Carter Art Part 3

Carter drew our elf Christopher on a paper plate. This may be the most accurate drawing yet. It's a little sad when you realize your 4 year old is a better drawer than you...

Santa! I know him!!!

Our Santa encounter went much better this year!

Sweet boy

Carter has always been a sweet and very complimentary little boy. I have really tried to teach him to say nice things when he thinks them by always complimenting him and saying nice things about him. Last night while we were snuggling at bed time and I told him "I'm just going to roll over." He quickly responded with "But Mom, I can't see your cute face!" Just melted my heart! He ended up in our bed this morning and I snapped a picture of him snuggling with his daddy. Such a good little boy (most of the time...)

Judela

Jude is at that age where it is hard for him to sit still for a picture. Sunday I was able to snap these beauties and thought I would share. I love my silly little mann!

Fun with friends

As part of our month of giving we've tried to be more available to babysit for anybody who needs it. Our good friends the Van Den Akker's (who watch the boys during the week) were due for a date night so we got to take their kiddos. The boys were thrilled to have Pennie and Owen over and I loved getting some girl time with Pennie! All in all the kids were great but I'm pretty sure they all wore each other out!

And this is proof... Carter during primary the next day. Not sure how he didn't fall off his chair!

It's like looking into a mirror, only not.



This photo has sort of a time travelish quality to it...



Carter Art Part 2



Carter drew his favorite planet



This is Carter and Dave in a dark cave using a flashlight. They found a cat.



On the first day of December

We are back to one of our favorite traditions with our month of giving. We won't be posting all of them since we like to keep some of them anonymous but here is the first. Homemade maple bars!!!

Trimming the tree

Last night we finally put up the Christmas tree. Carter was so excited and couldn't wait one more minute!

Carter with my angel ornament. This ornament was given to me by my preschool best friend in 1988. I hang it every year and it makes me smile. I recently connected with her on facebook so it is fun to tag her in the picture when I post it. This year I let Carter hang it.



My traditional first ornament. Every year when we were little we would dig through the ornaments while my mom put the lights on the tree. This was ALWAYS the first ornament I would put on the tree. When I got married and moved out I found one on Ebay and my mom gave it to me for Christmas. I later revealed that I switched them when she wasn't looking...



Carter was most excited about putting the star on the tree. Even before the lights and the ornaments were up he kept asking about it. We let him do it this year.



Carter's section of the tree. Eventually I will even it out but for now it stays like this...



We got out the nativity for the kids and Carter started playing with it. This picture made me smile as it shows that he knows what Christmas is really about.



Little boys

I got to see my 2 smallest nephews while in California and I loved it. It helped with not being with my little ones.



Me and Calvin




Me and Miles




Crazy Auntie!




This little boy was very happy to have me home to snuggle!



An unusual Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving I took a trip to California to be with my fauxrents since Nancy's dad had passed away the week before. It was my first time ever taking a trip without either Dave or the boys so of course I was worried. Plus I knew I would miss them on Thanksgiving and miss all the new traditions we have with the Philpotts. It turned out ok, even though I didn't get pumpkin roll or play charades, and we all had a fun holiday.



Dinner at the Philpotts




Charades at the Philpotts




Dinner with Fauxpa...




Grandma Sylvest licking the beaters




With the Fauxrents.

 It just proves we have so much to be thankful for.

Something to be thankful for.

Last year we experienced some of the most amazing miracles during the month of December. We were trying to teach Carter that one of the important things about Christmas (and maybe life) is giving so we decided we would think of a way to give every day in December. We were really struggling financially that month but the lesson we wanted our family to get out of this was that it doesn't matter how little you think you have, you can always find some way to help someone else. We ended up getting really creative by making cookies for people, singing in church, calling grandparents, sharing toys, donating clothes and toys to the homeless shelter, making gifts for people and leaving them on their doorstep, you name it, we did it. I received an email from my work about a sub for Santa that we were doing that year and since I was making my kids' Christmas gifts I thought I should make something for this. So one evening we sat down as a family and decided we would make a stuffed monkey. We each drew a sketch of a monkey to try to figure out what it would look like and at the end Carter decided that we should probably use Dad's. I took the drawing and made it into a stuffed animal, we wrapped it up and took it to my work on one of my Fridays off. On Monday I had an email from my boss inviting me to lunch. I thought this was weird but agreed to go. When we got there the manager from another department and the HR person from my work were there. I was freaking out a little thinking they were going to transfer me to another department or something. Well, after lunch they told me that the sub for Santa had been for our family. I immediately started crying and then they told me that they had a car full of presents and $1,100 in cash and Walmart gift cards for our family. I was so overcome with emotion at that point that the only thing I could say was "Please don't give me the monkey back." They told me they would give the monkey to someone who needed it and helped me load everything in my car sending me home for the rest of the day. I cannot even tell you how grateful I was for that amazing miracle. At the time I was embarrassed and felt like a charity case but now I realize that it is because we were committing to give that we were so blessed. We laughed saying that we didn't want Carter to think that giving meant you would always get something amazing in return since every time we gave we seemed to get something. All I know is that we were very blessed and felt very loved last December not only because of what we received but also because of everything we were able to give. We have decided to continue our December giving tradition and look forward to blessing the lives of others to show our gratitude for the blessings that we have received.
A few weeks after Christmas I received a picture of a little girl holding a stuffed monkey. This picture is one of the most precious pictures I have as it represents so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to give and for all that I have been blessed with. Happy Thanksgiving to you all and may you find and share the blessings in your life.



Curly girl

Today I decided to curl my hair which I haven't done for a little while. I thought it turned out ok.

Born to be a rock star

I think we need to get him lessons. He definitely has the attitude!

Breaking dawn

A friend of ours posted that she had won tickets to the Breaking Dawn movie at the new theater over by us and was giving them away. I took them thinking that we could use them for girl's night but ended up going with Dave for a last minute date night. It was better than the others.... That is all you are getting from me.

Ninjabread Cookies!

 Noelle was definitely the hero this weekend. If it wasn't enough to get me out in the snow she also found these super awesome ninja cookie cutters! We made them together Saturday night and then I had to borrow them on Sunday to make them for my sweet little friend Hailey who is in the MTC. Carter LOVES them and has so much fun decorating them like his favorite Ninjago guys. Good find Noelle!



The top row are Dave's and the bottom row are mine.



These are Carter's creations!



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!