gas station + toilet + Vegas + Carter= no bueno

Seriously I don't get it. Must be the age.. or the fact that he's a curious boy.. On our way home from AZ yesterday (and pics are coming soon) we stopped at a gas station in Vegas and I went to change Carter in the bathroom. I badly needed to wash my hands afterwards, lets just say, and I set him down to stand in the bathroom while I did so, keeping my eyes on him because I knew he would bolt straight for the toilet. (we have to close all our bathroom doors at home). I tell him no- as if he would listen, and before I could get to him, he had his hand in the toilet, and as I picked him up, he puts his hand in his mouth. So sick. Exiting the bathroom, I see Aaron and tell him what happened while Carter laughs at the story. Such a sneaky baby I've got here! On a good note, he's otherwise the happiest, funnest baby I could ask for =)

SIckies

What a week. I must have some killer immune system, because between my two boys I've got, I've somehow escaped any and all sickness that they've gotten lately. Aaron was sick 2 weeks ago, lasted a week. Then Carter got something else, the stomach flu, (which he just had a month ago) and I think he is finally over it today. This is after barfing in Ikea yesterday, and everyday, in every room of our house since Sunday.

Undoubtedly this was after a bath, after he barfed.

Making matters worse, Aaron is out of town again so it's just been me and Carter.. and baby Einstein DVD. I had no idea babies could get obsessed with something, but alas Carter is ridiculously attached to his baby Einstein. I've had it on repeat, playing nonstop since Monday. And Carter's been crying all the time, and watching his movie is the only time he'll stop. Usually I'm having to hold him, and watch the dang thing 30 times in a row.
But man I love being a mom! ;) And hey maybe when everything's said and done, Carter will have become some sort of baby genius, all while being sick!

Have you ever been 5 pounds from your weight goal, and you're on a roll going to the gym everyday, things are looking good, and then bam your kid gets sick, you can't go to the gym, you sit around all day, and scarf your face? Cuz let me tell you a little something. I don't work out to lose weight. I work out to not GAIN weight. I like food, and I don't like to feel hungry. Diets are not my thing. So I pretty much have to work out everyday just to not get fat. Needless to say, I'll be avoiding the scale, til after Thanksgiving!

Anyhow, since my baby's been sleeping a lot (I've been trying to get him to at least), I've been pretty bored. SOOO the husband's gone, the baby's sick, what else do I have to do but decorate?! I did indeed put up our Christmas tree and some decorations. And I set up my Christmas radio on Pandora, bought some peppermint ice cream, and suddenly life is looking pretty bright!

 Still needing a tree skirt.. where in the world do you buy those without spending a fortune??

On another good note: My dad and little brother Luke are coming to town for the weekend for the BYU game... very excited about that.
The BIJOU MARKET is going on this weekend also in Provo, you KNOW I'll be hitting that up!
AND my cousin Bennett and my bestie Jenna (who happens to be his wife) had their baby today!! Yay for them!!

And heading to Arizona for Thanksgiving, and meeting up with Aaron at his mom's house... it will be a much needed break!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Carter's 1st Birthday!

Sorry folks, this is gonna be a long one..

Carter was born November 4th of last year, just about 10 hours after his 2nd cousin, Liam Kaufman. So since their birthdays are only a day apart, we had a joint party at Kangaroo Zoo! (The party was a few days before Carter's actual birthday).

Carter was soooo tired since he skipped his afternoon nap, but he did great, just running around and "jumping" on the blow-up toys.

This was how Carter started out his birthday... dead asleep when we got there.

He only got about 20 minutes of a nap.. but when he woke up he was happy as can be

 Here's my awesome cousin Doug, with his son, the other birthday boy, Liam!

 Carter chillin in the birthday chair, waiting for cake. Love his crossed ankles =)

 Best little buds eating their pizza! Or maybe it's just Carter hogging it all...

 We managed to trick Carter into wearing a birthday hat, but Liam would have none of it! Poor guy was very upset. But look at their delicious cake!

 Daddy and the birthday boy

 On his real birthday, Grandma Belinda came to town to come celebrate... he got wayyy too many presents but he's loving life right now. I love his new coat from Grandma =)

 Carter with Grandma in his new big boy car seat!

We went to La Jolla Groves for dinner- not that it's Carter's favorite, but we all like it! On the way we stopped at this super cute toy/candy shop called Blickenstafs and let Carter play around. He liked riding the horsey. 

 You can vaguely see some dogs in the background.. Carter would walk up to them and suck on their noses lol

 Carter opened his presents and loves them. This little musical stand is from his Uncle Ryan, I get a kick out of watching Carter push the buttons

 Magnets, with his little tin box... major hit. They end up ALL over the house, but hey, maybe he'll be spelling in just a few months? ;)

Carter's birthday cake, yes another birthday cake. Nothing fancy but he ate his whole piece plus ice cream!

 Sadly blurry, but his little face was so funny!

 I think he enjoyed it, yes?

I love my little peanut!!

Sappy mom moment

I have to do this because my baby turned 1 yesterday, and yes it made me a little emotional. I can't believe it was a year ago that he joined our little family- and now he's a walking, jabbering toddler! Carter was stubborn to come out, which is why I had a c-section and I was so whoozy from all the drugs, I slept or was barely conscious most of the day. I remember going in for surgery, hardly knowing what was going on, but the moment they pulled him out, it's like your emotions take over, you snap out of the unconsciousness to see that cute little face! And of course he was perfect =) During the middle of the night after he was born, the nurses brought him in for a feeding, and they had just given him a bath.. he smelled so good and his little hair was combed, he was the CUTEST thing I had ever seen in my life! I wish I had had a camera handy for that.

