Happy Fall Yall!

Aidan's Birthday Party

Today we went to the Poole's house for Aidan's fourth birthday party. Aidan's parents, Micheal and Marabeth have been friends of ours since we moved to Spring Hill and introduced us to our other good friends Jon and Beth. I am sure you have heard me talk about Juliane Hough (who is on Dancing with the Stars and has a hit country album out right now). Marabeth is her older sister and they live out in the country here in Thompsons Station and also happen to live close to Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus. Well, I dont know how much the Cyrus's actually live here now, with Miley's popularity but it is their main residence or at least used to be. We always love visiting with them at their beautiful home. It was such a beautiful day and they had quite the birthday set up complete with a blow up bouncy and Sno Cone truck. It had a superhero theme, which is why you will see boys and girls with their faces painted and batman, spider man and hulk costumes. Since Connor didnt have a costume, we decided to just go in regular clothes. We had a blast! It was so good to see old friends and catch up with everyone! I cant believe that Aidan is 4, it seems like just yesterday that I was waiting for his arrival at the hospital. Happy Birthday Aidan!!!

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Almost finished!

We got a little closer this weekend to completing the deck project. My Dad was nice enough to come back over on Saturday to help Brad with the rest of the deck joists and then the deck boards. Funny story- he called us this week to ask if we had worked on it at all. I told him that Brad had been gone traveling so we hadnt done anything. He said he had planned on coming back to help us on Saturday. He seemed very insistent even though I told him that we understood if he had other things to do. Brad and I decided that he just didnt want us to screw up all of the work he had done! Ha! Dad- Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now all that is left is the railing, which we plan on doing this week and coming weekend. SO, if anyone knows of any good outdoor furniture on clearance- let me know! Connor is so excited to have a place to play with his trucks and Cooper is just glad to be able to come to the patio door again so we can let him in. Here are some pics of the progress...

Enjoying the beginning of fall!

I dont know what I am going to do when winter comes, because right now Connor wants to be outside all the time. As soon as he wakes up he tells me he wants to go "side" and it goes on and on until we actually go outside and then he pitches a fit when we have to come back in. This afternoon we enjoyed the beautiful weather and played outside until dinner time. Can you tell by all of the smiles that he is at his happiest when he is "side"!

His "twuck" (just like Pops)

We went to the backyard to play with Cooper and I saw all of the ripe tomatoes on the vine. My tomatoes got a late start this year and now they are coming in like crazy! Connor loves to help me pick.

As I was picking them off the vine, Connor made a pile in the grass of all of "Pawpaws tomatoes" as we call them. My little helper!

It's home improvement time again...

Sorry, I know it has been a while but we have been busy with projects around here, Brad has been traveling a lot the past 2 weeks and well..it is hard to do much blogging when you are chasing Connor around. Last weekend, we had planned on going to the UT/FL game but changed our plans to stay at home, conserve gas and start our deck addition. Let me just say that we are so GLAD we did because the game was not pretty! Thanks, Pops for the tickets- we really appreciate you going to the trouble of getting them for us. Hopefully we will be down real soon to go and see our Vols!

Ok, so we got a quote from the guys who built our fence and we were kind of shocked when they told us the price. SO, we decided that we would build it ourselves. Well, let me rephrase that- we helped my Dad build it. Since we have been homeowners, we have built a fence in our backyard (old house) and the pergola (also at the old house) or rather my Dad has built it and we have been his hired help. My family is great for just chipping in and helping us do these projects so we can save some money. Plus it is good family bonding time! LOL Dad came down on Saturday morning and they got a plan together and left to get the lumber. Another good thing about doing this now is that the price of lumber is down right now since building is slow. Brett, Hillary and Grandma came over later and Mom came down that night after work. Everyone was great and pitched right in. I was pretty impressed by the progress that we made last weekend. I am hoping that this weekend we can finish it up or at least put the decking boards on. The weather is supposed to be beautiful again, so it should be a good time to work on it and spend some time outside too!

