Camping Surprises!

I know Josh works hard for our family and unlike him I am not always the best at telliung him how much I appreciate him. Josh tells me just about everyday how much he appreciates me in gereneral and for specific things. I am so blessed to haev such a great husband who knows how to voice his appreciaion. To help show him my appreciate and also help him relax I thought I would take him camping. Since if I just told him he would probably remember all the things he needs to do on the long do to list that never seems to get any shorter. I though I should surprise him. So I typed up a little note with a few little details about his surprise and count out numbers for the count down. Well my little note and count down had him excitedly anticipated. Getting everything ready for camping by myself with Landon around most of the time, luckily for me Josh normally takes him with him to work half the day on Fridays so I had a little time before we left to get the last minute things ready. We still got there a little later than I had planned so it was fairly dark the time change was not helping the early darkness.
Either way we got there I remembered almost everything, forgot the air mattress pump (not the best when you are sleeping on a dirt cold ground in a tent!) Other than sleep it was great! Josh was so surprised and really loved the trip! We had hambugers and potatoes cooked on the open grill. I brought fire wood from our huge stash a home and we had a nice fire afterward to warm up by and cook s'mores on. The next day, we all had breakfast. We went for a couple of different walks and went fishing. We had lunch at the camp site. We were hoping for some fresh caught fish like last time we went to Manatee Springs but the fish just didn't seem that interested in being caught. Landon loved being about to be outside all day.

The Count Down





It was a "little" dark when we got the tent set up. It was great though because without knowing it I booking the same site we had last April (I think is when we came last) and we loved that site.


Landon enjoying grilling with Daddy
I really think he will be a great cook when he gros up and love it at least as much as his Daddy


One of Landon's new skills- blowing
He was helping daddy get the fire going



The best- outside digging in the dirt with PJs


Playing on the playground



Watching Daddy fish
"Did you catch anything Daddy!?"


I get to help too!


Fishing tuckered this little guy out he didn't even make it back on the short walk from the dock to the site


I am rested now and on the move



OK, we are back and ready to go Mom-Mom (Thats what he calls me)!

Frustrated!

So for the past week and a half I have been having fairly sever pain in the joint in my hands and wrist. Before that, this may be irrelevant but I mention it to the doc, my left arm was sore, somewhat painful (only in the upper part of my arm) and numb. THis went on for 3 day and then the pain in my hands started. After 3 days of the pain in the joints of my hands I went the Doc to see what was the matter. The doc was confused by what it could be after talking to me and doing some minor pressure test. She set me up to have my blood drawn and x-rays of my hands. Did that and today I had my follow up appointment. Doc is still confused about my hands. So after waiting for almost 30 mins for him to find the results and the nurses claiming to be too busy at the moment to help him I found out the results. All the test came back negative. So he told me to take Tylenol twice a day for 2-4 weeks to see if that helped. What does that help with me finding out what is wrong? It is just so frustrating to me because I don't really care about the pain although some days it is really bad, I went to the doc to find out WHY I was having the pain and that is what I care about. I don't see how taking Tylenol for 2 weeks will help him decide what is wrong with my hands. I think it is just an easy way for him to be done with me for the time being.

Any suggestions on what is wrong with me??

Happy Halloween! Go Gators!

Landon and I dressed up for the Fall Festival at Harvest. I was a spider web, I had a spider on my face and shoulder. Landon was a handy man.





We had a lot of fun playing games and square dancing! There was a salsa competition, Josh got to be a judge. I didn't try all of them because I don't do to well with spicy stuff but there was was really great salsas!




Playing with Daddy in the bounce house

Zach, so adorable!

Trying to dunk our pastor Charlie I think was the big hit of the night!



My handy man


Yummy cotton candy!


Trying out all the salsas and chowing down on hot dogs




Halloween day we had a few people for the Gator game against Georgia. Josh made a ton of meat which was very yummy! The adults watched the game, watched Josh cook and/or ate the ton of food we had. The kids all played, mostly outside and in the room with the cats. All and all it was a fun weekend! (Not pictured is Victoria and Jeff, I forgot to get out the camera while they were around, sorry guys) We loved having everyone over!

By the way GO GATORS! Great job on another win!

Landon trying to fill some "big shoes" (Nate's flip flops)


The kids playing with the cats and cars


watching the game

Learning, talking and on the move at 13 months!

This past month and a half has flown by. I just can’t put into words how much I love Landon and enjoy our time together! I always thought I would like this age but I had no idea how great it would be when it was my own little boy. We have so much fun!

