I have "officially" entered the club...

I have been sworn into the official "Soccer Mom", about to be a "30" year old, proud owner of a MINI VAN club! I have been coming to grips with the fact that I am about to turn 30 and the fact that I now own a minivan. Ha! Is there something that you dont know, you might ask... No, we are not expecting another baby right now although it will hopefully be in our future AND since I have had Connor the QX has become more and more cramped and cumbersome while traveling with a child AND a dog. I know what you are all probably thinking... yes it is an SUV and they are supposed to have tons of room, right? Well, it is hard to explain without seeing it in person, but the door frame is small and I cant tell you how many times I have hit my head trying to get Connor in and out of the car. When we travel we almost always have Cooper with us and it makes it hard when you are trying to carry a decent amount of cargo, etc. SO, the minivan has become more and more enticing over the past 2 years. There are all of those super cool SUVs out there but with gas the way it was this summer, I didnt want to go that route. We thought that we would wait until we had another baby, but with the car industry doing so poorly we decided to see what our options were. We test drove pretty much all of the vans and despite the fact that I was set on the Nissan Quest, we actually fell in love with the amenities and drive of the Toyota Sienna and got a great deal. It drives GREAT! We laugh because the salesmen (who we had worked with before when we bought Brads truck) asked Brad, "Did you have another kid or something?" Ha! Not sure what Brad's response was. We have been joking with each other that we can not believe that we are now driving a van, but believe me we are loving it so far! The fact that it is probably not the most cool thing on the road to drive in my opinion does not out weigh all of the versatility, and comfort that you get out of the minivan. Besides most of all of my "cool Mom" friends that I know drive them anyway! (please dont get offended guys! LOL) The difference between us is that you all have multiple children while I only have one! Ha! Anyway, we cant wait for our next road trip!!! I ended up getting the blizzard pearl exterior with tan leather interior. We decided that since we would be keeping this van and driving it for a very long time, to get the navigation and rear DVD system. We haven't tested the DVD yet, we are going to save that for a long road trip as my biggest fear is that as soon as we get into the car that Connor will want to watch a movie. Definitely dont want that! Here are a few pictures, the last one is like mine but not a very good view.

Christmas with the Day Family

This post is long overdue... It is from our family Christmas with the Day family (Brad's mothers side of the family) on December 20th. For the past few years we have made a tradition of meeting at the nursing home where Brad's Grannie is living and rented out one of their rooms. It is a large space and accommodates the large family very well! Thanks to Pete for these pictures...I took 2 and my camera battery died! I was thinking that it is a shame that we only get to see a lot of family only once a year at Christmas time. Oh well, it gives us a great excuse to get together. We had a great time and it was good to see everyone again! Here are a few pictures from the day...Brad, Granny, Grannie T., Connor, Aunt Amanda, and MeThe one picture I did take... the three daughters and Granny (Benita, Sharon, and Grannie (Doris)The sons with Granny..Howard, Bumpy, Granny, Ronnie, and SamEveryone catching up before we eat.Ronnie, Alice, Mary, Brad, and Ginger (Sam also made it in the picture)The 3rd generationThe brothers and sisters

Connor hamming it up as usual!

Our Family Christmas-2008

We had another wonderful Christmas with family. We spent Christmas Eve at our house and had a dinner for the my side of the family, woke up Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought and left to go to Rockwood to see the Thompsons. Connor is so overwhelmed by the amount of toys and new things that he has to play with. Over the next few weeks, I have some major organizing to do! I hope you all had a great holiday and were able to reflect on the real reason that we celebrate this blessed holiday!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday! I will be taking a blogging break until after Christmas as I know most of you will as well. Enjoy the magic and take time to reflect on the true meaning of this holiday! Here are some pictures of my lil' Santa!

Chuck E Cheese's

I promise this is the last slideshow from Connor's birthday! Ha! These are the pictures from Connor's actual birthday when we took him to Chuck E Cheese. We had a great time just playing the games and letting Connor have all of the fun. Of course as you will see in the pictures, we had fun too! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Connor turns 2!

tomorrow at 7:49 p.m! I cant believe that it is time for his second birthday! If the rest of his childhood is like this, I cant wait because every month gets better and better! Dont get me wrong, we are dealing with the usual terrible twos stuff but all of the fun stuff overshadows that completely. When I used to hear people talk about their toddlers at this age, most of the time it didnt sound like much fun. Maybe my child is just better behaved than most, but it really hasnt been that bad. Do I sound like a proud Mom or what?! I guess everyone wants to brag on their child. But Connor is really such a sweetheart and will tell me he loves me just because. His manners are exceptional for a 2 year old. He says, "please", "thank you", "sorry", and even started saying "your welcome" the other day. I use my manners whenever he I talk to him and I guess it caught on! Now of course he has the days when he says, "its mine", or "stop it Mommy" and even though it makes me cringe sometimes, it is so darn cute! Yesterday in Target he was saying that he wanted "chocolate milk" and of course I told him that I didnt have any, well we turned the corner and as we stopped in front of a lady he said, "Its MY CHOCOLATE MILK!" and pointed his finger at her. I was mortified! I of course made him apologize, but the lady thought it was hysterical. Me- not so much. Actually as we turned the corner I did smile a bit wondering where he comes up with this stuff. His vocabulary is growing more and more every day. He is now saying 4 and 5 word sentences. The other day Connor said, "Can I watch Pipey in a minute, Dada?" Actually that is way more than 5 words! He amazes me sometimes with his memory too. He did go upstairs last night and look for the gingerbread cookie! He opened up the jewelry box and say, "Where did the cookie go?" It was hysterical! Brad said he is just like a dog, hiding his bone. Ha!

Connor is such a skinny little boy and is still wearing 18 months pants. I bought him some more pants the other day from Target and the waist was falling down so bad I had to take them back. He is just not an eater at all. Dont you wish you didnt have the urge to eat, I know I do! Ha! Being so active, I guess it makes sense that he would be a little guy. He is pretty tall though and Brad and I are hoping that he will not take after us in this department!

Since tomorrow is the actual "birth" day and we have already had a party, we are planning on taking him to Chuck E Cheese's tomorrow after work. We did this last year and had a great time! I am sure I will have some pics to share! Here is a look back on the last year with our Mr. Connor...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Check this out!

Check this out!... This is Connor's friend Rylee (Mrs. Betty's daughter) singing with Carrie Underwood at her concert! Click here to go to Betty's blog and hear the video live. I tried to download it but didnt have any luck- sorry! Way to Rylee, you did great! You are a superstar!