Billy and Elton

For Christmas this year (2009) I gave Chris tickets to see Billy Joel and Elton John.  The concert was supposed to be in November, but it was canceled because they got sick.  Thank goodness my neighbor was also going and informed me of that, or else I'm sure Chris and I would have been the only ones hanging outside of the E center waiting for a concert that wasn't going to happen!  It was rescheduled for February and worth the wait!

The two of them played together first on two concert grand pianos.  It was awesome!  I couldn't believe how fast their fingers flew over the keys and how they never looked at their hands!   Here is a picture of that...

Then Elton played by himself for a while.  To be honest I had a really hard time understanding him, and I personally think 8 minutes is a little long for one song. But everyone loved him, and really I just went to see Billy Joel! 

I love this shot.  Not only does it show how full the concert was, it shows how high up we were.

Billy at the piano.  He played all my favorite songs....well almost.  I would have liked him to play Longest Time, but he played all my other favorites so I can't complain!
He was such a great performer!  He actually came out from behind the piano and sang with a microphone and all that good stuff.  At one point he actually stopped singing and you could hear the whole arena singing his song for him.  It was awesome!
Chris and Billy....well kind of :)
Another great shot
The one picture we have together of that night.  Can you see us?  We are the little dots on the right :)

Valentines Weekend

The poor "En's" can't seem to escape from us! At every opportunity we head to Idaho and disrupt their nice, quiet (well as quiet as you can get with 2 little kids...ok, we will be honest...with Hunter!) life. The 5 of us barge in with all the noise and junk our van can hold....and invade! But, we have a blast doing it and hopefully they do too :)

Uncle Mike was awesome and took Ben for a little spin while he was clearing the driveway. Ben thought he was a dare devil, but apparently he hasn't ridden with Uncle Mike in a while. Mike was taking him on a few little jumps and I heard Ben say "Mike, can we go slower next time?". Funny from the kid that tells me I drive too slow on the snowmobiles and ATV's at the cabin! This picture looks like Ben is upset, but really he had just gone over some snow and got some cold, wet snow all over his face. See, check out the jacket ;)
I have no idea why these pictures loaded like this, but moving on...
Chris with his favorite friend...the computer. Mike and Ben workin' hard movin' snow

What is better than swimming with snow on the ground???

Since we werer there on Valentine's day we decided to do a little game with the kids to find their Valentine's day treat. It was cute and I think the kids loved it. Brittany and I also made an amazing dinner...Check out her blog for pictures of that since I didn't get any :(

Do you think a little thing like a wrapper would keep Mr. Hunter out of the candy? You guess wrong my friend!


The girls enjoying their Cinnamon Rolls. Thanks to Ella, they were frosted to perfection!

Who knew a little red and yellow car could be so much fun?!

So, the story of the bomber jacket. Hunter has this cool flight jacket that he was wearing around. I noticed Andrew eyeing it a few times, but never brave enough to put it on. Then Hunter took a nap. All bets were off and the jacket was on! He thought he was just a stud in it! He posed for the camera and couldn't stop smiling! Thankfully when Hunter got up he either didn't realize it was his coat, or didn't care...because Andrew really didn't want to take it off! He pretty much wore the jacket for the rest of the trip! Thank you Hunter for sharing!

And now for the scratch marks on Andrews face. Notice they are only on the right side of his face. Hunter and Andrew would play in the little jeep all the time. Andrew would be the driver, and Hunter the radio man. When Hunter would get upset he would scratch Andrew, hence the marks only on the right. Andrew is finally getting a taste of his own medicine. Thank you Hunter :) But really, doesn't that smile say it all? He had so much fun....and so did we! Thank you Mike and Brittany for an amazing trip...again. :)

Happy Birthday Babe!

I know it is hard to believe but Christopher is 30 today! We love you! And may you never change, you are perfect just being you!

Carter's Come to Town!

*Note - I know there is a big blurry spot in most of these pictures. Andrew got a hold of our camera (again) and was kind enough to place his cute little fingers all over the lens. Luckily Chris is into optics and was able to clean it at work the next day....again*

Our "New Mexico" friends came to visit! I don't really know why we still call them our New Mexico friends since they now live in Logan, but we do. Well, except Evelin. I call her my sassy Brazilian friend - with love :). They had a few things to do in SLC so we convinced them to come and visit us again! We had so much fun and it was great to have some sass in our house, because we never do :)

I just love this picture of Evelin and Andrew! Andrew loves Evelin and was her little buddy!
After Evelin's AMAZING Brazilian strogenoff (and I mean AMAZING), we had a little cake to celebrate her being done with her immigration stuff. We got Costco's wonderful, fat filled, chocolate cake and threw some candles on it, made up a "Happy Happy end of Immigration" song and took a picture. I have to admit, I was a little baffled. So, we took this picture before we sang...

Then Evelin turns around and starts doing dishes again! I explain that we are going to sing a song to her and she needs to blow out the candles.....so....