He is saying a lot of new words. I can’t wait until he can talk to me!

Her is a list of the words I remembered hs can say…

Dada some times daddy

Mom

Landon (sounds a little like Andan)

Cat

Book

Bubble (the “l” sounds is a little weak but it is clear what he is saying to me and Josh at least)

Pebble

Bath

Outside (which sounds like aaside)

Dog

God

Basket (sounds more like basshek)

Glasses (sounds like galsses)

Tonight on the way home from the Fall Festival he tried saying paprika (it was really close too!)

He can make noise for he animals too

Cars and trucks- vvvrrrm

Cow- moomoo

Sheep and goat- baabaa

Lion, gator- grrrrr

Some of the cool things he does

I love that he gives hugs and kisses. He will bring things to people when you ask most of the time. He loves animals, toy ones, pictures of ones, real ones- big and small. He calls the animals by making kissing noises and rubs his fingers together, which is has done for at least 3 months but I just think that is the cutest thing! He LOVES to climb on everything. His new favorite is the couch, and his big and little rocking chairs. He loves playing with other kids and get so excited about playing with them. When I tell him we are going to play with friends he starts bouncing up and down and signs “play.”

He recognizes a ton of words, most of the face parts, some body parts, some colors, specific animals, specific toys and the different rooms in the house.

Once of his favorite toys- his farm



He favorite place- outside!


He loves getting Mommy's glasses and will wear them if I let him play with them. Thankfully hs is very gentle with them.



Playing with his friend Lexi


Mowing the lawn



Landon loves helping Dad. One of the recent projects was redoing our fence and painting the front door. The fence just needs a new coat of paint.


Before




Almost done







Bath time is one of Landon's favorites. His new thing when he takes a shower with Dad is having dad name everything. I secretly got a few minutes on video.




Bourbon loves eating stick and sometimes Landon will share the ones his finds





Daddy caught this video with Landon

Chop Sticks (A few week ago)

Landon loves stick of any kind or anything that resembles a stick. While outside he like to take the stick and stab the leaves until he has several leaf and then he dances around with the stick so that all the leaves fall off. Once he is done with that he goes back to the leaves and tries to pick them up with the stick through the same little hole he first stabbed them with. He is very accurate about 8-% of the time.

Landon also has been successfully feeding himself with real folks (the small ones). He does a great job most of the time stabbing the food and getting it into his mouth. Since Josh and I eat with chop stick on a regular basis compared to most Americans I know, and Landon begs to have one as well we though we would let him try with just one. He really good, he would use the one to stab the food and put it in to his mouth. That is actually what started us giving him a real fork instead of the baby plastic ones. Well, after getting an email of a 2 or 3 year old little girl eating with chop stick I though, why not Landon try and see what he can do. So I got out the camera and took some pictures of his first day with 2 chop sticks

Well as you can see, He can eat with chop sticks and almost does it the right way! We as shock and so proud! I know a lot of adults who can’t even mange to pick up stuff with chop stick and here is my little 1 year old doing it and getting it in his mouth (only about 50% but still!). I think God knew this little guy was going to be spending a lot of time in Asia!

A hard working boy

Landon is practicing at helping Daddy around the house and church. While Josh was setting up for our Thailand Fellowship Dinner tomorrow (at 6pm at Harvest Christian Church for anyone who would like to experience some Thai food recipes straight from Tassesse herself!)
Landon wanted to help make the church look beautiful by mowing the lawn.

I can't believe he is growing up so fast. He is just so big! I lvoe this age but it is just going by too fast. It makes me sad when I took this video but had a huge smile on my face the whole time

My lucky Gator boy

This was taken about a month ago but it took them a while to get the pictures in.

Landon had the privilege to meet some very pretty and sweet Gator cheerleaders, who thought he was the cutest thing. Plus he met Albert and Alberta.

Olan Mills and Belks (or whatever department store Olan Mills is in) was doing some type of special where if you came in during a certain hour you could have your picture taken with them and have a free 8x10. Landon and I joined a LOT of others (mostly moms like me with there children) to stand in line. It wasn't too bad, Chic-fil-A was there giving free chicken nuggets and coupons for free food and the cheerleaders were handing out calendars and posters.

I was happy because I got the free 8x10 and Landon really enjoyed all the attention.

Happy Autumn!!

Landon enjoying the joys of Autumn



Playing with his pal, Bourbon




Checking out the hundreds of pumpkins at a local church's pumpkin patch