Happy 2nd Birthday Carter

Wow, it is so hard to believe that Carter is already two. The past few years have been such a blast as we have watched Carter grow from such a sweet cuddly baby into the fireball, full of energy, never resting, always playing toddler!! It just amazes me how much they change in just two sweet years. I remember thinking, this same time last year, will he ever talk? And now, wow, I have a little guy who for the past three weeks has been telling me he wants a "chachi choo-choo cake"....and so of course, that is exactly what he got!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter!

Matt has always had the joy of making us our birthday breakfasts which always consist of pancakes in the shape of the year we are celebrating....notice, i didn't post mine from a few months ago! Anyways, above you can see that Carter really enjoyed being daddy's little helper.

Here are the little train engine party favors that I made and was so completely proud of because I thought that they so closely resembled a train. That was until Ceili got hers as she was walking out the door and she said, "Oh, a little girl.....in a fancy dress!" What? Are you kidding? My sister Holly and myself just lost it. Too funny! So, I walked over and said, "what if we look at it a little differently." and she said, "oh, mamie, it's a train!". That a girl! You are so silly! But, honestly I can see what she was thinking. If you look close it looks like a little lady with white hair, killer curves and an apron.

Above, Keira and Carter are enjoying a nice round of Coal Toss.

Tada....here is the cake. Carter loved it with all the colors and all the candies. But most importantly he loved it because it was "chachi"!!

'Round Here!!

Hello! Well this past week, like all weeks, we have been hanging out and having fun! Only this week my camera was in arms reach for most of it!! So here you go, a few shots of us bumming around and having a blast!

"Yummo! Bam!" Just a few words Carter uses to describe the pure richness of chocolate cake. Since Carter asked for a "Chachi" cake for his birthday, I spent this past Sunday whipping up a few for practice. Oh, how I hate to pass on the four little metal wires of tasty cake batter but to see his little face all covered with chocolate and that intense look of trying so hard to get every last drop it was well worth it. He became a batter tasting pro and momma saved a few extra calories!!
While I was making cakes, Matt was busy hanging a shelf and Carter was right there to help! Isn't it cute to watch kids try so hard to be little adults. If you look closely Carter is making sure it is level like two feet below where the shelf is actually being hung but he just kept saying, "I help. I help!" And I also thought it was cute that both Matt and Carter situate their stance on their right leg while the left is propped up. Too funny! And yes, Carter grabbed the tool box to help Matt out. Doesn't everybody hang their shelves with a crowbar?? Oh, by the way, Matt wasn't really using any of those tools but how could you tell Carter that?

Arts and crafts are HUGE at our house. I mean HUGE! Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night just thinking of things that I could make with Carter. There is who calls me momma, some that call me mother earth, and yet another who calls me Martha. Really, I don't even come close to being a real Martha but I have lots of fun trying! Above, Carter is showing off his "dirty" hands from finger painting.

Ok, thats it! We are outta here! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

No photo, only words

because no camera could ever capture the pure sweetness of this moment. It happened last night as we were eating dinner. Matt and I, like always, were trying to encourage Carter to eat his food. So we were both leaning in close to Carter as we asked him for a bite off his plate. How it normally works is he gets as close as possible to putting a bite from his plate in our mouths and then at the very last second, like the king of a head fake, he snaps it back and pops it in his mouth. It is a simple little thing that works for all of us....he thinks he is "tricking" us and we finally get him to eat his food. All are happy. But last night as were finishing our fish, Matt and I were leaning in close and Carter just looked from one of us to the other and then reached his little arms out. One resting on Matt and the other resting on me. And then with the cutest little smile and sweetest little voice he said, "My family". How completely sweet! That moment filled my eyes with tears and my heart with joy! Don't you just love 'em!

SNOW much fun!!!

So, since we had so much fun the other day playing in the snow we decided to head back out for round two. This time....it was like 12 minutes bundling up and more like 30 minutes playing. Hey we are getting better at this whole make-sure-every-inch-of-skin-is covered-thing!!

And just as a side note, if you know me you know that, much like I have a love for freshly vacuumed carpet with nice little lines, I also love freshly fallen snow with no tracks running through it....that was at least until this little guy. Who could tell this heart-melting, spirit-lifting, sweet as honey, little guy no? Not me. And so, no longer am I worried about freshly fallen snow and just been vacuumed carpets. I am just more than delighted to play, have fun, and make the most of every second with this cutie.

That smile says it all....we were having a blast and Carter was having the time of his life!

Yeah, as I said, so much for fresh snow. Not only do we have tracks galore, but somebody also had the BRIGHT idea of adding a little color. Ok, so maybe red wasn't the best choice but we had fun and thats what matters most.


After digging and building it was time to head inside and warm our little hands and bellies. Nothing says "just in from out in the cold" like a warm cup of hot chocolate! yum-yum!

And here is the aftermath...and just as a another side note....yes, I had actually just mopped the floors! But I hope that someday when Carter is talking about me, hopefully he will be able to recall all the fun things that we did together and not just remember that his mommy always had clean floors!

