Weekend in Montgomery

Jaydan and I traveled to Montgomery, AL (land of tornadoes and duct tape) Friday night after work. It was raining, traffic was horrendous and we got there much later than we planned....but once we got there we had lots of fun. We went to spend one last weekend w/ my BFF, Jill and Jaydan's BFF, Gavin. We took the kids to the Montgomery Zoo (fun was had by all), the kids played and Jilly and I chatted and enjoyed being together.
The parting on Sunday was bitter sweet. Jilly and her family are moving to Japan for FOUR years courtesy of the U.S. Airforce. I am so excited for them and their new adventure but also completely heartbroken that it will take them so far away for so long. I am planning on making a trip over there at least once during their tour and Jill has committed to coming home at LEAST once a year. Jill and I have only known each other about 4 years, but we have been through a lot together including being pregnant at the same time. She got in her car, drove 6 hours and left two month old Gavin overnight to be with me when I was in labor and she knew my Mom couldn't make it in time (only to have me kick her out of the room almost as soon as she got there). I was her surrogate husband when her real husband was in Iraq for the majority of her pregnancy (it wasn't easy, she was crazy most of the time). She has filled the large hole that being so far from my friends and family leaves in my heart and honestly I don't know how I will cope without her. Hobbies, we love you and will miss you more than you know. Have a safe journey filled with many new and exciting adventures...... and then hurry home to those of us that will miss you so much!
If you want to contribute to the "Tori's going to Japan Fund" you may do so by entering torikay23@hotmail.com as a seller on paypal and donating there ;)

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy......

To my "Dear Old Dad"! Your wisdom and big heart are truly an inspiration and I am so thankful for you. Tyson and I are lucky to have you as a Dad and now our kids are even more blessed to have you as a Gum-paw. May this year offer all of the blessings you deserve!

Weekend update

We had a very busy, very fun weekend. Saturday I took Jaydan to our local Pumpkin Patch. We went last year and he was way too small to enjoy most of the fun stuff, but we saw the potential for fun as he grows so we knew a tradition was born. Sadly, our Daddy had to work so we went without him! It was so much more fun this year. Jaydan really enjoyed the petting zoo, and cow-train ride. He was able to run around and get some exercise and get dirty. There were several exclamations of "Wow" upon seeing the different animals and he was so excited to see the "duts" (turkeys and a peacock). I hope that someday we will be able to convince him that all birds are NOT ducks, but right now he's not buying it.









I couldn't resist doing a picture comparison. My what a difference a year makes! I'm sure next year will be even more fun and we will be able to enjoy even more of the activities. We came home that night and carved our pumpkin. Well, I carved it, Jaydan played with and tried to eat the guts! It turned out pretty cool..... you should run out and but a pumpkin carving kit. I am SO not artistic and if I can do this, just think of the cool things you can do if you have a modicum of talent. It was our first real snap of fall weather, it was cold enough Sunday morning to provide an excuse to build the season's first fire. That sparked (ha ha) a whole new reason for "No, nos", but it added to the fall-y festive mood!

And the winner is......

This is the new ride. Its a minivan, but its still a little cool, right? This is how we spent Sunday. Last time we bought a car, Jaydan was two months old...... lets suffice it to say that things didn't go AS smoothly this time :) This car is new to us, had low miles and was very well taken care of..... AND it had an automatic sliding door, which is sooooooo nice when you have your arms full of kicking and screaming toddler, this I know for a fact. You see, Jaydan did his best to make sure that all of the amenities would work for our family. He did enjoy that there is so much space....he explored every square inch before giving his approval. He even figured out how to turn the stereo on and then proceeded to show the salesman how well he dances!

Sick Day

I'm home with Jaydan today, who is under the weather. I think its just a bad cold, but he was up all night off and on, which lead me to believe that it was worse than it actually is. We had a great weekend with Jeff's family.....his sisters and their kids were up from Enterprise, Alabama. For the first time Jaydan was old enough to sort of play with his cousins so that was fun. He chased his cousin, Lindsey around Nana's house for a good hour yelling "Woo woo woo". Not sure what that means, but they both thought it was big fun.

This is a picture that I promised my mom I would post. Jaydan picked this up at the grocery store last week and proceeded to wear it the rest of the shopping trip..... this, from the kid who won't keep a hat on his head, ever. He held very still, so as not to lose it and grinned from ear to ear. He doesn't consistently keep in on anymore, but this particular story-time called for it!

Weekend Update

It was another great weekend that went all too fast. Jaydan and I ran errands Saturday morning while Daddy was at work and then we all loaded up that evening and went to spend the night with Jeff's parents. His cousin and his girlfriend were there so it was fun to meet some new family.
We took a boat ride around the lake Sunday morning and enjoyed the beautiful scenary. Jeff spent some time fishing and we watched some football. Then it was time to go back home and.....oh, did I forget to mention that my husband sold his car? Maybe thats because it was a surprise to me, too...... I mean, we had talked about it, but I though we'd decided to wait. I didn't kill him, because the fact of the matter is that its over 10 years old, has 175,000 miles on it and was coming close to needing some pretty extensive work done on it. So now, he's driving Pop's truck while he looks for something new. We haven't yet reached an agreement on what to get.....he wants to get a used BMW, I'm pulling for something more practical, like a minivan or small SUV (am I REALLY pulling for a minivan?!?). Stay tuned to find out what happens next.....

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