We came, we saw, we conquered!

The day after Christmas, the whole crew loaded up and headed to Dallas for the BYU bowl game, which if you live under a rock or something and haven't heard yet....... We WON!!!!! Which was good cause it would have been an extremely long flight home otherwise! So the families and players all stayed together in one hotel and it had a great hospitality suite for everyone to go hang out in! The best part of it was chock full of all the goodies, video games, board games, and treats you could ever dream of! The kids were in hog heaven! So most of the time we kinda chilled down there or went to the pool! On last nite there I needed to get all our packing done so I told Carter he could go down by himself for a bit! And when I say by his self, I really mean no mom and dad but under the eye of The Webers super cute daughter KC! So about and hour later Carter is pounding at our room door and I open it up to find him totally red faces and dripping sweat! I asked him what in the world had he been up to? He trudged into the room and dropped himself on the bed, and informed me that him and his little friends were playing tag, but he all the sudden felt like I was probably missing him so he booked it up to the room! I told him to change into his jamma's and lay down to cool off! When I came back into the room he was sitting under the covers with his jammie bottoms and no top cause he was still to hot! I asked him if he wanted a cool rag for his face? He nodded weakly and replied " Mom, look at me! I'm sweating like a beaver !" Then tonite while I was tucking him into bed he was saying his prayers and it went a little like this.... Dear..... Thanks for this day please help us gets home safety,( at which point he looks up a me with a funny grin on his face and say's) "hey wait we are already home safe, so do i need to ask Jesus to just forget what I said or will that Carry over to the next time we travel? " not waiting for my answer he goes on, "and please bless the food and the drink, Umm, that we will be eating tomorrow and, well just bless us that we can sleep good and sound in our beds tonite!" Amen! He then slaps his forehead and says "mom, can i get a mulligan, I did that all wrong!"

all I want for christmas is??????

This afternoon on the way back from the Dinosaur museum the kids and I were talking about some of the things they were hoping to get for christmas. Carter bolted upright in his seat and exclaimed "mom, i'm in serious trouble! I never made my list for the elves, and I haven't even gone and sat on Santa's lap yet! How are they going to know what I want for christmas?" I told him that it was ok, because they have elves that there only jobs it to write down christmas wishes when they hear little kids say them out loud! I'm not sure if he believed me or not but it at least calmed him down at bit. Then he began to yell into the air a few last minute toys he was wishing for. The last, but not least on his list was...... A Million Dollars! I laughed and told him that Santa didn't usually fill monetary wishes, so he pondered that for a minute and looked back and me and replied, "oh your right, that's the tooth fairy!"

On the 12th day of christmas, Carter said to me.....

As we all know and our wallets can feel, Christmas is just a short 12 days away!!!! So in case anyone is feeling overly stressed about the holidays Carter has graciously supplied us with the antidote! Here are a couple quick stories to hopefully put a new spin on your day!

Over the weekend we had Rob's families Christmas party. We decided to do presents a bit different this year. So instead of everyone buying for everyone we broke it down so the kids each drew a name, as did the adults. Therefore leaving Vicki (my mom-in-law) free to buy just for the grandkids and save the money she would have spent on the adults! As the presents from G-ma and G-pa start flowing the kids very rapidly start losing their minds! *don't you wish as an adult you still felt that way about a pillow pet* Each kid would get to  open while the others watched. Which worked pretty well for the first few presents until the almost rabid children could wait no longer. Then the presents started coming out a couple at a time. Which is when it got really funny, the boys got lego sets and pillow pets, the big girls got an assortment of clothes, makeup and books. Then came out the little girls, they got a big bag which contained everything you need to be a fairy princess! Within minutes Paige, Claire and Lily were stripped down to undies and begging to be wrapped in their glittery wings and tutu's! Everyone was delirious! The air was littered with shouts at octaves only dogs can hear, for their parents to see what they got! At that point Carter must have looked up from his lego's that he had been salivating over and noticed what the little girls had on, to which he exclaims, "Hey, that's not fair! How come only the girls got princess uniforms?"                   ........ Really? 

As per our usual weekend torture, the cleaning of the playroom was underway! I was helping the kids and we were moving along at record speed, when I noticed that Carter had a big ole' bump on his forehead. I asked Carter what happened ? He reached up and felt it and said he wasn't sure? I came a bit closer and realized that it was in fact a pimple! His first pimple! Immediately he became worried that something was very wrong with him. 

(I don't think he know's what a pimple is!) He followed me around for a bit and kept telling me, "that it wasn't a zit, that it couldn't be!" Then with deep concern in his voice he asked, "Mom, are you sure it isn't actually a brain tumor?" That was a new one for me, next time I have a big pimple I'm going to tell everyone that it's really just a brain tumor! 

In our family we are like Christmas music junkies! As soon as thanksgiving is over the Christmas tunes start pumpin'! We were sitting a dinner one night listening as usual to our favorite playlist, which at the moment happen to be playing the old classic "Santa Baby" sung by the glamorous Maralyn Monroe, when Carter chimed in with an observation. Very proud of himself he declared "Hey, guys I know who's singing this song to santa!" Rob and I both smiled, looked at each other very curious to see who he thought was singing the song when he answered! "It's Mrs. Claus! Do you know how I know? Cause' she keeps calling him baby!"

Deck the halls with bells and Hollers!

It really is a good thing we have children! Because they not only make us laugh, but they also help us to remember what Christmas is really all about! For example, Rob and I decided tonite we should fulfill the annul tradition of putting up the tree, hanging the stockings by the chimney with care (aka the switch lit fireplace) and hoping that we don't kill each other or our children before the tree is even up! When Rob and I first got married we purchased a lovely fake tree, now 10 years later it is probably less than lovely and becoming increasingly the bane of Rob's existence! This tree is assembled in alphabetical order starting with "M" at the bottom and ending of course with "A" at the top. Rob had the stand up and already to "L" when Carter looked at him and the "tree" and asked "why don't we get a real tree this year?" that prompted a fast run down to the local Smith's to pick up our ohh so real, pine needles and the works, Christmas Tree!!!! The children were Jubilant! Music bursting from the background, and then came out the lights! Which were the beginning of a very long tirade of words not generally associated with the Christmas season. Once the lights were on the tree and they all finally worked we stood back to look at the sight before us..... which if one was being honest would say that it looked rather skimpy! So I told Rob as much, and asked if he could just add a few more. In my mind more twinkling is never a bad thing. Apparently the ones we had left over were outside icicle lights and turned out to be the straw that broke the camels back! Rob jokingly shouted out "That's it! Christmas is cancelled!" (A Morris family tradition)) but it sent the children into absolute silence! Really if that's all it took to shut them up I might have yelled it years ago! But Carter being Carter, walked up very calmly and put his hand on Rob's shoulder and asked him very softly " But dad, if Christmas is canceled, then why did we go through all that trouble to get that tree?"

A Scout is always pre......what?

Since turning 8, Carter has now been going to scouts! Which he of course loves and can't wait for each week! Today when I picked him up he was rattling off some of the things he had learned and when we got home he flatly refused to take off his uniform. I was getting his dinner ready and had it nicely nuking away in the microwave. It beeped and I went to take it out, but was cut off by a scrambling Carter who informed me, "I'm a scout now, and we know how to take things out of the microwave safely!" I backed off and let him proceed. A bit later I was shredding some cheese and walked away to go change out the clothes in the laundry. Again when I came back I found Carter where I once was, happily grating away. I told him to be really careful since it's sharp and didn't want him to cut his finger. He again replied "mom, I already told you, a scout is aways careful and aways prepared!" I let him finish and sorta chuckled to myself, wondering how long it would be before he came and asked for a band aid. But in the middle of grating the cheese he suddenly sprinted out of the room. I called after to him and asked what was the matter? He yelled back that he needed to go to the bathroom really bad!!! About an hour later I was going to put Paige in the tub when I noticed the all to familiar smell of urine and a nice big puddle on the floor directly in front of the toilet! I told Carter he needed to come into the bathroom and bring some paper towels with him. He was not altogether happy with the fact that he was the one that would be cleaning up the ominous yellow puddle on the floor. He complained that he was not equipped to be cleaning this sorta thing up! So I smirked and said "I thought a scout was always prepared for anything?" He looked up from his unhappily crouched position on the floor and said, "Mom, they don't cover cleaning up pee in our handbook!"

