Happy Birthday Car Car!

So it is your birthday and you are finally three. You do a great job at holding up three fingers. It took a lot of practice. Today was an eventful day. You went to breakfast with Nana and got the robot dinosaur you have been asking for. However, it was not the correct color and you were sure to tell Nana so. Then you went with Daddy to the Utah basketball game wearing ALL your Utah apparel. Except for the new sweatshirt he bought for you. Next, Grandma and Grandpa watched Max while we went to Fat Cats with Sara and Will. After eating pizza and playing bowling (skeet ball is your kind of bowling which is great because it is only 25 cents) we went and got ice cream.

You are so funny at times, often very sweet when you tell me you love me out of nowhere, and can be a GRUMPY three year old at times. We have grown so much the past year and I am happy to say many wonderful things about you!

Every morning when you wake up, you say "Is is wake-up time?" You love to cuddle with mommy and sometimes I sneak into your bed when Max gets up VERY early in the morning. If I go into your bed, you usually fall back to sleep and Max does too!

You sometimes hesitate to go to school but always tell me how much you love school when I pick you up. You can say the whole Pledge of Allegiance and can count to twenty. You know your vowels, most of your letter names, and a lot of the letter sounds. I visited your class last week and you are a VERY good listener (for your teachers) I was very impressed. My favorite thing you do lately is tell me words that "start the same". Usually they are rhyming words.

Dora is getting old and you would rather cut with scissors or write. You do like to watch one show before nap time and always try not to go potty before getting in your bed. Your first missed nap was this week and it is not something we will do again anytime soon.

Every time Daddy comes home from work you ask if I am going to the grocery store. You like to "run errands" with me.

You have been the most amazing eater your whole life. You are always up for trying new foods and your favorite food is SUSHI. Yep. It gets expensive when we take you with us! At your three year appointment, you were in the 100%tile for height and 75%tile for weight. You wear a size 5T in most clothes and a 10.5 in shoes.

You can be so sweet to Maxwell but you can also tease him to tears. He loves to chase you around the house and you can make him giggle like nobody else. He cries every time you get out of the car to go to school and seems lost while you are there. He squeals with excitement and kicks his legs when we pick you up!

You are patiently waiting for all the snow to melt so you can play outside more and I am looking forward to it even more. I am excited to see you become even more athletic and try new things this summer.

I love my brown eyed, skinny bean, funny little guy. Happy third birthday. I watched you sleep for a few minutes tonight and want you know you are one of my best friends and I cherish EVERY minute spent with you. I hope you had a happy birthday and have MANY more to come!

Much love,
Mommy

Spring Fever

I looked at the boys after getting them dressed this morning and realized I am really trying to rush springtime. Who isn't? I am done with ear infections and booger noses. I must admit, I do feel a kiss of spring in the sunshine every day. It will be welcomed. I am sooooooo excited for swimming pools, open back doors in the evening, morning walks, park days, getting in the car without taking 10 minutes to get socks, shoes, coats, and hats. Not to mention getting the carseat around all that.

BriNG it On! I want SUNSHINE!

Surprise, Surprise.

So I thought I was the one with the great surprise for Valentimes day. My honey surprised me last night. I went to get in bed and found a new laptop with a message typed on the screen. He is so romantic and so good at always waiting to the last minute to bust out the surprise. For those of you that have seen my old laptop, I must say I am VERY excited to have a new one with all the keys. This does not mean my posts will be any better than what they are now but it does mean it will take a lot less time.

Thanks HONEY! What a fun Valentimes day. You are my favorite. I LOVE YOU!!!!

I love my little guys too but yesterday was a bust with the kids. Carden was not himself and I finally realized why. After giving up on delivering all our valentimes and seeing Dr. Witt (ONCE AGIAN!) both kids have ear infections. That explains Carden's behavior and now I do not seem to be as frustrated with him anymore. I guess I am more compassionate when I know why he acts the way he acts. Much love to my little ones and even more to my wonderful hubby.

