Cute in Blue

I took Carter's jeans off for his nap so most of the day he sported the top half of his church outfit with socks. I thought it was cute.

This is what I now get when I ask him to smile for the camera.

He was posing so nicely for me.

And the cheesy smile again...

Then I told him to wave...

I was realizing the other day how few pictures I take of him just hanging around at home. Of course, I snap all the important outings and adventures that we take him on but I don't take much doing the daily routine. So here are a few. Just hanging out in half an outfit riding around on his firetruck.

Fall is here...

4 days ago...Sunshine, sidewalk chalk, and a cute little boy.

Today...Rain, rain, and more rain mixed with some wind and lots of gray skies!

So what does that mean for this girl who loves fall...

Time to decorate! Now I know I am a little behind the times since everyone on facebook seemed to decorate for fall last week, but I guess this feels even better for me because now it actually looks like fall. Maybe it was hard for me to decorate for fall when it was in the upper 80's day after day. The gray skies and rain got me in the mood. I love summer but I am usually ready for fall when it starts to show it's face around here.

So today, after Carter and I had some nice snuggle time on the couch watching Finding Nemo, I put Carter down for his nap, made myself my first cup of hot spiced apple cider, put Home Alone 2 on the tv, and decorated for fall. Don't ask my why I was watching Home Alone 2 while decorating for fall and not for Christmas, but it happened to be on tv last night, so I recorded it and felt like it would put a smile on my face and make me feel like Christmas is a little closer than almost three months away. As much as I like fall, nothing beats Christmas for me! Maybe that's why I like fall so much...it brings me closer to Christmas.

I won one of the centerpieces from MOPS last week which were beautiful sunflowers. They have made my dining room table just perfect for fall for the last few days. I also found these candles at Fred Meyer on sale for $7.99 AND buy one get one free! They are normally $9.99 each. So I bought one for me and one for my mom for her birthday. They make my house smell like cinnemon and pumpkin spice!

Oh, and of course I have to add a couple picture of my boys. Aren't they cute? They were watching a movie together and having some great snuggle time. We love snuggling with the Carter man!

Second Trimester...Oh how I love thee!

I am thirteen weeks and six days pregnant, which means...I'm officially in my second trimester. I am doing a happy dance right now ;) The main reason for the happy dance is that the last four days or so I have been feeling probably 90% better than I have felt in over eight weeks! That first trimester was really kicking my butt! I hate feeling so incredibly nauseous 24/7 and even throwing up some. I hate having to eat every hour and half or I get too far past the point of feeling well enough to eat. I hate having zero energy and taking naps almost everyday. I know...I sound pretty negative. However, what I do love is this precious baby growing inside of me!!! I will deal with this sickness for however long it takes because I know that in the end we get to add another perfect blessing into our family! But I am so thankful for a few days of feeling so much better. It gives me some hope that I won't be nauseous the entire pregnancy :) I think this pregnancy has been a little harder than my pregnancy with Carter. I think the nausea was more intense and it was so hard to be a good mom when I felt so miserable. I am looking forward to the second trimester for three reasons...to be a better mom to my Carter man, to be a better wife to the love of my life, and to actually enjoy being pregnant with our second baby.

I haven't taken any belly pictures yet. I think I just feel so fat this time around. I know I am starting to show but I keep waiting for it to look a little more like a baby belly and less like I've been eating too much. I will start posting some pictures soon. We are beginning the process of clearing out the spare room to start preparing it for Carter's big boy room. I know a lot of people would have the first two kids share a room for a while but the last thing in the world that I want is a newborn sleeping in the same room with a toddler. Carter getting a good nights sleep is beyond precious to me and we don't want the baby in our room more than just a few short weeks. So Carter will get to have his own big boy room probably right about his second birthday. That will give him a few weeks to get used to sleeping in a big boy bed before the baby is here and taking over his crib. I can't wait to get started on Carter's new room and of course the nursery, once we know the baby's gender. I think working on Carter's room will start helping me pass the time while we wait for this baby.

I can't believe that we are going to have two beautiful babies. I know Carter isn't a baby anymore but I just feel so blessed that I am living my dream. It was always my dream to find an amazing man who would love me with everything he had and then to be able to have a family on top of that. I know I am being cheesy...but I am so thankful for the many blessings in my life!

