Vegas baby!

I thought this picture was hilarious! Carter kicking back watching a little TV. 

We went to Vegas because Jim got some amazing NFR (National Finals Rodeo) tickets given to him. We debated what to do with Carter, take him or leave him, but I still can't do it. So we enlisted the help of our traveling buddies, Heather and Don, and we headed to Vegas. Carter sitting in the lap of luxury in his first class seat. He does really well on airplanes and no one even knows he is there. Of course it is nice to have an extra set of hands to help keep him occupied. Jim almost didn't get upgraded in the way back and I was a little nervous to be on my own. But thankfully, my prayers were answered and Jim was there to help. After a weekend of go go go, Carter was a little more tired and wound up, so I was lucky to have Jim there. 

The next wonderful thing about the trip was the amazing hotel Jim booked. It is a new place and it seems to be "the place to be". Trendy, but so nice. The pictures from my phone do not do the room justice. But the shower and tub were sort of combined in the shower area. The tub was square but deep and Carter loved it. You could do a necked shower and tub dance for the person in the bedroom, sweet. 

There was lots of room for Carter to wonder around and for the crib in the sitting room. As you can see, I used the couch as a bed the first night because we were above the Dance club and I was awake all night thumping to the techno beats. So we moved rooms the next night and I slept very well. We had to push the crib across the hotel when we moved. People were loving it and so was Carter cause we pushed him in it. 

The room and bathroom had sliding doors, so it was really nice to be able to have a space for Carter.

Here is Carter going for his ride through the hotel.

He loved the fish tank in front of the Cheesecake Factory. That is a must, when we are in Vegas. Love it!

Then we walked through the Bellagio Hotel to see their Christmas display, which was amazing. 

The rodeo was so fun and Carter loved spending time with His aunt and uncle. He did get a little mad when Jim and I ditched him at the restaurant as he realized we weren't coming back. But then he was fine. He started to get a little nervous the next day when Jim and I stood up from the table at the same time again....but we didn't leave that time. He is pretty smart though. We had a great time. Thanks to Heather and Don for coming with us on short notice. We miss going on trips with them.

Thankful

November has flown by....probably because we were out of town for 2 weekends and had family in town for Thanksgiving. Carter keeps getting more and more daring....he has started trying to stand on his own. NO Hands....which is a little scary.

He loves playing in the bathroom, with his bath toys. I walked into my kitchen a few weeks ago while he was innocently playing with his toys.......

Walked back in 30 seconds later to find him in the bathtub. He must have slid on down cause there was no thump or complaining. Apparently one of his toys fell in and he went after it. Ummm, okay!

He misses going outside everyday. He is standing up on anything now...walls, couches, drawers, my pant legs, Jim's leg hairs (since he wears shorts). I don't worry about him standing as much anymore cause he can get himself safely down for the most part.

He is still cruising around on all fours when no one will be his walker. Always has to explore what is new, tasting it or figuring out what it is all about. Also trying to get the remotes, computers, or cell phones.

We went to Boise because my brother was blessing his baby. My sister has recently moved there too which is nice to have two siblings in the same place. Carter got a LOT of attention for the past week or so. My sister has 3 kids that were very fond of Carter and loved him every minute he would allow. Jessica and Jacob were such good helpers with Carter and Lucas was happy to have someone smaller to mug. Pretty funny. Lucas shared his cape with Carter. And Carter thinks he only needs to hold on with one hand, if that.

Here is Jacob and Carter, just planning what fun to have next. Carter loved watching the boys play football outside and learned to tackle and get tackled by his cousins.

My cute little man!

That night at the hotel he slept like a log, sure all the excitement and playing tuckered him out.

Here is Anson, my adorable nephew. What a cutie! So glad we got to meet him and hang out with my family.

JJ and Audie make some cute kids. Oakley would say "Albuquerque" when she was getting her picture taken. She is a little ham, and Jovie tries to keep her dad in line (good luck with that). So fun to be able to be there for Anson's special day. He was an angel for the blessing, just starring up at his dad.

Jovie came over and got out some of her toys for Carter. He loved the blocks.

Here are the cousins. They are some cute kids. It is amazing to me to see how grown up and mature they are getting. Love those faces!

5 minutes after getting home from Boise, as Jim and I were unloading the car, Carter fell on one of his toys as we has crawling with it and gave himself a black eye. Poor little guy! Hard to get a good picture of the shiner, but it was a bad one.

The party followed us from Boise to our house. My parents, sister, Tami, and my sister Angela and her 3 kids came and stayed with us for the week of Thanksgiving. Here are Jacob and Lucas with their snowman.

Jessica and Grandpa made a dragon. I should have got a picture when it was finished cause it was good.

There was a LOT of shopping done this week. Got most of my Christmas shopping done. There were also some Black Friday craziness. But we had it down to a science and did it pretty fast. My sisters and I saw Twilight, which was fun. Mostly it was shopping and more shopping. It was nice to have to extra hands to help with Carter, and dinner. I really wish my family lived closer....by closer I mean next door. They are amazing and I love having them around.

