FHE Hip Hop Style

Alden & Emmett took an after school karate class this fall, and then Alden had golf and a Lego class. And Emmett has been taking a hip hop class. (We love that we can use our school contribution money that is tax deductible to pay for these classes!)

So tonight for Family Home Evening Emmett showed us the routine he's been learning. I even bought the Justin Bieber song so he can practice. And as soon as his routine ran out the other boys joined in with their best moves. And Aaron & I sat back and enjoyed the show.



Afterwards we worked on putting up the Christmas tree. We're planning to have all our decorations up this week since we are hosting a Carpenter Christmas party on Saturday.

His First Book Report

When we were in Flagstaff in January we visited Bookman's, our fave used bookstore, and had Alden join their kids program. When he reads 10 books they let him choose a new book to keep! We are only choosing chapter books that he reads himself, and it's so fun to see him sitting somewhere reading for an hour on a Saturday. I gave him a new spiral notebook to write his book reports in and this is what he came up with for his first one. We are proud of the reader he has become! Not to mention his serious writing skillz.

Our Soccer Stars

Alden & Emmett both played soccer this winter. It was a bit much for Emmett, who had played in the fall too, but he learned a lot & we convinced a bunch of his friends from the ward to join our team for the 2nd session. We had Alden play with his old team, back in our old neighborhood, because we love his coach! But it got a bit old driving him out there for practice. But we did enjoy seeing some old friends every week. And we sometimes had dinner with my parents, which is always fun.

I love these pictures of Emmett, who is always good for some funny faces or interesting hand positions. That kid is awesome! He has been making so many new friends too. Between our ward and his soccer team, I think he'll know at least 18 new kindergartners at the elementary school next year.

I NOT TREE, I TWO

For about a month before his birthday we asked Roland daily how old he was. Which he knew. But when we would talk about his birthday coming up and how he would turn three, he was always angry and said, "I not tree, I two!" But by the time the big day rolled around, we had finally convinced him.

The day before, Papa Carpenter had a big birthday party, which he graciously shared with Roley. We took Spiderman cupcakes with bright blue frosting and Nana gave Roley his own Spiderman! Can you tell he's obsessed? His preschool teachers tell us he also talks of Spiderman constantly at school. At least he can pronounce it fairly well now, for the last six months it's been my-a-man.

He woke up the morning of his birthday in his Spidey jammies, holding his new Spiderman. I made him a cute pin to wear to church over his fancy corduroy suit. He's like a little man.

We had the Blasnek family over for cake, ice cream & presents. Ma'am & Grampa got him a canopy for his new loft bed and we gave him some Toy Story Legos. Buzz & his Alien friend still get in a little playing time with Roley, especially since Spidey is too noisy to take to church.

The last year with Roland has been fabulous - he is a sweet and fun boy. He will give Mama loves and kisses anytime and runs bawling to me 10 times a day after "Emmett hurt me!" Yet he's the tough one who jumps his brothers constantly and loves to wrestle. He is more and more interested in book and reading stories and can sit still for a movie at the theater now. He is going to be a star soccer player next year, and wants to play golf too. We can't wait to see how he develops in the next year. We love our Ro Ro!

The Semi-Frozen North

My parents invited our family to share their timeshare in Flagstaff again this year and we were happy to take them up on it. It's been a few years since we've been and I'm a little glad we waited - I think things were much easier now that the boys are a little older.

We scrounged snow clothes for the boys and the boys played in the quickly-melting snow around the condo. When we arrived at 8pm, Roland wanted to go right out. We obligingly left him on the porch in his PJs, where he shivered for a minute and declared it too cold that night. But the next morning we suited the boys up and sent them out. While the sun wasn't great for the snow, it made it much more comfortable to be outside for more than few minutes.



I couldn't resist this picture of Roley crying with a face covered in snow. His brothers got a little rough.



We had a great few days, hitting McDonald's, Bookmans, church, redbox, etc. And on Monday we went sledding with the Rasmussens, who drove up just for the day. It was a beautiful, warm day, with lots of slushy hills. We left our camera in the car, but imagine Alden as the young daredevil, who would go off the tallest and steepest hills face down! He loved it so much and we're pretty sure he's going to become an Olympian in some winter sport. Emmett and Roland had fun too, going down the hills plenty of times. Roley constantly wanted to have a snowball fight and would throw handfuls of snow constantly while giggling - he's a cutie. Alden went off with the Rasmussens to build a snowman and have a real snowball fight. Kirk & Jody said that even when he had a faceful of snow, he was smiling wide and laughing. Here are a few shots from the car afterwards. We were all soaking wet because of the barely-there snow, and I loved Alden's face covered in dirt from going face first down the hills.

Thanks for inviting us, Ma'am and Grandpa - we want to go again next year!

My Baby Started School!

After a fairly quick and pain-free round of testing as soon as he turned the required 2 years and nine months old, Roland was accepted for the special needs preschool. His class is pretty much like a regular preschool, but extra focused on speech, which is the ONLY thing wrong with my perfect baby. (You get the sarcasm there, right?) This all means that on January 3rd Roland started preschool! He attends four days a week, for two and a half hours, but with the bus (which comes to our front door), he is gone from 8am until noon, Monday through Thursday. I have spent time in his class, which has about a dozen kids ages 3-5, a teacher, a full-time aide, and a speech therapist who is there one day a week. Roley LOVES it and also enjoys riding the bus every day. We are noticing small changes in his speech already, and anticipate big improvements in the next couple years. Barring unusually fast progress, we anticipate he will continue in this program until he starts kindergarten in two and a half years. I am so thankful for this free service from our school district.



A little shy posing for pictures on the 1st day



He is a Boulder Creek Bulldog and this is Teacher Julie



First day riding the bus all by himself


In far more important news - between Roland & Emmett's overlapping schedules, I now have a blissful 2.5 hours to myself, two days a week. One of those days I use for volunteering in Alden's classroom, but that other day... I can totally take a morning nap if I want!

The Amazing One

I am thankful for a fabulous husband who helps so much around the house. Often it seems like I'm the one helping out a bit while he does most of the work. Today he made a delicious pork roast dinner, with all the fixings, for our family and his parents & sisters. I didn't go into the kitchen the entire time. Then he served dinner to the boys & I; then cleaned up all the food. Isn't he amazing. And just now, while I was resting from my not-so-strenuous day, he was ironing the new shirts and pants that he recently picked out and bought for himself. He bought these because he also started a new job last month, where he works harder than ever and provides more than amply for our family. He's a keeper! And handsome!

And what was I doing today? Reading a book, watching football, and putting together our Christmas cards. I put the kids to bed too, including individual stories for each. I think we know who got the better end of the deal today. But I can't say how much I love Aaron, and how thankful I am that he wants to share the load with me. Thank you, sweetheart!

A Little Late for Halloween

Alden was a vampire for Halloween this year. But it wasn't until tonight that he completed his fang look. This is what his mouth has been looking like lately:

Minus the pizza sauce, of course, that's only there a couple times a week. One of his front teeth has been moving more & more towards center, but not getting much looser over the past couple months. Obviously the permanent tooth was coming in and I was debating going to the dentist to get it pulled. But after getting knocked in the mouth at basketball on Saturday, the tooth bled a bit & then turned black the next day. Out it goes. Too bad we had family pictures in the meantime. And too bad he smiles such a huge smile, showing off his crazy teeth. Oh well.

But at FHE tonight, my mom came prepared (she's a hygienist). She brought numbing gel & used the kitchen table. Here's the process:

A few minutes later & we have this:

All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth! He won't be this way for long though, you can already see the permanent tooth pushing through. Thanks, Maam!