December

This month, Carter became a full fledged walker. It was pretty hilarious seeing him try to get the hang of it. At first he would raise both hands in the air and squeal as he let go of the couch.

This month, we got our first big snow of the year. Carter liked looking at it from inside, but wasn't a huge fan of actually being outside in it. We took Carter sledding, but he pretty much hated it.

Another experience that Carter hated this month was visiting Santa. Jeremy was convinced that Carter had a grudge against him because he was the one that handed him to Santa.

Christmas was really fun this year with Carter. Even thought he didn't understand what was going on, it still brought back a little bit of the magic of Christmas.

Jeremy had the whole week of Christmas off and it was really nice to have him home. After Christmas we went into Philadelphia for the day and visited the Please Touch Museum with Carter. It was a really cool museum, maybe a little bit too old for Carter, but we had fun.

We got some pretty exciting news this month. Jeremy got accepted to Cornell, Duke, Wharton, and the University of Michigan business schools. We are so proud of him! Now we have some big decisions to make!

November

November was a big month for us. We took a little trip to Ithaca, New York for Jeremy's interview for Cornell's business school. The interview went really well and the campus was really beautiful. Carter was definitely the only baby on campus, a little bit different than BYU.

This month, our little guy turned one!

I can't believe it has already been a year, it just seems like a couple of months ago that he was born. He is such a loving, joyful little guy. We are so glad he is a part of our family. For his birthday party, we did a "mustache bash." Carter didn't really understand what was going on, but I think he had fun. He even kept his mustache on for a little bit.

Carter also got his very first haircut this month. He is growing up to fast, all of this milestones make my heart hurt a little bit.

Jeremy's family came to visit us this year for Thanksgiving. It was really fun having them here. This year, we decided to brine our Turkey, and I tell ya, I am never going back. Brining is the way to go. It's a little bit more labor intensive those. It was pretty funny watching Jeremy shove the brining bag in the fridge and rinse the turkey in the sink, it looked like he was bathing a baby.

The meal turned out really great!

During their visit, we made our annual visit to Longwood Gardens. They had a fruit theme this year. They had a cool apple float.

It was really fun to have Jeremy's family here, we wish they could have stayed longer!

October

This month, we celebrated my 28th birthday. We went out to dinner with friends and stopped for Zwahlens on the way home.

The next day, we went apple picking at Linvilla Orchards. It was such a fun place. We came home that night and made apple crisp.

This month, my little brother Chad returned from his mission to Chile. Carter and I flew home to Boise to be there when he arrived. As usual, Carter was an excellent travel buddy.

 It was so great to see him again and for him to be able to meet Carter for the first time.

Before I got there, my family played a special edition of the "face game" (where every person draws one feature of every other person's face) to make a welcome home banner for chad. It actually turned out pretty well, they usually turn out much more disturbing than this.

It was so great to be in Boise again. It was fun to see my parents' new house. Even though I didn't come back to the house I grew up in, it still felt like home. Carter had a great time hanging out with everyone.

He loved following Mickey around everywhere!

We took him to the park a couple of times while we were there. Camel's back park is one of my favorite spots in Boise.

This is me yawning trying to get Carter to smile for the picture (for some reason Carter thinks yawning is hilarious.) Carter looks a little bit ashamed of me in the picture. While I was in Boise, my friends Brooke and I threw another baby shower for my friend Cami. The night before the shower, my girlfriends and I were able to go out to dinner. It was so fun to get to hang out with them

The shower was a lot of fun. I used the "lil pumpkin" theme again. It was too cute not to use again! I think everything turned out really well.

Our trip to Boise was over way too soon and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. At the end of October we got family pictures done. We had them taken at Valley Forge. It was a gorgeous fall day and we loved how they turned out.

At the end of the month, Carter experienced his first Halloween. He went as a monster this year. 

We took him trick or treating to a couple of houses and then called it a night. Holidays are definitely more fun now that we have Carter. He was the cutest little monster around!