Dragon Movie Party

Last Friday was an exciting day for us because that is the day that the movie How To Train Your Dragon came out on DVD. We went to Walmart to buy the movie and they had this poster that you could take a picture with and then they gave you a free 5x7 of the photo.

Conner's turned out a little blurry. He did NOT want to put his head anywhere near that hole so he is sitting behind the poster on a stool.

Alan the Dragon Rider

That evening we went over to Esther's house with one of Alan's friends. Esther has a movie room in her basement (meaning a HUGE screen, and several comfy chairs, with some chairs up on a higher level so that everyone could see.) So we watched the movie over there and had cookie's and homemade donuts and chocolate milk. Alan was SO excited to go have a dragon movie party. Conner and I had never seen the movie but Alan had gone to see it in the theatres with Reed. The first time Conner saw a dragon he shrieked "A why-on" (he says why-on for lions, and dinosaurs, and now for dragons too). I was worried that he might get scared but he was really excited and after excitedly shrieking "why-on" a couple more times he sat happily through the whole movie. Micah slept through most of the movie so I got to see it too. I thought it was a cute movie, one that I won't mind watching a few more times (as I am sure we will). So that was our fun Friday evening!

How does your garden grow?

This year we had some stunning successes, some dismal failures, and some so-so's.
Our success stories:
Our carrots and lettuce did very well this year. It has been so nice to just go out and pick lettuce for a salad for dinner. My favorite thing to eat fresh out of the garden is carrots so I was excited that they did well.

Alan is holding a big, beautiful carrot

Another thing that did well was our green bell pepper plant. We only planted one plant and I wasn't sure how it would do but we got 3 full grown peppers so that was exciting.
Our rhubarb did very well - so well that I had to think of new things to make with rhubarb. I made 4 strawberry rhubarb pies, 24 rhubarb muffins, a large container of rhubarb slush, and I am planning to make another rhubarb pie soon since we have more of it growing.
Our truly amazing success story is our tomatoes. We have so many of them! We planted 4 plants, each a different kind. They all did well, especially the little Roma kind. I would guess that we ended up with well over 100 of that kind of tomato. We made salsa this week and we still have a ton of tomatoes so now I am thinking of other things to do with tomatoes.

Some of our vegetables

Alan standing in our garden

Our so-so's:
Here are our strawberries:
I transplanted them this year from our garden into these boxes. They spent most of the summer not doing anything but they got a few berries on them in September, which I guess is pretty good considering that they were transplanted this year.
Our other so-so is our pumpkins. The plants are big and healthy and have lots of flowers on them. The only problem is that flowers are the only thing on them. We got one pumpkin out of the 3 plants. I finally looked online and found out that you are supposed to pollinate the plants yourself if you only have a couple plants. There is a shortage of bees I guess.

Remember back in the spring when I posted about how Conner had ripped all the leaves off my pumpkin plant except for one? Well, here he is standing in front of that same plant. It survived and it was the only plant that produced a pumpkin.

Our dismal failure:
Our peas. They started okay - in fact they all germinated. They grew to be about 3 inches tall and they looked great. Then they started to turn yellow and the leaves had big bite marks in them. It looked like something was eating them but I never figured out what it was. Anyway, we got a few peas off of them before they all shriveled and died.
Also, my sweet pea flowers didn't grow well, but they never do so I wasn't too surprised.

Lost at the Park

Yesterday I went to the park with a couple other friends for walking group. A couple times a week we walk around a big park and then let the kids play at the playground at the end. This time started out the same - we walked around and then the kids started playing. I sat down on a bench to nurse Micah and from there I watched the kids running around. A couple minutes later a train came by (the tracks are at the top of a short, steep hill about 100 ft. from park). The kids ran to the edge of the park to wave at the train and watch it go by. A few minutes after that I thought I heard Conner start to cry but I couldn't see him. Since I was still nursing Micah my friend Beth got up to see what the problem was. I saw her walk to the other side of the play ground, and then I saw her start to walk around the edge of the play ground, like she was looking for something. Then I heard her ask the older kids (Alan, Mara and Alex) where Conner was. They all shrugged and kept on playing. So I got up and started looking around. No Conner on the big kid park and no Conner on the little kid park (they are side by side). I started feeling a little panicky and I ran over to the duck pond and ran along the edge of it. Luckily I didn't find Conner there. Meanwhile Beth had searched all along the edge of the park where the steep hill starts. She looked up and down the edge and in the tall grass and bushes and there was no sign of him. It had been about 5 minutes since we started looking and we still hadn't found him. I was really worried and kept telling myself that he had to be here somewhere and praying that I would find him. I ran over to the band stand while Beth climbed up to the train tracks and started walking along the tracks. Then I saw Beth walking down the hill with Conner. What a relief! I ran over and Beth said she found him about 2 feet from the tracks playing with the rocks. We figured he must have walked up there after the train left - crazy boy. So that was my heart pounding, scary experience of the morning.

