Father's Day 2012

On Father's Day we celebrated by giving John a certificate for golf lessons.  He was really excited, and I was thrilled that Dawson had managed to keep the gift a secret since he had known about it!  We visited John's dad and my dad on Father's Day to celebrate with them as well.  I am very thankful for what a wonderful Daddy John is to our boys, and I'm very thankful for my Dad, as well, and I know John is for his too.  Below are the pictures from Father's Day, but unfortunately Dawson was crashing and beyond ready for nap when we left our visit with Grandad so we didn't get a Father's Day picture with him. 

Me, Pop, Carter, Uncle Logan and Dawson.

Happy Father's Day, Pop!

John and his two boys!

We had to make a quick trip to the duck

pond.  I'm very lucky to have these three guys!

Happy Father's Day, John!

Our 5 Year Anniversary

On Saturday, June 16th we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  We left Dawson and Carter for a couple hours and went out to dinner at Ye Olde Steakhouse.  We had a great date and good food.  After dinner we picked up Carter (Dawson spent the night with his grandparents), rented a movie, and had a glass of wine---the same kind of white wine we served at our reception.  It's hard to believe we have been married 5 years already, but it's been an awesome five years...from Tennessee to Alabama to Tennessee from a family of 2 to a family of 3 and now a family of FOUR!  I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband (and two great boys)!  Now, just for fun here are some pictures from the past.  (Apologizes for the poor quality...some of them are obviously pictures of pictures)...

2011-Married 4 Years

2010-Married 3 years

2009-Married 2 years

(with 1 month old Dawson and 2 year

old Bentley)

2008-Married 1 year

Married a few days-On our honeymoon

in Hawaii

2006-The evening we got engaged

2005-We had been dating 4 years

2004-We were celebrating having been

dating for 3 years

2004-My senior prom

2003-John's senior prom

(yes, I wore pink to prom every year...

I had 4 pink prom dresses!)

2002-Celebrating dating for 1 year

2001 Here we had been dating for

one week!  We look just a little bit different

now, huh?!  :)  I showed all of these pictures

to Dawson, and asked who the people were.

He recognized his Daddy in EVERY picture,

but in several of them he asked, "Is that Mommy?"

or said, "Mommy.  Right??" 

June Part 1

June has been a busy and very fun month for us already, so I thought I'd break the monthly update into two parts.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I joined a meetup group, Moms of Maryville (MOMs), and it has been great to have some others to do things with. 

We went to Tumblebears Gym for the

first time with the meetup group. 

They have trampolines, things to balance

on, places to do flips, a rope to climb or

swing on, two inflatables, and possibly the

best part, open space to run!  Here Dawson

is bouncing in the inflatable.  He was having

too much fun while we were there to stop

moving long enough for a picture!  (Oh, and

I have to point out he's wearing "gym shorts"

per his request because he said, "We're going

to a gym, so I'm gonna wear some of my

gym shorts there!"

Smart Toys and Books had a Thomas

Play Day that we attended at the

beginning of the month.  They read a

Thomas book, played trains, had Thomas

decor, and did Thomas art.  The best part

of it all to Dawson was getting to do the

"do-a-dots" which is what he's doing in this

picture.  He loved them so much that we

bought him a set.  They're awesome because

he can do dots or press down and move it

around like a paint brush and it doesn't run

or get on the paper so thick that it won't ever

dry.  He has been doing his "do-a-dots" every

single day!  Loves them!

Last summer we came up to Tennessee to

attend the wedding of my friend, Kristin.  They've

now been married a year, and to celebrate their 1

year anniversary and her parents 30-something

year anniversary they had a great party.  It

was a Bohemian Brew party.  They had a

steel drum band that was GREAT and, of course,

brew!  It was in a pavilion and the weather was

perfect!  Dawson and Carter stayed with their

Nana and Grandad, and John and I had a

fun adult evening.

One afternoon that John was

off we were looking for something to

do.  We decided to take Dawson on

a "hike" (walk) through the Maryville

College woods.

Dawson didn't want to have his picture

taken in the woods.  He said he was

hiding from the big bad wolf.

