Southern Sledding

Sunday night we received our second round of snow this winter. This time it was closer to 6-8 inches which meant that there was enough to close school down for the entire week, and give us a chance to go sledding. Since we live in the south we weren't quite prepared for a day of sledding and so we made due and grabbed a couple of cookie sheets and a pizza pan.

After getting stuck on the way to the sledding hill (aka a big pile of dirt)and having to get towed out by the 4-wheeler the boys were more than ready for a good time. We were feeling a little goofy when we realized that most of the others there had either REAL sleds, or boogie boards, but after they watched Carsen fly down the hill on his pizza pan we had people asking to borrow it for a run.

We had SO much fun, but after a week of snow and no school the boys (and their mom) are getting a little stir crazy.

Parker opted not to use the pizza pan most of the time and would just throw himself head first down the hill.

Charles and Parker making a run down the hill together on a borrowed sled. They were FLYING down that hill!

Carsen had a lot of fun going down like a penguin. He is usually very cautious, but he really surprised us and was the first to go down!

Charles took Griffen down once and he did NOT have a good time! Charles said he thinks it made it worse because they were going too fast and so he stuck his foot out to slow them down some and Griffen took in a face full of snow.

One unhappy boy.

Alabama Christmas (with SNOW)

Growing up in Utah I had my fare share of white winters, I'm sure we even enjoyed snow on Christmas morning a time or two. Waking up to snow on Christmas morning in Alabama? I would have never dreamed of it! But it happened, and it was amazing! I told Charles several times that I felt like a kid again! The only thing better than enjoying this rare event myself was seeing my sweet boys enjoy their first (and possibly their only) white Christmas!

We started our morning nice and early ( like 5:30 early). I remember looking outside the back door and seeing more slush than the predicted snow. We opened our stockings, checked out what Santa left for us, and then opened our family gifts and played! At some point I looked out the window and realized that the snow had started sticking and it was quickly covering the lawns and roads near our house. After the older boys had seen what was going on the wandered back to their new toys, but our little Griffen sat in front of the window for quite awhile saying, "snow snow snow".

At around nine we headed over to my parents house for what has become our traditional Christmas breakfast and the drive over was spent pointing to everything out the window and saying how beautiful everything looked covered in snow. We were able to watch the snow fall through the huge wall of windows at the back of my parents house and enjoy staying warm and cozy inside.

We left my parents and headed over to Charles' parents house to have lunch. After lunch we opened gifts, and as soon as the wrapping paper was cleared everyone was bundled up and ready to go outside. I should mention that the reason for the lack of Christmas morning pictures is that my camera was broken, but Charles parents gave me a new one for Christmas and so please prepare for picture overload. :)

Charles' parents have a little hill next to their house that the boys enjoyed sledding down. As you can tell from the pictures Grandma had to pull them most of the way, but they didn't mind. Another first... SNOWBALLS! Griffen really nailed the snowball throw and hit several of us. I'm sure that the Christmas of 2010 will be one that we will always remember!

These next pictures were taken a couple of days after Christmas at our house, sadly the snow was more ice than anything, but the boys had fun anyway.

Pool Time

We have had this pool table for YEARS and sadly it's only been used a couple of times (at least for playing pool!) I usually use the table as my laundry sorting/folding area, and then from September until January it serves as yet another vinyl work surface. I'm not sure if Charles or the boys were more excited to see the table cleared off and ready to use!

Happy Halloween (very very late)

This year since Halloween was on a Sunday the boys and I decided we would just go to the ward trunk or treat the week before Halloween. (which makes this post even later than late) I had gotten the older boys Halloween costumes the beginning of October and they had them pretty well broken in by the end of the month. Griffen on the other hand wasn't loving his toad hat, as I'm sure you can see from the picture. :)
I had no intention of dressing up this year, but Parker was insistent that I had to be Princess Peach. I probably would have resisted his pleas if he hadn't almost cried the day before the party! Thankfully I remembered an old prom dress I had at my parents house, and with a few quick additions it made the perfect princess costume.

