The Holdaway Adventures

Family Pictures 2011

2012-01-10T21:03:00.003-07:00

Thanks to my friend Kelly for taking our family pictures this year! She did an awesome job even though it was quite difficult to get Little Blaine to cooperate. We ended up with a few that we all actually look pretty good in.

Blaine Karter 21 months old

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our Family and Friends!

Note to self: Certain picture poses are not cute when you are pregnant and should never be attempted when your body is a weird shape and has extra stuff everywhere. Just saying. No worries....I spared you all and didn't share those ones with you.

Mr. Snack Man

2012-01-10T20:59:00.003-07:00

It wasn't too many days after I kept finding Blaine snacking in the cupboard that we finally got child-proof locks installed on the doors. He'd been able to open the doors for a long time but was only concerned with what he could reach from the floor which was the bottom two shelves. He then learned to push a chair over so that he could get to his fruit snacks and pretzels.
"Peesh?" "Snacks" How do you tell him no?

Fall Leaves

2012-01-10T20:51:00.002-07:00

We spent an afternoon in November raking leaves at my mom's house. There were so many leaves and being pregnant I got out of a lot of work. Luckily we had a four-wheeler and Tiffany to help or we would have been there for days.

Blaine loved playing in the leaves but not as much as he loved sitting on the four-wheeler and playing with Nick, Justin's dog.

Aren't we cute? Blaine wouldn't look at me when I first put the beanie on. He made me take it off and then he saw that it was still me under there and decided that it was okay for me to put it back on again.

He sat on this thing forever! He loves four-wheelers or "motorcycles" as he calls them.

Good old Nick just lets Blaine do whatever he wants to him. You'd never know by the way he is with Blaine that he's a pretty mean dog when it comes to treeing cats, racoons, and mountain lions. He is such a teddy bear with Blaine and Blaine loves him.

Timeout

2012-01-10T20:13:00.002-07:00

I really began to wonder how effective timeout was or if we were using it too often when Blaine started putting all of his toys in "timeup". It was pretty cute though and definitely picture worthy. He hasn't done it much lately but there for a while he put his toys in timeout quite often.

Halloween Time

2012-01-10T20:02:00.004-07:00

For Halloween this year we were all prepared with a cute frog costume that my mom had purchased on clearance last year. However, when I tried in on Blaine in September is was too tight and there was no way he would fit in it by the end of October. So I purchased this dog costume (Blaine's choice). He loved it! He loved to play with it and carry it around with him and sleep with it. But when it came time to put it on him, he hated it! It only lasted a couple minutes and then it was off. So plan C was to find yet another costume.

Puppies are to play with and not to wear apparently.
Luckily we were given a cute little skeleton costume. He didn't mind it much at all (after we got it all on). I think he liked it better because it wasn't big and bulky like the frog and dog were.

So we ended up with a darling little skeleton.

Blaine's new best friend at church---"A Becky"

Blaine with all of his treats from trunk-or-treat. At first he just wanted to eat every piece as they handed it to him but pretty soon he got it and loved picking a treat from everyone's buckets. We missed having dad at truck-or-treat with us since he didn't get off work until later but it was still fun.

Gardner Village

2012-01-10T19:48:00.005-07:00

It has become tradition for us to visit Gardner Village sometime during the month of October with my mom and sister. This year we ended up going on a very busy day but we still had fun nontheless. Little Blaine loved the witches and we loved looking at all of the cute knick-knacks that we could never afford. Someday I will go with a couple hundred dollars to just blow and have fun with....someday.

I couldn't have caught a more precious picture of Grandma with Blaine.
Blaine loves his Aunt Tiffy.

We couldn't get Blaine to look at the camera becuase of all of the cars and trucks going by. He is such a boy!

Playing and Playing

2012-01-10T19:40:00.003-07:00

Daddy Blaine would spend quite a bit of time playing outside with Little Blaine every chance he could. The last couple of times that they enjoyed warm weather they both really loved blowing bubbles and popping them.
First time Blaine wore his new coat from grandma. He looked so big I couldn't believe it!

In October we got to go to lunch with my friend Mandi and her little boy Kale. We had a good time and then Mandi had to spoil Blaine and let him ride the rides at the mall (something that I will never do). He loved it and kicked and screamed when it was time to go.

Blaine in the train and Kale in the space ship.

Blaine loved the bus the best!

"A Punkin" Boy

2012-01-10T19:31:00.004-07:00

So here I am in January trying to catch up my blog once again. This time I have a pretty good excuse being that my computer has been on the fritz since mid November and we still haven't really figured it out. But hopefully it will cooperate with me as I try to catch up before our new little angel joins our family any day now.

October 2011

Telling you that Blaine loved his "punkins" would be an understatement! He couldn't wait for us to let him go outside everyday so that he could see them, stand on them, sit on them, and admire them. We were pretty proud of them as well since all four of them were grown in our very first garden.

Mr. Dress-Up

2011-10-10T14:36:00.003-06:00

Over Conference weekend Blaine got into one of my drawers and found some of my clothes and wanted to wear them. So I put them on him and he thought it was super funny to run around the house in mama's shirts.
He was twirling and twirling hence the blurry picture.

Ready to get it off and for mom to stop taking pictures.

This one was my favorite because it looked like a little dress on him. And yes, by the smile on Dad's face he did approve of this dress-up playtime. Super funny.

Home Grown

2011-10-10T14:30:00.003-06:00

Our garden produced a ton of produce for us this year and it was super fun. I wish i would have taken more pictures of some of the stuff but here are our four pumpkins.

We ended up getting three of them from one of the plants and the other one from a different plant. It's kind of funny that they all turned out to be relatively the same size.
One of our tomato plants was called a Jetsetter and it produced some huge tomatoes the size of Blaine's fist.

Hogle Zoo

2011-10-10T13:55:00.006-06:00

We have wanted to take Little Blaine to the zoo all summer long but I wanted to wait until the days were cooler so we didn't have to die in the heat and could enjoy ourselves much better. It worker out well that Blaine had to work up there one Saturday morning so we met him up there in the afternoon. It was a cloudy day which was awesome and the animals were more active than I have ever seen them so that was super fun as well.

Here little Blaine is playing at the little playground before we headed home.
He loved the tunnel and the slide below. Too bad I didn't catch him at the bottom and he ended up face planting it right into the bark. Ouch. Oops.

Blaine and Little Blaine with the "elepents".

He is at the perfect age for the zoo because he knows what a lot of the animals are and he could see what we were pointing at. It was really fun.

Playing peek-a-boo around the elephant sign with daddy.

The alligator was so big.

The tigers were super active. Running from side to side in their cage. Swimming in the water. It was so fun to see them do something besides sleep.

Daddy and Blaine looking at the first tiger.

Taking a break for a little pear snack.

The monkeys were all over the place. It was crazy to see them eating and playing like they were.

Right as we got to the giraffe house they were opening up their garages for lunch time so we got to watch them walk in to their food and start eating away.

There were three of them eating at that time.

Blaine acted like he really wanted to ride this merry-go-round but after our experience at the carnival we decided that watching from the sides was enough action for him =)

We did let him ride the train though. He could hardly wait in line for it he was so excited.

Teasing Daddy while waiting for the train. I couldn't have caught this picture at a better time.

Daddy and Blaine on the train. He could have rode that train all day long if we would have let him. He loves trains because of the Dinosaur Train cartoon on PBS that we watch every morning.

It was such a fun visit at the zoo. I highly recommend going to the zoo in late September on a cloudy day around 2:00. The weather is perfect and that's feeding time for all of the animals.

It's a Girl!

2011-10-10T13:45:00.002-06:00

We are so so excited to be having a girl!!! We were super surprised because we both wanted and girl and for that reason alone thought we would never get one. Plus the doctor had given us a 75 percent chance that it was boy during the 12 week ultrasound and so we thought for sure it was a boy. When the doctor told us it was a girl I almost didn't believe him.
I had young women's that night so I had Blaine write on a shirt for me to wear to the activity. He did an awesome job writing it.
We're going to name her Ella after my dad's grandma. We're not sure on a middle name yet. It's funny cause Little Blaine thinks that he has a "ella" in his belly too now. Funny what kids think.

Onion Days Carnival

2011-10-10T13:21:00.004-06:00

We (me, my mom, and Tiffany) we very excited for Onion Days this year because we would get to take Little Blaine on the carnival rides for his very first time. We skipped the parade and started the day with Lunch at my Aunt Doni's house. Then we headed to the carnival. When we got Blaine in the stroller and started pushing him towards all the fun, as soon as he saw all the people and the rides and heard the screaming he got really excited and started laughing and clapping his hands. It was the cutest thing.

We started with a ride on the merry-go-round. He was super excited and saying "horsey, horsey" and jumped up and down in Blaine's arms as they got on the ride. He found Grandma and Tiffany and pointed at them from his chosen horse.
It was super exciting. He was loving it.....He kept looking all around waiting for it to go......and then it started moving. It was a disaster after that. It was the fastest merry-go-round I had seen and the movement up and down and round and round scared the life right out of Blaine.

He started screaming and crying and bailed into his Daddy's arms. If you look close at the picture below Blaine is holding on to Daddy for dear life!! Daddy was loving it because Blaine never ever hugs us like that. But it was still sad that he was so scared.

Next we decided to try something a little more low key. No up and down. Still round and round but much slower. Less people. And this one was trucks!! Couldn't go wrong here. We loaded him in and he was a bit apprehensive after just having rode the evil horsey but he did awesome.

When it came time to get off we ended up walking right back on because we basically had to peel him out of the first truck while he kicked and screamed because he didn't want it to end. Luckily there wasn't a line and we got right back on.

After it was over, we peeled him away from the car again. Same story---crying and bawling because he didn't want to get off. But we took him to the train and he was excited for this one.

We got to the train right as it started with other kids in it so we had to wait for our turn and that was very difficult to ask a 1 yr old to wait to ride for 5 minutes. Almost torture really. But our turn came and he was in heaven.

I love Blaine's thumbs up in this picture. So funny. This ride was much more suitable for him. Slow. No up and down. Awesome. We didn't even try to get him out of this one when it was over because he started crying just because it stopped so we just handed the guy our last tickets and he let him stay in his seat.

Overall the day was well worth the $12 in tickets that we bought. I wish that he would have had someone he knew to ride with him but hey in a couple of years he'll be showing Ella the ropes.

Summer 2011

2011-10-10T12:43:00.005-06:00

Since I have totally dropped the ball concerning blogging this summer I have decided to post a few of the pictures from our summer adventures in one big post. Skip the stories and just look at the pictures if you get bored. Despite being pregnant and feeling sick all of the time we did do some fun things for Little Blaine's sake mostly! So here goes....

If we go to Aunt Tiffany's house it is a given that we will be riding her 4-wheeler. Blaine's word for 4-wheeler is the same as motorcycle which I can't even begin to spell out his saying of the word. But he LOVES it!! Kicking and crying occurs everytime it's time to go home. He's all boy for sure!
Pushing buttons and touching everything is a must. Being held on by the driver is not going to happen.

We played in the water almost everyday this summer. Blaine loves the water and who wouldn't with the heat that we fianlly encountered after a very long spring. We never made it to a swimming pool due to the fact that I don't own a swimsuit and did not want to buy one in a half-pregnant state. But hoses, sprinklers, buckets, and Grandma's make-shift pool were all that Blaine needed to have hours and hours of fun.

At first he would not walk on the grass barefoot. I guess he takes after his mama because when I was a little girl I would walk like a stink bug on the lawn and did not want to touch it much at all. He got over it after a few times but it was funny to watch.

