Carter's Day in Town

This morning Carter was a little on the wild side. I was planning on going to work for a couple hours and then hitting the grocery stores and getting back home by 12. Jokingly, Landon asked Carter if he wanted to go to work with me and play with the kitties. I asked Carter if he'd rather stay home and build "tent forts" with his Dad. Work and the kitties won so it was to town we went. The last time Carter was in town was in August, and that was just for a minute; so going to town is a big deal. Carter is mostly potty trained but I figured I had to pack a bag just in case because if I didn't he'd have an accident, the first in weeks. And pack a snack, and the toilet seat topper for little ones, and my grocery list, and my coupons, and my "save the earth" cloth grocery bags, and my bag, and my checkbook, and my coveralls in case we have a flat tire, and bibs for Carter in case we have a flat tire (it is only 6 degrees today, and snowing), and Mr. Potato Head, and...30 minutes later we're ready to head to town. I worked for a little over an hour while Carter played with the kitties, played with Henry's work toys, wandered around the lumber yard, and ate about a pound of chocolate and candy canes with "Uncle" Mark. Then we went to the first grocery store. Then we went to...
See Santa!
Carter snuggled right up to Santa and told him that he wanted a tractor, which I'm sure Santa can take care of for him. Every year Santa comes to Farm Equipment Sales, the local John Deere dealer, for a couple hours for pictures. We've never been to FES to see Santa, we always wait until it is closer to Christmas and go see him at Pehlke's Furniture. I figured since Carter was in town with me we'd go see Santa early, a special treat for his special day with Mom. Henry will have to wait to see Santa at Pehlke's (I was not neglecting Henry, but I refuse to drive back into town and pay another $14.99 for a picture of Henry and Santa). After Santa we met Cindy for lunch at Subway and then hit the other grocery store and headed home. It wasn't a very exciting trip into town, but it was a great day for Carter.

HE EATS!!

Henry has finally started eating. He's been eating two meals a day now for about the last two weeks. I weened him and that may have been the final nudge to get him to eat. So far he likes everything we've given him but since he didn't start eating food when most kids do he's probably a bit behind on the finger foods, although, he's quickly catching up.
Last night was the first night Carter wanted to help, so I gave him a jar and a spoon and let him have a go at feeding his little brother. He did pretty good, but I'm sure that is because he did the "Mother mouth" when he was feeding him. I've found that I have to clench my jaw to keep from doing it and looking like a complete clown. I was a little worried that Carter would put the spoon too far in Henry's mouth, but it all went well. Guess I can cross one more thing off my chore list.

The Gateway, Best Dam Bar by a Dam Site

On Saturday, October 22nd, one of the oldest establishments in the Glasgow Fort Peck area burnt to the ground. The call went out at about 11:30am (just after Landon and Wyatt got back from a morning deer hunt) that there was a structure fire at the Gateway. About 7 minutes later the Fort Peck Fire Department told dispatch that Fort Peck 1 was en route with Holte, Lott, and Scanlan (other men to quickly follow). The Gateway is only a few minutes, about 3 miles at most, from the Town of Fort Peck. Around here all the fire departments work together since they are all volunteers. Valley County's Long Run Fire Department was also paged and responded within about 30 minutes (Glasgow, Long Run's base, is 20 miles away, so 30 minutes isn't that long). The Fort Peck Fire Department had a great turnout with 11 out of 13 members responding to the fire; one fireman and the chief were out of town.
Not long after the first page and by the time the fire departments started spraying water the building was completely engulfed. There was nothing the firemen could do to save the bar and the fire even spread to some fields but was quickly put out in spite of the wind we had that day. The firemen put the fire out quite quick but it continued to smolder and some firemen spent the night on scene until the fire marshal could conduct his investigation on Sunday.
Our favorite fireman.

Only one man was hurt in the fire when he (the bar owner) ran back in for some keys. He suffered from smoke inhalation and was flown to Billings and spent a few days in ICU. Last we heard he was out of ICU but still in the hospital. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Gateway was used for everything, Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, Senior Citizens meals, Christmas parties, Walleye's Unlimited Tournament rules meetings, The Thunder from Down Under, and the list goes on and on. It will be missed by many. I didn't take any of these pictures and other than the first one, I don't know who took them.

Dove, Yum Yum

About a dozen Doves, a dozen garden jalapenos (halved), half a block of cream cheese, and a BUNCH of bacon...grilled...is there anything better? Okay, there is, but these little poppers were sooo good.

