This is what we spent all of Labor day doing: building a sandbox. It has been very worth it in my opinion - the kids can spend hours out there playing. Now I just need to convince them not pour the sand on each others heads.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The best toy ever
This is what we spent all of Labor day doing: building a sandbox. It has been very worth it in my opinion - the kids can spend hours out there playing. Now I just need to convince them not pour the sand on each others heads.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Happy Birthday Micah!
We celebrated Micah's first birthday with both sets of his grandparents and our family. I love first birthdays because everything is new to them.
We started with presents. Micah was far more interested in climbing on them than actually opening them. He climbed up on this box and was so happy with himself.
Conner helped Micah open the present that he gave him. Then he showed him the book:
Here is Alan's wrapping paper. He wrote "GO MICAH GO" all by himself. Each of the boys got Micah a book because a lot of our board books have fallen apart due to Alan and Conner's love.
Micah checking out his new trucks
Then we moved on to the cake. For Alan and Conner's first birthday I made a cake that represented the stuffed animal that they attached to, that helped them sleep at night. Micah has never attached to anything to help him sleep at night so I had to come up with something else. One thing that he really loves is dirt. He loves to eat it. I would even call him a dirt connoisseur - he has sampled dirt from our back yard, sand from our sand box, the wood chips at the playground and many of the green plants around our yard such as grass, weeds and basil from my garden. So I made him a dirt cake. I frosted it with chocolate frosting and then I crushed up oreos to look like dirt. Alan and Conner helped me add gummi worms, chocolate rocks and construction trucks to make it look more authentic:
Make a wish!
Micah picked the frosting off and tasted that and decided that it was good. After that he went to work on getting as much in his mouth as he could.
He wasn't at all concerned about getting dirty
He LOVED the ice cream. We actually gave him some ice cream about a month before his birthday and he loved it. We usually wait but we had a hard time since it was summer and we were eating a lot of ice cream and he was extremely jealous when he couldn't have any.
Yum! That's a big bite for such a small mouth.
Trying to get the last bit out of the bowl
Micah liked playing with the balloon that was attached to his high chair - what a cutie!
Looks like he enjoyed himself
Then it was off to the bath tub for a scrub down and then down for a nap. Happy Birthday Micah!
Conner, Alan and Micah with their birthday hats on, ready to get this party started!
We started with presents. Micah was far more interested in climbing on them than actually opening them. He climbed up on this box and was so happy with himself.
Conner helped Micah open the present that he gave him. Then he showed him the book:
Here is Alan's wrapping paper. He wrote "GO MICAH GO" all by himself. Each of the boys got Micah a book because a lot of our board books have fallen apart due to Alan and Conner's love.
Micah checking out his new trucks
Then we moved on to the cake. For Alan and Conner's first birthday I made a cake that represented the stuffed animal that they attached to, that helped them sleep at night. Micah has never attached to anything to help him sleep at night so I had to come up with something else. One thing that he really loves is dirt. He loves to eat it. I would even call him a dirt connoisseur - he has sampled dirt from our back yard, sand from our sand box, the wood chips at the playground and many of the green plants around our yard such as grass, weeds and basil from my garden. So I made him a dirt cake. I frosted it with chocolate frosting and then I crushed up oreos to look like dirt. Alan and Conner helped me add gummi worms, chocolate rocks and construction trucks to make it look more authentic:
Make a wish!
Micah picked the frosting off and tasted that and decided that it was good. After that he went to work on getting as much in his mouth as he could.
He wasn't at all concerned about getting dirty
He LOVED the ice cream. We actually gave him some ice cream about a month before his birthday and he loved it. We usually wait but we had a hard time since it was summer and we were eating a lot of ice cream and he was extremely jealous when he couldn't have any.
Yum! That's a big bite for such a small mouth.
Trying to get the last bit out of the bowl
Micah liked playing with the balloon that was attached to his high chair - what a cutie!
Looks like he enjoyed himself
Then it was off to the bath tub for a scrub down and then down for a nap. Happy Birthday Micah!
Friday, September 9, 2011
First day of Kindergarten
When Alan was a baby I used to have lots of older ladies stop me in the store or at church and tell me how cute my baby was and then they would always conclude by saying "enjoy every moment because it goes by so fast". At the time a part of me knew that what they were saying was true but the other part of me was thinking "that's easy for you to say, you aren't getting up with him 3 times a night and changing 8 - 10 diapers a day and walking and walking and walking him when he is crying". Well, now that Alan is starting school I agree with them - the time has gone by so fast. When I look at him now he seems so big. When I went school shopping with him I had to buy size 6 pants and size 7/8 shirts. Also he jumped 3 shoe sizes since the last time I bought him shoes (he's now a size 2 in boys). Looking back I can say that it hasn't always been easy but it has been so fun and rewarding to stay home with him and watch him grow and develop into the handsome, smart, funny, loving boy that he is.
I think this picture captures some of Alan's feelings that morning:
Alan was excited to go but he was also a little nervous. The nervousness was gone by the time he got home and he was just plain excited. It has been fun to listen to him tell about his days when he gets home: how his teacher talks funny (she has an Alabama accent), how he met a boy that is "slowly transforming into a friend", how he got a hand stamp for being good. He also informed me that he did really good at school the first day and he thought it was because of his pants, so he had to wear those pants for the rest of the school week. He called them his "smarty pants". It has been harder than I thought to figure out lunches for him - the first day he came home really excited and told me he ate chicken nuggets on a tray. I guess he didn't realize his lunch bag was in his back pack so he got the hot lunch. The next day I showed him where his lunch was but when he came home only the sandwich was gone. Alan said that he didn't drink his juice because not everyone had a juice and he didn't have enough for everyone and he didn't eat his apple or cookies because they didn't have snack time. I explained that the apples and cookies were part of his lunch and that the other kids had something else to drink so he could still drink his juice. After a few days we finally got all the kinks worked out.
