Happy 10 Year Anniversary Emily!!!!!!

Last year on our anniversary I claimed "One more year and we will be "an old married couple". Well guess what, it's been one more year!!!! I guess we are an old married couple now!!! Happy 10 year anniversary to my sweetheart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proof that you are happy!!!!!


I know, cliche', but I love you more and more every day!!!!!!! Please don't have me "done away with" in order to collect life insurance money . . . . . . I know you know how to use a bat!!!!

Catch Up

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a long time. We have been very busy with Russ' parents' bathroom remodel, having a renter move into our basement for the summer and a nasty sinus infection that lasted for a month. But I wanted to share some of the things that we did last month, even if it is a little bit late. Better late than never, right?

So Mirian turned two last month, and for her birthday, we had an impromptu party. Her birthday was the same day as General Conference, so during the Priesthood session, our nieces and nephews come over and some friends who didn't want to be alone while their husbands were at the meeting. We went from having no party planned to several people over for a little shin dig for Mirian in just one day. It was so fun though to have friends and family want to celebrate with Mirian, and she loved being the center of attention.

Mim's Birthday Cake

Not sure what to think of the Candles

Mirian LOVES kitties!

The next weekend we had a big Carlson family get-together. Our nephew Zachary was baptized and Russ' brothers came from all over to attend the baptism. We had so much fun getting everyone together and Mirian just adores her cousins. We had a two huge Easter egg hunts (thanks Scott and Julie), and we went to Meadowbrook to play mini golf and ride the go-carts. It was so much fun to get to see everyone. We wish we all lived closer.

I found one!

Too Cute!

Having fun at Meadowbrook

Going for a carousel ride

For Easter, our bestest buddies the Divis' came down for our annual Easter get together. Mirian just adored baby Sadie. She kept trying to get toys and blankies for Sadie. Mirian loves babies and couldn't get enough of Sadie. While the Divis' were up, we drove to Seattle to go to IKEA. We had a blast (at least Audra and I did). Then Audra and I drove home with the kids, and Russ and James went to a Mariners game. On Easter Sunday, the kids got to go on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. I love that Mirian is starting to get into the holidays. She had so much fun looking for eggs, and every time she picked up an egg, she would shake it to make sure there was candy in it. It was so fun!

Mirian's Easter Dress

Yummy Chocolate!

Mirian, Makayla and James Michael on the swingset

Mirian Loves baby Sadie!

The last few weeks we have just been keeping busy trying to get Russ' parents house ready and get our home ready for our renter. Russ' parents got home last Monday at midnight and we are so happy to have them back! They loved every minute of their visit! Mirian is quickly warming up to her grandparents again.

We had our renter move into our basement on Friday. It was kind of a last minute thing. We weren't looking for a renter, but a friend of ours contacted us and asked if we would be willing to rent to her friend's husband. He is a great guy and is doing a pharmacy internship at the Indian Reservation. His housing fell through two weeks ago and was desperate to find a place to live. Since we hardly use the basement anyway, we thought it would be a great opportunity.

So that is what we have been up to. We haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We are happy and we constantly feel so blessed.

Happy Birthday Sweet Little Mirian!!!!

Today Mirian turns two!!!!! What a complete and total Joy she has been for us!!!!!!! We love her so dearly! It was two years ago today that Russ got a speeding ticket on the way to the hospital. He even told the police officer that he was going to the hospital to adopt his new baby girl.

Newborn Mirian

Mirian on her first birthday

Mirian at 2

Mirian has a wonderful birth-mother. Her name is Kristine. Thank you Kristine for your completely selfless and loving act of providing us the opportunity to have and raise this sweet little girl!!!!

Mirian's personality is so wonderful!!!!! She absolutely LOVES kitties!!!!!! Her daddy would have preferred that she loves dogs (which she does) but she drops everything for a kitty. Her favorite movie is "Oliver and Company," because it is about a kitty. Mirian even sings along with the songs. In the car, she gets upset if we don't listen to kitty music (the "Oliver and Company soundtrack). Mirian loves babies! She has 3 baby dolls, but she could easily have a million more and be happy. She loves to change their diapers, push them in strollers and put them down for naps. she is a good little mama. Mirian also loves to read books. Her favorites are "Goodnight Moon" and any book with pictures of animals. She loves to point out the different animals and make their sounds. Mirian loves music and she loves to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." It is so fun to watch her do the movements and say "Copcorn." Mirian is her mommy's big helper. She loves to help out with anything that she can around the house. Mirian loves to dance, and she sure knows how to shake her little bootie. It is adorable. Mirian loves to say prayers. She always remembers to fold her arms when we sit down to eat, and she always folds her arms when we are done reading scriptures. She is a good reminder to her mommy and daddy. But one of her mommy and daddy's favorite things about Mirian is that she loves to give kisses!!!!

