My latest Faves

I love having a two year old. They make life so fun. Carter has bloomed so much over the last

5 months- really since we have moved and he has started talking. He is so funny and makes us laugh all the time. He and Bridger are the best of friends and play all day long together, with of course, the occasional brawl. They make eachother laugh hysterically and they think that eachother is so funny. They discuss a lot of things, and

I love overhearing their conversations, especially ones like this:

Bridger: "Carter, I love you. You are my best friend."

Carter: "I love you, Bidgor."

Due to much our much lack of sleep from Carter being scared in his

room by himself at night, we moved them together in the same room. It has worked out wonderfully and we are all getting better sleep at night. Bridger likes to lay by Carter if he gets scared, they often will wake eachother up and run into our room in the morning so happy.

If Bridger is still asleep, I love how Carter says, "wake up, Bidgor... no mor sleeping."

I am to the point that it is obvious I am pregnant. And apparently, not only my tummy is growing, but my bum is too. Carter has come up to me a few times and gently stroked my bum cheek, just like he does my belly saying,

""Little sissy...right here."

Umm... sorry, Carter, wrong side....

Carter has become very expressive in his likes and dislikes, especially at the dinner table. He will throw back his head and yell "Taaaaasssttyyyyyyyy!" when he likes something he is eating. If he doesn't, he spits it out on the floor immediately. There is no negotiating with him when it comes to food. I can usually persuade Bridger to eat a few bites of anything, but not Carter.

Carter has been on a read-a-thon lately. He loves to read and I often find himself sitting alone reading. His recent favorites include 2 cowboy magazines that Ben picked up while he was traveling. He loves those things.

We had some estimates

done on some things for our house last month, and since then, Bridger has become the "Question man." I will hear the doorbell ring, answer it and there stands Bridger with this notebook and pen, sometimes a hat and backpack and he says,

"Hello Ma'am. Do you have any questions? Anything that needs to be fixed?"

Carter will repeat but when I answer the door he just says in a high voice

"Qwerstions?"

Carter is very polite. He says " 'Cuse me. mommy" when he falls down, trips, burps or runs into me. Even when he shouldn't say excuse me, he still does. He also uses please and thank you appropriately. I love his little thank you's when I buckle him in his car seat, take him out, even changing his diaper or getting him dressed gets a big thank you. What a sweet boy!

Carter answers serious questions with a very serious "Yes." and not so serious questions with a high pitched, "Yippp!"

Carter will put a blanket over his head, walk around and say "Scarwy ghost. Scarwy ghost." Then one of us will say, "AAahhh!" Carter immediately will take off the blanket and say,"Just Cawrter. Just Cawrter. Just me." Then we'll say, "Ok." And the process repeats again.

My sister gave us some hand me downs, including a suit. Since then, Bridger has asked to "go to a church meeting" or claims that he has a conference to

go to and needs to wear his suit. We picked up a few more suits this last week and B and C looked so darn handsome on Sunday I had to take some pictures. Here they are polishing their shoes and ready to go.

And, Grandma and Grandpa Tippets came to visit. It was great to see them!

And our Halloween pictures:

This is at the Truck-r-Treat on the Saturday before

They were Super cute giraffe and monkey, but I couldn't get them in the costumes again for Halloween night.

These are really their everyday costumes that they love.

And, my last latest fave, is that I am finally feeling better! I am now 14 weeks and keeping food down with only 1-2 doses of medicine a day. I am hoping to be able to cut those out soon. Hooray!

Our official Introduction of Zofran

We are excited to announce that we are expecting an addition to our family!

Zofran is due May 18, 2011.

I have been sick. Very sick. Way more sick than the other 2.

The only way I have survived the last 6 weeks is due to a Miracle.

It is a medication called Zofran.

Lots of Zofran. This little girl is made up mostly of Zofran

(and phenergan, zantac, B6, unisom, colace, myralax and occasional prenatal vitamin)

Hence her name.

Taking Zofran allows me to walk... sometimes, without barfing.

I carry a ziploc bag whenever I leave the house to barf in. I use it. Often.

Ben is becoming a really good cook, housekeeper and laundry specialist.

But kids are worth it, right?! They must be! Since this is our third, and first one planned.

