February 2013

February was another fun month for us!  We started out the month with a birthday party for one of Dawson's friends, Charlotte.  She had her birthday party at Tumblebears Gym which Dawson loves!  For the party they even got out the zipline, and Dawson was so brave to do it!  Unfortunately the picture I got of it was not too great.

 

February was a cold month and we have had some snow off and on, but we also had about 3 days where it was warm enough to play outside for a little while.  Both Dawson and Carter were thrilled to be outside. 

 

We went to the zoo once this month.  It was a rainy day, so we just went to Storytime at the Zoo where the kids got to listen to stories, pet a hedgehog, and then make a hedgehog out of construction paper and stickers!  After that we spent the rest of the morning in the Wee Play Area.  Carter even had fun crawling and cruising around the baby area here this time!  As we left it had stopped raining so we got to see a few animals before heading home!

Dawson was excited to also get to pet this lizard!

Dawson and his friend Jay playing in the Wee Play Zoo.

Carter LOVED this crawl area!

 

One of Dawson's favorite things we did this month, was go on a visit to the fire department with our Moms of Maryville group.  Here fireman Steven is putting on all his gear to show the kids that even with the mask on, he's not scary!

Dawson loved climbing up in the big truck!

Dawson and some friends climbing on another truck.

Dawson and Colt in the big truck.

Dawson with Fireman Steven.

Dawson loved this!  He said it was like a Gator

for the firefighters.

A fun morning at the fire department!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Carter

at the fire department.  I had him in the Moby wrap

the entire time we were there.  (Which was probably his last

time in the Moby, because he was pushing right on baby three!)

 

Since the month has been SO cold, we have had a lot of indoor playtime, and Dawson and Carter are starting to interact more and more when they play.  I love it!

 

 

On Valentine's Day we had heart-shaped

pancakes for breakfast (dairy-free so Carter

and I could enjoy too!) 

 

 

Oops!  This picture got out of order, but one semi-warmer day I loaded the boys up and went to the park to work on Dawson riding his bike.  We had a fun morning, but we were getting a little chilly by the time we were done.

Dawson looks like such a big kid on this bike!

 

 

 

Now back to Valentine's Day!  Here's

my Valentine Dawson! So handsome!

 

We made this Valentine's Day cake for a little

Valentine's party we had with M.O.M. friends.

 

My two sweet Valentine's!

 

 

Lolly with her grandsons on Valentine's Day.

 

 

Then we tried to get the same picture with Pop,

but the boys got a little rowdy!  I still love this

picture, though!

 

Nana and Grandad came by with Valentine's

for the boys too, but for some reason I wasn't

thinking and didn't get any pictures!  :(

Here's my precious Carter on his first Valentine's Day!

 

 

At the very end of February, our friends the Whites drove over to visit us from Asheville, NC.  We had such a fun day watching all of our kids play at catching up.  Even though the picture below, doesn't show it-they all had a great time playing!  We hadn't seen them since the end of summer, but hopefully we will see them again soon!  Left to right: Dawson (3.5 years), Carter (10 months), Henry (2.5 years), and Thomas (1 year).

 

 

One of Dawson's newest tricks is getting in Carter's crib.  He thinks it's hilarious.  I think it's funny to see how big he looks standing in the crib!

 

Then we ended the month back at Tumblebears Gym for a playdate!  Dawson's current favorite thing to do there is swing on the rope, and I think this is where we spent most of our time.  He was begging me to take pictures of him on the rope, but he swings so fast most were blurry. 

 

Dawson loves it when we go shopping at

Earth Fare because they have his size shopping

carts!  I love how cute he looks pushing this!

My helper!

