Konnor's First Halloween

Konnor was born 10 days after Halloween so this was his first Halloween!!  He wore a Tigger costume and I think he actually enjoyed wearing it!  He never fussed when we put it on him.  The only part he didn't love was the hood.  The costume worked out great though.  Everyone thought he was super cute, and it kept him warm while we sat outside on our porch and handed out candy!

Growing up I loved going trick or treating and I'm sure I probably went for a couple years past what I should have :)  Korey and I have lived several places over the past few years so we've had a lot of different Halloween experiences.  When we moved to Charleston for the first time, we lived in an apartment complex.  They gave us a sign to hang on the door if we wanted to hand out candy.  I was super excited because this was the first year we would get to hand out candy from our own place.  We hung the sign on the door, and sadly we had no trick or treaters.  What a bummer.  To top it all off, our dog Bella ate quite a bit of the candy (wrappers and all) the next day while we were at work.  We of course were then worried because she had ate a ton of chocolate, but she was fine.  When we lived in Maine we went out with our friends on Halloween so we didn't hand out any candy that I can remember.  Instead this is what happened...

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it.  I have no idea what I was doing/saying, and Korey's look is priceless haha. 
After Portsmouth, we lived in Charleston again for two years.  The first year Korey had to work on Halloween and I didn't want to have to deal with the dogs every time the doorbell rang so I just left the candy outside.  Surprisingly there was still candy in the bowl at the end of the night.  The second year Korey was home so one of us held back the dogs whenever the doorbell rang, and the other handed out candy.  This year though was by far the craziest/best year as far as trick or treating goes.  When we bought the house, the previous owners warned us that there would be a lot of trick or treaters but I was still not prepared.  We ran out of candy within the first 30 minutes and I had to run out and go get some more.  We still did not have very much left at the end of the night.  There are a lot of kids in our neighborhood, but there were a TON of people that also drove their kids to our neighborhood.  We had fun sitting outside with Konnor and handing out candy to everyone.  Konnor loved being outside and watching all the kids come up to the porch.  He also got to enjoy his first lollipop.  He LOVED it of course.  He was not very happy when I took it away about half way through.

 

   
                                   

Also to prepare for Halloween we bought Konnor two new Halloween books.  We love reading to Konnor and we read him some books every night before bed.  We bought Goodnight Goon and Dracula.  Goodnight Goon is a parody on Goodnight Moon and Dracula is a kids version counting book based on the real Dracula story.  We enjoyed both books. 

At the end of the night, Konnor decided to give us our own Halloween treat and he slept through the night for the first time in almost 3 weeks!!  Between starting to walk and teething, he has been a terrible sleeper.  I was so happy to wake up this morning and realize that I had gotten a full nights sleep! :)  Thank you Konnor!

So now that Halloween is over is it okay to start watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas songs already?! :)

Just another random post

I had a lot of random things to write about but none of them were really long enough to fill one post so I figured I'd just combine some stuff into one random (probably rambling) post!

First off is my trip to NYC last weekend with Courtney. I love going on sister trips and it seems like it had been awhile since we had gone on one. When Courtney asked me if she could take me to NYC as my Christmas/Birthdy gift of course I said YES!!!  I was surprised at how easy it was for us to get to the city from our house. It took us only a little over 2 hours to get to NJ and then we had an 8 minute ferry ride and we were there!

We did A LOT of walking and both our phones died but it was all worth it. We went to see First Date. It was a great broadway musical. It was hilarious and the acting and singing were great. I would love to go see it again. If anyone is going to NYC anytime soon it is definitely worth checking out. After the show we accidentally ended up in the waiting area for meeting the cast and we got autographs and Zachary Levi the male lead in the show stayed and made sure he signed everyone's playbill and took pictures with everyone. 

Konnor and Korey had a great "guys day" back at home!

