Dear Blog...

I am SO sorry I have neglected you these past two months!! Life has been crazy nuts. Nate is working full time and going to school at the U of U. I am working full time too and still trying to be a mommy (including doing laundry, making dinner each day, cleaning, and doing mommy things). We are SO busy that you can't truly be upset with me! I will be a more faithful poster. Here's the latest-

Our lease is ending in a month and we aren't quite sure where life will take us next! I do like apartment hunting though and it will be fun to see some changes again.

Carter is almost 8 months old!! So big. And he is a crawling champion. There is no stopping him from getting where he needs to go, and his personality is just as fun as ever. He is starting to stand up along side his crib, the couch, etc, and he is just a spunky little guy. We love him so much.

The husband and I are still as in love as ever and just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on January 2nd. We went to Park City and swam, watched movies, went out for dinner, and walked around town. It was a blast, and so nice to have a little break and a FULL night's sleep! (love you carter :)

We had family in from out of state over the holidays so we spent most of our time playing with family and doing as much as we could fit in during the short time they were here!! We love and miss them lots. We had a great thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years and I can't believe how quickly the time is going!!

Otherwise, not much else is going on! So now that my bloggers guilt has passed, I will keep updating this a little more frequently :) Thanks for understanding!

The Moo Was a M00!!

So this is a VERY late Halloween post since Thanksgiving has come and gone...(I'll catch up soon enough I guess) but of course mine and Nate's little Mr. Moo had to be a moo for Halloween. We spent the evening at Grandpa and Grandma Rhodes with our traditional Halloween dinner and fun! We got Carter's cute costume from costco....and YES, I know he looks like a baby girl. They were out of the boy ones and since he didn't care what he was, I had to dress him as a moo cow whether it looked a little more girly or not! Enjoy! And don't judge.... ;)

Carter looks lots like his daddy here I think :)

Oh I could munch my little moo cow!!!

Little Chubs

Cousin Maddox was a cute little monkey!

Then the moo got tired and decided to sleep-this picture features me holding his cute little tail

Chili and Breadsticks-the classic feast!

AND...Not to be left out- my sister Dani wearing this sickening mask my mom got for my other sister Rochelle's costume. Yuck. 

Avery LATE Happy Halloween!

A Shout Out to My Fam

Isn't family the greatest? Carter never sleeps (in fact he's screaming from his crib as I speak), Nate leaves cupboards and drawers open like it's going out of style, I leave my clothes strewn out right and left, we all get on each others nerves, throughout the week dishes pile up, laundry is a JOKE, no one can ever find enough food in the pantry and somehow....somehow we have to always go to the store AGAIN. Work is exhausting for nate and myself, so quality time is not easily found. Each week brings some new disaster. And still in the back of my mind I hear a little voice, (maybe my mom's) telling me this is just the very beginning :)  But where would I be without all of this chaos?? LONELY. Each weekend we get our lives back in order, sometimes Carter takes a good nap and we all catch some shut eye, Nate is sooo thoughtful and always does sweet things to make me smile, and I like to think I'm a decent wife and mother to my boys. And at the end of the day even though I know I'll get no sleep and things will be crazy- I am anxious to come home! That's a little backwards....but truth be told, my family is the BEST. We make each other laugh hysterically, and we are all very good at cuddling. We are affectionate, I love holding my husbands hand, we like to surprise one another, and we are, like most families in the beginning- just trying to make it from one day to the next. The other day we went and took some pictures together as a little family that reminded me of how good the view is from where I sit. Here's to the good life folks!!

 

 

 

 

 

Rub a Dub Dub-Carter's in the TUB!

Carter is almost 5 months now...my how the time flies!! And he obviously doesn't fit in the sink for his little sink baths anymore :( which part of me is really sad about. The other part LOVES seeing him in the bath in his little bath chair! He'd gone through that awkward phase where he didn't fit in the sink, but was still too small for the tub...but now he's graduated full throttle to bath time in the tub! Have a look!

In the beginning...

And the present.....

He looks SOOOO different!! But what a little SWEETHEART!

The BUMBO

So I had never heard of a bumbo before, but apparently it is like a marshmallow seat that helps your baby learn to sit up. Our friends Dan and Anna got one for their little Susie, and they let us give it a try with Carter Moo to see if he liked it. Success I think! There was something so funny to me about seeing Carter sitting up like a normal person in his little body. Loved it :)

 

I secretly wish I had a bumbo to call my own...

Newman G.N.O.

While all of our men were off at the General Conference Priesthood session, my mother-in-law, sister-in-laws, and myself had a really fun G.N.O. (For those not accustomed like nate, this means girl's night out.) We went to Thanksgiving Point for some dinner, and shopped around the Emporium. Window shopped of course :) Then we went back home and played with little Carter and Miss Kiera, my little niece. Here are a few photos of the fun evening.

Poor Carter. Had to be the only boy on girl's night out.

My cute family

This is little niece kiera. 

We were fortunate enough to see this beauty on the drive home.

Then we took a little photo shoot of Kiera and her mommy for the fun of it. She had some rockin' boots!

Nothing to make your day bright like spending quality time with the girls!

The Harvest

Gardening is an art. Normally, to be so accomplished, you must have a garden. But for us Newman's this is simply not so. All we needed was some soil, seeds, boxes, and a little T.L.C. So long ago, I made a post about Nate's urges to have a garden. Those planter boxes we invested so much time and love in paid off!! Well...in a way. My beautiful flowers took a turn for the worst week two that they were planted. My younger brother Dylan and his lady friend knocked the poor thing over. Then, in angst to cover their tracks, they poured the rest of the seeds in the soil and replanted over the top of the first seeds. Obviously this was a horrible mistake, because all my little flowers choked each other to death. All but one... 

This single dried up gem could not be taken so easily. It persevered through thick and thin. Even when I did not love it like I should have. We prevailed. We did everything to kill this little flower, and alas, with so little effort, we are STILL too good of gardeners for this to be so. I walk past this every day, and it makes me smile :)

The peppers we were so hopeful to harvest turned out better than planned! Only a third of the plants survived, but still. Coming from a seed, that was pretty impressive I thought! Nate was VERY pleased. here are the little sweethearts.

Look at the size of that guy in Nate's left hand!! Prize winning pep!

I had to take a similar photo with our award winning masterpiece.

Woohoo!! We will never go hungry!!

The four survivors that made it til the harvest. So impressive.

Here's the papa, pleased with his accomplishments and glad he can bring home the bacon!