Waits Family Annals

Christmas came this year with a lot of anticipation. Connor enjoyed the daily advent calendar where he got a small gift every day leading up to Christmas (magnets, rub-on tattoos, toy cars, etc).

We went to the mall and let Connor sit on Santa’s lap and ride the Christmas Train (not the Polar Express, too many licensing issues).

On Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition where we give each other pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. We went to Hartwood Acres. Connor was surprisingly into the lights. We spent about 30 minutes slowly moving through about 2-3 miles of lighted displays, and there were no tantrums. Every so often he would gasp excitedly and point at a rendering of Santa Claus or some other Christmas icon (except Jesus, no Jesus).

For Christmas, we opened presents (and in one picture, you can see I got the gift of conjunctivitis). Connor enjoyed and enjoys his new presents. He really enjoyed his new drums (linked is a video of him playing his drums).

One of the Garvin’s presents was a trip to Color Me Mine in Squirrel Hill. Connor did a great job participating and even painted a few things for his Grandparents. Grandpa got so into his cereal bowl that I don’t think he looked up from his black bird painting for at least 45 minutes. Connor supplied the handprints on the bowl.

All in all, a great holiday that included Katy moving in with us as she transitions from college to professional life.

On December 10, Connor turned two. What was originally planned as a repeat of his first birthday (a nice dinner and chatting with friends), quickly became more. It was actually the most stressful and time consuming party I have done. Lessons I have learned are: never throw a birthday party on the same day I work; I don’t have to do EVERY home made craft created on the planet that fits a birthday theme.

Besides those things, I really had so much fun and it was great to see my son love everything so much and be old enough to get excited.

Understatement of the year: Connor Loves Angry Birds. He loves the music. He loves searching them on YouTube. He loves making angry pig noises. And, of course, he loves to play the game. He couldn’t care less about his score, even when it’s better than his parents. He just loves to fling those birds off the slingshot ASAP.

The trouble for me began when I started doing some research online for Angry Bird themed parties. Thank goodness for Etsy to help me along the way. We actually only invited five families, but that totaled 14 kids.

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Our Thanksgiving was spent with Todd’s brother and his family. This seems to be a tradition we have been doing for many years now. With Todd’s sister’s family away for school, it was just the two local families and we made it as chill as possible. Todd’s brother was determined to deep fry a turkey. Let me tell you, it was amazing! Done in 45 minutes, and you have your oven free for other food. The food was all delicious, and we stuffed ourselves with everything from brussel sprouts to salad, biscuits and potatoes, stuffing and turkey. We had some “punkin” pie and chocolate awesomeness pie.

We had Thanksgiving dinner early afternoon, then headed to the theater for The Muppets. This was Connor’s first experience at the movies. We took separate cars just in case Connor had a melt down in the theater. When he gets his picture taken, and he’s not in the mood to be “posey-boy” he planks (i.e. lies on the ground) whereever he is at. What I love about this moment, is that his cousins just joined him, and at that point, he became “posey-boy”. He loved The Muppets, and he made it through the whole thing. It was a great Thanksgiving day.

A new tradition we are starting as a family is picking out a real tree the day after Thanksgiving. We found a great farm just north of Pittsburgh called Allison’s Tree Farm. We love having it in our house and it was also a great day!

Connor and Ethan had a blast together.  Connor loved following Ethan around, and Ethan liked having a shadow.  Something about Ethan you must know: he has an obsession for Spiderman.  He wears his Spiderman costume EVERYWHERE.  When we were there we introduced him to Venom, and found some Venom, and Spiderman costumes at Walmart for under 3 bucks.  We couldn’t resist, and we dressed them up.  Of course Ethan was pretty much in one or the other all week.

Had to capture a moment with Granny.

I love this picture of Connor and Ethan in the Grocery Store.  And they were entertainment for us while we went shopping for makeup.

Of course there will be moments of frustration, and bossiness.  Connor is a great hitter.  I cannot stand it, but that is the stage he is in.  Ethan took it like a champ, and Jaclyn had a great attitude about it.

I still dont know what is up with Connor not wanting to share his bath with Ethan, but on the last night we made him.  I have a bath time pic with me and Jaclyn, so we had to do another one.  And I think its funny to see him so upset.

Okay, back to the good times.  The good times that will get you into trouble.  And here was the most popular one.  Ethan would gladly take Connors shoes and socks off so they could jump on the matress in Grandpas study.  Oh and what else would they do together?  Get all of Grandpa’s big books off the shelf and Connor would pile them on Ethans belly.  I caught that on tape.

Some great moments, on Grandpa’s chair: Ethan watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Connor with his Angry Birds.  Both in their new Cowboy boots.

On the last day at Jaclyn’s house.  Saying goodbye was hard.  We had so much fun.  The flight back was really horrible, but Connor did great.  I will never fly Delta again.  I will always fly Southwest, even if it means three layovers to get to Texas!

I have always loved Texas.  Growing up we would drive there at least every other year to visit my Grandparents.  I have great memories of those trips (of course not the travel part.)  The last time I have seen them was during our trek out to Pittsburgh.  We stopped there for a few days.  That was six years ago!  It was time to go back.

