Yep, We're Still Alive...

It's been so long since I've posted, I sometimes wonder why I bother to keep this little blog up! :)

Life sure does NOT slow down. What have we been up to?

::Carson's Birthday  {I realize it was a few months ago....don't judge, people!}::


Carson's birthday party was a last-minute thrown together thing, where the boys played video games and spent the night. Carson and his friends had a blast and stayed up almost the whole night.

The best part of the party though, was earlier in the evening when Jared had what I call a total "Tami Earl moment."  All the boys were playing Madden 12 on the xbox.  You can play 4 at a time. 4 kids had been playing and Jared was giving commentary during the games. The kids were all laughing, because after all, Jared really is fun to be around. Kids like him. Those 4 had finished the game and then 3 new kids jumped on. Carson was like, "Hey, Cameron! You gonna play?" Cameron was like, "Nah, I wanna play my PSP. " Jared was like, "Sweet! I'm 4th player!" and proceeded to grab the controller and was in for the next game.

The boys all looked at each other....and I'm not even kidding you...gave each other a look like, "Oh, crap! Is your Dad gonna play with us all night?! What are we gonna do?!" Then Cameron said, "Err....Umm, I changed my mind. I wanna play now."

The look on Jared's face was priceless. He was like, "Oh....ok...that's cool."and proceeded to give Cameron the controller.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Funniest Moment Ever.

I thought to myself, "That was a total Tami Earl moment if I ever saw one."  While Tami was totally fun to be around and a "cool mom" she was still a Mom.  I know all her kids, Jared included, would lovingly make fun of her and how she thought she was part of the gang and friends with all her kids' friends.

I guess the apple doesn't really fall too far from the tree.

:::Let It Snow::

Back in January, we had a few snow days. It was awesome. We hadn't had snow at all yet, so everyone was itching for it.

Here's some pics of the kids:

The snow started on Wednesday, an early release day. Surprisingly, they only had a late start that day. I kept them home anyway. After all, why go to school just for recess and lunch?  They ended up having on Thursday and Friday as well. We got plenty of snow time, sledding, hot chocolate and movies in. Jared even ended up taking that Friday off too.

::Church::

I'm currently teaching the Valiant 11 class in primary. To be honest, when I first got that calling, I didn't think I'd like it. To my surprise though, I actually really enjoy it. Last years' class was awesome. I really loved those kids. I was concerned about this years class, but it turned out that I didn't need to be. Carson is in the class, as are so many other kids I know, and they are really really fun. I love it. Plus, it's so fun to see so many of those kids and hear the amazing things that come out of their mouths sometimes.

We actually hit a few milestones recently at church. Truly super sweet moments that I want to remember forever.

Carson bore his testimony for the first time ever in sacrament meeting this last fast Sunday. He had been wanting to for the past few months, but would lose his nerve. Then 2 of the boys from our primary class got up and bore theirs, so he decided to get up there.

I can't even begin to tell you the awesomeness of him getting up there and saying in his big megaphone voice, "Hi! I'm Carson Bates!......For those who don't know me, I'm Carson Bates!" .....followed by a sheepish little grin, and a look like, "Did I really just repeat myself and say my name twice?!"

Bwahahahaha!!!!!

So freaking funny! He got some good chuckles from the crowd.

So much so, that Jared and I immediately burst out laughing and then we were like, "Oh, dang it. We better stop laughing so we don't make him feel bad." 

But that's the thing about Carson. While that would have mortified some kids, he is the ultimate jokester, so he was good-natured about it and thought it was pretty dang funny himself. He did a really good job with the rest of it too. You could tell he was really thinking about the stuff he wanted to say.

Of course, when Jared was asked to speak the following week in sacrament meeting, I'm sure you can what the opening line of his talk was.... :)

Another priceless moment was last Sunday. Kaiya received her very first assignment in Primary to give the scripture. She was so nervous, but she did it! It definitely was the culmination of many years of hard work on her part. It was a particularly sweet moment and totally out of her comfort zone. Jared and I were teary watching her.


::No One Puts Baby in a Corner::


 My friends Karen & Tiffani were asked to chair the Stake Valentine's Dance and I knew it was just a matter of time before they asked me to help. After all, I may have few discernable skills of my own, but I do make a fantastic minion.

The dance ended up being really fun. The food turned out great. I really wish I had taken some pictures of the dance decorations because they were fabulous. Lindsay & Kristin truly outdid themselves. Not to mention, the Lady Band was terrific. It's amazing to me how musically talented people are.

Here's Jared with his hot date to the dance:

Look at them gaze so lovingly into each others' eyes....

 

Jared and I even dance a bit. Well, there was the moment when Jared did jump in the middle of the dance floor and started um...freestyling....if that's what you want to call it! It was pretty dang funny, folks.

Oh, and there was that time he literally followed me around the dance floor, grinding up all into my business, as I was trying to avoid both him and the camera.  Not embarrassing at all.

Oh, and then there was that moment when he said, "Come on...it's time to do the dirty dancing jump."  So we attempted to be all Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey-like and I tried to jump into his arms and he tried to lift me up.  It kinda reminded me of that movie "Crazy Stupid Love" when Emma Stone jumps into Ryan Gosling's arms---except about a trillion times less sexy, because less face it, we're no Ryan Gosling or Emma Stone! :)  We tried it twice and didn't quite get there. I was like, "Uh...what...I weigh like a buck ten and you can't lift me up?! Sheesh!"  

