I love Picasa!

For someone with a Master's in educational technology I am a little slow using all of the fun new technologies. Recently I started playing more with Picasa and I absolutely love it! I still use Macromedia Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop for specialty fixes, but Picasa is super fast and easy. So needless to say I have gotten a little carried away with creating collages. Although it will really help because I am really trying to do pictures from home. Marc talked me into a really nice camera a few years ago and I need to stop paying Kiddie Kandids so much money. When I have time later I will post some of my latest photo adventures:)

Everything is going really well for us. School is winding down and Kennedy is really looking forward to Christmas. She had her Christmas performance at school on Sunday. I was so surprised, she actually sang this year and smiled!
Carter thinks he is too funny. If you are laughing he thinks he should too! He is now moving between furniture, standing, clapping, gives high-five, and occasionally waves. We recently discovered he hates anything on his head: hood, hat, etc. We also discovered that he will steal your cereal bowl and spill it all over himself. (Ask Kennedy, she was devastated). The funny part is he didn't start crying until I took the bowl away!

Kennedy's Haircut

Here is a quick view of Kennedy's new haircut. She has been asking me for a while to cut her hair short. Marc and I have been really hesitant to fulfill her request because she is constantly changing her mind. The last thing I wanted was for her to cry over wanting her hair long. To my surprise she is very proud of her haircut. I am really glad because besides a little trim, I have never really cut her hair.

She is so much fun. She is hopelessly devoted to her brother. Recently Marc took her camping and when she called me on the way home the first thing she checked on was her brother. She wanted to make sure he would be up from his nap so she could play with him when she got home. She loves to help him and I often find her "helping" him across the room!

She said the cutest thing the other day. We were eating dinner and she told me when she grows up she
wants to be a grandma!

She is doing really good in school. She is obsessed with letters and wants to know what everything says. I often catch her pretending to read and write all sorts of things. I am really glad she has such a great school. Being a teacher you would think I could teach her to read, but I never had one reading class in six years of college!

Carter, our healthy baby

Carter absolutely loves to stand! He is also clapping, which he thinks is pretty cute. He is still the sweetest little boy.... But, he is getting so active. He is army crawling everywhere. Occasionally he gets up on his hands and knees, but it is short lived. He is a great baby. He loves to eat and he is a pretty good sleeper.

In fact, he sleeps so well he recently gave us a little scare. He went to sleep for his nap about 10:30 AM last Sunday. Then he never really woke-up. It was the strangest thing. He would "wake-up" screaming and as soon as you picked him up or gave him a bottle he went right back to sleep. This continued all day. That evening we went to Marc's parents for dinner and Carla was really worried about Carter. We tried to wake him up by playing with him and giving him a bath, but he was too tired. To make a long story short... We ended up at Phoenix Children's Hospital where they ran blood work, CAT scan, spinal tap, etc and nothing. Everything was perfectly normal. They kept him for observation and about 7:30 the next morning he woke-up like nothing had happened. They released us about 2PM and we were all speechless.

I have tried really hard not to be frustrated about the enormous hospital bill when my baby was perfectly fine. It is a humbling experience to spend the night in a children's hospital. I will strive to never be ungrateful for or take for granted having healthy children.

Eventful July

This has been a busy month and it just got started! My mom just moved down from Utah and she is still trying to get settled.

Marc and I took the kids camping for the Fourth of July. The Bringhurst's and the Hinton's joined us for the fun. We camped in Happy Jack where rain and hail started about 45 minutes after we arrived. We sat in the camper a couple of hours trying to wait it out. To pass time we attempted to nap, but the kids were going crazy. We finally decided to get up when the bed/table broke from the kids jumping around. It was too wet to cook so we ate at the Happy Jack Lodge. You will see from the picture, there was actual snow/sleet on the ground. Then we heard rumor of fireworks at Mormon Lake so we drove over there. We were glad to find the rumor was true, otherwise we would have traveled to Payson or Flagstaff to see a show. (By this time the Hinton's decided to ditch the rain and they packed-up to head home.)
We spent the night and morning in Happy Jack and got home about 2PM.

Sunday I was off again for Student Government camp. Carter got to come with me and Kennedy took turns spending time with the Grandma's. It is so nice to have family around who are willing to help! My mom took Kennedy swimming and played the Wii. My mother-in-law arranged for Kennedy to play with all sorts of cousins. As for Carter he was such a good baby at camp. We had a good time, but we were so glad to come home!