Connor's first basketball practice - Bitty Basketball

Connor  had his first "Bitty Basketball" practice on Tuesday and Thursday this week. We have been playing for fun in the driveway with him for a while and he's definitely got natural skills with a basketball. It's hard not to talk him up too much with it, but he's the best on the team by far and does an awesome job.

There are 6 sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first 3 are just drills and the last 3 are games. He's done a great job with the practices, we'll see how the games go!

Paige went to the first practice and was a bit of a wild woman. For a little while she'd be good and would lull you into inattention. You'd be watching Connor do his drills and suddenly Paige would be in the middle of the practice grabbing cones or balls or just being crazy.

Halloween 2011

 

Halloween 2011 was another fun one. It was a bit of an odd holiday this year since it fell on a Monday, but we made the best of it. Connor had stayed the night in Odessa on Sunday so he was already out there on Halloween day. After work, the rest of us packed up our little girl and headed out. 

Paige and Connor both were dressed very cute even before they had on their costumes. Mommy got Paige a super cute ghost outfit with orange leggings and Connor had a scary skull shirt.

We snapped a quick picture of Paige before we left.

Then we got a few pictures outside when we arrived since it was a beautiful day.

Connor and baby sister were good listeners and very patient with all the pics.

Aunt Amanda did a great job with our family shots and we even got a nice picture of Mommy and Daddy together.

For dinner, we ate chili and hotdogs. Buddy and Renie were there too!

After dinner it was time to get all dressed up. Connor looked tough in his Spiderman costume.

Paige was a doll in her skunk outfit. Allison had the cute idea of putting a bow on it so everyone would be sure to know she was a girl.

Paige made a big entrance in her costume and we got it on camera.

Of course, we had to get another family shot. Thanks again Amanda!

Paige was in a great mood in her outfit. She loved wearing it all night.

 We got some cute pictures of the kids together on the little bench out back.

 

It was a little tough to get them together with Allison and Drew for this shot. Connor was pretty terrified of Drew in the scary "Jason" hockey mask.

 

Alli was cute and sassy as ever.

After pictures it was Trick-or-treat time!!! Allison rode with Paige and helped hold her in since we didn't feel like strapping and unstrapping her at each house.

Connor went to the first house to Trick-or-treat, but he got a little weirded out by all the costumes he saw and decided he wanted to go home.

Paige, however, was a different story. She absolutely loved it! She constantly wanted to hold her bag and would shriek and do a little dance when people dropped candy in her bag.

It's a little hard to see since the video is dark, but you can see Paige do her little dance after she gets her candy.

When we got home, we found Connor having a great time passing out candy. He was a great help and although he was a bit slow getting to the candy sometimes, he really enjoyed passing it out and interacting with all the kids.

It was a great Halloween! 

Halloween slumber party in Odessa

On Sunday, Connor went to Grandma and Grandpa Anders house for some Halloween fun. They made cookies and carved up the pumpkin and Connor helped too.

The rubber glove probably helped him get over the "yuck" factor.

 Success!

 

Later that night they watched a Scooby Doo Halloween movie that turned out to be a bit too scary for little Connor. He didn't want to watch the whole thing.

 

Later that night, he woke up from a scary dream and had a cute conversation with Grandma.

Connor said: "You used to be a little girl Ga?"
Grandma said: "Yes I used to be a little girl."
Connor held up 4 fingers and asked: "You used to be four Ga?"
Grandma said yes and said after she was four she turned five, and after five she turned six, etc. up to ten.

We all thought that was a cute moment they shared.

Connor and Drew loved the shields Grandpa made for them and sword fighting.

Pumpkin carving and cookies

On Saturday we decided it was time to turn our pumpkin in to a Jack-O-Lantern. Connor had been learning about the difference at school and we wanted our kids to see the gory process up close.


While Daddy got the pumpkin ready, Mommy got some cookies ready. Paige snuck one in the picture instead of smiling... clever girl!

Next up was the pumpkin carving. Daddy did most of the work, but Connor helped with the design decisions. We did a pretty conventional Jack-O-Lantern for our first one together.

Mommy got a short video of the process. One note, the knife was not nearly as close to Paige as it seems in the video.

All done! Scary! The kids loved it when we turned off the lights afterwards and lit the candle. They'd run out of the room then back and would shriek when they saw it.

Timeout

Paige would probably argue against it, but we've decided lately that she's a big enough girl for timeout. She definitely needs it at times since she's definitely been testing our patience and our resolve. She is a good girl most of the time, but she loves to tease and sometimes she will hit too.

Not nice baby sister!!

Stuffed animals

Connor still loves his stuffed animals more than ever and sleeps with them all. The other night when Andrea was checking on him she told me I had to get a picture. Connor had them all surrounding them. We're worried they will bother him as he tosses and turns at night, but if any are missing he knows it and won't go to sleep until he finds them and accounts for them all.

 Paige has her fair share of the animals too, but for her it's more important to have her "nuk nuk's".

Connor's hurt leg and the spinning chem light

Connor's leg was really bothering him this past Friday. It had been hurting him the Friday before this, but this past Friday it was way worse. He couldn't even bend his body or leg and it had him in tears. It was in the groin region on the right side and we were really worried something was seriously wrong. Andrea took him to the doctor and they took X-Rays, but didn't see any breaks or anything that would have caused it. He was unable to walk or move much and we kept him home all day.

Strangely enough, just like the last time it had been hurting him, it went away and he was back to normal within about 24 hours.

Our buddy Lilly still came over to play, but we didn't let them play outside since we were worried it'd aggravate his leg again. They played inside and Daddy got a few pictures of them spinning a little yellow chem light that Connor got from his school party on Thursday.

Connor was pretty nervous about spinning it at first and his face showed it.

Eventually he figured it out.

Paige liked it too but had some trouble spinning it. We still got a cute picture of her swinging it around.

 

Since Friday, his leg's been fine and we're hoping it won't happen again!