Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you are all enjoying your day. We are spending Thanksgiving with family and will be gobbling up some turkey, dressing, and all of the other usual foods later this afternoon. Because today is Thanksgiving, I feel compelled to write about the things I am most thankful for. After going through a health scare earlier in the year with Carter, I am most thankful that he is healthy and happy. God is good! I am thankful for a loving husband who is an exceptional father and best friend to both Carter and me. I am thankful for our extended family and getting to spend lots of time with them this past year. I am thankful that Theo and I got to vacation in Hawaii this summer (somewhere I've always wanted to go). I'll post pictures of our trip soon :) I am thankful that at the end of January, I will resign from my job in order to stay home and that Theo has a good career which allows me to stay home if I choose.

I am thankful for a new church in which I feel more spiritually alive than I have in a long time. I am grateful for all of my friends, those who still live here and those who have moved over the past year. I am thankful for the wonderful and crazy life God has blessed me with and look forward to His new blessings in the coming year.

Little Drummer Boy

This morning after breakfast, Carter decided he wanted to learn how to play the drums. We got out the metal mixing bowls and let him bang on them with a wooden spoon. He (we) had such a blast! My ears were ringing by the time we were finished playing but we had a great time. Let me just say, the boy has rhythm!

Hugs All Around

We really do have a sweet kiddo. He is so loving and affectionate....most of the time! Now he even picks up his stuffed animals, says "Awwww" and gives them a hug. It's too cute. Last night, we were laying on the floor reading a book and he looked at me and in his tiny voice, said "Mommy hug" and laid his head against me and wrapped his arm around my neck. It was so sweet. I picked him up off the floor and had daddy take a picture of this photo op moment. I cherish these moments because I know they won't last forever. I know there will come a time when he doesn't want my mommy kisses and hugs anymore and he'll be embarrassed when I show him affection, especially in public. So for now, I relish in the fact that Carter loves on me. My heart is abundantly full of joy each and everytime I get a hug or kiss from my sweet little Carter man.

Wages Earned

With the way things have been in the economy lately, it has got me thinking a lot of employment, finances, money, etc etc. I haven't spent much time worrying about the economic crisis because I trust a big God who can/will/does provide for all of my needs and my family's needs. I go to work everyday Monday through Friday and get a paycheck at the end of every month. Overall, I feel I am fairly compensated for my work. Some days I think "Man, I don't get paid enough to deal with this!" But for the most part, I feel the wages I earn are equal to the time and effort I put into my job.


Thankfully, my God doesn't opearte on a wordly wage-earning system. I would be broke and in debt up to my eyeballs in the spiritual sense. Thankfully, every time I sin, I can come before the throne gracefully, ask for forgiveness, and the slate is wiped clean. Thankfully, God keeps forgiving me each time I ask Him, even if it is over the same sin. When I truly try to wrap my mind around what God has done for me and will continue to do, I am in awe. The Bible says "For the wages of sin is death...." But because I am a born again believer and have confessed that Jesus is Lord and Savior of my life, I get to take part in the second half of that scripture..."but the gift of God is eternal life". I truly do not deserve the salvation that has been given to me. I will never be able to pay back what Jesus did by dying on the cross for me. I fail more ways than I would ever care to mention (just ask Theo!) but I serve a loving and forgiving God! Thankfully, my spiritual "debt" has been marked "paid" by the blood of Jesus.

Meredith

This is my first friends tribute post. Meredith and I have been friends literally almost our whole lives. I can hardly remember a time in my life when Meredith wasn't a part of it. We became friends in elementary school and have been close friends since then. We were cheerleaders in high school together (does that surprise anyone?) We graduated in the same class. Although we went to different colleges, we both ended up becoming NICU nurses. Now she is my oldest and best friend. Meredith and her family live in Colorado so unfortunately we don't get to see each other often but we talk all the time now. Carter and I plan on going to visit Aunty Meredith in the spring! I can't wait!!

To know Meredith is to love her. She is the strongest woman my age I know and one of the most remarkable women on the planet. She is so real and authentic and doesn't sugarcoat anything, least of all her thoughts about motherhood. She is a fabulous and down to earth mom. She was the first person to let me know that it's okay for everyday of life/motherhood not to be perfect. She let me know it's okay if I want to scream and pull my hair out somedays. She has taught me more about grief and faith than I could have ever imagined. She also has a quite humorous side. There is never a conversation between the two of us where we're aren't cracking up laughing about something. (Zelda!!!)

I love you Meredith. Thanks for always being there and letting me be me! See you soon! :)

Addendum: No, Meredith is not always perpetually pregnant...these are just the two most recent pictures I have (both of which she is pregnant in which each of her sons) :)

Friends Tribute

As I think about this past year, I realize that the majority of my closest friends have either moved or will be moving soon. I do have a handful of close friends still here (thank the Lord for that) but a good percentage of my close knit circle has left. So, I feel the need to pay a tribute to my friends, both to those who are still here and those who have moved on. I am blessed to have a lot of close friends so I can't possibly pay tribute to all of these wonderful women in one blog post. I have decided to write about my different friends in different posts. I'm aiming to do one friends post a week. So stay tuned...you might be next! :)

How much is too much?

