A new found love...

The other day Patrick was eating a cookie that was covered in chocolate. Landon notices, and of course wants in on that action. I told Patrick he shouldn't give it to him because it would make such a huge mess and after all, he only has 2 teeth, so I wasn't sure he would be able to chew it. But does Daddy always listen to Mommy's advice......

....Nope! Not so much! And Landon was very grateful that he didn't, he loved it!

~P.S. Daddy got the fun job of cleaning him and the high chair up after.  :)

10 months now....

I really wish sometimes that I could just freeze time. I wish that Landon (along with my other boys when they were that little) would stay this age... so sweet and innocent for a little longer. But, they aren't listening to my pleas to stay little. I love this stage that Landon is at. It's one of my favorites. Here are some things I love about Landon at 10 months:

*I love that smile!

*I love that he is mobile, he still army crawls about 90% of the time, and when he feels like it, he'll get up on his hands an knees and crawl. Or he'll stand up and walk along furniture, but he's still not fully mobile yet with the walking and running.

*I love that he stands up in his crib waiting for me or his Daddy to come get him in the morning or after a nap and when we open his door, he gets a huge grin on his face that's like he's saying "yay!! I'm happy you came to get me!" and then he snuggles his little head and face into my neck for a second to give me loves! Melts my heart every time!

*I love his 2 cute little teeth

*I love how he opens his mouth SO wide when he's super hungry, which is most every time he eats. He acts like we never feed him. 

*I love how every time he gets in the bath, he kicks his feet as hard as he can to splash as much as possible and laughs those great belly laughs while he does it. It makes me smile.

*I love how he will stand up, and bounce up and down when he is excited or happy while playing with his toys, brothers, or just saying hi to us.

*I love how fascinated he is by this Leap Frog Table, he loves it! Sometimes he has to fight his brothers away so he can play with it, but he gets so excited when he plays with it... its so cute!

*I love that he already follows his big brothers around and wants to do everything they are doing.

*I love that his brothers let him play with them... most of the time.  :)

*I love that he is starting to love real people food. If he sees us eating something, he had just got to have a bite... or a drink of something we have. And if you know his Daddy at all, you're assumptions that he's tasted Daddy's Dr. Pepper a time or two (or more) are correct.

*I love how he "talks" to himself while he plays with his toys.

*I love that he's learned how to spit and he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world!

*I love that he immediately comes over when he hears or sees me open the dishwasher and wants to "help" me empty it.

*I love how he stares down the cat, but never wants to touch her.

*I love that when I ask him if he wants a "ba-ba" he will look over to the kitchen sink with a smile because he knows that is where his bottles are and that is where I make his bottle.

Some things that I don't like so much that he does:

*Screams at the top of his lungs to get attention or when he's mad. This is especially annoying during church! I mean it's quite an ear piercing screech!

*He wakes up most everyday between 5-6 am

*He throws his binky out of the crib all the dang time, then gets mad that he doesn't have it.

*He always wants to play with our cell phones and remotes, and sometimes messes them up, and I can't always figure out what he did to fix it. 

*He has learned how to climb a few stairs, therefore giving his mommy a heart attack and causing Daddy to have to assemble the baby gate that now is in use daily.

Conner's Party!

So this year I was finally brave enough to let Conner have a friends party for his birthday. I have never done one before because they always seemed very overwhelming to me and so much work. But they boys both talked me into letting them have one this year. 

On his actual birthday, we just hung out most the day while Brayden and Dad were at school and work. Conner was lucky enough to get invited to another friend's birthday party on his birthday, so he spent the afternoon there playing in the water and having fun. We went to McDonald's for dinner and spent the rest of the evening playing Lego Harry Potter on the Wii together... one of Conner's presents. He loved it.... ok we all really like playing it too!

Then on Saturday was "the big day"! He had been so excited for his birthday party! 

 He decided he wanted to have a Spongebob party. So I hit the internet and found Spongebob party ideas. We colored pictures of Spongebob and Patrick while everyone was arriving. 

Then we played a game with "jellyfish" in Jellyfish fields.  

Then toss the sponge into the pail game that everyone loved. Although after a few rounds, I think the kids were more focused on getting Patrick all wet instead of getting the sponge into the pail. It was pretty funny!

