Pictures of the month

Bama Jean Jean gave Connor this tool set sometime ago.  We held off giving it to him until we thought he was ready for it and boy was he ready for it.  Since becoming home owners Jared's been doing projects.  That require tools.  And some little boy I know likes do everything his dad does.   

He absolutely loves it.  They light up and everything

You can't forget the safety goggles

We love the playground in our new place.  There are lots of kids and the parents are so nice and friendly.

at the bottom of the slide

a little monkey

I wonder where he got the idea from?

A couple pictures of the family

What a month

A lot has happened since my last post.  It's been quite the month for our little family.  We started the month off by closing on our first house!  Yay!!!  OK, technically it's not a house, it's a condo, but it's home to us and we're pretty excited about it.  This of course means we had to move, not so fun.  So at the end of the month we moved out of our old place.  Did we move directly into our new place?  Of course not, that would have been way too easy.  Due to a series of unfortunate events, we did a double move.  Yep, that's right.  A double move.  We (let's be honest, Jared) moved our stuff into a storage unit and 5 days later "we" moved it out again.  This was good and bad.  It was bad because as Jeannie put it, it was the eternal move.  It seemed to last forever.  It was good because we were able to move things into the storage unit a few weeks before we had to be out.  It was kind of nice not having to do everything all at once. It was also good because it forced us to take a vacation.  We were homeless for 5 days and figured we might as well be homeless at the beach. Everybody back here raves about the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and it's been on our list, so we went.We checked out of our old condo and headed straight to the beach.  We now know why everybody loves the Outer Banks.  It was so fun!  We had a great time down there and I'm sure we'll go back.  Connor wasn't so fond of the crashing waves (see below) but he started to warm up to the idea.  Not surprisingly, playing in the sand was his favorite part.  It was nice to have a little break in between moves.  Now, we are finally in our new home and loving it.  We're still finding places for things and Jared's got quite the project list, but it is so nice to have a place we can make our own.

Connor loved having so many boxes around

he was more than happy to help with the cleaning

we moved our furniture out a week before we left

A stop on our drive to NC.  Connor is really into big trucks.

first time by the water

not so much of a fan

he was fine once he got past the crashing waves

these are the tallest sand dunes on the east coast

so much sand to play in

he had lots of fun getting buried

Pictures from the park

What do you think?

After my last post of Connor's pictures there was a bit of debate in my family as to whether Connor looks like a Wisan or a Bench. As far as I know a conclusion was never agreed upon. However, there is no debate as to which side of the family Connor gets his temperament from.

cute little boy

Bryce came to visit!

Bryce came all the way from Las Vegas just to come visit us. As luck would have it, the timing worked out so well that he was able to attend a work conference while he was here too. But I'm pretty sure we're the real reason he came out here. Bryce feels very strongly that siblings should visit siblings on the east coast and he certainly would never give anyone, especially his littlest sister, a hard time about not visiting him enough while he lived in New York. We had a grand old time while he was here. For those of you who don't know Bryce well I'll sum him up for you. Bryce happens to think he's very funny, he loves to share his oso humble opinion about everything, he loves to tease, he's not afraid to honk the horn for me when I'm driving, he's quite the story teller but happens to leave out key details and he is always great company to have around. Unless you ask Jeannie. She may have a different opinion. 

We went to the Udvar Hazy Museum which Bryce absolutely LOVED!  He was like a kid in a candy store.

The space shuttle is HUGE and pretty amazing to see

Connor's just putting out the vibes

We celebrated Jared's birthday with cake and ice cream.  Don't look too close at the cake.  It's not my best work but it did taste good and that's what really matters.

Bryce had one goal on his trip.  To get Connor to smile.  As Bryce put it, "not only did I get him to smile, not only did I get him to giggle, not only did I get him to laugh, I got him to belly laugh."  Connor thought it was so funny when Bryce popped his tongue.    

There's a funny story surrounding this picture.  We meet Bryce downtown one night to check out the memorials and as soon as we meet up it started to sprinkle.  So we sat at a bench under a tree to wait out the rain.  We waited and played and it started raining a little harder but we still waited and played.  Soon it was a complete downpour.  After 20 minutes everyone was completely soaked so we decided to make a run for it to the car, which happened to be a ways away.  It was raining so hard the side walk was one big puddle and the wind was blowing so much you could hardly see where you were going.  Connor loved all this by the way.  We ended up going to Bryce's hotel where Bryce was nice enough lend us some t-shirts (he was a little worried we might stretch them out, but let us wear them anyway) and dried Connor's clothes with a hair dryer.  It was quite the unexpected adventure but I have to say it was rather fun.  As Jeannie would say, "it's all about creating memories."    

Connor Makes Me Laugh

A lot.  I just think he is the funniest kid.  Multiple times a day he will make me laugh out loud.  I just can't help myself.  I have to admit,  the thought of baby girl coming makes me a little nervous.  I am constantly reminding myself not all our kids will be as good as Connor.  For a while I was even thinking it would have been nice to have had the hardest kid first and get it over with.  I have since changed my mind and realized how grateful I am to have this one on one time with Connor who is anything but a hard kid.  He is so fun to be with and such good company.  I realized in Alabama what a unique time this has been with Connor and me.  I won't have this one of one time with my other kids and it made me a little sad.  Don't get me wrong, the more the merrier, but I did realize how special this time is with Connor and am trying to take full advantage of it while I can.  Here are a few things that have made me laugh the past few weeks.

playing with corn starch  and water

he likes to help me unload the silverware.  sometimes it's clean, sometimes it's dirty.  i recommend checking your utensils before eating at our house.

who needs paper?

note to self: don't leave the peanut butter jar open when there is a little boy who loves peanut butter nearby.

second note to self: close the peanut butter jar before going to get a paper towel

this is how he sits when i'm making something in the kitchen.  he loves being able to climb up all by himself.