Our 100th Post! (among other news)

Well, to save money in this bad economy, we canceled our "100th Post" Parade, but if you use your imagination, this post is almost as exciting... (haha)

A few fun things have come up before the New Year! First of all... *drumroll*... CARRIE GOT HER FIRST TOOTH!! Finally!!! That little thing has been teasing us for weeks! Yesterday it finally poked through and today, (suprise suprise) Carrie actually napped well! She's been rotten about sleeping the last couple of days, but it seems the tooth was the problem! If you were expecting any pictures, you should know better. She won't even hardly let me take a look at it, let alone let the camera take a look. Someday...

In other news, our FHE this week was going to see the Mesa Temple Christmas lights! It was cold, but really pretty. Here are some pictures from it.

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And also finally, a video of Carrie walking. This is from last week right before she decided to start walking ALL the time, so it's not as good as she can do it now, but you can get a taste. More video to come, I'm sure.

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Belated Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was great this year! This is our first Christmas since we've been married that we didn't have to pack a suitcase! This year was at my (Rebecca) parent's house and they only live 10 minutes away. Yeah!!

Justin got to be Mr. Mom on Christmas Eve because I was working. They paid me an extra 7 dollars an hour to have me work that day, so it wasn't too bad. ;) We went to my parents for Christmas Eve dinner with our friends the Beesons. And mmmmm, it was really yummy. I don't think we have ham nearly often enough. Our after-dinner festivities included a $1 gift exchange game. We came home with a paddle ball thing and a growing alligator toy that is sitting in a huge bowl of water on my kitchen counter right now "growing". [Insert Rebecca rolling her eyes at Justin's excitement -HERE-]

Then as our family tradition has always been, we opened our Christmas pajamas. Carrie got purple princess jammies, as you can see in the picture below.

Then we got to go home to our own apartment to sleep! (In case you couldn't tell, I was really excited not to have to pack for this holiday)

Christmas morning, my little sister had to work until 10am, so my mom decided we would do brunch and then open presents. By the time we got over there and finished eating, it was 11:00 and Carrie was beyond ready for a nap. We ended up putting her down and opening our presents without her. I think it turned out for the better though because we were able to get the majority of the mess cleaned up before she woke up.

My brothers and sister (and Justin *not looking) enjoying all the gifts

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Our collective spoils! In case you can't tell what's in the big frame, it's a beautiful picture of all the Latter-Day Prophets. There are also a LOT of gift cards including, movie passes, Pei Wei, PF Changs, Texas Roadhouse, Wal-Mart and Deseret Book. YEAH!!

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Carrie's presents all alone under the tree waiting for her to wake up from her nap.
.Carrie's Christmas haul (minus one that's still in the mail somewhere). I got so involved in helping Carrie unwrap the presents that I forgot to take any pictures of her actually ripping into them! Oh well, she didn't really get it anyways!
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Grandpa helping Carrie play with her new blocks! She mostly just likes to UN-build the towers.
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"Help! I can't get up the stairs! Someone put this gate in the way!" (Also a picture of her adorable Christmas sweater!)
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Running all over the house. The blurriness of her leg is because she's moving. In my last post on the 23rd, I said she was walking about 50% of the time. That night it was like something clicked and she decided she wanted to walk! Since then she's been NON-STOP! I'd say she's walking about 99.5% of the time. The only time she crawls is if she falls and has to get to something to help her stand back up. It's so much fun to watch!

We also got to go see "Sherlock Holmes" on Saturday and go out to Olive Garden for my little brother Jake's birthday. Carrie only joined us for dinner. (Thanks for babysitting Beesons!)

*Last story for this post, I promise ;) Last night, I don't know why, but Carrie had the hardest time falling asleep. She doesn't take an afternoon nap on Sundays because we're at church (much to my disappointment). Anyways, she was ready to go to sleep at about 6:15. She ended up falling asleep in my mom's arms around 7 while we were still over at their house for dinner. She woke up when we put her in the carseat to go home and NEVER fell back asleep!! We tried everything we could think of: clean diaper, full tummy, room not too cold, not too hot, she had her binky, her "B", no fever, we even tried tylenol in case her still not-yet-existant tooth was bothering her. Nope...

