Happy Easter

Beware, don't read/view this post unless you're prepared to scroll through many many photos. Easter always brings many photo ops and when you have two kids, those opportunities multiply two fold.

Last weekend we went to my friend Joanna's place for the Annual Rancho Alvarado Easter Egg Hunt. The boys had a great time. Carter found one of the special golden eggs and received a prize bag full of bubbles. He was proud. Cole learned how to find eggs and put them in his basket, he got some much needed practice for the "real deal" on Easter when he'd be up against Carter head-to-head. And as usual, they also enjoyed jumping on the trampoline, swinging and playing with all their friends. Here are the first dozen or so pictures ...



Most of the kids before the start of the egg hunt.

Carter liked the Easter bunny.  Cole, not so much.

Attempt at a family photo.  We all never cooperate.  Brian regretted not bringing his sunglasses.

Here is Cole putting eggs in his basket.

Carter looks so grown up in this picture.  I'm not sure if it's the big clothes or what, but he looks huge to me!

Cole (just like Carter) liked climbing in the riding mower.

Cole wanted swing like the big kids were.

Carter and Luke really enjoyed the double swing.

It was a long day, Carter and Daddy were pooped out.  But gave me one last smiley picture.

Well all that was just the prelude to the actual Easter weekend.  Here are photos from Easter.

Carter dying his eggs.

Carter ran to the front porch to see what the Easter Bunny had left in his basket.  Grandma and Grandpa had also brought him and Cole Easter baskets.  Or should I say Easter buckets.  The first thing he saw was his new Chipmunks the Squeakwel DVD.  He was excited about that. 

Here he is looking at the little water frogs that Grandma and Grandpa gave him.  They actually require hardly any care, thankfully.  He likes to poke at the glass, we're working on that.

Half of the eggs the Easter Bunny hid were confetti eggs.  Carter loved putting them on everyone's head. 

But most of all, he loved putting them on his OWN head.  I'm not sure why, but he did.

Grandma got in on the action and smashed one on Carter.

And Carter returned the favor

And I'll end the post with some random photos from the past week.  I know Carter has done a Mr. Potato family before, but he got some new accessories during Christmas and decided to make an updated family.  I thought it was cute that he gave himself the muscle man arms and gave Brian the floaties for swimming.  Too cute.

Ever wonder why Cole has bumps on his head?  Good this be why?  Actually, he's doing the right thing here by crawling out instead of just haphazardly running out. 

I like this picture because Carter is so excited that his mouth is SO wide you can actually see those tonsils.  He's funny.

 And here are a couple photos of Cole playing with some balls in the hallway. 

That concludes the picture show.  I'm sure there are some funny stories or one-liners from Carter, but I just can't remember anything right now.  Uploading all these pictures took it out of me.  So maybe I'll blog again this week.

Spring Break and other fun stuff

Last week was Spring Break and Carter was out of preschool with all the other school kids. I got a glimpse of what our summer would be like and boy do I have my work cut out for me. I'm already researching ideas on how to keep these boys busy. Yes, we'll swim alot. But we need lots of other fun things in repertoire.

Speaking of swimming, the boys continue to do real well in swim class. Cole is floating on his own now. Little bits here in there. And he can get rings off the bottom of the pool like his big brother. Carter is working on his strokes. He can swim across the pool, but when he moves his arms out of the pool he won't straighten them - it's the funniest thing to watch him swim. I'm very proud of both of them.

Before Spring Break started, Carter had some fun days at school. One of the activities at "Hat Day" was to wear a hard hat with a paintbrush attached to it. He painted a picture for me, it was one color and just a bunch of strokes, but I hung it up on the fridge anyway! He wore his Masters golf hat that Dad bought him when he went to the tournament 2 years ago. Thankfully it has an adjustable strap, he has another year or two in it. Then Cole can have it.


Cole loves to point at things. Here he is pointing at Brian and Brian pointing back.

And of course, if Cole does it, Carter does it too. Carter does EVERYTHING Cole does. Some good some bad. Fortunately now Cole is walking most of the time and no longer really crawls. But when he did crawl, Carter crawled along with him. It would get embarassing at times in the waiting room at the doctors office when a 3 year old is crawling after a 1 year old. Carter also loves to wear whatever Cole is wearing. They have several matching outfits and I've started buying more since this obsession has started. Mom even went out and bought another shirt just like Cole's for Carter because he was so upset they weren't matching that day. He really loves having a little brother.

