Carter Dean Brandt Birth Story

Well, its about time that I finally write down Carter's birth story.

It all began on Sunday September 8th.  I was having the worst braxton hicks contractions and couldn't believe that this could go on for another 2 weeks.  I had the idea in my head that I would go a week overdue with Carter like I had with Jackson.  Thankfully, I was able to go to sleep that night for some much needed rest.  I had been so uncomfortable and hadn't had a good nights rest due to aches, pains, and insomnia.  Well, that night was no different!

I woke up to some pretty good contractions early in the morning around 3am.  I didn't bother waking up Jarred, but did begin to notice that they started to become regular by about 4am.  The doctor had told me that since this was my second child the contractions could be 5-10 min apart for an hour or two and that would be signal to go into the office if they were open or head to the hospital.  These contractions started coming about 5-10 min apart so by about 4:30am I decided to wake up Jarred to have him help me time the contractions and possibly get ready to go to the hospital.  I wasn't completely convinced though because these contractions weren't lasting very long, only about 30-40 seconds and weren't as strong or painful like with Jackson.  So at about 5:30am we decided to call the nurses line and get her opinion on what to do.  She suggested I try taking a warm bath and relaxing as much as possible to check if the contractions slow or stop and then to come into the office in about an hour and a half to have them check me before rushing off to the hospital.  I did this and the contractions slowed to closer to 10 min apart, but they didn't stop and once I started moving around again at all they came on even closer together.

At this point we were gathering up our bags and kept trying to get a hold of Ashlee and Andy because they were going to watch Jackson for us.  We couldn't get a hold of them, so we decided to just take Jackson to the doctor's office with us.  We arrived at the office around 7:30am and were immediately hooked up to monitors to check the babies heart rate and to time the intensity and length of the contractions.  Once we did that for about 30-40 min. Jarred decided to just take Jackson over to Ashlee and Andy's home figuring showing up in person would be okay.  Come to find out, they are out of town!  I had forgotten that they were coming back to town that evening and I remembered reassuring Ashlee that them being out of town wouldn't conflict with the birth because I was "definitely having the baby a week late anyways."  Luckily, my good friend and wonderful visiting teacher, Rachel, was able to watch Jackson with a moments notice for us.

While Jarred was driving around town to get Jackson taken care of, the doctor finally came into the office to check how I was doing.  Up until that point, I had only been seen by the nurses in the office.  He looked at the print outs of the contractions and said things looked good and that he just needed to check how dilated I was before deciding if we should head right to the hospital or go for a walk before arriving at the hospital.  The next thing I know, the doctor says to the nurse, "we've got a problem.  I only feel limbs."  This kind of freaked me out hearing the word "problem" and then I realized he was saying that my baby was breech.  My heart started racing because I knew this wasn't what I had planned on at all.  I was dilated to a 4 at this point and was immediately given an ultrasound to confirm the breech position.  I was about to ask the doctor if there was a possibility of delivering the baby breech or if we could get the baby to turn somehow when the doctor said that if the baby was in a specific breech position then he could deliver the baby normally, but the baby was unfortunately in the wrong position for that.  By now Jarred had finally arrived back to the office and the doctor gave us our options of what we could do.  The first option was to just go to the hospital, get an epidural and have a c-section.  The second option was to go to the hospital, get an epidural, attempt to turn the baby from the outside and then if it is successful to have a vaginal delivery and if it is unsuccessful to have a c-section.  There wasn't really an option to see if the baby would turn on his own because there was too great a chance of my water breaking and the umbilical cord coming down first through the birth canal, which is a life-threatening situation for the baby.  I was set on a vaginal delivery, so I opted for option 2.  Within a few minutes we were headed to the hospital.

By the time I was checked in, poked (multiple times because I was dehydrated), given an epidural and finally checked again by the doctor I was dilated to a 7.  Things began to move really quick now.  The doctor knew that because I was so far dilated that there was a greater chance of the external cephalic version (turning the baby) procedure not working so he decided to have me get a higher dosage of the epidural to make it a surgical epidural and to do the whole procedure in the operating room.  Speaking of epidurals, I had forgotten that they can make you feel sick and light headed until things even out.  My blood pressure kept dropping and took forever to normalize.  I loved the epidural and was so grateful for it, but I sure felt like crap waiting for my blood pressure to normalize.  I couldn't even talk or open my eyes because I knew if I did I would start throwing up.

