Farewell 2009!

Just for Smiles!

I'm very happy to be starting a new year, 2009 was not my favorite year. Losing my Dad has been really tough, especially having all our first holidays without him. Then my job has been a complete nightmare. I always thought I was a person who could get along with anyone. I've always been a peacemaker and I hate contention. Well, I ended up working with someone who is in all ways is the opposite of me. I have never been treated so inconsiderately by someone before. I had to really stick up for myself at work like I never had before and I think it's actually harder to do that.

Well, the school year is half over and I have great hopes for a better year in 2010. I also have made some goals to better myself and family. One thing I want to be better at is having family home evening each week. I found a whole year of premade lessons here that I just had to share. I have a wonderful little family and I'm really lucky. The difficult times in life have always made me stronger, but of coarse I look forward to even better days ahead.

I saw this quote on a plaque and it really hit home with me "Do what you can, With what you have, Where you are." I often focus too much on the future; Mark being done with school, having a new home, and having money for extras. I think by doing that I miss out on the wonderful things I have going for me right now. I think I'm going to work on taking this quotes advice.

Carter's 4th Birthday

Wow, I have a 4 year old! Carter was so excited for his birthday this year. He finally understands it's his special day. I think preschool has helped him to get excited because they sing the birthday song for all the kids. Carter often walks around the house singing the birthday song and when anyone says, "how are you?" he says, "I'm three," and holds up three fingers. Now we we've taught him to hold up four fingers instead, even though that isn't even the question they are asking.

Carter is my sweetheart. Not only is he my miracle baby but he has such a special spirit about him. He is so pure and innocent, and his smile and kisses melt my heart. Carter loves to cuddle and get/give hugs and kisses. He is sensitive and tender hearted. I know he is one of Heavenly Fathers special spirits and he's meant to be in our family on this earth. In fact he's so wonderful it makes losing his twin brother Bryant harder to lose because I often think, "I should have two of these little guys," and I wonder what Bryant would have been like.

Carter has grown leaps and bounds this last year. He is speaking much better and is getting so smart. He loves to tell me about the alphabet and he recognizes most of the letters. He loves to sing the alphabet song. We often say,"I think this kid has a photographic memory," because he remembers everything. He is a good big brother and loves Garrett, even though we are working on sharing. They adore each other and are always getting into mischief. I have to admit although Carter gets into everything and makes me want to pull my hair out with his messes sometimes, he is a pretty obedient child and time-out works wonderful for him. We're lucky he's such a good kid.

Carter loves preschool. Everyday he asks, "school bus coming today mom?" He has a great time and it has helped him tons. He loves riding the bus and has all the sounds of it memorized. In the grocery store one day he was walking backwards and making the backing up noise. It was so loud (Carter's sound effects and singing are very very loud) and he was running into things and people. I had to tell him to watch where he was going, but it was so funny because he was just being a bus. Carter likes routine and has a bed routine each night. He has four stuffed animals that go to bed with him each night doggie, monkey, horsie (night night), and recently we added Spongebob to the mix.

Carter's "fads" for the year have been Spongebob and Cars. He loves anything Lightning Mcqueen and Mater and has the words of the movie memorized. Spongebob is also a favorite with Dora and Boots coming in third. Carter loves golf and basketball. He is active and always on the go. He is all boy. Some favorite phrases are: oh man!, why mom?, what you doing mom? His cousin Tytan or Ty Ty is his favorite person. Carter loves his grandparents, he calls them papa and mama. He loves going to "mamas house" to play. I often show him pictures of my dad Grandpa Slater and ask him where he is, Carter says,"he's at church."

Carter is very social and loves other kids. At school his teachers call him a ladies man because the girls love him and his best friend there Katelyn and him hold hands.

This next year I hope Carter will eat more foods. He is extremely picky and lives on ramen, mac & cheese, PB&J, and nuggets & fries. Also, we need to tackle potty training. No, we still don't have it down :(

This year for Carter's birthday we celebrated it the day after Christmas since Christmas day is so packed. I think Carter enjoyed it more that way. It was a Lightning McQueen party. I made cupcakes and some chip dip for the guests to snack on and we all had a good time. Carter got a ton of stuff, mainly cars stuff which made him happy.

Carter's Lightning McQueen Birthday Party Table

Where did Lightning McQueen go? He was on the top cupcake.

Carter is so excited to have his cousins over for the party

"Finally, everyone's singing to me"

Make a wish

Look at all these presents

Yeah, a Cars book!

"Yes, I got a Mack Truck and Lightning McQueen car"

"I love cake and ice cream!" Yummm!

Jordan, Jennie, and Sharlee eating the goodies

Garrett knows where to go for a backrub

"Thanks Grandpa"

Some more of the Westergard clan

Before Christmas Break Carter celebrated his birthday at preschool. He was so excited when Mom and Garrett showed up with cookies to pass out to the kids. First, the class sang to Carter and he got to blow out a Twinkie cake. He chose a toy car from Teacher Tina's gift basket. Then, Carter passed out his cookies and we had snack time. Garrett enjoyed joining the class. Carter even got a special birthday crown to wear. So much fun!

