Pre-Christmas Activities

Think I can finish posting about 2009 while it is still 2009? Doubtful, you're right :)

Way back on the 12th we went to Santa's Workshop which is conveniently located right here in Longmont one night each December :) On our walk to the building the boys made snow angels!




Logan was very comfortable talking to Santa. He could have stayed there all night! He asked for a baby doll :)


Connor politely asked if he could see if Santa's beard was real. Santa agreed and Connor gently pulled. The crowd laughed!


Santa's workshop included lots of stations for the kids to make small crafts like a beaded candy cane or reindeer ears to wear on their heads or a small bag of oats and glitter to sprinkle in our yard for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. One of the stations allowed the kids to write their wish lists on postcards for Santa. Here is Connor's!


The next night was Longmont's Holiday Parade and fireworks show. Here are the boys waiting for the floats to arrive on Main Street.


Jeremy and I decided to take a picture of ourselves. After taking the one on the left we looked at the preview on the camera and thought our eyes looked squinty (yeah, I'm making it a word!) so we decided to take another with our eyes wide open :) It makes me laugh just thinking about it!


Logan had a nice little Christmas program with his 3 year old preschool class. The Christmas story lasted all of 30 seconds but Logan was the star! No, not baby Jesus, the real star - the North Star :) He had a construction paper star hat and everything. haha! They also sang happy birthday to Jesus and Feliz Navidad. Here he is with his great teacher, Mrs. Henry!


Connor's school had pajama day on the last day before Christmas break. Here he is in Spiderman gear from head to toe :) Yes, the pants are too short but at least they're not falling down! Do you know how hard it is to find pjs with real drawstrings in boys sizes? Yes, I know I could shorten the elastic myself but I don't for some reason. I bought him a larger size for Christmas and he has to hold them up when he walks! :)

Fiddle the Elf was a huge hit in our home this year. He spends eleven months of the year at the North Pole so we were all sad to see him gone on Christmas morning. Here are a couple of places he chose to hang out after his nightly trips to report back to Santa...
As soon as we decorated for Christmas he found the nearest Santa to hug


He also liked the Advent Calendar

Connor's birthday

It's hard to believe that 6 years ago December 9th our lives changed forever with the birth of our first son, Connor! I am amazed every day at the things he can do and how fast he is learning and growing. Oh I how I wish time could slow down! :)

Connor decided on a Mad Science birthday party this year, having attended two Mad Science summer camps last summer. He had 5 friends from his class and they all seemed to have fun doing science experiments and eating cake :)
Logan trying to use a magnifying glass to look at his fingerprints :)


One of the science experiments the Mad Science guy showed - did you know acetone "melts" styrofoam? Think about that the next time you get your nails done :)


The science themed birthday cake (no, I didn't make this! I like to bake but have no decorating talent)


Being silly posing for photos after all the fun





On his actual birthday we had dinner with Grandma Sue and Papa at Connor's favorite restaurant - Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Connor announced to the staff that it was his birthday and got a free dinner! Then we went to his favorite ice cream place, Glacier, to enjoy some ice cream.

I read back through the posts I did when he turned three, four, and five and they made me cry! So many happy memories in that time :) I miss the "little boy" stuff but the "big boy" stuff is pretty great too. An update to a few things from those posts - "Boy" is still around though Logan talks about him a bit more than Connor these days. Connor still naps a couple days a week which will obviously have to change by the time first grade rolls around! He has always liked school but this year he LOVES it. He is in AM kindergarten but we signed him up to stay in the afternoons for kindergarten enrichment two days a week at the beginning of the year and he's talked us into three afternoons now. If he could, he'd stay every day - weekends too! :) He adores his teachers. I'm lucky enough to be able to volunteer in his classroom every Monday which he loves, of course, and I do too! He loves doing his homework and even asked if they could keep their homework binders over Christmas break since he missed it so much over Thanksgiving break.

He still believes in Santa and Fiddle the Elf has been a big influence this month :) He's totally into the story! Oh, he lost two teeth this year which he handled wonderfully - mom not so much! I'm usually ok with small amounts of blood but for some reason a wiggly tooth sends a chill down my spine! And, of course, he had to lose the first one when Jeremy wasn't there!

He still thinks he's going to marry Rhyann and they're going to have dozens of kids. He says his best friends are Noah, Tyler, JJ, Morgan and Anna. He still enjoys being the center of attention and is so confident and self-assured that it's crazy! He did a dance in front of his whole class on his birthday with no hesitation!