I was wheeled into the freezing operating room and moved onto the very narrow operating table with my hands strapped to arm rests that made me look like a giant T.  In the mean time people were coming and going getting things set up and Jarred was given his surgical cap and gown so that he could stay in there with me.  There was a wonderful anesthesiologist and his resident that helped to keep me calm by explaining what was going on and reassuring me that I would be okay.  The doctor came in and started directing the nurses around so they could attempt to turn the baby.  This is where I was glad I had an epidural and couldn't feel any pain.  They used an ultrasound machine to help them know how exactly Carter was positioned.  Then the doctor cupped his hands on the top of my stomach while a nurse helped with the lower portion.  He took a wide stance and pulled towards himself with all his might while the nurse pushed.  Jarred described it as if the doctor was trying to pull a truck up a hill!  I could feel Carter beginning to move a little, but he never made it the whole way.  Before we knew it, the doctor was bellowing out, "crash for a c-section!"

My water had broken and this meant that they could not longer attempt to turn the baby because it was too dangerous.  This is when things went from wild to crazy, or so it seemed.  Thankfully Jarred and the resident who was helping the anesthesiologist really helped to keep me calm.  I was nervous and hadn't fully accepted the fact that I was going to give birth via c-section.  The anesthesiologist was double checking the surgical epidural by poking my side with a tool to see how high up the epidural was.  I was terrified of it not being effective enough and that I would feel them cutting me open.  There was drape blocking me from seeing them doing the procedure, so I didn't know when they were going to begin.  I told Jarred that I was worried about this and he said that they had already started cutting.  Yay!  My biggest fear didn't come true!  Next thing we knew, the anesthesiologist is telling Jarred to stand up to see the birth of his son.  I was amazed that Jarred did stand up and didn't even faint seeing me cut open.  He said they pulled Carter out bum first!  They had Carter out in a matter of minutes, but he had to be taken quickly by the pediatric nurses because there was muconium in the womb, so they needed to make sure it wasn't getting into his lungs.  I heard a quick little baby cry and that helped relieve some of my anxiety.  It them seemed as if it was forever before I was able to see Carter again.  I was so worried something had gone wrong with him, but I'm sure he wasn't gone as long as I imagined.  I was finally stapled and glued back together and the doctor reassured me that I would be able to have a vaginal delivery in the future, which was a nice thing to hear.  But, the best was when they finally brought Carter into the room and I saw them hand him to Jarred.  It was wonderful to see my husband lovingly hold and kiss our newborn son.  Jarred brought him over for me to see him.  They unstrapped one of my arms so I could touch him easier while Jarred held him.  The strong epidural started to make me feel a little woozy again so I couldn't enjoy the moment as much as I'd liked.  The nurses took him back to bath him and such and I sent Jarred with him to make sure he was doing okay.

While they were cleaning me up, they had to do an x-ray on my uterus because they had to do the procedure so quickly they weren't able to do a count of the the gauze and instruments before starting, so they had to check and make sure nothing was left inside me.  Thank goodness nothing was left behind!  Another crazy thing was that during the c-section I was able to see where the doctor was tossing the bloody gauze onto the floor onto a big sheet and Jarred and I were amazed at how much blood there was.  Surgery sure is messy.

My next favorite part of this ordeal was when I was finally all cleaned up and covered in lots of warm blankets and the nurse brought Carter into see me and asked if I would like to hold him as I was wheeled to the recovery room.  I jumped (as well as you can with an epidural and just having a c-section) at the chance and was so happy to finally hold my beautiful little boy and smother him with kisses.  I was finally able to really relax and enjoy my son without any other stresses going on around me.

Carter Dean Brandt was born on September 9th, 2013.  He was  a whopping 8lb 4oz and 20in long.  He looks a lot like Jackson and even has a similar "old man" hairline from the get go.  He is a healthy little baby and we couldn't be more grateful.  I can't wait to see him grow up and see his personality develop.  We feel so blessed to have him in our family and have loved seeing Jackson welcome him into our family as well.

Catching Up

So, it has been forever since I have updated the blog.  A ton has happened in the last few months.  The biggest news is that Jarred and I are expecting our 2nd child!  We find out on May 8th what sex the baby will be.  I can't decide if I want a girl or boy more.  Another thing that can't be decided upon is a name.  All the names that we thought of before when we were getting ready to have Jackson just don't cut it anymore.  So we are back to square one and all the names we think of just don't seem to fit.  Oh well, we have until mid September to figure that out right?  