I have something to say to the big yellow thing in the sky!

Paige has a very strong love-hate relationship with the sun! She loves to play outside and really enjoys a nice warm sunny day (although a cold, snowy one doesn't seem to dampen her that much either).  Every morning on the way back from dropping Carter at school, Paige and the sun have a showdown! It's always at the exact wrong place in the sky for her eye level, so no matter how I fix the shades in my car it won't ever quite block the sun for her.  This morning, because of traffic, we had to take a different way to school so while the sun is usually behind her on the way to school, today it was shining in from the side and blasting her in the face. I was alerted to this when all the sudden Paige lets out her usual cry of agony, (much like the Wicked Witch of the West when she gets doused with water).  At this point Paige lets out her usual stream of unpleasantries towards the sun.  I knew that if we could just make it to the end of the  street that the sun would drop back behind her again.  I kept telling her that we were almost there and the sun would be gone. Then I hear Paige in the back, "OK come on jussa few more minutes, we gonna make it and than u sun be gone, almost dare!" We turned right and phewww! Paige also let out a sigh of relief and then said "mommee we made it!" We then drop off Carter and head up the dreaded hill to return back home, which is where the sun usually peeks it's beams on us. It's was really funny, but also sorta pitiful because Paige thought she had already had her dose of blasting for the morning! She was singing "B-I-N-G-ohhhhhhh  NO! IT'S BACK! Mommeee, I don't fink I can do dis again!" I did my best to block as much as I could but it just wasn't enough.  "Sun, u get away, i don't wike u doday! u weeve me awone!" Finally as I turned back on our street where the suns relentless rays can no longer touch her, she quiet's back down. Then in a very small voice I hear, "Sun, we going to Tracie's house, but pwease don't come dere! Ok?!"

"Tails" from the petting zoo

Today Miss P and I went to the petting zoo down at Thanksgiving Point. Which just happens to be one of her favorite places to go! Thankfully the weather today has been gorgeous and we had a free afternoon, so off we went! It was one of those outings where I wish I had brought a tape recorder with me and just caught everything she said cause she was on a roll! So these are a few of the precious things Paige had to say! When we first checked in the lady at the counter gave us a couple of apples to go feed with horses, so we began our journey around the place. We stopped and talked to the goats and then over to the Llamas then came the gigantic Clydesdale horses, Paige walked straight up and started having a conversation with a very large buttercream colored horse. I'm not sure if they could smell the apples in our pockets but when we walked up it was sorta like when a really pretty girl walks by and all the men in the area break their necks trying to look at her. Well the horses did the same, they did an about face and came right up to the fences and started pawing the ground and butting there noses against their fences. I told Paige they were ready for the apples, and all she had to do was throw the apples onto the ground and they would pick them up. So she tossed the first one in for the buttercream horse and starting giggly watching the horse chomp it down. So during this the horse next door who was an even bigger black one starting trying to stick it's head into the others pen. Paige see's him doing this and jumps down off the fence marches over to the next horse and say's very politely, "Now horsey, if u wanna habe a apple, you gotta wait u turn like ebey body else!" It was really funny seeing this little 2 year old stare down a 12 foot horse, and remind him of his manners. The next area was the pigs, and as we started to walk over there Paige commented on the smell, "Mommee, dis don't smell bery good! why day so stinky?" I told her that it was from the pigs and it was because that was also where they went to the bathroom. So when we got up to their pen, Paige looks in and remarks, "mommee it's dat one, he need to change he bumm, he stinky! why don't he's momma change he bum?" We did a few other things and then when we were getting ready to leave we visited the cows, most of them were back in the shade, but one very pretty Jersey was standing up front working on her tan. Paige went running up to her and started to admire her. "Oh she a very bootiful cow, i wike her nose and he tail!" then she noticed the tag in her ear and got very excited, "Mommy wook she gots a earring wike you! Oh you beautiful cow I wove u earring, u wook so nice!"

Oh to be young and self reliant :)

Yesterday Rob, Carter and Paige were all in the car taking Carter to his Hip Hop lessons! (He told us he wanted to learn how to dance like Justin Bieber) They were listening to the "Pink Elephants" song from Dumbo, and when it was over Rob kept chanting "Pink elephants, pink elephants" over and over. Paige piped up from the back and asked "Daddy where da pink ellepants at? where arre dey at?" Rob respond and told her that they were in her imagination! Paige did not agree with his answer because she told him very sternly "No dey not, they to big to fit in dare!"


One of Carter's chores is to clean up his play room, he doesn't like it very much but most of the time he's pretty good at obliging Rob and I. However on Wednesday he had his cousin from WY. spend the night and they managed to pull out every single toy that Carter owns, and Paige's as well. (I really don't want to know what they were doing with the tutu's and princess crowns!) So when I discovered their  handy work I told him that he couldn't have any friends over until he cleaned the whole thing up! He was not happy about it but still went to work. About 2 hours later he came down and had a new Lego masterpiece, I knew from the looks of it that what had most likely happened was he started to pick up a Lego and decide it would be of better use to be put into a new creation of his, rather than going in it's box. I of course was not to thrilled at the progress he made so I threatened to throw away every Lego he had if he didn't get on it right then. That sent him into action, but when I went up to check on the progress he was cleaning but looking very pitiful! He then said "Mom, can you please help me clean the playroom?" I told him that i wouldn't because every other time I've "helped" him I've ended doing all the work and he sorta wonders around the room trying to look busy. He didn't like my response so he countered with "But mom, that's when I was only 7, now that I'm 8 I'm self reliant!" I said well that's great, now you can do it all by yourself with out any help since you are self reliant! He looked at me and scoffed "No mom, that means your suppose to help me!" I smiled and replied that actually self reliant means that you can do things all on your own and that he doesn't need help from other people. He looked at me very thoughtfully for a moment then said "really, that's what that means? Oh well, just forget what I said then!"

The "Dress" code

As anyone who has met Paige can attest to the fact that outside of church they have rarely seen her in anything other than some sort of princess dress, tutu or some frilly pink something or other! ( and possibly nothing but her diaper! I wish this wasn't the case! I know I'm from Georgia and all but the half naked child running around out front is a little cliche') Earlier she had fallen asleep in a pink ballerina dress that btw has pizza stains all over it that I have in fact been trying to wash for the last two days. Her solution to the stain problem on her dress is to simply turn it around, Out of sight...out of mind, Right? Well I talked her into taking it off so we could get some jammies on her. Not 10 mins later she was sitting on my bed very upset because she can't find her dress. Being very distraught, asked me "mommeee, I really need to find my beautiful dress. Can you please help me find my beautiful dress?" I told her that it was time for bed, and we don't wear our dresses to bed! This did not sit well, she hopped down off the bed and went on the hunt. Not to much later I can hear her in the laundry room "Were, can my beautiful dress be? oh no, where did it go, it's lost!!" Then singing, "oh where oh where can my beautiful dress be? Oh where oh where can it be?" I like that she configures the songs to fit her personal needs.

come on sleep is for babies!

My little sweet pea Paigey has a real problem with sleeping, as in she doesn't actually believe in it! Sure we'll get stretches of her pulling a full 8 hours but for the most part it's generally in 2-4 hour shifts! A couple of nights ago was more of the same. Most of the time I sleep on the couch so that I can intercept  her mid hallway so she doesn't wake up Rob since he has to get up so early. Well this evening I had fallen asleep in our bed which was very lovely and uncommon, when right around 4 am I feel two little hands pulling on my covers trying to get her sleepy self up onto our bed. She was being quite which was a welcomed change, because we are usually greeted with the cry of a banshee when she first wakes up during the night, but Miss P is a horrible bed buddy! Think Hulk Hogan in the ring meets a Jack Rabbit! I have never met a kid who kicks as hard or does a better flying buttress as she does! So around 4:32 am, I move out to my now all to familiar spot on the couch, exiled from my bed, willing to be demoted rather than wake the Kraken! When 7 am rolls around I pull my sorry, aching self up to get the kiddo's ready for school. I am greeted with a very smiley happy Paige! I lay down on the bed next to her and she cuddles her cute self up to me, and I ask her how she slept? "GREAT" was her reply, then she tilts her little face up to me and asks as sweet as a little angel descended from above..... " So, how was u couch mommee?"...................... REALLY!!!!!!!!

