Thanksgiving in Utah

Is it bad that by the time Isaac is in bed for the evening I am done. Don't want to do anything but lay in bed and watch tv or read blogs kind of done. Especially lately with the 3 molars I see coming in and the sicky cold.

So you can imagine a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving was just the break this girl needed. It was so nice to have Jacob around all the time and also for all my other family members who helped keep track of my busy, busy boy. Sadly I don't have many pictures to show for it. I guess I was too busy having fun to pull the camera out.

Isaac sure loved his cousins. He would have played with them all day and was always a little sad when I would pull him away for a nap or bedtime. He would give Hannah hugs and LOVED her toys (sorry again for all the shared germs).

That's the only picture I have of actual Thanksgiving day. Ridiculous! But the cousin love is a keeper for sure.

Isaac also loved playing with Emily, Lauren, and Megan. He loved running around with Lauren and Megan and especially loved the stairs in Grandma's house. he did really well at going up and down. We have tried to teach him a little bit but mostly the stairs are gated off at our house, but he picked it right up at Grandma's. Probably because all the bigger kids were there. Watching Isaac with Emily was so funny. For some reason Emily was not a huge Isaac fan. He would walk near her, not even to her, and she would whimper and cry. She learned is name quickly and any time he was bothering her she'd give a little push or walk away saying "Ishaacs, Ishaacs" over and over again. Adorable!

Matt and Josh were great helpers with Isaac. Josh even helped babysit Saturday morning so Jacob and I could go to the Temple together. Thanks again for that!

And this was the most exciting thing we did, apparently, because I did get loads of pictures of it. Josh had an assignment for school to try and break the world record for the tallest smore. The only requirements were that it had to have all three ingredients showing. I think it was a success!

In usual Carter fashion, the majority of the holiday break was spent playing games and enjoying delicious food. I'm certain I gained at least 5 pounds. We also celebrated Mom's birthday with the traditional turkey enchiladas and family fun. I somehow managed to convince my mom she needed to get a pedicure on me for her birthday. So Diana, Mom and I went to the nail shop and Mom got her very first pedicure, minus nail polish because she hates it. I hope she enjoyed the experience and will pamper herself occasionally in the future.

Isaac traveled beautifully. I couldn't have asked for better. He had one really rough night and the rest he only woke briefly and would go back to sleep if I rocked him. There was one bad mommy moment when I was so sound asleep I couldn't hear him crying in the next room. Karen had to bring him in to me. It did take him some time to calm down after that. Shame on me... But considering the teething and sickness I think he slept pretty well. Now if he could just get back on a good routine since being home we'd be golden.

Isaac also had two sort of big milestones recently.

1. He is now napping only once a day. It just sort of happened a couple days before Utah so I kept it rolling thinking it would be easier to just worry about one nap while traveling than the usual two. And it was. And he slept for a good 2-3 hours most days. He's not napping as well since being home but I'm chalking it up to the worsening of the cold. Poor baby. His throat sounds bad and his cough sounds worse than his throat. I suppose if he isn't improving by Friday I'll take him in to the doctor to make sure it's not strep or an ear infection... Anyway, the one nap, I thought I would really miss having two breaks in the day but as it turns out I really enjoy only worrying about one nap. (I'll enjoy it more when it lengthens again). It has also been a lot easier to run errands since I don't have to try and be home both morning and afternoon. We'll see how I feel about it in a couple weeks though. I do think it will make Christmas easier with all the family in town.

2. Isaac got his first haircut in Utah. I was nervous about doing it without some instruction so my Mom helped out. Jacob has pictures on his camera so maybe I'll post those when I can find it. When we got home I was brave enough to take off a little more up front and trimmed the back curls so he looks less mulletish. Though I didn't want to take too much off because his curly hair back there is so stinking cute.

And that about sums up the trip. I should have taken more pictures. Especially with MaryAnn's kids. Those Dillard girls are so cute and getting so big! They grow so fast. :)

Turkey Shirt

There's been some crafting going on around here. Not a lot. And certainly not many finished projects.

But, this little number turned out pretty stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself.

I found some turkey clip art online and then cut out the turkey body, feathers and beak. I then ironed them on to the shirt with some fusible web and rough edge appliqued then on my sewing machine. After that I added some eyes and legs with embroidery floss.

I like it. So much so that I think Isaac will be wearing as often as it is clean the rest of November.

Trick Or Treat

For Halloween this year we went to Sarah and Kevin's and had dinner. We made chili and Sarah made corn bread. She also made some fantastic caramel corn. Yum!!

Sadly, Isaac was in a bit of a fussy mood for some reason. He wouldn't eat his dinner and then cried while we went to three or four houses for trick or treating. But, at least he looked cute doing it. He did start to cheer up towards the end and even seemed to understand the concept of knocking on the door and then getting candy. I think by next year he'll be a pro. Maxwell was also pretty adorable in his pumpkin costume.

We grew pumpkins in our garden this year. They are supposed to be the smaller, sweeter variety. I hope that is the case. I still need to chop them up and cook 'em. I think I may even try and roast up the seeds. I usually don't think that is worth the effort but it sounds really good to me right now. We'll see what happens.

But, I didn't want to go to the effort of carving pumpkins so we used sharpies instead. Isaac even drew a little on his pumpkin.

Someday I'll Miss This

I know some day I won't have little ones running around my house. And everyone tells me I will miss it.

Isaac will often run (more like Frankenstein toddle) over to my legs and wrap his arms around them in a hug with his little head nestled between my calves. He especially likes to do this while I'm in the kitchen cooking. He usually does this when he is happy and excited but sometimes he also does it when he is sad or cranky and wants to be held.

I love it. Even when it's not necessarily convenient and if he's whiny.

And I already know I'm going to miss that feeling of little arms at my legs.

Leaves Are Falling

Remember that awesome snow storm the day before Isaac's birthday? It looked a little something like this:

Well...the next day our tree looked like this:

Now instead of snow we have about 4 inches of leaves piled on our lawn. It's awesome. Except for the part where we have to rake and pick up those leaves. Usually we get some nice wind that blows a significant portion of our tree's leaves elsewhere. I don't think we have ever had to manage all the leaves before. And certainly not all at once.

That's going to be one awesome leaf-jumping pile!

Anyone want to come play/help?