Birthday

Last week I had my 26th Birthday. I know it's not "old" by any means but for some reason when I say I'm 26 it makes me feel more like an adult than 25 did. Maybe because I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Crazy thought! I was scheduled to work the 22nd - 24th so I wasn't planning on having a very exciting birthday. It was nice I at least got put on-call on the 22nd, like I had asked for, so that I didn't have to spend most of birthday sleeping. Lance ended up working so it was just Carter and me for most of the day. Carter started the day out with a reality check of how unglamorous adults birthday's are. First thing he had a huge poopy diaper and had a couple more through the day. This wouldn't be a huge deal except that with Carter's sensitive skin, lately his bum has been really sore every time he poops and so it is always a battle with him trying to change his diaper. Lance made a yummy steak dinner with baked potatoes and salad that we ate before I had to go to work. He got me a new wallet like I had wanted, since my old one's zippers were splitting out, not to mention I think I've had it since high school and it doesn't look very adult like. :) I wanted an ice cream cake this year, so he picked up a very yummy chocolate and peppermint one from Cold Stone. It was a low key but great birthday with my two favorite guys.

Doctor Visit

This past Sunday Carter was not feeling well. He had temperatures up to 102.7 and was overall grouchy and didn't eat much. Tylenol brought the temperatures down thankfully. The next morning he still had a temperature so I decided to call and make and appointment to see the doctor. It's his first doctor visit since he was just a few months old (and we went in to have the doctor say, yes this is ezcema and here are some prescriptions) that wasn't a normal visit. They said it was probably viral. Over the next few days he got the runny nose and cough which he is still getting rid of. We did get to see how much of a lightweight he is only weighing in at 21 lbs 6 oz. People always thinks he looks so much bigger but it really is just all his big round head and belly.

Merry Christmas to All

I had to work Christmas Eve night and since Carter still doesn't really understand the whole Christmas festivities I got to come home and sleep for a few hours before we had our Christmas morning. I don't think I'll ever be able to get away with that again. We stayed home this year and had a low key and fun time together. Below is our Christmas in pictures. We start with Carter checking out the stockings. Carter didn't really understand the unwrapping part. He would sometimes help when we got started taking off the paper. He enjoyed the few presents I had put in gift sacks, he knew just what to do with those. After we unwrapped a gift he was excited to see what was inside. He got a lot of books, which he loves. Every time he would pick up the book, carry it over to one of us, and plop down on our laps to read it. Needless to say it took a while to go through presents since Carter didn't understand there were more. This picture is an action shot of him bringing a book over to read. Reading a book with dad. Reading another book. Look what Carter got for his daddy, a book, appropriately titled "I love my daddy." Carter had fun walking on the pile of paper. One of the dinosaurs we got for him is helping him. This picture doesn't show it but as we unwrapped this gift Carter got so excited when he saw it was a plastic tote. He loves playing with these when he finds them in our house. He was even more excited when he discovered what was inside. Grandpa N had made him some blocks. Lance is talking to his parents in the background. Later in the day, Carter enjoying his pile of books. Stacking some blocks with mom. Here are the three of us. Just don't look at me, I worked all the night before remember! A few days later I got Carter's presents set up to take a picture. This is one of the only pictures he was actually sitting in. He loves his puppy I found for him. He has been having so much fun with all his books, his hammering bench, the nativity set, play tent, dinosaurs, and blocks. I got him some picture and word flashcards that we have yet to break out. One of Lance's sisters got him the monkey which laughs when you push his foot. Carter was scared to death of it the first couple of days and would only poke it with one finger then back away quickly. After a few pictures I remembered I forgot to put Grandpa's blocks in the picture. However Carter was not so willing to pose for many more pictures. A few days after Christmas we set up the tent my parents got him. He has been having fun sitting in it.

Christmas Lights and a Camel

We love going up to this house up in the South Hills. We took Carter up the Monday before Christmas. They have an amazing collection of Christmas lights and they even have a huge camel you can feed a carrot to. Carter didn't notice the camel too much, he was amazed by the lights. This is the first time I think Carter has not been more interested in the kids and other people then whatever we were "suppose" to be looking at. He loved all the lights. He kept saying "ooohhh" and smiling. I loved all the different lights the had. Carter really liked the ones that moved. There were these moving teeter-tot-teers that he was fascinated by and watched for a long time. His fascinated look. We will definitely be taking him up every year from now on he had so much fun. On a side note we discovered yesterday Carter has his first molar poking trough on the left side. The right side looks like it may be trying to come down as well.