Stockton, Malone..... Young?

This evening we were at a friends house for a BBQ, they had this really great restored covered wagon in their backyard where Carter and Paige were having a good time playing and exploring in it. A little later it had started to get dark and Carter asked if someone would come out to the wagon with him. Rob said he didn't want to since it was haunted by Bringham Young's ghost. Carter wide eyed told Rob that there was no such thing as ghosts, Rob smirked and told him he was right then asked him if he knew who Bringham Young was? Carter's reply was "oh sure he was one of those guys who's with the Utah Jazz!"
I can't be sure but I think somewhere along the line we may have confused the kid a little.

The battle on isle 9

As you know Carter is now 8, and Miss P is 2 1/2 which is when as we all know the "Fun" really begins. In other words she is absolutely getting into the terrible 2's, and all that comes with that! Now since Carter is 8 it's been a few years since I last experienced this and I think maybe something like PTSD has blocked from my memory what the 2's were like, otherwise I probably wouldn't ever have had another child :) For instance, Carter, Paige and I were at the grocery store on Monday and we were trying to grab a few things for dinner. Long gone are the days when Paige would sit in the cart and be pacified with either something to munch on or watching a video on my phone. Now she wants to be down with Carter, but unlike Carter she has no desire to actually stay with me! She is a runner!!!! Her favorite time to run is when I'm at the register checking out, right when I'm about to pay she takes off and I have to go chasing after her, which I know the people behind me are not to pleased  about! So monday was going much like other shopping trips, she would run I would go after her or I would send Carter to fetch her. After about the 10th break for the border I decided I had had enough and she was just going to have to sit in the cart buckled in. I picked her up to put her in and of course she did the worlds best limp body you have ever seen. She's slipping right out of my arms, just inches from getting dropped on her head when I finally get a good grip on her. Then as i'm trying to put her in again she goes completely straight so i can't even bend her to have her sit. So this little 3 ring circus goes on for about 15 mins., and might i add the whole time she is screaming at the top of her lungs which always helps the situation! But I have to say I was very proud of myself and kept my frustration in check and didn't get mad at her. So she finally sorta collapses on the floor cause she's so exhausted from battle, and I let her lay on the floor for a moment. Now I know most parents would have just walked away, and i did truly consider this but I knew if I did than basically she would have won cause she would have gotten exactly what she wanted, which was to be on the floor instead of the cart! Exhausted and deflated from defeat, Paige finally lets me pick her up and goes quietly into the cart, Click goes the buckle and it's over! As i'm standing there looking at my pitiful daughter Carter comes over to me and starts patting my on the back, looks at me and says "you know mom, you did good, cause she needs to know that your the boss and she just can't always get what she wants!" then after an approving sigh, "I'm very proud of you mom!"

someone dropped the "H" bomb

I had quite a shock the other day when Carter and Paige were sitting at the table.  As usual Paige was being naughty and bugging Carter. He was getting pretty fed up and yelled out "Paige I hate you!" I of course heard this from the other room and took Carter aside and had a nice long chat about the reasons you never tell someone in your family that you hate them!(or even other people for that matter)  He apologized and that was that, well two days ago they were at the table again doing some art and Carter was starting to get really fed up with the "little monster" as he lovingly called her. I could tell he was getting ready to explode on her when I heard "Paigey, I really don't like you right NOW! I mean I like you, I just don't like you like you, but I love you, I just don't really like you love you right now, but I still love you, sorta." I guess that's an improvement over I hate you!

Back to school

School has started, along with that the morning ride to school, where if you remember from my older posts that is the place Carter chooses to tell me the most interesting things.
It was tuesday morning and as usual Carter and Paige were eating breakfast in the car because I have found it is easier to feed them while they are strapped in and can't move at all than at the kitchen table, yes my car may be a little worse for the wear but at least it eliminates some of the morning nonsense! That morning I had gotten him a couple pieces of cinnamon toast, a favorite at our house with some cherry yogurt. He snarfed down the toast and was beginning to work on the yogurt when he informed me that the yogurt was dead. (that's code for gone bad in our  house.) I looked at the lid and told him that it wasn't suppose to "die" for another month and that maybe his toothpaste was making it taste funny. He took another bite, made a face and said "no mom, i'm pretty sure the yogurt is ok, but there is something wrong with the cherries in it." I told him, well don't eat the cherries. He was a little befuddled and asked "how am I suppose to do that since the cherries are everywhere in it." I said, "well when you get a bite that has a cherry just spit it out onto your plate and eat the yogurt". He got on his face a look of indignation and replied "Ewwww mom that is really gross, I CAN NOT do that." this time I was a little perplexed and asked him "why would that be gross, you still pick your nose and eat your buggers!" He exhaled loudly and fired back "mom, what in the world does that have to do with these yucky cherries!" At that point I decided to let him figure it out!

Over the last week and a half we've had a couple of really bad lighting and thunder storms, where a couple of times it has made us lose power for a few hours. One night Paige was having a hard time going to sleep because all the noise and was making her a little scared. Rob was sitting in the hallway with her and asked her what was wrong, she told him " it scare me daddy! I dowwn't wike it!" so he asked her if she was afraid of the thunder and lighting. She looked and him and told him "Yess, that scary fundder and du whitning Maqueen he try to get me! That scary whitning Maqueen get my toes!"

nurse in training

I am now the second counselor in our ward Primary and one of the things I oversee is the nursery. So it was last Sunday and I had been bouncing back and forth between teaching sharing time and checking in on the nursery. Paige was in there and was looking really hot and tired, and when I picked her up I noticed the loverly odor coming from her cute little drawers. Fortunately when I exited into the hallway my loving husband was there for me to hand Paige off to. He set her down for a minute while I fished out my keys and told him where the diapers were in the car. We both look down at Paige who at that moment was looking very pitiful,  she looked up at Rob and I peering at us under her little blond bangs and red cheeks. I asked her what was wrong and she said with a slight whimper "Get me outta' here!" then turned walked two steps and laid down in the middle of the hallway head on her hands butt in the air! I think she might have been just a little tired. 

Yesterday I wasn't feeling so good and was sitting on the steps sorta hunched over, my darling little Paigey came over and sat down next to me and started to rub my back. She said "whatz madder mommeee? you tummy hert?" I told her yes, and she replied "it's alright, don't worry. you need a banndaid?" I told her I did, so she jumped off the stairs and started walking into my room to grab one. About halfway down the hall she turns to me and asked "you wanna prinnsess banndaid, or ferb and Phineas?" I smiled and said either was fine and she looked at me and said, "k i be wright back!" 

it's great to be 8!!

