Its a..........

BOY!

Thats right! We will be adding another boy to our family. About 67% was right on the poll! ! We are so excited to have a boy. We wanted one so Mason could have a brother since Parker never had a brother close in age and my brother never had one. It will be fun to see two brothers grow up together. Everything looked great on the ultrasound! We cant wait till March!

Baby Poll Time! Give me your responses!

As I am sitting here all by myself on this fine Friday night I decided it would be fun to put a poll on the blog to see what people thought baby #2 is. We find out on Nov 9 so it gives us two weeks to get some responses. I will give you a little background so you can decide. I crave salts- some say that means a boy, and that was all i wanted when I was pregnant with Mason (no sweets here). This has been odd but I have had quite a bit of compliments on how I seem to be glowing and look pretty (dont feel that way) but the myth is if your having a girl she steals your beauty, so that indicates a boy also. Although according to the chinese gender calendar its a girl, and also the heart rate myth. If the babies heart rate is over 150 its a girl and lower is a boy. The babies heart rate has been 157 and 153. We would be thrilled with either! Parker never had a brother close in age and my brother never had a brother, so it would be fun to see two brothers close. It also would be cheaper! But how much I would love to have a girl too. I have so many crafts I want to do if its a girl, and I can't wait for all the girly things!! We also are definite on a girl name so that wouldn't be a problem. Anyways I will stop rambling and let you vote now!

I think baby #2 is a.......
	boy
	girl
pollcode.com free polls

Expecting!

Yes, my friends, that is right! We are finally expecting another child! We are so excited to have another member of our family. Mason will finally get to be a big brother. He has been waiting patiently, much more than Mom! It's been a long process but so far the pregnancy is looking good. I am almost 13 weeks and we heard the babies heart beat today. A good 156. I can't complain my pregnancy has been like last time, pretty much symptom free. We are due on March 26, so if it comes 5 days early it will be a wonderful birthday present to me! I am so happy and grateful we have been blessed with another child, but at the same time this week is pretty hard. In two days, my angel baby would have been born. I know everything has happened for a reason, and honestly right now we would not be ready for one. I wish I could be holding that baby in two days, but I will patiently wait till March. The dr. told me that my chance of miscarriage has dropped tremendously since I am almost out of my 1st trimester. I am not to worried, but I am still praying we can have a strong and healthy baby! I wish to everyone pregnant that their babies can stick and to all Mom's to have healthy beautiful children! I will keep you posted on the whole thing!

The closing of summer

What a crazy summer its been! We had our whole summer planned out before it even began! Every weekend we had something so I am glad to have this post "Closing my summer"! On Monday my studly little man turned a whole 3 years old! I am sure most of you are thinking, "Holy cow he is that big!" Yes, in fact it is true. I guess I really cant call him my baby anymore. He was a spoiled little guy getting 3 birthday parties for 3 years! We first had one at Mason's GG's (parker's grandparents) and I made a race track cake. Our camera is broken so I am still trying to round up pictures from everyone. Then the pictures I do have (thanks Brit) are from Mason's birthday party with his friends. There was a whole 4 little kids there, but thats all the friends Mason needs! It was construction themed and we bought all the kids construction hats and had a construction truck pinata. It was the slowest pick up of candy after a pinata broke, instead of the usual thirty seconds it took about 3 min! I also made a "dirt cake" to go along with the theme! Lastly he had one on his birthday in Idaho with his grandparents on both sides. He loves having Happy Birthday sang to him and I still find him singing it around the house. He is so cute and I am so lucky to be his mommy!


We had family pictures done in July and I just got them back so I decided to post them. Mason was adorable like always in them!

