Lady GaGa finaly died!

Halle (Halle aka Cinderella)

Halle entertains me daily. I would like to get in her head someday and see exactly what goes on there. Today on the way home we had the following conversation....

...lady GaGa playing on the radio......

Halle: Mom, did lady GaGa die?

Me: whispering to Chris, "Oh I hope so!", but then answering: "No, she's very much alive."

Halle: "Well doesn't she smoke?"

Me: "yes, I think she smokes."

Halle: "Well, she should be dead. Smoking kills you."

Me: "It can give you cancer that can eventually kill you."

Halle: "Well will you take me to her concert?"

...gulp.....

Me: "By the time you can go to a concert I don't think she'll be singing anymore. (only if I'm lucky enough!)

Halle: "Maybe I can go to Adam Lambert then."

Me: " How about Susan Boyle?"

Halle: "I DON'T EVEN LIKE HIM.....WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ADAM LAMBERT, HE'S REALLY GOOD. I KNOW HE WEARS MAKE UP BUT I LIKE HIM!"

Chris: "Susan Boyle's a woman."

......on the radio now singing is Sean Paul.....

Me: " What about Sean Paul?"

Halle: "MOM, HE DOESN'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH! WHAT IS THIS THAT HE'S SAYING? I CAN'T UNDERSTAND HIM!"

The conversation ended by me saying when she turns 15 years old, cause that's how old you have to be to get into a concert, we can go to a concert together that we both agree on....This girl is very detail oriented. She makes me laugh so hard! It doesn't help that she gets sarcasm and uses it on Chris and I. Aaahhhh, funny.

Ethan

I get to look at this face EVERY day, I am so blessed!

This past month was a little stressful and scary for us. As many of you know, our oldest son, Ethan was admitted into the hospital w/ a deep neck infection. It happened so fast and literally over night. This infection then turned into an abscess (which was staff bacteria) underneath his curated artery...3 cat scans, 2 surgeries later and a week in the hospital and this entertaining son of mine is back to his loud self. The only proof that something was ever wrong is the 2 inch cut on the side of his neck. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father, who answers prayers. I've never felt so helpless as a mother, but through trials and hardships comes humility and blessings. Chris and I are blessed with the greatest support group...EVER! We have the best family and it's very humbling as they continue to help us out in so many ways.

Highlights of the worst week ever:

1. Ethan was so ornery to everyone, those poor nurses! Any time they asked Ethan if he needed anything he yelled, "I told you, nyooo!" completely naughty, but hilarious coming out of Ethan in his mumbly voice.

2. While at Primary children's Hospital, Carlos Boozer and Jerry Sloan came to our room to give Ethan a signed basketball. Ethan says nothing to him, but slaps the ball from Carlos Boozer's hands...they sprinted out of our room.

3. By the end, whenever a nurse would come in the room to do vitals, Ethan would say without looking at them, "I don't need anything, fanks guys!"

4. Whenever they would come and give him his medicine through his i.v...he say, "Mom, what happened to me?"....so sad, yet so cute said in Ethan's voice.

THANKFUL

I'm so blessed! I love this family of mine.

I was supposed to be Daisy duck, but after a "minor"

panic attack, I became a caveman. Seriously, I'll never give

my mom crap again about being claustrophobic again.

My adorable family provides me w/ the comic relief that is needed in my life......

More Hopkins funnies:

1. In the car the other day Spencer let me know that the sun was in his eyes. Ethan said, "Dencer don't worry I'll keel (kill) the sun!" I looked in the rear view mirror to see some FIERCE blinking going on from Ethan towards the sun.

2. Halle informed me that she speaks Spanish, which I already knew because I hear it all day and night. It gets better, when I was watching my one year old niece the other night Halle informed me that Shea didn't understand what I was saying because, she too speaks Spanish. Who knew?...Halle.

3. After seeing her aunt snuggling w/ a boy, Halle informed me that Sharise was laying on her friend's lap, THAT IS A BOY! She then went on to say, "I'm going to have to talk to her tomorrow about that."
4. Spencer has been going around telling me to "spank der booms", ( spank there bums). Examples of what he wants me to spank.. a chair, Ethan, his blanket, a flower arrangement, Ethan, the dogs, Ethan, his ball, his sippy cup, and Ethan. Before child services are called, he's just playing. It's a thing my family does, we say, "I'm going to spank your bum", and then we give a nice rump slap.

