Christmas recap 2010

*lots of cuteness*checked out the zoo lights
*climbed the rock wall at glendale glitters
*traditional christmas cookie decorating (the kids finished and we off playing so the adults partook of the fun!)
*a month full of fun activities from our advent calendar
*more cuteness
*just opened her first present christmas morning
*opening my new bike trailer from santa!
*checking out his new sled from santa
*caroling in the hall on christmas eve. classic memory made.
*performing the traditional nativity christmas eve. carter really wanted me to be a donkey so he could pull me. the things mothers do...
*i heart christmas time and this ultimate cuteness.

the stockings were hung

when we moved during the heat of the summer, christmas was the last thing on my mind. so i forgot to get out our christmas stockings. i needed a new one for char this year so instead of digging through the storage shed to find my box where my stockings were i decided to make us all new ones.
i LOVE how they turned out. special thanks to my mom for helping me figure out the lining--that was tricky!
now we are officially ready for this guy.

Santa

Our ward Christmas party was last Friday. Carter was so excited to see Santa! My sister Amy was Santa's helper. Sean was in charge of the event and did all of the cooking by himself! Primary was in charge of the decorations so I was at the church the whole day too. It was a long day but it was worth it...the food was great and so was the program. But I am glad it is over!

Vote for which Shutterfly card YOU like the best.

Have you seen the Christmas photocards at Shutterfly yet? LOVE. LOVE. LOVE them. There are so many to choose from. It is hard to pick a favorite to use this year. Here are my top 6 faves (I know it should be 5, but I just couldn't decide!). You tell me which one YOU like the best!*I like that you can have more than one picture on the card, because just like I can't decide on my favorite card, I also can't decide on my favorite picture.
*Wouldn't this one be so great to add your Christmas letter right on with your picturs?! Perfect, right!
*LOVE how simple this one is.

*Both of these cards would look great with my pictures because the brown backgrounds match what my kids are wearing in their pictures.
*LOVE the snowflakes, and again the simplicity of the card. Classic.

Now YOU decide. Tell me which one you think I should use this year. Ready, go!

To see the cute photo cards I've posted here and the other designs, click here.

But wait! There are other things you can get at Shutterfly! If I were having a Christmas party, there are lots of invites to choose from. Check it.

Need a cute Christmas gift for a loved one? What about these photo calendars? So easy--yet they will be cherished for a lifetime! Go look at them, here!

Go check out their Christmas cards and see what YOU can do to get 50 free Christmas cards!!

Thanksgiving 2010

 

All 27 of us went to my parents cabin for Thanksgiving this year. The festivities started on Wednesday night by going to Polar Express in matching pajamas! Thursday morning we had our first annual Turkey Trot and then spent the rest of the time eating and playing!

**click on collage to enlarge**

2 months

*23 inches
*13 lbs
*spits up like crazy!
*smiles like crazy!
*starting to "talk" and laugh
*loves to snuggle and not lay down by herself


*p.s. isn't her outfit the cutest? the sweater was mine when i was a baby!

right where i wanna be

last night, sean got home from work at 7. we got take out and watched a movie with carter while the baby slept. it was an ideal night. sean's friend told him he was lame, since it was our anniversary. whatev, i say. after 8 great years, there's no other place i'd rather be than with my little family.

baby blessing

in our church babies are given a blessing when they are a few weeks old and then baptized when they are 8 years old. sean gave char a beautiful blessing yesterday. most of our immediate family was able to attend the blessing and then we had yummy food afterwards and a fun time hanging out. thanks to everyone who came!
this dress was made for my grandpa to wear when he was blessed. it is over 100 years old! both my sisters and i were blessed in it as well as two of my nieces. charlotte was beautiful in the old dress and even had a new bracelet to wear from her grandma!

happy halloween 2010

a preschool party and the ward trunk or treat, a cute ladybug (thanks marlee!), an awesome ironman, making caramel apples=LOTS of halloween fun

6 weeks

Seriously, where is the time going? It's only been 6 weeks, yet it seems like she has been here for forever. The last 2 weeks have been rough with Carter being sick, Char had a fever off and on, and then I got strep throat. Now that we are getting over that, things are starting to get back to normal!

Happy Halloween!

