Christmas Day 2008

Christmas for us was WAAAY relaxed. We woke up at the normal time of 7:30 and went out with Carter to see what Santa brought. Megan was still asleep, so we just looked in our stockings and played with the gifts and goodies while we waited for her to wake up. When she woke up about an hour later, we got down to business. We all took turns, so as to make the morning last longer. Because of the turn taking, we only made it about two thirds the way through opening till I had to feed Meg and put her back down for a nap. We paused opening the gifts for about an hour, which gave Carter time to play with some of his new toys, and then got right back in the game. Towards the end of the morning Carter got impatient with the whole taking turns thing, and started opening mine too. Funny boy.
It was a great morning. We were really spoiled. Bo got some Wii games and clothes and a PDA from my brother. I recieved some lotions and a book and some jewelry and cookbooks, along with a panini grill, which is the ULTIMATE!! Thanks Whit and Bridget! My other gift was a shopping trip in a few days to San Marcos, which has two HUGE outlet malls. Carter got his cowboy hat! He also got Hungry Hippos, puzzles, books, Kung Fu Panda, a guitar, a rug with car tracks on it, cars, and a PIRATE SHIP!!! Can you guess what his favorite gift was? Well first it was the hat until he saw the ship. That ship was worth every penny (which, by the way, I got an amazing deal on) he plays with it nonstop!
Sadly, I didn't take too many pictures. We were too busy having fun. Bummer.
Carter zonked out after the busy morning.

He loves this ship. In case you're having a hard time figuring out what's in his ship. . . those are his tractors and cars and just all his toys. The ship was the best place to stash them all.

Bo's playing one of the games he got. It's Mario vs. Sonic Olympic Games. The drums are out because he also got Rock Band 2.

Christmas Eve

We stayed home for Christmas this year. It's been a crazy year, and we needed a break. We decided to stay and have a quiet Christmas at our own place instead of traveling and stressing and all that. It was really fun too.
We found out that two other couples in our ward were staying in town for the holidays too, so we invited them over for Christmas Eve. It was a great night. Bo made some super yummy fajitas and I made salsa and guacamole. We had a fiesta! Ole! haha.
We played Compatibility and Rock Band. Both way fun games. We also read about the nativity from the Matthew and Luke and tried REALLY HARD to get Carter to pay attention and understand it. Sadly I don't think it worked.
After our friends left we all got to open one present. . . . pajamas!! What a shocker! We all put on our pj's except Megan. The poor girl had had a long night and was already tucked in bed, without getting to open hers. Oh well. I don't think she cared. :)
Here's some pictures of our fun-filled night!

The Wests.
The McEntires. Carter was REALLY hyper that night, in case you can't tell. . . he doesn't always look like that. haha

Our stockings laid out for Santa. Like how Megan's is the biggest???? Her's was actually donated to our ward and since our Megan is the only Megan in the ward, we got it! It was brand new--still in the package with Megan embroidered on it.

Nephi is a Pirate???

So you can't tell too well from this picture, but this is the front cover of Book of Mormon Stories. This picture shows Nephi standing amongst his family, with the building of his boat going on in the background. It is this picture that makes Carter think that Nephi is a Pirate. HOW??? Well it's easy. You see, boats aren't just boats. Nope. . . they're pirate ships. If someone has a boat then they really have a pirate ship, and if they have a pirate ship then they MUST be a pirate. So there you have it.
It's really frustrating when you're trying to teach him all about Nephi and he keeps thinking that Nephi is a pirate. And all the battle pictures?? Yeah he thinks they are "naughty knights," because he thinks all the people with swords are knights, and if they are fighting then they are naughty. Oh man. At least he knows that fighting is bad, I guess. Pretty much he's not getting anything from this book that he should. Oh well. At least we're trying.
Oh, Carter. You make me laugh.