5. Spencer was watching basketball on t.v tonight and started yelling at the team, "cum on guys, pass the ball!" He's TWO! Seriously, it's moments like this that give me a glimpse what the future holds for me and my t.v. time.

Funny Hopkins moments

1) We went to a family reunion on Chris's side and as we were getting ready to leave, Halle said to my mother in law that she was sorry that she called her relatives weird..
Lucinda (mother in law): "I didn't know you called my family weird."
Halle: "I did Grandma. But, they're not weird they're just old".

2) Halle and I were driving past some cows and Halle asked me why people have cows. So, I told her that some farmers/ranchers raise cattle then sell them to other people or to stores for meat. Halle's response: "Mom, wait a minute. Are you telling me that milk and hamburger BOTH come from cows?"
Me: "That's what I'm telling you."
Halle (now making this weird throaty noise) says: "mom, that's disgusting!"
Me (laughing): "I know, it actually is when you think about it. Are you going to still drink milk and eat hamburger."
Halle: "yep."

3) I was saying to Halle one day after picking her up from school, how old she's getting and fast she's growing up. She looked at me w/ this concern/sass and says, "mom, I'm not dying. I'm just in kindergarten." ....very true.

4) Chris informed me today that he found out that his great-grandma was an alcoholic. (he really knew that, he had just forgot!) Anyways, he told me that that explained everything.
Me: "what does that explain?"
Chris: "why I'm so addicted to Mtn. Dew. Carrie, it's the burn I love!"
Me: nothing was said.....I just laughed.

5) Spence (my youngest) is severely, annoyingly, adorably attached to his blanket. I snuck it away from him and got it washed and dried without him knowing, (I think my friend Micah would know what an accomplishment this really is!) Well, when I went to hand it to him it was still warm. He grabbed it and said, "Hoh, mom. Hot, blow on it." It makes perfect sense, I blow on his food when it's too hot so naturally I would blow on his blanket that was too hot...smart kid.

6) The other day after I got Ethan and Spence buckled in their car seats I went to go let Halle know it was time to go. As I was walking away I heard them start yelling something at each other. My father in law asked me what they were yelling about and I told him I didn't know. Well, as I got closer to the car I heard:
Ethan: "Stop it Dencer (spencer), she's my mommy!"
Spence: "No, she's my mommy."
Ethan apparently can't come up w/ another response so he stares Spencer in the eyes and just starts screaming. Don't worry I broke the fight up and then started it over again when I said, "I'm both your mommy. I'm Halle's mommy too!"

7) We were eating ice cream the other day. Ethan got distracted, of course, and went off to play. Well he came back into the kitchen and looked in his bowl and let out a gasp..
"Mom, my ice cream dead!"

8) Ethan got hurt on his finger and came over to me crying. I picked his finger up and kissed it. After looking at his hand, he grabbed my mouth and pulled it open and said, "Mom, owie gone!"...I AM pretty amazing.

Halle's belated birthday post. I can't believe she's 5!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALLE!


Where to even begin with Halle. Halle is the most complex 5 year old girl I've EVER met in my life! She is the sassiest, sweetest, girliest, tom-boy you'll ever meet. She has always acted so much older than she is, maybe that's to go w/ the fact that she's always looked 2 years older than she really is. As I was going through all of the pictures w/ Halle in them, I noticed that over 3/4ths of them are Halle hugging or holding one of her brothers...that's Halle. She has always been so maternal and such a great big sister. She adores her family, especially her Grandmas'! She loves to be outside, fishing, camping, and going on picnics with our family. Some of my favorite things she did as a little kid is call bumble bees, "bum bum bees". When we were potty training her, her motivation was gum. She couldn't have it until she actually pooped on the toilet so every day she'd go up to chris and say, "Daddy, don't eat my poop gum, k?
Just recently I had to go to our neighbors house and have a talk w/ our neighbor about Halle peeing on their lawn. They were swimming, she didn't want to walk home ( 2 houses down), so she did what any sensible girl would do....she pulled off the swimsuit and peed. She seriously cracks me up! I'm so grateful for this adorable little girl in my life and the sweet little spirit she has. Our family would not be the same without her...you know, since she runs the show! As frustrating as she can be sometimes Chris and I have said many times that we wouldn't change anything about her, we love her so much and just the way she is. Sass and all.