Here are some pictures of our progress thus far. I can already envision it with the furniture. Brad told me not to get ahead of myself, since they weren't even finished framing it in when I was talking about it. Ha!

BEFORE

AFTER

Our subdivision was having their annual yard sale day on Saturday. Our neighbors across the street had lots of stuff to sale, so the kiddos decided to set up a lemonade stand. It was so cute! I wish I could have gotten a picture, but there were three little boys sitting behind the table all in their bike helmets. Aunt Hillary took Connor over to get some lemonade!

Nonna reading Connor a book that night. He loves it when people come to visit. It is so cute to see how excited he gets. He runs around showing off all of his toys. He kept bringing Nonna a big pile of books and toys, so Mom didnt have any choice but to play and read to him all night. I dont think she minded though...

Mom, Grandma, Brett, Hillary, and especially Dad- Thank you all so much for all of your help! We are so blessed to have such an incredible family and thank God for you all every single day!

Shake your groove thing!

Update on whats been going on around here...

I will admit I have been a little bit of a blog slacker lately... No real reasons to think of, we have just been busy on the weekends and enjoying our little rascal! It is so hard to believe that Connor is going to be 21 months tomorrow! In just 3 months we will be celebrating his 2 year birthday. You know me, I am already starting to think about what we will do for his big celebration. It will inevitably be a Mickey Mouse party since he is completely obsessed with this cute little Disney creature! He reads his Mickey and Donald Duck books day and night. He will just sit here on the couch and turn the pages over and over, pointing and saying all of their names. Mickey is "Pipey", Goofy is "Wewe", Pluto is "Toto", and Donald Duck is simply "Duck". At night Connor must go "night night" as he calls it with Mickey, Pooh, and Elmo "Melmo". He tells each of them, "night night" and gives them a kiss. I have to do the same. It is our little nightly ritual. Of course he must give a big kiss and a hug to DaDa first! Connor loves his Daddy that is for sure. He runs to him when he gets home for work and immediately wants to go outside and play in "Da Da's Twuck". His new obsession is playing in Brads truck. He would sit in there for hours if you would let him. We got out his Power Wheels Ford truck this past weekend and he learned quickly how to press the gas pedal. The steering will come with time, we hope! I havent gotten any pictures of this yet, but they will come. Everyone has a truck to Connor. Miss Betty's minivan is "Betty's twuck" and Mommy's SUV is "Mama's twuck". He is literally repeating anything you say now. I just taught him to say, "trick or treat" this morning and he has it down. He was pretty slow to start talking and saying a lot, but now he is really hilarious the things he says. Last week climbed on the couch beside me and said, "Wooo Baby!" Brad and I couldnt stop laughing. Now he says, "Bye Bye Baby" when he is walking out of the room. My favorite is that he says, "Please", and "Thank You Mama" all the time. He will bring me something like the basket of clothes that I should be folding and say, "Thank you Mama". He doesnt quite understand the concept yet, but it is so darn cute so I let it go. I cant believe how much he has changed just in 6 months. He is getting smarter by the day. We are truly enjoying this age, it is so much fun. He is our entertainment for sure. It is amazing how different your life becomes after you have had children. It is definitely different, but good different!
To give a little update on us, Brad is staying busy as always with work. We are so fortunate with the economy slowing down that Brads work load has not. Some weeks he is gone a lot, others we enjoy being together as a family every night. I am still enjoying being at home part time with Connor and it works out great for him because he gets to play with all of his friends at Ms. Betty's house. He still loves going there, but loves his days with him Mama too. We have so much fun together. On a bad note... I think that I broke my tailbone. Remember the fall down the stairs, well it still hurts pretty bad. Brad says I should go to the doctor, but as many of you other mothers know I dont have time for that. Plus, from what I have read about it there isnt much he can do anyway. Hopefully the pain will subside soon. I am loving this beautiful fall weather and am dying to go for a jog! Speaking of fall, it is my favorite season! I got out all of my fall decorations today. I cant wait to plant mums and decorate my porch this year. My summer flowers are still looking pretty good, so I think I will move them to the back deck to enjoy. Speaking of that, we are going to start working on the addition to the deck this weekend! We are so ready and excited to get it finished. It is definitely a hazard right now with Connor running around. I will put pictures up as soon as they are available.
Well, I think that is about it. I cant wait for the events of the next few months. As far as I am concerned fall and Christmas time are the best!

