Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Today we woke up to our first snow of the season! Christmas is in the air!

It's good to be back home. Thanksgiving in Arkansas was great! Carter got to meet so many new friends and family and he handled to trip better than expected. We got back last night, gave him a bath and a bottle, and he slept for 7 straight hours. Poor guy.

Highlights from the weekend:
1) Deep-fried turkey
2) Naps on the couch
3) Arkansas' amazing win over LSU in the final minute
4) Papaw making Carter laugh
5) Looking through Mamaw Bertie's old photos
6) Sleeping on a memory foam mattress pad (we must get one of those!)

We just discovered that the Minnesota Twins are coming to St. Louis this summer to play the Cardinals. I think that might be a first. I hope we can get tickets...I missed seeing the Twins play last year. Carter will have to wear a Twins outfit and a Cardinals hat.

Turkey Day Travel Plans

It's really mind-boggling the amount of stuff a baby requires when you travel with him. The packing list for him is longer than my own! Tomorrow we leave for Arkansas for Thanksgiving. I can't tell you how excited we are for a delicious home-cooked meal! It will be Carter's first trip into another state! We've packed the appropriate Razorback gear so he'll be sure to fit right in. The drive will be long but we're hoping that since we're driving at night, Carter will sleep for most of it.

New pictures and videos on Flickr!

Family Weekend

Ways in which you know you've become a parent:

1. You discover spit-up on your shirt and you aren't exactly sure when that happened.


2. You catch yourself licking your thumb and using it to wipe something off your kid's face after you swore you would never do that whenever your own mother did it.


3. Wearing any pair of pants that require buttoning and zippering feels like "dressing up".


4. You look forward to a shower like it was a visit to an expensive spa.


5. You prioritize tasks you can accomplish during naptimes.

Becca's sister, nephew, grandmother, and mother all can to visit last weekend. It was a miracle that this trip took place with travel costs, work schedules, and grandma's fear of flying. But it was totally worth it for everyone to meet Carter. Dalton (Becca's nephew) was really excited to tickle Carter and hold him in his lap. So cute! We painted some Christmas ornaments complete with Carter's footprint to commemorate his first holiday. Overall, a really great weekend!

Carter is unfortunately what we call "in between hairstyles" right now. He's starting to lose the hair he was born with and new hair is growing in, but the two events aren't happening in the same spots on his head. He looks like he's experiencing a grown man's balding, like George Kastanza from Seinfeld. Poor guy.

Mike's been doing some duck hunting on the weekends, but without much success. :-( He's a little more limited in the amount of time he can put into it and so he's been trying to hunt closer to home. Maybe next year he'll stock up our new freezer with lots of duck.

Naked Trees and Halloween

One windy day was enough to completely strip all the trees of their beautiful leaves. Now our yard looks like a carpet of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns. I want to rake them into a huge pile and jump in them.

Halloween was pretty uneventful here. I didn't dress up like I usually do and Carter is really too small to have a costume. We did dress him up in a pumpkin shirt for the evening though. Maybe next year we'll go all out with family costumes. Carter could be Yoda, I could be Princess Leia, and Mike even agreed he would be Darth Vader.

Carter is really starting to smile a lot now. New pics on Flickr and a video of his silly grins if you are interested.

Mike and I made time to vote on Tuesday. Hope you all got a chance to vote too! I wonder if they will ever sort out the final vote count for Missouri.

Big weekend coming up! Carter's Grandma, Great-Grandma Lily, Auntie Karen, and his cousin Dalton are coming to visit. We're really excited for them to see Carter. I'm sure we'll have tons of new pictures to post after the weekend is over.

2-Month Doctor Visit

Carter's 2-month doctor visit was this morning and it was a big one. Poor guy had 4 immunization shots today and he took it like a champ (i.e. screaming and crying on end). Now we're back at home and he's sleeping it off peacefully. I'm sure by this afternoon he'll be exacting his revenge on Mommy. He continues to grow, weighing in at 11 pounds, 14 ounces (56%) and stretching out to 24.25 inches (91%). His head circumference is in the 82%. His big head might explain the apparent receding hairline. He's growing so fast that his hair can't keep up. We may need to resort to a "comb-over" for the Christmas photos.

Duck hunting season is approaching so Mom is looking forward to many mornings alone with Carter while Dad is out bringing home the spoils. Mom started playing volleyball again last night and boy she is paying for it today. While I have new found strength in my arms (carrying a 10-lb baby around does that), my legs seemed to have forgotten how to move properly on the court. Still, it was good to have a two-way conversation with an adult for a change (no offense Carter).

Leaf color is peaking right now. The hillsides look like the trees are on fire, so much red, yellow, and orange. A fat, fluffy, goldfinch sits outside at the bird bath. Probably wondering if I'm ever going to get out there and refill the bird feeder.

Oh, new pics on Flickr! Check 'em out.

Horray for Fall!

Our favorite season is approaching. The weather has turned cool and the leaves are beginning to change. The trees lining the roads around our house are going to put on a spectacular display this year. There's also something in the air...a crisp woodsy scent that makes me want to go camping.

Last weekend was the annual Pumpkin Daze festival in Republic, MO. Every year, gardeners from the region grow the largest produce they can and enter it in the festival's contest. The two biggest draws are the pumpkin and watermelon contests. Mike's Dad is a regular competitor (and winner) of the watermelon contest. This year, his biggest melon placed 4th with the overall winner weighing in over 200 lbs. The largest pumpkin was bigger than a washing machine! Carter was dressed in his pumpkin outfit. He got to meet more family and experience a new level of spoiling.

Carter is finally big enough to fit into the bumGenius cloth diapers we invested in. They are still a little bulky on him, but it beats spending money on those disposable diapers. He kind of looks like a sumo wrestler when he wears them.

Mamaw and Papaw gave us a ton of pears at the festival. I used a bunch of them to make a pear & cranberry pie tonight. Yummy!

Schedule? Ha!

5 weeks old yesterday!

Just when I think we've established some semblance of a routine, it's thrown out the window. However, some things that continue to happen without fail and like clockwork:
1) Carter never wants to go back to sleep after Dad leaves for work in the morning, robbing Mom of a much-needed extra hour of sleep.
2) Carter usually sleeps in the late afternoon during my one hour guilty splurge of watching Gilmore Girls reruns. No matter how peacefully he appears to me sleeping, he wakes up just before Dad pulls into the driveway. It doesn't matter if Dad gets home at 4:30 or 6:00 pm, Carter always times it just right.

Pumpkin Daze this weekend! I've started a list of things we'll need to bring for the trip. We may need to buy more luggage to carry it all.

The pictures from our professional photo shoot look amazing! Some of my favorites are uploading to Flickr right now.

Happy Birthday Karen! Hope you have a fantastic day!