What we've been up to...

Welcome to me going through pictures from the last month. What we have been up to...

Singing "Happy Birthday" using markers as candles (notice the marker drawn on the table. reason #12 why we have NO new furniture.)


Then crying when the markers fall down.


Taking all our Barbie friends for a spin.


Lining up the movies. Good work, Carter.


Oh, let's not forget the bowls.


Falling down and getting owies.



Learning all the ins and outs of "Star Wars" from the cousins. The other day Jenna yelled "HELP ME, MOM!!!!" I rushed to find her and she says, "DARTH VADER IS COMING!" Then here comes Carter going "RARRR!" lookin' like this.


Watching the train go round and round.



Making sure the toys get enough popcorn.


Having picnics with delicious plastic food.


Then throwing the food in the toilet. (NOT COOL, CHILDREN!)


Destroying mom's old-school cassette tapes. So long, mix tape of '99.


Eating chocolate in the car. In 100 degree weather.


Teaching Jenna to write the letters of her name. She did pretty good!


And going up to Park City for the 24th! Nate took Jenna and I took Carter down the Alpine Slide they had a ball!!! It was way fun.


Yathink the grandkids want to ride the carousel?


That's better!


Don't look too excited there, Carter.


Taking a dip in my parent's kiddie pool.



Carter's using my mom's running shorts for a swimsuit. I love it!


Then here are a couple videos... Jenna lately has loved pretending she is the mom and Carter is the dad... and I am Jenna and Nate is Carter! So here she is singing "Carter" to sleep. It was funny, she came back to check on him and said, "Oh good, you're not playing!"


Then here's Logan he's learned how to rock himself in his carseat.


Then he rocked himself right to sleep.


WHEW lots of pictures!

Who am I????

These days I’ve been wondering what the heck has happened to me. When did I become THAT WOMAN?!!! The woman who goes out in public looking like CRAP-OLA! The woman who doesn’t look showered because, oh she hasn’t. The woman who wears mismatched, stained clothes, the woman who wears no makeup (NOT a pretty picture), the woman whose children are equally mismatched and stained, with peanut butter on their faces, with dress-up high heels on for shoes, with knotted hair and marker drawn up and down their arms. I AM THAT WOMAN OUT WANDERING IN PUBLIC! WHAT has happened to me?

Oh yeah I have 3 kids so when getting out the door is my #1 goal, other things don’t seem to matter so much anymore. Like appearing like a cute, young mom. (Am I still young? I feel young. 26 is young, right?) I remember working at the library when cute, young moms would come in with their adorable kids and I’d be like, oh, I hope I will be a cute, young mom too!

YEAH RIGHT! The other evening as I was leaving the house, WITHOUT KIDS, I noticed a huge spit-up stain down the front of my shirt. You know what I did? I said, “Whatever.” And left the house anyway and proceeded to run errands like that.

Okay you must understand. I was NEVER like this!! I always made sure I looked cute before heading ANYWHERE. Vain? Yes. And let me tell you another little secret… the first time Nate saw me without makeup was AFTER we were married, and even then I was like OH MY GOSH HE KNOWS WHAT I REALLY LOOK LIKE NOW! (He didn’t care. He’s told me many times he prefers me in my PJs lounging around. Uhh done and DONE. Got that down.) And I knew Nate for 6 years before we got married. So that’s saying a lot.

So, while sometimes I am truly shocked with how I go out in public now, it’s really not something I’m down about. “What Not To Wear” is one of my favorite shows and they love to trash people who run to the store in sweats. They say, “Don’t you feel good enough about yourself to care about how you look?” I think it’s a great show. But that is where I have to disagree. If you feel good enough about yourself NOT to get all dolled up for the store, then GOOD FOR YOU! Okay, it’s one thing to NOT KNOW how awful you look in public… but it’s another when you’re perfectly aware you look just NASTY and be OKAY with it. I, personally, think I’ve come a long way. I DO care how I look, I just know I don’t have to look great all the time and I’m a little happy about that. Even if Stacy and Clinton don’t agree.

These are the thoughts I was thinking today as I, in my old T-shirt, un-flat-ironed hair hiding under a ballcap, with my naked face, (NOT EVEN ANY LIP-GLOSS!), was strolling through Smith’s. I was trying out one of those HUGE shopping carts with one of those cars attached to the front so my kids would be good as they pretended to drive, and never having used one before I was smashing into things left and right trying to maneuver that thing through the aisles. I knew I was a spectacle to behold, a haggard lady with 3 kids knocking things off the shelves.

I am not ashamed. I laugh and say "oh well." Someday I'll have time to be cute again. I mean, maybe. Here's hoping.

Look-alikes?

All right here's a quiz. Who is THIS?


THIS?


And THIS?


