B-O-W-L-I-N-G

Matt & I were brainstorming all day trying to figure out a new, fun place to go with Connor. We only have a day a week to spend as the 3 of us, so we didn't want to let the day pass by without doing something. We tossed around the idea of the fair, but I honestly hate the fair--its filthy, there are odd people all around you, the rides probably aren't that safe, and it costs an arm and a leg. I just couldn't talk myself into it, so we came up with a plan B. We opted for a night out of bowling! Connor had tried bowling once before at Aidan's birthday party a little while back, but if you recall--this was the party we had to 'abort, abort, abort' after Connor had numerous fantastic meltdowns from no nap & just for-being-three! Its been a few months from that point & Connor has done great grasping the concept of "your turn, my turn" while we play Candyland, so we thought Connor would be in a better state to try bowling again! I'm so glad we did, because Connor had a blast & Matt & I had a great time watching him cheer after each turn.

I'll let the photos recap our night...

Mr. Cheese-face-squints ready to try out his green ball

Connor trotted right on up all by himself to bowl. If I joined Connor (in fear he'd drop/launch this 9 pound ball), Connor was quick to remind me "Mommy, go watch with Matt. I'll do this all by myself." I listened, like a good girl, and went and sat down. :)

Connor knew that after Matt's turn, it was Mommy's turn...so he made sure to find Mommy's pink ball & bring it to me so I could hold it while I waited for my turn!

Here's my cheering squad. Connor insisted they sit on the floor :). It was pretty encouraging to hear cute little "Go Mommy" chants behind me when it was my turn to bowl! I love these boys!

Connor kicking some toosh!

We opted for ice cream after bowling. Connor didn't have a problem with that! We stood in line so long at the ice cream place, that Connor finished his cup of ice cream before we even made it to the register. We thought it'd be a good idea to sit outside, so Connor could run off his sugar while we ate ours'.

We had a great night :)

One. Great. Family.

Connor has one giant fan club!

He may not realize it, but he is surrounded by family who are willing to get up early to cheer him on, run laps when they want to go to bed, play mind-numbingly boring games just to see his excitement, watch "Special Agent Oso" instead of 'regular TV', and swim in sub-zero temperature pool water to keep him entertained...

Connor may not have a brother or sister at this point in his life, but he's never short of a playmate!

There's nothing better than family :)

Evening Fun!

Nothing spells fun like...

Dancing & singing to "Mousercize"...

(courtesy of the wonderful Pandora.com on my phone)

Going for an icy swim in Nana & Papa's pool...

(Connor stepped right in & tells me "It's not that bad, Mom!" I proceeded to step in & realize Connor was full of bologne! It was good & freezing!)

The chilly temperature didn't even faze my little water bug!

Our nights at Nana & Papa's house now must always include Connor's form of hide & seek. Connor likes to do all duties...he hides & counts...then waits for someone to come find him so he can shout "Boo!!" Connor also likes to tell everyone (Nana, Papa, Mommy) who gets to hide & who counts with him. What cracks me up is when he's hiding in the closet & says in a loud voice "Gotta be quiet!!!" He's a hoot!

(Hide & seek in your skivvies is always a fun time!)

Winter in Florida

After living in Florida my entire life, I learned very quickly that even the Yacht Club beach is busy in the winter! Matt & I decided to make an afternoon trip to the local beach to let Connor play. We both admitted to never ever seeing the Yacht Club that busy our entire lives! We literally had a tough time finding a spot on the sand that was vacant to sit on! Once we were situated, Mr. Congeniality made friends with many non-english speaking kiddos in the ice cold beach water! Connor didn't care...he just chatted away anyway! :)

Off to the water he went with his "water blaster"

Matt's duty was to work on a neat-o sand castle while Mama's duty was to a) Make sure Connor didn't blast any unsuspecting passerbyers with freezing salt water, b) Make sure Connor didn't venture out too far off shore since I was not about to jump in the chilly water, and c) Make sure to capture precious pictures of my beach boy!

One of Connor's sweet friends that let him blast her over and over with no complaints! (There was actually a group of three kiddos that all had water blasters, so they all had a fighting chance with their weapons!)

One. Serious. Water. Blaster. Boy.

This child would live in the water if he could!

Sunscreen smears and all...he was one cute munchkin!

I captured the photo below in between Connor trying to blast me! This is a true "I'm all trouble" smile (and chuckle)!

We thought it'd be fun to bury Connor in the sand. It lasted a few giggles from Connor, but then he realized he was too dirty and would have to sit still too long, so he was outta there!

Waving hi to his fans :)

(Photo below would have been a complete success if the nice snowbird lady could have been out of the frame!)

Not sure of Connor's face, but we'll consider this a keeper!

My water boy took on the important role of filling the river in his "sand castle" courtesy of Matt!

Connor's sand castle was built with love consisting of two tunnels and a long stream leading to a river :). I'm glad I left this challenge up to Matt, because I'm pretty sure my efforts would have been a lot less exciting!

