HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SQUISHY!!!

We cannot believe that a year has already passed. You have made our lives so happy and fun! We love you sweetheart, more than you could ever imagine!!!

Carterisms

In between his temper-tantrums and completely unpredictable mood swings, Carter is one of the neatest kids I have ever met. Dan and I were talking about some of the cute things he says and does, and I wanted to make sure we didn't forget how fun he is.

• If I pick-up something that I have previously deemed as "Daddy's", I am immediately called on it by him. "No, no Mommy, that's Daddy's put that down" (as he takes away the item and places it back from where I originally picked it up).
• Today while at the mall, I told him we were going to go into the KB Toy store to pick out a special present for going poo-poo on the potty. He followed me half-way into the store and then turned his body and said, "Okay, look. Mommy, you go and pick it out. I'm going to go over here and watch the train. Okay?". The funny part was the way he negotiated everyone's proper places by pointing and using body language. He might be a lawyer one day. A good lawyer though. :)
  
• When we go into someone's home or into a store, Carter is always quick to remind me, "Mommy, don't touch! That's not ours. Don't touch, okay?".
  

Vroom, Vroom

New Hope Valley Railway

We were able to go for a ride on the steam train located in New Hill, NC at the New Hope Valley Railway a few weekends ago. Carter is completely obsessed with trains, but fun was had by all of us. Even Camden enjoyed it. The weather was beautiful. It was just a perfect day!

Visit to Nanna and Papa's House

The boys and I traveled to my parents' house in the mountains of east Tennessee right before Halloween. While we were there, my sister Heather and her son Gabrielle came for a visit. It was a full house, but still lots of fun!

Papa set up his choo-choo train for the boys to enjoy.

The two little monkeys!

Mom putting the Ergo to good use.

My brother David and his friend Kaitlin.

Do you think we should take him to the dentist?

The boys "fighting" over the Lightning McQueen bed that Nanna had for Carter.
They loved it!

Camden won! This round at least...

Ahhhhhhhhhh, So Nice

I am loving life right now for a few reasons. First, we got our carpets cleaned yesterday. I mean REALLY cleaned. The guys that came from G&J Carpet Cleaners were serious carpet cleaners. They made me quickly realize that the last guy that came to clean our carpets was just doing so as a hobby on the side. The guys at G&J meant business. They came in and moved all of our furniture and left the corners of everything (including changing tables and train tables) up on Styrofoam blocks. It was incredible. Our carpet, which is over ten years old by the way, actually looked NEW when they left. They even combed it with a special comb to fluff the fibers back up. They were here for quite a while and still charged under $200 for the whole house.

Second, Dan has a patient that cleans houses. He had her come to our house this morning to clean and boy did she clean. She showed up with four other people with ladders, mops, buckets, and they were here for four hours! And no, my house wasn't THAT nasty, they just cleaned THAT well. They cleaned my silverware drawers, the inside of the fridge, all of the appliances, light fixtures, windows, blinds, pictures... I mean there isn't a speck of dirt or dust in this whole house! It was kind of funny, before I even had time to get the boys' shoes on, one lady had her head in the oven already, and there were two ladies cleaning the upstairs windows. Ahhhhhh, it's so nice. Thank you Honey, you are the best! I feel like I can breathe again. I wish we could do this every month! Dan said maybe once a year. :)-