Carson's Photo Shot of Hannah

While I was preparing dinner the other night Carson whipped out my camera to take some pictures of Hannah.

Here are the results...





As you can see, Hannah was thrilled about this.

Ice Skating...with first graders!?!

I was 'lucky' to go ice skating at the Ice Sheet with Carson's class the last week of January. It is a yearly tradition that the ALA program goes ice skating each year for their January field trip. First of all, it has been many, many years since I went ice skating. Let alone while I was 'helping" 5 children seven year olds who had never ice skated before. Can we say wet pants, sore muscles (for me), and bambi on ice x5?

Second of all, the ice skates were all WAY to small. Each of the kids had a little note pinned on by their parents stating their shoe size-trying to make the process a little easier. But every child in my group had to go up at least TWO sizes before we could even get them on. So after 30 minutes of trying to get the right size and get them on-we were ready to hit the ice-literally.

All the children in my group (and basically the entire class) were clinging to the wall in fear for the first 20 minutes.


Slowly most of them got braver and braver and by the end we had a few who could actually "ice walk." It actually turned out to be a fun and humerous day!

This is Carson and his cute little 'girlfriend" L.

Happy 18 months Hannah!

My little one is officially one and 1/2 years old. Read all about our 18 month old...

New words and favorites: Hot, No!, Yes!, Fishes, look. Everything and everyone is now Mama too. She calls Cam Mama it is kind of funny.

Favorite foods: Sausage, peaches, grapes, potatoes, and anything she can dip. She loves to dip food in ketchup, ranch, cool whip, spaghetti sauce. If I want her to try something all I need to do is serve it with some kind of dip and she loves it. She also loves to "dip" her grahm crackers in milk.

She is now a professional climber. She loves to climb up and down the stairs, on the in-table, in the chairs, on the coach. You name it, Hannah will climb it.

She loves, LOVES, her blankies. She carries them around all the time. She loves to snuggle her face into her blankets and be wrapped up tightly in them. She can hardly stand to have them folded up and put away she always wants ALL of them out.

She has started to "pretend" play. She pushes cars on pretend roads and says "brooom." She likes to pretend to "feed" other people with her little spoon. She is a little mother to her babies. She wraps them in a blanket and lays them down on pillows and couches. She pats their backs and says "Shhh" to them. It is so cute.

She still loves animals and screams in delight every time she sees our cat. She knows where the cat food is and always wants to feed the cat. She can make these animal sounds; meow, baa, click her tongue for a pony sound, woof, quack (to her all birds quack), moo, and SSSS (for snake). Bears, Lions, Tigers, and Dinosaurs all say "Grrrr" according to Hannah.

She loves her big brother and being chased by him. She likes to wake him up in the morning.

She always wakes up so happy and easily. Once she is awake she never wants to go back to sleep-no matter how early it is!

She loves to "ride" things. Anything that looks like it could be sat on and rode, Hannah wants to do it. I can't tell you how long I have sat in the entry way to Wal-mart riding the Garfield car.

She still loves music and getting her groove on.

She likes to spin in circles until she gets so dizzy she falls down. Then she giggles and giggles.

She does a little side step gallop skipping motion to get around sometimes.

She can point to her hair, eyes, ears, tongue, teeth, hands, feet, and belly. She likes to point to them on someone else better than on herself though.

She does not like snow.

She hates any hairclips or bows in her hair. She cries when I try and fix her hair. (Any suggestions here?)

She has just started showing love for objects-she kisses the the kitty in her book. She kisses her babies and her stuffed animals. She kisses pictures of her family members.

She attends nursery and so far she is doing pretty well.

Her signature look is her hair-sticking straight up. She just doesn't look like Hannah with "flat" hair.

I got a little over anxious one day and decided to see how she did on potty training. It was a no go. She is not ready yet...we will try another day. She did however, like sitting on the potty and having everyone cheer for her!

