Home again, home again

In spite of my anxiety, we all survived our trip to Utah! It was great to see my family, and Carter had a great time hanging out with his cousins (and their pets). The flight out wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, waking up at 4:30 am and all. The portable DVD player was a life saver.

My brother and sister in law let us stay with them as usual and even gave us both of the kids' bedrooms while they slept on the couch. So nice. They are the cutest family ever and visiting them always inspires me to be a better mom. They have the smartest, most well-behaved children I have ever known. They have 3 girls, but these girls are so funny--they have had a pet black widow and now they have a snake (their idea, not their dad's). Carter was brave and held it one night. I absolutely hate snakes and this is probably the closest he will ever get to having one of his own.

He also fell in love with Aunt Sarah's bird, although he didn't like it when it would go on his back and tickle him. He also met Snow White. My mom also has a poodle, but Carter hated it. It is a yappy little thing. Carter's favorite were my brother's 2 Belgian malinoises. They are like German Shepherds. My brother is a cop and the one dog is his K-9 partner. Anyways, it was basically a petting zoo. Maybe one day we will get a dog--when Carter is big enough to scoop the poop. Most of our visit was great. I got to meet my brother's cute girlfriend for the first time, and hang out with my other brother and his family, who I haven't seen in years, and everyone got to meet Samantha. However, I don't know if it was just lack of sleep, routine or what, but Carter and Samantha got progressively worse as the trip went on. By Thanksgiving, Samantha screamed anytime I set her down or anyone else held her. Carter was dishing out the sass like no one else's business. I would ask him to do something (like turn the light back off at 5:45am)and he would say "Um, actually, no!". This is pretty much how Thanksgiving looked for him:Not that the day was any better for me. First of all, this is how exciting it is hanging out at my parents' house:

That is my sister trying to sleep the day away. I did get my hair done, which was one of the highlights of the trip. You can't see them, but my other sisters are on the couch watching me get my hair done. There just isn't really much to do there. So...I was in charge of the turkey and I have been talking up what a great turkey I am going to make and how it will be the best ever. Everywhere I looked said that a 19 pound turkey should cook in 4-4 1/2 hours. We were supposed to eat at 4, so I put it in at noon, knowing that we wouldn't really eat until 5. It wasn't done until 7! I even turned it up to 425 degrees around 3:30. Even then, it was still questionable down towards the bone. This may not have been a big deal in some families, but there were close to 30 people crammed in that house just waiting on that damn bird. I have no idea what went wrong, but needless to say, my stress level was through the roof. By the time dinner was done, I just wanted to get out of there--Carter was being a terror and I had been holding Samantha for 10 hours straight. I didn't even enjoy the food, it was such a waste. On top of everything else, I thought that since this was the first time that we had all the grandkids together, we could do a picture with all of them. I have no idea what I was thinking. It was chaos. My one sister was late, and we wanted to take the picture outside, so it was almost dark by the time we got everyone out there. I hope that they turned out ok. My sister's boyfriend ended up taking them, and he is supposed to send them to me. Never again. My family is great, but I definitely need to lower my expectations. There are just too many people to get anything truly organized. I am planning my own Thanksgiving this week and will wipe that day from my memory.

Having said that, I am glad that we went, and I am glad that we are home. We close on our house on Friday. I am thinking about having a paint party this Saturday. Anyone want to come? :) It hasn't really sunk in yet how much work this house will really be. I hope I don't regret it...

Crawling

It really feels like we just brought Samantha home yesterday; I can't believe how fast she is growing! She started crawling on Monday and it is so fun watching her learn that crawling isn't just for getting to toys that are out of reach, but for getting places. As I was doing dishes in the kitchen I saw her out of the corner of my eye heading down the hall. It is so fun, even if it does mean that now I have to keep the house a little cleaner. She also got her first tooth last week and the second one popped out today. She eats like a horse, which is strange after feeding picky Carter who wouldn't eat meat or grains and choked on almost everything we fed him. I could be feeding her cat food out of a rusty bucket and I bet she would eat it (I haven't tried this, don't worry). She really has turned into a really happy, great baby. I love her guts.

On another note, Carter is starting to be a little bit nicer, which is a pleasant change.