Alan on the first day of kindergarten
I think this picture captures some of Alan's feelings that morning:
Alan was excited to go but he was also a little nervous. The nervousness was gone by the time he got home and he was just plain excited. It has been fun to listen to him tell about his days when he gets home: how his teacher talks funny (she has an Alabama accent), how he met a boy that is "slowly transforming into a friend", how he got a hand stamp for being good. He also informed me that he did really good at school the first day and he thought it was because of his pants, so he had to wear those pants for the rest of the school week. He called them his "smarty pants". It has been harder than I thought to figure out lunches for him - the first day he came home really excited and told me he ate chicken nuggets on a tray. I guess he didn't realize his lunch bag was in his back pack so he got the hot lunch. The next day I showed him where his lunch was but when he came home only the sandwich was gone. Alan said that he didn't drink his juice because not everyone had a juice and he didn't have enough for everyone and he didn't eat his apple or cookies because they didn't have snack time. I explained that the apples and cookies were part of his lunch and that the other kids had something else to drink so he could still drink his juice. After a few days we finally got all the kinks worked out.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Calaway Park
Last week we dropped Alan and Conner off at my parents house for them to spend a little time with their grandparents. They did a lot of fun things like going swimming, going to the movies, watching a parade, riding bikes, ect. It was a nice break for me. It was so quiet just having Micah around. It reminded me of when Alan was a baby and it was just he and I. It is so much easier to get out the door and run errands with only one child in tow. Having said that though I did miss them and their fun loving spirits. We met them up there on Wednesday night. We didn't get up there until late because I went to the Y.W. activity (I was called as the Young Women president about a month ago and I felt like I needed to be there). The next day we all headed to Calaway Park. Alan and Conner loved the rides and the adults had fun too.
Conner giving me a thumbs up
Alan the train engineer
Our favorite ride was the log ride. Reed took Alan and Conner down it and I wasn't quite sure how they would do. I almost missed them going down so this was the only picture I got of them:
Alan sat behind Reed so he didn't get too wet but Conner and Reed were pretty wet. They all said it was fun. Then I wanted to go and to my surprise, so did Conner. He couldn't stop talking about the "waterfall" and how he yelled "aaahhhh!". He stood in the long line with us and went again.
We paid for a close up picture of us going down the slide and I love it. It was taken at the same second as the above picture but I can't figure out how to scan it and add it. I love Conner's face - he looks absolutely terrified but when we got to the bottom he was all smiles.
Crash! Conner had a hard time figuring out the controls - he stayed in basically the same spot the whole time although he did turn in circles.
Alan enjoyed driving the bumper cars and crashing into people
On the carousel
After our fun packed day we headed home and soon all the kids were fast asleep. While we were up there we got to go pick strawberries, go to the farmer's market and I got to catch up with my friend Heather.
Our family in front of Cameron falls in Waterton. When we dropped the boys off we spent half the day in Waterton. We did a little hiking, a little sight seeing and a little bit of ice cream eating.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Baby versus cement stairs
The stairs win
Micah decided to try to go head first down our 2 cement stairs in the backyard - ouch. I took this picture after a couple of days so the swelling had gone down.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Cabin Camping
At the beginning of August my parents and Drew came down to meet us and we all went to stay in a cabin for a few days. We stayed in the King Hill's pass cabin. It had electricity which was nice as well as two rooms: one for sleeping and one for everything else. The only bad part of the trip was when my parents and brother got sick with the stomach flu. Before that we got to have a lot of fun. We went for a short hike to see some falls. On the way back we caught some glimpses of the wildlife:
More wildlife, also in a bad mood.
Finally: cheerful one.
We had fun just relaxing by the cabin, playing games and eating good food.
Conner just relaxing by the fire with a juice box
One evening we sent the boys on a dessert hunt. We gave them a clue and they walked along the road until they found a box of graham crackers. Then they followed another clue until they found some chocolate bars. Then they followed the last clue, which brought them back to camp where they found the marshmallows and everything else you need to make smores.
Going on a dessert hunt
Alan and Conner found the marshmallows hanging on the ax, close to the fire pit.
It was a fun time. I was glad we were in a cabin - it rained one day and one of the nights Micah decided he was ready to get up when the rest of us were going to bed so we stayed up with him in the other room for quite a while. We would definitely do that again.
This particular specimen was in a bad mood so we gave him a lot of space
More wildlife, also in a bad mood.
Finally: cheerful one.
We had fun just relaxing by the cabin, playing games and eating good food.
One evening we sent the boys on a dessert hunt. We gave them a clue and they walked along the road until they found a box of graham crackers. Then they followed another clue until they found some chocolate bars. Then they followed the last clue, which brought them back to camp where they found the marshmallows and everything else you need to make smores.
Alan and Conner found the marshmallows hanging on the ax, close to the fire pit.
It was a fun time. I was glad we were in a cabin - it rained one day and one of the nights Micah decided he was ready to get up when the rest of us were going to bed so we stayed up with him in the other room for quite a while. We would definitely do that again.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Housekeeping reminder
A random picture for a random post: pirate Conner and Astronaut Alan playing in their nook
Last week Reed and I watched the musical Les Miserables on t.v. Several of the songs are quite catchy so we found ourselves singing some of them the next day. As we were sitting at the table Reed sang "I know a place were no one sweeps" and Alan looked up and brightly said, "Yeah, me too, the kitchen!" Reed and I started laughing so hard. Apparently I need to sweep the kitchen more often.
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