Her little hands are always moving, trying to communicate. She points, opens and shuts for more, reaches up to hold hands, and much more.

She is sassy and sweet. Opinionated in her own little way. She is beautiful, smart, and loving.

Feeling Sad.

Spring Semester starts tomorrow. Hannah starts daycare tomorrow.

My heart hurts.

"Oh my baby, little one,
the hardest thing I do,
is hold you close then let you go,
and say goodbye to you"

Christmas

Christmas has seemed like too big of a post to tackle, but I don't want to forget it so here goes.

Our Christmas seemed even better than years past. I enjoyed my break off from school and having my little boy home again during his break. It was so nice not to have to "worry" about school, and do as we please.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday the 18th. We made and ate homemade pizza's, played games, and had fun as a family. This day, I did not bring my camera...I am hoping my sister Carrie will send me some pictures(please?).

Cam had to work the morning/early afternoon hours of Christmas Eve, right when he came home from work, we headed to Logan to spend Christmas Eve with his Mom. The weather was surprisingly good that day and the roads were fine. We had a delicious turkey, potatoes, stuffing, roll (the works) dinner. Yummy! We played some games, exchanged and opened presents, took some pictures (with his Mom's camera, alas this day I did bring my camera, but failed to remove it from its case) I am hoping to get some from my MIL (please? :), then we played rock band. I have never played rock band but it was pretty fun. I was the "singer" and then I tried to play the drums.

We left and headed to Tremonton. We had debated on how to do Christmas Day. I had to work Christmas from 11a-5p. We thought about going back home to Ogden, I would work, then we would head to Tremonton for Christmas Evening or staying at Cam's Dad's house and Cam and the kids spending Christmas day with them while I left for work, and then I would go back to Tremonton after work. We decided to stay in Tremonton.

When we got to the Greener's home they were singing Christmas songs and Carson LOVED it. He wanted to sing "I'm gettin' nuttin for Christmas" and "Santa wears a suit that's long and red"" (I can't remember the title for that second song?). We set up our cookies for Santa and carrots for the Reindeer then I tucked a very excited little boy into bed.

I woke up at 6:00 Christmas Day and jumped in the shower. I didn't want to take any time away from Christmas morning getting ready for work, once Carson woke up. I got back into bed at 6:30 and asked Cam if I could wake Carson up and "get this party started" He said "No. Not until 7:00" I laid in bed, until I couldn't stand it anymore. I didn't know what time it was so I just decided to wake Carson up. I whispered to Carson "Santa came!" He shot out of bed, eyes bright and awake in an instant.

I covered Carson's eyes past the presents and we ran to wake up Blake and Karli. Next we woke up Grayson. Carson said "Grayson, Santa came!" Grayson groaned, rolled over and said "Thanks" It was funny.

Next we ran upstairs and woke up G-pa and G-ma. Before we even got to the door, I heard Ben say "I hear little footsteps" Cute. Last we woke up Bryce and Keisha. Carson again said "Santa came!" Bryce immediately sat up in bed and with the most excited and surprised looking face said "He did!!"

Everyone in the house was awake (except for Hannah at this point) and we went down to the Christmas tree to see what Santa had brought. It was pretty much the Carson and Hannah show after that, with 9 adults oohing over my two little ones :). Carson loved his robot, Santa brought and from what they tell me, he played with it all day. Hannah received a cabbage patch doll that she could've cared less about then (she likes it now) and a cat that purrs, meows, and moves around. She loves animals and loved her little kitty.

I have to put this part in...Cam is generally not very good at present buying and I am the opposite. I love holidays and trying to find the perfect gift for someone. He is one of those guys shopping on Christmas Eve that throws the present under the tree in the store sack. Well, this year I knew that he had not gone shopping once. There were no presents under the tree for me. Silly (and selfish), I know, but I was prepared to be disappointed.

