a new niece

I just have to announce the arrival of our newest little niece...

Reese Natalie Carter

7 lbs. 13 oz.

20 inches

She was born yesterday, and she is simply adorable, look at those cheeks! I can't wait to meet her and get to hold her. It's so hard not being able to just jump in the car and drive over to the hospital to see them. Now we just have to hope for Christmas to hurry so we can finally hold her (and see everyone).

Good job Stef & Reag, and Congrats!! I bet the boys just love her.

Staheli Farm

I have lived in St. George for almost 25 years and have never been out here before. We ventured out there the other night with the boys to see what they had going on and the boys had a blast. Cutler absolutely loved the little wooden rocking horse. Noah loved the huge swing. They loved seeing the animals. Cutler chased the chickens around and finally stopped at one of the coops where a chicken pecked at him and got his little finger. He didn't really get hurt, but it was quite funny watching his reaction. We told him that's what he gets for chasing them around. The boys both wanted to go on the little tractor/train ride but I didn't trust Cutler by himself, or alone with Noah, so I went. We skipped the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. The ride would have been fun, but it didn't look like there were very many pumpkins left, and I just wanted to get their picture out there. We already had pumpkins at home, so we chose to miss that part. Once we got home I let Colby have at it with the carver and now we have some pretty cute pumpkins on our front porch. (Noah's even has a loose tooth, just like him!)

Noah's 'friend only' party

Every year I ask Noah what kind of party he wants to have. And every year he tells me and airplane party. Well, the past 4 years I haven't really known how to do an airplane party so I've taken it upon myself to figure something else out. I will stand on my soap box right about now and say that 3 of the 4 years have been quite a party (I do like to make a big deal of it)! They are a lot of work, but so much fun, and even more rewarding when everyone has left, it's all cleaned up, I can sit down and reflect on the things that happened and how it all went. I can say I have been pretty proud of myself and the parties that we've had for Noah.

Well, this year since he is in Kindergarten we decided it's time for 'friend' parties. Noah made sure he let all of the grandma's know that they weren't invited, and not to come. (grandma sherie was my photographer so she had to come. but she promised she would only take pictures and not get in the way.) And also, since this was his first friend party I thought it would be a good idea to do the kind of party he wanted. First it was a pirate party...check, then it was a halloween party...check, then a dinosaur party...check. So I got busy and found a way to do THE Airplane Party.

As the kids arrived I had these 'briefcases' filled with goodies, and a luggage tag for them to decorate.

Here are most of them concentrating on how to write their name and which stickers they were going to use.

Once they all got there, and the tags were ready we got started. First we did paper airplanes. Colby is the ultimate paper airplane builder, so he taught them how to fold them. Most of them just watched and then said they couldn't do it, so we had to make them.

Then, Colby had built a runway for them to throw the planes onto. Whoever's plane landed on the runway, and went the farthest won.

Next we had them build little wooden gliders to throw. They were super cheap and not so durable, therefore most were broken before they were even built. But we managed and did the same thing, had them throw theirs onto the runway.

Here's Noah blowing out his #6 candle!

Overall, the party turned out pretty good. It was definitely less work than his others, all of his friends came, and he got a ton of great presents.

So one last Happy Birthday to Noah...until next year.

Look who's 6!

It's so crazy to think back to when Colby & I started dating and remembering Noah like this...

and how he has grown into this...

Noah has become such the big boy/little man!

Some of Noah's favorite things to do right now are to play with his friends, swing, ride his bike (which he is way to big for...santa), create things with a string & a toy (it's a boy thing I think), and he has now learned to read! I can't believe he is big enough to be reading.

I snapped this picture of him on his way to school this morning. He looks so big to me.

Noah, we love you so much and hope you have the happiest birthday ever!

To tape or not to tape?

First of all, nobody take offense to this post. It's my personal opinion and it's about me, and my belly button.

I have an inny. It's not super deep, but it's an inny. I actually like my belly button, besides the scar right above and right below it thanks to surgeries. But you normally don't even see those. Anyway, that's beside the point. Most pregnant women get an outy as they get bigger. (This is where I don't want anyone to get offended) I personally think outies are ugly. I guess I'm just partial to mine. I do not love looking at pregnant bellies only to see a belly button poking through the womans shirt. So, when I was pregnant with Cutler I was so worried about mine poking out. It never did. It got flat, but nothing more. This pregnancy is completely different. Here I am, 6 months into it, that's right, 3 more months to go and I already have an outy!

The dang thing itches, the scar on the bottom is getting super sensitive and starting to really hurt. I just don't think mine is suppose to go out. I am seriously contemplating taping the thing down.

This is where I wonder... To tape, or not to tape?

*And no, this is not my belly!*

Sleep/Night Terrors

*Let me just warn you right now, this is long. And may be boring. I apologize, but remember, this is my journal too.

Have any of you ever had to deal with this before with a child? It is one of the most sad, confusing, scary/freaky, frustrating things ever! A couple of months ago Noah comes into our room in the middle of the night just bawling. He doesn't do this often, but it was nothing we were really concerned about. As we are trying to talk to him and figure out what is wrong and why he is crying, the thought crossed my mind that he wasn't even hearing us and that he was sleepwalking. This is the frustrating part. He won't answer. He can't answer. I tell Colby what I think is happening and we try to wake him up. It doesn't work. After what feels like forever, we watch him 'come to' and he looks around (the confused part) then looks at us wondering why he's in our room, and sometimes starts to laugh. We get mad, take him to bed. I would always ask him the next day if he remembered what happened the night before, and he looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about and would tell me no.

