A sledding we will go

My parents gave us a blow up tube that was intended for the snow so we decided to try it out on Christmas day. Unfortunately it only lasted 2 runs before it got a hole in it. Luckily my parents still have their old toboggan that we used as kids.

My brother Reed going down with his dog, Ace.

My parents going down. You had to slow yourself down because at the bottom of the hill was a bare trail and we didn't want to sled over it.

Reed and Conner on tube.

Alan and I on the tube

I thought Conner looked so funny in all of his cold weather gear: boots, snow pants, mittens, coat and hat. It was hard for him to move around and after he fell down he couldn't get back up!
It was nice day to play outside because it wasn't too cold. After we were done we came home and started a fire in the fireplace so that we could all get cozy warm again. Both of the boys really liked playing in the snow. Alan liked to make snow balls and throw them and Conner liked to stomp in the snow and look at his foot prints. While we were in Canada Alan also got to make a snowman, something he has been wanting to do for quite a while.

Santa Came!

This year Santa found us at my parents house. We all received a lot of presents, especially the boys.
On Christmas morning the boys woke us up at 6:30 am. We waited for a few minutes for Grandma and Grandpa to wake up and then we went down stairs. Here are some pictures of the boys opening their stockings:

Alan received a Lightning McQueen umbrella in his stocking and he was thrilled. That was the only thing he asked Santa for.

Conner probably thinking "What's in here?"

Alan and Conner received matching little chairs from my parents. It was so cute to see them relax in them.

Alan showing his excitement that he found a Kinder Surprise egg in his stocking.

Conner received an ambulance that lights up and makes noises from Santa. He was pretty happy about that.

Alan got a race track with cars that you shake up to make them go. Both of the boys had fun with that.

Alan was especially eager and efficient at opening presents this year.

Conner was a little slower about unwrapping things but he seemed to enjoy ripping the paper off.

Conner was very interested in the cameras. He wanted to take pictures, not have pictures taken of him.

As you can see we were all spoiled. Reed and I have really enjoyed watching the boys get excited about Christmas. Alan especially is old enough to anticipate what is coming and his enthusiasm is contagious.
These last few pictures were on Christmas Eve. That night we went to the live Nativity that the stake puts on every year. We were kind of late so we didn't get good seats but the boys seemed impressed when they saw the angel appear on the Stake Center roof. Then we went home and had dinner and my parents gave the boys some new pajamas.

This was just a cute picture of Reed and Conner

Here is Conner driving his car on Ace's head. Ace was busy eating a bone so Conner became very brave around him. He kept piling toys in front of Ace, and Conner finally ended up laying down and using Ace as a pillow. It was pretty funny.

Santa reactions

This year visiting Santa brought mixed reactions: pure excitement for Alan and terror for Conner. We went to our ward Christmas party and at the end of the night jolly old St. Nick walked in. Alan's eyes got so wide and then he got this huge smile on his face. He was so excited he kept bouncing all over and when it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap he was so excited that Santa had a hard time getting him to sit on his lap. I wasn't close enough to hear what they said but when ever anyone asks Alan what he wants from Santa he always says "a gorilla". He means an umbrella, a Lightning McQueen umbrella to be exact.

I had hoped that if Conner watched Alan sit on Santa's lap he might be okay with doing that too. No such luck. I set him on Santa's lap and he gave him a look that said "Who on earth are you?" and started to cry and arch his back.

Let it Snow!

The weather outside is frightful, but it has nothing to do with the snow, it has to do with the temperature. This morning when I woke up it was -39 degrees outside with the wind chill. Brrr!!! This weekend we had our first real snow of the winter.
From the picture below you can tell what Alan's feelings about the storm were.
Alan has been asking me for over a month "When is it going to snow?". We bought him a snow shovel that is his size and I think that is the greatest toy he could have. He was SO excited to go and shovel our driveway.
As I watched him get so excited about snow this year I remembered his first reaction to snow when he was about 22 months old. He walked to the window and after surveying the snow covering everything and said "A mess". He didn't love snow then but he sure does now!

Pre Thanksgiving visit

Alan was playing the piano and after he played the lowest note he said "What is that grumpy note for?"

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bassett the week before Thanksgiving. We had fun doing projects and just hanging out. We also went to their ward Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious, although our kids had had it by the middle of the meal.
Below Grandma and Grandpa are playing Jenga with Alan. Alan caught on to the game quickly and he was pretty good at it.Alan helped Grandma make some pie crust snacks with cinnamon and sugar on them.
Conner was so tired before church that he fell asleep while Grandma read him and Alan a story

Thanksgiving

Before Thanksgiving this year we had a Family Home Evening lesson about being thankful. Then we all made feathers to put on our turkey of things we were thankful for (these lists are not all inclusive).
I am thankful for: Mountains, A loving husband who works so hard to provide for our family, Indoor plumbing, Magic kisses from Alan and closed mouth kisses from Conner.

