Teeth

I finally got some pictures of Rylan's two teeth today while he was eating sweet potatoes. He usually keeps his tongue over those teeth so I can never see them.

These aren't the best pictures of Rylan, but they do show those teeth!

Sweet Potatoes

Rylan tried sweet potatoes today for the first time. And his reaction ... "YUM"!



After Rylan finished, Carter wanted to eat what "Baby Rylan" was eating so he had a mid-afternoon snack of sweet potatoes as well!

Christmas Cookies

We had Amy and her kids over on Tuesday to make Christmas cookies. I'm not a great cook, but I'm an even worse baker. Luckily Amy is great and she made sure our cookies were a success.

While getting set up, we had put the little ones on a blanket in hopes they might entertain each other for a little bit while we helped the big kids with the cookies. They interacted a little, but not as much as we had hoped.

Carter and Caitlyn laid down next to the boys for a picture ...


First we used cookie cutters to make fun holiday shapes ...


It was difficult to get Carter to not do this ...


After we baked the cookies, Amy iced them and then we let the kids decorate them with sprinkles. At first Carter kept shaking the containers too hard and would put the top into the icing. After several cleanings, we finally got the hang of it. Caitlyn was a pro though right away and did a great job!




Carter only got through decorating a few cookies before he just had to eat one ...


It was a little crazy with trying to keep the little ones entertained while helping the big kids, but we had lots of fun and enjoy a little bit of chaos!

Christmas Lights

For the last few years we've been going to a house in North Knoxville that does a crazy Christmas light display that's synchronized to music. The display is huge and sponsored by a local radio station. Unfortunately that family moved this year and didn't have time to design a display for their new house this year. However, they did set up some of their lights at a relative's house and we checked that out Tuesday night.

We weren't planning on going but Brian suggested it after we finished dinner (the restaurant we were at was about half way there). So I didn't have my camera, but I tried taking some pictures and video with my phone.

Carter was entertained, but I had expected him to be more excited. He points out all the lights in our neighborhood and gets especially excited when he sees the decorations outside of our house. Even though decorating was a bit of pain this year with Brian gone and already being only 2 weeks before Christmas, I'm really glad I did it because Carter loves it.

Christmas at the Manor

Since Brian was in Raleigh the end of last week and beginning of this week, Amy and Chad let me tag along with them Friday night to Magnolia Manor for Christmas at the Manor. It was a free event at the Manor and they had Santa, outdoor Christmas movies, music, and food. It wasn't a big event, but it was still plenty of entertainment for us!

Brian and I actually visited Magnolia Manor when we were looking for a location for our wedding but they didn't allow alcohol at their venue back then so they got dropped off our list.

It was cold (in the 30s) so I bundled up the kids in lots and lots of layers. Carter kept falling at first probably because he couldn't keep his balance with so many clothes on!

We went to a little house on the edge of the property to visit Santa first. The line wasn't very long but it took a long time because they only let one group in at a time and let everyone take their time visiting with Santa. Plus it probably took forever for everyone to get off all they layers to reveal their Christmas outfits for their pictures with Santa!

Carter and Caitlyn did a really good job waiting patiently in line.


We talked about Santa a lot while we were in line and I even helped Carter figure out what he was going to ask Santa for, which is a choo-choo. Carter didn't seem to understand when I explained that Santa is going to bring him a present for Christmas if he's good and that he can ask for anything he wants. He just looked at me with a blank expression. So I sort of suggested a train would be a good thing to ask for since it's what he's getting. He'd most likely ask for that or "zoo, ah-ah" anyway if he got what I was telling him. A train has stuck though and when I mention Santa, he says "choo-choo".

Once we got inside, neither Carter nor Caitlyn wanted anything to do with Santa. I didn't want to force Carter to visit him since I can see how Santa is a bit scary and overwhelming. But I did have Rylan sit on Santa's lap. They were taking pictures and selling CDs of the photos so Amy and I had them take pictures of both Rylan and Alek and put them on a CD for us.


After visiting Santa, we went back towards the parking lot to ride ponies. I didn't know they were going to have ponies there but Carter spotted them as soon as we pulled in and I knew we weren't leaving without him getting a ride. I'm surprised I was even able to get him to visit Santa first!

Carter loved it! Caitlyn wasn't too sure but was feeding off of Carter's excitement and said she wanted to ride too. She got scared when Chad first put her on the pony, but after about a minute she seemed to be enjoying it too.


The ride was probably at least five minutes and Carter actually seemed to be getting bored by the end.


I know Rylan and I looked silly with all the blankets wrapped around him but he didn't fuss and seemed to stay warm!


After the pony ride, we went into the heated tent area and sat down for a little bit while the kids colored. We spent about an hour and a half there and headed out around 7:30 pm. We had lots of fun and I hope we get to go back next year (when it's hopefully a little warmer!).

