New Mexico and Surgery

Well we've had a busy week. We got back from Justin's family reunion in New Mexico on Tuesday and still haven't unpacked everything. Justin will tease me now because before we left, I said "I want everything unpacked before we go to bed Tuesday night, I hate still being packed for a week after vacation"... We've been going to bed by nine the last few nights and leaving the suitcases at the foot of the bed. It WILL get done tomorrow, or I won't be able to stand it anymore :)

.

Here are some pictures from our trip and Justin's surgery this morning.

.

Our little family on the mini-hiking trip

.

Patiently waiting for our cousin Siu's baptism to start. On her own chair of course...

.

Since you never see any pictures of me or Justin anymore, here you go :)
.

The whole group in Ramah -- Justin's Mom's family.

.

Sitting with Papa waiting for the Pioneer Day parade in Ramah.
.

Fell asleep in the stroller walking around town after the parade. I guess she had too much excitement for one morning.
.

In the car between Ramah and TorC. Notice her binky is halfway out of her mouth. She stopped sucking on it and it slowly fell out of her mouth.
.

.

Justin and his Dad went golfing on Monday while his Mom, Carrie, and I followed them in our own golf cart. Carrie got a little sleepy so she took a little nap in the back basket.
.

.

Carrie playing in the bathtub at Grandma's. This was her first time with toys in the bathtub... I always forget. Anyways, she got to spend the night there last night cuz we had to be up so early to go to the hospital. (Thanks Mom!)
.

Justin and me, right before he got wheeled into the O.R. Everything went great and after about an hour surgery (hernia repair) and an hour recovery, he got to come home, take some percocet and a nap. So far he's been a star patient, he was nice when I made him walk and so far his only request has been orange juice. :) It's a little different for me to be the nurse at home!

.

Oh, and by the way, Carrie got a major haircut a couple days ago. Her "long" brown hair was getting thinner and thinner and was starting to look a little silly. We can see some blonde fuzz starting to grow in it's place so we cut the baby hair short to wait out the blonde big-girl hair :) Well, that's us right now. Justin is up from his nap, and my Mom brought Carrie back over so I guess I'll go run the house!

6 Month Stats

Carrie had her 6 month check-up today and got more shots... She did the best she's ever done though, only crying for about 30 seconds. Here are her stats:
.
Weight: 14 lbs 5 oz, 15th %ile
Length: 25 1/2 in, 40th %ile
.
I'll post soon with a bunch of pictures from our trip to New Mexico. :)

Matching Piano Picture

I found this picture of when I was a baby, just a little older than Carrie is now.
.
Like Mother, like Daughter!!

All Sorts of Fun Stories!

I should have written a week ago, but for some reason I never got around to it. Last Sunday it was almost time for bed and Justin was walking to the fron tof the apartment for something. He stopped in the hall, looked back at me in the bedroom and said "Don't scream, Carrie's sleeping..." then he flipped on the light in the hall. There, walking across the floor (coming from the direction of Carrie's room) was a huge nasty COCKROACH!! It was way too huge to squish so we got a tupperware container and covered it. Once we got the lid on, we left it nice and sealed in the kitchen to take to the apartment managers the next day.
.
Not even a full minute later, we walked into our bathroom to brush our teeth and *suprise* a SCORPION on the wall!! EW ew ew! We put that one in a tupperware, put both tupperwares in a zip-lock and had a REALLY hard time going to sleep that night. Fortunately, the bug guy was there the next day and we got our apartment sprayed. Justin tried to "bid" the pest control company he works for to the apartments, but we have yet to hear about anything. Anyways, it was really un-fun experience.
.
Carrie has really caught on to sitting up though. She'll play for a long time now. She hasn't quite learned how to catch herself if she really starts falling over, so we still have to be close-by. She catches her balance pretty well with wobbles :) It's so much fun to see her growing up! She is also getting pretty good at scootching. She'll lunge forward for toys or whatever else she sees. We'll be going to New Mexico in a couple days for a family reunion with Justin's family. We're all excited to see everyone!
.
A couple of days after we get back Justin will be going in for his hernia repair surgery. It'll be a quick morning outpatient thing and then after a few days recovery, he'll be able to go back to work! I got called in to work yesterday, which was really needed for us. We've always been blessed to have enough because we pay our tithing. :)

.

