Carter’s First Birthday Party

I’ve already discussed Carter’s birthday party before in a previous post.  I got the pictures from our photographer, Volree Wade, that was kind enough to photograph the party so that I wouldn’t have to worry about pictures!  Since I already discussed the details of the party in this post, I won’t rehash everything.  Instead, this will be just my favorite pictures.  She took over 100 and I love them all!!!!  But here’s some of my favorites from Carter’s “Winter WONEderland”.

Also, Volree did a GREAT slideshow!  You can see it here.

#51 and #100 - CHECK!

Number 51 on my 101 list was to pay off Justin’s jeep.  HUGE item to check off and a HUGE debt gone!  We paid off the remainder of his Jeep today.  If I still had my Acura, both of our cars would be paid off.  So we still have my Jeep to pay off but the goal is to have that paid off by the beginning of 2014.  No picture to go along with that one, sorry!

The more interesting one is number 100!  It was to go to a shooting range.  Justin and I finally went to Hoover Tactical Firearms yesterday to try out some guns.  Justin’s shot a gun before, but it was a long time ago.  I on the other hand have never even touched a gun.  People can say what they want about gun control and what happened in Newtown, CT, but I can tell you what it did for me.  It made me realize that my husband is gone all the time for work and it is frequently just me and Carter in this house.  If someone broke in I would have to defend my son be deadly force if necessary and right now, I don’t think a baseball bat would do the trick.  I told Justin I wanted to buy a gun for our house so that I would feel better.

Naturally, we had to know what kind of gun to buy, so we went to the shooting range to try some out.  We rented the Glock 19, 9mm handgun to try in the shooting range.  We got 10 rounds a piece.  Justin shot about 5 rounds before letting me take my turn.  I shot maybe 3 rounds and was officially terrified and told him I didn’t want to shoot anymore.  He shot a few more rounds but convinced me to give it a second try and then I shot what was left of our 20 bullets.  I was still terrified, but I was starting to feel more comfortable.

Us shooting the gun!

I hit the target all 10 times.  And that shot to the head and the two in the neck were mine too :)  Justin aimed for the heart (this picture was before we finished all 20 rounds).

We had to leave to go run errands because my mom had Carter and we were going to pick him up once he woke up from his nap so we only had so much time.  Well we ran our errands and my mom still hadn’t called yet so we decided to go back to the range to try a different gun.  This time we tried the Glock 34.  Still a 9mm, but the handle on the 34 is longer which allowed you to get a better grip.  This helped with the recoil (the kick).  I really liked it that time.  So we’re about to go buy one.  Not sure what exact gun we’ll get, but it will be a 9mm with a longer handle.  We also plan to get a gun safe (I would die if Carter ever got to our gun).  The one we intend to get only allows access through fingerprint of either me or Justin. 

I intend to go to the shooting range a couple of times a month to get in some practice to become more comfortable with shooting.  Like I said, I will absolutely defend my child with deadly force.  If you break into my house, you WILL get welcomed with my 9mm.  Just a head’s up :)

Carter - Twelve Months

12 months.  One Year.  I just can’t believe it.  We’ve said goodbye to the newborn and infant stage and are welcoming toddlerhood with open arms.   I can’t wait to watch Carter grow into the person he’s going to be.  The past year has been by far the best of my life because of this little guy (and has also been the quickest year of my life).  I can hardly remember him as a newborn these days!

Diapers

Still wearing 3’s.

Shoe Size

3 1/2 wide. He only has one pair of shoes and he wears them all the time. This is why I got brown shoes. They go with everything!

Clothes

There are still 9 month clothes that he wears, but he has just recently started wearing 12 month clothes.  They’re still a bit big on him, but they are wearable.  He got a lot of 12 month clothes for his birthday so we’re trying to start wearing those.  But there are still so many 9 month clothes that still fit too.  It appears, however, that he’s finally wearing his age!  He’s been behind his whole life and thanks to the growth spurt he’s going through right now (see below), we can finally wear the right clothes!

