May 10, 2017 Connor's 1st Grade Spring Party

I helped with Connor's 1st grade class party today! I've been helping in his class all year with  reading groups and class parties (I'm the head room mom) and this was the final party of the year. Mrs. Hale's class was in charge of the games rotation so we did giant Jenga, hula hoop tag, and Minute to Win It games. The other three 1st grade classes did a craft, story telling, and a treat. The kids had a blast!

Home from the hospital

My family (mom, dad, Ady, Jono, and baby Will) came to stay with and help us the first week after Blake was born (Friday, June 29 - Saturday, July 7).  It was fun having them here, and we really appreciated all their help!  Brad also stayed home from work that first week.  It was a party!

Saturday afternoon when we came home from the hospital, we opened the gifts my family brought for Blake.  They were very thoughtful and got Connor a few gifts too so he wouldn't feel left out.  It was a baby shower for Blake and a Big Brother Party for Connor.  Connor loved it (and so did I).

New bad and ball!

This is Connor's favorite thing he got.  He calls it "sticky ball."  And he's really good at it!

He also got snaps and M&Ms - his two other favorite things.

Cute cousins.

Love him!

Cute cousins.

Great big brother.

Sunday afternoon we did a big family dinner with my family and the Jeppsons.  So fun to have everyone together to celebrate our sweet new boy.

Great Grandpa Gotberg.

Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Brian with their 3 grandchildren - Connor (2.5 years), Alexis (7 months), Blake (newborn).

Adorable Alexis.

My little snuggle bug.  This is by far the best part of the newborn phase.  A warm little ball snuggled up and sleeping on your chest.

Blake and Papa, Blake's namesake (Paul).

Monday, July 2 was Blake's first doctor appointment.  The doctor wanted to see him so soon because he was Coombs positive at birth and she wanted to monitor his bilirubin count and jaundice.  His bilirubin count was 12 (up from 9 a few days before in the hospital) and he was looking a little yellow (down to his knees), but he was still only in the moderate-low risk zone so the doctor wasn't concerned.  She did a general check up and weighed him.  Here's his weight progression:

Birth (Thursday night) - 8 lb. 14 oz.
Leaving the hospital (Saturday morning) - 8 lb. 6 oz.
First doctor visit (Monday afternoon, July 2) - 8 lb. 15 oz. - already passed his birth weight!  In 2 days!! 
Second doctor visit (Friday afternoon, July 6) - 9 lb. 9 oz. - 10 ounces in 4 days!  What a chunker!

 Tuesday we hung out at home and gave Blake his first sponge bath.

Me and my 2 sweet boys.

Like I said - absolute best part.

Look!  They're communicating! :)

 Thanks for coming everyone!  We miss you already!

Connor's 2 year portraits

I was a couple months late getting these scheduled and taken (December, not October like they should have been), but at least it happened! I wish it hadn't been the middle of winter so we could have gotten some candids outside, but I think they turned out very cute. My little boy is getting so big!

Library Story time

I want to document one of Connor's favorite (and free) things to do at this age.

Library story time every Thursday morning. Connor loves the stories, songs, kids, crafts, toys, and weekly library books. This girl is great at engaging the kids and getting them to listen to and participate in the stories.

This week they played with egg shakers in between stories to get wiggles out. (Sorry it's blurry)

Tomorrow is the big day

Since we found out the house is officially ours, we've been cleaning, painting, and packing. Today we are finishing up packing and tomorrow we move in to Green. This is the most fun I've ever had moving. Normally I hate it, but this really isn't so bad (although we are both exhausted). I think it helps knowing we are moving to a more permanent location (so we won't have to do this again for a long long time), and we are really loving our new house. The more we are there and the more work we do on it, the more it becomes OUR house and the more we love it.

The mountains in Utah are gorgeous and the mountainous smell is delightful. We are looking forward to spending many nights picnicking in our backyard next to a fire pit (that we don't have yet). That may just be one of our first purchases.

We've been up to the house several times this week and I finally took some "present day" pictures. The pictures I showed before of a nicely groomed house are from when it was first put on the market to sell. Here is what some of the house presently looks like...

After much watering and fertilizing to get the grass to come back, the grass is still very scarce, but as you can see our pesky weeds are thriving. But not for long... weed and feed application is in a couple weeks. Mua-ha-ha.



Here's our one good patch of grass in the backyard. Everywhere else looks like the front yard. We are going to need a mower soon.

Here is what the rest of the front yard looks like - notice all the weeds and the random "wall" of trees growing at the front of our property. Not sure how we will get rid of those. You can see the 7-ft-tall rose bushes on the bottom right, but I'm up so high you can't tell they're that tall and really gnarly. They are.

Here is our view of the valley. It really sparkles at night.

While we were at the house last weekend painting, we were visited by some woodland creatures. These pheasants are beautiful and squawk in the small ravine/gully next to our house all the time. There are 3 in this picture. Can you see the one in the trees on the left?

We managed to get one room painted before we move in tomorrow (our bedroom). I plan to show a nice before and after in a couple weeks once we get all our new (to us) furniture in. But in the meantime, here are some other rooms not previously shown that are still green as can be.

Green formal living room.

Green enryway.


Green playroom upstairs (we had a sleep over last weekend so we could get some good work in all day Friday and Saturday).

