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!!