Connor McGoo

Connor turned 16 on Friday, January 11.  Wow!  That is crazy!  When he woke up Friday morning there were 16 balloons floating around his room.  We were going to take him to St. George for dinner and to let him do some shopping but the kid is totally content to stay in the valley and when he has plans, they better not change or he gets really frustrated.  So instead we stayed home, he made a fire and a dutch oven cake at Grandpa's and just did exactly what he wanted.  We gave him a camp table to cook on since he had confiscated his dad's.  Grandma and grandpa gave him a cooking tote with all sorts of paper goods and some cooking tools.  Aunt Dawna gave him a metal target for shooting, Aunt Dena gave him a cool camouflage jacket and he got lots of money from other family members.  On Sunday January 13, he was ordained to the office of a priest by his dad.  The ordination was done in Logandale 1st ward where he has been attending for the last 2 years.  It makes me sad that he doesn't want to come to his own ward with us because of some things that happened but he is comfortable and happy where he is and the ward there really cares about him and loves him for who he is.  He has a really good relationship with the whole bishopric and the young men's president.  This kid is really one of a kind and even with as many struggles that he has, I don't think I would change him because that would take away the goodness and innocence and service oriented life he leads.
Here are 16 things about Connor.
1. Everyone knows he is a super hard worker and would rather be working than doing anything else.
2. He doesn't have too many friends his own age but he has lots of friends who are adults.  He gets along so well with them and they love having him come over and help them with yardwork and just to talk.
3.  There is an elderly man in his ward who is mostly blind and deaf.  That didn't stop Connor from going over there all the time to visit him and he even sang him Christmas songs.
4.  There is another elderly sister in his ward who calls him when she needs help with stuff around her house. He helped her put up and take down her Christmas decorations and she has his phone number and she calls him whenever she needs help.
5.  He likes to work over at Aunt Dena's and he does yard work and helps with the horses.
6.  He goes shooting alot on Saturday morning with his friend named Gene.  Gene is an older man with no kids to speak of and he an Connor get along great.  The only problem is sometimes Connor takes things to literally and believes that everything Gene says is the truth.
7.  He loves love love Kyle and will play with him for hours.
8.  He wants to get his chores done as early as he can on Friday or even Thursday if I let him.  He is a hoarder but his room is the cleanest out of all the boys.
9.  If you look in his drawers you will probably see numerous items of clothing with the tags still on them.  he likes to wear his old stuff and would rather pull stuff out of his clean basket than wear stuff from the drawers.
10.  He likes to save things.  If we get donuts or have cake or brownies he always want to save a piece for later and wants me to put it up the cabinet.  Usually it gets forgotten about and goes bad before he eats it.
11.  He is on a first name basis with the workers at Wally's.
12.  He usually knows more that us about what is going on in the valley because he has no problem asking a policeman, or fireman or EMT if something happened.
13.  He is a student tutor for the self contained Special Ed class.  The teacher asked for him to be in that class because he is so good with the other kids.  They go on field trips and learn cooking and self help skills so that makes it good for him too.
14.  He likes to play World of Warcraft on the computer and he has a friend who he plays with online when they can.  The friend is John Rockenbach who live across the street from Grandma and Grandpa but he left for college in the fall.
15.  He gives the best back rubs and foot rubs ever!
16.  He loving and giving and helpful and forgiving and will out work almost any grown man.
Happy Birthday Connor!  We love you!

Kyle Brandt is 16 Months Old

What?  How did that happen so fast?  This little boy is just getting bigger and bigger by the day and learning and growing so much that it is maddening some times.Seriously this week alone his vocabulary has skyrocketed!
-The boys taught him to say "beam" when they sing Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam.
-He says choo choo for the train sound, beep beep for the car sound and brooom for the truck sound.
-We love it when he says "ah oh" when he drops something or something falls.  We drop stuff on purpose just so he will say "ah oh".
-He says Connor's name by saying Con ah, and Caleb is "bub" or "bub bub".  We show him Cody's picture on the wall and he says Coey.
-He love grandpa and calls him papa.  Anytime the front door opens he runs to it saying "papa" whether it is grandpa or not.  He walks by the pictures in the hall on the wall and points out papa.
-He is trying to say Ella-his cousin's name- and it more like lala with his tongue coming out of his mouth.
-He likes "co coke".  He sees us drinking our sodas and comes and says "co coke" to us.  I really don't know how he knows it is coke but we must drink it way too much.
-He makes the sign for drink when he is thirsty.
-He know and makes the signs for all done, eat, dog, duck, thank you, please, more, and fish and he uses these regularly.
-He can say cookie and makes the sign too when he wants one.
-He is sort of saying sorry.
-We are trying to get him to say love you but he does the sign for thank you instead.
-He almost says Nemo-it's more like me me.
-We still have to barricade everything.  He opens drawers and cabinets and pulls stuff out repeatedly.
-He fold his arms and bows his head for prayers and he even makes a few mumble sounds like he is saying the prayer.
-He went to nursery for about 10 minutes by himself on Sunday because I had stuff to do for Primary and if he is with dad they are all in the hall and dad can't go to class because he is such a distraction.
-He gets right in the middle of his brothers when they are playing or wrestling.
-He is taking the fork or spoon from me when I am feeding him and putting the food in his mouth.
-He pulls himself up on the kitchen chairs and the couch.
-He gets off the beds and couch by himself.
-He is reaching up and almost tall enough to start working the doorknobs on doors.  Those will have to be baby proofed here soon.
-He goes up and down the stairs with complete ease.
-He runs runs runs whenever he can and he loves to play chase.
-When he has something that I want him to give back to me he will run away with it so I have to chase him to get it back.
-He knows where his nose, eyes, ears, mouth, hair, feet, belly button and fingers are.

Close up by Caydne.

Getting into the ice maker.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He takes the 2 pieces apart and eats from the middle.

Sleepy boy.

Keeping him out of the drawers.

Keeping him away from my nightstand because he loves that drawer and I don't know of any other way to keep him out.

Keeping him out of the fireplace.

-He knows how to put on mom's shoes or slippers and just today was able to walk around in them without falling down immediately.
-Christmas was quite a challenge to keep him out of all the decorations.  He really liked the trees and they had to be barricaded so he wasn't always pulling ornaments off them.
-He is getting way too attatched to his binkie.  I try to not let him have it during the day except when he is going to sleep but man he is loud sometimes and he has to have it at church so he isn't so noisy.  He know where the binkies are in the drawer in my nightstand though so that is why he is always getting into it.
-He loves pears, bananas and clementines but he does not like apples.  He likes to eat things in whole or bigger pieces and that is usually ok like with toast or sandwiches.  He will shake his head and push away things that he doesn't want.  He likes Diet Sprite-the first soda we have let him have in a cup.
-He still loves Baby Einsteins and now he like Nemo and any movie with dogs in it.  The old versions or Blue's Clues are much more to his liking than the new ones.  We can get those on Netflix.
-I have to try and not get frustrated with him and all his messes and exploring because he is just doing what he is supposed to do.  Don and I keep saying that we don't remember the other boys being such terrors but that was so long ago and maybe we blocked that out.  I am excited that he can go to nursery full time in 2 months but I don't want to be too excited about that because that means that he is getting too big.  It is just very hard on Sunday with him and with Don and I being busy with our callings.
This little boy is a very special part of our family and we love him so much!