4th of July

Of course we had to head to Idaho Falls for the Fourth because no other state knows how to party like we do! If your not from If, just so you know IF has the second largest firework show in the country. Bigger then LA NY & D.C.! Pennsylvania has the largest, but for a smaller town, our fireworks are amazing!I love going home to IF for the 4th and was so glad schedules have worked to go this year. And no question, we had tons of fun and wished it could have lasted longer. To start off the awesome weekend the girls went to Eclipse and it was so so good! I don't care what the movie critiques thought, it was awesome! On the 4th we did the usual parade and then went home for lunch and decided to have a good ol game of dodge ball on the tramp! Then we went to the zoo and finished the night off with amazing fireworks. We got to stay until Tuesday morning so on Monday my mom took Parker, Mason, and I to Toy Story 3 and the movie was so adorable. I am a nerd I guess because I literally was trying to hold back tears at the end! It's definitely a must see, even if its just adults going! Hope everyone else had just as much fun on the 4th as we did!

At the zoo

Firework time! Mason fell asleep half way through!

Waiting for the parade

Potty Trained

Mason is officially potty trained. As for my tactics since everybody has asked me, it really wasn't one particular way. I would try one and he wouldn't follow it according to the plan the books would say so we just kinda did it our own. He already knew what the potty was and what he was suppose to do in it since we let him watch us and then he had a potty movie so that was pretty easy. The hardest was him initiating he needed to go potty and he knew he wasn't suppose to go in his pants so he thought it was cool to just go in his pants, put his clothes in the hamper like i showed him and get a new pair of underwear on and act like nothing had happened. Although that's not what we wanted, I was proud he knew it was not okay and tried to fix it on his own. Thanks to my friend Brittney she suggested we just take away the diapers completely and that was pretty much when he was trained. I decided to make a potty chart and when he went ten times in a row and put a sticker on Toodles (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) he got a dollar store prize. After he completed the whole thing I took him to the store and let him pick out a nice toy and surprise he chose yet another truck. This time a cement truck, a typical boy! He has an occasional accident and struggles with #2 in the potty still, but overall he is great and can tell me when he needs to go! I love not changing diapers and especially love not paying for them!

CELEBRATING!

Eclipse

Okay I came across this background and I had to have it in celebration of Eclipse coming out on the 30th! I did read all the books, gone to all of the premiers, and own both on DVD, so I guess you can call me a Twilight fan! Although, I am not a crazy person obsessed with it- I would have to say go Team Jacob!

Past week of Fun

Happy Anniversary-
Its hard to believe Parker and I just celebrated our third anniversary together! It has gone by so fast, and although marriage is definitely hard- it has totally been worth it!! We headed up to Park City just for the night. We went shopping to all the outlets and suprisingly found nothing that was worth buying! After headed to the hotel for a nice needed nap then headed for a night out. We went to dinner and realized the Lakers and Celtics game was on so we went specifically where we could watch it. After we decided to head to this bowling alley which is actually the coolest place ever. It was a brand new place almost like a club but with pool tables, bowling, a DJ, Bar (but some how it was still family friendly) and tv's around the entire place. Next time your in Park City you should check it out! We bowled in a private place and the entire wall was a tv playing the game. I won bowling (like always)with two strikes on my 10th bowl and Parker won in pool- of course. After we went to the movie the Killers. Parker was nice to go to that for me and I really liked it. He said it was alright, but he hates literally anything with romance. We went back to the hotel and slept in, at least until the first world cup soccer game, watched it and packed up! It was so fun just to get away for a little while. Thanks kel for watching Mason for us!

Watching the game...Go Celtics! (I really hate both of the teams but I am so sick of the Lakers!)

Getting ready to bowl

This is where we were, there was only four lanes in the private room and yes that is a huge tv with the game on. It was decked out with lights and leather chairs and they brought us drinks...if we drank!

Idaho definitly needs something like this!

Parkers Game Face

This was part of the place to the left you cant see is where the bar is, the dj is on the right with a bunch of pool tables and far in the background is the main bowling area with tv's all over.

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Petting Zoo-
For family night last week we headed with our friends the Pond's to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Nate is the goalie for UVU and Alexa is the only other married Mom on the team. They have a little boy Landon thats almost two so perfect for a little buddy for Mason. We have lots of fun with them. Mason wanted to ride on the ponies so bad, it was so cute! I thought he would be scared but he wasn't at all. Natural Cowboy! Here are some pics!

