The Gilbert Family

Christmas!

2012-01-04T09:17:00.014-07:00

This is a going to be a long post because it includes all of the activities leading up to Christmas! A few weeks before Christmas we took the kids to go see Santa at the mall. Last year Conner screamed so I was curious what his reaction would be this year. He was actually really excited to sit on his lap… mostly because he knew he was going to get a candy cane. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas he told him “a green present.” Jayden was the crier this year. Conner told him “It ok baby Jayden.” and held his hand… so sweet!This year Conner wanted to be very involved in decorating the Christmas tree...You could tell which branches he decorated because there would be 5 or 6 ornaments on each one...Jayden helped by taste testing every ornament he could get his hands on. The weekend before Christmas we went with our neighbors to a house outside of town that is decked out with Christmas lights and decorations.The coolest part was that they had a real camel there that you could feed carrots to! If you can’t tell by Conner’s face he didn’t agree that it was cool to be that close to a real live camel.It was FREEZING cold but Jayden stayed toasty in his car seat and looked so cute peeking out! They even had a Santa clause there giving out candy canes!Conner had eaten his candy cane down to a tiny little stub and when he tripped it fell into the dirt. He was SO upset that we had to ask Santa for another one. Conner ate it down to the very end again and when we were walking back to the car he fell again and got it dirty. He cried the entire way back to our car yelling “get another one from Santa!” Besides the candy cane incident we had a ton of fun and I think we will make it a tradition… as long as the people keep doing it year after year!
We spent a few days before Christmas up at our cabin. There wasn’t as much snow as usual so my Dad thought that he would try driving in… bad idea! It took a few hours of shoveling to get the Tahoe out! The kids all geared up to snowmobile into the cabin…Jayden wasn’t too thrilled about all the layers... but didn't mind the snowmobile ride. He fell asleep instantly on the way in and on the way out.Conner LOVED the snowmobile. Every time Nathan would stop he would say “Why you stopping Daddy, keep going!” I even taught him how to drive… since I was the one who taught him I got what I deserved. When I was getting onto the snowmobile Conner gunned it and I flew off the back!
We went back to my parent’s house the morning of Christmas Eve. That night we had a delicious turkey dinner and then acted out the nativity scene. Conner did not want to wear anything on his head until he saw how much praise Kynzee was receiving from being Mary. It didn’t take him too long before he said “I be Joseph!”Afterwards we went out to see some of the Christmas lights. When we got back the Elves had left all of us a present and pj’s. My Sisters and I wearing our new jammies!Conner and Kynzee both got play kitchens for Christmas. (Despite Nathan’s objections… it is ok for a boy to play with a kitchen. Maybe if Nathan would have gotten a play kitchen when he was 2 he would help out in the kitchen more… that’s my theory! ) We set the kitchens up next to each other and the kids were super excited Christmas morning!They would have been happy if that was their only present. But it wasn’t… we were all spoiled rotten! Jayden would have been happy with just the wrapping paper... We could have gone REALLY cheap this year... :)Nathan got a new XBox and kinect and we had so much fun having dance offs! I thought I was pretty good until my Mom showed up and beat everyone... I'm going to have to work on my moves! We had a wonderful Christmas! I couldn't ask for a better family!

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-04T00:57:00.006-07:00

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Nathan’s family in Washington and had a great time… the majority of the time. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. Nathan’s Grandma cooked most of the food and us girls contributed by making homemade rolls and pies. Mmmm… it was delish.Jayden slept through his first Thanksgiving dinner but enjoyed his dinner afterwards… Nathan made sure to feed him a turkey and veggie flavored baby food because everyone should have turkey on Thanksgiving! What a good Daddy!Of course we had to participate in Black Friday but the only big store in Nathan’s home town is Wal-mart so we didn’t have a whole lot of options. Nathan waited in line for two hours and was able to get an Xbox and Kinect. I was in charge of getting the games for the Kinect. They had games that were regularly $49 for only $15! I Iooove me a good deal! I was right up in the front and I got my hands on a copy of Dance Central and turned to leave and this guy… who had not even been waiting in line… ran up and tried to pull it out of my hands. I held on tighter (I wasn’t going to give up that easily!) but he pulled really hard and yanked me to the ground and made off with my game! I can’t believe some people! I saw him later and I said “You STOLE my game!” but he just pretended to be deaf… I was SO mad! It ruined the whole Black Friday experience for me… but I’m pretty sure it won’t stop me from going again next year… I will just be more cautious! The next day the flu started running rampant through the house and one by one we became infected… even those brave enough to visit were unlucky enough to catch it! The kids broke in the new furniture… leather was a good choice! Despite the plague we managed to have a good time spending quality time with family!

This Kid...

2011-11-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

ALWAYS has is tounge hanging out! He is also making funny little faces all the time. He does this fake cheesy smile where he grins as big as he can and squints his eyes. He also clenches is gums together so tight that he shakes... then laughs because he knows it's funny... or maybe because we are laughing as him! He is such a silly little boy and we love him so much!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T10:58:00.009-06:00

Halloween was so much fun this year because Conner was old enough to really enjoy it. The kids got plenty of use out of their costumes and we all felt a little “Halloweened out” by the time Halloween actually got here… or maybe it was just me? Friday night was our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Conner was SO excited about it and kept asking to go. I told him “When you wake up from your nap it will be time to go.” I woke him up from his nap by “flying” around his room wearing my butterfly wings. He sat up with a big smile on his face and groggily said “Cute butterfly wings mama. You can fly!” Conner dressed up as a cute little Elmo… although it was hard to tell what he was because he wasn’t a big fan of wearing his hood.
And Jayden was the most adorable little monkey! Conner was really concerned that Nathan wasn’t wearing a costume. “Where’s Daddy’s costume? What Daddy gonna be?” Nathan told him “I’m going to be a Daddy.” Conner wasn't too impressed with his creativity. We had a ton of fun at the party and Conner was thrilled about all the candy he got. But he wasn't too happy about Jayden checking out his goodies.The bishop gave out apples and after only eating two pieces of candy Conner chose to eat his apple. I can’t get him to eat more than two bites of apple on a regular day let alone on a day when he has a bucket of candy in front of him!On Saturday morning we dressed the kids up and went to a little carnival at the community college. They had a lot of games that Conner had a ton of fun playing. Although we realized that we need to work with him on his throwing skills… he would stand six inches from what he was trying to hit and still miss! At the bean bag game he walked all the way up to the hole and stuck the bean bag in rather than attempting to throw! After the carnival we went over to Main Street where you could trick or treat at the businesses. Conner has an obsession with picking up leaves (ever since we collected them on a nature walk) and I think he ended up with as many leaves in his bucket as he did candy!
On Halloween day Conner got to wear his costume to preschool for a Halloween party. And then that evening we went trick or treating around our neighborhood with our neighbor friends. Conner is best buddies with their little boy Easton and they had so much fun running from door to door. If the person who answered the door was wearing a scary costume Conner would come grab my hand and make me go with him to get his candy. At most of the doors Conner would keep standing on the doorstep after he got his candy awkwardly staring until the person gave him another piece of candy, shut the door, or I went up to get him. We weren’t planning on staying out too long because Conner already had a ton of candy and it was really cold but the kids were having so much fun that we kept going until us parents were too cold! Here he is with his hard earned loot!

Fall Festivities

2011-10-27T12:00:00.010-06:00

While it was still warm outside we took Conner to the little corn maze that they have here in town. Conner had SO much fun! He would randomly start running while yelling “Monsters are coming!” and we would all have to run to get away. We let him choose which way we would go and whenever there was a fork in the path he always chose left... luckily the maze was pretty small so we eventually found our way out. Outside of the maze was a little fire with hay bales around it. Conner insisted on sitting by the fire for fifteen minutes. We kept asking “Can we go yet?” and he would say “Nope, not yet. I still watching the fire.”

Me and Conner hiding in the corn... getting ready to scare Daddy and Jayden!

Jayden loved it too... he pretty much loves going anywhere in the front pack. He giggled and smiled the whole way.

Nathan and Jayden climbing a corn stalk…?

The best part about the corn maze… all you can eat corn!

In the spirit of the season we got a couple of pumpkins to carve. Conner requested that Nathan carve a spider in his and of course he did... being the nice Daddy that he is. When I asked Conner to stick his hand into the pumpkin he told me “I can’t Mom, it too scary. Monsters in there.” (Apparantly monsters are out to get us...)We finally convinced him to help out but he wasn’t super excited about getting his hands all gooey. He told me “It too weird.” Haha!After cleaning my pumpkin and starting to carve my bat Conner and I ditched the project to make Halloween shaped rice krispie treats instead! Nathan was nice enough to finish mine for me! They turned out awesome but I can’t take much credit for them!

It's Times Like These...

2011-10-17T10:27:00.006-06:00

…that show me that Conner really does love his little brother. Even though he steals toys from him on a daily basis and often tells Jayden “stop talkin to me!” I know that Conner loves Jayden and will be a good big brother. I have told Conner lots of times that if he doesn’t hurry and pick up his toys that they will get vacuumed up… and it works about half of the time! Today when I got out the vacuum he yells “Oh no my colored pencils!” and hurries and picks them up. Jayden was still lying on the living room floor and Conner yells “Mommy don’t vacuum up baby Jayden!” I tell him “He better hurry and move out of the way so he doesn’t get vacuumed up huh?” At that Conner got really upset and told me “Mommy put Jayden on the couch! Don’t vacuum him up!” and tries as hard as he can to pick Jayden up. When he couldn’t lift him he almost started crying. I told him “Mommy is just being silly. I would never vacuum Jayden up, I love him too much.” With tears in his eyes he says “Mommy bein silly!” and starts laughing like he knew it was a joke all along! I love that he was so concerned about his little brother! I guess I can see why Conner thought that Jayden was too cute to vacuum up! :)

Building Temples...

2011-10-12T10:37:00.004-06:00

Ever since we went to the Salt Lake temple for Jason’s wedding Conner has been obsessed with temples. When he plays with blocks he doesn’t build towers… he builds temples. I have been corrected for accidentally calling it a tower... “It a temple Mom.” ... whoops my bad. :)
Conner building his “alphabet temple.” He was so proud of it and was so excited to show it to his Daddy. His new favorite activity is drawing. He is always carrying around his markers and crayons. Some of his favorite things to draw are rainbows, Daddy, balloons, shapes, letters, and of course temples. It is quite often that he proudly says "Mommy come see the temple I draw!" :)

Island Park and a Happy 6 Years!

2011-10-11T09:54:00.015-06:00

Saturday was Nathan and I’s anniversary… 6 years! It is crazy how fast time flies! We celebrated by going to Idaho Falls and having my Mom babysit our kids while we went out on a date. We were planning on dinner and a movie but after eating a late dinner we decided we were too tired to go to a late movie and called it a night… proof that we are getting old!

The next morning we drove up to Island Park with my family for a fun weekend at the cabin. It had been over a year since the last time I went up so I really wanted to go. We were worried that it would be too cold but it was actually a really nice weekend. As tradition called for, we went and fed the fish. Conner thought that it was great and would throw whole hoagie buns in at a time and then acted surprised when we ran out of bread really fast. Haha.

