My Dad

Today is my dad's birthday, and he always threatens us if we put him on our blog, but I don't care. I have to say that growing up I was better friends with my dad than my mom. I loved going on little jobs with him and having a good conversation. He always seemed to have some kind of advice for me, whether it was what I wanted to hear or not. Here are some of the things my dad loves:

• Disneyland - I think this is his #1 love!
• Playing with the grandkids
• A good 'discussion' (in other words, a good argument)
• Projects - something to keep him busy at least
• He used to love the outdoors: hunting, fishing, etc.
• Golfing
• The Gospel
• Our Family

Dad, I am so lucky to call you that, and I am so thankful for all the lessons you taught me while growing up: To work hard, and to accept a good challenge in life, and to be strong in the gospel.

Hope you have a HaPpY BiRtHDaY!

Cooling off in this dreadful heat!

I'm sure most of you feel the same as we do... It's so hot!! We've managed to find a few things to do to keep cool.

1. Main Street - I mentioned before that Colby had taken the boys a couple of times while I was recovering. When I finally started feeling a little better they needed to take me there, I had never been. It was fun and the boys of course, had a ton of fun.


2. Our backyard - Back when Stefanie and the boys were here I bought this el cheapo sprinkler thing from Wal-Mart. Noah loves it, Cutler not so much. I usually just go turn it on and then come in the house because I can't stand to be outside. I finally decided that if I had a way to cool off too then I could stay out there with them, so we ventured to KMart and bought this $8 kiddie pool. Cutler loves it. So now we fill the pool and then turn the sprinkler on and voila, both boys are happy! (That's not an easy thing to accomplish. And I still go back inside the house.) Here is Cutler "diving in"
   


3. Pine Valley - We've gone a couple of times and it feels so nice up there. It's a good 20 degrees cooler which is such a relief. The boys swung in the hammock, and we all took a turn in the tire swings. We tried fishing and it lasted all of about 20 minutes, but they did catch one.

We also just finished with swim lessons. I'm not sure if the boys 'passed' their classes though. Noah missed 3 days and Cutler missed 1. Noah got in trouble one day so he couldn't go the next, then he was sick, and they missed the last day (the funnest) because it was the 24th, we were out of town. I did the parent/tot class with Cutler. I thought it would be so much easier than chasing him around the pool trying to keep him out of it while Noah was in lessons. But, I wasn't able to get them in the same time slot, so I would have had to chase him anyway, so I just dropped Noah off everyday and made it back just as he finished and just in time for our class. (that's why there's no pictures) Then Noah would just sit on the chair by us and have his snack. Noah is getting so much better and at my parent's he does really good under water. We just have to remind him to take a break once in a while to catch his breath again.

For the most part, what time we do spend outside is mostly in the water. I try my hardest to just stay in until the evening. I have always loved the summer, I love the heat, I love the sun beating down on me. I love feeling like I'm getting a tan. But this year is so much different, for the obvious reason. And I must say this summer is worse than the year I had Cutler, in the middle of August! I usually never wish for the fall, but this year I find myself wishing everyday it would come faster.

- Side note -

For whatever reason my computer won't upload some of my pictures, so my posts may be quite boring for now. (as if they're so entertaining anyway!) As soon as I can get it to work I'll fix them.

The time has come...

To spread the word...

I've decided to announce

we're adding a third!

As if you couldn't tell from the little counter on the side. My actual due date is January 10th, and I must say I am actually excited it's not the middle of the summer. Although it may as well be. The heat right now is about to kill me. Hence the reason I chopped my hair! I really try not to go many places, and stay inside as much as possible. So don't be alarmed if the next time you see me I look like this...

(I can't believe I'm even putting this on here!)

The belly is growing quite rapidly. Colby and Noah are really hoping for a girl, and I would love to have one also. I mean what mom doesn't want to have a little girl to dress up all girly and cutesy like, right? On the other hand, I do have two boys and lots of cute boy clothes, and boy toys. Therefore I could save a lot of money by having another boy. Well, I have an appointment next week, and then my next appointment is the ultra sound. So we'll find out in about a month.

Needless to say having my appendix out while being pregnant has really slowed my healing process down. I hadn't been sick at all until my surgery, and the weekend after I got home I spent lying in front of the toilet, crawling from there to my bed and back. That Monday I was finally able to go get an IV and "get back on my feet" if you will. So, 2 Zofran a day and I'm pretty good to go. Let's hope this pregnancy is a lot easier than the first one!

Our fireworks attempt

On the 3rd, we went to dinner with gramma Sherie and then got some fireworks to do since she was leaving for the weekend and we wouldn't be doing any in the mountains. Noah is so funny, every year he is scared of the sparklers at the very first but then is ok to do them. So the whole time you hear about how he's not scared to do them anymore. And Cutler this year, he wasn't having anything to do with any of them. The whole time he kept taking me into the house. I don't know if he didn't like the noise, the brightness, the flames, who knows. But here are some pictures of our fireworks.

4th of July weekend

This year we had a fun, semi-uneventful 4th of July. The 4th is one of my most favorite holidays, but this year it was just different.

• Colby worked
  
• I took the boys to Minersville with my mom. We missed the parade and it was too hot for me to go hang out at the park, so the boys just played with cousins at my grandparents.


• Colby picked the boys up and took them camping up to Beaver


• We had a Carter family reunion - which I made a dvd for and there was a mistake. How embarrassing!! We got it fixed and had to mail everyone a copy. (about 80)


• After the reunion we all went back to the mountain and camped another night. It felt so good up there.


• We worried about Cutler getting too cold since he was pretty cold the night before so Colby and I put him between us. MISTAKE! He is such a wiggle worm.


• The next morning he was so tired he pretty much layed around. About an hour after we got up he wanted to get in the truck. I put him in his seat and he didn't make a peep for another hour while we packed everything up to leave.


• 15 minutes in the truck and he was out!

We had a great weekend. It was fun for me to finally go camping. I can't wait for the 24th!

July

As always I am quite a bit behind right now. I won't use my surgery as an excuse, but it really has slowed me down. Man, this is the pits! I am going to work on catching up with what we have been doing, so bear with me. It may take a few posts.

Last week we celebrated Chad and Jennifer's birthdays. Chad is my baby brother that definitely keeps us worrying, but we love him and the kids all love hanging out with him. Jennifer is married to my older brother Shan, and is the best wife he could have ever found! She is such a good mom, and we love having her in our family. They actually have the same birthday, so kind of a bummer for them we celebrate it together. And yes Jennifer, I stole this picture from you. I wanted a recent one and I don't have one.




We hope you both had a great birthday!!