The weather outside is frightful!

I guess that depends on your point of view. If you are driving a front wheel drive van that keeps getting stuck in the driveway or on the hill leading up to the house then the weather is frightful. I am glad that Dad and Spencer have vehicles that are capable of towing our van because we needed it more times than I care to remember. Alan thought it was great when we got towed because it reminded him of "Cars" (his favorite movie). However if you just want to go out and play in the snow then the weather is great! We tried to make a snow man but the snow was too dry so it turned into a snow ball fight!!
Dad took us toboganning behind his jeep. He pulled Reed and Alan around by the house and then they went down the hill.

Here are Conner and Grandma enjoying some chilly fresh air.

Family snow photo.

This is the first time I have tried to post a video. Hope it works. Alan and James were ganging up on Reed.

Visiting Santa

We took Alan to the local zoo here to see Santa. He was really excited with the idea. When he saw Santa he went running up to him and stopped about three feet in front of him and just started talking. He wasn't shy at all until I tried to get Alan to sit on Santa's lap for a picture and then he didn't want to get too close. He finally stood next to him for a picture. When Santa asked Alan what he wanted for Christmas Alan said: "An egg". That didn't seem to phase Santa who said "Okay". Alan was refering to a kinder surprise chocolate egg, in case you were wondering.

Let it Snow!

A couple of weeks ago Alan and I read a book called "The first snowfall". Ever since then he has been waiting for it to snow. It snowed last night and this morning when Alan woke up he was so excited. He dragged me out of my room this morning so that we could look out the window together and he could tell me all the things that are covered with snow. Then I put his cold weather clothes on and he went outside to help Reed shovel and brush the cars off. Then Alan found a frisbee and he and Reed played frisbee in the snow. They had so much fun together! Then Alan came in and I gave him some hot chocolate because that is what the girl in the story does to warm up. Alan thoroughly loved the whole experience - he was even excited that his cheeks were red (because that happened to the girl in the story too). The only thing we missed was seeing a pink snow plow (the snow plow in the book is pink). We told Alan that there are no pink snow plows around here but I don't think he believed us.

Talkative Alan

Alan was talking to Grandma and Grandpa Bassett tonight on the phone and this is how the conversation went (I can't remember exactly what he said but this is the gist of it):
Alan: "Hi. My balloon popped. Yeah, yeah, my balloon floated up to the ceiling and then it popped and I cried." [this event happened 3 months ago at Walmart and he still talks about it all the time, I think it traumatized him. A nice lady gave him a pink helium balloon and I tied it to his wrist. Apparently I didn't tie it tight enough because while we were standing in the check out line I saw out of the corner of my eye the balloon float away. Alan just stared at it as it went higher and higher and when it hit the ceiling it popped and Alan let out a blood-curdling shriek and then he buried his face in my legs and started to sob. He screamed so loud that all the check out people and customers for several aisles on either side went silent and stared at us.]
The next thing he said surprised Reed and I:
Alan: "You live far away and James (his cousin who lives in Kansas City) lives far away. You both live far away and we have to drive for a long time. We drove for a long time in Daddy's car to see you and I had to go potty but mom and dad said no. Mom and dad said it was okay for me to go potty in my diaper, so I did." [At this point Reed and I busted up laughing. Confession time - when we were travelling back from our visit to Canada last month we were stopped in a long line at the border. Alan chose this moment to announce that he needed to go potty. The line was pretty long so we just told Alan that he would have to wait or that he could just go in his pull-up. Well, he is potty trained so he was pretty resistant to that idea but finally he got desperate and went.]
Alan has never talked about that before and it happened more than a month ago. I had no idea he still remembered it. I have a feeling that won't be the last time that Alan announces things over the phone that we didn't expect.

For Thanksgiving we went to the church with several other families and had a big pot luck dinner. There was so much food! It was all yummy. Then we cleaned up and played games for the rest of the day. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I forgot to bring our camera to take pictures.

Updates

Conner had his 6 month check-up a couple of weeks ago. He is doing very well. Here are his stats:
weight: 16 lbs. 9 oz. (30th percentile)
height: 28 inches (90th percentile)
Conner is starting to sit up really well. He can sit for several minutes but he does occasionally fall over. In the past week his lower two front teeth have come in (you can kind of see one tooth in the picture below if you look close). We have continued to introduce him to veggies, which has been fun. We have found that Conner likes squash, sweet potatoes, and peas. He absolutely does not like carrots which Reed and I thought was strange since carrots are one of our favorite veggies. Tonight we are going to give him some green beans for the first time. In other exciting news Conner is now sleeping through the night - from 7 pm to 6 pm. It is so nice to get a solid 7 or 8 hours of sleep at night.

Reed is working half days on Saturdays from now until Christmas. When he isn't working he has been winterizing our yard by raking up the leaves. Alan usually helps him. In the picture below Reed asked Alan to take a picture. It turned out pretty good.

Alan laying in the leaf pile that Reed made.

Squash, anyone?

