Happy 8th Birthday Sweet Hazel Kate!

Dear Hazel,

I cannot believe you are 8!  I know that seems weird since I've only been your mom since you were 6 but the time has FLOWN by!  You came to us as a scared, quiet 6-year-old whose whole world had been turned upside down!  The life that you had known for most of your life changed overnight and we watched you handle it and we were astonished!  You moved into our house the same weekend you met us.  A week later, you started a new school in the MIDDLE of the year, 100 miles away from the place you had known as "home."  

Since that weekend in October of 2012, you have GROWN so much!  You have amazed your dad and me and you continue to blow us away each day!  You have the sweetest, most gentle spirit and are SO loving!  We can always count on you for a great big hug and a kiss every day!  You make sure that we all know that you love us!  

Your relationship with your sister has blossomed so much and we are so thankful for that!  You and Kellie hadn't been together much during the years before you came to us so your relationship was pretty rocky.  You fought a lot and constantly struggled for attention.  Now, you are THE BEST OF FRIENDS! Yes, you fight like normal sisters who are less than 2 years apart but you can't stand to be separated for too long!  You miss each other like crazy and when you refer to your sister, you call her "My Kellie," and it makes my heart smile!

Hazel, you are truly a gift from God!  All of those years that we prayed for a child, we couldn't have imagined receiving such a precious gift as you and your sister are!  You are more than we ever could have imagined!  You are a beautiful, determined, loving, lovable, intelligent and witty little girl and we are so blessed to get to be your parents.  

I am so grateful to be your mom and to get to call you my daughter!

I love you forever and ever!
Mommy

Day 6 Teacups and Princesses

Can you tell by the end of the week we were TIRED? haha!  

The girls rode the Teacups (for the 2nd time) and LOVED them!  They let Rob spin it pretty hard...I would have thrown up!

We ate dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle.  The girls were so excited to see the princesses again and this time they also got to see Aurora so they were stoked!  Notice, Kellie is pitiful in the Jasmine picture.  She was in trouble for something (there's really NO telling with her), so she was being all pitiful for Jasmine to get pity! haha! DRAMA!

When it was time to order dessert, our children asked for a cupcake WITH.A.CANDLE.  Keep in mind it was NOBODY'S birthday!  Well, of course, at WDW you get what you want so our amazing server came back with two cupcakes WITH candles.  He even sang a quick version of "Happy Birthday."  The girls thought they were SOMETHING SPECIAL!

My dessert was a sampler and it was delish!  The writing on the plate was chocolate.  My kind of plate! :)

Hazel found this knight's armor in the castle and MADE us take a picture with it! haha!  So silly!

 These 2 obviously don't get out much! haha!

Day 5 Rainy Day in Hollywood Studios

Day 4 at Epcot was WARM and SUNNY!  Day 5 at Hollywood Studios was WET and COLD!  I barely took any pictures from this day!  It was pretty miserable....

While Rob and Hazel rode Rockin' Roller Coaster (Kellie was too short), we had our picture made in front of Tower of Terror, at Kellie's request.  We were supposed to look scared.  I'm not sure if Kellie looks sad or like she's going to throw up!

Loving their Minnie Mouse gloves 

Because you have to take a pic in the car at the Sci-fi Diner

We got to see the Disney Junior show, the Little Mermaid show, rode Toy Story (one of the best rides in WDW), rode Rockin' Roller Coaster, The Great Movie Ride, and headed to lunch/dinner.  We ate at Mama Melrose, which is one of our favorites.  We always eat there to get the Fantasmic package.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Fantasmic because of weather which I really hate because I know the girls would have LOVED it.  After we ate, we headed back to our resort....wet and freezing! 

Day 4 - Epcot and Princess Dinner

We spent Day 4 in Epcot and had so much fun!  This is the day that Birmingham and Atlanta were dealing with snow and ice.  We kept seeing things on Twitter and Facebook about how terrible the conditions were close to home.  It was SO hard to believe because it was 80 degrees and sunny in Orlando.  We were actually sweating!

