Pictures of Carter

Here are a few pictures of Carter. Not exactly in chronological order - but who cares? He's CUTE!

Carter and proud Daddy at the hospital.

Getting ready to go under the billy lights with his awesome shades.

Not loving the carseat.....

So tiny!

His binky looks SO big!

Carter and Grammy.

Sleepy boys.

He loves basking in the sun just like his momma!

Checking out his forest friends on the comfy quilt that Sheryl made for him.

Carter during General Conference - apparently it was too bright for him...

Carter and Grandma Feik.

Carter nuzzled up in his favorite spot, right under dad's chin.

Baby Carter!

The post that everyone has been waiting for.... BABY CARTER!!! (It's only taken me three and a half months to get it posted but who's counting, right?)

The process of getting Carter here was slow at first and then all of the sudden he was HERE! It was definitely not what I was expecting the birth process to be like. It started with contractions, but then again, isn't that how it always starts? haha - okay fine, you don't have to laugh at my jokes. Anyways, Sunday was our Multi - Stake Conference at the BYU-I Center. Me and my swollen feet and aching back spent the entire time out in the hall with all the other moms and rowdy youngsters. It only seems fitting that my own rowdy youngster (Michael) came out to join me. (Haha - me and my funny jokes, right?!?) So that night was made eventful by contractions off and on all night. I didn't get that excited, my doctor had already told me a few days prior that I could have Carter any day, but it would probably be awhile. But, like a new mom - I called the doctor first thing in the morning to see if I needed to go in, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. (My biggest fear was going into labor/having my water break at work so I was really glad that the nurse just had us go in, just to be sure - whew!) So after a *pleasant* visit with the doctor, they sent us home. Mike went to school and I went to work - no use staying home if I'm not having a baby, right? Wrong. My boss sent me home at lunch, something about me needing to be at home instead of being miserable at work or something. So like any rational pregnant lady I drove myself home and laid in bed watching movies and trying to catch up on some sleep. (Of course once I got home I felt fine).

That night was much the same as it was the night before. Sleep, contractions, sleep, contractions, sleep, wake up Michael because I can't sleep, contractions, sleep, contractions, contractions, contractions.... So we called the doctor again the next morning. We debated whether or not we should call because the contractions weren't exactly what our doctor said they should be before we should get our hopes up again, but we went in anyways. Can you guess what the doctor said? I was guessing he would say something like, "nice try, come back tomorrow" but instead he said, "well, it looks like you're going to be parents today." I didn't know what to do - it was only the day after my due date and I was fully expecting/planning on another two weeks. Well, that plan went out the window. Plus, I didn't think that these so called "contractions" were actually THE contractions.  But, we went on up to the hospital and checked ourselves in. So that was about 9/9:30ish. After we got all settled we walked around for a while (we even took the stairs a few times - I wanted this baby out ASAP! Who wants a 24 hour labor? p.s that was my third biggest fear. Second biggest fear is that I would have the baby during Mike's PRAXIS test that he had to take the Saturday before, which didn't happen so we were safe on that one.)

The nurses did a great job of keeping me calm and answering all of my first time mom questions. We lucked out and even got a HUGE corner room with an excellent view of the dumpster and someone's back yard chicken coop. We'd walk around for a while then come back and they'd hook me up to all these wires to check on Carter and to see how soon we'd be needing the doctor. At 11:45 they broke my water. Then the REAL contractions started. I played brave for awhile (maybe not so brave if you ask Michael) I'd been sitting on the fence about an epidural my entire pregnancy, but once the contractions started hitting harder and faster - well, lets just say I panicked and we called the nice man with all the magical drugs. This is where things get a little fuzzy from my perspective. After the epidural they had me hooked up to the machines and were watching my vitals as well as Carter's. At first we just had one nurse in our room, then we had two. They were having me move around and switch from one side to the other to see if we could get the little guy's heart rate up. Apparently we weren't having much success because all of the sudden there were a billion nurses in our room - fuzzy perspective, remember haha. The nurses did a great job keeping us calm and doing everything they could to get Carter's heart rate up. After a few minutes they started prepping me for a C-Section "just in case." Turns out it was a good thing that I was all ready for a C-Section because that's what ended up happening. Carter just wasn't cooperating so they wheeled my bed one way and sent Mike to go and get a gown on.

