The Carter Family

The End of 2011

2012-01-05T16:54:00.007-07:00

So we are a month into 2012 and that puts us about a month behind for blog posts, so really this is right on time. We had a great time for Christmas. Matt had school off for 2 weeks and we had time as a family to really just relax and have fun. It was great!!!

We spent Christmas at Grammy and Pop's house. The boys love spending time there.

This is Oliver in his Christmas outfit.

And Anders too!

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandy and Bill's house (Matt's Dad's parents). For whatever reason Oliver started this standing on his head thing.

Of course there was the annual sugar cookie decoration and the gingerbread house contest. It was a close one this year but despite some of Becka's green plaster work:) Lets just say she "nailed it"

Ollie's just being cute after his bath.

The boys opened their cars and that was the only present they needed. We should have saved them for last:)

Anders got a Mac truck from GRammy and Pops. As you can see he was not sure how to react. He was so excited!

Ollie loved playing with all the boxes and wrappings.

Santa was fun, Oliver didn't react much but Anders certainly let him know that he wanted "lots of new toys please."

This is a funny picture because we were sitting on the couch and Anders came in and said "where's Oliver" and started laughing. Then he wanted us to follow him and we did. Basically he had shut Oliver in the kitchen bench. They both thought it was a lot of fun.

Oliver loved looking at the lights on the tree and did a pretty good job not touching them too.

Here's us at the Zoo Lights. Both boys liked it, but Anders really wasn't happy until we saw the live giraffes.

That's all for now really. A little update: Anders started doing a preschool class a couple times a week and he absolutely loves it. Oliver is walking (when he wants to at least) and has so much personality. They laugh at each other while they play, and it's so adorable. Becka is doing great adjusting to our boys growing up so fast. She is planning Ollie's big Mustache Bash for his first birthday. I'm sure pictures of that will come soon. And Matt is doing good. He is doing his Psych rotation so his days are full of crazies. Not much different than his everyday life... just kidding. Hope everyone is enjoying 2012!

Turkey Day in California

2011-12-15T12:28:00.006-07:00

I decided that since Matt was super busy with his rotations I would fly with the boys to California to spend some time with my family. We had such a good time! Matt was even able to fly out and spend a few days with us which was a wonderful surprise. Before we left, we had a big snow so daddy and Anders went out and built Anders' 1st snowman. He named the snowman Sarah, and everyday he would go and check on her, that is until she melted.

The best part about going to California is seeing family. Anders loves playing with his cousins. Here he is with Gavin and Madison playing in the backyard. We certainly enjoyed the nice weather!

Another reason I wanted to go to California was that I found out the my sister's mom-in-law was throwing her a surprise birthday party. I hate to miss a party so I just had to be there :) It was at the Ruby's in Orange. We had a great time, and Heidi was sooo surprised!

We also spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house in Lake Elsinore, the food was yummy! Auntie Heidi was ready with a craft for the kids. Anders had fun decorating his turkey!

During our trip we also went to Tom's Farm. It was a beautiful day and the kids got to ride the carousel...

Anders had his very 1st pony ride...he couldn't have been happier!

We also went on the Tom's Farm train...choo choo

No trip to CA would be complete without going to Knott's Berry Farm. In November-December they do a deal for police officers/firemen and their families. Since my dad was a Sheriff for 31 years we went and took advantage of the deal. Here is Gavin and Anders on the airplanes.

Anders and Mommy

Riding on the trucks with Gavin

Grandma and Grandpa with the boys

I was sooooo happy that Matt was able to come out and surprise us....It made my Thanksgiving. We also had fun shopping on black friday! Here's a group shot just before he left!

Thanks for the fun times everyone!!!!

Pumpkins & Leaves

2011-11-09T09:13:00.005-07:00

Before Halloween we carved Pumpkins!!

Oliver was not having fun during the pumpkin carving! We did however take him to the Urgent Care the following day and found out that he had a double ear infection....so I think that's why he wasn't feeling all the great the day before. Poor little guy!

Anders had fun drawing the face on his pumpkin, but wanted NOTHING to do with the slimy pumpkin insides.

Here we are with our finished Pumpkins, Mom & Ollie's is on the left, and Dad & Anders' is on the right :)

Right before our first big snow storm, Matt went out to rake up all the leaves and Anders wanted to be his helper. Anders loves to help pick up all the leaves, and throw them around and jump in them!

Here I come!!

Making a snow angel in the leaves

Helping with the raking

Tossing the leaves all around

Anders - the cutest kid I know!!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T09:48:00.005-06:00

This year for Halloween we got lucky with Matt's work schedule and we all got to go to Grammy and Pops' house to have fun and go trick or treating with the family!

Here's a picture of the group. Natali was a cowgirl, Baby Camden was a little horse, Baby Jaxon was a Monkey, Christian was a Shark, Dylan was Harry Potter, we were Where's Waldo, and Shaylynn was a Fairy Princess

Here is a picture of us ---The Where's Waldo Family!!

I thought this picture of me and Ollie was funny

Ollie-Wally

Headed out for some trick or treatin'

Anders and Shaylynn were great trick or treat buddies! Here we are "Trick or Treat!!!"

Don't mind if we just come right in??? This is what they did at almost every house, just walk right in...unless there was a dog and then Anders would run for the hills. If the person wasn't fast enough to come to the door Anders would try to open it!

Anders and Daddy

Anders and Mommy

Ollie had fun trick or treating too!

As we walked around the streets, kids would say it's Waldo, or I can't find you, or it's a Waldo family! We had such a fun time!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE WALDO'S

BOO!

Fun Fall Festival!

2011-10-23T22:12:00.007-06:00

Fall is probably my favorite time of year! There are holidays to celebrate and lots of fun festivities to join in. Here are some fun pictures of what we have been up to...

Here is Anders riding his bike in our driveway..he wanted to put his helmet on the handle just like daddy does when they come back from a bike ride

Matt had been bugging me for months about cutting Ollie's hair. I kept telling him no, and that it was cute...and once you cut their hair they look so much older. But a few weeks ago his hair just looked more crazy than cute and I gave in. So here is a picture of Ollie's first hair cut. He didn't mind it until Daddy pulled out the buzzer.

Ollie enjoying some Spaghetti...he kept making this face as he ate it

My cute boys right after their bath

Last weekend we went to the Miller Farms Fall Festival. The boys had a blast!

This was Anders' favorite part. A big tractor pulled about 12 of these little barrels behind it. Anders loved to pretend that he was driving!

Here's Anders and Daddy on the track

One of the coolest things at the Festival was the "Cars". Cars is Anders #1 favorite movie so he was so excited to get in all of them and see his favorite characters in person. Here we are with Lightening McQueen!! Ka-Chow!

Mater is Anders' favorite!!!!

This just made my day!

We went out to the corn maze and Matt had a cool idea of throwing the kids up and me snapping the picture while they were in mid-air to look like they were floating/flying over the corn...here is the result

Anders was a little nervous

Ollie thought it was great fun

Matt also snapped these adorable fall pictures of our handsome boys in the corn maze...see how Ollie is holding something in his hand..it was a small piece of husk and he put it in his mouth and swallowed it before I could get it out...and then of course he threw up ....but at least we got a cute picture

Anders.... being corny :) (get it??)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Fall!!

Just having FUN!

2011-10-16T20:01:00.005-06:00

Here is Ollie wearing the cute beanie that his Aunt Jean bought for him....it's probably the cutest hat I have ever seen!!

Anders swinging at the park

Playing in the backyard!

Anders wanted to wear a hat too...it was a little too big :)

Here are my cute boys...Anders is making "snow" angels in the grass

Anders playing and being cute

Here is Anders with his best buddy Shaylynn!! They love playing together, and they love being mischievous.

Brothers

2011-09-21T15:33:00.005-06:00

Here are some recent pictures of the boys! Oliver can crawl and pull himself up on things and loves to play with his big brother. I just love how cute they are together!

Anders and Ollie in the bath

The boys love to play on the windowsill in the living room. It's the perfect height for Ollie and Anders loves to run his trains and cars up and down.

Such cute boys!

Oliver loves to play outside - i just thought this was the cutest picture of him

Anders running around the backyard

Pajama time - the boys in their matching race car driver jammies

The boys love to play wrestle

I think Anders is trying to look tough in this one

Family Pictures

2011-09-13T12:07:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago, Matt and I decided we should take some new family pictures. I really like having current family photos...but not so much the process of taking them :) As you can see, and probably know from experience, taking pictures with kids can be rough!

The boys weren't in a real picture taking mood

I really like the background behind us; however Anders did not :)

Anders and Ollie kinda just feed off each other

Oh, but then here's Anders looking as cute as can be

But is was short lived..back to his pouty face

But even with all the craziness, the crying and screaming....we can always seem to capture a few cute ones

I love this one of daddy and Anders

A cute one of me and Ollie

And our new 2011 family picture hanging in our living room...I love it!

Surfin' Safari

2011-08-30T18:06:00.013-06:00

At the beginning of August I flew out to California to see my family for 3 weeks! I left with the boys 2 weeks before Matt had to take his 1st round Boards for Medical school, thus allowing him to study in peace and quiet at our house. And after Matt took his test he was able to come out to CA to hang out with us for a week. I was super nervous to fly with the boys all by myself, but even though there were a few break downs on the plane, we made it to CA safely and without making too many enemies :)

Here is Grandma and Oliver

The night that Matt flew in, we all went to Angelo's and Vinci's Restaurant in Fullerton. This is where Matt and I had our "rehearsal" dinner the night before we got married. We didn't realize it until we were already there but it was exactly 4 years to the day....who knew 4 years ago we would find ourselves in the same spot with our two beautiful boys!

Grandpa and Anders walking in Pasadena to go to an old time Soda Fountain...it was tasty :) I think Anders gets his fashion sense from his Grandpa :)

And no trip to California would be complete without a trip to the beach... or 4 trips! We love the beach and Anders had a blast every time we went...if we could only teach him to not eat the sand

Ollie wanted to play in the sand with his big brother

Matt decided he wanted to give surfing a try... so he rented a board. It was a pretty windy day so the waves were choppy

Here he is practicing his technique on the sand before hitting the waves

He was able to get up a couple times but because of the choppy waves the ride didn't last too long

Dad gave Anders a ride on the board....after the wave pushed him back to the shore, Anders promptly jumped of the board and ran to the sand saying "all done!!!"

Our little beach bum!

We also went to Disneyland and California Adventure....we had such a fun day!!

Here is Anders on his favorite ride... Casey Jr. ...he loves trains, he wanted to ride in the wild animals cage....he was so excited!

Anders got to meet lots of characters, but one of his favorites was Jesse

Mommy and Anders at California Adventure

We kept telling Anders we where going to meet Mickey and go to his house. He was so excited when he saw Mickey that he ran up and gave him a big hug... it was awesome!

