Birthday Boy

Today was Carter's third birthday party...even though his actual birthday isn't until September 7th. But I'm sure you can guess why we decided to have it early :) We decided to have it at the playground in our neighborhood and it was perfect. We are so blessed to have made some friends in the neighborhood in such a short time. Theo's boss and his wife and two daughters also came. Aunt Meredith, her boys, and her friends Chris and Carin and their children came too. We had a great turn out and I think the kids loved playing together. I had been so worried that Carter wouldn't have time to make friends before his party but he did and I was so happy! I have picutures of all of the guests but need to ask their permission before I put their pics on the blog. So for now, this is what you can see from the party.







Even though I insisted his new friends didn't have to bring him any birthday presents, they did and he was so excited.


God has been so good to us. The weather was great and now as I'm at home typing this it is about to storm so the timing was perfect.

Post party:

Daddy put together this:



Carter did a little of this:




I ate more of this:



I'm so glad Olivia decided to hold off being born until after the birthday party! This will be the last time Carter has a birthday that is all his own. :)

Party Preview

Carter's 3rd birthday party is this weekend. We are keeping it simple and having it at the playground down the street from us. I'm not sure who all will come but Aunt Meredith and her two boys will be there so Carter will be happy! Anyone who knows Carter knows he absolutely loves Diego and has for a long time. So of course, he is having a Diego party. I ordered a Diego cake from a grocery store that should be pretty cute (not as cute as the cakes Omaw makes though!). I racked up on Diego party favors from the Dollar Tree. I also had a lot of extra Diego fabric my mom bought that we made pajama bottoms out of. She gave me the idea to make drawstring bags with the fabric for his party favors. Here is the end result:



I'm so excited! I am loving that I am learning how to sew! There are endless possibilities.

I got these cute little straw purses for the girls if any come from the Dollar Tree too. I LOVE Dollar Tree!



_______________________________
Today we had a good day! Yesterday we didn't leave the house because I felt so blah. But today after getting out and about (and shopping at Target!) my mood was instantly better. We were planning on going to Pump It Up which is an indoor bouncy castle place. I drove to the address listed in the address and there was no bouncy place. I went home, looked up the phone number and it was disconnected! I originally got the info off of their website, which obviously hasn't been updated. So we were both bummed. But I promised Carter we would go to "circle store" and eat lunch at "chicken store" (Chick-fil-a) and all was well in his world again. This afternoon, we went to the playground. It was fun but chilly! I can't get over this cold weather in August!

Tomorrow we are heading back to the my doctor and Theo is working tomorrow evening shift. I don't know what else we'll do the rest of the week but we are looking forward to Carter's birthday party. He is excited too! See?

The Big D

We all went to Denver today so Theo could go car shopping. We were able to meet up with Aunt Meredith and her two boys and we had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. We had a great time.




They had a play area which occupied the boys for quite some time. Afterwards, more car dealerships and then we stopped for a treat at Cold Stone Creamery.



Yummmy! I have the chocolate devotion and it was delicious. Now we are home, I'm doing laundry and Carter is watching his nightly episode of Wonder Pets.

Tomorrow I am going to church with my friend Christine. I may eventually check out the "mega" church here because it is so close to our house. It's probably too many people (i.e. several thousand) but it's the contemporary charismatic type of church I'm looking for. We'll see. I just really miss church. ALOT. I feel like something is missing and I know it's fellowship and praising and worshiping with other believers in a church environment. I feel like God has been blessing me in my quiet time the past couple of days but there really isn't a replacement for church.....at least not for me. Finding a church may be on hold for a few weeks though after we have Olivia. Fortunately, my old church has their services online where I can watch them so I may just have to do that until I can get out of the house with baby girl.

Rock Climbing

Now don't get too excited...the title of this post is a little misleading. No, I have not suddenly been instilled with an adventurous streak since moving to the moutains. But Carter's swingset does have this cool "rock" wall that he has mastered climbing up all by himself. Saturday we broke out the frog swimming pool and let him have free reign of the backyard. Theo worked more on cleaning out the garage and I honestly can't remember what all I did....probably lounge on the couch.






