Our Kids...

Okay. This incident literally had Scott rolling, crying, and I swear he peed his pants a little. He seriously laughed so hard, and requested that I record the story. So here we go :)

Yesterday (Sunday) morning, everything went as it usually does. Kids were up bright and early. We ate some breakfast, and the kids played quietly while I showered, got ready, and packed the diaper bag. Scott was busily finishing preparing a lesson. Several time throughout the morning, Addy and Ellie told me that they heard a weird noise and that they were scared. I was trying to tell them that sometimes things just make noises. The ice machine dumps ice cubes out, the garage door opens and closes, the dishwasher clicks over to a new part of the cycle, etc. They kept telling me they had heard a sound that was like "Give me my glove!" and "I want to find my sister." I didn't think much of it. I just assumed they were make believing.

But then it started getting a little weird...After church, Addy kept talking about these noises. She was telling me where she was sitting when she heard each one, and it was a lot of places. Like, she would say "Mom I was over there by that chair and you weren't in here and I heard 'I want to find my sister.' And then I was in my room and I heard 'Give me my glove!' again!" Scott tried explaining all the noises our house makes again and we just tried to brush it off, but honestly guys, I was weirded out. I'm really not a superstitious or wary person, but I was starting to think there had to be something to this. Addy and Ellie were agreeing on their points, and they had definitely heard these two sayings multiple times, and all of them were when Scott and I were absent from the room. I'm not saying I thought my house was haunted, but I was wondering what the heck was going on. I mean, the two didn't even seem related.

A few minutes later, Addy says "Hey mom, did you know this Elsa stuffed animal you bought at DI has a button?! I didn't know that! I bet she talks!" I hadn't realized this, and had washed it in the washing machine...so I told Addy I didn't think it would work anymore. Then she pushed it and it did work! Scott said, "Wow! Let me see what she says!" and held the doll to his ear and pressed the button. Then we heard "Give me my glove!" and "I want to find my sister!" LOL

Scott didn't stop laughing for an hour. The girls were so irritated that he thought it was so funny! This whole time, Addy had been carrying around this doll and inadvertently pressing the button, causing her to say the phrases she had heard, but none of us knew the doll could talk! Seriously. Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious...and quite a relief!

I Freaking Love ATS Inland NW

I cannot think of a more honest title for this post. Scott has been working his new job for a month and a half now. There are so many thoughts running through my mind. I guess I should start by saying that I worried a little when we took this job. We were switching from a job that Scott had thought he'd work his entire life to a completely new career path. We knew our insurance payments would double and our coverage would be cut in half. We knew it would be a new routine (waking up earlier, etc). We decided to take the leap of faith and make a few sacrifices and make the switch. But I worried that a little ways in we would wonder if it was the right choice. I worried that Scott would miss BYU-Idaho. I worried that the company wouldn't be as amazing or family oriented as they said. Anybody who knows me understands that I can be a worrier. So, you know, I worried.

But oh my gosh, guys. This month has been one of the best of our married lives. Scott gets done at 4:00 in Idaho Falls most days. And sometimes earlier. He usually gets off a little early on Fridays. He doesn't work weekends. Ever. He worked "late" this week but was still home by bedtime. He works with some amazing men who already have encouraged him to be better and have shown him more respect and courtesy than anyone in his old job. This is a little heartbreaking for me, but my family feels infinitely more welcome at this job than at BYU-Idaho. I feel like it should be different, but it wasn't.

The other day, while Scott's parents were in town (more on that later) his coworker left a job site on time instead of late, saying that he would finish up the job remotely so that Scott could get home to his wife. I was blown away.

Scott is home for bedtime every night. My kids have been the best behaved they ever have in this past month. Maybe it's because I'm happy and carefree. But I think a huge part of it is that we have a routine. We read scriptures as a family every single night. We play a game or watch a show or do a craft together each night. We pray and sing and say goodnight. With dad. And I know that Dad is going to be home at 5. Instead of 10 or 11 or midnight...so I feel like I can expend energy all day because I'll have backup come dinnertime, whereas before, I knew that I was gonna be going solo so I had to pace myself. I know that sounds silly but it's true.

