St. George

We just finished an awesome trip! Carter and I flew into St. George last Tuesday. Our first flight left at 5:30am. We went through Chicago and then Denver. We finally got to St. George 3 flights and about 11 hours later. Carter was great the whole time! He never cried. It was a long trip, but it went as smooth as possible. We had a two our layover in Chicago and Carter played in their children's museum. He loved following the other kids around. 

For the next couple days Carter and I took it easy with Grandma Polly and Grandpa Mike. Carter got to play in lots of water and explore the house. 

Friday we drove down to Las Vegas to pick up Rory from the airport! We were excited for him to join us on our trip. We went to the outlets and bought some things we needed. Then we met up with Sharon and her kids. We've missed them since they moved away from Indiana. It was great to see them! 

Friday night Rory and I went to David Copperfield! He is an illusionist and it was amazing! His illusions were so crazy. I even got to go up on stage to help with one of them. I got to be blindfolded and everything! Rory got to help with the last illusion too. Pretty crazy that we both got to help. It was a blast!

After the show we walked around a couple hotels and then went to the M&M store. 

Saturday we drove back to St. George and watched the BYU football game. That was disappointing to say the least. 

Sunday we went to church and headed up to the cabin in Pine Valley. We spent a nice relaxing day up there. Carter even got to see some deer and he loved it. 

Monday was Mike's birthday so he and Rory left he cabin early to go golfing. Polly, Carter and I left a little later and got back to St. George in time for Cafe Rio for lunch....Rory's favorite. :)

We got to go swimming and took Carter to a splash pad. He loved the little waterfalls. 

Tuesday we got to go to Sand Hollow lake! We had a blast on the wave runners.  I took Carter out a couple times. It was close to nap time and Carter was so comfy that he fell asleep while we were out on the lake! Haha. It was kind of nice cuz we got to spend more time out there since we weren't worried about getting him home for his nap. :)

 

We had such an amazing trip! Carter loved being spoiled by his grandparents and he loved the constant attention. :) Thanks for a fun week!!

Housley Update

I just figured out there is a blogger app that I can use to blog on my phone! Hopefully that means I'll be blogging a little more regularly again. So after a 6 month hiatus, hello again! :)

A lot has happened during the last 6 months. Most notably, we moved to a house! We still live in Clarksville, Indiana, but we no longer breath second hand smoke every day! Wahoo!!! We are so happy to be out of our apartment. It's so nice to have a yard now and a structure that's all ours so we're not getting the smoke from all our neighbors. We live in a cute little 2 bedroom house that is in a tiny little neighborhood. It's nice because there is no through traffic. Now if only we could get completely unpacked. :) 

Rory is still working at Mercer and enjoying his job for the most part. We're still hoping that eventually he can work from home and we can move back closer to family. Rory is one test away from being a certified ASA. I believe that stands for Associate of the Society of Actuaries. He's been working on the tests for a few years now and is ready to finally achieve the first ranking. He can almost taste it! 

Rory was recently called as the Executive Secretary at church and is now having fun with that. I have been the Primary President for almost a year now. It's still an adventure every week! :)

We have been enjoying a lot of family time and playing outside. Rory has been playing Ultimate Frisbee every Saturday morning and Carter and I tag along to hang out with any other kids and wives that come. Rory and I have also started playing tennis with another couple. I forgot how much I enjoy playing. 

Other than that we've just been enjoying life with a toddler. There's always something new every day. Carter definitely keeps us in our toes. 

This week we went to Rory's work party. It was at a Louisville Bats game. We had dinner and enjoyed watching the game. 

18 months!!

My baby isn't much of a baby any more. Carter is a year and a half old! Where has the time gone?? The past year and a half have been full of so many different emotions as I'm sure any parent can agree. But thankfully the good times our weigh the bad and make it all worth it! Having a little child love you fully and completely is pretty much the best thing in the whole world. When Carter says Ma, Ma! it melts my heart. No matter how upset I am about something he has done, it's all forgotten in a second when I hear those magic words. Carter is definitely a mamas boy and I love it! But he loves his daddy too! The other day the mailman knocked on the door and Carter's face lit up and he ran to the door yelling Da! Da! Needless to say, he was a little disappointed when it wasn't his daddy at the door. I love watching Carter run around showing off for Rory when he gets home from work. He always cracks me up. :)

