Oodles of Pics from our Rogers Family Reunion

Before I jump in to the family reunion pictures, here's two other random pictures of Carrie: First, walking around wearing my flip flops and next, an example of her drinking all the milk from the cereal bowl. :)




And now TONS of pictures from our weekend in Payson, Arizona with my Dad's side of the family. There are nine kids in his family and ALL of them were there. I finally got to meet a few of my cousins that I had never met before because we've never lived close to each other and according to my parents, we haven't had a family reunion that included everyone in over 20 years!

My dad is in the middle of the picture in the blue shirt


Justin throwing the football to my brother Jake


Carrie with my cousin Hannah. She just turned 3 and was the closest in age to Carrie.


I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but Carrie is NOT a hand holder. At all. But she and Hannah walked around the campground like this for at least 10 minutes before she was "done" with it. So cute!


Some cousins


Shucking Corn... We. Ate. So. Much. Corn.... :)


Playing in the dirt


If you only look at her feet, she looks like a little black girl!


And now, a puppy dog with a spot on her face. So much dirt, so little time...


My sister Marissa and her fiance Brandon


My parents cooking "breakfast explosion"


Saturday we drove into Payson to a park to have lunch with some more extended parts of the family (2nd cousins, etc.) and Carrie fell asleep on the 10 minute drive. Justin was an awesome dad and sat in the van waiting for her to wake up. (He also followed her around the campsite all weekend making sure she stayed out of trouble, thanks babe!)


Day two of corn on the cob. I think over the weekend we ate 12 dozen ears... I'm not kidding.


My immediate family


The park we went to had a skate park in it. Justin and Jake are sitting on the top and Brandon's on his way down the ramp (holding the skateboard... I'm not sure why he's not riding it)


Climbing the playground to go down the slide, over and over and over again


On the swings


Grandma Lori riding down the big twirly slide with Carrie where at the bottom she says, "Gin? Gin?" (interpretation: Again?!)


Watching in awe as an older cousin climbs up the huge ladder to the slide

My cousin accidentally sat on a grill top on the fire pit (without a fire in it) and got what we called "grill butt". I promised him I wouldn't say his name when I posted this picture :)


Snacking on some graham crackers in her camping chair


Carrie's "crib", a.k.a. the space on the side of the bed in the motor-home. We blocked the bottom off with a cooler. Instant baby bed!


And there you have it! Our weekend in pictures! We played games, ate a ton, and got some sun :) It was great!

So Many Fun Things

Just in case anyone wanted to know, I'm feeling quite mushy around the middle lately. But I'm only 11 weeks! There is no way I'm going to give up on sucking it in yet!
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Anyways, some fun stories from around here. A couple of days ago Carrie and I were eating cereal for breakfast. So far, I pretty much just pour extra in my bowl, stir it around for a minute to help it get a little soggy and then spoon cereal pieces onto her tray. When all the cereal was gone, she acted like she still wanted more, so I started spoon-feeding her some of the flavored milk from the bowl. She whined and grabbed at the bowl and spoon, which I carefully let her half-hold on her tray. She pulled the spoon from my hand, set it down on her tray and pulled the bowl up to her mouth to finish the milk. I know I didn't teach her how to drink cereal milk from the bowl, but she sure knew how! She finished it all off!
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My only regret is it wasn't her milk: whole milk, full of fat and calories that my skinny mini really really needs. As of today, she is 17 months old and weighs exactly 20 pounds (4th percentile) and is 31.5 inches tall (55th percentile). She's healthy and active and learning like crazy, she's just filled with marshmallow fluff!
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Fun story #2: Carrie's dancing is very fun to watch, but pretty interesting.... I'm not sure where she learned her dance moves, but she has a lot of fun listening to music, commercials, whatever... and dancing by leaning her head side to side and holding her arms in a chicken-wing pose. Like I said, I'm not sure where she learned that... (I tried posting a video but after almost an hour and a half of waiting for it to "process", I gave up....)
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She's also decided that she's too much of a big girl to crawl up and down the stairs now. She goes up walking, holding on to the side rails or walls, and comes down scootching step by step on her bum, facing forward. I'm pretty used to it by now, but it still scares Justin a little to watch her do it like that.
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Justin had another basketball reffing camp last weekend so Carrie and I spent more time at my parents house in Mesa. I also played a "gig" with my mom and a lady from her ward for a local wedding reception. It was fun, but holy cow! I need to play the cello more often. I sounded just fine, but my fingers were dead by the end of an hour and a half straight. I didn't realize that several certain places on my left hand fingers were calloused from playing... and are NOT calloused now. It hurt. But it was fun :)
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We've been noticing some yucky dead bugs hanging around in our garage lately, so today I stuck out the heat and swept the garage. Among other things, I counted 7 cockroaches, 1 black widow and 1 spidion (Our name for a mix between a spider and a scorpion. I don't know if it's a real thing, but that's what it looks like, and it's gross). Yuck. I'm done telling that story now. It's reminding me and making me feel creepy-crawly.
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How about a much brighter, happier note?! Last week at my doctor's appointment we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Even though I was only 10 weeks then, the doctor said I was "super-thin" so we should be able to find it with the abdominal doppler "no problem". **Insert Rebecca smiling about being called "super-thin" HERE** I know I'm being prideful, but it was a moment of happiness in my day.
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I was going to post the video Justin took of the heartbeat, but posting is taking toooo long. The baby got a little camera shy after a few seconds anyways and after what seemed like a very long 45 seconds, the doctor "found" it again. Beating strong and steady at 165.
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Carrie has finally discovered her building blocks my parents got her for Christmas. She hasn't been quite coordinated enough to figure out real stacking until just recently. Now, it's allllll about towers! I have to build a little base for her to start on, otherwise it tips over after 3 or 4 blocks and she gets frustrated.
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That way she can make it taller than she can even reach!
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She got so into building with her blocks that even while we were at my parents' house (where there are no blocks), she still found something to make towers out of.
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A random picture of Carrie's ridiculously cheesy grin. She saw me pull out the camera and ran over as close as she could get to me to have her picture taken.
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Here is Justin's Father's Day Present; a new tool box. None of the tools are new, but last week the handle on our crummy old tool box totally broke, so he asked for a new one. This one is much better and hopefully should serve us well :)
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I'm Going to Pretend I Was Never Gone

