Happy 4th of July

I love the 4th of July. I mean seriously LOVE it. I love the smell of fireworks, I love the BBQs, I love the hot weather, I love it ALL. My birthday is the 6th of July so when I was a kid I would always wait for the first firework stand to set up. Thats when I knew my birthday was right around the corner. I remember being so excited. What other week in the year do you get to play with fire AND open presents? It is awesome!

This year Grandpa Prater bought us all tickets to the 51's baseball game. It was Carters first game. We had such a great time. Thanks POPS!

They put on a a great fireworks show. Carter did so good, we thought he might get scared but he just loved sitting with Kenny watching the show.
Firday we went to my parents cabin. We always have such a great time there.

Carter loves to go on "rides". We take him on trash runs and to the corner gas station.

He also loves to go on hikes (or as Carter says "ikes"). This is him picking flowers for me and Nana. Such a sweet boy. . . . . .sometimes.

We bought a few boxes of sparklers. That kid is very dangerous with fire.

We decided to try something new this year and drive up to Brianhead for the firework show. It was one of the best shows I have EVER seen! They set them off right in the middle of the canyon. You can FEEL the fireworks and the echo seems to go on forever.

This is Carter eating some carmel popcorn waiting for it to get dark.

We had such a great weekend! When we left the mountain it was 73 degrees. Once we got home it was 107 degrees. So I decided it was time to buzz Carters head again. This is before . . .

. . . . and after.

Hope you all had a great holiday. Thanks again to my mom and dad. They bought me a new camera for my birthday. I was so lost with out a camera.

The Month of June

June sure seemed like a crazy month. I don't have many pictures to prove it, but here is an update on the Prater Family.

We have been trying to do things that are inexpensive (just like everyone else). One of our most favorite "cheep" thing to do is swimming. Carter took swim lessons earlier this year. We didn't have a great start but I'm soooo happy we went. I wasn't expecting him to learn how to swim this year, but I really wanted him to be comfortable in the water. Sometimes I think he may be too comfortable. He absolutely loves the water and has no fear what-so-ever. He holds his breath for at least 7 seconds and will jump off the side. We are working on his kicking and floating on his back. Overall his is doing better than I ever expected. He is one amazing kid! Check out this picture of him flying.
Kenny will throw him so high that as he is coming down he ends up under water. As soon as he pops up he yells "one more!", it is so cute. The only down side is that my mom freaks out a little and Kenny's arms are always sore the next day:)

Next on our list of "cheep" things was a visit to Great Aunt Linda and Uncle Jimbo. Carter loves horses (at least he thought he did). He can make the best "neigh" sound I have ever heard. He sounds just like a horse! Aunt Linda has four horses and five dogs at her house. Carter loved the horses from far away. If the horse would "neigh" he would "neigh" right back. Then we took him for a close-up. He pet the horse, and showed us it's eyes and ears. As soon as he got a glimpse of the teeth he freaked out. He refused to sit on the horse or give her a treat. He still had a great time and we love Aunt Linda so much for letting us visit.

Carter is CRAZY about airplanes! If we are in the house and he hears an airplane he will run to the sliding glass door and look at the sky to try and find it. If he hears a plane while we are walking in the parking lot he will freeze and try to find it. He can be in the middle of a melt down and hear a plane and will immediately stop crying. He has informed me that airplanes and jets do not make the same sound, and if he happens to hear a jet he stops everything and says "WHOA!". He is one smart kid. We decided to take him to the North Las Vegas airport and watch the planes. He was in heaven. We went to the cafe and had breakfast at a window seat. Needless to say he didn't do much eating. He made airplane noises the whole way home.

We also made several trips to the splash park, watched a free movie at the theater, and took a tour of Peter Piper Pizza, thanks to my friend Jamie and the mommy group. We took our trailer up to Mt Charleston for a weekend and really enjoyed the cooler weather. (my Camera broke before this trip, sorry no pics). Kenny and I also celebrated six GLORIOUS years of marriage. All in all I would say June was an amazing month.

Summer Fun Begins!