We played "Squidward Says" ( just like Simon Says) and a hunt for the seashell game where one kid would hide the seashell and another would try to find it. We sang the Spongebob song really softly if the hunter was far away from where the shell was hidden, and got louder as they got closer. The kids really liked getting to be so loud.

We had pizza for lunch.... 

...even Landon enjoyed that part.

Then it was time for presents!!!!

Then came the cake and ice cream.

It was fun for Conner... but I realized my fears of having a party like this were true!! So I have now told my boys they can have friend parties for their 5th, 8th, 12th and 16th birthdays because I am not gonna do all that every year.  :)  I was exhausted by the end. It is harder then I thought to entertain 10 5 year olds for 2 hours. But Conner had a blast and that was the point of it all, so it was worth it!

5

Today Conner turns 5.

How is that possible? It seems like it wasn't 5 year ago that he was this little....

(about 2 weeks old)

(5 months old)

Conner was our "surprise" baby. And he was the single greatest surprise we have ever got!

He makes our family so happy.

He is my little love-bug! Everything about him is sweet. His crazy hair in the mornings. His little smile. His contagious laugh. He's constantly telling me he loves me. He still loves to cuddle with me every time I sit down... I hope that never goes away... although I know one day it will. He is always eager to play with friends. He adores his brothers. He tries to multi task while he says his prayers at night by arranging his blankets on his bed or finding a toy to sleep with. He always wants to be my helper in the kitchen and doing laundry. He is super excited to start Kindergarten next month (ohmygosh!!! is he really going to go off to school NEXT month?!?!)  He is full of energy all day long. He loves to say the prayer at dinner.

I thought it would be fun to post pics of him over the years, not just from when he was born.

Here are some of my favorite Conner moments.

Conner on his first birthday... he was sick for his big day, but such a sweet boy.

About 14 months old kicking back watching TV at our house in Taylorsville. 

Conner and Brayden playing in our backyard in Taylorsville.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of him and his rock playing at Bear Lake, UT at about 14 months old.

In Salt Lake City at my cousin's wedding, he's almost 3 years old.

On his 2nd birthday trying out his new trike.

4 years old.

Happy birthday little man!!!! 

I sure love being your mom!

Our Fabulous 4th

This year for the long holiday weekend, we ventured to California to visit Patrick's cousin Emily and her family. We had SO MUCH fun. The boys played and played from the second they woke up in the mornings until it was long past bedtime. Emily has twin girls that are just a few months older then Conner so they had a blast together. She also has a 12 year old son (who just received the priesthood this weekend, which was the reason for our trip, to be there for that awesome milestone!) His name is Dallin, and Brayden pretty much thinks he is the greatest thing ever! Dallin was so great and played basketball a ton with Brayden. He loved every minute of playing with his older cousin.

Patrick and Conner got in on the b-ball action too. Conner was so excited when he "got a score"... or as we all know it... a basket. He was getting pretty good at it too.

Something funny about Brayden... he's in this phase where he complains and says he doesn't like to go to church.... every week. I ask him why, and his answer is always because he hates to wear church clothes. I can very rarely get him to even wear a tie. So I totally used his adoration of his older cousin to my advantage and made sure to point out that Dallin had the SAME exact church shirt that he did, and was wearing a tie to church that day. Brayden had no complaints about wearing a shirt and tie to church that day. Let's see if it will stick!!!

One night while we were there, Landon discovered he likes loves pizza.

He ate it and loved every bite!

The boys went to a fun swimming party (I didn't go, therefore there are no pictures) but they had a blast and ate lots of good food and enjoyed swimming with their cousins.

The kids spent a lot of time outside playing ball, riding scooters and bikes, and swinging was a favorite by everyone. If Landon was getting too grumpy, the swing was where he would go. He could watch the dogs, the other kids play, and enjoy the breeze in his hair!

Ali helping to push Landon....

Like I said before, Brayden thought that everything Dallin did was great. This included listening to the ipod. Dallin got a new ipod for his birthday and was listening to it a lot, so Brayden kept asking to use ours so he could listen to his music to. 

He thought he was pretty hot stuff struttin' around like this. 

On Sunday we took some time to take pictures before church. 

All the Priesthood brethren in the family...