Scott is super enjoying work. Even though he's having to learn a lot at a quick pace, he's eating it up. His boss gives him something to do and leaves him to do it. No micromanaging. No babysitting. And guess what? Scott's rocking it. I mean, I know I'm biased, but he's rocking it.

I feel welcome at his new office. I feel like I can show up to hang up pictures at his desk or drop him off jeans after his get a hole or stop by for a quick lunch date and everyone says "hi" to me and smiles at our kids.

Scott's old boss said something a few years ago that I have pondered on a lot. When Scott suggested maybe doing a potluck where they invited the wives during the holiday season to say "thanks for your support during this crappy-houred season," his boss shot it down pretty quick with "It's not my job to make your wife happy." He's absolutely right. It's certainly not his job to make me happy. It's his job to make sure productions run smoothly and his crew works together well. Frankly, I think the latter could be much better accomplished, but I digress. It's not his job to make me happy. It's not his job to feed me or arrange holiday parties for a date night. It's not his job to worry about my kids that are sick or to be courteous in his demands on Scott's free time, which was lacking anyway. It's not his job at all. But it's just not that hard. How hard is it to say, "Hey instead of just having a lunchtime potluck each Christmas season where our wives make all the food and then we eat it, let's just let them come to work for an hour." (They're still making all the food...). It's not that hard to say, "hey, we don't need to be at this stake conference 3 hours early. It's a podium mic. Why don't you just come an hour early?" It's not that hard to say, "Hey, congrats on your new baby. Enjoy those vacation days with your family." It's not that hard to say, "Hey, are your kids feeling better?" It's not hard to acknowledge that Scott has a life outside of work. It's just worth it to treat your employees well. They work harder. They're more motivated. I'm already seeing that with our new job.

Scott had the amazing opportunity to mix the Christmas concert at BYU-Idaho. It was a sold out show in a 15,000 seat venue. It was incredible, and definitely something that we were grateful to be a part of. But let me tell you, nothing confirmed our decision like an 80 hour work week with late nights and early mornings. I am SO grateful for this choice we have made to take a new path.

And to the guys at ATS, you are awesome. I don't know if any of them will ever read this, but thank you. Thank you for making me feel like a part of the team. Thank you for allowing Scott to do things that cause him to learn without babysitting or looking over his shoulder. Thank you for asking about us. Thank you for razzing Scott about caffeine after I joked that he can't have any lol. Someone has to hold him accountable! :) Thank you for effectively scheduling and communicating. Thank you for everything. I'm pretty sure this is gonna be the best thing we ever did.

Shiloh and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, very bad day

Today was seriously great. Until about 5:30. This week, Scott has the amazing opportunity to mix the BYU-Idaho Christmas show. 12,000+ seats sold (a record) and amazing artists and talent. But guys. We've only been with ATS for a month and I've already forgotten how much I detest 16 hour days. So today when Scott left after a brief dinner between his two jobs, I tried to just power through. I can make it. It's just a week. So I loaded up the kids and headed to Walmart. The kids were excited because they got to get a free cookie and buy a different brand of diapers that has a different design (it's the little things).

And it was all downhill from there.

Walmart was out. Of everything. The face wash I am out of, the sponges I buy, the hair gel Scott uses, the size of dry erase board I needed. Everything. But you know, they did have chocolate milk at a grand total of $1.78 per gallon so that helped. :) Anyways, I'm pushing a bus of a cart (you know, the ones with the blue seats attached to the cart so I almost have a seat for each kid?), running around like crazy trying not to run into things or be irritated that nothing is in stock.

And then I look down and there's gum in Addy's hair. I ignore it. It's not going to do any good to get upset or frustrated. Just apply peanut butter, shampoo, rinse, repeat. No biggie. I can handle this.

