Busy, busy bee

Some quick updates on the basement...framing finished about a week ago.

 Monday morning I was welcomed with the electrician ready to go and the dry wall people delivering the dry wall. 

 Steve, our contractor, finished putting up the dry wall in the bathroom and has almost finished tiling the shower.

 Makes you guys want to come visit and try out the shower, eh?

 By Wednesday, all the lights were installed and most of the outlets.

 Insulation and the drywall will be installed this coming week.  Once framing was over, I feel like everything has flown so fast...including the checks.  Yikes!

 In other news, Brooke has been keeping herself entertained with a box. 

 I wish I could make pictures into flip books but she pretty much backs herself into the box and completely disappears. 

 Troy and I took Brooke on a little date to see The Lion King, the Musical.  We started off the day with lunch at The d Bar.  As usual, the food and dessert were delicious.

 We decided to go the matinee showing which was precisely at the time of Brooke's nap.  A little unsure of what we had gotten ourselves into we decided to move forward to see how Brooke would do.

 Before the show started, Brooke thought it was way too loud and kept her hands over her ears.  Once it did start, she was completely mesmerized.  At the end of the show she said that she wanted to see it again.  We told her that she would need to wait.

 Barely out of the parking garage and she was zonked.

 Connor has started to get more and more active.  The other morning he found a stuff truck in his crib that still had the paper tag on it.  He completely slobbered all over it and turned the paper into mush.  When I got him, paper was stuck all over his face and hands.

 Connor has also been working on some teeth.  Totally threw Troy and I for a loop.  He's been drooling up a storm but Brooke did the same thing at 6 months and didn't pop out a tooth until 10 months.  He's got a tooth right at the surface.

For Thanksgiving, we made an unexpected trip to UT for Troy's grandpa's funeral. 

We drove out Thursday and made it to Troy's aunt's house in time for turkey dinner.  The funeral was on Saturday and it was a beautiful service.  Grandpa Ware was a very beloved man and it was great to listen to other people's fond memories of him. 

6 Months!

6 months!!!!  Has it really been 6 months????!!!!!  I feel like the time has gone in a blink of an eye.  Too fast. 

Here are the stats at his 6 month appt:

Weight: 16 lbs. 11 oz.  (45%)

Length: 26 1/2" (45%)

Head: 17 1/2" (75%)

I was actually surprised by his weight.  I was sure that he would have been heavier than that.  I was not so surprised by his head though.  Brooke was in the 50-75% as well for head circumference.

Some of the highlights of what our little guy has been up to in the past 6 months are:

Sleeping like a champ since the very beginning.  Some of you may recall that for the first 5 weeks all he did was ever sleep.  We rarely saw his eyes during that time. 

Thankfully, now, we see them more often.  Don't know if I ever mentioned it but because he has always been a lover of sleep we never had to sleep train him.  He did it all on his own. 

Side note: When I put him down for this nap, his head was on the other side.  Silly boy.

 At first was not a fan of bathtime. 

Glad things have changed.  Since the picture below was taken Connor has been transitioned to the bathtub.  He kicked way to much so the infant tub didn't really contain him.

One of the many great qualities of Connor is his smile.  He has the cutest smile that could melt anyone's heart.  Yes, I'm a sucker.  I'll admit it.  He is so personable and will smile at anyone that will give him the time of day.

Not quite sure when it started but it still continues...he loves his thumb.  He'll take a pacifier sometimes but he definitely prefers his thumb. 

I think he started sucking his thumb around the time my mom was here so maybe starting at 1 1/2 or 2 months.

His second love are his feet. 

Regardless of whether or not there are socks on them he will still go for them and give his toes a nice wash. 

Loves his bouncy and jumper and playing with all the toys on it. 

 If you can't tell already, he's a lover of food as well. 

Compared to how Brooke was/is, he is the absolute opposite.  He loves sweet potatoes and squash and will tolerate green beans, carrots, and peas.  We just started him on pears and we can definitely add that to the love list.

Has mastered sitting up on his own and can do it for a good while.  The other day, he sat through all of story time with only a couple wobbles. 