She's 2 in this picture.

Halle on her birthday. She likes to relocate flowers that I put in her hair. I would get Halle ready for school in the mornings and Chris would drop her off. Well, when I went to pick her up, her flowers were always moved to the very front or right on top of her head. One day I went to pick her up and she was in full makeup. Don't worry, chris helped her blend in the lines. We all know we don't want lines in our makeup. The other mothers thought it was hilarious and I just loved the fact that Chris blended her makeup for her instead of wiping it off. funny.

Halle and Chris. They are so much a like! If Chris goes anywhere, Halle is there right beside him.

Isn't she beautiful?...I love her!

The bruiser turns 2!

Awwwe Spencer! I can't believe that my youngest is 2! If you would have told me that I'd get pregnant with a 3 month old, I wouldn't have even laughed. why?..that's not funny to someone with a 3 month old. Well, God apparently had a surprise for us and could see the bigger and better picture....Spencer. What a blessing this little boy has been in our lives! He loves to make people laugh. Even at such a young age, he loves to be funny and make his brother & sister and mom & dad laugh! He is such a sweetheart, but has a quick temper..aka (the hot dog story). Spencer is proof that athletic ability is born with you. He can throw a baseball with speed and accuracy, he catches a football and he can hit a ball that is pitched to him! It's a little creepy. I love this little scaredy cat of mine and his complex personality!...he really is scared of everything!

Chris and Spencer

Spencer in the hospital during a 2 a.m. feeding.

He's always had the most kissable cheeks!

He has ALWAYS slept like this. When he's relaxing, watching a movie or asleep in the car or crib he has his arms up like this.

Spencer is totally a Grandpa's boy. He loves his Grandma and mom, but if Grandpa or dad are around, it's all about them.......and did I mention Spencer can swing a bat like a pro?! He usually hits balls on his tee or on the ground, but every once in a while he catches an unsuspecting victim. Case in point............

me.

Who could get mad at that little face? I love this kid to death!

Procrastination= one big blog!

Our family funnies/updates:

Halle has had quite the last month. First, she graduated from preschool and is so excited that she finally gets to go to "Cody's school". The last week of school her class went on a field trip to one of the local fish ponds and Halle caught a fish. As we were walking into the house I heard the following statement:

"Fish, you used to be alive, but I went and caught you and killed you....I'm so sorry about that. But, I really like to eat fish". It made me laugh!

Second, Halle came into the house one day and told me that she wanted to show me something. We went outside and she went to get on her bike. She told me that she knew how to ride her bike and I said that her dad needed to take the training wheels off, because they had broken, and teach her how to ride it. She insisted that she knew how, so I let her prove me wrong. Well, she got on her bike and took off. She had taught herself how to ride her bike! I was so proud of her! Chris came out and took the training wheels off and she rode up and down the street all night, turning, standing up and pumping to go up the hill. It was pretty impressive. And Halle's final milestone, one that I'm most proud of, is that Halle has learned to receive emails in her head. What?!, you might say. Halle informed me the other day that she received an email that Lydia had gotten home so she was ready to play with Halle...(we had just called Lydia 3 minutes before that.) You know I should have seen it coming, with her dad being a wizard and all!

Memorial Day:

Memorial Day weekend we were pretty busy. On Saturday we went to Chris's softball tournament and the kids had a blast running around while their dad played. I thought it was time I put some pictures/posts of Chris doing "manly" things, because I wasn't portraying his "manliness".

Ryan was frustrated about the hit he had just done....so sad.
On memorial day we went to a park, where they had a pond. We had a big bbq and did some fishing. It was a lot of fun, but I loved this picture of Halle and Chris!

This little kid was so cute. He came over and showed Spence his fish, since we couldn't catch our own. Spence eventually built up some courage and touched the fish. That is a milestone for him, seriously he scared of EVERYTHING!

