Our Family

Daddy's Girl

2011-10-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ok. The next several posts are just a bunch of pictures from the past couple months that I've failed to get up in time. Sorry if they're disjointed.

Here we go. Biggest most exciting thing of our lives right now? OUR BOAT!!! Brian the only pictures I have are on my phone and I can't upload them to the computer. I'll take some of the boat the next time we're out.

Here's something you should know about Barton's and boating. Something always goes wrong. So in the tradition of my maiden name's sake, our first trip out to the lake we drove over an hour, got the boat all ready and realized we forgot the keys. About 2 and a half hours later, we were out on the lake having fun.

Second trip out. Everything went smoothly. Everything except the murmurs from the men who thought it was crazy to take a boat out at 5:30 in the evening, in crazy cold wind and choppy water. Carsen got bounced out of the tube (no worries, after Ryan pulled him out he said he wanted to go again; climbed back in with mom, and told me it was my job to protect him). Everything went fine until we got a flat tire on the boat trailer. Surprisingly, everyone still deemed the trip a success and we went home happy.

Third trip, well it hasn't even been a week since we've had this awesome toy so we'll keep you posted.

Are we crazy for going boating in October? YES!

Was it so much fun? YES!

Does Travis look hot behind a boat wheel? YES!

Is Vickie better at driving the boat than Travis? YES!

Did Ammon find a special way to get warm? YES!

Was it as cold as it looks? YES!

Santa's Village

2011-10-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

Parents Visit

2011-10-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Just a fast flash of pictures. Notice the shot of the cheerleaders Travis took at the game. Great Trav.

Labor Day

2011-10-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

All right these pictures are going to hit you fast…

School's In!

2011-08-26T21:05:00.001-07:00

These are never in the order I want them. I'll figure it out someday...

First day was a very sunny day which means squinty eye's and pirate type expressions.

Sometimes our kids do things that surprise us, but I have to admit that it's been awhile since we've been surprised. With Ammon it's like this: Of course he's playing in the toilet, of course he's trying to close himself in the dishwasher.

Carsen is on the other spectrum. Of course he's spelling, of course he just read that sign that says "Kyoto".

I'm a mom and get to brag so here's my pride showing through. First thing to spell: Old Navy, in the bathtub at 2 and 1/2 years with foam letters. Kyoto story, 3 and half, December of 2009, while I was pregnant and we were driving around at night looking for this Japanese restaurant. Carsen said, "Kyoto, it's there on the left!".

Anyway, Carsen hasn't surprised me for awhile until I found this today:

We did go to the zoo yesterday and the writing down animals thing wasn't so surprising. Granted, he usually prefers to write down geographical areas, but he did sound out the spelling for rhinoceros (which apparently I need the help of spellcheck to spell myself), and he grouped gorillas and orangutans together and labeled them primates!

Yes he did this without a book, no he did not spell everything correctly, and yes he failed to include monkey's in his "primate" grouping. But the kid just had his first day of school this week so let's cut him some slack. Seriously, he is amazing and I want everyone to know!

At the zoo

That's right, it's a toilet plunger.

With the cousins watching/eating during "The Little Mermaid"
oh Ariel, you are my favorite...

Carsen and Ms. Korte, his teacher.

Photo Free

2011-08-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night! And I'm all alone...

I figured I would get in some details of our Colorado Living. Nothing great, no pictures. Just some outer splurging of my internal thoughts.

Travis is gone and I don't know why I miss him ;) He's getting ready for the big surprise visit to the Plainfield ward fantasy football draft tomorrow morning. I'm going to take a gamble that no one from Indy still keeps track of our blog and reads this in the next 12 hours. Lindsey and Tashina, If you do read this, please keep it to yourself and don't tell your husbands!

Carsen: I think Carsen is just the sweetest little boy in the world. He continues to make up stories about his stuffed animals and loves to interrupt dinner conversation to tell us the latest Drippy the Frog story (He just moved from Minnesota to Monument and had his 95th birthday and is planning a trip to the Northwestern Territory in Canada).

Ammon: Fat baby is definitely the cutest if also the most destructive little tug in the world. Today he ended up destroying two large circular pot-pouri (sp) flowers by squishing them and then ramming a smaller decorative pine cone into his mouth. He still asks for his daddy every morning, gives his daddy huge kisses and makes me steal kisses from him. If I didn't already get this down, Ammon's first words were:

1. Dadda

2. Daddy

3. No no

4. Dad

5. Momma

The funny thing is, when Travis gave Ammon his name and blessing, he blessed him that he would have a special relationship with his mother. Go figure.

Ryan and Tj are our new neighbors. HORRAY!!! Tj makes me laugh so much and I LOVE laughing. We went up with Pini's for some fun in the sun last week to a lake for swimming and jet skiing. I'm embarrassed to admit that during my 41 mph spin on the jet ski, all thoughts of motherhood left my mind and I felt like a teenager again. Even more embarrassing is that I loved that feeling. Not quite sure what to make of that. Carsen loved being pulled on the inner tube and keeps asking me when he can go tubing or ride the jet ski again. I think he's going to be my thrill seeking partner in crime. Travis, I know you're out there somewhere thinking about your first round pick, so this is your notice that when the time comes, you'll be stuck with Ammon.

I've gone through what seems like a dozen books this month that have all left me disappointed. We did get to see the final Harry Potter movie - which made me a little emotional. The first HP movie I saw as a Freshman in college and now I'm sending my oldest to school next week! I feel like we've reached the end of an era. In fact, Travis and I were both feeling a little nostalgic this week as we finished up "My Finale and My Finale part 2" Scrubs episodes.

Mom's babysitting J and K's kids while they are cruising it up around the island of Crete right now. Travis thinks the ideal vacation would be to go to a cabin by a lake. I think the ideal would include a 5 diamond hotel on a beach (if not a 5 diamond room, at least a 5 diamond worthy bathroom) with all you can eat food, jet ski's, water skiing, rock climbing and repelling, kayaking with whales and dolphins (Santa Barbara Channel Islands here we come), and para-sailing. Then taking a day to hit up an amusement park with the scariest roller coasters ever.

That should do it for now. If you'll excuse me, there's a container of cookie dough I just remembered needs my attention.

Family Pictures

2011-07-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

We broke down and got some family pictures just in time for Ammon's first birthday. Here are some results and some advice if you're planning on taking pictures with your family.

Mischief Man
Just like Daddy

Don't put on fake tanner the night before you get your pictures taken.

I've always got my tongue hangin' out

Don't give your kids fruit loops within an hour before you go.

Dancing baby

Do plan for an acrobatic display - you're kids will love it

He's going to kindergarten next month. Also managed to make friends with an older lady at the photo studio who's from Florida. He told her the capital was Tallahassee and it was bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Watching Mommy dance

Don't wear that tulip style dress that reminds you of Kelly Ripa. No matter how skinny you think you are, you're going to look puffy.

The Great Escape

Don't plan on your 1 year old making friends with the camera man. I think that pretty much covers it.

Colorado

2011-06-11T20:11:00.001-07:00

Carsen's first real bike wreck. Apparently he rides like his Mom. Poor kid.

I'm smiling now, just wait...

Second time standing by himself! Sorry about your head Carsen.

Asking about where the "red gel" came from.

Ammon is blown away :)

Still smiling.

Ammon's new goal.

Stages...

2011-05-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

So our layout for this is not so great. I wanted to space things out better with the typing, but I figure something is better than nothing! Just think of it as a scavenger hunt ... look for clues in the pictures to find out where we've been and what we've been doing!

Ok, I'm not sure how long Ammon will give me here so....

Ammon is crawling. I love the stage that he's at right now and I won't lie but it's my favorite stage so far. Lot's of people love the little newborn phase during their child's first year but this one is my favorite.

I remember with Carsen thinking that he was super fun at around 9 months and then each new stage after that seemed to be my favorite so I'm really excited about the next year with Ammon. He is one social baby. He loves to chatter away and since he's mobile, only requires that you chatter back.

He hates his diaper changes and fights much more than Carsen ever did. I have had to pin both boys down with my feet under their arms while I try to quickly clean and cover their little bottoms. Mom's, you know the hold. Ammon seems to be a million times stronger at fighting this than Carsen was. Either that or I'm weaker ... (no that can't be it ;)

Ammon chases my feet around and tries to eat any part of me he can reach. He does this laughing - I think because my response is to tickle him.

Last weekend we drove to Montana via Rexburg and back again in two days. It was crazy insane but I have to say actually enjoyable. I needed a break from the house, and it was so good to see everyone.

I got some super cute pictures if I can ever get them to upload here...

Our next post I'm sure will be after we've moved to Colorado. I'm not sure how much I can type about this without tearing up, but we are excited. We've been so blessed and I feel so fortunate for the life we have had here and the life we will be starting up in Colorado Springs (home to Pike's Peak - Carsen is excited). Travis is super excited about owning part of a practice and not just being an associate. We really have been blessed so much these past six months despite of challenges that have come. I'll correct that to 9 months because let's face it, having a baby is a challenge too!

But why is it that every place we move away from get's a temple? Arizona (granted we were in Chandler not Gilbert), Rexburg, Indy, Meridian... oh well. Oh yeah, and guess what, we're moving on Friday the 13th so that's exciting. You know how much I like Friday the 13ths (really, I do)! Our anniversary is the 14th so we decided to be romantic and spend it sharing the basement at Mom and Dad's with Keith! :) Just kidding. I think we'll see Thor. That looks even more romantic right? So - goodbye Boise. It's always sad to say goodbye to one stage of life, but exciting to move into the next.

And happy Mother's Day everyone. I'm sure you will cry like me when the Primary sings on Sunday. I cried just for the practice.

Hope Chest

2011-04-15T12:20:00.001-07:00

No pictures, just boring memories. Sorry Mom.