Cam hands me my present on Christmas and I open it up. It is a tow strap. I was mad, but tried to act descent because we were with his family. All I said was "you get an F for Christmas" then he hands me a smaller box to open. I open it and a turquoise box with the words "Tiffany and Co" are on the front. While Cam was in NYC for business he bought me a beautiful bracelet from Tiffany's. It was a complete surprise and his grade went from F to A! :) (Again, yes I know -I am a brat)

After opening tons of presents, we had a pancake breakfast. At this point I had not looked outside. When I did the weather was horrible! It was a blizzard out there. I had wishful thinking that work might not need me, but sure enough they were swamped. I left for work and white knuckled it until I got to Willard and then the roads were not so bad.

When I left work at 5:30, I debated about driving back to Tremonton, or staying on Ogden because the roads were so bad. I didn't want to be away from my family on Christmas Day and they had no way to get home because I had the vehicle. I started the trek back to Tremonton and the roads again were fine until I got to Willard. From Willard to Tremonton I was thinking for sure that I was going to slid of the road. The visibility was zero! I wasn't even sure where the Tremonton exit was. I prayed a lot during that drive! Luckily "Big gray" does well in the snow.

When I was about 5 miles from the Greener's house there was a car off the road. Another man was stopped trying to push this car out of the snow. I had packed my new tow strap in my Escape and offered the strap. The helping guy said "Thanks, I don't have one, and I don't think I can push them out" He hooked it to his truck and easily pulled the car out of the snow. All I did was offer the tow strap. That was a little ironic-the gift I was so disappointed in, ended up being really needed and helped someone!

We ended up staying another night at the Greener's house because I did not want to experience driving in that again. I was glad we waited, the weather and roads were much better the next day and we could spend sometime with my parents as well. I always thought that I would want to spend Christmas with just "our" family but it was more fun and even sweeter when we were together with more of our family.

Of course we could not talk about Christmas without talking about our Savior. Each year as we celebrate His birth, I am reminded of how important my family is. How important my faith and testimony of our church is. How important my children are and what a great and lucky calling I have, to raise them, teach them, and love them.











I actually did manage to get some photos of Christmas!

Nursery...Already?

This past Sunday (Jan. 4th), Hannah went to Nursery for the first time. I was sad and glad. Sad because my little one is growing up. But glad because it is difficult to do sharing time/calling responsibilities, while Cam is busy doing his Bishopric duties, with a very mobile, sometimes loud, get into everything, little lady. I was also nervous I was putting her in germ central in the middle of germ season!

So, I take my beutiful little one to nursery and go off to Primary. We had a sweet reunion about 5 minutes later (the Nursery has a great policy of a 5 min cry rule..after 5 mins, it's time to go back to Mom or Dad). She was all smiles when she saw me and clapped her hands. Somehow, I think this is the response she was after... :) Hannah stayed with me for the first hour and then we tried nursery attempt #2 and she stayed and did great (so they say...:) We will see how next week goes down...

I wanted to take some pictures of Hannah marking her first Nursery day, but also wanted to capture her beautiful dress she wore. A Christmas gift from her Nana.





(Note, we have afternoon church now and therfore nap time was missed. Hannah had tore out her pretty hairbow by picture time and also didn't really want to smile for the camera...these are the best I could do but I still love them.)

Catching Up

I am trying to catch up from the 1000 pictures I have taken over the last two weeks and this is a small start.

I have posted a few new posts...not in the correct order, but in the order that I felt like doing them! I have included the dates for my own memory and hopefully to clear things up for you. So, scroll down to catch them all and read on if your interested!

Carson's Beloved Nutcracker

The Friday (December 19th) before Christmas, Carson asked if he could "pretty please get a nutcracker". We went to good old Wally world and Carson picked out the biggest nutcracker they had (as tall as Hannah). He was so very excited about this purchase and also very grateful.

I thought the nutcracker would soon be forgotten but I was wrong. Carson has carried "Nutcracker Ray Greener" (The name he gave him-Ray is Carson's middle name) around with him everyday and to every event we have been to. He loves him, he plays with him, talks to him, and sleeps with him.

