October Photo Fest!

October was a super fun and busy month for us. I had such a photo overload on the camera that I thought I'd share. Beware... there are a LOT of pictures. This was narrowed down from the 120 pictures we took this month! That is crazy for us when we can sometimes go a month taking maybe 1 or 2 pictures lately. Without further adieu... Our October Photo Fest:

Grandpa's Train

The first weekend in October NM train society had a special event for families and friends to view a real steam train. Dan has been working to restore an old train so that it will eventually carry passengers. For those of you train enthusiasts, like us, the train is black and looks just like Hero (From Thomas's Hero of the rails) Dylan loved it. His favorite part was actually not the amazing real train, but a giant electric toy train of Thomas. Dylan kept running back to get a closer look. See below:

Balloon Fiesta

Dylan wasn't too found of having to be out of his jammies at such an early hour so he was a little grumpy, but was still amazed by all the balloons and bright colors.

The balloon pilot for the Creamland Cow Balloon asked if Dylan wanted to come sit on the basket. He thought it was pretty neat until they made the fire shoot and then he quickly jumped into Scott's arms. The Cow balloon has always been one of my favorites. It is Huge! See below:

Nani & Pops Visit

The same weekend as the Balloon Fiesta Nani and Pops were here to visit. We all had a great time. It always flies by too fast. Here are Dylan and Pops checking out the Polar Bears at the Zoo.

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

The next weekend we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch. Here is Dylan holding the pumpkin he picked out. There were so many fun things to do. He skipped his nap this day and just took a little snooze on the car ride so we could squeeze in as much as possible.

Whee...Tunnel slides.
Every time Dylan came down he said, "again, again". Between Scott and I we took 5 or 6 turns down the slides.

The pumpkin patch is on a farm in Moriarty, NM so they had lots of animals to see. Dylan's favorite were the goats. There was a special area with very tame goats that you could feed. It is hard to see in the picture, but Dylan had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

Another highlight was the Dig Pit. A gigantic box filled with corn, buckets, shovels, and Dumptrucks! We went to the dig pit twice while we were there and both times Dylan cried when it was time to move on.

Our Haunted House

Last year after Halloween I bought a kit to make a cookie Haunted House on clearance for $3 and saved it to make this year. The frosting was a little hard so we supplemented with new frosting, but other than that it turned out great and we all had a ton of fun! Frosting was everywhere. As you can see in the picture Dylan's hands and shirt were a sticky mess. After our masterpiece was complete he went directly to the bathtub.

My guys with the finished product! We will definitely add this as an October tradition.

Harvest Festival

At Dylan's preschool they had a Harvest Festival the Wednesday before Halloween. They had all sorts of stations set up with fun activities for the kids. It must have taken days to get it all set up. It was so cute. Dylan loved the apple station. I volunteered to help at one of the stations and every time I looked to see where he was he was picking out a new apple. At the end they got to pick out a pumpkin to take home and snacked on some yummy pumpkin muffins.

Halloween

Halloween morning Dylan started off with the treat of a doughnut for breakfast. He ate all the chocolate and sprinkles off the top and then handed me the doughnut..."For you Mommy!" Such a SWEET boy.

After Dylan's nap we decorated pumpkins. Can you tell which one is Dylan's? Then we went trick-or-treating with our next door neighbors. Dylan was Batman. These are actually just some batman PJ's that we already had because Dylan was so anti-costume. At least it has a cape. I bought him a dragon and a monkey costume so he could pick and then he refused to go near either. So we ended up with this. He did love it when he figured out that people gave him candy and he had the trick-or-treat routine down in no time. Maybe next year he'll be more excited about the idea of a costume.

Thanks for sticking with me on this long recap of our Fun October!

Our Big Trip

Wow I am so far behind. I've been meaning to post these pictures for a long time. They are long over due....

In July/August we took a BIG trip flying from ABQ to Chicago, then Chicago to Portland, and finally Portland to ABQ. Here are a few details:

The last week of July we flew to Chicago and spent a week with family there. It was so much fun here are some of the highlights in pictures:

Our family at Scott's cousin Brain's wedding to his beautiful bride Emily. The wedding was on our 6th anniversary! It was so much fun to dance and enjoy the party with family. Man can the Connors Family dance! Dylan was a trooper and danced with the rest of us until 11:00 and promptly crashed in the car by 11:30. So Fun! We love you guys.

Grandma Connors and Scott relaxing at Aunt Chris's house. The Connors aunts and uncles are the best hosts! Uncle Rick topped Dylan's list bring out baskets (honestly) of Sean's old toys.

One day we rode the train into downtown Chicago. Dylan loved the train and spending time with his cousins Katherine and Ashley, but wasn't crazy about sitting so long. In the city we made it to Millennium/Grant park, Navy pier, and the Chicago Childrens Museum.


For the 2nd leg of our trip we spent a week in Portland visiting Nani, Pops, Michael, Mandy, and Baby Alyssa. Here are more picture highlights:

The first day we arrived Dylan spotted the lake and took Pops with him for a swim.

A major highlight was meeting our new niece Alyssa. As you can see we are all very excited about the new addition to the family. Dylan gave her hugs and kisses every chance he got!

Dylan's goofy smile helping Pops drive the boat

We even made time for water skiing and inner tubing!


We made a special trip to Bellevue for my 10 year reunion. It was so great to see my Gamma Sigma girls again!

