Baby Carter

I couldn't resist posting a few baby pictures of Carter. He was such a cute baby with THE most WILD hair I have ever seen on a baby. I tell people about it, but they just don't understand (or believe me) what I am talking about until they see it for themselves.

Just a few days old. What sweet memories!

4 weeks old. His hair stood straight up like a helmut over his entire head. And the tips curled just slightly like we had used a curling iron on him. It was hilarious!! And I absolutely LOVED it.

6 weeks old and already time to give him a haircut! It was really hard for me to cut off his precious afro (sp?), but as you can see it was necessary. So we gave him a big boy cut and he's had a haircut every month of his life ever since.

My friend Jen came over to my house and cut Carter's hair. She practically had to hold my hand while she did it because I was so sad. I am sure I made her VERY nervous, but she did a great job and we only had a few tears from the big ol' lug of a 6 week old.

6 months old! Is he not a doll?!! OOOH! I just want to squeeze him!

Carter G is 3!!!

Little Carter G turned 3 today! I can hardly believe it's been 3 years since I had him. It has gone so quickly, yet I can't even remember a time without him. He is such a joy in our family and we have had nothing but fun with him. Here are a few highlights from the big day. The day started with opening a new T-Rex shirt to wear for his birthday. (Hopefully a fun shirt will encourage him to keep his clothes on!)

The party crew at Blast Off for lunch. Yummy Pizza Hut pizza and fun in the toys! Alyssa, Halle, MaKenna, Carter, and Harrison. Everyone had a great time except Halle. I'll post her story another time.

Gift from Harrison and MaKenna, a letter train puzzle and ring pops. (What kid doesn't love a ring pop?!!)
Looks like the Birthday Fairy found him. (Although he wouldn't go to bed the night before so the Fairy had to decorate in front of him.) Check out all those gifts!! What a spoiled little boy. He got some really fun things. Squishy dinosaurs from Halle, a collapsable ball from Alyssa, a Superman towel from Kate, a tractor, boxers, and matchbox car from Grammy and Grampy, a Lehi firgurine and first Book of Mormon from Grandma and Grandpa, a frog for the fishtank from Mimi and Bryon, a construction set from Kade and Deidra's family, and a shaving kit and baseball pitcher from Jarom and I. WHEW!! That was a lot.

This gift is a 3 in 1 baseball tee and pitcher. He LOVES it and we all had a ball giving it a try after the party. He really is good at baseball. It never ceases to amaze me. He didn't inherit my athletic ability that is for sure.

Carter insisted on a SpongeBob cake. We got this cake free from Cold Stone Creamery because of the mess up they made with my birthday cake. (It's a long story, ask me about it sometime if you're interested.) Anyway it was YUMMY! Devils Food cake with chocolate icecream and chocolate crunchy shavings. Mmmmm...mmmm...good!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Little Man!!!!

"Poop Worms"

I know the last few posts have been about Carter, but he just says the darndest things and I can't help but write them down. Today a Red Lobster commercial came on and he said,"EEEWWWW!!" Then leaned over to Jarom and asked, "Dad, why'd you eat poop worms?!" Apparently he's not quite over the trauma of Jarom eating nasty stuff in China. It was hilarious!

Refer to "Fear factor or China" post and"Dinner in Dalian" (Elise, or anyone, will you please tell me how to make this a link within my blog?)

Carter sleeping

More proof that this kid can sleep anywhere but his own bed. You would think we 'd have no troubles getting this kid to bed, but we do. Serious troubles! He refuses to sleep in his bedroom. A handful of times we've gotten him to atleast sleep on the floor of our room, but the majority of the time he sleeps with us right smack in the middle of our bed. People tell me to enjoy it cause it won't last forever, so I do. But give me a break! An office chair???

