Snow Castles

Last week we had a big spring snow storm roll through here. I heard it snowed about 12 inches but only 3 of the inches stuck. The snow was heavy and wet so many trees lost branches and some people's power went out. Alan was thrilled that it snowed again and he begged me to go out and build a snowman. He built a little snow man but then he decided he wanted to build a snow castle so we got out our sand buckets and shovels and went to work. We built a castle with three towers.

Then later we came out and added a bridge and a front door. Alan was really disappointed because all the snow melted before we had a chance to add a back door.

Conner decided the stomp in the puddles was more fun than building anything so that is what he did. He would pile snow into the puddle and then stomp on it.

By the end of it he got quite wet. He also had fun just walking in the snow and looking back to see his foot prints. During this storm he also added the words "snow" and "ta-da" to his vocabulary. Now when he does something special or builds something he will bring you to look at it and say "ta-da!"

That night Conner had a hard time settling down for bed. He laid awake in his bed, happily jabbering away, for a long time. When it was all quiet I went in to check on him and this is what I found:
He had unzipped his pajamas and completely undressed himself (except for his diaper thankfully). I didn't have any idea that he could do that. Crazy boy.

Just Say No

That seems to be Conner's motto lately. Before I tell you this story you have to understand that Conner doesn't talk very much at all. Last month he only had about 10 words that he would say occasionally, so any new word is a cause for celebration. So last month he was playing in my kitchen utensil drawer and he threw a spoon across the kitchen. I told him to go pick it up and put it back. He looked at me and said "No". It was as clear as day and I was so excited! I contained my excitement and repeated my command until he returned the spoon and then I went to tell Reed the good news: Conner said a new word! Well, since then it seems that "No" is one of the only words he can say. He has perfected this new word by adding actions - he will bang his fist on the table and say "No!" very forcefully. The funny thing about that is that he isn't saying it to anyone, he is just practicing. He also tells me "No!" and shakes his finger at me - "No, no, no" while shaking his finger and looking very stern for a not quite 2 year old. His other favorite phrase right now is "Owie".

Lately Conner has been really tired. He keeps waking up early (before 6 am) and then by mid morning he is exhausted. He often has a hard time making it through lunch before he falls asleep.

Conner loves his brother. He also know how to push his buttons so he has learned how to give hugs after he makes Alan sad.

Lately Conner has become more interested in books. Now he will actually point to things and you can tell he is making an effort to repeat some of the words. This last week his favorite books are about animals and he has learned several new animal sounds. They include "meow", "baa", "moo", "woof", "hiss", and he makes the funniest hissing/growling noise when he sees a picture of a lion or tiger. He also attempted to mimic monkey noises. He has also learned "stuck", "bye", "apple", "Dad" and a couple other words recently. I am hoping he will continue this trend so that I can finally know what he wants, instead of guessing.

Easter 2010

This year my parents and my brother Reed and his fiancee Jody came to visit us for Easter. We had a lot of fun watching the boys since both of them really got into the eggs this year. Alan was very patient this year about letting the eggs sit for a while in the dye.

Conner on the other hand was very impatient and kept taking the eggs out after 5 seconds. Then he would look at them and drop them back in (not very gently)

Wait a second, is this juice?!?! Nope, I guess not.

On Sunday morning we had an Easter egg hunt in our back yard. There were some real eggs and some plastic eggs. I tried to tell Conner to look for the eggs but he kept getting distracted. He saw a plastic one sitting on the slide and he excitedly ran over to it. I expected him to add it to his bucket but instead he pushed it down the slide. Then he grabbed one of the real eggs from his bucked and chucked it down the slide too. He would have been happy to stay there all day long and throw eggs down the slide but I don't think the eggs could have withstood the abuse. After that he found one of our sand buckets and spent most of the rest of the time transferring his eggs from one bucket to the other, then carrying both buckets around happily.
Alan on the other hand was very eager and efficient at finding Easter eggs. Reed and Jodie were looking for eggs too and when Alan noticed that they didn't have very many he helped them find some eggs too.
Then we went inside to look for our Easter baskets. Some of them were hidden very well but we all eventually found ours.

Here are Reed and Jodie showing the boys how to use their toys.

Conner was very eager to see what everyone else had in their baskets.
Conner saw the candy in his and he didn't care about anything else. He spent several minutes unwrapping piece after piece of chocolate and shoveling them into his mouth.

Yea for gum and toys! Alan was really excited to get gum in his basket. He was also really excited to get a Super Why dvd and he was excited that Conner got a Curious George dvd.