Snow!

We got about 2 to 3 inches of snow yesterday afternoon through this morning. I was able to get Carter outside to play in it for about 30 minutes during one of Rylan's naps this morning. Even though it was only 19F (with a windchill of 9F), it didn't seem too cold.

Carter enjoyed the snow immediately (as long as he didn't fall into it - he didn't like having it on his mittens or coat!).


The snow was very light and fluffy and Carter loved kicking it. He ran all over the yard making paths (just like Charlotte).



Since the snow didn't stick together making it impossible to make a snowman, I tried making a snow angel ...


I got the snow shovel out to make a snow (and ice) free path off the deck for Charlotte. I'm not sure how quickly the snow is going to melt since it's not supposed to get above freezing until Wednesday at the earliest.

Carter wanted to play with the shovel too ...


Charlotte stayed outside with us the whole time we were playing ...


Here is a video of Carter running around in the snow ...

I tried to show Carter how to throw the snow so it'd fall back down on us, but he didn't like it too much when he did it ...

Build & Grow - Trains!

The Build and Grow workshop at Lowe's the last couple of weeks has been train cars. Carter built the caboose while we were in Raleigh last Saturday. We went to the Lowe's in Apex and they held the workshop in a tiny little room behind Customer Service. It was really cramped and I had Rylan with us so it was a little difficult but totally worth it.

Carter helped a little bit (as usual) and was super excited about what he built!



I tried to get Carter to show me what he built so I could take his picture with the caboose. This is the best picture I got (Carter has the worse fake smile right now!) ...


Today I took the boys to build the passenger car (the engine is next week).

Carter was content just putting nails in all the pre-drilled holes (he's getting a lot better with his dexterity) ...


He did help some with nailing pieces together ...


He was especially interested in the wheels ...



I'm so glad Lowe's does these free workshops. They are a lot of fun, Carter has really learned some building skills already, and we have some cool new toys!

Britax X2

I got on the scale with and without Rylan today and he is around 22 lbs. Since the Chicco KeyFit 22 infant car seat is only rated for up to 22 lbs, I figured I had better go ahead and move Rylan to our second Britax seat.


I've been putting this off as long as I could because it is so much harder running errands when I have to get two in and out of car seats. And since Rylan isn't sitting up yet, if I'm not using a stroller, I have to put him in the Bjorn instead of in a cart.

Logistics of loading and unloading the kids are a bit harder now. I'm not sure who to get out first now. Making sure Carter doesn't runoff in a parking lot is my priority but it's hard to get him in and out of the car if I'm holding Rylan. I'm sure I'll get it figured out after a few trips out though.

Keeping Up with Carter

While we were in Raleigh, we tried to get Carter out of the house everyday for at least a little bit so that he didn't get too bored (which means crazy, wild, whiny, etc). My mom stayed in Raleigh with us for a few days so she took him to the park a lot and to Monkey Joe's once.

It got cold though once she left and I didn't want to have Rylan outside for too long so we had to find some other things to do.

When Rylan was napping, we'd bundle up and play in the yard ...


On our way to the hospital one day, Brian and I took the kids to Crabtree Valley Mall so that Carter could run around somewhere different for a bit. He found the "rides" and we let him ride on a few. He was happy though just playing in the different cars.

Carter found a couple of pennies in this ride and attempted to pay for another ride (he figured this out on his own) ...

The ice cream truck was Carter's favorite ...


We weren't sure what this ride did so we gave it a try ...


Carter liked it at first ...

But he wanted off before it was over and when we got him out of the ride, he staggered to one side and fell down. I didn't realize he'd get so dizzy!

After the rides, we visited Santa. Santa was creepy (as I'm starting to realize most are). He never said anything to Carter other than "You got any money?" and stuck his hand in the pocket of Carter's hoodie. Weird.

Carter didn't freak out like the little girl ahead of him, but he didn't trust Santa and had no interest in sitting on his lap.

Carter spotted the escalators on our way out and had to go for a quick ride ...

Rylan spent a lot of time in the hospital waiting room with us while my mom watched Carter. I brought both boys along a few times after she left when we weren't planning on staying too long (it's hard to keep both quiet for too long).

Here are the boys getting bundled up before we headed to the car ...

I bought Toy Story 3 while we were in Raleigh and Carter was totally engrossed (while holding his balloon my mom had attached to his birthday presents) ...

We also went to Marbles Kids Museum one day but I have a ton of pictures from there and I'll do a separate post out it.

On the Saturday before we left (December 4th), it snowed and a dusting stuck around for a few hours. This was Rylan's first accumulating snow (we'd already seen snowflakes this winter but this was the first time anything stuck).

Exersaucer

Rylan finally started really playing with (eating) the toys on his exersaucer today.

He really liked the butterfly!