Random Cute Things

Since I'm light years behind on blogging, but I thought I'd drop in with a completely random post...  Over the last week Carter has made me chuckle by doing some totally cute things.  So I'm going to share a couple of them here:


1) On Saturday we took Carter to Chick-fil-A for lunch and some play time (yes, we're sometimes those parents).  With his kids meal he received a Mercer Mayer "little critter" book called something like "We're Having a Yard Sale."  Since Saturday, I think we've read it 30 times, so I know it pretty well.  Gist is this: Little Critter's family is preparing for a sale.  Little Critter gathers up ALL of his toys to sell, but Mom Critter makes him put some back.  Family makes some money and fun times are had by all.

After a slow recovery from a sick day on Monday, I woke to the sound of Carter chattering away in the hallway and every light in the upstairs turned on (by 5AM, I'll add).  I groggily walked down the hall to see him surrounded by every toy he owns and he was sitting on a stool.  I asked him what he was doing?  "I'm having a garage sale, Mommy!"  (cue awwwwwwww!) However, when I asked him if he'd made much money, he simply replied, "No."

I pushed the toys aside and proceeded to help get him ready for school.  The boy has experienced ONE garage sale (ours, in June), but I guess Mercer Mayer made a bit of an impression, eh?

~~~

2) I've pretty much completed all of Carter's Christmas shopping (thanks to a sweet sale on woot.com).  On Tuesday, I worked late to make up a little time, so Matt picked Carter up from school.  When they got home, in typical routine, they went to collect the mail.  After seeing the mountain of boxes by the front door, Matt said, "Holy Toledo!  That's a lot of boxes!" 

Fast forward to Wednesday where Carter has been saying "Holy Toledo!" about pretty much everything...  So I explained to him that Toledo is a "city."  And then I explained that Albuquerque is a "city" and Grandma lives in this city and Hannah and Micah live in that city and Aunt Becky lives in another city, etc. etc.

Carter pauses a bit to digest this information and then says, "Mommy, do we live in Holy Toledo?" (cue awwwwwww!")

That's some good parenting, there, eh?

~~~

So there's your random cuteness for the day.  But WAIT!  Here's a random cute photo of Carter wearing his very first bicycle helmet (backwards, not yet adjusted, but must be on NOW!). 

Safety first, people.  It IS Friday the 13th after all!
~kerrie

Sleepyhead (in Boots)

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of my favorite sleepyhead last night.  Carter insisted on wearing his slipper boots (from Liam - thanks Amelia!) to bed.  After he was snoozing, I snapped this photo of him sleeping.

Paired with his monkey PJs - that don't match...top from a boys set, bottom from a girls set - his Darth Vader pillow, Spiderman, Captain America sheets, Thomas the Train, and blanket from Aunt Katrina, he certainly looks adorable!

Hope you sleep this peacefully too!
~kerrie

Like, Totally Radical Girls Night Out!

So, like, I haven't written a blog in about a decade or two, so I figured I'd just go right back to where I left off... THE EIGHTIES!!

That's right, the girls and I spent an evening at the roller rink in our finest 80's attire (and hair...and legwarmers...and braces!). Here's a nice photo taken with Jennifer's camera (thanks for sharing these pics Jennifer!):
L-R: That's Jennifer, Liz, Alicia, me, Myja, Holly, Burma, Amelia, and Sarah and Beth in the bottom row.

We're, like, totally hot, huh?!

We then took a second picture and ended up with three little kids in the shot:
You know, like, whatever works, huh?

Hoping to get caught up soon, because, OMG do I have a lot to share!
~kerrie

Vacuum the Snow?

Longer post coming soon, I promise... With photos!

Woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow at our house... (ugh - it's only December FIFTH people!!! So not ready for this...). After Carter was dressed and ready, I told him to look out the window and see the pretty snow. He looks and says,

"We need to vacuum it!"

I told him that we might as well just wait for the sun to melt it. He thought that would be OK too.

Hope you're staying warm! It's a balmy 18 degrees F here at work and there's a light snow still falling.
~kerrie

Mr. Fashionista

Apparently to be a fashionista, all you need is a good pair of swimming goggles and Mommy's necklace... Why not, eh?Hope you're having a wonderful day!
~kerrie

Clean Up Time!