I wanted to take a picture of Jason and Laura jumping on the bridge but after three tries this is the most Jason got off of the bridge.. a whole inch! :)

We went shooting but we didn’t bring anything to shoot at. We considered having Teresa be a moving target but we decided to make use of the snow and made snowballs to shoot at instead!... lucky for Teresa!

After posing for this picture Teresa asked “I don’t really have to shoot it do I?” We didn’t let her get off that easy! If you are going to pose with the gun you gotta shoot it! Conner and Kynzee LOVE each other and play so well together. While they were downstairs playing fooseball by themselves Alissa and I hid and listened to them talk. It was so funny to hear their conversation.
Kynzee: “Conner help me.”
Conner: “I can’t Kynzee I not strong!” Jayden and Kayden being their super cute selves! They are both such happy easy going babies. They are going to be best buddies… I just know it!

It was even warm enough to hang outside for a while while we had a fire and roasted hot dogs and made smores. It was Laura's first time ever roasting a marshmallow because they don't have them in Paraguay... that alone makes the trip to the U.S. worth it! :)We had such a great time! We will be spending Christmas up at the cabin too but by then there will be a WHOLE LOT of snow!Happy Anniversary Nathan! You are my best friend and I love you so much! Thanks for an amazing six years! :)

Jason and Laura's Reception

2011-10-02T13:07:00.007-06:00

Two weeks ago we were in Idaho Falls for my brother Jason's wedding reception. The plan was for the reception to be outside but of course it ended of being too cold and windy and we had to move it indoors. Although it didn't go according to plan, everything turned out great and it was such a fun day! I turned my camera as I was taking this picture and I thought that it looked really cool!... totally did it on purpose... :)
We think that Jason and Laura are so stinkin cute together and it is exciting for them to be starting their lives together... ahhh the newlywed stage. It feels like forever ago that we were there. Next weekend will be our 6 year anniversary! Wow, I guess time flies when you are having fun! :)

Update on the Kiddos

2011-09-14T10:39:00.011-06:00

I feel like my kids are growing up way too stinkin fast! In an effort to remember some of the little things I like to write them down into a random list. While I find all of these things quite interesting I understand that you may not! But if you can’t agree that my list is exciting I’m sure that you will agree that my kids are cute and can skip to the pictures! :)

Jayden at 5 months

He is such a happy smiley baby. It was really easy to get Conner to smile too but Jayden is even more eager to smile! He is always looking for someone to grin at. He loves the attention from other kids the best. All Conner has to do is look in his general direction and he starts laughing like crazy! No one can make him laugh like Conner can!

We started feeding him rice cereal. He usually makes a big mess but he loves it!

He is always giggling and cooing. There is no better sound!

He still loves his pacifier although we are trying to wean him off of it because it isn’t that much fun to get up 3-4 times a night to put it back in his mouth.

He just started sleeping through the night! Hallelujah!

He is grabbing at everything. And once he gets a hold of something it immediately goes into his mouth.

He is a big time drooler. The front of his shirt is always soaked and when we lay him on his stomach there is a puddle of drool on the floor.

He can roll over but doesn’t do it very often. He almost always goes from his back to his stomach but rarely goes the other way.

He loves grabbing his feet and sucking on his toes. Yummy!

He has a little bit of “stranger danger” and is sometimes afraid of people he doesn’t know. It is different for us because Conner wasn’t that way until he was a lot older!

He just has such a sweet little personality and he is seriously so much fun right now! This is my favorite age because he is old enough to interact but isn’t getting into anything yet. And I love his big toothless grin!
Conner at 2 1/2

He likes to make up random songs about anything and everything. (such as the “Going to Walmart” song and the “Wearing my Backpack” song) He is constantly singing and I love it!

I have been trying to limit the amount of milk he drinks so that he will eat more food so I sometimes will only fill up his sippy cup half way. Now every time I fill it up he tells me “All the way top mom!” If he wasn't able to observe me filling it he will ask "All the way top?" when I hand it to him.

His favorite color is green. He tells us that it is and when we give him a choice to pick something that is colored he usually chooses green. And his most beloved possession… his blankie… is green.

He has been able to recognize every letter in the alphabet for a while and now knows what sound almost every letter makes.

His favorite food is frozen burritos with melted cheese on top… I wonder who taught him that! He requests one almost daily.

His favorite game is Hide and Seek. When we look around the house and say “Is Conner in the bathroom?” he always gives away his hiding spot by yelling “No! I in the closet!” And he usually only gives us to the count of two to hide before he comes looking for us.

We have been working on potty training him for a while now and it is tough! He understands the concept and is NOT interested. When I try to get him to go in the potty he says “No I poop in my diaper right now. Go in potty later."

If you ask him what his name is he says “Conner Nathan Gilbert.”

When you ask him how old he is he yells “2” while holding up 2 fingers.

We sing him two songs before bed and he always requests “I am a Child of God” and “Once there was a Snowman.”

He calls everyone a “her.” For example… “Where my Daddy? Go find her?”

We moved him into his “big boy room.” Even though he still sometimes asks to sleep in his “baby room” he has done really well! I think that I had a harder time than he did.

He is over his Dora obsession. He used to ask to watch Dora every day and would watch nothing else. Even though he still occasionally asks for Dora he is branching out… his current favorite show is “Max and Ruby.” It is a little bit sad for him to outgrow this stage because it means that he is growing up!

We started a preschool with a few kids in our ward. We take turns teaching and Conner has loved it! Here he is with his new backpack. For some reason he kept asking for a Diego one (which he never even watches or cares about) but there wasn’t one so we told him he needed to choose from the ones that were there. Of course he chooses a purple sparkly doggie one, which we did NOT buy him.

Conner has such a fun spunky personality. It amazes me how much he understands things that we tell him. He is such a big boy!

Jason & Laura's Wedding

2011-09-10T10:01:00.010-06:00

My brother Jason had been engaged to a sweet girl in Paraguay (where he served his mission) named Laura for a few months. We found out that her Visa was approved when we were in Washington and that she would be flying into Salt Lake two weeks from then and that they would get married the very next day! They were hoping to have the Visa approved by the end of July but it took longer than they had planned so they were pretty anxious to get married. We headed up to Salt Lake on Friday and met her for the first time in person (we had all skyped with her) right before they went into the temple. The sealing was great… they were both so happy and make a really cute couple!

The view from our hotel room:Jason wanted us to be able to get to know her better so we all went to Lagoon together the next day. (Not the traditional honeymoon!) We had SO much fun! Since we were bringing four kids I was worried that they wouldn’t want to stay in the strollers all day and that we wouldn’t be able to go on very many rides but I was wrong! The lines were really short so we were able to ride plenty and the kids did fantastic! Conner and Kynzee loved the little kid rides and wanted to go on ride after ride. Conner still tells me that he wants to go back to Lagoon! I felt like a little kid again… getting excited about the rides and about eating dip N’ dots and funnel cakes… mmm.Jason and Laura are so cute together. I’m so glad that Jason found someone that makes him so happy! We love her and are looking forward to getting to know her better. They are having their reception next weekend so more pictures of the happy couple to come!

Washington!

2011-09-08T17:16:00.009-06:00

After our time in Oregon came to an end we headed to Washington to hang out for another week. Although it felt like we were away forever we had fun spending lots of time with family. The kids went swimming on numerous occasions… We took all the kids to the splash park and after going down the water slide once Conner was hooked. He had a huge grin on his face the whole way down and when it was over he said “Water slide, it so fun!” We kept going down over and over again for the ENTIRE time that we were there! After each ride he would get out and say “All done! Go again!” and would immediately get back in line. Luckily I thought it was really fun too! When I said “weee” all the way down it wasn’t just for Conner’s benefit…

We went out to see Grandpa’s cows and I think all of the kids were in heaven… besides Jayden, he didn’t really care…
Conner’s favorite thing was to bump their water containers and watch all of the flies scatter… yuck! The kids played in the cotton seed but Conner wasn’t too interested because he was obsessed with the “tractor” parked nearby.
After visiting the dairy we met up with Grandpa who gave all of the kids a ride on his tractor. Conner has been loving tractors lately so he was a big fan.
One day a few of us adults escaped without children and went cliff jumping at Goose. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I would jump but I ended up surprising myself. We had SO much fun!

On a daily basis the older kids would ask to hold Jayden. Josh especially loved cuddling with him… it was SO sweet!

At the park...Conner was too young to tag along with the older boys but Claire was nice enough to be his buddy. They played outside together and I once found them playing dollhouse...

Oregon Coast!

2011-08-31T09:13:00.008-06:00

Nathan’s Grandma rents a big beach house right on the Oregon coast every other year (although this was our second year in a row... lucky us!) and the whole family gets together for a week of fun. We had a blast this year! I made the mistake of telling Conner about the beach two weeks before we actually went and he talked nonstop about the “big waters” … aka the ocean, the “big sandbox”… aka the beach, and the “fun tub”… aka the hot tub. Every morning and after every nap he would ask “we go beach today?” Every time either Nathan or I would leave the house without Conner he would cry and say “Conner go beach too!” The two weeks finally passed and we loaded our car up... did I mention we need a bigger car... and took off! It was a 12 hour drive to the coast so we decided to break our trip up and stay half way in a hotel. We took Jayden swimming for the first time and he looked very studly in his swimming trunks…

Whenever we go anywhere in town Jayden usually ends up screaming because he hates his car seat so we were really worried about the drive but both kids were little angels and did so good! We did lots of fun stuff so be warned… there are loads of pictures! As usual the beach house had a deck with a spectacular view of the beach! We spent a lot of time down at the beach… chasing waves, building sand castles, and enjoying the view! Last year Conner was fearless... on numerous occasions we had to grab him so he wouldn't be swept out to sea. This year he was a little more cautious of the water. Maybe it was because Nathan watched too many shows with him during "Shark Week"... which happened to be the week before we left... and told him that there were sharks in the water at the beach...

The kids loved the hot tub and requested to swim daily.

One of the bedrooms had a tub almost as big as the hot tub! We started putting kids in to see how many would fit… we didn’t even have enough to fill it! We also hit the outlet malls and shopped until we dropped… or until we no longer could carry all of our bags… We all got matching sweatshirts and had a photo shoot! Of course we did our customary “smore roast” down on the beach.
We went to the aquarium again this year and Conner thought that it was great! Last year he mostly enjoyed running around like crazy... this year he still enjoyed running around... I don't know when that will change... but he at least would stop to look in each tank for longer than two seconds. At each tank he kept asking “where the sharks?”
As the only baby in the house, Jayden got lots of attention. The kids kept asking to hold him, loved making him laugh, and enjoyed “petting” his head.

After the week was over… it went way too fast!… we all headed to Washington for another five days. (Once again the kids were perfect little angels during the drive…well 90% of the time anyways!) Nathan had training in Spokane so we were able to stay at his parents’ house because they only live a couple of hours away. I'm all blogged out but next up: an update about our adventures in Othello!

Fun with the Fam

2011-07-26T08:58:00.000-06:00

While Nathan was away on a business trip the kids and I took off to hang out in in Idaho Falls. We were there almost a week and we had tons of fun! Almost every night Grandpa would take Conner to the gas station to get a pop and a treat. It didn't take Conner long to catch on... he would walk straight to the candy, pick one out, and put it on the counter for Grandpa to get it for him. We made a fire and cooked smores one night. Here is Grandma helping Jayden cook his first mallow.

