Carter turns 8!!!!

This year we gave the kids a choice between having presents or having a party with friends. Carter decided to have a party and invited a few friends to come bowling with him, eat some pizza, and just have a great time!

James, Carter, Emily, and Mimi

Carter being Carter, he really is such a special kid that has more personality than he knows what to do with sometimes. He is energetic about everything he does, he is passionate about things that normal 8 year old's wouldn't even be thinking about. He has had me join in on discussions that he has with friends about life before earth, life after, and how they feel about Jesus Christ. It is funny to me that these children are having really deep religious conversations during play time. Carter loves to be on the move, he loves Lego's, drawing, flipping, climbing, and anything else that involves moving a lot! Carter has been working so hard in school on all the things that he struggles with; reading, maths, and just anything that involves sitting for long periods of time. He has been amazing at how much he has worked and is now above his age for reading level, doing fantastic in maths and is just really a star at what it means to take our small weaknesses and push them aside to make ourselves strong. Carter we are grateful for your determined spirit and love of life.

Dad and Taylor both joined in the fun, Mike scored a 201=his best score ever, and Taylor our little bowling shark bowled a 136. She was so excited and was getting strike after strike, so hilarious.

Carter came home and opened his presents from his friends and from Mason, Taylor, and Brennan.

CARTER WE ALL LOVE YOU

Castle Rising

Castle Rising was on the way home from camping and so we decided to make a day of it and do some exploring. The kids as always love climbing castles, and this one gave them all something to climb.

Brennan took on a little bit of a rock climb and although it doesn't look like much from this angle, it was actually a very impressive climb.

Mike and Jacob were running an experiment with the kids to try and estimate the depth of this well. It was hilarious to see all of them leaning in with their little ears and guessing the feet per second that the little stones were falling.

Mike like to climb all the places that are probably not really climbing spots for the average person.

Really Mike? That's all there is to say.

Our little family--isn't so little anymore!

Camping/Easter

Over Easter weekend we went camping for the first time in about 4 years, we didn't go to far, but we did have a blast spending time with our wonderful friends and having Grandma with us as well. We didn't give her much time to suffer from jet lag as we left for camping two days after she got here. We did find a campsite that allowed fires (and we may or may not have broke a few rules to have a good fire) but it was a learning experience in the way of how the English camp. We also couldn't find it in us to not enjoy some grown-up time after we allowed the children to run themselves to tired that they finally passed out. Mike and Jacob practiced all their fire safety to transfer one fire into a neighouring firepit that people had left so that they didn't have to sit away from the heat source that night. It was April afterall, and it does still get cold at night.

Mason went right back to his squeezing the life out of Grandma game that he does everytime we are with them. This time he had his work cut out for him because Grandma was so much stronger this time around. :) I think it took him by surprise, but he found the game still just as fun.

Brennan, Justice, and Taylor having a break from moving one pile of rocks into another pile of rocks. While we are admiring the cuteness of these two little girls, it is story time. About 50 yards from the campsite was a huge mound of dirt, which we called, "the mountain" while we were there. The kids loved it so much they spent the majority of the time sliding down the dirt hill and then climbing back up. They were careful to avoid the stinging nettles after each one of them had a little sting of different degrees of severity. While on this mountain we could hear laughing, playing, screams of joy, and it was great to see them having such a great time. I had to go to the loo and was promptly making my way across the camp towards the toilets when I looked over and saw Taylor standing proudly yelling, "Mom, look was we have, he is so cute!!"
I turn, focus my eyes just enough to see that my daughter is holding by the ears a dead rabbit. I yelled for her to put it down, no longer concerned with my needs that needed to be met. Asked why on earth she would be holding a dead rabbit and told her we needed to go scrub our hands and clean up. I also took the time to ask who else had been playing with the rabbit--only answer was that Justice had also been playing with the rabbit. So we decided to take all the children, for safety and concern of diseases and such. When we asked about what they were doing with the rabbit, or if they had just found it they told us a lovely story.
Taylor said, "Mom, we were letting the rabbit slide down our hill, then we would carry him back up and help him slide down again." Really!?! I have no words at that point, only pure and udder amazement that these two little girls were having such a grand time with a rabbit carcass.