Feeding

Feedings will change once we go to his one year appointment.  We’ll switch from formula to whole milk (kinda dreading that because I’m not sure if he’ll like it or not) and he’ll begin to join us for our three meals a day with some snacks in between instead of him eating separately and more often.  I’m sure we’ll still puree some of his foods for a little bit (depends on what pediatrician tells us to do), but we’ll also begin making him actually eat a green bean instead of having it blended all the time.  We’ve tried to get him to eat string cheese, but he doesn’t like it.  We’re going to try shredded cheese to see if that’s any better.  He also started eating ham and loves it.  He will sometimes eat turkey sandwich meat, but he doesn’t really like the texture so it’s a 50/50 shot on whether he’ll eat it or just throw it.  He began eating bananas too.  He was hesitant at first because of the texture of it (I really don’t think he likes things that are sticky) but he loves them now.  Also worthy to note, he hit a growth spurt about a week before his birthday and it’s still ongoing.  He is eating everything in sight.  We’re just doing our best to try to make sure he’s not eating significant amounts of puffs or some snack related things like that.  If he wants to eat all day, it’s going to be fruits and veggies and protein!  Oh and we tried eggs for breakfast the morning of his birthday and he was NOT a fan.  I’m going to keep trying with that.   Lots of changes coming once we go to his appointment!

Sleep

Carter is still a 12 hour/night sleeper with two naps that last anywhere from 1.5-2 hours.  The only exception to this is the nap at MDO.  That nap is usually between 20-45 minutes.  In his 12th month, he must have had a growth spurt or something because he was sleeping ALL THE TIME.  His naps were over 2 hours each and he frequently had to be woken up in the morning as late as 9:15am!  This lasted about a week or two.  Then his naps got to where they were about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal hour and a half or more.  I am still reading the Babywise book series and am currently reading “Pretoddler-wise”.  That book talks about growth spurts and  how at his age, some pretoddlers decrease the time of the nap because they are hungry and their little bodies are ready for more table food and more calories than they had been getting as a baby.  We tested this theory and started giving Carter a mid-morning snack right before his first nap.  It’s working well so far.  His naps went back to being 1.5-2 hours in length. 

The only other thing notable regarding sleep is that his nighttime sleep routine changed about halfway through the month.  Carter used to eat his bottle while being read to and then after the bottle was gone, he would cuddle for about 5 minutes or so (unless dad was the one putting him down and they would play and tickle each other for 5 minutes) but then he would go in the crib.  He wouldn’t fall asleep immediately, but he would play with his stuffed animals for about 15-30 minutes and then would go to sleep.  But now he no longer does this.  He has gotten to where he throws his bottle away and then desperately wants to be put in the floor to play.  Of course we won’t allow that though.  Bed time is for sleeping, not a few extra minutes of playing with toys.  So instead of cuddling or playing with us, he cries because he wants to go to the floor to walk around.  Since we don’t let him do that, he goes straight to the crib and then he’ll cry when we leave the room for a good 5-10 minutes.  He has NEVER done this before.  I am HATING this!!

**UPDATE 12/30/12 - This stage ended already.  He still takes a bit to fall asleep, but he lets us cuddle and play with him a bit before bed again.**

Waketime

Waketimes consist of one thing and one thing only these days:  walking.  Carter loves to walk all over the house.  He frequently will stop to play with something but he is constantly testing how far he walks and what he can do while he’s walking (such as holding onto something without dropping it and walking at the same time).  He was so proud of himself the first time he was able to walk a few steps, stop, turn around, and then walk back.  All without falling.  Mommy was pretty proud of him too.  I think he could just walk around the house for hours.  Seriously.

Mother’s Day Out

Nothing interesting to note in this area.  He still goes two days a week from 9-1pm.  On December 18, the kids were all asked to bring one wrapped gift to a birthday party for Jesus during which the kids took to the nativity set in the church and put next to the manger.  In reality, these gifts are all going to families in need.  Carter gave baby Jesus some hooded bath towels :)  Last week was the last week at MDO for the holidays so Carter didn’t have school all week AND I didn’t have to work.  Also, Justin was home from work too!  Lots of family time this week!!!

Statistics

Carter’s 12 month appointment isn’t until January 2nd.  I’m a little irate about it.  Don’t get me started.  I’ll come back and update this section after his appointment.  My guess is that by that appointment he’ll be around 21lbs (which is the 25th percentile).  Height is much harder to measure.  If I had to guess, I’d say around 29 or 30 inches (about the 30th percentile).  Short and skinny!

UPDATE:  We went to Carter’s appointment yesterday.  Carter was 30.5 inches long (75th percentile) and weighed 21.6lbs. (25th percentile).  Our pediatrician even asked what heights Justin and I were and we told him and then he told us that we may be looking up to our son when he’s older.  It’s still too early to be set in stone, their height is more predictable around 2 years old, but at the rate Carter’s height has been, he’s most likely going to be taller than us.  His head was 18 inches around which is also the 25th percentile.  I thought he’d be short and skinny but it turns out he’s tall and skinny :)

Abilities

On his 11 month birthday, he took his first step without holding onto anything.  He stood for a little bit afterward but then fell.  The next day he took 3 or 4 steps and he’s been increasing the number of steps he can take ever since.  Now he can walk across our whole house and back without falling.  The only thing, as of about 3/4 of the way through his 12th month, that he couldn’t do was stand up on his own from the ground.  He always has to pull himself to a standing position by pulling on me or a chair or a table or something like that.  Once he was pulled up, he could walk for a long time.  On the morning of December 20th (at 11 months 3 week sold) I saw him walk to his sippy cup (it was on the ground), squat down to pick it up and then stood right back up.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal but it was the first time that he was able to do that!  Starting to use those leg muscles!

He said “mama” for the first time while I was in NYC with my sister (on November 30th to be exact).  He was 11 months and a couple of days old.  Took him FOREVER to say it and I guess he was saying it because I wasn’t there and he was wondering where that lady that says “mama” to him all the time was :)  You can see a video of it here.

He also started waving.  I have been working on this with him forever.  After bathtime, like clockwork, I wrap him up in his towel and we leave the bathtub and stop in front of the mirror.  I wave in the mirror and say “hey” so he can see my hand.  Seems like months now he just stared at me and never tried it.  He finally started trying it and now waves (mostly with his left hand - kind of wondering if he’ll be a lefty like his Papa) really fast, almost like he’s going to hurt you if he hit you with his hand.

As far as speaking goes, Carter can say multiple things now.  But what I’m most proud of is not what he says, but that he tries to say everything you get him to say.  During bathtime, we go over colors.  He has a ton of alphabet letters that he plays with in the tub and they’re all different colors.  I try to focus on the main colors; blue, red, green and yellow.  I think blue is his favorite color because that’s the letter he was trying to repeat first.  I would pick up the letter and say “blue” and he would stare at my mouth when I say it then he says “bu bu bu bu” trying to say blue.  Justin noticed this week that Carter keeps saying “yea yea yea yea”.  We were confused until just last night I was in the bath with him and we were working on “yellow”.  I realized that this is probably what he was trying to say.  Granted, he has no idea what the colors actually are.  He’s only repeating what I’m saying.  But I’m just so happy he is trying to say new things!  Oh and he also says “hey” when he waves because that’s what I say in the mirror as I wave at him.

Teething

He cut tooth number 8 on December 4th.  I can’t believe he has 8 teeth.  Early teether for sure!  Also, towards the end of the month, he started putting his index finger WAY in the back of his mouth.  Me and Dad are wondering if a molar is coming in.  His attitude is great though and I have heard horror stories of molars affecting personality, so if one is coming in, I’ll take it!

Discipline

I made him cry this month :(  I’ve made him cry before by doing things he didn’t want to do (diaper changes, bath time, putting in a car seat, etc.), but this month was the first time I made him cry because I was disciplining him.  I was trying to feed him dinner in his high chair.  During dinner, he always drinks a juice and water mixture from his sippy cup and usually drinks it fine with no tantrums or mischief, but this time, he would drink from it and then throw the sippy cup as hard as he could to the floor.  I picked it up and looked at him and told him “No Carter, don’t throw the cup on the floor”.  I gave it back to him, he took another sip and then threw it again.  I did the same thing but with a little more stern of a look and a slightly harsher tone.  I gave him the cup back and he did it again.  This time, I didn’t pick up the cup but I grabbed his hand (not firmly by any means, just a little squeeze), looked him straight in the eye with my face much closer to him than it was the previous two times and said the same thing again.  This time he started bawling.  I immediately felt so bad, but this is part of parenting.  I know he’s going to cry and get upset in the future when I’m disciplining him, but he must know boundaries.  I’m trying to set good mealtime manners and unfortunately for him, throwing the cup off the table three times after being told no is not acceptable manners. 

