Duxford Imperial War Museum

Carter went on a school trip to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. He was able to take Mike's little deployment camera and got some great shots. He also took A LOT of pictures that are not on here. I remember my first school trip and the crazy pictures I took. So it was really fun seeing all the fun that Carter had on the trip and having fun with his friends. I am attempting to get Carter to come and write a few words about his day--so we will see how that goes. :) 

This is an airplane motor

This is a Halifax with me and Isaac the penguin boy.

me, Max, and Mimi in front of a plane.

Me in front of a missile jet.

 The museum I went to was really awesome and my best part was going inside an airplane.

Ms. Pizzy with all our hats on her head--that is my teacher.

Nature and Nurture

 Last weekend I was with the kids on Saturday (which is quite usual) anyway, as my frustration levels were increasing I decided that spending my day getting after the children about chores and what not that we would go out walking instead. I called our friends the Schmidts and off we all went. Brennan and Justice holding hands at the beginning of the trail. We had a great time and despite the children getting a bit whiny toward the end due to being thirsty and hungry(we weren't gone that long) they did a great job. Just wait until they find out the kinds of trails we will be taking them on in Utah! This was at least very flat!

 Stinging nettle is EVERYWHERE in England. The children learn what this is early on in life and fear it like a plague. It hurts to get stung, I'm not going to lie, I don't like the stuff either. Well, Jacob(our friend/Carter's favorite human in the world!) decided to teach Carter a little trick and show him how to touch the nettles so that they won't sting you. After Carter spent 10 minutes fearing the plant and watching mommy have a go, he finally dared the touch for himself! He was amazed and has been showing his friends his special talent everyday at school--I'm not sure he has taught them to do it, he just shows off a little.

 We had some little friends near our house. Such a sweet little nest filled with 6 babies. Brennan found this nest, Mike and I were amazed he even found it. It was tucked in the groove of two trees that had grown together and then split higher up. So this was actually at Brennan's height and we were shocked a bird would build right there. They are out of the nest now--we are hoping by natural causes and not by a cat or something else.

 Spending my days nurturing this little tike has been a joy beyond measure. It has obviously been a long time since a baby was in this house all day. Cameron is getting a lot more interactive and chatty. He makes so much noise from about 11:30-12:15. Yes, he is in fact that scheduled in his life. He kind of has to be so that I have time to enjoy him and still do school runs. I love that I get to ignore things I 'should' be doing for things that I can't afford to miss, like talking to Cameron and playing with his little toes whenever I want!

Brennan is getting so big in my eyes lately. He is going to be starting school this September--like proper primary school, not preschool. He is excited to go to school with Taylor, but is also sad that Carter won't be there anymore. Brennan also just got his hair cut daddy style--he saw Mike buzzing his head and wanted the same as daddy. Luckily we were allowed to leave a little on top!

Family Home Evening--help from heaven

 Family Home Evening is on Monday nights--well at least we try and have it every Monday--we fail at this more than we should. So tonight the lesson was about staying happy, positive, and kind when things don't always go the way you want them too. ALL day today we have had sunshine, no clouds, 80 degrees of loveliness. We start bringing everything out for our FHE activity/dinner which was a hot dog roast. We start roasting as some gray clouds come out of no where and start to produce rain, not just any rain, but huge drops of rain. Everyone stayed happy and positive while they were getting wet and roasting their 'dog'. Then the kids started to sing a song about Noah(the prophet). The words they sing include, "rain, rain, rain...rain, rain, rain. OOOOHHHH Noah, Noah didn't it rain?" Then I laughed because we weren't just teaching the lesson--we were living it--we hadn't even had the proper lesson yet! Such a fabulous and fun night.
Carter also said I wasn't allowed to show these pictures to his children, because he could only find Taylor's raincoat. :)

Keeping nice and dry under the table. He was a little worried when the rain first started to fall.

London Zoo

Not everyone could be as lucky as this little man and have their own personal seat on the way to London. It was an amazing time with the family...amazingly frustrating and stressful, but I guess when the kids say they had a great time it is all worth it.

We started our journey at the end of the line of the Tube in Epping. We got on the 'train' and were having a great time zooming down the way to London. The kids thought it was fantastic and every time we stopped at a station they would say, "do we get off now?" Alas, when we got to London the true fun began. We didn't know there was a football match(soccer game for you Americans reading) at Wembley that day, but we soon learned the hard way that when West Ham plays the whole of east London(where the typical West Ham fan lives) head to the west to cheer on their team. It was a sight to see for sure, and makes me wonder just how it will be when the Olympics are here. There were fans cheering, singing, and chanting throughout the tube stations and in the tube itself. The kids thought this was a little frightening because it was very busy!!! I wanted a picture--but I also didn't want to let go of my children. Mike and I thought it was great, no one was being violent or belligerent, it was just loud and crazy! So once we conquered the tube we were walking through Regent Park to get to the London Zoo. Carter about died of excitement when he looked in the air and saw this blimp, "for REAL, for the FIRST TIME EVER, FOR REAL MOM AND DAD!!!" So I had him point to the air just right and he kept wondering what he was doing until he saw the picture and thought it was pretty cool that he was almost 'touching' the blimp. Look hard because honestly you can hardly see it in the picture.

