Writing Night

Carson had writing night at school a few weeks ago, where all the classes displayed their written work in the hallways. We were able to see Carson's teacher, Mrs. Barrington, who was serving cookies and punch.

It is funny how different the boys writing was from the girls! Some of the girls in kindergarten already had better handwriting than me and would write so much on their essays it would overflow onto another page! Carson was a typical boy and wrote a short sentence with handwriting that was still pretty hard to read. We are going to be spending lots of time this summer working on handwriting and adding some detail to his sentences, but nonetheless, I am proud of the progress he has made during his first year of school!

"If I had $100 I would... take it to the bank." - He is a smart little investor!!

Carson's translation: "Dear Mom and Dad, You are the best for letting me do whatever I want. Love, Carson" Ummm, ya...we had a talk about this one...I'm sure his teacher thinks we are parents of the year now!!

"If I were a butterfly...The butterfly tastes nectar with his feet." Glad I'm not a butterfly...

Birthday Weekend

Something about this time of year produces lots of babies, giving us a weekend full of celebrations. We had three parties to attend! First up: the Olive boys who celebrated their first birthday with a Dr. Seuss themed party.

Now that my craft room is partially set up, I pulled out my Silhouette and created personalized shirts for Drake and Hunter.
I figured since I already had all the materials out, I would go ahead and make similar outfits for Bennett.
I used the negative of the above image to monogram their other shirts.

While I stopped by the twins party, Brian headed over with our boys to my sister's house to prepare for my dad's surprise 60th birthday party. We had a crawfish boil in her backyard and invited my dad's sisters, old coworkers, and childhood friends of my sister and I.

My usual girl was already booked and couldn't do my dad's cake, so I put my sister in charge of ordering one. It turned out great and was really tasty. What is funny is that we couldn't decide what name to put on it because everyone calls him something different: John, Ray, Dad, and Pops, it was easier just to put:

Carson thought with Pop's old age he might need a little help blowing out his candles.

While Carson played with his cousin Austin, Deacon worked the crowd...


As the evening wound down, Ethan brought out the guitar and played some tunes. Deacon was intrigued.
Carson gave his impersonation of a guitar player...I don't think he will be attracting any girls with it, he may need to practice that look in the mirror.
The next day we went to Brian's parents to celebrate his grandmother's 93rd birthday!!! Her actual birthday is on May 5th, but we will most likely be at the hospital with our newborn and that same week Brian's dad is having knee surgery.
After lunch the boys got into their bathing suits and played in the hot tub. I wasn't sure how Deacon would do with floaties, but his head stayed above water and he had a blast swimming around while Carson searched for dive sticks.

We had a wonderful time celebrating four amazing birthdays ranging from 1 to 93!

9 Month Pregnancy Update!!!

Well, here is my FINAL pregnancy update EVER!! Very bittersweet...

How far along? 37 weeks

Mood: A huge ball of emotions: excited, nervous, anxious, exhausted

Maternity clothes? They are about to be packed up to sell or donate, I am ready for them to exit my closet and wardrobe!

Sleep: Not as bad as I thought it would be. It really varies, some nights I sleep great, other nights I have a hard time falling asleep due to discomfort or just my mind listing all the last minute things that need to be done.

Energy Level: It is ridiculous how easily I am out of breath now! Literally walking across the room makes me winded! Little Bennett is not so little any more and reminds me of it every day!

Best moments in the last month: Preparing the last minute details for Bennett's arrival.

Movement? They are all HUGE movements now! He is in there tight so one little nudge feels like he is trying to escape!

Cravings: Sonic Ice still, I am eating about 2 bags a week!

Baby purchases this month: Baby monitor, newborn outfit, my friend Ashley bought the letters for his name on the wall (will post when they are hung), our first can of formula, a few extra bottles.

What I miss: Wearing normal clothes, being able to breathe comfortably, being 50 lbs. lighter, and margaritas!

What I am looking forward to: Holding our sweet, little newborn!!