Happy ValentiMes Day!

My Dad has always called this day of love Valentime’s Day. It has caught on with our family and so it will stay.

For those of you receiving valentines from Carden, get ready because he is feeling very generous this year. While driving the other day he told me the following, “Mommy, I need to get some valentine CREDIT cards for all my friends. Then I have to run really fast.” He kills me.

We are so happy to have soooo many people to love and who love us. We are very blessed and happy to share this day with all of those we love and adore. Here is Carden’s big list. Sorry for those that did not make the list and congrats to those who did (including the dogs) and some people even made it twice!

Amber
Baby Parker
Libby (Demmings’ Dog)
Justin
Nicole
Owen
Parker
Amber
Nicole
Jonah and Jacob
Marcus and Austin
Montana (Rogers’ dog)
Will
Just everybody mommy!

Finally, a HUGE thank you to everybody involved in Alan’s Valentimes gift. I actually surprised him! He is very giddy and I am happy he had no idea it was coming. Thanks again to Jeff Metcalf, Alan’s parents, his sisters, his brother, Mike and Sara Rogers. NO THANKS GOES OUT TO THE WEATHER THAT REALLY PUT A GLINCH IN THE PLANS!

SO MUCH LOVE

Carden's Birthday wishlist, so far.

A new robot, dinosaur
A really really big surprise
A new toy train with a track
A new Utah sweatshirt
A frog toy that sweaks
A grape magnet
Red Utah Shoes
Light up shoes (I swore I would never let my kids wear these, Oh well)
A new Spiderman toy (He has no idea who Spiderman is)
A Spiderman lunch box (When I asked him what he would do with it he said "Take it wherever I go." He also looked at me like that was the dumbest question I have ever asked.)
A head lamp

Apparantly he would like most of these things "New", not used.

I LOVE YOU CARDEN!

Welcome Home

Well, we are home from an AWESOME vacation. We went on an eight day cruise with Alan’s parents and siblings. There were twelve of us in all. We left all the kids home but had the time of our lives. Thanks Steve and Susan.

I am not sure how I can post eight days of nonstop fun in one post but I will try. We left on Saturday morning and my sister came to tend the boys. Thanks to Mimi, my Mom, and Nate and Megan Whitney for helping care for them while we were gone. Carden and Max were up bright and early but I was happy to see them before we left.

We flew to Long Beach and the sun was already feeling wonderful. We went on Norwegian Cruise Line to the Mexican Riviera. The first two days were spent on the ship and plenty of food was devoured. The second day we went to all you can eat sushi! Let’s just say Jana’s husband, Jason, saw a new side of me. He never knew I could eat so much.

Our first stop was Acapulco. We rented a 12 person van with AC. When we got in it was actually for 10 and the AC was on when the window was rolled down and the air was blowing. Gotta love Mexico! We went to a beach and body surfed. Alan actually rented a real surf board and tried surfing with his brothers for a few hours. Next, we went back to the ship, showered and ate dinner. We then went back out to the city to watch some mates climb a huge rock wall and dive into the water. It was crazy! We then shopped and headed back to the ship.

The next day was Zihuatanejo, Ixtapa. We took a small boat to a snorkeling area and beach. Mexico is great! You always have to pay for something. To use the bathroom, sit on a chair, or even a canopy you swear nobody owns. We bought a drink in a pineapple and some guacamole and chips in order to stay on some chairs. We snorkeled and Alan’s sister, Lisa, and I got beat up on some rocks when a large wave towed us over the top. We have some battle wounds to share for a while. We managed to still have energy to break it down on the dance floor that evening after eating more food of course.

I am trying to skip the part about how much food we ate because it was mind boggling. This morning Carden said “Wow Mommy! How did you get so big?” That was when I knew I had eaten too much the past week!