Dylan Dancing a Jig

On Friday night the family took a trip to the zoo for Zoo Music with Barleyjuice, a Celtic Rock band. We had a great time seeing the animals before the show and eating yummy pizza from Saggio's. Dylan loved seeing the baby elephant playing with his ball and drinking water with the mama elephant. He also apparently loves Celtic Rock music, as evidenced by this video of him dancing at the concert. It was a great night.

Welcome Baby Alyssa!

Our newest little niece, Alyssa Kay Lomax, was born on July 9th, 2010 at 3:39 pm. She weighed 8 pounds and was 20 1/4 inches long. Michael, Mandy, and Alyssa had a short hospital stay and are doing very well at home. We are very excited to visit them next week and meet Alyssa.

Our Little Helper

Dylan has been a very good helper watching and trying to do what we do as much as possible. As he imitates us he says Dylan Daddy's helper or Mommy's helper. Afterword, he says Dylan working hard, Mama working hard, Daddy working hard. Here are some pictures of our little guy at work....

Our little worker Helping Daddy mow the lawn this week

Carefully watching Dad hang a curtain rod in the Dining room and copying his actions

Earlier this week Dylan helped me make some yummy muffin cupcakes. He was actually able to help me measure and mix the ingredients(with assistance of course!). First we made Morning Glory muffins, (see recipe below) then we topped them with a little vanilla icing and sprinkles. It was a fun and yummy way to sneak in extra fruits and veggies.

Success!

After we finished baking Dylan created a new type of snack. Thomascakes!

Morning Glory Muffins

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

3 eggs

¾ cup applesauce

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups sugar or 2/3 cup brown sugar

1 ½ cups shredded apples ( or more)

11/2 cups shredded carrots (or more)

½ to 1 cup raisins (plumped

½ to 1 cups nuts

1/3 cup coconut

Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes

Dylan's 2!

Our little Monkey is 2! We had a wonderful Thomas party. I was reminded once again how blessed we are to have such a large, loving family. Dylan is talking all the time, repeating nearly everything now (only by his own will of course). We are constantly shocked by his rapidly growing vocabulary. While we were in Washington, Scott made enchilada casserole for dinner one night that was a little soupier than usual, we said "Oh well, guess we'll eat soup casserole" and immediately Dylan repeats "soup casserole" as clear as can be. We all started laughing, so of course he repeated soup casserole the rest of the night. Dylan's favorite thing to do is still playing trains. He typically wakes up and goes to bed yelling "I play trains! I play trains!!" It is hard to believe my baby is 2. We love you Dylan! Here are pictures of the birthday celebration:

Just a few hours until the party the swing set/play gym goes up

The final load of rubber mulch... Yeah!

A Very Happy Birthday Boy!

Playing with Friends

Pinata

Cake

Mini-Cupcakes! Yummy!

Thomas Presents

Thomas Presents

And more Thomas presents. We now have a Thomas village in the playroom.
What more could a boy ask for?

Easter in Camas

We were able to fly to Camas for Dylan's last free flight to visit Nani, Pops, Uncle Michael, and Aunt Mandy! It rained most of our trip, but we still had a great time. We visited the Portland Zoo and the Children's Museum, a fun jump and play slide place in Vancouver, played golf, went skiing, and had as many game nights as we could squeeze in. Here are some pictures of our fun Easter Festivities:

Decorating Easter Eggs

Dylan was terrified of the Easter Bunny. Here he is trying to get as far away as possible while remaining in my arms.

Nani & Pops tried to show there was nothing to be afraid of, but Dylan was not convinced.

The Egg Hunt

Family Photo

Buddies in Blue

Hugs to Michael and Mandy for such a fun trip. Love you guys!

23 Months

Our Boy is 23 Months today. Lately he has been all about Thomas or "Mas" as Dylan calls him. We have to eat meals with Thomas, play with Thomas, ride in the car with Thomas, read stories with Thomas (about Thomas of course), and even nap with Thomas. A few weeks ago I even heard him crying for Thomas in his sleep. I heard "Oh NO...Mas", and I came into his room to check, assuming he'd woken up from his nap, to find him still sound asleep. Here are a couple of pictures of Dylan and his Mas trains:





We, of course, are having a Thomas party for Dylan's birthday next month. It should be a "toot".

Fresh Start February & 22 Months

Dylan is 22 Months today. I haven't blogged in such a long time it is hard to know where to start. January was a very tough month for us. We had to say goodbye to Snoopee :( He was nearly 14 and was not doing well. It was an incredibly tough decision, but we know it was the right time. We will always love and remember Snoopee for being such a wonderful dog. We will likely post more pictures later, but here are a few I love of Snoopee & Dylan:

Snoopee "teaching" Dylan to roll over

Treats (Dylan loved this as much as Snoopee did)

Kisses. XOXO. We love you Snoop!

22 Month Updates

Dylan is talking up a storm lately. It is so fun to watch how excited he gets when he says something new. We frequently hear a loud adamant "YES" when we repeat back what he's asked for. The most common things he asks for are: Mas (Thomas the train), Cars (Meaning any or all of his toy cars), Man (Frosty the snowman movie), and crackers (his favorite snack). Dylan has also started counting... he normally starts with two and counts to eight and then skips to ten. It is very cute.

Since Christmas Dylan has quite the collection of cars. Here he is lining them all up.

Potty!

Dylan now has his own potty. We are just starting the process of talking about the potty, but even though we have a ways to go, it just shows how big he's getting.