Porter's Birth Story

Matt, Carter and I welcome Porter Scott. He was born November 30th at 3:00 PM weighing 5 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19 in. long. We are so happy to have him join our family. He has been such a great baby. The day before I had Porter the doctor and I decided I would get induced the next day. At the time I was already dilated to a 4 and was completely effaced. We were surprised that I hadn't already gone into labor yet. The doctor told me labor and delivery would call me in the morning to be induced if there are enough delivery rooms available. I was last on the list to be induced so they told me that if the rooms were full we would have to wait until Monday. I was told they would call me no earlier than 6 and to call if I hadn't heard from them by 8. Well at 5:15 the next morning they called and asked if we could be to the hospital within the hour. This might be gross to some of you but I lost my mucous plug just after getting off the phone with labor and delivery...we just thought it was a funny coincidence. Matt and I hurry and got ready and got up Carter. We dropped Carter off at Matt's parents and we made it to the hospital by 6:15. The nurse got us set up in the room by 7 and were watching my contractions. I was having contractions on my own but they weren't close enough yet, so they decided to start me on pitocin. Matt and I just hung out in the room for a while and the nurse kept asking me when I want my epidural. I was feeling pretty good and didn't think I needed the epidural yet. My sister, Sabrina, talked on the phone to me a lot while I was in labor. She thought I was crazy that I hadn't gotten the epidural yet. She told me I should hurry and get it because last time she waited a little longer and the contractions were really intense. She freaked me out so I decided to get the epidural then at 10. After the epidural kicked in I was pain free...I guess I didn't realize how much pain I was in. It seemed as though things were going slow. They checked me at 1 and I was finally dilated to a 5. I called my mom and sister to update them because they were coming to the birth and didn't want to miss it. They were both at the hospital but needed something to eat. They came up to the room around 1:45 and the doctors checked me at 2 and I was dilated to an 8+. They said they would check me again in a little while unless I felt pressure. After only 15-20 minutes I was feeling a lot of pressure and sure enough I was dilated to a 10. The doctor was delivering someone else's baby so I had to wait until he was finished. We waited until 2:50 and then I started pushing. I pushed for 10 minutes and Porter was born at 3:00 PM. Matt's mom barely missed the birth. She got there right after.

Me holding Porter for the first time.

Matt, Porter and me

Grandma Connie and Porter

Everyone that was there, but my mom.

Porter. He reminds me of Carter in this picture.

Girls Weekend

In September a lot of the girls in my family go to St. George for the weekend for a little getaway. My sister-in-law has a time share down there so we stayed in the condos. Since there were several of us that went this year we had to get two condos. I was sad that a couple of my sister-in-laws couldn't come. When we first got down there we went shopping...of course! We went shopping until everyone else arrived in St. George. For dinner we went to the Cracker Barrel and then went back to the condo and hung out until about 2 in the morning. We got up bright and early the next day to go shopping again. My sister unfortunately got food poisoning from the day before and was sick all morning. She is a trooper and still went shopping with us all day. Luckily she was feeling better around lunch time and was able to enjoy herself. That night we went to the Tuacahn Theater and watched Hairspray. It was really good! After that we went back to the condo and yes...we stayed up until 2 in the morning again. The next morning we were all beat and ready to go home. When I got home I was happy to see Matt and Carter let alone a clean house!! Matt picked up the whole house for me while I was gone. What a sweetie!

My sister Melissa, Sabrina, My Mom and me posing

In the row on the left is Sabrina, My mom, me and Melissa. On the row on the right is Kjerstin, Marva (Emily's mom), Angie and Emily. My sister-in-law Mary is taking the picture.

All of us before the show started.

Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the crisp air and the changing color of leaves. Matt and I decided to drive up Provo Canyon to look at all of the pretty leaves. We didn't have a spot to pull over to take pictures, so the pictures I did get are a little blurry unfortunately.

