Latest happenings

My time for blogging seems to get shorter and shorter these days. I've been stock piling some cute pictures from the past week and here they are. :)

To help introduce the following pictures~
We have made it a fun outing to go to the local dollar store up the road. I've never ever been a dollar store go-er, but the one by our house is pretty decent. I let Connor pick out one thing in the whole store each time we go (talk about cheap entertainment). He loves to browse the aisles, collect a few things, put things back, find more, so on and so forth...until we end up with the one thing he loves the most. Last trip to the dollar store, we found water balloons. I didn't know why I hadn't thought of water balloons for Connor sooner, but sheesh--

1. He can throw them
2. He can get wet
3. He thinks he's being destructive when he's not doing much harm at all.

Talk about exciting for him!! :)
Here's Mr. Connor in action with his wagon of balloons.

The next picture below makes me smile to no end!

We've been working with Connor on his potty training and its been pretty hit and miss. Connor does great telling us when he's going potty or poo-poo, but its never enough time to get him on the potty. Connor's been pretty private with his poo-poos though. He will usually close the door to whatever room he's in while he's going or if he doesn't know where to go, he'll tell anyone who comes his way to "go hide" until he's done with his business :). With that in mind, the next picture helps illustrate the fact that Mr. Private Potty Time needed some privacy to be successful.

Nana keeps Connor's elmo potty in her bathroom closet when Connor's not over. We had just finished swimming in Nana & Papa's pool, when we asked Connor if he needed to go potty. He walked right into the bathroom closet, plopped down on his elmo potty, closed the closet door behind him, and went potty in the dark of the closet!!! Talk about hilarious!

Nana and I stood outside the closet door listening quietly while Connor tinkled into the potty. Moments later, we hear "I did it!!" Connor poked his head out of the closet door to find two ecstatic crazy women jumping and cheering!!

Here's my little closet potty-er. :)

After our exciting potty experience in the closet, Connor and Nana took a stroll around the house checking out the "ween decorations."

Connor is already SO VERY exciting about Halloween. I get excited watching his excitement :)

A few nights ago, we joined the Sears fam for Austin's soccer practice. While Connor didn't understand why he couldn't play with the big boys on the field, this mom decided to quickly distract him with a wagon ride up and down the sidelines. After about 10 laps (and pulling a combined toddler weight of 50 lbs), I was slightly sweaty & ready for a break. Connor jumped right in and took control (see below).

If that wasn't cute enough...

here are Connor and Kaylee on their stroll to the parking lot.

Kaylee is Connor's little princess who he adores and Kaylee is the tiny controller that loves to show Connor whose in charge. They're perfect together :)

As I had mentioned above, Connor has been getting pretty excited about Halloween coming up. We've been checking out some Halloween books and movies from the library to help get Connor prepared for whats in store for him. He came to me the other morning and asked for a Halloween costume. Since I didn't find any harm in it, I pulled his Mickey costume out from last year and helped him put it on. He ran around and danced, annoucing he was "Mickey Mouse!" If that wasn't cute enough, when "Mr. Computer Guy" came to fix our internet connection, Connor popped his head into the study and said "Puter guy, Connor Mickey Mouse!" Connor and the Computer Guy bounded right away as Mr. Computer Guy busted out a pretty good impression of Goofy. Here's Mr. Mickey checking himself out.

My ham of a child opted to wear his Mickey costume ALL day. The library goers, grocery store shoppers, and neighbors all got to see Mickey Mouse up close and personal.

Ears, tail, and all!

Hip Hop Tots

Connor's getting to the age where he's craving play time with other kids. He is the child on the playground that stalks other children in hopes that someone will play with him! If Connor was a girl, he'd have the option of ballet, tap, jazz, mommy & me tea parties or pedicures, and other feminine shananigans...but since we all know Connor is ALL BOY, our choice of age appropriate activities is pretty limited. I heard from a friend that teaches at a dance studio that she was trying to expand her hip hop dance class and needed some boys. I figured as long as Connor didn't have to wear a leotard or tutu, I wasn't committing any mother-of-a-son sins. :)

We rolled into the dance studio, met with his teacher, they showed us the studio, then his teacher said "...and this is where the parents sit and watch the kids on the monitors." I wasn't expecting that I'd have to be in another room (and slightly panicked since I was wondering how I'd be able to take pictures!!). I wasn't sure if Connor would go willingly with his new teacher, but to my surprise, he went right ahead. It was a great way for me to see how he was doing without me around! He was HILARIOUS to watch. All the kids had a colored dot that they had to stay on and Connor did excellent staying in his spot. His class was small (4 girls and Connor was the lonesome boy). It was cute as can be watching his move his arms, stomp, and try to mimic his teacher's moves. His favorite part of class was the pumpkin stamp he got on his hand when class was over! We can't wait to go back next week!

