I Love My Brother

Clark and Andrew have just started playing together now that Andrew is a little more stable on the ground. Clark has always been really good with Andrew and we rarely have to remind Clark to be a little softer with him, but it is pretty clear that these two are going to love to rough and tumble with each other. But somehow I think Andrew will be able to hold his own...

Wii Fun

We LOVE our Wii. Tanner was admittedly addicted to MarioKart until he got his gold medals on every single round that he could possibly get them. Then he started going head to head with some of the crazies on the worldwide network that probably play 24/7. Thankfully with the arrival of Wii Fit, we have been able to share the addiction love around to some other games. I really love playing the balance games (who needs the Fit part when there are games to play?) and Tanner has been really getting into the strength and yoga exercises. That's right...the YOGA exercises. He says that it actually really does help in a lot of ways. I have to admit the few times I have done them it actually feels really nice and relaxing. The kids also love watching us on the Wii. Clark calls MarioKart "Monkey" and just likes to watch us play. Every time he hears the sad music at the end when I don't win (I say I because Tanner ALWAYS wins), he comes over and says "Ohhh, it's OK mommy!" With Wii Fit however, Clark likes to take a more active role and copy whatever it is we are doing. It's pretty cute.

Even Andrew seems to want to get in on the action.

(notice the strap is actually around his arm)

Not This Hole!

We decided that there are some things that Clark could be doing on his own now that he is the ripe old age of 2 1/2. The first on the list is dressing and undressing. Clark has NEVER cared what he wears or when he wears it, but he does not like to sit/stand still while I am dressing and undressing him. I have decided he needs to be a more active participant in this activity. Tanner and I have each taken turns showing him where to put his head and arms in the shirts so that he can get them on straight. But Clark is such a little clown that while he completely understands where everything goes, he now likes to put his arm through the neck hole, start laughing, and then says "No! Not THIS hole!" Then, he decides to finally put his arm in the correct hole, but then he decides to go through the exact same ritual with the OTHER arm. While we thought it was funny and cute the first 5 times, it is now not so funny. Patience is a virtue.

At least he is putting on his own shirts now...eventually.

Play with the Doh

I think that at this stage of life it is really easy to get into a rut. Or at least, I have found it easy to get into a rut. For example, we are to a point now where every morning Clark wakes up and the first thing out of his mouth is "Watch a show? Peep!" It is a ritual that I am fine to have for a little bit of the first part of the day, but admittedly, I have let it run away from me. Clark ends up watching show after show after show, while I am either feeding Andrew and/or laying comatose on the couch. I hate it when I look up at the clock and a couple of hours have gone by and look what I have to show for it? A toddler whose eyes are completely glazed over, and he is practically bouncing off the walls to do something active. Coming up with creative things to do with little kids does not come naturally to me, but once I settle on something to do, we have a ton of fun. Today we decided to bust out the Play Doh. Clark loved playing with it and kept asking me to make 'pancakes' with the different colors. At one point I asked him if we should make a face on one of the pancakes. We decided to make one that looked like Andrew. I placed the eyes and the mouth, and Clark squeezed out the hair. Move over Michaelangelo!

Happy 4th/Birthday!

So it took us a good four days to 'recover' from our trip to California. Naps were at crazy times and getting the kids to bed at a normal hour was difficult, not to mention that I was also pretty exhausted from the trip as well. It was a good thing we recovered by day four because it was the 4th of July and my birthday! I told Tanner I did NOT want to do anything busy because I still was in recovery mode, so we decided to have a relaxing day at home, and it turns out the weather was not supposed to be good for fireworks. We went with our realtor/friend to see some houses (more on our house hunting search later), and then Tanner prepared an awesome lunch with a bunch of hors d'oeuvres.
After we gobbled those up, I opened my presents. Tanner spoiled me by giving me a gift certificate for a massage (much needed after wrangling with my kids on the airplane), and he got me Wii Fit! He also made the cake himself! Clark helped Tanner put the candles on the cake, and I sneaked into the kitchen and got this photo before they were done.
After cake and presents, we played Wii Fit while the boys took their naps. In the end, we decided we should at least try to go and see some fireworks somewhere. It was raining, but we thought that might be good so not a lot of people would venture out, and traffic wouldn't be bad. We headed up the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and turned off in Rosslyn and found a great place to park where we could just see the top of the Washington Monument. We waited in the car until the fireworks were just about to start since it was still raining outside.
Once they started, the rain had pretty much stopped, so it was actually quite enjoyable watching the fireworks together! Clark loved shouting out all of the colors as they would explode, and he kept saying "Wow!" all of the time. It was pretty spectacular. It was a great end to a nice, relaxing, and fun day...and even better when we had no traffic on the way home!! Thank you to my husband who made so much effort to make my birthday fun for me!
P.S. Thank you to my mom, Melanie, and my mother-in-law for giving me a much needed new wardrobe for my birthday! Thank you to my sister Tricia for giving me my very own Coach purse. Love it!