Baby Three Update: 16 Weeks

Time for an update on Baby Three!  Today's the last day of the 16th week for us, and we will find out the gender on Wednesday!!!  We're so excited to find out.  John and Dawson think the baby is a boy, while I'm guessing girl.  I thought my pregnancy with Carter went by quickly, but this pregnancy is flying by!  I cannot believe it's already time to find out the gender!
To answer all the normal pregnancy questions-
-How have you been feeling?  I've been feeling great!  This has been the easiest pregnancy!!  I had no nausea or morning sickness, and my only complaint was being tired early on.  Thankfully even that has passed now.  I've still been feeling good enough to run a couple of miles at the gym a few times a week even.  I'm hoping that this will continue to be an easy pregnancy all the way through to the end!
-What are you craving?  I'm not really craving anything specific.  My diet has been so restricted eating dairy-free for Carter's milk allergy, that I think I've gotten used to a limited amount of choices.  If anything, I think I could always eat some salty chips though!  :)
This past week, I started feeling the baby move for the first time, and it's still just as exciting with number three! 
So, next time we update the blog we will be sharing the baby's gender and name!!!
For now, here are the weekly pictures.  The baby is growing!

13 Weeks

14 Weeks

15 eeks

16 Weeks

Carter is TEN MONTHS!

Impossible to believe, but true- our sweet Carter is TEN MONTHS old today!  The past month has been a very busy one for Carter.  He's a faster crawler than ever before!  Although he still crawls on his tummy army style about 75% of the time, this month he managed to do some crawling on all fours.  When he's really trying to move though, he knows he is much faster in his perfected army crawl and drops from his knees to his belly and moves, moves, moves!  He is SO fast!  It's unbelievable!  He has also started doing some serious cruising.  He loves to cruise the sofa, tables, train table, and even along the cabinets just keeping his hands on the outside of the cabinets for balance.  At this rate, I think he will be running by his first birthday.  :)  As he has become more active he has become less content to be in the Johnny Jumper, Exersaucer, and Walker much to my dismay. I miss being able to put him somewhere semi-stationary that he would be happy. 
I think the main reason that he's so active and moves so much is because he tries to stay caught up with big brother.  Speaking of brother-now that Carter is more active than ever, there have been some sibling disputes in the playroom. :)  Carter wants to be right where Dawson is, playing with what Dawson has, talking (babbling) when Dawson talks, and so on.  Dawson attempts to be as patient with him as a three year old can be, but to be honest, a lot of times this does end in one of the two boys upset.  It really is sweet though, how interested Carter is in his brother.  If Dawson's talking, Carter just starts babbling over him, Dawson gets louder, then Carter does too!  We are convinced that Carter is the loudest member of our family because he's always yelling.  He's happy, just yelling.  The other day Dawson took something from Carter, so Carter took off after him crawling and yelling, after a minute of unsuccessfully trying to catch his brother, Carter just started yelling, "MA MA MA MA!"  Is this Carter's first time tattling?  :)
Carter is so aware of everything that is going on around him.  Lately this is making food very difficult.  As far as we know, he is still allergic to milk so he is very limited on what he can eat.  He looks at brother's plate and yells and reaches for the things on it meanwhile I feed him veggies, meat, fruit, and dairy free crackers.  He has realized that he's not getting EVERYTHING, and he's not too happy about it.  The good news, though, is that he's still an excellent eater.  We have perfected dairy free pancakes, and he eats between one and one and a half big cakes.  He still likes his oatmeal for breakfast and bedtime snack and meats, veggies, and fruits for lunch and dinner.  He nurses about 5 times a day still too.  He's started having little snacks of dairy free crackers, Cheerios, and fruit too.  If anyone in the house is eating or having a snack, he thinks he should be eating too!  I guess it takes a lot of food to fuel all the moving he does!
Carter is still on the same nap schedule, and he has still been getting up just two times a night to eat.
In addition to Ma Ma, Da Da, Bye Bye Bye, and Bu Bu (brother), Carter has also started saying BO (boat) when pointing to the sailboats in his room.  He's really proud of this and wants to do it each time we're in his room.  When you ask, "Where are the lights?" he will now point up to the lights in each room and smile.  In addition to this communication, he's still signing "more," and he's also started signing "all done."  We have shown him the sign for "changed" when he's getting his diaper changed, and he tries this but he has yet to perfect it.  We are also working on the sign for cup, but at this point he finds it easier to yell when he wants his cup than take time to make the sign.  :)
Carter is still a very happy boy, and he's the happiest crawling or cruising around the playroom with big brother's big kid toys.  Carter also LOVES bath time.  He seems to know that big brother does not like to be splashed, and so he makes sure to do this all the time.  He's so wild in the tub, but he has so much fun splashing around.  Carter doesn't mind at all when his entire face including his eyes and noes are soaked, he just smiles.  One final thing we love that Carter is doing more and more at this age is dancing.  If there is music playing anywhere, Carter hears it, stops what he is doing, and sways side to side!  So cute!
We love Carter so much, and we can't believe how quickly the past ten months have passed!!
On to the pictures....

