point of view

Carter turned 2 on Friday. Can you believe my little angel is now officially a toddler? I love this little boy. He is so much fun. I have so many people telling me (since I am pregnant with another boy) that life is going to be so hard cause boys are hard. Well I am not sure what it’s like to have girls, but I love my little boy - high energy and all. He does so many amazing things and his little brain is always working so fast. He loves to swim, play soccer, hit baseballs and run around. He is so much fun to be with and watch. I am so grateful that I get the chance to be his mom! Here are some photos of the celebration with a few from his early months with us.

We celebrated his birthday at Round Table Pizza. He loved it and it was easy for me. We had just gotten home from vacation the night before, so I didn’t have time to plan a huge celebration. The one thing I did need was a cake with a ball on it. And I found the perfect cake at Safeway. When he saw it he pointed and said “WOW…ball!”

Here is my baby at 4 days old and the other is 5 weeks old.

This was Carter’s 1st birthday. His first birthday was a little more organized. I think he enjoyed his second just as well, without all of the bells and whistles.

Last week we went on vacation to Palm Springs. It was a nice hotel with water slides and a huge pool. We thought it would be so much fun. Well it would have been if the weather wasn’t 113 degrees! So we decided to escape the heat and go to a magical place where dreams are made of—Disneyland of course. Carter has been there once before when he was 10 months old, but this was different. This time his eyes lit up and he was in heaven! He loved every minute of it. Since I was pregnant, we made this trip to Disneyland all about him…no big kid rides for the parents. We were worried it would be boring, but we loved seeing Disneyland through his eyes. I took my camera hoping to get great pictures of him with Mickey and friends, but after a few photos my battery died. This was all I got out of the trip. Ugh! Oh well, we think we will go back in September when I can ride a few of the rides. Here are the few photos I got before my camera gave out.

Here was our first ride-Pirates of the Caribbean. He loved it! Although this photo doesn’t show it. He didn’t like waiting in lines, but luckily Disneyland wasn’t busy and we were able to walk on in 5 minutes.

Here is how we survived the 7 1/2 hour drive to Palm Springs. What a difference a DVD player made. He watched 7 hours straight and only napped a half hour. Can you say addict?

Since I have been busy making a baby (okay not a great excuse but whatever) I forgot to post some very important events. It was my birthday last month! I will soon be joining a new crowd (the thirty-something-people)…but NOT YET. I have one more year to relish in my twenties. And what better way to do it than being pregnant and huge. Hopefully my youthfulness and agile self will return once this baby is out so that I can go out of my twenties feeling great. Right now I feel like I am in my 70’s or 80’s as I am now waddling about and can’t get out of large sofas without help. Ahh isn’t pregnancy great? Well some parts are, but right now I don’t remember what those parts are.

Anyways, my husband surprised me on my birthday and took me out to the Berkley marina for a dinner on the water with a VIEW. Has he been reading my blog??? I remember posting a hint that all I ever wanted was a romantic dinner with a view. I was shocked. However, it turns out a friend of ours helped him plan the event. It was his wife’s birthday too. Lucky for me, Jeff had been a reader and knew that my husband really needed some help. (I am referring to my romance blog entry if you forgot). We sat down to a beautiful sunset while eating fabulous food. I kept looking at my husband and saying “This is all I ever wanted J.M.”, grinning from ear to ear—and then I would turn to Jeff and say…”thanks Jeff for helping my husband out!” Both Tammy and I were very thrilled to be on a date with our hubbies. What a great birthday. Did I mention that my husband gave me the entire Jane Austen BBC DVD pack for my birthday and said he’d even watch it with me. This birthday couldn’t get any better….

I stole this photo from Tammy. I hope it’s okay. We didn’t bring our camera.

It was really fun being a mom on mother’s day. I woke up to J.M. bringing me breakfast in bed! Then I went to church and the Y.W.’s took over Primary so that I could go to Sunday School with J.M. (I haven’t got to do that in so long!) and to Relief Society. It was nice to finally find out what really goes on in R.S. It looks to me like they laugh alot and eat lots of chocolate! Mmmm. It was a nice day. J.M. thought it appropriate to show off the belly since I am in the final stages of pregnancy. Not the most flattering photos, but when do you look good pregnant?

The nursery made the cutest mother’s day presents. I really loved my gift. It was perfect!