Aren't you glad to have me back?! I have to get back in the swing of blogging again!
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Since we've missed out on pictures lately, here you go:
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It might be hard to see, but the white thing in the crib by her feet.... her diaper. She took it off after waking up from a nap. Silly me, I will never put her down without pants on ever again :) Luckily, it was only barely wet, and there was no mess on her or the crib.
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We've been swimming a few times this year and every time Carrie does better and better. She's more comfortable in the water and getting more independent. Since this picture, I've bought her some arm floaties that work great! In this picture, (our first time swimming this year) she just kept trying to climb out of the baby float. We put it away after only a few minutes.
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Carrie thought it would be fun, while I wasn't looking, to put her hands in her plate with syrup on it, and then put them in her hair! I know it's hard to tell, but can you see how shiny and sticky looking her hair is right on top? Bath-time!
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I got made fun of while I was pregnant with Carrie when I said this, but I'm 1/4 of the way done being pregnant! I was 10 weeks yesterday. I have a routine doctor's appointment this afternoon to check everything out. Fortunately for me, being pregnant really isn't all that bad. I've been feeling much better the past couple of weeks. I'm just excited to be 1/4 done because I'm that much closer to meeting this new baby. I'm still like to try to take at least a small nap during the day, but other than that I'm pretty good. As long as I don't forget to eat!
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Last night at dinner, Justin looked at me and said, ".... Holy Cow. We're going to have two kids... Weird!" I could only agree :)
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Justin had a basketball reffing camp last weekend and has another one this weekend. Last week's was for college level reffing which is eventually a career goal of his. He said things went pretty good, and a lot of people there knew who he was! This is huge because that means his networking is working! Getting your name known is the first step. That way, people actually watch him and evaluate him more closely. Hopefully, all these things combined will get him signed on to ref college basketball. Everyone cross your fingers (for the next couple of years probably)
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I almost forgot!! Carrie's other top tooth FINALLY poked through! I was worried her one tooth was going to come all the way down before the second one decided to show up. I'm so relieved. Isn't it funny what can make you so happy?

We're Still Here

My success on my new years goal to blog more often took a little dive recently. At first, I blamed feeling like crap in general. Then once I started to feel a little better this last week, our computer started freezing up and crashing after only moments of being on....
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Anyways, this is the reader's digest, even more digested version of us lately.
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Memorial Day weekend at my parents house in Mesa. We BBQ'd, swam, and played games. I think I accidentally left my camera at their house that weekend too, so sorry, no pictures in today's post.
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I've been feeling much better lately and have been trying as hard as I can to eat regularly. (I don't like to eat right now...)
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Justin is getting up early and working hard to take care of us as usual.
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One of Carrie's top front teeth has come through and I'm trying to "will" the other one with my mind to come through. So far, it's not working and it looks like our little girl will have a one-toothed grin for a while.
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Justin and I got a date night last night with movie passes my parents gave us (thanks). We saw "Letters to Juliet". It was just as we expected. Predictable and slightly cheesy chick flick. And we loved it. :) Nothing like those kind of movies to put you in a lovey dovey good mood.
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I promise to get my camera when I go to my parents for dinner today and post some pictures soon. Now that I'm caught up, I'll do my best to stay caught up with it now :)

I Want a Morning Redo... And it's only 9:00...

