Today was nice.

We spent our final morning with Grandpa Sam, visiting from Utah. Our weekend sure was fun and full and productive with him around! We got all dolled up for church, which included lots of ruffles and tulle on Miss Faye. Dressing this little thing is just too much fun! Sacrament meeting was wonderfully uplifting, and then I got to sit by and hold hands with my husband during another meeting. (This never happens!) I finally learned a thing or two about this new fangled computer. The Mac and I just stared at each other for a few days before I dared touch her. We ate watermelon on the porch. Carson worked very hard on a couple of thank-you cards and delivered one to a neighbor. (He is very into playing mailman these days.) Everett entertained us all with his nonsense answers to questions and random bursts of laughter. Faye proved that she can wake herself early out of every nap in one day by rolling over. She also spent her first moments in an exersaucer. (Maybe she finally has a place to play where boys won't be spontaneously starting wrestling matches with her.) We finished making Carson's new twin bed. We traded out an infant car seat for a new booster seat. (And our 12-year-old Taurus continues to amaze us by fitting our three kids in the back seat.) We enjoyed our children. Sundays are just great days!

The sisters' visit.

My two big sisters came down for a fun visit a couple of weeks ago: Ashley from Boston and Reagan plus three girls from VA. It was a full house here and we all played hard!

The Moravian cookie factory tour was one fun activity. These ladies make and cut out each cookie by hand, which I found pretty interesting.

Let's be honest though; the tour got a little lengthy for these kids. At the end of each section of the tour, there was a nice cookie sample, so at least we all made it through. And Adriel kept it lively with some interesting,off-topic questions.

And here we are at the much-anticipated Lazy 5 Ranch. Carson was so excited to go here, where you take a wagon ride to see and feed zebras, giraffes, etc. etc. But of course he freaked out when we actually got there. Notice there are no pictures of my cautious boys feeding or touching any animals, but we did make it through, and they still talk about it and often pretend to be emus and water buffaloes.

That is a crazy tongue!

These emus were all over the place. They were Carson's favorite (from a distance, or course), and now he likes to eat his food like one.

Go Adriel!

Here are the cute kids, minus Faye.

These boys could have stood here and watched the fish for a long time. Fish are nice and non threatening!

We love cousins!

The hot dog birthday.

Everett has a funny obsession with hot dogs. He doesn't eat them very often, and even when he's offered a hot dog he won't eat much of it. (He doesn't eat a ton of anything really, except for his large bowl of oatmeal each morning.) But he talks about hot dogs all the time. He'll find a sticker or a little toy with an oblong shape and carry it around calling it a hot dog. Whenever we play pretend, he is eating or handing out hot dogs to everyone. So we thought it would be fun to make him a hot dog cake for his second birthday. Carson helped me make it and we thought it was pretty funny!

Everett took his candle-blowing very seriously and tried several times to get those two candles out. And then he wouldn't eat more than a bite of his cake, of course! We played pin-the-hot-dog-on-the-bun and opened a dollar-store present. Two year old birthdays are great, and so is this cute boy.

Three months, and we're still in love.

She's at that stage where it's like she just can't help smiling super big, and she's starting to laugh when we play peek-a-boo. (Carson is convinced she's learning to bark rather than laugh; it does sound like little puppy yelps sometimes.) Every night before we go to bed we just look at her for a few minutes and still can't believe that we have such a perfect little girly thing. And that we've had her for three months!

Cute children on Easter Sunday.

(Faye's face says, "why did I just get yanked out of bed?") And she had the cutest shoes to go with her dress, made by Etta, but they had fallen off!

Pre-School, P & Q.

Etta taught our little students about the letter Q today. For one activity, they had to identify some Qualities of their family members. Carson understood a quality to be something that someone is good at, and these are his responses:

Dad: "My daddy is brave and sometimes at dinnertime he tells me about his patients."

Mom: "My mom is a hard worker; sometimes she gives me jobs."

Me: "I'm good at hugging and kissing Faye."

Brother: "He doesn't do anything good."

Sister: "She just drinks milk."

He is right on with most of those, but I wouldn't be so hard on poor Everett!

Our P pre-school that I did a couple of weeks ago was one of our favorites so far. The main theme was Pirates, and the kids enjoyed making hats and eye patches, and then completing a search for pirate treasure. (I love the picture of them studying the pirate map!) They had to find an envelope at each spot on the treasure map. The envelopes each contained a letter that they had to put together to spell "pirate." The treasure hunt concluded with Popcorn and lolly-Pops!

Spring has sprung...

...in our living room.

Sometimes, when your husband is working a 30 hour shift on the weekend (for the fourth weekend in a row), you feel entitled to do things like go to Michael's and spend a nice chunk of money on some lovely flowers. Then staying up until midnight making a wreath helps curb the loneliness. Rick is enjoying his internal medicine rotation, and we are making the best of it!

We think he's a pretty smart boy.

He sounded out and wrote this all by himself!

Carson has always been fascinated by letters and learning. (Remember when he was a little baby identifying the ABCs?) For the last couple of months he had lost interest in doing workbooks and playing anything with letters or reading, so we really weren't doing anything besides our weekly pre schools. But all of a sudden he's back in the game and wants to read and write! It's fun to just let him decide what he wants to work on and encourage him when I can.

(He's funny, too!)

She's just lovely.

I have no complaints about this girl. A dark-haired, blue-eyed pretty baby who sleeps through the night at 6 weeks really is a dream come true. As Carson always says, "she's a lovely baby, isn't she?"

P.S. I have to apologize for posting such an unsightly potty picture earlier today. I will use the excuse that I got up at 5 with Rick to pack his lunch and see him off, and I was a little tired while deciding which pictures to post. So sorry, but this picture of Faye should make up for it!

My two-year-old.

He's funny.

He's snuggly when he's tired.

He's really, really cute.

 Everett is TWO! He woke up to streamers all over the place and his usual bowl of oatmeal with banana and peanut butter. We sure love this boy. The next couple of pictures have some questionable content, but this is just what Everett is all about these days. Happy Birthday to my sweet Everett.

 

"Everett, don't let the mailman see your peeper."

"Look, Mommy!" (It is a little startling when you are doing the breakfast dishes in the kitchen and your 23-month-old walks in to show you this.)

"Hiiiiiiiii Faye goo!!!!!!!" (Everett's usual greeting to Faye, said in a very high pitched voice.)

I agree.

When Rick was seeing geriatric patients, he had to give them some sort of cognitive evaluation. One of the requirements was that the patient had to write a simple sentence. This is what one of the older ladies wrote for her sentence. I might be worried if she were 40 years younger!

Just Playing.

Just playing.

Playing with vacuum attachments. (Ew.)

Playing with bubbles.

Playing on St. Patrick's Day. (Before he got super mad that someone ran in front of him when he was supposed to be the leader of the parade.)

Playing with Gracie.

Playing with dirt. (Not as cute as Gracie.)

Playing on her tummy.

Oops. (Does anyone have any laundry tips for spit-up stains? I am not very good at treating them right away, and all my clothes look like they have grease stains on them from this girl.)

Playing together.

Playing is fun, but I'm glad everyone is asleep for the night! The silence is lovely.