AND, Things are improving: 2 days in a row without barfing! Miracles never cease!

I did a small project today. I made dinner last night.

Thank you, Zofran, for making my life a little easier.

Here is her first picture:

This picture was taken when I was so early, that you can see the yolk sac (bottom) and the almost little bean shape of a baby (top). They assured me it isn't twins.

Random Thoughts

As I have several posts in the making, I thought I would get one published.. just randomness.

1- This weekend I was reminded of Miracles. Ben's dad had to undergo a craniotomy unexpectedly. He is now out of the ICU and doing well. I am thankful for the miracle of modern medicine and that he is still alive. We hope for many more years with him. Also, we went to a baby blessing, well, actually, three blessings. Our friends with triplets came to Utah to bless their boys. Those boys are miracles. And they are all doing so great!! I will post some pictures for all of our Madison friends later (as you can guess, that girl is too busy to blog.)

2- Last night I came home from grocery shopping and saw Ben and the boys outside on the lawn playing rodeo. Ben was on all fours running around, Bridger on his back and Carter chasing them with a rope. I am so glad I married a good man. His boys worship him and I would be so pleased if they turned out just like him, Cowboy and all.

3- Today we had a play group at our house. I had a blast, I think the kids did too. I danced and sang like a 3 year old, was a kitten for a while, we hunted treasures, played in tents, and ate great snacks. Life is good when you are three.

4- My sister in law made me a raspberry- spinach shake this weekend. It was fantastic and you couldn't taste the spinach at all. I made a blueberry- spinach shake for my boys today. They LOVED it. I hide spinach in lots of food, this is by far the best!

5- Carter just wiped his boogie on my shirt. He has been doing this lately and finds lots of enjoyment in it. I do not.

6- My neighbor brought over the newspaper today to show me this:

Carter Cole Turns Two

Two days after we moved into our new house, Carter turned TWO. We threw a party together and invited the neighbors to celebrate with us.

We had cupcakes, popsicles and lots of fun.

Carter had lots of really excited helpers to help with opening his presents. Bridger had gathered random special prizes from around the house and garage and wrapped them up for Carter. Carter was so happy for the re-gifts- you would've thought they were new! (see measuring tape picture) He also got some special gifts from the neighbors. One gave him his favorite teddy bear and the other gave him his old scooter. They were both very thoughtful gifts.

Carter's great birthday prizes.

Highlights of Carter at TWO: He is a big kid, and lots of people ask if I have twins. (He is 35 inches tall and 31 pounds. Three pounds and 5 inches less than Bridger) He is finally talking, and doing really well. He started putting two words together around his birthday and is using small sentences now. He doesn't often initiate a conversation, but will participate when he can.

He is very loving. He loves to hug people, he is always anxious to give a hug and a kiss for an apology. He loves babies and is always concerned when he hears one cry. He will point to them very concerned and say "Sad." over and over and will want to console and hold the baby. He loves cuddling and being held.

He loves being with Big brother and Dad. This summer our passion is rodeo. We have been to lots of them and the boys are always playing rodeo at home. Anything in our home has turned into a "bucking bull" and they like chasing each other and roping each other and taking turns being a rodeo clown.
This kid takes his hat everywhere. And don't mess with his hat either, he has defined that cowboy rule many times!

He is very independent and doesn't wait for mom to get him anything. He likes to do it himself and thinks that he can. He only eats what he wants, and refuses anything he has no interest in.

We love our Cowboy Carter!

Idaho-Down

Who hosts their own farewell party 10 days before they are moving across the country? We do!! Ben really wanted to say Thank you to all of his co-workers so he insisted on hosting. Ben started planning months ago with the decorations, music, food- everything- and it came together really well. We've never cooked for 50 people before so luckily we had some hired hands and we prepared all day. A big thanks to our helpers and photographers! After a delicious dinner, Ben did a roping demonstration and then a rope MAKING demonstration, (yes, he built the rope making machine... he never runs out of talent) then a program where Ben recited some cowboy poetry and then they presented his diploma followed by pinata and dessert. It was a busy night! Thanks to everyone for coming and for the wonderful good-bye gifts. We have had a lot of great memories with the Pulmonary Department. And, Ben wanted me to mention, he is hiring anyone from UW who wants to join us in Boise.

