Family Focused: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

He Won't Do That Again.....I Hope

Yesterday I received a call from Carter’s teacher. She opened up with, “Everyone is fine, but I thought I’d give you a call to let you know what happened at school today.” My first thought is that he fell on the playground or something similar to that. Nope……while Carter was waiting in the lunch line, he pulled the fire alarm! The whole school had to evacuate because it was figured out too late that Carter had done this on accident. Yikes!! He didn’t get into trouble or anything, but because the alarm went off the Marathon City cop came automatically. The cop had a good talk with the whole 4K class about the importance of the fire alarm and when the alarm should be pulled. The teacher told me she actually giggled over it because that hadn’t happened to her yet. She also reminded me not to feel bad because other teachers also agreed that this was a good drill for everyone. Carter was pretty shaken up about it and she said he felt really bad and he was pretty quiet since it had happened. Poor kid! But I hope he learned a lesson from that. I called Jay to tell him what happened and he laughed! I talked to my dad and he wanted me to tell Carter that he was proud of him. Imagine that! Boys will be boys!

Easter Sunday was fun! The kids had a blast finding their eggs. It was the first year Carlee understood what was going on. Later on in the morning we went to a church service in Medford because Ashley, Marissia and Penny were all being baptized. I missed more than half of it because Carlee wanted to run, so I had to take her to the back. But that wasn’t enough…..I had to take her outside because she wanted to mess with things in the welcoming area too. Sheesh! Thankfully, it was nice outside and we walked around down towards the Mill Pond where she kept herself occupied by throwing twigs in the pond. Had a great time at Shelly’s place with family! Wish I woud've been able to snap some good pictures, but I was the picture taker with Shelly's camera so I didn't get any with mine.

I admit I watched a few hours of the Royal Wedding. My alarm didn’t go off at 3:00 like it should have, but I woke up at 3:45 on my own and hurried to turn the television on. What a special couple….they’ll make beautiful children. J The news was comparing how different Prince William is to his father, Prince Charles. They mentioned how Prince Charles has never put his own toothpaste on his toothbrush! Really?! I mentioned this to Jay and with a straight face, he said “Well, I guess he’s like our children.” I laughed because it’s so true. My kids do get treated like a prince and a princess sometimes. The same goes for our dog! Sam isn’t the one who has to go out in the yard with a bucket and garden tool to pick up his dog poo….no, it’s me! He must be related to the Royal family also. lol I admire the fact that Prince William actually wants to do things for himself.

the kids at the park

carlee and carter

carter

jay with the kids

carlee just a swingin'

i just had to take this picture. i was taking clothes off the line when i noticed that this looked pretty funny.
carlee is NOT in this picture....i wouldn't hang her on the clothesline. lol

carter climbing up his new ladder that jay built him today. at least that huge pine tree is actually good for something.

tree hugger

carter & jay

Saturday, April 23, 2011

More Family Time

Okay, so we had another Easter dinner, but at my dad & Nadine's. I didn't realize we were going to attend the get-together until last minute. It was Friday, so just the kids and I took the trip to the big town of Ogema. It was nice to see Terri and Jack this time. I knew the boys would like to play together, so that was one of my main reasons for going. Carter loves visiting people, and they hadn't seen each other in a while so it was the perfect opportunity.

Jared getting a lesson on how to carve a turkey.

Carlee at the Ogema School park

Jared.....you think he would have learned from last week!

Jack playing at the Ogema School park.

Hanna, Angie, Emma, Carlee and Dad

Emma being twisted in the swing from Grandpa, far left
Carlee swinging

Carter on the monkey bars

Carlee and me

Hanna, Angie and Emma

Angie and me

Our Angie sandwich
me, ang and dad

Dad with all the girls....Hanna not looking too happy, Carlee and Emma

Here are the photogenic ones, Emma & Carlee

Emma posing

I finally got one of Hanna by blowing her hair.

me with Emma and Carlee

Added one more

My dad with the four young 'uns.

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Carlee obsessed with her toe jam.

Carter and I made these little worms to put on top of our pencils.

I like chocolate cake.

Carter having his cake.

Carter singing "I'm a Mess" specifically about Carlee because of her "mess" with her cake.

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Earlier in the week, the kids and I planted some flower seeds. First step was to cover our table with one of Jay’s old bed sheets (the “A” Team ….lol) We planted Moss Roses, African Daisies, Shasta Daisies, English Daisies (I’m seeing a pattern….can you tell I like daisies?) and Cosmos. We’re not that far into it and Carter tells me “This is boring.” Well, I can see from his point of view how it could be boring right now , but I explained to him that it will be exciting as we watch the seeds grow into beautiful flowers which we will plant in our flower bed when the weather warms up a bit. Carlee lost interest in the whole process after I wouldn’t allow her to dump potting mix onto the floor.

Getting ready to plant flower seeds.

me showing Carlee where to put the seed starting mix
Carter watching

us 3

planting more in peat pots too

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Should have posted this one last week of Carter bowling.

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Carlee started singing the “A, B, C’s” this week also. You probably can’t completely understand what she is saying as much as I can, but go ahead and sing the tune yourself and you can probably follow along with her okay.

Carlee trying to sing her "A, B C's"

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Good Times!

We enjoyed our fun-filled weekend with two birthday parties and an early Easter dinner.