Ok I'll stop now but just wanted to give you a little snapshot at our amazing six year old!

Quickies

Just a few things I don't want to forget to record somewhere...

Last night we went to Santa's Workshop here in Longmont and as we were walking through the frigid weather to get back to our car Logan said "I'm HUNGRY!" I knew we were on our way home to eat dinner so I just said "Oh?" He said "Yeah, I'm hungry for CHOCOLATE!"

We love the new Disney Christmas special that was on ABC last week (and will be on again soon - the 16th I think?) called Prep & Landing. Connor and I have picked up the funny phrases the elves use on there - "This is so TINSEL!" when something is great and "Oh Frostbite!" when something is bad :)

Speaking of frostbite, it has been so incredibly cold this last week or so but that, of course, doesn't keep the boys from wanting to play outside. As I was trying to explain why we couldn't go out to the school bus stop 20 minutes before it was scheduled to be there, I told Connor that we didn't want to get frostbite. When we did finally go out there, he took his gloves off and said "Mom! I don't have any frost bites yet!" Haha! He thought frost bites were like mosquito bites :) Appropriately, the high temperature in Longmont on Wednesday (Connor's birthday) was 6 degrees. The temp matched his age! The low was -17...brrrrrr!

I shoveled our driveway one afternoon after picking Logan up from preschool and he "helped" for a bit but then got cold. I told him he could go in the house and take off his coat, boots, gloves, hat, etc and that I'd be in in just a minute. He went in and moments later opened the door (with only the coat and gloves off) and yelled out to me "I was hungry so I got my own snack. You took too long!" :) Luckily it was just graham crackers and kix cereal!

It just occurred to me that two of these are about Logan saying how hungry he is - we really do feed the kid! He also likes to announce when he's sleepy and will go and lay down in his bed by himself, surrounded by his many stuffed animals and with his thumb in his mouth. :)

November, in a nutshell

Logan's Thanksgiving program - they sang a funny little song where the turkey went "gobble gobble gobble" and "wobble wobble wobble" so we've heard that song about 1000 times now :) It was cute!

Connor's music program - Connor swore for weeks that he "didn't have a speaking part" but I could just tell by the way he said it that it must not have been true. Turns out he got to say the name of one of the songs they sang...he was so proud he pulled one over on me :) Just before the program he told me he was a little scared to be on stage so I tore a corner off a piece of paper and wrote "Fear Not" on one side (a phrase he'd learned from Vacation Bible School last summer) and "We love you!" on the other. He stuck it in his shirt pocket to help him not feel scared. After the first song he stuck his hand in his pocket for a few seconds and then gave me a thumbs up with a huge smile on his face. Priceless. I won't soon forget that moment :) Here are my Dad and Logan waiting for the program to begin...


Crazy Hair Day - Connor's school had crazy hair day and his class won 3rd place! He loved his hair and frequently asks to do it again!


Connor and his friends at the bus stop on crazy hair day

Thanksgiving was at Grandma and Papa's house. Yum! Logan and I made pumpkin pie together and then Connor and I made chocolate peanut butter pie. Both were delicious!


The boys had fun checking out the HUGE rocks unearthed during a recent septic system overhaul...

Fiddle/Elvin - The day after Thanksgiving a mysterious box appeared on our doorstep. Santa had chosen our family as special recipients of the "Elf on the Shelf" (wow has Santa raised the price of this thing recently! It's super popular but, come on...it's doubled since he asked Amazon.com to send it to us in mid-November!). Anyway, Santa sent us an elf who stays with us during the day and then flies to the North Pole every night to report back to Santa how the boys behaved that day because, you know, it's hard to keep track of all the kids in the world, even for Santa. He ends up in a different location every morning so it's a race to see who can find him first! He's been on the tv, hanging from the blinds, on a shelf in the bathroom, on top of the refrigerator, stuck in a candle jar and lounging on the clock, just to name a few! Where will he be tomorrow??