Sunday we went back to mass and they did in fact have the picnic that day. And let me tell you how awesome God is. I have been trying to figure out a way to get in touch with a pediatrician I worked with at LSU who recently moved to Colorado to join a practice here. I looked for her on facebook, tried calling, and was getting anxious that I had not found a pediatrician for my kids (wow, I'm still getting used to kids instead of kid!) And who of all people were sitting in front of us at the church picnic......Dr. B! I couldn't believe it (well, actually I could because God is so awesome like that). So we chatted, she gave me her numbers and told me where her practice is which is really close to our house! I'm so thrilled. God truly does supply all my needs. Oh, and while at the picnic, I got horribly sunburned! I thought because it was cool and I was wearing a jacket that I wouldn't get burned....WRONG. This mountain weather is so funny like that. Now I look like I have been snow skiing and my face is all chapped. One knee is burned I guess from where my legs were crossed and my feet are burned were my sandal straps weren't covering. I'm telling you...I'm quite a sight!

Yesterday, Carter and I had a great day hanging out around the house. He enjoyed doing this





I know I have mentioned this before, but there is a direct correlatioin between how he behaves and the amount of time I truly spend with him. We spend all of his waking moments together but so often I am preoccupied with various things like laundry, blogging, paying bills, cleaning, cooking, etc that I'm not really spending time interacting with him. I am making a point to stay off the computer more when he is awake and making playtime a priority early in the day. I find that if I play with him early, he will entertain himself later and I can get the necessary housework done. I have gotten so absorbed in surfing the web and people's blogs that it takes so much time away from him. While he took a two hour nap yesterday, I didn't get on the computer hardly at all other than to google how to make a drawstring bag. I read, I scrapbooked, I sewed....I felt more productive than I have in a while. I hate feeling like I have wasted several hours a week reading blogs. Not that I don't enjoy it....I just get too wrapped up in it. I spend more time reading about other people's lives than focusing on my own. Of course I will always read me friends' and family's blogs and a couple of other faves, but that is going to be the extent of it. Besides, my "free" time will be extremely limited after a couple of weeks :)

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box for now. I'm going to get ready for Olivia's ultrasound today. I can't wait to see her smooshed little face in there. I really can't wait to see her for real and bring her home. I'll post ultrasound stuff on my other blog when I get home. Hope you all have a great week.

Mountain Zoo

Carter and I headed up to (and I do mean up since it's in the mountains) zoo today with some friends from our neighborhood. These women are so nice and Carter loved hanging out with their kids. Unfortunately, it was raining when we got there so I opted to leave my camera in the car. My friend Christine gave us a free admission ticket to the zoo so it only cost us a quarter to get in! Sweet! I think we'll probably end up getting a zoo pass. It's $70 a year and pays for itself rather quickly. We were there for four hours. Carter had a great time but I was tired after chasing him. Next time I'll for sure have my camera.



Last night, Theo and I got a babysitter (a teenage daughter of one of his co-workers) and we went to see the GI Joe movie.



I figured I owed him that since I didn't get him a birthday present. :) It was a pretty good movie. I'm not sure if baby girl would agree. I don't think she appreciated the volume of the movie...she squirmed and kicked almost the entire movie. That will probably be the last date we get to go out on for a while. I have a hard time leaving a breastfeeding baby at home with a sitter. We hadn't been to see a movie in the theater though since last November! Ticket prices are much more here than in Lousiana. But it was worth it. Our date nights just got a lot more expensive though now that we don't have Uncle Dave next door to babysit for free!!

I'm not sure what we are doing tomorrow. The church picnic is this Sunday...or so we think. I'm feeling so tired right now that I won't probably be up for too much activity tomorrow. We'll see. I hate to stay cooped up in the house all day tomorrow but my body may disagree.

In other news, Carter's dresser came yesterday. I'm still waiting on the nightstand and his bed will be here in over a month :(

Weekend Wrap-Up

This has been a good weekend.....much better than how my week started off! Friday we headed up to Theo's new work and had a picnic. It was cool outside but I still managed to get a sunburn. Carter even had a little pink on his cheeks too. I met Theo's boss, his wife, and several other people he is working with. They were all really nice. Friday night, we went to Rumbi grill, which is a tropical/Caribbean type of restaurant. It was yummy and we had great conversation. Carter was well behaved and let Theo and I sit there and talk for an hour.





Saturday, we stayed in literally all day despite the beautiful weather just trying to get our house more in order. Theo put my piano back together for me, moved some furniture, took boxes to the basement and a whole lot of other "honey-do list" tasks. While I organized my scrapbook desk, Theo and Carter played Guitar Hero! It's the first time I've seen Theo play it while at home. I'm glad he was able to have some fun.





