Thankful for Spiderman

Carter has been very interested in saying prayers lately and always repeats us as we're saying prayers. So, of course we have him say his good night prayers every night and try to keep them simple with "Thank you for Mommy and Daddy" etc. While we were going through the Thank you's, he said one of his own. Thank you for Spiderman! I kind of chuckled and then it was over from there. We were trying to get him to say "In the name of Jesus Christ" and he kept adding in "Spiderman" instead of "Jesus Christ." Hmmm... we'll have to work on that one. He was laughing hysterically at himself every time he would say it, though. He's getting into what I call the "clown stage" of boyhood where they make crazy faces and say silly things to make people laugh. It's really cute...most of the time!

My new hair

Here's some pictures of my newest hair do! I've always wanted an A-line short cut, but never been brave enough to do it. So, I guess with everything going on, I got crazy enough to just go do it =) Ha ha...I'm so glad I did, though because I LOVE it and so does Justin. I was very happy that Justin liked it so much because he usually likes my hair to stay long. But He told me last night it looks really good on me and it's "really cool in the back." So, that made me feel good! What a cute hubby I have!

Carter's Talents

One of Carter's favorite things to do during the day is to sing songs, especially ones that have actions. His 2 favorites are Popcorn Popping and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Both of which he does all the actions to! I got it on video the other day, but it took a couple takes to get all the moves in there because he would get distracted, so I combined the best songs from 2 videos together. He totally cracks me up during the "wash the spider out" part...he gets so excited to do that move and does it with lots more energy than the other moves!

Challenges we're faced with...

Well, some of you knew about this and some didn't, so since this is also kind of a journal/documentary place for me too, I thought I'd share the recent happenings in our family, unpleasant as they may seem! About a month ago, I discovered we were expecting again! Yay...first try after the D&C. So, my doctor is super wonderful and scheduled me for early blood testing and an early ultrasound at 6 weeks. That was last Wednesday and I was very pleased to see a heartbeat of 125bpm! But I noticed the picture looked a bit strange and questioned the technician about it. She said I had a subchorionic bleed. So, of course anything with the word "bleed" in it with pregnancy scares the crap out of me, so she went and talked with my doctor and they chose to do some progesterone testing. I found out my progesterone had dropped and starting taking supplements, but when I went in for another test on Monday, my doctor offered to squeeze me in for a quick ultrasound. Unfortuately, the baby had not grown any since last time and the heartbeat was no longer present. So, needless to say, we were very sad. I'm just waiting for my body to do it's thing because I'm worried this might have been caused by getting pregnant too soon after the D&C and don't want to get another one so soon. But I know the Lord has a plan for us, even though I might not understand what that is sometimes. I really feel like we have more children waiting in the wings to join our family, but either timing or things with my body were off! So, better luck next time, I guess! I've been reading a very good book my mother-in-law picked up for me from Deseret Book called "Fertile in our Faith." That has given me a very positive outlook! Anyone going through this or infertility should read it...it's awesome!

Memories

This tag is pretty unique, so I thought I would give it a shot.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Nicole's Birthday

It was Nicole's birthday on the 10th and we celebrated by going to a place called "Color Me Mine." It's a place where you pick out your own pottery and paint it yourself. Then you have it put in the kiln and pick it up in a few days! I forgot to put my dang memory card back in the camera, though, so I took 3 pictures while we were there! And selfish me, they're only of Carter and I...but Nicole painted an awesome tea plate with Cherry blossoms on it. And anyone who knows Nicole, knows she loved this place! We all did, actually, and Carter loved painting his star-shaped piggy bank he picked out (okay, I helped him pick it out). And I found a cowboy boot...how perfect is that? I still have yet to go back and finish it, though because I picked something complicated while chasing a potty-training 1-year-old around...that was smart.

Afterwards we went back to my parents for cake and presents. Carter was way tired and he kept whining that he wanted "pie" (which is what he calls all cake, pie, brownies, etc.) We told him he had to wait, and he started crying, so I tried to tell him something more specific

he had to wait for since that seems to help the patience sometimes. I said, "After Nicole blows out the candles, we can eat the pie." Well, he decided to go blow them out himself so he could eat it...too bad they weren't lit yet, and he's not Nicole =) Ha ha

America the Beautiful

Finally I'm getting our 4th of July pictures up! We had an awesome day going over to Shane and Andrea's for a BBQ and fireworks! We had awesome food and I made my first chocolate covered (well, drizzled) strawberries for a Red, White and Blue dish! Poor Makenze didn't care for the fireworks too much and ended up going to bed shortly after we started. Carter loved those little Pop-its you can step on to pop! He also had a great time when his Grandma Gill helped him hold sparklers. And of course the day wouldn't be complete without a good ol' water balloon fight. Andrea's brother, Daniel, popped one right over Andrea and my head while we were taking a picture! It was pretty much on after that =) I got hit by one of the fireworks too that flies into the air! It hurt and I scared the ba-jeebies out of poor Carter who was sitting on my lap! It was a great time celebrating our great country with family. Thanks to Shane and Andrea for hosting!