Sorry also for the previous post. I would like to pass blame to the rainy weather we've had and the incredible amount of spring cleaning I've been undertaking.

I cleaned out my hope chest this morning. After filling one trash bag (goodbye oregon coast broken sea shells) and two donation bags I filled a box of things that were actually worth keeping. Here are a few highlights.

License plate that says "Victoria". This was given to me by my oldest brother Jared who brought it back with him from his mission to give me. I keep it because I remember the astonished look on his face when my mom told him that my name was not actually Victoria but Vickie. I still remember his: "Are you serious!" This was probably my fault because I had an unhealthy infatuation with Queen Victoria from an early age (I read all about her in our Encyclopedia Britannica volume "V"). Something I again realized after watching "The Young Victoria" and reading a book about her life (thanks Ash). I used to refer to myself as Princess Victoria a lot - so much that apparently Jared thought that was actually my name.

4x2 Relay stick from Freshman year. This was the only time I ever ran faster than April Guiterrez. I had the fastest split for running 200m and we qualified to go to state and set a district record. I don't remember what my time was. I do remember that when I got the rod after my handoff, there were 3 other girls in front of me. I felt such an adrenaline rush as I watched these 3 girls and the distance between us get smaller and smaller until after about 100m I passed the last girl. I heard the crowd cheering and I imagined it was all for me and I seriously felt like I was flying. I had lots of dreams about flying after this race. From this point on, any time I felt incredibly happy, I would dream about flying.

Connie's maternity clothes. Just kidding. No nostalgia there, just wanted to let you know I haven't thrown them out Connie, I'll get them back to you.

Letters from Friends. One particularly funny one from Melanie Summers written after she spent some time at ISU and got to know Nathan and Brian a little. Her conclusions are that Nathan is scared to death of girls and that Brian probably just doesn't care one way or the other. Pretty funny stuff in there big bro's.

I found a card given to me by Mike Leman that made me so happy. He said I didn't have to be the best musician in the world to still be talented and to make other people happy. I have to say that reading that card was just what I needed to hear. I have to play the violin this week twice - both solos - and I'm scared to death. I don't know what my problem is. I practice at home and think, yeah that's going to sound fine. Then we had a dress rehearsal last night with our stake choir and I came home and cried to Travis because of how I sounded. I don't know why playing the violin alone freaks me out so much, but it is my biggest fear. I think I would rather run through our church building naked. Well, maybe not church, but I sure would run down street. Anyway, the card was great and made me feel better than I did about things last night.

Well that's all the memories I have time for now unless you really want to hear some crazy poem I wrote about West Virginia or how reading Tolkein's Lord of the Rings makes me super thirsty and hungry. In that case, email me and I'll fill you in on the things I obviously need to clean out of my head!

Cleaning, Kids, and Complaints

2011-04-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

All right- here are some updated pictures of the boys. Sorry about the family photo, we were going to go in last Saturday morning but life happened.

I don't have much interesting to say, but I do have a complaint that I would like to register.

I imagine most every woman I know spends their day like mine. Cleaning. This morning I cleaned puke off our rug, off my freshly steamed, sanitized (thank you Shark steamer), and polished (thank you Rejuvenate) wood floor, and off a teething baby - ok here's a funny story for you and I know I'm getting off subject but this is funny:

Carsen was finger painting while I was cleaning this morning. Ammon was by him. Ammon puked and then rubbed his hands all over in it smearing it on the floor and I couldn't help but think he was trying to paint like his big brother!

Alright, I cleaned up a lot of Ammon mess this morning. Puke and other things. I also cleaned up some Travis mess- my husband has managed to move us eight times in the almost 7 years we've been married and hold onto a LOT of junk. Sorry Trav, but you are a little ridiculous. This morning I cleaned a handful (Carsen says: "5 is a handful!") of origami figures made out of gum wrappers.

Anyway, lots of cleaning. Then I checked my email to find an e-invite to our enrichment night where we are going to be talking about ... you guessed it. Cleaning.

Travis' last Elder's Quorum activity was at Shari's Restaurant.

Other past activities have included Golden Corral, Dairy Queen, football games, tailgate parties, and mini golf. Now I'm fine with that, but here are the past Relief Society activities I remember: Spring Cleaning, Cleaning the Bishop's storehouse, working at the cannery and what seemed like a once a month activity last year of exercising (I was pregnant so these really stuck out).

Now granted, I'm picking and choosing what things to list from the past 5ish years, and obviously I'm picking the more frustrating ones to prove my point. Nevertheless, if anyone deserves a little break from reality it is the stay at home Mom. I don't think anyone would argue with that. Travis, no kind of smart remarks here will be tolerated without a promise of a blizzard.

I wish we could just have a party. It could be, let's celebrate all that you're doing and have done. Take a break from cleaning, child care, personal improvement, and just come have dessert and socialize. Do you want to know what I'm going to do instead of going to Spring Cleaning? Go to Dairy Queen.

I know this is terrible, and I'm not sure if anyone from our current ward reads our blog, if so let's have the Elder's Quorum plan the next enrichment night! Also I think I'm going a little stir crazy here with our little crier.

Yesterday I put Carsen and Ammon on the grass outside while I started dinner. I did this because I read that a daily dose of sunshine, no matter how small the amount, will help you to be happier. Ammon is definetly the grumpiest in the family and I was a little desperate for a few minutes to just put him down without hearing him cry. So the boys went outside and we turned on Carsen's bug cd to cover up the noise. No crying for about 30 seconds. Just enough time to let me run back inside and shut the door. :)

Sorry Mom, I'm not as perfect as you think I am. I could see them the whole time, they were in no danger, I just needed 10 minutes to myself and instead I took 15 :) I later told Travis that I wished I were a perfect person just so that I could enjoy being a mom without ever getting frustrated or feeling like I need to take a break from my kids for a little while. Not even kids. Just Ammon's crying. Carsen right now is sitting behind me in the chair with his legs wrapped around my waist and arms wrapped around my neck, listening to me read this out loud and laughing in all the places I start laughing. I definitely don't need a break from that.

Good News, apparently Travis just read my post and called to tell me he's taking us out to eat at Shari's tonight! ;)

Slimming Down

2011-02-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

I usually joke that because my birthday is in February, that we celebrate my birthday all month. It really was joke this year because we all got sick - some of us more than once.

I once read that if you look at things from a positive point of view, even if you don't feel like it, eventually you will begin to think more positively. I tried to do that during our puke flu phases and it worked a little. Here are some of the positive things about our month! - Ok, maybe positive isn't the right word but definetly funny -

Carsen had a never ending pink mustache stain from the food coloring we used in the Valentine's Day cookies.

Travis' never ending moaning during his sick time scared Ammon to the point of tears. The funny thing about this was that Travis was completley oblivious to why Ammon was crying until after he had recovered.

I may have married a romantic after all (nice balloon right?). He has now given me flowers on Valentines Day, watched every episode of Glee with me (how can you love a show when you dislike so many of the characters in it???), AND will readily admit that he loves Justin Bieber's "Baby" song. Too much actually. We have listened to it at least twice every night since the Grammy's.

I don't know how to flip this. I'm working on the laptop so I can just pick up the whole computer and rotate it. Sorry if you can't. This was Carsen's valentine to his daddy. "I love you! Happy Valentine's Day Love Carsen"

Pictures of puppu and puppa. The puppies for Travis' card (we made a BIG card).

Ammon has enough fat reserves to handle being totally sick for a week. He is actually happier to have nothing in his tummy.

Ammon is great at sharing sickness. He passed the puke flu on to Grandma Barton, Grandpa Barton, and Uncle Keith (we get to blame the youngest because that is what always happened in my family).

I know it probably sounds mean, but one night Ammon had been up and sick and when I went to get a diaper then heard grunting from the room he was in. This is what I found. I guess everything is funny that early...

By the way, if anyone read the title of this post and expected I would be posting pictures of myself, shame on you. Shame.

Actually, I know we need to update our family picture. I suggest doing it every Sunday before we run out the door to church. The problem is, we're always late for church anyway. I know you probably think any normal family could just take the picture after church but...

After church means:

One of us will take off his tie before walking in the door

Two of us are sweaty enough to pass for marathon runners

And one of us is covered in crayon

Muppets at the Grammy's

2011-02-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

I just commented to Travis that Miley Cyrus' dress looked aweful. He informed me that she is often a "fashion don't"

I'm a little concerned how he knows this...

2011-02-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

I am not very good at blogging I guess. Like most things I'm not good, I think I'll pass the blame from myself to something else. In this case, my boys. We started Ammon on solid foods and I've been carefully journalling (?? is that a word) and keeping track of his reactions to everything. I won't bore you with those details because this blog is supposed to be more fun than his love/hate relationship with baby oatmeal.

I've been having nightmares - which isn't uncommon for me - and fortunately Travis is sympathetic enough that he doesn't complain when he gets woken up in the middle of the night from my screaming/thrashing/crying. I do not have any self inflicted black eyes yet, but after watching this season of The Bachelor, I'm starting to think that for a very psychotic group of women this is possible and I'm hoping I don't fall into that category.

But I've been reading a lot about how to control your dreams and prevent yourself from having nightmares and one of the recurrent themes I've noticed in my reading is to find a happy place for yourself.

Here's my happy place. I wish I could somehow have a picture of this but I would need Travis to help me out with that and he's not here right now...he's probably trying to find his own happy place actually. He told me the other day that he has to find his own happy place every now and then when coping with a crazy patient. Anyway, here's what I'm hoping for y'all to visualize:

Picking up an incredibly chunky baby. Having his arms spread straight out to the side with his shoulders somewhere between his chin and his ears. Smiling a big, squishy, lips-pushed-together-from-so-much-chin smile. And his eyes are looking off to the side as if to say, "I've got a secret and even though you can smell it, I'm not telling what it is."

