Day to Day Life

As Long As Parker Is Around...

2012-02-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

As long as Parker is around, we will ALWAYS have something to laugh at! He will also keep me humble, which is important, don't you think?

We had Stake Conference today. It was a wonderful meeting and as usual, we hung around afterwards visiting with everybody and taking entirely too long to go home. Seriously, we love to chat, it's just the "norm" for us. As we were leaving, Carson and Parker were being rowdy so Sam shoved them outside (lovingly, of course) while we got Lillie buckled into her car seat. As we started heading outside, Carson informed us that Parker was peeing in the bushes. I totally did not believe him because Carson's greatest joy is trying to trick us into believing his jokes. So I said "yah right!" and walked outside. To my horror, there was Parker, peeing in the bushes RIGHT NEXT TO THE MAIN ENTRANCE of the church!

We quickly asked him what he was doing and he responded with "I had to go to the bathroom" in the most normal, bored voice ever. Luckily, most everybody had left the church since we took so long going home. I think a teenage boy walked out after us so he is probably the only one who saw....hopefully! Sam told Parker it was inappropriate and as were were walking to the car, and Parker was zipping up his pants, I saw Sam totally laughing quietly. Phew, I'm not the only one who found humor in this! We should count our lucky stars: At least he's not 2 and pulls his pants all the way down to his ankles when he urinates! ha ha!

Here is Parker trying to take a nap on his body pillow this afternoon. He is seriously the funniest (is that a word??).

To make matters worse:
We were eating lunch after church and for a treat, I gave the boys a cookie from our freezer. Parker took a bite and doubled over while holding his mouth. He's had a loose tooth for about a month. We said "Oh man, did your tooth come out?" He said "no, it just made it more loose! I can feel a bigger gap now". I asked him to open his mouth so I could see. I was laughing so hard because his mouth was all bloody and his tooth was GONE! I said "Parker, your tooth is gone! Did you swallow it?" Yep, he did. Poor Parker.

Parker was pretty upset but we just told him to write the tooth fairy a letter. He did. It says "Dear Tooth Fairy, I swallowed my tooth. Please give me money anyway". Yeah, I think we should have some fun with this one...

Yep, More Pictures Of Lillie

2012-02-02T13:59:00.006-07:00

I've been cooped up in my house for almost a month. Shockingly, the only pictures I have to show for it are mostly of Lillie.

Sunday best!

These two are best buddies. I love it!

I took these pictures this morning. Just to keep it real, Lillie had just had quite the B.M. and she was wide awake and alert (maybe a little freaked out) after that experience!

"Gosh mom, do you have to tell EVERYBODY about my bowels? Uh-Oh, here comes another one...."

"I have a hard life: eating, sleeping, pooooooooping"

"I think I'll write a rap song about it. My hand is perfectly placed for my pretend microphone...which is convenient since I have NO CONTROL over my spazzy hands!"

"That's enough for today. I'm pooped (punny!), please leave me be so I can get my beauty rest."

2 1/2 Weeks Old

2012-01-25T16:37:00.016-07:00

Lillie is only 2 1/2 weeks old, but it feels like she has been part of our family for years! Now, you could take that one of two ways.... Either it feels that way because she is such a welcome addition and we don't know how we got along without her, OR, I'm exhausted from 24-7 care and the days are such a blur it feels like I've been doing this job for years!

Okay, maybe it's a little bit of both....

Regardless, we are smitten, 100% smitten.

I usually am holding her and think "oh I need a picture of that face!" and the only camera within reach is my crappy cell phone camera. No, I don't have a fancy iphone yet. :) Here are a few shots I've taken lately wit my phone:

My friend gave me a swaddler for my baby shower. I seriously don't know how I got my newborns to sleep in the past without one of these bad boys! They hold her arms down and wrap her up nice and tight. Love it!

So girly!

Soaking up some sun. Don't you love how all newborns have frog legs? Cracks me up!

I texted this picture to Sam and his reply was "Creepy hands!" Okay, yes, her hands look a little Tyrannasauraus Rex, but look at those cheeks! How about those awesome eyes?? She can't help the fact that her fingers are abnormally long...one day those hands will be called elegant. :)

This picture is from today. She stretched and then just kept her hands above her head. Since the Superbowl is in a few weeks, I will title this picture "TOUCHDOWN!"

Onto other things...
Cameron brought this paper home from preschool today. What I SHOULD have said was "Hey Cameron, tell me about this picture?" but instead I said "Hey Cameron, this is an awesome cloud!". His reply: "It's not a cloud, it's a bunny!" ...sigh...

Cameron has been drawing this kid a lot on the magnadoodle. He draws it the exact same way every time, but each time he draws it he tells me it's somebody different....dad, Carson, Parker, Cameron... Parker and Cameron have never been big on drawing or coloring so for Cameron to draw this "kid", it makes me smile!

Speaking of that crazy kid Cameron, check out his actual face, not the magnadoodle kind. Seriously, he's a nut job!

With the help of Aunt Fern....major improvement! ha ha ha!!! Cameron just looked at this picture and said "OH, that is SO Aunt Fern!!"

I took Lillie to church this past Sunday. I know I should stay home longer but I had cabin fever in a bad way! It felt good to get out of this house!

My mom showed me some pictures yesterday of when I was a wee one. Guess what? My hair was this same reddish brown color! Verrrry eeeenterestiiing!

She looks like she has something to say. I hope it's a witty reply to something her brothers said...she's going to need a quick wit to be the only girl. Either that or some long fingernails for a good defense...right Curtis? I think he has scars from my attacks when we were young 'uns.

Lillie Belle Sweet 1.7.2012

2012-01-15T16:22:00.028-07:00

Yay!!! She is HERE!!!

She is actually 8 days old now. Boy, times have changed...when I had Cameron, I updated my blog from my hospital bed. I guess I have my priorities more in check now. :) However, I wanted to document the experience before my sleep deprived brain forgets everything!

Sam and I did something different this time around. We decided to keep the delivery on the quiet side without any family in the room. I've loved having my parents and Fern in the delivery room in the past, but for our last baby we decided to keep it "chill". It proved to be a very special experience.

Here I am all hooked up to the pitocin. Don't let the smile fool you. Those contractions came FAST and they came HARD!

In the past, I would start to feel gentle contractions and then I'd get my epidural. This time it was like "Oh, I think that was a contraction" and then suddenly I'm gripping the side rails of the bed as crazy contractions were right on top of each other. It was super intense...to put it mildly. This all happened within an hour. I got the magical epidural doctor in the room asap and then I was happy and relaxed again. :)

I settled down into my bed, hoping for a nap because suddenly I was sooooo tired and extremely relaxed and comfortable. My doctor came into the room and said "you are complete, time to have a baby!". I swear, it all happened so fast! Sam responded, "WHAT? Now????" My doctor, who is totally awesome, said "well, we could go to lunch if you'd like, but I figured you'd want to meet your daughter.".

Okay, time to get down to business! The best part of the labor: I only had to push a couple times. During my last push my doctor said "Okay, good!". I thought she meant I was doing a good job, so I continued my push. Then she looked at me and said "no really, stop pushing" and then she held up my baby!! ha ha, I didn't even realize she had been delivered! Best delivery of all 4 kids by a country mile!!!

She cried like a champ, they put her on my chest for some skin-to-skin time, and she totally relaxed and stopped crying. It was then I became a little shocked: this girl has reddish-auburn hair! What the What??? My boys all had jet black hair. Totally bizarre!

Then they weighed and measured her: 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches long. She is my only 6 pounder. No wonder she was so easy to deliver! Cameron was 8 lbs 4 oz. What a difference!

All newborns are freaky in a Harry Potter Mandrake way. Oooh, that bulgy eye is awesome!

Opening your mouth is not going to distract me from that awesome bulgy eye. Nice try Lillie!

Okay, you won me over with the pouty lips and spit bubble. Yep, it's official. I love your guts!

Uh-oh...somebody is hungry!

My doctor: Dr Hannele Laine. She is seriously the bees knees and the cat's meow. Totally casual, hangs out in the delivery room taking pictures, and is lots of fun to chat with. Love her!

Grandma and Grandpa Clark. Lillie is named after my dad's mother, Lillie Rottweiler Clark. My mom's maiden name is "Bell", hence Lillie's middle name of "Belle".

First bath. Sam's a pro at this by now! The nurse even gave him an out and said "do you want to bathe her or would you like me to?" and Sam jumped right in and got his hands wet! Before he bathed her I said "Make sure you put a bow in her hair, I'll be so bummed if my only girl does not have a bow in her hair at the hospital!". Sam picked out a good one. Pink polka dots. Precious. :)

Aunt Fern came to meet the Sweet caboose! Great picture of both ladies!

Carson was at a scout merit badge shin dig all day so my parents brought Parker and Cameron to the hospital with them. They loved her instantly, which was great because when Cameron was born, Parker was a stinker! Ha ha, Sam is grubbin' on his Crown Burger that Fern brought him. Watching your wife have a baby is hard work, eh Sam! Really works up the ol' appetite. ha ha!

It LOOKS like Parker is freaked out by Lillie. Actually, he's looking at the IV needle in my hand and freaking out. hee hee.

The boys holding Lillie for the first time. They are seriously so good with her.

Carson came later in the day. He liked her, but it wasn't until we got home that he became enthralled with her. I guess he needed to let his 11-year old emotions figure things out first. I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that he knows where babies come from now! Yeah, see the pinkish blush on his face! It's tough to grow up.

I'm always fascinated at how quickly babies change in the first few hours of life. I think I had already kissed those cheeks 500 times.

By the next morning I was bored and ready to leave the hospital! Sam took advantage of the bed. Right after this picture, my nurse came in the room. We joked about her getting Sam some buffalo wings. She wittingly said "I've never had a boy patient older than 4 days old, this will be interesting." ha ha!

Going home! My friend Leslie gave Lillie this outfit and she even made head bands to match. So girly! Once she had the hospital onesie off that covered her fingers, she quickly started sucking her thumb.

We left the hospital and went straight to my parents house to pick up three eager big brothers.

From that point on, things have gotten a bit blurry in the memory department. I remember Grandma Sweet visiting, this is her 32nd and final grandchild: 20 boys and 12 girls! Aunt Rose, Zach and Caitlyn came to visit too!

Baby got back, er, I mean, Baby's first bath! She was SCREAMING, I was laughing. Right then Fern, Russ, and Aaron came to visit. I said "if this was my first baby I would be crying too, but I just think this is funny"!

Oh my word, this is my first time seeing this picture. CLASSIC! Look at the chaos that surrounds the first bath. I love it! Cameron was stressing from all the sounds coming from his baby sister.

And now for something completely different: If you know me, you know I'm not the creative type. Shocker. One night a few months ago, my pregnant body wouldn't let me sleep and as I was tossing and turnng, I had a sudden thought: What if I could find my Grandmother's signature of 'Lillie', my mom's signature of 'Belle', and my signature of 'Sweet' and had them printed in vinyl and framed? Then I laughed because I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to make that happen and I drifted to sleep.

Well, I was telling Fern's son Aaron about it and he told me it would be really easy so if I got him the three signatures he would make it happen. YES HE DID! I gave him the signatures, he scanned them into the computer. He enlarged the scan and cleaned up all the edges. Then he emailed the file to his sister Melissa, who had it printed in vinyl. I gave Aaron the frame, and he, Fern, and Russ assembled it and brought it over the same day we got Lillie home from the hospital! PHEW!

I AM IN LOVE with the end result! Here it is, with Lillie and Aaron. :)

And now just some random pictures from this past week. A lot of them were taken by my boys since my hands were full. :)

On a random note...
Sam's brother James loves to chat with Parker and try to convince Parker to play tricks on Carson. Fortunately for us, Parker takes everything Uncle James says to heart and tries out the suggested tricks. Quite often Carson will lay down at night, only to discover random objects stuffed into his pillow case or bed. The other day I heard Parker say "Hey Carson, I have this really cool game where you roll a quarter off your nose and try to drop it into a cup. Would you like to play this game?". Carson shrugged "sure" but first he was shooting apples with dad's pellet gun in the backyard (one of Sam's toys he got for Christmas). As soon as Carson went outside, Parker quickly came to me and said "Okay, here's what I need: a quarter and a pencil. Hurry!!!". He then used the pencil and rubbed it on the quarter's edges. As soon as Carson came back in the house he got him playing this game.

Now, I knew of this game because I have all brothers and I'm pretty sure this is a classic cub scout trick. However, Carson was clueless and from the first black line down his face I lost it! I could NOT stop laughing, while Parker kept a straight face and kept encouraging Carson to try, try, again! By the time Carson figured it out, he was a hot mess! Gotta love Parker!!!

Okay, Lillie is asleep so I gotta go to bed. I'll be dreaming of this sweet little face!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T19:53:00.011-07:00

I'm so happy it's 2012. Life is good and I have high hopes for what this year will bring!

We had a quiet night at my house last night. My parents came over and we celebrated the New Year according to New York's eastern time zone. ha ha! In other words, we toasted our sparkling cider around 10pm and called it a night. It was perfect. :)

Sam toasted to a healthier 2012...it's a theme, you'll see....

I toasted to have a healthy baby girl this week and then to get myself healthy again!

Dad toasted to be healthy: he's got back, heart, and pancreas issues so this was a wise choice of a toast!

Mom toasted to get dad healthy! ha ha!

Carson toasted to be more happy. I find that an interesting choice because he is seriously so happy, all the time. That's cool though, happiness is always a good idea if you ask me!

Parker toasted to get better grades in 2012....hey, wait a sec. I think I get it now. My kids are toasting to do things they are ALREADY doing! Punk kids! Parker is the model student right now. Of course, things could easily change from week to week so again, I will be happy to accept that toast!

Cameron toasted to be more happy as well. Okay, I'll admit, that's a great toast for him! :)

Oh look, it's already working!!

Still smiling after 13+ years. Love you Sam!!

Oh hey look! My parents are still smiling too! Like I said, life is good!

The obligatory pose: Here I am, one week from my induction date. I'm smiling, but just barely. :) Seriously though, my body is screaming for this baby to get cooked and get outta there! ha ha!

And now the crazies have set in for the last few moments of 2011:

Last but not least, check out this cute car seat cover my friend's sister made! Talented people amaze me! You can't tell from this picture, but our carseat is orange and gray so I bought some flannel with an orange theme and handed it over to my friend Heather. She gave it to her sister, who just whipped up this cover. I am loving it!!

Vintage!

2011-12-31T22:45:00.009-07:00

Tonight my brother put some scanned slides onto Facebook and I had to share them. I have never seen this pictures before. So much fun!!!

This is me and my brothers, Mike and Darren. Seriously, you gotta love the 70's!! I'm guessing this is around the spring of 1976.

Here is me sucking on the hose. Seriously, so gross. I love the yarn bow in my hair. Maybe I can find some of those for my baby!

Awwwwww, precious. Sam looked at this picture and said "If our little girl is half this cute I'd be happy". Whether he is telling the truth or not, it was the RIGHT thing to say to me! :) My dad used to call me "Turkey Lips". ha ha!

Speaking of my dad, here he is. Check out his gray hair. Yep, it definitely is a strong gene from the gene pool that he passed on to all 4 of his children!

And here is my brother Darren, my mom, and my dad's parents: Lillie and William Clark. This is my Grandma Clark whom I'm naming my baby after. Isn't she the cutest? She was strong willed and NEVER quit a job before it was completely finished. She had those horn-rimmed glasses until the day she died in 1988. My Grandpa Clark used to shake his cane at us and get all grumpy but we knew he was really a softy at heart. We used to slide down the roof of their cellar and he would yell "Quit sliding down the roof, you'll get slivers in your butt!!!" ha ha!

And just because it's such a cute picture: Darren and my mom. I'm guessing this was taken around the Fall of 1972. Love it!

Thanks for scanning those slides Darren, way fun!!

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T20:59:00.026-07:00

Our Christmas festivities were non-stop this year since Mike and Kim's family were in town. It rocked! Unfortunately, I sent everybody on their adventures while I sat at home and laid on a heating pad and tried not to go into labor! ha ha!

One day Sam was a good sport at attending Parker's classroom Gingerbread House making activity. I'm sooooo glad he went because it involved creativity and patience...we all know how I score in THOSE categories! ha ha! Gotta love Parker!

This same night, Sam took the boys along with Mike's family and Curtis and Dexter to a sledding hill in Park City. From the pictures I would assess they had a fabulous time! I want to go next year when I'm not prego! It even has a rope pull to pull you back up to the top of the hill! Dang, that's the worst part about sledding and it's all taken care of for you. Kids these days, they are spoiled! Back in my day we had to use a large cookie sheet as a sled! Okay, this is true, but only because we lived in Seattle and nobody had sleds because it rarely snows. We were improvising!

This picture is the BEST! Here is Parker with Dexter. Can you see all the condensation around Dexter's mouth? I keep laughing super hard every time I look at it, it's like he has a freaky goatee!

Yeah that's right Carson, just sit back and let the rope pull do all the work! Good thing we just increased your exercise regimen at home to make up for it! Now the boys do 25 sit ups, 15 push ups, and 50 jumping jacks every day. :)

They even had these miniature snow mobiles for kids up to age 12. Ah, to be young again! Actually, I'd cry a river if I had to re-live my 12 year old days. Have you seen pictures of my awkward puberty days? Well, I have and they are frightening! Puberty hit and my hair went all curly without any warning. Seriously, frightening! Don't even get me started on the acne and the pre-braces days! Wow, let's move on...

Sam was a trooper and went snow boarding one day with Mike, Kim, Courtney, Camilla, Carson, Kevin, and Curtis. Out of all those people, only Curtis and Sam had been snow boarding before. :) I was glad they were all willing to try something new! From what I understand, the first few times snow boarding are the WORST. I was proud of everybody because nobody came home pouting so that's a good sign! Mike and Kim even gave Sam an itunes gift card to thank him for his teaching skills, which was extremely thoughtful!

Christmas Eve we always make homemade pizza for dinner and have crepes with ice cream for dessert. This is a HIDEOUS picture of me, but it's a great picture of my dad! :) Ya win some, ya lose some.

Here's Mike taking a picture of Cameron, making a funny face. Oh man, those two became best buds. Cameron LOVES his Uncle Mike! This picture makes me laugh because look at that blurry kid at the bottom of the picture. That's Darren's son Jacob. He never slows down! Classic!

