I guess he wasn't ready to get out...

Carter had just gotten out of the bath tub, lotioned up, jammies on, hair combed...ready for bed.  Grace was quietly playing in the tub, Carter was quietly playing in my room, I was quietly playing on the computer.  Next thing I know, Grace says, "Mom, Carter is getting his clothes wet!"

No kidding...

Welcome Back Elfie!!

I had no idea the kids even noticed our family traditions before, so it was a pleasant surprise when Carson got excited Thanksgiving evening because "tomorrow we set up for CHRISTMAS!".  We are getting ready to replace our old, ratty carpet with hardwood floors (yay!!), so this year we set the Christmas tree up downstairs. I was a bit pooped out this morning so we ONLY got the tree set up, but I guess that is all our little elf scout, Elfie, needed in order to come back.  We were upstairs playing around when Grace needed to go downstairs to clean up.  She came back upstairs with a little concerned grin on her face.  "Mom, I can't believe it, but there is a present under the tree, I think."  

She and Carson went downstairs to get it.  Carson was so excited!  It was "either Lucky the Leprechaun - because he lives downstairs and sometimes plays tricks on the weekend...and it's Friday, or Elfie's back!"

They ripped open the package, reminding me not to touch him and to KEEP HIM AWAY FROM CARTER!  I promised I would do my best.  

Yes, it was Elfie.  We read his book and talked about where he hid last year (they have great memories!!).  Then, out of nowhere, Carson cleaned his room.  All the way clean, not just stashing stuff out of sight.  He got ready for bed, put on pajamas, cleaned the living room.  Grace followed his example.  It was fantastic!  I could tell by the gleam in Elfie's eyes...he was pleased!  Everyone is fast asleep now.  I went out to get some water and this is what I found....he's already returned from the North Pole.  And he's quite right....this IS going to be a great Christmas!!

Where in the world did the past year go???  And the past month, for that matter...

Carter is absolutely the best baby in the world.  His toddler months are starting off beautifully as well.  He gets sooo excited when he stands on his own, that he usually falls flat within seconds.  He has a beautiful head of curly hair and is working on his 8 & 9th teeth.  He still LOVES his bottle.  Since he never took a binky, I have a hard time caring that he still has a bottle.  He is sooo happy and really easy going.  He loves textured food.  No applesauce, pudding or yogurt for this kid.  Give him a hamburger and he's happy!

He loves rough play and body slams Jake any chance he gets!  If I HAD to complain about something, it's that he's growing up too fast!!  It's amazing how much of my heart each of these kids has.  Love, Love, Love

My Week Without Facebook

I got a little overwhelmed last Friday.  My kids just started school, my house was a DISASTER, my mom was here visiting, my husband was working a TON...and I still felt the need to "check in" with Facebook every hour or so.  Yes, it only takes 5 minutes, but 5 minutes every hour during my 18 hour day is 90 minutes a day...and that's only IF I'm only on for 5 minutes.  I started feeling obsessive about it.  Its not like I feel like I NEED to check in, but my Ipad 'notifies' me on just about everything.  That silly little 'ding' gets me every time!!

So...I decided to go on haitus for a week to reset my brain.  At first, I thought of a million clever status updates and things I just HAD to say to someone.  It was a little tough to get out of my head.

I didn't really do much more than I would have otherwise done, but what I did do, I did with much less distraction. 

Grace started Kindergarten!
Carson read a book! (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he couldn't put it down)
Carter stayed just as stinkin cute as ever!

I didn't have as much meaningless matter in my mind taking up extra energy that I simply don't have.  I love knowing that my nieces are singing a particular song, or that my neighbors are having a garage sale, or that a guy I went to high school with thinks rabbits make great sausage, but sometimes.....it's nice not to have that extra knowledge floating around up there.

The Sweetest 5 Year Old in the WORLD!!

