Thanksgiving Recap

Carter is asleep in the bathroom, Adam is working from our hotel room chair, and I am sitting on the bed watching a little tv and piddling on the internet. We are half way home and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed after being away for almost 2 weeks.

But, we had a great visit with lots of family and friends, and at the end of our trip I feel thankful...

...for family - watching Adam's and my parents delight in Carter, watching Carter hug his cousins multiple times each day, becoming a part of my sister-in-law's family for over a week and feeling right at home.
...for friends - catching up over a cup of coffee or having our children play together and feeling like we picked up right where we left off.
...for childhood memories including the lighting of the star over downtown homewood
...for full nights of sleep after a year of not sleeping through the night
...for my husband who has changed all of Carter's dirty diapers after we were apart for 9 days.
...for our son who likes to hug both of our necks at the same time every morning when he wakes up.
...for much, much, more, but enough of the sappy stuff...here are some fun pictures and new memories from our travels.

Even though Carter and I both missed Daddy, we had a great time playing with Carter's cousins. Last Tuesday we got to play with Robert on "Big Boy Day." Lucky Robert has Big Boy Day every Tuesday while his younger brother Jack is in school. For this Big Boy Day we went to Toys R Us and Robert's wish list for Santa grew with every aisle. I managed to pick up a few things off of Carter's wish list and now can't wait for Christmas morning to see him open his presents. Next we went to the mall and rode the carousel.



All of the animals had been changed to reindeer. The boys loved it. Finally, we took Robert to Moe's for lunch - a favorite!

There was lots of cousin wrestling - but what do you expect with 3 little boys?



We had a visit from Poppa and Nana over the weekend and they took all three boys out for a stroll. Jack and Carter got to relax in the stroller while Robert and Poppa rode bikes.



Granddaddy came over to visit everyday and Mimi came up over the weekend, but I failed to get any pictures. :( I guess we were just having too much fun!

We attempted several photo shoots of the 3 cousins...but Carter wasn't the most cooperative this visit.



We took a quick trip to visit my mom and Granddaddy for Thanksgiving Day.



And then headed back to Auburn territory to watch the big game. We had the cutest little Auburn fans around.



Carter and Jack napped through most of the game. But the rest of us, including Robert were jumping up and down as quietly as possible during the first quarter. What a game. I am so proud of my Auburn Tigers!!!

Looks like Carter might be ready to play some football sooner than we thought...



It was a wonderful couple of weeks and I am so glad we had the chance to visit with so many friends and family. We have another 5 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow...hopefully the traffic won't be as thick as today.

Just when I thought things couldn't go any better...

...I should have knocked on wood.

Even though Carter and I have traveled solo several times now by plane, I was still pretty nervous Monday night. We had a couple of new obstacles to overcome and I had this feeling that things could go wrong. For starters, Adam wasn't available to take us to the airport. So somehow I had to get a BIG suitcase, a carseat, a diaper bag, a stroller, and Carter to the check in counter. Sweet Adam arranged for a sky cap to come to my car after I parked and help us to the check-in counter. It worked great. The flight went well. Carter was supposed to be a lap baby, but we ended up with 2 seats so he enjoyed squirming around in his own seat, opening and closing the window shade, turning the overhead light on and off, and watching a DVD. (One of the best recent purchases we have made.) Once we got to the airport, the fun began again. I rented one of those luggage carts, loaded up the suitcase and carseat, and then began pushing the luggage cart and Carter's stroller. Whew. They only collided a couple of times. By the time I got to the car rental office Carter had fallen asleep in the stroller. I filled out all the paper work, then wheeled the luggage and Carter to the rental car bus to go borrow a car. The driver of the bus was an angel. It was raining in Atlanta and I wasn't real sure what I was going to do with Carter as I loaded everything in the car and put the car seat in. It takes me longer than it should to install the car seat, but I just like to make sure it is as secure as possible. The sweet bus driver pulled up right to my car and let Carter stay in the stroller on the bus while I got everything situated in the car. Fear number 2 averted. My final fear was the 2+ hour drive to Alabama. Carter can be a great car traveler and a terrible car traveler. Thankfully on Tuesday he chose the latter. All in all the travel day went as good as I could have imagined.