Now that his back is good and strong, he's just waiting until he can move to where he wants to be instead of moving further away.  Any guesses on when he'll be off and officially crawling?

 All in all these past 6 months have shot right on by but we have loved every part of it.   



Short and Sweet

 I know that probably no one else besides Troy and I care about what's going on down in the basement but for those that may be curious...here is some of the progress.

Kind of exciting, I know.  The kids and I have actually been handling all the noise and hubbub pretty well.  They can even actually nap through all the pounding and sawing which is relief for me or else this would be a very long 3 months.

We got hit with another snow storm last week.  There was even a blizzard warning but the amount of snow that we got didn't even compare to the blizzard we had 5 years ago.  We probably got about 9 inches of snow overnight.  Troy and Brooke tried to go out and play in it but they didn't last too long.  I decided to dig out some of the hats that were given to us and try them on Connor.  I think this one is a little small for his noggin but doesn't he look so cute.

Brooke's new favorite thing to do with her kid brother is give him rides on her shoulders.  I think they all look like they're enjoying themselves.

We've been working on sitting up with Connor.  I think he's finally gotten things figured out and he can sit for a several minutes without toppling over.

Which leads to this posting of a video.  I think it's my own doing since I've been working with him to sit up on his own.

Both the sitting up and crawling is much sooner than I expected.  Brooke wasn't sitting up until 7 months and crawling at 8 months.  Connor turns 6 months at the end of this week.   I think I'm in for it.

It's November...

The royal 'we' have started work on the basement. Our involvement is pretty much over, now that we have moved everything out of the basement. Can you imagine a big play room here?

We were a little nervous about how much stuff we had in the basement, but as you can tell, it all fits nicely in the old guest room. Surprise holiday visitors will be sleeping on the couch.

For Halloween we had a cute chicken and a duck. Between the trunk or treat we had with our ward on Friday night, and Monday night, we have a six month supply of treats for Brooke (minus the Twix!)

Brooke's costume was 6-12 months, but she really wanted to wear it. The top fit fine, but as you can tell, the feet from the costume only hit Brooke's knees. Brooke really grasped the concept of Trick or Treating, and had a lot of fun circling the block.

Connor had fun as well, though this will be the last year that he wears tights! Next year we'll dress him up as something more manly, like a lumberjack or Mike Rowe.

All the excitement wore Connor out. He slept like a rock this afternoon.

Doesn't it almost look like his head is on backwards in this picture?

A couple of other Halloween pictures. We had a bunch of friends over on Saturday and carved pumpkins. Tracie made this cool spiderweb.

Connor's other talent? Drooling. Do see the neck sheen? With the weather getting colder, we've resorted to having him wear a bib all day so that he doesn't soak the full front of his shirt.

Family

How is it that we're already in the last week of October?  I don't know if it's because there's 2 kids now but life has seemed to fly right past.  Good thing we just got family pics taken so we could capture how much Brooke and Connor have grown in just 5 short months.

This last week both Troy and his brother, Shane, spoiled us.  Heather flew out for a few days and we were able to have a wonderful girls' week/end.  There was a lot of shopping, eating, and just plain 'ol relaxation.  Hopefully this becomes a yearly thing whether it be for my birthday or hers.  You know, I am turning the big 3-0 next year...hmmm.

 Brooke has enjoyed being the big sister in the family.  She is always ready and willing to keep Connor entertained and I know that both Troy and I really appreciate it. 

She even instisted on feeding Connor.  Unfortunately, that only lasted for 5 seconds but it was still cute to see her ask to feed him.

Up until now, Connor has enjoyed everything that we've given him to eat.  Yesterday was his first time with peas.  I think you can determine what his thoughts were about it. 

Lastly, for those that have been dying to find out what is happening in November, here's a little hint:

All of what you saw in the basement, will be put into our guest room for the next 3 months.  Brooke has already enjoyed the 3 storage bins that we've brought up with toys and our front room is a disaster.

Come February we'll all be able to breath a sigh of relief.  I'm so excited!!!!!