Amazing Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

I made these for Christmas Eve with Nate's family and we thought they were amazing. Try them sometime! I'm craving them right now. I should mention, I didn't use this frosting recipe. I used my regular buttercream one and added the seeds of one vanilla bean.


http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/vanilla-bean-cupcakes-recipe/

It's a...

BOY!!!

We are all so, so excited to be having a little boy. I have been hoping that Luke would have a little brother, but I didn't think it would actually happen for some reason. I'm thrilled. Paige and Kate ran around screaming when blue balloons popped up. They really wanted another boy. Halle didn't seem as happy. I think she's happy now though.

I ended up doing an elective ultrasound at 16 weeks to find out. My anatomy scan at my doctors office is not until 20 weeks, and I was dying to know what we were having. I'm so glad I did it. The lady was so sweet and she gave me a DVD of the whole ultrasound with 3D/4D and everything. I only paid for some 2D pictures. It's fun to have a DVD to watch of our little baby.

Finding out the gender always makes it all so real and exciting. I can't wait to meet our new little guy in August.

Kate is 6!

Kate was so excited for her birthday this year. She started counting down the days months ago. She knew that she wanted a mermaid party, so after looking on Pinterest I had a lot of ideas. It was a lot of work, but it was a success. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.

Kate got off the bus with this crown on, and she continued to wear it all day.

Here is the cake I made. Someday I will learn to make cakes nice and level. Yikes.

Kate was so excited to show her friends the fun snacks.

Digging for little sea creatures. They loved these little squishy Beados, but man... they were messy. Next time we will do this game outside.

Fishing over the railing for prizes

Happy 6th birthday, Kate! We love you!

Carter baby #5!!!

Nate and I knew that we wanted a 5th baby sometime soon-ish, but we weren't ready quite yet. So, it was really surprising when we found out that I was pregnant. This was our first surprise baby and wow... that's a different experience. I was so nervous when I started to think about the morning sickness that was soon to come, and how I would manage 5 kids when Luke is such a high maintenance little guy. But just like anything else... you figure it out. I know it will all be for the best. We're really excited now.

The morning sickness period was an absolute nightmare. I started to get sick at about 5 weeks along and it was pretty much all day, every day nausea. Not to mention throwing up 2-3 times a day. It is so incredibly hard to take care of 4 kids when you feel awful all the time. It was a dark period for me.

One day I threw up 11 times, which was not normal at all. I felt incredibly dehydrated and so miserable. I may have had a stomach bug combined with the morning sickness because my kids had been sick off and on that week. Either way, I had reached my limit. I asked Nate for a priesthood blessing that night. He was happy to do it, and I felt some comfort afterward, even though I threw up a couple more times that night. At that point I was 12 weeks along, and I typically don't start to get better until closer to 15 or 16 weeks.

To my surprise, I woke up a day later (around 36 hrs after the blessing) feeling almost normal. It was the first time in almost 2 months that I didn't feel instantly nauseous when I got out of bed. I was shocked. Ever since then, I have moments here and there when I feel sick, but it is nowhere near what it was before. Not even close. And I went from throwing up 2-3 times a day to throwing up only 2-3 times in the last entire month.

I know that the blessing I received healed me. I am so thankful that Nate was worthy to give that blessing and that Heavenly Father was aware of me, and showed mercy on me in such a difficult time.

Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015 was great! The week before Christmas we found out that we have a (surprise) baby on the way! I'll post more about that later though.

This year we cut down a tree at a local place called Carver Farms. I didn't get any kind of discount for being a Carver though. Shoot. Maybe I'll try again next year. :)

 It was a sunny day, obviously. But still COLD!

Luke enjoyed destroying the ornaments.

^^This was Christmas Eve at Court and Bev's house (Nate's parents) when we announced the new baby. So fun! Everyone was really excited. Paige and Kate were dying to tell the secret. No one seemed to notice Luke's shirt, so finally Nate said, "Luke would like to show you his new shirt!"

^^And this was right before we headed to their Christmas Eve party. I wanted to document my last days of not having a big belly.

Christmas!

Who needs toys? I've got baby wipes.

I made some vanilla bean cupcakes that I decided were the best cupcakes I've ever made. So, so good. I'll post the recipe soon.