Day 12, Grace turned 5.  Such a special birthday, and Grace was so excited.  She had been asking me every morning, "Mom, am I five today?"...Well she came in this morning, and said "Mom, am I five today?" and I said "YES, Grace, today you are five!"  She peeked out in the kitchen and got so excited that there was "even more than there was yesterday".  Sue and the girls spent the night and had decorated birthday bags for her. 

Since we didn't have any 'Birthday Cake for Breakfast' this year, we opted for whipped cream topped french toast...with a candle...

She opened her presents and played with them...

She played on the slip and slide in the afternoon, and then we got ready for the REAL fun!

I don't have any pictures of the Build A Bear, it was a little crazy!  Jake has some, maybe I'll snag some later.  It was too cute though, Grace and Carson both picked cats, London picked Hello Kitty and Sweden picked a sweet brown bear with pink hearts on her ears.  They stuffed them, added the heart (with wishes), bathed them, dressed them, and named them.  Super cute!  London's name was Paris, Sweden's name was Peaches, Carson's name was Cat Sparrow (he dressed him as Jack Sparrow...clever!), and Grace's name was Kitty Kan.  LOVE! 

After Build A Bear, we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was getting LATE, so we were all super tired, but HAD to have the Happy Birthday song with dessert.  How cute is that!?!

Grace is such a sweet girl!  She loves her brothers and is a wonderful example of how to treat others.  She is smart, silly, imaginative and a HUGE helper.  She loves to dance, she sings her sentences in the cutest voice, she is beautiful inside and out.  I love her with all my heart!!!

Holy Crap, Look at Those Teeth!!

This has nothing to do with summer, or 25 days...I just can't believe how cute Carters teeth are!! 



Days 9, 10 and 11

Day 9 - I don't know if I've mentioned it, but this year I got a great deal on the Pass of All Passes (thanks Lisa A)!  It gets us unlimited entrance to Seven Peaks, Trafalga and various sporting games. We have only used them to get into Seven Peaks and it has totally been worth it!  So Monday, we headed for the water park.  Abby, Brynn, Ivy, Lisa, Lisa's sister Amy and her kids were all there.  We had fun at the kiddie pool, wave pool, and a big wide slide. My kids were still a little iffy about the big slides, so we'll save that for another day (or not).  Carter has a very short window in the mornings, so we couldn't stay long.  But this is ok, because we can go back EVERY DAY (if we wanted to) :)

At noon, we headed to Aunt Sue's! London and Sweden were here visiting for the week, and this was our first chance to see them!  We visited for a while and then headed home for some much deserved REST!

Day 10 - I packed up the kids and headed downtown to meet Sue, London and Sweden at City Creek.  We had some lunch, the kids played in the play area (awesome, by the way), did a little shopping (J&M has awesome deals on kids clothes that are 'different' than Old Navy or Children's Place), played in the little fountains, and then headed home. 

Day 11 - We all packed in my car and headed up to the Alpine slide! I was a little nervous to send the kids up the ski lift, but Sue promised she wouldn't let them fall!! Carson rode all by himself! Grace rode with Sue. Sue told me she squealed the whole way down :) They both had a blast and want to do it again!! We stopped off for some treats at Rocky Mountain chocolates before we headed back down the mountain.

 

Day 8 - Grace's Birthday Celebration at Rachels

Jake's family has a Sunday dinner get together every other Sunday.  This week, we celebrated Grace's birthday!  When we got there, Sadie had written a BDay greeting in chalk at the gate entrance.  I have a picture, but it's on my phone...I'll edit and post it later.  Grace felt so special!

She told me she wanted purple cupcakes with butterflies.  I couldn't find butterfly toppers, so sprinkles will have to do...I think they worked just fine!

Grandma Anderson handmade her the cutest caterpillar card.  I'll have to get a picture of that one also...so cute.  She also got a bunch of gifts and cards from her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.  She felt like a princess!  More on her birthday in the upcoming week!

