Daddy Singing!

Scott and I have both had to give talks in Sacrament meeting in the past month.  Jackson has had fun seeing us up on the stand and yelling "hi mommy" or "hi daddy" from the congregation.  Today during sacrament meeting, we were sitting towards the back of the chapel.  About half way through the meeting, our friends that we were sitting with had to get up to leave because they had to take their dad to the airport.  They left as the ward choir was heading up to the stand to sing, so a lot of people were moving around at the same time.  I guess Jackson got confused about where everyone was.  As the choir started singing, Jackson yelled out "Hi Daddy!" and pointed up at the stand.  Jackson and I had moved down the seat a little bit as people were moving around, and I guess he thought his dad had headed up to the stand with the choir.  I said "Jackson, daddy's over there" and pointed over at Scott.  Jackson glanced over, saw his dad and grinned really big and said "Heeeyyy, daddy singing!" and kept pointing up at the stand and then over at his dad laughing!  He did that several more times!  I didn't hear any of what the choir sang, we were laughing so hard!

Another Birthday Boy!

Two birthdays 8 days apart is like constant celebrating!  Scott had to work late on Jackson's actual birthday, so we celebrated the next night with Grandma and Grandpa Conrad, Uncle Daris and Aunt Rachael and cousin Robyn.  Thanks everyone for joining us for the celebration!  Jackson is such a fun kid!  He has such a funny personality!  He had lots of fun opening presents!

Daddy had to sit right next to him (He is a total daddy's boy lately!) 

 Then we brought out the cake.  It was hilarious to watch him sing "Happy Birthday" to himself right along with the rest of us!  Then he was so excited to blow out the candles, it took him awhile to actually get them out.  He just kept blowing and blowing (we should have grabbed the video camera!)

 Then he enjoyed some cake!

   A few days later, his real birthday present finally arrived.  I guess I should have ordered it sooner.  He's been having lots of fun sitting in this and doing up the seat belt.  This will be his new ride when we walk Adam to and from school.

A few notes about Jackson at 2 years old:
Jackson is such a talker!  He is constantly talking!  It's so fun to listen to him jabber away - and the really fun part is that most of the time you can understand him!
Jackson has decided he's ready for the potty.  He can take his diaper off, and wants to sit on the toilet all the time.  It would be awesome to have him potty trained before his sister is born, but he seems so young!  He often asks to sit on the potty, but usually just sits there and doesn't do anything.  I guess we'll let him do it when he asks.  I'm not going to hold my breath that it will actually take, but we'll see!
One of Jackson's favorite things is to play with his dad!  He LOVES to tease his dad.  They have this cute little game where Scott will say - "Jackson - guess what" and as quickly as he can, Jackson will shout "I LOVE YOU!"
Jackson really loves music!  Every night at bedtime, he wants to sing!  His favorites are "Jesus wants me for a Sunday", "Follow the prophet", "Popcorn popping" and "I love to see the temple".  He even sings "Sunbeam" right along with me, which is so cute!
I wish I could capature all of Jackson's personality here on this blog.  He loves to tease everyone.  He is just a happy kid!  His grin just melts your heart!  He is such a fun addition to our family!  We love you Jackson!  Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Bowling!

Adam really wanted to go bowling with his friends for his birthday party.  I happened to have a coupon for two hours of free bowling for 6 people - so we invited some of his friends and headed for the bowling alley.  I think this was the first time bowling for everyone, and they had a great time.  Here's all the boys watching as we got the scoreboard set up. 

 And then the bowling began!  Everyone liked to gather around the thingy that brings the bowling ball back.  I'm surprised no fingers got smashed!

 Here Adam is watching his friend Jake's ball as it rolls down the alley.  These boys really got into it - throwing the ball and spinning around.  It was fun to watch!

 Jackson wanted in on the bowling action as well.  I should have taken a picture of him carrying the bowling ball.  He, of course, had to do it all by himself - just like the big boys.  Scott tried to help the ball by giving it a little shove after Jackson plopped it to the ground.  We only had to have the worker come over twice to rescue balls that didn't quite make it all the way down.

And then we found this cool thing you put the ball on and send it down the alley.  That worked much better!