On the first night we had him he asked me if I thought that he would come alive during the night (you know from the book and the story). I said I didn't know and we would just have to see.

Well, guess what, he did! Every night the nutcracker would fall asleep at point A and every morning he would be in a different spot. There is nothing like magic and I hope we continue to have lots of magic in the Greener household for many years to come...

Carson's Choir Concert

The ALA program has their own special choir. They had a performance on December 18th. The 1st and 2nd grade classes sang together and the 3rd-6th graders sang all together.

It was quite "professional" for a grade school choir. They sang a lot of fun, new songs that I had never heard before. The older kids did a song about Christmas lights with colored flashlights that went with the song. Carson's group wore little black and white vests that were pretty cute looking.

When the Carson's group came on stage. Carson was standing pretty close to the middle of the very back row-with all the second graders! He was the only first grader in that row, and taller than most of the second graders. That child is going to be 7 feet tall at this rate. He is a head taller than most the kids in his class.

Carson's singing was fair to good :). He put in an effort for 75% of the time, the other 25% you could tell he didn't know the words and was trying to fake it-moving his mouth in different exaggerating ways. He did look super cute though, when they did a little dance thing with one of the songs.

I am so proud of my little guy and can't wait to watch him grow up and be involved in all the things he does. He is so smart, cute, and fun. We love him so!

New Year's Day Sledding

We had a bit of a tummy bug over our break so we weren't quit sure if we were up to sledding today but we decided to try it out.

We didn't stay long because of the above sentence and also because the hill was pretty crowded.

Carson loves to sled. He is very brave and just goes flying down the hill.



We took Hannah bundled up like a little eskimo in her own little sled (Or as Carson called it "Chariot for the Queen")




Hannah loved being pulled around in her little sled and riding down the "baby" hills with a great big smile on her face. As you can see in the above photo.

Cam's first time down the hill, his sled turned and he was riding down backward for most the trip. He unknowingly was headed straight for a large tree that was way off the sledding trail. I was screaming "Tree! Tree!" and luckily right before he slammed into it, his sled turned and he was able to veer to the side. He scraped by instead of getting creamed by the tree. I was scared and thought for sure we were going to have an emergency on our hands. It kinda took the fun out of it for me. As Cam says I worry to much. It's my duty as a mother, I say. :)

This picture made me laugh. It was harder than you think to pull Hannah up the icy slippery (small) hill. A longer rope would have helped out too, but we made it work and Hannah didn't mind!

Happy New Year!

We have had a great holiday season, with much to blog about, which I will...later.

Of course I had to make some New Year's Resolutions and you know what they say, if you write them down you are more likely to succeed so here we go...

1. Scripture study at least 4 times a week
2. Quit procrastinating with school stuff...turn in assignments early, start studying for tests sooner etc!
3. Lose weight. Yes, the "traditional" resolution. Hard to admit like this, but not like its any secret I can hide! I need to lose some weight, and I have a great incentive to do so. I am starting a private blog to write about it, keep track, etc. If you would like to read it, leave your email here or email me and I will invite you. Especially ,those of you in the "club"!
4. Go to bed at 10:00 pm Sun-Thurs. I like to stay up late, generally doing non-productive things. If I can accomplish goal #2 it should greatly assist in the accomplishing of goal #4.

So there you have it, my resolutions. Here's to 2009!

Deciding who to Marry...answers by Carson

My mother-in-law emailed me these questions (with answers from other kiddos) and told me I should ask Carson the questions and put them on my blog. I thought these questions were so cute and Carson's answers were cute too! Happy Reading!

How do you decide who to Marry?
I would just find a girl, and if she doesn't smoke and she does good things than I would marry her.

What is the right age to get married?
21

How can a stranger tell if two people are married?
By looking at their rings

What do you think your Mom and Dad have in common?
They both have eyes and mouths.

