March Break

In March we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's house.  We got to see Ken and Shelly, Jacque, Russ and Kristie and their families.  On the way over we stopped for an ice cream break.  We bought each of the kids a cone but Brooklyn and Micah wanted to share.  It was pretty cute to watch Brooklyn take a lick, then Micah take a lick, then Brooklyn...

Sitting in a giant lawn chair in front of the store:

On Saturday we went to a new sporting goods store.  We looked around for a while and found this fun jeep to pose with:

 

Then we went on the ferris wheel but I guess I didn't get any pictures.

 

Then we headed over to the indoor waterpark.  There were two slides, a kiddie pool, a medium pool, a wave pool and a hot tub. 

Reed with Micah and Brooklyn in the wave pool



Conner doing his classic pose:

Conner making his way across the stepping stones:

Reed and Conner just came out of the slide.  Alan and Conner LOVED the slides (Reed and I thought they were pretty fun too):

Micah coming down one of the kiddie slides:

Alan spent most of his time on the slides and I didn't get any pictures of him.

After church on Sunday we went for a walk:

The boys were very industrious at the bottom of the hill.  They built some shelves in a tree to hold the interesting things they found, like animal bones:

Playing on the swing set:

It was a fun visit!

February in a nutshell

 At the beginning of February Alan and Conner had their awards assembly. 

Good job Conner!

Good job Alan!:

We also celebrated Reed's birthday, but I didn't get any pictures and now my memory is a little fuzzy on what we did to celebrate. 

For Valentine's Day we headed over to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bassetts.  Reed and I went to the temple and then we hung out at the house.

Brooklyn enjoying an apple and Micah playing with a stick:

Conner using one of Grandpa's tools:

In January we started looking seriously at houses again.  In February we found a house that we really liked.  We took the kids to look at it and we liked what we saw but it was a little expensive.  After we left we realized that we had left our Ipad there.  We called our realtor and he said he would go over and get it.  While he was there the family told him that they just wanted to get out of the house and were willing to go down another $10000.  Perfect!  We made an offer and they accepted.  We set a closing date for the end of March. 

Alan's birthday weekend

On the weekend before Alan's birthday my parents came to visit.  We all went to an indoor trampoline place to have fun. 

Micah would just jump off the edge instead of swinging out on the rope.  Then he had a hard time getting back to the edge:

Alan swinging out:

Conner and Brooklyn:

Conner climbing out:

Then on Sunday Reed and I and Alan and Conner spoke in sacrament meeting.  Alan and Conner did so good.  They were both nervous.  I helped each of them write out a short talk.  We drew Conner's in pictures since reading can be tricky.  Conner paraphrased a story from the Friend about a boy who saved money for a toy but then donated the money to help earthquake victims and then he bore his testimony.  Alan read a story from President Packer about spiritual crocodiles and then he bore his testimony.  They did such a great job!



 

That night Alan opened some of his presents:

 

Those new snow pants are going to come in handy because...:

 

Alan chose to go skiing with Reed for his birthday.  We gave his 3 options: going to a movie theater with one of us, going out to eat with both of us (and the other kids staying home with a babysitter) or going skiing.  He and Reed set out early so that they could make it up in time to get their skis and get to the their lesson on time.

 

Alan was a little nervous and very cautious at first.  After their class got to the top of the bunny hill Alan must have accidently got his skis pointed downhill because he just started going.  Reed said he was really flying and the instructor was right behind him but he couldn't really do anything.  Alan made it to the bottom in one piece and after that Reed said it was like all fear left him.  He learned how to turn and stop and then Reed and Alan started going down hills.  Reed said it was common for Alan to just go whizzing past him and Reed would find him waiting part way down the hill for Reed to catch up. 

 

He enjoyed getting snacks at the lodge. 

 

He came home absolutely thrilled with the experience.  We didn't get a chance to go again this season but I know Alan will be asking us about it when the snow starts to fly again.

 

Having a little family celebration:

 

Alan requested the same cake that I had: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.  He wanted to light the candles himself:

 

Make a wish!:





A little about 9 year old Alan:
Here's a fun conversation that we had shortly after his birthday:
We had been looking at houses and we looked at some that had t.v.s in every bedroom.  We had the following conversation when we got home:
Alan - "Can I have a tv in my room?"
Me - "no, you are never going to have a tv in your room" (me feeling kind of exasperated because we have had this discussion more than once, where I actually explained why...)
Alan - "Until I move to my own house and then I will."
Me - "When you move to your own house you will get to decide."
Alan - "Yess!"  pause  "Oh, but by then I will know not to have a tv in my room."  He looked very disappointed after this comment. 

A couple of months after his birthday Reed took Alan shoe shopping.  We found out that Alan now wears size 7 in Men's shoes!  It was crazy to think that Alan and Reed were looking at the same shoes, just different sizes.

Favorite color: blue
What do you enjoy doing: spending time with my family and friends.  Going places with them.  Buy stuff, like gum.
Favorite subject in school:  I like all of them
Favorite food:  Split pea soup
Favorite book:  Percy Jackson books
What do you want to be when you grow up:  an inventor.  I want to build my own submarine.

Conner lost a tooth!

Conner lost his first tooth on January 17th.  It had been loose for ages and the adult tooth was half way up behind it.  Reed helped Conner pull it out.  Conner was pretty tough and very excited to lose that tooth and have the tooth fairy come.

Happy Birthday to Me!

On my birthday this year it snowed and snowed and snowed.  I think we ended up with 15 inches.  It was a nice quiet way to spend my birthday.  Since I didn't want to go out I made my birthday cake from scratch and Reed made the peanut butter frosting when he got home from work.  Reed took the kids to the store earlier and they chose something for me and made a card.  They know I love chocolate so I got double chocolate oreos.

Peanut butter chocolate cake with a candle smile:

We had cake and played a family game - a wonderful night:

New Years

For New Year's Eve this year we took the kids to the family dance at the church for a while.  They had lots of snacks, music, a bounce house, and game rooms.  Alan was introduced to Monopoly and loved it.  Micah and Brooklyn spent most of their time in the bounce house.  We stayed until 9:30 or 10 and then we came home to watch a movie.  We pulled out the hide a bed and everyone sat on that:

Everyone stayed up until midnight - even Brooklyn.  We all yelled "Happy New Year!" and then we headed to bed. 

The next day we went sledding. 

Alan coming down:

Dad and Brooklyn had fun:

Micah was very cautious at first.  We found a little hill and he went part way up and slid down.  After that he climbed to the top of the little hill and slid down over and over.  Eventually he got brave enough to slide down the big hill by himself:

Conner was not a fan of sledding.  He got some snow in his face the first time down and after that he wanted nothing to do with sledding.  We stayed out for quite a while though and he eventually tried the little hill with Micah.  By the end we wasn't as mad, but I still don't think sledding would make his top 10 winter activity list.  

Merry Christmas 2014

This year for Christmas we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher.  We were able to see Reed and Steph and Drew and Brittany while we were there as well.  It was nice to be with family!  On Christmas Eve we went to the live Nativity at the Stake center and then we went home and put out cookies and milk for Santa.  Then it was off to bed for the kids. 

Christmas morning started early, a little after 6 am.

First we opened stockings:

Micah wasted no time in opening his candy and eating it:

Then we had some breakfast and then we moved on to our presents. 

I got a new camera so now I can take pictures!  We love Christmas!