A 2 person line takes half hour to get through. And none of the others were moving faster. Kids were great for the first 10 minutes. Then Grace decided she had to pee and didn't want to sit in her seat and Ethan decided the box of payday candy bars looked awesome but would look even better all over the floor, and I had a moment of panic and complete confusion when my card was denied 3 times and then I realized it was a new card and I had forgotten I changed my pin (seriously I was like thinking someone stole Scott's wallet and drained my account! I didn't know what to think!).

Go see my awesome cousin Haley and pick up some stuff she brought me from my momma. I like her :) But upon loading said items into my car I jammed my thumb. Like, I-can-barely-type-this-I-am-probably-being-a-baby-but-it-hurts-so-freaking-bad jammed it.

Stopped by campus before rehearsal started to talk to Scott for 2 seconds and couldn't get ahold of him because his phone was dying and it's so loud in there he can't hear it.

Forgot Grace had to pee so she ran into the house and peed all over the floor in the bathroom while trying to get her undies off (seriously, even I can't help laughing at that).

Ethan dumped his bottle of milk all over the floor while I assumed he was drinking it as I was peanut buttering my 5-year-old's hair, debating whether or not it was time for the scissors.

Wrestled 4 kids into bed later than I wanted to put them down.

Looked at my kitchen that was clean a few hours ago and now looks like I run a home for troubled teenaged boys (or have 4 kids, take your pick).

Opened the door to my fridge to grab a cold diet doctor pepper and take a chill pill and the door rail thing came crashing down with several bottles of salsa, most of which made it okay, one of which did not survive. And I was out of chill pills. (For the record, that's just a euphemism. I don't take any meds lol).

Forgot about the DP and sat on the couch. And I haven't moved. I had such grand plans of having the house perfectly clean when Scott got home. And I still have 2 hours so it's probably not impossible. But seriously, my day was AMAZING until 5:30 rolled around and it always just amazes me how fast things can fall apart with 4 kids under 4 and mom brain.

I'm just gonna go clean my kitchen while I put Chicken Little's "today is a new day" chant on repeat. Or maybe Pentatonix "Hallelujah." Yeah. It's gonna be that. Peace out. Tomorrow is a new day.

How is My Baby ONE??

I'm almost 2 weeks late writing this post. It's been one that has been hard for me to write! I know that sounds so silly. But I am seriously just not ready for this boy to be 1. I've cried about it more than is necessary or sane. It's been a year, guys! I'm not sure why this is so hard for me! Ethan has been a special baby. I always feel like maybe my girls are going to be jealous of him or think that I love him more. I don't. But I definitely have loved his baby-hood the most. I think I just appreciate it more as I watch how fast my other kids have grown! He's my slowest to do everything. He's been my baby the longest! He loved me more than dad longer than my girls. And he's a boy. And maybe it's because he had a scary start. I don't know. But seriously, there is just something different about our relationship. Maybe I shouldn't admit that! 

But seriously you guys. Look at his little face. I can (and do) spend an hour just looking at him. He gets "ignored" so much during the day. I have 3 other kids who demand attention and want to play and interact and he's just so self entertained and easy-going that it's easy to spend an hour without even interacting with him as he plays right by us while we do school or whatever. One of my favorite times of day is after the girls are down when we have 20 minutes with this boy just playing and giggling and getting ready for bed. He's so patient and sweet and smart. We all are totally just taken with him. I don't know how to express my emotions adequately so I'll quit rambling :)

He's so stinking cute! I love this tough and rugged face he makes. He's so somber some days!

I did a little walk down memory lane and looked at some pictures of the day Ethan was born. It bought back SO many emotions. I smiled and bawled like a baby and then bawled to my friend when she came over as I was writing this! lol. That day was so miserable. Like. Seriously. I mean, I realize that I was in labor, so it couldn't be comfy, right? But it was AW. FUL. I was begging for ibuprofen for my headache and they wouldn't give it to me. And Tylenol is just a super diluted version of a placebo! And then the whole, you know, cardiac arrest and NICU stay and all of that. My emotions were absolutely insane. Joy and love and awe at this perfect little body that I just made and then horror and fear and panic when I thought maybe it wasn't perfect and maybe I wasn't going to take my baby home. I don't know why, but I didn't share this picture when I wrote his birth story. I think one reason is that I really just detest when people post pictures on facebook of half their chest and somehow because there's a new baby on it, that's okay. And even though I was "dressed (hospital robes are such a joke lol) I felt like this one mimicked those too much. Or maybe it was just because it was so special. The first time I held that boy was just so amazing. But here it is now. I want it to be part of our family journal. That swollen little face and fuzzy little head make me want another baby almost enough to be pregnant. (Which I am not, I feel inclined to reiterate). 

