Merry Christmas...

I'm finally getting around to posting some fun pictures from Christmas. We went to Utah to visit Joel's family for Christmas. We had so much fun. It had snowed a bunch while we were there. Carter had fun helping his Dad shovel all the snow around "Nini" and "Poger's" house.








Here is a picture of Joel's parents' house. The snow is so pretty, but far too cold for me.





We took a trip to Downata Hot Springs in Idaho. I was a little leery at first because it was freezing and so swimming in an outdoor pool didn't seem like such a great idea, but it was so fun and the water was so warm. This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. The boys look so funny. They had to wear these ear protectors because it was so cold out...yeah, it was 17 degrees outside.
This is what Mason and I looked like the entire time. We stayed in the pool for over two hours...I couldn't make myself get out, it was just too cold outside and so toasty in the water. Mason even took a little nap while in the pool...funny huh? Our hair even had icicles on it...it was crazy.
Carter had the time of his life in the pool. Once he got his handy dandy float on, he was up and down that slide for hours. I was so happy because he wasn't scared at all and he would just go on the slide with no one's help for forever. It was great.
Here's another shot of him enjoying himself. Even Poger got in and had a good time in the water! That's Joel's brother, Eric, and Molly on the side there as well. I wish I had a picture of Joel in the water, but I wouldn't get out to take one. He had fun and would go down the big twisty slide and come shooting out of it like a spinning rocket...it was cool.
And finally Christmas morning! I love everyone's hair in this picture...the just out of bed look.






There was tons of snow in Morgan and so a bunch of the kids made sledding runs down the hill, they even made little jumps here and there. Our cousin Chad took his snowboard down the runs a few times as well.
Poger was so nice and set up his trains for Dylan and Carter and they loved them! They had so much fun watching those trains and playing with them. I love their hair in this picture too. Seriously, so funny...Utah static + recent nap = this. It was seriously so fun and Joel and I were sad to go. We wish we would have planned our trip better and been there more when everyone else was there...we're sure we missed out on much more fun! We love our family and really have such a good time with them. We're looking forward to our next gathering.

I'm sorry, is Carter 3 or 16?

Has my sweet this, already turned into...THIS!!!???

Seriously, I'm in deep trouble with this kid. He's already talking back to me. I didn't know that 3 year olds could do that. Here's the story...Mason loves to tease Carter by taking one of his cars he as so carefully lined up and running away with it. Carter then chases him and pushes him or hits him and yells at him. When Carter does this to Mason he has to go to time out. Any time he hits or pushes Mason he goes to time out. So, one evening Mason did his normal teasing routine and Carter chased after him and was pushing him down while yelling at him and ripping the car out of his hands. I went over there and got down on my knees and told Carter he was to go to time out for pushing Mason and he knows that those are the rules and we don't push each other. He then proceeded to yell in my face, "Well I have a job to do!". I said, "It doesn't matter if you have a job to do, you pushed Mason and so you have to go to time out." He then yelled at me again and said, "Well, maybe if you watched Mason better he wouldn't get my cars!" Uh, what...what just happened here...did I just hear that correctly? Wow. I admit I thought it was funny that he thought to say that and was trying not to laugh as I told him that he was probably right, but it didn't matter he was still going to time out and he better not talk to me like that again. The story does have a good ending, so keep reading. Carter then puts himself in time out and stays there for about 3 minutes and then on his own he comes up to me and very calmly says, "Mom, I think next time this happens I shouldn't push Mason, I should just come get you." I was so happy! Yes, that's what you do. I told him he was right and he needed to go and say sorry to Mason and give him a hug. He did and then after a few minutes he said to me from the other room, "Mom, I'm so sorry that I pushed Mason." This kid can be so fiesty and angry, but yet he can be so nice and apologetic. We continue to have run-ins with him, but we are trying to figure out how to get a hold of this before his actual teenage years. I do love that he talks so well, but it definitely is a blessing and a curse. By the way, pretend that I wrote this in December when it happened. I still put it in because this is the only "journal" I keep...sadly I'm not even keeping this up well.

I'm thankful for...

