Happy New Year and Happy Birthday

We spent New Year's eve here at our house. We invited the Porters over and had a party. We had cheese fondue, a veggie tray, a cheese/cracker/meat tray and some little appetizers. It was all very good. We visited and then we all had a turn playing the Wii. At 10 o'clock we celebrated the new year with some sparkling apple cider and a toast. We celebrated early because we let our kids stay up with us. They did amazingly well.

The next day we packed up and headed north. We stopped in Raymond and went to the Pitcher get-together. There was lots of yummy food and we just played games and visited all afternoon. It was really nice to see some of my extended family and I loved that I could just let my boys run around and some of my cousins played with them and kept them happy.

While we were up there we took the boys swimming. It was Micah's first time.

So cute!

He did great, he was very calm and relaxed.

Alan and Conner had fun as well.

We also celebrated my birthday while we were up there. My parents made their famous barbecue ribs for dinner and then we had german chocolate cake. It was delicious!

Here is me pretending to blow out 28 candles.

Trying to get a picture of all three boys in their Sunday outfits

It was hard to see them sitting so here is Conner and Alan - looking so grown up

Our family

My parents made gingerbread houses with their family home evening group and they were pretty impressive. The boys were pretty excited that they got to pick the candy off.

Conner right before he dug in.

The boys made a fort in the couch to hide from Ace.

It was a fun trip!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. It is so fun now that Alan is old enough to anticipate Santa's arrival. Conner caught on to the enthusiasm but I don't think he actually understood what we were all excited about. This Christmas we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's house. We are grateful to live so close so that we can do short trips. We arrived on the night of the 23rd and went to sleep. The next day we had fun just playing and hanging out. Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys some money for Christmas and let them decide what to do with it. Alan used it to buy a transformer for himself and his friend. Conner also bought a transformer and gave the rest of the money to help someone else. These transformers said they were for kids 5 and up but I think it should have said 10 and up. Reed and I each took one and spent at least 20 minutes trying to figure out how to transform it. They are incredibly difficult to transform and then of course as soon as they are done the boys want them changed back. We told them they had to stay that way for a while.

I love this picture of Micah with his Grandpa

That night Russ and Kristie arrived with their kids. We are so glad they came - it was so nice to see them and their kids.

Micah with his cousin Bentlie. Bentlie is only a month older than Micah.

That night we decorated cookies, made balloon swords and just played.

Micah laughing because he was being tickled by his dad.

Grandma and Grandpa blew up a big bouncy thing that the kids had fun in. Here is a picture of all the kids on Christmas Eve, minus Micah who was taking a bath.
l-r Alan, Boyce, Conner, Hudson, Kelcie, Bentlie, Grace

After Micah got his pjs on we put him in for a picture but he wasn't happy about it. Kelcie did great holding both babies. I think I need her to move closer so that she can babysit for me in a few years.

We put out cookies and milk for Santa and an apple for the reindeer. That night it took a while for us to get everyone settled down but all of our kids finally went to sleep. The next morning Conner woke us up at 5:58 am. We kept him quiet in our bed for a while and then we woke Alan up so that we could open our stockings.

Alan was very impressed with the flashlight he found in his stocking

I got licorice in my stocking - yum!

Conner was excited about the candy

The boys also got battery powered toothbrushes. Alan really liked that because "now we don't have to spin our toothbrushes - it does it for us!"

Micah with the toy he got in his stocking

Then we went up stairs to see if we got any presents this year. Alan was more excited about seeing that Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk than about the presents. We made the kids eat some breakfast before they opened anything.

Alan was very excited about opening presents, where as Conner was a little more relaxed and pretty happy to just see what everyone else got. Alan "helped" Conner by tearing a little piece of the wrapping paper on his presents so that Conner could have a better place to tear into the paper. Below, Alan and Conner are examining Conner's new Buzz Lightyear phone.

Alan and Conner both got remote control cars from Santa. You can't really see Alan's face but he is super excited about his remote control truck.

Micah was kind of a grump by the time it came for him to open presents so he just looked at one and then his brothers helped him open his presents.

Conner was completely fascinated with this little toy. It would scoot around and meow (it looked like a hamster but I guess it was a cat) and he chased it everywhere. It is actually Kelcie's but she was nice enough to let him play with it for a while.

Alan got REALLY excited about wrapping and giving presents this year. For a week or two before Christmas he would always tell me "I am making a surprise, so don't look". Then he would get the tape and scissors and wrapping paper and wrap something. I had to laugh because by the time he was done with the tape it looked like the presents had been laminated. By Christmas he had wrapped 6 little presents - 3 for me and 3 for Reed. I found a pencil and a toy car and a bell from one of our ornaments in my presents. It was so fun to watch him - he was so proud of his presents and so happy to give them and watch our reactions.

One of Reed's presents from Alan was a little toy dice.

After we had all opened presents we went to the school gym to play. The kids had more room there to spread out and try out their toys and so did we! Mom and Dad gave all their kids a remote control helicopter so we went to the gym to try them out.

Here is Grandma with some of the grandkids building a marble track.

Then we went back to their house and had a yummy ham dinner. After that we packed up and headed for home.

The boys playing with their remote control cars after we got home

Playing with the dinosaur set that Alan got from Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher.

We had a great time!

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.