Busy, Busy, Busy

The last couple weeks have been crazy.

Between two families in the same town the holidays are always full.

This Christmas was so much fun. Carter LOVED to open all the presents he could get his hands on,

it didn't even matter what was inside he just loved to open everything.

He was so cute on Christmas saying "wow" and "ooohhh" to everything he got.

I loved having our little family together and watching Carter open all of his presents from Santa and get so excited over them. 

Carter also loved Christmas lights this year. Everywhere we went he would say "pretty pretty" and 

"Oh wow"

Still not the biggest fan of Santa this year but a lot better than last year. He really wasn't sure why in the world we wanted him to go sit on his lap.

Carter getting to really play in the snow.

We also has the Mitton Christmas Nativity and Carter got to play a wise man. He was the cutest wise man I had every seen. To make it even better he thought that laying down by baby Jesus (Emi) would be a good idea. so he got a big laugh from everybody about that. 

Lastly, nap time came up with another new challenge. The other day I laid him down and had all the lights off, all the sudden I saw Carter's light turning on and off, so I went in there to pull his crib away from the wall and when I went in I found this:

and yes that is pee on his sheets. I could not stop laughing. When I laid him down he had on two socks, pants, and a diaper. I can honestly say it had never crossed my mind before to make sure that my child would not take off his pants, diaper, and one sock when I laid him down for a nap. 

I guess when kids you have to think of everything right?

Croup

Croup-

Is down right terrible. 

Poor Carter has a pretty nasty case of this going on. 

This little boy is just miserable and sounds like a barking seal.

I hate the feeling of seeing him struggle and I just can't do much of anything to help.

Lots and lots of movies and powerade. 

Last night is when it got really bad. Carter woke up about an hour after he went to bed just gasping for air.

The sight of him struggling so bad scared me to death. I know croup is a really common

thing and that now as long as it is watched and taken care of really isn't 

that big of a deal. but it just about sent me over the edge to watch. I thought that someone needed to do something to help him and nobody seemed all that worried. I have honestly never had to watch Carter go through that much pain and struggle before.

I thought about all the different people that have the trial of having a sick child that has

much more intense struggles and my heart breaks for them. I think that it is safe

to say that watching your child go through something when you can't do anything for them,

is just about the worst feeling in the world.

Even something so small and treatable as croup I almost lost it. Tanner and I spent our 4th anniversary on Carters floor, cleaning up throw up, and waking up about every two hours. 

This morning he seems to be doing a little bit better, luckily today was Tanner's day off so I'm sure it will be a family nap time kind of day. 

 

So forget my last blog about me not minding sick days. 

I officially take it back.

 

 

 

Sick, Four, and More

Sick little boys are one of the hardest things to handle. This little boy just does not have a clue what he wants. Nothing seems to be what he wants or needs today. Although sometimes I honestly don't mind sick days. Although they are hard and frustrating I love the extra snuggles, jammies in the afternoon, and movies with my baby boy. I have been on a large struggle lately to get rid of the "ba ba" and Carter has been fighting it but we were doing good until today. I feel to bad to not let him snuggle up for a nap in his jammies with his blankies and ba ba. So finally its nap time. Really nap time means I should be finishing up my cleaning that I have been trying to do all day, but instead I am blogging. Really it has been a long time that i have posted so that's a good excuse right?

 Coming up this Wednesday is Tanner and I's fourth anniversary. Four years sounds like a long time to me right now, I can't believe it has been that long. Than again it is really such a short time compared to how long we get to be together. I thought because of our anniversary coming up I would tell our story really quick.

In August 08 I went bowling with a big group of friends, after awhile I noticed Tanner come in, I knew him from high school. I went and sat down and tried to turn on my charm. I pulled out all my best flirting hoping he would ask me out or at least get my number, well he didn't, so at the end of the night we parted ways and I didn't think much of it. A couple weeks later it was fair time, I was working in the Coke trailer selling wristbands just like every year before. through the gate I noticed Tanner and yelled at him and we talked for a few minutes, he was always working at the fair doing sound. He told me that he would come find me the next day and we could walk around. We spent the next few days at the fair together, after that we spent a very short time dating, a WHOLE three weeks. Looking back now I honestly think it sounds insane we got engaged that fast but I guess we both just knew. Even though most people thought we were crazy, and as crazy as it sounds now, things worked out pretty good for us. Four years, one child, and to many memories to count later, were doing pretty good.

Our very first picture together

Boots.

The other day Carter and I went to the store to get him new church shoes

(can I just say this kid grows out of his shoes like every week)

anyways, while at the store Carter had a big opinion on which shoes he wanted.

He picked them out himself and held on the them with both hands the whole way home.