The best part of the trip was hanging out with family. Anders loved playing with his cousins!

Me, my sister, and Ollie... this was the night before we all flew home

Thanks for the fun trip everyone!!! Miss you guys tons!

We've Moved!!!

2011-07-29T12:20:00.008-06:00

Finally, we have made it to Fort Collins, CO. But before I get to that, I will try and update you on what happened before that. Before we left Parker we went to the Parker Days Fair. It was a lot of fun. Anders loved the train ride and the giant potato sack slide (which was extremely fast and him and Dad left the ground multiple times). Besides that... we have been packing:) So on to Fort Collins.

This is a picture of the new house. We are just renting since we won't be here for to long. But we love it! It's in an older and very quiet neighborhood. But we are still close to things as well. In case you didn't know, we moved here for Matt's rotations for medical school. So we will be here for about 2 years. He's super excited to finally get out in the hospitals to start working!

This is the backyard. What a life saver it has been. It's soooo nice to let Anders run around and play outside! It's a lot different then playing in the apartment all day:)

Forth of July was a lot of fun. We went to Grandy's house (Matt's grandma), for the kid's bike parade and a fair. Anders got some face tattoos and had a great time. Ollie had a blast too.

Then we did some fireworks. Anders was a little scared because the first thing he did, despite being warned, was to grab the sparkling part of the sparkler and burn his hand. It wasn't to bad, but he was a little apprehensive after that.

Just a picture of Ollie getting so big! He is a happy little guy, always smiling and laughing.

Mommy dressed Ander's up like rambo. He thought it was sooo cool. He just kept yelling rambo, or yelling nothing coherent at all :)

He also became a daredevil recently. Now he jumps of the deck and rides his bike over the cover of his sandbox. Once he gets to the top he lifts up his feet and flies down the other side.

Ollie is so close to crawling. He gets around, but he is more head dragging at this point ;) Any day now and I am sure he will be running with his brother in the backyard!

Just another shot of Anders out back with his sand box. He loves to have every toy in there with him. Doesn't leave a lot of sand to play with but he wouldn't have it any other way.

That's it for now. We will update again soon!

Enjoying summer

2011-06-25T18:21:00.005-06:00

Here are some recent pictures...

Ollie boy & mommy

Ollie in his bumbo with Terrence the Pterodactyl bird

Ollie eating rice cereal for the first time....not really a fan

Ollie playing in his jumper...Anders is supervising

Our cute Anders!

Bath time in the sink!

Anders loves to play doctor!

Fuzzy Head

Mommy & her cute boys!!!

Anders turns 2 and more!

2011-05-31T20:12:00.007-06:00

Anders turned 2! He's becoming such a big little man. One of his favorite things is Sesame Street and so of course Becka made an elmo cake for his birthday. It turned out pretty good too!

There was also an elmo pinata. He wasn't sure about hitting his good buddy elmo with a bat, but after a couple good smacks he thought it was pretty fun. After all the fun was over he would walk around standing up the elmo and then knocking him over with the bat. Who knew that the pinata would have been more than enough entertainment.

He got a bike from mom and dad. It's called a Y bike so he can sit on it and push along the sides. He really loves it. He likes to push really fast and then lift his feet up so it's like he is on a real bike.

Oliver is growing super fast too. He's getting really good at holding his head up and rolling all over the place. If his head wasn't so big he would probably be crawling, all he can really do is push it along the floor:)

This time he got so tired while playing that he just gave in and went to sleep.

Wild thing #1 and #2. It's nearly impossible to get Anders to hold still for these pictures. He always starts laughing and trying to run away.

Just a funny cute picture of the little guy!

These are the outfits that dad got for the boys in Peru. They are for next winter so they are till a little big, but awfully cute!

Anders loves llamas.

Also, as a bit of news, we got assigned to Fort Collins, Colorado for Matt's rotations. We will be moving there in July and we couldn't be more excited. We have been looking for places to rent forever it seems and we finally got a house that has a yard and lots more room. Hoooooray!

Fun in Peru!

2011-05-13T13:49:00.013-06:00

So at the end of April I had the opportunity to go to Peru for a medical mission with a group from my school. We got to a few days early so we could see Cusco and Machupicchu and other cool sites before it was off to work. So of course here are the pictures:)

This is a place called Sacsayhuaman on the hill overlooking Cusco. Some of the rocks are said to be over 300 tons. It's amazing how they were able move and shape such large rocks.

When we were in Cusco they had some military demonstrations and festival activities. There were also some protestors as well as elections are coming soon. It was surprising but we saw demonstrations and protests in every city we went to.

This is cusco from the top of Sacsayhuaman. It really is a beautiful city despite the constant tourist traps. Definitely a place to see on your way to Machupicchu.

From Cusco you take a train for about 4 hours to Aguas Calientes, a small town at the base of the Machupicchu hike. The train was actually not working for the entire route so we had to take a small bus for 2 hours. That was a crazy experience in itself going 85 in a 35. Beautiful countryside though:)

Once we were in Aguas Calientes, aka- Machupicchu Pueblo, we did some great hiking and food tasting. One hike that should be on everyone's to do list if you go to Machu Picchu would be Putucusi. It's not all that well known. We saw two other people the entire hike which took a few hours. But the view (below) of Machupichuu is breath taking! The picture above is what one portion of the hike was supposed to look like, but below shows what it was... needs some upkeep:)

You might think we were crazy to do the 160 feet up the cliff, but there was a cable to help us on our way. Really seriously though, you have to do this hike. Just look at the view (below).

We could have stayed up there forever. You just don't see Machupicchu like that very often! Or ever!!!

We were there for long enough that we went up Machupicchu twice. The first time we hiked up. It was quite the hike, and between that and the Putucusi hikes we were exhausted so the second time we took a bus to the top. I would definitely say hike at least once if you can. The experience is much more rewarding :)

We were in the first group of people to get in the second time. As we were enjoying the view we were over taken by clouds now and again. It's hard to describe but it's unbelievable to be in such an incredible place.

There are llamas there, but they are all tagged and kept in a little shack. They definitely don't mind being there though.

Machupicchu is a spectacular place! One of the best things is all of the mystery. There were so many theories and ideas about how it got there, who put it there, what it was for. Regardless it was some type of city crazy high up in the Andes where no one could really imagine, and to me that's amazing.

The mountain behind me here is the Putucusi mountain that we hiked that I talked about above.

The views were amazing and always changing with the clouds and the light and the rain. Each time you turned around you wanted to take another picture because things looked different again.

We also got to see some of Lima. We stayed in Mira Flores, seen above, but we also got to go to downtown Lima to see some catacombs and other sites. I describe Lima and Madrid (or some other Eurpean/Spanish place) with Los Angeles.

Then of course we got to do clinics. What an amazing experience! The first day there were hundreds of people in line to see the doctors from the United States. We worked at a hospital in Quillabamba which is about 9 hours from Cusco. The drive was miserable in a tiny bus and lots of switchbacks and dirt roads. Anyway there were lots of people to help and well worth the drive.

The first day they found out I knew some spanish (by that I mean very little) and I was made the spanish speaker in the pharmacy. I learned really quickly how to speak a lot more spanish:) After my shift in the pharmacy was done they figured I knew enough spanish to interpret for a doc. You can see I had to focus very intensely and even then I am sure I did a terrible job. The point got across, but I had to use the very basics.

This was my first joint injection ever. I saw one and then I did one.

This was my second joint injection and then I got to do one in the shoulder as well. It was really cool to get to do new stuff and it makes me really excited for rotations this coming fall! Well, that's about it for my trip to Peru. An experience I will never forget and something I will do again for sure! Next time I'm taking Becka with me!

Spring Time Fun!

2011-05-13T13:44:00.004-06:00

Here are some fun Pictures from Easter. The boys had a great time hanging out with the cousins. We also had fun dying eggs with Lauren and Jared, and doing the annual easter egg roll.

I think they look pretty similar, and the older Oliver gets the more he looks like Anders. That's just my opinion though:)

Anders loved throwing the eggs in the egg roll, and he loved running down the hill and across the entire field all on his own. Basically it was an excuse to run around like a crazy man!

Ollie and Mom!

Anders all dressed up in his Easter outfit. We had planned to take cute pictures of both of them, but that didn't happen... yet:)

Anders and his really really focused look. He was definitely trying to get his point across with very little verbal ability, hence the expression in his face.

And last but not least, cute little Ollie in his beanie hat. He is such a patient little guy. He will play on his mat and watch Anders run around for what seems like hours. He can roll over now, that started about a week and a half ago, and sitting up doesn't seem to far behind. Crazy how time slips by.

#4 Panning for Gold! Literally:)

2011-04-12T19:34:00.007-06:00

So it's been a little while, but we have been busy:) Here is the 4th post from our fun Spring Break! We went panning for gold in Idaho Springs, CO. First, of course, we had to go to Beaujos Pizza for lunch.

Uncle Jason, Grammy, and some of the cousins came too.

It was pretty cold water with the snow and all, but Anders didn't seem to care much. He tried the pan idea for about 10 seconds and then walked right into the stream. It wasn't long before he was all wet and dirty. He couldn't have been happier.

For about the last 20 minutes he just sat on this rock and through rocks into the water. It was pretty cute.

Such a cute little boy. That's it for now. There will be more soon!

#3 Aquarium

2011-04-12T19:22:00.009-06:00

There has been an aquarium in Denver for some time and none of us have ever been, so we thought we should probably visit when we had the chance. We took the family and met up with Grammy and some of the cousins and had a great old time watching fish:)

From Left: Becka, Oliver, Anders, Grammy, Shaylynn, Christian, and Dylan. It was a lot of fun to see all of the cool sea creatures. They even had rainforest, desert, and river exhibits. The Otters were quite entertaining since they would do flips off the glass for all the kids. Just a recommendation, we went in the evening on a week day and we were basically the only ones there!

At one point we went through this cool tunnel where the sea life can swim all around you. It was pretty cool. The turtles seemed to be the kids favorite.

Becka and Ollie. Even though Becka isn't a big fan of fish, she did have fun. There was one exhibit where you could experience the flash floods in the desert after it rained far away in the mountains. They had lightening flash and then water noises that got closer until all of the sudden this ginormous wave came crashing into a plexiglass wall right in from of you. It was actually a little scary cause it catches you off guard. Anyway, there was a wet zone to stand in and a dry zone. We tried to keep Anders away from the wet but he wouldn't listen, and when that wave of water came and shot some water over the edge he ran with terror around the corner and back to the last exhibit. It was hysterical. Poor kid didn't even know what happened and he ended up soaking wet. We all had a good laugh though. After that it was just hard to get him to pass through the room.

We also got to feed the sting rays.

I'm guessing Christian got one!