Blogger Archive

Okay all my nerdy blogger buddies, Jarom found a pretty neat program that archives your blog entries in a pdf format so that you can print them or save them or whatever. I like to be able to save my blog posts monthly as a journal or scrapbook for the family. If you are interested, check out this site. It's free and works really well and is easy to use. It isn't perfect in my opinion because it saves all the pictures from a post and then all the text from the post, rather than saving them together in the form that I posted it. But I guess it's nicer than not having it at all and if I chose to, I could print it all and then cut and glue it in the right order. Or I am sure Jarom could figure out a way to edit it for me if I bribed him with something really nice. LOL :) Anyway here's the link. http://www.samuraicode.com/ It's called blog2pdf.

Toothfairy Time!!

Little Miss Halle lost her first tooth today!!! She was so brave and pulled it out all on her own. Then she saw the blood and said with tears streaming down her face, "I want it back in!" After we all oohed and ahhed and talked up the toothfairy, she was much happier. I am sad that her cute, little, perfectly straight, porcelain dolly teeth are leaving, but I am excited to see her with grown-up teeth. Now lets just hope the toothfairy gets the job done right tonight!!

Booby-trapped!

I normally go walking in the mall at 10 am with my friend Jennie. Today I got there a little bit early, needing to exchange a few things. However, I forgot that the stores don't open until 10. All of the stores still had the gates down and were locked up. Carter thought it was the coolest thing ever. He would point to every gate and say, "Mom, it's booby-trapped!" He got a giant kick out of walking up and down a closed mall. He is such a crack up. Glad he had fun.

Visit to Boise

This past weekend the kids and I drove to Boise to be with Jarom for the weekend and we had such a great time visiting with old friends. I am sad that there wasn't enough time to see EVERYONE that I wanted, but it gives me an excuse to go again. Right? Here is the recap.

Friday:

We arrived in Boise late Friday night and drove straight to our friend's the Petersons. They have moved into a new home and I couldn't wait to see it. They have done a GREAT job remodeling it! I am so mad at myself though becuase I totally forgot to get the camera out. So, you'll just have to take my word for it, but the house is really cute. It looks like a New York loft. It was also really fun to see the new addition they've added to the family. Little James is barely 9 months old and walking around like a 1 year old. He's a cutie! (Jennifer if you read this, you'll have to send me some pictures so I can post them on my blog. What an idiot I was!)


Saturday:

Jarom was so nice to take the kids to Chucky Cheese while I went to lunch with my dear friend Miki. It was so much fun to spend some one on one time together and catch up. It was 60 degrees outside so Miki and I put the top down on the Mustang and had a great drive around town.

After lunch I joined Jarom and the kids at the YMCA for swimming. If you ever go to Boise it's a really fun place to take kids swimming.

Swimming at the West YMCA and playing with the Farnsworths.

Carter had a BLAST in the kiddie pool. He loves the water.

Alyssa standing in the fountain. It went straight up her nose one time and she came out just a coughing. It was pretty funny.

Halle gave us all a scare when the life guard had to jump in and save her after she came out of the big tube slide. Jarom had been catching the kids, but left to help Carter (he didn't know Halle was planning on coming down) and Halle didn't know Daddy wasn't at the bottom. Thankfully there was no harm done!! After filling out an "incident report", we decided we'd all stay away from the big slide.

(Halle must have a thing with Boise. Last year during our visit she choked on a nickel in an elevator while a fire alarm was going off. I had to give her the heimlich. Ask me about it sometime.)

After swimming we left the kids at the Farnsworth's home and went to Epi's (a Basque restaraunt) for dinner with Ron and Janna. We bought a bunch of slices of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory for dessert and we sampled them. Mmmmm.... My favorite is still the Adam's Peanut Butter Cup.

Alyssa and Tiana. When Alyssa was 4-6 months old the Farnsworths babysat her so I could get my student teaching done. (Absolutely free of charge!!) They have become family to us and we LOVE getting together with them.

Handsome, grown up David!

Ron, Kelani, and Malia, now there's a pile of fun.

After such a long day, Carter was down right pooped.

Sunday: Church in Nampa and dinner with the Eakins

Our Sunday started with realizing that Jarom didn't have a tie, I didn't have nylons, Alyssa had tights that were WAY too small, and Halle had packed 2 left shoes. So after a trip to Target to get everyone fully dressed we made our way to our old Nampa 8th Ward. It was so much fun to see so many familiar faces and we were welcomed immediatly.

