SAUCER SCHNANIGANS

Stampin'Up just release the most AMAZING new computer program. It's called My Digital Studio and it is NOT just digital scrapbooking!! You can create personalized photo books in several sizes, handmade cards, and personalized calendars that can all be printed with lots of options. Then you can take these projects and make fun slide shows, interactive books, and movies as well as incorporate your home videos and personal audio recordings into the project. Here is a book I created with our Pumpkin Patch pictures then found a fun song and had the boys help me record some audio tracks.

I'm finally recovered from our big trip last weekend. Missy and I took 2 mini vans and 8 kids 300 miles north to do our fmaily pumpkin patch tradition since Daniel was gone. Since we were staying farther north than usual at Grandma Joan's (Joan is Missy's mom) we decided to try a Pumpkin Patch in Hayden, AL that was closer to her house. They had all the same great fun as our usual on a little smaller scale. We had a blast despite the damp weather. We went to Missy's Aunt Patty's house for a birthday party on Saturday night. They live in the middle of beautiful nowhere and we even got to roast hotdogs and marshmellows on a bon fire outside!!! On Sunday we headed into Birmingham to watch the Toy Story double feature in 3-D. I got the tickets for my crew then took Aidan and my boys in to the bathroom while Missy got tickets for her crew. Then we got in line for popcorn. I had explained to Alan, Eddie, and Joey we would get one big popcorn to share and if there was any ...

This weekend we took the boys to Universal Studios in Orlando. We got to the park right before it opened at 9am. We decided to start the day at the Islands of Adventure part of the park. We made a beeline for the Spiderman ride. I went with Alan and Eddie while Daniel and Joey waited in the parent swap. This is a really amazing ride. You ride in a car along the track with a 3-D movie screen in front of you. You help Spidey get the bad guys and it actually feels like you are swinging from webs and flying/falling!!! When we got off the ride Alan decided not to go a second time, but Eddie sure got excited when he just had to wait for Daddy to trade places with mommy to ride again!! The rest of the rides in the super hero section were for taller and older kids so we headed over to Seuss Landing. This turned out to be Alan's favorite. The first ride at Seuss Landing is of course The Cat in The Hat. This ride takes you through the house and shows you the chaos when the Cat arrives with T...

Friday, April 4th Magic Kingdom Part 2 The boys must have had some wild dreams last night to wake like this. Grandma, Mommy, Alan and Eddie headed downstairs for breakfast around 8:30am. The boys stopped by Herbie for a little play time. While we were eating breakfast the sky opened up and it POURED!!! We took our time with breakfast thinking the rain would pass, but it just kept coming so we got ponchos in the gift shop $30 allowing Grandma to purchase a nice canvas bag for an additional $10. Then it was outside to catch the bus. We got to Magic Kingdom not long after it opened and headed straight for Tomorrow Land to ride Buzz Lightyear. We got a Fast Pass Ticket for later. The man working the Fast Pass machines was from Pella, IA. He told us the line was only 10 minutes so we also rode right away. The first time Eddie and Grandma rode together and Alan and Mommy rode together. When we got off the ride we had some time before our Fast Pass tickets would work so w...

Thursday, April 2 2009 Epcot Last night we grabbed the maps for Epcot on our way upstairs to plan the day for today. Grandma and Joey really got into the map reading. Then Grandma read bedtime stories to the boys. This morning Joey was up before us all and decided to serenade us for an hour until the alarm went off at 8am. We were dressed and headed to the bus by 9am. Daddy is fighting his sinuses and has a back ache so I was worried about how we would hold up for the 4th FULL day of Disney excitement. We found out there is a ride at Epcot that is as popular as the Toy Story ride was at Hollywood Studios and didn’t want to make the same mistake twice so Daniel took off to get Fast Pass Tickets for Soarin’ right away!! Mommy and Grandma took the boys to Innoventions to play with the toys and tools of tomorrow. Alan and Eddie went right for the Fire Safety Show with Grandma. Mommy and Joey walked around and scoped things out. We found out about the Kim Possible World Showcas...

