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!

9 months

this girl turned 9 months old last week. seriously, how did that happen? she crawls all over the place, eats anything you give her (loves zucchini and strawberries!), is finally drinking milk from a bottle (yah!!), stands on her own, is almost 30 in. tall, is 21 lbs, and has curly hair. Can you see those curls in the picture? LOVE them. LOVE her.

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.