January 31, 2010

I normally try to find a cute and catchy title for a post that sort of sums up the situation, but I am finding that life with two kids rarely has a consistent theme and the pictures that I take usually have nothing to do with each other . Hence my new strategy of naming posts by their date. Because honestly, I dare you to tie the following pictures together. I guess I am apologizing for my consistently random blogging, but the stories are all too good to not share, so there you have it. You can't say you weren't warned.

Carter loves stuffed animals lately. Each one seems to fall into his good graces and become the "favorite" for about three days before he falls in love with a new one. Last week, "Amanda" the bear was his favorite. He would fix her hair with Evyn's bows and absolutely insisted that she had a birthday last Sunday. He would not rest until we blew up balloons, sang happy birthday, and made cupcakes. Carter is helping her blow out the candle on her cupcake. Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Some sweet friends handed down a fabulous doll house to us, and the kids have played with it non-stop all week. The very first thing that Evyn did was sit on the front porch. She looks like a giant terrorizing the little people. I promise she was smiling until I took her picture!

We had a snow day on Friday, and both babies were a little under the weather so we stayed inside for most of the weekend. I attempted to give Evyn pigtails on Saturday, but they ended up whopperjawed and then I had a mess of hair on top that I had no idea what to do with. We lovingly called her our African queen all day. I am glad that this was a day that we did not need to get out!

I love bath time pictures. There is something so sweet about a naked baby playing in the tub. For grins, I posted a few pictures of Carter-man in the tub at comparable ages to Evyn. Pure sweetness, I tell you.

Highlights from the week.

Evyn sported her very first braid on Friday. It doesn't look like much, but let me assure you that it was much like wrestling a monkey to accomplish such a "fancy" hairdo with a 15 month old.


Carter decided to borrow some of my socks. I thought that the pink offset the masculine pajamas nicely.

And in other big news, Evyn is learning to master the fine art of multi-tasking. Pictured below she is eating a grilled cheese sandwich and napping simultaneously. Next thing I know she will be walking and chewing gum. Look out world!

Carrots

Mealtime with kids is always an adventure. Tonight Evyn was in a particularly hilarious mood. She has had carrots before but decided today that they are her all time favorite food and she should eat as many of them as possible. I cut her off after ten baby carrots! Should make for fun diaper changing tomorrow!

She would start by making sure that everyone was watching her by making loud and insistent noises and banging her tray. Once she was the center of attention, this is what she would do after every bite:

I know that she must be my daughter because she enjoys her grub so thoroughly! Silly, silly girl!

Carter's Menagerie!

One of my very favorite things about being the mommy of a four year old is having a front row seat to his imagination. He recently has been very into several of his stuffed animals. I guess it is a little weird to dedicate a blog post to your son's stuffed animal collection, but it is one of those things about him that I don't want to forget. So, allow me to formally introduce you to some of Carter's favorite friends.

Doggy has been a very important part of our family since Carter was born. This is the one animal that travels with him, always sleeps with him, and comforts him when he is sad or scared. This is the one that he absolutely cannot live without. We lost Doggy this summer and went to great lengths to purchase an identical replacement. Now we have two, and I will keep them both long after he outgrows them because he is such a sentimental little critter.

Bear is a close number two to Doggy. They are normally together, but Bear does not possess the same magical comforting powers as Doggy.

Baby Max made his way into our family when I was pregnant with Evyn. Carter really wanted a baby of his own, and this was the most masculine one I could find. Max gets bathed and changed regularly. He has his own stroller that Carter proudly pushes. He feeds him and even breastfed him when I was nursing Evyn. Carter carries his "diaper bag" and is such a sweet little daddy to Max. I personally like the knee high socks that Carter insisted on him wearing for this picture.

Scotty, Spotty, and Buster (from left to right) are new additions to our family. Grammy gave them to Carter for Christmas. They have interchangeable sweaters and leashes. Carter loves to dress them, walk them, and feed them. These three have a more mischievous streak than most of his other friends. And Buster is not quite house trained yet, but we are working diligently on that.

Sad Frog's red mouth turns down at the corners, hence his name. He is really old and has a rattle inside of him. I stole him from a friend in college because I always played with him in her room, and Carter stole him from me. Sad Frog tends to be accident prone.

