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!

A Busy December

We played with the felt Christmas tree mom made in Utah over Thanksgiving until Kyle started eating the  pieces.

We put up the lights on Saturday December 1.

We made spritz cookies.

Kyle loved Rudolph until the batteries stopped working and he stopped singing and his nose quit glowing.

We decorated the Christmas tree on Monday December 3 for FHE.

 

We barricaded around as many decorations as we could.

Caleb participated in a drama event at the high school during a  Christmas Program for Perkins Elementary in Moapa.        This one is Dr. Suess' The Zax,

This is his monologue from Princess Bride.

I bought Kyle a Little People's nativity to play with.

We had our first hot cocoa of the season.

We wore out Santa hats.

Mom had a delicious birthday breakfast from Maverick.

Dad got mom a pretty poinsettia for the boys to give her for her birthday.

Mom bought this huge pitcher and basin with some of her birthday money.

Dad made mom a smiley face pancake so she would be happy.

Cadyen was Joseph in our Primary nativity for the ward Christmas party.

We learned how to open mom's drawer in her night stand and get the candy.

We dressed up for church.

We took extreme close ups with mom's camera.

We didn't decorate with all the Christmas decorations that we have because of Hurricane Kyle.  Dad took mom out for her birthday to Cheesecake Factory and got her a new camera.  We wrote letters and made Christmas decorations for Cody on his mission.  We made lots of sweet breads to take our neighbors and friends.  We took soda pop to our teachers as Christmas thank yous.  We took fuzzy socks and lotions to some of our teachers and those that help us at school.  We listened to lots of Christmas music.  We watched many shows on ABC's 25 Days of Christmas.  We sang a Christmas song, read a scripture and read a Christmas story as many nights as we could.  We ate a piece of "chocolate" from the advent calendar each night after prayer.  We said many prayers thanking Heavenly Father for all that we had and asking for blessings on those who were suffering this season.  We said many prayers for our missionary.  We missed our missionary terribly but were very grateful for where he is.  Mom cried a lot because of missing Cody and then cried some more for those hurt and those suffering because of the terrible deeds done by one man in Connecticut.  Dad and Caleb replaced the water heater again since the bottom element's electrical cords somehow got fried.  Don fixed a leak in our water pipes outside the house since the water bill went up $30.  We drove through lots of mud because of all the rain we got the 3rd weekend of December. We ate lots of treats that our friends and neighbors brought to us.  We took as many naps as possible in all this hustle and bustle.  We had a very Merry Christmas surrounded by our family and friends.

Christmas Breakfast with the Missionaries

We were so happy that the missionaries could come for breakfast.  We had lots of food.  We had breakfast casserole, waffles, grits, bacon, sausage, juice, chocolate milk and hot cocoa.  Grandma, grandpa and Aunt Darbie came over as well and David a little later.  The Zundel's were getting ready to go out of town the day after Christmas so they didn't come.  It was a nice breakfast!  The missionaries stayed for about an hour and then headed out to their other invites.  I am glad that they were well taken care of!

I didn't get any other photos of the rest of the day for some reason.  After some napping on the couch while waiting for Cody's phone call, movie watching and some mid afternoon snacks, we had a nice dinner of honey baked ham and turkey, cheesy potatoes, pistachio salad, rolls and cheesecake for dinner. Grandma and grandpa came back over for that.  Cody didn't call until 12:30 and then it was only the pre-phone call phone call.  His official call came around 3:30 and we got to talk to him for about 30 minutes.  That was a super Christmas gift!  He is doing fabulously and was extremely well taken care of by the members there in Kinston.  We are so grateful for that.  We will continue to take care of these missionaries here in the hopes that our missionary will be taken care of.  