Today Daddy made waffles with homemade blueberry syrup for Em and Mirian's birthday breakfast. As you'll see from the photos, Mirian LOVED it!!!!!!!


Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!! We love you!!!!

Happy 30th to My Beautiful Bride!!!!

Happy Birthday Emily!!!! You have now reached my plateau!!!! I've been anxiously awaiting your climb to 30 as I sit up here all by myself . . . . . . .

As I was thinking about what to post about Emily, I thought maybe I could post about the best 30 things about her. I then decided that there are too many good things to limit myself to just 30 (come on folks, up top!!!! Brownie points for me for that last comment!!!).

Finally, since I am a little biased, I decided to list several of the comments that others tell me about Emily. Most, but not all, of these comments have been made to me without Emily present so as to not embarrass her.

1. Her smile is contagious!!! - Sherm and Irene Carlson
2. She's our own Vanna White!!!- Sherm and Irene Carlson
3. Russell, if things don't work out with you two, I'm next in line - Wesley B. Carlson (my grandpa)
4. She's so happy and content - Van Holland
5. It seems like nothing can ever get her down - Van Holland
6. Its too bad Gertrude (referring to Emily) isn't gorgeous or anything!! - Janelle Givens
7. Shantel (referring to Emily) looks hot - Janelle Givens
8. Em - You are as beautiful as ever! Russ - You're blessed.....to have Em as your wife - Darlene Svetz
9. Em you are SO CUTE! - Olivia Carter
10. I love you guys, but... Emily more. - Audra Divis
11. You are so lucky Russ to have two of the cutest girls ever living with you :D!! - Jessica Carlson
12. The two are really cute! - Kathinka Leinz
13. Where did you find this woman?! (this was a compliment but it could be misunderstood since it's out of context). - Abraham Wise

There have been so many other compliments given of Emily and in my old age, I just can't remember them all.

Emily is so creative and so loving!!! Everyday I am amazed by her!!!!!

I love you sweetheart and I hope you enjoy your birthday today!!!!! Live it up since tomorrow Mirian gets the attention for her birthday . . . . . .

Maybe I'll learn to slow down a little in the future

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my busy life and adding umpiring to the already busy schedule. Well I've done it again. We're not finished with our own kitchen remodel and last week we started remodeling my parents bathroom. Thankfully, I've had a lot of support from my siblings. That has made it easier. I really do have good siblings!!!! The willingness to help out has been phenomenal.

For some reason I didn't take before pictures. But the bathroom was very outdated. It was comfortable for my parents, so they felt no need to make a change. But right before they left on their mission, we found that there had been some leaking problems. They were going to have it remodeled at that point, but were so busy they couldn't add anything else to their plate. The problem has continually gotten worse and worse and needed to be fixed now.

Here's a picture of part way through the demo. Notice the harvest gold shower to the left and the patch of wallpaper that was behind the toilet and couldn't be painted. Like I said, outdated.

We have done the demo and reinstalled new subflooring. We've also installed the shower basin. We are waiting for the mud to dry on the basin before we start moving forward on everything else. I don't want to post too many pictures because I want the overall remodel to be a surprise to my parents. They know we are doing the remodel, but they do not know what the end result will be.

Here is a picture of where the shower used to be.


And here is my brother Brian putting in a line of studs to line up the walls where the shower used to be.



My parents' already know this, so it's okay to post. We are going to put in a heated floor so that the tile is nice and cozy when you go in without any shoes or socks. Won't that be nice . . . . . .

Family Challenge, Last week

Well we are in the final week of the family challenge. To date during the challenge, I've lost 30 lbs. To hit my ideal weight, I still have another 15 to go, but it won't happen during this challenge.

