Happy Birthday (Yesterday) Dexter!

Dexter's had a birthday, shout HOORAY!
He should be glad I'm not singing to him today.
He's one year old and wiser too
Happy Birthday, to you!

I can't believe he is 2! He got a plane, some awesome trains, and lots of automobiles. He's got the transportation thing covered! Definitely all boy!


Check out the train set he got! My boys were all over it like stink on a monkey. Oh yah, do you like Parker's socks? He didn't change out of his church socks....Sam told him he should never wear black socks with shorts but Parker didn't care. He is confident like that. He's just trying to be cool like Dexter (check out that popped collar!).


While at Curtis and Shandy's house, Carson worked on his frisbee skills. I loved that I caught this action shot. But, just now I zoomed in on the picture and noticed that Carson's eyes are totally closed! We'll have to work on that....


I just think this is a cute boy picture. Dexter and Carson are digging in Shandy's veggie garden (sorry Shandy!). I just love how tender Carson can be with younger kids...notice how I said he "CAN" be? :)


Cameron is a party animal.


Guess where Parker chose to play today?


I can't get enough of these eyes....Too bad I take the best pictures of his eyes around eating time because he always has a bib on, Duh! ***mental note, take bib off when getting good picture***



Tonight we met up with some friends from our old ward in the Avenues for a picnic. It rocked, but too bad I didn't bring out the camera until the very end. It was a beautiful park right at the base of a mountain in Sandy. I got a tender brother moment...but for some reason Carson is looking somewhere besides the camera. Ah well, at least they are both smiling.


And now for some more cell phone pictures!

Parker makes me laugh because he'll play all day and by late afternoon he just can't take it anymore. He will randomly fall asleep all over the house. This time it was in the living room, surrounded by toys, holding on to his backpack. Nut job. Taken 3.19.08


Cameron likes to stretch out too. Taken 4.2.08


I miss his fuzzy hair. Taken 4.2.08


Chubby Cheeks! Taken 5.20.08


Parker and Carson being monkeys in Curtis' Walnut Tree. Hey Nalani, remember when we thought this was an apple tree? Jed rolled his eyes at us, grabbed the green pod, peeled it back, and revealed a brown walnut underneath? That was so funny! Gotta love Jed! Taken 5.24.08


And the last one for tonight, and my favorite picture on my phone. Here is Carson with an orange slice in his mouth, at the Sweet Tomato restaurant. I just love the lighting and the motion around him. So funny! Taken 5.26.08


More to come later.

Tomorrow morning I go to another Physical Therapy appointment with Cameron. Let's hope I have a better experience this time. I'll try not to be a grump about it on my blog tomorrow...

Pruney

Look mom, I'm all pruney!


I didn't have the heart to tell him his pants were inside out. I pick my battles.


Guess what Parker said today? Tomorrow I'm substituting in his Primary Class. Here's a little conversation we had about it:

Carrie: Hey Parker, guess what I get to do tomorrow?
Parker: What?
Carrie: I get to teach your primary class!
Parker: You do?
Carrie: Yep.
Parker: But.....who's going to be my mom?

Guess what Carson said tonight?
Carson: Hey mom, you know what would make the world a whole lot safer??
Carrie: What?
Carson: If we had a little less gravity on earth.
Carrie: You are right, with your record, less gravity would be a great thing.
Carson: What record?
Carrie: Never mind.

So....
Sam has been working for Intermountain Health Care for 10 years. He got to choose an anniversary gift out of about 30 items. He chose a telescope. We looked at the moon on Friday night. It was super cool!


We had a fun Saturday today. Sam and I have made a new rule in my house, now we just need to inform the boys. No more TV on Saturday once breakfast is over! Of course I let them watch TV before breakfast because they wake up at the bum crack of dawn so TV is how I get a few more minutes of slumber.

We didn't tell the kids about this rule, but once they got dressed we just said "no TV, just go outside..." and throughout the day we found stuff for them to do.

Here's something we did. Sam and Carson got the brilliant idea a few months ago to recylce our own cans to earn some money. So, we've just been throwing our cans in a garbage bag in the garage. Today the bag was full so I suggested we recyle them. Sam disagreed. He said they needed to be crushed and then fill a garbage bag that way. So, we put Carson and Parker to work crushing cans. It took a few hours and I think they had fun!

Parker is proud of his crushing skills:


Carson thinks he's strong...


May the Mountain Dew force be with you, I know it is with me.


I have to brag about Sam...we've had a leaky sprinkler on the corner of our property for about a year now. If you walk on my sidewalk you'll know exactly what I'm talking about....sorry you had to walk through it!

Anywho, He has exhausted all possibilities of what could be wrong so today he replaced the entire valve. Quite the project. I'm happy to report that the muddy leak has FINALLY stopped! Wahooooo! My water bill can chill out now!

He looks like he means business....PVC pipe, sprinkler parts and bug spray in the bag, and a popsicle in his mouth just to show me that he's not taking it too seriously. I love that Sam-I-Am!


