Happy Halloween!!

I would like to interrupt this family trip journaling to bring what I think is one of the cutest dragons that ever lived:

A special thanks to my friend Jess who took these first four pictures of my little dragon.

Jess asked Carter to show her his tail, so this is what she got. :)

Our family costumes at Matt's work party. Matt is a priest and I am a pregnant nun...

Let the trick or treating begin!! Here Carter is with his buddy Dr. Oliver.
Carter loved trick or treating this year it was all we could do to keep him from running from door to door. After we finished our street the boys were still wanting more so we headed down to another neighborhood and did a few more blocks. They got a lot of treats that's for sure! Our Elderly neighbors who are like Carter and Oliver's grandparents away from home gave both of them huge pumpkins overflowing with toys and goodies. They definitely get spoiled!!

I hope all of our family and friends had a safe and fun Halloween!!

Utah Summer Trip 2009 Part 2

Nielsen Family Photos

Part of our family trip to Utah was to get together with the Nielsen family and take a trip up to Jackson Hole. But first with everyone together, family pictures were in order. Here are just a few:

The whole famdamily.

Amber, Carter and Matt

Kurt, Meagan and Dade

Todd and Sarah

The whole time we were taking pictures, Carter was itching to throw rocks in this stream.

Uncle Cory with Carter looking on.

Utah Summer Trip 2009 Part 1

August 22- 25

Wheeler Farm

At Hoogle Zoo with all our Herzog cousins except Sawyer, Lexi, and Emi.

Me at around 19 weeks I think. Though I don't look too big, I was still able to sit a cup on the tummy. We'll see if we can ever fit a bowl.

Ohiopyle State Park

August 14th and 15th

We have a state park a little over an hour away from our house called Ohiopyle State Park. This may sound familiar to some of you since we went to this same place last year. I have never been to another state park that I have enjoyed more. It was really fun going this year because Carter was a year older and able to do more, including wading in the water better.

Carter LOVED helping Daddy with the fire and Daddy loves building and "maintaining" fires so much that we had to do one Friday night and Saturday morning.

My Two Pyros.

Carter loves to sing and he entertained us with one of his original singles "The Waterfall Song." He couldn't wait to get to the waterfall!

Carter loved walking around in the water even though it was a little cold. We had a fun time sending things down the river and watching them tumble over the waterfall.

I get such joy out of sitting back and watching my two boys play together. With my pregnancy a lot of times me sitting in the background is more out of necessity than anything. I am excited about having this baby, but I will be just fine when I can be done being pregnant. For those keeping track I am 24 1/2 weeks along.

For "big" people they have a natural water slide at this "natural water park" that is really fast and fun to go down. Matt went down it last year, but seeing as he had just passed 3 kidney stones and has 2 more stones just sitting in his kidney waiting to be knocked down, he decided to skip the water slide. But not our little boy he still wanted all the fun and adventure so he scouted out his own sized natural water slide.

And then a little added bonus: Here's Carter singing some Doo, Doo, Dah's.

Kansas City Trip

August 1-9, 2009

The first week of August Carter and I flew out to August and Matt joined us later on so that he could finalize his contract with a group of doctors out in Kansas City, Mo. So it is official in June 2010 we will officially be Kansas Citians. We are pretty excited for it and just want that time to be here NOW! I will not shed a single tear over being done with residency. So on to the trip:

Here Carter is playing in the fountains at Crown Center with his Aunt Whitney whom he loves dearly!!



Whitney is great at playing and wrestling with Carter.

Here Carter is getting artistic with Grandma Bon at Kaleidoscope which is a Hallmark place where kids go for free and color and paint and create like crazy.

This is Carter's necklace that he painted all on his own.

The C-Man always enjoys a vanilla "white" ice cream cone.

We tried out having Carter sleep in a "big boy bed" while sleeping at Grandma's house. He had the choice between the "little bed" aka the pack and play or the "big boy bed." I was surprised that most nights he chose the "little bed," but I thought he looked adorable in the big bed.

Grandma Bon pulled out Matt's old hoppity horse that Matt had at Carter's age and Carter loved it. Things were definitely made better back then because the air in that thing is original to Matt's day.

My Dad, Mom, little brother Timmy and little sister Nicki drove through KC while we were out there on their way to dropping Timmy off in Arkansas to play soccer at Central Arkansas University. We hit a bunch of church sites, here we are at Liberty Jail, a BBQ joint and hanging out on the Nielsen's back porch roasting some mellows.

Carter looks up to both of his Grandpas very much, so he wanted to spend some time walking in Grandpa Jay's shoes.

Scooter Mania

One of Carter's favorite things to do now-a-days is in the evening he puts on his helmet and gets on his wheels, his scooter wheels that is, and rides around the neighborhood with Mom and Dad. And of course, Mom and Dad think Carter is pretty stinkin cute on that scooter so I wanted to share a video and few pictures with you all.








I thought I would slip this video in here. Carter has given up in his naps for the past few months. Every once in a while around 4:00pm he gets really tired. This particular day he wanted me to hold him so he could sleep, but a few days prior he fell asleep around 4:00pm and we paid the price by him not going to sleep until 11:00pm. So I put him on the kitchen chair thinking it would be pretty uncomfortable, and I was still able to make dinner. I know it looks a little mean, but you have to admit, it's kinda funny, too. Poor Carter to have to put up with me as a Momma. :)

Playground Project

July 7,8, and 9th 2009

Addision Terrace Playground Project

In our church one of my volunteer jobs is the Public Affairs Director for our geographical area. This usually consists of me putting together service projects in our community helping out other community members or groups. This particular project our church was in charge of manning the food tent that fed all the volunteers for three days while they built a playground for an under-served housing project in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. On the third day which was the main building day, some of our church members, including 17 missionaries (our whole zone), even helped to build the playground. Below are pictures of this great day!

Part of the project was to paint a mural on one of the walls and two of our missionaries got involved. The Mormon church forever left their imprint I suppose. :)

Even my sister Stacey got to come and help out. She came into town because of her husband Brad's job with Children Miracle Network, but it was awesome she was able to be there to participate and see what I do with some of my time.

Later that evening, Matt, Carter, Stac, Brad and I went to the top of Mount Washington so we could show off our city's skyline.

Brad and Stacey even got to leave their five children at home. And come out solo... WOOWOO!! What a cute couple.

And the Baby is...

a Girl!!

Time for Cute and Frilly I suppose. Holy smokes do I have A LOT to learn!!!