Happy Birthday Connor

Yesterday Connor turned 8 years old!  How did that happen so fast!?  He had a pretty special day!  He had a "day of  treats" so he says.  I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast as requested.  He got donuts in his last Senator meeting for the year (he's a Senator for his class in the student council).  Then we brought him treats for his class.  I made little cheesecakes with  blueberry and cherry topping look like a flag since his birthday is Flag Day, that was a big hit!  He got shrimp, his favorite food, for dinner and of course cake and ice cream. 

 I slaved all day over this cake!  It was my first try with fondant and I made the fondant myself too.  I think it turned out pretty good.  It's a charm book with a Gryfindor scarf, sorting hat, golden snitch, wand and Hedwig around and on it.

 Tristan and Haydn chose an awesome Harry Potter lego set to give Connor.  They painted and drew on a bag to make the wrapping paper too.

 I don't know why I don't have a picture yet of what this was.  This was his favorite thing.  We decided to give him a Kindle since this boy can't STOP reading.  He LOVES it.

 Blowing out the candles...Happy Birthday Connor.

Connor will be baptized on June 30th and 5pm here in LA if any you don't know that yet and want to be there.  We are going to bless Archer at the same time too.  Connor is so excited about this and we are so proud of him for all he's done these last 8 years!

Dentist Visit

I took the boys to the dentist recently. Most of them had never been before. It was a superb experience. They explained everything they were doing, showed them videos of what would happen and how and why you need to keep your teeth clean and even let the boys help with the instruments (the water shooter and spit sucker). It really fun for them! In the end they got new toothbrushes and timers and got to choose a prize from their treasure chest.




Tristan got a little boredwaiting for his turn and by the end he was done being confined to a small area. The funny thing is we found a magazine that kept him riveted...Motor Trends. He looked through that thing for a good half hour! That boy LOVES cars!

You might be wondering where we are since we've been crazy busy the past few weeks! We made it to Cali and we are pretty settled in our new place! We had to do a Home Depot run and we got a nice picture of the kids with a great view...check out the word in the background.

So far we are just loving it here. The weather has been wonderful, Tristan won't go outside without sunglasses because it's to bright for his little eyes. We made it here just in time for our new ward's trunk-or-treat and that was a fun way to introduce ourselves and let the kids play games. We had a fun Halloween with a little monkey, and 2 Harry Potters! Haydn was actually superman at the trunk-or-treat but Nana sent him a Harry Potter costume too which arrived on Halloween so he switched costumes. Here's some fun pics of the kids trick or treating. I think this is the first year they were really into it and didn't want to stop. Connor did have a run in at a house that had a haunted house display in part of the yard. He decided to go in, without asking and without a grown-up. I was getting nervous because I couldn't find him in the chaos of this overly decorated house and finally he came out but he was a little shaken up (must have gotten a good scare!) and was ready to head home. Poor kid! I felt bad for him but I was just so happy that I'd found him that we had a hard time not laughing at how shaken up he was.




Anyways, we are doing great in Cali. Connor is in school and already has some good friends. We have friends in the ward just 2 houses down so that is fun to be so close to them. I can walk to everything I need-the school, my doctor, even the hospital (no wonder we hear ambulances way too often, I'm just realizing this). I've even started potty training Tristan and we are having a little success here and there. I'll definitely post more soon now that we are more settled.

Pumpkins and Packing

The boys didn't have school Monday so, despite the BIG packing project going on at home, I decided that we needed to get out of the house and do a fun Fall New England activity. We went to our favorite farm and went pumpkin picking! We had a wonderful time and I even managed not to lose anyone despite my lack of extra hands. The boys got their face painted, played croquet, played at the playground, went on hayride, ran through a corn maze and picked a pumpkin.











When we got home I got a text from one of my friends that she and another friend were coming to help me pack. They swept through my kitchen and packed most of it. YEAH! I'm that much closer to being done. Thanks for your help ladies!

New Baby...

So, we are expecting another baby in our family! We found out today what we are having too. I decided to make it special for the boys and tell them in a fun way. I made a cake and dyed the inside pink or blue to tell if it's a boy or girl. The frosting covered the color so they wouldn't know until we cut the cake. Anyway, I videoed it so we could have their reactions...WATCH and find out what we are having...

California Here We Come...

I've been playing single mom for about 3 weeks now. Scott started a job out in CA about 2 weeks ago and is loving it. Today we finalized plans to move into a townhouse in Beverly Hills. I'm here in CT still hoping to find someone to rent or buy our house before we leave. Crazy huh! We are all so excited to go and it makes it even more real to actually have a place to move into. YEAH! The funniest part is Bolton, CT and Beverly Hills, CA are about as polar opposites and you can get! We are so excited to have a winter without piles of snow. Haydn wasn't so sure about that idea. I had to reassure him that Santa will know it's Christmas there even if it doesn't snow.

Here's a little catch-up of what we've been up to in these past crazy weeks...

We went at the end of summer to a celebration at the library for the summer reading challenge. The kids got their face painted and snacks. It was really fun.