As some of you know Carter just turned 8 the first of this month, and then today he got baptized. He had his bishops interview a couple of weeks ago and since then he has been so excited and has talked about it quite a bit! Rob and Carter got to the church early today so they could change into the white clothes and get things all ready. I got there a few minutes later and he was pretty much about to bounce right out of his skin he was so excited and happy. He asked two of his cousins to give talks and they did such a great job. Then it was his turn to do the actual baptism, which went beautifully of course I was crying seeing my son get baptized by his daddy who he absolutely idolizes. So Rob told me later on, after they had gone back into the bathroom to get dried off and dressed in their suits, he said Carter could hardly contain himself. He was jumping up and down and kept saying over and over, I just got baptized. So Rob was still getting ready when Carter announced he was ready to come back out, Rob got a good look at him and saw that he was only wearing his shirt, tie, socks and no pants. So while he was helping to "finish" getting dressed Rob asked him if he felt clean and new now that all his sins had been washed away and true to Carter form he replied "yeah I really do, but dad where did they all go?" Rob told him that they were washed away in the water when he was immersed. Carter then said "so where did they all go, are they still in the water? Is the next kid gonna get my sins when they get in?" Rob promised him that they do clean it out very well after each kid :)

Rob's brother and kids are in town from Texas, they always come up every year.We were all at my house and I had banished everyone outside since we had just cleaned up the playroom to get ready for today. So we decided it would be fun to get some cloth paint and make some t-shirts. Well Carter was having a hard time figuring out what to put on his. The girls where well on their way and he was still sitting with a bland tee. So I started giving him some ideas, after a few No's he got excited and went to work on his shirt. When it was finished his shirt read.... " I shot Voldemort and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!" I personally thought it was quite clever!

still on vacation :)

I'm pretty sure I've told everyone before that Carter does and says almost everything his father does. Like, we are walking down he road and Rob spits, two seconds later Carter spits. Rob takes his hat off and rubs his head, Carter takes his hat off and rubs his head. Ok so you get this picture, well last week while in Tahoe, I was upstairs getting ready to go out for dinner and Rob remarked something like, "it's only dinner not a dance club!"( I was taking a little to long I suppose) Then today we decided to go Kayaking this morning down at Morro Bay and I was putting some moisturizer on my face still in my p.j's when Carter walked in, looked me up and down and said "mom, seriously we're just going kayaking not to a dancing contest!" and walked out!

A few day's ago, we were having spaghetti for dinner. Carter was sitting at the table, begging for something to eat, so I handed him a slice of french bread and handed him the butter. I turned around and went back to making dinner. When I looked back at him to see if he needed any help I noticed he had the piece of bread between his toes and the knife with butter on it trying to spread it on the bread! I told him to please not try to butter his bread with his toes and of course I got the customary "but mom!!" I asked him why in the world he was using his toes and he told me "because I'm trying to have a new skill! It's always a good idea to have lots of skills that you can use!" I shook my head and Rob very calmly said,"Carter you already have lots of great skills already, why don't you work on one of them instead!"

exclamations from the road....

Before the season begins and we don't see Rob for the next 6 months we decided to take a 16 day family vacation up through Tahoe, down to San Fran. then down the Central Coast and finally ending in Lancaster! yes, Lancaster, in the middle of the desert! My little sis. is blessing her new bundle of Joy and so we decided to roll it all into one! So of course being with my kids day in and day out has provided me with plenty of comic relief! But because of the amount i'm going to narrow down to just some of my top favs. so in no particular order here they are.........
     In tahoe, Paige is jumping up and down looking out the window down below at the sites and exclaims,
"Ohhh mommeee, wook it's a fwimming poodle!"
Also in tahoe, Rob had told Carter that the water slide was 250 feet, after conquering it, he remarked "that was 250 feet? felt more like 40 feet to me!"

In San Fran, Rob was taking Carter to a magic show for a little boys nite out and Rob asked Carter if he wanted some Cologne so they could pick up some babes! Carter all excited "yeah dad, I want some! Hey mom smell me I got on dad's perfume so we could get some babes!" As they are walking out the door I hear Carter ask Rob, "dad what's a babe?"

In Shell beach, I had stuck Paige in the tubby to get all the sand off of her after she got blasted by a few waves down at the beach. I was getting her out when I asked her pull the stopper up from the bottom of the tub when she looked up at me and said "No mommie, it's too dangerous!"
Oh also while we were down at the beach Paige told Rob that a shark had bite her bucket!

you 'member him?

I have found that around the age of 2-3, that my kids all go through a who is Jesus faze. Let me give you an example, when Carter was about 3 we were holding up a couple of different denominations of money and asking if he knew who was on the bill. I held up a 5 dollar bill first with good ole' honest Abe on it and asked him who it was, Carter's reply was "Jesus"! I then held up a one dollar bill and asked him the same question, this time his reply was "it's Grandma Vicki!" To say she was less than happy about being in the same category as George Washington is certainly an understatement!
 So now Paige is 2 1/2 and has been doing the same thing. Rob bought the Lord of the Rings extended version pack and had it sitting on the kitchen counter, Paige and Arianne were in there when Paige remarked, "Ari, do you know who this is?" pointing to a picture of Aragorn on the cover of the movie case and then says "that's Jesus, you 'member him?" I love that anyone with long brownish hair and a full beard becomes Jesus.

where at least I know I'm free!!

Carter and Rob were sitting in the kitchen, and after a moment deep in thought Carter looked up and asked Rob, "Dad, why do parents make all the decisions for kids, cause God gave kids the freedom to make our own choices! So really why?" Sometimes after  I hear the things that he says I'm not sure if I should laugh, or stand up and sing Lee Greenwood's "I'm proud to be an American"! Maybe it's just all the red, white and blue and let freedom ring that has got him going, but then later this evening he repeated his famous words again! (I'm sorta paraphrasing here!) "Why, oh why must we be enslaved to the opinions of those evil dictators who rule over us! I say we have our freedom, let us make our own choices! Cereal for Dinner?? YESSS, Watch T.V. all day? YESS!!! Never take a shower again?? Absolutely! The choice is yours my fellow brethren!"

kick the can? or the bucket?

A couple of nights ago Rob, Carter and I were watching the bucket list. Carter was sorta zoning in and out as he was building one of his new Lego sets. He was laying on the floor when he piped up, "what are y'all watching?" Rob told him it was the bucket list. Carter asked him why it was called the bucket list, and Rob explained that it's a list someone makes of all the things they want to do before they "kick the bucket". Carter pondered that for a moment and then said questioningly "what bucket do they kick? and why do they make a list for it?"

Ebert and Carter

This evening while the kiddos and I were eating dinner Carter was talking about some movies he was wanting to see. He then enlightened me with the reasons he didn't want to see some of the others, especially "Thor". I asked him why and he told me because there was to much killing in it for someone of his age. I knew neither Rob nor I had seen it so I asked him how he knew there was too much killing. He responded, "From that rotten apple's thingy! The apples thing were they give it like a score on how much you shouldn't see it." He then preceded to tell me that he really wanted to see "Hoodwinked 2". He smiled and said "but really you can't trust those rotten apples, cause they gave Hoodwinked a bad score and I still want to see it." I said, well they probably did that cause it's not very good. He scoffed at me and replied "no way mom, they gave Marmaduke a bad score and it was like totally awesome! Action packed, and not to mention it made me laugh so hard, that I like almost died, yeah really it was the best!" So then I told him that maybe it's just that the critics didn't like it. He looked at me and shook his head and laughed "well they better start getting it right or someone will be out of job soon!"

On the 7th day he rested.....

Usually on Sunday's I have Carter pack himself a little bag of books, paper, pen, and some fruit snacks to tide him over. I wasn't really paying attention to what he was carrying out the door as we left, but when we got in the car I looked back and noticed he had brought his bright yellow pillow pet duck with him. Which neither of my kids can live without at the moment. I looked back at him and told him that he wasn't going to be able to bring the pillow pet in to church. He stared back and explain "mom, do you know why i'm bringing this to church today?" I said no, but what ever the reason it wasn't coming inside. He then told me "well you know how i'm always laying on you and dad in church, and y'all always tell me to sit up. Well now you won't have to cause i won't bother you since i'll have my ducky here to lay on." I told him that the reason we told him to sit up wasn't because it bugs us, but church is not the time to be splayed out across the pew sleeping. He thought about it for a minute and then said, "No mom your wrong, after all why do you think they call it the day of REST!"

What was I thinking?

Hooray!!! today is the last day of school! But of course like most mornings during the last 2 weeks we were sorta scrambling out the door. Now anyone who lives in highland knows how insanely awful the construction traffic is. Well I had discovered a "secret" way to get Carter to school in very little time with almost no traffic. As we were cruising along singing to music and talking I might have been going a tad over the speed limit and then to make matters worse there is a right hand turn that I like to take off road! :) (the kids love it!) Well no sooner than I had taken my not so legal right hand turn I see the beautiful blue and red lights in my rear view mirror. As I pull over Carter looks at me and says "Mom, what did you do this time!" I told him I was probably driving to fast and the police officer was going to give me a ticket. He responded, "Oh I know daddy get's those all the time!" As the officer was standing at my window telling me my infractions Carter realized that we were defiantly going to be late and on field day of all days, he puts his hands on his hips hangs his head and says "Mom, I'm very disappointed in you, how could you be so disresponsible!" I did in fact get a ticket but the officer was very nice and cut me a break on my speed. I think he felt bad that Carter was in the back scowling at me for making him late. I think he realized the punishment I would receive from my 7 year old was far worse than what he would have given me.

