eating already

Guess who's eating baby food already.  I know! Can you believe Ashely is already starting rice cereal?  She hasn't mastered the spoon yet.  Almost everything comes right back out, but she seems to like it.  Fruits and veggies are soon to come.  Yay!

This little girl will be 5 months old in just a couple of days!  It has gone quickly, but somehow I'm still just as tired as when she was 2 weeks old.  Perhaps that's just the way it will be for awhile....a long while.

Balloon Story

So about 3 months ago we took the kids out to eat at Red Robin.  While leaving, Carter and Ryan got helium balloons to take home.  Carter was holding the string of his balloon in his hand.  While getting out of the car, Carter let go of the string and the balloon started to float away.  He asked me to chase it down the front yard and across the street.  Unfortunately that little balloon was too quick for me and was too high for me to reach in a matter of seconds. Carter was heart broken.  It was as if Carter had this balloon his entire life (not just 20 minutes).  If you saw him you might think his best friend had just moved away.  He was THAT sad! 

The balloon has come up in conversation several times since the "incident".  He asks if I think it's still in the air or if I think it ever reached Mars. He constantly says, "Remember yesterday (fyi.. anything that has happened in the past regardless of the length of time Carter says it happened yesterday), Remember yesterday when my balloon floated away." 

It has been several weeks since he's asked about the balloon.  By now, I've forgotten all about it.  That's until I picked him up from school last week.  The class made a craft to take home.  I believe it was a picture of a dandelion so the kids could make dandelion wishes. At the bottom of the craft it says, "I wish" with a space for the teachers to write in whatever the child wishes for. So this is the bottom of Carter's craft:

For those who can read it, it says:

I would wish for my Mom to get my balloon back.  - Carter

Oh that poor kid!  I just love him!!

Easter 2012

What a busy week or I guess you can say Spring Break 2012.  Kyle and I took a very quick (36 hour) business trip to Florida.  We hit the beach, had drinks and meals on the outside patio, soaked up the sun by the pool and even saw a movie. I got a massage while Kyle was in the business meeting. I must admit, I was spoiled to have such a relaxing getaway!  After the trip, we met up with the kids at Grandpa and Grandma Meek's house in Evansville for Easter. We kept busy playing outside, coloring eggs and doing the annual Easter Egg Hunt.  I've captured some of the fun below:

Coloring Eggs.  The kids loved dropping the eggs in the dye, but totally lost interest while waiting for the eggs to be done.

Cousins: Aidan (5 1/2 yrs), Carter (4 yrs) Ryan (2 yrs)

Carter and Ryan ready for the egg hunt.

Let the Easter Egg Hunt begin!

Family Pics:

He's 4!

Carter is 4 years old.  He is so proud of it too.  I woke up March 20th to a little kid singing "I am four" and marching around the house.  He knows his birthday is a big deal.

It's been a week full of celebration.  First we brought cookies to school on Monday since he doesn't have class on Tuesday (his actual birthday).  The kids in class sang happy birthday and he got a sticker and crown to wear.  Carter also got to pick a present out of the gift box. He thought that was pretty awesome.  It took some explaining from us for him realize that his actual birthday wasn't until the next day.

On his birthday he started out with a doctor's visit.  Carter loves the doctor and always has.  He loves to get his ears looked at and this time they checked his blood pressure.  A new machine at the doctors office nearly blew his mind! Carter likes Dr. Gollnick so much that he invited her to his birthday party.  Aaww, how sweet is that!  Carter is still above average in height (42 in., 85%) and weight (38.25lbs, 70%).  Dr. G said he looks great. Carter needs four shots before starting kindergarten when he's 5.  He had the choice of waiting and doing all 4 later, doing all 4 now or splitting them up.  HE decided to split them up.  Because Carter was so brave in taking shots when he didn't really need to, he was allowed to pick a toy out of the treasure chest.  While waiting for his shots, Carter went on and on about how much he liked shots and didn't need me to hug him or hold his hand.  Well, that was short lived once he got the first one.  He was in for a rude awakening.  Screamed like crazy!!  On the way out, he told me he didn't like shots like the thought he did.  Poor guy!  Later that day we opened presents, had hot dogs for dinner (Carter's choice) and cupcakes and ice cream.

That night was his Spring Sing at school.  It was adorable watching the kids file into the church, stand at the alter, sing and dance.  It took Carter awhile to get into the music.  He was more interested in waving to us and call out to Ryan and Ashley.  At the end of the program Carter was picked to give a bouquest of flowers to the music teacher.  He felt like such a big boy! (picture: Carter is bottom row all the way to the right)

Wednesday was his birthday party at

 Snapperz.  20 kids playing in bounce houses, a climbing gym, bumper cars, laser tag and arcade games....Oh boy!  Carter made the guest list.  He insisted we invite all his friends and all his classmates.  He adores all of them and couldn't stand to not invite anyone.  He did a great job playing with all the kids and had a blast at the party.  Picture to the right is before we sang happy birthday.  He picked out a Disney Cars cake which all the boys at the party loved.  You can tell by the look on his face he's starting to get worn out from having so much fun.

This is a picture of the kids getting ready for laser tag and bumper cars.  Carter is in front of the line with Ryan right behind him (with her back to him).

Next stop in the birthday celebration train is a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Meek's house where he gets to play with Aidan and have another birthday party with them. 

*Ryan and Carter are going to Evansville while Nonna takes Ashely for an overnight tomorrow.  Mom and Dad are having a night out of town.  It's the first time I've left Ashely for the night and actually it's the fist time I've ever left one of my kids before they were 1 year old.  Usually I like to wait until they sleeping through the night and off bottles.  Sorry Nonna, you might be a little tired after your night with Dolly!  P.S. Happy birthday to Nonna!

Baby Ashley

Oh look how adorable these pictures of Ashley turned out!  Thank you to the talented Kelly Applegate who captured her little smile, chubby cheeks and big round eyes.

So cute, right?  Well, we can't get enough of our little Dolly.  We've switched her reflux medicine and she is one happy baby!  She is always smiling and does these big belly laughs.  We all spend a lot of time playing peek-a-boo and tickling her to make her giggle.  Ashley is almost 4 months old (so hard to believe!).  She has very strong head control and looks like she's ready to roll over any day now.  She loves to watch the mobile in her crib and play on her activity mat.  Of course being entertained by Carter is still her favorite activity by far!

As for the other kiddos, they're wonderful!  This picture of them cracks me up.  I have no idea what they're looking at, but both are very amused by whatever it is!

I can't even believe Carter is turning F-O-U-R in a couple of days.  We had parent/teacher conferences for his preschool and the teachers went on and on about how Carter is a people pleaser and how he is so caring and sensitive.  It's so true too!  He is always offering to share his last bite of chocolate with us.  He pushes Ryan up all the climbing toys at playground and places like Chickfila and Snapperz instead of leaving her behind so he can play.  The other day Ashley was crying in the car and he said her crying made him so sad that he wanted to cry too! As his Grandma Vickie would say, he is as good as gold!

Love

I love that Ashley has two looks:

Ashley with straight hair

Ashley (post bath) with curly hair

These photos also show the wide-awake and the about-to-fall-asleep looks too.

One other thing I love:
The way Ryan sings Crinkle, Crinkle Little Star.  I hope she never learns that it's supposed to be Twinkle instead of Crinkle.  Let's not tell her, ok?

What we've been doing

We've been trying to perfect our group shot.

 Ashley has been wearing hair clips.

 The kids have been playing in the snow with our neighbor, Jack.

 The girls have been playing on the activity mat.