Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Neat Nick Pig Song- they are too funny!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

It's A Barnyard Moo-sical!

Yesterday Travis' class had their annual program at school. They all looked soooo cute in their outfits as the different animals. We have been hearing all about this for months now. It turned out so good! Travis' class were the neat-nick pigs. I have never seen Travis in pink before, so once my eyes adjusted and got used to it he actually looked pretty cute!
Here are all four classes together. One class were chickens, another were cows, and the other were goats... who love to cook! (That is why they were chefs!)
Of course all the grandparents were there along with Daddy and Connor. Travis' rooting section was well represented! Now we can focus on Thanksgiving and Daryle's birthday... both of which are tomorrow. Here are a few crafty things the boys have made so far this holiday season. I am pretty impressed with both of their talents!
Isn't Connor's little hand turkey the cutest thing ever??!!
He also made this darling turkey that has been hanging on our refrigerator all month. He is so proud. Every time he sees it he points and says, "I did it!!" as he has a smile a mile wide across his face.
Travis made this cute Indian boy. He had a belt with beads on it but Connor got a hold of it before me, and, well, you know how things go with a two year old in the house! lol Tomorrow will be pretty busy for us as we celebrate Thanksgiving and Daryle's 40th birthday! Yes, it is a milestone one for him this year. Right now Travis is blowing up balloons to put up around the house. He is so excited. He even insisted that we wrap each individual thing we got him so that "It looks like so much!" One thing is for sure, Travis loves a good birthday celebration! We bought some decorations to put up around the house as a little reminder for him. All.Day.Long! I can't wait! It should be a good day of food, family, friends and of course... football! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Mornings

Morning time has been going more smoothly around here for the past few days. (With that being said, I sure hope I didn't just jinx myself!) For months mornings have been rough. When Connor first came home Travis had *some* control issues. He had to be up before Connor. He had to choose what Connor ate (never mind that Connor already knew what he wanted to eat and Travis would insist on the opposite!). He wanted to dress him (against Connor's will). He wanted to control what was on the tv. Or what music was playing on the CD player. Where I sat. Where Connor sat. Well, I think you get the picture! Travis just could not, would not give Connor some space. Gradually over time Travis has learned to let go and just let Connor make his own decisions. Once I let Travis fix Connor's breakfast and help out things seemed to get better. Just when those problems were resolving a new crop appeared. A few months ago Connor decided to start climbing out of his crib. We had to take down the side rail and convert it to a toddler bed. Thus began "freedom" time for Connor! He was waking up in the middle of the night, turning on lights, tv, playing, etc. After a few weeks of that he started sleeping all night. Then began the waking up at 4:30 in the morning routine. That was enough to do us all in!! Then FINALLY it happened! Last week Connor began sleeping until about 6:00 in the morning. This was great as it allowed me to get up, showered, and dressed BEFORE having to watch Connor (and make sure he didn't run out into the backyard! One morning he did get out, he was not dressed because he ran away from me as I was dressing him. He ran to the swing and then declared "TOO COLD! I GET DRESSED NOW!" He finally figured it out and hasn't done it again since. lol) I really hope that the sleeping until 6 or 6:30 continues. One morning this past week Travis woke up first. Connor slept until 6:45... Hallelujah! When he woke up he ran to Travis, gave him a BIG bear hug and they sat on the floor and cuddled. Of course it was a Kodak moment. (Don't laugh. Moments like these are few and far between, I need to record them to prove to myself that they actually happened!!) I can handle more mornings like this! Even though motherhood can be quite stressful, I am so thankful for these two blessings in my life. I can't imagine what life would be like without them! Even though they can make me feel like I am going crazy some days I wouldn't trade them for anything else in the world!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Randomness

It seems like we have been busy around here. I am not sure exactly what we have been doing but I know that the minute my head hits the pillow I am out like a light! It may have something to do with the fact that Connor has been waking up somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30...and there is NO putting him back to bed. No way. No how. He is up and ready to rumble! This morning was wonderful... he slept until 6 am! Way to go! I was actually all showered and dressed by the time he got up today. I hope this trend continues. I like it much better.
The boys have been playing in the backyard a lot. The weather has been absolutely beautiful and they both LOVE to be outside. I like it when they are outside too. (Except of course when they decide to throw limes over the fence into the neighbor's yard... yes even Connor can throw high enough to make it over!)
This weekend Daryle made his "famous" chili for a day of football. He is really quite funny when he cooks. He cut up all of the veggies just perfectly. I had to take a picture. Looks like it should be in a cookbook somewhere.
Travis has officially been bitten by the football bug. That is all he wants to play. This weekend he donned this delightful outfit and started making some poses. I guess I will have to sign him up for flag football next year. Sigh. He loves playing and evidently he is pretty good. (So says his daddy, grandpa, and our neighbor.) I of course just see a 7 year old boy playing ball and having a good time.
Then I caught Travis taping this to his bottom. He is too much sometimes!
Oh goodness. He is even getting Connor in on the action. Travis will throw the ball and tell me "Look mom, it's a spiral!" So then Connor picks up the ball, yells "Spiral!" and the ball goes about one foot in front of him. It is so cute. He adores his big brother and tries to do everything he does. Sometimes I can't wait for them to get "just a little older" and then other times I just want to freeze them like they are right now. Everybody knows they grow up fast enough as it is!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Family Fun

