Christmas

I have noticed that my posting has become way too detailed and long, so I will try to keep this one short. .

Cedar has the best Christmas Parade I have ever seen. Dustin's aunt Stacia helps out with the parade and she talked him into driving the little mermaid float. Someday we will figure out how to get pictures off of Dustin's phone and we will post him in his sweet car/float/road hazard, he couldn't see a thing, watch out kids!

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The Monday before Christmas the Carter side of the family had their annual party at the Wilson's house. We were able to see tons of Dustin's cousins and Trevin got to play with Ella, Megan's little girl who is about Trevin's age but lives in Kentucky. Those pictures are also on Dustin's phone, dang it.

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On Christmas Eve we went to the Shipp's house. Stacia ordered prime rib and we had a bunch of other good food. After we ate the kids played a little Mario Kart, my favorite game, and then we had a piano recital with a little singing by Tanner and accordian playing by Grandma Zelda mixed in there.

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Kenny and Curtis (Dustin's little brother and Dad) and I got into a pretty serious picture taking war during the piano recital. We were trying to catch each other while we weren't looking and get an embarrassing picture. I lost, they got some good ones of me, this was my best. They only reason it is even good is because it makes Dustin's Dad's right leg look extremely long and his left leg really short. Yeah, I know it is weak that's why Kenny won. But I say we get points for being able to take our own picture and be perfectly centered. . .

On Christmas we woke up at seven and opened our presents at our house. Trevin got a race car set and lot of potty training supplies, I got clothes and the purple finger nail polish I really wanted, and Dustin got tickets to a Jazz game. . .

Then we went to my parent's house to open more presents and then we went to Dustin's parent's house after that. We did a lot of back and forth and Trevin never had a nap all day so we turned in for the night around seven. I forgot to take any pictures at our parent's houses so I'll have to get some from them. Our families are so awesome we got so much great stuff and had such a great time with everyone. We are really lucky!

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Here we are playing the new Wii at my parents house later Christmas morning with Heath and Jessie. My little brother and little sister aren't that much littler than me any more!

Grandma June

My uncle Tom was nice enough to invite us over to his house in Delta to have dinner and spend some time with my Grandma June the Sunday before Christmas. I was shocked when my Dad and Heath brought her out of the rest home in a wheel chair. I guess my Grandma isn't doing very well and just doesn't want to walk some days. She has been going down hill for quite a few years but I was really surprised that she had gotten this bad. She didn't really talk to us at all and my Dad and Tom had to feed her her dinner. I was very sad but it was good to see my Uncle Tom, Aunt Jill, my cousin Stacia and her husband Kurtis and their boys Austin and Tate, and my cousin Brycen. It was a really nice dinner but it was just so sad to see my grandma that way. Right now we live in my grandma's house and so all of the older members of our ward knew my grandma. It is hard when they ask how she is doing. I usually just tell them that she isn't doing very well but she is happy there. I'm not sure if that is even true anymore. She pretty much just has a blank stare on her face for the majority of the time so we never know if she is happy or not. When she first started getting bad my parents moved her into their house and she was very unhappy. She was always trying to run home even though she couldn't remember how to get there and she hated competing for attention with Laura (they were about on the same level then). Then my parents took her to live in Emerald Point in Cedar but she didn't like it there either and it was outrageously expensive. Then my uncle Tom found this extremely cute little rest home in Delta/Deseret (I'm not sure which town it is in). It is called Pleasant Acres, it has a very homey feel. It used to be a house but it was converted into a rest home. It has a huge fenced in yard with a swing where the residents can just wander around. My Grandma really loved it there when she first moved in. She mad friends with an other lady there and they were so cute together, they held hands everywhere they went. The workers there are so sweet. They call everyone honey and sweetie. I'm so glad that she is able to be there, it is just really sad to see her having such a hard time.

Snow and A LOT of it!

This fall was unseasonably warm. It was the beginning of December before I stopped wearing flip-flops and shorts outside. Then all of a sudden in one day it was a never ending blizzard. I swear it snowed hard every day for at least a week. Was Algore here or something? Rush calls it the Algore effect. If Gore plans a summit on "globe warming" it automatically snows so hard there they have to cancel. I think that is the most hilarious thing ever. But anyway the snow never stopped; I mean look at it there had to be almost two feet. This just happened to occur the same week that Dustin's whole family took a trip to Florida. It was snowing so hard that it took them 2 and a half hours to get St. George on their way to the airport. They missed their flight and had to sleep in the car for eight hours until the airport opened back up and they could get a new flight. Once they got to Florida they loved to call us and let us know that they had just spent the day at the beach or at a water park in the eighty degree weather. In the mean time we were digging our car out of their driveway every night when we went to check on the dogs. It snowed so much that we had to bring the backhoe over to move the snow blocking Bryce's car. Trevin was way excited to see the snow. He wanted to put on his coat and boots every day at lunch but he refused to step in the snow, smart kid! I personally hate anything that even resembles snow but I was getting a little worried about our lack of water so I decided that I would rather live through snow than live without it.

