My #9 is 9!

What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a final season game WIN, team snow cones, and an FSU win! Wooooo weeeeee!

All smiles for my big nine year old!

My baby...

It seems like birthday celebrations the past few years last all month!

It does help take the 'sting' away from the actual day and the fact that my squishy baby is yet another year older.

In 4 days, Connor will be NINE.

NINE, people.

The final year of him being in the 'single' digits.

How the HECK is that happening?!

So to ease my mama heart break, I sifted through a few of my favorite pictures of my sweet baby.

Wishing my rosey cheeked, speckled with freckles, sports crazy, kind-hearted, strong-willed boy a very, very, very happy (slightly early) 9th birthday!

Well hello there....

So life has been busy.

Well, it's always been busy, but I've started to put my blog on the very, very back burner.

If I have the "free" time, if I'm not at spin class, I've found myself catching up on Real Housewife shows or binge watching "How to Get Away with Murder" to help escape from my daily craziness.

As much as I hate to admit it, I've let my blog go just a bit since I know my Grandmother is no longer here to read it.  Yet, I try to remind myself to keep up with it, because it was how I used to feel connected to her.

So here I am!  I have oodles of photos of clients saved on my computer, but I needed to make sure I dumped all the recent photos off my phone of my own people.

Rewind to when my baby turned 4.  Ready, set, go!

My Noah Bear was so into his birthday this year.  We did a countdown on our chalkboard & he exclaimed he was "SO excited" his birthday was coming.  When the day finally came, it was a toss up between Paw Patrol, Blaze, Peppa Pig, and Lion Guard... but I convinced him Blaze was a super option since we had all the toys to accessorize his cake!

Grandma & Ray met us for the sweetest birthday lunch before they went on their cruise.  It took Noah some time to warm up to the idea of everything being about him & the focus being just on him, but once he opened one cool Paw Patrol toy, he opened up pretty quick!

Then on Noah's actual b'day, we all got up early to celebrate and open gifts before heading out to Connor's 1st soccer game.  One thrilling gift was the ant farm from Uncle Eric and Auntie Katie.  It was a hit among the boys, as well as the neighbor kids!

After soccer, we rushed home to clean up, change, load up & head to Legoland Hotel for the b'day weekend fun!  We discovered we could stream the FSU football game on Matt's phone, so got to watch their big win on the drive up.

When we got to the room, the boys thought it was awesome.  They were even welcomed with a treasure map scavenger hunt in our room that led to unlocking a chest with Lego sets for them.

The birthday boy was already on cloud 9.

In the lobby, Connor was pumped to find a Lego Star from Anquan Boldin (former FSU player).

The next morning, the fun continued at Legoland.  Noah was able to go on every ride except 2.  Noah is our roller coaster, wild ride junkie.  He holds no fear & it's so fun to go on rides with him and just listen to his giggle.  Connor loved showing Noah what rides he'd like there... and the boys may have fought over which parent they wanted to sit next to on almost every ride.

We tried out the water park for the first time & it was PERFECT for the boys.  There was a water playground area with multiple slides Noah could venture to and there were a handful of 'adult' slides that Connor loved trying.  We squeezed in a few hours there and while hitting up a few rides on the way out of the park, Noah went from sitting with me while Connor & Matt did a big ride to snoring on my chest within seconds.

I think its safe to say he had a good birthday!

A week later, we got to celebrate another cool guy's birthday.

Happy 59th birthday to the best Papa ever!

After a falling out with a neighbor friend (too much drama for our positive, basic lives), it was a HUGE breath of fresh air to spend a child-free night with some of our favorite neighbors!  We had some great laughs and ended the night at a local piano dueling bar.

While we were out, these cool boys got to hang with their fave people. 

I had a break in weekend photo sessions, so we found some time to do some Fall Festival visits.  Noah was nothing short of the boss with feeding the animals at 31 Produce.  He was very precise on what animal got what vegetable/fruit and when he needed to tell them he was done feeding their greedy little faces--hahaha.  Typical Noah face.

We continued the yearly tradition and ventured to Lakes Park for their bounce house area and Halloween light train ride.

We continued the costume photo fun this year & I got to take the boys out on their own at different times to 'model' their Halloween costumes.  I'm so glad we started to do this (and that the boys participate for my liking).  It honestly takes the pressure out of needing to get good pictures of them the night of trick-or-treating when taking pictures is always the last thing they want to do, plus it still makes Halloween special when Connor goes to trick-or-treat at his dad's house.

This year, Connor opted for Willy Wonka, after falling in love with so many Roald Dahl books.

I scoped out a cool vintage candy store, which was the perfect setting for Mr. Wonka.

Then there's Noah.

The kid that doesn't like the idea of dressing up, but can be persuaded if you mention receiving candy for doing so.  Although Noah is almost completely over his "Trolls" obsession & moved onto "Moana" and "Peter Rabbit," there was something about Branch, the grumpy troll, that suited him perfectly. 

Noah's neighbor gal pal was excited to be Poppy, so I knew I had to take them both out to do couple pictures in their costumes!

On the years Connor isn't home for Halloween, we throw a big neighbor block party to celebrate our Halloween together the day before!

Mummy races were a hit!

The neighbor gang.

Halloween was very low key this year, which was actually pretty nice.  I secretly dread the actual trick-or-treat process.  Last year, we spent trying to keep up with our kids as they ran door to door with all the neighbor friends.  I'm that mom that wants to keep up, make sure my kids are saying thank you to each house, and being respectful.  I'm not that mom that hangs back and sips liquor in my Tervis as I walk with my friends and let me kids run am muck .  Sorry not sorry.

This year, Connor was at his dad's for a few hours trick-or-treating there and Matt was stuck at work for end of the month duties, so it was just Noah and I.  We met up with some sweet neighbor friends and walked the neighborhood with them, which was nice company without being too crazy.  Noah probably would have been more outgoing if he was running around with Connor, but since it was just me, he was stuck to me like glue, needing me to walk with him to each house holding his hand.  

Some houses were pretty amazing.  There's one street in our hood that flock to one driveway & they all set out their candy bowls in a row, so the kids only have one stop instead of 10 different houses.  It's pretty awesome!

When we got home, before we loaded up to go pick up Connor, Noah sorted all his goods.

Heaven help this kid's teeth when we go to the Dentist next, because he loves himself some candy.