Blurb disclaimer

This is for all of you who have had questions concerning publishing your blog through blurb.com, like I did.
Apparently Blurb no longer is compatible with blogspot.com. The reason being that blogspot changed some digital output something or the other. I did some research on the Blurb website and they said that they hope to solve this problem, but that they won't start working on it until 2009. Until then, if you want your blog printed through this site, they suggest copy and pasting. I read on the comments on the Blurb website that one user found an alternate website that would download your blog and then Blurb could take your posts from there. I have no clue if it works, but you can try it.
I'm sorry about this. I suggest waiting a couple months to see if they fix it. Waiting is a way better option than copy and pasting. . . . at least to me. Blogspot changed their digital whatever sometime this summer, and I had downloaded the program and my blog before this, hence why I have mine. I just didn't get my book printed for awhile because I am a procrastinator and we were having computer issues. They are actually really efficient.
As to the cost. . . Blurb has many different options. They charge you different rates depending on hard back, soft back, number of pages, and so forth. They were very easy to deal with. For our two books, shipping included, the total cost was $90. We got hardback, which is more, and we had around 75 pages. Go to blurb.com to get the pricing.
Good Luck! I hope this was helpful.

Carter's Mama

So I put Carter to bed tonight, and later as I was sitting on the couch I heard him calling to me, saying "Carter's mama!" Apparently there's more than one Mama here and he feels the need to distinguish. Silly boy.

Chubby

Who? ME???

Man I love this girl! I can't stop kissing those cheeks. Really. Check out her curly hair too. I hope she keeps those curls!

Santa and Snow

Our library rocks! Seriously. The whole bottom floor was flooded. That means that the awesome children's section was ruined. Did that close them down? Nope. They are still keeping the top floors open (you can get in through another entrance) AND they had SANTA for the kids!!! Of course I jumped on the chance to take the kids to see Santa.
We didn't have a guest appearance of Santa at the ward party so I was getting pretty depressed that Carter wouldn't get to see Santa at all this year, but then our awesome library pulled through! They even gave out new books to the kids. Sweet. Carter did a lot better with Santa this year. He didn't cry at all. He even told Santa what he wanted. A cowboy hat. So he can "ride the range". Yeah one of the Backyardigan episodes has cowboys and they sing a song about riding the range.
ALSO. . . as you might be able to guess from the title, it SNOWED!!!! That's right. It actually snowed down here in Galveston, TEXAS. Oh it was awesome. Carter was loving every minute of it. So were Bo and I. Megan couldn't have cared less. haha. It snowed on Wednesday, right after mutual. All of the youth in my ward were loving it too. Of course it didn't stick, but it was great all the same. We had some pretty huge flakes too.
Here are some pictures of Santa and the snow. The pictures didn't turn out too well of the snow, but it was wonderful.

Sneaky, Sneaky

So Carter has been really into sneaky mode lately. I don't know where he got it, but it both cracks me up and drives me crazy at the same time. Oh what a little kiddo.

His favorite hideout is behind his bedroom door. He thinks he's being sneaky and that no one knows what he's up to, but the problem is that he never goes into his room alone and shuts the door unless it's to do something he's not supposed to, hence the dead giveaway when the door is shut. His latest thing is to grab whatever item he wants but knows he can't have, book it to his room, and then shut the door. Hmmm. . . and then he is all super surprised when we find him, as if to say "how did you find me??" or "I can't believe you've discovered my secret hideout. . .again"

He needs to be potty trained. How do I know? Because Mister Sneaky will randomly run away in the middle of an activity to his secret hiding spot *behind the bedroom door* and then come back all stinky. Yep it's time. It's just sooooo exhausting.

On a final note of being sneaky, Carter will come up to us, mostly me, at random points in the day, and grab something of ours and then run off with it, all the while doing his "evil"laugh. I'm not kidding. He does it in a villain like laugh too. Three Ha ha ha's. Just like that. Three separate ha's each one a lower note then the one before it. His favorite things to snatch are Megan's blankets, the remote, and pretty much whatever is on my lap that I have forgotten about for two seconds. I swear he just sits in the background and just waits for the perfect opportunity to come running in and grab the beloved item and do his little "ha ha ha." Oh that boy. Thank goodness he's usually good about returning it after a few threats to time out. :)

So there you have it. My prankster/sneaky boy. There's no way you can see that in his cute face, is there?