Snack Time

Teacher Tina and the kids singing to Carter

Christmas 2009

Christmas is such a busy time of year for our family. This year I was in charge of our ward Christmas party. It was stressful because I can never do anything the simple way. I always have to go above and beyond. However, my wonderful mom helped me make a nice roast beef dinner for everyone. Once that was done we had a couple birthday parties for our nieces Londyn and Ellie, and probably about four family Christmas parties. Mark and I had our sixth wedding anniversary on the 13^th. Then there was Christmas and Carter’s birthday party. All I can say is between all that and shopping I’m pooped and ready for the holidays to be over. That might make me sound like a Grinch but this was a tough year anyways.

It is my families first Christmas without Dad and it’s rough. Dad was a big part of my Christmas memories and it really hurt not to have him here. On Christmas he would make such a big deal about all the neat gifts and he always had a story to go with each one of them like, “this is the best camera out there,” or “we had to go to five different stores to find that.” He would smell the new books because he loved that for some reason and was so animated with each gift he received, even if he didn’t really want it. It was definitely hard on Mom and Sharlee because they lived with him. So this year Mark, the boys, and I spent the night at Mom’s on Christmas Eve and opened presents at her house in the morning.

On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner with the Westergard’s. Grandma made sugar cookies with the kids and we watched the nativity story. We then went to Mom’s house and opened our Christmas pajamas. Luckily we had presents wrapped so we could go to bed. My mom has shutters in her house that block out the light completely so we slept in until 9:00am. We opened gifts and then went back over to the Westergard’s for breakfast. Susan made a really nice breakfast and then we opened presents with them. We then went home got dressed and headed back to mom’s for Christmas dinner/lunch with the rest of my siblings. We opened gifts with my family and then visited my grandma Slater. Normally we would then go home and have everyone come to our house for Carter’s birthday but I just couldn’t do it this year,it was too much. We had Carter’s birthday the next day.

It was a busy but nice Christmas. The boys got a lot of new toys and Carter was a lot more fun this year because he knew what was going on. I got clothes, books, and jewelry. Mark got an I-touch and we all had a good time.

Opening gifts at Grandpa & Grandma Westergard's Christmas morning

Garrett at Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas Eve dinner at the Westergard's with Alex looking retarted

Ellie waiting patiently for dinner

Opening Christmas PJ's at Grandma's

Carter was thrilled with all the gifts Santa brought

Aunt Sharlee helped Garrett open his gifts

"look Mom I got a gloworm"

My sweet boys

My other sweet boy :)

"complete chaos"

Carter liked the candy in his stocking as much as the toys

"Grandma gives me cookies"

Opening gifts with Westergard grandparents

Michael, AnneMarie, and Ellie

Now for the real chaos at Grandma Slater's

Carter got new tools

Garrett got a ride on toy

Thanks for a Great Christmas Everyone!

Slater Family Christmas Party

My Grandma Slater has a Christmas party each year and it is one I enjoy going too. Our family has a lot of fun traditions and we had a good time. Since we’ve gotten so large with all the great grandchildren now we have it at the Slaterville City Hall. We had a nice dinner of funeral potatoes and ham with lots of sides to choose from. The kids ran wild while we all chatted, and then we had some fun activities for the kids. My Aunt Shawnee made a Christmas ornament to hang on our trees that had a poem to remind us of the loved ones we have lost at Christmastime. We all teared up because this year Christmas is sad without my dad. We miss him so much. We had the kids do the nativity. They thought they were pretty neat all dressed up. Garrett even got to be a wandering sheep, he is getting so big. After that we did our annual “grab bag” I don’t know where the name came from but it’s a great tradition. Each child has a wrapped present tied with a string. The presents are put in a big box and then everyone gets a string and pulls at the same time. Presents come flying out and then everyone has a little gift. We’ve been doing this ever since I was a little girl and I loved it. Then they played the balloon popping game which was fun for us adults to watch but the kids just cried when someone popped their balloon. After that was “the peanut bust” another weird name. We always did this when I was little too. Everyone gets a bag and then Santa or Grandma this year throws peanuts and candy into the crowd of kids who frantically pick it up and fill their bags. We had a good time. I wish I had taken more pictures of events other than just the nativity. I guess I got caught up in all the excitement.

The Kids doing the Nativity

Garrett peeking through the window while they were getting dressed up.

My little sheep and donkey.

What a big boy.

Tytan the Shepperd and Carter

Tytan is such a character.

Grandma throwing candy to the kids.

Grandma checking out all the candy they got.

Garrett didn't enjoy the chaos. He cried until he got a sucker.

Lights at Temple Square

Riding on the FrontRunner Train

Eating Dinner at Z' Tejas

The Boys adore their Granparents

Aunt Kellie with Libby bundled and asleep

The boys were wrapped it tons of blankets

It's a little Chilly out here.

The Temple was beautiful in the fog

The fog didn't make a very good family picture though.

We rode the Frontrunner Train down to Salt Lake with the Westergard family to see the lights at Temple Square. The kids love riding the train and it was something different from the usual car drive. Once there we ate at Z’Tejas at the Gateway. I love their mac and cheese with the chicken. We then looked at all the lights and walked around. The boys were bundled up tight in the stroller. It was very foggy and the temple looked really neat in the fog.