were two parts in two of the books in the series that really spoke to me.  The first one involves the verse Proverbs 16:9 "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps." NIV  WOW!!  I am such a planner and there has been a major 'plan' we wanted in our lives, but it just kept not working out.  That verse only confirms my beliefs that the journey to get there is totally God's doing.  That makes me feel better about decisions we've made in the past month :-)  Another part in the book that has to do with this 'plan' was the fact that one of the main characters (Cody) was in love 'with the idea' of Bailey and not actually Bailey herself.  That was another WOW moment!  Not in regards to loving someone--I have found the one my soul loves :-) but in regards to what our plan was!  Maybe.....maybe what we had thought we wanted for our family that wasn't working out isn't what we really wanted.  Maybe it was the idea of the outcome which was what I really wanted.  Sound vague?  Sorry.  I am more than happy to share with you personally, but not out in the open on my blog.  In recent years there were many that I was friends with that shared their opinions so freely that guilt, depression, and other emotions set in.  I have since left that group of people but I would rather not invite those conversations back into my life. 

The second part that spoke to me was when another character (Andi) was reading the story of the rich ruler.  Throughout the past years that verse has been used to tell us (Adam and I) that we should be living destitute giving all our money to God.  If we weren't then we were not following God's directions.  You want to talk about major guilt.  We're not millionaires by any means, but neither are we in the poorhouse.  We were giving what we could, and what we felt God was calling us to give; but apparently it wasn't good enough.  After reading this verse and it's different analogies through the book, it became apparent that Jesus wasn't asking the ruler to live destitute because that's how He wants us to live after giving all our money to the church; He was asking the ruler to give up the one thing he loved more than Jesus.  That's what he wants us to give up.  Whatever it is we love more than Him.  It dawned on me (again) that it was our 'plan' that I was just stressing over, and obsessing about that I was putting before Him. 

You want to talk about your world being turned upside down!!!  So that has given Adam and I quite a bit to talk and think about in the coming weeks.  I'm beginning to feel like I have a better idea of what my end result/goal should be :-)

Update

So I will post something later this week...the past couple weeks have been crazy!  First Kathryn got really sick, then I got really sick.  Then it was break and we were out of state.  It's just been one thing after another.  I'm just thankful for a peaceful month of March before April happens and the craziness starts up again!