As most of you all know, I am an expert in pediatric development because of my job as a pediatric nurse practitioner (just kidding!). No, I'm not an expert but I do know what the American Academy of Pediatrics says and I know what is actual reality in our house so I thought I would conduct a poll. The question: How much tv do your young kids watch on a typical day? I have been talking to Theo about this off and on for months now. The AAP recommends less than 2 hours of tv a day. We do pretty good with this during the week. That's mainly because Carter spends about 4 hours awake at home and the rest of the time, he's at Michele's house. But on the weekends, I hate to admit that I often use the tv, particularly Diego and the Wonder Pets, as a babysitter so I can get stuff done around the house. I would prefer he only watched one hour of tv a day on the weekends but that hasn't worked so far for us. Our new unwritten agreement for weekday tv is that the tv stays off when we get home until 30 minutes before bed and then he can watch one show. So far so good. The weekends, however, anything goes. So, I'm curious. Those of you who have young children (kindergarten or younger), how much tv do your kids watch? This is no way to be judgmental or persuade you to not let your kids watch tv. I'm mostly curious as to what goes on in other households where toddlers reign. If you don't mind, cast your vote and see what the results are. I'll leave the "polls open" for a few weeks. Thanks everyone!

*On a side note, tv must be somewhat advantageous because after months of Diego/Dora watching, Carter can now count to ten in Spanish! And the coolest part is, no one taught him that.....unless you count Diego as a teacher!

Potty Time!

I know this is probably not an exciting post for most of you all. But it was an exciting night in our house last night! Carter was in my bathtub taking a bath (which is usually only a weekend ritual). He made his "gotta go" face and I said "Carter do you need to use the potty?" In his polite little voice, he replied "No tanks". But I knew better. And I knew I didn't want to have to clean poop out of MY tub! So I rushed him to his own bathroom and put him on his own potty. I gave him his Elmo potty book that he can only use while on the potty (thanks Kim for that advice!). And a minute later, he had successfully used the potty (number one and two!) Woohoooo! We made a big to do over this. Now my only concern is that I'll have to give him a sucker everytime he uses the toilet. His teeth will have rotted out but at least he'll be potty-trained! I don't plan on really pursuing the whole potty-training until I can work part-time or not at all but last night is at least a start. Sorry, no pictures to post with this one. I do have some cute pictures of him in my bathtub but I haven't uploaded them yet. Stay tuned. Hope you all are doing well.

Major Meltdown

This is for all you moms who wonder if other people's kids misbehave in public places the way your kids do......the answer is YES! :)

So it's Sunday afternoon. Our tradition over the past several months is to do the grocery shopping on Sunday after church. In the most recent weeks, I have decided to take Carter and get him used to sitting in the shopping cart (as opposed to running all over the store). We made it to the store. I was armed with fruit snacks, ring pops, and promises of watching cartoons when we got back home. It worked.....almost. We had made it through all of the aisles at the store. Carter sat in the buggy until the last aisle and then he wanted out of the cart. I figured what the heck....we're almost done. We got in line and then I realized the mistake I had made by allowing him to get out of the shopping cart. He of course instantly made a beeline for the candy screaming "Tindy tindy!" which is Carter speak for candy. On a sidenote, I think it's absolutely cruel for grocery stores to put the candy in the one place you have to stand still long enough to unload your cart. It's not like you can just breeze through there. It takes a good several minutes to unload all of your stuff. Anyway, I digress....he began rummaging through Kit Kat bars and skittles. Finally he picked up a 3 musketeers (like mother, like son). When I reached down to get it out of his hands and put it back on the shelf, he let out the most shrill scream I had ever heard! Literally everyone in the front of the store turned around and stared at us. I promise one lady looked like she was about the dial 911 because she thought Carter was either severely hurt or somebody was attempting to kidnap him. When she realized he was screaming over candy, the look on her face said "Why doesn't she just give the boy what he wants". She didn't realized he'd already eaten two suckers, a bag of fruit snacks, and hadn't eaten lunch yet. So I stood my ground. Even when the shrieking continued and store employees had the look of we-can't-wait-for-them-to-leave. One of the nice baggers even blew up a balloon animal for Carter. It did fortunately seem to calm him down. As I'm strapping him in the car (and by this point, he is calm and happy), an older lady pulled in the parking place next to us. When she got out and saw Carter, she said that he was so precious. I told her that we had just had a major meltdown in the store. She said she could remember those days and that it does get better. Then Carter looks at me and says "I sowee mommy" (I'm sorry mommy). I thought in the grand scheme of things, this is not so bad. Now as I'm typing, I look over at Carter. He is sound asleep on the couch cuddled up with his blanket with a look of innocence on his little face. The bad moments are far outweighed by the good moments. And right now, it doesn't get much better than this.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! For those of you who were aware of the costume debate, the spider costume won. Theo had bought Carter a puppy dog costume last year after Halloween when everything was on sale. The tag says it's a 2T. Well, it must have been the wrong tag for that costume because Carter was way to big for it. So by default, he was the spider. I must say, it turned out so much cuter than what I was originally thinking. The costume came with "hands" and a hat, none of which Carter will usually wear. But to our surprise, he kept the mittens and hat on the whole time. He was absolutely adorable. We went to a party at some of our friends house. Then we went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Carter would run up to l

houses and yell "twa twa tweet!" He was so excited to get candy (surprise, surprise!). Carter was a real trooper and we were all worn out by the end of the night. But nothing like a bag full of chocolate to get my energy up!