My Birthday & The Oquirrh Mtn Temple

Last Wednesday I celebrated my 26th birthday! Nothing too monumental, except now I think it's legal for me to rent a car. Unfortunately, Jake is two hours away taking a summer school class in Cedar City (the only place that taught the class in the whole state during the summer), so I couldn't celebrate with him. My in-laws were nice enough to drive down and take me to dinner though. They're so great!

A couple of days later we all drove up to see the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was beautiful! Connor's favorite part was the big chandelier in the entryway and the 12 oxen statues around the baptismal font or the "pool" as he called it.

Connor & Cody with Aunt Lucy

Connor's First Visit to the ER

Last Tuesday was pretty scary for our family. While I was home alone with the boys and changing Cody's diaper, Connor pulled his flouride drops out of the bathroom drawer, somehow opened the childproof cap and drank the whole bottle. (For those of you who don't live in Utah, I guess the state of Utah doesn't add flouride to their drinking water like they do in many other states. Not having grown up here, it was foreign to me to have to give your child flouride in addition to their daily vitamins. But here you do...) So Connor comes into Cody's room to show me that he drank all of his "vitamins". I freaked out and was hoping he had just spilled them somewhere. I kept asking him, "Did you drink this?!" He kept saying, "I drink it all gone!" Like he was SO proud of himself.
Immediately, I called poison control and was told if he didn't throw up or have his stomach pumped, his blood could become toxic and his stomach could start bleeding and that I should rush him to the emergency room. Just what every mother wants to hear when she's home alone with her two kids! So I rushed over to my neighbor's and asked if she could watch Cody and put him to bed while her husband offered to drive us to the hospital. Luckily, Connor threw up two times before we left and once in the car on the way to the hospital (sorry Monica & Alex). After running several tests and determining that none of the flouride affected his system, we were able to come home around 12:30 am. Whewwww! So we learned the hard way that Connor knows how to open child-proof bottles and to never underestimate our kids!

Connor's New Toy

This morning, Connor found a new toy in the dishwasher. This may mean that Connor has been spending too much time with Mommy and needs to spend more time with Daddy.

Calling All Moms!

I think I'm going to soon attempt the daunting task of potty training Connor. For all of you experienced mothers out there, any suggestions on techniques I should try or books I should read? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks.

Connor Turns Two!

It's official, we have a toddler! Connor had such a fun birthday! He got lots of new books, some clothes, a golf club set, a Superman cape, and best of all, his very own riding tractor. He hasn't quite learned how to pedal to get it to move yet, but he seems content to just sit on it and operate the front loader. He sat on it for about 3 hours the evening of his birthday. We couldn't get him off of it to even eat dinner! He was so sweet, all night he kept saying "Oh thank you Mommy. I love it!"

As requested by Connor, we made froggie cupcakes. We used green frosting and for the eyes we sliced a green gumdrop in half, pressed white chocolate chips into the gumdrops and used a dab of black cake icing on the chips for the pupils. They turned out great!

We also moved Connor out of the crib and gave him a "big boy" bed for his birthday. I was worried he'd figure out that he can climb out of it and come and get us during the night, but he hasn't yet. Oh, for those of you wondering, what that big lump is on the side of his bed, it's a pool noodle. My friend Mollie told me that stuffing a pool noodle under their fitted sheets, helps keeping them from rolling off. How smart!

Easter Weekend & The Hogle Zoo!

Here are some pictures of our fun Easter weekend. We took a trip up to The Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake with Jake's side of the family. Connor had so much fun! It seems like every animal we stopped to see, he would shout, "I want to ride it!" I had to tell him not every animal is like a horse :)

Connor's first time painting Easter Eggs

Happy Birthday to Our April Fool!

Jake turned 30 today! I think it might have shocked his parents more that their oldest child was 30, than it shocked Jake that he was turning 30. On behalf of all of us, Jake, we're SO proud of all that you've accomplished in your life thus far. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband, father, and son. We love you and hope you have a great day!

Cody's First Photo Shoot

Unfortunately, Cody's pictures of his first photo shoot are copywrited and I'm unable to get digital copies of them, but if you'd like to see them go to:
www.stephaniegarr.com
click on "clients" and under "password" type "cody"
We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out! Thanks Steph for doing such a great job!!!

More of Nic and Natalie's Wedding

Breakfast With Mom

Every morning for the past several weeks, whenever I'm eating a bowl of cereal, Connor has to join me. As soon as he hears the cereal hit the bowl, he comes running into the kitchen, opens up the silverware drawer, grabs a spoon, and comes to sit on my lap. I guess this is one way to diet, have your toddler eat half of your breakfast every morning. Yum!

Cody's First Trip to Virginia

Grandpa & Cody
Grandma & Cody

Cody w/Nic & Natalie

After my sister's wedding in Utah, Cody and I flew back to Virginia with my parents for a few days. It was SO nice to be home, even though it rained the whole time I was there! Oh well, that's Virginia. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip!