This is definitely a favorite. You'd think by kid #4 we'd be over the whole "amazed at how much we can love another one" thing but I'm not. Look at Scott's face. I melt.

One of the best parts of Ethan's first year has been watching my girls with him. They cherish him almost as much as we do!

We all joked that this would probably be the last picture of the cousins that we took where Ethan was the smallest. lol. And I think he has Jamie beat now...

Ethan's birthday was so fun! We just enjoyed him and some of the things he likes to do. And he got sang to a million times and squished and squeezed and kissed millions more.

The girls decorated their own cupcakes :)

I made Ethan's cupcake in a big muffin tin. I wanted his to be special :) It was like a little mini cake smash, which was perfect because it was a much smaller clean up!

We had hot dogs for dinner. This boy ate 2. So gross. But he loves them.

His favorite present was this shape sorter. This picture makes it look like he does it. He doesn't. He just take the lid off and uses it as a hammer on everything but it makes him so happy!

He was quite funny with the wrapping paper. He took forever to get started because he felt like he was going to get in trouble!

Video overload :) Enjoy.

Once he finally dug in, he really liked his cupcake :)

This picture makes me laugh so hard! I wanted a kiss and he's taking after my dad: "Don't bother me, I'm eating!"

He was pretty sad when it was all gone! And he hardly made a mess. He's a pretty clean little boy. There wasn't even any in his seat!

Ethan is learning to walk! He can take a few steps at a time and has learned to stand up without holding onto something. He has learned to go down stairs and dismount couches and beds and such. He says "yeah!" when you ask him if he wants something and LOVES to make his sisters laugh. He'll stand up then fall down and then look around to make sure they saw him and they giggle and he does it over and over and over. He sings when he wakes up in the morning. His favorite toy is a little piano with a little seat. He sits and plays a song then hits the auto button and stands up and leads it with his little arms. He's pretty obedient. We have had our tree up for a week and he hasn't destroyed it yet! He has 8 teeth and has 2 molars and 2 others just taking their own sweet time coming in. He hardly grew the last 3 months except that he's looking less like a baby and more like a little boy. Gone are the round face and the chubby legs. He's awesome. And he's ours.

Happy Birthday Beefy baby!

Stats:
Height 29.5 inches (only .5 inches up from 9 months)

Weight 21 lbs 5 oz (only up .5 pounds from 9 months)

Head 18.75 inches (only up .25 from 9 months)

And just for fun, since this post is filled with videos already :)

Halloween 2016!!! (That rhymes!)

We had the super lucky opportunity to spend Halloween in Utah with Shauna and her family!!! We loved every minute. I was there from Wednesday-Monday and Scott joined us Friday after work for the weekend. It was amazing to see my balancing force (outside of Scott) and spend some girl time doing girl things and kid time doing kid things. We had so many awesome adventures and I didn't take many picture because we were too busy having those adventures! 

Wednesday the kids and I arrived after an uneventful drive. And when I say uneventful I mean that nobody cried and nobody died. But holy crap Utah driving. I hate it. Hate it. Seriously you guys. Hate. It. We had some fun bombarding JJ and Shauna with our love and stories and non-stop chatter. Then we headed to Costco, blessed place! I always stock up on the essentials when I'm with Shauna. You know. Goldfish, fruit snacks, formula (for the last time in a long while!), cheese sticks (yes, I buy them in a different state...the things I do to save money *eye roll*). I love that store. So much. And it was a very pleasant trip because I made Shauna drive my van through Utah traffic. She's become one of them...