embarrassed

I don't like to be embarrassed or made to feel stupid in public. Go figure. This happened to me the other day. It really made me mad and of course made me cry later when I was in the comfort of my own home and unwinding to Bo. (poor Bo) I like to think that I don't get mad at people that easily, but you can bet that if you do this to me, I'll most likely be upset for a LOOOOONG time.
In other news. . . I made fudge! My awesome cousin Jackie told me this super easy fool proof recipe, and I did it! Now let me just say that I am HORRIBLE at making fudge. True story. I can make toffee, divinity, and all sorts of goodies, but fudge is not one of them. It made my day that I finally made some yummy fudge. Thanks Jackie!!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a fun Thanksgiving! We spent it with my cousin Jackie and her family at our place. It was way good lovin' food. Everything turned out awesome. The only thing I regret is that I didn't make yams. I LOVE yams but no one else wanted them so I didn't bother making them. Shoulda woulda. Oh well. I also forgot to take pictures of us at the table. How could I forget such a thing? Let me just tell you why. . . because right as everyone sat down at the table ready to eat, Megan decided she was ready for her lunch and a nap. Yep. I missed Thanksgiving dinner. I actually got to come back to the table like 15 min. later so my food wasn't that cold and Lincoln was still eating his seconds. It was good though!
After dinner we played ROCK BAND!!! Oh man we love that game. We played for quite some time too. Jackie and fam. left around 5 ish and then at about 6:30 some other friends of ours came over to watch The Happening on our clear player. The clear play dvd player is a good friend of ours. We got it for Christmas last year. It edits movies for you and it is great.
Anyways. . . Thanksgiving was a great day. A very long and tiring day (Sorry Jackie for being so tired) but fun all the same. I love family and friends and was glad I got to hang out with both!!
The rest of the weekend kinda stunk, to be honest. Bo had a test yesterday and today that he had to study big time for, so we really didn't get to play much. He did take a little break on Friday to go see Bolt with us. I liked the movie. It was cute. So that was our Thanksgiving weekend! Oh yeah, we were thankfully all better when Thursday came. We had a real bad flu or something that made us sick up till Tuesday.
I did take some pictures of the the weekend, even though none show the meal. Enjoy! And yes, normally Carter DOES have pants on.
This was the end result of the turkey. At least you know it was good if it's all gone, right?

Carter ended up taking his nap on my lap.

Megan at the end of Thanksgiving day. The girl was out!! You're jealous of those chubby arms, aren't you!

Carter when he was sick. My poor baby.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm thankful for:

Bo

Carter

Megan

my friends

the Gospel

Temples

my family

my nice couches :)

sleep

yummy food

the opportunity for Bo to go to school

our Savior

Christmas

DVR

living in modern times

rock band

the power of prayer

medicine

naps

food storage

the prophets

etc.

etc.

etc.

It's finally here!!

So we finally finished making our blog book!! It arrived last week! We are soooo excited. We ordered two. One for Carter and one for us. We'll order three of the next book, this years blog postings, because Megan will be in them. We figure we'll print one for each child when they are in it, which is why Megan doesn't get one of the ones we just got. She's not in it. It's the only way to be fair to the future kiddos. haha. Anyways, we love this book! It's great. We got the hardback because we wanted it to last a long time. Carter probably would have the softcover ones bent by now.
For those of you who want to know how you can print yours, go to blurb.com. It's super easy to do.
Here's a peek at ours!

Was I?