The master photographer, Darren, taking a photo of his carefully crafted crepe! We do love to photograph our food in this family!

Since Carson doesn't totally love ice cream (is he really my son??) he opted for Nutella on his crepe. Okay, I'll admit, that still makes for a great crepe! I think the Nutella is bringing out the pirate in Carson...

Christmas Eve means new pajamas! Unfortunately, Cameron forgot how to smile for the camera. This is seriously the 10th attempt at a good smile. Again, you win some, you lose some!

Christmas morning was wonderful! We had to wake our kids up, just like every year. I keep wondering when they will stay up all night like I used to do! We took our time opening gifts and enjoyed the Sabbath morning. I loved that Christmas was on Sunday! It was the cats meow!

Sam surprised me by making a book out of the first year of this blog, 2006. This sucker is 350 pages long! Luckily, 2006 had my most blog posts, they get smaller from here on out. I loved going back and reading this book, comments and all. So much fun! I hope to get the other 5 years done as well....hint hint!

The kids were pleased with their gifts and it was really fun this year because they also purchased gifts for each other, which I think made them so much more grateful since they spent their own money. Seriously, we are blessed with such fun boys!

After church, we went to Fern and Russ' house to hang out for a little while. Russ gave me the most hysterical gift: See that doll by my foot? Well, it's a black baby doll. In light of Cameron thinking his baby sister is going to be black (because the ultra sound showed her as black), Russ thought it appropriate to give me a black doll! I was laughing so hard, serious belly laughing! This doll is proudly displayed with the other dolls I have for baby Lillie!

Yah, don't ask. Aaron is just being Aaron! :)

Aaron and his wife, Danielle, are expecting their first baby in April. It's a boy! I love this shirt Fern gave them. I could have used this a few times!

They will be great parents! You should have seen how patiently they helped Cameron assemble a lego Mater from the movie Cars 2!

The day after Christmas we decided to exhaust everybody of all their candy-induced energy by being very physical! We first went to a bounce house. Let's just say we are very thankful to the teenage boy who was working there because he didn't care at all how crazy these kids were being!

That night we went to the Airborne Trampoline place. After one hour everybody had sweat running down their faces. It was awesome! My most favorite part of the night was watching Mike try to get out of the foam pits. It was hyserical!! Love ya Mike!

I can honestly say, I'm surprised all the Christmas activities did not send me right into labor! Last night Sam and I took down all the Christmas decorations and cleaned the house. At one point, I was standing in the family room and honestly could not walk for fear the pelvic pressure would kill me. I am COUNTING down the days to my induction! One week from Saturday!!!!!

You Should Have Seen The Other Guy

2011-12-21T12:40:00.010-07:00

Yesterday started out like any other day...getting kids to school, working, cleaning up after the whirlwind known as Cameron....

My friend stopped by with some delicious Christmas candy and as we were visiting my phone rang. She asked if I needed to get it, I responded "no" without looking at the Caller ID. Lucky for me, we have an answering machine that is heard to all who are in the room when you leave a mesage. It went something like this:

Mrs. Sweet, this is Leslie from Parker's school, Parker collided heads with his friend at recess. The other child is fine, but Parker's eye is incredibly swollen and we need you to come check it out as soon as possible.

Also lucky for me, I have 3 boys and don't tend to get too stressed with stuff like this! I looked at my friend and said "well, like Sam always says, this just shakes up the day!"

My friend left and as I was getting my shoes on to head to the school, my phone rang again. This time it was my neighbor. He was all in a panic. He said "Carrie, can I come over, I need you to look at my lip and tell me if I need stitches because my German Shepard just bit my lip!"

Sure, come on over....Parker's just laying in the office with ice on his eye....

Neighbor came running over, bare-footed (hysterical!). His lip was fat and sure enough, he had a nice slit where the dog's tooth sunk in. It wasn't stitch-worthy in my opinion though (but again, I'm a little laid back with these things). I told him to put Neosporin on it, maybe super glue if he's freaked out, and for heavens sake, put some shoes on!

I then ran out the door with Cameron. The office staff was so nice to Parker and gave him all sorts of compassion and sympathy. He was laying on a couch, trying not to cry. I took one look at his puffy eye and said "Hey buddy! Guess what is so cool? You are going to have a black eye for all your Christmas pictures! You will NEVER forget the Christmas of 2011. How lucky is that??" Parker smiled, the office staff looked at me like I was crazy, and then I checked Carson and Parker out of school 1/2 hour early. It was a good afternoon!! We came home and snarfed down some homemade bread I made earlier that day. All is right with the world.

Here is what his eye looked like when we got home. The swelling had decreased by at least half after all the ice. Well played, ice. Well played.

Here is what his eye looked like this morning at breakfast. Those colors are going to be fun to watch them change every day. On a side note, have I ever told you how much I love Parker's ears? Awww, I love this kid!

Last night we went with my parents and brothers family to Thanksgiving Point to see the Holiday Lights. Afterwards we went to Curtis' house for hot chocolate. While at Thanksgiving Point, my dad was talking to Parker. He said "If Curtis asks you what happened to your eye, tell him you got hit...but you should have SEEN the other guy!!!". Parker calmly says (as only Parker can) "Nah, I'll just tell him the truth." ha ha! Seriously, coolest kid ever!

We saw Reindeer at Thanksgiving Point. Pretty fun!

This morning, Cameron's preschool class had their Christmas Program. Chaos at its best! It was pretty cute. Songs were sung, pictures were taken, instruments were played, cookies were consumed, and the teachers HAPPILY sent the kids on their way, not to return for 2 weeks! :)

The kids had done a gift exchange where the dollar limit was one dollar. Luckily, Target has a great dollar section! Cameron was supposed to give a gift to a girl named Hannah. I found some Hello Kitty hair clips so that is what she got. She was ecstatic! She was jumping up and down, ripped open the package, and put all the clips in her hair right then and there! Best dollar I ever spent! Cameron got this sweet car. He loves it, despite the look on his face. ha ha! He has been playing with the car ever since we got home. Success!

And finally:
Last week I was in a frenzy trying to get Christmas stuff all taken care of so on the way home, Cameron and I stopped at McDonalds for lunch. We went through the drive thru and came home to eat. I ordered Cameron some chicken nuggets. When we got home, I opened his chicken nugget container....to find a bunch of nasty nacho cheese with little pieces of jalepeno inside! Oh man, McDonalds is so lucky I was too tired to go back and rip them a new one!! So, Cameron got a sandwich to go with his fries. No fake chicken for him! ha ha!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2011-12-18T13:03:00.015-07:00

My birthday was this past week on the 13th. I'm 37. 37 doesn't feel much different than 27 really. I honestly think I mentally stopped maturing at about 25 so I suppose that makes the birthdays much easier to accept!

One of my birthday gifts was a card reader for my computer so now I can update my blog from my regular computer instead of the laptop, which I am very happy about! The laptop is quite temperamental and we have had some stern words with each other and now our relationship is strained. So, happy blogging from here on out!

Last Sunday Carson earned his Tenderfoot in Boy Scouts. It was fun attending the Court of Honor and seeing the way things are run in Boy Scouts vs. Cub Scouts. I'm so excited for Carson to experience all that comes with Boy Scouting! I guess they are doing a Klondike winter camp in February that Sam will probably attend too....I'm so glad I'm not a boy!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't last 5 minutes camping in the snow. Boys are crazy! :)

The obligatory picture of Carson pinning the Tenderfoot mother's pin on me. I'm gaining quite a collection these days. Can't wait to see my collection after 3 boys go through scouting!

Yesterday morning we enjoyed the annual Sweet Family Christmas Party. Good food, good fun, good entertainment, and good conversations! What more could we ask for??

We had a gift exchange for all the cousins under the age of 18. All the boys sat in a circle and did their exchange, and all the girls did the same. I was shocked at the size of the boy circle vs. the girl circle! Dang!

Cameron scored the cutest little giraffe pillow pet. He loves it! In fact, he's taking a nap with it right at this very moment. :)

We ended the party with musical talent from the Sweet family. Don't worry, I wasn't asked to participate because we all know what my voice sounds like! ha ha ha!
However: Sam, Carson, Parker, and Nick sang for us and it was beautiful!

My mother in law, Fontella, and her last living sibling: Belva. These two are a hilarious pair and we love them tremendously!

Mel and Aaron singing "Grandma got run over by a reindeer". We tried to get Fontella to lay down in front of them but she ignored us. ha ha!

After the Sweet party, we went to my parents house that evening for a birthday par-tay for me. It was super fun to hang with family and friends and laugh our guts out. Case in point: I have no idea what is so funny here, but Sam captured the moment!

Maybe they were discussing my brother Mike's "man fur" ugliest Christmas sweater he made....

Frightening eh? Needless to say, Mike's costume won the grand prize! The part that makes me belly laugh the hardest is how he got the cut up afro wig to stick on his body: MAPLE SYRUP! Oh my what a smelly mess! He has no fear and no inhibitions!

Very typical picture: Nalani and I always solve the world's problems when we get together! Don't we look like we mean business??

Here I am getting ready to blow out my bazillion candles on the delicious Sub Zero ice cream pie! Luckily Cameron helped me blow them out because I don't have much lung capacity these days!

Oh, ha ha ha! Sam, I didn't think it was possible for anybody to love ice cream more than you do....but I think I found your match: Check out Ellie Oram's face in this picture! CLASSIC! She is like "gimme ice cream and nobody gets hurt!"

My brother's family is here until after Christmas so hopefully we can get to all the events we have on our wish list between now and then! Honestly, I'm just hoping I don't go into labor before they leave because then I'll miss out on some fun! My doctor is planning a January 7th induction and I'm great with that date!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-06T19:20:00.019-07:00

My last post was in November, about Halloween, and now it's December....so, Merry Christmas! I knew once Halloween hit I'd be in trouble because the holiday season would make every day fly by as my belly got bigger and bigger. I'm just under 5 weeks away from delivery. I'm waddling around like a penguin and doing Christmas shopping is serious torture for my loosening ligaments and joints! ha ha! Good thing I'm almost done with my shopping. If anybody knows what I can get my mother-in-law for Christmas, I'm all ears! Seriously, she's a tough one to buy for!

Okay, here's a run down of what's up lately:

First of all, let's do a few "Cameron says" moments shall we? That kid is only 3 and he's got the BEST personality, I just can't get enough of him!

Carrie: Does Santa like boys who are bad?
Cameron: No
Carrie: Does Santa like boys who are good?
Cameron: ……No?
Carrie: Yes he does!
Cameron: OH! I thought you meant good to EAT!!! That would be gross!

Another one, this happened just today:

Cameron: When I’m old will I change my name to “dad” and go to work?
Carrie: Um...yeah...
Cameron: I KNEW IT!! I won’t even need a stool anymore and I can make my own ice cream cones!!!!!!

I see where his priorities are!

In other news:
As many of you know, I've been slightly frustrated with Carson's teacher this year. We've gone the rounds and then I prepared for the WORST parent/teacher conference in mid-November. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I feared. His grades are acceptable but we just need to convince him to get his work done the day it's assigned. Imagine my surprise when the week after his parent/teacher conference, he was given an award for getting his work done! What in the what?? I'm not sure if I'm being buttered up for something, but I'm not going to question it! I was helping out at Cameron's school that morning so my mom was kind enough to attend the little "Climbing Higher" program and email me a picture of Carson with the Principal. Thanks mom!

For Thanksgiving, Cameron's preschool class held a little Thanksgiving feast for the kids, their parents, and their grandparents. It was pretty dang cute. Once again my mom came to the rescue and snapped this picture of Cameron wearing the turkey hat he made. Love it!

Also in November, my friend Laura gave me a little baby shower with a few friends from the neighborhood. At first I was against the idea because this will be my 4th baby but Laura knew me well when she said "Carrie, don't take this the wrong way, but it's your first girl and you NEED HELP!" Ha ha, so true! I'm dang clueless when it comes to baby girls. I'm so thankful for the generosity of wonderful friends who came to support me and this little girl. It was a blast!

I feel a lot more prepared now to welcome this little one into our lives! I've been educating myself on hair bows, and coordinating outfits, and guess what else? I have a travel size wipes container that is covered in fabric and flowers! That's right, I'm pretty snazzy thanks to my friend Ginger Ekberg!!

We've been working dang hard on the baby's room. I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out. Just a few more details to take care of but overall the room is ready.

The room used to have a denim-looking paint on the bottom, a red chair rail, and white walls above the rail. Here we are starting the process. We painted the upper walls green.

Then we put up some bead board.

Then we painted trim, hung a chandelier, and put all the furniture in the room. I am so happy with the end result!

My friend gave me this "Fancy Nancy" book because she said if my daughter has curly hair she imagines it will look like this little girl's! Love it! Thanks Mindy!

Thanksgiving this year was with the Sweet family and we had some grubbin' food and great conversations. Because Fern is amazing and thoughtful, she borrowed my boys one night and had them help her make these fun Turkeys for the tables on Thanksgiving day. So cute!

After we stuffed ourselves silly, the kids went outside to play. Russ hoisted a bunch of kids into this huge tree. I was pretty sure somebody would fall and we've have an Instacare visit, but everybody hung in there pretty well!

Then Russ just had to join the fun and climbed into that tree himself! Kid at heart!

Definitely looking prego!

Now we're gearing up for the Christmas season. I seriously can't believe it's less than 3 weeks away. Good times! My brother and his family are traveling here from Indiana to spend Christmas with us so all the Clark kids will be together this year, it's sure to be a wild and crazy time! Here's hoping I don't go into labor in December. I desperately want a January baby, not December. Wish me luck! :)

Halloween 2011 - My 666th Post.

2011-11-01T13:17:00.018-06:00

I swear I'm not making this up. This is my 666th blog post. Pretty fitting for my post about Halloween, don't you think?

We had a busy and fun Halloween season. It wasn't until 5pm on Halloween evening that I realized we never carved pumpkins. That's crazy! I think this was our first year ever that we did not carve a jack-o-lantern. Ah well, life goes on!

Sam and Parker made good use of our candy corns over the past few weeks.

We also moved Cameron downstairs to room with Carson about a week ago! Now all three boys are downstairs. Next up...changing the empty room on the main floor into a girls room! Agghhhhh!

Here are the 3 stooges chillaxin' in Cameron's bed. I think Cameron's just slightly excited to join the ranks of his older brothers.

Fern went to China for a few weeks in October but when she got home she made time to paint pumkins for my boys. Yay! Here they are, my kids LOVED them as usual!

Carson chose "Gir" from the cartoon "Invador Zim".

Parker was thrilled with his green Puffle from "Club Penguin".

And of course, Cameron wanted "Thomas the Tank Engine". Oh how he loved his pumpkin! He would just stare at it forever and every time we left the house he would yell towards the front door "Bye Thomas!!!"

This past weekend we were able to go to Rexburg Idaho to see my brother's photo show at the college. It was super cool and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip. However, that is my last road trip until after this baby is born. Whoo-wee mama! I was feeling every bump of the road for sure! :)

Look at my big ol' belly! In the past 2 weeks I swear I've tripled in size!

A good time was had by all!

While we were there, we decided to look around campus at BYU-Idaho. There are so many new buildings since I attended college in (ahem....) 1993 - 1995! In fact, most everything is new. I had a hard time getting my bearings straight while on campus. Darren would point out an old building and then I would understand where I was. So crazy! In fact, they have a new auditorium there that looks almost exactly like the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. It seats 15,000. It's a far cry from the old gym bleachers we used to sit in for devotionals when I attended Ricks College!

Halloween morning I got the kids ready for school and had them smile for pictures.

Meet Carson the stick figure. This costume is hysterical at night! The green stick figure lights up and it's all you can see. Carson was dancing around in the dark and I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard!

Parker the penguin. Yes, this is the same penguin costume that Carson wore last year. However, this year it's an awesome costume because Parker loves Club Penguin so he felt pretty honored to wear it.

Cameron the frog. I could just eat him up!

I dropped Cameron off at preschool and then I went to Carson and Parker's Halloween parade at their school. There was a kid in Parker's grade that had the BEST costume. He walked with a walker, wore an old plaid shirt that he stuffed to make him look fat, and he SHAVED the top of his head so he was a balding old man! I loved it so much and at the same time I was so mad I didn't think of this costume for one of my boys! But here's the best part. I frantically tried to get a picture of him, but he was too fast. This is all I got.

Ha ha ha, the TRICK is on me! Check out that ear wax!!!! Hysterical!

The boys had fun trick or treating and came back with lots of candy to chow on over the next several days....and now it's November. Yay!!

Oh, one last thing. Just because we are talking about Halloween, I think this is an appropriate conversation to share with you...

Carson had to poop really bad but I was making him do his homework first because he always uses poop as an excuse to sit in the bathroom and do nothing.
After I noticed a painful look on his face, we had a discussion which led me to the decision that I should let him use the restroom.
About 10 minutes later, Carson said “thanks to you, I now know what “prairie dogging” means.”

Ha ha ha!

October Stuff

2011-10-15T11:43:00.018-06:00

Two days before Carson turned 11, Sam went on an 11 year old scout campout with him. Camping in October, in the rain, is really really far down my list of "fun things to do", but Carson was in HEAVEN! There are only 2 eleven year old scouts in our ward so Sam also brought along our nephew, Nick. A twelve-year old scout joined them as well. The 11 year old scout leaders in our ward are awesome and I'm so excited to see what the year brings for Carson!

They got to retire a flag. I never knew what this consisted of. Apparently just before they began the process, the scout leader talked to the scouts about it and said "I don't want you telling your friends you burned a flag! You tell them you RETIRED a flag!". ha ha! He understands boys very well!

Ahhh, my kind of camping....SAGEBRUSH camping.....NOT!!! If you call it "camping" there better be a forest.

Yep, that looks about right for a scout camp face. Nice and dirty!

I asked Carson what his favorite part was and he said "the lizard we found at the end!"

When they got home from camping Sam took the boys swimming...for 3 hours! I couldn't believe they went swimming for that long. It definitely wore them out!! When they got home we let Carson open one of his birthday presents:

And now I can't stop singing the song "show-a show-a how you roll, drop it, drop it, drop it low...." I even hear Cameron singing it when he doesn't know I'm around! ha ha!

Sunday the 9th was Carson's 11th birthday. He wanted a Club Penguin membership, which he got and was THRILLED about.

He also received a Hex Bug spider robot, which was wicked awesome!

