SEC Champions 2009

Twas the night before the big game and all through the south

all the Gators were busy running their mouths.

Tebow was cocky and spreading his cheer

telling everyone of the victory Florida saw this year.

With Ingram and his heisman and the record 12-0

all the Bama fans around the world knew this wouldn't Roll

Saban in his glory and the Bear smiling down

knew what would happen when Alabama came to town.

As they all laid thier heads down for a peaceful nights rest

everyone knew they were ready for the test

As they woke that fine morning and thanked God for their pride

God looked down upon the south and spoke ROLL TIDE!

3 months old

Ava Kate is officially three months old! We can't believe how fast she's growing. She changes and learns something new everyday! The other day she started to do this crazy squeal when she's happy. She also has decided that she no longer will suck on her "binkers", she likes her entire right fist, which I suppose is a good thing because you can't loose a fist. While her fist is in her mouth she slobbers and drools all over the place, what a baby! Finally she's sleeping a lot better. I read the "Babywise" book, and must admit I was not a fan. I've decided I'm just not a cry-it-out parent, especially when your baby won't cry-it-out, she'll just cry....forever! What I did like from it was the routine of eat/wake/sleep. I think that has helped, but other than that we're getting 6 hours of sleep at a time, which is really great actually, and it's only if she's in her carseat. She doesn't particularly like to sleep in her crib for long lengths of time, but whatever works! Gotta love trial and error, until success!

I write about Ava Kate so much that I've forgotten to update you on the rest of our little Carpenter clan. James is finishing up his last semester at SLCC and will start at the U next month. It sure has been crazy whirlwind for him this semester. He's been working full time and taking 3 classes and dealing with a wife and new baby. I really don't know how he does all that he does, but I'm so grateful for it because I get to stay home with my baby so much because of all his hard work.

I recently got my two bottom wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago, and decided that you should definitely do that BEFORE you have a baby to take care of. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I'll be keeping my top teeth thank you! I also went back to work last Monday which was so difficult! I'm just lucky that it's only a few days a week and that my mom can watch her. I was so happy to run home to see her cute smiley face. Well there's a quick little glimpse into what we've been doing these past three months.

A few pictures to hold ya over

There have been a lot of people that have been begging for more pictures of Ava Kate, so here are a few. I took them with my phone so they're kind of random and not very clear. Ava Kate loves her Uncle Shad. They typically fall asleep after Shad gets home from school while watching ESPN.
When it started to get chili we got Ava Kate some tights that were 0-6 months so there's quite a bit of room for her to grow into them. James was getting her ready for church and put them ALL the way on.

This is a picture of our first time going to all 3 hours of church. I've decided that our baby girl has the cutest smile! And it's a good thing because she smiles all the time!

This is a picture of a very special bath-time. I was just about to put her in the water when she peed all over my pants! We were so close to the water, if she only could've held it for 2 more seconds! But then we wouldn't have this funny picture or story.
Finally here's a picture of our little soccer ball for halloween. I made her costume obviously, and James and I were Real Salt Lake soccer players. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of us all together because I didn't use permanent marker on her outfit so when she drooled it made a huge mess!So there ya have it, just a few pictures of our princess. She's so fun and a big girl! We're so lucky that Heavenly Father allowed us to be her parents!

Hey guys...What's going on?

So I know this is pretty basic, but I don't think my baby needs any glitter or glam to look cute. This is her at 8 weeks and she changes everyday! I would put up more pictures, but lately I've just been taking videos of our lives (ok really of just Ava Kate), and for some reason I've tried about fifty times to upload one and it never works!  Also, we've actually had a lot going on.  James and I moved to a new apartment which we absolutely love so far. (no worries, we brought A.K. along too) We've been there for two weeks now and we really like the ward, they've been very inviting and welcoming.  We miss our old ward a lot though, we learned so much from them and really grew to love the people we were close to.  But unlike most, I love change and we're really excited for this one.  

