Connor's first 4th of July fishing tournament!

We have so many fond memories of the 4th of July kids fishing tournament, so I was really excited to have Connor participate this year!  One of Connor's little loves, Peyton, joined in on the fishing adventures (as well as Matt, Nana, Papa, Auntie Nicole, Uncle Craig & Peyton's folks).  We were there to register bright & early!

We were pumped.  We were prepared with shrimp in hand, scoped out a good spot, and plopped in hopes of reeling in something.

All pressure was on Papa to pull through for Mr. Connor.  We waited...

and waited...

Until we finally got a bite!

We caught a...snapper?! We weren't quite sure.  For Papa & Craig to be not quite sure of what Connor caught...it had to be a weird fish!  After scoping out other fisherman opinions on the way to the weighing area to show the officials our fish, I believe they determined it was a black bass.  Whatever it was...it was a fish! Yay!

After more waiting, we opted to move to a fishing spot that offered a little more shade for this 90-some degree hot day. After what felt like a hot, sweaty eternity...Papa called Connor over to a big, big, big bite!

After a strange fight trying to pull this sucker from underneath the dock & around the piling, Connor & Papa pulled out a stingray! They got the attention from the entire fishing tournament of people!  Connor walked to the weighing station to show the officials & was so proud to tell everyone he caught a stingray :)

A final picture with his prized catch before they released him to the water again.  Connor is, in fact, smiling.  His cheese faces have become a little more 'painful' looking.  No worries--he's happy! :)

We tried to fish some more, but the heat was starting to wipe us all out.  With about 20 minutes left in the tournament, we opted to seek shade and cool off before the award ceremony.

While resting in the shade, we were passed by Peyton & Captain Uncle Craig many-a-times as they brought in 7 fish!

The tourament was complete with lunch and an award ceremony.  Mr. Connor the fisherman finished with the prize for unique fish, after reeling in his super cool stingray!  Connor walked away with a fancy trophy, new fishing pole, and bait bucket!

Like noted above, Connor is, in fact, happy.  The cheese face seems to appear more and more painful as the day goes on.  He thought the bait bucket would be a great place to store his marbles :). Whatever floats his boat!

Big prizes for our tiny fisherman!

Despite the heat, we had a great time!  Happy 4th of July! :)

Blur

The past week feels a lot like a blur.  Every once in a while I have to work all weekend & this was one of those weekends.  When that happens, the weekend doesn't feel like the weekend & my days are all off.  One great thing is that Matt & Connor get extra bonding time when Mama is away.  Sunday was Austin's party & Matt was on munchkin duty.  Tropical storm Debby kept the pool party inside for a while, so Matt helped Connor play Bingo & a fun, very loud balloon popping game.  From all my text message photo updates thoughout my work day, Connor did great at the party!

When I arrived after work, the skies cleared & they were able to swim for a while!

This picture was the best I could get while they were in motion in the pool.  Connor's face reads t-r-o-u-b-l-e as he squeezed the life out of Matt's earlobe (Connor has an odd ear lobe grabbing obsession lately).  Connor's mismatched swimmies add a nice touch as well.  He did so much jumping in and swimming to keep up with the big kids at the party that he sprung a "flat" and needed to replace an arm with one of the spare pink ones.

Connor was overly helpful with making sure Austin (or Connor) had a present to open.  No matter what Austin opened, Connor got all excited and made the "Ooooooo" face :).  See "Ooooooo" face below.

When the party was over, the 3 year old cleaning crew were hard at work.  They took turns spraying the coffee table and wiping it up.  **Spray bottle was full of water.** I'm pretty sure they went through an entire roll of papertowels and the living room was slightly saturated, but kids were content!

Sometime during our blur of the week, Connor joined me on my "Wedding is in 4 months & I have oodles on my checklist" excursion.  We headed out to Coconut Pointe to run a few errands and detoured to the fun castle play area, so Connor could slay a few dragons.

One of our stops was at Target.  In order to get my "wants," I strategically take the long way around the store to grab what I "need" and make a final stop in the toy section.  Connor does great just browsing and never expects to buy anything.  We usually hit the Cars, Toy Story, and Thomas the Train aisles and make sure to avoid the "girl stuff" aisles. :)

Lots of giggles came from the Super hero aisle during this Target trip... 