The anesthesia they gave me for the surgery wasn't working fast enough and we were worried about Carter still so they ended up knocking me completely out. And that's the last that I remember :) Actually - not exactly true, I remember my doctor being a little "gung-ho" about getting Carter out before I was completely numb. Thank goodness the anesthesiologist was smart enough to put the brakes on that!

The next thing I remember was a nice nurse telling me that I had a beautiful baby boy. I'm not sure what my response was but I'm pretty sure I was happy about it. I don't remember much about the next few hours when I was still coming out of the anesthesia but I think I remember holding Carter and I know that Mike's parents were there with Mike. But this is my most favorite thing from that day....

 ....holding my sweet baby boy!

Carter Scott Feik born Tuesday September 25th, 2012 at 2:19 pm. 6lbs 13oz 20 inches.

Baby Shower!

 Photo dump! Here are some pictures from my baby shower in August that Mike's mom and sister threw for me at the Feik's house. Yummy food! (p.s. I'm not so secretly coveting Anne's skinny jeans - love that color!)

 Ashley and Chrissie playing one of the games.(Those games were a lot harder than I thought they'd be - we needed some serious brain power for those!)

 Look at all those gifts! Carter is one spoiled little boy, we have such generous friends and family. Thanks everyone!

 Left to right: my mom, Mike's mom, Hannah Smith, Mike's sister Amy, and my right elbow.

 Thatcher photo bomb!

Amy, Cheri, and I working on trying to figure out what kind of candy bars were melted in the diapers. Cheri is a baby shower veteran, we didn't cheat .... promise! ;)

Cassie and Anne inspecting the melted candy bars in the diapers. A few of them looked  like the real thing! Kind of unnerving when you were supposed to stick your nose in them haha.

Present time!

Measure that baby bump!

Grammy Campbell and baby T!

The baby shower was great! I couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. So grateful for all of the hard work and preparation by Amy and Mom Feik. Feeling so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

I Spoke Too Soon!

Just a few hours after I posted last Mike got an email for his student teaching placement - I guess I spoke too soon! He will be student teaching at Skyview High School in Nampa, Idaho during the Winter 2013 semester. We don't have very many of the details nailed down yet (actually we really don't have any plans yet - just the fact that we'll be moving!) We're not sure when we'll be moving we just know that it will be sometime between the end of December and the middle of January. It sounds like all of Mike's sisters will be for Christmas so we'll probably try to stay in Rexburg until that long at least so that everyone can meet baby Feik! Mike should be getting in touch with his cooperating teacher shortly and he/she might be able to shed a little more light on the situation. We're excited for the change - there's an end in sight! We just need to stay motivated to finish up the next few semesters.

p.s. It was 60* on my lunch today - summer is coming! :)

Student Teaching Update

It's practically the end of the month and we have news for you! We got an email from the school and .... we won't know until next week where Michael is going for student teaching. Bummer. We'll keep you posted!

March: In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lamb

Just thought I'd give you an update seeing that I never posted that last email update - whoops! :)

As many of you already know ... WE'RE PREGNANT! I'm at 14 weeks today and due in September. We're anxiously awaiting our new arrival and Michael has made me promise to quit eyeing all those cute baby clothes at the store until we find out if it's going to be a girl or a boy. May 4th can't come soon enough! Don't worry, as soon as we know, you'll know. I'm no good at keeping exciting secrets like that ;)

The end of the semester is almost here! This week is our last full week of classes and next week will be half a week of classes and the remainder of the week for finals. Then .... graduation! Graduation is going to be a marathon event this year. Friday April 6th will be both Commencement as well as Convocation. We're looking forward to spending a little bit of time with Grandparents Beal who are skipping out of the MTC a little bit early so that they can make it to Convocation to hear me speak. Still a little apprehensive about how well that is going to work out. I emailed my talk to the Dean yesterday and I still haven't heard anything back ...  Overall I'm excited to graduate but a little sad to be leaving the education world. What do I do with my life now?