The Monsters

I will not get rid of my plants. He will learn to stay out of them just like his brother did.
Most evenings when we're playing I keep the camera handy just in case the boys are cooperating and let me take a picture or two. Tonight Carter turned the light off and we played in the dark for awhile. This is what a CarterMan looks like when the lights are off and a flash blinks half a dozen times before taking the picture.

Our First Family Pictures

We went to Bismarck for our nephew's 3rd birthday at the end of September and my sister-in-law, who is a photographer, took some family pictures for us, along with Henry's 6 month pictures (taken at 8 months old, oops), and some family pictures of all of us. The pictures with all of us, 9 adults and 3 kids, didn't really turn out. By the end the boys were tired of pictures and ready to play. In the chaos of it all we didn't get any pictures of Carter alone.

Newest Addition to the Family

Meet Alice Jo. She was born September 19, 2011 at 11:49 am. She was 7 lb 7 oz and 20 1/2" long. Unless I miss counted, Alice is the 53rd member of the Ash side of the family, 54th if you include Grandpa.

Guess What...

More fishing pictures.

When Carter gets left behind he goes fishing by himself. We searched high and low for a boat and found Landon's ice fishing sled. We just happened to have an old net laying around and of course Carter has his own pole, tackle box, and bait. We forgot the life jacket, which is somewhat surprising because he knows that he has to wear it when he goes fishing and we have more than one spare. This kept him busy enough that I got most of the house picked up, no, wait. I'll go as far as to say that it kept him busy enough for me to get most of the house CLEANED, not just picked up.

The Salmon are biting. This one was 12lbs. Bet you can't guess what we're having for dinner...every other night...let's just say we won't have to take fish oil supplements, EVER.

Henry NOT Eating

What 7 month old doesn't like applesauce and rice cereal mixed with breast milk? This 7 month old. We've been trying to get Henry to eat cereal plain, mixed with veggies, or mixed with fruit. We've tried organic, rice, and whole wheat cereals. Nothing. He just lets it sit in his mouth until it mixes with enough saliva that it starts dripping back out. Grandma Penney has been the only one that can get a whole bowl full of dinner into his little belly. We tried cereal at about 5 1/2 months for 2 weeks and it wasn't a hit so we stopped until he was 6 1/2 months old and still nothing. This short clip is just 38 seconds out of about 5 minutes of videoing that he kept the food in his mouth but wouldn't swallow it. I did a little experiment to see how many bites I could put in his mouth before he swallowed it, spit it out, or started gagging on it. I stopped at 5. He appears to be getting enough to eat...he isn't fussy, sleeps through the night and is generally a happy baby. I guess we'll just skip food for now. I'm sure it'll come back to get us eventually (and then he'll be harvesting his own dinner, hope he likes venison).

Carters 'kini' Body

I know I shouldn't post this, but it was too funny not to. I was laying out in the sun for a few minutes every day at nap time in my itsy bitsy teeny weeny black and green string bikini to work up a little tan so I wouldn't burn during the fishing tournament and Carter found my 'don't let anyone see me in it now' swimming suit of my youth. (whoo, long sentence). Carter couldn't say, nice bikini body mom, but he could say, "kini on, mom". So I helped him into it. Sad part was he wanted to go outside and go swimming in it. I didn't let it go that far.

More Fish!

I went to Billings, Landon went fishing.
Landon and Mark were able to spend a day this last week doing "research".

Like Father Like Son

The Holte men have an addiction and it appears to be hereditary. Carter wakes up and immediately asks, "Dad wake? Mom wake? Baby wake?". If Landon isn't home Carter asks, "Dad wook?". Depending on my reply, Carter asks, "Boat home?". Our conversation continues until Carter determines that Dad is awake, Dad isn't at work, and the boat is not at home. Then it is a fight to get him to do anything because in his little mind he has figured out that his Dad is fishing without him. He must get his 'ishing pole' and go fishing. One day last week Landon got done with work early and picked Carter up from Katey's house to go fishing. They got home at about 8:30 with dinner for a week.

I'm afraid that I will lose both my boys to the same addiction that has consumed their Father; unless of course all the fish die.

Women's Walleye Tournament

Kristie and I fished the Women's Walleye Tournament July 30th in Fort Peck. This is our money fish that Kristie caught. Landon was our navigator and wasn't allowed to do anything but drive the boat; we had to touch the slimy worms and blood sucking leaches ourselves. We finished in 4th place with about 17 pounds and won rods and reels. Then...dun dun dun...later that night we got a call that there had been a 30.5" Northern weighed as a Walleye (good for about 10 pounds) and we actually got 3rd place. We had to give the rods and reels back but got plaques and $500 instead. We caught about a dozen fish for the day, got a little sun burnt, filled up on candy, and had a great time. We'll definitely have to do it again next year.