We also had a yummy dinner at my parents house and enjoyed the fact that I still have a few years before a teenager lives at my house!

A few nights ago we went on our annual pumpkin patch excursion. My friend, Traci, had never been to a pumpkin patch in her entire life! So, I dragged her along and she was tons of fun and brought out the most hysterical behaviors in my kids. Seriously, it was funny!

The best was when Traci the troll snuck behind my kids pictures!

I told you Traci got my kids all wired!

The fam. Guess what? I just started my 3rd trimester! yahoo!!! I had an ultrasound last week and they confirmed I was having a girl. Let the new adventures begin..... :)

Cameron loved the tractors!

Sam, Carson, Parker, and Traci got lost in the corn maze, ha ha!

Alrighty, time to go visit my dad in the hospital...again. Poor guy! He has a very naughty pancreas!

Jake's Obituary

2011-10-01T10:44:00.005-06:00

My nephew passed away on Thursday, September 29th. While we are overcome with sadness over the loss of a dear family member, we are so thankful he is out of pain. His passing was peaceful and we are comforted by the knowledge of eternal families and the Plan of Happiness.

Sam talked to Jake's mom, Rose, this morning and she wanted to be sure I expressed her heart-felt thanks to all those who have been so generous towards her family. Many of you don't personally know Jake's family but your prayers have been felt and have helped ease the burden of their trial. Thank you so much! --Carrie

Jacob Charles Holladay

Born April 19, 1991, in Salt Lake City, Utah with his best bud, John Matthew Holladay. He was one of 5 boys in the Holladay family. Those left behind are his parents, David Owen and Rose Sweet Holladay, brothers Zachary, John, Michael and Spencer Holladay…and their dog, Molly. Best friends that were like brothers from other mothers…Austin Buchanan and Kyle Joyner.

Jake returned to his Father in Heaven on September 29, 2011...a joyous day for him…a sad day for us. So happy he is finally free from the awful pain that came with cancer…but we will miss him more than we can express in words.

Jake was diagnosed with cancer on June 15, 2010. Later we learned it was called Rhabdomyosarcoma (we never heard of it either!) He started chemo in July, radiation in August, surgery the following June, endured many pokes and pricks and lots of sick days and hospital stays. He was just applying for college when it all started. Too sick for school or work, he spent his last year recuperating and enjoying life as much as he could.

As bad as cancer is…the tender mercy it provides is time to say good-bye, time to make more loving memories, time to serve and love, time to laugh, time for extra kisses and hugs, time to bond and seal in our hearts the love and memories we have of Jake.

Jake lived only 20 short years. He loved to laugh and make others laugh. He was a good listener to all of his “girl” friends. He loved being in the mountains, four wheeling, fishing, hacky sack, shooting with dad, paintballing, laser tag, golf, gaming sleepovers…hanging with his bros and buds and pretty girls. Jake would meet friends all over the country through gaming…of course he liked the girls the most. He was always texting them and helping them through their challenges. Jake was known for being a great friend.

Those who preceded him in death are his Grandpa, John C Holladay, Uncles John and Don Holladay, cousin Thomas Sweet, most recently a favorite great Uncle Jack Bailey…and a cat named Tigger (but we didn’t tell him he died, we just said he ran off! Maybe he knows now!)

Jake, your little hand prints are in stone in the garden.

I’m sure there are more handprints on the walls downstairs…and your love is imprinted in our hearts…forever. Thank you for loving us and making it easy for us to love you. You are one awesome Holladay! We are proud to call you brother, son and friend! Our love will always transcend the veil of this earth. Thank you for watching over us as we try to find our way without seeing you around…without feeling your hugs. Peaceful journey, my son.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 11:00 a.m. Viewing October 3rd, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 1200 East 2178 North, Lehi, UT

Hanging Around

2011-09-28T19:40:00.010-06:00

Wow, I'm really struggling to keep this blog current! I used to take my camera everywhere. I still do, but it usually stays in the vehicle instead of actually being used!

I finally went outside this evening and took some pictures just so I could add them here. Oh yeah, I accomplished something!

Before I get to that, I wanted to give you an update on my nephew, Jake. First of all, thank you so much to everyone who expressed an interest in helping send his family on a vacation a few weeks ago. We were able to raise enough money to fund the trip which was so generous. If you want to see pictures from the trip, read For the Sake of Jake's blog, the Sept 15th and Sept 17th entries. While you are there, go ahead and read the Sept 21 and Sept 25th entries as well. The amount of love shown to Jake's family over the past year has inspired me and has taught me life lessons I will never forget. Jake's mom, Rose (my sister-in-law) also has a personal blog with updates and family pictures: click here. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Rose is probably the most faith-filled person I've ever known. Her perspective through this larger-than-life trial has been incredible. Unfortunately, Jake is in his final days. He is bed-ridden, drinking juice once in awhile. We were able to go visit him on Monday night and tell him we love him. I'm so thankful for that opportunity. His whole body is covered in cancerous tumors except his face, forearms, and feet. It brings me to tears to think about how much pain he is in but I'm so thankful he is surrounded by a loving family and a loving neighborhood who come over regularly to help the family.

Here is what we've been up to the past few days here on the home front.

Cameron LOVES his plasma car. These things rock and I highly recommend them. He seriously could spend hours a day outside riding it.

Actually, it's a good thing Summer is over. The way he drags his feet while riding the plasma car has done a number on his flip flops! ha ha!

Something I've been meaning to blog about for awhile and keep forgetting: When I had my first ultrasound, Cameron was with me. You know how the ultrasound is in black and white? Well, a few days after the ultrasound, I heard Cameron tell somebody "I'm so excited to meet my black baby sister!". I laughed it off because I totally understood why he'd think she was black. Then the next week in church, his nursery leaders were laughing when I picked him up because they said "I hear you are having a black baby girl!!". Whoops, I guess I should explain to Cameron that she will be white. He'll probably be very disappointed. Actually, I'll probably just wait until Cameron meets her. You know, let him figure it out on his own. It's good for him, right?

Guess what 2nd grader FINALLY learned to ride a bike? This guy!

On Friday night Parker learned. On Saturday morning Parker said to me: I just thought I was a scooter guy! Now I know I'm a bike guy too! ha ha! I just love that kid!

Fall time is real purdy in my yard. I have these amazing blooming mums and dahlias in my island. That purple dahlia is as big as Parker's head!

My Zinnias are super tall and gorgeous this year. Love the Zinnias!

I planted a ton of pumpkins this year. But it only looks like 3 or so pumpkins are actually growing. OH well, seeds are cheap. This one looks like a watermelon but I'm pretty sure it's a pumpkin!

Well, Cameron has been soaking in the tub for the past 20 minutes, I guess I should go wash his pruney booty! G'night!

The Haps

2011-09-12T22:00:00.000-06:00

My dad's been in the hospital this week. This is his second time checking in to the Hospital in the past 3 weeks for a pancreatitis attack. Who knew the pancreas was such an important organ? Seriously, you never think about it until it decides to reject your body and every crumb of food or drop of liquid you consume! Crazy bad stomach pains is what he's been going through. The doctor's had to put a feeding tube up his nose and down into his intestines, bypassing the pancreas, just so the pancreas could have a time out for being naughty.

The boys and I have gone to visit my dad quite a bit--to either cheer him up or make him happy he doesn't have little ones at home...not sure which end of the argument he would agree with yet. He's not talking much. Maybe he's remembering what his mom used to say to him: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" ha ha!

Anyway, one day Carson and Parker were there with me while the phlebotomist was drawing blood. She was taking several tubes of blood and Carson and Parker had their noses right next to her watching every move she made. At one point I noticed Carson's face was a little pale. I asked if he felt okay and then reminded him (in the same breath) that if he fainted we would all laugh at him! Probably because Carson was nervous, he started talking a mile a minute. I think Parker said "How much blood do we have in our body??" and Carson piped up and said "I KNOW! We have 5 gallons of blood". I had no idea if this was right so I looked at the phlebotomist and she smiled and said "that is right!".

Who knew? So, just so I could be a part of the conversation, I said "Hey Carson, you know that bucket in our garage that you throw all your otter pops wrapper in? That is a 5 gallon bucket. So, if we drained our blood, it would fill up that bucket.". Carson just looked at me for a half second, and then yelled "Manslaughter! I slaughtered a man!".

I laughed. I laughed hard. If you don't know why he said this, watch this video:

We love Brian Regan at our house!!

Do you know what I love more than Brian Regan? I love how witty and grown up Carson is getting. His sense of humor and sense of timing have seriously knocked me off guard more than once...in a good way!

Another example:
One day there was a little bit of ice cream left and I decided I deserved it. Carson and Sam were sitting in the kitchen as I took the ice cream out of the freezer and was getting ready to empty it into a cup on the counter. Carson was asking for some and I was telling him "too bad" or something like that.

I tipped the ice cream container over my cup and dumped it....only for the ice cream to plop right onto the counter instead of my cup. Carson laughed really hard and said "KARMA!". Oh man, it was funny. Carson has made me realize that these pre-teen years are fun and as he continues to mature, I have a feeling we are in for some more good laughs in the future!

Another Carson related story.
The other day we were trying to go somewhere as a family. I was going crazy because nobody was listening to me as I was shouting out orders: go to the bathroom, get your shoes on, go to the van.... Grrrrrr. I suddenly realized that the sprinkler in the backyard needed to be turned off. I asked Carson to turn off the water. He went into the backyard and as always, he turned it left instead of right to turn it off. I was exasperated by this point and I shouted "REMEMBER, Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey!" and then I sent everybody to the van. Sam was the last one out the door and he was totally laughing. I asked him what was so funny. He said "I'm laughing at something you said, but I don't want to make you more mad.".

I took a deep breath and said "tell me". He told me that when I was yelling at Carson I actually said "Righty Tighty, Loosey Goosey"! It was all I needed to chill out. I laughed so hard! I can't believe Carson didn't make fun of me right on the spot! Maybe Carson cares for his life and was worried about my reaction. I'm sure he'll make fun of me one day for it!

Man, this post is all about Carson. Today I asked him to get me a soda from our little fridge we have in our garage. He happily obliged. Then as I opened it I realized why he was so willing. The dang can exploded all over me. Carson just silently laughed in the living room. Ah yes, the ol' shake-the-can trick. Next time I'll ask Parker to get the soda!

Sam took the boys on a hike last week just to give me a break. He also brought one extra--Devin. They thought they were pretty dang cool. Uh-oh, the rushing water is giving Cameron a strong desire to do something...

Also last week, we celebrated my nephew's birthday. Happy birthday Dexter! He had a pirate themed party. It's always a good time hanging with the fam.

Oh hey, guess what? Carson earned his Arrow of Light scouting award! I'm still trying to understand scouts, so I'll share with you what I learned. The Arrow of Light award is the only rank that you can bring with you from cub scouting to boy scouting. That's right....all the other items earned over the last 3 years are just garbage now! ha ha, just kidding....sort of. It was cool though, he turns 11 next month so we will bid farewell to cub scouting....until Parker turns 8 next June. :)

Finally, I can tell I'm the mother of 3 boys because Cameron started preschool last week and I never took a picture. So lame! Anyway, Cameron goes to school for three hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. He seems to like it and I'm tripping out a little bit that I have all that time to myself on those days! I'll try not to get used to it though because in 4 months I'll have a little bambino to care for!

As long as I'm confessing my lame-ness....Parker's class does something called "Celebrity of the Week". This week is Parker's turn. The teacher sent home a note letting us know all the things Parker has to bring to school each day this week so they could celebrate him. Today he was supposed to bring a poster all about himself. Oh no, I'm supposed to get creative? Oh yeah, here's my creativity: Parker did a similar thing in 1st grade, but his special week wasn't until school was almost over in the spring! So, I took that poster off his wall and handed it to him and said "here, this was only made 4 months ago, use this for today!" He was pretty skeptical but was happy to oblige. When he came home today I asked how it went and he was laughing because some kids from his class last year recognized the poster and pointed out that it was the same one! Whoops, hadn't thought of that angle! Ah well, Parker didn't mind and I was thrilled not to have to make another poster. Go ahead, judge me.

Parker's teacher did a spotlight on him and here's what she wrote for the class to see. It makes me larf out lard.

Parker Jackson Sweet was born June 20 in SLC. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He lives in a gray house with the 5 people in his family. Parker is adventurous. His favorite color is green and he has lost 2 teeth. When Parker grows up he wants to be a spy. He loves corndogs, soccer, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Parker wishes he had 1000000000000000 dollars. He can do 20 sit ups and 12 push ups. Parker is a fan of scary movies, spring, and the book Ben 10. He would love to have super vision so that he knows where he is going. Parker is faster than a speeding turtle. He "no way" paints his toenails. He can just about ride a two-wheel bike, and he would love to drive a Corvette all the way to Disneyland.

Ah Ha, Ya Burnt!

2011-08-31T15:22:00.012-06:00

To understand my story, you have to understand the TV show, "30 Rock". Liz Lemon, played by Tina Fey, said this to one of her co-workers when he failed miserably in his contract negotiations:

Image of Ha ha ya burnt

I found that clip on the web. Good ol' web. I can't even remember what life was like before the internet! I swear I've blocked that part of my life out! ha ha! I was in college before I ever used the internet. Yes, I'm old.

Now onto my story.

The other day I woke up and had an overwhelming feeling of love and appreciation for my husband. I seriously love everything about him, all his quirks and his sense of humor. He is such a great guy! I called him at work to tell him how much I love him. He was kind of taken back--remember I'm preggers and grumpy a lot of the time! Kind of hesitant he says "Um, did you eat a cookie this morning?" I was totally confused and said "eh?" so he repeated himself. I told him NO, I did not eat a cookie this morning. He said "oh, okay....". So I took the container of cookies off the top of the fridge and opened it. This is what I found inside:

He had finished off the cookies and left that note for me so when I had a craving, I would be left unsatisfied! That's why he thought I was calling him! Oh man, I had a great belly laugh over that one. See what I mean? Sam is awesome!

In other news.

My friend gives me clothes that her son has outgrown for Parker. The other day she gave Parker this awesome robe. After his shower he struts around like he is mega macho. It's so funny!

This past Sunday we had a BBQ at Sam's brothers house to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. It was a most excellent time! Fern and Russ had access to a wheelchair for my nephew Jake so Russ brought the wheelchair to the BBQ....on his motorcycle! Fern was embarrassed but I thought it was cool, because, hey...people in China carry stuff on their motorcycles all the time!

My fun family on the Sweet side!

Seriously, such a great family I married into!

Okay, gotta run get my hair colored (halla-hulla!). My gray hair is such a bully!

Update On Jake's Fundraiser

2011-08-27T14:59:00.002-06:00

This is from the "For the Sake of Jake" blog, which Jake's mom writes:

Family Trip update: We could not wait on passports to take the cruise, so again we are going to Plan B! My sister was able to find us a condo in Oceanside, CA. We will fly there in a few weeks...some of the boys will have to drive down. We may just end up hanging out at the beach or in the condo...either way...Family bonding! My boys are a hoot when they are all together...with no electronics! They just feed off each other till they have us laughing and coming up with new family funnies!

We are still trying to raise money for flight's and for condo fees. Thank you so much to those who have already donated, despite your own struggles and trials. It amazes me how generous my friends and family are!! Thank you so much!

For The Sake Of Jake...Fundraiser

2011-08-24T20:41:00.005-06:00

This has been a bitter-sweet week for me. I just returned from Portland where I attended the funeral of my Uncle Phil Bell. He suffered with cancer for 3 years so it truly was a bitter-sweet experience. I loved seeing my aunts, uncles, and cousins and I am thankful my Uncle is not in pain anymore.

I returned home to the news that my 20 year old nephew, Jake, was given some sobering news from his doctor regarding the cancer he has fought for over a year: she believes he perhaps has 3 months left...could be more...could be less.

If you'd like to read about his journey, his mom has kept a wonderful blog: You can read it HERE.

As stated in the blog entry from today, August 24th, we are trying to raise money for them to take a family trip, a cruise. The cruise date is set for September 19th.

I am asking for your hearts to be opened and if you are willing to donate towards this vacation, Jake's family will be eternally grateful. I am collecting donations for the cause. Email me for more details: thecarrie.sweet at gmail.com.

Thank you so much!

Jake, Grandma Sweet, John (Jake's twin brother)

Just For A Laugh

2011-08-12T14:54:00.003-06:00

If you need a laugh today, just look at these pictures. Every time I look at them I about cry from the laughter! Apparently Carson was playing with Fern's ipad and discovered an app that does funny effects to pictures. I absolutely could not BELIEVE the kid in the brown shirt was CARSON! Oh my, he looks so creepy!!! He captured his gimpy tooth quite nicely! ha ha ha! How about Cameron and the white part of his eye spreading off the screen? Super fantastic!

Sam put an old Batman movie from 1966 on NetFlix the other day. Carson started watching it and said "huh, it's a little different than I thought it would be....oh man, Robin is NOT modest at ALL!!!"

A few minutes later Cameron said "I want to watch Fat Man!" ha ha! I will never think of him as Batman anymore, he'll always be Fatman!

It's A.....

2011-08-09T21:47:00.005-06:00

I couldn't wait a day longer. I had a gender check ultrasound today! The result:

Can you read it? The shadows make it kind of difficult...

GIRL

Yes, I'm tripping out.

Strangest Few Days...Ever

2011-08-09T09:57:00.008-06:00

Life has thrown me some curveballs lately...just things that make you go "hmmmmm" (Remember that song? I'm totally singing it right now!).

First and most importantly, my Uncle Phil Bell passed away last Friday. He battled cancer for three years. I'm so sad to see him go, but I'm so thankful he is not suffering anymore. He was and is an amazing man with an amazing family.

Phil's oldest child is Brent. Brent posted the following on facebook and I believe it about sums up everybody's feelings who knew him:
"My father, a small, gentle and unassuming man, just finished stoically enduring a three-year ordeal that would've crushed the spirits of giants, reduced lesser men to mewling infants. That we should all pass from this world with such strength and grace."

Wow. That is an amazing tribute and I completely agree with every word!

Phil's son Kris set up a website to honor the memories of Phil. Feel free to check it out, it's beautifully done!
1000 Memories

I'm looking forward to the funeral next week to hug my aunt and cousins and tell them how much I love them and how much I pray for their continued strength! As is usual in times of crisis, family bonds seem to become unbreakable. The Bell family has been through a lot this past month and the unity that is left behind is inspiring!