Carter is 10 months!

Both boys were giggling and squirmy

during the pictures, but they were having fun!

Dawson and Carter.

Carter clapping for himself during his little

photo shoot!

Carter cruises all the furniture and walls

now, but sometimes he gets tired from

all this crusing and has to rest!

And then he's back to crusing!

Carter trying his first pancake (dairy-free, of course).

He liked the his pancakes much better

the second time around.  (I improved

upon the dairy free recipe, and they were tasty!)

Now he loves them!

I love to watch these two play

side by side.

And, Carter still loves to tunnel!

Our Visit from the Houghs

The last weekend of January was a lot of fun!!  Our friends the Houghs came up from Alabama to visit us.  Steven and Kelly have been kind enough to host us in Alabama TWO times, and we have been trying to work out a time for them to come visit us since July!!  Thankfully it finally worked out!  We had such a fun weekend hanging out with them and their sweet 11 month old, Henry! 

The Friday they were supposed to arrive we had an ice storm, and I was worried they wouldn't be able to make it.  BUT thankfully they did!  Friday even we just chatted and let the kids play.

 

 

Saturday morning the boys spent a long time playing in the playroom all in their footed pajamas!  Carter and Henry were REALLY interested in each other.  We joked that they were baby wrestling because they would just crawl over top of each other.  Dawson enjoyed the little boys too!  He loved to refer to them as "the babies."  (Since Henry left, this has actually continued.  Now he has been referencing Carter and Baby 3 as "the babies."  I think he just like distinguishing himself as a big kid!)  He was always telling us what "the babies" were doing; not tattling, just updates.  "The babies are looking in the toy box."  "The babies are playing with the train tracks."  It was so fun to spend some time with Henry because I know if we were still in Alabama, we would be having playdates with Henry all the time (for Carter and Henry's benefit, of course!)  :)

On Saturday afternoon we all got dressed up in our Tennessee orange to go to the UT basketball game.  Lolly and Pop kept Dawson and Carter since it was nap time, and the rest of us headed on to the game.

Go Vols!

When we first arrived,

we took some time to walk around campus.

Steven and Kelly went to UT too, although

we didn't know them until we moved to

Alabama.  It was fun to walk around campus

a little though and see what all had (and hadn't) changed.

Then here we are before the game began!

Henry loved watching everything that was

going on in the arena.  He was perfectly

entertained the whole time!

Thankfully we cheered the Vols on to a one point victory

over Alabama!!

On Sunday we had the Gibsons over for lunch

for a little Alabama reunion!  :)

It was so fun having this group together and

watching the kids play.  Here's a group shot of

all the kids!

Left to right:  Dawson, Carter, Henry, Olivia, Charlie.

Babies with Mommies.

 

We really had such a great weekend with our friends!  We hope they will come back to visit again very soon!!!

Baby Number THREE!

John, Dawson, Carter, and I are excited to announce that our family will be growing!  Baby Zorio 3 is due on August 12!

We had our first ultrasound to see Baby Three

when I was 8 weeks pregnant.  The baby looks

healthy, and the heart beat was strong!

Then we got another ultrasound at

11 weeks!  Look how much our little

baby grew in just three short weeks!

Again, the baby looks healthy with a

strong heart beat.  We could see him/her

moving during the ultrasound too.

I have to say, that even with this being

our third, it is still amazing when they

show you the tiny baby on the ultrasound!

