Happy Halloween!

Our three glorious day of Carter sleeping in until 7:30 or 8am came to an end yesterday morning. I was pretty bummed out when he broke the streak by waking up at 4:15am the last two days. But atleast he goes back to sleep for another couple hours. I on the otherhand am up for the day. It is pretty amazing how much I can get done before Carter decides he's ready to get up for the day.
Yesterday was beautiful. Carter and I went out for two stroller rides to enjoy the nice weather. It was the first time we used our new jogging stroller. Carter seemed to like being able to face forward. I had him wear his cute little sunglasses to protect his eyes. Hopefully today will be just as nice.

Goals and Plans

Carter has slept in until 7:30 two days in a row now. I'm hoping this is a trend that will continue. Now if only I could sleep until then too. I can't seem to sleep past 6am anymore. On the bright side, I get a lot done between 6am and 7:30. I've definitely learned to enjoy the peace and quiet.
My goal right now is to work on eating healthy and losing some weight. I hate to even throw the word diet out there. I joined a group on the nest and am using a online website to help count calories-wise and nutritionally how I am doing. Today is only day two, but I'm feeling really inspired to be successful at this. My goal is to try to lose 5 pounds between now and Thanksgiving, and maintain that during the rest of the holiday season. After the New Year, I would like to try to lose another 15 pounds to reach my long term goal.
The other goal that I've been thinking about is trying to run a 5K. I'm not a runner and have never been a runner, but there's something about that a 5K that seems very achievable. I'm still thinking about if, when, and where I would do this.

Weekend Update

As always, we seem to keep ourselves busy on weekends. Saturday we went over to my grandparents to help them with yardwork. They love seeing Carter. Sunday, Tim decided to bake pies. We also went over to my parents for turkey dinner.

Update

I haven't had a chance to update in a while. My latest goal is to try to get things organized around here. I had planned on having the house organized before Carter was born, but since he decided to surprise us and come early than planned things just never seemed to get done. My goal is to take a room a day and go from there. I'm hoping to have the whole house done in a week or so. It'll be a big project.
I've also decided to start wrapping presents as soon as we buy them. Wrapping presents is my least favorite part about Christmas. I love buying the gifts. I love making cookies. I think if I spread it out, them it won't be as big of a deal.

Baptism and other weekend activities

We survived baptism on Sunday. Being not super religious, it was the first time we've taken Carter to church. Overall, he did pretty well. He only screamed for a couple minutes when he decided he absolutely had to have a bottle that very second. During the actual baptism, Carter was blowing bubbles and staring up at the skylight.
The party afterwards went pretty well too. We had to have it at my parents because there would have been just no way to squeeze 40+ people in our townhouse. The only issue we had was my parents though they had figured out how to use the delay setting on their oven. Apparently they didn't because the cheesy hash browns should have been done just after we got home, but they hadn't even started. Whoops! It turns out you have to set it for the time you want it to start, not in howany hours you want it to start.
The best part of it all was seeing how many people that support and love Carter, Tim, and I. We are so lucky!
Our other big weekend event was going out to eat for my mom's birthday. It was our first evening out without Carter. My cousin Katie watched him. Tim seemed to have more problems leaving Carter than I did. I figure, Katie is 21 and has baby sat before, and she could call us if she needed to. I guess Carter was good for the first two hours, but the last half hour he decided to scream. Poor little guy. (And poor Katie!)

A Rough Day

Yesterday was one of the rougher days we have had in a long time. Carter's teething makes him so crabby. He woke at 4:30am. I got him back to sleep for another 2 hours and then he was up pretty much most of the day minus a few short catnaps. He wanted to be held and rocked all day. Whenever I put him down, he screamed. Hopefully, he'll be feeling better for his baptism this weekend.
Needless to say, I was very happy to go to my class at Century. I realized part way through class that I had several baby spit-up stains on my sweater. It's a good thing most of the other students are also parents, so they probably didn't think it was that odd.