She turns around....

Blows out the candles....

and before the smoke clears is texting! I told her I would put this on my blog...so to be true to my word, here you go Evelin :)

The next day we took it slow in the morning, got caught up on the latest news, let the kids entertain eachother for a few hours, then went bowling at BYU!

The crazy Carter Clan...

Not to be out done by the crazy Erickson clan.... (well sadly these are the only 2 shots of kids looking at the camera...so it will have to do)

We did "skittle" bowling. It was so much fun and really it just gives me an excuse for my horrible bowling skills....I really stink at bowling!

After we said good bye to the Carters we headed out to our car. Lucky for us we found this red carpet with lights all over it and cutouts of photographers - so naturally we all had to stop and get our picture taken! Kallie walked up and down the red carpet waving. So cute! She is such a little ham! Check out that pose!

Can you tell Chris thought this was a really silly idea?

We didn't care! We LOVED it!

Thank you Keith, Evelin, and Soph for coming to visit!!! We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!

Busy, Busy little boy

My friend J and I take turns watching eachothers kids so we can work in Ben's and T's classrooms at school. Andrew and little J normally don't get along very well and I feel like a referee a lot of the time. I really don't worry about them though because if Andrew gets too close for little J's comfort she will scream...and let's just say little J has a great set of lungs when she wants too :)

A few weeks ago I was watching little J and Andrew at my house. I had them both in the laundry room with me and next thing I knew they were both gone. Thinking they had just gone to play in Kallie's room I went to check on them, but they weren't there. I stand still for a second and I don't hear any screaming, which got me curious about what was going on. I went downstairs and saw this cute sight...

They had teamed up and discovered the dog water and (thankfully) the empty dog food bowl. Andrew was very generous and got little J cups and bowls to share and they were busily taking the dog water and putting it in the empty dog food bowl, and then back again. This kept them busy for quite a while! Had the water not run out (it was all over the floor, rug, little J and Andrew) I'm sure they would have been there longer. I was so impressed to see them playing together without fighting I just let them go for it! Isn't this how friendships are formed anyway? Get on a common project, work together, and a friendship forms....well at least for a few minutes before Andrew pulled her hair again. *sigh*

In other busy Andrew news this is what I get when I leave the room while he is eating lunch. Yep, that is him on my counter eating the center out of the bread. Look at that face! He is so proud and has no idea how naughty he is being! (It probably doesn't help that I think everything he does is absolutely adorable and laugh at him....but really, how could you be upset with a cute little guy like this????)

His final masterpiece.....

He is such a busy little monkey! These pictures were taken after I noticed I hadn't heard from Andrew in a little while. He got into our pantry, opened a new box of Cheezits (that were three shelves up), and helped himself to a "few".
See, he only wanted 4!

En/On/Hanson Cabin Trip

After we visited Mike and Brittany in Idaho, they decided to come and visit us in Utah. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were flying out of SLC airport headed to Hawaii.:)

We all decided to play for a night or two at the cabin. Alex, Amy, Ava, Gian, McKinnley, and two Pottymouth kids. It was great! The snow was amazing and just begging the kids to come out and play. So, we obliged.

No, that is not an adorable little girl in the PINK coat...it is my big, buff Andrew :) It just so happened we couldn't find his other coat on our way out, but we did find it on our way back in. Hey, it makes knowing which one is Andrew and which one is Hunter a breeze!
My brother Mike doing his best modeling move. Check out how beautiful it is at the cabin!

How cute is this little Ella! I have to admit I was surprised how much Ella loved the snow. Kal and Ella climbed up this snow hill and sled down, getting snow lodged in their snowsuits. Fun Fun

The boys. They tunneled all over the cabin in the deep snow and made snow forts. Let's just say T was so worn out by the end of the night he missed dinner and fell asleep on the couch!

Christopher took the kids on sled rides behind the ATV. We packed them all in like sardines and off they went. Heaven help them if they slide down! They had so much snow gear on they looked like marshmallow kids!

Ella, Kallie, and Hunter, getting ready to go!

Love this pic of Ava and Alex!

My boys

See, sardines!

Don't get me wrong - I love Dandy and Maggie - but they are so annoying when we go sledding! It is like they are trying to break their legs! They jump right in front of the ATV or sled and just stop. Just stop! So we yell and yell for them to get out of the way, and they do, but it is a heart stopper!

The boys went for a little more "intense" ride. Ask Chris

When the boys were not outside in the snow, they were up in the TV loft playing video games. I'm shocked they could see straight!

Look, Lion and lamb playing nice...with chaperone :)

And what trip is complete without a little laundry basket racing???

Andrew wanted to get into the laundry basket too, but they both wouldn't fit. We grabbed an empty box and let them go for it! McKinnley and Kallie were good sports and pushed them all around the cabin!

We had so much fun with you guys! Thanks for coming down early so we could play :)