Random Update

  We had a little get together for my Grandma Dearden's birthday.

Kate with my dad.  It took her a while to warm up to him.

My grandma with her two daughters, my mom and Aunt Lori.

Kate turned 18 months in June.  This means she started nursery!  This is her first Sunday going to nursery.


Monroeville:

A couple weekends ago, we took a little trip with some friends up to Monroeville, about an hour and a half away from where we live.  This is where Harper Lee (she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird) and Truman Capote (he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's among other things) .  They have a courthouse in the downtown district that has a museum in it and the courtroom has been made to be a replica of the one in the movie.  As you may know, I love to read, so this was a fun excursion.  Each year the towns people put on the play in the spring.  Apparently, it's a big hit.  I'm really hoping to go next April while we are still down here.    For lunch we hit up Radley's diner (get it?... Boo Radley)  and got a BLT with fried green tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes.  It was pretty awesome.  Actually, it's one of the top 100 dishes to eat in Alabama before you die, which we all decided means top 100 dishes to eat and then you die because most of them are loaded with grease or fried.  Oh well, still amazing.

I can't get this guy to take a serious picture, but I love him.

Hopefully in the next few weeks we will have some more things to check off on our Alabama bucket list.  Carson is finishing his didactic (lectures/classes) year on Thursday!!  This means he will start his clinical rotations in August and then one more year to graduation!  I'm so excited!  He has worked so hard to get here and has put in many long hours.  I'm sure there will be many more to come in the next year but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, we are getting Kambree ready for kindergarten.  I can't believe she is that old.  It just doesn't seem possible but she thinks it's time to grow up so I better get on board.  She is so excited to start school and talks about it all the time.  Rylee will be sad to see her best friend go, I'm sure.

Other than that, it's business as usual.

Easter in Utah

Well, better late than never, right?  I had the chance to go to Utah for six weeks in April and May this year and it was so fun to catch up with friends and family while I was out there.  In fact, it was so fun that I rarely brought out the camera.  On one weekend I did manage to pull it out though, and it just so happened to be Easter.   Luckily, that is when all my immediate family was in town so it was great timing.  We had our annual egg hunt at my grandparents house.  So here are the pictures I have to show for it.

Kate trying to give eggs to little Miss Abby, making sure she gets in on the fun.

The girls after the town hunt (obviously these are not in any order)

Kambree and my little cousin Ethan walking home from the town hunt.

All the kids who participated in the hunt, including Thomas there in the background.  I can't believe in just five years it went from Kambree and Lincoln to this crew.  Love these kids!

Apparently Kate was a big fan.

I don't see these boys enough.  Funny kids!

Sweet Abby.  

Grandpa wanted to see the kids' fun so we brought him to the door.  Bad picture but the only one with all of us in it.  Kate was kind of terrified.

It was so good to visit everyone and have us all together for a whole week of fun.  We had a whole lot of stuff shoved into one week but it was awesome!  I'm going to have to do a post from my phone I guess because that's where most of my pictures are located.

Odds and Ends

Here are some random pictures from Carson's school break.

This is a possum we saw at the Five Rivers Center.

Of course, we got beignets at Panini Pete's.  This is a local favorite, if you come visit, we will go. 

As you can see, Rylee loves them.

Rylee wouldn't get close to this dinosaur.

Kate was a little leery too.

Then decided she wanted out of there.

Snow Day in Alabama

 It never snows here in Mobile, but snow was on the forecast.  I was very excited!  Carson... not so much, but because they don't have the equipment to plow/ice roads and the snow here is more like a sheet of ice they canceled school for two days (so far).  This may have changed his mind a little bit.  I love it because it feels like I'm back home.  Kambree loves it, Rylee is so-so, and Kate is a definite no if she has to touch it.

This is around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, just ice rain at this point, but if you look in the stroller you can see it starting to gather.

The front yard around the same time.  As you can see, we obviously left our snow gear back in Utah.

Around 5 PM, getting a little more.

Around 8 PM

Kambree was so excited to make a snow angel.  She talked about it all day in anticipation for the snow.

This morning around 9 AM

Rosy cheeks

It's amazing that an inch of snow/ice can be so fun but it has been so great to break up the semester a bit and have some downtime as a family.  

Christmas 2013

This year we celebrated Christmas at our house a week early because we went to North Carolina for the actual holiday.  We did breakfast for dinner on our "Christmas Eve," watched Muppet Christmas Carol, had hot chocolate, set up the nativity while reading the Christmas story out of the scriptures, opened up Christmas pajamas, and set out chocolates and a note for Santa.  

Trying to get a picture with all the girls in their Christmas pajamas.  Kate was screaming because she was so tired.  Rylee was being stubborn and didn't want to get in hers (notice the nightgown instead).  

Another attempt at a picture.  Kate was not happy!

Finally, Rylee decided she wanted to wear her new pajamas and we got Kate a bottle.

This is the best we could do.

This is Kambree's dictated letter to Santa.  Too bad she didn't let Santa know about the crown or the jewel necklace until that instant.  Oh well, I guess there's next year.

All set up for Christmas morning.

"Christmas" morning.  So as you can see, Rylee is missing in this picture.  She decided to be stubborn again and didn't want to open presents.  We went on without her and eventually she decided to join us.

There she is. I'm glad she got happy again.  I sure love that girl!

The aftermath.

The next day, we traveled up to Durham for the actual Christmas.  We had a lot of fun seeing all the extended family and hanging out with everybody.  It was chill and nice to have a laid back week.  

Poor Uncle Collin gets a lot of abuse  attention from our girls.

The real Christmas morning, traditional picture in front of the tree.