BOY!

Today we learned that we are having a BOY!  We are very excited.  We had no preference, but there are defiantly advantages.  One advantage to having a boy in the fall is that will make him one of the older kids in school, which should give him a good advantage (something girls don’t usually need as much).  I also think that it is great for boys to get on their missions before starting college.  Cara won’t notice or care much at this point, but Caleb is really excited about having a brother.  He measures in the 90^th percentile for his due date, but the doctor didn’t change the date.  Caleb has been totally off the charts for height most of his life so we just might have another big boy.

 

The main disadvantage of having a boy is that Josh and I don’t have a name we agree on.  (There are a couple of girl names we both like.)  I would like to name him Andrew (Andy) or Benjamin (Ben or Benji), Andrew being a family name and Benjamin being from the Book of Mormon.  I have also considered Paul from the Bible.  I guess I need to look at some family history and see what else I can come up with.  Josh thinks those names are too boring.  I remind him that he didn’t like the name Caleb until I had been calling him that for about a month.  It had to grow on him.  Any ideas?

A Cure for Spring Fever

Last Friday I sent a text to Josh in the afternoon threatening to make him do yard work all weekend if we didn’t get out of here.  (I am experiencing some cabin/spring fever to say the least.)  He sent me a text a 4:00, which I didn’t receive until he called and was headed home at 5:00.  His message was pack your bags.  Needless to say we had our bags packed, a hotel booked, and we were headed out of town by 5:45.  We had no idea what we were going to do, but we were getting out of here.  If you have never used hotwire to book discount hotel I recommend it. (www.hotwire.com) We stayed at the SLC downtown Hilton for $85.  It was a fun adventure for the kids and for us too.  On the way down we stopped and had dinner with the Coombs’ family and went to the donut factory, aka Crispy Cream.  While swimming at the pool Friday night we ran into one of Josh’s friends who introduced us to the Salt Lake City “Connect Pass” which was THE BEST PART. 

 

I had to get home and spread the word because it was such a great deal.  If you want more info go to http://www.visitsaltlake.com/what_to_do/connect.html.  The pass was only $18 for adults and $14 for children for a one-day pass.  I had no idea there were so many fun things to do with kids in SLC.  It included so much that I almost felt like I was cheating.  There are 14 SLC venues to choose from with the pass, and you can do as may as you can fit into the day.  We did the following in one day and all for $50 for the family.  We went to the Hogle Zoo. We had lunch at the Lion House Pantry. (Amazingly lunch was included with the pass.)  We got tickets to the Clark Planetarium IMAX show but missed the show because we were distracted at the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum.  We went to The Living Planet Aquarium.  (At this point Cara and I took a nap in the car, but Josh and Caleb were going strong.)  Finally, we went to the worlds largest dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It was so fun!  We really felt like we were on vacation.  The only unfortunate part of the day is that I didn’t grab the camera.  We did have our phones and took a few phone pictures.  I guess we will have to do it again to get some more pictures.

 

Friday night we went to Orem to a Flash game.  Flash is a semi-pro team that feeds into the Jazz and another pro team that I don’t remember.  NAI, the company Josh works for, is a major sponsor and has box seats.  It was fun to see how that works.  We ended up extending our vacation one night and spending Saturday night with my cousin Tamie Bateman.  I had no idea that Josh and I would have so much fun with Tamie and her husband Nate.  We laughed and laughed.  It goes without saying that our kids had fun together too.  It was so fun to get away.  I loved spending the quality time with the kids, and of course I loved that I was getting a deal.

We are Expecting!

The time has come to make the announcement official. We are expecting! Luckily it is something that we really wanted because I have been so sick. It has been a rough month or so. I guess I had it in my mind that sense I was better with Cara than with Caleb that this time I would be even better. Boy was I wrong. As rough as it has been I am really trying not to complain and to count my blessings that Josh and I are able to be parents again. The widget we have added to our blog is so that Josh can keep track of how far along I am. I am going to keep my eyes set on the weeks I have behind me not what lies ahead. I want to share with you some excerpts from my journal as I was trying to look past being sick and count my blessings.

1. I had two miscarriages in the last six months and I am grateful that this pregnancy is sticking. I really do want to have a family and I am grateful that I am capable of bearing my own children. When I think of the heartbreak of those who can't I am so sorry for them. I know that is much worse than this temporary discomfort that I have.