The next day was Puerto Vallarta. This was by far my favorite port. We went on a canopy excursion. It was so much fun. It really rates up there as one of the most exciting things I have done. I hate heights but LOVED this. We rode zip lines from mountain top to mountain top. I think there were about 15 lines total. Some about 500 meters. I highly suggest people try this one even if you are fearful of heights. The last port was Cabo San Lucas. The guys went fishing and enjoyed the day together. Unfortunately they only caught one fish that Alan had the chance to bring in. He felt bad later because no one got another chance. Bummer. All of us girls rented kayaks and rode a small water taxi out to an island and watch some huge waves hit the shore line. We almost got ran over by some VERY large yachts, bigger than our house, and even got honked at. It was super crazy rowing through there. We were a little out of place.

We headed back to the ship and waited for the guys to get back. Needless to say, we all panicked when the last tender was coming in and we had not seen the boat come back from fishing. I was so sick to my stomach! Sure enough, they all slipped out of the tender with all the ship crew and equipment. They still claim “They had plenty of time.”

Once again, we managed to eat our selves’ sick the last two days on the way back to Long Beach. We also danced and did Karaoke. We had beautiful weather the entire trip! We only saw rain the last evening on the ship and in the morning when we arrived in Long Beach. The rain actually turned out to be a blast.

We rented a car and drove through the city searching for the famous Trader Joe’s grocery store. We managed to find one after a long detour and some great rides through pools of rain.

We raced home to see the boys before they went to bed. I must admit, I was almost as excited to see the boys as I was the day we left for the cruise. They are the light of my life. I missed them a lot but it was nice to not worry about them on the cruise. Especially seeing as our ship made the CNN news channel. There was an outbreak of Norwalk Virus I am not sure of the spelling but I am sure I was scared to death of it. SICK!!!! NASTY!!!! Over 200 people got it. No one in our family came down with it but it was probably due to the fact we basically took a bath every chance we had in the hand sanitizing machines they had at every corner of the ship. Seriously, we each probably used at least a gallon of it!

So now we are home to SNOW SNOW and more SNOW. My bones ache again and I am getting spring fever. As we arrived in Salt Lake we received word of President Hinckley’s passing and my heart was torn. I guess I expected it but was not prepared. I love him and he will always hold a VERY special place in my heart. I know he was a real prophet and I am thankful for his wisdom. Although we spent a week in paradise with family, I know it was nothing compared to the paradise we can some day live in with ALL our family and Heavenly Father. Welcome Home.

Happy Birthday Maxie!

Where did that year go? Can you really be one? We love you so much and enjoy you every minute. You are starting to play with Carden and your face lights up when ever you see him. Especially when we pick him up from school. You kick your legs and squeal with excitement. You are crawling all over the place and pulling up on things. You can point to noses when asked and give great kisses. You often pat my back when I hug you and you love to play ball. You can sign 'milk' and 'more'. You clap your hands every time Daddy gets home from work! You adore him! You still have digestive issues and we are working on it. You HATE to take any medicines and manage to know when anything is hidden in food. You are becoming a picky eater. This is due to us trying to trick you into taking medications.

You have found a new fake cry and use it when Carden is bothering you. I must tell you, it is not very good acting! You might want to work on that one.

I can tell you and Carden are going to be best friends. You have both been so much fun lately. We love to play together and I love peaking in on the two of you together.

We had a little birthday celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Sunday. You dove into your cup cake and devoured it. YUMMY!! Today was a little down day. Daddy had to go to San Francisco for the day, we had our carpets cleaned, and made you another cake. This time it was banana cake with Cool Whip. Car Car and I sang happy birthday with Nana on the phone. We had to do it three times. The first time the video was not recording. The second time the candle would not light. We played 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'. Carden was so excited. He asked if he was three now because you are one.

Happy Big Day to my baby! I love you.

As one of my favorite songs says "My wish for you and that life becomes all that you want it to. Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, you never have to carry more than you can haul." I just want to add that I hope you can gain a love for your Heavenly Father because he loves you and I do also, Maxwell. Happy First Birthday!