Merry Christmas

Christmas Dinner... YUMMY. But I always seem to eat WAY too much.

Carter was so excited to open presents on christmas, he was up all night waiting to open his stocking. SInce he didn't sleep hardly at all, this is how he was in the afternoon with his dad.

On Christmas eve, we came to grandma phillips house and made skookie pizzas and watched Relections of Christ. Very good film.

This was a wonderful christmas. Carter wanted to say thank you for all of the things that he got from his grandmas. It was sure fun to have a baby on Christmas. It was a totally different experience watching childrens eyes light up. I am sure it is only going to get better. So I hope you all had a merry christmas and a happy new year. We are moving in a week and so I may not have time to post anything, but know that I am thinking of all of you.

A tribute to my long lost friend...

This has been one of the saddest days of my life... I have lost a very very good friend. He has always been there for me. For the past seven years he has been by side through everything. My lonely trips Home to Colorado- he made them more interesting. My move from apartment to apartment... he was there by myside. When I was married, he was the first to congradulate me. When I had Carter, he was my number one fan. Though I have not always treated him as my best friend, he never thought twice. He loved me for who I am. I hope he knows how much I appreciate all he has done for me. And now that he is in heaven, He can smile down on us. I love you Hercules. Some may know him as Tyler. For those of you that don't know... He was my little Goldfish.
Here is the story of how we met...

About 5 years ago, my Friend Gretchen and her roommates all bought the 13 cent goldfish from wal-mart, and had a competition to see who could keep theirs alive the longest. Well all of Gretch's roommates fish died within the week. But as you can see, Gretchens didn't. He lived for a long while afterward. And so Gretchen gave him to me, and I have had him ever since.

He has gone through so much. He used to be gold, but when I went to Russia, my mom was fish sitting, and out a little to much water cleaner in it, and when I came home, He was White. wow. And I thought maybe he died and they bought me another one. But they told me they didn't.

He has been frozen in his water, and has gone about 6 weeks without food. And he survived. Hince the name Hercules. I don't have a picture of him, but he was a wonderful fish and friend.

Trying so Hard...

This last weekend we went down to Salt Lake City to do some apartment hunting. Man, you can only really take so much of that before you are ready to settle for the dumpster. But after scanning through hundreds of rental postings on ksl.com and craigslist.com and actually viewing over 20 units we FINALLY found one. It is pretty nice for the price. And they gave us a very good deal. The deposit was only $23. THis is because they were doing a special that whatever the tempature was the morning they come to work, that is how much the deposit will be. Pretty crazy but nice for us. So we are moving from our Apartment on the 31st and can't move into there until the 2nd.

And as an early christmas present for both of us, We bought a new couch and love seat from Rc Willey. I am so so excited. It is tan with brown and dark brown weaved throughout. And then throw pillows are tan, brown, and red. So pretty.


Well, It is so hard to believe how fast babies grow. They try to be all grown up so fast it makes me sad. Well Carter is trying to talk and he is able to carry on a conversation now. It is so fun them growing up, but kind of sad because they are not in that little stage anymore.

Nobody Asked me

This is what Carter thinks about moving to Utah. Well it is true. Devin got offered a job in the Church office building as a budget man for the audio visual department. So we will be moving to SLC at the end of this month. Sad I know buddy, I feel the same way. So we are searching for somewhere to live. Usually I like moving, just like my mom. Ha ha. But I love Idaho Falls- Our Family and friends are here, and I love our apartment. But I will be a good wife and go where I need to.

Oh and some other good news... Haha Devin had unexpected Knee surgery this last saturday and will now be on crutches for six weeks. So It will be Carter and I doing the moving... Ya...



Carter may be sad to move, but he is way excited for Christmas. He knows that Santa is coming... And he has already came to our house and put presents under the tree. :-)

chillin' at Big Lots

I have lived in Idaho for 5 years now, and have always thought that BIg Lots was a hardware store. Boy was I worng. I love this store. It is like a Ross, but with furntiure, christmas stuff, outdoor store etc. So we were there the other day, and there was this chair that was perfect for Carter. ANd he is just getting so big. See how he is just lounging around on this chair?