Jackson had a great birthday and Easter.  He was spoiled by everyone for his birthday.  He even had an awesome Mickey Mouse Birthday party.  He received a cool Red Sox hat that he loves to wear, a Plasma Car that he must ride everyday, 2 new books that are now his favorites, a t-ball set that he doesn't really care about yet, a tennis ball with the Velcro catchers, and Mickey Mouse coloring books.  Luckily, these gifts were spread out throughout the month because some were from family that is out of state.  Hopefully he doesn't think that everyday will be a day for new gifts.  Easter was only a day after his party.  We celebrated with the Cargals by having an Easter egg hunt and delicious dinner together.  The kids did much better this year searching for the eggs.  Still a little confused and needed help finding the eggs, but at least they knew what to do with the eggs once they found them.  

We have also had fun with family that has come up to visit and a weekend of us heading to Utah to visit family.  Jackson loves his Grandpa, Grandma, Papa, and Nana.  Early in March Grandpa and Uncle Matt came up to Idaho to ski and visit.  Jackson loved seeing them even though the trip was short.  The next couple weekends Papa and Nana came to visit and purchase some comfortable chairs for their home.  Jackson enjoyed seeing them too!  This past weekend we made the trek down to Utah for General Conference weekend.  We had fun staying up late (including Jackson), catching up with everyone, eating the traditional conference fondue, and playing with cousins.  Jackson couldn't get enough of his cousins, especially all the boys: Weston, Keiton, and "Row Row." 

We are now back in Rexburg and looking forward to the warmer spring and summer weather.  We have been cooped up in our house for too long.  We are also looking forward to Jackson going to Toddler Lab at BYU-Idaho.  I'm pretty sure he'll love it and it will be good for him to be around other kids his own age a couple times a week.  We are also excited for our upcoming California trip this June!  We have been trying to teach Jackson about Disneyland and help him learn all the characters.  So far the ones that are sticking are Mater, McQueen, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse.  Again, all the boys.  We are excited that Jackson will also be able to meet his great grandparents on this trip as well.  

As for Jarred and I, things are going well too.  Jarred still enjoys working at BYU-Idaho as the Sprint Services Coordinator.  He has made many new friendships through his job and we enjoy getting together with families he works with.  I have been developing my piano studio.  I have 8 students and am planning a spring recital.  It is weird to be doing this without my mom, but hopefully it will all work out in the end.  Jackson has now converted to a toddler bed.  He absolutely loves it!  He has also become daddy's helper with any kind of work daddy does around the house.  It is so cute to see him trying to manipulate the tools like daddy.  

Well, hopefully this gets me caught up with some of the things that have happened since the last post.  And now a photo bomb...

So excited for the new books and clothes!

Matching boys!

He has to ride this every where he goes.

My attempt at the Mickey Mouse cake.  It was a bit of a disaster, but I think I semi saved it.

This is the best picture I could get of all three kids with their Easter baskets.  Jackson has to wear his sunglasses all the time too.

Tried and True Pinterest Recipes

So, as most of you know, I love Pinterest!  I consider myself a picky Pinterest pinner.  (haha, say that 3x fast!)  I try to only pin things that I actually think I will do.  So, I want to go through a bunch of these things to let you know which ones worked and the disasters.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This is AMAZING!  I tried this and it is so delicious!  I have made it multiple times and we love it.  Make sure you don't skimp on the brown sugar.

Pizza Crescent Rolls

These are good, but don't plan on it being for dinner.  Think Superbowl snack or maybe a fun lunch for kids.

Baked Cheesy Chicken Penne

NOT GOOD!  I thought that this would become a favorite in our house.  I mean, how can you go wrong with penne noodles and cheese?  Apparently you can.  Don't even bother to make it, even though the picture makes it look delicious.

Crock Pot Orange Chicken

This was okay.  It didn't pass the husband test though, so I won't be making it again.  I thought this was the answer to my desire for Panda Express' Orange Chicken cravings, but it's not.  I thought it was tolerable, but Jarred hated it, so we are not making it again.

