Happy Birthday Conner!

Conner’s birthday was last Monday… I can’t believe he is 3! He had been talking about his birthday for the past two months so he was super excited when the day finally came.
On the Saturday before we had a little party for him and his friends. We had a frog themed party because he is very obsessed with the color green and isn’t really into any movie characters at the moment.

We played “pin the fly on the frog’s tongue”, bowling, and had a treasure hunt…. which Conner LOVED and made me do it again and again with him over the next few days.We opened presents… Conner ate jelly beans while he watched his friends open his presents. He got lots of games, puzzles, candy, and painting/coloring stuff... he felt so special that his friends brought him presents!And we ate cake and ice cream... these kids are so cute!

The next day my Mom, two of my sisters, and Conner’s two cousins came into town and stayed the night so that they could be there for the big day. We had a very busy, fun filled day! We started the day by opening Conner’s presents… this kid got spoiled this year! Some of the things that he got were a Cars bean bag toss game, a basketball, a Cars projector book, a Cars art set, a scooter... that he likes to ride around fast and say "Mom, it's a motorcycle!", and a... JEEP!I always wanted a power wheels car when I was little so I am totally living through Conner! The kids were so cute riding around our back yard. Conner LOVES it and wants to drive it even when it is freezing outside!

We had another party for Conner with pizza for lunch and had even MORE cake! We spent the next few hours playing with all of Conner’s fun new toys. After my family had to leave we went to Hop 2 It (a place with lots of blow up bouncy toys) with our neighbor friends and Conner’s little buddy Easton. The boys were in heaven and could have played for hours... Afterwards we got some dinner at Panda Express and then got some frozen yogurt at Kiwi Loco... Conner thought that it was great that he could put gummy bears on his ice cream! Conner was a very lucky boy and will have high standards for next year!

Yippie- I- Yay!

Conner is POTTY TRAINED! After a number of attempts at potty training we were finally successful! We were starting to worry that he would prefer diapers forever! We decided to try something new… we told Conner that the diaper fairy would be coming to take his diapers and would give them to a baby who needed them. (aka Jayden in a few months.) We really hoped it would work because there was no going back! The next morning he ran to the cupboard to check on his diapers… they were gone and in their place were underwear and pull-ups. At first he tried to talk us into going to the store to buy him more diapers but we convinced him that wearing “big boy underwear” was super cool and that we could celebrate by having a “potty party” that night… trying really hard to get him excited about the idea. We took him to the store to pick out more undies, a potty stool, balloons, ice cream, and a movie. It was New Year’s Eve so we rung in the New Year by getting excited about using the potty! It really only took about 2 weeks before he got the hang of it. The biggest obstacle was getting him to poop on the potty… I had to bribe him to sit on the potty by letting him play computer games… don’t judge! He now just goes on his own and we hardly ever have to remind him anymore. My proudest moments are when I hear Conner come out of his room in the morning, go potty, flush the toilet, go back into his room, and shut the door. He is still quite poop shy… he will probably kill me when he is older for sharing so much but it is too funny not to document! He used to make me stand in the bathroom facing away from him and he would randomly yell “Mom, don’t tell me!”… and I have been silent the entire time so I say “Conner, I didn’t say anything.” … he yells back “Mom, stop talking to me!” He now makes me wait in the hall and he closes and locks the door and will only let me back in when he is finished. Haha! So proud of this big boy!

Jayden at 9 Months!

Jayden is at a super fun age right now and has changed so much recently. He has so much personality and I can tell that he is going to be a spunky little boy. He often gets really hyper... he talks, squeals, laughs, dances, and makes the funniest faces. He makes us laugh and we can’t get enough of him! Sometimes... almost daily... I can’t stop squeezing him because he is so gosh darn cute! Now that he is mobile he is all over the place and into everything! We eventually had to replace the books with toys... He still army crawls everywhere… he is getting really fast!... but he rocks on his hands and knees all the time and does the “baby yoga” pose. (bent in half…up on his feet with his palms flat on the floor... can you picture it?)He just started pulling himself up on furniture but he doesn’t know how to lower himself down yet so it can be a little dangerous! He also just started climbing the stairs. He’s only made it up two stairs so far but I think it is time to get out the baby gate!... just after writing this I found Jayden climbing the stairs... he'd made it 3 stairs from the top! I just about had a heart attack! Baby gate is going up A.S.A.P! Some other memorable things about this cute 9 month old!

• He waves and says “ha.” (well he DID… a ton… but recently won’t do it for me anymore!)


• He always is sucking on his upper lip... especially when he is concentrating... and it looks so funny!


• He gets upset when Conner steals toys from him now.


• He loves to throw toys and have us keep bringing them back to him. We have lost many toys, socks, and the occasional bottle at the grocery store because he loves to toss them out of his carseat,


• He loves to mimic us. We shake our head and he shakes his back. He will make the same sound over and over until one of us makes it back…. He gets a big grin on his face and the game continues until he loses interest.


• He is already getting a little attitude… when he is upset and we try giving him something he doesn’t want he angrily throws it.


• He babbles “mamamama” and “dadadada” all the time… love it!


• He LOVES to play with remotes. He is always lunging for them and gets mad if we take them away.


• Has 6 teeth.


• He is already a t.v. junkie. When it is on he will just sit and stare and when we turn it off he looks from us back to the t.v. like he wants us to turn it back on.


• He refuses to keep his socks on. I don’t even bother most of the time because he has them off within 2 seconds of putting them on.


• He is a really good eater…. And therefore a very good pooper…


• Whenever the Xbox is on he is obsessed with touching the button because it glows and makes a little “ding” when he touches it. To keep him from turning it off Nathan entrapped him in his toy basket… and he was pretty excited about it!


• We gave him his first haircut two weeks ago. His hair stuck straight up… really cute… but it was getting really really long so we decided it was time to tame it. He looks so much older now!


• He reaches out for us when he wants to be held and gets so excited when we pick him up that he curls himself over our shoulder, buries his face into our neck, and squeals. I LOVE his hugs!


• He will make his way down the hall into his room to play with his toys... or into the bathroom to play with Conner's potty seat...


• He is a big boy... he wears almost all 12 month clothes!We LOVE this silly little boy!