Confessions of An Old Memory

So I was thinking of an old memory the other day, and thought I would write it down. It's one of those memories that I was grateful that my friend Kate was there with me, because she taught me a valuable lesson!

The picture above is not of the "incident" but it is a picture of Jackson and Carter at that age. I believe Carter was about 2 1/2 and Jackson about 2. They were such good little buddies!

So one day Kate brought Jackson over, and the boys went into Carters room to play. Kate and I talked for quite awhile. All of the sudden, we realized that it was really quite....too quite for two 2 year olds! Any parent knows that usually this means TROUBLE!!!
Kate and I snuck down the hall to see what they were up to. As we came into Carters room we quickly saw the culprit.........BABY POWDER. I had a giant economy size baby powder on Carters dresser, and they had managed to climb up onto the dresser to get it! I wish I had a picture to show this because there was baby powder EVERYWHERE! There were two little white ghosts grinning at us from ear to ear, and all that was not white was their eyeballs! Carters room was covered from floor to ceiling.....his toys, bed, carpet, everything!

So here's where the confession comes in.......my first reaction was to get angry for the mess they made. Luckily Kate chimed in with a giggle and lovingly asked the boys what they were doing. (This girl never gets mad I tell you! She is way more patient than I am!)
After she started giggling, I realized that you know what, it wasn't such a big deal after all!
We gave the kids baths, and vacuumed and wiped down Carters room. It cleaned up pretty well and the good thing is that Carters room smelled really good for quite awhile after that!

The lesson that I learned from Kate that day is this: if I would have gone in and gotten angry that day, the two cute little grins would have turned into frowns. I learned that I need to put the baby powder out of sight! They were just two curious little two year olds learning cause and effect! That's what they're supposed to do!

Honestly that memory comes up in my mind a lot. Whenever my kids are giving me a hard time, I try to remember that they are learning, and that I need to pick my battles. Harder said than done, but I'm trying! And anytime I think of that memory, it brings a big smile to my face! Thanks Kate for the lesson!

Bear River Bird Habitat-Earth Day

For scouts about a month ago, Carter went to the Bear River Bird Refuge in Brigham City. He had a ball, and found out that they were doing some special activities for Earth Day. I made sure to mark it on the calender because I knew if we missed it, I would be in BIG trouble! Carter literally asked EVERY SINGLE DAY how much longer until Earth Day! Anyone that knows him, know that this is right up his ally! We had Grandma and Grandpa meet us there too!

Carter holding a Salamander

and a frog

When we first got there, Hailey wouldn't even touch the turtle! By the time we left she was a lot more comfortable and was even touching the snakes!

Fun little craft project. Hailey was so proud that she cut it out all by herself!

After checking out the animals inside, we headed outside to their River Trail. They had some fun activities along there. The first stop was face painting.

Hailey checking out her butterfly...

Carter got camo on his face. No surprise, did you notice that he is head to toe in camo???
He insisted when he woke up that morning that he HAD to be in camo so that he could catch frogs and snakes.

Another stop was to use nets and syringes in the pond water to see what little bugs are in there. I never realized there were so many!

They had a model set up, showing what happens when you take away trees and bushes from rivers...
Not Good!

After we were done walking around, Carter wanted to go look at the snakes one more time. He held this one, that seemed to take a liking to him as well! It went up the inside of his sleeve and into his armpit. Then wrapped its tail around his jacket. Carter was giggling, and loving it of course!

Trying to figure out how to get the snake out without making him mad!

It was fun to watch Carter in his element and to get so excited about this! He's a hoot, and it will be fun to see what he decides to do for a career when he gets older. He still insists that he will be a "Pet Collector" and he is convinced that he will make lots of money doing this :)

Spring Break in Moab

We went to Moab over the Spring Break to do some hiking. Usually we go at this time to do the Jeep Safari but we couldn't take the Jeep and the trailer, so we didn't do the Jeep trails this year. We definitely missed doing the Jeep trails, so we'll have to go back! We did enjoy the hiking though! I have never been to the Arches, and that was really fun. I loved that it was very kid friendly, and there were lots of little hikes that the kids could do.

The kids eating their lunch in the trailer.

Carter looking for lizards...







Hailey found a cute little friend while we were watching someone try to get their Jeep up "Potato Salad Hill". She was from Australia and had the cutest little accent!

We passed this cool park and had to check it out. There was tons of musical instruments to play, it was awesome!

Holding up Balanced Rock

(not sure what that strange orange light is on my shorts!)

Trying with all their might to make the crack bigger :)

This is at Sand Dunes Arch. You can't tell from the picture, but Bryan and Carter are standing on top of an arch.

The kids had a blast climbing on the rocks and I was surprised how well Hailey did. I had to keep telling her to stop because she had no fear!

Just as you're coming into Moab there is this HUGE sand hill of the side of the road. There are always kids playing on it, so we went to check it out. The sand is super soft so it's fun to take off your shoes and climb. There were kids rolling down the hill, jumping, and even a girl with a saucer! It was really fun and will definitely be somewhere we'll stop every time we go down there.

The whole time in Moab Carter's #1 concern was catching rabbits and lizards. Wherever we went he would ask "Is there lizards and rabbits there?" The second evening that we were there, Carter was hanging around the trailer looking for lizards. Me, Bry, and Hailey were in the trailer. All of the sudden we heard Carter yelling at the top of his lungs "I got one!!!!! I got one!!!" I'm sure the whole campground got a kick out of it, because he was SOOOOOO excited to catch a lizard! He played with it for a couple hours and then let it go.

On the other hand, Hailey's #1 concern was when she would get chocolate milk. She would keep asking when we would be getting to the trailer so she could have some, funny girl!

Easter 2012

Here's some pics of some of the things we did to celebrate Easter!
Dying Easter eggs, and making silly faces!

Working so intently...

The finished product

Trying their hard boiled eggs. Basically Hailey just chopped hers up into a million pieces and made a mess, and Carter took 2 bites and was done :)

I just love how Hailey is admiring Carter in this picture. She truly loves and looks up to her big brother.

We also made Easter sugar cookies one day...

Carter piled all these cookies up thinking he wanted to frost them all. I knew he would get bored quickly, which he did, and I ended up frosting the rest!



On Saturday we went over to Grandma's and Grandpa's for dinner and their Easter Egg Hunt. The Hunt was awesome as usual.

Wow, a dollar!

Some of the eggs had slips in them that said to go see Grandma for a special prize. The kids got a kick out of that!

One of Hailey's prizes...

Finding Baskets Easter Morning...

After church we went to Grammy's and Papa's for Easter dinner. We had delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls and angel food cake for dessert.

Comparing Chocolate Bunnies

We went over to the park while dinner was cooking. On the way home Carter found a little necklace on the ground, and told Hailey to close her eyes while he put it on to surprise her. It was very sweet.

Checking out her new found treasure...

Hailey wanted to help Grammy cut the strawberries, so Grammy found a cute little mini knife that wasn't too sharp. She did a really good job!