It's a...

*Girl!*

I had posted on Facebook that we were having a girl last month. Today I went in for another appointment and my doctor says that the baby is still looking like a girl! I have had a hard time calling the baby "she" or "our baby girl" because I just don't know if I can believe it. Having boys was so easy for me.. I am the only girl in my family and have mostly taken care of little boys my whole life. Having a girl is going to be a huge change for me. I am really excited though and have already had fun looking at (and ok, buying some) baby girl things.

As for the most important part of the appointment... My doctor said that everything is looking good. I am 20 weeks today and the baby was measuring 19 weeks and 5 days. My doctor wasn't concerned about that at all but I still can't help but wonder is it because of her cord? Is she not getting quite enough nourishment and that is why she is measuring a few days smaller? Carter always measured about a week ahead when I was pregnant with him so having a baby that measures just a little bit smaller worries me. Heck, everything worries me. At this point my doctor is not doing anything different as far as my treatment, but he said that I can come in whenever I want for a non-stress test (to hear the baby's heartbeat). That is good to know, but what about nights and weekends?! Can you tell the anxiety is killing me?! I sure hope my sanity can last these next 20 weeks. I just want this baby to get here so badly!

November

I surprised Mark and Carter one night and took them to Disney on Ice! Mark said it was his favorite date EVER! ;)  We got front row tickets, which are technically the 2nd row since floor seats are on the front, but we still couldn't complain. Carter loved it until the end he got a little bored. When I was little my brothers, mom, and I all won tickets on different occasions from the big coloring contest they used to have in the Standard Examiner. So, it was fun to go again because I hadn't been since then.

 This is Carter playing on the night of Utah's big "blizzard" which ended up being nothing more than a regular snowstorm. I had the candles and flashlights ready to go but the power never even flickered.

 Carter loved building towers, mainly to knock them over! 

He could hardly contain himself long enough for me to take this picture.

He also loved putting "decorations" on the tree. 

He really would get so excited and was happy being a little helper. It was so cute.

Thanksgiving...

I guess I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving.. We had a nice relaxing day at home and then went over to my parent's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. They always have everything set up so nice. After dinner we hung out and I prepared for Black Friday shopping. It actually started THAT NIGHT! My parents watched Carter and Mark actually went to (although we were only together for part of it). It is really fun but then the next day I think, "Really? Is it worth it?" But I know that next year I will be going again!

So cute! and I'm not "Lion!"

Carter was a lion for Halloween this year. The cool thing about his costume is that my brothers Colby and Drew both wore it 21 and 18 years ago.. It has survived well. I was worried he wouldn't wear it but one night we made a big deal about how cool he was in it and we had no problems getting him to wear it after that. In fact, he would ask to wear it! We had a great Halloween except for the dang rain!! Carter loved trick or treating and still asks to go "trick or treating."

 I really love this one.

This was at my parent's Ward Halloween Carnival.. He is showing me his Lion.  He loved playing All of the games. But really, what else is new? He LOVES playing games!

 

We went trick or treating in Riverdale City with cousins one day..

Carter loved this hat! He was so willing to get a picture in front of the tractor too!

 Our front porch and all our pumpkins

 I was a pregnant skeleton (How does that work?)

 

It took Carter a second to get used to his scary dad.

 These people go ALL OUT for Halloween and Carter just loved their house and pointed to everything!

 At the Ward Trunk or Treat

 Hanging out with his buddy Ethan.

We took some pumpkins up for Bridger too. 

We lit them, and once we got down to the road you could still see them shining. It was really neat. It was like Bridger was saying, "Thanks! I love them!"

Leaves and Bulbs

We had a pretty warm fall this year. It seemed like it was never going to cool down. It was kind of nice though. Well, I bought some flower bulbs to plant in our yard (for my first time) and just kept procrastinating planting them. One day it looked like it was finally going to start cooling down and turn into fall and winter. I decided I better plant my bulbs! It was quite cold. The coldest day we had had so far in fact. I bundled Carter up and went out to plant. I gave Carter a bucket and told him to collect leaves. It kept him busy for a long time! He eventually came and helped me by putting the bulb in the hole once I had dug it. It is a good thing he was such a good helper because it started to snow and I was tired of doing yard work in the cold!

I thought he looked so cute in his Mickey hat... 

Carving Pumpkins

We got together at our house and carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. We were in charge of the drink so we made some homemade rootbeer! Carter loved watching the fog go everywhere. He also loved carving his pumpkin. He was kind of frustrated that he couldn't do it ALL by himself!

So busy..

Everyone doing their "thing."

Our little family

Black Island Farms

We have tried to make going to Black Island Farms a tradition with the Johnsons and the Rodartes. But boy is it hard to match up schedules! Tim had to work and Mark had to leave early but we were mostly all there. The kids loved it like usual. Carter wouldn't give the kiddie corral area any attention because all he was interested in was getting over to the BIG slides. After they did all the stuff in the courtyard we went on a hayride and we picked pumpkins right out of the patch. I hadn't done that since elementary school. It was pretty cold by then so I was happy when we got back! We love having such great friends and are sad we don't get to spend as much time with the Johnsons but that is just the way life goes..

Renee and Bailee joined us this year!

Isn't this picture awesome?

Which one should I pick? (We were the last ones back on the wagon)

Umm... Fondue

We had a fondue dinner for our Young Womens in Excellence this year. I was low-key and really nice. The girls seemed to really enjoy it and so did us leaders! We have great young women in our ward and I have loved being one of their leaders! I also love all of the other leaders. They are such great examples and hard workers. 

Cookies and Dancing

One night we decorated Halloween Cookies and the kids did their traditional dancing afterwards. Carter loved decorating but not eating the cookies, which was fine with me because he would have been on the biggest sugar high! All of the kids are pretty funny to watch dance.  Drew (our 8 year old nephew) is pretty sure he is a professional hip hop dancer (although I think his style looks more like riverdance). I bet he will laugh pretty hard at that when he sees a video of himself someday... 

 

Cornbellys

For our 5 year anniversary Mark planned a night for us to stay in a nice hotel in Salt Lake. They had an outdoor pool that stays warm enough for year round swimming and they had a yummy continental breakfast in the morning. We went to eat at Joe's Crabshack that night then the next day we went to Cabela's and Cornbelly's. I had never heard about Cornbelly's before but I saw it in a local magazine and it looked fun. It is at Thanksgiving Pointe and it was a lot of fun. Carter loved it and did not slow down for a second! The hardest thing was trying to transition him from activity to activity because he loved them all!

Jumping pillows!

He loved all of the slides. Surprise! Surprise!

He also LOVED the duck races. He could have stayed there all day.

He was totally fine going in this scary monster but once we got in it half way he was ready to get out.

That is one big corn ball.

The cutest punkin is the middle one!

Carter couldn't take a picture of me and Mark so a picture of me and Carter had to do.

Having fun in the corn box.

I told Carter to poke his head out so I could get a picture of him and that is just what he did!

This was at Thanksgiving Pointe before going to Cornbellys.
It sprayed out water when you pulled certain levers. Carter loved it!

Look at that face!