The challenge has been a tough one. As I've mentioned before, it isn't just a diet (in fact I wouldn't call it a diet at all) it's a personal challenge to change your life for the better. Since starting the challenge, I've exercised ALMOST daily except for Sundays, I've read books (yes plural), I've updated the blog as part of my journaling, I've looked for opportunities to serve, I've lost a bunch of weight, and I have increased my energy level. I'm super-pleased with my efforts and the goals I've set. My goals were not simple, but I felt GREAT when I was able to accomplish them.

Thank you Mom and Dad Carter for inspiring me to be healthy and a better person!!!!

Tiling the Kitchen Floor

Well, when Em's parents came to visit over Christmas time we remodeled the kitchen. Uncle Walter also flew up to help. We are SOOOOOOO appreciative for their help and the help of other family and friends. One of the things we weren't able to do was to tile the floor. So that has taken me about 3 1/2 months thus far . . . . .

Well yesterday I was doing some tiling, and it turns out, I had a little helper. . . . . .


Here she is helping to lay some spacers


What a cute little helper!!!

She just loves to do what mommy and daddy do. Mirian loves to work along side us, she loves to clean the house along side us, and she even loves to do exercises right along with us. We always have a fun little chuckle when she stretches and does her exercises with us. It's just so cute!!!!!

We just love our little monkey!!!!

Italian Wedding Soup

Tonight for dinner, we had one of our favorite meals, Italian Wedding Soup. It is so quick and easy, and it tastes great. We especially love it with homemade bread. We've been getting several requests lately for this delicious recipe, so I thought I needed to blog about it. Try it out and let us know what you think.

New Belt

Well this Carter Family Challenge has been, how do you say, challenging. And the competition seems to be heating up!!! Regardless of who the winner is (I, Russ, am currently in the lead, woohoo!!!!!!), I am so happy about the progress and energy I now have. It's been a while since I've felt this good!!! I started the competition at 245 and I weighed in this morning at 228!!!!! I'm gonna need a new belt when this is done and over with. My end goal is 200 lbs.

In addition to the challenge of eating healthy and exercising, there have been other challenges that are included. Things like reading a book. I have to read everyday. If you know me, you know I can't sit still long enough to read a book. I've been able to listen to books on cd or the iPod. I've "read" more books this year (3) than I have ever read in any one year of my entire life. I just simply don't read. People talk to me about getting addicted to it and loving to read. I can't say that I love it that much, but I've been entertained. I find myself wanting to continue on with the rest of the book and being interested in "what's next". The book I am reading now is so so, which is kind of frustrating, but I told myself I'd finish it regardless.

Another piece of the challenge is that you have to get 8 hours of sleep every night. Now sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night, but that doesn't matter. As long as you go to bed (not lay in bed and watch a movie, literally go to bed) and wake up 8 hours later, you get points. This has probably been my hardest challenge. I have so many things going on that I have to simply not accomplish things as fast as I would like. But I do find myself having more energy, so that keeps me driven to keep going.

The last thing that I've had to pay attention to on this challenge is eating breakfast. I typically didn't eat breakfast as I felt I was already overweight and adding to my eating would only make it worse. In addition, I typically am in a rush to get to work in the morning, so I run out of time. When the competition started, I began eating breakfast EVERY morning. Most of the time, I eat two packets of Quaker Oatmeal. I sell product to them, so I may as well buy from them right???? I feel good and I know that Oatmeal is also good for maintaining lower cholesterol. High cholesterol runs in my genes, so this is definitely an added bonus. I also don't get hungry mid-morning like I used to.

All in all, I feel SOOO good about my progress. My energy level is good, I'm starting to get some abs and calves, and I have improved my life in ways I never figured I would. Thank you Mom and Dad Carter for this opportunity to challenge myself and better take care of my family.

Carter Family Competition

So as the Carters do so well, they've created a new family competition. It is so helpful when we have these competitions because it's the motivation that we've all been looking for. You are welcome to follow the program that we've been following. Feel free to check out the blog for some helpful guidelines. We've been doing the competition for about a week now and I have to say we are cruising forward.

We are eating healthier, exercising more (versus almost zero), doing service for each other, reading more, etc. This has been a great competition so far, and it's only just begun.