Another thing Carter insists on doing is having his picture taken and taking pictures. He jumps up and down 100 times a minute it seems like. He's like a hummingbird, it's ridiculous. He loves any and all attention in front of the camera. Here is one of probably 200 pictures I have of him jumping and smiling at the camera.

And because he jumps around all the time, he needs some rest. Unlike several of his other 3 year old friends, he still takes a nap. On school days when he gets home at 2 I don't generally make him take a nap because he'll sleep for 2 hours and then be hard to put down for bedtime. But sometimes he just can't make it and falls asleep watching TV. Too cute.

Another fun day they had at school was Western Day. The Rodeo and Livestock Show is in town this month and the school played on that theme. They had horses and donkeys come to school, they had mini-chuckwagon races in the gym, milked pretend cows, roped cactus, and all kinds of western things. Here he is showing off his cowboy boots that Grandma bought him.

And thanks to a nice hand-me-down from Jen, Cole had some rodeo overalls he could wear that day too.

The weather has been crazy this year, but we have started to warm up and spend more and more time outside. The grass is getting greener, our skin is getting tanner, and our hair is getting lighter. This is from two weeks ago, Cole is so cute going up and down the slide.

We signed Carter up for tee-ball that begins next month and runs through the beginning of June. Here he is trying to hit the ball for the first time with Daddy. He's getting the hang of it now. We haven't worked much on catching, though he does have the cutest 9" glove. We aren't expecting this to be a competitive sport. Its just getting him used to the idea of playing on a team, taking turns, and having some fun time with Daddy since it's on Saturday mornings.

Here is Cole walking around the back yard with his swim attire on. Carter loves to shower him with water.

I took the boys to the livestock show last week during Spring Break (just like every other parent in town apparently). The funny thing is, with all the farm animals we saw, the only picture I have of either child with an animal happens to be of Carter riding a camel. We waited in line for 20 minutes and it was definitely worth it. That thing was huge.

Here I am with my boys. Carter keeps saying he wants to ride the bull that is in this picture. We waited in line for him to ride a mechanical bull for kids, but after 25 minutes and waiting and watching other kids do it, he chickened out. Hey, at least I hadn't already paid for it!

Here's a picture of the boys in the bathtub with mohawks. Carter's hair is crazy long. At least 4 inches long in the back. He's getting it cut tomorrow it will probably be the shortests it's been since he was 7 months old. I don't kid. He's getting a summer cut tomorrow, Brian won the hair cut battle. I've given up the thought of him having longer hair (not long, just like a bowl cut or something). I've just seen too many scraggled looking skateboarders around lately and didn't really dig that look :)

I always seem to be posting about the boys, and never really talk about what Brian and I are doing. We'll we're dating again - each other that is :) Cole is finally sleeping well enough to stay at Mom & Dad's house overnight along with Carter. So Brian and I are getting a night life again. A week or so ago we went out with Seth and Jen to check out a new restaurant and bar. We toasted the night with some half yards of beer and realized that the last time the four of us went out together withOUT our kids was 10 years ago, before any of us were married and had kids. We had a great time.

I had a girls night out this month that was a blast. We went to Pinot and Picasso and drank some wine while we painted a canvas. Each night a local artist shows us how to paint one of their paintings and we all bring our own wine and appetizers. That night, it happened to be the back side of a naked women. Oh the chuckles we had. We will definitely be doing this again soon. Here's my picture. Yes I know she has a J Lo bootie, but I had several glasses of wine and never rounded all my features out.

Brian's birthday is Thursday and as a present I got him tickets to the NCAA regional games that are here in Houston this weekend. Seth has a ticket too, so they're going together and making a guys night out of it. Baylor is playing, so they actually have some one to root for.

I've been trying upload some videos of the boys playing in the yard, but I'm having trouble editing out all the good stuff and putting it in one frame. I just don't have enough time in the day I guess. Plus I think we may need a new video camera. If you recall, this one took a 3 week long shower in the backyard. I'm surprised it's still recording. Things aren't as crisp as I wish, so I may be in the market for another one. Plus, it records in widescreen, but plays back on the blog in regular 4:3, and that makes the quality even worse. That said, here is a 4 minute long video of just the normal every day playing in the backyard footage. For those of you that don't see the boys all that often, you'll probably enjoy this more.

100th post!

