Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We spent the holiday in Kansas this year and really enjoyed seeing family and old friends. The boys were pumped to find out that they got bunk beds which they had been wanting for a long time. They are now sharing a room because they both want to sleep in the bunk beds. Cooper's old room is all set up and ready to go if (more like when) he decides he no longer wants to share a room with his brother! For now they are pretty psyched and seem to be handling cohabitation pretty well...updates to come! Cooper also got a "kitty hat" (Go Go Kitty) from Grandma Olson and has yet to touch it because he is so scared of it! He didn't want us to take it out of the box because it kept meowing at him and licking it's paws. I kind of understand because every time I look at it, I think is real for a split second!

We are looking forward to an exciting 2011! I am definitely looking forward to graduating from nursing school; only 3 nursing classes left, then 8 weeks of NCLEX review and I am DONE DONE DONE with school...for now anyway (professional student remember ;-))!!

Have a Happy New Year!!


Yellyo helped the boys make their Gingerbread house.


Ornery as every!


Camryn, Connor, Caridee, and Cooper opening presents


The boys were thrilled to see that Santa also visited our house while we were gone!

Santa Sitings In St. Louis!

The boys have visited Santa a few times this year and as you can imagine are ecstatic for Santa to visit. On one of our Santa visits they enjoyed breakfast with him where they got to do crafts, get their faces painted, and of course sit on Santa's lap. We were pretty surprised that Cooper was cool as a cucumber while Connor was a little hesitant...you just never know!

We have heard a variety of Santa requests this year, Connor has stood strong with "surprise me" (exciting...does this mean the kid has too much stuff already hmmm...!) and Cooper has gone from Thomas the Train, to Bernie (Barney), and this last time he requested Iron Man (not sure where that one came from, he hasn't even seen the movie!) So it is still quite a mystery as to what Santa holds in his sleigh for the Gillam boys but in approximately 3 days they will have a pretty good idea!



Serious Business!

Guitar man?

Cooper loves to sing and dance and always has some new song that he is singing. The other night he and Connor stayed at Grandma Gillam's while mommy and daddy were out and she broke out daddy's old guitar (I knew Brad played the viola but had no idea he had a little guitar in him too!) I am more than happy that my kids are so interested in music and instruments, but I have to say, I am even more happy that these instruments stay and grandma and grandpa's! Apparently Cooper was really into the guitar and was singing and playing at the same time. Cooper's performance kind of reminds me of the beginning of this clip from Two and a Half Men only Cooper's song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to the tune of a new composition. Take note of what he does at the end of the song, anything for a laugh is his motto!

I HATE Spiders!

...and snakes, mostly snakes but spiders rank right up there! The boys and I went to bed pretty early Thursday night as Brad is out of town and we were all really tired. Around 11:30 I woke up to a feeling that something was crawling on my hand. I think this is a fairly common concern from time to time but is usually just a figment of imagination. So as I woke up and had this feeling, I looked at my hand and in the light of my alarm clock saw something dark sitting there. Of course my first reaction was to scream and shake my hand, so after all of that I flipped the light on and saw this precious jewel...

sitting on the floor. After killing the poor thing because I just knew it was poisonous and I was probably going to end up with a nasty ulceration on my hand, calling Brad internationally at .59cents/minute during my freak-out period, and doing an exhaustive internet search, it was determined that the spider was not poisonous and was a mere grass spider that probably hitch-hiked its way into our house via either me or the boys' clothing. I then felt bad that I had killed the poor thing but I'm sorry, if it valued its life, it probably would not have snuck up on someone who HATES spiders! Upon Brad's return, I made him do a thorough search of our bedroom and surrounding areas and his results came back negative for all 8 legged creatures!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is quite possibly Connor's favorite holiday. He gets so excited to decorate the house, pick out his costumes, and make fun Halloween treats and this year was no exception. Every year we go and buy the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween edition magazine and he literally looks at it everyday until Halloween is over and we keep the old ones so he is getting quite the collection of these magazines. I also let him pick out two recipes for Halloween treats out of the magazines to make every year, this year he picked out a centipede and vampire cookies. The vampire cookies called to use a lips cookie cutter for which I could not find anywhere, so I was left to my own devices...let's just say when Valentine's Day rolls around, I need to look for a lips cookie cutter! The centipede, on the other hand, turned out great!

Connor decided to be the Incredible Hulk after many different ideas as to what he was going to be and Cooper, after watching the new Karate Kid movie, decided he wanted to be a karate kid (he spent the evening "hi-yahing" and doing karate kicks!) Did you know that they do not make karate kid costumes, especially for a 2-year-old? Normally I would not mind taking on the challenge of making a costume, but this year I was really hoping to find one to buy because my time was pretty limited. No such luck in the buying department, so again, I had try out my novice sewing skills to make the costume. I think it actually turned out pretty good, and the i important hing is, it actually fit!


