LONG LONG car ride!

Man do I love vacations! The only thing I don't enjoy about vacations is the getting ready for. That part is stressful! Especially when you are driving 8 hours with your husband and a 2 year old! There is nothing that makes Jim and I argue more than traveling! So you can imagine my excitement! Thankfully we left last night and Kade and I were able to sleep! All I can say is that portable DVD players are ah-mazing!! Except when your child only wants to watch zebra and giraffes (Madagascar). We watched it 3 times. I repeat 3 times. Oh my lord! Oh well, it kept him happy. While we were watching the movie, Jim was up front with headphones on listening to a book on tape. The only time I wanted to punch him in the face the whole trip was when he ran off the road trying to grab sour patch kids. I mean really? You want to jeopardize your family's life over stupid candy? We made it to Jim's moms house around 1:00 this morning but Kade wouldn't go back to sleep until like 4:00 bc he was over tired. After pulling out half my hair, hitting and kicking Jim and I, and hitting me in the head with a baseball bat, he fell asleep only to wake up 3 hours later. Worst night of my life! Oh well, we made it safely. Now tomorrow we are getting up early and driving to Alabama to see some of my family and then to Atlanta to stay with my parents! So unbelievably excited! Here are a few of the pics from our trip so far

Tomorrow starts another day of excitement and another car ride with zebras and giraffes!

Daddy blog time.  I've been extremely overwhelmed at work.  I have recently been given a temporary supervisor role while one of the supervisors has an operation and recovery.  I love what i do and i really love grass.  I also knew if my family was going to love it i would need to make the most of it in an industry that doesn't get much credit.  Most people don't event know it exist.  This will be a great test to see how if I'm as good as i talk myself up to be.  More than anything else i would love to be able to give Kade more reason to see how hard work can finally pay off.  Trying to raise a child in Boca can be very tough.  Very few friendly strangers due to the strong NY and New Jersey influence.  There might not be a whole lot to do in Leesburg GA but there is very strong community that i do miss.  I also don't remember anybody showing off money like they do here.  Maybe i was just to young.  It will definitely take a lot of work to instill mine and Rays southern values into Kade but that is one of our biggest goals.  I will be proud of Kade Man no matter what but would love to know he was a southern gentleman when it comes that time. 

Slow it down just a little....

So today I think I realized just how fast time was passing by. I've always heard that when you have a kid, they grow up so fast that the next thing you know, they are a teenager and then driving and then off to college and so on. Tonight was one of those nights that I realized just how fast Kade was growing up! Or maybe I realized how much I actually work! While I was on my way home from work today I was talking to Jim and he told me that he had a surprise for me. The surprise was a video of Kade. Before I go on about the video, let me tell you a few other things first. See, because I got a good opportunity with work, Jim and I basically switched roles. He took a job with the City of Boca Raton where he works 7:00 am- 3:00 pm so I could basically tackle my new store (same position but bigger store with a lot to prove and was afforded the opportunity to do so by myself- won't go into any other details but just know it has helped me tremendously grow as a manager). Anyhow, with my new store I have to work 7:45 am to 6:30 pm pretty much everyday and then most Saturdays. So basically 6 days a week for the most part. With that being said, Jim has to go get Kade from school everyday, most of the time go grocery shopping and run errands, come home and cook dinner, clean up and give Kade a bath, all before I get home from work! So I never get to see Kade  with me getting home at 6:30 and him going to bed by 7:15. In that 1 on 1 time with Kade, Jim gets to experience and see first hand just what Kade has learned at school and what he can say and do. I'm always 2 to 3 weeks behind. Jim took a video for me of something he watched Kade do. Jim turned on Pandora for kids and the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." and Kade immediately started doing the motions and singing it.

Then, we were video chatting with my parents tonight and played that song from You Tube so they could see him sing and dance. We took a shot in the dark and did other songs too. We did not realize just how much he knew! We took another video of him singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I am still in complete awe at what all he knows and can do! I absolutely love this boy more than anything! I love these moments!!

Funny faces and Sidewalk Chalk

I'm just going to come out right and say it..... Jim and I have the coolest little boy there is! He is so much fun and just loves living life to the fullest! And, he by far has the best personality of any 2 year old out there! Jim, me, Kade and Jim's mom went out to eat Saturday night and Kade had people mesmerized by him! This one couple couldn't stop staring at him telling me how cute he is, how they couldn't believe how independent he is (cutting his hamburger with a fork and knife. I helped him with the knife part), and how personable he is. Kade was also asking every single person if they "want some" of his Lemonade, while shoving it in everyone's face or direction. It was one of the funniest/cutest things we've seen him do. And of course, because we laugh, he does it even more!

This was Kade and I on our way home from dinner. This is his funny face. We watch a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba and when they do funny faces, this is the go to for most of the kids on the show, which is why that is Kade's funny face. We love it!

On Sunday, we went to Toys R Us to get a portable DVD player (we are making the 8 hour trip to Georgia next month... driving ) and Side walk chalk. Don't you love the man tank that Kade has on? We went to Target on Saturday and they were having a huge sale on boys clothes and when Jim saw this, we had to have it! When I put it on Kade, he was so confused and couldn't figure out where the sleeves were. My parents got him a new pair of sunglasses when they were in San Francisco last month and he loves them! We love them too because when you register them, if something happens to them, you get a brand new pair for free! They are called Babiators (however you spell it).