When we got home Paige asked if she could watch tangled, which happens to be her absolute favorite movie at the moment. I said yes and came into the kitchen to clean up. She's watching the intro, and suddenly gets very upset and starts yelling at the t.v., "punzle's not hippo baby! she's not hippo baby!" Paige runs over to me and repeats what she had been yelling at the t.v., I really had no idea what would make her say that so I went in and  rewinded the movie and listen for a minute. In the beginning of the story the narrator is telling about Rapunzel's birth and there is a line where he says "and so she was born a healthy baby girl, a princess." I guess Paige has very strong feelings about hippo's, and Rapunzel not being one of them! But I have to admit the way he says it, it does sound like he's calling her a baby hippo.

crime and punishment

I don't know about anyone else but I am more than ready for school to be over with. I find it harder and harder for me to find motivation to motivate Carter to get out the door and be on time for school. The last few mornings I've seriously considered asked him if he wanted to skip school, but then I realize i would have to do the entertaining that day, so off we go. Today I was sorta taking my time and Carter was more than happy to take advantage of it, he was upstairs creating Lego's (per usual), and comes bounding down the stairs very excited to show me the latest creation. "Hey mommy, look what I made! Do you know what it is?" Now to the untrained eye it might look like a common hammer, but knowing Carter it probably is some super high tech rocket that drops "Canadian Bombs" (still not sure where the Canadian part came from) so to be on the safe side, I say "hmmm, is it a super high tech rocket that drops Canadian bombs?" he looked at me like "hello dummy!" and said quite incredulously, "Nooo, it's one of those things that a Janitor uses when your in trouble!" needless to say, I was even more confused so I asked him to explain. He replied "You know, the Janitor bangs it on the table when you get in trouble for doing something bad like throwing trash in the Grand Canyon!" as the light bulb went off in my head, I realized he was talking about a judges gavel, so I told him. "Carter did you mean a Judge's Gavel?"
He got excited again and said "Yeah mom, that's what I meant a Judge's gravel!"

Now, Just a little pinch....

Today Whitney and Travis and their 3 kido's came up for a little afternoon picnic and chill time. The kids had been outside for a while and were starting to get tired so we let them come in.... big mistake! The kids were behaving very well so the adults sat down to play a little game of rummy. Paige and Claire had gone into Carter's room and we could hear them argue occasionally, but mostly they were either giggly or quiet. After a little I decided they were too quiet so in I went to check on them. I entered the room to a very strong odor of fish, the girls were using the bottom drawer of Carter's dresser as a stool and both were happily feeding the fish. Now when I say feeding the fish, it was more like "Mr. Fishy would you like a little water to go with your food!" The tank was full of food, swirling everywhere. But they had also managed to get it all over them and the floor and inside the drawers all over Carter's clothes. At this point sweet little Paige looks up and me and say's "Mommy, I feed the Pishy"! So I called for the others to come see their masterpiece. So the girls got dumped into the tub and the fish into a bowl so their tank could be cleaned. Now i'm not sure if one of the fish decided it was a good time to try out the escape move he saw on Finding Nemo, or if the idea of all his food being sucked up into a shop vac pushed him over the edge, but whatever the reason he jumped! Straight out onto the floor. I came in a few mins. later to finish cleaning his room and happened to look into the bowl that was holding the fish and realized that there were only 3 in there. I looked again, yep, only 3, so I began a little search and rescue and saw the missing fish laying on the floor. He looked to me to be dead but I figured I'd stick him back in the water and see if it perked him up a bit. The crazy thing, as soon as I plopped him back in he took off swimming like nothing ever happened, I am a little curious to see which of the fish make it through the night. When Darwin came up with his theory of "Survival of the fittest" I don't think he was factoring in blonde 2 year olds!

A child's prayer

Most nights if Carter gets to bed by his assigned bed time then Rob or I will read to him from the first Harry Potter book. But more often then not  he's been up quite a bit later than he should be, then gets in bed and begins to beg for us to read to him. And since Rob and I are basically pushover's we read. Last night was pretty much the same!! Carter headed to his room keeping up a barrage of "PPPLLLEASE, READ HARRY POTTER!!!!" I promise I'm not even tired! Pleasssssseeee! It doesn't have to be long, just like one page, or even a paragraph!" I told him no, since it was almost an hour past his bedtime, but Rob who was tucking him in whispered that he would read some. After he read to him Rob came out laughing to himself. I asked him what was so funny, he told me that when he was getting up to leave Carter whispered to Rob, "Hey daddy, don't tell mom that we were reading, just tell her that it was just a really long prayer!" I love that at least he tried to cover it up with something like a prayer

A..B..C

Paige is my little song bird, all day long she is singing whatever song she's heard on barney, or in nursery, or whatever song I've been singing to her. Her favorite of late is the ABC's, which for a two year old she knows remarkably well. Today we were loading up to go pick up Carter and I can hear her singing the ABC's as she follow's behind me. But as I began to listen I noticed she had done a rewrite. So it went a little like this, A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,ELMO,P,Q,R,S,T,U,B,Duwbu,X,Yand Z. I know sesame street has been trying to get a monopoly on the alphabet for a while, and seems they have finally infiltrated there way in! (did you catch the elmo in there?) (and yes the other B was added on purpose!)

One fish, two fish, red fish......paper napkin????

Maybe just because it was friday and an incredibly beautiful morning, or maybe I just woke up happier from a great day before, but I decided to let Carter and Paige watch finding Nemo on the way to school. I know your laughing, I promise though for Carter getting to watch t.v. in the morning is a big deal. And I must say I was greatly rewarded with some hilarious commentary!  It was still within the first 10 mins. of the movie and Carter chirped up from the back, "Mom, it really is to bad that Nemo doesn't have a mommy anymore. " I said well a lot of people lose their mom when they are little, but at least now Nemo had Dory too. He agreed and asked me "Do you think that Mr. Marlin and Dory end up getting married?" I laughed and said I wasn't sure, and asked him if he thought that since they were two different types of fish if they would get together. He thought for a moment and answered, "Well right now we are only learning about Dinosaurs in science, but maybe next year when I get to second grade we'll learn about fish and I'll let you know then!"  Then a few minutes later he said, "mommy why do they have a fish on here that looks like a paper napkin with stains on it?" That one made me laugh right out loud. But he was really confused and wanted to know why. I tell you only Carter would notice something like that, and describe it in such a way.
Later that afternoon Rob and Carter were out at lunch together and out of the blue Carter blurts "Dad, I totally know what your thinking right now, cause i'm wondering the same thing! I mean do you think Marlin and Dory ever get married? I just don't know! But I think they probably do! Don't you?"

Really, who's to blame here??!!

Usually the kids aren't allowed to watch any t.v. in the morning. I find that it greatly slows down our progress of eating, getting dressed or basically just thinking (in Carter's case!) He'll just sorta stand in the kitchen with a look on his face like he's not even sure if he's in the right house.
We have one of those flip down t.v. in my car which like in the house the kids don't get to watch until after school. Well this morning the kids were in the back eating their breakfast, (we might have gotten a bit of a late start) and were very quite. The t.v. screen was flipped down but the radio was turned off so no sound was coming out. I figured that the movie wasn't even on. So while I'm driving, enjoying a little peace and quite, Carter suddenly udders, "Meanwhile back at the castle........"I looked in my rear view mirror and asked "Carter what did you just say?" then a sly grin spread across his face, not unlike the Grinch when he was taking all the christmas toys, looked up and said, "Ummm nothing!" he knew at that point he was busted and the t.v. got shut down. But a few mins. later Carter pipes back up from the back seat and say's "you know mom, your sorta overreacting a bit don't you think. I mean if you think about it, it's really not our fault for watching the movie. The screen was down, so what were we suppose to do?"

Umm nose herts!

