More, more and more!

After the cemetery Hinckley needed a nap so we all went back to the hotel slept a while and then met up with my good friend Diana. I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE! She is expecting her first baby the beginning of January so we got to talk pregnancy talk. It was great catching up with her. Then we ventured off to temple square and had a lovely time there. What a fun trip!

More and more pictures!

We went back to the hotel and crashed because none of has naps that day! Sunday we went to the Salt Lake City Cemetery. That is where a lot of prophets are buried from our church. It was such an amazing experience for us! We even found where President Hinckley is buried (that is who we named our son after) and so it was special. Its is a HUGE cemetery and its placed on a hill a lot of pioneers are buried there too. Oh and in one of the pictures you can see at the bottom of the monument is a cane. The last few years of President Hinckleys life he was told to have cane and he did just that he carried it but rarely used it. Troy thinks its his actual cane and I think it is just a replica.

More of mini slc trip

And of course we had to let Hinckley go to build a bear and make a stuffed animal. He is just at the perfect age and he LOVED IT. He even came up with the name all by himself, Cooper the fireman dog. Here are some pictures of him picking the dog out, stuffing it, bathing him, brushing him, and giving him a name.

Mini trip to SLC

Because Troy left to go to Florida with his dad today (monday) we decided it would be fun to go down to Salt Lake and have a little fun before he got on the plane! So we packed things up and headed down south Saturday. We had lots of fun as you will see. We got to the hotel the Holiday Inn & Suites-west airport which we got for $45 a night. THANK YOU PRICELINE! And we were starving so we headed to the Gateway. We ate at this place called Tucanos, it was so yummy! Its a Brazilian grill where they come and shave off pieces of meat on a rod. We got there for the lunch special and was surprised at how affordable it was! We stuffed ourselves like turkeys so we walked around the outdoor mall for a couple of hours.

Guess who got straight A's this summer??????

THATS RIGHT MY FRIENDS MY HUBBY GOT ALL A'S VERY PROUD!

My adorable 38 month old!

Here is an updated picture of my adorable son Hinckley. I hope our 2nd boy is just as cute.

Going into our 5th year!

August 20th is our anniversary. It was so nice to hang out together. We decided that since our wedding anniversary is the celebration of the creation of our family we would hang out all together. We packed up a lunch and headed to Lava Hot Springs. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! And again, I totally forgot the camera but I think its my new favorite place to go swimming. Hinckley LOVED the water slides. We had cub scouts that night too.

Identity Crisis: Shumway VS Carter

When I got married I never thought in a million years how hard it would be for me to change my name from Shumway. For 21 years thats all I knew was being a Shumway. I LOVED my last name, I LOVED the heritage that came with it, thats what I knew, my last name was Shumway. But when I got married I cried when I got my new drivers license and social security card with my new last name. Not that I didnt like the last name Carter, I just have always loved being a Shumway. In fact of all the last names I had to change it to, Carter is PERFECT.
But I just struggled loosing my last name. I felt like a piece of me had died. Even 4 years later I still struggle sometimes when people ask my name. HOWEVER, I have come to the conclusion its ok for me to be a Carter and still be a Shumway. I can be both. You will never take the Shumway out of me but I can be content being a Carter as well.

The picture is of my son wearing a shirt that has my sisters picture on it and it says, "the only way is the Shumway." I LOVE IT!

Farmers market & Fair

Today we went to Rexburg to the Madison County Fair and the farmers market in town. We loved the farmers market and the fair was fun too but SO EXPENSIVE! Hinckley got his face painted at the farmers market as you will see in the pictures. We saw some fun animals at the fair and learned about fire safety. The rides were $3 or $4 each which is JUST CRAZY. But we did let Hinckley go on 1 ride and then this guy let them both on this crazy one. You will see in the pictures!

Sweet story

Today while Troy was waiting for the slide at the water park he started up this conversation with a lady in front of him. If anybody knows Troy you know that this is very common. She was with a group of special need adults. She was asking Troy about what field of study he was going into in school and stuff and she said how she loved working with these people. She said how before she got licensed to work with special needs or have her foster care license she got this call from the state asking her to watch this mentally handicapped girl just for a couple of hours until they could find a more permeanant situation for her. This lady said, "well, she has been with us for 30 years." I love it! Now she is in charge of these day programs and stuff. People never cease to amaze me. What a neat story!

Ross Aquatic Park

Today we headed down to Pocatello, Idaho to a place called Ross water park. We had so much fun! We went to Heise at the begininng of the summer and it was WAY crowded, stinky, and dirty. This place was awesome. They have a kiddie area, a lazy river, a huge tube slide, a few other play pools, and some other fun things. The price was better than Heise too. I only have 2 gripes about the place. One, they do not allow any floatation devices.... this makes you very nervous as a parent. Two, they wouldn't let Hinckley and Troy go down the big slide together, so HInckley went down by himself. It just made me very NERVOUS. The lifeguards were really good about catching him but he just flopped every which way. We took a picnic and stayed for almost 5 hours. It was worth it! However, I TOTALLY FORGOT THE CAMERA!!!!!!

New Maternity Clothes

After trying to find cute affordable maternity clothes with NO success. I decided I would ask my mom to help me make some clothes. Here is what we made! SO FUN! 3 new shirts, 2 jumpers, and 2 new dresses! Maybe I will get brave and model them and take new pictures.