He's so cute it makes me grit my teeth the way my mom does when she's talking to a baby. I haven't taken on my mom's vigorous head pats-of-affection so there's still hope that Ammon might keep his hair, but this little kid has pretty much taken me over.

Carsen has grown out of that little toddler look and become a little boy which is happy and sad at the same time. I was sick a couple of weeks ago - also something I'm pretty sure I can blame my kids for - and he came downstairs to me and said: "I will take care of you today Mommy." Now I'm going to brag in un-exaggerated form (also like my mother, I get to make up my own words) to tell you that I asked him if he would read during story time instead of having Mommy read. His response was to go and get 7 Sesame Street Books and sit down between me and Ammon and read for over an hour and a half straight. After he finished all 7 of his books he asked me for an afternoon snack and then brought his green blankie down with a pillow and had quiet time also between Mommy and Ammon. He's not perfect, but he's so close and maybe I'm just super emotional right now but I just feel so happy that I have my two little sons. Right at this very minute Carsen is playing the piano and singing an arrangement of "Let the Holy Spirit Guide".

Now I'm going to have to save this for Travis to proof read and he'll probably tell me I'm bragging too much. But I know mostly family and close friends are the only ones to really sit down and read what's on this and I know you'll just be happy for me and not think I'm bragging.

Is it just me, or does it sound like Ammon needs his pants changed in Vickie's happy place? In my experience so far, that particular look only means one thing.

It does not! It's a cute look and you know it.

Random pics and video

2011-01-17T09:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't been very good about keeping up with documenting what's going on here, but below are a some pictures and video clips from our life.

Ammon is doing great. He's such a happy little baby when we keep to his schedule. He hates his car seat or going out at all and prefers to stay home and be read to, sung to, and played with. He has a very creative way of rolling from his tummy to his back by pushing his face into the floor then pulling up his feet until he's on tiptoe and then swinging his body over. I haven't been able to catch it on camera yet, but it is hilarious. The only problem is that he's given his little forehead some carpet burns doing it.
Carsen is perfect. So helpful and eager to learn anything new. He knows the 7 continents as wells as facts about each, and has memorized most of the countries in Asia and is working on Europe right now. He will tell anyone who listens about the eating habits or armadillos, or that Polar Bears live in the Arctic while penguins live in Antarctica - so they never meet.

Ammon absolutely loves his big brother and will stop crying and fussing if Carsen reads to him. He prefers Carsen's reading to Mommy's reading. Ok. I've tried to upload two different video clips with no luck. I'll just leave this last one on and hope it will eventually start working. It's of Ammon laughing. Such a cute little chunky monkey. I guess you'll just have to sit tight for the other videos. Sorry.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

2010-12-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate this. I'm working on Trav's laptop (formerly known as labtop) which doesn't have my super easy picasa picture editor...

Ammon's teething! Normally such a slobber job anyway, he's really stepped up his game. :) He's sitting in his is bouncer right now, chewing furiously on a washclothe (sp?) and bouncing one leg up and down while I sing Lady Gaga.

Oops again. I wanted this picture last, but I don't have the patience right now to try and move it. This is one of my favorite faces.

Whoah - oh - oh - oh ...

Mom, these are the flower arrangements I was telling you about. I know they might seem a little weird, but we love weird things around here and I LOVE these! I put the same color of deep purple flowers on our Christmas tree. Weird, but we like it.

This was taken before it snowed...

HOORAY!

Not just like Daddy, I see my eyes in our little Prospector here so I posted it as proof. If you don't believe me, that's too bad...but you're wrong. :)

We were/are so excited about this tree. For the first 5 years of our marriage, we had a tiny little Target tree that was barely 4 feet tall after we positioned it on a shoe box. We were reminiscing a couple nights ago about some of our more memorable experiences during that time. I get that these memories are more fun for us to remember than for you to read, but I still want to record them so you might just have to skip ahead.

Watching the first season of Lost (Travis is still disappointed in the ending) on an air mattress in our living room and being too scared to walk to the bathroom by myself.

Sleeping on the same air mattress when we were both too sick to climb up into our too tall bed.

Driving back from the pharmacy in the middle of the night sharing a ... sorry - puke bowl and laughing about it.

Playing hide and seek in the dark in our second apartment - first at Aberdeen - and me not being able to find Travis for a LONG time (he was hiding in the couch with the cushions on top of him...). That's right. We play hide and seek. It's my favorite.

Our tree looks much better in person. I don't have the window decorations up yet. The stepping stool has already bested me twice so I'm waiting for Travis to help.

CARSEN got to see Santa last week. We went to the mall on a Wednesday when nobody was there and Cars got some quality time telling Santa all about the 7 continents in puzzle form that he wanted. He and Santa had a nice chat about all the different countries that Santa has to visit, and his special clock that stops time. Carsen was thrilled and I'm sorry but I left the camera home and we didn't get any pictures. Oh, and Santa gave Carsen a book which Carsen opened up and read back to Santa all by himself.

Who's number 1?

This one was supposed to be first. These are some hats that my Aunt Linda made our boys. SUPER CUTE! Carsen in his favorite shirt (right now he's reading his shirt from behind my shoulder..."Daddy's in charge, blame him! That is so appropriate!" - his words not mine), Ammon in at least the fourth outfit that day and as you can see from his right sleeve, already covered in spit up. Still so stinkin cute I could wrap both of them up in wrapping paper.

Probably better that the camera lens wasn't open for this second one...

Christmas lists...

2010-11-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

I don't usually ask for anything for Christmas. Mostly because for 5 of the last 6 years I've begged Travis for a soft serve ice cream maker to no avail. You will be disappointed to know that his reason for not getting me this is because he doesn't want me to get fat or our children to get fat. I got news for ya hunny, Ammon's already there and I've pretty much given up.

I found something that I totally want SOOO BAD that it makes me giddy just seeing ad's for it. I was thinking about getting it for "you" except I've already got something lined up for your Christmas present.

Travis: Watch the video of this cute little nerd and imagine how much FUN this would be for us both!

PS: You remember when you bought a wii for yourself? For your birthday? Or the home theater system ... it's time to call in some favors...

choppy

2010-11-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

ALIGN: left">Disclaimer: This post reminds me too much of the time I tried to give myself a haircut - pretty much everything is choppy, so I'm sorry for that.

Ok, clearly I don't know what I'm doing with these pictures, but at least my teeth are white...

Oh this is going to bother me...
So here we go, I've got some Halloween pictures, Ammon was a cow, which we I thought was hilarious, he did not. Carsen was not just a tiger, but as he put it, a "roar friendly tiger" and looked amazing in his face paint (thank you youtube). Carsen asked me what I was dressed as, I told him I was going for cute which apparently didn't workout so well...

Travis was the picture taker. No fun. I'm not sure how I'm ever going to get him to dress up again. Remember Stephanie's murder mystery dinner where you were Disco Stew? Whatever happened to that costume?

I did rock the "Disco Stew" outfit. Maybe we should scan that photo in.

Better yet, what about that Devil outfit from Ryan and Tj's Halloween party? Am I never going to see you in costume again?

We'll see. It's better to keep your expectations low so I don't have to do much to impress.

Ammon is doing great, I just have to say that he is the most beautiful little baby EVER. I get to say that as a fact because this is my blog... We love him so much! I love the way he smells, I love his name, the way he looks when he cries, the way he stretches with his chubby hands in fists and his chubby little legs flexed. I just want to EAT him!

Oops. I told Carsen he could come out of the play room at 5:15 so I've got to pause for now.

I've been trying to watch "The Office" with Travis next to me digging around SOOO noisily for butter popcorn jelly belly's. He let me try one, which I have to admit was really intense. Think it may have made me sick, but I'm going to go crazy with this crunchy rattling noise next to me...

Popcorn flavored jelly bellies are by far the best flavored jelly bean ever. Rattling the bag a little bit and missing a little bit of the Office is totally worth it. Frankly the office has really lost it's edge. I only watch it now because I'm holding out hope that some season 2-3 quality jokes will work in.

Something small

2010-10-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

I Am SORRY! I get so frustrated when I try to upload cute pics/video and then after an hour of working on them, the computer boots me off and I lose my work. Grrr.

Grrr - from Carsen who's currently holding a stuffed giraffe, Gerald, telling me I need to make brownies because it's his birthday - I should never have made them for Drippy the Frog... By the way, Carsen has some ROCKIN tiger face paint on right now (that's why there's a grr from him).

Haircuts for Carsen and Travis last night. Is is sad that I like their hair long? ...so long that I ended up curling Carsen's with a curling iron...I told him curling irons were only for grownups to use. He asked me what a grownup was. I told him a grownup was someone who was at least 21 (that's right, I said 21) and a LONG conversation ensued about who was and was not a grownup. Cousin Tyler is cousin Chris is not... we're still debating about Uncle Brian :)

Binky battles. Ammon can't hold onto his binks. I have purchased at least 5 different kinds, and only one stays in for longer than 3 seconds but he still prefers his fists - which he's slurping on right now as he naps. I asked Carsen to pick up Ammon's bink yesterday and this was his response:

"I suppose Mommy. After all, I'm just doing my part to

support my local grownups."

There's my cryer! See ya!

Getting around to it...

2010-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures to post right now. Unfortunately we've taken tons of pics of Ammon in the bathtub and I know Travis would be ticked if I posted those without him going through them first to make sure everything, well checked out. So here ya go. This is it for now.

Things are so crazy over here right now, but I promise more pics and posts to come. Ammon is doing great! We switched him to some special formula that's made of gold dust and he's doing so great. Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers! We love all of you and wish we could show you our now happy little bundle. Isn't he the most beautiful baby!??