Postcop is a toy from Sonic- I believe he is supposed to be a tater tot/bat. Postcop came into our family right before we went to Carlsbad and has had a special place in Carter's heart since then. The very first time that he got to choose anything that he wanted to take to school for show and tell, this is what he took. I personally do not understand his affinity for this particular toy, but they say that love is blind.

Moosey goes with the book "If you give a moose a muffin." This is one of Carter's very favorite books, so Moosey earned his love by extension. Carter frequently leaves Moosey on the couch with a book while he naps.

Little Lamb was a gift for Evyn, but Carter completely hijacked her before she was born. It is clearly a girl's toy, but this does not stop him. His favorite thing to do with Little Lamb is swaddle her in a blanket. She also has bandaids all over her head.

Elephant was a gift "from Evyn" for Carter while we were in the hospital. He was so astonished that his baby sister would get him a gift and he treasures this animal for that reason. Sweet.

Curious George is Carter's very favorite TV show. No matter what I might be doing at 7 am on any given weekday, I must stop to come clap and cheer when George comes on. It is tradition. Carter stole this friend from my mom's house. He often watches PBS kids with us in the mornings.

Lamp is an enormous stuffed horse. Carter named him one day while we were in the living room and he was in a "name things whatever I am looking at" phase. He loves to use Lamp as a pillow.

Speaks is a puppet that sings every time you make his mouth close. Carter likes to feed Speaks apple slices (not sure why) and named her after the show "Martha Speaks" where a dog eats alphabet soup and then starts talking.

Shamu. Not much explanation needed!

Snowflake and Summowitz are stick horses. It always makes me giggle when he wants to sleep with these two because it just can't be comfortable to sleep with two sticks, but he does it anyway. Sometimes we have races. Usually he feeds them pretend apples and carrots.

And last but not least, his very favorite friend is his sister. He loves to squeeze and kiss her. He can make her laugh like nobody else. He holds her hand, shares his toys, wipes her nose, and sings to her. He is protective of her and genuinely kind to her. I hope that these two will be good friends for years to come!

January 11, 2010

This is what I wake up to every single morning. It does not get much cuter than this, folks. Between the two of them, I sometimes think that my heart might actually explode.

On a completely unrelated note, Mike has pastored Friends of God church for the last three and a half years. And while we are completely in love with the people, the ministry, and the fellowship, it has been difficult to balance family time when I work Monday through Friday and Mike works Saturday and Sunday. Friday night was Mike's last night as pastor of FGC and they had a beautiful tribute and service dedicated to my sweet husband. I am so proud of who he is, and it blesses my heart to watch him receive love from others. The special friends did a skit telling the story of the "Moses stick," a walking staff hand carved by a once homeless man with all of the ten commandments on it. They recited the ten commandments and then presented him with his own Moses stick. Former President Bush, the Pope, and Roger Staubach are also proud owners of the Moses stick. It was a really neat night for our family, and while we will miss FGC I am also excited about the next chapter in our lives.

Carter and Eric have a special connection. Eric plays the harmonica beautifully and is so patient with Carter and all of his harmonica questions. The two of them walked hand in hand to the reception on Friday night. Pretty sweet stuff.

Vacation

As it turns out, I seem to have a natural talent for being on vacation. I have loved having two weeks of down time to just be a mom and rest. I have read five books (without pop up windows, illustrations or rhymes), cleaned out my junk drawer, had some fun play dates, and done lots of little odds and ends that I have been meaning to do for a while. I even got to see New Moon finally! Plus I have had hours of time to just soak up Carter and Evyn (and Mike). Life doesn't get much better than that! I know that Monday morning will be hard, but I am so blessed to get time off to enjoy the little things in life.

I loved this picture of my babies on Christmas morning.

We went bowling as a family and had a blast. Carter really enjoyed it. Mike makes it all look really easy and got like 8 strikes. I was miserably sore the next day- pathetic, I know, but managed to get two strikes. Carter used the ramp and the gutter blockers, but still showed some talent. He almost beat me anyway!

Evyn is becoming more and more of a girl. She is very into her babies and got a cool stroller for Christmas that she loves to push around. She feeds her babies bottles and hugs them tight. Precious, I tell you.

And this face just sort of sums up her little personality. She makes ma laugh. I can hardly wait to hear what she has to say once she starts talking.

Evyn has also recently discovered how to ride Rody. This toy has been a favorite of ours since Carter was tiny, so just for fun I thought I would post pictures of both of them riding Rody! Carter was about 17 months old in this picture, and Evyn is 14 months.