Mexican Casserole

This is GREAT!  Now, it isn't exactly healthy, but....who cares.  The recipe calls for tortilla chips, but I love using Doritos Nacho Cheese chips.  In addition to the cheese on top, I also add whole Doritos chips on top too (if you haven't already eaten them all!).  Anyways, if you are on a diet, this isn't one to make, but if you want to eat yummy comfort food, then this is for you.

Grilled Pineapple

HOLY AMAZING!  If you are only going to try one of these recipes, please try this one!  My mouth is watering just thinking about these babies!  I don't follow exact measurements for the marinade glaze and it always turns out great!  These taste so similar to the Rodizio Grills' pineapple.  I can't wait for it to be BBQ grilling weather again!

Hawaiian Haystacks

Meh...this is okay.  It just doesn't have a lot of flavor.  If anyone has a good hawaiian haystack recipe, I would love to have it.

Chicken Enchilada Puffs

These are yummy!  Like the pizza crescent rolls, they aren't dinner quality, and more lunch/snack style. The recipe uses chicken chunks from a frozen bag, and I just used a can of chicken (from Costco) instead.  I think they are good, but it was not a great dinner meal.

Roasted Zucchini and Carrots

This is Delicious!  I tried this in the summer and it made my house hot, but they tasted yummy and I felt awesome for actually really liking some veggies.  I think it will be even better this winter because I won't be mad about a hot kitchen.  Don't put too much olive oil on the pan though.

Chick-fil-a Nuggets and Sauce

AMAZING!  This is so yummy!  please try this.  The hardest part of this is just making sure that the oil is at a good temperature for frying the nuggets.  if it is too hot, then they can burn too easily, and if its not hot enough, then they soak up way too much oil and don't taste too great.

Bacon-Cheddar Pinwheels

Yummy!  I made these for our little Superbowl party.  They were so good.  I added more ranch than the recipe calls for and went easy on the green onions.

Rhodes Rolls Mini Pizza's

These are GREAT!  I have always been a little hesitant about making my own dough and I hate taking a lot of time to make it as well.  The recipe says to let the dough balls thaw out for an hour, but since I procrastinate dinner all the time, I end up sticking them in the microwave and rotate them every 10 sec. or so until they a thawed.  Best mini pizza's ever!

Egg Bake

Loved this! This is a yummy recipe for an overnight breakfast casserole.  Im not a huge fan of spinach, so I changed some of the ingredients to sausage, onions, and green peppers.  So good.  Think of this like an omelet and just add the ingredients you would want.  I wouldn't make this be the main breakfast food, but it is easy to make and doesn't take up your morning time while you make crepes or pancakes.

Grilled Pesto Chicken

This is yummy!  I love that this meal makes me feel like I am being healthy and eating something delicious at the same time!  And we all know how hard that is to come by!

Strawberry Lemonade

This has great potential!  I think I would have like it more had I not gotten as much pulp into the drink.  I also didn't get it cold enough either.  Anyways, I will be trying this again and not smoosh the pulp and liquid through my mesh strainer so much.  If you try it, please let me know what you think.

Roasted Parmesan Asparagus 

Delicious!  This is the only way I eat asparagus now.  Who am I kidding?  I didn't eat more than one bite of this weird veggie until I tried it this way!  Don't cook it too long and don't go too heavy on the parm.  Try this!


Wow!  I can't believe I have tried so many recipes!  Anyways, I love trying new recipes, and if you were wondering about any of these, I hope I have helped you with your decision to try them.

Summer Fun!

Jarred and I have had a great summer so far!  Here are a few of the highlights:

We went to Bear World with Jarred's family in June.  We had a blast with the kiddos as they rode the rides, played at the petting zoo, and fed the bears!  One bear even figured out how to open one of the car doors!  Jackson didn't really like the rides and either cried or didn't care.  Hopefully that changes in a year when we head to Disneyland.

We bought a new car!  Well, new to us.  We bought a 2005 Buick Terraza.  Yes, it is a minivan.  No, we are not pregnant.  Even though it is a minivan, I really do love it.  It drives very smoothly and has tons of space.  We also had the great joy of buying this vehicle off of EBay!  The van was located just outside of Memphis, Tennessee and we decided to have Jarred and his dad fly out there and drive it back rather than ship it to Rexburg.  This wasn't the first choice because apparently shipping companies don't want our business even when they say they do.  Oh well, water under the bridge now. Jarred had quite the adventure getting this car.  He ended up driving to Salt Lake, flying to Phoenix, flying to Charlotte, and then flying to Memphis.  It literally took him all day to get from Salt Lake to Memphis.  However, it was worth it because we saved mega $$$!  He made it back in one piece just in time for July 4th fireworks!