This last monday was esp. interesting. Paige was in her room eating breakfast and watching Barney while I was in my room making the bed. I could hear her crying and so I started walking to her room, when I got there I see little droplets of blood and I looked at her and basically her whole face was covered in blood. She kept saying "umm nose herrrts!!" over and over. I figured maybe she had fallen and hit it but when I cleaned her off there was no scratches or red marks. She then started to tell me that something was in her nose. So I asked her "Did you put anything in it?" of course she answered "Yeeesss" with a sad sniffle. So I leaned her back and looked in the nose. Sure enough there was something stuck up in there. I asked Paige what she had put in there, she looked at me and said "I doont know". So after calling the doctor and determining it would be best if they took out the stuck object I began to load her in the car. Right about that time she sneezed really hard and a bunch of bright green stuff came flying out. Then Paige looked up at me with a big smile and said "WOOK mommy, my seareal!"(look mommy, my cereal) I then asked her if she had put her cereal up her nose? and she said "yes, itz gwreen seareal" which at that moment I had figured out since it was neon green. I guess she figured foot loops taste better in the nose, than in the mouth. I really hope this isn't the beginning of many lost objects up the nose.

How firm a "Plantation"

For church Carter was asked to give a little talk on Easter, which turned out beautifully and funny at the same time. Rob read him the Easter story and then asked Carter questions and from that he wrote his talk. Some of the key lines from it were, "Lots of people loved Jesus, but the bad guys didn't" and "after 3 days his friends came to see his body" and " Some bad guys, made a bad decision and crucified Jesus on the cross." But my absolute favorite wasn't in his talk at all. Carter kept saying to Rob "What about the Plantation!" Rob sorta confused asked "you mean the plan of salvation?" And Carter adamant replied "NO, the plantation! You know were the wise guy build his house upon the rock, and the other guy on the sand!" Rob finally realized Carter was trying to talk about having a firm foundation! But plantation works just as well.

Ohhh Toodles!

On the way to school this morning Carter and Paige were in the back watching a Mickey Mouse movie. Which normally in the morning no t.v. is allowed before school, but honestly this morning I was just to tired and lazy to tell them no. So on the Mickey Mouse clubhouse cartoon they have a little character named Toodles, who comes when they are in need of help, but otherwise you never see him. So on the show they called for Toodles, Carter say's
"Mom, how come they never show Toodles any other time? What do you think he's doing?" Of course I told him I had no idea, that he's probably was off playing or something. But that answer wasn't good enough for Carter cause he replied "Naw, I think the reason they don't show him is because he's doing his Mousekersize's!"

Piggy ride, anyone?

This week was so great not only was I back home and with my kids again, but Carter had spring break so I got to spend some much needed time with my kidos! So I got some really cute stuff from Carter and Paige. Carter lately has been on an inappropriate kick, meaning he has been informing Rob and I on what's inappropriate and what's not. One of the many things on his list has been some apps on his "finger phone" that he's been downloading. I was in my room folding clothes and Carter walked in with a very serious look on his face. He was holding his finger phone and say's to me, while shaking his head, "Mom, I just don't know what to think. I've been downloading apps but I found one that I think is just to inappropriate for someone my age." I told him then he probably shouldn't put it on his phone and he looked at me very knowingly and said "Yeah mom, I think your right, thanks for understanding."

Paige has been equally entertaining this week, Saturday morning Rob and Carter had left earlier in the morning to go to the BYU football clinic for kids so I was home with Paige. I was just sorta hanging out when I hear Paige wake up. At first it's a small little crackly voice, "Dadddieeee" Then another "Daddddiee" followed by "Daddy where are we?" "Daddy where arrrrreeeee we!" About that time I walk in her room and find her leaning over the side of her crib hands outstretched looking back and forth for Rob. I starting laughing and said, "Paige what are you doing?" She looks at me and puts her hands in a questioning motion and say's "Mommieee, I wost dadddiee!" (mommy, I lost daddy!) So I asked her, how did you do that?" she hung her head and said very sadly "mommy I don't know?"

Then today we were all watching Tangled and there is a part where the guards are chasing someone on horse back and Paige starts giggling and say's "Wook Mommy, he wride the piggy! Wook piggy wride the back!" I guess riding a horse is sort of another form of piggy back!

I'm back....

I know it's been quite a while since I last posted, but I have a very good reason. Mainly that I wasn't with my kids for the last 2 weeks, so ergo no new stories. We went to Pairs for our 10th anniversary! Oh man, I've always been a bread and butter sorta' girl, and now after eating the yumminess over there I don't know how i'm going to go back to regular bread here :(  It is an art, and maybe even a sin to be able to make something that tasty! (mostly a sin because it's over there and i'm here!) So if anyone knows of a good Artisan bakery please forward me the info!
Being the typical mother I am, and having very typical children, the only thing I wanted to do was kiss and hug em' and find out how everything went. And you think I would learn by now that kids are only excited about one thing...... what present they got. We hop in the car with lots of mommy smothering them with loves and kisses. Then after we get our bags in the car and get on the road the and the first thing Carter say's is "Hey mom can you please turn the sound up back here I can't hear the movie with all you talking!" then followed with "Can I please have my presents now!"
At least Paige asked for a second hug.......

How do you know when your ready?

A couple of days ago on our way to school Carter was reading his Lego club magazine, and very much deep in thought. I was sorta day dreaming so when Carter said "Mommy, there is something I really need to tell you. I'm not really sure how to say this but, I'm don't think i'm ready to take it to the next level!" I sat there for a minute a little perplexed and then decided I better find out what the "Next level" was. He told me "Mom it's my lego's, i'm just not sure if i'm ready to go to the next level with my building." He then held up his Lego club magazine, and on the front in big letters it said "Take your building to the next LEVEL!" But I guess for Carter this relationship was moving just a little to fast!

How's the old adage go????

Two day's ago we were driving home after picking Carter up from school. The kids were in the back seat doing there usual thing, which for Carter is talking about lego's and Paige yelling my name or "Grwammpa Don" at the top of her lungs. (she seems to think it's very funny!) I've sorta gotten to the point where I can pretty much just tune her out, but it really has been bugging Carter lately, especially if he's trying to tell me something, which happened to be the case that afternoon. I'm not sure what we were talking about but he was talking, she was yelling "Mommmmmeeee" "Grwammpa Don" over and over as loud as she could. Finally Carter turns to her and yell's "PAIGIE STOP YELLING, I'M TRYING TO TALK TO MOMMY!!!", which silenced her for a moment then she turned to Carter and said in a very small and quiet voice. "Carrrter, tat's not nice, no yewwing"

I believe in.....

I love day's like today, where pretty much everything that comes out of Carter's mouth is funny. The morning starting with church, and it being fast and testimony meeting Carter was pretty excited about bearing his testimony. While he was sitting in his seat Rob leaned over and asked Carter if he was still going to go up, Carter asked him what he should say and Rob told him just say what ever he was feeling at that moment. Carter responded with "Well right now I feel like, that George Washington was the first president!" Rob of course told him that most of the time people usually talk about how they feel about Jesus or their family, but hey there's a first time for everything.

Then this evening Carter was once again making lego creations and he fixed up this little trap thing. He then decided that it would make an excellent catapult. So he put it on the lid of our trash can and pushed down hard on the foot leaver and sent it flying into the wall. But before he sent his crash test dummy flying I heard him say in a very official voice, " Kid's don't try this at home, I am a trained PROFESSIONIST!"

I'm with stupid<--

Lately I have been feeling like Carter is just growing up to fast, and i'm starting to wonder when the Mom please don't hug me in public or even act like you know me begins. Every day he say's or does something that makes him seem older than the day before. And then other day's I feel like he is just flat out laughing at my lack of ability and knowledge, (or at least as far as he's concerned) For example take this evening, he was in the living room building some very complex temple of death and booby traps out of lego's. So I say to him "Wow Carter you really have an amazing imagination, I can't believe you can build all of those things of your own creation. I've never been able to do stuff like that!" Carter replies, "Yeah mom, your just not really good at this kind of stuff, you know using your imagination. I think it's cause you were a kid such a very long time ago. But guess what, if you can prove to me that you can build this little lego here (points to a stack of bricks he put together) and not break it than I might let you play with me. " I guess that's what I get for trying to build up his self esteem and compliment him!