P.S. We finally broke the Binky habit. No more pictures with the Binky as the main focus. It was actually pretty easy too. Dustin had the good idea to tell Trevin that he was too big for Binkies so we gave them back to the Binky guy. Every time he would start to beg fora Binky I would say that we didn't have them anymore and Trevin would go, "Oh, Guy" meaning we gave them to the Binky guy and that would be the end of it. Now on to potty training (eww... scary)!

More of Trevin's Birthday

We started off Trev's birthday with a tradition that my mom started in my family, birthday pancakes with a few candles to blow out. After that every time we said birthday Trevin would put his finger up to his lips and blow really hard.

Dustin only works half days on Friday so when he came home for the day at 11:00 we let Trevin open his present from us. I told him to close his eyes while Dustin brought it in and this was what he did.

Trevin had been using the table the TV sits on as his own little table. He would bring in food and spill it on the TV and when he would play with toys on that table he would get distracted by the TV and end up watching it only an inch away. I didn't think that this was good for Trevin's eyes or for the TV so we got him his own little table with chairs. It was the cheapest one but I liked it the best and I had it sent to the store so I didn't have to pay shipping. I love getting a good deal!

Later we let Trevin choose what he wanted for dinner and he said yes to hamburgers. While we were out the city was letting off fireworks because they had just turned on the lights on main street. So we stopped at my parent's shop to watch a little birthday fireworks show. Wasn't that good timing! Later that night everyone came over for a little party. Our house was packed! Trevin was so cute while he opened up his presents. He always opened the card first. He loved everything he got and didn't want to stop playing with each present to open up the next.

Here is Trev with his haul before opening and after. This is one spoiled kid! Everybody including both Grandma's and Grandpa's and Great Grandma's and even Ryan and Bryce, Heath, and Aunt Stacia brought him something. And everything was so cute, I even wanted to play with them!

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After presents we had our traditional Elmo cupcakes. Trevin couldn't wait to blow out the candles again.

The next morning Trevin was so excited to play with his toys that the couldn't even eat breakfast. Dustin had to follow him around the house with a pancake and catch him for long enough to get a bite in. Trevin hasn't stopped playing since his birthday. Luckily the bulldozer Aunt Stacia gave him was small enough to go church with us. We also had to fill the diaper bag with Lego guys and it took us forever to convince Trevin to not wear the hard hat to church.

Happy Birthday Trevin!

Today is our little baby's second birthday! Most people say how time flies but with this crazy little one we can't believe that it has only been two years, haven't we had him our entire lives? I can't even remember life without him. What in the world did we do? He keeps us so busy. He loves to play dress-up in the morning while momma cleans.

He loves to play ball. He started kicking a ball as soon as he learned how to walk. He loves to watch any sport, especially football. He knows were all the football games are played at in town and yells 'Bwoot Baa" every time we drive by.

He loves his aunts and uncles. They are all so great to play with him.

He loves heavy machinery. Every time he sees a backhoe, trackhoe, cement truck, or anything else of that nature he gets so excited and screams "MY!" He also has two construction books, Machines at Work and The Construction Alphabet that we read daily. He points to the machines that are his, the ones that are Dada's and the ones that are Mamma's.

He loves to eat! Trevin will eat anything. He is the best eater; he is not picky at all. He has to have a sippy cup and a bowl of snacks at all times.

He loves cartoons, what kid doesn't? His favorites are Word Girl, Super Readers, and Clifford.

He loves dogs. We have been asking him what he wants for his birthday and for Christmas and he always says two dogs. He also said that that is what Jessie, Laura, and Grandma want for their birthdays too.

He loves babies. He likes to rock them, wrap them up and feed them "ba -bas".

He loves his Dada. When Dustin goes back to work after lunch Trevin cries and tries to talk him into playing some more.

Trevin is such a happy little boy. He is pretty much happy with anything, but there are a few things that Trevin absolutely hates. He hates sharing, especially with Laura, he hates when we can't understand what he wants, he hates when we can't find his binky, but he mostly hates being alone. He is hardly ever in a room by himself, he never wants to be left alone in nursery but he loves being there as long as we are there with him. He even hates being alone in his sleep. He is really mad when he wakes up in the morning and realizes that he is alone. Does this mean we have been spoiling him?

