First Solids

I kind of can't believe that I'm the mom who is blogging about her baby's first experience with solid foods.
Oh well... feel free to judge me.

That being said, this girl is eating like a champ and loving the rice cereal. She's sleeping even better than ever. I love this girl.

Although, this morning I was so engorged that I pumped out 13 ounces. THIRTEEN!
Geez Louise.
And now I'm the mom who is blogging about her boobs.

Already?

I can't believe it. He's almost two years old. It's nuts.
Anyway, Blaine's folks will be here this weekend, so we figured we'd throw our little family birthday party early this year. I didn't have enough mail time to send out formal invites. Still, it's the thought that counts. He doesn't care anyway, right? I mean, will he even remember this birthday?
No... but I will. :)

Blessing dress photo shoot

To top off Jes's undeniable talent even further, she is also a talented photographer. My intention in going to her house the other day (other than to hang out, drink cokes, and let Jake, Walter, and Isabel jump on the trampoline together), was to use some of her photography equipment and take pictures of Sarah in her blessing gown. Well, not only did Jes take these pictures, but she also sent me home with a disc and some awesome Photoshop tips. (Thank you!) I love this girl.

Anyway, here are some favorites. I just love these pictures so much.
{Is it me, or do I have the sweetest, cutest baby girl ever?}

Jake wouldn't cooperate with the camera, but I like this one anyway.

Laurel and Isabel were helping to test the lighting. I like how Isa is looking at her mommy. So cute. {And how cool is my sister's hair?}

Isabel has turned into such a poser. I love her.

Sarah's blessing day

Well, it's more than two weeks later... two sisters have posted Sarah's blessing day on their blogs, but I'm just n ow getting around to it. Also, I didn't take a single picture... these were all taken by Jen, Megan, and Laurel. Oh well... that's what sisters are for, right?

It was a great day. Blaine gave a beautiful blessing and we are so grateful that we had so much family there to share the day with. We all gathered at our place afterward and enjoyed dinner and treats together. Thanks again, Carters, Lees, and Kemptons... we love family!

As for this killer dress... my good friend *the amazingly talented* Jes made it. Seriously, this girl's got skills. She made my wedding dress, which I still sometimes wear around the house to do some light cleaning... she also made my sister, Michelle's wedding dress, as well as both my nieces' blessing gowns. Jes rocks. She totally gets my style and I love it. At one point while she was working on it, she called me to ask about adding some extra detail to the bloomers... I told her she could do whatever she wanted. I completely trust her.
Well, see for yourselves.


Being girls and tying bows.

The fab four.

With my parents (Dave and DeAnn).

With Blaine's parents (Steve and Chris).

Just us girls.

My brother, Scott loves my kids. And they LOVE him. Scott even helped me give them a bath that morning and got Jake all ready for church...

While Megan, mom, Chris and I got the little girl ready for her debut. :)

Blowing bubbles.

Are you kidding me? Just look at this! I am in love with this dress.

Oh, Jake!

Today, while I was feeding Sarah in the kids' room, Jake was wandering around upstairs... playing with toys, the laundry basket, his new balloon (thanks, Scotty and May May!). Eventually, he ended up in our bedroom-- I just knew he was being sneaky and doing something he shouldn't.

I went to check on him and found that he had been playing with the little bag of tiny screws that's been residing on Blaine's nightstand for weeks now. Jake becomes obsessed with these every time he sees them. Frankly, I don't know why we haven't moved them from the nightstand. I mean, seriously, something like this was bound to happen.

Well, upon noticing the bag was missing some screws, I looked around and found that he had dropped a few down the floor vent. I scolded him a little for this, and then lifted the vent cover out for a closer look. I then scooped 42 tiny screws out of the floor. 42! The funny thing about this is that I'm pretty sure he's been at it for a while now. I think he's been dropping a few screws at a time for weeks, because when I filled up the bag, it seemed much more full to me than it has in a while.

Note to Blaine: I've moved the now full bag to your office.

Two Carter Kids

Okay, I may have outdone myself here by posting too many pictures.
Oh well. They are cute.


This Sarah girl is the sweetest little thing ever. Seriously, she is the perfect baby. She sleeps, she coos, she laughs, she smiles all the time. We are absolutely in love with her.

I wish Jake wasn't drooling a river in this picture. Still, he's so handsome.

Little toes.

Spending some time in the backyard. Jake was busy collecting leaves and eating grapes.

Sarah was just pretty and content in her Bumbo.

Nice baby mullet.

More drool rivers.

This is Jake's attempt at winking. It's kind of adorable.

Gosh, I love these Two Carter Kids.

New Mexico Trip

There's a New Mexico?
Yes, there is... and we love it.
Here are a few pictures from our New Mexico trip we took waaaay back in July. Blaine had a great time with the underwater case in the pool.

Jake loved swimming in Nona's pool. Seriously, this kid couldn't get enough of it. He was a champ.

Sean inflating his shirt-flotation-device. It's great in a life-saving situation.

I think Sean is attempting The Karate Kid "Crane" on an unsuspecting Douglas.

And here is my kid drinking the pool water. It totally made him sick while we were in Durango later on.

Doug making the long walk to the diving board. (Note that he is wearing flippers.)

Arg.

And here are the Carter boys swimming through the underwater hoops.

This is kind of a goofy picture, but Jake loves to say, "Two Carter kids" whenever I lay both kiddos down like this on the bed. It's pretty cute.

Daddy and Sarah at the chocolate shop in Durango. It was pouring rain, and we loved eating our treats in the storm.

Jake sans pants.
This kid had an embarrassing bout of "The Big D" at Cuckoo's in Durango. It was awful. But I'd like to publicly thank Steve, Chris, Jen, and Doug who helped Blaine and me out. I'd also like to publicly out Sean, who high-tailed it outta there while trying to control his gag-reflex.