Oh and at our last appointment, almost four weeks ago, we got to see our baby and see the little heartbeat. Doctor West said everything looked perfect and the measurements all matched up to my original due date, March 26th. We got the cute little peanut ultrasound picture that I just love. In two days we get to hear the heartbeat and I just can't wait!

Shower for baby Silas

I LOVE throwing showers! My friend Natalie just had her fourth baby so I had another reason to throw a shower. I threw my friend Ashley's shower about seven months back as well but didn't take any pictures. The neat and unique thing about this shower was that Natalie had baby Silas over three weeks early which meant we were blessed to have the guest of honor at the shower with us. What woman doesn't love holding a sweet two week old baby?

The only hard thing about throwing showers is that they can get pretty expensive. One of our friends, Amanda, called me about a week ago and said she would love to help with the shower. What a blessing. I was so thankful to have someone help and she throws beautiful showers. She was actually one of the three ladies that threw my baby shower for Carter. She did all the food which was soooo good and so much help. She also helped me with ideas, helped decorate and set up, and made cute little party favors. I was able to do decorations and make the table look cute. I found on a blog these really cute pom poms made out of tissue paper. Amanda helped me make them. They were very cute and really added to the decor.

It was fun to be able to use some pictures of baby Silas and the family as a part of the decor. Usually the baby hasn't made their appearance yet. I had taken some family pictures the day after Silas was born and then some of him a few days after they got home. I had some prints made in sepia tone which was nice to add to the table.

Since it was a Saturday morning shower we just did cupcakes for dessert. I just made plain old white cupcakes out of a box. I still love them though.

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the guest of honor and baby of honor or the guests. That's the thing about hosting a shower...I tend to forget to capture all the moments. It was a nice, intimate shower though.

To my friend Natalie...thanks for letting me throw you another shower! You deserve to be spoiled and we of course love spoiling your newest little man. Silas is beautiful!

State Fair 2011

Carter's favorite part of the fair...the petting zoo.

Kissing the animals...yep, a little gross but so cute!

I have no words...

He wasn't too sure about Smokey Bear.

Oh how he loves the tractors!

18 Months

To my sweet one and a half year old...

You are a joy! You are fun and silly and wild and crazy!

The newest thing you have discovered in the last month is that you can climb! You love to climb on our chairs and even get up onto the dining room table. If you can't reach something, you will figure out how to reach it by putting things at your feet that you can climb on top of to get you higher. You like to get up onto the dining room chair and then climb up on the railing on the back of the chair to get you even higher. I took a picture of it on my phone but I need to get a picture of it for the blog. You might have a career as an acrobat.

Here are a few little facts about you at 18 months...

You weigh around 28 pounds (your 18 month appointment is tomorrow so then we'll know for sure), you have at least 16 teeth with at least one more about to come through, you wear size four diapers, size four or five shoes, and mostly 18-24 month clothes, you love to eat avocado, black beans, yogurt, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, oranges, blueberries, whole wheat waffles, bananas, mac and cheese, anything with spaghetti sauce and pasta, and most fruits, you sleep from 8 or 8:30 every night to 8 or 8:30 every morning (yes, 12 hours most nights!!!), and you take two hour naps every afternoon.

You are an independent little man but you also love to be with us and even hold our hand all the time. If we are walking out the front door, you always hold your hand up to grab ours. Your loves are still the same...garbage trucks, all animals, your blankie, semi trucks, ambulances, your daddy, Chuggington, and your newest love is your Giant's hat we bought you at the Giants game last month.

We introduced "time out" to you for the first time this past week. There are a couple things you kept doing that we continued to tell you "no." But, you get your stubborness from your mama and you were determined not to stop. So we started putting you on your rocking chair in your room and closing the door. You HATE it! You just sit in your chair and cry until I come back. Since you are one, I only leave you for one minute. I think it's so funny that you hate being there but yet you never try to get out of the chair. We did time out two times for pushing buttons on our cable box and you have not touched it in days! I think it might have worked! You are a smart little boy!

You are a good boy Carter and we are so proud of who you are! We love you so much!