Trevin was born on December 5, 2006 at 11:52 am, at Mountain View Hospital in Payson Uath. He was delivered by Dr. Cameron Anderson. Trevin weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce and was 20 1/2 inches long. He had the biggest dark blue eyes and tons of very RED hair. All of the nurses couldn't believe how much Trevin looked like Dustin and he still does! Trevin was born on his due date but we were planning to be induced the next day if he hadn't already come. Trevin was a really good baby. He wasn't the best eater at first but he still gained a whole pound and 5 ounces in just two weeks. The doctor normally just wants the baby to be back to their birth weight after two weeks but our little chubby had gain another pound on top of that. Trevin started crawling when he was just 7 months old and then started walking at 10 months. His first word was "yea" and he said it a lot! Trevin now understands everything we say to him and he is saying new words everyday. He always says bye-bye, waves and gives kisses to all of his family. Trevin is such a sweet little boy with a super strong will. He is very determined and knows how to push our buttons, but we love him all the more for it.

Happy Birthday Trevy Boy!

Thanksgiving

This year we decided that we need to start and every other year system with our families. The last three years we have tried to go with both families on every holiday. Needless to say our holidays were not relaxing, we spend most of the day in the car going from one place to the other multiple times, and we always missed something going on somewhere that made everyone disappointed and we could never eat all of the food that was offered to us. So we just ate dinner with my family this year. But don't worry we didn't forget about Dustin's family. After dinner we all met at my parents church and watched the boys play some basketball. Even Dustin's cousins Curt, Robbie, and Danny came along. It is kind of a tradition for our families to get together after dinner and play basketball. The Shipps usually join us but they went to Phoenix this yearto have Thanksgiving with Heidi. We also spent all of the next Saturday with Dustin's family because it was his mom's birthday. This was deffinatley a better system.

The day after Thanksgiving Dustin played in the Alumni Tournament with a bunch of his friends at the high school. Last year was their first year playing and now they are addicted. They were talking to each other about it almost everyday for almost a month before the actual tournament. The first game they played was against my dad's team. Dustin's team had to spot them 22 points but they still won by quite a bit (sorry Dad). Unfortunately they got a little cocky in the second game and just barley lost. They were pretty disappointed but they already have plans to sweep the tournament next year.

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I forgot to take my camera to the second game and these are the only pictures that I took at the first game. This is Dustin's team: in the red jersey, number 12 is Cole Nelson, 25 is Drew Hansen, 10 is Ryan Cardon, and then Dustin and Cam Romney, Burke Blackner was also on their team. Trevin couldn't leave the house for the next few days with out his ball and Dustin's basketball shoes. He had so much fun!

Update 11/13/08 - 11/26/08

Here is what we have been up to the last few weeks. First we had Jessie's Birthday party and she was nice enough to let Trevin and Laura help her blow out her candles. For her birthday present we replaced all of her things that Trevin and I have broken. First Trevin took an entire package of her headbands and snapped them in half so we replaced those and then I was so kindly trying to fix her earphones for her Ipod and I snapped one ear off so we replaced those too. Then we got her a shirt to wear exactly one week later when we went to the midnight showing of . . .

TWILIGHT!

It was crazy there. We drove by the movie theater at about 4:30 that afternoon and there was already people in line! So Jessie and Madeline went and got in line as soon as they could which was at about 9:00 (thanks girls). I was invited to a party with a bunch of the ladies from our neighborhood that night so I didn't get there until about 11:00 but Jessie had already saved me a seat (thanks Jessie you are the best) next to Dustin's Aunt Stacia, Tanner and Brock (the only boys in the whole theater). Everyone in the theater was so excited when the movie finally started that they started screaming. The picture on the right is of Jessie, Madeline, Alainy, and Tarah screaming as the movie started. I thought that the movie was really awesome. It was so much like the book. They hardly changed anything. I was really happy. Now I just have to get Dustin to see it.

The next Sunday we had the great idea to make a fort in the front room. Trevin loved it so much that he insisted that we come in and see how cool it was. He also refused to let us take it down. So Dustin and I have spent a lot of time hunched over playing trucks. Well we got sick of playing in there but Trevin didn't so we told my mom that we would watch Laura the next Friday. We thought that they would love to play in their together but they weren't in the mood to play anything together. They were just in the mood to fight. I had some new ballet costumes that I wanted to try on Laura to make sure they would fit girls her size and Trevin didn't want to be left out. So both of them spend a large portion of the evening running around in leotards, skirts and big fluffy bows. Dustin was really happy to see Trevin dressed like a girl but I thought that he looked really cute. He would make a very pretty girl!