Ava Kate just had her two month check up the other day and she's a healthy baby girl, weighing in at 12 lbs even, and 22 inches! Yes she's big we know, but she's so cute! She's starting to really react and smile when you play with her.  She has such a personality too. For example she LOVES her baths.  She's like a little fishy swimming and splashing in the water.  She grows and changes everyday.  I'm so grateful that I get to stay home with her as much as I do and am so lucky to be her mom.  Especially since she's been such a great baby! She hardly, rarely ever cries for no reason (usually hunger,poopies,lonely), and she would never cry for more than 5 min. if she were just fussy.

Anyway, we still have a lot going on, we're mostly looking forward to going to Alabama in December for James' brother's wedding. Well I'll keep trying to get videos and pictures, but that's what's going on for any who were wondering.

Silly Girl..

Our baby girl is already so obedient to her father...

Gratitude

"[That which] we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value.  Heaven knows how to put a proper price up its goods" -Thomas Paine (An American Crisis)

Patricia Holland promised in "A Quiet Heart"

Believe me when I tell you that God is a God of

goodness, mercy, and justice.  Ultimately, he 

cannot treat his righteous children differently.

Whatever blessings you have gone without will

be made up to you in divine and glorious

fashion.  I give you every assurance, they will be

made up to you to the point where you will not

be confident that God treated you fairly but

embarrassed that he treated you so very generously.

"God knows how to give good gifts to His children.  As a loving Father, He will not give His child a stone if He is asked for bread.  Always, the gifts are given in His own due time; if we are required to wait for some blessings, or even do without some blessings here on earth, we can look forward in faith knowing that our righteous desires will be fulfilled." 

-Maria Covey Cole (Contentment)

Contentment

My grandma gave me this amazing book titled "Contentment, Inspiring Insight for LDS Mothers" by Maria Covey Cole and I love some of the little quotes that are in it so I'm going to post them on my blog... This is one about comparing yourself to people.

Spencer W. Kimball and Harold B. Lee were 

close friends.  They went into the Quorum of 

the Twelve just a few weeks apart.  President

Kimball said he always admired this friend so 

very much; in fact, he almost envied President

Lee for his talents.  He took every occasion to

tell President Lee how he felt.  Often he would

say " Harold, I wish I could play the organ as

you do."  "harold, you speak so well.  I wish I 

could so as well." "Harold, you can see the gist

of a problem in such a short time.  I wish my

mind were so clear."  Then,  related President

Kimball, in one of their weekly meetings in the

temple President Lee made a fine presentation

to the other members of the Twelve.  As they

walked out of the temple together, again

President Kimball turned to his friend and said,

"You did a magnificent job with your report this

morning.  I wish I could do as well as you do."

"Well," said President Kimball with a twinkle 

in his eyes, "I guess Harold had had enough.  He

stopped, put his hands on his hips and looking

 me straight in the eye, said, "Spencer, the Lord

doesn't want you to be a Harold B. Lee.  All he

 wants is for you to be the best Spencer W.

Kimball you can be." 'With a smile on his face, 

President Kimball said, "Ever since then I have

just tried to be the best Spencer W. Kimball I 

can be."

"All the Lord asks of us is to be the best we can be with what we have...As Spencer W. Kimball was taught, a copy is never as valuable as the original.  Each of us is an original made by God, and we diminish ourselves and our Maker when we question our worth." ("For Such a Time as This," The best of Women's Conference, 17-18, Norma Ashton, wife of Marvin J Ashton)

Ava Kate is Here!