 

When we were 10.5 weeks along we decided to share the news with our families.  We shared the news with Dawson the same day we told our families since we knew he couldn't keep a secret!  :)  Dawson said, "that's good" when we told him the news.  He didn't have much of a reaction at all.  Over the course of the past couple of weeks though, Dawson has been talking about "the new baby" a lot.  He has told us that he thinks the baby will be a boy, his favorite color will be yellow, and he's also given us several name suggestions.  In true, three-year-old boy fashion, the first two names that he suggested were Poopie and PeePee (lovely, I know), but then he suggested John Deere.  Lastly he suggested Moby.  (I think he came up with this name from the Moby Wrap Carrier I put Carter in a lot.)  We will clearly NOT be naming the baby any of these names, but to make it fun for Dawson we told him we could call the baby Moby until we find out if it's a boy or girl.  Then we will call him/her by their name.  He thinks this is fun for now.  As for the gender, John's guess is boy.  Dawson's guess is boy.  AND my guess is girl.  Maybe I'll hold up some pink and blue and have Carter pick a gender before our ultrasound, so he can be involved too!  :)  As of now, we are scheduled to find out the gender on March 6th!  We have our girl name picked out, but we still have to determine a boy name before the gender ultrasound!

Other pregnancy information, so far this has been the easiest pregnancy yet (knock on wood)!  I have not been sick at all really.  The only thing I have experienced is fatigue.  I will admit I'm a lot more tired than either previous pregnancy, but I can take tired over the other options!  :)

When I was twelve weeks we shared the exciting news with our friends, and now here on the blog too!

By the time Baby Zorio Number Three arrives Dawson will be four and Carter will be 15 months.  We are so excited to be welcoming another baby to our family, and we love him or her already!

 

 

11 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Three

 

12 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Three

January 2013

We spent the month of January looking for indoor activities to entertain ourselves since it has been SO cold here!  We have had some crazy weather this month from flooding, to snow, to an ice storm; needless to say, we haven't played outside much at all!

We started the month out by taking Dawson

and Carter to our old high school for the homecoming

basketball game!  Dawson had a blast watching the game,

getting attention from our friends and teachers, and eating

some snacks in the stands.  Carter did great too!  The

game went until after 9:30?!  John and I both commented that

we couldn't believe it went so late, and then we laughed at

ourselves because the games went that late when we were in

high school too and we never thought a thing about it.

When you have kids to get in bed it's a different story!  :)

Dawson and Carter were great for being up almost TWO

hours past bedtime, and both seemed to have a great time!

Above is a picture of Dawson and Daddy in the stands!

On January 13th John and his Dad left

Tennessee for Arizona.  They had planned

a several day vacation to Phoenix to

play golf and see some sights.

Here are some amazing pictures he took

while on his trip. 

Oh, and here's Carter helping

pack Daddy's suitcase before John

left for Arizona.

So pretty!

John and his Dad in Arizona.

John on the Arizona trip.

Arizona.

Arizona.

John in Arizona.

When John and his Dad were flying

back from Arizona, it started snowing!

Dawson loved watching it snow!

He was so excited!

We took some time to play in it

the evening it snowed.  Dawson

also got some time in the snow

the next morning after John was

home.  Dawson was begging to

ride his Gator through the snow,

but it turned out not to go well

in the snow.  So the guys made

snowballs, played, and even built a

fire in the fire pit in the snow!  Dawson

loved it!!  (Carter and I stayed inside

where it was warm!!!)

Carter ready for the snow in his

snowman sweater!

Carter got a little time in the snow,

but he wasn't really a fan of the cold!

Dawson made this snowball that we kept in our

freezer until two days ago when he decided it

was time to throw it on the patio and drive over it on

his John Deere Gator!  haha!

John brought us back some souvenirs

from Arizona.  This is Carter's onesie.

Too cute!

And here he is wearing it!

The week that John was in Arizona

we had some wild weather.  At

the beginning of the week it flooded.

This was a picture I took driving down

the street to send to him!  Then at the

end of the week he was welcomed back home

with snow.

We had to get the baby gate out

of the attic since Carter crawls everywhere

quickly now.  If I leave the room, the both stand

at the gate like this yelling...you would think I

locked them in a room with no toys or something?!

I love to see these two sweet brothers

playing side by side.  Look how big

Carter looks!

 

Also this month we've had some fun playdates with our friends the Gibsons and the Myers.  The last weekend of January we had some friends from Alabama come up for a visit.  I plan to do their visit as a separate posting as soon as I get the pictures together.  Other than that, this wraps up January!