What do most people do on a date?
Go to movies and stuff

What would you do on a first date turning sour?
Turning sour, what does that mean?

When is it okay to kiss someone?
When you are 21

Is it better to be single or married?
Married.

How would the world be diffeernt if people didn't get married?
It would be poorer, because everyone would have to build new houses.

How would you make a marriage work?
The same way as it does right now.

The Big Debate

Every year Cam and I have the big debate over a fake or real tree. Every year I win and this year was no exception! :) I have also convinced Carson that real trees are better so now it is two against one! :)

I love real trees, they are represent a tradition for me. I remember chopping down our family Christmas tree and then eating my mom's chili and hot cocoa up in the forest after. I love the smell of real trees and every thing about them.

Although we don't go up to the mountains and chop down our own tree (I would if we could!) we still have fun picking out our tree. Carson is the designated tree picker and always wants the fattest one.

Our tree this year is very simple but beautiful. It has white lights on it and then white handmade crocheted snowflakes (made by my mom) on it. There is a reason why there are no other ornaments on our tree...

When Carson was one, he pulled an ornament (a glass bulb) off the tree, tried to eat it, and broke it. He had little glass shards all over his little hands and little cuts all around and inside his mouth. I immediately thought worst case scenario- that he had glass in his stomach and during the night it was going to cut open his stomach or intestines or something and he was going to die, so after playing those thoughts in my head we took him to the ER. A few hours later we were home with our happy boy who hadn't swallowed any glass. (Just for journaling purposes ;) this happened while I was sleeping after working a graveyard and Cam was "watching" Carson-I forgive you Cam...:)

Needless to say I am still weary of ornaments when the kids are in that exploratory stage which our Hannah defiantly is. I love our simple REAL tree though!






See...look how "helpful" Hannah is-imagine if those were breakable ornaments! Also, isn't Hannah's dress cute?

Carsons second birthday party!

We had so much cake left over that the next day after his friend party (December
14th-also his actual birthday) we had an improptu party with our neighbors and Cam's brother and sister who also live in Ogden.

We have two very special neighbors that are family to us. They love my kids and my kids love them. Carson and Hannah are very spoiled by both neighbors. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.

One set of neighbors that I am talking about live in the house right next to ours. Carson would live there if I would let him. J (the wife) has a flower press that Carson loves. Almost everyday in the spring and summer Carson looks for flower or leaves to bring to J to put in the flower press. He knows right where it is and knows how to work it. He even "borrowed" the flower press for a few days because he had so much "work" to do (according to him).

J and T came over to our little B-day party and gave Carson his very own flower press. I have never seen anything like it. I asked J where she got it and she said she "won" it at an auction this summer just for Carson. She said she could not wait for his birthday to give it to him. Carson was of course estatic. Too bad it is winter...

I could not believe what a nice, well thought of, gift this was for our Carson. We love J and T and appreciate them so much!


Carson with our beloved neighbors and the beloved flower press. If you click on the picture you will see that J and T are both holding a small piece of paper. Carson made them a little note that said "You are owes (always) loved"

Carson's Birthday Party

At the beginning of the school year, a "rule letter" was sent home to all students. One of the rules stated that party invitations could not be given out at school unless ALL children were invited to attend. Good rule.

Carson read this and immediately interpreted this to mean that when you have a party you invite everyone in your class. He preceded to remind me of this many times, and even more so, when it came time to planning his birthday party. The more the merrier but where to have this party??

The Treehouse Children's Museum was perfect for the occasion. They did such a great job and the party was a huge success. The invitations, craft, a special story, cake and ice cream, plus plenty of time to play in the museum was included in this party package and it was worth it. It was a no stress, safe, and fun place for Carson's friends.

On the invitations I wrote:
"No gifts please. Your Child's presence is present enough!"

