Our Big Boy

Conner just turned 9 months old and I can’t believe that he is already so big! We took him to his 9 month appointment today and here are his stats: 18 pounds 5 oz (12th percentile) and 29 inches (75th percentile). The doctor said that he’s not worried but it would be good for him to gain a little more weight. He is already eating a ton so we are just going to start feeding him bacon. :) We couldn’t ask for a sweeter little boy and we can’t believe how much fun he is. Here is an update on Conner:

• He is now pulling himself up on EVERYTHING...and has a few bumps and bruises to show for it. (A glass and metal coffee table was a bad idea.)

• He babbles “mamama” all the time…but still no “dadada"
• He now has 6 teeth and is working on growing a few more. (He keeps reminding us about how painful it is...)
• He is always begging us for a bite of whatever we are eating and I feel bad when it is something that he can’t have because he just stares at our food and smacks his lips and he looks so sad when we don’t share.
• He waves at us all the time and we love it.
• He likes drinking out of a cup…but usually ends up with a wet shirt and leaves floaties in the water.
• He figured out how to drink from a straw. (I was letting him chew on my straw that was in my chocolate milk and when I looked back down I saw that he was drinking it!)
• He is still scooting around everywhere on his belly. We don’t think he’ll crawl on his hands and knees but will go straight to walking.
• Things that make him squeal with joy:
  o The blow dryer
  o The cat
  o Walking out into the wind
  o The sound of running bathwater
  o Escaping into the kitchen (we keep the kitchen blocked off because he immediately goes straight for the garbage can and loves pressing on the lever that opens the lid…not very sanitary)
• He likes the taste of cat food…I usually keep all the doors down the hall closed so he will go down the hall then will turn around and come back. A couple of days ago he went down the hall and didn’t come back for a few minutes. When I went to check on him I saw that I forgot the bathroom door open and he was in there shoveling cat food into his mouth. I had to pry it out of his cheeks and out of his hands…Gross! I had to give him a bath and brush his teeth to get rid of the cat food smell!

Another random story…
At church yesterday there was a 3 or 4 year old boy sitting in front of us. He kept smiling at Conner and was sharing his toy trucks with him. When they got ready to bless the sacrament his mom leaned over and told him to close his eyes. During it he looked back at Conner with his eyes squinted and loudly whispered “Close your eyes!” We thought it was pretty funny. :)

Our House

We found out a couple of months ago that we were going to be staying in Twin Falls so we decided that it was finally time to get a house. We looked at quite a few houses but found that the best option was to build. (Plus I would be able to pick everything out! ) :) We really liked a model home that we went in so we used the floor plan but just tweaked it a bit. The kitchen was kind of closed in so we rearranged it and added an island. We built the third garage all the way to the back of the house so it is now a four car garage. Nathan wanted some extra room so he could have a "workshop" and we will add shelves for storage. We also moved a wall out two feet to make room in the master bathroom for a separate tub and shower. The house will have 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. There are two bedroom downstairs and the other two are upstairs. We decided to build in a new subdivision because the lots were cheap, they are building a church building down the street, there is a park around the corner, and we are a couple of blocks away from an elementary school. They started digging the beginning of October and it will be done either the end of December or beginning of January. They are really fast and I'm glad because we are so so excited! We go out to our lot every couple of days to see what they have done. Here are a few pictures of the progress...




This is where they are at now. They haven't done a whole lot the past two weeks because they are waiting for the electrician to finish up. After that things will start going really fast! We were not sure if we were going to be able to get the first time homebuyers credit because we would have to be living in our house by the end of November which is not going to happen. We were just crossing our fingers that they would extend the credit and they did! Yay for $8,000! (Now I will be able to afford to decorate!) :)

Waving

Conner is now waving at us all the time and we think it is so cute! So far we haven't been able to make him wave at anyone but us (and occasionally the kitty.) Here is a video of him waving at Nathan.

Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween in Idaho Falls and had a great time! We dressed Conner up as Tigger and his cousin Kynzee was Winnie the Pooh. They were a cute pair.