I used to be cool. Or at least I thought I was. Was I though? huh.
I got an email from my cousin with some exciting news, and as I'm looking at the email, I notice an email address. Yeah it was my brother's. I had no idea that was his email. I've been using a way old one and had wondered for A LONG TIME why he never ever responds. I just figured he didn't want to talk or he was too busy. That's usually the answer to the phone calls that never get answered.
So my problem is this: why did my brother not give me his new email? How sad is that!! Seriously. You have no idea how much this upsets me. I'm so out of touch with him and we used to be SO CLOSE!! It breaks my heart.
It makes me wonder how much I'm missing out on things. Not just with my brother, but with everyone else too. I know I've been crazy lately. HELLO, I've had some big things happen to me! I'm guessing I'm just no longer someone worth talking to because I am no longer "cool." I feel like everyone is having these parties and I'm the kid left out.
I get it. Half of my brains went to child rearing. I can't hold very educated conversations anymore. I can't hold conversations because my kids are begging my attention. My vocabulary is shot. My creative brain is gone. Carter hides my phone so I can't call or answer calls.
The sad thing is, I sometimes wonder if some poeple no longer talk to me, or I'm kept out of the loop, because I'm married and have kids and am hence boring. If that's it, that's too bad. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to take, I just pray that that is not it.
That's all. I'm just upset. Sorry to vent on a blog, but I view this as a journal.
*I could be emotional because I'm sick. . .*

Diego, Dora, and Pablo

We have been watching TV pretty much all day. Actually its more like all day yesterday and all day today. Why? Because we have the good fortune of being SICK. It's a nasty sickness too. Poor Carter is burning up. He has rosy cheeks and has that glazed over-about to fall asleep look. Of course he WON'T fall asleep, but he's dead to the world all the same. Carter and I started feeling ill on Saturday night, and since then we have had all sorts of symptoms associated with the flu. I'm only hoping Megan doesn't get it. Or Bo. He has a test he really needs to study for.
I'm getting to really dread the theme songs of Diego and Dora. Oh those two shows drive me nuts! I could watch the Backyardigans all day though. . .

Excited to have a girl

I left Bo home with Megan this morning and took Carter with me to our church to work out. When I came home Bo was holding a sleeping Megan. The reason I'm blogging about this is because I thought it was so cute that he had changed her from her pj's into a onesie and pants AND he put a cute clip in her hair!!! How cute is that? He was so proud too. Man I love my family!

A day at the Aquarium

A few days ago a friend and I took our kids to the local aquarium. It was fun to get out of the house and let the boys run around. The cage that we are in is supposed to be a shark cage. We love the aquarium. It's so relaxing. They have lots of interesting fish too. Carter's favorite animal would have to be the sea turtle. They have a really big one. Mine? I don't know. I do know that when I see the Baracuda I get scared because I think of Finding Nemo. Yep. I told you I get too into shows. haha.

Headaches

I have been getting pretty bad headaches for the past week and a half at least. Last Monday I actually experienced a migraine for the first time. Not a fun experience. It started off with my eye acting all funky and after telling Bo, with him commenting that it might be a migraine, my right eye started hurting big time. Then came the pain behind the nose and other eye, then the nausea. Bo actually had to skip class because there was no way I could take care of two kids with that pain. Not long after we decided he should stay home, I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the toilet. Good thing I had cleaned it earlier. It went away later on in the evening, but since then I have had headaches almost nonstop. Every time it gets a little intense I start freaking out. I'm so worried that I'll get another migraine!
I don't know what's going on. I think it might be the birth control. A friend mentioned that maybe it's mold. The whole island is covered in it. Someone else commented that maybe its just the stress of the kids. I hope it's not the kids. I've actually been able to handle them well lately. We're actually having fun and getting out! So what is it? I'm hoping it's the pill and that once I get off it my problems will go away. I definitely don't want it to be the mold because that's just scary.

Megan's 2 month stats

We took Megan to the Dr. on Wednesday. It was not too good of an experience for poor Megan. Megan's newborn screening, that was taken at the hospital when she was born, was lost thanks to IKE, so that meant at this appointment she not only recieved her shots, but also had the screening redone. YAY.
It took the nurse 3 times to prick Megan's foot enoug to get the right amount of blood for the screening. She was crying pretty hard, but I was able to calm her down. THEN they brought in the needles for her 3 shots. . . and I thought she was crying hard earlier. HA! THe poor girl was SCREAMING. Needless to say, she slept pretty good the enxt two days thanks to that trying experience.

Here are her stats:
Head: I think it was 38 cm. but I can't remember. It was in the 50th percentile.
Length: 23.5 inches. 50th percentile
Weight: 14.5 lbs. 90th percentile - -- - that's right!!!

