Dinner in Ogden

We went to quite possibly one of the best restaurants I've ever been to on our trip to Ogden. Called the Union Grill. It ranks up there with Charley's in Orlando - greatest steakhouse in the US. They did not include spoons in our napkin. I asked for one. Everybody kind of looked at me funny - we had just sat down, how did I know I needed a spoon? For Carter of course. That kept him busy for the better part of an hour. He was so cute with it. They brought us a whole plate of fruit for him to snack on. He loved it. The food was EXCELLENT as well!

Carter & Camden

We had some friends that moved from our ward to Ogden, Utah. While we were in town, we stopped to stay with them for a few days. Their son Camden was born 4 months before Carter. He weights 3lbs less, and is walking and running around. They look about the same size, but Carter has a bit of a belly and chubby cheeks. They played along side eachother, but never with eachother.

It was Camden's house where Carter got to really climb stairs. He always heads straight for the stairs wherever we go, but he actually got to climb them here. He is not very efficient at going down yet. I all but pushed him down the stairs so he could learn consequences. My child is the slow one remember. He cried and cried, until I realized that he was crying because I was holding him. He was struggling to break free to climb again. He fell twice down about 6 or 7 steps, not really caring - just wanting to continue going up.

Camden LOVES snow. Doesn't matter how cold it is. He throws a fit if he knows you are going out, and he is not.

We went looking at Christmas lights in the Ogden Christmas Village. My how I am grateful for a child that doesn't walk or run. Camden didn't stay in his stroller for long. He was running all over playing in the snow. I love this picture because it reminds me of that Christmas Story movie.

Carter and Mikaela

This is the first of my Utah visit posts. My cousin Deborah on my father's side has a daughter that is 5 weeks older than Carter. We got to play with her for a couple days. They mostly played side by side. She talks a lot more than Carter, and she used walking as her main mode of transportation - no crawling at all.

Here she is giving him kisses:

Then she gave him a hug:

He thinks she is super funny, getting into things he can't yet:

Carter with my cousin Angie:

Carter with my Aunt Shannon:

Carter with my Uncle Ken:

Look Out Doggies

Today Lydia was getting her way more than usual. She is walking by herself for long distances, and has been for almost 2 weeks now. If she saw something that she wanted that Carter was playing with, she would walk up and take it. Then she would walk away. There was nothing Carter could do but cry. He couldn't get it back by crawling to her. I decided that he needed to stick up for himself. I set him upright and held his hips so he knew I was there. He wanted to grab my fingers - but I refused to let him do that. It would cause him to fall if I tried to let go. He took about 7 steps before falling. I called David in to see. By the end of 10 minutes he was walking across the room like he is in the video. He crawled into the kitchen. I went in there to get him and stood him up. He walked 17 feet before the tripping on the transition strip going into the living room (I can't count that against him because I've done it). He then walked another 9 feet to David's arms.

It looks like he was ready, I just wasn't.

We have no more fun toys!!!

Thanks to all of our wonderful friends, we have lots of fun toys. However, today all of them became obsolete and invalid. For today we found THE LAUNDRY SHOOT. I have been dreading this day for about 6 months now. Today was the day that I finally closed all the doors in the hallway and let Carter and Lydia chase eachother up and down the hallway. I have always had it blocked off so they could be confined to the living room where I could sit on the couch and read or grade papers for David and know that they were safe. Today, however I let them roam free. I got there too late. Just in time to see Carter grab that handle and pull. WOW!!! What an amazing find. There is a hole in the wall!!! Before you go thinking - how could she let them wander down there with a danger like that exposed?? I do need to point out that I have had the toy box blocking it for quite some time. I moved it out of the way for the pictures so you wouldn't think that my house was as completely cluttered as the toy box is. He was reaching in for a toy and noticed the knob on the wall. He was only able to get it open about 4 inches. However, that is enough to completely captivate a curious 15 month old.

Aaaaaaggggghhhhh what do I do?????

Circle Time

Carter loves circles. When we play with other people's toys, it is always the circles we go for first. When we put the shapes in the shape sorter, one hand has the circle while the other hands shove shapes in holes. The circle almost never goes in. He has a ball in one hand and the circle puzzle is sitting next to him on the floor. He has seen the ball go in the basket. Balls are circles.

And circles are circles:

Notice here, the only two pieces missing are the O and the Q. Both circles.

Here is a random picture of play time. This is the first real fight over a toy we have had. They both wanted to play with this toy piano my cousin gave us. They literally pulled eachother off and pushed them to the floor before climbing on it themselves. It was crazy.

On another note, Carter cut another tooth on Monday. Now he has 9.

Straight No Chaser

Straight No Chaser

I love these guys. David bought me tickets to go see them back in June or July. He wrote it on the calendar and stuck the tickets to the bulletin board in the kitchen hoping I would find them. He had to tell me - I guess I am just that unobservant. We went to see them Thursday night in Seattle.

This group exists just to show you the power of the internet. They started out as a group of friends in college who wanted to sing. They started their group at Indiana University in 1996. After graduation in 1999 they all went on with their lives. It wasn't until a video got posted to YouTube in 2006 by one of the group members that their reputation took off. They received MILLIONS of hits. In 2007 alone that one video received over 7 million views. One view is all it takes for most people, and that is all it took for the Chairman/CEO of Atlantic Records. They were signed to the record label and are touring.

The show that we went to was near the end of a 75 show tour this year. After the show, they all came out for a meet-and-greet. I would have loved to meet them, but we had to get home to get the baby.

For more videos, visit their YouTube Channel.



If this doesn't work, you can see this video HERE

If this doesn't work, you can see this video HERE

Seeing Santa

We went to the Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse for Santa pictures again this year. Same Santa. He is great!! We waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes (We got there half an hour early too) - but it was worth it.

Santa came out and walked through the line to see the kids

Hi Santa!!!

This is the candy river. He just wanted to crawl back and forth over the bridge:

This is the result of our attempts with Santa. He was great until we got to his lap.

Remember this from last year? I miss these days.

The stinky kid who eats paste

I officially have the stinky kid who eats paste. Carter grabbed a bottle of Elmer's glue and drank from it like it was a bottle. He does have some gas that will clear a room too.

He also ate a piece of book. The peice had a picture of food on it. My child cannot tell the difference between real food and pictures of food!!!

He stole a remote control. I was cleaning out his car seat and a remote fell out. Somehow it got tucked under the cover. I had to call three people who it could possibly belong to. Silly kid.

This is Carter right before swim class, so excited. Not so excited when we got to the pool. He was in a really good mood after we left though.

I did Carter's hair today. The pool is drying his scalp and I was putting lotion on it when I noticed some of his hairs were moving with the lotion. This is my attempt at styling it:

My friend Chandra - Lydia's mom - said that as weird as it sounded, his hair actually looked messed up. I took pride that she noticed - because that meant it worked!!