Thanksgiving Alumni Tournament

This is a picture from our team in the Alumni Tournament at Cedar High last year. They are having it again this year. If you played on my team last year and want to play again leave me some comments here or call me if you know my number. Coach Cardon wants us to have a rough idea of who will be on our team this year. If you weren't on my team and want to play just show up at the gym the Friday after Thanksgiving. I think that you have to pay $20 to play but it is worth it. They have teams for all ages (Hillary's Dad even played last year on the Early Eighties Team, as in the year they graduated not how old they are)! You just had to go to Cedar High to be able to play. Anyone can come and watch too.

Happy Birthday Jessie!

Today is my little sister Jessie's 14th birthday! Here is just a little family history about Jessie. Jessie was born while we were living in my Grandma June's house (where Dustin and I live know) while our family was building their new house. My Grandma was living in Beaver to take care of her Dad. I think Jessie was born at 10:30 pm on a Sunday night. Our cousin Sarah was going to college here and she came and stayed with us on Sunday night. I remember that she was going to let me and Heath stay up until my Dad called to tell us that Jessie was born. We thought that 10:30 was so late. The first thing that I asked my dad when he called was "what did you name her," but they hadn't decided yet. I was really excited to go and she her at the hospital the next day. Our Dad took us out to see her the next day during lunch. When we went back to school (very late because we spent a lot of time at the hospital then we went to the station so my Dad could get some work done really "quick") I told everyone that my little sister was the cutest baby on earth!

Jessie has always had a spunky personality. When she was just a few months old we went to check on her during her nap and she was sitting up in the bassinet trying to climb out. Our new house still wasn't done so we had to move Jessie into the crib at my Grandma's house. Because we had to keep so much of our stuff and our Grandma June's stuff in the house there wasn't enough room for Jessie's crib so we had to put it in the front room. Grandma June used to say that Jessie sure had a mind of her own. She could never believe how determined Jessie was to get her own way.

Heath and I used to say the Jessie was the favorite. But I actually think that Jessie just demanded that she be treated like the favorite. Heath and I were more passive children but Jessie learned quickly how to hold her own. Luckily Jessie is a good kid because she pretty much always gets what she wants. She's very persuasive that way. She wanted to play the violin when she was just three. So our Mom got her a little one and set her up with a teacher. Come to find out she is an amazing violinist. She used to carry that little violin around with her everywhere. She loved to give little impromptu concerts. Heath and I thought that they were so hilarious at first and would video tape them all. Her concerts consisted of Jessie bowing, introducing herself and the songs she would play, playing two notes from the song, saying oops I messed up, getting embarrassed and then doing the whole thing over again. After about the millionth concert they weren't very cute anymore, so Heath and I started to hatch plans to break or hide the violin. It's a good thing that we didn't because Jessie is a great performer now. She even has her own Quartet. They play at parties and wedding receptions and stuff like that and they even get paid! Jessie is also a professional pianist. She (or my Mom we're not sure) is so serious about the piano that she goes to St. George every Friday to take lessons with a professional piano teacher. That's right his entire job is just teaching piano lessons at his house.

Jessie has the best sense of humor. I think it was her third grade teacher Mrs. Almond that called her "Ham-Bone" because she was such a ham in class. Jessie is always making jokes. Her favorite thing to do is trick people. She used to pretend that she was our little sister Laura on the phone and she actually got me a few times. Now when we call she tries to make us think that we have called the wrong number. Last summer at Lake Powell with Dustin's family we were all just sitting on the boat while someone was putting on the wake board. There was some silly rap music on in the boat and Jessie was holding the flag. Well she decided to entertain everyone with a quick little flag dance in the bow of the boat. We were all laughing at her dance when another boat started heading our way. We asked them if we could do anything for them and they said that they thought we needed something because Jessie had been flagging them down. It was very very funny. Jessie is always doing funny things with Laura and Trevin. She likes to dress them up and make them act funny then take pictures of them so she can black mail them later (just kidding about the black mail part but that is a possibility).

Jessie is a really good aunt and big sister. She spends so much time babysitting. Trevin loves to have her babysit. He doesn't even cry when we leave him with her. She always plays really cute with Trevin. When we go in the direction of my family's house Trevin starts yelling, "Wa-Wa (Larua), Det-de (Jessie)." He loves to play with those girls.

There are so many things I could say about Jessie. She is pretty much perfect. Ask anyone that knows her and I'm sure that they will only have good things to say about her. She is a great friend and is always a blast to be around.

Happy Birthday Jessie!

I hope this post was all that you dreamed of and more. Sorry these were the only pictures that would load. I'll try to get some more recent ones later.