Carter's Baptism

Carter had chosen to be baptized and wanted to wait until Grandpa could be here as well. So on May 15, 2011 Carter was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Carter has honestly been so excited for this day, he has been reading and preparing for his baptism and working really hard on being the best Carter he can be.

Carter wanted to invite some of his friends from school, and it turned out he invited all his friends from school to be there. I didn't get a picture of some of his friends that were there with him, but it was so lovely to see the few that came and the support they gave to Carter.

I failed to get a picture of Carter and Mike dressed in their whites before the actual baptism, but I think this one just shows off their personalities and excitement for the day. I think Mike may have been just as excited as Carter. ;)

We were so pleased that Grandma and Grandpa could come out and help us celebrate this time with Carter. Carter was looking forward to them being here for months before hand!

Had to get a picture with some of Carter's favorite people in the world. The Schmidt's have truly become our family here and I can't even express how much Carter loves these guys--especially Jacob. Carter thought for about two seconds when I asked him who he wanted to speak at his baptism. I had told him there is usually two talks, one on baptism and one on the Holy Ghost. He said he wanted Grandpa and Jacob to do the talking. I was thankful for what a wonderful job each of these two amazing men did at sharing with Carter the importance of the steps he was taking in his life.

Carter was also very thrilled to get his new set of scriptures. He really loves working hard at being his best, and has been such a fun and loving child to see grow into an amazing little man. He is really going to to do great things in this world. When I asked him how he felt after he got baptized he replied, " I felt like i was the happiest person in the universe."

We love you Carter!!!

Grandpa is here!

After a long flight and a whole cup of coke spilled all over him Dad/Grandpa made it to England safe and sound. It makes me so happy when my mom and dad are able to visit us and spend some time running around the country making fabulous memories--and that is just what we did!

Happy Mother's Day

This is the confused mom look and the really excited Hollie look because she knows what she is looking at. My mom has never been to a show in a proper theatre and it was far past time to get that seen too. So we went to Wicked for Mothers Day--well we got our tickets on Mother's Day. Mike knew I wanted to go, but he wasn't spilling anything about having somehow getting a day so that I could take my mom. So it was actually a surprised for me as well. My hubby is so sneaky :)

The day of the show we all decided very last minute that since the next day we were picking up Dad/Grandpa at the airport that it would be easier to stay in London instead of driving and taking the tube back and forth for two days. So we booked a hotel and off we went, Hollie got to drive in the heart of London--and despite being a little apprehensive about that, it all went well.

I think that Mom loved it more than I thought she ever would--she was so giddy about it all-- i loved it! It was like watching your kids on Christmas, she was so thrilled.

So nice of a random lady to ask if we would like help taking our picture, we were trying it ourselves so we could get the theatre name and everything in, it wasn't working. So thank you random citizen! After the show we went on a little walkabout and conveniently walked past a shop with yummy pastry's in the window. So we decided we should indulge a little while in London, right? So good, so good--and now I am thinking I should have taken a picture of our treasures--oh well, you will just have to trust me.

Knights on Foote

Framlingham Castle AKA--the castle we visit the most--had a fun event during the Easter holidays--which lasted two weeks for the kids. They had a medieval Knights on Foote demonstration and different booths and displays set up for us all to relish in what it would have been like had we been there long ago.

I was talking to one of the 'knights' and he said they were all down at the pub and thought of how to go about demonstrating the sword fighting, apparently the thought of being dressed up in hot, heavy, metal armor and then having someone hit you repeatedly over the head sounded awesome at the pub. :) My kids however appreciated all of it and couldn't get enough.

Carter and Brennan participated in the Jester School for kids, where they learned to be 'stupid' and 'annoying' to everyone around them. My kids are far from stupid, so I will leave that alone--but they can certainly master the annoying bit! They would have made fine jesters. This was when the jester was begging his master for food and shelter, the master was the one holding the nose and the jester was getting pinched. Carter and Brennan both enjoyed this part very much!

Taylor was more keen on looking at all the little bits and bobs around the castle. Little games here and there, the cooking kettles, and the ladies costumes of fancy dresses. The kettles that they had over fire were actually cooking a fabulous looking soup and boiling some eggs--I wanted to stay for their lunch!

The knights preparing for the show, the grand entrance was quite a site with all the guys dressed up, Carter immediately decided we had to cheer for green, while Grandma decided she would cheer for the red knight. If memory serves me well..blue actually won, I might be corrected.

Getting the crowd excited!

Brennan loved every second of the sword fighting--couldn't turn away.

Another one of Brennan and Justice--they really are a load of fun together.

Carter walked away a few times without us knowing, a leash would have been handy, then we discovered why he was walking away and understood the temptation. He had such a grand time trying on these bits of armour.

Grandma posing with the Lord and Lady clothing...it would have been a little fun to wear such fancy clothing everyday. So this is Hollie--you know i am kidding! :)

I was actually quite shocked at the weight of this helmet. Brennan was immediately wanting it off after this shot because, "it is smashing me!"

I looked at this picture and it was so cute, but someone is missing for sure! Mason had school that day and we decided to let him have school while we went. It really is a different experience with Mason not there--we missed him, but I'm sure Mike appreciated having some freedom to roam instead of being pulled by Mighty Mouse Mason. :)

This was the silly, stupid, and annoying Court Jester--now that would be a fun way to spend your days.

