3 Year Anniversary

Shayne and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary last Tuesday. We went to Alabama Adventure all by ourselves. We actually got to ride all of the slides and rides and realized that the Lazy River can really be lazy! We had a picnic in the van for lunch. It was nice to be able to spend some time together without running after a toddler. We did miss our baby though!

We also went our for a nice dinner downtown at Twenty Six. It was very yummy and we will be going back for special occasions.

Just Playing

Conner loves to play with his trucks now. He will bring them all from his playroom to the den and drive them around the couch and the coffee table. He says "beep-beep" and then crashes them over the edge. You would think that this boy would be playing ball already considering Shayne and I both played ball all of our lives. However, he could care less about his basket of balls. They rarely get touched. That's okay for now, I'm sure he'll figure out the ball thing soon enough.

He also likes to talk on the phone. He crawls up on the couch to get the phone and then lounges back and talks away to his imaginary friend.

4th of July

We stayed around the house for the 4th this year. My whole family was out of town in 3 different places between all of them. So, we had a low key holiday. We bought Conner a big blow up slide to play on now that the fence is finished. I wasn't sure how big this thing was going to be when we bought it. I probably overdid it for a 19 month old, but he'll be a pro at it next year. In the meantime, I can have fun slidng down it!

We had planned to go downtown for Thunder on the Mountain, but decided to shoot our own fireworks with the neighbors. Conner didn't pay too much attention to them besides an occasional "yeah" and clap whenever a loud one was shot. He was too busy playing with all of Riley's toys!

Family Day at Lake Martin

Every year my boss invites everyone and their family to his place at Lake Martin. We try to make this trip if at all possible b/c we always have so much fun. We left the beach at 8AM that Saturday morning to make it back to the lake in time to play.

We found it much easier to stay near the kiddie pool this year. Conner was not afraid of that lake water or pier one bit. If I had not been right next to him, he would have jumped on in.

Conner and Miss Ava begging for Cheeto's. They played so well together. He likes blondes!

Last night at the beach :(

Here are the last of our pictures from the beach trip.
Start at the bottom and work your way back up for a chronological recap.



These were taken our last night at the beach. Conner won't really pose for a picture as you can tell. We definitely need to invest in a better camera. We could have gotten some really great shots if I had one of those expensive cameras that takes like 10 pictures in a few seconds. That sounds like a good Christmas present (hint-hint) :)

Oh no, he's only 1 and he's already in jail in PCB!! Ha ha, let's hope I don't get that phone call in 15 years!

And more beach pictures!

Did I mention we stayed on the beach almost the whole time we were there?! I only wore like 3 outfits the whole trip. The rest of the time we were in our swimsuits!

In the condo, after bath time. He would have made such a pretty little girl! :) j/k

Conner is not afraid to make friends. This is the first time that I have seen him actually interact with other kids. He played with this little girl several times during the week. She was such a sweet little thing to him too. Also, Conner has become very talkative. It's a lot of jabbering, but he knows what he's talking about.

Finally, his one nap on the beach! The rest of the time one of us would have to stay in the room with him.
Conner in the ocean with Mommy. Say "hi" to Daddy!

More Beach Pictures

Watching the ocean.

Being sweet to Daddy. This boy loves giving kisses!

Embarrassed that Mommy got a picture of Conner giving kisses, so he's running away!

Now he's running from the waves!

Funny picture: He stole my dad's old cut off blue jean shorts that he wore as a swimsuit in the 80's!

Monday: Beach Day Tuesday: Angelo's

Our trip did get better after the rough start that first weekend. These were taken on Monday at the beach and then that next night on Tuesday at Angelo's.

We keep Conner's sand toys in this tote so it's easy to carry his stuff up and down from the room. I had a great idea to fill it up with ocean water. He sat in that thing and played forever. That was a good idea!

Family picture under the big bull!

PCB Trip 2009 - Father's Day: Beach and Sunset Cruise

Last week Shayne, Conner, and I went to Panama City Beach for our summer vacation. The trip started off very rough. We decided to drive down Friday night so Conner would sleep most of the time. Well that idea did work out well. However, we checked in at the after hours office at midnight and then drove down to our condo at Emerald Beach. To our surprise the magnetic key card didn't work. To make a really long and frustrating story short...we stayed outside our room with all of our luggage and a now awaken baby until 2:00 in the morning waiting on maintenance to fix our door. I can't tell you how exhausted we were when we finally got in to the room. So that was strike 1. Anyway, we proceeded to have a good day on Saturday and thought things were going to be better!



Well almost, on Sunday Conner pooped his carseat somehow. It's not like his diaper was overflowing either. He literally pooped and it just totally missed the diaper. I guess the way he was sitting in his carseat, kind of indian-style, left a big hole open for anything to just slide right on out. So strike 2 and we had to take the whole fabric off the carseat and put it in the washing machine.



