Ticket To Paradise (Literally I'm Afraid)

Surprise!  A 3rd post in one day!!!

Warning...lots of pictures in this post, but I want to "scrapbook" a lot about our trip, so bear with me.  Back in April we got a phone call from one of Michael's BFFs, Micah and his wife, Chancey asking us to join them for a week at his grandparent's condo in New Smyrna Beach...um YES!!!  We all felt like we needed a week away, just us without our kids (they have a 4 year old boy).  We had not been away from Nicholas other than a night here or there since he was born and even then, maybe 5 or 6 nights at most, and only about 20 hours at the very most then!  I was nervous about leaving him, but none of us shed any tears when he rode off with Pawpaw and Gigi on Saturday morning.  Yay for the nervous Mommy! Ha!  Anyway, back to the trip... 

We left around noon on Saturday and about 4 hours into our trip right outside of Valdosta, GA, Michael and Micah got what can only be described as matching tickets to paradise... :-)

We quickly got back on our way and got to our condo around 9:00 that night.  Paradise is really the only way to describe this place!  The condo was huge, right on the beach, and this was the view from OUR PATIO!!!  

We spent the day Sunday just lying by the pool drinking various adult beverages and just enjoying the fun in the sun!  It was an amazing afternoon of laziness! Ha!

That night we got dressed and went to a fabulous restaurant, JB's Fish Camp, recommended to me by my friend, Lauren.  We ate our weight in oysters and I had the stuffed mahi.  TO DIE FOR!

Monday was our "beach day".  With our condo literally being two steps from the pool, we spent 90% of our days there, but Monday we agreed to spend some time watching the boys build an enormous sand castle and boogie boarding.

Monday night Michael busted out his boiler pot set up that traveled with us and boiled a low country boil.  SO TASTY!

 Monday night we just had a lazy, relaxing day by the pool and patio.  It was great to just have a few days of nothing to do or any worries.  I love this picture of Michael.

 Micah and Chancey.  We are blessed with wonderful friends and I prayed for years that one of Michael's close friends would marry a girl I would love and become friends with.  God answered that prayer when these two got married and I am so thankful for my friendship with Chancey.

 The view from our pool area.  This is from the chair my big butt sat in for most of our vacation. :-)

Tuesday brought another full day at the pool, but we decided to just have a good, fun night out that night.  We bar/restaurant hopped for a few hours and had so much fun.

However, the best fun was hands down our trip back...in the taxi! Ha!  You haven't really had a fun night out until it ends up with a 30 minute taxi ride with an awesome cabbie! 

Wednesday was a cloudy, rainy day, but we stayed by the patio and just read, talked, and enjoyed our last day at the beach.

Wednesday night Chef Michael whipped up yet another amazing meal.  He grilled swordfish for the boys and mahi mahi for Chancey and I.  He definitely outdid himself on this one!

I just thought this picture was funny and completely summed up our trip in five words: Sunscreen, Margaritas, and Chocolate Vodka Shots!

This was the best thing I saw all day yesterday until we were home...our exit!  I couldn't wait to get home to my sweet boy!

And...just in case you were starting to worry that poor little Nicholas that got left behind was sad or missing his parents.  Stop now...

Worry no longer!  Nicholas had the time of his life and played with his new water table, t-ball set, and tricycle while we were gone.  He loved the undivided attention he was given and actually woke up this morning asking for his Gigi! Ha!

As soon as we got back home with him, Michael and Nicholas spent some time swinging, sliding, and just enjoying our time back together as a family.  I missed my sweet boy more than anything and I told Michael several times over the 5 days we were away that I will don't plan to leave him again anytime soon! As a matter of fact between the four of us, I'm pretty sure we won't be leaving our boys again next year.  Someone needs to buy a Suburban ASAP for that trip! (HINT HINT Michael) I have never, ever missed anyone that much!

Fort Nicholas

The weekend of April 20 became hereby known around our house as the weekend from hell. Ha! No really it was the weekend Michael and my dad built Nicholas a fort and swing set in about 17 hours.   We ordered our swing set from Sam's and it came in about 5,000 pieces.  NOTHING and I mean NOTHING was preassembled.  They got started around 11:00 on Saturday morning with several piles of lumber...

By noon they had the base of the fort built

By 2:00, the fort was beginning to look like a fort

By 5:30 the roof was completely on and my dad went home for the night

Michael quit at 8:00 and this was the progress from day 1...

Day 2 started at 8:30am and was mostly finishing the rails and the little picnic area

My dad came back after church and they built the rock wall (every single board and piece), the ladders, and finally started assembling the swing section.

My mom and Nicholas were getting excited after naptime!  Here they were the last few minutes before the slide went up.

As soon as they declared it ready to slide around 4:30, someone climbed right on in! 

AND ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!!!!!  I thought my mom and I would die right there. Ha!

 The first slide!  The pure happiness on his little face made it all worth it.

 And because he did spent 17 hours putting the darn thing together, Michael went down the slide next! 

