Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandpa and Grandma Carter's home with all of Mark's Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. We had a great time visiting, eating, playing games, eating, and did I mention EATING! We sure came away stuffed! We also got to sign our names on the Famous Table cloth. I now have my name on there twice and both Vanessa and Owen have celebrated their first Thanksgiving at G. Grandpa and G. Grandma Carter's home.

I love Thanksgiving, especially all of the good food. This year, I decided to try a home made recipe for Cranberry Sauce. It turned out really good. I don't think I will ever buy the canned Cranberry sauce again!

Vanessa had a lot of fun playing with the kids and all of Granny Great's stuff! She loves going to visit them. Before the great feast, we toasted to the wonderful year. Vanessa loves toasting. She took her glass and held it up and said, "Cheers!" She then proceed to try and toast all the kids at the table.

This year we have so much to be grateful for. To begin, I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and our two beautiful children! The birth of our son, Owen, has been the highlight of this year. He is such a happy and healthy baby and we could not have asked for more! Also, the blessing of a job. I am very happy that we at least have an income to support us. I can't forget my great family! I love all of them so much. Mom, Dad, Lorenzo, Lori, Marc, Cody, Reagan, Maria, and Great Grandma Rowley! I can't forget my great in-laws, Mom, Dad, Michelle, Jeff, Aliyah, Amanda, Kimberly, Arianne, Laura, Great Grandpa and Grandma Carter and Sorensen! I can't even begin to describe how much I love all of these great people that are apart of my life! They make it so wonderful!

A Home for Christmas

I am excited to report that we finally found a town home for a great price! We will be moving to our new home on December 11. It is a very nice and big four bedroom town home with a garage. This will be a first place with a garage! We are very excited. It is in a community that has a swimming pool, hot tub, basketball court, two playgrounds, and an exercise room.

We feel really blessed that we have been able to spend these last five months with Mark's family. It has really helped us in so many ways. We are looking forward to have a place that we can call home and to be in it just in time for Christmas!

This Little Piggy...

We finally did it. We all got vaccinated for the H1N1 Flu. I have been meaning to go and get it earlier in order to protect Owen and Vanessa from getting the flu but the lines have been horrendous. So last week, Davis County was handing out vouchers to the public. I decided to go and stand in line. When I got there, I was surprised to see that there was no line. I was able to get the whole family tickets within minutes! I was so excited!

So today, we went and stood in line to get our shots. Vanessa did so well! She didn't even cry! She just looked down and said, "I got a band aid too." We are so proud of her. It feels nice to now be protected from that horrible flu.

New Moon!

Saturday was an eventful day. We had are friends over, put down a deposit for our new apartment and ended the day by going to see the "New Moon" movie! Laura and I were really excited to go and see it. We were able to go and see it with our other friends, the Porter's.

I really liked the movie and Mark seemed to like it as well. It was much better than the first movie. It was really fun to go out with Mark. I needed the date night.

Before this movie, I was definitely for Team Edward, but after I found myself leaning more towards Team Jacob. I guess I just felt bad that he didn't get the girl.

Weekend Fun With Friends

On Friday, our friends, Josh, RoShawn, and their little girl, Anellina came down to stay the night with us. We had a lot of fun having them visit. We fixed them a nice meal of Creamy Chicken Fajitas and they brought the dessert, a delicious chocolate moose pie. After dinner we sat down and just talked for quite some time. It was so good to see them. We miss living in Logan and being able to see them. They were so nice and gave us some Christmas presents. We decided to celebrate Christmas a little early and opened the presents. Mark and I got an awesome gift...The Twilight Scene It DVD game and Vanessa got some really cute Disney Princess Domino's. They are so thoughtful!

We decided to try out our trivia knowledge of Twilight and played the game. Josh and Mark did surprisingly well. Josh actually won the game. I came in last. Not because I didn't know anything. I just kept rolling low numbers and getting cards that told me to move back 2 spaces!