After church we drove to Emmett to see our dear friends the Eakins. They moved and built a new home after we moved to I.F. It was just like old times being with them for a Sunday dinner.

Jarom and I driving Jeff's Hummer. (Okay, so it's really not his. It's his company car, but still...) It's a BIG ol' thing!!!!

It was so much fun to see Jeff and Missy again. And their new beautiful home. Missy made us a great dinner and her famous chocolate chip cookies! Mmmmmm....

Air hockey with the boys. Carter was SUCH a poor sport. He would cheer when he would sink the puck, but when the cards were turned he'd pout. At one point he ran off and whacked right into a fooseball handle. It knocked his feet right out from under him. Poor kid, but I couldn't help but laugh.

Morgyn and Alyssa playing chess. Morgyn has gotten SO tall!! She looks so grown up.

Cute little Brittyn enjoyed Missy's chocolate chip cookies! As did we all; she seriously makes the best cookies anywhere. I was so excited when I walked in the kitchen and saw the familiar Bosch sitting on the counter getting ready to make me cookies.

Monday: Lunch with Fur and the drive home

The trip ended with lunch at Carl's Jr with my old roommate Jennifer and her kids. It was great to see them all and visit over yummy burgers. (Man I wish I.F. had Carl's Jr.)

Actually I really should say the trip ended with a big ol' crack in my NEW windshield from a stinking semi-truck. I am so sad!! Then later I tried to pass Jarom and shot a rock at his Mustang windshield and gave it a little star crack too. So a trip to the Windshield Doctor is in our near future. Bummer!!!

B-I-N-G-O

Carter loves to sing the popular kid's song B-I-N-G-O. Only his version goes like this. "B-Y-U-G-O!" His dad is so proud. It's pretty cute!

Valentine's Day boxes

My girls got to make Valentine boxes this year for school. At first I was really excited about it. I LOVED doing this as a kid. However, I must say, it's not nearly as much fun as a mom. Between pulling Kate and Carter off the table a zillion times, watching glue and tape go everywhere, and getting burned by the glue gun, I think I liked it more as a kid. But, the girls loved it and thought their boxes were beautiful. They came home from school with the boxes filled and were excited to show me their treasures. That part was really fun. I guess it was all worth it.


Valentine's Day Recap:
Just thought I would write what we did for the holiday this year. It's really not all that exciting and I am writing this as a journal entry so don't read it if you don't want to.

First off, we all have fought the stomach flu. (Alyssa's bug passed on.) Carter got it at midnight two nights before Valentine's day,Halle got it the night before V-day and I fought a gurgly stomach the day before as well. Luckily it was a short lived bug and was done in a few hours. Halle thankfully felt well enough to go to school the next morning and enjoy the Valentine's festivities. Jarom is in Boise this week and called me the afternoon on V-day to say he had been throwing up in the hotel. ("Worst Valentine's ever." He said.) I gave the kids boxes of chocolates in the morning and new p.j.'s in the evening. Halle and I joined Alyssa at school for lunch, (Mini Chimis, Alyssa's favorite) and recess and then we ate strawberry waffles for dinner. It was a nice day all in all, however we did miss our dad.

My favorite Valentine's pictures of all time!

A friend of our's from Nampa, Jeff Eakins, shot these photos of my girls from his garage studio back in 2003. They turned out so cute and are some of my absolute favorite Valentine's pictures.

Halle was such a funny little girl! She looks sweet and innocent, but to get her to smell the rose, we had to tell her to look for a spider in the flower. That got her attention.

Alyssa was SO little back then! She thought she was so old. (Seems as if nothing has changed!)

10 years ago today!

February 7, 1995, Jarom entered the MTC. (Look how little he was!! He looks like a baby!)

My first letters from him. (One was a valentine! I was a few pounds younger myself. (-; )

February 11, 1997, exactly 10 years ago (almost exactly to the minute as I am composing this), Jarom got home from his mission in Carlsbad, CA. It was a long two years (but well worth it) and we were very excited to see each other again. (Everybody say, "Ahhhh...")

Arggghhh....Kate!