Aunt Tami gave Carter his first haircut. We knew he would freak out with clippers, so she used her scissors. It went okay, just tried to keep Carter distracted.

Grandpa bought Carter a giant teddy bear, which Carter loves.

Everyone is gone now, the house is quiet again, and it's just our little family. Yesterday Carter found a new walking toy, the step ladder. He pushed it around. He actually got better at his toy walker cause Jacob was a sport and helped him practice while he was here. He is feeling more confident and getting more daring, so I'm sure more bumps and bruises are in Carter's future.

We started putting up some of our Christmas decorations yesterday. Carter has to check out the new things and help rearrange them for me.

That's my baby! He laughs all the time and is so fun!

Look close and you can see his two bottom teeth. Those things are SHARP! He is still trying to bite everything, so more are probably on there way, but ouch, they hurt!

I am so Thankful for an amazing family. For a healthy, happy baby. For a hardworking, loving husband. For my home that is filled with the Gospel. For the knowledge I have been blessed with and for the freedoms and comforts I enjoy everyday!  I truly have so much!

Walking

Sometimes I worry that we are creating a spaz of a child. It's so funny to get Carter worked up though. When one of us is playing with the boy and the other one starts walking towards Carter he gets excited and starts crawling/ climbing/ booking it away, then looks to see if we are still after him. It is hilarious. He is such a character.
BabyCenter.com says that by this age kids can start showing emotion for another person, like empathy. Not sure Carter has empathy but his sense of humor might be a little off....I was holding Carter as Jim was coming in the garage door. Jim had his arms full or apples and started dropping them, accidentally, and Carter started laughing at him. He also started laughing when Jim tripped over one of his toys. Makes you wonder what he will be like when he is older. Hopefully not mean and laughing at others expense.
I have to watch him all the time cause he is crawling and trying to climb everything. He was on this box and got off going head first. Honestly...more gray hairs for me.

He loves to walk. He always wants our hands to hold and help him. I bought this walker for Christmas, but then I figured he might be walking by himself by then, so we gave it to him early. The first time he was running behind it. Then after falling and bonking his head a few times and having it land on top of him, he has slowed down. Well, we helped by tying a string around the back wheels so it can't go as fast and adding a little weight under it so it hopefully doesn't fall on him so easy.

 He loves the bathtub and always tries to climb in it even when there is no water.
He loves to play with musical toys. Especially now that he can stand up and reach all sides. Of course, he is still learning the best ways to get down. I still put pillows all around him when I can....but it's hard to follow him around with pillows as he is walking from chair to chair as you see in the video. I pray they are all small bumps and bruises.

He is getting good at climbing the stairs. I hope he remembers how we are teaching him to go down them. I am not sure that we are going to be successful because he climbs on my pilates box or machine and gets off head first. But I have to say it is how he learns and he does get better. Here he is trying to get past the bars.

He is cutting a tooth, I can see it. Finally...but I only really see one...I was hoping they would all come together. More sleepless nights in my future, got to love it! My baby....he is funny!

8 months and moving!

Outside in the leaves....he is a little dazed in this pictures. Wondering what his mom is doing setting him down in the cold leaves.

These are pictures I took while I was waiting for the photographer to get there to take his Halloween pictures. Now you can see why he was not smiling in his costume....he was not in the picture mood. Tired, sore teeth, and cold weather = not happy baby. But he is still cute!

These are pictures I have been taking over the past week to show what my 8 month old is up to. He is crawling, in fact yesterday he decided it was time to crawl, crawl. Meaning, hands and knees. Just woke up and decided this is the day. Then today he was back to his stomach again until I said hands and knees and I swear he obeyed and got on his hands and knees. It's amazing what they understand. But he is under everything and standing up on everything. Just exploring his world.

He also loves to pull out all his books and look at them. He loves being read to and sits still for as many stories as you will read to him. I usually read to him before nap and bed time to wind him down.

He has discovered how to stand in his crib. So proud of himself! He has gotten better at understanding that he can't let go and I don't have to worry as much about him hurting himself.

He can actually pull this drawer open, which isn't easy.

He is doing a pull up here. Not sure if you can tell but he is pulling himself up to the bar. Working out already! Love it!

And under the table is a favorite spot to hang out. He gets lots of bumps from crawling under the chairs.

This is when you hope the chairs are sturdy and not easy to tip over.

Halloween! I borrowed this princess/medieval costume from my friend Natalie and it was a hit. It was quite the costume and people loved it.

Jim wasn't quite so lucky.... we threw his costume together a few hours before so it was not as authentic. But he was a good sport and truly is my knight in shining armor. (insert gag)

Carter has rocked his dragon costume 4 or 5 times and is also a great sport. He gets it on and goes with the flow. I'm not sure what he thinks about Halloween....people in funny or scary costumes. What is going on?