Christmas Morning

I didn't get a jammie picture the night before but we did the traditional hallway shot.  Caleb is wearing a lovely torn up shirt that now will go in the costume box since it looks very piratish.  The kids were excited to see their Santa stuff and then we moved all the presents into the family room so that we would have more room.  Caleb's cell phone didn't come so he got an IOU.  Cayden loved his new portable DVD player. Kyle had so many toys but loved the dump truck ride-on the most it seemed.  Connor got lots of outdoor cooking and dutch oven stuff.  It took less than an hour to have Christmas morning.  Not 30 seconds after we got all the presents unwrapped Connor asked about his birthday   Classic!  Don got some new black dress shoes, a heater for upstairs, a tie rack and a new travel bag for bathroom stuff.  He gave me a small carpet cleaner/vacuum, a new hairdryer, and smaller heater for my room.  It was the year of heaters.  Grandma Dottie came over for the present unwrapping like she does every year.  After that, I got showered so I could get breakfast going since the missionaries and more family were coming.  Connor cooked the sausage and bacon outside in some of his new cook stuff.  After breakfast we got cleaned up, Kyle got a nap, we watched some of the new movies we got  and we waited impatiently for Cody to call.

Christmas Break Begins and Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day was super busy!  It seemed that this whole Christmas season has just flown by.  The kids only got out of school on Friday and then they went with Don to do their annual "Shopping for Mom" on Saturday.  I am not sure what I did that day other go to the store with Kyle.  On Sunday we had church of course.  Don sang in the choir and choir practice that morning.  We were lucky to get to church on time!  After church we had dinner, Kyle and I had a nap-me a much shorter one than him because I was starting to hyperventilate with all the things that I had yet to do.  I made some treats-fudge, peppermint crinkle cookies and 7 layer bars and then started wrapping presents.  I had not gotten anything wrapped before this.  I wrapped for a while and maybe got 1/3 of it done.  I decided to finish the next day-Christmas Eve.  That morning while I wrapped Don and the boys straightened the house and cleaned the floors.  Later Don went and washed all the horrible mud off the car from the previous weeks rain and went to the store for the customary last run.  I made chex mix-Christmas Crack, and got ready for the evening's festivities.  We had a progressive dinner for Christmas Eve with Don's family.  We started at Aunt Dena's for appetizers-salami and cheese on baguette toasts,and  baked brie with pears and grapes.  After appetizers we opened the gifts from their family.  Uncle Chris wrapped one  of Cayden's gifts over and over again so it was hard to get to.  It was funny!

Taylor and Cayden

Kyle getting read to eat.

Connor and Taylor.

The gift with multiple layers of wrapping paper.

After appetizers we came back to our house for salad and soup.  I made spinach salad and vegetable beef soup.  We gave our gifts to the girls and Grandma and Grandpa to open.

Don and Jen

Kisses from the cousins.

Kisses from Aunt Dena

After soup and salad we headed to Grandma's and Grandpa's for the main course.  Uncle Dave bought prime rib for the occasion and we had baked potatoes, rolls, asparagus and green bean casserole.  Aunt Darbie brought a bundt cake and grandma made a few pies.  Of course we were all absolutely stuffed!  The kids sang some carols around the piano and then after more gift opening we played the metal pipe/ bells.

Carols at the piano.

The dinner set up.  

Caleb's new tie.

Kyle's new slide with grandpa keeping watch.

Cayden's favorite cookies from grandma.

A safety whistle-Uncle Chris called it a r*** whistle.  Luckily Connor didn't hear that part.

That progressive dinner took 3 hours and Kyle was about done.  He didn't get a very good nap during the day.  We came home, opened our Christmas jammies, read the Christmas story from Luke, ate our last piece of chocolate from the advent calendar, said prayer and got everyone settled.  It was the easiest Christmas Eve bed time we have ever had.  The boys were excited but didn't come out of their rooms well  except Caleb who I told better get back in there because Santa wasn't going to come because I was so tired.  I wanted the kids to sleep to 7 and they wanted 6:30 so we compromised at 6:57.  Yeah they are not too good of negotiators!  It was a moot point though because Connor was up at 6:15 banging around in the bathroom so we just decided to get it all going!