10:25 am, Saturday

Gee, wasn’t Saturday morning just beautiful? We made it to our first birthday party in Medford okay; the roads weren’t too terrible, just a little slick in some spots. Morgan Lavin, a daycare buddy of Carter’s, was having her birthday party at the Sports Page. We met everyone by the bowling alley first. It didn’t take very long and the three musketeers (Carter, Talan & Dawson – our August boys) were all over each other wrestling, pushing, smacking…..all for fun, of course! All the girls were sitting opposite of these monsters on the bench seat across from them, sitting all prim and proper and, get this….they were “t a l k i n g”; and they weren’t calling each other butthead or telling each other that they stink either. Quite a difference! No matter how many times Liz and I told the boys to calm down, it just didn’t register. It’s been a while since all three boys have been together at the same time, so this was a nice treat for them. The whole time, Jay just kept telling me, “Just let them be….” Yet I didn’t want to let him be disrespectful to others. I guess even though I budded in a little here and there, he still had a great time! I still wonder how Linda Nuernberger watched all three of these boys at the same time, from infants on, plus had her other daycare children also. Kudos to her for surviving that! Happy 5^th Birthday, Morgan! You’re still a cutie!

Trouble....Talan, Carter & Dawson

Birthday girl, Morgan

Dawson & Carter

Carter getting some bowling tips from Dad

Talan

Dawson & Carter

Carter & Morgan

Talan, Dawson & Carter
Love this one!

Morgan getting ready to blow out her candles

Grandma Linda trying to calm Talan :-)

Carlee enjoying the cake

Morgan and Carter eating birthday cake

Morgan and Kayla in the arcade

Carter & Jay having fun at the arcade

Couldn't leave without a picture of Grandma Linda and Carter

Carlee and me

2:00ish pm, Saturday

Onto our next birthday party in Brantwood….the roads were just wet by then, so the trip went smoothly. I called my sister to tell her we could meet at the Prentice truck stop at 2:30 so I could hand over Wilbur (our Easter ham) because we were going to be spending the night at the Heikkinen’s. At 2:28, Jay and I are laughing because we see a Ford mini-van coming around the corner on two wheels. Seriously, she was going pretty fast….lol She’s already stressing over how much time everything is taking. (She’s really funny!) Back on the road again and we are finally arriving to our destination of the day. Thankfully, we made it up the driveway without getting stuck or going in the ditch (sorry, Beep). Of course, the joke is always about Jay giving Jer a hard time about the driveway, so when we arrive and seen the buckets, we had a good laugh. (I think this trip all around gave Jay and me some good memories because we sure laughed a lot. J) Thirty minutes later J, we were finally visiting with some great friends! Ty and Carter went their way, Trent was showing me all sorts of things, Beeper and I had some nice conversations, and the big boys left to milk cows at Bob’s. Jay was oddly excited about going to another barn. Guess he doesn’t get enough of it here and he doesn’t see enough barns at work! CHUCK got STUCK in the MUCK! Poor Chuck…felt bad because I told Juli to text him to make sure he came to the party. I haven’t seen Juli & Chuck in quite a while, so it was nice visiting with them a bit as well as everyone else too. 10:00 – kids are still awake! Trying to put Carlee down to sleep somewhere she hasn’t slept before was rough….so we all ended up going to bed at the same time. Didn’t really find anything that would soothe her, but she finally tired herself so much, she was finally out. (Through all of her crying, my wonderful sleeper Carter slept through the whole shebang). I felt so bad knowing Piper was in the room right next to us….poor girl. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there…, she woke crying 3 more times – yay! Are we having fun yet?

So I wish Ty a happy birthday one more time before we left on Sunday morning, and I thank him for letting us sleep in his room. His reply, “Yeah, I had to.” Too funny!

Just havin' fun on the way to the next birthday party. I got yelled at for
taking off my seatbelt from the little boy in the back. (He's too much like me.)

Trent, Piper, Jay & Jer

Carlee singing something.

Barn boys, Jer & Jay

Juli & me

Piper

Flying Carlee

Kids playing

me and Beeper

Ty opening up presents

Kids playing

She's not crying Aunt Juli

6:00ish, Sunday morning:

Just decided to get up because Carlee just wasn’t going to lie back down. L Our fantastic host made us breakfast, the kids played for a while, the barn boys were playing with tractors and trailers outside, and by 9:30 we were on our way to the next household. While we were headed to Angie’s in Phillips, she was on her way to church. Really?? I know it’s something she does every Sunday, but she’s doing dinner and she’s already stressed out. Boy oh boy, I know what’s coming… Jay, the kids and I get all settled in, and in walks Angie and her clan of kids with my Dad and Nadine. They all went to church and had a great service. Probably within 5 minutes, Angie was running in all directions and in her words, she “didn’t know where to start”. Yep….here it is….this is what I expected… So my dad and I had to jump in to help and calm her little hind end down. She did just fine! Wilbur and the rest of the food was excellent. Great job, Ang! Carter, Carlee, Hanna and Emma trashed the room with toys galore, but they had a lot of fun. We shared stories of past events like Angie and Erin Koch pickin’ on poor Bobby when he was very little or when Jesse Barnes would walk in Prentice with a big ‘ole boom box packed up on his shoulders listening to the Beastie Boys.

I sure got my share of laughs this weekend!