Portland

We took a last minute trip to Portland. It was so fun!We looked at http://www.panoramio.com/ before we left and saw pictures of Schreiner Farm it's a huge private farm. They have some cool animals. 

 Look at that view!! 

 Can you spot the para-sailors? I don't know how they do it but it's fun to watch. 

This was on the way home. They did start to get cranky but over all the drive is fun. Waterfalls, tunnels etc. 

Carter

   

First Day of Preschool September 2011

Last Day of Preschool May 2012

Does he look bigger? Preschool was fun this year and we are so glad we were able to get into a COOP preschool with some boys Carter's age. Six boys! Preschool certainly was busy with those boys but it was  so fun!

I dressed my boys to match today I rarely do this. That are so cute. 

a conversation

Carter: Can I have another waffle?
Landon: No
Mom: Yes, thank you for asking nicely.
Carter to Landon: Mom said I could have one.
Landon: OooKay
Carter: Your not the boss Mom is.
Landon: No. She a girl. I'm Landon Johnston.

Landon also often calls me Momma Johnston and I am only a girl and Mom. Never anything else.

Carter's First Talk

When I need help, I can pray. The Brother of Jared needed help to see in the 8 dark boats he built. He prayed. Heavenly Father told him he needed to decide how he could see. He thought glowing stones would light up the boats. He had faith that Jesus could make stones glow. He prayed to Heavenly Father to have Jesus touch the stones. He believed and had faith and the stones did glow when Jesus touched them. He also saw Jesus. I have faith too and know that Jesus can help me when I need it. I love to pray.

One day I broke a pipe in my backyard. Water was spraying a lot. I ran and told my mom what happened. She was not strong enough to shut off the water. Together we prayed and then I prayed again that my mom would be strong enough to turn the water off. Heavenly Father answered my prayer and my mom turned off the water. Heavenly Father can answer your prayers too.

 In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

He did great. Not sure if you could really understand him. He was not silly or nervous. He was up to the microphone as soon as he was announced. :) 

My Favorite Kind of Day

Picnic 

 Them in the water- me in the shade.

 "I fell in! I COLD"

 We really have the best dog for our family.

 I let my kids play in their underwear. 

Brothers

The Carnival came to town. 

Easter

Easter was pretty unexciting. We did an egg hunt with clues and only did a few eggs with one piece of candy in each egg. The final clue was to find their Easter basket with treasures and the candy Grandma sent. I made Carter a lime green tie. 

To die Easter eggs I hot glued tall skinny cups to paper plates.. less spilling and less vinegar. We used white crayons and electrical tape to decorate the eggs. 

Road Trip.

 We headed to Utah on a Thursday morning in March and stopped in SLC for one hour and ran through Temple Square and the children's section of the Church Museum. We then met Melissa at a park for some cafe rio take out and then up to the Moose Lodge for the night. Mac and Cheese for the kids and then bed. We had hot chocolate and then watched The Princess Bride on the big screen together- Awesome. We took no pictures.

 We hung out with my family on Friday. Happy Birthday to my mom. DI trip. Kids played with legos together, dinner was trash bag salad.. or PW's asian noodle salad. Then we went to Uncle Dan and Angies for bed. :)

Saturday Morning Tyler was baptized. It was awesome to have a family baptism like this. Thanks for doing it in Utah so we could all be there! Melissa was really sick :( 

Then we took family pictures. We also went to Grandpa's 90th Birthday bash. Tons of pictures were taken but I haven't seen any.. We also had an Irish dinner with Ryan's aunt and uncle. Carter and Landon where very sad to say good-bye to their girls. We all had a great time at their house. 

We picked up this cute little puppy in Utah for Brad and Suzette. It was great to see Grandma and Marlene. We went fabric shopping with Grandma I am excited to see what she ends up making. 

 Cousin Rae curled my hair. 

 My mom knitted me this hat now my sister and I are twiners. :)

 Uncle Tommy had a head scratcher it was hilarious to use on Landon.

Tommy also took Ryan, Carter and Chey to the Rock Gym.

  

Uncle Brad tickled Carter until he promised to be forever nice to Landon. 

We love trips to see our family now if only LA and TX were less then 20 hours away.. 

Mother's Day

My sister in law did the questions with her kids. Good idea I say. 