You can see they all wanted to be a part of things. It was quite the battle to keep Anders and Shaylynn out of the water. There was only one close call when Anders made it over the safety net and up the stairs by the tank, where the demonstration people normally stand. A second later and he probably would have jumped in with them.

That was it for our third spring break activity. One more to go that will be coming soon.

#2 The Children's Museum

2011-04-12T18:07:00.006-06:00

Exciting activity number 2 was the children's museum. Anders loved almost all the activities, and Oliver enjoyed watching all the yelling kids run around... His brother included.

Mom and Oliver looking in on the train room.

Trains!!! Anders would have stayed in here all day!

Anders got to dress up like a fireman and drive the big firetruck. He thought honking the horn was the greatest thing, second to the stuffed animal fire dog that he tried to take out of the exhibit with him.

He liked painting for the most part, but wasn't sure about getting his hands dirty. He started out sitting down like a good little boy...

...and ended up standing, painting with his hands, and trying to steal paints from neighboring children. It was a great time until we had to wash his hands of. Let's just say dad ended up painted as well.

They have a grocery store section as well. Anders thought it was great to push the cart around and take things out of other carts. Once he got the hang of the whole shopping and not stealing idea he was ready to move on.

The last room was the bubble room. You might think from this picture that Anders is in line for something, but really he is just putting someone else between him and the giant exploding bubbles that he was terrified of. We thought he would really like seeing them so we brought him up close and set him down. When the next bubble came out he was in awe and then it popped and Anders went running and crying. He didn't see us so he hid behind this guy. It was pretty funny.

They also had smaller bubble stations that Anders tried but he was much more interested in wearing the safety glasses.

Last but not least he got to be inside of a huge bubble. Clearly he got over his fear of big bubbles... Unless they came out of the wall like the first machine. He never got past that:)

Spring Break Fun #1

2011-04-12T17:57:00.008-06:00

At the end of March we had the fabulous week long SPRING BREAK from medical school. I really don’t think a school break has ever felt so much like a break and come at a time where we needed a break so badly. It was amazing and of course a lot of fun. We did a lot of fun things so the posts will be coming in the next while of all the extra exciting stuff!

The first Big activity was family night at Monkey Business. It’s a local place full of kids play things. Anders loved every minute and it was nice to be able to let him run and play outside of the apartment.

Anders loved playing basketball in the bounce house. He couldn’t quite get the ball in the hoop, but all he wanted to do is see it go through the net so he would throw it up from the bottom of the net so it would still “go in”.

Oliver loved watching all the excitement. Although he slept through most of the experience, he did wake up for some fun of his own.

Anders is quite the daredevil most of the time. He would go on all of the different play structures and things without a second thought, but when it came to going in the miniature playhouse it took a bit of coaxing.

Oliver just relaxing on his duck.

More Fun!We also got to spend some time at Grammy and Pop’s house. It was a lot of fun playing with the cousins and as you will see on future posts, that we got to do a lot of fun things with them! Here is cute cousin ShayLynn and Anders playing in the backyard. They sat in this truck for 10 minutes just pretending.

We also had Oliver’s baby blessing. Rock and Courtney came into town so we had almost everyone there. The blessing went great. Not many people could hear cause Ollie (we’re still debating how to spell the nickname, Oli, Olli, Ollie, etc) cried the whole time, but it was still a nice experience.

Black Hawk Down

2011-03-27T17:51:00.006-06:00

Here is just a quick update of some of the happenings around here. About two weeks ago a Black Hawk helicopter came and landed at Matt's school. It was there to take some aerial shots of medical students who are also in the military. Matt thought it would be fun to take Anders over to see it. He loved it. He kept saying "copter" "copter"! He even got to get inside and explore and he also got to play with the joystick that actually flies and maneuvers the helicopter. Needless to say that Anders was not too happy when it was time to leave.

On St. Patty's Day I decided to make a "green" dinner to celebrate. However, I was sick at the time so I couldn't smell or taste anything. Matt said that it tasted good, and Anders gobbled it up; I tried to eat some and even though I couldn't taste it, the green pasta just made me sick looking at it...yuck. I think from now on we will just celebrate with mint chocolate chip milkshakes :)

Oliver went to the Doctor for his 2 month checkup! He weighed 10 lbs. 10 oz. and was 21 3/4 in. long. He is getting so big, so quick. And of course he had to get like 3 vaccines. I always hate it when my babies have to get shots. Here is a picture of him when we got home from his appointment. He's a little trooper!

Lastly, here is just a picture of our two cute little boys! We love them so much!!

More pictures... Lots actually!

2011-03-16T17:44:00.006-06:00

Not much of an update to give. Just pictures to share. We are all doing great as we adjust to life as a family of four. As you can see we are having lots of fun!

Oliver is almost smiling. You can jump and sing and smile and he will almost crack, but not quite a full smile yet:)

Anders just gave him a nice hug and kiss.

Cute little guy!

Anders absolutely loves to take showers. He's favorite thing is to sit like this right in the middle of the water.

Enjoying his reflection!

Almost a smile, and instead the tongue:)

Such big (starting to turn blue) eyes.

Anders is such a big little boy. Don't mind the laundry and diapers. It must have been saturday morning.

His favorite place to sleep... close to mom.

Look at that form. No one in the room is safe now:) Anders really can throw far and hard.

More cute little Oliver.

Anders loves to read and draw and eat and sit at his table. He also loves to line up his trucks in perfect order on the table and then he sits there and looks at them. I can't figure out where he gets that from;)

And again, that cute little face. We are pretty lucky to have two cute little boys. Also, thanks for all of your nice comments on our blog. We are terrible at responding to them, but we do see them. We love reading your blogs too, and we will try to respond more often.

Growing Boys

2011-03-04T12:28:00.005-07:00

We just wanted to put up another update with more pictures. Basically it's fun to look through all the pictures of the boys and this gives us an excuse to do it.

Oliver is getting a lot more active during his wake times (and sleep times for that matter:). He will stand up, wiggle, and yell, and even half smile. He is also becoming more content to just sit and watch everything going on rather than demanding constant attention. Thankfully so, since Anders has never stopped demanding attention;) Okay he isn't that bad, but there are times when he definitely wants to be noticed and included as you will see from these pictures.

When things get quiet in our house you definitely know Anders is up to something he shouldn't be. His most recent endeavor was helping with the dishes. I can't really explain the look, but he wasn't happy to be interrupted.

Oliver and his buddies.

This is to give you an idea of Oliver's size verses Anders' size (in the next picture).

He actually got into the seat very quietly and then we heard, "oohhhhh, ahhhhh, ohh," as he watched the lights and little figures move. Such a funny little guy. The best was watching him trying to get out of the chair.

Oliver and Dad.

We just missed the smile in this picture, but he is getting close.

The Boys

2011-02-23T22:13:00.005-07:00

Just some pictures of the cute boys:)

Big Brother Anders. He is ginormous! Just opening doors.

Baby and Mommy

We put him up for some tummy time and decided that he wanted to pose for us:)

He just kept the faces coming.

What a little cutie!!!

We sure love our little guys!

Life as we know it

2011-02-20T17:28:00.005-07:00

Oliver is growing so quickly and Anders just couldn't be more happy as a big brother. He loves to help out with cleaning things up and helping with the baby. It will be really nice when they can play together to help get rid of some of that extra energy:)

Anders was holding Oliver and his pacifier fell out so Anders quickly grabbed it and put it back in his mouth. He did a really good job holding him this time too.

What cute brothers!

It's fun now that Oliver has so much more awake time when the rest of us are awake.

Aunt Heidi came to visit this last weekend. It was so fun to have her here. She loved spending time with the boys and was a huge help to mom and dad while she was here. Thanks Heidi!

More playtime.

Anders has a new infatuation with cameras. Whenever Dad has his camera, Anders wants nothing more than to see the pictures on the back and to try and take some himself. Now we just let him use moms old camera.

Cute little Oliver, not so awake:)

That's about it for us right now. We will try to keep you up to date with any changes. Oh and I almost forgot. Oliver weighed 9.3 at one month, so he is gaining weight and getting taller. We will just say that Anders is all around huge:)

Winter Time Can Be Fun... Right?

2011-02-16T11:47:00.005-07:00

So not a lot has been happening at our house the past month;) At this point we are just constantly swimming to try and stay a float during this crazy transition time.

Between kids, church, school, and life in general we have really been having a great time. The weather on the other hand hasn't been all that cooperative in our cause. It has been absolutely freezing (especially after having a super warm winter up until the beginning of January). So each time it gets a little warm we try to play outside. These are pictures of Anders' first time EVER playing in the snow... and he loved it!

We didn't have actual snow pants so he is just wearing like 6 pairs of pants, but that is why the snow sticks to him so well:)

Even Mommy came out to play, so it couldn't have been to cold. Granted she was pregnant at the time so there was extra heat.

Here Anders decided to make some fun of his own while we were cleaning out the desk at Grammy's house.

Here he is playing the piano at the church. He actually really enjoyed playing as loud and as fast as he could, go figure.

Oliver is a MONTH old now! Crazy how fast that went. He is getting so good at holding his head up and looking around. He is even starting to smile occasionally. Here he is during his first water bath (as opposed to sponge bath).

He still loves to sleep but thankfully it's more sleeping at night instead of playing at night.

Can't forget about that crazy hair that is still there. We thought for sure it would be gone by now:) He is trying to look at mom in this picture.

Just another cute sleeping picture.

It's amazing how much he has changed in just a short month. They go from so tiny and fragile to big and robust in such a short time. Okay maybe he isn't big and robust, but he is getting bigger and stronger and he's just not a new born anymore. We can barely fit the newborn diapers on anymore! Life is Good!

Three weeks... really?

2011-02-02T17:09:00.005-07:00

Time is going so fast. There is not enough time to catch up on anything anymore and we couldn't be happier!!! We LOVE our two wonderful little boys. They are the greatest little blessings we could ever ask for. We ponder on their futures and feel so grateful for each day we have with them.

That being said, we would love to share a little of them with you :) When looking at Anders' and Oliver's baby pictures the biggest difference in my mind is the hair! SO naturally we have this obsession with Oliver's crazy hair. Here he is after bath time, very content with mommy.

Oliver also loves to be held like this when he is crabby. It doesn't look like the most comfortable position but he likes it. Anders loved to be held this exact way too.

So far he is able to sleep in just about any position:) Such little feet.

It almost looks like he is making fun of dad in his head.

We can't forget about Anders during all of this excitement... trust me, he won't let us ;)

He loves to wear any big shoes left by the front door. He walks pretty good in them too.

He is also getting a lot better at being around brother, and he even asks to, "hold it." He is such a cute big brother. Also being extra soft and giving kisses and all that cute stuff.

So thats it for now. We will update some more soon... we hope!

Even More Oliver... We just can't get enough!!!

2011-01-19T22:27:00.014-07:00

So this post has a bit of a story line with it. I will start with the update on Oliver. So far he continues to eat well and the diapers keep coming... every parents dream:) He is sleeping well and doesn't cry to much unless he needs something... maybe that is every parents dream, who knows at this point. Anyway, Becka is also recovering well. With her pain under control most of the time she is able to relax and rest as much as possible. That is until Grandma leaves in about 1.5 weeks. Anders is also adjusting well... for the most part. That brings us to the story line. The other day we decided to take some pictures of Oliver since he is small and still sleepy all the time. We took a bunch of them as you can see here. The real fun, however, started when we wanted to include Anders in the pictures. Take a look...

Just chillin on the play mat.

Anybody have a guess on the future eye color?

A little self soothing amidst the chaos!)

He is such a tiny thing.

Again, very tiny:)

So comfy. Below you see the beginning of the excitement.

First off, let me say that Becka assures me that they are both from the same father (me) despite being very different in their complexion. Anyway you can see that Anders was not a fan of being in the pictures. We can only assume it was because they were with Oliver because normally he practically poses for pictures.

So we tried and tried and tried, and then we tried a little harder to get Anders to be in a picture with his brother. No matter what we did he wouldn't. He was terrified of the little thing that kept moving and making noises. You can see in this one he laid as flat as he possibly could when I tried to put the baby on his lap to try and avoid touching it.

This was the closest thing to a nice picture and we aren't really sure how it turned out looking so intentional, but we will take it. The picture below is our favorite and we can't look at it without laughing. It really encompasses Anders' feelings about his brother.

Utter distress!!!

And another one of adorable Oliver!

More Baby Oliver

2011-01-16T22:08:00.008-07:00

We made it home with Baby Oliver today. Things went very well at the hospital and we are extremely happy to be home as a family. It's still crazy to think that we have two children now. That means we are a family of four, how bizarre! Not to mention we came home to a ginormous 20 month old. It seems like Anders grew 2 feet and 20 pounds over the weekend.

The second night was really the only bad time at the hospital. Every time the baby was hungry he would fall asleep eating, then he would wake up hungry and the cycle continued. So a baby without sleep and food led to a mommy and daddy without sleep and food. Finally at about 5am the exhaustion reached a maximum as you can see, they slept.

Anders came to the hospital after spending a couple days with uncle Jason and aunt Jessica. They saved us by watching him and he had the greatest time with them. He even came to the hospital able to say, "Oli". It was so cute!

At one point Anders could not be found in the room. After calling his name he popped up from behind the bed. It was pretty funny. He had little interest in Oliver and then it was time to play with all the gadgets and things in the room. Of course he had a great time and then he went home with Grandma Trask so we could focus on getting the baby healthy and home.

Overall the hospital experience was great. Thanks for all the well wishes, texts, and emails. What an amazing support system we have and what great people to raise our two little boys around.

Here is Becka and her two little guys! I don't think we have ever seen Anders so excited to have his parents home. He basically went crazy for 3 hours. Anyway, he is sleeping and I imagine tomorrow things will begin to sink in slowly that he is not the only one around anymore. As for Oliver, he seems to be adjusting well. He is eating great, and tries to open his eyes to watch all the action he can hear. We are working on some videos so you can see more of the kids. Hopefully they will be coming soon depending on how well everyone sleeps :)

Welcome Baby Oliver!!!

2011-01-15T10:49:00.009-07:00

Born January 14, 2011 at 7:44pm we are so proud to present Oliver Matthew Carter. He weighed in at 6 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. Mom had to work long and hard after starting pitocin at 8am, but she did an absolutely amazing job!!! Both baby and mother are recovering great and look very healthy. Keep checking back for more pictures, they will be coming soon!

Pregnancy #2 Pictures

2011-01-08T15:33:00.006-07:00

Our second little boy is due in just over a week! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone (except for, of course, the last couple weeks). We pulled out all of Anders' newborn clothes, washed them up, and put them in a cubby for the new baby. I finished the new baby's quilt, we washed the bedding, bought new pacifiers, set up the bassinet, etc, etc...now I am just waiting. This pregnancy has been for the most part wonderful. I was more nauseous and tired in the beginning, but I think that was from chasing around a toddler! I guess, maybe I am weird, but I really enjoy being pregnant. I love feeling him kick, roll, and move around inside me. I love feeling when he has the hiccups. It's just such a special experience. Here are some pictures that Matt took about a week ago.

Anders' First Haircut

2011-01-07T16:10:00.007-07:00

We took Anders during winter break to get his very first haircut. His daddy said we needed to get his "rat tail" taken care of. Let's just say from now on daddy will just trim his hair at home, but for his first haircut it was fun to take him somewhere special. Well, more fun for mom than for Anders.

Here's Anders waiting to go back

Here he is happy with his cape and lollipop

This is when Anders decided that getting a haircut was NOT fun!

Here he is after his haircut, still recuperating from the trauma!

Family Pictures

2010-12-21T13:13:00.003-07:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

What a crazy two months we have had, and we are so grateful to have made it to Christmas break. Matt has made it through another semester of Medical school, Anders continues to grow and is talking more than ever, and I am at 36 weeks and ready for this next baby to come.

We did have some family pictures taken a little while back, so here they are. Matt took the ones he isn't in, and I took the ones he is in, and Peggy helped take the family shots.

Anders loves his Grammy!

One of Anders' favorite things to do now is close the door as he says, "bye, bye" to whom ever he is leaving in the room. It's pretty cute. He will even say bye when ever he leaves a room or it looks like you are leaving the room.

Anders loved throwing rocks into the water. He is developing quite the throwing arm, and he can even dribble the soccer ball across the family room.

Anders also loves to read books with mom, and it's even better since he will sit for more than 2 seconds now (depending on his mood). He especially loves his Elmo book, and he can point out all the characters.

Anders and Becka went to California to see Becka's family just before Thanksgiving. Anders absolutely loved playing with his cousins. He would wake up and play straight until nap time, running around like a crazy boy, then after his nap until bedtime he would do it again. Needless to say he was sad to come home to boring old dad.

We are very excited for baby number two to arrive in just a few short weeks. He has been much more active inside of Becka compared to Anders. For those of you know Anders, this might make you a little nervous for us and trust me, it makes us nervous too :) but we couldn't be more excited! Right now the top name is Oliver (middle name to be determined), but Becka is still undecided.

So that is it for us. We will be posting some more pictures from the holidays soon, but until then have a Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-02T17:02:00.005-06:00

We had a great Halloween this year, and hopefully all of you did as well. As usual Becka did an amazing job on the costumes this year. After last years Nacho Libre costume Becka wasn't sure what she was going to do for this year, but the Oompa Loompa costume was a fabulous choice.

We went to our ward party at the church, and the to Trunk-or-Treat at Grammy and Pop's church (where Anders won best costume!!) . Then on Saturday we went to the fall festival at Matt's school. Here is Becka and Anders at the fall fest as Shrek and Fiona. Once Anders figured out you could go behind the pictures he didn't want to come out.

Here is Anders in one of the few pictures he kept his wig on for. Mom is a big fan of the wig costumes, but it doesn't always last as long as wanted.

Here is Anders running from Dad who was carrying the wig.

And here is the family at Trunk-or-Treat. Mom was the Old lady who swallowed a fly (Cause she's pregnant... very clever). You can see all the characters from the story on her shirt. And Dad was a dead... or fighting soccer player.

Anders was very curious about the sand bag toss. He couldn't figure out where it went, but he sure wanted to know:)

And here is all the cousins and Natali. What great costumes all around.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Pumpkin Festival!

2010-10-20T13:31:00.010-06:00

A couple weekends ago we went to the Denver Botanical Garden for the Pumpkin Festival! Grammy Peggy, and our sister-in-law, Natali and her kids came too! We all had so much fun! The had a bunch of booths set up for the kids including games, treats, face painting and other activities. We had fun searching the large pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkins.

Coloring little hackey sacks with the cousins

Anders loved throwing wiffle balls into the pumpkins

Here's Daddy and Anders making "Monster" popcorn gloves

You lookin' at my pumpkin? I pity the fool!

Here's Anders with the Pumpkin he picked out

Anders - King of the Pumpkins

Purple People Eater

2010-10-18T16:03:00.002-06:00

I made these Purple People Eater Cupcakes for a bunco spooktacular that I hosted at my house. They were tasty!

Some Summer Fun!

2010-09-06T21:22:00.003-06:00

Summer is truly Anders' season. He loves to be outside having fun, and so we try to do that as much as we can. As you can see below, some of his favorite new things to do are riding bikes, and hiking.

It took far to long to get the seat hooked onto the bike, so we had to cut our ride short because of the darkness. Needless to say, Anders was very disappointed. I've never seen a kid cry when you take off the helmet :)

This was a cool rainbow, and even cooler people.

Over Labor day we went hiking through red rocks.

Anders loved seeing all of the scenery. And as you can tell he loves being in his backpack.

The cute family! All four of us:)

We are having a.......

2010-09-02T21:22:00.004-06:00

Hello Everyone! It's been a little while and it's like the summer has come and gone now that school has started again. But the year is off to a rip-roarin start! Thank goodness Renal is over and on to Cardiovascular.

Anyway, enough about school, on to the exciting stuff! So Becka is just passed 20 weeks for pregnancy numero dos. And although she might tell you differently, this pregnancy has been much more difficult, and we are glad to be into our second trimester with the pregnancy symptoms finally starting to wear off (at least for now). Maybe it has something to do with chasing Anders around all day, but for whatever reason she has been so much more tired ;) That little boy is a handful, and I can't keep up with him and I'm not even pregnant. I don't know how she does it, but she does it, and does it very well. So Tuesday was the doctors appointment to find out the gender of the baby. Becka really wanted to find out rather than keep it a surprise so she could mentally prepare. Either way, surprise or not we would have found out. As luck would have it, the second the nurse put the ultrasound to Becka's stomach there it was, a baby boy! and all his glory!) She quickly moved the ultrasound so we couldn't see it anymore and continued to ask if we wanted to know what it was. Both Becka and I had seen that it was a boy already, but neither of us knew if the other had, so we didn't say a word. After a couple minutes she revealed that it was a boy and took some great pictures... see below.

His hands and feet are long and thin, and he was extremely active, possibly from the pepsi Becka drank before the appointment.

Here is a nice profile shot. Becka says that she thought Anders had a profile just like her, but this one looks just like me. I'm not sure where she sees it :) FYI- the following pictures are real. It is the crazy 4-d ultrasound pictures. Pretty weird looking if you ask me, but cool at the same time. I guess I would rather just see them out of Becka's body for the first time.

This was finally taken after he held still for half a second. It was really hard to get any pictures that weren't blurred.