There's only one other thing that a little boy needs to be satisfied during the summer and that's dirt/sand. Since our whole backyard was growing grass for a few months we got him the famous turtle sandbox and he loved it! We played in it everyday as well.

I love the way he's sucking on his bottom lip in the picture below. The sand box was his own little world. Luckily Blaine has a really fun dad that isn't afraid to get down and dirty and play with the kids. They had some really good times playing outside this summer.

When we couldn't play outside cause mama wasn't feeling good Blaine would find other things to get into. He is a climber! Climbs on chairs, tables, the couch, my bed, anything he can!

Because he climbs on everything we ended up putting a gate up to our kitchen so that he would stay off the kitchen table and out of the silverware drawers.

Here Blaine is wearing Daddy's t-shirt and thinking that it was pretty funny.

Kind of hard to get mad at a grin like that! I'm very grateful for the "lock" button on the fridge water/ice dispenser. It didn't take Blaine long to figure out how to push a chair over to the things he wanted to get to. Pushing those buttons even when it is locked is a favorite while mom cooks dinner.

I don't remember what he was getting into in this next picture but his face says I'm guilty all over it. Pretty cute.

Grandpa Scott brought his diesal truck over for Little Blaine to see and "drive". Blaine is in love with trucks. All trucks really. For weeks we had construction going on at the end of our street and Blaine would hear their beeping back-up horns and beep along with them. He loves it!

However, Grandpa's truck was pretty scary for him. Too close, too big I guess. So I had to help him and be the driver with him. We tried pretty hard to get him to see that it was okay and fun. He was almost convinced by the time it was time for Grandpa to leave. Next time I'm sure he'll be in love.

Please don't look at my yucky pregnant self. Just look at the cute little boy. I love the look on his face in the pic below. Super cute lips!

Little Blaine and Granpa Scott

Above is Blaine's first time eating applesauce all by himself. Super messy but he was so proud of himself and he loved it. I ended up filling that little cup up three times before he was finished. Then we took a bath in the sink.

Blaine loves helping me do the chores around the house. His favorite is mopping and vacuuming with his "tacuum". He will help me put the clothes in the dryer and has to sit up on the dryer to watch me put the clothes in the washer. He'll also go and get a diaper for himself when he's wet or poopy and knows how to put his dirty clothes in the hamper "hampen". I'm going to keep teaching him all these helpful things so that when Ella gets here I'll have a good little helper!

Summer Yard Update

2011-10-10T12:26:00.002-06:00

This is what our grass looked like as it was coming in. I should have taken a picture about a month after this when the whole thing was covered in weeds up to my knees! We were getting worried thinking that our backyard was going to be a jungle. Even the lawn side got really long because our lawnmower was in the shop for 3 weeks. Luckily it all turned out awesome.
We LOVED growing a garden! This was about halfway. Again I should have taken an end result picture to show you how huge all of the plants ended up getting.

We had beets, peas (that the birds ate), 3 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of pumpkins, zuchini squash, crockneck squash, banan squash, honeydew, cantaloupe, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, pole beans, green peppers, anaheim peppers, onions, and strawberries.

Little Blaine and Daddy would go out everynight to water the garden. Little Blaine would pick the strawberries and cherry tomatoes and eat them every time. He learned to say pumpkin "punkin" and called almost everything in the garden pumpkins except for the strawberries which are called "shuwahs".

The grass is actually looking pretty good from here. By the end of the summer the lawn looked great right after we mowed it. We are still battling the weeds but by next year we should be good to go. I never want to move to a house without a yard ever again. Putting in one yard was plenty of work for us! We love that we have a big backyard though so that Little Blaine has a place to play and run around.

We've decided that we had WAY too much squash in our garden this year and won't be doing that again especially since we don't like it that much at all. We will definitely plant more cucmbers and another row of beans so that I can bottle them. I also want to do more with the tomatoes to get enough to bottle. We are going to try pumpkins again as well because as you will see in later posts we got 4 really big ones which we're pretty proud of. I'm hoping that next summer will be a little better for me not being pregnant so that I can help in the garden more.

Justin's Graduation

2011-08-18T10:59:00.005-06:00

Justin Fowden

Class of 2011

Payson High School

Justin is on the end on the right.
The graduation ceremony was held at UVU. Keeping Blaine busy during this was a lot like church. He is so wiggly and it was bedtime but luckily we had Grandpa Scott, Tiffany, and Grandma Teresa to help us keep him entertained.
Grandma's cell phone was a great help!

I'm not sure who is more excited that Justin graduated, Justin or my mom! But he did it and we are very proud of him.

Justin and Dad

Isn't it cool that we all color coordinated? Blaine was so done by the time it was over, hence the happy face in this picture.

Justin and Mom

Justin and Tiffany

The family

Way to go Justin!

Mudd Puddles

2011-08-18T10:42:00.002-06:00

We tried very hard to keep Blaine out of this mudd puddle at the end of Grandma's driveway but then we thought what would it hurt and he was in heaven! I used to play in puddles in the same exact place when I was his age. I love that he is eating a rock in this picture. Yum
It's not nearly as much fun to sit on the side of the puddle and drive the cars through it as it is to sit right in the middle and dip stuff into the water that's for sure.

Mudd splahed all over his face

His cute little fingers

Happy as a clam! Love this little boy!

Chuck-E-Cheese

2011-08-18T09:19:00.004-06:00

Blaine's nephew Aeddin celebrated his 11th birthday in May at Chuck-E-Cheeses. We bought little Blaine $10 worth of tokens and he spent most all of them in this little blue car. He loved it! Even when he wasn't riding in it he was standing right next to it and wanting to get back in.

Blaine and Aeddin playing basketball
We tried other cars for Blaine to ride in but he always went back to the blue one.

Blaine, Gage, and Jason racing each other

Blaine and I playing air hockey. I spent quite a few tokens playing ski ball as well.

Aeddin, the birthday boy, being a giant in the blue car.

Blaine wishing he had more tokens to ride the car again.

We had a good time and Little Blaine definitely loved it there!

Blaine's Best Friend

2011-08-17T11:10:00.003-06:00

So over the next few days I am going to try to catch the blog up on all of our missed summer fun. It's been a long, hot, not-so-busy summer but I haven't felt so good due to being pregnant yet again. Yes, you heard me. We are expecting baby #2 in January. We are excited but it has been very difficult keeping up with a one-year-old and trying to take care of myself and the house as well.

It wasn't long after we moved here to Orem that Little Blaine and I found our new best friends! We met Arycca and her little girl Mckinley at aerobics and we have been attached at the hip ever since. I love Arycca and Blaine loves Mckinley and they love us back. We're both stay-at-home moms so we have time to play together and see each other several times a week.

Mckinley loves me more than her mom sometimes. She is so funny. She asks her mom for Amber and Bane all the time. Every time Blaine sees Mckinley (or their house) he screeches "EEK" (apparently this is her name to him) Super cute!

They love getting into mischeif together!
They play so cute together at least most of the time =)

I have adopted her as my niece and how could I not with that cheesy smile!

Climbing on my bed

We are so glad that we have such good friends here and would be terribly bored without them. They make our days more bearable and give us something to look forward to during the long days while our daddys are at work.

The 3 B's

2011-05-10T13:44:00.001-06:00

Blaine Karter, Blaine C, and Blaine R

My New Car

2011-05-10T13:25:00.000-06:00

Last Monday we were waiting for Blaine to get home from work and since he was getting home late we ate dinner without him and then went out to play outside and work in the yard. When he got home we were busy in the backyard. I was weeding and Blaine was digging in the dirt. Daddy Blaine came out and gave us hugs and played for a minute and then he said "come on, come see this". I had absolutely no idea what he wanted but when he started acting a little strange and excited I started thinking that maybe he had got us a new cat because we have been looking on KSL at different cats. But when we got to the front yard, there sat this new car!! "Who's car is that?" I asked. "It's yours!" "WHAT? Are you serious?" "Yep, is your new car. Do you like it?" "No it isn't!? Is it really mine? Are you serious? Are you lying to me?" "Nope. I have the title right here. Here's the slip from the bank that shows I took out the money for it. It's really yours." By now I'm crying because I'm so excited! I felt like a princess. Nobody has ever bought me something so cool and awesome and amazing before! Everyone always wishes that someone would give them a new car but it doesn't ever happen. Holy crap!!! I was so excited. Blaine was afraid that i wouldn't like it because I hadn't even test-driven a Highlander before but it was very similar to the Pilot and RX300 that we had test driven. Wow!! Awesome!!

Disclaimer: About a month ago we were looking for a new vehicle and had test driven a few different things but hadn't found anything that we really liked or could afford. Plus we wanted to get our lawn done so we had decided that we would wait until July to start looking for a new car again. I had joked with Blaine that he could bring a new car home one day but I was totally just joking and never ever thought in a million years that he would actually do it. What a sweetie he is! He said he did it because he wanted to do something really nice for me and really surprise me. Well that he totally did. Now he teases me that I didn't cry when he proposed to me but I did when he brought home a new car. =)

2003 Toyota Highlander 125K miles

4-Wheelers and Tractors

2011-05-10T13:08:00.001-06:00

Blaine LOVES tractors and 4-wheelers and motorcycles and riding lawnmowers lately.
He just wants to sit on them, touch all the buttons, and if you want to go for a ride he loves that too. But he is completely content to just sit on them.

This is Grandpa Gary's big tractor. Blaine was a little bit scared by this big thing at first and he didn't like it when it was turned on but he loved sitting up on it.
Then Grandpa showed him all the buttons and levers and he was all for it!
Here is Daddy Blaine and Little Blaine on Grandpa's riding lawn mower.
This was the best babysitter ever! We went down to Fairview to do some yardwork and Blaine sat on that lawnmower 90 percent of the time while we were working. He did not want to get down off of it. He figured out that he could climb down and back up again all by himself and he was so proud of himself.
Uncle Justin put Blaine on the 4-wheeler while it was in the back of mom's truck. He could sit on this all day if we would let him. We had borrowed Tiffany's 4-wheeler to have level out our backyard to get ready for grass. We drug a homemade grate behind it and drove around our yard in circles going 2 mph and we let Blaine ride with us. He was in heaven. That was the funnest thing he had ever done. =) We had a little tantrum when it was time to go inside because he did not want to get off.
And this is Grandpa Blaine's 4-wheeler that he had to try out as well.

When we go out in the garage for any reason and he sees Blaine's motorcycle out there, we have to put him up on it for him to try out or endure whining and tantrums. He's so funny about those things. He is 100 percent boy! I don't get how he already knows that he's supposed to like those kinds of things and he's just one-year-old! Boys!

A Visit from Grandpa

2011-05-10T12:58:00.000-06:00

When Grandpa dropped by for a visit the other day we had to try out the new sand toys and the new front loader that we got. Little Blaine was in Heaven!!! He loved playing in the dirt and filling up him bucket. And I'm pretty sure that Grandpa loved playing with the loader too.
Boys were made for dirt!

We taught him how to use the shovels to fill his bucket up. He preferred to stir the dirt with the shovel like it was a spoon or something.

Little Blaine and Grandpa played inthe dirt for about an hour and by the time they were done Blaine was walking around with his eyes half open, walking into things. He did not want to stop playing even though he was so tired.

Pretty soon our dirt will be covered with grass! We are getting hydroseed this coming weekend and we are so excited but we will be taking away the best part of the backyard as far as little Blaine is concerned. I guess we'll have to get him a little turtle sandbox to play in instead.

Boys have to have dirt to play in!

