The Last Christmas "Only Child Style"

Crafty

Since I am pretty much worthless when it comes to working on our house I decided I wanted to do something useful. So I made this little bow holder and some flower bows last night. It was pretty easy and fun to get something done in one night. I just used a frame and some old cloth and ribbon that I already had in my "craft box." The entire thing, including the bows and the head band, only cost like ten or fifteen dollars. Thanks for giving me the idea Chandi and thanks for teaching us how to make the flower clips April!

My "craft box" has a cute story behind it that I should write down so I don't forget. The summer before Dustin and I got married my little sister Jessie was really into American Girls and got the American Girl Magazine. In the magazines there were little calenders with fun stuff to do during the summer. Jessie and I decided to pick something from these calenders to do together everyday until I got married (because I was pretty sure that she was really going to miss me!). It was so much fun! We made snow cones, decorated flip flops, and made our little craft boxes. We also planned to sleep in a tent in the backyard and roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the stove but we didn't end up doing those ones. It was really fun we should do it again!

Happy Birffday Trev!

Today was Trevin's third birthday! He is getting so old!

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Last night Dustin and I asked him a few questions. Here is how he answered:

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What is your name? - "Trebin"

What is your last name? - "Bubba" (that is a nickname that Dustin calls him. It took him a long time to realize that Bubba isn't his real name.)

How old will you be tomorrow? - First he held up five fingers and then he switched to three.

What is your favorite color? - "Green. No! Brown. Yeah Brown Mom, B-I-O Brown."

Who is your best friend? - "Laura"

What is your favorite food? - "Umm, Cereal and Oatmeal."

What is your favorite thing to play with? - "Toys"

Which toys? - "Legos"

What is your favorite book? - "Tikki Tikki Tembo"

What is your favorite movie? - "Cars"

What do you do every day? - "Play stuff"

Are you excited to get a baby sister? - "Yeah. Can I scream at her Mom? Please?"

What is your baby sister going to be named? - "Libby"

What is your favorite room in our new house? - "My new bedroom"

What does your new bedroom look like? - "Looks like paint"

What do you want for Christmas? - "a big Spiderman scooter"

What is your favorite thing to wear? - "Clothes. My clothes." Who is in your family - Pointing he says, "Dustin, and you Mama"

Who else is in your family - "umm, four guys"

What is your favorite song? - "Baseball" (meaning Take Me Out to the Ball Game)

What is your favorite T.V. Show - "Super Why"

What is your favorite sport? - "football, basketball, oh and soccer"

How big are you? - "As big as whole ceiling"

What are you going to do on your birthday tomorrow? - "Get presents."

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On his birthday, because I am so fat and lazy right now, I didn't get up in time to make the traditional birthday pancakes before Trevin and Dustin went out to work on our new house. So when they got back we had them for lunch.

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Then we let him open his present from us. A new coat, shoes, hat and mittens. Wow! We are the most exciting parents ever. But Trevin didn't seem to mind. Even though he was there when I bought these and they have been in his closet for the past month he was really excited to open them.

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Then he had a bath, put on his new Spiderman shirt (he is obsessed with Spiderman), bundled up in his new clothes and Dustin's family picked him up and took him to the Christmas parade, shopping and then to see the Christmas trees and Santa at the Heritage Center. Dustin and I stayed home to clean the house, get ready for the party and to finish laying all of the floors at our new house. Trevin had tons of fun. It was so nice of Grandma Emi and everybody else to take him around all day.

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Uncle Bryce and his girlfriend Shelynne couldn't come to his birthday party so they stopped over early to say happy birthday and bring a present.

Then everyone else came and we had a big party. I made a Spiderman cake, which should have tasted better since I just had a test on cakes in Food Science like a week ago, but it looked good.

Trevin got so many cool things and most of them were Spiderman things. He was in Heaven. He is such a lucky kid to have so many people that care so much about him. His birthday is better than Christmas!

Roller Coaster

Building a house is a huge emotional roller coaster. Seriously this week I have been really excited, really disappointed, really happy, really anxious, pleasantly surprised, and really really mad! All in just one week! We locked in our rate so we have to move in by Dec. 20th. We should be able to finish by then pretty easily. The outside is almost done. We just need to pour the steps and the driveway which we plan on starting this weekend. This is what it looks like outside now. (Yes, we really need to clean up all of the garbage out front. But the pallets came in really handy when it was all muddy from the snow.) .

