Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Beach

Two weeks ago we went to Ocean Isle Beach with my parents and Sara, Mark, and Anna.  We took a couple days of work and Avery had a blast playing with her cousin, while we enjoyed having dessert with lunch, mid-afternoon dessert, and dessert with dinner. (Thanks Mom!)

Ocean Isle was having a festival that we walked down to the first 2 days.  Home Depot had some kits to build birdhouses, so that is where we started.

Ready to do some damage!
 Avery was a brave girl and held the nails while I pounded them in.  Anna was more of in a management position for the building of her birdhouse.
 Next up was painting the houses.  Avery and Laura took on this key task.
Carter was less interested in a bird house.
 On the way back to the house, the two girls were plenty warmed up to each other.

I think they had a good time.


We spend the afternoon at the beach.  While it was too cold to get into the water, the girls did a good job getting very close to it.
And since there was grand parents around, there were plenty of active participants to help dig holes and make sandcastles for the girls to smash.
Carter had a tough time napping, so he took a lot of naps in the carrier on Laura.  I think Laura was pretty happy to get some extra snuggles.
On Sunday, we went back to the Oyster festival and spent some time at the playground.  Anna was pretty stoked.
It was great to have Uncle Mark as a playground buddy.
Silly Uncle Mark....when I tried this by myself, the horse fell over and refused to spring back.  Avery was not happy about it.
After the festival ended, we spent most of the time at the beach enjoying some sun and sand.  (But not the water)
Carter had a good time just enjoying being outside.  When we set him down, he just kind of laid out and relaxed.
Laughing at something silly the girls were likely doing.
This was really fun to watch him discovering sand.  Usually the first thing he does when he grabs something new is to put it immediately in his mouth.  Here he kept grabbing handfuls of sand, but would squeeze hard and it would slide out of his hands.  He would give it a puzzled look then try to grab another big handful and give it another puzzled look.  Don't get me wrong, he eventually took a big ol chomp, but it was a lot of fun to watch the discovery process.
We also took some long walks on the beach when it was too cold to get near the water.
Avery and Anna mostly ran around like crazy people.  If you had GPS tracking on them, it would have looked like one of those Family Circius cartoons where they cover 10 times the distance necessary to get somewhere.  You can tell by their faces though, they had a blast.
They wouldn't take a picture with us, but this is us at the end of the inlet.  Carter is in there somewhere.
There he is.  He was really enjoying his snuggle time with Laura, but always has a smile for Daddy.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Pumpkin Patch

 Since we had a weekend at home 2 weeks ago, we decided to take the kids to the Pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins and have some fun on a nice Sunday afternoon after it had finally stopped raining.  This farm is right down the street and the idea was shared with quite a few other people, but Avery had a blast.

Headed out with mommy to pick out family pumpkins.
 Carter was immediately overwhelmed by the experience and needed to take a break.
 Once Carter finally woke up we got a family picture in front of a tractor.
 And then we got a full family picture, although Carter was certainly interested in all of the people and whatever was going on over to his left.
They also had a dress up area so Avery pretended to be a firefighter for a little while.  Unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to turn on the sirens.
 My two little farmers.
 There was also a mini corn maze minus the corn.  So a maze...


Saturday, October 24, 2015

Game Number 3

Prior to Laura's recent post about fun in Vass, we headed to Raleigh for the 3rd game of the year.  It had a pretty rainy forecast, but we were optimistic about having some fun.

Avery with her little hipster hat, relaxing on the way to the game.
 Once she was there, she was pretty excited and was super excited to play with Uncle David.
 However, since it was a noon game, she hit the wall and got tired in the second half of the game.  The previous games were 6pm games so while she may not have napped, she took a rest before the game.
 However, as Laura went to take her out of the game, we found something that cheered her up and convinced her to stay.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Game #3 was the same weekend as my birthday and since I get my birthday off work, the kids and I made it a long weekend in Vass (Robert doesn't get my birthday off so he went back home to work - booo).  The weather was very rainy due to Joaquin making an appearance, but we had fun inside (minus the football game, but we were prepared for that).
Avery and Carter got a chance to hang out with their great-grandparents on Sunday and we had a little photo shoot with Grandma's Fall table decor.  My mom "gifted" me several items for my birthday, like my high school letter jacket, pom-poms, girl scout uniforms, and prom dresses.  It was pretty fun going down memory lane while helping her clean out closet :)  She also gave me an awesome Essential Oil starter kit so I can be as happy and healthy as a hippie!  On the way home, Mom and Stephanie followed us to Seagrove for a little pottery shopping.  All this gorgeous pottery was made so close to my home growing up and it took me 35 years to finally go buy some -- I'm hooked!  When we got back to Charlotte on Monday evening, Robert had flowers, gifts, and a nice steak dinner made for me.  He hung the wreath that Stephanie made for me and unloaded the car.  I'm sure he is jealous of the New Kids On The Block beach towel I have back in my possession.  I am truly a lucky girl!  35 is a good year so far.  Now on to the photos!

Playing with Papa



First kitchen sink bath!




Hanging with the family



Fall photo shoot









Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Walking Carter

Just kidding...he can't walk yet, but he is pretty cute trying in his boat shoes.


Monday, October 12, 2015

6 Months

This little guy turned 6 months old a few days ago.  He had his doctor's appointment and is up to 15lbs 6oz (12%) and 27" (64").  So long and lean...although I don't think he has the genetics to say on the tall end.  The teachers say that he loves to eat and is the happiest when they put him in the high chair for a big bowl of sweet potatoes. 

He moved up to this room yesterday as he has been doing a good job sleeping through the night for the most part.  Sometimes he is up at 4, sometimes at 6.  While he isn't sitting up quite yet, he is working on it.  His crawling is still mostly just roll, pivot, and flop; but it is enough that we can't leave him on the floor and expect him to remain in that same spot.  Anyways...on to the pictures!

 Cute little grin.  It is so hard to get smiles from him when the camera is out.
 Best buddies.
 While the biggest smiles used to go to Daddy, I think Avery gets the most now.