Summer Is Here!

 I decided I'd try to post once more before the baby arrives.  We've only got a couple weeks left and are getting pretty anxious!  Between Gary's back problems and me being so pregnant it has been pretty crazy trying to keep up with the boys and everything else!

 The boys love going to the park and playing outside.  I wish I had half the energy they did!

Connor wanted to help Dad mow the lawn.  He was so cute following Gary around, doing everything exactly as Dad did.

Josh has been playing soccer with his cousin Jordan and has had a great time.  Kristy has been coaching them. The kids are so cute, and so much fun to watch.

 It's pretty funny when Connor climbs up on Dad and makes himself right at home.  We've been trying to get him potty trained before his sister arrives.  He hated it for the first few weeks, then got better, but hasn't done as well lately.  Hopefully soon he'll be a little more consistent!

Josh graduated from kindergarten, and wasn't exactly thrilled about it.  He really enjoyed going to school and will miss his teacher and all his friends.  He was disappointed it had to come to an end for the summer, but they did a cute little graduation program.

 Grandma Karen and Grandpa Glen had a water snake living in their flower beds.  Josh was never able to see it when he was at their house, but finally Grandpa caught it so he could see it.  Josh was so thrilled he caught bugs for it and just wanted to touch it and play with it.  We were going to release it at the pond, but unfortunately the poor snake did not make it.  It died before we released it and Grandpa had to bury it.

 These two are so cute when they snuggle up together and watch cartoons!

 Josh got to go with Grandma and Grandpa and all his cousins to spend a few days at Lake Powell on a house boat.  With Gary's bad back and me being a month away from having the baby, it wasn't good timing for us to go but we knew Josh would have a good time.  He had a ball and has talked about it so much that Connor now talks about it too as if he had been there.  The entire time Josh was gone Connor kept asking if he could go too and if we could go get Josh.  He was sure glad when his brother got home!

6 Years Old!

Josh turned 6 a few weeks ago!  He got to celebrate for a week since his birthday is close to Easter, and always seems to be the week of spring break.  He got the week off school and got to have a sleep over at grandma and grandpa's with all his cousins.

 Mostly all he wanted for his birthday was Lego Ninjago sets.  This kid still amazes me with his Legos.  Although these sets are for ages 8-14 he has no problem figuring out how to put them together without any help.  I tend to mess things up when I try to help!

 I'm not sure why he decided he wanted Grammy to send him snorkel gear, but he has spent many happy hours in the tub with it!

The boys were excited for the birthday doughnuts.

We took Josh bowling with his cousins.

 I didn't expect Connor to be very interested in bowling, but Grandpa helped him and he had a good time too!

 Josh changed his mind a dozen times about what kind of a cake he wanted.  In the end though, it came back to the rocket ship cake.  I think this is the third time he's had this cake.  For some reason he just loves it and this time he wanted it to be a BYU rocket ship.  He had fun decorating it.

Easter and Things

As always, I intended to post these pictures a while ago, but I have such a hard time keeping up with everything!

It's so fun to see these two play so good together.  They get a long pretty well most of the time and Connor is extremely attached to Josh.  It got to the point that Connor would throw a tantrum every time Josh went in the bathroom and shut the door, or shut the door to his bedroom to get dressed.  He thinks he should be able to follow Josh all day every day.  We've had to find ways to occupy Connor so Josh can have a little space once in a while.  It will be interesting to see how having a little sister will change things for Connor!  We've still got about another month before she will arrive and we are getting excited!

Josh lost his first tooth!  It was a little traumatic since Gary and I are not experienced tooth pullers, but maybe next time we'll have Grandma Karen pull it since she's much better at it!  When he woke up the next morning he found a two dollar bill and silver dollar that the tooth fairy left for him.

 The cutest little cowboy ever!

The boys had fun coloring Easter eggs, even if their hands did get a little dirty from the dye!

Josh was so cute setting the Easter baskets out.  He very carefully put the grass in and around his along with a bunny in each basket.  I guess he wanted everything to look nice for the Easter bunny.

Connor all ready to go with his new water gun and goggles just like Josh's.

Update!

I'm getting worse and worse at keeping this blog updated, but am going to try to do better.

It is next to impossible to get a really nice picture of these two!

Last winter was record breaking for getting so much snow, and this winter seemed the opposite. The kids had a great time in the snow when they got the chance.

Connor even enjoyed tubing with Melissa.

At our house it is BYU day or In-N-Out day once a week. Josh really likes to match his dad or his brother. He will tell everyone it is BYU day or In-N-Out day and make sure everyone is appropriately dressed.

My boys are such great little pals. Connor wants to do everything Josh does and follows him around all the time. While Josh is at school, the entire time Josh is gone Connor will ask where he is and if he can go with me to pick Josh up. Anytime Josh goes somewhere, Connor thinks he needs to go too. Josh is pretty patient and tolerant of his little brother. Maybe when the baby sister arrives Connor will have a distraction and not cling to Josh so much.

I don't think our family could have survived the winter without Lego's. When I was teaching Josh how to read, I had a hard time motivating him, so I told him when he finished reading all the papers in the binder I would let him choose a new toy. He insisted he wanted a Lego Ninjago set that took forever to put together. I didn't think he'd ever take it apart and build it again, or if he did take it apart I figured it would be Gary and I putting it back together. I was very surprised when he put it together again with very little help. The other Lego sets he has gotten since then he has done by himself over and over again for hours upon hours. He has taught Connor all the character's names and would sit with Connor and show him page after page of Lego instructions. It was entertaining to see Josh get frustrated when Connor would lose interest and quit paying attention.

Josh got to dress up as a pirate one day for Kindergarten. They were learning about maps and got to go on a treasure hunt.

Connor is getting so big so fast! He does not like to be under the covers, which has made this winter quite challenging to keep him warm. I tried many methods before finding that the best way to keep this kid warm was to put him in thin pajama pants with his snow pants over them and a turtleneck. When he gets bundled up to go play outside in the snow the poor kid thinks he's doing it in his pajamas.

One night when I was checking on Josh before I went to bed, this was how I found him and it made me laugh.

Christmas

Quite a while ago I started uploading Christmas pictures and then never finished the post. I thought I'd finish posting them and then do another post to get the blog up to date.

Christmas morning before opening presents.

This year we got a real tree instead of using a fake one. We went to get our tree out of the shed and found that a family of mice had taken over the shed. They made a nest in the box that was storing our Christmas tree and the tree was not worth salvaging. It was really nice to have a real tree this year. It made the house smell wonderful!

We took the kids to see the lights at temple square.

The boys like hiding in Connor's new cabin.

This was the first year in a long time that we were all together for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa got all the grandkids BYU shirts for Christmas. They were all thrilled.

They all had so much fun together. They all piled on a bed and watched a movie.

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.