More Awesome Vacation

The day after Christmas we had family pictures taken since all of Ryan's family was together. Carter was pretty sick with a cold, but the photographer did a great job with him and he was a happy baby. We can't wait to see how the pictures turned out!
That Saturday the Baker family headed back home, which made things pretty quiet. We did some after Christmas shopping and went to Lauren and Brett's for dinner and a movie.
Sunday we went to church and then drove to Syracuse, UT to see my brother, Kevin, and his family. They had flown in from England to spend Christmas with Jen's (my sister-in-law) family and attend her sister's wedding. We're so glad that we were able to see them and that Carter was able to meet more cousins. We hope they get sent back to the States soon!

Our families. From left to right: Jacob, Jen, Bryan, Kevin, Katie, Carter, Ryan


Pacifier cousins. Carter is only 3 months older than Jacob, so they had fun together.


Carter and Jacob


Jacob is soooo cute!


Jacob and his daddy.


My brother and I with Carter and Jacob.


Bryan had fun with Carter, too.


Bryan was having so much fun with his grandpa that Carter decided to join them.

Our Early Christmas

Since we were heading to Utah on Christmas Eve, we opened our Christmas presents to each other before we left. It's probably a good thing Carter is too young to remember this Christmas experience, otherwise he'd be expecting several days of opening presents.

Presintz!


Carter opening his first present.


It's a walker!


The assembled walker.


Carter was excited about the ball popper from Uncle Kenny and Aunt Karen.


An activity table from Papa. Carter decided he didn't need to finish unwrapping it.


The assembled activity table.



My pretty boys

Birthdays and Christmas with the Bradleys

My parents decided to take a two week cruise to Mexico for Christmas, so we celebrated my Dad's birthday (12/21), my birthday (12/22), and Christmas the Friday before Christmas.

My dad opening his birthday present from Kevin and Jen.


Carter playing with my dad's birthday present from Kevin and Jen. He was really just trying to get inside since he saw it had food.


Carter playing with my dad's birthday present from us. It plays music and the animals dance, so he loved it.


My awesome birthday present from my parents. This is the newest book by the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I have all of the books and I didn't even know there was a new one, so I was very surprised.


Carter's excited for his presents!


He got distracted by the shiny bow.


Carter loves his "Baby's First Christmas" ornament because it's Precious Moments!


Carter decided to play with the bag instead of checking out all of his nice new clothes.


Carter's new stroller. He doesn't seem that excited, but we sure are because it's easy to get in the trunk and still have room!


The tradition continues! Lost is always on Ryan's Christmas list and my parents have gotten it for him the past three Christmases, but I still try to trick him and so did my mom...the gold box to the right is what she put it in.

Awesome Vacation Day Two: Christmas!

After the reenactment of the birth of Christ from the night before, we woke up Thursday morning to a snow-covered world. This was my (and Carter's!) first white Christmas, and it was wonderful.




Carter was excited to open his presents!


He got this dancing monster named Brobee (from "Yo Gabba Gabba," a kids TV show) from the Bakers. It sings and dances. A lot:




Lauren and Brett with the SpongeBob mosaic we built for them.


Our nephew Luke with the wizard wand my little bro Garin handmade for him.


We got Wall-E! Yay!

It was a blast being together with my entire family for Christmas. That hasn't happened in over a decade, and there weren't many of the little kids around then. We made my mom cry at least once. ;)

Awesome Vacation: Day 1

We flew to Utah the morning of Christmas Eve. It was Carter's first plane ride and he did great. He slept for a little while and was happy during the whole flight. He was very excited to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
We went to Temple Square to see the lights and it was so beautiful, but we are definitely not used to such cold weather! I'm very glad we were able to go because I didn't get a chance to see Temple Square at Christmas time during my mission since I was serving in Arizona at the time.

Outside Assembly Hall. Carter looked so cute in his snowsuit that Grandma Wood got him and he seemed to be much warmer than the rest of us!


Pretty lights.




We all went inside the Joseph Smith building to get warm with some hot chocolate.


Carter being silly.


Kisses for Carter!

We're Back!

We spent the past 10 days in Utah visiting Ryan's family for Christmas and we were very sad to leave. We have tons of pictures and will try to get them up as quickly as possible, so keep checking back!

#1 Cowboy Fan

As everyone should already know, I'm a HUGE Cowboys fan. Shortly after Carter was born, my parents had a layover in Dallas and bought Carter some Cowboy warm ups for him to grow into. I put the jacket on him yesterday because it was cold and rainy and he looked so cute!

Such a happy fan!


And here's a closeup shot to show off Carter's first tooth.

Overdue Update

We apologize for the delay in posts, but things have been crazy lately. I've been serving on a jury for the past 3 weeks and I'm hoping it will all be over tomorrow. Thankfully my mom has been able to watch Carter, so he's been having fun with her while I hang out in lovely Compton. Ryan has been extremely busy finishing up his very stressful semester. His last final is on Thursday and we're going to celebrate with a wonderful vacation to Utah to visit his family for Christmas. To top off all the stress and busy schedules, we've all been sick with some stomach bug Carter passed on to us.

Now here are several pictures we've been meaning to post:

Carter met Santa for the first time at my parents' ward Christmas party on the 13th. This picture cracks me up!


Carter got to see Santa again the next day when my boss invited us to his yacht club.


Christmas carolers singing for Carter.


A friend of my boss's fell in love with Carter and took him over to see the other kids who were decorating cookies. Two of the kids wanted Carter to have their cookies and he got the frosting all over his face and hands, so she brought him back to us.


Sunset on the dock


On my boss's boat


On the deck

Happy Birthday!

PS: I take full blame for this getting posted so late. We shot it this morning, and I forgot to upload it while at school or work today, and just now got it up after getting home from school at 11:30 tonight.

Carter's First Turkey Day

And boy, did he like it!