You can see that our girls have NO problems with cameras!  They absolutely LOVED that I let them take this picture.  They are SUCH the little divas!

Taking a little break after Mission Space.  These girls rode EVERYTHING that we let them ride.  They have NO fear!  We rode Soarin,' Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush (LOVE), among others.  We didn't get to ride Test Track because the wait was an hour every time we looked and it actually was down a few times that day.  **Just another reason to go back soon! :)

My big girl (She looks so grown up in this picture)  

 Had to stop and get some school bread in Norway.  This is one of our staples when we are in WDW.  If you've never had school bread, well, you haven't lived!

That night we had dinner in Norway at Akershus.  This is a character dinner with 5 of the princesses.  Our girls were SOOO excited.  The food was GREAT and the princesses were so sweet, of course!

 Anna and Elsa from Frozen were in Epcot until January 31 and our girls were dying to meet them.  We had heard all week that the lines to meet these girls had been anywhere from 3-6 hours.  Ridiculous, right?  Who in the world would waste 6 hours of precious WDW time to stand in line to meet Elsa and Ana?  We had checked multiple times that day to see how long the wait was and it was 3 hours each time.  After dinner, we walked over to check one last time and the wait was ONLY (only, haha) 1 hour so we got in line.  

I felt like we should get parents of the year for standing in the line for one hour....those people that stood there for 5 or 6 hours...well you are just INSANE!  

 The Frozen girls were super sweet and took their time with everybody.  From what we heard around the parks, Disney totally underestimated the popularity of Frozen.  There was NO Frozen merchandise anywhere!  They were running out as fast as they got it on the shelves!  I understand the popularity because it is SUCH.A.GREAT.MOVIE!

We ended our day with Illuminations, the laser/firework show at Epcot.  It is one of our favorite things in Disney and we loved sharing it with our girls.  

Day 3 Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney

We started Day 3 at Animal Kingdom and headed straight to Kilimanjaro Safari.  If you are headed to Animal Kingdom, you should head to the safari first thing.  They feed the animals in the morning so all of the animals are out and about.  We got to the safari around 9:00 and walked straight on, with nobody waiting!

It was a little rainy but all of the animals were out!

This giraffe found a puddle to drink out of....in front our jeep.  Since the guides can't honk or do anything to make the animals move, she had to call in backup.  Another worker drove over and put some brush up in a tree and coaxed the giraffe from in front of our jeep.  It took about 10 minutes to get the giraffe to move.  It was really neat!

Termite mounds!!  GROSS!

 This was the closest we have ever been to the animals on the Kilimanjaro Safari.

The girls got their faces painted after the safari.  They were IN LOVE with themselves! :)

We had some time to kill before our breakfast reservation so Daddy did a little dancing with his girls!

 We had a character breakfast at Tusker House with Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy

A little silliness! 

The girls rode EXPEDITION EVEREST and LOVED IT!  Hazel and Rob got to ride Primevil Whirl (Kellie was too short).  We also saw the Finding Nemo show.  Unfortunately, the Lion King show was closed while we were there so I can't wait for the girls to see that during our next trip.

We were all so tired by the afternoon.  As we were walking through the park, somehow the girls ended up like this...wound up in their backpacks!  I.HAVE.NO.IDEA!  After a few meltdowns, we decided to cut our afternoon a little short and head back to our room for a little rest!

 After an afternoon nap, we rode the boat from our resort to Downtown Disney for the evening.  We ate at Ragland Road and it was YUMMY!

These were our scallop appetizers!  We all loved our food AND the Irish dancing!

We walked around and did a little shopping.

We stopped after dinner to sit and call my parents to check in with them.  While I was on the phone, the girls took Rob's hat off of his head and placed it on the sidewalk upside down.  They started dancing and putting on a show.  When Rob asked them what they were doing, they said they were trying to get money!  I have NO idea where that came from or where in the world they have seen that but it was SOOOO funny!