We started Conner on rice cereal while we were on our trip up to Canada. He was not a huge fan. I thought maybe he would like it better with veggies but the pictures below show his reaction to his first taste of squash. I think the pictures say it all.
I don't think any of it ended up in his mouth. However after 3 or 4 days he warmed up to it and now he seems to like it.

Halloween

I am glad Halloween was last week and not this week. Last week we had beautiful weather...it was so warm that Alan didn't need to wear a coat for part of the time. Today has been windy and cold and cloudy. For FHE before Halloween we went to our zoo's Spooktacular. They had hundreds of lit jack-o-lanterns and they had all of the zoo staff dressed up as characters from movies (Batman, Indiana Jones, Winnie the Pooh....) They had a couple of scary things too - a life size Frankenstein that was writhing on a table. We tried to get close to it but Alan froze about 20 feet away, stared at it, and then he turned and kept walking without looking at it again. They also had a dinosaur dig where Alan found a fossil and at the end he got a big cup full of candy. Alan tried to just take one piece of candy out of the cup and he was surprised and delighted that the lady gave him the whole cup full. Also at the zoo they had several of the characters that you could pose with (see the next 3 pictures).

Alan got right in there with his spoon to clean out the pumpkin. He told us he wanted a "not scary" face so we made one happy face pumpkin and one kind of scary face pumpkin.
Our happy pumpkin.
Alan was very excited to light the pumpkins and put them outside.
This year Alan was a knight in shining armor. He wanted to be a monkey but he also wanted a sword so I convinced him to be a knight with a sword because I couldn't find a decently priced monkey costume and I didn't know how to make one.
Conner dressed up in a little Japanese suit. I took both boys trick-or-treating down main street and then Reed took Alan trick-or-treating around a block with one of Alan's friends.
Alan loves his candy. He is very good about sharing though. Reed or I can ask for almost anything in his candy and he will just hand it over, no problem.

Canada Trip

Warning: this is a LONG post with lots of pictures.

We went up to Canada to visit my family for Canadian Thanksgiving (we actually celebrated Thanksgiving on a different day so that we could be there). We left on a Friday afternoon and made it to Mom and Dad Bassett's house that night. We got to visit with them and Austin and Mindy the next morning, then we finished the drive on Saturday afternoon. The boys travelled SO well!! I was so excited. Here is a break down of what we did and pictures to go with it:

Sunday - went to church and visited with my parents and Grandma and Grandpa Elzea

Monday - My Grandma Pitcher passed away last month and we didn't make it up for the funeral. We visited my Grandpa Pitcher and talked for a while and then he showed us Grandma's grave site and marker. She was sure a great grandma and I miss her. That night my brother Reed and his girlfriend Jodie arrived. They have been in Australia for the last year. It was so good to see them again! They got to see Conner for the first time and Alan took a special liking to Reed. Alan spent a lot of time playing with Reed and admiring the scabs and marks Reed has on his leg from his motorcycle accident.
Tuesday - I can't remember what we did that day...Mom, Dad, any reminders?

Below - Alan is trying to use the boulder catapult to knock over the men before my dad can make the men charge the castle.

Cute picture of my Dad and Conner.

Wednesday - we celebrated Thanksgiving with a huge feast. Yummy!!! Conner got to try out the Jolly Jumper while we were in Canada and he seemed to enjoy himself.


I love this picture. It looks like the boys are dancing and Conner's smile is so cute.

Thurday - was a busy day! In the morning we went to the temple. Thanks again mom and dad for watching the boys so we could go. We had a picnic lunch afterward which was fun even though it was a little chilly. Then we drove back to Lethbridge and went swimming at the Ramada with my cousin Janae and her triplet girls (who are the same age as Alan). We had a blast!! For the first hour or so we had the pool to ourselves. The kids had fun pushing the tubes around in the water and then we took the kids down the water slides. They all seemed to enjoy that.

After that we went home, had dinner and then headed off to the fire station. Since Alan loves fire trucks my parents arranged with Dave, a family friend who is a paramedic and fire fighter, to take us on a tour of the fire station. Alan got to sit in the driver seat of the fire truck, with the lights flashing, which he thought was the best. Dave showed us the fire fighters equipment, which Reed and I thought was really interesting. Alan got to sit in the back of the ambulance and have his heart monitored. Dave showed Alan all of the different hoses and he even let Alan spray water on the drive way with the smallest hose (normally used for putting out grass fires). Reed and I learned a lot of cool facts about fire fighters and their equipment and Alan had the time of his life, being so close to the big trucks.


Friday - I visited with my friend Heather, who had brought her twin boys home to celebrate their first birthday. It was nice to visit and get caught up. I missed seeing my other friend Deanna, because she moved to Edmonton :( Then that night Reed and my Dad took Alan swimming. They have a really nice little pool there that Alan can wade around in.

Saturday - we said goodbye and left early in the morning and made it to Mom and Dad Bassett's house in time to go to their ward halloween party. We were glad to visit with them, even though it was a short visit.

