Wednesday, July 1, 2009

"Rhinos and Dinosaurs and Vernal, Oh my!"

Well, it looks as though my kids are having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa in Vernal! On Monday they took the Rhino for a ride. Olivia asked Grandma where the rhino's legs were? I guess she wasn't expecting a car. I'm kind of surprised the boys are wearing matching shirts. I packed that shirt for both of them, but I assumed they would wear it on different days. I'm also pretty sure that the Rhino and Dinosaur museum were on 2 different days. That means the boys wore those outfits 2 days in a row. Oh well, less laundry to do! Thanks again Ron and Anita! I'm having a great time with the house to myself and getting tons done!











Carter looks so old! I don't like him growing up. Just want him to stay my baby boy!

Monday, June 29, 2009

June Happenings

Right now I am seriously enjoying the peace and quiet for a few days. Eric drove the kids down to Utah yesterday to stay with his parents. I have the house to myself. It would get really old if it was for very long, but right now I'm taking a few days to organize and clean out stuff. I will fly down on Thursday and meet them for the 4th.

Friday night we had another Shock game. The boys talked Eric into sitting in our front row seats with their friends Kavery and Kacen. They stood the whole time and leaned over the pads so they could be part of the game. Every time the music came on, they were dancing crazily--especially Jackson. He is always trying to win the dance for your dinner contest. He came close one time. The box we sit in is behind these seats, so we could watch their dance moves all night.

I finally took my camera to one of Hayden's baseball games. He is so cute! The other night he was looking in his wallet and asked me where his $20 bill was. I told him that I had used it to pay a babysitter, and I would pay him back. I found him later crying. I asked him what was wrong, and he said that that $20 bill was a special one. He got it for his baptism from a friend. I had no idea it was special, so now I'm in trouble.


He was pitching this night. I get so nervous when he pitches that he will walk everyone. He actually did ok--except the one kid that he hit with his pitch. His team is crazy into baseball. We are not baseball people, but we let him play since he had lots of friends on the team. We all had matching shirts with their names on it to support the team at the games. I looked hot in my Valley Hitmen shirt!



Olivia begged me to buy this shirt for her so everyone could know how much she loves soccer!

This mound of dirt kept Olivia and Carter busy the entire game. It was so great to not have to worry about them. I brought every snack imaginable and balls to keep them entertained, but they were more interested in dirt.


The boys had their end of the year piano recital at the Steinway gallery. They were cute and did a good job. There were a lot of kids their age that were really good. I think it was because they practice more than 3 minutes a day. Practicing is definitely a chore for the boys. They would much rather be playing sports. I'm a mean mom and make my kids take piano lessons. Hayden did one of his songs in the talent show at school, and it was all his idea. So it couldn't be that bad.



Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A Little of Everything

This may just look like an ordinary sandal, but I love this sandal! For the past month or so, Carter has worn these sandals everyday. He had a pair the size smaller last summer, and at the end of the summer I bought him a size up for this year. Last Monday I picked up the boys from school and ran some errands. When we got to Sports Authority I couldn't find one of his sandals. I turned the car upside down, and it wasn't there. I was so sad. I called the carwash to see if it fell out of the car when I was vaccuming. They couldn't find it. On the way home I thought of checking at the boy's school. It was about 2 hours later......but there was the sandal all by itself next to the curb where I picked them up. It made my day! Such a little thing, but it made me so happy.

There was a reason I picked up the boys from school to go to Sports Authority...... Two days before on Saturday, the boys had their last soccer games. Hayden had a double header, and Jackson was just supposed to have one game. They went through all kinds of scenerios with me about what I would give them if they made a certain number of goals. They asked if they together scored 25 goals that day if they could get a cell phone to share. I knew it was impossible, so I told them sure. They then settled on if they could get 12 combined goals that day, they could get something $25 or under at Sports Authority. I agreed, because I didn't think there was a huge chance of them even getting 12 goals. I learned to be careful what I agree to. It turned out that Jackson's team was missing a lot of players, so his coach convinced Hayden to play with them. Jackson and Hayden scored 2 out of the 3 goals in that game. Then Jackson's coach had a game with his other team right after that game. They were short players, so they asked Jackson to play. He scored 4 goals! Then when you combine all the goals Hayden scored in his 2 games with the younger team--I had to take them to Sport's Authority. Jackson told me that it was the greatest day of soccer in his life so far. He wanted me to write in the blog that one of his goals was a header and another was with his left foot.


On another note...Carter brings so much joy to our family. He is adored by all. The kids fight over his affection, and the kid's friends always want to play with him, too. Some common phrases out of his mouth lately are.....

-Mom, Tucker not sharing! (You could replace Tucker with Olivia or any friend or sibling that isn't doing exactly what Carter wants right when he wants it.)
-I not grumpy! I Carter!
-I try some of your makeup? (When I respond that it is for girls and he is a boy.....)
-I not a boy! I Carter!
-you're Welcome!!!!! (he will give you a poopy diaper or something you don't even want and still tell you this)
-you otay mommy?
-I otay mommy!
-no way!
-go away mommy! (He tells me this when I sit on the couch and he is watching his cartoons. Unfortunately he learned it from me. Whenever I am doing my or Olivia's hair, he is right next to us climbing in the sink, turning on the water, etc. I often say, "Go AWAY!")


