Life with Connor and Logan

We have a blog?!

2011-10-16T22:02:00.002-06:00

Really? Since when? :)

Yep, it's been almost a year since I posted. Does anyone read this anymore? Doubtful. I thought I had stopped blogging because I was spending more time on Facebook. While that's partly true, I think it's more that I didn't have much to say. I haven't been taking as many pictures and didn't feel like posting about just the positive stuff anymore. I guess better than saying "life sucks" I just didn't say anything at all. And it's not really that we have it that bad...many more people have much larger problems...but you know me, I always say "good" when you ask how I am. If I do say something different it's usually about something temporary like a headache. I never share if something is really bothering me. So really the last year has been ok but full of the ups and downs of life....

Connor was in a big show at the Longmont Theatre Company in December - he was Randy (the younger brother) in A Christmas Story. I think I posted about it a bit when he first got the part. He LOVED it, had no qualms about performing in front of 250 people for 9 shows. But it was a huge time commitment for both of us and I was really glad when it was over. Spending so much continuous time with him and with more adults than kids around really highlighted a lot of the issues I'd been explaining away for years...you know...since he was born. :) So in January we began facing all the problems head on. We started paying for extra tutoring in reading because he was just barely keeping his head above water and not at all enjoying it. We met with his teacher, the principal, the school psychologist and the school counselor. We saw his pediatrician. His teacher filled out paperwork and so did we. All of that took time and, eventually, we all decided (or in our case, admitted) that he has ADHD. Even typing that still breaks my heart. Those letters have such a stigma to them and the last thing I want is for my outgoing, compassionate, happy little boy to be thought of as 4 little letters with a lot of crazy meaning behind them.

But he started a medication to treat it. And guess what? A very different kid emerged. One that likes to read. And write. And draw. And sit still for longer than a minute. It hasn't been without its trials, but medicine was definitely a step in the right direction.

The summer was good. Second grade started and he is making great strides in his schoolwork. Not long ago he told us his eyes water a lot when he's reading and that he thought he needed glasses. We took him to be tested and, sure enough, he is slightly farsighted and could use glasses especially when reading. He picked out the coolest glasses in the place, of course, and loves wearing them. Continuing down that "watery eye" path we also took him to an allergist. Turns out he's allergic to most trees, grasses, cat and dogs. Yep, we have a dog. And trees. And grass. :) They're not bad enough to need allergy shots at this point but we'll keep an eye on the allergy index and use over the counter allergy meds as needed.

And his schoolwork has improved so much that we agreed he could audition for an acting company. He had a great audition and the director thought he was so mature (!) that she placed him in a higher age group!

Now we're dealing with some issues when the medication wears off at night - lots of negotiating, complaining and low self esteem. After dark a switch goes off and he suddenly thinks no one loves him. It's so odd given his usual bubbly, brave and cooperative outlook but is apparently a common side effect. Sigh...

Logan is good :) He started kindergarten after a long debate about whether he would be ready or not. His late July birthday had us wondering for a year or so whether we were making the right decision sending him at 5 instead of "red shirting" him and waiting until 6. Academically I still think we made the right decision - he's reading, writing and doing math much more and better than Connor was at this age. But he has a super sensitive heart and cries easily. He gets tired in full day kindergarten but we're working through it...

Ever since my company cut 15% of our pay and then another 7% of that as cost saving measures for the company a couple years ago, our finances have been totally screwed up. My pay has been restored but we're still trying to recover from the years of less money. Stressful. Jeremy took a second job delivering newspapers so he was sleeping less which made me not sleep as well. Lack of sleep plus money worries do not exactly equal loving romance :) We're working through that too.

So, to sum it all up, I've pretty much felt like a horrible mother and wife for the last year.

Oh I forgot how our dog recently had to have super expensive emergency surgery on a big gash on her neck. She's been wearing the "cone of shame" for a couple weeks now. I can handle blood on my kids but for some reason on Bailey my stomach turns just thinking about it. She has to sleep in her kennel at night because otherwise she spends hours shaking the cone and doing whatever she can think of to get it off. I miss her being curled up next to me on the bed. And now that we know Connor is allergic to dogs we're supposed to be keeping her as far away from his bedroom as possible. :( And put hard flooring in his room, which will cost money of course. It's a vicious cycle.

Well, this post has just been all sunshine and unicorns, huh? That's life, I guess. You win some and you lose some. Here's hoping we win a few more soon...

P.S. I'm sure I'll regret posting this in the morning, so read fast :)

Quick fall recap :)

2010-11-14T21:30:00.003-07:00

Connor is in Cub Scouts and their big fundraiser is selling popcorn. Thanks to all who ordered! Connor sold the most of his entire pack!! As you probably already know, Connor is super outgoing so selling door to door is easy for him. He's not afraid to talk to anyone! He quickly learned that if someone looked like they were going to say no or said they didn't like popcorn that there were alternatives like sending popcorn to the troops or ordering pretzels. :) He won a marshmallow crossbow for his efforts and is supposed to attend a party at some point too.

Our camera gets used the most during fall because I LOVE leaf pictures :) Don't be surprised if you see one as our Christmas card pic!

I was done taking pictures but then Connor posed a few times in the tree telling me exactly when to take the photos and from what angle. He told me these are the shots he wants to keep and that Logan can't have them :)

The most important decision during October is, of course, what to wear for Halloween! Logan flipped through a costume catalog in September and decided that he wanted to be "a box man" AKA the UPS man. He was totally set on it so we went with it! Connor wanted to be a secret agent. He drew many pictures of how the costume should look - all black clothes with a hat and mustache with a white belt, a briefcase and special glasses. We did the best we could :)

Our crazy lives

2010-11-06T08:46:00.002-06:00

Connor started first grade this year and we had heard that this transition could be difficult - more time spent learning and doing it all day 5 days a week. And it was true, of course, the first few weeks Connor came home and zoned out. He would just sit and stare at the wall he was so tired! So we didn't want him to be involved in too many activities outside school so his body and brain could adjust to this new level of work. We signed up for Cub Scouts which only meets 2, maybe 3, times a month so it seemed doable. He adjusted to the demands of first grade and in October we decided to add a gymnastics class - Trampoline and Tumbling - once a week. Connor is a really active, physical guy so it was a good way to get out some of the extra wiggles. Great.

Well then somehow we heard that the Longmont Theatre Company was going to put on A Christmas Story and that they needed boys to audition for several roles. Connor has always loved acting and, since it's a real community theater and he is just 6 years old, we figured the audition would be a good experience for him but that he'd never actually get a part. We had to put together a resume (did I mention he's 6?! ha!) and head shot. Then we went in for the audition. There were LOTS of kids and parents there. Connor was paired up with a second grade girl, Zoe, and given a short scene to read with her. He and I read through it once together, then he practiced with Zoe twice and it was time to read for the director. Once again, did I mentioned he's SIX?? :) He's right at first grade level for reading, still sounding lots of words out, etc so he's not exactly a fast, proficient reader and reading through something just 3 times before performing it seems crazy! He and Zoe had their turn with the director and unfortunately were far enough away from the parents that we couldn't hear what they were saying. I did see Connor point to Zoe's script when it appeared she lost her place. Funny! So they finished reading for him and talked to him for just a minute and we were done, sent on our way and they said they'd call to let us know if any callbacks were necessary - don't call us, we'll call you. :)

We went on about our lives. The very next day, though, the phone rang. You guessed it, he got a part!!! He was cast as Randy, Ralphie's little brother! In case you don't remember the movie (shame on you!), Randy is the little boy who doesn't want to eat anything - his mom struggles to get him to eat by calling him her little piggy and he oinks. Then every time they walk to school Randy is so bundled up that he can't put his arms down and always has to "go wee-wee." He likes to hide behind the couch and under the sink.

Anyway, we were shocked! Performing in this show would mean rehearsals FOUR times a week - a total of about 13 HOURS EACH WEEK! And NINE performances! NINE! I'm not sure what we were thinking, aside from the fact that Connor was SUPER excited and that he loves acting, but we agreed to it.

So our lives have been nothing short of crazy since then - school, rehearsals, Cub Scouts, gymnastics, oh and some eating, sleeping and playing in there somewhere. Did I mention Logan is playing soccer which means practice once a week and a game every Saturday? And that he changed preschools in October? And that I'm co-room mom for Connor's class so I helped plan the Halloween party and collect money to pay for the 2 class parties and teacher gifts? And that I still work "part-time"?? ACK! ;)

Crazy, yes, but also lots of fun :)

Would you like to see Connor perform in A Christmas Story in December? Opening night is his 7th birthday! You can order tickets online here.

Facebook killed my blog posting mojo

2010-08-25T21:19:00.003-06:00

Yep, Facebook killed my desire to compose blog entries. It's just so much faster to post a picture and a one line explanation of what I'm doing at any moment of the day.

So, if you're not already Facebook friends with me, WHY NOT? Everyone is doing it. You know you want to. :) Here's my profile. Joining is free. Yes, I should update the blog. It's a goal but it's far down on the list. So while you're waiting for me to find some blogging mojo, you can find me on Facebook. :) Just remember that if you choose not to be my Facebook friend you're missing little gems like this:

Nikki Marchman Dean Logan: Mommy, you're a queen! Me: Aww, thanks Logan. Logan: And I'm King Soopers! :)
August 19 at 8:59am

See? Pure awesomeness that you can't live without. :)

Logan

2010-05-16T23:09:00.001-06:00

Love love love this picture of Logan I took with my phone today...

Connor has only 7 1/2 days left of kindergarten. :( and :) all at once...guess that would be :S haha

Well Hello :)

2010-05-09T23:33:00.002-06:00

Just sharing some pictures...don't expect too many details! :) LOL

Before the Blue Mountain Talent Show

Easter Eggs!

During Spring Break Jeremy took Connor to a Nuggets game. He LOVED it!

Also during Spring Break we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Here are the boys eating lunch :)

At this very moment I can't remember where this picture was taken...haha

We went to an Earth Day event at NCAR in Boulder. Even though it was super cloudy the views are always amazing!

Logan's class celebrated his summer birthday early and he insisted I take a picture of his birthday crown.

Jeremy, the boys, Grandpa Mark and the Gomez boys went to a Rockies game in April. Fun!

Connor starred as Noodler, the pirate whose hands are fixed on backwards, in Peter Pan. He was an awesome pirate and did a fantastic job! Here he is with his friend Noah and then showing his "backwards" hands :)

Snow in late April...

Connor's teacher, Mrs. Rabenhorst, opening the container Connor and his partner Zach put together for the egg drop. Their egg didn't break!

Connor reading his report on Tarantulas

Kindergarten Field Trip to Sunflower Farms (that's corn falling out of his shoes)

Mother's Day at Lake McIntosh here in Longmont

YouTube

2010-01-16T16:15:00.002-07:00

We have a YouTube channel :) You should check it out because we've uploaded a few videos lately - one from New Year's, a couple of Logan singing and one of the boys at Rope World! Click on the link to view them!

Pre-Christmas Activities

2009-12-26T22:38:00.003-07:00

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

2009-12-21T00:33:00.002-07:00

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

2009-12-12T12:59:00.004-07:00

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

2009-12-08T22:56:00.003-07:00

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

2009-11-15T23:52:00.003-07:00

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

2009-11-02T22:59:00.003-07:00

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...

2009-10-29T00:56:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-20T22:27:00.002-06:00

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!

School Days

2009-09-02T21:02:00.002-06:00

The Saturday before school started we went to a parade in downtown Longmont. There were fire trucks from all over the area and once they were done parading down Main Street they let the kids climb all over them - a little boy's dream come true!

The day before school started I was at work, as usual for a Tuesday, and in a meeting with a coworker who just returned from maternity leave. My mind drifted during the oh so interesting meeting and I thought about my first few times back in the office after Connor was born...and how he was about to start kindergarten now and everything that he's done over the last 5+ years and...I had a hard time keeping it together! I thought for sure I was going to be a mess when the day actually arrived but Connor's extremely positive and outgoing nature was overwhelming that day and his excitement helped us all be excited!
Connor about to go to Kindergarten, Logan about to go to preschool

He wanted to pose like a big boy :)

Lining up and getting ready to walk in the classroom. I'm not sure why he posed like this but it's cute! :)

After Logan's nap he asked me take a picture of him again so here it is!

Connor thought every day of Kindergarten would include a photo op so here's Day 2...

Day 2 was also Connor's first bus ride to school! He told us he's waited his WHOLE LIFE to ride that bus and it was just as good as he imagined it would be! In fact, he was upset that we took him to school and picked him up the first day - he would have been fine riding the bus from the beginning!

Poor Logan has kind of been neglected as far as excitement over school goes but he's liking his new class as well. Two days a week Connor stays for a full day at Kindergarten and each of those days so far Logan begs me to go pick Connor up so they can take naps together. He misses his big bro!

A couple quick tidbits about Logan:

- His favorite new phrase is "you're my best friend" - 3 year olds are just so loving! A reward for making it through the terrible twos I guess :)

- When he feels sad, or at least is pretending to be sad, he makes a pouty face and points to it saying "look...I'm SAD." It's really hard not to laugh at that!

Summer, in a nutshell

2009-08-13T23:49:00.004-06:00

Ok so my goal for getting this up to date was Logan's birthday, then August 1st and now before school starts. The question is, though, at which point do I cut my losses and just start with what's going on right now? Does anyone even read this thing anymore or have we all been sucked in to Twitter and Facebook? :)

Here's a brief* overview of the last, oh, 6 or 8 weeks? Buckle up...
Jonathan, Connor and Christopher in the shirts we made for all 4 boys to wear to the Rockies game on Father's Day. We had a huge group - Papa, Grandma Sue, Grandpa Larry, Grandpa Mark, Ben, Christopher, Jonathan, Jeremy, Connor, Logan and me! :)

My 3 boys watching the game

Jeremy's birthday was spent in our usual fun way! First, the parade in Allenspark. Here are the boys just before getting on the fire truck!

And the boys getting ready to watch the fireworks!

One of our favorite Longmont events is Rhythm on the River in July. Here's Connor on the crazy bungee jumping thingy (the official name, I'm sure)

Logan in a silly pose at Rhythm on the River

One of the big highlights of the summer was a visit from Shannon, Rhyann and Savannah! Rhyann even got to spend a night with us which is officially Connor's first sleepover :)

LOVE this picture!

