Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

oh goodness.... three degrees currently!!! BRRRRR.... and we were thankful not to have snow so far this season.. but we would like some for Christmas.. and we don't like it being this cold.

This has been a great month so far for us.... in the past couple of weeks kena has learned to laugh out loud... it happens seldom, i think she forgets how.. and then all of a sudden when nothing in particular is funny, she will giggle a little :) this has brought us such great joy..... it was amazing to see and hear how happy she is.. our little bundle also started sleeping through the night... WOW!!!! that was a huge relief... we began to feel human again..... over the past week though... she has been sleeping alot less... shoving her fists in her mouth and chewing on them... and drooling alot.... and also eating less.... UH OH!!! here comes teething :) i cant believe she is already teething... she probably wont actually get teeth for another few months according to the doc but she said its normal for them to start around this time.....

For thanksgiving, we had a small early dinner at our house with our friends who also have a new born.. it was a lot of fun we played a few games and let the babies kinda get to know each other... it was nice to see there baby boy so happy and healthy, he was taken five weeks early by c section and had alot of health problems in the beginning.... he was such a fighter though!!! he got out of the nicu and hospital three weeks earlier then anticipated.... he and kena will be great playmates we hope!.... it was nice to be home and not do alot of out and about things this year.

Last weekend we decorated our Christmas tree.... a small little thing this year but we still love it just the same :).... We also told kena the story of Jesus Mary and Joseph while we set out our nativity. The biggest surprise was when we topped the tree with the angel...... i think angels must really look like that and kena must remember them because she could not stop starring at it and talking to it.... she looked it straight in the face and just smiled and talked......... it was amazing.. she still hasn't lost interest in it either if you pick her up and take her to it she will stare and smile.

We had her three month pictures and our Christmas pictures taken during the week and they turned out pretty good.. she smiled alot the whole time. shes a natural!

This evening Scott and my mom and i took kena to the Christmas nativities display at our church... it was wonderful, all the nativities from around the world.. really beautiful. It was really special to be able to spend that time together remembering and celebrating Christ's birth. Especially this year, when god has blessed us so wonderfully. I was very overcome with the spirit this evening when i realized that I now have a deeper understanding of Mary and Joseph's struggle with a baby on the way and nowhere to stay... i cant imagine having a baby in a barn with cows and sheep and no doctors to help.... It makes me realize how blessed i am and my family is and makes me eternally grateful for our savior.

We love all of you, and we hope that this Christmas season finds you all in good health and happy times. We see the world struggling around us but with gods grace and mercy we have been blessed enough to survive with more than we could ever need or want. Keep god in your hearts, and remember Jesus and his ever lasting love, and love one another this season :)

First Blog :)

So we are starting this blog to keep our friends and family updated on whats going on with us :) We have alot of fam and friends that live pretty far away so we would like to keep everyone updated on us, what we are up to and how our new daughter kena is doing.

about a month after she was born we packed up our little house in cheney and moved back to spokane :)... we wanted to be closer to my parents in spokane and also closer to scotts work. We live in a beautiful little quiet neighborhood on the south hill now and we are only five minutes from scotts work. We have a HUGE backyard for the dogs to play in and they are absolutly loving that since with the new baby and cold weather we havent been able to take them on their usual walks. The new house is wonderful, out of all the times we have moved and the different places we have lived, we really settled into this house, it feels like home already!

We finally made the time to go to our new ward this past sunday, and we loved it :) its a family ward :) it had been so long since id been to a sacrament meeting with kids, i forgot what it was like. There were so many kids yelling and crying lol.... it was great... we are so greatful we arent the only ones whos kid might cry durring sacrament. Scott and i decided to start temple prep classes so that our family can be sealed. We are really excited about taking this step! We also are waiting a while to bless kena because our bishop would like scott to work towards blessing kena himself! which we both want anyways so we are super happy to wait.

Scott is still working for PAML, he got a promotion last february. He comes home a little frustrated some days but for the most part likes the extra responsibility. Summer time before kena was born we were able to go down to cali to see our dear friends the battle family and we also got to see cam begbie while we were down there. Both are old military friends of scotts and we had a wonderful time :) Scott has been working on his subaru upgrading it more and more, and since we have the new pontiac he has been able to park the subaru in our new garage and just take everything apart that he needs to. He really enjoys working on his car and doing new things to make it faster and more fun to drive :) He also loves being a daddy, he has been so great with kena and just the best dad ever. He has fun and plays with her, he talks and sings to her, and she is his little princess, and pal. They have alot of fun together:)

I have been staying at home, making this house a home :).... and of course being a stay at home mommy, its by far the hardest job i have ever had but it is also the most fullfilling job i have ever had :) Kena and i spend everyday and every night together and i just love being a mommy. I got extremly sick with some kind of flu last week, swine or regular who knows? if it was swine it really wasnt that bad, i am assuming it was because i never get the regular flu. I am still a little congested and coughing here and there but i feel a million times better. I have been practicing my music again, especially when kena cant sleep i play music or sing to her. But mainly i had put down my instruments for a few years and now i really want to pick them back up so i can share that talent with my daughter and teach her how to play and sing. I am still sleeping whenever i can get it in, she sometimes has a schedule and sometimes doesnt so i jsut try to go with what she is doing. I do take some free time to myself by reading, i reread the twillight series in preperation for the new moon premiere this friday and now im reading 1984 by george orwell...such an amazing book! I have started working out a little at a time, after having preeclampsia in my pregnancy i was extremely exhausted for weeks and weeks after having kena. Its hard to get bakc in the groove when you still arent sleeping properly. Other than that i will probably be starting internet college courses this winter semester. I need to get a roll on my education soon before we have another little one :)

Kena is doing AMAZING. every single day she learns somethign new and trys somethign new. she is so smart and wonderful. She trys so hard to talk and communicate with us. we love hearing her coos and seeing her smiles. she loves waking up in the morning, she lvoes when daddy comes home. she loves pink floyd!!! lol!!! she was colicky for a while there but gripe water in combination with us switching to all organic has seemed to fix that. She is still breast feeding and doing amazing at it. I thought that it would be something i would hate when we were still in the begining of it but now i absolutly love it and oculdnt be happier with it. She sleeps in her own crib in her own room, which i thought i would have a problem with but she seems to sleep better and i sleep better actually. Durring tummy time she trys to roll over, she is not quite stong enough yet but she is getting there.

That is all thats new with us right now, every couple of days ill update it and post some pics, thanks for reading guys, we love and miss all of you!!!

Love,

The Carters!