Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween Connor was a cowboy/sheriff and Cody was a monkey. Unfortunately, Cody had croup and an ear infection so he didn't get to go treak-or-treating for very long. After going trick-or-treating at few houses Connor seemed tired too so we called it a night at about 7:30! Oh well, at least we got a few pictures of them dressed up. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

I asked Connor this year what kind of face he wanted to carve on his pumpkin and he said he wanted one pumpkin to be a "Cody" face and the other to be a "Connor" face. He said we should make the "Cody" one happy with two bottom teeth. I asked him if we should make his happy too and he said, "No, we should make him mad b/c sometimes I get frustrated and this is the face I make."

New Pajamas!

Our boys LOVE getting new pajamas, especially when Grandma Rosvall sends them in the mail. Whenever Grandma sends a package, Connor always knows b/c she puts stickers on the box. The last few packages we've received he says, "Yeah! Grandma Rosvall sent us a package! She's such a nice lady" :) Thanks Mom!!!

Jumping Jacks!

My friend Brittnee told me about this fun place called "Jumping Jacks" in West Jordan. They have a ton of fun inflatable slides, castles, a dragon. Brittnee and I took our kids a few weeks ago and they had a blast. Connor was kind of a wimp at first but eventally got the hang of it.

Our Boys

I've been such a blogging slacker lately! Our summer was jam packed with Jake in a 10-week summer school course, moving shortly thereafter, and trying to juggle our two boys and keep their lives somewhat stable. I hope to be a better blogger now that our lives have regained some regularity. 

While raising 2 children has had it's challenging moments, Connor & Cody bring so much joy and laughter to our lives. 

Connor continues to test our patience as he has officially entered the "terrible two's". Some days I wonder if there will ever come a time that I won't have to say every 5 minutes, "Connor, don't touch that," "Connor, don't throw that," "Connor, your baby brother isn't a pony, get off of him!" "Connor, stop crawling through the neighbor's doggie door!" Ah, what a fun age :)

But there is another side to Connor that I love. He is always giggling, jumping, skipping, hopping like a frog. He's everything that a little boy should be. He's so inquisitive and curious about everything. I'm constantly laughing at some of the things he says. For example:

Me: "Connor, please don't take that juice cup in the living room. I don't want you to spill."

Connor: "But Mom, that's why we have roller coasters"

Me: "Huh??"

Connor: "See Mom, these!" (as he points to a regular drink coaster...apparently we need to take him to an amusement park soon to eliminate the confusion)

This is one of my favorites, Connor uses this phrase quite frequently:

Me: "Connor, will you please help me finish cleaning up your room before you go outside and play?"

Connor: "No Mom. Let's just do that to-later"

Me: "To-later?"

Connor: (as if he's explaining himself) "tonight, tomorrow, to-later!"

Me: "Oh! Makes sense to me!"

You know you're child watches too much "Dora the Explorer" if this happens:

Riding in the car on the way to a barbecue Connor asked where we were going. I told him to a barbecue to have dinner. He then asks if I know where I'm going. I told him I hadn't been there before, but I was pretty sure I could figure it out. He then said, "Who do we ask when we don't know which way to go?!"...."THE MAP!! I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map"...if you're a mom of a toddler, you know the rest. He then said, "Should we take the first path, or the second path, or the third path?" 

Also, when we first moved here, we were getting ready to go somewhere and Connor walked up to the garage door and shouted "Abre!" (Spanish for "open!") I laughed so hard, b/c I realized that he had watched an Dora show that morning where they taught them that using the magic word "abre" would open things. Pretty observant!

Ok, one last story...Last week Connor and I went to Kohl's to check out their sale on baby/toddler clothing. I let Connor get out of the shopping cart and walk around. He kept wandering around and picking up pants and shirts and holding them up to him and saying, "How does this look, Mom? Does this match?" He was off in his own little world for a while. I couldn't see him but I knew he was close b/c I could hear him talking to himself. A few minutes passed and he realized I wasn't right next to him anymore. All of a sudden I heard, 

Connor: "Have you seen my Mommy?" 

Female shopper: "I think she's right over there"

Connor: "Oh, thank you. I thought I lost-ed her"

Female shopper: "You sure are a cute little boy"

Connor: "Thank you. I know."

(maybe we should work on teaching him humility)

Cody is now 9 months old. Just looking at his picture makes me happy. He's such a sweet little boy and has been such a good baby. I was so worried when I found out I was pregnant again, that these two would be too close in age and I wouldn't be able to give them each enough attention, but Cody is just a "roll with the punches"-kinda kid. 

