My day

I just LOVE these babies!! I love this age where they are starting to crawl but can't get into everything. Carden loves it too! Look how happy he is! (really under that binkie is a BIG smile!)

Carden's new NAP time involves sleeping in random places like the chair, the couch, the floor, the mat, etc! He is just the silliest boy ever! I just love him!

This little girl is my little peanut! She is just still so small. She loves carrots and she LOVES bouncing her legs. She bounces her legs at any chance she gets. It really is the cutest thing. She will always look up at me and give me the biggest smile. She always seems like she is so serious but then when you look right at her and smile she will just give you the BIGGEST smile in return. Oh I wish I could just capture that moment!

This is my little MUSCLE man!! He is so funny! He laughs like a REAL BOY and it is just the sweetest laugh ever. He is extremely ticklish especially by his collar bone (which is where I am the most ticklish). He has the strongest little body ever. I mean his deltoids are amazing! And then today I attempted to do some Pilates and let's just say that Rhead did it WAY better and LASTED WAY longer!!! haa haa!!!

On a High NOTE!

My sister made this movie from when I taught. We had a great time!

What do you do...

Well I attempted to go to play group today but then couldn't because our key to our car now won't open our car! Both the handles are broken now on our little carolla and so now we can't get in. What do you do? Well I just think I will have to laugh. Seriously it is sometimes just so sad.

The other night me and Justin were talking about being poor and started making up all the funny things about "How do you know when you are poor?"

You know when you're poor when you start wrapping your child's Birthday present in holiday hand-me-down gift wrap. Or you know when you're poor when your Uncle calls and wants to pick up dinner and the only place you know is the "In-N-Out". Or, You know when you are poor when you have to drive with your seat all the way forward and your keys don't unlock the door and your handles won't work so you have to roll down the window just to get out, or you have to push really hard and scrunch the kids in to shut the door!! You know when you are poor when your friends can't even get out of your car!!! (Whitney that was just so funny!) I really just have to laugh at our lives right now. You know when you're poor when the HIGHLIGHT of your week is GOING to playgroup or GOODWILL! You know when you're are poor when you have to save grocery bags for trash bag liners! You know when you're poor when almost everything you have is NOT yours:( I sometimes just feel like the biggest bum. I am just so thankful for the hand-me-downs and gifts we have received. Which reminds me about something that was just so neat that happened at Christmas. Someone left Carden the COOLEST train set saying "from Santa Clause" and it was just so sweet. He loves that train set!

I am sure all of us have stories like this. Let's hear them!

Carden, Brooke, and Rhead

Carden loves to color. Every morning he asks for the crayons. I love how focused he gets. Also I love how he knows how to hold a crayon!
Brooke and Rhead love to play on the floor now. Rhead crawls everywhere while Brooke just swims. It is really funny because she gets going with her arms and legs and then she just smiles at me like she thinks she is going somewhere. It is really cute because after swimming with her arms and legs she then pushes up real high with her arms in a back arch.

Brooke likes to watch Carden. She loves to play with him. Every morning Carden says "Babies" and then goes over and hugs Brooke and Rhead. Brooke gets the most excited to see Carden's face in the morning!

The KIDS! Rhead was ready for a nap and Carden wouldn't get rid of his Binkie. I must say that I AM SOOOO glad that Brooke and Rhead don't take a binkie. They are just happy without having to suck that obnoxious thing!

Brooke and Rhead finally love the stroller! We go to the park almost every day and Carden LOVES his "walks"!
Carden LOVES tomatoes. It amazes me because I still can't eat a raw tomato!

I love this HAPPY GIRL!! She loves bananas and oatmeal just like her BIG brother!

Rhead loves carrots and multi grain cereal! He makes the greatest faces. He is just so smart. He is also so observant I just can't get over it!

It's a BIRD, it's a PLANE, it's...

Well guys what is it? (Cohen, Luke, and Carden watching Grandpa Peterson fly in the sky from the top of the hill in Visalia)


It is GRANDPA and UNCLE WILL!!! (Above is Uncle Will)
They ARE FLYING!!!
Here is my Dad! This is his new HOBBY which is PERFECT for the Hill where I grew up!

What a FUN HOBBY!!! I can't wait to JUMP! Who's NEXT? (That is the little town of VISALIA)

Dancing

Romanian Folk Dance (I am the middle, 6th one from the left with red skirt!)

So FUN!

I do miss the IRISH costume as well!
Indian Folk Dance

Tomorrow I am going to teach some WORLD DANCE to my niece's preschool class. I am pretty excited! I am actually going to teach an Indian Bhangra dance since it is bouncy and FUN! I want to show them the pictures of some of the costumes that we wore, but I just LOVED this costume shown below. It is a Romanian dance and it was SO NEAT (lots of footwork, which I really miss).

Things to Chart

Last night Brooke and Rhead slept from 9:30pm till 7am! It was wonderful. I actually still got up though out of habit and also b/c Carden woke up screaming. He is having nightmares or something? Or is that just what happens when they turn TWO???

Also Rhead is CRAWLING!!! Yeah it is pretty crazy. They will be FIVE months old on Monday and he is already crawling around the house. He can turn himself all the way around and also find rolling is faster but for the most part he gets his legs and bum up in the air and then pushes himself forward with his arms. It is just the CUTEST thing I have ever seen! He thinks he is soooo FUNNY too. The whole time he just smiles at me and seems to be saying "Look MOMMY! Look at ME!!! I can go wherever I PLEASE!!" The other day he was just so excited because he crawled all the way to me as I sat and nursed Brooke and he just laughed as he played with my TOES.

I guess I am seeing SOME LIGHT! They are also eating better with there cereal that they get right around bedtime. Brooke only takes a few bites but does well at eating. We also made it through ALL of CHURCH with NO CRYING BABIES (only a CRYING toddler!:) It was wonderful.

Home Projects

Covered Pillows. There is an orange and white one that matches the kitchen cushions.
Have I mentioned how I love ORANGE and GREEN!!!
Finally the bumpers are done! What do you think?

Carden's Growing!

I took Carden to the doctor's before going down to Visalia. It was sad because he had to get a shot, but he barely cried. Here is his two year update:

weight - 31 lbs (83rd percentile)
height - 36.5 in (93rd percentile)
head - 50.4 cm (90th percentile)

This kid sure does EAT! Carden pretty much eats anything we feed him. He's our TANK!

He's also learning lots of new words which is fun. He doesn't just keep repeating "it's another one!" anymore! If only we could get rid of this binky!

Video of Carden's 2nd Bday

Carden turns TWO!

carden plays hard and sometimes will just crash on the floor!

here's carden at the glenn's with his cousins asia, luke, lois, cohen, and chase!

daddy has mad art skills and frosted him a phoenix suns bball cake!

i loved this close-up of carden...what a cute kid! he's definitely a good mix of both of us and i see more and more of marin in him.

i thought this shot sums up carden pretty well...shirt off, binkie within arms reach, and face stuffed with food!

i can't believe it's been two years since we welcomed carden into this world. marin and i were talking about how it actually feels like longer than 2 years. a lot has transpired in such a short period of time. we love him dearly and he has such a contagious smile, it's impossible to get mad at him. (well...almost impossible!)

carden loves boats, food, the movie "cars", reading dr. suess books, shooting hoops (carden combines the words and says "shoops"), taking walks, pushing his dump truck around, hanging on the monkey bars, playing with mommy's cell phone, using the phrase "another one!", sitting on the counter watching daddy cook dinner or breakfast, falling asleep with mommy in the rocking chair, playing with his cousin chase and of course...sucking on his binkies!

WE LOVE YOU CARDEN...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!