It all came together for the Hickman Halloween Carnival. Poor Carter, his mean mom won't even collect candy for him. He doesn't get to eat that stuff yet and Jim and I certainly don't need it.

So I am happy to report that I think the sleeping and eating problems from the last few weeks are over. At least he has been better the past few days and it is so nice to sleep through the night again and not have a fight at nap times. I just need to go with the flow at these times, cause they have always worked themselves out, thankfully. Just give him what he needs, even if that means getting up a few times a night with my baby.

Here is a video of the piggy face....he did it a month ago for a few days all the time, then stopped. Then started it back up the past few days. Not sure what it is all about, but it cracks me up.

Here is Carter signing "more". What a smart boy!

Carter wasn't in the picture mood yesterday....but the show must go on. He didn't have a long enough nap and his teeth are bugging him, that is why he is sucking on his lip. But his Halloween pictures are still cute, just not smiley like he normally is. What can you do?

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Remember when.....

Remember when my baby would lay on the floor and drink his own bottles.....
remember when my baby would lay in the bath to get washed......
remember when he would lay down in his bed and go right to sleep without a fuss....
I remember those days...it was a few weeks ago and it was heaven. Not sure what this new phase is but it is killing me.
You have to let him sit up and you have to hold his bottle so he can drink it....and he isn't finishing any of his bottles.
He wants to only sit up in the bathtub which makes it hard to wash his hair.
Jim is on his 5th story before putting him to bed cause he starts to fuss when you go to lay him down, but he will sit quietly for stories. I'm glad he likes to read but there has to be a line.
This 8 month old stuff is crap.
He is now able to stuff bread and other finger foods in his own mouth after I have been practicing with him this week. We saw our neighbors kid on Sunday feeding himself and he is a few weeks younger than Carter. So I pushed it this week and am happy to say he can feed himself. We did go through a few days where we were fighting for the spoon when I tried to feed him, but luckily I won that fight and he keeps his hands out of the way for the most part.
He can crawl on all four but still chooses to army crawl mostly to get around.
He is fun, but also more challenging. But I guess that is part of parenthood. Give me strength. I know I am too old to have started this, but I had no choice.

Fall is Here!

I had to show the cute shirt Carter was wearing. It says hug magnet and he certainly is. So cute!

 The weather is cooling down, but thankfully it was perfect last week and we still went on walks and hung out outside on the grass. Grass doesn't bother Carter at all. He will crawl, sit, and even lie in it.

Love his smile. Although this last week he isn't smiling as much cause he is sucking his lip, so I think his teeth are bugging him more....honestly teeth, what a pain.

My sister and her family came to stay with us last weekend. Her kids were so good with Carter. They wanted to love him and he wanted to love them from a far. He loves it when they play soccer in front of him, he laughed and laughed. It's funny how a new toy is fun for kids at any age.

We dressed Carter up in his Halloween costume to show his cousins. Lucas is roaring and Jessica and Jacob are holding the wiggly dragon. We had a lot of fun. We played school and we wished it was nicer so we could have played soccer outside but the boys played it inside. We went to Jim's parents house and went swimming. Carter loved it. He loves the water and had fun playing with everyone in there. There were races and kids getting thrown in by Uncle Jim. Good times. We were glad Jim got off work earlier from work so he could be there, cause the kids love him.

I can't believe how grown up these kids are getting. Jessica is so good and loves to read. Jacob has really matured and I was proud of the young man he is becoming. Lucas is so fun and was fascinated with Carter. They are such good kids and I'm glad they moved closer so we can see them more often. The are BIG BYU fans so I think there was some smack talk from the Aggie fan and the BYU family of fans.

Lucas ..... think he is winking at the camera. Not sure!

We went to an Aggie football game Saturday and we had to dress for the cooler weather. Here is Carter rocking his cool look. He keeps me toasty warm sitting on my lap and he loves looking around at the people around us. He is a good baby, he sat for the whole game...well we left at the 4th quarter cause it was bed time and the Aggies were killing it.

He has discovered the fun of making noise, throwing things, banging things, and the sound of the door stops. He always looks in our closet to see if we are in there. He also loves crawling for the bathroom, he gets a kick out of it when we are in the bathroom. Funny kid.

He has been doing this for weeks and has faint bruises all across his forehead to show for it. He pulls down the bumper pad and peeks out when he wants to get out of his crib. What a boy!

We put up a few Halloween decorations and Carter seems to like them. We hope the nice fall weather stays for at least a month longer. I am not ready to be shut up in the house. And already everyone's kids are getting sick. Not ready for winter!

Just the last few days he has started clapping by himself and signing more to me when he is eating. The other day we were chatting with some neighbors and I put Carter down on the grass so he could crawl around. He started crawling towards me then he saw Mason with a cookie in his hand and changed direction towards him. That is not like him to go towards anyone else, so he must have really wanted that cookie and thought maybe he could get someone else to share with him what his parents won't. Sorry little guy, soon you will get more food, but not yet.