5 going on 15

Watch for my Emily on American Idol 2021---she is practicing her song everyday so she'll be ready to audition, as soon as she's old enough.

She is planning on singing "Believe in All You Can Be" from Barbie Diamond Castle.

Very fitting song choice, I thought. I love that she has dreams and has the drive to go after anything she wants. And she has the energy and spunk to get just about whatever she wants. I just wish she didn't want to grow up so fast. And this little girl is already boy crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do when she's a teenager. She is in love with a certain neighbor boy (and he is a really cute little boy). She talks about him constantly and has been known to drop off pictures of this boy and her holding hands with hearts all over the paper and the words Emily = Jake. She walks around the house telling us "I have a boyfriend" and "I love Jake".

I hope she outgrows with craziness. I have a feeling she's not going to!

Beauty

Carter spent the morning wetting his hair, combing and fluffing it, and finally added a yellow headband that he wears across the back of his head. He came out of the bathroom and caught me by surprise when he said, "My hair looks beautiful."

Cracked me up. I had never heard him use the word "beautiful" and it was certainly not what I was expecting to come out of my little boy's mouth.

Later in the afternoon we were looking at different cakes on the internet to get an idea for his birthday. He was looking at them and commenting on the cool trains, trucks, etc...

Then he caught sight of a garbage truck cake. He gasped with excitement and said,

"The garbage trucker is bootiful."

I guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Doctors

Today we took Carter to see a specialist at Primary Children's. When the nurse called us back he looked right at the nurse and doctor and yelled, "I hate the doctor, okay?"

The nurse, doctor, and receptionist all heard him loud and clear...luckily they seemed fairly amused by our opinionated little guy.

Afterwards, I tried to reason with my almost two year old about how we love doctors and they help us.

He looked at me really helpless and said, "but I scared a doctor". It was SO sad.

I reminded him that the doctor gave him a sucker and he was nice.

Carter smiled and said, "theeenk you doctor"

Then quickly said, "it scary"


I decided to stop trying to reason with a 23 month old. He knows just how he feels and has no problem expressing it...to just about anyone.


Good news: The doctor told us we could hold off on surgery for at least a couple of months in hopes that things might resolve themselves on their own.

Aspen Grove

We spent New Year's Weekend at a cabin in Aspen Grove with all of John's family. Grandma Hambly was here from Canada and it was great to all be together in one place for a couple of days. It was a great cabin with lots of places to visit and hang out and we all had our own bedrooms and bathrooms when we needed a little break from all the fun. :) I was sick most of the time and wasn't a lot of fun (I promise to be more fun if we ever do something like this again). :) The kids loved the trip and are still talking about it. The girls loved hanging out with cousins, playing games, and watching movies late into the night. They also got to sleep on bunk beds which they thought was the coolest thing ever! Carter LOVES palling around with his little cousins and spent most of his time trying to impress Ellianna or asking if she was sleeping (if she couldn't be found). The adults had a good time playing games together once all the kids were settled. During the day we went snowmobiling (well at least until there was a snowmobiling disaster) and we went tubing on the hills outside our cabin. It was beautiful there--and a nice getaway.

Emily chatting with Grandma Hambly

Kelsie and Kaitlyn drawing in the loft

The kids enjoying the novelty of bunk beds.
The late night game crew

This is as close as these girls got to snowmobiling. The snowmobiles broke while they were waiting for their turn to go out--we promised we'd make it up to them one of these days.

Carter enjoying the beauty of Aspen Grove. He didn't like sledding at all, which surprised us.

Kelsie at the bottom of the hill

Emily being sent down the hill by Uncle Jared

Brandon gathered up all the tubes and was trying to carry ALL of them back to the cabin for us girls. It was really cute.

Christmas Morning

So excited to see if Santa came....

Santa brought Carter a life size pony that he can ride, feed carrots, and brush. It ended up being a present to everyone. All the kids loved it and Emily loves acting out her Barbie movies with a real horse as a prop. The kids took turns riding the horse, before they even looked around the see what else there was.

Kelsie got a High School Musical Barbie set and an MP3 player that she loves! She couldn't wait to download her tunes and have them ready for her rides to school.

Emily was so happy Santa brought her this Mouse Trap game that she's been wanting forever! She also got a Barbie and Barbie and American Girl movies.Carter loved his horsey. But his favorite gift was 5 Matchbox cars. He loves them and races them all over. He was funny to watch on Christmas day. He was a little overwhelmed by everything, which really surprised me. After seeing his horse, he headed straight to the kitchen for breakfast and didn't want to be bothered with gifts until he had some cereal. He loves his food! About half way through opening gifts he got tired and refused to open anymore. He climbed up on the coach and asked us to turn on Baby Einstein for him. I guess Christmas is a little over stimulating.

The big news: John surprised us all with a Wii for Christmas. It made for quite an exciting Christmas and we've all enjoyed playing some Wii sports. We think we are amazing bowlers!

It was a great Christmas! It was our first year we stayed home, just us, for the day and enjoyed our new toys and games. Grandma and Aunt Michelle came by to visit and see what we got which was a highlight for the kids. Overall, we enjoyed a relaxing day. In the afternoon, we headed to the Durrant's for our gift exchanges and visiting with Great Grandma Hambly. The picture above is the girls on the way to the Durrants. They were sharing the earphones to Kelsie's MP3 player so they could listen to High School Musical on the drive-I loved it. :)

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house doing lots of our traditional activities: visiting, cooking, decorating sugar cookies, and eating a nice ham dinner. After dinner we got ready to act out the Nativity. Kelsie was a beautiful angel, Emily was Mary, John was Joseph, and Carter attempted to be a sheep but really couldn't control himself so we watched the fun. Emily was very serious in her portrayal of Mary. She had the most serious look on her face the whole time and tried to do everything just right. It was sweet to watch her, you could just sense that she understood the importance of her role as the mother of baby Jesus. It reminded me of pics I have of Kelsie from a few years ago when she was about the same age and she was stoic as she played the role of Mary. It's neat to see these little girls recognizing just how special and important their role of Mary is. After the nativity, stories, and songs we exchanged gifts with my family. The highlight for Kelsie was a fuzzy robe and socks from Grandma and American Girl books, For Emily it was an art kit just like Kelsie had received a couple years ago, and Carter's mom loved his new clothes. It was a fun, busy day and we headed home late to put out stockings, treats for Santa, reindeer food, and jump into bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads!

My Carter

Ijust have to post a picture of my sweet boy smiling. We haven't seen that smile in week. He's had a terrible flu ever since we came back from the cabin and has been throwing up for a week. He has laid and stared at the TV and has no life in him. After three days of this, he sat up and played a little and Emily said, "He's alive" like she was completely shocked that he might pull through. It was so sad. Then he mustered up enough strength that night to sit up long enough to give me a meek little "roar" when I sat down by him after he put his roar jammies on. That little roar made my whole day. It was a little sign that my happy boy was still in there...somewhere.

After this long week, we found out on Fri. that he is going to need surgery at Primary Children's as soon as they can get us in. Luckily, he is young enough that he doesn't get what's happenning and I am scared enough for both of us. I was talking to him and asked him if he wanted mommy and daddy to come with him to his surgery. He thought for a minute and said, yeah...and Santa Claus! I just love this little guy. He always makes me smile.