Monday, June 27, 2011

16 months

You...
Love life!
Love animals, especially dogs!
Say dog, but it sounds more like daaaa, while pointing to a dog
Are now taking only one nap most days
Swing your left arm when you run as if it makes you go faster
Understand so much!
Love walking everywhere (I've started letting you walk into stores, holding my hand)
Have many moments of incredible obedience and moments of pure naughtiness
Usually wake up between 7 and 8 but every once in a while even sleep in till 9
Love people and making people smile
Love giving kisses to almost anyone
Have thrown a few temper tantrums
When you don't want to walk where I am trying to go, you plop yourself right down to the floor
Still LOVE your blankie
Wear mostly 18 month clothes with a few 12 months that still fit
Wear size four diapers
Love pointing to your nose, mouth, teeth, hair, feet, toes, tummy, and eyes when we ask

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day!

I don't think words are needed to describe how I feel about these two pictures. This is the amazing gift that God gave when he created dad's and their sons. I love these two guys so much.
Jay was building my cupboards for the laundry room that I was able to buy with birthday money and Carter wanted to help. He was right in there trying to do exactly what daddy did and Jay was so patient and let him do it. I know Carter won't remember this but this is just foreshadowing for what it will be like for Carter as he grows up with such a great dad! He is going to make so many thousands of memories with his dad!

Since it is Father's Day today...what would a blog be without a little tribute to the best dad in the world?

Carter LOVES his daddy! Here are just a few things that Carter does to show us how much he actually loves his daddy...

When he heres an ambulance, he gets so excited and says dadadada with a big smile on his face.

When he hears the screen door open when Jay is getting home from work, his whole world stops and he RUNS to the front door and dives into Jay's arms!

Many times lately, he chooses Jay over me. The other night he had a really bad night and was up for a few hours, we think because of teething. Jay got up to help and Carter wanted nothing to do with me. It broke my heart but it also filled me with so much joy.

He loves going everywhere with Jay. If Jay goes outside, Carter stands at the door yelling at him until he comes back or comes to get him.

I love how Carter's mouth is shaped when he is really concentrating.

Jay...
You light up Carter's world. He looks up to you and admires you! I see so much love in your eyes when you see Carter and talk about him. Thank you for being there for both of us and being a stable, loving dad to Carter. Carter is one blessed little boy! I love you Jay and Happy Father's Day!



Chunky monkey!

He hated it when the doors of the cupboard were closed. This is the reaction we got every time.

This entertained him for days!


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Summer is here!

I love summertime! I love the sunshine, warm weather, playing outside, trying to get our yard looking nice, lazier days, going out for ice cream, play dates at the park, and all the birds coming to our yard. We put up some bird feeders in our front yard hoping the birds would come to the front and not just the back yard. They love our jungle of a back yard but we can't enjoy them as easily back there. Jay and Carter got me a hummingbird feeder for Mother's Day and we love watching the hummingbirds come around. We also planted our garden so hopefully we will get to enjoy fresh, home grown veggies in a couple of months. Jay started building our fence in the back yard. We always said we needed a fence before we could ever buy a dog, but now I just want a fence to contain our one year old so that we can actually play outside. Our front yard has the steep driveway right next to it, which of course Carter goes straight for every time we try to play out there. Our backyard has no fence, which of course, Carter tries to escape from all the time. It is fun watching Jay start a project and see the progress each week. It will be slow going since we don't have hundreds of dollars to just put into a fence all at once.

I feel like I have been away from blogging world for quite a while because I just haven't felt like I had much to blog about. That is sad though so I decided to just get on here and catch up on our summer so far. I finished home schooling two weeks ago and love having some time off. A few days after we were done with school though, Jay and I took Naomi to Fort Vancouver and the McLoughlin House for our field trip. We studied Oregon's history all year so that was a perfect place to take her. We really enjoyed it and will definitely take our kids when they are older. I have been enjoying having play dates at different parks in the mornings. Carter loves playing at parks and I love having some social interaction with adults. :) Not that Carter isn't a great communicator. ;)
Jay and I took Carter over to a new park in South Salem to check it out last night. It was neat but they definitely had some interesting toys. I didn't get any pictures of the strange toys but Carter loved the slides.
I started my master's program through Corban University about two weeks ago and am hanging in there so far. School is not my thing in the least but I am surviving the first two classes so far. It is all online so I can do everything when I have the time throughout the week. The sad thing is that now nap times really aren't for cleaning the house or resting anymore. Now I get to read or do grad assignments during those precious quite moments. A lot of people have asked me why I decided to go back to get my masters. I have one, not so eloquent answer...because I have to. Yes, in Oregon, we have to get our master's or we will lose our teaching license after a certain amount of years. I think I have about four years left before I have to have grad school done. If I could keep my teaching license without getting my masters, I absolutely would not go back to school. Feel free to pray for me anytime you think about it. :)

Carter loves carrying our shoes around on his arms. Cracks me up. Especially when he has Jay's shoes on since they are so huge. He also loves playing with and wearing my necklaces. This is not one of Jay's favorite things right now. ;) Some of Carter's newest things are...

Everytime he hears an ambulance, he stops whatever he is doing, listens really carefully, gets really excited, and even says "dadadada." I love it! He totally knows that Jay works on the ambulance since they come and visit us at home sometimes when they are in the area.

When Carter runs, he swings his left arm back and forth real hard. So cute!

It looks like we are transitioning to one nap a day. I was not wanting to give up his morning nap but he is really fighting me on it. That must be my clue that he is ready to skip it. He did sleep in until 9:15 this morning so maybe, just maybe, I'll get a little more sleep in the morning.

He started saying "bu bye" this last week and seems so close to saying other things too. He also started to be a little less picky with food. We finally got him to eat blueberries again after a few months of hating them. He is eating a lot more new things than he used to and I couldn't be happier. It is so frustrating when he wouldn't even try something!

Well, that's our summer so far, all two weeks of it. And a little catch up on the little man. I hope the rest of you are having a great beginning to your summer too.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Hamming it up for the camera...

Carter was being a ham for the camera tonight! Why can't I get him to do this when I take him to Picture People?!?!











Playing peek a boo