Conner loves playing in the backyard and would jump on the tramp with anyone that he could convince to join him.

One night we went to the drive-in to watch Cars 2 and Transformers 3. We made a bed in the back of the Tahoe and brought tons of treats. Conner loved it and after eating way too much sugar he passed out about midnight. I was able to go out to eat with a couple of my best friends from High School... I wish we lived closer to each other! I also went up to Rexburg and hung out with Nathan's sister Whitney and her daughter Naomi. Conner was in heaven playing with all of her fun toys!

My cute sister Teresa still lives at home so we were able to do lots of fun stuff together... such as shopping! Jayden thought that Aunt Teresa was pretty funny... here is a video of her making him giggle!

Conner had a blast and still asks everytime we get into the car "Go Grandma's house?" Thanks guys for letting us stay so long and for entertaining us so well!

4th of July!

2011-07-19T16:16:00.010-06:00

Since the 4th fell on a weekday this year we decided to stay in town instead of driving up to Idaho Falls because Nathan had to work the next morning. I was bummed that we wouldn’t be spending it with my family but we ended up having a fun weekend anyway! On Saturday we went to check out the 4th of July furniture sales and ended up with new couches… that’s the problem with “looking!” It was time to replace the old ones because Conner wasn’t too gentle with them. So this time around we went with leather … it is much easier to clean up after a leaky sippy cup! On Sunday our neighbors invited us over to celebrate their little boy’s birthday. He is Conner’s age and they are little buddies. They were also nice enough to invite us over for a BBQ on Monday. After we ate some yummy food we headed over to the fireworks together. I was curious to see if the fireworks would scare Jayden but he just stared with a surprised look on his face.Conner watched for a little while and then was more interested in throwing his pop-its and watching what everyone else was doing. Afterwards we lit off a few fireworks at our house and then we finally got the kids to bed... way past their bedtime!

Since we didn’t come up for the 4th my Mom and sisters decided to come to Twin Falls the day after for a visit. We let the kids play in the sprinklers. Well Conner did while Kynzee ran away from the water.

We walked to the park... I think that we had as much fun as the kids did!
Then we reinacted 4th of July with another firework show... the sparklers were a big hit!

We love it every time family comes to visit... Conner especially loves the attention!

Jayden's Newborn Pictures

2011-07-19T08:47:00.006-06:00

I'm so excited to finally have Jayden's newborn pictures! Now I can display pictures of BOTH kids around the house ... and they'll know that they are equally loved! These were taken when he was only 10 days old by Nathan's sister Whitney. They turned out so cute... I love that he is smiling in this one... that takes talent to capture that!

It's not easy taking pictures of a naked newborn. Jayden peed and even pooped during the session... but it was so worth it because look how cute the pictures turned out! Thanks Whit we love them!

Circus

2011-07-11T10:29:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago the circus came into town and since Nathan’s boss gave us tickets we decided to take Conner and Jayden. Conner thought that the tigers and elephants were great and he kept asking to see lions too.

Before the show started and also during intermission they had a few activities that you could pay to do. You could ride an elephant, ride a pony, get your picture taken with a bear, or go through a blow up bouncy house. The bouncy house had a big frog on top and Conner could not talk about anything else and wanted to go in SO bad. It was 6 bucks to run through four times… We kept trying to convince him that he would rather ride a pony but he was dead set on the “big frog.” We finally gave in and it was so worth it because he had the biggest grin on his face the entire time.

Jayden was pretty indifferent to the whole experience until the motorcycles came out and he decided that he in fact did NOT like the circus… The motorcycles were really loud and everyone was cheering and it freaked him out so I had to take him out until it was over. Afterwards it of course took forever to get out of the parking lot! We kept having to stop and Conner was more impatient than we were.

Conner: “Go Daddy!”
Nathan: “Conner, I can’t go until the car in front of us moves.”
Conner: “Move car! 123… MOVE! Move now!”

It is a good thing that he won’t be getting his driver’s license anytime soon… I have a feeling he will have a problem with road rage!

Jayden's Blessing Day

2011-07-08T08:38:00.004-06:00

We blessed Jayden the last Sunday in June. He looked so cute wearing the same blessing outfit that Conner wore when he was blessed! (I figured that girls want to have their own blessing dress but as boys Conner and Jayden wouldn't mind...)

Nathan gave Jayden a wonderful blessing and I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder and loves his kids so much.

As great as it was to bless our sweet little boy, the rest of the day wasn't that much fun! (a bit of an understatement!) Shortly after the blessing I started feeling really nauseous... I hadn't had time to eat breakfast and I thought that maybe that was the reason... but then I started having pain in my lower abdomen and in my right kidney (I knew EXACTLY where my kidney was from when I last had kidney stones!) The pain kept getting worse so I finally left sacrament meeting and Nathan took me to the hospital. We were REALLY bummed because we had a bunch of family in town for the blessing and we wouldn't even be able to eat with them! But the pain was SO bad... I would much rather give birth to ten kids then go through that again! I got some much needed drugs and after verifying that I was NOT pregnant (whew!) I had a CAT scan. They found that I had a 5 mm stone in the right ureter tube. They said that there was a 75% chance that it would pass on its own and that if it didn't they would blast it. They gave me the option of either staying in the hospital until it passed or going home with some strong pain killers and nausea medication. We were anxious to get out of the hospital because A) it was FREEZING in there! B) I was STARVING... I hadn't eating anything all day! They wouldn't let me because they were worried that I might need surgery. and C) we were bored out of our minds! When we finally got home everyone except for my Mom had already left... we were sad that we didn't get to see everyone for very long. I thought "Why couldn't this have happened ANY other day!" I didn't get hardly any pictures of Jayden because we were going to take them after church. But I do have to say that we were lucky that it happened AFTER the blessing instead of the night before or the morning of... thank you Heavenly Father! But the stone has since passed and I will have another follow -up appointment with the urologist to find out why in the heck I am getting these kidney stones... this is the second time in 3 months! They also saw on the CAT scan that there were 3 more small stones in my kidney but they said they are small enough that they shouldn't even hurt. The urologist said that I may be a "stone maker" and will continue to have them the rest of my life... NOT cool! He also thought that it’s possible that these stones were pregnancy related... so I may get them every pregnancy?! Either way the news is not too good... for me OR the pocketbook!

On a happier note... isn't this the cutest kid you ever did see?

Sorry your blessing day didn't get to be all about you Jayden! We love you so much!

Jayden at 2 Months

2011-06-14T12:58:00.007-06:00

Jayden turned 2 months yesterday! It is crazy how fast time flies. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was ginormously pregnant with cankles and was feeling anxious to meet our little boy. We absolutely LOVE having Jayden in our family. He is such a sweet little boy and already has so much personality. He is so much fun! Here are a few updates on the little man:

He has been smiling at us and cooing for the past two weeks and we can’t get enough of it! (I had a cute video of him but it won’t upload so you’ll just have to imagine the cuteness…)

He weighs 12.6 pounds and is 23 ¼ inches long.

He loves to watch the elephants on his mobile and smile and coo at them.

He is still wearing size 1 diapers but they are getting snug and we’ll need to move him up soon.

He is wearing 3 month clothes. (I felt sad packing up all the clothes that he has already outgrown...)

The hair on the top of his head is starting to come in… no more baby mullet! (We are curious to see if his hair sticks strait up like Conner’s did.)

He is still always sucking on his fists. (For some reason Conner doesn’t like it when he does it. He says “No, Ew!” and pulls his fist out of his mouth.)

I don’t know if I ever mentioned this but Jayden was also born with Nathan’s “crazy toe” gene! (Nathan says that the toes are what let him know that the kids are his… not that there is any reason to doubt it!)

Here are a few pictures of the cutle little boy! Nathan always makes fun of me for taking so many pictures but I want to make sure that I fully document his childhood! (And every time that I think to myself "gosh he looks cute" I take a picture... and that happens ALOT!)

Conner's Tall Tale

2011-06-14T12:03:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Conner told me the biggest fib… His story kept getting bigger and bigger! Our conversation went like this…

Conner : “Crocodile outside! Crocodile open door and scare Conner.”
Me: “Oh no a crocodile scared you?”
Conner: “BIG crocodile! Snap Conner! Scare baby Jayden too!”
Me: “Where did the crocodile go?”
Conner: “Bye bye to store in white car.”
Me: “He took our car to the store?”
Conner: “Crocodile in Conner’s bed! Bite Conner!”
Me: “Are you ok?”
Conner: “Ouch! Eat Conner’s head!”
Me: “On no he ate your head!?”
Conner: “Big crocodile SNAP! Scare Conner!”

He continued to tell me about this crocodile for about 30 minutes and was dead serious the whole time. I’m going to have to be careful with this kid because of his ability to tell lies with a straight face! This is the first crazy story that he has ever told me and I don’t know where he got the idea from… perhaps a Dora episode!? I will need to teach him about the importance of telling the truth but for now it really made me laugh!

A Week in Washington

2011-06-11T23:41:00.010-06:00

We were planning on blessing Jayden last Sunday and as we were preparing to have a full house we got the news that Nathan’s Grandpa had passed away... So we ended up spending a week in Washington instead. Although we are sad that Grandpa Gilbert is gone and that we don’t get to see him anymore in this life we are glad that he is much happier and that he and his wife get to be together again.

Jayden got to meet some of Nathan’s family for the first time and Conner loved playing with his cousins Isak and Lucy. The weather was really nice while we were there so we spent lots of time outside. Conner LOVED playing on Nana’s swing set…

The teeter totter wasn’t as much fun because Conner was so light that he just stayed up in the air with Lucy on the ground.

Conner and Isak jumping on the trampoline with the sprinklers on underneath… clothes were optional.

We walked to the park and I convinced Nathan to carry Jayden using the wrap… he’s a daddy and proud of it! :)

The kids playing in Isak and Lucy’s awesome blow up pool…

Conner wouldn’t put the hose down the entire time and didn’t want to come inside even though he was so cold that he was shivering!

Afterwards the kids warmed up in the bath...

... and Lucy determined that the bubbles tasted delish. :)

Nathan took Conner out for a ride on Grandpa’s tractor and he thought that it was great! He had a huge grin on his face the entire ride!

We also took the kids out to see Grandpa’s cows. Conner loved the baby cows and would go from cow to cow holding out his hand and saying “lick Conner!” He would giggle every time he got licked and would get upset whenever a cow was too shy to come up to him.

Conner had such a great time that he is STILL talking about "Papa's cows!"

One night we convinced the grandparents to watch our kids so that we all could go out on a date. We went out to dinner and saw the new X Men... which was very good by the way! We had so much fun hanging out with everyone!

Besides that we stayed up way too late every night playing kinnect, watching movies, and just hanging out! Although it wasn't the best of circumstances we loved seeing everyone and were glad that we were able to stay for as long as we did!

Memorial Weekend

2011-06-10T10:37:00.005-06:00

Nathan had Memorial Day off so of course we headed to I.F. We hoped to be able to go up to Island Park but there was still too much snow so we stayed in town instead. We still had fun even though the weather wasn’t that great! One day we took the kids to the movie Hop. It was Conner’s first time to the theatre and he loved it and did better sitting still than I expected… although he did get upset when he spilled his popcorn and we wouldn’t let him eat it off of the floor...

