Our kids

Well we have had lots of fun lately with the kids! We went to Wild Island Water park and that was so much fun. My sister came for a visit as well for a few days while she is on break from school. Justin's parents are coming in town along with his brother and his family for the Rib Cook off in September and my mom is coming in August for a visit as well. Justin just taught 4th of July weekend on Forgiveness and it was awesome. He did such a good job! I know he was meant to be teaching! We took a trip at the beginning of June to see Justin's parents. Just me Caleb and Bella! That was a long week by myself with the kids but it was so worth it and so much fun!Caleb is 5 months old next week! WOW! He has a little stomach bug these last couple of days but is doing great! At his 4 month appt he weighed 16 1/2 lbs and was 26 inches long. He is about a pound bigger than Bella was at her same appt. He is sooooo cute! According to Bella, at least that's what she says all the time! He loves to be standing or have you hold him and carry him along in what you are doing. He has this weird natural "fohawk" he has grown! Just wants to immitate daddy I guess! Bella is growing as well and her vocab is huge! We are really trying to crack down on the "terrible twos" though. She is throwing lots of fits and needs to obey more. We bought a book and are reading it together. It's called "Have a new kid by FRIDAY!" Changing your kids Attitude, Behavior, and Character. It's very good and very funny! We will be putting what we learn consistently into practice next week. Anyway, thats all for now. I have both kids napping at the same time for a change so I am going to take advantage of it!

Easter

Easter was crazy! Bella got her Easter basket on Friday since Justin had the day off and she saw it early anyway. Friday and Saturday we had Easter services as well so we knew time would be hard to find. Bella and I colored eggs this year and she had a lot of fun! She wanted to keep putting more eggs in the dye cups. She did get to hunt eggs though at her friend Kaitlyn's grandma's house. She had a lot of fun! She loves to eat the marshmellow peeps, just like mom and grandmas! Caleb will be two months old officially on Friday and we are going to take family photos and his two month pics then as well! Caleb wore a tie for Easter and it was super cute! I think I might have to go get him another one for Mother's Day and for his dedication. We got a picture (in unplanned matching outfits) with his friend Corbin who is a month older and is Bella's friend Kailtyn's brother. Bella is growing and talking and singing like crazy! And she definatly has her opinions about what she wants to do! Which of course are not always what we want her to do! We were talking to friends of ours and they use Tabasco sauce to help with the back talk with there daughter and they said it works. So last night was our 1st try with it! Since "no" is her favorite word, she HATED it! She cried and said her mouth was itchy and hot! But hopefully a few days of that and she will learn! (at least a little) :)

Update pics

Caleb is now six weeks old. I would like to say that time has flown by and I can't believe it, but the truth is it's actually been a LONG six weeks! He is a little colicky and has an insane amount of gas that seems to hit him around 2 or 3:00 in the morning and keeps us awake for at least an hour and half while he gets it out. Bella was so easy as a baby. Slept alot, ate every four hours and would go about 6-8 hours at night. She was rarely fussy, unlike Caleb. But we love him and he is cute! I love little boy clothes, although I feel less confident in dressing him in cute clothes than I did with Bella.I guess you can't get lucky twice! :) Oh well! It helps that I don't work but since we have Bella who is a very busy, stubborn 2 1/2 year old who doesn't always take a nap, the days are long and can be a struggle. I have researched so much on his gas and grunting and tried all kinds of things. He actually sleeps in his car seat in out bed! I think though we will put it in his crib since the last two nights he did better in it. Justin bought Caleb a Duke jersey and himself one so they could watch the NCAA tournement together! It was very cute!Easter is around the corner, and I can't beleive it! Once Easter is over we are going to start potty training Bella! Am I crazy to do this with a newborn! We tried once a couple of months ago but I was impaitent being 9 months pregnant and she just wasn't interested, I was tired of cleaning poo and pee up off the carpet and she ran out of underwear in about 3 days. Pull ups were no use what so ever. She didn't think they were any different that diapers. I am going to get her those plastic covers though this time for her underwear so I don't have to clean up as much pee. We shall see! Anyway, we are going to get Calebs 8 week pics done this month and some family pics as well, I will post those ans soon as we do. Well here are some pics of Caleb and Bella and some random other pics!

He's here!

Caleb Stephen Carpenter is here! Born Feb 17th at 3:11am. He weighed 8lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long. I never would have thought he would be that big! I knew he was bigger than Bella was but thought maybe 7lbs! Labor was very quick! But that's another story for another time! We are all doing well! Bella is having the most difficult time with the change but everyday is getting better. She says she loves him and wants to kiss him and asks where he is all the time. He does great! And he loves to sleep, which is great right now! We are very happy he is a boy and that we have our little girl. Our family is complete!