This one is pretty cool cause he is doing the "I love you" sign with his hand... says Becka! She also says that he looks like my twin, like a little mini me, but again, I'm not sure where she sees it. I guess I will take her word for it though. It is Mother's intuition that we speak of after all. So there you have it, another Carter boy. We will keep you updated as things move along.

Happy 4th of July :) in August...

2010-08-13T12:26:00.003-06:00

To celebrate the independence of our country we couldn't think of anything more appropriate than getting together with family! This is almost everyone, minus Rock, Courtney and kids.

We all went to Grandy and Bill's house in Genesee. We had a BBQ, bike riding, and the whole nine yards. It was a lot of fun.

Anders wanted to ride the big boy bikes so badly. He wasn't happy when he was told not to.

This is Bill, a great example of a true American and an amazing Grandpa to the kids.

Cute cousin Shaylynn

Anders and Grandy

The boys coming back from parking their bikes. The got those things noisy enough for tehir own parade!

Anders did finally get his chance on the bike. He couldn't have been happier and you can see here that he is just like any kid. He wanted to make sure mom was watching him:)

Trip two to Boston

2010-08-10T15:51:00.005-06:00

Here are some highlights from our trip to Boston:

We went straight from Florida to Boston so you could definitely say that we were living on the road for awhile. We arrived in Boston and made our way to Cambridge where we stayed in a home just outside of Davis Square where I live in one of my mission apartments. It was a lot of fun to see all the places I used to go, and Becka and Anders got to see as well. After a few days of just Anders, Becka and I, Grammy and Pops joined us for some more fun.

This is the Witch House in Salem. We saw a bunch of places referring to the witch trials, but this is the only actual structure that is still standing. It was the house of the judge of the trials. We didn't go on any tours, but the one run by practicing witches was tempting... or not:)

We also went up the coast to Maine and had some Lobster - yummy! We went to the beach and saw some lighthouses. It was pretty to go up that far.

Anders was a crab once or twice on the trip. This was probably his most crabby moment.

This is the Cape Neddick Lighthouse. I can't remember the actual name, but that is where it is. It was absolutely beautiful though.

After we went to Maine, we headed over to New Hampshire to see more exciting mission stuff ;) and then we went candlestick bowling. I drove past this place everyday for almost a year and never got to go, so it was fun to go for the first time with my family. Candlestick bowling is a ton of fun by the way!

Then it was back to Boston. Mike's Pastries in the Historic North End is a must! Holy Cannoli's:)

We got stuck in a rain storm so we waited under a tree. It brought back so great memories from mission rain storms. So much fun.

This was down on Long's Wharf.

The Park street train station. By the end of the trip Becka was a pro on the trains and even made her way around alone to run some errands.

We rode the Inner-Harbor Ferry back to the center of the city after walking the entire freedom trail. It was a nice ride instead of all that walking, but all Anders wanted to do was jump over the edge.

Fenway Park - Home of the Red Sox and the Green Monster. Sadly there were no home games the entire time we were there. Missed it by one day :(

Location of the Shot Heard Around the World. There is so much history in Boston, and we really got around to seeing a lot of it. Places like the old north bridge, where the first American ordered shots took place, really brought a feeling of respect and admiration for what early Americans put on the line for the freedoms we enjoy today. Amazing!!!

We also stopped by the Boston Temple. Still looks just as beautiful.

While walking around Boston, it became necessary to stop at a park every hour or so to let Anders run crazy. The Public Gardens had to be his favorite. Not only is it a gorgeous park to walk around, there were lots of fun statues and puddles to play in.

By the end of our first visit to the Garden, Anders was wet and muddy from head to toe. Since we were so far from home we had to buy him a new set of clothes. He just couldn't get enough of those puddles.

Probably my favorite part of the trip was going to Cape Cod. I served there for the first 6 months of my mission and we were able to see a lot of members from the ward.

We went all the way up to Provincetown, and then worked our way back down the Cape. The Goldbergs had a bunch of the ward over for a BBQ at there beach house in Popponesset. The weather was perfect, the beach was beautiful, and the company was the best. I am so glad I got to bring my family to a place that means so much to me.

Anders did make it into the ocean, but his favorite was the outdoor shower to get cleaned off.

Anders and Becka at Eastham Beach.

This is us at the Pilgrim Monument on the Cape.

That about sums up our trip. We had such a blast, and now it's back home and back to work! Thanks to Grammy and Pops, and all the other family that came with us on our trip. We had a great time making lifelong memories with you.

Disney World and Florida Highlights

2010-08-10T15:05:00.009-06:00

This last July was basically the last time that Matt will be able to take off more than a week for a family vacation for the next few years, so we decided to make the most of it. We started off with a big family trip to Florida and then a small family trip to Boston. Here are just a few of the pictures. It's hard to include all the good ones, but we will do our best.

Here are some highlights from our trip to Florida:

Meeting with Winnie the Pooh. Grammy and Pops Carter took all the grandkids to lunch with the characters from Winnie the Pooh. It was a lot of fun. You will see from all the pictures that Anders only really felt comfortable if he had some kind of contact with the character. He had to know where they were at all times:)

Becka and Anders on the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom.

Miniature golf at Pirates Cove

Meeting with Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Universal Studios

As you can see, Anders loves to have fun and he lives on the edge!

Harry Potter World and Butter Beer!! The Harry Potter world was absolutely amazing. If you are at all a fan of Harry Potter, we would definitely recommend this. The whole atmoshpere, the rides, it was incredible. So realistic to the movie. The lines were a little long since it had only opened a little before we went, but it was worth it.

Dumbo Ride- Anders loved all of the rides he went on. He wasn't the biggest fan of waiting in lines, but as soon as we got on a ride he was mesmerized. He even started laughing, pointing and dancing on some of them. I think he had sunscreen in his eyes in this picture.

Cocoa Beach- You know from other posts that Anders is a big fan of the beach, and with mom's anti-sun exposure outfit, he had nothing to do but have a blast! And he did! This time he even got to go out a little ways with Dad. He really liked getting hit by the big waves, but that made Mom pretty nervous.

Happy Birthdays!

2010-06-01T10:47:00.005-06:00

May was a busy month for us! Between Mothers Day, Becka's birthday and the big first Birthday for Anders, we had a lot to enjoy. I guess you could say we had a busy weekend in May since all those events were May 9th, 7th, and 8th respectively. To start, Becka's Parents came into town. Becka's Dad made a beautiful TV stand for Becka's birthday present. It is absolutely amazing. Becka's best friend Jamie came in from CA as well. And then Heidi, Becka's sister, and her daughter Madison flew in that night as a surprise. It was a blast to have everyone around to celebrate with us.

For Becka's birthday we went to Bucca De Beppo's. As you can see, she loves to have a good time!

Below is Becka's Dad, Mom, Jamie, and Becka.

Mom and Anders with the special birthday candles.

For Anders' Birthday I think it was while we were sitting in the hospital after he was born when Becka said that his first birthday would be a bug party. Not really sure why but the theme stuck, and for the past year basically we have been on the search for anything and everything bug!

A few nights before his birthday Dad asked Anders, "Who is turning one?" as he held up his pointer finger. Right after that, Anders started showing his one finger whenever anyone asked who is turning one. As you can see below.

He loved eating his cake on his own. Well actually he mainly just sucked the frosting off the top. He did get some cake eventually, but he was just enjoying the sugar high.

Here is Anders and Grandma Trask. You can see the bug shirt that mom made for Anders. She made them for all of us that way we could be matching at the party.

Here is the beyond AMAZING cake that Becka and her friend Jamie made. It took so much time, and they did a fabulous job! It's a caterpillar if you couldn't already tell, and it's all edible. If you can see it close up, that is the best way to admire all the amazing work.

Here's the birthday boy, and he is turning one!

I think we are pretty blessed in our family to have such an amazing mother and little boy. I know I am forever grateful for the two of them and all that they bring in to our lives. You can't help but smile whenever you see either of them.

We love you Becka and Anders! Happy Birthdays!!!

Happy Easter! Just a little late.

2010-05-18T12:21:00.005-06:00

So time, as you all know, is just to short. Easter just came and went before we had a chance to do anything about it:) So here are some pictures and an update.

Sticking with tradition we had the Carter family egg roll. Anders loved eating the eggs, not so much dying or rolling them. Although he did have some pretty good throws. His face was green by the end of the event.

As long as Anders can be up close and a part of things, he is happy!

We went to Utah for a few days when Rock and Courtney had little Maelie. On one of the days we went to the pool, and Anders could not get enough of the water. He loved it. He didn't stop splashing the entire time. When we left, after over an hour in the water, he was pretty sad. He definitely takes after his water-polo-playing mom.

We also got the chance to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake to get some Easter pictures of Anders in his outfit that mom picked out for him. It was pretty funny to have people stopping and watching us take pictures of "that cute little boy".

All we need to do is put out some newspapers and a donation cup, and we could really make bank:)

Such a handsome little guy!

And of course, the Grandpa smile. He insists on getting a little old man shot in every once in a while. Still the cutest boy ever!

Besides that, we are doing great. We had the birthday weekend with Anders' and Becka's birthdays and Mother's Day. Those pictures will be coming shortly. School is going well for Matt. Just a little bit left in year one and then we can finally have a break. Hoooray for summer time!

Anders Can WALK!!!

2010-05-17T22:07:00.003-06:00

I will let the video speak for itself. There are more pictures and video of Anders' first birthday that will be coming soon.

Trying to keep up with time... It's a losing battle!

2010-04-07T18:07:00.003-06:00

So here is a quick update on the family! As you can see from the video, Anders is growing so quickly. He is standing on his own now, and has almost taken his first steps. We aren't going to count it until he stays standing after he steps:) Becka is busy being an amazing mommy to Anders and also working on her "pizza making skills". I must agree, her pizza is AWESOME! School is going well for Matt. He just finished his ten week Neurology system and now it's on the Human Behavior and Mental health, where you deal with all the crazies;) Anyway, that's about it for us. Enjoy the video, and there will be some more Easter pictures coming soon.

9 months and it just won't stop!

2010-02-14T21:58:00.003-07:00

Can we just start out by saying that the last nine months has been AMAZING!

As you can see Anders is such a happy little (or big :) guy. We just can't get enough of that blasted cute smile. How are we ever going to discipline him;) This picture is of him in our bed. When ever Becka has her visiting teachers over we get kicked out of the front room, and it's my goal to see how big I can get Anders to smile and how loud he will laugh.

He is eating tons of different things now, and he is starting to improve his dexterity... practicing with cheerios really helps!

Our sister Courtney and brother Rock are having a baby girl in a couple months and they came out for a baby shower in early February. Becka helped plan the party and things went beautifully. You can see Jessica, Courtney, Natali, and Becka (above left to right) at the party.