Here's a few cute pictures from recently

Playing the piano, just like mommy :)

.

Family Vacation and Update

We just got back from a week and a half long vacation to Utah and Idaho and did a ton of stuff! It was Carrie's first time meeting a lot of cousins, aunts, and uncles. There will be a LOT of pictures in this post, but they're all so cute...

Mon 29- Drove allll day to Utah. Poor Carrie stuck it out for about 9 hours, but then it was bedtime and she was done being in the car. The last couple hours were no fun for anyone.

Tues 30- We went to Lagoon. Carrie hung out wiht Grandma Lori all day while Justin and I enjoyed the rides.

Wed 1- We visited a few friends in Rexburg who hadn't ever met Carrie. We moved away a month before she was born.

Thurs 2- Hung out all day with family. Carrie started to get a yucky cough and we were worried because two of my little cousins had just found out they had bronchitis the day before. We bought a humidifier and some baby Vicks. Luckily it only lasted a few days and we never had to go to the doctor.

Fri 3- We visited the Museum of Idaho: Titanic Artifacts. When we started the tour, they gave each person a 'ticket' and the name and story of a real person who was on the Titanic. At the end, you got to see if 'you' survived or not. Justin was the only one who 'died'.

Sat 4th of July- We had train wreck breakfast at my Grandparents', a BBQ and little home fireworks in the afternoon and then watched the big fireworks by the Snake River. Carrie slept through all the loud firework booms.

Sun 5- Church, more hanging out, big family dinner and a matching-outfits-photo-shoot with the other great-granddaughters.

Mon 6- We had a daytime camping trip at my Aunt and Uncle's lakeside property in the mountains. Complete with smores, and dutch oven dinner. We set up the pack-n-plays about 20 ft away from the main circle under the trees for baby naps.

Tues 7- Another long day in the car, dinner at Denny's, and a night in a hotel. Carrie slept under the bathroom counter. (We didn't bring our own pack-n-play, we had borrowed one in Idaho).

Wed 8- Finally came back home!

In other exciting news, Carrie is sitting up! She'll last between 30 seconds and a minute by herself and then loses her balance, but she's learning really fast. She is now grabbing at EVERYTHING. If you have something that she doesn't, she'll leap out of the arms of whoever is holding her to try to get it. Or if she's playing on her tummy and can't reach something, she's actually started to scootch a tiny bit (worm style) to try to get it. She's also getting pretty good at holding her bottle. We're in the middle of the shift from breastmilk to formula so as soon as we make sure she doesn't have any reactions to that, we'll be starting rice cereal! I know we could have started a lot earlier, but we just didn't ever get around to it. She's started to watch us eat and try to grab our food, so I guess she's ready. :) Keep an eye out for pictures and video of her trying out cereal in the near future. She's flown past the newborn stage and is ready to plunge into adorable high-maintenance movin, cruisin, big baby!


Cheesy grin
Just practicing for a cell phone
The three great-granddaughters, Elli, Crystal, and Carrie
With Elli
Carrie with Elli, (Elli's mom Emily is my [Rebecca's] cousin and we have a picture just like this from when we were babies)
She loves to color, and is actually pretty good at holding a pen
A little light reading to pass the time on the long drive
Her new stuffed mouse named "Denny". The waitress at Denny's got it out of the claw machine for her.
Grabbing for the bottle
Carrie's bed in the hotel on the drive home
Riding 4 wheelers. Vroom vroom!
Borrowing a cousin's Bumbo chair
A day of camping
Her favorite new face... We're not sure where it came from
Waving hello
Sitting up all by herself!
Patriotic shirt
At Lagoon
Sucking on her own foot
She rolled under the coffee table