8 years

On Monday Korey and I celebrated 8 years of being married!  8 years??? It's crazy that it's been 8 years already. It's even crazier that we've been together for 15 years!!  I still remember the day he chased me down the hall in high school and asked me out.  I feel very lucky that we found each other so early and that we've gotten to share so many experiences with each other already! 

 

So far together we have lived in 5 different states, rented several apartments and houses, bought our first house, got two crazy dogs, had our wonderful son Konnor, made some important job changing decision, visited several countries and states, ran a couple half marathons and triathlons, made amazing friends, and so much more. Korey is still my best friend after all this time. He knows everything about me and whenever something happens good or bad he is the first person I want to tell about it!

Things have definitely changed over the years but we've learned to change together and to go with the flow.  We used to be able to go out together whenever we wanted but now it's not that easy to go do something just the two of us. We try and take every opportunity we have to go out together but we also enjoy hanging out at home together after Konnor's asleep just catching up on TV, movies, talking, and sometimes playing a game. 

Having a child is WONDERFUL...but it can also be stressful. There are definitely those nights when Konnor wakes up and stays awake for hours where Korey and I in our sleep deprived state end up mad at each other over crazy stuff. Despite those times, we really enjoy being parents. I love seeing Konnor get excited when Korey gets home from work and how excited Korey gets every time Konnor says Daddy!  I also appreciate how Korey never makes me feel anything less than an amazing mother. Even in moments when I feel like I'm failing miserably, he is always the one to tell me that I'm doing a good job. 

8 years...so much has happened and I can't wait to spend several more years together and see what other adventures are in store for us!  Love you Korey! Happy Anniversary!  Thanks for always being there for me!

19 Months

So far my goal of trying to write more is definitely not being achieved! :)  Konnor keeps us pretty busy most days!  He's always on the go and it's a rare moment if he actually sits down for more than 5 minutes.  I purchased a coloring book for him the other day, and he will at least sit and color with me for 10-15 minutes which is nice (As you can see I also have been coloring haha)!

He loves to talk and one day when I was curious I started writing down all the words he has said, and discovered he says over 100 different words!  He's always trying to tell us something!  We love hearing him talk.  All day long I hear "where daddy go"  "where bella go"  "where chloe go" haha. 
The canine teeth are almost completely in (YAY!!) so he has been sleeping better.  He still has nights where he wakes up and decides he's going to stay up for 2 hours, but they don't happen as often as they used to!
He loves his shoes.  He always wants to be wearing his shoes.  He brings me his shoes every day and wants me to put them on.  His one pair definitely smells awful because he wears them so much without socks.  I must have told them they were stinky one too many times though, because now every time he brings them to me he smells them and says "stinky"!

Always wearing our shoes!

Last weekend Korey and I got the chance to go to NYC with my sister Courtney and her boyfriend Matt.  We went to the 9/11 Memorial which was sad, but definitely worth visiting.  Korey and I went to see Of Mice and Men and LOVED it!  Chris O'Dowd was wonderful and of course we stuck around afterwards so I could get an autograph from James Franco!  I love trips to NYC and it's nice now that we are not too far away!  Hopefully we can go again some time soon and see some more shows!

Also while we were in NYC we decided on Sunday morning that we should try to get a cronut!  Courtney and I had both heard about them from watching Jimmy Fallon.  We knew there are usually huge lines for them, but figured that since its been awhile since they first came out that maybe we would get lucky.  We definitely got lucky... really lucky.  When we got there we hurried into the cronut line and I got super excited that we were going to get one.  Almost immediately someone came over to the line and told everyone that they only had so many cronuts left and they couldn't guarantee that everyone in line would get one.  Ugh!  The three girls in front of us left the line but we decided to stick around.  It didn't take long until we were the next people in line to order, and then a woman at the door yells "YES!!!! We got the Last Cronut!!!" and we see them take the last box out of the display case and hand it to the woman in front of us. BUT lucky us, they bring one last box over, and Korey asks if they have any cronuts left and they tell him only one more and we get it!  We had to share it with Courtney and Matt of course but that's okay!  It was definitely worth hanging out in line for a little bit and we got a couple other pastries also that were delicious!  Next time we are in NYC we might have to go back to Dominique Ansel Bakery and get another one :)

We've now been living in our new house for over a year.  We're slowly painting and doing some other things to the house.  We are still really happy with our house and are having fun picking paint colors and trying to think of some little projects we can do here and there.  Unfortunately we are also still not in love with the area we live in.  Going to places like Washing DC and NYC on some weekends is helping us like it a little more, but it still doesn't change the fact that we don't have as much stuff to do in the area as we are used to and would like.  I thought maybe summer would make it a little better, and it has to some extent.  I love being able to get outside with Konnor and the sunshine and warm weather makes me happy, but it also makes me miss living close to a beach, and there just aren't as many places to go for safe fun walks with Konnor around here.  Hopefully some day we will be able to move back to where we really want to be, but until then we will definitely keep trying to find things to do around here, and we'll keep working on the house.
Hope everyone is enjoying the nicer weather, and maybe I'll remember to post something again before another month goes by.