Bath TIME

So we were debating whether or not to put this on the blog because he is naked and that might break some rules, but it is so dang cute. SO if you don't want to see a naked baby boy kicking in tbe bath tub, don't press play. However if you do, then it is so funny.

I used to give Carter bathes in the sink, but he found out that if you splash water it makes noise. So he started splashing and kicking in the sink, which does not have much room. So I decided to try the bath tub. and oh my goodness. He LOVES it. As you can see in the video, this is the highlight of his day.

I found this and thought it was really cute and if you are a mom you will understand.

Thirty-two things that change when you have a baby....
1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
4. You respect your body... finally.
5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have been banished years ago.
9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
11. Every day is a surprise.
12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Horray for poop!)
13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
14. You become a morning person.
15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
16. You discover how much there is say about one tooth.
17. You finally realize that true joy doesn't come from material wealth.
18. You now know where the sun comes from.
19. You'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shows you've been dying to have.
20. You realize that although sticky, lollipops have magical powers.
21. You don't mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on Friday night.
22. Silence? What's that?
23. You realize that the 15 pounds you can't seem to get rid of are totally worth having.
24. You discover an inner strength you never thought you had.
25. You no longer rely on a clock - your baby now sets your schedule.
26. You can give parents with a screaming child an 'I-know-the-feeling' look instead of a 'Can't-they-shut-him-up?' one.
27. Your dog - who used to be your 'baby' - becomes just a dog.
28. You take the time for one more hug and kiss even if it means you'll be late.
29. You learn that taking a shower is a luxury.
30. You realize that you can love a complete stranger.
31. You find yourself wanting to make this world a better place.
32. If you didn't believe in love a first sight before, now you do

So Many things to be thankful for...

There are many things that I have to be thankful for this year. I am not sure where to even start. So I will just make a list...

My Family

The Gospel in my Life

My wonderful hard working husband

Carter and his sweet love that he brings to our lives

My Parents and Brothers and Sisters

My testimony

My Husbands testimony

Devin's Job

Our roof over our head

The food on the table

and all my friends.
There is plenty more that I am thankful for, but those are big ones. For this thanksgiving the plan was to stay in Idaho and have dinner at Devin's parents. However, Devin's sister Nat, had her baby 2 weeks early and they wanted to go and be with her. Which is totally understandable. So they decided to go to california, Hily and Adam went to Boise and we thought, well lets drive to Colorado and surprise my family. So in one hour all of us who were supposed to stay here and have thanksgiving together, had plans to go to all different states. Pretty funny. So we decided to go. We left wednesday morning and drove all day. I talk to my mom probably every day, and so it was very hard to keep lying to her about what I was doing and what Devin was doing. But I have gotten to be a pretty good liar, (which is not a good thing) So it worked out pretty good. So we got to my parents house at 8:30pm, parked down the street and walked. The plan was to put Carter in his Car seat on the front porch and ring the door bell and run. And we were going to video tape the whole thing. So that is what we did. We rang the door bell and ran and left Carter on the door step. Wesley, my little brother came to the door, and said "there is a baby on the porch", then my sister vanessa said "no way", then she came to the door and said "there is a baby on the porch." Then my dad came and said" No way". He really thought someone wanted him to raise their baby. And dad, if I wanted someone to raise Carter, it would be you. :-) Anyway, they saw us, and told us that my mom wasn't home, and that she went to the store. So we found out what store, and went to that store. I walked up to her and said "excuse me, do you know where the cereal is?" She looked at me and the look on her face was priceless. Oh my goodness. we have it video taped, and I will post the whole thing once I find out how to edit it. It was so wonderful and it made my whole year. Thanksgiving was wonderful at Aunt Rhondas and it was great seeing everyone.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Great Grandma and Grandpa

Happy lil' man

I love saturdays.

"I'm So cute"

Our First family picture. I know sad, because he has gotten so big.