I opened a huge can of worms this morning when I opened a strawberry yogurt. OK, not literally, because that's really gross, but you'll get the point here in just a minute. I'm a slight neat-freak and I usually just spoon feed Carrie the really tricky stuff like yogurt. This morning I decided to just let her have at it with the spoon on her own... Not my best idea. I think she got a total of two bites actually in her mouth and the rest ended up all over her and her highchair. This picture doesn't show it half as bad as it eventually got.
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(And it would be so much easier to be mad about it if she hadn't recently learned how to smile for the camera)
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I decided she was probably due for a bath anyways so I hauled her upstairs to the bathroom (getting yogurt on my pajamas in the process). I gave her a quick scrub down and settled in on the bathroom floor next to the tub while she played. I had already grabbed "Breaking Dawn" which I'm reading for the umpteenth time. The morning seemed like it was getting better. She probably played with her bath toys for half an hour before it suddenly became a little too quiet, and then, a little grunt...
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SERIOUSLY?! I looked up to see none other than Carrie going #2 in the tub... Time to get out! Fortunately she didn't fight me when I quickly pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her in the towel. While I was trying to decide how to deal with the newest mess of the day, Carrie stood up, ditched the towel, and started to pee all over the bathroom floor.... :(
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Now I have to give her legs and feet another wipe down, try to clean the floor so she doesn't step in it and strap a diaper on as fast as possible! Once I got the whole mess figured out and cleaned up, I walk us both downstairs ready to crash on the couch to wallow while Carrie plays.
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Except, oh wait! The high chair is still COVERED in yogurt! My entire morning could repeat itself all over again if that didn't get cleaned right now. And of course it wouldn't be just as easy as a quick wipe up. Nope, it had dried on and I had to scrub to get it clean.
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By this time I'm fuming inside already writing my blog post in my head. Fortunately for Carrie, I'm oddly calm on the outside. Patience has been my dear friend this morning. I love being a mom. (Truly, I do. That's not sarcastic, as hard as it may be to believe after having read this) :)
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***** BLOG POST AMENDMENT; ONE HOUR LATER*****
I. Spoke. Too. Soon.
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While I was sitting at the computer blogging the above story, Carrie was busy at work filling her diaper. To the point of overflowing up her back... Really?.... Another wipe down, new diaper, new clothes... I need a nap...

Dang Technology...

So we finally figured out the problem with our computer/internet. Well, Justin figured it out. Turns out, it was simply our new wireless mouse interfering with our wi-fi internet... Seriously?! We were ready to call the internet company, thinking something was wrong with the connection, or our whole computer or something... and all it took was disabling the wireless mouse and plugging the old one back in.
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*He's been quite the handy-man around here lately. One of our tree sprinkler/bubbler things broke and he spent the whole afternoon fixing it.*
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ANYWAYS, I'll try to catch up a little bit. First of all, the ultrasound picture. Not much to see because I was only 6 weeks. Still, it was nice to see that the baby is really there.
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It's so small it's not even the obvious circle in the top picture, that's the yolk sac. It's the tiny white smudge towards the bottom of the circle. (Red circle around it in the top picture, and a tiny arrow pointing to it in the bottom picture) Told ya, not much to look at...
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It IS, however, something to drain my energy. The past several days I have been beyond tired and nauseous around the clock. I've only thrown up once, but most days I feel like I can't stand up straight. I know it seems silly because as of today I'm only 7 weeks, but... If it's not the pregnancy causing my ickiness, then I have some sort of bug that needs to go away, and fast!
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Justin has been so awesome too! Yesterday when he came home, I was curled up in a little ball on the couch and he jumped right in taking care of Carrie, doing the dishes, getting me a snack, putting Carrie down for a nap, getting us all dinner. I don't know how to make him know how thoroughly thankful I am. I hope this helps, although I've said it 100 times already.
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I do have some good moments, such as the following; Justin bought Carrie a little wading pool to play in and we tried it out the other day. She liked it ok, but I don't think the water had enough time to really warm up before we had her get in. Hopefully we'll get some good use out of it this summer. (You can also notice the lovely background of our backyard if you look hard enough... weeds, dirt, and more weeds...)
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I know I had a ton of little stories floating around in my head the last several days without a chance to blog them, but as I'm sitting here now, I don't remember a single one of them. Well, Carrie's asleep and I'm probably going to try to take a little nap while she's down :)

Baby Update

Our computer is currently on the fritz so I'm blogging from my friend Corynn's computer. Therefore, I don't have the ultrasound picture to post. I had my first ultrasound on Tuesday and everything looks great with our newest little one on the way. Hopefully our computer/internet will be fixed soon and I'll be back to my normal overly-chatty blogger self. Until then...