I think that Mike is getting antsy to be done with school as well. We just keep trying to look on the bright side - only two more semesters on campus and then student teaching. :) We're hoping to receive his student teaching placement by the end of the month. We requested either the Nampa school district, Idaho Falls, or the Utah area. Lots of changes for this little family. We'll be excited for wherever we are assigned but each location has some benefits and some downfalls so I guess we'll just wait and see, then the real worrying will begin! I'll try to post an update about our student teaching placement once we get it. Well I guess this should probably be enough of a study break for me. Mike should be home soon so I should probably start figuring out what to make for dinner - he probably wouldn't be all that excited about pancakes again, but maybe apple pancakes? This little Feik definitely loves its breakfast food!

Update!

It's been awhile *surprise surprise* but I couldn't figure out how to log in after I changed the layout of our blog. But I figured out how to change it back to something I understand and now I can blog. Oh, but wait - school started today so I now have on free time. Sorry for the poor timing. I did, however, just find out that I am required to create a blog for one of my classes. So once I get that up and running I'll let you know where to find my new blog and you can keep tabs on me there. For a better update on our most current lives, I'll post an email that I sent out a day or so ago. Hope you have a great day!

Quote Time!

As many of you know, I love surrounding myself with great quotes! I've been hoarding some in one of my notebooks for a while and I'm running out of space and it's about time to throw away my notebook anyways, so I thought that I'd share them with all of you here. Make sure to check back every now and then, I'm going to try to add good quotes when I find them.

"Happiness does not come from pressing a button ... it must be learned."
- Spencer W. Kimball

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is a process; working together is success."
- Henry Ford

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
 - William Morris
(I'm working on implementing this one!)

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well."
- Diane Ackerman

"Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done with a grateful heart."
- Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Madison County Fair

A week or two ago we went with Amy (Mike's youngest sister) and her friend Hannah to the Madison County fair, it was fun to see all the animals that the kids had been working so hard all year with for 4H. There were even quite a few choices (probably about 10) for the food court. So we were definitely living BIG, fair style. (please note my sarcasm in that last comment)

 

They started the rodeo off right with getting all the kids (12 and under I think) together to chase a calf around to pull money off that was taped or tied to it. We got a good laugh out of it. 

There's the calf! He'd better run! One of the calves was quite distressed and tried running through the fence. Silly calf.

I was happily enjoying my frozen strawberry lemonade and watching the festivities when I noticed two little eyes watching me. I think he wanted me to share. We were trying to be sneaky and get a picture of him ogling my treat but he was camera shy.

Yes, this is a Shetland pony and yes - it was very funny watching it try to run and watching the little girl try to get it to run.

Okay family, remember that penguin movie we used to rent from Grandma Campbell's? The Three Amigo's or something? This little boy and pony reminds me of the little boy riding the burro in one of the segments. Way funny! (Sorry it's blurry - believe it or not this is the best one we took. Our camera was getting all confused trying to guess what I wanted it to zoom in on).

So probably the best part about small town rodeos is that they let everyone participate. By the end of the night we were beginning to think that probably the worst part about a small town rodeo is that they let everyone participate. It was a long night.  But it was fun to see some of the little girls try to get their BIG horses through the barrels. You can kind of tell in this very blurry picture that her feet are no where near the stirrups! She was getting frustrated and the horse was pretty content just to stare at the barrel so her daddy came out to help her. She did a great job.

