Counting my blessings...

I am counting my blessings everyday... i can't even explain how thankful i am for all the blessings i have been given. I have had a bit of bad luck lately but i feel like i am unable to dwell on it because of all of the blessings we have. Cletes truck broke down right after he and my kids got home from visiting me. It cost $1000.00 to fix... then our well went out and it turns out it was only a switch which saved us tons of money. Also thanks to Greg Wade who came out late at night to check it out! Last but not least... Shayda ended up in the E.R. last night with a bad kidney infection. It must have been bad for Clete to take her to the hospital. I feel so bad that I wasn't with her, but her daddy is the best we could ask for. He handled it like a champ... and she feels much better now. I know that with all the bad luck i could be focusing on that instead of all the good things, but being in the nicu everyday with Whit has taught me that things could be so much worse. I don't know how some people handle all the horrible things that happen to their sweet babies. I am so lucky to have such a healthy baby boy and such wonderful people in my life to help me through everything. I don't know what would happen without them.

Whit is doing so great... His little heart is healing itself... so the episodes have decreased significantly. He is also missing some leads in his left ear which may affect is hearing, but they still have time to form. His right ear is perfect. He is eating so much better and even has his feeding tube out for now. If he can keep it up then he can come home next week yay! I am so thankful for everything i have. I am going to try to remember how lucky i am. I love my family so much and I am so thankful for everything!

Whit Clete Carter

Warning... This is a long story!

We have had so many concerned calls and text messages wondering about our sweet baby boy so
I wanted to tell the whole story.

Whit Clete Carter was born on April 20th 2011 at 4:40 am. I started having contractions again on Tuesday morning. I just felt like i needed to go to the hospital so i called Clete and he left work to take me to Nephi. I was contracting normally but i was only 34 1/2 weeks pregnant so they gave me meds to stop them. My water broke shortly after that which caused me to be sent to timpanogos hospital in an ambulance ... lights and sirens... scary! I was progressing very slowly and the nurse was concerned that he was breech. They could not decide if he was or not until they felt the umbilical cord trying to come first. They decided to do a c-section. i thought it would be good but it was the scariest thing i have ever experienced. I felt really sick and clostrophobic and scared for my baby. He was born within 5 minutes and we found out it was a boy. He was 4lbs 9oz. 18in. Long and skinny. He did well. He had a cpap for one day and then went to room air which I was so excited about. He was breech by the way with one arm and leg trying to come first. He was doing so well but they were concerned about his heart. It was stopping and starting r3eally quickly for no reason. They decided to send him to primary childrens. He was put on a monitor and the cardiologist felt that it was something he had because he was premature.

He is still at primarys but he is doing so great. He is still off oxygen, and has been taken off of everything but the feeding tube. He needs that still because he is still so small and falls asleep while eating... but he does breast feed well. His heart is doing the episodes much less and hopefully will stop soon. We can't wait to bring our sweet little man home.

i miss my kids so much. They have such a great dad that is taking care of them but i miss them like crazy and they miss me. They are coming up to see us tomorrow and I am so happy! I have had such an out pouring of love and support from our family and friends. I can't say thank you enough. My mom, Clete and mother in laws spent all day and night with me in labor. My mom spent a few nights with me and so did Shantel. My step dad spent the night with Whit when i couldnt be there and my little sis was there when i needed someone the most. My dad is letting me stay with him so I am close to Whit. My siblings and sis in laws have been so worried and helpful. My wonderful hubbie has been the best husband and dad I could ask for. I could not do it without him. My mom listens to me cry more than once and i am greatful for her advice. I am so thankful for the many prayers said on mine and Whit's behalf... this is what has kept us here. I am thankful to you all and for my heavenly father for everything. Thank u thank u thank u!!! I will add pictures soon. You can check out my facebook for pics. I will try and keep you all updated. Keep praying for us to come home soon!!!

Almost there...

Look at this pic and compare it to Justices pic on the left side of the screen... I swear they look alike!

How cute is this?