My other curveballs are quite strange. Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably should split this blog post into two separate entries: One for Uncle Phil and one for the other weirdness going on. However, Phil was probably my #1 blog fan and I honestly think he would have appreciated the following story. I seriously can hear his belly laugh right now!

So, without putting it off any longer.....I present to you, MY cat story.

My cousin Cody has a GREAT cat story....one that involves a dead cat, a heating pad, and a Victoria's Secret box. Not sure my cat story can live up to that one, but it's a close second!

For the past 1 1/2 weeks, I've been smelling something dreadful in my backyard. I keep my recycle bin just outside my back door and every time I recycle something I start gagging. Finally, last Thursday I couldn't take it any longer. The smell was so bad I couldn't open that dang door! Sam came home from work absolutely exhausted, he only had 4 hours of sleep the previous night and was looking forward to a quiet evening at home without a single thing on the agenda. I was just about to ask him to find the source of the smell, when the phone rang.

The phone was for Sam. There were some bishopric duties he needed to attend to in the near future. So, he put on his white shirt and tie and was getting ready to head out the door. At that same time Carson and his friend Amanda were at the house hanging out. Instead of bothering Sam, I said "Hey Carson, will you and Amanda go open the grill and see if a bird or something has died inside it?" Sam got all irritated with me and said "don't make them go look!" as he walked out in the backyard. It's important to note, we haven't used our grill at all this summer and the grill cover is still on it.

As I was watching through the sliding glass door, I saw Sam's look of horror as he pulled up on the grill cover. He looked at me and mouthed "it's bad". I opened the door a tiny crack, without breathing in the air, and said "what is it?". He said "Cat. Really big cat, covered in maggots". At that point I was out of air and had to slam the door shut but not before I caught wind of the stench. I started retching and gagging like an idiot! Now remember, Carson and Amanda are standing next to me. Amanda said "uh, is it a siamese cat with a pure black tail? We've been missing our cat for a month." Sam nodded in the affirmative.

At that point the realization that I almost made Amanda discover her own dead cat sunk in. I tried to apologize but I couldn't get the stink out of my nose. I gagged all the way to the street in front of my house. Not sure what happened to the cat, but it wasn't IN the grill, just under the grill cover. I don't know if he couldn't find his way out, or if he was hiding because he was hurt/sick and hid there to die. However, the reason does not matter. I have a rotting carcass lying on my back patio at the exact moment Sam had to leave for a meeting!

Luckily, we have awesome neighbors who live behind us. They watched the horror scene unfold from their balcony. Nick the neighbor, said "Hey Sam, come get me when you get home and I can help you with that!". At that point I had to take Carson to scouts. I apologized (half-heartedly...I'm not a very compassionate person in situations like these) to Amanda and sent her home. By this time the stench has wafted around my house and to the neighboring houses. I couldn't get out of the area fast enough! I took Carson to scouts and then hung out at my friends house for about 30 minutes, basically wasting time since I didn't want to go home.

When I did get home, this is what I saw out my back window:

That pink bandana around Nick's face seriously made me larf out lard! Meanwhile, Sam was coughing and gagging the whole time they were putting the remains in garbage bags. Then the clean-up got serious. Tons of bleach was scrubbed onto the patio to get rid of the smell. It was putrid until the next day!

The worst part was the next day when Amanda's mom came over to talk about the loss of her cat. In all the misery I forgot to tell Amanda's mom! I don't know her too well so it was slightly awkward. She was emotional and wanted to understand how it all happened. In my head I was like "lady! I don't know HOW it happened, it just did and it was horrible!" but I put on my compassionate pants and tried to help her grieve....which is totally out of my character! ha ha! Phew.

Let's see...what else is happening...
Oh yeah, Shark week was fun! Cameron and I watched our fair share of the footage. He even has pj's he proudly wore!

Last week there was a free day you could ride TRAX on the new West Jordan TRAX line. All you had to do was bring food for a food drive. Cameron and I rode the train one morning. Cameron was in HEAVEN! Every time the train would stop to pick up passengers Cameron would YELL "All aboard!!". So funny!

Guess what? Yesterday was my 13th anniversary! I am so happy that Sam and I decided to get hitched! He is the best husband and father a girl could ask for! We celebrated on Saturday by going to Ruth's Diner (holy cow that place is soooo good!!!) and then we hung out in Park City. It's always nice to have some alone time with Sam (Thanks mom and dad!!). Yesterday, when Sam came home from work he brought Cafe Rio for dinner, long stemmed red roses, and the most amazing Raspberry/White Chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! See what I mean? He's the BEST!!! We devoured the cheesecake before remembering to take a picture. :)

The End Of Summer

2011-07-27T14:25:00.015-06:00

Last weekend Carson had Webelos Day Camp so he and I stayed local. Sam, Parker, and Cameron went to Deer Creek to go boating with Fern's family. Even though I wasn't there, I thought I'd share the photos because a lot of fun was had!

Sam's first time wakeboarding this summer. I think his forearm muscles are still paying the price! Totally worth it though if you ask him!!

Oh man, I just love Parker! Everything he does makes me wish I could freeze time so he never grows a day older! Sam laughs at me because I say that about every stage of our kids' lives....well, except the first 2.8 years of Cameron's life. Yep, pretty sure those words were never uttered!

From the boat, Cameron saw the "Heber Creeper" train. Wait, is that the name of it? That looks weird now... Anywho, he was in heaven! Even now if I say "Hey Cameron, did you see the train from Fern's boat??" He'll get super animated and tell you all about the different cars and their names (from Thomas and Friends of course!).

Sam set a goal before he went to Deer Creek. His goal: To teach Parker to wake board. He's tried getting Carson to wakeboard before but Carson would have nothing to do with it! Carson takes after me!! Sam even told Carson he'd buy him an ipod but Carson wouldn't do it. Parker is a little more adventurous. He was happy to give it a shot. This picture makes me happy. Surprise!!! Parker was able to stay up for a few seconds and that is as far as they got this trip. Hopefully he can continue to improve each time. :)

This is my niece Melissa. These pictures of her on the tube are hysterical! How can anybody hang around Melissa and NOT be in a good mood? Look at that smile, even in the face of extreme tubing danger! ha ha! Love these!!!

Sam and Parker tubed as well. The driver of the boat was very kind and didn't get all crazy on them!

I can just imagine the conversation that took place at the moment of this picture:
Sam: Alright Parker, let's do thumbs up!
Parker: What? How old was I last year?
Sam: Yeah, thumbs up!
Parker: Holds up 6 fingers
Sam: *facepalm*

Once Parker was safely back in the boat, all considerations were off the table. The new goal: dump Sam! Another reason for the sore forearms.

Monday we celebrated the 24th of July, Pioneer Day!
We didn't do too much actually. Sam mowed some grass and we watched the parade on
TV. Our Stake's float won the People's Choice award! Very very cool! That evening we went with my parents to the park for a picnic. It was a perfect day with lots of clouds. Without involving the kids, Sam filled up two coolers full of water and brought water toys to the park. They were quite surprised when a full blown water fight erupted out of nowhere!

Yesterday was the first day of school for Carson and Parker. Carson is in 5th grade and Parker is in 2nd. I didn't get any pictures in the morning. Tsk Tsk. About 20 minutes before school let out, the clouds gathered and the rain and hail came thundering down!!! It was so funny! My kids usually walk all the way home, but I took a little pity on them and met them halfway with the van. Holy moly, they were SOAKED! When we got home they decided to just play in the rain. Their interpretation of playing in the rain means laying and playing in the gutter water. Part of me is so grossed out by this, but part of me thinks it's just awesome!

The best part: the mailman had pulled up to our mailboxes but he couldn't get out of his truck because the weather was so ridiculous. He just sat there for like 30 minutes. I'm sure he looked at my kids and thought, "where are their parents for crying out loud!".

On an unrelated note, and just so you don't think that all I ever do is complain, I am starting to feel much better regarding morning (all day) sickness and this pregnancy. I'm almost 16 weeks along and now I just get pukey feeling later in the evening, around 9pm. That's much better than feeling sick all day and every day! I feel like a whole new woman! I should be getting my ultrasound in about 3 weeks. I'm pretty excited to see what this little bambino is going to be!

Camping, Lots Of It

2011-07-18T13:19:00.033-06:00

For the past 3 weeks I've had camping on the brain. Usually I quite enjoy camping....but whilst preggers, it's a bit of a challenge, to say the least! I desperately wish I could get the nausea under control because it's ruling my life!

Sam and I reserved a camping spot up Little Cottonwood canyon at the beginning of the month. It was GORGEOUS! We did tinfoil dinners one night with my parents and then a weiner roast the next night with our friends, the Colasurdo's. Our camping spot had huge boulders next to it that everyone hiked on to their heart's content. It was perfect!

There were these weird worms/caterpillars hanging from spider webs, from trees. They were everywhere. It was fine once I got used to looking right in front of me, but at first I kept walking right into them! Hork!

This picture makes me laugh! Looks like Mindy and I are giving each other a long distance high five, I honestly have no recollection of this moment!

Something about the mountain air makes my boys more tolerant of each other. It's a good thang!

Climbing boulders and being silly....at least Parker knows what time it is!

I'm super glad our camp spot wasn't next to this rushing river. Totally freaky!!! So many people drowned this spring due to our large melting snow runoff. We could hear the river from our camp, but you had to climb over about 50 boulders to actually see it. Phew!

I came home and slept at night, but Sam and the boys roughed it in the great outdoors. Can you see big blue eyes peeking out at you?

We took a very short break from camping and attended the 4th of July parades in Murray and West Jordan. Our Stake did a float for these parades and the 24th of July parade. It was a lot of work, but so fun to see the end result!

Cameron with his US pride face.

Cameron with his "I have salt water taffy stuck in my mouth" look. He was not pleased. I laughed.

We saw the fighter jets do a fly by:

Here comes our Stake's float! It was the Tabernacle Choir, made up entirely of animals, and the theme is "pressing forward: still singing as we go". It was super fun to cheer them all on!

We had a bunch of youth from our Stake dancing behind the float. This is our favorite babysitter, Paige! She rocks!!

Most of the parade participants gave out candy. A few gave out squirts of water right in your face. Parker learned this the hard way. He was a good sport!

Remember that freaky headless float dude that was left on my lawn? Well, we wanted to give our parade chairpeople a proper "thank you" for all their hard work. I think this worked out just great! I wonder what they thought when they pulled into their driveway to this scene? We love you Matt and Leslie!

On the 6th we headed to the annual Sweet Family Campout. Like I said before, Sam and I were in charge this year. Again, I use that term very loosely. We picked the place. :) Anyway, I was very pleased with the campground: Altamont. It's private, it's huge, and it had flushing toilets. That there is a recipe for a good time!

I was only able to stay about half the time due to the pukes, but the time I was there, I loved!

Lots of photos:

And finally, we attended Bishopric night of Girls Camp last Thursday night. Our camp leaders did an AMAZING job! The theme was "Tangled up with Integrity" and they used a lot of parallels with the movie Tangled. Our camp director has an amazing husband who even built a castle tower and a castle front gate. I was blown away!

If you've seen Tangled, you'll know that there are Wanted posters for Flynn Rider and Flynn always said "They can never get my nose right!" Well, as we were driving up to the campground, we started seeing all these wanted posters with the Bishopric members faces on them. Each and every one of them had a different nose. I was laughing pretty hard! This is only a sampling! There had to be at least 30 of these posters all around the campground!

Around camp:

This is Mike. He was wearing his Fabio wig and trying to give me his best "smolder" look!

Here's Alison. She is a good friend of mine and I'm impressed because this was her 10th year at camp as either a ward leader or a stake leader. This year she was Stake Camp Director! I am in awe of her abilities!

Getting ready for testimony meeting. We have incredible girls in our ward with very strong testimonies. We had the perfect balance of laughing our guts out and feeling the Spirit very strongly. For as long as I live, I will NEVER forget Jenny's "Goonies" testimony. My favorite quote: "...and all it took was Tyson's Chicken Nuggets to bring us back together!" Phew, that was a belly laugh moment for sure!

I wanted to get a cool picture of the glowing lanterns our girls made....but my camera skills leave a lot to be desired. Luckily, I was sitting next to the talented Tania Finn! She grabbed my camera, went crazy on the settings, and got this cool shot!

So, needless to say, I'm all camped out. Good thing too because my boys start school next week! Can you believe that?? Crazy year-round school...

Remember When...

2011-06-30T12:59:00.012-06:00

Remember when I used to update my blog almost daily? Oh man, those were good days....days when I guess I had too much time on my hands!

For reals, I am desperate to keep updating this journal of mine but at the end of most days all I want to do is lay down and be a vegetable!

However, it's early afternoon and I'm taking a break from the day and upating this blog. I have too much going on to not blog about it!

Once school ended, the typical summer activities ensued: Youth Conference, Swim Lessons, camping trips planned, and about 400 otter pops have been consumed (I helped consume them). I love me some otter pops! How do you know if the otter pop you are eating is strong enough? You cough! Whenever I cough while partaking of the sweet sugary goodness, I always exclaim "Oh yeah, that's the good stuff!".

Our ward's Youth Conference was amazing...or so I heard. I wasn't there but Sam was. :) They did a partial trek intermixed with some fun activities. Each person on the trek represented an actual pioneer who crossed the plains. At the end of the Youth Conference, each person found out if their pioneer survived or not. Very touching! I looked at the pictures Sam took when he got home and a few made me laugh:

I said "Hey Sam, what were taking pictures of here??" He said "the scenery....and stuff...." Riiiiiggggghhhhhhhttttttt....the man loves his car. So precious! :)

Father's Day was great! We had a fancy schmancy dinner at my parents house. Always delicious! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of Sam or my dad. I'm lame like that. However, I love them both dearly and I'm so thankful for their influence in my life!!
Sam did capture this beauty: I have no idea what Parker is doing with his shirt, but Cameron thinks it's funny.

Speaking of Crazy P-Maw, he turned 7 on the 20th. Usually I kind of lament the fact that my kids are growing too fast, but I don't feel that way with Parker. I swear he has the wit of a 12 year old so it's kind of weird that he's only 7. Does that make sense? In fact, I'm kind of nervous to see what he's going to do with each growing year....he will always keep us on our toes I'm sure!

He invited his cousin Dexter and Carson's friend, Devin, to celebrate with us. Sort of as a joke, I gave him a birthday hat I found and he wore it faithfully most of the day. ha ha!

Make a wish! Remember, you have to tell us what you wish for or it won't come true! At least that is what my dad always taught us.

After cake and ice cream we all went to a trampoline place called Airborne. Holy cow, it was such a blast! The tickets we had were only good for one hour of jumping. I thought that was too short. Boy was I wrong!!! After 45 minutes everybody was panting so hard and they were covered in sweat! It was just perfect!
I think the favorite activity of the night was jumping into the foam pits. We would even launch Cameron into them. He would land like a slug and then just lay there. I had a few tears from laughing so hard.

Now we turn our attention to upcoming camping trips. I'm not a huge fan of sleeping outside, but overall, camping is such a fun experience! We reserved a camping spot locally for a time in the near future. Last weekend Sam drove up to the spot to check it out. Good thing he did too. We have had such a cold, wet spring....it's taken a long time for the snow to actually melt. Now that the temperatures are rising, the snow is melting faster than the rivers and streams can handle. The spot we had reserved had melting snow running right through it! ha ha!

The camp hosts were very nice and re-assigned us to a dry spot. It should be a good time!

Next week we are in charge of the big ol' Sweet campout. Every 8 years we are in charge. That's right, last time we were the head honchos we only had Carson! One of the perks of belonging to such a large family I suppose! I use the term "in charge" loosely. Basically we reserved the group site. After that everyone is on their own, I'm not good at being in charge of a group's entertainment!! Sadly, the bigger and older this family gets, the more people start dropping out of the campout due to schedules and other conflicts. I'm going to miss those that aren't there for sure!

This morning I backed out of my driveway to go run some errands. As I was backing out, I noticed this on my front lawn!!

I nearly died laughing!!! I knew immediately who it was from. Our friends are in charge of doing a 4th and 24th of July float for our Stake. When they got this assignment last year, the immediately called all the float people who just finished the parades and asked them if they could have all their misc float pieces. They received some of the most random and hideous items! Seriously, their yard looked like something out of a budget horror movie... huge doll heads, random body parts....it was classic! So when I saw this larger than life football player, missing a head, hanging out on my lawn I had to cross my legs because I was laughing so hard (if you've had babies, you'll understand the crossing of the legs part).

After I gathered my wits, I noticed this headless monster was holding a sign:

Awwwww, that is nice! Sam has been helping build the float for the past few nights, I guess they are grateful! Our friends are funny because they keep asking why Sam wants to help. Our reply: Because you are our friends and you need help, duh!!! :) I am leaving that headless dude on our lawn until I find motivation to do something with it. Come on over and enjoy the view, you will laugh! Cameron keeps saying "that red guy is too scary."

Carson and Parker are reminiscing. Carson just said "Parker, remember that one time at school when my nose wouldn't stop running? I went into the bathroom and blew my nose for like an hour...and then all of a sudden all this corn came out??"

What?!? I honestly didn't ask any follow up questions. Sometimes things are best left unresolved.

Finally, we'll see who still reads this ol' blog. I'm pregnant.

I'm 12 weeks. I puke a lot. I sleep a lot. I hope to come out of my funk soon because I'm not very fun to be around right now. However, I'm so excited. I'm due January 14th. We like to be consistent in this family. If all goes according to plan (cross fingers and toes), this baby will be healthy and born in 2012. My kids are born every 4 years: 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. Yep, consistent. There's something to be said for spacing kids out 4 years. I really like it! It wasn't my choice, but that's how it turned out and I'll take it!

Just because I know you are wondering: I'm expecting this baby to be a boy, and I'm very okay with that! :)

Another School Year Over!

2011-06-13T20:51:00.014-06:00

Good-bye 4th grade for Carson!
Good-bye 1st grade for Parker!
Good-bye peace and quiet during the day for mom!

Overall I'd say it was a pretty good year. Both boys are reading above grade level, Carson only had to call home a half dozen times because he couldn't control his talking, and Parker got all his work done during school...about a half of the time. Yep, pretty good year!

We were able to attend a program in Parker's classroom during the last week of school. It was adorable! They did three little puppet shows. This picture makes me laugh. I wonder what the blonde girl thinks about being a troll??