Ok- I can't get the slide show to post, so you can watch it here:

http://www.slide.com/r/oa8EvZKY7z_Wvj5EjekTnc_8yyvhuNW5?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Hello Boise!

Hi- finally, I have a post. We have been in our house almost 3 weeks and finally starting to get back on schedule. Can I just tell you... we LOVE it here! Boise is definitely a great choice for us. It is a vibrant, friendly city. Boise has turning lanes, parking spaces, new roads and roads without ANY potholes and speed limits faster than a turtles pace (you have to have had lived in Madison to appreciate those luxuries) We love our cul de sac, neighborhood and our location. We are close to the YMCA, (and yes, I have been going at 5:15 a.m.) parks, tons of shopping, the freeway and Ben's commute is only 15 minutes. It has been hot, the good kind of heat that you can bask in without feeling like you are in a greenhouse, and it gets dark at 10 p.m. (Something we will appreciate more as our children get older) and we have been welcomed by so many nice people. We have had a fun month of vacation before we moved in that we will catch you up on soon. Here is a recap of our move:

Leaving Madison, June 28th. It was fantastic having movers. It would be hard to move by ourselves after seeing these professionals pack our entire house in less than 4 hours. It was amazing. They packed, I cleaned. Boys... as you can see here... TV...we have had a lot of TV days. We had lots of goodbye parties with our neighbors. We had so much fun and miss them already.



Moving in, July 19th. It was totally easy unpacking. They put it where you want, you just open the box and put it away. Hooray for movers! (P.S. One of our newest and favorite luxuries...a garage door opener! The only problem is the boys fighting over who gets to push the button!)

We didn't have to have TV days unpacking, the boys just played in the packing paper. They loved it! And, it kept them entertained for hours.


And wore them out!

Our lovely dinner first night in our house provided by our sweet neighbor complete with a church phone list and dessert. The Lord has blessed us with great neighbors everywhere we have been and Boise is no exception. This lady has FIVE boys (already my hero) and they are all so cute and well behaved. Maybe she can tutor me?

All moved in. Our awesome realtor gave us this popcorn machine with popcorn bowls. We love it! Thanks!

OK, now for the top 10 things about our house:

1- Huge yard with sandbox, garden space, landscaping, patio and fully fenced

2- Cul de sac with great neighbors and walking path to YMCA

3- Big basement for play room- go ahead- mess it up- I don't have to look at it everyday so it doesn't bother me. Weekly cleanings will do.

4- I have my own shower and can shower without stepping on bath toys- and there is a linen closet in each main bathroom. Hello storage!

5- Big kitchen with a quiet dishwasher. Hooray!

6- Storage room in basement with Huge-O closet for storage. Hello- storage again!

7- Real laundry room with a door

8- Guest room upstairs- for reals!! (Ready and waiting for anyone to come :))

9-CARPET!! We were in a carpet famine in our old house. This house has lots of soft, comfy carpet that kisses your toes when you walk on it. We lay on the floor daily and make carpet-angels in celebration.

10- Our bedroom is on the other side of the house and Ben can get up and shower in the morning without waking up the boys at 0500. Actually, the boys have been sleeping in til 8-9 a.m. since we have been here. Do you believe in miracles? I do!

So Long Madison! This is what we will miss...

Now that I have been in Madison a little over three years now, I can officially say that I actually kind of like it. Our time has gone by fast and these are the things that we will miss.



1- Our house- its location mostly. We really do live in the best location in Madison. It is wonderful to be able to walk to almost anything we want. We live on a quiet street with good neighbors. We are close to parks, the library, YMCA, grocery store, zoo, Ben bikes to work everyday in less than 15 minutes... I could really go on and on, but just know that we just love it. If we were staying in Madison, we wouldn't move, just finish the basement and do a few more major projects. Ben has put less than 2500 miles on his truck in the last 3 years..and that includes driving here from Texas..he will make up for that in Boise pretty quickly.




2- The Bike trail- less than 2 minutes from our house we can be on a scenic, paved bike trail that goes on for miles in both directions. We have spent many a day rollerblading, walking, biking, taking it to the zoo, one of several parks, Trader Joes, downtown, the lake- anywhere in Madison is really possible to get to from "the bike trail."