Second random thought is about an app I use on my phone called Viggle. It's free and I got it sometime at the beginning of the year. I kind of forgot about it for awhile and then started using it again recently. It is great!  Basically you check in to tv shows and get points for watching tv. You get one point for each minute and there are a ton of bonus points you can earn for checking in to popular shows that are on most nights. You can redeem your points for gift cards ,merchandise, and more. So far I've gotten $50 worth of Lowes gift cards which we've used some of to buy paint to fix up the house. It can take awhile to earn enough points but if you remember to check in to shows and you're smart about it, you can earn points fairly quickly also. 

Another thing I've been thinking about iswhat  to get Konnor for his birthday and for Christmas. I feel like we need to get him some new interactive toys. Right now he has a lot of trucks, tractors, cars, etc that he likes to push and throw across the floor. I think he needs some other toys though so if anyone has any suggestions for a one year old boy we are happy to hear them. 

We also had some visitors from Charleston recently. Our friends Ciara and Elliot stopped by and Korey took the day off so we could hang out with them. It was great seeing them again. We miss all our friends we've made in our travels and we are always happy when anyone comes to visit!  We spent the day going to a corn maze, having lunch outside, getting pumpkin spice lattes and ice cream and playing settlers of catan. It was fun!

I'm sure there are more random things I could write about but I think that's all for now!

First Solo Trip with Konnor

This weekend Konnor and I went home to visit for a "long weekend".  Korey had to work so we left him behind.  This was the first time Konnor and I went on a trip together without Korey.  Konnor was an awesome traveler!  Our ride is about 4 1/2 hours long and he didn't fuss at all on the way there.  He took two naps and the rest of the time he looked out the windows and played with some toys or "talked" to me.  We stopped at Starbucks of course for a Pumpkin Spice Latte and since it was the 10th anniversary of the PSL, I got a free pumpkin cookie and they decorated my cup!  It was a nice surprise!

We had a busy weekend visiting people!  Friday we went for a long walk with Aunt Courtney and visited with both sets of Grandparents.  On Saturday morning we ran some errands and did some shopping with Grandma Witt.  We also visited with Uncle Kody.  In the afternoon, after Konnor took a loooonnnng nap, we visited with his Great Aunt Jean and Uncle Don.  Then we went with Grandma Kelso to a fall festival to see Sarah, Tom, Benny and Lucy and to play with some pumpkins and corn! :)

Konnor had a great time in the corn, and he (surprisingly) sat still for a bunch of pictures with pumpkins and scarecrows and other fall things!  When we left the festival we still were not done with our visiting for the day.  Our next stop was a brief stop at a birthday party, and then we went to see Great Grandma Nazimiec, Great Uncle Steve and Aunt Paula, and Great Uncle Mike (we saw all of them in one visit)!  I think Konnor was definitely ready for bed that night!

Sunday we went with Grandma Kelso and Aunt Courtney to Christmas in the Woods.  It was a fun craft fair in the woods in Ohio.  We didn't buy much, but we had fun walking around and looking at all the different vendors.  Later that night Konnor and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Witt again and then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Kelso's so we could get a good nights sleep before we had to wake up and head back home!

Konnor did great again on the ride home.  We came home to find a nice clean house, and some new fall decorations throughout the house!  It was WONDERFUL coming home to a house that was clean, dishes were washed, laundry was done, and all I had to do was relax.  THANK YOU KOREY! :) Maybe I should go away more often?

On another fun note... 

... Konnor definitely looks like Korey!! :)

Weekend Fun and Halloween Movies

We had some visitors this past weekend! We love visitors!  Aunt Courtney and Matt came to hang out with us for the weekend. Friday night we went to Kilby's for some ice cream. Unfortunately they didn't have any pumpkin ice cream Booooo. Konnor enjoyed swinging, checking out the animals, and of course sampling everyone's ice cream!

We all went to bed early Friday night. Everyone was pretty tired. 

Saturday we went apple picking!  I had never been apple picking before (at least not that I can remember anyway). It was a lot of fun. It would have been a little better if it had felt like Fall and wasn't 85 degrees but it was still a great time!  We picked a bunch of apples and we even ate a couple while we picked. They are all seriously the most delicious apples EVER!!  I want to go back again and get even more!!  Even Courtney who is allergic to apples texted me and said she has been eating them and she loves them!