Boy did we have a busy day! Of course it started at 5:20 this morning when Connor woke up and decided to bless us with his presence. ;-) (He has not received the memo about sleeping in on Saturdays yet! LOL) With that being said, it would be no surprise to you that we were all fed, showered, dressed, and ready to go by 8:30 this morning. Usually that only happens when Travis has some kind of game to go to. No games today, this was just us being ready to have some fun. Yesterday Daryle and Travis went to Home Depot to get a lock for the refrigerator. (Yes, we have to keep Connor out of there too. He wakes up in the night and heads for some yogurt. He is something else I tell you!!) So, as they were there they saw a sign advertising their Saturday event. On the first Saturday of the month they have a kids workshop where they get to build something. Now that Travis is old enough and we had some free time they decided to check it out. He made the cutest little spice rack for his mom! I need to take a picture of him with it though. He was so proud of himself and had a great time. While they did that Connor and I went to the car wash and then went to the grocery store. Note to self: Do not take Connor to the grocery store alone for at least another six months. It all started while I was in the produce section tearing off a bag for some apples when this hand reaches out, grabs an apple from the bottom and then a domino effect happened. Yes, apples started falling to the floor! I didn't know what to grab first, Connor or stop the apples!! It all went downhill from there... literally. Seriously, that kid has got to be part octopus! We all met up back home and decided we still had time to go check out the Safety Fair that our town puts on every year. The kids love to see the fire trucks, helicopters and simulations that they put on. We got to see two house fires. One had a sprinkler system and one did not. It was amazing to see how fast things can burn down. Scary. Here are some pictures from our late morning adventure.
Yes, Travis was petting an alligator!
Here we are checking out one of the Sheriff's four wheelers. Connor enjoyed pushing all of the buttons...
Of course they had to check out the heavy equipment! Connor wanted to drive everything!
Yes, all kids who wanted to check out the rescue boat had to put on a life jacket... never mind that the boat was in a parking lot! I understand the message, just thought it was kind of funny that the first time they were on a boat was in the Target parking lot in the middle of the desert!
Checking out the fire truck... even mom got in on the action!
Future fire fighter??

Hopping on the helicopter, Connor is looking for his seat belt. I guess he figured if he buckled up they just might take him for a ride!
After a nap for Connor and running errands for Travis and I we invited the grandparents over for dinner. Since we finally have beautiful weather again the boys are both enjoying our backyard more and more. Travis was pushing Connor on the swing when he suddenly ran in, got the camera, and took this picture of Connor. He really isn't a bad photographer. (Never mind that I deleted about 8 others!!)
I think this one was my favorite of the day! They are both bonding more and more as brothers all the time. I think as Connor is getting older Travis is enjoying him more because there are more things they can do together. Every morning this week Connor has greeted Travis with a huge smile and shouts, "Good morning brudder!" I have even caught Travis saying (on more than one occasion) "Love you Connor! Who's your brother?" Sometimes Connor says Travis, but tonight he said, "Mommy!!" I guess we still have some work to do!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween Fun

Wow, I can hardly believe another Halloween has come and gone again. This year Connor was a pirate and Travis was a "Mac Daddy". (Daddy took him costume shopping, I was just glad it wasn't blood and guts!) They both were pretty cute if I do say so myself. Not that I am biased or anything... LOL We actually had two nights of Halloween. Our town did Trunk or Treat on Saturday night and then of course Halloween was on Sunday night. They had a blast at both places. Saturday night was hectic, we stood in line for an hour just to get to the trunks to trick-or-treat. Oh well, the cars were decorated pretty cool and the kids loved it. After that we pretty much called it a night. I wasn't sure how Connor was going to do trick-or-treating, but he had a blast! He walked around like he owned the neighborhood. He was so cute! He said thank you to everybody. Of course he had to do everything "Big Brother" did, which made it even funnier.
Here is my little pirate:
Can I tell you it is VERY difficult to get a two year old to stand still for a picture... add in a costume and sugar and you get this! LOL
Finally, a decent shot of them both... too bad they aren't standing very close to each other.
We had to go outside for some annual outside shots too.
The sun was in their eyes so we had to go around to this side of the bush. They were much happier campers over here.
Here they are on the actual night of Halloween. The three amigos.... I don't know about you, but they look like trouble to me! LOL
This is pretty much all we saw all the way down the street. Too cute.
As I was downloading my pictures I realized a few things. First, I didn't get one picture of my brother with the kids. He was visiting from Seattle (he came for the WSU/ASU game.... if you saw the score you might understand why maybe he didn't want to be in any pictures!!) and came trick-or-treating with us. It actually reminded me of the "olden days" when we would get on our costumes and watch the sun go down before our parents would let us do our own trick-or-treating. We always used a pillow case and tried very hard to fill it up! The other thing I realized is that even though there were three grandparents here they didn't get in a picture either. I am not in any either for that matter. However, we ALL were there! All in all it was a good weekend, busy but good. Next stop... Thanksgiving and a milestone birthday for Daryle!!