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This is what the kitchen looked like yesterday. Dustin and his dad put in all of the wood floor by themselves and it looks really good. Today the cabinet guys started to install the cabinets and I love them! It is hard to get current pictures on here. By the time I take the pictures and post them things already look a lot different. I'm sure that none of you really care what it looks like all the time but I want to remember all of the stages. ,

. I actually did it. After all of my planning I actually followed through and painted the kids rooms how I had planned. Trevin's and Libby's rooms are all done now (Trevin's room doesn't look like this picture anymore. All of the lines are straight and the tape is peeled off.) I learned a really good lesson while painting. My neighbor, April Miner is always right. She told me to seal the tape to the wall before painting but I thought I could just stick it down really good. I had to start the taping over again and seal it. She told me to put some red primer on first before I painted the red stripe but I figured I could just paint a couple of coats and it would be just as good. Five coats later I can still see the pencil marks under the paint. I promise I will take your advice from now on April! .

. We still need to touch up a lot but I just love how the rooms look so much that I just like to walk around and look at the walls. The colors all go together so well. I am really pleased with it because I only spent like ten minutes picking out the paint and I didn't match any samples together I just guessed .

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I just added this last picture so I can remember how much fun Trevin and I have just being silly. The other day Trevin got the camera out and started playing with it. Some how he turned the timer on and then asked me to take pictures of us. When I pushed the button to take the picture it just clicked a bunch of times, howled (like a coyote) and then took the picture. The howling was so unexpected that Trevin and I just cracked up and the camera caught moment. Look at how hard Trevin is laughing! We are pretty silly!

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Trevin is so cute. He loves to talk about anything. He thinks that every thing he has to say is so important that if we don't listen he yells Hey, stop talking it is my turn now. He likes to lift up my shirt and say Hi, Baby I love you! What you do'in in there? Some times when he sees babies on TV he says Mom, lets get that baby not Libby. Yesterday on our way to Saint George he just randomly said If we hit a deer with our car we will have to drive Big Brown (that is Dustin's truck. We call it Big Brown because it is big and brown). Then on the way home we almost hit a deer on Main Street! It was crazy.

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Okay I'm rambling . The End.

Trickty-Treaty!

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Laura (my little sister) and Trevin were so excited to start trick-or-treating that they couldn't hold still long enough to take a picture. This is the best we could get. Laura had been asking if it was time to go since eight o'clock in the morning. Trevin was a little confused when we put on his costume. He thought we were going to go to the store to buy candy to put in his bucket and he would start crying when we said we were going trick-or-treating. Finally I had to stop calling it trick-or-treating and say that we were just going to the neighbors house to see if they had any candy they would put in his bucket.

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At first they were both really shy and didn't want to talk or look at anyone. At the second house we went to Sister Rodriguez, one of my favorite people from my home ward, opened the door and a little dog they were watching came running out. It was so excited that it started running circles around us and jumping around. Then, it bite Laura in the bum! She was dressed like a bunny and I think the dog was trying to play with her tail. After that any time they heard a dog barking they came running back to me and my mom crying and Laura would cry, "I can't do it mom. I can't do dogs. They might bit my bum!"

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. They finally warmed up and started saying trick-or-treat. Well Laura did, Trevin would run in place and yell "Trickty Treaty!" Once he even added "smell my feet" at the end. At the end Laura didn't want to stop (she finally got the hang of it); in fact she asked my mom if I could just take her so that we wouldn't have to stop and talk at each house. But after a trip around the block Trevin was done. He couldn't wait any longer to eat his candy. When we got back to my parents house there were a few battles over the candy and over a random balloon but over all I think they had a great night! This morning Trevin refuses to eat anything but candy. I guess that makes it a good thing that he has almost eaten it all. Once it's gone maybe he'll eat some real food.

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P.S. Trevin didn't understand the time change. So it looks like we'll be waking up an hour earlier from now on.

What!?

