Summer O' Fun

Carter started playing soccer this summer on a competitive soccer league called Infinity Soccer. He has really enjoyed meeting new kids and learning more about soccer. A couple weeks ago they competed in the Cache Valley Cup. He had a good time, even though it was really hot.

WOW, can you say wild summer?? Before summer starts I always wonder what we could possibly do to fill it up! Well, I have found out that things take care of themselves. We attended a Berrett Family Reunion over the 4th of July. We all headed up to the parents house for a fun weekend. Can I say that the blowup water slide is a great investment? It isn't mine, but I sure wish it was.

Earlier in June we went to Hill Air Force Base during Air force Week. We were able to so see all sorts of cool planes, helicopters and bombers. We were even lucky enough to see the Thunder birds. It was a great day, even though we did get a little sunburned!
OK, sometimes I do things that make me feel really old, almost like I am old enough to be a "real mom". We made our decision on what to plant in our garden then we made our way to the store to buy our seeds. We decided this year we wanted to try to make pickles. Well, after some major weeding (thanks Trevor & Amy) to find the cucumber plants, there were quite a few there that needed to be picked. We picked them, scrubbed them, cut those bad boys up and put them in some jars. I couldn't have done this if Celia, who is the neighbor who grows everything, hadn't given me some of her home grown dill. Well, I poured my ingredients together and presto chango, my cucumbers were now pickles. Surprisingly simple!!!
My birthday was July 7th, and I love ice cream cake. So, Paul was nice enough to buy one for me. I just remember, there is still a piece in the freezer, I better go eat it.

I know this is a real random picture, but I love kids hair when they wake up in the morning. Well, it looks like it took Buster all night to get this cool spiky hair do. I don't think all the hair gel in the world could have recreated this look.

We went to a Bee's game. It was great fun, I'm not sure what the score was, but we had a great time. Also, we attended a RSL soccer game at Rio Tinto Stadium last week, and I was great FUN. I am pretty sure we will attend another game real soon.

We put Buster in soccer this year. Let's just say I wanted to pull my hair out every game. it is like the theme was "to play or not to play" and they would decide every 5 minutes or so. Kids would randomly go sit with their parents, while they were in the middle of the game, or they would lay down on the floor or just plain start crying for no reason. We will see if we decide to do this again next year.

The kids started out the summer taking swimming lessons. Carter has really gotten

be a great swimmer. So it will be interesting to

see if he chooses soccer of swimming over the long run

Furlough mom

As part of budget cuts, all USU employees were required to take the week off, and I have been looking forward to this since I found out, althought it was without pay, I found my week to be priceless. I had a great week being a real mom.

Monday- I started out the week on Monday shipping Carter off to school, exercising and planning on lunch with the girls from work. Well, I got to Cafe' Sabor at noon and found out the because of all the snow Carters' school was being dismissed at 1:00, well so much for a nice lunch, so I scurried off to pick him up, along with my take out.

Tuesday, watched my sisters little boy Grant. Besides being a baby-sitter, I went a step further into being domestic, I decided to pressure cook chicken. I had some chicken that I had bought about six months ago that needed to have something done with it. So, the previous Saturday I had put it in my fridge and started the thawing process. By Tuesday it was thaw and I cut it up into chunks and put in a little salt and put them in the pressure cooker (rented for $1 form the USU extension office). It looks gross, but it has some really nice broth in it and I am sure it will taste good.

Wednesday-I am not sure what I did this day. I think it was laundry, dusting, exercising... boring stuff. Oh, I did get up and go to the grocery store before Paul left for work. Smith's was having an awesome sale. We love Quaker Quakes and they were on sale for $.49, same with Powerade and all sorts of different pasta's. So this was a food storage day. This was my dad's birthday (March 11th) and also Paul and my's first date 14 years ago. Wow, that was a long time ago, I think I have a few more gray hairs now!!

Thursday- I always volunteer in Carter's classroom on Thursday's, but I also signed up to do recess duty. So Denise watched Buster and I headed to Carter's school for 2 hours. Wow, recess duty is really cold, I don't get why kids enjoy it so much.

Friday- I started by exercising, then cleaned bathrooms. I had made reservations to go the the Draper temple open house. So after Carter was out of school, we loaded up and headed down. It was a beautiful temple, but very busy. We had a great time!

Saturday-hair cut, clean, prepare for tax appointment (when you owe, you don't do taxes until late March early April), and in a few minutes I will be watching the Aggies play in the WAC tournament.

It was a great week and it went by way to fast, I think I need one of these every month, I wonder how my boss would feel about that??

Love is in the air

It's that time of year again, when you go to the store and look for Valentines for your kids. Well, Carter picked out the valentines for his classmates they when he has finished them I noticed that he didn't have enough for his teacher, teachers aid, and the 2 student teachers. So I actually had some valentine type cards so I told him just to write a quick note to each person. Well, apparently he must like McCalle, because after he finished writing her card I took a quick look to see what he had written. NOTICE THE BOTTOM LINE ON THE CARD!! Watch out ladies, Carter goes for the older women!