Easter

2011-05-10T12:42:00.001-06:00

For Easter this year we had a picnic and a little egg hunt at Tiffany's house. With the bad wet weather we had to bring the party indoors. Of course right as we were getting all of the food out and ready to go, Tiffany got paged out to an ambulance call. We had hamburgers and yummy salads and then we had a little egg hunt for Blaine. I didn't get any pictures of him picking up eggs because I was helping him and Dad was videoing him. He did really good at putting the eggs in his little bucket though. Super cute.

Afterwards he got hold of Grandma's cup and knew that we probably wouldn't want him to play with it so he went and hid at the end of the hall. But I found him and I had to get a picture. Little Sneaky Bubba!
I don't know what it was about that cup but he LOVES it and there was no taking it away.

Grandma Teresa had a basket full of stuff for him for Easter with a little dump truck, some little sports balls, a farm animal book, and a shirt. He was so excited about the dump truck.

"vrooom" He loved it!

Great-Grandma Clayson also gave him a little Easter bucket with a shovel and rake, some little Disney bouncy balls, and some books. Super cute.

The Easter Bunny came and visited him the next morning. (and I still didn't get any pictures) He brought him a basket with a new summer outfit, a dump truck and a cement truck to play outside with, and a water/sand bucket full of shovels and toys to play in the sand with.

The Easter Bunny brought Dad a new shirt and Mom new yard gloves.

We had a wonderful Easter and we're so grateful for the Savior and for His Sacrifice for us. We are so grateful for the Atonement in our lives so that we can one day live again with our Heavenly Father and be an eternal family.

Books, Books, and More Books

2011-05-10T12:35:00.000-06:00

Blaine graduated from only being allowed to read board books to being able to read regular paperback books as well and he LOVES them! We have a bunch of Dr Seuss books that I bought before he was born and he loves to carry them around the house, sit on the couch and look through them, and show them to us as well.
He has quite a few favorite toys but nothing is better or holds his attention longer than his books.

He even got Aunt Tiffany to read him a book! "Fox in Socks" is Aunt Tiffany's favorite book and so when she saw that he had that one she had to read it to him.

Days Filled with Love and Fun

2011-05-10T08:46:00.000-06:00

It seems like everyday Little Blaine is learning something new and/or doing something cute and fun. We have such a good time together everyday. (we have our moments of stress and fits too)

Grandma T found us this awesome wagon (for free) that Blaine loves to ride around in.
One of Blaine's very most favorite spots to play is in drawers. The oven drawer seems to be the favorite lately. I don't know why I spend money on toys when my cooking utensils, pots, and pans are so much more fun.

When I took this picture of Blaine talking on his "cell phone" I had been making him breakfast when I turned around to see him holding the phone up to his ear saying "dada dada da, dada dada da....(pause).....hi!" He was loving talking to his Dad.

Uncle Justin loves to play with Blaine. Such a cute picture of them!

Working in the Yard

2011-04-16T20:28:00.000-06:00

Little Blaine loves to ride in the wheelbarrow. And when it's time to get out he just cries. I think that Daddy Blaine loves it just as much. Look at this cute face! He's loving it.

My boys out playing!

Mommy took a turn pulling Little Blaine in the little green wagon that Grandma Teresa helped us find for free. We love playing outside and we can't wait for this nice weather to stay.

Playing in the Dirt

2011-04-16T20:17:00.000-06:00

Daddy Blaine has been working on the sprinklers and Little Blaine has been loving the mudd! He was having so much fun that I couldn't be mad, I just went and got the camera.

" Look mom! I'm loving this!"

And then he posed like he was taking a picture at a studio....so funny. I have to be honest, I was really having a hard time with him getting this muddy. I definitely was not made to be the mother of boys. I was feeling a little anxiety knowing how messy that he was getting. But I did really good, I just let him play and I did not run him right into the tub. haha Someday I'll leran to relax and just have fun. Just maybe.

One Mischievious Little Boy

2011-04-16T20:07:00.000-06:00

So Little Blaine's favorite place to play and be is in drawers. Any drawer will work really-full, empty, big, or small he likes them all! I really had no idea that he would crawl into thise one though which is barely his size. I thought it was pretty cute so I got out the camera and took a picture. Then I went back to working on stuff.

When I turned back around he was doing this---

This drawer has knives, the can opener, and kinds of kid-friendly stuff.

Springtime = Park Time

2011-03-28T15:31:00.000-06:00

We cannot wait for warmer weather! There have been a few warm days here and there that have been teasing us to no end. This summer is going to be so fun. Blaine is at the perfect age for parks, playing outside, and roaming around on his own little walking feet.

We took advantage of the warm days this month and made a couple of visits to the park.

I think that Blaine loved the bark the most. Silly boy! Aunt Tiffany and Little Blaine swinging.

Let's slide! Who's having more fun?

More bark!

The slides made him a little bit nervous but he loved them all the same.

Let's go Grandma!

This park in South Santaquin has the cutest toys. Including a grasshopper, bee, and slug to play on and rock back and forth on.

He wasn't scared of the swings this time.

What a silly grandma!

I think that we will be spending lots of time outside this summer in our own backyard and at the park too. Anyone up for a picnic? We'd love to go with some friends to have a playdate!

Our First Home

2011-03-28T14:55:00.000-06:00

We did it! We bought our first home. We decided to take the plunge with the interest rates doing as good as they are. We decided at the beginning of this year to start looking and see what was out there. We looked at a half of a dozen, put offers on several others, and then we found this one. It's such a great starter home.

It's great because we have people rent out our basement so that we don't pay all of our mortgage. I'm grateful that Blaine is pretty handy so that he can help us keep things up.

Our kitchen has tons of cupboards and storage space. The appliances are all brand new and I love having it at the front of the house with such a big window for light and so I can watch outside while I cook and while we eat.

Our livingroom is on the smallish side but it's cozy and we love it. We can't wait to add some color to the walls and get a few more decorations and pictures so that we cna really make it our own.

We want to paint the walls the green color of the blanket that's on the couch and in the rug.

The master bedroom is so roomy! It's my favorite room in the house. The window makes it so bright and I have a large closet with an awesome organizer in the middle for shoes and pants and things.

The extra bedroom is for junk right now.

The bathroom in the hallway where we bath Little Blaine. We love the tall sink and tall toilet.

The back of the house with a covered patio and little shed for the lawn mower.

Our back yard is huge. This picture makes it seem even bigger but it is very large. We have a lot of work ahead of us this spring to get lawn planted but Little Blaine loves to help Dad dig in the dirt and suck on rocks and play in his little car.

We feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful home.

We love it and hope to have you over to visit us!

Blaine's First Birthday

2011-03-28T14:34:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that my baby is 1 year old!

It seems just like yesterday that I had him at the hospital. It's been the funnest year and we wouldn't trade him for the world. He is such an amazing little boy.

Grandma and Granpa Stilson came to celebrate with us. They brought Blaine two new little outfits and the Primary CDs. Grandma Teresa also came and brought Blaine a new church shirt, little trucks to play with, and some new books. Aunt Tiffany gave little Blaine some cute new clothes too. He is so spoiled and loved by so many.

Naturally, he loved the boxes the best! We had to give him his first cake all for himself!

Daddy was a little disgusted with the mess and was not going to let little Blaine touch him!

Our happy family!

At first he wasn't sure what to do with it.

But he really got going and loved it.

Good Job Blaine!

At Blaine's one-year checkup he weighed 22 pounds and 35 inches long. He is in the 39th percentile for weight and 87th percentile for height. He's taking after his daddy. He was so brave when he got his little shots in his arms and held really still while they poked his finger for an iron blood test. Mom almost cried when they gave him the shots but we both toughed it out.

We love you Blaine Karter!!

Some Firsts

2011-03-28T14:26:00.000-06:00

Little Blaine's first sucker! Why do they love the stick so much and hold it upside down? =)

This book was mine when I was Blaine's age.

I can't believe that I caught this picture at the perfect time.

Blaine's favorite toys are books so I knew that he would love these ones too.

Kissing the flower!

January 2011

2011-03-28T08:32:00.000-06:00

So I wasn't going to keep up my blog because I was so far behind and didn't feel like I had the time and nobody reads this anyways, but after talking to a few friends I decided that I should do something to have as a keepsake for Little Blaine and my mini journal.

So here's the past few months in a nutshell.

It seems like all of the pictures that I took of Blaine during

January were of him getting into stuff!

He is the master at getting into cupboards, drawers, and anything else.

I don't know why we buy actual toys because everyday things

seem to be so much more fun to play with!

He started climbing on everything. Peek-A-Boo Funny story: Blaine was watching Little Blaine while I was teaching school one day. He went into the kitchen and pretty soon it got really quiet in the other room so he went to check on the baby but he couldn't find him. He went back and saw the closet door cracked open a little bit and found that baby bubbers had climbed in and was loving it! Playing in Grandma's paper shredder can.

How can you get mad at a face like that?

The oven drawer was a favorite for quite some time.

Perfect fit for a little bottom.

Looks like we'll be having Little Blaine for dinner.

Little kids LOVE when they fit in something!

What a cutie!

Blaine's First Christmas

2011-01-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

"Ho, Ho, Ho" Santa Claus is coming to town and

it looks like he found little Blaine Karter's home.

Christmas this year was much different being a parent and not a kid anymore.

Christmas is for kids just like my dad used to say when we were growing up.

On Christmas morning we woke up before Little Blaine and we couldn't wait for him to wake up.

We knew that he didn't have a clue about what was to take place that day but we were super excited to see the look on his face when he saw a whole bunch of new things in our house.

We ended up waking him up around 8. Here's Dad and Little Blaine coming down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.
When we put him down by all of the stuff he just stared at it for a little bit and then he would look at us as if he needed permission or something before he touched it.
There were som many fun things that he didn't know where to begin.
I handed him his stocking for him to start.
After he pulled out the first two toys, that was all he needed.
He wasn't the least bit interested in anything else!
We helped him out a little bit by showing him other things and
showing him that he could rip the paper on the boxes.

It's so funny to me how he was so amazed with the smallest of things

--including the wrapping, bows, and boxes.

He was pretty shocked when the little saw made noise and had lights on it.

We spent the morning as a family opening presents with Little Blaine.

Then we put him down for a nap and got ready for the day.

Next we stopped by Grandma Teresa's house where Blaine

got a little overwhelmed by more gifts.

He loved his new Buzz Light Year car and didn't care about what everyone else was doing.

After lunch, we opened up some gifts from Tiffany and Little Blaine

decided that he liked the boxes and bows the best.

We are so thankful for so many friends and family that love us so much!

Little Blaine is so loved and recieved a ton of gifts from everyone.

Below are most of the gifts that he got for Christmas

(I realized later that a few things he got the day

before weren't in the room when I took this picture.)

Thanks to everyone!

We hope that Santa Claus found your houses too

and that you had a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Clayson Family Christmas Party

2010-12-18T13:21:00.001-07:00

We had the annual family Christmas party at Grandma's house last night.

Good food and good fun.

Sean got a new wallet with money in it.

Aaron got a sweet new hat and Little Blaine cried when he put it on.

Hi Sean

Little Blaine loved playing with everyone's wrapping paper.

The "Buffalo" boys

Jake and Loretta going through all the sweet apps in Jakes iPhone.

My mom and Mandy caught off gaurd.

Everyone watching Little Blaine play

Lynsey, Dirk, and Grandma trying to get the presents passed out to everyone.
Thanks for the yummy food and party Grandma!!

Family Pictures

2010-12-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

This year for family pictures we decided to go to the park and have my sister Tiffany take some pictures for us so that we could afford to send Christmas cards. We had to take a ton of pictures in order for all of us to be looking at the same time but it was fun (for me at least) and we got some really cute ones. Since I can't put all of them on the Christmas card, I thought I'd share some of the others with you all.