Parker was the Gingerbread Man in this puppet/shadow show. Very fun, the kids did an amazing job! I really admire school teachers and their never ending patience!

Each 1st grader wrote and illustrated a story. Parker's book was on Puffles....surprise surprise. That kiddo is obsessed I tell ya.

Mrs. Beckstead. Carson was also her student when he was in 1st grade. To this day, Carson still gives her a hug when he sees her at school. Seriously, she is so nice! In fact, the last day of school I waited and waited for Carson and Parker to come home. After waiting 15 minutes past the time they should be home, I got pretty nervous. I drove up to the school and found my boys....helping Mrs. Beckstead clean out her classroom. It was one of those I'm-proud-of-you-but-I'm-going-to-kill-you moments.

Both my boys earned their Distinguished Cub awards. During the school year they have a laundry list of things to accomplish during the year. If they accomplish at least 12 of the 15 items, they get a medal to wear around their neck. Parker was pretty excited.

I captured the flash of the other parent's cameras. I love the shadow it gave Carson's head! It looks like.... a muppet or something. So funny!

This is Mr. Spencer. He was good for Carson. I'm not sure Carson was good for Mr. Spencer.....

And last but not least: I just love this dirty faced kid of mine. Here's to many more care-free summer evenings ahead!

Sailing Around The World

2011-05-31T21:27:00.017-06:00

My friend wrote on my facebook wall yesterday, saying "Are you sailing around the world, is that why you haven't updated your blog?" I desperately wish that were the reason for my lack of updates! I would be thrilled to tell you about my travels to distant lands and all the cheer I was spreading there! However, it's not the case.

I've been in the trenches of life lately. I haven't been depressed, that's not my style (not that there's anything WRONG with that!). I've just been cleaning up spills, disciplining rambunctious boys, and doing homework until I'm ready to throw it out the window....you know, the trenches.

However, this evening I became very grateful, out of the blue.

I'm so thankful I have the most amazing husband. He is so supportive of whatever I am doing, even if it's laying on the couch vegging! He doesn't freak out when I spend a small fortune on hair products, nor does he freak out when he comes home to an empty dinner table (I have "what should we have for dinner" disease a lot!). He is funny all the time and doesn't get discouraged when I don't laugh at every joke, it just makes him try harder! He works so hard at his job, in his calling, and at being a father and husband. He's just fabulous!

I'm thankful for my kids.

Carson is teaching me how to be a mom to a tween. Overall, he's a great kid, but lately I've been getting glimpses of what he'll be like as a teenager. It's taught me great patience! I like the changes, he is acting more and more grown up and we have some pretty funny conversations! Here he is with my new niece (more on that in a second):

Parker is soooooo funny! I would love to be a fly on the wall and watch him for an entire day, just to find out what I miss when he's at school! For reals, he is mini-Sam in personality. A few weeks ago the Primary kids sang in church. After the song, when all the kids were going back to sit with their parents, Parker waited until almost everyone had sat down, and then he proceeded to walk BACKWARDS off the stand and to where I was sitting, towards the back of the chapel! He seriously went down the steps backwards and kept going until he reached my bench. On the outside I had a pleasant, yet stern look. On the inside I was laughing my brains out! But the best part? Once he sat down he did not look at me to see if I was laughing. He just sat down and stared straight ahead as if nothing unusual had just occurred. Who does that?? A few days ago I was at my cousins house and Parker ran into the room, sat in front of her fireplace and started to meditate. Have I ever seen him do anything like that before? Uh, NO! His little cousin Sloan even tried getting in on that action!

Cameron finished up preschool for the year. I got to help in the classroom on the 2nd to last day. The teacher had the kids washing their cubbies and toys...brilliant!

Because Cameron is mostly with me during the day, I get to hear the great things he says. The other day he was jumping up and down and listening to the liquid slosh around in his belly. Then he said "That's just the duck. My stomach is going to hurt in 2 minutes. I need to go get my blanket!". I just stared at him, not really understanding what the crap he was talking about, so he repeated himself like 3 times until I said "oh, okaaaaayyyyyy.....". Love him, Love him, Love him!
He discovered the headlamp we use for camping the other day and has been wearing it all over:

Tonight I asked him to put dad's shoes and backpack away. He was eager to please!

He got his first pair of flip flops (don't try to call them shoes, he gets very defiant until you call them flip flops) and after a day of throwing tantrums he finally learned how to walk in them.

I'm thankful the sun was shining today! We have had the wettest May in over 150 years here in the Salt Lake valley. It's been pure craziness! It was like living in Seattle all over again! I finally got my summer flowers planted during a break in the rain last week and my zinnia seeds have already started to sprout! Yay for wet weather! I took the boys to a local nursery and let them each pick out flowers they wanted to plant. Carson picked out some crazy striped petunias, Parker picked out some hot pink petunias, and Cameron picked out some little paintbrush type flowers, I can't remember what they are called. They look like little pink, orange, and yellow paintbrushes....Fern, what are they called? Anyway, it's pretty cute because every time they walk past THEIR flowers they get so excited and tell anyone within earshot how they picked them out all by themselves!

I'm thankful I live so close to my parents. Not only do we get a gourmet meal every Sunday, we get to hang out with them quite often and they are FABULOUS grandparents to my boys. They have an endless supply of fruit snacks and dum dum suckers, which make my boys swoon! My mom had knee surgery over a month ago and she is doing very well this time around. It's so great to see her make more progress with her knee over this past month, than the past 2 1/2 years combined! She is such a trooper to deal with all the pain, I am amazed at her attitude. My dad has been extremely patient with Carson over the past 3 weeks as we've been teaching him to mow their lawn. He's even had the edges already mowed before we get there so Carson can understand where to start! What a good grandpa! They are so nice to babysit for me at the drop of a hat, I'm seriously blessed to have them in my life!

I'm thankful for my extended family as well. I love hanging out with each and every one of them! This past week has been crazy eventful for my little brother Curtis. He and his wife have been trying to adopt a child from the Navajo reservation in Arizona for the past few years. They assumed they would receive a toddler, which was just fine with them. Biologically, they have Dexter, who is 4 years old, and Lucy who just turned 1. Last week my sister-in-law, Shandy, received a call from her social worker who told her they have a baby girl who was born on May 17th that they would like Curtis and Shandy to adopt. It's a VERY spiritual story told by Shandy, and the end result is this baby was MEANT to be with their family. She truly belongs to Curtis and Shandy and we all know she was meant to be with them since before the beginning of time. To hear them tell the story brought tears to all our eyes. Even though they have only had her for 5 days, I feel like she has been in the family forever. Her name is Phoebe Patricia Clark. My mom's name is Patricia, so you know she's elated about that choice! :) This experience has reminded me, once again, that Heavenly Father is in charge. He has a specific timeline for each and every one of us. Sometimes we question it and get frustrated, but as events unfold in front of us, we can truly say "Now I understand why things worked out this way!!"

From the reservation, Shandy texted me this picture. I fell in love instantly!

On Sunday we got to hold her and love on her! This picture make me laugh. This is Lorraine, Shandy's mom, holding Phoebe. No, she isn't crying (she never cries, just whimpers when she's hungry!), she is yawning. Look at those long skinny fingers!

Here is my mom, holding her namesake!

Here's me!

A gorgeous picture Shandy just posted on facebook:

And, just for fun, here's their one-year old Lucy. ha ha! See that dart on her forehead? She was eating the foam from those darts without us knowing. See the box she is holding? She was eating that too, without us knowing. Guess how we found out? 5 minutes after this picture she HORKED all over the dining room. It was AWESOME! In true mom-instincts, Shandy grabbed her and said "Curtis, do you want to clean up Lucy or the floor?" Curtis quickly said "floor" and Shandy raced down the hall to Lucy's room. About 1.4 minutes later, Lucy was cleaned up and so was the floor. I'd like to think Carson helped them deal with unpleasant puke. Once when Carson was about 4 we were at their house. Carson suddenly puked in their hallway. When we asked him whassupwithdat, he said "I was just looking at the dog's bum and all of a sudden I threw up". Um.....okay..... good times!

I could go on and on, I already did, but I want you to know that I'm thankful for my day to day life. It's not fancy or filled with exotic adventures, but that's okay, I'm a homebody! Life really is good! Now.....I must go clean the toilet...living in a house with 4 boys is like a box of chocolates, I never know what I'm going to see when entering the bathroom!

Mothers Day 2011

2011-05-09T09:32:00.013-06:00

I had a very nice Mother's Day. Do you want to know what Carson gave me? Remember, it was "the perfect gift and it only cost 50 cents!" (see post below).

First of all, he gave me this lovely card. Here's the front, a nice bouquet of roses:

But the real tear-jerker was the inside of the card. How poetic can you get??? The word "here" just really speaks to me! :)

Of course, I should be happy with "here" because at church they filled out this cute paper on Mother's. They were supposed to fill in the blank for "She is so good at _______________________". Carson wrote "telling me to hurry up!" Ya win some, ya lose some.

Back to the gift......Ta-Da! Here is what Carson scored at the Garage Sale.

Watch out neighbors, I foresee a lot of Hershey's circa 1980's baking in the future! It's detrimental to my health to keep goodies like this around here so you will probably be a good home for them! All joking aside, it was very thoughtful of Carson to find a Mother's Day gift for me. He was so proud when he gave it to me first thing Sunday morning. He's a good kid and I'm glad he's mine!

For Mother's Day, Sam gave me a cool walking stick for all our day hikes this summer, and this awesome necklace that I hinted to him that I wanted (I emailed him the link a month ago and said "THIS is what I want for Mother's Day.).

It's from The Vintage Pearl. I absolutely love it. The 3 peas in the pod represent my three children and their names are engraved on the little disc. So fun!

For Mother's Day dinner, we spent it with my parents. My mom had knee surgery a few weeks ago and can't travel too much right now so we made an afternoon of hanging out while the men cooked dinner. It was very nice! We had grilled marinated turkey (delicious!), roasted veggies, a scrumptious watermelon, and some rustic artisan bread. It was divine! Check out the veggies before they went in the oven! By the way, I really liked roasted radishes. They were super good! The only kind of veggie I didn't care for was the broccoli. I keep waiting for my taste buds to grow up in the broccoli department, but they never do! The veggies that were in the pan: asparagus, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, sweet potato, yukon potato, mushrooms, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli...that may have been it. Pour some garlic butter over the top and add some parmesan cheese and you have a meal fit for a king!

While dinner was cooking, Parker and Cameron were wrestling around. A little while later, Cameron approached my mom and said "Parker has a bloody nose!". I didn't know if he was serious or not, because he's a total prankster, but sure enough, I found Parker in the bathroom with blood all over his face.

when I asked him what happened, he said "Cameron had his finger up my nose and then he scratched". I honestly didn't ask him any follow up questions, I just gave him a confused look and said "Sam, can you help Parker?" and then I went and read the newspaper. Don't judge me, it's Mother's Day. Some days I need a break from bizarre behaviors of 3 boys! Later in the day, Cameron fell off my parents bar stool and scratched up his tailbone. Poor buddy. I said "did you hurt your bum?". His reply: "No, I hurt my bottom!". Um, okay.

After everyone was finished getting injured, we had dessert. Sam made Lava cakes. Amazing!

The cake was so rich it made me sweat! It was freakin-fantastic!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I am so blessed to live so close to my own Mom. She is a great example to me and I love her very much!

I'm Struggling...

2011-05-07T20:47:00.016-06:00

I'm struggling to keep this ol' blog updated! Can I just hire somebody? I think my niece Liz could use a summer job, in addition to her internship. Liz, you wanna pretend you are me? ha ha ha! I am laughing just imagining what you would write!

Okay, let me break it down for you:

Cameron had a "Mother's Tea" program at his school last week. It was seriously so cute. I loved every second of it! The mothers sat at tables all decorated and with plates of cookies and fruit slush. We snacked while the kids sang songs. Cameron made a bee bracelet for one of his songs and he proudly wore it the rest of the day. It's hard to tell in this picture, but there are clear wings, I guess made of transparency films, glued to the yellow band.

For Mother's Day, the moms received a card that spelled "Mom" with our child's picture, a homemade flower that was water colored, a pencil with a tag that read "Thank you for being the write kind of helper this year", and some M&M's with a note, Marvelous Mom. It was the Mother-Load. ha ha. Hey, who's grubby chubby hands are those trying to swipe my M&M's??

Guess what Parker gets to do on a daily basis? When he's at school, for some reason he likes to ROLL around on the playground, in the wood chips. His jacket is a magnet for wood chips. They get stuck on the inside lining and will not fall off unless hand picked. So, every day he walks home from school, and then sits on the front steps and hand picks off the wood chips. It drives me crazy, not just because he has to throw wood chips all over my front steps....think about how many kids have peed on those wood chips! EwwwWWWwww!

As you may or may not know, our Spring weather hasn't exactly been warm. We've had tons of rain and tons of snow. Last week I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to go outside and recreate instead of sitting around in the house. So, we found this cute little park called "Winchester Park". It had a pond, a playground, and it's right along the Jordan River Parkway. It was super fun! We saw two pelicans fly over the pond and then swoop down and land in the water. Also, as I was racing Parker down the Jordan River Parkway, it may or may not have resulted in an embarrassing situation that is caused by having 3 babies in the past. Note to self, running is lame. ha ha!

Today we finally had a gorgeous spring-like day. 70 degrees, not much wind. It was perfect for a little hike up Ensign Peak. I've never hiked Ensign Peak before. It was much different than I expected. I thought it would still feel like you were in the city, but I was pleasantly surprised by the surrounding nature. :)
About half way up:

Taking a rest. It was pretty steep. The kids did awesome! Even 3-year old Cameron hiked the whole thing without any help.

Almost to the top!

We made it! We celebrated by eating fruit snacks and Teddy Grahams. The view from the top!

On the way down: The kids learned a valuable lesson...going down is harder than going up! It was pretty funny. I think each of my boys slipped and fell at least once. I'll admit, my legs were a little shaky by the time we reached level ground again. It was fun though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

After our hike we went to my parents house to teach Carson how to mow their lawn. This will be Carson's summer job. It wasn't easy for him, but I'm so proud of him. I don't think I ever mowed lawns when I was 10 years old! He shed a few frustrated tears, but he sure loved the money he received as payment! He promptly spent it tonight on a pocket watch that he's been saving up for in the past several months. Seriously? A pocket watch? I don't get it. Whatever floats his boat I suppose.

Cameron fell yesterday and skinned his knee. I didn't see it happen so he came limping over to me and I could see the bright red spot on his knee. I said "what happened buddy?" and he replied: Well, I was just trippin' over there....and then I fell! I laughed inside my head for the next hour. The way he said it was so gangsta too! Maybe it's not funny to read....but it was funny to hear!

Today Cameron was eating a frozen refreshing treat. Holy Moly, it was serious bath time after this! For reals!

This morning our neighbors across the street were having a garage sale. They are fairly new to the 'hood. We've met them and exchanged pleasantries, but that's about it. Carson was eating breakfast and said "I'm going to go see if the neighbors need help!" and with that, he bolted out the door and across the street. Pretty random, but they didn't seem to mind. About an hour later he came storming in the front door and yelled "I found the perfect Mother's Day gift for you and it only will cost me fifty cents!!!!!". He raced downstairs, grabbed his piggy bank, and ran back over to the neighbor's house. Later I sheepishly walked over to save my neighbors from chatty Carson and they were laughing so hard about how he's been very helpful and acting like a true salesman to people who were browsing the sale. They said he was very cute and thoughtful when he found the perfect Mother's Day gift for me....but they were kind of laughing when they said it. I'm a little nervous. Stay tuned tomorrow when I find out what it is!!

Happy Mothers Day tomorrow to all the women I know and love, especially my own Mom!!!!

Speaking of Grass...see last post

2011-04-24T15:01:00.024-06:00

We definitely have not stood still the past few days. I guess you could say "the grass is not growing under our feet!" Too bad though, I wish it would because I'm getting tired of watering our polka dotted front lawn!

Nevertheless, I digress.

On Friday, Sam and I dropped the boys off at my parents house for the entire day (thank you sooooo much Mom and Dad!) and headed to Moroni, Utah. Sam's Uncle Jack passed away and we were heading to his funeral. Every time I attend a funeral I'm always in awe that we can summarize somebody's life into just a few hours. I love to hear stories from loved ones that are so important to them, that they made the cut into the funeral talk. Uncle Jack was quite the character...always telling stories and making others laugh. He was a hard worker, living in Jerusalem Utah (did you even know there was a Jerusalem Utah??) in the summers, working the land and taking care of horses, cattle, and being a turkey farmer. He was the last of his siblings to pass away. It was very somber to watch Sam's older brothers and sisters mourn over the passing of Uncle Jack. Sam's parents divorced when Sam was a toddler, so Uncle Jack was like a father to many of the Sweet kiddos. Jack's last name is Bailey. In Sam's childhood, the Bailey cousins were to Sam what the Oram cousins are to me. They were tight, yo.

Uncle Jack with my nephew, Nick. April 2001

When we walked into the church we saw a gorgeous display that Jack's kids had created:

I've known Jack for 13 years and I've never seen him wear anything except those striped bib overalls. In one hand or pocket he usually had his pliers and the other hand was a Mountain Dew. Yeah, Jack was a cool dude!

Jack was married to Enid. Enid and Sam's mom are sisters. Enid passed away in 1988 so I never knew her but I hear she was the FAVORITE Aunt. Everybody loved Enid!

Here's Belva and Fontella.....or FonBelva as we like to call them! The last two Jackson sistas! Sam's mom is Fontella. :) When we were trying to think of what to name Carson, Sam's brother tried desperately to get us to name him FonBelva. ha ha! These two are thick as thieves. They are always good for a hug and a laugh.

This is the house that Jack built. I don't know if he actually built it, but I think that was the title of a book I used to read when I was a young 'un. Fern told me that they first just had the basement and then later on they added the top portion. I'm not a gambling woman, but I'd venture to bet that the satellite dish was a recent addition. :)

Jack served in WWII and the Korean War so we had the 21 gun salute at the cemetery.

My favorite picture that Sam took: Jack's only son J.L. (Sam's cousin) suffered a brain aneurysm almost 6 years ago. He has made steady improvement in his health since that day. He was presented with the flag from Jack's casket. It was a very touching moment, especially when J.L. saluted the presenter.