If you can't read it he put his phone #. I tried really hard not to laugh. When I asked him why he put his phone # he said with a cute little smile "I don't want her to forget me". Duh, what a dumb mom!!


Carter has a great teacher that planned a Valentines day tea. I brought some chocolate dipped strawberries (middle of the above picture to the right). Each child had to have one sandwhich, and then they each took about 5 desserts. The fun thing about this tea party was that it was the Mad Hatter theme, so each child mad their own hat. I was impressed with how original Carter was.

The funny thing about Carter hat is that his teacher had to get something out of the cupboard right next to Carter to she got out her stool and climbed up and got what she needed then she stepped down and the feather on Carter had "goosed" her and gave her a little scare.

Wow, that was a lot about Carter, but one last thing. Carter just finished ski lessons and he had a BLAST! I hope he keeps enjoying it because he is doing very well.

February was also filled with multiple USU basketball games and a few USU hockey games. Carter was able to go out during one of the breaks in the hockey game and throw ding dongs into the stands to everybody.

I (Andrea) started taking a weight lifting class up on campus so I can get back in shape to run the 1/2 marathon again this year. I haven't really lifted weights before, but I am excited to get all ripped, just kidding, I don't think by body is made that way, it prefers bulges.

Live and Learn

I called this entry Live and Learn because that is what we are on earth to do. I am finding that it happens everyday all day long. So, my entry this month is showing a few things that the we have learned this month.

Carter has been wearing a dress shirt to church for what, 8 years now? Well, this is what happens every Sunday morning. He comes upstairs and asks me to put his tie on. I always start laughing and tell him to look in the mirror. He looks and says "How did that happen?"

A few weeks ago he got a new sled. We have an area by our house that was named by all of the neighborhood kids "The PIT", this is an area that is meant to be a retention pond, but it is also a great biking area, roller blading area, sledding, bb gun shooting range and anything else you can think to do in a pit that is about 10 feet deep and 50 feet long. So, when Carter got the sled and said that he was going to go off the jumps down at the pit, and I told him that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Well, from the picture below you can tell that he decided to go off the jump.
He had scabs for a good week and insisted on wearing his coat with his hood on all during church so nobody would notice. Well, I hated to tell him that it probably draws attention to him. Buster hates clothes! As soon as we walk in the door, off come the clothes. Well this day, when I was down stairs he must have taken off the underwear, put it back on backwards a inside out, then decided that he needed a little extra "support" so he put on another pair over the top.
When he grow up, he wants to be a fireman, so he was practicing hitting the rock hard snow with a garden tool.
Buster has been saying quite a few funny things that make me laugh. Here are a few of them.

1. The other day we had a conversation as to why he couldn't take his underwear off and run around the house naked. He was so mad and he kept saying "Lamenites don't wear underwear"!!!

2.He just became a sunbeam and the other day when we got home from church is asked him what he learned about and he said "beans", I thought that was a little weird. Then he started singing "Jesus wants me for a "SunbeaN".

3.Paul was eating some food on our bed and Buster was sitting with him, then Buster sneezed and Paul said "Thanks for sneezing in my food", then Buster sneezed again and Paul said "Thanks for sneezing in my food", then Buster replied and he patted Paul on the back, "No problem dad".

4. The other night we were eating and we were having french dip, so I started to cut Busters hoagie bun is half and he started getting mad and yelling. I told him we couldn't put the roast beef inside if we didn't cut the bun, he didn't care. He told me to stop and then he said, "That's it, where is the tape".

I won't die young from a lack of laughter!

Christmas time

We were fortunate to have a great December. Paul and I went to the MOTAB Christmas concert and it was great. That has become our yearly tradition and our one official date of the year. We get all gussied up and eat and a nice restaurant and we don't have to go to a place that serves kids meals. Mom and Dad came down and made the rounds to every ones house. They came to our house on Christmas eve and stayed until December 29th. It is always great having them come and spend a little one on one with the kids. They love having Grandma and Grandpa Berrett come to visit.

This is what happens when Grandpa puts his suitcase on the toy box! The love Buster's little look. I don't think he can take the whole blame, his cousin Grant was running around also, so I think he probably had a little to do with it.

It is usually hard to catch Buster will all of this clothes on, so we were doing good to catch him with half his clothes on. He was excited about his snow shovel and scooter that he got from Santa.

Carter picked out a Buzz Lightyear for Buster for Christmas. Every kids seems to go through a "Toy Story" phase and Buster is smack dab in the middle of it right now. It's ok, that is one of my favorite Disney movies.

I think this might be Carter opening up his first of 20 king size candy bars he ate on Christmas day. Ok, the # might be a little exaggerated, but nobody will really every know how much he ate that day.

