Gates

Since moving into our new home, I have a new love of gates. The pictures are backwards, but you still get the idea. This is what is behind the gate shown in the 2nd picture. It's Carter's secret fort. Countless hours have already been spent in here playing with cousins.

Behind gate number 2 (shown in the 4th picture) is the entrance into our neighbors backyard. Normally, this might be weird but since it's my parents' backyard, we're pretty excited about it. It's like opening the gate into the Secret Garden. There's all kinds of fun in their backyard. We just had this gate put in between our backyards last weekend and I totally love it, maybe even more than the kids!

And last of all, this gate. It might look like a table at first glance, which it is, but we made it out of a gate! I found the gate while out running in the neighborhood last week. It happened to be uncontained trash pick up week so there are random piles of stuff in front of peoples houses that will get picked up and hauled away. One of these random piles happened to have these wooden gates laying there. I loved them immediately. I ran right home, got in my car, drove back to the spot and loaded the gates up. I had a vision of how I would construct these gates into a coffee table for the couch in our bedroom all by myself and how impressed Sean would be with me. Well...apparently I don't cut straight with the chop saw and I don't measure very well either. I think I could have pulled it off in the end, but fortunately, Sean came to my rescue. I mean he came to help finish it with me so we could do it together. I am again loving another gate!

Student of the Month

Congratulations to Carter for being February Student of the Month! He was soooo excited. Both Grandma and Nana were able to go with me to the assembly to see him get his award. We went to his favorite "Lenny's" for ice cream after the assembly. Good work, Carter-Sauce!

Youth Olympics

Each year the Glendale Arizona Stake holds Youth Olympics for 3 weeks in January. It is for ages 14-18 and there are all kinds of events (chess, table tennis, volleyball, cooking, photography, track & field, etc...) I participated as a youth growing up and now I am the Young Women's president so I was very busy the last 3 weeks with all the activities. Not only do I get to work with all the girls at church, one of them happens to be my niece, Carley. It's so much fun. She made a video this year for cinematography and got first place! Here is a link to the video. It is well worth your 4 minutes of time. For more information on our Youth Olympics check out this article in the New Era (our youth church magazine). You might see a quote from a certain 16 year old (me!).

December in review

December flew by with moving in, getting unpacked, school parties, church parties, family parties, christmas cookie decorating, gingerbread house building, and spending time with family. Santa brought Carter a basketball hoop and he was so excited! Charlotte got a shopping cart and pushes it around everywhere.

some favorites from the photo shoot

A project

My sister's friend had her house burn down one year ago. Amy went over to help her clean up. 6 burnt stockings were all that were left of her Christmas decorations. My sister took the stockings without her friend knowing and gave them to me. She asked if I could do something with them for her friend. This wall hanging is what I came up with (one year later! but just in time for Christmas this year!). Amy was giving it to her friend today. I hope she likes it!

Happy Halloween

We had lots of Halloween fun this year...two trunk or treats, a school parade/party, and trick or treating.

Pumpkin Patch Fun in Pictures

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Sean participated in a chili cook off yesterday with people from several different companies that work with his. He won first place!! Love that trophy!

Lake Powell

Carter doing some tricks (one handed) on the ski. He told me he was going to do some jumps on his next turn.
We go to Lake Powell with my family every year (for as long as I can remember). It's a great vacation. We stayed on a houseboat that is nicer than my house! We were sad to only be able to stay for 3 days while everyone else who went stayed for the whole week. We missed those from the fam who couldn't make it.
Charlotte was of course as happy as could be because there was plenty of dirt for her to play in!
Carter was happy because he got to go fishing!
Char's first sea doo ride--we had to pull her away from the sand! That's seriously all she did all 3 days...it was very relaxing for me!
I'm so proud of Carter...he learned how to waterski! I got lots of good waterskiing and wakeboarding in myself, the water was perfect because the lake was dead this time of year!
The three little girls in matching outfits from Nana. They will have so much fun together when they are older.

Happy Birthday Char Char!!

Can't believe she is 1. Love this little girl so much. She has such a fun personality. Here's what she's up to as a big 1 year old:

-2 teeth

-walking

-still a mama's girl. so much that she needs to wake up every night to see me!

-shakes her head no when you ask her a question

-says bye, hi, hello, mommy, mama, dada

-loves Carter

-gives high five, hugs, and kisses

-loves baby dolls and dirt!

-loves to sing, can't keep her quiet in church!

Cousins

3 kindergarteners
2 second graders

2 fifth graders

2 eighth graders

Only 1 cousin (who is in school) is missing because she is in high school. All of the others are at the same school. I LOVE it! I love seeing Carter's older cousins walk him to his class in the morning when I drop them off. I love when I go to lunch with Carter and watch Carter and Tyler play "chase" with Mallory and her friends (Tyler and Carter are going to love having a girl cousin their age when they are older!) It's so great knowing they all have each other at school, in the crazy world we live in.

Spencer and Marlee are going to have a long commute for their kids to get to school with the rest of the cousins, once Madi starts school!!!

11 months old

this little monkey is 11 months old. here's a little info about her:

*1 tooth

*taken 1 step

*sleeps through the night, mostly

*takes 2, 2 hour naps each day

*says mama and hi

*gives kisses, hugs, high fives, and claps

*misses her brother very much while he is at school :(

*climbs up the stairs and started coming down them backwards yesterday

*gets into EVERYTHING

*loves her mama

First day of Kindergarten

I can't believe summer is over and it's time for school! Where does the time go? Carter woke up early today and was so excited for school. He wanted to get ready and go! I shed a few tears as he walked into his classroom after the bell rang. Love that kid. He and his cousin Tyler are in the same class.

Family Vacation

Seriously, every picture of Char is her eating sand. But look how happy she is!?!

We stayed at a resort outside of San Diego with my family for a week. We went to the beach, went to Sea World, went to the San Clemente Pier, played games, went to the Mormon Battalion Museum and had a blast!!! Char ate a TON of sand, but she was happy! Carter loved the boogie board and I enjoyed getting some sun!