Alan is thankful for: Health and Strength, My 2 grandmas and grandpas, Scones, Day time

Conner is thankful for: Yogurt, Big trucks, Marshmallows, Mom and Dad (I helped him with his)

Reed is thankful for: Treats, Friends, Our house, Alan and Conner and I

For Thanksgiving this year we went over to the church and had dinner with 2 other couples. It was so nice to not have to cook everything and after we ate we let the kids run around in the gym while the adults played the Farming Game. My brother Reed met us there after dinner. That night we examined the black Friday adds and planned out where to go. Conner gave Reed and I an early start on the day by waking up at 2 am and staying awake until 4 am. Then my husband and brother went out to get in on all the crazy action. They got some good deals and came home so that Reed could get ready for work. Then Reed (my brother) and I did a little shopping - Reed was a huge help with the boys. That night we went to eat at the Golden Corral. Luckily my brother got there before a huge bus arrived and saved us a place in line. Here we are spending the night together.

It was really fun to have Reed come and visit - the boys loved it and so did we!

Conner's well child check up

I took Conner in for his 18 month check up last week. Here are his stats:
Weight: 23lbs 23rd percentile
Height: 33 1/2 inches 80th percentile
Head: 50 1/2 cm 98th percentile

Besides an ear infection that they discovered he is a healthy, active little boy. Here are some facts about Conner:
--Words he can say: mama, dada, uh-oh, all-done, hi, truck, ball, dog
--Words he can sign: all-done, more, milk, please, thank-you
So his speech is very normal for his age. I have to keep reminding myself of that because Alan spoke so much earlier and more at this age. Sometimes it is hard to remember that Alan was the unusual one, not Conner.
--Conner is very affectionate. Earlier this week Reed came home after a rough day at work. When Conner saw him he ran over to Reed and when Reed picked him up he gave him a big kiss and then he snuggled his head on Reed's shoulder and gave him a hug. It was very cute.
--Conner is fairly brave around animals, especially dogs. He doesn't mind being licked and he likes to pet dogs.
--When Conner is done eating something he dumps his plate on the floor...every time.
--Conner loves nursery. There was no crying when we dropped him off. I had opened the door a crack and then stopped to talk to someone...well, Conner didn't want to wait. He yanked the door open so that he could get in and then he grabbed the first toy that he saw and never looked back to see if I was still there. We have taken him a few times before this and he did great. About a month ago we were walking the halls with him and when he came to the nursery door he started banging on it and crying (I interpreted that as "Let me in!")
--He has the cutest laugh ever and it is easy to make him laugh.
--He loves to do anything that his brother is doing.
--He loves to hide things. I often find his toy dog stuffed in the compartment of his push toy. One day Reed let Conner play with his keys and then when we went to find them the next day they had disappeared. I looked and looked for an hour and a half. I was so frustrated. Then I had the idea to look in the garbage and there they were, at the bottom of the bin. Crazy boy.
Conner showing off his dance moves.

New Windows

The windows in our house are very old and drafty. The window in the boys room was especially bad - when the wind blew it rattled noisily and you could see the curtains move in the breeze, even though the window was closed. So we replaced 3 upstairs windows and one downstairs window. They look so much better now. The top picture is a sample of the windows before and the one below is one of the new windows. The pictures don't do it justice.

Alan was SO excited to have the guys come and fix the windows. He looked like he had springs attached to the bottom of his feet because he kept bouncing all over. Two of the guys were very friendly and understanding and they answered all of Alan questions (which was a lot) and they even let him help throw the old wood pieces out the window.

Delayed Pictures

Here are a few pictures that we took a while ago but haven't posted.

While my parents were here a while ago we all went bowling. We haven't been for a while so that was a lot of fun.

Alan rolling the ball.

Here is my dad helping Conner roll the ball.

He got so excited when he rolled the ball.

Also when my parents were here we went to a corn maze. It was kind of cold but they had a lot of fun activities. They had a few small mazes, a big slide, duck races, a cow ride and 2 big corn mazes.

My dad and Alan coming down the big slide.

Conner and I on the cow ride. A tractor pulled some barrels that they had turned into cows.

We also went to a buffalo jump. Here is Alan inside one of the teepees.

Here is a picture of the day we officially got our house.
Reed carrying me across the threshold of our brand new house.

Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween. The weekend that we moved into our house my parents stayed with us and while they were here they made a Halloween gingerbread house with Alan. Alan LOVED decorating it. That kind of started our new house off with the feel of Halloween in the air.

Here is Mom and Alan with their masterpiece.

This year we almost forgot about carving a pumpkin. We didn't do it until late on Halloween afternoon.

Alan showing what he thought of scooping out the pumpkin guts. He didn't want to get his hands dirty. Conner touched a seed and then made a disgusted face and wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin after that.

Alan and Conner standing next to the finished product. Alan wanted a happy face pumpkin again this year so that is what he got.

This year Alan wanted to be a race car so I taped together some boxes. Alan really wanted to be a pink race car but we told him we couldn't find any pink spray paint so he had to choose another color. He finally told me he wanted to be the mean car that knocks the other cars off the race track on the movie Cars. So he is a green car. The spray paint wasn't really working so I covered the boxes in green duck tape. It turned out pretty good.

Conner was a turtle (a friend gave us the costume). He didn't mind wearing it but he didn't like the hood.

Alan with his friend Alex. I thought Alex's robot costume was pretty cool - it had glowing lights and everything.

We went trick-or-treating downtown at all the stores on Friday afternoon. Then that night Alan and I went to our ward trunk or treat (Conner had a melt down before we left so he stayed home with Reed and went to bed early). On Saturday night we took the boys around the block with Alex and his parents. Then we went home and watched a movie and handed out candy to all the other trick or treaters.

Alan showing off his loot.

Conner loved the suckers - he is happy with one in each hand

Now I am debating whether to give them all the candy at once and be done with it or just give them a few pieces per day.

Plumbing Problems

We officially moved into our new house last Saturday but the house gave us a very rude welcome: the plumbing was not working well. We had VERY low water pressure (it took 20 minutes to fill the tub for the boys bath). Also any time we used very much water (the dishwasher or took a shower) the sewer backed up into our basement. We survived like that until Monday morning when I called the city. For the last month the city has been doing construction on our road putting in a new water line. So I told them about our pressure problem and they came to look at it. After a few visits from city workers and plumbers they dug up the street where our water line connected (they hadn't paved it yet) and flushed out our pipes. I guess some rocks got lodged in there and that was why we had no pressure. So thankfully we didn't have to pay for that.

Over the couple of days that it took to solve that problem I noticed that our sewer problem was getting worse. I asked the city if they thought our sewer problems and their construction were related and they said no. So I called a drain cleaning service and they sent someone on Wednesday morning. So began a roller coaster ride. After a while the drain guy told me he had bad news - he had found mud in our pipes which meant that our sewer pipe was broken somewhere. That was disappointing news to say the least. The drain guy said he would put his camera down the pipe and try to locate the break. He spent the next hour and a half trying to find where our sewer line went outside. He finally called in some help and they tried for a while and still couldn't find our sewer line. Finally they sent there camera back down the pipe and they stood outside and found the camera's signal. Then they came and told me they had good news - they had found our pipe and our pipe went out into the street where the city had been doing construction (implying that the city probably broke it so they would need to fix it). They said that all of the city records show our sewer line running north toward the alley, but they found the signal south of our house, in the street. Immediately my hopes soared - the city would fix it! As I was paying the guy I hear over his walkie talkie a guy say "Well, the city still says the pipe runs to the alley" and I realized that this might not be so easy. About an hour later the drain service secretary called and said that all of the maps showed our sewer line running north and she thought maybe the workers were wrong - another low dip in the roller coaster. Then a while later they called back and said that their boss had looked at the data and he agreed with their find - our pipe ran south to the road. They said the problem was that the city still maintained that the drain guys were wrong. I think the drain guys and the city spent the rest of the afternoon saying
drain guys: "It goes to the street"
city: "No, it doesn't"
drain guys: "Yes, it does"
city: "No, it doesn't"
Meanwhile we couldn't put water down our drains - no showers, no toilets, no washing dishes.... The next morning the city sent some people to check it out. Towards the end of the morning they knocked on our door and announced that they thought they had found a place where our pipes hooked up to the sewer in the street. They came back and dug it up and then sent someone to our door. He said something like "Yeah, we found your line and it looks like we broke it so we will fix it" and then he turned and walked off. That was the highest high on the roller coaster. I was so excited! By the end of the afternoon we could use our sewer system again. I have never been so thankful for indoor plumbing that works properly. In the end the city agreed to pay for it, although they were pretty annoyed about the whole thing. Before they left they asked me to make sure everything was working, I think because they had already been to our house to fix problems twice this week and they didn't want to see us again. The feeling was mutual.