You're probably wondering what strike 3 is...? Since I'm such a clever person and we were at the beach for Father's Day, I planned to take Shayne to his favorite restaurant and then surprise him with a sunset cruise. Captain Jack's buffet was great as usual and then I told Shayne we had to go to Captain Anderson's for his surprise. By this time, he has figured out that I've booked some sort of boat ride. We had probably an hour for our food to settle, so I thought we'd be good to go. Oh no, Daddy started getting sea sick half way through the 2 hour boat trip b/c the captain kept stopping the boat for everyone to look at the dolphins. To make this long story short, as soon as we got off the boat, Daddy ran to the parking lot and lost all of his Captain Jack's from earlier. I felt horrible. What kind of Father's Day surprise gets Daddy sick!?

Conner having fun in the pool with Daddy.

Conner being silly with Daddy's sunglasses.

Family picture on the sunset cruise (before he got sick).


The boat ride made little man sleepy.

One of the pretty dolphins that was surfing the wave from the back of the boat.

Finally, the sunset.

Update on the Fence

Since my last blog on the fence, much has progressed in our backyard. All the holes got dug, the posts were set with quikcrete and leveled, and the three runners have been installed. The picture below was taken on Saturday before we got the third runner on the bottom on. This all took a little over a week to complete. The next step is to nail all the dog ears on and then we can go on vacation! When we get back, we'll have to build the gate and then that should be it.

It has been educational for me watching and occasionally helping Shayne with the fence. It takes a lot of time and patience getting those posts set just right. I am very proud of Shayne for all the hard work that he has put into it. This fence is probably better than what any professional would have done. I have enjoyed the few times that Conner was napping and I was able to get my hands dirty and help some. Shayne and I work very well together. But I'll be glad when it's done so we can let Conner run free outside. I'll finally actually be able to sit down instead of chasing him everywhere! Who knows, maybe we'll go ahead and get a playground! I wonder if Shayne would be up for installing a playground next...? :) Is there time before school starts back? :)

A Day at Six Flags

Shayne and I spontaneously decided to go to Six Flags last Tuedsay. We've talked about doing this for awhile, but never actually did it until now. We dropped Conner off at school first thing that morning and made arrangements for Mimi and Aunt Margie to pick him up that afternoon.

We had a really good time riding all the roller coasters. It's probably been 10 years since I've been to Six Flags. It has changed a good bit since then. It was obvious that I have definitely gotten older! I almost blacked out from the G-forces on the Goliath and the Scream Machine now has new meaning to me....I was screaming for dear life to get off that roller coaster. Man was it rough. Someone needs to shut that thing down!

By the time we got back home, little man was fast asleep. We didn't forget about him though. He got some new superman pj's and a scoobie doo dog that you you can walk! I think he had a really good time with Mimi and Aunt Margie. He got to do his favorite thing...eat. They took him to Ryan's Steakhouse for dinner and I can only imagine how much fun he had eating!!

Bad BooBoo...

Lollipops make it all better!

Conner had his first real bad booboo today at daycare. He fell and bumped his head real good sometime around 9:00 and never cried or anything. The teacher didn't even know it had happened until he walked up to her and she saw that huge goose egg on his forehead. He seemed fine, so they said they'd just call if he started acting funny or got sick. If you know Conner, then you know he falls a whole lot and is always getting bumps and bruises. We have kind of become used to this by now. But I definitely didn't know that this goose egg was this big.

He ate lunch and played some more before nap time. They usually sleep from 12:00 until 2:30 everyday. He woke up screaming at 12:50, so Shayne picked him up and carried him to the doctor. The doctor said that he had a hematoma (sp) and he should be okay, but we need to watch him very closely over the next 24 hours to make sure nothing changes. We have to wake him up every 3 hours tonight when he goes to sleep. That probably won't be fun, but we got to make sure little man is going to be okay! That's worth losing a little sleep :)

Hmmm...who did this?

I actually wasn't sure if I should blame Buffy or Conner at first. I had been vacuuming and mopping the floors while this occured. I had thought Mr. Conner was in his playroom playing, but he must have snuck by me at some point. The evidence tells the whole story!

The Evidence - A Sippy Cup under the mess! Busted!

All Boy

We were supposed to have a fun weekend at Smith Lake one day and Alabama Adventure another, but all this rain has kept us from doing either. We decided we were going to have a little fun anyways. Daddy wanted to go ahead and dig a hole in effort to get rid of this low spot we have in the backyard. Conner was already dirty, so we just let him have had it! He had a blast!

After Daddy and Conner had fun getting dirty, Mommy had to get that cute little boy clean again! He's a mess!

Our New Home Improvement

About a month ago Shayne and I decided to build a fence in our backyard. In doing so, some of the pine trees in the back of the yard needed to come down so we can make full use of the whole backyard. This is the first step (of many that I have since learned of) in building a simple 6 foot wooden fence. The trees have since been cut up and hauled off. The next step is leveling it back out and getting rid of the low spots. Who knows what's to come? I've learned nothing is really simple anymore!