2. Zofran went generic after I had Cara. (The medication I take so that I can keep food down.) With my other pregnancies I (the insurance) payed $45 for each pill. I have almost quadrupled the dose I was taking with Cara and I am so grateful that they do not cost what they used to.

3. My discomfort is temporary. I know that my sickness will go away in seven months and I will get a prize at the end. I am so grateful for that!

4. I am grateful that I am not experiencing this alone. My husband loves and supports me. I am so thankful for a husband that is a team player and is a worthy priesthood holder. A few weeks ago Josh and I were laying in bed and it was just like you see in the movies. I felt like I was starving. I hadn't kept anything down all day and all I wanted was macaroni and cheese. (I haven't eaten that sense I was 10, but in the last couple of weeks I have had it everyday for lunch.) Unfortunately we were out and Josh was very tired, but he went to the grocery store and stocked up for me. I ate some before going back to bed and I slept better than I have for a long time. I wasn't even sick in the night.

5. Caleb and Cara have been so sweet and worried about me. For the first few weeks that I was sick Caleb would ask me each and every time I got up, "are you going to throw-up." He would ask with such concern, and Cara has taken it upon herself to be my nurse. Although Caleb doesn't hesitate to tell me how disgusting it is. He has done his share of gagging because it sicks him out, but he has to watch.

I do have one kind of funny story. On Saturday morning I was about to jump in Josh's car when I started to gag. (I don't go to the bathroom when I feel like I am going to throw-up or else I would be in the bathroom all of the time. I don't go until I start gagging.) Of course I wasn't thinking clearly, all I could think was that I didn't want to clean up puke in the the garage or the car. Instead of just running out to the yard I stupidly jumped in the car and backed out to the yard, all the time I was gagging and just trying not to loose anything in Josh's car. Once I got out of the garage I jumped out of the car to do my business, but the car was still in reverse. At that point my breakfast started coming out, but I was getting run over by the car door as the car continued backing out. I jumped back in the car keeping my head hanging out the door to put my foot on the brake while I finished what needed to be done. Needless to say I was really glad no one was looking as I closed the door and drove away, I am also pleased to announce that the car and garage were saved.

Making the most of all this snow!

Last weekend we had a wonderful time snowmobiling with my family. The kids loved it! They didn't care how cold they got. They just loved bouncing around on the snow. It is hard to see who is who because they also insisted on wearing their goggles. Who can blame them?



The snow is now officially above the fence at my parent's house. I can't remember there ever being this much snow. I berried a snowmobile up the canyon while riding with Cara and Colter. Cathie was with me and she had Caleb. She took all three kids home and picked up some muscles, Cody, to come and rescue me. The pictures don't give justice to how much show there really is.



While I waited to be rescued I came across this beautiful tree. I am sure there are many object lessons that could be taken from the way that it has held onto its beautiful fall leaves. Mostly I was just awestruck with the beauty.



When the kids weren't on the snowmobile they were on the sled taking advantage of grandpa who would pull them up the hill to sled down.

A fun filled weekend.

You know when you have one thing to do you have ten which was the case for us this weekend. We had two awesome events. First, it was the weekend of my all time favorite family tradition the Owen Family Ski Party. The night was amazing as always. My mom brought enough food to feed an army, which we all gladly devoured. The snow conditions were amazing and we were surrounded by our family and friends. Caleb skied a little last year, but this year he spent some more time on the mountain. He is scared out of his mind, but in his whiney voice he kept saying what a great time he was having. It is fun to see him introduced to a sport that Josh and I enjoy so much.














This weekend on Saturday night was the NAI Black tie Ball. NAI is the commercial real estate company that Josh works for. It was so fun to have an excuse to get dressed up and go on a nice date. It was also fun to hear the awards that were given at the party and be reassured that people are making great money in this business, and I know Josh will too.

Family Update - All you wanted to know and more

It seems to be about time for a full update again. I am trying to keep a little gratitude journal, but other than that this is my journal. Even though a picture tells a thousand words there are some key elements of our life that are missing from the events that I have posted. The kids are the most fun to write about so I will start with them.