Because we felt like we had run out of possible answers, I finally got her out of her crib and brought her into our bed. We turned off the light and she finally fell asleep... at 10:15pm!! Once she had been asleep for about 10 minutes I got up and put her back in her crib, but what a process!! Poor Justin got up at 5 to go to work, but lucky me, Carrie and I slept in until 9:15 this morning.

We'll be going out of town for New Years, so I probably won't be writing again until after that weekend. Hopefully with movie of Carrie walking!!

11 months!

I know that every month I say how "time flies", but does anyone else think time is starting to fly at warp speed?! Here are Carrie's 11 month stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 3 oz...........6th percentile
Height: 29 inches............60th percentile

And in case you were wondering about the progress since the "teething" post... There is none. That one tooth has looked and felt like it was going to break through the gums at any second for a couple of weeks now... Slow and steady wins the race right?

And progress since the "walking" post. She does about half and half of crawling and walking to get around. It's amazing how such a teeny tiny person can walk!

Roller Coaster Ride

No, we haven't riden a roller coaster lately, we're living one. The "UPs and DOWNs" fom this weekend.

UP: Justin got to stay home with Carrie and me on Friday!

DOWN: The reason he stayed home was because he was sick...

UP: Justin started to feel a little bit better on Saturday

DOWN: Carrie's tooth STILL hasn't broken through and she's had a runny nose for days

UP: Carrie played the Wii for the first time (sitting on my lap while I held her hand in mine with the wii-mote)

DOWN: She knows where the wii-mote charger can be found now and tries to get the cords

UP: I got to go shopping with my mom while Carrie took a really good nap

DOWN: Saturday night, I started to feel yucky...

UP: Beautiful Christmas program at church

DOWN: Justin's feeling-better was a fluke and we had to go to church without him.

UP: Carrie looked ADORABLE in her Christmas dress! And we got pictures!

UP: Justin felt better enough to go to work this morning (or he's just toughing it out... What a good man I snagged!)

UP: Thanks to Sudafed, I'm feeling better this morning too!

UP: Carrie slept awesome last night and we didn't get up this morning until 8:45!

I guess the roller coaster is momentarily on a big climb up. Let's hope it stays that way! Enjoy the pictures! (sorry the lighting isn't the best!)

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Beautiful Christmas Dress

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On the run! "I'm done taking pictures!"

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"Okay, I guess I can do one more with Rooster"

Teething...

Well we avoided the monster of teething for almost 11 months... I guess it had to start sometime. Carrie has one tiny bottom tooth about ready to break through the gums and she's miserable. Poor baby...

**FAMILY PICTURES**

As promised, here are our family pictures from last weekend!

(I know it doesn't look like it, but it was really cold!! We had Carrie bundled up between pictures)

Hop you enjoy them as much as we do!

Meeting Santa: Part Two

This morning we went to my parents' ward Christmas party, "Breakfast with Santa". It was a pajama party and we ate picnic style on blankets in the cultural hall. It was so much fun. I'm sad we didn't get any pictures of the decorations because I spent an hour and a half helping set them up last night. My dad is the ward activities director and he's awesome at it.
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Anyways, Carrie got to see Santa again and I think I would still consider her "neutral" on the idea :) We got a couple good pictures the first time around. After the line died down, we decided to take her back and pull out the video camera for a few seconds. Of course... this time, she started to cry. I think she's all Santa'd out for the next couple weeks. Enjoy the pictures!

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Waiting patiently in line to sit on Santa's lap

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"Mom, are you sure about this guy?..."

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Santa was trying to get Carrie to turn and look at the camera, but I think it looks like he's giving us a warning "You better be good" :)

Oh, and by the way, that's our Christmas tree on the table behind Santa. My parents borrowed it because theirs is too big. So now I have fake pine needles all over my carpet from the tree being moved. Oh well... The party turned out great and we're all excited for Santa to visit in a couple weeks!!

