Giddy-up horsie

One of Alan's favorite games is to play horsie with Reed. Reed is kind of a wild horse so Alan has to hold on tight.
Alan especially likes it when they chase me around the family room.
Another of Alan's favorite games is hide and seek. Usually he hides really well but this time...
He stuck his head as far in as he could and then just stood there quietly...too funny.

Happy Birthday Reed!

On Friday night we went out to eat at the Stockfeeder's Club. Its a restaurant in a nearby town. We got a coupon in the mail for $18 off a menu item so Reed ordered salmon and I ordered a rib eye steak, then we shared them. It was very good, especially the steak. Then we went out for ice cream. The next day one of the guys that Reed works with invited us to a bar-b-que. We had a lot of fun. The two guys that Reed works with have 2-year-olds as well and Alan had a blast. His co-workers aren't members of the Church so we weren't sure what to expect but they didn't drink much, and they kept their swearing to a minimum. Also, when we were looking for a movie to watch they were careful to only suggest movies that were clean. It was very nice to go out and spend time with friends.

The next day we had church. When we came home I made brownies for Reed's birthday dessert (per his request). Reed also suggested we put cherry pie topping and ice cream on the brownies. It was very tasty.
Alan was very excited to help Daddy blow out the candles.
Very fun!!! Thanks for all the birthday calls.

All about me

Today I am sick with a horrible, terrible cold so Reed took Alan out for the evening and made me promise not to do anything difficult so I figured I would make a new blog.

1. What time did you get up this morning? I woke up at 3:30 but I went back to sleep around 6 and slept till 7:30.

2. What do you usually have for breakfast? Depends on the day: cold cereal, coco wheats, oatmeal, pancakes, or french toast.

3. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Don't have one.

4. What kind of car do you drive? Dodge Grand Caravan

5. Favorite sandwich? Peanut butter and Jam (homemade)

6. Favorite item of clothing? My one pair of normal (not pregnancy) jeans that still fit.

7. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Lots of places: Hawaii, Russia, Australia, Italy, BYU-I central america tour, just about anywhere not on this continent.

8. What color is your bathroom? Off white

9. Where would you retire? MONTANA somewhere

10. Most memorable birthday? Let me think about that one.

11. Favorite sport to watch? I don't like watching any sports.

12. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person

13. What is your shoe size? 9 1/2

14. Pets? none

15. What did you want to be when you were little? paleontologist, vet, nurse

16. What are you today? A mom

17. What is your favorite candy? So many choices...I like licorice, especially the nibs you buy from Canada also I like anything chocolate

18. Your favorite flower? I like lilacs and sweet peas. Roses are nice and so are tulips. I like most kinds of flowers.

19. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? This month? Reed's birthday and Valentine's day. I am also looking forward to May 10 (my due date)

20. What are you listening to right now? the CBS coverage of Super Tuesday and the voting breakdown.

21. What is the last thing you ate? Cold cereal

22. Do you wish on stars? I haven't for a while...

23. What faith are you? I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

24. Who was the last person you spoke with on the phone? Um, my visiting teaching companion.

25. Hair Color? Light brown with dirty blond highlights.

26. Name of your favorite school teacher? my mind just went blank....

27. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate!!!

28. When was the last time you cried? This morning (too little sleep had an effect on that)

29. What is under your bed? luggage, pregnancy clothes (I need to get those out)

30. What did you do last night? Had Family Home Evening with Reed and Alan

31. Favorite smell? Fresh bread, fresh baked brownies, right after it rains, chlorine at a swimming pool (not straight chlorine, obviously, just the smell of chlorine in the air at a swimming pool)

32. What are you afraid of? Bees

33. How many towns have you lived in? 8 - 3 in Canada and 5 in the US

34. Do you make friends easily? I wish I did.

Well, Reed is back with Alan so I had better help get him to bed before it gets any later.

Making Rolls

Last week I was trying to make rolls for a visiting teaching lunch. After Alan ate a few pieces of bread dough I showed him that I was rolling the dough into balls and putting them in the pan. He wanted to help so I gave him his own pan and some pieces of dough. He would move the dough from hand to hand and then line them up in the pan. It was pretty cute.

Belated Birthday Present

A couple of days after Alan's birthday he got his present from his Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher so I wanted to post a couple of pictures. It came during the middle of lunch...Alan took one look at the box and said "present". He refused to eat any more lunch so I let him open it up. Before he opened it up I asked him what he thought was in it. He looked at it and replied "Sucker". I said "wow, that would be a big sucker". Alan: "Yeah, uh-huh". Then he tore off the paper in a corner and said "play, mama, play!"
Alan was very excited it was a Little People airport. His favorite are the little car and airplane that come with it.
It was hard to tear him away from the toys so that he could take a nap:)

Alan Turns Two!!!