We ended the beach outing with a quick trip to the beach playground, blowing some bubbles, a rinse down, and change of clothes. The ride home was complete with Connor's favorite snack--Pringles chips. We had one happy camper on our hands today! :) Life is good!

Big Day at Basketball!

My Super #0 scored himself TWO hoops! Not sure who was prouder...but I need to be equipped with my video camera next game to catch him shoot, score, jump up & cheered "I did it!!" ever so proudly, then trot across the court to give his Mama a victory hug. I could eat those moments up every time! Oh how I love my boy!!

After the game...we had Connor putting up 2 fingers for his two successful hoops, but pretty sure the delay of the camera turned his cute pose into his less expressive face...

Connor enjoying a glimpse of himself in Papa's shades.

Sidenote: Two fresh buzz haircuts courtesy of yours truly!

The highlight of every game...snacks after the game! :)

Today's team snack: Cheetos!

A few of Connor's biggest fans :)

Happy Love Day!

This year's Valentine's Day was nothing fancy and just the way we liked it! With Matt's work schedule, we celebrated our Valentine's Day last Sunday. It is rare when we are able to sit down and have a long uninterrupted conversation, so we had a wonderful time doing so over lunch at Iguana Mia :). On our official Valentine's Day, Connor and I had a Mom-Son bonding day! We baked Valentine's cupcakes, made red jigglers, and gathered our Valentines for delivery.

Connor's my #1 taste-tester

Gathering our goodies for delivery :)

Our first stop was Uncle Craig's office. Connor was pumped to visit his Uncle Craig, but couldn't quite understand why Auntie Nicole wasn't there too :). After that, Connor requested a romantic date for two at Chickfila. When I say "Date for two," I mean Connor & the playground! At one point, Connor was playing and came over to me to say "Mom, hide. I'm playing with my friends." I was like "Ummmm No sir!" I'm not about to get booted from "cool mom" to "hide mom" status. About two hours of play time later, we loaded up and headed to Nana & Papa's office to deliver their Valentines. If you could have only seen my little boy cheer with excitement when he saw Nana & Papa's cars in the parking lot! Boy, does he adore them! We went home for a much needed nap for both of us (full of lots of snuggle time which is my all time favorite thing to do)! Once we were well rested, we loaded up and headed to Nana & Papa's for Connor's Valentine's Day "surprises."

Boy is Connor loved! One of Connor's new goodies from Nana & Papa is his Lite-Brite! Mom swears we loved the Lite-Brite as kids and knew Connor would have fun with it. She sat down to do it with Connor and found out pretty quickly that the Lite-Brite patterns take some time, patience, and forceful pushing :). It was fun to watch Connor & Nana work together...

Sometimes Nana feels like chopped liver compared to Connor's love for Papa, but Nana is by far Connor's favorite playmate!

After some time and hard work, the finished Lite-Brite was ready...

Taaaaa-Daaaaaa!

Connor spent the next two hours with his "Lite-Brite-Flashlight." He carried it in every dark room to see how it looked, played hide and seek with it, and even took a Lite-Brite-lit bath.

(This is by far the most fun age. I need to remind myself to do more video-recording! Hopefully some videos to come soon!)

Hope everyone felt loved this Valentine's Day!

Chick Magnet

Connor is quite the lady's man! Every week Connor meets up with two of his favorite chickies--Stella & Makayla. I wish I had a picture of them to show you, because they are both cute as a button! Anyway, this past week Connor got together with the girls to play & brought them special Toy Story Valentines. To his surprise, Makayla had goodies for him as well!

Here's my little cheeseball with his Valentine's day gift from his sweet Makayla.

(This is his "cheese face"--squinty eyes & all!)

Connor was so sweet to share his frosting covered cookie lollipops with his Mama :)

We both have a secret obsession with anything with frosting on it!

There's no denying Connor is my child!

Mama Bear

I believe women don't learn their own strength until they become Mothers!

This Mama Bear will do anything to protect my little one. A sweet friend of mine said it best with a quote...

"In life, think of rotten people like sand paper...they may scratch you and hurt you, but in the end you come out smooth and polished and they are just old and ugly."

May God and my Mama Bear power help get me through these tough times.

Pearly whites

We had a special treat this week when we went to Nana's dentist appointment. Connor got to tag along with Nana to her dental cleaning & I met them there as I got off of work. Since Nana was the last patient of the day and our dentist office is so nice (and adores Connor), Dr. Rollings dropped in & checked Connor out in the "big chair."

Dr. Rollings took a look at Connor's teeth & counted them all. Connor decided to help him by counting along..."one, two, three..."

We all got a good laugh as Dr. Rollings struggled to keep Connor's mouth wide open and Connor kept counting :)

Twenty pearly whites all accounted for!

Connor handled it like a champ! Next appointment will be his cleaning, so we'll hope its as easy as this trial run!

Mmmm...

Lollipop...

Lollipop...

Oh, Lolli- Lollipop...

Lollipop!!

(*Bah-doo-doo-doo)

Lollipop!!