Easter 2012

We were able to spend Easter with both sets of grandparents this year! Unfortunately, a stomach bug hit this 9 months pregnant momma, keeping me from enjoying most of the festivities and instead toilet-hugging for 3 days... Brian and the g-parents did a great job helping our guys celebrate and took lots of photos, though!

Carson (with the help of Pops) did a great job decorating Easter eggs! If you look closely at the blue/yellow one, you can see that they included Deacon too!
Easter morning the boys woke up to Easter baskets and confetti eggs.
Deacon was captivated (well, at least for a few seconds!)
Carson got more candy than he will ever eat, but the kids in the neighborhood are happy to help him out...
On their first egg hunt, Carson didn't have too much competition with Deacon, and took his time looking for eggs. And for the first time ever, I think we found them all! Usually my mom will find a couple in the flower beds months later, but the number the Easter Bunny told us matched the number we found!
Because Deacon wasn't super dedicated to the hunt, Carson was an amazing big brother and would share some of his finds with Deacon. :)
Deacon was happy to just sit back and let the eggs come to him! lol


Next, we headed to Brian's parents, where baskets were waiting!
Grandma made a fantastic lunch, then the boys and their cousins set out for their next egg hunt!


We have started a fun tradition over at their house for the grown-ups: after the kids find all the eggs, they empty out their money and hide the eggs for the adults while we wait inside. The adults are hard-core about the hunt and winner gets money! If only I wasn't sick and pregnant, I would have won! It's on next year!

Our Garden

Well I kept my promise, no garden blogs until it actually started producing. We didn't have to wait long! We literally check every day, and yesterday: nothing.

Amazingly, 24 hours later all the rain we got this week must have reached some roots because we have stuff popping up everywhere!



In another week, we may be able to eat our first fruit or vegetable!

All-Star Carson

With Spring comes sports! Carson's love of football made signing him up again easy, but with him already being 6 we were afraid that if we didn't expose him to t-ball he would miss the fundamentals. So, we decided to do t-ball too! The great thing about the league he is in is that they have practice and games on Saturdays, so we don't have to rush on weeknights to participate. But, having two practices AND two games all on Saturday is going to make for an interesting season!

T-ball starts at 10:15am, with a 30 minute practice, followed by an hour long game. Unlike football, t-ball is a lot slower paced with quite a bit of standing around...which makes for a lot of great photo opportunities! Carson looked so adorable in his uniform and hat that I couldn't help going crazy with the pics!
Did I mention that our neighbor, James is playing on Carson's team too??

Practice:

I have him well trained for posing!

The boredom starting to set in

After practice, they had their first scrimmage. I liked the way they had it set up; the coach would pitch three balls to the players and if they didn't hit it then they would bring out the tee.Carson hit the pitch thrown to him!
Because it was a scrimmage, they didn't get anyone out, so every player got to run home twice! Carson was the last one at bat, so when he hit the ball all the players ran home, making it his first "grand slam!"

When the game was over, the team met up to pick a name. This is always my favorite part because they let the kids choose! The players threw out "Dragon Slayers," "Purple Team," "i-9ers," and Carson's contribution: "The Strikers." With Carson's power of persuasion, his team name was picked. :)
At 2:30pm was football! Out of all the flag football teams out there, Carson's team was the only one who didn't have a coach show up... Four dad's, including Brian, pitched in to help make it work. Because Carson is now 6 he moved up in divisions, taking him from the biggest and fastest, to the smallest and slowest. :( He is out there with 3rd graders!
He held his own though, pulling an opponets flag during their scrimmage.
We quickly learned that this season, Deacon isn't much of a spectator anymore and would prefer to run around the field, having us chase behind him. He and I left early for his speech evaluation, so I didn't get to see much of the scrimmage or witness the team-naming, which turned out to be "The Red-Hot Tornadoes."

By the end of the day, Carson was wore out, but he got plenty of exercise to burn off all that energy he has! (And I got some sun!)