Yellow belt with a green stripe

Carver is very good at Tae Kwon Do! He just completed his Yellow belt form and has learned a lot of kicks, punches, defense moves and other skills. He is very good at memorizing terms and loves Master Kwon. He is really fun to watch!

I wanna hippopotamus

dance recital

Me and Madalyn at the dance recital

Madalyn's "best" smile.

I thought it would be a great idea to start Maddie in dance this year-- it has had its ups and downs. But what I've realized is that all 3 year old girls love to move around to music-- whether they can take instruction and end up with a real dance routine is sometimes debatable. But she did it and had a great time in the end-- and of course she earned herself a push-pop which made it all worth it.

1 big surprise

Here is what Jaycee and Madalyn did for Carver's birthday.

gotta love em!

Festival of Trees

We had a family night at the big event on Friday night. There were several beautiful trees and stories about the people they were dedicated to... after our experiences this summer at Primary Children's Hospital , I guess I feel like it is a good thing to contribute however you can. I made a new goal to someday donate/decorate a tree and another goal to someday purchase a tree. We decorated and donated a tree when I was in YW and that was fun and I remember when my mom and one of her friends did-- their's was with drilled eggs-- she still has one of the eggs and it is beautiful. I can't say when I will be able to do it, but I would love to do both. As for now, paying an entrance fee and doing some service projects and helping with Eagle Scout projects that donate to Primary's is the best I can do. Our good friend was performing with her Irish Dancers so that was fun to see as well. I'm glad Madalyn was there to see it, we had some good conversations... And to top off the night we got a picture with Santa. Nicalee loved pulling his hair, luckily it wasn't all attached!

Happy Birthday Carver

I really can't believe that life just moves so quickly! It is sad how the first child is sort of the "tester" for every new parent that doesn't really know what they are doing. We certainly didn't. We read several books and watched lots of friends and family with their children and of course didn't want to make any mistakes. All I can say is that I am so happy Carver is who he is and for everything he has taught me about myself and about life.

Carver is so creative in what he draws, how he plays (by himself and with others), also in his logic, and humor. He makes me laugh on a daily basis. He is so much like his dad in some ways, but so utterly himself that I am sometimes shocked when his feelings get hurt. He is very confident in some things and very sensitive in others, I guess that's the way we all are. I am sure he will be taller than me by the time he hits Jr. High-- the kid grows like a weed-- or an aspen shoot in my lawn. He is very helpful around the house and he is a great older brother (of course you would have to catch Maddie at a good part of the day for her to agree with you right now). He is also a joker and a tease-- today we found out the he and some of his friends showed their teacher how silly they can be and they all got their names on the board. I think his teacher had a hard day today. He is a great kid and loves to challenge himself with things like tae kwon do and piano. Actually, sometimes he doesn't love the challenge, but he does give it his all when he has made the decision to do something. I just LOVE him!

A Conversation

dad: Carver, why are you so upset?

Carver: It's mom.

dad: What did mom do to make you upset?

Carver: She makes rules and gets mad when I do stuff.

dad: Sometimes mom's do that.

Carver: I know, I've been dealing with this for the past 5 years.