Carter turned 4 years old yesterday! He has been gearing up for this birthday for quite some time and I don’t think it disappointed him!

For his birthday meals this year, Carter chose “chocolate balls” (cocoa puffs) for breakfast; Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch; and veggies with hummus, fruit, deli ham, and cheese for dinner. His dinner choice made me really happy! The kids like eating vegetables when they are served uncooked and especially with dip. If you actually cook them into some “dish” it’s less of a win.

For his activity, he chose swimming! Everyone had tons of fun!

Helen and I hung out on the side of the pool and did this:

Carter didn’t want ice-cream. He only wanted cake–a green vanilla cake with custard filling and Mack from Cars. But, unfortunately, there was a miscommunication on the cake.  Josh and I had planned to use his toy Mack on the fondant road. But just as it was time to put Mack on the road Carter revealed that he wanted a fondant Mack, not an actual toy. He wouldn’t accept the toy, so he ended up with just the road. But I think he was still pleased.

Here’s a little bit more about our fabulous four-year-old!

Carter still loves cars as much as ever! Every time he gets a reward for anything he chooses a car. When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said “cars.” When we built a snowman, he named it “Car.” It still makes me really happy that his name has the word “car” in it!

Some other things Carter loves include:

• The color green–If there is ever any choice for color, he wants green! He loves to eat off green dishes, have green cakes, notice anything green anywhere we go, and wear his green pants and his green shirt together.
• Superheroes–He likes Batman and all the Avengers, especially Hulk–because he is green.
• PAW Patrol–He has never actually seen an episode of this show; but we have gotten books from the library about it and he has a few of the toys. He gets excited any time he sees something PAW Patrol.
• Vacations–Whenever we get back from some family trip, Carter is already planning for us to go back! He especially loves visiting hotels/houses with pools and the beach.
• Puzzles–He thrills at taking out all the kid puzzles we have and putting them all together by himself and laying them all out side-by-side.
• Photobombing–One day he discovered it drove Fay crazy to have him jump in front of her fancy poses for pictures. I told him there was even a name for such a stunt and he fell in love!
  

  That face is pure joy!

Another fun thing about Carter is that he is one determined dude…when he feels like it. For example: for months he insisted he was positively incapable of getting himself dressed/undressed to any degree. No he could NOT take his pants off by himself; there was no possible way he was able to put his sock on his own foot. But then one day in about February, he decided he was big enough to dress/undress himself; and in the course of a couple weeks he was able to completely independently get himself ready for the day! He has similarly determined that he can fold all his own laundry and put it away, help mow the lawn, help make any food in the kitchen, and buckle his own seatbelt! I am very much looking forward to the day he decides he can consistently get himself to the bathroom when he needs to go.

We love this boy! And we can’t imagine life without him! Happy Birthday, Bud!

So here she is! Also Portia. They were being princess and queen together.

They just made this last pose themselves. It kind of cracks me up! My girls’ got attitude!

This evening Fay wanted to make paper airplanes. So we did! Josh made one for each of the big kids–all very high quality, fancy style ones–and I made mine–very regular style. We had SO much fun throwing airplanes around the house together! We had contests to see how far we could throw, if we could throw over the wall from the kitchen to the living room, if we could reach the front door from behind the table, etc. Everyone’s throwing skills improved by the end of it all, which was a fun added bonus! And then we took a picture to document our planes. Helen took the picture for us. That’s why she’s not in it.

That was a lie. Helen was asleep in her bed and the kitchen counter/camera timer took the picture for us.

Here is Helen when she was awake lying on the kitchen table. She adorably loves just lying up there looking around!

 

 

Easter is such a magnificent holiday! I am so grateful for the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! I am also so grateful for the privilege I have to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I am grateful for every experience I have had–delightful and lousy–that has solidified my personal testimony of Him and His mission.  And I am grateful that Easter is a holiday that people celebrate as a spring event, even if they aren’t religious. Because Christ is in it! I feel the same way about Christmas. I am okay with the commercialization of Christmas and Easter because it means that lots of people celebrate them, and even if you don’t want Him to be there or think that He is there, Christ IS in Easter! He is in the beautiful new life of spring! You can’t take Him out!

Also, it was lovely to have general conference on Easter Sunday because it is so special to hear Apostolic testimonies of the Savior on that day!

Here is a taste of how we celebrated Easter this year.

We started the Monday before. (We had been a little preoccupied with other stuff before then, believe it or not.) For family party we had an indoor Easter Egg hunt. Here’s Portia loving it!

We died Easter Eggs. The kids all loved this! But it was a little stressful for Josh trying to keep Portia from dumping all the colors all over when it was another cutie’s turn.

He’s the best dad ever.

On Saturday between sessions of conference we hid our colored eggs outside in the beautiful weather and had a fun hunt!

Fay wanted to make an Easter craft. So she made a bunny nose and set of ears.

While Josh was at Priesthood session, Carter reminded me that we hadn’t decorated for Easter. That was definitely NOT okay. So we set to work right away. I didn’t have any inspiration, so I let the kids decorate the mantel this time. They loved doing it, and it makes me smile every time I see it!

Here are the kids showing off their mantel masterpiece.

And though I didn’t think it would happen this year, we DID manage to get the three big kids Easter outfits (one of my favorite traditions)!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!