Easter Fun!

We had such a great time this past weekend. We went to Fordyce, as usual, for Easter. We started out at Donaven's parents. We spent the night there on Friday and Saturday night. Carter had such a good time. Donaven's parents live way out in the country, and Carter got to run and play in the wide open spaces! Saturday, Carter and I went over to my Maw-Maw's house (my dad's parents). Brady and Madison, my cousins, were staying with her, so we had such a good time getting to play with them. Madison is crazy about Carter and kept wanting to take pictures of him holding the flowers and sitting by the little fish pond. It was cute! Saturday night, Donaven's grandparents ate with us. It was so good to get to see them, too. Sunday, we went to church with my parents. My grandparents (mom's parents) also go to the church, and my mom's sisters were all there. The church service was so amazing. Of course, I didn't get to stay for the entire service, as Carter became a little bored about half way through the message. We quickly jetted out of the sanctuary and played in the hallways until the service was over. After church, we headed over to my Granny's house. It was so much fun visiting with the family. We had an Easter egg hunt with all the little cousins. Carter really enjoyed the Easter egg hunt this year. He kept smashing the eggs in his little hands. Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

1st and 2nd Snow...all in one week!

Can anyone believe the weather this week? So this is actually not Carter's first snow...but his first snow was last year when he was about 2 months old and couldn't get out...so this is his first chance to get to play in the snow. Carter wasn't so sure about it at first, but he got the hang of playing in it pretty fast.

First Razorback Game

This past weekend, we went to see Donaven's little brother in Rogers for his birthday. We had so much fun spending time with the Sims fam. Since we were so close, and since the Hogs were in town, we went to our first Razorback game with Carter. He was quite fascinated with all of the hoopla! And what a great game, huh!

Donaven, Carter and I after the game

Carter and his Papaw Sims

I think we have been hangin' out with Brady too much!

Lately, Carter has begun to really imitate a lot of what we do. Not only is he imitating what we do, he appears to be picking up on what our dog does as well! Carter is constantly picking up things with his mouth while he is on his hands and knees. He thinks it is hilarious! I call him my Carter-puppy and he just smiles and laughs at me!

Carter had tubes placed in his ears last Thursday. Everything went amazingly well and he is doing great. Even though the "surgery" was so minimal in the whole scheme of things, it is still very hard to see your little baby being pushed on a hospital bed away from you...but like I said, everything went so great and we were in and out of there. Hopefully, this will help with all of the ear infections. People have also told me that after their kids got tubes, they slept better. No such luck yet, but here's hopin!

Traveling

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Carter is feeling so much better now. It took him a very long time to get over his stomach bug, but he is finally back to eating everything in sight! Sorry to the rest of the family that caught the nastiness. I think everyone except the people up to their elbows in throw-up (Donaven and I) got sick. Donaven's mom and dad, as well as my brother-in-law (Amy's husband, Michael) got the worst of it. Sorry guys! But on to a less gross subject...

Yesterday, Carter and I went to El Dorado to see cousin Shasta to have the one-year photos made...we were almost making 13-month photos...I know...we had to keep rescheduling for one reason or another. Shasta is Donaven's cousin who is a professional photographer in El Dorado. So nice to have one of those in the family! Anyway, we picked up Granny (my grandma) on our way, and we were so glad that she came with us. She really helped us out, and it was so nice to have someone else turn around to entertain Carter during the drive.

I know that many of you have heard me say before that Carter is somewhat of a high maintenance little dude. Well, boy did he ever prove me wrong yesterday. He did so well for Shasta. We got in 5 wardrobe changes! I was just hoping for 2! I never expected him to do so well. The last time we had his pictures made, he did well too....but let's just say he was a little less opinionated at 6 months! Anyway, my Granny kept commenting on how "there aren't many little boys that would let their momma's pull and put on clothes like that and still smile for pictures". I guess I was asking a lot of him...but hey, we were there and Shasta had time:). Shasta was great and I will post the link to view the photos when they are ready. Hope everyone is doing well!

Poor little guy

Let me start off by saying, this post will not be one for those of you have weak stomachs. I will try to spare some of the more yucky details...

Well, little Carter has been so sick for the past few days. On Thursday night, it started. We were in Larry's pizza in Bryant, and Carter and I were sitting at the table while Donaven went to get a salad. Out of no where, Carter threw up...not baby spit up...big boy throw up! I was freaking out because it was everywhere. It's Larry's, so there were people everywhere sitting around us, so I know that they were thinking that this was the most appetizing thing that you want to see while you are eating! I frantically tried to start cleaning it up when the nice little waitress came over to me and told me that she would help me. Donaven came over and began to help, too. We had already placed our order, so by the time that we finally got our pizza (not that Larry's is slow, but time just can't go by fast enough when you are ready to go), he had thrown up yet again! We boxed up our pizza and went home. He was sick until about 1:00 a.m. I stayed up until about 3:00 to see if he would start taking some liquids, since I was so nervous about him getting dehydrated. I felt so sorry for him. I would almost cry every time the poor little guy would get sick. He is so little! And I know how much I hate throwing up...I will do almost anything to keep from it...I hated that he had to be so sick!

I stayed home from work on Friday to take care of him. He did pretty good...just really tired and not eating or drinking anything. I thought we were over the hump, but tonight he threw up again...all over the couch. Donaven has been such a trooper. He does not have a stomach of steele, so I know it takes all within him to clean up vomit...and he has had to do a lot of it! Carter acts like he feels better now, so hopefully this last incident was just because he tried to eat too much, too fast. Hopefully he will be back to full force soon. Please pray that he will get to feeling better soon!

Happy 1st Birthday, Carter!

Late Christmas Post

I know...I am really bad at posting. I actually need to post pictures from Carter's birthday as well, but one thing at a time...We had such a great Christmas this year. The weekend started with my dear friend Sarah Gore's wedding. She was such a beautiful bride and the wedding was beautiful. On Sunday, we went to church with Donaven's parents in the morning at Kingsland and with my parents that night in Fordyce. We went back to Hope with my parents that night and stayed with them until Christmas Eve night. That night, we went back to Bryant to spend Christmas morning at home. On Christmas morning, my parents, sister, and brother-in-law came over for breakfast (my parents had spent the night in Bryant with my sister) after we opened presents. After breakfast, we headed to Kingsland to spend time with Donaven's family. We then went to Donaven's grandparents, and finally to my Dad's side of the family. We also spent Christmas with my mom's side of the family the following weekend. Christmas was busy, but it actually felt more low key than in years past, I think. The only thing I am a little upset is because of my camera...so many of my pictures this year were very blurry...especially the ones of our own little family's Christmas morning! Maybe next year Santa will bring me a new camera! Here are some of the ones that were not too bad.

Carter's favorite part of Christmas was getting more new balls. They are his absolute favorite. It was actually his first word. In fact, on Christmas morning, he had tons of new toys to look at, but the only thing he cared about were his new basketball, football, soccer ball, etc...

My parents (Nonna and Bop) got Carter this little ride-on fire truck. He loved pushing it around.

Opening presents with Aunt Amy at Maw-Maw's house.

Opening presents at Grampa and Grammy's house (Donaven's parents)

Carter loves the new wagon his Grammy gave him