If you answered Carter, Nate and Logan you are CORRECT! I think Logan looks more like Nate than Carter did. And I think Carter and Logan look pretty different. Carter was a huge chunk like Logan, but he had way more hair and blue eyes. But I do see they're brothers.

Here are some more of baby Carter.

HOW on earth did I let Carter's hair get so bad, was I anti-hair-cut come ON! Look at those "bangs"!!



I was scrubbing away at his horrible cradle cap...



Here's more baby Nate.



And here's some toddler/pre-school Nate... I definitely see Carter in there.





And here's some of me at about each of my kids' ages. People tell me Jenna looks just like me. What do you think? I don't see it, personally!




And here are some pics i took of Logan today... he's 4 months now!






Okay, that was fun wasn't it.

This is for you, Bryce

My brother comes home from his mission NEXT MONTH!!! Wahoo!! He’s in the Taiwan Taichung mission. My mom prints out and sends him my blog posts. Which is great cause guess what I never write him. I’m a BAD SISTER!!! No, I’ve written him a couple times. Even sent him a couple packages. See, not so bad. But on Mother’s Day when I was talking to him on the phone, I promised him I would dedicate a blog post to him, and that can count as a letter to him. I know, I’m such a cheater, cause I’m not even going to be the one to send it to him, my mom will. NEVERTHELESS THIS ONE’S FOR YOU ELDER LARSON!

Bryce I want you to know your weekly emails inspire me so much. You are an awesome missionary. Your testimony is so strong and I can feel that in your letters. And you care so much about the people there. You truly want to let every single person know about the gospel, and that is awesome, cause I thought about talking to my neighbors about it for like a year and was too scared. But guess what they’re coming to church now, no thanks to me. But I think about you and all that you’re doing and everyone you’re helping and I’m amazed.

You’ve always had a light about you, Bryce. You’ve always been such a happy person, whenever I think of us growing up I always picture you with a great big smile on your face.

I have such good memories of me, you and Neil playing together. I remember playing Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, and we’d run and jump on the little tramp and “fly” on the pillows.

I remember playing “123” on the tramp and pretending like we were in the Olympics. It got pretty tense. Dad even banned us from the tramp on Sundays cause we’d fight so much.

I remember when Neil and I slept on the bunk beds and we’d throw toys across the room into your crib at night when we were supposed to be sleeping, and it’d make you laugh and laugh.

I remember you and Neil fought like cats and dogs but you guys were like best friends too. Didn’t you two get in a fight and Neil punched you in the nose and you told him to go ahead and punch your other nostril cause we’d just had the lesson on turning the other cheek? You guys were what, 10? Oh man that kills me.

I remember when you got “too cool” for Harry Potter books, and I was all into them in college and the newest one just came out and you told me they were stupid. I got SO mad at you! I went after you and tackled you and punched you. It’s a good thing you were dressed up like the Hulk that day, with pillows in your shirt, hee hee. And guess who I caught reading Harry Potter later that day? UH-HUH!

I also remember I got so mad at you when I was like 15 cause I’d heard you told NATE I liked him and while it was TRUE I didn’t want HIM to know that (aww the mind games) and you spilled the beans, I was so embarrassed.

I remember you were always one that would just walk by and compliment me on something, what a nice brother!!!

I remember one time I made cookies and I came back to eat them and they were almost all gone!!! I found out YOU ate them and I flipped out!!! I ended up making you cry and you went into your room cause you felt so bad. It didn't take long for me to realize how stupid i was being and I felt horrible for getting so mad at you over COOKIES and I wrote you a note saying sorry and slipped it under the door with more cookies. We were all good. :)

I remember I was at Haylee’s house and you ran all the way there so you could tell me a certain BOY was on the phone cause you knew how much it would have killed me to miss that phone call... let me give you a hint this certain boy was around sheep a lot and I made up songs about him, do you know who it was now?

I remember you were there the time I backed out of the driveway in Wanda the Honda and ran into the garbage can, so I went forward again and ran into the basketball stand. You were nice enough to move the garbage can for me so I could get out of the driveway. Oops, heh heh.

I remember you were at the hospital when I had Carter, cause you were in China teaching English when I had Jenna and so you didn’t want to miss it this time. You came in to hold him and you said, “Wow you look a lot better this time than you did with Jenna!" Thanks a lot Bryce. :)

Anyway Bryce I love you and although I know you’re so sad about leaving your mission, I’m SO excited to see you and have you meet Logan, and that you’re gonna go to BYU-Idaho like me I LOOOVED it!! You’re such a strong person and I hope your missionary aura will rub off a little on me when you get back.

And I'm excited to run the Top of Utah half with you!!!! I'm so glad you're gonna do it!

Look how teeny these kids were last time you saw them.




Logan's now bigger than Carter was when you left!


The people in Taiwan are gonna miss you tons, Bryce.