Happy Birthday Bryant!

Today my favorite guy turns 27 years old! I have been thinking a lot about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful man in my life. He has truly changed my life for the better. My life is so full and happy and complete because of him.

I hope as Gracie grows up, she realizes how lucky she is to have a Daddy like Bryant.

I am so grateful to his parents for bringing him into this world and raising him to be such a righteous, sweet, caring, hardworking man. I LOVE YOU Bry! I hope you have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Family Pictures

Okay, as promised, here just a few of the pictures we had done in Vegas. I have to put a HUGE plug in for the photographer. He was FANTASTIC! His name is Derek Caldwell and this is his website: http://www.dereksphotography.com/ If you are in Vegas, around Vegas, passing through, whatever and are thinking of having pictures done, call him! He is one of the best priced photographers you can find and...as you can see, he gets some excellent shots. These pictures were all done at the Bellagio (a very ritzy hotel/casino in Vegas) and there were a million people there, and he still got these great shots! Let me know what you think, and which ones are your favorites!

Our little family!

Gracie...what a cutie!

I love this picture! This is my sister Kristin with the babies, Gracie, Hinckley and Chandler!

Just a candid shot he got! Feelin' the love!

This is all of us outside the Bellagio. We were missing Travis and Jenny in this picture, but I still think it turned out cute!

Is this not the most precious thing you have ever seen? Baby Chandler sleeping on Grandpa Carter's shoulder!

This is my brother Troy and his beautiful family! I think this is such a great picture of all of them! (Bethany, Chandler, Troy, Hinckley)

Grandma/Bubby, Gracie and April....3 generations

Cousins

Sisters

The Boys (Troy, Dad, Chandler,

Hinckley, Bryant and Travis)

The Girls (Bethany, Jenny, Mom,

Kristin, April and Gracie)

Our Vegas Christmas

This year for Christmas, we went to Las Vegas! We had a little Carter Family Reunion this year. We got to spend some time together at Thanksgiving but we were missing Travis and Jenny. We haven't all been together since Bryant and I were married almost 5 years ago (and we didn't have Bethany, Hinckley, Chandler or Gracie in the family yet!) It was so fun being together, and it was especially fun to see Hinckley on Christmas morning! He is such a BELIEVER!

The boys went to the Vegas Bowl to watch BYU stop Oregon State! Unfortunately it was really windy and freezing cold so they came home a little early with some fun stories of a drunk Oregon State lady who was all over them!

The next day, the girls got to enjoy a day at the Spa! My parents really went to a lot of trouble and expense for this, but man was it fun!

Kristin, Jenny, Mom, Bethany, April

When we got back, we all went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. We wanted to to something that included the kids, and both Gracie and Hinckley LOVED it!

Hinckley and Kristin, right before going into the Shark Reef

On Christmas Eve, we had family pictures taken, which I will post separately since there are so many of them. The guy that did them was AMAZING! We also had Christmas Eve Dinner at Travis and Jenny's house with Jen's family. It was so fun and there was more food than I had ever seen!

Christmas Eve Dinner! Travis was taking the picture, and Jenny was in the kitchen taking care of things while we stuffed our faces!

Here is a sneak peak of a family picture: (there are more to come!)

Christmas Day we opened presents and hung out for a while. We had to wait for Travis and Jenny to join us so they could open their presents.

Grandma/Bubby helping Gracie with one of her new presents!

Is that not the CUTEST boy you have ever seen?!

We then went to the Secret Garden's which is a little zoo type place they keep all of Sigfreid and Roy's animals. They also have a dolphin habitat.

One of Sigfreid and Roy's white tigers

Gracie and I watching the dolphins

Later that night, after the kids went to bed, Troy, Bethany, Kristin, Bryant and I went down to the strip to the Bellagio water show. It was so cool, but the strip is not the place to be at night. All in all, we had a great time!

We flew back home on the 26th, and have enjoyed the last week of being together before another quarter of school beings for Bry on Monday!

Update!

