February Fun

So far, we've had a fun February!  Dawson and I are so thankful for our friends, the Gibsons, because we've managed to have a playdate with them EVERY week!  I am not sure who looks forward to these more-me or Dawson!  We've played at Gym Bugs and Tatarus-both are indoor tumbling gyms.  Dawson loved the trampolines and balls a Gym Bugs, and then he had a fun in the foam pits and just running in the huge gym at Tatarus.  I even got in the foam pits with him which I felt like I deserved a gold star for being this pregnant and managing to get in an out of the foam pits!  :)  We've also had a playdate here and at Charlie's house.  Unfortunately with all this playing, I somehow didn't manage to snap a single picture! 

Also this month our friends, the Whites, came over from Asheville for a visit!  We were thrilled to see them since it had been SO long!  Since we last saw them their family grew, and we were thrilled to meet Thomas!  We had a great afternoon and evening visiting and catching up while watching Dawson and Henry (1.5 years) play!  We always love to see them, and we're hoping to see a lot more of them now that we're only about an hour and a half away!

At the beginning of February Dawson started swim lessons.  He had been asking about his swim lessons like he had in Alabama before we moved, so we quickly found a place that offered classes for his age here.  So far we've had three classes.  They meet once a week until the end of March.  Dawson LOVES going to "swim class," and I can tell that since his last session of classes in Alabama he has become more comfortable in the water.  He still doesn't love to put his whole head under water.  This morning before swim lessons he randomly informed me, "God doesn't want me to get my whole face wet under the water at swim class."  How could I argue with that?!  BUT when we got to his lessons, he did decide to go under-although he wasn't crazy about that part of class.  He looks forward to his swim class all week, and every time we drive by the Wellness Center where he takes his lessons he points out:  "that's mine swim class on Saturday!" 

A couple weeks ago Dawson also got the chance to play with his second cousins Corbin (2) and Ashton (8).  Corbin is two months older than Dawson, and they played together very well! 

We also celebrated John's Mom's birthday this month, and Dawson had fun singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles on her cake about 10 times!

Dawson has also gotten to spend a couple of nights with his grandparents recently.  This has been great for me because I've been able to get some extra rest which I definitely need at this point, and it's been wonderful for Dawson to get to spend one on one time with them!  He's spent a couple of nights with Lolly and Pop which always includes a trip with Pop to see the geese in the pond in their neighborhood and at least one ride on Pop's John Deere.  He also got to spend the night with Nainie and Grandad and got to jump on the trampoline at their house.

For Valentine's Day we were a little sad because we didn't have our big group of friends to invite over for a party/playdate like last year.  Dawson and I still made lost of yummy treats thought-cake balls and cupcakes, and Dawson delivered them to his grandparents on Valentine's Day.  He thought this was great fun, and of course, he managed to come out with some Valentine's loot -including candy and suckers! 

Enjoy the pictures...

Dawson holding the White's newest addition-

Baby Thomas.  He held him for about 30

seconds before informing us: "I'm done!"

Dawson and Henry (the White's older son)

playing in the tunnels during their visit.

Dawson and Mommy during swim lessons.

Another swim lesson photo.

Dawson looking very serious after going all

the way under water.

Dawson and Corbin playing.  Unfortunately,

this was the only picture I got!

Dawson singing "Happy Birthday" and

about to blow out the candles on

Nainie's cake for the 10th time.

After we dropped Dawson off

to spend the night at Lolly and Pop's

we looked in the backseat to find

that Bentley was riding in Dawson's

carseat inside of the seat beside it

like normal.  We thought it was hilarious

because she rode there the ENTIRE way

home. It was as if she knew she was

the "only child" for the day. 

Dawson helping to cook Valentine's

Day treats.  He LOVES to help

in the kitchen!

