3 Years Old!

Connor had a very happy 3rd birthday yesterday. I cannot believe he is already 3. That is so weird! Anyway, I just downloaded all 107 pictures from his birthday! Yikes! I officially decided I am not sure I like this whole digital age. I miss the days when I would try really hard to get a good picture. Now I just take five shots of each pose so I can make
sure to get a good one. That just makes it harder to pick which one, and it takes A LOT longer to go through all of them! Ha ha ha . . . Of course, I guess if we didn't have digital pictures, I wouldn't be blogging, huh?
Anyway, so we started the day with a birthday breakfast. Connor opened a few presents, but we didn't have a whole lot of time because we had to take Bradley to school. He loved his new "Barro of Monkeys" and his new polar bear book and stuffed animal. He has been "reading" that book over and over, and the boys both love to throw all the monkeys all over the house! :)
After we dropped Bradley off we went to Walmart and Connor picked out some new underwear! He has mixed emotions about this whole thing. Sometimes he's really excited, and other times he just cries and says he wants to wear diapers FOREVER! Hopefully that won't happen, but anyway, here's a picture of him showing Wes his new undies!
On Wednesdays out here they have a park day. I asked Connor if he wanted to go for his birthday, and he of course said yes. He even took some treats to hand out, but ended up being too shy to give any to the kids. I didn't take pictures at the park! Darn! But we did have fun.
Later I let Connor decorate his own cake with "sprinklers." I wasn't intending for him to use the whole bottle, but he had fun! He was really excited about the "sprinklers!"
We tried to get a cute picture of the kids because they were all wearing such cute clothes, but it was kind of a lost cause. Connor seems to close his eyes for 90% of the pictures! I finally decided to post this one because even though the boys' eyes are closed they all look cute! Here's Halley saying hello!
We let Connor pick what he wanted to do for dinner, and he insisted on going to the Bear Creek Diner. I was trying to convince him to choose somewhere like Wendy's or something, but he knew what he wanted! Bradley even tried to get him to go to Wendy's so we could go to the park after, but Connor wouldn't hear of it!
He obviouly enjoyed his meal! :)
And then, we ate cake! It was kind of sad. Connor blew/spit out his candles and immediately after wanted to touch the candle. He burned his finger! I kept taking pictures. Wes was mad, but Connor was so sad and cute! He was even complaining about his finger hurting tonight. I am so mean, but it was so tender!
Connor opened the rest of his presents, and the night ended pretty well. Thanks so much to all the people who sent presents and called. It really means a lot to all of us! I know sometimes the boys don't respond very well to phone calls, but they really do miss everyone A LOT! It was hard to have a birthday party with no famiy around! :( We love you all!

Last One!

I wanted to post some more pictures so I thought I'd do a slide show. The title does it justice - they are totally random pictures. Some are from over a month ago when my family was here, and some are just pictures of Halley in her cute outfits. Anyway, that's it! I am finished, and from now on, I will not let it be a month and half in between posts. This has been four hour project, and I'm sure no one wants to read that much about our lives!! :)
Love to all!

Life

Wes is doing sooooo well in his classes. He just took his unit 4 tests, and he got above 90% on all of it. That's the best he's ever done on any unit test. I am really proud of him. Not only did he do so well on his test, but he did that with having all sorts of stuff going on. He is doing PT (physical training) twice a day now, and he is in the YM presidency so he has activities once a week. And . . . we have had family visiting. Crazy! He is amazing. Oh, and we are addicted to watching the Olympics - usually we're up until at least 11:00! Funny side story: One day we were watching swimming and told the boys about Michael Phelps, and every time we have seen any type of swimming since then they both yell, "Go Michael Phelps, go!" Ha ha ha ha . . . Bradley also told me today that he needs to get a gold medal for winning his race. :) Oh, and besides that, we have been busy doing stuff pretty much every Saturday. We have been really enjoying meeting other people, especially from the ward. We have gotten pretty involved in that realm of things. We have traded babysitting to go see a movie. We also went to the Strawberry Festival in Watsonville one weekend. We've also been having play dates and helping out with babysitting other kids. I think we are going to a really cool beach this weekend with some friends too. I am glad that we are being social, but sometimes it's hard work!!Last weekend we went to the Oakland Temple to help with babysitting for other people in the ward who wanted to do a session. Let me tell you, that gave us a new appreciation for all the temples in Utah. We left home at noon and didn't get home until after 9:00. When they say, "Stake Temple Day" out here, they really mean it!
It was a really neat experience though. That temple is amazing, and we got to go up on top and look out over the whole bay. Of course, it was foggy so we couldn't see much, but maybe we'll get to see more next time. The boys loved it, and all three of them were really good for the whole trip.
Ok, so I probably could type for another hour and tell story after story, but I won't bore you any longer! Life is grand. We all have our good days and bad, and we all miss the extended family A LOT, but we are doing well!

Bradley David

This was Bradley's first day of school. That is obviously the biggest update for him. He has done really well with school. The hardest thing for me is that I will never know what he is doing every minute of the day anymore. Every day when I ask him how things went he tells me he doesn't remember. It's sad. It's also hard to realize that he's spending more time with his teachers than with me. :( He is at school from 8:30-3:30 every day of the week.
I think he has adjusted well. His teachers just tell me he is really smart, which, of course, I already knew. The hardest things for him are eating meals there and that they take naps every day. He hasn't taken naps for a few years so that's been quite the adjustment. He is also a very picky eater, but he has tried a few new things, and I am hoping it'll just get better as time goes on.
He is reading a lot more now, and he loves to sing and play pretend.
This is a picture of him and his dinosaur tower that he built. He was way proud of himself. He designed it all on his own.
On the way to his school the first day Bradley was so cute. He told Connor, "You are going to have to be a big boy now. You have to help Mommy and do what she says because I won't be there anymore." It was adorable. I really do miss his help, but I definitely don't miss all the fighting!