Carter is one strong willed little boy. He definitely wants what he wants, when he wants it. I'm hoping he'll mellow out a little as our communication improves. We're also trying to work on not throwing things in frustration. Hardwood floors make for some loud bangs when he throws things. So far the best technique I've found to get him to stop doing something is just to distract him. Nothing else really seems to work. He is very one track minded and focused on what he wants to do. But sometimes I can find something else he likes and distract him. Otherwise we have a screaming fit. We're both learning together. :)

Since Carter turned officially 18 months old he has finally decided to start talking. Wahoo!! Until then he really only said, mom, dad, and shoes. But it seems like overnight his vocabulary exploded! He is also finally repeating things we say. Granted, he's only saying the first syllable of words, but we're on the right track! He now says water, monkey, Mickey, peaches, neigh (horse), duck, bat (the animal), giraffe (this one you can only understand if he's pointing at a giraffe), ball, bath, na (bird), car, no, yes, hello, and happy. Those last two I think he says cuz he thinks they sound funny. I'm not sure he actually knows what they mean. He thinks it's hilarious when we say hello and he loves to repeat it over and over. I'm sure he says other words too, but those are the ones I can think of at the moment. It's so nice to understand some of the things he says now.

Carter started nursery at church a few weeks ago. For the most part he's done pretty well with it. One week he had a little melt down when we left him, but when we went to pick him up after church he didn't want to leave. Silly boy! Thankfully he loves his nursery leaders. One of them has a little girl Carter's age so he already knew her. That made the transition easier. I think it's also helping him break out of his shell around people a little more. He's still shy around most people, but I've seen some improvement. :) Carter's favorite part of nursery is snack time. He loves his food! I swear he is always hungry!

Carter is the sweetest little boy. We love him to pieces! We have been so blessed to have him in our lives and are excited to  watch him continue to learn and grow. He is at such a fun age. I love watching his face light up as he experiences new things. Life through a child's eyes never gets old! Everything is new and exciting. We love our little dude!

1 Year!!!

1 Year Stats

Weight: 21 lbs 11 oz

Height: 27 3/4 in

Our little boy is a year old!! To quote Carter's favorite show (Little Einsteins), "I cannot believe it!" Carter's no longer a baby. :( He is growing right before our eyes. We couldn't ask for a better little boy. 

New things for Carter this month:

Carter is walking!
Took his first steps on January 4th.
First Christmas!
Opened his first presents.
Got his 2 front teeth for Christmas!
Tried his first Cafe Rio.
He's not too big on baby food anymore. He's wants the real stuff.
Discovered cereal. Loves it, especially Chex.
Started "dancing" when he hears music. His little shake always makes me smile. :)
He's finally getting a little braver around strangers. He's still shy, but he smiled at everyone as we traveled on the airplanes.
Besides his parents, Carter's two favorite people are his grandmas. They were the only two people he would always willing go to while we were on vacation.

Just hanging out waiting for the doctor.

Reading his book the doctor gave him.

Sweet Superman pjs.

Carter stole some of Nolan's puffs... You can see him eyeing them.

Carter loves to push the cart.

Can you see the smile on his face? :) It's really windy.

Trying a little quesadilla at Cafe Rio with is cousin Nolan.

I love this picture! Carter was very focused on his orange.

Just having his bottle with Uncle Nate. 

Two front teeth!

Carter's Christmas present from Santa.

I love these next two pictures. Carter loves his daddy. 

So cute! :)

We took this just before we cut Carter's long hair. 

The back of his hair gets curly when it is wet. It's pretty cute. :) 

Carter's playing in his Mater wagon. And sporting his new haircut. 

Such a cutie! There is a button on the front of the wagon you can push and Mater talks. He loves it!

Carter got this awesome Superman pjs from his Aunt Megan. They are size 18m so they're a little big, but they sweet!

I love my little boy! He always sticks out his little tongue and I love those big blue eyes.

Sorry about the picture overload! I didn't even put a lot on that I wanted to. I could look at pictures of this little guy all day. 

Carter boy, we love you more than anything in the world. We are so glad that you came to our little family. We have so much fun with you. You are at such a fun age! We love to interact with you as we see more and more of your little personality develop. You definitely have a little attitude when you don't get what you want. You're not afraid to let us know when you're not happy about something. (Like right now you want to type on the keyboard and aren't too happy I'm not letting you. :)) But for the most part you are one happy little guy. You have the cutest smile ever. When you laugh, your dad and I can't help but laugh with you. We are the luckiest parents in the world. You mean the world to us. We could not ask for a better little boy. We love you Carter!