Oh yeah. . . Megan is SMILING now!!!

Weird? Me???

I know what you're thinking. . . weird things about me? Is this possible? Can there really be such things? Well after much thought, I have decided to let you all know that yes, there are quite a few odd things about me. haha.
I was tagged by both Stephanie Stout and my sister Libby to list 7 weird things about me. Here goes:

1. I like the smell of dirt. . . and not just any dirt. It's a specific kind of dirt. It's the dirt of a freshly dug potato field. Yep. I really do like it. I like going into a potato cellar and smelling it. Not a rotten one, but a fresh right after harvest one. What? I grew up on a farm!
2. I keep two text messages on my phone ALWAYS. These aren't just any texts either. They are both from Bo with cute endearing little words on them. Why is this weird? It's weird because of the REASON I keep them. A few months after my sister-in-law's brother died, she mentioned to me how she was upset she'd lost her phone because she had a couple messages from him on it. I keep my texts from Bo in case something ever happens to him. Morbid, I know. I'm just terrified of him someday being gone, so I keep those texts just in case, as a little reminder of his love. Now don't ask me about what happens when I lose that phone. . .
3. I kiss Carter, and now Megan, along with saying "I love you" every time I put them in the car. This is morbid too, I'm sorry, but I do this in case we get in a car accident. I want my kids to always know that I love them and so that if I die, the last words they hear from me were "I love you." Of course I talk to them in the car while driving, so maybe all of that becomes void. huh. I'm still going to do it anyway!!
4. I am EXTREMELY ticklish. Seriously. Just touching my feet tickles me. If Carter knew this, I would never get a break. It's that bad. Really. I'm ticklish the most on my feet, but I'm also ticklish on my knees, thighs, above the hips, ribs, under the arms, the arms, you get the point? I'm even ticklish in my mouth. Going to the dentist and orthodontist drive me NUTS. I hate it because of the usual. . . cavities and such. . . but also because they tickle me! The roof of my mouth gets it bad when they rub there hands along it accidentally when looking in my mouth. My tongue is ticklish too. Yep.
5. I'm way anal about checking the house before I go to sleep. I swear I check the kitchen stove at least 3 times before going to bed. The locks? I must check them at least half a dozen times throughout the day, not to mention at night. I have to make sure everything is off. Bo swears our place won't burn down with the burner on low, but I'd rather not test it.
6. For a long time, and I'm talking up until high school, I thought serial killers were CEREAL killers. I was always sooo confused as to why it was such a big deal when people talked about serial killers. Way blond moment, I know. I just imagined people must be going around stabbing cereal boxes or something, and was just always trying to figure out why it was such a shock to people when one was talked about, and why on earth would someone WANT to do that? What's the big deal with cereal? Oh man. *sigh*
7. I get WWWAAYY too into shows. Really. I can drown out ANYONE at ANYTIME. It's true. Bo can readily vouch for that. I get so into them that I make up little additional lives for them. Yeah. For instance: We watch the Backyardigans a ton these days. Some episodes only have, say 3, of the 5 characters in it. Now most people wouldn't give it a second thought, but me? I wonder where the other characters are! Are they at home sick? Did they go on vacation? Are the other characters mad at Austin and is that why he's not there??? So sad. And this is a CARTOON. Can you imagine what I do for shows with real people? I often catch myself smiling when one of the character is smiling, or basically copying whatever they are doing. If they are dancing, I usually twitch. It is true. It is sad. It is WEIRD.

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed it! I tag Brianna, Serena, Claudia, and Bridget. Have fun!

Can I do it?

So I was watching the news earlier this week and they had a portion of it devoted toward saving money. One lady, a financial something or the other, challenged three ladies in Houston to go one whole week without spending any money. I thought this was interested and am kinda tempted to try. I think I'll try it tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm not including grocery as part of this because I REALLY need to go grocery shopping. I didn't go grocery shopping at all last week because it's so hard to do now that I have 2 kiddos. Plus I'm going to need the help of cookies and sweets to get me through this. haha Anyways. . . wish me luck. Can I really do it? We'll see. . . .