Our New Neighbor

Not that this was a very momentous moment at our house but I thought we should take a picture anyways. :) Last week we came home from church and our new little neighbor was sitting on the steps. I fully expected it to fly away when we got close but it just watched us as we went down the steps and opened the door. Then it just stayed there. We'd go back and check a little bit later and it'd still be there. Every once in a while moving to stay in the shade. Michael had me close the curtains on our door to give it more "privacy." It eventually flew away once the sun had eaten up all the shade. I wonder if it was looking for a safe refuge from all the hunters because it knew that dove season was opening soon ... ?

Coeur d'Alene Here We Are!

This year Michael's family all decided that it would be fun if we headed up to Northern Idaho for a little bit of family time and R&R. At first we weren't quite sure if we were going to make it but in the end everything worked out! (Yay for work schedules/employers that pull through at just the perfect time). So here are some pictures from our trip. I'm afraid that this post will probably be heavy on pictures and light on text so I hope you enjoy!

 

 

For several months now, Mike and I have been saying how we've been wanting to go to Montana. Not for any specific reason but because we've been living so close to it for a few years now and we've never been. Well, this trip provided us with the perfect opportunity to do so! Here is our picture proof. Yes, we have been to Montana making it the 8th state we've visited since we've been married. Whew!

We stopped at the Dell Merc to get gas and make a potty stop. We decided to stop because we weren't sure how far it would be to the next town and we didn't want to take any chances. Don't know why we didn't use our handy dandy GPS to locate the next gas station but we stopped here and ended up paying WAY too much for gas and using algae infested water/soap/nasty to wash the windshield. Oh and Michael probably had to wait a good 20 minutes for the guy in the bathroom so finish bathing himself in the sink. Note the sign: Population: 35 (that's less than the extended Campbell family! Maybe we should come for family reunion and triple the town's population?) This building serves as the gas station, convenience store, and post office. Talk about multi-tasking.

I looked out my window and what did I see? Mickey Mouse! Poor guy - I think he was headed to the local dump ..... Poor Mickey :(

 Silverwood! Yay! This was just a few miles from Kellogg, ID and we knew we were getting close to our condo. We ended up making the trip in just about 7 hours. We survived! (Although the passenger side door of the car as well as my dear husband almost got ran over by some crazy truck driver at one of our gas stops.) I wish we would've gotten a picture of our Condo - it was beautiful and just a short walk to the lake. My favorite part was that we could sit out on the patio and take in the whole view - wish we could've stayed another few days so we could catch a sunset or two. (But no worries - I think we've already started making plans to go back "someday" oh and I'm going to be rich "someday" too ;)

Our first day in Coer d'Alene we braved the somewhat ornery weather and crowds and made our way to Silverwood Theme Park. This was a first for me - I think that I've decided that I like theme parks - ALOT. (So maybe Lagoon next summer? :) This is Michael's brother in law Larry (Rachelle's husband) and his son Joe on our first ride, the carousel. Joe was a trooper and held on tight the whole time, and when I say "tight" its not an overstatement. Once we started going we he latched on with white knuckles and his head practically glued to the pole. I thought that he was terrified but I must have been mistaken because he kept telling me he was having fun.

Mike's dad taking a picture of Mike's sister Rachelle and her daughter Emma.

Me and my child (oh I mean husband) Michael. :) Some of the other adults were riding the horses but we weren't fast enough to get one so we just stood. Which (I think anyways) is just about as fun. I don't really remember liking carousels much when I was younger. But I do remember begging my parents to let me ride on them.

Joe and Will (the two boys on the far right) on one of their first rides. Although this picture doesn't quite capture it, their faces transitioned from excitement to borderline terror every time the ride dropped. We all got a good laugh watching them but I'm not so sure if they were as amused as we were.

Michael and I waiting in line for Battle Zone. When Mike came with his family when he was younger he was too short for this ride so he wanted to go this time. When we got all loaded up in the tank I asked him if this fulfilled all his hopes and dreams and he said it did. (Well, he's easy to please) We were in one tank (I was up top in the turret shooting balls from an air cannon at our opponents on the other side of the fence and Michael was down below shooting water, balls, and steering) People (Mike's mom and dad) were on the other side of the tank shooting balls from air cannons at us and disabling our guns, but we were shooting at them and getting them wet. It was great fun. I think Michael could've stayed there all day!