He always smiles at you when you look at him. He LOVES to wave and often entertains himself by sitting in front of the mirror and waves at himself (sadly, I think he genuinely feels like he's waving at another baby). He absolutely adores his older brother and always flaps his arms and kicks his feet when Connor enters the room. He loves to copy him. The other day Connor was doing somersaults in the back yard. Cody was crawling around on a blanket and immediately got on all fours and put his head on the ground and kept looking up at Connor. He had a look on his face like, "how did you do that again?"

He is officially mobile and can crawl fairly quickly now. He's just now starting to cruise along furniture and is slowly learning about the effects of gravity. After his naps, I am often greeted by Cody standing in his crib with a huge smile on his face, so excited to see me...I LOVE this age! 

Cody's been babbling for a little while now. He frequently says "ma, ma" and "da, da" and I've gotten him to say "hi" a couple of times. For the last few weeks I've heard him chuckle/laugh to himself a lot. It's kind of funny, b/c he especially does it as he's crawling toward something he's interested in. The other day, I could hear him from the kitchen laughing. I looked over the couch into the living room and saw him crawling toward one of Connor's grapes that had rolled under the couch. At least by laughing he gives me a warning if he's about to get into something he's not supposed to! 

One Last Moment of Hot Summer Fun

My sister-in-law told me about this fun water park by our house. It's actually just a public park with a playground, but also has a fun section with tons of fountains, a huge tractor, a frog, and a fish that spray water. How fun! And FREE fun...that's the best kind! 

Connor and his cousin Tanner had a blast, while Cody sat back in the stroller and munched on graham crackers. 

Family Pictures

The Blackham's had family pictures taken last Saturday and our photographer was nice enough to send us a few edited pictures as a preview. From the few that she's completed, I think she did a great job! Check out her website at jennywheelerphotography.com.

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, Jake shaved his head a few months ago...I call it "surrendering to the receding hairline"

Bear Lake Vacation

This year, the Blackham's took a family vacation to Bear Lake. It was a lot of fun to visit during their Raspberry Days...yum! We rented a condo so we could all stay together, which was a lot of fun. Even though the water was a bit cold, we decided to take the boat out and go waterskiing and tubing. I thought Connor would really like going out of the boat, but he kept telling Grandpa to "Go Much Slower!" He also didn't like it when I went tubing...

this was his reaction when I fell off the tube...
I think he thought he'd never see me again. He eventually

got brave enough to go on a slow ride w/Mommy.

We had a lot of fun watching the Raspberry Days parade
Connor & Tanner on the playground
Cody & Mom (gotta love his spiky hair)

Playing on the beachConnor's special fishy kisses

Relaxing with Lucy after a long day

Cody - 7 Months Old

Can you believe Cody is 7 months old already?! He has been so much fun to have in our family. He loves rolling over, drooling, smiling, squealing, putting everything he can grab in his mouth, and playing with his big brother. He really does seem to genuinely love Connor. Every time he walks in the room, Cody gets all excited and starts squealing. We sure love him!

4th of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was so much fun! We spent the day in Moroni with Jake's family.
My sister-in-law and I got up early to run the 5k Fun Run. Afterwards, we went to the city's pancake breakfast at the park. Then we took the kids to the parade downtown. Connor was in heaven...candy and popsicles being thrown at him for a half-hour! Then, Jake took Connor down to the carnival where he got to play in a bounce house and go down a huge water slide. We ended the day with a game of corn-hole. No fireworks though, too much rain and wind. My kids were worn out by then anyway! Here are some pictures from the day.

Cody w/Aunt Lucy

Me, Lucy, and Laurel
The Blackham gang (I love Connor's face)

Cody & Connor w/Lucy & Laurel watching the parade
Lucy's amazing corn-hole skills
Cody watching us play corn-hole

Connor & Laurel @ the carnival

Our Fun Summer

Since Jake has spent the summer down in Cedar City taking Organic Chemistry, we've spent and a lot of time at Jake's parents' house in Moroni. Here are some fun things Connor has done.

coloring w/Aunt Laurel

playing in the new sandbox w/Grandpaspraypainting the swingset w/Aunt Laurel & Aubrey

pouring an entire container of syrup on

his plate when no one was looking!

he must get his sweet tooth from his mom!

playing with Dad's chemistry lab set
reading w/Grandpa
eating his first icecream cone
tickling Codytrying on Dad's shoes
picking peas in the garden...he could do this ALL day! when he first picked one

and opened the pod he said, "Holy Cow, Mom! There are little balls in here!" :)

My Birthday & The Oquirrh Mtn Temple

Last Wednesday I celebrated my 26th birthday! Nothing too monumental, except now I think it's legal for me to rent a car. Unfortunately, Jake is two hours away taking a summer school class in Cedar City (the only place that taught the class in the whole state during the summer), so I couldn't celebrate with him. My in-laws were nice enough to drive down and take me to dinner though. They're so great!