6th and 7th Days of Summer

Our neighborhood decided to have a huge garage sale on the 7th.  Perfect time to clear out some junk in the basement and closets.  Our activity for Friday was to pick out toys to sell.  Carson liked the idea of getting money, but hated the idea of parting from ANY of his precious toys (which he NEVER plays with).  Whatever.  He gathered a few things, but kept resisting so I just dropped it.  We'll just 'take care of them' after school starts ;)

Saturday was the sale.  Jake made a bunch of silly signs to get attention (Justin Beiber was the biggest hit), and they totally worked!  We were soooo busy all morning.  A bunch of cheapies, but we sold a bunch of crap and felt like it was a success!  The kids made some cash selling Otter Pops for 25 cents...what a deal!

Not really a 'fun summer activity', but definately a traditional one, so I'm counting it  :)

Under doing it on the fifth!

Today's activity is to hang around the house, play the compunter, watch tv, listen to the rain (yes, horay for rain!!), and do nothing of any real significance :)...it IS summer, after all! We may gather stuff up for the garage sale, but only if we feel like it.

Overdoing it on the fourth?

The fourth day of summer was a freebie...the Fourth of July! We started out at the annual Anderson Family Water Party. This year, grandma rented a bounce house! She also had a slip n slide, wading pool, water balloons and, of course, a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy! The kids had a blast! I took Carter home for a nap before the evening festivities at the Overbys. Grandma Overby turned 80 this year and all she wanted was a big party. This is their first year in the new house and the first opportunity for a party in the yard. It was a perfect day and Sue did not disappoint. The pom poms hanging from the tree and the table centerpieces were perfect. The frozen lemonade was DELISH as was the food. Sue broke out some water guns to cool everyone off. When we came home, there was a sign coming in to our neighborhood that said ther would be fireworks at 9...perfect. Happy Independence Day!!!

On the 3rd Day of Summer...

At first, I thought today was another "cheat" day. I needed to return some things to Old Navy and Gap so we were headed to the mall. At the last minute, we grabbed a towel and headed to the Gateway mall downtown to play in the fountains and then grab some Ben & Jerry's. I think it was a successful outing :) I'm on my iPad and can't figure out how to add pics, so I'll do that later...

2nd Day of Summer

As Carson and I were sitting on the front steps drawing 'green moss' with tree leaves and bark chips on the sidewalk, we decided that it would be fun to paint a big, huge flag in the driveway for the Fourth of July.  We have some chalk...how hard could it be?

First thing in the morning, still in our pajamas, we got started.  It was supposed to be around 100 degrees today, but we get nice morning shade until about noon in the front.  No time to waste!!

We mapped out the stripes with chalk and got to work.  One small stripe took 2 big pieces of chalk...and the red was very pink.  We needed to get some paint...quickly, while the driveway is still shaded!

We recruited some very helpful neighbors (also still in pajamas!).
Carter got tired of the jumparoo and decided to help by scooting around.  Aren't those chubby thighs even more delicious covered in BLUE?!?!

He started to get cranky so I decided to put him down for a nap before we hit Hobby Lobby for paint.  There goes the shade. Oh well.

3 bottles of red, 3 bottles of white, ONE bottle of blue?  Ugh!  One more trip to Hobby Lobby...after the baby's afternoon nap! 

  So we had a little break with snow cones.

Finally, we finished!  Nevermind the tire tracks from the 2nd paint run!

I thought about cutting a sponge in a star shape, but since I couldn't find a sponge, we decided all the helping hands could fill in as stars.  I thought it turned out super cute!

Happy Fourth of July!!  I hope the rest of our Summer Days can be as fun and fulfilling as this one!