I had an extra bonus, my cousin lives there now too.  I am very fond of my cousin Jaclyn.  I have great memories of her growing up, and we lived together while going to school in Provo.  We both met our husbands while living together, and got married within a month of each other.  We have two boys, and it was just time to get them together.  I was super excited about this trip.

In the past six years, my Grandparents moved into a smaller house and closer to my Uncle Mike.  We got to see him a lot during our visit, and another bonus was that my mom flew too!  The week went by way to fast.  What did we do most of the time???  Eat ice cream, and play the best game made, Rook!  I was always Jaclyn’s partner, and we were unstoppable. (this of course depends on who you ask.)

Whats a trip to Texas without a Cowboys shirt, and some cowboy boots, and a hat?  Also, a trip to Cabela’s with Great Granpda, and some train conducting with Great Granny.

Here is Connor and me with my cousin and her family.  It was great to spend the week with them!

Connor with his Great Grandparents, giving them a laugh!

These boys together were a hoot! Still making a good time!

Us with Uncle Mike and Nancy.  It was great to meet Nancy and see Uncle Mike again. I think we resurrected his love for Rook.  It was fun to go to Cabela’s with them, and a great Texas Roadhouse.And lastly, I couldn’t go to Texas without the four generations of Marquette’s. Great visit.

I can’t believe two years have flown by. I feel like we are brand new parents playing guessing games every day. One thing for sure is that Connor is our little miracle and is super sweet. Even though I’m really super sad he’s no longer a baby, he is so much fun. I’m excited to see the kind of person this little boy will grow to be. But I’m not in any rush. These days need to slow down. Read More

This year we wanted to capture our family in this particular moment and time in our lives. When Connor was first born, we took him to Picture People in the mall, and we met a young photographer, Natalia Dove. She did a few photo sessions over that year at Picture People, and left the company to go freelance about a year ago. I knew I wanted to use her for a couple reasons. I loved all the pictures she did of Connor, and she was willing to go to any location we wanted to go to. Read More

Liz: What is ur password to get on ur desktop so I can iChat with my mom!!!!!

Liz: I hate ur passwords

Liz: Nobody cares or is ever in our study

Liz: It’s only annoying!!!

Todd: It’s your gmail password

Liz: Grrrrr

The girls I work with are walking around the Salon saying, “punkin” this and “punkin” that. Even my boss.  Please people, lets all say it together, ” Pumpkin!”

This year our pumpkin patch experience was very different from last years…. THE SUN WAS OUT! You would have thought we were still in Florida, if it wasn’t for the change in the leaves. This time of year makes me LOVE Pittsburgh.  It is such a festive place to live.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas is just so awesome here.  It isn’t until its January that I start getting grumpy. When the snow really starts coming, nobody is out plowing, and I wish for about a month I still had my Jeep with the 4 wheel drive.

As the years go by I find myself getting more and more excited about Halloween.  It is awesome! Of course, its Buffy’s only night off, so Im glad for her. She deserves to rest her feet. Our Wonder Pets outfits are complete.  I actually thought it would be harder then it was.  We know the Halloween parties we will be going too, and all the girls get daily reminders from me at work that they HAVE to dress up.

We visit Simmons Farm a couple of times a year.  Pumpkin picking is one of those times.  It was super duper crowded, people were bumping into us, and invading our personal space. (Todd’s personal space is larger than mine by the way.) So we were just about over the edge when we come out of our first corn maze and this man is right behind us ease dropping on our conversation.  Many thoughts are entering out head, and just as we completed them we realize its Todd’s brother Cal! It was awesome to pick some pumpkins with his family.  And it was super awesome that two of their kids helped Connor through the kiddy corn maze.

Here is the crew of kiddos.  With their pumpkins picked and ready to get out of the heat.  Great day.  Let the festivities begin!

And we return to Busch Gardens. I know Liz explained it to me several times, but I still don’t understand how we got a second day free. Regardless, we did. Huzzah!

The second day was more about the adults. Busch Gardens has an awesome, I don’t know what to call it… a feature– “Child Swap”. They let one parent wait in line, while the other stays out with the kid(s). Once the one parent rides the ride, they get a card that let’s the other parent skip the queue and ride the ride. Awesome! Take note other parks– this is a must. We took advantage of this several times throughout the day.

We found these airplanes for kids. The attendant let Connor and his friend fly unattended. She loved it. Smiling. Posing. Charming. Connor, on the other hand, hated every second of it. He gave everyone stink eye. Whined. Disinterested. At one point it looked as though he was trying to gag himself in an effort to get out of the plane. Hilarious.

The man who drew Connor’s portrait happened to have a connection to us. He was from Pittsburgh! He graduated from the Art Institute here. He did his first caricatures here in Kennywood. Now he’s the art director for Busch Gardens there.

The park was a little slow, bad for them good for us. Lines were under 15 minutes. Then there was the rain storm in the afternoon. It’s as if Mr. Weather knew Connor needed a nap. So for the duration of his nap, the park shut down due to weather. When he woke up, the park resumed, but with even less people. Lines were so short we could essentially stay on the coasters and ride multiple times in a row. We rode so many rides! By the end of the day, I couldn’t even look at a coaster. That’s when you know you’ve spent a great day at the park.