Meet Buddy

Carsen has a new name; given to him by Myka. Meet 'Buddy'.

We have been trying for the longest time to get Myka to say 'Carsen.' She always gives us her little smile, runs away and says, "No."

The other day I said to Myka, "Tell Carsen goodnight." She waved to him and said, "Nigh Nigh Buddy." I was a little confused and then I realized what she had called him.

This morning when we asked her who should say the prayer, she pointed to Carsen, "Buddy."

They are the best little buddies. It's so cute to watch them play together (and fight) together.
Myka is quite the tease and loves to taunt her Buddy--But in the end they always make-up and give each other hugs. (Until she takes something away, breaks something or is just being her usual little stinker-self)!

A Run for Fun

This past weekend I joined my running buddies for the St. George Painter's 1/2 Marathon. It was a taste of spring (and quite a tease)! The weather was beautiful for a 13.1 mile run through the pristine terrain of sunny St. George. Both Leslie and Natalie are recovering from injuries; yet they still did amazing (talk about dedicated athletes)! I was just happy to be off the icy roads of Riverton and the monotonous treadmill.

Before the run


After the run


We left the hubby's at home and headed South for a 'girls-only' weekend. We stayed at Natalie's grandparents house; and they were the ideal hostess'. Natalie's wonderful mom also joined us for the trek down South--she's a riot! My parents came up to cheer us on and even treated us to lunch after the run at Texas Roadhouse (a personal favorite)!


After our run was out of the way we were able to focus on more important things; like eating, watching a flick, having some good laughs, and of course some more vegging.

Thanks to my wonderful friends and their nonstop laughter-invoking conversation--it made for a memorable weekend! And an even bigger shout-out to the best husband in the world for letting me go while he stayed home with the kiddos...(It was just a practice run for my New York excursion in March and a week long getaway to London in April.)

Who's 4!

(My amazingly talented friend Natalie made this invite for me. I told her I didn't have time to learn to be like her and would she just do it for me. Twenty minutes later this was in my inbox. Amazing! One of my resolutions is to learn to be a Photoshop wiz like Nat!)


Star Wars + 12 Kids + 12 Light Sabers + 25 Balloons = PARTY!

Carsen requested a Star Wars birthday party--and that is what he got. I have never seen any of the Star Wars films. (I'm not really into Sci-Fi, Fantasy...unless there's a hot vampire named Edward in it;) Carsen has never seen Star Wars either, but he somehow knows a lot of the character's names and that they fight with 'light savers.'

We invited 11 cute little friends over to celebrate his big day with him. I was new at this kid party thing, so I called on several of my friends for game suggestions and ideas on how to entertain 3-4 year-olds for an hour. They all said the same thing, keep it simple. They were right. The kids lost interest in the games after a few minutes, but they loved hitting with their light sabers, trying to crack the pinata and of course all the candy.

Carsen loved his Birthday and all his many many presents! He is so proud that he is four, and had a countdown going on until the big day, "Only 5 more sleeps until my birthday!"

Everywhere we went on his birthday he would whisper to me, "Tell him/her it's my birthday." He was so excited to have it be his big day. (It's funny, because last March Carsen went through a phase where he was convinced he was 4-years-old. He told everyone this when they asked him how old he was. So imaginative.)

We had planned to take him to the Jazz game and out to dinner after his birthday party, but he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay and play with his toys; so we did. It was like Christmas all over again.

Oh, and did I mention he is a four-year-old with a gray tooth. Ugh. He hit his mouth when we were in Vegas for the BYU Football game...I didn't realize at the time he had done damage to the nerve on his gum. Sure enough, the dentist confirmed my fear...gray tooth right in the front that is not going away until it falls out. The dentist said he could pull the tooth, but that the gray tooth would be less noticeable. Is he too young to use that whitening gel stuff on the one tooth? (ha!)

He is one smart, clever, sweet, handsome, fun-loving little man who is adored by all!

A New Day

A new year, a new me. Not when it comes to blogging though; in fact, quite the opposite. I am cutting back. (You laugh, because I haven't really been keeping up with my blog at all lately. That is just me sticking with my resolution!)

I am going to utilize my time by playing with my kids, developing my talents (more like finding some talents to develop) and not being a 'slave' to the computer.

That being said, the holidays were such a delight and my kiddos are too darling to not post about them. Plus...some pretty awesome parents got me a fabulous SLR Digital Camera whose fine images need to be displayed. (I know there are a lot of you out there who have the Canon Rebel. Please e-mail me tips and tricks. I am new at the whole SLR thing...and am in need of any info!)

I always feel a sense of sadness when the holidays come to an end. Another year until I can play Christmas music (that is all I listened to the entire month of December. Carsen knew every Christmas song! No lie. Even Myka knew when to chime in on the 'heys' when singing'Jingle Bells'.) I'm always sad wrapping up all my Nativities and Christmas Ornaments and putting them away in boxes for another year. On the positive side; it's always nice to have my house back in order.

Here's a little Christmas collage of all our Christmas Joys.