Other Notable Things

Carter’s first birthday party was on December 15th and he was such a good boy!  He was shy at first because he was still napping when everyone got there so when he came downstairs, our house was packed (he is usually shy when he’s around someone else for a few minutes until he warms up to them).  Daddy went upstairs to change his clothes and feed him his bottle (he would NEVER have eaten a bottle with so many people around him) and then brought him downstairs.  He was surprised at all the people there saying his name and reaching for him, but he adjusted quickly and started being his normal outgoing self.  He showed off his walking skills a bunch!  We had a great time and he got great gifts! 

Likes

Carter still likes everything I’ve put in this section in the past several months (golf cart rides, being outside, Baby Einstein, puffs and mums, etc.) so I won’t repeat all of them, but will just list the new likes or the likes that seemed the most prevalent this month:

• Walking.  Anywhere and everywhere!
• Remote controls…he loves these so much he got two in his stocking just for him (because mom and dad are honestly sick of not knowing where remotes are since Carter takes them off and leaves them in random locations in the house)
• Talking - he is seriously talking all the time now.  I am so confident that he has babbled every letter in the alphabet, with exception to Q and X of course.
• Teething pacifier and other teething rings
• Eating his shoes. He likes the rubber at the bottom for some reason. When we go to get him out of the car, he almost always has taken his shoe off and is chewing on it. Gross, I know.
• Watching older kids move and play.  He loves watching older kids at church and was following our friends Chase and Allison’s little girl, Brantley, around at his birthday party.
• Doors . Still loves experimenting with opening and closing doors.
• Diapers.  Not diaper changes, just diapers.  He pulls them out of the diaper bag and carries them all over the house.  On Christmas night, we let him watch a Baby Einstein so that I could cut his fingernails (see dislikes).  When I was done we left the room and let him watch his movie.  A few minutes later Justin called me back into the room only to find Carter leaning back in his chair, feet crossed, sucking his thumb on one hand and holding the diaper in the other hand.  So funny!
• Animals.  He’s always loved Gizmo, but he loves ALL dogs and even cats too.  For some reason, animals just crack him up!
• The rollercoaster toy he got from the Smith’s for Christmas.  More posts to come on this later.

Dislikes

• Being put in the car seat first thing in the morning.  On the days that I take him to my MIL’s house for the day, we literally come from upstairs and go straight to the car seat to get in the car and drive to Nana’s.  He doesn’t like this.  He wants to play before leaving.
• Still frequently cries during diaper change time.  He doesn’t like being burdened with diaper changes.  There’s too much world to explore!
• Lord help me…he will NOT let me cut his nails.  He hates it.  Hold the breath scream, hates it.  I can never get all 10 nails in one sitting so it usually happens twice.  I have never even clipped his finger before so I have no idea why he hates it so much!
• Lately he’s been seeming to not like bathtime as much.  He doesn’t play with things like he used to and is starting to whine a bit.  I am really beginning to think it’s because he knows bedtime is next and he really doesn’t want to go to bed (see “Sleep” section above).

Sippy Cup

We use the sippy cup very frequently now for water or apple juice.  The big test will come when we start feeding him whole milk instead of formula.  Once we get him used to that change, we’ll begin using the sippy cup for milk.

Goodbye

Well my friends, I’m impressed if any of you actually read all twelve of these posts.  You deserve an award if you did.  I write these down, not necessarily for readers, but for my own documentation purposes.  As you probably saw from Carter’s birthday party post, I put all of these posts (minus this one of course since he wasn’t 12 months old yet) on a word document and made a little book to put on the table at his party so everyone could see these posts and the pictures with them.  I plan to give this book to Carter when he has his own baby…or maybe before that.  We’ll just see.  I probably won’t give it to him until he’s married or his wife is pregnant.  I’m too afraid that if I give it to him before that, he’ll lose it.  But in addition to doing that for Carter, it is also for me.  Whenever Justin and I decide (or rather, whenever God decides) we’re ready for a 2nd baby, I will probably have forgotten the ways I trained Carter in sleeping, eating, behavior, etc.  It will help to be able to go back and read these posts to see what I did with him so that I can apply that to our next baby!

So needless to say, the monthly posts are over!!  Thanks for hanging in there with us!

#19, #54, #57, #85, and #90 - CHECK!