You can really tell what Tiffany's vantage point is in this picture.

We look very tall, especially Blaine =) lol

What a goofy family we are!

I can't believe how big our little boy looks in this picture.

We hope you all recieved your Christmas cards and if we forgot you or yours didn't make it to you, please let me know and I'll send you another one.

Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Blaine's First Haircut

2010-12-18T12:55:00.001-07:00

Little Blaine had these long whispy hairs on top of his head and behind his ears so we decided to give him his first hair cut. Blaine turned the clippers down so that they wouldn't be very loud and we undressed Little Blaine down to his diaper and stuck him in the bathroom sink.

He did really well (as long as he had our toothbrushes to play with).

He looks so big and grown up now!

As you can see from the amount of hair below that there wasn't a lot to cut but

just enough that it made a big difference.

10 Months Old

2010-12-18T12:34:00.001-07:00

At 10 months old, Little Blaine is busier than ever!!

He hasn't really grown much in height/weight this past month,

but he's learning to do new things everyday.

He's been crawling and climbing on everything.

He climbed right into the oven drawer the other day right under my feet!

He claps whenever he hears anyone else clap or when we say "yay, good job!"

He's starting to wtach our mouths as we say things and tries to mimick what we say.

He has become Little Mr. Independent and won't let us feed him much anymore. He would much rather feed himself. He love the tuna sandwich that I fed him the other day and he loves french toast and pancakes for breakfast.

He continues to LOVE books!

He will pass up every other toy and head straight for his books.

He will even sit and listen when we read to him.

He's starting to develop such a fun little personality and

does things that make us laugh everyday.

9 Months Old

2010-11-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Nine wonderful months have flown right by!

Blaine Karter had his 9 month wellness check up this past week and he's growing strong and healthy. He hasn't grown a whole lot more since we last took him in but they say that's normal because he's so mobile now and burning the calories right up.

He's 19 lb 12 oz (39%) and 28.5" long (59%). His head is 18 " (63%).

So he's obviously still growing in his daddy's shoes-long and skinny.

I just love that face he pulls. He sucks his bottom lip in all of the time.
Some of his accomplishments this month are:
-crawling all over the place and very fast at it
-he is getting better at waving hi and bye to everybody
-pulls himself up to everything and is starting to
walk while holding onto things like the couch
-he loves to explore and get into everything

-he loves to eat whatever we're eating and whenever we're eating
-he loves to growl and be noisy
-he plays with us and looks for us around the house

-he has TWO teeth and he has been the best teether ever
-he has managed to stay cold-free even with a sick mom around

-he is currently making the switch to formula since
mom is done and the breastmilk supply is gone
-he continues to be the happiest and funnest boy that we could have ever asked for!

Blaine's First Halloween

2010-11-22T10:58:00.001-07:00

This year for Halloween I was super sick that whole week and I still didn't feel good on Saturday when everyone was going out trick-or-treating,

so we didn't go out that day. We did dress him up on

Halloween and take him to Grandma's house.

Our Little Frankenstein
What a happy mama!

What handsome boys I have!

Our cute little family

I don't know if I've ever mentioned how good Little Blaine is in the car seat but he is super good while in the car. The car puts him right to sleep! It doens't matter if he just woke up from a nap, about 4 blocks down the road and he's usually asleep again.

Little Blaine playing with the bus at Grandma's house.

He loves this little bus. He usually takes all of the people out of it and then turns it upside down to play with the wheels and sit and spin them. Pretty cute.

Helping Daddy

2010-11-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

Little Blaine is getting so big and wants to do whatever we're doing.

Blaine was putting up our new kitchen table and Little Blaine was all about helping.
Whatever Blaine was doing, Little Blaine was right behind him!
He's going to be a big help when he gets older.

See those holes in the table where the bolts go, they are the perfect size for Little Blaine's fingers to fit. I think that he stuck his finger in everyone of them.

At first he couldn't figure out how to get over the side of the table to get over to where Blaine was working, but this little guy is persistent and he found a way around.

I love my boys!

A Play Day

2010-11-22T10:29:00.001-07:00

He found the pots and pans cupboard!

And he was in heaven!!
He loved to hear the banging and clanging of everything together.
There's something about anything new that he just loves to feel and touch and figure out.

Sean and Lynsey came to spend a few hours with us. Lynsey was so excited to see little Blaine. She kept saying over and over "he's so cute!" She wanted to carry him everywhere and hold him constantly. Little Blaine loved the attention and loved having someone new and so energetic to play with.

She helped him stand up to things and walk around the house. She helped me give him a bath and get him dressed for bed. Then she rocked him and fed him his bottle for bed time.

She was a great helper!

All the while Blaine and Sean shot the breeze, talking about who knows what.

After we put Little Blaine to bed, we played Guitar Hero and some other video games.

We had a fun night together!

8 Months Old

2010-10-20T16:14:00.001-06:00

My goodness time is just flying by, but we're enjoying every minute of it!!

This darling smile continues to bring smiles to the faces of everyone that we come in contact with--family, friends, strangers, people at the store--everyone!
Blaine Karter is so busy!!! He just goes and goes all day long only slowing down for two naps a day and around 7:30 at night for bath time and bed time.

He is crawling!!

He's been army crawling around for a few weeks now and has just recently perfected his skills so that he can get across the room really fast. We've been waiting for him to just take off everyday as we've watched him get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth trying to figure out how to get his little body moving. He also has started pulling himself up to short things like the first stair, low boxes, the lid drawer, etc. We're going to have to invest in a safety gate and cupboard locks pretty soon.

He loves getting into things and mom's lid drawer is a new favorite! There are just so many lids in so many colors and shapes and sizes. Although, his favorite one is probably the ziploc lid because it's transparent and he can watch around the room as he licks it and rubs it across his face.

He doesn't miss a thing! If there is something new in our house, he finds it!

He loves to scratch his finger nails across things to feel their texture and see if he can get hold of it. One of the funny things he does is lay under chairs, tables, anything really and look for tags hanging down or stickers attached to them and pick at them until he can get them loose.

Little Blaine has recently added graham crackers, puff cereal, and any other soft thing on mom's plate to his diet. He knows when it's time to eat and loves to sit in his high chair when we're eating dinner and eat something too.

He eats a bowl of potatoes mixed with other veggies twice a day and some fruit for dessert. He also has yogurt for breakfast and apple juice too. He would much rather have all this yummy food over a bottle most of the time these days. He only has a bottle when he's getting sleepy or to fill in the cracks!

He's started to wave at people where ever we are. Last Sunday a guy in our ward was holding Blaine as he was standing on his lap during Sunday School. Blaine started waving at the teacher and she couldn't resist waving back at him. He got a huge grin on his face and was very proud of himself.

Blaine has continued to sleep through the night and only wakes up occasionally when he can't find his binky or thinks he needs to be wrapped back up.

He still hasn't had any teeth break through yet so I'm considering myself lucky!

We are so lucky to have such a content little boy that is always so happy!

Family Gatherings

2010-10-06T18:47:00.001-06:00

The best part of summer comes when we get together with family and friends for fun times and good food! Here we are at the Payson parade with my mom's family.

Blaine tends to still the show everywhere we go and I'm okay with that. =)

Great-Grandma Clayson and Blaine

John, DaNeil, and little Blaine

Great-Grandma, Me, and Blaine

Great-Grandpa Coffman (Blaine's Grandpa)

Four Generations

Daddy Blaine and Little Blaine relaxing at Grandma Denise's house

Aunt Tiff and Blaine at the mall. What a funny face!

Sunday Best

2010-10-06T18:42:00.001-06:00

I've been looking and looking for a white shirt for Blaine and I finally found it at Babies R Us. Not to mention, when I got to the checkout counter I found that it was 1/2 off! Score!

Doesn't he look adorable?!
That's one handsome boy!

How cute is that?

(I wish I knew how to turn pics on here)

Photo Shoot

2010-10-06T17:54:00.000-06:00

I decided that I'm going to take advantage of this while he'll still let me=)

Plus he's wearing a different outfit and smiling different in every picture.

I can't believe how big he looks when I stand him up.

There's that charming smile!

Always Listen

2010-10-06T17:34:00.000-06:00

So I just wanted to share an experience that I had today with you all. (Be prepared...it's long)

Yesterday I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the Relief Society meeting that I had last night. They took a good part of the day to make inbetween diaper changes, nap times, feeding times, etc. While I was busy inside baking and taking care of Blaine, there were guys outside cutting and trimming the trees around our apartments.
I took Blaine outside to get the mail and then we sat on the porch for a bit as I read my mail and Blaine ate his. While I was out there one of the tree guys started talking to me and asking me about my opinion about some of the branches he was thinking about cutting down. He commented on the baby and we shared some small talk and then I went inside to get the cookies out of the oven.
When I went inside, the thought came to me that I should take some cookies out to those people. Why should I take cookies to them? I don't even know them. They'd probably appreciate it. But they also might think I'm crazy. What the heck, I have a ton of cookies! (this is the conversation that I had with myself). So I bagged up some cookies and took them outside to these people. Oh I forgot to mention, these guys cutting down the trees were pretty rough guys-smoking, dirty, just not the kind of people that I'd hang out around. But they were grateful and loved the cookies.

This story is longer than I thought...but it has a good message so stick with me...

So today, I didn't really have any plans for the day. So I thought that after Blaine woke up from his nap I'd go take lunch to mom and Tiffany. I got all 4 bags ready to go (it takes a lot of preparation to go ANYWHERE with a baby!) and loaded them in the car. Then I came back in and grabbed Blaine and my cell phone, went out the door making sure to lock it behind me, and loaded the baby in the car. Just then I realize, I have just locked us out of the house and have no car keys to get anywhere! Yeah, good job Amber.
No worries, I'll just call my landlord and get a key. Not so easy, she's only 15 minutes from home but won't be able to get there for 2 hours! TWO hours!! Are you kidding me? I have places to be, things to do, it's cold outside and starting to rain! What a joke!
Panic set in, crying started. I had no idea what I was going to do. At least I had my baby with me. And then the thought occurs to me to ask the tree cutting guys if they know how to get into a locked house. Luckily they consented to help me. It didn't look so good. Why had I told Blaine to close our window this morning? Why had I locked the dead bolt ont he front door? Why do I not have a spare key? The first guy that tried to help me didn't know how. But he asked one of his friends and I heard him say "hey the nice lady that gave us cookies yesterday is locked out of her house. Can you help her get in?"
Luckily, one of the guys had worked for a locksmith before and knew how to break into houses (these guys seriously looked like they were the kind of guys that just break into houses but that's okay that's what I needed, right?) The guy climbed through my window and unlocked my door!
I was SO thankful for their help. I gave them another bag of cookies for helping me!

Moral of the story: follow the promptings of the spirit. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father is watching over me. I know that it was the Holy Ghost prompting me to take them some cookies yesterday. I know that I am prompted everyday to do things that I'm not even aware of the prompting but just did them. I am so thankful for the Holy Ghost and for my Heavenly Father's love for me.

Gardner Village

2010-10-06T16:42:00.000-06:00

For my birthday this year, we had a "Ghoul's" day out at Gardner Village and lunch at Olive garden! It was such a fun day! If you have never been to Gardner Village, you have got to go! I LOVE it there! There are so many fun shops and things to see (even though I can't afford most things there) it's still fun to go!

Grandma and Blaine
They set up all kinds of witches around the village during October and they are darling!

How cute!

Mom and her twin witch!

Yummm...straw!

How cute are we!!

Blaine wants to touch everything!