Snow Day

Yay! Yesterday, I was off and Matt stayed home. So, under 11 inches of snow what better to do than bundle up and head outside! Here are just a few of our time playing in the snow. It took like 30 minutes to bundle us all up to spend maybe 12 minutes outside and then Carter was saying inside...so inside we went and spent the rest of the day playing games and hanging out in our pj's!! Let me just say....I love snow days, and Carter loved the snow!

Here are a few of my little snow angels!! And it wasn't long after this that Carter was ready to head inside for a little lunch and story time!

Just a little proof for the record books...and my memory!

"Jack"

So, this week "Jack" became one of Carters new favorite words. It all started Tuesday morning when Carter awoke from a dream, of which he was giggling in, saying "Jack, Jack"! First, let me tell you who Jack is exactly. He is our nephew. He is an 8, almost 9, year old little boy who loves soccer, pirates, Star Wars, and business deals. He is often funny, always sweet, and is now one of Carters favorite people to talk about. And here is how we know!

So, after repeatedly saying, "Jack", all morning he then started saying "Jack, bus". Which also requires me to tell you a little more about Jack and Carters fun together. Jack has a Lego set that comes in a bus on wheels, which just happens to be Carters size. So usually the Legos end up on the floor, Carter ends up in the bus, and Jack is seen whizzing through the house pushing Carter around and around until Carter is laughing so hard he is almost crying. Carter has a blast and I think Jack enjoys just a bit too! And then there was the time that Carter stayed at Aunt Traci and Uncle Tim's house and he got to wait for the real school bus with Jack. So, either he was talking about the bus ride or the school bus but either way it involved Jack and he loved it. So for an entire two days we listened to him repeatedly talking about Jack and the bus.

So, on Wednesday night the three of us were playing and Carter picked up the phone, started dialing numbers, put the phone to his ear and said, "Hi Jack"! We thought it was hilarious so we decided to actually call him. Carter thought that he was so cool talking on the real phone to his obviously new favorite person. It was so funny because Carter was using his one word, broken dialogue to carry on a complete conversation with Jack who probably had no clue what Carter was even talking about. Carter was getting ready to put his Pj's on so he kept telling Jack "truck, truck" because that was what was on the front of the Pj's. Carter thought it was cool and thought that Jack would like it too. Isn't that sweet?!

So anyways, then on Friday, Carter was in my bedroom while I was getting ready. He walked over to the bench that we kneel at to pray every night and he kneeled down, on his own, and said "Sammy, Nutz, and Jack. Amen" (our dog, his bear, and Jack ) and turned to look at me with this HUGE grin. He was so proud that he had just prayed all by himself. And of course, like any mom, with tears in my eyes, I was so completely proud as well!!

Then Saturday we received a little toy magazine in the mail. Now, Carter loves to lay on the floor and flip from page to page inspecting every singe toy but then he came to a page and was saying of course, you guessed it, "Jack, Jack". We looked at each other, and then took a look at the page and it was a Darth Vader mask, which Jack usually sports at least once during a visit to their house. Isn't is funny how soon a child can recall, remember and make connections. I just love watching Carter develop!

Well, anyways, sorry this has been such a long post for really only a four letter word J-A-C-K. But I thought it was funny and perhaps maybe you did too.

Christmas

Okay, so here are a few of our Christmas pictures. I say a few which probably means more like 10 but it was really hard to pick from the hundreds that I took. We had such a wonderful Christmas and you know me, I just had to capture it all.

This particular picture is my absolute fave!! It was before Mass on Christmas Eve. Carter went up to see the manger scene at church and this is what he did. He just kneeled down and folded his little hands and just took it all in. Sooo completely sweet!

After Mass we went to Holly and Justin's house for a very yummy meal! Here is one of the kids. Well, it isn't the best picture but it is the best of the like 10 that I took trying to get them all to smile at the same time.....nearly impossible!

Christmas morning.....Looks like Santa came!!

Carter extremely excited for his new and very first remote controlled car. He also received from my Granny and Papa Bob a remote controlled Thomas Train....a huge hit as well!

His new little kitchen. It is so funny. I am always telling Carter, "No, it's hot" when he is in the kitchen with me. And now the other day we were playing with his kitchen in the loft and he held out his hand as he was preparing some vegetables and said, "momma, no, hot" and slightly pushed me out of the way. I just had to laugh!!

Mom and dad, aka Carters Nana and Papaw, came over for Christmas morning breakfast. Since they had an empty house this year since we celebrated early with them they decided to make the rounds and come see what all the kids got from Santa. We loved having them over!!

Carter and his new truck that looks like daddy's. Papa Wynberry found this and thought it was hilarious since it matched Matt's. Carter loved it!!

The boys posing for a picture in their new hats that Nana made from them.
And below we all took a minute to get a few pictures since all the Wynberry's were together.

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, more food than we could handle and sweet little Carter reminding us all to celebrate with a child's heart and truly enjoy every second of being together!!