Camping...in the cold!

For Memorial Day Weekend we decided to head up to good ol Idaho. After work on Friday we drove up and stayed with Parker's family that night and then with the bad weather decided to stay another day in Idaho Falls. Sunday morning we drove up to a very cold Island Park and camped with my parents. Parker took Mason fishing although didn't work out to well since Parker fell in the water, needless to say fishing got cut short! We had fun, but we wish it could have been warmer. Here are a few pics.

p.s. Mason is officially potty trained, post soon to come!

We were in West Yellowstone and stopped at the hotel with the train in it specifically for Mason. He loves trains!

Mason Karter

My little Mason/Stud/Monkey/Heartbreaker is 2 1/2 now and Mom was really behind on getting some pictures done. Turns out we have no money! So my brothers kind girlfriend let me borrow her nicer camera and Parker and I went to try. First off Mason was so awful! I am very glad I didn't hire anybody because he would not take a picture for the life of us! We were only out half an hour and I was pretty upset because I thought I only had one good picture, but I came home and started editing and cropping and it turns out I had a few more then I thought. Parker was just playing with him and stuck him on a light post and Mason freaked out! -Thanks babe it really helped...by making things worse! Just kidding, but I did get some funny pics out of it. Anyways it was an adventure!

New Car

Unfortunately we have had many car problems within the last year and so with our helpful tax return and some money we saved we were able to go home to Idaho to purchase a new car. Car shopping is not as fun as I thought and can be quite frustrating but by the end of the day we were able to come home with a car. We love our car...so far! We got a Volkswagon Passat, and the deal maker in buying the car was because it has leather seats, so it will be easier to clean up after Mason. Anyways we enjoy it and now its so great to have a reliable car! Hopefully it won't give us too much trouble!!

Bad news

So I couldn't wait for last week to be able to announce to the world that I was pregnant, but soon to find out that dream wasn't happening, this post took a complete turn. After 12 months of trying and finally getting pregnant we lost our baby at 10.5 weeks. We were so excited to bring another baby into our family, but on Sunday February 22 late at night I started bleeding-very very lightly. We rushed into the doctor Monday morning but no heart beat was found. The baby measured 9 weeks and so the doctor assumed it had past the week prior. We were devastated to hear the news since we have been wanting one for so long. I immediately started asking when I could have another and the doctor said I needed to fix "this" first. Since the baby passed over a week ago he said my body just wasn't going to miscarry the baby so he scheduled me for surgery the next day. My body started the process of trying to miscarry the baby and I was in a lot of pain with contractions. I went into have a D&C (to clean out my uterus) and everything went perfect. The doctor said I had a lot of scar tissue in my uterus probably due to my delivery with Mason and complications i had with an IUD. He said this might have been why it took me so long to get pregnant in the first place. He also said I shouldn't start trying for another baby till summer (we'll see). So that is my story, but I have been extremely depressed so I thought if I wrote my feelings down, maybe I can soon move on. The hardest things for me in this whole situation is that Mason is just getting older and older and I have always wanted him to have a sibling close. If I can't start trying till summer Mason will be going on four, which was way longer then I ever wanted. Its crazy because I started trying so long ago and some of my friends (who are probably reading this) started about the same time and already have 4 month olds and newborns. And then I have so many other friends that were not trying at all and accidently got pregnant and are soon having babies. I know I shouldn't compare, but it is just so crazy to think about. Another thing I am struggling with is that it took so long to get pregnant, and then if I was going to miscarry why couldn't I at 6 weeks instead of almost 11! I don't know why all this is happening, but I just need to remember that this is what its suppose to be. All of you know I went through the hardest trial of my life when I found out I was pregnant at 17. My life took a complete turn, and although it was the hardest thing I have ever been through, it has made me so strong. It has also made me into a better person, I have really been able to understand other peoples struggles and not be so judgemental. I am grateful for Mason and everything that has happened, but I was thinking maybe babies are my trial. 1. Having a child when I wasn't wanting one 2. Struggling and trying for so long to have one 3. Losing a baby during pregnancy. The Lord knew I could handle all of these circumstances and hopefully for them I will have many healthy children. I know the baby miscarried because something wasn't developing right and would have struggled for its life. I also know that that baby's spirit just needed to get a body even if it wasn't for that long, and Heavenly Father needed him/her. I am grateful it was just a miscarriage and I wasn't too far along, because I know many others have had worse situations in losing a child whether they were 8 months along, born still born, or had a baby pass soon just being a newborn. So many people have reached out to me and I realized how many people struggle with this or have had something worse. Some good news through it all is that I do know its possible for me to get pregnant again (I was really starting to worry about that). Another is that I have heard so many people say they get pregnant really fast after a miscarriage and especially after having a D&C. The other is that maybe all of my sisters and I can get pregnant the same time since we have always wanted that. So to end this post I am not expecting a bunch of sympathy from everyone, I am strictly writing this so maybe I can move forward. I am going to spend extra quality time with Mason and enjoy the very little time he has with just his Mom and his Dad. We are going to take some fun classes together and do extra activities, that probably he wouldn't be able to do if we had another baby. Thanks to all my family who has been there for me and especially to Parker and dealing with a messy house, fast food every night, and an emotional wreck of a wife. I wish the best for everyone!!