Becka made this amazing quilt for the baby. She is pretty much amazing! Her sewing skills just keep getting better and better. It seems like she can do anything.

Just a little time with Dad. Church got moved from 12:30pm to 9am. So now we have lots of time Sunday afternoons to play while mommy naps (and the other way around).

Another update on the boy. Now he can stand up on things and walk along the walls and furniture. He will even let go and try and balance on his own sometimes. We don't think walking is to far off. As you can see we need to step up our baby proofing regardless:) Well that is it for now. Hope everyone is well.

Fun in California

2010-01-28T12:38:00.005-07:00

Can we just say that having family in California is a fabulous advantage when it comes to planning vacations! Over New Years we went to CA to visit Mom and Dad Trask, Becka's sister and her family, and her brother as well. It was really hard leaving freezing Colorado to go to the 65-75 degree weather, but it was worth it to see all the family:) It really was a lot of fun to be there with everyone. We spent a day in Old Town San Diego and you can see most of the group below.

We also took Anders to the LA Temple where Becka and I got married. The picture below is of him there. It was really fun because we went to all of the places that we had when we got married. We ate at Angelo and Vinci's where we had our rehearsal dinner, we went to the Temple, we went to the same beach and to Ontario... It just brought back so many memories:)

Anders LOVED!!!! the beach. He just couldn't get enough of playing in the water and the sand. We thought for sure he would start shoveling handfuls of sand into his mouth but he didn't. Instead he bent over and took a bite out of the sand with his mouth... who needs hands right? Anyway, he wasn't very happy about that! Once we got him cleaned off he was back to playing, but it didn't seem like he would be eating sand again anytime soon.

This is at Newport Beach. We also tried to get on The Price is Right, but we just didn't get there early enough. We are already planning the return trip to get on!

Anders waiting on the dock with grandma while we went kayaking with grandpa.

Here are our footprints in the sand. You can see where Anders dragged his foot and then we finally got it set down:) It's so small and yet he has grown so much! It's crazy. Anyway, this was a really fun trip and we have lots of video and other pictures that will be coming soon. Hope everyone is well. Happy 2010!!!

2010-01-06T22:19:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas 2009!

Here is Anders with Santa. He loved him! I kinda felt bad for poor Santa when Anders got a hold of his beard :)

Ok, so I love to dress up my son. Here is Anders on Christmas day in his Reindeer costume...cutest reindeer I've ever seen!!

Here is Anders opening up one of his presents!

Here he is, proud that he got his costume off!

We had a such a fun Christmas! It was so great spending time with family! We want to thank our parents for all the great presents and fun. We love you! Christmas is such a special time to remember the birth of our Savior and really makes us grateful for all we have.

Happenings in the Fall

2010-01-06T21:56:00.002-07:00

Okay, so it has been a while again:) but we have one entire semester of medical school under our belts with enough to go that we won't bother counting... Hooray! Anyway, now it's catch up time in the Carter home and the blog finally made it to the top of the list. We will start with our trip to the zoo.

Anders loves the zoo. Not only does he enjoy being outside, he thinks animals that smell funny and make noises are hysterical. Since then he has developed a growl or grunting noise and instead of laughing he gives out a yell that sounds like he is trying to attack you. For those of you who have ever spent any time with him you probably know what I am talking about.

He wasn't so sure about being so close to the penguin sign. but he is getting really tall.

Anders has also started solid foods. He hasn't objected to anything we have tried to give him, and feeding time is his favorite time. He finds it helpful to chomp his lips between every bite at least 5 times:)

I think we have said before, but he sits, crawls, and destroys everything in his path. He also pulls himself up on EVERYTHING and now the movies are his favorite new toy!

One of his hidden talents is putting his feet into his mouth!

We also borrowed a johnny jumper from Russ and Natali and he loved that. He didn't jump much, he would just twist it up and then unwind. He really liked it when you would swing him too so his feet could drag on the carpet. So that is the first quick update for us.

NACHOOOOOOO!!!

2009-11-04T21:33:00.003-07:00

The Best Halloween EVER!!!

Kids Grow WAAAAAY to Fast:)

2009-10-04T23:54:00.003-06:00

Anders is growing and getting bigger. This is a video of him over the last few months. Some of his favorite new things to do include rolling over, sitting up, talking and possibly singing... we think;)

You may have also noticed baby Shaylynn in the video, and then of course Becka and Matt. Shaylynn and Anders are just 6 weeks apart so they are very close in age, and they love to play together (at least when given the chance).

An update with Matt would be school... it's still school and taking up all his time. Becka is working on Anders' halloween costume and it will be amazing so just you wait! That's it from us. Have a great week everyone!

Medical School Begins!

2009-09-14T12:38:00.003-06:00

So the title of the post might be a little delayed, but we thought it would be nice to show you how medical school began. As you may know, Matt is attending Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. After four years of medical school he will be a full fledged Doctor. Osteopathic schools graduate DO's instead of MD's and although there used to be a great difference between the two they are incredibly similar now. They are fully licensed Doctors who can do everything in any aspect of medicine from surgery to Obstetrics to Radiology. They also do manipulative massage medicine which is hands on diagnoses and treatment certain ailments without having to do surgery or other invasive techniques. (You can learn more on wikipedia if you want, but don't worry it's not some crazy loony Doctor.)

Anyway, things have been going great so far. We are 7 weeks, 4 exams, hundreds of study hours, one official (on my own) patient interaction, and many sleepless nights in, and we love it... we think:) Before school officially started the school puts on a white coat ceremony where all of the students officially become Student Doctors, and get there white coats so there are some pictures included.

One of the Doctor faculty members official coats the student. Dr. Gish helped me out.

Then you stand there awkwardly to take pictures.

Then everyone files back into the room to take the Osteopathic Oath. It's a pretty intense commitment that we as physicians agree to uphold throughout our careers and life.

Some of the family was able to be there, and you can see the school in the background. It is a brand new school, we are only the second class. That has made it nice because all of the facilities and technology is brand new and very advanced. The cadaver lab is even above ground on the third floor so we have natural daylight when we are there for lab:) Russell and Jason got to see some of the bodies and I think they would recommend it to anyone, so if you would like to come in let me know.

Family Pictures

2009-09-09T12:29:00.003-06:00

We took family pictures about two months ago now, and I have been planning on editing them and then posting them... but time just hasn't allowed it. So here they are in their very raw form, and I think they look quite good. We have to thank Pops (Grandpa Carter) for taking them and for doing such a great job.

This is Anders at the end of the day. As you can see picture taking is exhausting.

This is one of my favorite pictures because it captures so much emotion from our little bundle of joy!

Anders did enjoy taking pictures with Mom.

He was either scared or crying for all the pictures with Dad.

We did get a few good ones though:) Hope everyone is doing great. We are having a blast out here in CO. School is going great, and life gets better everyday. Becka got a new calling in the ward as the CTR 7 teacher. Both of us got the calling, but I am really just the supporter because Becka teaches so well and the kids just love her. That's a bit for now. I will get some more pictures up soon when I get some more time. Oh, just one more little note... Anders is FOUR MONTHS OLD!!!

Anders is THREE MONTHS!!!

2009-08-09T16:57:00.004-06:00

This will just be a quick update with some pictures of the boy. He is THREE MONTHS old! So crazy. Time goes by way to fast and we are trying to enjoy every single minute that we can.

This was try number one for Anders' carrier. Scratch that, this was successful try number one. In reality it's the first time we got him in it without screaming, crying and nearly reaching death, or so you would have thought he was near death:) Also must mention the beautiful mommy who is doing an amazing job as a mommy and wife!

This is one of Anders' new things. He loves to curl up and sleep on the couch. Much like a puppy does, he kind of slides into place one limb at a time until he is either comfortable or he can't move anymore and then he falls asleep. He is so cute.... and quite when he sleeps.

Speaking of sleeping, it has become a rare and treasured past time in our house. Between school, studying, the baby and all that comes with life in general, you tend to give up things you probably shouldn't. Sleep is one of those things, so when we get a chance to sleep, we take it.

Last but not least is bath time. Anders' is finally starting to enjoy his time in the water. Now he holds of the screaming until it comes time to get out and put lotion on. One thing that has added greatly to his pleasure in the tub is that he figured out he is the one making the splashing and the noises with the water. That knowledge makes things a lot less scary and a lot more fun:) Now he goes crazy jumping around and it becomes a chore for mom and dad to keep him from falling out of the tub. I just can't wait for him to be bigger so we can make whirlpools in the tub! That's all for now.

Welcome to Colorado

2009-08-07T19:44:00.005-06:00

Parker is great so far. The first week was a little bit interesting and eventful to say the least. We had everything unloaded and starting unpacking the day we got here. It felt like we were finally here and our journey had begun here in Colorado. Well after a few days of settling in we were sitting down to watch some TV after dinner. Becka went in to put Anders down to sleep and the phone rang. I answered and my Mom asked if we had been watching the news. Apparently there had been severe weather and tornado warnings, and it was all headed our way. I quickly turned to the news and saw the warnings. Just as I turned the channel I heard Becka from the other room. She called my in and just over the sound of baby you could hear the Tornado sirens going off. I went outside (smart I know) because there was no rain, wind, nothing. That's when the lightening began. The lightening would strike at least 20 times a minute. After another minute it started to rain and the wind started going crazy. So we decided to take the safe route and get things ready.

Here is Becka and the baby in the tub. Before I told Becka it was a little more than just a practice, we got everything together like it was a "just in case" scenario. Once everything was ready I told her she actually needed to get in:)
Granted there is more room in this tub then the last shower we had, you can see that there still wasn't a ton of room for dad;) The video just shows how much of an affect this all had on the baby. He is such a trooper.

Hope everyone out there is doing great. We love you all! We love reading all the blogs and getting all the comments. Have a great rest of summer.

So Long Utah!

2009-08-03T17:01:00.003-06:00

For such a small apartment, Becka and I proved that with a little bit of organization... okay maybe a lot of organization and a lot of persistence, you can fit a lot of stuff into a little space. It seemed like every time we got the stuff on the front lawn loaded into the truck, there was an entire new load to go. Thank goodness for Jason the expert packer (his talent was supposed to remain a well guarded secret). Becka's dad, Dave, was a huge help and Sam and Felipe represented the Elders Quorum with Pride.

This is Jason and the yard round 2

We got the truck on Monday morning but the somehow forgot to get the car carrier that I ordered 4 weeks ago, so we had to go get that later. We got the entire truck loaded, the house cleaned and we were on our way by about 3pm. Not bad for starting at 10am.

