Happy Halloween!

I'm writing from the comfort of my chair, where I am recovering from my peanut butter cup coma. Drew mistakenly left me unattended with the candy bowl and the chocolate forced itself upon me. We obviously needed WAY more trick or treaters (and way less candy within my grasp!). Ok, bottom line.. my self control went kaput.

Well, I'm still alive, although I just might take a pass at Weight Watchers Tuesday. EEK!!

I've uploaded some photos to the Picasa site. Some from last Saturdays' Halloween party with Betty at the park. From Halloween tonight as well!

On Monday, Carson was 2 months old!! I missed the first month, but I'm going ot try and take a picture next to his teddy bear every month to see how he grows!! So here's month 2!


After his photo, Taylor wanted to hold him (as she often does) so we set her up with the boppy pillow and let her hold him. She's very good at giving him his paci, but we have to remind her to be gentle sometimes. She's a good big sister and loves her brother!!
Wednesday we had music class and in the evening we went with Betty and Delaney to a Pumpkin Light Night at a local elementary school. Thursday there were horrible storms here all day! We were narrowly missed by a tornado which took out a bunch of trees and houses in a nearby neighborhood. The waters are still rising forcing many people out of their homes, covering roads and threatening levees! Tomorrow is suppose to be the peak of the rising water, and is not suppose to rain for the rest of the week. We are on high enough ground that we are safe though, so that's good!!

Yesterday (Friday) we had a makeup music class from when the teachers kids were sick, but we were the only ones that made it so we had a nice one on one class! After Drew got home last night, Carson and I went to the commissary to stock up on groceries. Today we both took turn running errands and getting some things accomplished.

After dinner, we got the kids dressed in their costumes so I could take some photos. Here are my favs!

Monkey costume from Grandma Debye.
Hot Dog costume from Papa
A couple more of Carson out of costume while Taylor was getting a bath.

We ended up going to Betty's and sitting in her driveway passing out candy with her and some other friends from the neighborhood. Drew and I both took turns taking Taylor Trick or Treating. She still wont say anything, and clings to our legs, but she's getting the concept that when you go to the door they give you candy thing!!

Now Taylor doesn't eat much candy, in fact, I'd say rare to never. She will occasionally get a cookie, maybe a bite of something we're eating, but usually it's a very rare occasion. I think this child consumed more chocolate tonight than she's ever had in her 22 months combined. She was bouncing all over the place!!! I'm glad it's another year until Halloween. If we can keep it together tomorrow I think the rest of the candy needs to go with Drew to work on Monday!! Maybe we'll keep some of the suckers around for rewards but the chocolate has GOT TO GO!

Here's also some videos from the last week or so.

Tonight in Betty's driveway!



Carson kicking his legs to make his toys move on the bouncer.


Talking and getting mad during tummy time.

This one was actually from when Grams was here, we went to the SciPort Discovery Museum. Taylor sure loves the giant piano!!! Now we just need to teach her chopsticks!



Well, I'm exhausted so I'm going to go to bed! Drew's already been there for 45 minutes while I updated the blog.

Not sure what the plan for the week is besides WW on Tuesday, and Music on Wednesday. Drew is still working weird shifts, though hopefully split 6's instead of 12's, that would be wonderful!!!

Goodnight all, hope you had a wonderful Halloween!

The last 8 days have been pretty much CRAZY in this house. Drew is working 12's, and not having the extra set of hands has proven to be VERY difficult!!

I think Taylor's terrible 2's are in full swing (a couple months early of course), and Carson still requires so much of my attention. I CAN tell you that I must be burning a ton of calories between the two!!

Friday through Sunday Taylor refused to nap, so those were very long days. She was such a great napper, then all of a sudden, BAM! Would not sleep! I'm hoping it was just a phase and we'll be back to napping this week!!

Yesterday Drew was originally suppose to be on Standby (meaning he'd go in when they called him, not at the usual 6am), which was fantastic because Carson had a well baby appointment at 7:50, and I was going to have to wake Taylor up to go with me and could use the help! Unfortunately he ended up having a class he had to take so he still had to go in at 6. Go figure.

Well, I had to wake Taylor up at 6:30, which is early for a kid who normally sleeps until 8:30 or 9! Got everybody fed and out of the house by 7:15. About 3 miles down the road it starts raining, oh joy! So we got soaked (not Carson since he was in his bucket, and covered with a blanket) running into the clinic. I didn't bring the stroller because it's pretty huge and the med clinic isn't very big in the room so I figured it would be more cumbersome. Last time I go without the stroller! Taylor was running amok and had her 2 year old ears on (i.e., pretending I didn't exist). We had to do Carsons appointment, then go get his vaccines, THEN go to the lab and get his bloodwork. Understandably that's a lot of things to do when you are a toddler and don't have 100% of Mom's attention. By the time we left there I was ready for a Martini. Kidding.. but I did drive through Starbucks.

