Another pear attempt...

This one was not as successful. It was followed by a bath.

10 things

I've decided to write a post about 10 things that have made parenting easier for me.



In no particular order:

• Our fisher price cradle swing. I used to not be able to put him down to go to the bathroom when he was really little and once I got this I had a new found freedom. We had tried other swings, but for some reason this one was different.



• They Might Be Giants "Here come the ABCs" and "Here come the 123s" CD/DVDs. He is sitting in his bouncer right now watching the ABCs and he LOVES it. It's also kid's music that we don't mind hearing over and over.



• Dave. He's amazing and he is definitely the number one thing that keeps me sane with the baby.



• Swaddling. Once we figured this out he was able to sleep through the night (and so were we.)



• Diapers.com



• Carter's onesies, Gymboree sleepers and Baby Gap pants. The only things made for tall skinny kids.

Compared to other brands... You should be able to tell which is which. (and they are all the same size.)

• Plastic party cups. Sounds stupid, but an Avent bottle fits perfectly in it so if you fill it with hot water it only takes a few minutes to warm his bottle.

• My digital camera. I feel bad for giving my Mom grief about the fact that there are hardly any baby pictures of me, but without a digital camera I wouldn't be able to get so many cute pictures of the Dooder.



• Avent binkies. The only kind he'll take, but it doesn't bother me as long as he'll take them! They are a life saver!



• My blog. It is so nice to be able to post pictures here for everyone to see. It's a great tool when you have a little one and live so far away!

I would love to see what other Moms would consider the 10 greatest things to make a parents life easier if anybody would like to go ahead and post it. I also want to see if Dave comes up with the same things as me. Maybe I will make him blog his list with out seeing mine and see if it's close.

A full day!!!

Today was a big day. You can all follow along in pictures and with our LONG videos:

We went over to Stacey's house today to try out our new cake pans and give Dave time to study. The babies enjoyed watching Tarzan and are starting to interact with each other so they were good and for the most part let us work. Scarlett even took Carter's binky right out of his mouth! It was pretty funny.

How to make a train:

When we got home Carter scarfed down some pears. He LOVED them and it's a good thing all he was wearing was a diaper and a bib because it was a mess!

And yes, he does use my jeans as a napkin in this video.

Our attempt at a naked shot... It didn't work, but you can see the birthmarks on his back. He really didn't want to cooperate. I wonder why?

Then... HE ROLLED!!!! I didn't even realize that I watched him roll until a few seconds later! He was doing really great until he got a little tired and then every time he would get on his tummy he would make us roll him back over!

And then Carter got to play with his first piece of paper which promptly got taken away when the binky came out and the paper went right into his mouth

And that's pretty much how our day went. It's just about bedtime and I hope that we wore Carter out as much as we wore ourselves out!

"It gives you a hug"

Today I decided to try a new crock pot recipe and it actually turned out! I've decided that when I make a good gluten free recipe I will share it because people are always asking me what to make. I will only put a recipe on here that with some modifications can be gluten free. So here is tonight's. POT ROAST!!!! Dave says this pot roast "gives you a hug" and rated it a 4.5 out of 5.

INGREDIENTS
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup (Health valley organic is GF)
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix (Lipton is GF)
1 1/4 cups water
5 1/2 pounds pot roast

DIRECTIONS
In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

I added carrots and potatoes when there was about 2 hours left. (Thanks to Rachelle's grandparents for the home grown carrots!)

This morning (after I started the roast) I went out with Stacey and Scarlett and got some really cool stuff which hopefully I will explain more tomorrow but Rachelle texted me to ask if I was home and if she could come over. When we got home she was there and she had Lolly and Sadie with her!!! It's been forever since I'd seen them so it was fun to catch up. So... we had a little impromptu play group at our house and I made Pad Thai for everyone. It was loud and crazy and totally fun.

Family day 2

Yesterday family day was not as exciting as last week due to some poor planning on our part. We thought we could get stuff done if we had family day at home, so we planned to start laundry in the morning, rent a movie, pop popcorn and have candy and sodas and stuff. Well the laundry got done and we got movies but we didn't have time to watch anything because we had planned to go to Jeff and Rachelle for dinner and the Office. So we put Carter down for his nap and Dave and I put all of our photos on slide show and just sat and watched that until it was time to go. We had a lot of fun at Jeff and Rachelle's and this season of the Office is going to be awesome!

Just the darks...

So warm...

He is kind of a big deal.

Watching one of his favorite movies "Here come the 1-2-3s"

"The number 2"

Our new Thursday night meal: Pizzas made by the guys.

Thanks for letting me play with your remote Auntie Chelle. Sorry for changing the channel.

I like to look with my hands.

Me and Rachelle stayed up talking until midnight and all the boys fell asleep.

A big day. *UPDATED*

Elder Pierce!!!!

Today was the day Jonathan entered the MTC and unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with my camera but hopefully Karen can e-mail one so I can put one on here. (Thanks Karen!) We did get to see some of our favorite people and celebrate Aden's birthday with them!
Also some exciting news: one of my scrapbook pages made it in the How Fast They Grow gallery on their website!
Now for some pictures!

Carter has finally grown enough to wear real jeans and not his 0-3 month "maternity jeans". These are 3-6 month and they have a button and everything!!!

Dave had to build some models for his design class and I caught him in action!

Me, Carter and Birthday boy Aden

Carter and his future wife Hailey after a long absence.

Already bickering like an old married couple.

Long distance relationships are so hard. Carter didn't want to say goodbye.

Carter fell asleep on the way home from visiting the Pierces and his hood was up so all we saw was a binky and some cheeks!

Past someone's bedtime...

Being silly before going to bed.