Corn Creek

One of Carter's prizes for completing his aforementioned chart we started, was to go on a hike. So, we went to a place called Corn Creek I read about a while ago, but hadn't gone to yet. It was a lot of fun. A very nice escape from the city and desert! Lots of little wild animals/birds to see with a pretty stream to walk alongside and historical buildings to look at/read about. The weather was beautiful and Justin and I both said we could've just fallen asleep under our picnic tree it was so relaxing with the breeze and the sound of the stream. But then we remembered we had two helpless children with us and decided to stay awake...ha ha.Carter crossing the creek

He kinda looks psycho in this picture, but he was having so much fun throwing stuff in the stream!

Sticking his hands in one of the channels of water

Thanks to a tree stump, we got a nice family picture!

The most precious little things in the world!

Chillin with Daddy under the tree

In front of one of the restored buildings

I love this man!

Preschool stuff

So, I have been doing at-home preschool with Carter for a while, some weeks I do better than others! But I have taken some pictures of some of the stuff we've been doing (I'm trying to be better about remembering pictures). Carter loves this, as he always tells me to "drop him off at the school down the street" and come back to pick him up later. Well, not quite the same, but he feels like a big boy anyway! So, I made up a learning board a couple months ago that has dry erase marker-able squares for me to pick a song, letter, number, color, science subject, and gospel lesson to focus on every week. I try to incorporate as many of them together as possible, like for one week I did Seeds, color brown, letter "S", Heavenly Father created the Earth, etc.Here's Carter after planting Peas for seed week...he loves watching them grow and shows me them every day!

Also part of seed week, we made our own bird feeder! It took a few days for the birds to realize it was out there, but we get lots of pretty singing visitors now!

Once a week we do preschool with Libby, Danielle and I alternating planning lessons. This was learning about leaves by Danielle!

I get books from the library every week to go along with our lessons. This one didn't go with our subject necessarily, but Carter sure enjoyed it! It was called "Mr. Cookie Baker" and had a bunch of recipes in the back.

This week we've been working on apples (last week too, actually). So far we've done apple stamps, made candied apples, read lots of apple-themed books, and I'm having a brain fart on the other stuff we've done, but it's been fun! Carter even drew on his worksheet today a "C" for his name, which he's been able to do for some time, but then he added an "R" and an "Ee" afterwards! Maybe I'm crazy, but I was so impressed with my little three year-old. His letters looked perfect! I need to scan them in...

Rest of September

Well, we had two other big things happen in September! One was Justin's twin brother, Jason, came home from Iraq and is officially out of the Army! We couldn't be happier for their family and Justin is just loving having his brother around again. They are our best friends and have been since we were all dating, so to have them as a whole family to hang out with a lot is just awesome! We went bowling the day after he came home and had a great time! (Minus Carter's crying episodes the first 15 minutes of being there!)

Had to add this picture of Kelsie because I thought it was so funny!

We also FINALLY got a swingset! I had been looking for a good deal for quite a while on craigslist. Carter even started telling us, "We should look on craigslist!" Oh geez...but we found one and it happened to literally be down the street! Sweetness! Carter plays on this every day...loves it!

Hanging out and stuff...

Kelsie is 4-1/2 months now and I can't believe how fast time flies by! She is the sweetest little baby, frequently giving out shy smiles and likes to make lots of chit chat, especially with her Daddy! It is so funny to me that the difference between boys and girls is so apparent this early. Carter's first laughs were loud belly laughs and Kelsie is so sweet and giggly. I love it! She is crazy, though. She's already semi-mobile. This is not supposed to be happening yet...she's figured a way to arch her back and kick her legs that scoots her around pretty good. The downside is it has rubbed a bald spot on the back of her head since she uses it as a 5th limb. She is such a wiggle worm! Once she takes off, I'm scared..seriously. She already arches her back and tries to wriggle away while you're holding her on your lap. I'm not going to be able to contain this girl! But we are also dealing with a possible milk allergy with her...poor thing. I take her to the doctor again tomorrow. Luckily it hasn't been too much of fussiness with it, just A LOT of spitting up and really weird poops...Hanging with her Daddy...such a Daddy's girl already!

Carter is shown here while making his new chart we started a few weeks ago. It has 22 things for him to mark off every day. I laminated it so we could just use a dry erase marker. He chooses something fun to do (So far we've done bowling, playing at Grandma Gill's by himself, and today we went on a hike out at Corn Creek) and we say how many points he has to earn to do it (100 marks or something). Anyway, it has greatly improved many things, such as saying please and thank you, cleaning up after himself, and not having any accidents (we were experiencing problems with this). He has not had an accident since we started this chart! (Except for one day when we hadn't done the chart!) Anyway, Mommy, Daddy and Carter are all loving this new chart!