I like these movies of Curious George. - Alan

The best primary activity ever

Alan went to his very first primary activity day last week and he had a blast! The theme was "Follow the Prophet". The kids went to 5 different stations where they had activities that went along with a talk given by a general authority from last conference. Two of the activities were building models of temples out of marshmallows and toothpicks and I think Alan's favorite activity was building the paper airplanes. He was so excited to bring his plane (which he named Harold, by the way) home and show me how it flies. He even remembered part of the story that went with the plane activity. He also said that they tried to pick up marbles with their toes. Then at the end of the activity they had an Easter egg hunt. Conner and I were there for that so Conner helped Alan gather some eggs. Both boys were pretty excited to find out that there was candy in some of them. After we came home Alan talked and talked about all that he did and he was so excited for Reed to come home so that he could tell him all that he had done.

Baby #3 is on the way!

I think everyone that reads this blog probably already knows, but to make it official: I am pregnant! Our whole family is very excited. I am about 14 weeks along and the baby is due in September. I had an ultrasound at 10 weeks and it was so fun to see the baby - tiny arms and legs moving. It was nice to see that there is only one baby in there, since Alan has been praying and hoping for twins - a boy and a girl. Before we told him I was pregnant I told him that a friend of his was going to have a new baby brother soon. I asked if he would want a baby brother or sister. At first he said a brother but when I pointed out that our family already has two little boys in it and no girls he changed his mind to twins, so that we could have one boy AND one girl. So diplomatic. I went to see my doctor for the first time on Monday but she was at the hospital delivering a baby so I didn't actually meet her. I did get to hear the baby's heart beat though, which is always neat. I have been feeling quite sick but hopefully that will end in the next few weeks. Hopefully my energy levels will also pick up since Alan's and Conner's energy levels are as high as ever.

Church funnies

After church Alan and I were eating lunch and I asked him what he learned about in his lesson. Here is the conversation:
Alan: Um, we talked about animals.
Me: Oh, did you talk about being thankful for animals?
Alan: No, um, mostly we talked about eating animals.
Me: Oh, really?
Alan: Yeah, about eating them and shredding sheep.

I think he might have meant shearing sheep...I hope!

A couple of weeks ago the primary president said she had to tell me what Alan said during sharing time. They were talking about the earthquake in Chile and she asked all the kids what an earthquake is. The kids all said that it is when the earth shakes. Alan piped up and said "No, it where there are these plates under the earth and they slide past each other like this (demonstrating with his hands) and when that happens the earth moves on top." She said there was silence after his response and then she told him he was very smart and kept going with the lesson. She said it sounded so funny coming from a 4-year-old's mouth. Earlier in the week Alan had asked me how earthquakes happen so I told him a little about plate tectonics and he seemed interested but he never mentioned it again so I figured he hadn't really understood what I said. He is such a smart little guy.

Our family weekend

Last Thursday we drove up to visit my parents. We arrived late and then the boys woke up and decided to stay up for a while since they had just had a nice long nap in the car. We all finally went to bed around 11 or 11:30. On Friday morning Reed and I went to the temple while my dad watched the boys for us. Thanks again, we really appreciate it!

We took Alan's remote control car up with us and my parents already have 3 or 4 so all the boys went out and raced each other.

My parents got out the old marble works track and the boys and adults had fun building different tracks and then racing the marbles down. I remember doing that as a kid, good memories.
This is how Conner entertained himself for a half hour or so. He figured out how to turn the water on so he played in the water for a while and then he started washing all of our carrot peels and eggs shells, so that they would be nice and clean before we threw them away. He was in heaven!

On Saturday afternoon we met my cousin Janae with her family at the pool and went swimming. They have a really nice, family friendly pool there. It has a big pool with lots of toys, a hot tub and a kiddie pool that is warm and shallow and has a slide and some toy boats. The boys love it!

Here is Conner, who is loving being independent of me in the water.

Alan going down the kiddie slide.

Saturday night my mom and I went to a basketball game where my cousin was playing. She played really well and it was a lot of fun to watch. I also got to visit with Janae and some of my aunts. Then we went home to celebrate my Dad's birthday with carrot cake and ice cream.
On Sunday we went to a special stake meeting with my parents where Elder Jensen of the Seventy was the speaker. The meeting was held in the stake center and they had overflow seating in a nearby church building. We decided to go to the overflow building and my parents came with us. Part way through the meeting the Stake President stood up and announced that he would be calling some people out of the audience to come up and bear their testimonies. He then announced that my mom was the first one. We sat in stunned silence and looked at each other while people around us started to giggle, since they knew my mom wasn't at that building. My mom and I jumped up and ran out to the car and drove over to the Stake Center. My mom went and sat up at the front while the Stake patriarch finished his testimony and then the Stake president leaned over and smiled and nodded at her so she took her turn and bore her testimony. It was kind of funny. Then we went back to the other building to enjoy the rest of the meeting.
I think these last two are award winning pictures. Reed took them of Conner sitting on my Grandpa Pitcher's lap. Conner was showing him a book and Reed caught his facial expression as he pointed out something funny.

And that is a summary of our fun family weekend!