'Tis the Season for Giving

I am ashamed to admit I am one of those people who pretends not to see the homeless person on the corner as I drive by... It makes me feel awkward. I was reminded today that this entirely the wrong spirit to have. I realize I can't help everyone, but today, Carrie and I helped one woman.

There is a woman who stands on the same corner in the Wal-mart parking lot every day and has for at least the last month that I can remember. Because of dumb "right turn only" exits, the only good way out of the parking lot towards home is right by this homeless woman. And there's a stop sign at her corner so you can't just drive by. Every time I make a trip to Wal-mart (which I've taken for granted lately) I have to drive by her. And every time, I try to look the other way and pretend I didn't see her so I won't be "obligated" to feel bad if I don't help.

The last few times I've passed her, I've wished I had a granola bar or something like that to give her, but I haven't. I've never actually read her whole cardboard sign (because I was too busy looking the other way), but I'm pretty sure the top said "Homeless, Hungry".

Today I made a decision as we passed her going in to Wal-mart. Instead of wishing I had something lying around in my car, why not pick up a couple things while I was grocery shopping? So we did just that. A few bananas, some granola bars and fruit juice. It only cost me about 6 dollars. Not that we're rolling in money, but as far as I could calculate, we have a lot more than she does.

After putting our groceries in the car, I walked over to her holding Carrie. She was sitting down, looking the other direction. As I walked up I said "Merry Christmas" and put the grocery bag on the ground next to her. She turned around and said "Thank You". I was slightly out of my comfort zone, so I smiled and started to walk away. After we'd gone a couple steps, she said with a smile, "Your baby's cute, she looks just like you".

I realized Goodness gracious, she's just a woman! She's not scary! We turned back around and Carrie smiled at her. We again wished her "Merry Christmas" and she said a little more energetically this time, "You too, Thank you very much". Carrie waved goodbye, and we walked back to our car to drive home to our luxurious, warm 2 bedroom apartment full of "stuff":

~Closets and dressers overflowing with clothes
~Beautiful Christmas tree and other decorations
~TVs, movies, computer, internet, cable
~Comfortable furniture and beds
~Fridge and pantry full of food (not to mention the extra shower we don't use that is currently serving as a storage unit for tons of food storage)
~Presents under the tree
~The feeling of having a "HOME"

Oh, how we are blessed. I wish it didn't take such an experience to remind me of how many blessings we really have. MERRY "CHRIST"MAS everyone!

Holly Homemaker

That's right, I'm changing my name... to Holly Homemaker. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself lately for all my little crafty sewing projects. Some of them will have to wait until after Christmas to post because they're gifts, but I do have a couple I can show off.
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First is this cute little sweater dress I re-purposed for Carrie from a women's sweater I bought at Savers. (**Thanks to Lindsay Crebs and makeitandloveit.blogspot**) I'm seriously amazed the sleeves didn't turn out completely botched. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of her wearing it, but just know she was super cute with leggings and little tan boots.

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This next project I did in two stages. First, a few weeks ago I went with my Mom to her "Super Saturday" craft day and made (from a kit) this cute little sign. The big project though was the stockings. I made them completely from scratch! I was going to be more creative with fabric design or something, but Wal-mart's holiday fabric section was pretty cleaned out. So we got "stuck" with this beautiful plain red. By the time I was done with them I thought, "These look like plain old stockings I could have bought for 2 bucks..." But then I decided, (and Justin reassured me the same thing), I'll always be able to say now, "I made those stockings with love" :) I actually made 8 of them (for someday when we add more kids to the family). For all 8 it only cost about 6 dollars and one nap-time worth of sewing.

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm REALLY excited about our family pictures. We're still waiting on them, but as soon as I get them, I'll post them!!!

Meeting Santa!

Our ward Christmas Party was tonight and Carrie got to meet Santa for the first time! She didn't cry at all, mostly just looked up at his face trying to figure out what was going on. The past few days we've been trying to teach her how to say Santa. It usually comes out "Danta", but we're still impressed. She really only does the "S" sound when she whispers, so if we ask her to whisper "Santa", it usually comes out pretty good. :)


Another fun word she's picked up lately: "Doggy". My parents have a little poodle-mix dog named Rooster and Carrie loves to play with her. We tried to get her to say "Rooster" or even "Roo", but apparently "Doggy" is easier. I know I've said it before, but even more than ever, Carrie is a fantastic copy-cat. It's so much fun to see what we can get her to say.

For some strange reason lately, I'm in a sewing mood. So hopefully soon I'll have some projects to report on (with pictures of course).

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This next picture is what I like to call Carrie's "apple-bottom" look. There's a song that mentions apple-bottom jeans (jeans for ghetto big booties). These pants are so skinny-legged that even a fresh clean diaper makes her look like she has a little "apple-bottom" booty.

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EXCITING SIDE NOTE!!!

**We had family pictures taken today so as soon as I get to see them, so will all of you!!**

WALKING!!

Carrie's first steps have come and gone. She can officially walk! She will very occasionally let go of something and walk on her own. Right now, it's mostly only when we set her up between people. She can, however, walk pretty long distances. (Well, when you're 2 foot 4, across the family room is a very long distance).

Saturday night we got her to walk between people for the first time. Then, she would only do 1-2 steps at a time, and most of it was moving her feet as she fell towards the other person. After several tries at that, you could see her brain "click" and she actually tried to walk, not just stumble to avoid a face-plant. We randomly had our video camera with us at my parents that night, so we got a few minutes recorded. Unfortunately, because it's on our video camera and not our camera camera, we don't know how, or if we even can, load it onto the computer.

Sunday night at dinner is when she really took off. That's when we started scooting back so she had to walk further and she got as far as the length of the family room. I think she really likes all the attention ie: cheering, laughing, clapping, woohooing etc. I'm sorry to say, we have yet to geta good video that we can post. I'll work on that.

Now, about the pictures and videos from Thanksgiving I promised...
Thanksgiving morning Justin went to play flag football with the elders, and Carrie and I went to watch and play at the park. Carrie had her first try down the slide, and loved it! Of course, I didn't have my camera though... So I thought, "Ok, we'll have to go to the park later this afternoon and get some on video" Later in the morning we went to the movies with my family (a fabulous tradition if you ask me). We saw "The Blind Side", the football movie with Sandra Bullock. **Go see this movie! It's awesome!**

Anyways, we left Carrie with Tanner, our neighbor, and as we were leaving, she was having a bottle and about ready to go down for a nap. Apparently, when she finished her bottle, she was ready to play... and never took a nap... So this next picture is of Carrie's first Thanksgiving dinner at 2pm. Now remember, she had no morning nap, so she'd been awake and playing for about 6-7 hours.

Can you see how tired and glazed over her eyes are? We couldn't get her to smile for the picture. She stayed awake for about 3 minutes after this picture. She ate her Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, peas and a roll) and went right down to take a 3 1/2 hour nap. I think that sounds about right after Thanksgiving dinner. ;) The point is, by the time she woke up, it's was almost dark, so we never made it back to the park.

So many exciting things keep happening when I'm not ready to "record" them!!

Counting Our Many Blessings

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

We have SOOO much to be thankful for. But, in order to try to avoid a really lengthy post, I'll try to narrow the list down to our top ten (in no particular order).

1. Our family is sealed for Eternity (FOR-EV-ER)
2. The Gospel (where, oh where would we be without it?)
3. Justin (aka Daddy, Husband)
4. Rebecca (aka Mommy, Wife)
5. Carrie (aka Daughter, Center of the Universe)
6. Jobs/Income (Finally)
7. Warm apartment (or cool, when summer calls for it)
8. Loving Families (who took care of us before we had jobs)
9. Food, Clothes, Furniture etc. (the "stuff" of life)
10. The Atonement (This one's a gimme)

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was fantastic! If you haven't counted your blessings yet today, go do it now!!

P.S. Pictures and Video from today coming soon :)

10 months!!

Time is flying!! Carrie is 10 months old today. :) Here are the stats on our big girl.

