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.