Valentine's Day

We had an eventful Valentine's weekend. To start it off we had an Adult Ward Valentine's Party, which Parker and I were in charge of. It went great we had the right amount of seats and food and it was just a fun relaxing party. Saturday I had to work all day so any Valentines plans were going to be cut short. Parker had to go run some errands and he came back with a beautiful edible arrangement. It had all my favorite fruit including chocolate covered strawberries and pineapple cut out in hearts. Not to mention it was delicious! After I got off work that night we were going to order take out to a place we have wanted to try since we couldn't find a sitter to go do anything. Well our plans changed and we ended up just going through the drive thru to a local hamburger shop and watched the olympics all night. Yes, we didn't do much but it was actually perfect since we were tired from the week. On Sunday we woke up and had a Valentine's breakfast that included pink crepes. We went to church and then we went to my sisters house in Layton for a family get together. It was fun to see everyone and we ended up staying late because the all-star game was on, but I was happy to spend time with my family! We had a fun yet simple Valentine's hope everyone else had a good weekend!Mason eating his pink crepes

Showing off my edible arrangement

Looks good, doesn't it!

Update...sorry no pictures!

I haven't posted at all in January and its almost over so I thought I would hop on the blog today, Although there is not much new happening to talk about. A few things that have happened in January was 1. I attempted to potty train Mason- I was actually putting it off till he was older but he was so interested in the big boy potty I decided to jump on the wagon while he was interested. Needless to say a week later he runs from the potty, and cries when we put him on. Guess we will wait a couple more months. 2. Parker started school again so he is busy with that, but somehow still managed to sign up for an indoor soccer league with his teammates from UVU. Its fun to go see him play again, even though I mostly just chase after Mason. 3. Parker finally got a job!!! So Parker has just had seasonal jobs over and over and his last job was a seasonal position at UPS. He loved it there and he got the best review from his drivers and he gets the next job opening but sadly enough, they are not hiring. (He pretty much has to wait for someone to quit, but no one wants to in the economy) He still keeps in touch with them every few weeks and once he gets offered a job he will probably go back to them, UNLESS.... his new job turns out amazing. He just got a job at babies r us int he backroom. Its exactly what he use to do at DownEast as the backroom manager by doing inventory and trucks and setting up cribs. He works 6 am to 12 pm which is perfect for the college student. We are just relieved its not seasonal!! 4. I subscribed to the paper! So I am attempting to be a coupon queen. I haven't started yet, but my first paper should be coming on Sunday, so wish me luck. Pretty pathetic that thats what I get to blog about myself! Thats all for now folks! Maybe February will bring a better blogger out of me!