CARA is now 22 months. This week she gave away her bottles much to her displeasure. She loves her bottle, but I just couldn€™t rationalize her keeping it any longer. It has been a painful week without it, but I am certain it will get better. She has never really had a pacifier (as hard as I tried to get her to take one), which has made it harder to live without the bottle. To get rid of it we packed them all up in a bag and took them to €œbaby Henry because the baby needs the bottles and she is a big girl.€ Amazingly she did great the first day, but she has had a hard time the last couple of days. Mostly she struggles when she is going to sleep or waking up. There are three reasons for taking it away. The first reason is her ears. We are monitoring her ear infections very closely. The week before Christmas she was stinky. I washed her hair at least twice a day for three days. I washed her bed and all of her cloths. I just couldn€™t figure out what could possibly be so stinky. I finally figured out that the smell was coming from her ears. Even with her tubes she had gotten so much infection that when I took her to the specialist the next day they had to suck the infection out. With ear infection problems like that she shouldn€™t be laying down to drink a bottle nor should she be consuming so much milk. The second reason why she has to give up her bottle is because she needs to be potty trained desperately. She is already so close. Sometimes she tells me she needs to go €œca-ca€ and she will go in the potty, but usually she just takes off her dipper after she goes. If you can imagine this can be a huge mess and we are going through truckloads of dippers because she takes them off after she wets too. This week we are giving up the bottle, next week we will give up the dippers. The third reason is that her big brother loves the bottle too. It will be nice to not have him begging for a bottle. It is when he says, €œIf you give me a bottle I will go take a little nap€ that I get really tempted.




We are keeping a close eye on Cara€™s ears and speech. She is part of a government program called Up to 3 or Baby Watch. She has speech therapy once a week as well as many other classes we can optionally attend. She baffles her therapist, as she doesn€™t follow any of the early speaking rules. She doesn€™t throw tantrums if she wants something. Her self help skills are so strong that she just gets whatever it is she wants. The words that she does say are totally random. Some of her most random words are, bubble, Aggie, Connie, and Grandma. You can see what motivates her. We have quarterly hearing test and right now they say she can hear well enough to learn to talk, but they feel that her delay is due to not being able to hear before she had tubes. I just ache for her to be able to talk. She is so darn cute.




CALEB is all boy. I can€™t believe he turns four next month. He continues to live and die for ball (whatever sport) and now he is getting into video games. He loves nicjr.com where there are hundreds of simple, free video games. It is amazing how he can concentrate on video games but sitting in church or school is not an option. Even though he is all boy he still really likes me to hold him and he seems to be more needy now then when he was two. I think it is just to test my patience.




Caleb says really funny things. I always think I should record them, but I never do. Of course I can't remember anything now. The other day an older gentleman who we do not know well was at our home. Caleb approached him, put his hands on his hips and said, €œWould you like to buy a horse.€ Of course he was referring to one of the neighbors horses. He proceeded to tell this man that he is trying to get money to buy a motorbike and he needs to sell a horse. Where do kids get these ideas? Caleb is just like his dad. He is not scared of anyone and he is always trying to strike up a deal. He says to me many times a day €œis that a deal mom?€




SAMI has been a great addition to our family. It has been interesting to have our parenting skills tested over the past four months that she has been with us. I am hoping that we are to the bottom of the problems and that it is only up from here. We have a testimony of the power of the word of God so we have issued a challenge to her to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the school year. We have even started a blog for this challenge at The Book of Mormon Challenge. You are welcome to join us in the challenge. You can see the rules on the link. We have offered her a trip if she meets the challenge. She has never been on an airplane before, and if she does the challenge she also gets to pick the location (of course within a budget.) Sami has also started her own blog in order to link to the challenge. You can learn more about her by reading her story on her blog at Samantha.




The hardest person for me to write about is myself. I guess that is why I haven€™t been keeping a journal. I have had a discouraging fall/winter, and I like to keep my blog positive. I am sure that anyone who reads this would be interested in knowing about some of the sad things too. First, in the past five months I have had two miscarriages. They were both very early so I am grateful for that, but it is a test of my faith in the Lords timing and my willingness to be happy with the blessings I do have. It has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. The good thing is that I don€™t feel like I am in a huge hurry to have another baby, it is just hard to be patient when things aren€™t going as planned.