What made us laugh the most was while Connor was wearing his masks, I was taking pictures while trying to peer through my mask.

Then last night, I found Connor roaming the house covered with my blanket.  I told him he looked kinda like Linus with his blanket dragging behind him.  He was quick to correct me, saying "I'm not Linus, Mom.  I'm Connor."  My mistake :).

Stay tuned for loads of pictures after this coming weekend.  It will be Connor's first official 4th of July fishing tournament.  The good share of the Whitaker clan will be in attendance.  All three of us Whitaker kids participated as kids & it holds great memories for me.  Pretty sure Uncle Craig will be there bright and early, have bait ready, and have the best fishing spot blocked off.  Connor's Columbia fishing shirt is already set out :)

Look who did a craft!!!

Thanks to a highly addictive website known as Pinterest, I found this fun, colorful craft to make for Connor's Nursery school teacher. 

Connor really likes "Miss Ebbel-lin" (aka Miss Evelyn)!

She does a great job of distracting Connor while I'm peeling his clinched arms from my legs when I drop him off at Noah's Nursery twice a week.  She handles Connor's tearful mornings like a champ and is quite the block-builder from what Connor tells me. I wanted to do a little something for her to say thanks for all she does!

Matt & I sat down to tackle this crayon wreath project.  I was prepared for this wreath to appear as if Connor did it on his own.  We were delightfully surprised with how cute it turned out! :)

Can't wait to give it to Miss Evelyn on Tuesday!

The "New" Nana & Papa's

We knocked on the new door...

Swam in the new pool...

Had our "first supper"...

and warmed by the "fire"...

Candyland and the Toy Story Memory Game were all the more exciting as well in a new room too!

One of the highlights of the new house were the big, sticky, green frogs that come out in the entry way after dark!

We had one night of fun!

Here's to many, many more!!

Like a weed...

I don't know who turned my little boy into a big boy, but it appears like it happened over night!

Life's been extra busy these days and it seems like its been a long time since I just hung around, just Connor and I, and did the simple, fun, free things :).  Connor is at such a great age and he really is my little buddy.  We have great conversations, sweet cuddle time, and oodles of smiles & belly laughs.  Here's a little recap of our recent good times :)

Our official last swim in Nana & Papa's pool before the big move to the new house.  Our pool photos from here on out will be in the "new pool."

Connor jumped in, climbed out, and said he thought his hiney was showing.  Guess his swimsuit was a little bigger than I thought :).

I am beyond proud that Connor has reached the comfort level in the pool to jump in (in the deep end, might I add), go under water without fear, and swim to the side.  He did this a good 20 times before deciding it was time to switch gears & hop in the spa.

We then played a game that involved tossing dive rings into the spa, turning on the jets, and trying to catch them as float to the top with the bubbles.  Connor's imagination had us naming each dive ring, so we could call out the ring's "name" when we found them. 

At one point, Connor said "What color should Rex be?" I told him that "Rex was green, so he could be the green dive ring."  Connor replied with, "Good job, Mama! Rex is green. You're a smart girl!"

He's the cutest child ever...

Our dive ring game was highly entertaining for about an hour!

Connor was excellent during my hair/makeup consult at the salon today (It was only about 10 minutes of going over what I'd like for the wedding, but Connor sat in my lap the whole time.  Quiet and with wonderful manners!  It was a relief and made me proud).  After Connor being so great for me in the salon, I asked him what sounded fun to do afterwards.  He shouted out "Jim Jeffers (aka a local park)!"  So to the park we went...

Some days I think I could do child photography, but I think about it a little more and realize it's Connor that needs to get into child modeling...

Our evening ended with a Mommy-son dinner date consisting of homemade spinach bagel pizzas, apple sauce, and strawberry ice cream for dessert. We usually have our best laughs at the dinner table.

After supper, Connor requested a shower by himself in my bathroom.  He is too adorable with his pretend play in the shower.  He usually races his Lightning McQueen car around the shower, going through tunnels, trying to catch up to Mater, all to win the Piston Cup!  If he gets tired of racing, he'll have me fill up his bucket with sudzy water and he'll give Lightning McQueen a carwash.

I snuck up on him to snap a picture of his nude cuteness!