It seems that Kate has hit the lovely toddler stage of making GIANT messes. I was fixing the girls' hair and I could hear Kate in the silverware drawer. She pulls a chair over to it and plays in there often,(don't worry there aren't any sharp knives in it) so I wasn't too concerned until I remembered I hadn't put the powdered sugar away. It was too late when I got there.

Red and White cutie-pies!

Halle, Liberty, and Alyssa. February 2003 (I think.)

Little Sweetheart!

Okay, one post just wasn't enough to fulfill me tonight. Here is my sweet little Halle's first Valentine's Day! Looking at these just makes me want to squeeze my babies!! It makes me miss them as tiny little ones.

Oh my word! Was she just the cutest thing or what? Her furry little head slays me! (I know I am a proud mommy.)

I love these of Halle and Ellie (Justin and Amber's little girl). They are exactly one month apart and were exactly opposite. Halle was 8 lbs 6 oz, full head of dark hair; Ellie was 6 lbs 8 oz, little bit of blondy hair. It was so cute to see them together.
Some fun shots of all the little cousins. Look how little they all were! I love it! Boy these are taking me on a trip down memory lane.

Sweet Valentine's Days!

So I can't resist any longer. I love Valentine's Day and have been wanting to do a Valentine's post all month long! I am giving in tonight and letting myself post a few of my favorite past Valentine pictures.


Here are some of my OLD scrapbook pages (back when I used to scrapbook, now I just blog) of Alyssa's first Valentine's Day. She was such a chubby, cute, little baby! My how time flies!




Manwarings used to have a tradition of going the Harris Cabin (in Island Park) in February and we would celebrate Valentine's Day together. It was so much fun and a VERY big event. (We now go in March which is still WAY fun, but we no longer do the Valentine's exchange.)

"What did you do today?"

This is to answer the notorious question asked by most husbands. "Honey, what did you do today?" In Jarom's defense, he really doesn't ask it. Probably because he's home 90% of the time and knows the goings on of a stay-at-home mom.

Let me set the stage...While I was cleaning up barf from Alyssa (Jarom was gone to mutual), this is what Carter and Kate were doing. (Carter high-tailed it out of there as soon as the camera came out. He's no dummy and doesn't want any evidence!He's giggling in the background because he's playing with our dog.)

Muffins with Moms goes bad!

The day started out so well! The girls and I went to the school for "Muffins with Moms", a breakfast sponsered by the PTO.




Later I got the most dreaded phone call all mothers fear...Alyssa had thrown up in class. Her teacher said she might need to get a new pencil box. EWWW!! Poor little girl, she feels like the pits and I am praying this lovely bug doesn't spread to any of the rest of us. I hate the flu!

The worst part of all this, is that I had just thought to myself as we were driving to school, "Man, we haven't had the stomach flu for a long time." Guess I cursed myself.

SuperBowl XLI

Well, I can't let SuperBowl Sunday pass without posting something. Honestly it wasn't a very big deal for our house. We aren't die-hard sports fans (except BYU football, of course) but we did buy a few treats and turned on the t.v. for the big event.

The girls had seen the treats we had purchased and wanted some, but we told them the treats were for the superbowl. So today Halle says, (she ALWAYS comes up with good ones!) "Mom, I thought you said we were gonna have a superbowl." I explained that this was the superbowl. So she replied, "This is all it is? Well it sure isn't very super. All Dad's doing is watching a stinkin' football game!"




This is what Carter thought of our SuperBowl party! Isn't it amazing how he can sleep sitting straight up!

It's strange for me to think that last year on this day (02-04-06) I was in Texas attending my Granny's funeral. We celebrated the superbowl with my cousin Tonya and her family. Seems like forever ago!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Granny. It epitomizes how she felt about animals! It just cracks me up.

Hives???

Halle said to me the other day, "Mom, a kid in my class got bees all over him."

Me--"Bees? What do you mean?"

Halle--"You know like those bees...or honeys or something. Like those bumps all over his body."

Me--"Do you mean hives?"

Halle--"Yeah, that's the things!"

(She knew it had something to do with bees! HA!)