Easter 2012

This may be my longest, biggest post ever! Sorry!

This Easter was the best I have ever had since I was a kid. Carter is now old enough to understand what it is all about which made me realize how important it was for me to teach him about it. A good friend of ours gave me a bag of Resurrection Eggs which was absolutely perfect for Carter. A few of the points were lost on him, but because there was a "surprise" in every egg he sat and listened to me explain what each egg was all about and read the short verse in the scriptures that coincided with them before he opened each egg and discovered what was inside. And since you do one egg each day, we didn't have to worry about his short attention span at all.

 I explained to him in terms he could understand that the man he loves so much was betrayed by his friend and that no one believed that he was our Savior and they didn't understand what they were doing at the time, but they nailed his hands and his feet to the cross. And that was how he died. Carter was so sad. He flinched when I told him about them whipping him and putting a crown of thorns on his head. He didn't want me to talk about the nails in his hands because it made him too sad. He kept asking me why his friends would do that to him? He didn't quite understand that not everyone was friends with Jesus- I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends with someone so wonderful right? And since we talked about the death of Jesus, Carter has become more aware of the concept of it all.

Just today he told me he didn't want me to die and leave him, even if he was old old old and had his own kids. He wanted me to be with him forever. What a teaching experience! I once again sat him down and told him that nothing on this earth is forever, that we all need to die at some point. I asked him where we go when we die and he told me "to live with heavenly father and Jesus... but mom, I don't want you to go without me!" Haha, I love my boy. He knows that heaven is sooo much "cooler" than this place but that we all have our time to go there and its all part of Heavenly Father's plan for us.

Anyway, to get back to Easter- Carter did not like the part about Jesus dying at all. But once I got to the part about them putting him in the tomb (or as Carter calls it, the cave- like batman's cave! haha), and the guards placing a BIG stone over the door so that no one could come and take Jesus he was all ears. I explained that an angel of God came and rolled the stone away while the guards were sleeping, and Jesus was alive again! He was resurrected and now lives with Heavenly Father. He LOVED that part. He got all giddy and excited that Jesus was alive again. I mean, Jesus is like the biggest superhero to Carter and that just reaffirmed how amazing he is to Carter. Nothing can stop Jesus! hahaha, that is totally how Carter feels about him. That was my favorite part of all of Easter this year.

Saturday before Easter Sunday we made our favorite fattening and sugary breakfast of waffles with real whipped cream and sausage. The waffles are Kalebs pride and joy because he has tweaked them to perfection. I colored all of the waffles and the whipped cream different bright colors just to make Carter smile (since we forgot to do it for St. Patricks day and kaleb and I were so disappointed). Carter of course loved it! Carter shoved every last bite in his mouth, along with Kaleb and me :)

 Our colorful creation

YUM!

Plate licking good!

Don't mind my crazy "I just woke up" hair and my old makeup I never washed off! :)

That afternoon we made resurrection rolls. I have never made these before but I thought it would be yet another fun thing to do with Carter to help him understand the real meaning behind Easter. I was wrong. He did not really want to help at all and the rolls ended up not turning out because the fell apart in the oven. Oh well, I tried!

 About to start "helping" me

 Showing me what "he" did. Haha

Sure, they fell apart and didn't work out how I wanted, but they sure tasted YUMMY!

After that came dying the Easter eggs! I am still not sure why we did this since Kaleb hates eggs and Carter apparently does not like them either. We only made 10 hard boiled eggs, but that was 10 too many! But it was fun for carter to color and dye his own eggs. Kaleb and I also had fun even though we discovered we are terrible at making them look even half way decent. But we tried super hard and had only 2 or 3 that turned out looking pretty good.

 Mine are the top 3, Kalebs the middle 3 and the bottom left one, Carter are the bottom 3... Can you see the cracked egg? Good thing these were hard boiled! 

 Mine and Kalebs

 I tried to block out the bad looking cracked egg. Who am I kidding? We accidentally cracked like 4 of them! :)

I put all the eggs in the fridge and told Carter the Easter Bunny would come and get them while we were at church and hide them around the house so that Carter could have his own Easter egg hunt! This is Carter's favorite part each year so I was looking forward to it as well.

We have church first thing Sunday mornings so it worked out well to have the rest of the day to do Easter stuff. We came home from church and Carter started giggling when he saw all the "hidden" eggs. He had to look for his basket that the Easter Bunny hid and then he was off! He found all the eggs in record time. He had a little help from some of his friends :)

 Found his Easter Basket!

 Already found two eggs!

 Look mom, an egg!

 My best looking egg. It sure looked cool, even though it was an accident ;)

 Found daddies sparkly green egg! This was my favorite of them all.