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WHAT : were we thinking when we decided to save a little money and paint our entire house by ourselves. It is a way bigger job than I expected. We are saving a lot, especially because we are getting killer deals on the paint. The paint store even let us rent a paint sprayer for FREE which saved us like $300. But painting is all we do now. Dustin's dad is being super nice and spending every afternoon out there with us. So far we have the whole house (except for the stairs) primed and the ceilings painted. We hope to paint all of the walls today, put in the tile floors tomorrow and Saturday and put in the wood floors on Monday and Tuesday!

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WHAT: is up with all of the snow! It is still October for crying out loud. How are we supposed to go trick or treating in a foot of snow! Speaking of Halloween, Trevin is way excited to be the "Black Spider Man" and now he asks me everyday if I am going to be a "Paint Monster" for Halloween.

Almost There!

I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of our house lately. It is getting really close. Here are some older pictures just after they put the windows in. .

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This is when the roof was in progress. They finished it yesterday, just in time for the rain.

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This is the big window in the family room. It was put in last because it is so big it took a couple of guys to lift it and then it got cracked while they were unloading it, but they are supposed to come and fix it soon.

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Here is a more recent picture of the outside. This is just the brown coat (or gray coat, I can't remember what they call it) of stucco. The soffit and fascia (I have no idea how to spell that. It's the trimmy stuff that covers the wood right under the roof) will be put on this week and then they will come back and do the final coat of stucco that is the color we want and the outside will be done, except for the driveway.

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I tried to take this picture so you could see the windows, the stone and the lights. They put all of the stone on in one day. They are so fast and it looks so good. As we were leaving our house one night after working all day we saw on one of our neighbors house some recessed lighting over their windows outside and we loved it so the next day Dustin and the electrician threw some on to our house. Our house should look really cool at night.

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We have been spending so much time out there, especially Dustin. Trevin loves it and is so good out there. He likes to follow Dustin around and "help" him with the tools, pick up nails, help me gather up scraps, and play in the dirt a lot. I don't really have any building skills so I pretty much just sweep up all day. But the sheet rockers should done today, then they can tape and texture and hopefully we will be able to start painting this weekend, so I can finally be helpful! Then after painting (and finish trim that Dustin will do while I paint) we just have to install the flooring and the cabinets and a few little odds and ends and then we will be done! We should be able to meet our deadline and move in at the end of November, Yea!

Nesting?

I'm not sure what to call my latest obsession except nesting. I can't stop thinking about how I am going to decorate Trevin and the baby's room's after we move in. Here is what I have planned. I am hoping that if I post it here then I will actually do it and I am also hoping that I will be able to stop thinking about their rooms and move on to the rest of the house.

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Here is how I want to paint Trevin's room. Blue from the floor up then a little gray strip and a bigger red strip and then white to the ceiling. Yep that is pretty ambitious, but I think that it would look really good with all of the other stuff I have picked out for his room.

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Here are the sheets and pillow case that I found at pottery barn on sale!

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Then on one wall I want to put these two wall stickers. I found them at wallnutz.com and I think that they are so awesome! I also want to build some book shelves around his window and then build a bench under the window to make a fun little reading spot.

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For Libby's room, we are going to call her Libby, I want to stripe the walls green.

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Then I found these crib sheets at company kids.com. I chose the leaf color with white polka dots

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And I also found this wall sticker at wallnutz.com that I want to put behind her crib. .

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We already have a light green changing table pad and baskets that go on the shelves of the changing table that have green liners.

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I am so excited to start decorating. Let me know what you think! Please give me your ideas!

It's a Miracle!

Yep! The first GIRL is going to be born into the Carter Family! Trevin has been saying that we were going to have "a girl baby" the whole time but no one dared to believe him. Everything looked really good. She liked all of the attention. She was moving around like crazy!

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Here is her profile. She doesn't really have a crazy dinosaur looking mouth, the black stuff was something in front of her face. She was opening and closing her mouth the whole time. She's already a talker!

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Here is a buff little arm. She must have gotten that from Dustin, my arms are about the same size as hers but mine are all bone, no muscle. . . Here she is upside down. This shows her spine.

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This one is very inappropriate but it confirms that she really is a girl.

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And last here she is in 3-D. These are kind of scary looking to me but it is interesting that she lays with her arm over her forehead because I do that too!