Tiffany's twin and Blaine

Thanks for a wonderful day!! I had a blast and can't wait to do it again!!!

Utah State Fair 2010

2010-10-06T16:28:00.001-06:00

We kept up our tradition this year and attended the Utah State Fair. Only this year, since Blaine is working for the state, we got a discount by attending on Friday instead of our usual Saturday. Fridays are definitely the way to go. I don't think that we'll go on a Saturday again. Not all of the booths are set up on weekdays, but the lack of people and crowds make up for it.

Blaine Karter seemed to enjoy his time at the fair. He was really good as we walked through all of the exhibits and shared his loving smile with anyone that would give him any attention.

Blaine wasn't sure what to think about the sheep.
Blaine and I both grew up on "mini farms" and in small communities with lots of animals so we're not really sure why we love going to see the animals so much. But it's a must do when you go to the fair. It's so fun to see all the different animals.

These goats were butting heads through the fence. Of course, right as I got my camera ready to take a picture they stopped but it was pretty funny.

This goat tried to nibble on Blaine's hand! After I shooed him off of him, he went for the stroller instead! Funny goat.

Blaine and Little Blaine taking a break for a bottle and diaper change...oh and to play with their hats!

Have you ever seen a pig race? We have. Only at the state fair would you be able to see such a thing. These little pigs will race all the ways around the track for a little piece of oreo cookie!

Grandma's Puppy

2010-10-06T16:20:00.000-06:00

Grandma Teresa has a little puppy and little Blaine loves it! He even tried to give it an open mouth kiss =) He found that it didn't taste so good as you can see in the picture below with the slobber strung from their mouths. It was pretty funny!

Poor puppy might not make it with Little Blaine's love!

Blaine and the puppy are so much a like...both of them love to chew on shoes or whatever they can get in their mouths, they both breathe really hard when their playing, they are both restless when being held, they both have very short attention spans, and Grandma loves them both!

7 Months

2010-10-06T15:39:00.000-06:00

Blaine Karter is growing so fast! I can't believe how much he's grown and how fast they change!

He's already over 7 months old. My how the time flies. He is such a sweet baby though. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't smile. He is such a happy baby and smiles at everyone.

He weighs 20 pounds and is strong and healthy!
He started army crawling a few weeks ago and gets up on his and hands and knees and rocks back and forth. We're just waiting for him to take off crawling any day now.

He loves to get into things that aren't for him! Every time that I set him down he goes for the same things that I don't want him to get into in every room. In the kitchen he loves the fan cover on the bottom of the fridge and the dirty, gross vent cover under the cupboards. In the livingroom, he goes straight for the books on the shelf or for anyone's shoes that have been left on the floor.

He finds things that I didn't know that we had!

He's going to be mama's big helper I can already tell!

6 Months Old

2010-08-19T09:28:00.000-06:00

Blaine Karter

February 15, 2010

We can't believe that our little boy is already 6 months old!!!

He is growing so fast and is so much fun!!

We can't imagine life without him. Here are some things that he currently does:

-He weighs 18 lb (55%)

-He's 27.5 inches long (84%) I think he's going to be like his dad-tall and skinny

-He continues to sleep through the night, however these days he can get unwrapped but he's getting pretty good at going back to sleep by himself.
-He eats veggies and fruits now and finishes two bottle of food a day easily.
-He is learning to drink from a sippy cup.
-He can roll all over the place. He's gotten stuck under the ottoman, opened the entertainment center, and pulls books off the shelf.
-He loves to lay outside on a blanket but really loves it when he rolls off the blanket and can play with the grass.
-He's completely aware of what's going on in the room around him and watches people.
-He will not go to sleep at church because he is a people watcher.
-He can sit up all by himself and is learning to catch himself before he falls over.
-He recognizes Mom and Dad and can pick us out in a room full of people.
-He's tender-hearted and does not like loud sounds. The sound of a plastic bag just scares him.
-He does best with two naps a day, each about 1-2 hours long.
-He babbles "na-na-na"
-He's very handy with his hands and can grab pretty much anything that he wants.
-He's starting to pull his legs/knees up under himself when he's laying on the floor and I don't think that it will be too long before he crawls.
-He smiles at everyone and loves to be talked to.
-Most of all, he fills our hearts with love and we love him very much!

Blaine's Armenian Cooking

2010-08-16T14:37:00.001-06:00

Blaine is such a chef!
He loved watching the Food Network and even more loves good food. One of his favorite shows is Guy's Diners, Drive-Inns, and Dives show. All of the time he wants to try to make new things. It's so nice having a husband that likes to cook. Sometimes he makes some really weird stuff...lol...but most of the time it's really tasty!

Because he served his mission in Armenia, he has grown to love some pretty weird foods. He gets me to try them and some of it is really good and others, well not so good. He really misses the fresh bread and other food from Armenia. He has an Armenian friend that lives nearby that has taught him to cook quite a few Armenian dishes.

Above is Strawberry Compote that they have in Armenia. It's basically strawberries in sugar water but it tastes really good. It is just a really good strawberry drink.

This is Armenian Kiabab. Very tasty!
It's ground pork, fresh basil, and onion all mixed together and shaped around a skewer stick. You cook it on the barbecue and then eat it on a piece of lavash (tortilla when you're in America) with chunks of onion and butter. I like ketchup on mine too.

He also barbecued Armenian Khorovats. That is pieces of chicken marinated in onion and fresh basil overnight in a big bowl. The flavor of the basil is so amazing and flavorful! For the same barbecue he made Armenian Baklava. This is a very sensitive and intricate pastry dish with all kinds of nuts, spices like cardamom and cinnamon, and a honey glaze on filo dough. I wish we would have taken a picture of these things because they looked just as good as they tasted.

Blaine also recently tried his hand at homemade bread. Unfortunately our oven is not so great and gets hotter than the temperature gauge says so it got a little dark on the outside, but the texture and flavor was wonderful! Cooking is a lot of fun when you have someone that is so willing and eager to help!

Grandma's Garden

2010-08-16T12:53:00.000-06:00

Grandma sure does have a green thumb!! She has the prettiest flowers and is good at growing such amazing flowers. They are so beautiful to look at. She has taught me everything I know about growing flowers. I can't wait to have my own yard to fill with flowers.

Grandma grows some of the most beautiful lilies

Her begonias are just absolutely gorgeous! I have never seen so many in one spot that are so big and beautiful. Absolutely amazing!

Picnic with Blaine's Family

2010-08-16T12:38:00.001-06:00

Look how sweet these little cousins are. This is Blaine's sister Loinda's daughter, Haven.

Haven loves to take care of Blaine and would hug him to pieces if we let her.

Loinda and Haven bumping elbows

The Gang!
We decided to celebrate Grandpa Blaine's birthday with a BBQ up Hobble Creek Canyon. Blaine barbecued some Armenian style Chicken that was delicious! He also brought Baklava to the party as well. It was a fun get together.

Nana and Blaine Karter

Getting the barbecue ready to go.

Summer Time

2010-08-16T11:53:00.000-06:00

We have been having a great summer and we're sad to see it go, although we will be glad for cooler days and cooler nights. We have had a lot of fun hanging out at parks, playing with family members, and going lots of places.

Look at that darling face! I am so in love with this little boy! He smiles at everyone!

Look how big he is...sitting on his own.

He loves his Aunt Tiffany and she loves him too!

We went to dinner with Grandma and Tiffany.
We love going out to eat, well at least mommy does.

Blaine's first time in the sprinkler!
He wasn't sure about it. Luckily the water came out really warm for a little bit. I love the face that he pulled in the picture below. Too funny!!

When we sat him down on the grass next to the water, he was really more interested in the grass rather than the water that was running across his toes.

Isn't Blaine a cute Daddy? He absolutely loves his little boy. He is so good with him and misses him so much while he is at work everyday. My two Blaines love to play together. Daddy can get Little Blaine to laugh with all of his goofy faces and moves.

Oh some rest and relaxation. Blaine loves to lay on the grass and look up at the tree leaves above his head. It doesn't matter where we are, he always finds the trees that are around us. They just mesmerize him.

My Little Mover

2010-08-16T11:30:00.000-06:00

Blaine Karter is getting so big!! He's rolling all over the place and getting into things. He's getting to be a lot of fun to play with and really fun to watch.

He figured out how to open the cupboard up on the entertainment center and we found him sucking on a PlayStation Memory card. He also pulls the books off the shelf and rolls into them pushing them back on the shelf.

As you can see he is getting too big for this baby seat. We never used to buckle him in it until recently when I found him in it on his stomach. Even when I buckle him in it he likes to push himself with his legs to the very edge!We decided that he needed something else to keep him occupied so we bought this fun Fisher Price Jemperoo. He LOVES it! He can touch the floor with his feet and has figured out how to bounce himself all around. Several times he has gotten stuck under the ottoman with just his head sticking out and then cried because he couldn't move any more. Luckily Daddy rescued him! Here he is playing with his Woody doll. For days all he cared about was that tag on Woody.Hi Mom!One of his favorite things to lay with is the air conditioning vent! As soon as we put him down on the floor, he rolls over to the vent and plays with it. It's fun to watch when the air starts blowing as he tries to catch his breath and gasps looking confused about where the air is coming from. "Hey, what's that in your hands?!" He's becoming so observant and not much gets past him. He loves to watch us across the room and watches our every move.

Our First Time to Yellowstone

2010-07-27T14:18:00.000-06:00

So our next summer trip was to Yellowstone!
We just had a couple of days over the July 24th weekend and decided that we would go to Yellowstone. It was a really quick trip...we left Thursday at noon and drove to Rexburg, ID where we stayed the night with my best friend from high school, Nancy and Steve, and Friday morning we got up and drove to West Yellowstone where we spent the day and then drove home that night. Someday we'll go back and hopefully camp in Yellowstone but it sure was fun to get out of the house and explore new places.
So we realized that this summer we would be stepping foot in over a half a dozen states and I have always wanted to go to Montana (even if it was just the bottom corner--it was still MT).

Somehow on our way into Yellowstone we missed this sign, but on the way out we made sure we got a picture of it! This is our proof that we were there.

Old Faithful...strong, true, and dependable. Quite a site to see.

Just getting going...

Daddy and Blaine waiting for Old Faithful to blow off some steam.

I wondered if we would be able to see it from the benches, but as you saw from the above pictures Old Faithful really shoots up into the sky!

The steam ad boiling water coming up out of the ground is so cool! How does it do that?

We got stuck in the steam from one of the geysers....stinky!!!

We only made it to Old Faithful in the park and Blaine would have liked to have gone at least to the lake so that we could have seen bison but maybe next time. We did get to see a cow elk though. We just ran out of time. It is such a huge park and is full of beauty. We can't wait for our next trip!

And They Call the Thing Rodeo....

2010-07-27T12:50:00.001-06:00

It just wouldn't be summer if we didn't go to a rodeo or two! The Spanish Fork Rodeo is a must see every year, especially when The Wild Child is there. The Wild Child (seen below) has an amazing act with a dirt bike where he pretends to not be know how to ride it and does silly tricks as he rides it around the arena and then jumps a truck and trailer. It's really good and very entertaining even though I've seen this act a dozen times. It never ever gets old!
Rodeo is in my blood. Not really but it kind of is. I grew up going to rodeos and was even in a few junior rodeos myself growing up. My dad rode bulls, saddle bronc, and bare back in his younger days too. It is just so neat to see the cowboys and have good clean family entertainment.

This year we went with my family: Mom, Tiffany, and Grandma.