Fun times

The base held a Bazaar and the kids chose the slide as their, "good job you didn't cause mom and dad to much trouble' prize. I was a little worried that Brennan would get to the top and then get scared and not know what to do, but he proved me wrong and went right down. Mason chose to get some yummy treats with his one pound coin instead of the slide, he laughed and laughed as he watched them all come down.

Taylor is 5!!- AKA-Frisky Five!

Taylor, one who has an idea and cannot verge from her plan or all hell might break loose. She likes you one day and then doesn't want you to speak to her the next. Taylor is loving, tender spirited, but has so much fire in her as well. She is doing fantastic in school, loves every second of it and takes it upon herself to let me know what everyone did wrong that day and why the teacher had to become cross with them. We have some light bulbs going on with reading and she is doing great with that. She is still determined that 13 and 14 are the same number and won't let you correct her while she is counting. She loves to colour and loves to write, she has more pen marks on her sheets than anyone I know. She would write all night long if I were to let her, and punishment that is an actual threat with her is if she can't have her notebooks and pens for a night. Taylor has so much going for her that I am excited to see where she puts all that energy in her future, who ever might be in her path--you have been warned! :)

Taylor opted for presents instead of a party and was very pleased with her new robe, notebooks, colouring paper, large Little Pony, and her new bike and helmet. She was very glad that she made the choice of presents for turning Frisky Five! They have little names for each of the numbers at school to help the kids remember what the names of the numbers are. As you guessed it 5=Frisky Five. So if you asked her how old she was on that day, her response was I am turning Frisky Five!!

Love you Taylor--girl after my own heart, wanted chocolate on top of chocolate for her cake. :)

Camping

*For some reason my camping posts got split up--so the rest of this guy is down a bit further*

With all the lovely personalities of our children it was only a given that there were going to be a few tantrums or meltdowns. Justice had had enough, she was done, but she wasn't sure why she was so upset either. I asked her if I could take her picture while she was screaming and she just got more mad. Then came the click, then i asked, "Justice, do you want to see these pictures?" Like a light switch the tears and screaming stopped and she was clicking through the pictures on my phone happy as a lark. It was hilarious!

Mason just loved having everyone there busy doing different things, and right here he was thrilled that we had finally started cooking breakfast!

Easter while camping is always fun, and the kids were not disappointed that Easter baskets/bags were still hidden for them to find. I love that Taylor went from dead sleeping to running around looking for a bag, I also am very fond of her bed head look.

Brennan on the other hand was not keen on searching for anything, he was tired, he was hungry and he did not want to find ANYTHING! Then he realized chocolate was involved and decided a different attitude would serve him well.

Justice didn't need any convincing of the joy of giant chocolate bunnies, she was in it so fast, nothing else mattered!

Grandma even found a little bag for her and was thrilled to find a small electronic device, she asked. "Is this what i think it is?"

Carter replied, "Grandma it is a MP3 player, you can put music on it and then listen to it while you run."

I loved that these little children have so many gadgets to keep track of and can remember what they are all meant for.

Brennan enjoyed finding the eggs more than anyone else did, and thought he was very clever for his findings.

The man chefs were hard at work fixing delightful breakfast burritos that were heavenly on the beautiful Sunday morning.

We really just enjoyed being together as a family and not having work schedules, homework, appointments, meetings, etc. to get in our way. We were at the pond feeding ducks here, there was a little family of ducklings and the kids were starting to get angry at them when they stopped eating. We were trying to convince them that they were babies, but that was not a good enough reason.

Brennan and Justice, otherwise known as "The Justen" were always together getting into some sort of mischief. They are adorable together even when they are beating each other down to the dirt or fighting because one of them looked at the other wrong. If we were ever in doubt as to their location someone would just have to say, "Where is The Justen?" Then the whole of camp would seize to function until they were found. Which was usually when they snuck down to the pond, or found other dangerous activities to do.

This picture has another story attached to it. Brennan was fishing with his lovely stick/rod and thought he was the most clever little boy. We actually could see the fish as we threw the bread in, they would come and grab it. It was really fun and i wanted to join in rather than be the one taking the pictures. I put my phone/camera in my back pocket and was having a great time 'catching' fish with Brennan. We decided it was time to head back to camp to start our hot dog roast, at that time I heard a scream of, "NO Mason!" I flip my head around to see Mike practically diving into the water, arm fully submerged, up to his face. I thought for a second that it was our friends camera that he threw in, to my relief she told me it was not, but it was my phone. My brand new-not cheap to replace phone. Then miracle of all miracles--Mike comes out victorious with phone in hand! He still does not know how he got it, but he pulled it out and we feared the worse. We went and bought a little bag of rice from the shop at the campground, put the phone in it overnight and hoped for the best. I guess you might guess how this story ended because you are looking at the pictures that were on the phone. So after being tossed in a pond my phone is still functioning at about 99%, it just won't let me put it in sleep mode, it likes to do that on its own now. Thank you Mike for having the quick reflexes and for not giving up when your hand was fishing through nasty pond ground.