The Centipede


That really is one creepy Incredible Hulk mask!


Cooper practicing his intimidation face!


and his karate kick...


and his "hi-yah"




No Halloween is complete without Jason and Christopher!

Looks like someone found the powder!

While under Daddy's supervision (just thought I would add that in there!) Cooper found the top of his changing table and the powder. I think the pictures speak for themselves!


Crime scene photo #1: Subject sits in white powdery substance, will be sent to lab for testing.


Crime scene photo #2: White powdery substance found on floor beneath changing table, due to concentration of white powdery substance, points to area of greatest impact.


Crime scene photo #3: Due to concentration of white powdery substance found on denim jeans, said denim jeans must have been part of original crime scene and later tossed by subject from changing table.


Crime scene photo #4: Subject appears apathetic and almost giddy about crime.


Crime scene photo #5: Full view of crime scene.

Happy Birthday Connor!...and playing blog catch-up

Connor is 6! He got lucky and did not have to go to school on his birthday, so Daddy took the day off to help celebrate. It was a jammed-packed day that started with a trip to the Science Center. It was pretty cool even though Cooper was deathly afraid of the mechanical life-sized dinosaur that roared! Following the Science Center, we met Grandma and Grandpa Gillam, Great-Grandma Gillam, and Great-Grandma Dena at Red Lobster, (Connor's choice of course, for some reason he loves Red Lobster and always begs us to go there!) He was super excited because he got to try crab legs for the first time, he even got to crack the shells! After dinner Uncle Chad and Chelsea met us for an evening of bowling.


Cooper and the very scary dinosaur



Can you tell how excited he is?




Even Cooper got to bowl!


Happy Birthday Connor-bug!

Fall Party

Hello old friends, it has been awhile!

Connor's first school party was this past week, crazy that my baby is old enough for school parties! Anyway, I signed up to plan the party along with one other mom...yes only ONE other mom and she emailed me saying she was too busy to help. Ok, let's not forget who is in nursing school and the party was during finals week...awesome (just wanted to get that off of my chest, I feel better now.) Being a novice at school party planning and trying to find games/snacks/prizes that were of fall origin and not Halloween proved to be very difficult. However, it is really amazing how many games you can make out of pumpkins...pass the pumpkin, pin the stem on the pumpkin, pumpkin toss etc. (pat on the back for that!) I think overall it went pretty well and I was excited to find out that all of the parents who volunteered to donate party favors actually donated party favors, and the mom who volunteered to bring snacks actually brought snacks! I was a little concerned given the not so great response I was getting from parents who volunteered to donate items. I did sign up to "help" with the winter party...at least this time I will know what to expect! The kids had fun, and really I did too and that is all that matters right?!

I have to give Connor's teacher, and every teacher for that matter, mega props because I honestly don't know how she does it everyday.

And for that I have created a top 5 list as to why I could never be a teacher...

1. ADHD kids...ALL OF THEM + party = mass chaos!
2. Germballs...(the kids, as I am now referring to them) totally gross me out and I'm in nursing school! There is just something about one wiping their nose on their arm from their elbows to the tips of their fingers and then proceeding to hug one another, hold each others hands, or worst of all, trying to hold my hand (probably the reason Connor has brought home a letter saying someone in his class has strep throat every week with the exception of 1 since school has started...oh and did I mention that I got strep, no doubt from the germballs!)
3. Exhaustion...Being in that classroom for 1 hour exhausted me...and I deal with two rambunctious boys and full time school on a regular basis.
4. Mrs. Gillam...I really don't like being called, "Mrs. Gillam" that is my mother-in-law, not me.
5. Deception...Some of the kids are truthfully really sweet and I think I would have a hard time not playing favorites. Connor didn't like that one of the little boys that I thought was really nice was the bully of the class for whom Connor has complained about since day 1...could have fooled me, I guess kids learn to be deceiving early!

The germballs do make for some pretty cute pictures!


Yes, that is Connor aka Mummy #4 (the germball on the far right)

Cooper's First Day at PDO!

We decided to put Cooper in parents day out this year so that he can be around other little kids and so mommy can have some time to get some other things accomplished. He really loves it and feels so big that he gets to go to "chool" just like Connor. Like Connor, he got to pick out a backpack and lunch box. He picked out a Toy Story "pack pack" and a "biderman" lunchbox, and insisted on wearing his "pack pack" and carrying his "biderman" lunchbox to the car and into school all "by self, because I a big boy Mommy."