That’s a lot to mark off huh??  It’s because several of those were completed a while ago, I just never marked it off the list.  And there’s only a couple of pictures in this post too…so sorry  ;)

#19 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to frame my Master’s Degree and hang it in my office.  I got the frame from my in-laws for Christmas LAST YEAR and just hung it up in my office probably last month.  I’ve had the frame for a year and earned the degree SIX YEARS ago.  I waited way too long, I know.

#54 was to cook a meal I’ve never cooked before.  I did this last weekend when Justin and I hosted a party at our house for our Sunday School class.  It wasn’t a meal, but it was two hors d’oeuvres.  The first was cheesy pigs in a blanket and the second was a pizza crescent roll recipe I found on pinterest.

Cheesy pigs in a blanket on the left and pizza rolls on the right.

Finished product :)  They were YUMMO!!!

#57 was to cut my hair.  I did this a long time ago too.  I actually dyed my hair brown (but kept a few blonde highlights) and cut off about 4 inches.  That may not sound like a lot to some people, but for me it was.  I don’t have long hair in general so 4 inches is a lot for me!

#85 was  to watch the world NOT end on 12/21/12.  Done.

#90 was to clean my house from top to bottom.   I did this a couple of months ago too and unfortunately already need to do it again!  I even cleaned base boards and cabinets.  Took me most of the day!

Where Was God?

Lots of people are talking about the shooting that happened last week.  I haven’t mentioned anything about it on my blog because I wanted to find the right words to say.  I found them after watching a video of Mike Huckabee’s reaction.

I streamed news videos on Friday and kept a close watch on CNN’s website because they were doing updates every 10 minutes or so on information that was coming out.  I also kept a close watch on Twitter as well as Fox News and AL.com.  The most unfortunate part of the media coverage was that almost everything that came out of news outlets while the sun was up on Friday was false.  They had the wrong guy.  The wrong age.  The wrong body count.  The wrong family story.  It was all false.  The true stories and names came out that night and some even the next day.  I am hugely disappointed in the media at invading the school at a time like this.  Parents had no idea what was going on with their kids and the media was throwing out all kinds of false statements.  These websites should be ashamed.

I won’t go into most of my thoughts on the shooting because they are personal but what I will say is that it hit me.  Hard.  I have cried multiple times not just out of sorrow for these parents that lost their children right before Christmas (these precious angels probably still have presents wrapped under the tree with their names on them), but also out of fear for my own child.  As a mother, my son will one day be in school and I will have to deal with this.  This horrific event brought one thought to my head that I have been struggling with ever since it happened.  I can only protect him so much.  It doesn’t matter if I home-school or even if I am with Carter 24 hours a day.  This type of event could happen anywhere at any time.  I can’t protect him all the time.  And that kills me.  It hurts my heart badly.  But I have to trust God and his angels to protect Carter when I can’t.  I pray for his safety every day that I breathe and I just have to trust God.

People are looking for who to blame for this event.  I can answer that for you pretty easy, no investigation needed.  Sin.  Sin is to blame.  The sin that our nation apparently encourages because we have abandoned our God and won’t allow his name to be mentioned.    If our schools won’t allow God’s name to be mentioned, how are we, as parents, supposed to teach them to pray and ask for forgiveness?  Let’s assume a child goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up at 7am (this is just an assumption).  A child is typically in school anywhere from 8-10 hours a day (depending on after school care for working parents).  So out of the 13 hours a child is awake, they’re at school for 8-10 of them.  A school that won’t allow God to be talked about.  What are we teaching our children??  I can teach Carter all about God and how he needs God in his life, but this will confuse him because the schools are teaching that God can’t be talked about.  THIS MUST STOP!

On to the Mike Huckabee part.  In a video I have seen spread across multiple social media sites, Mike addresses the “Where was God?” questions that keep popping up after this horrific event.  And his answer is right on the money.  I’m paraphrasing of course, but here’s what Mike says:

Where was God during this horrific event and why did he allow it?  It’s interesting how we, as a nation, ask where God was in all this.  The reality is, we’ve pushed God away.  Something bad happens and we’re all asking “Where is God?”.  Well, God is up in Heaven watching down because we have pushed him out of our school systems and out of our lives.  We can’t pray at public events nor mention his name or the Bible’s story of creation.  Why is it that when something bad happens we want God to protect us from it, but we won’t follow him like we’re supposed to when life is fine and hunky dory?  Mike goes on to say that lots of people are wanting laws in place to prevent things like this from happening (gun control and such).  His response?  There is a law in place!  It’s call “thou shalt not kill”, we’re just not following it.  He also says that there’s 9 other laws, but unfortunately he isn’t allowed to discuss them in public.  High five for Mike Huckabee!