On Halloween night we went to "Boo at the Zoo." The zoo was all decorated, the cages were lit up, and the best part was that there were people all throughout it handing out candy.

Here is Conner with his loot at the end of the day. Since we couldn't let him eat any of it we thought that we would at least let him roll around in it. (We will gladly take care of the eating part.) :)

Idaho Falls Happenings

This is going to be a long and seemingly random post with lots of pictures! Nathan and I were reunited on Wednesday after being apart for 9 days. Nathan once again had training in Spokane and then had a meeting in Boise so Conner and I went to Idaho Falls. (I hate being alone and it is a good excuse to visit family!) Conner and I had tons of fun despite having colds. The following is a recap of the various events that happened during our week away...

My sisters and I made and decorated sugar cookies. The recipe made TONS and so I ate four a day until I came home. :)

Conner got to play with his cousin Kynzee. They are starting to be little buddies. He would scoot a ways and then look behind him to make sure that she was following him...and they love to make each other laugh!

Conner got to meet his new cousin Naomi for the first time. She is so tiny and cute! We love her already. :)

I got to hang out with two of my best friends from high school. It was just like old times (minus having a baby with us). My friend Megan is an amazing photographer and she was kind enough to snap some shots of Conner. I thind they turned out so cute!

Conner has started to babble "mamama". I'm pretty sure that he has no idea what he is saying but it is fun to think that he does. :)

Well... We are off to Idaho Falls again tonight. (I know we are crazy...) Nathan wants to see Naomi and we need to pick up a crib and a front door that we ordered. It will be fun spending Halloween with my family! (Pictures of Conner dressed up to come...) :)

The "Army Crawl"

Conner has been mobile for a while now (he used to roll everywhere he wanted to go) but he just recently started to scoot everywhere on his belly. We don’t think that it will be too much longer before he starts crawling and his main motivation will be to catch our cat Patches. For some reason he has become really interested in being able to play with her so he chases her around the living room all day and it is really funny! Patches knows that Conner is no real threat now but she is going to learn to fear him. :) Here are a couple of videos of Conner trying to play with her. Sorry the heater in the background is so stinkin loud!

Here is another video of Conner getting excited about cornering Patches behind his car seat. Sorry it is so dark! (I realize that all these videos are of pretty much the same thing but I couldn't decide which ones to post so I did them all!... I like to think that everyone is as facinated by my child as I am) :)

We also keep Conner entertained (we also find that it entertains us) :) by dropping a baby puff halfway across the room and he scoots to retrieve it. What a fun game!

Wow 4 Years!

Yesterday was our 4 year anniversary... it is crazy that it has already been that long! We have gone through some big changes this past year. We had Conner, graduated college, Nathan got his first "real" job, we packed up and moved to Twin Falls, and we just started building our first house. To celebrate the big event we went out to dinner at Johnny Carinos (italian restraunts are the most romantic) :) and then watched a movie at home. It would have been nice to go to the theatre but it would have been a task trying to keep Conner entertained on our laps for the whole thing. We had alot of fun anyways.This was our announcement picture... back in our more attractive days. :) Despite the physical changes I love being married, especially since it is to someone as wonderful as Nathan. He is the best Dad who would do anything for his little boy and he is my best friend and is always making me laugh. I love you sweetie!

Multitasking

When Conner was first born Nathan would volunteer to stay up with him until he fell asleep because it was a good excuse to stay up all night playing Xbox. (I didn't care about the reason because it was a nice break for me) :)

THEN... Few weeks old

Nathan still tries playing any chance he can (aka when I say it's ok) but it is getting a little more difficult because Conner loves to grab EVERYTHING in his sight and he thinks that the controler is a great toy. Playing Xbox with his Daddy almost always makes him happy if he is crying. What can I say... like father like son. :)

NOW... 7 months old

New Teeth!