My sis-in law and her kids came over tonight, and for some reason it's very hit and miss between our children. Sometimes they are the best of buddies and other times it's like Def-com 5 at my house. Tonight was more towards the latter. Rob took Paige and put her in the tub because Claire and Paige decided they couldn't be next to each other with out one or the other pinching or poking. While Paige was in the tub she starting yelling to Rob that she wanted to get out. Rob walked in and said "ok, Paigey are you sure your ready to get out?" And Paige replied "YESSS, I shrinking!" 

Today's a twofer!

Over the weekend Rob's brother and his family came into town, and my sis in-law Casey shared this little diddy with me. Apparently my mother in-law had made some salmon for dinner and my son who btw is not a very adventurous eater declined when asked if he would like some. Casey asked him why he didn't want to eat it. Carter told her "because it's gross!" Casey asked why he thought that, and he answered "because, on Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, they said sardines are disgusting." Casey a little perplexed asked him what he meant and he said, "Because, don't you know that salmon is actually baby sardines!"
I still don't really follow the logic with this one but I guess to Carter it makes perfect sense!

For starters, Paige loves her grandparents, esp. her grandpa's!!! Whenever she goes over to my mother in law's she tends to head straight for grandpa Craig, and the same for when she goes to my parents. The funny thing is all day long she walks around the house wanting to call "Gwwamma Nisa" (my mom). So the other night Rob was in the office rocking Paige hoping to settle her down for bed. He was going through every one in our family saying a person's name and then Paige would say who they were. For instance,........ Tracie - Mommy! Rob- Daddy! Carter- Bubba! Lisa- Grandma! Craig- Grandpa! and down the lis he went, well I guess he was almost done when he got to my dad and Rob asked Paige "who is Rusty?" And Paige with no hesitation "PENGUIN!" so grandpa Penguin he now shall be known! The funny thing is if you ask Carter who Rusty is he'll answer "who, you mean silly grandpa!" what do you think that means? Silly grandpa, and a penguin! :)

Is love really unconditional?

I think there are some pics. on here of Rob where you can see that he has a very nice viking type goatee. And he wears it because he thinks he looks really young and ridiculous without it. Also he thought it made him much scarier looking when he was playing football. Last night he shaved it all off! Which I like because now when he kisses me the hair no longer goes in my nose! But when Carter woke up this morning and came in to shower Rob asked him how he looked, And Carter told him "Dad it looks weird!!" Rob then said "Do you think you can still love me?" and Carter answered "No, Dad I don't think so!" but think a few mins. later Carter came back in and looked at Rob and told him "you still look weird......but dad, I still love you!"

He's always there in our time of need :)

Last night we were just hanging out like usual, Carter had a friend over so Paige was kinda going from one person to the next, just sorta doing her own thing. A little while later we can hear her in the hall saying, "Aumm healp, Jesus! Healllp Jesus. Healllllp Healllllp Jesus, Aummm Jesus." (I'm help Jesus, Help Jesus, Help Help Jesus. I'm a Jesus). Rob and I started laughing pretty hard, because she sounded so funny yelling help Jesus. So Rob walked into the hall and saw Paige desperately trying to lift a bronze statue of Jesus that we have off of the table. Of course Rob went and helped her, she then carried Jesus around the house for a little while until she decided he was better suited on the coffee table in the living room. Where later that night on her way to bed, waved to him and told him goodnight. Maybe she felt left out with out a friend to play with, so she got her own! I also posted a picture of the Statue just to get a better mental image!

Does dry erase come out of suede?

Paige lately has been making life very interesting for Rob and I!!! I really do think she is Picasso reincarnated, and our walls and her body are a testament to that! Today she effectively destroyed a bed spread, and her cream colored suede chair with a lovely impressionist drawing with some dry erase markers. Her other mediums include, Chalk, Pen, Pencil, Permanent marker, and my favorite Finger paint! If you scroll down to the bottom of the posts I've put some new Paige pics, modeling some of her latest works of art! You can always tell now when she's colored on her self, because she walks into the room and announces "I need a tubbie".

What mom doesn't know won't hurt her!

I apologize I haven't posted in a while. We have been plagued with the common cold!! But I think we are all finally on the mend. (cross fingers anyway). A couple of days ago my dad informed me that he would be going to Hawaii for a business trip, so I promptly invited my self to tag along. Which thankfully he said sounded good to him! So much to my great pleasure I will be spending 6 glorious days in Waikiki at the end of this month. So I told Carter I would be going and he asked why he couldn't go. Now you have to understand that whenever Rob and I go out of town we always tell Carter that the trip we are going on is going to be very boring with no kids stuff to do and lots of walking around, and then we tell him how much fun he'll have with the babysitter and all the fun stuff they are going to do. Then he has no desire to come on the trip with us. Which is pretty much the outcome we were hoping for. Back to the story at hand, Rob walked over to Carter and started whispering something and they both started snickering. I'm pretty sure they were making secret plans for fun stuff to do while i'm gone. Then a couple of other times i've walked into the room and they will stop talking really fast and kinda start laughing and winking at each other. (More secret plans)! So this morning Rob was taking him to school and out of the blue Carter said " Hey dad, while the cats away, the mice will play." and started laughing because he thought he was so clever! But we still aren't really sure if he actually knows what he is talking about.

another year older!

This is probably the shortest post i'll do, but I don't think it needs a lot of frill with it. :)
Rob asked me a question that had something to do with the year I was born and I answered 1980, Carter was standing next to me and goes "wow mom, you were born in 1980?" I said "yep I sure was." then Carter said, "really, hey mom was Jesus alive then?"
I know i'm getting older.... but really!!!

I really do try!

Carter has had a little cold the last few days, and we all know what comes with a cold! So this morning on the way to school Carter started blowing his nose into his hand! (sans a kleenex!) Gross, I know! He has been doing this for the last 2 years, thus the reason for keeping lots of hand sanitizer! So like I said he blew his nose into his hand, and for the hundreth time I explained to him that I would really like him to use a tissue and the reason for my request was that everytime he does this it spreads germs to every person and surface he touches. He replied "Oh, I see! Why didn't you tell me that to start with!" I then asked him what he did with the buggers he had just blown onto his hand and he looked quite sheepishly and pointed to his mouth! I said "Carter why in the world did you eat them?!!" He held up his hands in a questioning manner and said "Mom, I don't know why I eat them. I keep trying to stop but it's just sooo hard!" 

I promise I will understand if none of you want to shake my sons hand from this point on! 

It's a free country

As with most mornings it takes an army of people to get Carter ready and out the door on time. We usually have to get his clothes laid out and fix his breakfast and sorta steer him along the way to keep him on course. This morning was no exception, generally we just pick out something for Carter to eat and there is usually no arguments. But today Rob got out his usual which is mini muffins and yogurt and Carter looked at Rob and said the following "You know dad, I don't really like when you pick out my breakfast with out asking me. It makes me feel unappreciated, it's a free country! We should be able to pick out our own breakfast's!"
Rob replied "well if it's a free country i'm gonna throw away all the mini muffins, since I can do what I want." Carter got very flustered at this and answered "No way dad, you can only do it if it's within the law!"
I think we need to sign him up for some constitution law classes! We have a lawyer in the making!

Lego Land Here we come!