California: Last Day

For our last day in California, it was fitting that we spend part of it at the beach. We watched the sun go down, and then ate hot dogs and smores, and even roasted some Starburst! We had a great time in California and I just have to say again how thankful I am to my sister Melanie for hooking me up with tickets to come see them so I could be a part of so many family events and see people I love.

The Towheads

Here are two other pictures from the trip I love:

There's nothing like the 'naughty stump' to humble you

California: Day 6

Today was also a momentous day because Melanie and Spencer were blessing their 3rd baby boy Nolan Carter Evans. He is so little, and I can't even believe that Andrew was that small less than 5 months ago.



It was great to spend time with all the sisters together with our parents. We have so many boys in this family!!! Who would've thought?! The boys had a lot of fun playing together when Clark wasn't busy beating everyone up. We have been trying to teach him that there is a time and a place for roughhousing and 24/7 and everywhere are neither the correct time nor the correct place. He loves his cousins and every night when we would return to my aunts house for bed, he would talk all about Carter, Jonah, Truman, and Elliot. He loves them I promise!

California: Day 5

Today was a momentous and busy day! It began with the sealing of my Uncle John and Aunt Joy in the Newport Beach temple. I love attending sealing ceremonies, and it was particularly special to be there with family.


Later on, we celebrated my Grandma Barbara's 80th birthday. It was a lot of fun seeing Aunts and Uncles and cousins that I haven't seen in years. My mother's family can be pretty funny and there were lots of fun and yet sweet and poignant moments as each family took their turn to talk about how my grandma has influenced and blessed each of our lives. I especially loved when we went and released 80 balloons outside in celebration of her 80 years! My grandma is such a sweet person and just as my grandparents on my dad's side that I mentioned in my previous blog, she has also blessed and influenced my life in so many ways, and I will forever be grateful
to her for the woman, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother she is!

My grandma with her daughters

Clark was just there for the food

California: Day 4

Thanks to the Evans parents, I was able to take Clark and Andrew as well as Brianna and my Workinger cousins to Sea World! You might think me crazy for going as the only adult with all those kids, but all of them were super helpful with my little guys. Andrew was the get along kid as usual, and Clark just soaked up every fun moment. Brianna and my cousins took Clark on some rides in the Sesame Street part of the park. We also had a lot of fun going to see Shamu and the Dolphin shows. Clark got a little bit antsy during them, but we just kept trying to keep him entertained. My cousins were really excited that they got to go on the Atlantis ride, and they even watched my boys so I could go too! It tells you something about how my Aunt has raised her children when we were trying to decide what to do next, and they all said "we just did something fun for us, let's go do a ride with Clark." We ended up being there for almost 8 hours, and we all had a good time and we were all pretty tired at the end...especially Clark and Andrew.

California: Day 3

Today, I followed my parents and we drove up to see my grandparents Bruce and Pat Carter. My grandma Pat is in the last stages of Alzheimer's and my grandfather's health isn't very good either. They currently are living together in an Alzheimer's assisted facility, and I really wanted to see them, but I also knew she probably would not recognize me. I wanted my sons to meet them, and I have to say it was one of the highlights of my trip. My grandmother immediately fell in love with Andrew and although I know she has forgotten how she is related to me and to him, she just loved holding him and playing with him. Andrew was all smiles for her, and it touched my heart to see them together. There is something about seeing the oldest generation and the youngest generation of a family together. It really brought life into perspective for me in the sense that I owe a lot of the blessings I enjoy now are in large part due to the faithfulness of my Grandparents and the great life that they have lived. I really sensed the importance of my role now in rearing up the next generation to carry on the traditions of family and faith in the gospel that they successfully established with their sons. I had a wonderful time talking with my grandma in particular because although at times she doesn't remember things from one moment to the next, we could talk extensively about motherhood and about children. I realized those are things that cannot be erased from her memory because it is ingrained in every fiber of her being. I asked her how she did it with 5 boys because I feel like 2 is hard! She laughed and shook her head and said it was hard because boys are active! I love my grandparents and I will always be so grateful for them.
(I couldn't decide which picture to post, so I figured all three were good)