Nic & Natalie's Wedding

I'm SO excited for my little sister, Natalie! She got married last week in the Jordan River Temple!!!

For those of you who don't know, Natalie decided to serve a full-time mission for our church and was assigned to the Salt Lake City South mission last summer. Due to some medical complications she was having, she came home last Thanksgiving. We knew that decision was the best for her, but she seemed to have kind of a rough time. Shortly after she came home, she continued dating a VCU Med student she dated before she left. Things were going really well, so shortly after Christmas, they got engaged! I've never seen my sister happier. I'm glad she and Nic found each other, b/c they are definitely "two peas in a pod". Congratulations you two!

"You're Too Close, Connor!"

So now that Connor understands that hitting Cody is not acceptable, he just wants to love on him all the time...kisses, hugs, high-fives, etc. Whenever I put Cody on the floor, Connor is right there, ready to show his affection. It's kind of cute, but annoying that I have to be right there, all the time, to make sure Connor doesn't poke Cody's eye out with his nose or something. If I could have a dollar for each time I shouted, "You're too close, Connor!", I'd be rich by now.

Junior Prom!

Last night, my adorable sister-in-law Laurel (the tall one) went to her Junior Prom. She looked so beautiful. We were able to go and watch her "promenade" at the high-school. I didn't know they actually still did that anywhere, but apparently they do here! At our high-school, we just had a dance, but here they introduce each couple and then they all perform a dance for their families. Kinda neat!

Cody's Baby Blessing

Cody's baby blessing was a few weeks ago. It was such a wonderful day. Jake gave Cody an amazing, inspired blessing and we were so grateful to have both of our families with us. Cody looked so handsome in his little blessing outfit. I only wish we could have gotten a picture of him before he fell asleep and I also wish we could have gotten a picture with everyone. Oh well! Here is one with my side of the family and a couple of Cody later that afternoon.

Wahoo!

Jake was invited to interview with the University of Southern Nevada's South Jordan, Utah campus last Saturday. He said everything went really well and he was very impressed with what their pharmacy program has to offer. We're really hoping he could get into their program because it's only 3 years as opposed to most other pharm schools, which are 4 years.

After the interview was over, they told him to expect to hear back anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months as to whether he had been accepted. Yesterday afternoon I was upstairs and heard Jake shout "Wahoo!" after he hung up the phone. Shortly after that, he came running upstairs and asked if I wanted to move to South Jordan with him this fall :) He got in!!! He must have been pretty impressive to receive a call back so soon. We're so proud of you Jake!

2 Months Old!

Time sure flies when you have 2 kids! Cody turns two months old today. We're so happy to have him as a part of our family. Here are a few recent pictures taken of him. 

Order Up! Meet Chef Blackham

Here's a short video of Connor playing with his new toy kitchen. Whenever someone comes over, he makes them come in his room so he can cook them something. It's hilarious. Lately, he enjoys boiling grapes and this morning he made me soup with a lemon, a chocolate bar, and some celery. Yum! My favorite has to be how he always rolls up his sleeves to "wash" the dishes in his sink. He must have learned that by watching us b/c I've never taught him that. What a fun kid!

One Month Old!

I can't believe it's been a month already since Cody came into our lives! While the last month has been filled with plenty of sleepless nights, we are SO happy to have him as a part of our family. We can't decide if Cody looks like he's smiling in this picture or if he looks constipated. Oh well, at least we got a picture with his eyes open!

Cody really has been such a good baby so far. He enjoys playing with his brother Connor, as long as he's not poking him or hitting him...more about that later, he enjoys snuggling with mom and dad, spitting up, pooping, sleeping, smiling, and staring at the ceiling; what more do babies do at this age, right? We haven't weighed him lately, but he seems to be filling out really fast. I sure hope he gets all rolley polley like Connor did. I just love fat babies!

Ok, we're not sure where Connor learned this from, but as soon as we brought Cody home from the hospital he would come out of nowhere and smack Cody on the head. He didn't seem like he was angry or jealous at all, he just thought it would be fun to hit him. It got really out of hand a couple of weeks ago, so Jake and I decided to try "timeout" for the first time. It breaks my heart that I possibly have a child that is old enough to be in timeout, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I was amazed! After putting Connor in timeout twice, he hasn't hit Cody in over a week! What a quick learner!!! He even comes up to Cody now and says, "No hit Cody...timeout" and "be nice Connor". It's adorable. I even caught him taking two of his toys and hitting them together the other day. He then said, "No, hit! Timeout!" and proceeded to put them in timeout! I loved it!

Uncle "Rick" and Aunt Natalie

For New Year's, my brother Erik and his wife Natalie visited us for a few days. We had so much fun having them at our house. Connor loved the extra attention and Jake and I loved having the extra help with Cody. Connor now refers to Erik as Uncle "Rick". Thanks "Rick" for being so patient and playing with Connor whenever he asked/demanded.

Natalie was nice enough to teach me how to make bread. I got to try out my new wheat grinder and everything! To my amazement, it actually turned out really yummy! Who would have thought I could do something so domestic :)