Our Pea in the Pod: Carter Update 31 Weeks

     Since I have not done an update on our pea in the pod since 26 weeks, I had all 5 week-by-week pictures to share!  As you can see, Carter seems to be growing well!  He is still extremely active, and, if it's possible, he seems to have become even more active in the past week.  John and I get a kick out of watching my stomach "jump" as Carter moves around in there.  Sometimes we can tell that Carter moves completely to one side or the other and my stomach gets to where it's not a round bump anymore, but you can tell his littly body is all to one side because that side is so much bigger than the other.  That must be tight on him though because he usually goes back to the middle pretty quickly!  :) 
     Dawson is still excited for Carter's arrival.  He calls him Carter 95% of the time; thankfully we've almost forgotten about Mike the Turtle!  Dawson always makes sure to include Carter, which I think is really sweet!  If I tell him that Mommy, Daddy, and Dawson are going to do something, he always says, "AND CARTER!" as, as if I've completely forgotten!  I hope he's this excited to have Baby Brother around once he's actually born.  Dawson says, "Carter is coming out in April." 
The other day Dawson told me, "Carter needs to go potty" and then later he said, "Carter needs a sucker."  I'm not sure about the potty thing, but I know the sucker comment was a ploy to get a sucker for himself!  Dawson also told us that Carter is going to run in the yard with him when he comes out, so we had to have a talk about how he will be a baby and won't be able to run yet.  Dawson then informed me that Carter could crawl in the grass and get dirty.  Dawson also told one of our friends, "When Carter comes out he won't have shoes."  I'm not too sure where this idea came from in his little head, unless he thought shoes would be unnecessary since Carter won't be running?!  I think all his talking about Carter is sweet though because I can tell he already thinks about his Baby Brother a lot!
     I had my first doctor's appointment with my new physician here in Knoxville, and it went really well.  Carter is still growing well-as if I couldn't tell!!  I am feeling well, for the most part, minus being a little more tired with some swelling and hip pain as we're in the 3rd trimester!  I won't complain though, because I am so excited to have Carter, and because I think I am feeling better than I was at this point in my pregnancy with Dawson!  His heartrate was still right around the 150's where it's been most of the pregnancy.  I am on schedule to have another ultrasound around 36 weeks, so look for those pictures as we get closer to the due date. 
     Speaking of due date, I cannot believe we are TWO MONTHS and less than nine full weeks from the due date!  It's exciting, but hard to believe it's come so quickly. 

27 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Carter.

28 Weeks Pregnant with Carter.

29 Weeks Pregnant with Carter.

30 Weeks Pregnant with Carter.

31 Weeks Pregnant with Carter!

And just to make me feel better and

remind me that I wasn't always this size...  :)

This was me and Carter just 25 short weeks

ago when I was only 6 weeks pregnant with him.

It's safe to say he's done a lot of growing since then!  :)

Cherokee, North Carolina

For Christmas my parents gave John and I a trip to Cherokee, North Carolina accompanied by them entertaining Dawson for us while we went!  After getting settled in Tennessee, John still had a few days off so we decided to take our trip to Cherokee last week. 

Dawson was thrilled to get to stay with his Lolly, Pop, and Uncle Logan.  He had fun riding Pop's John Deere (always a favorite), going to see the geese in the pond in their neighborhood, going to the park and seeing the ducks there, going downtown after the park to have lunch with Pop at Nana's bakery, and being the center of attention non-stop, I'm sure!  :) 

John and I were excited for a little relaxation time since everything had been so busy for the past month (if not longer) with the move!  We took our time getting there and took the very scenic route which was wonderful!  The weather was perfect.  It was sunny and clear, so as we drove over the narrow, winding mountain roads we stopped several times to look at the mountains and take pictures. 

When we were almost out of the mountains and to Cherokee, I pointed out a huge animal laying down about 3 feet off of the side of the road!  It was an elk.  John pulled over, and I got out of the car with the camera.  We walked REALLY close until the elk stopped eating and looked straight at us.  We were less than ten feet away, so I was content with that for a picture...I didn't want to make him mad because he was HUGE, although John was trying to convice me to throw him a Ritz cracker!

After that we continued on to Cherokee.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of us in the casino since you can't take pictures in there, but we had a lot of fun.  Harrah's is huge.  We checked into our room which was very nice-thanks Lolly and Pop- and then we checked out the rest of the resort. 

While we were there we spent some time in the casino (unfortunately, no large winnings to report!).  They also have a Paula Deen restaurant there where we had a delicious dinner.  We had a great time just relaxing while we were there too!

Thanks for our trip, Lolly and Pop!

Here are a few pictures from Cherokee!

John and I (and Carter-29 weeks) in front of some

of the beautiful mountains we passed on our

drive to Cherokee.

John with the mountains in the background.

Mountains.

More mountains.

More mountains.

The elk!  This is not zoomed in

at all...this is how close we got

to him!

Our room was very nice!

This says "Welcome to Cherokee" in Cherokee

with the English at the bottom.  In Cherokee

all the street signs are also written in both

languages.

This and That

As we have been working to get settled in Knoxville, I have become a little behind on updating our blog.  This post will serve to catch us up on everything we've miss and will include a little bit of a lot of different things! 

First, I wanted to include these sweet pictures of Dawson and his friends.  Right before we moved, I decided to have Dawson's friends over to our house for a playdate one last time.  Every room was in boxes, but we had left enough toys unpacked for the kids to have fun.  When his friends were leaving, he was sweet to give them all hugs.

Dawson hugging either Jordan or Jayden

(identical twins, and I'm not sure

who I got in this picture).

Dawson and Jude hugging.

I think this picture is adorable even

though it's blurry.  The reason it's blurry

is that about 1 second after I snapped it,

the boys fell down as they were hugging...

both got up laughing though!

Dawson and Jackson both had their

serious faces on for this picture.

Then Dawson gave hugs

to Ethan and Austin as they were going

out the door.