Ideas anyone?

So, first of all, I am very proud of myself. For the past couple weeks, I've been meaning to put a daily devotional notebook together so that every day, we can take out the notebook and do a short lesson and activity, gospel related. Well, I haven't "got around to it" until today! I've done my first week's worth of devotionals and I'm so excited! I've really felt lately that I need to start teaching him daily little gospel lessons because I know he can absorb them now, and with him still not totally feeling the nursery thing, I know just on Sundays is not enough for it to sink in. So, we've started reading our scriptures with him again and having him repeat the last verse, which has worked out well. Unless the verse is long, then he gets a little bored. But otherwise, he gets excited when it's his turn. I am writing this down, so I've committed to my small public that reads our blog that I'm going to follow through with this idea!
So, if anyone has any fun activities or ideas you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them because every day, I'm going to try and do a week's worth until I have the whole year. So, bring on the ideas! Thanks, guys!

Our weekend accomplishment

So, I had to plug in that Carter had NO accidents yesterday, a small accident this morning and before he went to bed, he pooped on the toilet! Sorry if that's too much information, but I was so proud, he got a big piece of chocolate as his reward for that one! He's doing awesome. He even wore big boy underwear to church and stayed dry the whole time! I'm so proud of my cute little guy!

Exciting Announcement

So, I just wanted to proudly say, for Carter, that he is mostly staying dry in his new big boy underwear! Only one accident first thing this morning so far! Woo-hoo! We started the big boy underwear on Monday and he was so excited dancing around in them and now he cries if he pees in his diaper. (I still put one on at sleeping times, of course! And for long car rides) I am so happy it's going well =)

Reba

Well, this past Saturday, Mom Wagasky got handed free tickets to go see Reba by some random person at the gas station! Weird, huh? But yay for us because she invited me to go with her! It was a great show and we had a good time together. Afterwards, we went to see how much the shirts are and they were 30 and 40 dollars for a t-shirt! No thank you! So we just went and grabbed a bite to eat. I don't know if you ever watch her show, but I love it and Melissa Peterman was there. It was hilarious and I caught most of it on video along with a song of hers. Sound isn't that fabulous sometimes, but it's a recording, what can I say?

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Carter's ABC's

I am going to brag about my cute little boy for a moment...he is such a smartie! This morning he was pointing to the shapes and knew all the basic ones (square, star (his fave), circle, and square). I was surprised to hear him saying all of them as he pointed to them. He loves to practice his ABC's too...as soon as he wakes up, he starts to try and say them by himself which sounds something like this, "I, E, O, B, Bo, By," as he points his finger at each syllable. And I'm totally not joking when I say first thing...he climbs in our bed most nights and he literally pops his eyes open and starts saying them. It's quite hilarious...In the video, you'll hear his version and then he loves to copy each one as we say it. He keeps getting distracted by his wrinkly foot, though. Doesn't something always happen when you want to get it on video?

Gone Fishin

Oh yes...that's the sweet remains of our fresh caught fish my hubby helped catch! Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, we went camping in Pine Valley and went fishing! It was our first time camping with Carter and we had a blast! He was so excited to sleep "outside" and when he woke up in the morning, he pointed straight outside and looked at me with the hugest grin and said, "Mom! We're outside!" It was so cute and so fun to see him have a great time. The dirt there, though was horrible. It was black and stuck to everything! That kid was so dirty by the end, I couldn't wait to give him a bath!