We celebrated Alan's birthday on Saturday and Sunday. I was worried about celebrating his birthday on Sunday because he doesn't take a nap because our church time is at 1 o'clock but it turned out okay. On Saturday we took him swimming. He loves to swim!
He is a picture of Alan telling the camera that he is two. He will hold up one finger for 1, but when he wants to show 2 he holds up all of his fingers.
That afternoon we took him to get his pictures taken. He was so solemn...we got a few little smiles out of him but that was it. As soon as we were done he reverted to his usual cheerful and silly self. Oh well. That night I made his birthday dinner: spaghetti. Here is a picture of him enjoying it.
On Sunday we gave him his presents. We gave him a play set with two tents and a tunnel that connects them. Reed set it up downstairs while Alan helped me with the dishes. I took him down to see it and as soon as he saw it he got so excited. "Tunnel, mama, tunnel!!!!" He could really race through it too. The only problem is that he wanted Reed and I to go through it too....we had to explain that we were too big.
He also got a tractor, a truck, a chocolate egg and some books. He loved everything.
The boys had a fun time playing with Alan's toys. Alan loves when we play "chase" so one truck chases the other.
To top the day off we ended with cake and ice cream.
Alan's favorite part of the cake was the suckers on the wheels. He decided to use the sucker as a spoon so he would lick the sucker, stick it in his cake and then lick the icing and cake off the sucker, then he would repeat the process.
What a fun weekend!!!
Today Alan had his 2 year check up at the doctors. He is in the 75 percentile for both height and weight (he weighs 32 pounds and he is 35.5 inches tall) and everything looked good. He had to have his finger pricked for a blood test and he didn't seem to react at all. He just sat there and looked at the nurse. He got a sticker in the end and the lady was so impressed that she gave him a little beanie baby horse. Alan loved it and as we walked to the car he made the horse stop and eat every few feet. The only bad thing is that when I took the bandaid off, his finger started to bleed again and he got blood all over before we got another bandaid on it.

All about Alan

Since Alan's birthday is coming up I thought I would write a blog about him so that you all get to know him a little better.

Favorite Things:
favorite color - orange. We are working with him on his colors and orange is the only one he gets right consistently. When coloring he likes to use an orange crayon, and orange paper and when he eats he likes to use his orange spoon. Also food that is orange is great.
favorite song - "Daddy home" (I'm so glad when Daddy comes home) from the children's song book. He loves the end of the song when we give him a kiss. He also likes twinkle, twinkle little star, the wheels on the bus, a turtle song, and any song that we make up.
favorite animal - cats. Ever since the kitty incident he has been very interested in cats. Yesterday he came and started pulling on my hand. He told me that the kitty was downstairs. We went to look and he was pretending that the kitty was hiding behind the heater (that was were the kitty hid when it was here).
favorite movie - Shrek 3. Actually he doesn't really care about the movie but he likes the last chapter of the movie that shows Shrek and Fiona taking care of their babies. Alan thinks the babies are great. When we come downstairs he will bring me the tv remote and say "babies?"
favorite toy - things to push, especially if he can put something inside it. This includes trucks, cars, trains, airplanes, wagons, bikes, and my bread pans.
favorite food - lots of unhealthy things. He loves licorice, suckers, and chocolate. He also likes "sauce" which includes ranch dressing and ketchup (not necessarily together). He will dip anything into these sauces and then he will either eat it or, if he doesn't like what he is holding, he will dip it into the sauce and lick the sauce off, then repeat until the sauce is gone, then discard the now soggy dipper. He also loves dill pickles. For New Years our friends had a relish tray that was piled high with dill pickles. Every time Alan walked by the table you would see his hand shoot out and grab a pickle and then he would just keep walking. I don't know how many pickles he ate that night but the pile was much smaller when we left.

Quirks:
It is difficult to make bread when Alan is around for two reasons:
1. Alan loves to eat the flour. I keep my flour in big buckets and as soon as I take the lid off he is dipping his fingers into it and scooping it up to his mouth.
2. Alan loves raw bread dough. When I dump the bread dough on the counter to separate it I have a hard time keeping Alan out of it. If I turn my back for a second to grab my pans, when I look back my bread dough has a bunch of little marks in it from Alan pinching off pieces.

Another quirk (I don't find this one as funny as the others):
Alan likes to hide and he is very good at it. Most toddlers that I know will start to giggle or even shout out when they are hiding and they hear you say "Where are you?" Not Alan. He remains deathly quiet. For example, when we were at my parents house I noticed that I had not seen Alan for a while. No one else had either so I started to call "Alan, Alan, where are you?" No response. I checked the basement and then I checked up stairs. Still no Alan. I was just starting to worry when my brother found him. He had closed himself in the shoe closet and was peeking through a crack to watch all of my searching. He never made a sound the whole time! This hiding trait, combined with a self-assured independence, makes going to stores a real nightmare sometimes. He will dart away and hide behind some clothes racks and he will stay quiet as you call out for him. He doesn't worry at all about losing track of us. Last weekend we were in the mall. Reed and I were in a store and Alan darted out of it. I was curious to see how far he would go before he checked to see if we were coming so I let him go and followed at a distance (the mall was almost empty). He ran down about 6 stores and then he stopped to investigate the candy machines. He never looked back once to see if we were going to follow him. Scary, huh?

We love having Alan around, he can always make us laugh. He is talking a lot now, but we still can't understand everything he says. Hopefully you enjoyed getting to know our little boy better.