Another discouragement this fall has been the close of the Investment Lending branch that I opened here in Logan a year ago. With the crash of the secondary mortgage market and the end of sub-prime lending our branch was too new to withstand the blow. Luckily we were able to find someone to take over our lease, but the financial cost has been tremendous as we have liquidated furniture and covered other overhead expenses. 2007 was not a great year for investing for us in general. We built a spec home in a partnership and with the market shifts we are now hoping to sell it even at a huge loss. Unfortunately the cost of experience and learning can sometimes be huge. Even though we are loosing a small fortune on this spec home I have never felt like it was a mistake. We involved the Lord with the decision from the start. It has been a huge test of our integrity and our character, and I believe that we are passing. I wish we didn€™t have to loose money, but in the long run we know that we will recover. On a happier note we have found one investment that we think is fantastic. We have been investing with a loan servicing company that meets all of our investing requirements, security, liquidity, and rate of return. Having had some bad investments this year (even more than I have mentioned) it sure makes it easier to recognize good opportunities. If you are interested I would love to tell you more about the loan servicing. If you are new to investing we have lots of tips if you want to avoid learning some things the hard way. I can€™t wait to apply some of the things that we have been learning in 2008.




Josh seems to be doing fantastic. He loves his new carrier and the company he works with, NAI. Commercial real estate seems to be a perfect match for him. He loves working with business owners and investors. He loves to network with these interesting people. He was able to enter NAI in a sweet deal. Don Schroeder, a dear friend of his parents, took him under his wing and Josh is essentially apprenticing under Don. It has made the transition a little smoother for us because Josh is now a part of deals that Don has been working on for years. We feel very fortunate. I am so glad that Josh has found something that makes him so happy, and something that he doesn€™t have to track his billable hours in order to get paid. His broker told him a few weeks ago that you can make great money in his field working part time, his broker continued, €œyou can choose whatever twelve hours a day you want too work.€ Josh loves to work, but I have tried to tell him that his broker was joking. It is a treat for all of us when he is home which isn€™t enough between work, young men€™s, and his other projects. We just love to have him around.

Santa Came to Our House

Once again Santa made it to our house. I am slow to post because I didn't take very many pictures. We had a wonderful Christmas!




We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We always have a wonderful time there. The kids love playing with their cousins, and my mom goes to so much work serving us all. Christie has tagged herself as Santa's helper, and she makes Santa himself look bad with all of her gifts. It is so fun to watch the kids.




We are lucky to have both of our families in the valley so we get to spend time with both of them over Christmas. We were wondering if we would make it home on Christmas Eve night because of all of the snow, but we didn't get stuck until we were in the driveway at home.




We spent Christmas morning with our little family, and then went to the Kirks on Christmas afternoon. They prepared an amazing Christmas dinner of ham, turkey and ribs. We ate better then royalty. We are so blessed in every way!





I won't even begin to list all that the kids got for Christmas, but as you can see from this picture the biggest kid gets the biggest toy.





Cara loves her princess chair.





Sami got her long awaited and beloved iPod. I didn't know she would quit talking to me after she got it, but she really enjoys listening to her music.

Christmas Treats

This year I decided to make a neighbor gift that the kids could help with. We have had a lot of fun making them so I am posting the idea so that you can make them with your kids. They make a great FHE activity/treat. They are just pretzels with kisses melted on them and an M&M on top. To make them put the pretzels on a tray with the kiss. The best kisses are the candy cane, but you can use any kind. Put them in the oven on 180 for about 5-6 minutes. Place an M&M on the tip of the kiss after they are melted and let them cool. They are a great treat and fun for the kids.

Carrie Is 30!

I am happy to announce that I am now 30! I had a wonderful birthday on the 28th. Josh took part of the day off work, which made me very happy, and he and my friends threw a neighborhood/family birthday party for me. You all know that I love to be with people so having a party was a perfect gift. I had a wonderful day. Josh brought me breakfast in bed. (It was my favorite - McDonalds.) We went out to lunch at Hameltons while my sister Connie watched the kids and made cookies for the party. Then Erica and I went to the beauty college and had facials for just $5. (I loved the facial, but I also love a bargain.) Then we spent the evening partying. Thank you to my family and friends for all of your love and support. I am who I am because of you. I love you!

My Boys

I couldn't resist posting this picture of Josh and Caleb. Aren't they cute? I don't think most men like dressing in matching cloths with their kids, but Josh loves it. He an Caleb are two peas in a pod.

NAI Lagoon Day

The company that Josh is now doing commercial real estate with, NAI Utah, had a Lagoon day on Friday. Even though the kids still aren't 100% we had a wonderful time with them. Luckily my aunt Merle took them for the evening so that Josh and I could get some time to do rides too. It is hard for us to grow up!