The next day, first thing in the morning he found his big black boots. 

He insisted on putting them on, over and over he brought them to me saying "shooes"

I put his shoe on and he still wasn't happy, he kept pulling on his clothes and just wouldn't stop,

FINALLY I realized he was trying to get his shirt off.... followed by pants.

I was already laughing pretty hard but it didn't stop there, he HAD to have his diaper off.

He pulled and pulled at it until it was off and he was in nothing except his big black boots.

Little graphic I know but I just had to share

This kid cracks me up with something new every day. He is so stubborn and if he wants something

he will not give up until he gets it. He makes everything interesting. 

The best part of this is that minutes later Tanner came home from hunting and walked in to find this.

We both had a pretty big laugh.

The Wise Man

 Sunday was a special day here, Carter was in his first primary program. The nursery got to go up and sing "The wise man built his house upon a rock". Me and Tanner are nursery leaders so we got to go up too. We were in charge of not letting any kids fall over backward off the bench, which between 13 kids I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen. Carter loved going up in front of everyone and he had a big audience, my parents got to come and Tanner's family and siblings all came to watch. He stood up and danced and danced and danced on the bench, and than tried to show everyone his "button". luckily I was up there to put his shirt down. He laughed through the whole song and didn't do one of the actions. It was so fun to realize he is getting old enough to be apart of some fun things, even though he didn't do anything. He is getting so big and growing up so fast. We are really going to miss having our families be able to be apart of all of his activities, but I was really glad that before we leave they had a chance to go watch him sing..... or dance...... in his very first primary program. 

so tired after his program

Portland, ME

Some exciting news in our home lately, all of Tanner's hard work has finally paid off.

After almost a year and a half of waiting, praying, and waiting some more, he is in! 

We got the news a couple weeks ago that he was in and there has been a lot of late night

talking, praying, and what ifs.

So we can finally say we will be moving to PORTLAND MAINE this coming June.

We are feeling so many emotions I can't even begin to put it into words.

There have been fits of exciting, tears of fear, and everything in between. All in all we are so excited and can't wait for this new adventure that will be our lives in a short 6 months.

Being overwhelmed about this move across the country doesn't even begin to describe my feelings.

I feel like we have so much to get ready but I don't know where to start. 

We are so ready to start this new part of our life and for Tanner to take the next step towards 

his career. I'm so proud of him and all of his hard work, he has put in soooo much work, 

countless hours at the library, hours of research, applying, and getting hours to put on his application towards PA school. We are so excited and can't wait to take on this new adventure. 

 

 

  

Halloween

This Halloween with Carter was so much fun! I really wasn't expecting him to really get it as well as he did. 

He was the blue ninja turtle, and looked so stinking cute. I thought that there was no way

he was going to be wearing the mask that came with., and was very surprised

that he kept it on for about two days!

Carter loved all the attention he was getting and at each house would run up, set his bucket down,

knock on the door, than grab the candy from them. He also would make sure

to show off his big smile, and every time someone said something 

it got bigger and bigger. This kid really is a HAM.

 We had a great time trick or treating with cousins, eating yummy chilli 

with all the Mittons, and eating way to much Halloween candy. 

I guess the biggest problem having an 18 month old go trick or treating is I don't want

him eating all the candy and rotting his teeth, so I end up eating

it and rotting my teeth! Dang it.

 

 

Its was so much fun this year to have Carter really starting to get excited and participate in a holiday.

Now I'm even more excited for the holiday season. It is so much fun to watch everything

going on through his eyes. Its all new and Soooo very exciting.

poor kid got his mamas mouth

Lyla loves her cousin, and Carter is kind of over it.

 

  

Interviews

So Tanner is away right now interviewing at a P.A. school in Maine. To say the least, I have some free time on my hands. Turns out it isn't my 18 month who makes such a big mess, its my 25 year old husband. So after dishes, laundry, bed, baths, and everything else, I'm bored tonight. Friday night with my husband gone doesn't make for such a fun and exciting night. Anyways, like I said Tanner is at an interview. This is the second one he has gone to, the first one was in Denver. I'm so proud of Tanner for how much hard work he has put in, and the hours of studying, late nights, and hours of tests. It really is all paying off so far but that results in some stressful months ahead of us. Tanner has lots of traveling up ahead in very short amounts of time, which means time spent apart which I am no fan of. I hate sleeping alone which I'm sure everyone would agree that it's the worst, but I also do a great job of scaring myself while I'm home alone and my new obsession of Vampire Diaries is not helping me out. I know I'm really late but I just got started and LOVE it. The only problem is that I really scare myself the rest of the night. 

I'm just sure that a vampire is going to come out and get me, very mature I know. What can I say right?

