Bowling, Blood, Bugs, Beaters, and bowls...of cereal

Although the title suggests these things may all go together ( and they probably could) it's just a sampling of what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. Last Saturday we took Carter bowling for the first time at Warrior Lanes, our little hometown bowling alley. Jeremy was a little leery to go bowling as every time he goes, he ends up hurting himself somehow. He is so competitive that he tries too hard and either throws his shoulder out or pulls a muscle. Well, I thought we were safe since his competition was a 3 year old and myself whose bowling average barely breaks 2 digits. This time his ring finger took a beating and I thought for sure he was going to call in sick to work because he couldn't bend his finger. After some ice and a lot of complaining, it seems to be better. Carter had a great time. We bowled 2 games, and during the second game, they turned out the lights so everything glowed which was pretty cool.

Carter also experienced his first bloody nose last week. I have to say he kinda deserved it. He has been told numerous times not to climb up the kitchen drawers to get something off the counter. Well, this time the counter won and he caught his face on the edge of it as he was trying to get down. Of course we made a big deal of it, pictures and all. After all the crying stopped, he said, " I can't wait to tell Miss Ashley at preschool that I got a bloody nose" Dad came to the rescue and pulled out one of his old wrestling tricks and stuffed a bunch of toilet paper up his nose.

I was home all last week with some crazy bug ( sorry no pictures) I was tested for strep throat and mono both and it all came back negative. When the Dr told me he was going to test me for mono I about passed out. All I could think about was "I can't have mono, I have 2 small children at home...are you crazy? Whatever it was, thankfully it is gone and so far (keep your fingers crossed) nobody else has had it yet.

We have started some holiday baking at our house. Most of the year sweets aren't allowed at our house, but we do get to enjoy some at Christmas time as we perfect our cookies for Santa Claus. Carter is such a good help if I bribe him with licking the beaters when we are done. He is learning how to measure things, crack eggs, and cut out cookies. He even helped Grandma Berry make some cinnamon Christmas ornaments and of course loaded our tree up with them.

I broke down last Sunday and bought some baby cereal for Claire. We've only found time to try it once and I think that has been enough for her too. She really wasn't too sure about it, and pushed most of it out of her mouth. Carter was brave enough to try it and reported it tasted like glue...hmmm, wonder how he know that.

The kids and I had plans today to go see Santa and finish up our shopping today, but old Mother Nature blessed us with some frigid temperatures with the wind chills topping out at -25. So we've spent the day bundled up at home with hot cocoa, movies, games and of course a nap, but I couldn't resist this picture of Claire all bundled up when we go out.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, safe travels and joyful times with family and friends. We are lucky enough to have family fairly close so we were able to spend some time with both sides of our family, which also means twice the amount of food! I always feel somewhat sorry for Thanksgiving as it seems to be overlooked by the upcoming Christmas. Is anyone sick of the Christmas music yet? Maybe I am just being somewhat grinchy (is that a word?) We definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year and we try to think about this every day, not just at Thanksgiving. Each night before dinner we sit down and go around the table and say something we are thankful for. When Carter was younger most of what he was thankful for was whatever was in his sight such as forks, milk, napkins, table, etc, you get the idea. Sometimes this could go on and on. The best ones are those he has to ponder for awhile. One night he said he was thankful for Walmart because that's where we get our food from and another time he was thankful for dog slobber so the dogs could give us kisses. Sometimes Jeremy and I find ourselves biting our lips as not to laugh at some of the stuff he comes up with. As he has gotten older and wiser he mentions being thankful for his family and friends (this gets him a lot of praise) or his toys or his soft bed. I am really glad we started this as he never lets us forget to be thankful for something each day, even if it is only a fork!

Claire turned 4 months old on Thanksgiving day. She had a well baby check today weighing in at 13lbs, 7 oz (50th percentile) and was 25 1/2 inches long (75th percentile). She is wearing mostly 6 month clothes now due to her length. She had 3 more shots today with big brother holding her hand. All else is well with her. For those of you wondering, the red spot on her forehead is a vascular birthmark called a hemanigoma. It showed up at about 4 weeks and will continue to grow for another couple of months before it will slowly start to disappear and will likely be gone by the time she turns 2. It is a collection of blood vessels that didn't form properly in that area. Sometimes surgery is needed to repair the skin after they disappear if they get really big as the skin will sag. Hers is not likely to get that big. Something to be thankful for! We were also given the ok to start cereal! For some reason I am not as excited about this as I was with Carter! In my mind I am thinking "when do I have time to fit this in?" I can't see myself being as regimented with doing this as I was with Carter. She continues to be such a content baby. We have found she loves Baby Einstein videos and will squeal as soon as we put one in for her. She is also having a harder time nursing if there is other things going on at the time as she is much more interested in her environment than eating sometimes! She started a new daycare this past week and so far so good. She is at the hospital's child development center, so I take her to work with me each day and drop her off. The best part about this is I can go check on her anytime I want. She seems very happy there so far!

















Did anyone go shopping on Black Friday? I seriously need to get some shopping done, but was not tempted by the early morning sales. Carter and I put the tree up today and have been to see Santa already, although Carter wouldn't talk to him and hasn't really told us what he wants for Christmas either. It was so fun watching him help with the tree today. If anyone actually sees our tree, they will immediately understand a 3 year old decorated it. We was adamant on putting on EVERY ornament we have and since he is only a little over 3 feet tall, the bottom of the tree is LOADED! It was very hard for me to leave it that way but I know if I move things around he will know and be upset. I am slowly learning to pick my battles!










We added a new member to our household this week. His name is Sam and he was a gift from Santa Claus. The story behind this little guy is that Santa sends him to watch over you at Christmas time to see if you are being good. Each night he goes back to the North Pole and gives Santa a report and returns before you wake up in the morning. This is the greatest invention! The key is to remember to move him each night before you go to bed as in the morning you look around your house to see where he came back too. Carter has had so much fun looking for him each morning in his new spot to "sit and watch" plus, we get to use this as trickery for good behavior, "Remember Sam is watching and will talk to Santa tonight". If anyone is interested I ordered him off Amazon for 29.95. It comes with the elf and a book that tells his story. Elf on the Shelf.





Lastly, we woke up Sunday morning to some pretty white stuff outside. I think winter is officially here as it was only about 20 degrees outside this morning! BRRRRR...Carter didn't seem to mind....








Stay warm!