#3 Coming Soon

Around June 20, 2009!

Dear Dr. Crawford,

I remember very well when Olivia was just four months old.

She came out of "surgery" and was a different baby. She wasn't flexible and easy to nurse anymore. She couldn't be diapered like a normal baby. She was traumatized. I was traumatized! She required size 1 diapers again. Huggies Supreme diapers with the tabs cut off so that I could more easily stuff a clean one inside her cast every two hours. She weighed three times as much as she did before the cast. She was PINK.

She didn't require a bathtub. Just a bottle of alcohol and long handled cotton swabs so I could swab down the inside of her cast really good.

A special car seat, stroller, high chair and our own adaptations to baby equipment so she could still play like a normal baby. Because inside the PINK she was still a normal seven month old.

At nine months old, an exciting day came. Traumatic for Olivia though. They "sawed" her cast off and she was so floppy. No longer stiff like a board. It was so fun to see her in pants.


Still wide through the knee area, but learned to do all the 10 month old stuff.




A dress could easily cover up the brace.



It seems to have all paid off! Thank you for the watchful eye and expertise!

Olivia had her yearly check-up for her hip dysplasia with Dr. Crawford yesterday. We won't be seeing Dr. Crawford again (because he's retiring within the next year). But the great news is that we don't have to see a doctor again for this until Olivia is 10 years old! Lots of prayers were offered before hand and when the doctor left the exam room, Olivia quickly let me know that our prayers worked. I got a little bump in my throat.

It's all been worth it!



Now...I hate to turn this post once again to Carter, but let's admit it, he always steals the show somehow. While in the exam room and waiting for Dr. Crawford, Olivia and Carter were staying entertained with the spinny chair. Until Carter got spun off and hit the hard floor head first. Not good. He was so upset and vomitted a bit too. After Olivia's exam, the Dr. strongly suggested to us that we stay there for an hour and an incident report had to be done.
Everything turned out fine, but Carter had us worried until about 6pm that night. He definitely wasn't himself. That is until we gave him some Motrin and (what we guess) relieved his massive headache.
So...it all turned out good ;)

Mr. Independent

Carter never ceases to amaze me with all he can come up with in his working, ever-working mind.

I never thought I would have a problem with Carter getting into the "goodies" (scotch tape, chapstick, glue stick, stapler, gum, etc.) when I put moved them from the very accesible drawer to the high cupboard...WRONG!
I should have known it wouldn't be long for him to figure out the "push a kitchen chair to it and anything is possible" tactic.



Mr. Independent has learned the art of putting on his own underwear. What an art it is! I tried to help, but I didn't want to make him too mad and so I quickly gave up.
(ps, I know I will someday pay dearly for posting this pic...it's a price that I'm willing to pay for now.)
(pps, Putting on his own underwear does not equal potty trained...yet.)

We're off to see the Wizard!

What a great month October was. We not only got to visit family for half of it, we had lots of fun upon returning to our home in Ohio.

A few weeks back we went to a local farm. What a gorgeous day it turned out to be!

They had a fun little corn maze that Olivia loved telling us which direction to go in...don't think she could have ever gotten us out on her own though.



This farm also had lots of fun animals to check out.



Can hardly belive that Carter stood still by himself for a picture.




Oh the lovely moments when Carter and Olivia can sit this close together and get along at the same time.



When it came time to carve the pumpkin that we got at the farm (Aaron picked out a 27 pounder), Carter wanted nothing to do with the goopy inside of it.

Olivia has grown to love it though. She even planted the seeds in our backyard. I wasn't there to help and so she planted them in the middle of our backyard where the lawn is a bit scarce. Should I be surprised if they really grow next year?

Carter was really only interested in carving a pumpkin and since the carving knives really aren't too sharp, we let him have at his own pumpkin (yes, he had painted it before hand).

Aaron working his pumpkin carving skills.

AAAANNNNDDDD, We're off to see the Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

I feel so bad...no picture of Olivia's ruby red slippers that polished off her costume. They were down there, promise.