We went for a walk and baby had to come along. Don't they make a cute family? Haha

Walking arm in arm

upside down

The plan was to have them sleep in the tent in our playroom but it didn't really work out. Neither had slept so close in proximity before and neither could stop talking/poking/etc the other long enough to fall asleep! So, Connor ended up sleeping in his bed and Rhyann slept in the tent. We'll still claim that his first sleepover was with a girl :)

Connor did quite a few little summer camps including some at the Y (soccer, tee ball, swimming), the Lego camp when Christopher was here, a fishing camp through the rec center and a Circus Camp! Here he is with his teacher after the final performance. She used to be a Ringling Brothers performer and the first day when I dropped him off we had to have a really fast discussion about how she was a "little person" and that even though she's little that she was still his teacher, still an adult, and he had to listen to her :)

Logan had a great 3rd birthday on the 23rd too! He got some fun presents and two days of cupcakes with candles :) He's happy to be a "big boy" though we're still struggling with the potty training! He's soooo the baby of the family and taking his darn sweet time getting the hang of it!

We spent the day of Logan's birthday at a water park in Broomfield called The Bay. Here's a shot of Connor coming down a water slide...

Logan and I hanging out at The Bay

I don't have Logan's 3 year old doctor visit stats handy right now but he was in the 80th percentile for both height and weight!

Connor with his friend Amelia just before we watched Kung Fu Panda - a free outdoor movie in the park!

Logan and his baby - he loves her :) He's so going to hate me when he's 15 and discovers that I shared this with others

The boys with their cool face painting at another favorite Longmont event, Art Link.

*Really, that was brief for me...

Ok so that gets us up to the end of July. August hasn't been too exciting yet, thankfully :) Oh, except for the mutton busting at the Boulder County Fair. Yeah, Connor rode a sheep. It only lasted about a second and a half but he had fun! And he got $5 and a mutton busting patch! There are still pictures to download off the camera but maybe you'll see those in October? haha

This summer I took on the task of organizing playdates for all the incoming kindergartners so we've had about 8 playdates so far with kids from each of the three kindergarten classes. We bought all the school supplies last week and Connor is super excited about starting school. We have one last picnic playdate this Saturday, then Back to School night on Monday and the big first day of kindergarten is on WEDNESDAY! EEK! Logan also starts preschool that day. I'm excited for Connor but a little sad that he's so grown up that he's ready for kindergarten. Even though he's been in some sort of daycare/school for years, I'm sure I'll be one of the teary-eyed moms that day since it's such a milestone! :)

A few tidbits I want recorded:

You know how when you're trying to get your kid's attention (usually because they're doing something wrong) you extend their name to include their middle and/or last names? Logan has picked up on this and any time we're not listening to him right away he says "Mommy! MOMMY! MOMMY DEAN! MOMMY DEEEEEEAAAAANNNNNNN!" :)

Out of the blue one day Connor blurted out "I was born to do something that you're not going to allow me to do!" What? Is he 5 or 15? :) Turns out that he thinks we won't allow him to be in a rock band and that's what he was born to do. We've never told him he can't be in a band or haven't supported his performing nature (we did make a stage for him for Christmas after all!) so I have no idea where this came from! Since then he has asked nearly every day for us to sign him up for guitar lessons. Sadly, Jeremy called two people today to see how crazy the cost would be but they both said they prefer to wait until kids are 8 to start guitar and instead point them in the direction of piano first. Well, we don't have a piano to practice on so that's probably out but we'll try to find something musical for him :)

Ok, this is probably the longest blog post ever but that pretty much brings us up to date! Whew! If you're still reading, thanks! :)

Dean Boys part 2

2009-07-11T11:53:00.000-06:00

While the Dean boys were visiting, Grandma Willy and Grandpa Mark also came to visit. We all drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a walk around Sprague Lake and a picnic. For a few days before we went Christopher had been telling Connor about how the hills in Ohio were much bigger than our hills but he took that back at some point when we were driving in the mountains :)

Connor, Christopher, Jonathan, Logan

Eating a snack and watching the ducks who quickly swam over to look for crumbs

Christopher and Connor on the trail

The whole group minus me (taking the picture) and Grandma Willy

Connor and Jonathan holding hands

Connor took this picture of Christopher and it makes me smile!

Waiting for us slow pokes

After a picnic lunch we split up with Jeremy, Logan, Willy and Mark heading back to Longmont and the rest of us (me, Ben, Christopher, Connor and Jonathan) continuing up with the goal of reaching the top of Trail Ridge Road.
An elk we saw along the way

Posing at one of the overlooks

We made it above tree line!

We stopped at a bathroom before the top and decided that was good enough to call "the top" given that we were all gasping for breath after each little walk at the overlooks :) It didn't take long for everyone but me to fall asleep on the way back! (I may have taken a picture of Ben sleeping too but I'll save that for later blackmail! haha)

Tomorrow: pictures from the Rockies game!

Dean Boys!

2009-07-10T23:39:00.001-06:00

Jeremy's brother Ben and their boys Christopher and Jonathan visited us in June. Sadly Naomi had to go back to work before continuing on to the Colorado part of their vacation but we were glad to have at least the boys! With the two adult boys and the four little ones in this house, though, Bailey and I had to stick together :)
Bailey

It was a VERY busy week with the three oldest boys going to VBS for five nights and Christopher and Connor going to Lego camp five mornings! It seemed like we were constantly on the go but with that many boys under 6 it probably would have felt that way no matter what our plans were :) Here are some pictures from the slower times...
Riding in Connor's jeep

Running in the sprinklers and playing in the backyard (Connor and Christopher)

Logan and Connor in a slide at a local park (the park has a water feature which is why their shirts are off!)

Connor at the top of the rope climbing structure at the same park

Just before eating dinner one night

We also went to Rocky Mountain National Park and a Rockies game but I'll drag this whole story out and make you wait for the pictures :)

Peaceful Valley

2009-07-09T20:44:00.000-06:00

On June 7th we went for a hike near Papa and Grandma's house. We weren't sure how far we would make it with the unpredictable weather but we pushed through the graupel* and had a great time! Connor probably hiked about twice as far as the rest of us ("stay on the trail" is such a boring concept!) and Logan only hiked about 5 minutes and rode the rest of the way on Daddy's shoulders.
Taking a break on a big fallen tree

This is one of my favorite pictures so far this summer which is kind of funny since they're wearing jackets and it was about to graupel. :)

* Defined by the handy 9News.com Weather Glossary as "Graupel: Small pellets of ice created when supercooled water droplets coat, or rime, a snowflake. The pellets are cloudy or white, not clear like sleet, and often are mistaken for hail." Yes, it was June 7th :)

Pella Crossing

2009-07-08T21:29:00.000-06:00

We've been trying to have a picnic and go on a hike of some sort every weekend since Memorial Day. Well, that worked up until about two weeks ago. More on that later (ooh the suspense).

Anyway, here are some pictures from our walk around the Pella Crossing ponds near Hygiene. This is where Connor and Logan first discovered the joys of rock plooking. Plooking, you ask? Well, plook is the sound that tiny little rocks make when they're thrown in the water when attempting to learn how to skip rocks :)

Did I say tomorrow?

2009-07-07T23:07:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I said I'd post the answer to the question below "tomorrow". Well, in my world, tomorrow is a new word for a period of time equal to about three of your old fashioned weeks. :)

Beth was correct with her first guess - Logan and Lachlan are boys; Jaana, Reece, and Elliott are girls. Crazy, huh? Reece isn't too surprising (think Reese Witherspoon, of course) but the spelling with a c is a decidedly male spelling, ranking 415th most popular baby boy name in 2008. In case you care, and cause I took the time to look it up so I must share it, Reese with an s was the 154th most popular baby girl name in 2008 (per the Social Security Administration's baby name site). Elliott on the other hand...I can't explain that one.

I have lots of pictures to post and just no time to do it! Here are a few to whet your appetite and hopefully I'll post more....tomorrow. :) Right.

These were taken on Memorial Day on our hike up Bald Mountain. Surprisingly, it was not named after Jeremy after all. LOL

Bleh...

2009-06-15T15:31:00.003-06:00

No posts lately because I have no time and nothing to say anyway.

Furloughs. 'nuff said.

However, Ben and the boys are visiting this week so we're BUSY and my house is overrun with BOYS. Bailey and I are sticking together :)

Here's a fun little riddle for you...

I dropped Logan off at his two morning per week "summer camp" this morning and these were the names of the other children in his class:

Jaana (pronounced Yawn-a, in case you're curious)
Elliott
Reece
Lachlan

Including Logan, how many girls and how many boys were in his class? Answer tomorrow, if I remember to blog :)

School's Out!

2009-05-23T00:27:00.005-06:00

Sigh...no posts for almost a month! Work is kicking my butt. Still. It sucks. And there's no end in sight (a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not always sure).

Here's something happier... :)

After just about 5 1/2 years on this Earth, Connor finally got his first official phone number from a girl! For months now his friend Ally has been giving him sweet love notes every single day. They almost always say:

To Connor
From Ally
Love, Ally

And then there's usually a picture of the two of them, or a heart, or a dog (they play some game on the playground about being dog catchers - who knows)

When I picked him up on Monday, he didn't have a note from Ally but mixed in with his art work from that day was a strip of paper with a bunch of numbers on it. At first it didn't occur to me it could be a phone number; I was just confused because the 3s were backwards and Connor's actually pretty good at writing 3s. Then I realized that the 3s had a 0 between them (our area code) but the numbers after them didn't mean anything to me. I asked Connor what it was and he said "I asked Ally to give me her phone number so we can set up dates this summer."

"Dates?!"

"Yeah, playdates, Mom."

Right. PLAYdates. Yeah.
I had to take a picture of it and, though I don't want to show the whole thing online of course, I have to show parts so you can see how cute it is! Click on it to see a larger version!

Since then I've been joking that it took him 5 years to get the first entry in his little black book because he had to meet a girl who both knew her phone number AND could write her numbers :)

Here are some pictures from Wednesday morning before school. We've been walking around the block on the nice mornings before driving to school and the boys have fun collecting roly polys and trying to spot robins :)

Check out their haircuts! I basically shaved their heads last weekend :) They both love their short hair!

So, school's out for the summer! I volunteered to coordinate playdates for the incoming kindergartners at our elementary school. You know, in my spare time. Should be fun, though. And yes, I typed kindergartners, of which Connor will be one in just 10 short weeks. Yikes!

The boys have various activities scheduled throughout the summer too so we'll be busy. Oh and Jeremy's brother Ben and their two boys will be coming to visit next month which we're excited about!

Warm weather!

2009-04-26T23:47:00.003-06:00

The weather was gorgeous for most of last week and we took full advantage of it! When we got home from preschool on Wednesday the guy across the street was mowing his lawn for the first time this year. Connor remembered that he usually mows with his shirt off but since he kept his shirt on that day, Connor decided that he and Logan should be shirtless.

They love to pick dandelions and bring them to me :)

Posing

Off the deep end

2009-04-26T23:45:00.002-06:00

Connor's swimming has improved a lot lately! Here's a quick video of him jumping off the diving board during swim lessons. Enjoy!

And a picture of him getting ready to dive in...

Signs of Spring

2009-04-22T20:59:00.002-06:00

The weather has been beautiful here the last few days, so we've happily resumed eating as many meals outside as possible. As we were eating dinner on the deck tonight, Connor was telling us about the signs of Spring. Think he said the trees budding? The weather getting warmer? Rain instead of snow? No. According to Connor, owies on your knees are the first sign of Spring. :)

Eggs

2009-04-11T22:42:00.003-06:00

Despite the sickness that is attacking our home yet again, we mustered the energy to dye Easter eggs this afternoon.
Posing before the egg coloring began...

Looking so happy and healthy (really he has an awful cough, runny/stuffy nose and fever - poor guy)

Waiting for the eggs to be just the right shade

Checking the progress

CHEESE

I love dyeing eggs :)

Posing with his favorite egg

I'm not quite sure what he was thinking here but I love the tongue action :)

The finished product

The Easter Bunny will visit tomorrow but we're skipping all other Easter activities. :( Between Connor's full blown cold, Logan's sniffles and my huge headache today, it seems like the best plan...

The plight of the little brother

2009-04-06T15:42:00.002-06:00

The boys were playing a few minutes ago...

Logan fell down and cried.

Connor says "You're alright. You're still breathing. Come on."

Such sympathy :)

March

2009-03-30T23:21:00.003-06:00

Haven't blogged forever. I know.

I've been working A LOT lately. It's crazy. Working more plus getting paid less plus Jeremy and the boys having this whole week off for Spring Break equals one mommy feeling sorry for herself. Sigh. Tomorrow will be better.

Instead of dragging you down with me, though, how about some fun pictures? Pictures make everything better. Look at these cuties...
On a recent trip to the Butterfly Pavilion (thanks to our cool membership Christmas gift! Thanks again Grandma and Papa), guess which of our two little boys touched Rosie the Tarantula? Fearless Connor? Nope. Logan! I was amazed. So was he. He would have done it again but they only let you hold her once per visit.

Though he didn't actually touch the live spider, Connor was able to swindle a Rosie sticker from the tarantula trainer. So, yes, he's wearing a sticker saying he held a tarantula but he was really too chicken to do it. Not that I can comment...our 2 1/2 year old was brave enough to let her walk over his hand and I wouldn't touch her with a 10 foot pole :)

Beautiful flower. Handsome boy. Incredibly blue eyes.

While we were waiting for the butterfly release I took this of the two of us. Not bad :)

Connor wanted to take a picture of Mommy and Daddy. We both made it in the picture... :)

You might remember that we really do up St. Patrick's Day around here. This year was no different! Car parked backwards in the driveway, green streamers, kitchen table chairs rearranged, green milk, and all green snacks in Connor's school snack box were just some of the "tricks" the leprechauns played around our home this year!

Last week we went to Rope World. It's a fun activity put on by a local elementary school. It's usually part of their gym program but a few times a year they open it for the public to enjoy. There are tons of ropes to swing on, climb up, walk across, etc. We've heard about it before but this was our first time to go and I wish we would have gone sooner! Both boys LOVED it and didn't want to leave when the time was up! Logan's favorite was the zip line. I took this right after he zipped from one end of the gym (where Jeremy is standing) to the other. We were nervous the first couple times and the gym teacher made fun of us for being overprotective so from then on we let him do it on his own. We're suckers for peer pressure apparently. He did great, of course. Our baby is growing up.

Connor had a hard time choosing a favorite but really liked crossing the rope bridge. He was terrified to do it the first time but overcame that fear pretty quickly and then couldn't get enough of it!

Pictures

2009-03-08T22:14:00.004-06:00

Some random pictures from the last few weeks...
Another shot of Logan in his swim class. He loves it!

Playing at the Barn Park - we've had such great weather that we can't resist going to the park :)

Climbing on the barn shaped play structure

Playing in the "tree house" together

Making a funny face on Daddy's shoulders

On the tractor together

Our friend Lynsey is an amazing photographer and I totally stole this idea from her :) Of course, if I'd ever let her take pictures of our family her version of this would be much cooler but...we just haven't done it yet! So, you'll have to settle for the extremely amateur version for now...

Logan used to love being tossed in the air but after seeing Connor fly in the air a couple times he would have no part of it!

