Just Carter

I've got to focus on my boy for a minute and do a little bragging :) 

So bare with me. 

Carter has made vast improvements in his swimming skills this summer! 

Here are a few quick videos of him swimming with Coach Stephanie. I'm so proud of how far he's come! 

We've been playing out in the backyard more lately since the evenings aren't sweltering! Carter has been practicing baseball, and he's getting pretty good! I'd love to have him play on a team soon. We'll see. :)

Eye on the ball!

Look at that stance!

Check him out!

A little background on the following - Carter met his 3 little best friends before he even turned a year old. These boys have been in his life for a long time, and I hope they always stay a part of each others lives! We got them all together for a fun little photo shoot earlier this week, and Laura and Ashley each got some great shots. How fun is it going to be to look back at these pictures in 5, 10, 20 years?! LOVE them. 

And yes, we color coordinated. :) HA!     

Carter, John, Gavin, Mason 

All age 3

Ella at 10 months

Time for another monthly update.... can't believe you're already 10 months old! And here is what's new with you lately:

You now have SIX teeth! You have cut four teeth in the last 2 weeks, all of them on top. They have come in enough now that you can see them all when you grin and it makes you look like such a big girl!! 

You have become a crazy climber! You are still pretty good about staying away from the first few stairs before the landing, but I catch you over there thinking about climbing up every now and then. You definitely understand "NO" though, and you stay off them for the most part. I've caught you trying to climb onto the fireplace hearth, too, and your most favorite thing to climb on is Carter's chair! You're a little stinker!

Your favorite foods are strawberries, grapes, peaches, cheese, ham, bread of any kind, and french fries (of course!). You're still nursing 5 times a day, but I can tell you're taking less milk during your "snack" times, and we'll probably try to cut those feedings out in the next month. 

You're close to 18 1/2 pounds and still in size 3 diapers. You're still wearing 9 month clothing. I've put you in a few 9-12 month things, but they are pretty big on you. And your feet are still tiny!! 

You know where your tongue is. If I ask you to show me your tongue, you'll stick it out and give me a big grin!

You've also started clapping lately, adorable! And you still love to dance to music. :)

You LOVE the water! Going swimming is a favorite thing of yours, but you also have a strong love for bath time. You have recently started blowing bubbles in the water. It started by you dipping your mouth in the water to drink it, then one day by accident, you blew air out to make bubbles, and you've been doing it ever since. You think it's pretty hilarious!

You have such a sweet temperament, and are such a happy little girl! 

This was about the extent of our 10 month photo shoot:

...and you're done. Already crawling away. I give up.

A few toys to keep you happy while I snap some more

 And a little water break. And those beautiful baby blues!! 

 Such a pretty girl!

 You love looking out the back door!

 Getting fussy, and sooooo over Mommy taking pictures. 

 Awwww, baby girl! 

 You're even pretty when you cry. :(

 Where's your tongue?

 Lunch time will make it all better!

         You're truly a joy, and such a blessing to our family! We love you so much, Ella! 

Monday Morning

Just a normal Monday morning here at home with the kiddos today. 

Carter ran through the sprinklers in his undies :)

 And Ella watched from inside

 Then we headed upstairs for some morning cartoons

 Ella has taken over Carter's chair. She definitely thinks this is her spot.

 And Carter's okay with that - he prefers to stretch out on the couch!

 Baby girl getting tired..... almost morning nap time! 

 But first, must crawl through tunnel for the 4,367th time today! She has grown to love this thing! 

 She goes back and forth, in and out, over and over again.

 She even gets her toys and brings them in there with her to play! Too cute! 

After a few weeks of a yucky cough and what seemed like sinus issues, it took a turn for the worse for all of us this weekend. Eric, myself and Carter all went to the doctor on Saturday, and we were all diagnosed with bronchitis. Yuck!! Ella is in the clear so far, thank goodness. It was a pretty rough weekend, but we are feeling a little bit better today. Maybe we'll have an early lunch and head to the pool for a little bit once Ella wakes up from her nap. We need to get out of the house for a little while! Anyway, Happy Monday to ya! 