I've (Russ) lost 11 lbs as of this morning (8 days into the competition). We are planning on doing this for 8 weeks so if my one week of history keeps up, I'll have lost 56 lbs . . . . . . okay so it won't and I don't want to lose 56 lbs, but it still gets me excited to keep going. Last week I walk/ran just over 12 miles. My goal for this week is to run for 30 minutes straight before Sunday.

Here's to hoping . . . . . . .

Emily and I work together on our strength training. Most of the time we are working on either our arms or our abs. As we lay on the floor doing our abs, Mirian likes to come over and climb all over us (mostly on Emily).

We recently got Mirian to "exercise" with us. This really only involves her laying on the floor next to us and putting her arms and feet in the air for about 2 seconds, but it is oh so cute!!!!! What sweetheart she is!!!!

The Carter Cabin

Last week we went to California for a little getaway. We were supposed to go on a cruise this week, but our cruise ship caught on fire a few months back, and they still haven't finished the repairs. My Dad had the week off from work, so he asked if we wanted to come down and play and maybe help with a few projects. We got to my parents house on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Russ helped my Dad repair a fence and garage at my brother's house. While the boys worked, the girls shopped. We had a blast. On Thursday, we went to my grandparents cabin. We haven't been their in about 6 years. My uncle now owns the cabin, and he made a bunch of changes to the place. It looked so nice!! While we were there, we did what we Carters always do, played lots of games. Anyone that knows my family, knows that they are epic game players. The cabin is such a nice place to getaway from technology and just be together as a family. Mirian loved getting to know her cousin Shade better. She is obsessed with babies right now.


Mirian and Shade loved sharing toys


Say "Cheese!"


Bath-time for Babies ( I love clean babies!!)

The next day we went to Columbia, a restored mining town. It was fun to relive my childhood there, getting Sarsaparilla, climbing on the rocks, and of course getting an old-time family photo.


Just us girls, sitting on the rocks (and Russ too)


I love the old buildings that they have restored here


Don't mess with this rough 'n tough family

The next day, we had to leave, we were sad that it was such a short trip, but we had a wonderful time. We were sad that Scott and Olivia and their kids couldn't be there either. We missed you guys.

Thanksgiving and Sewing Camp 101

So, Russ gave me an early Christmas present this year. He is letting me stay in California until December 6. We came to California for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time. We had lots of family around, we had two fabulous Thanksgiving dinners, we dressed up in costumes and went to see the new Harry Potter movie, and we have been playing massive amounts of games. On Black Friday, my sis-in-laws and I went to JoAnn's sale at 5:00am and we bought tons of fabric. So, after Russ left to go back home, Kristal and I have been sewing up a storm. I have never really done much sewing before, and I never knew how to follow a pattern, so Kristal has been my teacher and we have been having a blast. I am making a few things for Mirian as Christmas presents, and then a dress for me. I just finished making her a cute rag quilt, and now I am on to toddler dresses. I will post more as I finish. It has been a blast and I am learning a lot. Thanks Russ! I love you and miss you!

Learning to make Homemade Noodles with Nancy Miles (Author).

My cute little Indian in our family pageant

She looks so grown up with the other kids

Hardcore game playing

Kristal, Emily, and Olivia at JoAnn's

McDonald's was the only place open with hot chocolate

Kristal put rags in Mirian's hair

After a little work, the results of the rag curls

Starting my rag quilt

Finished rag quilt

Russ' Mission Buddy

While on Facebook the other day, Russ wished a fellow Gringo Missionary (who served in Peru) a happy birthday and noticed that other fellow missionaries had also commented on his page. One of them was Freddy Alva. Freddy is from Peru and was a good friend!!!!

Russ added Freddy as a friend and began to look through his info and pictures. Low and behold, Freddy only lives an hour and a half from Selah. HOLY CANOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A week later, we were at his home where his wife Andrea (who he also knew from one of the wards he served in) had cooked an AMAZING Peruvian dinner. We had Aji de Gallina, Arroz con Pollo and INCA KOLA!!!! Inca Kola is a soda made in Peru and it's awesome!!!! Finally, for dessert, Andrea made Picarones which are essentially sweet potato homemade donuts with Fig honey. OH MY GOODNESS THEY WERE AMAZING!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures of Russ, Freddy, the Inca Kola, Mirian and her new friend and Picarones