Wednesday, April 1 2009 Disney Hollywood Studios I’m really not sure how the wake up went this morning because I wasn’t the first one up. I know Grandma and Daddy didn’t get in until way late because Grandma actually flew into Sanford Airport NOT the Orlando Airport. Daniel made the discovery before she landed and was in route the extra 40 some miles to pick her up. Life is always an adventure when you travel  The boys all slept through the rearranging and organizing and were very happy to see Grandma this morning. Daddy and Joey were going to stay in the room and join the rest of us at the park later so Daniel took our dirty clothes downstairs to the resort laundry mat to wash them. Then at 8:30 Grandma and Mommy took Alan and Eddie down to the bus and headed to Disney Hollywood Studios. We arrived to the park right before they opened. We had plenty of time to take Grandma and activate her ticket. Thank God Daniel was thinking ahead and gave me his active duty military id to ...

Tuesday, March 31 2009 Animal Kingdom We started the day with a 7am alarm and the morning started almost the same as yesterday with showers and breakfast in the room. Then we got in the Animal Kingdom shuttle bus line and our day began. We waited at the park entrance and got coffee. We were off to Africa to start our adventure. The gates opened with a short show from our Classic Characters reviewing safety, sunblock, and maps. The Tree of Life is at the center of the park. Here are some pictures as we first entered Africa. Daddy went to get Fast Pass Tickets for the Kilimanjaro Safari and we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail to see the animals while we waited to go on the Safari. We still had some time so we boarded the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. There was a great petting zoo where the kids could brush goats that would just lay there for them. Nothing like the diary goats from the good ol...

Well I thought I could outsmart blogger and put the pictures right in the word file then copy and paste the whole file, but blogger only lets you paste the words. I'll post this entry and then get all the pictures from the whole trip posted to picasa for you to "see" our vacation. I'll post each day separately for you to "read" about our vacation. Monday, March 30th Magic Kingdom The cell phone alarm went off at 7am (we learned the hard way not to trust hotel alarm clocks). I jumped in the shower and we got all 3 boys dressed and fed and out the door to catch the bus by 8am. The shuttle bus had us to the Magic Kingdom and through the first set of turn styles before the park opened!! Our Hotel Shuttle Bus We asked some people from Australia to take this picture of us waiting for the park to open. They do a quick welcome song and dance and the classic characters; Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto ride a train in to welcome the crowd to the most M...

We are packing up and heading out first thing in the morning for our Spring Break Vacation. Alan has figured out where we are going although we haven't told him specifically because we like to keep the boys on their toes. We are headed to Orlando and the Wonderful World of Disney. There are a couple additional surprises in store for the boys though. Alan's best friend Aidan and family will be at the same parks on the same days with cell phone coordinated run ins :) and the biggest surprise is Grandma is flying in on Tuesday and staying the remainder of the vacation with us!!! I got pictures sorted and added some to the 2009_March Picasa album if you click on the Saucer Family Website you can see them. I have the laptop packed and hope to type out updates of the trip.

We are finally home from our Holiday Travels!! We ended up driving just under 3,000 miles through 13 states for Christmas Break. It was sooo great to see all the people we were able to visit. There were a few we were unable to get to due to weather/road conditions, illness, and just plain old lack of time!! I just finished sorting and posting pictures for 2008_December 2008_December and 2009_January 2009_January . Trying something new with pictures. You should be able to click on each of these pictures and link to the whole album. We wish you all a very prosperous New Year!!!

Ever wonder if Superman's hometown of Metropolis really exists?? Well, it does and it happened to be just 6 miles from our hotel the first night of holiday travels. My mom stopped at a visitor center near there on her way home this summer and sent the boys a picture of her face in a Superman cut out. We decided since we were so close the boys would enjoy the stop. They were sooo excited to see Superman and even more excited at the memory from the picture telling us that Grandma had been there before. Here are the pictures from our pitstop. SUPER Joey!! SUPER Eddie!! SUPER Alan!! SUPER Saucers!! SUPER Mommy!! SUPER Daddy!!