And here is another picture of the joy of our lives...

FUN, FUN at Nonna and Grandy's house!

This weekend we had a surprise visit from Grannie and Pops on Saturday morning (sorry no pictures of this). We just hung out by the TV watching crazy Connor run around (literally) and watching the first half of the TN game. They left at half time and we got ready to go to Lebanon to visit with Nonna, Grandy, Uncle Brett and Aunt Hillary. Since Brett and Hillary are always busy (we like to give them a hard time about this but they are VERY busy) we decided to hang out at Mom and Dad's and spend the night. We always have such a good time at Christmas when we do this, so we decided that we needed to do it more often. Mom fixed a fabulous meal as always... Chicken Parmesan and NY style Cheesecake for dessert! I am still full thinking about it. We pretty much did nothing while we were there. It was great! The outside pictures were taken on Sunday when Ike came into town. You can tell that everyone was a little wind blown. What does our family decide to do during a tropical storm... why play baseball of course! How silly we must have looked. Connor had a great time doing what he does best these days- running! You will notice that I dont have many good pictures of Connor these days. There is a reason. He simply will not be STILL. LOL I love it though, he has such a great time with the simplest of things. Thanks for the great weekend everyone. We love spending time with all of our family!

Since I forgot to pack a bib and we were having spaghetti for dinner, Mom got out Connors art smock. Also, notice the shoes! He got some Chuck Taylors from An Am and Pete while we were in FL. Arent they adorable!
Connor making Birdie very uncomfortable. She just doesnt know what to think about Connor. Too much activity I think!

Here is Grandy trying to show Connor that a baseball bat is very different from a golf club.
Are we crazy or what? The wind was pretty bad and here we are throwing small hard objects in the air...I told ya he liked to run...

Update

I had to work today, so the only time I have had to work with Connor on the potty training has been tonight. I am happy to say that we have been to the bathroom 3 times (he led me in there, all I have to do is ask him) and all times...SUCCESS! No #2's in the potty yet, then I will really be impressed! I am so amazed by how much Connor loves to go potty. I havent pushed him at all and it has been his interest in this that have started the training. He gets so excited and claps for himself. So cute! I will try and get a G-rated video of this soon!

Just to make you smile!

NOTE: I finally found some free software online. Here is the pic without the red eyes!

Sorry about the red eyes, but my imaging software was lost when the virus hit and now I cant find the disc to reinstall. I had to share anyway! Can you believe that Connor's hair is really this long. And to think that he has had several hair cuts since he was at least 12 months old. We love to do this in our baths and see what kind of styles we can come up with!

It's Potty Time!

I am still amazed by how fast this is happening... This morning Connor came to me in the kitchen and said, "Poo Poo". I checked his diaper and sure enough he had went. I told him to tell me next time and we would go to the potty. Later today I went into the bathroom and he sat down in the potty and when I felt his diaper it was getting really warm, so I knew he had went. Well, tonight he went in there and sat down. I immediately ran in there took off his diaper and told him to go pee pee in the potty. He looked down and immediately a song started playing! (yes, our potty training toilet sings a tune for a reward- cheesy I know but pretty cool at the same time) Of course Brad and I went hysterical and Connor looked at us like we were nuts! We gave him a special treat even though it was almost bedtime so he knew that he had done something very special. I know there will probably be many set backs and it might take a while, but I am so excited and sad that Connor is getting to be such a big boy! Let the FUN begin!

Still...Mommy's little helper!

