Five Months

Greetings from the Midwest. Today is a big day in the life of Carter; he reached his 5 month birthday and celebrated with his first meal of squash. He was apprehensive during the first few bites. However, by the end he really enjoyed his first veggie and looks forward to Debbie's squash in the future (one of his mom's favorites). As evidenced by the pictures, he was very cute during his first meal. The cuteness took a drastic turn towards the end when the squash apparently did not agree with his tummy. Let's just stay, I have no idea how a sweet little person can produce such a foul odor.....Anyway, his first five months have been outstanding. I could not imagine having a more pleasant, loving little person.

On another note, Sue and I will celebrate our fifth anniversary this coming Friday. Hard to believe five years has already passed. I hope all is well, and warmer, in the lives of our readers. We will be heading to Alabama in two weeks and look forward to seeing many of you then. God Bless. Nick

Can I get any cuter?

I know I am biased (aren't all parents?!?), but I truly think he is precious! And just when I think he can't get any cuter, I look at him and, darn, if he hasn't gotten cuter just to spite me! :)

Sorry for the blogging hiatus. I know I give my blogging friends a hard time when they go too long between posts, because I get disappointed when I check their blogs for a while without new updates. I try to be--and most of the time, I am--a faithful blogger, but the past week has been an exception. I wish that I could tell you that there is a good reason for that--some big issue with work or, better yet, something fun on the homefront. Obviously, there is no such reason. We just haven't really been up to much. It was ridiculously cold here this past weekend with highs of something unfortunate, like 12 degrees (even though it didn't snow, thank goodness!), so we spent the weekend hibernating and trying to stay warm. That doesn't really lend itself to fun pictures to share...so we took some of him having fun in his exersaucer to share instead.

Carter is really doing well. He continues to grow and learn, and it just amazes me. I love to watch him as he plays; it is almost as though I can see him thinking about what he is about to do--grab for a toy, roll over, squeal, etc. It is so fun for me! He is trying to sit up, and he can do it pretty well for a while and then he just dive bombs in one direction or another. He'll get there eventually.

I can hardly believe that 5 months have passed since he was born...well, 5 months on Sunday, so close enough. While there have definitely been some tough days (and nights!), I absolutely can't imagine our lives without him. As I have said before, everything in my life seems at least a little different--and for the most part, a little better--because I am Carter's mom.

Carter in his Bumbo

So, apparently, there is at least one person out there who would like to see some pictures of Carter. I received the following e-mail from my brother today...

"While it is great to see that you are having a good time, in the future we will refrain from postings which in no way include new pictures of Carter. Thanks."

I hope this makes up for the lack of new Carter pics in the previous post! Thanks for a good chuckle on a Monday, Steve!

Girls' Weekend!

One of my best friends from college, Jennifer, turned 30 at the beginning of this month and her husband put together a fabulous SURPRISE girls' weekend in her honor this past weekend. Dan had been planning it for quite some time and it was a fun surprise for Jennifer. It was also such a fun time to hang out with their family and catch up. In addition to getting to visit with their family, another of my best friends from college, Mary Ruffin, also traveled to Dallas for the celebration. It was great to all three get to hang out together again! Since we all three live in different cities hundreds of miles apart, this was the first time since Jennifer's wedding in 2001 that we all were able to hang out together longer than for just a lunch or dinner! It was also a lot of fun to get to meet Jennifer and Dan's sweet friends in Dallas. Thanks to Dan for planning such a fun weekend for us to all catch up!

Nick and Carter hung out in Indy together this weekend while I was gone, and I think they managed to enjoy their boys' weekend. It was so fun to get home today and have Carter so excited to see me! I was certainly super-excited to see him also. I swear that he is growing and changing every day...and every day I feel like he brings more joy to me than the day before! What an amazing blessing!

Dad Caught Us...

...SNOOZING!!!

Carter hasn't been feeling well...so he has been getting lots of extra TLC. I took him upstairs after work the other night to rock him a little and calm him down because he was being fussy. When Nick came upstairs to check on him, this is what he found! I guess we both needed some rest!

Pictures from our Christmas visit to Alabama

My First Cereal Experience

Lots of Love from Gran, Ken, Martie and Chris

Lots of Love from the Cousins

Our family's Christmas picture, Nick with his "Greta Loves Me" shirt, and Carter during and after his Debbie scrub-down

Please see our picture site for lots more pictures from our trip!

Happy New Year!