Spring Break at the Zoo

 Aunt Michelle came to town for Spring Break so we planned a fun couple of days together!  We started out having lunch at This is the Place Park. 

 The girls love hanging out with Aunt Michelle!

 Matson and me seeing the elephants!  Matson loved all the animals, but especially loved the monkeys (no surprise) and the water animals.  But, his all time favorite part was climbing on the big rocks and jumping off them.  Much more entertaining than the animals!  :)

 Michelle and my crazy boy, Carter.

He's as big as a monkey!  Carter carried his "map" of the zoo around the whole day and loved checking out where we were going next.  He was mesmerized by the sea otters and could have watched them all day.  He would LOVE Sea World.  I just can't convince John...

Missionaries

Look how cool these missionaries are!  We got to feed them dinner.  They shared a message and then Elder Yee made balloon animals for all my kids!  I always had missionaries in my home growing up in MD so it was fun to be able to do that with my kids.  It's rare to see missionaries around here!  My kids loved it.  Matson asked the missionaries, "Are you Jesus' friends"?  It was pretty cute!  He knows they teach people about Jesus so they must be his friends.  The next few days after their visit he would turn to me when he was playing and say, " I LIKE Jesus' friends."  Me too, buddy!

My Little Hero

Matson (2.5 years)

Happy Easter

Ready for Church

 

Love this shot of Em and Mat

 

Sisters

 

Easter Egg Hunt

 Emily

 All the cousins ready for the Egg Hunt at Grandma Peterson's.

 Matson

No time for pictures for Carter.  He was serious about his egg hunt!

 Trying to get a group picture and Matson just can't be serious...he's throwing baskets over his head to entertain his cousin.  He's a goof!

 Kelsie and Bryson

For Easter we got new summer jammies!  Can't wait for summer break!

ARRR! Carrrterrr is 5!

 Carter turned 5 on February 4th and celebrated with a Pirate Parrrty!  It was a lot of fun and he had a whole list of "arrr" pirate jokes to share with anyone who would listen.  Most of the kids his age didn't get the jokes, but he was still delighted to tell them.  Luckily, the grandparents and aunts and uncles were good sports.  His favorite joke is, "Where does a pirate eat lunch?"  Arrrbys!  Then he laughs and laughs.  He came up with that one himself, in case you couldn't tell!  :)  I never tired of hearing his pirate jokes that week because he gets such a hoot out of every joke!

Here is the Pirate Cake created by John. 

He had a pirate party with some friends from our street.  Carter planned pirate games that he wanted to play and thought of doing "x" marks the spot on the door.  I thought it looked pretty cool.  When John came home that night he asked if we had the plague or something.  It's never good of your decorations need explaining.  Oh, well.

Here are all the cute, I mean scary, PIRATES.

 

For his birthday Carter got these Imaginext dinosaurs.  He loves them!  He immediately headed off to play with them.  He also got a Dream Lite Penguin that he had been begging for since a friend got one for Christmas.  He was shocked when he saw it and sleeps with it every night.  I guess I never took a picture of it...but one of these days I will.  He sets it up every night.  Happy Birthday to our cute Carter!  Can't believe you are 5 already and headed to school next year.  You are smart, strong willed, and a leader.  You love to make people laugh and enjoy being in the spotlight.  You like rules and especially like to enforce them!  You are a very responsible for 5 years old and are a great big brother to Matson.  You like to be help me clean the house and help dad build things.  You make us chuckle with the funny things you say.  We love you!

Little Gentleman

Carter is going through a new phase where he LOVES me and goes out of his way to do nice things for me.  I am really enjoying this new stage and hope it lasts a long time!  It is a lot better than the scream at mom phase that we've been going through for the last year!  He loves to get up and make me breakfast in bed.  If he forgets one morning, he will show up with toast and juice for me while I'm in the bathroom doing my hair.  He is so proud of himself and genuinely just wants to surprise me and do nice things to help me out. 

He has turned into quite the little gentleman!  On the day I took these pictures, he got up before everyone else in the house.  He got dressed for church, complete with clip on tie attached to his shirt :)  and then made me bagels and brought them to me.  How cute is that?  Love my sweet little boy.  He knows the way to my heart.