This summer was also Jackson's first "real" July 4th celebration.  Last year he was only a few months old and we didn't do anything, probably due to sleep deprivation.  We bought a bike trailer about a month ago, so I loaded Jackson in it and we saw some of the parade.  He loved any of the big trucks that went by and kept pointing to them with a big smile.  Then we had lunch in the park and checked out all the vendors and tents set up.  Later that night we had a BBQ with Ashley, Andy and their kids.  Afterwards we let the kids throw some "Snaps" on the ground before we started the "big" show.  Jackson loved to throw them, but he usually didn't throw them hard enough because half of them didn't pop on the ground.  Oh well, he still loved it.  Then we lit off our fountains that we had purchased.  The kids loved them, even when they didn't really work.  Jackson kept saying "Ohhh!!!"  Super cute!

We recently had a lot of fun with my family at our first official Karlsven Family Reunion.  My family is just starting to get big enough to do our own reunions.  We ended up renting a couple cabins in Island Park (about half an hour south of Yellowstone).  We had fun riding four wheelers, riding our bikes, site seeing at Yellowstone, and singing/chatting around the campfire.  Speaking of campfires, if you haven't tried s'mores with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, you simply haven't lived!  Try it, seriously!  Anyways, Jackson loved riding on the four wheelers with us.  We went super slow and held onto him really tight, and he just loved it!  He also loved the dirt and playing outside.  He even wanted to play outside when it was raining.  Crazy kid!

The most recent adventure was a Bookstore conference Jarred went to and I tagged along.  Our families watched Jackson and we had fun at the Zermatt Resort in Midway.  I didn't plan on going to the conference classes that Jarred went to, but I actually found them to be really entertaining and interesting.  We just enjoyed the classes, the good food, and being child free for a couple nights.  It felt so good to sleep in past 6:15am.  It was glorious!

Jackson also loves playing at the Rexburg Splash Pad and being a little cutie.  Hopefully we keep having fun like this all year round!

July 4th Decorations!

So, I was getting out my decorations for Independence Day.  That's when I realized my collection of decorations for this upcoming holiday is dismal at best.  I had two things!  How did I let this happen?  So, I started perusing Pinterest to see what I could do about this.  There was a tutorial I had pinned to make 3D stars into a garland.  I also, came up with something of my own as well.

Here is what I did:

1. cut scrapbook paper into 6in x 11in pieces. 

2. Fold a piece of paper in half (hamburger style).  

3.  Fold in the same direction 2 more times.  

4.  Unfold and then use the fold lines as guides to fold accordion style making sure to press folds firmly.

5.  Staple the middle perpendicular to the folded edge.

6.  Measure 1 inch from each short edge.  Cut from the folded side diagonally to the opposite corner.

7.   Unfold and tape or staple ends together.

8.  You can be done here, or apply a layer of Mod Podge to make it a little more sturdy and shiny!

9.  Instead of threading ribbon through the points to make a garland, I superglued the stars onto a wreath circle that I had wrapped in ribbon. 

(after step 6 it should look like this)

(step 7)

(Step 8)

The finished product!  I think it would look good with some holiday themed ribbon coming off in random directions from all around the wreath.  However, I live in a town that didn't have stores with cool ribbon like this and I was too cheap to add anymore.  Maybe another year.  

 Okay, so here is the thing I came up with on my own.  I've seen a lot of things similar to this, but I decided to just make my own.  I bought everything for this project for about $5 because everything was on sale!

The items I used were some very cheap 5x7 wood frames, cheap wooden letters, scrapbook paper, ribbon, paint, and a drill and small screws.

1.  I drilled 2 holes into each frame.  One on top and one on bottom.

2.  Drilled holes into the backs of the letters so I could attach each letter to the frame with screw.

3.  Paint the frames and letters.

4.  Cut scrapbook paper to fit into the frames.

5.  assemble the frames together with the paper and letters.

6.  Thread ribbon through holes to attach the frames to each other.

Finished product!  I thought it turned out really well.  I may cover it with Mod Podge to help protect it from the elements. 