I'm thankful for family at Thanksgiving! Obviously, I have problems getting things done, but give me a break it was Christmas which is totally stressful though such a wonderful time...blah, blah, blah...So here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. Ben, Whitney, Joel, and Kadin came up and we had a great Thanksgiving together! This is what meal time looked like everyday...three times a day. Is it just me, or are these the cutest kids ever?!
The boys were so excited for the new beds they have at Grandma's house, complete with Lightening McQueen sheets. Though they had to sleep in the storage room where it was freezing...no worries, we put about 30 blankets on each kid.
They loved Uncle Ben's stories before bed...even my Joel got a kick out of them. I can't help but smile when I see this and wonder what Ben was saying. Carter has now started telling us stories before bed and they are hilarious. I tried to get sweet Kadin in this picture, but the angles weren't working for me, so the best I could get was the corner of the pack-n-play he was sleeping in.
This is where you would find Mason most the time...doing laundry with Grandma. He loved it and it wouldn't matter where he was or what he was doing, as soon as he heard the door to the laundry room open (which he could hear from anywhere in the house amazingly) he took off running, so happy, to find Grandma and help her out. Unfortunately for me he took this new fun thing to do home with him and I now have to let him help me all the time. He's a good help though and he's so cute about it.
Carter and Joel really had such a good time together. They loved playing with Grandma's trains and have missed each other since then. Mom and Whit made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner...well as delicious as you can get for Thanksgiving food. I dislike almost every dish that is served at Thanksgiving. They did a great job though. I did contribute one dish, which is almost the only dish I like, fluffy sweet potatoes, a recipe from Cami (Joel's sister). I'm not a sweet potato fan, but these are seriously good. Nobody liked them two years ago, but this year, hmm, strangely, everyone seemed to eat them up (except for Whit, who was true to her dislike of them). I am so grateful to Ben and Whit for making the trip up. It was really such a wonderful time together. I miss them already and look forward to our next gathering...only with Doug and Jackie too. Family is awesome!

Oh My Cars!!

So Carter and Joel were in heaven early in November when we went to the Seattle Auto Show! I just thought I would show you a couple of pictures from the extravaganza. This is Mason...already having developed a love of cars at the young age of 1!
Here is Mason taking Carter out for a spin in the Golf before the Auto Show.
"Mom! Look a Hummer!!"
I believe in this picture we are standing next to Nini's car...I'm not a car person so I don't really know...I'll have to check with the experts.
And finally a motorcycle just Carter's size. The boys seriously had so much fun. Carter was so excited the whole time and of course threw a fit when we had to leave. He knows a lot the cars and their names...it was really funny...and amazing. Good times.

It's Halloween!!...I mean it was Halloween...

We had so much fun this Halloween. Carter was a monkey and Mason was a chicken. Carter was so excited for Halloween this year. He talked for weeks about how he was going to be a monkey. He
had a great time trick or treating and was very cute and polite. I was so proud of Mason. I thought for sure he would try and get out of his costume and cry and be miserable, but he didn't and he wasn't. He was happy as a clam...or chicken. We went to our friends, the Schrum's, house for the evening (so we could combine candy and make it last longer...though we didn't get nearly

as many trick or treaters as we were told we would). Hallie is their daughter and she and Carter are friends. Hallie was the cutest little pink octopus! After trick or treating we enjoyed some donuts and hot chocolate or cider...a tradition that started back in Aberdeen...our neighbor's, Candy and Andy, would have us over after trick or treating and Candy would have donuts and cider for us, it was such a nice memory and I have tried to keep it up. I also forgot to write about Joel's parents coming to visit us in September. It was such a wonderful visit and we do love to be with them. They brought us their old piano and we love having one here at the house. Carter was so cute when they first brought it in, he stood at the keys and looked up at Nini and said, "Would you like me to play you I'm a Child of God?" We thought that was too cute. We loved having them here and look forward to their next visit!

Before I forget...