Salt Lake City trip

Last weekend we were able to take a trip down to Salt Lake to see lots of family. We also went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with David Archuleta. Unfortunately they'd given away WAY to many tickets and there were way more people there than there were seats. Lance and I and his parents ended up getting inside but couldn't find any place to sit so we had to watch it in the little theater they have in the Conference Center. It was still very good but I was really bummed we didn't get to really see it. One our way down we stopped to see Lance's grandma and great-grandma. Here's Carter's five generation picture. Carter quickly discovered were the phone was at the hotel. We also were able to see my grandma and spend a lot of time with Carter's cousin Natalie. They had fun playing together. Carter liked grandma's key. He also had a lot of fun sitting on her walker while she pushed it. He thought that was an awesome ride and smiled the whole time. We were excited to see the Christmas lights down at Temple Square. The last time we saw them was when Lance and I were engaged. There were a ton of people there since it was also the weekend of the concert. Carter had fun looking at the lights but mostly enjoyed looking at the people and especially the little kids. They have such pretty lights. Carter didn't last too long in his stroller so he got to ride on dad's shoulder's most of the time. It was fun after the concert we saw one of my friend's little sister's who is on a mission on temple square. I always thought that would be the funnest mission. In front of the big christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Building. Carter was more interested in the polls surrounding the tree than the tree itself. He also spit up a little on the big rug in the middle of the room when dad swung him up onto his shoulder. It wasn't a really pretty sight. He had just finished drinking a bunch of water....so I think that's all it was. Luckily it wasn't too much and we were able to clean it up with a baby wipe. I will never look at that rug the same way again. My mom had a couple of present for Carter that she wanted to see him play with so he got to have them early. He still needs to work a little on his hammering form. He had fun playing with his tent. Cute little family on Christmas Sunday. Carter has a brand new church outfit that he looked very handsome in. He had lots of fun riding on the baggage thing. We had a great weekend and are excited to take Carter back down to see the lights in the years to come when he'll enjoy them a little more.

Decemberings

For an early Christmas present one of Lance's sister's gave us this cute Fisher Price nativity. I've seen them before and knew I wanted one when we had kids. It's a great gift! Carter liked checking the box out when we got it. After I got it all set up Carter preceeded to play for a second and then throw all the pieces over his back like he does with most things. Now he has discovered the fun in playing with it more and we catch him putting the little figures in an out and on top of the stable. Currently Mary is on top of the stable. He really loves the music it plays and keeps pushing the button every time it stops playing. This comes as no surprise since Carter loves music. He often sings along to any kind of music, especially at church. At church he loves having a hymn book open in front of him but his timing is sometimes off as he likes to keep singing even after the music has stopped. All of our ornaments are about two feet up our tree. Any guesses why? Carter likes to pull them all off. He doesn't like it when the branches touch him in the face but he'll touch them with his hands. Lucky for us not liking the branches in his face has kept him away from the present that are hiding on the back side of the tree. Carter has recently started liking stuffed animals more and likes to carry this snowman around with him all over the house. Isn't this the cutest face ever?! Crazy bathtub hair. Carter continues to be our busy climber. One day I found him on top of the cooler reading a book. He's growing so fast. Today I weighed him on our scale and he's just over 22 pounds.

Window

I've mentioned before how much Carter likes being outside or looking outside. Well he's finally discovered a way to get what he wants all by himself. He uses the baseboard heater (it's off) as a step stool so he can climb up on the little table in front of our living room window. He's so proud and excited when he's able to get up all by himself. Then Carter easily spends 20 minutes or more at a time looking out the window, banging on the glass, and talking to the world outside. Sometimes Ace joins him looking outside. Lance really likes this picture I got of Carter and Ace looking out at the world. Who know a window could be so entertaining. He does fall down every once in a while which leads to some startled and sometimes hurt cries. We comfort him but he usually just keeps crying until he gets distracted again or find something else fun to do. Most of the time when we put him back down he goes back over to the window, crying still, and starts climbing right back up. It's funny how toddlers just bounce right back. We had our ward party last night and Carter tripped and fell down a couple of time on the gym floor when he was cruising around. One of the lady's told me today she thought it was interested how I didn't react like your typical first time parents who would go running to help him back up. I made my way over but just looked like "oh he fell again." I told her that's because falling down is an everyday, multiple times a day occurrence in our home. Carter likes being hugged and held for a minute after he's falling but holding him doesn't get him settled enough to stop crying. He only stops crying once he's back down to play again. Carter has also been making this funny face a lot lately where he pushed his lips out. I haven't been able to get a great picture of it yet but here's sort of one. His lips are usually pushed together all the way, which makes the face even more funny.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to go to Lance's parent's house in Wyoming. Everyone but one of Lance's brothers and his family were there. We had lots of fun! It was also very cold! The weather when we drove down Tuesday morning was bad the first half of the drive so it took us 6 hours in stead of the usual 4 hours to get there. Carter was a trooper and surprisingly didn't cry much at all. We ate lots of yummy food and the kids had fun playing together. I also shot a gun for the first time...well tried, out at the shooting range. I couldn't hit anything. Carter had lots of fun playing with cousin Natalie. She's about 10 months older than him. My brother and his family stopped by to say hi for a little while. It was fun to get to see them. When we were trying to get pictures with the three kids Carter decided to wack Garrett in the head with a block. Poor little guy! That kind of ended the photo opportunity. Friday afternoon as we were eating lunch and Lance and I were packing up things to get ready to leave we discovered Carter asleep in his highchair. Poor little guy was worn out from all his playing the last few days. He slept in there for about 20 minutes before the kink in his neck woke him up. He slept well on the way home. It's amazing he could be in so many positions and not wake up!