Carter as the Cowardly Lion and Olivia as Dorothy.

I know, I know, what kind of a pathetic Lion costume is that? Right?

Well...I nearly went over the moon to find Carter a Lion costume that he would wear (because he really was SO excited to be a Lion), but at last, Carter was a lion on his own terms. His pathetic whiskers were even drawn while holding his squirmy body down.

And in the end, his ears couldn't even hold up a little foam crown. At least he was a happy lion.

Gold Swirly Doorknobs

Oh how I used to hate these gold swirly doorknobs! That all changed at about 3pm this afternoon.

At about that time, Carter went into Olivia's room and locked the door. Problem. We had bought a cute new brushed nickel doorknob for Olivia's door and we were planning to change all the other gold swirly doorknobs to match in the days to come. I really liked that new doorknob until Carter went into that room and locked the door.

Let's just say that it was literally impossible to unlock Olivia's door from the outside. So after 45 minutes and trying every bribe in the book to get him to come out I recruited my neighbor to help me out. (He was able to get in within a few minutes...Olivia no longer has a doorknob though.)

Did I mention that we've been potty training? Yes, he was in underwear and yes, the room was really stinky when we finally got the door open and yes, I'm sure that is why he wasn't about to unlock that door and let me in on his own. Cloth diapers would never last in our house because all it took was this one accident and Carter's underwear ended up in the trash!

Another factor in the misbehaving of Carter was that there was no nap taken that afternoon. So after that big ordeal, he finally zonked out on the couch.

Well, I luckily made it through the day. Or should I say, Carter made it through the day (alive)?

Here are a few other archived pictures of Carter's craziness.

Kissing my very clean (ha) mirror while laying on my very clean (ha) bathroom floor.

Thank goodness for washable markers and thankgoodness it wasn't on my walls (this time. Believe me, I have marker waiting to be washed off my walls right now).

As for the new doorknobs, we'll probably be going back to the gold swirly doorknobs that can easily be unlocked by an adult from the hallway (low stress doorknobs).

I'm kinda weird

I have been tagged by Heather and I usually don't care for these tag posts, but reading about other's quirks has been kind of fun.
Here are the rules: "MY UNSPECTACULAR QUIRKS"
1.Link to the person who tagged you
2.Mention the rules on your blog
3.Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you
4.Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them
5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

1. I change my pillowcase every three days. It's because of the dermotologist I saw in High School (when I had bad acne). He told me that I needed to change my pillowcase every three to four days and so here I am 12 years later doing the same thing!
2. It wouldn't be hard for me to become a vegetarian. I've never liked steak and I'm not a big fan of chicken either. I do wish I liked them for Aaron's sake.
3. I still type things even when I'm not at a keyboard. Not as bad as I used to be, but I'll still catch myself typing a word here and there onto my leg or in mid air. Get it?
4. I rarely go more than a day without leaving the house. I really like to run errands and if I'm home for two days in a row...the kids go crazy. I think they are used to running errands everyday too. Olivia often wakes up and asks where we are going that day. I really wish I could stay home for a week straight! I have so much I need to get done AT HOME.
5. I hate having my computer in the front room. I am constantly drawn to it. I would prefer to have it downstairs so that it was out of site (and thus out of mind).
6. I don't like to unload the dishwasher. My sink can be full of dishes all day just because I put off unloading the dishwasher as long as possible...most of the time it's until Aaron can unload it.

I tag:
1. Robyn
2. Diana
3. Sarah
4. Tonya
5. Katie
6. Karen

IND to SLC - 2008

We had a great time and little Olivia shed a lot of tears when it was time to return to Ohio. She keeps reminding me that "it can't be a lot of days until we go back."
I was in Utah with the kids for two weeks and Aaron was there for the first week of that. My dad had knee surgery the day we flew into town. Wasn't planned, but very necessary (sad triad). My parents are also remodeling their home and so Aaron was able to help move furniture around. It's kind of nice to help since we always feel like we are waited on hand and foot when we go there ;) We seemed to keep busy from the moment we landed...

