Carter says......

"Mom, give me a lot of chicken, I need to grow so I can drive the combine."

"When I get big, I'm gonna drive that rocket.......and Daddy's gonna go with me" (while driving past the Space and Rocket Center Saturday)

"Lilah, I'm your big brother and that means I'm the boss...and I'm gonna keep you safe."


While his dad was lying exhausted on the couch, Carter stood on top of his knees and said, " I'M THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!!!!!"


"Mom, I am not going to sit in Santa's lap this year.....I might kick him and tell him I don't want his stupin (stupid) presents."



Carter to my baby bump, "Hi baby! It's your brother, Carter! I've got a question for you! Would you shut up?!"


Carter put his straw to his belly button and informed me he was giving the baby in his belly a drink. Then he proceeded to tell me that growing a baby "sure is hard work".


"Thank you God for sending the rain to water the cows, the corn and to wash Mom's car"


While laying on the couch watching TV with his dad, a ZQuiet (anti snore device) commercial came on, Carter says, "Dad, you should get one of those. Then you wouldn't wake us up with your real loud snoring."


Again to the baby bump, It's your brother, Carter, your name is going to be Roadgrader and when you come out I am going to spit on you!" Nice, Carter.


Each time his dad is leaving the house, Carter runs to the door and kisses him bye. Then he says (everytime) ....."Bye Daddy! I love you! Don't run over any trees, or old coyotes....and don't back into the pond."


"Mom, I don't want you to go to the hospital to let the Dr cut the baby out. (He vividly remembers being away from me for the majority of 2 days when I had Lilah) I'll just cut it out for you with Papa's knife."

*On a side note, we no longer watch the Discovery Health Channel, and mom sleeps with one eye open. :)*

**Carter is currently 3 years and 2 months old**

Got Plans?

So, what are you doing today? The C Fire Department is hosting a Carnival at East Brow Baptist Church on HWY 75 from 12-5 CST today! Please come out and support them!

There will be firetrucks.......

There will be food & drinks......

There will be pony rides.......




There will also be auctions where lots of great things will be auctioned off. Carnival-style games including but not limited to a Dunking Booth.......and much much more!



This little fireman will most certainly be making an appearance......

.....and so will his dad. Please come out and support the Fire Department today. They work so very hard for our community. Some of them have worked very hard to get this carnival together and I am praying for a huge turnout!

Hope to see you there!!

A Fun Saturday.....

....and some fun new toys!

My sister, Crystal, and brother in law, Chris, who live an hour and a half away, invited their nieces and nephews and their parents to spend Saturday with them. Their place is the perfect place to meet up since my brother, Heath, and sister in law, Aimee, live 2.5 hours from here but only 1 hour from my sister.

The only things hampering the fun was sister Dana and her family couldn't come, and Heath had to work.

The kids had a blast! Maggie & Lilah cracked me up all day long. They are the only girls in the bunch and I just know they are going to be bff's!

Also, Crystal sent me home with some new photography toys which I can not wait to play with! One of which requires a baby, and I just happen to know some one who will be producing one of those in a month or three....:)

...AND! I just got these new toys for the blog pics and am still tinkering with them but I am in love already! (Note: I am still tinkering, so some of the pics look a little wonky)

I hope everyone had a great weekend....but now it's Monday, and well, my house is to the point of getting on my nerves, so I. MUST. CLEAN.

Don't forget to pray for Stellan, I have been getting twitter updates from Mckmama through the night and he isn't doing well. I feel like I know them personally.

I have followed this family since MckMama was 23 weeks pregnant, which is exactly what I am right now. I held my breath at my appointment last Wednesday when Dr. H was doing the ultrasound exam of the heart and organs, and couldn't help but think about this family and this miracle baby as I lay there watching the screen. All was well and I am so thankful, but I also know the heartbreak that ultrasound machine can bring and have a serious love/hate relationship with it.

Have ya'll ever noticed I ramble?



