Meet Carter!

Okay, the first set of pictures just to get some up for you! I'll post more of the family and kids' pictures later, but for now here's just lil' Carter. He's a sweet little guy and we all adore him. He's really easy-going except when we try to lay him in his cradle at night, and he wakes up every time. But once we finally got him to sleep around 2am he stayed asleep until I woke him in the morning at 8am. Looks like we'll have a full day of feedings to make up for that, but I sure wasn't going to wake him in the night! The kids love Carter to pieces and are so sweet with him. It's so weird to see Hannah grow up overnight! She's so big and so heavy in comparison to a newborn! I kinda miss my little girl, but I know she's going to be such a great big sister!

Soo... where did the name "Carter James" come from? Honestly, Carter is just a name that came to me when I saw the kids' blue and red push car laying in the yard one afternoon, and James is in honor of my birth father who died when I was a baby. I really wanted James as the middle name, so we were in search of a two or three-syllable name to go with it. And ta-da! It was the name that I wanted, but we still were never really decided on it until Kevin announced it at delivery! =) You can read all of the birth story HERE.

Welcome to the family, little guy! We sure do love you!!

Carter looks so much like Eli did, with his short blondish-brown hair. I'll have to look back at the photos to compare.


Stay tuned! You know me, there are a lot more pictures to come!! =)

Introducing...

Carter James
7 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches
January 14, 2010 born 1:50am

We're all home already and doing great! Details and pictures to come soon!

The adorable couple.

Just a few pictures I managed to snag of Paul and Holly while they were visiting... =)

#1 A framer.


#2 Sweet embrace.


#3 Love the smooshy-nosed kiss!


#4 I know they're just fixing Holly's necklace or something, but it's still cute!

Love you guys!

Christmas, Part 2

Even knowing there was going to be freezing rain followed with massive snow and Kevin needing to get back for work in the middle of it, we decided to head home anyway, packing quickly and scooting off before anything started. Instead of taking two vehicles as originally planned, we all piled into the truck where we felt quite a bit safer with its 4-wheel drive. We shifted family plans and ended up doing Christmas with Kevin's family first and staying at their house a couple nights so we didn't have to travel in the weather any more than necessary. It worked out OK, and it was nice to have that family time together Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of Thursday morning, especially since Paul and Holly weren't getting in until late Wednesday night anyway.

Then late Thursday morning we headed 30 miles down the road to have lunch and celebrate a quick Christmas with my family before Kevin needed to start the trek back in the snow for work. As chaotic as it seemed at first, it all turned out great, and we had a lovely holiday! Here are some pictures of my favorite moments...

the only picture I really have of my parents this time. shoot!While the kids were staying with Grandma and Grandpa during Kevin's and my Kansas City weekend, they made some homemade gifts for us. Ornaments for Kevin and a little jewelry box for me. They did such a good job, and I love Kevin's genuine smile here!

Eli totally LOVED this! A train he can run by remote. Both kids can work the thing better than I can!
Hannah's pushing little babies around in her new stroller.

Due to ice, the power went out Christmas Eve, so we enjoyed a candlelight dinner. The power flicked on just long enough to get some chili ready and then it was off the rest of the evening.

We all took turns playing Christmas carols on the piano.
Candlelight singing--what I've always dreamed of.

sleepy snuggles with Aunt Holly.
Nothing like holiday munchies.Paul and Holly reading the kids' pre-naptime story.

I love my family.

Still more pictures coming!!

Our own little family Christmas.

Before we left for home to celebrate Christmas with grandparents and other family, I wanted for us to have our little family Christmas here. We stuffed the stockings, let the kids open one present each, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast of strawberry cream cheese butter braid. So we did our little Christmas on Tuesday morning on Kevin's day off.

Under the Christmas tree...

I love filling stockings! For Hannah I found a lil' purse notebook, a small box of crayons, stickers, Hello Kitty playing cards, a set of mini Christmas books, and a $1 pink apron. Most of her things were thanks to Target's dollar bins! Love that place!
For Eli I found a Thomas the Train magazine activity book, stickers, mini tape measure, I Spy Christmas book, and a blue and red kitchen apron.Uh yeah, imagine Hannah's face at end of Eli's tape measure there. I was standing too close to get her in the picture. She was a good sport about this whole scene though.

Hello Kitty playing cards. Aren't they cute?

Some train track pieces for Eli. We're always missing some special connector pieces when building his track, so this small set contains mostly those. A Doodle for Hannah.

After all this we then had a morning-long debate about whether to drive back home or not. With freezing rain coming followed by heavy snow and knowing Kevin had to come back in the middle of it to work Christmas Day we just didn't know...