Hiking in Sedona

When we were up north at the cabin, we took the Ranger and drove down the back road to Sedona. It is so pretty and such a fun ride. We then went on a hike. The kids did great. Char loved the Ranger ride and the backpack ride. She started out on my back but wouldn't stop pulling my hair, crazy girl!

Caitlyn, our older daughter (ha ha), came with us too! Charlotte sure loves her and has even reached for her over me! That is a big deal, since Char is such a mama's girl!
Sedona is all the way at the bottom of the valley we are are at the top of in this picture. Such a fun ride!

we're in trouble

earlier today, sean and i literally had a conversation about how it seems like charlotte gets into way more than carter ever did at this age. later i took the kids outside to water the gardens. i put char down at one end of the yard and went to water the other garden around the corner (just as i do every day). i was seriously gone for 3 minutes. when i came back around the corner she was all the way at the other end of the yard, as happy as can be in the just previously watered garden! what the heck!? i thought girls were supposed to be less active than boys?!?

Congrats to the Grad!

she's not the grad! but isn't she too cute?! this girl is crawling now and pulling herself up to stand all over the place. she's growing too fast.

Photo Shoot

Mother's Day

Sean made me a delicious breakfast and surprised me with my favorite flowers. So pretty. Carter gave me the necklace and card he made me at school. He was so proud while I was reading his card...he is growing up way too fast, it made me cry! On the inside of his card was a questionnaire he answered about me. It is too cute not to share.

My mother's name is: Jessica

She is 20 years old

Her hair is blonde

Her dress size is 80

Her favorite color is yellow

Her favorite food is cauliflower

Her favorite TV show is Hannah Montana

Her favorite thing to do is lots of dishes

My favorite thing to do with my mom is help her feed my pets

My mom is special because she helps

Something my mom always says to me is can you help me clean up your toys?

Something that makes my mom happy is when I clean up my games

Something my mom does that makes me laugh is tickle

When my mom was a little girl she was big

When I am not home my mom, if it is my birthday-she would decorate

My mom is really good at playing the Toy Story match game

My mom and I are the same because we both have blonde hair

My mom and I are different because I came out of her tummy

I know my mom loves me because she says thank you for helping

My mom's favorite place to go is Arizona

What my mom likes most about my dad is he helps her move something outside or inside.

I'm so lucky to be this kid's mom and Charlotte's too of course! So grateful for my mom and Sean's mom. We're pretty lucky all the way around.

My tank top was not brown!

pictured above: SIL Katie, brother Russ, and Me (not pictured is my friend Lana who did it too--will post that later!)

Last Saturday a group of us ran in the Warrior Dash. Here's a video to get a small taste of what the race is like. (minus the beer for us!!) It was a 3.4 mile run with 12 obstacles throughout the run. It was so much fun! I totally fell straight down into a hole in the mud pit up to my chin when I first stepped in so I just started swimming through the rest of the mud pit! I was attempting to not get that muddy. Ya right, I was covered, head to toe! The worst part was at the end when you stood in a line and they hosed you off with fire hoses--freezing!

Race stats: 57th out of 695 in my age group. 1170th overall out of 6378 runners. Total time was 36.07.60

Can't wait for next year! Who's in?

take 32

who knew it would take so many tries to get a decent picture with only the 4 of us!

**Easter Sunday. I made Carter's tie. It matched my skirt. Sean asked me to make him one too. I thought he was joking. Apparently he wasn't. Carter told me he hated the tie because it had pink in it, but he would wear it one time for me. So nice of him.

Easter festivities 2011

*bought 3 baby chicks (actually roosters, want one? seriously.) for the primary party. took them to both family parties. they were a hit

*picnic at the park with the klippel family. carter wrestling with uncle mike led to all the boys wrestling. good times were had by all

*easter baskets. carter loved his treats in his basket. char loved her basket

*egg hunts. 4 different times.

*easter dress. my mother in law made her dress. i LOVE it. so many people asked where i bought it at! can you believe i found the perfect matching shoes for $2 after the dress was made? me neither!

*easter lesson. i was in charge of sharing time (the lesson) in primary. i asked several people to come in, pretending to be someone who knew the savior and share their story of how they knew the savior and testify of his resurrection. they did a wonderful job. the kids loved listening to them and the spirit was so strong. so glad to know our savior lived and died for me and to be able to celebrate this with friends and family

our date

Sean got Coyote tickets a few weeks ago but couldn't go to the game so we got a babysitter for Char so Carter and I could go to the game. We had so much fun together cheering for the Coyotes, getting ice cream after the game, and being secret agents after the game as we dodged the bad guys all the way back to our car. This kid cracks me up. Here's a conversation he had at school that his teacher sent me: "one kid called me Miss Amber and someone said, 'that's not Miss Amber, that's Miss Linda.' I joked with the student and told him Miss Amber was young and pretty and I was old and wrinkly. One student said, 'you don't have any wrinkles Miss Linda' And then Carter said, 'yes she does. Look at her forehead!' It's a good thing Carter is cute or he might not be graduating from preschool!!"

