Happy Easter

An evening at the park...

Last night we picked up our favorite pizza and headed to Forest Park for dinner and some time outside enjoying our amazing weather. I thought the guys would end up playing ball in the field next to the playground... but instead we all stayed on the playground. It was so much fun.

I think taking pictures with high schoolers is just as difficult as taking pictures with toddlers.



My husband (who somehow turns everything into a game) started riding his long board down the slides. Thankfully no one got hurt!
Carter was up way past his bedtime.



I think last night was the first time in months that everyone was in bed on time.

Here are some shots of Carter playing ball this afternoon. He actually almost took out the lens on my camera. I've really been working hard the last month to avoid using my flash. It's hard at night... but it's felt good to put a little more time into my photos again.

Sweet yesterday...

Our time with Daddy always goes by too quickly. I think it's especially hard now since he's started classes up again. We did have a great day yesterday... when Carter finally woke up from his nap. He's been taking 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hour naps every day. I do have to say that I think the long naps have something to do with our two guys starting sports up again last week (that and the fact that his Daddy loves to sleep). They now stay after school for baseball and track instead of coming home with all of that high school energy. I don't think it was a coincidence that Carter would wake up around the time that they got home every day. Those naps are great on the weekdays but hard on the weekends when we love to get out.

We ended up walking down to our library after Carter woke up yesterday. We are so spoiled by our location. The library is about 7 doors down from our house (right next door to the high school and middle school). Don't ask me why we haven't actually been inside the library for several months. I will tell you that it's pretty awesome. It has a fireplace and the basement has fun toys and puzzles.


Lastly, here is a picture of a cake Fred and I made from scratch last night. We spent 2 1/2 hours on it and it turned out awful. We made everyone try a piece of it... but most of it ended up in the trash. Does anyone have a good cake recipe that doesn't require beating the eggs in a bowl sitting in a pan of hot water?

I LOVE that Carter will have spent his early years growing up in this house. I think it's pretty awesome that he's never known a time without these guys. Sometimes they call Carter O. G. -- which means Original Gangster. It's a term of love and respect. I love it when they call him that. Anyway... here is our little O. G. in his finest the other night...

Please pray for Jolene!

My sister's best friend was deployed to Korea this week because of a computer error the military has refused to fix. She was not supposed to be deployed because her husband had already received orders to be deployed to Germany. They have three young children. You can click on the link above to read the entire story.

Making his own choices tonight...

Child safety locks and high schoolers don't mix well. First we had a really nice wooden gate at the bottom of our stairs. That lasted about two weeks before it broke in half. Then we installed locks on most of our kitchen cupboards. The main cupboard that Carter would get into was our breakfast cupboard with his beloved Trader Joe's cereal bars. I was sick of having to gather a collection of cereal, pop tart, and cereal bar boxes strewn around our main floor every 20 minutes. I think the last straw was when one of our guys poured cereal into a bowl for breakfast and one of Carter's pacifiers came out with the cereal. Those locks have made my days so much easier! The only problem is that they are only strong enough for a toddler. The breakfast cupboard lock only lasted about a month before it broke in half as well. I have had a rubber band keeping it locked... but that broke last night. Here we go again....


On a side note... here is what it looks like outside right now (there is about 20 minutes between the two pictures):


We're supposed to get 6 inches today. On Sunday it was 76 degrees. I think Maplewood is the only School District in all of St. Louis that is open today. Dan was pretty bummed when he got up this morning. I really don't understand the weather here!

4 hours and counting... Carter is such an amazing sleeper.!! I put him down at 1:00pm and he is still sleeping. I think he's making up for the first 6 months of his life when he hardly slept at all. I hope this is a new phase since Dan started night classes again tonight. That means for the next 8 weeks he'll be gone from 7:30am to 9:30pm twice a week. :(

We have finally had some amazing temperatures! They aren't supposed to last for long... but we're going to enjoy them while we can.

We met some friends at the park on Friday. It was still a little cold but we had a lot of fun. My camera was being funny so I didn't get a picture of Lucy and Will... but here are Carter and Evan on the pizza swing. Carter loved getting to play with some boys his age!

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