Wisdom from a 5 year old

2009-03-05T23:34:00.002-07:00

On the way home from preschool this morning, Connor announced "Mommy, only people who live alone should have onions on their pizza. If you have kids you shouldn't have onions anymore." :)

I didn't have onions for breakfast, in case you're wondering. I'm not sure where that comment came from - one minute we were talking about what he learned at school and the next we abruptly switched to who should eat onions when...

Life has been a little rough lately, thus the lack of posts, but I'll try to be better about it. I do have some pictures to post - maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow! :)

Kids Questions

2009-02-24T20:31:00.002-07:00

This is one of those memes floating around Facebook these days. I just think these things are so darn cute and I'm having a bad day so I thought doing this one would cheer me up a bit. It worked, so I'm posting it here too for all you non-Facebook users can enjoy as well (by the way, why aren't you on Facebook? Everybody's doing it! haha :) )

These answers are from Connor...with some comments from me!

1. What is something mom always says to you?
You love me

2. What makes mom happy?
When I give you warm hugs and snuggle

3. What makes mom sad?
When people are mean to you

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By tickling me - Tickle me and you'll see!

5. What was your mom like as a child?
No glasses

6. How old is your mom?
17 [YES!]

7. How tall is your mom?
I need a measuring thing

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
grown up shows that are BORING

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Draw numbers and use a computer and work for people

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
an artist that paints [Uh, right]

11. What is your mom really good at?
not spilling your orange juice [Wow, I've learned so much in my 17 years]

12. What is your mom not very good at?
riding your bike with a helmet [I got a bike for my birthday last year but still haven't gotten a helmet - oops! I only rode it a couple times before the first snow but he clearly remembers that I didn't have a helmet...]

13. What does your mom do for her job?
you color and then you talk on the phone and help people

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
psquetti [That's actually right]

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
When you do good stuff for me. When I ask you to do stuff, you do it just like I said. You obey. [Hmmm...]

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Ratatouille - you'd be the chef [at least I'm not the rat!]

17. What do you and your mom do together?
We play games and sometimes ride our bikes

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have white skin

19. How are you and your mom different?
I don't have glasses but you do

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
When you tell me every time I get out of time out [Yikes, he's really not in time out that much but I take this as "you love me even when I make bad choices" which makes me feel better...haha]

21. What does your mom like most about your Dad?
When you guys play games [LOL]

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
The panda place [He means Panda Express and I actually really dislike that place - Connor, on the other hand, LOVES it!]

Connor is Special!

2009-02-23T20:59:00.003-07:00

Each of the kids in Connor's Pre-K class has been assigned a day where they get to share all about themselves, bring in pictures of their family, etc. Connor's day is tomorrow so in preparation for it we had to fill out a little booklet of information about him. He wrote the shorter answers and told me what to write for the longer ones. Here are his answers:

My name is Connor! I am 5 years old. My birthday is 12/9/03. I will be 6 years old. To celebrate my birthday, I would like to have a party at the gymnastics place. I want balloons and a pirate cake with a real treasure box and rainbow sprinkles.

My favorite color is PURPLE. (with a backwards E - so cute!)
My favorite games are gymnastics, t-ball, soccer and freeze tag.
My eyes are brown.
My hair is blonde.

My Family

There are 5 people in my family. They are Connor, Daddy, Mommy, Logan and our dog Bailey.

Some things we do together are ride bikes, go for walks with Bailey, eat at Red Robin, go shopping, go to Grandma and Papa's.

We like to go to the YMCA.

One of my favorite vacations was when we went on an airplane to Las Vegas.

This is a picture I drew of my family. [He drew himself, Logan, Jeremy and I pretty well but Bailey looks a bit like an octopus! haha]

School

I am in Pre-K. My favorite thing to do in school is play with blocks and legos.

When I'm outside I like to swing only when someone else is done.

This is a picture that I drew of me at school. [He drew a fairly good picture of himself but he only has three fingers on each hand]

At Home

My favorite thing to do at home is watch A Bug's Life, play with my brother Logan in the playroom and jump on the trampoline.

This is me when I was a baby. Look how I've grown! [He glued in a baby picture and a picture from last fall where he's laying in the leaves]

More About Me

My favorite toy is my Leapster Wall-E Game.
I like to touch my two Hankys and my pillow because it's warm. [The Hankys are tiny baby blankets with soft horse heads attached - we bought one as a backup and he's switched back and forth between them forever. He just recently realized that there are actually TWO!]
I like to taste pancakes, waffles, donuts and spaghetti.
I like to hear trumpets, drums, bass, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers and Christmas music.

It makes me happy when I snuggle with Hanky, getting presents from Santa Claus and his elves, Rudolph, my friend Rhyann, when Logan gives me nice hugs and plays Spiderman.

I am really good at t-ball, baseball, not spilling my orange juice, giving Logan hugs when he's sad and riding my bike.

It makes me sad when Logan hurts me, when my friends hurt me and when someone says they don't want me to be their friend.

When I grow up, I want to be EVERYTHING - a trash truck guy but on Fridays I'll be a train master and I'll hit the rails to go to a store to work and then I'll be a fireman and THEN, when I'm 17, I'll go to astronaut school and I'll go in space and find Earth. I'm going to marry Rhyann and she will have 1000 babies. We will live in a purple house. Rhyann will watch the kids and I will build a school. That's it. The End.

Hysterical. :) I wrote the last part exactly as it was dictated to me except that he asked me to draw a line for the number of babies he and Rhyann are going to have so that he could write the number. He very purposefully wrote 1000 :)

Quick Pics

2009-02-17T23:00:00.002-07:00

A random shot of the boys

Logan is in his first swim class without a parent in the water with him. Can you believe it? He's only 2 1/2! :) Here he is in class this morning (he's the one in the middle)

(This picture brought to you by the camera on Jeremy's phone...it has an option to put wacky borders on it which is why it looks like those poor 2 year olds are Wanted :) )

Under Construction

2009-02-16T00:37:00.002-07:00

Yes, I'm playing with the backgrounds, fonts, etc. No, it doesn't look great yet. However, it's 12:30 and I should probably try to go to sleep again. Maybe it'll work this time :) Yawn...

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T22:17:00.003-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Yes, ValentiNe's...NOT ValentiMe's! It drives me crazy when people say Happy Valentime's Day :)

Several people keep asking for pictures of me in my fabulous (ha!) new glasses so this is as much as you get...

Maybe you'll get a full picture if I ever do something with my hair or put on makeup. On second thought...that's good enough :)

The glasses saga continues, by the way. I went to get the new lenses (as the left one was scratched when I first got it and they had to reorder them) and the lady putting them in scratched the frames and bent the nose pad wire thingy pretty badly. Sigh. So for now they put my new lenses in the display pair and they're ordering me a completely new set of lenses and frames. Luckily I don't have to pay for any of this but it sure is frustrating.
Here are some pictures from the last several weeks...

Logan was saying CHEEEESE!

We woke up to beautiful snow covered trees a few days ago and I couldn't help but take some pictures! You'll be happy to know that I was not driving and taking pictures at the same time though like some other crazy mom we passed on the way to the boys' school. Eek!

Connor had forgotten his winter coat at school the previous day but even so he let Logan borrow his Spiderman gloves! Awww!

Hanging out in the front seat before school one morning

Logan loves to crawl under our quilt and pretend to sleep until you lift the covers and yell WAKE UP! :)

Off to watch SNL and play on Facebook :)

Say it isn't so...

2009-02-07T09:42:00.003-07:00

Apostrophes banned in Britain

Sigh. What is happening to our poor language? I admit, I overuse some punctuation marks. You know, like commas...and ellipses. :) I abbreviate words when text messaging sometimes, but my phone actually puts apostrophes in when I forget! If I type isnt it changes it to isn't :) It's lovely! Er, I mean, its lovely? No, that just isnt right. Haha! Whats next? We use "there" for every instance where their or they're is supposed to be used? "To" in every case where two or too might be called for. Tragic.

Odds and Ends

2009-01-30T23:11:00.003-07:00

I picked up my glasses today. I'm not quite used to them yet, of course. I feel like I'm wearing 3D glasses because everything is sort of jumping out at me :) And I have to go back next week because as soon as I got home I discovered a scratch in the middle of the left lens. I'm sure I'll be adding enough of my own scratches - I don't want to start with one! I'll have Jeremy take a picture tomorrow and post it here...maybe :) I'm trying to convince him that the glasses mean I need a new hairstyle and makeup too but we'll see how that goes!

Connor got into the AM kindergarten class we were hoping for! They sent us an official acceptance letter like he just got into Harvard or something :) He was really excited when we told him, mostly because he is looking forward to getting a new backpack. Haha! I asked him why he needs a new backpack and he said "because I need a super big backpack because kindergartners have to bring home a lot of work. We have so much to learn!" Well, ok then.

Not much else is going on here. Work, school, home, etc. Boring is good sometimes, right? :)

Sigh...

2009-01-22T22:48:00.003-07:00

Ok it's official. I'm getting older and falling apart. First to go was the short term memory. Second (wait, what was first again? haha), was my eyesight. My vision has been great my whole life. So great that I haven't gotten regular eye exams. I know, not a good idea. But last year sometime (ok, June I think) I had my annual exam with my regular doctor and for the first time in years I had to do the whole eye chart thing. I don't know why it had been years. I mean, I've had annual physicals with this same doctor for a few years now and this is the first time she asked me to do this. So I covered my left eye and she asked me to read the last line. No problem, right? I've always been able to read it in the past. Wait...is that a C or a G? Or an O? Blink, blink. No wait, maybe a T? :) Ok, that wasn't working. Next line up? No problem. Clear as day. So then I covered my right eye. Last line? Not a chance. Next line up? I could remember what I'd just read using my right eye but that wouldn't be right...I couldn't see the letters! The next line up? Clear enough to make out but still blurry. So, not surprisingly, she recommended I get a real eye exam. Wow, I didn't really feel like my vision was deteriorating but apparently it was...

So, for absolutely no reason other than denial, I put off getting an eye exam until today. For the last few months Jeremy has been hounding me to get an eye exam and finally he just went and made an appointment for me and told me where to go and when to show up. Yeah, he loves me. Plus I have a feeling he worries about me occasionally driving the boys around at dusk :)

And, you guessed it, I need glasses. Glasses! Me! It can't be and yet it is. As expected, my left eye is worse than my right. Despite knowing that I hadn't had an eye exam for a while and was nervous about the results, the best the eye doctor could come up with was "well, at least your vision isn't so bad I have to tell you it's illegal for you drive home." Yay. Comforting...

An hour and a half later I had forked over a bunch of money and placed my order for a lovely pair of glasses. The next seven to ten business days will be the last glasses-free days of my life.

I know, I'm making it sound like I'm really upset about it but it's not all that bad of course :) It was amazing to have the right lenses in and look at the signs across the room - the letters were so incredibly crisp! And it was fun trying on different frames. I joked with one of the ladies that one of Jeremy's coworkers recently posted five pictures of himself on Facebook so his friends could vote on which frames looked best on him and it turns out we went to the same eye doctor - she knew just who I was talking about! :)

So in seven to ten business days I'll be seeing the computer screen, tv, street signs, even you a little better! Hooray!

Hi!

2009-01-11T23:38:00.003-07:00

Wow I haven't posted at all this year. Let's see here...

New Year's was fun. I'm sure there are some pictures lurking on the camera but I obviously haven't downloaded them yet! We went to the Denver Zoo and had fun counting down to 2009 at 9 pm! Connor yelled "Happy 2009!" and "Happy New Year!" and "Happy 2009 Baby Jesus!" (yeah, I don't know why either) the whole way to the car. We rode the carousel and the train and looked at all the beautiful lights...

Other than that the last few weeks have been pretty boring which is why I haven't felt the need to post! For some reason I don't think you'll be excited to read about us cleaning out the garage or how I rearranged my closet. :)

Oh maybe you would like to know that Connor started swim classes again! He's at the Dolphin level but it's a combined Dolphin/Whale class (Whale is higher) so there are two boy dolphins and two girl whales taught by the same teacher at the same time. Connor jumped off the diving board for the first time on Saturday and though he said he was a little scared he also thought it was lots of fun!

We usually have movie night with Connor on Saturday nights. We put Logan to bed and then watch some G rated movie like Wall E or Cars or The Sound of Music. Last night, though, we rented E.T. It's rated PG and neither Jeremy nor I could remember much beyond the name, Drew Barrymore and Reese's Pieces so we thought it would be fun to watch. Do any of you remember the "astronaut" scene? E.T. is dying and men in space suits come into Elliot's home in suits like they're going on a space walk with their arms outstretched like zombies. They come though the windows and doors and in a line down the street invading their home to get to E.T. Well, he didn't seem very scared at the time but that scene really bothered Connor! So much so that he slept with us until about 5 am when Jeremy was able to move him back to his own bed. We never want to see him scared, of course, but it was nice to be needed and to snuggle with him for a night :) Though that also meant that I didn't sleep very well since I was sharing my pillow with him but that's ok once in a while. What's funny is that even though he was terrified of it last night he woke up this morning so excited to tell Logan all about it and especially focused on how cool the astronauts were. Weird!

While Jeremy was off the last couple weeks of the year we worked on potty training with Logan. Yeah, it basically went nowhere. He sits on the potty long enough to make us think he's getting it so we'll give him a treat but he's really just in it for the sugar at this point. He's totally the baby of the family - doesn't want to grow up too fast and is content having us change his diaper. When he has a dirty diaper we ask him, "where are you supposed to go potty?" He replies, "In the potty." "Are you going to go to the potty next time?" "No. Change diaper, Mommy." Ok, so you're not ready yet. Fine. :)

Oh we registered Connor for Kindergarten! I guess that's blog-worthy. We actually registered him at 3 schools (all public through our school district) since two have a lottery system and we want to be sure we get AM kindergarten. Ideally we'd like to just stick with our neighborhood school but we're keeping our options open :)

Connor has been begging to try lobster for weeks now so, since his parents don't actually like lobster (I know, what's wrong with us?), we encouraged him to try it with Grandma Sue and Papa since they can actually say "yum" while eating it and mean it :) He'll get his first taste this week! Hopefully he'll like it but not enough to request it often...haha!

I typed a lot considering I didn't think I had much to tell you all about! Off to bed I go...

Catching up on pictures!

2008-12-29T22:14:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since I've downloaded pictures from our camera! Here are a bunch from the last couple weeks...

Connor happily waiting for the nurse to give him shots at his 5 year appointment

Connor and his class during the Christmas program. Connor is the shepherd in brown, in the middle, looking right at the camera!

Logan and Connor eating snacks with the other kids after the program

Sitting on Santa's lap at a great "Santa's workshop" event here in Longmont. Yes, the boys are wearing reindeer antlers! :)

Santa made a special point of talking to Logan (Connor tends to dominate a conversation - go figure) and Logan was so happy!