Ugh!



You might start thinking EVERY post is a rambling dream post.......maybe you already did!

Also, if you haven't yet OD'd on pictures of cute kids, check out my first ever photo blog post HERE. I maxed out my flickr account in about a week so I decided to start showing pic previews here instead!

Pray.....

Mckmama posted twittered this pic of Stellan's heart monitor. Look at the heartrate.

Pray for this baby.

......and his family.

Friday Night Adventure.....

So we were on the boat. Matthew (11) was driving (it's okay though 'cause Aaron J was instructing him), and Rachel (9) kept singing "Row Row Row your Boat"....except the words were all wrong. It was a delightful mixture of Row your Boat & Johnny Be Good.

Anyway, Carter was loving his first kneeboarding experience and Lilah couldn't get enough of the tube. There must have been 15 or so people on the boat. Whose boat was it anyway? Glenn's maybe? Oh well, as long as there's gas, who cares, right? Kenny L was working the ski's.....which is incredible since he just had surgery on his foot. Maury just totally showed up the young guys...

On the way home we stopped at the BBQ place to eat. Carter pee'd in the floor many times.. Kyle kept getting on to him. I just kept laughing and laughing. Lilah thought it was a hoot. How did we get the boat to the BBQ place? Does anybody have a mop? Where's that Mtn Dew bottle? Lisa said that works well.

Oh look the rodeo is across the road this weekend.
Carter rode Lilah on the ponies.

How are we going to get the boat up the mountain?

When we got home, the snake was out. Good thing we drained it's poison, cause he's rubbing up against Carter's legs, kitten style.

Stupid snake.

Why does yahoo always make you sign in with your name + @yahoo.com. Don't they know you're @yahoo.com if you're signing in to @yahoo.com?

Stupid yahoo.

Hey look, there's the Imagination Movers!

"Jump up! Stand down! Turn around turn around turn around turn around! We're something something and we're having fun!"

Where is my camera?

Carter wants a trumbone. Did somebody tell Santa?

Who's knee is in my back?

What?

Is this for real?

Who's snoring?



Pregnancy dreams + Benadryl= one wild night.

Photo Phun!

I have had such a fun week, I just had to share some of it with you. We had a great holiday weekend spent with family & friends and I took tons of pictures. I hope to eventually play with some of the fireworks pics I took and see what I can come up with, but for now I'm having way more fun working on photos of actual people!

Here are a few pics from a couple of sessions I did last week. I still have 2 more sessions to edit so if you don't see yours on here, that's why.

The first is a maternity session I did with Holly & Cody. They are the cutest couple and their baby girl is due in just a few weeks! Holly is naming her precious baby after her sweet sister who died a year and a half ago......which made this session all the more special to us all!

Next is my neice and nephew, Maggie & Max, we had such a good time shooting these! They were both so good! I was a little nervous since my kids would also be there and would be dying to play with their cousins, but everyone did great!

To check out more from these sessions click HERE.

I have two more sessions this week! I'm so excited! I can't tell you how much I am loving all this photography stuff! Even the techy learning stuff......(which usually makes my head hurt)....is fun! I got lights this week and I'm looking forward to doing some indoor stuff as well as outdoor!

Need pics?? Give me a call or shoot me an email and we'll go from there!

Sk8tr Babies....

Lilah's the one on the right. (not really, but I can totally see her rockin' some of these moves!..ha!)......and Carter HAS been asking for skates. hmmmm...

Potty Training..Victory?

So, Carter decided one day a month or so ago that he was going to poop in the potty. He's been peeing in the potty for months now, but he'd have a meltdown when I merely suggested he try furthering his potty skills to include number 2.

In case you didn't know it, we live on a farm. From our house you can hear the neighbors occasionally, but you can't see them. They can't see us either, unless of course someone is hiding in the woods in which case that person would deserve whatever abnormal happenings they happened to observe.

Anyway.