Oh yes, Carsen wants me to add that we officially changed his name to Ammon Chase instead of Ammon Breck. Carsen just couldn't let go of Chase so Dad actually suggested we make the switch. Now everyone is happy. Especially me because now NO ONE will call him "Abe" again (Dad, Brian, Jared!!!). We think "Ace" is a much better nickname.

Chubby Buddy

2010-08-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

Baby pictures

2010-08-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

I finally had some time to get some pictures posted. These are some pictures of Ammon's first few days. Carsen's had a little bit of a rough week because Mommy can't play with him as much. The sad picture is taken one of the days we were at the hospital and it just breaks my heart.

We got out the waterslide to try and give Carsen some attention and fun and I think it may have been the highlight of his week. I'm not sure I can say the same for Keith, but at least he tries.

Vickie had a c-section and is doing amazing. I'm amazed at how well she's doing and what a rock she is. Ammon is doing great too.
Just for reference, here is Carsen at around Ammon's age.

Ammon Edwards

2010-08-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

Ammon Breck Edwards was born July 29th.
8 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches long.
Pictures coming soon.

The face of summer

2010-07-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

All right. We managed to get our camera back from the repair shop a couple weeks ago and caught a few memorable shots of of some of our activity over the past month. We didn't get everything documented so I'm sorry about that. Overall though, here's our most recent activity rundown.

Visit from Lisa, Ben, and Tim

It was great of Lisa to drive up here with her boys even if it was just for a short time. There were plans to float the river, but the water level was too high so we went to the waterpark instead.

Visual images:
Travis, Ben, and Tim covered in goosebumps - Ben and Tim saying they were just fine, Travis complaining about the cold and going to find a towel. Granted, it did get a little cold when the rain and wind started up... they ended up closing the park early much to Carsen's dismay.

Lisa and a very round Vickie walking up to a slide trying to see if we could take down a very patient little 4 year old only to come to halt at a sign at the base saying anyone with a back injury (Lisa) or who was pregnant (me), should NOT go down.

3 big boys - Travis, Ben, and Tim, lined up in swimming apparel in front of the fire at the pizza place still shivering.

3 big boys enjoying their cartoons at the end of the day. Thank you Ben and Tim for getting Travis hooked on "Avatar- The Last Airbender". He spent the rest of that weekend staying up much too late to finish the rest of season 3.

Mom and Dad Edwards 4th of July

Mom and Dad came for a visit and ended up getting dragged by a very anxious Carsen and an even more anxious Travis to float the Boise River.

Visual image:
Mom and Dad walking in from their float soaked! I'm afraid they went out regardless of the wind chill factor and came back to a very cool air conditioned house. Hope they've warmed up!

Mom, Dad, and Keith's visit

I guess the best pictures we have over the past month are of Carsen and Keith playing together. Some things you need to know: Keith doesn't like water. As kids, we had a deal - I would play "Tie One On" with Keith if he would run through the sprinklers with me. Good for Keith for following through on all our deals, but it was done with a face similar to the one below...

VICKIE!!! OH SHOOT, Carsen's getting me wet!

Fortunately, Keith still found a way to tease his little friend. UNfortunately, Carsen can hold his own as you'll see from the following slides.

Last weekend Travis took Carsen golfing which was a great idea. He needed to work out some extra energy and we figured a walk around the golf course was just the thing. However, I guess the course they went to was very long and they ended up walking several miles so that Travis had to carry Carsen at least for part of the time.

We also took Cars to see Toy Story 3 which, in my opinion, is the best of all the Toy Story movies. Carsen covered his eyes during the more intense part, ate an enormous amount of popcorn (that's my boy), and told us that he did NOT like Lotso Huggin Bear.

So now we're just trying to settle down and get in some extra rest before we HAVE to decide on a name :)

Bits of Heaven...

2010-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

I just tasted a little bit of heaven tonight - I think it was called

Berry Blast - tart and tangy frozen yogurt from Cold Stone

It is officially the BEST thing I have ever put in my mouth...
Promise to post pics and updates soon. Maybe not too many pictures, my belly is bruised from so much stretching - must be from all that frozen yogurt :)

Catching Up

2010-06-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

Whoo?

I haven't posted in a while and I'm afraid I've forgotten more of what I meant to record than what I'm actually recording now. Anyway, I also locked the keys in the car at Costco this month, left my cell phone in the freezer, and put the benefiber in the fridge and the milk in the pantry.

Sooo... here we go.

Our Anniversary!!!

Travis would say: "Six years of heaven on earth!" With a big smile of course. So the above picture is a poster Carsen and I made for Travis, 6 balloons in the colors I would choose if I were planning a wedding right now, and 6 envelopes filled with my favorite memories/pictures of each year of our marriage. We (Carsen and I) were going to draw on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, but I wasn't sure I would make it back off the ground.

Carsen's Birthday!

We got him a dog!

No. He got a bike actually, but our camera wouldn't take pictures and the video camera quit working over memorial day. Otherwise I would post a hilarious video clip of him trying to ride the bike with Travis coaching him, me calling out directions, Travis getting frustrated, me taking over and showing Carsen how to push "down and around" and nearly falling over in the process(me, not Carsen).

Big Jay and little Jay

Memorial day we drove over to Rexburg where we had a combined birthday party for Travis, Carsen, Jared, and Karalyn. Everyone was there except Brian and Ashley who we still kindly included by sharing Brian stories

(running over girls toes on the snowmachine, prematurely starting the old woman's snowmachine race at Island Park, tearing the seat off Dad's Phazer by running into it with the snowmachine, - actually we found out from Bri later that last one was actually Nathan).

Those led to more stories involving the oldest 3 boys. Shocking each other with the cattle prod...

We had fun, but didn't get many pictures. The above one I stole from Mom's camera. Which, incidently had more good pictures of an eagle cruising around the pond than of the family.

Hmm.

Camping

Travis took Carsen camping this weekend for the Father/Son's campout with our ward. I can't tell you how excited Carsen was leading up to this. When Daddy came home on Friday, he had Carsen skipping everywhere behind him trying to help get ready.

Travis said everything went great and Carsen told him at 8:15 that it was time for him to go to bed. They came home happy and smelly. Very smelly.

Me at 32 weeks.

Yesterday another woman asked if I was going to have twins when she found out I wasn't due until August. That makes 5 -"Are you having twins?"- so far in the past two months. No wonder I like to stay home so much. Not to worry, I only cried after being asked the first two times.

And we don't know what we're going to name him yet. I gave that job to Travis. So far Carsen calls him Chase,

(cute story, we had a list of about 4 names we were talking about - Chase was not one of them -and Carsen said "How about Chase? Can we put Chase on the table?" He hasn't stopped calling him that since then and it's been 3 months...)

I call him Buddy #2, and Travis calls him the Torpedo. We're open to suggestions :)

Travis took these hoot-y pictures at the campout!

Good night!

Short Stories...

2010-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Barton came over last weekend, and while they were here the boys went to Cabella's. According to Travis, here's what happened.

Carsen wanted to go into the bathroom because Grandpa went in there and sat down for Carsen to use the potty. Apparently the man in the stall next to them was making some noise. Carsen said: "It's GRANDPA!" very excitedly. I guess it wasn't Grandpa, but still a funny story.

I did not take/edit the following slideshows, these are thanks to the creative mind of Big Bri taken at the boys' -Leave Our Wives And Go Golf- outing in Arizona this year. Keith's and Travis' are my favorite.

Sorry about the size. I think you have to click on each animation to view it in photobucket. I can't make them smaller...

Thanks Bri!

Random Pictures

2010-04-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

It's turning sunny outside so I thought I would post a few random pictures...

Sidewalk chalk ABC boxes

Funny Carsen story: We were singing songs yesterday and I told him to pick the next song to which he responded...

"OOOOOOOkay. But you know I'm just going to pick Stars Were Gleaming." - cute little nut.

For movie night last week we watched The Princess and the Frog. Today he told me that he was just a little frog prince named "Jug-a-pie" (his favorite nonsense word).

Chalk on the front and back of his clothes...

Baby #2

Likes: .....................................Dislikes:

Grape Popsicles.......................... Popcorn

Grape Nerds............................... Little Caesars Hot N' Ready Pizza

Grape Taffy................................ Enchilada Sauce

Fried eggs - runny yolk.............. Pan seared chicken

Bacon..........................................Fried Chicken

Pepperoni................................... Grilled Chicken

Tomato's with salt and peper....... Anything Burger King related

Tomato Juice - slightly warmed... Peanuts

Sunflower seeds.......................... Almonds

Too many sugary cereals............. Except the Honey Comb

Mr. Jug-a-pie

after too many Muddy Buddies

Surprise!

2010-03-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well I was wrong...we're having a BOY and couldn't be more excited. I was convinced it was girl and that's why I was sick. - But... it has never felt so good to be wrong. Maybe I'll be lucky and get my 4 boys after all!

Also I was just called to be the Primary Chorister. I'm thrilled because I loved that calling so much when we were in Plainfield. Needless to say, this has been an awesome week so far. :)

Hey everyone this is Travis again. As you can confirm in a previous post, I encouraged Vickie to refrain from sharing her gender predictions based on homeopathy, the Chinese calendar and voodoo. Obviously I was correct in my advice. My feelings on this matter are best expressed in the following video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuqtf4H-gA4

*Sigh***

You have stolen my heart...

2010-03-06T12:03:00.001-08:00

Carsen gave his first talk in primary a few weeks ago. When the Primary President invited him to sit up front with the rest of the children participating, he tried to climb up to the pulpit and informed her: "I just need to give my talk." After a few minutes of waiting, he got his chance.

Travis and I sat in the back and at first Carsen just stood up there with his arms folded and a big grin on his face. I ran up to coax him along, but instead of wanting my support and help, he whispered repeatedly (into the microphone of course) for me to go sit down. After I was seated with the rest of sunbeams, he began and finished with little prompting. It was super cute.