 Getting a little help from some friends 

 Carter's Buddy Doll wanted in on the Easter hunt too

 Daddies other awesome egg

 Look at that haul! 

This was our first Holiday EVER since we have been married that we wouldn't be with either my family or Kaleb's. I was looking forward to it just because I wanted to try my hand at making a big dinner since I never have. I didn't make anything too fancy, but everything turned out sooo yummy! We made deviled eggs (which only I ate), rolls, carrots, harvard beets, roasted rosemary and thyme potatoes, a yummy ham with a yummy citrus peach ham glaze (which turned out oh so scrumptious!), and to drink we had some Pineapple-Apricot Punch that I found here. We didn't make very much since it was only the 4 of us, and Mila can't eat food yet. But it ended up being perfect for us. Oh and did I mention that I made my very first cheesecake and it turned out AMAZING? I am not a huge fan of cheesecake, but Kaleb is so I decided to make one just for him. It was White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and it made me a believer. I thought it would be so much harder than it was. I even bought vanilla ice cream just in case we needed a little extra something to swallow it down with, but it didn't need anything at all. It shined all by itself. Go me!!

 My super yummy cheesecake! 

 Our spread! Looks dinky compared to what we are used to seeing with our huge extended family holiday meals, but we sure were proud of it! 

 My dark blue egg was cracked when I started dying it, and this is how it looked once we were done and peeled it. CRAZY! 

 It almost looks like it has veins! Ugh! 

Overall we had such a great time. We sure missed being with family, but it is nice creating new memories of your own. I am so glad Carter is learning all about the true meanings of these sacred Holidays. He is growing into such an amazing, unique and special boy. He makes us laugh sooo hard and brings such joy into our lives. We can't imagine life without both of our precious kids. We felt so blessed this Holiday and look forward to many many more with our family in the future!

 My two Easter cuties. Sorry, I took Mila out of her dress right away without even thinking about pictures! Doh! 

Can't help but love that big smile and that adorable double chin!

 

Another Dentist Post

I know my last post had to do with the dentist, but you are going to have to put up with another one. It just so happens that I went to the dentist about 5 times in a matter of 2 weeks for myself and Carter so we could have checkups and get some work done. Carter has learned to love the dentist. I think most of it has to do with the fact that Kaleb and I also love the dentist and have such positive things to say about it. I think it also has to do with the fact that I don't take him to my dentist. I take him to a kids dentist and its a pretty awesome place in Carters eyes.

They have a movie theater, a popcorn machine, a train set, every single one of the Disney's Cars characters you can imagine in a display case, a wii for the kids to play with while they wait, a choice of 3 different movies playing on the ceiling while you get your mouth cleaned, and Carter personal favorite- some AWESOME sun glasses to put on while you watch your movie so that the dentists light doesn't hurt your eyes. Pretty cool eh? It really is a shame they don't let any kids older than 17 be patients because I would have signed all 3 of us up if that were the case! 

I have instilled pretty good oral hygiene in Carter. He brushes his teeth twice a day and flosses before bed. I listen to all the advice the dentist has ever given me and made sure to follow it. Carters teeth have always been very close together which means I have had to really take care of them because he is more prone to cavities. 

6 months ago at his last check-up, I had noticed some dark spots on 4 of his teeth. I was so worried they were cavities, even though I had been taking care of them so well. The dentist told me they were only shadows or something like that, but needed to be cleaned really well everyday and that they could easily turn into cavities if we were not careful. Despite my best efforts, at this last check up a few weeks ago 2 of the spots had turned into cavities :( I was so sad. Carter of course didn't even know what that was so I had to explain to him how the sugar bugs had conquered two of his teeth and that the dentist the very next day was going to have to get those sugar bugs out and then paint his teeth so that it would protect them. 

Because Carter does so well when he is there, the dentist thought he could put in the fillings while carter was awake instead of sedating him. So, come the next day we went back into the office and they started Carter on some nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. I was pretty excited to see how crazy my already crazy child would become when he had no inhibitions. Pretty much he just became even louder and thought every single little thing was the coolest thing ever! I asked him how he felt when the laughing gas kicked in and he started laughing like a mad man and said "My legs tickle! They feel all cold!" He kept laughing about everything and kept interrupting the dentist to tell him whatever random things he was musing about right in the middle of him getting his teeth drilled. I was a little disappointed I didn't get anything good on tape! But now my boy officially has to have fillings in his pearly whites. Its kind of a bummer to pay the money for it just to have those same teeth fall out later- But at the same time I'm glad he gets a fresh start once new teeth come in!  

 Carter thought he looked like Darth Vader

 (even though Darth Vader's mask covers his whole face :)

I thought he looked like a clown!

Lookin Good! 

Trying to show me his new fillings, 

but they were way in the back.

