"We May Not Have It All Together But Together We Have It All"

Lately when Evan says prayers he has been saying “help mommy to obey the rules”…. after a few days of this I asked him what he meant;

Mom: Who’s rules are you talking about in your prayers?
Evan: Miles, Lucas, and mine
Mom: What are the rules?
Evan: You know like teaching us stuff
Mom: What else
Evan: I don’t know, I don’t remember

I wish he could remember so that I could obey their rules and be a better example.

Ryan started his new job last week with Lexmark as a Systems Engineer on the Boeing Account and back up for WaMu. He needed a change and the move up. He likes his boss and co-workers. He enjoys it so far but who wouldn’t when your first day on the job is to fly to CA, do lunch, meet people, fill out some paperwork, and then go to a ball game. We are very grateful for the opportunity for our family and hope it will bring Ryan happiness and success!

Happy Pioneer Day

Does it mean you are a bad mom if you can't stand your kids voices by the end of the week?

So we started out the day like almost any other arguing with the kids to hurry up so that we can meet up with everyone for a family hike. Then arguing with Ryan about how I am a paranoid person just because I said I hope our house doesn't burn to the ground while we are gone (our neighbors seem to like doing fireworks in front of our house the last few years). Then we got to our hike. It was a good hike (Boardman Lake right by Evan's Lake in Granite Falls) especially for the boys, not to hard for them and not too easy for Ryan and I. We got to play in the snow and have a little excitement of loosing the trail due to the snow. It was crazy how much snow was up there. The lake was still frozen over. I don't think it will all melt away before next years snow fall. Evan was thrilled to find out that a lake had the same name as him. Then we got to enjoy fireworks up at Carleen and Mike's, well until Lucas decided to hurl all over me. It was good to get out and get some fresh air and spend time with family! (Sorry the pics are a little dark we used our old little camera that we haven't used in a long time)

OK, so maybe I am vanilla

Now I'm going to go have ice cream to try to make myself feel better. I blame Val for making me curious :)

You know its time to clean the play kitchen toys when you are pretending to eat the wonderful meal that was prepared for you by your 2 year old and you are gaging from the bad breath smell.

Yes, we have green and brown play kitchen for our boys. What if they want to become a chef?

Father's Day at our house was a little crazy. Ryan got biscuit and egg breakfast and Pot roast (cow is what we call it in our house) and potato dinner is about it with a quick Happy Father's day thrown in there. Ryan and I had to give talks in Sacrament (we have 1:00pm Sacrament so we got to worry all morning and afternoon) so we had a busy week and were pretty stressed/nervous on Sunday so the day really didn't seem to be relaxing for Ryan. After church and dinner we got to go visit with Grandpa Carter. Once we got home Ryan called his Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day and was reminded that it was his parents anniversary- 40 years! Happy (belated) Father's Day to all those that I didn't get to see or talk with on Father's Day (that includes you too Gary)

Dad & Mom Carter
Dad & Mom Weeks

My Handsome and the boys

On May 15th Evan came running in the office from his rest time in our bedroom in histaria. "Mom, mom I swalled a quarter (as he is crying), how do we get it out, am I going to die." It took me seriously 5 mins to calm him down just to make sure it wasn't still stuck in his throat and that he was breathing okay. I had him swallow a few times and asked him if it hurt, he said no so I knew that it wasn't stuck where he couldn't breath. I explained that he wasn't going to die and I called the doctor to see if we just sit and wait until it came out on its own. Since it was a quarter (or so we thought since I lined up all coins and had Evan point to which one he swallowed) they wanted me to bring him in to make sure that it wasn't lodged. So after getting the other boys to Mom's we went to get Evan's first (and most likely not last) x-ray. All the ladies at the doc office had a comment for Evan since he was the famous boy that swallowed a quarter (I guess the most exciting thing that happened for them that day). "You know your suppose to put money in your pockets not your mouth," one said. Another said "Are you a piggy bank"? After a few more of these he turned to me with a sad look and said mom I am shy. I said do you mean embarrassed and he shook his head yes. We got the x-ray and Evan got to see his bones and quarter which was in his tummy. We got home and let Ryan know what was going on and also let him know of his new chore since it was his money that he left on his nightstand, yes digging through poop! After searching and searching for a full week we called the doc again to see if it should have passed, to make a long story short we had to go in for another x-ray and the quarter was still in his tummy so the doc said he would make an apt at Children's to get it scoped out. Oh boy! Well it turned out that the doc at Children's said we could wait up to three weeks to see if it passed, so more poop digging for Ryan (he was getting pissed at this point since he had to do it while camping as well). On Tues May 27th Ryan hit the jackpot and found a nickel not a quarter! I put it in a picture frame and hung it on Evan's wall and told him it was a reminder to never put anything in his mouth except food! That was one expensive nickel!

Showing off his pushing skills

Kendra- I did it, I made the coffee cake recipe that you posted but I like ours better! The one posted was way too sweet (and I love sweet stuff) with the cake mix. I was glad I had made eggs and had orange juice to absorb the sweetness. To get more topping on ours just triple it like we did growing up.