Kynzee disappeared into the other room for a little bit and this is what we found when we went to check on her! She was getting pretty for our date to the movies… at least she knows that mascara goes on your eyes!

Jayden got to meet his cousin Kayden for the first time. They are only 4 months apart (and almost have the same name) so we expect them to be buddies!
The best part of the trip was for Conner and Jayden to see Grandma and Grandpa! Conner was SO excited to see them!

Good Times!

2011-05-19T08:28:00.014-06:00

Last week Nathan’s sister Whitney and her daughter Naomi were able to come and visit for the whole week! It was really warm while they were here so we were able to spend quite a bit of time outside. We walked to the park a couple of times and the kids LOVED it! We don’t have a double stroller so Whit let me borrow her wrap to carry Jayden in on our walks and he did really well. (I kinda felt like I was pregnant again…)

Whit and I have been working on quiet books for the kids and we got quite a bit done while she was here… they are more work than I expected but they are going to be awesome when we are done! Here are a few pictures from our week!
Thanks for coming Whit and Naomi… we loved having you!

ABC's!

2011-05-17T11:54:00.018-06:00

Lately Conner has been OBSESSED with the alphabet and loves to sing it. Whenever we get in the car he says “ABC song!” So we listen to the alphabet song over and over again wherever we go. It is a fast version of the song but he loves to sing along and does a pretty good job of keeping up! He also has to point out all of the letters that he sees… on license plates, t-shirts, etc.… and says “ABC’s, ABC’s!” He recognizes almost all of the letters now and even knows what sounds some of them make!

Here he is singing his favorite song!

We are proud of Jayden’s skills too… the obvious one is being super cute! :) He has been smiling while he is awake for a couple of weeks now but he is usually looking past me. Recently I was able to tickle him and get him to smile AT me! I can’t get enough of his cute little grins!

Easter and Other Randomness...

2011-05-02T10:23:00.016-06:00

The Easter bunny was very generous this year… Conner woke up to lots of presents and hidden Easter eggs. He had a ton of fun running around and finding all of the eggs. He kept saying "More eggs!" Afterwards he opened all of his eggs and helped sort the candy into Ziploc baggies.

Here he is checking out his PILE of presents:

He got this cool John Deere lawn mower so that he could help Dad mow the lawn. Conner still asks every few mornings “Easter bunny, eggs, presents?” Although Jayden didn’t participate in the egg hunt he got some cute P.J’s and toys in his Easter basket…

Other random pictures...
Conner wanted Jayden to sit next to him in his beanbag...

Yes, Conner is wearing my nursing cover...
Conner trying on his aunt's old dance costume... his Dad was not home to save him. :)

Jayden wearing the same bear outfit that Conner wore home from the hospital!

Conner:

Nathan's sister Whitney was nice enough to drive all the way up here to take pictures of Jayden and I think that they are going to be so cute! I will post them when I get them... thanks Whit!

Jayden Dell

2011-04-26T11:50:00.005-06:00

He’s here! Jayden Dell Gilbert joined our family on Friday April 15th. Our sweet little boy is already 11 days old… It has taken me a while to post because life is lots busier with two kids. I love my two boys!

Birth Story:

At my appointment on Wednesday the 13th I was dilated between a 3 and a 4 and the doctor said that I would most likely have my baby within 24 – 48 hours. Of course I was super excited but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I started having contractions Wednesday night and all day Thursday but they weren’t regular. The contractions started getting more regular during the night but were still far apart. Early in the morning they started getting more painful and it would wake me up every time I would have one. I finally woke Nathan up at 5:00 and said that it might be time. We didn’t get to the hospital until about 7:30 because we had to find a babysitter for Conner. By then the contractions were really painful and I just about left Nathan and went to the hospital myself. When we got there I was dilated to a 6. The doctor said I may not be able to get an epidural in time because all of the anesthesiologists were in surgery. I informed them that I would NOT be having the baby without my epidural! Haha. Luckily an anesthesiologist was able to come in from home in time. The doctor thought that the baby would be out in just a few pushes but Jayden decided to come out face up so I pushed for an hour and a half. At 10:45 Jayden was finally born. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. He had a little bit of light brown hair and had a little cone head from being stuck in the birth canal for so long. Of course we thought that he was perfect!

The nurses thought that he looked a little pale so they took him to the NICU for an hour for observation. He pinked up so they were able to bring him back to us. We forgot how much newborns sleep! We didn’t see Jayden’s eyes until about 8 hours after he was born. It was hard for him to open them because they were swollen from coming out face up.

We got to come home from the hospital Saturday evening. Jayden in his “coming home” clothes:

Since then…
Jayden has been such a good baby. He still sleeps the majority of the time but we love it when he is awake and is looking around. He has been great at nursing right from the start and I’m thankful for that! He always has his hands up by his face and is either sucking on them or his pacifier. He smiles in his sleep all the time and even laughs occasionally. He is a big time pooper… with most little boys you are worried about being peed on but with Jayden you have to be careful or you’ll be pooped on! Conner has been such a good big brother and gets concerned when Jayden cries. He says “Baby Jayden sad!” He loves giving his little brother lots of kisses. He also gets jealous from time to time and tells us “Baby Jayden in swing” and wants us to put him down.

I love our little family... even if I am outnumbered 3 to 1! :)

Birthdays and Kidney Stones

2011-03-27T22:21:00.008-06:00

A lot of things have happened recently but I suppose I will start from the beginning… Conner and I went to Idaho Falls for my sister and niece’s birthday parties. We decided to make a vacation of it and stayed for almost a week to have some fun. I figured that it would be my last chance to get away for a while before we have little Jayden. We celebrated my sister Alissa's Bday: Conner LOVES to sing "Happy Birthday" and always thinks that he gets to blow out the candles...

After singing he always yells "cake!" (my favorite part too...)

Here is my niece Kynzee, aka the birthday girl. She LOVED being sang to so much that we did it all over again.

Conner helped blow out her candles AND open her presents.

After finding out that the presents were NOT his:

I have the cutest little nephew who LOVES smiling at everyone... love him!

We were also able to spend a day with both of Nathan's little sisters. Conner loved playing with all of his cousin Naomi's toys. He thanked her with a hug:

I was also able to go out to eat with one of my best friends. Conner and I had a ton of fun visiting everyone!

Now for the "not so fun" part:

The morning after I got back I started cramping and feeling sick to my stomach. Later that evening I felt like I had to use the bathroom REALLY bad but when I tried I could only go a little bit and still felt like I needed to go and it hurt. I started having contractions and feeling sick to my stomach. It was 1:00 in the morning when we finally decided to go into the hospital to find out what the heck was going on. When I got in there they tested for a bladder infection but that wasn’t it and found out that I was dilated between a 2 and a 3 and 80% effaced. When I got up to use the bathroom I started having the WORST pain on the right side of my back. The nurses said right away that it was my kidney and gave me some pain medication… demerol is great stuff… and they sent me to have an ultrasound on my kidneys. They found out that my right kidney was inflamed and wasn’t able to send any urine into the bladder. They couldn’t see any stones and wondered if maybe the baby was sitting on my ureter tube. They decided to send me to have a C.T. Scan and found out that there were small stones in both sides and that the baby was probably not allowing them to pass. They gave me two options A. To put stints in the tubes to allow the stones to pass but that there was a great possibility that it would put me into labor and they would have to remove the stints anyway. Or B. To take the pain for as long as possible (he really wanted me to reach 37 weeks… which was five days away) and then he would induce me and let the stones pass. I decided to last as long as I could but it hurt SO bad! The kidney pain was causing me to have contractions and was making me really nauseous. I was having a hard time eating or drinking anything and started throwing up Friday night so we called the doctor Saturday morning and he told us to come into the hospital to be induced. We called my Mom to start driving to Twin so she could be with Conner. While we waited for her to get here the pain in my back started to get better and the nausea went away and I was able to keep food down. We figured that the pain would be returning soon and still went into the hospital. They hooked me up to an I.V. to rehydrate me and told me that the baby must have moved and that the stones may have passed without me knowing, relieving the pressure on my kidneys. The only way to know for sure would be to do another C.T. Scan but didn’t want to do another one because it isn’t good for the baby. Since I was feeling better they didn’t feel good about inducing so early so we came home. (I was relieved and disappointed all at the same time.) They said if the pain came back that they would induce otherwise I’m going to carry this little guy until he is good and ready to come out on his own… and who knows when that will be!

Throughout all of this I learned a few things: I already love this little baby sooo much and was so concerned about him the entire time. I have an amazing husband who loves me so much and I know that he would do anything for me. And I have a sweet little two year old that loves me too. He was so sweet through all of this. He kept saying “mama sick” and would bring me things to help me feel better and was constantly giving me kisses. We are so lucky to have so many people that care about us! Thank you everyone for your prayers!

Conner at Two!

2011-03-03T08:55:00.004-07:00

Conner is growing up way too fast… It is crazy that he is already two! I definitely think that so far this has been the most difficult age because he has such an opinion but it is also so much fun because he understands so much and he is getting really good at communicating with us. For the sake of journaling here are a few things that he is doing right now:

He knows his colors really well and is obsessed with naming off the colors of random things.
He is learning his shapes. He knows star, circle (he usually says “round”), square, and triangle.
He likes us to sing him the alphabet and show him each letter. He knows O, S, W, and Y.
He likes to count objects when there is more than one of something. (He usually skips 4 though…)
Every night, after I lay him in bed, he waves and blows me kisses until I close his bedroom door.
He loves to color and play playdoh. (He has to tell me the color of each crayon and each can of playdoh.)
He loves to sing, especially songs with hand motions. (His current favorites are “Wheels on the Bus”, “I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas”, and “The ABC Song.”)
His favorite show is still Dora and he would watch it all day long if I would let him.
He randomly walks up to the hamster cage and says “oh cute!”
When he asks for something and I give it to him he usually says “Thank you mama.” And I don’t even have to ask!
He is a VERY particular child. He gets upset if I put his black shoes on him when he wants to wear the “white ones.” He will not go to sleep if he is not wearing socks. He gets upset if I do something when it was “Conner’s turn” to do it. He won’t color with broken crayons. He will not take his sippy from Dad when it was “mama’s turn” to fill it up. I could go on and on… I once complained to my Mom about this and she told me that I was the same way. I guess that is what I get! Haha!
He is such a story teller. He will tell Nathan and me about things that happened during the day.
He LOVES to be my little helper. He feels so important when I ask him to do little jobs for me. It is his official duty to get more toilet paper when a bathroom runs out… and he is very proud of himself afterwards.
He insists on saying the prayer every night. It usually consists of “mama, dada, papa, Conner, dada, mama, Conner, Amen!” He will occasionally throw other random people in there.
Whenever I am doing something that makes a loud noise or when he hears something fall he asks “Okay mama?”
Occasionally he will ask “hand?” and will just want to hold my hand while he drinks his sippy or watches t.v. Love it!

Conner is always making us smile and we couldn’t imagine our life without our crazy little boy! I think that the best way to describe his personality is like the commercials for Sour Patch Kids candy…. which I happen to think are pretty funny... “They are sour and then they are sweet.” He can be naughty but then he is so sweet that you can’t stay mad at him very long! We love him sooo so much!

Black...

2011-02-24T10:01:00.002-07:00

I thought that it was supposed to be slimming…

32 Weeks

Only eight weeks left… the end is in sight! The little guy is healthy, strong, and super active. Sometimes at night I swear he is trying to break out of the womb. I’m at the point that I am feeling very uncomfortable and am ready to meet this little guy. On the positive side… the good thing about heartburn is that smoothie flavored Tums are tasty… :) The only thing better than feeling a baby move inside of me is being able to hold that little baby and I can’t wait!

Buddies

2011-02-23T20:05:00.005-07:00

This post is going to be out of order but it’s better late than never! My sister Alissa, her husband Ryan, and their two cute kids Kynzee and Kayden came up to visit two weeks ago. It was such a warm weekend so we were able to take the kids outside to play and for a bike ride. Conner and Kynzee are little buddies and it is so cute to watch them play together. Here are a few cute pictures of them hanging out…

We loved having them here and were so glad that they were able to come visit… we wish that they lived closer so that we could see them all the time!

Conner the Birthday Boy!

2011-02-22T11:41:00.012-07:00

I can’t believe that Conner is already two! His birthday was on Sunday but we celebrated it on Saturday. Conner woke up to his first present of the day: his “birthday mobile.” He loved it and made us push him around the house all morning honking his horn and yelling “GO!” Conner kept saying either “Mama’s turn” or “Dada’s turn”… I let it be “Dada’s turn” the majority of the time.
For lunch we took him to Arctic Circle so that he could play on the toys and he didn’t want to leave even though we had been done eating for a long time.

When we got back lots of family started coming into town. Uncle Kevin, Aunt Lena, and cousins Lucy and Isak came down from Washington. Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Nate came up from Rexburg. Grandma, Aunt Teresa, and cousin Kynzee came up from Idaho Falls. Aunt Chelsea came from Utah. We started the party once everyone got here… we ate pizza and then sang to Conner and ate cake. Conner has really been liking Buzz lately so I went with that theme. (He does like Dora more but a Dora cake would have been way too girly…)

Conner sneaking M&M’s off of the cake… He is the birthday boy so he gets to do what he wants.
I made an ice cream cake but we forgot to take it out of the freezer to let it thaw a little bit. So I let Nathan use his super strong muscles to cut it.Once we started singing “Happy Birthday” to Conner he knew exactly what to do. He started blowing out his candles before we even finished the song.
Afterwards Conner opened up his pile of presents. He had lots of help from Kynzee. (I’m sure that he will return the favor on her birthday.)
He got Toy Story potato heads, a Jack in the Box, Play-doh, books, clothes, a sing along CD, Buzz plate/bowl/cup set, and a Nerf gun. Here is Uncle Kevin showing Conner how to shoot his new gun.

We were glad that so many people were able to come celebrate with us… we had so much fun and Conner loved all of the attention!

Kevin, Lena, Lindsey and Nate were able to stay the whole weekend because Monday was Presidents Day. We had so much fun with them here. We all got Nerf guns and had lots of battles. (We kept finding Nerf darts all over the house.) We played the Xbox kinect… sooo much fun! It was so funny to watch everyone play the dancing game. I even took my turn busting some serious moves! Haha! The girls gave the Dad's babysitting duty and went out shopping. I got a few things for when I no longer have a big belly and extra chub... it might be a while before I can wear them but buying big clothes is not as much fun. Here are a few pictures of our weekend!

Lindsey, Lena, and I

Conner giving Isak a big hug...

Hanging out with Uncle Nate...

Conner is being helpful by washing Lucy's hair...

Thanks for coming everyone! We loved having you here and had a blast!

New Pets!

2011-02-06T14:59:00.007-07:00

Nathan has had a fish tank for most of the time that we’ve been married and I’ve always told him that fish are the lamest pets. His tank was down to two fish so we went to the pet store to buy him more and while we were there I convinced him to put hamsters in the tank instead! That meant flushing his two fish… I thought that it might make Conner sad (he loves the fish!) but he just flushed the toilet, waved, said “bye bye fishies!”, and walked out of the bathroom.

I named my little hamster Gus Gus, from Cinderella… I know that Gus Gus is a mouse in the show but close enough right? Isn’t he a cute little furball?
Nathan named his Skelator, from He-man… good thing he isn’t solely responsible for naming our children!
We got a ball for them to run around in. I wondered how long it would take for Conner to kick it… two seconds! I have a feeling that Conner is going to greatly decrease their life expectancy…

Conner is going to be two years old in just two weeks… he’s not my little baby anymore! I’m a little worried what the “terrible twos” will bring. Conner is already a busy body who loves mischief and definitely has a mind of his own!

Getting into Mommy’s mascara… (Most of it is on his eyelids.)

Getting into the sticky labels...

I love this bath picture because it shows his silly little personality. Lately Conner has been really interested in learning his colors. Some days he knows them really well and gets them all right but some days he thinks everything is blue... either way we think he is pretty bright! I have a video of him coloring and naming the colors of the crayons but for some reason I can NOT get any videos to load!

Conner also is learning to count. We will hear him counting his toys as he is playing with them. Usually it is "One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three..." over and over again but lately he has been counting further. I got a video of him counting all the way to fourteen! But once again it won’t load so you’ll just have to believe me. :)

Diaper Duty

2011-01-26T09:23:00.006-07:00

I heard the door on the entertainment center open so I went to see what Conner was getting into. He had all of the diaper changing stuff out and was changing Dora's diaper! haha!

Wiping

Rubbing on some Desitin... we wouldn't want Dora to get a rash!

Putting on baby powder

And the diaper!

Isn't he going to be the best big brother? Do you think that if I encourage him he will want to change Jayden's diapers for me?

Snow!

2011-01-18T14:18:00.004-07:00

Nathan didn’t have to work yesterday so we went up to Idaho Falls for the long weekend. Nathan went snowmobiling up in Island Park with my Dad and brother-in–law Ryan. I don’t have any pictures from their trip because I kept the camera with me. Even if he’d had it I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t have taken any pictures anyway! But they had a lot of fun up at our cabin playing in the snow.

Back at my house we played in the snow too.

My mom got the kids sleds and my sisters were nice enough to volunteer pulling them around the backyard. I wanted a ride too but for some reason no one volunteered… haha.

Kynzee and Conner "helping" Grandma make dinner while playing with playdoh.

My sister Chelsea turned 21 on Sunday so we had a little party for her while we were there and ate MORE cake! As always we had lots of fun seeing my family!

Happy Birthday Husband!

2011-01-13T09:55:00.010-07:00

Yesterday was Nathan's 28th birthday... wow we're getting old! Nathan gets to go out to eat all the time for his job so he says that he gets sick of it... poor him. So he asked me to make him dinner instead... darn, I don't get to go out to eat all the time! He informed me that it is the birthday boy's choice and I couldn't argue with that!

We tried getting a family shot but Conner thought it was hilarious to keep covering his face.

Finally!

I LOVE this Birthday Boy!

Conner helped blow out the candles... good practice since his b-day is coming up soon!

Of course Conner helped Dad open his presents. He got a few DVD's including "The Other Guys"and the first season of "Modern Family", lots of mountain Dew, Xbox live membership, and junk food. Conner made him a froot loop necklace and colored a card for him.

We didn't do anything too exciting... but we had a nice relaxing evening at home. Later we played "Call of Duty" on the Xbox, killing zombies... not my choice OBVIOUSLY but Nathan was the birthday boy! I think that on my birthday I am going to make Nathan take me shopping and paint my toenails... haha...especially since I will no longer be able to reach my feet!

Yesterday I reached 26 weeks...

I compared it to my 26 week picture from when I was pregnant with Conner... I am SO much bigger this time around!

We are heading to Idaho Falls tomorrow for Nathan to go on a snowmobile trip with my Dad and brother in law. AND for me to spend quality time with my mommy and sisters!

A New Nephew AND Christmas!

2011-01-03T14:03:00.008-07:00

My sister Alissa had little Kayden on December 18th. Since it was a Saturday we headed up that day to go see him. He is SO stinkin cute and is the best little baby!

Conner and Kynzee keeping themselves entertained at the hospital by eating pudding cups.

Nathan headed home on Sunday but I stayed until Wednesday and rode back to Twin with Nathan’s sister Lindsey. I spent the whole time hugging this little cutie.He makes me excited to meet our little guy! I hope these last 4 months go by fast!

On Thursday morning we headed to Washington to spend Christmas with the Gilberts. We had so much fun and,as always, it went by way too fast. We love having the whole family together and Conner loved spending time with all of his cousins. Here they are helping Grandpa leave hay out for Santa's reindeer.

Christmas morning: Family shot + Josh

Josh helping Conner see what Santa left him in his stocking.

Conner understood the concept of opening presents alot better this year but still got frustrated when we wouldn't immediately let him play with his toys.

Conner was spoiled and got lots and lots of toys including a set of farm animals. After he opened them he had to set them all up and tell us the noise that each of them makes. It was so cute!

I feel like I am never in any of the pictures from vacations because I am always the one taking the pictures... I think that this is the only one I'm in!

We spent the whole time eating WAY too much good food. On two of the nights we had big delicious turkey dinners. And one night we even went and ate at Chico's. They have the best pizza because they stack on TONS of toppings. Grandma Grimmett had a big bag of quarters and let the kids play all of the arcade games. We stuck as many kids on the rollar coaster ride as possible to get the biggest bang for our buck. Conner doesn't look too happy about Lucy squeezing in.

While we were there we decided to paint a few rooms in Nathan's parents house. Nathan babysat while the girls painted and this is how he kept them entertained.

Before we left we had to get a picture of all the cute grandkids!

We had a great time and LOVED seeing everyone!

Family Night

2010-12-15T16:11:00.002-07:00

The other night we decided to have a family pajama party. We rented the new Shrek movie and watched it while we ate pizza and shared chocolate fondue. I was worried about the mess Conner would make but I ended up making the biggest mess and dropped a chocolate covered banana on the carpet… at least the carpet is already brown!

Conner's new "BITE!" (as he would say!)
We gave Conner his “Christmas bike” a little early because we didn’t want to bring it all the way to Washington. He loves it… Especially while wearing his hat and gloves. He insists on wearing them around the house at least five times a day... Apparently our house is really cold!

December Happenings

2010-12-10T23:02:00.004-07:00

When I was painting my toenails, Conner wanted me to paint his too! I was only going to do one toe but he kept pointing to each toenail, wanting them ALL painted. He was so excited when I was done and didn’t want to put his socks back on because he wanted to keep looking at them. Good thing Nathan wasn’t home… I don’t think that he would have allowed it to happen! Haha!

Conner has no shame... Look how happy he is to have red toes!

We put up our Christmas tree the other day. Conner liked “helping.” Actually in these pictures Conner is taking the ornaments OFF of the tree and pulling the tops off…

I saved the best picture for last…
My Mom and sister came up to visit so we decided to take Conner to go see Santa. We had gone to the mall a few days before and Santa was walking around passing out candy canes. After Conner got one he said “Ho, Ho, Ho” the rest of the day because he wanted to go back to see Santa to get more candy. So when we went back he immediately ran up to Santa, got his candy cane, opened it, handed Santa the wrapper, and ran back to us to eat it. He kept waving and smiling at Santa… until we tried sitting him on his lap.

