Elf Bond

He's back! Elf Bond has finally made his season debut. This year he came with a list of rules - I wonder if the Gillam boys will be able follow them? I will set the over/under at 5 for Connor and 15 for Cooper!

Please ignore the shadow, it finally dawned on me to start blogging from my phone as most of my pics are on here anyway! 

Happy Birthday Connor!

Well it is that time of the year again where my oldest little guy turns a year older. I am already dreading next years birthday and having a pre-teen, I am definitely not old enough for that.

Following our birthday tradition, we let him decide what he wanted to do for dinner. This year, straying from his usual choice of Red Lobster, he chose Fitz's. We love Fitz's soda around here so we were thrilled to try out the restaurant. The food was pretty good and the floats were AMAZING, just as we expected! Connor's birthday float was one of the biggest and coolest I have ever seen.

Happy 9th Birthday Connor-Bug!!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Still trying to play catch-up. I thought Cooper needed a much deserved shout-out for his birthday...2 months ago ;-)

It was all about Diego and thank goodness for the Party Store because everywhere Mommy looked was all about Dora, which would not have been acceptable. He also got lucky because Uncle Brett and Uncle Chad were in town for Papa's retirement party so they were able to celebrate with him! It was pretty low-key given the amount of events already planned for the weekend, but he got to have the Addison's over so he was pleased.


Cooper, Jason, Connor, and Christopher eating. Take note of the sibling placement, makes for a much more enjoyable meal...for the parents anyway!


DIEGO cake!


Going in for his 1st attempt at blowing out the candles...luckily we did not have another incident like this one!


2nd and final attempt...and some frosting on his shirt


"Oh no, I got frosting on my shirt"


"frosting is good"


"frosting is very good and I'm going to save some for later"



Cooper LOVES guitars. He has guitar shirts, guitar underwear, guitar swim trunks, and shoes with guitars on them. So, it was only fitting that for his birthday he should get a guitar. He really rocks it out, if you don't believe me just ask him, he will tell you! (more to come)


Football with Uncle Chad

All healed...or almost!

Connor had his tonsils & adenoids removed and new tubes placed on May 9th. The surgery went really well and his recovery nurse could not believe how well he was doing post-surgery! The first couple of days were great, he did not complain of much pain and pretty much slept and played his new DS game that Cooper got him (as you can imagine Cooper was pretty stoked that Daddy let him pick the game out.) After the first couple of days, things seemed to worsen for him, on day 4 & 5 he felt better and then back to feeling pretty bad on days 7 & 8. We kept him on a pretty strict pain med regimen but he was still in quite a bit of pain. It was really hard to watch as a Mom, my heart was breaking and all I could do was give him medicine for his pain and refill his icepack :-( We started to get pretty concerned about his eating because we were having quite a bit of trouble getting him to eat even ice cream and he had lost a whopping 10 lbs...(maybe I need to get my tonsils out ;-)...just kidding!) Overall he was a little trooper, I think he cried more about the scratch he got after tripping on the sidewalk then he did the entire time he was recovering from the surgery. He was out of school for a week and a day, and then out of P.E./recess for another week which was pretty hard on him being the little socialite that he is!

Now that things are better, he is still cautious with some foods and I cannot really tell if it is because his throat hurts or because he is afraid it is going to hurt. I think we made the right decision by going through with the surgery, I am starting to notice that his hearing seems better and his snoring has improved significantly. Overall, he is 98% back to normal and thank goodness for buttonhole elastic in children's clothing!

Smiling before surgery


Grandma Sara insisted, but it was actually a pretty good picture even with Mr. and Mrs. not photogenic in the picture!


Feeling pretty good after getting his "silly medicine"


Post-surgery...not feeling to bad!

Connor Bo Bonnor

Warning: Connor is no longer answering to nicknames. Apparently Connor Bug, Connor Bo Bonnor, Connie, Coniferous, and CoCo are no longer cool (I can't imagine why!) A couple nicknames affectionately given to him by his uncles that do not seem to bother him are C-Gill and Conizzle. I guess those are still on the "cool" list!

Connor is finishing up his first year of school and is already calling himself a 1st grader :-( He is reading like a champ which makes it tough for Brad and me to be sneaky and spell words in front of him. It is kind of fun though because now we can include him in on our sneakiness! He has also started his 5th soccer season with the same team, which has made it pretty fun for us parents! He is playing really well and has scored several goals.