As many of you know, Ava Kate has officially been born! Yay, she was only 6 days late :). She was born September 3, 2009 at 1:35 am. She weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches. And she's adorable! So, here's the story. I actually went into labor around 4 pm Wednesday while at work. However, I wasn't completely sure because the contractions weren't too bad and since I hadn't had any braxton hicks, I thought these might be them. But..just to be safe I decided to go over to my parent's house so I wouldn't be home alone for 2.5 hours before James got home from work. Around 5, mom and I decided to start timing my contractions and they were about 3-5 min apart, but I was so paranoid about going to the hospital and being sent home that I was going to make sure I was in labor before driving to the hospital. Around 5:30 they actually started to hurt...pretty bad, so mom said, "We're going to the hospital!" I was admited just after 6 pm, but they were so full that I had to wait in the hall until they had a triage room open. P.S. James didn't arrive to the hospital until conveniently I was getting the epidural, therefore he missed the "hard part". But don't worry he makes up for it a thousand times over later on in the story....So by this time I had mom, dad, and James as my support. We then waited for about 5 ish hours during which they broke my water and there was meconium in it. Also, my Dr. was out of town... I pushed for two hours and then once she started crowning they called in the Dr. and the NICU (because of the meconium) and then it just took one push to get her head, and then the next push and out came her body! easy peasy japanesey! James cut the cord and NICU cleaned out her lungs. As for me I had a 2nd degree tear (no episotomy) and developed a lovely rare complication (as in so rare my Dr. hasn't seen one in over 15 years) that we call helga the hematoma. (there's a lot more to the story, but this is a novel already) Here's where James turns into superman...I have been bed ridden for the past 16 days and for the first week James took care of two babies (Ava Kate and myself). I also have to thank my neighbors, Ashley, my mom, and grandma for all their help. I'm still recovering, but thanks to a priesthood blessing I received in the hospital, and the enabling power of the atonement of Christ I was and have been able to take care of Ava Kate since the day James had to go back to work. And there ya have it, and believe me that's the abridged version. Also, thanks to Annika for taking amazing pictures for us. If you want more e-mail me.

new date

So some other lucky woman delivered her baby, which is actually good for me.  My Dr's nurse called this morning and said they've moved my induction date up a day, so the baby should be here Sat. Sept 5 for sure! Cross your fingers!

Stubborn like her parents, well like her mom at least....

So I went to the Dr. today and I'm dilated to 1 cm and effaced 60%, some of you may know already that this has been my progress for the past 3 weeks.  For some reason my child doesn't realize that her "expiration date" is tomorrow and it would be nice if we were a little further along than that.  However it doesn't help that my muscles seem to be broken and haven't contracted even once.  False labor? Not for us I guess.  Dr. also said that she's starting to get pretty big comparative to me and it may be a tight squeeze. (sorry if this is too much info, I'm trying to be as tactful as possible).  Finally, if nothing happens on its own, as much as I hate to take away my child's agency to come when she thinks she's ready, I'm scheduled to be induced either Sat. night or Sun. morning Sept. 5 or 6 depending on how my appointment goes next Friday.  We're also going to do a non-stress test Friday morning if she's still not here, just to make sure she's doing alright.  In the meantime we'll keep waiting...and waiting...and waiting.... stubborn little girl! But thanks for all your prayers and support they really mean a lot to us! 

Clarification....

I'm not saying I don't like the inquiring phone calls and texts regarding our little one's arrival, actually I've never felt so loved before ever.  It was just an observation that I made, mostly because even our family will call to make sure they didn't miss anything! haha, love ya guys!

Quick Update

So just to give you a quick update we still do not have a baby, just a ginormous belly! Being pregnant really hasn't been too difficult and even now it's not so horrible, I'm just so impatient to see my little girl! My due date is on Friday and we've got nothing.  Also I just wanted to let everyone know that we will let everyone know when she is born.  It's funny how people keep calling and such to ask if we've had her yet...I promise we're not going to keep that a secret! :) So for now we're just waiting.....and waiting.....and impatiently waiting!

Missionaries vs. Huge Rat

This is just a fun video that we found from James' Mission in Monterey Mexico.  His companion is actually Spencer Sorensen from South Jordan, which is Crowsh's older brother if for ya'll from so jo.

Sit Back and Enjoy

 This is my first attempt at editing video from my camera with our imovie program.  Hope ya'll like it.