At this age, I have never laughed so often and been amazed at the darn'dist things that come out of his mouth! :)

Today...

Today is a big day.

Mom and Dad spent their last night in "our house" last night.

Today is moving day.

We were very lucky to have the entire family in town for a final family photo in front of our house before the big move.

I'm sure it's a very stressful, chaotic, slightly unorganized day of packing and unpacking.

Happy thoughts are being sent to my parents on this busy and slightly emotional day.

Connor is already asking to play on the new playground at Nana & Papa's new house!

Looking forward to happy changes and new memories :)

Slightly belated...

Through the whirlwind of planning a wedding and gearing up for moving & the new house, I've been a little busy the past few weeks.  Not to mention, I have a 3 year old that must have the Energizer Bunny in his bloodline somewhere, because he never, ever, ever stops moving or talking. Ever.

Although we had a wonderful day celebrating Matt's 34th birthday last Thursday, I still wanted to give him an extra birthday "shout out."

To the guy that brings out the best in me, goes above and beyond to make sure I'm my happiest, who makes my little boy giggle louder than anyone else with his tickling, who works long, hard hours to help support our little family, and who I will be marrying in just 4 short months...

Happy (belated) birthday Matt!!

We love you!

XoxoxoxoxoX

Boys will be boys...

Yesterday was a bittersweet day.  We had a great time playing with Ryder (while Mommy got to chat with Ryder's Mommy).  Pool time, pizza, popsicles, bath, and bed jumping were all part of the festivities!  The boys had a great time together and Connor didn't want to leave!  The bittersweet part was that we aren't going to be able to play as often anymore, since Ryder & his family leave for Pennsylvania this weekend.  I'm just trying to remain positive that we'll hopefully see them for future birthday parties (August), the wedding (October) and the holidays! :)

Once the boys figured out whose tube belonged to who, they had a blast playing together!

Daredevil boys...

They would stand on the ledge of the spa, toss their tubes in, then jump into their tubes.  Both Moms were standing by to help direct them, so they didn't slip or jump to close to the ledge.  Have no fear!

How do you bribe two water boys to get out of the pool?!  With popsicles, of course!

Once we wrangled the monsters up stairs, we tossed them into the tub.

From the bath, they did some toy playing and bed jumping in Ryder's room up until we had to load up and head home for bedtime.

The boys play so well together and look forward to seeing eachother often!  Ryder was one of the main reasons Connor adjusted so well to going to school.  We treasure the fact that the boys play so well together and us Moms get along so well too!  The boys are two peas in a pod and we are going to miss seeing Ryder and his family so often!  Counting down until Ryder's birthday party in August... :)

The best of friends...

We can thank Emma for teaching Connor how to swim faster!  They had a good time racing eachother in the pool this week! :)

Marathon Saturday!

We had a jam-packed, fun Saturday!

We started the day off with having the wonderful Auntie Nicole and precious Peyton over to play!  The kids were so adorable together and had fun playing with Connor's Toy Story toys and blasters!

We loaded the munchkins up and headed to check out a potential wedding venue.  There were lots of fountains and stairs to keep the kiddies interested.

The two little daredevils had a blast on the steps...

I'm a sucker for cute hand-holding-moments

After our fun morning with Nicole & Peyton, we loaded up & headed to Ryder's going away party!  There was a lot of good food, pool sliding, and slip-n-sliding in the yard!  The kids had such a great time!  Connor had such a great time, that I had to peel him out of the pool kicking and screaming.

The 3 Muskateers will need a reunion very, very soon!  Connor is going to miss his BFF Ryder so very much! (I'm going to miss Ryder, Landon, and their Mama, Danielle very much too!!!)

We cleaned up and then headed to a Hibachi grill for my future sister-in-law's birthday gathering!  It was Connor's first time at a Hibachi grill and he was thrilled!  He was startled by the initial large fire in front of us, but then turned to me after the 2nd flame and goes "Mom, I'm not afraid of the fire!!"  From that point on, he made small talk with the Japanese cooker, telling him how he liked pizza instead of rice, how he was currently eating jello, and how he wanted

"More fire!!!"



The night ended at Cold Stone with ice cream, before heading home & going straight to bed!

We were exhausted, but it was very worth it!  What a fun day!