Ninjas

Josh has been into ninjas for a while now, so that was what he wanted to be for Halloween. We borrowed a cute tiger costume for Connor, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I had a really hard time convincing him to let me put it on him. Then he said something about a ninja, so I told him yes, he was in fact going to be a ninja just like his brother, only he would be a tiger ninja. After that we did not have a problem getting the costume on him, as long as he was a ninja like his brother.

I don't know how Josh ended up with so many weapons in his possession!

Josh's silly face on the pumpkin.

He pulled off the silly face so he could carve the pumpkin and Connor helped.

The pumpkin that Josh painted came out of grandpa Wood's garden. He chose the biggest one he could find and I was relieved that he wanted to paint it rather than carve it. The rest of the pumpkins came out of our garden.

Catching Up

I've been neglecting this blog for far too long and have been told it is time to update. I uploaded these pictures a long time ago, I just never finished the post. The past couple months have been a little chaotic for us, but things are going a little better now. We are expecting baby #3 to arrive around Gary and I's birthday in the beginning of June. I'm about 13 weeks now and was pretty sick, but since getting Zofran have been doing much better. I still get sick, but not nearly as bad. I'm just tired all the time.

During Payson's Onion Days we got to tour the fire station. The kids got to climb into the fire truck and ambulance and had a good time.

Josh even got to try on the fire man's helmet.

One of the things I really enjoy about the summers is being outside with Grandpa Wood. He is 95 years old now and enjoys sitting outside watching the kids play.

Watching Josh and Jordan play in the boat brings back a lot of memories from when I was a kid. My cousin Mike and I spent a lot of time playing in this boat as kids so it is fun to watch Josh and Jordan.

Josh learned to ride his bike this summer. He was really hesitant to try for quite a while, but once he figured it out I couldn't get him off it. I inherited a bike, and we started going on bike rides together and he really likes that. A couple times we rode bikes to and from school together.

Josh had a blast playing soccer with his cousin Jordan. The games were a lot of fun to watch.

Connor sleeping peacefully with all his little friends. Thanks to Grammy, Connor is never lonely when it is time to go to sleep!

2 Years Old!

Our sweet little Connor turned 2 a week ago. He says and does the cutest things. Lately he's been using the phrase "oh, man" a lot. When he does something he knows he shouldn't, it is often followed by "just kidding." We're not sure where he picked that up, but it is cute.

It was hard work opening his presents. Good thing he had Josh to help him.

He got a little trike for his birthday and he took Clifford for a spin on it.

He got a doughnut for breakfast since we made him wait until the next day for cake.

Sunday after church we had everyone over for cake and ice cream.

Josh got to help decorate the bottom of the sail boat cake and I did the top.

Connor likes to follow me every time I go out to the garden to pick stuff. He stomps on my tomatoes and helps pick the green beans. He picks the cherry tomatoes and throws them all over the garden. He's so small he could almost disappear in the garden.

He loves driving the truck. When we go outside he will stand by the shed and yell "Truck out please!" until we get it out for him. He would be happy to live in the back yard with the dog.

Exhausted little guy getting some rest with Clifford and other stuffed animals.

My boys love to be read to. We keep a pile of books in the front room and Connor frequently will grab his favorites, throw them in my lap, and as he starts climbing up will say, "read please". If I don't start reading immediately he will keep saying that until I do. We are glad he joined our family two years ago. He has added so much happiness to our home!

Crazy Busy Summer

I can't believe we've already made it to September. I don't know what happened to the summer. It went by so fast and we stayed so busy. I have a hard time keeping up with everything during the summer. Since we don't have a sprinkler system it is a pain to keep the yard watered and the garden is a lot of work. For some reason I planted six rows of green beans, thinking I'd bottle a lot this year and not have to do much next year. They weren't very long rows, but I will NEVER EVER do that again. Those plants produce like crazy and it seemed like I had to pick beans every other day in order to keep up. I thought I'd quickly post a few pictures and then do a birthday post since Connor's birthday is coming up.

Such cute boys!

Josh spent a lot of time swimming this summer. He swam in his pool on the deck, we went to the city pool a few times, and he had his first swimming lessons with his cousin Jordan. He took swimming lessons from a lady that teaches in the pool in her back yard. There were only six kids and two teachers, so Josh really learned a lot and is an amazing swimmer for his age. He is fearless and would stay in a pool all day if we let him.