He has also started calling me Mom and has also stopped calling me Mommy which I am not at all thrilled about. I have decided that until he starts calling me Mommy again, I will not answer him. He knows this and thinks it is quite hilarious. The worst part is that Cooper is starting to call me Mom...not at all cool, I should at least have 3 more years worth of being called Mommy :-(

He has also become quite sarcastic in his old age (I have no idea where he gets it) by saying things such as:

"Cooper, if Mom says maybe, it really means that it is not going to happen"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connor: How come the last time the tooth fairy came she left me a $5 bill?

Me: Maybe the tooth fairy was feeling generous that day (ahem)

Connor: Well I really don't think that giving a kid 4 $1 bills is very nice when he is expecting a $5 bill (awesome Brad, way to set the bar high, guess your plan of reducing the amount of $ for each tooth is not working out!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connor: Mom, can I wear shorts to school tomorrow?

Me: No

Connor: Please, I really want to wear shorts. All of my friends' moms let them wear shorts to school.

Me: Oh yeah, how many?

Connor: Well there are 23 kids in my class and 22 of them wore shorts yesterday.
--Bet you can guess who the "1" kid in the class was that didn't get to wear shorts...umhmm sure Connor!




For as good as Connor seems to be in the field, let's just say when it comes to being the goalie, he sh0uldn't quit his day job!


The sibling crew. These kids have been sideliners since the younger three were babies. You can see that us moms have figured out ways of keeping these four off of the field. It started off with crawling onto the field in the middle of games and has now developed into running and kicking balls onto the field. Note the drinks, snacks, and toys...it works sometimes ;-)



Connor is #1, you know what I mean!

I love my Mom more than...

my DSi XL. Wow, I feel pretty honored. Sorry Brad, looks like you're going to have to try a little harder, because I'm pretty sure that Connor's "love" rankings go #1 Mom and #2 DSi XL!



I am loving my yellow triangle dress!

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!

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)

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?!

Vacation withdrawl

Well our vacation is officially over but I can't complain too much because we had a great time. However, after going from California, to Kansas for a wedding, and then down to the lake for a week, I am truly exhausted. Oh, and did I mentioned that I started back to school this week? So goes the saying, I could use a vacation from my vacation! The boys were not too excited about getting back into the swing of things as they have been spoiled by Grandma Olson and Yell-yo for the past three weeks. I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it really hard to get them readjusted to life with Mommy and Daddy after being with grandparents for more than 24-hours!

Our neighbors at the lake have a little boy who is a few months younger than Cooper, so it was nice that he was kept entertained. They loved yelling,"hi" to each other and talking in a language only they could understand, it was pretty cute!


Cooper and Clayton hanging out waiting for dinner


Connor tubed for about 5 minutes until his little arms gave out and love every minute of it!


Cooper actually accepted the fact that he had to wear his life jacket instead of spending the first day fighting us on it, so that was a nice change of events!

Another One Bites the Dust!

It is yet again time for the tooth fairy. Let me tell you, this was an even bigger deal than the first one. Can you say drama king?! When it started bleeding he was so distraught that he told us he thought he was going to pass out...oh please! Cooper was very jealous of the situation and proceeded to tell us for about 20 minutes after the big event that he was "nest" (next) and was very adamant about us wiggling his teeth. He has a very hard time understanding that he is 2 and not 5! Regardless, we will see if the tooth fairy is able to hold up her $5/tooth tradition that she started...ahem...Brad!

The Tooth Fairy...not the movie!

We have one less thing in our lives to keep clean and we are quite excited about it...when I say we, I mean Mr. Connor (ok, Mommy and Daddy too!) What is it you ask?

One less tooth!

Connor's two bottom teeth have been loose for the last couple of weeks and last night one of them popped out! He was totally grossed out by the blood (we're talking about the kid who freaks out over a paper cut), once he got past that and realized the tooth fairy was on her way, his disgust turned to excitement! After going to school today and showing his toothless smile to his friends, one of them told him that he really, really, really needed to see "The Tooth Fairy"...hopefully he will forget about that ;-)

His new toothless smile!

Happy Birthday Connor!

After quite a long blogging hiatus, we're back just in time to wish Connor a Happy Birthday! He had a great day that involved McDonald's with friends, bowling, dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and some great presents including the long awaited Nintendo DSi. I am so excited that this day has finally arrived because he has been asking about his 5th birthday for the last 364 days! So maybe for 1 day I will finally get a break until tomorrow when he starts asking how many days until his 6th birthday. We had a small setback this morning when he found out that his party is not tonight and he will have to wait until Sunday to go to "Hump a Lump" better known as Pump it Up! Other than that it has been a great day!