Randomness from the last 3 weeks

After Micah was born my mom came and stayed for a week, which was really nice. She helped us can peaches, played with the boys and cooked dinners, among other things. Thanks for all the help! Then my dad and Reed, Jodie and Drew came to visit on the weekend. It was fun to see everyone and to show off Micah.

Picture before everyone left
L to R: Reed, Ace, Jodie, Drew, Ken, Carissa, Micah, Alan, Reed, Conner, Deb

Reed's work gave him 2 weeks off for bonding time. The boys and I LOVED having him around. Our ward brought us meals that week so we had time to get some projects done and to just enjoy each other's company.

Daddy reading Conner and Micah a bedtime story

3 of my cute boys. Conner looked so funny with the Mr. Potato head glasses on.

Here is Micah all ready for his first bath at home

He didn't really enjoy it - I think he got a little cold because I wasn't fast enough

My Young Women group surprised me by coming over and throwing me a baby shower. We played a game and then the girls made a scrap book page for Micah's scrapbook. Then we opened gifts and took pictures. It was a lot of fun to have them over.

l-r: Kristal, Sheila, Me holding Micah, Kitana, Cheyanne (Eliza was sick so she she couldn't come)

Micah - 11 days old

Some facts about Micah:
- he has a calm easy going temperament
- he pulls his hair a lot. It seems like at least once a day I hear him scream and I find him with his fist wrapped up in his hair, pulling hard.
- he gets the hiccups several times a day. I don't remember our other boys getting the hiccups much. He doesn't burp very often so maybe that is why he gets the hiccups so much?
- he has his days and nights mixed up. Actually he sleeps well through the first part of the night and then it gets progressively worse as the night goes on. For example last night he slept from 11 pm to 3:20 am. Then he nursed till 4. Then he slept for an hour and woke up at 5 and nursed again for half an hour. Then he slept for 30 minutes and woke up again at 6 at which time Reed just took him down stair so that I could sleep a little more. During the middle of the day he sleeps for 3 hours or more and I sometimes wake him up to try to get him on more of a schedule.
- In general he seems to sleep more than our other two did at this age. Also, he can sleep through anything. I remember when Alan was a baby I was so careful to make sure the house was quiet when he napped. Now Micah naps with both of his brothers yelling and running past him and the phone ringing and the dishwasher going ect.
- he failed his hearing screening at the hospital but thankfully he passed it 10 days later at a check up.

Micah - 7 days old

I took Micah in for his 2 week check up last Monday. He weighed 9 lbs and 7 oz (69th %) so the doctor was happy. She said they usually want to see them back at their birth weight by 2 weeks so the fact that he was almost a pound past that meant that he was doing really well. He height surprised me: 23 inches (99th %). That means he grew 2 inches in 2 weeks - wow! I am really glad he came a week and a half early!

Micah is 2 1/2 weeks old, snuggling with his daddy

Micah 2 1/2 weeks old with his mama

Alan

When we asked Alan what we should name our baby he came up with LOTS of ideas. A few of his names were: Owis, Wolf, Panda, Bone, Tank, and Skipper

Alan is really good about sharing. A little while ago our family had 3 cookies. I said I didn't want one so Reed had one and he gave one to Conner and one to Alan. Alan was concerned that I didn't have one so he turns to me and says "I'll tell you what..." then he breaks his cookie in half. One half was considerably larger than the other. He looked at them and then he held them out to me and says "which half do you want?" I thought that was sweet of him.

Alan really likes to do things for us without being asked. He likes to get dressed and make his bed and then he will come out of his room with a HUGE smile on his face and say "Surprise!" He really doesn't like us to ask him to do things. Sometimes he will throw a fit when we ask him to get dressed or go get a diaper for Conner because he says "I didn't want you to tell me!" So we have found that if we indirectly ask for things we get a much better result: for example - If I am changing Conner's diaper and I say "Hmm, I could really use a clean diaper" and I make sure I am just saying it into the air, not directed at Alan he will always run off and grab a diaper and come back with it and be so pleased with himself.