PS- I'm sorry that Carsen seems to always have a bruise on his forehead. We do keep track of him...

PPS- I LOVE this song!

Winter

2010-01-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

I am sure every person goes through their own periods of winter. Sorry to have been a little absent through mine. But, as a wise man once said:

"...winter will surely give way to the warmth and hope of a new spring."

Our "spring" this year is going to be that we add a little girl to our family.

Sorry everyone, we DON'T know for sure if it's a girl. But when Vickie thinks she's right, you know how stubborn she gets...

Travis have you ever noticed your typing is smaller than mine? She's a girl. Of that I am convinced.

Crazy...

2009-12-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks sorry that I have to play catch up. Here was our Thanksgiving in Boise:

I forgot to take our 26+lb Turkey out of the freezer to defrost so Travis ended up buying a fresh turkey Wednesday night. Oops.

Jared after eating Mom's special jello...

Travis and Jared played in a Turkey Bowl football game the morning of - for which Jared had to wear his special underwear... hmm

Heidi, Clarissa, Adrianne, and Brittany - hidden by Adri's hair...

Mom, I noticed you ended up with broccoli salad in your teeth in most of the pictures I have of you. I won't put them in but I think for as often as that happens, it should be included as a Thanksgiving tradition (love you).

Yvonne and Chris visited the following week so that Chris could have some dental work done on his teeth...

Sorry Chris. Couldn't resist.

This week we had Jared and Karalyn's twins up to stay. Julia and Breck Jared (we call him little Jay)

Little Jay clocked Carsen in the face with a puzzle piece this week (accident of course) and Carsen put one hand over his eye which was tear-ing (is that right?) and then gave little Jay a hug with his other arm and said "I guess he just needs some lovin."

This is pretty much how I feel right now. Keith fell asleep here while we were playing Loaded Questions. "What would be the most embarrassing thing for you to admit in front of present company?" ...

Travis's Corner

2009-11-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think about adding a "Travis's Corner" to the blog. Maybe I'm just starved for some humor since the last several episodes of "The Office" have been a little disappointing. Either way I end up cracking up every couple days at things he says/does.

For example: Why is it that when I get upset/angry/"frustarated" with Travis he starts smiling?

Friday I was a little on edge because I had two grocery shopping trips to make. I like to approach this by having my house clean before I go. So, I was in the middle of cleaning our bathroom and a little stressed because it was getting later in the day and one trip to Costco and one to Winco, meant I wasn't going to get home until late. So Travis tells me I should forget cleaning and go grocery shopping. I wasn't open to this suggestion and told him so for which he just smiled ???

I also made the mistake in the earlier years of our marriage of telling him that when I get upset, all I want is for him to hug me no matter how much I might fight it. So after I told him how important it was for me to get the bathroom cleaned RIGHT then, he smiles, picks me up and tries to force me out of the bathroom and onto the bed. I tried to refuse and ended up clutching my canister of clorox wipes and bracing my feet on either side of the door frame. It was quite the picture. Then Travis says: "I will win this fight, argument, battle with my physical strength!"

After he wrestled me out the door and onto the bed, hurting his toe and my ribs in the process, he just starts up again with that annoying smile and tells me I'm like a small angry animal that you can pick up in one hand.

To clarify: I only put Vickie on the bed, because it's the safest place to let her thrash around trying to fight her way out of my arms of steel

I realize this story probably makes me look kind of bad, but I figure those of you who know me are willing to look past that and see the humor in this particular situation. Let me just say that Travis is the only person I actually enjoy fighting with (most of the time) and for that reason alone, I think I was pretty smart to marry him.

COLTS WIN COLTS WIN COLTS WIN

2009-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

First and foremost: Congrats to the Colts and everyone who was either cheering for them or against the patriots! I'm afraid Travis has never shown as much enthusiasm for ANYTHING like he did tonight. Good game good game.

I know, it's dangerous.

This week we had a visit from cousin Becky who's 3 months younger than Carsen. She got to stay with us for the week while her parents went to Colorado and Carsen just loved having a partner in crime.

Here's an example of some of the criminal behavior they partook in:

Helping me put up the Christmas tree.

Knocking over the Christmas tree.

Singing songs at the piano together.

Knocking over the piano bench together.

Helping me make my bed.

Jumping on their beds.

Sorry these clips are dark and fuzzy. And the characters in them look and sound like they belong in a Muppett movie, but that's the way things go around here.

Carsen cleaning up after his daddy.

Tashina: Carsen told me when he started singing this that he was going to sing Cosette's Medley. I'm working on getting the sheet music uploaded into the portfolio section of the 'music lessons' button on the right. Sorry it's a little fuzzy.

We're tired, but h-a-p-p-y!

HALLOWEEN

2009-11-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

I love Halloween, but now it's over. This year our family packed up and drove to Rexburg to catch Great Grandma and Grandpa Edwards as they made their way down with Dad Edwards to Arizona for the winter.

I have a store of great Halloween memories and traditions. Going to corn mazes, spooky forests, old mills all decked out with howl-iday surprises. In fact, here's a rundown of the last 3 corn mazes I've been to:

1. The one in Indy where it was too hot to be outside on the day we went through. Having to take off Carsen's shirt because he was just too hot.

2. The one before that Travis and I went through as newly-weds with Aaron and Heather and Duke and Morghan. There he picked me up - upside down and spun me around until I got so dizzy that I spent the rest of the night puking in the bathroom.

Those of you who really know Vickie probably understand that she was almost begging me to pick her up and spin around. After being poked and tickled repeatedly I finally complied and now I take all the blame.

3. The one before that I went to with some guy friends who got us kicked out of the maze for pulling up cornstalks and fighting each other with them.

Going out to these type of places, decorating the apartment, and watching Harry Potter movies were all part of my Halloween traditions. But this year we tried for a new tradition.

Doughnuts
(insert sinister music here).

Vickie thinks Halloween is the best holliday, I think she's crazy. How can you rate halloween above Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July or Easter. Even Memorial Day and Labor Day, because at least most people get those days off.

U R A Grinch Travis.

The Grinch who stole Halloween? I think only the Grinch himself would rank Halloween above Christmas.

So that's why I can't find any of my Halloween decorations huh! It all comes together.

Karalyn - my beautiful sister in law who wants to move her family to Boise but doesn't know it yet - makes doughnuts every year for Halloween and last year I was out with them helping with the twins when she made these. I have to admit that I thought she was crazy trying to make such complicated delicacies that took up so much more time than just popping open a box of ready made doughnuts. After I tasted one, I realized how wrong I was. They were amazing. So this year, I thought, why not.

Last week I told Carsen we were going to be making doughnuts and he got very excited. We set up for our practice round on Thursday. It was a disaster. After 3 and 1/2 hours and 5 stinking packets of yeast later, I gave up. I was just so mad.

I've been practicing since we've got back. Not the whole recipe, just the yeast. Still no luck. I need all the help I can get so if you've got some pearls of wisdom on proofing yeast, please post your advice.

Since the doughnut disaster, Travis so kindly reminded me of another cooking disaster. Bambinos. I love the bambino's they make at "La Pizzaria" in Rigby. They're like scones filled with pizza stuffings. The first time I tried making those, it was disgusting. The dough was all wrong. Now in this incident, Travis actually requested I not try again. The result: 5 more batches of bambinos in the next 5 weeks - until I finally got one that although they fell apart, tasted wonderful. Serves him right. Actually, he was pointing out how stubborn I get when I fail at something. This gave me pause for reflection and this is what I've come up with:

Before we get into Vickie's next list, I have to say that even from the restaurant, bambinos are really just okay. The disasters Vickie attempted were mostly inedible. Vickie is an exceptional cook, but her stubbornness got the best of her here as she continued to experiment. It's great that she gets back up and tries again or whatever, just not with something I am supposed to eat.

It makes me nervous when you start smiling about your jokes even before you get them typed out.

Dad always told me I could do or be anything I wanted. I think this is a great thing to say to your children. I think it promotes a healthy sense of confidence and self esteem. Unfortunately, self esteem was not something I have ever lacked... although, in reflection of my 5th-9th grade school pictures, maybe I should have.

I notice I have no argument or comment from Travis here. Hmm.

On the bright side, you did mature from the ugly duckling stage into a beautiful swan.

Anyway, I think telling this to your kids is a great idea, but I was/am a little stubborn. And I actually believed my Dad's words which I think made me even more stubborn. Here are some other examples I think support this idea:

1. I was once told that I could not/ should not play Chopin's revolutionary etude because my hands were too small. The result: I spent the next 8 months learning this piece (which incidently is a beautiful piece despite what Travis will tell you).

Okay so this Chopin (correctly pronounced Chop in) looks very difficult and Vickie's fingers fly over the keys when she plays. If I were to watch a video of Vickie playing the piece would no sound I would just be impressed. Unfortulately however, when you hear it it sounds angry and you realize immediately that difficult does not mean it's good.

It's SHOW-PAN, you poop.

Everybody poops.

2. My parents tried desperately to discourage me from trying out for cheerleading. My mom actually sent me to tryouts wearing a shirt under my cheerleading shell and that shell was turned backwards so that the v neck be more modest. No wonder people laughed at me. But I did still try out. Pee-wee Herman style and all. The result: I didn't make it. I found out many years later that after confronting the Junior High cheerleading advisor, my mom was told that I didn't make the team not because I couldn't jump, or cheer, or didn't have 'spirit' but that I was not as cute as the others. Apparently this made her very upset and after some heated words on Mom's behalf, I was let on the team. - Thanks mom.

3. I brought home a chem 105 test in college that I had gotten a B something on. I was proud, Dad was not. He suggested I take a lower level chemistry class. The result: I changed my major to chemistry for about a year before I realized I would never be able to cut it in p chem.

