Butterfly Museum

Gorgeous Momo

Sweet Maggie

Beautiful Katie

Jake pointing at a butterfly

Houston Butterfly Museum

Today we went to the Houston Natural Science Museum to visit the butterfly gardens. All the kids had a good time and we took Mawmaw with us to help with the girls. We saw the dinosaurs and an exhibit about energy as well. This was our first trip into the butterfly section and it was amazing to see all the different bugs flying around. They would even land on you it you sat still enough. Of course on this little excursion, Maggie did NOT sit still. Good thing I had Mawmaw with me because Maggie ran through each exhibit like a speeding bullet and Katie pretty much found something she liked and sat there.. forever!!

The butterflies kinda freaked out Mo. She loved to look at all their pretty colors and different shapes but wasn't too keen on their fly by's close to her face. And it was really interesting to see Jake grow up right in front of us. We don't have to tour him around anymore, he can read very well and is very capable of playing with all the exhibits without instruction:) Where's my baby going!!
It was the longest fast paced 2 hours of my entire life. Margarita anyone?

SOOO... all went quiet .. than...

When all gets quiet in the crazy world of Carter's Chaos, you never know what you'll find. The girls decided to freshen up a big before breakfast!

Got Baby Powder?
Yeah.. And?

Powder me up baby!

Bayou Wildlife Park

Well, yesterday we took our zoo to the Bayou Wildlife Park in Dickinson, Tx. This is a neat little place that has alot of exotic animals that the kids can see up close and personal, our own little safari here in Texas. When you first enter, they give you buckets of "finger food". They're called this because they tell you not to feed out of your hand because little fingers look just like the food. Anyway, these LARGE emus and ostrich and wildebeast ( who knows what these mix animals really were) come right up to your car and if you roll down your window you can feed them right there.

Carter Crazy Zoo Gang off on a Tram!

So we decide to take the tram to go and see all the animals they have on sight. SOUNDS FUN!! We all take out places and than we're off!! So one would think that our own personal little monkey would feel right at home amongst the wildebeast and lemurs, RIGHT! Think again, I have never seen Maggie sit so still for 30 minutes in my entire life. She sat right in the middle of the tram and didn't move!

Maggie Feeling Right at Home in THE MIDDLE!

Mean while Katie would have been happy if she could have lived with these crazy zonkey and camels for the rest of her life. All we saw all day from here were TEETH!!

Katie Feeding a Camel

All the kids had fun even though it was a hot day. We love to do stuff with Dad and it's extra special when he gets to come along.

Katie and her baby.

Jake feeding the animals on the tram

Momo and Katie petting the baby goats.

CAN WE HAVE ONE?!

help me! help me!

Well, you can't tell by this picture but Katie is actually HUGE compared to Maggie. She outweighs her by about 2-3 lbs. and definitely is thicker almost everywhere.

Today the girls were playing in their room and I could hear a tiny little voice through the monitor, "help me, help me". Of course I sprint at my normal turtle pace to see what is going on and I find Katie asking help from Maggie to pull her into the crib. Maggie and Katie had thrown all the toys in the bed and of course monkey girl was playing happily inside the bed while "the thicker one" was calling for help because she couldn't climb up on her own.

Definitely two different eggs!!!

STOP GROWING!!!!!

O.K. I am not liking all of this growing up business!

Morgan not only is in KINDERGARTEN....AHHHHHHH!!!!!

But now she has her first zit!!!!!!!!!!

STOP GROWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morgan..isms!

Today I am waiting in the car contemplating the idea that I gave birth to a monkey and Maggie was switched with my human child due to the fact that she is literally swinging from seat to seat waiting for "JAcub and Moran" to walk to the car from after school. So, Everyday as soon as the Jake and Mo climb into the car after school, I bombard them with the days questions of how everything went. Last week I had given Morgan the lunch money to give to the lunch lady that was for both her and her brother. Mo got it because she goes to lunch first and the lady can split the check between their two accounts. ANYWAY, I confirm that she remembered to give her the check and she was excited to report that she had because she went and got some milk and ICE CREAM for lunch, this went along with her sack lunch. I say oh goodie that was a treat. WELL here's the ism.... Morgan replies," yeah I didn't have time to eat the ice cream, so I put it in my lunch box."
I try really hard not to scream but all I can think about is how dumb I was to buy her a $25.oo monogrammed lunch box that wasn't gonna make it past day 5! I had prepared my self for the lunch box to get lost but not death by ice cream. She is such a CARTER or is that the PEARCE side, really its a toss up!

First Day of School! YEAH!

WE'RE GOING

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!

Today was Jake and Mo's first day back to school. Two down... Two to go ( in four years!)