We got home, and went to feed the dogs (Taylor helps), and blast.. no dog food. So the dogs were flipping out, Taylor started screaming because she wanted to feed them and of course tired from her early wake up call. Carson was upset from his vaccines, he would wail in pain everytime you touched his legs which were sore, and the tylenol didn't seem to be helping. The rest of the day was pretty much out of a horror movie.

In the end, we survived, though not without a lot of tears (myself included!). We even managed to go get dog food and the dogs were happy again.

So!!! To the important stuff!! Carson is a big boy!!

His stats:

Weight: 12lbs 3oz (75 percentile)
Length: 23.5 in (50 percentile)
Head Circumference: 40 cm (50 percentile)
The doctor says he's absolutely perfect and beautiful (but hey, I already knew that!). She thinks he's probably a bit longer, because he was pretty scrunched up when they were trying to measure him, so we'll see where he is at his 4 month visit.

He is cooing a lot, and even lets out a little laugh now and then. He smiles a lot too, I love those smiles!!

Taylor, besides being in a mood, is also doing well. We've been going to Music Class, and playgroup. Saturday we had a Halloween Party at the park with Betty and some other friends.
Drew and I have been writing down all of the words she says and it's well over 175, and she's learning more every day!!

She can also read the letters A, F, M, O and Y. She knows the colors Yellow and Blue, sometimes Red, but she still needs reminded.

She's a wonderful big sister to Carson. She gives him kisses and hugs, and likes to sit and hold him in her lap. She helps me burp him, and she gets me diapers (in fact, will throw a fit if she doesn't come with me to do diaper changes), she gets me his pacifier. She tries to put it in sometimes too but we have to be careful because she can be a little too forceful sometimes. When he's crying she'll sing to him (Lalalalala).

Drew has been working hard providing for us, and helping me when he can! He doesn't get much sleep so I appreciate what he can do.

I am still doing Weight Watchers and I had 3 months from the time Carson was born to get within 2 lbs of my goal weight, and I reached that today, a month ahead of schedule!! I still want to lose another 10-12 lbs (to get back where I was when I got pregnant with him), but at least I can do so without having to pay again! It's been difficult this time, that's for sure!

I do have quite a few pics to upload, but I haven't had a chance to get them off the card yet so when I do (probably this weekend), I'll get them up for you to see!!

I hope everyone is doing well.. love to you all!

Pumpkin Patch and Fun Farm

Well, Blogger seems to be having some issues, I tried uploading photos last night and couldn't get any to upload. Today I got some up, and I can't get anymore!

I decided to start using Picasa Web Albums again since I often have TONS of pics, but they take a long time to upload to the blog so I pick my favorites and post those. This way you can check out even MORE pics. I will still post some of my favorites here.. but here's the link to my Picasa Albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JDTWhite

I will also post this link permanently on the right side of my blog so you will always have easy access to it (or you can bookmark it as well!!). The rest of the pics from the last few days are up there!

Anyhoo... yesterday we met with playgroup at a fun farm and pumpkin patch. There was a hayride, we picked our own pumpkin (we only got one this time because we didn't have enough hands to carry them), we walked through the corn maze and played in the corn pit! Of course Taylor had woken up early, and she's still getting over being sick so she was a bit on the crabby side.

I've also noticed that the majority of my photos include the top, or back of Taylors head. She really does not like to pose for me, and when she does, she gets 2 inches from the camera and I can't focus on her go figure!!

Carson was asleep the majority of the time in his moby wrap, but we plan on going back to a smaller pumpkin patch (where the pumpkins are already picked) and get a few more pumpkins as well as more pictures!! :)

Walking with Mama (and brother)

Finding her way through the maze.
How about this way??
Road block! Lets go under it!
I better catch up so they don't get lost!
La La La
Drew getting eaten by the monster Louisiana bugs.
We did it!!
Where to next?
Oh, rocks!
La La La.
What's up here??
Loves his baby girl.
How about this one? Can I get up here?
I like little pumpkins.
Lets go get a pumpkin!
Loading up for the hay ride!
How about this pumpkin?
Looks like we found a good one!
Can Taylor carry it??

As I was working on the above photos last night, Drew was having Dada time with Carson and he was SMILING away! I can never get enough baby smiles!


Well, that's all that I could get uploaded... darn blogger! Oh well.. at least you can see the rest on Picasa. I'll try and go put captions under them if I get a chance!

