Survey

So lately we have been having a hard time getting Alan to take his afternoon nap. Yesterday he didn't take a nap and today he didn't either. He will stay in his bed and just fool around until 2pm or later and by then I am afraid if he does go to sleep he will sleep too late and it will be hard to put him to bed at night. The only problem is that Alan gets pretty grouchy/emotional by 4 o'clock when he doesn't take a nap. So, my question is what should I do? For all of you with kids: when did your kids stop taking naps? And how did you transition to no naps?

Merry Christmas

I know - it is almost April, not Christmas time but last Monday felt kind of like Christmas. Last Monday we had a very snowy, blowy day here. They actually closed the schools and a lot of businesses closed as well. So to pass the time Alan and I made sugar cookies. When you think about making the dough, cutting out the shapes, cooking the cookies and then frosting them, you are looking at an all day event. In the afternoon Alan went out to play in the snow and then came in to enjoy some hot cocoa and cookies. The fact that the only cookie cutters we have are Christmas ones and that Alan wanted to frost the cookies red and green helped me feel like the Christmas holidays had arrived.

Alan enjoying some hot cocoa and cookies

Alan cutting out some cookies

Mom's little helper

So, peace to all and to all a good night!

Enjoying the Warmth

Last week we had gorgeous weather here so we started to get our yard ready for spring. We have a lot of goat head thorns growing in our backyard so we decided to plant grass seed. First we had to do a lot of raking. The boys were thrilled to spend time outside.

Alan had fun helping me rake and then jumping in the pile.

Even Conner wanted to help.

Conner had never felt grass before. I got such a kick out of watching him touch the grass. Here is a video of him trying to crawl on it.

We got the grass seed planted and then it snowed two days later - hopefully the snow won't hurt it. I am glad we got out to enjoy the good weather while it lasted.

Mini Family Vacation

Reed took last Friday off of work and we decided to go out of town and do some shopping. We packed up when the kids woke up and headed down to the nearest Costco, which was just outside of Denver. We had a rebate check that we wanted to spend. We got a GPS unit for the car, which Reed will use a lot with his job and Elder's quorum visits. I also got some scrap booking binders and some food. Then we went to Loveland (close to Ft. Collins) and checked into our hotel. Reed stayed with the boys while they napped and I took advantage of some kid free time to go shopping at the outlet mall that they have there. I am not a huge fan of shopping but after living somewhere where you do all your clothes shopping at Target I was pretty excited to go shopping. I found a pair of Sunday shoes that I liked, which made the entire trip worth it for me!! After the boys woke up we did a little more shopping and then went out to eat at Johnny Carino's - Yum (for those who don't know it is a really good italian restaurant). Then we went back to the hotel. Conner fell asleep so Reed and I took turns taking Alan down to the swimming pool. It was pretty cold so we didn't do a ton of swimming. It was such a great day, it was just so nice to spend time together. The next morning the boys woke up early (like usual) so we took them both swimming. We spent most of the time playing on the deck and dipping our feet in the water. Here are some pictures:

Chillin' in a deck chair

Alan dipping his feet in the hot tub

Conner enjoying some Daddy time. Conner is 10 months old in this picture and starting to look so big!

Warming our feet up

Look at those teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom)

They had a pretty good continental breakfast at the hotel so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After that we headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming so that I could go to a stake Young Women camp meeting. The boys hung out at the mall while they waited for me. Then we had lunch and did a little more shopping. By then the boys were done with shopping so we headed home (everyone fell asleep on the way home, except me luckily since I was driving) All in all it was a wonderful trip.

Conner, long and skinny

Conner had his 9 month well child check up. He is doing great although he is getting skinnier. Here are his stats:
Height: 29 3/4 inches - 90%
Weight: 18 lbs. 6 oz. - 10%
So I am trying to feed him up so that he will gain a little more weight by his 1 year check up.
Ever since Conner learned how to crawl he has had a harder time going to sleep. He will sit up in bed and then cry and cry...I don't think he has figured out how to lay back down. Sometimes when I go in I find him folded in half like this.
Sometimes I even find him like this, with his head propped up on the bars of his crib.

The video below has horrible lighting but I love Conner's laugh.

Here are some facts about Conner:

- Conner is a cheerful, happy baby most of the time.

- He loves to play with what ever Alan is playing with (Alan doesn't love this).

- A funny quirk about Conner - he loves the vacuum cleaner. Whenever he hears me turn it on he crawls as fast as he can until he gets in front of it and then he tries to climb up it. Most kids don't like the vacuum because it is so loud but Conner is an exception.

- He loves baths. He gets so excited when he hears the bath water running - he will crawl in the bathroom and pull himself up on the tub and try to climb in. If the bath is for Alan and not for him he will get so mad when you take him out of the bathroom!

A long week and a half

About 2 weeks ago Alan came down with a fever, runny nose and cough. As with every cold he gets his ears hurt for the first couple of days as well. I resigned myself to being stuck in the house until Friday or so. Well, Alan's fever lasted until Saturday morning. I was glad it broke then because if it hadn't I would have taken him to the doctor. Unfortunately, Conner came down with a fever of 102 degrees Friday night. He also had a runny nose and cough. This is a picture of what he did for most of Saturday.
He has never been a really snuggly baby so it was kind of fun to snuggle with him but it was sad to see him so sick. So I resigned myself to being stuck in the house for another week. Tuesday came and his fever was still there so I took him in to see our doctor. He said Conner had a double ear infection (poor guy!) and gave us some antibiotics. He is doing much better now and we even went to the Elder's Quorum dance yesterday. It felt good to get out of the house.

Happy Birthday Reed

Reed's birthday was a while ago. Reed decided he wanted cherry cheesecake for his birthday so that is what he got. Alan was excited to help blow out the candles but he didn't like the cheesecake. Oh well, more for Reed and I, YUM!Thanks for all the phone calls, everyone!