3- The Library- walk to the end of the street and up the hill by the Elementary is the Sequoya Library. Despite all the books that have been damaged by Carter, they continue to let us check out anything we'd like. Our boys love going there to play with the kitchen, the flower shop, the landro mat, doing puzzles and games and getting their favorite Bob the Builder DVD. It has been a great place for us to go.



4- The Chocolate shop: Around the corner from the library is the Chocolate Shoppe, Madison's best ice cream. My favorite ice cream being Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Truffle or Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Bridger's is Superman and Ben and Carter eat almost anything Bridger and I choose. We love that place in the summer and go there frequently as part of our family night.



5- Trader Joes: I love this store! We aren't really organicy, health-nut people, but this place has great snacks that are a healthier version. Most are without artificial ingredients, preservatives, organic- that kind of stuff. The produce is great, the flowers fantastic and beautiful. I am going to start promoting it when we get to Boise and maybe they will (or hey- even I might) open a store in Boise.

6- Woodmans- This is really my favorite store in all of Madison- And, yes, it is a grocery store (If you remember, I would choose grocery shopping over clothes shopping ANY day) and Woodman's is the warehouse for me. Not only do they have EVERY thing you would ever want, but they have EVERY single brand of everything you would ever want (except green chile enchilada sauce- which really is annoying to me, but hey, it can have one fault) All at exceptionally low prices. This place is huge--I have it memorized. Tell me what you want, I'll tell you where to get it. There is an entire aisle of just pasta, a entire corner dedicated to cheese of any single flavor ever known to man, their freezer section goes on and on... just like I could do about how I love this store. My favorite thing is the drive-up. I love not having to take crazy boys and the groceries to the car and load them myself. This service was inspired by a mom. It is wonderful. Sure am gonna miss ya, Woodmans.


7- The crazy pink house- There is a house close to us that is bright pink with bright blue trim- Every time we drive by Bridger yells "MOM- there's the pink crazy house!" It cracks me up and I don't know when he started it, but he has always done it. There are other houses in Madison that are painted equally as crazy.



8- Our Health Insurance- I can't believe I just thought of this one! We have had the best health insurance we have ever had/will ever have in our lives here. It has been unbelievable. Thank You University of Wisconsin!! Let's just say I get paid to work-out and I got paid to have Carter. We really have come out ahead... And lets just say we will definitely make up for that in Boise.



9- YMCA- only a 3 minute drive away from here. I have loved this place. I am only sad I didn't join sooner. It started with Carter being about 6 months old. I knew I may not survive another Wisconsin winter if I didn't do something different. Something that I liked... yes, exercise! Carter would wake up to eat at 5 a.m. so I could nurse him and then go to the gym and be back by 7 for Ben to leave. It honestly has saved me some mental sanity and helped me feel good, and most importantly survived TWO winters here... and my pant size says I am doing pretty darn good too. My boys love the YMCA too...the swim classes and the family fun nights, the child watch. Bonus in Boise: YMCA is going to be a 5 minute walk from our house! Hooray!!


10-11 Our honey Locust Tree. In our front yard is a huge locust tree. It is beautiful, it shades our house and the leaves are so small that they blow away in the fall so we don't have to rake. I love this tree. We have all sat on our couch and looked outside our front window and studied it. We have also loved that in the last 3 years we have never had to water our lawn and it has always been green. We will miss the heavy rain storms that they have here. I love the lightning and the thunder and the cloudbursts- something that I am sure the desert of Boise just doesn't have. We have had so much rain here that we have a large population of extra-large mushrooms.


12- Westmorland Park- this is "our" park because it is the closest park to us at the end of our street. We have had many, many play days here We have loved the T-rex, the ice cream stand, everything in the summer and the ice skating rink in the winter and the sledding hills.


13- The farmers market in Madison is amazing. They have it twice a week and besides the crowds there, we love going. I love the smell of fresh, fragrant delicious produce and yummy baked goods.



14- Our jobs and even more, our co-workers. Ben has loved his co-workers here and has made many great friends. He tells me all the time that he has a secret plan to recruit them all to work with him in Boise. They have been very kind to us and we are better people for knowing them. We had an Idaho-Down with everyone that Ben works with the other night. Our photographers took 1400 pictures that night, so it may take a while for them to sort through them all and get them to us, but stay tuned for pictures of that. I have enjoyed my job and the great people that I have associated with. This will probably be the last time I work (that is as a RN) for a while. I must admit I am excited to stay home!