The London Zoo was having a "Special Children's Day" event and we thought it the perfect time to go because it saved us over half the entrance cost. However, special event+regular day visitors=VERY BUSY!! It was stressful trying to make sure our children were having fun, but not getting lost. Mason was having one of his days where he wants to whine and cry the whole day through. Honestly, we are having more and more of these days as he gets older, and they seem to be triggered by large crowds, tons of noise, or a big change in our normal routine.

Taylor's favourite thing had to be a couple of owls that we saw. She has been studying owls at school, and her class adopted an owl named Taiga at a sanctuary, so she was all about that owl and needed a picture with it.

Taylor and Brennan had to have a little time out so they missed out on petting the goats, but Carter loved every second of it! He was really excited to be at the zoo-and said his favourite thing might have been the hippo's, or the monkeys.

Like I said, Mason was really crabby the whole day!! Okay, okay I admit, he was happy for about an hour--or when we were having food. So I guess the whole day is not giving him enough credit. Poor guy just couldn't seem to enjoy himself.

We thought the Pelican's were pretty neat. Mike and I both don't remember ever seeing a pelican that close and we didn't realize just how large a bird they were.

The top of the wood platform lay the lion. Taylor and Brennan had to go to the toilet just after this picture was taken and Mike was taking them while I stayed with the others. That is when the lioness and lion got up and were walking around right near the glass--it was pretty awesome. Although I wasn't able to get a picture because Mason needed one on one at the moment so he didn't run off. Just trust me that it was neat to see them moving about.

All in all it was a good day to spend as a family--even if it was stressful. We got home late, everyone crashed and apparently talked quite a bit about the fun they had during church the next day. So I suppose we can call it successful.

YES THEY ARE--A BUNCH OF MONKEYS!!

Missionaries

 This week brought on two missionary farewell's for our family. Above, is Elder Machen and his parents with the family(plus our extra addition of little Justice). Elder Machen was here two years ago and was such a great missionary who was full of service and love for the whole family. He is headed home from his mission and we were so touched and grateful that he came through the area to say good-bye. The kids were all very excited and it was a great time to reminisce about great times and fun memories we have with Elder Machen! *as a funny*-you might notice that Cameron is foaming at the mouth and Mason is looking sideways all crazy like--the one time we do only one shot. I had a good laugh that no one noticed the baby had spit up.
We also said good-bye to Elder Day(on the left) who was only here in our area for a short time, but was a great Scotsman that we were sad to see go. You know how much we love Scotland--and that includes the people from there.

Blessings

These three kiddos had a day out of the house with daddy when he got back from Germany. They had a great time doing something fun instead of being at home taking care of Mason again. :) They are good sports when Mason is poorly and they have to step up to the plate. These guys are great.

This was the only picture of Mason we got while he was feeling so bad. The sister from our ward at church who brought dinner one night also brought this bear for Mason. He didn't cuddle with it long, but he gave it a little cuddle and had a little grin on his face.
*As an update*
Mason was chewing on his tongue again this week and tearing it apart quickly. So after prayers and talking with the group of parents on the Angelman Facebook group the idea that maybe his teeth were bothering him came up and as a result that is why he was chewing his tongue. Went to the dentist today and it took about 5-10 seconds for the dentist to look in, grab the loose molar and pull it out. Mind you I had tried to pull that thing out quite a bit yesterday, so I was shocked and oddly impressed! I think I made the dentist blush with my never ending praise! Mason has since stopped chewing his tongue and also stopped grabbing anything around him to chew on as well, so we are hoping the mystery is solved!

This last week

 We had the Elders over for dinner and they had a great lesson for the kids. They put a marshmallow in front of the kids and told them if they didn't eat it for 5 minutes they would get a surprise at the end of the 5 minutes. Carter thought this was a great plan and was determined not to eat his marshmallow. Out came the mask and Elder M was so funny trying to get the kids to eat their marshmallow. Justice and Taylor didn't last long at all. Carter was a big driving force in telling Brennan not to eat his. It was a great little lesson about temptation. The boys were excited to finish the whole bag of marshmallow's for their surprise.

 These pictures pretty much need no words to go with them. The kids learned about a 'cup' and Brennan wanted to make sure he had a little fun with said contraption.

 Enjoying some of the Popsicle's now that Mason is better and they aren't just for him.

 Cameron is 2 months old already. He loves to lay out and smile at us and also at the imaginary things in the air. Cameron has also mastered his thumb and uses it to put himself to sleep. He is sleeping through the night, which is glorious, he is such a lovely laid back kind of guy.