I know that these pics are tiny but I couldn't fix it so you will just have to squint! I got an ultrasound on Monday and it was so much fun. I have gestational diabetes again so they just wanted to make sure the baby is not getting to big. He or she is almost 5 pounds... which I think sounds big but they say it is right on track. I loved seeing my little angel again... it reminds me of what a miracle babies really are. I think that I will be having this baby around the middle of May so I am almost there. Thank goodness because I swear I am to old for this. I can't believe how much harder this one has been compared to the other two (Maybe I just can't remember the other two haha) I also want this to be a warning to all young girls who think it is so great to get your belly button pierced. STOP... Don't do it... you will pay for it. I am not kidding... I got my belly button pierced when I was 18... I think I only enjoyed it for about two years and then I started to get to self concious for it. I took it out when I was probably about 21 and have not worn one ever since. Well... my skin does not heal well so I can still get a ring in it to this day. The horror of it all is that with my first baby I started a horrible stretch mark and then it has just gotten worse... even if I got stinkin skinny I would still not ever wear a bikini again haha. Well now my skin is stretching so badly that the skin that I pierced is tearing... like bleeding. I swear I am no bigger with this one but my skin does not like the stretching. I know that my babies are worth every but of this but wow they are harsh on a womans body.

I am also working on my loan for the addition to my house. The appraisal came in high enough and with this economy that is amazing. I am so excited... we will start on it in another month. Bad timing since the baby is coming but I am so excited that I don't mind at all. We have lived in a two bedroom home with no storage for long enough. Wish me luck that my marriage will make it through the construction haha.

I will keep you posted on my pregnancy. I can't wait until we know if this baby is a boy or girl. I have no idea and everyone else in my life thinks its a boy. What do you think?

St. patty's day fun...

Justice and his green eggs...

Shayda and her green eggs...

Shayda's rainbow and gold pot hair...

four leaf clover cake

rainbow cake

Ok so I am dieing on bed rest. I have gotten pretty bored so I have been coming up with fun things to do. Ok so some of them cause me to get up but I am going into work for a little while tomorrow and I needed to get my energy back up. We started off the day with green eggs... they looked gross but my kids ate them all! I wanted to do something with Shayda's hair but I couldn't find any shamrock ideas that would work with her hair so I came up with my own. I am quite proud of myself with this idea haha. I also make green tuna fish sandwiches... Clete thought they looked bad but tasted good. I decided not to torcher them with any more food that looked gross so we had normal food for dinner. I also attempted to make a rainbow cake. Shayda wanted a strawberry cake so I tried to color pink cake mix with green and blue food coloring. It didn't work out so well. I know that I claim to be a cake decorator but I failed on this attempt. I also made a cool whip frosting which tasted so good with the cake that it didn't matter that it was ugly. All in all we had a great day! I love spending time with my kids... they have been so good to me while on bed rest. I just couldn't ask for better kids! Love you both!

pre-term labor...

I thought I should probably post a little about what has been going on lately with my pregnancy. On Friday, february 25th I started feeling some pain in my right side and my stomach hurt to even touch. I talked myself out of going to the hospital because I knew Nephi's clinic was open on saturday and I thought that I was probably having some kidney problems. The next day I called and made an appointment and headed to Nephi. I ran in to my friend Erin and got to have a good visit with her... she kept telling me that she thought I was in labor but I wasn't convinced. When I saw the dr. he said that I had a uti but that I needed to be checked on the monitors to see about contractions. When they hooked me up, I immediatley remembered being in labor with Justice and started feeling even more pain. They tried to give me some antibiotic and fluids because they thought the uti was what was causing them but it did not help. I then got some more meds and some more tests which did not help the cause. My dr. had found out that one of my tests said that my body thought it would have a baby in 7 to 14 days. Not good when you are not due until the end of May. He decided to send me by ambulance to utah valley and then gave me some magnesium sulfate that stopped my labor. They sent me home after two days, and put me on bedrest. I have been doing really well but started to feel contractions again yesterday and some more today. I don't know if it is because I went to partial bed rest or what. It has been scary but I have had so much help. I can't thank my family, and my friends and the relief society enough. They have all been so wonderful to help me and so willing to do anything for me. I seriously have not had to do a thing for a couple of weeks now. I am going to keep trying to keep this baby in as long as possible. We want a healthy happy baby!!! Thanks to everyone who has helped and also all those who have worried and prayed for us. Thank you, Thank you

Big Movie Birthday Party!!

