The first and second graders have been practicing all year to perform during chapel today. (Don’t they look excited?!)

Raine is in the second row, right next to the director’s left elbow.


Here are the words to the song (as remembered by Raine):

You’re the God of all the ages
The beginning and the end
Omnipotent and mighty
I cannot understand
But I can come to you in worship
And you hear this one small voice
Your love and peace surround me
And in wonder I rejoice

Abba, Father! Abba, Father!
You hear me when I call you
And I know I’m not alone
Abba, Father! Abba, Father!
You love me like a child of your own

Carter loves electronics! In order to keep him off my phone, I have resorted to bio-metric identification. The only problem, as Carter quickly found, is that you can get to the camera without logging in to the rest of the phone. So now, I find HUNDREDS of Carter-selfies on my phone! And not just selfies, he’ll take pictures of pretty much anything: I’ve woken up to the sound of my phone’s shutter, I’ve heard it while I was in the bathroom. I am getting pretty adept at deleting unflattering photos of myself! But here are a few of my favorite Carter-selfies:

9/26/14

9/27/14

9/27/14

9/29/14

9/29/14

9/30/14

10/2/14

10/5/14

10/5/14

10/6/14

10/8/14

10/9/14

10/11/14

And here is a sampling of the random other things that he takes photos of:

9/14/14 Carter’s fire ant bites, his entire ankle was swollen over

9/14/14 our home teacher, Brother Jeppson

9/15/14 waiting to pick up Raine from school

9/18/14 Carter loves to sit on my lap while I work at the computer and he loves to take photos to keep from getting too bored. Don’t my nails look great!!

9/28/14 Carter’s picture of Raine

9/28/14 Raine’s picture of Carter

9/28/14 Raine’s picture of Carter being a dog

9/30/14 Raine and me!

Now I can go reclaim some of my phone’s memory!

May 31
Carter: Do they cut their fingers off?
Mom: Huh? Whose fingers?
Carter: The chicken’s fingers. Do they cut off their fingers and cook them for these? (Indicating the chicken fingers he’s eating.)
Mom: Oh, no they don’t cut off the chicken’s fingers.
Dad: They call them chicken fingers because it’s chicken that you can pick up with your fingers.

May 17 I was preparing to paint my toenails when Raine came in asking me to paint her fingernails. As I was finishing up, Carter asked if he could paint my toes. I knew that if I said no, he would ask me to paint his fingernails. And not wanting to be the unfair mom who paints one of my children’s nails but not the other, I agreed to let him paint my toes. I figured that it wasn’t a big deal since I could just clean it off when he was done and re-paint. Unfortunately, he selected a very cheap, very sparkly bottle of Raine’s polish that did not come off AT ALL! I had to go to the ward party with paint smeared all over my toes. Lucky for me it was a very light pink so it wasn’t obvious!

June 8
The kids and I went to visit someone in a nursing home after church today and every time someone would walk by Carter would ask “Is that a really old person?”
Apparently I should have used a different phrase to describe to him what a nursing home is!

Aug 4 Scripture time — we pick our battles and this one we gave up on when the “audible” and “reverent” criteria were met.

As I was taking the video, I accidentally took a still-shot as well. Apparently, we have full-contact scripture reading at our house!

Aug 27
R: “Did you know that prairie wolves are spread all across North America, aka coyotes.”
Every morning, the first thing out of Raine’s mouth when she first wakes up is an animal fact. She’s usually stretching and scooping hair out of her face as she says it in a raspy morning voice.

Sept 14
Raine, in a fit of rage after not getting her way: “I wish I wasn’t part of this family.”
M: “Oh really, which family do you wish you were a part of?”
R: “None. I wish I was a penguin.”
Me, not seeing that coming: “A penguin!?!!”
R: “Yeah, a penguin at the zoo. With a purple tag on my wing.”
I had no response to that!

Oct 1
Raine, as we drove past our neighbor’s house: “What!!! No fair! They have way more flowers in their grass than we do!”
One man’s weed is another man’s child’s wild flower!

Oct 2
I sent Carter to put some things in his bathroom and bedroom at the new house. Later I discovered the items in the master bedroom and bath. I told Carter again to take them to his room and he told me that his room was the blue one (i.e. the master). After correcting him he complained, “Why do you always get the biggest room?”