Conner's Ritual

I wanted to take the time and get a funny/cute ritual that Conner has documented. We have a small little statue of Jesus with two children and a lamb. I'm honestly not very sure where we got it but it's home is on top of our piano. Every so often Conner will see it and take it down, then without any preemptive action on my part he gives a kiss to Jesus, each child, and then the lamb. I asked Mark if he taught Conner this and he said he hadn't. I honestly have no idea where it came from so it must be from his heart :) 

He has done it multiple times and I was glad I got the ritual in a picture. I truly believe that he may not know why he loves Jesus but that love inside of him is strong and that is because he came from the Saviors presence.

 

It's the most wonderul time of the year!

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Conner is obsessed with sledding. He got a new sled and was laying on it in the house for days. Here he is getting ready for church.

 My mom arranged for us to go to this really cool free Christmas activity called Stringtowns Polar express (or something like that). We were all blown away by it. A bunch of families have come together and made this little train that goes through all their yards and fields. It's a small thing (as seen below) but it was still cool none the less. The first half of the ride was the polar express journeying to the North Pole. Once you get to the North Pole you go into a cottage where Santa and some of his elves are. Santa gives each kid a candy cane and bell. Then he does this little presentation on Jesus being the true meaning of Christmas. After the North Pole you get back on the train and the second half of the journey is spiritual. It starts with the manger then has pictures blown up of the Savior as he got older and then eventually his death and resurrection. The whole time there is music playing and it was really quite an experience. I hope to be able to do it every year.

I wouldn't say Conner was thrilled to sit on Santas lap but at least he didn't cry.

 

We did Christmas with Mark's family the weekend before Christmas and it was really fun. I'm kind of a Christmas Nazi so I had a schedule for us of all the different stuff we were going to do.

The best Christmas picture we could get.

 Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas at my parents house. Conner does better when he can watch and mimic Carson and Audrey. Sadly I didn't get many pictures from the night

 Then we had our own little Christmas morning at our house.

Mark does awesome wrapping :)

The day after Christmas we went up to my Grandparents cabin in Island Park. Despite the fact that Conner got a horrible case of the flu it was pretty fun. I have to say that as a mother that has been one of the saddest/scariest things I've seen him go through. He didn't eat anything solid for 4 days!! I was freaking out! After several phone calls to the doctor we just focused on him drinking pedia sure and resting. He threw up SO MANY TIMES! A toddler throwing up is definitely no fun because he wasn't the best at communicating when or where he would throw up. Despite the flu we managed to go sledding a bunch and play TONS of games. Due to all the little children we've taken up playing our board games on the ipad. Ticket to Ride was the most played. Due to Conner being sick I didn't take very many pictures. Luckily Con was able to sled one day.

Thanksgiving in California

 

For Thanksgiving this year we went to California with Mark's family. Mark's parents run a beach condo business in Oceanside so we were able to stay in a couple of those on the beach and it was AWESOME!

I was a little nervous about Conner flying. This was only the second time he's flown but the first was when he was 2 months old and he was a cinch then. The thing that worked the best was watching a movie on our portable DVD player. I've had the DVD player since I was 16 and let me tell you that was the smartest investment EVER! I Jimmy rig that thing up in the car on road trips and I take it with me everywhere. People were laughing in the plane because Conner had these huge head phones on (see the pic above) and he was just watching away. The flight and excitement wore him out and he fell asleep in my arms waiting for the baggage. At first I thought it was awesome because he NEVER falls asleep like that, but then the shuttle was taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R  and my arms were killing me.

Conner was in heaven chasing the seagulls.  There were a few times that I was scared they were going to attack him.

Family Pic 2012

The view right off our back porch

 Mom and Dad Warr treated all us kids to a day at Disneyland/California Adventure. They stayed home with the grandkids while we all went. I felt a little guilty not having Conner because he LOVES the movie Cars and they have a whole Cars land but the guilt was fleeting as he couldn't have gone on many rides and I know that him and lines would not have meshed well.

There was no way I was buying the picture they took so I just snapped a pic of the screen :)

My photo bombing sisters-in-law in the back :)

We spent most of our day at California Adventure but my sis in law Chelsea and I really wanted to go on Splash Mountain so we ran over. We were disheartened when the wait was 2 hours until we snuck in the back as singles and got on in 5 min!!! It was so worth it. Some guy even gave me his poncho. Funny thing was the family I rode in the log with totally threw up gang signs during the picture and actually bought it after they got off and I was in the back with my poncho hahaha!

 We also spent a lot of time in the pool! My friend Jayni lent me her sons floaties and Conner was loving the freedom.

Conner was chasing and running from the waves and I'm afraid he lost the race.