FHE Spotlight--Carlie Mae!!!

Okay!  Final kid!!!  So tonight was Carlie's night.  She has lots of scrapbooks to go through--being the first kid and all, I was a little camera crazy!  But she was soo dang cute and still is!  So it was fun to remember our younger days!

Ethan:  What Ethan likes most about Carlie is how she "embarrasses" him at school.  She likes to mess up his hair and make him do silly things like hit himself.  (I guess it's a brother's job to be "embarrassed" by his sister but he obviously really likes the attention--go figure)

Max:  (Having a better night tonight:)  Max likes that Carlie lets him play with her Barbies but he doesn't like that she keeps him out of her room!  "No Boys Allowed!"  is a permanent sign on her door.

Dad:  What dad likes best about Carlie is how adventurous she is!  She is always up for trying something new--like softball.  She tries everything and LIKES everything!  She is just soo darn talented it's hard to keep her humble!  She also is the first to try any new food!

Arianna Braun, Morgan Mann, & Carlie--the stars of the team!

Mom:  What can I say about my little clone?!  How can I not love EVERYTHING about her!  She is an AMAZING pianist--I know I am her mother but in 16 years of piano teaching, I have never had a student like her.  It just clicks and makes sense.  She's sure to pass me by in a year or two.  I also love how helpful she is.  I LOVE having a 9 year old!  She is a fantastic babysitter for her siblings.  I know that we would never make it out the door on time in the mornings if I didn't have her.  She gets the dogs outside, school bags packed, and Tatum in her car seat all without being asked!  Like I said, I would drown without her!  

Carlie & I at Phantom of the Opera on Broadway 7-09

Eventful Thursday!!!

Wow!  What a night here at the Meeker house.  Our Ethan FINALLY lost his first tooth!  I am pretty darn sure that he was the only 2nd grader that has not yet lost a tooth!  And it was no easy feat either!  He didn't get his first tooth until he was about 14 months old so we knew that he would lose his teeth late too.  I had just spoken to my dentist's wife this morning about taking Ethan in to see Dr. Welch on Friday because that tooth HAD to come out--because the other one was coming in fast--and he was not letting us help!  Frustrating!  But I told him at dinner that we were going to the dentist the next afternoon and at bedtime he let Chris pull out his tooth!  So I guess next time I'll have to "threaten" a little earlier and save some tears!

After that momentous event Chris and I were off on our "date night."  Yes...I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we are huge Twilight fans--Chris included!  We've both read all 4 books--Chris didn't read them because I said they were good, he read them because his good friend (Jeremy) in his office was reading them and he didn't want Jeremy to be the only "gay guy in the office."  So anyways, Jeremy and his wife Erica rented out an entire theater at Superstition Springs Harkins Theater and we bought our tickets from them.  All 450 seats sold in a day!  We arrived at the theater and saw the lines wrapping around the building--it was insane!  But we already had our tickets in hand, Jeremy was saving us seats, and we had a 9 p.m. showing so we got to bypass all of that madness.  Our group had organized a fun raffle of lots of fun things--we didn't win anything but it was sure fun to see all these crazy women--the theater was about 90% women--scream and holler over their winnings!  The movie began promptly at 9--no previews!  It was hilarious!  The excitement in the air was just so contagious!  It was like being at a huge bachelorette party.  Every time Jacob or Edward came on screen there were all kinds of "Ohhhhs" and "Ahhhs" and squealing!  The movie was AWESOME!  Can't wait to see it again!  And we had a great time and got back home around 11:30 p.m.  So not too late for a school night:)

This was the only picture Chris would take!  

I wanted a picture with the Jacob cutout!

FHE Spotlight--Ethan!!!

Ethan with fireflies on his arm in NYC!

Our spotlight this week was our dear sweet Ethan!  There are just soo many things to love about this little guy!  It was definitely hard for me to pick just one!  But here's what we came up with:

Carlie:  Carlie loves that Ethan will play anything with her--even Barbies.  

Max:  Max just adores his older brother--doesn't like to do anything without him.  Max cannot go to sleep without Ethan there!  There have been a few nights--believe it or not--that Max has had to go to bed early on his own but he WILL NOT fall asleep until Ethan gets there.  (Max was having a bad night tonight and was kinda having a pity-party for himself.  I know he could have said many good things about Ethan but this is all we got:)

Dad:  Something that Dad finds hilarious about Ethan is that his bed is very much like a "rat's nest."  About every two weeks I wash all of the kids' bedding and it's always interesting to see the treasures I find in his top bunk.  Webkinz, gatorade bottles, fusion dome guys, I Spy books, dirty clothes, his piggy bank, old school work....just to name a few.  Just last night Chris and I ran out to do a few errands.  Carlie was suppose to be in charge but she fell asleep.  Ethan needed to get a hold of us to let us know that our dog Bubba was getting into things he shouldn't.  Well, Carlie is the one that has our cell numbers memorized but Ethan had at one time written down our cell numbers in a notebook.  And that notebook was where?  In the rat's nest!  So I guess it does come in handy!!!