Gender Reveal

I think its about time I update that Matt and I are expecting a baby December 6th and its another BOY! We are so excited to have the new addition to our family. I'm sure Carter will love having a little brother to play with. Matt and I decided to have a gender reveal party to find out the gender. I put my friend Brianne in charge of setting up the reveal. Instead of doing a cake they decided to put the reveal in a box. Matt and I opened the box and a pink and a blue balloon flew out...hmm. I knew we weren't having twins because we would have seen that on the ultrasound. Everyone was so confused. After the two balloons flew out there was a black balloon taped to the bottom of the box. We took it out and popped it. There was a little note that said we have to look through the confetti to find out the gender. Matt and I searched through the confetti probably 2 or 3 times before finding it. It was written on ONE piece of confetti and it is a BOY! It was so much fun and the build up of the anticipation was fun. We were so happy that some of our family and friend could be there to share the experience with us. Here are some photos of the reveal party. The lighting is bad in some of the pictures so I apologize.

The table with pink and blue treats

HErSHEy

According to the old wives tales we are supposed to be having a girl...

The pink and blue balloon that flew out

Searching through all of the confetti

Finally we found it! Its a boy! Yay!

Carter's not sure what to think. Maybe its because he's going to have to share his toys.

My awesome sister-in-law Emily and Matt. She helped take pictures for me.

WTFN Reunion

Every year at the end of June my side of the family has a reunion. This year we went to Joseph, Utah. It's a small town just south of Richfield. It's always fun getting together with all of my siblings and kids. Sadly, my brother, Thom, couldn't come to the reunion since he lives in Japan and my sister-in-law, Tristin, couldn't come either.

One of the activities we had was spray painting t-shirts. Since the 4th of July was right around the corner I decided to make Carter a shirt for the 4th. It turned out way cute.

Everyone's spray painted shirts

My brother Mike and my nephew Asher (Thom's son)

My gorgeous sister-in-law Kjerstin and me

All of us that attended the reunion except for Tony since he's taking the picture

My sister Sabrina and me

Sadie, Gwen, Carter and Afton wearing their 4th of July outfits

Carter's 1st Birthday

On May 5th was Carter's 1st birthday! I can't believe he is already a year old. That year went by WAY too fast! He's no longer a baby :( But that's okay...I'm loving the stage he is at right now. For his birthday we did a jungle theme. I love jungle animals and figured I can only pick his birthday theme while he's still young, so I had to pick that. I love how the decorations and the cake turned out. My sister Sabrina drove up from Las Vegas and stayed with me for a few nights to help me get ready for Carter's birthday. It was also a lot of fun having her two little girls there. They just adore Carter. Afton cracks me up because she is shorter and Carter is on the taller side...she would always ask to hold Carter but he's almost as big as she is.

Daddy and the birthday boy

Carter's cake and cupcakes.

I found animal masks. I thought they looked hilarious.

Me and the birthday boy

Family picture

Blowing out the candle

He LOVED the cake

Opening Presents!! I appreciate everyone that came and made it a more special day for Carter.

Easter Fun

This was Carter's first Easter. We spent it with my sister, Sabrina, at her home in Las Vegas. The kids woke us up because they were excited that the Easter Bunny came! The kids got their easter baskets and had fun eating the candy except Carter didn't seem to care what was in his basket other than his binky. Ha ha! Pretty much everything in his basket was for Matt and me to eat anyways :) After the kids were done looking through their baskets they had an easter egg hunt. My sister's kids found all of the eggs since Carter can't walk and doesn't really know what to do yet. For breakfast we made homemade doughnuts. Shortly after that Matt and I had to pack up and head back to Utah. When we got back to Utah we went to Matt's parents house for an Easter dinner and another Easter egg hunt. Carter's cousins were sick and couldn't come, so Carter had an egg hunt just to himself. We put him on a blanket in the grass because he doesn't really like the feel of grass yet. We put the eggs just outside of the blanket. He tried getting the ones that were further away from the blanket, but as soon as he touched the grass he would back up and play with the eggs he already had. In a couple of his eggs there was a piece of paper that said he get's to pick out a present out of Grandma's special bag. He had three of them so he got cute little basketball shorts, bubbles and a book. He sure had a fun Easter.