Some of you may have thought J.M. graduated in 2005 when we left BYU and moved to California. That is not the case. J.M. left BYU with 3 online classes to finish before he could graduate. He procrastinated them for almost 4 more years. It took me promising him he could buy a wakeboard tower for our boat to get him to finally finish. Even with the tower in sight, it still took him another year to pull it all together. Though it was a lot of nagging, it paid off. J.M. finally did it! And I am proud of him. So I threw him a surprise graduation party and invited all of his friends and even his family. The biggest surprise was that his family decided to fly in last minute for the big surprise. The photos will show the amazement on his face. Priceless! Oh and J.M. did get his tower, just one week later.

Surprise #1: The party screams “Surprise! It’s about time J.M.!” Here is his face:

Friends yelling surprise!

Surprise #2: J.M. spots his dad, and his face is priceless. He has no idea why his dad would be at the party.

We had to dress him up in cap and gown. It made it official.

I am looking a bit thrashed considering I had my kidney stone episode just days before. I can’t believe I pulled it off! Thanks to the McKissick’s for being my sneaky partners in crime and keeping J.M. out of the house for 4 hours, and to everyone who contributed and came. It was a lot of fun and I know J.M. felt the love. Thanks friends and family!

Here is his coveted reward. Funny, I don’t remember anyone giving me a reward for graduating. Hmmm…..J.M. it is my birthday soon…..

Since becoming quite large during pregnancy, I have been known to wear J.M.’s sweats around the house. I did not know it would result in him wearing my clothes too. He did comment that my p.j.s were quite comfortable. Pretty funny.

This has been my life for about 2 months. Since February, Carter has had the stomach flu 3 times, and I have had it twice. Days after the last spat of the stomach flu, Carter woke up looking like a cherry tomato. Pictures will follow. I thought he had the measles or something and rushed him to the doctor. Luckily it was just hives. I guess he is extremely allergic to something. We have yet to find out what that is.

Last week I thought I was in pre-term labor, but to my relief and yet extreme discomfort I found out that I was passing a kidney stone. Having never passed a kidney stone before, I thought my extreme back pain and abdominal pain was due to labor. To say the least, mini-labor before the real labor is not my cup of tea.

I have also had 2 colds, resulting in an achy body and head-aches, and now this weekend Carter woke up with a temperature of 104.3! I was extremely worried as I watched my busy body son sit motionless and in a daze all day. So I rushed him to the hospital AGAIN to find out it is probably the flu. I think I have totaled between Carter and I (NOT COUNTING PRE-NATAL VISITS) 5 visits to the doctor in one month. With my pre-natal visits and ultra-sounds, that would be 7 times! Crazy! I am so SICK of being SICK!

This is 2 hours after we gave him benedryl. He looked a lot worse before this. J.M. didn’t want to take him out to eat even though he felt fine, for fear people would think he was contagious.

Still in good spirits despite his appearance!

BOY! Yes we found out that the next cutie will be a boy. I am enthusiastic about being a mother of two boys! However J.M. keeps telling me these horror stories about how he and his brother used to fight all the time. How they wrestled and beat each other up, but that it was ok cause now they really like each other. Well great, so they’ll like each other after they moved out of the house? I just hope that these 2 little boys will love each other and stick by each other always. That they will help each other stand up for what’s right. I hope Carter will be a good example and go on a mission and his brother will follow in his footsteps. I am hopeful for them to be powerful influences for good and that everyone will want to be around them because of that. I hope that the girls will flock to them, not because they are handsome, but because they are gentlemen who treat women with respect and value. Two boys is going to be amazing. I am ready for the challenge. I guess the question will be, can I keep up with them? Can I raise good, strong, and loving boys? I hope so, because I have been really feeling the responsibility as a mother to raise them up to be great missionaries and husbands to their wives. I always knew I’d have boys, so this was a real confirmation. It’s funny how you just know some things. Hurray for little boys!

With a little prodding and a lot of hinting, J.M. figured it out. Although I told him he was off the hook, he stepped up to the plate and took me out on the town for our 5th anniversary. Our first stop was dinner at The Cliffhouse in San Francisco. It was exactly what I wanted—a romantic restaurant with a view. Nice! But my favorite destination was our second one—a chocolate cafe on the trendy Fillmore Street in San Fran. We sipped perfectly brewed hot chocolate while devouring decadent brownie truffles. Mmmm….. Why does chocolate speak to a woman’s heart? I don’t know, but it worked for me. After our date we exchanged letters. When was the last time you wrote your hubby a love letter? Well it was a nice touch to end the evening. Who would have known that J.M. really was good at writing from the heart. Thanks J.M., this anniversary date topped the charts. I will be excited for what you come up with next year….hint hint.