Our second Christmas

Last weekend we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bassetts house. They watched the kids for us while we went to the temple and then we had a late birthday and Christmas celebration. Mom and Dad took us to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Alan's birthday. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I wasn't sure if there would be anything there for Conner to do, since he is too young to understand most of the games, but they had lots of the rides you see at malls - like cars and airplanes. Conner loves those little rides so he was in heaven - he probably went on 10 or more rides. Alan had a fun time playing some of the games and getting tickets, which he exchanged for a pack of skittles and a straw (sorry no pictures I forgot my camera). Then we went home and opened Christmas presents.

Here is Conner opening his present (a toy garbage truck). He loves it!

Alan got pretty excited while opening his present.

Alan is examining his toy microscope and trying to figure out exactly what it is. He really likes the little tool that comes with it. It has a magnet, a magnifying glass and some other cool gadgets.

Thanks again Mom and Dad Bassett for the gifts and for watching the boys while we went to the temple!

Now on to Valentines Day: Reed and I went to the stake Sweetheart dinner and dance. It was so nice to get out without the boys. The dinner was fabulous (chicken alfredo and roast beef and salad and baked potatoes) and then we danced for a couple of dances. Dancing isn't really our thing and the songs they were playing were kind of old so we only stayed for 15 minutes and then we went home to relieve our babysitter.

Making Cookies

About a week ago Alan went over to a friend's house so Conner and I spent some one-on-one time together. I decided to make cookies, since it has been a while. As we made the cookies together it occurred to me that this was the first time Conner has ever made cookies with me with out Alan. He thoroughly enjoyed helping with all the ingredients and not having to fight with Alan over who gets to put in what and who gets to stand where (I enjoyed it too).

Tasting the dough

Cheese!

I sometimes wonder if the reason Conner doesn't really talk is because he gets so little one on one time with Reed and I. Conner only says a few words, although he jabbers a lot - I just don't understand what he is saying.

Reed and the boys digging out our car after the last big storm.

The Family Party

My parents came down last Friday to visit and celebrate Alan's birthday. Before they came we warned them that we were forecast to receive 10 inches of snow in the next 2 days but they came anyway. For Alan's birthday we gave him a bike. We were going to wait until Saturday when we had his family party to give it to him but when we heard the forecast we decided to give it to him early so that he could ride it before the snow arrived.

He was pretty excited about the bike.

We took him out to ride and it was already starting to snow, but he still enjoyed himself. I'm glad we did it then because now there is about a foot of snow on the ground.

The next day my parents took us out to eat at the Golden Corral. Then we came home and had a little party for Alan.

Alan is opening a present from his friend Zachary. I love the look on his face!

Alan, Conner and Grandma playing with the trucks.

My dad setting up the art easel they gave Alan. It has already received much use.

My dad was sticking his hand through the gap in the easel and Conner was laughing and running away before he got tickled.

Then we had birthday cake. I make a construction site out of his cake and used the chocolate cake and rolos as dirt and boulders for the dump truck.

Blowing out the candles. He eventually got them all.

Alan had a great birthday. We love having him in our family - he is such a sweet little boy.

The Friend Party

This year I decided to do a friend party for Alan. I kept it simple - he had 3 friends over for an hour. We played 3 games, had cupcakes, opened presents, and then there was about 5 minutes left for everyone to just play. It was a construction party so all of the games were "construction" games. The most popular was the wrecking ball (shown in the 2 pictures below). I attached a ball to a string and then the kids took turns knocking over a pile of empty boxes (we pretended it was a building).

Another popular game was the treasure dig. I buried Rolos (because they have gold wrapper) in a container with wheat in it. Then the kids pretended to be a digger and they looked for treasure (Rolos).
I also did a bean bag toss into a dump truck but that one didn't go over as well.
Then we had cupcakes. Alan wanted blue and pink frosting and we put little construction vehicles on each cupcake for the kids to take home.
I also found some toy hard hats at a party store so each kid got one of those, although they didn't wear them for very long.
The party boys with his friends: l-r Mara, Alan, Cade, Alex
All in all Alan had a lot of fun, but I don't think I would do it every year.

