We're in!

We signed papers today and even though we won't officially close until tomorrow or the next day, the sellers were nice enough to give us the keys tonight. So, here I am at 11:30, finally calling it quits. We took an entire load over (a trailer full, truck full, and honda pilot full).

Once we unloaded to the garage, we thought - what the heck! Let's start unpacking! And so we did. Not too much. Just a few boxes to be able to bring them back empty to fill again. We unpacked the important things. You know, the Christmas tree!



And, as luck would have it, I found Carter's little duckies right away to put on the cute shelf that the sellers left in the bathroom.



I have to admit, walking into our new home was more overwhelming that any other move I've made. We counted them up and between Chris and I, we have moved/helped move each other 11 times in the past 7 years. This is our 12th move between the two of us in 7 YEARS! But, this one is so very different. This is our first home that we together searched for and bought together to live in together without an end in sight. Every other home has been his or mine and we always knew it wasn't our "forever" home.

So, walking in tonight was a bit overwhelming. Tonight we walked into OUR HOME!

GG Lou in da house!

Great Grandma Lou came to visit for the holidays and thank goodness we have good home owners' insurance because with the way she and Carter play together, we are lucky I didn't take one of them to the hospital! I don't know where they get their energy, but I'd like some please!



It got so wild that Carter's pants were slowing him down so, off they went! Thanks for coming GG. We had a blast - especially Carter!

As promised

I got my camera back today so I'm keeping my word to post photos and video from Thanksgiving. This is what it looks like to try to get 6 children under the age of 5 to pose for a photo with their great-grandma and no, this isn't ALL of GG Lois' great-grandkids. We started counting and we think she has 10 now!



And the finished product:


Ian (3), Aliya (6 months), Carter (11 months), Austan (1 month), Owen (5), Corbin (2) - Everyone but Carter is a first cousin. How fun is that for them to all be so close in age?

Thanksgiving round 2

Auntie Lindsey was off saving lives yesterday so, she invited us over for a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner today. The food was amazing! The table setting was amazing! The company was amazing.

We had to cut the night a little shorter than we would have liked since Carter started to come apart at the seams (he was SO good considering he had been awake for 6 hours). Thanks Auntie Lindsey and Uncle Auggie for the wonderful Thanksgiving day!

Daddy time

Carter and Daddy have been making up for all that time that Daddy was out of town for work this past month. Here, they are supposed to be eating breakfast. Instead, Daddy is showing Carter how to make noise with his hand and mouth which he quickly copied.

Clown hair A.K.A. Bedhead

Little man has the cutest darn curls I have every seen! Problem is, his hair only curls when he gets hot, it's humid or mommy wets his hair and messes with it. 9 times out of 10, he wakes up from his nap and his cute little curls are mostly gone and we have what I call "clown hair".

I give you Exhibit A


And now Exhibit B




See? All curls on the side.

And what is with the hair on top? It is just a mess! The best I can do is try to make it curly - which usually looks like I've put a ton of gel in his hair when really, I just got it wet - or do the comb over. So, I think the time has come to let Gramma Cupake give Carter his first hair cut. Why Gramma? Well, she used to be a licensed hairstylist. I think it was somewhere before being a professional party clown and after working in a grocery store bakery, but any way, at some point she was licensed.

No worries. She won't be cutting off the curls. She has promised to just try to fix the crazy hair on top.

Cart sickness

I think Carter has had enough of this riding backwards stuff! We're almost to that year mark when we get to turn his carseat around. He just can't wait any longer when it comes to shopping. He's decided that if he can't ride facing forward, he will at least sit sideways.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Auntie J's and Uncle Andy's in Scio, Oregon. It was a small gathering of about oh, 35?! It was so great to see everyone. Every year the little kids get older and now it seems they aren't the little kids anymore! This year we had a whole new bunch of little ones including Carter.

I left my camera there so, my pictures and videos will have to wait until Monday, but GG shared some of hers with us.

Here is Carter with his GG Lou and GG Lois


And two of Carter's 2nd or is it 3rd cousins...


