It's crazy for me to think that this is Carter's 3rd and last year of preschool. He is looking so big and grown up, but I remember thinking that last year at this time and now I look at those pictures from last year and think how much he's grown up since then. They just grow so fast. I love this boy so much and am so grateful that Heavenly Father deemed me worthy to be his mother. We have our struggles, but everyday we are learning from each other. He is a remarkable kid!
He was so excited to wear his new Lego Star Wars backpack and carry his new lunchbox. This is the first year he is taking a lunch to school, it's a pretty big deal!
It's so fun to have a Grandma in town that can go to days like this with you! And for those of you wondering, I am 25 weeks along.
Carter really wanted to wear his mohawk on the first day of school. His only disappointment was that it wasn't higher. He will soon learn, that with his Daddy I don't know if it will ever get much higher than this. (My Mom is nodding with approval right now as she is reading this comment. I love you, Mom!)
For the fun of it, I thought I would include last year's first day of school picture. It's amazing how much he's grown!
When we used to live in Des Moines one of our favorite things was to go to the IA State Fair. I dare say it's the best state fair in the whole country. One year while living there, USA Today voted it one of the top 6 things do in the summer through out the country. While in town for the weekend we stayed with some very dear friends of our that we made up there while Matt was going to school. I worked with Tom, the Dad, at a local bank.
This was Carter's favorite thing he did at the fair. I couldn't believe how high up he went and how big he looked.
The Big Slide. Carter slid down with Michael on one side and Taylor was on the other side.
I love the look of pure joy on Carter's face.
Michael and Taylor holding Hayden on this big wooden train that the kids LOVE to climb on. It was really cool.
There was a baby pig that we got to pet that was only a few days old.
This baby calf was also a few days old. They had two big flat screens on the walls of this building showing the birth of this calf. I find it quite fascinating. It was a lot messier than what you see in movies. It was all really cool to me until the Mom started licking off all the after birth and then my stomach couldn't take it anymore. That is one impressive Momma willing to do that!!
A baby ostrich!
We saw this baby chick come out of it's shell. It was so amazing to watch, I got all teary-eyed.
Baby Goslings
These baby goslings were so funny because they would play tug a war and tag with these little fishes in the pond. We just sat around and laughed as we watched.
Our crew admiring the baby goslings.
The other part of our crew - Tom and Michael.
Baby Sheep
The famous butter cow, celebrating it's 100 year anniversary of being made.
Carter was quite impressed by these HUGE pumpkins.
Matt and I were in shock over the cost of these tractors. Some of them cost as much as a REALLY nice house!
This wagon was our big rip off of the day. We forgot a stroller and without there being straps in the wagon to keep Hayden in, it was pretty close to being a total waist of $15 rental fee for the day. But we did get close to 100 people asking us where we bought our collapsable wagon.
Here is our Fair crew except Matt (taking the pic) and Carter (too exhausted to smile in a pic)right before we took off. It just felt so good to be back in IA again. It truly is America's Heartland. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Plus, to see friends we love was so great as well.
So after Martin's Cove we went down to Salt Lake City to spend a week. We had a great time going to the zoo and other places. Matt wanted to start "indoctrinating" the kids early with the awesomness that is BYU so we went down to Provo for a campus tour and then we stopped a few other places and visited one of our favorite sandwich shops for lunch.
BYU's mascot is the cougar.
I was about 16 or 17 weeks pregnant here.
One of our favorite stops out in UT is the seven rivers and Liberty Park. Carter just can't get enough of floating his little boat down the rivers. It's like little boy heaven there.
Hayden with cousin Kaylee (Brad and Stacey's).
Hayden enjoyed splashing around in the water as well.
Little cousin Lily (Chris and Kari's). She's a few months older than Hayden, but I think Hayden has her beat by about 5-10 pounds. Lily is a cute and smart little thing. She talks like crazy and knows most of her colors.
My older (not bigger) sister and I have our birthdays just one week a part. It's been a lot of years since we have been able to celebrate them together. For our Birthday celebration, Matt made us this precious cake, written on by him (he said it looked like a kindergartener did it, but I thought he did a dang good job and was super sweet to do it in the first place!). We also went to a near by park and played sock ball (very similar to dodge ball only with socks so the little kids wouldn't get hurt, super fun), bocce ball, and we just sat and talked. These are always my favorite times with my family. I love playing and talking with them. We just always have so much fun together. I really feel blessed at how well everyone jives and just loves each other. We're not perfect, sometimes our frustrations come out, but we're so good at just moving on to more fun and letting our imperfections go. I'm grateful for parents who taught not only how to work hard together, but also how to play hard together. It really is so important to do both!