::Valentine's Day::

Valentine's Day came and went. Like I said earlier, I wasn't able to do some of the usual fun things I do for Valentine's Day for my family. Usually I make a fun breakfast with heart-shaped pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream. The kids usually have much better Valentine's cards--like of the homemade and cute variety. Dinner is usually something I've slaved over and is extra yummy.

This year was just as great though. The kids woke up to their Valentine's Day surprise. This year they each got a small Lego set, in addition to some candy and a few very small things. The kids were pumped. The girls got those new Lego Friends and Carson got a small Harry Potter set.  There are so into Legos right now. In fact, Legos are one of the few things that all 3 of them play together. When they play the Legos, they'll all play together forever. It really is pretty dang cute.

For dinner, we ended up going to Red Robin. It was really the best Valentine's treat to not have to cook. Everybody got exactly what they wanted to eat so there weren't even any dinner time complaints. Heaven, I tell you.

After dinner, we watched a movie at home, all curled up in our pj's. What a relaxing ending to a busy day!

Here's a pic of my 3 little sweethearts:

Of course, what would Valentine's Day be without Valentine's gunz?!

I bought sequin heart barrettes from this girl.

They apparently were the hit of Kaiya's first grade class. Kaiya said all the girls oohed and ahhed over her pretty barrettes.

Favorite Valentine's Moments about the kids:

1.  Kaiya totally wanted to please her classmates by giving the boys sports Valentines and then the girls Hello Kitty Valentines. She could have cared less about the sports ones, but she just really wanted to give them something they would like, and knew they would not like the stuff that most girls would give them.  She's just a really caring soul.

2.  Chloe with her hair all stuck to her face. She had tons of hair just stuck to her cheeks like glue. She didn't care though. Bring on the sweets!

3. Carson coming home and telling me how his Valentine's Day party was awesome at school. They convinced his teacher to have a dance off at the party. He just "happened" to have his Party Rock Anthem cd in his bag so he popped it in the player. He said that he, Cameron and Jacob won---they did a bunch of freestyling. My kid is boss!

::He's a Baller::

Carson started basketball in January. He's on the same team as Jacob and Cameron as well as a few other kids he knows. It's been so much fun to go to the games. He is continuing to improve a lot. Jared has taken to calling him "Lin-Sanity", hoping that nickname will take off like gangbusters. 

It hasn't yet.

The team has been doing really well too. Kevin & Jeff are awesome coaches and the kids have been blowing the other teams out of the water. 

I went to post a few pictures of Carson playing basketball, but much to my chagrin, we haven't taken any of him yet. I'll be sure to rectify that at next week's game. 

I even checked our facebook pages to see if we had posted any pictures of Carson playing.

Nope.

But, I did find this little gem on Jared's facebook wall, along with the caption:

"Interesting combo--blue nutters with the Justin Timberlake NSYNC years hairstyle"

 Nice.

So when Carson looks back on his 11 year old basketball season, we can say, "Sorry buddy. We didn't manage to get any pictures of you playing basketball because Daddy was too busy mocking some other 11 year old on the opposing team."


Sheesh.  We're just terrible people.
 
::Working Hard for the Money::

I started a big subbing job with THIS girl 2 weeks ago. We are helping with testing at the high school. We have a few more weeks to go, but I'm so glad we are doing it together. It makes the time go by so much faster and it's fun to be work buddies!

This is the longest I've worked in the past 11 years and it's given me a whole new appreciation for working moms. I gotta hand it to working moms. They work sooo hard! The first week I was pretty on top of things, as most people are when they are doing something only for a week. This last week, well, I just didn't do as hot.

Let's see...I forgot to have my carpool buddy pick the kids up from school Wednesday afternoon for early release. I forgot to meet my primary teaching partner to go on a visit to one of our less active girls. I forgot about school pictures until about 9:00 the night before, proceeded to give Carson one of the worst haircuts he's ever had in his life {nice to know that haircut will be forever immortalized in his 5th grade class pictures}, disappointed my 7 year old daughter because she had to wear a dress that was 2 years old for pictures {I know, the horror! the horror!}, didn't have time to make my kids their usual heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day and not to mention, their Valentines they passed out were the most ghetto they've ever been. The worst is the mountains of laundry I have in the laundry room and how my house looks like a bomb went off in it. And...well, if I'm completely honest, my fuse has been a little shorter than usual. :)

Why am I even mentioning this? Well, it just makes me so grateful for the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom. I know that some women choose to work and they are total rock stars at juggling all those responsibilities. I know that some women, due to circumstances, need to work full-time and bear that burden with ease and because they are doing what is best for their families.  For my little family though, we just work best when I'm still home taking care of everyone and everything.  I miss my little Chlo-Bo during the day. I know that the days with her at home full-time are dwindling much faster than I want them to. Before long she'll be in school full-time too.

I gotta say though, my family has been awesome throughout these few weeks. They get up early, we are out of the house by 7:15, there's been minimal fighting. Jared's there to get the kids ready, help with breakfast, etc. I don't know how I'd do it without each and everyone of them pitching in! I love my family. I really do! They are the best!

Well, I guess that's it around here. I'll leave you with a picture with the Chlo-Bo: