Big Brother Carter!

We are excited to announce that we are having another baby in mid-August! We just told our families this week for Christmas and now we are sharing our little secret with everyone! :)
We know that Carter will love having a friend at our house and we can't wait to find out if it is a brother or a sister! We will keep everyone posted with that happy news in a few more months!

Carter's Tree

We got Carter a cute little tree for his room. This is a cute little video of after we got it set up and plugged it in for the first time. His reaction is just so dang cute. Enjoy!

Gingerbread House Fun

Every year we get together with the Hardman Family and make Gingerbread houses. It is so much fun. This was Carter's first experience with this and he liked the candy a LOT. He didn't get the concept that you stick the candy on the house - and then you LEAVE it there. Every time we would help him put one on he would pull it off and eat it. It was hilarious. So we decided to start decorating him instead. :)

Here I am attempting to show my little son how it works and there he is shoving more candy in his mouth behind me. :)

Dave then attempted and we got him to stick a candy cane on top (after it had been sucked on of course)....did I mention how much he enjoyed the candy?

Now, my Dave is serious about his gingerbread houses. He has had some pretty impressive ones over the years. But this one I think topped the list. He worked forever on window shutters, doors, built on an entire chimney made out of candy rocks and even put our whole little gingerbread family inside with a christmas tree. Way to go babe. You are a genius!

Here is the backside of the finished product. Isn't the chimney so cool?

Not a Fan of the Jolly Man

Carter has sat on 2 Santa's laps so far this year and has hated every minute of it! I would try to prep him in line and say things like "Look there's Santa, he is so nice, look at his soft white beard, he wants you to sit on his lap and give him a hug" etc. etc. But every time I sat him on Santa's lap he would burst into tears. He was the ONLY child at our ward Christmas breakfast with Santa that cried on Santa's lap. But I think it is kind of hilarious to have these funny pictures to show him later in life though. How could anyone be afraid of such a jolly man? Maybe next year he'll do better......

St. George Trip

Last Week we took a little trip down to St. George to stay at our condo. It was so much fun, and I was thinking, yay! I want to go to somewhere warm! But alas, it was FREEZING there too! We had a good time anyway. Dave surprised us and took us to the Tuachan Theatre - they deck it out for Christmas, here we are on a little trolley ride trying to keep warm. Look how furry I am!!:)
They had a cool live Nativity on the Tuachan stage with real animals and everything. It was all set to music and narrated. Carter wouldn't sit through it unfortunately - so we only got to see part of it. But it was definitely cool.

Here is a shot of some of the lights. It was so beautiful and so different to see Christmas lights against red rock canyons.

Here is a little family shot off our back pation at the condo. They have a cool little pond out back and Carter loved the ducks, every morning when he woke up he would run to the window and yell "Quack Quack!" We had such a fun time going on a little trip together. Can't wait until we go again!

A Hunting We Did Go......

A couple weeks ago we went on the annual Hardman Family Tree Hunting adventure. We look forward to this every year. We go up past Evanston to the Mirror Lake area and stay at our brother in law Seth's families cabin and search for our trees. Here is our tree this year - I think it is perfect. I love the way it makes our house smell. Carter had to help Dave put it up. He was so excited!
This is Carter with his cousins Adam, Thayne, and Julianne. We take four wheelers on our search which makes it extra fun and a whole lot easier to bring trees down the mountain. The kids had a blast. They are so cute together. I love this cute picture of all of them bundled up ready to go.

Here is the Dave relaxing at the cabin - ummm.....that is 'Root' Beer right Dave? JK!

Carter loved the cabin and enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and all his aunts and uncles and cousins. Thanks for such a fun time!!!

Dave Turns 30!

Dave turned the big 3-0 a couple weeks ago and I decided to throw a little surprise party for him - this is him being surprised after we opened the garage and it was full of friends and family. I had taken him out to dinner beforehand at Famous Dave's (a favorite of his) meanwhile everyone gathered at our house to surprise the birthday boy.

This is his AMAZING cake that his sister Min made. Dave's birthday always falls during the week of Thanksgiving and sometimes even on Thanksgiving and so we thought it would be fun to make a turkey cake. I can't believe how real it looked - but it was all cake and icing. Thanks Min! It turned out so great!

Dave got stuff to oraganize his garage along with this long awaited ladder - he was very excited and Carter kept climbing up it. :)

Here I am lighting the many candles for Dave to blow out. I found these really cool long skinney ones. I think they looked really cool.

Happy Birthday to Dave!! Can I just say how grateful I am every day that you were born to be ours!!! I couldn't ask for a better husband and father and best friend. WE LOVE YOU!!! (And just so you know, you don't look a day over 22).

Long time no post!

Ok, so I realize that it has been a full month to the day since I have posted. Life gets so crazy especially with the holidays. But we have been doing lots of fun things so I will be posting pics soon I promise! Just remember good things come to those who wait right?

Something to Think About......

This past week has been hard, challenging, enlightening, and wonderful. I have learned a lot about myself and grown so much. When trials come to us it is always for a reason. Last month Lloyd Newell gave a talk in the Music and the Spoken Word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir called "unexpected blessings" I highly recommend looking it up online and reading it. It will give you a boost and make you more grateful for your blessings.
I thought I would share a little bit of that talk since it is the month of giving thanks and all. He said,

"Life is filled with unexpected blessings. Often then come in the form of rewarding opportunities or wonderful experiences. But many times our most cherished blessings come from adversity that inspires personal growth. We shouldn't focus on 'why me?' Instead we MUST focus on how our problem has drawn us closer to God, to those we love, to the issues that really matter. Once we get past the unaswered questions, we might be surprised to find that our hardship has led to a blessing we've long sought. Truly it takes courage to see life's challenges as blessings. Yet hardships can become turning points, opportunities to learn, to love more deeply, to develop greater kindness and to forgive and cast aside resentments. We can be blessed with wisdom when we understand in very personal ways that on the other side of suffering is a depth of feeling, a perspective on life that we might not otherwise have known."

I found these words beautiful and inspiring. I am grateful for my countless blessings, including life's trials - that help me to learn and grow and become a better person.

Trick or Treat Smell My Feet!

So when Dave and I were trying to decide what Carter should be for Halloween, only one thing came to mind.....a MONKEY! He is our little monkey in real life and so we thought it would be perfect. He was even cute enough to make the monkey sound of Ah Ah Ah whenever anyone asked him.

We had a fun time at our ward Trunk or Treat and one lady gave out these cute little apples to all the kids. Carter pulled that out of his bag and ate it to the core! He didn't even care about the candy - he wanted the apple - we as his parents were very pleased with his nutritious decision. :0)This is us attempting to dress up - Dave and I aren't really the dressing up type - but when we need to we always have our old stand by Hawaiian outfits. Whatever works right?

And, finally, here is a closeup of the cutest monkey face EVER! Man we love this kid!

Playin' Around on the Playground

Carter is LOVING the new backyard. We go out every day and play. He loves the swing and giggles when he goes really high.
He also learned how to climb up the stairs all by himself. I showed him how to put his feet in the rungs and he caught on so quickly and did it by himself the very next time he tried. Smarty pants!

This is his preferred method of going down the slide - Backwards on his belly.

He also loves to push his lawnmower around everywhere - which is adorable. He is getting so big and grown up - he is not my baby anymore - he is my little boy now.

Sprinklers in October?

This is Carter's first experience running through the sprinklers - yes that's right - in OCTOBER! We have had to water our new sod a l!ittle more now that the water has been turned off for the winter season. Carter was loving it. He got completely soaked. This video is so fun. It makes you want to be a kid again. :0) Enjoy!

Bike Ridin' Boys

Dave's a big fan of the bike rides and Carter loves to go. I am even trying out the whole mountain biking thing too! The weather has been so nice that we keep getting out and enjoying it. We gotta soak it up while we can - because before ya know it - frigid weather will arrive!

Here is Carter's little helmut. I think he looks so cute in it! Safety first!

Let it Snow??

So, last Sunday we woke up to 7 inches of snow on our newly layed sod! It was crazy. All of the fluffy white stuff got us into the Christmas spirit and Dave broke out the Christmas CD's and Carter started dancing. It was so cute - I got some footage. Enjoy and.....Merry Christmas! :o)

Before the Backyard......there was dirt....lots of dirt...

Here is a before shot of our backyard before we put in the grass and play area. We have been working so hard to get it ready for sod, and hauling more dirt than you can imagine. I have also become quite the landscaping expert. I have called everyone in town and know all about the best prices for dirt, sod, curbing, etc. I am also quite good at measuring square footage I've come to find out.....


I like to call this funny pic "Todd with the Sod". This is my bro in law Todd. We loved having him around helping and making us laugh. Thanks for the help Toddster!

Backyard Adventures!

Putting in yards is a LOT of HARD work!! We've got callased hands and our muscles are still recovering - but it was so worth it! Here are some fun pics of us putting in the backyard last week. Huge shout outs and thank you's to our amazing and wonderful family members that came to help us - we couldn't have done it without you and you all made it so much fun. We will think of all of you every time we go outside on our grass! Hooray!

All of the cousins had to try out the new play area as soon as we laid down the last peice of sod. They were loving it! And Carter was so excited to have a place to play.


Me and Shayne and Jana laying the sod. Those rolls were soooo heavy and there were sooo many of them! Thanks so much for all the wonderful help!! We love you all!

And here is Trish, who thought she could lay sod with us - and we said NO! (because she is 5 months pregnant) - she is always so helpful - she and Shayne picked up the wood chips for the play area for us and we let Trish spread them - she did a fabulous job.
Here is my hottie with his trusty pick tool thing (sorry honey I can't remember what that one is called) I like to call him "Captain of the Sprinklers" I love my Dave. What a hard worker.
Also big thanks to Dad Hardman, Liz, and Dad Taylor for all your help and Mom Taylor for watching the kiddies and being willing to pull weeds, pick up rocks and sink in the mud with me. We couldn't have done it without all of you.

Pallet Rodeo!

Dave decided to level the dirt with a pallet, with the help of Uncle Todd. Carter loved being pulled around. I thought it was pretty funny to watch and had to get some footage.

Good Times

My sister Jana and her cute family were visiting us in Utah last week and we had such a fun time with them. Carter loved hanging with his cousins. They live in Blue Springs Missouri, and so we only see them a couple times a year. The grandkids got to pick out their own pumpkins out of Grandpa Taylor's pumpkin patch. They were so cute. And picked out a perfect one for Carter since he couldn't be there for the choosing day. Here he is with Jayci and Dawson (Jana's little cuties).
And his buddy Conner. He is 8 year's old now! I can't believe how time flies!
This is me holding sweet little Bridger - Jana's new little 2 month old baby. We couldn't wait to hold him for the first time! He was born with Down Syndrome and is the sweetest baby ever! We love that Bridger boy to pieces! :0)
I had to have a sister shot. There are only a few times a year when this is possible. Trish has her cute little prego belly - she is going to have another little princess in February! We are so excited! I love these gals so much - wish I could hang with them all the time!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Dave and Carter found a little caterpillar we when we went up th canyon. Carter kept laughing when it crawled on him - I think he thought it was tickly.

We got this fun family shot by the river - thanks to my Dave's genius with the camera and balancing our camera on a stump across the way. He had to book it across the bridge before the timer went off. But it was worth it I think. :)

This is beautiful Logan Canyon. Dave lived in Logan for the first 5 years of his life and this canyon holds a special place in his heart and so we are making it a tradition to go every year whent he leaves change. It was honestly so beautiful. We had the funnest day ever.

We drove up the canyon took a little side rode and found a trail that went up the mountain. There were the most beautiful leaves - and it was so quiet and peaceful. Carter really loved the leaves.

Dave found Carter this funny little walking stick. He carried it everywhere. He was making us laugh so hard. I was trying to show him how to grab handfuls of leaves and throw them in the air.

This picture says it all don't ya think? He loved holding our bag leaves. I think he even ate a few of them! He is definitely just like his daddy - he loves to be outdoors in nature.
I love this picture! I had to put it on the blog because it just makes me laugh and smile every time I look at it. Carter loved this little river we found. He kept sticking his hands in the freezing water!

Fun with the Ducks!

We went to visit Aunt Beccah up in Logan a few weeks ago and had so much fun!


We found this cool park with a pond and lots of HUGE ducks - we think they were geese - but Carter loved it! He kept pointing and quacking at and chasing them all over the place!
Here is a funny shot of him chasing the ducks. He aint afraid of no duck! He kept walking right up to them.