Videos.

Here are a few videos from this past week of Carter. Hope it makes you smile and you get to see a little of his personality. He's constantly amazing us with new skills and he's also quite the problem solver. Not to mention he's doing great with the dogs and usually can avoid them in the craziness of the house. :) Enjoy!

*No babies or dogs were hurt during the filming of this video and Carter got right back up and laughed*

*Baby Talk... Translation = this orange is good! * Mike was standing right there in case he actually got a piece of orange peel or in case Stieger decided to steal the orange*

*This is rare that I let Carter just go at it with messy food. We had red stuff everywhere and he promptly made it straight from the highchair into the bath*

Car Wash.

Welcome to the Little Dille Car Wash.

It may be a little over priced and we may miss a few spots, but we guarantee a good time in the process.

We spent Saturday afternoon washing both of our cars. Now that Carter is up and walking he came outside to enjoy the afternoon as well. He loves the hose, we think it's because the hose is the color yellow and he seems to love everything yellow... rubber ducks, lemons and now hoses! He wasn't much help, but we enjoyed his help none the less. Can't wait until he gets big enough to mow the lawn and really wash the cars too!

Growing.

There's been a lot of growing happening at the Dille house this month... Carter now has eight teeth. Four on the top and four on the bottom. He's also become a walking machine. We're working on the transition from bottle to sippy cup. Right now he can hold his own sippy cup and drinks water in it. But he still "prefers" you to hold the sippy cup for him. :) It's amazing during this last month he's really making the transition from infant to toddler. I think it's the walking, now he looks like a big kid to me. That could also be because he's in 18 month clothes too. I really do think he's grown an inch as well this month. I had to buy new pj's because his old ones were to small in the legs and arms. Mike also gave Carter a "summer" haircut on Sunday. Now it's much easier to spike but a little too short for the mohawk. FYI- With his fine hair I discovered that bedhead manipulator works wonders and it smells good.
Then there's me and baby #2. Here I am at 14.5 weeks. Goodness the second baby shows a lot sooner. You may not think there's much, but I promise I had a flat tummy for about two months, and now not so much. This picture was from last week and I think I've doubled in size this past week. All of a sudden I look down and I have that moment when you think whoa- when did that happen? I'm in that great stage where people who don't know that I'm pregnant think I've been eating way too many cookies and am packing on the pounds. Oh well, I plan to enjoy this baby and pregnancy. Now that I'm out of the first trimester I'm actually starting to feel like a person again. Hurray!

Mike has also taken a little time this month and is growing in his hanyman skills. He's now a master at making custom baby gates. Here's a picture of his handy work. It looks great and is so much better than the overpriced ones you can buy in the store. Not to mention, I actually feel safer with this one knowing that Carter can shake it and climb on it all he wants and the gate won't go any where. If you need one, I'm sure Mike would take orders. He gets faster each one he makes, and did I mention you could paint it any color you want. We painted ours to match the trim in the house.

6 years.

Yesterday, May 18, was our six year wedding anniversary. It's amazing to think that we have been together for so long and still love each other any enjoy being together. :) We had a wonderful weekend together and were lucky enough to go out to dinner Saturday night just the two of us.

(Mike and I while dating Summer 01) Mike and I met at USU at the end of my freshman year. I was walking by the soccer field with two friends, and Mike shouted across the field, "hey girl in the green." I turned around and he was running down the soccer field to say hello. He didn't get my phone number, just said hello asked if I'd played softball the week before, exchanged names and that was it. A few days later, at midnight in the frozen food isle of Alberstons we met again, and this time he asked for my phone number. Two days later we went on our first date. A few months later, after lots of hanging out and little dates, we went camping in the canyon. That night, while walking along the river bend, Mike told me he loved me. He was my best friend from the very beginning and the only person I ever wanted to spend all of my time with.

(This was our engagement picture March 02)

Mike and I were married in the Boise, Idaho LDS temple in 02, after dating for a year. Mike proposed on Halloween in 01 on the Logan temple grounds, where his best friend Scott had hid roses that night for Mike to give to me after I said yes. It's a strange coincidence that we got engaged on Halloween, not really planned, but Mike picked up my engagement ring and had a test later that week and couldn't get anything done with it in his possession. So he got "rid" of it as soon a possible, and of course I was thrilled to have it in my possession. We finished up college and then moved to Texas, where we have been for almost four years.

(Graduation May 2004, Logan, Utah. I got my Bachelors Degree and Mike received his MBA.)

In just six years we've graduated college together, moved across the country, entered corporate America together, bought our first house and four cars together, and we've expanded our family by two dogs and a baby (x2 in November). I feel so blessed to have found Mike. To have this wonderful man to call my husband and best friend. We've had our fair share of trials, tears of sorrow and tears of joy. We have learned to rely on each other and the Lord. We have learned that no matter what life throws at you the only thing that really matters is family, and home will always be where we are together. I find much peace in knowing that our love and our marriage will exceed this life, and that we will have the opportunity to be a family for time and all eternity.

