Mommy and Me Day!

Today was "Mommy and Me" day again at the Terrace Music School. I have to admit, I was very tired this morning and really didn't want to go...however when we got there my whole mood changed. Carter enjoyed it soooo much more this time. He was participating, smiling, running around and seriously having a great time!

This is what changed my mood, Carter is growing up so fast and I don't get to be with him all day, everyday so I need to cherish the times that we are together. We had so much fun, and afterwards Carter and I played in our basement until Grandma came to get him.

These are some pics of my sweet little Carter and his mom...it's amazing how he grew and I shrunk!

I LOVE being Carter's mom and can't wait to see the little man he's growing up to be.

Craft Night~

Scott and I try to have "Family Night" once a week, it usually ends up happening twice a month...but nevertheless it's what we try to do. Scott makes fun of me because when we were first dating I couldn't be more against being a hands-on mom...and now look at me!

Tonight it was about painting a mini-sized airplane. So it was off with the clothing and bring on the "craft table" I found these little craft kits at Michael's for $1, that's right $1 and it came with the paint, glue, paint brush and wooden pieces. Here are some priceless photos of our night:

This one Carter looks a little "high" off the paint. We're trying to teach Carter that although it says "non-toxic" we still don't want him sucking it off his fingers. (if you notice his fingers, you can tell that he preferred them over his paint brush)

We didn't finish the paint job tonight, but to Scott's dismay we will finish it another night.

Organic Fun~

Scott makes fun of me because I go to the health food store once a month to stock up on my "dairy free junk food." I pack the cart full of ice cream, cookies, chocolate and the best non-dairy brownies EVER! He's swears I'm the only person who goes to the health food store for JUNK.

Today I took Carter to Wild Oats in Salt Lake, I absolutely LOVE this place. I am a little bit of an organic freak too. Poor Carter gets organic gummy bears, yogurt, fruit snacks and juice. I figure he doesn't know the difference yet so why give him more of the refined sugar than neccesary, right?

Wild Oats has these ADORABLE mini shopping carts...Carter had a BALL. I even put his gummy bears in the cart and he went down every aisle pushing his little cart. It was so cute! By the end of the trip, he was making turns with the cart like a pro!

He wanted in his cart after he ran around the ENTIRE store with it, so I humored him and put him in it. He was seriously having so much fun!
Each cart has a tall pole with a mini flag on the end (probably so you won't lose your little one) but this is what each flag says....
I never knew Wild Oats could be so much fun for a little guy, I will be making this trip more often now that I know Carter has a good time!

Amazing Progress

I'm so glad that Scott and I got to have our "date night" last night because he is working ALL weekend again. But nevertheless I got a TON of things accomplished while I didn't have Carter. Although I didn't do all of these things yesterday, here are some amazing Before and After photos of our progress!

This is our dining room that connects both the living room and kitchen together...

Same room, just a different angle... (may I never have to vacuum again!)

This is our "lovely" bright orange kitchen...does it get any brighter than that?...

This is the bar area that we seriously chopped in half, notice the weird "fish" shape it was before...
We still need to finish the edge of the bar but other than that it's done!
This is where you first walk into our house from the driveway...

This is the actual front door, but no one ever uses it...

These transformations have taken place over the last year and we are almost done! There were so many little miscellaneous projects that were half done (because it seems that the list NEVER gets done) so I was able to finish everything today and get ready for baseboards soon!

Date Night

This picture is actually from this time of year in 2004. But I didn't have any really recent ones of just Scott and I so I thought this one was fun. Yesterday my mom watched Carter while I was at work and she kept him over night for us. Although Scott is working today, I have so many little pojects to do today and not having Carter is making things sooo much easier.

But Scott and I totally took advantage of not having a child last night and went out to dinner (where we could just talk and have a good time instead of making sure Carter's not loud or throwing food) and then we watched a movie On Demand from Comcast and just got the rare chance to RELAX! That seriously NEVER happens in our house.

Needless to say I really owe my mom, but last night was so much fun and really rejuvinated us....I encourage everyone who can to "dump" your kids off for the night and just enjoy hanging out as a couple again.

From the Beginning....

My cute sister-in-law posted a "blast from the past" post on her blog the other day and it inspired me to do the same.

As many of you know, Scott and I are young but have been together forever! We met in September 2001, when I was just 16 and Scott was turning 17. (It's funny to think how young were, I have siblings older than that right now!) I was a Junior in high school and Scott was a Senior. And we've been together ever since!

This is a picture of the first trip Scott and I ever took, we drove to Las Vegas with his family. This was taken at the Hoover Dam. (Ahh, to be that skinny again!) This was such a fun vacation. Because we were still only dating, the sleeping arrangement ended up in my favor...Scott got the "cot" while I got an entire queen bed to myself!

