Ok,  it is time to catch up on family business.  I know it has been awhile, but I am determined to keep up on some type of family record, so again, I apologize for the overwhelming amount of pictures.  To recap our spring. . . .

Easter came and went and the kids had a blast.  I love the age of my kids right now, they are so fun and easily excited.  Grandma bought them matching outfits that made for perfect pictures.

Easter morning was fun as usual.  Cooper LOVED the easter egg hunt and he equally loved his pink and purple basket to put them in.

And as usual, the Easter bunny made the hunt a little hard for small kids.

The "other" Grundy's were here for Easter, which made it all the better.  If they would let us, we would just keep Kamryn in our family, I mean what is one more really ? And she fits in perfectly.

We also lost our beloved Grandpa Bill that weekend, so it was nice to have the family together.

ABBY :  Abby has been pretty busy this spring.  She just finished up her year of dancing.  She had three dances and she loves it all.  I am working on being a stage mom and I am seriously considering buying a Caboodle just to fit in.

She also played her first year of softball and she had a really good time and she did a great job.  It was especially funny on the days we had to run from one dance competition to a softball game and she would go in full makeup and sparkles.

She is growing up so fast and I hate every minute of it.  She will be getting baptized in the fall and then what?  Graduate?  She is really excited for second grade and she hates the idea of summer break.

Carson:  Carson is just funny.  He graduated preschool and he is ready for kindergarten! 

And yes!  If you thought it was impossible for him to have more teeth missing in his mouth. . . it is true!  Besides the three that are missing from the top, (that he lost when he was two, due to a situation with the hard tile floor) he is now missing his bottom two teeth that have fallen out on their own.  He told me he has to eat oatmeal every day for breakfast so it will be easier for him.  I have to admit, it is funny to watch him eat anything with ham in it, or anything that he actually has to bite through, it is really a spectator sport.  I don't know how he does it, but he seems to make it work.

He is also playing baseball this year.  He has graduated from T-ball although he is such a runt, you would think he is on the wrong team.

My favorite part of watching him is when he gets a hit or does something good and he is running with this smirk on his face, because he really doesn't want you to know that he is smiling.  He has to look cool you know.

He actually does a really good job, but once in awhile the real Carson comes out, especially if he has bubble gum of any kind.

He is still a goof ball, but a sweetheart none the less.  He loves running around with his friends and playing the Wii.  We have a different kid from preschool call everyday to play with him, and he is always looking forward to the next fun thing.

Cooper:  Cooper, as mentioned earlier, has become our ballpark baby.  He loves going from game to game and every morning he says, "going to mom's ball game?"  "Carson's game?"  "Abby's game?" and when I tell him there is not a game, he is very disappointed.  Maybe it is because when he walks into the park he immediately asks for is routine ring pop.

 In two year old news, we went to the zoo and he was in heaven.  He loved every animal and has been reliving it everyday since.

He loved the baby elephant and he was most excited to see the big gorilla.  He still walks around the house with the map of the zoo, talking about each of the animals we saw.

He still keeps us laughing everyday. He is so fun, and he has so much of his own personality, although he tries to copy everything his brother and sister do.

And this is what happens lately when you ask him to smile.  He is getting a little better, but seriously .. . . . .

I honestly love this age!  I have never hated the terrible twos.   I think they are so funny and I love all of the quiet moments we get together (when we actually get one).  I love them in the morning.  I love how excited he gets about everything.  I love listening to him talk and the stories he is trying to tell me.  Although, he is definitely two and has his moments.  The good, by far, out weigh the bad, and I am laughing throughout most of my day.  How could I not?

And it is official. . . We will be adding another child to this madness soon.  We are expecting and I am about 12 weeks along.  I am due on December 25!  And if you know me at all. . . . that is not possible.  I have a plan for everything, well, I HAD a plan and it was a very good plan.  I decided that God is teaching me a lesson that I can not control everything, which is a hard lesson for me to learn.  He wanted to make it crystal clear, so not only send the baby early, but lets send it on Christmas Day!  Or anywhere in the month of December for that matter.  But no worries, I have it under control (or so I say).  You will see my Christmas tree up in September with the gifts and all (maybe even the air conditioning still on) and one way or another I will make this work.  We are so excited to have a new baby in our home, my eyes tear up just at the thought.  I think if I had the time and finances, I would have 10 of them.  So, to put a positive spin on things, I can't think of a better thing to be doing at Christmas, then welcoming a new baby home.  I know that we will definitely have a special spirit in our home and what more could you ask for at that time of year.

Christmas is coming! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the holidays! It is hard not to when you have three kids who get SO excited over every detail. It is pretty obvious when it snows, as you can always hear someone screaming as they look out the window. We have done a lot to get ready for Christmas. We hit the temple lights early this year before the biting cold kicked in.