Carson has more toys and things than he can even play with. I just didn't want people to feel obligated to buy him a present. I also didn't want it to seem like we invited the entire class just so he could get more presents or something. There are also many children in his class that I know (from volunteering, field trips etc), but do not know their parents. I was worried about Carson because he like any little boy loves presents but he was more excited to have his friends be together and have fun. This idea worked really well for us.

So, during the time the museum sets apart for gift opening I had the kids draw a picture of themselves and sign their name to put in a memory book for Carson. This turned out so darling and will be something I continue to do.


Two of Carson's Party Pals portraits of themselves. (Note...each child had their own piece of paper, I just scanned these two together so I could show you more of the masterpieces!)


Matt our "Party Planner" He was great!


Carson choose a pirate theme for his party. Here are all his guests wearing their craft (the pirate hats) and saying "Arrgh!"


Carson's cake, included in the package. It is a treasure chest. It was so delicious! It was seriously one of the best cakes I have ever eaten!

My 7 Year Old

I wanted to post this yesterday, but ran out of time. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

All about Carson at 7 years old!

Carson is very tall for his age. He is at least 2 inches taller than the next tallest student in his grade. I asked him once if he was the tallest person in his class he thought about it and then answered "No, Miss Carter (his teacher) is taller than me"

He loves telling jokes and knock knock jokes. Some are funny, most aren't!

His favorite activity at home is playing games. He loves Monopoly, Life, card games like Uno and Old Maid.

He loves to read and is very good at it. His favorite books are the Magic Treehouse series. Books about the earth, Volcanos, the Human Body (he loves learning how the body works) We also just finished James and the Giant Peach and he really enjoyed that.

He is a fast runner. I really think that is going to be Carson's "sport" He can outrun anybody. Even Cam has to seriously try to stay the same pace as our little Dash.

He loves school and he loves his teacher. I can't say enough good things about the ALA program and his teacher. He has really changed this year and loved school.

He is a great big brother. He does like to pester Hannah but really he does love her so very much.

He is so friendly. He can start a conversation with anybody and he makes friends easily.

He loves primary. He always wants to be called on and always wants to participate. He suprises me with all he knows sometimes. Recently he repeated the story of Lazarus-and I was shocked. He really is listening and taking it all in!

Girls don't have "cooties" yet and he has quite a few "girlfriends." Just ask him about them and he will say "Oh I have tons of them"

He loves playing outside and going on hikes. He loves to explore new things.

He is fascinated with all thigs science. He loves to do experiments and we have concocted quite a few interesting things in the kitchen.

He loves to stay up late and will try any excuse to stay up just a minute longer.

He has an uncontrolable appetite. I don't know how we are going to keep this kid fed! He eats as much as Cam.

He is "Mr. Question" he always wants to know how something works, why something happened, what I am talking on the phone about, and on and on. Questions, questions all day long.

He is very loving and writes cute little love notes for his family and friends. At his birthday party he wrote everyone notes that said "You are owes (always) loved"

This list could go on forver, we love our boy. He is perfect. We always thank our Heavenly Father for sending him to us! I am so proud to be his mom.

Happy Birthday Carson!

Today is my handsome little boys 7th birthday. I love this boy so much!

Happy Birthday Son!

NYC Blog

I started a new blog to document or NYC trip. You can see it here. I am having major blogger issues-it isn't formatting the way I want it too. So it looks pretty messy right now...I need to clean it up, but its a start.

Missing

We are missing him already... It's different knowing that Cam is at work, or at Bishopric, or working at the duplex because I know he will be home soon. We don't know when he really will come home at this point..maybe two weeks-maybe six, maybe more?? Carson immediately comes home from school and wants to email Dad...Hannah keeps walking into different rooms in the house saying Dada? Dada? looking for her daddy...and for me, time is creeping by, my mind is playing tricks on me (ie noises, shadows, all that good stuff), and I am well basically lonely...

Being a little mischievous...

I think these pictures speak for themselves...