 Carter has been wanted to go to Lego Land for a long time, and I mean really bad. So the other day Rob told him that if he could earn money for his ticket into Lego Land then he would take him. So that next morning when he woke up the first thing he did was make his bed and clean his room. (before being asked) and also did some other stuff around the house. The next day was sorta the same, got up made his bed and cleaned his play room. I personally was loving this arrangement cause then if I asked him to do something and he said no, then I could say "Well if you cleaned up your toys in the living room, you could earn 2 dollars towards Lego Land". And boom he'd be off!
Little did I know buying a seemingly innocent copy of Lego build magazine, would lead to the ruin of our new found plan for getting Carter to clean stuff up! He was upstairs reading it when he got really excited and tumbled down the stairs! "MOM! Guess what, you are never gonna believe what I have in my hands!" He showed me the magazine and I saw the print out for a "One free child admission to Lego Land (with any paid adult ticket)" Carter was grinning from ear to ear and shaking with the joy of a child who has just realized that his dream of going to valley of milk and honey no longer hinges on wether he has to clean up anymore!  I replied " wow,(somewhat half hearted, I too realized what this means) when dad get's home make sure and show him this. I bet you'll be able to go that much sooner!"
A little while later Rob get's home and basically within minutes Carter has the magazine shoved into his face showing him the ticket. Carter then said "Dad, look in here it say's one free ticket with paid adult ticket! Isn't that so great, we can go now! And I don't have to clean up anymore!!! Oh dad, this is like the greatest day ever!" Rob said "Well I guess we better start planning our trip. It's gonna be pretty cool!"
So moral of my story, I guess this is what happens when you go and teach your kid to read!

How old are you?

As I mention in my last post Paige just had her 2nd birthday. But have you ever noticed that when it's your birthday the first thing some one say's is.... "How old are you?" Well we have been teaching Paige how old she is by holding up our fingers and telling her that's she's two. So yesterday we were playing with the kids Carter was asking how old Paige would be when he was 10 and we would tell him the answer. Then Paige walked in the room and we asked her, "Hey Paigey how old are you?" And she held up 4 fingers and said "Um finners" (i'm fingers"). We started laughing and said "No, Paige... how old are you?" Paige smiled really big looked at us and said "Finners" (fingers). So basically we confused our daughter into thinking that if you hold up your hand and say "Fingers" then your in good shape!

Then tonight Paige and I were sitting in the bed and I asked her once again how old she was and this time she said "Paigey". I laughed and said "no sweetie, how old are you?" She replied "Paaaiiige" Like i was some kind of dummy for not understanding her the first time. So I asked her again. "Paige how old are you?" She answered "Mommy!"
So maybe I need to go over the whole concept of what age is!

In the eye of the beholder!

Yeah! I'm excited to be getting some good Carter stories! We had Paige's 2nd birthday on friday and had all our family over. We were talking about my blog and my brother Jono told me one of his favorite Carter moments, and since he said he never writes comments I figured I'd submit it for him. Carter was in the potty training stage, and he had gone up to my brothers to spend the night with my niece's. Apparently they went to McD's and were playing at the play ground. Jono said Carter disappered for quite some time, and when he came down was walking like he just got off a horse. He then noticed the back side of his pants were hanging pretty low and a very strong odor was wafting from his direction. So he took him to the bathroom to check out the damage. I guess he filled his underwear, to the point that Jono determined that the underwear was unsalvageable and tossed them in the trash! When I came to pick up Carter later that day Jono relayed the story to me, and when I asked Carter about it in the car he looked at me very indignantly and said, "Mommy he actually threw away my underwear, can you believe it!"
I must say being on the end of Carter's many "accident's" I don't blame him at all for tossing those bad boys! I pretty sure Rob has done the same thing a few times too.

Like I said, this weekend was Paige's B-day and she had received some lego's, Carter and her were upstairs playing when I heard a little tussle break out. I went up stairs to investigate when I heard Carter telling Paige in a very adult/scolding tone, "You know you really shouldn't be treating your lego's this way, don't you know these things are very valuable.!" I started laughing and walking into the room and asked Carter what the problem was, he turned to me and said "Paige is up here being very unresponceable, she keeps throwing her lego's!" I replied, " well honey when you were her age you did the same thing." he looked at me and said " Well she shouldn't be treating her valuable toys this way. Doesn't she know anything!"

The chosen one.....

This morning on our way to school Carter was telling me about the very spot on the driveway where he slipped and hit his head. And Lamenting about how much he dislikes falling and getting hurt, or just getting hurt in general. He then asked me "hey mom back a really long time ago when you were a little girl, did you ever slip and hit your head?" I answered yes, and told him a couple falling out of tree's and smashing my face on the ground stories which he seemed to thing were quite funny. After he stopped laughing, from listening to a story about when I ran face first into a brick wall he asked. "Mom do you think Jesus ever got hurt when he was a little kid?" I said "sure sweetie, I bet he climbed tree's and ran around with his friends." I looked in the rear view mirror and Carter had the funniest look on his face and said, "Really!! but mom I thought he was the chosen one! He can't get hurt, didn't you know he can walk on water!"
Now really how are you suppose to argue with that. He's got a point!

Kiss it!

I know up till now most of the post have been about Carter, but really Paige contributes just as many pearls. The problem is most of hers are mostly inflection and facial, but tonight she gave me one that is very easy to put on paper.
Imagine a very blonde, blue eyed, fair skin, chubby 2 year old and you've got Paige. Poor thing has very sensitive skin and has been struggling with a nasty case of diaper rash. Tonite seemed to be esp. bothersome to her and she kept coming up saying "umm bum herrts" (my bum hurts). As I was putting her to bed she began her long list of things that were hurting her tonite. Actually it's become more of a nite time ritual, more than something actually hurting. Basically it goes like this. She say's "my yegg herrts" (my leg hurts) and then I say "oh no!" and kiss it. So she started off at her face. "umm my neecks herrts"(my cheeks hurts) KISS, "umm amms herrts" (my arms hurt). KISS. then she told me once again that her bum hurt. So I said, "I'm so sorry sweetie, I wish I could make it better" she then looked at me with these beautiful blue eyes and said "KISS IT!" I looked at her and said "what your bum?" to better clarify things. She replied. "YESSS".
Now for all you mothers out there, i'm sure over your years of mothering you have been asked or in most cases as with children, told to do many things. But I can say I haven't heard too many mom's tell me that their 2 year old, told them to kiss their butt!

Wall of Fame???

This evening we were all in the car on our way back from getting dinner and we were talking about Rob's football career and some of the good things that came from it, and Carter said "Well it's too bad, cause dad you were a good player, but you never did get a statue did you? And it's not in the 'Wall' of Fame.... Hey dad it's cause you hurt your leg huh.... if you didn't hurt your leg than you could have got it!" "Well that's ok, I still love you anyway!"
Whenever we do something that doesn't fully live up to what Carter wanted or expected he tells us that he STILL loves us anyways. So I guess as long as he still loves us we are in good shape, despite being the lowly parents that we are.

On the way to school

Rob and I take turns driving Carter to school, and it was my turn today. There has been a ton of traffic on the road we take because of construction, so this morning we had a little more time than usual to chat. And chat we did, or should I say he talked and I listened and wrote down his latest material. I swear a comedian could just follow him around and be set for a life time.
I don't remember exactly how this particular topic came up but Carter blurted out that he thought it would be really cool if there was such a thing as a listening gun. I asked him what it would do, and he replied " you know make someone do something you wanted, make them listen to you! DUH" As a mother I said " well in that case give me 10." He started laughing and said, " why do you need 10?" I told him because you sometimes have a hard time listening to what I ask you to do. He looked at me and said "yeah but if you had one you would never switch it back to not listening mode. You would always make me listen!" He was quite for a minute then said, "On second thought maybe we should just stick with the freeze ray gun." We talked about the pro's and con's of each gun and the he asked me, "Would you use it on daddy and keep it on listen mode too?" I didn't say anything for a minute cause I could tell he was thinking about something, and he answered with a silly grin on his face. "Yep, for daddy you definately would never take it off of listening mode. Cause he NEVER listens!!" (while he roles his eye's and shakes his finger). I have a feeling Rob would rather me stick with a freeze ray also.

Contest!!! Contest!!!

Since I have begun writing my blog, quite a few people have either written or told me some very funny Carterisms/stories, so I decided it might be fun to have a little contest. And yes there will be a prize! What i'm thinking is this! For anyone who has a funny Carter story or one liner submit it to me, and then i'll post them. Then either as a whole they can be voted on or I might just select a panel of judges. But mostly I would love to hear what you hear from him! I figure i'll keep it open for a few weeks considering this is a new blog and i'm not sure how many people actually read it, but we'll try anyway! The prize will be a $50 dollar gift card to Outback steakhouse and 2 movie tickets. If you are a Vegi and you win we can def. discuss an alternative. So send em' my way!