Showing off his "pack pack"


His first day of school must have left him feeling accomplished because later that night he decided he wanted to ditch the tricycle (which I am thrilled to report that his not tricycly challenged like Connor was) and try out a big boy bicycle in the driveway. He did great except he couldn't quite figure out the whole backward peddle breaking thing!

Another Milestone

Connor officially started kindergarten today. It was definitely a bitter sweet moment when he stepped onto the bus and into the world of new friends, teachers, and homework. Yes, I said homework...crazy! Much to my dismay he insisted on riding the bus his first day but it worked out because Brad and I met him at school, so we didn't have to miss out on anything (and it eased my mind a little.) It was a pretty rough day for this mommy, turned wonderful day when he stepped off of the bus with a smile and excited to tell us about his first day of Kindergarten. Cooper did not take Connor's first day of school very well either. When Connor got on the bus Cooper cried and cried for "bubba" and would hardly let me put him down all day.

Some Connorisms from his first day:

Brad: Connor, you better eat your breakfast
Connor: Daddy, I really can't do that right now because I have better things to do

Brad: Oh yeah, like what?
Connor: School, duh!

-------

Me: Did you make any new friends?
Connor: Yes, on the bus.

Me: What was his/her name?
Connor: I don't really know, but he has a brother named Colton who is in 2nd grade. Oh, and he said I could go play at his house, so can I go play at his house?

-------

Me: Did you make any new friends in your class?
Connor: Not really

Me: How come?
Connor: Because they all kept getting into trouble and I don't want to be friends with those trouble-making type of kids

-------

Brad: Connor, you better get to bed because you have school in the morning. Isn't it so cool that you get to go to school every day now and not just 3 days a week?

Connor: Yeah, but I kind of liked 3 days a week better because it wasn't as much work

-------

Here are some pictures of our little Kindergartner!



Connor doing his usual posing for the camera...I think he might be a football player ;-)


Cooper getting in on some posing action


Getting on the bus...tear!


Connor at his desk. Can you tell he is getting annoyed with all of obsessive picture taking?!

Chicago

A couple of weekends ago we traveled to Chicago to see the Cardinals/Cubs game. Brad's mom had been entering all of us into a contest with KSDK to win tickets to the game, they were giving away 25 sets of tickets and it just so happened that Brad and Brett both won, pretty crazy, what are the odds?! Jim and Sara decided to join us being that everyone else was going, so Brett flew in from Jacksonville and Brad, Chad, Jim, Sara and I spent the weekend in Chicago. We had a great time and I was quite impressed with the city since it was the first time Brad and I had spent any time there with the exception of layovers. Our hotel was situated right on the "Magnificent Mile" so we didn't have to go far to find what Chicago had to offer. We have officially decided make it an annual trip so if anyone is up for some fun, let us know!


Of course we had to take a picture with this sign. We didn't tell Connor that the park was really named after a senator...I really think he thought it was named after him, ha!


Are we not just the coolest thing since sliced bread? Ha!


The beach was packed and apparently that area of Lake Michigan is like party cove at the Lake of the Ozarks. We could not believe that so many people were actually swimming because the water was freezing!


I just can't get enough of Chicago-style pizza...yummy!


Brad was very excited to get to go to Wrigley field (at the top of a baseball fan's "to see" see list so he tells me)


I personally thought the roof-top seating was pretty cool.

Cooper's a Big Boy Now

When we were at the lake a few weeks ago we decided to try Cooper out in a "big boy" bed. Much to our surprise he did really well, even with naps and all of the craziness that the lake seems to produce. So when we got home, much to my dismay, Brad decide to take the rail off of his crib. He did it on a Friday night, so I thought to myself that it would be a good time to try it being that it was the weekend and Brad could get up with him early in the morning and make sure that he would stay down when it was nap time. Again, with the surprises he did great. So, he is now an official "big boy" and loves his new found freedom. He takes this freedom very seriously and gets very upset when we attempt to lay him in bed because, in the words of Cooper, "I a big boy, I get in bed by self." He does a great job getting up from naps, he will yell, "Mommy, Daddy, Connor, I awake" over the monitor so that we know it is time to go get him. I guess he hasn't figured out that he can actually get out of bed and come downstairs by himself, but that is perfectly OK with me ;-) The first few days of sleeping in his "big boy" bed, when we would go into get him we would sing, "Cooper's a big boy now" (to the tune of, "I'm a big kid now" from the Huggies commercials), big mistake. Now he insists that the song be sung to him before bed and after he gets up. Seriously, how many times in a row can you really sing that? I guess it really makes him feel big!


He started out jumping on the bed, but fell off soon after this picture was taken and he hasn't done it since (probably for the best!)