 Here is the latest family picture we have had taken.  My in-laws had the big family pictures taken at Camara Shy in Utah, and each child got their own little family pictures there too.  I just love Jackson's happy smiling face in this one!

Idaho Falls Zoo!

Jackson and I headed to the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls the other day. They had just opened the previous Saturday, so we decided to check it out.

It was a lot of fun! Jackson's favorite part was when we went to their petting zoo. He especially loved the goats. The goats would stick their faces to the fence and Jackson would try to touch them. Then, the goats would lick his fingers and Jackson would laugh and giggle every time! I wish I got video of it, but unfortunately I didn't act fast enough. We also were able to see a news crew there doing a story on the zoo. We came just in time for us to see one of the penguins hopping down some stairs and walking around while they filmed. The little penguin was so cute! Jackson wanted to touch it and kept reaching out to it. So Cute. Jackson also finally figured out how to wave while we were at the zoo too. We were looking at the emus and I was waving to it, trying to show Jackson what to do. Then all of a sudden Jackson started waving to it too! Yay! Now, if only we could get him to wave bye-bye to Daddy when he goes to work. Maybe I need to get Jarred an emu costume.

The zoo was just perfect. Not a huge zoo with tons of walking, but just the right size. We only spent about an hour and a half there and we got to see everything and Jackson didn't get cranky! Win Win! I loved it so much that I decided to get a membership there so we can have a lot more adventures at the zoo this summer!

Another Pinterest Creation!

Well, I've made something else from pinterest, and I'm so excited about them! I love them so much and needed to share some pics!

My inspiration for these was this. I thought they turned out so great and a big plus is that they are so EASY! Seriously! My mom came up to visit during her spring break and one night after Jackson went to bed, we made all of these. So here are the supplies:

glass vases

Permenamel Surface Conditioner (I got mine from Amazon,

but you should be able to get it from a craft store like Michaels)

Permenamel Paints (I got this from Michael's. the 2 oz bottles were on

sale for $0.99!)

Paint brush

We cleaned the vases with hot soapy water and dried them completely. Then we poured some surface conditioner in. Its like the consistency of water, so you only need a little bit. We swished it around until all of it was covered and just poured the leftovers back in the bottle. Let this airdry completely. It is alcohol based, so it dries pretty fast. Then add some paint in the bottom and swirl it around, using the paint brush when needed until the entire surface is covered. Most likely you will have too much paint. I let it drip out into a cup as I swirled it around. I also used just the back of a plastic spoon for some of this because it doesn't leave any weird brush strokes. On one of the vases I had the vase drying right side up and as the paint gathered at the bottom, I simply spooned out the excess a couple of times. It worked great. I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable putting water in these for fresh flowers because I didn't use any kind of sealant on the paint. I don't even know if thats available. Some of the vases were a little scary looking on the inside, but they all looked great on the outside! I'm so happy with how this turned out. I feel like my kitchen is ready for spring too!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Okay, so this is a little late, oh well. Jackson turned one on March 28th! We decided to celebrate it early in Utah with family. We headed down the weekend before his birthday and had a blast with both families! He had a lot of fun enjoying his piece of cake all to himself too! He was hilarious when he first ate it too. He has had all sorts of nibbles of cake, cookies, chocolate, etc, but this was the first time he had an entire piece to himself! When he was presented with the cake on his tray, he looked at it for a second, picked a tiny crumb off and put it in his mouth. Then he held onto the sides of the tray with both hands and dove his face right down into the cake! He has never once done this for any other food! It was great! Jarred was able to get some video of it, but last time I tried to upload a video, it never went through, so no video for blogger. He ate pretty much the entire piece. The only bits he didn't eat were the little crumbs and the little pieces that fell to the ground. Don't worry though, that wasn't wasted cake. Jackson's cousin, Gavin, took care of that and promptly ate those up! Jackson was especially lucky this weekend because he got another birthday party at my parents house the next day too! This time with the cake he grabbed the whole piece and tried to shove it all in his mouth at once. He was so funny and we loved that we decided to just spend time with family and get great pictures of Jackson eating his cake! We had a lot of fun visiting and spending time with our families and Jackson's cousins! It is so fun to see him interact with the other babies!

Jackson also got a table and chairs for his birthday and here was his first piece of artwork he has made using this table.