First of all, Carter and Caleb are both cursed with my "bloody nose" gene! So, as you can guess from this picture the poor kid got a bloody nose on Christmas morning. So, for us it is normal for him to have toilet paper up his nose, but to everybody else it probably seems weird. Carter did make a haul this year from Santa, among his favorites were his night vision goggles (on his head in the picture), Nintendo DS, snow boots, ski coat and mad libs.

A couple days after Christmas we went to the movies and saw "Marley & me", we absolutely loved the movie. We aren't necessarily dog lovers, but Carter had just read the book and we thought it would be a cute movie to see. We laughed and cried and even sobbed a little. There were some words in the movie that I would have preferred my kids didn't have to hear, but it wasn't anything they haven't heard on TV. It was a good movie that reminds you of the days when you were young and how you loved your dog.

November Happens

We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. I was personally told before we arrived that we would be sleeping downstairs in the bedroom with the king bed. But, when you are the last out-of-towner to arrive then you get left with the one room suite outside. After refusing to sleep in the "one room suite" which is a small cabin with a twin bed and optional double sized blow up mattress, with a 12 inch tv with local channels only and wifi, Paul volunteered to be the in-law of the year. Well, lets say he would disappear quite ofter out to his quiet oasis and would watch tv all by himself while all of the loudness of family get together was going on inside the house.

This year I volunteered to make the sweet potatoes since we have had the same sweet potato recipe since we were little kids. Last year my sister-in-law made a great sweet potato recipe and I had gotten that recipe from her after Thanksgiving, but I forgot to bring it with me. So I hopped on the "wifi" hookups offered and found this good recipe that was very delicious. It is quite simple and I think I will make it year around.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mashed-Sweet-Potatoes-with-Brown-Sugar-and-Pecans-15683

So my mom wouldn't feel so bad, I still put the marshmallows on the top!



Buster, what can I say about the kid, you have to love him. Today I was looking at the cover of the New Era for December and he saw baby Jesus and he said "Look is Jesus Smith". I think I need to work with him on the difference between Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. Yesterday we went to the BYU vs USU basketball game and while we were there Buster as usual, was looking for BIG BLUE every ten seconds. Well he caught a glimpse of Cosmo the Cougar and he kept saying "Where is the Jaguar", I think he has been watching a little do much Diego.

Carter was Baptised on November 1st. It was a wild few days with his birthday on October 30, Halloween on October 31 and his baptism on November 1st. It was great to have our families there for the wonderful occasion. Every night during Carter's prayers he asks for a blanket forgiveness of any sin he could have committed that day. Today was his first official fasting day. When we were at church he kept asking for fruit snacks and I said that he could eat when we got home. His jaw dropped and he said that he couldn't wait that long. Well, last hour of church Paul came and got me out of R.S. and said that Carter was feeling ill. We were walking down the hall and I told Paul that I thought that Carter was probably just hungry. He did look a little pale and had the sick little pout on his face. So we were proceeding down the hallway and we were walking by the "dangerous" gym doors that open out into the hallway. I live in fear of those doors because you never know who is going to come walking out of those doors when you aren't looking. Well, it was Carters lucky day ( not really). We were walking by the doors and he had his head turned and was talking to me when all of a sudden BAM a kids pushed open the door and smacked Carter right in the side of his head. Poor Carter started crying and I have a bad habit of laughing when people get hurt (a bad curse I have, I don't know how to stop laughing when somebody falls down or gets hurt or has their zipper down), anyway I had to turn my head while I was trying to comfort him. I did tell him is is a lucky thing his head was turned looking at me or he would have a broken nose!

Carter's baptism day family picture.

Happy Halloween!

I bet Dentists love Halloween. It means more business. Paul says that he hates to take the kids trick or treating, but deep inside it reminds him of being little again and enjoying the best day of the year. For those of you who didn't know, Paul LOVES candy! So, he and the kids left the house about 5:15 pm, and I didn't see them again until about 8:15 pm. That means about 3 hours of trick or treating! Do you want to know how much candy you can get in 3 hours? It was probably about 10 pounds of candy. They went to almost every house in the ward boundaries and also made a trip to the church to another wards trunk-or-treat. I tried to tell them you aren't supposed to go unless you donate, but it didn't matter.

Buster loved his costume, he loves Firemen and was so excited to get dressed. He has worn the costume numerous times since Halloween. Who says boys can't play dress up? Carter, bless his heart, that kid changed his mind at least 10 times a day as to what he was going to be for Halloween. At school he dress up as the Grim Reaper(spelling). Then when he go home he decided that he wanted to be somebody from Star Wars, I can't remember the persons name. So we used the same outfit and put a light saber on his belt and called it good. Carter also decided this year that he wanted to use a pillow case rather than a trick or treat bag. Well good thing, because that bag was half full when he arrived home.