Earlier this month while Nathan was in Washington for training AGAIN, Conner and I spent a week in Idaho Falls with my family. Conner's top two teeth came through while we were there so he is now up to four teeth...a few more and he'll be ready for steak! :) We had lots of fun on our trip except for when Conner's teeth were hurting and he was a little grouch...and Dad got to miss the whole thing... :)

Here he is showing off his new pair of teeth!

My Mom bought Conner and my niece Kynzee cute new jammies so we wanted to take some pictures of them together...but Kynzee was too interested in poking Conner in the eyes and pulling his hair and Conner just wanted to put his feet on her face...

Conner LOVED playing the piano with my Mom...I don't know how he could have any musical abilities in his genes because of Nathan and I. Nathan was actually encouraged by his piano teacher to quit taking lessons. :)



Here is Conner looking snazzy in his new church outfit.

Just like Daddy! :)
One last random thing...Conner has FINALLY started holding his bottle on his own and it is sooo nice!

Animal Overload

We decided to visit Nathan's brother and his wife in Boise over Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we took our kids to the Zoo. It was both Conner's AND Nathan's first time...I know I also have a hard time believing that he has never been to the Zoo! Here are some pictures from our visit. Although Conner would look in the animal cages I know that we were much more excited about it than he was.

Conner's first bareback elephant ride.

Conner and I riding the giraffe slide.

Nathan feeding our only child to the tiger.

It was fun seeing Kevin, Lena, and their kids. We are really sad that they are moving back to Washington...especially since we just found out that we will be staying here in Twin Falls. Now that we finally know where Nathan's job wants him we can begin the search for a house! I am really ready to get our own place. Hopefully it will be in a neighborhood where people won't cut our bike locks to steal our bikes and where our tires won't get slashed...yes both happened to us just since we moved here. I didn't realize that we were going to be living in the ghetto…

Anyways we made it back to Twin Falls on Labor Day in time to go to the county fair… So Conner got to see even more animals! Here he is staring in a cage at some ugly turkeys...thinking "I can't wait until Thanksgiving..."


Ahh and then the reason why we went to the fair... to get a delicious elephant ear! Apparently everyone else had the same idea so we had to wait in a massive line. I normally wouldn't have been patient enough to wait so long but I thought "Hey I only get to eat a giant scone once a year so I'm not missing out!"

I wanted honey butter on mine and Nathan didn’t so we each decided to get our own… BAD IDEA! I forget how big they are and I didn’t want to waste so I tried to eat the whole thing…can you say stomach ache.
It was nice being able to spend alot of time together over the weekend and we had alot of fun too! :)

Crazy Kid

Conner has a crazy little personality that we just love. Yesterday when I was feeding him prunes (he had a bunch up in his nose) when he scrunched up his nose and started sucking the prunes in and out of his nostrils... gross I know...it was so funny because he would do it and then laugh. It is now his favorite thing to do! He did it all day yesterday and today. I tried taking a picture of him making the "piggy face" but he just looks like a devil child so I posted a video as well.

Conner also loves to make a noise that is a mixture of squealing and grunting. It isn't always cute (like when we are pushing him through the mall in his stroller, at church, or on long car drives...) but we think he is so funny.

Despite his craziness, whenever he is around unfamiliar people or places he is a shy baby. If he is anything like his father then he will be sure to grow out of that! I hear stories of him being a hyper active child and I'm a little scared... :)

Lake Tahoe and a 6 Month Old

Conner is 6 months old today...I can't believe how fast he is growing up! His little personality is really starting to come out and he is definately our main source of entertainment. He is such a happy little boy who is full of laughs, giggles, and high pitch squeals. He is constantly making us laugh.

We were able to go to Lake Tahoe with Nathan's family last weekend and we had a really good time. The lake was sooo beautiful!

Even though it was a warm day, the water was freezing cold! Here is Nathan helping Conner cool off in the water.

We went boating the next day and decided to face the freezing cold water and went tubing.

Here is Nathan and his brother Kevin trying to be the one to stay on the tube the longest.
And here is me and Shelby on the tube. (going much slower.):)
We also went on a little "nature hike" to see more of beautiful Tahoe.

We had lots of fun and hope to be able to do it again!