 Nicholas always loved his Little Tikes slide, but he got a little upgrade that day...

 Nicholas was so excited and his daddy was super excited for him to play on his new swing set.

 The finished product a couple weeks later...complete with Daddy's golf net and a bubble mower! Ha!

Memorial Day Weekend

I know this is just two weeks late, but I have been super busy and Michael and I went on a couple week to the beach.  We had an awesome Memorial Day weekend.  First, I opened my blog back public and I want to say welcome back, once again!  I hope you all enjoyed reading back and getting caught up on our lives the past 8 months. :-)  On Saturday afternoon we went over to Nana's new home and had a birthday party for her 82nd birthday with her friends at her home.  She continues to be adjusting, but is doing much better than we ever thought she would.  

 We sat on her little patio and watched her open gifts, but in his usual form, Nicholas stole the show by watering her plants.  Ha!  This is has totally become his favorite activity of the summer so far!

Nicholas and Nana enjoyed some cake with her friends at her table.

Right after I got married, she turned 75 and I found this Precious Moment for her birthday that year.  Those of you who have been reading along or read back to get caught up know how close we are and this PM says so much about us.  I brought it over to her apartment for her to enjoy there.

 As always, Nicholas posed for pictures.  Here he is with my cousins, Katie and Lindsey.

 

 Along with the fact that Nana is now living in an assisted living, comes the hard task of organizing 49 years worth of antiques, dish sets, and an unbelievable amount of stuff that my Nana has collected.  The only way to describe it is "organized hoarding".  She has everything neatly put away and organized, but never threw anything away...and I mean NOTHING! Ha!  Anyway, my mom, aunts, and I have been working daily for almost three weeks to organize an estate sale for next weekend.  We worked Sunday morning and almost all day on Memorial Day to get somethings sorted and organized.  Michael's parents came and kept Nicholas on Sunday while we worked at Nana's house.  They brought him a new boat for the pool and he loved it!

 My baby is quite the little water bug.  He BEGS to go to the pool and adores his new Pirate ship water table.  He also has quite the little tan...even with 50 SPF!

Wordless Wednesday iPhone Photo Dump Edition

19-23 Months

I know, I know, I say this all of the time, but I'm going to get caught up and stay that way! Guess what...my mac is fixed and I don't have to wait on Michael to bring his laptop home anymore!!!  Now the issue will be finding time to actually blog.  I'm also going back public, but we will see how long I stay that way, we will see if that helps me stay motivated! Ha!

Anyway, where oh where to begin???  Let's see...

Nicholas is now 22, almost 23 months old.  WHERE DID MY BABY GO???  He is 30 pounds, almost 38 inches and according to his dr, almost the size of a THREE year old!  He talks non stop and his thing now is to ask "what's that?" about EVERYTHING and to make animal sounds.  My favorites are pig which he snorts or a monkey "ah ah ah"!  He is so funny these days!  Everyday is a new day with him.

He will still eat just about anything, but chicken spaghetti, hot dogs, and pizza seem to be the overwhelming favorites with a banana as his favorite morning selection.  He has 16 teeth as of this week.  He now has his painful eye teeth. He got his 1st set of molars at 17 months in December and these FINALLY broke through last week.  He enjoys brushing his teeth with his Cars spin brush and will say "ahhhhh" while you brush his teeth!

His favorite toys are any of his ride on toys, but mostly his tricycle and his swingset (more on that on another post coming soon!).  He loves his dogs (Spencer and my parents Beagle, Beasley) and loves to try to ride them.  I spend a lot of time saying "we don't ride the dog".  Mickey Mouse is his favorite thing in the world.  He will run from across the house if he hears Mickey coming on TV (look for an Oh Twodles birthday extravaganza coming your way soon!).  He yells "Ickey" as soon as he sees or hears Mickey.  He also renamed my Dad Pawpaw from Grandpa in April.  Cracks me up!  He now calls us: Mama, Dad, Gigi, Pawpaw, Nana, Gadad (granddad), Melmo (mamaw), and Specer (spencer).

We moved up to size 5 diapers at the end of March.  4s still fit, but 5s fit better because of his height.  He is just tall and skinny.  He wears 24 months or 2T depending on the fit and brand.  He wears 24m in Polo,  Carter's, but 2T in Gymboree and Gap.  He now has a size 7 wide foot!  CRAZY!

We found out on May 1 in the ER that he probably has an autoimmune type disorder called erythema nodosum (basically a skin rash reaction to who knows what).  We aren't planning to have him tested until he is much older.

Yes, it does look like hand foot and mouth, but three different doctors all said it was definitely not that.

He still loves school.  We went through a rough patch for about a month at 21 months, but now he seems to really enjoy it again.  He went without a single tear this past week! PTL!  He goes right in, sits down to eat, turns around and says "bye Mama!"  As soon as he sees me in the afternoon he screams "MAMA" and comes running to me!  Melt my heart!

I still find it hard to believe that his 2nd birthday is just a few weeks away.  Where did my little baby go?!