18 Months and More..

I've really been slacking at posting anything lately!!  Konnor had his 18 month appointment last week and although he only gained 10 oz he shot up in height.  He grew 2 1/4 inches and is still off the charts for height.  He chatted with his pediatrician a lot while we were there :).  He asked her for the "block please" when he wanted the big block toy that was sitting beside her, he showed her his stuffed "bunny" that we brought with us and made sure to say "bye bye" to her when she left.  He only had to get one shot thank goodness and it went pretty well.  He always seems to get over the shots pretty quickly.  

In the past month that I haven't remembered to post anything at all, we've been to Washington D.C three times.  The first time we went Easter weekend with our friend Jill who was visiting!  We were excited to see Jill again.  We hadn't seen her since we left Charleston!  We were very happy she made the trip up to see us!  We had fun at the zoo and going to the museum of natural history and just walking around.  Konnor was excited to see an elephant at the zoo, and to finally get out of his stroller and walk around some :)  The second time we went was Mother's Day Weekend.  Konnor's Aunt Courtney drove down just for the day so she could go with us!  We went to the zoo again and did some more walking around and visited the museum of American history.  It was a nice warm day and we had a lot of fun!  The weekend right after that we went again with my parents.  We skipped the zoo that time, but took a trolley tour and got to see a lot and learn a lot.  I'm sure we will definitely go back again some time this summer!

Okay.. sorry for the picture overload! 

Other than our little weekend trips to Washington D.C. we've been pretty much just hanging out and getting outside whenever we can!  We got a new sliding door for our deck so now it will close properly!  Korey and I both just completed T25 and loved it.  I think I'm going to do another round of it, and Korey is going to start training for the two triathlons he has signed up for!  Konnor definitely keeps us busy every day!  He's always on the go and he's always trying to talk to us and tell us something! :)  We love hearing him talk!  I swear he says something new every day!  Korey fixed our clock in the living room that goes off every hour, and Konnor loves when it makes noise.  As soon as he hears it he smiles and starts saying "ding dong".  He also points to it throughout the day and says "clock ding dong" and wants it to make noise.  For the most part he loves pushing all his cars and trucks around still, and he loves to read books.  He will bring me books several times a day and want me to read them to him.  Or if he can't find one of his favorites like Go, Dog Go then he will run around the house saying "go go" and look for it!  There is never a dull moment with him and we love it! :)

 Of course I had to include a picture of Chloe and Bella.  Bella still wants nothing to do with Konnor even though he really wants to be her friend haha and Chloe still loves him (except when he is trying to head butt her).  Bella's pretty independent anyway so she hangs out upstairs or behind the couch while Konnor is running around, and we make sure she gets attention at night after he's gone to bed! 

17 months

I can't believe how fast time is going. I know I say this all the time. I swear this year is just flying by. I don't know if it seems that way because we have Konnor now and he's so busy and growing so much each day or if I'm just crazy :). At 17 months Konnor is already trying to be more independent. He wants to be down walking all the time and he wants to go in whatever direction he wants which is not usually where we want him to go!  He likes going to the park but not because he likes to swing or slide. He actually pretty much avoids the  playground part of the parks and he heads right to running around the paths or grass or trying to run straight into any water that might be in the area. 

 

He is still talking up a storm. Some new words he now says are blankie, bath, ("bash")  uncle, aunt ("ent"), oh stop, block, and he's gotten good at saying "neigh" when we ask what a horse says. The neighbors have balloons tied to their mailbox and when we go out the door we always hear "bawoon" "bawoon". 

Sleeping of course as usual is still an issue. His canine teeth have still not come through but he has been chewing and drooling like crazy the past couple days. Some nights he wakes up and quickly goes back to sleep and other nights he is up for hours. 

He's started climbing on everything. It's not unusual to turn away for a second and find him sitting on the fireplace looking at you with his "what are you going to do now" look :). He's a pro at going up stairs and we are working on showing him how to go back down on his belly. He's getting pretty good at it. 

We spent most of this past weekend outside because the weather was so nice!  Konnor loved being outside. He didn't love when we wouldn't let him go in the creek behind the house. I think he let the whole neighborhood know he was unhappy!

We can't wait to see what this next month will bring!