His face immediately turned RED… he was not happy! There were a few pictures where he wasn’t crying so hard but Nathan thought that this one was the funniest. When Conner ran back to us he had big tears rolling down his cheeks but when we told him to say bye to Santa he waved and smiled. Both the kid before and after Conner bawled too… poor Santa has the fun job of making little kids cry all day. Maybe next year will be better!

20 Weeks

2010-12-04T12:52:00.002-07:00

Halfway there! I can feel the baby moving all the time and I LOVE it. It is definitely my favorite part about being pregnant. My not so favorite part is having all my clothes getting tighter and tighter... at least that means that he is getting bigger and stronger. We are excited for little Jayden to join our family. We are trying to get Conner used to the idea of having a little brother. Whenever we ask him "where is baby Jayden?" he comes over and points to my tummy. Although he probably doesn't know what that means it is really cute!

It's a....

2010-11-30T12:19:00.005-07:00

BOY!

We are so excited! We had our ultrasound yesterday and saw the little guy for the first time. He kept opening and closing his mouth, it was so cute. He was also flipping around like crazy. The ultrasound tech said “I can’t believe how active he is! I am having a hard time getting my measurements!” She laughed and asked me “Did you eat a whole bunch of candy before you came in or something?” I was like “No, just look at his older brother running around the room yelling… we just have super active children.” (I blame that on Nathan…) Conner was the exact same way in my belly… bouncing around like crazy. I can see it now… two little blondies running around causing all sorts of mischief. I’m excited for Conner to have a little buddy. We are going to name him Jayden Dell. We are already so excited to meet him!

Other News: We have been getting lots of snow and Conner LOVES going outside to “help” Dad shovel the driveway. He doesn’t care how freezing cold it is outside… he wants to be out there! I love how cute he looks all bundled up.

For Thanksgiving we went down to Idaho Falls. Our family is getting so big so we had our own dinner at my parents house. It was delish! My brother in law Ryan deep fried a turkey and my Mom baked one. Nathan was in charge of the gravy. (He did a good job by the way.)

We had TONS of food and it was all sooo good! Conner eating with "Papa".

My Mom got Conner this little shovel so that he can help his Daddy outside and he wanted to test it out.

Nathan and I bravely decided to go “Black Friday” Christmas shopping. It started Thursday night at 10 pm at Toys R Us. We waited in a ridiculously long line for an hour and a half before we decided that it wasn’t worth it… It was freezing cold and I couldn’t feel my feet! We had better luck at all the other stores that we went to. We just waited until about 30 minutes after each store opened to go in and we still got almost everything that we wanted! We didn’t sleep ALL NIGHT LONG! I don’t think I have ever pulled an all-nighter in my life! Later that afternoon I took a 3 hour nap but that was all the sleep that I got until that night. (Nathan only got an hour and a half!) I know that we are CRAZY but at least we got most of our Christmas shopping done and we got a good deal too! I love me a good deal!

Blackmail

2010-11-16T08:05:00.003-07:00

For some reason Conner LOVES wearing my church shoes around the house... He has a thing for heels. I think that he likes the way that they click against the tile.

This video will be great for blackmail later on!

I LOVE this kid!

2010-11-04T11:04:00.004-06:00

Even though Conner is getting more mischievous and sometimes downright naughty we can’t get enough of him! He is so much fun and is always making us laugh. The other day I was walking behind him when he tooted really loud… he grabbed his bum and yelled “WOW!” then he turned around and asked “was dat?” I asked him “Did you poop?” and he said “yeah!” so lately whenever he toots (or hears a toot… not from me…) he yells “wow!, poop!”

His favorite foods are oatmeal and apples dipped in peanut butter. Apparently it was NOT a good idea to give him ketchup to dip his hot dog in.

He loves making cookies with me. He helps by making sure it tastes delicious.

He is sleeping in a toddler bed because he figured out how to climb out of his crib. I was dreading that moment but he has been doing really well with the transition and it only took a couple of nights. Whew!

He has a wind up giraffe that he likes to sleep with. Now he thinks that all stuffed animals are called "faffs."

He loves to climb up on everything! His new thing is to climb up onto something and count “Un, Two Tee!” and jump off. On numerous occasions I have had to catch him from plunging to his death...
His favorite show is Dora the Explorer. He is constantly asking to watch “Worwa.” Nathan suggested I try getting him to watch Bob the Builder instead…

He loves dogs. Our neighbor that lives behind us has a dog and if he can’t see him through the fence he will tell me “ruff, ruff, na-night.”

*Baby Update!*

We get to find out what we are having in 3 1/2 weeks... on the 29th! Wahoo! My doctor said that he won't induce until I am at least a week overdue so we will just have to go about it the old fashioned way. It wouldn't be a big deal but we just need to figure out what we are going to do with Conner until someone can get here to watch him. We are super excited for Conner to be a big brother... even though he has no idea what that even means! :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T11:47:00.007-06:00

Nathan had to go to training in Spokane a few days before Halloween so Conner and I drove to I.F. to hang out. We took the kids to a pumpkin patch (which was basically out of pumpkins) but still had fun taking a few pictures.

Trying to pick up a watermelon,

sitting on a tractor,

and being pulled in a wagon.

My mom teaches preschool and had Halloween parties with three classes. I helped with a couple so Conner got to sit with the big kids and eat treats… he loved it!

We also went to “Boo at the Zoo.” They decorate and light up the zoo and have people passing out candy. We went last year and had so much fun that we wanted to go again this year.

They had a stage set up and were playing music for kids to dance to. We put Conner and Kynzee up there and they had a blast busting some moves!

It was fun but by the end of it we were all freezing and had to come home and drink hot chocolate to warm up. My parents ward had a trunk or treat so Conner got to wear his cute skeleton costume again.

No I didn’t get a very good picture of him wearing it...
He started getting the hang of trick or treating but lost interest partway through and just wanted to eat the candy that he already had in his bucket.

My mom was nice enough to watch Conner one night so that I could go out with three of my best friends from high school. Of course we had tons of fun talking and laughing. I really wish that we all lived closer! I was able to go up to Rexburg to visit Nathan’s sisters Whitney and Lindsey. We took Conner outside to play in the leaves and Whitney got some cute shots of Conner. I will post them whenever I get them from her!
Conner and I came home Saturday afternoon and went to our ward party that night. We did another trunk or treat so Conner got pretty good at holding his basket up for candy.

After that we had some friends over to watch a scary movie… but not too scary! We didn’t take Conner trick or treating at any houses because he had already gone trunk or treating twice.... which I figured was good enough for a 1 1/2 year old. I'm sure that we will go next year... Nathan even said that he would dress up with Conner and already has his costume planned out… haha!

Baby!

2010-10-20T14:47:00.000-06:00

Many of you already know but I thought that it was time for an “official announcement” that we are expecting our second baby on April 20th! I am 14 weeks along right now and am starting to get a belly already. We are so excited and are already anxious to find out what we are having. I think that it would be so fun to have a little girl to dress up but I think that it would be so fun for Conner to have a little brother. I’m glad that the choice isn’t up to me because I don’t know what I would choose! We already have our names picked out for either gender so we are all set! If we have a little boy we will name him Jayden Dell (Nathan’s middle name.) And if we have a little girl we will name her Kailee Sue (My middle name.) We are not sure whether we want to spell it Kaylee or Kailee… what do you think? We get to find out the very beginning of December... let me know what your predictions are!
Another new post below!

Busy Busy

2010-10-20T11:31:00.014-06:00

I think it is about time for an update… we have been super busy lately so get ready for a super LONG post! A couple of weeks ago one of my good friends Alex got married in Idaho Falls so Conner and I went down for the wedding… and also for my little sister’s birthday! I went to my friends “bachelorette party” at Texas Rhodehouse and it was way fun for us to have a girls night out without the kids.

Here are Whit and I with the happy bride. :)
We helped Teresa celebrate her B-day by eating some of her cake.

She was chosen for homecoming royalty so on her B-day she got to ride in a corvette during the school’s homecoming parade.

We took Conner and my niece Kynzee to watch and they loved picking up (and immediately eating) all of the candy that was thrown at them.

Teresa also got to ride out onto the football field during halftime so we went to watch the high school game and it was lots of fun!

She also went to her Homecoming dance while we were there and she looked smokin hot!

We carved pumpkins with Conner and Kynz but Conner wasn’t too sure about touching the mushy stuff inside…

AND THEN two days after we got back from I.F. we flew down to Texas to visit some of our good friends Mandy and Andrew. Here we are on our LONG plane ride there..

Mandy was one of my first college roommates and she actually introduced Nathan and I so we have her to thank! Nathan and Andrew were mission buddies and we both started dating at the same time. We had sooo much fun there! We ate out… A LOT. There are so many good restaurants there and everywhere we ate was new to us. Mandy and I did a lot of shopping too. I actually had to buy a duffle bag to bring home all of the extra stuff that I bought! They have a little boy a few months older than Conner so it was fun for them play and entertain each other One day we went to the Texas State Fair. We took a train ride there…

I couldn’t believe how many random things that you could buy fried! They had fried butter, lemonade, peaches and cream, snickers, Oreos, margaritas, and tons more! Of course we had to try at least one fried thing so I got the fried peaches and cream and Nathan tired the fried snickers. Here is a super attractive picture of him eating it… :)

Conner and Austin fell asleep about ten minutes after we got there… I don’t know how because it was soo hot and super loud!

But when they woke up they loved the petting zoo. It was really neat because they had baby pigs and even a giraffe!

Some other things that we did…

We went to a really cool park that had a bunch of water features.

Conner kept trying to dive in.

We went to the stockyards and walked around. We saw a few horses that Conner mooed at. (Sometimes I think that he is really smart and sometimes I wonder...) :) And we rode a few of the quarter rides.

Kissin a cow...

We took the kids to a spray park. Conner was in heaven because he loves anything to do with water.

Conner getting sprayed in the face! :)

We went to a mall that had a carousel inside… we let the boys ride with the kids. I’m not a big fan of going around in circles.

We took the kids to a place that had lots of big bouncy toys. (I even got to play on them with him... I secretly really enjoyed the slide.) :)

AND we celebrated our 5 year anniversary while we were there so we spent a night in a hotel and went swimming the next morning!

We had a blast in Texas… thanks Mandy and Andrew! We love you guys!

Daddy's Little Helper

2010-09-17T08:55:00.008-06:00

Conner loves helping his Daddy with his chores...

Washing the car...

Mowing the lawn...

If Conner is inside and he hears Nathan start up the lawn mower he says "uh oh, uh oh!" and runs to door and yells "outside!"
Conner even likes to relax like his Dad... with playing a game on the xbox. (apparently Conner plays with his feet.)

Conner loves his Daddy!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-13T13:17:00.005-06:00

We decided last minute to drive up to I.F. for Labor Day weekend. We went to the fair with my family and had a good time.

Feeding a goat...

Waving at a big pig...

Although there were lots of things to see, I'm pretty sure that Conner was most excited about his free balloon...

Conner LOVES playing outside at my parents house because they have a trampoline and a swing set... and lots of people willing to play with him. :)

Conner wearing a cute pair of spongebob PJ's that my mom got for him. :)

Beach Reunion!

