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! 

Birth Story

I have had a couple of people ask me about Mila's birth. It's good to write these things down because I can't remember a lot about the day Carter was born and that makes me feel a little sad. Mila's story is not very exciting, but who's birth story is? Other than the fact that we were excited she was finally here!

I went in two Mondays before she was born to be checked. My doctor had been out of town so I went in at 39 weeks to be checked for the first time to see if any activity was going on down there. I was so excited thinking that they would strip my membranes and I would have a baby within a few days. But of course, my luck wasn't so great and she told me that my cervix naturally sat high so it was hard to tell if I had dilated or not. This meant no stripping of the membranes as well :( She said we would wait another week and see if my cervix would drop lower so she could check without me having the intense pain I had felt at this appt. That next week I was excited because I could tell the baby was getting lower and lower and I could hardly walk without feeling pain. So week 40 I went back in only to be told that my cervix was still really high but I was dilated to a 2. I was actually at 40 weeks and 3 days so we decided to just set an induction date. for later that week on Thursday. She got my hopes high by saying that I could spontaneously go into labor between now and my induction date so the next few days I kept thinking that every little painful contraction was the beginning of the end! But... it never was. I was so nervous to be induced because I had heard more bad stories than good ones. The only thing I liked about setting a date was that we could plan on where Carter would be while I was in the hospital.

Wednesday night Grandpa Scholes came and picked up Carter for their two night slumber party and Kaleb and I went out for our last night as a semi-free couple (Carter is a pretty easy kid to kart around with us). We went to be super early so that we could make it to the hospital by 5 am! I don't think either of us slept very well that night since we were so nervous and I was so stinkin uncomfortable. But we left our house bright and early and made it to the hospital (EIRMC) by about 5:15 (one of us got a late start that morning and it was not me:) and it took us another 15 minutes to find where we were supposed to be. I got in my lovely hospital gown and I was ecstatic to learn that I could keep my bra on this time because when I had Carter at Madison Memorial they wouldn't let me wear one. You have to count the little things as great successes right? Who knew that wearing a bra while in labor would actually make things MORE comfortable! After finally getting all the technical stuff done with information and paperwork they finally started me on the pitocin at 7am. Kaleb was already bored and I was already sick of water and ice chips. But it is amazing how awesome it is at the hospital that early in the morning. We were really the only ones there so we had amazing internet speed and a lot of attention from the nurses.

 I started having small contractions not too long after starting the pit but the really painful ones didn't start until just before 9am after my doctor came and broke my water to move things along. I was only dilated to about a 4. I had talked to the nurse about my different pain medicine options and I thought I might try not getting the epidural this time. The contractions were painful, but I thought I could breath through them and that I could do it with just a little pain relief. Well... that was a dumb assumption of me to make! My contractions started getting really bad and I jumped to a 5 and then a 6. The contractions were every minute or so and would last a couple of minutes. I never felt that with Carter since they gave me the epidural right off the bat when I got there. I told the nurse I was ready for some relief and she put the pain medicine in my I.V. and told me it would take a few minutes to kick in and I would feel a little light headed. That was the understatement of the year! All of a sudden I felt so dizzy I couldnt open my eyes because the room was spinning so much. I also thought I would puke all over everyone if it didn't stop spinning. She told me that it would wear off soon but it never did. And the pain never went away or even lessened like she had told me it would. So now I was puking and holding onto the side of the bed for dear life during each horrible contraction. I was crying and didn't even want Kaleb to touch me because it hurt so bad. I asked her why the medicine never took the edge off like she had said it would and she told me that my reaction wasn't normal and that with a minority of people it doesn't actually work. I was kind of upset (not at her of course) that now I was going to have to give birth feeling this dizzy and sick. I literally felt like I was high. I wasn't in my own body anymore, but above it in the clouds somewhere. She finally brought in the guy to do the epidural after I begged her to (while still clinging to the bedside) just before noon. He told me it would take about 20 minutes for it to kick in, but at least he put in the epidural in one shot this time and it didn't feel nearly as bad as the pain I felt with the contractions. Has anyone else thought it is stupid that they tell you to stay completely still while you are in the worst pain of your life?! That is so hard to do!

