i Heart Faces: Week 7, B&W

I decided to join in the fun and enter a weekly contest over at www.iHeartFaces.com. (Go check them out!) I just showed you all the color version of this picture of Carter in the post from last night, and this weeks contest is for black and white photos. It's just for fun, and their site is great for new ideas and tips and tricks. Here is my entry, and be sure to check out all of the other entries! There are some really great pictures!!



Hopefully, this will challenge me to improve my skills and I'll start having something to enter on a regular basis...nothing like a little competition to get you in gear. Anyone else want to join in the fun???

Photography Fun

I was feeling guilty that we have yet to take Carter for professional pictures and he is nearing 6 months. We are also going to take some pictures for some friends of ours soon, so I decided to try out the lighting and some different things in our kitchen. I love that the back half of our house is all windows. Anyway, I had 15 minutes this afternoon, and decided to see what I could come up with, and then Cary played with my pictures in photoshop a bit. Here are my faves.

First I stuck Carter in a basket, and he HATED IT! Mean Mommy took 10 pictures as fast as I could anyway. :) LOVE THEM.






This one is my favorite.


Thanks for letting me share!


P.S. Before I forget, and for my records...sweet Carter cut his first tooth on Friday like a champ! It's his bottom left tooth and the bottom right isn't far behind.

"I Wanna Be BIG Right Now"

Carson is a song writer...didn't you know? He is always walking around the house singing songs he has made up. Their funny. If it's a song that he's learned, he puts his own spin on the melody. He's always singing to himself in bed. I think he's trying to come up with new lyrics. "I Wanna Be BIG...", also known as "I wanna be COOL..." has been with us for some time now. It is usually accompanied by air guitar, and is generally sung while wearing a hat backwards... "Tina (my brother Austin) does that" - the backwards hat thing - as Carson would say...

This morning, he got up and got completely dressed all on his own and was walking around singing this song, so I figured I'd capture the moment. I should have cleaned up the stuff behind him in the video... but oh well... it was a moment.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 2nd Birthday Caden!

My sweet boy! You are such a blessing to me! You live life to the very fullest! We like to say that you come from "fun country," which means everything should and can be fun. You are always fully ON. You play hard, you love hard, you sleep hard! And you do it all as FAST as you can. In fact, as I write this, you are playing in the backyard with your brother, running as fast as your little legs will carry you, only slowing momentarily to inspect a rock or clump of grass and then throwing them as hard as you can. You are a joy in my life and you remind me to play and to live in the moment. You LOVE to sing, and you are constantly singing. If you don't know the words, you make them up. You have the best giggle in the whole world. It is a deep belly laugh, and we hear it often. You have the biggest grin and I think your chipped tooth only made it cuter. You are our pretty boy with your long lashes and dimples, which is amazing, because you LOVE to get dirty and you are SO rough and tumble by nature. You LOVE to cuddle up with anyone who is willing, and if you are still, you prefer to be touching someone. You also love to read and bring me books by the stack. You are such a smart boy, and seem to crave understanding with all of your questions. You love balloons, and beg for them whenever you site one. You LOVE instruments, especially the da-da-tar (guitar). You are also a guys' guy. You LOVE your mommy, but you prefer to hang with the guys, I think. With all of your communication and "skills" you seem so much older than your 2 years. You do your best to stay right along side your brother. You love to race, and as often as you and Carson run a track through our home, it's amazing the floor doesn't have a permanant groove running through it. We're moving you to a big boy bed in a new room soon, and you cried the other night because you wanted to sleep in a new bed so badly. You have a great desire to be big, but slow down for Mommy, because you are getting their far to quickly. You also LOVE to be outside and always beg to "go" anywhere. You love to sleep when you are ready and still giggle when I meet your request for naptime and bedtime. I love that about you! You always know what you want, and we can meet that request, no matter what it is, it renders a sweet giggle from you. You are pure sunshine for us, Caden! Your mommy and daddy are SO thankful for you, our sweet boy! With your zest for life, we KNOW God has such great plans for you! We pray that you will live as fully and head strong for Him as you do for every moment now. Your joy for life is such a strength, and I know it will carry you through all that you do for our Lord! Happy 2nd Birthday, Caden!! You are so very loved!

Happy Valentine's Day

With all the fun crafty sites I've found recently, I decided to make valentine's from the boys for our family here and babysitters. It was so fun, and the boys were SO excited to hand them out.

I know this looks like a brownie or something, but it's fudge, and it was SO easy! Chocolate for the girls:


Cookies for the boys:


All ready to go! Aren't the tags fun! They were so easy to make, and I was grinning ear to ear the whole time I was making them. Cary made fun, but I was loving them so much, I didn't care. Carson helped me stamp them. The stamps were homemade from that foam paper stuff. You just write on it backwards and brush it with tempura paint and stamp. So easy. Have to admit...I found all of these ideas on other peoples blogs. FUN!


