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.