Preparations for Christmas

This post is a little late since most of these things happened about 3 weeks ago, but better late than never. Here are some things we did this year to get into the Christmas season:
1. We bought a real tree. We have a tiny Charley Brown fake Christmas tree but we wanted a real one this year. We all had fun decorating it. You can tell our tree is for a family with young children because none of our ornaments are breakable. Another indicator that our tree is around young children is that after a few days there were no ornaments on the lower half of the tree (Conner knocked all the ornaments off within his reach)

Alan putting the star on top

Alan and Conner with their dad in front of the finished product

2. We went to our ward Christmas party. Our ward provided a ham and baked potato dinner and a potluck dessert. It was very yummy. Then we had a nice Christmas program and then Santa came! This year both Alan and Conner were very excited to see Santa.

Conner was so excited he had a hard time waiting in line.

3. This year I got an idea from my friend Naomi about how to help our kids focus more on Jesus' birth and serving others. During one of our f.h.e.s we discussed why we celebrate Christmas. We talked about how it was Jesus' birthday and for birthdays we usually give presents. But what could we give Jesus? We read Mosiah 2:17 and explained that when we serve others it is the same as serving Jesus (Alan has been learning about this in primary so he already was familiar with the idea). Then we brainstormed a bunch of service ideas that we could do between that day and Christmas. We put all the ideas in a jar and then I wrapped a box with a lid and labeled it to Jesus, from the Bassett family. Some of our ideas were easy like give someone a hug, share a toy, or call and tell a relative that we love them. Some of the ideas took more time and preparation like inviting a family to join us for FHE, inviting someone to dinner, delivering goodies to our neighbors and getting a present for a child who needed extra help this Christmas. Each time we did one of the services we put it in the box. Alan really got into the idea and liked filling up the box. I think this is something we are going to make a tradition at our house.

Baby Smiles

Here are some of Micah's smiles. He started smiling when he was a month old but he is incredibly camera shy. Every time he started to smile I would grab the camera and he would immediately stop and put on a very serious expression. I even tried sneaking up on him while he smiled at Reed but it didn't work - it was like he knew I was there with the camera so he would stop smiling. He is almost 3 months old in these photos.

Funny Boys

Lately the boys have been doing/saying some funny things.

Micah has started laughing! It is so fun to see his big smiles and hear his chuckles. He especially likes it when we pretend to play the drums on his tummy.

Conner - last week Reed was laying on the floor and Conner came and stood on one side of him. Conner stretched his arms straight out in front of him, closed his eyes, and then yelled something and jumped on Reed. Then he proceeded to do the exact same thing again and again. As I watched him I finally figured out what he was trying to say: "To infinity, and beyond!" He was pretending to be Buzz Lightyear.

Alan - Alan just randomly makes up words and puts them in a sentence. This week two of the words that I can remember were "grazy" and "splenderee". The funny thing is he will use one of these words in a sentence asif it belongs there and then he will wait a few seconds. Then he suddenly turns to me and asks what the word means.

Reed came home and was talking to me about how he had had a good month in November and Alan over heard us. The following conversations ensued:
Alan: "Wow, dad, so does that mean we get a lot of money?"
Reed said he didn't get paid more but that we had enough money to meet our needs.
Alan quickly retorted "I have a lot of needs."
Reed: "What are some of those needs?"
Alan: "Toys. Lots of toys."
Reed: "Really?"
Alan stopped and thought for a few moments and said "Well, maybe just one or two."

2 Months Old

Micah has sure grown in the last two months. I put on a cute Sunday outfit one week and it fit him fine and then the next week it was too small - after I got the buttons done up on the shirt I could see his tummy poking out under the shirt. It is crazy how fast they grow at this age. I took Micah in for his 2 month check up last month and they said he is a healthy little boy. Here are his stats:
weight: 14 lbs 5 oz (91st percentile)
length: 25 inches (95th percentile)
head: 39.6 cm (38th percentile)

So he is very proportional, as the doctor assured me. It is amazing to me that since his 2 week check up he gained 5 lbs and grew 2 inches in just 6 weeks. He is now wearing 6 -9 month clothes.

a little half smirk

My big boy

He loves to stick his tongue out.

His serious side

I have to say that Micah is not very predictable. Some days he is mostly happy and content and he takes good naps. Other days he hardly sleeps at all during the day - he will take a couple short catnaps and that is it. For the rest of the time he wants to be held and walked and walked and rocked. At least he usually only wakes up once during the night to eat. I will try to post pictures of his smiles soon.

