Quite the Week!

This girl and her high chair are quite the battle! I tried strapping her in so she wouldn't kick the tray off and try to jump out and this is what happened...not a happy camper ! lol

New favorite game: Pull all the books off the shelf as soon as mommy gets them on there! And I love it!

 Ready for church on Sunday! I love this little girl! She was so tired (we had two hours of choir) that she actually napped! Like, for more than an hour! At church. It was a Christmas miracle!

 Scott's sister is moving to Mexico in just a couple weeks, so we have spent LOTS of time over there. I hate it because it just makes me miss them more when they leave. But I love watching Addy play with her cousins. I had to pry her out of Daniel's arms to leave the other day!

 Ellie either sits like this or in a "w" I do not understand that girl!

 Wearing Uncle Ron's hat :)

 These two naughties dumped out my laundry! And not just any, but my whites! I mean, really! And then I scolded Addy and told her to go build with block and I turned around and they were all on the floor again! I'm not sure Addy even helped! lol

 Daddy tied her up in her blanket :)

Ellie is standing up to EVERYTHING. She thinks she's the best. And so do we.

One of Ellie's new tricks is clicking her tongue. If she hears any kind of clicking noise anywhere in the room she will stop and start clicking away! And she's really good at it! It's so fun! I love her enthusiasm. And yes, I left her standing up to the trash can. She was just so happy there :)

 Another day in the snow :) I love how happy this girl is outside, hot or cold, rain, or snow! Here she is jumping and landing on her bum (a "bum jump") because the snow is so soft!

One night this week we also had a pretty killer pillow fight with Addy after Ellie had gone down. This girl can just go and go and go. She has no end of energy. And she's so fun!

 We were blessed to have our friends come and visit us! Tamina and Addy played together so happily :) Here they are eating cheese and crackers and eating their suckers they earned going potty :) Love those two!

Winter Fun

We got snow! Addy was so excited that we were out the door to play in it at 9 AM! lol. Ellie was also pretty excited and loved playing with the bushes while snow fell off. It was great fun :)

 When Daddy got home from work, Addy wanted to go out with him, so he taught her how to make snow angels. It was so sweet! Love my little angel :)

 We have also been decorating sugar cookies this month! Each Monday for FHE we have done a new holiday shape. The girls have really liked it. Ellie had her first cookie and it was adorable. She was also VERY giggly that night!

 I thought this was pretty dang good for barely 2 years old! She kept telling me she was "painting my cookie green!"

 After Ellie ate her cookie, a bath was definitely necessary! This girl loves her baths! And her faces are the funniest!

 Scary eyebrows!

 Daddy was working a late night rehearsal, and I decided to brave the ward Christmas party by myself. I was glad I did. I love our ward. Here Ellie is all dressed up and ready to go!

 Here is Addy painting her star cookie. :)

Addy's new favorite thing to do is "hold baby jesus." She carries around the baby Jesus' from my nativity sets. She is always so careful and tender with them and often tells me, "I'm snuggling Jesus mom!" or "I love baby Jesus mom!" So I let her keep on carrying them around. I love her love for the Savior. It's so sweet and pure and innocent. She says He's her best friend, and I have no doubt. Tonight, she read him bedtime stories and tucked him into his "manger in his swaddle clothes." It was precious :)

A Cold Day at the Park

Ok, I have been a major slacker since my computer broke! But tonight, while Scott works graduation, I am going to sit down and make some entries with pictures! I have really missed editing pictures! 

Adelaide is so fun. Since she has been potty trained, about two months or so since we started, she has insisted on not wearing clothes. Because she struggles taking jeans off to go potty. So most of the time she runs around in undies. Well not lately! Now she has taken to her princess skirts. But still no shirts. Which for me is great. I hate laundry. She's such a cheeseball!

 We attempted a trip to the park. Well, we made it, but after 20 minutes we were all frozen! It was really cold! Even for Rexburg in November. Anyway, this school by us has an amazing play ground. Addy will absolutely love it in the summer when school is out! And it's really close to us so I won't have to drive all the way into town! I'm excited!

My kids are awesome. Every parent thinks that and every parent is right. Watching kids discover new things is my favorite thing to do. Everything is an adventure to them. It makes me realize how much I take for granted!

Death of an IMac = Death of a Blogger

Long time, no writing! For the longest time I was so good at blogging. I really started to enjoy it while my brother was on his mission because he was allowed to look at family blogs. It was how he met my kids and watched them grow. It was how he could (if he dared) continue to hear the craziness that is his sister. I also count it as journaling because typing is so much faster and, while I have a paper journal, much easier to tackle with two little ones. I love having a place with pictures attached to words and memories.

