Carter's Dedication

I am not sure if I mentioned this on the blog or not, but back in November we joined a church. We visited off and on for several months before setting up a meeting with the pastor to confirm we were ready to join. Since then we have found a Sunday School class that we are really enjoying - both for the fellowship and for the lessons, Carter is loving the nursery, and we are feeling a part of a church community again.

Shortly after we joined Carter was dedicated. It was a very special service for us and even though our family was not able to be here in person, our church streams their service live on the web so most of Carter's grandparents were able to watch the dedication service live. Pretty cool, huh?

Carter received a small Bible with Psalms and the New Testament. Just this last week we received pictures from the service.



Just before we walked in for the dedication, Carter was making really loud choo choo noises and crawling up and down some stairs. But he mellowed out pretty quickly once he was in front of the congregation.

Carter even let our pastor take him for a stroll up the center aisle so everyone could get a good look. Carter wasn't so sure about that part and eventually asked for Da Da, but all in all he did great.



Here is the verse we chose for his dedication:

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17

Transient Synovitus

A diagnosis I had never heard until I started googling some Carter symptoms last night and then I heard it again at the Pediatrician's office this morning. Before I say anymore let me assure you that we think everything is fine - but we did have a bit of a scare last night.

Shortly after Adam got home from work last night he asked me if Carter had been having any trouble walking. I had not noticed anything unusual but Adam asked me to come take a look and I saw Carter take a couple of steps and then basically fall to the ground. He got up and tried again and then fell again. It was as if his knees were buckling underneath him. Adam and Carter usually play ball around the house every night while I am getting dinner ready so it was so tough to see Carter want to chase the ball but not be able to. We encouraged him to scoot or crawl so he wouldn't fall so often.

We thought that perhaps he bumped his leg while when we didn't see him or that his leg had fallen asleep or something explainable like that. So we went ahead and put him in the high chair for dinner and were hoping he would be running around like normal after dinner.

But, as soon as he got down he started stumbling again. It wasn't as bad as before dinner but he still wasn't walking normally. Plus, he seemed to be favoring his left leg. The strangest part about all of this is that Carter's demeanor was perfectly normal. He did not seem to be in any pain. We took off his socks, shoes, pants and looked for bruises or swelling. Nothing. We tried pressing on different joints and muscles to see if he pulled away. Nothing. I even changed his diaper and really moved his legs, knees, and hips around. He was super loose and relaxed and did not fuss at all.

Still, this was very unusual so we decided to call the doctor and they asked us to bring him in this morning. At the appointment they had Carter walk up and down the hall then the Dr. examined his joints and hips. Carter was walking better this morning - not falling - but I still don't think it was 100% normal. She mentioned that he probably had a virus called Transient Synovitus. It sounds like a cold that affects your hip joints. Carter's hip joints are probably a little inflamed right now due to the virus which was affecting his walking ability. If this diagnosis is correct, she expects we have seen the worst of it and it should clear up on its own in the next couple of days.

So far today has been good. He has been walking, running, acting like his normal cheerful self without any complications. I am hopeful this diagnosis is correct and that the worst is behind us.

Have any of you heard of this? Know anyone that has had this?

Order Cabinets - Check

Before I start this post - I wanted to take a minute and ask for you to pray for a little boy named Wyatt. Our contractor found out last Monday that his youngest has Leukemia. Wyatt will turn 3 in March and started his first round of chemo last week. Please remember this sweet little boy and his family in your prayers.
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After 4 tedious meetings with a wonderful kitchen cabinet specialist at Lowes we finally ordered our cabinets last night! Demo day has been set for March 5th so hopefully the cabinets will get here soon enough that we won't be living without a kitchen and without new cabinets to install for too long.

I am hoping that the cabinet process is the most tedious of the renovation process because boy was it tough to make so many decisions. We started by going to both Lowes and Home Depot and jotting down all of the door styles that we liked from the different cabinet makers. You might remember from this post that we already had a specific style in mind so this list only included 1 maybe 2 doorstyles from each company. Once we had that list we began asking questions. We visited multiple Lowes and Home Depots because truthfully it just depends on who is working when you visit as to the quality of information you get. We ended up settling on Kraftmaid for several reasons. First, both people at Lowes and our friends told us it was a good quality cabinet for the money. Plus it offered a good bit of flexibility with their cabinets and drawers being offered in 3" increments. Third, we could get the door style we wanted with the paint finish we wanted.

Once that decision was made we set up a meeting with a design specialist. I was lucky enough to meet Donna one Sunday afternoon and she was fantastic. She squeezed me in to her very busy day and helped us come up with Design #1. Four designs later we had our final project at the total was $750 under budget. Very exciting.

I have attached several pictures below to show our before cabinet pictures and sketches of what the new cabinets will look like. I am guessing there is only a handful of you out there that are interested in all of this, so I hope you enjoy!

Let's start with the before pictures...