He loves sitting in his little chair and he had a lot of fun painting for the first time. Good thing I bought washable non-toxic paint. If you look closely, you can see that he tried to eat it. I'm really excited to see what other masterpieces he makes with paint and other mediums! At this point, paint is all he likes, well he does like crayons, but not for drawing just eating.

Jackson's Busy Board!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Jackson's 1st birthday down in Utah with family. He had a lot of fun playing with his cousins and eating his cake. He also had a lot of fun discovering his presents he received. One of the presents we gave him was a busy board. I was inspired by this and just knew that I had to make one! So, I began researching different objects that I could attach to a cutting board. I spent a few weeks checking prices and objects before I even bought anything. Then I took about a week to put it together because lets be honest, I have never done anything like this in my life! Luckily my husband has an electric drill, but that doesn't mean I didn't have any mishaps along the way. For the record, apparently they make some screws stronger than others. Also, the week screws can break in half while you are screwing them into a cutting board.

So, here are the supplies and where I got them:

Cutting board: Walmart about $8 (I wanted to actually touch and feel this to make sure it would work, there were cheaper ones on Amazon, but they didn't always say how thick they were and I wanted it to be at least 1 inch thick)

Toilet Paper Holder: Ace Hardware about $4 (it was the cheapest one. The holder part wasn't even spring loaded, which was perfect because then I was able to put some rice in it and wrap duct tape around it)

Towel Holder: Ace Hardware about $4

Toy Tops: Walmart about $1 found in their Party section. (I threaded these onto the towel holder)

Bell: Amazon about $3

Latch Lock: Walmart about $3

Door Stop: Walmart about $2

Bike Mirror: Walmart about $2 (Turns out that this spins! I had no idea until i attached it to the board!)

Reflector: Walmart about $1

LED battery push light: Amazon about $6(set of three) It was super bright, so I put a couple layers of paint on it and now it won't blind my son!

Wheel: Walmart about $3

Before:

After:

So, here are a couple things I learned if you want to make one yourself:

-Use an electric drill with drill bits! Cutting boards are super condensed wood, so using this will make things go super fast. I didn't have access to the drill bits at first and I was just making pilot holes with a nail. This took forever and I had a couple of cheap screws that broke off in the midst of drilling and are stuck in the board. Fortunately, I was able to cover them up!

-the mirror and light need to be super glued to the board, don't just count on the adhesive already on them to keep them attached. So far the reflector is staying on just fine without the glue. We'll see how that goes.

-I thought I was going to be able to glue down the bell, but when I got it in the mail, it didn't have a thick edge on the bottom, it was just a thin ridge. Luckily, my brother had a drill bit meant for drilling through metal, so he helped with that.

-Do not attempt to modpodge any paper onto the LED light to make it less bright. Once it dries, the paper will just peel off. Also, I just painted yellow right onto it and it looks great. However, once you light it up, it looks a little hideous. I heard from someone that you are supposed to paint white first and then once that dries add your color. Not sure if that works, but probably worth a try.

I really am proud of this project! I think it will last many years and Jackson and any other kids we have will be able to enjoy it for a long time!

Pinterest Stuff

Hello, my name is Becky and I'm addicted to Pinterest.

There is just so much cool stuff on there! Seriously! I am determined to actually make the stuff I pin though. I have found some great recipes and Jarred is liking the new variety in the meals! I'm also really excited about some of the stuff for kids that I find on there. Jackson is a little young for most of it, but in a few months, we will be able to do all sorts of projects and experiments together! I have also made a couple of decorations for my house!

Here is some easter baskets I made. I used those ugly terra cotta pots. I cut some double sided scrap book paper to the size of the rims. glued it to the pots. Then I used the same width for the handles. I glued them to the inside of the pot. Added some green grass and also that flower. Popped some candy eggs inside and I was done! Very easy! Also, I was able to make this whole thing for less than $7!

I also made some cool balls to hang. Well, I've made one so far and I'm still working on the others. I was making these for Valentine's Day, but obviously, I'm a little late. Or really early.

I used some styrofoam balls, sheer fabric, glue gun, rotary cutter, and ribbon.
I cut circles out of the fabric. I used a wide mouth mason jar as my guide.
then I folded the circle in half and put a dot of glue on the middle of the folded edge.
Then I folded it in half again and put another glue dot at the corner.

