Last Day of Preschool

On Carter's last day of preschool he had an awards ceremony and then a short program. Carter received the "Biggest Helper" award along with a certificate of a year of preschool completion.



It was very sweet to see his teacher, Ms. Noelle, present him his award. With each student she had come up she would present the award and tell about why that child received that award and what is special about that student. Carter has had his ups and downs this year in preschool having to do with his strong will and few other things. He definitely hasn't been the easiest kid in the class. But Ms. Noelle has worked so hard at making it a good experience for Carter and helping him work through things. As she talked about Carter, it was so touching to me to see her get emotional and to see the love she has for my child. I am so grateful to her for her time and care that she gave to my child. You can see her talk about Carter in the video below. And if the video is shaking, it's because I was totally crying during it. Carter has overcome so much this past year!




The first day of preschool, Carter started making this book at school. This is a picture of him on his first day of school (so funny that he is wearing the exact same shirt on the last day of school, another little girl had her exact outfit on, too). I didn't realize that he still had so much of his baby fat left in his cheeks. He looks so cute and so much younger than he does now. It's crazy because I thought he looked so grown up then. I think he looks so grown up now, and in a year I will probably look back at pictures and think about how young he looks. He's my oldest, but he will always be my baby, too.


These are his two sweet teachers: Ms. Noelle and Ms. Tracey.

At Carter's preschool he not only has his regular class, but he also has Spanish class and music class. For their short end of the year program, his class sang several songs in Spanish and then they sang several songs from their music class. I am posting a video of his class singing Carter's favorite song. At first, Carter is a little more timid, but he starts getting into it towards the end.

March Madness

I know that we are well past March, but as a common thing on this blog I usually go back and recap months to get in all the things I may have missed on my other blogs. (Plus I am missing my USB cord to hook my camera to my computer so while I am waiting to find that I might as well get caught up.)

We started off the month by going to an indoor community pool with Grandma, Carter, Hayden, Dade, Aunt Meagan and of course myself though I am starting to realize you would never know I was a part of any of these activities because I am always behind the camera. I should probably change this. Someday i might forget what I looked like at this time of my life and maybe I'd want to remember, who knows?

Carter's beautiful preschool artwork. I am sure you can tell, this was a highly themed Valentine's time.

Usually Hayden is a fairly tidy eater, but this time she apparently wanted to get down and dirty.

We had BYU March Madness at our house. We were proud of our Cougs for getting as far as they did (Sweet Sixteen).

A regular activity for us is chillin at Grandma's with our buddy Dade. You can see in the corner my Gospel Doctrine manual underneath my scriptures. This was shortly after I was called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward. I teach every week. I NEVER thought this would be a calling I'd get. It was right up there with scariest/hardest calling in the church. And at first I really felt that way. But through Heavenly Father's help, I have become more comfortable and am starting to enjoy the learning and growing that comes with that calling.

I feel truly blessed to have ended up on the street we ended up on. We are surrounded by the cutest kids that I admire. Here our little neighbor boy is taking Hayden for a ride. Man, it was hard not to see in to the future with this one and see little Hayden going off in the car with her first date.

Here's Carter the storm trooper, driving probably not so safely on a buddy's "fourwheeler."

This was at a Birthday party for a boy from preschool at Chucke Cheeses. I thought this picture was hilarious to look at each facial expression.

Hayden: Yipee, the bike trailer!! Carter: This girl is crazy!!

I made my mom's super yummy baked potato soup and thought it looked so pretty i should take a picture.

For a Family Home Evening we made some spring flowers. It was Grandma karen's Birthday and we wanted to send her some, plus take some around to some pretty special ladies around here, too.

One morning, i gave Hayden a couple blackberries, some fruit loops and a banana to eat for breakfast. I was going to run up to take a quick shower while she was strapped in. i told Carter if she started to fuss give her some more fruit loops. I came down after showering, Carter had given her the whole container of blackberries that she has smashed everywhere. You can't tell too well by the picture, but she and the chair were stained purple.

Below are some videos from March as well:

Carter has always loved his music:







The other day I was watching videos of Carter when he was little. It was so fun and crazy to remember him when he was so young: his sounds he made, his mannerisms, his pudginess. When i watched this video back of Hayden I could just imagine the future nostalgia:




Same idea behind this video and plus Carter trying to sing to his sister and hearing Hayden's laugh brings me so much happiness: