Carters Birthday and Family Happenings

Well its been a while since I wrote down some of the Horrocks happenings and so I thought I should catch the three people who read this blog up-to-date. :)

Lets start with Carters first birthday party. I'm pretty sure that I had Carters birthday planned out way before the time came close for the celebration to begin. The theme of the party was Curious George. Being the curious little boy Carter is, it was only fitting. In my previous post, I mentioned making a cake out of fondant for the first time. I practiced making marshmallow fondant a few times and also on getting the fondant on smoothly. To my surprise, the fondant making wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but pretty messy. Only a few people know this about me but I LOVE to bake and if I could go to school, become a great pastry/cake artist and start my own fantastic bakery, I would. So, needless to say, making this cake was a lot of fun for me. All-in-all, the cake took about 3 days to complete and I learned a lot about cake making. Though Carter couldn't truly appreciate all my hard work, I hope one day he looks back and thinks the cake was special because it was for him.



We mostly invited family and a few neighbor friends over to celebrate with us and my mom actually flew in from South Carolina for the party and ended up staying a month in Utah. Carter was spoiled with so many great presents and not one, but two cars that he could ride on. He loves them both and has played with them everyday since.

Around the end of the party, the time came to cut the cake and for Carter to dig into his. We stripped him down and let him do what he wanted but in the end, it took lots of encouragement to even get him to take a bite. We eventually got him to eat some of it and caught some good, messy pictures.














I find writing on this blog causes me to reflect more than I usually do and so I'd like to reflect on some of the milestones and personality traits that I've noticed in Carter. Your more than welcome to read but I know for some, these kinds of lists are boring. If so, skip ahead..:)

Carter at 14 months:
-Is completely off bottles and has been for about a month and 1/2 now. Hallelujah
-He loves to play outside. I think if he could be outside all day, he would
-Loves the water and swimming. Bath time is also a favorite time of the day for him. He also likes to sample the water he is in sometimes... Why? I have no clue..
-Some of the words he knows and does a pretty good job saying are: hi, bye bye, bath, dog, Kinley, ball, mommy, daddy, nana (for banana and his Grandma Nana), papa, that, balloon, P.U., complete with hand waving in front of his face (as in what you say when something smells bad), thank you, please, book, kiss, hug, cheese, and chicken.
-He will give kisses, hugs and snuggles with some encouragement or just randomly because he wants to. He will often times go straight to the kisses and hugs when he knows he's in trouble. I have a hard time being mad at him when he does that.
-Loves to be sung to. Some of his favorite songs are "Popcorn Popping", "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam', "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", the "Chicken Dance", "la Cucaratcha" (totally don't know how to spell it and I dont have the drive to look it up), and anything from the Children Songbook really.
-Will dance to random music or with mom. He really likes dance music for some reason.
-He has been scared of his own shadow on more than one occasion.
-He is a mommas boy. In the morning, if BJ goes in and gets him, if he hears my voice or see's me, he wants nothing to do with BJ. He's becoming very attached to me.
-He liked to brush his teeth at night. We have 2 toothbrushes; one for him to hold and use and then one for Mom or Dad to do the real brushing. Carter thinks its funny to have us hold his hand and brush for him.
-I know every parent says this about their children but Carter is very smart and catches on quickly when he is taught something new. We've been working on going downstairs for about a week or 2 and after only showing him maybe 8-10 times how to turn around and go downstairs on his belly, he'd figured it out.
-LOVES books. I could read to him for hours a day. Some of his favorite books are: Llama Llama, Red Pajama, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mommy's Best Kisses and anything Baby Einstein.
-Carter will eat just about anything I put in front of him. His appetite isn't as large prior to being 1, but he can still eat with the best of them. Sometimes though it is a struggle to get him to eat. When nothing else works, playing some Baby Einstein from YouTube always works to distract him. I don't like using shows to get him to eat but when I've had a rough day and I need him to eat, it is a life and sanity saver.
-Carter all around is just a happy guy. There are times of course when he gets upset or cranky but for the most part, he is a wonderful, cheerful little boy. He's growing up WAY to fast and I tell him often that he needs to stay little. :)


Another big thing thats happened in our household is that I quit my job. While I was completely planning on working one more year before I stayed home, BJ and I had the prompting to think about me staying home sooner. We fasted, prayed, went to the temple multiple times and ultimately decided that it was the best decision for our family. I must say that making that decision for me personally, was one of the most difficult in my life. I've worked one or multiple jobs at one time ever since I graduated high school and I can honestly say I love working. Teaching especially is/was rewarding and I loved the people and place that I worked. Prior to me going on summer vacation, my principle had really gone out of her way to arrange a schedule so that I would still be able to work part-time. Needless to say, she did not take the news well that I was leaving to be at home and her reaction had me second guessing myself. While it was a tough decision to make due to leaving friends, great kids, making people mad at me in the process and having to give up having more of a social life away from home, I can honestly say we made the right decision. Carter and I will have many fun and trying adventures together and I'm glad I won't miss anything! There is nothing like being a mom and theres nobody I'd rather spend my day with than my family.