After apple picking, we went to try out a restaurant in Newark. We had some yummy pizza and then stopped for some pumpkin spice Starbucks drinks for "dessert".  That evening we played Settlers of Catan and Scribblish. Two games Korey and I don't get to play often because you need more than 2 players. Then when Konnor went to bed we made a fire and sat around making some s'mores. It was a perfect Saturday!  

Tonight Korey and I started our Halloween movie watching. Last year in the middle of October we decided to try and watch one scary movie a night until Halloween. This year we decided to start a little early and since we have a lot going on in October there will probably be several nights we have to skip. I also am trying to pick Halloween movies that aren't super scary. I don't know if it's the fact that we have our own house now or that we have a child, but I just don't think I could handle super scary movies. They always used to freak me out but even previews now will creep me out when I'm up at night alone with Konnor or if I'm the last one going up to bed and turning all the lights off as I go. Either way, since I'm easily scared now we decided to watch Ghostbusters as our first movie. I love watching older movies that we haven't seen in awhile. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend like we did and hopefully you are all enjoying your own Fall/Halloween movies!!

Jamaica

We've already been home for a week, but I finally found some time to write about our Jamaica trip!  We had a lot of fun in Jamaica!  The weather was PERFECT!  We were a little worried because we kept checking the weather report before we left and almost every day was calling for rain.  We got lucky though and the only time we saw rain was when we landed at the airport and on our drive to the resort.  Once we were there the weather was beautiful the rest of the week!  The resort was wonderful.  We had a pool right outside our room, a fridge in our suite full of all kinds of drinks, and we also had butler service.  When we booked the room two years ago, our room was not a butler room.  But between the time we booked it and when we were actually able to go, our room category changed and so we were surprised when we discovered we had a room with butler service.  Our butlers were great.  We didn't really ask them to do too much for us, other than to take us back and forth from our room to the lobby since our room was up on a hill.  They were super friendly though and we had fun getting to know them!  We spent most days laying around by the beach or the pools and enjoying lots of food and drinks because it was all included! We also left the resort one day to go to Dunns River Falls,  which was a lot of fun too! I think we will definitely stay at a Sandals resort again in the future.  I'd love to go back to Ocho Rios again, but I think we might try one of their resorts in another place next time.

 

This was our first vacation without Konnor.  It was a lot of fun and I think we definitely needed some time to just hang out together for a few days, but we missed Konnor a lot!  Thankfully we had free wifi at the resort and the Grandmas sent lots of pictures, videos, and updates!  I enjoyed getting full nights of sleep (except for the night I had to set an alarm to wake up and put aloe on Korey's back because he burnt the crap out of himself on the third day there)! Other than Korey getting burnt, we had a great time.  I must also say that it was not Korey's fault he got burnt.  He bought target brand sunscreen spf30 and put it on at least 4 times that day but it was like he wasn't wearing anything and he got soooo burnt.  We threw that sunscreen out, bought some expensive stuff at the resort and vowed that we will never buy target brand sunscreen again!  We met some great people while we were there and hopefully we will stay in touch with some of them and maybe hang out with them again some day in the future!!

The Grandma's did a great job watching Konnor!  I'm sure he had a ton of fun while we were gone also.  I hope that Korey and I will get the chance to take more vacations with and without Konnor in the future!!

Another Random Post

It's been over a week since I posted anything, but there really hasn't been much going on with us.  Konnor and I have been hanging out on the floor most days playing with his trucks, blocks and other toys.  We've gone to the store and to the library a couple times.  Konnor even picked out some books at the library last time we went! :)  We've been going on a lot of walks, and some nights we wait for Korey to get home so he can go with us!  Nothing too crazy here! Although, Korey did turn 30 on the 6th!