Drew starts working 12 hour shifts from 6am - 6pm tomorrow. Hopefully it will only be for the week, but I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG one! We can do it!!! I just hope Taylor is feeling better and isn't quite so cranky.

We got the rest of our exercise pen panels Friday so Drew is out putting up the barrier to make a kennel area for the dogs. When it's raining and muddy out it will be their area to relieve themselves without getting covered from head to toe in mud, and cutting down on our workload, and stress level. You would be amazed (or maybe not) at the amount of mud two Great Danes can track into one house. Of course Holden likes to get it all over his belly as well so he can shake it all off on the walls *insert big sigh here*.

Hopefully this kennel area will help. They aren't taking so well to it thus far, but we're hoping if we can get a patch of artificial grass to put in there it will entice them to go ahead with business. Unfortunately the smallest we can find it is a 15 ft x 1 ft piece which may work if we cut it and piece it together in a different fashion, but I'm still hoping we can find a smaller, more square piece. Ahh.. the joys of living in a place where the water table is really high. It just doesn't drain very fast and stays muddy for days after the rain!

I'm off for now. Hoping to get a little crafting done this afternoon. I've been in a "make at least 4 cards a month" challenge, with a drawing for a prize at the end and there's only 3 months left and so far, I've met my goal! I have a few more projects I'm working on as well. Of course I've been crocheting like crazy while nursing Carson.. you'll see the pics on the Picasa site.

Love to you all!!

Gap Casting Call

So the GAP was having a casting call, so I entered Taylor and Carson! You can vote for them once every 24 hours, so be sure to vote as often as possible!! These weren't my FAVORITE pics, but they had to be taken within 3 months and I was having a hard time getting Taylor to cooperate for some good ones, with time running out to enter, I just picked a recent one that showed one of her greatest attributes and ran with it!! :)

Here's Taylors, and Carsons is still pending approval, but once it goes through I'll post it here also.

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/jenzzx2/85999413/

Here is Carsons!

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/jenzzx2/265999065/

Grams Visit - Sunday

Dianne (Drew's Mom) flew in Tuesday to spend the week with us and boy have we enjoyed her visit so far (we still have her for another couple of days!) So here is a compilation of some photos so far!

Grams, Carson and Drew hanging out.


Wide awake!Smiles!

Who says Dane's aren't lap dogs?
Mama and her babies.
Sweet Sister giving kisses.
Carson going to his first park outing, asleep in his bucket wearing his hat that I crocheted for him.


Grams snapping some shots of Taylor and Drew at the park.
Crawling through the tunnel.




I think we need to get her a bigger sweatshirt! At least she was warm. :)

In the bubble.
Taylor and her Dada.
She loves the slide!

Everybody wants a photo of the cutie patootie!



My beautiful princess.
and my handsome hubby!
Grams rocking Carson back to sleep.
all bundled up!
Say Cheese Grams!!!
This is a lot harder than it looks.


One sided rocking
But it so much more fun with two people!
don't go too fast dada, Taylor might go flying.
This elephant isn't very fun.
but it's better with help!
Big hands and little hands.
Whee!!!
Peekaboo!
Going down the big kid slide.
with a helping hand!
Help Mama, that's a big step!!
climbing back up for another slide.
Down again, down again!

It's starting to rain, so it's time to go home!
These boots were made for walkin'....
just not with me in them!!!
How cute is she in her new outfit (and hat that I crocheted for her :) heehee!)


We've been having a great time! We've gone to the Boardwalk (outlet mall) for some shopping, and dinner. We've had our park outing, we went to base to Drew's work and got to check out the B52 up close and personal and see what he does!

Drew and I got to go out on a date tonight while Gram's babysat for us, it was wonderful! We went out and had sushi, then walked over to the Cheesecake Bistro and had a piece of cheesecake and coffee then came home.

Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, I think we were planning on heading over to the Science Discovery museum again, and Drew is marinating some steaks for BBQ.

Also our concrete finished getting poured along the side of the house (I'll take pics when I get a chance), and we've ordered extra panels for the exercise pen to make a barrier so when it's raining and muddy the dogs will have a kennel area to relieve themselves so they don't track mud in the house, or at least a lot LESS mud.

Well, that's about all for now, I should probably get some sleep while the baby is sleeping. He's been doing pretty good with that however! He's been getting up usually about once per night and again earlier in the morning but will go back to sleep for another couple hours (as do I if I can!). I still have my slow days when I stay up a little too long at night, but otherwise I'm not feeling too sleep deprived. I do need to get into gear exercising again as I feel a bit sluggish, but I'll get there!!

Goodnight!!