For those that don't know, we got rid of the paci! We were a little worried how he'd react, especially at night time or naps, but after a few slightly rough days he was good. If it was out of sight it was out of mind so he didn't ask for it, even though at times when he is crying we know that is what he wants. Anyway, since we've done that we've seen a huge improvement on him talking/babbling.

We love it when he discovers new words and sounds. He's doing better at saying what you ask him too. This video is us asking him to say Mama and Daddy.

Since we put Mike's drum set in our basement it's almost a daily tradition for the boys to go and play the drums. Mike then got Carter to just play them himself. He does pretty good and just makes us realize how big he is getting.

He has also started to shake his head no when he doesn't want something. He's still not the best at yes...how come they learn 'no' so fast?

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

Since we have this beautiful new home we were more than happy to host Thanksgiving dinner at our place for the Jenson family. To get everyone there we didn't have dinner until 5, but it still was a wonderful time. We had way too much delicious food, and we stuffed ourselves silly. Everyone helped bring something, and Terry and Cheri bought and cooked the biggest turkey we've ever seen! Which is a good thing since the ham that we were in charge of was still icy cold in the middle after 2 hours. :-)


Carter was pretty good, even though he wasn't all that interested in eating at the table with everyone. Before dinner though Angela got him to give her kisses for a piece of candy. He was super cute and kept doing it until the candy was all gone.

We ended the night with going to a Blind Side at the Gateway. The movie wasn't until 9 something so we had time to eat pie. Unfortunately the pumpkin pie wasn't done yet, so we'll have to make it again for the fam since it was delicious! Of course we had to take Carter, even though we decided never to do it again (last post), but now we've decided that we REALLY can never take him again...at least to a regular priced movie. He did ok, but Christina did have to miss the last 30-45 minutes. Of course it was way past his bedtime, but there was no way that he was going to sleep with all the new places to explore. Anyway, it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving and we are so grateful for our families and for the gospel and for the beautiful outdoors and for the many other blessings that we are given.

We have been so lucky the past two days because Julie & Dillon came to visit! Though the Rose family doesn't live too far away it's hard for them to leave because of their duties at the ranch, so we only get to see them if someone has to get their wisdom teeth out or go to a doc for something. This visit had a two-fold mission as Julie had Dillon get his wisdom teeth out for his mission today so that she would have an excuse to be here for a race tomorrow that she had signed up for. When her and Jana signed up last month they didn't realize that it was on Thanksgiving Day so Julie got creative. :-) Luckily Dillon is a good sport and he didn't seem to be in too much pain. Tonight he was even munching down sweet and sour chicken. Last night we all met at Braza Grill for Dillon's "last meal" and sadly the company was the best part. The meat wasn't as good as Tucanos so now we know not to try anywhere else. Anyway, that night Mike got Dillon rocking out on the drums. It's priceless!

We even decided to catch a dollar movie last night and we brought Carter. It was actually our first time bringing Carter and he did pretty good. We didn't have to miss too much of the movie and Carter did well just playing in the aisle for most of the time. We definitely don't have a desire to take him again, but we're glad that we were able to go with everyone else.
On Wednesday Christina had to go to work as usual, and Mike had to go to school because his "wonderful" teacher thought it would be good to have a test the day before Thanksgiving break. It of course was his class that goes until 10 pm so he missed out on all the fun. Sarah and Julie were wonderful and cooked a delicious meal of sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, and wontons. It was a lot of work, but tasted so good! The kids had fun playing and watching videos, and then we stayed up with Julie until about 2 even though we were all exhausted and she had to run a race the next day.
Julie and Jana had a great time running the Turkey Day 4k race. They ran the whole time and placed well before the end of the group. :-) We always love having family over and it was fun to have everyone in our home.

We worked hard this weekend on different projects at the house. Mike replaced our front door handle so we finally took off the lock box to the door. He actually had to make a hole in the door frame for the dead bolt. We've pretty much painted everything except the door frames and main area ceiling. We bought this expensive Scotch tape that is for making straight lines and we're so glad that we did because it made all the difference. It was difficult for Mike to tape up on our display ledge in the kitchen, but well worth it for the results.
We also had this old water leak in the ceiling. Mike patched it up and painted over it. It's so nice to have all these eye sores taken care of. We only painted half of the kitchen ceiling, but you can see on the picture on the left that there is a distinct difference. We'll finish painting the ceiling...eventually. :-)
The next big project that we started to chip away at was the door frames. Every single door frame in the house have these big gaps on the corners. Plus, the doors are pretty beat up in general so with the help of Cheri, Dan & Analise, we patched, sanded, and painted 4 of the 13 that we have to redo. It's tedious and hard work so we're so thankful for all the help. There is a HUGE difference between the old and fixed as you can tell in the right picture.
Carter of course helps keep things in perspective when all the stuff we want to do the house become overwhelming. He has such a funny personality, and we love how easy he can make us laugh. He's growing up so fast!

In the midst of all our projects we were able to take a fun break for one of Mike's best friends, Russ Kingston. He married Sandy on Friday and we were able to attend the wedding dinner on Thursday night as well as the beautiful wedding at the Salt Lake Temple on Friday morning, and the reception at the stunning Gathering Place in Gardner Village. All of the events went off perfectly and we love seeing them so happy.

There are still PLENTY of things to do and change in our new home, but one thing on the top of the list was our kitchen faucet. Check out this video to see why.

Now, here is our new one. It's a MAJOR improvement. :-)

Carter has recently started talking a lot more. Most things are still Ma!, even Mikey, but he's starting to babble a ton of other noises as well. He also has been imitating words with the sounds, i.e. how we say thank you or pop corn he'll do the same type of intonation. The video below is trying to catch him saying pop corn. You have to listen closely as it comes out pretty quick.

He also has said words that sound like bowl, sock, and up. He really is getting older, and it's fun to see him learn so quickly.


P.S. It's Dan Jenson's 29th b-day today!! We forgot our camera so this is one from a phone, but we hope that he had a great day. We met him for lunch at his favorite place, Fillet of Phillies. Then we were able to join for a family party at the parents house. We got him a cool remote controlled 350 Z car. It is the car that he's always wanted. It is also exactly 2 years since we told our families that we were expecting Carter. What a great day! :-)

On Friday Mike had a free day so he took Carter up to the cabin. It was absolutely a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous and there were bright blue skies. They enjoyed playing outside, going on long tote gote and dirt bike rides.
On their hiking they found an abandoned shack.

This video is priceless. We just have to show Carter something once and then he picks it up right away.

We had to buy a vacuum since our 4 year old went kaput (yeah!), and of course the most interesting thing to Carter was the packaging.

This past weekend Mike got to go shooting with Luke & Chris. They had an awesome time in the perfect weather!