Thursday we ventured to the library to get some fun fall books to enjoy while we were there. And we happened to show up in time for a little story time and then some fun little games. They had several cute ideas and the kids loved it. Ellie built this skeleton all by herself :) She doesn't look thrilled, but I promise she loved it. Then we made some fun snacks. We're all about the food.

The boys loved playing together! It was so fun to watch them! They played this game the first couple days where they'd just crawl straight at each other until Ethan chickened out and turned around and then they'd just giggle away. I loved watching them! Oh, the adventures they're sure to have!

Shauna was amazing. That pregnant lady entertained my kids for hours that week. She was so patient and fun and energetic. And also skinny. At 32 weeks prego. I want to be her when I grow up.

Friday we painted nails. I don't know if you can see but we've got a jack-o-lantern, witch hat, frankenstein stitch, midnight stars, and a ghost.

Grace was seriously so exhausted every time it was time for bed or nap. We wore her out good! My girls all slept in the same room all week. At our house Addy and Ellie shared and Grace had her room and Ethan was still in my room (in his own bed, but still). I had been debating for a while what to do about it because I wanted my room back but I was scared to buddy Grace up with anyone. But they did so great at Shauna's house that the day we got back I put Grace's bed in the girls' room and Ethan in Grace's old room. It's been fantastic.

Saturday we went to this family fun place there by Shauna. It was AMAZING. We were there from 1-6 and we didn't even do everything! And Shauna scored us an amazing groupon so we had full access for cheap! The straw maze was probably my favorite part because we actually got lost in there! lol. Ellie still brags about the fact that Addy was lost but she and Uncle Wesley found the way out. :)

I mean seriously. How do I not just kiss this boy all day. Oh wait...I do.

The girls got to experience their first carnival rides. They were thrilled :)

Inside there was an arcade that we had tokens for from our groupon. Addy and Ellie did this one where the seat basically just vibrates you??? I don't get it. But their faces were hilariously terrified as they refused to get off...

These two kept us super busy! They like to go get 'em!

I was super excited to have my hubby back. And it was even better because we got him Friday night...when we planned this trip we planned on Saturday afternoon or Sunday because there were events Friday and Saturday night at BYU-I. Well...let's just say I was not sad at all that he didn't have those obligations and had the weekend work free...

Also worth noting is the fact that our alternator went out while Shauna was driving (I don't blame anyone...) and Scott was pretty boss and replaced it. In the middle of the night. With flashlights and a really crappy set of wrenches from Walmart. I'm so grateful he's so handy. Saved us a crap ton of money and time there so that we could still enjoy our adventures we'd planned.

Sunday we chilled and ate good roast and potatoes and dirt pudding and rested up. I also got to see some old friends from our married student ward days! It was so fun!

Monday was an amazing Halloween. I sure love my three little pigs. The big bad wolf ran away for this one but the girls' faces were so cute I posted it anyway :)

This wolf. I love him. Though he's not very big or bad...

Excuse my weird faces. I should have cropped them out but it's 2:30 in the morning and I can't care right now. I'd implode.

Got me some JJ snuggles. He loves me. I mean, I'm just saying. We facetime almost daily so I've totally earned it. And I totally milked it. I took so many snuggles from that boy!

Ward trunk or treat! The girls loved it and it was the easiest trick or treating ever!

Shauna was appalled that I wasn't planning on dressing up so she added me to her family. I somehow don't have a picture saved of them but Wes and JJ were players and Shauna was a basketball (we painted one on the belly of her shirt) and I got to wear Wesley's clothes and be a fan girl. I love my little bull! (I almost put "cub" and that would have been an embarrassingly accurate portrayal of my sports knowledge).

Seriously we had so much fun. My kids really did so well and I loved being with Shauna. Seriously we're the best of friends. We get each other. We wear each other's clothes. We laugh at each other's jokes. We eat food. We gang up on Wesley for control of the remote. We coddle each other's kids. We do each other's dirty work so we don't have to do our own. We tell secrets and reminisce. We complete each other as only we can. And I miss her every day. Even though we talk for at least 30 minutes every day...

Happy late Halloween from the Carters!