A Day Of Love

My cousin Ashley got married last week and it was a heavenly day! She looked seriously gorgeous, the ceremony, luncheon, and Reception were beautiful, but most importantly it was a full day with no kids!!! (Listen carefully and you can hear the angels singing, which they so often do when such an occasion arises.) Oh I how I love those little goobers, but I just might love them a little more after a full day without them. It was just what the doctor ordered. Especially in the heart of tax season for Matt, the break was great for both of us.

All endowed members of my family were home for the first time in awhile, so we woke up at 4:45 to get to L.A temple in time to do a session before the ceremony. My mom was busy chatting, but she was there to:)

Ashley and her new hubby are going to be such a cute little family. Apparently i'm about 10 years older than I thought I was since my cute younger cousins are actually of marrying age. Dang!

I always love love love to see my cousins on the Anderson side. We don't get together enough and SO need to!

Serious thanks to Grandma Karen & Grandpa Floyd who made our kidless day possible and kept them happy from sun up to sun down. We just don't know what we would do without her! Love you Both!

A Rainy Ride

The other day I sat down to lunch with Carson and said, "Hey Cars, have you had a pretty good day so far?"
"Yes. Ummmm, actually I mean no, because it wasn't a day with Dad. A good day is a day with Dad."
Are you kidding me??? That is among the most cute things he has ever said. And why wouldn't a day with dad be good? He's seems to have at least 20 times the energy I do and has new make believe game ideas popping out of his ears. Carson lives for their occasional friday "work days" but even more so, their saturday "adventures." The most recent, a rainy bike ride to my parents was really quite the site.

It started out just cold and gloomy, so we bundled up our happy man! He was ready to go with some books to read and snacks packed for him and dad. Except somehow no snacks were left for dad when they reached their destination :)
It wasn't long before the rains came tumbling down. Brynlee and I got in the car and it we caught up to them at town center hiding under the clock for cover.
Eventually they carried on, and kept pushing even when it started hailing!!!! Crazy Boys!

Meanwhile Brynlee and I enjoyed our heated car ride and acted like the paparazzi chasing them down. Brynlee was giddy everytime she spotted them. Which is good since she was seriously bummed she couldn't go!

Tornado Warning

A couple weeks ago I wrote in Brynlee's birthday post "Brynlee is not your stereotypical two year old," I stand corrected. No tantrums -yet (B-I-G knock on wood.) But that girl is a walking tornado. This isn't really anything new, maybe my mind was fuzzy when I wrote that, or maybe I was just thinking that the no tantrums part didn't make her a two year old. I think that it's the fact that she is just SO dang cute that I get momentary amnesia of her tornado habits when I think of her. Fortunately- or not- she reminds me daily of her semi-destructive behavior. A couple days ago just might have been her record.

***#1. The day started with her standing on the kitchen chair backwards and trying to rock it. This is frequent occurence and no matter how many warnings of "Brynlee you are going to knock out all your teeth if you fall," she still does it. Well she finally fell. Luckily she just cut her lip and hopefully learned a lesson.

***#2. While I was putting on my make-up I looked down to see Brynlee chewing on a razor with the protective plastic taken off. How she didn't severly cut her lip...I don't know.

***#3. We went over to my parents for 2 minutes and within 20 seconds Brynlee finds the sharpest knife known to mankind and is cruisin around the house with it.

***#4. As I'm getting dinner ready Brynlee reaches a napkin up on the counter, pulls it off and the serving dish that was on top if it comes crashing down, shattering in a gazillion pieces around her. Broken dish count: Brynlee=4 Carson=0.

Keep in mind this only includes her dangerous tornado moments, couch coloring and toy destruction is for the rookies. Miraculously the day ended with just one little cut on her lip.

Brynlee's motto is, "If it's climbable, I will climb. If there is a pool, I will jump in. If there's make-up, skin care, or hair care, I will apply. If there's pens I will color. If there's a button, I will push it over and over again. If it can break, I will do it!"

We sure love our built in work out machine!

A Mickey Celebration

Carson ended up being able to celebrate his birthday in a more exciting fashion on Monday! The whole month he has been asking for a boat cake, so a boat cake it was going to be....almost. Grandma Karen took him to party city to pick out plates and decorations, but they couldn't find any boat themed things. Not to worry, i'm sure he didn't search too long before he saw Mickey and Friends and was immediately convinced that those were the paper goods he needed. So our boat cake quickly turned into Mickey, and we had a fun and chaotic disney celebration.

