San Onofre

On Saturday we went to San Onofre with a bunch of couples from our ward. It was so much fun. Surprisingly, I had never been there before. It's a pretty popular beach here in southern California called "Old Man's Beach." It's about 45 minutes south of HB. It's was a much needed day of relaxing after I had sat in continuing education courses all day Thursday and Friday. I had been going non-stop: waking up at 5am to train with my sisters for a sprint triathlon, showering at one of my sister's house (because I had no time to come home), running to work, then to our Dental Convention all day and night! Plus a Stake Primary meeting thrown in there. I honestly didn't see my kids for 3 days. It was crazy!

Bailey, Hannah, Lizzy and Alexis.

I was getting some hot dogs ready and turned around to see
where Carter went and this is where I found him...just chillin'!

Even though Alexis and Lizzy are in the same CTR 5 class at church
they really haven't gotten to know each other that well. I've kept
meaning to get them together outside of church because I knew they
would hit it off. They have similar personalities and they had
so much fun together giggling and being silly at the beach!

The beach was really rocky so it created a nice barrier for the kids. They
played on the rocks but for the most part...the little one's couldn't just run
straight into the water like the beach by our place.

White Teeth

When we were driving home from San Onofre Carter kept asking for more fruit snacks...which we had no more of. He wasn't giving up! After persisting on asking us...Alexis decided to get involved.

Carter: "More snack!"
Alexis: "Carter, there are no more snacks. You ate all of them at the beach!"
Carter: "More snack!"
Alexis: "Carter, look at me. Say awww!"
(Carter turns to her, opens his mouth as wide as he can saying "Awww")
Alexis: "Well, your teeth are still white. But if you eat another fruit snack they won't be white anymore! So no more fruit snacks for you today, OK?"
Carter: "K!"

End of discussion. There was no more asking for fruit snacks the rest of the trip. I guess we should have Alexis take care of our reasoning from now on.

Doesn't Matter What You Call It

So, I was out running some errands with Carter the other day and I decided to grab him some chicken stars at Carl's Jr. since it was lunch time and I still needed to go to Costco. I got a drink to hold me over. He was eating his chicken stars when he said this:

Carter: "Momma, some yuck."
Amber: "You want some yuck!"
Carter: "Yea. Some Yuck"

I was a little puzzled not knowing what the heck he was talking about. So at the light I turned around and asked him again. This time he said, "some yuck" pointing to the front of the car...I looked to where he was pointing and it was my drink.

Amber: "Carter, you want some of my drink?"
Carter: "Yea, some yuck."

I was laughing so hard. Some of you may have already figured this out...but when a child wants your drink, what parent doesn't give an excuse?. Because lets be honest...no one really wants soggy bread backwash in their drink! Well, as you can tell...our excuse is: "No, you won't like it. It's yucky."

So it really doesn't matter what you call it...THEY STILL WANT SOME!

Isn't it funny how much we under estimate our children. I really thought Carter fell for our excuse. I realized a year ago Alexis had figured us out when we were at Del Taco with the kids. Carter kept trying to get Alexis' drink and she turned to him very seriously and said, " Carter, you won't like it, it's yucky" as she was downing the drink herself. The funny thing is they never said, "No it's not yucky." They just let us think we were fooling them and followed in suit. So basically we were the one's fooled all along.

Biking to Balboa Island

I worked on Saturday for my sister and when I came home I decided we were going to do something fun as a family. I somehow talked Chad into taking the kids on a long bike ride to Balboa Island about 9 miles from our apartment. Yep...18 miles total. Let me explain...there is history behind my insanity. I remember as a little girl going on this bike ride with my dad. We would ride to balboa and get lunch there or a frozen banana. Doing this with my family brought back great memories. Part of the reason why Chad gave in was my convincing of how much I loved doing this with my Dad.

As we were making the ride back Alexis kept saying, "Mommy, I'm thirsty!"
Selfishly, I would always respond..."I'll give you the water in a little bit." She has a small bladder and I'm not a fan of the public beach bathrooms...with no hand soap.