Well, I have been so bad about updating this lately! I hope I can be a little more consistent now that life is going to get back to normal! Here is a little update:

We went to Rexburg for Thanksgiving this year. I am so glad we made it. And we had great weather. My parents were there as well since my sweet little nephew Chandler was blessed over Thanksgiving break. My brother Troy made the BEST turkey I have ever tasted. It was moist even 3 days later! It was fun to be back in Rexburg for a few days. We also got to spend some time with Bryant's family which was really fun! Here are a few pics of our trip (sorry they are so small!)

The Carter Clan after Chandler's blessing (we were just missing Travis and Jenny)

My Mom and Bethany took Gracie and Hinckley to see Santa. Hinckley loved it...Gracie not so much! My mom had to sit with her!

Bryant had some pretty intense projects and finals to work on/study for so it wasn't much of a vacation for him. But he officially finished his first quarter of his second year of grad school December 10th, and I have to say I am so proud of him. This is a tough program and can be very stressful. He has done a wonderful job keeping on top of everything and he did great on his finals!

Halloween Fun

We had a very eventful Halloween this year. Bryant's PT class put on a 5K run as a fundraiser. Luckily, they had nice weather so the 5K was a huge success. I had planned to do the 5K (that would make 4 of them for me this year!), but on Thursday my right foot really started to hurt. I rested it, put ice on it, put heat on it, but it really hurt. Bryant, after evaluating the muscles in my food, said he thinks I may have somehow "bruised the bone" though I have no idea how I would have done that, so I didn't get to participate. We did go down to cheer the runners on however. It was really fun because they told people to dress in their costumes and the runners with the best costumes got some fun prizes.

Here are some of the runners at the starting line. Some of them had really fun and creative costumes!

Bryant and Gracie also dressed up for the event! Gracie was the cutest little bumble bee I have ever seen, and Bryant was the most handsome nerd!

Gracie enjoying being outside for once! It's been so cold that we've had to stay indoors, and I think she really misses going outside all the time!

The two bumblebees, Gracie and Erica (a girl in Bryant's class).

Later Saturday evening, we went to the ward trunk or treat activity. I had signed up to bring candy, but Gracie really wasn't into the whole trick or treating thing. Which is just fine with me. She wasn't going to eat any candy she got, and we didn't want it around to "tempt" us, so after all the kids went in the chapel for the rest of their activities, we headed home. All in all, a really fun day!

Photo Shoot

Well at 13 1/2 months old, we finally got Gracie's 1 year pictures done! I think they turned out super cute. Here are a few of our favorites!

Such a sweetheart!

The photographer had these purple wings.

We put them on for a few shots. Bryant HATES them

but I think the pictures still turned out darling!

Kisses from daddy

We LOVE this picture of Gracie! This is just one

of her many faces that show her cute personality!

I am so sorry you all have to see this picture of me!

I don't know what the deal was but all the pictures

I was in because my face looks super chubby. I know I am

really critical of myself, but my face does not normally look

quite this fat! It's a cute picture of Gracie though!

One of my favorite pictures for sure!

It always amazes me to think what a beautiful little girl we have! She is so sweet and loving and just so much fun! I wonder how we ever lived without her!

We Have a Breakthrough!

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, but nothing too monumental has happened in the past month...until now! Gracie is now officially 14 months old, but she still only has her bottom two teeth. She is a VERY late teether, she didn't get her first tooth until she was 9 months and her second at 10 months. In July I was sure her top two teeth were going to break through. Her gums were swollen, you could see the shape of the teeth, she was fussy, I mean she had all the classic signs of teething. But after about 5 days, everything just stopped and she still had no new teeth. Then again the beginning of September she started again. It was horrible. She would hold her mouth, and it was obvious she was in pain. I did what I could for her, but until the teeth break though there is no real relief. I could see the teeth coming down, I was sure this would be the big breakthrough. But again, after about a week everything stopped. This time you could tell the teeth were right at the edge of her gums, but they were not broken through and they were just sitting there. I took her to the dentist because I was sure she was NEVER going to get these teeth in on her own, but the dentist wasn't concerned.

Well today all of the sudden I noticed one of her top teeth has finally broken through!!! FINALLY, my baby has teeth! I know for most of you, baby teeth isn't that big of a deal, but for me this is a very monumental occasion! She won't let me look in her mouth, so if I can get a good shot of her new tooth, I will be sure to post it!