I logged in a week or two ago and noticed that the next post I was going to create was going to be my 100th post. Nice milestone. I wanted to wait and post something special, something worth while of the 100th post. And I didn't have anything out of the ordinary to post. So I waited. Then waited some more. Until a friend of mine told me to stop slacking and update the world with my goings on. I was trying to explain that nothing "special" had been going on, when I listened to what I was saying. How in the world could I have nothing special going on when I have such special things in my life. It turns out that you don't need birthdays, holidays, vacations and big announcements for life to be extraordinary. For me, it's the wonderful, every day, normal things that go on that make my life extra special.

Here's the run down on our happenings the last three weeks ...

Uncle Matt has been popping in for a few hours once a week or so. It's been really nice having him, even if it's just for a quick lunch or a run to the airport. We're thankful his company is headquartered in Texas, as opposed to Denver.

I took a picture of the boys - Carter wanted to show off his cowboy boots to his Uncle Matt.

I call this picture, Man in the Making. Granted, he's drinking milk and not beer. But he's sitting in a recliner watching tv. I say he has some definite potential is being a man one day.

We've had some sun lately, so we've been taking every opportunity to get out in it. Here we are at the park. The boys love to swing. Can you see Cole's teethy grin? He has 3 on top, the front right is barely poking through. So he's a little snagletoothed. Cute.

Here's Carter on one of the activities. The poles actually move a little in each direction, so it requires some balance. He really enjoys it.

And this is Cole getting ready to put himself in a standing position (on his own from a seated position without holding onto anything). He had been doing it for a couple of days but I can never get a good shot or video of him doing it. So you'll have to trust me.

Cole is so much more of a climber than Carter ever was. In fact, I don't think Carter tried to crawl on the play room table or coffee table until he was close to 2. Cole is all about the climbing. Here is going up the pipe stairs at the park.

The four of us went to the zoo yesterday. We have a membership, so we try to go at least once a month. We get there at 9 when they open and leave before noon when it gets busy. Carter loves the animals, but yesterday this creature was the highlight of the day.

Here is Cole doing one of his new things - pointing to things far off. He had been pointing to pictures in books, but now he'll point to things around the room. He's also signing frequently too. "More" and "All Done" are critical. It really helps at dinner time. I was at Target the other day and we went down the cereal isle and he saw some fruit bars that I normally buy him for snacks. He pointed at them and signed more. It's nice knowing what he wants and being able to satisfy that desire. Seeing as before that all he did was yell at me!

We've been working on walking. He's taking a few steps at a time. Normally 2 or 3 and then he falls right into you, or goes to his knees. I don't blame him, he's a crazy fast crawler.

Here is an attempt from yesterday.

Carter loves to brush the goats at the petting zoo.

And this series of shots is from this evening. He walked 4, maybe 5 steps tonight without falling. I have it on video, so I'll upload it this week. But you can kinda see his progression.

And since I know there was alot of talk about Cole and more pictures of him, I'll end the post with a few things Carter has said to make me chuckle.

In the car on the way home from swimming, Cole was starting to fuss a little. Carter said "I think Cole needs a nap." I responded, "I think so too." Carter asked if he needed a nap. I asked him, "Do you?" His response "No, I'm too busy."

After naptime one day this week Carter asked to have a popsicle and watch one Dora. Side note, don't tell this child anything you don't want him to remember. I had told him if he took a nap without arguing with me he could get a popsicle when he woke up. That was the first thing he said after he woke. Anyhow. He and Cole were sitting up at the bar area and in the show Dora asks "Will you help us save the puppies?" Carter responded "No, we're eating popsicles right now. When we finish."

Carter is such a sweet big brother. Don't get me wrong, he does try to sit on Cole, carry Cole, and will try to trade him small things for big things. But he really is a thoughtful little boy. If he gets a treat, he always asks for one for Cole. When he has food in the car, he reaches out his hand to give one to Cole. And Cole reaches over to get it. Its sweet to watch.

Life is going really well right now. Sleep has gotten SO much better. In fact, my body has gotten so used to interupted sleep in the past 4 years that I'm waking at 3:00 in the morning fully rested. Of course I go back to sleep, but I'm just not used to GOOD sleep.

Well, that about covers the last couple weeks. I still haven't mailed out the photos from last month. Maybe I'll do that this week. Sorry people. I'll get to it before it's time to do the next set, hehe.