After Longmont's Christmas parade they had a nice fireworks show! Here we are waiting for it to start...

Christmas cookies! Which ones did I decorate and which ones did Connor decorate? :)

Connor left his letter to Santa in his stocking...

Getting ready to open gifts Christmas morning

Logan finally has his own guitar!

A present from Papa and Grandma Sue - a complete builder's set!

I haven't taken a great picture of the stage Jeremy and I built for the boys yet (though you can see it in the backgrounds of a few above!) but when I do I'll post it! Connor says it's his favorite gift this year and both he and Logan sing and dance on it every chance they get so I guess it was a hit! :)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:14:00.002-07:00

It's officially Christmas and I'm still awake making sure that a certain little boy actually goes back to sleep. Yep, Santa arrived and then I discovered that Connor was awake. He hadn't actually come out of his room (thank goodness!) but I went to peek on them before going to bed and found him staring out the window "looking for Rudolph." Uh huh.

A few funny things that have happened in the last couple days...

- Connor is at the perfect Santa age - he totally believes - but he wants to know absolutely every detail about how he flies, where he lands, how he gets in the house, how he carries all the presents, how he talks to the elves if there's a problem, what flavor cookie is his favorite, why reindeer like carrots, etc, etc. The other night we had this conversation...

Connor: Mommy, does Santa give presents to policemen?

Me: I guess so. Well, as long as they're on the nice list, of course.

Connor: Oh. Well could we ask him not to give them any presents this year?

Me: Why would we do that?

Connor: Because if they didn't get any presents then they would want to find out why and they would set up their cameras and catch him like he was a bad guy. Can we set up a camera?

Me: No. We're not supposed to see Santa. I don't think he comes if you have a camera set up.

Connor: But we could hide it! We could put something on it so you couldn't tell it was a camera like the ones they have in stores. Maybe the policemen would let us borrow one.

Me: I don't think so. Santa is really smart. You know, he know's when you're sleeping and when you're awake so I'm sure he knows when you've installed a camera.

Connor: Oh. Well could I hide and jump out and take his picture when he comes?

Me: No! You have to be sleeping or he won't come.

Connor: Oh. Ok. Well I wish I could see him.

Me: I know...

:)

- For some reason Connor has taken to calling kleenex boxes "sneeze boxes" which just makes me laugh every time I hear it!

- We have a tradition of giving the kids new jammies on Christmas Eve. Tonight when the boys opened their new jammies Connor ripped into his package and had his out in no time. Logan held his until Connor was done and then, without even trying to rip the paper, took it to Jeremy and said "Scissors please." Apparently he didn't want to work for it! :)

- Two separate incidents have shown me that I am succesfully teaching my children about some of the greatest movies of all time. First, Connor and Logan were arguing over which movie to watch and I heard Logan screaming "Connor! Oompa Loompa! Oompa Loompa!" Second, Logan was pretending to spray Connor and I with water and Connor fell to the ground saying "I'm melting! I'm melting!" haha! However, they also quickly remind me that they're totally boys - on the way to Christmas Eve service tonight Connor blurted out "Hey Mom! I can burp my ABCs!" (a line from the animated movie Over the Hedge). Yeah, I think Christmas vacation has been a little too full of movies so far.... :)

5 year appointment

2008-12-19T17:21:00.002-07:00

10 days since my last post?!? No way! I'd better work on getting y'all caught up on our various activities! But...I'm sick. The boys are watching Dora, Jeremy's out seeing a movie with his friend Keith, and I'm being sick and lazy on the couch. :) So since I'm typing on a tiny keyboard so I can txt this blog post, it's going to be a short one!

Connor had his 5 year doctor's appointment yesterday! He weighs 40 lb 2 oz (50th percentile) and is exactly 44 inches tall (75th percentile). Everything looks good! She was happy to hear he hasn't had to use the nebulizer since September after he got out of the hospital. The worst part was, of course, the dreaded 5 year immunizations. Friends have relayed their own traumatic stories of screaming, crying, two nurses holding the child down, etc. so I was preparing myself mentally for a rough afternoon. It wasn't too bad though! Connor tried to hide under the desk but we coerced him back onto the table, laid him down, and I told him how much I love him and how proud I am to have a big 5 year old and she was done! The nurse was fast and there were no real tears just a littlw whimpering until he heard that he got to pick out a BIG prize from a special prize drawer for 5 year olds and then he was back to his usual jolly self! No more big shots until middle school now!

The funniest part of the whole appintment was actually as we were checking in. The receptionist asked us if it was snowing outside and Connor yelled "Yes! It's snowing BALLS!" As you might imagine that got a big laugh from everyone in ear shot! It really was snowing tiny bouncy balls of snow! :)

FIVE

2008-12-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today our lives changed forever when Connor finally arrived! I could reminisce about the hours and hours of labor but I've posted about that before and prefer to remember the good times - haha!

So, like last year, I'll do a birthday post!

Five years.
1827 days.
43,848 hours.
2,630,880 minutes.
157,852,800 seconds.

Wow he's old. :)

Actually, reading back through last year's post, not much has really changed! Connor is still incredibly active and as outgoing as can be. This week he wishes a Merry Christmas to anyone we pass in the store or at school which is super cute but you'd be surprised at the strange looks he gets! If I had to predict what he'll be when he grows up it would be something people oriented and I wouldn't be surprised if it's something entertaining - stand up comedian, actor, stunt double?! You know, his acting experience playing a house will be the first entry on his resume! He still loves to ride his bike and drive his Jeep, especially with Logan by his side. He has learned more in school, of course, and still amazes us with his clear memory of things that happened when he was really little. His favorite foods haven't changed much - waffles, pizza, chicken nuggets, fruit of any kind, spaghetti, yogurt. He's more independent every day and loves to help with cooking as much as we'll let him. He looks forward to movie night every Saturday night and currently loves any Christmas movie we'll let him watch - Home Alone, The Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc. He loves Logan so much and is very protective of him. I don't think he quite understands how much Logan looks up to him or why Logan copies absolutely everything he does but when Logan cries he's the first one to rush to his side (while screaming "Emergency!" and making high pitched siren noises!). :) He's still holding on to his afternoon nap though he skips them a bit more often now. So many people who are special to him have moved away this year - neighbors Quin and Darwin, best friend Rhyann, Grandma Willy and Grandpa Mark - but he's taken in it all in stride and is so incredibly positive about everything! He is definitely a "glass half-full" type! He played organized sports for the first time this year - t-ball and soccer - and was described as the most enthusiastic and positive player by each of his coaches when they were handing out awards. He liked both sports but when we ask him if wants to do either of them again he asks what other sport he gets to try next - hockey, football, basketball, karate? He wants to try them all!

Kindergarten will be the big thing this year, of course, but I wonder in what other ways he might change. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

I still haven't had time to compile the predictions our friends and family made at his first birthday party but will try to do that soon! Tomorrow I'll post the prediction sheet for when he turns 10 so that you can contribute your guesses if you want :)

Birthday part 1

2008-12-08T23:23:00.003-07:00

Saturday was Connor's birthday party at the Erie Rec Center! We went to a birthday party there a few months ago and ever since then Connor wanted to have his party there too! We played a few games in the party room and had yummy cake. He got lots of cool presents including some fun games and a karaoke machine! Both he and Logan love the karaoke machine - almost every conversation we have now is amplified and has the echo feature turned way up :) He narrated our dinner tonight and at one point I called him Ryan Seacrest (if you don't know who that is, well, how can that be? :) ). He yelled into the mic, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS! I AM CONNOR SEACREST!" :)

Unfortunately we didn't get many pics from the party but it was lots of fun! When we were done in the party room most of the kids stayed for swimming. Jeremy was the designated water taxi, giving all the kids piggy-back rides through the lazy river section of the pool. They all seemed to have a great time and the boys were really tired afterward! Connor's already planning his party next year...and announcing all his plans in stereo sound! haha
The cake at his party

On Sunday we went to Santa's House in Boulder. Ok, really it's a sorority house near CU that's transformed each year to look like Santa's house but Connor still believes it's Santa's summer home. The boys each got to sit on Santa and Mrs. Claus' laps and for the first time Logan didn't scream! He actually didn't want to get off Santa's lap! They also had the same music and puppet show and some little carnival type games. The boys both had so much fun and, despite the sunny short-sleeve weather, it got us more in the Christmas spirit!
Logan listened intently to everything Santa said but could only muster a few yeah's in response :)

Since tomorrow is Connor's official birthday we're taking treats to his classroom. Well, that is if school's not cancelled due to the snow that's falling! There's a "no cupcake" rule at his school but anything else goes so this is what Connor and I came up with. We were inspired by some Christmas ornaments on our tree. I don't know about you but I am totally impressed :) haha

Hopefully the weather will cooperate so that Connor can share his birthday with his classmates! I have to go decorate his doorway with streamers now :)

Overheard today...

2008-12-04T14:14:00.002-07:00

Coming from the playroom...

Connor: Logan, don't do that!

Logan: NO!

Connor: Logan, if you keep doing that I'm going to tell Mom and she's going to call Santa.

Logan: Santa...Claus?

Connor: Yes. At the North Pole. And then you won't get any fire trucks for Christmas.

Logan: Kissmas?

Connor: Yes. Now stop.

Logan: I stop now. Sowwy. [Sorry]

This is it!

2008-11-30T22:00:00.003-07:00

The last day of November is finally here! :) As promised, pictures from yesterday...

The snow was so beautiful clinging to the trees!

Bailey waiting for Jeremy to throw a ball for her and Connor playing behind her

Connor was having so much fun running around and throwing snow balls that it was hard to take his picture! This one gives you a good idea of how much fun he was having though!

Last year Logan didn't like the snow very much - he does not like to be cold! Yesterday, though, he was having a ball making snow balls and throwing them!

After dinner the boys wrestled in the living room and I got a couple good pictures

So, that's it! November is done and another NaBloPoMo is over. Yay! I made it! :) Don't worry, I'll keep up with the posting but just not every day because, really, our lives just aren't that interesting! haha :)

Saturday

2008-11-29T20:23:00.004-07:00

Sigh. It's that time of year again. I think I pretty much said the same thing I'm feeling today almost exactly one year ago in this post. Only this year it seems worse...only one child has RSVP'd for Connor's birthday party which is only week away. Whine. I've heard a lot about how Thanksgiving is closer to Christmas this year so there's a lot more to pack in to every weekend, it's the busiest time of year, blah, blah, blah. Sorry...it's just so depressing! He's looking forward to it so much and it makes me sad that so many of his friends aren't able to join in the celebration of the big o-5!

On a brighter note it snowed last night! We played outside several times today and had fun throwing snow at each other and taking pictures. Unfortunately Jeremy is reformatting my laptop tonight which is the computer with the camera dock and photo software on it so, rather than try to get that stuff working on this computer I'll just make you wait for tomorrow!! :)

We also watched a movie this afternoon. All four of us, sitting in the living room, all looking at the tv at the same time. I know, that doesn't sound very interesting but if you know our boys you know that they're really active and can watch tv only in really short spurts combined with running, jumping, singing, playing, etc. We watched the first Home Alone movie which was the boys' first time to see it (Connor loved it) and was just the first in many cheesy Christmas movies I'll be watching over the next few weeks! I love cheesy Saturday afternoon Christmas movies :) I already have something like ten more set up to record on the DVR so that the fun can last well into January if I plan it right. haha

SNOW!

2008-11-28T21:18:00.003-07:00

It is finally REALLY snowing! Not just flurries but actual accumulation! Yay! Now it feels more like the holidays are here :)

Thanksgiving yesterday was great! We had tons of delicious food and lots of fun. My Dad, Connor, Logan and I went on a little hike after lunch and it was funny to see more differences between the boys - Connor loves setting out on an adventure and discovering new things while Logan would much rather stick to the comforts of home. :) He had to hold someone's hand the whole time and was really uneasy walking through the forest. He learned a new word, bumpy, and used it over and over again! We roasted marshmallows in the big stone fireplace and had a great time!

Today we continued the process of decorating for Christmas! Last weekend Jeremy and Connor put up the Christmas lights. I know, it was early, but last year it snowed the weekend after Thanksgiving and that snow stuck around for a long time so we never got around to decorating outside. This year we wanted to be sure it got done so we took advantage of the good weather to put up a few strands of lights and two reindeer. Today we set up the Christmas tree! For some reason we're dragging out the process a bit so tomorrow we'll add ornaments and maybe even the train around the bottom!

I didn't think I was going to do any Black Friday shopping today but I did end up going to Walmart early this morning to get some very discounted kids stuff - slippers, hoodies, etc. The lines were crazy but nothing like that crazy incident at the Walmart in New York thank goodness! We also went to the dollar store later and found some cool Spiderman stuff for Connor's birthday party next Saturday.

It's hard to believe it's just Friday but I'm looking forward to two more days with the family! :)

Thankfulness Turkey

2008-11-27T10:05:00.004-07:00

Here's Connor's Thankfulness Turkey!

Clockwise from lower left:
1. DSBA - Connor's attempt at writing "December" when no one was around to spell it for him!
2. Fire Alarms - A fireman visited Connor's school in October and handed out calendars with reminders that you should test your fire alarms on the first Saturday of every month and change the batteries twice a year. Since then, Connor has reminded us nearly every day to check the smoke alarms and was super excited when we changed all the batteries!
3. My Thanksgiving Party and Play - the party they had last Thursday at school when he played a house! :)
4. My best friend, Logan - this was the first feather we made!
5. Connor - I added this one :)
6. MOM - Aww!
7. DECEMBEr - He's thankful for December because his birthday AND Christmas are in that month!
8. DADDY - Aww!
9. Logan - He made the thankfulness turkey twice!

I wrote the first few feathers for him and then one day he just took over! Here he is holding it...

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T07:01:00.003-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll post pictures of Connor's Thankfulness Turkey later but wanted to take a minute to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully he'll become an artist....

2008-11-26T13:21:00.002-07:00

Logan loves to color.

Here's a recent masterpiece...

One which we will apparently get to "enjoy" until such time we take on the task of painting the largest wall in our house.

Sigh...

We've tried to clean it off with several different concoctions but nothing has worked. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser has been the best so far but this picture was taken after using that. Yeah...I think it'll take some primer and paint to really get rid of it. Connor suggested purple paint. Did I mention it's the tallest and longest wall in our house? And over stairs? Maybe we should just put a frame around it and pretend it was done on purpose? :)

I got nothin... :)

2008-11-25T22:42:00.003-07:00

Nothing to post about. At all. Ack! There are only 5 posts left after this one so I can't stop now!

I worked in the office all day today. Nothing exciting there...busy busy busy. Came home with a splitting headache. We all went to the Y - the boys played in the childwatch area, Jeremy played racquetball and I spent lots of time on the cardio machines. Dinner was enchiladas and the boys went to bed. There was some laundry in there somewhere. Boring, huh?

I technically have tomorrow off but already know that I have some work to do that can't wait until Monday. Sigh...

On the bright side, the weather finally felt like November today! There was a definite chill in the air and it smelled like Thanksgiving. No, not poultry seasoning or cinnamon or something but that crisp clean fall air smell :)

Connor has been asking to make rice krispie treats all week so we'll hopefully do that tomorrow. We'll also fix a pumpkin pie and maybe something else to take up to Grandma and Papa's house for Turkey Day!

Sorry, that's all I've got today.

Ooh! Wait! I'll be informative! :)

Going shopping on Black Friday? Check out http://www.bfads.net/ and see the Black Friday ads before they're in the newspaper! I don't think I'll be going Black Friday shopping this year (even though I love it!) so if you go tell me all about it! :)

Looking to save money at the grocery store with great coupons or get free samples in the mail? I've been doing this a lot lately and it's fun! I've gotten some cool free stuff and have used lots of coupons I wouldn't have seen if I'd only used the Sunday paper! These are some of my favorite sites:

Freebies 4 Mom
Money Saving Mom
The Bargain Shopper Lady
The Freebie Blogger

And of course you can go directly to coupon sites like coupons.com or shortcuts.com (where you can put coupons directly on your King Soopers card!).

Need a good laugh? Visit Cake Wrecks. It's a blog full of hilarious cake mistakes - I especially love it when they misspell a word or misunderstand a decorating request. That blog makes me laugh out loud every day! :)

Maybe tomorrow I'll share with you all my favorite blog reader so you can add all these and not have to add them to your favorites and remember to go to them all to check for updates :) Betcha can't wait...haha

Boy, meet Kid

2008-11-24T22:56:00.002-07:00

Remember Connor's imaginary friend Boy? He's still around. :) I still think it's strange that Boy is never in the same room as us but Connor talks to him on the phone or walkie-talkie and tells us about where he is or what he's doing all the time. Since I'd read that imaginary friends are more common in first borns, I guess I never really expected Logan to have one. However, it seems he does! Today Logan was talking on his play phone to someone named...get this...Kid. We asked if Kid was his friend and he said yes. We asked if Kid was a boy or a girl and he said kid. :) So we thought it was bad enough that Connor's friend didn't have a normal name but now we have another one who doesn't yet have a gender :) I wonder if Kid will be around for as long as Boy has!

Only one more week!

2008-11-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

This "post every day for a month" thing is over in one week! Wheee! :)

Clever subject here :)

2008-11-23T23:16:00.003-07:00

I started working right after the boys went to bed tonight and just now looked up and realized that Sunday is almost over and I haven't blogged yet! Oops! Just some quick pics for ya tonight from the birthday party Connor and I went to yesterday...
The birthday boy, Micah, and Connor

Connor and his friend Sean waiting for their turns on the zip line

Riding the horse tire swing

Relaxing for a few after riding the zip line several times and before roasting marshmallows! What a life!

Saturday

2008-11-22T21:49:00.003-07:00

If you've ever been to our house you know that our living room has to be arranged just right in order for our Christmas tree to fit. After a fun birthday party at Sunflower Farms this morning, we spent most of the rest of the day cleaning and rearranging the living room so that next Friday we can put up our tree! It seems so strange to be thinking about Christmas when it hasn't even really snowed yet but the calendar says Thanksgiving is next week so I guess it's true! :)

Jeremy has all of next week off of work and the boys don't have school either so we're trying to figure out what to do all week. I'm sure there will be trips to the library, the Y, and the mall play area but we're also hoping to do some fun things like ice skating at Roosevelt Park and baking some pies for Thanksgiving!

This is the discussion we had about dinner tonight:

Me: What should we have for dinner?

Connor: Noodles! [as in Noodles and Co., one of Connor's favorite places to eat out]

Jeremy: But we had noodles last night.

Connor: No we didn't, we ate at home.

Jeremy: Right. And we ate noodles.

Connor: Nooo, Daddy! We had psquetti!

Jeremy: What do you think spaghetti is made of?

Connor: String. Oh, and sauce.

Haha!

Thanksgiving Play

2008-11-21T22:18:00.002-07:00

I posted the cast list from Connor's Thanksgiving play last night. Did you see which role he played? Yes, he was a house. A log house, to be exact. During the Thanksgiving story he started out as a pilgrim on the Mayflower. When they made it to land and made friends with the indians, the indians taught them how to fish, hunt and even build houses. That was Connor's big moment! :)
Connor (far left) and some of his classmates singing and waiting for all the parents to get there

Connor in his pilgrim hat

Our son, the house

I imagine getting into character was tough for him - houses are still and quiet and those words do not usually describe Connor! Luckily he only had to hold the position for a moment and then it was time to become a pilgrim again and feast with the indians.

He was very proud of his house, though, and would tell me each day when I picked him up which part he had completed that day :)

The class had a little feast of their own afterward and then both boys came home and took a great nap! Acting and eating is hard work :)

A star is born

2008-11-20T23:30:00.004-07:00

It's late because I've been working forever today. So, this post is just going to be a tease and I'll post the full story tomorrow :)

Connor had his Thanksgiving play and feast at school today and Jeremy, Logan and I went to watch. The pre-k class put on a play about the Thanksgiving story and this was the cast list part of the program (with last names redacted to protect the innocent).

We couldn't be more proud! haha

Random

2008-11-19T22:29:00.005-07:00

Just some random thoughts today...

1. The high temp here today was around 70 degrees. We're still in Colorado and it's still November, right? I get my answer tomorrow when the high drops to 35 with "flurries, fog, reduced visibility and freezing drizzle" according to Kathy Sabine. :) Yikes! Better gather up the boys' coats, hats and gloves tonight!

2. Last weekend we went to Party America to get the invitations for Connor's birthday party and as we were walking slowly through the card aisles Logan was quietly studying all the cards at his eye level. He reached one with a bikini clad woman on it, stopped in his tracks and said "Ohhh, WOW" :) He's only two and is already drooling over the opposite sex!

3. We're making another Thankful Turkey like we did last year. Today I asked Connor what he was thankful for and he replied "I am thankful for...my best friend, Logan." Awwww!

4. Logan can count to ten! I'm not sure how it happened but Jeremy was counting with him while Logan was taking a bath the other night and Logan only missed a few numbers. Since then he's been saying them all more consistently! Yay! I haven't counted his words lately because there are just so many of them! Did I tell you we're reducing his speech therapy to every other week? It's so exciting that he's making such great progress :)

5. No matter where you stand politically, how cool is it that Obama is so technologically inclined? "Radio" addresses posted on YouTube, he wants to be the first President to have a laptop in the Oval office, and he's disappointed he has to give up his Blackberry for security reasons! I think it's great and makes him feel more accessible and intelligent. Though, if it were me, I'd probably be caught harvesting crops on my Facebook farm or checking my Google Reader during important security briefings!

6. Connor has been working hard on writing his letters recently (I know, despite his being challenged and all! haha). On the way to school today he asked me to spell several "L" words (L is the letter they're focusing on this week). First was lollipop. Then he asked for look. Then lick. Finally lady. When we got to school I read his paper which appeared to say:

L I C E
lolliPoP
LOOK Lady

I couldn't help but laugh :) The letters were really great though! Well, the k in lick looked strangely like an E or an F but k's are pretty hard. He did much better on the uppercase K he made in LOOK!

Wow I could've stretched that into six posts for you but I crammed it all into one since I'm feeling bad for the super short one last night! Don't say I never consider your feelings, my faithful fifteen readers! haha

Oops...

2008-11-18T23:21:00.002-07:00

Me - worked in the office today, won a $25 Best Buy card, have a huge headache, forgot to blog, going back to bed

boys - all 3 already asleep :)

Yeah, not a good post today...better tomorrow I hope!

Connor's almost 5!

2008-11-17T22:41:00.005-07:00

So we finally caved on Connor's request of birthday party location and activity. Yep, our December baby is turning 5 (yeah, I know, not a baby anymore!) and for the last couple months he has been asking for a pool party. In Colorado. Did I mention his birthday is in December? Yeah...

We went to a party at the Erie Community Center last month and, even though that party wasn't a pool party, Connor saw the pool from the party room and immediately decided that was the place he wanted his party. Then Jeremy took the boys there a couple weekends ago to check out the pool and swim and they loved it! Jeremy talked to the lifeguard who said that lots of 4/5 year olds have their parties there and they have a blast! The water is really shallow so I guess they don't have to be great swimmers which is good. So I guess we're having a pool party with a Spiderman theme!

Connor and I narrowed the guest list tonight (since our package only allows for 10 kids) and as I was writing out the invitations he read his name and was very disappointed that I'd only written Connor and not "Connor Spiderman". :)

He has the whole thing planned out and adds some new detail to the plan all the time...

He wanted me to write on the invitation that everyone should wear their Halloween costumes (since he dressed as Spiderman he thinks that everyone has a Spiderman costume) and bring a musical instrument for the parade he plans on having after he eats cake. Oh and I'm supposed to take Logan to the party room, make everyone be quiet, turn off the lights and then call Daddy on his cell phone to tell him we're ready. Then Jeremy is supposed to drive Connor to the place (while we all sit in the dark I guess!) and we're supposed to jump out from behind tables and yell surprise! He did say that I would be allowed to be standing while the lights were off so I would be ready to take pictures of the surprised look on his face when people yell surprise. Logan, too, can be out from under the table because he might bonk his head if he stands up underneath it. That's very thoughtful but I don't get the whole surprise thing - he knows he's having a birthday party! He's even practiced his surprised look! He knows he's having a Spiderman cake (it comes with the party package) but he wants to bring two raisins from home to put in the eyes. No, I don't know why. He wants Spiderman candles but said that if we can't find any then he won't be sad. Oh good. He also wants to play a game with his friends in the water so we'll have to think of something for that one.

I guess it's good he knows what he wants, even if they are pretty strange ideas! :)

For those of you who remember the survey you took at his first birthday party, yes we'll reveal the results around his birthday. We'll also have another one for people to make predictions about what 2013 will be like (when he turns 10)! I only remember a few of my own answers but I'm sure it'll be fun to look back and see what people thought the gas prices would be, who would be the President-elect (I'm sure no one guessed Obama!), etc!

Sunday

2008-11-16T22:57:00.002-07:00

I'm over half way through this whole NaBloPoMo thing. Wheeee!

I went to a baby shower for my friend Heidi this afternoon. She's having her fourth child, the third boy, in February! I was also fortunate enough to spend several hours at a coffee shop with my good friends Taylor and Kristina tonight. I love spending time with them and really hope Kristina gets the job she's interviewing for tomorrow so that we can spend more time together! Spending time with them was just what I needed today!

I have laundry and cleaning to do still tonight so I need to stop this box 4 stuff and get back to boxes 1 and 2 (that was for Kristina!) :)

Boring Saturday

2008-11-15T23:17:00.003-07:00

If it weren't for NaBloPoMo I wouldn't be posting today because nothing exciting happened! We spent most of the day pretty much emptying out both boys' rooms, cleaning everything and then organizing things so that one room is now the boys' bedroom and the other is a playroom. The boys were excited to find toys they'd forgotten about and I was excited to have everything clean and put away for at least five minutes :) I should have taken pictures during those five minutes but I'll try to take some tomorrow to show you the rearranged rooms. Both rooms actually feel bigger even though they have the same amount of stuff in them, just in different places now!

Night one went well!

2008-11-14T21:08:00.002-07:00

The boys did well sleeping in the same room last night! In case you were thinking they might wake up earlier than usual or wake each other up, no worries there - that happened before they were in the same room! Since Logan has been in the toddler bed he goes straight into Connor's room when he wakes up and vice versa. We tried putting a gate in Logan's doorway to deter him a bit so we'd hear him before he made it to Connor's door but it didn't help at all; he'd just stand at the gate and cry out for Connor which would wake us all up!

Nap time was pretty normal but they just switched rooms for it - Logan slept in his bed in Connor's room and Connor "rested" in Logan's old room. Connor is slowly dropping his naps so he spends some of rest time reading, some playing quietly, and some time sleeping on most days. Now he'll just do that in Logan's old room so that he won't disturb Logan's nap and can still have access to all the books, toys, etc.

So, sharing a room is going well so far! We'll probably spend some time tomorrow cleaning and rearranging both rooms so that one is officially the boys' bedroom and the other is officially a playroom!

Together

2008-11-13T20:56:00.002-07:00

When Ben, Naomi, Christopher and Jonathan visited for Christmas last year, we put Connor's toddler bed back in his room so that his cousins could sleep with him. When they left, Connor wanted to know when Logan would get to sleep in the toddler bed in his (Connor's) room. We didn't think Logan was ready to move out of the crib yet so we kept putting Connor off but every so often would let Connor sleep in the toddler bed in Logan's room.

Then a little more than three months ago, we moved Logan out of his crib and into the toddler bed in his own room. Since then, Connor has been asking over and over when he and Logan can share a room. I think this is adorable because I always wanted someone to share a room with! I love that Connor loves Logan so much that he wants to sleep in the same room with him and share his space. However, I wasn't sure when or if this transition should be made. I know a lot of people wish they hadn't had to share a room with a sibling so who knows if it's a good thing or not.

Anyway, we decided to bite the bullet this week and, since Jeremy has tomorrow off, we moved Logan's toddler bed into Connor's room tonight. They were both really excited to have their beds in the same room - so excited that it was hard to calm them down long enough to get them into bed. :) Logan was confused - he thought sleeping in Connor's room meant sleeping in Connor's bed - and kept saying Connor bed, Connor bed over and over.

It didn't take too long for them to fall asleep, though. Let's hope the rest of the night goes as smoothly and that they don't wake up at 5 to play. I'm hoping they do well over the next few days so we can rearrange their rooms and have Logan's room be a playroom/office. I'll let you all know how it goes...

name change

2008-11-12T21:28:00.002-07:00

I called Connor "Connor Matthew" today (and no, he wasn't in trouble) and he quickly corrected me...

"Mom, my name is not Connor Mafew [that's how he says it!], my name is Connor SPIDERMAN!!!!

Sorry I don't have more time to post tonight...work is absolutely crazy and taking up every potentially free moment I have. Ugh...

Our poor challenged child...

2008-11-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

I went to a handwriting workshop last Sunday. It was free and held at an educational store in Boulder that I've wanted to check out anyway. This is how it was advertised to a mom's group I'm in:

Designed primarily for parents of children K-3, this handwriting workshop will cover strategies you can use at home to help improve your child's handwriting and increase their enjoyment of becoming a writer!