Bear Lake

We had the fun opportunity to spend a couple of nights in Bear Lake this week. We all had a great time. Dawson and Cara had a dirtiest kid contest. We decided they both deserved top awards.

Caleb and Isaac call this fun. It may look like a fight to the rest of us, but they can not get enough wrestling. They are 110% boy!

We spent both mornings at the beach. Ethan and Cara found great joy in destroying Caleb's sand castle.
The kids loved the water, especially Cara. She would run in sit down, gasp for air, splash a few times, and run back out. She was so fun to watch.

Anniversary Trip

Josh and I had a wonderful fifth anniversary trip this weekend. We had been planning on going to Park City for the weekend, but a couple of weeks ago Josh got lucky at an NAI golf event and won a $500 gift certificate for the Blue Boar Inn in Midway. (It was a random drawing. It was not at all based on his golfing skills.) We were able to blow the entire $500 by staying at this very classy inn, enjoying some incredible fine dining, taking scooter rides around Midway and the nearby mountains, and we topped it off by taking a helicopter tour. We had a wonderful time. We feel so fortunate to be celebrating five wonderful years together! Thanks to our parents for taking the kids!

Update

With all of the pictures on the blog I thought I better also add a family update for those who are interested in knowing more. We are all doing very well. Josh is really getting into his new career doing commercial real estate with NAI. The transition has been a little rocky, but we are defiantly on the upswing. He loves what he is doing, and we feel so good about the change. Luckily we have had Investment Lending, which I very much enjoy, that has held us over while he was making the switch. I have also been working (at least a few hours a week) on my book. I figure it should be done sometime in this decade at the rate I am going. If you didn€™t know, I am working on a book for LDS women that will help to smooth the transition into motherhood. If anyone has suggestions or stories that might be helpful I would love to speak with you about them. Please let me know.

We have some exciting upcoming events. This weekend we will celebrate our fifth anniversary. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking at EFY and part of my bio was that I had been married for five years and I have two kids. I couldn't believe it! It felt like yesterday I was a counselor wondering if I would ever get married. Time sure does fly! We are looking forward to our big trip to France and Italy in September. Josh and I are clueless about what to do or see so if you have any insight we are certainly taking suggestions. All we have planned is that we fly into Paris and twelve days later we fly out of Rome. My mom is taking our kids (bless her heart!!) so it will be a celebration of our anniversary and both of our 30th birthdays this year.

The kids are just growing like crazy. We will be tied down for a while in August as they are both having surgery on the 13th. They are both getting tubes in their ears and their adenoids out, and Caleb is getting his tonsils out too. It should be interesting! But I am looking forward to having kids that don€™t always have ear infections, although they are both such a joy (most of the time) that you would hardly know.

Caleb continues to be obsessed with playing ball, any kind of ball. He was just introduced to golf this last week. Now he wants to go to the €œgolf-ball court€, the €œgolf-ball field€ or the €œgreen park€, of course he means the putting green, every day. He hasn€™t quite got the lingo down, but he is getting the sport. You name a sport that has a ball, and he can play it!

Cara went from crawling to running. She is such a busy girl. I don€™t remember Caleb being into things like she is, and he certainly wasn€™t as brave. We have a rock wall in our back yard that consists of about six big boulders at it highest spot. If I let her into the backyard alone or if I turn my back on her guaranteed she will be scaling the rock wall. For some reason she loves to climb down it. It gives me a heart attack, but she feels like she has got it all under control. She is fearless.

Having Fun!

We are having a great summer.

Our dear friends, the Low's, got a boat. We are really glad! We have tried to take as much advantage of that as possible.


This is our nanny Robyn. She is with the kids 10-15 hours a week so that I can work. They have a blast with her.



This was the first and last time Cara got to take a sink bath with her cousen Ethan. (Josh's sister, April's, boy.) They loved splashing. Needless to say my kitchen got a good wipedown after the bath.


Caleb and his best friend Isaac are just trying to "hang-loose" this summer.

Cody is Married

Cody got married to Stephanie on May 5th in the Bountiful Temple. This is the whole fam.


Cathie and Keith even made the trip out with their three little ones for the wedding.


Poor Steph now has to deal with the Owen girls!