After we put Carter to bed, we attempted to watch a tivo'ed movie called Fingerprints. I fell asleep before it was over. I don't know if anyone has seen it but it was kinda corny.

Today we are headed to mass and the Catholic church up the street. The picnic we thought was today is actually next week. I will start looking for a church soon too as I still plan on going to a nondenominational church. There are so many here and I don't know where to start looking. So for today, I'm going to mass with my family.

This afternoon, Carter played outside for over an hour on his swingset, Theo mowed the grass so we don't get a nastygram from the Homeowner's Association, and I went shopping! I also ordered Carter's bedroom furniture finally! This is what we decided on (and by we, I mostly mean me)



As for the rest of the week.....Tuesday, Carter and I are planning on heading to Denver to visit Aunt Meredith and her boys. I have another doctor's appointment Wednesday morning. Hopefully next weekend we can have a babysitter and maybe actually go see a movie! Gasp! We see about two movies a year in the theater and that's if we're lucky. One of Theo's coworkers teenage daughters I met Friday offered to babysit for us. Yea! So we'll see. That's your weekend review! Stay tuned for more.

Honeymoon

I have been following Kelly's blog off and on for a while and she has been doing a series on Show us your Life. This week is wedding reception and honeymoon. This is my first time to participate.I don't have any reception photos on my computer since they are the property of the photographer. But I have pictures to show off our AMAZING honeymoon. Theo did such a great job arranging all of this. We stayed at the Sandals Resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We have since been to New York, London, Paris, and Hawaii and we both agree, this was the best trip ever. I loved staying at an all inclusive resort. They literally had things planned all day from the crack of dawn until 2 a.m. The food was great, the people were so nice, and the scenery was breathtaking. Here are some pictures from our honeymoon.

The first place we stopped on our way to Sandals. Anyone who knows Theo knows how much he loves jerk chicken!



Sandals Resort as seen from the beach



Our honeymoon suite (we splurged on this and had conceirge service, our own private breakfast buffet every morning and some other cool perks)




The view from our honeymoon suite



Resort lobby



Jamaica sunset





One of my favorite things....lounging around in the hammock



Beach view





Dunn's River Falls (a must do if you are ever in Jamaica!!) I was a little scared at first but as you can see, I had a blast!!

To the Birthday Boys

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and to my brother Jackson! I won't tell you how old Theo is today but he is ahem, 30 something! I still haven't gotten him anything because he wants a new digital camera but hasn't picked one out yet. So for now, he'll get a birthday card and cake. I attempted to make him a cake yesterday for the work picnic we are having today but the top layer broke into about 5 pieces and the bottom layer would not frost without big clumps of cake breaking off. So I gave up and will head to Albertsons this morning to buy one. I am no Martha Stewart. I can make a great tasting cake but they are hardly ever pretty! Anyway, not much else planned in terms of birthdays. I will meet a potential babysitter at the picnic today so if she's not busy this weekend, I may see if she'll keep Carter tomorrow and I can take Theo out to dinner. Happy Birthday Theo and Jackson!

Back to his old self

So after being so close to the brink of insanity (ok, well not really but those of you who know me know what a drama queen I can be).....today was a MUCH better day. Carter still had a few meltdowns but for the most part, he was back to his old self. Thank the Lord for that because I wasn't sure how I was going to handle his attitude for one more day.

We went to this really cool place called Lil Biggs. My mom took him there the day the movers were unloading our stuff and I thought I would check it out myself. It's kinda like Chuck E. Cheese (sucky sees as Carter calls it now) but they have this cool area where girls can play dress up, boys can dress up like fireman or policeman, an indoor bouny castly, a pretend store, and lots of toys. Carter had a blast. There weren't too many kids there which made it nice. I did get a little teary eyed though when I saw a group of moms having lunch and their kids playing together. I silently prayed Carter would have friends very soon...and that I would too.

He had a nice long nap while I finished up his Diego pajama pants that I sewed. I'm just beginning to learn how to sew and these pants are evidence of that but they are still pretty cute.