Baby Update and funny picture of James

I had my 30 week appointment today, and according to the Dr. everything is looking great! I'm measuring right on, and he was able to, and helped me feel how she's positioned now.  She's head down! Yay! The doc said that mostly by this far she's big enough that she shouldn't move enough before she's born to be breech.  Other than that he said, "See me in two weeks."  TWO WEEKS! Things start cooking a lot faster now and she's coming way way way too fast! I could technically have her in 6 weeks!  Wow! Well that's all, and enjoy this funny pic we found of James on his mission in Mexico right before the dog turned evil and bit him :) 

Final Hoopla!

James and I decided that before the baby comes we should go on one final vacation with just the two of us, (well K is in the womb) but anyway....We decided that we would go to Kansas City, Missouri to visit James' dad and his wife and her kids. We also drove, yes that's right being 25 weeks pregnant I rode/drove in a car the whole 16 hours to Missouri AND BACK! And would you believe that we actually had fun on the drive. If you know James and I, you know we're road trippers for life! We also were able to see Michelle again since she flew in to KC to join in the adventure as well! Anyway, here are some pictures of what we did each day.....

Saturday (The drive there!)

Really words cannot explain driving through some of the most dull country and turning the corner to see a 30 foot Mary statue on the border of WY and NE. We had to pull over and get a picture!

Monday....

Adam Ondi-Ahman

Grave site of John Whitmer, one of the 8 witnesses of the Book of Mormon.

Far West Temple Site (D&C 113-115; 117-120)

Marker for Haun's Mill Massacre

Tuesday.... (Liberty, Independence, Winter Quarters)

Liberty Jail (D&C 121,122,123)

Community of Christ Temple Independence,Missouri

Omaha, NE LDS Temple at Winter Quarters

Wednesday......

Carthage Jail

Thursday.....NAUVOO!
In front of the LDS Nauvoo Temple after completing the work for James' Grandpa Carpenter, of which James' brother Matthew, James, and James' Dad were able to be a part of.

Here's a Pregnant Shot for all of you that have been hungry for it. (26 weeks)

James in the statue garden at Nauvoo

Friday......
Dinner at Ameristar Casino (All you can eat buffet on Crab Night!)

Saturday.....Drive home, no pictures.....

To sum it all up, it was a very fun, busy, educational, enlightening, tiring, testimony-building, relationship-strengthening week. And we'd just like to give a huge thanks to George and Julie Carpenter for their generosity and hospitality during the week, we definitely had a blast! Oh, and we drove through a total of 7 states, (8 if you count Utah): Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Colorado.

Conversion Story

For those of you who don't know, I grew up on basketball. My family ate, drank, dreamt basketball growing up. James on the other hand was a soccer player in high school. Though I supported my friends on Bingham High's girl soccer team, and thought the guy soccer players were hot, I never really got into it. The last few weeks however have brought soccer into my life in a whole new way. I have to give a shout out to our friends Natalie and Jeremy as they are the main reason. First, James got to play a pick up game type thing with Jeremy and some buddies which was really fun to watch him play (James is a hot soccer player by the way). And then finally, the clincher that converted me...Real Salt Lake Soccer! We got to go last night for free-thanks Nat and Jer- and it was so much fun! The fans were amazing, the game was exciting, and it just was a great time out with James! But I felt very left out as I didn't have a jersey!

22 weeks and counting....

I have no further comment. You know who you are, and why I did this...

Not Your Typical Gift

My new favorite activity is to actually "window-shop" for baby things. Which is weird because I HATE window shopping and it's James' favorite thing to do, so I will only go with him if it's for "K" (who is a girl, I'll post more details later) Anyway, yesterday we were walking around Fashion Place Mall and decided to check out the new Nordstrom. We went straight to the baby section, and were introduced by the sales rep to something that I never would've dreamed of wanting, but all the sudden don't know how I could live with out. A fabulous baby sling.

