Carter's First Christmas

CHRISTMAS. WAS. AWESOME.

 AWESOME!

AWWWEEEESOME!

Carter was exhausted, excited, and absolutely enthralled by Christmas.

We have enough toys to man a small army of children, and need to rotate some of his "baby toys" out of the living room. The place has turned into a war-zone of blocks, zoo animals, and books. Santa brought Carter a zoo playset complete with safari car and animals that tell you what sound they make. Do you know what a giraffe says? Apparently it sounds like it's munching on food....

Opening presents is hard work!

We kicked off Christmas Eve with daddy getting home so we could go over to Meemer's for breakfast with the fam. We had Meemer Billie, Papa Gerald, and Grandma Julie in town from Florida. Heather, John, Ryland, and Ella were a special delivery from Germany... especially Uncle John, who managed to come home "early" from a deployment in Iraq :) This was his first time meeting Carter, and C was absolutely crazy about him! I wish we could've captured on film the look Carter gave Heather every time they interacted. It was a PRICELESS scowl.

 Mav with his present from mom

That night we did Christmas with the Hill side of Josh's family. Always alot of fun. KK got some great pictures of C, and even caught one of Josh (smiling!) with his sister!!

 Josh & Steph

 Carter & Pop

Christmas morning was a blast. I woke Carter up at 7:30ish so he could get started with his presents from us and Santa. He was not a fan of bows on the presents... so we had to tear those off before he'd commence with taking the paper off. He ate a bottle on the way to Meemer's, where we met three patiently waiting youngin's who were bursting at the seams to open their gifts. Carter loved watching the big kids open their presents, and of course he got to tear into even more gifts of his own. AND THEN... we went home and Josh's family came over to do EVEN MORE Christmas! After all of the excitement, you would think C would have absolutely passed out... so we put him in bed... and he talked to himself and rolled around, and after about 20 minutes, he started crying to get up. The boy never took a decent nap all day. He followed me around the house as I picked up trash and put up toys and made (the world's best homemade) mac and cheese for Christmas dinner at my mom's. He played hard again with his uncle and cousins once we got over there, and was lively all through supper. By the time we got him home, bag changed, bathed, and in bed, he gave up the ghost. He slept hard until 8am the next morning.

Christmas-wasted.

Josh worked yesterday and today, so C and I hung out with my mom, dad, and Greyson to ring in the new year... not that Carter lasted until anywhere near midnight :) It's crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks we'll be opening even more presents for home-boys first birthday! It's been a whirl-wind of a year. Josh and I were extremely blessed. He was promoted to sergeant, and I graduated with my bachelor's degree and was promoted. We got married, and we bought our first home. I can remember last New Year's Eve, Josh and I watched True Blood episodes until midnight. I was hugely pregnant and extremely nervous about delivering. We new the challenges we would face with Carter to an extent, but had no idea the joy he would bring to us in 2011. I can't imagine having spent my year any other way than being his mom.

As far as our medical adventures go, we had a post-op check up with Dr. Joseph last week, and it went wonderfully. Everything looks as it should, and we won't see him again until July, Lord willing! Next up is his year-old check up with the pediatrician, an appointment with general surgery to have our MRI read, and nephrology at the end of the month. Carter hasn't gained any weight lately.. so we're trying to chunk him up before the nephrology appointment :) We had a pancake epiphany the other day, and now it's one of his favorite things. Still a veggie hater. Always a lover of fruits and anything constipating and gassy. JOY.

Here are some random Christmas pics from December, and a super-cute video of Carter.

 Downtown Montgomery

 Posing with Santa

COLD.

First sucker. Given by the biggest sucker for this boy - Meemer :)

The Tree

He's so sweet in the mornings.

Also, don't forget to say prayers for my sweet cousins and their angel, Brenna. She's improving by leaps and bounds every day, and defying all the odds. They have a long way to go, but they have the strength and faith to get there.

Follow their story here: http://www.blessedbybrenna.blogspot.com/