A week after we left, my Dad was going to celebrate his 60th Birthday!! So everyone was kind enough to celebrate a week early so we could be a part of it. We went to the Grand America Breakfast Buffet and let me tell you, it was delicious!!! After we ate, the siblings all talked about things that we love and appreciate about my Father. There is so much to say in this area. He is such a loving, hard working, level headed (except when he is playing sports) man. He really knows how to strike the perfect balance between work, family and fun. I appreciate that so much in him and hope to find that same balance in my home!! Plus, aren't we a great group of people in that picture. I love so much everyone there. My siblings thus far have done an amazing job at finding spouses that feel just like my blood siblings. We are a truly blessed family!!
Here are two video's in my parent's backyard. Hayden loved sitting in this car:
At the end of June, the kids, Matt and I went on a 10 day trip to visit my family. My family planned to all meet at Martin's Cove in WY on our way to Salt Lake City, UT. Martin's Cove is a place where Mormon Pioneer's who pulled hand carts across the country ended up facing lots of trials and hardship due to an early bitter, winter storm. While there you can feel of their enduring and faith filled spirits. It was such a great experience to hear their stories and learn from their powerful actions.
Carter and cousin pulling a kid sized hand cart.
Sarah Ann and Samuel Haigh are two of Matt's ancestors that were part of the Martin Handcart Company.
While there, my whole family went on a 6 mile handcart trek to get a very small feel of what these pioneers did.
Hayden was in the baby backpack almost the whole time on Matt's back. While there, we read about a mother whose children and husband were so ill they had to ride in the handcart with the rest of their stuff and the mother had to hold her new born child in her arms while pulling her FULL handcart. My heart ached as I thought about what she must have endured. I kept thinking, if only they had simple things like the baby wraps and backpacks that we have these days.
Here's our crew. We had 13 grand kids and my 80+ yr old Grandmother with us, two pregnant mothers, and one mother who had given birth a few months before. Everyone made this whole trek except for Grandma and one grandchild (though they both did a good part of it). The rest of the group hiked the whole 6 miles and I never heard one complaint from the rest of the kids. I was so impressed.
Well...no complaint unless it was Carter when we tried to get him in our family photo with us.
The Salt Water River was really high so many of my family members were disappointed that they couldn't cross with their handcarts, but they let those that wanted to cross over some river overflow.
Hayden decided she wanted a turn in the handcart towards the end.
My cute "baby" sister, Nicole, who is about to be a senior in high school.
It's tradition in my family when we go camping that we play a game of baseball. One of the many things I love about my family is how we all love to play together - all ages.
Our June was a fun and busy month. The first half we got started on working out a good summer schedule with preschool being out and filling some free time with some fun activities. The second half we spent time in UT. I am still trying to find a cord that I can connect my camera to my computer so that I can download all my UT pictures. In the meantime here is some of our June Summer Fun.
Hayden with her milk goatee.
It is hot here where we live in the Midwest and in the afternoons we have to play with some sort of water if we are going to be outside.
Hayden loves the sprinkler, the hose, the slip n slide. She just loves the water!
Carter as well loves the water, any kind of water!!
Our neighbor has this little barbie motorcycle that you push a button and it goes. One day we were outside, she jumped on and next thing we knew she was off.
This day was laundry day. I got all the laundry sorted then I had to run to my room for some reason. Next thing I knew the kids had thrown all the dirty laundry down the stairs and playing in it. YUCK and DISASTER.
The local library system throws a big kick off summer reading party every summer at a local park. It's free and they serve you lunch and have activities, a petting zoo, and the kids can choose one item from the ice cream truck. It was a lot of fun despite the hot temps.
Hayden was not happy about throwing her bag through the whole.
We also have a free farm to go to that's about 45 minutes away. It is full of so many fun activities and animals. Carter loved the tractor ride. I think it's so funny to see the tiny bit of Hayden chasing after her brother (a common thing around here).
For a $1 the kids could feed the baby goats a bottle.
Hayden LOVED the animals! She growled at all them, her deep throaty growl. She thinks every animals growls.