They must have to do really difficult stuff, like make bambinos, in P-chem.

Be careful, or I'll make them again.

Now I can't remember what I was talking about. Oh yeah, why I believed I could do anything. So doughnuts are my new dragon. Fortunately Yvonne made doughnuts that were perfect so we did have doughnuts on Halloween. We even had a small spook-fest at the sight of Kent's incredibly dense upper arm hair. So all in all, it was a successful Halloween.

Watch the video!

2009-10-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by asking you all to please view the one video in this post. You won't be disappointed!

Mom with chocolate

This weekend:

Travis’ sister Yvonne came for a visit this weekend with her boy Cody – They came to support Sugar Salem boys soccer team in the state tournaments which was fun for all of us. Here are some of our highlights.

Travis: Loudly expressing his disgust for the amount of times an opposing soccer player feigned injury on the field. “COME ON! HOW MANY FAKE INJURIES CAN THAT KID HAVE IN ONE GAME?” – I thought I was loud.

Carsen: Reading stories with some pushy little girls who thought “Oscar’s Rotten Birthday” was supposed to be used to smack him upside the head.

Yvonne: Cheering enthusiastically for her team but slightly edging away from her louder younger brother.

Cody: Building puzzles with Carsen, jumping on the tramp with Carsen, letting Carsen play with his Ipod touch. Did I mention Cody is 16? He was great with Carsen.

Vickie: Wondering how to teach Carsen to stick up for himself without encouraging hitting back. Because although my brother Jared taught me the correct way to punch (knuckles flat, thumb down), I’m not sure that’s the best way.

Travis: Telling Vickie if she’s that worried, he will just pay an older kid to beat up the kids who pick on Carsen.

Last weekend:

We were in Rexburg last weekend for a mini family reunion. I say mini because Brian and Ashely weren't there. We really missed you guys. Brian, you missed out in competing with Nathan and Jared to see who could jump the highest (Nathan ~ sorry Jay). Ashley, I have to think that if you were driving with Mom on the golf course, there would have been no accident...

Boys in the kitchen

I have to admit it was almost comical watching Mom turn the golf cart right into a tree. I still don't know how you didn't see that coming Mom. Her bruised ribs were nothing to laugh about though. Luckily that was the only injury of the weekend. Again, missed you Brian, you probably could have trumped the bruised ribs with breaking your foot or something. Not that you've ever done that...

After golf we did some fishing, made some pies, and Jared took a nap...

I've often heard stories of my brother's pulling pranks on each other when they were younger and felt a little sad that I was either too young or oblivious to partake in their mischief. So I was THRILLED to get this documented for all to see. Please enjoy

Cute kids.

Last week Uncle Keith came to stay with Carsen. Here's some insight into their teasing:

Keith: "Carsen Travis Denny Edwards" giggles
Carsen: "Keith Antelope Barton" more giggles
Carsen: "Keith Moose-Head Barton"

Carsen fell of his trike today. He was out with his Dad and apparently face planted going down our driveway right onto the cement. He did not cry. Later Daddy told him not to eat before we prayed. He cried for several minutes.

Carsen calls McDonalds: “Old MacDongals” He also HAS to order his own food- even if he’s strapped in his car seat at the drive thru. “I would like 2 4-piece chicken mcnuggets and that’s it. No sauce. Thank you!”

The twins in bat cape and devil's cape. Maybe I should have told Karalyn I used those capes to dress up the dog.

That's It!

Falling into Fall!

2009-10-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

We're transitioning into my favorite season (for now) FALL! I know it's been a few weeks so here's what we've been up to...

PIES

Gotta practice for Thanksgiving.

Here are my two sour cream apple pies. Travis cut into the pumpkin one too early so I didn't get a picture of that one.

I am totally scared of making pie crusts. Other things I'm scared of: rolling pins, trying to get out of a hooded sweatshirt alone,...

Now, I hate to toot my own horn but Travis told me he would write a post telling everyone how pretty and delicious these were and well, it's been several weeks and that hasn't happened. So here is my interpretation of Travis' good intentions:

"These pies looked almost as good as Vickie does. They smelled almost as good as Vickie does. They tasted almost as good as..."

well, I won't go that far, but you get the idea.

Actually Vickie's pies were amazing! I loved them and I shared with everybody at work and they loved them. They melt in your mouth. I especially like that they look like fall. I love fall.

I also love pie.

By Travis.

HOMEWONERS:

Yep. As of last week we're officially homeowners. It was kind of a scramble getting things put together on closing day. Here's what I remember:

I had been to the grocery store earlier and then came back, got things almost put away and got a little sick. I said something like, "One more bag to go" and then ran to the bathroom. I heard Carsen muttering something about how he would help me. After a while I came out and all my grocery's were put away. I packed up the sacks and didn't think anything of it. Actually, I figured I had already finished the last bag.

I took Carsen to the bank where he politely said: "Hey lady, can I have a sucker?"

I had left my retainer in and slobbered a little during my request for a cashier's check.

I made Carsen say: "Thank you for my sucker Jamie." To the teller. It came out like "um ew her SLURP erker heyhe."

I came home and opened the pantry to find four cans of evaporated milk lined up neatly in the pantry with two cartons of sour cream. I wish I had taken a picture. It was adorable.

Getting ready to go shopping with Woody and Buzz

CONFERENCE:
Carsen and I putting a puzzle together. Carsen singing the BINGO song very loudly. Me telling Carsen to use his inside voice. Travis organizing the kitchen cabinets.
A break in the BINGO song long enough to hear Elder Bednar tell of his boys saying things like "You're breathing my air...". Carsen starting up with Bingo again. and Me calling over Carsen for Travis not to put the blender up too high. Carsen then saying: "I have the best voice. Oh Mommy, you need to use your inside voices." Thanks Piglet.

Picnic and stories under the trampoline with some friends

TRAMPOLINES: The forbidden fruit.
There's a reason why this is at the end of my post.
I love trampolines. Probably because we didn't have one growing up, and constantly heard lectures about people getting hurt jumping on them. So, I figure it's confession time. Mom and Dad, I jumped on Byram's trampoline almost every time I was over there. I jumped on Ferney's trampoline too. And once for a date, I climbed up a ladder onto the roof of a house, and jumped onto a pillow in the middle of a trampoline. It was the best date ever. Sorry.

Travis again- apparently Vickie's best date ever was with another boyfriend? Seriously?

What can I say? Dangerous activities are more appealing than dinner and a movie sweetie.

I am definitely getting a motorcycle now.

No. That was before I was married and a mom. I wouldn't do it NOW...

Family Trips...

2009-09-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone has funny memories of family day trips from their youth. For the Barton family, it usually involved wrecking something, and ALWAYS involved being late. Really late.

I remember leaving to go skiing at Rire in the summers hours later than we had planned. Mom being mad at Dad who had made us so late. Dad laughing off Mom's complaints. Mom getting madder and responding with something very witty like, "You're not my friend." To which us kids would start laughing and by the time we got the boat in the water we were all in a good mood again (I love you Mom ;)...

Dad's getting mad usually was centered around something breaking - usually by his doing. Drilling a hole in the boat, tearing the AC unit off the camper in a short underpass, tearing a hole in the camper going back under the same underpass... (I love you too Dad !)

Of course it's not fair to give Mom and Dad all the credit. As kids I know we contributed to a lot of the calamaties during what should have been a relaxing vacation.

Me getting driven to the ER for rolling off Jared's bunk bed.
Brian kneeing himself in the head wakeboarding.
Me being taken back to the ER after hitting my head on a frozen lake (Nathan driving).
Mom and I rolling the snowmachine after Brian cut us off.
Me rolling Mom and myself on the 4-wheeler at the sand dunes for no good reason.
Brian tying the horse up to the tree too close causing a panic attack for the horse.
Dad and Keith getting stuck on the snowmachine.
Brian running over a lady's toes with the snowmachine.
Dad and Keith getting stuck on the 4-wheeler.
Brian rolling the 4-wheeler.
Me crashing the snowmachine.
Jared jumping the snowmachines and then bailing off when things got out of hand.

Wow. Wish I had pictures of those.

I'm afraid after attempting several day trips of our own, Travis and I seem to be plagued with the same Barton outcomes.

We floated the Boise river for the first time a couple of weeks ago and we wish we had discovered this activity at the beginning of the summer. I never thought I would find something I liked to do as much as waterskiing, but this is it. Of course we had some kinks.

Wasting time looking for a "really good raft"
Wasting time talking to strangers about what makes a "really good raft"
Getting lost somewhere in Boise
Getting hungry somewhere in Boise
Arguing somewhere in Boise
Popping an air chamber in a "really good raft"
Crying somewhere in Boise (mine)
Getting lost again in Boise
Driving home for another car
Driving back and NOT getting lost
Planning on being on the river by 3. Actually being on the river by 6:30
Racing time in a 6 miles paddle-a-thon to get down river and to our vehicle before the gates closed at sunset...

(what happens to my hair when I get a really good idea...)

We figured we better try the float again the next day since we had such bad luck on Friday. Fortunately, Saturday resulted in a lot shorter list of mishaps.

Only one argument (Travis was not my friend)
one raft exchange at Cabela's (most friendly people on earth)
one lost paddle (Travis's not mine)

It was so fun.

I've run out of pictures so this is where you have to visualize.

Travis: in the back rowing, complaining about my lack of rowing, holding Carsen during the rough parts to stabilize him.
Carsen: calling Travis "Captain" and saying things like "Can I have another Cheeto (sp?) Captain? Can I get back in my floaty Captain?"
Me: in the front getting the brunt of all the water splashes and cheering for joy with each splash.

More visuals.