Our Weekend

We ended up having a way busier weekend than planned. Saturday morning Tim did the lawn care at my grandparents house. We then picked up his sister Stephanie at St. Kate's and did lunch at Chipolte. After that we went to the Apple Orchard. It was packed since it was such a nice day. We even had to wait in line to get into the building to buy anything. Carter slept the entire time. I had really hoped to get some cute pictures of him with pumpkins in his cute Halloween onesie. Oh well! Maybe next year.
Sunday we went to Best Buy (to look at new washers) and Sam's club. Carter then decided he had had enough. So we dropped him off at my parents' house so we could groccery shop. I always forget how crazy Sundays are at Cub. Remind me never to do that. I am not patient enough to deal with the old lady debating between two kinds of soup. Carter had a good time playing at my parents' house. He loves their big tv. I think he will be a big sports fan when he is bigger because he seems to love to watch football and baseball.

Teething

Carter is teething already. This has caused him to try to stick anything he can into his mouth. This also causes me to be covered in baby drool pretty much 24/7. I picked up two new teethers last night at BRU. Hopefully one of them will work!
Last night my parents, Carter, and I went shopping. We found a bunch of cute fleece jammies for Carter at Herberger's for 60% off. He'll be so snuggly in them.

Thursday

We had a busy Thursday. We had our MOPS group meeting yesterday. It's always fun to have other moms to talk to. Afterwards we hung out with Stefanie, Cole, Christie, and Kennedy. Cole loves babies. He is so sweet to Carter.
Later I had Grey's Anatomy night with Liz and Meaghan. Frank, Liz and Brad's new puppy is getting so big already! It was nice to have some girl time.

I miss sleeping in :(

Right now we're in an in between point for sleep. Before when Carter was up every 2-3 hours at night, he would usually go back to sleep after his 5am feeding and sleep until 7 or 8am. Now that he holds off on eating until 6am, he wants to get up and play. By 7am, he becomes a cranky crying baby and needs a nap. (Which he'll fight all the way) On the bright side, after I get him down for a nap, I get time to get dressed, eat, and check my email before he wakes up. I realize I will probably never get to sleep in again until Carter (and his future sibling) move out of the house. Sleep is something you really don't appreciate until you don't get it anymore.

It's hard to believe he was ever this tiny!

Some Carter Pictures

The big smiles I get in the morning that make being a mommy the best thing ever.

Carter hates tummy time, but loves tv.

Great Grandma Peggy got me moose overalls.

My First Blog

I've decided I want to try this whole blog thing.
The last three months (since having Carter) have flown by so fast. Most of the time he is a smiling, giggling baby. I am so lucky to have gotten to spend the last 3 months home with him. (well, minus the lack of paycheck). Our latest excitement is he just started to sleep through the night a couple weeks ago. He likes to go to bed between 7:30-8:30pm and will sleep until around 5am when Tim gets up to get ready for work. I am definitely enjoying being able to sleep again!
We finally broke down and bought Carter the FP Rain Forest Jumperoo last weekend. He wasn't really sure what to think about it the first time we put him in it. His legs are still about an inch and a half too short to be able to get it to bounce. He's starting to love music, lights, and fun toys on it. We think it'll be a good investment.
Carter's baptism is in a week and a half. We're going to have it at the 9am service and then have everyone over for brunch afterwards at my parents' house. Last week I made the invites and sent them out. This week I've been working on making on making breads to serve. Monday I made pumpkin bread and today I made chocolate chip banana bread. The next project is to find recipes for egg bakes.
Not a whole lot new on the job front. I check the job posting sites of all the school districts around here everyday and apply for pretty much everything I'm qualified for. I'm also check all of the local colleges for job. I figure even if I take a job that is not exactly in my long term career goals, at least I'll be able to take classes for free.
I am really liking my fall semester classes at Century. Two of the classes are completely online and the other meets every other Tuesday on campus. It feels so good to be taking classes again!