What I Have Been Working On

That book took me quite a few hours, most of the time was just thinking of ideas. I already know that I am going to make a Frosty the Snowman book, and maybe, Twas The Night Before Christmas.
This week for dinner one of the nights we had a hot dog roast outside. It was really fun. Of course Conner just stared at Copper most of the time.
Conner wanted to come in after a while but started playing with Steve through the window.

Birthdays All Around

Well my good friend Hope had her birthday back in August but we were never able to get together for it until last Saturday. I wanted to make her a birthday dinner so she and Brandon came out and we had Southwestern Eggrolls, taco soup and Molten Chocolate Cake, yum! Then we played Cranium, thank you for humoring me. Hope made my present for my birthday and did an awesome job.

Conner had his 8 month birthday on Saturday! He is starting to talk more and more this last week. He is usually a pretty silent little boy, but it has been so fun to listen to him. He seems to love getting into the DVD's, I am constantly putting them away. He is also starting to watch TV. He'll sit and watch for probably 3 minutes. We started watching Signing Time DVD's together last week. We borrowed them from my sister. It's great that the whole movie is kids signing, Conner LOVES watching kids so it keeps his attention longer. He doesn't really care about cartoons but he'll stop and watch the TV if there are real people on it. Here is a picture of him watching. I feel like such a bad mom when he watches. I feel like I should be educating and reading to him instead.Today Conner fell some how and his top tooth went through his bottom lip. It bled for quite a while, poor guy. Once it stopped bleeding you could see the exact shape of his tooth in his lip, that side of his lip is totally swollen. Conner has started to play games and close doors. He has shut himself in his bedroom twice, but he doesn't seem to care. The last time I walked in their a minute later and he was off playing with something else. I'll open it back up and he'll close it again. The games that he has started to play are a little frustrating but still make you laugh. So changing diapers are the most difficult thing right now, he does not want to hold still. Last week on two separate occasions I was changing a messy diaper, while I was rolling up the messy diaper he quickly rolls over and start crawling away at higher than normal speeds. Then he starts giggling and squealing, and then he'll glance over his shoulder to see if I am coming. One of the times he still had poo up his back side while he was crawling away and the other time he kept crawling while he glanced over his shoulder and wasn't paying attention to where he was going by the time he looked forward again he ran smack into the vacuum. I couldn't help but laugh. It has been over a month since Conner has had baby food, he eats whatever we eat and it has been so nice. Except he seems to swallow a lot of the food whole. We had taco soup the other night and the next morning when I changed his diaper it was so gross it looked like someone had dumped the taco soup into his diaper, whole pieces of beans and corn. Ewe. I can give him half of a graham cracker and he'll take bites off of it until it is all gone, without choking. I think that is all the updates on Conner. Oh yeah, one more, this makes Conner smile and laugh without fail every time. Steve will hold him up in the air and jiggle him.
Sunday was my 26th birthday! Man I feel old. Sunday morning Steve got up with Conner and let me sleep. By the time I woke up he was putting Conner down for his morning nap so I got to stay in bed until 9:45. That night we went to my mom and dad's and she made me my birthday dinner and cheesecake. Debbie and her family came and after we ate we played Cranium. Then we stopped by Steve's parent's house and said hi for a little while. I borrowed a few puzzles from my mom and I can't wait to start them tonight after Conner goes to bed. Here is a picture of Conner and me on my birthday. I really don't like this picture of me but I wanted a picture of the two of us.

Steve got me the program Sure Cuts A Lot for my birthday, I am so excited to get some time to sit down and really use it.

Halloween Picture Overload

So, I am sure everyone is tired of me only posting pictures of Conner and only talking about Conner but he is my life. Here is a picture overload of him in his costume. I didn't realize at the time but I took over 30 pictures of him in his costume.

He looks drunk on milk.

Definitely doesn't look like a baby anymore.

Best buds!