June Birthdays

Well, June seems full of birthdays around here, but really there's only two! Ha ha...My brother, Robert's is on the 20th and then Justin's brother, Shane's is on the 24th! So, we'll start with Robert's since his is first! Grandma Bert came into town this year, which we were so happy about because she hasn't come out here since my baby shower and she hasn't seen Carter since he was 2 months old! So, we were way excited and she's always popular with the little ones, which held true with Carter because he loved her! We started out Robert's birthday with going to Gilcrease Orchards in the morning, but I didn't have a charged battery yet from Father's Day, so I don't have any pictures, unfortunately! But later that evening, we went to Angel Park Golf Course in Summerlin to do their putting greens there! It was a lot of fun because the sweltering heat died down pretty quick. Plus, there were a TON of little bunnies all over the course and Carter had a blast chasing them all around the bushes and such. I was too busy chasing him and hopping fences after him to take any pictures of the bunnies, though. It was a great time! Afterwards, we of course went back to my parents for cake and ice cream and present opening. Enjoy the pictures from that...oh, and can I just say I am totally addicted to the digital scrapbooking thing? It is the best for showing off lots of pictures instead of having a slideshow or big string of pictures...okay, I'm off my soapbox now!

The next birthday was that following Tuesday, Shane's 25th birthday! He's a quarter of a century old! So, Andrea had us all over for cake and ice cream, after which Carter had a good time wrestling and playing together. Check out the awesome video of the "baby wrestling." It's quite hilarious...Okay, that will have to come later after I downsize it since it's too big right now.

On actual Father's Day, we of course went out to Justin's Dad's site with the family. It was very nice that Damian and his kids could be around. But then my camera died and I didn't take any pictures over at my parents which was very fun! So, that was our Father's Day...Justin got new work boots and a case of Dr. Pepper =) Oh, and I made him a cute picture framed that Carter made with pictures of them and Carter's hand and foot prints!

Carter's a singer!

Carter has taken up singing lately and I absolutely love it! He knows the words to a few songs:

1. Elmo's World: "La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World."

2. Life Is A Highway by Chris Ledoux (Just the chorus)

3. Pocket Full of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield. He sings all the parts that say "Whoa" or "No"

4. He sings all the songs on Dora and Diego like the map and backpack song

5. He also sings the "Hot Dog" song at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

And then he makes up his own songs all the time and copies what we're singing. It is so cute that he's singing now. This video was taken because the night before he had asked for an apple ("Bapple") right before bed and we told him he could have one in the morning. well, first thing he asked for an apple, and I told him he could have one after his diaper change. So all this his diaper change he was singing, "I want an apple."

Justin's a great dad!

For Father's Day this year, I wanted something fun we could all go do that Justin would enjoy to celebrate him. He's such an awesome dad and Carter just loves him to pieces. So, I thought going to the Mini Grand Prix would be fun and it would be even funner for him if he could race one of his brothers, so Andrea and I went in cahoots to take them the Saturday before Father's Day as a special treat! It's really not expensive to go, either, which makes it even nicer! Carter was having a great time playing the games and pulling tickets off, as was Makenze! Now, the big slide, Carter got super freaked out. First, he wanted his Aunt Andrea to take him, and then it was so big and fast he just started bawling at the bottom...poor kid! So, Andrea and I had fun using the rest of the tickets we had gotten for the slide =) Ha ha, but the little ones enjoyed the Go-Karts...Carter almost fell asleep because of the rumble! And we had a nice ending eating pizza and buying the kids prizes with their tickets!

Our hubbies were so nice, they won us watches for $0.50!!! Ha ha...I got spongebob and Andrea got a very flashy gold watch with the Virgin Mary on the face...so awesome.

Living with Grandma

Things are going great here living with Justin's mom. Carter loves waking her up in the morning. He asks me to do it first thing, but I tell him no for a good hour or so to let her get more sleep! The woman in a night owl =) Ha ha...He especially loves that the "TT" or TV is close enought to touch. But Justin has our big flat screen in our room so he can play his video games on it, and Carter asks to watch Elmo and George (Curious George movie) on that TV usually!

We are totally enjoying the summer with plenty of trips to the pool too! We had Damian and his 3 kids in town and met Andrea and Makenze at the Whitney Ranch Recreation Center out in Henderson. That place is so cool! They have a jungle gym for the kids in the middle of the water that sprays and has a mini water slide and stuff. Then, they also have 2 big water slides for big kids or grown ups. I haven't got to go on those yet, but maybe when Justin goes with me one time I'll get to go. Carter is so timid around the water, so I usually have him clung on me like a koala bear most of the time. I swear it takes him literally an hour to warm up enough to walk around in the water and stuff. That's what's nice about the rec center, though, because it's kind of like a beach and Carter can just ease himself in! He totally pooped himself out, though, and fell asleep on the floor...how cute!