A Very Merry UnBirthday to Henry

Our little man is 6 months old! This picture was taken two days shy of 6 months. I haven't been doing monthly blogs but thought I could at least manage to document his UnBirthday.
At 6 months old Henry...
has 0 teeth, not even one trying to come up
can sit up by himself but loses his balance anytime Carter comes blazin' by
really enjoys and is eager to eat the first 2 bites of cereal, then it takes quite a bit of coaxing to get him to even open his mouth, which is why we are back to breast milk only
is working on army crawling (mastered yesterday at 6 months 4 days old)
loves showers with Dad
has Mom trained for 3 am feedings (wasn't a problem with Carter...Can I get a full nights sleep, please! Little does he know that is all about to change)
loves to sleep with his snugly blanket on his face
poops every 4-5 days
easily entertains himself
dislikes gnats, bear-like growling, and duck calls
loves to watch the work kittens instead of nursing
likes to "wrestle" with his brother

We are blessed more than we could have ever imagined with our boys. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings.

Henry Army Crawling

It is a little grainy because I took it with my camera, but here is a short video of Henry scooting about 5 feet. He's really mastered the army crawl the last 2 days. He was just crawling when he was mad and looking for me, crawling out of frustration. As you can see, he's on the move. Time for a new baby gate. I'll post again later with the rest of Henry's six month milestones.

Henry's Newest Trick

How has this kid grown so fast?! Henry can sit up by himself for a few minutes at a time. The reason it is only for a few minutes is because that is as long as Carter stays put in one spot. As soon as Carter moves onto something else Henry turns his head to watch and ends up doing a faceplant. He's trying his hardest to follow Carter but doesn't get very far. He does surprise me every once in awhile when I leave him on the floor for a few minutes and come back to find him 5' from where I left him.

More Fishing

Carter can't get enough. All day long I get to hear about fishing, boats, Daddy, swimming Abby, worms...


Most nights lately Landon and Carter have gone fishing while I spend quality time trying to teach Henry to sit up by himself. I never know where they go but I do know that Daddy is Carter's best friend, Abby is Carter's best friend, Carter is Daddy's best friend, Abby is Daddy's best friend. Thanks for a great picture Dave!

Carter's Big Catch

Henry - June 2011

I think he might have brown eyes!

Carter - June 2011

Carter is going to "wook". He is Landon's mini me and has started going to work. He'll grab his backpack, or a diaper bag, or lunch cooler and tell me goodbye, i love you, and start heading for the door. When asked where he's going he'll say "to wook". Pretty funny little man.
Joy and Dwite, good family friends that go way back to Landon's childhood, gave us a gift for Henry - a cute little outfit and the Tickle Monster book. Carter thinks everything is for him so he snatched up the book right away. It comes with Tickle Monster hands, like gloves with finger cut outs. You all know that Carter likes to sleep with the newest toy or book and last night was no exception. He had to sleep with the gloves on. They are for adults so they didn't stay on all night. I think we've ready the book 20 times since we opened it on Friday night.

Carters New Hairdo-Before and After

I think Carter aged at least a year after his hair cut. I was cutting Landons hair and little Me Too grabbed a towel and sat down on a chair and waited for his turn. I didn't think he'd really sit through an entire hair cut, so I just ran the clippers over his hair upside down a few times pretending that I was cutting it. He wanted more and kept up with the Me Too's so I did it. He didn't care for trimming around his ears and wouldn't really let me touch up with the scissors so he does have a few stray hairs that I've been cutting when I get the chance. His poor little blond hair isn't much of a sun screen for his scalp, but he wears a hat most of the time.

Tonight's Dinner Special...

Ooops. Lesson learned. Check the grill before turning it on. I thought it was smoking more than usual but figured it was just burning off the leftovers from the last time we grilled. Landon got a facefull of smoke and burning plastic just as he was about to put on our tasty ribeyes. (I know, ribeyes, how do you get a ribeye off a deer? Beef, it's whats for dinner, tonight, thanks to some over enthusiastic shopping by Landon's boss, thanks Tyler!) Good thing we have two grills, now if only the big grill would hurry up and cook faster.

Hold it, hold it, I'm almost done...
Okay! Perfect!