Thankgiving 2010

We made a thankful turkey for f.h.e. this year. Here is a glimpse of some of the things we are grateful for:
Conner: nursery, playing outside, Alan to play with and Micah to hold
Alan: candy, Heavenly Father sent us to earth, boats, Heavenly Father created the earth
Mom: my loving husband and children, priesthood, chocolate
Dad: employment, Jesus Christ, family

This year for Thanksgiving we went to the church with some friends and had dinner. Everyone brought something so it wasn't a ton of work for any one person. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the company.

Alan and Conner in their pilgrim hats that we made for Alan's preschool

That night my parents and brothers came and we stayed up late planning out our shopping for the next day. We got a good start on our Christmas shopping and had fun fighting the crowds together.

Answers

Okay here are the answers for the previous Name that Baby post:

Set #1: Micah, Alan, Conner
Set #2: Conner, Micah, Alan
Set #3: Micah, Conner, Alan

I agree with those that guessed - Conner is easy to pick out because he looks different from the other 2. He doesn't have the round face and he just has a different look about him. Alan and Micah look a lot alike, but Micah's crazy hair gives him away. I always thought Alan had a lot of hair but Micah has even more and the hair on top of his head stands straight up. Thanks to all who guessed!

Name that Baby

I decided to compare baby pictures of my 3 boys and I don't think they look a lot alike but I am curious what other people think. So do you know which boy is which? I tried to put the pictures side by side for better comparisons but I couldn't get it to work. In each set there is a picture of Alan, Conner and Micah. They are about the same ages in the pictures and they are obviously wearing the same clothes. Write your guesses in the comment area. Good luck and I will post the answers next week.
Set #1

Baby 1

Baby 2

Baby 3

Set #2

Baby 1

Baby 2

Baby 3

Set #3

Baby 1

Baby 2

Baby 3

Church News

A couple of weeks ago we had our ward Primary program. This was the first time that we had a child participating so we were pretty excited. Alan had two parts. For his first one his teacher asked him who Heavenly Father is and Alan answered "the father of my spirit". Then later in the program his teacher asked him what he could do to follow Jesus Christ's example. Alan paused for a while and then said "go to church. And I can help my mom and dad and my Conner". It was cute and fun to watch. Our primary is small but I thought they did a good job singing the songs, although Alan was kind of distracted sometimes.

The next bit of news is about Reed. On Saturday night we received a phone call asking us to be at the church before our meetings the next morning so that we could meet with the Stake President. We did so and he got straight to the point: He asked if Reed would accept a call as the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. We were surprised - I would even say that I was shocked. It was very unexpected. They told us that they had called a new bishop and that they would be sustaining the new bishopric that day. So now Reed is the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. I didn't really think about all the ramifications until I sat down in Sacrament meeting and realized that this would be the last time Reed would be sitting with us for a while. Yikes!!! Sure enough after they sustained him the Stake President told him to kiss me goodbye and come sit on the stand. Luckily ward members offered to help me with the boys but we have a lot of work to do with the kids so that they will sit still better.

Sleep Deprivation

My thoughts on sleep deprivation: I don't handle sleep deprivation all that well. I get cranky. And my patience runs out faster. When I worked from 4 am till 7 am while I was at university I thought I did just fine on 4 hours of sleep but I seem to be getting worse at it. I can still function but I get headaches (one of the only times I get headaches). During Micah's first month of life he had his nights and days mixed up - he slept and slept during the day and then he wanted to stay awake and be held all night. He finally got out of that but he was still nursing frequently at night (3 or 4 times). Thankfully he is doing much better now - he is only eating once or twice during the night.

The next 2 pictures of Micah are from Jackie on his blessing day.

I love this picture!

Micah - about 1 month old and so handsome!

One of Conner's favorite words is "No" but recently he went through a phase where he said "Yesss" very clearly and often. When he would get excited he would say "Yes, yes, yes!" He also started saying "O-tay". It was so nice to ask him to do something and hear him say "Otay!" and then run off and do it. Unfortunately that phase only lasted a couple of weeks and now his new favorite expression is "No way!"
Conner has decided that he really likes holding Micah. He loves to hold him - I think it makes him feel so big. I always sit next to him while he does this and Conner gets so mad if I put my hand anywhere near Micah because he wants to do it himself.
After Micah was born Conner used to want me to put him down so that I could get things for him. It was especially hard for him because he often shows me what he wants, instead of telling me but while I was nursing Micah I couldn't help him. Anyway he started dragging Micah's car seat over to me and pointing from Micah to his car seat every time he wanted me to put him down. Conner also liked to sit in the car seat and play.

