Carter turns 3!

Even though this is the last post of the bunch it is the most important...to Carter!! He turned three on December first and had a great birthday! Ta Ta made sure from afar that he had great gifts to open as did Grandma Marilynn. We really didnt celebrate big...just a lot. He had three different get togethers with two cakes.

At school he got to wear a birthday cake hat with candles on it and we made shape cookies for him to share with his friends. He loved to be the center of attention and have his special day!

Carters favorite food right now is steak tips. On his actual birthday we had steak tips, rice and corn. All choices Carter picked. The next night we had Nana and Gpa up to celebrate and had pork chops...this time he got to have cake. He couldnt wait to have the cake and blow out the candles...only to take one bite and be done. Ta ta called the night of his birthday but true to Carter...he had way to many other things to do and only talked to him for a few minutes.

We also celebrated Carters birthday while we were in Kansas. He had a cake from Coldstone but again, was more interested in what was behind the wrapping paper.

The baby

Soon I will be blogging about two children. This baby is due Feb 18th which happens to be my dads moms birthday. She could come anyday though as I am dilated to a 4 and 50% efaced. Carter is anxiously awaiting the arrival although I know he has no clue what is about to happen and how much his life is going to change!

I have been having weekly appointments in Sioux Falls and the Doctor agrees...any day now. I would prefer sooner than later, but I guess thats really up to the baby!

It looks like Scott will be at Ft. Riley Kansas in March and then possibly head this way after his course and take his 2 week R&R to meet the baby. I am hoping everything works out and we can make this happen.

I am so excited to meet her and finally get to see what she looks like. I am sure I will have tons of pictures to post after the birth! Stay tuned!

Christmas will never be over

Carter is very much a mini Scott. He is having a very hard time letting go of Christmas. Every night they sing Christmas songs and Scott recently sent him the Christmas Classics collection on DVD. He was so excited and had watched all 4 of the discs numerous times. He had had it for about a week and wanted to watch Frosty Returns. He has to do EVERYTHING by himself and was trying to get the DVD out of the case and snapped it in half.

He was beyond devastated. I told him not to worry and that Ta Ta would make it better. When Scott signed online that night, I had Carter tell him what happened over the microphone. Ta Ta did make it all better and ordered him a replacement Frosty movie that should be here any day. Every day when it is time to get the mail he has to check to see if it is in there. I am sure he will be one happy boy when it comes. He will tell everyone who will listen that his Frosty DVD broke....funny how he forget to tell you just exactly how it broke!

Sledding with Uncle Bam

Since Carter still has some issues with pronunciation some words don't come out the correct way....one of the being Grahams name. He calls him Uncle Bam. Uncle Bam came home a few weekends ago to take Carter sledding since it is out of the question for me to take him. It was a nice day but still a little chilly. They went down the hill about 10 times before Graham swears he was going to have a heart attack. Carter's cheeks were pretty pink so he was ok with going back home.

He brings up sledding a lot and can't wait until Uncle Bam comes again so they can go again. He is so funny and means business when he is trying to tell you a story!

Xander turns 1

On Sunday Jan 11th we got together with Pander and his family to celebrate Xanders first birthday. Carter was in a little bit of a shock that this party wasnt about him and the gifts werent for him either. He did get to help Xander open his gifts and was pleasantly surprised that he, too, had gifts to open. Since we went to Kansas for Christmas and the weather was so bad all the weekends before Christmas, we hadnt celebrated Christmas with Pander's family yet. Carter had gifts to open from their exchange. He also got to open the baby's gifts but wasnt interested in what was inside of them.

Christmas and our trip to Wichita

For Christmas this year we loaded up the van and headed south to Kansas to visit Theresa and Dean. The 10 hour drive really seemed like nothing for me because I had help with Carter and it was 5 hours shorter than the trip to Colorado!

We got there on Christmas Eve and went to Church at 11pm. The car ride must have wore Carter out as he fell asleep standing up in the pew. After church, he could hardly wait to get home and put cookies and milk out for "ho ho" and carrot sticks out for "ruuoff". Theresa happened to have beef sticks so Carter also set out one of those for "ruuoff". He didnt put up a fight going to sleep that night but the next morning he wasnt sure he should go downstairs. I think he thought Santa and Rudolph were still there.

He had a blast opening up all his gifts and was very miticulous about getting all the wrapping paper and tape off of the boxes. He had a busy day playing with all of his new toys.

Aunt Brenna and Uncle Israel got to Theresa's house the day after Christmas. They had been in Tennessee visiting his family. We played lots of games and did a lot of shopping as well. It was nice that four of us siblings could be there and we missed Pander and Tracy and there family as they weren't able to make it.

I cut my very long hair off while we were in Kansas. I did this mainly in prepararation for the baby and the fact that it took so much shampoo and conditioner and time it was really getting old. I donated my hair to locks of love. It was down almost to my butt and it is now at the nape of my neck. I really like my new hair cut and I am so glad I finally just did it!

The weather was beautiful in Kansas....so beautiful, we forgot what the weather could be like back north. We headed for home on the 2nd of Janurary and pulled into the driveway around 8pm. We didnt make it very far into the driveway before getting stuck. Both mom and I were out shoveling. After awhile shoveling in sub zero degree weather we freed the van and headed for Nana and Gpas house to spend the night. We were able to get up the driveway the next morning after the neighbor scooped it out.

We had a really good time in Kansas but we were glad to be home....on the second try!

Thanksgiving

We didn't so much this year for Thanksgiving compared to last year. Last year, Scott arrived home the day before so even though it was a small Thanksgiving, it was very overwhelming. Its hard to believe that 1.) its already been a year since his return from Iraq and 2.) He is gone again (not surprising, but hard to believe). Carter very much enjoyed the Thanksgiving get together except for the small dog in the house. They went rounds for quite a while and Carter shed many tears when the puppy would even look at him. They did eventually decalre a truce and basically left each other alone. I guess there goes Scott's hopes for a dog anytime soon! The day after found me in Fargo at 4am shopping with Heidi, Alli, Kristen and Tracy. We had a blast and Carter loved staying home with Grandma, Papa and Xander. Gpa and Nana came to visit before we got home and Emily came out to see Carter as well. He was in his glory.

Once again...

So once again, I have fallen behind on this website. I will do my best to go back and update you on all that has happened since the last post.

Carters speech has taken off and he continues to amaze us daily. He comes up with some of the funniest stories. He loves to talk about things that happened in the past but were obviously of significance to him. It has made life so much easier being able to understand what he is trying to tell us.

Here goes....I will create a new post for each event and I will be posting pictures as well!