 Jackson waiting impatiently for the ball to come back up...

 We were at the bowling alley for a little over an hour, and didn't quite make it through a full game.  The games take a bit longer when the ball only goes 2mph down the lane (there was a speed clock on the computer).  But, by the time an hour was up, everyone was ready to go.  It's hard to wait your turn for bowling when your 5 and 6 (or 2) years old.  The boys all did very well taking their turns and watching as their friends played.  It was a really fun afternoon!

After bowling, we headed back home for Adam to unwrap presents.  It's fun to see how excited his friends were for him to unwrap the present they got for him...

 Then we celebrated with some cake (after a bit of a fight over who got to sit by Adam at the table).

It ended up being a really fun birthday party.  Happy Birthday Adam!

Girls!

I have some posts to write about school and birthdays.  Hopefully I can get to those this weekend, but I wanted to post this before I forgot.  Scott told me this as we were making breakfast this morning.

Last night, Scott came running into the house very briefly from work, changed his clothes and ran out the door to scouts.  The beehives were all in the kitchen (we were learning how to make some yummy scones), as were Adam and and Jackson.  Jackson saw his dad go into the laundry room and ran in after him saying "look, daddy, look!"  Scott turned around and asked "What?"  Jackson grinned at him, pointed out the door and said "Girls!"

Having a little sister will be good for this house!

Birthday Boy!

Adam started Kindergarten and a week later, had a big birthday!  He's growing up so fast!  I'm surprised how quickly the years are going by!  Scott had been plotting Adam's big birthday present for months!  He was so excited to get Adam a new bike!  Adam has become a pro at riding a two wheeler over the summer and it seemed like we had to raise the seat and handlebars every couple of weeks because he won't stop growing.   So, Scott picked out a new 20inch bike that we hope will last for a couple of years. 

On the big day, Scott came home from work early and Uncle Brian came over to help us celebrate. I walked over to pick up Adam from school while the guys waiting - so excited to give Adam his bike.  We had a little debate going over what Adam would be more excited to see - Uncle Brian or the bike.  We hid both back in the family room next to eachother to see what he would go for first....

 And the winner was...

 Uncle Brian - of course!  Adam was so excited to see him that he didn't even notice the new  bike sitting next to him until Brian pointed it out!  It was very cute!  They played and wrestled for a few minutes, and then Brian pointed out the bike, and Adam was even more excited!  Dad, Adam and Brian all took off for a bike ride around the neighborhood.  Unfortunatley, we haven't taken a picture of Adam on his new bike yet.  It's a little big, and it's very different than his other bike - there are hand brakes instead of pedal breaks, and gears shifts on the handlebars - but Adam didn't have any problems getting it all figured out.  He is now zooming around the neighborhood like a pro!

After the bike ride, Grandma Conrad came over for dinner, presents and cake.  Adam choose hot dogs for his birthday dinner.

Then he opened presents... 

 Scott and I bought both boys a soccor goal because they both love to go outside and play soccor - so Jackson got a little practice at opening presents for his birthday...  Adam didn't mind sharing a present with Jackson.

 We also about them each a new socoor ball...

 Cute brothers!

 Then we sang happy birthday and had some yummy cake...

Here are a few fun things about Adam at 6 years old:
Some of his favorite things are; pokemon cards, bakugon, Star Wars, riding his bike, wrestling with dad and playing soccor.
Adam is a great big brother!  He will play soccor or wrestle with Jackson.  They love to chase eachother around the house!
Adam is so excited to have a baby sister.  He is contantly rubbing my belly and giving her kisses.  He is still insisting that Jackson can go to Grandma's house, and that he will go to the hospital with mom and dad so he'll be the first person to see his sister.  We're working on it!
I am so proud of my Adam.  He has grown up so much in just the short week he's started school.  I am so excited to watch him grow and learn in the coming years!

School Days! School Days!!