It's not a big deal if Carter pees in the yard....

...or off the front porch.

...or the back porch.

It's not really even a huge deal when he pulls his pants down to relieve himself in the Frankies parking lot. (he was with his dad....his dad was mortified..lol) If you aren't local, Frankies is THE one and only convienence store in our town.

Today WAS a bit of a big deal though.

We took a little road trip to the poultry supply place in Albertville this morning. Kyle & Carter went in and Lilah and myself sat in the car. After 10 minutes or so the passenger door opened and Carter was standing beside the car. Pants down.

"Mom, I need you to wipe my bottom."

Gulp.

"Why?"

"I pooped."

GULP.

Sure enough I got out and went around to the side of the car where he was and there it was. All nine inches of it. (I'm estimating here....I didn't actually measure it)...but it was big.

Thank goodness the parking lot was gravel. Thank goodness my etiquette classes paid off and I had the forethought to cover it with gravel....(very discretely, I didn't want to call attention to us or anything)...then proceeded to wipe my child's rear, pull up his nice clean big boy undies, and strap him in his carseat.

Kyle came out of the store just in time for the rear wiping part. He said, "What are you doing?"

I pointed to the little mound of gravels and said, "Don't step right there....Hurry up and get in."

I wish I could tell you how many shades of red his face turned. Can you say "mortified"?

Me? I was just glad he didn't poop in his big boy undies. (or the car, or my house!) Yuck.

I'd say it was a victory.

....also Dad, for future reference, this is what happens when a 3 yr old tells you he needs to potty, there isn't a public restroom in the place, AND dad sends said 3 yr old into the parking lot ALONE to find his mom and let her deal with the problem.

Just so you know.

Ultrasound=UltraCool!

Check these out! Isn't it AMAZING how fast a baby forms and grows in the womb? Actually I should say, isn't it MIRACULOUS?

Ultrasound 4/15/09

Ultrasound 5/27/09

Ultrasound 6/24/09

My doctor visit yesterday went great! He told me I was carrying high this time, which is good, because I thought I was either having serious upper gastric issues or this baby was in an odd place for this point in my pregnancy. (half way there considering I'll probably deliver at 38 weeks as usual)

I'm really happy to know it's baby moving and not my intestines.

I'm sure you are too!


lol.

The baby must have really enjoyed his/her time with the ultrasound machine yesterday as well, because he/she put on a show during the ultrasound and has been moving like crazy ever since!

Fly By Fun...

This past weekend was crazy busy! Full of food, fun, fphotos, and of course, Fathers! We had cookouts on Friday and Saturday nights and on Saturday I did pictures for an adorable family and then senior portraits for a sweetheart of a kid who I can't even believe is about to be a senior! I'm also trying to finish a photography course I'm taking and some Photoshop classes before the baby is born and what little sense I have left goes out the window for a while.

Busy...but sooooo fun!! I am so humbled as I watch God work in our family. A year ago if anyone had asked me to take so much as a snapshot of them I would have laughed really loudly then would have promptly reminded them that my sister is the photographer in our family....not me! But God is providing. The camera, the photoshop (CS4!!! SQUEALLLLLLLLL!)...even the training. Like I said, I am so humbled.


All that said, by far the highlight of my son's weekend was when a longtime friend of the family provided us with a fabulous airshow at Dad's house. I have great memories flying with this man when I was a kid. We always had such fun, and I have to give props to my dad who held on tight to his puke bag for every flight, but still tagged along for the sake of me and my sister!

I have to admit though, when he made his dive then headed straight for the tractor which held my dad, my nephew, and my son....well, I nearly fainted.

Look:



Dad & the kids are standing in front of the tractor. You can barely see them! (I wasn't expecting the show so all I had was my 50mm lens (a prime, no zoom!) and no time to grab anything different!