So I was watching Oprah the other day, and they were trying to help teach everyone how to organize their houses. So they were offering a free gift, where you can go online to snapfish.com and create a custom cover photo book for free. (I guess to help organize all the pictures you have in boxes that are not organized.) So I went online to make my free book, and could not decide how I wanted to do it. So, there is a book called I love you through and through, it is a little kids book, and Carter loves reading it. So I kind of copied the story line, and put my own pictures in it. These two pictures of him smiling were taken this morning, when we were trying to get some other pictures of him. But we will take a smile any day. And he is looking at the camera. Which is a shock, because he will be smiling all day long, and then as soon as he sees that camera, his little face goes blank. Ha ha. So melissa I know what you were talking about. They don't like those cameras. Or they are just wondering what it is. :-) But as soon as I put the camera away, he is all smiles. Oh well, the ones we do get make my day.

Yes... Carter does have a mom

Devin has been nagging me to include a picture of me on one of my posts. So here it is...

Tribute to Moms

Before I was a mom.... I never learned the words to a lullaby. I never thought about immunizations, I have never been puked on, pooped on, drooled on, chewed on or peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept at night. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got glorius happy over a simple little grin. I never sat up for hours watching a baby sleep. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a mom...I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. To all you moms reading this, thank you for all you do, and all you have done. You are amazing. (and I know we don't hear that often enough.)

Man Hands

So we went to the dentist a couple weeks ago to get an imprint of Carters hand. Well... this is what turned out. So Cute. IT shoes every detail. His nails, wrinkles, and rolls. They compared it to another little persons who is only a week younger, and Carters was about twice the size. We think he is going to play basketball. He could probably palm a baby basketball right now if he knew how. Anyway, it is very nice of this dentist to do it for free. and we will have it forever.

Visting Daddy's Work

Yesterday, Carter and I brought daddy some lunch at the cube farm (finance division at Melaleuca...). He usually won't smile when we are taking pictures of him, but I don't think he has realized that our cell phones can take pictures. So that is how we have been taking pictures lately. :-) (don't you love his double chin)

Just a picture of father and son. Carter is the one with the old man hair line. As for Devin, it's only a matter of time!
<
Just another cute smile.

Going For A Ride

We have been having some pretty nice weather. So Carter and I have been taking our lexus stroller for walks whenever we can. We got him this hat so he can look around while we are strollin'. Sometimes we walk all the way to daddy's work. (It is about 3 miles) and then daddy gives us a ride home. Its pretty fun.

Oh and just so everyone knows, Carter slept im his crib last night by himself, almost all night. He only woke up once. I had to check on him to make sure he was still alive. That is horrible to say, but the past couple of nights, he has woken up every two hours on the dot. So it was a change. But he did so good. We have been getting on a schedule of this...
We wake up around 7, and Carter kicks for about an hour and then he is ready to take a nap. So we both go and take naps for about another 1-2 hours. It is so nice. And then he helps me cook, and clean and shopping and whatever else we need to do.

**** Carter****

Just some cute pictures that I took with my phone.

We took this video today before going to the dentist to get an imprint of Carters hand, and this is just to show you how happy he is almost all the time.

2 Month Doctor Appointment

So, Carter had his two month appointment this last week, and he weighs 14lbs 4oz and is 23 inches long. He is in the 95 percentile for weight, (big boy) and 65 percentile for height. They said he is growing wonderfully and to keep doing what we are doing. Here is a picture of him, almost naked, but not quite.

Carters First Camping Trip

So this last weekend, we decided to take Carter camping. We had planned on going to the Crater, however it was supposed to snow. So with our friends Brooke and Steve, we decided to try camping another way. They have a very large 10 bedroom cabin in Lava Hot Springs that we stayed at. Devin went hunting for the first time, and unfortunatly did not catch anything, but he looked good in camoflauge and said he had fun and would go again. Carter, unfortunalty does not like sleeping anywhere other then our home. So he did not sleep very well. But as you can see the boys stepped up and changed diapers while the girls rested.

Halloween Party

Here are just some other pictures that we took at our party. The costumes were great also.