 

Going to the Dentist

I have always absolutely loved going to the dentist. There are only 2 specific times I can remember not liking it and that's it. The first time was when I was a child. I didn't take care of my teeth very well and would either not brush them at all, or I would only brush the fronts of them so that my mom would think I actually did the whole job. Well, that came around to bite me in the rear end when I went to the dentist. I couldn't hide my lack of dental hygiene from him which ended up with me getting not only a whole bunch of cavities filled, but also getting a silver cap on one of my teeth (luckily it was one of my baby teeth I hadn't lost yet and it eventually fell out). He pulled out that big giant needle to "numb" my mouth and I about had a heart attack. I was only young, but I remember telling them I had to go to the bathroom before they shoved that needle into my gums and I went to compose myself. I was really freaking out and ended up crying the whole time I stood behind that bathroom door. I learned my lesson right then and there. From that point on I have been an avid brusher, flosser, and mouthwasher. In high school and college I would actually carry around a toothbrush with me so that I could brush my pearly whites whenever I so desired. I was pretty awesome. And from this grew my love for the dentist because from that moment on I didn't have a single cavity. I always got a raving review from whoever my dentist was as they told me to "keep up the good work." Why yes... I think I will! I have calmed down a bit since being married and actually being too busy to brush at my beck and call. I have even become a bit lazy and instead of flossing daily its now every other day or every few days (a gross habit that I wish I could snap out of!) But I still get those compliments every time I go. I'm really not trying to brag, but its one of the few things I am good at without even really trying.

The second and last time I didn't like my dental experience was when I was 8 months pregnant with Carter. I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled because our insurance was about to change and wouldn't cover dental visits 100%. They couldn't give me the good pain killer stuff because of the baby, so they just had to pull out that GIANT needle again and numb me up the old fashioned way. That wasn't even the worst part. The nerves of the tooth roots didn't quite numb up the whole way so as they were working on me, horrible shooting pain began where my wisdom teeth were being pulled. So they pulled that GIANT needle out again and shoved it once again into my gums. But, of course, for some reason it still wasn't working so I just had to sit for about an hour through the searing pain. One of my wisdom teeth broke apart so it took even longer to get those suckers out. I started having major contractions because my body was on high alert and super tense. It was the worst experience of my life- at least at my beloved dentists office.


When I was in college I had a semi bad experience, but not one that involved physical pain- only emotional pain. I went for a simple cleaning and checkup but had complained that my front tooth was a little bit jagged. He told me it was a simple fix and just filed it down a little bit... or so I thought. I realized when I got home that the dentist had filled it WAY down and that the middle of the tooth was filed down more than the sides so it looked a bit concave. I cried and cried because my teeth weren't even anymore. It wasn't super obvious to anyone but me, but it made me self conscious of my smile for many years after that.

 Here is a picture of the weirdo tooth

And for those who can't see how bad it looked in the above picture, here is an oh so attractive close up!

Two weeks ago I went in for my semi-annual cleaning and asked my current dentist if there was a problem with my front tooth that had been filed down. It has felt a little thin to me and has chipped recently so I wondered if there was something I could do about it. He surprised me by saying that if I came back in another day he would take about a half hour and make my tooth look identical to the other normal looking one. I was so excited! So this morning I went in and had my first cosmetic dental surgery! Haha, sounds weird when you say it that way. I had to get the whole giant needle in my mouth for the 3rd time in my life, but I really didn't mind it too much this time. As I was sitting there waiting for the pain killer to kick in and numb me up, I started feeling a little out of it because of how tired I have been. My mind started wondering and this is what I started thinking about.... go figure!

I asked my dentist if he knew this song and he said he loved it! He has wanted to learn the lyrics so that he can sing it or hum it while he works on people. Better yet, he thinks it would be awesome to have this video playing on the ceiling while people get their mouths worked on. I laughed and told him it would probably have the opposite effect of whatever good he thinks that would do.

Here is the new look! Coincidentally, I am actually waiting for it to be filed down again :) If you look really hard you can see that one tooth is longer than the other until he files it down. My tongue looks weird because I am trying to feel the tooth through all of the numbness.

 Needless to say my mouth looks extra purty now! I came home and Kaleb was pretty oblivious to what I was going to the dentist to do. When he saw me he said "So what did you go to the dentist to do?" and I opened my mouth to tell him while smiling a bit and before I could even say anything he said "Oh wow! I can already see what he did. It looks good!" So, maybe my filed down tooth was a bit more obvious to others than I thought? But I am so happy that I have two normal looking front teeth now! Hooray for the dentist office! 

No longer weirdo concave tooth! 

 (sorry for the awkward looking lips. They were not only numb, but also super dry from being held open for a half hour.)

I am pretty happy!