Carter Helping Dad in the Garage

While Ryan had some time off from work and school he cleaned out the garage and hung the hi-loft storage things. Carter was a big help in the garage. He is staring at Dad on the ladder just waiting for his turn to climb.
Dad gave him a piece to hold. As long as he feels involved in some way, he is happy.

Carter finally got his chance to climb the ladder. As you can see, he is pretty proud of himself.

The little monkey actually made it to the top. Dad didn't even help, just supervised.

Carter gets an unexpected photo shoot

For a Young Womens activity a couple of weeks ago we did a photo shoot for the girls. One of the counselors is an excellent photographer so she brought all of her equipment (couch and all) and we took pictures of the girls. When they were all done, she suggested taking a couple pictures of Carter. I am so glad she did too. The only thing is that I already had him in his pajamas so that I could take him home and put him straight to bed. All well. Here are a few that turned out.

My mom's dog Lilly loves to chase a laser light. Apparently Carter loved watching it just as much.

Sorry about the watermark in the middle of the picture. We didn't have our video camera with us, so I had to use the video on the still camera. The still camera didn't come with any video software, so I downloaded a free one from the internet but since I didn't pay for the upgrade they put the watermark in the middle of it. If anyone else knows of video editing software that allows you to save in AVI or MPEG please let me know.

Carter Says "Book"

You have to listen real careful when he looks at the book to hear him say "book" while he signs "book"

Carter's vocabulary now consists of "uh-oh", "up", "dada", "mmm", "nana"(banana), and "blue" (which sounds more like "boooo").

Coordinated Carter

Carter seems to be learning and growing so rapidly now. He has seven teeth, four on top and three on bottom; and yesterday as I was brushing his teeth, I noticed a molar coming in on top! Also yesterday, I let Carter give Bella her dog treats, but I have Carter stand up to give it to her. Well, Bella ended up backing away and Carter took about 10 steps towards her. He seems to have better balance and can take a couple steps as long as he is focused on something else. His vocabulary consists of Mama, Dada, Uh Oh, and Up. We have been working on the sign language thing with him and he seems to have picked that up really quick as of late. He can sign more, drink, all done, food or eat, and water.

Carter's coordination is increasing by the day. It probably doesn't seem like much to the average person, but the last time we played with these rings he had no idea what to do with them. So yesterday, when he knew exactly what to do them I was pretty excited and of course ran for the video camera.

Carter has been so much fun and we feel so blessed to have such a great and happy child. We look forward to teaching him and watching him continue to grow!

Stickers!

We introduced Carter to stickers on Sunday and apparently he enjoyed it because today he found them in the diaper bag and decided to play with them. Only, he didn't put them on the paper, guess he thought it would be cool to wear them instead. He had one on his chest and one on his ear. Later, during some quiet time before bed, he found the stickers again and another one ended up on the other ear.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fun in the Sun

Last week Carter and I met my sister Makele and her little girl Keira met at Grandma Kathy's house. Aunt Katie was there too. We had so much fun getting tan (or burnt) and playing with the babies. Keira and Carter loved the water! Let's do it again!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Just click on the post to enlarge, then you can click on each individual pic to see them.

Sunday Fun

With his fresh haircut, Carter decided to call all of his friends on Dad's phone.

With two top teeth now, this little guy can eat almost anything.

Uncle Justin was giving Carter a ride on his shoulders, but when Carter wanted to get down, he grabbed the closest object to aid him in his descent.

We just assembled this trampoline in our backyard. Jessica's Dad has had it since he was 16 years old. These 4 lazy bums couldn't muster the energy to jump after dinner.

Carter and Jessica had a great time though. Aunt Katie is patiently waiting for her turn to play with Carter.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

I grabbed the video camera because I just thought it was cute that Carter was minding his own business reading one of his books. What's even better though is the reaction I caught when Daddy came home!

Makeshift Walker

I was getting everything ready to do some hair and the next thing I know Carter has taken off with my chair. He has a walker, but he hadn't really figured out that he can walk in it yet. Which makes this clip even better.

Cabo San Lucas

In Cabo San Lucas (our fourth stop) we went snorkeling. All seven of us went. Yes, even Carter. He didn't snorkel though. We got a few looks and stares and could hear people under their breath wondering why you would bring a baby on a catamaran. We each took turns snorkeling and and it turned out just fine. The water in Cabo was sooo cold. Although, once you were in for about 60 seconds your body seemed to adjust and it wasn't too bad. Carter snuggled right up to Grandma and had a nap on the catamaran. He was a champ throughout the entire cruise. This was probably my favorite stop. Katie and I decided that a week in Cabo would be just fine with us.

Ixtapa Zihuatanejo

The second stop on our cruise was Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. This was my favorite shopping place. It seemed to be a little fishing town. Here's the fish market just off the ocean behind Ryan and I. This is where we did the "Dolphin Swim." Ryan and I decided to observe this activity with the plans of getting some good video and pics of everyone with the dolphins. Well, once we got there, we found out that both video and cameras were not allowed. They were the only ones allowed to take pictures. Then they charge you an arm and a leg for the prints! I snuck one shot of the dolphins while no one was looking.








Every night without fail, Carter's favorite thing to do was to play with his reflection in the mirror.

Acapulo

The first stop on our cruise was Acapulco. We did a historical tour with Alejandro as our guide. the first stop was the old San Diego Fort. We also went to The Flamingo hotel which is where John Wayne and a few other famous people would stay. We also went to a church with an enormous cross, something like 1300 feet tall. I would have to say though, that the highlight of Acapulco would have to be the cliff divers. As the story goes, cliff diving originally came about as a way to unsnag fishing lines. The higher up they were (about 150 feet) the deeper they could go to get to the lines.


















Carter was such a trooper as we had absolutely no way of keeping a schedule. He isn't usually much of a snuggler, (too much to see) so when he snuggled up to Grandpa we knew he was tired. After a nap and some lunch he's a whole new baby!



We were in Acapulco until about midnight, so after dinner we got back off the ship to walk through the square and do some shopping.

Our first day on the ship

We thought that with the rooms being pitch black Carter would sleep so well. That theory proved to be entirely false. Our first morning we were awake to see the sunrise! Here are a couple pics of the lifeless ship at 5:45 am. (Thank you Carter.) There were a couple of these life sized chess boards that were pretty neat and there were two water slides.

We ate at the restaurant called Versailles. It was really nice. The restaurant was at the very back of the boat so we had a beautiful ocean view.

That night we went to the Stardus Theater to watch Murray the Magician (in blue). The guy in the black is Ricky our Cruise Director from Jamaica. Carter is in his pajamas becuase he is supposed to be sleeping. (Rember you can click on any image to enlarge it.)

Cruisin'

When you think of a Mexican Riviera Cruise you think of blankets, jackets, and sweatshirts, right?









The first day leaving out of LA was really windy and cold. The further south we went the warmer it got. Though it never seemed to get too hot. There was always a light breeze which was nice. Especially since we had Carter.