Then I had a flashback! I so remember saying that to my Dad on this same bike ride...although...he was a little more creative with his excuse not to give me a drink. He would always respond, "Nice to meet you thirsty" or "Really, I thought I named you Amber." It just brought a smile to my face even though his response drove me nuts. The funny thing is...I toiled with saying the same thing back to her.

It was a pretty day and even thought it was a long ride...it was all on the boardwalk along the beach. So the kids were never bored. We played "I spy" the whole way home and the kids were cracking us up. They just had those goofy laughs every time Chad and I finally guessed what they were looking at.

Carter taking his nap on the way there.

Ahh...we made it. Little did we know the ride back was the hardest part.

Happy Birthday Carter

Carter's turned TWO on the 5th. We were going to have his party on his birthday but as I was calling friends the day before finalizing some things...Carter woke up early from his nap with a fever, runny nose, cough, and pink eye...and he was cranky! When it rains it pours! So we had his party this last Saturday and it was so much fun.

The girls at my work showed me this cute party idea in the new Family Fun magazine. It is awesome. So everything I did was from there. Since Chad's parent's just moved they already had large and small boxes so this party was perfect. We had 3 different activities: painting "cardboard box" houses, topple the tower with a destruction ball/tennis ball on a string and a HOMEMADE "cone-struction" pinata. The pinata really didn't hold up well...but if I had to do it again I definitely know where it needed reinforcement. Instead of hitting the pinata the kids pulled strings of "caution" tape from the bottom. One of the pieces was duct taped on the inside to the trap door so when a kid pulled that one it opened releasing the surprises inside. I figured since I was going to buy chips anyway why not put those in the pinata. The kids were totally excited and never knew the alternative choice! We had a BBQ so we could all talk and enjoy the incredibly warm Saturday. It was a blast.

And the no bake cake was so fun to make. It was made with a pre-made pound cake, donuts, M&M's, gum drops, kit kat, twix, yellow rainbow blast twizzlers. The dirt is crushed oreo. I decided to make cupcakes too to make it easier for the kids to grab some. I absolutely loved it and Carter did too!

I made a video with all the pictures. So enjoy! Oh...and read Carter's light blue shirt.
Thanks to Aunt Jana who couldn't resist getting him this shirt last Christmas.
It couldn't have been more perfect.

Have things changed?

I absolutely love getting together with my old college roommates. We had the time of our lives when we were at BYU and it was because we stuck together. There were 12 of us that were determined to find an apartment that suited everyone and one that would put us next door to each other. It may have forced us to do some research but we finally found "The Elms." And how will we ever forget it. The carpets may have made our feet black but where we lived didn't matter...as long as we were together. Sometimes I think about random stories and I can't help but laugh out loud. Sometimes I laugh because we had so much fun and other times I think...we were so naive (like when we danced to "I like big butts!" in our ward talent show!...Heather is with me on this one)

Pictured: Amanda, Britney, me and Heather

Anyways, Heather lives in northern California and came to Disneyland and the Beach with her husband's family and so we were able to get together last night. Brit drove down from LA and Amanda lives close by. It was so nice to sit and talk. The day worked out perfect...because I worked till 5:30...but Amanda just happened to be my last patient of the day and that was scheduled 6 months ago.

When the night started out I wondered how our kids would interact and naturally I wondered if my kids were going to act up and make a scene. For some reason, I feared their kids would be perfectly behaved and they would all watch me tell my kids "No" every two seconds. Immediately, all the kids migrated to the kids room to play and starting pushing and crying. So, I started disciplining my kids thinking, "my thought's might just be right on." Brit talked some sense into me and told me not to do anything since they were all pushing/fighting/playing and let them duke it out. And we soon realized all of our kids were pretty tough...no one was gonna let anyone push them around.

