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.

Children on the news, more often than not, make me cry..

Before I had Carter, I watched the news pretty often. We all know there is heartbreaking, tragic stories told every night, if not every minute of our lives somewhere. Nothing though prepared me for moments like today and this past month when I've heard of little toddlers being found in rivers, canals or accidents where shortly thereafter hope is gone and the children end up dying. Becoming a mother has completely changed my life and perspective in many ways. When they involve case's such as this, my heart breaks and I literally find myself in tears. When I hear of these children, I just think that someday that could be my child and the pain that such an accident would cause me to have I know would leave me devastated. I can't get through a movie without crying if a little boy is hurt or killed. Anyone else as dramatic or sensitive and I am or am I just crazy?

If I'm being completely honest, I get angry that such a small, innocent child has to die while there are horrible people living on this earth who deserve not to (sorry if that sounds judgmental but its how I feel). It all just doesn't seem fair. I believe that our Heavenly Father is in control and that there is a perfectly good reason why these things happen. I just have to exercise a little more faith when I hear stories like this. Anyway, I just needed to vent. Sorry this post is kind of depressing...I pray nothing like this ever happens to me or any of you.

Easter and South Carolina

Recently BJ, Carter and I took a trip to my home back in South Carolina. My sister Lindsay and Brother-in-law Kell were blessing their baby Grady and so it was time for a visit. Grady was born about 3 or so months ago and so before this trip we hadn't had a chance to see him. He's such a cutie and we were glad to have been able to make it to the blessing. Holding him I was reminiscent of when Carter was that little and made me think about having another.. Then I realized that I probably won't want to have another until I'm done with school (1 more year or less hopefully).

I learned a few things on that trip about traveling with infants, soon to be toddlers. One is that you should bring new toys and plenty of distractions. Carter is in the phase where everything around him visually stimulates him, but after about 2-5 minutes of something new, he moves onto something else. Our flights both going and coming back we're pretty brutal at times.

Our first flight left around 7 AM and so that meant we all were up bright and early around 4 AM. I was expecting that Carter would totally fall back asleep in the car ride to the airport but sadly I was wrong and he ended up staying awake until about 1 hour into the flight. My thought process before getting on the plane was this, "I wonder how an infant, soon to be toddler, would go down for a nap on a plane? It seems logical that if he falls asleep easy in a car that a plane would be almost identical. Yes, I'm sure he'll go down easily on this trip." See, this was the mindset I had going into our first flight and I soon was re-educated in my all to naive thinking. The process of going down for naps was to say the least, stressful. I'm not to sure if it was his ears popping or if he was over-tired (probably was a combination of the two) but it took 30-45 mins of consistant crying and screaming before he finally gave into sleep. We felt so bad for the people around us. You know that time after your plane lands and everyone is in the aisle waiting to get off the plane? Well, BJ and I took this time after each flight to apologize to those fellow passenger for having to put up with our screaming child. Most people were sympathetic and admitted wanting to help us, while there were those who you could tell we're irritated... Oh well, not much else I could've done.

When It came down to getting Carter to sleep,BJ tried his hardest to help but I guess it just takes a mommy's touch because Carter would only fall asleep on me. When he finally took his nap, he was much better behaved so at least we had some relief afterwards. The picture below is of him looking out of the plane right before we boarded. Oh, about that.. I also learned that having children will bump you to the front of the line in airports which is a very nice thing. I remember we got into SLC airport and the line to go through security was backed up all the way to the baggage claim. BJ and I just looked at each other and were like, "There's no way we're going to make it.." But to our surprise, the kind airport workers informed us of a "special" line that we were allowed to go through. So, instead of spending forever long in a regular line, we were through security in about 20 minutes. And, before every boarding, we were given the privilege of boarding first. I cannot tell you how helpful that was to get on first and get situated with Carter before everyone else boarded. It helped a bunch!

Once we got into South Carolina, we all went out to dinner as a family (minus Ashlee and family :( ) which was so nice. Simple things like going to dinner make me so very happy. Times like that don't happen very often for me but when they do, I relish in them as much as possible.

The following day was spent sleeping in and hanging out at home. Carter had some sweet Grandma and Grandpa time while I got to sleep in. We tried to take a walk during the day but I sadly forgot how hot it is there and our walk turned more so into a 5 minute stroll. That night we went over to Lindsay's mother-in-laws home and had a BBQ. There were so many people there that I had grown up with and former leaders who have added so much value to my life. It was really good to see everyone and to be able to again spend time with family. I'll spare you all the sappy details :)

Sunday was blessing day and it was a good day. Call me crazy but there are some people in this world who know how to talk to Heavenly Father and know how to give a great blessings. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I don't completely and intently listen to every prayer but there are some people who just know how to invite the spirit and who are so in tune with the spirit that you can't help but listen to every word. My brother-in-law is that way; he invites the spirit when he speaks and gave a beautiful blessing.

Me, Carter, Mom, Lindsay and Grady

Group picture complete with people looking in various directions

Carter and how he spent some of his time in the pack-n-play.

After the blessing we had very limited time till we needed to leave for home. Lindsay had a fun idea and thought that since Easter was so close, she thought that we should take cousin pictures. So, we each went and bought white onesies, put bunny tails and ears on them and had a photo shoot. I dont think they turned out as "professional looking" as I think we had hoped but they aren't to bad.

I bet you can't tell which one of Carter :)

Cousin loves

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Our model in the making

All in all the trip was a good time and we're really glad we were able to go. We do wish we had more time but I think my family will be coming out soon for Carters birthday so it wont be to long.