I Love the Rain

After a couple of weeks of over 100 degree temperatures, we have been shocked to have a couple of rainy days - today has been especailly wet. Hurray! The boys grabbed cups and tried to catch the rain from the gutters and put it into their bucket (a standard car wash type bucket). They have probably dedicated over 3 hours to this task today. First they stood and waited with one cup and then got smart and grabbed a couple of cups and chairs. It's amazing how much energy they can devote to such a monotonous task. And amazing how much I can get done when they are not in the house! Mia thought this was fun for about five minutes and then came in to read. My garden (tomatoes, watermelons, sugar snaps peas, cantaloupe, pole beans, zucchini, and strawberries) is also liking the wonderful rain.

Girls Night Out

Mia, Nana Carlsen, and I had our first ever "girls night out" while the boys went on the Fathers and Sons campout. While they roughed it, we had french toast sticks at Dennys and painted our nails. We even tried our hand at putting makeup on each other. Mia didn't see the point of eyeshadow and I think we got more blush in our ears than on our cheeks, but we sure had fun!

Mia concentrates on getting as much on the fingers as possible.









Pretty Girls!

Mothers Day

My big mothers day present was going with a group of friends scrapbooking for two days (Fri&Sat). We pooled money and rented a vacation house and potlucked our meals. I got a ton of pages done and had fun talking with friends (mostly about our kids). I was reminded repeatedly of what a wonderful husband I have when all the other girls were calling home kid instructions to their cluless husbands. I knew that I didn't have to worry (or call) because Don is Mr. Mom! He usually gets much more done at home than I do when I am home with the kids and I even came home to a clean house. Woo-hoo! This is an example of one of the layouts I did. I think I completed 13 layouts that weekend! I should be scrapbooked out but all I can think about is "when can I have another weekend?" :0) This weekend, Don is taking the boys to the Father and Sons campout. More girl time at home!

Crazy Carlsen's Easter

We had a fantastic and busy Easter weekend. We had a fun egg hunt in our newly finished backyard with the Jackmans. Well, not so much finished, as finished for now. We want to add quite a bit of plant life. We have some plans for a few vines along the back wall and of course, the planter boxes in the back corner need to be filled. It will need to wait until next year and our budget has recovered. :0)
Afterward, Brent took some pictures of the kids in their Easter finery. Unfortunately it was the coldest, windiest day in the last few months so the pictures were....interesting. Mia was crying because she was cold. Wyatt couldn't stay still to save his life (I haven't seen so much bounce since I watch Tigger on Winnie the Pooh). And to top it all off, Ryan made every single face but his natural smile. Check it out on his site here. Thanks Brent!

We colored Easter eggs and had the famous Carlsen easter egg roll that involves rolling the finished eggs toward each other on a flat surface and seeing whose egg cracks last. It ended in a draw when Mia and Waytt missed each others eggs totally on the roll and Wyatt returned Mia's egg with a high toss in her direction and Mia dug in her fingers into Wyatts egg for kicks. They were both excited to share first place. We played games all Saturday night with some of Don's co-workers and his family. His parents are visiting for the next four months for his Dad's health (He has really bad allergies that turn to pneumonia in the spring). Oregon's loss is our gain - we have a ton of fun when they are here. We finished up with a huge Easter dinner this evening. I made a homemade carrot cake and let the kids eat waaaayyyy too much sugar. Fun times!

Breakfast Conversation

The kids were talking over breakfast this morning while I was in the other room and when I heard the conversation, I hurried to the computer as fast as I could.
Ryan: Do you guys wish you were older than me?
Wyatt: Yeah.
Mia: Yeah, I wish I was 16.
Ryan: Well, I am going to be 16 before you are 16.
Mia: I wish I was 16 and I wish I was a mommy.
Wyatt: I wish I was a fish.
Ryan: Who are you going to marry? I am going to marry Sophie.
Mia: I am going to marry Sydney.
Ryan: You can't marry a girl.
Mia: Why not?
Ryan: Because you are a girl!
Mia: Oh, well, then I am going to marry Will (Sophie's younger brother).
Mom: Oh yeah? Why Will?
Mia: Because he kisses me when we are playing mommy and daddy.
(WHAT????!!!!! - though not so worried because he is 2 1/2 and has a severe speech deficit - but we should still nip this in the bud).
Wyatt: I wish I was a fish.

And there you have it....

Backyard Bliss

We are close to the end of finishing our dirt backyard. A great guy in our ward did the masonry. The brick potato shape is going to be filled with artificial grass (sample in the middle) in a couple of weeks and we are going to spread rock and plant some desert plants this weekend. We are going to fill the corner planters with some decorative plants and the left side long planter with some fruits and veggies. Yeah for less mud in the house!! We also hope to dig down the trampoline to be level with the ground, but I expect that will be a long time coming.

Who are those princesses?

Emma and Sydney came over and played today. Although Ryan and Emma play fairly well, they are old enough to have started preferring their own gender. The "triplets" love playing though and today had a grand time dressing up in some garage sale costumes. Have I mentioned how much I love garage sales? All of these costumes were a buck each. A BUCK! Anyways, I digress...Their favorite part is making the grand entrance down the stairs and showing off. Mia doesn't really do it much on her own and loves the excitement of being part of a pair (I guess Spiderman doesn't count). They flounced and bounced and giggled. Oh, there is nothing like someone who understands you....