Dawson brought his net and bug box on

our little hike, and had fun catching little

moths and butterflies...and some beetles.

I had Carter in the Moby for the hike, and so

we stayed away from what they caught!

The local theater is having $2

kids movies one day a week this

summer so I took Dawson and Carter

earlier this month.  We stood in

line for 50 minutes, and only stayed for

12 minutes of the movie.  We left quickly

because I assumed since it was a kids

movie it would be appropriate and didn't

check to see what movie it was going to

be before we went.  It was Puss in Boots,

which is scary and inappropriate for a 3

year old, so I asked Dawson if he was ready to

go after I saw a few minutes of the movie.

Thankfully he was fine to leave!  Here he

is eating his animal cracker snack in the theater

before the movie started.  We're going to try

the movie again later this summer, and I

hope we have better luck!  The funny thing

is that Dawson still said he had fun at

the movies!

I had Carter i the Moby wrap for

his first movie, so it was hard to get

a picture.  It was dark in the theater

so when I took his picture he furrowed

his little brow!

Also, this month our family grew.

Dawson has a hermit crab named Chachi.

Here he is arranging Chachi's cage the

night we got him.

Watching Chachi explore his

cave the first night.

This is Chachi.  Cute, huh?  (sarcasm)

Dawson absolutely LOVES Chachi.

Here he is in an outfit he picked

out himself, obviously, watching

Chachi.  Some days Dawson changes

his name to Crabby, but the next

day he changes it back to Chachi.

He is now brave enough to pick Chachi

up, but we're limiting that because he would

pick him up and move him around the cage

all day!  I didn't know crabs were so active.

Chachi is also funny because he changes shells

back and forth several times a day.

Also this month we went to the zoo

with the meetup group.  Dawson had fun

seeing the animals with two other boys

that were close to his age.  Here he is

with Aiden.

The river otters were swimming around

right up front for us the entire time, and

Dawson was thrilled to watch them.

This month we also attended the library's summer reading kick-off where Dawson did some art projects and signed up for the summer reading program.  We went to the annual Creswell Family Fish Fry (my Dad's Mom's side of the family).  I haven't been since John and I moved to Alabama so it was nice to get to go.  Carter slept the entire time, and Dawson had fun running around outside.  There is an old barn and John Deere where they have the reunion, and

of course, Dawson couldn't get enough of that!

One of my college friends, and sorority sisters, AT and her husband (and John's fraternity brother), Jeff are expecting and due in August.  I attended her shower earlier this month.  Carter tagged along with me just in case he needed to eat, and he slept all but the last 10 minutes of the shower!  I had a great time seeing AT and other Sigma Kappas!  Then one weeknight we had Jeff and AT over for dinner, and we had fun catching up and chatting with our friends.  Dawson was thrilled to show his toys to Mr. Jeff.

Another meetup playdate we attended was called Sink or Float.  Kids brought items (we took a globe beach ball and a plastic boat bath toy), guessed if they would sink or float, and then attempted to float them down the creek.  Dawson had fun since this involved water!

We've also gotten together with our friends Andrea and Charlie to play a couple of times this month.  Dawson always has fun playing with Charlie, and I have just as much fun visiting with Andrea!  It's a win-win!  Usually the boys play and play which means good naps too!  That about wraps up the first half of June.  The second half is equally busy, so we'll have another June post before long!