About 6 months ago, my computer started doing funny things (I don't know who decided to use "funny" in this context...it's not). Anyway, it started overheating and freezing and then it would act like it didn't have a hard drive when I tried to start it back up. But then the next day it would be totally fine. Until I did anything that used a lot of power. Watching a movie, editing pictures, you know, anything I do on there. And then a few weeks ago, it just died. Awesome. And my blogging dropped off the face of the earth as well. This post is going to be boring because I can't find my USB card reader so I can't download pictures :( But there have been some great things going on that I want to share :)

First off, I am pregnant! Again! And this time our babies will be 14 months apart. I, like the rest of you, often wonder what the heck I'm doing. This pregnancy has gone by so quickly. Partly because I wasn't as sick as I was with my first two (well, nauseous anyway, the headaches are a million times worse). Partly because I am scared to death for this pregnancy to end, landing me with three children under 3. Addy will still have 4.5 months before she turns 3. Leaving the house has become a full production with two children who all the sudden have opinions. Ellie doesn't like her coat. Addy doesn't want to go potty before we go. And can't decide which one toy to bring with her this time. And moves like a snail. I've never seen anyone take so long to put on a coat or walk from her room to the door. I mean, seriously. And add a newborn to that. And the winter weather makes it worse because Addy is scared of ice (one too many falls, I suppose) so she won't walk without me, so I have to take several trips to the car and the walks are muddy and wet so I have to take my shoes on and off a million times...anyway, I'm scared to have 3 kids! Growing up with 12 I thought I could handle it all. After all, I did so much to help my mom. Well now I'm finding out just how "helpful" I was. So I dressed one kid and took one to the car. Sheesh, that only left mom with what? 10? Cake. I've come to a new conclusion about my mother. She's nuts. I mean that in the best way possible. I really do. But it takes a special kind of crazy to have that many kids. I mean, just being pregnant 12 times. I'm telling you right now I'll be lucky to make it to 8. I'm an admitted wimp.

Second, Addy is becoming funnier and funnier every day as she starts making more and more connections between stories we read or watch and real life. Like the other day I put her dress up clothes on her and she spun around and said, "It's a dream come true! Just like Cinderelley!" And when Grandma Carter sent home some huckleberry honey after Thanksgiving and she was so excited to have "honey, like Pooh!"

Third, Ellie is growing up way too fast. She is a little talker and has learned that a high pitched scream does nicely to get attention. She loves to sit in her high chair without the tray so she can lean forward and stand up on the foot support. She's not a happy camper when I put the tray on or try to strap her in. So dinner is a daily stunt. She loves her daddy. Irrationally. She has 8 teeth, and judging by her sleep the last few nights, more are a'comin! Tonight she was up with me from 8-9:30 just snuggling and sucking her thumb. She's getting to be quite the snuggler, which is amazing, since she hasn't been before now and Addy NEVER was. I love it. She gets to stay up extra when she snuggles, and I think she's catching on. She's also very opinionated. She WILL NOT sleep in her crib. Only the pack and play. I'm not talking she has a mild preference. I'm talking neighbors probably want to call CPS as soon as I walk into the room with the crib with her blanket in hand. I'm not even joking. It's the weirdest thing. I've never met such an opinionated baby.

Fourth, work has been busy. Since it's the Christmas season, I feel like I never see my audio engineer. Concerts every weekend with late night rehearsals and all that jazz. No really, tonight he's doing a jazz show :) (Just laugh, I think I'm funny). It makes me appreciate all he does when he's home. If he's home, I never bathe the girls, or feed Ellie a bottle. I rarely change a poopy diaper (if Addy poops her panties though, that's all mine). I never help Addy with her prayers. These are all things that he does. I don't even ask him too. And it's so nice. I appreciate it. It makes me realize how dependent on him I am. Which is very.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick catch up. If you didn't know me, this wouldn't seem quick, but if you've ever called or stopped by to talk, you would know that this is very summed up and I could go on all night. For real :) It's like when Tigger bounces Piglet and Piglet says, "You scared me!" and Tigger says, "That was just one of my little bounces" to which Piglet replies, "Oh, well then thank you." So yes, thank me. This was one of my small updates :) Goodnight all!

Christmas at the Carter's

I love the holiday season :) And I firmly believe that one month is not enough time to have the tree up and the lights and the window clings. Ooooooh, I just loooooovvvvveeee window clings! So here, we decorate early :) And Addy was so excited this year, which was really fun. She is totally enthralled by the Christmas tree and the "christmas balls," which I am constantly finding in random places. It's so fun! So, the first week of November, we decorated our tree. I'm late posting this because my iMac died :( And my laptop battery was dead. So we bought another battery for the laptop and here I am! I have to say though, I do miss the 24 inch screen to edit pictures on. I guess we'll start planning to find another one at surplus someday lol. Anyway, here are the pictures I took. 

As an aside, Addy was 13 months old last time we decorated our tree. And I would post a picture, but my iMac is dead (don't worry, I had my pics backed up), so my pictures are harder to get to. Anyway, Addy was wearing the same outfit last year as Ellie wore this year. And Ellie was only barely 8 months old! She is SO TALL.

Pretending to be the tree haha. She is starting to get such a fun imagination!

Somebody was excited!

Her camera smile kills me!

I love this baby girl more than I can say! Her smile is so cute with her 4 teeth all on the left side of her mouth! lol.

It was so cute, she wanted to put more balls on top so she asked me for her ladder. Yes, "her" ladder. Nothing in my house belongs to me anymore! :)

I know this picture has nothing to do with setting up the tree, but can you believe that girl's smile?! Oh my word she is so perfect. Every day I am thankful to be her mom. Even days like today when she talks and plays in her room instead of napping and then gets up early and gets mad when I tell her I actually have to clean something...

Have a great week everyone!