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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...

Christmas recap 2010

*lots of cuteness*checked out the zoo lights
*climbed the rock wall at glendale glitters
*traditional christmas cookie decorating (the kids finished and we off playing so the adults partook of the fun!)
*a month full of fun activities from our advent calendar
*more cuteness
*just opened her first present christmas morning
*opening my new bike trailer from santa!
*checking out his new sled from santa
*caroling in the hall on christmas eve. classic memory made.
*performing the traditional nativity christmas eve. carter really wanted me to be a donkey so he could pull me. the things mothers do...
*i heart christmas time and this ultimate cuteness.