A little bit of summer!!

 Thought I'd post a few pics from this summer. We've had such a crazy busy and fun summer so far. This doesn't even do it justice, but something is better than nothing right???

Jake and Carter for one last boat trip before Jake left on his mission. Carter thought he was so cool getting to hang out with all the "older" kids. Carter is a teenager stuck in a 7-year old's body. He LOVES boats, so this was epic for him!

Nick and Carter.

 Nick is engaged to our niece, Stephanie. They are getting married in February. Carter just adores him.

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to Mexico. We love our place down there. It's been so great for our family to be able to make so many memories.

 Grandpa Steve and Carter totally crashed!!

 Carter loves it when daddy launches him!! Scott is such an amazing dad. He's not always in the pics because he hates his picture taken, but he's always there and part of the fun. I don't always express how much I love him or how grateful I am for him, but man am I ever. He really truly is my best friend and the older I get the more I realize how lucky I am to have a great marriage. Okay enough of the sap......

Carter trying to surf. What you don't see is daddy holding the board until he gets up and all the little girls that came to watch. Oh my goodness the girls were giggling and he was totally showing off. Way too young!!! 

Doesn't he look so sweet??? He is sweet - most of the time:):):)

Daddy and Carter. It was SO hot there!!

Carter and Grandma. I let him pick out a treat and he insisted that I buy one for her too. I had no idea that this is what he had in mind. Grandma is super silly and fun though!! He just can't get enough of her- ever!!!

My brother, Clint and me. Rare pic of the two of us.

 Cousin time at the cabin. Scott  towed all the kids around the lake with the row boat- all day. Such an awesome uncle and dad. 

Mother and son's campout. Carter's bff moved to Chile and they came back to visit. His awesome mom (who is also one of my bffs) hosted an amazing mother and son's campout on her parents' property. How cool is that? We had such a great time, but we're a cool bunch of moms! LOL We can't wait for them to move back. Life just hasn't been the same without them. 

Can't forget our Rowdy Roo!! Isn't he the cutest dog ever? This is Rowdy at obedience school. I'd say he's pretty happy:)

Now that things have slowed down a bit this summer Carter has been kind of bored. He and bored don't mix. I went downstairs to get a Diet Coke and this is what I came back to. Seriously, wasn't gone more than 5 minutes. He was SO proud!!! I was- well- I took a picture!! Ha ha! Just got a laugh because my goodness he's cute!!

Saying goodbye

We've had a crazy summer so far, but today was one of the harder days. Today, two of our nephews (and we only have three LOL) reported to the MTC to start their two year Mormon missions. Jake (above) is going to Mesa, AZ and Ryan (I didn't have a picture on my phone) is going to Colorado Springs, CO. It's kind of exciting because Carter was adopted in Gilbert, AZ right next to Mesa, and Scott's dad was the president of the Denver South mission which the Colorado Springs mission split off of. So, we feel a connection to both places. We said goodbye to Ryan a month ago since he lives in Utah, but last night we said goodbye to Jake. He left today from Oregon. Carter has been hysterical over both of them leaving because they are his only "big boy" cousins. He's especially close to Jake because he has grown up with him. As he cried hysterically tonight he said, "I miss Jake so much. I feel like my heart is broken into pieces. Like each day another piece of my heart is just chipped away." It's so dang hard to say goodbye even we wouldn't want them anywhere else right now.

We are so proud of them. Jake had a scholarship to BYU and Ryan had one to the University of Utah. Both left the security of that and are willingly serving for the next two years and although, we will miss them terribly, our hearts are swelling with pride over their righteous and selfless decision to serve. We are so very thankful for the wonderful examples they are to our son. Jake gave Carter, Tyler (our 8 year old nephew), and Ryan each a CTR tie tack. He told the little boys that he and Ryan would wear them every Sunday and he wanted the little boys to wear them every Sunday as well and think about what he and Ryan were doing. I was thankful he did this because Carter really struggles with church and Jake knows that he does. This was such a thoughtful way to encourage him on Sundays!

Arizona and Colorado are going to be extremely blessed as our family willingly lets them borrow two of its finest members for the next two years. Good Luck boys!! We love you and will be praying for you!! xo

Puppy Love

So, puppy life has been eventful. Carter now has a partner in crime which can be funny and stressful at the same time. Here are few pictures from the last couple of months of our journey through puppyhood!!

We had weirdly warm weather on Valentine's Day, so Carter decided to take a swim. First, I must say that we have a continuous hot water heater, so we hook the hose up to it when the kids want to play outside. We live in Oregon, it's never warm enough for cold water outside!! Second, the contraption Carter is swimming in is a pond liner our neighbor was trying to get rid of. Carter managed to talk our neighbor into letting him have it. Carter told us he wanted to build us a pond! Oh, he makes us laugh. Anyway.......... It makes for a makeshift swimming pool. It was probably 70 degrees outside and the water was almost hot tub temp. Rowdy jumped in and loved it!!

Rowdy loved swimming so much that a few days later he escaped from our fence and went for a swim in our neighbor's actual pond. There was a lot of screaming (it's a Koi pond) and a lot of chasing as he was splashing around. I attempted to fish him out of the pond when the motion detector sprinklers came on drenching me. I might add this was the second attempt at swimming in one day. I gave him another bath and  hooked him up outside to take a breather only to find him covered in mud again!! I give up! (Notice all the things that have been dragged into the flower beds as well.) Not a great day!!

