Fork Lift

Brecken and I headed to Grammie and Grandpa's house in Utah on December 9th for a long Christmas Break. We went down to my dads shop before Christmas and had lunch and Brecken got to ride on the Fork Lift with Grandpa and get zoomed around the shop by Uncle Carter on the box dolly. He had a blast and all he has been talking about since is "fork lift, Grandpa, drive fork lift with Brecken". It is so cute and we now we will have to invest in a fork lift toy for him:) 

Miss you Grammie and Grandpa! 

Christmas Card

This year sending out Christmas cards just didn't happen so I thought I should blog instead...

Christmas 2012 finds us all happy and well. We are currently living in St. Louis, MO and Kaile just finished his first trimester at Logan College of Chiropractic. He is busy with classes and studying but finds time to wrestle with Brecken and meet us for lunch. I am a stay at home mom right now and loving it! I am teaching ballet to some girls in the ward and hope to start tutoring or teaching preschool in the new year. I graduated from BYU-I with my Early Childhood Special Education degree in April 2012 and Kaile graduated in Exercise Physiology in July 2012. We moved to St. Louis in August and have really enjoyed our time thus far. We love our ward and have met lots of new friends. Brecken is as handsome and energetic as ever. He turned 2 in August and just keeps amazing us every day. He is talking all the time now and loves to play with friends and read books. He is my little buddy and loves to help mommy do everything. We feel very blessed this year and know that our Heavenly Father is guiding our path. May each of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love you all/ Cambria, Kaile, & Brecken

Halloween very late...

Before Halloween Kaile and I along with Christal and Daniel Bridge were in charge of our ward trunk or treat. It went well but I am sure glad that we don't have to plan the Christmas Party too! We had a Chili Cook off, costume contest with prizes and of course the Trunk or Treat. Brecken is still finishing his Halloween candy! We dressed up as Sesame Street Characters... I was Abby Cadabby, Kaile was Cooking Monster and of course Brecken had to be Elmo!  I thought our costumes turned out pretty awesome. I was going to spray my hair pink and find puffballs for my hair but I didn't  have time before the party!

The day before Halloween my mom flew in from SLC to stay with us in STL for a week. We were so lucky to have her here with us! We had a blast. We went to the Library, out to eat, to Kaile's school, and to Aunt Margot's farm. We also carved pumpkins, played with play dough  read books, and learned how to use grammies IPad. (Talking Trex is Brecken's favorite app, he calls it the big dinOsaur). We had an amazing week with Grammie but Blogger wont let me upload anymore pictures so you will have to take my word for it!

Scary Spider Jump You!

So a while ago I took Brecken shopping with me and we went to a store called the Spirit of Halloween. I was looking for an Elmo costume and this store has everything, Halloween displays, party stuff, blow up goblins, etc. While I was browsing costumes I let Brecken roam around by me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brecken step on a trigger for a giant jumping spider. I was too late and Brecken got tackled by a giant tarantula. He got knocked over by it and then it starts hissing and wiggling. Needless to say Brecken was absolutely terrified and screaming. I got to him, picked him up and tried explaining that it was not real and that it was a scary spider that jumped on him but it was ok and he was safe. The rest of the time at the store he just clung to me and was saying "scary spider jump you". In retrospect this story is funny but Brecken continues to remember the scary spider to this day and has had nightmares about it... I still feel so bad. He is going to be scared of spiders forever!

Socks on Hands

Brecken is quite the trend setter... He loves to wear my star shirt all around the house. It looks like a dress on him but I think he likes it because its soft. Also Brecken has been wearing socks on his hands. He has been doing it every single day for about 2 weeks... maybe longer. He wants to wear them to eat, in the tub, playing, driving his tractor, everything! He also wants me to wear socks on my hands and Kaile and any of our friends that he can convince. Needless to say I wash a lot of socks:) We don't really know why he started doing this... our guesses: its baseball city out here and we have been watching the Cardinals games (before they lost). He might think they are baseball mitts...Or Kaile has been wearing gloves when he works on the car and has driving gloves for cold mornings. He might just want to be like daddy:) Either way I love this little boy and his imagination. I am so lucky to be his mom.

*This is Brecken's headboard that I made! It turned out so awesome

St. Louis Science Center

St. Louis has so many family friendly spots to visit and the best part... most of them are free! This past weekend we decided to check out the Science center with our friends Christal and Daniel Bridge and Ben and Brittany Lockie. It was an amazing place! We will definitely be going back to see a planetarium show and to sign Brecken up for a toddler science time at the Discovery Center. Brecken loved the dinosaurs, I liked the puzzles and mind twister area, and I think Kaile probably like engineering area best. (Kaile built the St. Louis arch out of big blocks and then we let Brecken knock it over... he was in heaven) Afterwards we went to Forest Park and had a picnic lunch and did some slack lining! Ben and Brittany are amazing at it! The rest of us need some practice...