We can’t just take the good that comes with believing in God and dismiss the bad.  We can’t expect God to protect us and bless us when we push him aside and don’t spread his word.   Please don’t be confused on the purpose of this post.  I am by NO means saying anyone of those precious babies did anything to deserve this nor did their parents.  God has a plan.  And this tragedy was part of it for some reason.  And we won’t understand that reason until we face him in Heaven.  Why does God allow it?  It’s called free will.  We are responsible for our own actions.  We act like this event (or Columbine, or even 9/11) was the first time  God allowed something like this.  Anyone actually sit down to read the Old Testament?  Because there were tons of things God allowed back then too.  Rape.  Murder.  Incest.  Killing of first borns.  That list can go on and on.  And it even goes into the New Testament too.  This is not a new thing.  It all boils down to this.  God gives us free will to do what we choose to do in this life.  When we choose to disobey him and go our own way, he doesn’t stop us, because it was our choice.  God did NOT kill 20 children.  Adam Lanza did.  Satan did.  Sin did.

I am in the process of reading the Bible front to back and I’m in 2 Kings right now.  The common theme in the Bible is that the Israelites followed God, then they turned away, then they followed again, then they turned away again.  This cycle happens over and over and over.  This is what I see in our nation.  And that’s scary.   I read Exodus where all the Israelites have just escaped from captivity in Egypt.  Moses is at the top of the mountain getting God’s commandments and what are the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain?  Making idols of gold to worship.  Imagine being God.  You just saved these people and they don’t even care.  They’re at the bottom of the mountain dancing around a golden calf, praising it.  They’re raping women, getting drunk and even sacrificing children.  I remember reading that book and thinking “my Lord these people are so blind and disrespectful and just BAD people”.  But is our current nation and its inhabitants any different though?  We claim to be “one nation under God”, and yet we’ve given him the boot in all aspects of our lives.  The only place where it’s acceptable to talk about him is at church.

I will end this post on my favorite part of Mike’s speech.  To sum it up, he says that he does believe God was there when it all went down.  He was in the hearts of those teachers that put their bodies in between the bullets and the children, sparing their lives.  He believes he was the courage that it took for those policemen to enter the building having no idea if they would be met with gunfire or not.  And shockingly (this is my two cents) he was there when Adam Lanza put the gun on himself instead of searching for more children to kill.  God was there, even when we didn’t want him to be.

There’s one picture I saw on Instagram that has helped me through the tears I have shed for these poor sweet babies.  It shows all these children on a cloud with two hands from a man reaching out to them.  That man, I believe, is Jesus.  And you don’t see his face, just his hands.  The children are all smiling at him and staring in awe and reaching for his hands.  The caption to the picture says “My children!  Welcome!  Come! Come!!  My, you’re so beautiful.  You must have been so afraid….well, never again.  You are with me now.  Come, I have so much to show you!”

I am crying now as I write that.  The only thing that gets me through my fear for Carter is that if something like this were to ever happen to him, he would be there with those children and Jesus would be taking care of him until I got there.  My prayer for these parents is that this hope is what they cling to and that it helps them get through their pain and disbelief.  I pray that they know that Jesus is taking care of their babies for them and that those babies have no idea what happened, only that they love where they are and are very happy and waiting on their parents.

But this cycle has to stop y’all.  I don’t know how to do it or how to get an entire nation to turn from their sins for that matter, but we must bring God back into our lives.  Teach your children who he is and what he’s done for us.  Commit to saying his name to your children every single day since they won’t hear it in school.  Pray with your child at night.  Since we don’t have our children most of the time, we have to utilize what we do have.  Regardless of what people say, the world is not going to end on Friday.  These children are the future of this nation.  We must teach them God’s ways and get back on the path of righteousness!