The next morning, we woke up and ate some waffles and then Josh and Mark pulled out the Wii and played some Starky and Hutch while RoShawn and I talked about digital scrapbooking and other things. The girls had so much fun playing together. Vanessa loves when Anellina comes to play. They played kitchen and loved to jump on the bed. We got some really cute pictures of the two of them playing.


Vanessa found our camera again and was able to get some candid pictures of Daddy, Josh, RoShawn and Anellina. I am so impressed with her skills. I am thinking this might be a talent of hers!

We really are so thankful that we have such wonderful friends. We love spending time with them and really hope that we are lucky enough to live close to them in the future.

27 Months

Our little girl never stops growing! Yesterday she turned 27 months old and I can't believe she is getting that old. She has changed so much since her birth. She has such a fun and lively personality. She definitely keeps us on our toes! She is getting smarter each and everyday!

Here are 27 fun facts about our cute little Vanessa

• She won't say "Hi" to strangers but she will say "Goodbye."
• She likes to play dress up and wear her princess shoes.
• She loves to put make-up on herself and others.
• She likes to play "Jump Jim Crow."
• She is becoming a very good story teller. Her favorite story is the "Cheese Story" and she likes to describe things and use her hands to help tell stories.
  
• She is developing a love for taking pictures on our digital camera. She is quite good at it too!
• She has an obsession with a certain hand-held game (Nintendo DS...We can't say the name of it or she goes crazy and wants to play with it).
• She is now potty trained. What a great accomplishment!
• She is such a good big sister. She loves to give Owen hugs and kisses and tells him, "I love baby brother."
• She is starting to learn how to skip. It is so darn cute.
  
• She is becoming a good little nurse. She likes to help her Aunt Kimberly feel better.
• She loves, loves milk. If we give her a choice between milk or water, she always choose milk.
• She still say milk with kinda of a lisp. Actually anything that ends in "K."
  
• She still enjoys running around naked. I will sometimes find her completely nude playing with her toys.
  
• Some of our favorite phrases that she says are "Need Go Potty!, Tomorrow, Good Morning Sleepyhead, Darn it, Oh Man, Oh My Goodness, Monte, Monte, Sote,
• She had developed a friendship with the neighbor boy, Bennie. She loves to play with him.
• She likes to lay on the ground and stretch like a banana. She is quite flexible.
• Her favorite song it "Hey Soul Sister" by Train. She knows all most all of the words and will sing along when she hears it.
• She loves to listen and dance to music
• She has also had developed a thing for band-aids. If she has the tinniest Ouchy then she will demand a band-aid.
• She had just started to develop stranger anxiety. So Nursery is not fun for her anymore. She wants to be by mom or dad.
• Her favorite movies to watch are "The Little Mermaid, Monsters Inc, Cars, and Bug's Life."
• Her still enjoys watching "Baby Signing Time." And she still uses the signs she learned when she talks.
• Her vocabulary is very large. She know lots and lots of words.
• She is very perceptive. She knows when we go to Walmart and she even knows the symbol of Walmart.
• She enjoys talking on the phone and typing on the computer keyboard.

We definitely enjoy having Vanessa in our family. We love her so much and are looking forward to experiencing life with her.

Count Your Blessings...

On Friday night we received a call from the Sanpete Police saying that Kimberly was involved in a roll over on I-15. Kimberly had dropped Arianne off in Payson and was returning to Snow College when a driver decided to drive on the wrong side of the freeway. He was about to hit Kimberly head on but she swerved and over corrected the car which made her roll 6 times. She was taken to the Nephi Hospital where she has been since Friday. She has suffered a concussion, bruised lung and is very sore. She is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow.

We feel very grateful that she wasn't injured worse than she was. It was a terrible accident and we feel that she had some guardian angels watching over her. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for watching over her and protecting her. We love Kimberly so much and are praying that she makes a full and speedy recovery!

