Blessed

I think it's been at least a year since I've posted a blog.  Mostly because I've been slaving away in school and haven't even had a spare moment to write about it.  I mostly wanted to post because I am so grateful.  I know that being born into the gospel is one of the greatest blessing that I could have ever been given.  Friday night, John, Carter and I went down to Temple Square with my wonderful sister, her husband, and their little boy Riley.  It was packed, cold, and I threw up in the car on the way down (yeah, I STILL get car sick).  When we got there, seeing the temple all lit up and beautiful made all the difference.  We got to watch the nativity and be reminded of the reason why we celebrate Christmas. 

On the way home,  John and I were talking.  It went something like this:
John:  I think you need to pick up some extra shifts this week if you can.
Me:  OK, I can probably do that.
John:  Yeah, my entire check is going to the house payment so it's on you to make money so we can get Christmas gifts.
Me:  OK, if I work most the week, I can probably make enough.

Something you need to know about my little family.  Each year, we try to find a family that is in need that we can help.  When I was young, my dad was out of work and I remember receiving beautiful Christmas gifts from people in the ward (anonymously).  That has stayed with me my entire life and now I try to pay it forward each year.  This year however, I wasn't sure how we were going to pay for our own gifts, let alone gifts for another family.  Driving home, I just kept saying to John, "I still want to try and get gifts for another family, somehow, some way, we will make it happen". 

Saturday morning, I was sitting on the couch working on my portfolio and John went out to take something to his sister.  When he got back, he said "Come here!!!"  I was busy working on my portfolio so I said, "Why?"  He said "JUST COME HERE!!"  So I walked over and he was holding three pieces of paper.  I looked down and he had three checks in his hand from Intermountain Healthcare.  We had overpaid on some medical bills...not just a little but $377.50 to be exact.  I looked at him and immediately burst into tears.  He said to me, "I hope those are tears of joy" and I just nodded my head yes.  I also came to find out that we had overpaid on some other medical bills and we had another $110 coming our way in reimbursements.

Heavenly Father had taken care of us.  I honestly do not even know what or how I had overpaid almost $500 in medical bills and not known it.  I don't think I need to know.  All I know for sure is that we will be able to help another family have a wonderful Christmas.  We will be able to buy gifts for our son and a few gifts for each other.  Heavenly Father really does make a way for us.  I will testify to that. 

      AND  

Love always, 

My baby is almost 18 months!

 Carter is getting SOOOOOOO big!  Here are some recent pictures of him!  Enjoy!

This is a blog post I started (and never finished) in July...enjoy haha!

Apparently, I'm not very good at blogging when I say I'm going to...so sue me.  Anyhooser, summer has been pretty fun considering we've spent most of it out in the yard...but who is complaining?  Certainly not me :)

Alright, I guess I'm starting right where I left off...on the 23rd, we did fireworks at my sister in law's house and Carter absolutely LOVED them!

 His first sparkler...which he wanted to eat

You guessed it, the flash was unbelievably bright!

He's the cutest!  LOVE that dimple!

I definitely took like 800 pictures that night but I'm sure you don't want to see them all...moving on!

We took Carter boating with his bestie, Riley.  (And Crys and Ash...duh).  He really liked that too.  We don't get to spend as much time with them as we'd like but we really like to get together as often as we can.

 Carter in his massive life (I would say jacket but it's not) bodysuit!  PS, he's no longer a binky baby :)

 Johnny Poo and Riley

 Swimming at Pineview

Daddy and Carter before lunch

 My boys playing in the water

 My favorite picture of the entire day...he is ASLEEP!  He is sitting up in the boat, while it's going 25 MPH...sleeping!  ha ha, I love it!  He even started drooling.

 Me getting ready to tear it up ;)

 John...babysitting lol

 Sexy farmer tan husband

 He loves his mama

 Johnny Poo on the tube

Me and Crys before Harry.  We loved it :D  Please excuse my creepy eyes, sunburned-ness and cleve...yup

 

My baby drinking from a cup :)  We're trying to start him early so that when he turns 1, we can ditch the bottle for good

 

This is at Crystal's the night before we went to Lagoon.  Carter was playing in Riley's ball pit :)

 "Shh...don't speak"

 Both zonked out on the way to Lagoon

 waiting in line for the boats!  One of the few rides they can go on.

Oh aren't they so big???  I can't believe it!

Oh boy...

I'm going to be completely honest...the only reason I'm posting to my blog is because it's one of my requirements for my Technology class haha.  It's really been...a while since I've posted.  It's not that I don't love blogging, because I do.  I just find myself so busy that the last thing I think is "Hmm...haven't posted to the blog today."  It's usually, "The house is finally clean and Carter is in bed, I could watch a movie but I'm just so tired."  The clock usually reads about 9:05 by this time ;)  Life has been pretty intense lately.

....This is my new best friend... His name is Shaun T.  He is the trainer on the Insanity workouts which I have been doing with 2 of my best girls, Shelley and Jordan.  They are in all my ELED classes with me and I love them both dearly.  Insanity is...well, the name says it all.  They are freaking crazy intervals of pushups, squats, running, jumping and every single combination of the above listed that you can imagine haha.  But really, I've only been doing it for a little over a week and I've already seen amazing results.  about 50 more days and I'm going to look like <-------him...only minus the boyness and plus some girlness ;)




I've been working quite a bit.  I like my job, most days.  I really can't complain...I make really good money for the amount of effort I put in...it's pretty easy and I love *MOST* the people I work with :)

I also got accepted into a scholarship program this semester called Reading in Motion.  I go into a Life Skills Kindergarten class twice a week and teach them reading skills through music.  It is a magical experience (as corny as that sounds).  They learn so much and I get so excited when they make breakthroughs.  I cannot wait to be a teacher and be able to implement all of the things I've learned into my own classroom!

Now for the update I'm sure everyone wants:  CARTER!!!  He is so incredibly great!  He is silly, funny, crazy, happy, loving, energetic, everything a mother could ask for.  He has been saying a lot more words lately...his newest being "Stop it" because I say it to him.  He even points his chubby little finger at me when he says it.  When I ask him if he's hungry, he tells me "Yes" or "Yeah".  So funny, he and John were watching me do one of my workouts the other day and I was doing uppercuts so John taught him to say "uppercut".  It was way funny.  Here I am, sweating my guts out, and I'm laughing because my 16 month old is saying "uppercut".  He loves to play with blocks, his toy elephant, his race track and his ball crawl balls, just to name a few.  He has a stuffed lamb that he sleeps with named Fifi.  He sucks on the tag attached to her bum and it makes me laugh.  I have no idea how it started or how long it will last but it's great.  Only 2 more months until the blissful moment when he goes to nursery :D  I am teaching the 7 year old class and John takes him to Sunday School and Priesthood with him (If his patience lasts that long).  He just always wants to run around and be crazy, which isn't really a church activity :)  Unfortunately, I don't have any really great pictures of him that are recent.  I have a hard time getting him to hold still long enough for the camera to focus ;)

I guess that's all for now.  Please don't expect another blog until either Spring Break or summer vacation haha.  That will be when I'm free from school ;)

As always, thanks for reading!