Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Monday morning the boys and I made cookies.  Carter asked if they could eat some and I told them we'd have to wait until I got home from my Parent Teacher Conference with his teacher.  As soon as I left, apparently Carter turned to my friend who was over and said, "Guys!  We need to eat as many cookies as we can RIGHT NOW!"

I thought I was clear...

To spare you all the details, I've had to add this new sign to my home decor:

or the bedding, carpet, furniture, clothes, books, and brush

And after 2 hours of arduous clean up, I came downstairs and found Addison:

Clearly, he was pooped.

Missionary Craze & Maze

We LOVE our Missionaries in the ward right now!  Incredible young men that we adore having in our home.  They uplift our family and help us teach our children true principles.  Last night they came over, and taught a lesson on faith greater than Steve or I had ever done for our children.  After reading Alma 32:28 about exercising faith, they had Carter and Addison do a Trust fall--falling backwards with their eyes closed and Elder Gates PROMISED to catch them.  And he did.  And they did it over and over again, and each time it got easier and less scary, because they KNEW he would catch him.  And that's how faith works, they taught us.  That the first time we have to take a step of faith, it might be really scary, and we might feel uncertain.  But the more we exercise that faith, and remember the times that God has caught us before, we can trust and rely on Him more and more and remember that He will be there all the time to catch us and help us on our way.  Thank you Missionaries, for that great lesson!

Elder Gates, Carter, and Elder Boyer

poor Addison didn't want to be photographed!

While waiting for dinner, they created this COOL game for our boys!  Elder Gates made a grid of 9 houses.  Elder Boyer designed some elaborate obstacles, and Carter and Addison collected cars.  What they came up with was a Missionary Maze.  Before each round, someone would put a star on one of the houses, designating the investigator's house.  Another person placed the obstacles in the road (a car crash, a construction barricade, and a pond--with a duck in it...go Elder Boyer!)  Then, the kids would drive the cars along the road, like a maze, to get to the investigator's house.  Cool huh!  It was a BLAST!  The missionary maze game was inspired by the online version found here.

If you want to see what we believe and what they teach, click here.  Or to see the missionaries in your area, click here.

Like Daughter, Like Son

I went in to check on my kids tonight before going to bed.  Alana was first, and I was struck with how she reminded me of Carter as she was sleeping.  Something about her body position, how her covers are way off of her, she's on her back like Carter (while Addison is a tummy sleeper), maybe her face, and the way her head was tilted all the way back, I don't know what exactly, but it just really brought a resemblance to my heart, and I thought, "Wow, it's another Carter!" 

And then I went into Carter's Room and saw that he was sleeping in almost the exact position as Alana!  "Wow, that's amazing!"  So I left to get my camera (out of the car...in the rain...ok, so I'm a blog addict), and by the time I came back, he had changed positions slightly. 

But NOW his position made me think of HIM as a 2 month old.

Even if the resemblence is all in my head {and heart} and you are reading this thinking WHAT? it's still fun for me to see the similarities in these kids!  People say our kids are all of the same mold.  Even today, Carter brought pictures of himself from preschool, and Addison, while looking at them, kept saying "Addison!  Addison!" insisting they were him.  And at preschool Carter's classmates mistake Addison for Carter OFTEN, despite his smaller size and younger age!  Hey, at least we're a good lookin' family!  We'd hate to pass on the ugly gene at this rate ;)

Flaunt it if you've Got it

I have a sister I like to flaunt. 

And she's got a talent she ought to flaunt. 

But doesn't. 

So here it is.

The other day her 2 girls (4 & 2) said they wanted to wear dresses that day.  Hmmm...said Cheri...I don't have any dresses right now, but let's see what I can find.  And off the girls went merrily to play.  Soon thereafter, Cheri emerged with 2 brand new dresses she had just whipped up from scrap fabric for both of her girls.  With Flower Embellishment, Sash, and everything!

It's incredible! 

Total Time spent creating 2 dresses on the fly:  90 minutes

Who DOES that?

Isn't it cute!