He said the funniest thing today. I was asking him if he wanted to have a sleepover with his aunt Amber. He said "no, because Amber and Sarah live in the airport!". He doesn't really get that people get on airplanes and leave the airport, he only knows that that is where we drop them off. I tried to explain it, but I am pretty sure he still thinks they live there.

Well, I don't have much more to write and it's time for Thursday night TV. See ya!

Tub Time

I have been meaning to take some pictures of Samantha in the tub for a while. She absolutely loves it and is the happiest in the water. I finally got around to it tonight:
Love those eyes!!!

She has the funniest thoughtful look. She does this all the time with me. It's like she's asking "Are you sure about that?"

The lighting is off on this one, but I don't want Carter to feel left out :). Someday I will learn how to use my camera...

I found out a couple of weeks ago that everyone in my family will be home for Thanksgiving, including my older brother and his family from Phoenix. I haven't seen them since before we moved out here, and they have never met my kids. So I was kind of bummed that I would miss it. With the large purchase we are about to make (a house), I didn't think we could afford it. But Mike, being the great guy that he is, said I should go. With that and the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa helping out with Carter's ticket we are going to Utah for Thanksgiving! It's the first time I have gone back for a holiday since we have been out here. I am very excited to see my family, especially my nephews. We were really close when they were younger, and now they are all in high school. I still can't believe it. I am also excited to get my hair done. Somehow I manage to see Amber (my sister) every 6 months or so. Just about the time that my hair is getting bad enough that I am considering going to someone else, something works out. It's like it was meant to be... As my excitement grows my anxiety does as well. I am taking both kid by myself. Am I nuts? I know that other people do it and it can be done, but it is going to be stressful. Maybe they will both sleep the whole way. A girl can dream, right?

One fell off and bonked his head

What a fun week we have had! Tuesday night we got to take a little trip to the ER. Carter was standing up on a chair and fell off, hitting the back of his head really hard. He started throwing up after he went to sleep (in our bed...fantastic), so we took him in to get checked. It was so sad, because it was his first time really throwing up and he was so sad about it-- "I throwed up everywhere and I'm cryin' about it!". They were great at the hospital, they were really good with Carter and we didn't have to wait at all. He did get a CT scan of his head, which thrilled him. The entire time there he was very sad and tired, only nodding when the doctors asked him questions. After the CT scan, he perked up, on the way back to his bed he said "that machine made me feel better!!!". Then he was chatting it up with the nurse about how the fan went around and around and then it stopped... and on and on. That lasted until the nurse felt the back of his head --he looked at me and said "but it didn't make my head feel better". Then he threw up and sad Carter came back. Everything was fine and we came home and he was fine today, thankfully. He gave us a good scare. It really made me grateful that my kids are healthy and nothing was seriously wrong (and that we have great insurance).

Alright, so that wasn't fun, but yesterday we went to the Wisconsin Dells, and that was so much fun! For those of you who don't know "the Dells" (as they are referred to around here) is the water park capital of the world (at least America) here in the middle of Wisconsin. There are at least 10 huge resorts with all kinds of water parks. Anyways, most people go in the summer when it is warm, but not us. We wait until it's cold and we can go cheaper. We went to the Kalahari resort, which boasts the largest indoor water park in the country. We went with a couple of friends and their families and we had such a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so until Kara and Cassidy are kind enough to email the ones that they took to me, I have nothing but a hotel key card to remember this fabulous trip by. So sad...

Oh, wait, we did get another night free, so I guess we can go back and recreate this trip with pictures. Somebody called the front desk last night saying that there was loud music. The security team wasn't sure which room it was coming from, so instead of listening at the doors, they knocked on them. So, we woke up at 4am to a loud knock and some joker asking us to keep it down. Mike was beyond furious, since we had been asleep for hours and he couldn't get back to sleep after that. So he complained before we left and we got a little phone call tonight from the GM apologizing and he said he would be sending us a little something. Sweet! Not only did we get a great deal in the first place, we got another free night. Totally worth the 4am wake up call (at least for me, I went right back to sleep). Maybe in February when we need a break from the winter and the house work we will go use it. Anybody want to join us?