Mere days after the Luau Party (see previous post), Carter was still in the mood to "CLEAN UP!" (yes, you have to shout it). Here's our little helper, still donning some tropical gear:
If you need some housework done, we'll happily lend him out. His going rate is... well, we'll have to negotiate that :)
~kerrie

Mr. Messy Face

Many of you may be wondering if we've fallen off the face of the planet... nope, we've (more specifically I'VE) been a busy, busy bee. Work, SWE, and life has pretty much just hit fifth gear and our poor blog has taken a back seat for the time being. However, there is an end in sight and I'm hoping that I'll have time to update the blog during my stay in Chicago next week for SWE.

In the meantime, I wanted to post a few silly photos from July of Carter enjoying his dinner. I present to you, Mr. Messy Face:
Hurray!
Nothing helps dinner go down than a tall glass of soy milk:

...on your head...
Hope you're doing well and enjoying the beginning of fall. I can't believe it's already October! Until the next post...(which will most likely be an exciting one about POTTY TRAINING!)
~kerrie

A Little Help Here?!

The Greenies recently decided it was time to fix the leaky kitchen faucet... You see, I've been a hold-out because I can't tell you how many home improvement stories started with "fixing the leaky faucet" - which led to replacing the sink, and then the entire counter top, then the cabinets, flooring, etc. You get the idea... I simply wanted a new FAUCET because our was a leaky mess!

Anywho, Carter was perhaps THE most helpful little plumber and while Matt was crouched up under the sink, Carter conveniently jumped on his chest/stomach and started to "help." See (and please do ignore the messy, messy kitchen counters...):
As you can see in this next photo, he was just beside himself with glee about the whole plumbing experience. Anytime something is broken, Carter will tell me that "Daddy can fix it. Need tools!" and he'll head right out to the garage...I'm, er, happy to report that as of two weeks later, we have only replaced the faucet and will NOT be replacing the hideous counters/cabinets at this time :)

Hope there are no leaks at your house either!
~kerrie

Wiggle Worm Fun!

Today was a beautiful day here in Albuquerque and the sun was shining with all of it's might! Since Carter napped right through pool-time hours at the YMCA, I decided it would be just as fun to run around the back yard in the sprinkler. After donning the appropriate swimming gear, Carter was ready to hit the beach, er, astroturf...

I tried to pare these photos down, but I just thought they were ALL too cute. So here's my boy in his wiggle worm fun glory:
(And just look how big my tomato plants are getting in the back corner!)
After seeing this next shot, you'd think he was a little timid. Nah, he'd run up and grab the worm and douse himself silly:
See... (And Matt kept turning the water up and down, up and down to drive him nuts.)
Carter had to get Daddy over to make sure it wasn't "broken"...
Nope, there's the water!
And soon thereafter, the clouds rolled over threatening a monsoon (nope, not this time...shucks! We SOOO need the rain!), so we had to pack it up. Carter got one last round with Mr. Wiggle Worm, this time making sure Daddy was soaked too:

And in case you'd like to see his playing in real time, here are a couple short videos of him running around, screaming like a banshee:








Love that 20 minutes of sprinkler time in the back yard is enough to make Carter a super happy kid! Remember those days? Maybe we should all take tomorrow off and play in the sun, eh?

Have a great week and thanks for reading! Eight posts in one day! It feels great to be caught up!
~kerrie

Chef Spidey

Two more posts before I end my blogging marathon of the day! Yes, thanks to some clever deleting skills, after these two, I'm all caught up! (Ugh, yes, I deleted some files...my bad...wasn't on purpose, I swear it...)

This weekend was jam-packed with a trip to the Farmer's Market, the Library Book Sale, and even the Hipsters Craft Fair. We typically do a lot of local supporting, but this weekend was local overload!

After a visit to the Craft Fair, I picked up Carter a cute little Spiderman apron so he can "help" in the kitchen. Plus, he's big on singing the Spiderman song ("Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can..."), so it was the perfect choice! And I'm only too happy to support a local crafter!

I also bought him a couple hand-puppets (to benefit a charity) and he thought they were potholders (awww, isn't that cute!). So we were cracking up as he ran around in his apron and oven mitts:
He was doing a little "cooking" too (from the bed of his semi-truck?):
Even some sharing with Daddy:
Yumm, tastes great!
And one of my favorite shots, putting his fork back into his apron pocket for safe-keeping:
Here's hoping that someday Chef Carter will prepare us a fine, home-cooked meal! We'll supply the local goods and he can do the cooking!
~kerrie

Playin' with Chickens

With the recent warm weather, Carter has been a playground fiend. As in ALL he wants to do is play "outside"... (I often joke that toddlers are no different than dogs... "Want to go outside?!")

