Birthday Parties

Growing up, our birthdays were big deals and my parents made a huge deal out of them.  It made me feel special and I love doing the same thing for my boys.  We had a little birthday party for Connor on Thursday night.  I made his favorites for dinner, pizza and corn on the cob.  Then we had brownies, cookies and a few gifts.

                                                            birthday pajamas

                                                      jumping up and down with excitement

On Saturday, we had a little birthday party for him at the Tallahassee Junior Museum.  We invited friends and family to come celebrate and explore with us.

                                               table set up for us

The museum did a great job for us and we had a really great time.  Connor had a great birthday and we really appreciated all of our friends and family who came and celebrated with us!

Here's one for Daniel:

Thanks again!  Excited things happening and I cannot wait to tell everyone..... but I have too!  It won't be much longer, I promise!

Connor's 2nd Birthday!

Today is Connor's 2nd birthday!  I cannot believe how fast the past 2 years of my life have flown by.  Connor was born Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 10:30 at night.  He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.  He had a head FULL of black hair. 

The first couple months of his life were hard.  He had jaundice pretty badly.  Before we were allowed to go home, he had to stay bili light for 24 hours.  Then, once we got him home, we had to go to the doctor every other day to get his blood checked until his jaundice went down.  Then, at 8 weeks old, he had emergency surgery for pyloric stenosis which required a 48 hour stay in the hospital after surgery and started with 2 back to back emergency room trips. 

After the healing from the surgery, his life went pretty normally.  Connor has grown into a little boy with a HUGE personality.  He tries his best to make the people around him laugh.  If he is mad at you, he will not talk to or look at you.  If he does not know you he will try his best to ignore you or stare at you stone cold. 

He loves his big brother and wants to do whatever big brother is doing.  He loves his "baby" and making it go "night nights".  His speech is getting clearer everyday and he is now putting together 2-3 word sentences.  He loves being outside.  He also loves football and race cars.



 Here are some pictures of his journey:

                                                           8 lbs 11 oz baby boy

                                                                       Proud daddy!

                                                              with your Mommy

                                                                meeting big brother

After bathtime

 Surgery scar

 Meeting uncle Ash.... we miss you uncle Ash!

 protrait by Betsy Booten about 9 months old

 First birthday

 Christmas 2010

 Spring 2011

 learning to feed himself

 feeding the ducks

 First day of school (daycare)

 Pumpkin Festival 2011

 the night before his 2nd birthday.... I thought I had a few more hours before he started acting like a 2 year old!

Happy Happy Birthday to Connor!  I love you with all of my heart and I am so blessed that you came into my life!  You are amazing and wonderful and smart and I am one lucky mama!

Pumpkin Festival!

This Saturday was the annual Havana Pumpkin Festival.  I have gone every year for the past 4 years now and I love it.  Tons of fun things for the kids to do and a chance to be outside and enjoy the fall weather. 

We started Saturday with family pictures at Bradley's Pond.  Betsy Booten did our pictures for us and I cannot wait to see them.  They went great.  Connor would not smile for the first half of the pictures... and he screamed when we took away his blankie.  Then, Betsy came up with the fabulous idea of throwing acorns.  Being allowed to throw something at someone will make any little boy smile and it did the trick for Connor.  As soon as I can, I will share the pictures that Betsy took for us.  For now, here is a picture of Connor with his "baby" and his blankie:

And just for a reference, that is the exact face he made in the first half of the pictures we took. 

After pictures, my extremely hard working husband headed to work and we headed home to get ready to go to Havana.  Earlier, I said something about enjoying the fall weather.  During our pictures, we were shivering.  By the time we got to Havana it was near 90 degrees.  No humidity, though.  You have to love northern Florida fall weather.  Back to the pumpkin fest....

The sun was bright and right in their eyes, so this is the best I got..... after taking pictures and "smiling" all morning for Betsy, I did not want to torture my boys anymore.
We arrived and met with mom, Rhonda and Naomi.  My dear friend Dana was there, but they were leaving.  The first thing Daniel wanted to do was the hampster balls.... and my wonderful mom stood in line with him for an hour to do that.  We took Connor to do a couple of other things while they waited. 

First, a pony ride... which he was done with about half way through.  Then, a ride on the "choo-choo." Then, it was finally Daniel's turn in the hampster ball!

He loved it!  They let the kids stay in the ball for 5-10 minutes (which is why the line was so long).  Daniel had such a great time and was completely worn out by the time he was done.

After getting food and walking around to look at the booths, it was time to paint a pumpkin before heading home. 

We had a great time as always and cannot wait until next year to do it all again!

Sunday, we went to spend the day with my dad.  It was an interesting day.... none of us were in really great moods, but we still had a good time.  After we got home, Daniel and I went to our Awanas meeting.  Awanas is a church group for kids where they learn bible verses and stories and play games.  Daniel has been twice now and he seems to really enjoy it.  The pastor at our church asked me if I could volunteer and I did and had a great time.  We are getting ready for Trunk or Treat in a couple of weeks which is going to be so much fun. 

This Thursday is Connor's 2nd birthday and this weekend will be his birthday party!  I am so excited, but I cannot believe that my baby is already 2....  time to invest in some stress relief aroma therapy!

Have a great week!

Airport Funfest

This weekend, the boys and I went to the Funfest at the Tallahassee Airport.  Naomi and Rhonda went with us and some friends of mine met us there.  They had helicopters and small propeller planes on display.  There were also helicopter rides and I think plane rides.  The helicopter that was giving rides was lifting off and landing every 5-10 minutes and every couple of minutes the small planes would take off and land.  They also had a few vendors and few things for the kids to do.  Connor loved the helicopter.  He was so excited everytime he saw it.  Here are some pictures from the day.

I mentioned earlier the few vendors that they had.  Well, one was for an apartment complex.  They had a game where you won a goldfish.  A couple of years ago, Daniel won a goldfish at his school carnival.  We named him Simba and he is still alive and thriving.  He has actually grown quite a bit, too.  Anyways, back to the funfest.  So Daniel is playing this game and of course he wins.  Well, the girls that were running it did not tell me that they were packing up and leaving after Daniel.  They also did not tell me that meant that he would win more than just one goldfish.  He won ALL of the goldfish.  So, we are now the happy owners of over 30 goldfish.  Awesome.

 You see them all?  The big one in the middle is Simba.  We have not named the rest yet.  And lucky me, I have a nack for caring for goldfish, so only 7 have died and they all died within hours of us coming home.  The rest have survived for a couple of days now.  Looks like they are going to make it after all.  Yay.