Topics of discussion will include:
· Why handwriting instruction is important
· Why handwriting has a positive effect on writing
· Work with your child's teacher to get results
· How to help your child at home
· What about cursive?
· BVSD's handwriting standards
· Helping the left-handed child
· and much more!

It sounded great! Connor's a lefty and we're working hard on improving his fine motor skills but I figured attending this would give me some hints how to help him in general but also specifically because "helping the left-handed child" was listed as a topic of discussion.

The first half of the lecture was great - lots of tips and suggestions how to start teaching writing, what they should be able to do at each age/grade level, ways to improve fine motor skills, etc. I took copious notes and will definitely apply some of the things I learned.

One of the things the instructor focused on was how learning letter formation early is great because then as their vocabulary expands and they want to write longer words and sentences, they don't have to waste time remembering how to write each letter if they learned well early and it becomes automatic. There was a lot of emphasis on making sure their letter formation is correct in the beginning so that mistakes don't have to be "fixed" by a teacher in a later grade.

Then one of the other moms asked the instructor to talk about left-handed kids and differences in teaching them, especially as right-handed parents. These were the instructor's words (yes, I wrote them down), "Left-handed kids have so many special challenges in life that writing is just one of the many things they'll struggle with. If they don't form their letters the right way, just go with it. Don't try to teach them to write each letter perfectly because they can't."

CAN'T? I actually said outloud (which is so unlike me) "WOW, THAT WAS ENCOURAGING..." I was sitting in the back so the other moms turned to stare at me. :) The instructor backpeddled and gave some tip about placing the paper to the left of center. I mean, come on! Surely a left-handed child can have decent penmanship, right? I just can't accept that he'll never write clearly and that that's just the way it is and that we shouldn't try.

Connor's letters are not bad now and the tips she gave for those blessed right-handers will generally apply to those "challenged" left-handers, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Plus, it was free and the store was really cool.

If the lecture had ended after a half hour I would have left encouraged and energized and ready to practice letter writing with Connor. The last half hour left me feelin a bit discouraged and yet rebellious and wanting to work with Connor even more just to prove this crazy instructor wrong! :)

Sigh...it just shouldn't be this hard!

Happy birthday Rhyann!

2008-11-10T22:27:00.011-07:00

Tomorrow, the 11th, is Connor's friend Rhyann's 5th birthday. They've been friends since they were tiny babies but this is the first time they won't spend a birthday together! Connor wanted to go to her birthday party but unfortunately this is as close as we can get right now...

Part 1

Part 2

Sorry for the 2 parts - my video editing skills aren't very good!

Happy Birthday Rhyann!

We love you and miss you!

All the -ings in our house

2008-11-09T23:35:00.003-07:00

This mom has FOUR little boys but even with only two I can totally relate today! See this post: http://www.pennypinchingdiva.com/2008/11/cry-for-peace.html.

Perhaps it's the changing weather or something but today our boys were SO LOUD! If they weren't crying or yelling or singing at the top of their lungs they were playing with their loudest toys - microphone, guitar, whistle, etc. Even when reading tonight after dinner they had to argue over who got to sit on which side of me! They're usually pretty good at sharing (especially now that Logan can say things like my turn, please and thank you) but today they were both in rare form. :)

Pictures!

2008-11-09T20:30:00.001-07:00

More leaf pictures from last weekend! Sadly, they are probably the last leaf pictures of 2008. The leaves are quickly being obliterated by time, wind, and maybe rain or snow tomorrow. I'm sad that September and October are over as those are my favorite months but I'm looking forward to turkey and snowmen and Christmas lights. Though, I heard my first Christmas carol of the season the other night and thought it was way too early for all that!

Logan really wanted to swing from the branches like his big bro so Jeremy held him up to one and let him hang there for a second :) He was so proud of himself but didn't want to try again!

These are a couple of pictures from just before the Veteran's Day parade. It was so nice out that we didn't really need coats!

Computer problems...

2008-11-08T23:42:00.003-07:00

We went to the Veteran's Day parade in Longmont today and the boys had a ball. Police cars, bands, soldiers, flags to wave, what more could a little boy ask for? I took some pictures but my computer is not cooperating tonight so you'll just have to wait for tomorrow :) For now here's a shot of Connor from last weekend...

TGIF!

2008-11-07T23:26:00.002-07:00

I'm so thankful this week is over! It was way too busy and I miss my family!

Logan had speech therapy this morning and he's doing so well that we're going from meeting once a week to every other week! Jeremy also took the boys swimming this afternoon and now Connor wants to have a swimming party for his birthday :)

I was at work all day, again, working on this crazy software that's being installed at a customer's site next week. Frustrating...

Tonight was fun, though! I went to a Mom's Night Out and hung out with about ten other moms for a few hours. It was so much fun and great stress relief after a long week.

Tomorrow? Hopefully sleeping in and then, if it's not too windy or cold, watching the Veteran's Day parade! We love parades! I still have pictures from last week to post so I'll try to get caught up on those too!

Thursday

2008-11-06T22:39:00.003-07:00

I almost forgot to post today! Oh no! :)

Nothing very exciting happened today. In fact, the differences between yesterday and today are are very minor...both days I went into the office all day and Jeremy juggled his schedule to pick the boys up from school so I could stay there. Both days were filled with meetings and discussions and bugs and new versions and frustration that we're racing toward a deadline with software that doesn't work right. Tomorrow? More of the same for me, speech therapy for Logan and Jeremy has the whole day off to have fun with the kids :) At least when the day is over I get to go to a Moms Night Out! Woo hoo!

Sorry to not have anything more exciting today...it's late and I'm tired! More tomorrow...

Oh wait - did you watch The Office tonight? It was even more hilarious than usual - I loved Jim and Pam talking on their bluetooths! Hysterical!

Wednesday...

2008-11-05T21:40:00.004-07:00

Wow another day so busy I haven't had time to stop and think about a blog post! Did I mention my company has a major software release next Monday and I'm the primary tester for it? The software is new with parts written by 4 different programmers and has big changes made to it every day still so it's really stressful and time consuming...

Jeremy has juggled his schedule so much this week to make it possible for me to be in the office every day except Tuesday! I miss snuggling with the boys when they wake up from naps :) Today Jeremy picked the boys up from school and I missed hearing about Connor's day as we walk to Logan's class to pick him up. I also missed laughing with Logan's teacher about how they can set their watches to his dirty diaper schedule. Too bad he still has no interest in the potty!

I ended up with an extra "I Voted!" sticker in my pocket when I got home last night so I left it on Connor's chair and he was so excited to find it this morning. He wore it to school and still had it on just before bed tonight. He took it off his shirt and put it on mine and said, "Mommy, you need to wear this tonight. Don't take your shirt off and put on your jammies because you have to be able to see this sticker all night. Every time you wake up you should look at it and think of me and also Logan, Daddy, Bailey, Rock Obama and God and then me again. Ok?" So cute!

Whew...

2008-11-04T21:33:00.002-07:00

I am extremely tired, but I had soooo much fun today!!!! We only processed 136 voters in my precinct but it was not without drama - there were squabbles between poll watchers, frantic phone calls to the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's office, one party's reps attempting electioneering multiple times, attorneys on the phone and showing up at the polling place, etc. I'll post more tomorrow sometime but just wanted to say that I'm home and had a great time! :)

Just in case

2008-11-04T05:00:00.001-07:00

I'm posting now just so 1) you can see that I'm up and ready to go to the polls and 2) I can fulfill my NaBloPoMo requirement early just in case I collapse when I get home! :)

GO VOTE! :)

Monday...

2008-11-03T21:44:00.002-07:00

Today was an absolutely crazy day. I had to go in the office for a few hours while the boys were at school. We have a big software release next Monday for which I'm the primary tester and since I'll be gone tomorrow there was a lot to do. I've worked most of the day and just stopped a few minutes ago to read over my 2000 General Election Judge Manual. :)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow but I have to be at the polling place in less than 8 hours so I'll make this a quick post.

Funny story from tonight...

Connor: Mommy, where are you going tomorrow?

Me: I'm going to help people vote.

Connor: Oh, so they can vote for Rock Obama?

Me: Maybe. Or whoever they want to vote for.

Connor: Well, I already voted.

Me: Oh? Who did you vote for?

Connor: Rock Obama, Mom! I already told you!

Me: Oh, right.

Jeremy: I already voted too.

Connor: You did? Did you vote for Rock Obama?

Jeremy: Actually, no.

Connor (very loudly): WHAT?? But our whole family has to vote for Rock Obama! I chose Rock Obama and everyone has to vote for him! John McCain is going to lose. I decided that our family is voting for Rock Obama. We can't vote for different people!

Jeremy: Well everyone can choose who they want. We don't have to choose the same person.

Connor: Yes we do! Daddy, Rock Obama is going to win. You have to vote for him.

Jeremy: Why?

Connor: Because if you vote for John McCain he's going to take your tax! He said he was going to take everyone's tax and I don't want to give him my tax. [Uh, yeah, he watched maybe ten minutes of the second debate and this is what he took away from it.]

Me: Do you know what a tax is?

Connor: Well, no, but John McCain is going to take all our tax. You shouldn't vote for him.

Hilarious :)

Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you haven't already! My post tomorrow may be short depending on when I get home but I'll try to let you know how it went!

Halloween recap

2008-11-02T07:48:00.002-07:00

Trick or treating Friday night was so much fun! Grandma and Papa brought pizza for dinner (yum!) and then the boys got their costumes on.
Connor in his Spiderman pose

Spiderman and spider boy setting out to get some candy

After all the festivities

The boys each got lots of candy! The strangest part was a house a few blocks away - they usually try to scare each group of kids by wearing elaborate costumes and screaming and jumping out when they open their door but this year was entirely different. They set up a barbeque in front of their house and were handing out hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs. I've gotten lots of things other than candy while trick or treating - homemade popcorn balls, candy apples, cans of pop, pencils, pennies, stickers but...hot dogs? Interesting :)

Logan was good at saying "treat" and "tank you" at each door. He needed help up and down the stairs at some houses, though - I think he felt unbalanced with extra legs and a candy bucket!

The boys picked out their favorite pieces of candy and then put the remaining candy back in their buckets and put them by the front door for the Halloween Fairy. They were excited to come downstairs in the morning and find that she had turned all their candy into toys! They each got a coloring book and a small toy car. She even left fairy dust (which felt a lot like flour) outside our front door and on the tile just inside! The Halloween Fairy works so well in our family - the candy disappears (or will on Monday when Jeremy goes to work!) and the boys love the magic of it all. Connor was completely into it this year and talked about it a lot. He wondered if the Halloween Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy all know each other and if they check to be sure they aren't going to give each child the same gift. Uh, yeah, they talk :)

NaBloPoMo Day One!

2008-11-01T20:26:00.002-06:00

Today is November 1st and therefore the first day of National Blog Posting Month! This is my second time trying to post every day for the entire month of November. Wish me luck! :)

First to catch you up a bit, here are some pics from Anderson Farms last Sunday...
Connor's most vivid memory of our visit last year was apparently this cow you can pretend to milk. It wasn't working last year and he searched it out first to see if it was working now. It was! He was so excited!

The boys on the tractor we rode out to the pumpkin patch

Connor dragging a big pumpkin

Connor made friends with a little girl named Skylar. The two of them pretended to be "police girl and police boy" - they "drove" the wagon using pretend steering wheels and jumped on and off the back to put people (Logan, Daddy, themselves) in jail

I have more to post about things that happened this past week but I'll make you wait for tomorrow :) Besides, the thought of having something fun to post about every day is a bit daunting so I have to drag it out! haha!

The Saturday before Halloween

2008-10-25T23:41:00.003-06:00

Today was so busy but lots of fun! It started with one of our favorite Longmont events - the Halloween costume parade. Kids of all ages line up to walk down Main Street and show off their costumes and then walk back up Main Street trick-or-treating at all the stores. It was absolutely perfect weather for it and the crowd was the largest we've seen in our five years of attending this event!
Our litte spider, Daddy in his crazy Halloween hat he wears every year (at least it's easy to pick him out of the crowd!) and Spiderman

Getting ready to line up for the parade!

This is the first year Logan is starting to "get" Halloween. People give you candy! And you get to keep it! The first time someone put candy in his pumpkin bucket he took it out, looked at it for a second and then tried to give it back! He was surprised but delighted to find out he got to keep it and later eat it!
On the way to the parade we tried yet again to teach Logan to say "Trick or Treat" clearly. He's at the point now where he imitates really well so if you break down the phrase he can usually get it after a few tries but this one, well, here you go...

Daddy: Logan, say Trick or Treat.

Logan: Treat!

Connor: No, TRICK OR Treat.

Logan: Treat.

Mommy, Daddy, and Connor: Say TRICK...

Logan: TREAT..

:)
Luckily the parade and trick-or-treating were over just in time for Connor's soccer game! There's only one more game left this season and Connor is already asking what he gets to try next.

Tonight Connor and I went to a Fall Festival at our local high school. Connor played lots of games and got lots of candy and even a cupcake!
We went to the same event last year and only got about 5 feet into the "haunted hallway" before I made us turn around because I thought it might scare him too much. He remembers that very clearly and asked over and over again if he could go all the way through this year. I wasn't sure if he could handle it but was a bit more open to the idea since I think he understands the difference between real and pretend better this year. One of our neighbors, a high school girl, was handing out candy at one of the booths so we went to ask her how scary it was. She didn't think it was too scary and offered to take Connor through. The poor girl got stuck taking him through not once but FIVE times! He LOVED it and didn't want to stop! I went through with them the first time too and it really wasn't that scary - just a bunch of sheets hanging from the ceiling, strobe lights, spooky sounds, and an occasional high school boy dressed like a mummy jumping out at you or trying to grab your feet. :) They were really good about revealing themselves, though, so Connor could see that they looked scary but underneath all the layers they were really just big kids, nothing to be scared of!

We got free tickets to Anderson Farms so we're hoping to head there tomorrow! Just what you wanted, right, more pics of the boys with pumpkins? :)

2008 Election

2008-10-19T23:04:00.002-06:00

I know, with a post title like that you really don't want to keep reading, right? You're tired of political discussions and jokes and ads. I don't blame you! Well, don't worry, this isn't about who I think you should vote for for President or how to vote on a certain amendment! :)

On Friday night I went to a 4 hour training class to be an Election Judge. I'm not sure what I was thinking - something noble like getting involved in the political process - but I'll be at some yet to be determined polling place at 5:30 in the morning (do they actually still make that time? I haven't seen it for a while) and will be there until well after the polls close at 7 pm. I'll be ensuring there's no electioneering, making sure no one's using any electronic devices, checking people's IDs, verifying their address, and encouraging them to vote on a paper ballot instead of opting for the ONE electronic voting machine. Oh yeah, and I learned how to set up said electronic voting machine. And what to do if someone "flees with their ballot." :) And all about provisional ballots and ballot box seals and signs that have to be posted and the crazy number of paper forms to be filled out.

