Girls...a little motivation never hurt anyone...well most of the time.

For the past couple of weeks, Carter will walk back and forth to Devin and I, and only take a few steps. This last week, he has been getting more daring, and will let go of the couch and walk a few steps alone, then realize what he was doing, and sit down really fast. Kind of like, oh no don't let mom and dad see me. Well this last Sunday in relief society, we were sitting in the back row, and Maren, the 17 month old little girl that I nanny was sitting in front of us. Carter wanted down. So I set him standing up on the chair, and he turned around, saw Maren, WALKED over to her, about 9 steps, stood right by her, and then pusher her over, then he sat down. She was fine, but I couldn't believe it. I wanted to raise my hand and tell everyone my good news. He had never done that. Well, pushing Maren over, he has, but not walking! And it is just getting better and better. Way to go little Man!!!!

Dancing with Elmo

I have started to Nanny some kids, and they have this Elmo that plays the guitar and sings. All the kids love it, and they dance to it. The first time Carter ever heard it, this is what he started to do...


(sorry its blurry, I took it with my phone)
They also have a tickle me Elmo, and another one that does the hokey pokey. They love Elmo, and Carter is starting to also. Carter is also learning many other things from these kids. For example, he won't let me feed him anymore with a spoon. He has to do it. So, he no longer likes baby food. He also tries to talk and make us understand. He can go up and down the stairs too fast, and loves to suck the dirt off of rocks. He likes to pull hair, especially girls, (sorry nat, we are trying to teach him so christmas won't be so bad), and he likes to tackle and beat up older boys. He is just learning so much, we may or may not be a good thing.

Carter's First Birthday!!!!

For Carter's first birthday, we decided to go up to Idaho Falls, to Palisades Reservoir, and celebrate his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, Aunt Hily and Uncle Adam, and the timing was perfect for my Grandma Jaynes and Aunt Nessa and Uncle Wesley to come out too. They were on their way to Rexburg, to drop Nessa off at school, and decided to make a camping trip out of it.

Well we spent his birthday 4wheeling, hiking, and then ended with presents and cake.

He loved all the presents that he recieved. The hardest part for him was having to open muliple presents and not get to play with them. The Cake on the other hand....well...

sad to say, he didn't really want much to do with. He just poked and grabbed it, and really only took 1 or 2 bites. But can I really complain? He would much rather have a bag of cheetos, and crackers, then a huge cupcake. Oh well. It was so much fun.

We came home from our camping trip on Sunday, a day early, and not because we were tired of camping, (in a motorhome, how can that be tiring), but Carter had not been sleeping well, so no body was sleeping well. So we decided to pack up and head back early.

Monday morning, we woke up and decided to all go to the Idaho State Fair. It was a beautiful day full of tiger claws, corn dogs and those potatoe twirly things. MMMMHMMMM!!!!!!

Monday evening, we invited some friends and family over for another birthday party for Carter. We were hoping to have some friends there for Carter to play with, but they were still "baking" (meaning there were 3 pregnant girls there) and they are due in the next few months. It was a great trip to Idaho, and Carter had a wonderful 1st birthday. Thank you for all who came.

One Year Pictures

Yes...Can you believe that Carter is ONE????? I can't! Well we had a coupon for Jcpennys and we were able to get $140 worth of pictures for $40.
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We are still Alive....

We have finally gotten internet in our new apt. And what a busy/frustrating/wonderful last couple of months. But we are finally settled in, again, and I am now able to start keeping up the blog better. There have been some pretty big things happening that past 2 months.... But I'll start from the beginning...

About 3 months ago, we moved from a one bedroom at Brighton Place, to a 2 bedroom. It was very large, had new carpet, linoleum, and paint. Also they let us keep our new oven and the fridge was bigger. Needless to say, we were very excited for Carter to have his own room, and just a bigger place overall. We moved in July 3rd to this apartment, and then went to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July. When we returned home, we finished unpacking EVERYTHING! Pictures and everything. Well the first night we slept there it was fine, the next night...not so much. When Carter woke up, he had 60-70 bites all over his face and hands. We were really concerned and grossed out. But we thought it was a rash or something and just put some cream on it and blew it off. Well the next day, I noticed he had more bites and I had them on my feet. They were little red dots and itched like crazy.

After researching and talking to a lot of different people, we called Brighton place and told them we had a bed bug problem. They said they would call the "bug man" and get it taken care of that next friday. So we had to wait a week. Man I was dying knowing that my little baby was getting eaten by bugs. (He slept in our room after that). The bug man came and sprayed supposedly everywhere. The couches, mattresses, bed frames, chairs etc. We had to leave for 4 hours for it to air out. We washed and vacuumed everything also.

After we were back to normal, we called Brighton place and they said the "bug man" didn't see any signs of bed bugs anywhere. We thought "oh good." well a couple nights went by, and Carter was back in his room. The next morning, Carter had more bites on his face. and me on my feet. Ok we thought. There is still something wrong. And Devin hadn't gotten bitten once. So we called the managers again, and they sent the owner of the bug company to come and evaluate what was going on. Ok, so fyi, bed bugs, after they bite you, leave a blood trail. Little spots of blood as they run away. They are also microscopic, until they become adults, and they are still VERY hard to find and see. And they also shed skin and can live dormant without eating for 18 months. Ya gross.

Well....The "owner" of the bug company, came over and checked over Carters crib and said "I don't see any signs of bed bugs. It must be mosquitoes." Then I asked him about all the little brown spots all over Carters sheets. he said "thats not blood. Blood is bright red when it dries." YA RIGHT!!! ARE YOU STUPID???? Come on. UGH

So we just thought ok fine. There is nothing wrong. Well I had been looking online for some kind of nanny position, and this one came up. It said...Nanny Tenant sought for 2.5 days for 2 children..Apply here....So I applied and interviewed and got it. The deal is I babysit Wed. 12-3, Thurs. 7-2 and Friday 7-2 for 2 kids ages 16 months and 2.5 years and in turn we only have to pay $300 a month for rent, in a 1400 sq ft brand new apartment, in the Holladay area. We were so excited. Except that we have to move again...Just 4 weeks after moving to a 3rd floor apt. Ya Devin was not very happy. LoL.

We started packing again, and had not seen one bed bug or anything. On the last morning of living there, the day we had planned for moving the rest of our things, I saw a black spot in our room. I shook it off, and saw it run away. I ran and caught it in a jar, and showed Devin. IT WAS A BED BUG!!!!!! Ya. So We went and showed Brighton place, but since it was a saturday, the main manager wasn't there. We knew something was going on. We were both excited because we finally had proof, but not so much, because more then half of our stuff was already moved into this beautiful new apartment.

We moved the rest of our stuff in, and we were putting Carters crib together, and his bedding back on, when 4 bed bugs fell off the bedding and off the crib. We caught them, and then starting worrying. because once they are in your house, they are VERY hard to get rid of. And they are hitch hikers, mostly from beds though. So we hurry and threw Carters Brand new crib and mattress away, and sadly went upstairs and tell our new managers that we have bug infested their brand new apt. How embarrassing. So $600 later, we are bug free. Haha ya that makes us feel better.