Jack's kids. I love these guys!! Maureen, Cindy, J.L., Joann, and Jeanene.

One of my first impressions meeting Cindy: We were at Jack's cabin in Jerusalem and Cindy was helping her dad vaccinate, brand, and castrate some cows. Cindy was doing the bulk of the work and tossing those, **I'm blushing**, testicles across the field! It was like a car accident, I seriously could not look away! She earned my respect that very day because I can't even touch raw meat, let alone doing something like THAT!! ha ha! Seriousy though, the Bailey children are the most kind, caring, and wonderful people. Enid and Jack did a great job raising them!!

On Saturday, we celebrated the Easter Bunny side of Easter.

The kids woke us up too early to find their baskets. They were pretty eager.

They were pleased with their haul.

Okay, who's going to tell Cameron his fake smile needs some work? NOT IT!

Hyped up on sugar makes kids do weird things.

Yesterday happened to be my dad's birthday too! As he was cooking his own birthday dinner to feed us (his choice, don't be hatin'!) we decided to have an Easter Egg hunt. Sam and I filled the eggs. Do you think we filled them all nice with regular candy?

Fugghetaboutit!

We just used whatever we could find around the house: crushed leaves, hair mousse, pennies, crystal light, old marshmallows, gum....it was fun!

The best was when Dexter opened up the egg packed full of brown sugar. He wasn't quite sure about it.

My dad's birthday dinner was WONDERFUL! Tri Tip Steak grilled to perfection! Happy Birthday Dad, we love your guts!!

You know what else we love? This cake!!! It's called "Put the Lime in the Coconut Cake". It's Uh-MAZE-ing! My mom did a great job because none of us could keep our hands off of it! Pure dangerous. That cake should be called "danger cake". For realsies.

The festivities continue in a few hours because we're heading back to my parents house and having a traditional Easter Dinner. Have I mentioned how much I love living this close to my parents? Happy Easter everybody!!

Funky Grass

2011-04-20T09:30:00.012-06:00

This past Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! No rain, which is rare these days, and the sun was shining. I decided it was a perfect day to get rid of our funky grass.

Ever since we moved into this house, 9 years ago, we've had patches of weird grass that grows amongst our Kentucky Blue grass. I thought it was crab grass, but I asked Scotts Lawn Service about it one day and they told me it wasn't crab grass, it was a type of grass that grows in the South. Not sure how that grass made its way to my lawn, but whatever....I just knew it needed to be gone. Over the years more and more patches have started growing.

My blog skills are slacking because I didn't take any before pictures. However, there are about 15 or so patches that Sam dug out with a shovel, leaving holes anywhere from 6 inches to 12 inches deep all over our yard. It looked like some bizarre connect-the-dot game. After they were all dug out, he then back filled them with dirt, which is when I decided to grab the camera. At this point my parents took mercy on us and joined in the fun!

The kids played outside all day while we were working. I loved it! Carson forgets he is 10 years old and is too big for Cameron's toys. Check Parker out, he was gathering some speed so he could slam into Carson. I just let it happen. :)

After the holes were packed with dirt, we placed this Lawn Patch stuff on top. It's basically grass seed mixed with shredded newspaper and other types of moisture-holding fluffy stuff. I'm supposed to keep it wet and in 7-14 days we should start to see some new grass growing. Right now our lawn looks crazy with blue polka dots all over it.

I really hope it works because right now I feel like the crazy old lady who scares her neighbors....I'm constantly watching those patches so kids and dogs don't walk through them. Yesterday a couple was walking their dog by my house and the dog totally walked through about 6 patches. I STERNLY said "HEY! Don't let your dog walk through those patches!". Yep, I've become one of those people.

Even with the ugly polka dots, it's so nice to look on my front lawn and not see all the ugly grass sticking straight up. I'm hopeful!

Yesterday for dinner I made something yummy! I found a recipe for pulled pork sandwiches. First, you put pork in your crock-pot the night before with a bottle of regular BBQ sauce. Put the crock-pot on Low and go to bed. I did just that. By 5am the next morning I was gagging at the strong meat smell in my house. "It's going to be a long day" I thought. Sam's alarm beeped at 5:30am. I said "Hey Sam, will you plug the crock-pot into an outlet in the garage"? He suggested doing this the night before but I dismissed the idea. Sorry Sam, you were brilliant! So he moved the crock-pot and all was well. I had some yummy pork cooking in my garage all day! By about 3pm I brought it inside and drained off the BBQ sauce, melted fat, and I shredded the pork. Even at this point I could eat a whole portion!

I refrained to just a few bite-fuls! Then I added a bunch of "Sweet and Spicy" BBQ sauce and let it get hot again. Sooooooo delicious!

To the equation, add a chewy hard roll and some swiss cheese.....perfection! Try it today! The recipe called for Boston Butt Roast but I just used pork shoulder because that's what I had.

By the way, see all the crusty cooked on BBQ sauce on the sides of the crock-pot? Yeah, I wasn't able to get it all cleaned off until this morning! I'd recommend using a crock-pot liner to save yourself the trouble.

Yesterday Cameron was looking at the celing and said "Daddy, can you take me up there?" as he's pointing up. So Sam obliged and Cameron practiced walking on the ceiling. It was just so random. Cameron never laughed or anything, he just acted like Spiderman for a few seconds and then went about his business. Almost like in his mind he thought "okay, I can check that off my bucket list". I love him!

Last week Carson's teacher called me at home because he was so frustrated. Carson had been working on one math worksheet all day and had only completed 1/3 of it. So he called to tell me he was sending it home with Carson and he better get it done that night. I decided a few months ago that I was going to quit trying to explain myself or Carson when stuff like this comes up. I know we work hard at home and stuff like that does not happen because I'm a slacker or because Carson isn't smart. Does that make sense? I just politely said "okay". I guess he made that call in front of Carson because in the 10 minutes left of school, Carson quickly finished the worksheet! He did it all right too! He still brought it home because his teacher said "well, your mom is expecting it so you better bring it home.". I thought it was funny! I don't know why he day dreams all day, but it never fails, when push comes to shove, he pulls through! However, he thought he was in trouble so on the way home he picked this tulip out of our yard and said "Hi mom, I brought you this flower." He was very timid. It was cute.

This morning I was doing my hair and Cameron walks into the bathroom. He was standing on top of the toilet dancing around. He lost his balance and then fell, flat onto his face, onto the rug below. I just sort of watched him (I have a problem with delayed reactions to things). Cameron stood up, had a disgusted look on his face, and said "sheesh, I almost peed my underwear" and then he stood in front of the toilet and went to the bathroom. Holy cow, it was hysterical!!! I'm sure it hurt because the side of his head, right by his eye is all skinned. I think he hit his head on the stool on the way down. I can't get enough of him!

We Be Loyal

2011-04-11T09:59:00.010-06:00

Carson asked me the other day what "Webelos" stood for, "cuz I forgot!". Without even thinking, I answered "We Be Loyal" and I said it like I was a gangsta. The sad thing, is that I thought I was right. I really thought it meant that. Sam patiently replied, "No, it stands for We'll Be Loyal Scouts". Oh yeah. I'm the worst.

Despite my lack of knowledge in the field of scout acronymns, Carson did earn his Webelos badge last week! We've been busy little bees regarding scouting so he earned quite a haul! He was supposed to pin the Webelos Mothers Pin on me, but the cub masters just gave us a baggie full of all his pins so here we are sorting through them to find the right pin. Nothing like standing in front of a room full of people trying to find a needle in a haystack! Oh, notice Carson's plaid scarf? Yeah, we didn't have a slide-thingy (I told you I stink at scout terms) so Sam just zip-tied it on him. I really wish I got a close up picture. It was just awesome!

Sam first tried using this metal...uh....thing...for Carson's scarf. It was too big. So he just let Cameron play with it. He stuck in on Cameron's ear and it kept the grumpy child happy all during pack meeting! My friend said he looked like Shrek and we should paint him green and he'd have a fabulous Halloween costume!

At one point all the scouts were supposed to draw something they have faith in. Here is Carson's drawing: "Cave of Faith Crystals". What the............?

You know why I love Spring? It snowed for 3 solid days last week....but we had zero accumulation! OH yeah!

On Saturday I "cashed" in a groupon deal I had purchased awhile ago. 3 hours of eco-friendly cleaning! SCORE! My blinds were dis-gust-a-pating. I never dust them because I never think about it, until they are so nasty that they require a slat-by-slat scrub down. So, I had my blinds, stove, kitchen floor, kitchen sink, and upstairs bathroom cleaned professionally. Just looking at my sparkling white blinds makes me smile. Now, if I could just remember to dust them regularly.....

This morning I was helping Cameron get dressed when I suddenly had the shivers. I looked up on his wall at a picture Carson taped there.....and freaked out! Somebody put that NASTY butterfly on his picture!!! I have no idea who did that!! Fern, Sam, or Carson....you are on my hit list until I get to the bottom of this! If you know me at all, you know I'm not a FAN of butterflies...

One of the best movie lines ever: In my world, everyone will eat rainbows, and poop butterflies! What's the movie??

Prayer Challenge

2011-04-01T21:51:00.006-06:00

We have a fabulous Stake Girls Camp Director, who also happens to be a good friend of mine. She had this amazing idea to create a challenge to the young women of our Stake titled "Because I believe, I will not cease to call upon God". This challenge was also extended to the Bishopric and their wives (hence my involvement).

We were given a bookmark which listed a scripture for every day beginning today, and it ends the day before the start of Girls Camp in July. We are supposed to read the scripture and say our morning prayer. Then, at night, we do the same thing. Each day gives us a new scripture somehow related to prayer.

Today's scripture: 2nd Nephi 9:52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice

As I prayed and thought about that scripture, I chose to focus on the last sentence: Let your hearts rejoice. I decided I would choose to find the positive in the hardest situations that presented itself for the day. My decision would be put to the test before the hour had passed.

Cameron had his 3-year old check-up today with his pediatrician. Because my kids are off-track I had all three hooligans with me. We were traveling east on 6200 South and I was stopped in traffic. Suddenly, I am SLAMMED from behind. Ah crap, we were just rear-ended. As I try to gather my thoughts before leaving my car, this scripture/prayer challenge enters my mind. I immediately said to myself: Well, I'm grateful it's not snowing! Then I get out of the car and look at the TINY scratch on my bumper....I'm rejoicing it's just a scratch (we have about 100 other scratches on the bumper from previous adventures)! My rear-ending actually involved 3 cars. I was hit by a girl behind me, who was hit by the boy behind her. I'm thankful my back didn't start going into spasms! Then I look at the boy's car who caused the accident. It wasn't pretty.

He wasn't hurt, just freaked out. I'm grateful we all had insurance and proper registration, that almost never happens! Anyway, you get the idea....I couldn't believe how easy it was to remain positive.

We then went to the doctor appointment, we were late, but they were very accommodating. All was well with Cameron. We left the doctor's office and each of my boys received a sucker and a sticker. For some reason my kids like to put their stickers on their foreheads. These are huge stickers! See what I mean, jellybean?

A little later in the day I was at our church entering February Visiting Teaching numbers into the computer (I know, I'm a little slow!). Carson and Parker came into the room totally laughing. Carson said "Parker wanted me to take his sticker off really fast and look what happened!"

Yes, those are hairs. My heart rejoiced, you have to admit, that is FUNNY! I guess Parker is getting a head start on his receding hairline!

I tried to be careful whilst removing Cameron's sticker. There were only about 10 hairs stuck to his. Phew.

So, I'm excited to see what future unexpected events occur as a result of this reading/praying challenge. I told my friend today that I really hope there aren't lots of scriptures on "endure to the end" because I'm a little petrified to see what situations arise!

Some other thoughts/situations lately that make my heart rejoice:

Today my hysterical niece wrote on facebook: "One year ago I put on deoderant covered in cream cheese" What a GREAT April fools day joke! Seriously, brilliant!

The other day I told Parker "Go make your bed and then you can party like it's 1999. His reply: **snarky chuckle** that won't work because my watch is NOT telling military time!

Last week was Fast Sunday. I had to make a Texas Sheetcake for a firesid we were having at our house later that day. Carson wanted to help me make it. I said "sure, but don't you think that will be a temptation? We can't lick the beater or the bowl since it's Fast Sunday!" He said "well, can I still smell it?" My reply: "uhhhh, yeah..." He said "Perfect! You always make good stuff for other people and we never get a taste so a long time ago I had to learn to be okay with just smelling good stuff!" Aw man, I don't know if I should be proud of him or if I should take the knife out of my back??!!

I dyed the milk in my kids' cereal this morning. Parker LOVED it and chuckled while he ate. Carson pouted and sat on the couch. I just shrugged and thought "ya win some, ya lose some!"

The Haps

2011-03-23T21:49:00.007-06:00

My kids are off track now. I'm hoping we can do some wild and crazy things so I have something worthwhile to blog about. Seriously, the day to day hum-drum is starting to bum me out! Here's a few things we've done lately...

Sam pulled out his "memory box" the other day, which consists of pictures from his youth and mission. Carson and Parker were completely enthralled with them. It was pretty cute. I do believe Sam was in hog-heaven!

If you know me, you know how I feel about raw meat. Think of something that makes your skin crawl and then you feel like you are about to hork. Now you know how I feel about raw meat. I've always felt this way. It drives my parents crazy but I just can't shake it. I blame the cadavers I saw in college. I saw muscle and my brain said "that looks like a roast". I've been messed up ever since. However, that's a story for another day!

Carson wanted homemade meatballs for dinner on Sunday. I like the end result, just not the process. I said "great idea buddy....here, put this apron on!"

He was a trooper! I absolutely did not touch one ingredient. He made the dinner all by himself. I could get used to this!

Even better, he ate dinner like food was going out of style. Usually I have to coax my kids to eat. It was quite pleasant!

Tonight my friend and I got a pedicure. I'm loving it! Now my toes are ready for spring. I got sparkly red toes and my friend now has blue sparkly toes. She is pregnant with her first boy so she knew right away she needed blue polish. I wish I could afford to get a pedicure about every three weeks. Pedicures, hair dye, and eye brow waxing. Luxury life right there!

I had my toes painted red so I could look good in these:

I just got them and I think they are real purdy. :)

Since my kids are off track I'm trying to use time wisely. I've been doing some scout stuff with Carson. As part of a Webelos requirement, he had to make a poster showing how he could be a good citizen. We talked about it, read about it in his book, and then I let him loose with poster supplies. Here's what he did. It just makes me smile.

If this poster is true to life, and if it makes you a good citizen to say "you shouldn't do that" to somebody causing trouble, then I must be the gold standard citizen! I must say that phrase to my boys at least a dozen times a day! Oh yeah, where is my gold star??

The Birthday Celebrations Continue...

2011-03-13T13:33:00.007-06:00

We had Sam's family and my parents over on Friday night for a combined celebration of Cameron's birthday and Sam's birthday. It was a good time. I made a Texas Sheet cake and tons of cookies, and almost everything got devoured. That makes me happy!

I didn't have the camera in hand most of the night but it was fun to see what pictures were taken, mostly by Sam:

What? Your nieces and nephews don't have a squatting competition when they come over? You are missing out. It's funny. I do not possess the squatting gene. I have no idea how people can do this!

Okay, if you don't have squatting contests, do you at least try this?

Or how about this one: do you take pictures of kids pouring water into a cup, which is placed on the floor, unbeknownst to the child?

Once the child realizes they are being watched, do you all laugh your guts out?

We do. We do all those things. I wouldn't have it any other way! In fact, Sam can always get all his teenage nieces and nephews laughing at the same time. It happens often, and I love to watch the process. His family is great! My parents are troopers to join in the fun and chaos as well!!

Saturday was Sam's actual birthday. The day started off pretty boring. He ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then I headed to a baby shower for a dear friend of mine, who is pregnant with TWINS! I came home and asked Sam what he'd like to do. The only thing he could think of was shop for a car....

We have been a one car family for most of our marriage. There was a brief stint for about 18 months or so when we had a Bonneville and the mini van, but a freak spring storm and some black ice took care of that, R.I.P. Bonnie...

Sam and I agreed it was time to get another car, with the following stipulations: We had to pay cash for it, using our income tax return; it needed 4 doors, and it needed to be an automatic. Sam has been searching for about 4 months, and the last few days his search has become an obsession.

He had it narrowed down to 3 cars he liked: Honda Accord, Acura TL, or Lexus IS300.

We had a somewhat small budget, but wanted a reliable vehicle. To get what we wanted, it was probably going to be a 2001 with well over 100,000 miles on it. It was kind of a scary process...for me. It was a fun game for Sam.

On Saturday afternoon, Sam said "I should call Josh and ask his opinion on his Lexus." Josh used to live in our neighborhood and once in awhile he gives Sam a ride home from work, because, shocking....Sam misses the bus sometimes. :)

He called Josh and to his surprise, Josh said "I just traded my Lexus to the dealership 2 days ago!". To make a long story kind of shorter, Josh came and picked up Sam and took him the the dealership. I stayed home with the boys. Our original birthday plans for Sam, were to drop the kids off at 5pm at the sitter's house and go to dinner and a movie. Sam wasn't home by 5 so I dropped the kids off at the sitter's and headed to the dealership. I was met by a very giddy Sam. In fact, I haven't seen him this giddy in a LONG time. It was so funny, I kept laughing so hard at him.

The evening worked out perfectly for Sam. Josh's Lexus is a 2004 IS300 Sport Design. If you look it up on Ebay, KSL, or on a dealers website, they generally run around $12k or $13k. However, because Josh came with Sam, and they worked with the same salesman that bought the car from Josh, everything that was normal in a car-buying situation came to a screeching halt. The dealer couldn't mark the car up in price too far, because Sam knew what they paid for it, especially because Josh was standing right there! Again, long story kind of shorter....Sam stood his ground and insisted they bring the price down, which they did. Sam bought the car, and was able to pay for it up front because it met our original 3 requirements. It only has a little over 79,000 miles on it, it's a 2004, and it's a beauty, eh.

These are pictures Sam found on Ebay. We don't have the car right now, we'll pick it up tomorrow after the dealership details it and obtains the title. However, this is exactly what it looks like:

After we left the dealership, we headed to dinner at Fuddruckers (gotta think before I say that word. I once said it backwards to my cousin. She laughed, I blushed). At one point I was bringing my drink to our table. Sam was already sitting down. The giddy smile on his face, while he was sitting there alone, seriously made me laugh so hard. I will never forget that moment. It was awesome! He kept saying "Happy birthday to me!!!".