I love this picture.. I seem to forget how much hair he had!!

I guess we should have known from the day he was born that he'd be a happy and content baby.. he was even like that at the hospital.

Anyhow we had a great time celebrating his little birthday (I'll post pics soon), but here's some of the fun times we've had this week:
I had a random idea to pull out the Twister mat and let him play around on it... it was very entertaining!

 Hopefully it'll teach him colors eventually =)

 Grandma Belinda was in town for a little while so we went on a little walk on the Provo trail

 This is so cute.. they were peeking over the fence at horses. Carter hadn't seen horses before =)

 I know, we're quite the outdoors-people. We went on another walk with Mark and Paityn (and doggies) to a little gazebo. Carter loves Shade and Callie, probably because they're smaller than him!

 Weird little boy we've got that likes to gnaw on celery stalks...?

 Taking a little break hehe

 I got this storage ottoman/coffee table (that I have since recovered with cute fabric I might add!) that replaced our old coffee table with hard edges. Carter actually pulled himself into it by himself! Obviously this serves as a hideout for all his toys too. I try...

I love our little man!!! I'm so lucky that he's so happy and fun and cute! Oh and just an FYI (I'll care to remember it later, you might not hehe) but he had his 12 month doctor visit today, here's his stats:
Head 50th percentile
Height 50-75th percentile (30 inches) Is there a chance he might not be as short as me and Aaron?!!
Weight 10th percentile (19.8 pounds) I swear I feed this kid!

Catching up

Wow I feel like I've done nothing until I go to blog and realize I have so many pictures I want to post of fun things, and then I'm way behind! Here's some of the recents:

Witches Night Out

Me and my sister Val started a yearly tradition of going to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village, and we try to recruit whatever girls want to come with us. This year was just us two plus our friend Jamie (and Carter only because I had to bring him). It was lots of fun!

Here's me and Val (whose wig made her look like the short king from Shrek! lol) and some random nosy girl that popped in for the picture!

 Here's poor Carter, thinking what in the world did I get myself into?

 Crazy Val, without the wig but with her crazy mask

 Us posing in a home decor store with Jamie.

 Carter laughing hysterically with Auntie Val

 And us 4 for another pic. It was super fun =) Next year I will get a babysitter if Aaron is outta town again... Strollers are just a no-go at things like these!

Me and Val being silly again.. she totally looked like a man at times lol

 These crazy tall guys were pretty fun.. Carter doesn't seem to get scared by anything though...

Carter's Latest

Man I love this kid. He's just learning so much and is so active and funny. I can hardly get mad when he does things like empty the saran wrap and grocery bags everyday.

 He's almost 1 and 20 pounds so we ordered a big boy car seat. He's just trying it out at home and as you can see, he's really liking it!

 Love this raccoon hat.. and he actually isn't too bad at keeping it on

 So this was a weird day where Carter was supposed to be taking a nap, but for some reason got ahold of his shoes and was just balling... I noticed that he would grab his shoes a lot and cry, and I realized that it's because he wanted me to put his shoes ON. In the following pictures you will see them on...

Shoes on with no pants. And he's figured out that a cell phone goes by your ear.. he walks around saying "hi" with my phone =)

Shoes on OVER his jammies, plus a back pack!! (getting into the infamous saran wrap and bag drawer)

 No shoes at all... I had forgotten this particular day.. I'm not entirely used to him walking! We were messing around at Toys R us!

We ordered a baby trailer for bikes from amazon, and took him for a ride. He did okay, I think he was more confused.

Mommy and Carter

Just lays down on the kitchen floor to drink his milk... so weird

 And he really likes berries

Riding the dog mannequin at Old Navy

Pumpkin Carving

We only got one pumpkin kinda last minute this year, but we let Carter stay up longer that night to carve it. He messed around in the pumpkin pulp and just put it in his mouth.

Another "hike"

In random order because I'm lazy, here's some pics of a hike we took the other afternoon with our friends Jake, Lauren and Oliva up to Bridal Veil Falls

Jake and Olivia with her cute sunglasses

 Me and Carter

 On the way up, there were lots of tree branches, and poor Carter was sitting in the carrier while Aaron had him on his back, and Carter started crying outta nowhere, because a branch hit him in the face and cut his eye and scratched up his face!! Poor guy...

 The kiddos after the hike

 Our fam

 Daddy and baby

Halloween Party

This year Carter's costume was the inspiration for the rest of ours.... my stepmom had found a cute dragon costume from the Martha Stewart magazine, so I attempted to make my first costume! Carter was the dragon, Aaron was a knight, which was really easy to make too, and I rented a princess dress. So my knight in shining armor had to rescue me from the dragon =) Unfortunately we didn't even get a pic of us all together!

 I think Aaron really liked his costume, yeah?

 So mad that this is blurry... but here's our little dragon!

 I hoped the tail wouldn't get in the way or make him trip, but it was so perfect! It was hilarious watching him walk around, with his little tail dragging.

 Carter loves Paityn.. Olive Oyl I should say =)

 Our friends Jared and Malia... so funny

 Me and the hubs