This is seriously a funny photo! This was Scott's Northridge High Prom picture. We were so young!!!! This was in 2002. Did this picture bring back some really fond memories when I saw it!
This was the next year in 2003 before my Senior Prom at Clearfield High. This was my first strapless dress, that's when I knew what I wanted in a wedding dress.
This is when we first moved into our apartment in Bountiful. Scott was working on Hill Air Force Base as an airplane painter and I was going to school at the University of Utah and working for Rumbi Island Grill as their Marketing Assistant.
This is one of my favorite days! The picture was a little blurry, but on this day I knew that I would be done with the University of Utah FOREVER! I seriously hated school, I hated playing the games the professors made me play and I hated feeling like I was wasting my time. So, this day was so special to me because I knew I was DONE!
This is the one day in my life where I was the center of attention and LOVED it! Everything that day was PERFECT. My mom and I had planned so much, I had family fly in from out of town and everything was just like I imagined!
This is my favorite picture of our sweet little "creature" (as Scott likes to call him) He was 3 months old in the picture. He was such a small infant that even at 3 months he was still in new born clothing!
This is the latest picture of our little family. We have come so far over the last 7 years and although there have been times where we've felt like there was no hope, we've made it. Scott is my best friend, he was the only real friend I had in high school and I will be forever grateful to him for being there for me (even when things were really tough in our lives) Getting married really didn't change our relationship, because we were so comfortable with eachother after being together for so many years. But bringing Carter into our lives has made us not only grow up, but we've become better people in the process.
I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us!

Mommy and Me Music Class

Washington Terrace has this AWESOME school for music and dance! I drove by the building the other day and called to see what they offered. For Carter's age they had a "Mommy and Me Music and Dance Class." So I made an appointment and we went there this morning!

Carter absolutely loved it! There were 4 other kids there with their moms and we danced, sang, ran around and played with verious musical instruments! I signed us up to go every week now, it's only $8 per week, so I thought it would be soooo worth it!
At the end of the class, we sang the "good-bye" song and Carter got a stamp on his hand...he thought this was the coolest thing ever.
This class totally wore this child out! (I love it) When we got home, he barely made it through lunch before falling asleep!

Bite-Size and SUPER-Size

Scott's family inherited a Shih-Tzu named Stevie from his sister-in-law about 6 years ago...well he's the BIGGEST shih-tzu EVER! When we go over to my in-law's house we usually bring our little Timmy with us. It's then that you really see how gigantic Stevie is.

I decided that we have a "SUPER-size" and "Bite-size" shih-tzu in the family.

Stevie weighs in at about 27 heavy pounds (that's more than Carter right now) while our Timmy is a lightweight at about 11 pounds.
So funny! These two have become good friends though.

Carter's CRAZY Hair

I'm sure you've all noticed that in EVERY single picture of Carter he has CRAZY hair. My poor child has this thick, curly and crazy hair that's all because of me! Anyway, he seriously HATES it when I do his hair, but he was so cute in his little outfit and shoes that the hair NEEDED to be done.

So, like a good mom, I made Scott do his hair. Here are some pics just to let you know why I don't do his hair on a regular basis.

These are seriously the CUTEST shoes ever! They even make Carter a little taller, so he looks like a "little person" wearing them.

Carter's a Stinker!

Yesterday was such a productive day! Scott and I finally organized our office and Carter's playroom. Things just kind of got thrown in each room and not really put anywhere in particular...needless to say both rooms looked like disaster areas!



Here are some really cute pics of Carter palying in his newly organized playroom!


After that was done, we put Carter down for a nap while Scott and I continued on our "mission." Scott was putting some boxes downstairs and found Carter wide awake in our LAUNDRY ROOM! That little stinker opened up his door, went through our bedroom, opened that door and cruised into the laundry room. So, the next picture says it all...
That's right now our ENTIRE house is completely "carter-proof" (As I like to refer to it) He's only 18 months and can already open completely closed doors...that little stiner!

"Gated Community"

My mom watches Carter every Friday and this past Friday the weather was sooo nice. Carter wanted to be outdoors the entire day! Well, unfortunately for Carter, my mom still has to get things done while he's over, so we created "Carter's Gated Community!" She has a big deck coming off the back door, so we left it open and put up the baby gate for the stairs and Carter was in heaven. He couldn't go very far either, so my mom was thrilled.

At first he was a little confused with the gate but he soon got over it and played in his boat.

Dumpster-Diving!

I really should have rolled down my window before I took these photos...but this was way too funny not to share!

Scott's little brother Kyle got us started on this bad habbit, and it's now started in my family, but we live right by a Sara Lee Bakery Outlet...and they often throw away completely edible food! We're talking "Grandma Sycamore's bread, Sara Lee Bagles, even Sara Lee Cake snacks sometimes!

And yes...from the outside this looks totally wrong and disgusting, but take it from me, this is not only saving our grocery bill but it's totally hilarious to watch! Scott goes dumpster diving in the Sara Lee Bakery Outlet's dumpster!!!!!

For those of you still reading in amazement...this is a picture of our FREE goodies we got in only one trip!

And just to ease a few more minds, the dumpster never has real garbage in it...only bread and bagles.

Notice the whole grain bread in the back...in the store that goes for almost $4 a loaf! And Scott got it for FREE!!! Think about it, if we were to go to the store and buy these items, we would have spent well over $20 and we got it all for FREE! (It's amazing what living on a tight budget will do to your pride level)