THE BOTTLE BATTLE!

Welp, Carter is officially a formula baby now.... BUT let me just say that it was a war! We tried for a long time to get him to drink out of a bottle, so that Chris could feed him every now and then (like at church when I was teaching primary). We put juice in it and everything, but he would just chew on the bottle or cry. It was very frustrating, but we dealt with it. Then, circumstances changed all of a sudden to where we had no choice, and he was going to HAVE to drink out of a bottle. So one day we battled it out with him until he gave in. I had to leave the house, and Chris had to try to get him to eat. Carter is one stubborn little guy, and he knows what he wants! But after 6 hours of refusing to eat it, he finally gave in. Every meal after that, he would still fight and cry for a few minutes (especially if it was me trying to give it to him), but after a few days he got used to it. Now he is doing great, and is perfectly happy with the idea. I wish we didn't have to feed him formula all the time, but whatcha gonna do? That's just how things turned out.

FIRST SEMESTER ALMOST DONE!

Chris only has about a week of classes left for this semester, and then he has his finals! He works so hard to get good grades and to be happy with the papers he writes. He is an incredibly dedicated student, and always gets his work done on time or early. Its kinda funny because he'll worry that he is not doing so great, and then he'll talk to another student and it usually ends up that he is way ahead. I love how he manages his time too. He treats his studying like a job, so that he goes to school at the same time every morning and comes home every night at about 6:30. Then we get to eat dinner and spend time as a family.

I have been asked to design and paint some decorations/signs for our ward Christmas party on Dec. 5th. Sounds simple enough, but its looking like its actually going to be a pretty big project for me to take on! Our ward doesn't just plop up some Christmas trees and call it good like other wards. This ward spares no expense, and goes all out with a theme and everything. I'm wondering when the heck I'm going to be able to get this done. Or I should say HOW I'm going to get this done with little Carter attached to my hip all day. Oh well, hopefully it'll work out. And its probably good for me to start painting again. (Dang you Provo for killing my will to draw) :)

We are very much looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas so we can go to St. George and visit our families! YAY!!

CARTER PASSES HIS DRIVER'S TEST

Halloween

We had a lot of fun for Carter's first Halloween! We dressed him up as a little giraffe, and Chris and I were zombies. I was worried he might be weirded out by our scary makeup, but it didn't even phase him. And he was nice and comfy in his costume.

On Friday night we went to our ward "Trunk or Treat". We had some yummy Chili for dinner, and then all the kids went trick or treating in the church parking lot. We decorated our trunk with spiders and webs. (It was pretty boring compared to some of the other cars. People went all out-- there was even one guy who brought a live snake! Our primary is pretty small compared to ones in Utah. The kids went around to all the cars 2 or 3 times, and we still had a ton of candy left.

Then on Saturday we were invited to a neighborhood block party. They had all sorts of food, a sound system blasting, and little fire pits to sit by (not that it was really cold, but it was still fun). We stuffed ourselves and then took Carter down a block and back for a little trick or treating. He loved it all (except the music was a little loud and scary to him at times). Carter is so happy when he is outside and around lots of people.

Carter is very talkative. He'll choose one thing for the day and say it over and over (like "da da" or "ba ba") And he is finally starting to roll on his belly again for short amounts of time-- usually to reach for a toy. He loves to eat. He has never spit out any vegetable that we've given him. He's like "cool, more food--bring it on!" And he has mastered walking in his stand-up toy! He knows how to back up, turn around, and practically runs at times! We're still wondering if he is going to skip crawling (its looking that way). I'm getting a little taste of what it'll be like when he's completely mobile, cause he has figured out how to walk in the kitchen, open the drawers, and pull stuff out.