He's Famous...

...or so Carter says.  Carter's Cub Scout troop was on the front page of the Royal Oak Review.  Of course I missed it!  One of Gage's classmates saw the picture and showed it to her mom exclaiming, "look mom, Gage is in the newspaper."  I guess they look a little bit alike :)  She asked me about it and I had no clue because of course of all the times I've read the dinky little newspaper from front to back, the week my kids in it I junk it without even taking a peek.  Well, a friend send me the link and here Carter is in all his notoriety and prestige, hehe.

photo by Patricia O'Blenes of the Royal Oak Review

Celebrate the BIG Day Mad Scientist Style...

This week Carter wants to be a scientist when he grows up, and actually it's been the future profession of choice for a several months now.  So when his birthday rolled around we celebrated mad scientist style, with dry ice, exploding soda geysers, kool-aid concoctions, exploding "atoms", slime and lots of laughing and fun.  We got into costume and went to work in the lab.  When I started dressing the boys in their white coats and goggles and doing their crazy Einstein hair one of the boys yelled, "Makeovers!"  Too funny!  Even little boys like to get makeovers of the right variety.

None of Carter's friends have baby's at home.  It's so fun to see them dote over Camden.  They insisted Cam get a scientist makeover too!

Our Kool-Aid mixers

 Such a fun party, probably my favorite so far!  Happy Birthday C!

They're Home!

My mom and dad came home from their mission in Austria last month.  In some ways the 19 months went by really slow but at the same time I find it hard to believe their home!  I didn't think I would be able to get home when they returned, but thanks to a credit card offer from Southwest that was too good to be true (2 free roundtrip tickets just for signing up for the card and using it once) the trip home was suddenly affordable.  All of my brothers and sisters were able to make it home, it doesn't happen often enough with 7 kids.  It was such a sweet reunion.  The hardest part was being reminded of how hard it is to live so far from family!  Look at all these great cousins my boys have!



My mom admitted that she fully expected to see me but was VERY surprised to see my boys (I hadn't told them I was going to be there and was hoping to surprise them).  Once she saw Rustin (he managed to book his flight so that he was on their same flight from Atlanta to Phoenix) she knew I would be at the airport.  She said she knew I wasn't going to be the only one not there, and she was right!  However, I could tell the surprise in seeing my boys was genuine.  Once they got on the other side of security all of the grandkids ran to give them hugs.  Mom started the rounds of hugs and kisses and the look on her face when she leaned over to hug Carter and realized who she was hugging was priceless.  "Carter!" she exclaimed, "how'd you get here!?!"  So fun to all be together again, even if it was for just a few days!

Grandma and Grandpa meeting Cooper and Amelia for the first time.  Tiffany was brave enough to have twins while my mom was gone...not that she planned it that way.

My parents got home on Camden's birthday and sang him a very special Happy Birthday song.  Being with Grandma and Grandpa may not have been his birthday wish, but my birthday wish for him came true!

With all 17 grandchildren. 

Sisters are the best!  We became even closer while my parents were gone, they became the ones I leaned on while my mom was away.  Love you guys!

TWO!?!

I can hardly believe this little monkey is two!  And a little monkey he is.  He's a tough little bruiser and holds his own, even up against his big brothers.  He loves to wrestle and tries to take you down when you're least expecting it.  At the same time he's a little softy and loves to sit and be rocked with his blanky and his monkey, Joe Joe.  He's a little Linus and would take his blanket everywhere given the chance.  Some of Cam's favorites include reading stories, singing at the top of his lungs, especially during church, trains, monster trucks, and copying EVERYTHING his big brothers do.  He doesn't say much but his very favorite word is mommy, which is the most important anyway!  Although he doesn't talk much he listens better than his brothers do and manages to let us all know what he wants and when we can't figure it out he screams...the high pitch, ear piercing, little girl scream that make your skin crawl.  Needless to say, it gets our attention!  I can't kiss his sweet dimples enough times in a day, I love this little guy!

This year we celebrated his birthday sans dad, Arizona style.  I really need to stop taking my kids to AZ for their birthdays, pretty soon they are going to be expecting it.  But really it's the perfect time of year to get the heck out of dodge and warm up our all too thin Arizona blood.

Happy Birthday Cam, I can hardly believe you're already two, you're growing up way too fast!

Cam even got to celebrate his birthday with his Aunt Janet...thanks for sharing your birthday Janny!!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!!

Cam, we're so happy you're a part of our family!