After it was obvious that the pain was subsiding and I was finally going to get to sleep a little bit Kaleb decided to go and get a burger because he was just STARVING (yeah so was I... those strawberry flavored ice chips just don't cut it!). It was about 12:15 and I got a good 15 minute nap before the nurse came in to check me. That was the most glorious 15 minutes of my life. I even got to check my make-up that I had applied at 4:30 that morning and fix all the mascara that had smeared all over my face while I had been sobbing like a baby earlier. She had checked me before Kaleb left and I was at a 7, but now I was at a 9. I asked how long it would take until I was at a 10 and she said it would probably be another hour or so, so I was thinking I would get a lot of good sleep. Kaleb came back a few minutes later, his tummy satisfied. Kaleb and I talked to the nurse for a while about her family and her kids and grandkids. She was so nice. She was my favorite nurse of them all because I literally felt like my mom was there with me the whole time. She decided to check me one more time before she went out my door and I was at a 10! She was really surprised and told me not to do anything! She said not to even laugh because the baby would probably pop right out. She went and called my doctor and she arrived a few minutes later. This was the easiest part of the whole day. After my legs got up in the stirrups and she told me it was time to push, I pushed through two contractions and out popped little Mila. I actually only felt a little bit of pressure and so I thought only her head was out. But Kaleb had to reassure me a few times that her whole body was out. With Carter I pushed for two hours and even with the epidural I felt everything. It was super painful.

They put Mila up on my chest and through my foggy haze I thought she was the most beautiful baby ever. I wish I could say that about Carter too when he made his debut, but because I had pushed for so long he looked like a cone headed alien and he had finger shaped bruises on his head from the doctor trying to pull him out. Mila had a round head and no bruises and was so pretty. After cleaning her off a bit they brought her back and put her under my gown on my chest and I got to hold her for a while. It was very emotional, even for Kaleb. I got a great picture of him crying which I will always cherish because he doesn't show his tender side that often. She was born at 1:13pm and weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. She did so great in the hospital and slept like a champ and even put on weight which most babies don't do. Once the active labor started at around 9am it only took 4 hours to have her! I was pretty impressed. I was in labor for 12 hours with Carter!  I was so sick of the hospital because I was so bored most of the time, so we took Mila home the first chance we could the very next day on Friday.

My mom came into town that night and it was so great to have her! The few days she was there she graciously took Mila at night so that I could sleep and she would come in and get me when it was time to feed her. The first night home was the hardest because Mila seemed to have a lot of gas and stayed up most of the night. But once I gave her some gripe water she was able to relieve the gas and hasn't stopped sleeping since. She seriously wouldnt wake up to eat at night if I didn't have to wake her up myself. During the day she at least wakes herself up to eat and then goes right back to bed. This is the complete opposite of Carter who would sleep very little and was awake all the time. Her schedule seems so far to be waking up about every 2 hours during the day to eat and then going back to sleep. At night she sleeps from about 9 or 10 pm until 5 am when I can no longer stand it and have to wake her up to feed her and then she goes back to sleep until about 10 or 11 am when I wake her up to feed her again. She is a great baby. We love her so so much. We have already noticed her difference in our house as a girl. She is definitely mommy's baby and I can't get enough cuddles. Carter just adores her and does everything he can to help us out. I think Kaleb likes the baby stage only a little bit and can't wait for her to interact with him like his best buddy Carter does. We are all so grateful to have our new baby in our family! And I have so much more respect for those women who give birth naturally with no pain relief. I have to give you all props! And especially my best friend who just gave birth in her home! I rely to heavily on the comfort of the hospital. She is amazing! As well as my mother and sister who have been able to have babies without epidurals. They are inspiring! I love you all!!! 

Belly shots!

A few weeks ago when I was about 36 weeks along, my good friend Vivian took some maternity pictures for me. I am so thrilled with how they turned out! I was way too afraid to do anything like this when I was pregnant with Carter because I felt so fat and I was self conscious about it. Because of my silliness, I have a total of 3 prego pictures for Carter to look back on in the future. The funny part is, this pregnancy I am actually heavier but more confident about my pregnant body. I didn't want to miss out on getting some good pictures for this little girl to always have and remember. We didn't get more than one or two good ones with us as a family because it was freezing cold and Carter really just wasn't having it. He got pretty cranky quickly. I have had some people ask to see all of the pictures so here they are. These are not all of them because I have about 40 and that seems like way too many to put on a blog!

 

 Big Brother! So excited.

 Carter gives the baby kisses all the time. Its really adorable!

 Being a willing participant for one minute. Such a cheese ball!

 Sure loves his daddy! 

This is the best one we could get as a family! 

I haven't been a huge fan of naked belly shots in the past, but I think these ones turned out beautiful and tastefully done. I was worried though! If you are interested in seeing more of Vivian's photography you can head over here to her website!