15- Last and most of all we will miss is all of our friends and neighbors that we have met here. We live on a very friendly street and have made our best friends here. We love our next door neighbors and are happy that they watch out for us, worry about us and are anxious and willing to help us out whenever we need something. We love our ex-neighbors who we still see all the time who do the same... and Megan doubles as a work-out buddy and hair dresser! Our boys love playing with their kids and will miss them so much. We have enjoyed BBQ's, holidays and many a day out on the Lane playing together. We love you Gepners and Willenburgs, please come visit us!! We also have met great friends that we go to church with. Good thing there are blogs to stay in touch!

So long, Madison. Thanks for being a great place for our little family!

May's Nitty Gritty

Mother's Day

My three boys

Me and Bridger- he made me a really cute flower at church with his hand print. I also FINALLY got my wedding ring sized. Afterwards, my friend Jamie told me that she thought it was just a "Mormon thing" to wear the wedding ring on the middle finger. Ah, yeah...ever since she has known me I have worn it on my middle finger...it's been too big since Bridger was born.

Hooray it fits again!

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Any birthday on The Lane brings us all together
Although, it did make me sad- this is our last birthday with the gang. :(

They are all so big!

Picture from December 2008

Kids everywhere- we'll miss this

Preschool Olympics

For our final day of preschool, we had an Olympic day at the park. The kids jumped, threw balls, tossed balloons, did a relay race (which apparently wasn't Bridger's favorite- see grumpy face photo) they made medals and batons. And, played for hours which was great for us to moms to chat about our next big steps in life.

Bridger and Jared

Winners!

April's Nitty Gritty

April has come and gone so fast. Here are some of the highlights:

We were cleaning the church on Saturday morning, Carter was running around in the chapel and tripped, hit the pew and cut his ear. We went home, I got on the phone to call the instacare to see if they did stitches, Ben went to our first aid box and pulled out several different types of suture needles and some topical lidocaine. I just can't guarantee I will be a good surgical assistant for my own son, so we paid someone else at the E.R. to do it (well worth it).

This is a picture right after the stitches, now it has healed really well.

Ben just happened to have a conference in Boise, ID so we tagged along and turned it into a house hunting trip. Ben's parents met us there to see us and help with the kids while we went to dinner meetings. Well, we had good intentions, but between Carter being sick right before we left and still not 100 percent while we were there, all the traveling, the boys not sleeping well in a strange hotel, it was a pretty exhausting trip for all of us. And, no, we didn't get to go to the dinner meetings. The houses that we went to with the boys all had animals. One cat was really friendly, the next house had a cat that bit Bridger and the next house had a dog that freaked him out. Then he found some chickens, and he was sure that was the house for us. After two house hunting trips, we still are fixed on one that has yet to come on the market. (It's a long story) But it will, and we are praying before we move there. We all ready call it ours, so it HAS to!

This is a huge accomplishment for a boy previously (and now again) scared of cats and dogs

This sums up Carter for the trip. Poor kid.




The night before we left we went to our friends, the Hills, house for dinner. We got to know our hopefully future neighbors there as well, who coincidentally enough, live next door to the house we want to buy and are all ready friends with the Hills through work. We all enjoyed ourselves and can't wait to see them all again.


Bridger had so much fun with you, Si-guy!

Poor Sydney looks so bored. Odds weren't in her favor, there were 9 boys and 2 girls (the other girl being her baby sister) She won't think these are bad odds forever! :0

Oh and another thing to brag, I mean, blog about. We sold our house!

We put it on the market in February. I made a blog of it and we did for sale by owner. We had an offer, negotiated and accepted in 8 days. We officially closed this month and are now renters.

Woohoo! Maybe I should go into real estate, whatdayathink?

And now, Our Team 14 enjoying the wonderful Spring days.

I've been thinking lately, my baby is a little boy now


This is our neighbor's dinosaur. Completely made from recycled material then painted.

They are so fascinated with him.

The boys have 100 toothrushes in this house, it cracked me up when Carter decided to use his as a spoon for his applesauce.