A couple of days later we all drove up to see the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was beautiful! Connor's favorite part was the big chandelier in the entryway and the 12 oxen statues around the baptismal font or the "pool" as he called it.

Connor & Cody with Aunt Lucy

Connor's First Visit to the ER

Last Tuesday was pretty scary for our family. While I was home alone with the boys and changing Cody's diaper, Connor pulled his flouride drops out of the bathroom drawer, somehow opened the childproof cap and drank the whole bottle. (For those of you who don't live in Utah, I guess the state of Utah doesn't add flouride to their drinking water like they do in many other states. Not having grown up here, it was foreign to me to have to give your child flouride in addition to their daily vitamins. But here you do...) So Connor comes into Cody's room to show me that he drank all of his "vitamins". I freaked out and was hoping he had just spilled them somewhere. I kept asking him, "Did you drink this?!" He kept saying, "I drink it all gone!" Like he was SO proud of himself.
Immediately, I called poison control and was told if he didn't throw up or have his stomach pumped, his blood could become toxic and his stomach could start bleeding and that I should rush him to the emergency room. Just what every mother wants to hear when she's home alone with her two kids! So I rushed over to my neighbor's and asked if she could watch Cody and put him to bed while her husband offered to drive us to the hospital. Luckily, Connor threw up two times before we left and once in the car on the way to the hospital (sorry Monica & Alex). After running several tests and determining that none of the flouride affected his system, we were able to come home around 12:30 am. Whewwww! So we learned the hard way that Connor knows how to open child-proof bottles and to never underestimate our kids!

Connor's New Toy

This morning, Connor found a new toy in the dishwasher. This may mean that Connor has been spending too much time with Mommy and needs to spend more time with Daddy.

Calling All Moms!

I think I'm going to soon attempt the daunting task of potty training Connor. For all of you experienced mothers out there, any suggestions on techniques I should try or books I should read? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks.

Connor Turns Two!

It's official, we have a toddler! Connor had such a fun birthday! He got lots of new books, some clothes, a golf club set, a Superman cape, and best of all, his very own riding tractor. He hasn't quite learned how to pedal to get it to move yet, but he seems content to just sit on it and operate the front loader. He sat on it for about 3 hours the evening of his birthday. We couldn't get him off of it to even eat dinner! He was so sweet, all night he kept saying "Oh thank you Mommy. I love it!"

As requested by Connor, we made froggie cupcakes. We used green frosting and for the eyes we sliced a green gumdrop in half, pressed white chocolate chips into the gumdrops and used a dab of black cake icing on the chips for the pupils. They turned out great!

We also moved Connor out of the crib and gave him a "big boy" bed for his birthday. I was worried he'd figure out that he can climb out of it and come and get us during the night, but he hasn't yet. Oh, for those of you wondering, what that big lump is on the side of his bed, it's a pool noodle. My friend Mollie told me that stuffing a pool noodle under their fitted sheets, helps keeping them from rolling off. How smart!

Easter Weekend & The Hogle Zoo!

Here are some pictures of our fun Easter weekend. We took a trip up to The Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake with Jake's side of the family. Connor had so much fun! It seems like every animal we stopped to see, he would shout, "I want to ride it!" I had to tell him not every animal is like a horse :)

Connor's first time painting Easter Eggs

Happy Birthday to Our April Fool!

Jake turned 30 today! I think it might have shocked his parents more that their oldest child was 30, than it shocked Jake that he was turning 30. On behalf of all of us, Jake, we're SO proud of all that you've accomplished in your life thus far. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband, father, and son. We love you and hope you have a great day!

Cody's First Photo Shoot

Unfortunately, Cody's pictures of his first photo shoot are copywrited and I'm unable to get digital copies of them, but if you'd like to see them go to:
www.stephaniegarr.com
click on "clients" and under "password" type "cody"
We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out! Thanks Steph for doing such a great job!!!

More of Nic and Natalie's Wedding