Last Meridian Days

We had a crazy last week in Meridian. It was the week after school let out, after awards assemblies, graduations, field trips, field day, garage sale, family bbq, and all the crazy that week brought. The week was a busy one, even without having to pack and clean our home. 

Carter was invited to a pool party with some of his friends. Instead of dropping him off and cleaning or packing or doing something responsible, I stayed and played with my friends. 

My friend Celeste and her daughter Abbey, Andi's best little friend, threw her a birthday party since we wouldn't be able to celebrate on the actual day... I'll post that later.

Bentley had a doctor's appointment that week and she weighs 17 lbs 3 oz and is on the charts in the 3%!!! I am beyond thrilled. Bentley was also super helpful with packing. She really enjoyed all the empty boxes and baskets to climb into and on.

 

 Uncle Josh has been coming over many a Sundays the past few months and he came a few more times the last week and was more than helpful. He would play for hours with our kids so that we could clean and pack. Here they are playing "Brave." They also played a lot of hide-and-seek, catch, Wii, and jumping on the trampoline.

 One of our last nights there the Lunts had us over for dinner so we didn't have to cook. We may have stayed way too late playing Rock Band...

 

 

 

 

 

 Thursday was packing the U-Haul day and we had so many helpful friends. Friends who watched kids, came and cleaned, helped pack the truck (and trailer), dropped off goody bags and cards and treats... We feel so blessed to have been surrounded by such amazing people in Meridian. We can't wait to come back for a visit!!

Smarty Pants

 At the end of the year every class chooses one boy and one girl to receive the Yearly Academic Award. Carter was chosen for his class and his name will forever rest on a plaque in the front of the school. I am so proud of him and his smarts! He really is such an outstanding student. It was so fun to volunteer in his class this year and watch him interact with the other kids and work so diligently. He would never break his concentration when I would come in and he always waits to be called on, never speaking out of turn, finishes all his work, is respectful, I could go on and on. I may be slightly biased, but apparently his teacher and principle think the same thing! :) Way to go Carter Mac!

Busy Bee Grad

Andi graduated preschool last Friday. It was a crazy morning because it was Carter's awards assembly at the same time, so we had to divide and conquer. I made it to Andi's graduation and recorded the whole cute thing. It was an Americana theme with speaking parts and lots of songs, most with actions. Andi did such a cute job. She did great this year in preschool and her handwriting improved a lot. She is also starting the very basics of reading. We're so proud of her.

 Andi's cousins Jordyn and Teage also went to Busy Bees so graduation was a family affair. Grandpa Jon and Karla came at the end with Jefferson, Uncle Alex and Aunt Abbey got in the night before from SLC, and Uncle Shawn and Aunt Ashlee were there.

Andi and Miss Janet.

 

Andi's hair was done all cute at the beginning of the day, and then they wore hats and it rained... She's still beautiful!

Harmonious Harmon Hangout

Affectionately named by my friend Celeste who kind of headed the whole thing up with a couple other of my friends. Anyways, I am pretty sure my friends are trying their best to make sure that we never find friends who will measure up to them. And I am afraid they are actually being kind of successful at it. A bunch of our friends had a BBQ for us on Saturday night to celebrate our time being here. It was perfect weather and all the kids always get along so well together. I wish I had a picture of all of them together. We ate delicious food, had ice cream cake, and even had a pinata! Dear Celeste even packed my own single diet coke in their cooler of drinks along with balloons and licorice. Do my friends know me or what?! We sat around chatting for hours while the kids played at the park, played baseball, frisbee, and football. It was so much fun. I only teared up a couple times, which is actually an improvement if you can believe that. :)

Mikylee & Taytum:

Abbey, Katelyn, & Andi:

Tay & Ellie:

Ty, Dylan, & Carter:

Waiting in line for the pinata:

We finally needed a real man to do the pinata in!

Michelle, Kendra, Amy, Jessica, Jill, Celeste, Alysia, Me, Angel, Tamra (and Taya) :

Garren, Stephen, Todd, Thayne, Jefferson, Ryan, Luke, Jeff, & Brian:

Thank you all  of my dear friends who came and helped us celebrate one last time!! We love you guys!

Kinder Graduation

He did it! Kindergarten is in the books and Carter will be moving on to first grade! Their little graduation was so adorable. They walked in to the graduation music and then put on a little musical program of about four songs. I wish I knew how to upload movie clips from my video camera because it was so cute. They danced or did sign language on all the songs. Carter's favorite was when they got to the song with the disco dancing. I laughed so hard I cried. And let's be honest, I was kind of crying already.

 Carter even had a speaking part that I had no idea about, memorized and all. He wanted it to be a surprise.

