My Best Buddy

You never realize the number of ways that having a child would actually change your life until you have one. While I was expecting Carter, I knew my future life included lots of sleepless nights (under exaggeration) bottles, diapers of all kinds, more laundry, pure exhaustion, and a little stow away. I knew I would have to sacrifice a lot of my usual friday/saturday nights with my husband out on the town for earlier bed times and snuggles. And I realized that I probably wouldn't have as much "me" time to shower, (heaven forbid) put on make-up, do my hair, etc. Before Carter came, since we did not exactly plan on our little surprise, as a mother-to-be I became fairly skeptical that I was ready for this alternative existence. The thought of turning in my "newly-wed, cute young couple badge", my weekly dates out, and the freedom that I had, as selfish as it sounds- this scared me. I loved all my alone time with just me and Nathan! But little did I know I'd be trading in this seemingly great husband/wife experience for even more smiles, laughter, kisses, hugs, tender moments, blessings, and a deeper relationship with my Heavenly Father while I cared for one of his special children. Little did I know that my heart could contain so much love for such a little person! Or that I could feel so successful and fulfilled! And most of all, how little I understood that this little person would not just change my routine day to day- but he would little by little change ME entirely. Thank heavens for that. All of this is to say, that my little Carter Moo is not just my cute 20 month old. He is my good humor, my patience, my better judgement, my sweetest dreams, my day to day companion, and truly- my best little friend. Here are a few Carter-isms that I love the most!

-Every night, before bedtime we get Carter showered with Daddy and read him books. Daddy can't take him up to shower alone, he's always concerned about his Mama. So if Daddy leaves me behind, Carter will come back down the stairs, into the kitchen, and take my hand to direct me upstairs :) At least he knows I will sit on the floor outside the shower and make faces at him through the glass.

-After books and bedtime stories are read, Daddy turns off the lights and Mommy sings a few songs while Carter lays in his bed falling asleep. But each and every night as I kneel by that crib, Carter requests which songs he'd like to hear by saying, "hush-a-bye? Ok." then reaches through the crib slats to hold my hand until I am all done singing. He just wants me close!
-Crossing the streets or walking anywhere at all, Carter wants to hold my hand to make sure I am right there with him.

-Carter is such a cute little helper! At the store, I hand him the groceries and he turns around in his seat to drop them in the cart. If he's not driving the cart for us that is- he loves his "wheels!"
- Carter weighs 32 lbs. He is a tank. Sometimes I feel amazed by his little body and how much it resembles a linebacker's. He is super strong too, and I have found him helping unload groceries with a full gallon of milk high above his head. Little intimidating at times haha

- He always helps put the silverware into the dishwasher when they are dirty, and into the drawer when they are clean. Every day when I make dinner or lunch he will grab a chair from our dining table and push it around the kitchen so he can "see! see!". As I chop something up, I slide it to him and he drops it into the pot or pan. Especially when we use the kitchen Aid. He likes to ask for lots of tastes and loves helping me make cookies.

- Whenever Carter wakes up, he smiles and jumps in his bed to say good morning. After he says hi, I ask "how are you doing Carter?" to which he always responds, "Good!"
-Carter likes to brush his teeth with mommy

-Carter is very sweet and sensitive. He gives lots of kisses and loves. This morning he snuggled with me on my bed with his arms around my neck, then looked up at me to pull out his binky and give me a big kiss. He touched my face with his chubby little hand, and patted my cheek a few times before snuggling down again.
-Lately Carter is learning how to jump. Hysterical to see my stocky guy up on his tippy toes trying to jump.
- Little Carter says "thank you" to everyone around him, and usually without being prompted any. He also says "I love you" without being told, and uses it quite often with mommy and daddy.
- Whenever it's time to "clean up, clean up!" Carter grabs his little toy bucket and mumbles something that is supposed to mean "do your share".
-If ever my little man notices maybe mommy is sad for a minute or the least bit emotional (oh pregnancy), he runs to my side to offer me his binky and lots of loves.

-My little guy is smart and has been counting and singing ABC's with us.
-Whenever I wash my face with my electric face scrubber, he will rush in to pull it from me and gently massage it on my cheeks. He loves to "elp!" (help)
-Carter loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Thomas the Train. Whenever he sees a train he jumps up to yell "COOOH COOOOH!!!" hasn't quite gotten the "ch" sound down yet but i think I prefer this anyways.
-Carter loves to Skype with our families back in Utah. He knows all of their names and is such a ham because they encourage it.