Oh and one last thing….gun control.  If anyone honestly thinks that gun control will fix this problem, you are sadly mistaken.  Gun control can’t fix evil.  Only God can.  You want a solution?  Buy a Bible.  Read it.  Quote it.  Talk about it.  And then pass it to anyone you know that doesn’t have one.

More Walking

I’ve already posted one video of Carter’s first steps that were taken before I went to NYC with my sister.  Well, since then, he has practiced (all the time) and has already gotten so much better at it!  Allow me to show you:

**Sorry it’s long ways….I keep forgetting to turn my phone sideways so that it looks better when viewing in youtube or on the blog.**

With the beginnings of mastering the walking skill and a one year birthday next week, my sweet baby is no longer a baby, y’all :(

#59 - CHECK!

Number 59 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to throw Carter a very memorable 1st birthday party.  Carter’s actual birthday isn’t until December 28th, but with that being so close to Christmas , we decided to move his party up a couple of weeks.  As I’ve mentioned before, Carter’s birthday party was a “Winter ONEderland” theme since he was born in the winter.  We decorated the place with all things penguins and polar bears and everything was red, blue, white and black.  Even Carter’s smash cake was a cake in the shape of an igloo.  One of my friends from high school took pictures at his party and it will be a couple of weeks before the pictures are ready so until then, you’ll have to make do with the pictures I took on instagram:

Cookies on the left and Carter’s igloo smash cake on the right.

The main guest cake on the left and Carter’s monthly photos on the right.  I made that frame display all on my own!!  I’m so proud :)  I’ve never done anything crafty before so this was my first time.  The blank wood frame came from Hobby Lobby as well as the close pins.  I spray painted all of that blue and used ribbon and red card stock for the actual pictures.  I think it turned out pretty good!  Both cakes were made by my friend Jackie Marchant.  She owns her own cake making business, Cakes by Jacqueline.  Check her out!

Banner and cupcake toppers as well as the invitations that are in two frames on this table are from a shop on Etsy (I just searched for Winter ONEderland parties).  Those white igloo blocks I also did on my own.  I bought glass “krafty blocs” from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them white and stacked them like an igloo.  I made the cupcakes on my own the morning of the party.  The cookies came from a bakery in Homewood called Icing on the Cookie.

Playing on the television in the living room for the duration of the party was the birth slideshow that my sister made of Carter the day he was born.  To see that slideshow, go here.

And here is my sweet boy playing with his cake.  It’s kind of funny, as you’ll see in the below video, he wouldn’t really play with the cake.  Justin and his mom were quick to tell me why he wasn’t banging into the cake.  It’s because I taught him not to bang his hands on the table while he was in his highchair.  I guess there’s pros and cons to everything ;)  Oh and one more thing, I also got Carter’s shirt (which was a white long sleeve onesie with a blue “1” and a penguin on it) from Etsy as well.

Naturally I took some videos.  The first one is just a quick sweep of the house to see all the decorations:

And then my sweet friend Ashley took a video of Carter digging into his cake (this video is 10 minutes long so I know most of you won’t watch all of it, but I’m glad she recorded as long as she did.  The more memories the better!).

I wasn’t originally planning to open the presents at the party, but we did the cake thing around 2 and everyone was just hanging around since the party didn’t technically end until 3 so we decided to open presents.  Carina took the video on this one and unfortunately the card ended up being full about halfway through opening presents so the camera turned off automatically.  Boo.  I really thought Carter would come play with the toys as I opened them, but he seemed extremely content with his shoe and remote ;)

I’ll post the photos that Volree took when I get them back from her.  I know they’re going to be incredible!

#78 - CHECK!

Number 78 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to introduce Carter to Santa and have his picture made.  Our church, St. Mark United Methodist, welcomes Santa every year and always has some fun side activities for the kids.  They could make elf hats (obviously Carter was too young for this) and they served hot cocoa and candy canes!  The cool part was there there was a small train that had a conductor and everything that took kids for rides around the parking lot.  Carter was LOVING the train.  I wish I could have said the same thing about Santa. 

Unfortunately, Carter was much like most one year olds when he met Santa.  Justin recorded the encounter on video:

As you can see, Carter was NOT loving Santa.  Maybe next year :)

Here’s a couple of pictures I was able to take.  The video above was Carter’s first time to try to get a picture of Santa.  When that didn’t pan out like we wanted, we decided we needed a bribe to be able to get a somewhat decent picture.  Enter puffs and candy canes.