Recently, Dawson will do things, look at me, and say, "Take my picture doing this, Mommy!"  Of course, I always go to get the camera and get a picture.  I actually got some good pictures of Dawson when he asked me to take his picture.  Here are some of them...

My sweet, sweet boy!

He's looking like such a big boy!

He wanted me to take his picture

with his hands on his knee in the

window seat a Nana and Grandad's

house.  Silly boy!

When we visit Nana and Grandad's

house, Dawson's favorite thing to do

is jump on the trampoline!

A mischievous grin.

When we were working on unpacking

Dawson got in this crate and requested,

"Take mine picture in mine cage!"

Other than just unpacking since we've been in Knoxville we've been thrilled to get together with our friends, the Gibsons, two times!  Small world...but we met Fred and Andrea through our church in Alabama, they moved in 2009 and ended up in Knoxville.  We're thrilled to be able to hang out with them again!  They had us over for a delicious dinner a couple of weeks ago, and we've also met up with Charlie and Andrea at Gym Bugs for a fun morning for playing.

Here are Dawson and Charlie playing at

Charlie's house.

Another picture by request of Dawson.

John was drying him off after bath time

when Dawson picked up a bobby pin, and

held it to his hair.  He then requested,

"Take my picture with mine girl

hair clip!"  Silly boy!

One morning last week, we were out of ideas

for entertaining Dawson so we took him to

Chuck E. Cheese.  I think he's old enough now

to enjoy it.  He rode this horse about 5 times!

Riding the Bob the Builder ride.

He LOVES watching these "performers"

on the stage. 

Riding the motorcycle with Daddy.  He

thought this was a lot of fun!

John and I won Dawson a few tickets

so he could get prizes.  He got a

whistle and some Smarties.

He was so excited to win candy and

a whistle.  He was holding them in his

hands dancing like this all over

Chuck E. Cheese!

Playing outside, Dawson ran under

this tree and decided it was his hiding

spot.

Bentley and Dawson had been playing ball

every afternoon that it's remotely warm enough

to bundle up and go outside.

Yesterday, I attended my first Sigma Kappa

alum event-ever!  There was no SK alum chapter

in Huntsville, and so I was excited to go on Sunday!

Including myself, there were 9 Sigma Kappas who met

up for cheese and chocolate at The Melting Pot.  Yummy!  We

had a good time!

Our Going Away Party

On Saturday, January 7th, our wonderful friends, the Burns, the Houghs, and the Wayes, hosted a going away party for us in the fellowship hall at our church.  The invitation read as follows:

The Zorio's are headin' em up and movin' em out!

Saying farewell is what this party is all about!

We'll provide the BBQ, drinks, and dessert.  Please bring a side dish to share.

And wear Western attire if you dare!

Our friends know us so well-they know I always love a cute, rhyming invitation :) AND John and I love a good theme we can dress up for! 

When we walked in to the party we immediately noticed an adorable baby blue cake that said "Carter" on it.  Our friends informed us that not only was this a going away party, but it was also a surprise baby shower!  We were thrilled!  Not only were they so thoughtful to do this, but they also took into consideration that we were in the middle of moving and so everyone brought gift cards rather than gifts that we'd have to pack to move to Tennessee!  (I know, we have awesome friends!)  And to make it even more exciting, a bunch of our friends went together and got us a gift card to Kelly's Closet which is where we've registered for the cloth diapers that Carter will use.  I cannot wait to put these gift cards to use and begin preparing for Carter's arrival!!!

Everything was decorated in Western looking decor and there was some Western/Country music playing (think "Oh Brother Where Art Thou").  We had BBQ, along with several tables full of delicious sides, and Carter's baby cake along with other desserts! 

The best part though was that there were 30 of our friends there (and that doesn't count the kids!)  We had fun getting to have one more party with our friends.  The girls mostly chatted while the guys spent some time playing Corn Hole, and we all just had a great time!  We are certainly going to miss all of our wonderful Huntsville friends.  We have made everyone promise to come visit, and we hope they all will!!

Here are pictures from the party...

All of our wonderful friends at the party.

John, Dawson, and me with all of our hosts

and hostesses (minus Brad who is not pictured).

Thank you all of such a wonderful party.

I don't know what we would have done in Huntsville

without each of your friendships!

Some of the girls at the party!

John and I behind the dessert table.

You can also see Carter's gift card tree on

the table!

You can see some of the delicious food and

Western decor.

The three male-hosts of the party.

Everyone enjoying BBQ.

Check out this adorable cake my

friend Kelly made for the party!

AND we had these yummy cupcakes too!

You can't see it in the picture, but the cupcakes

are in liners that look like red bandannas.

Some of the guys playing corn hole at the party!

Our family at the party!

Check this out-my friend, Julie,

made us this cute Tennessee

burp cloth for Carter!