This was one of our favorite rides - which we quickly dubbed the "log ride." We went around a track and then climbed up an incline and came rushing down and got splashed with water. You can see to the left and right of the track that there are little pipe looking things. These shot water out at the passengers when the people on the observation deck (at the left of the frame) fed the machine with quarters.  So you never knew if you were going to get doused with water or be able to make it out dry.

Well, I guess they didn't get wet this time! But we (Michael and I) went on the raft before and we sure did! (Michael has a funny story that he likes to tell about it but I'll let you ask him about it)

 

Rachelle and I were MIA for a little bit because we went to go ride the roller coasters. So we missed out on the Antique Car Ride and a few other rides the kids went on. Emma and Uncle Michael seemed to have a good time without us though. Rachelle and I had a good time on the roller coasters though. I'd never really gone on a "real" roller coaster before so we thought that we'd stay away from the upside down one for a little bit so we went on the wooden roller coaster first - well after waiting in line for 45 minutes anyways. Boy was that a mistake! I just about wet my pants! We were going soooo fast and sooo high and then all of the sudden we'd be going straight down or we'd be going way too fast around a corner. I felt like I was holding on for dear life and Rachelle's just sitting next to me and laughing the whole time. (Yeah - I felt really brave when she started doing that) I didn't know how to react. I was having fun but I couldn't even open my mouth to scream (and if you know me - that's kind of a miracle because I'm a pretty accomplished screamer if I do say so myself). In comparison to the wooden roller coaster, the upside down corkscrew one was a breeze! I wish we could've gone a few more times but with just one day in the park there were other things that we wanted to do and see.
 

One of our other favorite rides - the raft ride! Eight people buckle into the raft and then you're sent off down the river with rapids and drop offs and a good all around soaking. By the time we were done I think that I was a good seven hundred pounds heavier from all of the water.  This was before we got wet of course, I may have been a little tense right when this picture was taken. The people getting off looked pretty damp...

Mike's parents on the raft ride. Mom was smart and wore a water proof jacket. That's such a nice jacket. I bet her favorite daughter in law let her borrow it. ;) I can say that because I'm the only daughter in law she'll ever have haha.



On day two of our Coeur d' Alene trip we took a trip to a gold mine. We were able to go into the mine on a guided tour and see first hand all of the fun things (and not so fun things) that miners got to do in the gold rush days.

We had a good time but I kinda want to go back and get the other tour guide - she sure talked a lot more. Ours was more the "strong, silent, man of few words" type. Our tour guide was nice enough to take this picture with our awesome hats though :) Thanks Mr. Tour Guide Man!

At the end of the tour, they taught us how to mine for gold. A few of us found some little gold flakes but there were also plenty of garnets, quartz, and polished rocks from the gift shop that were mixed in too. This is Mike's dad and Will. Mike's dad was pretty diligent in looking for gold. By this point I think that the kids were less interested in the gold and were more excited to play in the big tubs of water.  What kid wouldn't?

Joe and Emma playing in the water. Honestly, if it were actually a warm day I would've been tempted to join them in their attempts to get soaking wet.

 Michael looking for gold. The technique of panning for gold is a lot more tricky than we originally thought but the people there were awfully patient in telling us how to do the final steps over, and over, and over ...

 

In the gift shop we found a few friends ... I think that they had been waiting a long time to meet us! haha c'mon show me some pity and laugh at my corny joke ...

 
So we were right on the lake, we walked around the lake and a few of the kids and I put our feet in the water but we didn't go fishing, we didn't go swimming, and we didn't go boating. All things to add to the to do list for "someday." But it was gorgeous to look at! We're so glad that those that could come were able to make it and hopefully next year we'll be able to get together with everyone.