Puerto Rico

In March I got to go on a 4 day trip to Puerto Rico with my friends Rachel Soper and Cindy Sandoval. Rachel turned 30 in February so since she sent her husband and his friends(including Brandon) on a ski trip for his 30th he returned the favor by sending her on a trip. We had an amazing time. We basically did Nothing while we were there. My kind of vacation. We did go site seeing and shopping but mainly we were there to sit on the beach. The beach was right outside our hotel after all. We toured El Morro and walked through downtown Puerto Rico, which I must say is beautiful. The Cathedral was breath taking. We happened to be there on Ash Wednesday and when the Priest sang his voice rang out through the streets. Gorgeous! While we were downtown we stopped at a pizzeria/bakery/bar and had the biggest pizza I have ever seen. Our waiter was something else. Only a story that my girlfriends and our husbands will ever know. =) Every.Single.Night we were there we ate Gellato and I'll tell you that when I got home my scale did not thank me for that. This trip is a memory that I will cherish forever. I had such a great time and I'm sad Rachel doesn't turn 30 every year.
Oh and I have you know this was the first time I had left Karter for more than a few hours. I didn't even cry until we were at the Denver airport on our way home. Brandon told me that they went to Gymboree and Karter loved parachute time and that he told the story that entire night. I was sad I had missed that. The Ocean right outside our hotel

The Beach

This picture does not show how incredibly sunburned I got on our first day there. I was so burned I had purple polka dots on my legs

Our hotel

Hotel Courtyard

El Morro

Rachel and Cindy in the lookout at the fort

The Cathedral

Downtown

A toast to Kyle on our last night in PR

My disgusting swollen sunburned cankles

Snow and Valentines

It's been a long time since my last blog post and I'm sure I have lost my one follower but I did have a good excuse for not updating. Since we live "in the country" (that's what most internet providers think) we had a pretty sorry internet connection using the only internet provider that would even try to give us service. Well after waiting 4 almost 5 long years for COX to get to us they finally did. So we cancelled our "high speed internet" with @link and waited for COX. So now we have real high speed internet and I'm able to sit here and give updates to I'm sure no one but myself.

In the first part of February we had a good sized snow storm hit OK. I'm sure I'm the only one to say this but I hope this trend continues. For the last 2 years we can actually say it snowed here. I loved every minute of it. The first day it hit it was too cold and windy to go out. In fact it was dangerous to be out there for any amount of time. So we waited until the sun came out and for the wind to stop. B got to stay home from work for 3 days due to the conditions. 3 days off work plus the 2 day weekend, we were spoiled. Karter loved watching the snow fall from the front door but as soon as we were out in it he loved it even more. He did have to "warm" up to the idea of it but he quickly did. He didn't want to walk around in the pretty fluffy snow because it was so deep so we let him walk around in the street where it was much more compacted. We enjoyed sledding, painting the snow, making snowballs, making snowmen, shoveling the driveway and watching the kids across the street ski and snowboard off their driveway.

For Valentines Day Karter and Daddy made me flowers. Brandon cut out all 4 flowers and traced Karter's hand print on each one. He used some of my old scrapbooking stickers and decorated them up. Karter colored on a few of them. Then they put on each flower We Love You. B made stems and attached the flowers to them. He pulled out a vase I had put away and had them sitting on the bar along side a VS gift card. It was a great surprise.
Karter and I went to a cupcake shop in town called Cupcakes to Go Go. Everyone had been talking about how wonderful the cupcakes were. So we bought 3 different cupcakes for all of us to share for our special day. Karter had a chocolate chocolate cupcake, B had a peanut butter cup cupcake and I had a red velvet cupcake. I honestly wasn't impressed but it was a nice treat since we don't have cupcakes a lot.
For Brandon gift I made him some chocolate covered strawberries and bought him a pair of tennis shoes. Two of his favorite things. He didn't NEED the shoes at all but they were on sale and he somehow convinced me that he needed a new pair of all black shox's. Getting ready to go outside

All ready to play in the snow

Walking in the street

Snow Painting

Our first family snowman. He's pretty pathetic. I'll invest more time in finding snowman items next time. Carrots didn't do the trick

B and K made me Flowers with K's hand prints on them and stickers. Also B got me a much needed VS Gift card

Brandon's Valentines gift from me. Homemade Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Karter making Valentines cookies. He got "Mess" on his hands then he wanted down and to get a bath. We did not teach this whole Mess thing to him.

I picked up 3 cupcakes from Cupcakes to Go Go for Valentines day. K enjoyed the frosting off of his until he realized he was a MESS.

For my memory

There are so many things you are doing at 20 months that are so fun and so precious I never want them to leave my mind. So this is all for a memory.

I love the way you say Big. You say it as if you are lifting something SO HEAVY. With a bit of a grunt and holding your breath sort of way. I smile every.time.

We can't pass a Braum's without you thinking you need I Ceeaam. You say I Ceeaam pease pease pease over and over.

Every time we are in the car we have to listen to your "baby music" lately it's been the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Music on Pandora.

You love to put your toothbrush and toothpaste on top of the hangers in my closet.

Your favorite place to go poop in behind my jeans in my closet. I always know what your doing when your back there.

You think you are such a big boy now that you are sitting with us at the table and no longer in your highchair.

The love for your Daddy grows more and more every single day. You must be at his side at all times

You think it's the greatest thing in the world to take showers with your Daddy.

I love that you kiss me after I'm finished singing He's got the whole world in his hands then you'll lay your head back down on my shoulder and say again or more so I have to sing it again. And I do because I want another kiss from you. This sometimes goes on for 5 or 10 minutes.

I love how concerned you get when a baby is crying.

