Aunt Rachel comes to Raleigh

On Rachel's way from Wilmington to Charlotte for Christmas break, she stopped in Raleigh and called us! :) We met for dinner with Rachel and her roomie Heather at El Rodeo for some yummy Mexican and hugs and kisses for Carter.

Visits from one of the best men & maid of honor

Aaron's best friend Matthew came for a visit in December. He lives in California and was in North Carolina for Christmas. We see Matthew when he is in NC so I am thinking its time we paid him a visit to CA! :) Ok, maybe when Carter is a little older. Carter enjoyed building and knocking down towers with Matthew.





We also had a visit from one of my bfs, Julie! :) Julie is a life long learner, tackling her fist year of PA School at Duke. We were glad Julie had a nice break from school for a visit. :) She brought Carter a Curious George for Christmas. :)




Kisses for Julie

NC State...

In attempts to save money, we no longer (for now) have season bball tickets...so we only occasionally go to games. :/ We went to a game at Reynolds (against Winston Salem State where 2 former Clayton HS bball players play that we know) and I was able to get a few pictures with Ben McCauley & Simon Harris. I love pictures with State bball players. :)

Christmas...and Sickness

I am so behind...

Christmas post will be brief.

Christmas Eve--Spent at my Aunt Deborah's house in Smithfield (my dad's side)
Christmas Morning--Spent at our house with Santa
Christmas Lunch--Spent at my parents house in Raleigh (my mom's side)

Day After Christmas--Off to Charlotte for Christmas with Aaron's family
Day After After Christmas through Monday--Off to Roanoke for Christmas at Aaron's grandparents house

We had a great Christmas and wonderful time with family. Carter got lots of fun stuff and lots of love! :)



Reading the Christmas Story




Checking out everyone's stocking stuffers


Playing with my new toy

I have LOTS of pictures..and since I am behind, this is the easiest way for you to view them. :)

Pictures #1

Pictures #2

Pictures #3

Pictures #4

On that Sunday night, I caught the 24 hour stomach bug and was miserable. The 3 hour ride back to Clayton was horrible. Aaron went to some friend's house with Carter to watch the State bowl game and stay away from me for a while. While there, Aaron started to feel sick and came down the with stomach bug on Monday night. By Tuesday night, Carter had it too. I had always wondered how would I know when Carter threw up and I found out. Carter is the only person I wouldn't mind throwing up on me. :) We hoped that Carter would only be sick for 24 hours but it lasted for 9 days!!! It was a miserable 9 days!!! Since Carter was throwing up, he was not allowed to drink milk (which is the bulk of his diet right now). He had a combination of rice cereal (with just water which we determined he liked better than mixed with formula), bananas and apples and attempts at Pedilyte. Carter was not interested in the Pedilyte...we served it in a bottle, sippy cup, regular cup, through a straw, popsicle form, shavings of popsicle, added water...still not interested. Luckily, he still managed to have wet diapers so we knew that he was not dehydrated. We survived that time with some visits from my mom to hang out with Carter. It was a rough 9 days. After the stomach bug passed and still to this day, we are battling teething issues. Carter's 1st teeth (bottom ones) snunk in in November with no trouble but these top 2 have brought on some fussy times. Every night we pray that when we wake up, those teeth will be in. No such luck, yet!

Randomness...

My mom and I took Carter to see Santa and it was not a pleasant experience. He's not a stranger anxiety kinda kid, he just doesn't like people in costumes (Santa, Mr Wuf).



Carter enjoys this little car. He prefers to scoot backwards. In a later post, I'll have a picture showing his exit method from the car.



Carter loves mirrors! Mirrors are a great distraction while shopping!

We are alive!

Man, I am sooo far behind and that doesn't make it easy to get caught up. We've been doing lots of traveling and had lots of sickness but I think life is almost back to normal. I hope to update more later...Carter is actually napping and I must spend this time doing things a little more important than blogging.

Thanksgiving...Raleigh,Smithfield & Charlotte style...

Our Thanksgiving day did not go quite as planned. Aaron got up around 7:30am to let the dogs out and I stayed in bed listening to Carter talk through the monitor. Aaron decided to get Carter out of bed and play with him on the couch since he was awake and happy. About 30 minutes later, Aaron realized that he forgot to let the dogs back in...and they jumped the fence. Side note...this has been an on and off battle. We have a 4 ft fence and the dogs can easily jump it. We also have the electric fence up and the dogs still jump even with the shock collar on. Since they've jumped a time or two, we know their paths. They have jumped a lot more since Carter arrived. So Aaron sets off to find the dogs. I start to feed Carter. I hadn't heard from him in about 20-25 minutes so I called and he was having no luck. He did talk to a few people who saw them...on the other side of HWY 42 (ok, its not really a highway, its a 2 lane road but very busy). After Carter's breakfast, we headed out and rode around several neighbors for the next hour & half (where Carter ended up having his morning nap). No luck! Since it was approaching 10:30...I needed to head back home to make banana pudding. Aaron came home and put up signs around with our phone number. He tried to call Animal Control and the Police...no answer. He posted on Craigslist lost & found, facebook & myspace. Aaron decided that it would be best for him to skip Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family in Raleigh in case the dogs found their way back home. Carter and I headed there about 12:45...and enjoyed time with my parents, brother, grandparents and Carter.


Carter trying mashed potatoes...not really a fan!

Playing with Uncle Derrick


Sitting with Great-Grandpa

I returned home to find Aaron on the phone with a girl I talked to while looking for the dogs. She found them on a main road off of HWY 42 and gladly returned them...because they STUNK SOOOOOOOOOOO BAD! Aaron was so happy to have his stinkin' dogs back!:P So instead of packing for Charlotte, we gave the dogs a bath and took them for a walk to dry off. Needless to say, the day did not go as planned.

For dinner, we went to my Aunt Deborah's house in Smithfield with my dad's side of the family. I always enjoy this time to hang out with lots of cousins! :)

That night I was soooo pooped that I decided to skip packing and head to bed. Ugh...I paid for it on Friday morning. I was so rushed with getting packed for me and Carter and getting a shower. But we made it out of the house with everything only an hour later than planned.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were in Charlotte with Aaron's family. I managed to take zero pictures so I will add some from that trip when I get them from Aaron's dad. As always, we ate so yummy food, watched football, rested, shopped a little, and more football.