 

Yesterday and this morning I was feeling kind of tired (Konnor is teething again so he's been waking up at night) and I've been missing Charleston and feeling blah.  But this afternoon Konnor and I went for a walk and the weather was nice and cool and it got me excited for the holidays and Konnor's first birthday coming up!  So after a day and a half of having a little pity party for myself I decided to stop and start looking forward to all the things we have coming up in the next couple of months!  

Konnor likes to throw himself a pity party sometimes too!

Korey and I are going to Jamaica in one week!  We are super excited!  I'm looking forward to a full week of uninterrupted sleep!!!  We will miss Konnor like CRAZY though.  I'm sure by the end of the week we will be ready to come back so we can see him!  Konnor gets to have fun with the grandparents while we are gone!  I also signed him up for a program at the library that starts the Monday we are gone, so he gets to go to that with both his grandmas!  I'm sure he will have a blast with them while we are gone!

October is shaping up to be a pretty busy month. At least on the weekends! One weekend I get to go to NYC with my sister Courtney and see a show and spend the day there.  Korey is going on a fishing trip with some of his family another weekend.  Konnor and I are going to go home to Bville for one weekend and a few days in the week to go to a craft festival and to see family and friends.  Then before we know it, it will be Halloween and October will be over!  I'm really looking forward to all the holidays with Konnor this year.  He wasn't born yet for Halloween last year, and he was still pretty young for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We are definitely looking forward to watching him open all his presents at Christmas this year.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before, but the closer it gets the more and more excited I get when I think about it!  I need to find out if there are any fall festivals and holiday festivals going on in the area that we can take Konnor to.  

Well this was definitely a random post, but hopefully with all the stuff we have coming up in the next couple of months I'll have more to write about soon!

September Already?

I can't believe it's already September.  I'm kind of looking forward to the Fall and Winter this year.  It's already getting a little chillier at night and we have had our AC off and our windows open the past few days.  I kind of hope we can keep it that way now!  I have always liked Fall but Winter really has never been my thing.  I'm not a huge fan of snow, and I don't do well with snow sports/activities.  Of course I liked snow when I was younger.  I'm hoping I start to like it a little more now that we have Konnor to take outside and play with in the snow!  But I'm also hoping we don't get THAT much snow here.  Even though I don't like snow I LOVE all the winter holidays.  I'm SUPER excited for Christmas now that I watched Konnor rip a magazines to shreds tonight and throw the pieces all over the room.  He kept himself and us entertained for a good half hour or more!  I can only imagine how excited he will be to tear open Christmas presents!
Konnor had his 9 month check-up last week.  Our schedule got all off when we moved so he was already half way to 10 months by the time he had his appointment.  Thankfully this appointment did not involve any shots! YAY!!!  But sadly, they warned us that the next appointment at a year would include several shots.. BOO!!  Konnor weighed 23 lbs. and was 30 in. long at his appointment.  I can't believe how tall he is getting.  Luckily his weight has slowed down a little :)  He's still in the 90th percentiles for both. 

Month 9 seems to be the month where so many things started happening for Konnor.  He got really good at army crawling and then started to crawl for real.  He is pulling himself up on everything and walking all along the furniture.  He even goes from the couch to the end table to the chair now.  He loves throwing his blocks or cars ahead of him while he's crawling and then he goes chasing after them.  He also LOVES music.  Anytime he hears music he stops and listens or bounces along to the beat.  If we watch a show with a theme song at the beginning he will stop whatever he is doing and listen to it.  His favorite book is still Little Blue Truck.  He likes to turn the pages while we read it, and he still has a big grin when we say Beep Beep Beep at the end.  He claps every time we come in the room to get him when he wakes up from a nap.  I love that he is so happy to see us!  He also claps or waves his arms and gets all excited when we say "YAY"!  His latest thing is back to "blowing raspberries" at us.  Before when he used to do it we thought it was sooo cute.  Now it involves a lot more spit and so it makes it a little less cute!
I'm sure this month he will start doing even more!  I can't wait!