I have to write this down before I forget...Carter seriously cracks me up. He really is such a little ham. This all started Wednesday actually. I took Mason to the doctor for his 12 month check and while there Carter tells the doctor that he's not feeling very well and to please check him. After Carter's third time asking, the doctor checks Carter's ears and mouth and says there are no monkeys in there. Then Carter told him he needed to check his heart too, so the doctor did. Today before Carter's nap he tells me, "I'm not feeling very well Mommy." and then bends over half way and says, "Aaaachooo". He does this a number of times and then tells me that he needs to tell his cars that he doesn't feel good and then tells Dangles, his monkey...(I then heard Carter talking FOR the monkey responding, "Come here, I will hold you.") He's actually not sick, incase you were wondering. What a nut.
Here's the other thing he just did...I was holding Mason on my lap and Carter comes over to climb on too and half way up stops and gives me a sour face and says, "I smell something stink." I told him Mason was poopy. About five minutes later Carter comes in with a play camera and says, "Mommy...Mase...poopy diaper...smile." He takes a picture and then laughs at himself. I died laughing.

Carter is hilarious!

I wish you could all live with us all the time and hear the things that come out of Carter's mouth. He is seriously the funniest kid...though totally stubborn. He has started talking with his hands and it kills me. Here are some of Carter's usual phrases...please picture hand gestures with each phrase..."You guys, I've probably got an idea..." followed with "Is that a good idea?". He likes to tell me the entire plan for the day, which would go as follows according to him, "So, first I think we should go to the store, come home, eat lunch, play cars, take a nap, wake up, then play some more cars, and then go to two stores and look for cars and then come home and go to bed." When I put him down for a nap he usually tells me, "I'm probably going to wake up at 10:30, okay." For some reason 10:30 is the time for everything for him.
I should have written this for ever ago, but seriously, about a year ago he was saying prayers before bed and in the middle of his prayer he stops what he's saying, looks down at his wrist and says, "Oh man, it's 10" and then something about having to go to bed. We died laughing.
He also is very sensitive to us being mad. The other day I was mad about something and was talking to Joel in a heated sort of way and Carter says, "You guys, I don't think we should talk like this. We shouldn't talk mad to each other." So I apologized and said he was right and then (you have to picture this) he looks down at the floor and shakes his head and says, "Sorry, I just said that." Joel and I just cracked up.
Now for his little temper and stubbornness. When he gets in trouble, he yells back at me, "You can't say that to me!" or "Whatever mommy." or, picture this again, he looks at the floor shakes his head and says, "Just forget about it." This kid has always been one to punish himself...when he was just over a year old he would send himself to his room and shut the door. Not kidding. Now, when I tell him he is going to get spanked, he says, "No, I will spank me." and then he spanks himself. Is that funny, yet crazy?
You also probably know of his love for cars...well he now can point out and name so many cars as we are driving around. It amazes Joel and I. We will be driving down the road and he will say, "PT Cruiser" or "Volkswagen bug"...sometimes we will ask him about cars that pass by and sometimes he says, "Sorry I missed it." The cars he knows best, which we for some reason have tons of in this area, are PT Cruisers, Mini Coupes, Honda Elements, Scions, Volkswagen bugs, and Golfs. He also knows, "mommy's car", "Nini's car", "the missionary's car", and "the Monnier's car". He doesn't know the make or model, but he gets it right every time. The missionaries in our mission all drive Toyota Corollas and every time he sees a Toyota Corolla he says, there's the missionaries car. Nini and Poger have a Nissan Titan and Carter spots those everywhere and calls out, "I just saw a car like Nini's". It really is amazing to us. We even just saw a picture in the newspaper of a car that had crashed and was totalled and Carter looks at the picture and says, "There's a Honda Element." and sure enough the caption said it was a Honda Element. I love it when he gets really excited about it and says, "Did you see that Mom? I just saw a Mini Coupe!!!"
He messes up his pronouns at times, which is kind of funny. The other night he was whining to Joel and saying, "I want Mommy, I want Mommy." Joel asked him why he wanted me and he said, "Because I love she." Sweet. Well, I've dragged this on enough now. I just wanted to share some of the funny things that Carter says. He sure keeps us laughing and amazed.