FUN in the SNOW

Yes, you read that right. I actually went outside and played in the snow AND had fun. A big thank you to my sis in law, Noelle, for always suggesting I get out and have fun and inviting us to go sledding with them this past Saturday. And also for taking pictures since my fingers were too frozen!

Imaginary friends

Today Carter has 4 friends over to play: Jay, Kai, Cole and Zane. He has been talking to them and having fun with them all morning. Here is a picture of all of them together.

Sentence structure

My first attempt at teaching my 4 1/2 year old punctuation and sentence structure. I welcome any ideas.

Written and illustrated by Carter

Carter has always been a great story teller and comes up with the most elaborate things. Lately he has also been into drawing so it was, naturally, just a matter of time before he put the 2 together. He decided to make a book and here is his creation. He had minimal help from us. Dave wrote Easter Bunny the first time and helped him spell going. Not bad for a 4 1/2 year old!



"Do you love going to the Easter Bunny?" (Notice everyone with their baskets lined up to get eggs)




"I love going to the Easter Bunny." (He ran out of room and wasn't sure what to do so he started writing backwards.)

 A 2 page book is not bad at his age. I've decided to start teaching him sentence structure since that seems like the next thing he will need to know. Capitalization, punctuation and spacing. Seems weird that he's not even in Kindergarten yet, but it's not like I'm pushing him to do something he doesn't want to. I am helping him with things he is interested in. Am I one of those moms???

Keeping the tradition alive

Like I've mentioned before it is a tradition in our family to dress as a smurf for Halloween at a very young age. My sister did it, my brother did it, even I did it, and now both of my kids have done it. It is so fun to look at pictures of them in the same costume. I think they look totally different. What do you think?

Bucket List

After a recent conversation with a friend of mine we both realized our bucket lists are a little weak. Does this mean we have little to no aspirations or are we content with the lives we are living. This was all I could come up with so, please, let me know if you have any suggestions!

Item #1: Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Item # 2: Grow, carve and race a giant pumpkin

Item # 3: Own something from Tiffany's.

I told you, weak sauce. What is on your bucket list???

A great visit!

It was so fun to meet Karyn face to face and we had a blast together. We are sad to see her go but we will meet again soon!

Tracy Aviary

On Saturday we took Karyn to the Tracy Aviary to see the birds. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out and walk around.



Jude definitely had the most fun. He kept saying "Quack Quack" at all the birds and climbed under all the ropes to get closer to the bird cages.




This was a gross yet awesome experience. Dave has always liked the Andean Condor and just our luck they had him out and were feeding him mice which he dismembered and inhaled for our enjoyment.




Sillies




Fishies!!!



Proud Mama

Well, today Carter received his certificate for memorizing all 13 articles of faith. He has been working on them all year and is one of the only Sunbeams I know of to accomplish this. I am so proud of him and his accomplishment and so grateful that he is proud of himself as well. He definitely should be!! Way to go Carter!!!

Gardner Village

Karyn and I met up with our friend Courtney and went to Gardner Village which is one of my favorite places. Luckily they still had the witches out and we could take some mildly inappropriate pictures with them. What did you expect??

Besties!!!

My best friend Karyn is here from New Hampshire and it is so nice to finally meet her!!! We've been having loads of fun wandering the city and eating ourselves sick!

Happy Halloween from the Menn

All dressed up and somewhere to go

Today was the Halloween party at Carter's preschool so I took a half day and got the boys all dressed up! They had a lot of fun and Carter loved the cotton candy.



Most of the chocolate came out so his costume is now wearable.




Clark Kent is a silly guy



Smurf disaster

With family in town this weekend we all decided to go to the Trunk or Treat at Jeff and Rachelle's ward Saturday night. The party started at 6:00pm so we scrambled and had the kids dressed with a few minutes to spare. Here is Jude...



Jude at 5:40PM. (The night before I had spent the evening with my sewing machine finishing both boys costumes.)





Jude at 5:45PM post chocolate covered granola bar that his cousin left and he found.



Jude at 5:50PM after I gave up and changed him to a skunk.

A new babysitter!

On Thursday Dave presented at what is called a Pecha Kucha (he will blog more about that since I have no idea...) and I wanted to go and see his presentation. A friend of mine from church offered to watch the boys and I was hesitant not because of her abilities but because of Carter and his anxiety towards new and different situations and people. We decided to give it a try and it went great! Carter loved Tammy and her family and Jude loved them and all the animals. They even got to feed the cows! Tammy and her husband actually asked us to go out again so they could have them back... twist my arm... and Carter wanted to go back there as soon as we left. I think we will be sending the boys there more often for fun with Farmer Tammy and family!!