(Our first family photo with Carter. Seriously, about five minutes after his birth, June 07)

Thank you Mike for loving me for who I am, weaknesses and all. Thank you for caring for our family and working so hard that I can have the opportunity to stay home and raise our children. Thank you for being a worthy priesthood holder so that our family can be blessed with the gospel. Thank you for being you and thank you for six wonderful years. Here's to many more... Love you!

Tagged Twice.

Tag #1 (from Lynette): List 6 random facts/quirks about yourself.

1. I love pizza, but refuse to eat it as leftovers. Oh, and I really only like cheese pizza. It has to be fresh from the oven or fresh from the delivery driver. Pizza was the only thing I ever wanted when I was pregnant with Carter, 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. Poor Mike was so tired of eating leftover pizza. :) But in actuality, I've always loved pizza, just not the next day or cold.

2. I am a die hard Dawson's Creek fan. We use to have Dawson Creek nights in high school, where all of the girls would come over each week to watch. We even had rules where there was no talking when the show was on and we would always order pizza. (See I told you I love pizza) I never missed an episode and would even set the VCR to record it, pre-DVR days. The fun thing is that TBS shows reruns of DC each day, usually at 3 or 4 am. I discovered this when I was up all night with Carter in the beginning. Now I DVR the episodes, and although I know all of them by heart, I still indulge and watch them over and over again.

3. I love to take showers, dry off, get into pj's and then crawl back into bed. There's nothing like being squeaky clean in fresh sheets. It's also a great way to delay the "getting ready" process which I hate. Yuck to blow drying hair. Since being pregnant this time and being completely exhausted, I've gotten into a bad habit of crawling back into bed each morning after my shower from the gym and taking a nap during Carter's nap. (FYI- please don't call the house between 11- 12:30.)

4. Most of you are aware of my obsession with the soda Coke and my daily habit of visiting Sonic during happy hour for my half price tasty Coke. I get it from my dad. For as long as I can remember he was always drinking a Coca-Cola Classic. In fact, growing up we would have coke floats, instead of root beer, with Breyer's vanilla ice cream, yum. To this day, I can always count on my dad for a nice cold Coke and a piece of peanut butter toast - also an Anderson family favorite.

5. This is something I never even realized I did, but Mike pointed it out as one of my "quirks." When I am stressed or anxious, which happens more than it should, (I can be a little uptight, but I'm working on it) I make fists with my hands. Rub my hands together and then put them back into fists. Maybe this is just part of the "fight or flight" process and I'm just preparing myself for some action.

6. I'm a little OCD at times. Crumbs on kitchen counters drive me nuts. I also can't sit down at the end of the night until all of the dirty dishes are away and the sink is empty and the counters crumb free. I love to have everything in order before I go to bed so that when I wake up in the morning I can get a fresh start and not have to worry about the remnants of yesterdays activities and meals. This also includes making sure all of the pillows on the couch are in order as well. :)

Tag #2 (from Shyann): Purse Tag. What's in my purse?
Well, the real question should be, what's in our diaper bag? It's rare that I go anywhere without Carter, so my purse and the diaper bag have been morphed into one. This isn't my favorite diaper bag, but it works. I also included my actual purse. It's Tommy Hilfiger and I've had it for several years. It's basic and so functional, I love it. I only wish I had it in brown too. Oddly enough I think I've become less maintanence in the process of having Carter and lugging his stuff around too. Mostly because by the time I get all of his stuff packed there isn't much room for anything else.

1. 4 Diapers and a pack of wipes


2. Change of clothes for Carter, including a fresh white onsie.


3. Sandles for Carter.


4. 2 baby spoons.


5. Burb cloth.


6. Random snacks, granola bar, fruit snacks and raisins.


7. Nail file, pink one for me and blue baby one for Carter.


8. Wallet.


9. Clinique lip gloss in sunshine.


10. 2 hair bands and 2 bobby pins.


11. Cell phone.


12. Car keys.


13. Appointment card for my next baby doctor visit.


14. Toy car keys for Carter, 2 sets.


15. Rental DVD of 27 Dresses.


16. Pacifier.


17. Clorox Wipes.


18. Teething Ring.

Enough with me, I want to hear about you... I tag Jessica P., Kristy S. and April Y. Have fun ladies. Pick one of the tags and run with it. I can't wait to hear about your little quirks. :)

Baby Steps.

Carter is in the process of learning how to walk. Here are a few of his baby steps that I caught on camera yesterday. This is the most we've ever seen him walk. It almost reminds me of a dizzy old little man. He kind of wobbles from one side to the other. I however think it is adorable! I know the next time I turn around he'll be walking everywhere. How exciting!

Blessed.

I first want to start this post by expressing my overwhelming feeling of gratitude for all of the blessings in my life. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and for my family and I am grateful for our trials, which bring us closer as a family and brings me closer to the Lord. I am also grateful for the blessings that he pours down on us.

With this being said, I'm happy to post that we're having a baby! Baby Dille 2 will be here in the beginning of Nov. or if this baby is big like Carter was, will most likely make its appearance at the end of October. They say I am 13 weeks, and in the ultrasound below the baby is measuring 13 wks 5 days. We are so excited and still can't believe it.