Colchester Zoo

Now that I think about it, we actually went to the zoo before Grandma came, but with this much blogging to catch up on there are bound to be some errors in time line.

The kids were in their end of term/Easter holidays break and we went to the Colchester Zoo to spend the day with some friends. It was really busy, so it was difficult to enjoy the zoo to its fullest. However, the kids enjoyed themselves so much that our friends little girl went and left to go exploring on her own. After a half hour and mobile phones usage with zoo employees(technology is fabulous sometimes) we found little Gwen and all was well with the world again.

Grandma is here!

Despite the tragic face on Brennan who had to get up at 5 am to go get Grandma we were all so excited to go get her at the airport. It was a long day for everyone--especially Grandma with all the travelling, but it was so good to have a visitor amongst us again!

Grandma and Taylor, Taylor had been asking when Grandma would be to our house for about a month before hand. She was so excited to give Grandma a "soft hug" because she was saving her tight hug for Grandpa, he after all is stronger than Grandma. Those would be Taylor's words--not mine :) She was cracking me up with all her preparations down to how she would hug them.

We all decided to drop by the base to grab a few things, see Mike and have some lunch at the bowling alley. We did have to try and keep Grandma awake after all.

Weekend fun.

What is the point of having some Honey Maid, Marshmellows, and different varieties of chocolate if you don't join those forces and make delicious s'mores? Mason obviously LOVES the wonderful pleasure that is a warm roasted s'more.

After the children had their fill..AKA...cut off from having more. The men decided they were going to do a few experiments because we had ran out of crackers. The marshmellow and chocolate treats were quite fabulous as well.

We decided the best way to have Brennan at the store with us was to just put him in the bag and carry him through. Actually, we were bored.

Way back in march :)

Another missionary headed home and in this case two. Elder Ashby and Elder Pulotu both served here and came on a quick trip to visit and say good-bye as they are headed home from their service here in England. Both of these fabulous young men gave our family fabulous service and became dear friends. We are always grateful for the wonderful missionaries who we get to meet through all these years.

Cookery Club

Carter has learned how to flip pancakes, mix, stir, follow a recipe and has really enjoyed himself. He had a great time during this club for school, he would stay after on Thursday and always brought home a fabulous creation. I think that there were certain benefits to this club for the whole family.

These birds nest's and eggs were super cute and super yummy!!!!! Shredded Wheat broken up, melted chocolate to coat the shredded wheat and then shape and let set. Add the chocolate eggs(if you can get the Cadbury's then I would advice it) Super cute and fun project with the kids--i might do it myself :)

A completed project

Just imagine, if you will, a plain brown pine bookshelf as a before picture. This project entered my head last year, I wanted to make my bookshelf fun. So one year later I finally did it, I love it! Mindy (my wonderful sister) donated loads of paper so that I could do this for cheap. :) It has added a lot for colour and fun to this room, and I am very pleased that I started and finished a project in one week!

Being a Boy is AWESOME

First, Brennan has made huge progress in the toilet training world. As much as he wanted to in the past he couldn't quite master the concept of holding the wee. We have turned a new leaf and he is doing a great job--yes I know there will be accidents now that I said how well he is doing. The best thing about toilet training with a boy is the fact that they have a penis. They can go ANYWHERE! There is no complicated squatting or holding in mid air problems. I love it--and Brennan actually does better at giving notice when we are driving, because he LOVES watering the trees.

Next, The threat to Brennan's eye was great when he was putting a stick in the mud and then fell into it with his eye being the target. He was really such an awesome sport, barely cried and would stop when I asked him too. Then he was sitting nicely and letting me dig at it to clean it. He really is a fabulous patient.

Buzz and his Bus. Two things that were fixtures for awhile and now they are hit and miss. He had played so hard this day and we were on the school pick up, when he fell asleep within seconds of leaving the drive.

This was the same day that I turned in his pre-school application for this September. It is bitter sweet, but I think he is going to love it. We talk about school, he is learning his letters right now. If he sees any letter, he first says--EEAAOO(sounds of course). it is quite hilarious. He also tries to write his name with many little circles put together. :) Brennan is a really good buddy to be home with.