The kids love to snuggle together in my bed to watch tv. I think they are so cute, and I'm thankful they like each other--most of the time. They also sit together in the big chair reading old scrapbooks and laugh and laugh at all the cute things Jackson and Hayden did when they were little. Every time Olivia says to me, "Where is my baby book? Where are the scrapbooks with pictures of me?" I have to tell her that scrapbooking pretty much came to a screeching halt when I had my 3rd child. She atleast has a baby book. It is started. Poor Carter doesn't even have a baby book. All of her questioning has got me remotivated to start digital scrapbooking. Be on the lookout for pages coming soon. I will put them on the blog. I'm also going to make my blog into a book, but that doesn't account for the first 4 years of her life. I've got a lot of catching up to do! I feel bad, because the scrapbooking done 5 years later just isn't the same as the stuff I did for the boys right as it was happening. I forget too much stuff.

Here is some more pictures from Olivia's dance recital that I didn't have when I put the last ones in.



Liv is so funny! She is definitely an original. She tells me that she is famous. She says that all you have to do is be really cute and 5 1/2 and have a really cute name. She thinks that since Olivia the pig show is on tv now, that makes her famous too. She told me that Natalie thinks she is famous, too, but she isn't. She loves all of her Olivia the pig stuff. She was very into the monkey bars for a few months, and that is all she wanted to do. She had blisters all of the time on her hands. Then she taught herself to ride a bike. She told me that she used to be obsessed with the monkey bars, but now she is obsessed with riding her bike.

This picture was taken last month on our girls night at the Taylor Swift concert. We had the best time! From left to right--Meghann, Ashley, Danna, me and Heidi. That is a really gross picture of me! I look a little pregnant in that shirt, but I'm not. We will just blame it on the angle and the way I'm sitting.
Last week I had a great birthday! Eric took care of Liv and Carter, and I got a mani-pedi and lunch with the girls. Eric and Liv made my cake while I was gone. Liv doesn't like german chocolate frosting, so we had half chocolate frosting. Jackson was wondering why I didn't have 33 candles on the cake, but I told him it was too depressing! The next night Eric took me to dinner on the lake, and we had a birthday weekend.




This is Carter with his buddies Owen and Tucker. They have a playgroup on Wednesday mornings. Taraka took this picture of them last week at her house. They are so darn adorable!
Hopefully I will remember to take some pictures of Hayden's baseball for the next post. Olivia also wants me to take some pics of her with her soccer trophy, so I will have to add that too.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Siiiiiiick!

Carter just came up to me as I was working on the computer. He had a very gross runny nose. I yelled to Hayden to go run and get a kleenex. Meanwhile I look over as Carter is licking his upper lip and saying, "that's nummy mommy! That's nummy!" YUCK!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Memorial Day at the Lake

What can I say........Monday was a perfect day at the lake!!!! We even got our yardwork done in the morning. Then we headed to where the boat was over the winter and got it all cleaned up to put it on the water. While I'm looking at adorable Carter in this picture-- a little side note before I get back to the lake day. A few weeks ago on Sunday night, Carter went to sleep in Hayden's bed with him. He is not a fan of his crib anymore, and we need to get him a big boy bed. I had just fallen asleep and I heard Hayden screaming for us to come upstairs. I ran upstairs--Eric was in our closet packing and flung himself over the banister to get upstairs quicker. Hayden had Carter in the hallway and was screaming that he was choking. Eric was calm and acted quickly. He gave him the heimlich and a toy screw flew out of his mouth. Hayden said he was asleep and woke up when he heard Carter choking. It was so weird, because Carter is really past putting stuff in his mouth. I have no idea why he had the screw in bed with him either. It really scared us all, and the kids were really shaken up. I was so glad Eric was there. I know I would have done what I needed to do, but I would have been much more freaked out if it was just me. Everyday we can't squeeze the little guy enough! He is precious and growing up too fast. Everything he says is so cute to us. We are so blessed to have him in our family!

We have finally had some really nice weather for a few weeks. I thought the water would be too cold, so I didn't even wear my suit. It ended up being way nicer than I thought. We took the boat down the river and the water was about 10 degrees warmer in Anderson than in front of the cabin. I wished I would have had my suit on! It was just such a great family day!

The boys fight over who gets to drive the boat with dad.

My nephew Andrew came with us, and it was great having him with us. He was so cute. He just got home from his mission in Spain. He said that he had dreamed for 2 years of running down the dock and jumping into the water on a hot day. When we got to the cabin he did it immediately and was so excited! His family was home doing yardwork, but he couldn't handle knowing we were going to the lake and not going. Who could blame him? My kids love him and fight over him.


I'm not sure where Jackson got his love of being in the spotlight. If he has an audience or a camera is on him, he goes wild!

Olivia had to jump in the water every time we stopped the boat.

Jackson said he was going to take it easy on his first wakeboard run of the season, but he was getting pretty good by the end of his turn.








We started wakesurfing while Andrew was on his mission, but he picked it up so quickly! He is already better than me, and I did it a lot last year.

Hayden rocked the wakesurfing on his knees and had the best time!