So why should I have knocked on wood? Because today, at the mall, when I was changing a very dirty diaper, and while my dad was patiently waiting in the food court, Carter decided to unleash the Carter fountain. Twice. He was soaked. I came out of the family restroom with a baby in socks, a diaper, and a jacket. I guess there are worse places for a baby to soil his clothes. I just strolled him as fast as possible to Belk's to buy a quick change of clothes. I am so thankful that this didn't happen at the airport because I forgot to pack a change of clothes in the diaper bag.

Sorry for the novel. The short story is that he traveled great!

Now we are in Alabama, with Carter's cousins and having a blast. We had a good visit from Poppa and Gramma on Wednesday. Granddaddy has visited several times and Mimi is on her way as I type.

We got to skype with Adam last night. After Carter told Da Da night night, Adam kept chatting with Robert. He played around with all of these fun special effects. I had tears I was laughing so hard. This was on of my favorites - pink Beret, a moustache, red hair, and some sunglasses, all while celebrating with a birthday background. Should have caught some of this on video. Really funny.

The boys are so cute in the morning in their pjs = I couldn't resist this picture. But Carter had other ideas...

Run Da Da Run

Carter and I are so proud of Adam for finishing his first half marathon. And not only did he finish - he ran the entire way (except for a quick stop to say "hi" to his fans) and he finished with an impressive time of 2:06:00.

Carter and I worked hard before the race to make these signs to cheer Adam on along the way.



The 2 signs below got the best responses. Carter was in his jogging stroller and I held the "Where is my pusher?" sign so the arrow was pointing to Carter in the stroller. It was fun to see the runners read the sign and then chuckle.

The picture poster was a hit too. Several people hollered out "Haven't seen him!"



The race pretty much circles our neighborhood so we didn't have to walk too far to find Adam. We made friends with other supporters on either side of us and when I said "There he is!" after I spotted Adam they started cheering for him too.

Adam stopped for just a minute to check out the signs and give Carter a kiss. Then Carter handed Da Da his sippy cup of water- pretty sweet huh?

As soon as Adam started running again we headed back to our house to the car so we could see Adam at the finish line. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, the race pretty much circles our neighborhood so a 15 minute drive downtown took close to 45. We pulled into a parking spot downtown at the exact same time I got a text message on my phone telling me Adam had crossed the finish line. Isn't technology the coolest?

Here are a couple of pictures from the finish line.



Da Da is showing Carter his medal.



After we got home and Adam got cleaned up, we headed back out with Carter in the stroller to cheer on the marathon runners. We saw our friend Janelle and her sister Katie.



Janelle has to be the happiest marathon runner at mile 22 that I could ever imagine. She and her husband Nick came over that night to watch some Auburn football and she was awake and full of energy throughout the entire game. Amazing. We also enjoyed a good visit from Matt and Lyndsay who drove down from DC to watch the game as well. They stayed with us last night and had the pleasure of hearing Carter just about every hour on the hour. Poor guy is battling new teeth, and little digestive issue, and some sort of fever bug.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Adam did fantastic and we were able to spend some good time with some good friends. Hope you all had enjoyable weekends too.

Go Adam Go!

Tomorrow is race day for Adam...

He is running a 1/2 marathon - his longest distance yet.

Carter and I hope to cheer him on at a few different locations...I will be back to tell you all about it later this weekend.

Feel free to leave any words of encouragment and I will be sure to shout them out to him as he is running.

When it Rains it Pours

This is our theme for the week - not by choice - but we're hanging in there.