I love going to see the lights at Christmas. It is always so beautiful.

Grandma and Grandpa usually make the trip with us, riding the "train" and all.

This was an interesting year seeing Santa. Cooper was really excited to see him while we were waiting in line, but as soon as he realized that he was about to touch him, he started screaming! We really wanted him in the picture so we just took it anyway, tears and all. As soon as we took him off, he was fine.

Carson was very excited to tell him about the Batman castle that he wanted and something about a Transformer.(he really wanted to make sure Santa was listening)

Abby surprised us all when she asked Santa for a coloring book. Seriously! (I wish I would have realized her low expectations sooner.)

Cooper loved Santa from a distance.

Abby's first grade decorated a Christmas tree at a local bank, so they had a little performance and sang some songs. Cute Girls!

Ok, I had to add this picture of Carson the other morning. Is it just me? Kate Gosslin anyone?

I also had to add this video. Cooper always makes us laugh (try to ignore the hiccups). He actually talks really good, but for some reason he has a hard time saying Frosty the Snowman. It becomes more like "soccer moon man". It has been making us laugh all week, especially because he LOVES Frosty. He asks me to sing the song at night, he loves the movie, and he loves ANY time he sees a snowman, so lets just say he talks about the moon man a lot!

  Happy Halloween!  I am just going to start this month backwards.  We had a great Halloween.  We kept up with all of our old traditions and added some new ones too.  As you can see, Cooper was a Dragon this year.  He was not a huge fan of his costume and usually complained when we put it on him, but on Halloween night. . . we had a hard time getting it off him!  I think he finally realized that if he just put it on and smiled, people would give him candy.

He also had a pretty sweet ride.

Carson was a King this year, and as he noticed all of the other kids, he was pretty disappointed that he wasn't Optimus Prime (he didn't realize that was an option).  We had to bundle him up so he wouldn't get cold and by the end of the night he had taken off his costume and just had his sweats, beanie, and gloves on, and was telling people he was a hip-hop dancer. ( I think I heard him say "whats up?" a couple of times)

Abby was a fairy, of course she was good with everything.  We had to bundle her up too and she didn't mind as long as her hair looked pretty.

We were lucky to have the Finnertys here for Halloween.  My kids loved having more kids to run around with.  Can you guess which kids are theirs (scary, scary, scary, scary, cutesy, cutesy, cutesy).

We did all of the required pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and pumpkin carvings to get ready for the holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

Abby was very thoughtful about her carving, (which of course included the biggest pumpkin with heart eyes)

Carson was very focused.  I saw him sticking his tongue out with pure concentration more than once. ( he made his own version of Dracula)

Cooper just stabbed at it, as we expected.

We also had our annual FHE Halloween party.

Chad and I even dressed up like idiots to party with our friends (he is such a good sport)

We had our usual Clam Chowder and breadsticks on Halloween night, and Chad even went all out and made some "witch's brew" (homemade rootbeer/ dry ice) the kids thought it was "totally awesome".  It was a great Halloween.

Back a couple of weeks. . .  We went on a road trip to Las Vegas.  I know, who goes to Las Vegas for 11 days?  Yep, us.  Chad had a training there for work most of the time (which was paid for, yeah:).  Plus Amy, Justin and Kamryn live there, so we were able to spend time with them too.  We had tons of fun, although it felt a little weird going swimming in October. (here is baby Kamryn and her dad)

 Abby hit the wave pool with Kaitlyn (her and Ethan also made the trip).

 Cooper would just put on his floaties and coast around the lazy river, which was not so lazy, it was actually pretty fast.

 We had a lot of fun swimming and laying around in the room. We also took the kids to Circus Circus, and for a family friendly walk on the strip (um, not so much, we just kept telling them to look up and don't look directly at the little fliers on the ground.)

 Of course we had to take Carson to the Shark Reef.  He is such a sea animal junky its crazy!  The funnest part was that when we checked into our next hotel, a lady came over and handed all three kids a backpack thing with a safari hat and a map and some postcards and crayons.  It was so cute!  The Carson became obsessed with his hat and insisted on wearing it to the reef.  I didn't realize it matched so well, and he ended up looking like a little explorer.  People were commenting the whole time.

 

His newest fascination is with the big Komoto Dragon they had there.

But he LOVED EVERYTHING!  He and Abby were so funny because they had to listen to EVERY single word the information thing was saying.  I kept telling them they didn't have to listen to the whole thing, but they were in a zone.  Let's just say, it made for a long visit.

Despite the picture, Abby loved it too.  She is just focusing.

We  had a lot of fun, I love vacationing with my kids, but 11 days and 5 different hotel rooms is exhausting.

Of course he had to get a Komoto Dragon for the road.