Then he circled around for a second go at the kids and came directly over the house. I took this shot as he was right over my head. (I was standing on the porch!) Remember NO ZOOM!! This was such a cool picture I thought it was screaming for a bit of texture, so I added some. What do you think?



After a great time with family, lots of laughing, lots of eating, lots of loving on my dad......

Our heavenly Father showed off with a beautiful sunset.....

....a sunset that was even beautiful AFTER the sun set!

Week 24 Photo Challenge: "Lets hear it for the boys!"

In honor of Father's Day, I Heart Faces is featuring the men and boys in our lives this week. I hope to have a post up soon of our Father's Day fun with family, but in the mean time I had to show off a few of the guys in my life!

Funny Faces!

I took this picture of my dad and his three grandsons a few weeks ago. I love it! My dad was going to show the boys a nest of baby birds he had found.

Be sure to visit I Heart Faces to see all the entries this week.....and every week! You are sure to be inspired!

It's A.........

Test.

A Test that tells you if it's a Boy or a Girl.

It's not an ultrasound. It's a cup. And you pee in it. And then it tells you.

Or does it?

You can decide for yourself. My results are about as clear as mud. The "sample" is supposed to match up to the strip color on the bottle with either "Boy" or "Girl" written on the side of the bottle.

Super scientific.

Don't judge me, it was a gift.


Depending on the lighting the sample basically matches whichever color you convince yourself it matches.

As of right now, we are not planning on finding out what this baby is. I actually had two different sonograms at my last visit, and one dr offered up a guess. I declined to hear it and it. was. painful. See, that same dr offered an early guess with Lilah and he was right. My dr's office does an ultrasound at every visit which will make it hard not to find out! However, I do love this about them and in my opinion it only adds to their overall awesomeness!

Whatever it is, I am feeling baby moving now from time to time. I thought that this time it would be a breeze to recognize baby's movements since, you know, I've done it a time or three. But actually I didn't figure into those calculations the fact that I pretty much always have one of my babies kicking me, poking me, climbing on me, ...so, sometimes it's pretty hard to tell which one it is I'm feeling.

You may remember that we knew what Lilah was from about 15 weeks and we FINALLY agreed on a name about a week before she was born. Actually I'm not really sure you'd even say we agreed, more like, Kyle wanted to get some sleep and I wouldn't shut up about a name. Panic mode had long since set in. He finally said, "I don't care what you name her as long as it isn't Layla." I sat straight up in bed and said, "How about Lilah, then?"

"Sounds good to me...Goodnight!"

LOL.

We may be in trouble here.

I'm due November 20thish. Maybe he/she will have a name by Christmas....

Also, this is my 401st blog post! THAT is a LOT of babbling!

Summer Days....

I'll apologize in advance for the weak contents of this post (as if you expect anything more here...lol) but VBS started this morning at church then we left there and headed for Dr Jeanie's office where both kids had a checkup. All is well, and we found out that Carter's beloved Dr Jeanie is expecting a baby herself (her first) and is due about a week before I am.

Carter did NOT take this news well.

He apparently believes that Dr Jeanie's sun rises and sets around a certain brown eyed little boy and refuses to believe that the other kids we see streaming in and out of the office could possibly be loved by her as much as he is. I'm not sure what he thinks she does between his visits.

He did not like the idea of a baby actually living at her house!

Anyway, It's been a really long day. It started somewhere in the neighborhood of 2AMish with morning sickness. I'm not complaining...just saying. I. AM. TIRED. I believe it will be an early night around here tonight.

I hope!

Oh, and before my Esther study peeps go thinking I am a total and complete slacker in the attendance department, Deb, who ranks super high on my awesomeness list, seriously hooked me up in the DVD department....BUT! I miss ya'll, so I hope to make it next week!

Either way, I know you all understand. After all, didn't someone with really fab hair once say, "It's Tough being a woman?"

Now I'll leave you with some examples of what could be helping with my "tiredness" factor....