Here are some pics of the past week. The ones of the pumpkin are actually from the day before Halloween. When we were done carving it Carter totally picked up a piece of the carving and started eating it. He loved it too. Gross.

Man this girl is cute!!!

Getting ready to take a nap together

Oh Carter

Since evacuating Ike, Carter has slept in 5 different beds. Thats right, 5. Because of the frequent change in lodging, we had to get Carter to go to sleep by lying down with him. Now we are at home and he still flips out if we don't lie down with him. We have sort of gotten better. Now he just screams for 15 min. when we refuse to lie down with him. Thats not the big issue. . . the BIG issue is that he's waking up at least twice during the night screaming bloody murder. He cries, screams, and gets out of bed and knocks/hits on the door. We don't want him to wake up Megan, so one of us rushes in and lies down with him to stop his crying. This has got to STOP. Bo and I hardly get a whole nights rest, not to mention, we aren't getting the chance to be together because we usually just end up sleeping with him. What do we do? I would normally just have him cry it out, but he's been getting LOUD lately and I'm afraid of him waking up not only Meg, but the people below us. Oh Carter, please give us a break!
Ike definetly stinks, but I will say this because I keep forgetting to post this and I want it to go down in my records, that because of the storm I was able to have Bo at home for Meg's first 6 weeks of life. Yep, no work or school. It was AWESOME. I don't know what I would have done without Bo's help. Two kids are hard!

VOTE!!!!

Did you vote? I sure hope you did. I did! I was a little disappointed though. . . I did early voting so I didn't get a sticker. I really REALLY wanted a sticker though. Oh well.
Go out there and VOTE. It's a blessing to live in a country that allows you to decide it's leaders, take advantage of it!
I've said my piece.
Out

Go McCain!

Halloween!

We had our ward party last week. It was held outside in the parking lot because our church building is filled to the brim with donated items. Actually it's pretty cool going through our building and witnessing the generosity of so many church members. It's neat to see first hand all that the church does in helping out disaster victims.

Back to Halloween . . . Carter was a pirate. He actually had a different pirate costume but I forgot to take pictures of him in it. This as his friend's costume that we borrowed before finally just deciding to buy our own. He is obsessed with pirates. It all stemmed from watching The Backyardigan's Pirate Treasure episode and listening to Veggie Tales "The Pirates who don't do Anything" song. Megan? Well she was supposed to be a flower, but she HATED being in the pot. We ended up just putting a big flower on her head that my friend Jorden made, and that was it. She stayed hidden at the party and during trick or treating in her carseat, so it wasn't a big deal anyways. Sorry Meg. Not much of a costume.

They had fun at the party. Carter got tons of candy, which of course meant that Mom and Dad got tons. haha. In the week between the party and Halloween Carter came up all the time with his empty pumpkin bucket and "trick or treat"-ed more.

Last night for Halloween we went to our friends, the Stouts, for a party and then afterwards went up to Clear Lake where my cousin Jackie lives and went Trick or Treating there. We went with Jackie, her husband, and their son Brigham who was a turtle. We also went with our friends the Granthams. Their son Phoenix was a pirate too, and Sequoia was little Red Riding Hood. We would have preferred to stay on the island, but with all the houses being gutted, there really wasn't anywhere to go. Either way, we had lots of fun and Carter got even MORE candy. Carter didn't get in bed till about 10 at night, hence we are having fun dealing with a very cranky and whiny kid today. Oh well. It was great and I must say that Halloween is even more fun with kids then it was when I was. It's fun seeing Carter get excited. He loved being a pirate.

October pictures

My kids are so stinking cute. Man I love them!! Carter is being such a good brother and helper. Its great. If I need diapers or wipes or anything, he's pretty good at getting it for me. He loves putting the pacifier in Meg's mouth. He'll also try entertaining her. Meg? Well she takes all of Carter in all chill. She doesn't fuss and just lets him do his thing.By the way. . . Megan is sleeping through the night! She usually sleeps from about 11 pm to 6 am!! Last night she slept from 10:30 to 7!