The other day I saved a bunch of pictures off my cell phone and into my computer. Over the next few blog posts I'll share some of those pics with you. Can you feel the excitement in the air?

My hunka burnin' love. Taken 9.30.07


Sharing a drink at Costco. Taken 1.18.08


Suck harder! Taken 1.31.08


I shoveled this snow and I was due to deliver Cameron in 3 weeks. I was careful, I promise! Notice Parker wearing his shirt inside out and backwards so he could feel the tag? I'm so glad I broke him of this habit! Taken 2.14.08


This was the day before I delivered Cameron. I was ornery, everything hurt, and I made the boys go outside to play so I could have a few moments of peace. :) Taken 3.8.08


This is from Fern's camera. Nice to meet ya Cameron! Taken 3.9.08


More to come soon!

Perfect Shirt!

With a last name like mine, there are lots of ways to be punny.

Check out this onesie I found for Cameron! Thank you clearance rack at Target!



And let me tell ya, he has lots of stinky days lately since I've introduced baby food to him. Is it too early to potty train him??

Brush Your Teeth & Eat Your Green Beans

This week has been strangely subdued. To that, I shout "HOORAY!!!".

Here's what I've been up to the last few days. Before I get into that...I must say, I love Carson! Do you know he taught Parker his colors when Parker was just learning to talk? Right now, Carson and Parker are sitting on the couch next to me. Carson is reading Parker a book about the Universe. He is teaching Parker how to read the word "the". Every time he gets to "the" in this book, he pauses and says "Parker, what is that word?" and Parker dutifully replies "The". He even lets Parker turn the pages. I love it! Big brothers rule! The only downside....Carson keeps saying Parker's name like "Par-er" and he skips the "K" sound. Drives me crazy it does.

Sam and I painted our room over a year ago. We hadn't hung anything on our walls, until Monday. I finally got sick of the pictures stacked up in a corner of our room. I dusted them off and said to Sam "let's hang pictures"...and we did. For all you who think I lead an incredibly exciting life, that last paragraph should make you appreciate your exciting life a little more, eh?

Here's a few pictures. I'm not done decorating yet, but this is what we had to work with right now. If you have any suggestions of what I can put on either side of the wreath above my bed, feel free to share them.





One day Carson found a little tooth brushing kit that he got at school last year. In the kit were little pink pills. After you brush your teeth as good as you can, you chew a pill and the pink-ness will stick to the parts of your teeth you didn't brush very good. Carson wanted to test it out. So he brushed really good and chewed the pill. He opened his mouth and exclaimed "OH MAAAAAANNNNNN!" I couldn't stop laughing. His teeth were seriously hot pink! So, we had a little lesson on brushing BETTER. He then brushed all the pink off his teeth and I've never seen them look whiter (with the exception of the dentist cleaning!). Live and learn...hopefully!


Tonight I got my haircut. So happy. After I got home I fed Cameron some green beans. I had the camera ready....here's what he had to say about it.

This is disgusting! Why are you feeding this puke green stuff to me?!?!?!?!


Ummmm, maybe it's not TOTALLY gross, but I'm not ready to admit it yet.


Oh, fine, I'm pretty sure I like the green beans, okay?? In fact...I'm too sexy for my beans...too sexy for my beans....


Thanks mom, my belly feels better. Now don't get too smug. Remember this: Beans Beans, the magical fruit...the more you eat the more you toot, the more you toot the better you feel, so let's have beans for every meal!

Cody & Meridith Oram ~ Est. 8/30/08

My cousin Cody got hitched last night! It was a fantastic evening with lots of laughter and lots of good company. The red velvet cake was good....oh my...WAS IT EVER GOOD! The only sad part of the day was that it had to come to an end!

AFter looking at all the pictures we took last night, I'm laughing because I don't have a single one of Cody and Meridith looking at my camera. That's okay, candid shots tell a better story I think. Here are Cody and Meridith during the ceremony...I'll bet anyone a dollar that the happy couple has no recollection of the counsel the Bishop gave them. :)


Parker fell asleep on the way to the wedding and got a nice seat belt welt on his cheek.


Couple hours later it was still on his cheek! Crazy kid. I was just glad it was gone by this morning. Parker liked his red velvet cake too.


However, he did NOT like the chocolate covered cinnamon bear Sam gave him. I'm embarrassed to admit that he spit it into the bushes......


I'm not really sure why, but I let Carson drink a Mountain Dew before we went to the wedding. I'm happy to report that it didn't make him crazy like I told him it would....or did it?


Cameron was just mortified by the way his older brothers were acting.


Oh Cameron, don't be such a stick in the mud, have some fun!


Random candid-ness:













Did I mention the red velvet cake?


Unfortunately, the Red Dye #40 didn't really agree with me...let's just say that from 4am - 6am today I read the September Ensign cover to cover while sitting on my own personal throne...wait, is that too much information?

Congratulations Cody and Meridith! I am sooooooo happy for you guys!