The first morning we woke up could be compared to Christmas with all the new toys to play with!

Olivia doesn't need new toys (thank goodness). Just let her imagination run wild in a kitchen with Grandma there to help her bake what she wants and this is what she's come up with: a frosted cake (made with bread and melted chocolate chips).

Oh what fun a trampoline would be at our house!

Olivia Lunt, Max Carter, Carter Lunt. Olivia couldn't believe that Max's last name was Carter!

One great thing about being from Utah is that most of Aaron's extended family lives in Utah too. So, we always get to visit Grandma Lunt and other Aunt's and Uncles. Olivia loved baby Ryker.

Chad entertaining the kids. And boy, do I mean entertaining! They had SO much fun playing with all the "adults." hehe

Such a fun fam'!

Before we left for Utah, we went to a parade here in Ohio. It's take awhile for that parade impression to ware off of Carter and Olivia. So, at Grandma's they had to have a parade! Marching up and down (and up and down and up and down) the hallway.

This parade even threw candy at me (the spectator).

Olivia bakes some more in Grandma's kitchen...she loved this...

She baked a cake for Sam's first birthday and Amy (Sam's mommy) was so kind to let him eat it before his actual birthday party.

Aren't big brother's the best?

Shellee and Carter watching the cake get eaten.

Ah heck, everybody - let's eat cake!

The remains of Olivia's cake for Sam.

Olivia was thrilled that Sam liked it.

Sunday morning! Amy, Shad (my bro), me and Aaron...outside the Conference Center.

Spiritually Fed people! Conference was so good!

The kids had so much fun in some of Shellee's shoes! We had our own little cat walk.

Ky really enjoyed it ;)

Unlike his little bro.

Olivia loves silly cousins to play with!

It's not often that we get to be around for a cousin's birthday. How fun to be there for Sam's first birthday! Isn't chocolate cake great?

For FHE we went to Gardner Village in SLC. My smart self forgot the camera and so I had to snap a few poor shots with my cell phone. It was such a fun place (thanks for the recommendation JG.)

Gardner Village was full of really fun shops.

I know you can't see Timpanogos mountain in the background because of the clouds, but the view is amazing! Especially when they are snow capped.

Before taking Aaron to the airport so he could return to work and school in Ohio, we stopped by the Mt. Timpanogos temple to show Olivia where we were married.

After dropping Aaron off at the airport, I continued north to visit my favorite college roommates. Jennie freakin' Wilder and Sarah Fordney Hunsaker! Good times!

My mom treated all the grandkids to Kangaroo Zoo! Carter and Olivia loved it. I got a great workout trying to keep track of where they both were.

My last Saturday there, we went to Shonte's house and played. The kids made little Halloween crafts. We got this pumpkin idea from Family Fun magazine.

Kendra

Max did his own thing.

Kelton

Kylan

My mom got some new reading glasses and so we all had to try them ;) (ha)

I love getting to visit all my family when I go to Utah, but I also love the good eats there. Taco Amigo, Los Hermanos, and Panda Express, (we don't have one close enough here) and pink sauce...ahhh...yummy! I also LOVE pinenuts. I found out that Carter and Olivia love them too. My fingers were starting to hurt from cracking so many of them to keep up with their demands. One other things I love about Utah is that it always seems easier to find CUTE, modest clothing there. Especially in my little sisters closet.

Olivia was on top of the world when (my SIL) Amy let her feed little Sam.

Olivia was quite the entertainer. She put on several shows per night filled with lots of bows for the cheering crowd:

Luckily I got some entertainment I hadn't seen before...Max impersonating Stever Erkel. I'm actually surprised that a few of the younger generation know who that guy is!

Thanks to everyone for the good time in Utah. Such great memories. Now it's back to the grind and normal life. Lots to do after being gone for two weeks....