Tonight we went to my grandpa's to celebrate his 91st birthday. It was fun and it was nice to see my cousins I haven't seen some of them in over a year. I hope everyone had a great Halloween and I already know what I would like Conner to be for Halloween next year. I saw it while we were trunk or treating it was a tiny little kid dressed up as Sully from Monster's Inc. That big bluish monster. He was adorable!
One thing that Conner started doing about 2 weeks ago is standing up in his crib. It is so weird to walk in his room and have him standing there holding on to the top. And the crib is the lowest it will go.

Playtime!

Playing with Copper.

Conner crawls over to the door all the time to see Copper.

Fun In The Tub!

Don't worry he likes it.

See, this is Conner after the water.

Here is he visiting his friend. If you enlarge the picture you can see his reflection in the circle.

Gotta love the tongue hanging out.

My favorite.

This is playtime that I don't find so fun. Conner pulled one of my vases down for the last time. In the top photo you can see three cracks on the top going down the sides.

Here is one of the cracks, all three cracks are just a few inches from reaching the bottom.

Brownies

I made those brownies off of Picky Palate's site. They are WAY good. Just make sure you cook them for as long as she says not what the box says. Even though I used the pan the box called for it still took forever to cook. Maybe because of all the stuff on top.

I sure love Conner.

Steve is so good at getting Conner to laugh but every time I think to grab the camera and start recording I only get him laughing for a second before he is done. This time I was able to catch a little more.
For the last couple of weeks Conner has decided to start waking up in the middle of the night. Only once a night so that is nice but I couldn't figure out why. I felt for teeth a couple days ago but nothing. Then today I looked and he has four white buds under his gums. Two on top and two on bottom so if they are like his other teeth it looks like it'll be a couple more weeks and they should be out. He started cutting teeth at 4 1/2 months and if these teeth come through by November 20thish he'll have 10 teeth in 4 months. Crazy.
Thursday night we were at Lance and Amber's for a little while and Billy and Aubree were playing with Conner, they headed up the stairs so Conner tried to follow. He made it to the third stair and just sat there, then he started to fall down but I was standing right next to him and caught him. Good job Conner, you're doing great!

Hunting Time

Yesterday morning Steve and two of his brother's headed up to West Canyon for the opening day. They postponed opening day in that area until yesterday. Anyway Lance and Steve each had a tag, they left around 5:30 am and shot their deer around 3:00 pm. The two deer were right by each other. Here are the pics.The poor things.

Clint and Steve
Steve and Lance

Steve also recorded the whole gutting process of the deer but I decided not to post that. I am just grateful that they are going to jerky them. I love the sweet and spicy jerky from Ford's; that is the only way I'll eat deer, otherwise it is gross.
Conner is pulling himself up in the standing position with anything he can grab. He's used the laundry basket, the tub, the table, the couch, a stool as well as me. I can't tell if he is trying to stand up on his own or what but every now and then you can find him in an upside down V shape. I just had to stop him from eating my shoes. Seriously, they can't taste good. Conner loves what I call, human food. He'll act hungry and so I'll give him a bottle and he'll eat a couple of ounces and then be done with it and start playing with something. If I try to give him regular food at that point he'll eat a lot. He also prefers regular cups to his bottle. Steve had a great idea to help him learn how to drink from a regular cup. Give him a drinking cup when he is in the bathtub. Then it wouldn't matter if he spilled every time. I would just have to fill it up with clean water every time he wanted to drink. Ew, drinking your own bath water, especially when they pee in there, yuck. Steve use to tease me because if I saw Conner pee in the tub I'd have to drain all the water and fill it with clean water. Some people say urine is sterile and the baby doesn't care. Well I say, would you want to drink your own pee? Now Steve gives him clean water to wash him after Conner has had time to play.
Did you notice Picky Palate's recent post? I am making those this weekend. Roasted Apples N' Cream Caramel Brownies. Oh yeah! I'll let you know how they taste.