End of March

Another month down.  Another random post! This year is just flying by already!  It's finally starting to warm up a little which is wonderful!  It's also kind of sad that I'm now saying that 50 degree weather is "warm" :)  I still miss the South, but I'm hoping that as the weather warms up I'll find some fun things to do to make me like this place a little bit more!  I can't wait to take Konnor to the parks in the afternoon and spend most of the days outside!  Now we just have to get rid of all the rain that has come with the warmer weather.  I'll take rain over snow at this point though!
Korey and I started doing the T25 workouts a couple weeks ago!  We love it!  It's wonderful to get my workout done in 25 minutes.  It gives me so much more time to do other things while Konnor is napping.  I'm also looking forward to being able to run outside again now that it is warmer and lighter out longer!  Korey and I also signed up for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in November.  I love this race.  My sister and I have run it twice before and it's my favorite half marathon so far.  I am a night person and the race is at night which is wonderful!  It's fun to run through the Disney parks at night and to have some nice food and wine afterwards :)  I feel like I need to start running right now so I'm prepared.  It will be November before we know it!  Since the race weekend is right around Konnor's birthday, we are going to spend the week in Disney and celebrate his second birthday!  I'm excited!  It's always nice to have trips to look forward to!
I've been reading a lot of books lately.  I've been using the Overdrive app to get library books on my phone which has been wonderful!  I read on my phone at night when Konnor wakes up and I was buying a lot of books for my Nook app so I would have something to read, and then I remembered that our library has a digital library also.  So now I can just get library books on my phone and not have to pay for them!  I love it!  I also still get actual books from the library every time I go there too.  It seems like every time I go I return one book and get two more!  Konnor also enjoys our trips to the library and most of the time it's a struggle to get him to leave!  They have a kids area with cars and trucks and I usually have to bribe him with food to get him to leave the library without having a melt down!  Hopefully some day he doesn't want to leave the library because of the books and not just the trucks :)
Some of the books I've read lately are: The Descendants, Divergent, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Gone Girl, and The First Phone Call from Heaven.  I really enjoyed all of them!  I'm glad I've made more time for reading books.  My list of books I want to read is always growing!
Konnor also enjoys listening to books.  Some of the ones we've been reading lately are: The Very Busy Spider, any of the Good Night Our World series of books, Oh My Gosh, Mrs. McNosh, and My Truck is Stuck.
A couple weekends ago we met up with our friends Tom and Julia in Delaware.  We hadn't seen them for a really long time.  It was great to get together again and catch up!  We went to the Dogfish Head Brewery for a tour and tasting and then walked along the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach.  The kids got to run around outside at the brewery and Konnor had a blast!  Tom and Julia have two wonderful children.  Their son was very well mannered and I hope some day that Konnor is just as well behaved and fun!  Their little girl is right around Konnor's age and she was adorable.  Of course now I want to have a little girl if we have another child :)  Hopefully we can get together with them again soon!

I don't really think we have any big  plans for April.  We are expecting some visitors which is always nice.  We're really excited that Jill is coming to visit us for Easter.  We haven't seen her since we left Charleston and we miss her!!  We might try and go on a day trip to D.C. while she is visiting!  I just hope that the weather is significantly warmer by then!
I think that's all for now.  Nothing too crazy or exciting.  I hope everyone has been staying warm and hopefully Spring and Summer weather will be here soon!

16 Months

It's crazy that it's already March.  I've been terrible at writing anything lately.  I can't write when Konnor is awake because anytime we open up the computer he runs over and wants to tap away at the keys :)  This year is flying by already!  Konnor is now 16 months old!  He still isn't sleeping at night.  He doesn't really stay up for long periods of time anymore, now he just wakes up several times and doesn't seem to sleep more than 3 hours at a time.  I'm not sure if it was worse when he was up for 3 hours, or worse now that he doesn't sleep for long periods of time.  Either way I am barely getting any sleep at all.  The lack of sleep doesn't seem to bother Konnor to much though.  He takes good naps and still has lots of energy during the day.  He is still chatting up a storm.  He's started saying Chloe, bubble, please he added "baa" to his animal noises, and he babbles nonsense to us all the time (although I'm sure he knows exactly what he is trying to say).  He walks and runs all over the place and can climb the stairs super fast!  Yesterday we went for a walk twice around the neighborhood with me just holding his hand.  He loved it!  His favorite toys are probably still his cars.  He likes to push them all over the living room.  He has tons of trucks and cars, but he calls all of them cars!  His newest thing is to wear his sunglasses around the house.  If he finds them he immediately wants to point them on and wear them around.  We are having so much fun watching him grow.  

As far as keeping up with my resolutions, I have not been doing that great of a job!  I am still behind on Konnor's scrapbook because I need to order some pictures to finish up the last few months.  I was waiting for one of the penny print deals and I found one going on right now so I'm going to order pictures today and then hopefully make some time to finish the scrapbook SOON!!!!!!

The weather has been a little warmer so I'm hoping I can get out and run more soon.  I went for a run the other day and it actually felt pretty good, so I'm excited to start running more frequently.  Korey and I signed up for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in November so I'm excited to run more and train for that later this year.  We also signed Konnor up for one of the kids races and I can't wait for him to get to run his little race! :)

I've been slacking on writing posts on here.  Almost a whole month went by between this post and the last one.  Hopefully with the weather getting warmer we will have more going on and more to write about!  The past couple days we took advantage of the nicer weather!  Today though it is back to the low 30's which is sad.

I'm really just ready for warm weather.  I love being out in the sun and I don't mind the heat.  I hope we can get a chance to go to a beach a couple times this summer and I want to take Konnor swimming a lot.  He's really enjoying his swim classes right now.  He doesn't seem to mind being in the water at all.  He does great when we dunk him and they always comment on how relaxed he is in the pool.  The only thing he dislikes is floating on his back! 

 I hope everyone has been staying warm in this crazy weather and hopefully it will feel like Spring soon!