One of the few rooms that isn't green - the office that I plan to make a formal dining room. The paper border is coming down for sure.

Lot's of work left to do, but the transformation will be awesome.

Here's Connor "helping" me pack this morning. He dragged and kicked this empty box all over our apartment for at least 20 minutes.

One week later

One week after all the craziness things aren't quite settled yet, but almost.

I got home from California last Thursday at 11 p.m. Friday morning 8 a.m. was the home inspection for Green House. We will have some work to do once we move in (including LOTS of yard work since the house has been vacant for a year), but fortunately the inspector didn't find any deal breakers. Hooray! We went ahead with everything, transferred some funds this week, and we are signing closing papers TOMORROW (Friday, April 22) at 3:30!!!

I know some of you are dying to see pictures, but I'm going to be mean and save them until we actually have the keys in our hands and it's officially OUR HOUSE. That should happen next week sometime. But here's a sneak preview:

This is the family room and kitchen. Notice the multi-green walls? And yes, that is green marble tile around the fireplace and green granite in the kitchen. This lady REALLY loved green.



Friday night, Brad and I went on a much needed (after 2 weeks apart) date. A sitter came at 6:30 p.m., dinner at Goodwood BBQ, minigolfing (I beat Brad by 1 stroke :)), and then strawberry-banana shakes from Burger Bar. Fun night.

Dad is also doing lots better. His scheduled checkup with the surgeon on Tuesday went great and the surgeon removed the wound-vacuum (the black sponge thing in his leg in the pictures from last post). YAY!!! That was a huge boost for Dad. He said it's really nice not to be hooked up to things anymore. (The hose from the sponge was attached to a bucket he had to carry around with him everywhere.) He is also getting stronger everyday. We are all so glad things are looking up.

This Sunday, which just so happens to be Easter Sunday, will be Connor's first Sunday in Nursery! He will be 18 months on Saturday. We have been sitting in nursery with him for the last couple weeks because he's only 17 months and he just can't handle our Sunday School classes anymore, so I'm hoping he will do ok. Our little boy is growing up so fast.

Also, some other exciting news that just came out in our families - my sister Ady and her husband Jono, as well as Brad's brother Brandon and his wife Jenn are both expecting their first babies!! Ady is due in October and Jenn is due in November. I can't wait to meet my new nephews/nieces and for Connor to have more cousins!!

It's so nice to have some good news in our family. It makes up a little for the last couple weeks. :)

And here's a cute picture of Connor from this week. He walked around half the day like this because he kept tugging at his diaper. I just love those baby buns.

Ah, much better

Today is a new day. I'm feeling much better, although Connor is still crabby. I can't figure it out. Maybe we are in the terrible 2's afterall.

Today will be busy, which I hope will help keep Connor occupied and happy. Dentist (for me) in the morning so he gets to spend a morning with Dad. Then we are looking at one more house. We are nearing the end of house looking, and quickly approaching house buying! We are hoping to hear back from the bank soon about Green House. We are thinking it will be next week sometime. Then we will start the closing process if all is well with our offer (which was their asking price so I'm hoping it will go through). Can't wait!!

Then tonight we have an Elder's Quorum activity. We are playing mini golf at the church and we are supposed to think up and set up one mini golf hole. Well, "we" quickly became "me." I'm used to it. And I guess I owe Brad for last night anyway. :)

It should be fun!

I spoke too soon...

Remember this post? Ya, that didn't last. I was hopeful Connor's good mood was here to stay. Not so.

The last few days Connor has been so ornery!! He started teething again, which I'm hoping we are almost done with - for good I mean. Swollen gums, runny nose, drooling, chewing, crying. Well, all other symptoms have been gone a few days except for the whining and crying, which seems to go on and on. Grrr...

5 straight days of being yelled at, cried to, kicked, bitten, "mama mama mama mama mama mama," -- ENOUGH!!

So I came home tonight (Connor and I were out running errands), ate a really gross fast food dinner from KFC with Brad, handed Connor over, and grounded myself to my room for the rest of the night. My mom used to do this every once in a while when we were little and I totally get it now!!!

My nerves are frayed, I have zero patience left. It's time for a date night with myself where I get to watch movies and TV til my brains rot, and browse the free section of KSL and all my designer blogs til my eyeballs drop out of my head. Then I'll read myself to sleep and be a lot better for the day tomorrow.

But from my bed, I can hear Brad and Connor laughing and having a great time in the front room. And that makes me happy. I'm thankful Brad is willing to take Connor for an entire night when I'm at my wits end. I have a good and patient husband.

Hair cut

When we lived in California, I never had to worry about cutting Connor's hair. Claire always did it for me. And she's good. Really good.

But now I have to do it. I cut Connor's hair myself for the first time a couple weeks ago. I put it off as long as I could stand. It didn't turn out too bad (although I did notice later that I missed a few strands) but the process was slightly more traumatizing. For both of us.

I just used clippers on the 1/2 inch and 1 inch settings. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I ended up chasing Connor around the bathroom shaving off 1 tuft at a time until the job was reasonably done.

Before:


The carnage:

After.

His hair is already getting long again. Another hair cut is still s few weeks out, but I'm not looking forward to doing this again.