Carter is four and a little silly. Landon is not interested in answering questions as this time. He's busy cleaning up Carter's cookie mess. Carter eats the filling and Landon eats the cookie. :) 

1. What is something mom always says to you?

 

C- Be good. 

2. What makes mom happy?

 

C-Giving her kisses

3. What makes mom sad?

 

C-When I am not sleeping with you. 

  

4. What does your mom do to make you laugh?

 

C-(Blows Zerbert on hand) that makes me laugh

 

5. What was your mom like as a child?

  

C-Flowers

6. How old is your mom?

 

C-Old as an old lady

7. How tall is your mom?

 

C-Tall as an old lady

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

 

C-Make pictures.. his first answer was drinking coffee.. the old lady answers are making him giggly 

  

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

 

C-Work down stairs

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

 

C-Being really nice. 

11. What is your mom really good at?

 

C- Laughing

12. What is your mom not very good at?

 

C-Spanking me. 

 

13. What does your mom do for her job?

 

C-Give me hugs.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

 

C-Spagetti sauce with noodles that are tiny that goes round and round in a circle and are really long noodles. 

 

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

 

C-When I go up and sing and go and do swim lessons, but I don't want to swim. 

 The primary is singing for Mother's Day and I am trying to encourage him to go up and he is nervous about swim lessons this summer.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

 

C-Lighting Mcqueen, or Sally shes a girl and oh.. Mother Hook. hahahaha.. that's so funny.

 

17. What do you and your mom do together?

 

C-We do preschool at this house. 

18. How are you and your mom the same?

 

C- We both like riding bikes

 

19. How are you and your mom different?

 

C-I eat pickles while you eat cereal.

 

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

 

C-Giving you kisses.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

 

C-Walk on the dirt trail with Chad and Dad and Landon and me.. 

That's what we did last weekend.

4 Years Old!

I made an angel food cake strawberry and cream creation for Birthday night. It was tasty. I cannot believe Carter is 4.. Wow. In an effort to help Carter learn to make friends and have a good childhood we had a birthday party. Carter wasn't thrilled about it in the first place but I was able to bribe him with this you tube video and a promise of a pinata of his own.

We planned a pirate party.

We played stomp out the cannons (pop balloons), dressed and painted the boys into pirates, dug for treasure, walked the plank & jumped in the ocean, listen to a pirate story (Ryan is an amazing story teller), went on a treasure hunt, ate cupcakes, busted open the treasure, whomever could say "yo ho ho" the loudest went first, and then opened presents.

Ryan and I totally made that pinata.

Preschool Fun

Drawing Habitats for our paper snakes.

Q-tip painting on our toilet paper octopus

Birthday

My birthday was a perfect day. My husband spoiled me. Cheesecake too.

Garage

Landon likes to sit and watch. On this day Ryan was working on a project in the cold garage; he wrapped Landon up and instructed him to plug his ears while he used the saw.

Snow

I am playing catch up.. In January we finally got some good snow. The boys enjoyed playing outside. Even Landon didn't mind being cold. The are such outdoor children- we miss the summer time.

Don't you love Landon's little Batman Mask. It's one of his very favorite Christmas presents.

Landon loves...

*Hot Chocolate. Uncle Tommy passed this love to the boys. I love this picture of Landon covered in hot chocolate and peanut butter - pretty much my boys two favorites.

*My hair. I am still working on getting him to stop playing with it. Sometimes he is so cunning, just the other day with big grin on his face he said "I need you- your hair."

*To say "It's me, Landon". I love those little words... "It's me!" and "I did it!"

*To cuddle. Which contributes to the hair problem..

*To help. He is really good at helping clean up and pick up.

*Carter. I love it when I have to make them makeup for fighting and they just hug each other. I love how excited he gets when we get Carter for preschool.

*Dad. I love how he laughs so much with his dad. I love how moody Landon can be about his dad (reminds me of me and I can't help but laugh).

*Being picked up from nursery. I know he has so much fun and I feel like I am picking up the happiest kid in the world when he runs across the room to me beaming and shooting "Momma, it's me! Landon." Which is a big change from a few months ago. When I would walk in the room and he would burst into tears from the stress of being apart for those 2 hours.

*His boots and that brown jacket, the one in the picture- pretty much the only one he will wear.

I love my Landon.