Mom:  Probably one of my most favorite things about Ethan is how extremely loyal his is to his siblings!  He is FIERCELY protective of each of them.  When Max was younger I liked to take the boys to the indoor play area at the mall.  They always had a good time there but Ethan did not like others kids talking to Max--even if they were being nice.  He would say, "Don't talk to MY baby!"  And now with Tatum being the youngest he is even more protective of her.  I can always count on Ethan to stick by her side no matter what--Carlie and Max get side-tracked a lot!  I always know that Tatum is in good hands with Ethan is there!  I just love that boy!!!

FHE Spotlight--Maxwell!!!

Okay!  So we missed a week but now we're back on track!  This week's spotlight was Max. Carlie and Ethan thought it was going to be SOO hard to think of anything they liked about Max but after looking through his scrapbooks and talking about different events/memories it was hard for them to pick just one!  Here's what they said:

Carlie:  Carlie loves that Max is ALWAYS willing to let her dress him up like a girl--make-up, nail polish, and anything else.  She is the "Accessorizing Queen" and Max is the ultimate dress-up doll!!!

Ethan:  Ethan LOVES making up new games with Max.  When these two are left to themselves, there's no telling what new games/contraptions they'll come up with!  Ethan and Max can play peacefully for hours (only when Carlie is NOT involoved).  Ethan's favorite game to play with Max is "Webkinz Hide-and-Seek."  Here's the boys with a few of their Webkinz:

An Ethan creation!

Dad:  Dad loves that Max is soo thoughtful and theatrical.  He comes up with the funniest and most thoughtful things off the top of his head!  His stories will go on for hours if you just ask the occasional question and allow him to expand on his thoughts.  He's also got a costume for every event.  He came home from preschool a few weeks ago and announced to us that he had a girlfriend named "Jayda" and that he was going to marry her.  I asked him if Jayda knew they were getting married and he said, "No....it's a myyyysterrrry!"  (He says "mystery" the way Mrs. Packer does--kind of ghost-like)  Here are some of his best poses:

Mom:  One of my most favorite times with Max was when he was a baby.  He was my BEST baby--hands down!  He was a huge (1olbs) but soo easy going.  He rarely cried and he starting sleeping through the night before he was 2 weeks old.  If all babies were like him, I would probably have had 10 of them!  But there was only 1 Max for us so we'll keep him and stop at 4 kids!!!  Here are some pics of my happy/fat Max!!!

Halloween 2009

On Friday night we carved out pumpkins for the big event of Halloween.  The pumpkin carving is Chris' speciality!  He likes to pull out his dremmel for the job!  The kids pick the faces they want on their pumpkins and Dad makes it happen!  Carlie and Max really got into the pumpkin gut cleaning--Ethan did not enjoy this step.  Tatum just wanted to eat everything.

Halloween day was fantastic this year!!!  Carlie had a softball game at noon--the weather was absolutely PERFECT so it was very enjoyable being outside cheering her on!  She had an awesome game!!!  Carlie and Morgan Mann made 4 outs at 2nd base--Morgan was short stop and she would get the ball and throw it to Carlie who was playing second base and they got 4 outs that way!  (Not an easy feat!)  And then Carlie's last hit was a big one--HOME RUN baby!!!  And her home run was the last point her team needed to win!  YAHOO!  I am so darn proud of that girl!  

As I said earlier, the weather was perfect today so we opted to eat dinner outside for a change.  Max was soo excited when he found out we were eating outside that he exclaimed, "HALLOWEEN IS SOOO SPECIAL!!!"  So I had to take a picture to capture the moment!

Everyone wore the same costume they did last week for Trunk-or-Treat except for Max...he wanted to change it up a bit.  So Carlie was a lady bug (this was one of her dance recital costumes that I paid a lot of money for so I try to get as much use out of it as possible!), Ethan was a storm trooper, Max was the red Spiderman (last weekend he was Batman), and Tatum was a black cat.  (I loved asking Tatum what she was for Halloween because she says "cat soo dang cute!  It has 2 syllables "CA-AT!")

We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  It didn't take very long for our kids to tire of it.  They wanted to get home and hand out candy--plus I think they are a little burned out on candy from last weekend!  But we had a great time and it was another great Halloween for the Meekers!!!

Our front porch decor!!!

Mom & Carlie Night out!!!

Carlie and I had a night out on the town!!!  I bought "Phantom of the Opera" tickets months ago and the day finally arrived!!!  So on Thursday, October 29th, Carlie and I headed to ASU Gammage to watch this amazing broadway--I paid A LOT of money for our seats and they were well worth it.  The show was amazing!  I'm glad that Carlie and I share the same love of music.  We have our worst fights at the piano but our best moments together involve music--go figure!  We of course topped the night off with some ice cream!  (Dad had the other 3 kids at Ethan's baseball game--I think we had more fun!!!)