Dave and Jason

We stayed in Salt Lake that night since Becka was flying home and Jason and I were driving the I-80 route. The drive was long and painful but we made it safely as did our things:) A little side note: Russell came over just the week before this and was driving some of our things back with him in my dad's car. It was around 2am when he hit three dear on I-70 just near the peak before it drops down into Golden and Lakewood. Needless to say it was a crazy experience for him. The car should have been totaled but it wasn't despite all the damage. Russell was okay besides the shock and a hurt hand, and Suki (my parent's dog) was just dandy. Even without headlights and a normal function car, Russell managed (while in shock) to coast down I-70 around the curve onto C-470 all the way to the Alameda exit. Way to far for a person in shock or a totaled car to be driving. We are happy to say that he made it back safe, and now we won't be driving I-70 at night ever again:)

Becka's mom, Dianne, with Anders

It was a great help to have our parents in town to help with the move. They were all such a big help with the baby and the moving. It was great to have everyone together. First time since the wedding I think. Boy that was a long time ago. Almost two whole years.

The old house on 800 North (basement apt)

And so our lives in Provo end... at least for now. I add that disclaimer because we plan on going on missions later and the MTC is there. Beyond that we have no plans of going back;) We loved it but we are so excited to be moving on to the new exciting chapters of our lives. We love you Proveo... good bye!

Anders' Baby Blessing

2009-08-02T22:57:00.006-06:00

To say the least, we have done poorly at keeping this updated, but I am going to shoot for weekly updates. Granted I haven't even finished stuff from Utah, but I will do my best.

So on July 12, 2009 we had Anders' baby blessing. It was a great experience to see our little guy in his little white out fit that was made for him by his great grandma. It has been worn by every boy in the family for their baby blessing.

Most of the family was in town since we were moving that weekend anyway, so it was fun to have everyone there. Anders did really well the whole time. He just smiled and looked at dad

during the blessing.

He is one cute little boy, and we know that our Heavenly Father has a great deal in store for him in the future.

A little shout out to uncle Jason. He came into town and helped us move some stuff back to Colorado even before the big moving day and then he came back again to help some more. Without him I think it would have taken another 2 hours to load the truck not to mention he drove back with me on the exciting ride through Wyoming. Thanks Jason, you are the best and we can't thank you enough!

The Last days of Utah

2009-07-23T10:55:00.008-06:00

Hello again everyone. Sorry it has been so long since you have last heard from us. We are happy to say that this blog is coming to you from Parker, CO. We made it here safe and sound and now we will try to catch up on all the things that have happened.

As you can see Anders is getting a lot bigger. This is him trying to sit in his bumbo chair. He can only support his head for a couple minutes so once he runs out of energy he gets a little bit tipsy.

One of Anders' least favorite things is putting clothes over his head. I'm really not sure why:) Sometimes we give him a little break when the onsie is half way on. He seemed to prefer wearing his clothes on top of his head. Who needs clothes anyway.

The first week of July also marked Anders' two month birthday. Not a fun day in any babies short life. It was his first round of shots. As you can see he received multiple shots in his legs. He was very brave. Instead of crying he bit down on his pacifier and grunted, let out one short yelp and then went to sleep for the next 4 hours. What a trooper!

The fourth of July was our first major holiday as a new family. I guess there will be a lot of firsts for the next few years. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Here is Anders and Griffin. In the morning we went to the Provo Freedom Festival Parade. Thousands of people came to Provo for the rip-roaring event. We managed to find a seat right at the front thanks to Grammy Peggy. After seeing to many beauty queens to count, the missionary float, and all of the city officials you could think of, we finally left early:) I must say that it was truly impressive to see all of the veterans and service men and women who serve our country so willingly. Just thinking about what they gave up in order to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy was truly humbling and we are so grateful for all they do.

After the parade we went to Brick Oven Pizza, the tradition when Grammy and Pops come to town. Then we traveled all around Provo looking for the best place to watch the fireworks from the stadium of fire. We finally found a place where Deseret Towers used to be. We had our own field all to our selves despite the hill 100 yards down the road being packed with hundreds of people. We set up badminton and played soccer and had a BBQ while we waited for the fireworks. Jean and her kids came as well and Brooke was our informant on the inside since she got to go to the stadium of fire.

Anders loved the fireworks! He has always loved lights so this was his thing. The sounds were a little shocking at first but he really enjoyed it. The big fireworks lasted for about 5 minutes then we packed up the car, Rock and Courtney left, and then they started again:) Thank goodness they did, because it would have gone down as the shortest and most uneventful stadium of fire ever;)

Anders=Boy=Love of Cars

2009-06-30T23:37:00.005-06:00

So Anders is just about two months old. Crazy how time passes when you don't want it to, and how it doesn't when you wish it did. For example, when your little baby curls up in a tiny little ball, snuggles up close to you and falls asleep on your chest as if to say you are the only thing that makes them feel safe in such a strange world... this is one of those times that you want to never end, but it is always short lived and there is some point where you can never get that back.

The nights of endless screaming, crying and fighting seem to never be in shortage. In fact it seems like time stops moving:) Anyway, it's just a new feeling to see Anders grow and change so much.

For those crying times we have figured out one solution to calming the boy down. We put a nice little blanket out in the yard and he loves to prop himself up and watch the cars go by. You would think it was the greatest thing (second to eating) that ever happened. We were out there the other day for about a half hour before it got to hot. As you can tell, he really enjoys it and he is doing quite well at holding his head up. What a big little guy!

This last week Becka was feeling ambitious and decided to make a pie. She decided to make a razzleberry pie (blackberries and raspberries). All I can say is it was AMAZING!!! She added blueberries too. I ate 3/4 of the pie on my own. I couldn't help it. That's all, just thought I would throw in a quick note for my amazing wife.

Friends are GREAT!

2009-06-25T19:30:00.006-06:00

One of the best things about living in our cave on 800 North has been our neighbors. Even before we moved in, the neighbors have been some of our best friends, and we will miss them so much.

This is Sam on the right and Erin on the left.

Sam and Terri Anne lived 1 house over and Warren and Erin live below them. Thomas and Tasha live in the middle house and we are on the end. Thomas and Tasha moved to Tennessee last week so we had a going away pizza party with them. They make a great homemade wheat crust then we all added our own toppings and then feasted.

Here is the lovely Becka.

And here is Terri Anne, always ready for a picture.

Thomas and Tasha the wonderful pizza dough makers.

Warren and Erin are always up for having fun!

It has been such a blessing to have such great friends so close. Now that we are moving we are so hopeful that we will be able to find friends that are even half as awesome as these guys. Not only did Sam, Warren and I start a business together, we also work at the same apartment complex where Erin works too. Terri Anne also helped teach Becka to quilt/sew/be crafty. At work we got extra cash for picking up trash bags around the complex and we called this our trash fund. Using our trash fund we've had BBQ's, ice cream trips, and tons of other fun times. I just wanted to say thanks to our friends. You guys are the best! We have loved living here and getting to know you guys. And just to put a note out there for all the other people in Provo that we love so much, thanks to you too, you are all the best. We will miss the people here in Utah:)

Oh, and Anders is still super cute!

2009-06-17T22:24:00.004-06:00

Anders still loves to watch TV. You can see how into the programs he gets:) He even helps fight the bad guys. You have to zoom in on the pictures to get the full effect.

Denver is so close!!!

2009-06-17T21:57:00.009-06:00

So besides having a baby, things have been happening quickly for us as a family. I was able to go to Denver a couple of weeks ago to find us a house for when we move in July. We are so excited to move. We love all of the friends and the family here in Utah, but it is time for us to leave Provo:) Hooray!!! So we will be moving to Parker, Colorado. The apartment complex is right off of E-470 and Parker road. These are some pictures of the Place. The name of the complex is Windrock and Stone Canyon. You can see the apartment we will actually be living in is the first floor apartment on the corner. We are excited to have ceilings higher than 7 feet, a shower that sprays water from above our heads, and light... real light from the sun that will be able to shine in our windows... that's right, windows, we will have windows. Big windows that are larger than 2 ft by 2 ft. We have loved the cave:), but it will be so nice to have a change of scene. Becka is also very excited to have a garden tub!!! It feels good to be moving up in the world, literally.

While I was there I also had the fortune or maybe I should say misfortune of going to the Nuggets game. It was game six against the Lakers and the place was packed. It was really cool to be there and experience the atmosphere and the electricity, but as you all probably know it was one of the worst games they played and the Lakers won. It was quite depressing, and for those of you who know my brother Jason, the ride home was even worse. I have to admit, basketball is not my life and still the loss was disappointing. For Jason it was much more than that. I am just glad that I got to go. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Russ (he gave me his ticket).

2009-06-07T23:24:00.008-06:00

Anders turned 4 weeks old this last week!

It is so crazy how fast the time has flown by! We give Anders a bath every 2-3 days...he loves bath time, well, at least the first couple minutes of it. The running water is definitely his favorite part. You can see him sporting his very debonair bath robe here.

Anders has gotten so big in the last little bit and his neck muscles have gotten a lot stronger. He can hold up his head a lot better now :) You have to be careful while burping him because he will throw his head back and then swing back forward and headbutt you. Also, in the last little bit we have noticed the his eyes are getting more and more blue, just like his daddy's.

We also call him our little gas master because he always lets out big farts - especially when we change his diaper. He has great timing when it comes to those types of things. On a side note, a funny story - a couple weeks ago we were heading home from the Springville WalMart and we got pulled over! For what you ask....well, Matt didn't have his blinker on for 2 full seconds before he changed lanes.

Basically, I think the cop just wanted to make sure we were all wearing our seat belts - they are cracking down on click it or ticket. Well we were all wearing our seat belts, so we were let off with the blinker warning. It was one of those lovely female officers who wanted to make sure that we Californians (we have California plates) knew the law in Utah. She was also able to point out that we had a rear facing car seat, but that was it. It was Anders first experience getting pulled over - magical. Before this gets to long, I will end. Enjoy the pictures of Anders' favorite things to do- curling up in a ball, sleeping and watching TV with dad. Cartoons are his favorite as you can see:)

Our Days at the Hospital

2009-06-03T12:36:00.004-06:00

After 3 weeks of minimal effort I was finally able to get my video camera to upload videos to the right computer and the right program, hence all the videos that I'm making and putting on the blog. This one is of our days at the Hospital so you can see the whole process. It's about 4 minutes long, so about a minute per day:)

I do have a question for all the smart English people out there. We are stuck with a dilemma on how to say and spell the name of our son when it's plural and possessive. For example; is it "Anders' toy" or "Anders's toy"? And then how do you say it, sounding like "Ander s" or Anders es" I'm not really sure if that makes sense because it requires so many different grammar skills to get across my grammar dilemma. So we are counting on all those English buffs. Thanks, and could we not mention this to Anders in future years... that would be great.

Just can't get enough!