I could likely go on forever, thus I will stop myself. Truly this little boy is the purest joy in my life and Nathan and I have often asked ourselves, "what did we ever do before we had Carter? What a waste of our time!" Realizing what a sweet joy he is has made us all the more excited for another little person to join us in 7-9 weeks. Little Clarissa Mae will have the sweetest older brother she could ever hope for and we can't wait to see what her personality brings into our home. Carter is saying her name and frequently looks in her bassinet to see if "baby" is ever going to be in it or not. We are SO excited!!! HOORAY FOR KIDS! They make us better people by the day!

Walden Pond

Ok, So Katie is brilliant and I can blog again. Thank you!! I have some catching up to do so bear with me! 

Pictured below, this is my "lost in thought" look. And why is this a good place to stop and ponder? Read on.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."  -Henry Thoreau

It is really exciting to get to visit some of the places that you hear about in your English Literature class, like the home of Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond. It was so beautiful!! He had this small quiet home above the pond, the home is not still there but they have the home site where they can show you what it looked like. They also built a replica at the pond entrance which was pretty neat too. A perfect Sunday afternoon outing! So interesting to imagine his quiet, and humble life, and read some of the beautiful things that he wrote. Namely, "Walden Pond" :) So before it got too cold, (this was probably in the end of October) my little family and my sister Karlie, her husband Ryan and my darling niece and nephew took a small excursion.

Here we are riding in the car!

And then, the entrance to the pond.

Carter fell asleep as we pulled in, so we let him snooze it off in his stroller, but not long before we got this gem of a picture below. You know that feeling where you wake up somewhere you don't know, or you have that delusional, groggy feeling that makes you act kind of goofy? I love it when that happens to Carter :)

Here is a replica built of the small cabin home Thoreau would have lived in. 

This photo is a personal favorite of mine. The trees are truly stunning during the fall on the east coast.

Here is the actual site of Thoreau's home, above the pond a ways. It is so small you wonder how we can ever think to complain about a lack of space now a days!

My two silly boys. Love 'em.

This is Karlie, Ryan, Dean, and miss Ainsley

So to some maybe this is not so exciting. But if you like history any you would love to live where I do now. So much to see and do!! And more coming your way!

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." -Henry Thoreau

Dear Blog You are NOT Forgotten

Not forgotten, just seemingly the tantalizing box unchecked on my "to-do" list. You see, I have been blogging, have many drafts ready to go-but the kicker is uploading pictures. We are having some technical difficulties. Blogger decided to tell me my space was full and that I would have to start paying to blog! I know this can't be true because many of my much more avid photo blogging friends have never had this happen. So we are working out a glitch. If you have any suggestions send them my way.

In the meantime, I am pregnant. I started taking pictures by the week to put together a collage of my growth. Then I got to week 25 or so and thought- "why would you do that to yourself? You sure don't want to remember yourself looking like this, and I can't imagine other people would either..." Thus ended my pictures. I think I have 3. Mostly I was probably just afraid of what week 38 ish would look like. Rightfully so. I looked pregnant at week 20. I've heard this is just the joy of your second pregnancy. Also the joy of baby 2 is feeling pregnant from week 20 onward. Yowza. With baby Carter, I was one of those pregnant gals that said frequently "I truly like being pregnant! I have it so easy!" Then as you are ready to wrap things up, you discover that maybe you did like having your own body and breathing space and would rather admire a baby in your arms due to the seemingly increasing pressure between your legs. Second pregnancy, how you have humbled me :) But enough of my rantings. I am 29 weeks along, in the last trimester, and already anxious to meet baby Clarissa Mae.

Carter is 19 months old darn it. The boy weighs a whopping 32 lbs and is just "solid" as most people like to say. He really is strong and built, but mostly he is just stinking funny and the joy of my life! We love living in Concord, MA-lots to do and see and fun new things to experience! I have lots of fun stories to be coming your way to prove it. In the meantime, just dropping a little note of bloggy blogness. I miss it! Hopefully I can get this picture thing worked out fairly soon!

Yours Truly