The book that came with him tells his story and explains how the first thing we have to do is give him a name. Connor decided to name him Fiddle which Logan seemed to like too. The next day, though, Logan couldn't remember his name so he's been calling him Elvin ever since :)

The book also explains that we can't touch him because it might cause him to lose his magic and then he wouldn't be able to get back to Santa. Amazingly, the boys have respected this and totally believe that if they touch him bad things will happen. The first few days both boys spent a lot of time talking directly to him and telling him not only what they want for Christmas but also about every little detail of their lives - adorable! Recently, though, they mostly talk to him to tattle on the other brother :) LOL

Tomorrow our oldest baby will be SIX. I'm not sure how that happened, as clearly I have not aged a day in that time (haha), but the calendar tells me it's true. More about this milestone later... :)

Some pics from the end of October

Time. It just goes way. too. fast. It's almost Thanksgiving? When did that happen? :) Here are some pics from around Halloween...
Connor's class had a fun Halloween party and parade


His whole class


Connor and his friend Morgan (who's dressed as pumpkin spice) playing ghost bingo

On the actual day of Halloween Connor woke up with a fever and runny nose so we were afraid that most of our planned activities that day would have to be canceled or shortened. We decided to try the Halloween parade and the boys had so much fun! Their costumes were a big hit. In case you haven't figured it out, Connor was a street cleaner and Logan was a bus. Connor decided quite a few months ago that he was going to be a street cleaner and never wavered so we had to make it happen! The headlights worked (thanks to Papa!), Connor had a flashing yellow triangle on the back of his and Logan's stop sign flashed when he moved! They were so cute!




After some good naps we managed to trick or treat to a few houses. Here are the boys with our neighbor Maddox, who clearly didn't know what to make of their costumes! :)


A few days later (after the fevers subsided) we managed to finally rake and play in the leaves in the backyard!

Just say NO to NaBloPoMo

Yeah, it's November 1st and I'm blogging. Does that mean I'm participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) as I've done for the last two Novembers? No. Somehow I don't think I can stick to it given that so far in 2009 I've only blogged 28 times. :)

The only news around here is the boys have fevers. Again. Yuck. So, they both saw the pediatrician today. Logan is on day 9 of his antibiotics but still has an ear infection, so now he's on a stronger (and much more expensive) antibiotic. Connor has croup and is now on a steroid to help his lungs and a course of antibiotics. Fun times in the Dean house...

Halloween was ok, so maybe I'll post pictures soon. Not tomorrow, though...don't want you thinking I'm going to post every day this month! haha

Edited: Uh, yeah, I just realized it's not even November 1st. So, uh, the whole point of this post isn't so funny anymore. Sigh...

What a difference two days make...

You know how I love leaf pictures given posts of the last couple years but this year has been difficult. Once the leaves here in Longmont really started to change Connor and I got sick, then it snowed, and rained, and before we knew it it was October 26th. There's no real significance to that date other than we watched the news and realized that the weather forecast was calling for a foot of snow! So we quickly loaded up the kids and drove to our favorite trees, hoping that enough of their leaves had fallen to make it worthwhile and that those leaves hadn't been destroyed by a lawn mower or blown away by the wind! I think we got some cute shots.

The first picture I took - Logan was sliding in to lay next to Connor :)


Our little monkeys swinging in the trees




What a goofy look on his face!


Brothers


Connor up in a tree


Logan hugging a tree :)


And then, 48 hours later, SNOW! Lots and lots of snow! I think there's probably 8 to 10 inches so far but it's hard to tell since it's also been pretty windy. All surrounding school districts were closed today except for ours (of course) so when Connor got home we built a snowman!


They did cancel school for tomorrow, though, so we're hoping to have pancakes for breakfast, carve pumpkins, maybe even make cookies!

Update

I'm not sure why blogging is always the first to fall off the to do list but it does...

Connor and I were both sick over my birthday which pretty much sucked. My argument now is that if I didn't celebrate it, I didn't get a year older. Yeah, that's what I'm going with because it makes me feel somehow better for not leaving my bed that day. I still have a lingering cough but Connor bounced right back :)

Here are some pictures from a couple of fun trips to some pumpkin patches over the last few weeks.


Logan on the barrel train ride - he tells us every day that he wants to do that again!




Pumpkins!


Logan making a funny face and Hannah (Kristina's daughter) with her beautiful painted face!


Logan, Connor and Connor's friend Noah walking hand in hand


We should have made a break for it while they were locked up!


Connor loves this cow - it's his favorite part of this pumpkin patch!


Jeremy and Logan breaking the rules in the corn maze by leaving the trail :)


At our other favorite pumpkin patch


Mom! It's too bright to look at the camera! :)




Brothers, pumpkins...what more do you need? :)


We're busily trying to get the boys' Halloween costumes finished this week. Losing a week due to illness was not in the schedule! :) Connor is doing great in Kindergarten and amazes us with his reading progress every day. Logan is doing well too!