Another Cub Scout/ AZ. Trip

 Say hello to my little Wolf!

I love the scouting program.  I like that it teaches and reinforces things that I  believe are important for my kids to learn.  He was so excited to get started. 

 There he goes....off to learn and have fun.  

 We went to Arizona for spring break.  Mike's mom has been a widow for over a year now and she has struggled a bit.  She is an amazing woman who has done so much good.  We wanted to get down there and spend some time with her...let her see her grand kids.  It was a fun trip.  We need to do it more often.

Tater fit perfect on this little roll carry on.  

 This little sweetie is such a great person.  I am so glad we got to spend time catching up.  Friends for 14 years now and she is definitely a keeper.  

 Here is Grandma Elaine.  She was so happy to see the kids and her baby boy (Mike).  Love her. 

 The weather was so beautiful there.  Loved getting outside and not being cold!

I LOVE this toddler age.  He was really good to travel with.  As long as he gets his naps...he is good to go. When he doesn't it...it gets tough, but so worth it.  

Random Phone Pictures

 I need to figure out how to take better pictures with my camera!
These two little girls were in heaven at this trampoline warehouse.  Awhile back we had Bella and Maddy come stay with us for a few days.  Its fun to have the cousins come and play.  We love them so much!

 I love that we have camera's on our phones so I am able to get random photos like this when we are just waiting around in the car.

 And this one.  How crazy that all those little kids are mine!

 This is what Cole has been into this year.  He does such a good job with them too. If I was to guess... I would say he easily has made 200 of these things. He was making them and selling them at school...that had to come to an end, it was becoming disruptive.

 For Valentines this year I whisked Mike off on a romantic over nighter.  It was fun...fast, but needed.  We went to Desert Star play house and watched a parody of The Phantom of the opera.  It was pretty funny. Thanks to my beautiful cousin Danielle we were able to stay over night.  LOVE, LOVE that girl!!

 It seems that its like a right of passage for all my kids to get into the powder at least once when they are little.  This time around (4th time) I was able to laugh and see that powder is actually very easy to clean up.  How I wish I could take back my earlier versions of powder messes.  I do think with time, I am very slowly chilling out and getting better at motherhood.  Still, I have much more to overcome and chill out with but I am progressing .....slowly.

 What a cool little pose for my two year old!  Stop growing Tatum...you are so cute and little right now.  See proud dad in the background?

 My little beautiful Morgan is so sweet.  I don't know if you notice her "shoes" she made.  I was very impressed with her creativity with those little things.

 Here is a closer up of her duck tape shoes she made.  How cute is that?!

Here is Carson at school getting awarded with Builder of the Month.  So proud of him. It was so fun to see his reaction to winning.  Here is what his teacher wrote about him on his reward:

"Carson is the perfect example of a builder that befriends others.  Any time Carson sees someone is upset he is the first one to give support. He points out everything positive in a situation.  He is very non judgemental when providing encouragement and has the same attitude toward every person.  For Carson, it doesn't matter if he has known the scholar all year or just met them, he hold out his hand with intefrity and companionship."

Very, very proud of him.  What a great description of what a fine young boy he is.

Day Trip to Antelope Island

I love this picture...,why...look at Morgan!

 Her expression I can relate to on this trip...that is kind of how I felt at times on this little day trip.  I think we really need to do this stuff more with the kids and maybe we can train them to behave better in the car!

 This is what most of my pictures look like of Mike.  This is him saying, "stop taking pictures of me, get the kids only."  And this is my reply to him, "We are going to want to look back and see us doing things as a family and if I leave you out you will regret it."

 The kids had a random day off awhile back and Mike decided to take the day off too so we could go and do some exploring of our area.  There are so many amazing things to see here in Utah. We will have to come visit this place more when its warmer and there are more buffalo to look at.  This is one of the 3 that we saw....not terribly exciting but we can say we came and saw.

 Tatum was not really feeling the white buffalo.

 However, Morgan loved all the little statues of them.

 It was really fun to watch her try and coax Tatum to go pet it.  He really was not sure of them.

 Carsonator doing his thing.

 Cole checking out some of the displays there.

Morgan finally got Tatum to touch the buffalo and she was very pleased.  She is such a cute mother hen.  She is going to make an incredible mamma one day.

This year we are really going to try and make a better effort of having fun together as a family.  I feel that saying is true that goes.."families that play together stay together."

Carson is 8!

Here is my boy!  He is such a sweet, cute, spiritually sensitive, smart, strong, little man.  I look into his big brown eyes and just fall in love all over again.

This is Carson getting what he wanted for his birthday.  I love seeing the kids so happy!

Checking out his new ride.

Still checking it out....I feel bad because his birthday is in January and we never get to do any fun outside things for him like we do for the others.  And now that he had this bike...what is he suppose to do just sit and look at it.  I should have posted the pictures of him riding it around the house and all the kids following him from behind.

Carson and Tater checking out the cake.

Love how Tater is so intently watching the candles. And Carson blew them out with one breath.

Now we switch gears to the BAPTISM.  

These pictures are what Mike took of him a few days before he got baptized.  Carson was really excited for the big day.  When we talked about it you could tell he was really taking it all in.

The day was a whirlwind and when we got there to set up there was another baptism going on so we had to wait for awhile...grrr!  That threw me off and I totally spaced taking pictures of him in his white outfit!!!

Here is the family that came.  It was cute he had Max give a talk, which was really good!  Carson was very persistent that Max be there... so we changed the date to ensure that he would be in attendance with us.

There are so many great things about this kid.  I am so excited to see how he will grow and develop.  He

I love you Carson very much!  Thank you for being so good.

Left Over 2013

 This kid made a helicopter out of paper.  It was really neat!  He impresses me all the time with his creativity.

 Tater is a dancer.  I hate that these phone pictures are so horrible but I caught him mid move here.  We turn up the music and he will just dance.

 Cole was earning a 4-H award here!  Can I get that kid to look up and smile?  No!

 This was the last nice day in 2013 before it got really cold.  So I decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was really enjoyable.

 There were not a ton of people there and the kids were able to see what they wanted without having to wait.

 Morgan is so cute and expressive.  Love those big brown eyes!

 The boys are at a bank opening up their first saving account.  From the sale of Cole's pig he was able to put a nice chunk of money away.  And Carson is getting one too.  He is a good little saver. Can you tell it was pretty painful for Cole to be there with me taking pictures of him!

 Another horrible phone picture....but this is when we took the family to the Hale Theater to see a Christmas Story.  It was really fun.  I love doing new things with the kids.  Marley the ghost spooked them pretty good but I think they really enjoyed it.

 Waiting for Mike at work and we decided to pull out the phone and take some pictures.

 Cole learning to shoot with the .22.

 Carson..

And Morgan.....

Sometimes its easy to see all the things I am failing at as a mom.. but I know there are some things we are doing right with the kids.  I love them more than I can express!   I hope that we will be able to do lots of fun activities together and build a strong, united family.