As soon as we got home from the cabin on Moday we went over to Great Grandpa Praters house. We had a great day full of swimming and RIBS. Hope you all like the pictures.

Carter is showing everyone how you REALLY eat ribs!



Carter is seeing how high Dada can throw him. Nana is gonna freak when she sees this picture!

Carter hangin out with his Grandpa.

Hey grandpa! Catch!!

This is what happens when we take him OUT of the pool. It use to be that he would cry when we put him IN the pool.

Testing out the underwater capabilities of my camera. Thanks for the supermodel pose Uncle Den.

This is my new favorite picture!

GO, GO, GO!

We have been making the rounds lately. Our first trip was to Armagosa Sand Dunes. We love that it doesn't take us very long to get there and that it usually not very busy. The weekend we went we were the ONLY people there! Everyone else seemed to have half a brain and decided it would be a lot smarter to stay home. The fact that it was easily 90 degrees and that we were in the middle of a dessert, did not stop us from going! We used a ton of sunscreen and began to think it was normal to be dripping with sweat. Good times were had by all!

This is our "HOT" group! (my eyes are closed, AGAIN)

My crazy brother in law Dennis came up with the idea to pull snow sleds behind is Banshee. This is Matt getting ready to go.

This is Matt getting ready to fall off the sled.

Whenever we go camping you can always find Carter on one of the quads. He loves going on rides!

Our next stop was to drop Shelby off in Logan. I was a slacker and didn't take very many pictures. I managed to get these pictures of Jordan and Carter in there matching Adidas outfits. They are so cute!

We had so much fun taking Shelby but we miss her already. Logan is such a pretty town and her house is so cute. We know she will accomplish so much and make us proud. Love you Aunt Shelby.

The next stop was to the cabin for Memorial Day. We had a BLAST! Every year there is a party put on by all the people that live on the mountain. It started out with a progressive dinner. My mom was in charge of appetizers for 70 people. She made these new shrimp stuffed mushrooms that were to die for. Amazing as always! Next was the quad decorating competition. We won thanks to Shelby, Kenny, and Ross. There was also a poker tournament. Jordan won 150 bucks! They started a new tradition with a sandbelt race. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. We plan on winning next year.

It rained most of Saturday so that meant we got to go for a muddy ride on Sunday. I talked Jordan into driving the Razor. I got to sit next to her and be her co-pilot. We laughed so hard that our abs hurt the next day. Check out the before and after pictures of the Razor!

Swimming Lessons

Carter had his first swim lesson this week. I was really excited for him to get in the pool. I thought he would love every minute of it. Boy was I wrong!

It started out really good. He was watching the other kids in the class before him. He kept saying "wa wa" (water). I thought that it would be a peice of cake!

Then we went inside to get ready. He didn't want to leave his Nana's lap. This is when I saw the fist sign of trouble. . . .

Then we got in the water (don't pay any attention to fat chick holding him) and it started to get BAD!

At this point he was beyond pissed! We still had 20 minutes to go!!

We signed up for three more weeks of torture. They keep telling me that it will get better. I have my fingers crossed.

Easter

I'm sure by now you all are aware that I will always be tardy when it comes to posting about our holidays. At least I'm consistent about posting late:)

This years Easter was great! The Easter Bunny left Carter a pretty sweet Easter basket. It was full of candy (which his mom quickly consumed) and toys. We had a small egg hunt in our backyard for the little man. He didn't understand why someone would leave eggs all over the place. He thought we took him outside just so that he would clean up, then he realized there was candy in the eggs. Look out!

Way to go BUBBA!

Havin fun with Dad!

Lovin the bubbles!

Mowing Great Grandpa Praters Grass!

This is my new favorite picture.

Girls enough already!

I don't care what you say, Ring Pops ROCK!!!

Cowboy Carter!

I have been meaning to post these pictures for a while now. This is Carter's cowboy attire. He loves the sounds his boots make when he stomps his feet. He still is not crazy about the hat, but he will keep it on as long as his hand are full. Hope it makes you smile!