Quiet Around Here

This blog has been pretty quiet lately, huh? Taking the time to take pictures and do blog posts has been put on the back burner for pretty much all of the month of July, but I'm hoping to get back on track in August. It's taken some time, but I am finally feeling like we are *almost* back to normal around here. It's been a crazy and stressful month! Our living situation, our schedule, our social life, our meal time and sleep habits have all been interrupted and switched up by this move and all that has come with it. We haven't been out and about very much these past few weeks, and that's been tough. Our house has been a revolving door of contractors - painters, carpet estimators, tile and grout cleaners, carpet cleaners - I mean, it's really been never ending, and it's been keeping us home way more that we'd like. We have new carpet being installed on Monday (thank goodness!!), and once that is done, I'm hoping we can fall right back into place pretty quickly and get all the final touches on the house. I hate to say it, but I'm sort of over this summer. It's been a hectic one, and I will welcome the start of the school year and fall with open arms! 

A few cute pictures from this week. 

The kids enjoyed a very messy spaghetti dinner, and bath time directly after!! 

And I know this is ridiculous, but I just have to document it, because this makes me so, so happy! Look at the results of our tile and grout cleaning!! Beyond satisfied with this.... it was worth every single penny! 

    

 

Ella at 9 months

Well Ella, you're now 9 (& 1/2, almost - oops!) months old. Here is a little about what you're up to these days. You are:

• 17 lbs, 12 oz and 27 inches long. That puts you in the 25-50% percentile for both weight and height. You're a petite little thing right now!
• pushing your push toys and doing lots of walking while holding onto our hands.
• climbing on anything you can hike your little knee up onto, including our stairs. :/
• getting more teeth on the top. You have your 2 bottom middle teeth right now, plus your right side lateral incisor, and 3 more trying to come in on top. I'm sure we'll see those any day now. You're always rubbing your little tongue over the top of your teeth, and you stick your tongue out at us a lot while doing that. Soooo cute! 
• nursing 5 times a day, and eating all table foods. You eat what we eat 90% of the time.... you're eally a great little eater, and you love to feed yourself! Also, a milestone this month is that you have officially joined us at the table for meals. The high chair takes up too much room in the new breakfast area, so I put you in a booster in the chair at the table, and I think you really love sitting with all of us to eat. And you look like such a big girl doing it, too. 
• not a fan of sippy cups, but you love drinking water out of a regular cup or a straw.
• down to 2 naps a day now. You've pretty much cut out your mid-day snooze that you were consistently taking. And your afternoon nap lately has been shorter than usual. I'm hoping this is just a phase and that my good little napper is back soon. Most of the time Carter actually gets more sleep than you do during the day.... that is crazy! 
• still a Momma's girl, big time. Not sure how I'm ever gonna wean you!! 
• such a little mockingbird! You cough, laugh, dance, say "ma ma ma" "ba ba ba" and "da da da" all on command now.
• you love to dance when you hear any kind of music.... and by dance I mean bounce up and down, bob your little head, and of course, give the cutest smile ever while doing so.
• waving bye-bye. I think I might be able to officially document your first word too. A few weeks ago (Mon 7/7/12), Daddy came and gave you a kiss because I was about to put you down for a nap, and as we walked away from him, you waved your hand and said, "Buh." We couldn't believe it! Sweet moment, for sure!
• you have handled the transition of moving really well. We even threw in the middle of it a week long family vacation, and that really didn't phase you much at all. You napped normally and slept great at night the entire time, and have been such a little trooper with all the activity and craziness going on around you. Very proud of you, baby girl!
  

I really cannot believe you will be ONE in 3 short months. I better start thinking about your 1st birthday party!!