Update

Posing in front of the largest crayon in the world. We headed out to the Crayola factory when Ryan's dad came out for Thanksgiving. We are sure missing Grandpa!!

Whoops. I guess it's time to do another post. I kind of fell off the blogging bandwagon for a little season. Luckily, most people don't really care about our day-to-day happenings (besides grandmas), so why worry, right?

Ryan was growing his hair out to see what it would be like. When it wasn't smoothed down he could really get some height!

To begin, Ryan's doing well with school. He's studying for his final boards, which makes me very proud of him. They're a little over a month away, and he's working hard to make sure he's ready for them and not cramming last minute. That's a good thing, since I'm due to have the baby in the middle of his 3 tests....The boys are both officially daddy's boys. Josh has been for a long long time, but I've been able to hang onto Carter's affections for a while. Not so anymore. I'm not too sad about it, though. Whenever dad's home, the boys want him to do anything and everything. And Ryan's awesome with the boys. We have a lot of sword fights and wrestling matches. Gives me a nice rest!

I had other pictures where the top of my head wasn't cut off, but at this stage of the game, I'm going with whatever picture is most flattering, not what might actually the best quality picture...tell me I'm not the only one who does that.

As for me, I am 35.5 weeks pregnant. I'm feeling really well for the most part...except that I've got cankles now. Blaah. I went to the doctor's office and they were like, "Hmm, you've gained a lot of weight; did you enjoy that Thanksgiving turkey dinner a bit much? (Real funny fat joke guys.) Are you retaining water?" I said, "Well last time, the nurse who weighed me was nice and rounded down my weight, and this time she was mean and rounded up." What I really wanted to say was, "I don't even count your weight measurements anyway because I always weigh myself in the morning after exercising and clearing out my system, before eating or drinking anything, and without 5 pounds (give or take 4 pounds) of clothes on." Anyway, needless to say I'm beginning the joyful swelling stage of my pregnancy. I've been exercising/running (aka doing the pregnant shuffle) up until now, but we'll see how long that lasts . I carry my babies so low that I don't think it's necessarily kind to the baby to be bouncing his face against my hip bones...maybe light smushing is okay?

I think Josh was trying to do a cool superhero pose. Each time I tried to take his picture, he'd pull out a pose and a tough guy look.

Josh is doing great. He's loving his joy school, and he's definitely not as shy as he used to be. He's asking a lot of questions and wants to know specifics. He says the cutest things. I was asking him the other day what he wants for Christmas, trying to get him to want what we got him...(a scooter). He thought about and said, "Hmm.....I want anything that we don't have." Honestly he gets that from his dad. One other funny thing, is that he's very into style. If he doesn't like a shirt, he won't wear it. Ever. There are some really cute shirts in his drawers that never see the light of day. He always says, "I don't want my friends to see me in this!" Sweet guy.

We dressed up for our ward party. Josh wouldn't wear the head thing (because he didn't want his friends to see him...hah) but Carter loved it! He looked like this the whole night. So cute.

Carter is still growing up too fast for me. He's his little brother's shadow, and luckily Josh is a patient big brother. For the past couple of months, Carter has started getting an attitude. He started throwing temper tantrums and really likes the word "no", but he seems to be calming down again, much to my relief. He is pretty hilarious very sweet when he's not showcasing his stubbornness. He talks a ton, not all of it understandable to the outsider, but great for the most part. If we can't understand him, we'll say different words until we get to the right one and he'll say "Uh-huh!" He signs quite a bit, so that helps as well. Both he and Josh love the missionaries. They'll run up to the missionaries to give them a five, trying to make it sting.

I'll finish up this post just by saying how much I love the Christmas season. We love the stories about Santa and the reindeer and all of that, and we love the story of baby Jesus and talking about the gifts that He's given us. It's such a happy time of year, and we wish you all a very merry Christmas. (Just in case I don't post again for a while!)