He rigged this all by himself. The water hose balanced on my floor mat (I was cleaning out my vehicle)

...and then he cleaned his vehicle.

...Carter and Mom had to clean up Lilah's mess

Not again! Who keeps leaving the child locks off??
Probably the same one who handed her his drink to hold (and drink insane amounts of sugar and red dye!) while he worked on his waterhose/floormat masterpiece!

Three

Dear Carter,

Today is your 3rd birthday. You are growing up so fast! It seems that every day you learn something new and amazing. You are so giving and love to be around people. You do not, however, like to share your beloved ride on tractor. We are working on that.

We had been doing really well on potty training, in fact, you were pretty much home free on the "number 1" part...........that is until last week. You had gone all by yourself, because after all, you must do everything "ALL BY MYSELF" when I heard the toilet lid slam pretty hard I just assumed you were finished. Until you said, "Mom?" I asked if you were okay and you told me "Mom, I snapped my pee pee with the potty." .....and my goodness did you ever! But you didn't cry one bit. Most grown men would have probably been curled up on the floor after that, but not you!

You also had a bit of an accident with the candles on your cake last week. I didn't even realize you'd burned yourself until I was looking at the pictures and asked you about it. I felt pretty bad about it after seeing the pictures, your face looked like it hurt pretty bad......but again, you recovered quick and blew the candle right out! You are one tough little boy!

You are such a giving little boy too, I'm so proud of that. Early yesterday morning we made a grocery store run to get some food to take to the funeral home. Some of your bestest buds, Jacob (15) and Elijah (14) grandmother passed away. I had told you about it, because after being at their house so many times I knew you'd remember her....and you did! Then you asked me if Jacob & "Lijah" were sad. Then you insisted that we take some popcicles to their house......right then (it was 6:00 AM) because "some popcicles will make them feel better, Mom" I told you it was kind of early for popcicles, but maybe we could take them breakfast? You were SO up for that, and made it your mission to see that I didn't forget. I know their dad was happy that we didn't make it to their house until almost 7 AM. (thank goodness he was up and heard us drive up! however, I had it in a cooler and was going to leave it, then call them a little later) I don't know any other 3 year old that would have even thought about trying to make them feel better. You are so sweet, Carter.

It's my prayer that you are always that considerate of others.

I look so forward to seeing what this year will bring. You are so sweet and loving with Lilah. You will become a big brother again. You are already so excited about that!.....In fact, today in the car you told me you wanted 5 more babies. I persuaded you that it would be a great idea to talk to Aunt Crystal about that little request!

I love you so much Carter! I could never have dreamed that any one human being could bring such joy to my life, and I thank God for blessing us with you.

Love,

Mom

a master of the Wii....at only threeee!

So.....

..... it's not that I don't like blogging anymore.

It's not even that I don't really have time to blog much lately.

It's not that I've been especially busy...

Or hosting (and getting ready for)a Memorial Day weekend/Non-Birthday/Charity cookout for Carter (& Lilah) and a host of his "super duper friends" (and ours).....

It's just......


Well, I'm just tired. In fact, these pictures of Lilah from after the cookout last night pretty much sum up my energy level lately......






(and just in case you're wondering, yes she is wearing Carter's old monster truck pj's. She only has about 2 pair of girly ones and they were both in the hamper. Who says girls can't love monster trucks, anyway?)

....so! Hope that explains my absence from this part of "The Farm" somewhat. I do go back to the Dr this Wednesday, so if you would please send up a prayer on our behalf. My level of nervousness always starts to climb in the days before Dr visits.


p.s.....Our Memorial Day/Non-Birthday/Charity cookout to benefit the Eric Crow Memorial Children's Christmas Fund at the church raised $325.00!! How fabulous is that??!! You guys are seriously awesome!! My kids didn't miss getting a ton of presents, in fact never even thought about it! Just enjoyed playing with their friends........and other kids WILL get presents for Christmas!

I'm totally thinking this is gonna be a tradition at our house!