Connor Ryan

Ha ha ha . . . this is a picture of Connor getting his hair cut. He is such a funny kid. By the way, Wes cut the boys' hair. Cool, huh?
Connor and I have been having a lot of fun together since Bradley started school. He is such a loving kid. All day long he says, "Mommy." When I say, "What?" he always says, "I really love you." It is so adorable. He is also constantly reminding me how much he loves Halley and that I should love her too. He even makes me tell her at least a few times a day how much I love her.
The neatest thing with Connor lately has been how close he is getting to Wes. He absolutely adores Wes. We were at the park the other night, and all Connor wanted to do was swing. Wes pushed him and pushed him, and then they swang together. It was so cute. I am really glad that he is getting closer to Wes because it makes my life a little eaiser.
This is Connor and I at a beach we hiked to with Wes' parents while they were here last week.
Sometimes I just want to rip my hair out with Connor, but then I have to remember that he is still only 2 - well, for another week anyway, and that he really isn't a bad kid. He just has to push the limits and test everything. :)
I really wish all our families could spend more time with the kids. They are each soooo special in such unique ways!

Halley Mae

I keep putting this off because I feel so overwhelmed with all the pictures I have and everything I want to say, but I have a little bit of time so I am just going to start! This is a cute video of Halley's newest form of communication. You can call it "razzing" or spitting or whatever you want, but it's cute! Make sure to turn up the volume or you won't be able to hear her. She is such an adorable little girl. It's hard to get the full effect on a video, especially with me laughing in the background, but she is so fun!
She has her first two teeth coming in on the bottom, and it has been a little bit rough. However, I really shouldn't complain because she has been so good!! Things being "rough" with her doesn't really compare with what I know a lot of other parents go through. I cannot believe the insane amount of drool she has though. It's crazy! She is constantly chewing on her hands. She can fit her whole hand in her mouth. Amazing!She has also started trying to roll over. She's at that phase where she can't quite get her arm out from under her. I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough. :) Oh, and she is grabbing at things too. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up!! It's insane.
Anyway, so she is as cute and adorable as ever. She still absolutely loves her brothers and will smile and "talk" with them more than anyone else. They always tell me,"Halley really loves me, huh, Mom?" It's cute.
So, I am just going to post this now, and I promise to post more pictures later tonight. I may just do a slide show because I just looked through the pictures, and I have at least 10 or 15 more that I want to do!

So little time . . .

I have so much to do and so little time to do it in! I am so sorry I haven't posted for soooo long. My family was here for a week and a half, and I don't think I got online once while they were here. It was so busy and fun, and I am just barely recovering from all the excitement! It was funny too because on Friday after my parents left Kira (my sister-in-law) and her sister, Megan, showed up. It was a total surprise! I still cannot believe she did that.
So, needless to say, between Wes' parents visit a few weeks ago and my family's visit, I haven't had much time to blog. I got a CD from Wes' parents with a bunch more cute pictures from their visit, and I have about 300 pictures to go through from the past two weeks.
Well, so, ummm . . as far as TIME goes, I don't really have any. For right now, you can look at my sister, Cristi's, blog. She is amazing and always on top of anything having to do with pictures. She has a bunch of the cutest pictures from their visit out on her blog. Her link is here on my blog.
We had so much fun with my family. We went to the beach and swimming at the hotel and to fun parks and to the aquarium.
I have so many thing I want to write about. Bradley is starting preschool in a couple weeks, and I am having all sorts of mixed emotions about that. Connor has learned his ABC's. He loves to sing the song to us.
Oh, I have the funniest story about Connor. Usually when I take a shower I let the boys watch TV or a movie or something. The past few weeks Connor has been telling me, rather frequently, that I stink. :) He'll come up to me and say, "Mommy, you stink," and then promplty after say, "Can I watch a movie?" It's so funny. I guess it doesn't sound as funny on here, but it is. He knows that me being stinky means I need a shower which means he gets to watch TV. He is so hilarious.
Halley is growing so fast! I cannot beleive she is 3 1/2 months old already. Her favorite thing to do is watch people's faces. She is especially fascinated by the boys.
Wes is doing really well in his classes. He has been getting up early to study a lot, and he studies during his breaks too. Chinese is a hard language!
I am having so much fun out here. It is hard to adjust to the fact that we won't have family out here again for awhile, but it's all good. We went to a bar-b-que at a friend from the ward's house on Monday, and we have one planned at our house this Saturday with all of Wes' friends from when he first got here. Oh, and on Sunday we are having dinner with a family that is from Utah. Marc is in the Utah National Guard too. He is here learning Russian. Wes met him in his unit before he left for basic.
Yikes! So, sorry, not many pictures. GO TO CRISTI'S BLOG! :) I promise I will keep working on everying and post more soon. Soon, of course, could mean in the next few weeks, but I will get on it!
I think I'll just post a couple cute pictures from the aquarium since Cristi wasn't here then, and she posted a lot of the other cute ones. :)
Goodnight! (Sorry this is soooo long.)