And so here we are.... the Super Mario Brothers crew! Carsen as Luigi, Parker as Mario, Griffen as Toad, and of course I was the princess. :) ( Parker said Charles was Bowser, but he had to work)

Six Years

Six years ago today I became a mom when our sweet little Carsen was born. I knew our lives were going to change, but I could never have imagined how much! The second I saw his squishy little baby face I was completely in love, and have been ever since. What a blessing he is to our family!!

At six years old Carsen-

• Is LOVING his first year in elementary school. He says that his favorite parts are lunch time and riding the bus home. His teacher tells us that he is very well behaved, and that he asks her if he can read his books during rest time because he is too big to nap.
• Enjoys swimming, and is pretty good at it! He is disappointed that it is now too cold to swim in the pool.
• Looks forward to Saturday mornings when he gets to go and play soccer. Every time he scores a goal he gets this sweet shy smile on his face!
• Gets nervous around new people and in new places. He says, "Mom, I just get so anxious." :)
• Has been reading full books on his own for the past year. He can now keep up with me when I am reading them stories.
• Knows the words Charles and I are spelling out. Yesterday we were talking about going to the M-O-V-I-E-S, and he looks at us and says, "the movies?!" Guess we have to be a little more careful around him.
• Enjoys running! He participated in the Maverick Mile fundraiser at his school, and also the Autumn Chase Fun Run in Huntsville.
• Is still the smallest in his class ( and usually the class below him).
• Still likes to cuddle with his mom and dad.
• Has decided who he is going to marry. (I think it's a kindergartner thing?)
• LOVES Super Mario Brothers on his DS

He is such a smart, sweet little boy and we are so grateful he is ours!

The Great, The Good,and the UGLY

Over the summer I had BIG plans to accomplish about 500 (or what seemed like 500) projects. In reality I actually finished about 3, and am in the middle of about 10!

One of my favorite projects was framing my bathroom mirrors. Although I was able to cut the wood for all 4 mirrors I have only gotten around to installing the frame on 2 of them. I LOVE the results. While I don't have any before pictures you will have to take my word that it made a HUGE difference in the look of the bathrooms!

Here is our master bath mirror. I used a piece of thick moulding for this mirror to give it a clean and classic look. ( I wish I could say that the bathroom has stayed this clean, but sadly it doesn't look nearly this nice right now. :) )
Here is the mirror in the half bath. All of this mirror's frame is made of MDF with the exception of the piece of trim along the very top.

Here is another of my favorite little projects from the summer. I had seen pillows similar to this in several different places, but the do-it-yourselfer in me wouldn't let me buy any of them. Instead I made a cover out of white material for a pillow that I already had and then I screen printed the number 5 on the front. In all this project cost me about $1.50 since I found the fabric in the clearance section at the store.

Now.... on to the UGLY. Trust me when I say that they don't come much uglier than this!! I found a set (that's right I bought TWO of these beasts!!) of these chairs on Craigslist for only $40.00. I naively thought that I would just bring them home and do a quick re upholstery job and I would have two great new chairs for my family room.... I quickly learned that whatever people are paid to reupholster furniture isn't nearly enough!! It is now three months later and I still haven't finished the first chair! It is very close though, and I have to say it is looking pretty great. I would feel some relief except it's ugly twin is still sitting downstairs waiting for me.

Parker turns 4!

In June we celebrated Parker's 4th birthday! He was so excited and since his birthday he has been telling us that he is "almost 5".

We celebrated with a Batman cake and lots of swimming! Two of Parker's favorite things.

Parker LOVES Batman!! Not only does he love him, but he actually believes he IS Batman! One day I asked him to clean up and he told me that Batman didn't have to clean up, but I did because I was Alfred. :) I think it's time to start limiting his cartoon time.

This little guy is adventurous and full of energy and keeps us busy pretty much non stop. He is also one of the most caring and giving little boys I know. He is always giving his toy or piece of candy to Griffen when he sees that his brother is upset. He loves to tell knock knock jokes, even though the punch lines never quite make sense. :)

Parker has also started speech this past year and looks forward to going every week! We are also enjoying being able to understand most of what Parker has to tell us.

I am completely in love with this little guy and so grateful that he is part of our family... Even though I had to fish the roll of toilet paper out of the toilet this morning because he was trying to wrap himself up like a mummy while going potty.