Carter got to see Santa for the first time today. We met some friends out at the Oakland House for a story, puppet show, cookies and a chance to sit with Santa. Carter did okay. We had a little issue during the puppet show and during our visit with Santa... but other than that it was fun and much better than waiting in a line at the mall.

Manna and Carter this morning... boy do these two love their pacis. Manna's mom and I actually switched colors the last time we bought pacis so that Manna has all the red ones and Carter has the blue ones.



"Cheers!" Carter does cheers with everything now. Manna wasn't a huge fan of it though.

There are days each week where Carter and I are stuck at home. He goes down for his nap around noon and doesn't wake up until about 3:30pm. Since either Dan or I have to be here from 3:30pm on (and Dan is gone some days until 8pm) we are limited to finding things to do on the three floors of this house. That may sound big to you... but when you can't leave for 8 hour stretches (and you have a high energy one year old) it starts to feel pretty confining. This is our latest game that can fill up anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of our day.

Was Thanksgiving really less than a week ago? Sometimes I feel like someone pushed the fast forward button on our lives. Living here has really made me a different person. You just have to learn to go with the flow. Like yesterday when the school nurse (who I've gotten to know quite well over the past year) called at 2:00pm to say that Steven needed to go to the ER (he sprained his ankle pretty bad in gym class). Carter had just fallen asleep for his nap after an hour of talking and crying in his crib. Fortunately the school Therapist was here at the time so I could go pick Steven up from school. Dan was then able to get someone to cover for his last class so he could take him to the hospital. The ER visits are never short and Dan had to be at a class at 5pm. Thankfully our Pastor was able to go sit with him for several hours and then bring him home. Here he is last night...


The bummer thing is that today is the day that we scheduled our 1st time Joe's Olympics. Steven was a good sport about it and was able to compete in almost every event. The first event was a scavenger hunt at the mall. Dan and I tied for first in that. Second event was the stairway hang:





Seth dominated that event.

The 3rd event was a Mario Cart challenge...

Seth also won that event... but not by much.

The last event was a basketball throw out the kitchen window. You got 1 point if you hit the backboard, 2 points if you hit the rim and 3 points if you made a basket.




Dan won the basketball round which put him into first place for the gold medal.


It was really fun. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the bronze.

Christmas 2007

3 High School Boys + Christmas Decorations = CRAZY!!!

We really did have a good time last night... but today Dan and I are EXHAUSTED!!

A Texas Thanksgiving

The Stroller

I have a ton of great Thanksgiving pictures... but I've been meaning to do this post for a while... so I thought I would do it first.

Ever since I first found out I was pregnant with Carter I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do about a stroller. I knew I didn't want one that was too big since we had a really small car at the time. I wanted one that would recline, but I also wanted a jogger. I didn't know what to do. We finally ended up with a stroller frame to click his car seat into when he was a baby. I also got a small umbrella stroller at one of my showers, a friend gave me a used heavy duty umbrella stroller, another friend gave me her big reclining stroller and another friend is letting us borrow her jogging stroller. They are all ok... but not what I have been looking for. I started to look around for used Maclarens because they are awesome but a bit out of our price range. I also really like Peg Peregos... but these are about 10 times out of our price range.

My friend Julie is great at finding deals. A couple months ago she called and told me about a used Peg on Craig's List. I was able to get it for $15.00. It wasn't in great condition... but was pretty close to what I was looking for. The Pegs have a step on the back that older kids can ride on. My 7 year old niece, Lexie, rode all over the zoo on the step. Anyways... a couple weeks ago I was at a consignment shop when I saw it! A Peg that looked brand new for $45.00. I was able to trade my current Peg in and get the new one for $30.00!! It's around $400.00 if you buy it brand new.

It comes with a boot that zips around the front of the stroller for the cold weather. I took this after church this morning. We walked there in the almost freezing rain because we couldn't handle being in the car again after 18 hours of traveling the past 4 days.



The handle flips around so you can walk with your baby facing you or facing forward.




Ok... now I wrote way more than I meant to... but I was just really excited.

We're not so happy about the new haircut. In my instructions to the hair dresser all I emphasized was that I wanted it long on top. Does that look like it's long on top to you?

A word to the wise... teaching body parts to a one year old can be very dangerous. After each receiving a bloody nose in the last two days - we've decided to stop asking Carter where Mommy and Daddy's noses are.

Just another night at Joe's...

All I have to say today is thank goodness for Lysol wipes. I know they are one of those things that are super wasteful... but I just don't know if I could do it without them. Today in my house I had one school district superintendent, one potential donor, one city inspector, one head of school facilities, one school therapist, the two people who used to live here, the five people who do live here, and 16 people from our small group at church. Again... thank goodness for Lysol wipes.

Dan's school district did not get the day off today... so Dan decided to take a personal day. It was so great to have him all to ourselves for one whole day. We took advantage of our 70 degree temperatures this morning and went to Tilles Park.