Do you notice all the cake and ice cream left on the table? Well if not, there was A LOT!!! But Carson and Brynlee lick their plates clean. Always. My kids are seriously ADDICTED to sugar. It's in the genes. I swear! Now I know that all kids love sugar, but my kids take it to a new level. There have been many many times where they are eating dessert amongst other kids, and without fail they are the last two eating making sure to get every last morsel off their plates. I think they really do lick them. It's not that they're slow eaters eithers, other kids just don't finish. If the neighbors open a candy wrapper they will hear it or smell it within seconds. Matt blames me for that gene. And truth be told, i'm probably guilty.
But anyways, happy birthday again Carson...and our farewell to our busy birthday month.

Happy Four

Our Birthday week continues with Carson turning the big 4 today!!!! We LOVE Carson to pieces. Poor little guy spent the morning with the flu, so we had to for-go the special birthday breakfast for a nice dose of Sprite! We also had to postpone the birthday festivities until Monday, so we're just going to pretend that's his actual birthday. We did however decide he was well enough for a little dinner at IHOP. Pancakes are easy on the tummy right? We did our part in keeping his food intake mild....but when our server brought him out an ice cream sunday the size of his head, all rules were out the window. Oh well, you only have one real birthday a year!
We have had the best 4 years, with our talented, thoughtful, inquistive, spunky, and cuddly little man. There's been more questions asked than I can count, lots of the best giggles (he has his dads contagious laugh and I LOVE it), endless energy and so many fun big brother moments! We can't wait for what's to come because it just keeps getting better. The 4's are gonna be a good year!

Welcoming the Two's

Our little Brynny bear is officially a 2 year old. Though she is definitely nothing like your stereotypical two year old....yet :) We just love her to pieces! I dare you to hang out with her for more than two minutes and not become smitten yourself. It's impossible. Really. We love having her in our family. Brynlee's our monkey, always always perched on top of some piece of furniture, or in the process of climbing. She's our artist, generously willing to decorate our walls and couches with any pen or marker she can find...I guess we won't be buying that new couch i've been dying for, for oh sooo long! She's our singer, frequently found singing her favorites, "the temple song," "popcorn", "child god" and "the raindrop song," it can melt your heart. She's the best cuddle bug. Throw one of her favorite blankets over your shoulder and she's yours. She LOVES her big brother like nobody's business. He's her hero in every sense of the word. If she could be Carson when she grows up she would. There's never a dull moment with our little firecracker, and I would really love her to stop growing right about now! I think i'm in love with the early two's!!! But mostly i'm so in love with this two year old! So Happy Birthday to the best little girl ever, aka my shopping partner in training! We LOVE you!!!
Blowing out candles isn't a strong point for either of our kids. Luckily no one minded a few extra surprises on their slice of cake :)

Oh it was a looong day for this little princess...or both of them!

All In A Days Work

Last week Matt had been telling Carson all week that he would take him to work with him on Friday. Carson is Ecstatic at the thought of going to work with Matt....and that's an understatement. Well, Friday came and we all forgot until Friday afternoon when the trash trucks came around and Carson said, "Oh it must be Thursday. Trash day." I told him it was actually Friday, the trucks come a day late when there's a holiday.
Before long, Carson had Matt on the phone (I still didn't realize or mistake) and said, "Dad, how come you forgot to take me to work. Mom told me it's Friday." Matt felt SO bad. Then to throw some salt in the wound, when he hung up he said, "Mom, I think maybe dad forgot to take me because I didn't put my work clothes on." Oh, talking about melting my heart!

Well you can be darn sure that Matt didn't forget to take him today. Carson takes work very seriously....Our morning was filled with comments like these, "Oh look mom I found my cell phone. I'll bring it in my backpack." "Is this a good work shirt like Dads?" "My computer doesn't fit in my backpack, so i'll have to carry it." "Mom, me and dad will take our shakes to go." And when I jokingly begged Carson to spend the day with me, he said, "No mom, me and dad have to go to the office. We have A LOT of work to do."
To top it off, Carson packed their "Lunch" the night before in his lunch box. It was a lunch for champions including all of Carson's favorite snacks. And the best part is, he packed two of everything. Well three fruit snacks, cause who can't use an extra pack of chewy goodness.
With this cuteness i'm thinking I just might try to convince Matt he needs to take him more often. How can you turn down that cute face? I could get seriously used to errands with one kid. And we could teach Carson to be billable in no time!