So we are finally a two car family, once again. Now to clean out the garage so both cars fit inside......NOT IT!!!

The Best Age Ever!

2011-03-10T15:02:00.013-07:00

So far in the lives of my boys, the age of 3 has been my favorite age. Potty trained, developed sense of humor, but still innocent and lovey towards mom and dad. It's stupendous!

Cameron turned 3 on the 9th.

Here's dad wishing Cameron a happy birthday. He's so thrilled, can you tell?

I took him to the party store (that's what I call it because I don't know how to pronounce "Zurchers".) and got him some balloons. We found some awesome sunglasses while we were there:

Then he almost smiled once we had the balloons:

See a theme here? I don't think he enjoyed all the attention to be honest with you. He gets that from his dad!!
The whole time we sang "happy birthday" to him, he never changed his face from this:

For realsies...what is he thinking here?
My mom seriously cannot sing!
The first years were tough, what is 2011 going to bring me?
Did I turn off the iron?
I hope I make it to the bathroom in time...
....nope
This is the face I shall make when my mom is talking to me in 10 years
I already ate one of these ghetto cupcakes at lunchtime. Why is it a big deal now?

Holy cow, that song took forever. Now for the good part!

So far the hardest part about being 3 is telling people how old I am in sign language!

The present theme was definitely "Thomas the Tank Engine". He was happy to have some new books, a backpack, and a Thomas tent for his room. As he opened each present he was happy, but not too enthusiastic....until he opened his last present, the tent. As he ripped off the wrapping paper he yelled "This is what I've been waiting for!!!" Hysterical.

After finally convincing Cameron to quit playing in his tent and go to bed, I collapsed on the couch to chill out. A few minutes later, Parker came out of his room and said "my toes hurt". After trying to suggest what might help and what has helped in the past when his toes hurt (this isn't our first rodeo with this excuse) he got really mad at me and said "BESIDES, I WASN'T EVEN BORN IN THE PAST!" and then he went to bed. And that ended my busy day of celebration for Cameron's birth.

Happy birthday Cameron! I'm not going to lie, I'm sure happy it's 2011 and not 2008!! Phew!! Having babies is hard work!

The Minds Of Kids

2011-03-06T21:34:00.010-07:00

I would love to live inside of my boys brains, maybe just for one day each.

What an education that would be!!

Carson's world would be filled with day dreams, ideas on how to hide behind doors and scare me half to death, ways to make brushing his teeth take 30 minutes, and endless possibilities for ketchup uses.

Parker's world would be non-stop laughter. Basically, a live "Calvin and Hobbs" comic strip, mixed with a little "Far Side" and perhaps Homer Simpson. I would find all sorts of ideas on how he could become the next super hero whose kryptonite is people who make him the butt end of their jokes.

Cameron's world would be the PERFECT blend of both Carson's world and Parker's world. A little bit too much wit for a 2 year old, in fact, just enough to be considered frightening. However, just enough innocence left in him that turns his mom's heart to a big melted pile of love-oatmeal. I'd also find some confusion as to why he can relax enough to pee whilst sitting, but standing up makes him freeze and seize up.

I've been thinking about the differences and similarities in my boys a lot lately. As a whole, they are so obviously brothers and I really love that. Separately, they each bring such fun to the whole equation.

Example: Last week was picture day at school. For spring pictures, you get to pick your pose out of 4 examples shown on the brochure. I asked Parker which pose he'd like. He looked at the brochure and "thought" out loud. He said "Hmmm, I guess I'll have to pick pose 4. I really like pose 2, but I am not brown, so I can't choose that one.". I was so confused until I looked at the pose 2 picture and realized it was a little African-American kid! Sam and I laughed pretty hard. Sam had to explain to Parker that pose 2 was for everyone, regardless of your color!

It's tough to be misunderstood. I remember when I was a kid and had a "duh" moment. I received a little purse and wallet for Christmas. Inside the wallet was a card you could fill out so if you ever lost your purse, somebody would be able to read your ID card and return it to you. I could answer everything easy enough...name, address, phone number, age.... but then I came to the next part which read "sex". I was shocked that I had to answer that question on the id card so I wrote "not yet". Oh boy did my family belly-gut-larf-out-lard on that one! Of course, for the next several years, any time that question came up my family was quick to exclaim "BOY, GIRL, or NOT YET?"

The shame.

Good thing I had 3 brothers because I took my embarrassment hits early on. Now, I pretty much try to take everything in good humor. We're still trying to teach Cameron this concept. Look at Carson and Parker laughing at some inside joke! I love it!

He doesn't think his brothers are funny (yet) but at least he knows how to defend himself.

And all is well.

Uh, kind of. If I squint it almost looks like Cameron is considering a smile.

Such An Amateur!

2011-02-23T16:26:00.005-07:00

I am laughing so hard!

Let me break it down for you:
Carson and Parker were just getting home from school. I went out onto my front porch to welcome them home. Parker had a smug look on his face and he yelled from across the street: "Mom! Carson said a bad word!"
By this time, Carson was already on the front porch next to me. I sternly looked at him and asked him what he said. He just smiled, so Parker screamed "He said AMATEUR!"

The belly laugh that broke free from Carson's mid-section TOTALLY made me laugh. I couldn't help it. It was so funny! Without thinking, I said "Parker, that's not a bad word!".

If you know Parker, he absolutely HATES being the butt of a joke. By this time Carson and I are laughing so hard, and I know I needed to stop, but I couldn't. The damage was done...I had the giggles and couldn't stop.

Parker was very ticked off. He took off his shoes and threw them at Carson, then he tried hitting him with his backpack as he ran downstairs screaming "I'm not going to do my homework, I don't want dinner, and I don't want dessert!" Yeah, for some reason when Parker gets mad he punishes himself. We're looking into it.

So I got myself under control and went downstairs to talk to him. As I got there, he was listing off all the toys he wanted to throw away....again, I don't understand it....
So, I tried to be compassionate and I explained to him what "amateur" meant. After a few minutes, he calmed down. Then he ran upstairs to where Carson was doing his homework and screamed "Yeah, well YOU are an amateur!", to which Carson smiled, and Cameron, RIGHT ON QUEUE, said "ha ha, ya burnt!", which is a 30 Rock reference that I love.

At that point, we all busted a gut laughing and Parker promptly finished his homework. Just another day in the life of the Sweet's. The older my boys get, the more I love it because the bantering cracks me up.

Parker brought these faces home from school, I tried to make him laugh by putting them up to my face, but he just rolled his eyes....until I gave the faces to Cameron, then we all larfed out lard.

What a nut!

And yes, Cameron finally pooped last night in the ter-lit. It was a big celebration. Unfortunately, he has to go again as we speak. That's the lame thing about Cameron, he's too regular for his own good! Maybe I should have him eat a bunch of cheese.... KIDDING! KIDDING!

I Need A Life

2011-02-22T16:56:00.005-07:00

I'm seriously the worst! Cameron has had to do big business on the potty since last night. He cries and has to sit on the toilet every 5 minutes, just to "tighten up", and beg to get off the toilet. Finally I got so sick of the drama I told him he has to stay on the toilet until he...performs. It's taking so long and I'm sooooo sick of sitting in the bathroom (he insists somebody be with him). I finally asked Carson to read him books while I "worked". Carson has been in the bathroom with Cameron for 30 minutes so far and his reading is just getting more and more animated and better and better. He seriously is the best kid.

However, the pee-pee part of potty training is almost perfected! Give that kid a few more days and he's going to be a rock star, I just know it!

The other morning after going pee, he exclaimed very loudly "I did everything right!!!" Oh man, it was awesome.

Carson has his annual blue and gold banquet the other day. It was wonderful! Carson was in charge of a game where he filled latex gloves with water and the kids had to "milk the cow" and see who could milk the fastest. That would have been a great opportunity for me to explain udders to Parker, but I'm still ignoring that topic right now. Cut me some slack, I'm up to my udder in potty talk as it is!!

I think I need to interact with some grown-ups for awhile. I'm starting to lose it.

What Happens When You Are The Youngest?

2011-02-16T09:05:00.006-07:00

When you are the youngest, you feel like you get the short end of the stick, a lot.

Cameron wants to be just like Carson and Parker, which is cute at first. Then it can be slightly frustrating. If Carson talks potty talk, so does Cameron. If Parker says he doesn't want to go to bed, then neither does Cameron.

For the last month, Cameron has a melt down every time Carson and Parker go to school because HE WANTS TO GO TO SCHOOL TOO!!! I thought I was being clever when I "played school" at home...I was the teacher, Cameron was the student. There may have been paper, pencils, crayons, and scissors involved as well. That lasted for about 3 minutes, then Cameron got wise to me. He was ticked. I'd like to think it's because he's smart,not because my pretend-skills were lacking.

I knew I was in a losing battle. So, I asked my sister-in-law, who is a preschool teacher at a local elementary school, about my predicament. She told me that her school offers a class for "young 3's", which is for kids who are almost 3 or just turned 3. I was elated! I contacted the school district offices and snagged the last opening they had.

Cameron started school yesterday. He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1 1/2 hours. It's barely enough time to grocery shop and maybe get gas by myself, but it is enough time for Cameron to feel independent and soooooo happy! He pretty much thinks he's big man on campus right now!

I'll admit though, I was a little sad when he stood with his classmates, getting ready to head inside the school. The child won't be 3 until next month! He's going to have over 2 years of preschool. Here's hoping he REALLY loves it!!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Valentines Day!! I had a nice day. For Sam, I decided to iron all his shirts instead of buying him a gift. To you, this may seem sooo lame. But, you need to know our history....

Sam always irons his own shirts. He doesn't iron ahead of time though, so each morning he heads to the laundry room to iron his shirt for that day. That's just how it's been for the duration of our marriage. Ironing has just not been written on my "to do" list. I thought that would be so awesome because that will save him tons of time each morning. Well.....it took me almost 4 hours to get it done! Sam has 21 shirts that needed ironing! I'll save you the trouble and do the math myself: it took me on average, 11 minutes per shirt. I know that's a long time, but I wanted these shirts to be PERFECT! Plus, I had to deal with Cameron too so some of that time was spent dealing with the small child. Regardless, it was a major undertaking. Sam was so surprised and LOVED it, so it was all worth it! Next year I may just take them to the cleaners to be pressed! :)

Sam brought home a beautiful bouquet of roses for me and some awesome pajamas. I guess he's tired of seeing me in mens plaid pajama bottoms and an old T-shirt. ha ha! Who says romance isn't alive after 12+ years of marital bliss?!?

We played games with friends that night and really enjoyed their company, it was a great day!

This morning Parker woke up a few hours before he needed to. He said "I can't sleep!". Sam and I both just told him to lay down and rest his eyes. By the time I got up at 6:30am, Parker was burning up. Uh-oh....he's got a fever. Too bad too, he was supposed to get his "climbing higher" award at school today. It's an award they only get once per year. Their name gets called over the intercom at school, they head to the library and get a picture with the principal, and get taped for the whole school to watch on TV on Friday morning. I called the school to see if they could push it back a week and they said they were unable to because there are so many students it would be too hard. Bummer. Parker was pretty bugged. Oh well, a fever is a fever is a fever is a fever. Parker makes for one of the cutest sick kids around though, so it's kind of fun that I get to hang with him all day. He says stuff like: "Mom, I feel fine until I stand up, then everything gets weird and my legs are weak and my head sort of hurts...." then he get a confused look and slowly lays back down. So sweet.

It's A Work In Progress...

2011-02-11T16:50:00.009-07:00

Well, I had several disgusting "mom days". If my hair was long enough, there WOULD be a scrunchy in it!

Here's the bizarre thing about Cameron. He has pooped in the ter-lit several times, but the child cannot tinkle in the porcelain throne. So, after going through several pairs of underwear and awesome rubber training pants, the child is back in diapers. However, he still asks to sit on the potty at least 4 times per day, which we hope will bring success! We still have the sticker chart and unopened train toys to encourage and reward him with. And, as long as I'm talking "potty talk", I think it's time to revisit my all time favorite joke:

A pirate walks into a bar.
The bartender says "Hey, you have a steering wheel down your pants!"
The pirate says "Argggghhh, it's drivin' me nuts!!"

ha ha. Seriously, HA HA!

Oh hey, guess what we did last Saturday? We went to Discovery Gateway, the childrens museum. We took my nephew with us just because there aren't enough boys in my world I suppose. It was a blast!

How many other faces have been shoved into this hole? On second though, don't tell me!

Water + Kids = Fun

I took the big kids to a toothpaste making class, which was hysterical! Imagine brushing your teeth with this: 4 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp water, and orange or mint flavoring. The boys were so excited about it. They came home and brushed their teeth.....and then promptly gagged and spit and groaned, "It's soooo salty!!! YUCK!!!" I had a good laugh and then acted all serious and told them to not waste it and keep brushing! ha ha!

Cameron was happy pushing a doll around in a mini shopping cart. Too bad I don't have any dolls at my house! Disssssss!

Having a helicopter on the roof of a childrens museum is always a good idea.

Just messing around:

To keep with the potty talk theme: Parker told me the other day that he was glad he wasn't a cow because "it would be so annoying to have everybody pulling on your nuts like that all the time!" I didn't have the heart to explain udders to him. I just looked at him all serious like and said "yeah, I guess you're right".

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some

2011-02-02T21:01:00.004-07:00

First of all, to start off on the positive side:

Cameron is a super-star regarding his big boy bed. He NEVER gets out of bed, he sleeps all night, and in the morning...he STILL yells at me from his room "Mooooommmm! Can I get up now?". Pretty funny! Also, his naps have never been better. I swear, yesterday I had to go into his room to make sure he was still there because I hadn't heard anything from him for 3 1/2 hours! Every morning he says "I grew bigger while I was in my big-boy bed!"

Now, just so you don't think Cameron is perfect (seriously, if you really think that you haven't hung out with us very much, he's mr grumpy pants, after all!)...

Today I decided I would try potty training Cameron. We have 20 diapers left and if I can train him before breaking open a new box of diapers I will save so much money! Oh yeah, changing 'dirty' diapers would be a thing of the past, which would make me a very happy momma.

Luckily, my friend just potty trained her daughter so she let me borrow the plastic training pants that you can put over their underwear. That way if he has an accident it doesn't go on my new carpet. Unfortunately, the plastic training pants were very girly. I about died laughing when I put them on Cameron.

The best part was when Sam came home from work and saw Cameron. He said "hi buddy, whatcha wearing?" Cameron said "they are so snuggly!". I had to cover my mouth I was laughing so hard.

Unfortunately, since noon (when I put underwear on Cameron), he has had 3 accidents in his pants and zero successes on the ter-let. Grrrr.

Tonight I went to Target and bought some cool 'Thomas and Friends' underwear so I can use the guilt trip of "you don't want to pee on Thomas do you?? Then make sure you use the potty!". I also bought some boy-ish plastic training pants so I don't do some serious damage to the kid. However, check out the sizing chart on the new underwear!

At first I was so confused: Some toddlers have a 38 inch waist???? And they only weigh 16-18 pounds??? ha ha! Classic. I'm going to submit this picture to Consumer Reports for their "goofs, glitches, and gotcha" page.

I absolutely hate potty training. It's just a huge pain no matter which method you use. The only solution would be to hire somebody to do it for me! Seriously, I'll pay $50 to whoever wants to potty train this child 'o mine. Any takers??? Buhler....Buhler.....Buhler? **sigh**

Here's to a disgusting mom-day tomorrow. I should probably just wear sweats and put my hair in a scrunchy.

The Haps

2011-01-29T22:08:00.007-07:00

Not a lot of blog-worthy happenings around here....

Kids went back on track at school this past Monday (halla-hulla).

Carson went to a birthday party for a girl in his class. I had to call the girl's mom and ask her what a 10-year old girl would want for her birthday (I'm totally serious, the pink aisle is foreign territory).

Cameron started using the word "Kapeesh" in his everyday conversions. Suddenly I feel the need to start cooking Italian meals.

You know, stuff like that! We definitely live a random life.
We had a beautiful sunset the other night that made us all stop and appreciate its beauty!

I figured out an activity for Cameron when he's super grumpy! I put a glass of hot water and a glass of ice water on the counter. I wrap a dish towel loosely around both glasses. Then, I hand Cameron his color-changing Lightning McQueen car. Let me tell you, this has seriously provided HOURS of entertainment for him! Hot water turns the car yellow. Cold water turns the car red. I only ran into trouble when he demanded the car turn orange...but then I gave him props for knowing that red and yellow combined makes orange! Always trying to find that silver lining.....

We had a nice Saturday today. Our friend, Chad Burnside, is a fireman (is that the P.C. term? I should prolly say 'firefighter'). Every year he plays an ice hockey game titled "Guns vs. Hoses", which is firefighters playing against police officers. It's very fun and we try to make it every year.

I must say, hockey games provide some EXCELLENT people watching opportunities. Fabulous mullets, lots of alcohol, brightly bleached split end hair, and some crazy rambunctious fans. It's a blast. Where else can I go in Saturday attire (jeans and t-shirt) and feel totally dressed up? The only other places might be Walmart and the state fair. Like I said, we try to go every year!

$6 bag of cotton candy? Yes please!

After the game, we went and picked up a new twin bed because......we took down Cameron's crib today! It's kind of funny because my philosophy has always been "when my kids start climbing out of the crib, I will take it down and put them in a regular bed.". Well, Cameron hasn't even attempted it. He's almost 3! I'm getting pretty tired of this conversation EVERY morning coming from his room: "MOM! OPEN THE DOOR! I WANT TO GET OUT! MoOoOoOoOoMMMMMM!!!" Yah, it has got to stop.

We bought a Thomas the Train bed spread and let me tell you, this kid is in HEAVEN! Tonight he said "I am getting bigger because I have a big boy bed!"

Next stop: potty training. Say a little prayer for me.

It's About Dang Time!

2011-01-19T20:20:00.009-07:00

Parker is half way through his 1st grade year and hasn't lost a tooth yet. The only thing I have to compare this with, is Carson's experience. Carson lost several teeth in Kindergarten so I was starting to wonder when the tooth fairy would pay Parker a visit.