While Daddy went to Scout camp, Josh and I had a camp out on the deck on the blow up mattress. We took the baby monitor outside with us and left Connor in his own bed. Josh was so excited about it that it took until 10:00 that night before he fell asleep. The boys had fun playing on the bed the next morning until I put it away.

I'm not entirely sure how Connor ended up with a whole container of animal crackers, in the front room, all by himself. He is pretty mischievous and sneaky. He has the ability to quietly disappear and go get into trouble but he is adorable and that is what saves him.

This was Josh's first day of school. I can't believe I already have a kindergartner. It seems like just last week he was Connor's size and now he's starting school. I can't believe how big and smart he is getting.

The same day Josh started kindergarten, Connor got to start sleeping in a big boy bed. I was expecting to have to chase him back to bed a hundred times for the first several nights, but to my surprise, the kid actually stays put. There was one day during nap time he got out a couple times, but he normally doesn't get out of his bed and if he does it is only once.

The Other Josh

Since it has been over a month since I've posted anything, I should be posting about what I've been doing this summer with my boys. Instead, I'm posting about the other Josh I am a big fan of since I had a blast last night at his concert.

This is a picture I took standing about ten feet from where he was performing. I somehow managed to get two tickets on the floor, just 11 rows away from the stage, right in the middle. When the pre-sale tickets went on sale, I was sitting at the computer, credit card in hand. There were six of us going to the concert, but you could only purchase four tickets at a time. I got the first four tickets, about half way up the lower bowl, the second section away from the stage. Then when I went to book the other two tickets, the best seats available were on the floor, and I am still shocked that I was able to get them.

Mom and Melissa sat the first half of the show on the floor, and then traded Kristy and I half way through. Toward the beginning of the show, Josh walked down the isle next to them and talked to a kid sitting behind them for a few minutes. They were within three feet of him and Melissa took this picture with my camera. Toward the end of the show, he came back to talk to the kid again and take him on stage so Kristy and I were within three feet of Josh. It was awesome.

I'm pretty sure I could see the same concert many more times and not get sick of it. Diane, I blame you for my addiction to his music.

While we were trading seats, Josh got on a platform to do a few songs. We had to walk past the platform in order to get to our seats. Security chased us down to stop us, but when we showed them our tickets, they had to let us go. So we joined the other people standing around the platform before finding our seats. It was awesome being ten feet away from him as he performed. I doubt that will happen again!

I took this picture from our seats on the floor without using the zoom on the camera! I had a great time at the concert!

Summer Fun

Since summer arrived I have been very busy! I have an especially hard time keeping up with everything during the summer since I spend so much time outside taking care of our yard.

I'm really late posting pictures of Josh's preschool graduation, but oh well. He was such a cute little graduate!

He was lucky enough to be in the same class as his cousin Jordan and buddy Griffin. Griffin lives a few blocks away and they know each other from church.

Josh tried T-ball for the first time. He thought it was great fun and I'd rather watch T-ball over major league baseball any day. These kids are so entertaining to watch since they don't really know what they are doing.

Josh on base with the baseman. You can't convince the basemen that they don't need to stand on top of the base, and sometimes the runners forget to run so you end up with three kids on a base. They all dive for the ball as if it were a football and fight over who gets it. There are kids standing on their heads, coach tripping over kids, and Connor running out to the field to play.

We go up to the Grotto at least once a week and this was our first trip of the summer. I've never seen so much water up there and it was a little scary. Part of the trail was submerged in water because of the heavy spring rain we had.

Melissa and Connor

Grandma and Grandpa come with us a lot. It is so nice to have them a mile and a half away!

Connor absolutely loves being outside. Every time I bring him inside he throws quite the tantrum.

Josh got to go on his first father's and son's camp out. Between work and school Gary usually misses it, but this year he was finally able to take Josh and they both had a great time. I sort of forgot that one of the tent poles was broken, but Gary was able to figure that out once they got to their camping spot. He had to improvise, and did a pretty good job considering.

We also got to go on a ward camp out and that was a lot of fun. That was Connor's first camp out and he loved it. It's been a while since we've been able to go camping but hopefully we'll get more camping in this summer.