Aunt Whitney's Graduation

We took a trip to Utah for Whitney's graduation from BYU on April 21st through the 25th. First I thought that I would show how my son fell asleep on the way up...I love the positions this kid will sleep in!

Also I didn't get any pictures of Whitney in her cap and gown because first I am lame, and second the day of the graduation my kids were being AWESOME so we booked it out of there pretty quick after it was over. Not that I blame them, it was raining and they had to sit pretty still for a long time, and it was way past Bailey's nap time! But we did go up to the point of the mountain the next day where they had this farm type place for kids. There were all kinds of animals there so we went with Aunt WiiWii to check it out.

When you first walk in there is a fake cow that you can pretend to milk, so we thought why not...

Now I have said this before, but I don't know where Carson gets his love of animals...but he had no fear in feeding the very VERY large cow. In fact I think he could have stayed there the whole day, he kept asking for more food to feed to him.

We tried to get Bailey in on the action, but she did not like it as much. I think when the cow licked it off her hand she got a little grossed out...

There were a few pigs that were sleeping in this cage, and Carson really wanted them to wake up.

They also had this little ride that the kids could go on. I was a little apprehensive to put Bailey on there with Carson, but she did great and was really excited!

Bailey blew us kisses!

We had a great weekend with Whitney and the Zylstra's! I wish I would have taken more pictures of it all, but this is the only day that I took my camera!

Visitors from Chile

On Saturday the 10th Ryan's favorite mission companion Elder Rolando (a.k.a. Rolo) Balmaceda came with his wife to visit us all the way from Chile! I was pretty nervous that they were coming because first of all Ryan hasn't seen him in over 6 years, so he wasn't sure how they would get along, and his sweet wife Brenda doesn't speak English! But after spending an hour with them I knew it was going to be a really FUN weekend! Ryan and Rolo picked up right where they left off! They were so funny together. There was a lot of translating going on...but luckily Rolo speaks really good English so it wasn't too bad!

On Monday we got to go to Disneyland. Ryan has not been to Disneyland since Carson was about 10 months old. I had a pass last year so I took the kids all the time...but Ryan finally broke down and bought one on Monday...and we also renewed mine! So we are very excited to go to Disneyland with Ryan!! Of course it will be mostly at night when he gets off work, but we will take what we can get!! :)

While we were there Carson was asking for Mickey gloves. Carson is usually really good about not asking for toys and stuff while we are there, but I think it was because Dad was there, and he usually gives in, so I think Carson was testing to see if he would give in...but no luck! Fortunately for Carson, Brenda also really wanted a pair of Mickey gloves. So she went in a store to buy them and when she came out she gave one of them to Carson. So sweet...but my almost 3 year old could not quite understand why he only got one, so instead of saying thank you, he just kept asking for the other one...so below is a picture of Carson and Ryan having a little heart to heart about being grateful for what we have....

Luckily it worked and he said thank you and even smiled for a few pictures with Brenda!

Below is a picture of Brenda and Rolo on the Buzz Lightyear ride. This was our last ride of the day...we decided to see who could get the most points, and I am happy to report that I won. Of course I don't think it was very fair because it is Carson's favorite ride and we go on it at least twice every time we are there! Needless to say I am a little more experienced! :)

Sweet Bailey didn't have a nap all day, and surprisingly did really well at Disneyland until the last half hour. She was pretty upset. I tried to get her to sleep, but she will only fall asleep on Ryan. I don't know how he does it or why she will only sleep on his shoulder?? It is great that he can do that, but bad for me when he isn't there to help me out...like at church when he has to teach the third hour and Bailey is freaking out because she is so tired! I guess he just has the magic touch!

Anyways...we had a great time with Rolo and Brenda and we hope they come back soon! We also just got an email from them today telling us that Brenda is pregnant! We are so excited for them and know that they will be great parents!!

Easter Outfits

Yesterday we put the kids in their Easter outfits since it is General Conference next week. I think they looked pretty cute!! Here are a few pictures of them.

Giving Kisses!!

Future Doctors...???

Not with those TOOLS!!!

Morgan came over last week to play and they decided to be doctors. So they each took turns laying on the table in my front room and used Carson's Handy Manny tools to fix each other. It was so funny to watch, and they played it for a good solid hour, so I was able to get some stuff done!

First it was Morgans turn...

Then it was Carson's turn....man does that look painful!! :)

Even Bailey wanted in on the action! She looks a little out of it...maybe they had to put her under to get her to hold still!! :)

Lastly, I would like to show what my son likes to wear these days. He would wear his "jammies" (as Carson calls them) every day if I let him. My favorite part about his "jammies" are that he always picks out the ones that fit him really really snug!! :) His favorite part of his jammies is that they don't usually have pockets! That's right, my crazy child now does not like to have pockets on his pants. Everyday for the past week every time I get him dressed we have a freak out moment when he realizes there are pockets in his jeans or shorts. I have tried to tell him that everyone's pants have pockets, and even put a few fun things in them, just to try to get him excited about the pocket situation...but no luck yet! So I just take him screaming, and eventually he gets over it!