Owen's First Hair Cut

This post is a little out of order but I had to put it in. On Sunday, November 8th, Owen got his first hair cut. I have been debating on cutting it for some time but with pictures the next day I finally did it. He had such long hair on top of his head. It is different having a boy. With Vanessa I just let it grow out but with Owen I can't.

He did really good. I just used a hair trimmer comb to do it and daddy holding him. He held still and everything. He is such a good little guy. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

After

4 Months on Friday the 13th!

Today, Owen is officially four months old and it happens to be Friday the 13th! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. He is growing up so quickly and becoming such an adorable little boy! He has such a fun and cute personality. He is starting to talk back to us by making sounds like "Hiiiii, AHHHH, OOHHH."

He loves to smile at everyone he sees. He has become quite ticklish and we can get him to laugh when ever he is tickled. He also likes to look at and follow people. He is a very active little boy. He has figured out how to roll over and he does it every time he is laid on the ground. He even rolls over when asleep. I can't see to keep him on his back. He also has figured out how to grab and play with his toys. They mostly go in his mouth. This is such a fun stage to be at, I especially enjoy how chubby he is getting. He is so darn cute!

Owen also had his four month check up today. He now officially weighs 16 lbs even and is 24 1/2 inches long. He is in the 75th % for his weight and the 30% of height. The doctor said that he is quite advanced for his age. I guess he wants to catch up to his big sister Vanessa! The sad part about the visit is that he had to get his shots. He didn't like them at all. As soon as the nurse poked him he started screaming. I don't blame him. I don't like shots either. Overall, we have a happy, healthy, growing little boy! What a great blessing!

Kids' Photo Shoot

Today, I took the kids to get their pictures done. I luckily had my sweet mother-in-law come with me to help. It was a good thing that she came because Vanessa was sure a handful. We struggled to get her to let go of me. She refused to get her picture taken. Lately she has become very scared of strangers. We had the lady take Owen's first to see if we could get Vanessa to warm up.

We were able to get some great shots of Owen. He is such a cute little boy! We had a lot of fun getting him to smile for the camera.

We were finally able to get some good shot of Vanessa. I absolutely love the ones in her too-too. She looked so darn cute in it. I am sure glad that those were able to turn out ok. It sure was tiring trying to get her to be happy.

At least we were able to get a few good ones of the kids! That was all that I was asking for!

Hogle Zoo

On Saturday we took the family to the Hogle Zoo. It was such a beautiful fall day. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun seeing all of the animals.

Our favorite animals that we saw would have to be the baby elephant, giraffe, and tiger cubs! They were so darn cute! Vanessa really liked seeing the baby elephant and giraffe. She likes to tell people that she went to the zoo and saw the baby elephant sleeping.

We really enjoy being able to go on these fun family outings. We make such wonderful memories and it really helps our family grow closer together.

This last weekend we were able to go and spend Friday and part of Saturday with Mark's grandparents in Salt Lake. We sure had a lot of fun playing card games and visiting with them.

Vanessa loved playing Lego's with Great Grandpa Carter. She just thought that was the best thing! She also had so much fun playing with their little kitchen set. She would come up to us and take us by the hand and say, "Let's go play kitchen." She has got such a great imagination! I love playing anything with her!


Owen helping Great Grandma play O'NO 99


Trying to figure out how to win!



I love Owen, Yes I do!



Vanessa playing Lego's with Great Grandpa. They were building all kinds of boats!

Naptime!

So lately it has been a real battle trying to get Vanessa to take her much needed nap. She will not stay in her bed and we even have tried gating the door so she can't get out. Some days it works but yesterday it sure did not. She would not lay down and go to sleep so finally I took her out and just let her stay awake.

Around 5:00, she was sitting on the ottoman and asking for a drink of water. I was nursing Owen at the time so she had to wait. As she was waiting, she laid down and within seconds was sound asleep. This is how I found her.