This was the treat table!

Here is the entrance to the town hall theatre

A closer look at the stars of the show!

I found these cute hollywood stars and let Shayda write her own name.. so cute!

Here is a view of the huge movie screen

Justice and one of his many presents

Shayda was so spoiled... she loves this umbrella that her bestie Mary got her

more presents

a few of the kids

Justice and his new saddle

Shayda and her new saddle

my movie cake

Justice blowin out his candles

Shayda workin on her candles...

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet Shayda who turned the big 5 and to Justice who turned 2 both in January!! I know that many people have thought that I might go over board when it comes to their birthdays but I figure that their birthdays are so close together and there is not much to do in the winter so why not do something fun for everyone right??? Besides... if you know me very well then you know that I am quite cheap so it would have to be affordable... and it was believe it or not. Holden town owns a huge movie screen that I was able to rent from them. The cost of the movie screen was as affordable as renting the swim pool or anything else that we would have done in the winter. I also saved money by making my own decorations, and cake and ordering a few things like the invites, and the hollywood stars and the popcorn bags from oriental trading. We didn't do any food this time but we did have popcorn and movie theatre treats, pop, ice cream and cake... Yes it was a sugar high night!!! We had so much fun... we had so many friends and family there. The kids were so spoiled with so many presents from them. A big thank you to all who came and enjoyed this fun night with us... and for the wonderful gifts that my kids recieved! We got a saddle for Shayda that was going to be for Christmas but we didnt have all the extras that are on it ready in time so we decided to give it to her for her birthday and Justice got Shayda's old saddle that she has basically grown out of. Shayda looks mad in her picture because she was embarrassed...( I can't believe I have a child old enough to be embarassed by her parents haha) Justice loved it of course... he has not gotten off of it since he got it! We showed the movie "How to train your dragon"... Justice was scared of it at first and then decided to shoot the dragon with a gun he got. Shayda thought it was great but I think that she was more entertained by her cute little friends and all the ideas they had to play with the gifts she had gotten. They may have not been totally entertained by the movie but all in all they felt special and thats all that matters to me. I love my cute kids and I am so proud to be their mom! Happy Birthday my babies!

Surprise.. it's a???

My cute kids!!

Shayda's Barbie stuff

Side pic ( Check out the cute little nose!)

Babies Foot

Babies arms

Babies face

We went on January 5th for our ultrasound and found out that our baby is healthy with no concerns at this time. I was very tempted to find out what we are having but I stayed strong and it will continue to be a surprise! It is so funny how crazy it has made everyone else that we are not finding out and until recently it did not bother me at all but lately I am getting curious. I know its to late now and I still want to be surprised but I really have no inclination as to what I am having. Clete says he saw a little boy part on the ultrasound but I think it was the umbilical cord. I feel like I am carrying closer to what I was with Shayda and I am as sick as I was with her but the heart beat is lower like Justices was. Who knows. I just I hope I am prepared when this baby arrives in May!

I have had a rough couple of weeks lately. I went to my regular Dr. appointment and had a small cough but I felt good. He thought maybe I might need something but I felt fine. The next day was my sweet Shayda's 5th birthday. I had planned to take her to school with cupcakes and then spend the day doing what she wanted. My plans were changed when I ended up in the E.R because I was so dehydrated and so sick. My cough had gotten so bad that I could not keep anything down. I got tested for Influenza and it was positive. By the way, that test was awful... they shoot water up your nose and suck it out with a tube that is shoved down your nose. It was ridiculous and hurt like heck. All of that to find out that I could not take the medicine because it had not been tested on pregnant women. I spent a week and a half in bed. Poor pitiful me right? I felt awful because Clete had to take over on Shayd's birthday and I was sad that I wasn't involved. It was also Justices 2nd Birthday on January 21st. We decided to throw them both a big birthday bash this Saturday so I will share pics soon.

January has been a crazy month but it also brought me a new neice. Bristyn was born on the 24th to Weston and Mallori and she is a doll! It makes me excited for my little one to arrive! I am also looking for suggestions on an original boy name. We have our girl name but we are struggling to find a boy name that we can agree upon. So help us out! We also started our loan on our house so I am excited to be moving on with our addition. Things are changing so much and I am so excited for our future!