After the bbq we went over to the cemetery so we could put some flowers on my dad's, grandma and grandpa's graves. When I was getting the flowers ready earlier in the day Halle came up to me holding a small rose plant that my mom had given her a couple of weeks earlier. Honestly, it had seen better days. She told me that she wanted to give this to Grandpa Loveridge because he would love it! She was right, he would love it. So, she drew a heart on it and then signed her name. In between all of those sassy moments, there is one of the sweetest little girls I've ever seen! Oh how I love her!

The zoo:

This Saturday (for my birthday) kind of...I own it because it was the day before my birthday, and lets be honest that the older you get the more anticlimactic your birthdays get so I need some excitement. So we'll just pretend that we went to the zoo to celebrate me and not the fact that my kids were stoked to see "real" animals. Anyways, we went to the zoo and it was so much fun! This is me and my cute sister in law, Lindsey.

This is Ethan's reaction at seeing the elephants for the first time...priceless...and this is Spencer's reaction to the elephants................can you just see the excitement on that face?!

This was more up Spencer's ally. Nice mellow...monkeys. There was this baby orangutan, playing with this sheet. Spence was glued to this thing. The monkey would dip it's "blanket" into the river below, pull it up and then drink it. It was fascinating! Spence loved it up until the monkey dropped it's "blanket". He literally gasped and said, "monkey dopped it's dankut". For 5 minutes he said this. The monkey had moved on, oh but not Spence. This child of mine has a connection with his thumb and blanket and he was so sad for this little monkey..it was so cute.My cute family and our day of fun, ( I'm the one in the subtle yellow cardigan). I told you this was a long post!

'I'm Eee-fan, I'm fee!"

This is what Ethan said all day long on his birthday. He just celebrated his 3rd birthday last week on May 9th...I know, I know, way to be on top of things Carrie! I'm pretty sure at the age of 3 Ethan had my dream birthday day...he lounged in my bed all morning demanding drinks, goldfish and movies. While he lounged I made the beloved "volcano" birthday cake, he wanted a cake like Luke's. How do I explain that I'm not as artistic, creative and talented as my older sister, better known to Ethan as Luke's mom, so I just went with it and it turned out how it turned out....he LOVED it! He would come into the kitchen ask me to take off the foil so he could see it and then he would knock one of the dinosaurs on the head with his dinosaur he had in his hand and growl. He honestly did that at least 10 times through out the day...and that's Ethan. Ethan is such a funny, affectionate, impatient little kid. I think when they made the saying, "wrapped around their finger", they were talking about Ethan. He has a way of sucking everyone in that's around him. He will cause you pain or frustration one minute and then is immediately kissing you and telling you that he loves you. In fact tonight I had put him to bed in HIS bed, he's notorious for getting into Spencer's crib once the door is shut, well sure enough I heard them talking and laughing and hitting the wall with something. So, I got him out of the crib and carried him over to his bed. As I'm walking to his bed he's yelling, "help me dencer (that's spencer)! help me dencer!. I ove (love) you mommy!"...that's Ethan. I love this picture! He has the same profile as his dad.

I've always called him monkey. Do I really need to explain?

Ethan and his volcano birthday cake. I'd like to give a shout out to Amy for inspiring me and setting my kids up for disappointment. Thanks sis!

Ethan on his birthday. You thought I was kidding! Nope, he really did lounge in my bed watching movies.

Anyone that knows Ethan has made the same comment about how this is a perfect representation of him. What a stubborn cutie! I love him so much and I'm so grateful to be his mom. Who knew frustration could be so endearing?!

Business in the front and a PARTY in the back!!!

So my boys' have needed a haircut for a good 2-3 months now and I finally decided to do it. You don't understand why I have to mentally prepare myself for it....it's because Spence screams the ENTIRE time. Not cries, not whines, but screams and shakes the whole time. This adorable son of mine is scared of EVERYTHING. You'd think he'd be used to the clippers by now. He had 6 haircuts before his first birthday. I'm not kidding, my boys are half monkey. I tried to get before and afters of Ethan and Spencer but I didn't even want to deal w/ Spencer and the camera....I think you can get how bad they both needed it by this picture of them with Halle.

I really thought of leaving it like this and not saying anything to my mother-in-law when I dropped him off at her house the next morning. I wanted to see if she would have said something to me.