After a semi-successful experience with Santa during round 2, we took him to ride the train in the parking lot.  He was loving that!

We love daddy :)

Prayer Warriors

My dear sweet blog friends, someone needs your prayers right now.  Over the next five days to be exact.  See, there’s this girl, Jenny, and I’ve never met her, but I feel like I have known her for years because we’ve been following each other’s blogs and commenting on each other’s lives for a very long time now.  Jenny and her husband Adam started trying to get pregnant over a year ago.  August 2011 to be exact.  They got pregnant in May 2012 and found out about it in June, but all the excitement was short lived when she miscarried sometime between June and July.  She was devastated. 

They started trying again and low and behold she got pregnant again in November.  They’ve already been to a couple of doctor appointments, but it’s not looking good.  The sac isn’t growing at the rate is should be.  This is a common problem with endometriosis, which her doctor diagnosed her with and she has already had surgery to correct.  Jenny and Adam have to wait until December 18th for another ultrasound but her doctor already told her that it doesn’t look good.  I can’t imagine how she is feeling right now.  I feel awful for anyone who’s had to experience a miscarriage, let alone multiple miscarriages.  So anyway, Jenny is a faithful follower of our Lord.  She believes in miracles and she is asking for prayers.  I believe in the power of prayer and can’t think of anyone that needs them more than her and this sweet baby right now.  Please pray with me, with us, that this baby is ok.  We need prayer warriors!

#56 - CHECK!

Number 56 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to attend the wedding of my friend, Ashley to her sweet hubby, Brad.  Ashley and I have been friends since middle school when we were members of the same youth group.  A fun side note, our youth pastor, Bo Brown, was the one that married her and Brad.  It was so nice to be around him again along with several members of our youth group that we stay in contact with!

Anyway, Brad used to work with me at my firm.  I am proud to say that I hooked them up!  While at the reception, lots of people commented on that but I said the same thing each time.  I really think it was more God using me, than my own matchmaking skills.  See, Brad and I were on the same softball team for our firm.  He was our team coach.  During one game, I was sitting on the bench waiting to go up to bat and the thought penetrated my brain and for some reason I felt a HUGE urge to set Brad up with Ashley.  I called Ashley immediately and told her of my plans.  They both looked at each other’s facebook pages to determine if a first date was even worth it and they both liked what they saw.  So they reluctantly had their first date at Workplay Theater. 

Fast forward a couple of years and here they are now:

Such a beautiful couple.

Here’s a few more pictures of the day:

Before the dresses went on.

Something blue to say “I Do”!

Her reception shoes.  Ash wore white and we all wore black!

Matron of Honor, Allyson, doing touchups on her hair.

The look of nervousness when walking out the door to see Brad for the first time!

This is Wendy and Allyson doing the hair of the flower girl, Addy Kate, who happens to be Allyson’s daughter.

 

Isn’t she GORGEOUS!?!?!

Ashley and Wendy

Me and Ash.  You may notice how friggin skinny she is!  Girlfriend did the Paleo diet (and I’m not talking one of those easier versions of Paleo…she did the 100% full Paleo diet) a few months before the wedding.  She almost didn’t fit into her dress she’s lost so much weight!

Ash and T (Cristina is her full name, but all of her friends call her T)

The view at the ceremony

My friend Carina!

First dance as husband and wife.

Me and my hubby

Carina and Yarbrough are still planning their wedding which will be held in Las Vegas next May.

Gorgeous cake!

Cutting the cake.

Their ride to the hotel that night.

This isn’t the best picture.  I was trying not to use my flash so that her photographers would have the best picture.

More members of our church youth group.  Justin Mayfield is on the left (and he happens to be one of my neighbors) and to the right is Adam Madinger who is also Allyson’s hubby and Addy Kate’s daddy.

This is our “Georgian” picture.  All four of us use to live together in an apartment complex called “The Georgian” in Tuscaloosa. 

Showing off the comfy reception shoes :)

We had so much fun the whole weekend and I couldn’t be happier for my friend.  The ceremony was absolutely amazing and I had lots of tears for sure.  I’ve never felt an urging from God as strong as I did that day at the ball field and now I know why.  These two were destined to be together and I am so blessed that I was a tool God used to bring them together.  I love you guys!  Have fun in Mexico!!!