Sunday - went to sacrament meetingand then drove home.

I can't tell you how nice it was to take a break and visit with everyone!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Before we left on our trip to Canada we made dinner-in-a-pumpkin. Yummy!!! First we had to gut the pumpkin though. The expression on Alan's face in the picture below might be hard to make out, so in case you are wondering, it is disgust. He touched the pumpkin guts at first but then he wanted a spoon.

Cheers! Here we are enjoying the meal!

Here is how Conner entertained himself during the meal - pulling Daddy's hair. He had a very tight hold!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Unfortunately, I got sick with the stomach flu last night and I am still not feeling very good. Poor Alan has been watching so much tv today because I don't have the energy to do anything else. We are driving up to Canada on Friday and Saturday so as long as I am better by then and no one else gets sick I will be happy. I am so excited to go.

On Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. Reed and I had a lot of fun but it was pretty cold so Alan was done pretty quick. He told me his hands were cold and then he went sprinting back to the van after a couple of minutes.

We found one pumpkin for eating and now Alan asks everyday if he can eat it. We will see if we get to it before we leave. I can't think of anything else that has happened in the last month...oh well.

Conner's 4 month check-up

Conner had his 4 month doctor's appointment about a month ago. He is doing very well. Here are his stats:

Height: 27 1/4 inches

percentile: 97%

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz.

percentile: 50%

The doctor suggested giving him more tummy time. He absolutely hates to be on his tummy and now that he can roll over he doesn't get much tummy time - little stinker. Oh well.

All about Reed and Carissa

So, there isn't much to write about us but here is a quick update. I got sick with a sore throat last Thursday. I thought it would go away by itself but it just got worse. I was pretty miserable. On Monday I went to the doctor and he took one look at my throat and said he needed a culture. Ten minutes later he announced that I had strep throat. He gave me some antibiotics and I am feeling great now.

On Sunday our ward made a bunch of changes. I was changed from the 2nd councelor in the Y.W. to the 1st councelor - no big change. Reed was the 2nd counselor in the Y.M. and he was released and called as the Elder's Quorum President. We were both pretty surprised but we are getting used to the idea. That's it for now. Have a great week.

All about Alan

As you can tell this blog is all about Alan. Alan has pretty good language skills so he keeps us laughing with some of the things he come up with.
Funny Phrases:

"Are you happy?" - He asks this dozens of times a day, usually when I am starting to show my frustration. He will keep asking it until he gets the answer he wants (that I am happy)


"Of course.." He says this phrase a lot. "Of course I want to talk to daddy on the phone" or "of course I want to go outside".


"Didja know Jesus turned on the rain?" - we were driving in the car and it started raining and he just said that out of the blue.


Reed: You sure love your momma, huh?
Alan: Yeah, she's my favorite.


When we were all together with Reed's family this happened. Alan wanted a sucker so he asked me for one and I said "no". So then he asked Reed and he said the same thing. Then he went around the circle and asked all of his aunts and uncles and his grandma and grandpa for a sucker. All of them said no. Then he walked back over to Grandma, who was holding Conner, and said "I want to ask Conner for a sucker. He'll say yes."


This happened when I had been gone for the girl's weekend for a couple of days and Reed and Alan were sitting at the table at home. Alan was making a grocery list.
Alan: "Milk, what else? Water, what else? Mommy, what else?"
Reed: "Do you think we are going to pick Mommy up at the store?"
Alan: "Yes."


The pictures below are a good example of him saying "Of course!" I tried to take his picture and he covered his face and wouldn't put his hands down so I said fine and started to walk away. Alan lowered his hands and yelled "Oh course I want my picture taken!" The tone of his voice suggested that that should have been obvious.

Alan loves to swim. He is my little fish. He doesn't have much fear of the water so we have to be careful but I love how he is so daring in the water.

Alan loves his brother. He can usually get Conner to smile big and he will go find him toys when he is fussy. He is a little rough with him so we still have to watch him carefully. I think Alan is having a hard time waiting for someone he can wrestle with, because he keeps trying it with Conner. Luckily Conner usually doesn't mind (but I do).

All about Conner

This blog is all about Conner. Most of the pictures are from the girls weekend so he is about 3 months old in the pictures. Conner is more snuggly than Alan was as a baby.

Conner had just finished eating and he was making this face, even though he was asleep.

Conner, future Olympic skier

Conner is a VERY smiley, happy baby. Most of the time.

Unfortunately the girl's weekend kind of threw him off his sleeping schedule. When we got home he decided he needed to be nursed to sleep every time he woke up at night (3 times a night or every 2 or 3 hours). I wasn't impressed. So we started to put him in his bed when he was drowsy, but still awake. He was so mad! He screamed for a good portion of the first night and he is still waking up a few times a night but he just cries for a little bit and then he goes back to sleep. It will be nice when he sleeps for longer at night. Below is a picture of 4 month old Conner. I think he looks like he is pondering/dreaming of ways to keep his parents awake at night.