 Carter with Mrs. Sahni. She has been such a great teacher. She is not the most kindergarteny/flowery/relief society type teacher, but she is really good at keeping all the kids on task and keeping them busy all the time. Carter really enjoyed her and thrived in her class.

 Receiving his diploma...

 Proud papa....

 And mama....

I can't believe I'm going to have a first grader! Carter is so excited to be able to eat lunch at school now. They even got to practice last week by eating hot lunch in the cafeteria. He still has one more week of school that includes zero school work, I'm sure. One day is field day, one day is a field trip to the zoo, one day is the last day of school.... Let the summer begin!

Mother's Day Weekend

(Should I just say Mother's Weekend?) It was amazing. From Friday until Sunday evening, it was pure fun.
Friday was Mother's Tea with Carter's kindergarten class. They read a book about mother's, then sang a bunch of cute mom songs. The kids served us cookies and punch and presented us with book bags they painted for us and a picture and poem. Andi came home from preschool with a cute cupcake cookbook they decorated at school with new oven mits. I am quite certain that nothing is better than homemade gifts from my kids. I adore everything they give me.

Friday night was "Deathwish," UFC fights at the Century Link Arena with three of our good couple friends. We had a ringside table and enjoyed some delicious greasy eats and watched some pretty good fights with good friends.

Saturday Andi and I went shopping in the morning and then went to Carter's soccer game. He is turning into such a good little player and is so much fun to watch.

Then, Jefferson said he had a surprise date planned for us and to be ready by 3:45. When someone showed up at the door I expected it to be a babysitter, but it was three of my best girlfriends who whisked me away for the day. We went and got pedicures. Then went to dinner at Cafe Ole', followed by a little shopping. And then we went to the movies. When we went to drop everyone off at home they stopped and said to wait in the car for a minute, and then we proceeded to have a CBS, car baby shower. :) They brought out a bunch of gifts for baby boy. I may have shed a tear or two at how amazing my friends are. I ended up getting home at one in the morning. I was seriously spoiled rotten by these girls, and by my husband who took care of the kiddos all afternoon and evening.

I couldn't believe that the next day was mother's day, where Jefferson proceeded to continue to take care of me and the kids. When I got home at 1am there were flowers and homemade cards from all the kids on the table. The kids and I made cupcakes in the morning before we went to church. After church Uncle Josh came over and we had dinner, went on a walk, and then had dessert. Josh and Jefferson played with the kids while I watched on drinking my diet coke and reading. It was the perfect day.

There is seriously nothing better than being a mom. I feel nothing but blessed when I think of my practically perfect kids. 

Baby brother...

Some people have asked whether we got a good "boy" shot to be sure we really are having a boy. Take a look for yourself. And that wasn't even the best shot, but it was the one that has the nice little arrow to direct you to his manhood. :)

Our ultrasound was so awesome. They always are. I did have a little sad bone to think that it would be my last one, and last gender reveal. We took Carter and Andi with us and they were really excited... for about the first five minutes, until we found out what we were having, and then the rest of it wasn't near as interesting, looking at the brain and heart and back and doing measurements. They were very well behaved and did enjoy watching baby brother kick. He kept tucking his feet in and then kicking his legs out straight, over and over again. This explains all the movement we have felt so early on. I may have cried just a little bit, especially when we found out it was a boy. He did a little somersault at first and we caught a split second of a bum shot and I didn't see anything right away, so I kind of thought maybe it was a girl after all. And I would have been thrilled. But then baby settled down a little and we got a couple of good parts pictures. He was a busy little boy in there and once again, it was so magical to watch this little being who is growing inside of me. I feel so blessed and thrilled to be having another baby and even more excited to be having a boy. Carter is so excited! He keeps saying that he can't wait to hold his baby boy. It's going to be something special. And, as always, we are open to any and all name suggestions that you may have. I have a top three already, but I like options.

Bo.

Oh my little Bo-Bo. She does make me happy. She has grown up so much these past few weeks. For a little over a month she has started growing a pretty decent vocabulary and will try to mimic quite a few words of ours. She can say Dada, doggie, hi, yeah and baby all pretty clearly.

She learned how to crawl up the stairs a couple of days ago, and while a lot of people probably dread that stage, it was a big physical developmental milestone that we have been working on with our PT, so I was thrilled! She also pulled herself to standing all by herself today for the first time! Also super exciting for me. She has been so anti-weight bearing on her feet and until recently wouldn't bear any weight on her tiny, flimsy feet. Again, the past month or so, we have seen vast improvement and she would actually stand for about a minute at a time when we would put her in standing, but she couldn't get there herself. The girl might actually walk before she gets to kindergarten!