You no longer cry when we leave you in your bible class or B&S class.

And mostly I love that you laugh all the time.

18 Months

Karter is no longer 18 months but I still need to blog about his check up.
Weight: 28 lbs 2.5 oz-78%
Height: 35 inches-99%
Head 50 cm-95%
Still very tall but is much slimmer. Dr. Prough says he'll be tall and skinny. She said he is on track for everything. She could tell that the "terrible twos" had arrived for him. He wasn't bad or anything just a little strong willed while playing with some of the toys they had there. He is eating SO much better. He learned very quickly that when I cook something for the family that meant he was part of the family and had to eat it too. He has only gone 2 nights without supper since his 15 month apt. He still takes 1 nap a day and they last from 2-3 hours. Every once in a while he'll give me a 4 hour nap.
Karter is a very good boy. He is very busy and loves if you will be busy with him.
He minds very well. And when he doesn't he gets a timeout which last 3 minutes. He doesn't mind timeout. He hardly crys when he is there but he doesn't want to go back. He still doesn't throw a correct tantrum. Which is fine by me. He will gently lay down and stay there quietly until you pay him attention. Which we do not. So he gets up and moves on.
Words that Karter is saying:
Please, More, Snack(Gack), cup (cupacupacupa), shoes, pants, shirt, socks, hat, cold, hot, night night (with a tongue click in the middle of the word), HotDog(Hadog AKA Mickey Mouse), Cheese, Ball, Elmo(Eldo), Uncle (Austin), Joo(Jordan-this is what I call Jordan), Luke, Leta, Rachel, Kyle, Daddy, Mommy(Ma), Keys, Boat, Bus, Car, Truck, Puzzle (Puzzu), Train(Choo Choo), Book, Slide, Where'd it go, What's that, Bye Bye Daddy, Right there, Oh No, Yes, Peach, Door, Wall, Bed, Kiss, Bye Bye, Bike, Rock, Star, Eye, Nose, Teeth,
Karter signs: More, Please, Thank You, All Done, Milk, Drink, Bite,
He recognizes: the letter "o", the color blue and the number 2
He can put together puzzles so well, Loves to match things, Line things up, Color, Play with stickers,
Newest love is taking showers with Daddy. Basically Karter loves doing anything his daddy is doing.

He takes his jammies off in the mornings before I come get him. I don't mind it as long as he's in his crib still. It hasn't occurred to him that he is able to climb out.

He wants to eat non stop.

Loves walking around in our shoes

And thinks wearing Daddy's hats is SO much fun.

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010

This will be an all holiday post. Since I'm incredibly behind in blogging.
Thanksgiving was at our house again this year. We find that it works best for Karter's schedule. Yes I have Karter on a very strict and don't like to deviate from it often. This year we offered to provide the turkey, ham (from honey baked ham I might add), mashed potatoes and apple pies. Austin was here to help with all of the cooking and Brandon was to keep Karter entertained while I cleaned. It was a great day. Karter enjoyed all of the yummy food but mostly we discovered the kid can put away some ham. We had lunch at 12:30 and Karter was down for a long nap by 1:15. Not too much of his schedule. Just the way I like it. Thanksgiving morning

Look mommy it's Santa

Helping mommy put up the Pretty Christmas tree

Putting his new ornament on the tree

Elmo ornament from Grandma

Christmas was CRAZY. We went to Welch on Dec 16th to spend a few days with Grandad and Meme. When we got there Meme had come down with a stomach bug the day before. We tried extra hard to stay out of her hair so she could rest. Then Grandad came down with the bug the next day. The very day our family Christmas was planned. So the celebration was moved to Brandon's aunt Vaughn's house. Which worked out perfectly except the fact that the two most important people weren't able to be there. We all had a great time but missed them a lot. That night Brandon and I decided we'd go ahead and make our way home. We knew Grandad and Meme need time to rest and recover and not worry about having to take care of company. So our trip to Welch was a VERY QUICK TRIP. We have plans to get out there this summer so Karter can spend some time with everyone out there and maybe take a ride on a tractor. If he's lucky.

By the way Brandon, Karter and I escaped the stomach bug that almost everyone caught.

Christmas Eve we spent the evening with Brandon's family. We went over right after Karter's nap. She had a great dinner made for us. We ate, opened gifts, visited with friends and went to see Christmas in the Park (Christmas Lights at the Yukon Park) Karter loved seeing the lights.

Eating a picnic supper with cousins

Gift from Grandad and Meme

Brandon's Family

Some of the girl cousins

Standing on my new stool from Grandad and Meme

Playing with his 4 wheeler

Our only picture together

Christmas morning I made our traditional Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls. I plan to do this every year until I can no longer get in the kitchen to do so. While they were baking we went in to get a very sleepy Karter. I think we were more excited than he was. I'm pretty sure this won't be the case next year. He walked into the living room to see what Santa had left him.

Santa must have decided Karter was a very good boy to bring him such a nice gift. We agree with him. He is a very good boy. Karter got into opening the gifts and had a blast doing so.

After eating a very yummy breakfast we played with new toys until it was time to eat lunch and take a nap. That afternoon we went to my aunts house for my family Christmas. We ate dinner, played Funglish and opened gifts.

We had a excellent Christmas and felt incredibly blessed to be with both sides of our families again this year.

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Sleepy Boy

It's so bright

Santa has been here

My new activity table

Ha Dog pajamas AKA Mickey Mouse

He hugged every gift before he opened them

I love my drum set

Shakey Shakey

I've got the hang of this

Thomas the Train

Playing with Thomas and Spencer

Elmo slippers

Opening his Stocking

Homemade Cinnamon rolls. Our Family Christmas tradition

Trying cinnamon rolls for the first time