Sounds silly but I guess they're WONDERFUL. Even another shopper in the department over heard our conversation and said she loved hers! So if you're looking for a cheap gift for all those pregnant people in your life check these out, you can get them off the internet for under $20. I was also told that the ones with adjustable straps are the best. Good luck!

Shake it, shake, shake it....

It's been a while since we've last posted, but as most of you know, we're going to be having a baby due August 28, 2009 (Robyne's b-day). Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update on how that's going. I haven't been sick at all, and other than the little bump and the heartbeats I'd probably be questioning the fact. I just felt it move on Saturday which was really crazy awesome! Then, even better, James felt a tiny little "thump" of a kick on Sunday. On Friday we get to finally find out if "it" is a he or a she, but for now and most likely until it's born it's still just baby "K".

Your mom's always your mom, no matter how old you get

My mom,

My best friend,

My calculator,

My peer mediator,

My cook,

My nurse,

My barber,

My shopper,

My mom100%

motherly at the core,

And lots more

Always looking out for me,

Molding me into who I want to be

Telling me to follow my dreams,

Even though the world is not what it seems

Always holding my hand along the way,

Even when we both turn old and gray

Special moments together,

For now, the past, and forever

We may get mad,

I may get very bad

We may fight,

All through the night

But in the end,

All is alright

Because I'll have,

My best friend,

Always in sight

You always give me everything,

Decking me out in fabulous bling

You rarely do anything for yourself,

You just give and give to everybody else

Truly, you don't have to buy anything at all,

What I have with you beats anything at the mall

When all my friends at school have gone away,

Here you will always stay

Love doesn't have to end,

When you are my best friend

So James had some spare time to kill and decided to upload some random pictures, but didn't want to tell anything about them I guess. So I'll try to give you a 411. The first one was taken at the top of Angel's Landing at Zions Ntnl. Park.

This one is from Bingham High's Centennial Celebration, even though you can't tell, it was pretty much just James being funny.

Finally, this was taken at Van's football game.

The End

Can you tell a difference?

Instead of 25 I choose 10 things about me (Tara)

1. I was a hopeless romantic and then I met James. I like to call him "a chick-flick guy" because he's the Landon in "A Walk to Remember"(after he straightens up of course), or the Westley in "The Princess Bride", and last but not least Gerry in "P.S. I Love You" (except alive).

2. I never want to graduate school. I've always done well so it helps my self esteem and I love learning new things.

3. I LOVE pre-school age kids, but babies scare me to death! I'm afraid to even hold a baby because I feel so awkward.

4. I love to read. However if I haven't read a novel in a long time, to get me back into things I always pick up a Jane Austin.

5. Before James I never took out my contacts every single night, used bar soap, or took many baths. I also had never eaten grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

6. I hate being alone. I attribute it to being the oldest of five kids so there was always someone there.

7. I've always been envious of those that can draw, paint, and write. i.e. Ali, Tif, Laurel, and Linnea

8. I secretly want to be a 'skater/boarder' chick. But my fear of hurting myself and my lack of the ability to not conform seemed to always get in the way.

9. I have so many guilty pleasures that I'm beginning to think that guilty pleasures still exist because of me. i.e. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus (there I said it!)

10. I have the best family anybody could ask for, definitely not perfect, but the best!

Lame and Behind

It has been forever since I last posted, and I have no pictures of ANY of the holidays, they were actually pretty quiet this year. Mom and Dad and the family went to California for Christmas vacation. We celebrated on the 20th so we still had some fun with the family, but it's just not quite the same when it's not on the 25th. James and I celebrated together by going to IHOP a Sommerville Christmas Tradition.
For New Years Eve we didn't do a whole lot either, but it was fun. Ashley and Chris invited us over to play games, our new favorite being "Killer Bunnies", which is surprisingly fun. The Burtons always have weird games. Then went to bed at about 11:00, wow we're old...
Well, other than that there's really not any fun news, but more to come....