On Monday night we put the boys to bed. About 20 minutes later Carson and Parker were both upstairs, giggling uncontrollably. I took the bait and asked what was so funny. Then they showed me Parker's 2 bottom-center teeth. They were super loose. Yay!!! We did the happy dance and then I chased them back to bed.

On Tuesday I told Parker to start working those teeth out. He worked on it for a good part of the day.

Finally, Tuesday evening he gave one of his teeth a huge yank and the tooth popped right out. He was so stunned, I was doubled over with laughter. Yay, the tooth fairy can come visit!

Today he woke up as I was drying my hair. He was holding his dollar from the tooth fair and talked NON STOP to me while I got ready for the day. Seriously, it's like he had diarrhea of the mouth. He was soooo giddy. It was funny, but I finally had to email Sam and tell him my ears were already tired and it was only 8am.

Fast forward to tonight. At about 7pm I said "Hey Parker, you should try pulling that other tooth tonight because then the tooth fairy can come 2 nights in a row!" That was all the motivation he needed. He gave it about 4 good tugs and the tooth came right out. However, because Parker is random and likes to keep me guessing, he didn't really tell me he pulled it. He just held it in his hand and stared at me like he was waiting for the punchline to a joke. Finally I realized what was going on and asked him to smile. Well.............I guess he is the joke and that smile is the punchline!! I seriously almost peed my pants when I saw his smile. Take a look for yourself!

Not to be outdone by my laughter, as he walked away to spit in the bathroom, he said "Carson, just so you know, I'm using YOUR toothbrush!" Oh my word, I love that kid!

After he brushed his teeth I told him to hit the showers. As he was showering, I heard him say "ahhhhhhh, it's like my reward for pulling my tooth is a nice hot shower." There are so many things wrong with that statement....does he really think he only gets to shower if he did something good?? If that's the case, here's hoping I can bribe him with a nice hot shower if he gets good grades!!

Not related at all:
Check out this puzzle I finished a few days ago:

It was 1000 pieces and consisted of a bunch of gingerbread men who were representing famous people. It was fun, but I'm glad its over. I tend to obsess about finishing what I started. Lots of late nights. I remember my brother Darren saying "I like puzzles once they are about 2/3 complete". I couldn't agree more. That first 2/3 was a killer. I only worked on it because, again, I can't walk away from something I started. I think I'll give myself a nice long break before attempting another puzzle. Maybe I should go take a nice hot shower as my reward!

Back To Life, Back To Reality

2011-01-16T18:04:00.028-07:00

Are you singing that song now? I am. I don't know any of the other lyrics, but "Back to life, back to reality" has been going through my head since about 3pm yesterday. It was going through my head as I did 5 loads of laundry and did some major grocery shopping. It's all good though, after a fabulous week in California I was good and tired so home was a welcome sight. Oh, and I learned that I'm not the only one who likes to come home to a clean house with vacuum lines in the carpet! Thanks to Nalani and Meridith, I know I'm normal. Since Nalani and Meridith are related to me, I can say "Normal, it's all relative"!!! ha ha ha!!! Punny!

Last Saturday we drove in a caravan to Las Vegas and spent the night. We decided to go check out the M&M store on the strip in Vegas. I've been to Vegas before and I've been to the strip before, but not since Carson has become...uhmmm, AWARE of women and the whole 'birds and the bees' talk. Imagine my horror as we're driving around and all the billboards and advertisements of scantily clad women were shoved in our faces. Carson was mortified and I was completely embarrassed! Note to self, don't go to the Vegas strip anymore, at least not with kids! Carson was a good boy and covered his eyes!

The next morning we drove to Hoover Dam. That place is coolio.

Then we hit the road towards Anaheim! Oh yeah!!! We put all three boys in the very back of the van. That way it was harder for the sounds to travel to the front of the van where we were! Don't be jealous of our smarty-smarts. :)
Typical road trip activities: watching a DVD, sleeping, and playing with my i-touch. They are pretty good travelers.

Lots of swimming at the hotels, it's a must because it wears kids out and makes them sleep!

This same night my cousin Cody was holding his daughter in the hot tub. Suddenly Cody felt something warm....and it wasn't the water! He looked over his shoulder and his daughter had horked all down his shoulder and into the hot tub. Soon, chunks floated and everybody scattered! ha ha ha, good memories!

My first time EVER at Disneyland! I loved it! Cameron was a little stressful, but not too bad. Oh yeah, my naturally curly hair wants to apologize right now. The humidity made the curls quite unruly. Not my best hair days, but if anybody asks, it looked bad because of all the gnarly rides I went on!

Besides Cameron locking himself in the hotel bathroom (we had to have a maintenance guy come and unlock it), the trip was pretty flawless. OH yeah, our bank also shut down our credit/debit cards because they thought there was fraudulent activity going on. A quick phone call remedied the problem. :) The weather was PERFECT! High 60's and low 70's. I was in heaven! At one point Carson said "Mom, is Disneyland open in the winter??" Uh, what do you think January 10th is? I guess he forgot it was winter since the weather was so gorgeous!

We kept my cousin's daughter Hailey with us while riding rides because she is super brave and she forced Carson to be brave as well. Carson didn't want to look whimpy after all! She even got him on the "Tower of Terror". Carson's reaction to the ride: "IT WAS TERRIFYING! I HATED IT!!!". I just looked at him and said "well, it's not called the "Tower of Joy" now is it?" ha ha! The Tower of Terror is the only ride I wouldn't participate in. Free falling is not something I handle very well.

The kids had autograph books and got lots of signatures from the Disney characters. It was super fun! Their books have signatures from Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Madhatter, Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Green Army Man, and Mr Incredible. We never found Donald or Daisy Duck. We didn't go to the Princess area either, my boys were not about to entertain that idea!

Picture time:

This is the crew that we traveled with on this vacation. I love my family!!

More good times:

We rode the huge Mickey Ferris Wheel. We chose a swinging basket instead of a stationary one. It was all fun and games until Parker flew off his seat and slammed his face into the bench in front of him. Oh man, I felt so bad. I had no idea it would swing that much! After we made sure his face wasn't broken, we really enjoyed it!

Sick of pictures yet?

We seriously exhausted ourselves after 3 days in Disneyland. No rest for the weary though....we headed straight to San Diego for some more fun! One day spent at Sea World:

As we were leaving Sea World, we saw a hawk pinning a pigeon down on the pavement. We thought the pigeon was dead. The hawk was frozen in place. Hailey walked towards it and all of a sudden the hawk started to fly away with the pigeon! Then, the pigeon started fighting and got loose. The hawk started chasing the pigeon and they raced right into a gift shop. All of a sudden people started screaming and ran out of the gift shop. It was AWESOME! The hawk flew away but the pigeon landed in some stuffed animals and it was hurt so it stayed put. We left as the shop employees were wondering what to do. super cool!

Our San Diego hotel was right by the temple. BEAUTIFUL!

At this point of the trip we were going to spend one day at the San Diego Zoo. However, our kids were sooooo tired of being yanked from one exhibit to another. We decided to bag the zoo and head to the beach! It was the best decision ever. The kids could be crazy and nobody cared and the weather was sooooo nice! 75-ish and sunny. It was the perfect wind down activity of our vacation.

Just before we left the beach, we saw a bunch of dolphins, well I hope it was dolphins and not sharks. Seriously, picture perfect!

After San Diego we headed back to Vegas, collapsed in our beds out of pure and utter exhaustion, and went home on Saturday! At one point in San Diego, Nalani, Meridith, and I tried planning the next family trip, but Jed shushed us up pretty quick. What's the matter Jed, too much family time?? Not possible!!!

...And A Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T22:13:00.007-07:00

I like the possibilities of 2011. I wonder what I will accomplish this year? I wonder what surprises await me? Disappointments? Who knows! 2010 was a great year overall, we were very blessed and were able to laugh through most of our struggles. As long as we can keep our sense of humor, life is good!

Hopes/Goals/Resolutions for 2011:
Get Carson into piano lessons
Potty train Cameron
Get Carson and Parker into swim lessons, and hopefully Carson can become an efficient swimmer
A successful Sweet campout (we are in charge!)
Another car purchased, we have been a one-car family most of our marriage
I'd like to lose 10 more pounds, bringing my total to 50 pounds lost
Learn how to make wheat bread that will be so good I won't miss the white stuff(Alison? You want a student??)

I'm sure I'll think of dozens more once I publish this post,but those are the first things that pop into my head.

We celebrated New Years Eve in Rexburg Idaho. Let me tell you, that town should be called "Iceburg Idaho" from January through March. I used to go to college there, but I had totally forgotten the bitterness that -4 degrees could bring! My toes froze when I arrived and they thawed out when I got home. I'm turning into my mother (love you mom!).

However, despite the cold, it was fun hanging with my brother and his family. My nephew was being baptized on Saturday the 1st so that was the real reason for the trip. I was also baptized on January 1st! However, the year was 1983. Darren said "that's cool, but not as cool as being baptized on 1-1-11!". Check mate.

For New Years Eve I asked Darren what we were going to do. He said "Just come on over and bring a good attitude" Ha! That's my new favorite phrase now. It applies to most situations.

We were lame camera owners. I'll show you what we got.

Cameron stayed up until midnight on New Years Eve! I couldn't believe it....and he was happy to boot! However, the next day at the baptism he was super cranky, and then he promptly fell asleep in a folding chair.

After the baptism, we went to BYU Idaho's photo lab where Darren works, and had a luncheon. See that kid in the middle? That's Ethan, the 8 year old. That's all we got. I think we are losing our touch. Congrats Ethan!

Yesterday, I went to my cousin's baby blessing. No pictures there either. But let me tell you, Ellie is a dang cute baby, and her mom (Meridith) made the most amazing dinner! I'm totally making it for dinner tomorrow, it was that good. It's called "Drip Beef" from the Pioneer Woman's website. I'm drooling right now.

Today Sam had the day off work so he helped Carson and his friend set up the front yard for snowball fights. What a nice guy!

We have an ongoing joke with some friends who live around the corner. He's an artist and makes really cool statues and even the cow made out of butter for the Utah State Fair! Once upon a time we broke an ear off one of his creations and gave them cookies as an offering of a sincere apology (I still feel bad!). One day he made a bear and he broke the ear off and left it on our doorstep with a ransom note, asking for more cookies. We've had the bear in our flower beds ever since. Well, apparently this frigid winter is more than he can handle. A missing ear is the LEAST of his worries! Isn't he cute though?

A big day for Cameron today. He played with the Sir Topham Hat Jack-in-the-box all by himself and he didn't cry or get scared out of his wits! He was hollering from his room "I DID IT! I DID IT!!!!!!" It was super awesome! He also took a serious liking to some animal puppets my parents gave him for Christmas. We played with them for a good part of the day today. Then he learned he could use his feet for the puppets as well. Success!

Ho Ho HO....Green Giant

2010-12-25T22:54:00.017-07:00

Does that giant green guy say the same thing as Santa??

Merry Christmas! We had a great few days here for sure. My parents came over for Christmas Eve and we made our traditional homemade pizza. Cameron even learned the art of spreading cheese ball on crackers, that's a lifelong skill!

Then we made cookies for Santa:

Then Santa made some videos for the boys so we watched them. Seriously, if you haven't used the PNP, Portable North Pole videos you are missing out. My friend Cathy told me about it, it seriously brought magic into the room as we watched them. At one point Carson said "I know you guys just made this video!" and then a few seconds later he said, with a reverent whisper: "just kidding, I know Santa made it". It was awesome! All three boys were MESMERIZED!

Then we had our traditional French Crepes for dessert:

Sam read Luke 2 from the Bible and we sent the kids to bed. They were pretty giddy. I told Parker "If I can't sleep tonight, I'll come to your room and we'll play games okay?" He happily gave me a thumbs up and went to bed.

At 5am Parker woke me up and said "hey mom, remember you said you'd come play games with me if you couldn't sleep?" I said "Yeah,I remember. However, I was asleep! Go to bed!!" So I walked him back to the stairs and made sure he went into his room. As I was heading back to bed, I saw some flashing lights in the window by my front door. I looked outside and LAUGHED MY GUTS OUT!

There's a story here.

Once upon a time at work, there was an auction. One item up for bid, was a chair we affectionately called "Big Red". It is a huge executive office chair. I was almost outbid but at the last minute I won the bid by $.50. This past summer, Sam and I decided it was time to get rid of Big Red and, perhaps, we should give the chair to my co-worker who almost outbid me. Well, we MAY or may NOT have climbed her fence and placed the chair on her deck. I really can't confirm whether this event took place or not.

Well, somehow Big Red came back into my life sometime between 12AM and 5AM on Christmas Day. It's a Christmas Miracle....or tragedy, I haven't decided yet. However, I can't believe how hard I was laughing. I totally woke Sam up and made him look outside. I wonder what the neighbors thought? ha ha ha!

Finally at 7am I gathered the boys. They hadn't slept much and were runnin' on pure adreneline.

The morning was wonderful. The kids were very excited about everything and everyone!

Cameron had his grumpy moments, but that is to be expected!

We got him back by introducing him to the world of "jack in the box" toys! This one has Sir Topham Hat popping up out of the box. He smiled the first few times, then he got scared, we laughed, and then he was petrified of it. I'm smiling right now remembering it. Good times!

Sam is taking the boys to a Jazz game next week. I think Parker was feeling enthusiastic about it.

After we opened presents, we went to my parents house to watch them open gifts and then we had the most amazing breakfast....Cinnamon Bread (more like cake!) from Kneaders, it makes the BEST french toast. Plus egg casserole. Wow. I'm still full!

Then we visited with some of the Sweet's and then had a fabulous soup/bread bowl dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Wow, did I mention I'm still full? Luckily I laughed so much after dinner that I hope I burned at least one bite's worth of calories from that cinnamon french toast! I love hanging with family and larfing out lard. Seriously, I am so completely blessed. I hope everybody else had a great Christmas!

And now, good night!

Unsupervised

2010-12-23T14:33:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when I send Sam to Costco, alone with the boys.

I'm A Fan

2010-12-21T19:21:00.002-07:00

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I was able to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, featuring David Archuleta. It was amaaaaazing!

Seriously, I thought he had a great voice when he was on American Idol...but hearing him live, performing with the Tabernacle Choir, BLEW MY MIND! I was completely mesmerized the whole time and when it was over I was panicky..."No, it can't be over yet!!!" type of panic.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. We went with some great friends, the Sharpe's. We've know the Sharpe's since our days of being newlyweds living in the avenues in downtown Salt Lake City. Reconnecting with long-time friends while attending a Christmas concert. Just one of the many reasons I love this time of year!

You know what else I love? Knock Knock jokes that Carson makes up. Let me break it down for you:

Carson: Knock Knock
Carrie: Who's there?
Carson: Ketchup
Carrie: Ketchup who?

Insert tons of laughter from ALL 3 BOYS and SAM. That's when I realized I said "catch a poo". Dang potty talk.

SweeeeeEeeeeet Christmas Par-Tay

2010-12-18T22:51:00.017-07:00

We had the Sweet Christmas party last night. I really love the annual Christmas party with the family that I call "in laws". Sam's oldest brother and his wife were in charge, which was guaranteed a good time. When I met Sam's family for the first time Sam said "You are going to love Cindy. She is kind of bossy, like you." ha ha ha! It's true, Cindy rules. She did a great job dealing with the Sweet's who like to tease you to the point of awkwardness (I've learned to embrace it).

For the first time since I've been a Sweet, Santa came to the Christmas party. Before he came in, Cindy had a bunch of Santa songs planned for us to sing. She called up some family members to hold letters that spelled "Santa". Her first mistake was that she called up grown men to hold the letters. Her second mistake was being too slow to realize the letters could be rearranged. Sam quickly directed a few guys to switch places, with this result:

Without realizing what happened, Cindy said to the little kids "What does that spell?" The kids sat there confused and Sam yelled out "SATAN!".

Cindy put on her best preschool teacher voice and quickly got things back under control. Once we sang Santa songs, Santa came strolling in. The kids loved it. You know what's weird though? There were only about 12 kids young enough to sit on Santa's lap. That kills me! When I first attended a Sweet Christmas party in 1998 I thought I would die from all the chaos of all the little kids running wild! My how times change in a few short years. Now those "little kids" are getting married and having their own kids. Sheesh, I feel like one of the old people who talk about walking up hill to school...both ways....but it's true!

Anyway, back to Satan...I mean SANTA!
Cameron was NOT having this whole sit-on-Santa's-lap routine. Mind you, we've never taken our kids to sit on Santa's lap. In fact, brace yourself, this is the very first time Carson, Parker, or Cameron have EVER sat on Santa's lap. I swear I'm telling the truth. The opportunity has never presented itself before and we don't go to malls. :)

However, after seeing Parker and Carson sit on his lap...

He finally agreed. I just kept telling him, "Just sit on his lap and say you want Thomas the Tank Engine for Christmas". He whimpered for awhile and then suddenly said "I want to sit on Santa's lap." so up he went.

Once he came back to me he started crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Where's Thomas????" Apparently he thought he'd get his dream come true right after sitting on Santa's lap. Oops, I failed to mention that part. Good thing he didn't realize it because I don't think the promise of a candy cane would have cut it.

I guess you're never too old to sit on Santa's lap! Good one James!

We had a pinata! Cameron was the first kid at bat. Rod put a helmet on him and handed him a heavy metal bat. It almost knocked Cameron down. So, he hoisted it up into the face bars and rested the bat there. I almost died laughing, he's so crazy!

Broken pinata+candy+kids = success!

Yeah, Cameron probably has a tooth-ache. I cannot believe the amount of candy he ate last night and today. Shameful actually!

Like I said before, I really enjoyed the Sweet Christmas party and this is my content look because I'm totally ready for Christmas so this party was the last big hoorah before the big day. It's been a great season!

Today we went to James' house to say "hi" and see Sam's sister Shauna before she left to go home to St George. Aren't they a fun family?

Meanwhile, James was having some bonding moments with Cameron. We tried to get Cameron to smile but this is the best we got. He would NOT give in to peer pressure!

Tonight our neighbors brought some Christmas goodies over. However.....the gingerbread men were a little, uh, sketchy? I'm thinking a few things:
A) totally innocent, no inuendos intended
B) totally on purpose to make us laugh
C) purchased at an erotic bakery

Finally, I got my eye lashes permed and colored today! I'm SOOOOO mad that I didn't get a "before" picture! Just understand this: they were blonde and so straight that they hung over my eyes!

I'm very happy with the results! (no make up on...I have no pride).