Pineapple

I bought a fresh pineapple the other day cause it has sounded so good and refreshing to me. I let it ripen for two days on my table and then put it in the fridge to be nice and cold. Today I decided to cut it up and eat it. So I put it on the counter and Bella wanted to "help" me cut it. She brought her chair over and stood next to the counter and said "Bumbob's house" (spondgebob's house). I laughed so hard! She said it again and said "Play bumbob's house?". I told her we were going to cut it up and eat it. Once I got it all cut up, I gave her a bite and she said "mmmm bumbob's house good!" She kept saying it when she would eat a new piece! I thought it was so cute and funny! She actually recognized that the real pineapple on the counter was just like Spongebob's!

Finally a Name!

Well we finally have a name for "the kid" or brother. Justin and I have been going back and forth for months on which name. Justin always originally wanted Seth. While I was pregnant with Bella I read a book about Caleb from the bible and decided that I liked that name if we had a boy next. Stephen was always the middle name (Justin's dad's name is Steven, and Justin's mom spelled Justin's middle name Stephen.) so we had the name almost done. Anyway, once we actually got pregnant and found out for sure we were having a boy, Justin changed his mind! I had kinda settled on our kids name being either Seth or Caleb since those were the only names. I was stuck! To me it would be like not naming Isabella, Isabella! Her name had been decided when we were 1st married. So after many jokes about Chuck Norris :( and some other wacky names, we decided a week ago to put Caleb and Christian(the other name Justin liked) to a vote. So Justin asked the young adults at The Gathering to vote. It was a landslide! Caleb won! Yea! So our little boy's name will be Caleb Stephen Carpenter. Mary can finally be happy! :). I have about 3 1/2 weeks to go and am getting very anxious! Our friend Laura had her baby last week. He is so cute! I forgot how snuggly and easy to hold newborns are! Bella kept trying to hug him (Corban) and gave him a kiss. She thought he was "pretty". Everything is pretty these days. This picture was actually taken about 2 weeks ago. I think it makes my belly look small, and judging by most people's comments at church "Whoaaa!" I would say I was pretty acurate in saying that! Oh well! I look forward to normalcy and I am sure my husband does too! :) I am sure he would tell some stories later, when he feels it's "safe" again! :)

Thanksgiving and Christmas!

We have been so busy with the holidays that I didn't have a chance to blog about our trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving or Christmas here. Thanksgiving was fun! It was nice to get away for a little while. We drove, since it was way cheaper, especially since gas prices have gone down so much. It only took us about 12 1/2 hours! We were shocked! A 7 month pregnant women and a 2 year old and we still made it in record time! Amazing! We had lots of relaxing and fun! I did attempt to go out the day after Thanksgiving to do some Christmas shopping with Justin's mom and both sister in laws. It was crazy busy!

Christmas was fun as well! Not quite as relaxing since we had two services on Tuesday night and three on Wednesday night. I was very tired and so was Justin. But it was nice to have two days to recover before we came back to church again! Bella still doesn't quite get the "opening" of presents. She knows they are hers, but doesn't really understand there is something inside! Once it's opened she could care less about any other present and just wants to play with the one she got! Maybe by her 3 year birthday she will have it down!

Justin's birthday is this Friday! Can you believe it 30 years old! It's crazy! I don't think of him as a 30 year old. I remember thinking how "old" that was when we got married, and wondered what and where we would be. I still have 2 more years until I turn 30, but I don't even feel like I am old enough to have 2 kids and a 30 year old husband! It's weird how your perception changes every year you get older!

I am now almost 34 weeks pregnant! I have about 6 weeks to go! Oh my goodness, I am so ready! If I knew my baby would be healthy and not have to spend any time in the NICU I would do anything to get him out!!!!! My latest is numb hips when I sleep! So sleeping doesn't happen much these days! So the angry, impatient, mean, "pyshco" prego mommy is here! I am trying my hardest to control it though! I don't think Justin would agree! :) Our friend who was pregnant with twins had her babies about 3 weeks ago. She had them early as well, just like her daughter. They are in the NICU, but are doing great! Twin boys! Fun now but I can't even imagine when they turn into "boys"! Although mom's with boys totally know what I am talking about! At least she doesn't have twin Carpenter boys! :) Laura one of my other friends that is pregnant, ( including the one who just had twins there is 6 of us) My nursery is going to be so busy, is due in 2 weeks (boy as well).

We have a couple guest speakers at our church this month. The two I am most excited about is the one we just had this last weekend and this next weekend. Kay Warren is speaking this weekend (Rick Warren's wife). Last weekend we had a Rev. who spoke about What God says about Homosexuality. He was formerly practicing. It was very interesting and he had a lot of good things to say, that weren't your typical "churchy" answers. Then he came and did a talk and question and answer time at the Gathering, it was open to anyone, but mostly the Young Adults were there. I wasn't able to go but Justin said it went really well, and some people asked for prayer and healing in this area! Yea!

Last but not least, Bella is potty training! Not going super smooth right now, but she is getting it. With the holidays I was a little delayed in starting, but I am hopeful that she will be almost if completly potty trained by the time the baby comes! We will see! I tried this 3 day potty training but after I looked into it I realized that it's 3 days of hard core potty training but the prep work is pretty much for at least 3-4 months! So I am using a portion of her method and some of mine, and some of others. We will see! I will try and sort through all the pictures and post some later!