Remembering Justin's Dad

On September 16, we remembered Justin's Dad, Damian, as it was 2 years exactly that he had passed away. On searching for a picture of Justin's Dad to post, I couldn't pass our favorite picture that Justin and I frequently talk about. This was taken just about 10 days before he passed away. We were over visiting, as we had been doing every day for over a month, and talking with him. Although he was very weak from his chemotherapy and just from the cancer, he was still trying to be his joking self. He was telling us that he was trying to get the energy to make it to Carter's birthday party, but we decided to have Carter take a birthday picture with him then anyway =) Carter wasn't being very cooperative, so Justin got next to him and he took a deep breath and gave a super huge smile, as you can see. Justin and I cherish this photo so much. As I was looking through these pictures, memories just came flooding back of that time in our lives and it just brings tears to my eyes. I miss him terribly and it saddens me to think that Kelsie won't know her amazing Grandpa Wagasky on this earth. I know Carter misses him, as he asks about him often and inquires about seeing him again. I can only imagine what my husband feels, missing his father, as he talked with him nearly every day and went to him for advice frequently. Anyway, I didn't want this to be a sad post, so I will end by saying that I cannot wait for the great joy we will feel when we are reunited with this awesome man, and I am so very grateful for the gospel and the hope it gives us.

Shane, Rena and Justin by the gravesite

Makenze and Carter about to send their pictures up on balloons.

Carter and Makenze preparing their pictures for take off

My little guy hiking up his pants as he runs over to our picnic!

Carter's Birthday Party

The Saturday following Carter's birthday, we had his party at our house. He chose a Ben 10 theme and it was super fun! Carter had a blast with all of his friends coming over. The party included a little freeze dance, water balloon toss and pinata bashing. And he of course loved all his presents. He developed a nervous twitch, I guess you would call it, while opening his presents. He would nervously scratch the back of his head after every gift while saying, "S-s-s-sank you!" Ha ha...we were all laughing how funny he was being. What a cute little guy =)
Don't be jealous of our homemade alien head pinata...it was time consuming and in the end, the wire we were trying to hang it with was tearing through the top...oh boy. So, it ended up as a alien head in a fruit basket look...very classy.

Getting ready for a game of water balloon toss, I believe.
Robert, Gage, Carter, Hayden, Keagan, Libby and Makenze

It took a few tries, but he got 'em! And his special wish was to marry his mommy again. He says now that he's 3, he's big enough to do that =)

Carter's Birthday

I am so behind on this, I know, but hey, I gotta catch up sometime. I was trying to get back in the habit of scrapbooking our cute pictures before I post them, but who am I kidding. I'll never get this done with these two busy kiddos of mine! Justin has started working nights this last week and a half, so I've managed to get some done, but I'm just going to do a massive post of catching up I decided and not worry about the cuteness for now =)
For Carter's birthday, we had him choose a fun activity he wanted to do, which was going on a tour at Anderson Dairy! This is so cute and FREE! They do a little tour with talking animals and walking through a foggy hallway (Carter's favorite part). Then reward you with a nice big bowl of ice cream at the end! Yummy! Carter was so excited to celebrate his birthday and especially that his cousins and friends, Jace and Mia, came. We had a blast!That night, Carter also had chose spaghetti with meatballs, broccoli, and garlic bread for dinner. He loved it so much, he ate 3 helpings of spaghetti! Those of you who have seen my child eat, know we witnessed a near miracle on his birthday =) He also desperately awaited the much wanted Omnitrix he has been begging for...we saved it as his last present. Those of you who have no clue what an Omnitrix is, it's a watch thingy that a superhero kid, Ben 10, wears that transforms him into different alien dudes that all have different super powers. So, moving on, he opened this beloved toy and eagerly put it on. After turning the dial and slapping the top a few times (in perfect mock of Ben 10), he says to us, "This is not working! I'm not turning into ANY of those guys!" We have since had many discussions of WHY he can't have the REAL Omnitrix and WHY pretending is so very cool =)

Happy Birthday our big 3-year-old!!!

PS Now that he is three, don't you know, he is super HUGE! He tells me when we go to the park, "Mom, I'm bigger than all these kids because I'm three!" Or he stopped midstep on our walk the other day and said, "Whoa, I am, like, really big." And then raised one eyebrow and stared me down. Cracks me up!