2010-09-03T10:53:00.008-06:00

Every other year Nathan’s Grandma rents a beach house on the Oregon coast. Because of school and work, the last time that we were able to go was back when we were engaged. We were so glad that we were finally able to go and to stay the whole time! We had tons of fun… we love spending so much time with family. I must warn you… there will be lots of pictures! We took the kids down to the beach right when we arrived. Conner LOVED the water and had no problem with it being FREEZING cold. Waves would wash over our feet and then Conner would chase the waves back to the ocean happily screaming all the way. The waves were pretty big so we would have to run and grab him before he was swept out to sea.

We checked into the beach house. We were excited about our cute room,

the beautiful view from the deck,

and that it had a hot tub…Yay! Here are Conner and Dad having a good time…

There was a big outlet mall close by so most of the girls spent some time (lots of time…) shopping! I was in need of some new clothes and got some cute stuff… and Oregon doesn’t have sales tax! We also took the kids to the Aquarium and it was fun to see their reactions. Conner would run from tank to tank yelling “fishies, fishies!”

Conner with Nana...

Conner and Josh watching the fish swim below their feet...

A big fish staring at Conner...

Conner checking out a shark...

We packed a picnic and drove to a park that had some really fun toys and a shallow lake. Here is Conner’s big cousin Josh pushing him on the swings…

And taking him to play on the toys… I love it how sweet he is to him even though Conner is so much younger.

Playing in the lake.

We had lots of fun playing Catch Phrase, having Guitar Hero battles, staying up late watching movies, and one night we had a fire down on the beach and roasted some mallows for smores… the kids pretty much stayed up wayyy past their bedtime every night.

I really wish that Conner was looking at the camera in this picture because the sky is so pretty!

We played on the beach a few more times. Conner also loved playing in the sand… and so did Nathan… they built a sand castle with a moat.

Here is Nathan flying his dollar store “Ironman” kite that he “bought for Conner…”

On the last day Conner and Lucy got really sick with a fever and the chills. Conner threw up and we were worried about the long drive the next day but Conner woke up feeling completely better Yay!

The only thing that we did not enjoy was the 12 hour drive to and from Oregon… but we still agree that it was definitely worth the trip! We are excited that we are having a "beach reunion" again next year... we really hope that we will be able to make it!

I'm still not sure who dressed Conner up in the tutu... but look how proud he is to be wearin it!

Island Park Vacation

2010-08-19T08:47:00.006-06:00

We went to Island Park with my family last week and got back on Sunday. We are sad that it is already over because we had so much fun! We headed up to our cabin on Thursday and stopped at Bear World on the way. Conner LOVED it because they had a petting zoo and rides for little kids.

Every time a ride would get over he would sign “more.” Here he is riding a rollercoaster with Grandpa.
The first thing that Conner did in the petting zoo was chase the turkey’s.

When we got up to the cabin we decided to do a little huckleberry picking. My Dad and two little sisters ventured up the hill a ways and I stayed with my Mom and other little sister. After about 20 minutes we heard my Dad yelling “Get back to the cabin NOW! BEAR! RUN!” I don’t think I have ever run that fast in all my life! Haha! My Dad and sisters saw a bear about 20 yards away and said that it looked like it was headed right for us! I’m just glad that they were above us and were able to warn us about him coming. I think that we all had reoccurring “bear attack” nightmares that night!

Anyways… since we survived we were able to go up to Yellowstone on Friday to the IMAX theatre and to the Grizzly Discovery Center where we saw even MORE bears.

And then on Saturday we rented a Jet Ski and a tube. We had TONS of fun! Even Conner loved it…

but he loved playing in the water even more…

That night we went to Yellowstone for some delicious ice cream and to watch a show at the Playmill Theatre. Of course we had to get some of their famous mint fudge... mmmm.

Have I ever mentioned that I love my family…haha they are the best! We had so much fun and are now looking forward to the Oregon coast beach reunion with Nathan’s family. (I have to say that we think that they are pretty great too!) :) We are SO excited to see everyone!

Pictures!

2010-08-16T19:51:00.004-06:00

Nathan's sister Whitney just started her own photography business and needed to build her portfolio...so when we were down visiting the beginning of July we posed for her camera! I just got the disc with all of the pics and am excited that they turned out so good! Here are a sample of my favorites.

If you live in the Rexburg area and need a great photographer check out her website... whitneykathleen.com. Thanks Whit! :)

New Camera!

2010-08-02T16:19:00.010-06:00

Our camera (that we bought waaayy back when Nathan and I got married...) finally died on us on the 4th of July. We finally got a new one so I now have pictures to blog about! To play catch up...here are a few pictures from the 4th. We spent it in Idaho Falls and had lots of fun! We went to the parade that morning, had a BBQ, lit off a few "child friendly" fireworks, got some tatoos, ate a cookie monster, went to the river to watch the firework show, ate at denny's, and then passed out in bed!

Conner kissin on his cousin.... haha these two LOVE each other!

We recently bought ourselves bikes and a little bike trailer to pull Conner in. We have been riding them quite a bit and they have been alot of fun. We made lunches and rode to a nearby park to eat. Here we are on our adventure:

Last week Nathan went to training in Boise for a few days so my Mom and three sisters came up to keep me company. We made homeade pizzas and some chocolaty delicious dessert, stayed up late watching t.v, and drove up to Boise for a night to go shopping and swimming at our hotel.

Conner and Kynzee being their very cute selves....

Me and my sisters being our "not so cute" selves... :)

I love my family...we always have so much fun together!

Update

2010-06-24T16:18:00.010-06:00

Last weekend we were able to go up to Idaho Falls for a visit. We had lots of fun hanging out with family and friends. One night we went out to eat at Famous Dave's and they had this pig mascot walking around...

My niece Kynzee is fearless and walked right up to it but Conner didn't want to get too close...

Conner spent the rest of the weekend getting lots and lots of kisses from his cousin, whether or not he wanted them...She is the most loving little girl...her mom said that in the morning she has to kiss all of the stuffed animals that are in her crib before she'll get out of bed. :)

Besides our trip...

We have grass!

If you look really close... but it will be about a month before we can walk on it...sigh. So we have been going to the park alot lately because Conner LOVES being outside.

We have been busy working on all sorts of home projects. Nathan built these lovely shelves in our garage for our storage. (oh how I love being married to a handy man!) :)

We want to restain our table, chairs, bookshelf, and bed sooo I have been sanding our furniture like crazy! I will post pics when we are finally finished with the massive project. I have also been working on Conner's room. I am all done except for hanging the valance...pics to come... AND I am working on a headboard project. I found this awesome metal piece when we were in Spokane and thought that it would be cool above our bed.

So far I have gotten off all of the rust and primed it...once again I will put pictures up as soon as I'm done and it's up on the wall... I just hope it looks as good as it does in my head! :)

Lately Conner has been OBSESSED with watching his "Baby Signing Time" dvd. He walks around the house singing the theme song and keeps pointing to the dvd player saying "On, On, On." Here he is vegging in front of the t.v. He would watch it over and over again if I would let him.

I guess that it is at least teaching him something ... He is starting to pick up on some of the signs. His favorite is "Please." He rubs his tummy and says "Peeese." It is sooo cute! It is hard not to give him everything that he asks for because he is being to polite! oh and because he is really cute... :)

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-04T15:00:00.006-06:00

We spent our memorial weekend in Washington. Nathan's wonderful Grandma Gilbert passed away and her funeral was on Saturday. Although it all was very sad it was great to see so much family and we managed to have some fun too. On Monday we spent the day playing in Spokane with Nathan's brother and his wife. My sister-in-law Lena's parents were so nice to take our kids for the entire day! We did ALOT of shopping and spent WAY too much money! Since the boys let us shop so much we let them go go kart racing. We finished up our day eating a P.F Changs...my absolute favorite! Conner had some fun too...Here he is enjoying a bath with his cousins. I thought he would be scared with other kids in the tub but nope he loved it!

His cousins also had a blow up bouncy house that Conner liked jumping around and screaming in. If he was a little older I think he would be begging for one too!

On the drive home Conner did great! He slept 5 of the 7 hours so we were pretty grateful! We spent so much time in the car last weekend that I taught him how to sign "more" when he wants another snack...maybe I should teach him a new trick on every long car ride instead of putting on a movie for him like usual...haha!

Conner at 15 Months

2010-05-21T14:33:00.007-06:00

Conner is getting so big and is such a fun little boy…here are some of the things that he is doing right now. It is going to be an EXTREMELY long list so feel free to just skim! I just wanted to write it all down here because I am horrible at writing in my journal. And it will be fun to remember the little things later. :)

He loves music and likes to sing (yes sing) and dance to it.
He is such a little climber. He likes to turn over the laundry basket, climb on top of it, and scream.
He makes “vroom vroom” noises as he plays with his toy trucks.
He loves going outside. We still have dirt for a yard and he likes to walk around on our concrete pad but refuses to step out into the dirt.
He loves slides. He dives down headfirst whether or not someone is there to catch him.
He has 12 teeth. (4 of them molars.)
He discovered that his finger fits nicely into his nostril and will walk around with his finger up his nose.
He loves his blankie and carries it everywhere.
If I ask him “where is my nose” or “eye” he can point to them.
He understands a lot of what we are saying. If I tell him “bring me your shoes” or “ball” or “blankie” he will bring them to me.
He thinks that if he finds his shoes and brings them to me that he automatically gets to go outside.
He loves to take baths. I can’t say the word “bath” unless I plan on giving him one within the next 5 seconds.
His favorite word is “on”. He knows all of the things in the house that turn on and thinks that they ALL need to be on.
He is such a little chatterbox. Mostly talking nonsense mingled with a few real words.
Whenever he spills something he will go get a dish towel, wipe up the spill with it, and then throw it away.
He loves us to read books to him. He will point to something on the page and want us to tell him about it.
For some reason he really likes boys that are a few years older than him. At church a little kid walked past us laughing. Conner got really excited, started laughing too, ran after him, and grabbed onto him trying to give him a hug. The little kid said “Mom! Why is he holding onto me!” haha
When he hears lots of people laughing on TV he will throw his head back and laughs too.
He is very ticklish and laughs hysterically whenever tickled.
Whenever he hears the back door open he yells “dada” and runs to the door.
Every time the cat meows he says “hi” and waves at her.
His eyes are still very blue and we hope that they stay that way.
His toes have not straightened out even though he has been walking on them for a while.
He loves to give hugs and kisses...which we love too!

Sorry if you lost interest partway through…I won’t be offended haha! We are very entertained by Conner and just love him so much! But how could you not love this face?

Two Cute Videos :)

2010-05-17T17:02:00.005-06:00

Conner now has an "extensive vocabulary" of 9 words. :) He can mimick more than that but there are only 9 that he says on a regular basis and understands what they mean. (Unfortunately "Mama" is not included...he used to say it all the time but for the past few months he has been refusing to say it!) I have been trying to get a video of him saying all of them but that is near impossible...haha...so this was the best I could do!

This is Conner's new favorite activity...and Nathan's favorite workout. :)

Lindsey's Wedding

2010-04-29T09:34:00.010-06:00

Nathan's little sister Lindsey got married on April 10th in Rexburg so we went up for all of the festivities. Here they are coming out of the temple; they are such a cute couple!

