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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