Little Corbin (Chris' cousin's daughter) just loves her little cousin Aliya (Chris' other cousin's daughter). Cross your fingers - I think I got a video of her cuddling with her!

Big news!

I had to give it a few days so that everyone who is supposed to find it on their own could, but I'm pretty confident that by now, everyone who should know does. Now it's time for everyone who would want to know to know. Does that make sense?

Without further ado....


Carter is getting a NEW cousin!!!!!!

We are over the moon for T.J. and Storm and especially the big sister, little Miss Isabelle. Check out their blog to see how we found out.

Hmm... what's this?

Daddy carries Carter on his shoulders all the time (usually holding onto his hands) but, as Carter is getting older, he wants his independence. He doesn't need to hold daddy's hands. Especially when he has discovered these great handles.



Now look closer. Again, I wish I had video on my phone. He is sticking his little finger in Chris' ear and wiggling it around.

Shopping CAN be fun!

Today little man and I went across town to sell books at Powell's bookstore and hang with Auntie. She introduced us to New Seasons. When Lindsey said we should eat lunch there I thought she was nuts. Lunch.. at a grocery store?!

OMG! Have I been living in a cave or what? It was like a gourmet food court - everything made with fresh ingredients. We opted to share a turkey sandwich and a bowl of chicken soup which Carter really enjoyed! It was a bit pricey, but so good!

Since we were there, we decided to check out the baby food section. Obviously, their organic selection was quite a bit better than Walmart so, I stocked up. I couldn't get myself to buy anything else due to the severe sticker shock that I was in, but boy did Carter have fun in their shopping carts!!! I was really wishing I had the iphone with the video option today to show you how he honked the horn and kept holding on to the steering wheel. Too cute.

A cute picture

We went to our friend Ashley's birthday party the other night and took little man with us. He was exceptionally good since it was past 7 pm and he usually goes to bed at 6!!! Just look how happy he was to be able to go with us.

Please excuse the boxes

I can't believe that we are going to close on our house in just 2 weeks! I've been busily boxing everything that I think we can do without for the next couple weeks and Carter has realized that boxes are so much more fun than his real toys.

Fun with Auntie

A boring shopping trip to Target can easily turn into an hour or so of fun if Auntie Lindsey is with us.

Example: see below photo of Carter trying on a Christmas headband from the dollar section.

While daddy's away, Carter will play!

Chris is gone AGAIN - this time for business. Just look what Grandma taught him while daddy is gone! He'll be so excited when he gets home.

Where their story ends, ours begins

So, we feel in love with our dream home recently and are so excited to move - yes, you know all of this already. You know this so well, that one of you even noticed pictures of our new home on someone else's blog! The thing is, it is THEIR home right now. How neat is it that they too have a blog?!

They've lived in our dream home for 10 years and have really made it a home. We can't wait to celebrate our first of what promises to be many tradition filled Christmases in our new home.

Their blog

Curly

Just one more post tonight. I promise. I just had to share a picture I took tonight of Carter's curls.

A day with Auntie

Auntie Lindsey has been M.I.A. for the past month while on assignment in Medford, Oregon. Little Man definitely noticed her absence and was so excited to see her yesterday when she came by to take us to see Miss Ella to show off Carter's costume. We went to breakfast and she kept trying to get a photo of him, but he was just on the go-go-go so, this was the best she could do.



Then, being the good auntie that she is, she rode in the back seat with him to feed him while I drove us home (QUICKLY) for nap time.

Walking.. Almost.. Not even close..

Little Man has absolutely no interested in walking now that he can really book it on all fours, but we discovered today that he can walk a little bit with his fire engine. Again, he has no interest in doing it, but when mommy puts her camera just out of reach, suddenly, he can push his fire truck over to it to try to grab it!

Saturday morning

This video is a couple of weeks old now, but still worth sharing. This is Daddy's idea of fun.

Another day at Gymboree

Last week we went to Gymboree on a different day and boy, was it different! First, I think the instructor was new. She didn't sing half as much as Carter would have like. It was fun just the same, maybe even more since everyone was about the same age.

Will and Carter were still the youngest, but everyone else was about 12 months and just barely walking.