Where there's a will, there's a way...

The other day, Carter came in from playing outside and wanted to fill up a watering can at the kitchen sink...out of instinct more than for any good reason, I told him I didn't want him playing in the water and sent him back outside to play. I peered out the window a few minutes later and saw this...

Carter filling up someone elses rainboot with water from a mud puddle,

pouring the muddy water into someone elses watering can,

dumping it, and doin' it again, and again, and again. And having a MaRvElOuS time.

So, my apologies to whoever ended up with a muddy watering can and a mud-filled rainboot.

In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I should have brought him in and had him clean those up and put them back where he found them...WOW! I am TERRIBLE! I hope I was really preoccupied with something else because that is SO TACKY!

Baby in the Bath

Gavin is changing SOOOO much! He is a speed crawler now...he can get around up on his knees, but if he wants to go really fast, he drops to his belly and army hauls. He's obsessed with the stairs and anything else that he can pull himself up on for that matter and can get to a standing position all by himself. (NOT GOOD) He has one tooth (bottom left), he loves solid foods and is FINALLY taking a bottle! He doesn't like nap time (until he falls asleep ;) or being in his carseat but he LOVES bathtime.

8 months old...it's going too fast.

We were in California for almost 3 weeks and havin' a BALL, so I did not get around to ANY blogging during our absence.

I will, therefore, be doing a whole lot of catching up...hopefully in chronological order.

So there you go.

That's my disclaimer on the long term absence...

You'll have to scroll down to see the updates cuz I'm going to try to put the correct dates with them, ok!

Still catchin' up...

This will be the last of my catch-up entries...I feel like such a slacker...still not even blogging current stuff. I guess I'm still kind of on vacation mode. Anyway...

I just wanted to highlight a few other things from our trip, like my brother Jacob becoming an Eagle Scout! (Gavin is in just a diaper because he decided to have a TOTAL POO BLOW-OUT right as we were headed out the door...no I did not have an extra outfit, so he wore a shirt ((the only item of clothing he didn't manage to get poo on)) and a pair of his cousin Sydney's socks. Nice.) Congratulations Jacob! We're so glad we could be there for your Eagle Court of Honor!

I guess like a year ago...maybe more, my sister Sharee bought all the stuff for my mom and sisters to make these topiaries...we just kept forgetting to get the stuff out and get the job done. So, me, Mom and Melanie finally put them together. They went together really fast (thanks to Sharee having already sorted everything out into equal shares) and it will be fun next fall to have something new to put up! Aren't they fun?

Thank you Sharee for being so thoughtful! You are one AwEsOmE sister!

We also got to spend some time with my Grammy and Grandpa Stone. They had never met Gavin and the last time they saw Jemma and Carter was at least a year and half ago, maybe even 2. Anyway, it was REALLY good to just catch up and let the kids get to know them a bit more.

Later that evening, I wanted a picture of the kids with their great grandparents. Everyone was fairly cooperative, except Carter...he wouldn't be in the picture without one of his parents...

And even with me there, this is the best we ended up with. THANKS CARTER! (What a total 2 1/2 year old...)

Carter, a bit happier now that he's rough-housing with Papa. :)

The kids (Jemma especially) really love jumping on the trampoline whenever we visit Nona and Papa's house.

Jacob is a really great uncle and jumped with the kids out there every day while we were visiting. Carter would get a little nervous, so Uncle Jacob would hold him in his arms while he jumped. I got a few pictures of this, but they were taken when the sun was going down and turned out pretty dark...that's why I don't have a picture of it on here...

Waaa-hooo!

We always have such a wonderful time visiting family! We can't wait to see you guys again soon!

Welcome 2011

We rang in the new year in Tahoe at "Stonehaven"- Grammy and Grandpa Stone's cabin - with my parents, and about 3/4 of my siblings. We drove up in a snow storm (what usually takes 3 hours took 6 1/2...Gavin was NOT happy.) Although the storm brought yucky road conditions, it also brought LOADS of fresh, fluffy, fabulous SNOW!!! So, we played outside LOTS.

Jemma making a snow angel.

Daphne and Jemma.

Hayden & Carter.

Pretty trees.

Can you see Hayden back there?

Our family, minus Gavin who was snug and warm, snoozin' in the cabin.

Brandon & Arthur built a fun sled run for the kids...it looked like so much fun, Brandon tried it out too. :)Brothers, Sean and Hayden.

Wipe out by Carter. He LOVED it!!! He would have ridden those sleds all day if his hands hadn't gone numb. :(

He is wearing those goggles only because Brandon wore them to snowboard and, let's face it, Carter wants to be just like his daddy.

Successful sled run.

Sharee had the idea to build a snowman and all the fresh snow was PeRfEcT for Snowman building.

Nathan with his killer snowball! The family of snowmen taking shape.

Jacob adding the oreo eyes and avacodo pit nose.

Nothing quite like eating freshly fallen snow. Delish!
Jemma, ready with an arm for one of the snowmen.

Me and Dallin perfecting their shape.

The finished snowmen. The builders left to right: Sharee, me, Emma, Jacob, and Nathan. Dallin, Sean and Hayden on the front left and Daphne and Jemma (still holding the arm) on the right.

I had to stick this picture on here because it was the only one of Gavin outside. This was his first visit to the snow.

We always have such a wonderful time at the cabin with family. We are grateful to Grammy and Grandpa Stone for generously sharing it with us!