Conner got to meet his cousins that live in Michigan for the first time and he LOVED his cousin Josh. They would follow each other around and Conner kept wanting to give him hugs. I love this picture of the two of them!

After Lindsey and Nate's reception in Blackfoot we headed home.

We had a different member of Nathan's family come and stay with us Saturday night thru Tuesday night. And then Wednesday morning we headed to Washington for their second reception in Othello. Here is a picture of the good lookin bridesmaids. ;)

While there we had Nathan's sister Whitney take some pictures out on the farm:

And of course we had to visit the dairy where Conner enjoyed his first cow ride...

We had alot of fun hanging out with so much family and it was fun to see how much fun all of the little kids had playing with each other.
Here is Conner and his cousin Lucy having fun being pulled around in a sled. I think we may need to invest in one because it is cheap entertainment and also a good workout!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T10:03:00.004-06:00

This year we had a little easter egg hunt for Conner and he LOVED it! He would hand us every egg that he found for us to open because he wanted to know what was inside. He definitely wasn't very fast though...if there were any other kids on the hunt then he would have only had like two eggs...he will learn as he has siblings that it is important to be quick so you can hoard as much candy as possible! (Yes I had lots of siblings...but luckily I was one of the oldest and therefore fastest...and I wasn't sharin muahaha) :)

1 Year Pictures

2010-04-02T13:23:00.007-06:00

We got Conner's 1 year pictures taken the beginning of March and I got the CD in the mail today. I was really excited to get them taken because the girl is really good...but the session didn't go as well as I'd hoped. When we first got there Conner was being shy and didn't want to smile. When he was finally starting to warm up the photographer told me to stand him up on a little chair. I asked my sister to go over by him to make sure that he didn't fall...but as she was headed over there he started dancing and rocked the chair over. He face planted onto the hard basement floor and skinned his nose and bit his lip! He wasn't a happy camper after that and the last thing that he wanted to do was smile for the camera! We were still able to get a few good shots but I was really bummed that he was so sad the whole time because I love his big smile.

I went with my sister the day before to get her daughters pictures taken and they turned out soooo cute, I'm jealous! I had to post a few of my cute niece here. :)

Conner's New Doo

2010-04-01T07:39:00.004-06:00

Last night I asked Nathan to cut Conner's hair with his clippers. It didn't scare him like I thought that it was going to and he sat pretty still for a one year old. Besides being really short in the back and having a few uneven spots, I think Nathan did a good job!

Although I like Conner's hair better clean cut, one thing I miss about his extremely long hair is waking up to this every morning... :)

March Birthdays

2010-03-31T12:56:00.006-06:00

A week and a half ago we went up to Idaho Falls for our neice Kynzee's first birthday. She looked so sweet in her pink tutu...

Conner didn't get the memo that you are supposed to be nice to the birthday girl because he kept stealing her balloons and her new toys...naughty little boy...

While we were there my father-in-law happened to be in town, and it happened to be his birthday...what a coincidence! so we were able to celebrate with Nathan's family that were in town...sorry no cute pictures of him in a pink tutu for his birthday...

We were also able to go out to eat with one of my bestest high school friends. I'm so glad that she brought along her cute little baby girl! I'm slowly getting excited for another baby...no announcement yet!

It was somewhat warm during our visit (more like us telling ourselves it was warm because it was sunny, but that darn wind!) so we went to the river and fed the ducks.

Crazy Crawler

2010-03-26T14:30:00.007-06:00

Conner crawls like this when he doesn't have any pants on because he doesn't like his knees to touch the cold tile. :) Sometimes I put him on his hands and knees in the kitchen before I get him dressed just to watch him crawl like this because it makes me laugh! Lately though he has been ruining my fun...he just stands up because he discovered his balance and thinks that he needs to be walking everywhere!

Birthday Boy!

2010-02-22T11:40:00.006-07:00

Conner's first birthday was on Saturday and we still can't believe that he is already one! My family was able to come up to celebrate with us. I found a tutorial online on how to make this cake so Conner had a rubber ducky themed party!

I didn't want Conner to destroy the whole cake...I want cake too :)... so I made him his own little mini cake.

I was really excited to see how Conner would like his first cake. He hasn't had a whole lot of sugar yet so I was pretty sure that he would stuff his face but I don't think that he understood that he was supposed to eat it...

He immediately started tearing it apart but he wanted to feed it to Grandpa instead of eating it himself.

Although he did get a few fistfuls into his mouth, he mostly just made a big mess... :)

Conner got spoiled with lots and lots of gifts. Some of the things that he got were a John Deere tool set, Tonka truck, remote control truck, bubble bath blower, forward facing car seat, lots of books, and Disney dvd's.

He loved opening his presents with Grandma and he had lots of help from his cousin Kynzee.

Conner loved wearing his party had because he has been wanting to put stuff on his head lately...he thinks that it is really funny to walk around with a diaper on his head...

He has been getting alot better at walking. He is still wobbly but he is getting a lot more daring and will walk a lot farther.

He always wants to be upright but he can't stand up on his own without pulling himself up on something so he is always walking around everywhere on his knees.

We can't believe that Conner is growing up so fast! Although I miss him being a little baby I can't get enough of his fun personality at this age. I made these scrapbook pages of Conner's first year with highlights from each month of his life:

Happy Birthday Conner! We love you!

Little Talker

2010-02-08T08:22:00.003-07:00

Conner has become quite the little talker and it is so much fun trying to teach him more words. Here are the words that he has been saying a lot lately:

"Uh oh"
"Hot"

Conner has been saying “Uh oh” and “Hot” for the past couple of months and are his FAVORITE things to say! We spent a few days with my Mom a couple of months ago and while we were there she taught him to say “uh oh.” So now he loves throwing his toys so he can say it. It is really cute except for when he keeps throwing things when we are in public. :)

The first word out of his mouth in the mornings is “hot.” He thinks that it means heater and we have little ones plugged in all over the house. When he sees one he says “hot” until I say “yeah that is hot” and then he has to say it about five more times. These words he started saying more recently:

"Mama" (He started babbling “mama” a long time ago but he finally realized that it means me!)
"Dada"
"Tih Tih" Conner loves his kitty and loves grabbing her and laying on her. He thinks it is hilarious when she hits him in the head with her declawed paw. (He will have to be careful with other non-declawed cats!)
"Aaaah duh" He gets excited to say this when he is all done eating in his high chair.

He also knows what “hello?” is but he isn’t very good at saying it yet. He will hold my cell phone (or anything that he has in his hand at the time) up to his ear and say “aaaah?” in the tone of “hello?”

So far these are the words that Conner can say that he knows what they mean. He has become quite the mimicker and loves to copy other sounds and things that we say. A couple of nights ago Nathan burped when we were eating (surprise, surprise) and Conner went “Ecccc” (I don’t know how to spell a burp sound…) to copy him. Haha. Pretty soon we are going to have to be careful what we say around him. :)

Touch and...Lick?

2010-01-26T22:18:00.002-07:00

Conner loves reading books (just like his momma) and his favorite are the touch and feel ones (just like his daddy) :)

He first feels the picture with his finger and if it is anything with fur he has to bend over to lick it…it makes us laugh every time!

I just think of his poor siblings that will be using these books next... :)

House Update

2010-01-25T09:41:00.004-07:00

We are STILL waiting to get into our house. When we first started we were planning on closing the end of December, then we extended to last Friday, and now we are hoping for this week! Everything is practically finished and we are just waiting for our fridge, washer, dryer, and for them to replace the rock on the outside of our house! When rock is put on in the winter they are supposed to tarp and heat it. When they did our house they decided to try a new product that isn't supposed to freeze so they didn't heat it and it didn't work! We already had tons of rock falling off! ggrrr... We hope they hurry because we are sooo ready to move in! We have been living among lots and lots of boxes because I have been packing for the last month...

Here are some pictures of the house that we will someday own: (hopefully sooner then later!) :)

Conner's First Haircut

2010-01-16T20:25:00.006-07:00

We finally took Conner in for his very first haircut. His hair had been at the "overly long stage" for a quite a while but Nathan was afraid he wouldn't look like a baby anymore once we cut his hair. I finally told him that it was time when a little girl in my parents ward asked my Mom if he was a girl! haha :)

His cute "before" picture:Conner and I BOTH got a haircut today...and he did so good! I think that he was really confused by the new situation and that is why he sat really still. (NOT normal!) He kept staring at the lady cutting his hair but he refused to smile at her...

And here is our handsome big boy:

Nathan was right about him looking older but we have to let him grow up eventually, right...sigh. It seems like just yesterday that he was only this big...

But we can't believe how much fun he is right now and we are loving every minute of it. :)

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2010-01-15T14:23:00.005-07:00

Nathan's 27th birthday was on Tuesday and we celebrated it in Idaho Falls with my family the weekend before. My Mom made him his favorite cake and got him his favorite ice cream. Here he is blowing out his many many candles.

Then my Mom babysat Conner so we could go on a date to the movie Avatar in 3D. Here is Conner looking cool in Nathan's 3D glasses. :)

Besides giving Nathan a new house, I got Nathan a hoodie from American Eagle (which looked very good on him... gosh he looks good considering his old age) and lots of goodies (that I ate most of...). Conner wrote his Dad a very heartfelt letter (although I had to interpret the scribbles for him) and allowed him to have the day off of diaper duty.

On Tuesday night we went and ate at a Mexican restaurant. We always joke that he only gets to eat Mexican one time a year because I don't like it! Oh I love Fiesta Ole and any american version of mexican but the real authentic stuff...not so much!

Despite the food we had a fun day. :) Here is our attempt at a family picture...

A Busy December

2010-01-04T12:10:00.003-07:00

I know, it has been forever since I have last posted... but finally an update! The weekend before Christmas we were VERY busy tiling our house. We did our kitchen, the entry way, the laundry room, and 3 bathrooms. We didn't think that it would be too big of a task but boy were we wrong! There were a few long days and late nights but we finally got it done! We started on Friday and got done Monday night. We were so lucky to have family that were willing to come down and help us. We couldn't have done it without them! My Mom and Dad came down and helped us all day Saturday and Nathan's Dad came and stayed the whole time. We really appreciate them! Here we are tiling the kitchen...

And here it is before we grouted it. Conner is taking a nap in his pack and play and he was the best little boy! We loaded him up with lots and lots of toys and put him where he could see us and he was so good and so I was able to help the whole time.

Nathan's Dad did a great job cutting the tile for the upstairs bathroom. I chose to lay the tile on the diagnal and Nathan wasn't too happy because he said that we would have been done a couple of hours earlier if I hadn't...but it looks great doesn't it?

The next weekend we went up to Island Park to spend Christmas at our cabin. We had to snowmobile in and I thought that Conner would be really scared but he just fell asleep. Here he is all bundled up and not feeling too happy about it.
Here is Conner and Kynzee Christmas morning in their Christmas jammies.

Conner is checking out what "Santa" left him in his stocking.

Before Christmas he kept trying to open the presents and he got one all the way unwrapped but on Christmas he got bored after opening the first one.

We had lots of fun and we all got really spoiled. Conner now has a very full wardrobe and lots and lots of toys!

Our Big Boy

2009-11-23T14:45:00.003-07:00

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

2009-11-15T21:37:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-12T08:11:00.003-07:00

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.