Then I pressed it onto the ball.
I glued a ribbon onto the ball for hanging. This is what it turned out to look like!

This ball was a 4 inch ball. It took about 200+ circles and about 1.5 yards of fabric. This took forever! It didn't help that my rotary cutter is cheap and didn't cut very well. I'm still in the process of making the red and cream balls. I went to Walmart and got the smaller 2 inch balls, so hopefully it will go faster! Even though this project takes forever, it's not hard. Just a lot of cutting and gluing.

My next big project is to make a busy board for Jackson. it is supposed to look something like this.

Jackson is 11 months old!

So, Jackson is 11 months old! yay! I can't believe how fast this goes. Seriously, I think people told me that they grow up fast, but I had no idea what they meant until now. I still remember being pregnant and being so excited to have a baby. Now, its been nearly a year! Thinking back to him being a newborn makes me think about all the things he has learned and become in his short life.

For one, I am so glad he has figured out how to nap on a schedule. 6-7 months ago I thought I would die because I could never rely on him napping for more than 20-30 minutes. Lets just say not only did the house never get cleaned, but I was lucky if I got a shower.

I love that he has learned how to crawl around. I don't always love this on Sundays because I can't just set him on the floor in Relief Society anymore and let him play with toys in one spot. But, I really love being able to chase him around the house and play games and wrestle with him. I couldn't do that when he couldn't crawl.

I also love that he can climb up and down the stairs. This really comes in handy when I don't want to carry him up the stairs because I'm holding other things. He isn't good enough for me to let him go by himself so I always follow right behind him. But, it really is fun just to see him climb. Especially when he uses his head to help pull himself up! He recently learned how to go down the stairs feet first! This is awesome. He sometimes forgets and starts to reach for the first stair with his hand, but then he will remember and turn his body so his foot goes first. He also loves to babble as he does this, as if he is talking himself through it. So adorable!

He is a fast nurser! My family can attest to the fact that he was a very slow nurser when he was born. It usually took me 45 minutes to nurse him and then I would have to feed him every 2 hours. That really is ridiculous when you consider that the every 2 hours starts from the time you begin the feeding. So, once he was done I knew I would have to start nursing again in another hour and fifteen minutes! So, now he nurses in about 10-15 minutes! It's so great! Plus he nurses about every 3.5-4 hours so things are wonderful! In fact, I know I am going to miss nursing him when he weans to cow's milk.

Jackson loves playing with toys and reading books. We have so much fun playing with his toys together. He really loves balls too. It's a lot of fun to roll or bounce a ball back and forth with each other. I love hearing his squeals when he is chasing a ball too. He also loves reading books and turning the pages. He got some books with little flaps on the pages for Christmas. He really likes to flip up the flap and see whats under it. I love making him laugh when we look at books about animals and I make the animal noises. I know I sound like a total idiot when I'm reading those books to him, but who cares because it makes him laugh!

Those are just a few of the things that Jackson has learned how to do in his short life! I'm excited to see what else he learns in the next few years. They grow up so fast!

We've Moved!

So, we have have moved to Rexburg, Idaho! Jarred applied for a job at BYU-Idaho and was hired! Wahoo! He is the Sprint Services Coordinator. He is the manager of the Sprint store in the University Store. This is a brand new thing for Sprint to have a store located at a university, so Jarred is having to figure things out as he goes along. It is really good though. He loves the atmosphere and all the people he works with. He has also been able to hire a bunch of great people for his staff. I'm so proud of him and can't believe how things have changed so much.

Jackson has also been changing like crazy. He is growing up way too fast! Here are some pictures of things he has been up to lately:

Jackson and his cousins on the Brandt side got some really great pictures taken at Camara Shy

Jackson loves "helping" me in the kitchen

He also loves to eat! (notice that his hair is covered in the peach juices)

Good thing he loves his baths or else he would be always be covered in food!

Jackson loves helping with the laundry

Jackson loves his corner with all his toys. He got a little stuck in this basket though!

I love this little boy! He is crawling around the house like nobody's business and he loves to walk or cruise along the furniture. He also, is eating all sorts of foods. He is known for eating a big meal and then if we are still eating and he is out of his high chair, he will come over to you and beg for more food. He loves playing with balls and chasing them around the house. He is also fascinated with books and turning the pages. He keeps us busy, but it is so much fun!