The baby did not like the loud noise there. I didn't even think about how loud it would be for him. The speakers were blaring, the crowd was cheering, and Blaine was crying. Luckily Grandma loves him to pieces and spent some time with him outside of the arena on the lawn to give him a much needed break from all of the noise. He was dead tired but couldn't go to sleep because he is such a little people watcher. Same thing happens at church even though it is the middle of his nap, he just can't sleep. Eventually though we did get him to sleep just before the rodeo ended.

Grandma and Little Blaine (looking quite nervous)

Say cheese...okay fine don't, but I'm still going to post your picture anyways:)
We had a great time and can't wait for the Santaquin Rodeo in a couple of weeks!

Summer and the Cabin Trip

2010-07-27T12:26:00.000-06:00

We decided that we really need to get out and do some things this summer since last summer was such a bummer with me being sick all of the time and the winter keeps us indoors with not much else to do. So we've tried to do just that! A few weeks ago we went down to the Manti Pageant and had a wonderful time there while Grandma Stilson watched the baby.

Blaine has made it a goal to try to go fishing at least once a week, usually Saturday night, with his friends. He'd like to go more often but work and family life just doesn't always allow it. It's pretty hard to go fishing with a baby. He gets bored and so do I when I can't really fish while I'm watching him. But we have gone to the lake a few times with Dad to spend some time together too!

Little Blaine and I try to go visit friends and family during the week while Daddy Blaine is at work. I usually spend Wednesday's done in Santaquin since that's Grandma Teresa's day off and we hang out, go to lunch, and go visit other people down there. It's been a lot of fun!

Two weeks ago, we decided to head to Grandma's cabin for a night. It was really nice to get away from the phone, TV, Internet, and everything else that distracts us while we're at home. We spent some good time with each other and had a lot of fun.
Here we are getting ready to head back home.

This is Grandma's cabin. It is such a fun place to hang out! This is my kind of camping...running water, hot water even, bathtub, stove, warm beds to sleep in, and protection from thunderstorms and bears! :D Little Blaine had his first 4-wheeler ride with us too. I put him in our little baby backpack and sandwiched him between Blaine and I. Don't worry--we drove really slow and he seemed to love it. We spotted a badger crossing the road in front of us and then sat and watched him about 2 feet away from us. He was a cute little guy and of course I didn't have my camera with me.

Blaine loves to go to the cabin to catch up on some much needed R&R. He loves to read books and take naps in the peaceful quiet.

Little Blaine loved being up there! Isn't he a happy little guy? He is always so smiley and happy. We couldn't have asked for a better baby! He slept really good up there too. I was expecting it to be really cold up there at night but it got really warm. We slept with the window open and on top of our covers. We all slept in past 9 and then made a delicious camping breakfast with eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

On a tree behind the cabin we spotted "JRF 97" carved into it for Justin Ray Fowden 1997 (that's my little brother). It was probably carved by my dad because he would have only been 5 and it looked really good. So we decided to add Blaine Karter Holdaway, BKH 2010. Hopefully someday he'll see it and think it's cool.

We can't wait to go back to the cabin again. We never seem to make it there as often as we would like. We're so grateful to Grandma Clayson for letting us share her little mountain sanctuary with us.

Stay at home Mommy

2010-06-30T17:46:00.000-06:00

I've always wondered what being a stay at home mom would be like and I've always wanted to be one. When we first got married, Blaine and I both wanted to do whatever it would take for me to be able to stay home. After searching for jobs for over a year, we were getting nervous and were starting to make other plans. I started taking my resume to every secondary school in Nebo School District and searching for a teaching job. I would try to get excited about teaching so that I could get my mind off of leaving my little guy with a babysitter. (I know that many moms have to work and their kids turn out just fine...I did) But I just wanted to be the one to take care of my little boy all day long.

Then one morning in April, Blaine called me to tell me that he had been offered a job working for OSHA! I was ecstatic! We prayed about it and talked about it and decided that this was the answer to our prayers! This would allow me to stay at home with our baby! I do want to use my degree someday and I plan to when the kids are older. I'm so glad that I was able to finish school and that things worked out. We truly have been blessed and we know that Heavenly Father is watching over us and is aware of our needs!

What more could a mom want than being covered in cereal, changing clothes more than once a day, having throw up run down your arms and shirt, being pooped on, spending the day with a little angel that smiles at you, cuddles you during naps, and loves you unconditionally?

Our summer days are filled with feedings, Price Is Right, getting the mail, playing on the blanket with toys, weekly visits to Grandma's house, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and cooking meals for Daddy.

We love laying on blankets out on the grass and watching the leaves blow in the breeze!

Nap times are about the only time that Blaine likes to cuddle. So I cherish every minute that I get. He is such a good sleeper and napper! I just wrap him up in a blanket and lay him in his crib. Sometimes he is so tired that he cries for a few minutes but most days he just lays there and goes fast to sleep. He sleeps 10-12 hours a night and has two 1-3 hour naps during the day.

Blaine is so close to rolling over!!! I'm sure that it will be soon. We've been coaxing him and trying to give him ample time on the blanket to encourage this and it seems to be working!

I absolutely love being able to stay at home! I have so many things that I want to do and so many interests that I want to pursue and hope to soon. But for now, the bulk of my time is devoted to my sweet little boy who we love so much!

Drive up AF Canyon

2010-06-30T17:30:00.001-06:00

Since we moved to American Fork, we decided to check out AF canyon. Unfortunately, we weren't very happy when we found out that we had to pay $6 just to drive up the canyon!!! Because of that we probably won't go again or at least not very often. But it was a really pretty canyon and it was really nice to get out of the house for a bit.

Of course when we got to Silver lake, Blaine had to fish it. There were fish jumping all over the place but we couldn't get a single one to bite! Not cool!

It was really pretty. I love the reflection in the water.

I haven't been up the canyon in a couple of years (sad I know) and I totally forgot that even though it's 90 degrees in town, up the canyon it's colder--a lot colder! Needless to say, we were not dressed or prepared for the temperature change. I was in capris and flip flops and the baby was in a onesie and bare feet. Luckily, I had a beanie cap in the diaper bag and a blanket in the trunk of the car. I had thought about taking that stuff out of the diaper bag just days before and now I'm glad that I didn't. Blaine loves being outside and looking around at everything.

Here we are watching dad try to catch some of those picky fish!

Visiting with Grandma Stilson

2010-06-30T17:15:00.000-06:00

We had a fun visit with Grandma and Granpa Stilson.
They came to see our new place and spend some time with us.
Blaine Karter isn't short on family members that love him very much!

Baby's First Cereal

2010-06-30T16:56:00.000-06:00

After being hungry every two hours, we decided to feed Blaine some rice cereal.
As you can see, he wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first.

Then he started to like it, at least what we could get in around his hands =)

When we finished we were all covered in cereal! He's gotten really good at eating it and we've been able to thicken it quite a bit. We're looking forward to feeding him other foods (except for when it comes to changing diapers...if you're a parent you understand why)

Park with the Langfords

2010-06-30T15:15:00.000-06:00

We had such a fun time the other day when Mandi and her cute boys came up to see our new place, go to lunch, and play at the park. It was hard to take a baby to the park when you have a two year old that wants to run around and play but Mandi fed Blaine and I followed Kail around.
I had so much fun!
We love these guys and we're so glad that they're our friends!

Mandi and Blaine

Kail--look at those cute cheeks!

Kayson, Tristen, and Tage

These boys are the sweetest boys I have ever met! They are so polite and fun to be with.

Fishing Trip and Wind Surfers

2010-06-03T15:20:00.000-06:00

We had some time one evening and wanted to spend some family time at the lake. It was a really nice afternoon but when we got to the lake it didn't look much like fishing weather. The water was really choppy and much too windy for the baby. But it was the perfect weather for wind surfers (see pics below).

Utah Lake

Blaine ended up catching some fish anyways. He caught this large mouth bass and his first crappie. He was pretty excited. He came running to the car for me to take pictures of them.

My fishing man!

Little Crappie. He was a jumpy little thing.

Me and Blaine stayed in the car since it was so windy.

Here are the wind surfers. They were so cool. I would never dare to do this but it was so neat to see. There were about 20 guys out there just having a blast!

3 Months Old

2010-06-03T14:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how the time has flown!!! My little baby is already 3 months old! Well he's now actually closer to 4 months old but I haven't had time to blog for a while. The day he turned 3 months old, I jotted down some of the things that he was doing so that I could share them with all of you when I got a chance.

Blaine Karter recognizes Mom and Dad and looks for their voices when he hears us talking. He can pick out our voices when others are talking. He is such a smiley boy and smiles all of the time. He started laughing the other day. He wakes up with a big grin on his face every morning.
He isn't a very fussy baby and only fusses a little bit when he's hungry, wants to lay down and not be held, or be wrapped up to go to sleep. He is a stiff little boy and loves to arch his back and hold his head up big and strong.

He LOVES his bath time! He started kicking and splashing during his baths. He's on a pretty good schedule and knows that after his bath it's time to eat and get ready for bed. He eats about 7-9 ounces at a time, 4-5 times a day. He has big man-like burps about 2-3 times during a feeding. When he eats with the fast bottle nipple, he can finish the 9 ounces in about 10 minutes and usually doesn't spit up! He's a big boy!

He sleeps 7-9 hours straight at night!!! (He is heaven sent for sure!) He is so good while he's in his car seat and in the car. He usually just ends up asleep when we go anywhere and can't sleep just about anywhere, just like his mama! He's a jumpy little thing and gets scared easily. The other day he tooted and scared himself. I laughed pretty hard!

He is such a joy in our lives!! We love him so much and can't believe what a blessing he is to us!

Four Generations

2010-05-02T19:50:00.000-06:00

Great-Grandma Clayson, Grandma Teresa, Mommy Amber, and Baby Blaine

Cutest Boy in the Whole Darn Town

2010-05-02T17:10:00.001-06:00

Isn't he such a handsome boy? Wow, we're in love with this little guy!
I love his new church outfit. He just looks so grown up:) It's his first time wearing this cute little church outfit and he's almot too big for it already!

Graduation!!

2010-05-02T17:01:00.001-06:00

Today I my childhood dream finally became a reality!! Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a teacher! While growing up, I used to play school with the neighbor kids and I was always the teacher. If you ask any of my friends, they'll tell you that I took that play serious and even assigned homework!

YAY! I made it!

One happy family with two Bachelor's degrees. Blaine has his Bachelor's in Community Health and I now have mine in Mathematics Education. We are so blessed to have accomplished so much and be where we are today!

My family

Blaine's family

Blaine's First Blue Jeans

2010-05-02T16:56:00.000-06:00

Blaine looks so big in his blue jeans. (I have no idea how to turn the pic around)
I can't believe that he's already 11 weeks old! He's growing by leaps and bounds!

He is such a happy baby and full of smiles!

Blaine Karter's Blessing Day

2010-04-12T14:02:00.001-06:00

Blaine Karter looked so handsome in his little white tux. He was blessed by his dad who did a great job. I'm so grateful for Blaine and his worthiness to hold the priesthood. It truly blesses our family. We're grateful for those family members that stood in the circle as well.

So cute! We could stare at him all day and say over a hundred times that he is so adorable!

Blaine continues to grow so big and he has started smiling so much! He smiles almost every time that I talk to him. He loves to lay on the floor and kick his legs, smile, and coo and make noises.

Our happy little family.
We are so blessed and I'm so grateful for my boys!