Alan loves to have books read to him. I love how when we come home from the library with new books he will climb on the couch and just sit and look through the books. It is nice that he likes all kinds of books now. For a long time we only read books about trains or construction trucks.

Alan's new favorite colors are "all the colors of the rainbow"

Alan likes to draw and write. He loves to sit down with me and write a grocery list or a to-do list. In the past he has enjoyed writing letters and numbers on a piece of paper and then asking me what it says. For example: xyzoafafiotd8io. However he got frustrated when I sounded it out and he realized it wasn't a real word. Now he asks me how to spell something and then he writes it out.

Alan really likes Micah. He loves to come over and put his finger in Micah's hand and feel Micah squeeze his finger. Then he will talk to him and say things like "You sure are cute Micah" or "I am glad you are in our family now Micah".

Alan loves to help in the garden. I am glad he doesn't see weeding as a chore, more like a fun activity.

Alan doing the Magnum.

Meeting Micah

Reed brought the boys to meet their new little brother on Sunday night. Alan and Reed each brought me some flowers which were very pretty. Both of the boys were pretty excited to see Micah.

Getting a look at their new brother

Alan looked for a minute or two and then he was off to look at the rest of the room. Conner on the other hand was completely fascinated with the baby. He crawled up beside me and kept pointing at the baby and excitedly saying "Baby!"

After a couple of minutes I wrapped Micah up because he was having a hard time keeping his body temperature up. Conner didn't like that. I tried to explain that Micah was cold and he needed to stay wrapped up but Conner kept trying to unwrap him so that he could point to his toes, diaper, legs, ect. Finally Conner turned to me and said "un mo" (which means one more) so I unwrapped him again as a reward for talking. Then I wrapped him back up again. Conner asked again and I said no so Conner grabbed my hand and placed it on Micah's blankets and then looked at me expectantly. He was so determined that Micah should be unwrapped so that he could look at him better!

Conner wanting the blanket off.

The three Bassett boys

We asked Alan if he wanted to hold Micah and he got SO excited:

Reed showing Alan how to support the baby's head

Grandma Bassett arrived that evening. It was really nice because she stayed with the boys and Reed stayed with me at the hospital.

Grandma Bassett holding Micah

Grandma Pitcher arrived the next morning to stay for the week.

Grandma Pitcher getting acquainted with Micah

We decided to go home on Monday. The nurses said that usually Sunday is a really slow day, with maybe 1 or 2 babies being born. On the day we arrived they said that 10 babies were born and they turned 12 people away who thought they were in labor, but weren't. In fact 2 other babies were born in the same hour as Micah. On Monday morning all 21 rooms on the birth floor were full. So I think the nurses were pretty eager to have us leave.

Here is Micah, all strapped in and ready to go home. Some older ladies knit hats for all the babies to have so that is where Micah got his cute hat from.

Introducing Micah Pitcher Bassett

I woke up on Sunday morning, Sept. 12th with a few light contractions. Then I noticed that I was leaking fluid which meant that I was going to have this baby today! We hurried and got the kids dressed for church and dropped them off at a friend's house. Then we waited at the house for a little while until the contractions were closer together. After we got to the hospital they checked me and said I was definitely leaking amniotic fluid and I was dilated to 3 centimeters. So we checked into the hospital at 9:30 am and our baby arrived at 1:15 pm. The labor was relatively short (although it didn't feel like it) and it was uncomplicated. Our baby arrived with the cord wrapped around his neck so he was completely bluish grey from head to foot but he turned pink fairly quickly. He cried as soon as he came out and they let me hold him.

Carissa holding her new baby

Getting warmed up under the baby warmer

He weighed in at 8 lbs and 11 oz and he was 21 inches long, so he was a biggest baby so far. He came out with a ton of dark hair. After his bath the nurse had fun combing his hair in different ways.
He loved his bath. He completely relaxed in the water and he especially liked when she washed his hair.

After his bath he enjoyed his time under the warmer.

We struggled to decide on a name. We narrowed it down to 3 finalists: Tyler, Mason and Micah. After almost a full day of thinking we decided to name him Micah Pitcher Bassett.

Proud daddy with his newest son