Tuesday, October 25, 2011

19 and 20 months

Apparently I skipped 19 months. I never really planned on continuing these monthly blogs after 12 months but I just kept going and I still love having them to look back on. It took me 19 months to forget to do one...not too bad. So here are two months worth of what Carter has been up to.


To our sweet Carter man...


You have finally realized you can talk. You still don't say tons of words but you are starting to get the hang of it. And you realize now that you can repeat what we say and it is just so funny to you. Here are the words you say consistently...
mama, daddy, bye or bu bye, uh oh, no (yep, I would say you discovered this one way too early!), beep beep, I don't know (this was your first phrase), hi, and pull
We have heard you say cat, banana, duck, and lots more but I am forgetting right now. These ones you don't say a lot though.

You love repeating sounds we make but really love doing your animal sounds. You know how to do the sound for lion, monkey, kitty, cow, and sheep. Your lion is my favorite because you really get a great growl sound down in your throat for it. We have been working hard on dog but you just don't quite have it down yet.

You LOVE your stuffed animals. You are so sweet to them and take such good care of them. Most of the time I come to get you out of bed you have your blankie in one hand and a stuffed animal in the other. You give them lots of hugs and kisses and love snuggling with them on the couch.

Your new favorite tv show is Mickey Mouse and seem much less interested in Chuggington now. Chuggington was a great first tv show for you though!

You are still a great eater and eat mostly the same stuff you did at 18 months...so I won't bore everyone with all the details.

You are becoming EXTREMELY independent! You like to do everything by yourself. You also really don't like sharing anything! Whether it's in the nursery, at a friends house, or we have a friend at our house, you don't want to share any of your toys or their toys. You want them all. If someone else has a toy, you want it. We are working VERY hard at teaching you how to share. You will even push someone out of your way so that you can get a toy and they can't.

You love wearing shoes and your rain boots. You love turning lights on and off and ask a hundred times a day to be picked up so you can hit the light switch. You LOVE your blankie and can't seem to go anywhere (even just around the house) without it.

You had a really rough three weeks recently with some on and off again sickness. You had your first really high fever, 103.5. I don't think you have ever had one higher than 102.0 so this was new for us. With it came a tremendous amount of whining and crying! Wow, was this mama worn out. But we seem to have turned a page and you are happy again! Praise the Lord!

You are so sweet to your brother or sister growing inside of my belly. You love giving my tummy kisses and patting or rubbing it. You will say baby lots and when you are looking at my belly. We find out in three days if you are having a brother or a sister. We can't wait!

We have recently started setting up your new big boy bedroom. You love playing in there! You have a twin bed, a dresser, a bookshelf, a toy shelf with canvas drawers for all of your toys, and your train table. You love playing with your train table and it's nice having it inside now rather than the garage. We will start having you sleep in there sometime in February.

Today is Halloween and you are going to be a zebra. You love your costume and have worn it around the house many times already.

At the doctor the other day you weighed 27 pounds. You don't seem to be gaining a whole lot but that's probably because you are so active.

Your daddy is your hero. Literally. You absolutely adore him and can't get enough of him!

You are all around a happy and loving little man! We love you more than we know how to explain in writing. You are precious Carter and have made our lives full of life and joy!

Only four more months until your second birthday...wow!

Senior Pictures

I haven't done much real photography in quite a while...like a couple of years. I really love photography but it seemed like I was getting a little burned out. I also felt like I just wasn't keeping up with the times...and by this I mean learning how to use my camera manually and learning how to edit photos. I know, I'm a pretty lame photographer. Well, over the weekend I got a phone call to do some senior pictures for a family that I had photographed a few years ago. I decided to give it a try with some hesitation but found I really enjoyed and missed it. I had to borrow my dad's camera because the lens on my camera is acting up right now. My dad and Lori then decided to ask me to take their foreign exchange student's senior pictures as well. So this first shoot is of my dad's foreign exchange student Oliver with a few of my brother added in for good measure. The second shoot is of the family that called, their son Jake. After doing Jakes shoot I decided to at least see if I could figure out Picassa, which is a free online photo editing program. I am sure there are better options out there but I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to edit photos and I loved the end result. I can't believe I didn't learn this sooner! So here are a few shots from my last two photo shoots. Who knows, maybe I will get back into photography like I was a few years back.





































































Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We finally have carpet!

We finally broke down and bought carpet for our bedrooms. We have wanted to do this since the day we moved into this house. We have beautiful original wood floors in the entire house but I am still a carpte kind of girl. So we compromised and put it just in the bedrooms and hall. It is gorgeous! Jay and I LOVE having carpet back there. It is so much cozier and warmer. Carter LOVES it too. Jay said when Carter saw it for the first time he was petting it, rolling around on it, and falling on purpose to land on it. We just love everything about having carpet back there. It changed the whole look of the house. I think it updated it by 50 years!

Max seems to like it too!



Jay and Carter are able to roll around, jump and fall, wrestle and play without getting injured!

Our bedroom...





Our hall with the tile in the bathroom that matches perfectly!

This was our old spare room which will soon be turning into Carter's new bedroom in a few months right before this baby arrives. Right now it has turned into a playroom. He loves having a whole room just for his toys. The smallest person in our house right now has two whole bedrooms to himself. Something is wrong with this picture...



Carter's bedroom...



Jay and Carter are building Carter's big boy bed. We bought this bed from my mom who had bought it from IKEA but didn't need it anymore. It's super cute and low to the ground but still a full twin size bed so he won't grow out of it too soon! So now Carter's playroom also has his big boy bed in it. We are thinking he will start sleeping in it sometime in February.

Carter LOVES helping daddy build stuff...



He loved exploring his new bed...

And his new mattress, still in the plastic...