For Valentine's this year, we went and bought the stuff for the boys new rooms. We just ran around together all morning. Then I put the boys down while Cary ran more errands, including going to the craft department at Wal-mart to get a list of stuff for me and buying groceries for dinner. When he came home, he presented a beautiful bouquet of roses and white lilies to me as well as the craft supplies he rounded up for me. :) Cary and I enjoyed a night in. We had our friends Dan & Stephenie over for dinner and the boys played with their train table and watched a movie in the basement so we could have adult time. Cary cooked DELICIOUS fajitas for all of us, and even did the dishes while I put the boys to bed. It was really fun! Love you Cary! You're the very best valentine a girl could ask for!

Shiny Knight

Last Halloween, as I was getting Carson dressed up in his cowboy costume, Carson and I had this conversation:

Carson: Mommy, next year for Halloween, I want to be a shiny knight.
Me: A shiny night? What do you mean?
Carson: You know... (gesturing with an imaginary sword swung at the air) a shiny knight.
Me: You mean a knight in shining armor??
Carson: Yeah! A shiny knight!


Fast-forward to a month later, and Carson has this conversation with Poppi (my dad)...
Carson: Poppi, for Halloween, I'm going to be a shiny Knight.
Poppi: A Shiny Night?
Carson: yeah.
Poppi: Well I'm going to be day.

Carson was confused for a bit, but he's gone with it, and he now tells people that he's going to be a shiny knight, and Poppi is going to be day. Funny.

Fast-forward to Sunday... Carson said this to an adorable little girl, Alexis, that is in his Sunday school class...
"Will you marry me? I'll be your knight in shining armor!"

I laughed so hard when that was relayed to me. At least the boy has good taste. :)

What's Your Parenting Style?

My children will appreciate this when they're older. :) I found this sort of personality test for parenting styles at parenting.com and it is VERY accurate for me. Here are my results:

Setting Expectations:
Active Whether you're an earth mother or a PTA president (or both!), you're very concerned with setting specific expectations for your kids' behavior. You do this both by telling them what to do and acting as a role model, and, in general, you expect them to follow your careful guidance. As a parent, you think you should be very actively involved in fostering your children's growth, which includes determining what activities they should engage in – sports, tutoring, music, chores, art, yoga, whatever. When it comes to everything from family meals to manners and morals, you know what's best.

Who’s the Boss?

One-Way When it comes to setting rules and expectations with your kids, you're the grownup and you know what's best. And since this is the case, it's not really necessary to always explain the logic or rationale behind your rules and expectations. You're also scrupulously fair: you do your best to apply your standards equally to each child. Parents who take this approach believe that it's important for parents to make decisions for their kids and that, generally, rules and expectations shouldn't be open to discussion.

Tolerance Continuum:

No Monkey Business No doubt about it: You're strict! In your opinion, kids need to be told what to do and how to do it. The approach you take to discipline is firm and direct. That's what's best for your kids, since being firm helps them understand who the boss is, and helps them respect and obey the important rules you establish. When your kids step out of line, you make sure there's an appropriate punishment - not that you enjoy punishing them, and you try never to be too harsh (or too lenient, for that matter). Parents who answered like you indicate that sometimes, spanking is an appropriate form of discipline.

So, what are you're results? Hurry...go take the test and tell me what your results are and if it was accurate for you.
http://www.parenting.com/Mom/signalPatterns.jsp?genID=6#__topDiv


Also, I wanted to share something that was encouraging to me. Parenting has a blog, and this week, they are sharing excerpts from an interview with the Duggars. Now, I don't know what you think of this family. Personally, I think they're crazy, but have somehow raised a ton of kids that seem healthy and happy and caring, so more power to them... Anyway, the article today was especially encouraging to me, so I thought I'd share it with you. You can find this specific article here. This is the part that was a particular light-bulb moment for me:

Michelle: I remember the days Jim Bob would come in, the house was a wreck, dinner might not be on the table, and I hadn't caught up with the laundry or the dishes. I would meet him at the door and say, "I haven't gotten anything done, I don't think! Except that I've been dealing with their little hearts. They were arguing, and one was fussing over this. And I was trying to correct that and make sure they were being sweet to each other and this, that and the other." And he would say, "Michelle, don't worry about it." And he'd give me a big hug, and he'd walk through and kick the toys out of the way and say, "If you were dealing with their hearts, you dealt with the most important thing today. Whether dinner's on the table, we can open up a can or pull something out of the freezer."