So now I have about 15 days to read the Election Judge manual over and over again until I could recite in my sleep (which is what my brain prefers to do at 5:30 am). Fun! No really :) I am looking forward to it!

The training itself was actually really interesting. It was fun to set up the electronic voting machine and to play with it a bit. I've never used one because I either vote by mail or vote with a paper ballot since there's usually a long line for the machine. I learned a lot. For example, in 2004 I didn't vote until later in the day and in the early afternoon I got a call from a representative of my chosen political party asking if I was planning to vote and if I needed a ride to the polling place. I always wondered how they knew I hadn't voted yet and now I know all about "poll watchers" and what they're allowed to see and do at each polling place and what they're not. So cool...

So, since you now know I'll be an election judge and I now know what the process is like, if you live in my county I highly recommend that you vote early (which you can do sometime between tomorrow and Halloween)! Or, if you'll be voting at whatever polling place I'm assigned to, make sure you have a valid ID, aren't wearing or talking about anything promoting a particular candidate or issue, and bring me something caffeinated! :)

Another busy fall weekend!

2008-10-19T22:21:00.003-06:00

This is my favorite time of year!

On Friday we went to Miller Farms...
Connor the ghost

Pretending to drive a tractor

Children of the corn

Sledding down a dirt hill

Riding a tractor bike

On Saturday Connor had a soccer game and then after a quick nap we headed to the first of two pumpkin carving parties this weekend!

The boys hid under our table so I raised the table cloth and yelled BOO while taking a picture. This was their reaction! Like Connor's hair?

Connor watching the pumpkin master at work

Today was pumpkin carving party number two!

Logan devouring a cupcake in his spider costume

Connor helping in the mummy wrapping game. His team won!

Later they bobbed for apples and then bobbed for marshmallows in a bowl of flour.

The results were very funny!

On the way home we came across some fun looking leaves and you know how I can't resist tossing our children in a pile of leaves :)

Connor somersaulted down the hill

And here are the results of our two parties this weekend! We did the spider today (notice it even has 8 black pipe cleaner legs!). The other two we did yesterday - the middle one is a lite-brite pumpkin that Connor did almost all by himself and the witch is the one Jeremy was working so hard on in the picture above (she has some crazy hair apparently coming out of the top of her hat!).

Leaves

2008-10-17T13:55:00.002-06:00

I love fall leaf pictures. Ok, maybe love isn't the right word. Obsessed? I've been driving past my favorite trees for weeks now inspecting them for color change and amount of leaves still on the tree and whether the grass underneath has been mowed lately. It's a sickness :)

Yesterday was really windy and there were leaves blowing everywhere so we rushed right out when Jeremy got home to find some piles of leaves. Notice that these leaves have been off the tree for such a short amount of time that they're not even crunchy yet! And a lot of them are still green...

We stopped to feed some geese too, though Logan insisted they were ducks!

Oops...

2008-10-16T23:16:00.003-06:00

Look! Two posts in one day! :)

As you know, I just had a birthday. It wasn't a big milestone birthday but I'm definitely feeling the effects of getting older. For example, I just scheduled an eye exam because things are getting a little fuzzier than they used to be. And then there's my apparent hearing problem as evidenced by this misunderstanding last week....

As a little background, Jeremy works with a woman named Faelynn which is pronounced Fay-lynn. Faelynn has two children, a boy and a girl, and the boy is really into hockey. He plays a lot and I'm not sure what levels there are in hockey but he's really good and has been to training camps in Canada and such. We've talked about this several times in the past.

Jeremy: Did you hear that Faelynn got to drop the puck at the hockey game the other night?

Me: No, which game?

Jeremy: I think the Philadelphia Flyers.

Me: Really? Why did she get picked to do it?

Jeremy: I guess because she's a hockey mom.

Me: Wow, that's cool.

Jeremy: Yeah but the crowd boo'd her so loud that they had to turn up the music really loud so that the tv audience wouldn't hear it as much. I guess it was really loud.

Me: I wonder why they boo'd her.

At this point Connor interrupted us and the conversation ended...

So through this I'm thinking "That's cool - Faelynn got to drop the puck at a game between the Avs and the Flyers. I wonder how she got picked out of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of hockey moms in Colorado. And I wonder why she was boo'd. Just because of Sarah Palin and now everyone hates all hockey moms? Would people just assume that because Faelynn is a hockey mom that she would vote for Sarah Palin?"

But then I forgot about the whole thing.

Hours later, I was watching the news. The sports segment came on. Do you see where this is going? The sports guy read the story about how SARAH PALIN had dropped the puck at a Flyers game (nothing to do with the Avs...or poor Faelynn) and that the crowd had boo'd her so loudly that they turned up the music to drown it out for the tv audience.

It suddenly clicked. Jeremy had actually said "Did you hear that PALIN got to drop the puck at the hockey game the other night?" Not Faelynn!

I laughed so hard I cried. Jeremy couldn't figure out why I was so hysterical and it took me a good ten minutes to stop long enough to try to explain. :)

Hilarious!

My birthday

2008-10-16T21:54:00.000-06:00

I had a great birthday last Saturday! It was rainy and cold all day but that's October in Colorado - the weather is unpredictable! Connor had a soccer game in the morning and because of the weather just he and I went. He scored a goal for me! :)

In the early afternoon Connor had a birthday party to attend for his friend Logan from the summer camp they attended over the summer. Logan was turning 4 and had a dinosaur themed party at the Erie Community Center. We'd never been there before but it's really cool - a nice indoor playground, big party rooms and a lazy river in the pool! Connor was sad that the party was not a swimming party but still had fun pretending to be dinosaurs, decorating picture frames, eating cake and "helping" to open presents.

Gone are the days of polaroids - this Dad brought along his laptop and picture printer to instantly print out digital pictures to put in those newly decorated dinosaur picture frames!

You might think it's confusing in our house to talk about Logan, Connor's brother, versus Logan, Connor's friend. However Logan, Connor's friend, goes by "Logie" which rhymes with hoagie or bogey or yogi or...you get the picture! I called our Logan Logie today (for the first time ever - I don't know why - it just slipped out) and Connor quickly corrected me that Logie is his friend, NOT his brother. No problems here...Logie just doesn't sound right for our Logan :)

That night we went to dinner with my Dad and Sue and then came back home for cake. Guess what kind of cake the boys ordered for me? Perhaps some flowers and a nice "Happy Birthday Mommy"? That's too boring! I got not one, not two, but three tiny plastic Disney princesses on my cake. One of them (Cinderella) even lit up. Oh and it said Happy Birthday Mommy on it too. The cake decorator must have wondered what kind of mommy was getting a Disney princess cake :)

Anyway, it was a fun birthday! And in case you're wondering from an earlier post, I didn't get a nightlight but did get a pink wireless mouse! :)

I didn't take many pictures over the weekend but here's a fun shot of Connor after Logie's birthday party!

The zoo and soccer practice

2008-10-10T07:04:00.002-06:00

Tuesday was a free day at the Denver Zoo so Jeremy took the day off and he and Logan went to see the animals while Connor was in school and I was at work. Logan especially loved the elephants, ducks and train!

At Connor's soccer practice today the team lined up for a team picture. Coach Cindy is in the back and then from left to right are Micah, Keely, Connor, Sean, Amelia, Hannah and Grace!

Since I bought the camera to soccer practice Logan wanted in on the photo ops too!

Pumpkins!

2008-10-09T08:54:00.000-06:00

To give you an idea how busy I feel lately, these pictures were all taken on Saturday and I'm just now getting around to posting them. :) Better late than never, right?

On Saturday morning Jeremy took Connor to a free kids clinic at Home Depot and they put together a Fire Truck with a whistle. The lightbar on top detaches and is a wooden whistle - it's pretty neat! Jeremy started the nails and read the directions but Connor did most of the work and had a great time! He was very proud of himself.

After the boys' nap we went to Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch, our favorite nearby pumpkin patch. I love pumpkins so I could have stayed there all day :)

You have to love the tongue action Logan has going on in this one - obviously putting a lot of effort into lifting that pumpkin! :)

Posing with the pumpkins they picked out

"Mom! Apple!" Uh, yeah, Logan calls pumpkins apples. I can't really explain it! Also, notice he has Connor's soccer jersey on. Connor didn't have a game that day but Logan pulled out the jersey out of the dryer while Connor was at Home Depot and insisted on wearing it for the rest of the day. Besides being a bit long it fits pretty well!

How far can he carry that thing?

The best mode of transportation at a pumpkin patch

The "How Tall This Fall" sign. Compare this picture to previous years here.

Logan loves goats so he stared at them through the petting zoo fence for quite a while! He didn't actually care to go in but wanted to watch them.

Yes, Logan is about to try to eat that piece of cornstalk in his hand. For the record, no, he didn't like it. At all. There were tears. :)

Yep, I'm the weird mom always putting my kids IN the huge boxes of squash. You should try it sometime...it's fun :)

My three big winter squashes :)

Connor with the gourds

When we got back to the car Logan wanted to drive home. Look out!

In case you want to look back fondly at our pumpkin patch adventures of the last two years, check out the links below. I joke that we have more pictures of our kids at pumpkin patches or in the leaves than any other location including our home but it might actually be true :)

2006 #1
2007 #1
2007 #2
2007 #3

Get ready for picture overload!

2008-09-28T23:57:00.003-06:00

We drove up to the mountains today to enjoy the fall colors. We went for two short hikes and had lots of fun! Logan especially liked chasing Connor down the trail :)

One of our walks was around Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

Every time Logan saw a rock larger than himself he would hug it and say "Happy....Heavy..." It looked like he was trying to pick them up :)

Connor doesn't really care where he is, he just loves posing for pictures!

We were a little tripod-happy today so amazingly there are lots of pictures of all 4 of us together! Perhaps one will be worthy of a Christmas card :)

This looks so peaceful

I love this one!

And just in case you thought the whole day was sunshine and aspen leaves, here's a shot of the one big meltdown Logan had today! We still have no idea why he was throwing a fit - he was crying, jumping up and down and screaming for no apparent reason other than to remind us that he is two years old! :) Luckily it was over quickly...

Conferences and nightlights

2008-09-27T23:19:00.004-06:00

I went to Connor's first pre-K parent/teacher conference on Friday. I was expecting to hear pretty much the same thing as last year - something like "he's such a happy, friendly, active, energetic boy! He needs more work on his fine motor skills but he's a typical boy who'd rather be running than writing." Instead his teacher said that he's doing great with his fine motor skills - he's writing his name well and practicing other letters well. She did say that he's really active but that she puts that energy to use and lets him be the official "chair stacker" which he loves. She said that he sits nicely during circle time, takes direction well and is learning a lot.

What surprised me is the only thing that she's concerned about - his feelings! He's told me many times that his best friends are Andrew, Brody and Caleb (I jokingly call them his "ABC friends" because of their initials!). She said that Andrew and Brody are best buds and, try as he might, Connor hasn't really been able to break in and become friends with them. I guess they've been mean to him several times and that she's heard Connor say things like "but you can be friends with me too!" which she was impressed with - that he would try to reason with them and be so persistent. She said it breaks her heart how hard he tries to be friends with them and is rejected all the time! He hasn't shared any of this with us so I have mixed feelings about it. I'm glad that he's such a happy and resilient little guy that it doesn't get him down enough to be sad when he comes home but I want Andrew and Brody to be friends with him! Who wouldn't want to be friends with Connor? :) Nope, I'm not biased at all!

Anyway, it was good to hear he's doing well otherwise. She gave me a list of skills kids should have to be ready for kindergarten and he almost has them all already! The one area that still needs more practice is that whole writing thing but they're definitely working on it at school and we're doing some at home too so it'll come! There's almost a year until kindergarten so he has plenty of time! He's mastered almost all the other skills already - knows all his colors, recognizes all the upper and lower case letters, is starting to sound out words, can run and jump and kick and catch, is responsible for his own belongings (backpack, lunchbox), can use the bathroom independently (yes, that was a skill listed on there!), etc.

Here's another funny conversation we had in the car a few days ago...

Connor: Mommy, what do you want for your birthday?

Me: [surprised he somehow knows my birthday is in a couple weeks] Oh I don't know. You could make me a card.

Connor: No, Mommy. I can't make you a card. What do you want that I can buy at a store?

Me: Well, I'm not sure. I've been wanting a wireless mouse for my laptop. [yep, I'm a dork - I really do want one and it's cheap so I figured if he was taking this info back to Daddy I might as well ask for something I actually want!]

Connor: No, Mommy! I can't buy that. What else do you want?

Me: Ummm....

Connor: Ok, Mommy, what do you want that has a lightbulb in it?

Me: What?

Connor: What do you want that has a lightbulb in it?

Me: A...lamp? [Trying to figure out where he's going with this...]

Connor: No...try again.

Me: A...nightlight?

Connor: Yeah! That's what you want! I'm going to buy you a nightlight!

Me: I want a nightlight?!

Connor: Yes, I have one and it's great. You should really have one too.

So, I think I'm getting a nightlight for my 32nd birthday. It's just what I've always wanted! :)

Connor's pick for President

2008-09-25T23:19:00.004-06:00

There's a home in our neighborhood with an Obama/Biden sign in their yard. The first time we drove past it, Connor asked what it said. I explained that it said Obama/Biden and reminded him that Barack Obama is running for President and Joe Biden is hoping to be Vice President. I told him that the election is just a little more than a month away and that people put signs in their yards sometimes to tell people which candidate they think is best. He listened intently. I explained that Obama is running against John McCain and then asked him who he would vote for, if he could. He replied, without any hesitation...

Connor: I would vote for Rock Obama!

Me: Oh yeah? Why is that?

Connor (yelling): Because he's going to WIN!

Me: Haha! Ok, why do you think he's going to win?

Connor: Because he's on my tv.

Me: John McCain is on tv too, you know.

Connor: No he isn't. I saw Rock Obama on 9News but I've never seen John McCain on 9News.

I guess he's learning early about the liberal media? :) haha! Our conversation continued...

Me: So, because he's on 9News, you would vote for Barack Obama.

Connor: I guess so. Can I vote for George Bush?

Me: No, he can't be President anymore. He's already been President for 8 years and that's the limit. He's not allowed to be President anymore.

Connor: Oh. But I like him.

Me: Well, he can't be President after January 20th, 2009.

Connor: Oh. What about George Washington?

Me: Well, um, he's, uh...dead... [what was I supposed to say?]

Connor: WHAT?!

Me: He lived a long, long time ago. He was the first President of our country over 200 years ago.

Connor: Oh. What about his family?

Me: You mean his wife or his children? [Please don't make me say they're dead too...]

Connor: Yeah, can they be President?

Me: Well, we have to choose between Barack Obama and John McCain this year. Those are our choices.