This afternoon, our doorbell rang and it was some kids we met on Sunday asking if Carter could come out and play. That absolutely made my day and Carter's too. He was so excited to have the company. Their mom is a really nice Christian woman and we seemed to hit it off this past weekend. We exchanged numbers and I hadn't heard from her. But when I called to tell her that her kids were at our house, she told me her in-laws were in town and that we should get together next week and do something :) I also got two e-mails from MOPS coordinators too. MOPS stands for Mother's of Preschoolers and is a Christian mom's organization. I wasn't a part of one in Louisiana but I definitely need and want to join one here. So I'm excited about that too....that will be a great way for me to meet some Christian mom's with young kids. The Lord knows just what I need when I need it. I am starting to feel hopeful for the first time in days. Thanks to everyone who left encouraging words on my facebook page. I am trusting God and know He will meet all my needs...even my need for friends.

And because I didn't take any pictures of today's events, here is a random photo:




Carter after almost 3 years, finally ate spaghetti! This was a momentous occasion in our household.

Keepin It Real

I mostly blog about enjoyable positive things in our lives because who wants to hear the rantings of a hormonal, emotional, nutty pregnant woman right? Well, sorry....today is just one of those days and I need to vent (just ask my husband). So Monday was a really hard day when my mom left. I cried off and on all day and my poor BFF Meredith happened to call me during one of my "fits" and witnessed the whole thing. I just had this overwhelming feeling of loneliness and isolation. I know I will make friends...it's almost impossible for me not to. But I have never had to start over before and it's scary. I miss my Louisiana friends and family sooooo much.

Tuesday was better from a missing everyone standpoint. Instead, I cried because Carter is driving me absolutely CRAZY. Everything is an argument and his disagrees with everything I say...including "Hey Carter, look how pretty blue the sky is!" and he replies through whiny tears "NO momma! The sky is NOT blue". Even as I sit at the kitchen typing this post, he is screaming at me because I won't give him yet another snack. And then he threw his dirty napkin at me. I'm telling you...I'm at my wits end. And in the next instant, he comes up to me, puts his head in my lap and tells me he loves me. Is he to young to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder? Seriously, is he?

Theo and I decided we would try and not give him his Zyrtec and see how he does. Um yeah....for the record, that was NOT a good idea. No one has gotten any sleep the past couple of nights and he has literally sneezed 50 times today. I used to feel guilty about giving him Zyrtec every night because I will admit, it was mostly to help him sleep better. Don't get me wrong, he does have allergies but I wasn't sure if he needed daily Zyrtec. Now I know he does. My new OB told us today that Colorado was a bad place for allergies because of all the cottonwood. So no more mommy guilt and here's to a good night of sleep....I will be giving him Zyrtec tonight for sure. So I don't know if the lack of good sleep on both of our parts is causing us both to be cranky. Last night when Theo got home from work, Carter went from defiant argumentative Carter to hyper like he just had a dose of speed Carter. I was so exhausted by the time I fell into bed and then every 45 minutes Carter was awake crying. Finally at 11:30, we let him get into bed with us. He didn't wake up anymore but Theo and I slept horribly.

Today has been back and forth with Carter. I am constantly praying for patience. I dont' want to be one of "those" moms. You all know what I'm talking about. We've seen them at Wal-Mart, toy stores, and even occasionally at church. I'm talking about the moms who spend all day screaming at her kids and spanking them just because. But it is so easy to act like one of "those" moms. I'm the grown-up here right? Then why do I feel like I resort to toddler behavior so frequently these days. At this point, I'm just trying to make it through the day. I feel overwhelmed knowing our daughter will be entering this world in one short month and that things are about to get even crazier. I feel overwhelmed knowing I won't have the support system I did in Louisiana. I feel like I'm on my own....not a good feeling to have while 8 months pregnant. Yes, I do have Theo and thank the Lord for that but he is so preoccupied with starting a new job and focused on getting off on the right foot. I don't blame him for that. It just leaves me with an unfilled void. I know he can't be my husband, my mom, my best girlfriend, and an awesome neighbor too. To expect him to fill all of those voids would be unrealistic and no doubt cause undue strife in our marriage. So I am asking God to fill those voids....at least until I make friends. I know He is always here no matter where we live. I know he knows my heart and feels my loneliness. After all, he's GOD! He can provide comfort like no one else. I'm counting on that.

Garden of the gods

Once Carter was feeling better on Saturday, we were able to head out and check out some tourist attractions nearby. First we drove by Theo's new place to work then we headed to Woodland Park. They were having some kind of animal expo at the local Dinosaur museum. We of course thought about Carter's friend, Harvey, who absolutely loves dinosaurs. I'm hoping they will come visit us and we can take them there.





After Woodland Park, we headed to Garden of the gods. I went there with my family when I was younger and the place was every bit as beautiful as I remember.