Grandma Teresa ("T") was one of the many family members that came to support us. She can't get enough of her little grandson and that's okay:)

Blaine and Ava

2010-04-12T13:58:00.001-06:00

Blaine's friend, Blake Tuckett, got married a month before we did almost three years ago. They found out that they were pregnant a few weeks before we did. My due date was 6 days after theirs and Baby Blaine was born 6 days before their little girl, Ava. Baby Blaine looks so big next to Ava. She's so petite and little. Ava eats about 3 ounces at a feeding while Blaine eats 6!!

The 3 Blaines

2010-04-12T13:56:00.001-06:00

Here's the legacy!

Daddy Blaine C, Baby Blaine Karter, and Grandpa Blaine Randall

5 Weeks Old

2010-04-06T22:04:00.001-06:00

I am so in love with this little boy! He is so much fun. I have always wanted to be a mom and it is everything that I thought it would be and so much more!!! I love being a mom! I never imagined that he would be this soft and sweet.

At 5 weeks old, Blaine loves to be held but there comes a time that he just wants to lay on a blanket and play all by himself. He loves to lay and coo and kick his legs. He's starting to smile at us and both Mom and Dad have now heard him giggle.

I love to rock him and have him fall asleep on my chest facing me. He seems to sleep so well when he's being held. He now seems to be on a pretty good schedule where he'll sleep for a 5 hour stretch at night after he's had his bath and nighttime feeding. So we only wake up once during the night to feed and diaper him. He then goes back to sleep pretty well with a bunch of grunting and groaning throughout the night.

His eyes are a beautiful blue, especially in the sun.

His hair seems to have a red tint to it in the sun as well.

He loves to be independent and hold his head up high and look around. He loves looking at lights and things high on the ceiling. He'll also arch his back clear back to the point that it looks like it hurts. He's a very strong little boy and will grasp your hand with a tight grip. He's also very strong willed and knows what he wants. He has such a cute personality and is such a little angel.

Thanks Kristen for doing such a great job on the pictures!
We love them!

Play Time

2010-04-06T21:56:00.000-06:00

Here's Blaine at two weeks old. I put him in his swing for the first time to see if he would like it. He seemed to really like his little Winnie the Pooh friend that Grandma T gave to him.

Oh he's so cuddly when he's naked in a towel right out of the tub! He's 5 weeks old in this picture.

I finally got him to take this binki. Before he would only take the green soothie binki that they gave us at the hospital. But now he seems to suck on almost anything that we put in his mouth. He takes a bottle really well too which is really helpful since I have to be at school for four and half hours everyday. It's also very helpful because Dad can feed him in the middle of the night too! Blaine is so willing to help me take care of him and makes sure that I get to sleep too. :)

Blaine's First Bath

2010-04-06T21:52:00.000-06:00

He absolutely LOVED being in the bath tub! He never cried and just relaxed down in the water. We've tried to get him into a schedule of bathing every night before bed and he seems to really like it. He can be so fussy and crying and then we put him in his tub and he completely relaxes and calms down. He's such a good baby!

Two & Three Weeks OldI

2010-04-06T21:48:00.000-06:00

He's just so cute and fun! I could sit and stare at him all day long...and I do!

Family

2010-04-06T20:12:00.000-06:00

Aunt Tiffany has hardly missed a day seeing her little nephew since the day we came home! She loves him so much and loves to hold him. She's so good to come over and take a nap with the baby so that I can get some things done--like shower, homework, and clean the house.

Thanks Aunt Tiffy!

This little outfit was Uncle Justin's when he was born. We got him all dressed and loaded in the car seat so that Daddy could take Mommy for a drive. I really needed to get out of the house! It was so hard to be stuck in the house day in and day out! I just can't wait for warmer weather when we can get out more often and play in the sun!

Uncle Justin is so fun!

Great-Grandma Clayson just a pattin' away:)

Grandma T also doesn't let too many days go by without stopping by to check in on her first grandbaby! She absolutely loves being a grandma! She tells everybody about him and takes every chance she gets to show them pictures:) She couldn't wait for me to go back to school so that she could start babysitting him for me.

The First Few Days

2010-04-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

Blaine is such a cute dad! He fell into the role of a father so naturally. I always knew that he'd be a great dad but I never had any idea that he would be this good. He's so cute with him and takes such good care of him. He is so willing to change diapers and help with the baby after I finish feeding him.
Baby Blaine seemed to be so alert and so happy right from the beginning. He also loves to hold his head up and lean backwards. So independent!
Here's Daddy preparing dinner for us and keeping these going while we were sitting in the rocking chair. I couldn't have asked for a better husband!

So sweet! I don't think Dad was really sleeping in this picture. He has a hard time sleeping in the same room with the baby because he grunts and makes little noises pretty much during the entire night! He would love to sleep holding him though. :)

Bringing Baby Home

2010-04-06T19:47:00.000-06:00

Here's my sweet boy just before we came home. His bruises had really gone down and he was so cute in that hat:)

For the first few days, the rocking chair was my best friend. This is where we sat, read, ate, and slept. It was such a huge eye opener to have a new baby in our home. I couldn't imagine how we would ever get into a schedule. I wasn't even sure if I would ever sleep in my own bed again. Luckily after a few days we figured it out and started sleeping in our own beds...at least for a few hours at a time:)
He had to wear this little hat for a week or so to keep the stitches on the back of his head clean. He wore a white long sleeve onesie for the first few weeks of his life because none of his clothes fit him. They were all so big and hanging off of him. Besides, we were changing his diaper about 10-12 times a day and it was just so much easier to change him with just a onesie on.

Cousin Britton and Baby Blaine

Nana Stacy

The first few weeks were pretty hard. I had the best helper ever though, Blaine. He was such a trooper! He was so loving and helpful. He took care of everything for us--the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, Everything!!! I'm so lucky to have such a great husband.

First Visitors

2010-04-06T18:25:00.001-06:00

Baby Blaine had so many family members waiting to greet him as he entered in to the world!

Daddy Blaine and Baby Blaine

Grandma T was so excited!

Aunt Tiffany absolutely loves Baby Blaine!

Uncle Justin wasn't even scared to hold him! (at least until he cries, pukes, or poops:)

Grandpa Scott and Aunt Tiffany

Aunt Denise

Meghan, Shaili, and Grandma T all stopped by.

Grandma Denise
We had so many visitors at the hospital. It was good to see everyone.
But it was really nice when we finally got to get some rest too!

February 15, 2010 - Blaine Karter

2010-04-06T18:10:00.000-06:00

Hi there! So our life has been so busy this last month and a half as you are all well aware of:) But I wanted to take a minute (in between squawks and fusses) and fill you in on the baby story. I'm not sure how many details you want so you might get more or less than expected...:)

So it started with 37 1/2 week doctor's appt when my blood pressure was quite high and they suspected that I had mild preeclampsia. Dr sent me right over to the hospital for some labs and to monitor the baby. They then sent me home and told me to wait for my dr to give me a call. I spent the weekend in intense pain and contracting thinking that I would go into labor any minute but by Monday I still hadn't. Monday morning my dr called me and said that my labs confirmed that I had mild preeclampsia. I told him that I'd had a headache all weekend and it was really bad that morning so he asked if I thought the 15th was a good day for a birthday. I said of course! So I woke Blaine up and told him we were going to have a baby that day! He was pretty shocked and we got ready to go.Here I am all hooked up and ready to get started!

They started me on some pitocin around 11:30 for about 45 minutes and then I started contracting by myself. When I got to the hospital I was already dilated to a 4 and fully effaced. The dr came and broke my water around 1:30 and then the real pain began! I requested an epidural and it took them three tries and an hour and a half before I was relieved of pain. Two hours later, the epidural stopped working and they had to try again! Ugh! By this time, I was dilated to a 9 and wanting to push. But I got an epidural again anyways and I'm so glad that I did because as soon as they were done with that, the baby's heart rate dropped and they wanted me to start pushing. It's really weird to push and not know where you are pushing because you can't feel anything.
They needed to use forceps or run down and do a c-section. I said do whatever you think is best...forceps it was-there was no time for a c-section. Blaine was really good with me during the whole thing. He was such a good coach! His heart was broken to see me in so much pain.
Three minutes later my baby was out, pink, screaming, and laying on my stomach as Dad cut the cord! I couldn't believe it! It was so amazing. He was so perfect and cute!
Blaine Karter was born at 6:26 pm weighing 7 lb 5 oz and 20" long. He went to the nursery for some oxygen for an hour just to make sure everything was good. During his bath, Blaine found a little hole in the back of his head (caused by the forceps) which the pediatrician sewed up with 10 stitches. We are warriors!
Having a baby was such a wonderful experience and I wouldn't change a thing about it! Blaine thinks that I am so crazy for wanting at least three kids because he never wants to see me in that kind of pain again. Such a sweet guy!

One proud daddy!

Our happy little family!

Such a tired Momma!
I always wondered why those hospital pictures looked so terrible and now I know why...it's rough and exhausting.

My sweet little boy!

35 Weeks...On the Downhill

2010-01-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

So we've reached the 35 week mark!!! YAY! Everyday many people ask me, "So how are you feeling?" And quite frankly, I'm not so sure how to answer this question any longer! How much detail do they really want? How much detail do I want to give them? Sometimes I have to stop and think to myself..."How do I feel?", "What's hurting right now?", "Do I really want to get into that conversation right now?", etc. And then after thinking through all of this, I'm sure everyone is wondering why I am studdering to answer their basic question.
So how am I feeling?
Well first of all, I feel so uncomfortable!!! My stomach is so tight! Our little boy is growing so big and just running out of room. He loves to stick his bottom up between my ribs and then as far out as possible, making me look very oblong and off center. The doctor felt my stomach as he was doing this and commented that my baby has a big bum. Just as a side note: He did not get that trait from his mom! :) lol
When night time comes along, I get mixed feelings. Part of me has been so exhausted all day and can't wait to just shut my eyes and go to sleep. But the other part of me dreads having to lay down and be so uncomfortable and have my pelvis feel like it's in a million pieces every time I try to rollover or go to the bathroom. It's just not even fun. I can't wait to be myself again.
Every morning I wake up and feel like I've been running a marathon all night long! I am so tired and exhausted pretty much all day long. It doesn't matter how much sleep i get, I just can't get enough.
I sstill feel nauseous most everyday but luckily that usually only shows up in the late afternoons and evenings. When I can't concentrate on anything else but throwing up, then I know it's time to go to bed.
...........Anyways, enough about me and enough complaining about everything.....................
I know that I will be grateful when I finally get this little boy here and can hold him in my arms. And I know that Blaine can't wait to have his wife back as well as have a little boy to enjoy and share our lives with. It's mind-boggling to think that in just a few short weeks, our lives will never be the same again and we'll have a little bundle of joy to take care of, teach, and love!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-12-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and that the holidays found everything well at your house. We feel very blessed this season and had a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed our annual Fowden-Bowman Christmas Eve party at Tiffany's new house. We had fun playing Bunco and exchanging White Elephant gifts. We only made it through half a Bunco game because we're all getting too old for late night parties...lol.

Christmas day we had breakfast at Mom's house and spent the day visiting family and enjoying the day with everyone. We had a lot of fun giving gifts and we're very grateful for all that was given to us. One of Blaine's favorite gifts was Guitar Hero Metallica which he had to play Christmas Eve night at 1:00am before we went to bed. I'm excited to get my new ClearPlay DVD player put together and watch all of the movies that I've been waiting to see.
This year the Christmas Story has had a whole new meaning for me. We've all heard it a hundred times and can all repeat it by heart and I'm no exception. However, this year being pregnant and experiencing the pain that comes with carrying a child, as I listened to the story read by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on TV one night, I gained a whole new perspective and appreciation for Mary. Although I still cannot image carrying the Christ child, I feel very blessed and honored that Heavenly Father has entrusted me to carry one of his beloved children of God. I cannot imagine carrying a child in Mary's day, riding a donkey and being so great with child and uncomfortable. I cannot imagine giving birth without the luxuries of today and the securities of modern-day medicine, doctors, and hospitals. I have a testimony of the Birth of the Savior. I know that Mary was blessed and watched over on that special night that changed the world forever. I'm so grateful that I have been able to experience becoming a mother and I know that our Father in Heaven is watching over me and Blaine at this special time in our lives.