This actually started when he started not taking naps anymore. Like he was so tired from the day, but not tired enough to nap, so this happens. During the first week we had at least 2 or 3 episodes. Each one a little different. Crying every time, yelling at people, and mostly just scared out of his mind. After talking to a couple of people and reading some great articles, we decided this is what it was. Sad.

We have gone quite a while without anything like this happening, and have been very relieved. Almost feeling like it was a short phase and we were through it. Until last night. I have no idea what time it all started. All of a sudden we hear him coming into our room, crying. You could hear the fear in his voice. "Someone just hit me in my bed." He was obviously dreaming, and we have gotten to the point where we can tell if it's a nightmare, or night terror. This was definitely a nightmare. Colby took him to his room, turned the light on, checked things out. Did the usual 'put back to bed' routine. A couple minutes later Noah is up turning lights on, shutting doors loudly. Almost like he's going to let whoever it is scaring him know that he's still here. And so are we. The night was long and there was more that happened, but we have concluded it was a nightmare night. All morning long he moped around, layed in bed, on the floor, the couch. I told him he needs to try to sleep at night, and that it's ok to be scared and to come to us if that happens. As the day went on, he got headaches, his eyes hurt, fevers, tired. He wouldn't even let grandma Sherie talk to him and console him. Now we know he's sick. Tonight we thought we would get the boys out of the house, knowing Noah still didn't feel very good we took them to a movie. (Wall-E. don't go see it) About 15-20 minutes into it Noah's eyes hurt, he wants to lay down, starts crying, moaning, whining. I ask him if he just wants to go home (actually frustrated) and he says yes. We stay, and about 10 minutes later he pukes all over. Of course we left. We got home, he sat in the tub for a minute then went to bed. About 2 hours later he starts crying. Colby goes in his room. He's there for a while so I go check on them. Colby looks at me like he doesn't know what to do. I walk over to Noah and take one look. His eyes get big and you can see the fear. He was afraid of me. Colby tells me he's still asleep. We were totally stumped because he was already in bed. We couldn't just walk him back there and tell him to go to sleep. (which is what you're suppose to do if they have night terrors. Don't try to wake them up.) I tried to talk about something to see if he understood, or could respond. He couldn't. He got more scared. He was waving his hands, so I gently grabbed his arm and layed it down. It seemed to calm him. I could tell he wanted to talk, but the words wouldn't come. Sad. I asked him about Bernard, he responded. "Where's Bernard?" "I don't know" and he tried to look for him. We tried to find him. He just layed there. Then Colby looked in the closet. When Noah looked at Colby he got scared. He said he didn't want to leave. He wanted to go home. We were able to talk to him. I needed to convince him we were home. I didn't want to 'wake him up'. "Do you see your hats on the wall? Can you see your toys, the tool box?" He could see them. He could respond. Relief. He didn't want me to leave, so I layed by him for a minute.

He is now asleep, and hopefully we are done for the night. With him anyway. Cutler is still up, and now it's time to work on him. I'm reading this book Sherie's letting me borrow, and hopefully I can learn some new techniques from it. Wish me luck.

I feel so bad for Noah. He doesn't even have any idea this is happening, which is a good thing I guess. I really hope this is a childhood thing, and that we can learn the best way to deal with it. Like I said, it's sad, scary, frustrating, confusing. All of these things, to all of us. If anyone has any ideas, or knows the best way to handle it please help.

Our Halloween's past

*I totally stole this post idea from Stef (thank you!).

It's always fun looking back at the costumes and how cute the kids were in them. And then it's sad to think how cute the costume is, how much money it cost, and how it will probably only be worn once. As you will see, I have definitely re-used some, and I'm sure I will again. As the boys get older it gets harder and harder to try and coordinate their costume. Noah is getting to the age where he wants to choose what he is, but Cutler is still little enough that I want him to wear the 'cute' costumes. I almost gave up this year, but I have figured out how to make them coordinate so that one is still cute, while the other is a little more 'not so baby-ish'.

Noah 2003 - 1yr.

Noah 2004

Noah 2005

Noah & Cutler 2006

Cutler 2007 - 1 yr. Hand-me-down costume. And still 'Oh so cute'.

Noah wanted to be Batman and I was so not in the mood to worry about trying to have matching costumes. I have to say, he did make a very handsome Batman.

As I go back through this post I realize that Noah & Cutler have never had matching costumes. I guess in my head it's something that should be done, but I never really made a valiant effort to achieve. Well, I don't have Noah's costume yet. It's ordered, but this year I will accomplish my goal. I'm crossing my fingers that everything turns out the way it's suppose to but we are planning on Frankenstein & the Mad Scientist. We'll see what happens.

What are your kids dressing up as?

Happy Birthday mommy Natalie

This was the last birthday we spent with her. I was actually in her belly, but only for a few more weeks. Today I will be told about her birthdays here on earth, and how much fun they were. At her last one, she only wanted things for me. She was so excited to become a mommy, and to take care of me. Today she gets to have a party, and guess who gets to be there?! Jesus! That would be so cool. I wonder what kind of party she'll have. I thought gramma Sherie would get to be there because she gets to go to everyone's parties, but my mom said she can't go to mommy Natalie's. So I guess we'll have to have one here, just without mommy Natalie.

Happy Birthday! I love you!

**Love Noah