Carsen in his floaty tied up to the raft saying that he's going to float the Boise river all by himself. After lots of splashes saying: "Oh, I got soaked that time." Carsen getting excited saying: "Boi-se ri-ver here we come!"

We loved it. We'll see how things go next weekend!
Boi-se Ri-ver Here We Come!

Carsen singing: The Family Is of God

2009-08-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry for Carsen's naptime hair.

Football, Family, and the Fair

2009-08-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

We LOVE football in our house. We think it's the best sport whether your a spectator or a participant. For 4 years we cheered for the Colts in their home city and now we're in a college town and cheering for the Boise State Broncos!

(Travis' note: We're still cheering for the Colts for those who are think we switched)

Game Face...grrr

Since Carsen generally prefers letters and numbers to sports, Travis invented this ABC football that you see here. When Carsen was about 1 year old, we took my old purple football (I can't catch regulation sized footballs. They scare me...) and Travis drew letters and numbers on it. Carsen named it his "ABC football" and has been playing with it since.

Every afternoon after work, Travis plays football with Carsen. It's so cute how Carsen knows to get on his hat, shoes, and find the ball as soon as Daddy comes home.

2009-08-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

I had such cute pictures of Carsen and Travis, but when I uploaded them to the computer I deleted the ones from the camera and not all of them uploaded. So these are all we got of our fair experience.

Carsen is a thrill seeker which is great for me (finally someone to ride rollercoasters with). Last year when we took him to the Marion County Fair in Indy, he rode all of the kiddie rides and loved it. I'll include pictures from those at the bottom. Anyway, I guess state fairs are more stringent on their height requirements so he didn't get to ride as many this time around.

Still the cutest boy in the world.

2009-08-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

What is a visit from Grandpa without golf?

The awesome thing about this visit was Dad golfed really poorly and Travis and I beat him! Travis: 47 Vickie: 48 Dad: 54!

Stretching ...

On the green ...

Cartwheels ... (!!!)

Way to go Grandma! The rest of us either didn't partcipate in the cartwheel contest, or our photos were too indecent to publish.

"I just need some lovin"

2009-08-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Such a cute boy! Carsen has been sick from what we think was a tick bite. After two rounds of antibiotics and lots of rest, he seems to be doing better but he's still running a low grade fever. He tells me every day: "I just need some lovin" After 5 weeks of being sick, you can see in the bottom picture he's still not feeling the greatest. Poor kid.

Taking care of a sick boy has made me a little distracted I'm afraid. In the past 5 weeks I've left the house wearing two different shoes, with two contacts in the same eye, and on Sunday I went through half of sacrament meeting before a kind lady told me ... I still had a bright green roller hanging out in the back of my hair!

So, I'd appreciate it if all my friends from the Plainfield Ward (including those of you who moved out) would move here to keep track of me.
I just need some lovin!

Love Is Spoken Here

2009-08-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

We LOVE our boy!

(Mom: To stop the automatic music and hear Carsen singing in this video, you need to scroll down to the very bottom of this page and press the "pause" button on the blue colored playlist.)

24th Celebration

2009-07-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, in celebration of Pioneer Day, our stake put on breakfast and games. The best game by far was the sack race. Not wanting to be left out, I jumped in a sack, hoisted Carsen on my back and took off. The pictures of us are certainly not flattering, but we had fun racing, falling, and then running to finish our race. Travis, after laughing at our attempts, tried a 1 arm carry that was a lot more successful. Oh well there's always next year.

Family Reunion

2009-07-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

We had our first Breck Barton family reunion a few weeks ago. It's been quite some time since we've been together with my four brothers who have been scattered across the country. Here's how the weekend went.

We kicked off with a family golf tournament which Grandpa Hal won. I like the above pictures because not only do we see Grandpa, Tyler, Grandma, and Julia, but you can see Connie in the back left and Adrianne and Heidi to the right.

Of course we had tons of food. You get to see all four of my bro's in this picture. From the right: Jared, Nathan, Keith, and Brian is in the far back left.

We had tons of food, fishing, games, a song for Mom (Michael Buble would not be impressed),

water balloon games...

Football... here's Travis with my swim skirt around his neck knocking down Clarissa (Kissa) and Brittney (Burt). Way to go honey.

Who's the strongest?

Big Sky Country

2009-07-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

~ In the Berry Patch ~

The beginning part of July the three of us took a trip to Montana for Travis' 10 year reunion. Carsen got to see his counsin, aunt, uncle, and lots of loving grandparents. I didn't get too many great pictures, but here are a few.

I know it's far away, but I like that Eva can be seen watching the ball toss here.

Kissing Cousins.

Great Grandma Edwards and "The Case of Missing Duckie"

So long for now ....

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

I had this great idea for the 4th of July. Boise does a community breakfast at the park the morning of the 4th, then there's a parade, and then in the afternoon there is a community river float. Mom, Dad, and Keith came to visit us and I thought that would be such a perfect plan for us to celebrate the holiday.

HOWEVER... July 3rd all six of us went golfing, shopped, went to dinner, watched a movie, and played so hard that all we wanted was to sleep late on Saturday. So we did! We ended up cooking our own breakfast and had TONS of food. Thanks to the "Head Chef" for the blueberry pancakes.

Chef's number 2 and 3 waiting on the sausage links

Carsen LOVES to be tickled and no one tickles quite like Grandpa. I'm not sure who enjoyed themselves more here.

After breakfast, we took a pole on what everybody wanted to do and the answer was .... golfing again! So we did. It reminded me of the time when ...

I grew up with a family of boys. Dad plus 4 older brothers made 5 men for me and mom to keep in line ;) Dad was always stressing the importance of doing activities together as a family. I remember being frequently irritated when I couldn't go to friends houses or shopping with just Mom because we were going to spend "family time". Family time meant we were either working in the garden or around the yard, or having a family "outing". Dad's motto: Work hard. Play hard. The problem I had was that the "outing" with our family of boys usually involved the golf course or the river. Fishing or golfing.

Mom and I went along sometimes not so happily to these activities. The result: I learned to like fishing and golfing. I could never stay mad because usually something hilarious occumpanied these family outings. I think that Dad may still have Search and Rescue on speed dial for all the times we got stuck out on the river. I think Brian and Nathan both had to make a few dives into the river to search for lost keys, hats, you name it. Golfing usually meant that Keith and I would loose more of Dad's golf balls than we should have, and yet Keith's score usually reflected a lower number than that of the balls he lost. So, thanks to my Mom and Dad for helping me make the best out of what I thought was a bad situation.

Now I'm married to a guy who likes the same things. He likes it that I can challenge his golf game (yeah, we both stink) and that I won't complain about going out on the river (I'll bring my bathing suit). This is kind of a lot of text, but something I want my posterity to remember. Things are usually only as fun as you make it!

So after golf, we spent the rest of the day chillin' in the pool, and then grilling steaks. Not even close to what I had planned, but probably more fun.

And I even managed to get Keith and Mom in the water!

~ 1 slip, 2 stitches, and number 75 ~

2009-07-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago our little boy slipped getting out of the shower. The result: 2 stitches! Carsen was such a little trooper. He cried only when he fell and yelled only because "Daddy was holding my arms too tight". He held still for his shots and stitches by counting all the way to 75 by himself. By the time he got to the said number, all was well and we could go home. We congratulated Carsen with some ice cream, and ended the day with smiles on our faces.

Such cute faces. Aren't I a lucky girl?!

Growing Up

2009-06-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

It seems like we've started a new life and in a lot of ways, we have. The past several months have been a whirlwind of our last days as students living in Indiana. A lot has happened and I feel like all three of us are growing up too fast. Here's a taste of what's gone on.

Conference:

Here's a picture of us doing what has become a Conference tradition. Puzzles. Travis and I started doing a jigsaw puzzle the first conference weekend we were married and this year we found a way for Carsen to participate without tearing all our work apart.

Easter

This was the Saturday before Easter and it was a beautiful day. Sunny, but cold enough for sweatshirts. My favorite kind of weather. We went to an Easter egg hunt put on by the city of Mooresville in "Puff the Magic Dragon Park" (Pioneer Park). They really do an awesome job and we ended up seeing several people there from our ward.

On a competitive note, Travis picked Carsen up when the starting whistle blew and headed for a corner full of eggs. We wanted Carsen to pick up the eggs himself, but the only way Travis could get him to fill his basket was by telling him that he could count the eggs he put in his basket. Carsen put 26 eggs in his basket and counted each one.

So the Easter Bunny himself was a little scary. I'd be nervous too with those crazy purple eyes. The good thing was we got coupons for free milkshakes .... double chocolote w/out mini chips!

This was the last time we went to "Puff the Magic Dragon Park." You can see the green/blue dragon toy behind my boys that prompted Carsen to name the entire park after one of his favorite songs. I used to take Carsen to this park in the early mornings of summer. Before 9:00 when the weather got just too hot to handle. So long Mooresville.

May:

The very end of April we got a call about a dental practice in Nampa, Idaho. Since Travis was going to graduate just a few weeks later and we had nothing firmed up for employment, he headed out to interview the first of May. Carsen and I went with him to check out housing and visit Grandma and Grandpa Barton and of course Uncle Keith who would be over that way.

I took this goofy pictures when Carsen tried on my cowgirl boots as we were trying to pack.

Glamour Garage

Trying to cram every last bit of Indy out of our last week there, we visited our friend's the Weiss family at their garage. We saw a couple of beautiful motorbikes there and then went to some other garage's nearby where they were working on various race cars.

Unfortunately the rest of the pictures I took here didn't turn out. But Carsen especially had such a fun afternoon here chasing Adam (6ish) and Darren (elevenish) Weiss around. I asked Tina if she'd be willing to part with a few of her kids. I guess Carsen will just have to live with older uncle's instead of older brothers.