First, you may remember a few weeks ago how I was bragging on Adam for leaving at 5:30 everyday to come home and spend time with Carter. Well, this week has been another tough work week for him. A really tough work week. Four big projects piled up at once and they all needed to be completed yesterday. He has been up past midnight every night this week and even put in a full day at the office this past weekend. I think he is down to just two of those projects and I am really hopeful for him that the other two are done and won't bubble back up like projects always seem to do. So, hang in there Adam. You are doing a great job and Carter and I appreciate every minute we get to spend with you.

The other downpour comes from Ida. It has been raining non-stop for close to 48 hours and the forecast is calling for another 1-2 inches tonight on top of the 4 inches we have already received - some of which is in our basement. When the water table gets saturated, water starts to seep through the cracks in our basement floor. Thankfully, we have a good drain in the basement and most of the water flows to the drain. Still, it makes me nervous as soon as I start to see the wet spots - especially when I know we still have inches of rain ahead of us. Here is what our basement looks like right now:



Does anybody see anything wrong with this picture?



You should not be able to see the reflection of your basement lights in your basement floor!

But, I think I know the culprit behind our soggy basement. We have lived here for one and a half years and have seen water in the basement 4 times. 2 of these times happened in the past month. We had another week full of rain just a couple of weeks ago. On Sunday morning, Adam ran down to the basement to get some socks out of the dryer and saw the water starting to come in. So, he stayed at home while Carter and I went to church and he re-organized the basement and got everything up off of the floor by a couple of inches. Who knew his reorganizing would come in handy so soon - thank you Adam!!!

But, back to the culprit. Earlier this fall when Poppa and Nana came up for a visit, they brought Adam's kayak which had been in storage at Poppa's house for the last 3 years.



So, I think this kayak is our soggy basement culprit and Adam, I think it is time for you to find some water to put this kayak in other than our basement!!!

quack, baa, moo, and a little beatbox

We took this video several weeks ago, but I just discovered it on my memory card...

Hope you enjoy and have a great week!

More Monkey Time

The pictures in this post are from over a month ago, but too cute not to share. Carter and I got to go to his cousin Jack's 2nd birthday party. The older that Carter and Jack get, the less the differences between them. Now that they are both walking Carter can follow Jack around the house and try to imitate whatever Jack does. Jack still has some speed on Carter, but it is fun to watch them play together. And it is good to watch them playing together, otherwise, their "playing" might end in some injuries. Thankfully Mimi was playing referee in this picture.



Jack's birthday party was a monkey theme and his mommy (Susan) found the cutest idea for cupcakes. Check out these adorable monkey faces!




After Susan baked the cupcakes (with help from Jack's big brother Robert) Warren and Mimi set up the icing assembly line while Susan and I applied the nilla wafer mouths, nutter butter ears, m&m eyes, and icing eyes and mouth. Pretty cute huh?



Here is a picture of the big birthday boy about to dive into his birthday cupcake.



Happy (very belated) Birthday Jack!

Curious Carter & Adam in a Yellow Hat

Carter had a great time "trick-or-treating" last night and today mommy and daddy are enjoying his loot. He even said his own version of "trick-or-treat" several times.



OK, truth be told, he was more interested in playing in the leaves than trick-or-treating, but we still had a good time and I think our neighbors enjoyed seeing him. Especially since we brought these treats as we trick-or-treated.



The recipe for the cupcakes came from Real Simple magazine - they are pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Yummy. Curious Carter delivered some of these to Adam's office on Friday...if only Adam would have dressed up Friday too.

There are a few more pictures in the October album on the left...Enjoy. And Happy Halloween!

Costume Note: For those of you a little confused by Adam's costume - he is the Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George's mentor and parental figure who thinks George can do no wrong. If you look at the rest of the pictures in the October album, you will see that I decided to dress up too. I knew there wasn't really a "woman in the yellow hat" but didn't want to miss out on all of the fun. Thanks, Nick and Janelle for the really cool and bright yellow DeWalt shirts!