Jacob was up and ready, dressed with bed made by 6:30. We didn't have to wake him up. He is soo excited to go back to be with friends and his new teacher. Mr. S. is a young guy who seems pretty cool and Jake is excited to have a man teacher. Of course I use man as a loose term because Mr. S. was in 2nd grade, the same as Jake is now, when Glenn and I were in College!!! YIKES, We're now the old parents in the school. He was very helpful in preparing his little sis on the in's and out's of being a kindergartner.

Mo on the other hand wasn't so ready. Glenn and I went to wake her up at 6:45 and she was whining that she was still tired, cold and any other excuse she could use to get out of bed. Her teacher, Mrs. Christensen, gave her students "Jitter Glitter" to put under their bed the night before school starts. Mo was supposed to put it under her bed to help her sleep. We asked her about the jitter glitter and she just moaned, " IT DIDN'T WORK!!!!" Good thing her daddy was here to help motivate her out of bed. She came downstairs not dressed and still cranky. But she did perk up after a few minutes of getting sleep out her eyes and put on her purple shirt and skirt, ( oh and the bra under her shirt to support, I guess!)

She moved slowly, but without complaints to the car and cautiously walked into the school once we got there. But of course we are now 3 1/2 hours into the first day and we haven't had a call from the school yet, so I think she'll do fine.

Both Mom and Dad are proud of both the kiddos and we are excited to see what this year will bring. Cross your fingers for us!

A Sisters Love

So, everyone knows that we have a pool and that we love to swim. We also love when people come over and swim and play.

Wellllll, this story has made me cry over the past 2 days because it was so scary but also so inspired(this word changes from emotion to emotion) with my kids.

Yesterday, while having a swim date with friends, we were all getting out to get ready; swim lotion, towels, BACKPACKS, and needless to say the craziness of getting 7 kids ready to SAFELY swim can be a challenge. My routine is to make sure the twins are ready first. I want their backpacks on so they can jump in and not wait. Well 2 minutes into getting in, Maggie and a Friend had the same backpack on and the friend decided to take hers off. I recognized this right away but noticed that it was the friend who had taken it off. At the same time, I see Morgans green bathing suit on the little slide we have in the shallow end. ( I don't register that it's Maggie) The fact that I can see the green means she doesn't have her backpack on. I turn around, put the towels on the table and turn back to take my normal post as lifeguard. Only than I think that Morgan is pushing Maggie under the water. Sometimes when the kids try to pull the babies to the side they inadvertently pull them under.

WELLL, this is the scary party, I don't think! Something in my body made me jump in! If you know me I don't panic around pools. I wait, assess and see if the kids can really get there on their own. I want kids to feel they can do this and not be afraid. Anyway, when I get there I realize that Morgan is not pulling her down SHE IS TRYING TO SAVE HER. Remember the green bathing suit wasn't Momo after all, it was MAGGIE. Morgan saw her head under water and jumping in to SAVE HER SISTER. Morgan couldn't stay afloat herself but was gonna go down trying.

This all happened in a matter of seconds, but in those seconds I realized how much I do love my kids, how wild Maggie really is and how special Morgan is to our family. Morgan doesn't realize how important what she did was.
A sisters love.

Ahhh! A Relaxing Weekend with the Hardy's

This weekend the Hardy's; Trey, Stacy, Jenna, Leah & Luke came down for the weekend. It was a very relaxing weekend even with all 11 of us at the house. With 5 girls and 2 boys, Jake and Luke were the token "Boy Bookends", and all the girls had a great time playing together. From the beginning the Hardy girls paired off with the twins, Jenna with Katie and Leah with Maggie. Of course the two little ones were a GREAT pair. Actually two peas in a pod, need I say more. Morgan had a blast swimming and playing with Jenna and Jake just kinda hung around happy as always! And of course there's Luke! Actually you would have never known he was here. He is THE best baby I have ever seen. I was hoping they would forget him, and the joke actually came up, but they didn't:(
It was a great weekend for all, but we are definitely getting OLDER!!

Let me introduce The Carter's

There are 6 of us now: Glenn, Stephanie, Jacob 7 , Morgan 5, and Katelyn and Maggie 21 months.

Jacob is a sweet, loving, never met a stranger kid who is willing to do anything to help out his little sisters.
Morgan is a free spirit that is very creative and is always willing to help on an art project, in the kitchen or any friend.
Maggie is a WILD CHILD!!!! She is the youngest and smallest of the twins but has the most hair and most of our ...isms usually are coming from her lately.
Katelyn is a sweetie that could never be lost because she is usually on someones hip. She loves to laugh but hates to take pictures. To make her happy you can always put her on the swing and that will make her day.

We love all our kids, no matter how crazy it gets. We couldn't imagine life without the whole bunch!!

Carters Chaos

So this is the first time to blog and I don't know how it's gonna go but, here we go. I hope this is a way to keep everyone informed on what we are doing and the Chaos that surrounds us EVERYDAY thanks to being a family of six!! I hope you enjoy the upcoming blogs and ENJOY THE RIDE!!