We knew when we purchased this house almost 2 years ago that we wanted to redo the kitchen. So here we are about to take the plunge. I think the dated kitchen is a big part of the reason this house didn't sell right away when we purchased it. The appliances are all from the 80's and the cabinets older. We are hoping this renovation will add a lot of value as well as enjoyment for us!

So, here is the layout of the final cabinet design...







This is the cabinet style and color...



We spent lots of time evaluating every cabinet size, function, location, etc. Perhaps the biggest decision was the island. Our current island is 50" wide and 24" deep - which is as deep as we can go based on the recommended 36" between the island and countertop for traffic, doors, etc. I really wanted this to have good, enclosed storage for pots, pans, tupperware, and all of that stuff that can get tangled up in deep shelves without any pull out mechanisms. We went from drawers to doors to drawers then back to doors again. At one point we had heavy duty pull out drawers for pots and pans on one side but standard pull out drawers on the other side for lighter stuff. You can see from the above picture that we ended up with doors and with pull out shelves on only one side. We figured that with the island only being 18" deep that there would only be room for one row of skillets and pots so we didn't need to pull out those shelves which ended up saving a lot of money.

Overall we are very pleased with the final design and think it is going to give us much needed cabinet space which will clear up our counters and give us much more working space.

Next up - appliances, countertops, and backsplash...stay tuned.

Oh, and here is one cute Carter picture for those of you that made it all the way to the end.

Is It Spring Yet?

Snow is still covering our garden boxes, but I’m thinking about the hot July sun beating down on tomatoes and okra plants. As part of my birthday gift, Tracy sent me to the Botanical Garden for an Organic Gardening course (for you Auburn grads, there was no Pop Quiz Man involved). So now I’m itching to till that snow into the soil and get started with some spring veggies.

The gardening course was led by Amy from Amy’s Gardens, the farm behind the Tomatoes and Jazz event. I got lots of good information on dirt and bugs and other fun stuff.

There's lot to do, of course. Gotta plot everything out, start some seeds, amend the soil, figure out how to run a soaker hose from a rain barrel, and purchase a Carter-sized watering can. But we can't wait. We'll keep you posted on the progress.

Stickers, Sprinkles, and Steaks

First, a belated Happy Valentine's Day to each of you. I had a wonderful day with my 2 valentines. We headed to church yesterday morning, had a good lunch at a new favorite, Bandito Burrito (finally - somewhere other than Chipotle that Adam can get his burrito fix!), then we spent the afternoon at Lowe's and Home Depot cabinet and appliance shopping. Sounds romantic, huh? When we finally got home, Carter helped make some cupcakes for our neighbors then Adam fixed me a yummy dinner. It was a great day and a treat to spend it with the loves of my life!

Before Valentine's arrived, Carter decided he wanted to send some cards to his grandparents and favorite cousins. We have been taking an art class at Romp n Roll this year which has opened up all sort of fun crafts. We usually paint something every week - which is great - because all of the painting mess stays at Romp n Roll and not on my couch or floor. But there have been a couple of other activities that have been safe to recreate at home. One of them being stickers! At one of the classes they just had a blank sheet of paper and lots of different stickers. Carter was entertained for 20 minutes plus. So we got a couple of sheets of heart stickers at the dollar store and Carter created these special valentines...



Who knew playing with stickers could be so much fun. He loves taking them off of the paper just as much as he likes putting them on the paper, but I tried to remove these cards out of sight before he un-stickered them.

Next up in Valentine's fun - cupcakes. Here are a few pictures from the decorating process. (and there are even more in the February album on the left)







We delivered most of the cupcakes to our neighbors but ended up keeping a few for ourselves - including one for Carter. Here he is enjoying his Valentine dinner dessert.



I think he likes it.



He surely doesn't open his mouth this wide when I try to feed him his peas.





Once Carter was down Adam fixed me the most delicious steak. Really, I ate every bite of my steak before I tried anything else on my plate - it was that good. Seasoned just right, seared perfectly, and the temperature perfect.

Happy Valentine's!

Deja Vu

Check out what Adam got to do again this morning?



The snow started coming down early this morning and it stuck fast. I am guess we ended up with 3-4". This is the 4th time in less than 2 months that we have shoveled our walkway and dug our cars out of the snow. I am not really complaining about it - just surprised.

This snow was pretty wet too so it stuck to the trees very quickly.



We are becoming quite the snow conisseurs. The powdery stuff is not near as pretty as the wet stuff. But the wet stuff is much heavier and can cause more damage so I guess that is the trade off. Still - snow is snow - and snow is pretty. (Until it slides from the roof and tears off your gutter. Bad snow!)

Carter and I had some more indoor playtime and he was all smiles this morning. He even said "cheese" for this shot.



He has also started to really enjoy playing upstairs. We recently removed the baby gate fromt the bottom of the stairs. Mostly because I was annoyed at having to open and close the gate every time we go up or down. So we decided to take it down to see what Carter would do. At first he didn't realize that he could climb up whenever he wanted, but that realization has set in and if it gets quiet quickly I can guarantee that he is on his way up.