I didn't get pictures of too much because I was having fun playing with science stuff and chasing Brecken:)

Gateway Arch

Two weekends ago we went to the Gateway Arch with our friend Daniel and Christal Bridge. We rode up the tiny washing machine elevators and looked out the windows over St. Louis and the Mississippi River. It was so neat. I had been before when I was younger but no one else had been. Christal faced her fear of heights which was awesome! Waiting in line is really challenging with an energetic toddler but I thought we did well considering...

At the base of the Arch

My favorite picture

Hiding in the pretend elevator

Waiting in line

Looking out the windows

Love the shadow on the ground

Nose to the glass:)

Kaile's black eye is from playing ward basketball. This is like his 6th black eye from basketball... After the arch we walked around downtown but we forgot the stroller so that didn't last long. We went to dinner at Super Smokers BBQ and it was delicious!

Cheeto Fingers and Licking the Bowl

Brecken loves Cheetos... must take after me:) 

Who doesn't love licking the bowl after making a yummy treat?

Lions and Tigers and Okapi... Oh My

Lion

Tiger

Okapi

Before Kaile started school we went to the St. Louis Zoo as a family. We got there early enough to park on the street so our entire day at the zoo was free!!! (except for the bag of zoo animals we bought Brecken at the end, oops) Admission to the zoo is free but parking is $6 and then other things like the seal lion show, feeding the stingrays and the children's zoo are extra...We had plenty to do though without the extras! Brecken loved all the animals and is just so talkative and has so much energy. It was fun to see some new animals that we have never seen before like Okapi (a giraffe with strips). Also the zoo has this new underwater viewing area for the sea lions that was really neat and the penguin exhibit was awesome! Kaile loved the bug and butterfly house... Brecken didn't :( he freaked out when a butterfly almost landed on him. Altogether we had an awesome day at the zoo and will most definitely be going back soon.

My monkeys in the monkey house

Underwater viewing area for the seals

Elmo shirt

Seal feeding time

Penguins!

Butterfly House

Brecken made friends with a duck at the pond

Bear Lake

At the end of August after Carter got home from his mission we went to Bear Lake as a family minus Colin. Brecken loves driving the boat with Grandpa and going for "moti-kicle" rides (anything with wheels... in this case a four wheeler). Carter can still jump the wake even with a bad knee and Kaile still looks good on a wakeboard too! We had good food and fun times playing games. Brecken loved throwing rocks and playing with sand... he wasn't to thrilled about the cold water and wouldn't get in. The video is of Kaile rough-housing with Brecken and I think its super cute. After Bear Lake Kaile and I headed up to Rexburg to pack. My mom watched Brecken for us for a couple days so we could clean/load without a 2 year old, which was so great! Thanks Mom! 

Happy Brecken driving the boat

Uncle Carter jumping the wake

Kaile looking awesome!

4 wheeler rides

Driving with Gramps

Play time at the Cabin

As you can tell I am updating the blog in reverse order... Enjoy!

St. Louis or Bust

After driving for 30+ hours we finally made it to St. Louis, MO! We left on Saturday, September 1st from SLC. We stopped in Denver, CO for the first night, Salina, KS the second night, and then we got to our condo in the afternoon on September 3rd. Brecken did amazingly well in the car (better than me at times) and all of our stuff and our cars made it safely to our new place. Our condo is mostly set up now and Kaile started school on Wednesday. I am looking forward to the weekend and some much needed family time. Kaile's classes start at 7:10 and he doesn't get home until 6:30 or 7 every night. Its been a rough adjustment not having daddy home and being away from family but Brecken and I are getting more used to it. On the bright side we have already made some great friends and we love our ward.

Leaving Rexburg...

St. Louis or Bust :)

Dancing in the hotel in Kansas

Riding in the van with Elmo and Daddy

Carter Family Reunion 2012

In July we went down to Utah to celebrate my awesome Grandpa's 90th birthday and have a family reunion. We had so much fun and lots of great food and games up at Snydermill in Park City. Brecken had a blast playing basketball with the big kids. Water games were my favorite and Kaile won the root beer chugging contest during Ben's "Minute to Win It" games. The next night we had a dinner and program for my grandpa at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I forgot my camera so no pictures but my mom did the table decorations and they turned out so cute!

 Sittin on the steps

 Playing ball

One of me so you know I was there..

Uncle Colin and all the kids at the playground