The Sidewalk chalk was a big hit Sunday afternoon. It kept him busy for a good hour or hour and a half. Nothing ever occupies his time for that long so I was impressed with how much he loved it. It also helped us practice our colors. Let me brag by saying that my smart 2 year old knows all of his colors, primary that is. He doesn't know gold or silver or anything like that. But you could throw red/yellow/green/blue/orange/purple/pink at him and he can tell you exactly what color it is! Below are a few pictures from our Sidewalk Chalk funday!!!

                                                                     Tracing his hands!

                                                                           Clean up!

                                                               Coloring with daddy!

I absolutely love this sweet boy more than anything! It's amazing watching him learn new things daily and grow into the young boy that he is. Love my family!

Kade is the coolest little boy in the entire world.  And he is a little over two years old.  How in the world can a guy that cute, sweet, and loveable flip that switch that causes me to ask him " Do you need to go to time-out"  My legacy hit me in the head twice the other afternoon in daycare.  I'm 31 years old and still got embarrassed in front of all the other 2 year olds.  If I'm not with Kade I'm upset that i don't have my Kade Man next to me.    But.  I get dizzy trying to figure out what the next step is when he throws a fit in Publix and I have to spend 10 minutes talking to him about why he cant open every bag of chips on the isle. I know this all part of the process and that its the age, but only when I'm at home and we are playing catch can I actually think about it in the proper respect.  Because when I'm carrying him out as he yells "Stop It Daddy" with his tiny hand in my face (i think this might come from Momma) I don't think about all that crap  read about in those magazines.  It is a beautiful thing to think about at night though. How does my Kade Man,  Bull Frog,  treat me like crap, be soooo mad at me, and me on the verge of yelling at him like he's not 2 make all that emotion stop; with a perfectly timed fart. 

Another Successful weekend of Crafts

I believe that Jim and I are getting the hang of redecorating on a budget. We've been wanting to do so much to our house but never really figured out how without spending a whole ton of money! Well.... tadaaaaa! Figured out the trick. Spray paint and sand paper. There is a lot you can do with spray paint and sandpaper. Case in point.... One of my good friends gave Jim and I a desk that he was no longer using. He knew that Jim and I were into redoing furniture and stuff and wanted us to go to town on a desk that he was going to throw away. Once Jim and I picked it up, we could hardly wait to get started. As soon as we put Kade to sleep, Jim and I spent 2 hours outside. I was over the whole sand papering crap after a good 3 minutes! That part is not fun! Then came the fun part.... Spray Paint.... and a pretty color at that!

                      This is a picture of the before. As you can see, nothing is wrong with the desk.

And the after picture! I have to say, I think we did a FABULOUS job if I do say so myself! It makes it look like a whole new desk! The desk we had our computer on was nothing special at all. So once we got this new one in, we did a lot of rearranging in our computer room, off of our kitchen. The wall that the computer is on now had a couch. So, we moved the couch to the other wall, where the computer once was.

So, this is a picture from far away. Ignore the filing cabinet in the middle. That is being moved somewhere else, just not right now. Our backs are a little shot from all of this. It won't hurt anyone leaving it be for a little while.  This room now looks so much different and bigger!


To end our weekend, Jim and I took Kade to the beach. We haven't been able to go in several weekends due to the weather being so horrible, so we were extremely excited about going. We even got up early for it! Good thing we did, because not even an hour after being there the weather was horrible!

We had to bust it to get out of there before the bottom basically fell out. It was thundering and lightening so bad that it was beyond scary. This is a picture of us driving home right before it rained cats and dogs. Then I pulled up the weather on my phone and it said we were under a significant weather advisory for a severe thunderstorm and possible funnel clouds. Then, I saw this picture below that someone had taken just north of us!

UMMMMM..... Yes very very scary. Waterspout just north of us! Slightly scary... just sayin'. Anyhow, at least we got one good hour! All in all, it was another fabulous weekend with my family! Not excited about going to work tomorrow, that is for sure! Love!!

I promised Sim if she would do the blog i would contribute to help keep each other motivated so we could give family and friends more than just a bunch of Facebook photos and keep every-body up to date on the family that is just a little to far away.  I have lost a lot of motivation for blog writing since it feels much like a journal.  But i owe it to Slim to continue.  I'm glad she is excited about doing projects around the house because its so easy to just give up at the end of the day and try to relax after Kade has gone to bed.  I really respect parents with multiple children.  I really do.  I tried to be Mr. arts and crafts dad my self recently and failed.  i don't really know of many father son things besides building and Kade isn't quite there yet, if anyone has ideas for his age. I tried to make glow in the dark bounce balls but the mold broke and I instead made glow in the dark balls that looked like VHS tape left on dash of hot car ( showing age).  I worked at Video Warehouse in Albany and always laughed at those tapes.  So i am interested in ideas that me and Kade can do together and proudly show off to family.