Another great weekend!

Connor and the birthday girl Emma. We tried to get Connor to look, but the pizza was way to good!
In line to hit the pinata. You will see in a minute but Connor didnt stick around long.
Emma tried real hard to get the candy, but it wouldnt budge.Connor didnt have time to stand around and wait. He was outta there and headed for the slide!Cheese! So many presents...
Mmmm, CAKE!

We enjoyed this weekend so much. We really did nothing, and what could be better than that! I will admit it wasnt much of a lazy weekend, but I feel caught up now and are ready to go again. Today we went to our friend Emma's birthday party! She is the daughter of our friends Jon and Beth that I used to work for and Connor is lucky enough to get to see Caly (their other daughter) and Emma at Ms. Betty's. Actually if it hadnt been for Beth, I never would have known about Ms. Betty and I dont know where I would be if I hadnt! Connor had so much fun at the park! We just love those parties! So laid back. The kids are free to run around and play and

the adults can just sit back and watch. I only wish that Connor could have one of these parties, but it doesnt sound too appealing in the middle of December. We ate pizza, played on the slide, "watched" the other kids take a stab at the pinata, ate cake and watched Emma open her presents. I had such a good time seeing all of Beth's and Jon's families! Since I was very used to seeing them weekly when the store was in business, they became like my second family. I dont get to see them very often any more so it was great to catch up with them! Connor was amazed by all of the bigger kids and he truly tried to keep up. Happy Birthday Emma! I cant believe that it has been 4 years since Emma was born. I can remember the day she came, I waited at the hospital to see her after she was born, before I headed off to open "the store". I feel like that was just yesterday! Wow, before I know it Connor will be celebrating his fourth birthday as well and then headed off to school shortly after. I think I am going to cry just thinking about it. Gone to get a tissue... Bye for now!

I'm back!

Since we have been on vacation and trying to get back in the groove of things, I feel like it has been forever since I have posted anything on here. I know I did the last one and filled you all in on everything we did on our vacation. I want to apologize for it being so, so long! I seriously have a problem with trying not to give every little detail. Brad laughed when he saw my picture montage because at first, it was 15 minutes! And that still wasnt including all of the pictures that I took! I trimmed it down and it was 10. He told me there was no way anyone would sit through it and look at all of those pictures. I disagreed! I know I love looking at all of your pics, so I just assume everyone is like me. Probably not, but that is what I would like to think. LOL Well, thank you to all that commented and took the time to read the extremely long post and all of the pics. We truly did have an amazing vacation. I now feel like I have caught back up. I am finding that as I am getting older I have a problem with things not being finished and organized! I feel so out of sorts until I can get things back in order at home when we come back from a trip. I finally got the whole house cleaned and all of the clothes washed. I think I am starting to get a "Monica-like" personality! Hopefully it isnt that bad, but sometimes I have to tell myself to stop, slow down and let things just wait. I havent had much time to think about blogging lately because we got a major virus on our computer. Needless to say, we had to start over. We basically have a new computer now because it is like it just came from the factory again. I was so thankful that I was able to save all of my pictures that were on here! I have been pretty good about backing up Connors pics, but hadnt thought much about the others. The virus was pretty nasty. Even our spyware and virus software couldnt get it. Who comes up with these things is what I want to know? It just makes me angry. Find something else to do people!!! Anyway we are back up and running and I promise to have some new posts tomorrow. I would do them now, but to make a long story short I slipped on the top step and fell on my tail bone to the next one and OUCH! My bottom is so sore right now, I can hardly move from this spot on the couch. Ha! Thankfully I wasnt holding Connor. He was at the top of the steps and somehow managed to fall right behind me but I caught him. Whew! It has been a very eventful last few weeks. I also had to call Poison Control last weekend because he swallowed some parts of a dishwasher detergent tablet! Lets just say, the terrible twos have started at 20 months! Connor is a handful right now, but oh so much fun! I didnt think it could ever be this good. Well, bye for now!