Cousins Sadie and Afton

Carter pleased after he got his binky

Afton and Sadie with their baskets

The kids also had an egg toss. Whoever's egg goes the furthest wins! Carter getting ready to roll his egg.

Carter getting ready to get some Easter eggs

Carter enjoying the eggs he found.

Life

This has been a very busy year for us. Everything with our car has been taken care of finally and Matt is loving his job. Towards the end of February we moved to a condo in Pleasant Grove, Utah. We are so happy to have Carter in his own room and to have more space overall. We now live literally two minutes away from Matt's work which means we will save a lot of money on gas! Woohoo! We are pretty much settled in our condo, but there is still a bit of decorating to do. I won't be posting pictures of the condo until after its all decorated. Carter is getting so BIG!! He is crawling everywhere!! Matt's mom gave Carter Leap Frog Toy that stands that Carter loves. If we are in the living room he will crawl down the hall to his room and play with his toy for a half an hour! Not only is he crawling, but he is now pulling himself up to a standing position with the help of furniture. I can't believe how fast they grow up! He is now 10 months...almost a year old!! Seriously, where does the time go?

Carter and his Leap Frog toy that he loves.

Not the best picture, but he is standing!

Gwen and Carter. Gwen just adores having "Baby Carter" around.

2012

So far 2012 has been quite the roller coaster. We started out the year with Vivint deciding to let Matt go without any warning. However, Matt was able to find new work quickly at Integratechs with higher pay to boot! We also had quite the experience with our car as well. All three of us (along with two of our friends, Brianne and Austin) got into a car accident just outside the Costco parking lot of all places! Thank goodness none of us were severely hurt, several of us did come out with minor injuries though, Austin was the worst with a gash on his head requiring 4 staples to fix. Ouch! We ended up getting a rental car shortly after the accident and ended up putting our Suzuki Aerio to shame...that 2011 Chevy Impala sure was nice to drive though. With Valentine's day just around the corner, Matt and I have been doing some fun activities with each other. We started doing a weekly 'date in a bag' where we alternate filling the bag with whatever goodies or activities we think would make for a fun date night and give it to the other person as a present. Fun huh? We've already had some good times with it and I encourage everyone else to try it out. It's a lot of fun, especially when you're not too sure what to do with your hubby or wifey. Carter is getting bigger and more mobile every day! He has now learned to do a commando crawl where he'll let his legs go free and he'll pull himself around by just his arms (It kind of looks like he's doing the worm, you'd have to see it to really understand). It'll only be a matter of weeks before he's officially crawling all over the house, how crazy is that? Here is just a little update for 2012. More to come later...with pictures!

Carter's First Christmas

This year was Carter's first Christmas. We spent Christmas in Gunnison at my parents house this year. My sister and her family came up from Vegas, my brother Thom and his son were there and of course my little sister Joanna. It was fun getting together with family to celebrate such a special day. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and all that he sacrificed for us.

Carter pulling everything out of his stocking

Ha ha! Don't you just love my husband?! He gave me mandarin oranges and a toothbrush in my stocking!! To be completely honest I was really excited about the toothbrush. I've never had a spin brush before! Matt is known for putting random food in my presents. He's put stuffing with my pajamas before...

Matt's super excited about his movie "The Dark Night"

My brother Thom and his son Asher

Carter's getting close to crawling. Aren't those pajamas so cute?

My niece Afton wanted to help Carter open all of his presents

Carter was having fun with all of his new toys and books.

Of course we had to get a family picture.

Afton and Sadie (My sister Sabrina's girls)

Father and son chillin' on Christmas Day