Anyone else ever dealt with a child that did not like pockets??

Probably not!! :)

But if by chance you have....what did you do??

Sand Between My Toes

On Tuesday we went to the Beach with our friends Megan and Morgan. It was the PERFECT day for the beach. I love that it is getting warm enough to go to the beach again! The kids had a blast. They wanted to fill their buckets with water and collect sea shells...which were EVERYWHERE! We have at least 50 shells that they picked up. We are hoping to do a craft with them soon.

They also found some sticks which they used to write their names in the sand...or at least pretended to write their names.

And we played the very popular game of running from the water. I don't know why, but most kids love to do this. The waves were not big, but they crashed pretty close to shore, so they were pretty powerful, but really fun!!

We filled up a bucket with some water and the kids would put the shells that they found in it, and Bailey really enjoyed playing in that bucket. She sat there about a half an hour and just pulled the shells out and then put them back in and laughed a lot...whatever works right?? She loved the beach and had no problem getting her hands dirty! Carson never enjoyed that at Baileys age, the sand always made him nervous and to this day still does not like to have dirty hands.

Thanks for going with us Megan and Morgan!! SO FUN!!

To Grandmas House

On Thursday the 11th of March we headed up to St. George to visit my grandma. Ryan left with Carson and his family around noon that day so they could go to Vegas and watch his brother Brock play in a basketball tournament. I had a meeting that night so Bailey and I left around 9:00 that night and got in Vegas around midnight. We then stayed the night in Vegas and went to breakfast with Ryan's family before heading out and driving a couple more hours to Grandma's house. We had a great time with her and loved being able to visit and shop!! I didn't get too many pictures but below is us at dinner on Saturday night. We went to a great little burger place called Five Guys.

Here is Ryan showing us where we are eating!! He hates pictures, so I take what I can get!! :)

Bailey loved the place...and the cute jacket she is wearing was from her great-grandma!!

My grandma has a lot of old toys, that i remember playing with as a kid, and she got them out for my kids to play with. Below is the most annoying train you will ever see! It is really loud, and Carson wanted it on at ALL times!

Here is a picture of us taking a potty break on the side of the road! We actually had to do that on 3 different occasions...two year olds just don't know how to hold it!

Overall we had a great trip...even though we did have a little fender-bender on the way home...yes it was my fault, and yes everyone is OK. The lady that we bumped was really nice and just had a small dent in her bumper that she said was not worth fixing. So I gave her my information, but she said not to worry about it....which was great!! My car had more damage...so we will see how much that will end up costing us!

But we had fun with Grandma Great!! Thanks for letting us stay with you Grams....We love you and can't wait to see you again soon!!

Potty Training

As Dora says at the end of every episode: "We did it!" On March 2nd Carson finally went potty in the toilet!! I had taken him out of the bath and he was running around naked upstairs when I heard him say I peed. When I ran in he said he still needed to go, so I ran and put him on the toilet...(which he would never let me do before) and he went a very VERY small amount at which time I started yelling and making a very big deal! He became very excited and said "Mommy, I am big enough now!" I told him he was and said that we should put big boy underwear on and then he became even more excited! So we put them on and then called daddy! Daddy told him that we could go buy a treat at the store when he got home. If he wasn't excited enough...that one put him over the edge. We then called both grammys and told them the good news. That night we went to target and bought some more underwear and he picked out this Woody doll, which of course he had to sleep with!

He has done pretty well. He didn't have any accidents that day or the day after, but the third day for some reason was a struggle! I think he had three maybe four accidents. But he never got discouraged, he would just say sorry and help me clean it up! By Sunday I was kindof discouraged because he had had an accident everyday since Thursday. So yesterday I put underwear on and decided to stay home with him, since most of his accidents happened away from the house, and he didn't have one!! Horray!! I am sure he will have more, but I am just glad he is finally wanting to go on the potty! Now I only have to change one diaper!

Speaking of changing diapers, I just thought I would post a few pictures of the one that is still in diapers! Bailey is getting so big!! She is walking everywhere now and is getting pretty good. She will still crawl somewhere if she wants to get there really fast, but she is getting pretty good on her feet!

She talks a lot more then Carson did at her age, which isn't hard to do considering Carson was mute!! :) She will repeat a lot of different words, but only uses Uh-Oh the right way on her own! But if we ask her to she will repeat:
Uh-Oh, DaDa, Good Girl, Pa, Dora, Bye-bye, Hey, Hi, Grrrrr (when I chase her I growl at her and she will growl back!) and Quack Quack...
That is all that I can think of right now, but I think there are a few more that I think I am missing.

She is a lot of fun, and her and Carson play really well together...well most of the time! And as you can tell from the picture above, she got her one year old molars in! That makes for a grand total of 10 teeth! I can't believe how big she is getting!!