Anyway, I had Carter in this super-sweet outfit (he was telling me that he had his water):
...and ALL he wanted was to open the back door and run free:
Except the door was locked. And he was sad:
REALLY sad (this photo is simply priceless):
So I let him out to play (even though he was dressed all goofy...).

Later we had a little dinner and Carter selected the "chickens" napkin. I've been making cloth napkins (we don't use paper) and I chose some super-fun fabrics, most are kid-friendly. Napkins help with A) the mess... and B) teaching Carter a few new vocabulary words (for instance, he learned "stripes" by using the balloons napkin!).

Anywho, a few photos (and a fun little video) of Carter telling me about chickens and "what they say"...
[and in case you don't know what a chicken says, watch this short little video - it'll help you with sheep too...]




Thanks for the laughs, Carter!
~kerrie

Psycho Bunnies

I have lots and lots of photos and stories to tell from our recent trip to Kansas for Easter. As soon as I get a third arm, 10 more hours in the day, and an assistant, they'll get posted up here... I kid, I kid, but yes, we're that busy these days...

However, I couldn't resist sharing a tale of the "Psycho Bunnies," so I'm making the time RIGHT NOW to post these pics and the tale. Here goes...

You see, my favorite bread shop, House of Bread, advertised Easter Bunny Bread back in April. Since Matt and I were making the trek to Kansas, I felt that we should bring a little Albuquerque love with us. So, we did. It was in the form of a whole grain "white" and a whole grain "wheat" bunny...

Ta-da! Mr. Wheat (left) and Mr. White (right):
Let's see Mr. White up close, eh?
And Mr. Wheat?
Aren't those just fabulous?! So life-like, eh?

So why the "psycho" label for this post? Well, you see,

THEY ARE BOTH MISSING THEIR RIGHT "EYE BALL"!!!!!

AHHHHHH!

PSYCHO BUNNIES ON THE LOOSE!!!!!

Just being silly. Hope you had a Happy Easter! More to come, I promise!
~kerrie

PS For the record, the bunny bread was mighty tasty! Just had to overlook that one-eyed thing...

Nap Attack

Pretty much ALL of the Greenies have had the crud within the past 40 days. I was first, then Matt had it, then Carter had it. Let's just hope I don't get it back... (Which I shouldn't because I'm on an awesome can't-eat-anything-fun diet to see why I keep getting sinus infections. But that's another post for another day...)

This is just a short post to report that A) Matt is healthy, B) Carter is healthy, and C) No one is able to nap on the couch with Carter "The Attacker" in the house. See:
Seems pretty pleased with himself, huh?
Oh well. As I always say, plenty of time for sleeping when we're dead! Now get up Daddy, it's time to play!
~kerrie

He's With the Band

I'd posted a few pictures of Carter's new band set back around Valentine's Day... Well, without a doubt, he's into the music! Found these few photos (and a video) today while cleaning up my work computer, so I thought I'd write up a quick post.

Here's The Dude...He's With the Band:
And the rockin' shirt and sweet plaid pants are courtesy of my pal Amelia (thanks!):
And a short little video that Matt took (7 seconds; and sorry, it's crooked, I don't know how to fix that...) of Carter banging away on the drum like Animal (if for some reason you've been under a rock for the past 30 years and don't know who Animal is from the Muppets, link takes you to Wikipedia...):





Rock on, Dude!
~kerrie

Time Out (for Brussels Sprouts)!

This will be a completely random post, something I'm fond of doing every now and then... And well, it's MY blog, so I can do whatever I want. So there! :)

I'll start with a few cute photos of Carter trying on Daddy's shoes. He was quite proud of himself for being able to "walk" (which was more of a shuffle) in them:
"Bravo!" as Carter says!
Next up, a few silly photos of Carter running around with the stalk after I pulled all of the Brussels sprouts off for dinner. Both him and Matt are Brussels sprouts avoiders (fine with me, more for ME!), but Carter was keen on helping pull them off and put them in the pot. Actually, he had more fun running around with the stalk afterward. See?

It's a sword:
No, it's a broom!
Maybe it's edible?
Nah, yukky. It's trash, here Mommy:
And the next few photos include Carter's "time-out" timer (just a basic kitchen timer - he gets one minute for bad behavior and has to sit in his time-out chair - or "the thinking chair" as they call it at school - and then he has to say "sorry" and give a hug once the minute it up). Anyway, he climbed up on the furniture and swiped the timer the other day. He was quite proud of his accomplishment and was quite willing to "smile" when I asked him to for the camera:
And I'll end with one of my favorite shots of the year:
Is our little guy handsome or what?!
~kerrie