Ears Pierced

Ever since Sydney got her ears pierced, Renée has wanted hers done. I told her that as soon as she passed off her first sight words list, she could have them pierced. I took her to the Claire's in Southlake.  She picked out silver balls, because that is what I was wearing. She didn’t act nervous at all and didn’t cry out or anything. She was so very pleased to see her reflection.

Carter is 4!

We celebrated Carter’s forth birthday. He started the day with a four pancake made by Sam. He got to go to preschool and bring tool cupcakes. We road the tandem bikes to our pond and fed the fish. Carter loves this. After a dinner of chicken nuggets and French fries, we had tool cake. He had a great time opening his presents. He got more tools, diggers, and a tool belt. Can you tell he loves orange?

A little about Carter:
Weight: 30lbs.
Height: 36 ½ inches
Favorite Color: Orange
He wants to be a driller when he grows up.
His favorite thing to do is play with tools.
His favorite song is Bob the Builder.
He loves to watch Team Umi Zoomie.
He goes to preschool two days a week.
He takes gymnastics lessons.
He fills our lives with joy and a little whining:)

Cupcakes for Preschool.

Make a wish!

The Decorations.

Enjoying tool cake.

More Tools!

A Tool Belt

Ready to build and fix.

Sam the Hairdresser

While I was at Women’s Conference Sam gave each of the kids a bath and curled Renée’s hair in sponge curlers. I was so impressed with Sam and Renée’s beauty that I had to take some pictures before church. Since the camera was out, I got a few of my handsome boys.

I love this photo.  It is already hanging on my wall.

Goodbye Moses Family

Our friends from Frisco are moving to Minnesota. They visited us today to say goodbye. Here are our Carters playing with Jason’s ipad. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the rest of them. I guess I was too busy talking.

Maple Cream Truffles

I was asked by my church to make 150 of my best dessert. They couldn’t be something that used utensils, so I decided to make truffles. Lindsey and Marci are life savers and came over and helped me roll and dip them in chocolate. This week was really busy with a trip to the temple, the baby shower, homework, and the kids’ activities. Sam also was really busy with school projects, so he wasn’t able to help much either. I didn’t realize how busy I was going to be when I agreed to do this. By the time it was truffle making day, I was kind of bitter that I had to make them. I try to keep it together and do everything that is asked of me but this week I had a lot of feelings of being overwhelmed. Luckily, next week will be a lot less stressful. Sam’s three night of school schedule has been really hard. I am looking forward to next semester when he will only have two. I just keep telling myself, he will be done in August.  The upside of all of this is that my house smells wonderfully like maple.

This is what 150 truffles look like.  I am sure most of you have not had the opportunity to view such a sight.

Flower Power Baby Shower

My good friend, Erika, had her third girl last month. She didn’t find out what she was having, so I threw her a post baby shower. She brought her beautiful baby, Emma. I got the balloon decoration idea from Martha Stewart.

Along with the balloons, I added photos of the baby.

Flower power balloon that are easy to make but will give you sore fingers.

Mint Chocolate Mousse

Brownie bites with peanut butter frosting

Veggie Pizza

Feta and pear tarts

Florentine Artichoke Dip

Erika, the guest of honor.

Her lovely hooter hider for Jayne.

Tumbles of Fun

I think Carter is a little board without Renée and Gavin during the day. I found him in the dryer one day turning the light on and off. Don’t worry Grandmas; we had a talk about how dangerous it is to be in the dryer, after I got my photo of course.

Digger Scripture Case

My mom sent Carter this digger scripture case for his upcoming birthday. She made it and even embroidered his name on it. We don’t want it to get confused with all the other kids who have digger scripture cases. My mom is too cute and couldn’t wait for his birthday to give it to him. He loves it and took it to church proudly.

Run in the Dark

Gavin ran in his first 5k race. I ran with him and we did it in 44 minutes and 14 seconds. He did really well and ran for a lot of the race. He talked the entire time and was very proud when we finished.

before

after

Jailbreak

I did my first obstacle run and loved it! We waded through water up to our chests, went through a lot of mud, climbed a wall of tires, went down a waterslide made out of tarps, climbed a wall of hay, and climbed under wires through the mud. The trail running Alycia and I did paid off and we were girls 7 & 8 in our heat of 300. Marci Sparks, Zach & Jess Smith, and Brent Vincent participated with us. This was a blast and we want to make it a yearly tradition.

Alycia, Marci, and I before the run.

Not too muddy after the race.

Alycia and I after the run.

Alycia, Zach, Jess, Marci, and me

Yard Sale

Alycia and I spent Friday and Saturday morning having a yard sale.  It felt good to get rid of some of our stuff.

Last Day at the Pool

Playing in the pool.

Preschool

Carter is in a co-op preschool so one week out of six, I teach in my home. This was my week. There are six boys in Carter’s class, which is fun because I was able to make my lesson gender specific. One of the lessons I taught was about the different homes that people live in. I broadened it to building homes. After reading the story Building with Dad, I gave each kid a hard hat and they hammered in some nails. They were very cute.

Carter, Preston, Liam, Trey, & Coen

Carter hard at work.

Busy builders.

More Hiking

We are going to Palo Duro again in October and are trying to get Carter used to hiking long distances. As soon as Sam got home from work, we left for Eagle Mountain. We ate our dinner in the car and each make a prediction as to how many armadillos we would see. We didn’t see any! We did see deer and a lot of rabbits. We hiked three miles and Carter still doesn’t like it but he made it the whole way and was proud when we finished. Here is what we saw along the way. I brought my Nikon this time.

Carter is so cute.

I loved this spider's color.  I guess being a bio teachers daughter, I didn't grow up with a fear of them.

This was along the way.  Kind of random.

Sometimes they will pose.

Checking something out.

At a little park along the trail.

I am loving their pose.

View from the overlook.

The forest is really pretty.  It was just tough to photograph it in such low light.

One of the many rabbits we saw.  I didn't get any deer photos.  They are too fast.

I don't know why she is touching the cactus.

She asked me to take this photo.

I occasionally get Sam to photography me to prove I was there.

Such a pretty view.

See, Texas is beautiful.

Getting a closer view of the water.