More of Carter...

Celebrations

We have celebrated so many birthdays in this house since May! Last night we celebrated Steven's 17th. It was fun because our 4 original guys were here for the evening.

This picture is funny because Steven has managed to get his arm or head in most other birthday pictures. You can see Fred and Seth getting him back in this picture...



Today Carter and I joined 3 other gals and babes at my friend Megan's house for a Fall lunch. I met Megan when Carter was 3 weeks old and her daughter Allie was 5 weeks old.

Here are Carter and Allie in their costumes...

I'll have to post a better picture of Carter later. The other kids loved touching his costume. He got to the point where he would just throw himself on the ground and scream when they came near.

This is how we rock our baby to sleep...

Carter loves the long board. We brought him back downstairs tonight after he was still awake an hour and a half after we put him to bed. He came over to me in the living room and tapped me on the shoulder a couple minutes later. When I looked over he was pointing at the long board in the entry way. Dan put it on the floor for Carter to play with and we ended up pushing him back and forth between us. After a while he laid on it like a surf board and pushed himself with his feet.

After that Dan stood him up on it and he rode the board all by himself!!

He may look like a Swanson... but he definitely has some of that Reeve daredevil in him.

New Shoes!

Sporting his new (well... new to us) Converse. I love shoes!!

Evenings in our house always involve some sort of excitement. For those of you who don't know a lot about where we live... there is a Joe's Place link on the right side of this page.

We have room for 4 high school boys to live in this house. We started out the school year with 4... but 2 have recently moved out. That means that our two remaining guys each have their own bedroom and bathroom. The spots probably won't be filled for a couple months... but the guys already want to know who is going to have to share their room first. Steven says that Seth has had his own room longer and Seth says that since he was our first guy to move in that he has paved the way for others... meaning that he deserves to keep his own room. We decided to settle the issue last night.

We started with a 3 part Mario Cart challenge. I picked the characters, cars, and races. Seth won that round. Next up was a Football video game which Steven won by two points. We had decided earlier in the night at dinner that I would choose the remaining challenge to settle the score. I decided on a time trial that started with push ups on the main floor, a race to the basement for a different exercise, back up to the kitchen for jumping jacks and then ending with flushing the toilet. My good friend Amanda is staying with me while Dan is gone. She monitored the basement while I monitored the main floor. I think you'll be able to tell by the series of pictures who gets to keep their room.

We just said goodbye to Dan again for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. He's off on a school trip with the 7th graders for a couple days. He called before the buses pulled out this morning and asked us to come down. I love it that the entire 7th grade class and teachers have now seen me in sweats and without makeup on. Oh well. Carter got to run around the gym in his pj's for a bit and then we waved the bus off. It was fun because Fred (who moved out a week ago) happened to walk in the gym while we were there. He laughed when he saw Carter and said he told me that those pj's were going to be too big. It was pretty funny.

Here is Carter this morning:


To change subjects... the pumpkin address is back.
I guess I skipped it last year because we were getting ready to move. I didn't carve out the insides this year because I'm hoping it will help them last longer than a week. Dan was hurt because I demoted him to JV carver when he accidentally carved outside the lines. Here's how it turned out:



I guess I should go get us ready for the day now...

We finally made it out to the pumpkin patch today. Our good friends, Amanda and Joe, joined us. The 83 degree temperatures weren't what we were hoping for... but it was still a lot of fun. Carter spent most of the time running... hopefully that means good sleeping for him tonight.

"Helping" bring in the groceries from the car this afternoon...

Sometimes I forget how well the guys know Carter. Today I bought him a new pair of pj's at Target. He's in this weird in between phase. He's not quite ready for the 12-18 month sizes... but the 9-12 month are now too small. Anyways... I thought they were cute so I was showing them to the guys when they got home from school. Fred, Seth, and Steven were all telling me that they were going to be way too big. I told them that they would totally fit. Well... the guys were right. Tonight I had to roll up the arms and the legs and the middle section sagged almost down to his knees. Maybe I need to take them shopping with me.

Erica and Lexie headed back to California on Monday. Our visits are just never long enough. I hate that we live so far away from family. We shopped and shopped and enjoyed really good pumpkin ale and conversation on the front porch. There's nothing like quality time with your twin sister.

Lexie was very helpful with Carter. Here they are at snack time:

Showing Carter where the puzzle pieces go:

She was a huge part of bedtime routine. We actually think he missed her on Monday night because he refused to go to bed.

Anyone who walks through the doors of the house is challenged to Mario Cart. We actually spent a lot of time playing with the guys and by ourselves when they were at school. It is so addicting.

We hit the Science Center on Monday before they left. Here is Lexie clocking the speed of cars on the highway:

Watching the cars below:

In the computer graphics room:

Erica bumping her head... you know I had to put it up :).

Lexie's head on a table:

We miss you guys already and can't wait to see you in January!!

A trip to St. Louis just isn't complete without a trip to Grant's Farm...

Erica and Lexie are in town hanging out with me while Dan is gone. I know this is probably a horrible picture to put up of the first day of our visit... but it really was funny. Lexie kept begging Erica to swing her high enough to hit the house.

Happy 16th Birthday, Seth

Little boy on a big stool...

Every year around this time we head to a local pumpkin patch and apple orchard in IL. The last two years we have gone with the Brouwer and Manor families. It has become a fun tradition that we look forward to. We usually end up sitting in the apple orchards for a good amount of the time talking, eating apples, and watching the guys hit rotten apples into the pond across the street. We were set to go today (minus Scotty and Rebecca who moved to Scotland recently:() but had to cancel this morning because Dan got sick. Carter and I decided to join the Brouwer's for a trip to the Zoo instead. It didn't take us long to realize that it would have been a pretty miserable day for the pumpkin patch with our 90 degree temperatures. I am so sick of this weather!

I loved this picture of Micah excitedly telling me about the penguins.

Feeding the ducks in the pond... Carter ate the bread while Micah and Chloe actually threw it to the ducks.

Carter this morning. He has finally figured out how to climb up on the chairs. He knows he's not supposed to be up by the computer.

Faces

Poor Carter today... the nurse says he either had an allergic reaction to something or has some sort of virus. Whatever it is hasn't affected his energy level at all.

Seth after the Junior classes Blue Man skit at school today.

Spirit Week 2007

It's homecoming week here in Maplewood. Here are the guys last night trying on today's toga costumes. Each day is a different theme. The class with the most points by Friday wins. Go Juniors!!!



I also had to post this pic of Steven. He was trying to figure out his costume for Las Vegas day. I just about lost it when I saw him in one of my favorite white winter coats. You can't live in this house and not laugh.