Graduation:

Saturday, May 9th, Travis graduated from Dental School. We had both sets of grandparents there, Keith and Brian, and Crissy with her girl Addison. It was quite a celebration. Our place was kind of a mess since we were scheduled to move Monday but thanks to both our families for all the support and help they gave us that busy weekend.

I know Travis isn't going to like this picture of himself, but I wanted to be in at least one and the other picture of us I have is of me wearing multiple camera's, a purse, and a diaper bag on my arm. At least you know I'm strong.

The Family:

I love this picture, Keith and Carsen staring out in opposite directions.

Again, you can see why Keith and Carsen get along so well.

Mom Edwards, Travis, Dad Edwards, Crissy, Addy, and Piglet

I love this video! Because we were so far back, Travis didn't hear Carsen but everyone else in our section did.

More seriously, Travis was nominated by his class to speak at graduation and he did an amazing job. He shared a story of Elder Holland's from a talk titled "An High Priest of Good Things to Come". Elder Holland tells of the trials he faced going into graduate school. Travis shared the story and closed by telling everyone that he hoped that during trials and challenges, we would all trust in God and hope for good things to come. It was the perfect close to graduation. I think you're amazing Travis, and I won't tell anyone that I wrote your talk ~ (just kidding)

So long IU School of Dentistry

Oh, the Things You Can Spell

2009-03-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

"Carsen loves letters." I feel like I'm always putting that into this blog. The truth is, there's not much else that's worth writing about. This kid is the most exciting part of our family. This morning he climbed into his chair and put on his bib saying, "It says, BYU Idaho!"

Before I could finish making him his oatmeal, he asked me to spell 'oatmeal' for him. This usually means he tries to also spell the word using any number of his ABC letters (stickers, puzzle pieces, fridge phonics, ...). As you can see, he's pretty proud of himself. We are too.

If at first you don't succeed ...

try, try again!

In His Shoes

2009-03-26T06:27:00.001-07:00

Carsen loves his Daddy so I guess it's only natural that he likes to play in Travis' shoes. I'm just glad this wasn't my high heels!

Beautiful Disaster

2009-03-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Carsen goes to bed at about 8:00 most nights. Lately he's been on a kick where he has to have the door left open when we leave. This seems to present a temptation that is just too hard for his two year old self to resist. He gets out of bed constantly and comes out to investigate what's going on.

We decided to be firm about keeping the door closed. What we've tried consists of closing it, locking it from the inside, and wrapping the handle with duct tape. This hasn't worked. He peels off the duct tape, unlocks the door, then runs out triumphantly to greet us with a sunny "Good morning!". After a few weeks of this unsuccessful routine, we found what we thought would be the perfect solution.

The first night we put this on Carsen's door, we heard him whining a little and fiddling with his new obstacle. Then all was quiet. Travis went to check out the situation and found Carsen sitting in the middle of his room with two pieces of the "child proof" cover in each hand. Then Carsen looked up at Travis and said: "I just want it off."

I used to listen to Kelly Clarkson's "Beautiful Disaster" song and think of Travis. Now that song seems more appropriate for Carsen.

What can I say. Like father like son right?

Jessica, here's my tag picture (6th photo from 6th file). I'm not sure what's going on here. I don't think I want to know.

Fantastic February

2009-02-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

February is always a fun month for me. There's so much to celebrate. It's a month where I eat lots of chocolate and can always count on fresh flowers from my Dad. My birthday, Valentine's Day, and the date Travis proposed February 13th, are all part of what make this month special to me.

This year for my birthday we celebrated early and late. Usually there's too much going on with school and other activities to celebrate properly on the actual date, the 10th, and this year was no exception. As a result, I usually try to stretch my birthday celebration into a two weekend event. The first weekend we had Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and chicken strips with hot sauce. YUM!

The next weekend we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for more chicken and sauce (what can I say, you can't improve on that) and then hit the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. I had so much fun with Travis who ended up carrying me on his back after the show with me holding onto my fashionable but uncomfortable purple high heels. I wish I had a picture of that.

Friday the 13th came this year in February for the first time in five years. I know that for a fact because the last February Friday the 13th was when Travis proposed. I asked him this year what he remembered about that date and he said: "My broken hand, and you being stressed out." I figured I would add to that description for those that are interested. If not, you can scroll on down for more pictures.

I remember being concerned about Travis' healing finger which he broke in a basketball game at BYU-Idaho. Now you know why Travis gets a lecture whenever he goes to play ball. Anway, I felt like Travis had been milking his injury. That weekend we were supposed to go to Phoenix to visit my future sister in law Lisa. I was nervous about this visit because we weren't technically engaged yet and I had reservations about the appropriateness of taking a trip with a boy I wasn't engaged to. I had a LOT of hangups while we were dating. The day we were supposed to leave I had to turn in and collect several of Travis' school assignments, walk from the Snow building to the Hinckley building 2 times, take a Chemistry test, get the Honda serviced, and pack. Travis was NO help. Little did I know he was getting a ring.

He had asked me meet him at his sister Yvonne's house so I could pick him up and we could make the drive down to Salt Lake to catch our plane. We were going to leave by 3:00. Well, the car wasn't finished in time so I ended up being a half hour late and very frazzled. Of course Travis was layed back about the whole thing. He wanted me to come in first so he could give me my Valentine's present early. Nobody else was home and I though he was looking for an excuse to get me alone on a couch. Kissing was another one of my hangups and before the ring, he didn't get a lot.

When he turned on the TV to a dvd slide show he had put together for me, I thought to myself: We don't have time for this. He sat down on my left hand side so I could hold his one uninjured hand. It was a cute show of pictures of the two of us growing up and then more pictures of us together. The music was cute and it was put together in such a funny way that I forgot about the time and just enjoyed my present. Then it ended with a picture of the Idaho Falls LDS Temple and my brain kicked in saying. It's late, you need to go NOW, you don't have time for this sentimental stuff. I couldn't figure out why he was on the floor in front of me. Then he got chocked up and Travis NEVER gets chocked up. I think he's cried a total of 4 times since I've known him. Then he said"Vickie, will you be my wife forever?" and pulled out a ring.

He did get a kiss for that one. I was so excited as we drove down to Utah calling everyone I knew to spread the news. Then I got a call from Chase Clark who before I could say anything asked me to marry HIM. Chase helped Travis put together the dvd and was the Best Man at our wedding.

So there ya go. Friday the 13th 2004. One of many reasons to make February a Fantastic Month.

2009-02-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Highlights ...

and

... Lowlights

My Guy

2009-02-26T07:04:00.001-08:00

Carsen loves anything that has to do with letters. He loves his "A-B-C stickers" and has started trying to spell out words with them. As a result, we find ourselves constantly picking stickers off our feet, peeling stickers off the couch and walls, and removing stashed sticker sheets from under Carsen's pillow.

He continually is asking us: "What does it say? What does it say?" And is able to point out Stop signs, Target and Walmart trucks, Marsh and Menards store logos, and of course "Barnes n Nobo"

He's not into cars, trains, bikes, or balls, but he can spell his name. The other day I took Carsen outside to teach him to use the pedals of his bike. We were practicing in the fire lane where it has 'NO PARKING' painted on the asphalt. All Carsen could focus on were the letters on the ground.

"That looks like C but it's actually an O"

Those 'NO PARKING' letters cause us quite the hangup whenever we get into or out of the car.

"This is the letter G, this is the letter N, this is the letter I,..."

THE END

2009-02-26T07:02:00.001-08:00

"Sixty" the Snowman

2009-02-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

My two guys and "Sixty" - as named by Carsen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't worry Mom, Travis was holding on from
behind the whole time!

~~~~~~~

I'm afraid Carsen picked this up from watching his Mommy practice handstands. It's still cute!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snow Day

2009-01-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

This week we got 10 inches of new snow in 36 hours. After getting Mr. Cheeks dressed, I asked Carsen if he would like to go sledding. I had the camera ready, and his response did not disappoint.

Carsen's prep course before trying the real sled.

I know it would have been nice to get some pictures of him outside, but after these shots were taken he started to act a little funny then threw up - so .... no sledding. Oh well, I had fun playing outside with the neighbor's kids. All for Carsen's sake of course!

Relax and Read!

2009-01-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Our little family loves to read and as you can see, we all have our own unique taste. Here are some shots of my guys during their reading time.

The book that Carsen is holding is our family copy of The Book of Mormon which we keep in his room.

Carsen loves our night-time routine. We can't put him in bed without making sure we have heard Carsen's prayers, had family prayer, and read from the "skip-tures". Last week Carsen had what I'm convinced was a nightmare. He woke up in the middle of the night screaming like he was in pain. When I ran in to check him, his was sitting up in bed crying. I asked him to tell me with his words what was wrong. All he could say was: "Say prayers with Mommy." I love my boy.

Tickle me Silly

2009-01-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

Grandpa tickling Carsen

Our boy wasn't quite as thrilled with Uncle Keith's tickles as he was with Grandpa's

It's Christmas

2009-01-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve with my boys

Christmas morning Carsen could hardly stay still long enough to take a picture. Here he is opening his "Big ABC puzzle".

Carsen loves his ABCs, so it was no surprise that Santa found lots of alphabet gifts for our boy.

Dashing through the snow

2009-01-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

Dashing through the snow ...

Chris, Travis, Vickie, Cody at Targhee

Me and my nephews!

Here's a clip of me and my rubber legs falling

I did not do very well filming Travis. We had to edit out most of his run because watching made us both sick. Sorry. My hands were very cold.

Down with Daddy

2009-01-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

2009-01-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

This year as a family Christmas and New Year's surprise
we took Carsen to an indoor water park. He loved swimming
with Daddy, the 'budly bath', and most of all the waterslide !

Carsen and Daddy

Getting ready for another run down the
waterslide

Fish kiss

Mommy and Carsen in the 'budly bath'