Weight: 16 lbs, 15 oz. .........10th percentile
Length: 28 1/4 inches ........55th percentile

The newest thing she's gotten really good at.... giving kisses. If I ask her "Carrie, can mommy have kisses?" she'll lean in for them! She used to just let us give her kisses, but now she's giving us kisses. Yesterday before church, Justin was asking her to give him kisses and she kept leaning back for more kisses even when he didn't ask. It was adorable.

Another note to prove her excellent observation skills; this morning I was cutting Carrie's fingernails. When I was done, Carrie wanted the clippers. She then proceded to tap at my fingers with them... Cutting my fingernails. It amazes me how much she already picks up on. I guess it's already time to make sure we're watching what we're doing because Carrie is sure to copy us soon!

There's a Storm Brewin'

A.K.A. Carrie "The Hurricane" Greer... (Isaac that was for you)

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Well, our little baby girl is growing up so fast it's a blur..., no wait, it's actually Carrie that's a blur. That girl is soooo fast now. If she were just brave enough to walk without holding on to something, she'd be all over the place. As it is, she moves extremely fast. Everywhere. And is very curious. Meaning she likes to explore and get in to everything!

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I'm going to try this post as if it were several posts (like it probably should have been, over the last week or two)

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Future Nobel Prize Winner

You didn't know that the "E" in Carrie E. Greer really stood for "Einstein" did you?... OK, it really is Elizabeth, but I can prove she's a genius (or that Justin and I are very easily impressed.)

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A few days ago, I was in the bathtub and Justin had come into the bathroom to get ready with Carrie in tow. She immediately came over to the tub, stood up next to it and proceeded to whine and pull at her pajamas like she was trying to take them off. Justin jokingly said "Oh are you trying to take off your jammies so you can get in the tub?". Then we looked at each other and realized that 's exactly what she was trying to do! She was so frustrated that she couldn't figure out how to get them off so she could get in the tub!

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The next example happened only about 10 minutes later. She was pawing at my makeup bag trying to get a hold of whatever I was trying to apply at the time. She watched me put on my mascara and since she was so insistent on reaching for the tube, I closed it and gave it to her to play with for a few minutes. When I turned around a minute later, she had to tube to her eyes, closing them and rubbing the end of the (closed) tube on her eyes... She can't be that observant yet can she?! Now, these may have just been flukes, but Justin and I were amazed and impressed at our awesome little girl. :)

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Relief Society Craft Night!!

Last week, our relief society had a craft night and I signed up for this fabulous "wall deco" project. It's craft paper glued onto painted wooden boards. This was the one I made at the craft night. I haven't decided where to put it yet...

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It was fun to make and they had some extra wood at the end of the night so I did a few more projects on my own at home. This next picture is one I decided to make for if and when we have a baby boy.

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And lastly, my favorite... The one for Carrie's room! In the picture it's hard to see all the cute designs on the paper, but I love it! I'm so excited to hang it up!

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Crazy Hair

I hope you can see from the picture; somehow a few days ago, right after I finished doing Carrie's hair... this happened... It's all spiked up on top! She must have bumped up against the couch or something, but it was perfectly spiked! And because I had just done her hair, the gel was still wet so it stuck like that. I had to start all over with a girl hair-do...

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What Does a Puppy Say?

Ok, so she can't quite answer that question yet. But, she does know how a puppy holds things: in their mouth. This is, strangely, her favorite way to transport a toy if she's going to crawl somewhere else in the room to play with it. I think she's just about the cutest little puppy you'll ever see.

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When Left Unsupervised...

This picture was taken last week when I was babysitting a 3 month old. NOw I'm not used to 2 babies. I was sitting in the living room feeding Kendall (the other baby) while Carrie snuck off around the corner to play with the IKEA magazine and the Ensigns. Oh how much fun can happen in 2 minutes. :)

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Big Helper

A few more things she likes to do lately: help "sort" the laundry. I'm not sure what her categories are, but she's very particular and doesn't like any help.

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She's also a fantastic copycat. Her specialty is coughing, but recently she's been known to "wheeee!" and thanks to her daddy... burp. She tries to imitate the burping sound if she hears it. My precious little girly-girl...