Traveling Blessing

Hinckley and I flew back from Arizona yesterday the 5th of August and I have to share what a tender mercy we received! The night before that is the 4th about 10pm I could hear Hinckley start to cry so I waited a minute before I went into his bedroom. I got in there and picked him up and BAM!!!!!!!!! PUKE ALL OVER THE PLACE. He just kept the chunks coming as I rushed into the bathroom. Not only did it get all over him, me and the carpet but the bathroom too. We cleaned up (thanks to my mom who cleaned the bedroom while I cleaned Hinks and I up) and got new clothes on and headed back to bed. Hinckley will occasionally throw up for no reason and it's only once so I thought this was just a little fluke thing. About an hour later he started tossing and turning again and BAM!!!!!!!!!!! Puke all over the place again. This time instead of the carpet he got his bed soaked. Again we jumped in the shower while mom cleaned up everything else. We settled down AGAIN, this time in my room. Put him just with his night times on and towels surrounding him. And from about 1am to 5:00am he was up every hour trying to throw up. By this time he had nothing left in his stomach so he was just miserable.

We had to leave about 5:45 for the airport. I checked with the airlines to see if there was any way of changing the ticket because I did not want to take a throwing up kid on an airplane. It would have cost an arm and a leg to do it so instead I just had to pray. I packed 2 extra outfits for him in my carry on and one for me too. I packed 3 different sizes of plastic bags (about 10 in total), target plastic bags, wash cloths, wipes, and decided that if we got to Salt Lake and couldn't go any further that I would just call my Aunt who lives near there. I also decided not to eat or drink anything or feed Hinckley anything for fear of the up chucks! (I don't need a lecture how pregnant women need to eat) I had to do what I had to do. To be honest I was scared to death to board the airplane because of the unknown. Its one thing to have a sick baby but to be traveling... SO NOT FUN!

But then this miracle happened... Hinckley did AMAZING on the plane. There was a couple of times he got that look on his face and I raced for our puke bags and he would hold his face there a minute and then be fine. We flew to Los Angeles and stayed on the same plane and headed up to Salt Lake. Another miracle happened. We didn't have to share a seat with anybody!!!! If you have ever traveled with kids you know what a blessing it is to have a row of 3 to yourself!

As soon as the flight attendants started around with drinks I realized that Hinckley was bound to start to get VERY cranky because of the lack of food and drink. But another miracle happened. HE WAS AN ANGEL. I gave him a few sips of apple juice the first part of the flight and a few crackers the second. But he was not his usual... which was such a blessing because normally he would have started to show signs of hunger in his throwing fits, yelling, trying to hit me, etc.

Another miracle happened... We arrived in SLC about 30 minutes early! I thought we could catch the shuttle early. Instead of waiting almost 3 hours we could maybe catch it in 40! As you know once you leave the terminal there is little to nothing by baggage claim. Inside the terminal there are little play areas, food, places to walk. I called Salt Lake Express and the lady said that the noon shuttle was full but to talk to the driver. So I decided to leave the terminal, pick up our luggage and just pray that we could get on the shuttle. Mind you Hinckley was exhausted from lack of sleep the night before, I WAS EXHAUSTED from the lack of sleep, extremely hungry but very grateful to make it as far as we did. We headed out to meet the bus and the bus driver said well I have one seat open.... I heart sank. Tears filled my eyes. She told me to board the bus anyway and to see what would happen....

And then another miracle happened.... 2 minors who had never traveled the bus before never showed up. They think they got lost in the airport. I think they took our seats on the next shuttle. TALK ABOUT A MIRACLE! As we drove away from the airport I couldn't believe we were on our way. I couldn't believe Hinckley didn't throw up even once on our way. I couldn't believe I didn't get sick either. I couldn't believe how good my little 3 year old was for little sleep, little food, and a long day. Day of miracles for sure.

Hinckley kept a dry diaper the whole shuttle ride up. Yes I put a diaper on him because I was scared he would have to go with no place to go. And I was nervous about diaherra but he was champ! By the time we got to Troy in Rigby I think I looked like a zombie. Because Troy said in a very loving way that I looked like I had been hit by a semi truck. WE MADE IT! I was so thankful to see my husband! I was so thankful to see my bed and the house. I was so thankful for everything. I know these little miracles seem small but to a 25 year old, 29 week pregnant lady it was as if God moved a mountain just for me. Which in sense I guess he really did.

I promise I am alive!

I know it has literally been months since I updated my blog. We have been very busy with company and being gone and other fun things like naps! I guess blogging isn't much on my "to do" lists. However, I think its time to revamp it and get going on updates! We currently have 11 weeks until baby boy Carter joins our family. We are BEYOND excited to welcome this new little man in our lives. The Lord has really blessed me with the excitement for this new baby. Its hard to explain but maybe someday I will! Look for these updates in the near future:

*Troys parents came to visit us for a week at the end of June and we had a blast! More updates on that later.

*My parents and sisters came to visit the day after Troys parents left and we had a great time! More updates on that later.

*I left with my parents because Troy was finishing up his semester and was headed to Annual Training. More updates on Tucson later.

* Traveling to Yucca for Grandma Williams funeral

* I need to blog about Hinckleys fun 3rd birthday (If I can think back that far!)

* Blog about Troys 27th birthday!