Just do the next right thing... Hope it's encouraging to you too!

Carter's Dedication

Poor Carter was SOOOO miserable on Sunday, but I really felt like we should go ahead with his baby dedication as planned. So I held him and he slept and we dedicated his life to the Lord. May he follow hard after You, Lord! Pastor Russ lead our dedication, and my Dad prayed over Carter, as he did over Carson and Caden at their dedications. Dad, I am so thankful for the prayers that you have covered us with. You have no idea how much it means to me.



My Grammy told me that she had been wondering if we should have just rescheduled because of how miserable Carter was, but she shared with me that during the dedication, the Lord spoke to her and said that He had a great plan for Carter's life, and that his illness was an attack on him because of our desire to dedicate him to the Lord. I believe it. Our house has been sick off and on for a month now, and he has remained healthy until this time. Lord, we offer him up to You! Help us to guide him as You lead his heart to follow your will and plans for his life!





By the way...Carter is still pretty miserable, but I think we've turned a corner. He's more fussy now than lethargic, and as miserable as that is for him, I think I'll take it! :)

Caden's 2nd Birthday Party

Caden's birthday isn't until next Sunday, but we wanted to celebrate early since Grandma DeeDee and Auntie Stephanie were able to come to town for Carter's baby dedication. We had a few of our family and friends over to celebrate our sweet boy, and it was so much fun! Caden loved every second of the party, and he and Carson were quite the little entertainers. Caden showed off his singing skills to the tune of "Backyardigans." He doesn't know many of the words, but he sings his heart out, and if he knows the part, he shout-sings as best he can. funny. funny. stuff.

Here are some pictures that I want to remember the day by. Sweet Caden before the party...I told him we were going to have his Birthday Party, so he was walking around our living room shout-singing Happy Birthday to himself.

The cake...isn't it so fun?

I loved this cake design so much, I based the whole party theme on it. We had construction hats for the party-goers instead of party hats, a pop up dump truck and orange construction style cones leading up to our front door. So fun!


Caden knew EXACTLY what to do when the candle was lit and "happy birthday" was sung...not sure why that surprised me. :)


He was so excited about his cupcake.


Caden & Mommy - you can tell by my face that it's been a LONG week. I look so worn out!


Cary, my dad and some of the other guys thought the frosted dirt mound on the cake looked like a pile of poo, so they used a donkey from Caden's nursery to demonstrate...gross. :)


Caden was so delicate with his cupcake at first, but he sure did enjoy it in the end!


We played "pin the cone on the construction site" everyone under 23 participated. :)


Caden ended up winning, because he didn't understand that he had to keep the blindfold on. I suppose cheaters can prosper if they're 2 and it's their birthday party. :) Big brother Carson:



Some of the crowd...notice how interested they were in our party game. :)




In spite of having a house full of sickies all week, the party was a hit. Poor little Carter slept for all but 15 minutes of the party, but I know he was a lot more comfortable in his bed than he would have been amongst all of us. By the way, please keep praying for him. He was doing pretty well, thanks to the steroid shot, and so far we've avoided the ER, but today has been a much harder day for him, and he seems more miserable as the night goes on. I know we'll get through this, but it's been nerve wracking here and there. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Cheers & Jeers

Cheers: Cary's mom & sister Steph are in town for the weekend. Caden's 2nd birthday party is tomorrow, and Carter is being dedicated at church on Sunday

Jeers: We all have colds & wait...took Carter to the doctor and he has croup and possibly pink eye! Yippee!!!!! The doctor said, and I quote, "He'll get worse from here for three days or so. I'm sorry, but your weekend is going to suck." We're also under strict instructions to take him directly to the ER if his breathing gets even the least bit worse.

5 Months

Happy 5 months, sweet Carter! Man time is flying with this boy. Unfortunately it's not much of a happy day for him today. I'm not sure if he's caught the cold that the boys have or if he's just snotty from teething, but he's generally uncomfortable. Poor baby. I did manage to get some cute pictures of him though.





I could come up with so many funny captions for this picture:


We started Carter on rice cereal a few days ago. I don't think he knows what to think of it. He lets me spoon it in, and then he just kind of sits there and swallows every once in a while. He'll get it soon enough.

first bite:






Some pictures of Carson and Caden...





I've been wiping faces and noses all day. I wiped Caden's face and sent him outside no more than 3 minutes before I took this picture....eeewwww.


We're finishing up the bedroom and bathroom in our basement right now, and when we were moving stuff around, Carson found this motorcycle policeman helmet. He calls it his racing helmet. He's been wearing it as often as possible all week.




Funny boys.