Starting the day with laughter:

On Addison:

I came down from my shower this morning to find Addison proud of himself.  "Money!  Money!" he said excitedly, while pulling me to the kitchen.  He had found Carter's bank, opened it, and enjoyed putting the coins back through the slot.  "Good job, Addison" I was thinking, until he pointed to the sink, where lied over $6 in coins, dumped into the disposal.  Guess we have a lesson about throwing money down the drain, though I thought that was just an expression.

On Carter:

Bless his heart, but truth be told we are still going through some potty training issues with going #2.  Talking to Carter about this again today, I asked him, "What are we going to do about this?"  He thought very carefully, and soon his face lit up with a completely logical solution, "Maybe if we just stop eating and don't have any food then we won't poop!" Riiiiiight!  "But Carter, our bodies need food to live."  His smile vanished quickly and his eyebrows furrowed in with deep concern and concentration.  "Oh...you're Riiiight! {long pause}  I guess we'll just have to try harder."

That's my boy..although all mommies who have potty trained might agree that his "stop eating" idea seems like a lot easier solution.

On the Parents:

I don't talk in my sleep.  And I'm a light enough sleeper that the peeps and sounds of kids gets me up and alert right away.  NOT SO on Sunday night.  It was so late when Steve got home from his weekend business trip that we fell asleep with barely a "hi" and "welcome home".  I was absolutely exhausted from a jam-packed weekend, and he was as well.  Sometime around 2 AM, my mom ears perked right up at the first sound of Addison crying in his room.  But my brain just wouldn't turn on right away.  And same for Steve.  We were with it enough to remember it all in the morning and just laughed and laughed during breakfast today.
Here's how our conversation went, yet do your best to hear it in tired, groggy, slurred voices with our eyes doing that can't-keep-them-open thing.

Me: Hey, that kid's crying

Steve : Which one?

Me: that one, the one that's crying.

S: Who is it?  Carter?

M: No, the little one, what's his name again?  
{yeah, I know!!  For some reason, all I could think was BRIAN, and I knew that wasn't right}

S: What? What's going on?

M: I don't know

And by now, Addison had fallen back asleep on his own.  We were very confused parents.

What a Woman!

Is she just near-sighted,

 or is she really kissing herself in the mirror?

I think she knows how much we love her
and how beautiful she is!

This morning, Alana surprised us all by taking her first CRAWLING steps!  She can go short distances to get a toy or book, but for the long haul, she still prefers the backward scoot.

8 months, 3 weeks, 5 days

And she's proven to have a shoe fettish.  To eat. 

Her shoes, brothers 'shoes, our shoes. 

On her feet.  On our feet.  On the foot of the kind-man-who-held-her-at-church.

Mother's Day

Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there.

Ours boasts of it quite openly; the signs are everywhere.

For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the doors--

I should apologize, I guess, for the toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children

and we played and laughed and read.

And if the doorbell doesn't shine

their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other,

I want to be a housewife,

but first I'll be a mother.

as applicable as this poem is to me, you'd think I wrote it.

But I didn't. 

 The author is unknown.

But she obviously knows me pretty well.

A Little Taste of Summer

Ahh, just imagine the nice relaxing sounds of waves crashing into the shore, the soft breeze flirting with your hair, and the touch of warm sand between your toes.  No, I'm not recording a relaxation tape for you, but don't you want to go there right now when Spring seems to have abandoned us in winter's grasp? 


Well, I have had enough, so I packed up my kids and decided to seek summer once more!

Ahhh...yum!  My favorite local retreat!

Sounds nice, doesn't it? 

Well, here's the truth.

We were bundled up SOO tight, the wind was SOO fierce and biting cold, that we only stayed for 15 minutes, tops.

But it was still refreshing to SEE what summer looks like!

I have faith it's coming and it will be great!

Uhhhh....

Steve was rushing out the door this morning and said in one quick breath, "Goodbye honey, I love you, and if I used your toothbrush I'm really sorry, bye!"

How do I respond to that?

"Hi Steve, welcome home.  Dinner's on the table, oh yeah, and if I used your toothbrush to clean the toilet I'm really sorry, please pass the corn."

or

"That's ok, even I don't know how many times that toothbrush has been in the kids' mouths, on their toys, and on the toilet, not to mention all the hair it picks up when it drops on the floor.  It was time for me to get a new one anyway."