Dallin, Scott, Tom, & Patrick

The idea for this picture was to get Landon with Patrick's Uncle Tom. Landon was having none of that, so we settled for this with us and Uncle Tom and Aunt Leah. Landon's middle name is Thomas after Uncle Tom. He is an amazing man and this trip reminded us just how blessed we are to be apart of this family and how honored we are to have named our youngest son after him.

We used to see Tom and Leah every week for Sunday dinner when we lived up in Utah and we miss them a lot. The boys always ask about them and it was great to be able to see them again.

That night, we watched fireworks from Emily's balcony... well most of us did. I didn't get to see many because right about the time they started, 2 out of my 3 kids decided to melt down from complete exhaustion. So I went in to put them to bed, but Conner was the trooper and watched every single firework and loved every second of it. 

It was a great weekend full of good food, chit chatting, telling funny family stories, relaxing, and playing. 

I love weekends like that!

Say it isn't so!

Landon is 9 months old!

I really just can't believe how fast this little boy is growing up! 

But here are some things about Landon at 9 months old:

*he weighs 18 lbs. 12 oz. (That is only the 10th percentile) I swear this kids eats a ton!!

*he is 29 inches long (which is the 75%, so he is tall and skinny!)

*he has pretty much decided that Mommy is the only person for him... others like daddy and his brothers are a close 2nd, but if he can see Mom, that is who he wants!

*he loves to take baths in the bathtub, but hates pools (weird!)

*can go from crawling to sitting up all by himself

*he finds ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on the floor to put in his mouth (even when I think my floor is clean, he helps me to know it's not!)

*he babbles and talks to us a lot

*tries to eat the cat food whenever he gets a chance

*follows his mommy all around

*has learned how to open some of the cupboard and drawers and like to bang them

*wakes up entirely too early for his mom's liking

*keeps wearing holes in his pajamas from army crawling all the time

*is impossible at church

*loves to play with his toys and discover things around the house

*loves his big brothers and loves to go into their room to see what he can find to out in his mouth or play with

*has developed a love or graham crackers

*slaps his hand on his knee when he's happy and playing
*he's learned to spit, and loves to do it

*can say mamamamama, but I don't think he saying it in reference to mommy yet, just babble still

*his hair is getting thicker and longer

*he FINALLY got teeth... 2 actually!

*he has the cutest little giggle

*he loves to cuddle with his mommy
*just today he pulled himself up for the first time from sitting to standing by pulling on his mommy's shirt while we were playing on the floor, he still is trying to figure out how to do that on the furniture

*We seriously just love this little man to death!!!
How can you not with a smile like this!?!!???

Father's Day at our house...

What would father's day be without a picture of the honoree with his boys? Too bad none of them really wanted to get their picture taken, so this was the best I got, but they are still wonderful, handsome, and my favorite guys!

But before the big celebration, we had lots to prepare for...

We had to make cards...

(look at that concentration!)

Then we had to draw pictures and write notes to make this...

... turn into this...

I got this fun idea from one of the many craft blogs I read. I had the kids make their own candy wrappers and we put them on some of Daddy's favorite candy. Each wrapper had a drawing on it by the boys, and then on the other side had notes to him. Some said "I love you". Some listed reasons why he is a good dad. Some listed things that dad has taught them. Every one of the things that the boys wrote (or I helped them write) were their ideas. Some of the things they listed were... "You are a good dad because you play Wii with us.... drive me to school.... taught us not to lie or say bad words... taught me to read... take us for rides in your truck... and you still love me even when I spit up on your dry clean only pants!" (that last one was from Landon!)  :)

Since Landon wasn't able to color any pictures... he would have just tried to eat the crayons and paper... he just hung out and watched us while crawling around and finding trouble! He may look innocent, but he's not so much!!

We also took the kids to see the new Toy Story 3 on Saturday. It was so good!! We all loved it!! Landon however really enjoyed the left over licorice Sunday as we were making dinner for our daddy...

Look at how messy that little boy got!! But he sure loved it!

We had a great father's day with our daddy. We made him his favorite breakfast, went to church, came home and made him his favorite dinner.... steak and potatoes! He enjoyed some other gifts from all of us, and some relaxation time. 

We love our Dad, we think he is amazing!!