Pictured: Amanda, Britney (her 3 kids: Clara, Vivi, & Dallin),
Me (Carter and Alexis) Heather (Her two kids: Lexi and Kindry)

In the end...the kids all hit it off really well. They played and jumped on the bunk beds all night. It's amazed me how the 3 four year olds hit it off. They are at such a fun age where they love to play make believe and giggle...and scream. And the best part of the whole night...was that none of us have really changed. Maybe our hair cuts and having kids. It just amazes me that you can go so long between seeing some people but the minute you get together...even 2-3 kids later...we are still the same and we interact with each other the same. I love it. I miss these girls and the rest of my roommates and to tell you the truth...if we all lived by each other now I know our parenting styles and everything would match up pretty evenly because we were all so similar! Thanks Heather for the visit...and for giving us a reason to have a night for us...and having your husband and Luke manage the kids which they were really good at! And Amanda...I hope our kids didn't overdose your little chiwawa on doggy treats...thank him for this picture...because I think it's the only way we could get all the kids in.

Easter in Big Bear

The Saturday night before Easter we went to Riverside for Chad's cousins reception and went straight to Chad's Grandma's house in Big Bear to spend Easter Sunday with Chad's family. We've been wanting to go for so long but we've been delayed with illnesses and our busy schedule. However, we did find out that Carter doesn't travel well up the mountain! He kept grabbing his ear so I thought..."give him more to eat and drink to help pop his ears." But I was proved wrong when the crying suddenly turned into screaming and projectile vomit followed! Oops. Chad pulled over...we both walked to Carter's door and checked out the damage and I said, "We gotta keep driving...he will never go back in if we get him out now." So Carter fell asleep in his vomit and we rushed the last 20 minutes or so. Bad parenting or brilliant? I'd like to go with the second. I posted a TON of pictures from our trip so bare with me.

Presenting: Our 2 day Big Bear Vacation
(I guess I felt I needed the big intro since I spent so much time downloading pictures! LOL)

The Easter Bunny brings our summer stuff and a little candy for a few reasons.
1. We have to purchase that stuff anyway...so why not have them get excited about it.
2. I don't like dealing with the tantrums when they want to eat the candy every 2 seconds.
3. Maybe, this should have been number 1...but the Easter bunny knows darn well...
I will eat ALL the candy myself...in one sitting!

Hunting for eggs outside after church.
(By the way: I thoroughly enjoyed my break from my calling...
it was the first since my parents left on their mission in October
and I really enjoyed the stress free Sunday! AHHH!)

Alexis was such a good big sister. When Carter dropped his egg and spilled
his candy she immediately helped him gather it up and she fixed his egg.
If only all the moments with our kids were that rewarding.

Uncle Jake helping Carter get an egg out of the rain gutter. The men, I mean Easter bunny,
hid the eggs in the funniest spots. They picked grass and weeds and put them in piles
covering the eggs on the wide open patio! It cracked us up.

Carter and Uncle Jake

Grandma Knowles, Emily (Chad's sister), Alexis and Carter

The biggest hit...Alexis dollar she had in her special egg.
Rewards usually come in the form of pennies...so she was trilled!

Chad took work off Monday so we could stay and play in Big Bear.

First stop: The Alpine Slides

Carter was screaming "WHEE" the whole way down.
I was surprised he liked it so much because we were going fast.

Somehow Alexis sweet talked her Dad into letting us go twice.
She loved it. She was bummed Chad & Carter beat us down...so she
politely requested to go with Dad the second time. Then when we got to the
top...Carter kept saying..."Dad" because he wanted to go with him again.

Second Stop: Playing in the Snow

Chad showing Alexis how to use the Snow ball maker Grandma
and Grandpa Miller gave us. It works really good in hard snow!

Alexis: "I know, watch Mommy! How come it's not working?"
I'm not sure where she heard about making snow angels but
someone didn't tell her it doesn't work on ice.

Watch your back, Chad!

Carter practicing his pitch. This was his favorite part.

Another brilliant thought by Alexis...
"I know...try and hit my bum bum!"

You asked for it Alexis! Carter was more than happy to try!

Just remember...this was her idea.

"Ah man. It went down my pants!"

Having fun with Dad who's throwing snow balls at their sled.

After a couple hard throws they realized...ducking for cover was a better idea.

Can we guess how this ended?

Oooh!

Yep, Carter sat out the rest of sledding to be a spectator with Dad.

Fearless Alexis...just wanted to keep on going.

We had so much fun and I loved all the pictures so I had to share. It was so nice to
get away from the stress of everyday life and take a break for a day!
If only we could do it more often we'd all be a little more sane.