25 Days of Summer

Carson's last day of Kindergarten was last Thursday.  He and Grace start their new adventure at Welby Elementary on July 25th.  As I was thinking about this last night, it hit me...today is July 1st.  That gives us 25 days of summer...just like at Christmas we have 25 days of Christmas!  I looked around for summer ideas and came across the cutest idea using tongue depressers, scrapbook paper and mod poge to make little sticks with activities on them (I would post a link, but I just spend 1 1/2 hours looking for the blog and gave up!!).  Knowing myself and my tendancy to over do and not follow through, I decided to forego the sticks and just tell the kids each day what our "25 Days of Summer" activity will be.

Since I thought of this at 11pm and I didn't have much time to plan...and it's Sunday, and we generally just go to church and relax on Sunday, our activity for the day was to meet Sweden, Lisa, London, Shawna, Samantha and Jordan, with Aunt Sue for breakfast.  They just happened to be passing through on their way to Colorado and wanted to meet for breakfast so it worked out perfect!

I realize I cheated a bit on this first day...I usually cheat at least a few times during the countdown, so I don't really care! :)

Tomorrow we'll be painting a flag on our driveway, which I'm actually pretty excited about.

Happy Summer!!!!!

Grace's Preschool Graduation

Last night, we said 'so long' to Miss Amee.  She has been such a positive influence in the introduction to education for both Carson and Grace.  She provides such a welcoming, unintimidating approach to learning.  Not once did either of them EVER not want to go to school - which I believe says a lot about their experience. 

 

We will miss her, but will be back in a few years when Carter is ready!  I can't believe my sweet baby girl is going to start kindergarten in a few, short weeks.  I will soak her up while I can!

Bum prints

After grace finished playing in the sprinklers this afternoon, we were sitting on the back steps while she warmed up and ate a cheeseburger. All of the sudden, she starts pulling down her swimsuit bottoms. "what are you doing?!? Pull up your swimsuit!". Our backyard faces a common area/park. She ignored me. "we don't get naked in the backyard! Pull up your swimsuit!" she ignored me, pulled down her swimsuit and sat on the steps. "look mom, bum prints. Get it, instead of hand prints, it's bum prints!" then pulled up her swimsuit, laughed, and finished her cheeseburger.

A Bitter Sweet Reminder

A couple weeks ago, a kid from Carson's preschool class drowned in his bathtub. Six years old. Carson and Harry weren't exactly 'friends', as a matter of fact, there was a bit of conflict at the beginning of the preschool year. Carson felt that Harry was 'mean' to him. By the end of the year they got along fine and we ran into him on a few occasions outside of preschool. When I heard the news that it was Harry who drowned, my heart sank. It feels different when you knew the child and the mother.

I tell my kids "Don't grow up. I want you to stay little forever!" This is not a true statement. I love my kids at this age. I loved them last year, the years before that. But I really, really want to see who they grow up to be. I love spending my days with them and taking them to parks and playplaces and watching tv with them. I LOVE this age...but...I cannot imagine if this age is where my memories of them stopped. I want them to grow up. I want to help them in school and ground them for not coming home by curfew. I want to drop them off at the movies with friends and hear about their heartaches and celebrate their successes.

My heart hurts for Harry's mom and his friends. I am so grateful for my three beautiful children. I am blessed to be able to spend so much time with them. I love being a mom!!!

New Years Resolutions....2012

I'd like to say that my life is so sweet that I don't NEED any resolutions this year...unfortunately, that is not exactly the case. Though my life IS pretty sweet, there is always room for improvement, right???

Ok, so here are my top 3 (if I write them down, I have to follow through :)

1. Be more patient - my kids and my husband will appreciate this one. I used to be pretty patient, but somehow that has faded away in recent years. I want to get back to that easy going person that is fun to be around.

2. Add more structure to our days - the kids are getting older and need to be able to count on certain things. Bedtime routines don't just naturally happen!

3. Make more time for myself - the hardest of all three!! This also doesn't happen naturally.

Oh, let's add a #4 for good measure...keep up with the blog. It has been fun to read over past posts and remember how much fun our family has had. I love my kids, husband, family and friends! Happy New Year to you all!!!