(Click Images To See Them Larger)Well well well, it has been quite some time, hasn't it? Wow, has it really been since JULY of last year I wrote in here?? -- and if that wasn't bad enough, I left it on such a downer post of my locking my child in the car during the Arizona summer heat. Nice. haha! Time for some updating!
I have been thinking on how to update everyone on the happenings of our family since last July and there really is no easy way of doing it. So, I am just going to write a little summary of each month, to the best of my knowledge.
This will be a long post - but I am excited to start my posts fresh after this one! :)July 2011:It was a HOT hot first summer in Arizona. Don was spending it in Beijing, China while Carter and I braved the bathwater warm pools and air conditioned play area of the mall. I think one of the most challenging things for me was grocery shopping. Carter and I made it a habit to go when the sun went down, once a week - but here in Arizona it does not cool down past 101F at night. I had trouble taking my colds from the grocery store, putting them in my car, and getting home and into the house before meat was thawed and cheese melted in the bag. There must be a science to this that seasoned AZ people have learned to keep everything nice -- maybe an iced cooler waiting in the car for the colds? Hmmmm
-Carter and I took a trip to Tennessee to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith and play with cousins, as well as celebrate Alli's 2nd b-day. We also drove up to Las Vegas to visit family and cousins.
(one pic is a huge dust storm that rolled into town! Very neat)
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August 2011: Don finally returned from his China and South Korea travels -- after a little over 6 weeks from being gone. It was a happy reunion in the airport, Carter was so excited to see him - I was too, of course ;) We spent the rest of the month relaxing, hearing stories and nursing Don's broken wrist back to health. He broke it in China while playing basketball and it was helpful to get back to the states and have a specialist look at it. He had broke the ulna bone and tore some cartilage - fun stuff. Still very hot in AZ....
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September 2011:Don's next semester at Thunderbird did not start till later in the month - so we flew out to Tennessee again to visit family. My mother, sister (who was 5+ months pregnant), family friend Cathy, and I all ran the Tennessee Warrior Dash 5K in Manchester, TN. It was awesome, and a ton of fun doing it with family. We dressed and went as fairies (mainly because that is all we could find cheap in the costume area of Wal-mart)
We visited the Phoenix zoo a few times, and just enjoyed Daddy a lot till the grueling routine of Grad school started again.
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October 2011: We drove out to Utah for a friends wedding and visited family while there. The drive was long (14+hrs) but Carter did awesome, and really enjoy playing with his cousins and feeding the bunnies they were taking care of. Halloween came and we went to a party as a creepy nerd guy (don), Cat (me) and Kung Fu master (Carter - outfit Don brought home from China). For actual trick-or-treating it was blazing hot out, so we improvised. I spiked Carters hair, put on his swim trunks, left off his shirt, and wrote "Surfs Up" on his face, and "Dude" on his chest. So he went as a surfer, and it was real cute. :) ....oh, and we had talked about getting pregnant and adding the last member to our family soon, and poof it happened. Preggo Ashley!
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November 2011:More school, more heat, more Popsicles. That's about our November. Oh, and Carter celebrated his 2nd birthday on the 18th! We took him to Chucky Cheese to play the games (which he LOVED...he still talks about Skeeball) and then we went to Chili's afterward for dinner, and free birthday chocolate lava cake. We attended a friends wedding in Mesa, AZ - and had a fun visit from Don's brother Kevin (who attends school in CA). Kevin had Thanksgiving with us, and we played mini golf and enjoyed the Phoenix zoo again. (Carter was excited to feed the Giraffes this time)....oh, and morning sick me! Blah. ...... we did not tell anyone we were pregnant yet though.
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December 2011:Ugly sweater party (truly hideous!), Christmas cookie decorating, Mesa LDS Temple lights, Las Vegas trip (Grandma Smith was visiting- so we drove up) Carter loved playing with his cousins on both sides (Don's brother Michael lives in Henderson) and walking through all the big hotels. The Bass Pro shop was pretty fun too. We had friends over for Christmas dinner and Carter had a super sweet Christmas morning before church. It is amazing what an extra year to his age will do for his Christmas excitement. Too cute! We braved our skills, and saved $ by setting up our tripod and taking our own end of the year family photos. Some turned out quite nice and we are happy to have those memories saved. We were also happy for Don to have ended another semester of school. Just a year left to go!.......still sick with pregnancy, but trying to hide it - no one knows yet.
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January 2012:Lots of family came to visit! Which was a blast, but a lot of faking from me because I was always feeling sick - we still had not told our families yet of the pregnancy. Don really wanted to wait till we found out the gender and do a fun surprise. Don's brother and family from Henderson, NV came to visit for the weekend at the beginning of the month. It was a quick stay, but we had fun squeezing in the zoo again (we had year passes). Don went on a boyscout camp out in Flagstaff, AZ - where they had an "Iditarod" competition. The following week my mother flew in, from her visit with my sister in Idaho. My sister, Brittany had just had her second baby. John was born on January 1st, and was the first baby born of the new year in Idaho Falls, ID! He was early, but healthy. Mom stayed at our place and spoiled Carter for a few days -- then the following week Don's mother came out with family friend Monique. They stayed for a week and we had a great time! A lot of walks, and exploring of Arizona. Busy family month!
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February 2012:Carter has always been gifted athletically and had really taken an interest (for some reason or another) in golf a few months back. We bought him a little set for Christmas and he pleads to go practice everyday. He is quite good too! If he keeps the interest up, we will invest in a more expensive and sturdier child's golf set....and if he still likes it in a few years, we'll do lessons. :)
Don continued to work hard in his new semester of Grad school, even though he was taking one of the hardest and most time consuming classes (called FORAD). I had an OB appointment right before Valentines day and my doctor asked if I wanted to find out the gender right then. Of course Don was not there, and we had the ultrasound scheduled for a few more weeks, but I said yes. Though, I told him not to tell me, and to print off the little pic, write on the back what it was and seal it in an envelope. HeHe....I did not tell Don, and Carter and I surprised him with it for Valentines Day. We all three sat on the couch and opened the envelope together. ... MENINO it said (my OB looked up the word in Portuguese, since he knew Don only spoke that to Carter) ...so, you guessed it. BOY! :) ....We waited till 19+ weeks and finally had our gender finding ultrasound and it was confirmed of indeed another boy. :) Carter will really love having a younger brother. I thought for sure it was going to be a girl though, because everything about this pregnancy has been different than Carters. Oh well, maybe that means he's a darker skinned, Burnett hair boy...hehe.....Oh and Cater is now Potty trained!! Yay!! (he still wears a diaper for naps/bed - have not mastered the subconscious yet..) :-D
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March 2012:
The weather is getting hotter already. We have been spending our time at the park, playing with Daddy whenever he has a chance to get away from school, feeding the horses and sheep down the street carrots, and playing golf and other sports. We went to a pro baseball game (spring training) - the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. White Sox and Carter about died! He was so excited when we walked in. We had seats right behind the batter, so perfect viewing area. The catcher saw Carter during a period when they were changing team positions and came up to him and gave him the baseball they were playing with! Wow, Carter was beside himself. The ball has yet to leave his general view (and sleeps on the stand next to him at night). Happy Happy boy!