Where does he come up with this stuff?!

Routines

LOVE this girl of mine. she is 7 months today. she has become pretty good at a few routines. she is on a great nap schedule. she is finally sleeping through the night pretty consistently. she loves her baths in the big tub with her brother. and although she HATES the car seat, she LOVES our monday, wednesday, and friday morning routine. as soon as carter leaves for school we are off in the stroller for a run. we usually go around 3 miles and she is as content as can be. i look forward to our runs together. i am sad that we probably only have a few more weeks (if that) of this routine before it is way too hot outside to run. maybe we can replace it with swimming laps in the pool?!

this boy is 5

Carter requested Puff Pancakes for breakfast. After school, Sean came home from work and we all (plus cousins Mallory and Tyler upon Carter's request) went to see the movie Hop. Carter and Tyler then went to soccer practice. After practice, we told Carter he could pick what he wanted for dinner. Shockingly (not really) he chose Pei Wei. After Pei Wei we came home and opened presents. He got a scooter and a camera. He and Tyler watched a movie but were asleep after only a few minutes. It was a super fun day for a fun 5 year old!

A little info about Carter at age 5:

Favorite food: Puff Pancakes

Favorite drink: Chocolate Milk

Favorite movie: Avatar: The last Airbender

Favorite show: Dino Squad

Favorite sport: soccer and tball

Best friend: Tyler and Mallory

Favorite toy: all of them

Favorite restaurant: Pei Wei

Favorite color: blue and green

Favorite song: It's a party in the USA

Favorite thing to do: wrestle with Daddy

This kid is a total mama's boy and I love him! He can get a little moody if he's hungry, he's got an amazing memory, loves to do puzzles, ride his bike, play sports, quotes The last Airbender cartoon like crazy, and is a pretty funny kid. Crazy he has been in my life for 5 years. Can't wait to see what the next 5 are like, and the 5 after that, and the next 5, etc...

6 months

*baby girl turned 6 months on st. paddy's day

*we celebrated with some green pancakes, she was in heaven

*she loves baby food and any other food item you give her; especially some ice cream. she does not like to share the yummy treat as you can see in the picture!

*loves animal crackers, pizza crust, and the peanut butter sandwich she stole from her brother. she really wants to eat anything even with no teeth

*rolls both ways

*sitting up on her own

*almost up on her knees

*wakes up once during the night to eat

*loves carter & caitlyn

*19.2 lbs, 28 inches

*still no bottle :(

Making their debut appearance...

Last night was a talent show at church. Caitlyn had worked hard with a friend to make up a dance and then her friend couldn't be there. Luckily, Carter and I had been over when the girls were working on the dance so Carter had the whole thing memorized (his memory seriously amazes me). Caitlyn asked him to fill in for her friend and he said he would! On one condition of course...that I do it with them. So in our debut appearance, I give you "Dynamite."

5 months

*finally loving stroller rides and rides in the bike trailer

*rolling over both ways

*laughing a lot (mostly at Wendy & Steve & Caitlyn! -they can always get her to laugh)

*sleeping 6-8 hours at night. yea to no more every 3 hours!

*always smiling

*always spitting up!

*loves to suck on her two fingers

*drools like crazy

*especially for grandma's viewing pleasure

Disneyland in (lots of) pictures

*side notes:

1. the characters LOVED Char and she loved sucking on their noses or pulling whiskers. sometimes it was awkward though because they would spend so much time playing with her even though there was a huge line

2. Carter was scared of Baloo

3. Carter didn't want to do the fast rides at first. After I made him try them (i know i'm mean!) he loved them. he says space mountain was his favorite ride. but we did the teacups and the toon town roller coaster at his request like 5 times

4. I threw up in the car on the drive there and let me just tell you it was the funniest and most disgusting thing at the same time. another post for another day? maybe.

5. Is it weird that random people asked to take char's picture because of her cuteness? she was seriously such a good baby on this trip.

6. we had so much fun on carter's first trip to disneyland and our first trip in nearly 20 years! thanks to russ and katie for talking us into going!!

4 months

*25 inches

*16 lbs

*smiles like crazy

*loves to hold onto her silky that nana made

*takes several 1 hour naps throughout the day

*doesn't like the bottle anymore

*loves to be up looking around/talking to everyone

Future babysitter?

I asked Carter to play with Char while I finished getting ready. Here's what I saw when I came back in the room. He was as happy as could be to play with her but only if he had the headphones on when she was crying. He may be onto something...