Jude found a new use for Tammy's canning equipment.... Silly boy!



Inquiring minds want to know

Yesterday Carter was being very curious and asking what many different words meant. I can't remember all of them but here are a few:

Dave: "Carter that is really annoying."
Carter: "What does annoying mean?"
Dave: "It means you're bugging me."


Brook: "I hear a rumble in your tummy."
Carter: "What does rumble mean?"
Brook: "It's a loud noise like a growl."
Carter: "Will it wake up Jude?"
Brook: "No, it's not that loud."
Carter: "I don't hear it!"


Dave: "That's an interesting maneuver."
Carter: "What does maneuver mean?"
Dave: "It means to control something. See I'm maneuvering your arms."


and my favorite... While changing into his pajamas and putting new underwear on:
Carter: "Mom, what are these?"
Brook: "Those are testicles."
Carter: "What does testicles mean?"
Brook: "Ask your dad."
Carter: "Dad, what does testicles mean?"
Dave: "Boys have testicles. They are part of your private parts."
Brook: "You'll need them when you get older."
Carter: "Are they fragile?"
Dave: "They can be."
Carter: "What does fragile mean again?"
Dave: "It means it breaks easily."
Carter: "Do testicles break easily?"
Dave: "If you play with them too much they can break."





During the fragile/testicle conversation. Glad I caught this on film.

 

Impromptu play date

Tonight upstairs Abby and Megan came down for a little visit and Carter was loving it. It's nice to see him play with other kids and come out of his shell a little. Thank goodness for friends close by!!

Kissy face

Jude did his first kissy face which, of course, had to be documented.

Pumpkin Regatta reveals new goal in life

Last week my coworker told me about an event called the Pumpkin Regatta that was being held at Sugar House Park. I was so excited about this that I insisted we go. I even begged my sister in law to let me take her children!! I was totally not disappointed. The pumpkins weighed anywhere from 900 to 1500 lbs and were totally awesome. Here is a photo journal of the day with a few explanations.



They used saws to carve these enormous beasts which was really cool to see. This particular "boat" was named "Life is Gourd"




We were all rooting for this guy and he ended up winning!



We took lunches and ate them by the water so we could watch them finish up all the carving



Then we took to the huge hill and the kids had fun climbing up and rolling and running down. Even Jude liked it. I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the kids.
Michael and Jude




Carter and Jenna




Abby and Emma




Abby, Jude and Emma




The girls



The kids




Silly kids.

 After the regatta I came home and started searching Pinterest and Google for different techniques to grow ginormous pumpkins. My new bucket list item: grow, carve and race a ginormous pumpkin. I can't think of anything cooler to do with my teenage boys in the future. Dave thinks I'm crazy but I am totally serious! This should be fun!

Activity Days

Friday we had Activity Days at my house and we decorated cookies and played games. This picture was taken before 3 or 4 more girls showed up and before Carter was glued to the pack. He had tons of fun and made some new friends. Dave used the time the girls were over to escape and go visit John in the hospital (he's home now) and, surprisingly, Jude slept through all of the chaos. It was fun but I am grateful I won't give birth to 10 pre-teen girls all at once!

Housekeeping?

First let me start by saying that Dave's phone takes the crappiest pictures! I know this because it used to be mine...

So with everything going on lately and Dave working evenings and all the projects I'm working on and ...   our housework has been the last on the list. Since tonight I have the Activity Day Girls coming over for our activity and next weekend the Manns will be here and the weekend after that my bestie from New Hampshire is visiting I gave Dave a super solid guilt trip this morning about the house needing to be clean. Looks like he found some help...

Bonus kid time

Well, a few days after my "modes of transportation" post we had a transportation issue. Our sweet babysitter is sick today so we had to take the kids to my sister in law's which is not really a walkable distance and we need new tubes for the bike trailer. So I had to take an early lunch and pick up all the guys, take them to Rachelle's and then have Dave drop me off at work. When we got to Rachelle's she was not quite home so I used the time to take some cute pictures of the boys with my phone. You can never have too many cute pictures!! As blah as it was to drive all the way home and back it was nice to see my kiddos in the middle of the day. I always love some bonus kid time!



Carter drew a picture of what Jack brought today.




My little Prince Charming.



Just chillin'

Leave it to Jude, the funniest kid alive, to pick me up from a bad mood. He does this thing where he sits on the ledge in our fridge when we open the door and this time I decided to take a picture. I am so glad I did because his cheese face was priceless. Love this kid.