Fun Family Home Evenings

Funny FHE - one of our friends invited us over for Family Home Evening. She had a really cute idea to teach about appropriate Sabbath Day activities. We were both interested to see how our boys would do with the lesson (she has a 3 year old son too). She put vanilla ice cream in a bowl and told the boys we were going to make a sundae. Then she put shredded cheese, ketchup, mustard and ranch dressing on it. The boys looked shocked when she first started putting the toppings on. Then we talked about how these things are good, but not on ice cream. Then we talked about activities that are good but not Sunday activities. Then she asked the boys if they would want to eat the sundae. Alan nodded. She said "Really? You think that looks good?" and Alan said yes. So she gave him a bite. I fully expected him to spit it out but he ate it. Can you believe that? Gross! We asked him if it was good and he said yes. Then we put chocolate, caramel, peanuts, whipped cream, and a cherry on top and talked about appropriate Sunday activities. After that everyone had an ice cream sundae - I had to laugh at Alan. He didn't want peanuts or caramel on his because that is gross :) So weird.

Then for another FHE we made halloween goodies for dessert. We made brownies and put marshmallows on the top and frosted them different colors and then decorated them.

This one is a spider

This one is Frankenstein

We also made ghost ones. Alan loved the idea - he loves marshmallows and decorating things. Conner just wanted to eat the marshmallows plain.

A campout to remember

The second weekend of September we decided to go camping as a family. We have been wanting to all summer and it hadn't happened for one reason or another. Conner had never been camping so it would be his first experience. We drove about an hour from our house and stopped at a nice campground called Many Pines. I immediately started a fire and started roasting hot dogs for dinner with the boys. Reed found a large pile of dead branches and he started to chop them up for firewood with his new hatchet. After a few minutes I heard Reed say "I think I just ended our camping trip". I turned around to see him staring at his hand while blood ran down his hand. On closer examination I noticed that there was a deep cut on the back of his hand between his thumb and forefinger. I put the boys at the table with some food (hoping they would not notice what we were doing) and then I grabbed our baby wipes and put pressure on the wound. We debated whether or not to go to the emergency room (mostly for the cut and partly because it had been 15 years since his last tetanus shot) and Reed decided he would lay down for a few minutes and see how he felt. After laying down with his hand elevated the bleeding had almost stopped so we decided to stay. Luckily Reed had thought to bring our big first aid kit and I had thought to bring Tylenol. After we bandaged his hand we had dinner and put up the tent. Then we sat around the fire and roasted smores. Alan was thrilled with the whole experience and Conner did so-so. He fell down a lot (the ground was quite uneven) and he wanted to be very independent around the fire but I wanted him to stay back so he wasn't very happy about that.

(sorry the pic is fuzzy, our camera wasn't working while we were camping so we didn't get any authentic pictures)

I had forgotten how cold the mountains could be at night in September. Reed and I zipped our sleeping bags together and put Conner between us. Alan had his own sleeping bag. Neither Reed or I could get very comfortable so we didn't sleep well. Alan ended up in our sleeping bag at 2 or 3 am as well so it was pretty crowded. To top it all off I was awake at 2 am to hear some wild howling (not sure if it was wolves or coyotes) which completely woke me up until 4 or 4:30 am. On the bright side the boys slept pretty well and there was no crying (always a plus, Alan's first camping experience was a nightmare of crying in the middle of very quiet mountain nights with lots of people in tents around us to hear him). The next morning we were up bright and early so we made another fire to keep warm, had some breakfast and packed up. We stopped to do a short hike on the way home. All in all it was a memorable experience but I wouldn't classify it as fun.

This Old House

The answer to how old our house is: 123 years old, so Brenda guessed closest. Yeah, when I said old, I meant old. Luckily it has had many updates so hopefully we won't have too many problems. Here is a brief history lesson. We found out that our city was founded in 1883 and our house was built in 1886. Imagine all the people who have lived in it. Electricity didn't even come to the city until the 1890's. We are going to close on the house next Friday so then we will officially be home owners.

Conner's first haircut

I finally buckled down and cut Conner's hair for the first time. It was plenty long. Conner is 16 1/2 months old in the pictures.
Long, long hair. His hair is very light blonde so I didn't want to cut it too short or it would look like he was bald.
Conner was pretty patient. It helped that we had just bought a new movie so he kind of zoned out while watching it. There was one time though that he jerked his head while I was cutting his bangs...that patch of bangs is shorter than the rest but you can't really tell while his hair is all tussled.
After the hair cut.