The best pictures I could get of Connor participating in his dance class. The class was working on sitting on their dots and stomping their feet in front of them. The teacher would go...

left foot, right foot, left foot- left foot

and Connor would go...

right foot, left foot :)


In the picture below, the class was holding hands and doing 'the worm'.

Since we danced right on through nap time, my precious twinkle toes conked out on the way literally 5 seconds after he entered his carseat. I was able to hold him when we got home and he slept on my shoulder. When he woke on the couch with me, he looked into my eyes, grinned his giant cheesy smile, and goes "dance class."

I think that was his way of saying he had fun :).

Hopefully more pictures to come after next week's class :)

Ryder's b'day party!

Not quite sure why it took me so long to blog about Ryder's birthday party that occurred a few weeks ago, but better belated than never!

Connor had a great time celebrating with his buddy, Ryder, as he turned the big 3!

Connor immediately found the 'cake table' and got a front row seat. Connor is definitely all my child, as he knows that with every birthday party comes c-a-k-e! When I explained to him that we couldn't have a cupcake until we sang "Happy Birthday" to Ryder, Connor began to bust out his best rendition of "Happy to you, Happy to you..." It was adorable :)

When it was time to sing to Ryder, Connor got right up there & started busting out his own remix of "Happy Birthday" :)


The party blower was quite the hit as well...


The cupcakes were tasty!


This is Connor's puppy dog begging-for-food-face.
"More cupcakes Mom?!"


I stole the next two photos from Ryder's Mom's blog (thanks Danielle!)
Our boys are pretty similar...


Our best attempt at a cute Mom-Son pic.
Connor wasn't about to stop and 'cheese' when he had his party blower!


While Ryder was unwrapping his gifts, Connor bee lined it for Ryder's room looking for his "Lightning McQueen toy." Connor "raced cars" from one end of the room while Ryder and the party at the other end of the room! We may need to invest in this toy...

We had a great time partying with Ryder!!

Summer fun

The summer heat is pretty unbearable right now. If Connor wants to play outside, its usually only for a few minutes so we don't melt from the heat. Over the last week or so, we found a few random activities to keep us busy...

Weekend fun on Pine Island with "Wachel."
Although we didn't capture many photos, Connor had loads of fun feeding Rach's chickens, talking to the birdie, petting the kitty cats, and saying hey to the horse, donkey, and goats. Connor looked like quite the farm boy running around to all the chicken pens launching them their seeds for lunch :). No fun animal pictures, but we got a few on the playground.

Connor is a natural born climber. He holds no fear. I'm pretty sure I hold his fear for him!


Rach got a good laugh at my static cling hair do after coming down the slide!


A few nights later, we found fun in the backyard with a game Connor likes to refer to as "Buzz ball high high in the sky." It usually consists of Matt and I taking turns launching Connor's ball onto the roof and watching it roll off, or tossing it up in the tree and watching it bounce down all the branches until it falls out. Pretty cheap entertainment! This activity isn't usually photo worthy, but when you have a big boy that wants to only wear his 'big boy pants', I figured it was a good time to take some pictures :)

Connor's favorite part--Hoping his ball gets stuck up in the tree and having Matt lift him up to reach it. Strange fun...but still fun :)

Boys will be boys...

Today was a rare one.

This mom took a trip to the hair salon.

This happens only once in a blue moon.

When I came home with my new do, this is what I found...



As I poked under the fort, this is what I found...



Everything is more fun when you do it in a fort!
Connor was enjoying his "games with Matt" while Matt served as the "fort-propper-upper."

I'm pretty sure he didn't even notice I was gone :)

Cleaning off phone photos

I dread days like today.

My baby is not with me.

Although he's not with me, he has my heart with him!

When the hours crawl by until he's home with me again, I scroll through my phone photos as much as possible throughout the day.

I thought it'd be nice to share Connor's preciousness with my fellow blog followers :)

Enjoy some new photos as well as some oldies.

My baby looks so grown up in this picture...taken within the past week

Here's a photo that makes me laugh every time I see it. Connor was sitting in the backseat & I hear him shout "Glasses on...I did it myself!" I turned to see Mr. Smiley with his shades upside down. Oh how I love him!

This is Mr. G.Q. with his cheese face.

Here's my little saver patiently putting each coin into his "ham" piggy bank.

Here is a fave from over a year ago---our visit to Auntie Katie for her FSU graduation. His blue eyes just melt me :)