Sarah tagged me with the 8 things you may not know about me... so here it goes.

1. Since living in the great state of MO I have become a huge Cardinals fan.

2. A couple weeks ago I went from driving a tiny Jetta to an 8 passanger SUV that comfortably fits 4 teenage boys, a huge car seat, and a bunch of baby stuff.

3. Dan and I started our 6 week vacation TODAY!!!!!

4. The only time I have ever watched Soap Operas was when I was paid to run the commercials breaks at a CBS station in Northern California.

5. I think most people already know this... but I always love to say that I am a twin.

6. One of the first times Dan and I hung out was when he asked me to "help" him bake cookies for a college assignment. I later found out that he is an amazing cook and was extremely embarrassed.

7. My Gulf Drive friends will appreciate this one... a couple years ago a fellow Seminary wife and myself bought a baby duck at a farmer's market. We planned to raise it as a pet for our "U." Lets just say our husbands weren't too happy and the duck ended up at a farm.

8. I worked several tree jobs with Dan when he had his tree service here in St. Louis. I have cut down a tree, put brush through a chipper, and hauled a ton of branches!

Carter at 1 Year

Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Boy!

I can't believe Carter turned 1 today. This year has gone by too quickly. We celebrated by opening a few presents with the guys tonight and having a little carrot cake.

Not sure about the cake...

...so he decided to share with Seth.

Without family in town we have to rely a lot on technology. Cousins Caleb and Gracie sang him a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday over the phone...

Grammy and Papa listened in while he opened gifts... and later Nana and Papa were able to watch him eat some cake via the web cam.

We brought Carter home from the hospital in a onesie from our favorite brewery (Schlafly) here in St. Louis. I wanted to get him another one to wear on his first birthday... but they were all out when I went to get one. Fortunately... our little guy is so small that he still fit into the one from a year ago!

Dan and I always think back to a year ago and realize that we never in our wildest dreams would have seen ourselves where we are now. I try not to think back too hard because then I remember how many days I was in the hospital before Carter was finally born. My Mom actually bought Dan a Father's Day card last year thinking we would have celebrated his first last year instead of this year. All that to say that his Father's Day was different than we would have thought... but so much fun.

Anyways... the real story I'm getting to is about this long board that Dan has had FOREVER!! He bought it in college when he was living in the "crack house" with his good friends Rob and Luke. If I have the story right it was actually Luke's cousin who made the board out of Russian Beach. Dan's not really sure what happened to the wheels and bearings, but they have not been on the board since I have known him. My sister, Erica, got him some wheels for Christmas which have been sitting in one of our night stands. A couple months ago Seth saw the board sitting in our garage and mentioned to me that he used to fix skate boards. He snuck it out of the house on Friday and had it back for Father's Day on Sunday looking brand new. Dan was so excited.

Dan and Seth

Taking it for a spin

Dan and Carter... and yes they are going down a hill at a pretty good speed. I think I need to get Carter a helmet this week.

Last night Dan and Seth took the board to a parking lot to ride it down some hills. I was in the living room watching TV until Jose' and Steven talked me into going outside to take some pictures of them "dunking" on each other. Before we went in they lowered the rim so I could actually dunk. Pretty nice!!

Happy 18th Jose'!


I thought that was a classic picture!

I also wanted to say a huge thanks to my dear friend, Amanda. It is hard for Dan and I to get out much... let alone at the same time. Amanda has spent hours with Carter so that Dan and I can have some breaks. Anyways... we wanted to take all the guys out to dinner tonight to celebrate with Jose'. Earlier this week I was thinking that we would just take Carter along... even though it was after his bedtime and would have been really difficult. But... thanks to Amanda (again) we were able to have a really fun and memorable night out with the guys. Yesterday I got a voice mail from Amanda to Carter asking if she could come and hang out with him tonight (of all the nights we really needed it!!). I thought I was going to cry. Thanks for being such a huge part of our family Amanda!

We are still trying to learn the concept of sitting and rocking instead of standing and rocking.


Jose' rinsing the dishes and Carter after dinner tonight.

Sometimes I just don't get the point of trying to wind down before Carter's bedtime. We do all the classic bedtime things... like giving him a bath, reading a book, turning down the lights, and turning on soothing music. It just doesn't work! Last night I finally just set him on the floor of his room and let him do his thing. He was cracking me up... so I ran I got my camera.

Just imagine him crawling at lightning speed between each shot. First he had to check out the humidifier...

then some toys...

then open and close the door...

then check out the humidifier again...

then back to the door...

then behind the chair...

and finally... look out the window.

I guess he's just at a really curious stage right now.

Another ER visit...

I am getting more and more sentimental as Carter's 1st birthday approaches. The other day I was looking back through our pictures from a year ago and found a photo of his little nursery. It was so fun to pick out all the furniture and bedding and put it together as we waited for his arrival.

I remember my friend Mia gently explaining to me that it wouldn't take long for our beautiful crib (along with any other type of furniture) to become a chew toy. Here is a current picture. We did put a plastic strip on it that lasted about 1 week.

Anyways... here is a picture of our poor boy yesterday morning. I had to take him to the ER at 2:30am Wednesday because he was having trouble breathing. I took him back to the doctor this morning because I thought he had an ear infection. She said he was doing fine except for the fact that one more tooth has come in and another is on it's way. I feel horrible that I didn't even notice. That explains the crib and the next two pictures of him trying to bite an end table, Dan's toe, and then his finger. Thankfully (after a dose of Tylenol) our sweet boy is asleep for the night.

I thought I would post a few more pictures of Carter walking (he really figured it out today). It's been so fun to have the guys here in the house for all of his changes. They left a week ago Friday and then came back on Sunday to him taking steps. He wasn't even sitting up on his own when Seth arrived in January. Today Fred and I were trying to bribe him with food so he would walk between the two of us.



Here is a good pic of his new trim...


I also wanted to show some pictures of our basement. When we moved in it was a two car garage with a storage room. Now it has a rec. room, office, bathroom, study room and storage closet. The contractor finishing the room has been working all alone for the past two months (7 days a week) for free! It has been amazing to see how people have given of their time to make this place possible. He has a little work left to do... but we are finally able to use the space. It has been so nice... especially since our 4th guy moved in on Sunday.

Check out the built in lockers. The sink cabinet is an antique that used to be in one of the High School science rooms.

Yesterday afternoon our Pastor (Andrew) stopped by for a little chat. Carter was playing on the floor and pulling up on things like he normally does while we talked. I glanced over to check on him and he was taking steps! It is so crazy... he was crawling yesterday morning and then last night he was walking across the room! Andrew joked that he probably sensed the spiritual connection from when he was baptized and that's why he decided to start walking when Andrew was there. Here are a couple pics from this morning. Now Carter's pj's won't get so dirty!! :)