I wanted to wait until the end of the first trimester and the beginning on the second, before telling everyone. We had a few complications before Carter so I was hesitant to say anything and always fearful in the back of my mind that I would have to go through all of it over again. What a blessing that this pregnancy has been. The baby is doing well and has been "by the book" so far. I'm still having some problems with feeling like someone is sitting on my chest and feeling out of breath all of the time, but with a new prescription that should decrease. I've had several weeks, where it was all that I could do to survive. My definition of "clean" has now changed and I am just happy to make it through the day with Carter. He's so busy and this pregnancy has been harder trying to manage the nausea, fatigue and a 11 month old learning to walk. This week I am starting to feel better and after my appointment yesterday it finally feels real to me. I'm not as worried about losing the baby and I was so excited to see the ultrasound. Our baby looks like a baby and I couldn't be any happier.

I never fully comprehended what an actual miracle it is to get pregnant or give birth to a healthy baby until we struggled to have Carter and when Carter was born. With all of our past complications I was truly humbled to have this perfect being in my arms. A perfect spirit that had just moments before been with the Lord. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and peace as I type this and I know without a doubt that the Lord is blessing our family again and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mother again.

Bedhead.

Carter is known for hair in our little family. From the day he was born he's always had hair, and usually lots of it (except for month four, when the dark hair fell out and he became a dirty blonde). It's a common thing around here to wake Carter up from a nap or go get him in the morning and be greeted by a happy little infant with crazy bedhead. We woke up Saturday morning and went to go get our little ray of sunshine and found some of the best bedhead around. It also shows how desperately we need to give him a hair cut. He was all smiles for the first photo, but after that he'd had enough and wanted out.

Enjoy and have a great Sunday night! Hugs, A

It Happened.

Fulfilling my fears, as stated in my last post, this afternoon "it" happened... We had an unwanted visitor appear in our backyard. Three years in this house and we've never had a visit like this. Lucky for us, we have two "hunting dogs" who made the discovery and kept our "visitor" tightly wound up in a ball...Until the "snake slayer", aka, Mike, was able to make it home and take "care" of it.
Now the big question is... What kind of snake was it? Doesn't look like a happy little garden snake to me. It was thick and at one point we could hear it hissing at the dogs and could see it poking its head up and threatening the dogs as well. I still get the creeps when I look at the pictures. I am petrified of snakes, I didn't even leave the back porch during the entire snake fiasco. I called my good friend Staci, who was brave enough to come over and help until Mike came home. She's the one who took the picture of the snake in the yard. She's a much braver women than I. We were both grateful our visitor made its appearance half an hour before Mike came home, I'm not sure what we would have done had the snake come out earlier in the day.

This is one visitor that will never come back.

Mike -1

Snake-0

long week already.

It's been a long week already and really busy. Carter is all over the place and bumping into everything. He's starting to take his first baby steps. We're up to three and four steps by himself and he is cruising more now too, walking holding on the walls, where before he would just sit and crawl. Carters black eye from our trip to Oregon is just now going away, this was over two weeks ago. Then two days ago, he managed to collide with the leg of the dining room table. I thought he'd bumped his head. Turned out he smacked right into it with his mouth and was gushing blood from both lips and his top teeth. I felt horrible. He's working on walking and the war wounds are starting to stack up. I'm hoping to get some video soon of him, hopefully this weekend and I'll post it.

Mike is still working all of the time. He moved over to tax and the group he is with is still working all of the time. It's driving me nuts. I'm struggling to survive here and really would like my husband back. I know that he is frustrated too and misses both of us. I'm desperately missing the Fridays he had at his old client when he would come home early. Let's face it, I just miss him in general. Well enough pity party for me....

Hey does anyone know any tricks to get rid of fire ants? They have invaded my front flower beds and are relentless. If you have never experienced these little devils you are lucky! They are awful and when they bite you it's usually in herds, that sting and then they turn into little pimples and itch and hurt, usually leaving a scar. Mike and I had some awful experiences with these ants. Oh, and then some of the moms in the area keep finding little snakes in their yard, so now I'm a big weeny and won't go in the back yard. My hope is that Casey, our beagle will hunt them out and take care of them for me. But there is a slight scary thought in my head of what would I do if one gets in through the doggy door! yikes! The only reason I think this is because every once in awhile a frog or two will come through. Frogs I can handle, not snakes or spiders.

Here are a few pictures from the last month or so. I haven't taken any in the last week, so these will have to do.

Carter loves lemons... We thought he'd make a yuck face and we could all have a good chuckle. Little did we know the kid would love it. He didn't let go of this lemon once the entire time we were at lunch.

Look at the picture below, can you see our shark... well I mean Stieger. He now circles the high chair when Carter eats. And if he's lucky and I'm not looking, Carter will hold his hand out to share. Great... These are just two cute pictures from the wedding two weeks ago. The first is with my sister in law, Nikki. Carter loves, loves, loves her! He has since he was only 7 weeks old.
Here he is with Mike. He was fascinated with his tie. They both had a good time.