Connor: Well I'm voting for George Washington's family.

:)

P.S. Jeremy and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary today! Can't believe it's been 9 years!

The most exciting word in Logan's vocabulary

2008-09-18T23:02:00.003-06:00

I keep forgetting to post this! Logan really missed Connor for the two days they were apart last week. He missed him so much that shortly after Connor got home Logan learned how to say his name! In the past Logan has really only said words that we've specifically concentrated on but recently he's been coming up with words all on his own. It's so fun to hear him yell for Connor when they're not in the same room or say "Bye Connor" or repeat Connor's name over and over again to get his attention. It's probably a small thing to most people but it's super exciting for us - even more than Mama and Dada I think!

Also now that Logan's speech is improving they're starting to have conversations just between the two of them in the back seat while we're driving. So cute!

Jesus and Bob the Builder

2008-09-16T21:41:00.002-06:00

When I picked Connor up from school on Monday I asked him how his day was. I got the usual answer of "good" so I probed a bit further...

Me: What did you learn today?
Connor: I learned that Jesus was a carpet guy.
Me: A carpet guy?
Connor: Yeah, he put carpets all over the world. And rugs too, I guess.
Me: Ohhhh...you mean he was a carpenter?
Connor: Yeah, that's what I said, Mom. He probably vacuumed a lot too.
Me: Oh, no, actually a carpenter is someone who builds or fixes things. They use tools like hammers and saws.
Connor: Like Bob the Builder?
Me: Right. Like Bob the Builder.

Did I just compare Jesus to Bob the Builder? Hmm...
Connor and one of his classmates, Caleb, at a recent birthday party

What a week...

2008-09-12T23:27:00.005-06:00

Never a dull moment around here....

Connor started getting a cold on Monday - just a runny nose, very slight fever, nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary for our little germ magnets. Tuesday night, though, the whole picture changed. He started coughing and didn't stop all night despite everything we tried to calm it. Sometime early in the morning he got to the point of throwing up he was coughing so hard. The poor little guy was exhausted (and so were we) by the time his pediatrician's office opened. I took him in and as soon as the nurse saw him she knew he was really sick - he was sitting in my lap with his head on my shoulder and he didn't talk to her or even smile when she walked up which, as you probably know, is completely unlike him! And especially with her - she's been his nurse his whole life! She immediately took his temp (still just a low grade fever) and put on the pulse ox to measure his blood oxygen level - it was 87 percent. They like it to be at least 90. The doctor then examined him and noticed that his breathing was so labored that his skin was sinking in between his ribs. He'd complained that his tummy hurt but I had just assumed that it was his muscles hurting from coughing and throwing up and didn't think to investigate further!

So, the tone of the appointment changed immediately from "he just has a bad cold/cough" to "he's not breathing properly and we have to do something NOW." Scary. So we did one nebulizer treatment in the office and then went to get a chest x-ray. The x-ray came back ok - no pneumonia and just a few cloudy areas that the doctor expected given the wheezing she heard in his lungs. His oxygen level still wasn't rising so we did another nebulizer treatment. It was during that time when the word "hospital" first came up - if this treatment didn't bring his levels up then he would have to be admitted. Eek! The second treatment helped a bit but they were still really concerned so we were sent to the hospital.

Connor spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in the hospital receiving steroids, nebulizer treatments around the clock and constant oxygen up until about midnight last night. The steroids finally took effect and he was able to keep his O2 levels up on his own. Yippee! He's back to his old self and can't wait to ride his bike and play soccer again!

The boys on Monday

The boys in Connor's hospital bed on Thursday afternoon

Connor looking out his hospital room window

As you might expect, Connor was a pretty good patient and immediately made friends with anyone who walked close enough to get sucked into Connor-land :) He made all the nurses laugh and definitely made an impression on them! Like everything that comes his way in life he took it in stride and had a great attitude about it all. He really dislikes the breathing treatments but he's getting used to them now (and they have to continue at home for at least a few days).

There were quite a few memorable moments, here are just a few:

- When we told him he (obviously) couldn't go to school Wednesday morning he was really concerned that we call his teacher right away. After Jeremy called Connor asked "Did she say they would cancel class today?" Because, you know, pre-k without Connor just isn't worth having!
- He was so excited that there was a shower in his bathroom that he asked constantly if he could use it. When he finally got to he said "that was the best shower ever!"
- They should really NOT put a nurse call button or bed adjustment buttons within reach of a pediatric patient. :)
- Somehow Connor convinced every tech that he needed to listen to his own heartbeat with their stethoscopes and they all assumed that it was his first time hearing it so they spent extra time talking to him all about his heart and lungs. They were all wrapped around his little finger in no time!
- Papa brought Chutes and Ladders! It was Connor's first time playing this game and he loves it!
- When Grandma and Papa asked what they could bring to the hospital on Thursday Connor asked for a "Hannah Montana cupcake with sprinkles". I have no idea where his Hannah Montana obsession came from - he watched a part of one show one afternoon after he'd seen her on a backpack and he didn't even like the show! Papa wasn't able to find a Hannah Montana cupcake (do they even make such a thing? Probably...she's everywhere!) but chocolate cake was a good replacement.
- We hadn't been there for more than a few hours when we had an extremely fun visit from a music therapist. Connor got to play all sorts of instruments and so did we! Connor loves music and dominated the session of course - I'm sure the poor therapist was wondering if he was really sick :)
- In the first 24 hours when they were really worried about him staying hydrated he had lots of popsicles, juice and jello. One nurse joked with him that she wanted to keep his purple popsicle and eat it herself and he thought that was the craziest thing ever. He told her that "doctors can't eat popsicles, especially purple ones, and they can't have fun either. They have to work." :) Later she asked if he had any brothers or sisters he told her about Logan and when she asked again if he had any sisters he said "NO and I don't like girls."
- A closet with tons of kid movies in it on the pediatric floor? Yes, it was a good way to pass the many hours but I think that habit is going to be hard to break! :) As one would finish he would plan out the next TWO he wanted to watch and was more excited about stopping by the video closet than going to the playroom on his walks!
- He loved the room service, of course. What could be better than picking out pretty much any food you want, having it brought to your bed and you don't even have to get out of bed to eat it? He already misses that part. Wait, so do I! :)
- Connor really missed Logan. He would ask where Logan was as we went to sleep both nights. When Logan came to visit yesterday Connor had to show him everything in the room and tell him about everything he'd gone through. When we got home today Connor was so excited to see Logan and wanted to just keep hugging him! Logan was excited to see us too - he was really attached to me tonight!

Most of all we just felt so blessed by all the people who helped out over the last couple days - our great friends who let Logan sleep over both nights, grandparents visiting and helping out with Logan, and all the well wishers who came to the hospital or called to check in on him! His soccer coach came both yesterday and this morning and another soccer team friend brought a card the whole team had signed during practice yesterday! He got to talk to his teacher this afternoon and was very sad to hear that they'd made banana bread yesterday but that it was all gone. Maybe we'll make some at home tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and all this happened during one of the busiest weeks I could have had at work. There's never a good time for things like this to happen, of course, but my company had to deliver working software to a customer by today no matter and since I'm the primary tester on this program my involvement was critical. So, I was attached to my laptop and cell phone as much as I could be....fun fun.

Anyway, it was a long couple of days for us all but hopefully we'll be able to rest and recover a bit this weekend and get back on track next week. It's good to be home! And healthy!

Happy Labor Day!

2008-09-01T21:56:00.002-06:00

We had a relaxing Labor Day weekend. The boys went for quite a few bike rides and today we played in the water in the backyard to cool off a bit. Our regular camera is still broken but we found our old one so here are a few pics from it!

Taking a break from the fun

Funny faces

This one isn't a great shot of Connor but Logan's eyes look really blue in it so I had to include it too :)

And a few tidbits from the last several weeks...

Connor's favorite show to watch with Jeremy is Wipeout. Have you seen it? Each time he gets to watch it he asks Jeremy the same line of questions...

"Daddy, can you run?"
Yes...
"Daddy, can you jump?"
Yes...
"Daddy, can you swim?"
Yes...
"Daddy, can you spin around?"
Yes...
"Daddy! You could go on Wipeout!!"
No... :)

Connor's really up on current events though he doesn't entirely understand it all or remember all the details, of course. For example he saw a picture of US Olympian Tyson Gay the other day and said "Mommy! It's Rock Obama!" :)

Ever since the tornado siren we experienced a few weeks ago Connor has been fascinated by storms - what causes them, where they are, what they do, etc. So when Gustav started approaching land we watched a bit of the coverage and talked about it A LOT. Now both boys enjoy spinning around in circles in the living room and falling down. Connor asked to pray with me for the people in the storm and said "Dear God, please watch out for the people in the hurricane. Don't let it hurt their homes. Amen. Oh wait, Mommy, I'm not done, close your eyes. Dear God, please don't let the hurricane hurt anyone. Amen. Wait, I forgot something. Dear God, please don't let the hurricane hurt anyone's lawnmower because when they go back they need to mow their grass. Amen. Ok, that's it." :)

If you've spent any time with Logan you know how attached he is to several stuffed animals, the most important one being a yellow duck. Lately if one of us is telling him no for some reason, he whines for the other parent first but if the other parent isn't there or isn't immediately sympathetic (you know, cause he's probably not supposed to be doing whatever it is he was doing), he'll whine for his duck instead :) It's hard not to laugh when he does it!

naked baby

2008-08-25T23:50:00.002-06:00

Last winter Logan went through a long phase where he would take off both shoes and both socks each and every time we got in the car. It didn't matter how long we were in the car or if he was distracted with a toy or anything, his feet were always bare when we would stop and get out. At first it was cute or funny but as time went on it got to be a bit frustrating, especially when we had to stand out in the rain or snow to first find his socks and shoes and then put them back on his feet.

He's stopped doing that now (or at least doesn't do it as often) but has replaced it with another habit: taking off his pants and diaper any time he can. He must have taken off his shorts and diaper at least ten times today! Every time I turned around there was his naked butt running around. Somehow there were no accidents in our house today but I'm not sure how as he spent most of the day diaperless! Connor made him sit on the potty every time he noticed the diaper off and Logan complied but didn't actually do anything. So now the question is, do we push the potty training, put him in overalls every day or resort to duct tape (don't laugh, I googled "2 year old taking off diaper" and got lots of hits, many of them suggesting duct tape!)?

So, I take it all back, I'll take the missing socks and shoes phase any day :)

School starts tomorrow :)

2008-08-17T20:59:00.002-06:00

What a busy last few weeks! I volunteered to help with the Boulder County Fair's website so as the results started coming in that kept me really busy adding all the results to the site! Who knew there were so many different categories judged in a county fair? Well, now I know! :)

Last weekend was action packed. Jeremy and Connor went to the Rockies game with some friends on Friday night and didn't get home until around 11. On Saturday we went back to the fair to see more animals and spent some time watching the cattle auction. Connor loved the auctioneer and likes to imitate him now "8, 8, 8, is there a 40, 90, 80?" Yeah, he doesn't really get the whole point of it but it's cute.

We went to Roosevelt Park to play a bit before dinner. They have a beautiful rose garden there! Though it wasn't as easy as last year to get pictures of the boys together with the roses we still got a few cute shots.

I think this rose is so cool!

After the park Connor and I went back to the fair to see the Senior Pro Rodeo. We watched everything from calf roping to bull riding. Connor's favorite was the mutton busting! He wanted to do it but (luckily for me) you have to be at least 5. Safe for another year...I'd say "hopefully he won't remember" but he remembers *everything* and I'm sure as soon as he sees the first carnival ride roll into town he'll be asking when he gets to hold on to a sheep :)

Sunday was my company's summer picnic at the Boulder Reservoir. It was cloudy most of the day which was really nice. The boys went on a paddle boat ride, we participated in a water balloon toss and bean bag toss and ate some yummy food. Here are the boys on the water. Logan was waving and yelling "Mama! Hi Mama!"

Not long after this picture was taken our camera died. As in doesn't turn on. Doesn't respond. At all. Ugh. So, there might not be many pictures for a while! :)

Tomorrow is the first day of school! Connor will begin pre-k four half-days a week and Logan will be in a Mom's Day Out program two half-days a week. We went to the Open House to meet their teachers last Friday and both boys were excited to see their new classrooms and meet new friends. Surprisingly Connor will be one of the youngest kids in his class. You wouldn't think he would be given that his birthday is just a little over two months after the kindergarten cutoff but I guess it's really popular to start kindergarten later these days - some of his classmates will be 6 1/2 when they start kindergarten! We'll see how it goes.

The big news in Logan's life is that he's officially sleeping in a toddler bed now! He fell out a couple times the first few nights but went right back to sleep after we put him back in bed. Jeremy took down the crib yesterday and we rearranged both boys rooms a bit. Since it has been so rainy the last few days it was a fun indoor activity. :)

I'll let you know how their first day of school goes!

T-ball trophy and dancing bulldozers

2008-08-04T00:17:00.003-06:00

Early this afternoon we went to a picnic at a local park for Connor's t-ball team. They played in the park, ran through the water feature (fun spraying jets of water) and ate some yummy food. Best of all? Everyone on the team got a trophy! The coaches said a little something that stood out about each player as they got their trophy and Connor's was all about how enthusaistic he was at each practice and each game and how he was happy playing any position. Yep, that's Connor!
Jeffrey, Hayden, Connor and Michael

Our little monkey playing in the park

Tonight we went to the Boulder County Fair! We got free tickets to the Bulldozer 500 so the four of us went and watched bulldozers dance, skid steers compete on obstacle courses, bulldozers play checkers and diggers play basketball. The boys loved it, of course. Connor also got to go on lots of carnival rides! Logan was too small for the rides but loved looking at the animals! We'll have to go back when some of the larger animals arrive.
Waiting for the Bulldozer 500 to start

Watching the show. All three boys were wearing brown shirts and red hats today - weird! :)

Logan loves chickens! We saw goats, turkeys, pigeons and ducks too!

Super Saturday

2008-08-02T23:43:00.003-06:00

We had another busy and fun Saturday :) We had a yummy pancake breakfast in downtown Longmont and then watched the Boulder County Fair parade. It was HOT outside but we had lots of fun. It helped when the sprinklers started in the flower planters we were sitting near!

Connor was immediately soaked and dried just as quickly!

Connor was so excited to see Ronald McDonald coming down the street that he ran over and posed for a picture with him in the middle of the parade!

Logan has this new habit of making funny face for the camera. This was taken on the way home from the parade.

Despite the heat we went to a park for a little bit this afternoon. Somehow the high 90s didn't feel so hot with a bit of cloud cover!

We're going to a picnic with Connor's t-ball team tomorrow and might even check out the carnival at the Boulder County Fair. As soon as the carnival rides started rolling into the parking lot at the fairgrounds Connor has been begging to go!