While a "White" Christmas is something many dream of, I'm pretty confident in saying I dream and pray that this will be my LAST white Christmas!! It's funny how the only things about snow that "stick" in your memory are the snowball fights, snowman building, sledding and FUN!!! Daniel and I decided the boys would really enjoy seeing snow for the first time this year. So we packed up our mini van turned into a sleigh and then hit the highway our destination was 2 days away. Over the highways and byways we glide to grandmother's house we drive. With turn right or turn left we trust GPS to get us there alive. It turns out we have very bad trip coordination with mother nature. She seemed to think this weekend was the perfect time for a blizzard/white out to visit the mid-west. This didn't quite sync with our driving plans. The further north we drove the talk of snow increased until it was finally falling and hitting our windshield. I warned them o...

Last weekend we did our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Clanton, AL. It was so fun when we lived close and it's worth the 200+ mile drive to keep the family tradition. We had perfect weather, sunny and 72. The boys had a blast climbing on the huge pumpkins, riding in the hay wagon (Joey couldn't take his eyes off those huge tractor tires), picking out a pumpking with Daddy, and the best part is always jumping in the hay mound!!! Here are a couple video clips from the trip and I have a whole album called 2008_Pumpkin Patch and Carving on our Picasa page. Just click the link to the New Saucer Family Website on the left to see all the pictures. We stopped at the new Bass Pro Shop in Prattville to take a look around. Joey is taking a few steps on his own, but boy can he shoot right up the stairs. He was in heaven climbing!!

What a Wiggly weekend!!! My friend, Missy and I threw 5 car seats in the back of her van and loaded up the kids on Friday morning. We headed north to Birmingham and spent the night with her mom. The next day we lounged around visiting. We had to do so threatening to be left out of the big surprise we had planned on Sat. night, but made it through the day. I couldn't believe that Alan remembered seeing the Wiggles 2 years ago when we pulled in the the Civic Center!!! I got a bunch of short video clips from the concert. They allowed pictures, but no video so I had to be discreet about it. The people in the row behind us were actually told to stop video or they would have to leave. This was one time my camera was so little they wouldn't know whether I was taking video or just waiting for a good picture opportunity!!! Here is a video of the Wiggles coming out on stage singing Eddie's all time favorite song, Big Red Car. Here is the Wiggly Polka Hoop De Doo!! Here is the Wiggl...

“Yellow M” On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again!! We started our journey yesterday afternoon. Daniel had a couple meetings get cancelled at work so we left home around 2pm. The boys are so pumped to go to Texas!!! They can’t wait to see Grandpa Bear, Big D, Kristine, Aunt Nikky and Uncle James. Alan has taken on the family job of scout. He like to point out all the “Yellow M”’s and Burger Kings he sees. He can spot them from miles away and thinks he is sooo cool saying “Yellow M” instead of McDonalds!! On the way into Pensacola he heard Daniel and I talking about stopping for dinner and was very upset when we decided to eat at Dairy Queen instead of a “Yellow M” or Burger King. He was very quick to point out to Daddy that we had just passed two!! He calmed down with his Green Mr. Misty aka Incredible Hulk Juice and ice cream cone for dessert  We had hotel reservations on the other side of Baton Rouge (almost half way) and rolled in to the Holiday Inn ...

We had an AMAZING Memorial Day weekend. Daniel's unit got Friday AND Monday off so we loaded up the van on Friday morning and drove 6 hours south to Orlando. Daniel signed us up for some timeshare lecture that got us 3 nights at the Holiday in for $100 (normal rates for this location on Universal Ave are $129+ per night). We got checked in and walked over to Mommy's favorite restaurant, Carrabas for a late dinner. On Saturday morning we did our required tour of the timeshare and listened to all their rules and regulations. It wasn't difficult to say NO as the lowest price they could come down to was $28K AND $650 in yearly maintence fees. I couldn't even believe it, after we told them no, they actually offered to set us up with a mortgage. After catching my breath I told them with bugged eyes "If we can't pay for vacation up front then we don't go on vacation!! There is absolutely no way we will go in debt or MORTGAGE a vacation!!!" I think I a...