I'm finding it hard to believe that my Adam has started school!  It doesn't seem like he's old enough!  School actually started the Wednesday after Labor day this year.  On Tuesday, they had "Meet the Teacher", so Adam and I walked over to the school with all his school supplies to meet his teacher.  Prior to school starting there was a lot of juggling of Adam's schedule.  When I originally registered him, we choose to do full time Kindergarten - so all day, every day.  The part time program was being run full days Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday - not an ideal schedule and the plan was that I would be working through out the school year.  So even though we had to pay for it, it was still cheaper than day care for the part time program.  Then, in March, we found out I was pregnant - and we found out the school district had changed the part time program from full day every other day, to half day every day (which we much preferred).  I would be home for a good part of the school year, and we decided it would be better to save money and not pay for full time, so I pulled him out and registered him for the morning Kindergarten class.  As August rolled around, we refined our schedules and figured out that it would be better for Adam to go in the afternoons, so when I got a call from the school secretary asking if we still wanted mornings, I said that we would rather have afternoons, so they moved him again.  Then, just a few days before school was supposed to start, I got another call from the school secretary.  She said that they were trying to move some kids out of the part time program because they were over-enrolled, and asked if we would go back to the full time program if they offered us a full scholorship.  I was shocked!  I think I asked her about 12 times if we would have to qualify for the scholorship (because I knew we wouldn't), and she told me repeatedly that we wouldn't.  They were calling all the kids that pulled out of the full time program and offering them scholorships because the part time program had 11 extra kids in it.  So, Adam was back to full day, every day Kindergarten.  I was a little concerned about how he would handle it - he was having a hard time through out the summer with seperation anxiety again (I'm not sure if it's because of the baby or just a phase), but I was worreid that 7 hours of school every day would push him over the edge, but after talking about it, and praying about it, we went for it.  It was a little weird to think that everything was settled and then have it change again and again!  But, but meet the teacher day, everything was set - he was scheduled for full time Kindergarten!
Here's Adam sitting at his desk at Meet the Teacher.  It was nice to be able to go into the classroom with him, find his desk and his cubby and meet his teacher.  I love his big smile!

 Here's his name on his desk...

 And this is Adam with his teacher - Mrs. Dumo. 

 The next day was the big day!  First day of school!  Daddy went to work late, so we all got ready and walked Adam to school together. 

 First day of school picture!

 They had all the kids go to the gym at the school to line up with their class.  It was pretty chaotic!  Here's Adam standing in line ready to go in.  It seems like they stood there forever!

 He started out pretty happy and ready to go!

 But the longer they stood there waiting, the harder it got.  The principal asked all the parents to leave their children and move to the front of the gym.  As we stood there, I looked over at Adam and he was in tears.  I felt so bad for him (I will admit that I was crying too, but I was trying really hard to not show him that!)  I went back over and gave him a big hug and told him how proud I was of him.  He did finally calm down, and was ready to go when the principal called for Mrs. Dumo's class to walk to their classroom.  I got stuck in the crowd of parents with Jackson's stroller, so I didn't make it outside, but Scott did and got a few pictures of him walking to his class.

He walked right past Scott, gave him a high-five and right into his classroom with all the other kids.  At the end of the day when I picked him up, he was all smiles!  I asked him what he did, and he said "played outside at recess".  I asked what his favorite part of the day was, and he said "recess".  Oh well, maybe he'll enjoy something else besides recess some time.  Can't believe my guy is in Kindergarten!!!

End of summer haircuts

We've been buzzing the boys hair all summer (including Scotts!) to keep things easier.  Jackson is so much better than Adam ever was at getting his haircut.  He will sit in the bathroom and let Scott go at it with the clippers.  Adam still has a bit of a hard time sometimes. 
We decided to get some nice haircuts before school started - something more than just an all over buzz.  So, Saturday afternoon we headed out.  Scott usually just takes Adam for his haircuts, so I had actually never witnessed him being calm and climbing into the chair all by himself.  I was amazed!  I guess it really proves how grown up he is getting!  At first, Jackson copied his brother and climbed into the chair and sat there all by himself - until the girl started to put the cover over him - then he started crying.  So, Scott sat down held him.  He didn't have to restrain him - I guess he just wanted to reassurance that it was all ok.  He sat there on dad's lap and and let her cut his hair.

Here's Adam!  Scott said this is pretty normal for him now.  He'll sit by himself and let the gal cut his hair.  He's growing up!