Here are some funny things Alan has said in the last month:
"Lets peel our eyes" - he and Reed were looking for me in a store. It is kind of funny to hear him try to use phrases like "Lets keep our eyes peeled".

"Okay, shows over" - Reed was giving a F.H.E. lesson on missionary work. He was showing pictures from his mission and we were talking about missionaries and how he would go on a mission when he gets older. He seemed really distracted during the lesson and when we announced that it was over he says "Okay, shows over" and stood up and walked off. During treat we showed him a globe and we talked about where some of his relatives have served and he pointed out where he was going to serve and then he talked about it for more than a week, so I guess he was paying attention after all.

"Mom you're a genius" - he just said this out of the blue one day.

"Its waffling!" - Alan was playing with is toy top and as it spun it started to wobble. Alan announced in an excited voice - "Mom, it's waffling, its waffling!"

According to 4 year old Alan:
favorite color: pink
favorite movie: Bolt
favorite song: Love of Holy Ghost (I don't know what this is, maybe a song from primary?) and Happy Birthday
favorite food: Chicken nuggets (also apples, pears, marshmallows and licorice)
friends: Alex, Mara, Cade, Zachary
What do you want to be when you grow up: I might be a construction worker, or a daddy. I don't know what I will be.
How many kids are you going to have: Maybe 4
Where are you going to live: In a tall building where we used to live, that is called Great Falls. (He is talking about the apartment building that we used to live in when we first moved here)
Where are you going to go on your mission: Maybe New York (he has also said Kashmir, French Guiana, Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic)
favorite book: the book that Cade just gave to me, full of different books.
What do you like to do: watch movies and play with Alex
What things make you happy: when I help Conner climb all the steps at McDonalds
What makes you sad: when Conner is not happy and crying and grumpy. When he is crying I have to plug my ears.
Favorite toy: the motorcycles that I got for Christmas that race down the thing.

The good and the bad of snow

The good things about snow:
1. It makes the world look so much prettier than when it is bare and brown.
2. There is a cozy feeling you get from sitting by your window, sipping hot chocolate while the snow drifts down.
3. It provides many fun out door activities - sledding, skating, making snow angels, and building snow men.
About a week ago it started to warm up here so Alan and I decided the snow was perfect for making snow men. After we finished one Alan decided we needed to make our whole family in snowmen. So here are the final products: l-r Daddy snowman, Alan snowman, Conner snowman, and Mommy snow woman.

Milk cap eyes, a carrot nose, a pine cone mouth, stick arms.

The bad things about snow:
1. It is hard to play outside when it is really cold.
2. When it melts everything turns into a muddy, slushy mess.
3. When it melts, and then refreezes, it gets very slippery and falls are hard to avoid (just ask Conner).

The boys and I were out in the back yard playing during the warm weather. Conner slipped on some ice and fell face first onto the icy ground. The poor kid didn't even put his hands out to break the fall. I saw him fall out of the corner of my eye and then I heard him SCREAM! By the time I got there blood was pouring out of both nostrils. I took him in and got him cleaned up and then I surveyed the damage: 1 fat upper lip, a scratched nose, a bruise on his forehead with a scratch on top of the bruise and two bloody coats. Nice.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a good birthday week. I say week because we spread the celebrations out over a week. On my actual birthday Reed made breakfast and gave me my present - a Barnes and Noble gift card and some homemade coupons which are good for such things as laundry and nights where he will watch the boys while I do what ever I want. He worked late that night so we didn't do dinner or cake. The next weekend Reed took me out to eat at a Mongolian Grill. It was SO good...we both came away stuffed. Then on Monday Reed and the boys made my birthday cake.

As you can see below Reed had lots of help from the boys.

I chose a black forest cake - YUM!

All in all it was a great birthday!

Our newest Sunbeam

So, last week was Alan's first week in Sunbeams. I thought he looked so grown up in his dress pants, collared shirt and tie. He was definitely ready to move on from nursery. He was SO much bigger than all the other little nursery kids. The primary president said he did well, although he and the other Sunbeam boy (there are only 2 kids in the sunbeam class) would get up and run around the primary room when ever they sang an action song. We talked about that with him this week and I think he did better. Conner has suddenly become clingy when I drop him off in nursery now that his big brother isn't there with him. Hopefully that is short lived.