2009-06-02T23:15:00.006-06:00

So we tried to get some cute pictures of the boy before he gets to big. He wasn't the biggest fan of modeling, but we will keep on trying. We just always want to remember how cute he is. Sorry, I know it gets old hearing parents go on and on about their kids. I can't believe some people;) Enjoy:)

Anders is 2 weeks old!!!!

2009-05-22T21:28:00.009-06:00

We took Anders to his 2 week doctors appointment today.

He weighs 8 lbs 4 oz (33 percentile) and is 20.75 inches. (apparently babies shrink :) and his head circumference is in the 45 percentile. The doctor looked him over from head to toe and said that Anders is doing great!

Anders has grown so much in just two weeks. Everyday he look s a little bit bigger and he is changing so much. Time is already going by way to fast. So far he still has the grey/black eyes that most babies do although we think we are seeing more brown in them lately. We will see how they end up.

Also, his hair is becoming more and more blonde. We will try to keep you all updated on his complete physical appearance just incase you can't see it in the pictures;) When Anders is awake, which isn't very often unless it's 3 in the morning, he likes to be on his floor mat where he can look at himself in the mirror.

He also loves to go on walks with mom and dad in his stroller. When his Grammy (Carter) was in town she bought him some very fashionable cowboy boots seen in the picture. He loves them... well, he loves to kick them off:) There will be more pictures of his at home photo shoot as soon as we get them worked out. I guess that is enough writing.

We will just show you more pictures since that is what everyone wants to see anyway:) We love our little Anders. Thanks to Grandma Trask for all her help this last week too. Anders has some amazing Grandparents and we are so thankful for them!!!

Getting a good tan;)

2009-05-18T16:09:00.005-06:00

So when Anders was born he had a bilirubin count of 10.6. Most babies have some jaundice during the first week of life because the trauma of birth can send many red blood cells to an early death, and babies’ livers are sometimes unprepared for the load of getting rid of those cells. Without lots of milk from Becka and frequent dirty diapers, bilirubin (the cause of Jaundice) can accumulate faster than the baby can handle it and thus you get the yellow color of the skin and a potential for other problems.

The pediatrician asked us to get Anders' heal pricked again on Monday to see if the levels went up. The number did go up to 16.6. Not a good sign for little Anders so they told us to come back the next morning like I mentioned. A few hours after the Monday test, we got a call letting us know that his levels were way to high and he needed to have some photo therapy. Basically he had to spend all his time under some likes so the UV rays could help break up the bilirubin in his system to make it easier for his liver to catch up and remove it from his body.
They told us that his every waking and sleeping moment had to be spent under the lights except to be fed or to be changed. Sadly for mom, that list did not include holding, loving, squeezing, or anything like that. It was hard to see the little guy under there all the time, but we wanted him to get better. The glasses he wore actually brought out a while new personality.
We are pretty sure he just liked sunbathing. Each morning we had to go back to the hospital to get his heal pricked again and then wait for the test results to see if we could finally take him off the lights. By Thursday they said we could take him off the lights, but he had to come back Friday to get his heal pricked and then again on Sunday. He went from 16.6 to 14.6 to 14.2 to 11.7 back to 12.5 then to 12.1.

I can happily announce that he is no longer under the lights (we actually returned them... hooray) and mom can love him all she wants. He is doing great and looks and acts healthy with plenty of dirty diapers and sleepless nights:)

Taking Anders home

2009-05-17T13:46:00.012-06:00

It's funny, but

after weeks of looking at an empty car seat, I always thought that baby Anders would actually fill up the seat. When we finally put him in it we had to tighten the straps as far as they would go, and he looked like a little stuffed animal. We got to bring him home to the cave on mothers day. He did great in the car and so far has done really good with the transition to home life. The cutest thing was his pants. We couldn't find the camera at the time, but they went up to his arm pits. He is such a little guy. By this point he has lost some weight and

the doctors want to keep an eye on him. His bilirubin count also went up a lot from a 10 to a 16 so we had to come back to the hospital the next morning to get checked again. Little did we know we would be making that trip another 7 times in the coming week.

BABY POST #4

2009-05-14T07:45:00.009-06:00

Day two at the hospital flew by. Really the entire time at the hospital just felt like one big day. Becka has continued to recover well and Anders is doing great. He did have to get his Hep B shot and then some other procedures done as well. You can tell that all of the work done on him was traumatizing:) but again, once he got back to mom he calmed right down. Doesn't he look comfortable? Mom and Baby sure make for a cute picture. It was also nice to have Grammy at the hospital to help with the lack of sleep. The nurses were also amazing.There are so many things that you never think of when you are going to have a baby until it's there, and then there is no time to prepare for it. They are great at teaching you all the basics. At the same time, they are also willing to bring your baby from the nursery at 3 in the morning crying and waking everyone up. It was a blessing though. Now we just hear him crying or moving and we have to get up ourselves. Trust me, a baby is worth no sleep.

BABY POST #3

2009-05-14T07:30:00.007-06:00

Later that evening Anders had his first bath. He really enjoyed when they washed his hair as you can see, but when it came to the rest of his body he didn't want anything to do with it.

Thank goodness it was back to mommy after that. Anders sure loves his mom. I know she is amazing, but it's nice to know that our little boy knows it too. It seemed like the only place he was ever comfortable while in the hospital was hugging up close to Becka. He knows who to butter up, and he knows how to do it:)

BABY POST #2

2009-05-13T16:58:00.006-06:00

The doctor gave the baby to the nurses and respiration specialist right away because he had some pulmonary aspiration. They got him cleaned up and breathing right really quickly and then I got to bring him to Becka so mom and baby could be together for the first time skin to skin.

Obviously Becka was exhausted, but so excited. Hearing Anders cry was surreal. He wasn't just a baby in the tummy anymore, he was real and alive and right there in our arms.

Next was the checkup to make sure that everything was just fine with Anders. Everything looked good, sounded good and felt good.

It was such a relief to know that everything was okay with him. His official birth was at 4:54pm, 8lbs 2oz, 21 inches. After a few minutes we were all alone with just us and the baby. What a crazy feeling to realize for the first time that we were the ones responsible for a life. There were no parents to hand him over to when he started crying, it was just us. All I can say is he is the cutest little responsibility and the greatest blessing we have ever received. We LOVE Anders!

BABY!

2009-05-13T10:46:00.004-06:00

So this post really begins last Tuesday (5/5/09). We went to the Doctor's office really hoping that Becka would be dilated to an eight and they would say, "Okay you are ready to go, why don't you hurry home to get your hospital bag, and come on in to have this baby." What we heard was quite different. We found out that the baby was going to be a bigger baby, and that Becka had a small pelvis which would not work to well with a big baby. So we met with Dr. Judd and he gave us two options. We could either wait another week and try to do this thing naturally while the baby gets bigger and Becka's pelvis doesn't, or we could go in on Thursday and Becka could be induced to get the baby out. We decided on the Thursday induction option and we are glad we did.

We got the the Hospital at 3pm and they took us to "sweet 16" (aka. room 116). It's the room with the best view and we had or own corner of the hospital. It was the room that Becka wanted when we toured the hospital in March. After getting settled and doing some paperwork the nurse started Becka on Cervidil. Basically that gets the cervix ready for birth. That had to be on for 12 hours and they said it was safe to assume that the heavy duty labor would begin on Friday. So we all relaxed and had a full nights sleep;) Well..... we tried. Mom tried sleeping in the hall because it was to cold in the room and Becka and I did our best to sleep.

The nurses came in at 5:15am to start the Pitocin. Shortly after that the real contractions started happening so by 9am she had the epidural and was feeling great. The doctor arrived at 10:15 to break her water and said that she hadn't really dilated much more. This is when we thought a C-section was the only option. She got checked again at 12:20 and finally some good news. She was dilated to a 4. The only problem was the baby still wasn't dropping into the birth canal. Then at about 2:45 we got the really great, and shocking, news. Becka had dilated to a nine and the baby was completely dropped. They called the doctor and Becka began what they called "rest and descend." Basically they made her wait an hour while the baby continued to drop. The doctor arrived at about 4:40pm after they had prepared the room for the birth. Becka was more than ready to get that baby out of her:) The doctor began pushing the baby out, and had to use forceps to get him facing the right way. Then it was time for Becka to really push. Six very strenuous pushes later, the little babies head popped out. One more push and out he came. continued on next post

Graduation... FINALLY!!!

2009-05-03T23:30:00.006-06:00

The day finally came and my time at Brigham Young University is over. It's kind of crazy to stop and think about everything that has happened during my four years in Provo. It's all such a blur. My freshman year living in good old (demolished) Deseret Towers (aka. DT... go R hall) with one of the funnest wards and group of friends I guy could ask for. Playing soccer and intramurals just about every semester. Moving to Miller with Miles and all the crazy roommates. Meeting, dating and marrying Becka, the most amazing woman I know. All the wonderful science classes, man I hate chemistry! Doing research for hours on end in that blasted lab. Moving from the cold, harsh and dreary Harmony Square to the awesome 800 North house. Finally making some amazing friends with our neighbors... you guys are the best neighbors ever! Rock and Courtney move here and now we get to hang with them all the time too. They are always a ton of fun and we sure will miss them. Then of course the baby is on his way, and now we are on our way to Colorado for more school. This time around I am hoping for a little less chemistry all though I know that you can never get away from it.

The whole experience at BYU has been incredible. I can't begin to explain how much I learned or how much I have changed but I am sure anyone who has gone to college or been a part of anything where you have invested so much time and energy that when it's over, you are relieved, excited, and joyous, but at the same time confused, intimidated, and a little lost. It's been a crazy journey but I am sure excited for what is to come. Enough of my rambling, I will tell you a little about my graduation.

Graduation was awesome. Because there are so many students at BYU they make it into a two day ordeal. I know they don't do that everywhere. On Thursday all of the graduates come together for the commencement where the degrees on conferred on everyone and the Graduation speakers address the class. In the picture I am almost perfectly in the center, just to the left of the stairs. Just before the processional began all the students where lined up in the ASB parking lot and I decided to go into the building to get a drink. I used the side entrance that I used to for work there, and right as I walked in the door, Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson came out of an office with all their security. It was so cool to be so close to them. Elder Uchtdorf said hello but all I could do was smile and wave.

The second day of graduation is the convocation where you walk across the stage and get your diploma cover... that's right, don't let them fool you. You don't get the real thing until you actually pass your classes. That is why I am holding a blank white thing.

Becka's parents, sister Heidi, niece Madison, and nephew Gavin all came into town. Rock, Courtney, Griffin, and Mom and Dad were also there. Basically it was a huge fun party. And to top it all off, I got accepted to medical school. That happened a while ago, but not everyone heard I guess. Anyway, Rock and Courtney threw me a party. Some guy at the grocery store was apparently writing on his first cake ever:) Courtney decided she'll do it herself next time. This was a long update, sorry if it was boring. Hopefully we will have new baby pictures later this week!