Other than interviews back to back, things have been pretty quite around our house. Me and Carter have spent some lazy time together cuddle and watch Nemo over and over. This little boy is obsessed with this movie. Most mornings the first thing out of his mouth is "neemo" he is so silly and would watch it all day everyday if I let him. We have also spent a lot of time on the phone with daddy. Carter is so cute when he hears Tanner on the phone and gets so excited to talk to him. He really misses his daddy while he is gone, but hopefully soon we will be out of the interview stage and on to planning where we will be living for the next stage of our life. I'm so excited for this and can't wait to find out what the next few years hold for our little family. 

No not talking to Daddy in this picture or anyone else for that matter, but he sure is cute.

18 Months

My baby is 18 months old today.

 I can not believe how fast he has grown up. 

I still feel like I should have my little newborn baby. 

Even though I love how much fun he is now and I love playing with him, I can't help but miss my tiny little baby. Carter is so much fun and makes our everyday so much fun.

 I love watching him discover new things and see his personality grow. 

He is such a sweet little boy and always on the go. 

He has a very tender heart with a very, very stubborn head. 

He sure does know how to throw a fit and get his way, but he always makes my day with a big hug and super wet kiss. 

Carter loves his daddy and tries to copy just about everything Tanner does.

 He always wants to be right in Tanners business and in the middle of whatever he is doing.

 We love this silly little guy so much and really makes our life busy and fun.

1 Day

6 months

1 year

18 months

Conference morning 18 months

So, I'm not doing as good as I hoped with being a better blogger, but I'm trying. Things sure haven't settled down around our house. Tanner is applying to P.A. school for next year. He applied to twenty different schools hoping for better odds than last year. So far things are going great. He has heard back with offers to interview at nine different schools already! Hoping everything will go well and we will get into a school and be on our way. I'm so proud of all of Tanner's hard work and I'm so excited to see that he is getting such great feed back so far. Carter is as busy as ever. He is learning a new word every day is seems like and he is just so smart. He is also on the GO. Nothing brings this little boy down. Today I took him in to the urgent care after some prompting from my mom, I kept saying he doesn't have an ear infection he is playing so good and hasn't stopped his normal routine of running crazy all day, well I was wrong. Double ear infection later, I felt terrible. I feel like I never know when he is sick because he shows no signs of slowing down ever. He is a tough little guy. 

      Over the last couple days his new favorite thing to do is climb ON EVERYTHING. He has never really been a climber so I considered myself lucky, but I spoke to soon. Sometimes I will leave the room for literally thirty seconds and he has climbed up as high as possible! He is scaring me to death.

                    The other day Carter was being all the quite so I came into the room to find him with a million post-it notes all over him. I couldn't help but laugh and didn't want to interrupt his fun so I sat down to watch him play. No kidding he playing with a stack of post-it for a good hour and a half. It always surprises me what keeps this little guy entertained. 

Starting Fresh

A couple of years ago I made a goal to start blogging so I could have a journal of our lives together and keep family updated on everything, well i failed miserably. I think I will go in history as the worst "blogger" ever. I officially did ONE post, yep one. So I'm starting fresh. I figure now i have a lot more to blog about and realize people now don't care much about hearing about Tanner and I so much as hearing about our little guy. Carter is growing like a weed and keeps this house super busy! He is now just about 17 months and getting more and more fun everyday. Being a mom to a toddler is nothing like I thought it would be. I remember thinking when Carter was just little, "oh i can't wait until he is more independent and can walk and play", I guess I really didn't know what i was wishing for. Keeping my house clean for more than 20 minutes is just about near impossible and forget about me doing anything on my own time. I am completely devoted to a  30lb little stud. Carter makes for a very interesting day everyday. I can't believe how big this guy is getting. He surprises me every day with something new, most days I honestly feel like I can't keep up with teaching him new things because every time I teach him anything he picks it up so darn quick. He is so smart and growing up way to fast for my liking.

This summer has been a super fun, yet busy one. We are waiting on PA applications to find out where we will be next year. We could be going anywhere from Maine to Colorado and just about every state in between. Our hopefuls are a couple schools in AZ, CO, or NV, but its a pretty big possibility we will end up on the East Coast, which really does scare me close to death. I'm nervous but know it will be an awesome adventure and one we will never get to experience again. Tanner has worked so hard so I'm crossing my fingers, toes, and everything else that he will get in this year. I'm really going to try and blog at least every little bit. I feel like I'm pretty determined to keep up on this now that I have something as cute as Carter to sit and talk about. In the mean time I'll do an overload of pictures to show off my little cutie.

fun day at lagoon wiped out

Carter had so much fun riding the rides with Maddox

fun time at Lagoon