These pictures were taken by my friend Kristen. She did an awesome job and we had a lot of fun! Blaine doesn't like posing for fake pictures but he was a good support through it all and we took some fun ones too that show our personality and excitement for our baby! :)

Only during pregnancy will I pose like this for a picture:)
I am married to one good looking skinny, tall man!

I hope our little boy gets his dad's good looks and cute smile.

Preparing for Baby

2009-12-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

So everyone has been wondering how the preparations for our sweet little boy are coming along and so I decided to post it here where everyone could see.

First of all we think that we will never be completely ready for the baby to come, I don't think anyone ever really is prepared for a baby! But I'm starting to get really excited! It's so fun to feel him moving everyday (as painful as it is)! When I feel him move I just really want to hold him and kiss his little cheeks!!
Over the last few months I have really watched Blaine grow into a father figure. I see that he's ready to be a father and will be great at it! He's so cute with kids and loves them so much. He's a great example to me and has such great love for me. He's really done a great job taking care of me through all of the sickness and pain. He worries about providing for us but he's such a hard worker that I know he'll do just fine!

So everyone has been asking what we have for the baby and what we still need, so I decided I would leave a list here. We already have a crib, stroller, car seat, baby swing, and baby vibrator seat. We also have a box of size 1 baby diapers. We have a few outfits and a couple of blankets.
We need a baby tub, baby clothes, and all of the other little basic things that babies need.

I hope to get some more pictures of me soon because my belly has gotten so big!!! I had no idea that it would stretch so large and be so painful! My doctor told me that the word "pregnancy" in latin means "gravity" and I sure do feel it! Oh the things that mothers do and go through for their children:)

Student Teaching

2009-12-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's finally coming to an end and it's looking like I'm finally going to make it through school!!! Last Friday I went to a Student teaching orientation meeting where I recieved my teaching assignment. I'll be student teaching at Spanish Fork Jr High starting the beginning of January after Christmas break! I am super excited and also really nervous to start teaching and being at the school. I will be even more excited after I finish this week's classes and next weeks finals:)

Luckily my advisors are willing to work with me and are willing to let me go on leave in February to have our little boy! Then I'll go back in April and finish the school year with the kids. This new year will bring so many changes to our family and we feel so blessed and excited to start our little family.

It's a BOY!!!

2009-10-20T20:35:00.000-06:00

Tonight we finally got to find out what the baby is and we're very excited to let you all know that we're going to be the proud parents of a little boy!!!

We were so excited to see the baby on the ultrasound screen. It was the most amazing thing to see his arms, legs, hands, spine, 4 chambers in the heart, 3 blood vessels in the umbilical cord, the placenta in the right spot, and so many other little body parts. He was being a little shy and wouldn't let us get a good look at his face so next month we'll do another ultrasound just to get a better look. Although, the doctor was able to tell that he doesn't have a cleft pallet. According to the measurements my due date could be moved to the 24th instead of the 28th but unless it's a week or more off they don't officially change it so we're sticking with February 28th.

He's about 11 inches long and weighs just under a pound.

Wow! It's so reassuring to see the little body inside of me and see the body that I've been feeling wiggling around inside my belly. It's such a miracle and we feel so blessed.

Mommy Update: I'm still feeling sick most days and throw up every few days with some pretty rough bouts every now and then. I keep hoping that all of this will end soon but feel like it's never ever going to end!! I'm just really grateful that I'm able to go to school and work and get through each day. Thanks to all of our loving and caring friends and family!

20 Weeks!! Half Way There!

2009-10-11T15:24:00.000-06:00

So we're halfway there!
Still sick most of the time of course! I just can't get over the nausea and occasional throwing up! I'm way past the 13-16 week period where everyone told me that I would start to feel better and see relief....I think they're all full of it! Now I'm putting my faith in those who said they started feeling better around 24-26 weeks....but we'll see. In the back of my head I'm just planning on being one of those that is sick for the entire 9 months!
I'm still hanging in there and going to school everyday. It's very tiring most days but somehow I manage. Last week I had a joint in my lower back/hip area that was popping out of place and very painful. So painful that I couldn't sleep or walk anywhere. I started physical therapy a few days later and relief came a few days after that. Oh and I get to wear this really cute velcro belt around my behind that is so not attractive but it helps keep things under control....don't tell my doctor but I don't wear it as much as he would like me too:)

We get to find out the sex of the baby in a week and we can't wait! I want a girl but of course we will love it no matter what!
I can no longer suck my belly in at all. I try really hard but nothing moves anywhere. I can't push it out at all either. I've pretty much graduated from all of my regular clothes and wear my new maternity clothes (which are very cute and comfy). We cleaned out the baby's room yesterday and moved all the boxes to my mom's house so that we could have room to set up the crib.
It seems that February is still a long ways away!

Oh and for other updates....our ward split two weeks ago and we're now in the East Meadows ward. We were realeased from Primary, which Blaine was very sad about because he absolutely LOVED our Sunbeams. I loved Primary too but was very ready for a change and a new adventure. Blaine is now the Young Men's Secretary and I'm one of the ward organists. (I don't really know how to play the organ, but I pretend like I know what I'm doing and they tell me it sounds alright). We're excited to get things moving and get to know all of our new ward members.
Blaine is currently working at Circle V Meats as a butcher. It's not his favorite but he is just loving having a full-time job and I'm grateful for his willingness to work so hard for our family! He's still searching daily for jobs in Assisted Living/Nursing Home Administration.

We love you all and we'll update you next week after our doctor's appointment!

17 Weeks and Counting...

2009-09-23T18:49:00.000-06:00

So we've made it 17 weeks and we're almost to the halfway mark! I'm still sick a lot of the time --feeling nauseous most of the day, headaches off and on, occasional throwing up, among other little things here and there. I used to be the deepest sleeper, but now I'm lucky if I make it through a whole night asleep. I'm super tired throughout the day and take a nap most days.

I'm back in school now too. But the good news is that these are the last classes that I have to take and then in January I will be student teaching! I'm finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel and I can't wait to finish such a big goal! This year I've had to really lighten up my back pack as well as pack a lot more snacks so that I can eat every hour or so.

I got a special birthday present yesterday....I felt the baby move!!! It was so exciting. It felt a little like a gold fish swimming around in my belly but it was so neat! If I have to be sick for something, this is the best thing that I could be sick for!!! The baby is just over 5 inches long and weighs about 5 ounces now. My next appointment is next week and we'll get to hear the heartbeat again. This has become one of the most reassuring things in the world.

I know you are all dying to know what the baby is---boy or girl----and so are we, but we don't get to find out until week 21, which will be around October 20-something. Don't worry I'll let you all know and post pictures of my belly then as well. I'm starting to show now and I have a few really cute maternity tops and the most comfortable maternity pants in the world! It's really fun to watch people look at me, look at my belly, and look at my face again as they try to decide if I am just gaining weight or actually pregnant:)

Well sorry to babble on...if any of this doesn't make sense then I won't be surprised because I have had a hard time articulating what I want to say and keeping things straight lately. (I blame it on the baby:)

We're Having a Baby!

2009-08-24T16:12:00.000-06:00

The rumors are flying and they're true!

We really are pregnant!

Was is planned? Not exactly. We were hoping to wait til this fall to start trying so that I'd be done with school by the time the baby was born, but it turned out to be a blessing that it's worked out this way.
Are we excited? Yes. I've always wanted to be a mom and Blaine will be the cutest dad!
Have I been sick? Have I ever! I've been sicker than a dog for over two months now. The summer is pretty much over and I spent the great majority of it in bed, throwing up, dizzy on the couch, sleeping, missing work and school, just barely making it and taking it one day at a time! Blaine has been such a great support and helping me out so much, although he misses his wife a lot and wishes that he had a job in the field that he graduated in.
When are we due? February 28th. That makes me 13 weeks yesterday. So I'm almost out of the first trimester and starting to feel better most of the time.
Weird Pregnancy Quirks? Quite a few. I haven't been able to drink straight water for over 2 months now. I get my water supply from watered down fruit juices and other drinks. For a week or so the only thing I could drink was apple juice. Then I started only drinking orange juice and for the last week I've added Sprite to that. I've also had heartburn pretty bad. I can smell EVERYTHING! I would rather smell nothing at all then to smell everything so strongly. Mostly Blaine's breath and garlic make me really ill with just a small sniff. Ewww, it's so groos! Poor guy!
Who's our doctor? Dr Cameron Anderson in Payson. He's great and super nice. We thought I was 10 weeks at my first appointment but we were only 6 weeks along. I saw the baby in the ultrasound, still not really realizing what was inside of me. I also heard the baby's heartbeat at 10 weeks and will get to hear it again next week at my next appointment.

Thanks for all the support and ideas! We truely appreciate all of them and are grateful for such loving family and friends. We'll keep you posted and let you know anything new as soon as we know!

Lavender at the YL Farm

2009-06-28T20:39:00.000-06:00

In honor of Young Living, Blaine got some great pics of the lavender as it is starting to bloom. It really is a pretty sight to see the huge fields of lavender as you drive down the freeway.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2009-06-28T20:28:00.000-06:00

It's not often that you see a rainbow and get to see the other side of it as well! We had to snap a picture. It was so beautiful! Unfortunately we couldn't get back far enough to catch the entire rainbow in one picture so you'll have to imagine as you scroll down through the pictures. What would you like to find at the bottom of the rainbow?

Blaine and I are so grateful for all the beautiful things that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. It's a testimony builder that we do have a Father in Heaven because of how perfect things in nature are, such as how the rainbow colors are perfectly in order every time and such a great icon to see after a stormy day.

Called to Serve

2009-06-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

Blaine's parents, Gary and Denise Stilson, have been called to serve a service mission. They will be working on humanitarian aid projects for countries all over the world. They mostly work on things for the Middle East making items such as dolls, quilts, sanitary napkins, clothing for children, and many other things. They are so happy and really enjoy spending their time serving their Father in Heaven. We feel really blessed to call them our parents and are grateful for their dedication to the Lord.

Nancy's Wedding!

2009-06-28T20:17:00.000-06:00

Nancy and Steve Scoffield

June 27, 2009

Logan Utah Temple

I'm super excited for Nancy and was honored to share their day with them. We went to her ceremony and then to the luncheon afterwards. It was such a nice and special day. I love being married and I am so glad that she gets to enjoy that blessing now too! I'm a little jealous that she gets to spend a week in California but so happy for her!

Even More Fishing Pics...

2009-06-16T19:03:00.000-06:00

So I can't really figure out why Picasa will only let me upload 4 pictures at a time to a post but this is why the last few posts have been short and disconnected. I'll have to work on that. Nonetheless, I wanted to get our other pictures up because this time we took the camera and got some much better pictures.

Here's another picture of me holding the "biggest" fish in the whole pond...not!

So I think this is the brother of the other fish that Blaine caught in the last post!

So I'm still not experienced at de-hooking a fish. Blaine is really good at it though although a couple of the fish we caught totally swallowed the hooks and we had to let them keep them for souveniers. That's the bad thing about catching blue gill, they have tiny mouths making it very hard to get the hook out. The large mouth bass that Blaine caught are really easy to de-hook.