Alan loves to draw and one day he decided to decorate our house. He drew lots of pictures and then he taped them all over our room and up the stair way. He even put one in the basement because he "wanted the basement to be pretty too". He drew our family, the temple, spiderwebs, and trucks. He also loves to give presents. A couple of days ago he gave me a dish towel with a sucker, a toy and a picture inside it. He was so excited to give me my present. I think he will enjoy Christmas this year. Also, Alan loves to be praised. When he shows me a picture or gives a present he soaks up all the compliments I give and then sometimes he will ask how much I like something. I will spread my arms wide and he will get SO excited.

Alan sitting next to the present he made me

Hair cutting incident #1

On Monday I made a grave error: I let Conner play with scissors while I went to put Micah down for a nap. I was watching him cut paper and then Micah got fussy so I just took Micah upstairs and laid him down for a nap without thinking that leaving a 2 year old with scissors is not a good idea. When I came down I noticed that there was white hair on our table. Then I looked closely I realized that he had cut a big patch of hair from the front of his head.

Here is a look at the damage:

It is kind of hard to see but the front part of his hair is cut almost to his scalp. There was only one thing to do:

Here is how long it was before:

I buzzed his hair to a 1/4 of an inch (and his hair is still longer than the cut parts, he cut it SO short but it isn't as noticeable now). All I can say is that if he was a girl I would have been devastated. At least now I don't have to worry about cutting his hair for a while.

Halloween Fun

This year I took the boys to the down town trick or treating on Friday. It was kind of cold so we didn't stay for long. Then our ward had a potluck and carnival on Saturday night. The kids got to go around and play games and they won candy as prizes.

Here is Alan at the donut on a string. He thought that was pretty cool. They boys also liked the cake walk and the fishing game. There was someone there who was making balloon animals so both of the boys got a balloon sword, which they were completely thrilled about.

Here is Micah dressed for Halloween in the cute outfit Aunt Brenda sent. On the back it says "Daddy's little monster"

Alan was a robot this year. We borrowed the costume from my friend Beth.

Conner was a turtle. At first he wasn't excited about wearing a costume so we did a practice run. I put him into his costume with him complaining and then told him to find Dad. Alan took him to Reed and he gave them both candy. After that Conner was fine with the costume. When I tried to put it on him at the church he started to scream but then I asked "Do you want some candy?" and he stopped screaming, starred at me, and then shouted enthusiastically "yes, Yes, YES!" and then he happily put on his costume.

I made Halloween sugar cookies with the boys one afternoon. Conner ate all the frosting off his cookie and then he was done.

Alan cutting out some cookies

Alan and Conner helped me clean out a pumpkin for dinner-in-a-pumpkin, as well as a jack-0-lantern. Alan wasn't too disgusted by the insides this year and we talked about our 5 senses while we cleaned one of the pumpkins out.
Alan helped me decide on a face for the pumpkin. Conner was really excited when we put a candle in it. He pretended to be scared by shaking his hands and screaming, but smiling the whole time.

Micah's Blessing

We blessed Micah on Sunday, October 10th. He was so cute in his blessing outfit.

This picture was taken 2 weeks later because I forgot to get a full body shot of him so he looks huge in the outfit. Its a good thing we didn't wait till November like we were originally thinking.

Reed gave Micah a very nice blessing. I love hearing my babies get blessed.

Also taken 2 weeks later - so he is 6 weeks old. This is the first smile we caught on camera.

Micah's Grandma and Grandpa Bassett and Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher were able to come for the day. Also Great Grandma and Grandpa Walker, Jackie and her boys, Reed and Jodie and Drew were all here too. Since the next day was Canadian Thanksgiving we had a big thanksgiving dinner after church. Thankfully it was a nice day so we all ate outside.

What a cutie!

Grandma Walker holding Micah

Micah with Grandma and Grandpa Bassett. We got so busy with dinner that I forgot to take a family picture of all of us in our church clothes.

4 generation photo: Micah, Reed (dad), Lynn (grandma), Dean Walker (great grandpa)

Here are the boys at the kid table: James, Alan and Conner. Baer was there too, just not in the picture.