Spoiled

I am so spoiled. Steve is so good to me, I have been wanting a sewing machine for a couple years now and when I have needed one in the past I just borrowed my moms. Well, Saturday I was at a boutique all day with my sister-in-law, Jenny. She is AMAZING at anything with a needle. Knitting, crocheting, cross stitching, she makes incredible things. Well I was sitting next to her all day and it just made me itch to sew something. I have some fabric upstairs and thought I could attempt a tote, diaper bag of some sort so I started that Sunday night. I am very excited for my sewing machine. On Saturday while I was at the boutique, my sister, Debbie, was watching Conner he tried some new foods. She gave him a waffle, cheerios, and a banana. She said he didn't have any problem with the waffle or the cheerios but he choked a little on the banana but he got it back up chewed it some more and was able to swallow it. He was even picking up the cheerios and feeding himself. Then when we were watching TV that night at her house he climbed the stairs in their theater room. They aren't full stairs, about 3/4 the size of regular stairs but I was still surprised.
We ate at the Ferguson's Sunday night and Steve and I could barely keep up feeding Conner. He loved the sweet potatoes that they had baked, plain, with no butter or unnecessary extras.

Monday night we had a family, family home evening. All the Ferguson's got together and and we had a lesson for the kids, then we ate dinner and went over to Hee Haw Farms. It was so, so windy. Conner did really well the only time that he made a peep was when he got scared on the trick or treat hayride. Everyone had to yell Hee Haw at the people in order to get candy as you passed. This was Conner's reaction to the noise. It doesn't even look like him.

This is Steve's sister Lori, our nephew Preston, and our niece Aubree.

Steve's sister Becca, and another nephew, Tyson.
Steve's brother Clint with his wife Celeste and two of their kids. Kaitlon and Addyson.
Steve's parent's, Larry and Susan.
Steve's brother Lance with his wife Amber and three of their kids, Brigham, Billy and Madi.UsSteve's oldest brother Kyle and his two kids, Kaleb and Clarissa.
My cute family. I really didn't want my face on the cow.

He is getting pretty good at holding himself up. He did this for a few minutes. Today I came around the corner from the kitchen and Conner had crawled over to the stairs and had one arm on the second stair and one of his knees on the first stair. Go for it bud, I just keep the gate at the top of the stairs. Our main level is pretty small so I usually see him if he goes toward the stairs. I have lost Conner before upstairs, he was under our bed.

Milestone For Conner

Conner Makes New Friends

Conner has discovered some new friends in the reflection of the oven, dishwasher, our standing mirror and that circle thing in the bathtub under the faucet against the wall of the tub. He'll crawl up to those and smoosh his nose against it and try to touch, "the other person." Pretty darn cute.

First Milestone

Conner ate half of his jar of baby food without choking or gagging. It was tender chicken and stars. Good job Conner!

Second and Funnest Milestone

After eating his chicken and stars he needed a bath. We aren't the greatest couple when it comes to keeping him clean. While in the tub he crawled over to the edge of the tub put his hands on the top and stood up all by himself. I let him stand there for maybe two seconds before I put him back in the water. I gave him lots of clapping and praise and then realized I probably shouldn't praise him for doing that in the tub, too dangerous. Crazy to see a little naked baby standing all by himself but it was fun to see him hit another milestone.

Video Time

My two names for Conner are, sweetpea and sweet cheeks. I don't know
where I got sweet cheeks but yesterday Steve was helping me change a diaper and he looked and almost threw up. He said he never wanted me to call him sweet cheeks again.

I think Conner loves this walker. I would have put him in the backyard on the patio where he can move easier but Copper was out and I didn't want to deal with him.

I just thought this was kind of cute.

The one item in our house that is not baby proof. It's been pulled over twice.

Tonight Steve's sister get set apart and we are all going to dinner after. It's going to be weird not having her around for the next 18 months.
On a side note I have been trying to teach Conner the word soft. I have had my hair pulled too much lately and have come close to tears on many occasions. I hope he learns it quickly. Last week he grabbed my hair and I couldn't get him to let go finally he pulled his hand down and with it were 7 strands of hair. Ouch.