We attempted to go for a walk. Rowdy and Carter are both like taking Curious George on a walk. It's exhausting!! But it made for a cute picture after the fact.

He's a cute puppy!! Especially when he's laying on the shoes he ruined!!! (Scott was laying on the bed completely unaware as he munched them too!!)

Look at those giant paws!!!

Did I mention that he sleeps like a rabbit? When he lays on his back while playing he looks like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood and for whatever reason it makes him sneeze.

Even though it's incredibly crazy, these two are buddies. Carter told his friend today that he has a puppy right now to take the place of the little brother he doesn't have, but that there is still room for a little brother or sister in our family and then we will be a family of five. It was cute and it was in response to his friend telling him he's lucky to be an only child!! Ha ha!! Wish us luck!!

Happy Birthday Carter!!

Happy Birthday Carter!! It's so hard to believe that my baby boy is 7!! Carter really wants a baby brother or sister, but since we have no control over that. We decided that the best we could do was a puppy. He's been asking for one for 2 years, but Scott and I just felt like the timing was not right. Well, this year we decided it would be okay. So for Carter's birthday we got him a puppy!! We decided on a Goldendoodle. His name is Rowdy and he is 1/2 English Cream Retriever and 1/2 Standard Poodle.

Rowdy and Carter have been best buds. We're pretty sure Rowdy thinks Carter is another dog. He jumps on him and tries to push him over and wrestle him. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Happy Birthday Carter!! We love you so much and can't imagine our lives without you. You are for sure the best thing that has ever happened to us!! We love you and we love your birth family for allowing us to be your parents!!

2012- A Year of Firsts

2012 was such an exciting year for Carter. He had so many first experiences. He turned 6. He finished kindergarten and started first grade. He had a great time learning many new things. There is part of me that is so proud of him for all of his new accomplishments, but part of me that is so sad that he's getting so big. It's hard to let go of my baby, but I know it's necessary for his growth. Thankfully, he has a great dad that helps me understand the needs of boys a little bit better. Sigh..............

Here goes................

This is just funny!!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Denise took Carter fly fishing this summer in Utah. There is a fish farm just down the road from their house. Carter caught on pretty quickly and then he informed me that they had a guy come to his school and teach the kids how to fly fish. That's one of those "You know you live in Oregon when......." kind of things. Ha ha!!

Carter also learned how to dive off of the diving board this summer. Carter is a little water bug. He loves to swim. We still have him in private lessons once a week. We do this probably 2 or 3 months out of the year. He is now able to swim 25 meters with successful side breathing. He learned the butterfly stroke this year and it's about the cutest thing ever to watch. He's been diving off the side of the pool, but after I showed him how to do it off the diving board he had no problem doing it all by himself.

I was not terribly thrilled at this one. I'll start by writing that Carter is probably capable of driving a car by himself and I'm totally not exaggerating. We let him steer the quad and tractor when we are on it with him. He has begged for a while to drive this quad by himself, so we finally, very reluctantly let him. He did great. We are not making a practice of this. He still needs to ride with an adult. He's capable, but I just don't think a 6 year old has the best judgement. So for now it's still a supervised activity. 

Carter learned to kayak this summer. Scott's parents have a cabin in Florence, Oregon. It sits on a small lake that can only have non-motorized boats in it. Carter LOVES it over there. His favorite thing is going in the boat with his dad. Scott has worked with him on being able to row in the rowboat and paddle the canoe, but Scott can't get in the kayak with him. So, Scott tied the kayak to the back of the rowboat and had Carter sit in the kayak. Scott rowed around to let Carter get the feel of the boat. Then he let the rope out a little further and had him try to paddle. Carter was really nervous, but he was so brave and Scott was so incredible assuring him that he would be fine. I wish I would have gotten it on video. It was so cute because after an hour or so of this Carter said, "Dad, I'm ready. I want to do it on my own." So, Scott untied the kayak and off Carter went. He did great and it's now one of his most favorite things to do.

More of Carter kayaking. His total new love!!

Carter also learned to ride a dirt bike this summer. He has a buddy at school who races motocross. Carter had been begging for a year for us to let him ride. I kept telling him no and then Scott talked to me. He felt he was ready and that I needed to let him do it. I absolutely hate this kind of stuff, so it's incredibly hard for me to let him do it. I knew his dad was going to make sure he was protected and would teach him how to be safe. Turns out he's pretty good. He won't be racing or doing anything like, but I suppose riding on the grass is okay;)

We ended the year, by going to Utah to go skiing. We do this every December and we usually go back for spring break. Carter has been begging for 2 years to learn how to snowboard. I used to snowboard a lot and I know the risks. He caught onto skiing so fast that the ski school actually said when he was four they were comfortable having him learn to snowboard. I, however, wasn't okay with it. So after consulting quite a few experts we decided that when he was 7 he could learn. He was about a month away from being 7 this trip. We got to the resort a little late and Carter thought we were just going skiing. It was fun to see how excited he was when Grandpa Steve went and got him a snowboard. Scott couldn't ski because he had just had knee surgery number 8- poor guy! I stayed with Carter the whole day while daddy watched in the lodge. He did fantastic! I was one proud mama!!