Halloween Party

After our ward trunk and treat, we had our first halloween party. 18 of our friends and family came over for a spook dinner. We made menus with gross names such as witches trash, or human eyeballs soaked in bat feces-Sound good? and our guests got to select 4 items off the menu. It was so fun to see what everyone ordered for their dinner.

Happy Halloween (A little Late)

So here are some other pictures of Carter as a hot chili pepper. It was pretty fun dressing him all up. It was called a baby bunting. He got lots of candy. (And don't worry we are saving it till he is old enough to eat it) ha ha. We gave him one handful to eat. And he loved it.

Some Photos of our man

Working Out

So today, Devin came home for lunch, and Carter was so excited to see him. So He was just talking away. He is getting so big. He is starting to sleep alot better too. I have started putting him down in his bassinet to sleep everytime he takes a nap. And he is now able to put himself to sleep, if I just lay him down when he is tired. He is learning so quickly. At night, he also sleeps for about 5 hours at a time, and let me know tell you, it is so wonderful. They learn so fast, it is hard to keep up with it.

Chicken Roll Ups

This recipe is so yummy. Mmmm Hmmm.
1 pkg Cream Cheese
2 c. Cooked chicken
1 tsp. Dried Minced Onion
1/2 C. Margarine melted
1 Can Mushrooms (4oz) Optional
2 cans Large Buttermilk Biscuits
1 C. Melted Butter
1 Pkg Stuffing

Cream Butter, cream Cheese and onion together. Add chicken and mushrooms. Stretch out dough, place mixture inside. Fold dough over and seal edges. Dip rolled biscuit in melted 1 cup butter. then roll in stuffing crumbs, Place on cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes. Serve with hot gravy over top.

I halfed the recipe and it made 6 large ones. But it is so yummy.

Blessing Day

Carter was blessed on September 6th, 2008. He was 3 weeks old. 14 of our friends stood in the circle. Probably the biggest circle I have ever seen. He wore a white little tux as you can see, and man it fit him perfectly. However it did not stretch, so he couldn't kick. So needless to say he wanted out of it fast. Grandma Phillips then held a big luncheon for everyone after. Grandma Jaynes, Elli and Vanessa all came down also. Then for my birthday, Carter and I rode home with them to Canon City, were we stayed for a week. So fun. We flew back home, and on the plane, Carter got a little pair of wings for our scrapbook.

Tummy Time

Carter has never liked tummy time nor his boppy. When placed on his stomache, he usually finds his long lost fist and begins immediate sucking and forgets about his current position. Well, Grandpa Phillips stopped for a visit last night, and Carter decided to show off for all of us. Immediately after being placed in the boppy, his little head popped up like a daisy in spring and wiggled around like a bobble head. It was pretty darn cute if you ask us!

Trunk & Treat

Our ward combined with another ward and held a trunk and treat at our church on Halloween. We bought Carter a little chili pepper outfit (more pictures to come). He was basically the stud of the event! We, on the other hand, attempted to match his costume. We borrowed a couple of grass hats from Steve Knowles mother thinking they were Mexicanish. As you can tell, they weren't! We were wanting to be a señor and señorita with one hot little chilli pepper! But last minute choice left us as scarecrows with one hot chilli pepper. We borrowed a couple of straw bails, threw in a couple of fake rats and made a mess in the church parking lot. Oddly enough, little boys were more scared of the fake rats than most of the girls! And Carter slept through most of it...

Are you joking mom?

What am I wearing? This is a little robot outfit that we got, and it is really tight. He could wear it for a little bit because it was hard for him to breath. He is also trying to sit up by himself, but he has not had any luck yet.

Suthern' Spoken Here

On the way from Colorado, Carter and I stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Hendersons Home, So they could see Carter for the first time. Carter loved their Sutherin Speakin.

Naked Baby: Well almost

Another thing that we have noticed about Carter, Is that he does not like to wear clothes. If he had his way, he would probably run around naked all over the place. Which reminds me... Devin and I were at the mall the other day in JcPenny, and all of the sudden this little boy comes running around the corner in just his underwear. Ya in the mall. Goodness!