Happy Birthday!

There's still more celebrating to do this weekend with Matt's family, but tonight we celebrated Carter's (and my) birthday with my family.

A recap of my day first: Matt got me a new MacBook Pro. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything to learn and frustrated that some of the shortcuts aren't the same as a PC, but this blog post is coming from my laptop while I'm watching American Idol. That's a great feeling. Maybe now I'll keep up better on my blogging! Matt is such a great gift-giver, and he always manages a great deal because he knows I'm not happy with a gift if it's more money than I want to spend (I would have never asked for this gift). I'll never be able to equal his ability, but he still loves me for my efforts! Some church friends took me out to lunch as well, and I got lots of birthday wishes from friends and family.

Carter didn't know his day was any different except for a visit to the doctor's office where he got three shots! Cruel of me, I know. Carter weighs 23 lbs. 13 oz. in the 66th percentile, and he is 31" in the 85th percentile. He's looking to be taller than Caleb will be.

My family came over for cake/ice cream and presents. Here are some pics:

I made a Texas sheet cake because it's one of my favorite cakes. Ariane brought some peanut butter balls as well, since I'm a sucker for peanut butter and milk chocolate. They were yummy.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Carter and I blowing out our candle.

Carter crawled on the table ready to dig in!

Matt took a lot of pictures of Carter eating cake. Here are some of my favorites:

He couldn't understand why everyone was watching him/filming/taking pictures. "I'm just doing my thing." Carter LOVES to eat.

Opening presents. This shirt says "I'm always hungry." Perfect.

Carter is most always asleep by 7pm if not earlier. It was 8pm when the party wrapped up. You can tell how disinterested Carter is.

I couldn't get Carter's red eyes to edit for some reason, but I still thought this was a cute picture. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Sweet Tooth

Carter is going to have a sweet tooth like his Mama! Honestly it doesn't matter what anyone is eating; if you have food, Carter is right next to you like a little doggie begging for a bite. In this case, I was making a dessert and accidentally dropped a Cool Whip lid on the ground. Carter was quick to snatch it up and have his way with it. Carter turns one at the end of the month, and I'm predicting he will demolish his piece of cake.

Preschool Field Trip

We have been learning about bugs this month in preschool, so we did a field trip to the Butterfly Museum. The kids were so excited about going and talked about it for 2 weeks. I was really excited about going because it was my first time to use my new camera! Our Christmas present to ourselves was supposed to be a new camera (our old one was literally falling apart), but we decided to hold out for a sale. We now have a Canon G12 PowerShot that we're really enjoying using and experimenting with. I haven't read the manual yet (it's on the to-do list), but I can already tell a difference in the quality of pictures. Anyway, here's a slideshow of our trip:

Rodeo 2011

We enjoyed going to the Rodeo again this year, courtesy of Matt's work. We scored FRONT row seats this year which, as part of the action seats, gets free food. It was fun to take Caleb this year and let him see all the animals. We love so many of Clay Walker's songs, so it was fun to see him live. Caleb stayed awake the whole time, then zonked out in the car. Thanks to my parents for watching Carter for us!

And He's Off!

Caleb started walking at 10 1/2 months almost to the day. After Carter turned 10 months, we kept joking that he had until Feb. 15th to figure out how to walk. He wasn't very close at all though. He loved to walk around holding our hands, and did pretty well at holding just one hand, but his balance wasn't as good as Caleb's.

He shocked us all on Feb. 15th when he took his first independent steps (5 of them). I was finishing up some dinner prep in the kitchen, and Matt was on the floor playing with Carter. We had my sister over for dinner that night who was also on the floor playing with her son. Carter was standing up holding onto Matt, and then he just took off walking to Ariane.

So he tied Caleb and has since done very well at walking further distances. I love the zombie arms as he walks. Now it's time to work off all that baby fat (and he has a lot of it!).

He is all smiles and giggles as he walks from one person to another.

Love this cute face!

Daddy Time

Caleb has been really interested in building things right now, so Matt and Caleb have been busy every weekend.

The first weekend they built the ramp in the back of this picture out of a cardboard box and pizza boxes for his cars to go down. They also built an elaborate train track together and a station for all the trains to park in.

The pizza boxes didn't hold up so well, especially with Carter trying to climb on the ramp, so Matt and Caleb built and painted this ramp together. Matt used some scrap wood that the builders in our neighborhood were just going to toss. Caleb's loved having races down the ramp with his cousins and preschool playmates.

And lastly they built an amazing fort in our family room this past Friday using all the blankets we have in the house. (It was an unexpected three day weekend because Friday was a "snow day". It didn't snow where we live, but the overpasses were icy, so schools were cancelled and most work places were cancelled.) We left the fort up all weekend, but I forgot to take a picture of it before they took it down yesterday. It provided great entertainment for both my boys. Reading books and playing with toys is sooo much cooler when you can do it in a fort!

Pictures Galore

My sister-in-law, Kara, did a photo shoot for everyone while she was here this Christmas. She is finishing up her degree in photography, and you'll see how fabulous she is! I can't wait to frame them all to decorate my house. Thanks Kara! (click to enlarge)

All the grandkids with my mom and dad

The new babies

Everyone

Sisters

The men

All the boys

All the girls