He has gotten pretty good at scooting down the stairs or at walking as long as he holds on to the slats on his way down, but we still prefer to be right there with him whenever he is on the stairs. I am hoping this new found interest in taking off up the stairs will pass quickly and we can leave the gate in the basement...we will see.

All Cooped Up

A few pictures from our last snow weekend indoors...

We played a little bit of dress up with Mama's sweatshirt and some giant tiger slippers.





We played chase around the house and you have to be holding the ball to be chased. Makes for some pretty entertaining chasing when the ball is almost Carter size.



Oh, and Adam did a little bit of work to dig our cars out of the snow once again.



Another storm is headed our way tomorrow but I think we are going to escape the worst of it.

The Break-Up

I have had a thing for snow ever since we moved to Virginia. Growing up farther south we could expect snow about once every seven years - if we were lucky. So I was thrilled that there would be a good chance that we get snow multiple times a year. And we did get snow - never as much as I wanted - but it was definitely more frequent than every seven years so I was happy.

However, last weekend snow crossed the line. Take a look.



That is our front first floor gutter laying on the ground.

A lot of houses in the neighborhood have snow guards on their roofs to prevent snow sliding off of your roof in sheets. You can guess that our roof does not have these snow guards. We first experienced this snow sliding with the storm in December. The first chunk slid off and I could have sworn a tree had fallen on the house. It was loud. Really loud. Then it happened again. And again. It took about an hour for it all to hit the ground and boy was I glad when it was over. Except it made a dent in our first floor gutter.

But that was nothing compared to last weekend's storm. This time the snow started falling at ten o'clock at night. Mimi had already headed up for bed and Carter was sleeping soundly. Again, the first chunk sounded terrible. Then there was another. And another. Then I could see a piece of our gutter hanging down through our living room windows. Not a good sign. With each piece that fell the gutter dipped a little bit more. I sent Adam out in the cold to see how much snow was left to fall. Not too long after he got outside, the final sheet came sliding down and took our gutter with it. Sigh. Bad Snow.

With the forecast calling for more snow this weekend, and possibly Tuesday, and again next weekend we are going to wait to get it fixed for a week or two. No sense putting it back up to have it pulled down again.

So, my thing for snow is over. At least for now. Knowing me I will get giddy the first time snow is mentioned in the forecast next year.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Before we get the 5-8" of snow predicted for this weekend, I thought I should take a minute and post some pictures from last weekend's 12" of snow. Here is a shot of our street on Sunday morning when Adam and I went out to explore.



Mimi was in town last weekend - she volunteered to come keep Carter for the weekend so Adam and I could getaway for a weekend birthday celebration in DC. Based on the forecast we decided to cancel our travel plans and stay put. But, we did take Mimi up on her offer to watch Carter so we could go play.



This is the entrance to our neighborhood.



And this is the major intersection just outside of the arch. It was pretty deserted and pretty covered.



Our neighborhood streets were like this for several days. We live on a one way street so it is really too small to plow, but the city did come by Wednesday and Thursday and lay some salt/sand mixture just in time to clear the roads for the next storm.



Adam made his first snow angel.



And then we tromped over to our nearby park that we thought had some good sledding hills. We grabbed a couple of trash can lids (our best sled on hand) and headed out to find this:





There were probably a couple of hundred kids there sledding in much more high tech sleds than our trash can lids. Adam took a couple of running starts down the hill and would stop after 10 feet. Other kids zoomed right past him as he stood up, grabbed his lid, and walked back to the top of the hill. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Even though we weren't able to get out of town for the weekend it was a treat to be able to play in the snow and explore our neighborhood while Mimi kept Carter safe, warm, and thoroughly entertained at home. Thanks Mimi for our weekend getaway at home.

As I said at the beginning of this post, we are due for some more snow. Check out the view from our back door as I write...

The Big 3-0

I was very happy to welcome Adam this morning to his 30's. Carter wanted to wish him a happy birthday at 2:30 this morning but I convinced him to wait until the sun was up. We had a small birthday celebration before Adam went to work complete with Carter ripping tissue paper into lots of little pieces.



We are taking him out to lunch to celebrate at the restaurant of his choice - Chipotle, of course. I attempted to make a triple layer Italian Cream Cake last night. I was going to post a picture, but it appears the cake shifted a bit overnight and is leaning against the cake cover so I am going to leave it just like that until it is time to enjoy it! May not be the prettiest cake, but I am hoping it will be tasty.

Carter and I are so thankful for our dada and husband. He takes such good care of us and is just so much fun to be with. He works so hard to provide for us but also works late at night from home so he can come home every day at at normal time to have dinner as a family and spend time with us. Carter especially loves playing ball with DaDa when he gets home every day.



Adam, I hope you know how much we love you and how much we appreciate all you do for us. We hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Love, T&C