Carter at Two Months

Carter is now two months old!  I still feel like he is our brand new baby, but at the same time, it seems like he has always been a part of our family.  He is SUCH an easy and happy baby!  Because he's so happy and easy, Dawson's life hasn't changed much at all now that he has a sibling, we still go and do everything like before--and Carter just tags along, happily! 
Carter loves to relax in his swing or bouncy seat which is wonderful for me, as well!  He also likes to play on his back time gym, and he has recently started swatting at the three toys that hang down.  I made such a big deal out of it the first time he did it, that now when Dawson notices him doing it-he claps and cheers saying, "Good job, Carter, you just hit your toy!  Good job hitting that!"  Carter smiles all the time now and laughs a lot too!  He smiles the most for his big brother, which I think he so sweet. 
Carter currently eats about ever 2.5 hours during the day which isn't too bad at all.  At night he usually goes about 3 hours the first time and then two 2 hour stretches.  At his check up his doctor encouraged me to try to make him wait a little longer between feedings because he weighs enough to be able to go longer, but it's hard for me to know he wants to eat and not feed him...so I've just been feeding him like before whenever he's hungry...although, I do agree that he COULD go longer.  Also, he sooo good about going right back to sleep after he's done eating during the night, that it's honestly just easier for me to feed him and go back to bed...rather than holding him off which means I'm awake longer. 
At his 2 month checkup Carter weighed a healthy 12 pounds 6 ounces and is growing just like he should be in weight, length, and head circumference.  He is also doing all the things he should be developmentally.  Overall the appointment was uneventful (a good thing), except that he had to have a couple of shots. 
I HATE it when my kids have to have shots, I especially hate having to hold them down while they get the shots, so I was dreading this part of the appointment!  After his shots he napped a lot the rest of the day, and then that night he got a fever (never going above 100.3, but still that's a higher fever than Dawson has EVER had in his entire three years, so I wasn't thrilled about that).  Also the night after he got his shots, he wanted to eat about every hour-I'm sure just for comfort since he wasn't feeling well.  So I fed him whenever he wanted to eat.  By the next evening he was back to his normal happy healthy self, and was back to his normal eating schedule..thank goodness!  But then the next day his fever went back up just to right around 100, so on Thursday I had to take him back to the doctor.  He had gained 3 ounces between Monday and Thursday and was up to 12 pounds 9 ounces.  The doctor checked him over and could find nothing wrong at all which means it was still lingering effects of the shots.  If he's not back to normal by Saturday, they want to see him again...but I am very thankful that he's doing better already.  I think I'm going to try to schedule his next appointment when he has to have shots on a night that John's off work though!  :)
The first two months with Carter have been such a joy, and we all love him so much!  He is the happiest baby, and he loves to chat.  We think he's such a chatter because he's trying to compete with big brother to get a word in.  Here are some pictures of our sweet, smiley, brown-eyed Carter  (yes, we can tell for sure know that his eyes are brown-so I got one blue-eyed and one brown-eyed boy!)!  On to the pictures...

 Carter's official 2 month picture.

 Carter at 2 months Dawson 3 years.

 Sweet brothers.

 My poor baby after getting his shots.

Check out his band aid (that matches

his onsie).  He napped most of the

afternoon after getting his shots.

 Carter's on his 2 month birthday

in the same outfit Dawson wore on

his 2 month birthday and sitting in

the same chair!

 Looking a little serious.

(Check out those toes, they are

ALWAYS spread like that!)

 Dawson was sitting beside me

talking to Carter, and here Carter

is laughing at Dawson!

And just for fun...

This picture is of Dawson in the

same outfit, in the same chair

on his 2 month birthday weighing

12 pounds 12 ounces.

Dawson & Carter

Everyone always wants to know if Carter looks like Dawson did when he was an infant.  When Carter was only a few days old, I didn't think they looked at all alike, but now I think they look a lot more alike.  Granted Dawson has/had blue eyes, blond hair, and fairer skin as compared to Carter's brown eyes, brown hair, and slightly darker skin-compared to Dawson's...their facial features still are very similar.  So here are a few pictures for the sake of comparison...

Dawson before delivery. (39 weeks)

Carter before delivery.  (40 weeks)

I think they look pretty similar here!  :)

Dawson's first picture with Mommy.

Carter's first picture with Mommy.

Hard to tell similarities here.

Dawson

Carter

I always talk about how Carter is constantly

raising his eyebrows, but I didn't realize

that Dawson also did this a lot too until

I looked back through the pictures.

Dawson

Carter

Dawson

Carter

Dawson

(Now that I'm looking back at these pictures,

it's possible that Dawson actually had more

hair than Carter...it was just so blond that

I think it didn't look like as much!)

Carter

Dawson

Carter

We love both of our boys!