While the big boys are in school Tristan and I like to play outside. He LOVES to be outdoors. He pushes his little car around everywhere. He also likes to ride on the back of my bike He even tells me which direction to go and if I turn toward home he starts saying, "NO, NO, NO! That way!" This is one morning when he found a caterpillar.

Connor started playing soccer this fall. He loves it. His favorite position is to be goalie or defense.


Tristan likes to bring a ball and kick it around while we watch practice.

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school! I had some VERY excited boys in my house. Here we are taking some quick pics before driving them to school...


It's a little tradition of ours that I make them a BIG cookie for a back to school celebration! I started this last year and the boys had totally forgotten about it but I hadn't! It was fun to surprise them and totally make their day, after-all there's nothing better than cookies with frosting and milk to win over your kids right?!

Here they are with their pieces of cookie! They were amazed I let them have such big pieces yet still asked for more, what's that all about?!



Anyways, the boys had good days! Haydn has a half day of preschool so he came home for lunch and told me all about Preschool. He got to play with potato heads that had "openings on their butts" (he thought that was amusing apparently), write his name with shaving cream, and sang songs. He made some new friends too. He said there is another Hayden and an Aiden in his class and one of his teachers is named Mrs. Connors so he'll always remember them.

Connor came home on the bus happy but so excited about school that he forgot to bring home his backpack, oops! He got to choose your own desk and set up his supplies inside it. He's sitting by one old friend and one new one. He said he got to start off his day in art and then they played some get-to-know-you games like a scavenger hunt about people. They got to bring in 5 things from home and tell about themselves. They also did word searches and talked a lot about their class and each other. They had indoor recess and he got to play on the computer right in his classroom (he thinks that's awesome)! He also got to play with legos.

I'm so glad they had an awesome day! It was so strange just having one little 2 year old in the house for the morning but Tristan and I enjoyed our alone time! He brought me lots of books to read and we watched a baby einstein movie. We also played with cars and I tickled him a lot and just about anything else I could do to make him laugh hysterically because he has the cutest laugh EVER!

It's Officially Summer

I love June! It's just great outdoor weather. We've been working on opening our big pool for the summer but it's still in progress so I filled up the little pool today for the kids. When Connor got home from school and saw it he exclaimed, "yes, Yes, YES!!!" They had a great time breaking it in this year. Here's a few pics...

An Update!

I am getting really bad at keeping this updated. I just wanted to post a few pictures I recently took and show you how my little ones are growing...

Connor is an amazing guy. He's helpful, loving, independent and smart! He's been in a bit of trouble at school lately though. He's just so physical and doesn't seem to know what personal space is. I think it's also that he may be a little bored and finding other means to distract himself. Anyways, he's working toward a fun incentive and his behavior has been much better. I think every parent hates to hear bad things about their own perfect angels. What kills the most is that I know he knows better and I just pray he turns out right in the end-being able to think through his actions before he does them. He's really progressing at piano and is playing some simplified Primary Songs and the Star Wars theme which is really fun for him. He's trying out for baseball soon so we've been practicing that too.

Haydn is loving joy school and he's getting so independent too. He's starting to read which is soooo fun! The look on his face whenever he sounds out a word and recognizes what it is is PRICELESS. He is such a good friend. He can play for hours with his friends and have no problems. I love having him home with me. We play games, read, play outside, go to the library, etc. He's also going to do T-ball soon and he's really excited about it.

Tristan is just my sweet cuddle bug. He plays well on his own, with his brothers and with friends. He's starting to talk a little but he gets his point across rather well with body language, sign language, sounds and pointing. The other day he brought me a toy and repeatedly said, "On, on, on!" It was so cute! He's such a little clown and he loves attention. He LOVES to be outside and I'm glad I can finally let him out more. Every time I get out of our car he runs to the bikes and wants to play outside. He's heartbroken when I make him come in.

So that's my crew! Scott's still loving his job and I am too. I've been busily Heritage Making our own things too. I finally finished my wedding album...

A board book for Mr. T...

And a canvas of the boys for our wall...

Our Christmas Morning

We started our Christmas morning with Connor and Haydn woke up around 6am (like every day). They were so excited! We decided to start by reading the scripture account of Christ's birth in Luke 2. We put together our nativity set while the story unfolded. Then we went to get Tristan and to see what Santa brought! Here's some of the scenes from our Christmas morning!


Connor's wish list for Santa was a calculator, and sunglasses. He also got some fun lego games, a magic set and a dictionary. We also gave the boys a box of some of our favorite books-Magic Tree House, Magic School House, A to Z Mysteries, etc. What did he want to bring with him to Grandpa's house later that day? The calculator and the dictionary!




Haydn asked Santa for a calculator (if brother wants one he must too), sunglasses (his idea, Connor copied that one) and a dragon car that changes colors. Santa did good this year and he also got a butterfly garden, books, and a lightsaber (to replace one he lost).




Here's the big boys having fun with Tristan and his new ball house. It was probably the biggest hit of the day!


Here's Tristan and the rest of his loot, you might notice a theme...ball, Ball, BALL!




We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and carry the spirit of Christ with you all year long!