We decided a couple weeks ago to have a Halloween party with some of Carter's friends and cousins. When I woke up yesterday and was rushing to get everything set up, I had two crying children. I thought, "this party was a bad idea!" So I called my sister Wendy and she and my mom came to the rescue to help me get things set up! The weather was perfect outside and I think everyone had a great time. Carter told me later that it was the best Halloween party ever.

1. Charlotte enjoying the party in her new Halloween dress. Do you love it as much as I do? I made it the day before for the party for her.

2. We decorated cookies

3. We painted pumpkins

4. We dressed up as mummies

5. We decorated Halloween shapes (spiders, cats, bats, etc)

6. We ate lots of good food! We had pumpkin shaped sandwiches, cupcakes, caramel toffee dip with cinammon sugar chips, candy corn pudding, halloween marshmellows and oreos, carrots and slime dip, and slime punch with floating ice hands in it!

(not pictured--making some really cute ghosts. take a styrofoam cup, draw a ghost face on it, heat oven to 350 degrees and place cup in there for less than a minute--watch it melt into a cool ghostly shape!)

**most food items were taken from Our Best Bites

4 weeks old? and a mission? What?!

Sean's nephew Tanner is leaving today to serve a mission for our church in the Belgium, Brussels Mission and will be speaking Dutch! Tanner was only 9 years old when I started dating Sean. It's hard to believe he is old enough for a mission!Charlotte made her first debut at the zoo last week and did fabulous!
She is becoming quite the chunky monkey. I can't believe she will be 5 weeks old on Friday. How is that possible?
Carter LOVES being a big brother and is such a big helper. The other day he was holding her and singing to her, "I'm your big brother, I love you." I wish I would have caught it on video.
Time goes by so fast, I barely even have time to take a shower these days!

What's in a Name?

If you'll remember, from day 1 Carter said this baby's name was Rose. Once we found out we were having a girl, we knew we had to use the name Rose somehow. I didn't want to use it as a first name but thought it would make a cute middle name. However, the girl names we had talked about didn't seem to fit with Rose as a middle name. While discussing name possibilities with my mom one day, she suggested Charlotte. Charlotte Rose. We instantly loved it. (as a side note, the booties she is wearing in this picture were made for me when I was a baby by my grandma Charlotte)I especially loved it because Charlotte was my grandma's name (pictured below with my dad and grandad). I was really close to my grandma growing up and have fond memories of making Christmas cookies, playing rummikub and yahtzee, going on walks at the cabin, and eating her delicious cinnamon bread! So it seemed all but perfect to name her after someone whom I loved so much and who was such an example to me of someone who was loving, kind, generous, virtuous, and I could go on and on. Char has a great legacy to follow that's for sure!!

Introducing

Charlotte Rose was born on Friday the 17th a little after 5pm. She weighed in at 7lbs 13oz and is 20 inches long. Both mom and baby girl are home from the hospital and resting; the big brother couldn't be more excited!

About to Pop!

things I adore at four

*big helper

*sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating

*hard worker

*perfectionist (this is both good and bad, because sometimes he gets upset if it is not perfect and he won't believe me that it really is ok if he colors outside of the lines every once in awhile)

*strong (he's always been freakishly strong--the other day he lifted and carried a 20 pound bag of ice over his head--is that weird?--maybe all kids do that)

*momma's boy

*really good memory (this is especially great since his dad is the complete opposite!--carter will still talk about things that randomly happened a year or two ago)

*snuggles with me every morning when he wakes up

*wants me to lay down with him at night (this won't last forever so i love it)

*loves his cousins (he's asks to play with them every day and now that we are living at nana and grandad's house he can just about do that!)

*shy (last week in primary was better but when the substitute came in and sat by him, he quietly moved over to the next seat! he later told me he was just feeling a little shy)

*holds my hand everywhere we go (even when we walk in the house--again i know this won't last forever, so i love it!)

*loves to cook

*never stops moving (i wish i had half the energy he does!)

Highlights

Carter started preschool last week and goes 3 times a week now. I cried a little when I dropped him off--wonder how I'll handle kindergarten!! I was nervous with how he would do (he wouldn't even look at his new primary teacher for the first couple of weeks!), but he is really loving it and is excited to go every day. I think it helps that his two cousins Mallory and Tyler go with him. It's fun to see him be so excited to learn.
Sean and I went to Sea World just before Carter was born so we decided to make it a tradition and go before this baby girl is born. Our niece Caitlyn was able to go with us and it was so much fun. A quick trip-but so fun. They loved Shamu and getting soaked!