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And a picture just because... We occasionally miss Rexburg. Here's a picture one of my brother's friends took at Rexburg's local Sonic. Oh, how we miss our days in a Mormon College town. :)

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Peace & Quiet...

Ahhhh... sleeping baby. I better hurry and finish this post before she wakes up! Carrie has discovered through her walking exploration of the house, that she can reach the piano keys. :) It's really cute to see her walk over to the piano and play a few notes. She's very delecate in her playing, one finger at a time. She's getting better at walking while only holding on to someone or something with one hand instead of both.
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We spoke in church yesterday, and boy was I a mess Saturday night. It's been a while since I've spoken in church and we kind of forgot until the last minute and I was up until 11:00 writing my talk Saturday night. It all went really well though. We took the right amount of time and several people afterward said they enjoyed our talks. Yeah! Disaster averted. Now we get a break for a couple years.

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Carrie has also in the last few weeks been crawling on her hands and knees, with her belly off the ground! Finally!! I thought she was going to become a professional army crawler. If she's not walking, she cruises all over the place. As a result of crawling on her knees a lot more, she plays on her knees sometimes. I think it makes her look far too grown up; she looks like a little girl, not a baby!! Too cute!

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Another not-so-happy side story... Yesterday morning as I was pulling things out of the fridge at breakfast, I looked down at the floor to find yet another scorpion! This time I barely missed stepping on it. It was probably only 1/2 an inch away from my toes. Ewww!!! That's number 5 for us in the last few months. What are we going to do?!

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Anyways, today I'm babysitting a 3 1/2 month old, and even though Carrie is still asleep, Kendall is wide awake and hungry. Gotta go!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

***PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM***
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Well we sure had a fun and festive last couple of days celebrating Halloween. Friday the 30th we celebrated my birthday! The big 2-2... OK, so there's nothing special about turning 22, but I had a good birthday anyways. Carrie and I got dressed up in our costumes and visited my mom in her 6th grade classroom. Everyone, of course, thought she was adorable. :) Later that night we went to our ward Halloween party. We ate chili and rolls and hung out with some friends. They had a few things for primary-age kids like a cakewalk and face painting. Nothing much that babies can really enjoy, but we still had fun showing off our cute little butterfly. My parents came over after our ward party and brought us Nelisen's Concretes (ice cream) and played cards for my birthday. (Thanks for letting me win daddy)
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Saturday, (Halloween) we "babysat" our friends the Beesons in the afternoon and evening. Their parents and their 17 year old went, along with my parents and brothers, to Eastern Arizona College for a full day of tours and free tickets to the homecoming game. We got a smidgen of a taste of what it might be like to have 6 kids. Their kids that were left at home are 13, 11, 8, 8, & 8 (and then Carrie). We played card games, ordered pizza, and then got all dressed up again to go trick-or-treating!! Carrie first experience with it... I think she got bored pretty quick, but she wasn't complaining so we actually stayed out pretty long. We were out from about 6:15-8:15.
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Considering Carrie is usually in bed around 7:30, she did great. She did have a treat bucket, but we only collected about 5 pieces for her (us). It was a new experience being the mom for a trick-or-treating trek. Trying to keep track of all your kids and making sure they say thank-you etc... It was fun to go though. It's probably been 7-8 years since I really went trick-or-treating. When we got home and put Carrie to bed, we made popcorn and watched "Hocus Pocus", my pick. That is my favorite Halloween movie. Only half the kids stayed awake through the whole movie. I guess walking the neighborhood really wore them out.
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It was tons of fun and we got TONS of pictures. In case you can't tell from the pictures, Carrie is a butterfly princess, I am a ladybug, and Justin is a spider. (I may have to make Justin put his costume on one more time so I can get a good picture of it.) If any of you are familiar with Carrie, you know that she is not a cuddler. At all. So the picture of her laying her head on my chest proves that she was really really tired (it was towards the end of our trip). If you see people you don't know in the pictures, they are some friends we walked around with. I hope you enjoy the pictures. (Oh, and I tried to get a picture of my new hair... it's not the greatest picture, but I do LOVE my haircut!)
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