Snippets

Two year old say some funny things!  I love this age when their language starts to explode and all the sudden you get a glimpse into their heads!  These are things that aren't the same if you weren't there, but things that I don't want to forget...

A couple of weeks ago, Carter and I had some time to kill while Sam was at soccer practice.  We decided to take a walk around the park while we waited.  We started out climbing the big sledding hill.  The kids love climbing up that thing.  As we sat at the top we looked out and spotted the playground down at the bottom of the hill. Now, lately, Carter has had a funny little way of saying "yes".  If we ask him a question like, "Would you like a granola bar?" he will answer like this, "Um, yeah" It's the inflection of the "yeah" that is hilarious.  He says it like someone would say the word, "duh". 
So, to return to our story.  We saw the little playground and decided to walk down the hill and go play.  
Holding my hand, Carter looks up at me and asks, "You like the park Mom?"  
"Yes, I like the park Carter.  Do you like the park?"
"Um, yeah!"  (Like, duh Mom, what are you thinkin') 


Sunday morning a few weeks ago we were getting ready to go to church.  I was in Carter's room with him getting him dressed and in walks Sydney with her dress on.  Sydney and Carter start having a little conversation that goes something like this...
Sydney: "I wear a dress to church Carter, but you wear pants cause you are a boy."
Carter: "Uh huh.  I a boy.  You a princess."
Thus we see that Sydney has trained Carter very well.  If he can just keep that mentality, he will really be a catch someday!

Sam's Big Day

As September approaches, the countdown begins.  "Only 13 more days to my birthday!"  And on and on until the day FINALLY arrives!  And now we have a nine year old on our hands.  He doesn't look at all happy about it, does he?

For the big night we had (at Sam's request) Little Caesars pizza and Orange Crush while we watched The Lorax.
Here is the happy birthday boy with his dragon cake...
 
I liked this one of Carter and Sam.  Evidence that there is love at home sometimes...

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Sam...

Here is Carter's reaction to our singing...

Taming the fiery dragon, or in other words, blowing out the candles...

Happy Birthday Sam!  We love you!

Random Ketchup

Here is some Random Ketchup for you...

The Aweome Traina's and Homemade Noodles
We have an incredible couple in our ward named Tony and Lona Traina.  They are amazing, and of Italian descent.  Recently they offered to show us how to make homemade meatballs, sauce and noodles...
 
The kids LOVED using the pasta machine!
 



Lots and lots of pasta...

Such an awesome night!!

The Gordon Family Olypmics
Back when the Olympics were going on, my kids decided we needed to do our own Olympics at home.  So everyone picked an event and for our next Family Home Evening the games began!  Sydney thought the women's gymnastics was amazing, so of course she chose a balance beam...

Carter felt that the Balance beam routine could definitely be improved upon by the addition of a ball...

One of our events was Tennis.  Only we flicked buttons over the net.  A little tricky at first, but even Carter caught on, winning his match against Daddy...

One of the boys chose shooting...



Also included in our events were archery and volleyball.
Here are the gold medalists.  If you notice the chocolate on Carter's mouth, that's because he had already eaten his medal...



Really Random Summer Fun
These are really random, but I thought they were kind of cool.  One day Spencer and Sam decided to play around with some water balloons.  So, they filled up a balloon (well, several, actually) and then they would pop it and try to catch some cool footage with the camera.  All these pictures were taken by them.
First the unsuspecting balloon...
 
The spectator, prepared for the worst...
 
And the water balloon, sans balloon...

Pretty good timing on the shutter, I thought!  Oh, I miss summer!

The First Day of School 
Alas, the day had to come!  And while I really did feel ready for the kids to scoot off to school again,  I felt kind of sad at the loss of our freedom!  Back to homework, crazy schedules and early bedtimes!  But, here they are!  The 2012 Gordon students...
First we have Spencer and Tyler, who rise at the crack of dawn to catch the school bus at 6:40.  Yes, you read that right!  I am so glad they are boys and can get ready super fast in the morning!  Sad thing is, in these pictures it is light and sunny outside.  But, already it is dark when they walk out the door!

They look thrilled to be getting their picture taken, don't they?

Next up is Sam!  Who actually looks excited to be on his way!  Sam was really excited that this year, he finally gets to walk home from school alone! (Not like it's a long walk) And that deal was sweetened when Sydney got placed in Morning kindergarten, so he doesn't even have to walk with his sister.  It's just him and the road...
 
And now the newbie!  The Big Kindergartener!  Sydney! (And yes, the others got one photo, and she got three)
 
I really wondered how Sydney would do starting out.  Last year, when she started preschool, she wouldn't let me leave without big tears.  This year, she was chomping at the bit! Off she went, no worries...

Come on Mom, we've got some Kindergarten waiting...

And, the one left behind...

Carter followed me around all morning asking, "Where Sydney go?", "Where Sam go?" On down the list.  Poor guy didn't quite know what to do with himself.  He is adjusting now, but still misses his buddies.

The Half 
Steve conned me into signing up to run a half-marathon. (I blame him, it was his idea) So, we began training together, which was the best part of the whole thing.  With Steve's super busy schedule, those early morning runs together became my favorite part of the day.
Here is the before shot (thanks to Jim and Jacob for the pictures, and for being our cheerleaders)
 We look pretty spunky, pretty confident, pretty naive...
 
The start...
 
The end.  Notice Steve looks happy.  Still looking spunky, confident.  I, on the other hand, look like I want to die, which at that point I pretty much did! :)

Contrast this one to the one at the beginning.  I don't know about you, but when I look at this picture words like: wasted, death warmed over, and whooped come to my mind.
 
I am glad we did it though, and it was awesome to do it together!

There you have some random ketchup!  Hopefully I can stay on track better from here!